the mad evil knitting genius

2009-09-23T10:08:00.000-07:00

I HAS A YARM

wanna know the best part?

clearance yarn! my store is remodeling and while we are still carrying simply soft and handspun, we've gotten rid of some colors. i wouldn't be too surprised if it goes down even farther but as it is i just got a hand-knitted sweater AND hours or knitting entertainment for five bucks. AWESOME. i did leave a few skeins! it's all pink and yellow homespun mostly, though. not that there's anything wrong with that.

so now i just have to finish the one i'm on, and then the one after that, in the fisherman's wool, and then i can start on all this niceness....

2009-09-20T21:27:00.000-07:00

i have half a torso and one arm!

and on i knit.

i started some new socks, too, plain stockinette in lion brand heart & sole. because i wanted a project where i know what i'm doing. i've been winging (wanging?) patterns for a while and i wanted something nonbrainy.

and why am i not working on mom's socks? um... honestly i lost the bit of paper with her measurements.... oops?

also: it's time for fall! new colors outside: new colors on the blog! hurrah! fall has the best smell....

2009-09-19T14:32:00.000-07:00

i have one sleeve, down to about the elbow! and i have a torso, from the shoulders to, well, almost down past the bust-line. so why did it take me soooo loooong to knit six inches of sleeve?

well, for one thing, i lost my knitting mojo there for a few days. this was mostly due to starting so many projects over and over and not quite getting them right. these sleeves alone, i've started, oh... three times, now, i think. let's not even mention socks right now. i don't want to talk about socks. even if they are in sport weight.

but then, at the end of the "i lost my knitting mojo" tunnel--a light! i had toyed with the idea of trying some other crafts for a while, you see. maybe some chain maille, maybe something involving paper. i don't know. even coloring in a coloring book might have done it. but you see... i found some fabric i liked. rene's a huge steelers fan, his birthday is coming up, and what does my store get last night? cotton fabric in FOUR steelers patterns and fleece in TWO. i bought some as soon as i saw it (or rather as soon as i clocked out after seeing it) and brought it home, intending to make a reversible pillowcase. (RENE: if you are reading this: you knew i was using the fabric because you picked your favorite patterns BUT PRETEND YOU STILL DON'T KNOW WHAT FOR. also i didn't buy any of the fleece.)

so, with this sewing project in hand, naturally now i'm in a knitting mood again.

i'm also planning my next sweater still. now i'm thinking graduated stripes on the sleeves, since i have a bunch of different "fall" colors lying around. whatever happens, it is sure to be exciting!

a lot has been going on!

2009-09-06T13:26:00.000-07:00

also i am not yet in the habit of taking pictures. but today was a rather quiet day and i felt like showing off so...

here's what my mom's socks look like right now!

they had purple toes, then a white checked stripe, then a purple foot, a white heel, and then some colorwork (in purple and white) on the leg. unfortunately, the colorwork was too tight to fit over mom's heel, so i'm thinking a lace pattern would do better.

here's what my next shirt looks like!

it's going to be a sewn raglan with the brown for the sleeves and the white for the body and some colorwork on the chest (brown stars with red centers). the white is all unwound and tousled and sexy-looking because i thought i was going to make a striped cardigan with the brown and a darker, more varigated brown, so i skeined up the white so i could dye it. turns out? i'm doing this other thing i said i'm doing. i might dye the brown to make it darker or more red. i'm not sure yet.

here's what my "mudslide" socks look like!

this yarn has had such a story. it would make an epic biography really. see, it was originally a knit picks sock blank. i painted it in "experimental" stripes of brown and blue, because i wanted to use those colors together. cowboy colors. turns out with a sock blank you have to really saturate the yarn when you're soaking it. my colors came out mottled and cloudy--and in some places the brown and blue had mixed, making this odd, stony, not-cheerful purple. (you know... ugly.) so i overdyed it with more blue. this solved the mottling problem but not the purple problem. so i overdyed it with real purple, and that finally solved it. i kind of love the yarn now. it's also supersoft.

but wait!

there's more!

THE YARN: PART TWO: REVENGE OF THE PATTERN

i decided to knit it on US#2 needles, to preserve the softness. (yes, i just felted a pair of socks, and tight knitting helps prevent felting. but so does CONSTANT VIGILANCE so i figured this time i would just try that instead.) unfortunately i forgot how many stitches go around my foot on size 2s, so i ended up making them too big. i had a really cool pattern planned, too. but the sock was too big. so i decided to try a different pattern--another improvised one. i found instructions for honeybee lace which i love. unfortunately, on size twos, it was just not as delicate and pretty as it could have been. it was less "cute little bees flitting about the flowers" and more "MONSTER BEES CLIMBING UP MY FOOT" and no one wants that.

::makes mental notes for next world domination plan:: see, knitting is creative.

anyway, so, at the time i was visiting rene, and my size one needles were an hour away from me. by this time i could not bear even the thought of another toe-up toe, so the yarn and needles (especially the needles) are now in time out.

the yarn is still supersoft and pretty though. it will return someday soon.

anyway. it's not all frogging, though! nor is it entirely "things waiting to be knit." remember how i mentioned that the white and brown are for my next shirt? well... this is what my long-sleeved tomato looks like!

yeah, baby! i am six rows away from finishing the shouldery cowlish bit. i'm going to knit the sleeves separate and graft them on, too, so i'm not trying to knit a sleeve with a big damn shirt hanging off the end of it.

BAM!

my neckline, cuffs and lower hem are all going to be edged in seed stitch, too. because i haven't done any in a while.

so, see, i have been knitting, not just plotting (although speaking of plotting, nanowrimo is coming up....)

tragedy strikes

2009-08-25T11:33:00.000-07:00

well, two tragedies, in fact. first: some hero apparently sneaked into my secret lair (i mean, i hid it in the side of a volcano. who is going to look there? i ask you) and disabled the wireless adapter in my laptop. so i was without internet for a few days there, and let me tell you: this is a tragedy. i have to keep up with my rss feeds, guys. evil ones. like metafilter and cakewrecks.

while my internet was down, though, there was a larger tragedy. so large that, until now, i could not being myself to blog about it, or i wouldn't have been able to bring myself to blog about it, had i had the means to do so, i.e.: internet access.

i finished my sunday swings, remember? they were so awesome. i wore them to karaeoke night at applebees, because they were my lucky happy awesome socks. and if anyone asked me "what do you do besides singing and evil?" i could pull up my pant leg, show off my beautiful sock leg and say proudly, "i knit awesome socks!"

and then there was a situation--long story--might be made into an epic movie someday, you'll find out all about it then--which resulted in rene and me walking home five miles from the restaurant.

it had rained earlier that day.

my feet, they move when i walk.

i forgot i was wearing my wool socks.

for any non-knitters (who are just here for the evil): wool + water + agitation = felting.

this is bad. you can't see the patterning near the toes anymore. the yarnovers have completely closed up. i worked hard on that toe patterning, too. okay, so by "worked hard" i mean "totally winged it" but you know. it still sucks. they're messed up around the ankles a bit, too--there is really not full square inch that does not have some felting--but the toes got the worst of it.

rene's lucky; his socks just turned blue, from getting wet in his black shoes. his feet turned blue, too. and so did i.... you know, blue, sad. ahem.

luckily, they were a quick, fun knit, and while i don't think i have enough yarn to replicate them exactly--though i might, i'm not sure--they are surely fun in any yarn, so i will make more someday.

SOMEDAY! ::shakes fists at sky and falls to knees in dramatic rainstorm::

the completion of the sunday swings (minus pics)

2009-08-16T17:07:00.000-07:00

i finished the sunday swings!

pics eventually. but know in your heart that they are warm and soft. and, despite the theme of this blog ~~and my LIFE~~ they are not a torture device. they were easy and sweet. the first sock took like two days! (okay, so the second one took two weeks. what can i say? world domination takes up a good chunk of one's time.)

yarn: knit picks blank merino fingering, dyed in crazy green, blue, purple and yellow nonrepeating short-color-repeat awesomeness. food coloring and kool-aid, sirs. that's all. and magic. can't forget the magic. and lasers.

needles: US#2 brittany birch dpns. now, brittany birches come in sets of six dpns. this is in case one breaks or you lose one, you see? well... i broke one. (doing a k2tog on another pair of socks. just broke right in half like a piece of spaghetti.) apparently i lost one. i only use 4, though, so no big....

...or so i thought.

you see, these socks' awesomeness is so great that it in fact tore the fabric of the universe. by which i mean one of the points on one of my #2 brittany birch dpns split. in half. along the length of the needle. for like a third of an inch or so. i could still knit off it all right, but knitting with that point as the working (right hand--for you right-handers in the audience) needle, and doing ssk's? nooo. no deal.

so i ordered some metal ones from knit picks. which means i have to finish the socks that are on ones and threes now. the horror! the horror....

pattern modifications:
1. a "i can totally continue the pattern into the toe, i know i can, i'll just incorporate those decreases like THIS! ha!" toe (as seen in that one elizabeth zimmerman book, i'm sure)
2. casting on 4 extra stitches for the ribbing, for no reason whatsoever, then decreasing them away at regular intervals when the leg of the sock was begun
3. mirroring the pattern on the second sock
4. i did my usual heel. at least, i'm pretty sure mine is not the heel in the pattern. see, when i say i "did this pattern" i really mean "i copied down the chart and ~~used it for my own nefarious purposes~~ plugged it into my usual sock pattern." but... close enough.

historic ellicott city, maryland

2009-08-10T17:57:00.000-07:00

so we visited old ellicott city yesterday, me and rene. in the historic part of town is my favorite store in the entire world: the forget-me-not factory, where i bought a tin of rose-flavored mints (which my friend ashley decided she LOVED and now i have to go back and get her some for her birthday. such torture!). i didn't get a picture of it, or any inside, but i did get a picture of...

the backs of houses along the creek...

amusing

stickers...

mysterious

narrow steps

clever graffitti... (okay, not clever, but you know)

unneccesary quotation marks...

and

some

amusing (hey! i DID get one inside the forget-me-not factory!)

signs (on the last, rene said, "no they don't! i do!")

and in the end...

(i really did take that just before we left.)

...i promise, i do knit sometimes! i'm almost done with my sunday swings, for example. a repeat and a half, and a toe, and some kitchener, and that's all.

pictures of walls

2009-08-04T21:57:00.000-07:00

all right, so it doesn't have anything to do with knitting, but check out picturesofwalls.com. i have a special love for graffiti--especially clever, heartwarming, random or profound graffiti.

welcome to my secret lair on skullcrusher mountain

2009-08-03T17:12:00.000-07:00

i hope you've enjoyed your visit so far, and to avoid charges of plagiarism may i invite you to feed the fish?

right, anyway, so really i knit more than i'm evil (depending on your definition of evil, of course. i mean... i'm not capitalising anything. that's pretty evil to some people). i share my projects on ravelry (username asltw, as mentioned previously) but i'd like to have a Famous Knitting Blog like grumperina or turtlegirl76. you know. celebrities. people i admire. obviously not a whole knitting empire like the yarn harlot or lime and violet. but you know what i mean.

current projects:
sunday swing socks (finished one sock, done cuff and one repeat of second)
onerva (ravlink) (...there aren't really repeats on this, and i'm making it a "knit till you run out of yarn" project, so... i'm 95%? let's say? i'll just be 95% done for a very long time, is all.)

upcoming projects:
colorwork socks in green and grey
long socks in mottled red
pictures on blog (i promise! and one day i'll get a really fancy camera, too! i'll... threaten a major government until they give me one. like all the knitting celebrities do. ... they do that, don't they?)
shirt in dark green simply soft eco. i just want something with a good shape for me, really. i decided i don't need a lot of details or patterning (a little lace would be nice, or a smidge of cables...). just a flattering shape and a warm fabric. pullover, cardigan, whatever. it's so tough to choose!

general info

2009-08-03T17:10:00.000-07:00

so i thought i might give you a bit of background info. you know: How Evil Am I Exactly? What Do I Do When I Am No Being Evil Or Knitting?

sort of. here's a snapshot of where i am right now (the real me, not the evil genius blogger character): i live with my mom, but her place is really nice, and i'm only 21 after all. i live here because i just broke up with my fiancee of three years. the reasons were complicated, but they are fixable (such as: not having a job. solution? he's getting a job. he smokes. solution? he's quitting. it's tough but he's doing it, and even if he weren't doing it to try to get back together with me, i'd be proud of him for doing a tough thing and succeeding. okay, so he hasn't succeeded yet. he's made progress) and he's fixing them for me. he's being... romantic, i guess you'd call it. he's realized he shouldn't take girls for granted. he's living an hour away now, though, so we can only IM. which is okay with me.

and i might talk about him a lot. just a heads-up. and i might complain about the guys who keep hitting on me (apparently, general opinion is that i'm hot. i honestly don't get it--i have very low self-esteem--so i suppose i'll just let them think what they want?).

i might also quote buffy, the simpsons and futurama a lot. and i also might use lolspeke. this will not be the most dignified of knitting blogs!

okay, back to me. i'm working in the crafts section at wal-mart, and i'm gunning for a supervisor position. fingers crossed! yeah, i get to work with yarn all day, but it's all red heart! and i'm kind of a fiber snob. (okay, we also have caron simply soft and bernat sport, which i actually just want to get so i can make some socks for my mom. but whatever.) the REAL yarn store, ch'naca fiberworks, is across the street from work. so far i have been able to restrain myself, but i've only been here a couple of months. we'll see how it goes.

and that's all i can think of to give you an idea of what i'm doing at the moment. it's mostly about me and rene... but sometimes it's about the knitting. i'll do my best to keep the blog fiberfilled.

for more information, g'wan down the ol' livejournal. (yes, i DO have a maryland accent. not as strong as some people's, though. trust me.)