The final product, but sadly, a fairly crappy picture:
I meant to take another one in the morning, but ended up rushing out the door, so we get this lovely close-up where you can see my woven in ends and pre-blocked irregularities. But oh, it was a pretty little shrug. And I got all the oooohs and aaaaahs at the shower, HA.
Oh, wait, I found another picture:
Baby shower on Monday, and I didn’t start this until today, omg. Before I show the mess that is a baby shrug in process, look at how pretty the yarn knits up!
Isn’t that pretty? Perfect for a sweet little sweater like the Baby Shrug by Debbie Bliss. I’ve never played with Lorna’s worsted weight yarn, and I’m regretting that omission. It’s lovely to knit with, very soft and fluffy. I’ve got two skeins, but I’m only going to use one for this sweater. The other will be stashed until I find something else adorable and cute to knit with it. I am determined to finish the bulk of the sweater tonight so I can do the ribbing tomorrow after brunch. (Oy.) This is where I stand now:
I’ve done the back and one side, so I think I just need to finish the other side and bind off, and I’ll be done for the night. I’ll seam tomorrow, do the ribbing edge, and I should have this finished before bedtime. Yay.
A post with pictures! GET OUT! I know, it’s crazy but I have actually taken up the needles again, plugged the (new!) battery into the (old!) camera, and got bizzay.
There are babies all around me. Not literally, but between my college friend’s baby girl, my law school friend’s baby girl, my secretary’s baby boy, and my coworker’s baby girl, I have ample incentive to knit lots of short projects that are quickly and easily completed. So, first up – baby stuff for J’s soon-to-be girl:
Little lion booties, doomed to be lost as they fall off the kid’s feet, but cute as hell anyway. I figure, knit up a couple of pairs of these for the “awwww” factor, then switch to stash-remnant-clearing baby socks that are also practical.
And that’s the only knitting picture I have for you. I’m a little freaked out because I pulled out all my sock yarn and spread it on the dining room table. I wanted to see – well, I wanted to see what I have.
I HAVE A LOT. Now, keep in mind that this little stash has accumulated over the course of years. I’m pretty pleased that I didn’t seem to focus on any one color, though. I’m not drowning in blue or pink (unlike my actual wardrobe, which is disgustingly pink centric), and it’s a nice mix of solid, semi-solid, and multi. BUT – on the lower left, do you see the two skeins of grey yarn? Right above them is an ecru yarn cake. I have LOST the other skein that goes with it, and I am pissed. Where is it? I had plans, man.
Aren’t these pretty? I don’t know what I’m going to do with them, but they were $1.00 each at JoAnne’s this past week, and I couldn’t resist. I’m actually wishing I’d bought more.
Notions and finishing touches, man. You need them. I had none. Now I have some.
***
One day, I will figure out exactly what I want this blog to be. It’s a little choppy now, a little all over the place. Knitting mixed in with life mixed in with posts copied over from the locked-down blog, and not enough of any one thing. I put so much of myself into the other journal, but that’s because there’s a whole community built around it. The people who read that have been in my life for years, and our journals sometimes function as one big conversation. This stand-alone blog thing is entirely different. I used to have one a long time ago, and I struggled with the same questions of definition, limitation, identification. Sometimes I want this to be strictly pictures and text, nothing really personal; then I change my mind and decide it’s going to be my life PLUS knitting. It’s kind of confusing and a little annoying, but such are the growing pains of a blog. Or something. Yeesh.
Yes, it’s another filler post. I actually have been knitting, and I’ll have pictures soon. It took baby socks and baby booties to get me back in the flow; quick things I could finish in a night, and that will use up some of the yarn remnants I have lying around. So, here – have another meme, stolen from James Lipton, who stole it from Bernard Pivot.
ames on The Actor’s Studio (cue orchestra and riotous applause).
1. What is your favorite word?
I don’t think I have one, actually. I’m not much for favorite this or favorite that. Also, I’ve noticed a lot of people use really big words for their “favorite word” part, which amuses me but kind of fits, because they’re special words that are brought out on special occasions. Or the person just wants to be seen as intellectual, ha. I like words that are soft and sweet – heather, heart, sugar, damask, cotton, fluff, daybreak, acquiesce. I love words that invoke a certain image or sensation, and if it makes me think of lounging in crisp cotten bedsheets at 9:30 on a sunny Sunday morning, with orange juice, an open window to the sea, a loved one, and a furry pet of some kind, then those are words I love.
2. What is your least favorite word?
Fag – it has an ugly homophobic edge to it that is never not present, no matter who uses it, and it always makes me feel weird and defensive.
3. What turns you on?
Competence; nice hands; softly rounded upper arms; big pretty smiles; Kate Hewlett; people doing what they were always meant to do; joie de vivre that’s expressed but kind of contained (continually excited people freak me out); Brooklyn accents (I do not know why); affection; husky voices, and my mom reads this blog, so I will stop there. Ha.
4. What turns you off?
Arrogance (with a few exceptions, hello, Starbuck); the gloss of “I am SO pretty and SO awesome”; super-skinnyness from not eating; spitting ew ew ew; dipping; smugness; people who are sloppy eaters (in the eat-with-my-mouth-open and stick-my-tongue-waaaay-out-to-get-the-food way); excessive hairiness, overt sexuality. I’m kind of a prude.
5. What sound or noise do you love?
My cat’s purr; the way my dog Jake used to grumble when I had to wake him up from a deep sleep; the quiet intimacy of club jazz (think Dinah Washington, the kind you hear in dark clubs, sung by whiskey-voiced women and sad trumpets); thunderstorms; my best friend’s dorky creaky laugh; the random bursts of music you hear when an orchestra is playing around and warming up.
6. What sound or noise do you hate?
Screaming misbehaved children in public areas; televisions that are on just for background noise; the crinkle crinkle crinkle of candy wrappers in theaters; the sounds of birthing scenes in tv shows and movies. I cannot watch those at ALL.
7. What is your favorite curse word?
One of my law school friends was big on “son of a bitch”, which I always liked. I wish I were more creative in my cussing.
8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
So many! Theater musician, you know the ones that provide the music for the plays? Travel journalist, professional singer (I am so stealing the BFF’s guitar one day, just watch me), actor, professor in a small college (although of what, I have no idea), small business owner (yarn store, natch), and while I don’t really want to do the work of being an astronaut (and am completely math-deficient), I would go out in space in a heartbeat – so when they finally build that off-world colony in the stars, I will do whatever job it takes to get me signed up on the list to go. I will sweep floors and clean bathrooms, as long as I get a hour in front of a window every day to stare at the beauty. My knee-jerk response to any of the “if Farscape/Stargate/random science fiction thing were real, would you go” questions is ALWAYS yes. I cannot imagine turning it down.
9. What profession would you never want?
Physician. I never ever want to be that responsible for someone else’s health, or the determining factor over whether someone lives or dies. No no no. Also, reporter, because there’s a level of invasion that they have to be comfortable with and I’m not.
10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
You’re right. People really should have listened to you more and followed directions. I think “you’re right” are the two most beautiful words in the English language, and if people just freaking DID AS THEY WERE TOLD, so many things would run smoothly that are horrific messes now. Someone asked me once if I would rather be right or be happy, and I laughed in her face, because to be right IS to be happy. Silly woman. As a close friend said, “I’m sure there are more Christian things to enjoy, but the sweet sweet joy of being right pretty much trumps all.” IT IS SO TRUE.
