The Knitting Pirate

Although I’m no longer sick, and my head is clear enough that I’d technically be able to knit, I haven’t had any time to! This past weekend, Pirate-Husband and I finally got moved into the house. Our friends descended on our apartment and whisked all of our possessions up the mountain. I found out that one more friend has started to knit again, which makes me very happy – apparently I’ve inspired her!

I pass within a few miles of a great yarn store on my way home from work, and it’s an effort to keep from turning the car into their parking lot. I can’t let buying yarn become more of a hobby than knitting it up.

Yesterday my copy of Knitting Rules arrived from Amazon. I have a few other Yarn Harlot books, but not this one, or if I did, I lent it out and can’t remember to whom. Seemed like it just belonged in my library. I also got a bread-baking recipe book, and one about how to grow my own hops. Do all knitters like beer, or is it just the knitters I know?

This awful cold has come back for round two. It’s bad enough that I went to the doctor yesterday (I don’t have the flu) and bad enough that I called out of work today and pre-emptively, tomorrow. It’s bad enough that I haven’t even wanted to knit. I did pick up the sock and got through one needle – not even one round, just one needle – before going all woogy-eyed and giving up.

This, my yarn-loving friends, is bad. I am so bored, but I can’t concentrate on anything. I can’t wait to be healthy again and go back to work.

Yesterday we had an all-hands meeting, and one of my co-workers was admiring the So-Called Scarf. “Maybe,” she said, “I could give you $20 and you could knit me something like this?”

“Uhhhhh,” I answered as nicely as I could, “I could teach you to knit…”

She laughed and said, “Oh come on, you’re just trying to empower me now!”

Yes, yes I am.

After missing a number of SnB nights, I’m finally getting to go again! I’m hoping that I’ll still get to go after I move up to the house, but it will be a much longer distance to drive. I’m definitely going to try to get there once in a while! I like my fellow knitters and would miss them if I never saw them again.

So tonight I’m bringing the beginning of the second Garter Rib Sock, though I don’t expect to get much knitting done for all the talking that goes on. I noticed a few mistakes in the leg of the first one that could only have been caused by not paying attention, perhaps because I was drinking wine and talking instead of looking at what I was doing! Fortunately, they’re small mistakes and would only be noticed by another knitter who had a nose in my ankle. I think I’m safe.

The best part about SnB is that the cafe where we meet has wine. I am so looking forward to a glass of wine tonight!

Yesterday was incredibly productive, but unfortunately not with knitting. While Pirate-Husband was up at the house spackling, I ran four loads of laundry and packed eight boxes. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but it took a lot of time! A half-hour before bedtime, while waiting for the dryer to finish, I decided that I deserved 30 minutes of me-time and took out the beginning of the second Garter Rib Sock. Two and a half rounds later, my head was nodding and I was forgetting when to knit and when to purl, so I put the thing away and went to bed. When Pirate-Husband came in, I mumbled that sounded like “can you turn the dryer back on?” At least, I hope it sounded like that.

At this rate, the second sock is going to take a lot longer to knit than the first. There is no time to knit today – I need to pick up more moving boxes, get to the polls and vote in the primary, pack up the contents of three bookcases and some more of the kitchen, finish the laundry, and somewhere in there I might like to eat dinner. It amazes me that my parents were able to move to a fixer-upper house with a six-month-old baby (that would be me) and get everything done, and here I am moving to a house that needs relatively little work, and there’s still so much to do! Times like these, I’m glad I don’t have any kids or kittens underfoot.

I also have a time-based knitting requirement coming up; friend Gwen is expecting a baby girl in May! I’m almost certain that she doesn’t read the blog, but I’m going to keep the project a secret just in case. I already have the yarn, and I’m excited about the project. It’s something I’ve never tried before, but I’ve seen many versions and I love them all. Baby clothes are great knits. They’re adorable, and they go fast because they’re so small.

Friend Adina recently went on a two-week trip to Ireland with school, and brought back a present for Pirate-Husband and me – YARN. (Does she know me, or what?) I’ve been tasked to knit Pirate-Husband a sweater. He wants something traditional and cabled, of course, and is actually *happy* that the wool is so scratchy. It is, he says, how a sweater should be. I personally prefer softer wool, but I’m not the one wearing it, so it’s all good – he’ll probably wear a turtleneck underneath, anyway.

It’s natural, undyed brownish-gray, a beautiful color, but the stuff is completely unlabeled. I don’t know its weight or yardage. Adina said that two yarn store ladies told her that five skeins would be enough for “an extra-large American male’s sweater,” and she may be able to find out more, even if it involves a phone call to Ireland.

At first, Pirate-Husband thought that I would be able to get this sweater knitted for him in time for next winter. I pointed out that sweaters take time, and that I don’t have a pattern yet, and that I’ve never made an adult-size sweater before, and that I have other knitting projects going on, and that my knitting time is quite limited because it’s much more important to work on the house right now. So we’re planning this one for winter 2009-2010.

Speaking of the house, I spent all weekend working up there. Not a single room is 100% complete yet, but we accomplished a lot – there is spackle on walls, we purchased paint, the only thing left to clean in the kitchen is the oven. On Saturday the hot tub guy told us that the spa itself is fine but the chemicals are all out of whack. We now have a testing kit and a weekly maintenance ritual. Also on Saturday I discovered that there are three koi in the supposedly empty upper pond. On Sunday it dropped way below freezing and I got to see the fish huddling around the pond heater. The lower pond has no heater; the koi freeze and thaw with the weather. We’ve only lost one of about twenty so far. I’m hoping the rest of them make it through the winter.

Woohoo! Sock Number One of the Garter Rib Socks is completed! I began knitting super-fast at around 8:30 last night and was able to get the toe grafted and both ends woven in before bedtime. And – the best part – I tried the sock on and it fit perfectly! I have done the one-footed happydance of sock completion, and will take pictures soon.

To avoid second sock syndrome *cough*Pomatomus*cough* I immediately re-wound the remaining yarn into a neater ball and cast on for Sock Number Two. It would be so nice if I had a scale, so I could weigh the sock against what’s left and figure out if there’s enough. Ah well, intrepid knitting dictates that I charge full-speed ahead, and damn the torpedoes! I got a few rounds done before the cold medicine kicked in and I had to go to bed.

Unfortunately I don’t think there’s going to be much knitting time this weekend, because we’re going up to the house tonight and working like mad. I’m in charge of cleaning the rest of the kitchen and painting the bedroom closets, how fun! Next weekend we are going up to New York for my grandma’s 80th birthday party, and the weekend after that is Official Moving Weekend. I’m really looking forward to getting into the house and turning it into my home.

Being sick is only good for one thing – curling up in front of the computer with a half-knitted sock. I’ve made some significant progress on it today; there’s maybe an inch left before I start the toe. Then I’ll re-wind the ball of yarn so it’s neat again, and hope that there’s enough for the second sock…

I’ve heard that Blue Moon Fiber Arts is pretty good about sending out little mini-skeins to those of us with oversized feet, so I’m not too worried. If there isn’t enough for the second sock, I’ll know to make the next pair a little shorter in the leg to make up for it.

Today I stayed home from work sick. These Canadian germs are kicking my butt! It’s cloudy out today, so these aren’t the best color representations. I’d like to build a lightbox for photos, once we’re all moved into the new house.

Anyway, I’m pretty excited about making Revolution. There’s something about knitting a sweater that I feel will make me a Real Knitter, even though I’ve been knitting for years. It’s going to be a big project and a big challenge, and I’m ready to take it on!

I don’t know what kind of socks I’m going to make with the Aktion. Probably something simple, because of the stripes.

Our core group this weekend was made up of six knitters and two non-knitters, and by the end of the vacation that had been shifted to seven and one. A friend from Arizona was complaining that he could not find the perfect scarf, and so we tromped over to the yarn store and helped him find just the right shade of Cascade 220. I was in charge of finding a stitch pattern that would be fun and easy – garter stitch and seed stitch were ruled out right away. Pondering with my sock in my hand led me to suggest a garter rib, which was immediately approved.

He had an inch of scarf already knit when I left on Sunday.

It did take three of us to teach him, and we did contradict each other a few times. I knit Continental, and the other two teachers knit English, but eventually, somehow, we got the basic idea across. It was lots of fun teaching, although I don’t think I’m very good at it, and it was especially fun to see the lights come on as he started to understand how stitches come together.