Hi y'all. Just flew in from Dallas, and boy, are my arms tired! But seriously folks....
Miss me?
Sorry for the silence, but it's been a bit crazy over at the scratch and sniff factory. But I have a lot to catch up on, not the least of which is that I am finally making some progress on the Pi front. Might want to check your local skies for flying pigs, kids.
The mitigating factor is that I'm on my last ball of yarn and am nowhere near finished the shawl. I might see if it will look totally weird to just start a random second color. Hell, if it does, so what? The intent for this was training, not haute couture. I'd kinda told myself that I'd get some fancy schmancy yarn once I had Pi licked (hee hee), so maybe I'll just do that! But you can see that the thing is growing and I'm screwing up less and less. What else?
My gorgeous friend rockpoolcandy has a video of her at work on YouTube. Although I think she has way more people looking at her blog than I have on mine, I am taking the liberty of posting her video here. Do visit her site. She is awesome. Supremely talented. Amazing.
I've got yet another blog! This one is called The Diaries of Violet Clark and is literally a transcription of two diaries I bought in a dollar bin from an ephemera merchant. The diaries date from 1923 and 1924 and chronicle the life of Violet from Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. I am illustrating the diaries with images from the time that go (or don't go) with the topics. This project is totally NOT yarn-related, but could be fun for you if you have any interest in everyday life of the past. It is unlikely that Violet is still alive, but I'd be curious to find out what happened to her. The guy who sold me the diaries said that she became an artist or craftsperson of some reknown. For some reason, I think he said she was a potter. I am posting every last entry from Violet's diary, day by day (not that she wrote every day, at least not at the start of '23. But I will give you a heads-up - it gets very interesting as we go on, particularly when she talks about Ted....
In other news, lard loss is keeping apace, though it's been likely upended by the non-stop feeding frenzy that was this Dallas business trip. Last I checked, I was down around 10 pounds. As mentioned elsewhere, it's coming off slowly so hopefully, it will stay off. Back in the saddle now with tracking every last bite, I promise.
Oh, I knew there was something else! Remember how I told you that my colleague was taking up the hook because she fell in love with my Half-Moon Shawl? Well, she's been taking classes at Lion Brand Studios and has been doing an outstanding job! She told me that the other day, she, her mom, and grandmother were all sitting together crocheting! I could have cried! What a wonderful thing to see three generations of women keeping up the hook. She and I periodically take a few minutes during lunchtime to get some yarn work done. I've been able to give her a few tips that have helped her in her learning and have promised to take her through the shawl pattern, step by step. I couldn't be more proud!
Man, does putting the clocks ahead ever suck! Why can't that be changed to 4pm on a Monday? Wouldn't that be a whole lot more fun??
The air here is absolutely perfumed with the smell of the first of three (!) loaves of bread to be baked this afternoon. Two are the regular whole wheat babies - one for the husband and one for some friends. The third is the whole-grain masterpiece of whole wheat, coarse corn meal, and rye. That one's for me to enjoy with avocado and smoked salmon.......yummmmmm...
There is also a batch of buckwheat chocolate chip cookies waiting its turn in the oven, but right now it's just chillin' in the fridge until the coast is clear. This recipe is making the rounds of many of the foodie sites that I love so well, and I love buckwheat, so this is its week. I don't have the cocoa nibs called for in the recipe, so my semi-sweet chips will have to do. So, Pi. Whassup?
Yeah, it's been kicking my ass a bit. I move forward a few rows, then discover an error way down below where I can't fix it, so I unknit. The good news is that I've finally cracked the code on doing the lace portion of the Pi shawl! I'm very excited about this. But to be precise, this doesn't mean I'm not making mistakes. But now I understand what they are and how the stitches should have been done.
The biggest lesson? Don't knit late at night when too sleepy to count. Too many times in the past week (already acknowledged as a pig) I have fallen asleep on the couch, needles in hand, still stitching. Funny thing about that - I don't do a good job when I sleep-knit.
But all in all, I'm happy as a clam about my new-found knowledge and have already warned the spouse that I will have to order some nice yarn to make the real shawl with. The stuff I'm using is crapola, and for the effort expended in actually creating this thing, I should at least be using a yarn worth its salt.
Ah, almost forgot. Remember how I went nuts over the patterns in the last issue of Crochet Today? Well, I was really looking forward to the new issue, thinking that maybe they got their act together and decided to make a magazine for people who would like to be seen in what they create. My heart sank at the preview online, but I held out hope anyway, thinking it was just a bad choice of preview items.
Well, guess what? It's gone back to sucking. It has SIX afghan patterns this time. SIX! I mean, WTF? What's going on here? Oh, and there are "scrubbies" (woo-freakin-hoo), and a bunch of other boring crap that's not worth the cheapest yarn going.
Here's my point with this screed: if someone coughed up an afghan, would you really be able to tell whether it was from a pattern from this year or 10 years ago? No, you wouldn't! Because the winds of change don't touch afghans in anywhere near the frequency that it does clothing. So why put so many afghans in one freaking issue? I don't get it? Clothing styles change way more that blankets, for crap's sake, give us more of that! And while you're at it, make a half-hearted effort to harness some of the amazing talent on ravelry or Crochetville and get something worth making in that mag!
So, when one is working on the EZ Pi Shawl, it is so easy to get carried away with oneself when attempting to title one's blog post. For instance, "Slice of Pi," "Would You Like Some Pi With That?" and "How Do You Like Your Pi?" come to mind. But forget I said anything at all and let's just get into it, shall we?
I'd mentioned in a previous post that my Elizabeth Zimmerman obsession persists in earnest with my desire to make a Pi Shawl from the Knitter's Almanac.
And so I started it.
And started it.
And started it.
And started it.
Each time, I failed miserably, hopelessly unable to get past the part where you are supposed to engage with the dreaded Double Pointed Needles (which are clearly the work of all that is unholy and vexing). Part of it, too, was my stupid insistence on using a yarn far too fine for the likes of me. Until a (fluorescent and energy-efficient) bulb went off in my head and I realized that I have some cheap-ass Smiley's yarn that they practically paid me to take away that is light enough to create the ethereal shawl of my dreams while still allowing me to maintain a semblance of control over the project. That, and my new-found skill of using the Magic Loop technique with my circular needles helped me along.
Problem solved.
And so I zipped along in a blissful haze, not realizing the extra stitch in some early row had caused a rather unsightly hole. And I couldn't fix it. And I didn't even notice it until until I realized my count was irretrievably off in the lace section because of that nasty extra stitch. And every time I tried to adjust the stitch number, like quicksand, I seemed to get deeper and deeper in the Pi hole (see what I mean?).
And so, I unknitted.
And unknitted.
And unknitted.
ad nauseum.
I had fully expected to proudly show you all just how smarty-boots I had become. I imagined your collective breath drawing in sharply in astonishment (and even, perhaps, with a little envy).
So here I sit, egg on my face, with naught but a miniature and embryonic Pi to show for days of trial, blood, sweat, and tears.
But it is still my Pi, and given the newness of it all, I am still a little proud, a little boastful about having gotten THIS far. Of course, I will update you on my progress until I get bored and find something else to leave incomplete.
Before I sign off, I have to ask a serious favor of you. A very dear friend of mine just found out that he must have heart bypass surgery. He is, understandably, completely freaked out. Now, as some of you know, I am not exactly what anyone would call "religious." And if you know me well, you will know that my previous sentence was an understatement. However, my dear friend is quite spiritual indeed, and I have noticed that he is getting more religious as the years pass. So here is my favor: If you are religious, please pray for my friend. He believes in the power of it, and I think he will draw a lot of comfort knowing that the troops have been rallied on his behalf. I will support him in whatever way I can, but if you could just add this one thing to your list, it would be appreciated more than I could ever say.
I am posting every last entry from Violet's diary, day by day (not that she wrote every day, at least not at the start of '23. But I will give you a heads-up - it gets very interesting as we go on, particularly when she talks about Ted....
