Still in a Lull

Still feeling completely uninterested in knitting - although I did get a good hour or so in last weekend. What do you do when you have completely lost interest? Is it just a phase? And it's not that this particular project is boring...I can't muster enthusiasm for anything yarn-centric right now. (Except for wearing it, ha.)

There is hope yet, variagated yarn!

To go with my ridiculous choice of yarn I decided to choose an equally ridiculous pattern. Why is it ridiculous? There are so many reasons. But why bother with details.

Take a look:

to DIE for

Obviously, I'm not going to be duplicating this disgustingly gorgeous, gorgeous photo. But doesn't mean I can't have fun.

Bonus perk is it calls for a silk and a kid mohair to be worked together - so perhaps this is my chance to bring calm to the impending color nausea? Or it could make it worse. That's the gamble :) and the fun. Will definitely be buying a neutral companion yarn...can you imagine? Two different color schemes battling it out? YUCK.

This is the yarn I'm starting off with - Schaefer Yarn Andrea in Catherine the Great:

not my picture but EXACTLY what my wound skein looks like

Perks:
The pattern is free and extremely easy to memorize. Low-impact where-ever possible! That's how you set yourself up for success.

PS - just learned that this colorway exists in the same yarn. Love! Must! Stop! Myself!

also called catherine the great? confuzzled.

Radio Silence

I know I haven't blogged in a while and although I probably rake in 1 or 2 regular readers, I feel compelled to apologize and explain.

I'm sorry! I needed to take a short break that blossomed into almost a month - how easy that happens. But good reasons are two:

1. Our family went on a 2500 mile road trip! This is actually a terrible reason because who thought it was a good idea to go on such an extreme road trip with 2 dogs and a toddler? BAD IDEA.
2. I'm pregnant!

So being pregnant is an excuse because of morning sickness. Blogging, knitting, eating, thinking and breathing all seem to take a backseat to clutching your stomach while in the fetal position and moaning for death to come quickly.

Exciting new, yes, but pregnancy blog this is not. :) Look forward to more of the same, cranky posts blissfully free of baby-gushing. I try to save that for when it counts - and saying it to myself on the internet seems pretty darn silly. Not that I am against talking about it - I'm not - but, well, this is a knitting blog! Lots of knitting blogs talk about babies and I mean I'm ok with babies but the only good stories I can think to tell usually involve poop and I've been warned that poop is not the type of topic that will earn me friends & followers and wow my colleagues.

I would warn you of upcoming increase in baby-geared knits but apparently I already own that department, so you shouldn't see any significant change.

Thanks for reading, more posts to come!

Variagated Yarn - the evil Siren

For some reason I keep falling in love with variegated yarns - then once they've been wound or knit, I want to vomit from the color chaos. Why can't I seem to remember this, especially when throwing down over $50 for an especially sexy skein??

Any one else have this problem? I keep thinking maybe I'm just picking the wrong kind. I LOVE things like this amazing cardi featured on my effing favorite blog ever, Knitted Bliss:

adore. EVERYTHING. about this.

Or this delightfully tasteful Noro piece:

But for some reason I keep ending with something like this:

Guaranteed not to stripe?!?! That's something people were going for?!?!

I love gorgeous color combinations but can't handle when they are mashed together to look like a snow screen on an old TV. Pure nausea.

So basically today I'm depressed to know that this:

gorgeous

...will at it's best, become this:

color stew

Of course, this is just me - I can grip that some people love this. And the woman who worked this shawl above is DIVINE and I envy her steady hand. I'm sorry if anyone loves this and thinks I am nutso. I also happen to hate it when my food touches other food on a plate. So...clearly I'm nutso. I am also too depressed to find a pattern for this yarn I bought yesterday. Sigh.

Knit Politics

Whatever your politics or awareness of current trends regarding lawmaking and women's health issues, this proposed method of protest is too precious to ignore.

The "Snatchel Project" is a creative approach that is inviting knitters and crocheters to knit or crochet a vagina or uterus, and mail them with messages to their male Senator or Congressional Representative.

Find out more information about the project here and here - as well as patterns and how-tos.

I find this hysterical and inspired and utterly charming. Kind of like that penguin jacket knitting snafu, but with more meaning. Hooray for great ideas! Who better to make these decisions, than people who are in possession  of a vagina or uterus.

Giving up - first frog of 2012

Remember the Uxbridge cardigan I was DYING to get my hands on?

Well, almost 3 weeks later and I have made zero progress. Although it is slightly past the point I got to on my first sit-down, it's pretty pitiful.

Day 1

Day 26

I'm not sure if it's because of the flu I caught, or the fact that it starts with the sleeves (my LEAST favorite part) or that I don't have a ball winder and this yarn takes FOREVER to ball by hand, or that I noticed an error in the second row which obviously I can't fix unless I want to frog the ENTIRE THING....sigh. This project is really not thrilling me.

I'm not much of a frogger and it pains me to make the choice, but I think I'm going to do it. There mere thought of trying to work on this during our upcoming 5-state road trip makes me nauseous. 

It is a mite baffling to me that something I was so obsessed with could become so insanely boring - I just need to "want" to do a project, you know? This is supposed to be fun, not torture. 

So I'm scoping out a few alternatives to cheer me up. Which of these seems most interesting?

Pomme de pin Cardigan

by Amy Christoffers found here

Darling Emma

by Joji Locatelli found here

Larch Cardigan

by Amy Christoffers found here

Knitspiration sweater

Another coveted item...how will I ever make all of these? I guess it's just dreams.
Despite being an incomplete picture, I love this!

color schemes go perfectly with my hatred of daylight savings time

The whole blog is eye candy - check out Sunshine Avenue (borderline overwhelming...still haven't been able to extract what the heck the blog is). Thanks to Khadi for reblogging this - she always has fun posts (especially when she is supposed to be working on homework!)

Knitspiration, Domo style

I can't help but love all these ridiculous pants for kids, even tho my friends tell me that THIS is the line that I am not supposed to cross.

A few samples:

http://knithacker.com/2012/03/09/hey-yo-monkey-butt/

http://www.gizmodiva.com/fashion/hello_kitty_knit_pants_a_little_too_cute.php

http://knithacker.com/2011/01/10/monster-bum/

I'm starting to think that I may need to craft a pair of Domo-kun pants...to be ironic! Of course! Totally ironic!!
I bet it would be REALLY ironic if I made them adult sized....hmmmm...

Also, speaking of irony, I might need to make some Hipster Ariel pants too. And Totoro.

Anything else?