babe in the woods

knitty told me to buy this. so i did. and it's awesome.

i miss patrick swayze.

saffronian success

you know that feeling when you've entered a project thinking, "there's no way in god's name this thing is ever gonna work out"?

and the amount of sheer ecstatic orgastic joy when you realize that, against every single possible odd in the universe, it does?

saffron by me (!)

ravelry link

rowan creative focus worsted (60g / 4mm)

i had absolutely no expectations of success when i cast on the stitches. i didn't even know how many i would need for a good fit. if you've read any of my previous posts regarding my giant trapezoid head, you know that fitting hats for my head is an epic exercise in futility. none of the supposed slouchy models work for me. i just end up with six tons of excess fabric in the neck. and a couple of self-inflicted broken bones.

but after approximately 15 years of making hats that don't fit it occurred to me to use short rows to make the front longer than the back. which i did. and added a nice braided cable to the side. and ended up with the single most awesome piece of headgear i've ever owned. it's so freakin' gorgeous that i'm in a compulsive need to get undressed and run back and forth main street wearing nothing but this hat and the curly winter hair on my legs. i don't know what else to do with these waves of completely unexpected pleasure rushing through me right now.

i may look calm but inside i'm going OH YEAH GIVE IT TO ME BABY

everything just went right with this piece. the yarn is awesome and has the exact right tone of yellow. blocking made it drape beautifully and smoothened the stitches except for some of the wrap&turn rows that are more prominent than others. but then again, hand-knitted items won't look as polished as machine-knitted ones, and why should they? this one screams "NO CHILD LABOR USED" from a thousand miles away.

ravelry has more detailed info on the construction. i will be writing the pattern out at some point so leave a comment or something if you're interested.

oh, and here's something i picked up at a local book fair.

http://pulpcovers.com/?tag=drugs

why yes, that is a picture of me taken around three weeks ago. although i'd be inclined to leave the question mark out.

props to miss M for the photos!

thermis

as promised, here's some actual knitting i've been able to finish lately.

my friend turned 26. i wanted to make her something nice for the winter. enter thermis.

thermis by kris knits

ravelry link

size small

cascade 220 (90g / 4mm)

the pattern infamously has gauge errors that still haven't been corrected, but having a decent level of common sense helps. the finished piece is pretty nifty, although next time i'll probably cast on a few stitches less to make it more close-fitting. i couldn't find the right type of buttons in any store, but sort of accidentally came across an age-old cardigan in my closet that had exactly the ones i was looking for. off with their heads! they look better now than ever.

and blocking made the 220 look really good too. the surface is smooth and even and makes the thermal stitch more visible. not all yarns actually benefit that much from blocking, in my knitting at least. or maybe it's just that i can't see the difference with my beady little eyes. yeah. that's probably it.

but anyway, the recipient seems happy (notice how you can't see the shotgun pointing at her?) so i guess this one falls unexpectedly into the job-well-done category.

but i'm still in a desperate, frustrating need of a better camera. not a single photo comes out that doesn't need 20 minutes of color tweaking. it drives me insane. so someone please fix my fuckin' ass (positively no pun intended) for good so i can finally get a job and money and a killer EOS or something. thank you.

hoarding

the following post contains offensive religious material and should not be read by anyone.

so it's obvious my life is not turning out the way i wanted it to. the ass-shattering pain is still there despite the surgery, and i'm having an infernally hard time adjusting to the thought that it may never go away. i've also come down with the flu which makes thinking and overall taking care of myself gazillion times harder.

i blame god. i don't like him and he doesn't like me. so we keep throwing steaming balls of turd at each other until one of us gives over. i do appreciate the oxymoronic nature of a fecal fight between myself and a (supposedly) bearded astral figure who i have no subjective experience of even existing, but somehow i still wake up nigh every morning with a fresh batch of baby green on my face. while he gets away squeaky clean. what a douche.

and now that we're on it, wasn't it therapy? that once accurately sang "god kicks with both feet and keeps his shoes clean"?

it's also obvious that the only way to provide any immediate or long-term relief for such unfair and unpleasant fate is to buy yarn.

which i did. i bought 17 skeins of yarn.

sparkly yarn. fluffy yarn. yarn that makes me forget all about god and his douchy, enigmatic ways. a little felted tweed. couple of cashmerino blends. a flavia or two. some silk wool. and other blissfully soft stuff i couldn't keep my hands off from.

i have no idea what i'm gonna make with all this stuff. i still have an untouched bag lying on my floor with 400g of viking eco ull, 500g of both drops alaska and karisma and four million skeins of raggegarn from my previous god-hates-us-all shopping spree. which, oddly, i do in fact recall being soundtracked by slayer at the time.

but again, the point is to have them before i need them, not after. in my mind this makes perfect sense.

p.s. i'm sure this blog will eventually return to idyllic representations of my actual knitting instead of going on and on about planning on knitting, preparing for knitting and/or failing at knitting. in the meantime.. oh well.

p.p.s. check out the new villavyyhti in helsinki. now.

certifiable

let's just call it a nervous breakdown.

pain makes you do funny things. ridiculously extended pain makes you do ridiculously funny things. which eventually call for ridiculously funny measures.

but three weeks and seven therapeutic pairs of socks later i'm back. sort of. god how much i've missed my 220s and my 32" addis. never again shall we part.

or the bunny is seriously gonna get it.