| Monday, November 26, 2007 |
| the best laid plans... |
Tara, let it be said, is smart. I, not so much. ;)
It never would have occured to me to take photos of my "secret" project and post them on my Ravelry* page, so that crafters could see them, but the gift recipient- my mother- couldn't. Brilliant and simple idea. Totally not something I'd come up with. (Then again, I am the girl who couldn't figure out to just move her garbage can). I would have thought it made more sense to create a flikr account and come up with a password knitters might know that my mom wouldn't (like "amphibious knitting term**" or "the color of the Chibi case EVERYONE wanted a few years ago"***) and send people there to look at them.
I'm crazy like that. I like doing things the hard way, just to prove I can. I rarely take the easy way if the hard way is cooler. There is a card came called Liverpool that I play with my family. It functions in much the same way as Gin Rummy where you go for sets (3 or 4 cards of a kind) or runs (3 or 4 suited cards in a row), only you start with 6 cards dealt and progress each round until the last one has 16 cards dealt, and each hand you have a specific objective you must get in order to win. For example, 6 is 3 + 3 (you need 2 sets), 7 is 3 + 4, 8 is 4 + 4, and so on. Just like in Rummy and the tile game Rummy-Q, once you have the minimum requirement and it is your turn, you can "go down" and lay your cards out on the table. This gives you the advantage of having only a few points in your hand should someone else win (otherwise you'd be stuck adding the total of ALL your points to your score. Oh, and yeah- the lowest score wins). (Also, in Liverpool the last hand is 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 and you can't "go down" early, you can only put your points down if you can win all at once...but that's irrelevant to this story). If you get good cards you can hold them all in your hand and then on your turn when you "go down" if everything fits except that one last card to toss on the discard pile, you can win that round and everyone else will be stuck with all of their points. Well, I've been known to get screwed with all my cards in my hand when I could have gone down earlier, because I was hoping to be able to go down all at once and screw everyone else. (I said I like to make things harder for myself...I didn't say I was always smart about it. It's strange that I sabotage myself like that because I always play to win. Anyways...)
I don't remember why this story was supposed to lead into my reason for writing, but pretend it made sense and smile and nod and play along, okay? It's late, and I'm tired.
I was only going to write to complain. I didn't get anything done all day today, but finally managed to finish my mom's thing around 10:00 tonight (those knots I'd mentioned earlier). I wanted to finish my Fibonacci socks so I could start a new pair with a clear sock concience, but the pattern for those socks is on my Palm and I am having issues with the program I use to read the pattern, so I can't access that right now. I went downstairs and through all my packed knitting stuff and pulled out my Marble Clapotis. I sat down with it and in about 2 minutes decided it will be frogged. I don't know why it seems so "eh" to me right now. I still love the Clapotis pattern, but it needs a better yarn than the Marble. I still like the Marble yarn, but it needs a pattern that makes more sense for it than the Clapotis. The scarf I've been working on for almost 2 years now is going to be frogged once I can find my ball winder. (Plus I've got some Noro Silk Garden waiting to become a scarf that I'd rather work on).
Then I decided I'd jump ahead and work on Mona's Mystery Socks. I searched my office but after doing a quick tidy for Yannick's parents who slept over all weekend (in my office/spare bedroom) I must have tucked the pattern somewhere and couldn't find it. No matter, I decided I'd choose my yarn first. I dragged Yannick upstairs to show him the in progress photo of the sock on Karine's blog and the snippet on Mona's. I then dragged him downstairs to help me find the right box with all my sock yarn from before the move. After 20 minutes (and getting into a stupid fight about something completely unrelated) I gave up on finding the box, and remembered I had 2 skeins of non-project-specific sock yarn upstairs; the Socks that Rock in Chapman Springs, and Colinette Jitterbug in Jewel.
I dragged myself back up to the computer to Google finished items with these yarns to see which would knit up best for the pattern. After 15 minutes I realized that I'd have to swatch it 'cus both are really busy and it would depend on how the pattern knit up. I took both yarns in hand, found the right size needles and parked myself on the couch...only to realize that a) I still didn't know where the pattern was and b) both yarns are still in skein form and my ballwinder is still missing.
Enough was enough. I was going to just give up and go to bed, but I really wanted to knit. I remembered Robyn's September Sock Club kit. I liked the idea of using the yarn with the pattern it came with, and I'd already wound the yarn into a cake. Finally- something that would work!
Or not. The pattern calls for a US 1 needle with a gauge of 17 sts to 2". I 99% of the time use a 2.5mm needle for socks, which is also referred to on some packaging as a US 1. Except...it's not. A US 1 is closer to 2.25mm. I swatched with my 2.5mm and got 14.5 sts to 2". I forced myself to get off the couch after all this and got up, went to my needle bag and took out what I thought was a 2.25mm. I swatched again and handed it off to Yannick to count for me (I was too irritated). This time there were only 11.5 sts. He looked as confused as I was until we looked closer and realize I'd grabbed a set of 2.75mm needles. I went back to my needle bag...
I don't own a set of 2.25mm needles.
I'm going to bed. I can't take any more of this tonight.
*Link coming soon...I want to put more stuff up first.
**frog
***pink |
posted by Jennifer Lori @ 11:47 pm   |
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| 4 Comments: |
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I have 2.25 mm in stock - what type are you looking for? :)
See you tomorrow! So excited to see Enchanted!
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You guys are going to see enchanted!! Have fun - it looks great - I keep wishing I had a niece nearby that I could take to see it.
What a day!! I groaned in sympathy for you...hoping today is better.
And, as an aside - I lurve Liverpool.
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Hahaha! Normally, I'm also one of those "why make it simple when it can be complex" type of persons (for example, I once printed out and the scanned a paper to email to a prof from my boyfriends house rather than just bring the floppy with the file). But I have my moments! Awful day (the Knitting Goddess seems to be kicking everyone's ass lately). You need chocolate.
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Some days it just doesn't pay to try and start anything! I feel your pain with things being in weird spots after moving. How are the renovations coming along? We are trying to finish up last minute stuff on the house, and it just seem to drag forever!
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I have 2.25 mm in stock - what type are you looking for? :)
See you tomorrow! So excited to see Enchanted!