Mosaic Knitting

Last night at knitting my friend J brought some of the Mosaic knitting she had done a while back--it was really cool, and she showed me how and let me borrow some of her Barbara Walker books.

This was in the front of Charted Knitting Designs:

To all dispersed sorts of ARTS and TRADES,
I writ the needles prayse (that never fades)
So long as children shall be got or borne,
So long as garments shall be made or worne,
So long as Hemp or Flax or Sheep shall bear
Their linnen woollen fleeces yeare by yeare:
So long as Silk-wormes, with exhausted spoile,
Of their own Entrailes for mans gaine shall toyle:
Yea till the world be quite dissolv'd and past;
So long at least, the Needles use shall last.
--John Taylor, The Praise of the Needle, London, 1640

It appeals to my English-majorness and my craftiness. Very cool.

Finished Object

Stats:
We Call Them Pirates hat by Hello Yarn, in Diakeito Diatasmanianmerino colors 729 and 727 (100% wool, 40g/130 yds) from the local ys. It took one ball of each color, with plenty left over.

Mods:
I didn't swatch first (ahem), which made the hat a little tight around the brim and (more than) a little short, so I added another row of skulls before decreasing, and instead of lining the hat I made a 1" 2x2 ribbing (my friend wanted to be able to pull the hat down around his ears). This helped with the tightness, too.

I like the finished product, especially since it's my very first two-color project. I did take pictures of this one before I gave it away.

Obligatory Pictures:

Relief!

After that last post I went back to knitting, and I began to panic. Each stitch made me panic more and I wondered if I was doing exactly what the Yarn Harlot is always warning us about--knitting even in the face of a horrible horrible ending full of frogging and cursing and tears...

So I put the hat on some spare yarn and tried it on:

At least it goes around the big ol' noggin! I'm not sure how that compares to my friend's head, but the panic has subsided. It might just work.

Whew! Thank you knitting gods!

Saturday Happenings

All day knitting today on this:

It's the We Call Them Pirates hat in Diakeito Diatasmanianmerino on 3s. I have a confession about this hat that makes me very very nervous. I didn't swatch. Not at all. I just cast on and knit. It is a bit tight for the gauge, I think, and I know that this means danger ahead, but I am knitting on irregardless. I am being stupid. I have this hope that I can stretch it out a bit. So... I'm going to knit another row of skulls and then measure. Just for, um, practice. I'll let you know how this turns out. Pray to the knitting gods for me, and don't make me think about the truth for a while.

And, another warning. Don't spend all day chasing squirrels, or this could happen to you, too:

The Capture of Happiness

Roxie at my feet (with bone).

Wool in my lap.

Heater on my wall.

Ahhh.

Flu Shot

I am at lunch. I ache. I'm cold. I want to go to bed. Stupid stupid only-3-absences-until-you-get-warned-and-7-you-get-fired policy. :-(

Why do I live so far away from my mother? Why did she require I get the flu shot this year, and then not be here while I'm sick? (Please don't mention that I am too old to complain about this.)

K at work brought her crocheted things to work today. Everyone oohed and ahhed. I am considering bring some knitting, but I have a serious lack of finished objects... Post Christmas I am making myself something. I've pretty much given away everything I've ever made. This makes the showing off hard.

I am two months behind on my knitting schedule (or more). It does make my wrists hurt to knit, and I have been packing and moving and spending time thinking, so I am very behind. It is a bit overwhelming, and it is hard to know where to start. But, (positive thinking!) I am starting! Don't worry, dear friends, you will get your presents!

(I almost signed this posting, like a letter. That shows you that I am really not quite up to snuff.)

Report

Several things to report today, so I resort to the numbered list and do not use connecting language (bad, bad former English major).

1) WORK LIFE: Hooray I am hired! I "officially" start Monday in the position that I have been filling for five months as a temp. FIVE MONTHS AS A TEMP. I am far too exhilerated by my official status. The job is ho-hum, but now I earn seventy-five cents more per hour for my ho-hum job and get health insurance (it has crossed my mind that health insurance might cost at least seventy-five cents per hour and thus cancel out my raise, but I am setting this aside as depressing thinking and imagining those cents adding up into extra skeins of expensive yarn instead). I got my nametag today, my new position under my name announced: "clerical" in all caps.

2) HOME LIFE: The kitchen is put up and clean. My living room is livable; the yarn box is open by the coffee table and there are two pictures hung. The bedroom... well there's a functioning bed in there behind the boxes. It's easy to find, too, since Roxie lounges on it most of the time. Roxie seems happy. In addition to the bed, she has many many squirrels that keep her busy and fresh dirt to dig in.

3) DATE LIFE: I'm going to bed early tonight. (Ha ha, got you excited there...)

4) KNIT LIFE: I went to knitting on Wednesday, having been gone for many weeks. I don't know why I missed so many. I was so happy to see everyone, to feel their warm prayer shawls, to help bless... it was WONDERFUL! I also discovered that Jenny had bought a mosaic knitting book she'll let me look at if I "come regularly" (incentive indeed!) and that there was a basket of donated needles with multiple sets of dpns that I may borrow. I will be back for mosaic and needles. (Oh, and to see everyone, too... that part was the best.)

And to close, I went to my employee health meeting on Wednesday and they did these little stretching tests. I learned that I have the beginnings of carpal tunnel syndrome and may have to start wearing braces when I knit and type. Ugh. I am too young for this. Braces aren't cool. But braces are better than pain I suppose. Bleh. I blame work, not knitting.

A Longing Post

I miss school. Rather desperately.

I was putting away my books tonight, and I realized that no one but a truly snobby academically-inclined person would have my library. I want to be writing about old and middle english again.

I don't want to be entering data every day.

I miss my books.

I hate my job.