It’s the HEAT, baby, that is driving me insane. Whatever I have done outside during the last week or so, I am rewarded with exhaustion, uncontrollable sweating and the feeling that am breathing thru a mask. I am not obese, nor do I smoke, nor do I have COPD or anything like that. It’s just hot and humid and very very wearing on the body and spirit. Of course, I could live in some place like, say, Georgia or Alabama, where the humidity is like this ALL. THE. TIME. but then, I believe that I would melt into a giant puddle of gooey, middle-aged Miss Allen. And I used to like summer.
Heading out to New Rock to see KnitBud Anne tomorrow, at which time I will present her with a surprise (just in case she reads this before Wed.!), and will take a multitude of finished projects with me for show and tell, as we just LOVE to SQUEE! over each other’s completed projects. We’re such girls. There will be Indian food and large bottles of Flying Horse lager involved….
Then off on Thurs. to Manchester, NH for the TKGA/CGOA conference. I’m taking 2 classes, one of them esoteric crochet stuff. I love Tunisian crochet and the double-ended crochet (which is basically two-sided Tunisian), and not many people do them. It is totally geek crochet, and I’m looking forward to learning some new techniques. I had cancelled my original attendance back in June, when the financial situation was uncertain, but T. A. insisted that I go ahead and go to this conference, albeit with fewer classes.
Knitting proceeds nicely; Joan’s Double-Stranded Knitted Socks are a favorite of my DIL, Jessie, and she has been whinging around for a couple of new pairs for this winter. I dug into the sock stash, came up empty and then bought some more Woolease in violet for a pair. I had forgotten how fast they are, esp. when you do a three-needle bindoff for the toe. Yes, yes, I can hear you sock purists screaming in horror — “what, no grafting?!” Shit, no. I got better things to do with my time than weave toes. Like make another pair of socks. That’s pretty much how I feel about grafting. I mean, really — she wears them with Birkies, fer Chrissakes. I like to think of a 3NBO toe as being a bumper, esp. for Birkies. Plus, it wears better, which is why I do it. One pair is done; two more pair are planned. Hey, I can knit a sock in about 4 hours or less with this pattern — can’t do that in 8 st/in.!
I really have to finish my other Jasmine Mitt before the end of the month, as I have seriously over-committed for the Ravelry Olympics. The first one was a bearcat, but after re-doing the thumb, I am sailing thru the 2nd one and will be done with it soon — that is, as soon as I apply myself. Here’s a picture of the first one:
The first Jasmine mitt
Nice, huh? There’s one weird thing I’ve found out about myself — I won’t knit small gauge socks, but I will knit small-gauge mitts. They’re WAY easier to show off (no shoe or boot removal required ) and this part acrylic yarn will wear like iron and be washable, which is what ya want for something that you might actually wear while eating.
Sock-knitting, as you may have guessed by now, is Not My Thing. I don’t mind making heavy wool socks, using 2X Woolease or some lovely worsted wt. Briggs and Little Tuffy (go to yarns and pull down the Tuffy tab), but the rest of the time I just buy a bundle of white cotton socks at Walmart. I might go crazy like I did a couple of winters ago and buy nice wool socks at Sam’s Club, just because my cotton ones weren’t warm enough.
I think the whole “oh, look at my hand-spun, hand-dyed, hand-knit socks made out of rare and expensive woola woola fiber” is just a CROCK OF SHIT. It’s really knitting one-upmanship and a snotty superiority over the rest of us poor, non-sock knitting knitters. I do not have time to play that game.
I’ve got knitting to do.
