Sakura of DOOM

Have I mentioned that I love knitting? I take it back! I hate knitting! I particularly hate my stupid toe-up Jaywalker that has 68 -- yes! 68! -- rows for the gusset increase and the heel turn. My gauge is 10 rows/inch! That is a 6.8 inch heel turn! Minus 1.5 inches if you assume that half of the heel turn will be on the leg side, but still! I would have to start increasing 5.3 inches from my heel!

I mean, my feet are big, but even so, having a heel that is actually longer than the foot of my sock seems a little weird.

Ok, I don't actually hate knitting. I sort of more hate myself for not carefully charting out all the rows required for the gusset increases beforehand while knitting two socks at a time and making pretty damned good progress, if I say so myself.

Of course, that is all moot, now that one sock has been torn back to the toe and the other lies there forlornly, waiting for me to decide if I should tear it back or not.

And because I was doing two at a time, I really do not want to wait to relax out the kinks in the yarn. So now my reknit sock is less pretty. But I am too irritated to start over for the billionth time. But I waffle because it is my beautiful Blue Moon Socks That Rock yarn. But -- billionth time!

In conclusion: #$(*&$@#)(#$!!!!!

I forgot; I actually have been doing a few things aside from watching Honey and Clover. Or, more accurately, while watching Honey and Clover, as the tatami kimono pattern is relatively brainless and thereby good anime knitting.

( Giant pictures )

I've been having some exciting mail days lately!

1. yhlee! The 2006 Vividcon DVD arrived! EEEEEE! I thought it would be lost forever, as it was sent to my old address, but good old USPS worked its magic and rerouted it and I have it! That totally made my week, and I am planning on hunkering down on the couch with easy knitting to watch "Fix You" and "Have You Heard" and oh so many other excellent vids on my tv.



2. ROCKIN' SOCK CLUB OMG JOY! Um. Yes. It is quite possible that I have been bitten by the sock bug even though I uh... have yet to finish my first pair. But that's because the foot is in pure stockinette, and it is boring me to death, and I want to get to the cool parts like the heel! I started knitting Grumperina's Roza's socks from IK Spring 07, but I got really bored with brioche stitch. So I tore it out and started toe-up Happy Socks. Except it's taking a while to get to the lace, and once I got past the figure-eight toe (so cool! so proud of self for figuring it out!) and the increases, it is stockinette for what feels like miiiiiiiiiiles. At least it's entertaining watching the yarn self-stripe.
   
   Also, I have decided that I can indeed do dpns, but I don't particularly enjoy them and want my magic loop again. I have also decided toe-up is the way to go, as I can try it on as I knit and knit without fear of running out of yarn before finishing the toe!
   
   Wait, got distracted again, meant to talk about Rockin' Sock Club. Anyway, I am not completely in love with the colorway, but the pattern looks cool. But I have decided to knit some other sock with the yarn, as I don't like how it pools on other people's and use some other sock yarn on the Inside Out pattern. More news later...



3. Wild Adaptor 1-4 in Japanese from vom_marlowe, joy!

The only sad thing is that my Sundara yarn has not come yet. This wouldn't be so tragic, given that I will forever have more stash than I have projects, except for the fact that the tatami kimono pattern has also not yet come argh want to knit it now have beautiful yarn sitting in closet woe. Am emailing Sundara to check.

Um, also, are people really bored by my obsessive knitting posts? I figure they probably don't make much sense if you don't knit...

I haven't been reading much lately, as a) I haven't been sleeping well lately and therefore have been falling asleep in the middle of books and b) Remix has been eating up my time. But really, it's not like I don't have enough hobbies to fill up all my time and then some anyway...

I continue to spam LJ.... Anyway, here are some pictures of the carnage over the weekend. Ok, maybe it wasn't carnage, as the yarn remains unharmed. But still! My heart!

( Large pictures of yarn, a rat, and partially finished objects )

So I was going to post on going salsa dancing for the first time, or on expertise as a measure of effort vs. talent, or a giant squee-full post on The Virtu, which ate my brain yesterday.

And then I woke up to find.... the cage door opened.

Holy fucking shit! I thought, still rather muddled from extreme allergies and waking up.

Bya poked his head out of the hammock and sleepily sniffed at me. At least he was still true to type and in the cage.

And then I looked at the room. Shredded paper and shredded random other things everywhere! GAH! I thought.

GAAAAAAH OMG YOU HORRIBLE EVIL RATS! I thought, as I saw the chewed holes in rachelmanija's bag of tatami kimono yarn, complete with random strands of yarn peeking through and one lonely ball sitting outside the bag, label torn to pieces. (fear not, thankfully the yarn itself is safe, no thanks to the rats)

Despite extreme anger, I managed to actually check the six million electrical cords in the room to discover that there was no fried rat body there, thank god and no thanks to their little rodent teeth.

And then I saw it.

My yarn! My yarn from my stash! My yarn from my stash that hangs in those sweater holder things you hang up in your closet! My yarn ON THE FLOOR IN A MESS!

"RUKI*! I am going to KILL YOU!" I yelled.

There were a few half-shredded labels, but most importantly... my yarn from the very top-most shelf was on the floor. My Claudia's hand-painted pure silk gorgeously dyed laceweight. My ArtFibers silk. My Jaeger Zephyr silk-merino laceweight. My Cherry Tree Hill hand-dyed sock yarn.

I raced over to carefully pet them and coo over them to make sure the evil rat had not mangled them, particularly the Claudia's silk laceweight which I will not even mention how much I paid for because it was just that gorgeous.

Ruki should thank his little ratty stars that my yarn is largely undamaged.

Then I raced around in a mad rush, trying to figure out which rats were still on the loose and if (heaven forbid) Ruki had made it out of the room and was currently terrorizing the rest of the house.

At that, several sleepy ratty heads poked out of the hammock. Ruki didn't even wake up when I poked at him to make sure it was actually him and not some cleverly constructed decoy.


* I am 99% certain that this is Ruki's doing, as a) he habitually and consistently attempts to escape from the bathtub and b) the other times the cage door has "accidentally" popped open (I now suspect Ruki of finessing this escape and others), I have panicked, only to find: Bya still sitting his fat rat butt in the cage, too lazy to even investigate the world outside; Ren huddled on the sofa or under the coffee table, adventurous enough to find places he remembers but then scared beyond measure at the wide world and unable to find his way back to the cage (which, by the way, is about three feet away); and Ruki. Ruki, running down the hallway, not just feet, but meters away from the rat room, much less the cage. Or Ruki, escaped from the rat room to the bathroom, where he plays circus balancing tricks on the edge of my laundry basket.

I knew I shouldn't have named him after Rukia. It is quite clear where his personality comes from. Also, I am certain that he knows he is the cutest of the three rats and takes mad advantage of this whenever he can.

There are knitbloggers in my area! Wow!

I found out at my library knitting circle (also, someone asked me if I blogged and said she may have found my entry last week. If so, hi!). But yes! Local knitbloggers!

I mean, having knitting groups is awesome, but it is extra awesome to have a knitblogging group because I have been obsessively lurking in the knitblog universe for quite some time now, and it's a habit that is somewhat difficult to explain to my non-blogging, non-internet-addicted knitting circles.

Also, I so want Sundara cherry blossom yarn because of the whole sakura of DOOM thing. I mean... I could knit sakura socks of DOOM! How awesome is that? And I worked some extra hours this week. Hrm....

Of course, then I would be breaking my yarn diet.

I am currently on a book diet and a yarn diet but surviving ok, given the size of my stash (both yarn and books), though I am not counting manga series I am currently into for my book diet. Ergo, still keeping an eye out for Emma 3.

I am still a little boggled by the wonderfulness of a knitting circle at the library because, well: books! yarn! books and yarn! books and yarn and books and yarn! Now if they only had swing dancing there after hours, it would be a giant combination of all my current hobbies!

I am bored to death. Naturally, this is because I have too many things to do, none of which I actually want to do. Also, I think my brain has been mathed out, since I've been staring blankly at Fibonacci sequence problems for a good hour straight.

So, entertain me by making me entertain you!

I was going to make a poll, but I am so brain dead that I can't even think of good poll items. Tell me what to post about or posts/comments that you'd like to see!

(And for the knitters out there, new Knitty, new Magknits and the spring/summer Vogue Knitting preview are all up, yay! I am dying for the white lace things in VK already. And Elann currently has Rowan Tapestry on sale, which I've coveted for a while but don't know what to do with. Must go home to consult patterns.)

ETA: fixed link

I am a mad knitter! Unfortunately, I should probably stop soon, as my wrists are starting to hurt. That can't be a good thing...

( Giant knitting pictures )

I am currently working on a striped baby sweater for a knitting circle friend, a leafy green scarf (merino, alpaca, and silk blend, mmmmmm), and a Noro scarf. It's good the Kureyon is so scratchy, or I'd be tempted to keep it myself, the colors are so gorgeous.

Because I am procrastinating and not writing up my 2006 books post, here is picture spam!

I ended up knitting a lot of small things in 2006, which was fun. Four pairs of fingerless gloves! A lot of scarves! I should probably remember to take more knitting pictures; I still don't have pictures of all my projects.

And then, of course, there are the obligatory rat photos. It's easier to take pictures of them, now that they aren't running around and trying to escape every ten seconds.

( Giant knitting pictures )


( Giant rat pictures )