it seems like every week something (stupid) is going on, say forgetting what day it is or smelling a nonexistent breakfast. today though takes the cake, I woke up to an awesome email. when I say awesome, I mean delightfully idiotic. at least it's wednesday and this has some entertainment value:

Hello [bitterpurl], [your muggle editor] sent me the revised dummy text and I sent it along to the techie. She had only one concern:

All of the measurements within the patterns you've sent are non-metric (expressed in inches)[I love that she explains what "non-metric" means to me], but the needle sizes are metric only. This seems a bit odd for a book being published in the US [because apparently in the US knitters have never heard of the metric system, my bad].

[here's the kicker!]

Is there any reason why the needle sizes are metric? Should we just convert them to inches?

Thanks,
[some other editor once removed]

now, however you may feel about me getting rid of the inconsistent US needle system in patterns, you have to take some pleasure in this email. I'm still speechless. I must've woken up in the twilight zone, please tell me I did. I mean, did the tech ed tell them about the inch thing or did the editor come up with that one herself?! it boggles the mind.

I almost feel like making all the patterns in metric, just to eff with them a little more. or maybe I will change the mm's to inches...you will need .217 inch needles for my pattern. it has a certain ring to it, don't you think?

eta: it wasn't the techie!!

in other news, we're in the third, fourth, tenth? sleeve incarnation.

too bad it's hideously big, puffy is an understatement to say the least. take it from me, listen to your inner voice and gauge! if I had I wouldn't have to frog this again. c'est la vie

through all this starting and restarting though I can safely say that this yarn takes frogging like a champ. I'm a believer in the chainette construction especially when it comes to cashmere.

Posted by bitter purl at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (39)

I totally find time to procrastinate, it's really easy to when you're at the computer all day. there's always bloglines and google talk!

other things that keep me from working:

reorganizing my stash...again - I don't think I need any sock yarn for the next ten years or until Teyani updates with some sock hop again. I probably have at least five sweaters still in their yarn state that I'll finally get to in march or april. now I just need to get rid of all that random yarn I somehow seem to collect.

cooking and baking have found their way back into my schedule. nothing beats randomly baking cookies around 11pm, all because you wanted one cookie. it sucks though when you have to stay up to finish the rest of the batches. I've also been trying out recipes from one of my new mario batali cookbooks. I worry though that batali would kick my ass for bastardizing his recipes since sometimes I kinda just wing it and don't stick with the 'authentic' vibe of the book. I'll be playing around with the lee brothers' book leahsent me. (I'll skip the boiled peanuts and velvet cake though). for a good laugh, I look through amy sedaris's hospitality book. I would love to see her do a knitting book!

going through my music collection- an awesome time killer/waster. the beauty of this one is that you can start listening to an album, then you start searching for lyrics or you look up the band to see if they're still around or touring even if you aren't planning to actually go see them. it's all about the search, not necessarily about what you find. the vib ribbon soundtrack is one of those that I forget how much I love until it randomly plays on itunes or something and no matter what I always have to look up the lyrics (since umm it's kinda in japanese).

writing random posts with no point......

Posted by bitter purl at 06:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (20)

yesterday I woke up thinking it was sunday. worse, I thought the boyfriend was making french toast for breakfast. when I jumped out of bed to partake I was sadly met with a sleepy man eating shredded wheat. I hate shredded wheat. can we say disappointment?

obviously my brain doesn't know what's going or where it is. actually, I think it knows that it's been in front of this computer forever. I've been in the middle of deadlines, reading/editing patterns, and still trying to decide on the sleeves for my project. so far I have three different ones started. sigh.

it's easy to get bogged down by the work and constant emails from the editor who doesn't knit (I swear we want to kill each other sometimes), add to that the fact the boyfriend is going through project hell at work and the name of this blog becomes even more apt. but then you get a totally unexpected card in the mail. not only is it gorgeous, it's also from a customer! it made my day needless to say. to think that someone took the time to just say thanks- definitely makes the next two days easier to deal with.

Posted by bitter purl at 08:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (31)

there's been knitting around these parts, but not the let-me-show-you-every-step-on-the-way kind. this image is all you get... for now at least. I promise to show more once I figure out the rest of it, but I'm trying to clear my mind and collect my thoughts on other topics (without being a full on rant). I forget how perfect stockinette is for that.

till then, I'll pretend certain people didn't tag me with memes (we've been meme free for almost a year now, thanks) and instead point you over to bloggers that actually have some knitting.

miss twiss knit herself up aPringle sweater and dubbed it 'knit in chunks'. she's shared her pattern in umm chunks. go figure.

olga's been a knitting machine. I love her camel jacket and her working interpretation of a blumarine jacket.

jenna's cabled yoke pullover makes me want to order that issue of phildar.

kirsty's dyeing always makes me drool, but I MUST have this new 'dark matter' colorway.

maybe I should make this a regular feature, "stuff I wish I was doing" or maybe "everyone's blog is more interesting than mine". I'll work out the specifics but at least I get to trick you into thinking I'm blogging :)

Posted by bitter purl at 03:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (20)

Hi Guys!

I firstly and foremostly would like to thank my gracious hostess, Yahaira, for inviting me to guest blog today!

I’m making this post to dispel any myths that have been building up since my blog went “password protect.”

My web designer is doing a MAJOR overhaul of the site. She’s combining the shop site and the blog site into one and putting them on a new server/web host. And, apparently, it’s necessary for her to do some of that work while the site is “live,” and without outside input like comments or even counts on the hit counter…Not being a web-tech-savvy person myself, that’s my layperson’s idea of what’s going on.

I’ve been working away, getting ready for TNNA. We’ve (I say ‘we’ b/c my mom retired and is working with me now, and is actually even driving out to San Diego with me) got a whole bunch of new stuff to release as soon as we get back! I’ve got several new patterns…check the ads in the upcoming Spring Interweave Knits for one of the latest. (Also look for a pattern from me in the MAIN part of the mag as well!)

We’re going to start offering kits, so that you can buy the yarn and the pattern in one convenient stop…just like 7-11! (We had a waitress in Baltimore once that tried to entice us to try the nachos because the new cheese was “just like 7-11 cheese!”) So now when anything is “just like” anything else…it’s “just like 7-11 cheese!”

We’ve also got all the patterns reformatted and cool-looking, with artwork that will match the new site…

SO…all this reconfiguring and updating is taking us some time, and apparently means that we are working behind closed doors…but we’ll be back!!

Thanks for continuing to check back at the site, and for your emails and notes…it’s nice to know that you guys are thinking about us!!

-Stefanie.

Posted by bitter purl at 04:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)