I fought an inner struggle today, laziness with a touch of boredom (or is it the other way around) prevailed. The River Stole est fini (except for blocking) and it didn't come a moment too soon. I was actually thinking of going beyond the 12 repeats and making it a nice, long stole (and that would be one less random skein in my stash), but my wrist and shoulder have been hurting lately so now we all get an FO.

Yarn: Rowan Kidsilk Haze in Candy Girl (606)
Pattern: River Stole, Rowan #38
Needles: Clover Ivory straights US 10.5
Date Started: 09.02.05
Date Finished: 09.19.05

I think my hands hurt because I knit with my pinky out anytime I picked up the stole, that's how fancy it is! Which worries me since, well, I don't really think I'm that fancy. Cultured maybe, but fancy? This stole requires a total different life; one filled with "dining out", going to the theater or opera, visiting your friends at the museum, fancy clothes, and an Ethan Allen home. Mine is more grabbing something to eat, going to the gym, spending a lot of nights with my "tv friends", and an Ikea home. Troublesome since I was thinking of knitting up a Birch Shawl. A shawl would complicate my life even more, forcing me to go out to "tie and jacket required" restaurants exclusively, ordering a new fall "wardrobe", and donating a lot of money to the "museum friends circle". Do I change for my knitting or does the knitting change for me? Perhaps a "river scarf" is more fitting.


Yeah, a scarf is more my cup of tea. Once it's blocked it will be perfect scarf length and can be worn non-chalantly at my local watering hole (who says that anyway?). The question is, how do I sneak in a shawl into my life?

Posted by bitter purl at 04:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (19)

My relationship with Candy Girl are coming to a close. We had some good times and some not so bad. We laughed together and then we ignored each other. But through it all she's still my friend. She's even taught me a few things:

hot pink makes me smile
hot pink and silk make me outright giddy
I'm very much like a tootsie pop: how many repeats (within a row) does it take for me to loose count? one, two, three! It's three!
eventually lace can become tv knitting
drinking wine while knitting creates very big yarn overs, who knew!

In these pictures I was somewhere in the 10th repeat, but after going to the gym. having dinner, and knitting while watching Crash I am in the middle of the 12th. I didn't meet my goal of finishing by this weekend, but I sure came close.

Here's an artsy/moment of zen/color accurate picture to tide you over until I have an actual FO.

Posted by bitter purl at 11:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

What does this detail-filled picture tell you?! Yes, lace looks like crap as you knit it, but more importantly, that I cast on for my River Stole.

Remember all those knitting plans I had last week? Well, this is as far as I got this weekend (there is just no lace knitting at the movies, glacial ice or not). I actually had to stop on Saturday night because I was too tipsy to figure out the pattern after coming home from a party. This is what things look like towards the end of the first repeat, exciting no?


I really like these Clover Ivory needles I'm using. They are both quick and slow enough to handle the KSH, my only gripe is that I wish they had pointier tips. I'm assuming their size has something to do with this. Other than that, it has been smooth sailing (apart for the being drunk thing). I can't decide though if I like working from the chart or from the written pattern, I keep going back and forth but more and more relying on the book.

Posted by bitter purl at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)

What or who is Bubsy you ask? Back in the old days, the eighties, there used to be a game where it was up to you, Bubsy, to stop aliens (the Woolies) stealing all the world's supply of wool. “Balls” actually. Yep, that's right, they are stealing balls of wool! Who knew when I was a wee child that I would grow up still thinking I had to "save" the world's supply of wool, or any fiber really? I look at my stash and wonder how I ended up with so much. It's time to clean it up and at least get rid of the random skeins in there. No, I'm not throwing anything away, rather I'm going to knit up a bunch of stash busting projects before I start any fall knitting. Anything I can't or don't want to knit with will be put up for sale. So, if you would like to help protect the world's yarn supply, then you can check it out and email me or comment if you are interested. Right now I only have two different yarns up, but I'll also be selling some Colinette Point 5 soon enough. I'm not looking to get rich or anything, I'm no yarn store, though I play one on my blog. I accept Paypal (even credit cards with it) or checks.
update: the yarn has been rescued!

My latest rescue: two skeins of Rowan Kidsilk Haze in Candy Girl (my kind of girl!). I'll be casting on for the lovely River Stole sometime next week (remember what I said above, tiny projects first...geesh you are forgetful). I'll be using my lovely Clover Ivory needles, which are very much like Bryspuns I think. I love "candy girl", but now I wish I had chosen one of the new versions of KSH. I finally got to see them today at my LYS (fresh out of the box) and I have to say that kidsilk night is extremely lovely. It sparkles. SPARKLES!! So much yarn to rescue!

Posted by bitter purl at 04:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)