April 11, 2007
Sour Grapes
No posting Friday, Dear Readers. We will be otherwise occupied with celebrating TMK’s forty-mumbleth birthday with a tour of the Boeing Paine Field plant and Future of Flight exhibit, thoroughly hedonistic and self-indulgent massages, dinner at an Italian restaurant, birthday kek and a present or two. Should be a total lark!
But right now, two days away from the festivities, TMK and I are feeling a little twitchy and maybe slightly crotchety since we are aware that a confluence of scrumpdillicious knitterly personages—like Nathania, Stephanie, Cat Bordhi and all the Blue Moon Fiber Arts gals—is taking place right here, right now, in Washington, at one of the most beautiful establishments in the state. We're convinced we can feel the knitterly energy all the way over here on the other side of the Sound! And, granted that this may very well be sour grapes, but, realistically, over $1,000 per each for four days of fiberly fun is too rich for our skinny wallets. Give me a pair of cheap needles, a $7 ball of Cascade 220, an overstuffed chair, and I’m good. Oh, and maybe some chocolate. And TMK. And some knitting friends. And a luxury bed and breakfast on an island. And three days of knitting classes. And a whale-watching tour. And a reception. And a banquet. And Nathania. And Stephanie. And Cat Bordhi. And the Blue Moon Fiber Arts gals. Then I'd be good.
So, I’ve been distracting myself by resuming work on a somewhat neglected Dulaan sweater.
The sweater was based on this pattern (which, thanks be, I printed out right before Yarn Forward started charging for it) but I surprised my usually unadventurous self by changing it considerably. I used a mish-mash of Peruvian Highland Wool yarns from Elann.com, and then proceeded to use ribbing instead of garter stitch on the edges, made the sleeves solid instead of striped, blew off the sleeve caps altogether, and changed the location of the buttonholes. Apparently my heretofore rigid and pattern-obedient self has been taken over by the soul of someone who can, indeed, bend the knitting rules a little and survive to tell the tale. Oh, my God. I'm a pod person.
I also had to completely redesign the sleeves since, after attaching the first one, I was all, like, dude, what gives?
You can’t see it too well in the picture, but the increasing as written caused the sleeves to go from anorexic at the wrist to morbidly obese at the armhole with funky concave shaping along the bottom. The angularity and concavity made think of chicken wings fresh out of a KFC bucket. What’s worse, the sleeves freakishly refused to fold in half symmetrically. I had to do semi-abusive things to them to get them to behave. All of which led to the redesign—which led to its own set of problems. On the second sleeve, I ran out of yarn...with 8 stitches to cast off. Yowch. Fortunately, I had a second green that was close enough (you can see the two greens in the picture, a dark seafoam and a medium chartreuse) so I pressed it into service, and am counting on the mattress-stitch to snug that second parasitic green up and out of site. I surrender. I can do no more.
I have also been distracting myself by trying to propagate hebes from TMK’s yard. You can see how well that's going:
E-see you on Monday!
Happy Birthday TMK!!! Eat some kek for me, would you? LOL
Pass some of those sour grapes over here...... I'll make us a nice batch-o-hooch! I must admit that I liked it when knitting went from dorky to groovy, but chic I'm not so sure about.
Posted by: marylee on April 11, 2007 03:45 PMPropagate Hebes? I think I did that once.
Posted by: Norma on April 11, 2007 03:47 PMNeed details, Norma, details! How did it go? What did you do? We have a good idea what went wrong with my "laboratory experiment" and are going to try again but any advice would be appreciated.
P.S. I continue to bow down to you over the "snooflements" thing.
Posted by: Ryan on April 11, 2007 03:53 PMHappy Birthday TMK! Pass the kek and sour grapes, please. We'll all drown our sorrows in Marylee's batch-o-hooch. I don't think the Mongolian children will mind the two greens or notice them. As long as it is warm.
Posted by: Joan in Reno on April 11, 2007 04:07 PMHappy Birthday TMK!! Enjoy the day -- I agree that $1,000 per person is steep but what a great bday present it would have been!
Have you ever had a problem getting things form Yarn Forward - I ordered from them and the kit I ordered came right through but the yarn for 2 different projects was on back order and I have emailed them numerous times with no response and this goes back to January.
Posted by: rho1640 on April 11, 2007 04:29 PMRho, I've never ordered from Yarn Forward, just used the one pattern. Sorry I can't be of more help!
Posted by: Ryan on April 11, 2007 04:33 PMHabby pird dye, TMK (I was at the gym today, stymied by some more shall we say enthusiastic spellings on the closed captioning..... this is changing my life as an editor!).
I know, a confluence of knitters and I didn't even KNOW about the event. I'm slipping, that's all. I think I have set up a self-protective shield around myself in an attempt to tame the green-eyed monster that roars when I read about some fiber workshop that I can't attend.
Janine, if it makes you feel any better, this particular event was primarily designed for those folks who signed up for Blue Moon's Socks that Rock program which is why its existence wasn't as well known as some. After what happened with Blue Moon's stoopid bank, I think they all DESERVE four days at a resort!
Posted by: Ryan on April 11, 2007 05:00 PMRyan, the sweater is really cute; I like your pattern variations. TMK, I hope you have a very happy forty-mumble birthday. :)
P.S. Thank you, Norma! I haven't laughed that hard in a long while...
Posted by: Denise in Kent, WA on April 11, 2007 07:49 PMHappy Birthday TMK. I'm so glad I checked the post before I head out tomorrow morning. I would have missed wishing you a very happy bday!
Ryan....there is hope for me in modifying patterns at will. Thanks for the inspiration!!!
Posted by: Naomi on April 11, 2007 10:32 PMTMK, Happy Birthday! Sounds like a fabulous time.
The sweater is really very pretty and congrats on the pattern tweaking.
Yeah, that sock camp....
Off to google and see what the heck a hebe is.
Posted by: Renee on April 12, 2007 06:02 AMHappy Birthday, TMK! I wish you many more, better and better and better and ...
Posted by: Childe on April 12, 2007 07:00 AMHappy Birthdday, TMK! Have a fabulous weekend!
Posted by: Bullwinkle on April 12, 2007 07:07 AMHappy Birthday TMK! May you be richly blessed this and every day! Have a super great weekend!
Hugs from one of your "crush" fan club,
Nancy :)
Happy Birthday to TMK! I'm going to break the Code of Silence of Crones to give you a little secret - fellow readers, esp. those under 40, avert thine eyes: once you're past 40 life begins to improve; pass 50, you notice it a bit more....pass 60 and you're aware of DAILY improvements! I'm 64 and can tell you that what I thought as a child has come true: Grownups CAN do whatever they want!! (shshshs, don't let that out to youngsters). I've read tidbits about that sock camp and it sounds like heaven, but I'm nowhere near so don't lament so bitterly. Not to mention we're completely snowed in (!) with record-breaking weather. And as such I AM very happy with my knitting, tea, kitties, old movies...the one drawback? I seem to have gotten shingles. Oy vey. In fact, #$)%*#)$ Sorry for the bad language.
Posted by: Dale-Harriet in WI on April 12, 2007 08:00 AMAnother wish for the happiest of birthdays, TMK. Ryan, I'm with you on the pricey fiber fun. I'm a very deep emerald with envy. And, hey, gotta thank you again for this Dulaan thing. Yeah, the whole feelin' good for giving back is great, but, one of my favorite things about it is that I have the courage to do a little of that design modification stuff that I was too scared to try on a big ol' sweater for me. And I've also been practicing my two-handed color work. Improving skillz and getting that warm, fuzzy feeling -- who could ask for anything more (except maybe a grand or two for fiber fantasy vacations?!) Have a great weekend, chicas.
Oh, I forgot. I've finished my five and a few beyond (nowhere near 65, though -- there sure are some amazing knitters out there.)
Posted by: Janice in Camas on April 12, 2007 10:35 AMI've been lamenting all week about Sock Camp. Portland's too close for comfort, it would be easier if I lived somewhere farther away, like the moon or something. Oh how I wish money really did grow on trees. Ok enough of the pity party for me!
Happy Birthday TMK. Sounds like wonderful birthday plans. Enjoy it all and eat lots o' kek for me!
Posted by: Meghan on April 12, 2007 11:27 AMHappy Birthday, TMK!
Posted by: Rachel H on April 12, 2007 11:28 AMHey, everyone! Thanks for all the birthday wishes! I'm sure there will be pictures of something related to the day, next week. It's my responsibility as blog-fodder. ;-) TMK
Posted by: The Mysterious K on April 12, 2007 12:32 PMHappy birthday, TMK!
Some day when I am wildly wealthy and retired, I will spend my days attending one insanely expensive fiber event after t'other. Until then... yeah, pretty much anything that involves an entry fee, taking time off work, or travel of any sort is right out.
Posted by: Erika on April 12, 2007 12:40 PMHappy birthday, TMK!
Posted by: Cookie on April 12, 2007 12:52 PMHappy Birthday, TMK! (Still waiting to find out what the next food-titled spinning extravaganza is, by the way....)
Posted by: Lee Ann on April 12, 2007 01:34 PMHappy Birthday TMK. Hope you have a great day.
Posted by: Judith in NYC on April 13, 2007 07:40 AMHappy Birthday TMK. Wow! A Friday the 13th B-day! In the words of Napoleon Dy-no-mite- LUCKY!!
Posted by: Tish on April 13, 2007 08:19 AMThe Dulaan sweater is very cutie pie!!
Happiest of Happy Birthdays to TMK.
Posted by: Kris on April 13, 2007 04:28 PMHappy Birthday, TMK.
Dunno if you've ever stayed at Rosario, but I went to a conference there once. (Artificial Intelligence, not knitting, which would of course have been more fun) and the room was a pit, the plumbing ancient and imperfect, and the food was overpriced and not all that good.
Why on earth do you want to propagate hebes? My neighbor is a gardening expert and has a bazillion hebes, I could ask her. How about some nice sarcococca instead? I've got a ton of babies.
Posted by: Dorothy on April 14, 2007 05:52 PMHappy Boopdate, TMK! I hope she didn't make you bake your own kek.
Posted by: Rabbitch on April 14, 2007 06:04 PMDorothy: I'll take you up on some sarcococca if you're serious!
On the "why hebe" question...I want to make an informal hedge using boxwood hebe. Ryan wanted to try to propagate them for me, you know, "for free." That's how the hebe propagation started. Now it's the principle of the thing. ;-)
Posted by: The Mysterious K on April 15, 2007 06:03 PMRyan those organizing the sock weekend totally dropped the ball when they failed to recognize the entertainment value of having you and TMK as celebrity moderators for the weekend!
(BTW rooting hormone for woody stemmed plants helps immensely, as does a light soiless mix in the tray and planting about 5 times as many little snippets as you ultimately want plants.
Posted by: Marie on April 16, 2007 12:20 PMRyan the sock thing would really have rocked if they had featured you and TMK as paid guest celebrity moderators!
BTW - rooting hormone for woody stemmed plants, light, soiless mix and planting about 5 little snippets for every one mature plant you hope to ultimately have out in the garden, in my experience, helps a lot!
Posted by: Marie on April 16, 2007 12:35 PMI was so hoping you and TMK would be there! I really did look specifically for you! It was a lot of fun and I think you should talk to Tina about being a counselor at the next camp. We can do a session just for Dulaan knitting!
Posted by: Laurie on April 17, 2007 01:41 PMWe'd have loved to have you both with us. So sorry we didn't have time to make any other visits in the area. Next time, dear.
Posted by: Nathania on April 19, 2007 09:01 AM