Get this funky yarn

I am going Disco, yeah Baby. I am not a glitter girl, not at all. But when there's sock yarn with glitter in it - come on, sock yarn! - even I can't resist.


It is called "Socka Color Disco" and right they are. Oh, and the BeeGees called, they want to know how deep is your love for hand knit socks with glitter??

Darn, I am a boring blogger!

But I can report that I found my pink measuring tape again that had been eluding me for a couple of months. I just love my pink measuring tape!

Be assured, it's not that I haven't been knitting, it is that I cannot show it to you. I might have to rename my blog to "NOT Knit stricken" so I won't lure anyone into the so-called-blog trap that lingers here to ensconce the curious and then make them leave bored half to death. People will go: "I was so exhausted by the nothingness I barely was able to hold my knitting needles after."

I donated the only memorable event in my life last Sunday to the Montreal Knits blog, because I was crazy enough to sign up there as a contributor, too.

Since I am not prepared to divulge details of my personal life (not that interesting either, I tell you), I might have to wait until the nothingness has consumed about everything - you know, just like in the "Neverending Story" - to be reborn into the interesting, entertaining blog I had in my mind when I started. One is entitled to hope, no?

Taking a break and then taking back the knit

I need it, too. Thing is, I can't afford it if I want to finish on time.

Since Tuesday afternoon 4 o'clock I have been knitting non-stop. At least that's how it feels to me. And considering what I have knit in that time it might to you, too. I can't even show it - that is I suspect I am not supposed to show it. So here are some tiny snippets on what I have been working on. This time might be a good one to remind you: I neither picked yarn nor project!

A hat








A scarf in a lurexy yarn (24x58" - impressive, no?)







A, gasp, poncho (likely the only one I'll ever knit) in a ladder yarn, which I knit on straight wooden needles (slippery slope, if you know what I mean, and I don't even like straights), and I am still working on it

It's contract knitting, someone gave me an order to knit these things because he needs in in a very short time and I was crazy enough to say "yes".

Since knitting is the most important thing at the moment, and the meeting on Wednesday evening was all about knitting I did go. Look who I got to meet:

Jae (cool name and seemingly she's a cool girl, too) and her zine "Take back the knit" in person. Whoa! She's visiting from Toronto and joined our little meeting that night.





To everyone who asked where to find the japanese store: please, excuse my tardy reply and look here.

BANZAI!

Of course I had to check it out! Say "Japanese Dollarstore" and I have to go. Dollarstores are fun, Dollarstores where everything has japanese writing and some unexplainabilities even more so. That's why I dragged Véronik and Oona there again, they didn't seem to mind!

I got two boxes, thingies to close plastic bags and a wooden cooking spoon. I took care to check that everything was actually made in Japan - 'cause don't you know it, a lot of that stuff is made in China - and all of my purchases were.


The boxes are see-through, long and flat and just the right thing to hold my dpn's. Who needs Tupperware when there's a japanese store like this around, I ask you. Plastic containers in all sizes and for everything you can think of and not. If you need some, go there.

I am also in love with the dishes they sell there. I might have to break some of mine to get to buy new dishes, something I am not capable of, really, which is too bad.

Measurements

Quick answer for Sam who wants to know how large the FBS is: 63" across on the top, and from top to tip 34 1/4".

I used 224 g of alpaca I bought in 2003 at the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival. I don't know anything about the yardage. But I do know I love the colour!

Blocking and other stuff

There has been a question in my comments by Anja, she wants to know if I do have the real thing (IKEA catalogue) or looked it up online. Believe me, it's the real thing. It got delivered with our publisac last week. It's in french, but honestly, I would "read" it in chinese.

Here's proof!
Here's what I did last night. I blocked the alpaca FBS, finally. I got some foam mats and went ahead. Those mats are great (literally, they are each 2x2', so I got 16 sqfeet to block on!) and make blocking really easy. That is, if you are not me and able to block a triangle shawl in a real triangle and not some oddly shaped thing like I did. Let's not dwell on this, let's just say: I still don't like blocking.


By now it is dry and unpinned. Have to go now to find some closet space to put it away. Really, knitted things take up so much more space, how do you do it?

Have the new catalogue yet?

Sometimes it's the little things in life that make you smile:




Page 25 of the brand new IKEA catalogue. Also, the sofa I would like to get is now available in a dark brown cover. What's left to complain about?

Life's boring

My personal quote of the day.

Nothing's happening, my knitting sucks, I am fresh out of ideas - which is bad, to say the least. I have a rash on my arms, don't know where it comes from, and do I really want to know? Little advice: don't join a book club ever. Nothing but trouble, books you have declined arrive anyhow, payment reminders for books you haven't received, too, etc. etc.

If I wasn't such a lazy bum I would have cleaned up my studio a bit and taken pictures. It has suffered big deal in the creative progress (ha, who am I kidding) going on - stacks of books, magazines, paper everywhere and somehow my work-in-progress-basket spilled over and that doesn't help either. Otherwise I would declare it as "finished".

That's it. I think I am going to bed. Please forgive my rambling, it can only get better.