gabalog

and finally...

well i've finally done it.  With the wonderful design skills of Vanessa "gaby's bespoke bind-off" is complete and for sale.

knitting content to come

Alrighty folks!  Knitting content to come.  I'm working on self-publishing my little knitting creation.  Let's see if I can get a littles sales widget up and running before I send it out to some of the knitterrati! (How does one spell knitterrati, is it one "r"?  Is it two?)

more knitting content- that's two in a row

Alright, a little more knitting content.  I'm in Sock Wars III.  My assassin Monique lives in the Netherlands.  My target Susan lives in California and has small feet.  My point is, even though I've gotten a late start to it- I have big feet and the mail from the Netherlands can only be so fast-- so I'm still in the hunt!

i really do knit

Well here is proof that I actually do knit (but you'll have to take my word for it that I did the knitting).

I did this sample knit for the lovely Jennifer Jett at Woolgirl.com and she posted it on the shop blog--

The Adventures of Woolgirl and Abby

knitting really does involve patience...

While I sit and knit in public it is inevitable that a stranger will approach and comment or question.  I won't go through the litany of inane questions that are frequently asked knitters (the Yarn Harlot takes care of that a lot better than I ever could).  But the one that is asked of me that always gives Christopher a giggle is--"Doesn't that take an awful lot of patience?".  Chris' giggle comes from this idea that I could be a patient person in any way, I'm not now, nor will I ever be prone to being patient (I like to say that lack of patience, like the rest of my possibly perceived "shortcomings" are part of my charm). 

So I give my patented response-  knitting doesn't take patience.  It's not like painting, where you are trying to complete a very integrated whole, that the individual actions aren't complete units in and of themselves. 

In knitting, although I like every other knitter when asked to stop knitting and move on to another task or event "just let me finish this row (round, sock, ad infinitum...)" it is actually possible to stop. 

With every stitch you have completed something.  It is a finite action in itself- a knit stitch, a purl stitch, a yarn-over.  And it has all those lovely mini goals that can keep the need for patience down (just the same as the "just let me finish"- the row, the round, the pattern repeat, the sock, the back of a sweater). 

For myself this past week I have finally found the place where I've had to be patient.  After much procrastination (I am the queen of procrastination when it comes to things not "work" related)- I finally submitted my "Secret Knitting" to Interweave.  Now I have to WAIT!  I have to wait, and show a little decorum, a little patience, a little of that inner Zen I do not possess (for those of you that don't know me well- I am not in possession of Zen, I cannot quiet my mind- I won't take Yoga class for that very reason- all the meditating just gets me agitated, okay-- more agitated).

So here I sit and wait, I knit, I cook, and I wait.

vainglorious

I don't know why it pops into my head now and again (usually while watching celebrity news) but the word vainglorious (actually a word, I promise) has crept in there again.  Vaingloriousness, vaingloriously, if only vaingloriosity were a word (and to prove it isn't, the spell checker- and I know you can't see it- has put one of those accusatory red dotted lines beneath it).

slacking already

I feel as if I've already become a blogging slacker: it's been what, two weeks and I've I feel bad that I haven't posted enough.  I've set the bar high for myself (my self-imposed "bars" tend to be high- except in house cleaning) in terms of content, and I don't want to miss the mark so early (sorry about the over abundance of metaphors, or are they just mixed, or slightly conjoined, can you slightly conjoin).  So I'm blogging about nothing as Christopher has a "meow" chat with Vladimir in the background.  Let's see if I can inject some actual content- the secret knitting thing has all of it's knitting done and now only the writing is left to do.  I feel a good bit fuzzy headed from a cold (or maybe it's allergies).  So I'm going to stop typing and move to the living room- Metalocalypse first season is waiting (if you haven't watched it you must) and some dumb knitting (the second of the Zombie socks), hopefully between the two (which do seem to be rather a nice pairing) maybe my brains will rest (braiiiiiinnnnnnnnnssssssss the Zombies say) and I'll be able to make some progress and get the secret knitting thing off my plate.

the "infant phenomenon" phenomenon

I was watching "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane" last week (while knitting more of the not-so-stealth knitting project) and this idea of the child star, encouraged to stay a child for a host of nefarious reasons,  not only brought to mind our current child-star disasters, but more importantly the much more blog worthy- Ninetta Crummles (I fess up, I did have to look up her first name) better known as The Infant Phenomenon from Dickens' "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickelby.  I've always like the IP (I feel I know her well enough to call her the IP) ever since my USC days when I stage managed the entire 8-hour show.  She appealed to me, her growth stunted by a diet primarily of gin--

"Language was not powerful enough to describe the infant phenomenon. “I’ll tell you what, sir,” he said; “the talent of this child is not to be imagined. She must be seen, sir—seen—to be ever so faintly appreciated.”... the infant phenomenon, though of short stature, had a comparatively aged countenance, and had moreover been precisely the same age - not perhaps to the full extent of the memory of the oldest inhabitant, but certainly for five good years.  But she had been kept up late every night, and put upon an unlimited allowance of gin-and-water from infancy, to prevent her growing tall, and perhaps this system of training had produced in the the infant phenomenon the additional phenomenon."

And although it is a thought I'm sure I've had every time I've seen Baby Jane (once every four-five years whether I like to or not) it came to me, once again, as if it were new.  I love the way Dickens persists in calling her the infant phenomenon,over and over again. In my minds eye, she is dressed as Baby Jane is dressed, all sausage-roll curls and white lace.  Although I am no literary scholar, it would be wonderful to trace back the Infant Phenomenon Phenomenon, and her many appearance is literature, drama and film-  so I've started us off 1838 for Nickelby, Baby Jane in 1962-- any other thoughts?  anyone?

oh how I wish

I watched the The History Boys two nights ago (in my great quest to finish the "secret" knitting thing, I've tivo'd a nice pile of movies to watch on the bedroom tv, but I digress).  I do wish sometimes I had studied literature, philosophy, the classics. Ah, the ability to quote Thoreau instead of Monty Python, Nietzsche instead of Eddie Izzard.  Well, nothing to be done about it now, other than to keep reading.  And on reading, knitting certainly gets in the way of it. But, the secret knitting calls (actually shouts loudly, cursing my name) I guess I'll save that for another post.

i'm making myself crazy (what else is new?)

So I'm making myself crazy.  I've created a new knitting "thing", let's call it a pattern for right now- since it is a secret.  And, I'm making myself crazy, everywhere I turn I'm sure someone else will figure it out before I can get it finished and submitted.  I sit here, knitting, knitting samples, taking notes, knitting nothing else...  I need to finish it so I can keep knitting, the fun things that is.