Way back in the beginning of May, I finished weaving in the last ends of Rusted Root.  The Mr. and I were both sitting on the couch watching a movie, me with my knitting and him with his trusty laptop.  The movie was about a lonely neurotic woman whose neuroses about being lonely lead to poor decisions that left her even lonelier.  As a very neurotic woman, I get a little frustrated and bored with these types of movies.  And the Mr.’s all, NO MORE NEUROTIC WOMEN - he has me and the uber wound up shitty kitty all over his ass all the time (seriously, that man is incredibly patient considering what the two of us put him through, like that one time I totally lost it when he said America’s Next Top Model is crap).  The Bigfoot we were both drinking helped with the movie, but not enough.  I knew I was cutting it close on the yarn, but I didn’t realize how close until I snipped the last stray tail.  Mid-depressing scene about the SO VERY LONELY woman, I jumped up from the couch, ran into the office, grabbed the camera and started taking pictures, to the Mr.’s dismay. 

While he paused the movie, I tried to explain that my rude, slightly-drunk jumping around was due to the fact that, for the first time ever, I was close to running out of yarn.  Like Knitting as Fast as She Can close. That moment had to be documented.  It was special.  Normally I have something like two skeins left over and this time I didn’t even have enough to kitchner another underarm.  It’s a good thing I don’t have three arms.

I don’t have any real photos of Rusted Root - the sweater is currently sitting in my stack of knits to be blocked.  So is this little gem:

Gossamer Stars from Summer 2008 IK knit with Zephyr wool/silk lace weight.  Yummy and really in need of a good blocking.

Who am I?

The rules:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

With half of the movies identified and the other half still needing guesses, let’s go to Round 2:

The rules:

1. Pick 10 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them on your blog for everyone to guess.
4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
5. Looking them up is cheating, please don’t.
6. Round 2 quotes in bold.

1. Of course it don’t feel right! What has felt right for you doesn’t work! You need to try some wrong, dawg. Lisa of Peaceful Easy Knitting got this one - 40-Year Old Virgin

2. It’s just, when you buy furniture, you tell yourself, that’s it. That’s the last sofa I’m gonna need. Whatever else happens, I’ve got that sofa problem handled.

I am Jack’s complete lack of surprise. Christie guess this one right - Fight Club. Mmmmm, I lurve some shirtless men. Michaele also gets a nod for getting this one right.

3. Hee hee hee! “Get her!” That was your whole plan, huh, “get her.” Very scientific.

Why worry? Each one of us is carrying an unlicensed nuclear accelerator on his back. Christie also guessed this one correctly - Ghostbuters. I love Ghostbusters.

4. Marty, find out where the police are going to be taking him. Send over a bottle of bubbly with a bucket of ice and a card. Have it say, “Tough break, get drunk on me. Use the bucket to ice down your marbles, Yours, Z.”

It’s called reading! Top to bottom, left to right… a group of words together is called a sentence. Take Tylenol for any headaches… Midol for any cramps. Beth got this one right - Tommy Boy.

5. Well we’d have to be talkin’ about one charmin’ motherfuckin’ pig. I mean he’d have to be ten times more charmin’ than that Arnold on Green Acres, you know what I’m sayin’? snapdragons got this one right - Pulp Fiction

6. Never rub another man’s rhubarb. Danielle of Knit’n’NASCAR got this one right - Batman (Whenever I wear my Batman t-shirt, I lurve to say “I’m Batman. I’m Batman.” just like Michael Keaton - ask the Mr.)

7. You idiots! These are not them! You’ve captured their stunt doubles! Gina of gamecockdoc knew this one - Spaceballs.

8. Oh how fabulous. Getting Marky Mark to take time from his busy pants dropping schedule to plant trees. Monica knew this one - Clueless

9. Come out to the coast, we’ll get together, have a few laughs…

Do you really think you have a chance against us, Mr. Cowboy? Debbie knows her Die Hard.

10. OK, OK. Let’s say that he did make a pass at you. The guy’s been in prison for five years. He’s desperate. He’d sleep with a meat grinder.

Every red-blooded American knows that the only condiment that you are ever supposed to put on a hamburger is KETCHUP! Or MAYBE some of that SPECIAL SAUCE you like so much here in Canada; which I think has a little bit of mayonnaise in it too! But I swear to God when they start slapping that mayonnaise on there I could kill somebody. Jaimi correctly guessed The Whole Nine Yards (yes, Debbie, it stars Bruce Wilis, but Matthew Perry steals the whole show!)

And now for some knitting content!!!! HOLY MOTHER OF SHITTYKITTY KNEES!!!!! KNITTING!!!!

Brea Bag by Norah Gaughan
Ravelry details here

I know everyone has already done this, but it sounds like some fun…

The rules:

1. Pick 10 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them on your blog for everyone to guess.
4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
5. Looking them up is cheating, please don’t.

1. Of course it don’t feel right! What has felt right for you doesn’t work! You need to try some wrong, dawg. Lisa of Peaceful Easy Knitting got this one - 40-Year Old Virgin

2. It’s just, when you buy furniture, you tell yourself, that’s it. That’s the last sofa I’m gonna need. Whatever else happens, I’ve got that sofa problem handled.

3. Hee hee hee! “Get her!” That was your whole plan, huh, “get her.” Very scientific.

4. Marty, find out where the police are going to be taking him. Send over a bottle of bubbly with a bucket of ice and a card. Have it say, “Tough break, get drunk on me. Use the bucket to ice down your marbles, Yours, Z.”

5. Well we’d have to be talkin’ about one charmin’ motherfuckin’ pig. I mean he’d have to be ten times more charmin’ than that Arnold on Green Acres, you know what I’m sayin’? snapdragons got this one right - Pulp Fiction

6. Never rub another man’s rhubarb. Danielle of Knit’n'NASCAR got this one right - Batman (Whenever I wear my Batman t-shirt, I lurve to say “I’m Batman. I’m Batman.” just like Michael Keaton - ask the Mr.)

7. You idiots! These are not them! You’ve captured their stunt doubles! Gina of gamecockdoc knew this one - Spaceballs.

8. Oh how fabulous. Getting Marky Mark to take time from his busy pants dropping schedule to plant trees. Monica knew this one - Clueless

9. Come out to the coast, we’ll get together, have a few laughs…

10. OK, OK. Let’s say that he did make a pass at you. The guy’s been in prison for five years. He’s desperate. He’d sleep with a meat grinder.

These are all movies that I’ve seen over and over again, more times than I could possibly count on both hands - movies that I watch every time I stumble across them on cable.

in-progress shitty kitty camera pounce

A little while back, I purchased a bunch of RYC Soft Tweed to make the uber famous Drops A-Line Jacket and started knitting as soon as I finished my EPS. But, I committed the cardinal knitting sin. I did not wash my swatch. With the front and back finished, I decided to block those pieces while continuing to knit the sleeves. Um, the yarn grew. A lot. Pre-wet-block, the bottom of the jacket hit at the top of my hips. After the wet-block, the bottom of the jacket hit below my ass. Well below my ass. Nice.

After a few weeks of letting it sit, I decided to rip it all out, wind all the yarn I hadn’t used into hanks and wash the whole batch. That way, I could start again with all my yarn in the same condition. I swatched. This time I was going to do it right.

Although, I have to admit that the knitting isn’t quite as sexy as Stanley the Manly fish - especially when he puffs out those cheeks of his.

*Neither Stanley nor his home were disrupted in the process of this post. I don’t dare keep him in an open fishbowl with shitty kitty around.

Being unable to sleep, I got out of bed at 4 this morning and started working on the never-ending homework. Now, it’s 7:00 and my scheduled get up time is 8:00. Do I climb in bed for about an hour or stay up? I think I’m going to climb in bed, cuddle up with shitty kitty and see what happens. What would you do?

what do you mean cuddle?
there’s no room for you in my ear-eating kitty bed

But - you’ll have to go here for a photo of Cheryl and me in our finished sweaters.

Before

and after.

Last night, I went to visit my sister at the salon where she works. In exchange for a Noro baby hat, she gave me a totally cute cut and color. Homely engineer? Not any more!

Baby hat made with Noro Kureyon Sock (s95) yarn left over from my Noro socks and this cute pattern.

mmmm. Noro with a hint of St. Ives.

A few months ago, the SLC SnB decided to knit the EPS sweater starting the first few days of 2008. Well, Margene aka Zeneedle decided to knit the percentage sweater and asked if anyone wanted to join her and, you know, knit well fitting sweater. A large chunk of us said YES!!! Exclamation points and all. We’re spunky like that.

After much hemming and hawing, I decided that I would knit the seamless hybrid in Reynolds Whiskey. There are six nice yarn shops in the Greater Salt Lake area and only four are in the area I typically roam – the other two are just too far away for regular trips. Only one of the four shops I routinely visit carries Whiskey. The first shop I went to in search of the yarn, well, I don’t think they’d ever heard of it before and assumed I was asking for the tasty beverage, not the tasty yarn. Given her response, I don’t think the woman I asked considers whiskey to be a tasty beverage: No, thank you, goodbye. The Mr. was with me and wondered if we were being kicked out / asked to leave? I still don’t know.

As I searched around Ravelry and the general interwebs, I wondered if the seamless hybrid was a good idea – it’s so man-ish and I don’t want a man-ish boyfriend sweater. Then I found this sweater. While it’s not a seamless hybrid, it is the look I had in mind. Long, slim and not at all overly large boyfriend sized. No man-ish there. Game ON!

With my gauge swatch and Knitting Without Tears in hand, I started a spreadsheet that has all my measurements, all the percentages I need, the measurements of my best fitting sweater (Salina. I know! I’m in total shock that my best fitting sweater is one that I made!) and my all-important gauge. Like Felted Tweed, Whiskey can be knit on larger needles and it will fluff out to create a really nice fabric – on size US 7, I’m knitting at 5 spi, while the ball band recommends knitting 6 spi on size US 5 (an aside because I can’t tell a story without at least one – I love the Tangled Yoke Cardigan, but can’t imagine knitting Felted Tweed that tightly, I think Silky Wool is better at that tight gauge since it doesn’t fluff at all). I want this sweater to fit just a little more snugly like a sexy little ski sweater, rowar, so I took the ease down by ½ inch to, um, none. I wrote the spreadsheet so that I can use it again – all I’d have to do is change the gauge and I have a pattern ready to knit. Well, not exactly, I’d need to rethink ease if using anything slightly bulky, but that’s neither here nor there.

By New Years, I was ready to cast on and cast on I did, after the celebratory kiss with the Mr., of course. I must have skipped over the actually casting on 10% less for a hem part … but I did remember to reduce the hem by 10% - in the early hours of January 1, I cast on the total number of stitches with my main color. On the first round, I k2tog at regular intervals to decrease 10%, then I switched to the contrast color and knit to one row shy of my total helm length. Using my main color, I increased (lazy mans’ kf&b) at the same intervals until I had my total number of stitches again, then I purled the turning round and was off and knitting my EPS sweater. I did knit the hem closed later that day at SnB (how awesome is our group – a New Years Day knit session! With some of the most amazing knitters around! Seriously awesome!). Since I had cast on the total number of stitches, I didn’t really have to think too much about it. Good stitchin’ for bitchin’.

At regular intervals – say after each shaping of the waist – I moved the live stitches to waste yarn so I could try on my Whiskey-licious sweater. I wanted to make sure I was on the right track. The body is finished and I’m working on the first sleeve.

I’m trying really hard to be monogamous with this sweater. It’s difficult, but I really want this sweater to work out and given how often I forget to write down whatever I did (did I use the M1 where I knit through the front or the back? how many rows did I make that first heel flap?), I think it’s best to keep working on this while I can still remember what I was thinking.

When I’m all done with this sweater, it’s time to get organized and clean up my WIPs. They’re a little out of control right now. I’ve already cleaned and organized my Ravelry queue – now only four pages instead of five, sorted by socks, scarves and shawls, sweaters, and accessories with a few projects that I have yarn and itchy fingers for at the top of the list. Perhaps I need a KP-like WIP reduction program.

hey eliza - your knitting - it needs some cute. i can help.

We finally got around to taking a photo of my Salina sweater. I finished the knitting way, way back in May and finished sewing on the buttons in September when it started to cool off a little. It always takes me forever to sew on the buttons…

Then, just the other night, I knit up a baby hat for a gal I work with.

After taking a few pictures, I realized that I needed a real model,

a real shitty model. Mrawh!