Sunday, October 22, 2006

I Like Knitting...

OK. We're done with the ranting. Its nice every now and again to do a little PSA in the blog, but there's really only so much of that for which I have the oomph. Frankly, I think I'm just a grumpy Sheep right now 'cuz I didn't get to go to Rhinebeck. I decided to stay home and tend to my finances (or lack thereof), babysit my cranky truck (there's another story there which I will share another time) and get a portion of my skin removed at the doctor's office.

With regard to the latter, we've finally stopped the site from leaking Sheepie corpuscles all over my tummy and the spots of slicing 'n dicing seem to be healing, which is delightful. However, I have developed a lovely rash around the general area and this is not delightful. This is, in all likelihood, a reaction to the adhesive on the bandages I needed in order to keep the red blood cells on the inside of the skin. But that charming side of my brain that I have dubbed "Hysterical Mind" and who has made a few guest appearances on the blog has reviewed the situation and decided that we have contracted a particularly virulent form of flesh-eating bacteria. To my way of thinking, the melanoma was a far more attractive option both visually and medically...

We seem to be straying somewhere near Rantsville again, I fear. Lets reign it in a bit and chat about some knitting. I like knitting.

Knitting is all about control, as far as I can tell. For example, say you're knitting something that has been on the needles for what seems like an age and a half. Just for the sake of discussion, lets imagine that it is a Chevron Stripes Towel. And you've really been enjoying it, but fear that the love is soon to take a swirling trip down the drain of the UFO sink if you don't do something quickly. All you need to do is wave your needles, say the magic words, "castofficus" and presto!




Its a hand towel! And a finished one at that!
Or perhaps you are knitting a Feather And Fan scarf as a holiday gift, but fear that you will run out of yarn and are unable to obtain more. You can just pop it onto a stitch holder for later consideration, wind up some purty yarn cakes made of the plentiful Koigu you purchased a while back and voila!
You have the start of a new scarf in merino. What you don't have is a picture since you deleted it from the camera thinking that you'd already saved it to the computer. You can just tell everyone to use their imaginations...
Or, if all else fails, you can say, "to heck with the holiday knitting," and just knit a sock since that's really all you feel like doing besides scratching that stupid rash.

And so thats what I did.

This yarn is a beautiful handpainted Superwash Kona Merino courtesy of Susie. She sent it to me following a somewhat disastrous episode involving the death of a sock a few months ago. The sight of the carnage moved her to offer a replacement yarn. It seems that knitting with a better class of fiber does, in fact, make for a better sock! This is a very fine fiber and amazingly soft to the touch. I've opted to go with a size one needle this time and see if I can't come up with a hoof covering that is a bit more fitted. Despite the finer gauge, I'm zipping right along. I started these after my dissection at the doctor's office on Thursday. Even with a few other little projects, I'm still making decent progress. This yarn just calls to you!!!!

It seems I was able to find some meaning in my weekend despite not being able to go to Rhinebeck. I will be eagerly scanning the blogosphere for footage of the event. So, if you were there, I heartily implore you to report out in full. I will drink in the descriptions and images and pretend I was there. Imagination is another form of control.

And perhaps I'll see if I can't re-create that stupid scarf photo...

SA

6 comments:

sheep#100 said...

I love the hand towel! and the sock bag ;o)

Anonymous said...

The hand towel is beautiful. Sounds like you had a fairly productive weekend - much more so than me.

Anonymous said...

Your towel looks great! And the sock is cruising along!

Tell Hysterical Mind that when I had to wear a heart monitor last year, the technician asked if I had sensitivities to tape. I do, so she used a special tape. But she told me about a patient that developed a terrible rash from the regular tape. Maybe that will make Hysterical Mind feel better. :)

Lazuli said...

The towel looks great! I've been doing a fair bit of Rhinebeck-less sock-compensation knitting this weekend, too (with nice yarn, which, yes, is making it go faster! Especially now that I'm on to sock #2)!

Anonymous said...

Your towel is beautiful!! The sock is coming along nicely.
Sorry about the rash.
Karen
http://nothingbutknit.blog-city.com/

Anonymous said...

The hand towel is gorgeous Sheep and your socks look well on the way....DON'T scratch, it only makes things a LOT worse!!! Hold firmly to two needles at crisis points, making scratching (with fingernails at least) impossible.

Huggs, G