Entrelac and other favorite things

My sanity-saving entrelac bag is progressing nicely, especially after a very productive Saturday afternoon at the local Starbuck's with knitting pal "T". OK, so the colors could be cheerier, but this is a stash-buster project! Since I figured out how to knit backwards, entrelac is so much simpler - no more flipping back and forth...And an extra special thank you to "T" for the cool button:

This will now adorn my WIPs, or maybe the bag or basket holding them, just to make sure there's no confusion! :)

Or maybe I'll attach it to the needle holder with my newly acquired double point needles from Bryspun. I absolutely love the ones made in New Zealand, especially the 5 inch ones in small sizes for socks (yes, I'm old school that way - no magic loop for me), and this week I went to absurd lengths to build up my stock. I scored a set of US 2.5 ones from the UK - thanks eBay! - and a handful of various sizes from a store in Massachusetts. Here's irony for you: the vendor from the UK charged me half as much for shipping air mail, even with the exchange rate considered, as the vendor in MA did for UPS ground. Gotta love that shipping upcharge - a nice tidy profit center there!

Despite what the distributor's website says, the set I have that were made domestically aren't as wonderful as the NZ ones. The material and the shape of the points are different, and IMHO, not in a good way. Hence the quest for the imported ones. From what I can tell from some internet research, the "original" ones, from NZ, are sold under the brand name "Quills" and maybe "Liteflex" outside of the US.

Today was all about cooking: pot roast with egg noodles and apple pie. Comfort food, and the house smells wonderful as I write. Like the entrelac bag, I didn't use a particular recipe for either. So I probably used too much freshly grated nutmeg in the pie (but it just smells soooo good when it's grated) and maybe too little salt in the pot roast (can always add more when it's done)...

Yarn therapy

I've missed my usual group yarn therapy (i.e. Knit Night at my LYS) for the second time now because I'm still tangled up in the mess of one of my parent's move. No matter how many TV shows you watch or magazine articles you read about coping with aging parents, they do NOT prepare you for the reality of it. I can imagine that it's hard enough when the parent-child relationship is reasonably stable, but, let me tell you, it's a whole new level of conflict when it isn't.

So, my concentration re: knitting projects has been pretty minimal of late. Creatively it's a real low point right now. I've finished a few small sample items for my LYS and made up the funky "Nomad" hat/scarf combo from IK FA07 out of stash yarn; in other words, nothing too mentally taxing. Last night I did risk casting on for a felted entrelac satchel bag, loosely based on one from a 2001 Knitter's magazine. Using the Emily Ocher cast-on (idea from the Nomad), I started working outward from the center of the bottom, increasing as I went around. The bottom is plain stockinette; I'll start the entrelac part on the sides. Pix will follow soon.

Not a funny night

The bed socks for my mother are done, as is the mini-Clapotis I made for myself. For once I have nothing on the needles, and also for once that's probably a good thing because I'm wrapped in some intense family drama involving an aging parent, a step-parent with a dubious agenda for aforementioned aging parent, a white elephant of a house that won't sell, incompetent movers, and some disturbing hoarding behavior on the part of both the aforementioned aging parent and the step-parent. You know something is wrong when you have to smuggle bags of empty glass jars, empty plastic milk jugs, broken but allegedly still repairable gadgets, etc. home to your own trash can because if you leave them there, they will get put back in the piles of stuff to be moved to the new house. I don't think I'll be looking at the knitting needles for the next few days until I have a better handle on this situation.

One step forward, two steps back

Yep, I ripped the socks back to the toe last night, and no, not because of the color oddness. 1) They were a little too big, and 2) these are my first toe-up socks that I want to do with a heel flap instead of a short row heel, and I started the gusset increases too late. They were going to be huge! Now, after the do-over part, they're looking much better. I've got the first one done to the leg shaft and am starting the gussets (again) on the second.

Yesterday down at my LYS where I help out some, I had a terrific teaching experience. My student already knew the knit stitch and had made a few garter stitch scarves, but purling had eluded her, and she struggled with gauge. When she signed up for the class, she also mentioned that she has a chronic autoimmune disorder that somewhat affects her dexterity on one side and her concentration, which things like knitting help maintain. Talk about a great motivation, aside from the sheer pleasure of working with nice yarn! We started on a basket weave scarf, and she picked everything up very quickly: long tail cast-on, the previously elusive purl stitch, reading her work to know where she was in the pattern repeat... All well and good, and what made it really fun for me, other than that she got it so fast, was her delight in the results. The purl stitch opened up a whole new world of possibilities! I'm quite sure she could have fought her way to learning to purl on her own, but it is gratifying to think that I helped make that process less painfully trial and error.

Looking out my window toward the wooded area that is our back yard this morning, I watched an enormous chipmunk thudding his way along a small downed tree trunk headed for the the spot below the bird feeder. Obesity is not just a human problem - all those spilled sunflower seeds have done their work for that (not so) little rodent to look as fat and happy as he does in the middle of winter (such as it is here in Alabama).

Hand painted yarn = surprises

Sometimes the basics come back to bite you. In this case, it's the tendency of multicolored yarns to "pool" colors when they are knitted. I know this happens, have had it happen before, and know that you are supposed to work alternating rows/rounds from two different skeins to prevent this, but, sheesh, what a pain in the ass on what is supposed to be a quick pair of toe-up socks! So, let the colors pool - it's a pair of bed socks for my mother anyway!

When I pulled the yarn out of the stash last night and got started, I honestly didn't remember buying the yarn, but I must have had her in mind as the eventual intended recipient, because the colors are not me. However, this is one of the few cases where I have been surprised by something in the stash, which says something considering the quantity of yarn in there. I embarrassed myself a little when I started listing the particulars in my Ravelry notebook - somehow it doesn't look so scary in person (all nice and tidy in bins) than it does when listed out there for all to see.