Grab your knitting needles and come relax with me.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Lost: Knitting Mojo
If you find it can you talk to it kindly and tell it to please go home?
I am feeling pretty blase about my current projects. Blah. I can't find my second needle for my ribbon scarf, and the other projects just feel boooooring. The knitting bunnies are still being difficult--pouty I think.
Right now I am knitting a dishcloth (my goal is 5 or 7--I am on the 4th), but I decided to shakes things up a little and knit it continental. I need the practise.
WHIBSIB (my yearly knitting retreat is this weekend) and I am hoping it's the recharge I need.
Happy Earth Day--if you feel so inclined to celebrate, might I suggest knitting up on of my Swiffer Cloths? I also just learned that you can knit two swiffer cloths and a grandmother's favourite dishcloth out of two skeins (2 oz) Sugar 'n Cream cotton.
So when I am not tagging and meme-ing, I am knitting. Since it's the Holidays, folks have ACTUALLY been buying stuff from my little Birdy's Knits booth, so I am trying to crank out more swiffer cloths. Trying to-is the key--I knit so slow--most folks can knock one of these out in a few hours: me...I am on day 2 or is that 3.
And my Twilight yarn is staring at me...and it's knitting bunny is chomping on my grey matter. It wants, NEEDS to be put to needles. I am thinking a long scarf (if I have enough yarn), in a vine type pattern. I am not sure if I'll do a border....not sure of I have enough yarn for one.
I want to start some of the lace in my new birthday books, but I have other projects yelling at me. Hmm. I need 6 more hands.
One of my good knitting friends, Brenda dropped me a line last night, telling me that my swiffer cloths was mentioned on a podcast on Sunday. Moi? Little ol' me? (I have to say that Brenda did email me as soon as she heard it and some how that email either didn't get to me or my brain lost it--it's been known to happen! So she emailed me again about it last night).
Any hoo the pod cast is here, at Knitting at Night episode 35 (corresponding blog with links). Sweet sweet Casey lovingly mentioned them toward the end of the podcast.
This was actually the first time I ever listened to a podcast and I have to thank Brenda and Casey for potentially starting a new obsession. While listening to the podcast I found my self wondering...hmmm, could I do one too? Nah...actually I hate my speaking voice and I would be worried about my speech fluency--lately it's been really bothering me. AND REALLY do I need one more thing on my plate?? I _don't_think_so.
I am chucking away at the Swallowtail shawl--about thirty more rows left--woot!! I am tired of it being a work in progress (WIP) and I have to admit I am using it to procrastinate a certain super secret project.
Today I also worked on a video for some lace surgery. Sadly my heart wasn't really in to it and consequently my head wasn't there either. The repair is on a very lacy bit, so it's gonna take more brain cells than I had available today.
Here's to brain cells speaking to each other tomorrow!!
There's lot's things we can do to help conserve our resources. REUSE!
Now more than ever we throw away things we used to just re-use. We are encouraged to buy containers for left overs that we can just toss in the garbage. We are told how easy (and cleaner) it is to throw away our dusters, mop heads, toilet brushes, and kitchen cloths. But where do they end up? It's certainly does not disappear or end up in some mystical place far from us. Stop tossing and start re-using. My Swiffer Cloths can be washed and sanitized after use. Use an old sock to dust. And really how dirty can your toilet brush be after you have just soaked it in cleaner??
Jamey rented us a booth at our local craft mall. So I've spent this weekend, reformatting patterns, knitting up more swiffer cloths and playing with some silk for some fancier caralets. We'll mostly be selling Jamey's stitch markers and earrings, under the moniker: Birdy's Baubles. Cute, huh?
I'll probably toss Anne a cone of cotton so she can help me whip some swiffer cloths for me. I really can't stop knitting her garter and I am a terribly slow knitter, besides that.
It's been dreary here and it's put me in a bad mood. Overcast equals exhaustion for me, so that doesn't help either. Poot.
Of the few that have made it on Ravelry none have caught it, because this pattern is intuitive.
I am nearly finished with the second cloth (which is how I caught the mistake--I don't have a stable of copy editors, yet) and unfortunately I couldn't squeeze two cloths out of one ball of Lily's Sugar and Cream. I had three inches left with 3 more rows and a cast off still to go.
I have got to thank all of y'all who have bought my Swiffer Cloth pattern. In hours of its release--I had dozens of downloads! I have received so many sweet comments, my teeth are beginning to ache. Thank you!
Finally, I am releasing the Swiffer Cloth pattern. Jamey thought I was nuts just for offering it on the blog and not easy peasy PDF form. So after a few days of work and tweaking (pixel issues)--it's all set.
I am wondering if I have totally lost it. I've been ignoring Lorelei's sock ever since I laddered down...I have to be in the right mood and it has to be very quiet in my house for me to repair lace work. I am wondering if I bit off more than I can chew--especially when I counted the rows I laddered: twelve! Ack!
I think part of the problem is that I can't really stretch the area out flat....so it's easy to loose the "rungs" of yarn.
I am also hungering for some reallace. The kind with itty bitty airy yarn. Sigh, but I have to sneak it around Lori--she's quite the task mistress.
And I totally forgot to tell James to upload the Swiffer Cloth pattern when he came home. He setup the shop and I have NO idea how he uploads the patterns.
Back to the mine of lace sock repair--actually I lied--it's off to bed. I am still getting over the stomach bug and I am wiped.
Looks like I've got more knitting surgery on my hands. I noticed a mistake a repeat down in my sock. I really don't want to tear back since I am just about done knitting the heel. I've already laddered back, but haven't had a good moment of concentration to perform my "work". I have a quadruple decrease to reverse engineer. Fun fun! I knew my numbers were too good to be true...poot.
I also have a shawl from Anne that she wishes me to fix (it's the turquoise one--she's got lot's of shawls on her needles). A sick weekend got in the way of some lace surgery.
This evening I should have the pattern up for the Swiffer Cloth as well. I am knitting another one up as a test and because I need more. But it's a simple pattern so I don't need to wait for a successful test.
Urgh. It's been sick-ville at Birdy's house--consequently no blogging and very little knitting.
Just today have I been up to knitting or blogging. It all began Thursday: while I indulged in some Spring Cleaning--Mic was coming down with the first signs of a nasty stomach bug. He went through 4 pairs of under wear and pants before 2 pm. Despite all that we got the dining room cleaned up and Mic's room totally cleaned and even washed the carpet.
I knitted a bit that night and got to use my finished swiffer cloth (finished it Wednesday night). (I took a picture that afternoon).
The bobbles work great and the seed stitch is a great scrubber. And it's reversible--you can poke the bobbles through to the other side.
Okay--after I tested my new cloth on the kitchen floor I sat down to knit on Lorelei's sock. Both kids had passed out on the floor and i was enjoying the quiet...it had been a very loud day with Seth over (as Anne was helping me with the SC). I don't recall how much knitting got done, but suddenly from a dead sleep, Mic violently tossed his cookies all over the carpet and over some knitting books. Poor thing, would have gone back to sleep if I let him, but I walked him to the bathroom for a clean up and then ran back to rescue the knitting books. Luckily, the books were fine with a quick clean up. The carpet on the other hand was another story. Sigh. A good half hour of scrubbing was in my future.
Thankfully it was a quick bug (for him) and I actually thought it might have been allergies. He was a bit congested. Not so...
Friday was the last delightful day for this household (more in another post)...for Friday night I got violently ill. Then Lorelei got violently ill. So in between tossing my cookies and cleaning myself up, I was cleaning up Lorelei's tossed cookies. My stomach has settled (sort of) but Lori's did not--we've both been eating the BRAT diet and laying forlornly on the couch. Saturday, I managed to upload pics into flickr and that's about it. I slept most of today--along with Lorelei. And made sure to be quick with the vomit bucket for Lorelei. I did feel up to knitting today (finally) and am just turning the heel on her sock.
Jamey has convinced me that putting the swiffer cloth into a PDF is a good idea. So I'll work on that tomorrow.
I know I have been baaaad...all knitting and no blogging.
Now I have three posts worth of knitting news and pics. I should spread it out over three posts. Maybe I'll just spread it over two. So stay tuned tomorrow for sock socks socks!
Today! Is WIP day.
I jumped my queue and started a swiffer cloth.
I have been on a eco binge and I am tired of throwing things away. Remember when we were kids (I am talking to the 30 year olds now), it was all about reduce, reuse, and recycle...now we have all sorts of things we are encourage to put in the trash. Swiffer cloths (both wet and dry), toilet bowl mops, handy wipes for the counter, dusters--I could go on and on. So on my eco list? More swiffer clothes and a shopping bag.
The pattern for the cloth is quite simple and I'll put it on the blog once its finished. It's too easy to even put it on a PDF.
I got the mojo for Lorelei's sock! So that has been plowing through full steam ahead.
Only thing that is stopping me now is the fact that I have been consumed by the swiffer cloth.
