my life in stitches

one sleeve down, one to go!

the amazing, technicolor dream smock is coming along. sleeve #1 is done and dusted. casting on for sleeve #2 today. err... maybe tomorrow. i wish i could get motivated to get on with it because the fun doesn't really begin until you get to the yoke. i have some interesting ideas in mind, but we'll have to just wait and see how it plays out.

lack of good television definitely means less knitting for me. it's really the dead season now, isn't it? my tivo has practically retired. i am loving that Don Draper. i don't think there's been a more fascinating (and good-looking) character on television since Six Feet Under's Nate Fisher. what is better than Mad Men? Weeds has been pretty good, too. Still getting my weekly dose of Anthony Bourdain, but that's really about it for television now, isn't it? if you're watching something great, please leave it in the comments. i've been filling in the blanks with whatever's showing on BBC America. i've become obsessed with Top Gear, which is odd since i don't drive, but whatever. The Graham Norton show is great, but that's been showing reruns, too. i've seen every episode of Dr. Who at least 3 times. Project Runway is a bit of a snooze fest this season. grr... i guess i've been spending less time watching the tube & knitting and more time reading. not a bad thing, but my needles are starting to wonder if i've got another craft on the side.

it may be a couple of months before my brain recovers from what has been an endless summer. maybe when it cools down a bit i'll be able to come up with something clever. carry on.

thank god for 79 degrees!

that's right. it's 1:45 pm and a record low of 79 degrees! it hasn't been 79 degrees at this time of day since like April or May or something. seriously. i feel like celebrating! which for me, on a Tuesday afternoon, would mean squirelling away in a dark pub with a fish & chips and a pint or 3. sounds degenerate, right? not so much considering that i almost never drink at night. you see if imbibe just before going to bed i can't sleep. and when i don't sleep i'm a total wreck and absolutely useless the next day. so, if i'm going to drink, i like to do it during daylight hours so that i can be sober when i go to bed. oh, the joys of being self-employed! (a friend just called and wants to go out for a little afternoon knitting + beer. perfect!).

i feel i've been a bit remiss in not posting any photos of josephine and the amazing technicolor dream smock. the thing is that it's just a big stripey blob until i add the sleeves and i'm only 2/3 of the way through sleeve #1. i'll spare you the boring stripey details.

i designed this square for a group knitting project underway on the Yarnplayaers group on Ravelry. now if i could only a knit another 19 or so we'll be in business! i'm off to find a knitting project that can hold its own alongside a Stella or two....

bear with me

i hate to be a complainer. truly, i do. but when you're on day 38 of an excruciating heatwave and the temps are predicted to reach 104 degrees before the week is over, it's hard not to bitch and moan about pretty much everything. why don't i just get it all out so that i can make way for more pleasant conversation? i've had to endure allergies turned sinus headaches turned cluster headaches for the past couple of months. migraine, shmigraine. a cluster headache is enough to make you want to stick an ice pick in your eye and be done with it. the constant AC (and you can't survive without constant AC) only aggravates the situtation. i seem to be able to manage without it for a few hours in the morning and a few hours around sunset, but anything beyond that is torture. i've been having acupuncture and taking chinese herbs and i seem to finally be getting some relief. it appears that this cluster headache cycle is winding down. and that can't happen soon enough because i've been avoiding alcohol, so as not to trigger a headache. and who doesn't want to drink a nice, cold Stella when it's a gazillion degrees outside? i plan on breaking my fast tomorrow when i'll enjoy a champagne happy hour with a friend who's visiting from L.A. let's hope it doesn't end with me lying in bed, on painkillers, with a heating pad on my face.

i'm knitting as best as i can. josephine and the amazing technicolor dream smock is just about at the armholes. since it's going to be a yoke sweater, it's just about time to put the body aside and start the sleeves. i always get a little stalled when there's math ahead and i haven't worked out the sleeves yet. it's hard to get motivated to do it when you can't imagine that it could ever possibly be cold enough to wear a sweater again. seriously. right now, 70 degrees would feel like full on winter and oh, i don't see us reaching that low for quite some time.

it's way too hot for me to do anything that involves being outdoors during daylight hours. i've been reading voraciously, watching lots of french films on DVD, and catching what little is left of the summer television season while dreading the weeks to come when there will be nothing much to watch until the fall season begins. So You Think You Can Dance is almost done. Project Runway, Weeds, and Mad Men are all that's left. are you watching any cool shows that i don't know about?

bandanas have suddenly become a part of my regular ensemble. more than 30 minutes of unfiltered sunlight sucks every last bit of moisture out of my hair and leaves it with the texture of a brillo pad. i've never seen anything like it! if there's a product out there that can combat extreme sun damage, please tell me about it!

a summer vacation seems entirely out of the question. i feel compelled to hold on to every spare dollar in case of total financial apocalypse. it's scary out there.

and don't even get me started about the general state of national and world affairs. it's so depressing. and so many people's lives are being completely turned upside down. so, i'm just going to count my blessings, keep cool as best i can and pray for rain (and better television).

i think i'm done now. =)

color!

• i'm plodding along on the joesphine and the technicolor dream smock. loads of stockinette, which i certainly don't mind, but i'm getting a little impatient for something to happen. i have another 3 inches to go before i reach the armhole. i think i'm going to do a half-sleeve. well, that's the plan. we'll see how it goes.

• i will be posting a sock pattern for sale in a few days. speaking of patterns, today is the last day of the super summer blowout sale.

• there is fantastic review of Yarnplay At Home on Craftnicity. it will be followed up by an interview, which i think will be posted tomorrow.

• i'm hoping to get an Etsy shop up and running within the next month or so. i just need to get around to ordering some labels. if you have any sources for good, inexpensive, woven labels, please let me know.

• So You Think You Can Dance has me on the edge of my seat. Thursday nights just kill me. my favorites, in no particular order - Joshua, Twitch, Will, Katee, and Chelsea, but i'm really all about the boys. who do you think is going home this week?

• i'm so glad that Project Runway is back! i think is Korto is fantastic, and god is she gorgeous!

• counting the days until the return of Mad Men!

pattern sale!!

from today through tuesday, july 22nd, buy 1 sweater or tank pattern and receive a 2nd pattern (of equal price or less) for free. the available patterns are bibi,lisette, marlo, back in black, tulip, rock opera, jolie laide and bejeweled. please check the pattern for price, sizes and all pertinent info. no book patterns are offered in this deal. once you have made your purchase through paypal, email me with the subject line: 2nd pattern, and tell me which pattern (of equal price or less) you would like to receive for free. happy knitting!

beautiful Bibi

check out liz's beautiful Bibi-in-progress. you know you want to knit this sweater!

doing

listening to: Shri Guru Gita

eating: farmer's market peaches with no rBST, no rBGH yogurt.

wearing: Marc Jacobs Violet

feeling: hazy and heat weary

reading: The Master Bedroom by Tessa Hadley

watching: Les Diaboliques

loving: John Galliano's 2008 couture collection for Christian Dior

doing: optimistically knitting a wool sweater that i won't be able to wear for another 4 months.

new project

in an effort to staunch my fetishistic hoarding of yarn, i've cast on for a new project using yarns entirely from my stash. this sweater is a take on my most recent design, Bibi. i hope to make it smockier with more exaggerated shirring and with a slightly longer, fuller sleeve. at least, that's the idea. my designs tend to have a mind of their own and my idea is usually never more than a vague working plan so you never know... the yarn is koigu pppm. at last count, i had about 55 partial skeins. that should be enough, right?

i promised myself that i wouldn't spend this post complaining about how much i hate this dreadful weather, and how i can't be outdoors in daylght hours for longer than 15 minutes because i start to feel ill, and how much i hate having to put my hair up or under something because the sun completely fries it when i wear it down. so i won't. instead i'm trying to think of fun things to do indoors and trips close to home that i could take because flights are so ridiculously expensive and with so many flights cancelled the chances of me being trapped in an airplane or airport for hours and totally flipping out are too high. Mad Men is back soon, right?

i'm hosting a Yarnplayers group on Ravelry. join us why don't you? we're plannign a group knitting project.

so, what are you up to this summer?

new pattern alert! introducing bibi!

bibi

bibi is a short sleeved, yoke sweater that is knit in the round.

Skill Level: Intermediate

Sizes: XS (to fit 32”), S (to fit 34”), M (to fit 36”), L (to fit 38”), XL (to fit 40”), 2XL (to fit 42”), 3XL (to fit 44”)

Yarn Requirements: 5 (5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7) skeins of Noro Matsuri, Color 7 or 700 (745, 795, 850, 900, 955, 1015) yards of dk weight yarn.

Gauge: 22 sts / 32 rows to 4 inches

pdf file will be delivered by email within 24 hours of receipt of payment.

$6.00

fashion moves so quickly these days that it's difficult to keep track of which era is currently being revised and revamped by designers. it's mind-boggling really. i love the aesthetics of the late 60's to mid 70's - from music to fashion to design to film. lately, i've been in a mid 70's upscale hippie with a touch of prep, sort of mood -  Tory Burch, vintage Lilly Pulitzer, and Lacoste. these looks remind me of some of my favorite film heroines of the 70's - Ali Macgraw, Gena Rowlands, Julie Christie. it's a look that has always felt pretty comfortable for me. i have recently returned to an abandoned project that definitely brings back that bohemian, chic feeling. it's Wings from Rowan Magazine #36. if you've been reading this blog for a while then you know that this is the project that i pull out every summer when i have nothing else to knit. however, i have fallen in love with this design all over again and i would really like to have it completed by the fall. part of my reluctance, is that i seem to have a bit of an intarsia problem. it never seems to turn out quite right and it always seems a bit small. i've done everything i can to remedy the problem, but i'm not entirely convinced that i've solved it. i'll be so disappointed if this sweater isn't pretty damned close to perfect. i don't know if i can bear it... at any rate, at least for now, i am determined to persevere.

speaking of butterflies, i recently watched Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and The Butterfly. Schnabel, who also directed Basquiat and Before Night Falls, is one of my favorite directors, so i knew i wouldn't be disappointed.  it's the story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, author of the book by the same name. from Wikipedia:

Jean-Dominique Bauby (April 23, 1952 – March 9, 1997) was a well-known French journalist and author and editor of the French fashion magazine ELLE. 

On December 8, 1995 at the age of 43, Bauby suffered a massive stroke. When he woke up twenty days later, he found he was entirely speechless; he could only blink his left eyelid. This rare condition is called Locked-in Syndrome, a condition wherein the mental faculties are intact but the entire body is paralyzed.  

Despite his condition, he wrote the book The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by blinking when the correct letter was reached by a person slowly reciting the alphabet over and over again. Bauby had to compose and edit the book entirely in his head, and convey it one letter at a time. To make dictation more efficient, Bauby had his interlocutor read from a special alphabet which consisted of the letters ordered in accordance with their frequency in the French language. The book was published in France in 1997. Bauby died just ten days later of pneumonia.

for some time, i put off watching this because i didn't know if i couldn't handle it. the film wasn't nearly as sad as you might think. in fact, it was quite beautiful and, at times, very funny. i loved every minute of it. now that the television season has slowed down. i'm watching more films. this weekend i watched The Pied Piper of Hutzovina, a documentary about Eugene Hutz from the band Gogol Bordello. he's a pretty fascinating person. in addition to being a really talented musician, he's also a fantastic actor! check him out in Everything Is Illuminated.

i'm really excited that So You Think You Can Dance is back. i totally clear my schedule on wednesday and thursday evenings so that i can watch it live. for me, it's a thousand times more entertaining than American Idol. i guess i'll watch the season premiere of Weeds tonight. i wasn't that crazy about the last season, so we'll see. what i'm really looking forward to is the season premiere of Mad Men next month!