So.

Let me explain, should anyone come across this again, why I haven't and won't be updating.

I've kept a LiveJournal for something like eight years now, and I've grown accustomed to it. In my LJ, I can talk about whatever I want; how much I jerked off yesterday, knitting, fandom, random things I hate in the neighbourhood. And so writing this blog - or attempting to - was a massive exercise in compartmentalising my life, and I couldn't do it.

Although it wasn't the case, it felt an awful lot like lying. I am very active online in a lot of things. Most folks who keep knitblogs are not. I can trace my online origins back to the starting days of Xena: Warrior Princess fandom, whereas a good number of you lovely people that I've met through Ravelry or other online crafty dealies are comparative new kids on the block. And there's nothing wrong with that, not at all.

But, I felt weird not giving everyone all of me, you know? I like knitting, sure, but I don't JUST like knitting. I like TV news and science and genuine lesbian porn and ranting about my shitty life. I like movies where Michael Caine kills bad guys and I like hockey. But I don't have blogs for each individual thing that I like.

No, I have the one LiveJournal, and I speak of unspeakable things in it; my vibrator collection, my transgendered boyfriend, getting high, supergay fan fiction. And you don't want to hear about those things.

Trust me.

Seriously.

What a bore I've been! I'm going to start blogging full-time again soon, I promise. Even for a lazy ass without a job, I've been pretty busy. The boyfriend was up visiting for a week and that required two weeks of cleaning. The job hunt continues. I'm knitting a sweater. The usual.

Pictures soon! Gobs of them!

Yarn That I Have!

I've decided, in the interest of keeping me actually blogging, that every Monday will be for showcasing some yarn that I have. Yeah. Just yarn I have. Maybe a ball, maybe two, maybe twelve. I'm just going to post a picture of some yarn that I have. Maybe there's a story with it, maybe I'm half-finished a project with it, or maybe it's just a ball of yarn I have that means absolutely nothing.

And don't worry, I won't be classing it up. If I happen to pick up a ball of something slightly embarrassing, so be it. I figure this will last a few years. Because. There's a lot of yarn. And on Fridays, I'll be doing Books That I Have, which I ripped off from a sci-fi blog that I didn't bookmark. Knitting books, non-knitting books, books I've read, books I've been meaning to. Just a book that I have, every Friday.

But now, to today's...Yarn That I Have!



Yes, you're reading that right. Sweater Boy Frontier. I have no idea what that means either. It's obviously Japanese, Olympus, which still makes yarn. Expensive yarn.



All of this, plus one ball that was actually used was $4.99 at the Salvation Army. I buy a lot of yarn at the Sally Ann. Okay, I buy a lot of things in general there. And I will buy more things there, because this year one of my resolutions is to not be such a consumer whore. Back to the yarn.



It's VERY Lopi-esque. In fact, when I saw the bag, the yarn was packed in such a way that I couldn't see any labels, and didn't find them until I got home. I poked a hole in the bag in the store to pet, and I swore it was Lopi. It had to be Lopi. It isn't, and that's just fine.



I love you, Japan. So far, this is all I've made though.



The tea cosy that I was calling Aoife until the Knitty pattern of the same name came along. Between you and me? I like my tea cosy better. I do have a pattern for it forthcoming, it just needs a new name.

And thus ends the first installment of...Yarn That I have!

Oh boy.

I hope everyone had a great holiday season! Now that the period of enforced mirth is over, we can all return to our normal lives. I admit, I was a bit of a grinch this year, and one trip to the mall was all it took for me decide that I'd rather finish my shopping online. I couldn't wait for January 2nd to roll around so everyone could get back to work and everything could get back to normal. It was a pretty depressing holiday all around, but especially New Years. I usually spend it cuddled up on the couch and on the phone with my (long distance) boyfriend, watching CNN's New Years dealie, but he went out to a party. He had a great time so I feel kind of guilty being upset over it. Oh well, over now!

And knitting things! Right! Well, my mother decided to wash my Clapotis. The yarn I used is not unlike Malabrigo in that it felts if you even look at it. While she assures me she used cold water and no dryer, I'm not so sure. Behold, Clapotis. The years-long adventure, reduced to this:



Yeah.



It felted. Completely.



Maybe she did just use cold water, and had she used warm, I'd have a cute little washcloth. I said it was okay, because I wanted to make another one anyway, but it did get me pretty upset. At least it's still really soft?

I bought Son of Stitch n' Bitch a few days ago. I have a love/hate relationship with the series and Debbie Stoller (who, by the way, is called a "knitting superstar" on the back of the book, wtf.) but I fell in love with the patterns immediately. So many nice socks for boys, great sweaters (especially the one by Jared Flood) and the elusive manly scarf. A few of them, actually. But I had to start the main cover project immediately.



Uncle Argyle Scarf.



Double-sided!



It's a different technique of double knitting than I'd done before and the first pass was hell and I made a mistake or two, but I've got it down now. You work every stitch, every row, instead of working half, slipping the rest and going back and working the slipped stitches. It's faster once you get the hang of it. The yarn is just some Paton's Classic I had sitting around (who doesn't?) and so far, I love it. I'm determined to do at least a pattern repeat a day. There are 23 repeats, so it'll be finished by at least February. I can't stop squishing it!

Dyeing! I've been slacking on my grand plan of dyeing lots and lots of yarn and selling it and being all famous and what not. But here's a glimpse of my first actual knitting with yarn I've dyed. The base was just Scheepjes, which I scored a crapload of when my Lewiscraft closed.



I like the colourway. Other people like the colourway. I love the needles too, but...



Yeah. See that metal sticking out? That's because the tip of my Pony DPN snapped off when my sister picked it up. Wtf! Does that really happen? So weird. It's the second DPN I had break on me in as many days. I was working on some mittens and the bamboo on the needle caught on the yarn and just splintered all the way down the needle. Eeep. So I need to get another set of those too. Happy Holidays, all your needles are breaking!

And that's the most exciting things that have happened to me lately! Big time stuff!

At least it isn't me.

Bloggers everywhere mourn the lack of sun for our sometimes daily picture taking. Couple that with switching all of our indoor lights to fluorescent and it's a bad recipe for showing off.

I have a number of things that I have to finish, and I'm not ordinarily in that position. It's a bit strange. I don't usually knit for presents so I'm not used to the deadlines or the sinking feeling that comes with wondering if you'll make said deadline.

And what's the best way to deal with deadlines? By not thinking about them! Behold, Janis rants about her current projects and other things!

My deadline projects are:

1. Selbuvotter gloves or mittens for the Ravelry Mitten Swap. I'm almost finished one, but it got put to the bottom of the pile during November. I can do about a quarter of one in a day, so that's not really a problem. However, the knowing of this is, because I keep saying I'll work on it later because it's so fast. Bad idea. I'm pulling it out tonight.

2. Sweater class sweater. This is a lot of stocking stitch. Yes, I still call it stocking stitch, whatever. I've finished the body, half-finished one sleeve and still have to buy the yarn for the Houndstooth fair isle at the bottom. But once I get everything joined and the yoke begun, I'll be flying. This is for the sweater design class at Serenity Knits, but classes have been put on hold indefinitely, as my teacher's mother just passed away. So there isn't a real deadline for it anymore, just...soon.

And my other project are:

1. Handpainted socks. Yes, I do still plan to make a paltry living off of handpainting yarns. I've just been totally sidetracked by NaNoWriMo that I haven't been able to dye more. It really completely sucked my life up this year. But my first socks will be finished! Maybe!

2. Vog On socks. Riiight, those. They're so close to being finished that when I do sit down to finish them I'll feel like a moron for having left them so long. Just like my Slackotis.

(By the way, every time I look at my Clapotis, I want to make another one immediately. Out of handspun. Oy.)

3. Crochet bolero, Short & Sweet from, shudder, the Happy Hooker. I love the book, don't get me wrong. But the name, the name. I hate when people say "hooker" or "hooking" or whatever in reference to crochet. Oh, it uses a hook! Aren't you being SO BAD by calling yourself a hooker! My goodness! You're so saucy! Stfu. You're not. It's stupid. And the intro in the book?! Don't you dare try and tell me the word "hooker" for prostitute came into use because they crocheted in factories and worked the streets at night. That's a lie, Debbie Stoller, and you know it. I admit, it makes for a cute little story but if there was any research beyond crochet web pages going on, it can be proved wrong quite easily. That being said, it's a cute book although my copy seems to have the most errors allowed by law. The bolero is cute and I can't wait to wear it at holiday things.

4. Spinning brown tweedy merino for gloves for Alex. I've started the spinning part. I'm almost finished? I can't spin for extended periods of time anymore (say, hours at once) because my back just recoils in horror. But, I might have them done for our anniversary in February. Two years, by the way. Twoooo years.

5. The bathrobe sweater. Oh, right. A wrap sweater that I'm lazily working on, out of Knit Picks Crayon in the least offensive colour, cream.

6. Malabrigo gloves for bead knitting class, the last class of which was cancelled due to bad weather. Just let me say that again though: Malabrigo. Gloves. I'm glad I opted for gloves and not mittens. I've finished one, I didn't have a pattern and the finger joins are kind of wonky, but man. Malabrigo gloves.

You know, I think that's all of my projects that I'm actively working on. Actively being the key word. I'd love to be able to finish all of my projects before the new year and enter 2008 project-debt-free, but, alas, not this year. Maybe next year.

And!! Happy Chanukah! Latkes and if I weren't so scared of frying things, soofganiot. Mmm. Donuts.

Okaaay.

My triumphant return to blogging actually took place elsewhere today; I've had my first article published on the Huffington Post!

I don't really talk about it much here, but I went to college for radio broadcasting and have been involved in some form of media ever since. When fellow Canadian and HuffPo Media Editor, Rachel Sklar, asked if I was interested in contributing, I had trouble not yelling YES YES MY GOD YES. I still remember fondly the day HuffPo launched. Ah, good times. So be on the look out for future media related stories of mine on the Huffington Post!

I'll still update here, don't worry. It's just harder to catch good light in the winter, but I'll try! I really haven't made much knitting progress anyway, but I can't tell you how nice it is to be able to spin or knit for an hour without having that nagging feeling that I should be working on my novel.

And I'm so proud of everyone on the Ravelry NaNoWriMo group! I'm really surprised at how big it ended up and how active it was! It was great to have a group of people to share my word count with at the end of the day. Community really does help, no matter what you're doing.

Huzzah!

Let the blogging begin again!

I finished my novel for NaNoWriMo just after midnight and am really looking forward to returning to the land of the knitting/living/blogging.

Now, to think up what my novel-is-finished reward should be. Hmm.