gaysknits

there is a sense of calm...

about the world.  it cannot be because the world is calm. it cannot be because my world is calm.  still there is a sense of calm.  i'm thinking the calm comes from have taken a step in a direction. not necessarily the right direction because whether or not the direction is right will be revealed at a much later time but a step taken is any direction is the way to the calm. i suppose what i mean by the calm is inner peace.  that is not a concept that i can count on in my life under normal circumstances but in spite of the fact that  i have a headache pounding in my brain right now i have some amount of inner peace today.  this is the final week of celebrating with the spc and i celebrate my calm...my inner peace...my sense of accomplishment.  today i am headed some where and hopefully that will take me to a place where things get accomplished in my life.  in all areas of my life.

the headache is incidental and probably comes from the fact that i stayed up until midnight watching jackass 2.  seems in conflict to mention the movie jackass 2 and inner peace in the same sentence but it is my reality. i watched jackass 2 and it was funny!  parts of it were so totally gross that i had to hold my knitting in front of my eyes so as not to see what was going on and to prevent my own gag reflex from starting up but it passed the time and time needed to pass so i could rippppp out my lady eleanor and start anew.  that's where the calm comes in.  i feel good.  i no longer have this dark feeling of gloom over my head and when i finsh this lady eleanor i will not have to look away from the parts about it that disturb me like i do with what will be referred to from here on in as the first one.  the hand dyed yarn i used in the first one was different from skein to skein as one would expect and rather than use the common practice which is to alternate skeins i gobbled them up one at a time and have a patchy looking first one to show for it and it is a shame too because i seriously love the atacama.  history.  it is there so we can learn from it.  if i could wish one thing for the rest of the world it is that the world could learn from it's history.  that's enough said on this subject. i intend to go into no details as there are so many i could list that i would be here for days and months and years and you get the idea...all my inner peace would dissappear with my words.  i have found calm for at least this one day. tomorrow i will worry about the presidential election and the loss of john edwards from it and the real state of this union not the one on tv and the fact that people have no work and no health care and are going to be given 300 or 600 or 800 dollars to pacify themselves with and it is mostly cold and grey and gloomy outside and there is way too much hate to go around and...you get the idea.   for those interested in the knitting and not my inner thoughts here is a peek at what's become of lady eleanor for you.  see more of spc here. later...love   g

is it too early to plan for...

next christmas?  you may think so but it may be the only way i get anything knit by christmas and i really want to make mom a lady eleanor in rowan tapestry which i happened to buy tonite on my trip to bonnie knits.  i was leaning towards the lilac shades but when i got there i found this peachy blue creamy green color combo that i thought would be right up moms alley and what sold me was the sample scarf they had knit up.

i almost went for a different yarn altogether...the name of that yarn escapes me at the moment...but it was all wool and had beautiful slightly deeper colors than the tapestry which is is wool and soy silk and is so soft and luscious that when you touch it you cannot not put it down and i have seen many a lady eleanor done up in this and they are gorgeous and mom loves gorgeous things.  so it's settled.  so how ridiculous would it be for me to have two lady eleanor's on the needles at the same time?  don't forget that the  2 lady eleanor's would be in addition to and as well as one noro striped scarf and one chevron scarf and a 28 thirty?

last night i must've been in a calculating mood calculating the anticipated length of my silk garden lady e but this morning i have given it some thought and i thought...several things are wrong here.  the first is that i planned to cast on one less base triangle and i did not.  it is still a bit narrower but i still wanted it one less triangle making it narrower still.  the second issue is that in a few places i knit 2 together when i was television knitting  instead of slip slip knitting and you would think this is not such a big deal and really it is not and i might be inclined to ignore this issue but for the final issue which is that when i cast on for my first one of these i used a larger needle and didn't like it so i went down a half size smaller for the rest of the shawl and it worked out great because the bottom edge was nice and loosey goosey and the bottom edge of this one is not loosey goosey but very taught and i have pulled at it but it is bugging me so  i have decided to take my two days worth of knitting on two whole skeins and ripppppp it out and start anew.  i am crazy you may say but since i have been in a calculating mood i have determined that i can knit this baby in 7 nights at my current rate of knitting which is one skein a night so when you look at it that way two nights doesn't seem as bad as 20 inches now does it?  at any rate i  am starting this over.  then i will start mom's lady eleanor and then...

i will start my beautiful clapotis and yes ladies this means i have finally made a decision.  this yarn picked me i did not pick it.  it is mirasol hacho a hand dyed merino from peru.  the color got to me and when i saw a little swatch of it knit up i was hooked on the sunny warm southwestern vibe and it transported me to someplace warmer in my mind so  this is it.

the best thing about it is that a portion of the purchase of the yarn goes to building a school in a remote part of peru...i love that stuff.  this clapotis will also be narrower because i want it to be and a lighter weight also because i want it to be and it will be stunning!  as a bonus the dog cone which didn't work because the dog could still lick his butt while wearing it makes a dandy light box for photgraphing yarn in really dim badly lit rooms so it was not a wasted purchase! i'm off to rip out knitting and drink wine which may soften the blow.  later...love   g

all that snow is melting and i'm left with some pile...

of knitting.  not only that but it's some pile of color coodinated knitting i've got going on. i guess i was just in one of those moods.  this most recent lady eleanor is quite different from the one before.  neither one is the way i imagined it would be. this one is addicting because of the color changes and the pattern is just plain addicting...i can't stop knitting it and i don't want to. as complicated as i once thought it was it has been reduced to television knitting for me.

i've been knittng the chevron scarf at lunch time and at doctors office and such and i've made some progress on it and although it is just as colorful it is not nearly as exciting as discovering the color combos that noro is going to come up with...imagine this pattern in noro sock yarn huh? don't get me started on that.

any way back to lady e...she is much more colorful than i expected or than i wanted her to be but as usual time and distance will tell and i think i need to get some more of her finished then take a look at her from a distance to see how the colors flow.  this is a little over one whole skein of the yarn.  it measures 18 inches wide rather than the 23 inches the pattern calls for and i finished up a row of squares after the first skein and unblocked it measured about 9.5 inches so 7 skeins will give me about 66.5 inches of shawl and the 8th skein will give me the fringe and finish out any odd rows so i am happy.

i am well on my way to choosing a yarn for clapotis and tomorrow night bonnie knits is open evenings and i'll stop in there after work and after i get my allergy shot and see what i am inspired to buy on sale. if i come up with nothing i have a few selections picked out for online purchase.  not much is happening here at chez gay in the way of drama.  the dragon lady has no more digestive disorder that i am aware of the german is healing nicely and he is his old self again and miss husky well i'm sure she has some trouble planned for us as she always does.  tomorrow night i'll report back with all my splendid yarn purchases at excellent prices or at the very least i'll throw bonnie some of my business.  this weekend after i work some 6 hours of overtime i'll do my taxes.  later...love   g

the dream has become...

a reality. the dream of silk garden knitting.  i am smitten. i have been bitten by the noro bug.   last night i started knitting another lady eleanor using this most fabulous most beautiful and most sensational of yarns...the envelope please...noro silk garden lite.  i am in love in a big way.  i purchased the recommended yardage for the pattern and cast on the recommended number of stitches but since this yarn is a lighter weight thus the name i am hoping to get a less bulky shawl wrap stole whatever.  i think my dream will come true from what i have knit so far. i'll determine the estimated length once i get one skein knit and order more if needed.  this stuff is as nice as everyone says it is. really soft and the silk gives it a wonderful sheen which makes me so happy and surprises me so as i have always been one to profess my hatred for silk and my dislike of wool but there's a new wind blowing apparently.  i don't have much to show but what i have to show i will gladly show just so you see why it is that i am gushing so.  it is also unlike me is to have so many projects on the needles at the same time but it seems i can't stop myself. the yarn is calling me to knit with it.  the thing about noro is that the colors draw you in and cast a spell over you so you cannot stop knitting with it simply because of the anticipation of what will appear next.  for that reason the yarn is so well suited to the lady eleanor and also to the noro striped scarf which i have not forgotten.  nor have i forgotten the 28 thirty or the chevron scarf it's just that i've been a little busy and somewhat preoccupied.  today i am on dog watch but it appears that i am mostly watching them sleep.  in reality i have to keep the german's wound moist with warm compresses throughout the day and keep the antibiotics coming in so that he heals without chewing himself up. the cone we bought at the emergency vet has not lived up to it's purpose. believe it or not he can still lick his butt with that big cone on his head which i wouldn't have imagined he could do except i saw it with my own eyes and besides the guy and i think it is mean to make him wear the thing so we are left with no other option but to watch him and holler at him when he starts licking. he listens so it's a good plan.  he reluctantly lets me do things to him with the promise of a biscuit which he always gets for allowing grooming to happen and miss husky usually sticks around for his grooming because what he gets to eat she also gets so it's a win win situation for her and just so she doesn't feel too left out she likes to curl up right in the middle of whatever  situation has been laid out that is none of her business...like the blanket laid out for the purposes of keeping the couch clean. i have much cleaning up to do around here and i'm thinking of paying the neighbors to use their washing machines so i can get all the blankets and sheets washed simultaneously.  on second thought...nah too cold for all that running around and they wouldn't go for it i'm sure. off i go. later..love   g 

not a creature is stirring...

this sunday afternoon and except for the tapping of the keys on my keyboard and the hum of the tv in the other room there is not a sound in this house. the guy is sleeping in front of the tv and the german is passed out on the bed.  miss husky is slumbering in a little husky ball on her cushion outside in the snow  and even miss lizard has let go of her crazy making running around and clawing at the walls of her terrarium as if to say get me outta here and has fallen asleep in the sun on her log. i think she thinks she is nesting so this behavior of hers no longer strikes me as weird.  the weekend is almost at a close and i have accomplished very little that was on my list of things i planned to accomplish.  i did not go to bonnie knits for her winter sale.  i did not buy an new condo and condo stand for miss lizard. i did not finish my laundry. i did not shop for groceries other than the milk and bread and ice cream i manged to buy.  i did not finish my taxes or even start them.  it wasn't the cold that stopped me or the snow and even though i had a busy weekend planned i had squeezed all these things in between the plans but on friday when we finally came home the german was showing signs of problems and by saturday he was definitely in need of care. my vet was closed and i phoned the emergency vet to discuss the problem  and we hoped that we may be able to wait to see our vet but i knew it would not be the case.  by the time the guy i am returned home on saturday night it was to a highly aggravated german who was bleeding all over my bed.  we hardly got a lick of sleep and this morning took him to the emergency vet which had i followed my instincts i would have done yesterday and the bloody mess might have been avoided.  the german will most likely require surgery to correct his problem but in the meantime while he was unsupervised it seems that he performed surgery on himself and lanced his own anal glands relieving some of the pressure he was having and making it easy for the vet to drain them but now the healing must be done and i currently have two pets on antibiotics and a huge pile of laundry to be done and i am ready for the looney bin to say nothing of the fact that all this is just so gross.  i was so disappointed to have not accomplished getting the lizard condo but this afternoon while the guy and the german slept and i was hauling around ice cream along with the milk and bread in my car i felt pressured to get home before it melted though that was unlikely and could not spend the necessary time on the search too match the right stand to the right terrarium.  i have done no knitting since friday and although i'm dying to start lady eleanor in the noro silk garden i have not yet done so.  i do believe i have made a decision about the yarn i wish  to use for clapotis though.  someone in the clapotis ravelry group mentioned karabella chameleon and being all into reptiles and all i looked into it and love the fact that it is dk rather than worsted, it is silk and cashmere and merino so yum and it comes in a pink and tan and brown color way that for some reason i having been drooling over for sometime. i think i fell for the pink lion and lamb but it was sold out so i may sub this karabella for the lion and lamb.   tick tock january is speeding by and i haven't completed my yarn shopping and i may have to request an extension for lizard cage shopping but i plan to do no more shopping or spending in february...other than a little food  but perhaps i should just eat out for the entire month?  i have regained any ground i lost in ripping out the 28 thirty and now this fits me perfectly but you'll have to take my word for it as i haven't had the time to try her on and take pics.  but i will.  tonite i hope to do some television knitting and work all this other stuff out later...love   g