another hat and even more snow

Man, I really thought we were done with the snow. When I woke up this morning though, we were at a level 2 snow emergency.

I went to pull down the hats and gloves this year and I discovered something upsetting: they’d all disappeared. There was a bag and it had some weird winter stuff in it… but none of my knit hats. Which many of you will remember: some I really liked. (*cough* one not so much.) Where have they gone?! Even if I don’t like a knit, I still enjoy it existing somewhere. I don’t like the thought of them floating around some knit purgatory.

A lot will keep me from re-knitting something. The fact that there are so many great patterns out there. My little patience. Mostly it’s that I’m an average speed knitter. Unless I’m around other knitters or people chatting, then I’m downright slow. I’m not a speed knitter.

However I did re-knit a pattern last night and the most important thing is that I finished it. I started and finished a project in a night! I even had the buttons sewn on before I went to bed.

Yep, it’s another Hannah hat [rav link]. This time in super red. It makes me kind of sad that MagKnits went down in a ball of angst and drama filled flames. I started this hat last night at around five and I even had the buttons sewn on before I went to bed.

What I love about this hat is that it doesn’t just have a hole for your ponytail because you could just cut a hole into any hat and call it a day. This way lets you wrap the hat just how you like it. If you want a snugger or looser fit, you just move where the buttons are. I added an extra row to make it longer but I don’t think it made too much of a difference. Of course I love the buttons:

They’re pressed flowers! The pictures I took today aren’t very good but it’s also snowing out. I hope to get better ones when it stops but I will probably forget by then. If it ever stops.

Besides that, the cats are still alive. We haven’t resorted to eating them… yet. I’ve got John’s cat in mind on that one. Not because I think she’s especially plump or sustaining but because she’s driving me insane. She sleeps on my head until I get up, then she takes my spot in bed. That is when she’s not running around yowling. If we threw her out in the snow though, I’m sure we’d never find her again, just some circular tunnels.

Sax, on the other hand, hasn’t moved from that blue blanket thing for two days.

I took a picture of her a month ago and it’s the same story. I just moved the blanket to a different part of the house.

Looking at the two side by side it’s apparent she doesn’t like the new location. The fact that I just did that here on this blog means that I need to get out of the house and I definitely need to stop staring at my cats.

Yes please!

I’m very excited because tonight I get to go out on the town. I don’t know if it’s going out or getting to use italics that is so exciting. Don’t get me wrong- it’s not like I’m chained to a radiator or anything in some creepy dudes basement. Sometimes I go out plenty. But you see, it’s been a little depressing in the old Cap City lately with the snow and the jackasses not knowing how to drive. (Especially in the crusty white ladies driving SUV’s while drinking a chi mocha latte and chatting on their iPhones heaven known as Dublin.)

Still, I am ready to brave all of that to get out of my house. Because as much as I love my house and think it’s awesome, I’m tired of listening to John’s cat yowl incessantly. She’s figured out a way to make noise even when she’s asleep. Anyways! I told you all it snowed. When it started John and I made a snow beast:

He was a lot of fun to make. Also a lot of physical effort. Man, kids have some amazing energy. Although this picture might be deceptive, he’s a hulkster.

Sorry for sounding like a smug jackass in the recording.

So besides all that. I do have some knitting for you! I finally gave Julie her Christmas present which I thought turned out alright. I made her a Cashmere Neck Warmer [rav link] from Luxury One Skein Wonders. (I wouldn’t recommend the book though. This was the only pattern I really liked from it.)

Of course my favorite part is the button. Some specs: I suppose this is the nicest yarn [rav link] I’ve ever worked with. It’s 100% Cashmere. However it made me really mad! You might be able to tell from this photo, or maybe not, but it was all loose. When I opened the skein I thought there had been a mistake and they’d sent me sock yarn instead of 5ply. Because the yarn wasn’t twisted together, it looked like individual threads. So I instantly felt frustration, like, am I going to have to hold five together somehow this whole way through? Because I could have just done that with sock yarn in my stash!

I didn’t know who to ask about it except for, of course, the person I was giving it to. D’oh. So I’m pretty sure Julie knew she was getting a cashmere something or other.

Anyways, the pattern was nice, although I thought it was a little too skinny to give the neck any real warmth. I made it wider than it said but I know why it said to make it smaller- there’s no yarn in that skein. Which is usually the case for a luxury yarn. You’re lucky if you get a hundred yards out of it.

While I enjoyed it and can now officially say I’ve knit with cashmere and not a cashmere blend *hoity toity*… it’s yet another thing in life that reaffirms that I am just not cultured. However I am glad that I gave it to someone awesome like Julie who understands… the Universe.

A reason to love Knit Picks <3

So it has been a while since I’ve talked about Knit Picks. I’m not endorsed by or endorsing them or anything… although it would be cool to get a corporate sponsorship. Then I’d get a bunch of comments here calling me a sellout and telling me I’ve lost my indie cred. Although wait, do I even have indie cred right now? [pssst, knit picks, I'm just sitting here waiting for you to open up a stand for me to sell out... of?]

Enough of that, here’s the real story. I like to play movie trivia. A LOT. It’s like this terrifying drive that I have. If someone says movie trivia, I’m game. Random fact, when we play Scene It, I have this uncanny ability to get every question about Xanadu right. Which is something I’m absurdly proud of. (If you’ve ever played Scene It: BOS then you know there are a ridiculous amount of questions about Xanadu.) What makes it better is that I’ve never even seen Xanadu. I’ve never read about it either. Something about the questions though makes me wonder if maybe I’m destined to travel back in time and write Xanadu. I should probably watch the movie though. But if I watch it, will my freakish skill be lost? <— whoa, tangent.

So one night we’re playing Scene It and John is tired of getting his ass handed to him. He says, “Oh, I’m going to win this next one, you can bet on it.”

Now that’s pretty tame for John. If you’ve ever been over when he plays games you know he’s got a mean mouth on him. However it was also incredibly weird for him to say because John is not a betting man. I would say John, despite his swear words, is 67% Amish. So we make our bets and bing, bang, boom: I win. Which means John agreed to get me everything on my wish list. I’m not going to hold him on that… some of the things on my wish list are pretty ridiculous.

Some things on that list though (I’ve taken things down as I’ve gotten them and he got me 3/4 of my list for Christmas- whoop!) were lace blocking needles from knit picks and another set of sock needles.

Anyways, it’s a week before Christmas and we’re talking and I said something like “well I’m worried about this thing that I’m making but I think it’ll block out much bigger than I think.”

John: “Yeah? Speaking of blocking, I was talking to a coworker today and he said that his wife just got some lace blocking needles but they were bent… are they supposed to be bent?”

Oh man, I think I laughed so hard at that. I was like, seriously? So he sheepishly admitted that he got me some lace blocking needles for Christmas. But guess what people? THEY WERE BENT.

Something must have fallen on the package during shipping.

He called Knit Picks today (even though he didn’t want to but it has been over a month) and they said, well that’s crazy but no big deal, we’ll just send you new ones. Not, okay, lets start this long and involved process of “you return the incredibly broken stuff and once we confirm that it is in fact broken, we’ll send you a replacement”. Just, that sucks, we’ll get you a new one. You might remember, I’ve had to deal with them before. I felt much better this time- probably because I didn’t have a project on these when they got messed up.

Plus, honestly, how much lace do I even do? I think the reason it was on my wish list is because I wish I had the tolerance to do lace. Although once I get these blocking needles I might need to make something to justify this whole thing being such a pain in the ass for people. Or not.