Thanks but no!

Recently a very dear friend send me an e-mail:

We're getting Mom and Dad's house ready for their 60th Wedding Anniversary Party on Sep 6. The house should look pretty good in time for the millions of people to arrive. I didn't send you an invitation because I love you. You're welcome.

It is so fanstasic to have people who know me well enough to know that, while I love them very, very, very much, the idea of going to a party crowded with strangers makes me want to crawl under my bed until the event passes.

Rebecca Lynch has made an app for "introjis," which are emojis for introverts. You can find them here. It's one of the few kickstarters I've supported. She gets me.

"Not going, but thanks for the invitation!"

copyright Rebecca Lynch--buy the app here (Android) or here (Apple)

In Case We Doubted...

In case we doubted the benefits of compost, behold the volunteer tomato plant growing out of my compost bin. I have done nothing but ignore it and whack it back when it looked like it was going to take over the air conditioner.

Compost works!

Something Is Better Than Nothing

I keep thinking I'll take better photos, and then I'll post things. Turns out, that's just not the case. So, bad photos!

I embroidered a couple pillow cases for a friend's birthday:

This friend and I tied for Biggest Bookworm as voted by our high school senior class.

They weren't wrong.

You just have to love whom you love.

I also made another pillowcase for me, using one of the motifs from an earlier pillowcase:

My love of embroidered pillowcases shows no sign of abating.

Peculiar Nature

It's the time of year when I do my best to remain sane at work, and, as such, I don't have a lot of energy for other stuff. Pardon the radio silence.

I keep a little tear-off calendar on my desk with Buddhist quotes on it. Today's:

Each one has a special nature peculiar to herself which she must follow and through which she will find her way to freedom.*

                                                                           -Swami Vivekananda

I love it. What makes us unique and weird is what creates our path. Embrace your peculiar nature.

Rock on, weirdos.

*I changed the quote from masculine to feminine language. 

Gramercy and Putty Ribs

I've knit several of Hunter Hammersen's patterns*, and I volunteered to test knit her Gramercy pattern as she reformats it to re-release.

Gramercy (mine raveled here),

knit in a one-off Poste yarn from Simply Socks

The pattern is a simply 6 row lace pattern, and once you've done it a couple times you can tell where you are in the knitting from looking at the sock instead of the pattern. I love that.

I used a one-off skein of Poste yarn I bought at Simply Socks Yarn Company. It has a hint of sparkle in it. I love the blue and can't figure out what could possible be wrong with this yarn that it was on sale as a random skein. I think it's lovely.

I also finished another pair of Felici socks. I did these in plain 3x1 ribbing with an afterthought heel. I think I'm going to look for a different heel. I'm not thrilled with the way these look, although they're lots better after blocking.

Putty Ribs (mine raveled here), knit in Knitpicks Felici in the Putty colorway

These were pretty boring to knit, but a) it's fine to knit brown in the summer since I do not have the color despair I sometimes feel in winter, and b) I think I'll wear these to work a lot.

Lest you think everything is going along swimmingly:

I always think of a lifeline too late.

*Wow! I've knit more of her patterns than I realized. I think this pair of socks are the eighteenth project.

Back to the Beginning

My first knitting project was a washcloth. I still maintain that's a great first project. It's small, uses only knit stitches, can be jazzed up as you gain more skills, and washes dishes extremely well regardless of how misshapen it may be. (And it may be very misshapen, as my first washcloth illustrates.)

Recently a friend asked for some washcloths. I eagerly went to the basket of cotton yarn I keep for just such occasions and cast on.

First, I did a leaf one. I hadn't knit that pattern before, and it was good fun.*

Then I tried a Chinese Wave pattern. This one is nice because the slipped stitches are all slipped on the wrong side, which means you're not constantly flipping your yarn from the front to the back as you would be if you were slipping on the right side. It's a small change, but it makes the pattern much faster. The pattern called for each row to be 45 stitches. I cut it down to 41 and it still seemed really large. I stopped when I ran out of that color yarn, and it seems to be a good size, although a tiny portion of my brain keeps muttering, "It should've been a square." That part is just being difficult. After all, hands are vaguely rectangular, so why wouldn't washcloths be?

Then I did The Washcloth, the first pattern I've ever knit.

It felt really good to go back to the beginning.

*I wanted to write "good, clean fun" since it was a washcloth, but I refrained... until I got to the footnotes. It was the best I could do.

Fruit and Veggies Towel

It's surprising how much I've been enjoying embroidery recently. I look through various books at their fancy stitches, admire lovely embroidered art online, and then happily backstitch cartoon-y fruits and vegetables.

I've made a dishtowel* that I won't let anyone use. I fully recognize the ridiculousness.

Ooh la la! Vous etre tres jolie, l'orange!

Wheeee!

I'm just a carrot, dancin' a jig while my neighbor the tomato eyes me hungrily.

I don't really understand what's happening.

Stitch on, my friends.

*Dishtowel is a Most Awesome Tea Towel and pattern is I Luv Veggies, both from Sublime Stitching.