Crunch.

It's crunch time! WHY do I need to knit everything for everybody at Christmas? BECAUSE I AM CRAZY.

I need to knit 8 hats by some time next week. I have knitted 1. Plus there's embroidery involved. OH DEAR.

I've finally split the body from the sleeves on my top-down-raglan-dealie, but now HATS.

Nobody else is getting presents this year. Good thing I finished my mom's scarf already.

Oops (originally typed "Loops").

Well, 1/2 of my dream* has come true! I now live about a 7-minute walk away from my closest LYS! Or rather, there is now a LYS within 7 minutes from where I live, since I have not moved.

Knitty Couture just sort of appeared, and it is such a nice place! Granted you have to walk past a few hobos and a sketchy area (the gas station at Skinker and Delmar, which I am very familiar with and therefore less sketched out than most people), but then for some reason it stops being the ghetto again for a few blocks (mostly because the ghetto seems to run north/south and Delmar is an east/west street) and there's all these OTHER boutiques! And to think if I had never gone to see Hanson at the venue across the street, I never would have known the place existed. And for that matter, if Isaac Hanson hadn't had that pulmonary embolism, the concert would have been in early October, before the store opened, and I never would have known it was there (it just opened a few weeks ago). So, thanks, Isaac Hanson's potentially fatal health conditions!

Oops, I promised myself I wouldn't get fangirl juice all over this blog. Oh well. I also promised myself I wouldn't buy any more yarn but I always feel like a bitch going into a yarn store and then leaving without buying anything. Especially a little one like Knitty Couture, because they'd totally see me leaving with nothing, which would be horribly embarrassing since I'd talked to all the employees. I ended up with 3 skeins of Berroco Comfort to make the Shaped Lace Tee from Knitting Lingerie Style, and the Vogue Knitting Magazine from spring 2006 (I think--it's the one with the pretty pink skirt on the cover) and all in all I didn't spend too much money, but it was also my first visit! However, it is winter and therefore they've stocked a lot of wool, and since I am hella allergic to wool I don't foresee too many purchases in my future. I wanted to get sock yarn, but when the hell did sock yarn get so expensive? I'm not spending 40 dollars on my first pair of socks! I guess it will have to be knitpicks.

*My dream is to live within walking distance of a LYS and a bakery. Preferably, I would live in an apartment above the bakery and have a pole to slide down into the bakery, but I know that is just a pipe dream.

Friend or FO (I'm 2 Clever 4 U)--this will be my hit single when I am a pop star.

I haven't had an FO that I didn't frog since...a REALLY long time! I think not since I made all those hats over the summer. Everything just languishes around now, because I fear commitment (?).

Also, I guess I haven't had that much knitting time, what with the job and the homework and the relentless kanji quizzes (ASK me about my Japanese minor, if I haven't blogged about that enough) and the carpal tunnel and the drugs! Oh, the drugs (not the steroids though. I am proud to say that issue cleared itself up with no side effect of hair growth).

Strange that this is a knitting blog, yet the only thing I've managed to accomplish is soup. And something about Uncle Remus? I seem to recall blogging about that bit of excitement. Then I moved my work-talk to my other blog, because I am ashamed of my Joel Chandler Harris fangirlery, and fangirlery is for livejournal. I should make a T-shirt.

Man, as soon as I'm some sort of celebrity, I can be 9000 other things too! Fashion designer, talk show host, director, cereal spokeswoman, dancing with the stars, the list goes on and on. Now all I need to do is be really hot and in some sort of lawsuit. Or a reality show. Holy crap it's almost midnight and there's totally another one of those awful kanji quizzes tomorrow. But after tomorrow there are only three kanji quizzes left and then I'm DONE with Japanese forever. I'd be sad except that, like most things with me, I've done too much Japanese in my life and now I hate it.

I really hope that taking a carpal-tunnel-induced break from knitting will prolong my knitting-love for a few more years. Then I'll become obsessed with something else, let's say the hammer dulcimer, and the yarn will just hang out in my house with all my other abandoned hobbies such as needlepoint, clothespin dolls (I was REALLY good at making likenesses. I never made one of myself that I didn't give away. I smell a project!), sewing, reading, making those felt chocolate people from that one craft magazine from 10 years ago, plastic canvas box-making (I don't know what that's called, but I made a lot of boxes), and exercising. Maybe I'll take up yoga. I think I might need to relax.

I bought Gretel, by the way, and am delaying starting it because I can't find a crochet hook, and my roommate is too far away (20 feet or so) to ask for one. Plus, OMG KANJI QUIZ. WHAT'S THE OPPOSITE OF 浅い?! AND WHAT DOES THAT EVEN SAY?!

(it says "asai"--"shallow"--and the opposite is 深い)

Splurge!

WHOO I bought the Phildar pattern books today, from Little Knits. I also bought last summer's IK because I needed to get over $25. I probably should have waited until the winter one came out, since I really like the patterns in the preview, but I also wanted to get the Phildar books as soon as possible since things tend to sell out quickly from that website.

Now, hopefully they're telling the truth about the directions being in English. If not, I'm totally screwed.

I think I WILL buy Gretel this weekend. But by then a pound will be worth like, five dollars. Go America!

Huh.

I totally forgot to mention this yesterday, which is weird because that's why I POSTED yesterday...I just recently discovered Phildar. No, really. I suddenly have the desire to buy every single one of their pattern books because their designs are SO CUTE.

I sort of wish I had taken French now, but then again, I'd probably be terrible at it anyway.

Also, I have yet to buy the Gretel pattern. Maybe this weekend when I'm not just procrastinating. I don't need more things to distract me.

It's That Time of Year

Edit: GUY FAWKES' DAY! But that has nothing to do with the post.

Time for me to make a list of things I have to knit for the Dreaded Holiday Season. Some people are not Gift Knitters. I'm not really a Gift Knitter, but I am apparently a Stash Magnet, and that yarn needs to go SOMEWHERE. Might as well go to other people!

So here's a list for my own reference (everyone is referred to by initials or nicknames). It's much better to have it on this blog that nobody knows about, so the surprise isn't ruined.

K: Dashing armwarmers (her birthday is on Friday and this SO won't be done, so she'll just get them for Christmas--I am the Worst Girlfriend Ever). Probably some sort of hat as well, because I like hats and I like K and therefore they should be perfect together.

Mom: Malabrigo scarf (I chose Palette from Knitty for the pattern--it's almost done already because I started early!)

Dad: Some sort of hat, probably from Hip Knit Hats, because those are hella easy. My dad is really hard to shop for, so I always end up getting him shirts. He's built up quite a collection over the years due to birthday, Christmas, and Father's day getting him six shirts per year (one each from my mom and me), so now he really does NOT need shirts anymore. And I have NEVER seen the man wear a tie as long as I've known him (21 years). Once I bought him sandals. That was probably the most thoughtful gift I ever got him.

SAM: "Peasant Brown" hat, which I am basing off helloyarn's top down bonnet pattern. It probably won't be brown, because neither Shari nor I can wear brown as it is our hair and skin color, respectively. I need to get some screencaps from "the Emperor's New Groove" to find a different color scheme. I will probably make a striped hat and some matching wristwarmers because I'm an overachiever. I just got some blue and yellow yarn. I might do that. I seem to recall that color scheme in one of the hats in that movie.

Mo: Some sort of beret. I want it to be the Gretel beret, but we shall see what happens with that. It might end up being that Pithy hat except I canNOT stand purse stitch.

SKK: Legwarmers! By her request. If I had slender awesome legs, I would want to keep them warm too, but since my legs are covered with bulgy muscles and fat, they do a pretty good job on their own.

SEF: Gosh, I don't know. I know nothing about her anymore, but I'm related to her, so gifts have to happen. I want to make a beret or something by Thanksgiving, and if she says "I love your hat!" then I'll totally have an idea. Something pink. Maybe some pink Fetchings to match the hat I made her last year. That actually sounds like a really good idea!

Various other people who will get hats if I have time: Sue, Aunt Susy (actually, she might get some Fetchings this year. Sue got some last year and liked them a lot. We shall see).

Grandma: ??? She doesn't have space to OWN things! And she doesn't go OUTSIDE, so there's basically nothing I could make for her that I haven't made already. If I had time, I'd make her the Hemlock Ring lap blanket dealie, just because she'd think it was cool and never use it, but who gives a crap; it's the thought that counts. She'd at least be impressed with it, if nothing else. And Grandma is SO not easily impressed.

My friend that I have designated as SAM once posted her Christmas Wish List on the refrigerator, and as her parents bought the stuff on it they crossed it off the list! It was pretty insensitive, and in retrospect, hilarious.

There's a Weird Sesame Street Digression in the Middle

So, I have become the fourth hand recipient of 923947238432 skeins of crappy acrylic yarn. Which is totally okay with me, because I am allergic to everything but apparently cashmere, silk, and Yarn That Is Ridiculously Expensive. That and all my friends are bums who never do laundry and when they do, it sure as hell won't involve handwashing, so I don't feel bad making them gifts out of crappy 2-dollar yarn.

I've also received some of that KnitPicks dye your own merino laceweight, and I fondle it daily with no sort of hives as a result. I'm thinking I'll order up some of the Swish Superwash for...something...just to see if I'm allergic or not. But first, I need to make almost ALL of this stash go away. It's really getting out of control. I might just make some really crappy sweaters. Some of the acrylic I received is in the colors of Ernie's (from Sesame Street) sweater, and I may or may not knit my very own ugly striped sweater.

(A note on Bert and Ernie: I totally don't think they're gay. I mean, I know I have broken gaydar and stuff, but I wholeheartedly believe that if they were gay, they'd have better hair, clothes, and especially eyebrows. My take on their relationship is that Ernie is Bert's retarded half- or stepbrother, and when their parents died, the last thing Bert's mother said was "don't forget to take care of Ernie!" Bert, of course, could not refuse his mother's dying wish, so now he is stuck with Ernie, who he can't stand, but out of filial obligation, Bert cannot take Ernie out back and shoot him--can you tell that my stupid minor is turning me Japanese?).

I have a paper to write for Japanese Lit that is due tomorrow and because it is only 4 pages, I keep thinking "well that's EASY. I can do that in 3 hours or less!" and therefore have been putting it off for two weeks now. To be fair, I want to write it on the reading we had to do for last Thursday, and I sure as hell was not going to read ahead just to see if I wanted to write my paper on that particular reading. I really do NOT like the "choose your own topic" method of assigning papers. I am not good with picking topics that do not end up being done to death, or just so absolutely ridiculous that I sabotage myself (the one exception being my "Holden's-Hat-Can-Predict-The-Future" paper I did junior year of high school--pure genius! I love how I wrote that paper the day before it was due and had been putting it off until I beat Mango Boom!...now I really want to play Mango Boom!).

I haven't really done THAT much knitting. My poor Camisa is hibernating because by the time I finish we will be in the throes of winter. However, I should probably finish it now, just in case my hands explode and suddenly I am no longer a freakishly tight (or loose, depending on the yarn...buh?) knitter. My raglan is hanging out, waiting for like 4 more increase rows that I am too lazy to do. I've started a scarf for my mom in Malabrigo, which should be done in the next month or so (hahahaha I've doomed it) and I'm working on a crappy cheap beret for myself to see if I look good in berets.

I think when I finish my paper, I am going to finally buy the Gretel pattern as a reward. Horrible exchange rate be damned! I want to knit this pattern while it is still trendy.