Ladybugs & Yarn

The brain almost works today! Enough to do some knitting, and some poking at patterns once my fingers decided they’d had it. I was eyeing the pattern for a little summer top I’m planning to knit in the near future; I vehemently despise wrap & turn, but no bust shaping is not an option. Then it occurred to me that–duh–I could use the Sherman short-row technique, the same one I’ve used on sock heels, instead.

Speaking of patterns, I just acquired two cute ones: Wicked and Flair. I’m thinking the short-sleeved version of Wicked would look great in a cotton/modal blend with a nice sheen that I conveniently have in the stash. As for the other, I haven’t quite decided. I like the chocolate colour with wooden buttons, but something brighter and spring-like with some funky buttons would be nice, too.

Elann, why must you offer your Peruvian Highland Wool in 69 colours? This is fabulous, it really is, but it also makes choosing one for a project extremely difficult.

Decisions, decisions.

And here’s a photo that I had to share. Don’t focus on the unmade bed. Just focus on the fact that there is no room for me:

The youngest, Pirate, is 10 months, and the oldest, Cookie, is almost 18 years. Shadow’s seven, Bonsai’s five, and Stevie’s nearly three. I love that they all curl up on the bed sometimes in the evening, even if it does require some rearranging when I need to sleep.

And a bit of unpleasantness before I go. In the category of nonsensical bullshit, one of my assistant managers is a liar. When the subject came up of certain people at work being quite unnecessarily nasty to me, he said that these people get sarcastic and bitchy because I don’t “pull my weight”, and then turned around and said that there was no bitchiness and it was all in my head. Excuse me… contradiction? Plus as far as the not pulling my weight thing goes, that’s an outright lie. It’s all just excuses… anytime I have a hard time at work, the basic fall-back for management is well, you’re sick often, like my health problems, which I obviously cannot control, somehow preclude me from the chance of having the most basic sort of human respect that co-workers should have for one another.

There’s an ad in the paper for a nice restaurant that’s hiring full-time waitresses. It’s not that different from what I do now, but the hours wouldn’t be nearly as nice (I’d be working evenings instead of the lovely 7am-3pm Thurs-Mon steady schedule I have now) and it’d be a significant pay cut. I don’t know that the people would be any different, either–the standard work ethic (or lack thereof) and workplace disrespect that shows up at my current job seems to be a disease that’s not unique to the store, but shows up in the rest of the region, as well. I suppose I should at least put in my resume and go to an interview if I’m called–I can ask tons of questions and get a better gauge of whether or not it might be in my best interest to make a change.

I know I still have comments to reply to (and I adore you all, just for the record) but the Ativan I just took has hit me like a ton of bricks, so it’ll be pillows, blankets, and stockinette in the round for me for a few minutes until the eyes decide to close.

I had a couple of serious panic attacks this morning, so I’ve been too braindead to do much today. Tried to sleep off the post-attack migraine for part of the afternoon, and have been kind of drifting around all evening. Watched a bit of CSI, watched a bit of Nascar, filled the dishwasher, stared at the inside of the fridge in the hopes that something appealing to eat would materialise, asked for descriptions of other people’s warm fuzzies (which made me warm and fuzzy) pet/sniffed pretty stash yarns, found a bit of chocolate I’d forgotten I had, showered a lot of love on the kitties, and spent rather large periods of time wandering aimlessly around the basement. I haven’t even been listening to music–I’ve just been in a waking-dream sort of haze.

I think I might paint, later. Nothing specific; just abstract brush meanderings on canvas. Or, if I’m not up to dealing with the mess that inevitably comes with that, I’ll put on a recording of a thunderstorm, turn off the lights, and stretch out on the floor.

Watching fish is relaxing. I don’t have a chair out by the large aquarium, but I have a lovely little white betta in a small tank beside my bed. He doesn’t tend to “hover” a lot like most bettas; instead, he likes to swim slowly around, weaving between the plants.

Hey, look. I have another five skeins to put up, as soon as I can get up the motivation to re-skein them.

… having a crap-ass rotten day.

Tell me about something that makes you happy. Or your favourite scent. Or something.

There’s an eensy little error in my Parasol socks pattern, for the 4-row repeat on the heel flap.

Row 4 currently reads: sl 1 kwise, k2, (sl 1, k1) to end

It should read, instead: sl 1 kwise, k2, (sl 1, k1) to last st, k1

The PDF has been corrected and reuploaded, too.

I wound some Eva from Posh Yarns into a ball last night–it’s 45% cashmere & 55% silk, so anything I handled after that felt like packing string. I considered knitting a pair of these with it, but I think I want it around my neck, instead. I think. If I can ever choose a pattern.

Speaking of yarn-winding, hooray for soon no longer having to spend hours making centre-pull balls from skeins wrapped around chair legs! I just acquired a swift on Ebay for a very reasonable price, and you’d better believe a ball winder is coming next. Even if I wait a while for the winder, the swift itself will speed up the process.

Because I’m stubborn and want to knit my raglan cardigan all in one piece, it’ll need five balls of yarn on the go at once. The sleeves are a different colour than the body, so there’ll be one ball for each of the right front, right sleeve, back, left sleeve, and left front. It’ll be great.

Also, I’m getting nervous. I ordered some pretty sock yarns–the Begonia and Woodland Moss colourways from Claudia’s Hand Painted, plus the Flamingo (charity yarn!) and Firefly colourways from Lorna’s Laces–from a favourite online shop over two weeks ago and the parcel still hasn’t arrived. The shipping location is less than a day from here by car, and parcels usually take, at most, four days. Eeek. I don’t like you sometimes, Canada Post. I’m still angry at you for other reasons, too.

There’s an apple on my desk, but I’m not eating it yet, just smelling it. I love the scent of MacIntosh apples–fresh and sweet.

Cats never cease to amuse me, and I laughed like an idiot at this little video on YouTube. I wish my cats would do crazy things like that when I scratch their backs.

(Or rather, I’m going to waffle a bit about my never-ending quest for A Bra That Fits.)

I don’t have proportions that fall into the realm of average. I have a 44″ bust, 34″ waist, 48″ hips, I have thighs of d00m, small shoulders, tiny hands and wrists, and I’m exactly five feet tall. (Yes, I’m a fat girl, but my waist is a full 2-4 inches smaller than the waist measurement of clothing made to fit my other parts. Tops are generally fitted to the bust, too baggy around the waist, and too tight at the hips, and pants? They either fit properly in the waist and are too snug around the hips/thighs/butt, or they fit in the hips/thighs/butt and are too big in the waist. But this is a bra rant, not a clothing-in-general rant.)

My shoulders slope gently, so straps slide easily. If I shorten them, the back of my bra rides up. If I get sports bras with soft, stretchy straps made to stay put, they’re generally too long for someone as short as I am and therefore fall off my shoulders anyway. Bras with straps that cross in the back don’t slide down, but ten chances to one the back’ll squirm up and the front will sag down. My cups runneth over with a 36C, and a 38C is loose in the worst of places. I’ve tried a 40B (bigger strap, smaller boobage), and a 36D (smaller strap, bigger boobage), and neither of those work, either. I don’t need tons of support (my boobs stay up quite well on their own, thanks), but please, let me find something that both fits and stays where it’s supposed to.

Maybe it’s a lost cause. Or maybe I should just get a proper bra fitting done.

While we’re on the subject of undergarments, why do all Fruit of the Loom six-packs of low-rise underpants come with at least two white pairs? I have enough white underpants. I want a colourful butt.

Yesterday, at work, a customer asked me when I was going on maternity leave. I realise I’m built like a small elephant, but I don’t look pregnant. I tried to not be insulted, because the customer wasn’t saying it to be a bitch, but it stung.

Right. Moving on.

That short-sleeved raglan I was knitting (and never showed off in photo form) has made a trip to the frog pond. The pattern bored me to death. I can knit plain socks for days on end, but plain knitknitknit top-down raglans with nothing of interest save for the raglan increases apparently don’t work for me. I’ve taken the basic sweater pattern and used it to help me design a raglan cardigan I really like, with a few little details that’ll prevent me from going cross-eyed.

I’m actually going to cast on for it now.

First things first–I posted the Parasol sock pattern. If anyone knits them, you know I’d love to see photos. <3

I just bought the Anemoi mittens pattern. I’m using KnitPicks Palette in white plus my own hand-dyed. The swirls & scrolls on the mittens would look great in soft watercolours, I think.

I won’t be able to start the pair until the socks-that-shall-not-be-named are off the needles and into the mail (and I’m not exactly a speedy knitter), but the yarn’ll be nestled in the stash waiting when I need it. I’ve been working on the socks on and off all evening, but ye olde tendonitis has decided I’m done for the night. Instead, I’ll go back to the graph paper and keep pulling lace patterns apart in the middle so I can insert little cables.

Before I forget, there’s a note on KnitPicks’ website that orders might be a bit delayed–they had to close their warehouse for a few days due to severe winter weather. I know that several of you overseas lovelies have needles & whatnot in the order I’ve placed, so hopefully it won’t take any longer than usual.

A co-worker called me this morning and told me she was giving away her pair of six-month-old Siamese mixes. The chocolate-point had found a home, but she wanted to know if I’d be interested in her little fluffy white flame-point boy, since I’ve only been drooling over photos of him since he was a wee kitten. He’s just beautiful, and has a lovely personality as well–very affectionate, playful without being aggressive, doesn’t scratch, easily submits to ear-cleaning and grooming.

*headdesk*

If I was living alone, I’d have him in a heartbeat. But I can’t while I live with my parents, because they’re not as keen on the animals as I am, and we do have a substantial furry family already. I’m not even going to ask, because it’d just get them angry and I can’t handle even the smallest amount of stress lately.

I shouldn’t be this upset over a kitten who’s never been mine and won’t be, but he’s the most precious little thing. And you all know that cats are children to me. And I don’t care that my parents seem to think it’s massively abnormal–it’s not generally seen as abnormal when people want a lot of kids, is it? Actually, I don’t care if it is massively abnormal–it makes me happy. Few things seem to do that anymore.

Someday I shall have a house with no carpeting, windows with wide ledges, a small bedroom with just toys and litter boxes and blankets, a whole room for yarn/sewing/computer nerding, a fenced-in yard, and nine cats.

Hooray, I feel almost normal today. I had a wisdom tooth extraction on Thursday that didn’t go as planned (understatement!), so it’s been a bit (understatement!) sore. It’s still a bit tender but the pain is gone.

Lookie, I finished a sock.

A Parasol sock! Admittedly it’s nothing special, but I think it looks nice and will therefore post the pattern as soon as I get around to writing it up. The yarn is delicious Fleece Artist merino… I can’t even count the amount of colours in the skein, it’s just gorgeous.

I can’t decide whether to work on the second Lorikeet sock, the second Parasol sock, or the sock-that-shall-not-be-named tonight. Perhaps some of all three. Or perhaps I’ll commit to winding at least a couple of the skeins of dyed sock yarn I have waiting–without a swift, the process is rather time-consuming, to say the least.

Ooh, ooh, Favourite Socks is available in print now–it’s a collection of Interweave Knits’ most popular sock patterns, plus a few new ones thrown in as well. *covets* The number of sock books on my personal wishlist is insane, but yay, socks.

There’s French Vanilla ice cream in the freezer, and it’s calling my name.

There’s a knitting book coming out in a few months called Charmed Knits: Projects for Fans of Harry Potter.

*puts it on the wishlist*