mizarchivist

Please. For the love of ALL that is holy. Do not ask me to knit you anything in exchange for barter unless you have something to offer of equal value. Something that is permanent that I can keep. Offering to barter in the moment services, like massage or babysitting is never ever in a zillion quadrillion years be worth it to me. Ever. Because it will take at minimum a week, maybe two (socks/hand warmers/scarf/cowl) or a month or three (blanket or sweater). I'm either going to have to make it in advance or follow up far after the fact from the service being offered by the other party. The thing I'm going to get is going to be an hour or two of your time, possibly a few times, but very very fleeting.  And you're going to get to keep a thing that I just spent days/weeks/months working on.  This doesn't feel equitable. I am SO happy that I just figured out why I have such a visceral reaction to this suggestion.

Further, because it's not remotely obvious unless you live inside my own head-- I don't actually enjoy knitting as much as my other crafts like clay or spinning or painting. Partially because I usually have to continue knitting far beyond the point of enjoyment. I get bored 75% of the way through, which is not true for the other 3 mentioned crafts. In socks, it's right after I turn the second heel and have to keep going. Also. Often-times, it has to fit someone. Pretty much everything but a blanket or scarf requires it fitting, so ... you know. No pressure. That means I make you something it must mean I really like you. I like you for you enough to knit you a thing that may have caused me a great deal of irritation and boredom for a few hours... or a week. So, if I'm voluntarily making you a thing, that's cool! My choice, and my timeline (usually). But when you make it transactional, it removes the majority of the fun and puts 500% more pressure.

Also, insert yadda yadda links to already published articles and blogs about the chronic undervaluing of women's work over the centuries... etc.

This has been your pubic service announcement for the day! Thanks for reading.

So, let's see. What's going on?

First and foremost...
quiet_elegance has a new job!!!( Read more... )

The kid. What can I say? He's amazing.( Read more... )( mostly fiber, but maybe some clay )( Read more... )( some stuff, maybe not enough )

So, the epic sweater, the one that's made of the Malabrigo spun-by-me yarn:

I finished it!   (a few weeks ago)


And I hated it on me.  There is a picture of me in it on QE's phone, but it hasn't gotten to my repository yet.  But really, it didn't work.

So.

Now I have a lap blanket and 2 sleeves. Now that I have spun up some more of the pink, I'm working on turning the sleeves into a shrug, which I will love to wear. It will be warm and squishy.

This project has taught me:

• Provisional cast on


• Kitchener's stitch


• Blocking, for reals


• Assessing patterns a bit more before I commit


• I can knit a sweater


• I can also make shrugs, and make ones I then like to wear... and make them nice enough to have asciikitty want me to make her one, too.


• ... and because of the shrugs, I've taught myself lace. Apparently it isn't that hard to do after all. Just a lot of on purpose decorative holes. Happily I'm not too uptight if it's not 100% perfect to the pattern.


• And because of the lace, I have found I'm reading pattern symbols that were until this project mysterious and not worth figuring out.

So, net win.
Can we just talk for a minute about how asciikitty asked me to make her a thing? You know, the professional knitter? Because that's a big deal to me. 

I picked up some gorgeous, hand-dyed super-wash while in Camden. Thanks to the interwebs, I have re-taught myself toe-up, more particularly that wrapping thing that I'd never done til now. Thank you lady on YouTube! This pattern was a bit different from what sparkymonster  taught me last year.  It's  a little lumpy, but I'm sure Dad won't mind, as he's usually the recipient of my sock work.

Anyway: my progress so far:


purple_terror  - it's not too late to pick up that purple/green mix if you want to get in line for AWESOME SOCKS. luffluff

Knitty Librarian... How can I not want THESE?

   and
Yeah.

(and it's less than a month from my birthday.... Not that I'm hinting...I'd never)

I feel like I've been a bit hermited or at least not saying much of late, but then again, I've spent the past week sick, which doesn't help.
What's happened, what's happening...

Leave for Ohio tomorrow with quiet_elegance, return the following Tuesday. I need to pack. I have many things on my list yet to check off, but first: Go to the doctor's today to see if we can speed up this getting healthy thing. At this point, I've been living on Advil every 4 hours and/or Robitussin. This means getting up every four hours to redose at night. It's getting old.

Had my last day of work on Friday til October. Despite living it, I don't feel this new reality yet.
Went to the pool party and took some pictures and videos of spinners. My camera isn't built for that sort of situation, but I got a few decent ones of buxom_bey, dreams_of_wings and lightcastle. Also, I got vid of Gabriel's first burn.
Made a Jayne hat. It's cunning.
Went to my Firefly RPG- first time with all players there!- and managed to do not so much with gaming. Oh well. Still fun.

Because I have a fair bit of purple scottish wool I *can't* use (too itchy) I want to find a new home for it. I also have other things I expect I don't want. I bet I'm not the only one out here who has a similar problem!
Solution:

[Poll #628849]

I'm sure I've forgotten something, but them's the basics.
EDIT: Hey, I thought of an addendum already! I expect there will be orphan yarn at the end of this. What should I/we do with it? Comment if you have any groovy ideas