Socks and Rug

Thanks for all the nice comments on my hashi-oki. I am taking a ceramics class and will continue to take it during the Summer, but if everything works out I'll start a professional certification program in August. I've been getting ready for that, which involved a bunch of tramits. The fact that I'm an immigrant who is changing her status (student's wife to worker's wife) creates more headaches, but things are working out. In June I have to go back home to get my passport stamped and all will be settled. Meanwhile, there's not much knitting progress around here. I started a checkerboard pattern on the doggie rug but ran out of yarn, and I need to spin more in order to continue. I finished the ribbing of my second sock, but still have to work on the  big toe:



I haven't touched the bouclé baby cardigan, but my friend is 23 weeks pregnant so I'd better hurry.

Trying a different craft...

In in addition to volunteering with the literacy program, I found something else to do with my time. This is a sample of what I've produced:



I've made other things but trust me, you don't want to see them. These are hashi-oki, or chopstick rests, which can also be used as fork or spoon rests.

I'm working again on the yellow socks, and I also added a few bands of white merino to the doggy rug:

            

Little rants...

What would we do without a little rant once in a while? This is a short one. I needed to make an appointment for Something Important. The SI phone number has one of those ubiquitous answering services that let you choose a language. As I always do, I chose Spanish, because I like to hear my native language as often as I can.

After the usual wait listening how wonderfully SI works, I got a bossy lady who gave me tons of useless information and finally gave me an appointment for a totally inconvenient date. Nope, there was no way to change it, she insisted. I had no choice but to accomodate to the SI schedule because really, there was nothing she could do.

Five minutes later I called again and chose English. I got a different representative who actually offered two more choices for my appointment. Yes, the SI schedule was pretty busy but hey, I got a better date and that suits me. Now tell me what you think. Was the Spanish speaking representative simply incompetent, or was that discrimination?

No picture

I finished the scarf yesterday night, and I washed it and lay it out to block. By 12:30 today it was, of course, still damp, but I had to take it to the recipient, whose birthday we celebrated today. She didn't mind that it was a little damp and she liked it a lot, but I totally forgot to make a picture of it. It's not hard to guess what it looked like. Same as Monday, but it ended up being 160 cm long.

Scarf progress

So how long must a scarf be? It's already 120 cm long (that's about 47 inches). I said I needed to finish it by Wednesday, but actually I need to finish by tomorrow so I can block it and have it ready and wrapped on Wednesday.



I leave you with this picture. Feel free to come up with a caption:

New Project

What? Don't I have enough half-knitted items lying around the house? Apparently not. Here's one more:



This one has a deadline, though, it will be finished by next Wednesday. Thank God it's only a scarf. I got the pattern here, and the yarn was a farewell gift to me when I left North Carolina. I think it's some sort of scratchy Noro with a halo.

Sending it back

I've bought books from Amazon since 1999. This is the second time I'm returning a book and it's breaking my heart. I anxiously awaited my copy of "Confessions of a Knitting Heretic", the only book  written with the combination knitting method in mind. Because that's the method I've used all my life, I really wanted to like it.


I started to read it, but it's just not doing it for me. There's too much information on the author's personal life, spirtual life, family history and professional trajectory. And frankly, she repeats herself too much (yeah, I already know I'm knitting just fine, I don't need to read it over and over). I kept skimming and finally decided that I don't like it. And it's not because of the lousy printing, thin paper or fuzzy pictures. I don't even mind the typos. But I didn't need to be told twenty times that people should knit with whatever method they please, because I already know that. I wanted to learn more from a professional knitter whose explanations and terminology are useful for all knititng methods. I believe Anne Modesitt is that professional knitter, but I also believe she should tone it down when it comes to sharing her self-discovery voyage whilst knitting against the tide.

That said, there's lots of useful stuff in the book, and her charts and explanations are good for any knitting method. But that's not enough for me to keep the book.

Contest winner

I got five suggestions for the contest, and I have exactly six hanks of yarn:




Because I feel like it, I'm sending a hank to those who participated. That will leave me with one that I will use to knit a treasure bag, as Jennifer suggested. SInce I'll use her idea, I will let her choose her hank.  By the way, Urraca had a similar idea, but I got her contribution later. I also liked Nadine's idea, especially since she sent me the link to her pattern for cubrechapas (don't ask me to translate that, I didn't know what she meant until I saw the picture).

So, those of you who participated, send me your snail mail address through my contact form (or send me an e-mail to pioggia {at} voila {dot} fr, if you think that's easier). Tell me your preferences and I'll try to accomodate them, but like I said,  Jennifer's the winner and she gets to choose first.