Meltyknitting

BIG CHANGES CALL FOR BIG CAPSLOCK USAGE AND EXCESSIVE EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, I will make my announcement. I predict that (although this is really cool for me) the biggest reaction I will get from anyone who reads this blog (there has to be someone, right?) is an exclamation something along the lines of “Meh.”

I am relocating meltyknitting to be part of Crazy Knitting Girls, the blog I co-created with my friend Lily for teenage knitters (and we are teenagers, so we do have a right to do that sort of thing), but is now becoming…

Our joint knitting blog for everyone (not just teenagers)!

Huzzah!

So, change your bookmarks (if you have any, I doubt it) and links (even less likely that you have a link, but whatever) to Crazy Knitting Girls!

Reasons why the CKG joint blog will be better than meltyknitting:

-There will be twice as many updates, since it will be both Lily and myself blogging
-I will still blog as normal, but Lily will be putting lots of awesome stuff up there also
-There are already more pages with useful things (like yarn reviews) than this site has
-We both have some new, free patterns we will be putting up for anyone who cares for that sort of thing
-Lily has had many knitting misadventures which I bet you’d like to hear about, right?

So, go on over to Crazy Knitting Girls!

Goodbye, meltyknitting. It’s been fun. I’m leaving this place up for archival purposes (as if anyone cared). I will transfer all my blogroll’s links to Crazy Knitting Girls!

Crazy Knitting Girls!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m in a zombie mood. Fear me and my bland, meaningless post whos sole perpose is to inform you that I’m not dead.

I’m only a zombie.

Let’s set the scene. An innocent knitter, embarking on her first lace shawl even though, as she types this entry, one of her dear friend’s birthdays is roaring ’round the corner to knock the stitches right of her needles (which should be holding aforementioned dear friend’s project, but it not because there’s a lace shawl occupying the space). Anywya, the innocent knitter is in Algebra, learning delightful things about fun ways to plug numbers into y=mx+b. Her trusty shawl is stashed beneath her seat for fear it would be snatched from her locker.

Innocent Knitter: (She listens to teacher, longs to knit shawl)
Loudpeaker Man: BOOOOP! BOOOOP! BOOOP! Attention. Attention. Attention. An emergency has been recorded. All occupences walk to the nearest stairway and down to your assigned re-entry floor or main lobby. Walk to the nearest stairway. Do not use the elevator. Walk to the nearest stairway. Do not use the elevator. BOOOP! BOOOP! BOOOP! (et cetera)
Innocent Knitter: (She stands from her seat and begins to proceed to the nearest stairway, confident that this is a drill. But wait… A thought occurs.) What if it isn’t a drill? (Her heart fills with panic as she thinks of her delicate, flammable magnum opus, currently sitting beneath her chair in a disturbingly flammable room) No! (She stealthily steps back and grabs her shawl from beneath the seat, hoping no one stops her. No one does, and she walks with her peers down into the air, noticing it is tinged with spring)
Teacher: Come on. No talking. (Just as everyone lines up outside and the heads are counted, the all-clear is sounded and the grumbling students move back to their classes.)
Innocent Knitter: Oh. Only a drill. Still, I’m glad I took you along, Shawly (Yeah, it’s painstakingly cliched not a terribly creative name, but the Innocent Knitter was so happy, the words escaped from her lips even so)

So, is going back to grab your knitting in a fire drill a bad thing? I mean, I was only a few steps from my desk. It wasn’t like I went back into a burning building or anything to get it.

I’m just a normal knitter. Having normal, WIP saving impulses.

P.S. The air, as I said, is tinged with spring. I am hit with the sudden impulse to purchase an Ickle Lambikins. Or something to that effect.

I’ve joined the group of Lace Leaf Pullover knitters. (Like her, her, her, and all of them) Only, I’m using The Bronach Technique. Said Techique involves the following paistaking steps to insure a fabulous finished product:
1. Buy as much yarn as your spirit tells you too. Ignore the pattern. I bought othree balls of Woolease Thick and Quick because it was cheap and I have to save up my money for ******************(deleted so as not to, you know, ruin anything) and it’s machine washable. I’m going to be wearing this at school, so machine washableness is convienent for the inevitable marker/blood/chicken noodle soup stains. (Social Studies, gym class, and lunch period, respectively)
2. Cast on exactly the number of stitches the pattern says should produce 4 inches. Knit one row, and measure. Streach slightly if it’s too small. My gauge always grows. If it’s too big, measure the number of stitches to the inch and remember it.
3. Cast on an appropriate amount. As it happened, my stitch gauge was correct for the sweater with a bit of streaching, so I cast on a number of stitches appropriate to create a skintight sweater. I have waaay to many loose clothes, and it’s sort of scarring.
4. This is the step that truelly defines the Bronach Technique. Look at the picture in the pattern. Skim over the pattern. Now put the book on the shelf. Ready? Start knitting. Don’t look back. Your version will be better and more “you.” Right?
5. (This comes a good while after step 4) Despair. In rare cases, this step may be optional.

I’m at step 4 and loving it!

In other news:
Green Lace Blob is steadily progressing. Lily, who has chosen to knit a shawl as well, made up her own, rather complex lace pattern andmay be clinically insane is having lots of fun with it!

Just because I have limited time for this post and need something quick…
-One everlasting poncho for a little girl who said she wanted one “just like mine”
-A couple socks
-Lace lace lace
-A cotton halter top that may very well have shrunk while sitting in the canvas bag it calls home
-Misc. amigurumi
Not that bad, right?

I’m happy with my shawl. Very happy. Today, the following shawl related-things happened:

- Overheard in math class:
Other Student: Hey, that’s awesome. What is it?
Me: A shawl. I honestly have no idea why I’m making it since I’ll never wear it, but whatever.
Other Student: I’ll take it! No seriously, I love thc color green. That is so cool. I would seriously take that.
Me: (Note that at this point, I restrain myself from wrapping my body protectively around the shawl and saying things like “NOOOO!” or “Mine mine all mine yes allllllll mine…”) *nervous laughter* I’m glad you like it… *turns to work really fast*
-Several people complimented me on the thing without asking for it. But that’s just obligatory whenever you see someone doing a craft, so it doesn’t really count.
-I noticed that my lifelines kept coming out of the shawl, so I learned from my mistake and made the lifeline longer and tied a large bead to each end so there was no way it could slide out. The long ends of the lifeline got tangled with the yarn, and while this made my yarn very nice and minty-fresh, I had to cut both the yarn and the dental floss. Hey, guess what? It slipped out. Maybe I didn’t learn from my mistake so much…

Aforementioned Unbloggable Lace is unbloggable no more. It’s a shawl. A lace shawl. My first! I made up the pattern and when/if I finish it, I’ll put the pattern up. I love the yarn, Yarn Palace GENTLE (dunno why it’s capitolized), which is a 95/5 merino/cashmere blend. I’m working on nice, sturdy bamboo needles. Last time I tried a lace shawl, I did it on Addi Turbos. It was going nicely; I was doing a nifty diamond lace pattern, and then it happened. One fateful day in the car:
Friend Person: *says something funny*
Me: *laughs*
Stitch: *slips of slipperly needles* Weeee! Watch me drop!
Other stitches: *follows* Weeee!

After a few feverish attempts to pick up the dropped stitches, I ripped it all out and abandoned my lace shawl dreams. Fun Fact: The reason I wanted to make a lace shawl was so I could say “My shawl can be pulled through a wedding ring!” and pull my shawl through a wedding ring. I just thought that was the coolest thing.

This shawl is rectangular, and can indeed be pulled through a wedding ring (so far). Unfortunately, it can’t fit through my ring (which is substantially smaller than a wedding ring). That was a bit of a downer.

This shawl is more fun than a barrel of monkeys, but there are a few problems:

1. Due to Excessive Fun-ness, I knit this in class during lectures. I can still pay attention to the lecture, but maybe not so much to my knitting. I completely messed up on a lace repeat because I thought I remembered how the row went. Luckily, I noticed it three rows later, and after much grinding of teeth, tinked back a row. After the tinked row, I dropped down the stitches to the offending row, and re-knit them as I did the next row. Now everything’s okay, but it has made me wary.
2. During tinking, I am prone to dropping stitches. Luckily, I had a life line, so it didn’t drop into any lace. Close call. I love lifelines.
3. Gauge issues. I did a swatch.* I swear I did. But what I thought would be two feet when I cast on had magically turned to at least three feet. This is gonna be one wide rectangular shawl. That’s fine, but I’m worried about yarn. Expecially since I’m having
4. Tangling issues. I think I’ve lost at least 30 yards to tangles already, if not more. No good.
5. Due to Excessive Fun-ness, I am not knitting the birthday present I need to be knitting. This is bad. Really bad. The only remedy to this problem is to make the shawl the birthday present. And since the giftee already knows about the shawl, this will not work. Besides, I’ve been coveting the &*$# thing ever since I started.
6. I am the last person on Earth who would look good wearing a shawl. None of my knitting ever looks good on me (socks are excluded, since it’s just feet). Also, I’m not likely to wear a shawl anyway. Lily, or even Cathy would be more likely to. Best case scenario, I scrunch it up aroud my neck and it’s a scarf. Worst case scenario, I drop it on the ground and a dinosaur eats it. I know dinosaurs are extinct, but knowing my luck, I’d bet one has survived just to eat my shawl.
*knitted a couple rows, removed from needles, guesstimated the number of stitches to the inch, and cast on.

Here’s a picture of the shawl. It’s all scrunched up for a reason - I don’t want to reveal the lace pattern quite yet.

I’m good with mismatched, yet still vaguely coordinating pairs of socks. They are fun, and you don’t have to unwind, rewind, and unwind the yarn again and again to get what you want. But when the sock yarn that striped up into a perfectly nice palette of colors last sock suddenly turns into a hideous landscape of *twitch* goldenrod, I put my foot down. No pun intended.

Seriously. It’s all gross. And golden rod-y. I am punishing with banishment to the Hellish Bottom of My Knitting Basket. It deserves it.

Oh, yes. Bronach is happy now. I’m working on an… item. And unbloggable item, unfortuantely, but I can tell you tis: It’s lacy. Very lacy. With laceweight.

Me: *walks up stairs carrying lacy item* *inspects lacy item, realizes that no less than14 stitches have dropped from the needles and are now dropping at lightspeed* AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Luckily, I picked them up. Every stinkin stitch. I’m soooooo happy. Never mind that it’s all loose and ugly now. That’s block out, right? Now it’s time for some inumane torture fun filled math homework for me. G’bye!

Well, it’s taking over my life. Sock design. I love it. And I hope to have many patterns created by the end of the year. Remember the Healing Shawl I was gonna make? Forgotten. Healing Socks are so much better. I’m inspired by Cookie A., the Yarn Harlot, and all the other illustrious sock knitters. Before, I’ve only made plain sock with slight variations (1X1 ribbing! WOW!), but I;ve launched into a new pair. A glorious pair. A…

*beep!* Unbloggable pair. Sorry…