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I wore Jeanie to Stitches today. She was very, very popular. My favorite "what pattern is THAT?" question came from a masseuse in a booth across from the booth I was in. The masseuse was busy doing her thang and just kind of jumped up and down and wagged her head until she caught my eye, and then mouthed over the heads of all the shopper, "WHAT PATTERN IS THAT?" I ran over to tell her. Free pattern, people! (I used the yarn specified in the pattern, about 2.75 skeins.)

Love, love, love it. It sat well, felt great, and it was just the right weight for the convention center.

Oh, pictures? Well, okay.

It blocked out WAY longer and bigger than it had been. This suits me fine, since the only reason I really stopped knitting was because I wanted to get it done in time for Stitches, and I’m so glad I did or I might have been making a bedspread instead.

From the back. (Bonus Where’s Lala? shot.)

My dress has pockets! (Bonus Where’s Lala? shot.)

And for your viewing pleasure, Willie says hello:

Yes, Stitches was great. Jill, your Grommet knits tattoo was AWESOME. It was wonderful meeting everyone I met. I’m not sure if I’ll be back tomorrow — Wondercon, the comic book convention is on at the same time, and while I’m not a comic-book person (sorry), I do support my wife in her comic-book lovin’. She supports me in the yarn, after all. Good stuff.

She’s actually still out at her convention right now, so I’m going to pour a glass of wine and turn up the heat (brrr!) and cast on for a new sweater right NOW. I bought a Shelridge Farm Kit that was so cute in person, the Haida Pullover. The picture on their site doesn’t do it justice. Very cool. And BRAINLESS. I need brainless.

Yeehaw!

Jeanie is finished!

Blocking pictures:

Note two things here:
1. Yes, it goes on forever, doesn’t it? I stopped knitting because I wanted a shorter, hit-you-at-hip kind of shawl. Not sure I’m going to get that.
2. I’m a terrible blocker. I actually know how to do it better, and someday I would like blocking wires. But for now I’m just lazy. At least I’m blocking it at all. Lala called the design "subtle" when she saw it unblocked, when I was deciding whether to block it or not. When she called my two-month project "subtle," I ripped it off my body and into the drink for a good dunk. SEE the pattern. WORSHIP the design. And honestly, there is not much that is as fun as dropping six miles of stitches, right at the very end.

I loved this project, enough that I never got bored or angsty. Sure, I’ve wanted it to be done, but I still enjoyed it every time I worked on it.

This is truer to the color. (Yarn and color specified in pattern, linked above.)

And see:

Those two-by-two crosses? Are FOUR-BY-FOUR. Therefore, it’s reversible — looks just like this on the other side. O, joy divine.

And I will wear this to Stitches this weekend, so there will be modeled pictures. Just couldn’t keep my doneness to myself tonight, though. Yeehaw!

I am at the coffee-shop, and it feels wonderful. I haven’t been here in a long time, and this is where my brain says, Yes. Okay. I will work now. I’m sitting in the window, something I can’t usually do because of the glare, but it’s lovely and overcast, so I can today. I’m smack-dab in the middle of the novel rewrite, and I’m going to work for a couple of hours on it here. Then I’m going to go home and knit and watch TV and look at the rain in the justified manner of a writer who has Done Something. I’m determined that I will wear the Jeanie shawl at Stitches this weekend, and I reckon I have at least twelve more hours of work. Luckily, I have the next two days off, so I will chain myself to the couch and knit my little paws off.

I am devastated about one thing, though. I have been dying to watch Project Runway Canada but have had no time. Now I have the time, and IT’S NOT AVAILABLE ONLINE ANYMORE. I sat down yesterday to pull it up on the Tubes, but it’s been removed. I know, pirating is bad, blah blah blah, but I wanted to see it! And I can’t buy it, which I would! But it’s not on iTunes! Not on Netflix! Very sad indeed.

I will have to make do with catching up with Lost. Which will be fun, I’m sure. Whatever. I wanted Iman.

Harumph. Now to get down to work so I can goof off sooner rather than later.

Your Cat Digit reminds you that:

   

    Yoga. I has it.

Click to embiggen. I think I shall make this shot my desktop.

Attention: To all of you planning on getting married, please do so like this — Get married in a sweet sea-side town (Ventura is nice), on a late Saturday afternoon, at a cute hotel where all the guests are staying. Also, have an Irish drink-up sing-along the night before at a family-owned pub where everyone is related and TALL and they don’t mind that you’re neither. That means all day Saturday will be spent by your guests rambling the downtown area, eating Cajun breakfasts with hot sausage and feta scrambled eggs, and trolling the many great thrift stores.

Speaking of thrift stores, I scored. Got a great blue hat (as a friend said, "Nice top") and then found blue clip-on earrings to match. Wore them that afternoon to the wedding, which I hadn’t realized was Casablanca themed and there were other vintage-dressed folk (Lala wished I’d told her so she could have worn her suit).

Also, when you have this wedding, you should invite all your old friends from back in the day so that they can hang out and dance like they used to. Oh, yeah, but when your friend with the allergy to soy lecithin has a drink or two and then eats THREE red-velvet cupcakes because somewhere in her very small brain she thinks they don’t count as Trouble In A Paper Wrapper, you should tell her she is going to be very, very sad the next day.

But it will be worth it.

This is my favorite shot of the wedding:

And now we are home, and I am going to do something about my station wagon that suddenly seems to be throwing various kinds of fits — the rear brakes are leaking brake fluid, the serpentine belt is yelling, the starter is finicky, and I ran over a branch last week that is requiring me to keep an eagle on the oil level. Anyone know a good mechanic in Alameda? I want to find one there so I can catch a cheap cab ride to the airport car rental agencies if I need to rent a car.

And speaking of car rentals, Hotwire.com, anyone? Do you KNOW about this? I rented an Avis Ford Taurus this weekend for the wedding for $14.95 a day. My sister got a Mustang for $20 (although I think that’s because they were out of Economy cars, but WOW). Highly recommend this service (you have to pay in advance, no refunds, and you don’t get to choose what rental agency you’ll get, but it will be big name).

If you are knitting Jeanie, and you get to the end of a row, and you are crossing the last 4 x 4 cable without a needle, and 911 rings while you’re doing it, and you have to drop it in your lap, the four tiny sock-yarn stitches waving in the simulated breeze, it is a good thing if you then pick them up and cross the cable, just like that.

Sometimes knitting is good like that. Probably means that I’m about to run out of yarn or something. I should check.

In other related knitting news, I just stole a sweater right off a guy. A radio technician was wearing an amazing old Norwegian style sweater, looks at least forty years old, maybe more. Light brown with darker brown and cream patterning, pewter buttons. I’ll take a picture when I’m at home, but something about the bottom pattern reminds me of Elizabeth Zimmerman. You fanatics can help me pin its exact derivation later. I’ve seen this guy wearing it before — apparently his coworkers give him shit about wearing the sweater, but he’s kind of a tall Mr. Rogers kind of guy, very sweet, and carries it off gracefully. Jimmy Stewart-ish, really. I’ve only ever spoken to him a little bit before — couldn’t remember his name (it’s Don), and he didn’t know my name even though we’ve discussed brining turkey in the past.

He was working on a co-worker’s radio console, and I said, "I love your sweater." I kept myself away. It was hard. I would not touch.

He said "Thanks, it was my dad’s."

That’s all it took. I had my hands all over him, because people, the holes! The HOLES! Oh, some moth has fed generations with that sweater. I had it off him in less than forty-five seconds with the promise of repair. He looked a little stunned, but happy and grateful.

The sweetest bit of the sweater is an old hole that’s been darned with a different color yarn — someone really cared for this thing. It deserves some more years. I never offer to do this, and I can’t say how good I’ll be at doing it. I *love* to darn, but it’s not always  a successful endeavor. I’d like this to be, though.

I’ll keep you posted.

Oh, and hey! I’m out of town this weekend for a good friend’s wedding, and I’m so excited! I won’t be around the blog parts because I’ll be partying like it’s 1993. No, really. I will be.

I feel like a knitting hack. I like to knit. I knit nice things. But this, people, is AMAZING.

700 knitted panels in this music video, which LOOKS like a music video, from the Quebec band Tricot Machine (Tricot means knitting in French). The panels were knitted by designer Lysanne Latulippe of the fashion label Majolie. And I love the song. It’s a lovely, gorgeous piece.

Enjoy.