It Is Not Good For Woman To Be Alone

Since I'm usually sitting here alone in the wee hours of the morning or the darkness of the night, I decided that I would do a Harlot. I needed a mascot for my blog. I needed someone to listen to me rant, sit with me as I slogged along down the blogging road, someone who wouldn't judge no matter what I said or did. So I began looking around for a companion - one who wouldn't need a lot of attention, one who would be content to have her picture taken with the yarn and the projects and the general silliness that is this blog, someone... well, judge for yourself. May I introduce to you, dear readers, Gabby.



Gabby has traveled from clear across the country to be with me. The dear lady who created her was thrilled that Gabby was going to have adventures untold as she blogged along with me. She has a penchant for licorice, and she also loves to gossip. That, combined with the fact that she's made of a sock, made her the perfect candidate. Please join me in welcoming Gabby to my strange and goofy world.

Today hasn't been a good day. As usual, I was up all day and planned to go to bed in the afternoon. Hubster had a meeting he had to attend in San Jose, so I figured I would sleep while he was gone. Instead, I began working on the poncho and fell asleep in the chair while Judge Judy rolled on the tube. All was not lost, however. I present to you the ponchos.



All that remains is to wash them, block them, and put the fringe on. When Hubster goes into work next week, I'll send along the ponchos and backpacks with him to my mother's house to give to the monkeys. I can't bear to go over there right now. Our pets are still over there because we still haven't made room for them (thank goodness this summer hasn't been horrible there), and I don't want to see my puppy blind. It breaks my heart. My life right now is fraught with enough unhappiness that I don't need to heap any more on it.

I was awake when the Yarn Fairy arrived, so I have these pictures of today's haul to share with you.



This picture shows (read from the left rear and wrapping around to the right:

SparklyLoves Fiber - All I Want to do is Keep You
UrbanGypZ - Ave Maria Sangria
thankewe - Kiwi Lemonade
UrbanGypZ - Magical Pavement
SparklyLoves Fiber - Mountains Under Mist



This final picture shows you some gorgeous alpaca from WindSong Fibers Farm, from their own alpacas (the name of the animal is on the tag) and spun by the owner. The spinning is exquisite, as is the fiber, and the picture shows it in its' natural color as well as a beautifully dyed skein. As we speak, the owner is spinning some more for me (for socks, of course) and will be sending some fleece from her male. It's soft, lofty, and very warm. It will also be a pleasure to knit with.

Gabby has informed me that she loves rolling around in the yarn. She feels like she's rolling in a field of sweet clover, she says. While Hubster thinks she's adorable, he's adamant in his opinion that I'm merely copying the Harlot. Steph, if you're reading this, it is not my intention to copy you. I'm just tired of being alone when I type. Then again, if he's sitting here, he's blabbing and I can't concentrate, so it's a Catch-22. Gabby is the blog mascot and, as such, wants to get in on the action.

So today drifted in and out of sleepiness, all the while holding my knitting (I'm so proud - I've neither dropped any stitches nor drooled on my work). When Hubster came home, I showed him a few of the things that arrived (oh... I got this cool shirt which I'll take a picture of tomorrow - I found out about it from Lime & Violet's Daily Chum), and he instantly berated me for not going to bed. "If you can sleep in the chair, why can't you go to bed?" he demanded to know. I didn't have an answer for him. I just know that if I go to bed, I lay there with my eyes open. Perhaps I'll be able to get in a little sleep today, since I have an appointment I can't miss at 6:00 p.m. We've been sniping back and forth all evening. The last major yelling match was when I went to post this entry and found that he had logged me off everything - he was updating his iPod and can't do it on his work computer, so he uses my Mac and doesn't bother to put things back the way they were. I guess I am tired - I blew up at him after getting him out of bed and demanding that he fix my box. We couldn't even accomplish that without yelling. Sigh.

The only other thing that happened today was the first of what I think are going to be many phone calls. One of my students from the infamous sock class called at 5:29 p.m. - right when Green Mountain Knitting Bags was due to post. Now, these bags are hard to get and when she posts, there are stalkers who snap up the bags so fast it makes your head spin. So I'm trying to talk to this clownbitch while I'm also trying to score a bag for ... well, for someone. She didn't understand how to do the toe increases. ARGH.

I very carefully explained to her about knitting two stitches, then increasing in the third, then placing a marker, knitting all the way across until there are three stitches left on the needle, placing another marker on the right needle, increasing in the third stitch from the end (the stitch immediately following the second marker), and then knitting the final two stitches. I told her to make sure she put a plain knitting row between the increase rows. I told her to ALWAYS increase in the stitches before and after the markers. I told her to increase to the number she got on her big foot chart. I told her to knit straight after the increases were done and a lifeline put in until she had the length dictated by the numbers on the big foot chart. I told her all this as if I were speaking to a small child

Did she get it? I doubt it. I fully expect another phone call.

Oh... one other thing did happen. I had ordered Cat Bordhi's new book on knitting architecture for socks. I had purchased her original book called something like "Two Socks Soar on Two Circulars" or some such thing. I was less than impressed, even though everybody else in the knitting world raved about it. I tried her method and was lost. I didn't like the writing, I didn't like the progression, I just plain didn't like it. Then I found "Crazy Heels, Crazy Toes" (or something like that) by Queen Kahuna. Even though the method is similar, it's different enough that it made perfect sense to me. It's also a long book with tons of photos. Since Cat's new book was about a different subject, I thought I would give it a try. I've just begun reading it, so I can't render an opinion. But it looks as if you can place the gusset increases anywhere on the sock. Once I've read it and tried her method, I'll let you know what I think. This is only the first of a scheduled three that she's writing. I figure any knowledge is a good thing to have, which is why I'm giving it a college try. I'll let you all know what I think before you buy it. I know that she has a devoted following, so it is not my intent to try and turn people away from her. At the same time, however, if I think it's a piece of crap, I'll say so.

On a closing note, I looked at some pictures of me holding the babies when they were about a month old. I had a killer tan. Deep mahogany. It was beautiful. This year, for the first time in 12 years, I look like the underbelly of a dead fish.

Today will be a better day. It has to be.

I may have to reconsider this drinking thing.