Mmmmm, Psychotropic Drugs. Just Like M&Ms

Best Quote I Heard All Day
Some may never live, but the crazy never die.--Hunter S. Thompson

Here's another one lost to the perils of manic depression. God, I miss the Duke. But you'll be glad to know that I'm back, medicated, and feeling much, much better.

Seroquel is my lifesaver. With a soupcon of Lamictal. Well, perhaps a tad more than just a soupcon.

Thank you all so much for caring so much. The email I've received, from friends and readers alike, and the wonderful comments you wrote jump-started my morale.

You know, of course, that I'm a stubborn bitch and that I won't rest until I get what I need. I didn't. Damn the system and full speed ahead. That said, I've reinstituted, regurgitated, and generally resurrected Swing Time, the blog I wrote specifically about my manic depression. It's got some good links that I've collected and a far better place to write about my disorder than here.

I stopped writing Swing Time more than a year ago, in part because I thought perhaps it wasn't healthy to write about my disorder and also because I abhor pity parties. I was wrong. First, my writing style does not tolerate my feeling sorry for myself. Second, I think it does help others of my ilk to read about what I do, to talk about disorder management, and to pass on information that I churn up from the depths of wherever.

Seems to me that there are a lot of bipolars who read this blog. Well, get your butt over to Swing Time and let's tawk. And leave this blog for the fiber shit.

Brackets
I finally got my copy of Winter IK. I'm not going to say much about the issue other than to say thanks to all who wrote me about my articles. Needless to say, they edited "Brackets" to the extent where a lot of good stuff was left out. Oh well. I'm not complaining. I'm OK with the editing.

I always give credit where credit is due. And honestly, Brackets is not my invention. It's Neal's. When I first met Neal, he wrote me this absolutely cracked email, written in part by Brackets. Neal's Brackets. [Why do I ALWAYS have to explain everything to everybody in here. I need a raise...or at least better billing...Brackets, what kind of name is that?...MOVE ON!!!..."]

That's Nealie's Brackets talking. So Neal, you're the best, for being my muse and for being my friend. And for being there for me last week when I wasn't exactly too well put together. [Oh Jesus fucking Christ, willya just stick to knitting, ya lazy skank. Enough with the thank-yous. Why don't you fucking start thanking your mother since this is disintergrating into an Oscar circle-jerk?]

Now, that's the Brackets you didn't read in IK. [And obviously, the medication didn't take the edge off, did it?]

Obligatory Knitting Shit

So in the spirit of my newly anointed and medicated self, I actually got some knitting done this weekend, despite moving more stuff up to E'burg. Remember this?


Well, I finally got off my ass and started the last sleeve. Because I really want it finished. It's a pretty sweater and it was about to grow mold in my knitting basket, along with a couple of other projects like the Magenta Diamonds shawl, and several unfinished pairs of socks. And I did finish one bobbin of the Las Vegas Brights silk and started the second.

Perhaps Seroquel should be renamed UFOquel.

So, that said, I will leave you now for my Ikea chair and TV, where I can watch rare and handy crap while I actually get something done.

Best Quote I Heard All Day
True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.--Kurt Vonnegut

In the midst of the Imus/Baby DannieLynn media circus, the death this week of one of the great writers of our time has been relegated to a sidebar.

If you have not read Kurt Vonnegut, start with Slaughterhouse-Five or Breakfast of Champions.

New House Rule
After the troll incident this past week, I will say this:

You are welcome to express your opinion at any time, be it assenting or dissenting. However, if you cannot present a reasonable, well-worded point-counterpoint, and resort to what is known as "snip-n-drool," the language of inarticulate trolls whose only purpose in life is to draw attention to themselves, I will delete your comment without notice and you will be banned from commenting.

If you are unsure as to what snip-n-drool really means, I suggest you read this, link courtesy of Carol S.

A better essay on trolldom I've not read, written by Bill Palmer.

As I have said many times before, this blog is not a democracy. I own it, I pay for hosting it, I write it.

Every time someone comments, I receive an e-mail from Haloscan that contains the comment, which I generally read. I have the ability, as site owner, to edit and delete any comment, and to ban the sender's IP address and/or report it as spam. I can also determine, through my web stats service, the IP's location and its service provider.

Obviously, I can't tell who's using that address; however, I can and will report the IP to the service provider if any abuse is forthcoming from that address.

I will not put the comments on moderation because that's a pain in the ass, and 99.9% of my readers are sane, reasonable, and intelligent people who do not deserve to be treated as kindergarteners.

Frankly, I shouldn't have to explain all this. Unfortunately, there are trolls out there, as we've seen.

Obligatory Knitting Shit
The sleeve to the Lavold sweater is about 1/4" from being finished.


My preferred method of attaching sleeves to the body is by using a 3-needle bind-off. That entails a little extra work but the resulting seam is well worth the time and effort.

How do I do that? Well, by leaving the sleeve stitches on hold, rather than binding them off, sewing the shoulder seams together, and then picking up the same number of stitches around the armhole as there are left for the sleeve top. Once you have that done, you can bind the sleeve to the armhole, resulting in a perfect seam. That is, if you've picked up the armhole stitches cleanly.

If you want to use this finishing technique, it's critical that you make sure you incorporate selvedge stitches on the front and the back. And it works best on dropped shoulders, since there is no sleeve cap shaping, although I imagine it would work if you short-rowed the sleeve cap.

I've never tried that, but why not? The only caveat I can see is that you'd lose the decorative decreasing if that's a design element, such as in a raglan. I'd be interested to know if anyone has done sleeve caps this way.

Lackluster Spring
With a nor'easter brewing for Sunday and Monday, I can see that Saturday will be for running around doing errands. Sunday I'll finally sley the loom and maybe even get the entire warp done. Easter got in my way last week.

Who in the Northeast is not tired of the grim, gray chilliness that's passing itself off as spring?

The view from my bedroom/office this morning.

No forsythia in bloom on the 13th of April? What wid dat? And the potential of snow on Monday? Shoot me now.

Reading Frenzy
I have to admit, I read as much as I knit. Possibly more, and certainly faster. One of my favorite books is Pride and Prejudice, and being a Jane Austen devotee, I am very picky about those present-day authors who seek to emulate Jane. However, I highly recommend a wonderful trilogy by Pamela Aidan, An Assembly Such as This, Duty and Desire, and These Three Remain, written from Fitzwilliam Darcy's viewpoint.

You will not be disappointed.

So now it's time for another cup of coffee. Or perhaps a nice cup of tea. Tea is as rare and handy a drink as exists. Chai, anyone? No petit-fours today, howsomever

Best Quote I Heard All Day
Poetry has done enough when it charms, but prose must also convince.--H.L. Mencken

I stopped writing poetry when I was about 18. Just around the time I realized that simply being charming was not going to earn me a living. (Although it's helped a lot during job interviews.)

Lately I've been on a Dixie Chicks kick. Their Grammy-winning album, Taking the Long Way, is one that I highly recommend. Wonderful lyrics, outstanding music. And I'm not a country music fan, per se, so this is not your typical "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" kind of album.

The title track, Taking The Long Way Around, has lyrics that truly remind me of my own life. Because I always seem to take the long way.

Open Mike Tuesday
Two suggestions, one from Patsi Purl and the other from Gauss. In deference to Patsi's fine suggestion, I think many of you opined on that topic already. So it's the Gaussian equation this time around. (Sounds like something that was discussed in my senior chemistry class, the one I barely passed.)

What is the fugliest design you've seen this year? Name names.

Next week, though, let's have a more positive topic of discussion. Negativity can be tiresome. That doesn't mean I want the Pollyannas to crawl out of the woodwork, mind you.

Ongoing Lavold
Put the socks down and went back to the Lavold sweater, since I'd rather like to get it done and move on to the next thing. The front is done, so I will do a sleeve, then the back, and finally the other sleeve. That's usually the order I use when knitting a sweater that's in pieces.


I realize the picture sucks but I was too lazy to take it downstairs to the living room, where it might photograph better.

I will say one thing. If you've never knit a Lavold design and use this book, you won't have the foggiest idea how to make the increases a la Lavold. And as I was reading through the directions for the sleeve to check the sleeve increases, this one sentence struck me as absolutely astonishing:

If necessary, work the last few increase rows closer together.

Excuse me? That tells me two things. One, that whoever wrote these directions--Cornelia Hamilton Tuttle, I believe--really doesn't give a shit about some poor soul who has no experience in calculating sleeve increases and won't have the foggiest idea as to how to figure out if this needs to be done. Or that it's possible to get away with not doing the final few increases. Two, that perhaps the sleeve increases weren't calculated against the row gauge. You have to wonder.

I'm shortening the sleeve and using the directions for the next size down, since I hate baggy sleeves. I opted not to do the sleeves as set-in, since my other Lavold sweater has dropped shoulders, which I modified for a better fit. I will do that on this one as well.

Crochet Shit and Assorted Rants
Whenever one of the Wolverinas does something wonderful, I reserve the right to make a big fucking deal out of it.

My friend Kathy Merrick has made the cover of the latest Interweave Crochet. And it's about time, too. Kathy is unarguably the best crochet designer out there. When you see the crap put out by people like Doris Chan (where on earth did she come from?) and most of the others, Kathy's work is sublime.

One thing I will say in agreement with the comments made about last week's Open Mike discussion. Wenlan Chia's designs are absolutely ghastly. I worry that her "sweaters" will make already bulimia-ridden models believe completely that they are indeed fat.

Uh oh. I have a new name to add to the KC Glossary. ChiaPet.Sorry. Can't help it. Bite me. She's fine fodder.

Lefthanded Knitting and Other Tedious Topics
Obviously, I was being much too obtuse for some readers when I said, quote unquote:

Personally, I'd like to see opinions about the excrutiating difficulty endured by lefthanded knitters, whether knitting needles would have been considered weapons of mass destruction on a JetBlue plane resting on a runway for eight hours, or whether combined knitting is a bigger pain in the ass than it's worth.

Did you honestly think I was asking for a discussion of lefthanded knitting? Please. Perhaps my feeble attempts at sarcasm went over some people's heads.

And I think we've seen altogether much too much whining elsewhere about "I'm scarred because I was told I knit wrong." Shit, I've been a southpaw for years, so what? I knit weird and I don't give a flying fuck. Heh. My fingers do little crab-like movements when knitting. Now that's bizarre.

Combination knitting? I thought perhaps that some Modesitt aficionados might have screamed, "Combination knitting saved me from the depths of despair and the knowing, sly looks of other knitters." Ted, dear, of course anyone with half a brain should be past all of this nonsense. But I maintain that if you can't comprehend the construction of the stitch by some intelligent observation while you knit, learning combination knitting isn't going to make you all the better informed.

Time for bed. Staying up this late isn't so rare and handy. I will post this at the stroke of midnight, just so it's actually Tuesday. And then turn into a rutabaga. Or a pumpkin. Pick a veggie.

Best Quote I Heard All Day
He has been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be put in phials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw inclement summers.--Jonathan Swift

Where the fuck is spring? They say it's here.

The hermetically sealed phials are in some box in the basement, I guess.


A Brief Respite
Took a couple of hours Tuesday to run down to Montclair and have lunch with Mumsy. And visit Stix-n-Stitches. This has become my local yarn shop, even though it is a 34-mile drive each way.

S-n-S is one fabulous yarn shop, for you North Jerseyans and anyone else in the area. They have the best selection of sock yarn I've ever seen in one place, lots of wonderful yarn, a big book section, and they are some of the nicest knitting shop people I've ever met. One of them dragged every single Lavold book out for Ma, rather than her trying to do it herself. Between this place and Twist, I can't bitch.

Although I do wish that I lived next door to Halcyon or Harrisville.

Facing Forward
The Lavold front is almost done.



Now, I'm going to complain about Lavold's directions, which are singularly peculiar and often misleading, to put it mildly. This being my third Lavold, I've come to find that you simply cannot trust the charts nor the directions. I've found mistakes in each of the charts. No schematics in any of her books. She does a particular type of raised increase, which is explained in her first book but not in any of the later books.

So if you buy one of these softcover books and you don't understand how the increase is done (and it must be done her way), you're shit out of luck.

Out of Print
Get your eBay seller's page ready because the Harmony Guides are now out of print. I got that from Stix-n-Stitches, so I scooped up the copies I was missing.

Do I hear a starting bid of $100 a piece?


Charts and Stitch Patterns and Barbara Walker, Oh My!
I like the Harmony books, despite the fact that the earlier ones are not charted. Well, neither are the BW Treasuries but so what? I generally chart them myself. And frankly, the Treasuries' stitch patterns are now so overused that it's gotten to the point where if I see them on a garment in a mag, I often keep going. Twenty-five years of looking at all those patterns, you know?

These days, I use my old Mon Tricot Knitting Encyclopedia 1500 Stitches, Beautiful Knitting Patterns, and an old Burda stitch pattern book from the early '80s.

Michelene commented upon the commercial potential of having the BW Treasury patterns charted. That's an interesting proposition but one that would be an enormous undertaking. I doubt you'll see it, although I think they would sell. Jeez, with all the bad knitting books out there, it would be great to see classics like these revamped.

When Spinsterina made the comment that she was going to convince Eunny to switch to the Japanese charting system, I was amused. The Craft Yarn Council of America will waste a ton of money pushing their Yarn Standards, but no one seems interested in standardizing chart symbols.

I learned charting using the Japanese system in the early '80s because I was a machine knitter at the time. I would not necessarily choose Barbara Walker's system over that one but the knitting industry should pick one and stick to it.

Stitch 'n' Pitch
For fellow baseball fans, TNNA is promoting this. I always take my knitting to ballgames but due to security issues, it's not that easy to drag a large knitting bag into Yankee Stadium. Sock knitting is about all I'll take.

Seems to me that if anyone can turn knitting into an "event" these days, they will. Enough, already.

I'm rather pleased that I didn't see the Yankees on the Stitch 'n' Pitch schedule. Only the Mets. But then the Mets are a warm and fuzzy team, whereas the Yanks are not. They're just rare and handy. Eleven days to Opening Day against the Devil Rays.

Best Quote I Heard All Day
You do wonder whether she's destined for "Dancing With the Stars" at some point.--Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, about Ann Coulter

I'm rooting for Heather Mills McCartney.

Heather v. Ann. Now there's a ratings dance-a-thon.

Getting Lavolder by the Minute

Coming along nicely. I do find the directions rather oddly written at times. For example, you are told to place markers but not where. I decided to block out the patterning with them. It's obvious where the chart begins and ends but I like the markers there, even though I know when to work the chart. Markers = blankies.

I do like the pointy thing; however, it will not be pointing at my ass. The back is plain stockinette with the garter stitch border. Good for when I'm watching Heather do her hiphop routine.

So at least I now have a major project along with the minor (socks) ones.

At some point, I would like to get started on the Wedding Ring Shawl. Even if my teammates chicken out. Perhaps in the spring, when I can sit on the deck with no distractions.

Lazy Me
I'm going to make some observations about the last two entries' comments. Because I'm fatigued today, having lost an hour of sleep with this idiotic early Daylight Savings Time nonsense. I just can't wait to see what wonderful energy savings this will elicit. Seems like it's pissing more people off than not.

Freyalyn: And the Arwen cardi - unexpectedly narrow in the upper arms. Impossible to alter without pulling entire hood out. Resistant to blocking (but real wool might be better). Buggrit.

Yeah, I thought that the directions for the sleeves seemed to make them awfully narrow, based on the amount of plain knitting between the shortrowing. Real wool is always better, dontcha know?

Helena: Spiffy bangs! My sister and I had those too! We hated them.

Ah, you have no idea how much I hated those Buster Brown bangs. Once I became a teenager, I let them grow. My mother would say, "You look like a sheepdog." She still says it.

Michelene: I think if the neckband on the Lavold sweater was narrower, and the button/pin holding it closed was some type of brushed metal and echoed the knotwork, the sweater would be(in the words of the yougest resident teenager) "spifftastic". I'd also nip in the waist, and slightly bell the sleeves. Does the back of the sweater have a point too? I don't need directions to my booty.

Agreed re: the neckline. I'm not nipping in the waist and belling the sleeves. I will certainly shorten the sleeves, though. Because I do not have gorilla arms. My booty needs no GPS indicator. Let alone a knitted one.

Lee Ann: I'd give an opinion about the idea of sweatering a dog, or even about what colour you could go if you (gasp) gave up blonde, if I could only stop laughing at Tricky's notion of a guy wearing that Lavold sweater. I am turning 40 in two months, but clearly I am emotionally a wee bit younger, because I swear, I'd have to make up a song to go with that front flap action.

So, where's the song? I want the song. Turning 40 in two months? Ya think you're getting any sympathy from me, girlfriend? Huh.

Liz: I knew you lived in Morris County somewhere, hadn't realized it was Wharton. I went to MacKinnon MS while my dad was posted at Picatinny.

The Punk Princess is a Duffy ES and MacKinnon MS grad. I've lived in Morris County since 1988, other than a two-year absence when I lived in Allamuchy--10 years in Rockaway Township, 5 years in Budd Lake, 1 year in Mine Hill and now in Wharton. Before that, I lived in Montclair. Grew up there. But I love living in Morris County, although it's getting a bit crowded these days. My sister belongs to the Picatinny Waterpark. I like wangling invites there when I get tired of Mt. Hope Pond in the summer.

Wiki-mania
So, between widgets, wikis and what-have-you, the web is sounding more and more like a Frankie and Annette beach party movie.

Here's my opinion on wikis. Who needs 'em? They are potentially spurious repositories of information, since the general rule is that anyone can add information. And if they are in fact screened for veracity, who's doing the screening? The wiki owner? And who might that person be? Wikipedia has had its share of problems. Smaller, less controlled wikis are open to worse.

And as a dear friend of mine, who shall remain nameless because she also blogs, says, what's the point of having all information in one place?

We don't. And we won't. Because we can't. It ain't happening in our lifetimes. This is more of the instant gratification business that seems to be so pervasive these days. "I want everything handed to me right now, the way I want it."

I far prefer sifting through information that I've culled from Google or going through my bookcase than going to a wiki. There's something much more fulfilling in doing research that way than having it handed to you, all nicely wrapped up and tied with a bow. Because the thrill is in the hunt. And I am the one who determines whether the source is reliable.

I realize that there are several people now engaged in developing knitting wikis. At one time, I thought about doing it. And then asked myself, "Why?" Did I really want to waste my time maintaining something like that when I could perhaps be knitting something? Did I honestly think that any wiki I might start would be the end-all and be-all of knitting knowledge. Nope. After all these years, what I don't know about knitting is what keeps me fascinated with it.

You know the KnitDweebs will continue to ask idiotic questions on the lists. Because if they won't use Google, what makes anyone think they'll bother to use a wiki?

I won't be going to the knitting wikis either. I have books.

So with that, I need a cup of coffee and some TV. And perhaps get to bed early because sleep is a rare and handy commodity, especially when you wake up at 2 a.m. with a dry mouth. Spring in NJ can't come too soon.

Best Quote I Heard All Day
Kilometers are shorter than miles. Save gas, take your next trip in kilometers.--George Carlin

The 503 mile roundtrip from Wharton, NJ to Reston, VA is 809.5 kilometers.

Now doesn't that sound exhausting?

It's so good to be home again, back in Morris County. I gotta say, Reston and Herndon are two of the most soulless places I have ever visited, including Toledo. All concrete, impossible traffic, and more malls than God intended anyone to build.

If I've offended any Restonians or Herndonians, tough shit. I'm a Jersey girl, whaddya want?

No Hope Sunday
I refreshed my jaded palate by visiting with Joe and Thaddeus yesterday down in New Hope, PA, one of my favorite places and definitely two of my very favorite people. Not that I needed to drive more but it's a mere 57 miles from my house to theirs. And certainly far more fulfilling a trip.

Naturally, Joe and I went to Twist first. Naturally, we both bought stuff. Every time I walk into that place, I buy stuff. Deb Brady just knows what to stock. So here's the damage.

Two Elsebeth Lavold books. I haven't seen any of her more recent books, not since the second one, which I didn't care for. But these are gold.

Naturally, I had to buy some Silky Wool to make this sweater from Book Nine.

And yes, as ever, the ball of sock yarn to add to the collection.

(I did not bring my camera, so if you want to see a lovely mugshot of moi reveling in my purchases, Joe put one up on his blog.)

I love to shop with Joe. We have almost identical tastes so we're terrible enablers of each other. Which makes it all the more fun. Read all about the folk-art fish on his blog. I'm really tempted to go back there and buy it, if it isn't a gazillion bucks, which knowing New Hope prices, it probably is. And I have no idea where the hell I'd put it. But I want it.

Boyfriend Myth Solution
I don't believe that crap. However, I think that if you feel a pressing need to knit for your boyfriend, the solution is a pair of socks. For starters.

After all, not everyone LOVES handknit sweaters. My brother won't wear them.

Blasphemy. So bite me.

I had started this design last year and then it got lost in the shuffle. So I resurrected it, got some Soft sock yarn and started a pair of socks for JT. He doesn't know he's getting them yet, but since he does read the blog when he thinks of it, he'll find out. This is his reward for keeping me electronic company in VA so I wasn't too lonely.

I worked on these socks during the little downtime I had. As Joe says, if you don't travel for business, you have no idea how little free time you actually get to knit.

Now, this is a type of broken rib pattern, based on a 2/2 rib. The purls always remain constant, but the knit stitches are broken with purl, alternating every other unit. I stretched out the sock so you can see what I mean.

The nice thing about this stitch pattern is that the purl breaks do not diminish the rib's natural stretchiness. And being an 8-stitch repeat, it works nicely for socks.

If JT's a really good boy, he might get a sweater next. But only if he asks.

More Small Shit
The Julia yarn that Kristin gave me when she was at my house was burning a hole in my bag this week but all I could do were the socks. So today, I started my pillbox hat design, for which I had done the charts. This is lovely yarn to knit with.

Obviously, I haven't gotten very far but I'm liking it. It seems to me that for the past year or so, I've moved away from the bright colors that I generally seek, like a magpie seeks shiny things.

It's time to go back to my colorful roots. Heh. I think I need to think outside the box, to use an express I generally abhor.

Do you all find yourselves stuck in a color rut at one time or another?

(I'm even thinking that my hair color is in a rut. I'm tempted to go a bit darker. After all, I've never made any bones about being a bottle blonde.)

So maybe just because I'm going to be 57 (or 37, as I believe I am mentally) next month, perhaps change is in the wind.

Just sayin'. Alert the media. Oh, shut the fuck up.

You Read It Here First
I'm going on record to say that I will absolutely warp the loom within the next 10 days. If only to shut JT up. He's been razzing me about it.

I'm going to put aside the Morehouse warp and go back to the cotton warp for the kitchen towels. And just try to get something on the loom.

Will tatting be next? Now there's a rare and handy craft for which I have no talent. And no use.

Postscriptum: I want to go on record by saying that the Men Who Knit and the Dogs They Knit For, or whatever the fuck that book is called, is filled with the fugliest designs I've ever seen. Yeah, I know. It's a Modesitt creation. It's totally hideous. Gets my award for the worst knitting book of the year, bar none. So have yourselves a flame-o-rama. Ugly is as ugly does. That's my story and I'm sticking to it, as I always do.