Crikey

So, um, CAN you spare some change? Ha! My camera is still no good ...







And, to add insult to injury, it seems that we have a "main line" blocked in our plumbing. It cost several hundred bucks to find out we had this problem. I shudder to think of how much it is going to cost to actually remedy. Speaking of shuddering ...



I started a new project, instead of finishing my scarf which I swear I am going to finish tonight, at SnB, honestly, I am, because that new project I started? Ick! Now there are a couple of things going on here. First, lets talk about the yarn. I've heard much love for the Opal sock yarn, and, in fact, have purchased it before. And I have knitted it before.



This is the third or fourth scarf I ever knit. I purchased the yarn in Maine one summer while with my aunt. She was a sweater knitter and had never knit socks (the closest thing being Christmas stockings) and was not down with the sock yarn per se. The packaging made it seem like the yarn would knit up all tiger print - the term "rain forest" was on the label too. Rain forest = Tiger = Tiger Print Yarn. We thought a tiger print scarf would be cool. We even talked about it with the yarnmonger. The yarnmonger never said, well this is STRIPING yarn or this is NOT going to knit up in a tiger print. Nada. You can imagine our surprise as stripe after stripe came out perfectly um, striped, with nary a tiger print to be seen. I just kept knitting thinking SOMETHING would happen. It did, stripes, stripes and more stripes.*



In any event, that scarf, despite its stripes, is super soft. So, coming back to my point, I'd heard the love of the Opal, I'd experienced the love of the Opal - sorta - and figured I would make some Opal socks. I saw an Opal sock where the stripes went up and down (instead of around) on a foreign (non-American) company's website and was intrigued so I ordered the Opal yarn from them (in a color very similar to my scarf; I must like tigers a lot) and got the pattern (for free, score!) from them.

But you see, this new Opal yarn? Not soft. In fact, this new Opal yarn? Scratchy. Mind you I am cheap (and masochistic) so I am using this yarn no matter what. I mean, maybe it is scratchy enough to exfoliate my feet while I wear them, right? That'd be useful. But ick. Not nice on the hands while I knit either. It has been suggested (and I hope this is correct) that it might soften up after some washing. I must remember to get me some fabric softener!

So I was a touch despondent over the yarn itself and then I took a closer look at the pattern.** Yowsers. The pattern was a bit more than I wanted to deal with so I decided to instead make some Jaywalkers. Hey, I'm often an hour late and a dollar short, but dammit, I like those Jaywalker socks even if I didn't catch on until about six months after all of the cool kids had already come, conquered, and got the socks (as opposed to getting the t-shirt, get it? Never mind!).

Jaywalkers, yah, the pattern is written for the dpn's, something I am not exactly fabulous with using. But whatever, I didn't understand the alternative toe-up or circular instructions** so I was following the original instructions. Which meant that I had to buy some size one dpn's. I liked the Inox ones I used for Fetching, so I bought some of those. Without really thinking it through. I remembered that I broke a wooden dpn and I remembered that I dented my Addis (I must be a tight fisted knitter or angry or something) so my main objective was "hard to break" since I figured I could use the toe-up recipe once I understood the original one. So, I did manage to fulfill the "hard to break" factor. But these babies, they are EIGHT INCHES LONG. I have stabbed myself over, and over, and over again. Okay self, I thought, time to get shorter ones, in a six inch length, like the size sixes you liked. But I couldn't find any by Inox, or anyone for that matter. I was able to find Susan Bates ones that were seven inches long, and figured one inch shorter was better than nothing, so I bought those - twice - because they come in a four pack and I needed five. But you know what? These ones suck too. For a different reason. They are more grabby and so the yarn doesn't move along the needles. So now, I have been to four stores and am still not thrilled.



I ended up ordering some which I hope I will like better. In the meantime, I will "carry on" and "make it work" (I love you Tim Gunn) but, um, even without the scratchy thing and the needles thing, the color, it isn't coming out all pretty. Argh!?!

So, really, what I'm saying is that I am making some Jaywalkers but I'm not loving them ... twenty-seven paragraphs could have been limited to one sentence. Heh. Life, however, is not all doom and gloom over here. No sirree, we have good stuff too!

HI SECRET PAL! My Secret Pal, she is good stuff. I've already gotten some e-mails and hints of goodies on their way!

And, look at this:





Cuteness!

* Incidentally, I am so sentimental that I will not frog this scarf and make it into the socks that it really wants to be (which I think would look nicer too) since my aunt cast it on for me back when my casting on was spotty at best.

** I have this mental thing with patterns where I can't understand them when I read them. I can't visualize what they are telling me to do. I have to either summon up the energy to just sit down and do it, or someone has to show it to me how to do it.