This is mostly a knitting blog. Sometimes pictures of things I've made, sometimes not. I'm a guy who knits, I usually attend a men's stitch 'n' bitch on Monday nights, and I prefer natural fibres to artificial ones. I have a love-hate relationship with bamboo yarns: I love what they can do and how they look, I hate how they are made. I've been knitting since about 2003, though I really didn't get into it until 2005, while convelescing with a broken leg. I must have discovered something good, 'cause I'm still knitting years later.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

I just returned from New Orleans, where I was celebrating Mardi Gras. Beads, daquiris, and yes, yarn! I took some time out from the parades and celebrations to visit Quarter Stitch to peruse the yarn there. I found a bunch of things I wanted to take home with me, but settled on four skeins of Malabrigo Rios, two in Ravelry Red and two in Purple Mystery. I already know what will be done with the purple, but the red skeins, which greatly appeal to me, are still without a project. But that red! It grabs you and shakes you.

I did a bit of knitting on the plane down to Mardi Gras, but never did any while actually in New Orleans. There were beads to be caught! Daquiris to be drunk! Hell to be raised! And I had a terrific time.

I'm back home in Boston now, with much to mull over. At the top of the list, what will I do with that red yarn. The secondary questions, what I'll do with the rest of my life, is really not as important. The beads are put away, the yarn added to the stash, and real life once again rears its ugly head.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Bad knitter, no yarn!

I've not posted much recently, for a variety of reasons. Partly I haven't done a whole lot of knitting (I didn't pick up the needles between 3 Feb and 10 Feb) in the last few weeks. My mind has been elsewhere, and I've felt no call to the needles. Until this week. Finished a hat for Joel and started a scarf for Alex and worked on Carlene's lace scarf and made something that needs to be felted (with more to come -- plans, baby, I've got BIG plans!) and looked over a hat pattern for Tom and thought about making a sweater for myself (never mind the six or seven or eight sweaters I already have on the needles) and thought about a lacy scarf or shawl in the gorgeous Shibui mohair/silk I got and thought that I'd like to get more Shibui mohair/silk, but in green and maybe that gorgeous cobalt blue and did some prep work for my trip to New Orleans and can I think of anything to add without the use of a comma?

Deep breath!

I do love a run-on sentence.

One of the big things looming on my calendar is a trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. Of course I shall take some time out of a busy schedule, filled with parades, swamp tours, plantation tours, carousing, and dreams of fornication to visit Quarter Stitch, that delightful yarn (and needlepoint) store in the French Quarter. I might even buy some stuff. Or not, since money is tight. But I'll probably come away with something lovely. I always manage to find yarn that I can't find at home.

I'm bringing my computer to Mardi Gras. I'll post any new yarn I pick up. And my on-the-plane project is a chemo cap in cotton for the sister-in-law of a friend. I've got the pattern picked out, the cotton yarn, in a beautiful dusty rose, and the needles all put aside, ready to be placed in my backpack and keep me busy whilst in the air. And on the ground at the layover. And while my buddies are sleeping in (am I the only person who really doesn't need much sleep during MG? I believe that I'll get plenty of sleep when I'm dead) I can get some knitting done. Maybe. If I'm not out getting beignets and cafe-au-lait.

By the way, the Quarter Stitch still does not have a website. I think I'll speak to the owner about that. It's such a delightful store, it needs an on-line presence.