Saturday, June 14, 2008

WWKIP? No....instead I get RIP WIP

Today was WWKIP day (world wide knit in public day), and while I did not do any knitting in public, I did do all of the following things:

1) spill coffee all over my brand new white "yarn" t-shirt, thus proving once and for all to myself exactly why it is I don't wear white. Ever.
2) purchase nearly $60 worth of yarn (but I had a gift certificate for $25, and I got some of it for 50% off, so I got a good deal)
3) teach my friend Megan to knit. Yay! The love of the craft is born in a new person.
4) somehow manage to screw up several weeks of hard work and many, many stitches.
Some photographs to accompany my tales:
First, my shirt. I was so essited to wear my new shirt that the Cowboy had bought me for my birthday (after I told him I wanted it). I hadn't worn it yet and was specifically saving it for WWKIP day. I don't have any pictures of me in the shirt, of course because not 15 minutes after I put it on, I was wearing a big fat coffee stain on the front. Brilliant. But here is a link to the page where it can be purchased. Link. Anyway, you will all be glad to hear that I got the stain out thanks to my good friend Megan and her bottles of Spray & Wash and Shout! Which I do not own either of but will next time I go to the store. Excellent little products, I say.
Next, the yarns. Oh, the yarns. I knew I was going to be going to Bluebonnet Yarn Shoppe today because they were having a sidewalk sale, and people were going to be hanging there and knitting. In public. You know. Also, I got a gift certificate from Christy for my birthday and I'd been saving it up for just the right yarn. So in light of those two facts, I sat down this morning with my pattern books and tried to find a pattern that I was interested in making, so I could know what to look for when I enter the store. Ordinarily when I walk into a yarn store, my entire mind just pretty much goes blank, and the drool starts pooling around my mouth. "Uh-duuuuuuuh" are the only words I'm able to muster for the first 12 minutes. And then I just start molesting all the yarns, and pattern? What pattern?
So I tried to prepare myself. Honestly, I don't even remember now, hours later, what pattern it was I had in mind. Probably would have helped if I'd have actually brought the pattern with me, but I'm not that smart folks. I spilled coffee all over myself. I can barely drink beverages without avoiding catastrophe. So of course I can't properly equip myself for a trip to the LYS. Anyway, I walk in, with my coffee stained shirt......and then the uh-duuuuhs start, the drooling, and next thing I know:





I could barely even wait to start knitting up that last yarn. It's so thin and pretty and shimmery and wonderful. I'm making a scarf and really, the yarn is doing all the work for me. I'm just garter stitching it all the way, and it's allowing me to practice my fancy new Continental moves. And that yarn you see in the second picture? It's the new love of my life. If it asked me to rob a bank so that I could afford to go back and buy all it's brothers and sisters, I would do it. I'm not going to tell you how much money that 1 skein of yarn cost, but $18 is a lot of money. I'm just saying is all.
After my productive trip to the store, and a quick change of shirt, I spent the rest of the day with my friend Megan. I guess you guys can officially start calling me a Knitting Teacher, because she is now the second person I've taught to knit in as many months. She picked it up pretty quickly, and like a girl after my own heart, became an instant knitting perfectionist. Starting over eleven or so times in order to get the stitches just right. Honestly, she took to it right away. And I'm not just saying that because she's reading my blog. Hi Megan.

I really hope she keeps up with it, since she lives so close to me. It will be nice to have someone to knit with. Someone I already know who appreciates my wit and can understand my issues.

After such a wonderful and yarn filled day, I would have thought nothing could go wrong. The shirt was already close to ruined. What else could bring me down?

This.


This was my scarf that I'd been working on for the past few weeks. Made with a lovely alpaca/silk blend that I loved so much and had stashed but wasn't sure what to knit with. It asked to be a scarf, and apparently it's had a change of heart. So sad. Tragic. I don't know what happened. I knotted it (I know, I know) AND weaved in the ends, and still, it's managed to come unraveled. Now, I'm sure there is some sort of Magic Fix out there in Yarn Land, but frankly, I don't have the skills to fix this and I'm not sure I want to. I realize that this sort of thing must at one time or another happen to all good knitters. So I'm almost to the point where I will just accept this tragedy and move on. I will always cherish this yarn and the good times this "scarf" and I spent together.

RIP WIP May 2008 - June 2008

1 comment:

Barbara Marr said...

Cap, Thank you for commenting on my blog. Actually it sounds like you had a pretty Good day; discovered 2 new products that really work on stains (that would be enough to make my day - I don't wear white for a reason as well). Then taught a friend to knit. Pretty good accomplishments in my book.

btw, not sure how it works with alpaca/silk blend (silk doesn't felt well) but my trick for joining wool yarns is to unravel both pieces about an inch and wet each piece then overlap them and roll in my hand. It felts them together quite strongly but not obvious in a stitch.