I'm doing it again

I think I've picked up an additional hobby, rather unintentionally. Knitting seems to be contagious.

It's not that I don't already have 5 or 6 hats around the house in a variety of naalbinding, crotchet, or knitting. But but but....



Oh, by the by....some recently acquired knitting knowledge:

Ripping back one's knitting to fix a mistake is considerably less satisfying then ripping it back because you have an artistic difference with reality.

New tricks for some Auld Phartes

The new year is bringing in a few new tricks for some of our favourite folks at Treheima.

My big strong man takes things into his own hands....


....and made this step stool for our aging doggie. He's having trouble getting up on the bed these days - the arthritis in his hips is sometimes troublesome.


I took up my knitting needles for the first time in 25 years.... and made this scarf and hat, inventing what passes for a pattern as I went.


Karen

Seven things

Nina tagged me with a meme (bless her heart, I did need a kick) - 7 previously unknown things about me.

1. I've never bought a gadget direct from one of those tv infomercials.

2. But I have been tempted, and found at least two of them in a store later and bought them there. The indirectness of finding it in the store later saves my geeky pride.

3. The Perfect Pancake, and the Quick Chop, in case you were wondering. One's been useful and the other a complete flunk.

4. I don't own a Klingon dictionary. ;)

5. But I do own at least two of the Nitpicker's Guides - a) for Deep Space Nine Trekkers and b) for Next Generation Trekkers.

6. I prefer the term "Trekkie".

7. I just started knitting again, after nearly a 25 year hiatus. And I blame the Yarn Harlot. :)

Garden Stuff, Yarn Harlot

The potatoes that we bought at the market just before it closed for the season have started to sprout. I need to get them in pots, with dirt, and hibernating in a cold dark place.



I need to not plant these seeds too soon - like right now, when there's still too many weeks left before they can be moved outdoors.



Last night, I attended a meeting of the KW Knitters' Guild. These are my friend Linday's hands, happily knitting away on her latest project. It was a little too dark for the speed at which her hands were moving so the picture is a little blurry.



The big draw that got me out to the meeting, was this lady. The Yarn Harlot - or Stephanie Pearl-McGee.

Here she's taking a picture of her latest sock project meeting the audience.

Now.....I'm not a knitter. *gasp*

But I do spin (dim and archaic!), weave, naalbind, and crochet. I'm also a natural dyer, and growing natural dyes like weld, woad, dyers' broom, alkanet and madder in my garden. I'm a bit of a gardening nut.

It's not that I don't know how to knit, I just prefer to give my energy to other string crafts. I know, I know.... it's some kind of evil.

The Yarn Harlot is a very very funny lady. If I ever ran into her in a bar, I'd buy her a beer and get out of her hair so she can keep on knitting in peace. I imagine the groupie factor must be annoying sometimes.

I'm saving my geeky groupie side for someone else.

Karen