JP,
You keep coming up with really beautiful posts and interesting things to say, and I’ve got nothing. I’ve been doing some steady knitting, but nothing too great to show.
I have been having some bad luck with my Options needles, through no fault of their own. This last weekend I went to visit my Uncle in San Jose. My Mom is staying there for about a week And she’s going to Stitches West this weekend. I’m so jealous. I did give her a few things to look for, for me. Maybe I’ll get some Raven clan STR out of it! We all drove up to Lafayette (east side of Bay) for a Chinese New Year potluck at my cousin’s house. Here’s a group photo!:
Anyway, back to the needle. I of course had my knitting on the flight and in my tote bag in the car. When I got to my Uncle’s house, I realized that one of my Options needles was totally bent. It was mind-boggling. It was a size 6US needle, a metal one. It was bent maybe 30 degrees. My Uncle had to pull out pliers and tools to unbend it. I should have taken a picture. I have no idea how it happened. It would have taken a lot of force to bend it like that. Our only idea is that it got shut in the car door somehow. That still doesn’t answer any questions though, because my bag was on my left side in the passenger seat, away from the door. It’s a mystery.
And then a couple of days ago, the cats were playing around and Miely was digging under the couch at my feet, maybe looking for a toy under there. Or so I thought. When I actually look to see what’s going on, she’s already bitten clear through one of my Options cables that was in my bag on the ground. So annoying. I’m not surprised she did it, she’s kind of destructive. Once she was playing around with a “fridge pack” of cream soda that was on the ground in a cubby. She was pushing the cans back and seeing them roll back. Next thing there is cream soda spraying out across the room, onto the table and my roommate’s computer and the cats have ran off. She bit into a full can of soda! I can’t imagine how much pressure it would take to rupture the can.
Not too much needle drama, but enough to feel like a trend. The needle my Uncle straightened seems to be working out okay. There are a few textured sections from the tools, but they aren’t snagging or anything. I might order another set when I eventually put in a KnitPicks order.
I’ve been working on the Cross Strap Top from Vogue Spring/Summer 2007. Every time people ask about it, I alway make excuses for it. “I’m making this top that nobody likes but me…” Since there’s a pretty strong consensus against it, I feel like I need to let people know that I’m aware that it isn’t a popular choice. But making something that hundreds of people aren’t making is kind of exciting to me. I will join that one other picture on ravelry! I’m enjoying the knitting, but it’s really involved. FYI: a crapload of errata. A whole written out page! Even the pattern chart is different than the one in the magazine. I’ll never do a Vogue pattern without looking around for corrections first. This pattern takes a lot of thinking. There’s two charts, and it’s always asking me to increase in pattern, and it takes a lot of thought to remember where I am on the pattern. My difficulties are multiplied by the fact that I’m either too lazy or too cocky to use row counters. I’m not sure how it’s too lazy, because they would simplify my life, but I am too lazy to buy them and then get accustomed to using them. So now I’m kind of using my magnetic chart keeper, but mostly trying to remember where I’m at and reading my knitting. I don’t have any good pictures of the top, but here’s one of the back. The front is more interesting with a giant cable down the middle:
Notice that Car Repairs for Dummies book by my bed? I really want to be able to do all maintenance and non-body work on my car. I think that would be pretty exciting. Monday, after realizing there was no SnB, I discovered my headlight was out. Then I bought and installed a new one all by myself! No consulting anyone over the phone or anything. It’s a little victory, but an exciting one nonetheless.
Sometimes I realize that I pride myself on really stupid things. Here are a few random things that I pride myself at being good at: I’m good at getting out tangles and knots, putting together riveteers (like in a stock room/vault), and jigsaw puzzles. I know there’s a few more. It seems so ridiculous to get your self-worth by being good at jigsaw puzzles. But I am crazy good at jigsaw puzzles. When I’m really bored I go to www.jigzone.com and do jigsaw puzzles online. I’ve been crazy ramble-y today so I better stop!
See you tonight at That Yarn Store in Eagle Rock. Martinis and yarn! Ooh, I went to two bay area yarn stores this last weekend and all I bought was the latest Rowan Magazine. What self-control!
Jill B.
jill & jill 
Hi! I know just how you feel. I used to change my own oil (my first car – a Chevette) and also change the snow tires on and off. I got started on the whole tune up thing and was defeated when one of the parts I bought was entirely the wrong one (due to a bad listing in one of those books). The same thing happened recently when I went to change the tail light in my current car. The computer was just plain wrong – even the one at the Toyota dealer! I also like to assemble knock-down furniture.
And of course I like to knit. You would think Vogue could do a little better in their checking and editing. I hope the top turns out well for you after all this effort!
Jill, You’re not crazy! I was raised on Jigsaw puzzles and I swear I have them to thank for making my job as an animation EFX assistant so much easier. My job is to do a drawing between two key drawings. The shapes I draw have to be halfway between the keys, so if one key has a pointy curve and the other one has a more rounded curve, I have to draw something a little pointy, but a little rounded. If you do jigsaws, you get it immediately!
As far as changing light bulbs goes, I have to admit defeat. I have a New Beetle. The service manual for that page says “Take it to a dealer for repair”. I opened to that page after having gone to Pep Boys and purchasing the bulb! I’d overheard someone who said he got on the phone with a dealer and demanded that he walk him though it. So I called my favorite service manager and told him I knew it could be done and that I had the bulb and the rubber mallet for tapping the black box (with the bulb assembly) back in gently, but he told me that he’d watched them change a bulb on a beetle and he wouldn’t attempt it! New Beetles remind me of dwarves (I mean no disrespect). I had a friend who couldn’t have an angioplasty because his body was so compact.
I think it used to be so much easier to do maintenance on old Corollas and Pintos in the old days. But they seemed to need it more, then, too, so it’s a trade-off!