FemiKnitMafia

Look! I’m knitting. Almost done with the stripey mittens. In fact, I started the hand decreases tonight.

See my crooked bird flying at Danielle while she took the picture? Yep, I’m charming. Clearly I was provoked.

*The password for the protected posts can be accessed by writing to me at thefeministmafia AT yahoo DOT com. If I don’t know you, I reserve the right to say no. If I say no, please don’t take it personally. It’s freaky over there. Intense. Personal. Raw. And I’m trusting the people I let into that space to treat me very gently.

the first time, you were scratchy and biased

and you fell apart if i tugged too hard

in time, i learned how to twist you without breaking you

after a long bath i realized how truly dirty you were

you softened and relaxed and draped yourself across my lap

your twists less sharp, but biased still

because you’re a single looking for the way

The mitten-in-progress learned some Economics tonight

What mitten, you ask? Flying under the blogdar, it’s Austermann Step (the yarn with Aloe Vera and JoJoBo Oil in it) that was intended to be a sock for those first couple inches of ribbing, and suddenly screamed out to be a mitten. What can I say? I do what the yarn tells me.

How’s this for sexy?

It’s especially sexy when you note the pile of crap on Wifey’s bedside stand (I’m not trash-talkin’ here. mine is equally gross), the half-scraped wallpaper behind the lamp (which represents every wall in our bedroom), the Wall Street Journal on my computer, and lesson plans on Wifey’s computer. Yeah, we’re hot.

With two weeks of not blogging, there are more stories to tell than little Ms. Mafia has time to write up. Grad school has started, and the administrators repeated over and over again the importance of setting low expectations for our non-work & non-school obligations. Because I always do what I’m told [snicker], I’m here to set some low expectations.

Will I blog less? Yeah, probably a lot less. Email less? Yep. [as if I was ever good at emailing.] Comment less? Yes. Knit less? I’m afraid so. Spin less? Uh-huh. [she pauses to shed a tear.] Perhaps I’ll switch to a photo blog? Or post less frequently? I don’t know. For the next month or so, there will be changes, and I can’t anticipate what it’ll look like ’round here.

But I know one thing — I’m not going to stop blogging. After 2.5 years, it’s part of my life, and I would really miss you guys. In fact, I may need you now more than ever.

I have knitting pictures on my new computer, so stay tuned for those. In the meantime, here’s a heart-melting Nora picture and some yarn p0rn.

Med Student Kristen bought this emerald cone for me during the early days of the stash bust, and it lived with Cate for many moons so I could honestly say that I didn’t own it. But I’ve taken a flying leap off the stash bust wagon, so why not just confess. I present two pounds of pure tweedy emerald lust:

It’s mine. I love it. I can’t wait to use it. And while I contemplate an appropriate DK pattern, I’ll knit up a pair of Marina Piccolas with this Jaeger Matchmaker (which are sitting on the cone to emphasize how truly enormous the emerald lust is). Beth enabled the Jaeger purchase and we’re about to begin a wee two-person-Marina-Piccola-public-transport-KAL, so hopefully these won’t take too long to complete.

For additional lusting, go see Beth’s amazing Shetland Triangle and Cate’s stunning Autumn Rose sleeves. Enjoy!

It’s like something out of a book (pg. 105) — I go to this crazy place with a bunch of wicked crazy people. I see and meet a bunch of crazy people. I drink alcoholic-bevvies with even more crazy people, and then suddenly, like I’ve been released from the clutches of boredom, Icarus is suddenly ready for the fun part!

Black hole - buh-bye!

Chart 2, here I come.

Thanks to the Harlot for a wonderful evening. And for the record, I was not involved in the panty incident. Nope, not me. I was innocently playing with precious babies in the back row the whole night.

There are so many things happening all at once. Philly trip was great, despite a couple setbacks. Sesame Place sucks - don’t take your kids there. And kids aren’t exactly welcome at Loop: I’ve been there before, and I love the selection, but it’s a yarn museum. Consider yourself warned. However, the train ride was easy peasy. Brigantine beach was perfection. The Please Touch Museum was incredible!! Pure bliss for kids and adults.

Mafia and Little Man in the Alice in Wonderland exhibit’s Hall of Doors & Mirrors

Then I ran off to a conference for work, which was great, and I learned about the “conference slut” phenomenon from a colleague. No worries. Despite the lure, I’m no cheater.

Now I’m back to my regularly scheduled life, and MIT work is insane. Full of pressure and people freaking out. My gay consulting gig is also freaking out, which is totally natural considering that it’s T-minus-10-days until their big fundraiser. And I start teaching another class in T-minus-7-days. I decided on a program for grad school, so I’m planning to take the GREs this fall (studying to begin in late August).

In the spirit of Favorite Things Monday, here are a couple of my current favorite things.

SockPal socks are about 70% done, thanks to the work conference, where I’m known as the “knitter.”

A pair of sock blockers from a Leggy Creations contest, thanks to Danielle! They’re wonderful!

The best $6 I’ve ever spent — this butterfly caused fits of giggles, pride, and some serious strutting around the Phildelphia Zoo, which was an incredible place!

>

The blog is suffering, and will continue to suffer for a few more weeks. Don’t abandon me, okay?

Yep, all of this was 70% off. It was almost immoral.

That’s 8 skeins of Debbie Bliss Pure Cashmere and 1 ball of Reynolds Odyssey in a color that I’ve been ogling for months, and it cost me just over $30. Meow.

ETA: Sorry for being unintentionally vague.  I got this haul on Saturday at Three Bags Full in Newburyport.  The shop is closing and Saturday was literally the very last day, so everything was 70% off.  I didn’t expect to find anything, considering that the shop started with 20% off sale pricing many weeks ago and has been slowly offering better and better prices.  But it wasn’t totally picked over.  Hooray!

The Upside Down Beth socks are officially finished.

I noticed recently that the two sides of my short row heels are different. After struggling to figure out short rows, I thought I was in the clear, but one side has a line that runs up the seam (seen on left) and the other has a series of teeny holes (seen on right). They’re quite functional, and since I’ve memorized the directions, I can knit these on the train (where I do 90% of my knitting). But I’m not sure that either way is “correct” (whatever that is), I visually prefer the little line (on left). Perhaps someday I’ll learn the right way, or at least a more perfect way.

Next time I knit socks, I’ll cast on a couple more stitches. These were knit on 64 stitches and while I like my socks really snug, the fabric is a bit stretched out on the foot. See …

And off the foot:

I like how the colors are clear and crisp when the fabric is relaxed.

While I like the picot edge, unless I find some really good instructions for sewing the hem facing on toe-up socks, I’ll probably just do a picot cast off from now on. I tried picking up stitches and knitting them together, but the needles are so small and the hem facing was curling and I couldn’t twist the needles around to make it work. So I did a stretchy EZ cast off and sewed the hem facing down. It was fiddly.

And finally … look how much yarn I have left!

Perhaps enough for a pair of Little Man socks, or perhaps a newborn hat and bootie set. Hmmm …

Despite the statements above, I really really love these socks. It was a million degrees on the second floor of our house last night and I still didn’t want to take them off. I can’t wait for a cold spell or a good camping trip so I can wear them.

Pattern: 64 stitch stockinette socks with the toe from Elfine, short row heels and a picot turned hem. Two socks on two circulars.
Gauge: a bit over 9 stitches per inch
Needles: Knit Picks circulars, size 0/2mm.
Materials: J. Knits Superwash Me - Light Sock yarn, Color AC #144 (a discontinued colorway), a birthday gift from Nina.
Finished Measurements: 14 1/2″ long from cuff to toe along top; 9 1/2″ from heel to toe along sole; 8 1/2″ from sole to cuff along back; 3 1/2″ across the foot.
Started: June 1, 2007
Finished: June 27, 2007
Notes: They’re a little too narrow. Next time, try 68 cast on stitches. Otherwise, pure love.

After a couple weeks off, I cast on the first sleeve of the Baby Dale.

Instead of the wide fold-back solid-color garter stitch cuff that the pattern calls for, I modified the sleeve cuff to match the bottom edge of the cardigan with these little stripes that I adore.

It feels great to be crawling toward the finish line. However, I’m knitting the sleeves using the Magic Loop method and I’m struggling with the tension at the turns. I have to stop after every turn to adjust the floats.

When those floats start to annoy me, I simply shift back to socks. Last night on the train, I decided to copy Beth’s standard sock recipe and knit a picot edge cuff on these socks. Since Beth knits cuff down and I knit toe up, these socks are officially dubbed the Upside-Down Beth Socks.

After one picot row, 6 rows of stockinette and some hem sewing, they’ll be ready to wear. Perhaps I’ll have a finished sock photo tomorrow.

*more garden photos on Flickr, including the teeeeeeniest little cucumber and zucchini you ever saw.

This beautiful J. Knits sock yarn is well suited for a simple stockinette sock (not so suited for Elfine, unfortunately). I contemplated inserting a really simple pattern with a horizontal orientation for the leg, but why mess with perfection? I love this fabric, and since the heels are done, I’ll be knitting in the round for quite some time.

This is exactly the break I needed after finishing the body of the Dale.  I’m feeling the Dale love resurfacing though, so I’ll probably cast on for the first sleeve at some point this week.  And there’s also the upcoming Marina Piccola socks for my SockPal.  Such fun!