FemiKnitMafia

Okay folks. I have a request. My friend Steel Womb had her hysterectomy last Thursday and was supposed to leave the hospital on Saturday. There were some complications, which are fairly minor from what I can gather. She and her partner/finance L have been there for an extra 3 days already and now the docs are estimating another 6 days! Steel Womb and L are going absolutely stir crazy. But they DO have a laptop and internet access in the hospital room, so this is clearly where we can help. Go team!

Can you please post links to your favorite hilarious, heart-warming, sexy,
inspiring, or just plain raunchy websites in the comments?

Steel Womb is a knitter, but L is not. I can’t wait to see your ideas. The girls will be delighted and eternally grateful, I’m sure.

Okay, here’s the crappy part: I mailed this little womb last week, which was supposed to be part of an inspirational corkboard that L was compiling. It went to the wrong address and was shipped back to me! I nearly cried when I saw it in my mailbox. This little wombie was supposed to be in the hospital right now! Grrr. Argh.

Meanwhile, I’m knitting a pair of fingerless (or fingered, who knows?) mittens for Steel Womb from the same yarn (Ella Rae Palermo) together with Cascade 220 in a deep red. You like?

Post those links, okay? Thanks!

In looking through my ‘07 resolutions, I didn’t do too poorly. Especially when you consider the two huge life changes that were unexpected and largely out of my control: the divorce and being recruited into a graduate program. Still, as I look at the list, I feel a twinge of guilt for not achieving everything I set out to do. It’s silly, I know. But I’m a striver like that.

However, this year I pledge to be a realist. Life is short. Relationships are unpredictable. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. Therefore, I intend to focus more on the present, less on the future, and way less on what other people are doing/accomplishing. Accordingly, my goals are:

Human
… pay attention and go with the flow
… continue to be mindful of my body, fitness and health
… continue to love my little boy with all of my heart, and make all decisions with his needs in mind
… regularly tell friends and family how much I appreciate them

Employee & Student
… focus. focus. focus. produce. produce. produce.
… imagine. envision. create.

Home-owner
… buy a mattress & box spring
… buy a couch
… make wise financial decisions

Creator
… look to the stash (both fabric and fiber) before buying anything new
… finish some WIPs
… have fun

In looking back, I realize that I finished more crafty projects in 2007 than I thought.

It’s funny how you can forget about things that are finished and gifted away, temporary, perpetually in progress, or outgrown. If you ignore all of those items, that leaves 2 pairs of socks, one washrag, a pair of mittens, a hat, and my first skein of handspun. No wonder I’m forgetting my accomplishments!
I fudged the definition a little to allow the Dale to make the cut. After all, I finished the whole body. That’s a finished object, right?

Note to self: try to take more photos of completely finished objects before using/gifting them.

In a moment of crazy youthful impulsiveness, and thanks to blogless Deanna’s tip, I convinced Cheryl to drive across the state to Northampton tonight to see an incredible New Year’s Eve show at the Calvin: Melissa Ferrick, Erin McKeown and Alix Olson, together! There’s also talk of additional surprise guests, and I bet Pamela Means will be one of them. I am so f-ing excited I can barely contain myself!!! Happy Dance. Happy. Happy. Happy. Dance. After the show, we’ll drive east in the wee hours, crash hard, and then go to Danielle’s for the afternoon. What a way to welcome the New Year! Hoooooray!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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 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.

Body
Bruise = very deep purple, arnica slathered (thanks Kat). With all those comments, I Felt The Love.
Sinuses & Lungs = congested, infected, loud, raspy, medicated.

On the Needles
Red Scarf Project = not secret, but not yet blogged. Yet 2/3 finished.
in the Besotted pattern = much love and adoration.
in KnitPicks Swish Superwash = nice, but a bit splitty, especially when frogged.

A Knitter’s Mad Libs
It was a sassy day. I decided to stay in doors and work on my A Cardigan For Arwen. Oh Shit! This pattern is green! I have been hardly knitting this 4 days now. It’s going carefully. What a wagon! I decided to move on and work on my bra. That is a much tighter knit. Only when I was knitting, I made a hose. Now it looks like a drug instead of a bra. I’m so loud. I guess I’ll have to frog and skip it again. Those are the perils of running.
*source: Knotty Bits

Knitastrophe

This photo was taken a couple weeks ago after our first real snow. Little Man is such a good helper, and this is our basic weekend M.O.: I pick a household project and Little Man helps me. At some point he’ll realize this is a racket. But for now, I get some companionship and a little assistance.

However … hold your breath … this is the last time my Celtic Cable Cap was seen in the wild. I know. I know. It’s hard to fathom. It’s a travesty of knitterly justice. Perhaps I lost it. Or perhaps the felting monster made a wee mistake, was too terrified to fess up and shoved the offending piece deep in the trash underneath some old oatmeal. Or perhaps I lost it. I probably lost it. [frown]

The Lesser Knits
With my hat missing and temperatures dipping into the single digits on my ass-crack-of-dawn walk to the train, I broke down and wore in public the formerly beautiful hat that my deceased MIL made for me (now irrevocably stretched out) and the first pair of mittens I ever made. Oh the shame.

To see if I’m really ungrateful, shallow and silly, here’s a poll:

Last year I knit a hat for Little Man, but it was too big. I shoved it into the bottom of a basket and promptly forgot about it. But when the winter winds started to blow, I decided to re-use this very cool yarn combo: Cascade 220 in navy, stranded with Crystal Palace Kid Merino in Indigo #4675 (scroll down). With an ever-growing head, I decided to make the hat too big again, but with expandable all-over ribbing and a big wide cuff, so he could wear it for more than one season.

Apparently Little Man has a different vision. He won’t allow us the roll up the cuff, so he wears it like this.

I have to admit, it’s kinda cute. The ribbing curves nicely around his melon, making a delightfully round shape from every angle.

At the top, I decreased at the same place every time, so the top third of the hat spirals around a bit. Instead of a pom-pom, I opted for a ‘floof’. Yes, that’s a technical term for a loose pom-pom that looks like Wyclef’s hair when he wears it up. See?

Copyright: 2003 Wyclef.com

In all honesty, I tried to find a screen shot of Wyclef from his Sesame Street appearance when he sings “Healthy Food” with Cookie Monster, which is the true inspiration for the ‘floof’, but I can’t find it. I’m not entirely unhappy with this photo, because even us lesbians have to admit that he’s one beautiful man. And while scooting around the web, I found one of my favorite Sesame Street skits on YouTube. Anyone else remember Let’s Sing a Song About J?

Anyway … I also made a pair of mittens for Little Man, so he has a matching set. He loves them, although he’s convinced that “mittens” are actually called “sleeves.”

Now if only I could focus on knitting some mittens for myself. Walking to the train this morning in 20 degree weather was a bit shocking on my bare skin.