vonCookie’s CraftyBits

so demandeth the spiral fracture in my pinky finger:

i cannot knit… believe me, i tried.

i can crochet a little bit… but after about 30 stitches i need many pain killers

i haven’t even attempted to cross stitch.

all there is left to do is read, write (longhand), and watch tv or dent my netflix queue.

no crafting, no longer.

::sniff::sob::sigh::

as it turns out, no fracture to my little pinky, but still in a splint for a few weeks while the swelling goes down. still no crafts 4 me. at least the pain is getting better. still, i had just started on a pair of socks from “new pathways for sock knitters” and i was really excited about them… oh well. i’ll be that much more enthusiastic about then in six weeks, i hope.

in th meantime, let’s play one-handed dissertation writing!!!

i fell and broke a bone in my hand, now i’m in a sling, soon 2 b a cast. am lost w/o my knitting!!!!

Cross-posted from my other blog: onetoughvoncookie.com

As a knitter, I love knit-alongs. I think they’re great. And there’s a Yahoo! group that has fabulous patterns and has been much fun to, well, knit along with. Yeah, I objected to some of the religious-themed dishcloths, but c’mon, they’re dishcloths, who says they need to be secular? Who says they need to be anything except seasonally appropriate if possible, and occasionally technically challenging? And to be fair to the moderator, she did give ample warning that the religious-themed dishcloths were on their way; the overly-sensitive had fair time not to buy the yarn for that month’s cloth. God knows (irony intended) that there’s no shortage of dishcloth patterns to substitute for that one pesky religious-themed dishcloth.

But what happens when you get a bunch of knitters together who in turn both support and oppose the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? All it takes is one post saying “Here are some ways to knit for the troops” and both bleeding-heart liberals and dyed-in-the-wool military families are up at arms, battling each other over whether the wars are justified.  When all they really need to do is knit some dishcloths and send them to people who need them.

The moderator wrote in the rules of the group that ALL POSTS *MUST* BE KNITTING RELATED. And to be fair, that first one was—the one about knitting for the troops. What resulted was in horrible taste, each side beating up on the other passionately, each feeling that they were on the moral high ground, not realizing that a civil comment opposing the war devolved into pitiless flaming.

And so I quit the group. I want to knit dishcloths, not debate this 5-year long war. And actually, yes, I’d like to knit something for the troops, despite my peacenik belief system. But I couldn’t go without airing my thoughts on the matter. Here’s what I wrote:

****************

First let me say that I have enjoyed the dishcloths, that I agree that sending whatever we can to support the troops is a worthy cause, and that I equally respect the opposing viewpoint offered by scrunchy. What I do not support is flaming. I realize that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are emotional for many people for many reasons, some personal due to family connections, some political, etc. It only recently hit home for me what a sacrifice we are asking of our young men and women who have volunteered to shoulder this burden of war, while we here at home have been asked to sacrifice very little–in which case, sending a few dishcloths or bandages or whatever we can muster is hardly a wasted use of our stash. What I wish we could all see, though, is that a house divided against itself cannot stand. We must honor each other, respect each other, especially in times of war. Opinion, free speech, equality, liberty: these are the foundations of our nation, and we honor that each in our own way. I am leaving the group because I feel that there has been too much intolerance expressed here in this forum, on both sides of the issue. And I am also leaving the group because I came here to knit, not to witness insults and verbal battery whose blame is shared among all who have participated in this discussion. I will look for ways to support the troops, but I will also exercise my right to free speech, and say here that this has been an inappropriate use of this forum, and perhaps these discussions are best carried on face to face, when we can see that we are all, still, at the end of the day, equally human and equally fallible.

Peace.
************

I stand by what I said. At all times, in all nations, let there be dignity, let there be respect, and let us all love our neighbor, even more than we love ourselves.

As much as I love it, I need a break from knitting. And crochet. And yarn altogether. I don’t know why—perhaps it’s the amount of deadline knitting I’ve had to do lately making me reluctant to pick up my needles. A shame.

But of course there is no break from general craftiness!!!

I’ve picked up my cross-stitch again, and am currently working on a project that I started (I think) back in 2005. It’s a Mirabilia design, my first Mirabilia, and it’s a real treat. It’s called “Fairie Treasures” and I’m stitching it for a friend of mine who has MS.

The little jewel box that the fairie is holding has three options as to what it holds: “Peace”, “Joy”, and “Love”. I want my friend to have all three, but one must win over the others. Right now I’m leaning towards “Peace”, considering our war-time conditions, and considering how much pain my friend finds herself in most of the time due to her MS.

I’m taking a poll, though, and would appreciate any feedback. Peace, Joy or Love? Which should get stitched on the box of treasures?

Oh Dear God. Debbie Stoller really needs to rename her “Big Bad Baby Blanket” as found in Stitch ‘n Bitch. She should be calling it the Big Bad Boring Baby Blanket because, for the love of Pete, it’s ridiculously dull. The fact that I’m doing it in a lovely color of Rowan 4-ply Cashsoft isn’t even enough to redeem it. However, when I think that my friend smoody’s little newborn will be wrapped up in it in a few months, that seems to make it a little better.

Honestly, I’d rather be working on the Giant San Francisco Giants socks (which have now returned to normal size, thanks to ‘Stasia’s quick thinking, and me paying much closer attention to the instructions), which I need to finish by 11 May.

But first the BBBBB, which needs to be done by Saturday. THIS Saturday.

I also have a conference paper due the same day—oy. The conference paper makes up for the Boring in the baby blanket, because I’m doing brain surgery with a chainsaw it seems, or trying to carve Netsuke with a machete. But more about that on my regular blog.

Now back to the BBC and the BBBBB.

The Giant Giants Socks are giant because Sensational Knitted Socks has a bad editor.  The problem occurred in the heel turn.  First of all, the pattern I’m using is the Six-Stitch, Twin-Rib pattern.  The instructions say that I’m supposed to do a short row heel, but following that it has some vague instructions about “inc 1 in each row” (exact wording to follow).  Basically, the vague instructions result in a HUGE heel, because it arguably tells you to increase one stitch per short row, which makes no sense.
Thanks to my friend ‘Stasia for figuring this out.  Now I just need to frog the sock up to the heel flap, and then keep going.

For a bunch of errata in Sensational Knitted Socks, go to the Martingale website where they have a list of Very Important Corrections.

I’m trying to knit a pair of socks for my favorite SF Giants fan for his birthday. It’s not going so well. I’ve been using the 6-Stitch Twin-Rib pattern from “Sensational Knitted Socks”, and, aside from the cast-on being waaaaay too tight (can’t fix that now), the socks a freakin’ HUGE, and the heel seems to be turned all wrong, even though I followed the instructions to the letter and even checked for errata online (and there are some significant errata, FYI).

I can’t frog the sock, even though I know it won’t fit him. I’ve already arrived at the gusset, and I knit the heel in a different color, so I’ve broken the yarn.

Help! I want to give these as a gift, but how can I give them in good conscience when I know they won’t fit! Yikes!!!!

Recipe:

Yarn: Patons Shetland Chunky in Biscuit (8 or so skeins), Deep Sage (4 skeins) and Russet (2 skeins).

4 10″ panels in stitch of choice in Biscuit, separated by stripe sequences of Deep Sage and Russet.

Seed stitch border on selvage edge.

If you want the full pattern, it’s in the “Little Box of Knitted Throws“, the “Holiday Sampler” pattern. They recommend certain stitches, but really, you can substitute any stitch that you like, as long as you don’t have to make more than one or two stitches (or alternately, decrease by one or two stitches.)

Pix of the Manly-Man blanket are on Flickr.

I finished last night the knitting on the Manly-Man Blanket, a gift for my stepfather’s birthday in April. I have a lot of end-weaving-in to do, but it’ll get done in time, I hope. I’ve got just under a month. You can go to my Flickr page to see pictures of it: vonCookie is the name, of course.