Crunch Time

Hey y'all! So, for the past three weeks I've been busting it in the studio, trying to get ready for a show on Sunday and finish some entries for a few film festivals. While I like to consider myself a relatively laidback kind of guy, when I have deadlines, I'm more of a wild-eyed, don't know if I'm gonna knife ya or cry kinda guy.

I will post some pictures after the show so we can all look, discuss, and determine if I'd be more suited to a career in the sitting at home and watching The People's Court industry.
Until then, I have this:



These are some t-shirts I've been dyeing for a project in May. There are 30lbs of 'em in 7 colors. While most every 12 year old can successfully dye a t-shirt, it took me three tries to get it right. Three freaking times. You would think that with all of my experience dyeing wool and reading about fiber that I would have been smart enough to realize that the dye I was using was acid dye and not cellulose-reactive dye. Hmmm. Strike one.

At least while I waited for each load of [7(colors)x3(dye failures)=loser] to wash and dry, I knit the sleeve of my Zipped Raglan. I would be able to show you said sleeve if I hadn't left it in my studio. Strike two.
However, I can show you guys the beautiful yarn I bought months ago to make my winter hat:



See that? My colorblind ass thought that was grey. If I knit a hat out of that, I'll look like a freaking easter egg. That's right, strike three. Damn.

So let's recap. Colorblind artist can't figure out why he can't dye cotton with wool dye on the first two tries. Thank god I love Judge Joe Matthus.

What Homework?

Like I said, I've been fitting knitting time in whenever possible, which is completely unlike me. I'm normally a very lazy knitter who prefers to read blogs, buy yarn and plan sweaters 3 years in advance. This is everything I've been knitting for the past few weeks:

I was caught downtown a few days ago in a t-shirt in fifty degree weather, necessatating a store bought sweater. I bought one on my break that looks like something i would knit myself, except it was missing elbow patches, so I knit some:



The patches are knit out of knitpicks telemark on size 2 needles. I haven't had time to block them and sew the suckers on, but all in good time.

I'm knitting a scarf on the train:



This scarf is really killing my fragile knitter ego. First of all, the yarn is beautiful, soft and spongey. Run it through my grubby man-hands and it becomes snagged, pilled and hairy. I'm trying to compensate by handling it more gently, but that results in really ugly stitches. It kind of looks like I was knitting baby cables. The best I can hope for at this point is a bohemian look. Le sigh.

I started knitting Major from Rowan. Well, kind of. I had to use a completely different pattern due to Rowan's really awful sizing issues and worse schematics. I'll add the details from the origional pattern to a sweater sized for a human being and all will be well.



*Note: Please ignore the awful lighting. I knit this in my studio, where natural light is only spoken about in rumor. That also explains why I've only knit 5 inches of the back of a sweater knit on size 17 needles. Don't judge me. I do plan on passing this semester.

I'm still knitting the zipped raglan. I finished the body and have started a sleeve. I'm knitting the smallest size, but I knit it to the length of the large. This may be finished one day. I'm aiming for Thanksgiving. Please do not hold back ridicule if the end of November comes and I have a body and half of a sleeve knit. Be cruel, otherwise how am I ever going to learn?



And a sleeve:

Knitting like a Mofo

Now that I've decided that I'm knitting for the shear pleasure of it, I'm knitting everywhere and everything that will sit still long enough for me to wrap it around a needle. I have a project to knit on the train, one for when I'm waiting at the dentist, or what have you, one to work on while I dub videos, one for my studio when I want to feel productive and one for when I watch tv at home.
Wow, that may be a little excessive, as I'm sure that several of those could be consolidated. No matter. I will show pictures when I have a second and some decent lighting. Until then, be good and fruitfull and all of that.

Old School

I spent my day Monday dubbing betamax masters (who here remembers beta?). This process involves some initial set up and then watching several hours of footage, making sure that the audio levels and the video synch up, etc. I figured that it would be most industrious to knit while I kept an eye on the video. The footage was from the 1970 National Woman's Day Women's Liberation Rally and it was really fantastic!

There was an interview with a man on the street where the camera person questioned this young fellow's views on feminism and liberation, where it was determined that the man not only cooks and cleans for his female roommates, but they had also taught him how to sew the patches on his jeans. I have a feeling that this gentleman has gone on to do well with the ladies.

I wonder how many of these activists ever dreamed that 40 years later, a man would sit in a studio, watching and preserving the footage from these rallies, marches and performances, while knitting socks.



Right on.

Zen. Well, Not Yet

I found a copy of Bernadette Murphy's Zen and the Art of Knitting in a used book store the other day (as well as A Guide for the Jewish Homemaker from 1956, which I also bought, but I digress). It's been my subway reading for the past week or so and I must say, it is enthralling. For the past few years I've definatly been what one could call a product knitter. I stress over how well I can knit something and how fast it gets done. No matter how fat the yarn is or how simple the pattern, I always find myself racing for the finish line with white knuckles and my naturaly colorful dialect erupting from between my cleched and grinding teeth. Either that, or I abandon a project in the second half if it's not going as fast as I want it to.

I realized this morning that it's been 10 days since my last post (horrors!) and how while I've been knitting, I didn't have much to show for it. I found my sweater stopped halfway through a row and on the first row of a new stripe. While this would normally infuriate me to no end (I'm a really laid back guy, I just seem to have some completely misdirected yarn rage issues) I just picked it up to finish my row and and continued worrying about the fact that in just two years I would be jobless, and 100k in the hole. When I noticed that I was knitting a sweater out of $15 balls of wool while stressing about money, I laughed. Hard.

I looked at my big pile o' wool and wondered how I was able to afford all of the yarn for this sweater when three years ago I considered buying lambspride a luxury. I remembered that Andrew bought me a ball for our first Valentines Day, and I bought three more in the same color with a gift certificate I got for my birthday. Two balls came from a day I aced a Botany exam and so on.
While normally I try to avoid the corny, the wistful and the hopeful, I had an ephiphany. A lot of small steps go a long way. My knitting will get done. My work will get done. The house cleaning probably won't get done ( let's be honest here).

Okay. that being said, Here's where I'm at on the sweater:



Here's the yarn:



Oh knitting, you are wise and have many lessons to teach us.

School

I finally have a minute to post after my first week of school, and sadly, the knitting is not very impressive. I've knit a few rounds on the sock and about 2 inches on the body of the sweater. I think I may need to get into gear because Fall is pretty much here in the windy city. I know those of you who live in the colder regions of this fine planet may scoff, but I'm from the South and when the weather drops below 60F, I start mentally cataloging my woolen goods and whether or not I have something for each of my extremities. I know that it's going to get a lot colder, I'm just saying.

But for now, the weather is awesome! To prove it, here is a picture of where I've been whiling away my former knitting time:



Pretty great, huh? Here's my little corner of it:



While it may not look very stimulating, I'm so freaking excited that I have a studio so I don't have to search for clean socks amidst a mountain of spot lights, electrical cords and surgical supplies (don't ask).

If you look in the corner of my table ( mere feet from my freaking sweet new computer) you will see a pair of socks that probably wants to be finished. In due time, I'm sure. Until then, there is work to be done.

Long Time No See

So this past week was orientation and the beginning of school. I seem to have forgotten how to blog in all of the excitement. I also got interviewed and got a kick ass job this week, which is good, because it was getting to the point that we were going to have to start eating the stash. The cats were extremely happy that it didn't come to that. In honor of the start of school and work, I started a new project.



It's the Men's Zipped Raglan from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. The color is 108 and the picture looks nothing like the actual color, which is grey and brown, not blue. I wish I had some yarn the color of that picture, though. I'm really digging the knitting. It's going fast and easy. It's slightly combersome because I'm being a good knitter and alternating balls of yarn.

The real reason I'm using two balls is because I ripped half of the yarn from a previous sweater that I am glad only exists in my veiled memories. The old yarn is slightly thinner because I washed it and wound the balls tightly. I'm ok with this. As long as I knit from a new ball and an old ball at all times everything will even out, right? I also like knitting the whole thing in one piece. It soothes my mind into believing that I will actually have this finished by the time it's cool enough to wear it.



While I was photographing the sweater I took the liberty of shooting one of my favorite statues.



This is Quan Yin. She is the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy and Compassion. I collect idols of all kinds and she is one of my favorites and by far the biggest (she's 4 feet of solid concrete. You do the math, a lady never declares her weight). Namaste, y'all.