Cables for the sake of Cables…

ARE allowed.

So anyway, my “nearly completed” crocheting project and I are currently Not on Speaking Terms (I tried to love you, really I did – why did you have to become inexplicably ugly on assembly?), and so I gave in to the urge and picked up the needles again. I wanted cables. Not just cables, of course, I have this thing against making things with neither point nor purpose. So it had to be a cabled something. Not a sweater – too big, I just need a quick fix – not socks (I don’t want to worry about shaping, just the cables), not, for heaven’s sake, a scarf (see above qualms about pointlessness). Then it came to me – a shrug. Now, I hate shrugs. Well, I did. I still do hate some of them. The ‘acceptable shrug’ is a fine line to walk, but it was exactly what I wanted in terms of a project – more likely to be worn than a scarf, a ‘wearable’ without the commitment of a sweater, and best of all, a rectangle which required no shaping whatsoever (perfect for cable-y goodness). Anyway, enough talk, I’m going to show you my swatch.

Isn’t it lovely? The center motif is a Celtic/Saxon Braid, which I love, bounded by two big, fat braids. Super fun! It’s gratuitous cabling at its best. Now, swatching was always the plan, and it’s a good thing, too. I estimated the number of stitches I would need, according to the gauge listed on the yarn label, but I forgot (hey! I’m a noob knitter. Give me a break.) that cables scrunch the work horizontally. It’s where they get their poofy goodness. So, that means that now I can add some more gratuitous cables on the outside of the braids to reach the correct dimensions in the actual attempt on the shruggery.

I did something else unexpected today. I actually felt dirty afterwards. Really, truly, dirty – oh, wait, that was actual dirt. Moving on. I went trash diving. I’m not an experienced trash diver, but not above seizing something I stumble across. My alert next-door neighbor knocked on my door this morning to tell me that some people nearby were moving, and had left something at the trash pad that she thought Max and I might want. Take a look:

She meant the table, of course. The cooler was a bonus. They’re both in fabulous condition (I checked before I hauled them to my patio). I mean, the little table isn’t even FADED, a minor Texas miracle for something that has obviously been an outside toy. Both are dirty, of course, but dirty washes off.

Seriously, though, I was looking over my shoulder as I carted off my loot, hoping I was interpreting the stuff’s position among the trash cans correctly, and that there would be no ‘Stop! Thief!’ behind me…

Happy Bloggiversary, happy bloggiversary…

…happy bloggiversary, haaaaaaappy bloggiversary! I’ve been blogging for a year! Hurray! In honor of the occasion I am pleased to present the Gallery of Finished Objects, available now for your viewing pleasure. It is not yet up as a link on the sidebar, but it will be – um, as soon as I…can. There you can find a picture of EVERY (almost every) finished object I have completed since late 2004, complete with a small blurb about the project and, where available, a link to the pattern whether it be free or for sale. That was kind of fun, going through all of my old pics and posts, finding information and dates and stuff.

At any rate, I am ALMOST finished with my current crocheting project, which slid into the UFO category after being neglected for over a month. It’s the last in a small collection of for-sale patterns (do you realize I haven’t added a sale pattern since last fall? Sheesh.) that should be fun. I seem to have a knack for designing toys…

ETA: Look, I’ve had over 60,000 hits in this year – that’s more than 1100 hits a week, averaged out. Hi, everybody!

Whew! Glad that’s over…

Not that knitting the sweater was unpleasant. But as I got closer and closer to the end, I started thinking about what I would tackle next. So along with the growing urge to run off and pick up one of my various works-in-progress, I was beating off ideas for new designs with a stick. (Seriously, I had to draw them out in my sketchbook before they would leave me alone!) It got even worse once the actual knitting was finished and I had cast off. Then I blocked it (and I totally understand the knitter’s obsession with blocking now, there’s no way that stockinette would behave itself without the application of steam and a hot metal plate), wove in the ends, and seamed it. I was almost sweating with the effort it took to keep focused long enough to hand-sew the little cloth ties and sew them on. (It took me all day yesterday to do that one step.) But I stuck with it, and it’s beautiful! Look!

Of course, now that it’s completely finished, including photographic documentation and posting about it, I have no idea what I’m going to do next.