« Loose ends day | Main | Just like decoration cake on a stick! »
January 20, 2005
Red wine and dark chocolate helped
Anouk showed up yesterday and she was really pissed at me (I knew as soon as I said she was missing, she would be in the workbasket where I had already looked twice). She was evil, but now she is nearly done. She just needs blocking, buttons, the some duplicate stitching and the pockets sewn on. I loved the original yarn I used for this project, but I couldn't get anything like it, so I bought some 100% cotton at La Droguerie. Everything bad I have ever heard anyone say about cottons could be said about this yarn. There was no stretch. It split. It was kind of rough and unpleasant to knit with... Besides that, I hate the colors (the light green in particular) and I don't like the stupid stripes. I guess that's my fault. Plus, I dropped stitches here and there and didn't even notice until I had worked several more rows. A couple times I ripped and reknit, but I noticed one dropped stitch when I had already bound off and weaved in all of my ends. The choice was either rip it back and use the frogged yarn to fabricate a fancy cotton noose to hang myself with, or fudge it and secure the stitch. Guess which I picked.
I call this picture "Hell in stitches"
While I was working on Anouk, I couldn't find the last bit of the pink yarn to make one more stupid stripe so I had to dump my entire cotton bag on the floor. I took advantage of that to catalog all of the cotton. In doing so, I reconfirmed that I have way too many random balls of cotton yarns. I think I'm going to have to turn them into a psychadelic squares afghan à la Kay, but mine will have to be knit with thinner yarn if the goal is to empty my stash instead of adding to it, and it will take forever and wil probably eventually be abandonned in the swatchworkbasket to linger with all of my other not-even-half finished projects and ideas. Let me restate that and try not to be defeatist about it before I even start: I'm sure this will be an exciting project that will give me the opportunity to use my extra yarn and time, of which I have plenty (of one of the two anyway). I will weave in my ends as I go and rejoice at how easy it is to mattress stitch the pieces together and I will have a wonderful throw that will be passed down from generation to generation... or maybe a baby blanket will suffice.
Actually, matress stich doesn't really bug me. And here's the proof:
And I call this one "Still Lise with Unkillable Geraniums"
OK, fine. It looked a lot better to me at 2:30 am when I did it, but it's pretty good. And overall, Loose Ends Day was a success. There are a couple things that I didn't get to ahem petit chou cough cough dishes ahem laundry cough but still...
And I don't usually speak about political stuff here, but...
40 million is a lot of freaking money!
According to Will Lester of the AP, it could buy "200 armored Humvees with the best armor for troops in Iraq, [or] vaccinations and preventive health care for 22 million children in regions devastated by the tsunami [or] a down payment on the nation's deficit, which hit a record-breaking $412 billion last year." Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's private money (besides the $17.3 million that DC is going to have to pay for) but I think it's just not responsible, whether there's a war going on or not and whether it's a Republican or a Democrat that's doing the partying. And I don't want companies to have more access to our government than the rest of us because they have the money to throw a big party for someone who's already in office. Sorry, but when I look at what's going on in the US and the entire world, I don't feel like celebrating.
Posted by kate at January 20, 2005 08:45 AM
Comments
I love the captions. I'm happy you're almost Anouked - I'll retire that KAL as soon as you do. It was very fun, but after a year of KALing, I'm ready to move on to the next Kate thing! xox
Posted by: Julia at January 23, 2005 11:19 PM
Damn! That reminds me. I did a Lise just before Christmas for a friend of mine who was having a baby and I keep meaning to send you a pic,
Posted by: Angela at January 21, 2005 09:21 PM
Kate,
I must send you a pic of the geraniums we have. Ours, however, are in a pot inside, and are desperately trying to escape on every side, and basically drive me nuts. I feel like I'm going to wake up to a cry of "Feed Me, Seymore!" any day now!
Posted by: kim at January 21, 2005 08:01 AM
anouk looks good from here...sorry about all of the drudgery, though. and you're certainly "on the money" so to speak. it's not a good thing.
Posted by: mrspilkington at January 20, 2005 08:14 PM
I KNOW about hell in stitches. That stinks.....but it really does look cute! Oh - I LOVE your new green shoes! I am coveting them!
Posted by: shannon at January 20, 2005 05:53 PM
Cheers to that. But not really "cheers". I'mana stop now.
Posted by: valentina at January 20, 2005 03:43 PM
It is only 10h23 and I feel like trying the red wine and dark chocolate remedy again, thanks to BBC World News coverage of the big party for Mr. "I have been called from beyond the stars..." Denis's theory is that this must be why he wants to spend so much on exploration of Mars instead of feeding and educating children...All I can think, too, is that there ain't that much difference between what the US deigned to give to help with tsunami relief and what it costs to celebrate the beginning of what promises to be 4 very bitter years. Glad to see I'm not the only one who shrieked "40 million is a loooot of freakin' money!!!"
I raise my glass to you, sweetie...I can almost feel that Anouk yarn on my hands. Ouch. You are a brave, kind woman. Your MIL owes you bigtime.
Posted by: Lee Ann at January 20, 2005 03:32 PM
Man - sorry my post hit twice:(
Must have had too much Java this a.m. and double, triple clicked!
Posted by: Nicole from Boston at January 20, 2005 02:03 PM
Sorry to hear you are not liking Anouk :( From the pictures it looks great! I hate knitting with some cottons for just the reasons you noted. The only one I seem to get along with is Mission Falls Cotton. Have you ever tried that? I still need to finish up my Anouk. For some reason I am stumped as to how to sew the pockets on? I have not had too much experience with pockets and every time I pick Anouk up to finish the pockets I conveniently find something else to do - ya know?
Do you have any suggestions on the best way to get pockets on – or any links to web pages that help?
PS – I agree about Mr. B’s party today.
Posted by: Nicole from Boston at January 20, 2005 01:59 PM
always an inspiration.... I am with you 100% on your thoughts about what this country is doing. I am so ashamed. no friends of mine like B...
I am knitting away some. frustration
Posted by: nancy at January 20, 2005 01:33 PM
like they used to say, now still say "right on" Kate!
nice work, I know you worked hard on this Anouk.
Posted by: terry at January 20, 2005 12:53 PM
Anouk is beautiful - great colors!!
Posted by: Jackie at January 20, 2005 12:42 PM
