In which I am tagged and share other news

The Tag:
What is your all-time favourite yarn to knit with?
Hmmm, I tend to knit with yarn that I can afford, rather than what I fondle in the stores.

Oh, I know: Rowan wool/cotton (out of the yarns I've knit w/so far.)

Your favourite needles?
My 16" #5 addi turbos. One day I'll indulge in more...

The worst thing you’ve ever knit?
I've actually liked all of the things I've knit. Most frustrating? Perhaps Kyoto because of all the seaming.

Your most favourite knit pattern? (maybe you don’t like wearing it…but it was the most fun to knit)
The Saucy Tote from SnB Nation

Most valuable knitting technique?
Knitting in the round

Frogging with the confidence that I can get back to where I left off

Best knit book or magazine?
Book: Stitch 'n Bitch (though we're talking a very limited library)

Magazine: Knitty.com!!

Your favorite knit-a-long?
I really knit too slow to participate, I think.

Your favorite knitblogs?
San Francisco Knitter
Crazy Aunt Purl
Snake Surly

more to come...

Your favorite knitwear designer?
Don't have one yet

The knit item you wear the most? (how about a picture of it!)
I've worn Kyoto out of the house twice, which is two more times than Tempting, so I guess that counts. (need to block Tempting to get a curvier shape, I think)

Tag time!

Oh, SFK tagged Laurie, who is about the only person I know enough to tag, I think...


The Sad:

I looked up Sitcom Chic on the Knitty patterns forum & discovered what I suspected: I was doing the increase on the sleeve incorrectly. :( So, I ripped all the way back to the three first ribbed rows and started over. With a little help from Rupert Everett as Sherlock Holmes (ME-OW! Thanks, Masterpiece Theatre! I can pretend he's not gay if I want to.), I managed to get back to round 36 -- only 18 more rows to go before I catch up to where I was before frogging.

The nice thing is that I think I came to more peace with the dpns -- got into a groove and knit all those rows without it being tiresome. So I think maybe I need to not pick it up unless I'm going to do more than 6 rows -- gotta get into the zone and have at it.

Am hoping to do some more today, but need to pick up a book at the library and go to Berkeley Bowl, which is always horrid on a Sunday.

Finished "The Great Stink" by Clare Clark last night -- if you like historical novels, go get it. Reminicent of Dickens a little (and speaking of which, do you like my David Copperfield-style title today?) Also just finished "The Devil Wears Prada", which was cute and skewer-y in the same vein as "The Nannie Diaries", fun to read, but ultimately forgettable.

I am picking up "Onions in the Stew", which I discovered through Snake Surly's blog archives. It was written by Betty MacDonald, who wrote the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books which I loved loved loved as a kid, and can't wait to buy for my children. So, thanks to SS for the recommendation. Onions is a memoir, but I expect to enjoy it nonetheless.

And for a truly geek moment:

Last year I kept track of how many books I read -- 2004 was 127 (Hello, luxuries of grad school). To date in 2005: 72. The Difference? I learned to knit this year, so now books don't always have my undivided attention. However, I read each and every day, which cannot be said for knitting, so they will always be my first true love. Ah, well, once we have kids, it will be on the order of 5 books and no knitting, I guess. :)

Today's buying spree! The dark yarn in back is actually brown, though it looks black here.

Wheee -- more new yarn!

So Mr. CTK woke up sick today, so I ran errands to get out of the house.

Felt totally virtuous as I picked up drycleaning, bought healthy bread at SemiFreddi's and bought coffee -- so many things off the checklist!

Then I went to Sweet Adeline's and ordered cakes for a party next weekend and hopped over to Michael's and used my 40% off coupon to buy some size 6 needles for Sweet Mary Jane. I also got 2 skeins of baby type yarn to do some charity knitting at an upcoming work "Lunch and Knit".

AND THEN, I took myself off to Stash! on Solano Avenue. Totally beautiful store & I loved the way they had the yarn arranged (stacked so the colors go from dark to light up the shelving). YUM! I got yarn to do 2 of the surprises from Knitty -- the pumpkins and Yorick. I ended up buying a cheaper yarn for Yorick, since it would have cost $40 to do it in Classic Elite Lush. As soon as I asked for Lush, the woman at the store said, "Oh, are you making the skull scarf on Knitty?" ha ha.

Although I swore my stash wouldn't ever grow beyond a project or two out from what I was making, I guess I can confirm that my yarn buying habits are akin to my book buying habits -- can't go into a store without coming away with something!

Thanks to SFK for the tag -- I'm going to answer it tomorrow. Now is time for yarn fondling and matzo ball soup that I bought for Mr. CTK. I also got him some flowers to cheer him up because he is too sick to go out tonight.

Dishcloth Cotton?

You are Dishcloth Cotton.
You are a very hard worker, most at home when
you're at home. You are thrifty and seemingly
born to clean. You are considered to be a Plain
Jane, but you are too practical to notice.


What kind of yarn are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

What? Hmmm, several of those quiz answers were tough to choose. I really think I should be a yarn that attracts a little more attention!

So, I changed a few answers, and got this:


You are Mohair.
You are a warm and fuzzy type who works well with
others, doing your share without being too
weighty. You can be stubborn and absolutely
refuse to change your position once it is set,
but that's okay since you are good at covering
up your mistakes.


What kind of yarn are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Proof that Kyoto is finally done!

Do not taunt the Happy Fun Ball!

Ooooo-wheee! That's some mighty purty yarn!

Here's the unending sleeve for Sitcom Chic -- a nice blueberry color for my mom

Mr. CTK as Paul Stanley -- note the realistic chest hair!

Don't worry, photos on the way

I had to endure Mr. CTK's laughter and taunting last night as I photographed:

My beautiful new hank of ArtFibers Celtic & new gigantor #17 needles

Said hank wound in to center-pull ball

Sleeve of Sitcom Chic that I've been whining about

Body of Sitcom Chic

But, he calmed down enough to take photos of me in my finished Kyoto!

To get back at him, I'll also post some photos of him as Paul Stanley from last weekend's pre-Halloween party.

Two big YAY!s for Monday:

Get to pick up my new sparkly ring from its sizing appointment

Get to go over to a friend's house where she gets over 300 children and pass out candy while maintaining an accurate count with my little tally counter (normally used for counting rows of knitting).


Got to put my first paycheck in the bank today, so celebrated by buying new black socks that hopefully won't fade to grey-ish black since I got trouser socks rather than regular cotton socks.

we interrupt our regularly scheduled work for yarn therapy

So I found myself bouncing from task to task in the late afternoon today without accomplishing anything, so decided that I needed a break.

Since I am attempting healthy eating habits lately, my normal answer: "Specialties cookie hot from the oven", wasn't going to cut it.

I decided I deserved 1) a quick project to free me from the tedium of sleeves on dpns and 2) a scarf that actually coordinates with a coat that I usually wear some poorly matched color

Answer: Artfibers Celtic in *gorgeous* pink! Had been dreaming about it for several weeks, and figured since I was getting paid on Friday (tomorrow!!!), I could go for it. And I need the size 17 needles to go with it. YAHOO!

Too bad I need to wind the hank into a ball, or I would be tempted to cast on while on BART tonight.

back to your regularly scheduled working....

Another quickie post

Hello? hello? Is this thing on?

Sitcom Chic progress: I did 12 rounds last night, bringing me past the halfway done point on sleeve 1. (or, 1/4 done if you could all dpn knitting for both sleeves). Can't wait to attach to the body!

Also, earlier this week I got my knitpicks order with the Sweet Mary Jane pattern (100% of proceeds go to breast cancer research!) and the recommended yarn to knit it with in Jewels. The pattern was a tiny bit more complicated than I expected. It will be my first lace project.

Am wondering if I shouldn't try to do a lacy scarf first. But, the cute thing is that you make a sachet bag as your swatch for SMJ, so I can try my technique out there. 4 skeins to wind into center pull balls before I get to that point (plus finishing Sitcom Chic).

Wow -- Extraordinary & Scommesse!!

Someone called my blog extraodinary! I am so excited!!!! Wowee-zowee!!

And, I can find all about Scommesse if I click the extraordinary commenter's link.

Scommesse!! How have I lived without it for so long?!? Especially when such wise and wonderful people like those that call my blog extraordinary clearly are in the know!!!

Extraordinarily yours,

CTK
(soon to be arrested by the punctuation police for overuse of exclamation points, but really, can you blame me?)

Web Ring-a-ding-ding

I joined a web ring, so now I truly feel a part of the blogger culture. Except I can't figure out how to log on, so perhaps I should be feeling all kewl and hip so soon.

A little about knitting so I don't get kicked off the web ring before I even get started.

Worked on Sitcom Chic some yesterday. I have finished the body up to the armpits, and am now working on the sleeves w/dpns. UGH! I have so much dpn anxiety that I am going to wind up with big holes from not pulling tight enough at the joins between needles that it takes me quite a while. And when I'm done with this one, I get to do it all over again. I guess I need to keep the end goal in mind.

I'm blogging right now because I am procrastinating on doing some mindless work that I don't really want to do. But, it does fill the time, and I am going to leave a little early today to schlep the booth display for a recruiting night I am going to tomorrow home on BART -- don't want to be on BART with this behemouth (sp?) during rush hour. I only have 1 short flight of stairs to navigate & then I should be home free.

The best news is that this Friday is MY FIRST PAY DAY! Woo Hoo! I haven't received a real regular paycheck since last summer and that was only for a 3 month internship. Really, I haven't had a real paycheck since August 2003! But them student loans is all tax-free, so I can't complain too much.

ok. on to folder stuffing, even though I am missing one of the pieces I need.

Quick at work post

Ooooo, I'm sneakily posting from work for the first time, just to satisfy Ms. SFK! :) I haven't been posting much because I've actually been pretty busy with work tasks -- and then the last thing I want to do when I get home is to get on the computer.


Yesterday was my birthday, and it was a very nice day. Even though I am so new at my job that I had no work celebrations. I finally broke down and let people know so I wouldn't get the "why didn't you say something?" down the road.

I left work and did a little shopping (a new shirt from Talbots and a new sweater from Ann Taylor). Then Mr. CTK picked me up and we went to dinner at Le Charm, a little French bistro type place in San Francisco. It was quite romantic -- we had Kir Royals to start off -- yum! Then I had their incredible French Onion Soup, and Duck Confit for my entree and Tarte Tatin for dessert. Delicieux!

Mr. CTK got me a gaw-jus pearl ring with little diamonds on the sides. I'm sure he spent waaaayyyy too much, but I love it too much to feel more than just a tiny bit guilty. (Especially since his birthday present was a humble knitted hat). Had to take it to get it sized, so I don't get to fully enjoy it until 10 days from now. Boo hoo.

I guess I have freak fingers -- he bought a ring that fits my left hand, but not my right. I'll post a pic once I get it back.

Tonight we are going to see The Briefs at The Bottom of the Hill, and then tomorrow we are going to an early Halloween party at a friend's place. I haven't ever seen their apt, but I guess it is pretty tiny, so we may all be squished in like sardines. No big costumes allowed. I'll probably do last minute costume lameness since I've never been all that into getting dressed up for Halloween.

Back to the salt mines!

Yay -- blog stalking works!

My first comment from someone who knows me IRL. I was really only posting in her sister in law's blog so she'd come find me. hee hee hee

No, really, Breed Em and Weep is hysterically funny. Everyone go read it right now -- it takes the pressure off of me to come up with anything witty today.

I finally got my computer at work! yay! Now I need to get one of those rearview mirrors for your monitor so that people cannot sneak up on me. Why to they design cubicles so sitting at your computer makes you sit with your back to the cube hole? How's a person supposed to comfortably noodle around on the web if anyone could sneak up on you and catch you reading blogs when you are supposed to be working?

Tomorrow night we are going to a ukelele and musical saw concert put on by two of our friends. Woo Hoo! They are really quite funny together.

Today we have some exciting trips planned: Target for a baby gift and Berkeley Public Library and Berkeley Bowl. The baby gift is for a shower tomorrow afternoon. I knit the little umbilical cord hat pictured in a previous post, but thought I should also get something a little more practical. We must be in the first round of showers for the couple because there are still a lot of things left on the registry.

Blegh -- blog spam

I get all excited to see that there are comments in my blog, and recently several of them have been spam. Ugh. What a let down.

What on my site indicates that I'm terribly interested in debit cards?!?

I'd forgotten how starting a new job makes you feel lame. Noone knows you exist, you sit staring in the distance for several hours trying to pretend you are wisely contemplating your new duties, and you have no security badge so you have to knock on the door to the floor until someone takes pity on you and rescues you from the elevator area.

On the bright side, I should have a computer soon, so I can do some "research" about my new position and best practices on the internet. (read: catch up on personal email and blogs until some actual work is generated for me)

Start my new job today

I start my new job today -- don't have to go in until noon, because my boss is arriving on a flight from Atlanta at 10:30am. That's rather nice. So I slept in for about an hour after I will need to normally start getting up, then got up and went to the grocery store to stock up on food for the week -- hoping to avoid expensive and fattening restaurant meals now that I'm working.

I finally finished Kyoto -- YAY!!!

Was going to leave you all a photo, but I didn't like any of my self portraits -- they didn't show off the sweater too well, and weren't very flattering of me. Then my camera batteries died, so I took that as a sign to wait for Mr. CTK to come home and take a photo tonight.

I wore it out on Friday, and it was quite comfortable. One of my best friend's was in town for a medical conference, so we went out to eat with him, and then met some of his doctor friends at the Redwood Room at the Clift hotel. It was filled with 20-somethings and the uniform of the evening was (women) -- tank top with sequin details, (men) -- metrosexual patterned shirt left untucked (to hide burgeoning beer gut??).


Saturday night was New Wave City's 13th Anniversary party -- they always do a preparty, which I have catered for the last six years or so. This year we expected a smallish crowd so I made fewer dishes than I normally do. All was very tasty & it was a much lower stress day than usual, when I am running around like a chicken with my head cut off.

The next day I wanted to cut my head off for real -- I'll spare you all the ugly details, but let's just say I met this very nice bartender who poured me VERY STRONG drinks. Ugh. I hated life all day until Mr. CTK took me to Saul's for some matzo ball soup.

Was supposed to go over to my brother's to watch the Blue Angels, but decided black rooftop + sun + loud planes flying overhead == more disasterous than I could contemplate. I don't really get the Fleet Week activity appeal -- how many loop de loops do you need to see a plane do anyway.

My high school was near the Navy base in Alameda, so we always had some assembly involving the Navy Singer or some such when Fleet Week took place. The Blue Angels cost some enormous amount of money everytime they get into the sky (because of how much fuel they burn, I think), plus the training costs, so they haven't been a part of Fleet Week here for the last couple of years. My dad was a Navy pilot, so I guess I would have gone and been supportive if not for the hangover thing...

I'd better go figure out what I am going to wear today.

A post about knitting idiocy

So I've posted that I finished putting Kyoto together, tried it on, and discovered taht it was a wee bit too tight under the armpits.

After crying on Knitty.com about it, a poster helped me see that I needed to take the sleeves off, rip them back and work in some increases.

Tuesday I took off one sleeve, carefully ripped back so as not to end up with holes in my sleeve, worked in some increases, sewed it back on, and tried it on. Hooray! That worked! I am so great and smart and knitting proficient that I can hardly stand myself.

So then I was sick of seaming, so I put the sweater down. Tuesday evening, while in front of the TV, I took off the "second" sleeve for corrections. I think I was watching a rerun of Friends, so its not like I can blame what's coming on an engrossing show like "Lost" or anything. Then I undid the cast off row, threaded my needles through and put it down again.

On Wednesday, I started ripping back a few rows, and then realized I couldn't remember whether I ended up knitting 6 or 7 rows from where I did the increases. Look at "first" sleeve -- can't find where I increased. Turn "first" sleeve around and around in puzzlement -- how did my increases disappear so completely??

Look at detached sleeve in my hand -- Ohhhhhhh, there's the increases! Yes, folks, I managed to detach the sleeve I'd already fix *and* rip it back a few rows before I discovered what I'd done. DUH!!

So, I decided to rip back until the increase row and change from M1 increases to inc1 and add two more increases as long as I was already an idiot. Sewed that sleeve back on, and then got smart enough to stick a safety pin in it so I couldn't get confused again.

Detached true second sleeve, ripped back, increased, and casted off without incident. Now the last bit of seaming and some weaving in of ends, and I should be all set to wear it. (though I am afraid that I am so sick of this sweater that the wearing isn't so appealing right now).

I did cast on for "Sitcom Chic" last night in Cotton Ease Blueberry for my mom for Christmas. If I don't finish in time, her birthday is in March, (and better cotton sweater weather), so its all good. Later I plan to make one for myself in black, but may have to do a few projects in between.

Mr. CTK's birthday hat. This yarn is yummy though the hat came out a little big since I swatched on 10.5 needles and knit most of it on 11 -- bad bad knitting habits!!

another view of the bunny hat

bunny hat from SnB Nation and umbilical cord hat from SnB. I can't decide whether to sew the face on the bunny hat or just let the child's face stand in for the bunny's. Umbilical cord hat is for a friend's baby shower

Well, Where the H*** have You been?!?

Sigh, it has been many days since I updated my blog, probably losing any regular readers that I might have had out there in cyberspace.

If its any consolation, I've been making up witty posts in my head while I've been away (through no fault of my own -- see story below). Of course, I've forgotten most of them now, so it's not like you're getting any benefit from all that thinking.

So on September 15th, I'm heading out the door for yoga, and my neighbor stops me to ask if I've changed my phone number. She said she got the disconnected message when she tried to call me about how the person delivering the new phone books just threw one set in the yard, when there are two households here. (I love my neighbor to death, but sometimes her rants are a little too motivated out of boredom, or concern for trivia).

Anyway, I assume that she misdialed or something, and go off to yoga and forget all about it.

The next morning I check my email & my dad has sent an email saying that my phone line is down. This takes place about 45 minutes before my new boss is supposed to call me about details for the new job. So I call SBC and find out that my "landlord" -- some name I'd never heard of -- put in a cancellation order because I had "moved" and a new tenant was going to be moving in and getting a new phone line. In the midst of the hour long conversation (thank goodness for cell phones), I find out that the phone cancellation also involves cancellation of our DSL. Supposedly, SBC sent me a letter on the 9th saying if we don't hear from you by September 15th, we're cutting off your phone service. This letter in fact arrives at our house on Saturday the 17th!!!

I was freaking out a bit -- identity theft issues and all that. Fortunately, I already have fraud alerts on all of my credit cards because a UC Berkeley computer was stolen that contained personal data on hundreds of people.

So, the upshot is, my DSL was turned back on on September 28th -- that's the accelerated plan, folks. My days were sad and long without internet service. A friend said "Can't you go to the library or something?" But what you really miss is all of the dinking around you can do when the internet is coming straight into your house. I'm not going to the library to look up some guest star on an episode of "Little House on the Prairie" on imdb.com, yet I feel perfectly justified doing this in my own home because it only takes a few seconds.

On the brighter side of things, I did a lot of knitting over these weeks. Pictures coming soon.

Mr. CTK and I went to the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield, CA last Friday. They have a tour and you get to sample all the newest flavors -- roasted garlic and baked bean, yuck! Mint Trio and Blackberry, yum!

I was also going to post about my...um, friend, yeah, friend who had an ass zit that was so huge you could see the lump when she had on underwear and khakis, but I'm, I mean, she's over that distress, so why talk about ugly ugly things in life like that?!?

What else, dear reader? Oh yes, I called my soon-to-be new boss yesterday because I hadn't received my offer letter, or, more importantly, papers to go to my drug screening. She called this morning and said Fedex showed delivery last Thursday to my front porch. No documents to be found under my doormat or with my neighbors (though I doubted they would hold on to them that long anyway).

So between this, and the phone line thing, I fear I may be coming off as the World's Biggest Flake to soon-to-be new boss. In an effort to make it up to her, I offered to take BART into San Francisco to pick up the necessary paperwork -- especially since I need to get this drug screening done or it could push back my start date. Still waiting (slightly anxiously) for her to call back and let me know if that's possible. Thank goodness I've worked for the company before so I have some stored up credibility with others that work there. Blegh.

I am almost almost done with Kyoto -- I put the whole thing together only to find that the armholes are a wee bit too tight. So, I have to take off both sleeves, add some increases, and resew them, weave in those ends, and I'll be done. I'm disappointed that I still have more work to do, but figure it's better than never wearing the sweater because it is uncomfortable. Thankfully, the way it is constructed I can expand the sleeve holes without having to redo anything on the body of the sweater.