worryingly jolly batman

1. owlbeer and anyone else who might be on the way to having Kaner feelings might enjoy tied if we stay, which includes a PRETEND RELATIONSHIP aka one of my favourite tropes of ALL TIME. I also really enjoyed Your Moves and Your Grooves, which is about people who, honestly, I don't know who they are, so if you ever wanted to read a kind of delightful romance novel about guys who are stripping to fund their way through college, this one's for you! And me. (I never *knew* I wanted to read that romance novel, but it was great.)

2. Thank you so much for all the supportive comments and advice on my last post. <3 I am applying for other work and trying to do a good job without letting myself get involved in the bullshit.

3. Today I bought the irresistibly-titled "Penguin Book of Homosexual Verse". Who could walk past that in a bookshop? Not me. I am also going to try to finish a book sometime soon - any book will do, but I'd like it to be Blackout by Mira Grant because I'm part-way through it or Middlemarch by George Eliot because I have a lovely copy of it that I paid an exorbitant sum for from Arty Bees or The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst because I borrowed it from a friend. It will be like the third non-re-read of the year which is probably a product both of a new fandom, lots of knitting, and my general malaise this year.

4. I hit a horrible set-back in my knitting the other day when it turned out my gauge was off and the jumper I was knitting for my friend Liz was going to turn out raaaaaather too large. It really killed my momentum and I think I'm going to have to knit myself a Honey Cowl in the lovely wool my mum spun for me to get over it. At one point I thought I might make it double-sided like this one, with the other side in black - the wool Mum spun for me is like a silvery purple - but then, IDK, maybe I should just value the precious homespun. The long and the short of it is I'm paralysed by my knitting and it sucks. However, I did finish up the lace blanket I started in some kind of obsessive I-need-a-square-lace-blanket-stat mood last month (pictures">) so I really need to get a move on. I'm also planning future projects like, hopefully, another jumper for me. (Probably for next winter, if I'm honest with myself.)

1. Had such a blast at get__together that the comedown is kinda stink. On the other hand, my hd is now full of delicious, delicious television and comics. Also, arysteia may possibly have sold me on the Avengers being my new fandom, which would be really, really great, because I really, really need a new fandom. At any rate huge thanks to all involved, specially the organisers. (Also, it was really neat to meet owlbeer and gnine.) (And to see everyone else again! Won't try to namecheck everyone, will fail hopelessly.)

2.

3. ( mega camwhoring re: my new haircut, the hat I knit at g/t )

3. ( emotional reactions to the season 2 finale of Downton Abbey )

One should never knit really, really late at night, a lesson I re-learned this morning when I unsuspectingly picked up my second nereid fingerless glove. I took a glance at the pattern - I'm on the third row of the first chart. No worries! Away I go...

... but something's not right here. My ribbing is out of time with the pattern - sort of. In fact, the location of my ribbing is alternating with every repeat. What's gone wrong? And more importantly, why didn't I notice last time I was knitting on it, i.e. before I would have had to painstakingly tink three rows?

Sigh. I'm not sure how I failed to notice it. I'm pretty sure the problem is that I forgot to do the pattern set-up row after the ribbing at the bottom. Why? Well... I wasn't exactly reading the pattern. I mean, my first glove came out perfectly and I have the chart memorised, so why would I? Yeah, that's why I shouldn't knit late at night.

I don't think I mentioned this yesterday but I probably won't be replying on comments to most of these posts and you can't really rely on me to be following the flist, although I have excellent access at the moment (I'm just trying not to use it because really, LONDON.)

Yesterday was fun but kind of weird. I have some stuff to finish for a swap I'm participating in - I brought it all the way here instead of sending it from home because the recipient is in the UK and I decided that posting from here would be more efficient/CHEAPER. so I needed a tapestry needle. Eve, who is the daughter of my mum's best friend with whose family I am staying, and who I have known her whole life, needed to get some zips and things for cushions she's making. So we went shopping, except we stopped at ( primark )

Anyway, then we went to John Lewis (think Kirks) and I got to hang out in their knitting section which was. *cries* So much Rowan I nearly burst into tears right then (because of course I can't AFFORD Rowan.) I also got to fondle Debbie Bliss pure silk which felt... gah.... so so so so so amazing. I see that it has mixed reviews on Rav and I should imagine any plain silk yarn would be difficult to work with (plus, expensive, about 7 pounds for a 50g skein - this might not be soooo bad in the UK, as I have noticed that a pound spends about like $1.50 at home, but in NZ money that's $21 for a 50g skein which would make, like, $80 or $100 scarves.) However it felt SO FREAKIN AMAZING in the skein. Fingerfood.

I did spend a little money there: tapestry needles (I know, so exotic!) and a Rowan pattern book which was only like 7 pounds (which makes it reasonably priced even with the conversion) which has four or five patterns that I want to knit RIGHT. NOW. and several others that I like although probably wouldn't wear. here we go, this is the one. this one has all the patterns although smaller pix. I am absolutely IN. LOVE. with St Moritz, I like Innsbruck, I think Chamonix is gorgeous though I would never knit a sweater that short in the body, and I am definitely going to knit Grenoble when I get home. Of course most of the patterns are in aran weight (and not one in DK, AFAI can tell) which... nngh, makes me crazy, because aran is difficult to get here (and of course I'm going to substitute yarns because I can't afford $200 for a jersey, how about you?) and our shelves are FLOODED with DK.

ETA: also, I'm pretty hilariously amused by the way the Rowan book insists that its sizes are consistent with commercial sizing. I'm pretty sure that's not true, since I have a 42-inch bust and I usually wear 14 or 12 (although admittedly I miss out on some items because my bust is too big in a 4, but the 16 is otherwise swimming on me.) Still and all: the size they recommend for a 42-in bust is 18. Just sayin'.

That is more or less everything I did yesterday. Gotta be more interesting today.

People! PEOPLE. I'm so excited. For the past few days I've been in a weird state of knitting ennui - I really feel like knitting, but there's nothing I could think of thsat I wanted to knit. I want to knit myself a sweatervest, but I couldn't find a good pattern in one-colour DK yarn. This is because want a classic boy-looking cricket-style vest, with boy cabling, but with waist shaping. Funnily enough, they don't really design boy vests with waist shaping, and I'm too green to improvise it. Or I have a whole lot of yarn that I want to knit up, but the DK I'm saving for a vest, the Velveteen I want to knit a jersey out of which means buying another 10 balls in a different colour which I SO cannot afford right now, the mohair I don't know anything about and am scared to knit with. Or I want to knit a scarf for a friend in Wellington - that's a project AND an audience! All I have to do is pick a pattern - but I think she'd like bright stripes, and stripey patterns are all dull-as-ditchwater stockinette scarves. I could do something with variegated wool, but that's tough to pick the right pattern for too; and I want to challenge myself with cables or lace, and they don't suit stripes or variegated yarn. I was stuck!

And then I ran across the Adamas shawl, which is gorgeous lacework with a lot of repetition - so I should be able to memorise it, even though it's more challenging than anything I've done so far... and it only takes two or so skeins of laceweight... which is not that much... and it's knit on 3.75 needles, which I already own... and I promised I'd knit Tas something lacy. It's fate! I'm so excited! I want to go buy yarn! I want to cast on already! But I have to go pack. LAME.

But the reason I have to pack is great: I'm going to Welly for a mere day to see my family because I had a birthday on tuesday and apparently 21 is significant, or something. ;) YAY. GOOD MOODS ABOUND.

Knitting flist! Someone recommend me an easy and reliable provisional cast-on that doesn't require a crochet needle (because I can't crochet and don't own a needle...) I'm desperate and I suck at all the ones I tried online. I knitted a whole hat earlier this week and had to frog the WHOLE THING when my kitchener stitch started sucking PARTLY BECAUSE MY PROVISIONAL CASTON STANK. :( :( :( Unraveling whole hats makes me very very sad!

So, I think I mentioned I started knitting? Well, I have since acquired an account at Ravelry and you can find me (surprise, surprise) at labellementeuse. I've been knitting, uh, probably more than I should - check out some of my work at my flickr, if you aren't on ravelry (and if you aren't, and you knit or crochet, you really should be! I am really really impressed with it - it has all the friends and communities functions of LJ, you can blog there too, and its free pattern collections are great - you can search for projects by yarn as well and see what other people have done and how they've modified things. I was expecting it to be basically a pattern database, but it's not that at all!