Updates about stuff

My original intent was to update everyone on my progress with Sock Madness. Then I realized that I had other topics that needed updating as well. So, yeah, categories.

Sock Madness

Sock Madness is over for me. That second round sock did me in. There are still (as if the publishing of this post) spots remaining on my team, but I ended up frogging the second attempt at the first sock. I got to about the same point as the first attempt when I realized that I was not enjoying the experience. The sock is pretty. (You can see it here.) It's a fairly simple straightforward sock with some ribbing and some cables, but I just wasn't loving it. I felt frustrated, fumbling, and as if I was peering into an abyss that had certain doom at the bottom. I had vowed to myself last year that I would not knit anything that I didn't love. And I didn't love this sock. I didn't love the yarn, the needles, the gauge, or the tedium. So I frogged it. And I'm good with that. I'm now free to move on to more interesting and loved patterns. Perhaps I will finally finish remaking the yoke on the sweater I want to love.

Project 333

It snowed yesterday. Tomorrow it is supposed to get up to 50°F. I'm told this is typical of springtime in Ohio.  Although, I've also read that this is atypically late for this sort of spring time. Friday I pulled out my warm weather clothes box (remember I'm from Florida where we have warm/hot weather clothes and cool weather clothes rather than four seasons' worth of clothing). A few things are going to be sent to thrift stores for someone else to find and love. A few things from last year made the cut for this year. And I have a few items that I have already purchased for this year's warmer weather. I'm pretty good on bottoms, although I retired my white peasant skirt as it was tired and had a tear and had become dingy. I am looking for a new skirt. I have a pair of long khaki linen pants, a pair of cropped khaki cotton pants, two pair of "boyfriend chinos" - one khaki and one olive - and yes, I like khaki pants) and an A-line skirt with multiple shades of blue dots. Shirts consist of a few camis, a new white shirt with bicycles on it, a new sleeveless shirt, my peach shirt with rosettes and my aqua shirt which is all flowy (both left from last year). Replaced was the khaki cardigan that I purchased last year that already looks worn and tired.

(This is where I go off on a rant about the clothing industry and manufacturing in general.) I'm not a small girl. I'm ... busty. Because of my "bustierness" I find that I have to go to more expensive stores or shop in the Women's section of stores for dresses and shirts most of the time. This means that I also have to pay more, and sometimes a whole lot more, for the same clothes that are slightly larger than the largest sizes in the regular women's departments (usually called ladies or misses). Last year I made a vow (I may have blogged about it) that I would only buy quality clothing. No more clothes with raw edges, sloppy seaming, thin fabrics, and more clothes with natural fibers, reinforced seams, and with cuts that were ageless and would flow from one year to the next without looking like the previous year's trends. I have yet to find such clothes. And paying two to three times more for clothes does not guarantee that they are made to last. I hate playing $40-$50 for a light weight shirt only to have it fall apart before the current season is over. I am angered at having paid $60 for a cotton cardigan that looks like something from the glad rag box less than a year later. This winter I purchased a few sweaters from various stores and all of them have pilled to the point of being thin under the arms or along the back.

To prove that this is not just me purchasing cheap clothes, I have a few items that I have had for several years and they are just starting to show wear. I even have nice pieces that I bought used that are still quite lovely. The past few years, though, even the clothes I have purchased from upscale department stores are not holding up to any sort of wear. The clothing manufacturers are creating clothes that are only meant to last for one season (if that) and are forcing us to purchase clothes more often. It's a huge cycle of "stuff" buying. I've watched in action in clothing, footwear and home appliances. There is a fantastic short movie about this philosophy at The Story of Stuff. I encourage you to go watch it if you haven't.

The one thing I am looking for is a lovely pair of flats or low heels to wear with my (previously unmentioned) white polka dotted black dress and my skirt(with a hopeful pluralization). I have a thin heel, wide toes, high arch and tall instep. It means I cannot wear your typical cute flat shoes. I end up in things that look more orthopedic than trendy. I'm still hunting, though.

So that's my bit of an update. I'm sure there is more that I wanted to say, but got slightly side-tracked by my little rant. I'd love to know how your spring is shaping up.

On Sock Madness

Each year I participate in a little knitting competition called Sock Madness. It had brackets. It has speed. It has Norwegians. Everything a good sport should have. The premise is fairly simple. Qualify (by knitting an assigned pattern in two weeks) and then knit your way through each assigned pattern as quickly as you can to beat out the other people on your team. The first year I participated there were four teams. This year there are ten or eleven. My team is somewhere in the middle. We are all "average speed" knitters. I'm supposedly matched with other knitters who knit about the same speed as I do. The nice thing about this competition is that it is one of the friendliest games I've ever been in. People cheer you on and encourage you when you get down.

The current sock was supposed to be knit on size US 0 (2.0 mm needles). I made it half way through the first sock before I had to quit and frog it (I had a missed cable and the small diameter needle along with the very rigid fabric made my hands ache so badly). I have since recast on (recasted on? recast onned?) the sock on larger needles with larger yarn. It is going a bit more smoothly this time. I'm hoping to make it to round five this time. (I have never made it past round four.)

I used to knit with size 0 needles all the time, but in the past few years I have found that they don't play nicely with my hands. I also have problems knitting with needles that are too large (size 13's, 15's, 35's). I guess my hands prefer my 6's, 7's, and 8's. I guess I should be knitting more sweaters and fewer socks. Every year when sock madness comes around, though, I can't not knit with them. I have to know what is in store for this year's patterns. We've had zippers, buttons, funky vikkel braiding cast ons, socks knit side to side, tape (!), and the dreaded nupps (two row bobbles for the non-knitters).  Each year when you think that you have knit all there is to knit someone comes up with a new technique that, well, knocks your socks off. It's fun and I love the people I have met in this madness.

It's too late to sign up this year, but head over to Ravelry and check the group out or go to the patterns and search for Sock Madness patterns. They are fresh, unique and down right fun.

Catching up!

First a report on Project 333. I think that Project 333 worked well for me until the seasons changed. We only have two really distinct seasons where I live and our cooler season runs from mid-late October to mid-late February. Our warmer season runs the rest of the year. In those two seasons we have some very cold days and some not quite so hot days. By February 20th I was having to dig out warm weather clothes and on March 10th I had to just relent that I wasn't going to make it another 3 weeks with the clothes that were in my closet, so most of my winter clothes have been boxed.

I've decided not to do Project 333 for the spring and summer, mostly because we have such a long time when we wear warm weather clothes. To stretch 33 garments out over 190 days or to have two "sets" of Project 333 clothes (a spring and a summer set) just doesn't make sense for me. However, I have learned a lot from Project 333 and how to approach my wardrobe. Currently I have 37 pieces (including shoes) in my closet to consider each day. However, this year's spring/summer wardrobe is much different from last year's. Things go together and when I go out shopping for new pieces, I truly keep in mind what I have in my closet and how things fit in there. My closet is much more versatile and with this losing weight venture I know it is going to change a bit. Fortunately, I wear more elastic waisted skirts and drawstring pants in the summer, so other than a new pair of jeans in a couple weeks I shouldn't need to buy too much to keep my wardrobe working.

I'm truly glad I did Project 333 this winter and may do it again this year, but starting in October through February and perhaps do a Project 355 (thirty-five pieces of clothes over five months). We'll see. For now I have a fairly well assembled closet that has quite a few pieces that mix and match easily giving me an appearance of a larger wardrobe than what is there.

In the world of writing, I've been doing mostly editing and revising lately. I took advantage of Create Space's NaNoWriMo offer and have a "proof copy" of my book. It's so pretty with it's cover and book title and author name all looking like a real book. I'm enjoying reading it in this format and finding things that need fixing. I may do this more in the future. I do have the next two books in my romantic knitting series mapped out. Now to find the time to sit and actually write them.

As I eluded to earlier I am working on shedding some unwanted pounds. I've lost right at twelve pounds so far, but it's my body shape that is the most odd. I've lost quite a few inches in my hips and bust and a bit in my arms and legs. However, my waist is still the same size it was when I started. It's very irritating because my pants are falling off everywhere except my waist. They sag and pucker and droop, but I can't get a different size because of my stupid waist. I know it will eventually come off but in the meantime it is a bit aggravating to wear any of my jeans.

And the only thing that I can say about knitting is that it is Sock Madness and I made it through round one! Hopefully round two's pattern will be released on Monday and I can begin knitting like a demon again.

Day? Week? Month?

The past few weeks have been crazy around here. Two weeks ago I attended a Harry Potter Conference. Let me tell you, there is nothing more fun that sitting around talking about your favorite books with other people who love those same books. And indoor Quidditch totally rocks. I went to a lecture on Fanfic vs. Fanfantasy. I'm not a big fan of either other than just as a writing exercise. Maybe it is because I am too protective of my own characters and wouldn't want anyone putting Peter and Andy into some horribly written slash scene. Although, in my mind, Andy did once sort of make a proposition towards Peter which may account for why Peter detests Andy at our first meeting of these characters. (I'm so glad he got over it.)

Another lecture I went to was actually delivered as a sermon. It was called "A Sermon Based on the Gospel of Harry Potter." I have to say that of all the articles I have read about Harry Potter (and there have been a number of them) this has to be one of the most creative approaches to J.K. Rowling's work ever. It was truly delightful to hear and I heartily applaud the author and sermonizer. The other enjoyable lecture was on Harry Potter and today's war on terror. I love sitting with academia and knowing that these young students in today's campus know something about world history that happened prior to their births (prior to mine and even my grandmother's for that matter).

I freely admit that I love the Harry Potter books. J.K. Rowling is one of my heroes in the literary world. I fully hope to read these books with my grandchildren (if my children don't beat me to it). These are wonderfully classic books that can speak to generations beyond our own. I love how Jo Rowling has taken a book and stripped from it any true references to time. While there are computers and video games mentioned in her books, they are vague enough that Harry Potter could have grown up when I did or when my great grandchildren will. There is something truly magical about Rowling's writings. She has the ability to convey what things look like with very few words. How many of us saw Harry Potter and the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone for the first time and when we were introduced to Diagon Alley we all thought, "Oh, that's exactly what I thought it would look like!" Yet if you go back and read the section where Harry Potter first steps through the brick arch from the Leaky Cauldron, it doesn't really describe the scene very much at all. Yet, we all could see it. We could smell it. We could hear the owls softly hooting overhead as they made their way to the post office. That is the mark of a truly gifted writer. To be able to tell us just enough to plant the seed of what is in her mind so that it can grow.

So then, what else has happened? I've been busy running from one extreme to another. I've done a reading of a fellow writer's work. I've been sitting at the hospital while both of my parents had elective surgery four days apart from each other. I still haven't figured out why they thought that was going to be a good idea. I've been knitting madly at Sock Madness (I'm now in Round three and have a fairly good feeling I'll make it to Round Four). And next week I leave for Stitches South. Today is filled with my Wednesday morning knit group and then dying my oldest child's hair purple while trying not to think what I would look like if I dyed all the gray popping up all over my head the same color.

Oh, and my spouse finally returned home from six months of being in Dallas. He decided to take two days off to spend with us and that has made me completely lose track of time. Yesterday I swore it was Sunday because we went out for breakfast, did the grocery shopping and ran a few other errands. It was Sunday Business. So it surprised me when I realized this morning that it was actually Wednesday and now I am trying to catch up with those few missing days. I'm hoping to finish this round of Sock Madness by Friday so I can get in a few days of writing before heading off to Stitches. My book is screaming for a rewrite of the beginning. Again.

But at least while looking out my window I can see all the beautiful colors that have erupted in my yard. Too bad I'm allergic to them all.

We're all a little mad

I joined the infamous Sock Madness on Ravelry. What is Sock Madness? It's a race to finish a set of assigned sock patterns with no alterations as fast as you can. Eight pair of socks in something like six weeks. I'm half way finished with my first sock and thought I was really whizzing through until I logged on this morning and found someone has already finished the pair! Sweet Nelly, what do the drink in Norway that lets someone knit that fast? I knit fast for an English knitter and I know that Continental is faster, but that much? Or maybe it's a combination of knitting fast and not having anything to do. I mean I did take time to eat and shower and dress. I had to take the kids on a french fry crawl (maybe a topic for a later post) and I did have to stop to go pick up the new spinning wheel, but none of those things took terribly long.

I keep wondering why I joined this challenge and I think it is for the same reason I do NaNoWriMo every year. I want to see if I can do it. I have no grandiose plans of actually winning Sock Madness (unlike NaNoWriMo, there is only one winner), but I do have plans to get through as many rounds as I can. It would be fun to be able to say I made it through five or six rounds. For now, I just need to get through this first round.

Off to knit!