Sunday, March 22, 2009

"And I Was Froggin After Midnight"

Frogging starts with an F, as in effing timesapper!
Thursday night at knit night, I didn't get any knitting done, which wasn't to be outdone by the remainder of the evening. I ended up feeling so pseudo-good after using the neti pot for the first time and drinking a huge frozen coffee that I decided to clean the family room and kids' room when I got home from knit night. Note the use of the word "pseudo." Heh. Yeah, I crashed near the end of that cleaning spree and never got any knitting done that night. Friday, after deciding to begin a new pattern, I went ahead and began frogging my purple DROPS tank from last year. Somehow I thought that it would take maybe 1-2 hours. Ha! I wish. I took out the seams and armhole edging and finished frogging the front. The back wasn't frogged until today. That was just the beginning...

Over the last few months I've read about how you can make center-pull balls of yarn using objects like toilet paper or paper towel rolls or old wooden toilet paper holders. Since I have a wooden toilet paper holder, I thought I'd try it. Turned out great, although I can see why people eventually buy the real thing: a nostepinne. It took me longer than using just my hand because the balls turn out pretty like the cakes of yarn that ball winders produce.

Getting back to the topic of frogging, I decided to steam my cotton yarn in a colander. Instead of doing the wise thing and unraveling my beautifully wound balls of yarn into hanks, I plopped a few of them into my colander as is. Pretty soon into steaming, I decided to forego that idea and try something else. I unraveled the balls, tied them securely, and soaked them in lukewarm water for 30 minutes. After that, I threw them into the washer on the spin cycle and then threw them into the dryer. Finally, the ramen noodle kinks were gone. Yay, except now I have to wind them back into balls again... by hand. So far, I've gotten two or three finished, but am saving the rest for another time because I WANTED TO KNIT, DARN IT! BTW, the pattern I'm knitting is Wright, a Berocco pattern that I hope will be suitable for spring/summer/fall. I'm using Knit Picks Comfy in Lilac Mist.

Non-knitting News
For those that I slightly annoy, you'll get a kick out of this. My husband sweetly listens to all my "boring" math talk. Just yesterday I was mentioning how you can convert miles to kilometers and vice versa using Fibonacci numbers without a calculator. It wasn't so much the topic, but the way I brought it up that made him tease me and say, "Did you know that you love to give unsolicited advice?" That made me think of knit night. I bet I do that ALL the time. I often let my excitement and willingness to share overtake my consideration that no one asked me for knitting advice or techniques. That could explain the collective inner groan or lack of excitement I sense when I show up on Thursdays. I just need to shut up and knit. I'll have to save the unsolicited stuff for blogging.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are a goof! We love you Jackie and there are no groans from me when you walk in! You're the group's knitting researcher! We depend on the techniques you find out about! :)

Karen said...

No Worries Jackie. :-) You keep on with your tech talk. Yes it sometimes goes way over my head but that's ok because then the little seed of knowledge is planted for me to revisit when my brain is ready.

You keep on being you. :-)

Rebecca said...

I think the main reason you didn't get any knitting done at knit knite is because I was asking you for advice! LOL I was just raving about your advice to another knitting friend recently! Please don't stop. We love you just as you are!

Robin said...

Sorry I missed Knit nite but my twins came home for spring break. I have a ball winder and can bring it to Knit nite whenever you need it.I have a swift too.