Three Entries for the Price of One

Instant Karma

Driving back from a trip into town, the Viking and I were passed by someone driving a shiny new pickup truck, which was pulling a trailer on which was loaded a rather old, beat-up truck. The driver made a big show about how much power his truck had in comparison with our poor elderly Buttercup, which caused the Viking to snort in disdain.

Some two miles down the highway, we passed the shiny new pickup truck, now pulling off the road and billowing clouds of white smoke. It looked like he had, at the very least, blown a seal, and possibly done a number on his crank case. The Viking chuckled grimly the rest of the way home.

Knit snobbery

As distinct from fibre snobbery, from which you already know I suffer. The aforementioned trip into town included a stop at a bookstore to get a new road atlas. While the Viking worked on those, I wandered over to the magazine rack to check out the new Handwoven and other things. Once again I found that I couldn't bring myself to like Vogue Knitting and I can't work out why. Is it too trendy? (I mean, I'm glad that knitting is finally starting to shed that 'grandmas making lumpy pullovers' image, but I'm not a fashionista and can't imagine wearing anything that was in VK this issue. Or indeed any issue I've looked at). Was it the ads? Was it just hard to navigate? (It was). I don't know. But ugh, anyway.

The Ineffable Joy of Finishing Something

For some deep dark reason, the times when I have too demmed much to do (e.g., helping the Viking get off to Pennsic and sewing him three more tunics between now and next Friday) are always the times when I suddenly want to start an utterly frivolous project. Like the Shocking Pink Coif from the Spring '03 Knitty. The object in question is startlingly like a hat Maman knitted for me when I was little. The hat of my childhood wasn't pink -- I would probably have loved it better at the time if it had been -- but yellow, and Maman embroidered flowers over the ears. So imagine my surprise when I surfed through the back issues of Knitty and spotted the shocking pink one.

Overcome by nostalgia, or frivolity, or maybe a desire to do anything but sew three more tunics, I printed out the pattern and rummaged around for yarn. Not yellow, like the hat of my childhood (I really don't care for yellow), nor pink (I've outgrown the worst of that phase), but I had a couple of balls of leftover black wool blend. I even had needles the correct size. I cast on Thursday night; I was finished with it last night. I made the ties in I-cord instead of stocking stitch, and my gauge was a little off so I had to repeat rows 61-64 more than a couple of times to get the right length, but nevertheless it's done. I think I want to finish the ends of the cords with some kind of bead or button to give them a little extra weight, and I'm contemplating embroidering pink flowers over the ears.

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