Natural habitat

Last night I freed myself from my self induced tower of isolation (Chained to my desk, writing a book) and headed down to Knit Night at Lettuce Knit. I didn’t get much knitting done, but I remembered why it’s the best S&B in the world.

1. If you are an idiot, who despite having knit about a thousand things in the round over the last 34 years, casts on 200 stitches for your darling mans gansey and then knits three rounds with a stinking twist in the aforementioned cast on, when you realize this and sort of whimper a little, the other Toronto knitters will quickly realize what has happened and immediately call for a cold alcoholic beverage. This will help immensely, as do the gentle mockings and offers of help. Gansey status?

Ganseyst79

There you go. First ever gansey picture, actually on the needles. 200 stitches (10% less than the number I’ll have for the chest) and a pathetic amount of knitting that would have been a lot more if I were not an arse who rushes ahead without double checking.

2. I love this picture.

Zoelk79

This is Zoë. She’s a charming newcomer to LK and she looked so engaging sitting there with one sock on the needles and the other on her foot.

3. I’m not the only knitter with delusions of grandeur. Here’s Michelle

Michelllk79

laughing because we are laughing because she held out this wee cuff of a potomato-whatsis sock last night and said “I’m starting to think I might not be able to finish this by Friday”. We all collapsed in a heap. There is nothing quite as entertaining as us knitters “loose” relationship with space and time.

4. Remember Alice and her beautiful shawl knit from one skein of sea silk?

Alicerachel-1

The pattern is at Lettuce Knit now, instead of just in Alice’s head. (Go Alice Go!) It is also on my table, where I am ignoring it in favour of the book-in-progress, Icarus, a gansey, the shawl (with the open leaves, how can you fight that sort of a consensus) and two pairs of socks. Once again, you may see Rachel and Rams to lay bets on how long I shall continue to be successful. (ONE SKEIN people. Who can resist that?)

5. When I am there? I am closer to the societal normal. This is a far cry from at home where I shall now return myself to the tower of isolation, where eventually I may be rewarded for my hard work with some knitting time and this DVD, the bribe de jour. (Two episodes to go. I can’t stand the suspense. Am I the only one who’s completely pissed that the second half of season two is a separate set of DVDs that aren’t released yet? I’m so tripped out about Sharon. I think she might still have a little too much Cylon in her for any of this to work out.)

Knitting lace, writing books, resisting sea silk, watching geek shows. Totally normal. Right?