I’m not as smart as I look

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– and I’m not sure I look all that smart right now. As I am some sort of slacker, when knitting commenced on the Sunrise Circle Jacket and I discovered that the yarn is a thousand times better/cleaner/softer having been washed before the knitting, I set to work and washed and dried three skeins worth. Then I started knitting. I knit and knit and last night I finished the left front. (It has all worked out exactly right, thanks for asking.)

Lfrontscj-1

and then triumphantly began the right sleeve/ front. (This jacket is a master work of engineering, right smack out of the genius brain of Kate Gilbert. One knits the sleeve, and at the same time as you begin the decreases for the raglan, the front starts to grow out of the armpit.

Lfscjpit2610

By the time you have the raglan decreased away, Lo – a whole front (that does not need to be sewn on ) has sprung fully formed from your needles. The woman’s brain is a wonder, but I digress.)

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In any event, so charmed have I been that I neglected to consider that knitting uses up yarn, and only this afternoon when I fished into my bag for another ball and came up with air, did I remember that I had really intended to wash more of the yarn before this moment came. Damn.

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I’ve washed another skein now, but it’s raining and the dampness surely means that I won’t be working on this tonight. Rather than be disappointed in my inability to plan (at some point I guess I need to accept that this is a personality trait rather than an accident) I have decided to accept that this is a wonderful opportunity to rehash the failed socks from yesterday. … or maybe a hat. Oh…what about mittens? I love mittens, and there was this blanket I liked, and I was going to make a lace scarf, I also bought this great yarn at Rhinebeck, and there’s that sweater for Christmas I was thinking about…where did that kit go? Never mind. The socks. (Or the mittens… Or the hat….)

Maybe I should put that yarn in the oven to dry before this gets out of hand. Ever feel like your own brain set you up?

127 thoughts on “I’m not as smart as I look”

  1. My brain sets me up all the time (or maybe it’s that my brain has set, like a pudding)! The sweater is looking absolutely gorgeous, but since I have not finished the last sweater that I followed you, lemming-like, in knitting (ah, Kauni, how I do love you when I don’t hate you), I think I’ll watch and envy from a distance 🙂

  2. So which one should I post a comment to?
    If I put yarn in the oven, that would be my brain setting me up. I would have a fire.

  3. We all have those kinds of brains!!!! (At least I qualify at both the what-happened planner and over-eager-projects-planned knitter!)

  5. All the time, Stephanie! All the time! Love the sweater, and that is the most interesting design I’ve seen since EZ! Great colour, too. :O) samm

  7. It’s nice to know I’m not the only one who walks around in circles looking at everything that wants doing, unable to just knuckle down and start. Also, thanks for sharing your disastrous heel with us. Makes me feel a whole lot better about my own disasters to know that our very own Harlot has her moments…

  8. Don’t bake the yarn! It might behave differently than that which you air-dryed. Where would that leave you? With half a sweater and no way to get yarn to make the other half.
    Thanks, by the way, for the tutorial on washing skeined yarn. I have a couple of pounds of 100% mohair that I haven’t used because it seemed thin and hard on the cone. There is hope! And I do *so* love laceweight mohair.

  9. Of course your mind sets you up. That’s how you always think of wonderful Christmas presents for everyone in the last two weeks of October when you couldn’t possibly get them all done even if you could knit 20 hours a day!

  10. I agree with Donna … putting the yarn in the oven seems like a very bad idea. I would be yarnless in no time, with a stinky house, if not a fire. I’m forever letting the dog out and forgetting he’s out there until I see him trotting along the street sometime later. If this sounds like something you might do … then don’t put the yarn in the oven.

  11. The diagnosis is simple: you have knitter’s ADD. Do not ask how I know this. (The difference, or a difference, between you and me is that I actually cast on all of those, and then spend too much time dithering among them.)

  12. No, Stephanie, that only happens to you. Never to me. Stop laughing.
    How’s the yarn subterfuge going? Maybe you can wind your freshly washed wool around something important while it dries?

  13. Did you ever find the traveling sock? I hate for one of those green guys to go missing. You might need all those pairs you made for the TV show as Christmas gifts. Carolyn in NC

  14. You will burn the yarn if you put it in the oven. You’ll set the timer, which will go off while you have your head buried in your stash, looking for the socks or the hat or the mittens or the blanket…
    I on the other hand, now want to drop all my projects and start a Sunrise Circle Jacket – that armpit? Genius.
    Seems we all have a problem

  15. If you need something to play with while your yarn dries, there’s always the gansey…

  16. Ha Ha!! I thought you were going to say that you knitted the entire other sleeve and half the front before realizing that you didn’t wash the yarn for it…. This is definitely better. You are pretty smart after all, not putting the unwashed yarn where it could get confused with the washed yarn.
    As for new projects, I put my vote in for mittens. You do beautiful fair isle mittens, and I miss them! That would be a treat!

  18. My brain sets me up so darned often that it isn’t even a surprise any more. Sadly, that doesn’t stop me from falling for it every time, just like Charlie Brown goes for Lucy’s football. sigh. That sweater construction is fabulous.

  19. “Whoo…with yarn like this, even I would swatch.
    I suggest you wash the yarn first, so that as you knit you’ll have a better sense of how the size and shaping are developing. I worry when you depend on “suddenly and miraculously.” (It might be more entertaining, though.)
    Besides, you can work on the gansey while you’re waiting for it to dry.
    Posted by: Presbytera at October 16, 2007 3:25 PM”
    I can’t believe I’m quoting myself. Saves time, though.

  20. What I want to know is are you getting correct gauge with the yarn being knit after washing? I noticed you washed the swatch, and you never mentioned if you swatched the washed yarn (does that make sense?). I’m sure you did, clever Harlot, but now I want to know what size needles you are using on the washed yarn to get the gauge you wanted.
    Also, I hear that recording equipment tends to give off a little heat; perhaps you should dangle a skein or two over some amps? Tell Joe you’re helping to insure they don’t overheat.

  22. Many things conspire to force us to take a knitting breather–such as the six hours I spent this week untangling badly skeined yarn. During that time, I dwelt on many projects, past and future, and stared longingly at the many skeins of well behaved yarn that would just NOT do for my project. Washing the yarn would have been way more fun than detangling–though your brain tempted you so badly, at least you can knit while yarn dries!
    I now truly appreciate being able to knit on my precious little lace scarf.

  25. It’s called startitis. Melissa Morgan-Oats is credited with coining this phrase as well as being a founding member. 🙂 The sweater looks great and I can’t wait to see the fixed socks, or hat or mittens…

  26. Do not put yarn in the oven. You know what you will end up with if you do — a great, but tragic, blog post, and no finished sweater. Just knit some socks. Or a hat. Or whatever. But do not bake the yarn!!

  28. Wash several more skeins, not just one. Otherwise you’ll just have to do this again quite soon, as fast as you knit. If you don’t want to put it all in the oven, run a fan near the hanging skeins, as the air circulation will speed drying markedly.
    Whatever you knit until it dries, enjoy yourself. I’m dinking around with swatches today, trying to find a good gauge and stitches for three vastly different yarns.

  29. You could always knit a second mitten for Uncle Tupper.
    (scampers out of swatting range)

  31. I’m with everyone else. Yarn + Oven = Disaster of Fiery Proportions. Remember how you had to keep putting that fire out in your front yard over and over again that one time? Yeah. Imagine that, only with precious, precious yarn.

  33. I’m amazed at the sunrise circle jacket. So cool. Not amazed that you didn’t wash more yarn (I wouldn’t have, either, because I’d want to get started…and then would just be having so much fun, I’d forget I needed more). Lovely to see you at Rhinebeck. I know where you’re coming from, wanting to knit this and this and that and then there’s that and ohshitIhavetoknitthatbeforethebabyshower!!

  34. Oh, you poor thing. Another case of startitis? When you get it, you get it big! Your SSJ is great in that color and I agree, Kate Gilbert is a genius! Maybe I’ll pull out my SSJ pattern, or the mesh bag for the swap, or the next red scarf. Good luck in deciding!

  35. Heh… how funny, and YES….. happens more often than I care to think about.
    …what about Joe’s Gansey?… I’m thinking it could use a few rows….. eh?

  37. Surely since it took 3 skeins to get this far, you will need more than just 1 more skein to complete said project. Shouldn’t you wash that to avoid this, er, snafoo from reocurring?
    Just a thought.

  38. I love a designer who can put math in motion. Just another reason kids should pay attention in math class – you never know when you’ll want to design wicked cool knitting patterns.
    Sorry about the yarn shortage. I’m leary of supporting the oven-dry method for getting the yarn ready for nighttime knitting. God forbid something dreadful happens.
    The sweater is absolutely lovely.

  39. Well. Right now, I have two pairs of socks, a scarf, and a clapotis on the needles. However, with the Rhinebeck yarn haul, and fall weather finally here, I want to start two sweaters, mittens, a hat, and a pair of knee socks. And some baby stuff for a friend. Maybe some more socks too.
    I would put the yarn in the oven – just don’t burn it. =)

  40. Brain fart. Gotta be. Now, the important question is — since you Promised last year that you would have Christmas knitting done before 12:01AM Christmas morning, how much is started and finished, ready to wrap???

  41. You need one of those racks you stick in the clothes dryer to stick your kids’ shoes on after they’ve sloshed through 800,000 puddles. Excellent for drying all sorts of things.
    I almost bought a new dryer — one of those armoire types — to solve this problem.

  42. Surely there is a creative solution for drying your yarn and making a point about the encroaching studio equipment. Perhaps the wet yarn can be draped all around the dining room table whilst you angelically sit nearby and diligently knit his sweater.

  43. No, I think my brain gave up long ago, since a) I didn’t use it enough for it to have the time to trick me, and b) I was doing fine arsing things up without it.

  44. Something else to mull over perhaps – Have any UFO’s you could work on while this yarn is drying? Also – We haven’t seen the finished Kauni, which I read you wore while at Rhinebeck. Any chance of a picture? Thanks

  45. Maybe this was your brain’s way of getting something new started thereby creating further stimulation for itself… I’d take that view myself. 😉
    The yarn you’re having to wash and wait for is very beautiful.

  48. Use a fan to dry yarn. As I sit here I’m franticly drying 40 skeins so as to ship them off to all parts of the USA. I have several area’s in the house, my favorite (husband’s least favorite) is in an unused bathtub, 2 Fan’s blowing up onto a clothes drying rack, with the most important skeins closest to the fast moving air. Air circulation rather than heat will work best, especially accompanied by 18 year old “Glen”, scotch that is not an actual 18 year old person named Glen, which would distract you from worrying about damp yarn, but probably not in a good way.

  49. Haha! I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who has that thought process – “Ooh! New project! This! Or this! Or this!” Good luck picking just one. =)

  50. Whatever happened to your finishitis ? Gansey gansey gansey, and by the way you haven’t shown us your stash inhansing from Rhinebeck.

  54. All. The. Time.
    Also, I blame you for the fact that I started another project while I was away last weekend – you and that damn book of yours that reminded me that I should have a second project on hand, just in case.
    Yeah, well. :-p

  55. I was describing how making an artist’s book of handmade paper and alternate pages of starched, knitted lace would get me out of doing a 25 page paper and didn’t really register the guy’s glazed expression until he said “And that’s easier than doing a 25-page paper?”…
    …which is why I didn’t see this post earlier. Still, five-part harmony is pretty (think “Cherish” by The Association.) Or we could do it as a cheer: “Gimmee a G! Gimmee an A! Gimmee an N!…”

  59. I know exactly how you are feeling…er, make that thinking! I go through the same thought process.
    Your jacket is looking fabulous!

  61. Or as one of the ladies in my knitting group put it, upon discovering she had brought the wrong needles for her project, “I hate it when I get in my own way!”

  62. No need to put yarn in the oven. (Though the results might make for a spectacular blog entry. We haven’t seen any burning embers in the house for at least several months). Just knit some mittens while you wait. This might help: http://www.selbuvotter.com. And you’ll be a little ahead of “It,” which can’t hurt.

  63. planning? what’s planning? i don’t recommend yarn in the oven or attempting to make grilled cheese with rice cakes. but that could be my karma.

  68. No. No. Its not you. Its the air, or the moon. Yeah, the full moon. I can say that with a clear head because I had to knock the stuffing out from between my ears more than once today. I sent a payroll file twice. No biggey, it was recalled, but still… I scare myself.
    Do you have a DE-humidifier? I’d bet your basement gets damp in summer and have one hiding down there. Get it out and put it right near your yarn. It will perform its magic and you will be knitting in short order.

  69. Thanks for that close-up of the armpit – fantastic design! Looks so simple and perfect! I am now imagining making THAT sweater instead of (I mean “before,” of course) the sweater pattern I scored at Rhinebeck. That (quite complicated) pattern, a full day of visual and tactile overload, and three bottles of wine, was my Rhinebeck Take-home Treasure Trove.
    And I agree with everyone about the oven…it would be too, too sad…

  70. runnigintoyourself
    sometimes you have
    have to take a detour
    to get back but why
    would you pathways
    are like that me thinks
    you have changed and you
    are in a tizzy i made a small
    scarf a ruffle on one end
    not enough for the other
    tied it like a jobot tis fine
    small stuff is fine lust fine

  72. What, you mean there’s the possibility out there that some people’s brains *don’t* set them up? I am bitterly jealous…
    Ok, here’s the thing. You know you aren’t gonna be stupid enough to put the yarn in the oven. Aside from fires, lack of replacement yarn, etc., etc., the heat from the oven could somehow change the way the yarn reacts to being washed, and you’d end up with gauge differences from the first batch. This means you have spent the day doing something else, considering the time difference. I’m figuring you went flinging madly through your stash and laid out possible projects; yesterday’s sock here (which you’re kind of loathing at the moment, so it’ll probably just sit there a few days); yarn for mittens here; yarn for a hat there; and oh, this yarn would be *perfect* for that blanket, even though that’s a bigger project, so that’s back there, ’cause you don’t want to get sidetracked from the jacket after the yarn *is* dry ::snickersnickersnicker::; and wups, so *that’s* where that other kit went (no, not the one you were thinking of, a totally different one), wow, you’d forgotten it was so nice, and what did you do with your other set of however-many-mm needles you’d need for it?
    Then you looked alternately at everything you’d pulled out, while intermittently sidetracking to where the yarn was hanging, feeling it hopefully, and cursing when of course it wasn’t dry yet, then drifting back to looking at the different candidates, *deliberately* ignoring Joe’s gansey staring at you accusingly (or possibly stuffing it behind something else so you couldn’t see its beady little eyes; probably several of them, at that), and after a few hours, suddenly found yourself sitting on the chesterfield with the first few inches of a completely *different* sweater cast on. No, not the kit! Or the other kit, either. Something that’s been lurking in the back of your mind for a while now, and you saw the perfect yarn, so it was a sign. And it’ll be a fast knit, right? Right.
    So, how many inches of the back do you have done?

  73. The jacket looks really great. . . but I totally have the same knitting attention deficit disorder. I think it’s all that changing weather right now!

  77. If I put yarn in the oven I would forget it and turn the oven up only to have a very stinky house. Wet wool is better than burnt wool!
    Yes, her mind is amazing. The things thunk up to so with sticks and string boggle me. That’s such a cool design.

  78. You know, Christmas is just 2 months away and since you ALWAYS are busy knitting away on the presents on Christmas eve, it’s probably not a bad idea to get a jump on those things. NOW!
    Just a thought. . .

  79. The oven method is a proven tactic from the episode of the Big Pink Thing, right? And how is your friend?
    I had a brain failure close call a few days ago. The night before I carefully packed up my sweater back that I needed to finish for a class in a small bag to take on a ferry early the next morning. Got to where I was to meet my ride onto the ferry, pulled out the knitting while I waited, and realised I had about 5 minutes worth of yarn for a 35-minutes-each-way ride.
    Fortunately just then my ride called to reschedule for the next boat and I could dash 3 blocks home for more yarn. I was 30 seconds from full-on panic and a knitter’s worst nightmare.

  80. Hi Yarn Harlot! I love your blog and I just found a website that is in need of the generosity of all the knitters out there.
    http://sandiegowildfireblankets.blogspot.com/
    This site is dedicated to helping the people who lost their homes and belongings in the San Diego wildfires. They are asking for 8″ knit or crochet squares that can be sewn into blankets and given to displaced families. I know I have acrylic leftover from my beginning days, and what better way to use it? Please help spread the word. So far a shipping address is not posted, but hopefully it will be up soon.
    Knitters rule!

  81. So that’s what that is! I was looking for someone (or something) to blame, and it was my brain all along! Yup, happens all the time. They say identifying the problem is half the problem solved. Does anyone have the other half?
    About the oven… I think that’s the evil brain.
    (Does this mean the Gansey is done?)

  82. DON’T BAKE YOUR YARN, STEPH!!!!
    Oh, and you’re not the only ADD knitter… Far from it!!! Which reminds me, gotta get cracking on knitting and crocheting christmas/Yule gifts. Already have mom’s started… Thank both the fact the Gift shop traffic is slow, and the fact I was training someone today, and could take the time to work on it, whilst pointing out what buttons to hit on the register. 😀

  84. How I wish I had been following, lemming-like, on this whole English Tweed extravaganza. instead, I had mine before you did, knit my swatch, got gauge, and embarked on my project WITHOUT WASHING THE YARN. Guess what has to happen now? Sigh. Sometimes it’s a lot better to follow.

  87. I find the structure of Kate’s patterns brilliant, but I have only done Gifted and Clapotis. However only you can make the Sun-rise look ridiculously easy, enabling us with your work. Seeing you at Rhinebeck was one of my biggest highlights for the weekend. Thanks for being able to stay sane amongst us crazy groupies!
    Bunny hugs,
    =:8

  88. Sweetie. If that’s a personality trait, step away from the oven.
    Please, just trust me on this. I have one of those red circles with the bigass exclamation point inside it taped on my oven door handle because of exactly that “personality trait.”
    I have never met a timer I couldn’t forget to set.

  89. You know… I read this post and thought: “oh yes, because yarn in the oven couldn’t possibly go horribly, flamingly wrong…”
    Don’t do it Steph. You could lose your precious reward yarn and the shiny new stove all in one go. It’s tempting, but it’s really just the yarn gremlins whispering bad ideas to you in your sleep.
    Gotta watch them yarn gremlins.

  90. Please do not put the yarn in the oven . . . I am getting too many bad visuals with that idea. All the other plans sound very do-able.

  91. if it was my brain I would space out again and all that beautiful yarn would be ruined – remember that there was no more left I would try that with some other easier to replace yarn but then again I think I would not try that –
    might have to try that pattern if it will make my size. finally got the nerve to try some lace after months of socks

  92. Oh NO, DON’T put the yarn in the oven! If you’re brain is the slightest bit “out of it” at the moment, that is not a good move. My mum once put a little set of my daughter’s clothing into a warm oven to dry it – it shrunk. She’s also burnt clothing doing the same thing. Just food for thought. :o)

  93. sounds like a case of start-itis to me – got a seriously bad case of that down here. sweater for mom for christmas, socks for me, 3 shawls, 2 hats and the ever present blanket all on needles at the same time, and the intense desire to start something ELSE new; like when will I have the time to finish what I already have started. Am even contemplating taking the socks (small, portable and lightweight) on a backpacking trip next weekend in order to get SOMETHING done! BTW thanks for the “how’s and why’s of coned yarn” recently. had about 2 lbs of a lovely tweed from WEBS and had not a clue that it could/should be skeined and washed before beginning to knit. (disaster avoided there, for sure) It has been raining here for 3 days (finally) and that is how long I have been waiting for my yarn to dry – someday! (sigh)
    good luck, hope you have better luck than me at avioding starting all those new projects.

  94. Steph, a microwave vege steamer ( I bought a big one at a garage sale) and a night on top of the register is a awsome way to get dry yarn by morning. 😉
    I have 2 dogs and a cat so I secure the lid, could you just imagine the horror in the morning if I didn’t?!?!?
    :~O
    the cardi look great too.

  95. I accepted years ago that the problem with brains is that they’re really nothing more than blobs of protoplasm. Complicated blobs of protoplasm, but…
    I think trying to dry the second part of the yarn in any way differently from the first part is asking for gauge trouble.

  96. Kate Gilbert is learly kith and kin to EZ. Seeing half the design and the great closeups pulls into focus the sheer brilliance of it.
    Damn it all anyway, now I have to knit that jacket too, as soon as I am done with chemo hats for my cousin and Dave Xmas vest, and then just the cuffs and ends-weaving on a gansey-for-me, and Mom’s cabled Xmas sweater and Dave’s socks and also I have to knit a cat sweater nin time for Crazy Aunt Purl’s Halloween contest and …
    oh yes, and earn some money.

  97. I haven’t read all the comments, but putting the yarn in the oven sounds like a really bad idea. This is coming from someone who recently melted the toaster at the cottage. I had put it in the oven to hide it from the mice. Of course I forgot about it and turned the oven on to 400 to bake something. Anyway, I was wondering if you couldn’t just knit with the rest of your unwashed yarn, and then wash the whole thing later, once the sweater is knit up? Just wondering…

  98. Yarn+Oven=FIRE and yarn that you would not want to knit with. You know that it is very difficult to get that smoky smell out of all those natural fibers.
    I’m sure that there must be something lying around the house for you to work on…Some forgotten about UFO/WIP begging to be picked up.

  99. Put cookies in the oven!!! Let the yarn dry on its own. Then you can enjoy the fresh-baked cookies while waiting for the yarn to dry!!! The sweater looks great!

  100. I was with you until “Maybe I should put this yarn in the oven”….relax- cast on mittens- I suggest eunny’s anemoi….although that’s probably because I’m desperate to make them and bought the yarn yesterday……
    but have never worked in 2 colors before I’m scared Harlot- hold me!
    (sorry bout that- I’m better now)

  103. Sigh, that’s why we have knitting/fibre friends to remind us that our denial is overriding common sense. She says, as she frogs the lace stole Christmas project yet again and realizes that yes indeed she needs to dye two more skeins of lace weight and start over–but it won’t be dry any time soon and another knitting weekend passes me by and there’s no lace stole on the needles. Which for me begs the question–what brain?–can’t I read directions? Apparently not.

  104. I’ve baked yarn in the oven (door closed and everything! gasp!) to get control of a moth problem. At the “warm” setting (as low as you oven can be set), yarn bursting into flames is not so likely. Set a kitchen timer too. Sit at the kitchen table with a nice mug o’ sumthin, some cookies, and a sock. Or Joe’s gansey even. I think mine was in there, bone dry, for a good half-hour.
    Barring that, you can speed up drying by giving the yarn a whirl -or two or three- in a salad spinner. Less forceful than Mr. Washie, but still pretty inpressive.
    Thanks for signing my book at Rhinebeck…I wish I had remembered my camera was in my bag. (d’oh) I wish I had remembered to look at the fleece sale too, for scientific research, of course. 😉

  105. I hate it when that happens. But if the yarn comes from a cone, do you always have to wash it?

  106. What a brilliant pattern, love the no-seams!! Hope you managed to be patient enough to wait for your yarn to dry 😀

  107. At times, my brain loses the,”HO, HO, HOLD ON THERE”,component. I believe this explains the stash along with signing up for every knitting class within a 200 mile radius.

  108. Good luck choosing! You mentioned mittens….I’m searching desperately for a mitten pattern that uses sock weight yarn. Any suggestions?
    Thanks. No yarn in oven..tried it once….NOT a good thing!

  109. maybe if you put your yarn in the oven, your squirrels will follow, and you will solve the varmint problem, even though you’ll be short some yarn for your sweater?
    seriously, it’s a way cool sweater and i’m off to go google the pattern. i have a secret theory that people who can write patterns like that are math geeks, and i’m always in awe of their talents. and of your knitting! it looks beautiful.

  110. I will watch your progress with great interest. The Sunrise Circle is on my short list, and I’m even 99% sure I know which yarn I’ll use, which is *even* in my stash! But I’m ascared to cast on–I have such trouble getting row gauge!

  112. Oh, yes. Why else am I up at 2:43 am searching for a sock pattern to meld my stash with my Christmas list when I have plenty of perfectly good patterns already?

  113. Where else could you find the phrase “Armpit Genius” and be met with smiles and nods? There’s a Yiddish word for groping in your yarnbag and finding it empty: TSORIS! As in “Oy, have I got tsoris, my yarnbag is empty” or “Oy, my mother-in-law will be here tonight, there’s nothing to cook and I have the trots”. OY! (I just LOVE seeing things like your projects as I click along–*happily*–on my mindless toques; you ARE an inspiration!)

  115. That Sunrise Circle Jacket is something I wanted to knit since it came out (was it 2005?) I have felt somewhat intimidated by it. I start out thinking that I can knit things like this and quickly find out that I have over estimated my skills. But the way you describe it, it doesn’t seem that difficult. The tweed yarn is lovely:)
    Ang

  118. At least your knitterly ADD isn’t isn’t squashed by your mother. Being 15, I have sligtly less control of my pursuit of the fiber arts than I’d like. I have to *shudder* finish _everything_ I have on the needles before I start another project. And Knitty’s Kyoto is calling me…

  119. That pattern is brilliant – makes me smile that Kate Gilbert pulled it out of her brain and onto paper. Your knitwork is also brilliant – nice pix and yarn.

  120. OMG I found a podcast with you on it – for some reason I completely imagined your voice completely different! You have a lovely calm voice – I was expecting a crazy hyper gal. Maybe from the pics from Soar this year 🙂

  121. I think your new oven (from the summer, yes?) might be a secret weapon in your Furnace Wars. If it has a self-cleaning cycle, that CRANKS out heat for about 4 hours or so (if it’s like mine).
    I mean, sure, you gotta watch the fumes, but the heat is….. glorious.

  122. Yeah, I posted this comment to the wrong entry. Supposed to be for Oct. 29th. I, too, am not as smart as I look.

  123. It is a fun pattern — I just wore mine last night. I love any pattern that forces you to knit the sleeves before the fronts and backs are finished because otherwise I’m very likely to put the project down and never return.
    Not sure I’d put my yarn in the oven. With my luck, someone would turn it onto broil for something and set it on fire.

  125. Wow. I thought it was amazing that we (living in Chicago area) were able to get almost to my birthday (10/15) this year without turning on the heat. Usually it goes on before the end of September. You McPhees are truly tough. Maybe it’s because you’re Canadian and I’m not…

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