Pet Peeve

I must take a moment from our regular knitterly broadcast to address a Pet Peeve.

I am subscribed to quite a few Yahoo! (NAYY) groups that discuss a wide variety of topics. In the last day or two, one of those groups has been flooded with posts that can be summed up in one of the following sentances: 1) Quit spamming me. 2) I didn't ask for your emails. or 3) Remove me from your mailing list. Now, this mass exodus does not concern me nearly so much as the cited reasons for leaving.

The last I checked (and I check quite often since I'm an admin on one of those lists), to join a Yahoo! was a lengthy process that involved 1) finding the group, 2) clicking a button very clearly labeled "Join this Group", 3) verifying which Yahoo! account you'd like to use for this membership, 4) selecting how group messages are delivered *including* a "no mail" option, 5) filling out an anti-spam CAPTCHA (an acronym for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart") form, and 6) clicking another button clearly labeled "Join". Some groups even go a step further and use Yahoo!'s optional "application" system to weed out people based on factors such as geographic location.

So how is it that after all this trouble, someone still has the stones to claim that the group is spamming them? More than that, how can they justify posting messages (and generating even more email) rather than simply logging into Yahoo!, going to the group's main page, clicking "Edit Membership" and finally clicking "Leave Group"? A process with fewer steps than it took to join the group in the first place!

So my advice to everyone out there is this: 1) know what you're joining before you join and 2) know how to unsubscribe yourself from services that you willingly opted into. Just two simple things that will make groups more enjoyable for everyone.

And since I've been unable to take my socks anywhere the last 24 hours (I need to take some photos for the tutorial before I move on with them), I've been carrying around some "mindless" knitting. Here's a sock shot from the "archives":

Jet 24
Yes, that pump does say $2.14 a gallon. A nice break from the post-Katrina $3+ prices, but still not even close to that oh-so-enviable price of $0.89 a gallon I remember from high school. Sadly, I think that tells way too much about my age.

The French Connection

Today knitting makes The French Connection. I wish I could complete a project that size in just three minutes.



The name of the artist is Camile and the song is "Your Pain" from her 2005 album "The Wire". The (roughly) translated lyrics are as follows:

Raise it decided
Let to me be replaced
I will take your pain

Gently without making noise
As the rain is awaked
I will take your pain

It fights it struggles
But will not resist
I will block the elevator…
To sabotage the switch

But it is which this encrusted
This storm before the summer
Bitch of small sister salts?

I all will confiscate to him
Its darts and its whistle
I will give him the smacking…
To transfer récrée

But it is which this heiress
Who bathes who ground
In the tepid water of your kidneys?

I will deprive it of dessert
He to make bite dust
Of all those which do not have anything any more…
Of all those which are not any more hungry

Say me that fout science
With when this bridge between our paunches?
If you have badly where have you fear
You do not have badly where I think!

What is this qu´elle wants this silly bitch
The butter or money of butter
What you sharp or which you die?

Is necessary that it bursts happiness
Or that it changes godasses
Is necessary that it collapses under the flowers
Change color…
I will play doctor

Say me that fout science
With when this bridge between our paunches?
If you have badly where have you fear
You do not have badly where I sing!

Like I said, *roughly* translated. The sad part is, even so it still makes more sense than some of the lyrics I've heard in English.

And to make today's post complete here is today's "Where in the World Town is Carmen Sock-diego?"

Burger King Drive-Thru
Unlike Southside Bakery, I don't really recommend anything here. It's just a dirty dietary secret I indulge in once in a while.

10 Things I Hate About You

Edit: In case you're wondering... there are now 213 Things Skippy Can't Do... back to our regular broadcast:

You being store-bought socks.

First the story (you know I have one):

When I first wanted to learn to knit socks, my first stop was my local yarn store. Inside, I asked the shopkeepper where I could find sock yarn. She pointed me to a wooden boat on the floor that resembled one of those Swiss wooden shoes and left me to dig. My eyes nearly fell out of my head! What crazy person had priced this stuff? Eighteen dollars for what would be a pair of socks I had to make myself?? Needless to say, I left without any sock yarn that day. But the story does not end there. Several months later on I found the "more reasonable" but still "pricey" Lion Brand Magic Stripes (NAYY) at a local chain store.

This time I bought the yarn and gave sock knitting a real try (previously I had done a few in worsted weight to learn the mechanics of dpns and sock construction). About a week later I had my first (complete) pair of true handknit superwash socks. I put them on my feet, and I swear that within an hour the scales fell from my eyes and I was officially a believer! I've re-washed and re-worn that pair of socks every single day since they were grafted closed. Now I have enough sock yarn for at least ten pairs in my stash, and I plan on getting some of that absolutely yummy sock yarn at my LYS once my yarn diet is done. I now understand the eighteen dollar price tag and I'm actually wondering why it's so low!

On to the list:

1) You don't breathe. When I take you off, I feel like I've been wearing grocery bags on my feet.

2) You have holes in your short-row heels. You're a machine knit sock! How can you have holes in your short-row heels?

3) Rather than nice smooth toe grafts, you have thick seams that lay across the top of my toes, then slide down the sides of my shoe to get wedged between my toe and my shoe and irritate me while I walk.

4) You come in packs of ten at prices that make my relatives question my sanity in paying eighteen dollars for socks I have to make myself when you can be bought at Target for $1.99.

5) I can't give you an after-thought heel or toe and continue to enjoy you for many more wearings. Once you wear out, you're out.

6) I can't combine pieces of you in different styles and colors to make a pair of socks that just scream ME.

7) I can't remember the last time I saw you offered in a wool/silk blend that comes in fifteen different yummy colorways.

8) You don't come in a totally custom fit.

9) Your yarn can't be used to make a matching pair of opera length gloves.

10) You don't make me look smarter or more clever than I really am when I take you out of a bag on the bus. Usually, you just make me look like a crazy bag lady.

And finally, my latest pair of socks ventured into Math class to learn the Law of Sines and the Law of Cosines today (no, that's not the pattern there under my pencil, it's the syllabus with the list of homework problems on it):

Four Second Delay

Well, it's not exactly a 4 Second Delay. It's closer to a 24 Hour delay.

Yesterday I promised a tutorial on how to turn the toe of any cuff-down sock into a Japanese-style Tabi Toe. I also mentioned something about that tutorial coming sometime today. Well, that won't be happening. I forgot that I had a Political Science mid-term tomorrow. In fact, I forgot about it for several weeks, which means much cramming this evening after the kids are in bed. The good news is that I've already written much of the tutorial, I just need to finish knitting up and photographing the samples for it. I wish I could say that I'll definitely have it up by Friday, but that's not highly likely since my daughter's birthday is this weekend, complete with all the visiting and festivities.

Wish me sanity!

In the meantime, enjoy this shot of one of the many places my socks traveled to yesterday:
Southside Bakery
I highly recommend the Cream Cheese Cookies and their huge, savory, yummy, yummy burgers!.

Night of the Day of the Dawn of the Son of the Bride of the Return of the Revenge of the Terror

Which is also known by its full title: "Night of the Day of the Dawn of the Son of the Bride of the Return of the Revenge of the Terror of the Attack of the Evil, Mutant, Alien, Flesh Eating, Hellbound, Zombified Living Dead Part 2: In Shocking 2-D".

Anyway, back in the sane world, as I was sitting in the drive through at McDonald's knitting away on my latest pair socks I birthed an idea. An idea that will take this blog in a whole new direction. Let's start at the beginning, shall we? (Get another cup of coffee, this one's a long one!)

Well, the beginning would be about a year before I actually learned to knit. That frosty February my husband once again sighed that irritated heavy sigh and rolled his eyes as I once again reached into my pack of cigarettes to head outside with the neighbors so that we could once again converse while smoking. I responded by once again promising to quit by the end of the year; the same promise I'd been making for a few years at that point. Fast forward to that hot, sticky August and forget the idea of quitting as I fussed and fretted and worried and paced with my best friend (the aforementioned neighbors, in case you were wondering) as Katrina took over New Orleans; leaving three households of her family with soggy, moldy, mildewed remains of what used to be homes. Then Rita headed our way hot on Katrina's heels. Chain-smoking was closer to what I was doing by the end of that year than quitting was. Why is this important? We'll get to that. On with the story.

The Thanksgiving break before I learned to knit a friend of mine mentioned that she wanted to learn to knit over the Christmas break. "Cool idea!" I said. "Let's learn together!" So I went out and bought us each some aluminum straight needles US size 8 and some worsted weight acrylic faux-suede. Although, to be fair, I must state that at the time I was buying "shiny needles" and "cool yarn". Sizes and weights would come much later. I presented a set of the needles and two balls of the yarn to my friend as an early Christmas present. To the best of my knowledge, those items are still sitting and collecting dust in her closet to this very day.

Finally, in January of 2006 I decided to take matters into my own hands and started searching the internet for instruction by asking Google "how to knit". After clicking several less than informative results I asked Google where I might "learn to knit". Long portion of the story short, and about a month later, I had mastered garter stitch and accidentally discovered the "k2tog" decrease. While knitting was fun, something interesting to do when the cable was out, I wasn't quite hooked yet. It would take a more drastic change in my life to make knitting stick.

So what would I call drastic change? Turns out that I'll be calling him Evan Louis. It was mid-April and that pesky little pink line wouldn't quit showing up in the window no matter how many times I threw the stick away and got a new one. I couldn't be pregnant again! But, I am and as a consequence all my cigarettes and my weekend trips to smoke filled bars had to go. Immediately. Terror! Panic! What was I supposed to do with my hands? What was I supposed to do with all that time freed up by not smoking? Why, knit of course! (See, told you the quitting thing was relevant!)

So I threw myself into the yarn pool with wild abandon and haven't looked back since. First was a Harry Potter Scarf, then lots of orphaned worsted weight acrylic socks, a layette set, a knitting exchange, a few hats, more socks, cables! Oh my! Now I fear I'm in over my head! Hopelessly addicted for life as newer, softer, yummier fibers present themselves at random junctures!

All of that has absolutely nothing at all to do with knitting in the drive-thru at McDonald's, right? Actually, it has everything to do with it. It's the evolution of how I came to be sitting in my car, stopped in line, knitting socks. That said, "what was your brilliant idea?" you ask. Well, that too has a story, though a much shorter one I promise!

At random points throughout my day, I find myself regretting my choice to leave my camera behind as I head out the door. Usually over simple little things like the way light hits a tree branch or the particular color of someone's custom automotive paint job. It's something that I've accepted as being part of life as an aspiring photographer. This day, at this moment in the drive-thru line, I found myself wishing that someone was there to take a picture of me knitting my socks in the drive-thru. My knitting goes with me absolutely everywhere. I'm an easily bored person. I must have something to do with my hands at all times. As I drove home with my sickeningly greasy fast-food lunch I started thinking about all the places my socks have been. About all the places all my projects have been. About how cool would it be to not only receive a knitted gift, but photos of lots of unusual places your gift has been and the people it met as it was "growing up"!

Which brings me to my whole new direction. In this new direction, you too will get to see where my projects have been. I'll also be throwing in the answers to questions people have asked me along the journey. The first answer will be a short tutorial on how I accomplished the Japanese (tabi) toe on my socks, which is by far the most frequently asked question from both knitters and non-knitters.

However, being that today is Halloween, I am a mommy, and it's almost 5pm here in my house, that tutorial must be held off until tomorrow so that I can feed my babies, dress them in cute costumes and take them to accost the neighborhood for candy that will undoubtedly end up being eaten more by my husband and myself than our children. Until then:

The Craving Heart

And my heart craves socks. I now know I'm an addict. I found myself cursing and vowing to complete the pair of socks I'm working on (meanwhile making a mental list of all the sock patterns and yarns I want to try) as I was forced to put on store-bought socks today. I'm thinking I may look into joining a sock swap of some sort once Christmas has passed.


edit: I've been trying to make this post for a VERY long time now. WTF is wrong with Blogger this weekend? I've got &*)(#&%*ing EOF errors coming out of my ears!