"I'd rather have this one, Mom."

Have I been rescued?
or am I about to jump out of the frying pan, into the fire?

My DD17 (I think that's how you say, "Dear Daughter of 17 years", right?) described this poncho to me as she eyed the slippery square of Bozo scalp I have produced with the other pattern, which consists of: "garter stitch, 45 sts. x 3balls Patons Cha-Cha = rectangle. Repeat and seam."




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Lady Kathen

Oh yes, oh yes. I am a "noblewoman".

I can tell for sure because my sister sews elaborate medieval and Elizabethan and Cavalier dresses and wears them to "events" where jousting tournaments take place. That, and the fact that I am sending, to myself, pictures of all the buttons on my blog that link to other people (so my link's not on their nickel). And furthermore, I pledge allegiance to Queen Stephanie of the Thrums.

Where can I order this roving stuff? I have never seen it on any website I have ever stumbled upon.

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Desperate

Well, I told my DD that I would finish knitting this "test ball" of yarn, and then we can measure the resulting fabric, and predict how big a poncho we could make with the six balls I have. Yes, I am stalling, sort of. I am going to knit up another test patch, but with something else along with the Cha-Cha, maybe. But what? Maybe some other slinky or perhaps ribbony yarn. A yarn without a gazzillion little rainbow hairs that prevent me from seeing any stitches.

This poncho was meant to be something easy to get me back into knitting sweaters, after a break of, oh, 15 years or so. A confidence booster, so to speak. I kept asking myself, "Kat, you used to knit fair-isle sweaters and buffalo sweaters in your youth, do you really think childbirth and childrearing has killed that many brain cells that you can't knit again?"; and I kept answering myself, "No! Of course not! I could still knit!".

Well, I think perhaps I shall set this aside for a bit, and start on a Very Harlot Poncho for myself...dig into the stash of acrylic stuff (no nice wool or soft cotton available around here, friends...not for about 70 miles (100 km). Maybe a nice variegated pink? (Eeeewwww!) If I can handle the results, maybe I'll join Acrylics Anonymous. He he!

Since I firmly believe nothing could be worse than this cha-cha stuff, I wonder: how many strands of sock-yarn I would need to knit at once to get gauge of knitting worsted??! I wonder what the fabric would feel like? 3 or 4 strands of variegated rainbow sock yarn, what would that look like?

(Time for bed, I'm losing it here!)



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Many Delicate Euphemisms

(I was going to use the multiple punctuation type of Sunday funnies SWEARING to approximate in visual display the AGGRAVATION I am feeling whilst knitting this Patons Cha-Cha into a poncho for DD; but I am worried that I will inadvertently do something in html that I don't want. But hey, gobbeldy-gook is what I want, right? So here it comes.)

$&*+#%!!!!!
The only way to avoid dropping a Cha-Cha stitch is to concentrate on each stitch. Powers of concentration are not my claim to fame.

The only way to tell if you have dropped a stitch is to count every row after completion, which takes almost as long as knitting the rackin' frackin' row.

The only way to FIX a dropped stitch is to candle the fabric with a bright lamp and use a tiny crochet hook to navigate all the fuzziness and snag the offending shadowy,slender, silken loop. That, and get DD to hold up the knitting in front of the lamp, since this is a three-hand, mid-air operation.

Am I the only one who has experienced this? Is there any hope except for a month of torturous knitting (at the end of which we will find that ponchos are no longer in style)?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help, or at least convince me that a poncho made from the pelt of Bozo's llama will look good in the end.






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Caterpillar,poncho?

My DD's poncho. I struggle to be my usual wordy self in the face of this...of this...this exercise in motherly love gone snarewire.

This stuff looks like Bozo the Clown's pubic hair. It is sticky on the needles, you can't see the stitches, it is tough to tell if you have properly pulled the finished stitch onto the right needle...you cannot see the stitches until you hold it up to a very bright light.

Every single stitch so far had to be watched closely. No knitting while watching new CSI shows, uh-uh.

I can only hope things will get better when I have a little more done, as in, when I get used to working with this stuff.


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Progress, of a sort

Now I'm in trouble. I stumbled upon a web-ring of Canadian weblogs, a ring whose members are pledged to use proper Canadian English. Impressed, I impetuously tried to join.
Aaaaacckk! What have I done? How on earth will my blog meet the standards? What if I accidentally misspell things, important things like "arbour", or "colour", or "cheque"? I can't use spell-check, can I? (No, Canadians do not write "spell-chequing", the word "cheque" is only for money matters.)
I always seem to get into trouble when I am flushed with my own success. Today I figured out how to personalize my blog page beyond my wildest dreams. The button for the web-ring even appeared on my blog--right where I wanted it to!--with a little disclaimer about why it may not work yet.
I have probably just found enough HTML rope to hogtie myself. Sigh.

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First Day of Fall

Oh, what a great day this is for a non-farming, non-gardening, town kid. It's perfect football weather. Go grab a real football, go to the schoolyard or the nearest green space, and play "steamboat" touch football. (Ah, the memories...)
No time to knit or play with the blog today, too much housework and place-of-employment work to do. I just have to post so I get in the habit. Boring, I know, but necessary. Sorry. Not like anyone's reading (yet), anyway.
Back to the grind. (Sigh.) When this rush is over, I'm gonna revamp my priorities. More Knitting!!!!

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frog!

I think I will keep this frog around. I do a lot of frogging. I also love frogs, and have for 35 years, which baffles my family completely.
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Whatta Rush!

Hi folks. Soon I will be finished dinking around with the style of the blog, and I can start working on the content of the blog. So this is my post of the day.

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The Urge To Destroy

What a crummy week this has been! The weather was supposed to be nice, but hasn't been. I know I shouldn't complain, since we have not had any (floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, snow, earthquakes--pick one), but what with BSE and hail and too much rain, our little farming town is in a baaad mood.

Anyway, I have to put this knitting blog thing on hold for a while, so that I can make a new weblog to learn about html and "hacking" the code to make it look like I want it. I am one of those people who can't work at a computer until I have my own wallpaper up, and have attached my own stupid sound bites to each action (like having the sound of a gunshot instead of "bing!" when you hit the wrong key!).

Sadly, I am not a hacker. I have to sweat bullets with the manual right by my side in order to get anything done in the way of technical stuff; but these articles in Blogger have given me such an urge to dink around with the look of my blog that I can't stand it anymore. Gotta be done.

I filled in a "link" field with the url for the article that has inspired me. I hope I don't cause trouble for anyone else. But I will be back when I have done my "hacking" (har har har--wish me luck) , and have gotten a decent camera that can take pictures of knitting while indoors. Our super--cheapie camera has no flash, and that means just what it used to in the old days of instamatic cameras--outdoor only. Dragging your knitting and a backdrop out to the backyard really sucks.


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Ten little stitch markers to keep me sane...
Posted by Hello
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The post that didn't wanna

Ok, this thing has eaten my post instead of publishing it--twice. Now that I have abandoned all hope of putting up what I wanted to , this post will likely "take" and get posted. So there.

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It's a Tilley Hat! Or is it?...

Click the post title to see where I got this picture. A genuine Canadian treasure.

My latest WIP - A knitted version of a "Tilley Hat" for my Dad.
The real Tilley Hats are the Canadian version of the adventure hat. The tough, unsinkable, indestructible hat our troops (and other countries' troops, I'm told) wore for the first Gulf War. Guaranteed to survive the digestive tract of an elephant and the industrial strength cleaning necessary afterwards. (Eeewwww!!!)
My Pa-in-law, who I always refer to as "Dad", has never tested his Tilley hat that way, but he wears it for backyard and vacation adventures.
My own father, who I always refer to as "Dad" (confusing--let's call him Gigi), does not own a Tilley hat, but both Dads have a humungous head size--about 23 inches. So, since my kid's Gigi (grandpa) was going on an adventure to "The Old Country" with his brother, and since I can't afford a real Tilley at this time, I decided to knit him one. My Bernat Handicrafter dishcloths have been tough, unsinkable, and indestructible, right?
Well, I might as well admit it right now, I missed the trip, but it will now be part of his Christmas present.
Below is pictured ersatz Tilley Hat. (Crappy colour shown. In real life, the colour's pretty close.)



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New blogger hits wall of technology--hard

Update: Sun.Sept.5: Put my pic where it belongs; changed my template to less garish; found a place to select Canadian English as my language (yes, it is different!); found a way to muck up posts that were finished (aka "edit")! All in 1/2 an hour! I might find time to knit today!

So, after a day and a half of trying to figure out this blogging business, I have gotten this far: the picture that is supposed to be attached to my profile is stuck here in the blog. (Hey, that sounds like part of a drinkin' song, stuck in the blog...drinkin' the grog...) Right. Anyhoo, this seems like it is going to be a painful process.
On the knitting front: I have finished 3 1/2 "Bottoms Up" Bucket hats. As soon as I figure out how, I will put in a link for Chicknits, which is where I purchased this terrific pattern. (It was as easy as having room on my visa card for a $5.00 purchase. Whoopiee!)
I got some snuggly-strange-squishy-liquidy-furry-hairy-fancy yarn called Paton's "Cha Cha" to knit my daughter a poncho. I have never knit with a weird yarn like that before. It is like silken thread chocheted into a chain with Bozo the Clown's hair caught up in it. But I did have to say, "Pick out any yarn your heart desires" to her, didn't I?


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The Very First Post

Good Day, Gentle Readers. Welcome to the Very First Post. Achieved while I was supposed to be doing other important things, like housework. Entirely devoid of any interesting content. Hey, if this shows up at all, I'll be doing great!!

We will work on the content later! Full speed ahead! I can hardly wait to get back to this after work. Woohoo! (Is "woot" just a fancy way of saying "woohoo"? Or "yeehah!"? Just wondering.)

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