I found a project I was working on months and months (andmonthsandmonths) ago. It was a pattern I was drafting, and I had to knit six (six!) items (or at the very least, four, but preferably six) and I knit two and they were glorious...and then I lost them and my mojo went with them. Yesterday I stuck my hands into the pocket of a jacket (not needed since, what, February probably) and lo, there they were! No idea why they were stuffed into jacket pockets, but I digress.
Also, there's a yarn in stash that I'd forgotten about, a dark green Malabrigo worsted that I'd bought to work on Hourglass, that long abandoned quarter of a sweater that's been in the WIP basket for ages. The yarn might be perfect for Juno, and I may not need to buy yarn after all. I'd love something tweedy (something you'll rarely hear me say) but I think this will do. But does Malabrigo hold up well for a sweater that gets a lot of wear? Juno would probably be a jacket I'd wear a lot on cooler days - though there aren't many cooler days, so "a lot" is relative here - and I'm concerned about Malabrigo's hold-up-yness. Anyone have any input on that?
And if you do have input, you better talk fast:
My gauge is a little off, I think...it's hard to tell when your gauge swatch is in rib, so you can just stretch or scrunch it until you get the numbers you want...but I think it's running a bit small. I don't want to knit the sweater on larger than US9 (5.50mm) needles, so I'm knitting the size 36 (knowing that I'm going to come up with negative ease around three inches, based on what Knitting Betty told me) and theoretically, it'll fit like a glove. Theoretically. It might fit like a corset. That would be not so good.
Some of this yarn was knit into that Hourglass sweater (which I had tired of very quickly). Since Heroes was on last night (Heroes!!) I didn't have the time or the desire to wind yarn, so I skipped a step in the rip-wind-knit process:
Meh, it's just easier this way.
(It bugs me that photos look so different on PC and on Mac. I always adjust and edit my photos on my Mac at home, and then I post or look at my blog on a PC, and the photos are much darker and harder to see. I apologize, PC people.)
News in World of Real Life: that promotion I got seven months ago put me into a position with a partner in QC/Training. I say "partner" but I think of her as my superior in every way, since she's been here a long time and Knows. Her. Stuff. Well, she's been deservedly promoted, and now I'm the only one in this position. Eeek! It's cool but scary and while I'm not completely freaked out, I'm about halfway there. Maybe two-thirds...
Also, I would like to sell you on a miracle product I have discovered. Over the year(plus-ish), I have directed you to spend a lot of money on a lot of things. Today, I'm asking you to spend fifty-nine cents. Go buy yourself a box of baking soda. Throw out every single cleaning product you own. Okay, it's not that simple, but baking soda is a miracle oh my God how did I ever live without this? After reading the Crazy Aunt Purl post about miraculous non-toxic cleaning products, I decided to load up on vinegar, lemon juice, and baking soda, plus some funny scrubby tools and things designed to make cleaning look fun (I even bought the exact same bucket and caddy that Purl did). The baking soda actually removed those ugly rusty coloured irony water stains in our toilet, something I've been trying to do since we MOVED IN. Gone! Yucky weird toilet stains not created by us but still embarrassing nonetheless, gone!!! And lemon juice + chrome or nickel fixtures = happy beauty shiny. I'm so thrilled with this decision. (A little bit of bleach diluted with water serves for surfaces that require disinfecting, by the way, so you won't freak out and tell me how many germs my vinegar might be leaving behind.)
Finally, I have a tribute. A while back Anita Roddick died. She was the founder of The Body Shop, and until she died I didn't realize what a profound effect she had on my life. My very first fledgling attempts at being green and shopping cruelty-free came about at the age of about twelve or thirteen, when I discovered The Body Shop and their wonderful never-tested-on-animals fair-trade philosophies. I sent off for information from PETA on other companies that didn't test on animals, and I started to pay attention to what was in the things I put on and in my body and what those products did to the world around me. And while I'm obviously not excited and happy yay about her passing, I truly didn't know what an inspiration I'd had in Anita until she was gone...so I'm enormously grateful for her life and her work. Yay for you, Anita - thank you.
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