What not to do with a crochet hook.

You may have noticed that yesterday's post included yarn wound into a big old ball by hand.... I'll wait while you look. That is a result of the strangest knitting disaster I have ever perpetrated, and for some embarrassing reason, I have decided to share that with you here. Sit back and enjoy a laugh at the sequence of events that let to the existence of that hand-wound ball of lovely:

1. Found a very tiny crochet hook in the floor of my car while cleaning it out to drive The Mom to the bead store on Saturday.
2. Didn't read the size on the hook, just stuck it in the little well on my dashboard for the trip there and back, around three hours total.
3. Got the crap annoyed out of me by a VERY shiny metal crochet hook rolling around on my dashboard. In the sun. Flash, roll, fall off, put back, repeat.
4. Came up with a brilliant solution. Pulled the cone of laceweight yarn out of the bag in the back. Stuck the hook in the middle of a tightly wound cone of alpaca silk yarn. Hook down. I am obviously a genius.
5. Thought that I had solved the problem and dismissed the whole thing from my mind until I got home and got ready to cast on.
6. Tried to pull the hook out, the one that I was convinced that I was going to need to bead the shawl I was starting with this yarn. What happens when you try to pull a crochet hook BACKWARDS out of a tightly wound cone of alpaca silk yarn? NOTHING. Doesn't even wiggle.
7. Tried to push it through forwards. Guess what happens when you push a crochet hook forward into a cone of laceweight yarn that is taller than the hook is long?
8. You guessed it. It disappears completely. No amount of poking it with your fingers or with other long implements like, say, three different sizes of knitting needles does anything but make you worry you are chopping your yarn up.

That is right, in eight easy steps, I managed to FEED A CROCHET HOOK (that I needed to use with the yarn) TO A CONE OF LACEWEIGHT YARN. Now, THAT is talent!

Thus we arrive at the place where I spent two entire hours on Saturday night winding a ball by hand, like a treasure hunt, trying to uncover my crochet hook. All's well that ends well, right? And hey, I got to pay very careful attention to the new Dr. Who! (Who, geek?? Me??)

Beady goodness.

I finished the Haruni, will show more when I get it blocked. Took a trip to the bead store in Surfside Beach on Saturday so I could start my Aeolian shawl.... I got beads (four boxes of them!) that match the yarn PERFECTLY. It is such a perfect match that they are almost invisible.... I struggled with that, couldn't decide if I wanted to go for the blend or the contrast. I guess it remains to be seen if I end up liking the low contrast, huh? What I am telling myself is that it is like water at night, with a subtle glitter of moonlight through clouds. I can spin such a fantasy about yarn, can't I? See above my new beading workstation, complete with this magic velvety mat that keeps the beads from rolling.... Amazing stuff! I am starting to get into the rhythm of putting beads on every few stitches, too. (Now that I said that, there will be a terrible beading disaster, won't there??)

Now I am sick and will go to bed shamefully early. I hate being sick.

My cat liked to hide in boxes.

Rest in peace, Nicky, 1998-2010. Wherever you are, I hope you are not suffering anymore.

Prom Night.

Behold The Mom, crowning the Wilson High School 2010 Prom Queen! This is my fourth prom all together, and my second with my mom.... Silly, I know, but we had a great time... And a great day shopping for prom dresses! I thought as I approached 40 in a childless state that I might have moved past any potential prom dress shopping, but NO! I got a great dress. So great, in fact, that I am going to have to start inventing cocktail dress occasions so that I can wear it again. That and the being-swallowed-by-a-boa-constrictor underwear.... Not that I am looking for excuses to wear that again....
Here are the obligatory before-prom photos. Nicky got in on the action, and we couldn't resist, even though it meant showing fish-belly white legs to the internet. :-)

The Mom and I partied the night away.

Continuing knitting disasters....

Remember this? Beautiful, huh? I took this picture in the vain hope that I could convince myself that I hadn't allowed the color changing yarn to ruin the project. Don't think that is possible? Check this out:

Yep, nothing soft or subtle about that change. I didn't even have to do anything to accomplish it.... It wasn't because I broke the yarn when the dog spilled malt on it. It was just the way the color change worked out. Whose bright idea was that?? So when I got to about three inches of unadulterated sand color after that hard line transition, I finally gave up and admitted that it looked terrible, and that I would never love this shawl again if I didn't do it. That's right- frog. No life line. Just plain ole' pull-the-needle-out frogging. It still makes me light headed to think about it.
Here is the scene at my house last night. Not for the faint of heart. I ended up frogging to about three rows above the hard line, which was an entire day's worth of progress, an entire chart worth. THEN, in the most difficult knitting maneuver of my entire life, I put (hopefully!) 96 stitches of cobweb weight yarn knitted into a random pattern of yarn overs back on the needle. And tinked back three more rows.

Today, on my Good Friday holiday that I took today since I actually worked on Good Friday, I have put about ten rows back on it. That was before I cleaned the kitchen and took a long hot bath. I am still not 1oo% convinced that it was a successful move, since there is still a color difference where I picked up the yarn. Not nearly so bold, true. We shall see how it goes as time and charted rows pass.... I may never get over the trauma!

My dog is seriously in the dog house.

This is my beautiful Jojoland Harmony yarn, soaking. The dog spilled chocolate malt on the skein where it was resting while I napped this afternoon. She looks very ashamed. I may forgive her if the yarn dries ok. Maybe.

Once and Future Socks.

I know I love this yarn. Wanna know how I know I love this yarn? I have, in the last 24 hours, started this sock three times. I got all the way through the first repeat of the lace pattern for the Swan Socks by Wendy Knits at least once. I am telling you, though, a grizzly bear could have gotten a big old paw even in the second attempt. The Miss Babs Yummy is holding up nicely to the frogging, I have to say!

This, contrary to my usual history with photos, is a pretty decent representation of the color. This is my Miss Babs club yarn, Oriental Poppy in honor of Georgia O'Keefe. I madly, madly, madly love the color, which is only slightly more orange than I am showing here. The pattern that came with it was cuff down, though it was lovely, so I have decided to deviate and do the Wendy KAL sock for this month. Birds, stones, you know!

Not that I have fallen out of love with the shawls... Don't get me wrong. I am still motoring along on the Hanami shawl. I have gotten through the sixth repeat of seven basketweave repeats.... I can't explain why I needed something else to knit. Somehow the pattern is both too complex and, after the SIXTH time I have done the exact same thing, too tedious to work on uninterrupted. Hopefully, knitters will understand what I mean by that.... I have to concentrate hard to get it right, but on the seventh repeat, there is nothing new happening.... I needed me some variety!!

I think I may be spending too much time thinking about this stuff....