The Cove

If you haven't seen this film, you need to buy it on Amazon, rent it at Blockbuster or put it into the #1 position on your Netflix queue. I can assure you that if you don't need to pause this film several times to either be sick, weep or leave the house for air ... you're not human.

Root, Root for the Home Team....

I know there's national pride at stake at the Olympic Games but my U.S. spirit was dashed by the free skate of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada. Simply put, they were spectacular and their dance took my breath away!

With controversy rampart in figure skating, they left nothing to interpretation and wowed their home crowd and the world. If you didn't get to see their performance, head over to NBC's Olympic coverage and take a look. If their win wasn't heartwarming enough, they sang their hearts out during their national anthem at the medal ceremony and basked in the glory of their Olympic experience! You should too, here's the link.

GO CANADA!

Hellacious Heels!!

Yes, it's true, we have heels! It's been an incredible few days...just me, my CSM and the figure skaters of the Vancouver Olympics. In the spirit of the Olympic Games, I'm participating in my own Ravelympics right here at casa knitguyla. I've challenged myself to knit every component of a hand-cranked sock before the Olympics are over and perhaps combine each component into a sock. The use of the word "perhaps" is quite deliberate, this shit is crazy hard!

I remember learning to hand knit socks. It was extraordinary, a miracle when I turned my first heel. "What? Huh? How'd that happen?", "What made it do that?", "How could it change direction like that? I was flabbergasted, I showed it to everyone.

This is better ... go look at it again!

It's a Bird, It's a Plane...

it's a Hem! Yes, hem and I'm more excited about it than if Superman walked into my living room at this very moment! Well ... maybe not. It's my first hem on my CSM and it's a little sloppy but a milestone on my way to the heel. It's a good day at Sock Central!

Turning a Corner!

This is the first acceptable gauge I have ever gotten on my CSM. It's tight and even when stretched over my calf holds its tension really well. I oiled the machine tonight and started working on increasing the tension every 40 rows. It worked right up to the top of the tension dial and with one more turn -- half the stitches came flying off the cylinder like popcorn at its moment of conception! LOL.


I know it doesn't look like much but if you've just joined us:

This is four feet of knitting that took maybe 15 minutes
It contains not one dropped stitch
And it was knit on my finicky sock machine that's probably over 100 years old!

The best part ... it's finally getting an excellent gauge for socks!

I finally beat this machine into submission! Yeah, this is big, really big!

To blog or not to blog

When Krystal called me on my lack of knitting content I had to laugh but it also got me thinking about my knitting and blogging. As evidenced by my recent entries, I haven't been finishing much lately. I start tons of projects but have terrible finish-itis. I'm constantly reading up on patterns, putting things into my mental queue and playing with stitch patterns but they never seem to end up as finished objects.

How many times do bloggers apologize for lack of posting, relevant content or plain laziness? This is not an apology post but instead an evaluative process of what I get from knitting and if the parts of this craft that I enjoy the most are blog-worthy?

I should have gone into research because I love the process. I love finding out everything there is to know about something but so often, the actual something is far less interesting. That's how I am with knitting sometimes. The low productive periods are filled with the research, practice and controlled play. Then if I'm still interested and everything is in alignment, I can really enjoy the knitting.

Case in point, the Teddy Bear. I came upon this book at the Spring Retreat and loved the idea of knitting a Teddy Bear -- a three dimensional, sculptured knitted item. It was basically all knit stitches so there wasn't much to learn in that regard but plenty to research in terms of the perfect yarn and finishing techniques. I had a blast. I started this project at the Fall Retreat and when I got home, immediately abandoned it. I started to notice holes from the increases and fearing the filling was going to leak through, I lost my oomph for the knitting but not for the project. I can't tell you how many swatches I made to test various increases and even tried to create a few new ones. The "knitguyla left leaning increase that's invisible, perfect and sure to change the face of knitting"....well that didn't happen but I did learn a lot about increases. I knew all of the increases but never really thought about them in terms of which would work best or in what circumstances. I just followed the pattern, isn't that what everyone does?

On the finishing end, I learned that I do indeed hate finishing. It's tedious and when you suck at it as I do, makes a handmade project homemade which is why I will surely contract out the finishing. As for the yarn, the limited selection of Florida yarns had me baffled and in the end, I left it to my LYS owner in L.A. to pick the perfect yarns and she did. With so little accomplished on my own, I found little to blog about so the project and the process entered the abyss of unfinished items.

Maybe I'm just your garden-variety hobbyist and with that don't have enough to blog about that's of interest to the greater community. QueerJoe and Knitterguy plan knitting retreats and blog about finished projects with the regularity that I wear shoes, YarnHarlot created and executed Sock Summit, WonderMike blogs at Fiberbeat (video included), Franklin writes hysterical books and finds time to split his time with an equally funny alter-ego (hell, I can't even spell panopti-who), YarnHarlot writes books (did I mention her already?), BrooklynTweed he writes books too and Dave spins and weaves with such expertise I nearly cry every time I visit The Weaving Studio!

I don't finish projects and occasionally write about it.

insert long pause If there's a blog police I'm in real trouble.

On a side note, I'm a little disappointed ::sniffle:: that no one commented on my staggeringly brilliant photography skills in my last post. My hunched-over reflection in the center ornament was a triumph for someone with so little skill behind the camera. It's too late, don't bother...unless you feel you must.

And welcome Shihtzuma to the followers. She's a knitter from NJ (that where my peeps live) and that's all I know about her. She lives in the land of knitters, I think I'll friend her and get to know her a little better. Welcome Donna! See, I learned something about her already...her name's Donna, just in case you didn't get that from the "welcome Donna" shout out! ;-)

A day late and a dollar short....

This Christmas thing always seems to overshadow my Blogoversary which just happens to fall on December 25th as well. I'm too busy on Christmas Day to post and then I lose all blogging interest because I missed the Christmas Day post and we end up here with Merry Christmas & Happy New Year tidings on January 8th. If we were related, this wouldn't surprise you. I haven't sent a birthday card on time since 1975!

Regardless, I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I'm feeling especially grateful this year for the love in my life, good health, prosperity against all odds and the simplicity I've been able to create in 2009. This year has seen a ton of self-discovery at casa knitguyla and with that, my 2010 resolutions are clear and decisive. I won't bore you with all the details except to say that they are a typical mix, mostly.


So ... Merry Christmas and the happiest, healthiest and most joyous of New Year's to you all! Oh yeah, and Happy Blogoversary to me! I'll leave you with a recent photo (taken on the Christmas Cruise) and like it, may all your 2010 dreams lead you off into the sunset!

P.S. We have some new followers and I'd like to say welcome to you all! Wilma is the coolest twenty-something; he's the guy I wish I could have been when I was his age! That and a damn good knitwear designer!

Success & Failure

Tomorrow I will mail my Christmas gifts to family and friends. None of these said packages will include knitted items. I hoped to finish a blanket for someone special on my list but I haven't finished the border and their birthday is in February, so with that I've alleviated all holiday knitting stress!


Instead of finishing holiday gifts, I have been playing with patterns thinking I could design something. I know, who do I think I am to think that I could design a knitted item? It's not really designing per se but more of an adaptation of an existing pattern. Gotta start somewhere, no? The latest is this pattern, originally created for a dishcloth of all things but I thought with an amazing liner color to really show off the lacey parts, it could be an interesting bag. Simply put, I am challenged mathematically. I don't want the gusset of the bag to to be knit or stockinette and trying to figure the pattern in the round while getting a tighter gauge so that the size of the bag comes out as expected has given me a headache. It's still pretty though and I may actually finish it up and add it to the dishcloth collection.


I also knit these little wrist warmers but alas, I hate finishing (as is publicly known) even something that would take less than half an hour. I even bought these clip things to make it easier but even they haven't enticed me to get around to it. The yarn is a Superwash that didn't work for a scarf idea but worked nicely for this simple pattern. If I ever finish them, I may just keep them for myself or more likely, I may just keep them in the UFO pile like so many others. I suppose if I could actually wear these knitted lovelies, I'd finish them but that story has already been told. Florida's hot, poor knitguyla, blah, blah, blah. ;-)

I have a Christmas party to attend tonight and I'm torn between the red shorts or the green shorts. Decisions. Decisions.

Tree photos soon. I just can't decide -- garland, tinsle, beads, flowers or babies breath? Feel free to weigh in with a comment or two! Good cheer and Happy Holidays!

Snow Day

I've lived in Buffalo.


I know snow.


I know Winter can be a colossal pain in the ass.


I miss it terribly.

I've lived in a warm climate for too long, southern California and now Florida round out the last decade and I'm due a good snow day. I have tremendous holiday spirit this year but something so integral to the sensory experience of Christmas is missing. It's simply...the cold and snow.

I'm knitting the last of my holiday gifts with the central AC cranking and wondering how freakin' hot is this wool blanket going to get before I get to the cast-off edge?

If you're somewhere cold and it's working your last nerve, just know there's someone out there missing it more than you'll ever know.

These photos are from the Calgary Herald and I found them via www.sheepless.ca She posted the bus shot, isn't it incredible!
Photo credits: Jennifer Riddell, Oliver Ennis, Tim Bergmann

I'm a Gleek!

Yes, I'm in love with Glee. Last week the frenetic pace of Top Chef was making me so uptight I flipped the channel and accidentally found Glee. It's funny, heart-warming, satirical, dramatic and just plain old good storytelling! And there's singing AND dancing! What more could a guy want? I caught up by watching every episode on Hulu (love Hulu!) and when I ran out of episodes on Hulu, I turned to YouTube!

Every high school sterotype has been rounded up for this cast including the gay kid. I'm terribly gay-centric from the films I see, books I read and social activities/establishments I frequent so any program with gay characters is of interest to me. It's all about visibility and how it works to affect kids growing up where there might not be an gay visibility in their communities. If shows like this had been around when my generation was coming of age, we'd be different men and women of our age. And did I mention there's singing!



If you haven't seen it yet, be sure to watch, Wednesday nights at 9PM on FOX!