string theory

[freckles_and_doubt]

Bleah. One of those days. All 'fluey, and had annoying interview with nice man from the academics' association, who doesn't think much of my chances of extracting an actual post from my Cherished Institution. Apparently Things May Change next year with defining temporary posts, if I'd only just held on for just one more year. To which I say "Phooey." End of tether. Out of rope. Bridges burned. Metaphors mixed.

So, I have achieved several balls of wool in an attractively sludgy shade of green-grey, plus nice fat needles. By experimentally placing the needles and wool together in various configurations, I have remembered that I actually know how to cast on. Have cast on, knitted several rows, realised they're too tight, undone them, redone them, realised there are holes all over the show, pulled the whole thing undone, re-cast on, knitted several rows. The activity currently seems to be some kind of mobius strip. No amount of consultation of the nifty little pictures in wolverine_nun's useful book has permitted me to purl. These diagrams make no sense: they describe motions outside the normal physical universe, anti-motions. Actually recreating them will undoubtedly warp the space-time continuum, and I think the space-time continuum works rather well the way it is.

Alternatively, I shall make a further attempt at purling when I'm not quite so blasted on 'flu meds. I am, however, quite enjoying the actual knitting. It's very zen. Apart from the bits where I drop stitches, and swear.

Last Night I Dreamed: I was a member of an embattled royal family, holed up in our country mansion in the middle of a range of granite kopjes, frantically preparing for the onslaughts of the rising peasant masses. Discussions included angles of fire, setting up lookout posts, and who best to conceal in the priest's hole in the fireplace or the false floor of the gazebo out by the tennis courts. The Queen, a somewhat tremendous lady, was being suitably take-charge, particularly during those bits of the dream when I was actually her.

Comments

[tngr-spacecadet.livejournal.com]

Well done on remembering how to cast on. I did not, this time, and had to resort to knitting websites to refresh my memory. I am not pleased with the result but at least I have stitches on my needle.

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

I remembered very easily how to cast on, but I suspect the ease is suspect: I can't get the damned things to stay evenly spaced when I've knitted a row. Will have to re-try from the ground up.

[nimnod.livejournal.com]

Purl: you'll get it eventually.

[(Anonymous)]

Cast on is the hardest part. (Purl's tricky too.) Want useful videos?
http://www.knittinghelp.com/ And have you signed up for Ravelry yet? I'm seriously not going to stop bugging you. You'll thank me later.

(Just wait till you learn to knit an *actual* moebius strip. Oh, the coolness. But definitely not compatible with flu meds. Brain go quite sproing enough without.)

Knitting starter pack is finally ready to go (I had to wait for something to arrive in the post), although I'm now having second thoughts about the contents. Still, it'll be on the way by Monday.

scroob

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

Oooh, very useful videos, thank you! It transpires I've been casting on all wrong, which is possibly why it was so easy. Am also relieved to see evidence of actual purling without continuum warpage. And I greatly look forward to the starter pack - gratitude!

(Your nice man in the wool shop was amused by the scraps of your wool-acquisition instructions I read out to him. He wants to know what you tell me to do with the two shades of cotton).

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

p.s. where, o where has your knitting blog gone? o where o where can it be.... *sings* .... I just spent twenty minutes reading through back issues of Scroobius, which, while enjoyable, was unproductive, since the only link I can find is to twosticks, which Blogger assures me is defunct. And Purlescence, while pleasurably occupying another twenty minutes or so, lacks blog-bloggery blog-bloggery blog blogereeeee. Unless there are obvious links I'm simply missing because this sinus headache is making me cross-eyed. And cross.

[(Anonymous)]

www.purlescence.co.uk/cafe is what you want.
Also, your starter kit (or should that be, "now that you've got yer wool..." kit) is in the post.

Also, you may not have been casting on All Wrong but simply using one of the many common but less elegant methods. Have you now learned the long-tail cast on? It's easy, elegant, stretchy, and I hardly ever use anything else.

Also, cotton instructions will follow very shortly. Do you have your colours?

scroob

[bend-gules.livejournal.com]

I second the knittinghelp.com site. Brilliant that it offers both left and right handed videos.

These videos made a world of difference to me when I couldn't grock diagrams. Even Elizabeth Zimmerman's diagrams weren't clear enough for me.

One comfort to me was that knitting is recyclable. Unless you actually cut the wool, you can rip out whatever doesn't work, and do it again. Or if you're not happy with it. Just try to do that with some other arts!

This way, your UFOs can return to their component parts, and need not induce the same kind of guilt that a half-finished-but-no-longer-interesting item does.

[wolverine-nun.livejournal.com]

Like the new tag.

Drop in to f_f's sewing circle tomorrow, and someone will show you how to purl. Next stop: cables!

Congratulations on getting started :)

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

Am wimping out of today, owing to head being a bit explodey. Will hit you for instructions tomorrow, in between John Cusack :>.