It's all about the finish!

As promised, here is the info for the book that I bought on Sunday:

Wiseman, Nancie M. The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques (Woodinville, WA: Martingale & Company, 2002).

What's sad is that after so many years of grad school, I can still type a bibliographic entry without even looking at the MLA Handbook.

What is even sadder is my finishing, hence the need to purchase this book.
(It looks like it will be very helpful!)

Sunday at Michael's...

Yesterday, I was going to spend all afternoon at Michael's for their FIVE-HOUR YARN EVENT!!! Instead, I got wrangled into going to see "Brokeback Mountain." I have wanted to see this film ever since it opened, but not on the day of this CRAFTING EXTRAVAGANZA!!! (I liked the movie; caught most of the symbolism, the genre allusions and even a chiasmus in the narrative structure-all those years studying film theory finally paid off!-but didn't think that it was BEST PICTURE OF THE YEAR!!! Maybe it's just because I'm used to seeing two men kissing and showing affection to each other over the years.)

Anyway, I didn't miss much. I walked in to the store around 3:45 p.m., just as they were completing a tragic fashion show. Young girls being forced to walk up and down the aisles of a craft superstore by their crafty moms with indistinct announcements over the store P.A. system. I mean, where were the lighting effects, the waif-like models, the bitchy attitude? ( I'm spoiled by my weekly induglence of "Project Runway.") After securing a copy of a Knitting Finishing book (exact title later when I get home from work), I tried to find a spot to set up shop and shoot the breeze with my fellow knitters. Only two tables set up, far away from each other: Knitters at one and Crocheters at the other.

Well, there were no empty seats at the knitting table, so I bounded over to the crochet table and pulled out my grey jumper on circular needles and started clicking away, oblivious to the glares. Tried to catch what one lady was doing with a chain pattern of her own design, but seeing as the only thing I have ever crocheted is a throw pillow in double crochet, I was a little lost trying to follow why anyone would even want to do a chain pattern like the one she was demonstrating. After two rows on the back, trying hard to count decreases on the back for raglan sleeves while keeping a pattern full of nested repeats correct, I said I was going to go do some more shopping. I collected my stuff and headed straight to the knitting table, which finally had an opening.

The two women there had given very beginner lessons to shoppers all afternoon and were ready to call it quits when I got there at the beginning of the fourth hour. However, I did learn that there was a Long Island Knitting Guild and that its members received discounts on yarn and supplies at real yarn shops (I'm a bit of yarn snob; I basically knit only in wool, but seeing as I am running out of my Lopi from Canada, I'm getting desperate...). I was also told that I probably would have won the Fastest Knitter Contest, which, frankly is a little sad. No, really sad. All in all, I had a pretty good time, especially considering that my self-esteem got quite a boost in terms of my knitting prowess and I only had to tolerate one or two "Good for you!" comments, which I took to mean my choice in quality wool (that I brought back from my trip to New Zealand) rather than a reference to my gender.

Can you tell that I am learning how to do stuff on Blogger?

Here is a ridiculous close-up of the blanket. I think it's pretty.

Bear with me as I learn how to master the basic blogging techniques. I am using Picasa and Hello to post images, which just means that I now have three software applications, including Blogger, to try and figure out. 

What do you do when your dogs attack your knitting?

I made this blanket while sitting in my tiny Toronto apartment watching the 1994 Winter Olympics. I used one ball of every color that I could find of Icelandic Lopi. After carrying the blanket around with me from house to house over the next decade, it finally met its match when one of our three dogs (I'm not sure which one, but I have my suspicions...) decided to chew off two of the corners.

Not wanting to discard it after putting in two good weeks of high-quality television into it, I went out to my local Michael's store (which had a FIVE-HOUR YARN EVENT!!! today; more on that later this week) and bought a 36" x 48" inch canvas, to which I, not too delicately, used a staple gun to attach my beloved heirloom. I then took out the power screwdriver and, while getting in touch with my inner lesbian, hung the canvas to the wall via a wooden decorative frame that my Norwegian grandfather had carved and which fit perfectly above the canvas. I used drywall screws and everything! (I'm not much of a handyman; this was a major accomplishment for me.) So now not only did I salvage my own beloved handicraft, I also found a use for something my grandfather had made as well.