ScrapGhan, or The Garrett, reincarnated

I started another "Garrett." In some circles this afghan is called a scrapghan. Which is cute. But in my world, it will always be the Garrett. I'm not sure how I feel about this one, but it's a good way to work down the stash. There were a few balls, colors, etc. which were just too small to make it worth selling. And I started this before I knew that I had to sell all of my stash, so maybe some of it would have been worth selling.

But I'm finding that evidently, people don't want my yarn as much as I would have liked them to have wanted my yarn. Although I've raised about $100, it is nowhere near the $2000 that I need by the end of the month. Some friends have said that they would all kind of chip in and help me scrape the money together, and I will have to do that and pay them back as I get my paychecks. It's not how I wanted to progress, not how I wanted to enter my new job, but I suppose it is what it is... Not much I can do about it now.

Back to the Garrett Scrapghan, though. I may be donating it somewhere if I can find a good place, someone who will appreciate it. I may see how I feel about it when I'm done. Right now, I can't imagine it having a home in my home.

Sold some more yarn...

I am putting the thermometer on the right side of the blog, and will keep a running total for it there.

I'm not deducting my shipping costs, though to be truly accurate, I really should. It's too much math, though. As my law school friends all know me to say, "I went to law school because there was no math on the LSAT." So, you know, it will have to be an approximate.

Edited by a Moderator

Whoops. I got edited by the moderator of the Destashing group on Ravelry for saying that in addition to trying to sell my stash, I would also welcome any donations. Apparently, many people complained that I had put the donation part on. Who knew? I, of course, thanked her for her moderating, because I understand that one needs to keep the groups orderly and serving the purposes for which they were created, but I looked at the group's main page, and it says *nothing* about donations in any way. I am pretty good at reading into things, but I can't tell from that main page what would upset people enough to complain, or how putting the donation part would go against what the group was created to do.

In con law parlance, we would call that vague and overbroad. It regulates speech that the individual has no way of knowing would be regulated. I don't have a problem with a group being against a particular action. But please, let us know what that action is! Or give us some hint, at least.

Oh well. In any case, to keep the donation button present on the blog as I post more, I have made it a button on the right. Everything is very much appreciated.

Apartment Woes

Okay, so my landlord tried to stick us with a 57% increase on our rent. We went to court, claiming that it was unconscionable, and not only did the judge think that 57% was an okay percentage to raise the rent, he also ruled that we have to pay the additional rent for the time when the case was pending. We're appealing the decision, but long story short, I need to come up with almost $2,000 by the end of August. To that end, I am selling a whole bunch of my yarn on Ravelry (if you are interested and don't have a Ravelry account, let me know, I can send you pictures and prices directly).

I've also set up a "donate" button if anyone feels so inclined to help with my plight.

And a thermometer to keep track of my progress.

Free fundraising thermometer

No Knitting is Not Good Knitting

Yeah. So the bar ended last week, and I have puttered around with the knitting and haven't really done much of anything. I'm working on my stash-gahan, modeled after the "Garrett" blanket, but with worsted weight yarn. Maybe tomorrow I'll take pictures of it, and post them.

I wanted to make the Phoenix shawl from Ravelry, and I bought the pattern and some of the yarn, but I seem to be having some trouble with it, so I think it may have to wait until September when I can go into Patricia's Yarns on a some-what regular basis and ask for her help with it as I progress.

And my list of things that other people make keep growing. I don't know how, but I manage to get very sucked into making things for other people all the time... And just because I was doing minimal knitting doesn't mean that people weren't asking for things. Oh well. I guess it just means I should get off my tuchus and start really knitting again.

randomized photographs

I saw this on Yberry's blog, and I thought it was a really cute idea.

The concept:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

This is mine:
1. San Michele di Pagana, 2. Cookie, Anyone, 3. Ha'penny Bridge, 4. double and supernumerary rainbows, 5. Dwayne Johnson, 6. Tossed Cookies, 7. FIRE SHOT, 8. Apple Pie, 9. Joy of life, 10. inspiration..., 11. Another stick in the wall..., 12. Kiss

Music

I found this on "Left of the Dial's" blog. You sort your music library by name and then write down the first song in each letter. I think it's fairly representative of my music -- some classical, some pop, some current, some old-school rock, some religious, some long-ago female vocalists, one song from a television show I watched as a young child, and even one track that is spoken boring-ness incarnate about quasi-contracts as I'm studying for the bar.

A-Tisket, A-Tasket – Ella Fitzgerald
B.J. Don’t Cry – Moxy Fruvous
Cadillac Car – Dreamgirls Soundtrack
D’Yer Mak’er – Led Zepplin
Eat for Two – 10,000 Maniacs
Fade Away to Blue – Dave Murphy
G-chord Song – Suzzy Roche
Ha’azinu – Craig Taubman
I’d Rather Go Blind – Etta James
J.S. Bach’s Cello Suite # 5 – Mstislav Rostropovich
Kaddish – Debbie Friedman
L.A. Woman – the Doors
MacArthur Park – Donna Summer
N.Y.C. – Annie, the Musical, soundtrack
O.R.R. – Lynryd Skynyrd
Pain – Elton John
Quasi-Contract – PMBR Remedies
Race You Down the Mountain – Paula and Carole
S’wonderful – Diana Krall
T.B.D. – Live
Umut – Rafet et Roman
V’ahavta – Doug Mishkin
Wait – Michael Convertino
Y Te Vas – Motel
Zak and Sarah – Ben Folds

What are you listening to these days? I'm especially looking for good ideas of up-music -- what makes you sing along and lifts your mood every single time you hear it?

The Garrett

I was going to try to post this pattern on Ravelry, but I don't think I did it right, so until I get that fixed and taken care of, this is the story and the pattern that emerged (and someday, maybe pictures).

My friend Garrett (see him in his kitschy Budweiser hat in a previous post) is colorblind. One day he said to me, "I want you to make me the softest blanket you can, but I don't care what color it is." You know, because he wouldn't be able to tell anyway. Right. So I was going to buy new yarn for it, and then I realized that I had all of these scraps hanging around from old blankets that I had made. I collected them -- and begged a few off of a friend who also crochets -- and got white for my border. The original Garrett Blanket was knit, intarsia-style for the border, but since then, I mostly prefer to crochet them because it makes weaving in the ends easier as I can do them as I go. Garrett LOVED his blanket, and his girlfriend talks about it all the time.

How to make "The Garrett"

Knit (any gauge will work, any size needle, any yarn, and any stitch. I tend to do my borders in seed and the body of the work in stockinette because I find it goes the most quickly). Cast on as many stitches as you want for your blanket.
1. Separate your yarn by weight. Each blanket will be one weight of yarn. Save your other yarn for a different blanket.
2. Begin with 4 rows of your border color.
3. On the fifth row, knit 5 stitches in your border color, and then add in your new color. Knit to the last five stitches of the row, knitting the last five stitches in the border color. Repeat this row until you no longer have any more of your inside color left, but end at the end of a row.
4. Knit 4 rows in the border color.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4, using your next color and the border color until you are out of colors or your blanket is long enough.
6. Bind off and weave in ends.

Crochet
1. Separate your yarn by weight. Each blanket will be one weight of yarn. Save your other yarn for a different blanket.
2. Start with a color, and chain as wide as you would like your blanket to be, absent your border. If you only have a little bit of each color and would like the blocks of color to be larger, make the body of the blanket a little narrower, but be prepared to make up for it when you crochet around with your border color at the end.
3. When you have run out of color (at the end of a row), add your border color and crochet 4 rows of border color.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you have run out of colors or your blanket is long enough.
5. Single crochet around the outside of the blanket with the border color as many times as you think it should be for a substantial border.
6. Weave in ends.

It's really that easy (and flexible). Garrett is supposed to be sending me a picture of his, but I will probably wind up posting the new one I'm making. I like the colors to be truly random, so frequently, I will put them in a dark and solid tote bag, close my eyes and pull out a color. Whatever color it is, whatever brand, I will use it next.

A Diversionary Project

I studied all day. I'm not sure if I learned anything. In fact, I may have officially forgotten everything that I learned in law school. But at some point, I gave up because I simply couldn't handle it anymore.

So I made this:
It came from http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=194286.10 and it was super-easy, super-fast, and and easy cable, which made it super-fun.

It will be on its way to Leah on Monday. I had read this book about Starbucks: http://www.amazon.com/Pour-Your-Heart-into-Starbucks/dp/0786883561/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213507097&sr=8-3
and one of the things that the company was concerned about was the environmental effects of using all of the cardboard that they did. Having the coffee at a certain temperature is key to the enjoyment of the coffee, but it was so hot that people were using two cups so they could hold it. And then the company made the coffee sleeves so that it wasted less paper. I like this because it's even more environmentally friendly! This way, Leah will keep it in her purse, and when she treats herself to Starbucks, she'll use this instead of a cardboard sleeve every time. I'm quite excited about it - all of my friends and family may be getting these as their next presents...

Here are a few more pictures of the coffee cup sleeve:

In homage to William Carlos Williams

This is just to say

I am still here
on the planet
and in the existential sense.

The bar exam is approaching
in fifty-one days.
Forgive me,
There has been no knitting.

A link to the original, one of my favorite poems ever:
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15535

PS - for some reason, it's not actually linking. But I have to get back to my studying for evidence, so you're all on your own to copy and paste. In august, I'll fix it ;)