YO

So I have been catching up on Breaking Bad, although that might not be the right way to say it since I never watched it to begin with.  But I decided that in order to understand the finale, I needed to see the show.  That’s not logical.  I know.  How could I determine that I want to see the finale if I hadn’t even watched the series? Doesn't make sense.  But that’s what I’m doing.

Observations:

• Don’t do drugs.  Duh.
• I wish Jesse would make better decisions.
• I don’t care what decisions Walter makes.  He is evil.
• I wish Walter's wife and son would stay far, far away from him, just in case the people gunning for him find him. Actually, everyone needs to stay far, far away from him.
• “Camper cooking” means cooking meth in an RV.  It’s mobile yo, harder to find.
• Getting ahold of lots and lots of pseudo ephedrine is really difficult for meth cooks.
• Don’t go into the desert alone. 
• “Bounce” means "to go,” as in “Go bounce, yo,” (Go away NOW) and “We gotta bounce” (We gotta get the h*ll out of here NOW).
• If you close your eyes AND cover them with your hands, you won’t be able to see all the violence.  The series is occasionally INCREDIBLY violent. 
• Bryan Cranston is NOT the star; Aaron Paul is the star.  He is amazing. He is the bomb, yo.
• I think that "yo" is the equivalent of an exclamation mark.  I think it might also mean "Hey."  It might mean other things too, but I haven't figured them out yet.

I read somewhere that one hour spent watching television takes some specific amount of time off of our lives.  I don’t see how whoever studied this can know this, but if it’s true, I’m screwed and it’s all the fault of Breaking Bad.

Also, I’m trying to learn Spanish from the series but this might not be the best way to accomplish it.  They speak really fast, and even though the Spanish is subtitled, I can’t catch the individual words.  I can command "Finish him" though:  Terminado.  Not useful presumably,  but I could say it if I had to.

I'm only at Series 3, so there is a long way to go.

Watch this space.

Gotta bounce, yo.

Success

Why, you might ask, would I call this "success"?

Well, let me tell you. 

It has taken me nearly two weeks to get this far.  The instructions include things like LCI, 2/2 LCI, and RLPI and I had never heard of these stitches.  It took awhile to figure out what they ARE before I could look them up on youtube to find out HOW to do them.  And then I tried doing the stitches. That was fun.

And so I had to rip it all out and start over.

And I made the mistake of starting over at last week's Knit Night.  

I picked it up today to continue on to row THREE and everything was wrong.  Knits were purled; purls were knit.  

So again, I ripped it all out and started over.

And somehow there weren't enough stitches.  I added stitches, and worked row two all over.  

Now comes the increase row, and sweet baby cheeses, I hope I get it right this time.

On the other hand, I am very good now at the Old Norwegian Cast On.  



Update:  I have hit a roadblock already.  I have asked this question on Ravelry, but I wonder if anyone reading here has the answer.  How many stitches does this section require:

RLPI, p2, k1tbl, p2, 2/2 LCI, [p3, RLPI] 2 times, k1tbl, p3

I count 22 but the section set up for this only has 19.

Anyone?  Anyone?  Anyone? 

Bueller?



Update #2:

A wonderful Ravelry knitter answered my call for help and corrected my understanding of the increases I was using.  And it worked!
Onward and upward!

MKAL

A few months ago I joined an MKAL (mystery knit-along for those of you who have not yet discovered the fun of knitting).  It was the first time I had entered such a thing; I have not even done an ordinary KAL and I was excited to finally be taking part in one. However, as of today, I still haven’t taken part in one.

I have learned that my aversion to following rules, following instructions, doing what I am told, has made success in an MKAL an impossibility.

I am just not a games person---except for tennis, which I love with all my heart and soul, and I am heart-broken that two knee surgeries have taken me out of the game. (In my next life I am going to be a professional tennis player AND a back up singer for someone like Tina Turner, so keep an eye out, ok?)  I loved tennis so much that I became a USTA official: chair umpire and linesman for professional tournaments.  And I played lots and lots and lots of tennis, mainly singles. If I am going to lose, I figure, I will lose on my own, and if I am going to win, I will win on my own.  So there.

When I was a child, according to my sister, whose memory I have doubts about, I once threw a Monopoly board off of the table because I was losing.  I really do not think that I would have done such a thing, but I do know that my own family will not play Monopoly with me.  Younger daughter says that the last time I played with her, I cheated.  I doubt that as well. I think she made it up.

When I was pregnant with daughter #2 (the one who lies), my husband and I signed up for Lamaze classes.  We went once or twice.  The LAST time we went, we drove there, and before we got out of the car, I told my husband, “Do NOT tell me what to do.”  

He rightly protested that that was the whole purpose of Lamaze; that he was my coach;  coaches coach.

“No,” I repeated, “Do not tell me what to do.”

After a brief and possibly heated discussion, we went home and that was the end of Lamaze.  As it turns out, the doctors had to induce labor, and, I am told, that at that point, Lamaze is of no use at all because the mother goes into whatever is the last stage of labor.  Drugs, please.

When my husband sang the praises of a par course the county we lived in had installed, I went along once.  Once.  When I saw the first sign that said “Do x # of jumping jacks” or something like that, I started laughing. “You do what the sign says??? Really?”

So I guess this all means that I am childish or something, but apparently I just resist being told what to do, and that tendency played out with the MKAL.  

But I had been game!  I had been ready! I had even wound the yarn.  I waited excitedly for the first clues…...I printed them out and read them...... uh oh. Part of the first week’s instructions stated that a gauge swatch was absolutely essential.  Well, problem #1.  Ain’t no way.  It’s a shawl.  The size simply doesn’t matter.  To me.  Maybe to the designer but not to me.

So I waited for the next clue and was excited when the e-mail came and I could print out the new pages.  And then the next week I printed out the new pages as well.  Then the next week and then the next. Then all of the pages got mixed up and I couldn’t figure out the order.  

And that’s all she wrote.  I decided to wait until the whole pattern was released and then decide if I liked it well enough to knit it.  The complete pattern came out, I looked on Ravelry at the MKAL group’s photos of other people’s finished shawls, and yes, they were pretty enough, just not something I wanted to make.  The yarn and the needles have not yet met.  But since I still have the yarn, which I love, I will make something else from it.  

Lesson learned.  No more KALs, mystery or otherwise.

At least not in this life.  

So

what I was trying to say in my last post, but got distracted by the missing needle, was that using new technologies to make knitting easier shouldn't be so complicated.

And I found my needles in another project, the 100 grammi scarf; I cast it off and today, I WILL conquer the Old Norwegian Cast On.

Is it an old cast on from Norway, or is it a cast on created by an old Norwegian?

What is Wrong With This Picture?

Just about everything.

I finally decided to start work on S's sweater. Yay me!!! (I bought the yarn in March.)

I scanned the paper pattern into an electronic PDF file, imported the file into Dropbox and from there into KnitCompanion on my iPad mini. Then I set up a new project in KC, cropping and pasting as directed. I opened a video on my laptop so that I could follow along with instructions on doing the Old Norwegian Cast On. I pulled out the yarn and the gauge swatch. 

Had I indicated on the swatch which size needles I used for the swatch (and I hardly EVAH make gauge swatches)?  No. Did I leave the needles I used in the bag with the yarn?  No, I did not.

But wait!  My memory says that I had decided that I needed one size larger than the pattern called for.

Woo Hoo!!! So let's get out those size 9 needles and get cracking!!!

Can I find those needles?  

No, I cannot. ANYWHERE.

All these electronic helpers, which kind of took a long time to set up and I'm wondering if they really are all that helpful, and I am defeated by my own lack of organization. 

Off to search for the needles. Again.

Yard Eggs!

Deanna, who is a knitting friend who abandoned us and moved to Houston (but we forgive her), once told us about an ATT store in Louisiana where she couldn't pay her father's ATT bill but where she COULD buy yard eggs.

Yard eggs! we all said.  What the heck are yard eggs?

It turns out that they are exactly what the name says --- just eggs that people who aren't egg factories gather from their own chickens.  So by definition I suppose they are "organic" and "free range" and all those good things.

Well, I had never heard of them, but last week, as I drove down a road near me, I saw this sign.  The man who sells all sorts of farm-fresh produce there said that the eggs he sells are better for us than the ones we get from the grocery store --- no chemicals in their diets and the only feed outside of what they find on the ground is the occasional handful of cracked corn.

I am now the proud owner of yard eggs, and I feel healthier already.