The Misadventures of GaietyGirl

The snow, which had been dusting the countryside since Christmas, arrived on New Year’s Eve by the bucketload. Blizzard proportions and such a novelty that most of the guests at our party took the opportunity to dance about outside amidst the white flakes.

A week later, the gloss had worn off. The temperature hit -13C on more than one occasion. The snowdrifts were topped up daily by fresh snowfall and in some parts of the country people were left without heating as the oil in their tanks froze solid.

Newspapers report it as being the worst winter in eleventybillion years. Last time I remember there being snow of this level (as backed up by the local papers) was in 1982. In honesty, I don’t remember it very well, but my dad tells me about it from time to time, and I’m glad it’s fuzzy.

Not being able to leave the house is something that drove me insane. The roads were too dangerous to walk on, particularly in sheltered little cul-de-sac places like ours that had 4 inches of the white stuff on a good day. I nearly killed myself dealing with the wheelie bin on the Monday after new year’s, and my window herb garden gave up the ghost -  that was really the straw that broke the camel’s back.

I did the only sensible thing for a knitter to do.

I went stash-diving.

Since January 4th, I have….

Squee’d some more over my secret satan parcel (not shown is the fabulous High Seas shawl pattern by Kieran Foley which the lovely Lucy dropped into my Ravelry inbox!)

…and I’ve done a lot of knitting, starting with these puppies.

Knee socks in Lorna’s Laces shepherd sock (South shore is the colourway).

A Foliage hat from Knitty in Malabrigo Chunky (Indigo). This yarn is like crack, it really is. It’s also the first hat in living memory that I can wear for hours and hours and not have the overly sensitive skin on my face get angry with me. I always giggled to myself when the line “Malabrigo cures excema” was uttered on the Lime and Violet podcast, but they weren’t wrong!

After this, I cracked out my brand new 8mm Lang needles (see previous bit about having an awesome secret satan swap partner!). Which are really Addis, but aren’t sold as addis. There was a problem with the UK/Irl distributor of Addis, you see, so they could not be had for love nor money in this country since…some time during the summer. Now these Lang needles are available, and are not Addis. Even though they’re made by Addi, have the same pointy tips and fabulously smooth connectors that have made me an Addi obsessive convert. Long story short - buy Lang needles, cos they’re awesome, and come in bamboo as well as metal.

…but i digress…

My new needles were introduced to some Twilley’s Freedom yarn, which has been sitting in my stash for two years at this stage. I had done some stash swappage when I was living in Belfast, intending to make a booga bag. Unfortunately my washing machine has a knackered heating element, so only washes on cold. Very good for the environment, less so for felting.

The Cherry Garcia pattern has been in my queue for months and months, so I set myself up in bed with my yarny bits, a beer (or two) and season 4 of Supernatural on my laptop. Episodes, beer and knitting went very well. Next morning, I realised that I’d made a bit of a mistake and done all of my cables to the front, instead of doing every other to the back. Ah well. At least it’s all matchy! No big deal anyway, as I’m totally gonna make another of these babies in the future.

I finished that off yesterday afternoon at SnB, which is a miracle all of itself, as I usually get more chatting, drinking of coffee and looking at everything else that’s going on at SnB instead of working on my own project.

There may  possibly have been some pouty looks when I arrived home, swathed in woolly goodness, so I cast on a hat for the husbeast that will fit over his big mop of hair. It took about 2 hours, and has reminded me why big needles are so fan-fecking-tabulous. Instant gratification for me and big smiles from HusBeast.

The top actually sticks up slightly in a vaguely pointy and cute way. I think it’s cute anyway. HusBeast approves because it’s still a manly hat, in a manly charcoal colour, which matches his scarf in a manly way….and keeps his poor widdle ears warm.

……I may get tickled to death for that comment. Totally worth it

I honestly didn’t mean it to be so long since my last post. It’s the thing about being out of the nine-to-five loop. Days drag on, but weeks fly by.

Since my last update, I’ve been involved in running a gaming convention (as has HusBeast), raised a chunk of money for charity and made some wonderful donations to wonderful groups. Sometimes it really is the best job in the world, being a charity officer, even if all the money I see never makes it to my bank account.

Me at Gaelcon, complete with facepaint

Just a couple of days later, we were on a plane to Georgia, where we were involved in running another games convention, though this one was for a thousand people. A little overwhelming to say the least, but awesomely good fun. Seeing as we were in that neck of the woods, we did…..sod all. Mostly we recovered, got to hang out with friends, and relaxed. We stopped by the Georgia Aquarium, which was incredible. Even got to play with itty bitty sharks!

Went to a plantation, which was beautiful and immensely disturbing all at once.

This beautiful bed and all the bedding (including the fabulous canopy) were all handmade...by slaves.

Met up with some fantastic LSG’ers

Dontcha love the tshirt?

and was introduced to the wonderfully delicious world of Firefly iced tea vodka. My only sob story is that there was none of it to be found in the airport on the way home. (As an aside, never, ever, ever travel through ATL airport if you’re PMS’ing, having a bad day, have more bags than limbs, or are generally not good with queuing. The place is in-fricking-saaaane!)

In terms of actual knitting content, I came back from the States with very little yarn, which was surprising. By very little, of course, I mean it weighed less than a small child. Got me some Sugar n cream, as it comes in cool colours and can’t be bought in Ireland. Picked up a couple of skeins of Red Heart sock yarn and entirely shocked myself in the process (it’s 75% wool, 25% nylon and as much as I hate to say it, feels pretty damn squishy!). Was brought a baggie by MorningSprite which contained four skeins of amazingly fabulous silky merino and one merino lace from Mmmmmmalabrigo. Even got my mitts on a skein of Lotus Yarns gorgeous purple yarn! Bonus!

I’ve been working through my stash slowly but surely. Very practical yet unfulfilling washcloths made from a bag of cotton that I purchased in February.

They’re bags, essentially. Soap goes in bag, hangs in shower. No killing self by slipping on soap that inevitably ends up in the shower tray. Also less mess to clean up, which is a cheeky bonus.

Socks.

Lots of socks

I’ve managed, in epic style, to completely avoid Holiday knitting. I hate holiday knitting.

It’s stressful, it’s not pleasurable, and makes even the sanest knitter contemplate mummifying themselves in acrylic so they can hide under the stairs until Spring. Personally I prefer the “unplanned knitted gifts” routine. I knit for people and give them the knitted item when it’s done. Could be any time of the year. It generally goes down well as the recipient isn’t expecting it, plus there’s the added joy of knowing that it’s not going to be buried under a mound of wrapping paper and plastic reindeer that poop chocolate raisins.

Holiday yarny gifts, on the other hand, are awesome. Like my fabulous gift from the Secret Satan swap on Ravelry. Still don’t know who my gifter was, but they did a truly epic job in stalking me online.

I’m sure I’ll find out soon enough who you are, but in the meantime - THANK YOUUUUU!!!!!