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Leftovers is apparently not a dirty word in the ChicKnits household. This beige Lamb's Pride hit the runway on eBay twice without moving and I, being a magnet for the underdog just couldn't stand it.

So when I was at the Knitting Workshop the other day to get my Mom some new bamboo circular needles (because her puppy BooBoo thought the ones she had were chew toys) I grabbed some beige Gedifra Techno Hair. Love that stuff!

And since I'm on a bucket binge (now that the scarf binge is waning thank god) I had to just try it. One strand of Lamb's Pride and one strand of TechnoFur.

Enchantà - just let me grab my huge black sunglasses and I'll be off...

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Monday Morning Mirth

a Special Edition
of ChicKnits

What the...

Will the real
Mini-me
please stand UP?

Cloning. Heh. Might've come in handy the last couple of months I was married. Have 5 of me around the hub at all times reminding him of my perpetual gory, OOPs, I mean glory.

Nevermind, it looks like I'll have to wait for my next go round on the planet. (Please insert a blanket apology to all believers in re-incarnation here. I truly do not mean to offend. Having just been flamed this side of ashes for calling my Knitty Wrist Warmers *Voodoo*, I don't ever want anyone to think I don't believe in freedom of speech.)

That being said: here's my short-theory about why Rael has become such a hottie. (Heh. 55,000 thousand members worldwide qualifies, no?)

Monsieur Rael was a race-car driver. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this profession falls into what I'll kindly call the GetSOme Top 10: Singer/Rock Star, Politician, Preacher (and Rael has his own Tammy Faye, non?), Soccer Player, BaseBall Player, Actor, Film Director, Film Prducer, Race Car Driver, and Matador. If I've forgotten any, please let me know.

If you look closely at the photo above, you will notice, and again I'll be kind, M. Rael is not dressed for success. At least in Chicago, where he would not only get stared at but might get his a** whipped if he finds himself over by the White Sox stadium after a game.

Not really a USA chick magnet. (Or rather, not even close to your basic ChicKnits CoverBoy. Today only, we've lowered our standards.)

Any way, this fellow is used to the spotlight. He's used to dare I say, GROUPIES. Another almost unknown alien life form at ChicKnits, but I've flown pretty darn close to the flame over, uhHHmm, Viggo.

Back to Rael: what better way to keep the motion in the ocean than to start one's own cult and have a built-in, ever fresh, room full of adoring women? And If that isn't BAD enough for you...

How about creating the Perfect Woman.

Seems like that idea panned out millions of years ago.

BUT...

Clone-Aid's first offering is named Eve...

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

ClonAid: Where It all BEgins

the Raelian Revolution
(be sure to wait for this download so you DO NOT miss the little TV Show)

Wired's You2

Raelians Theory on the New Zealand Maoiri

How Much Is That Doggy In The Vitro?

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Woman's Intuition: Fact, Fantasy or Science Fiction?

Not much truly important knowledge has stuck to my grey matter over the years. All those seemingly endless hours of study: college calculus, physics, statistics, chemistry, photography, graphic design, drafting, engineering, all of it, now paving the streets of some backwater neurological town somewhere in my brain. Seems like I've lost most of the addresses at this place because I just can't go there anymore. And I have no directory, no snarky cab driver, no MapQuest...

So I've turned, like most of the women on this planet, when faced with a desperate lack of information, to my gut instincts. (This is especially true in the dating department where I can peg a keeper in the first 5 minutes.)

A lot of people call that intuition. I like to think of it more like an uncontrollable mingling of all the education and living I've done coming together in a fabulous mental sneer when faced with some questionable result.

That pesky little doubt tells you, if you do *A*, *B* is going to happen. Even though you have the assurance of another person telling you a direction or a pattern gives you an instruction, you know from your head to your toes, it is WRONG WRONG WROOOOOONG...

Then you go ahead and do it anyway.

My Bonkers cardie is completely knitted. I spent 2.5 hours Sunday slip stitching the yoke to the body. (The seam is left on the outside as a cool design feature.) I knew I was in trouble when the pattern merely said, "Attatch yoke to body." Hmmm...

I read this way before I was done with the sweater and just figured it would be a breeze. Yeah.

The pattern also said to bind off the yoke knitwise, knitting every stitch. This is where the crock pot of my brain really started cooking and went off like a three alarm fire because the yoke is 2x1 rib and that would destroy it's flexibility.

So blithely I bind(off) and stitch till I scream. And the moment I've waited for arrives and I pull the cardie on and IT BINDS MY SHOULDERS LIKE SOME HEINOUS LASSO. (O nevermind. I'll block it!)

Something tells me not to weave and bury in my ends because of course, blocking can't fix an unmovable edge. You are going to have to RIPIT out.

Lucky for me the slip-stitch is really a chain stitch and once I pull the end it's going to come apart like the edge on a bag of dog food. I'm really looking forward to THAT!

WHY? Because ripping then re-binding off over three hundred stitches is just gonna make me cry like a tiny little baby...

Comments (10)

a ChicKnits Runway Presentation
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courtesy of Lana Grossa

Lana Grossa Yarns generously
posts a Frisky Furry Pullover Design

HERE!

Just click on "Model of the Month"
when you get to the index page...

Thanks so much to the folks at Lana Grossa!

You can buy their products online HERE

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Exciting Moments of 2003 #1:

Seeing Airforce One fly in and land at O'Hare Airport. I got to take the quintessential video of The President arriving in Chicago - the one where he comes off the plane and shakes the hands of the dignitaries. He was here for his huge economic announcement.

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Exciting Moments of 2003 #2:

Knitting in a Taxi for the first time. I missed the #66 this morning and couldn't be late for work so I jumped in a cab. I found out that I definitely do not suffer from motion sickness because this driver was Speed Racer & I was speed knitting...

Comments (9)

heh...

hehheh...

Comments (9)

Exciting Moments of 2003: #3

Even though I know it's an election year I was thrilled yesterday when the Mayor's Press Secretary crossed the crowded Grand Opening of the Bank of America in Chicago and came straight at me.

She wanted to know where I got my scarf and said she had been looking at it all through the news conference. Before I could answer, she said, "OMG, you made that didn't you?"

What was I wearing?

None other than the LIME GREEN SKMA scarf!

AHHH... One small step for mankind!

Comments (8)

Not a Myth

This is dedicated to all of you who knit and read... I've been knitting a hat over and over again since before Christmas. It seems if there is a knitting equivalent of dyslexia, I've got it bad for this pattern.

Now, over the last two years, I've become a nut for ribbing. Odd number combinations, broken rib, ribbing to shape a sweater, ribbing to contract an open spot so cold air won't attack...

The ORIGINAL started out in Fisherman's Rib. The size looked OK but was HUGE and when worn came down to the nose. So, I tried out Half-Fisherman's Rib or Shaker Rib to tighten the size.

With both patterns, I made many mistakes because you knit in stitches below and my Ribbing Mania would take over and I'd blithely just K1P1 without watching. I'll call that my natural Reading Rib.

So I've lost track of the times I've ripped out a couple of rows on this thing...

Why continue? Because this is a great looking pattern and the resulting hat DOES NOT CAUSE HAT HEAD!!! Or at least on me...

I'm now at the Crown Shaping (just ripped two rows back because the caffeine was slow in kicking in today) and want to have it done by 10am when I meet my fine friend Edie. RIGHT...

We are making one of our seasonal jaunts up north to Evanston to a yarn shop (CloseKnit) to browse and have lunch. I'm researching Aran weight yarn (18sts/24rows) for a project. I'm looking for something that has a little drape, but will wear really well.

I like Lamb's Pride (this wonky hat is made from it and if it can withstand the incredible torture I've wished on it it can do anything) but it is just too WARM for me. It's that mohair that gives it the punch.

I'd like to get a skein of Mission Falls 1824 and torture test it and maybe something else. I like the idea of superwash, but sometimes it stretches and is too soft to wear well. Ideas?

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for Your Reading Pleasure


Albert Camus: "The Myth of Sisyphus"

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