From the archives of Life magazine.
Fingers at the ready? We're on October's doorstop, perched to ring that bell...
- My second knit typing pad is complete. I learned some lessons from making my first one last year, specifically the importance of thickness, so I took a suggestion from Monda and made the entire thing a knit-one-purl-one rib knit, then folded it into fourths before washing. The good: this thing is crazy thick, and should be able to muffle my typing sounds, even if I choose to use a hammer on the typewriter this November (tempting, when the plot goes awry.) The bad: I threw caution to the wind and did not test a swatch of yarn first to see how it would shrink, so the result is less of a pad, and more of an elongated rectangle. Two typewriters could easily perch back-to-back upon it. This may not be a bad thing. The original pad is sitting under Norma Jean at the office. I might sleep on the second one.
- October also means that I start focusing on filling in the many gaps on this year's novel, which is going to be a comic/humorous fantasy-type story. My last two attempts have been serious works (ahem) and so I would not let myself take advantage of the "ceiling ninja" technique of unsticking a jammed plot ("Suddenly, ninjas leapt from the ceiling!") I'm going to rectify that this year. In 2009 I shall embrace the ninjas. The plot is thickening.
- I've been remiss in lazily re-posting Links of Interest, so here's a few to tide you over:
4 comments:
But don't you get the hated curly edges when you knit one/purl one?
Not with a rib: stockinette stitch curls like a mother, though (all knit, and then all purl.) K1P1 makes something stretchy, like the top of a sock.
Also, I'm using larger needles than called for and felting the results, so the edges are unrecognizable after all that abuse.
K1P1 is the only way to go, my friends. Another hint - instead of putting it in the washer and praying for the best, put the works in one of those huge ziplock bags with some liquid detergent and hot water. Your hands will nearly fall off, but you can control the felting from the outside.
I can't find the Typewriter Brigade. have they disappeared?
I'll have to try the baggie trick next time. We have one of those fancy-schmancy front-loading washing machines now. Better for the environment, but lousy for felting -- getting it to stop mid-cycle and drain is like landing the space shuttle.
The NaNo forums have been having the usual first-of-October growing pains, but the current Brigade topic is located here:
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3264160
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