Tuesday, April 24, 2007

soy silk struggle

Isn't this pretty? It's something whose name eludes me, but is doing well, in spite of my current policy of benign neglect.

Little peek in here. I have some soy silk, Southwest Trading Company's Karaoke, that I got in a yarn swap months ago, at Aloha Knitters. I was sitting on it, unsure of what to do with it. I thought it was so pretty, and soft, and the yummiest warmest French Vanilla color. I contemplated mixing it up with some Rowan Calmer, in Annie Modesitt's corset top, but after a swatch, realize they aren't quite the same gauge and look funky together, and not funky in a good way, either, but mismatched, like something I'd wear to walk the dogs on a Sunday morning. I thought about a washcloth, because, really, I just wanted to rub that soy silk all over myself. But the pattern I was trying to knit wasn't working for me, and I was mighty damn tired of ripping and re-knitting and getting the wrong number of stitches after that silly bobble row (oh accursed Mason-Dixon seductive washrags...)and suddenly I realized that I am done, finished, completely over that soy silk. It's going to Knittybird on Thursday, because it seems it's haunting her from a distance, too! She asked about it the other night at knit night, and I gave her an iffy answer, and then went home and tried to make something out of it, just to see if it would work for me. Since it's obviously not working for me, it's time for it to fly the coop. Adieu, soy silk! Blessings to you in the creative hands of Ms. Bird!

The weather has been all over the map here. Windy as all get-out, and rainy at nights, hard, warm rains, with huge drops that fall horizontally and end just at dawn, leaving a nice cool sunrise. The wind has provoked my usual case of spring-driven brainfog, and I'm fighting it with Claritin and giving myself extra time and caffeine to accomplish just about anything.

Little knitting (see the aforementioned soy silk struggle) has been done that hasn't been ripped. I'm taking a knitting break this week, as I concentrate on other things, namely, my backlog of ungraded student work, dog grooming and cooking. I made dolmas, oatmeal cookies and lentil soup the past couple of days, in a domestic frenzy. Somehow that's a balanced diet, I guess. The cookies had chocolate chips in them, too, making them more complete.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

If I'm remembering right, you can gently pull those flowers out and suck the nectar out of the bottoms. I don't think it actually tastes that good; it was one of those childhood things that I did because I could more than because it was tasty.

Isn't it funny about that soysilk? Lovely yet not quite right for anything I could come up with either.

Acornbud said...

Great running into you the other day. You inspired a domestic frenzy in me, too. I cooked carrot soup, chicken soup, chocolate cookies and a carrot cake. I still have a thousand carrots left:)

Reya Mellicker said...

What is it with the wind this year? DC has been uncharacteristically windy - and not with nice winds either. Yikes!

Love the flower pic. It looks so delicate but clearly it's very hearty.

Rebecca Clayton said...

I remember that flower from an herbarium sheet in plant taxonomy class...but no name surfaces. It's in the Rubiaceae, along with coffee. (What a wonderous family!)

My experience with soy silk fiber is like yours....it's intriguing, because it's so different, but I couldn't find a use for it either. Perhaps they'll keep experimenting in the manufacture, and change the texture into something usable someday.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of the Mason-Dixon book, one of my knitting goals is to make the Absorba Bathmat... Gulp.