Knit one, cough two....

Sweater Grrrl

Sick.

Dammit, I hate being sick. I don’t even want to eat. And for me, that’s huge!

I have been home from work for two days, and I am going to be sick over the holiday weekend. Which stinks, but that’s life, I guess! So I am sucking down Diet 7-Up and freebasing Saltine crackers.

On the up side, of course, I have had a lot of time to work on my knitting. I finished up the poncho for Pearl, and also screamed and fumed and swore at my Ultimate Sweater Machine.

First of all, it’s nothing like knitting. I don’t see myself using it a lot, unless I am feeling like a slack-ass about making a scarf that I want to wear the next day or something. I could immediately tell that there are ISSUES with this puppy, as soon as I opened the box. For starters, they advise you to watch the instructional video enclosed. (I rate it three yawns and a snore- I fell asleep halfway through and woke up with static on the TV. But I am sick, so I will cut them some slack. ) Next, there’s a huge sign atop all of the packaging that basically says, “If you have problems, please call our hotline number- DO NOT RETURN ITEM TO THE STORE!”

Uh oh. I started to set it up, realized I didn’t have a table that was the correct configuration to set it up on, so I dragged a piece of particleboard out and stuck it on top of my “crafting desk”. Voila!

The next three hours was spent ripping out my hair trying to get the dad-blamed thing to work. I even resorted to calling the hotline number around 4PM- the leaflet in the box said they were open until 10PM Eastern Time.

Evidently, that info is no longer accurate. The sweet little Southern Woman who answered the phone informed me that they now were only open 8AM - 5PM. Which, if you’re located in California, kind of stinks- I can get through between 5 and 7AM my time, the rest of the time, I’d be at work. So I cave up, and tried again at 6:30 this morning. I got an answering machine.

So, I jiggled everything around and tightened a few bolts, and what do you know- it works! I made a practice square with little or no problem, and turned it into The Cutest Baby Hat in the World. Of course, I don’t have a baby. But if I did, its little noggin would be covered non-stop, ‘cause I’d make about a thousand of these. I am thinking I will donate it to one of my breeding friends- Dammit, Jessica, are you having a boy or a girl? The hat (which is very girly, although I suppose it could go either way) pic is posted below, along with the finished ribbon poncho (in progress, and completed)

So- Once it got going, the machine worked great. I think I’ll use it for the boring stuff, and tackle intarsia etc. on my own.