Wednesday, April 25, 2007

shaken, not stirred.

Ugh. Is the little pop-up on the blogger dashboard (even though your blogs are already showing) a phishing thing? Because I fell for it. And kept on falling for it. And then I thought, "Oh, I'm already logged in... OH DAMN."
That's neither here nor there as I have taken care of it.
Now! I recklessly spent a chunk of my paycheck on an Ultimate Sweater Machine. I had a 50% off coupon for Joann's and ... well... I am weak. I like toys. Especially knitting-related toys. And possibly my least favorite knitting to do is back-and-forth stockinette (that's just knitting; as far as finishing, well, I hate ALL that).
It arrived today and I wasted no time in setting it up and beginning to knit with it. Only AFTER that did I watch the video that came with it, which is mind-numbingly boring. I watched it on 2x speed and even then the lady didn't seem to be talking THAT fast. Anyway, I didn't watch the WHOLE thing because I was eager to get to the projects, which I had heard are something like a workbook; you do each and learn new stuff.
So I started with the scarf which I hate.
I didn't bother with the seaming it up or attaching tassels because I hate this look of worsted weight yarn that is knitted on size 15 needles, single-stranded. This is achieved here through dropping every other stitch. Yeah, it's neat that it works that way but... seriously. If I wanted that look I'd just handknit it on needles that were way too big. It's not pretty.
Also I evidently haven't learned not to drop stitches all over the place. Irritating! AND one of the latches is BROKEN so ... I don't know what to do about that.
In short, I haven't decided yet if I hate this totally or just haven't gotten it down yet. In the meantime, it makes me feel like a really good hand-knitter.