At tea parties in Hell they serve...

CRUMPETS! This pattern is the bane of my existance! I swatched. I really did. If my new digital camera were here I'd show you the swatch. The perfect sized swatch that I did. And I'll be damned if several inches into the thing I didn't realize that not only had I twisted my cast on for the first time EVER but it was a lso a good SIX inches bigger around than the size I was knitting was supposed to be. Before I even got to that point, the tearing-it-out-while-screaming-obcenities-and-shaking-my- fist-at-the-sky point. I had issues with this pattern. It calls for a picot cast on but omits the two sentence directions for said cast on. They do include two pages of pictures of some kid wearing the finished item which, however cute, are not helpful to ANYTHING having to dowith this pattern. There's a detail of the pattern stitch given but no detail of it with the beadwork. Speaking of the beadwork, they don't mention anything about prestrining the beads until you're supposed to start slipping them into place. I just think that in a four page pattern that prints in a 12 point font and includes two pages of pictures, a few sentences to say, "Hey prestring the beads and to do a picot cast on you cast on five stitches, bind off two, and repeat until you have the right number of stitches for your size," might have been nice. I'm not sure what my gague problem is yet but I'm going to go get some new needles tomorrow. I'll get a pair in the same size I was using but with a shorter cable as I may have ben stretching it, and another pair in a size smaller in case that doesn't solve the problem. If I end up knitting this thing on needles a size smaller AND have to knit the smallest size in order to get it to come out at the medium size I will not be a happy camper especially since, as I may have mentioned, I SWATCHED! Damn that adorable pattern! Ahem. As I mentioned, I'm getting a new digital camera. Red Todd Kidd and I (as predicted) are giving it to each other for our birthdays. It should actually arrive on my birthday (Wednesday). I'm actually typing this on one of RTK's b-day gifts: a snazzy light-up keyboard. It's still pretty stiff so forgive my typos. I got some birthday gifts of my own this weekend. A couple of new westerns for the ol' movie collection. That's the current genre I'm into. I'm going to be running a Western themed RPG here pretty soon (my other nerdy hobby) so I've been watching insane amounts of westerns. I have decided that Clint Eastwood is about the coolest guy ever. Anyway. I've also decided that since I never read anymore, I'm going to switch out the "What I'm reading" thingy on the sidebar to a "Movie(s) of the Week" thingy. I promise someday I'll read again. I just can't do it when Lola Beans eats my books. Seriously, she's eaten more than one.