A comic interlude

I've not been getting as much knitting done as I'd like. The beaded faggoting on Shipwreck is slooooooowwww, and I've only really been doing it on the bus ride home, since the boy has been giving me rides to work, and I've been busy in the evenings. Oh well, that will improve with vacation! Anyway, that's why I haven't updated in a while: nothing interesting has been going on. But today, I came up with this. Ahem. *makes with the sexy Eartha Kitt pose*

Santa Baby, slip some Addis under the tree, for me.
I've been knitting too slow, Santa baby,
So hurry from the yarn store tonight.

Santa baby, a little bit of qiviut too,
In blue.
Give that musk-ox a shear,
Santa baby, and hurry from the yarn store tonight.

Think of all the yarns I've missed,
Think of the Alpaca Silk from Debbie Bliss.
Next year I could knit even more
If you'll check off my Christmas list.

Santa baby, I wanna swift,
And really I'm kind of miffed.
Been hand-winding all year,
Santa baby, so hurry from the yarn store tonight.

Santa honey, there's one thing I really do need:
Seed beads
Miyukis would be just fine,
Santa honey, so hurry from the yarn store tonight.

Santa cutie, and fill my stocking with some seacell
'Cause, well,
It's real swell in laceweight,
Santa cutie, so hurry from the yarn store tonight.

Come and trim my Christmas tree,
With some Malabrigo (just a skein or three)
I really do believe in you,
Feel free to stay and stitch 'n' bitch with me!

Santa baby, forgot to mention madelinetosh,
Oh gosh!
And some Noro Kureyon,
Santa baby, so hurry from the yarn store tonight.
Hurry from the yarn store tonight.
Hurry, tonight.

Little drops of golden honey

Last night, I did the doubling row, putting in a lifeline, and then broke the yarn to start stringing beads! So exciting! The beads are just perfect, with as much shine as I'd hoped they'd have. I had some issues with changing needles. Usually, when I need to change needle sizes and I'm working on interchangeables, I will just swap out the tips. It's easy as pie--when you're moving up or down a size or two. This time, I was moving up FOUR sizes, from a 4 to an 8. The stitches simply wouldn't go over the needles. I ended up leaving the size 4 tip on the left hand needle and putting a button thingy on the right side. Then I put a button on one end of my other 40" cable, and a size 8 tip on the other. I can get the tip of the 8 into the stitches enough to knit them, and I'm (slowly) working the knitting onto the new cable as I go. When I reach the end, I'll swap out the button on the new cable for the other size 8 tip, and things should be a little easier.

Pushing the beads along the yarn slows my knitting down considerably, but adding a bead every few stitches (I'm trying to be fairly random, and may end up increasing how many I put on) is fun. I'm excited about how it's going to look! I've pre-wound my next ball of yarn. It seems that this yarn is difficult to do a Russian join on with my chunky-ass Chibi needle, so I should get out my slightly more reasonably-sized yarn needle for that purpose. Still, once the join is in place, the stuff grips like iron and it's as solid as you could like. Awesome.

With any luck, this will not take me forever. I'm surprised by how much it's flown along so far!