owlectomy | (no subject)

I have just completed possibly the most difficult knitting task of my life thus far! (As opposed to things that are merely tedious, like Latvian-style mittens.) I can do fair-isle, I can do lace, but structural challenges stymie me if I can't visualize in my head what it's supposed to be doing.

And on that note, one should probably consider bedtime when one starts counting "18, 19, 20, 22."

I made the fakest tonkatsu that ever faked! (A Quorn cutlet served with an unholy mixture of barbecue sauce, teriyaki sauce, ketchup, and mustard. Supposedly you're supposed to use worcestershire sauce for good fake tonkatsu sauce, but I haven't yet bothered to track down meat-free worcestershire.) Really not bad, though I'll want to tune the recipe somewhat.

And I'm plotting a book!

So far it looks like it's a bit cyberpunk-flavored and set in near-future Montreal and the heroine is a French-Canadian girl who has malfunctioning hardware in her brain. All of that is pretty much up for grabs, I think, but so far I like where it's going.

I might do something reckless and do NaNoWriMo. I dunno. I might.

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Those are exciting things! What was the knitting task? I am terrified of Fair Isle yet want to try it.

First of all, I'm really bad at picking up stitches. So, this pattern calls for a pocket-like thing that's created by picking up stitches -- a lot of stitches in a conspicuous place, so if you screw it up it's super obvious -- by "inserting a dpn into each stitch all the way through the fabric and catching the tail of yarn on the inside of the mitt." It's not super fun, especially with mottled dark-colored yarn. (And -- not the pattern writer's fault, I don't think, but I had the hardest time just figuring out which stitches I was supposed to pick up, and which way I was supposed to join it in the round.)

The first time I tried it I somehow ended up joining it inside-out...

Fair Isle is quite tedious but not difficult if you know to keep one strand on top and the other strand on the bottom. (There's a good article on this in Stitch And Bitch Superstar Knitting.) I think it's easier if you know how to knit continental and English, but while I can sort of do both, I can't manage to do them both at the same time while holding one yarn in the left hand and one in the right... that is Highly Advanced.

I've heard that putting the yarn in each hand is easiest but, like you said, Highly Advanced. Which I'm not. In Norway (I think?) they have a tool that you wear on your finger, like a ring, to keep the yarns separate... Ironically, I have Superstar Knitting out from the library right now. I should maybe actually read it. ;)

So many exciting things!!

I think I've seen vegetarian worcestershire sauce at the co-op. I usually just use soy sauce though as a replacement.

It seems like genuine tonkatsu sauce may actually be vegetarian depending on the brand, so I'll have to check out Sunrise Mart later.