On My Needles

Busy Bee

2008-11-05T15:44:00.000-08:00

I've been busy during classes this year:

So far completed are a number of scarves.

Webs Crocus Shawl worked in Brooks Farm Yarns, I'm not sure which one. It's a lovely blue and there are 50gm of the yarn left, so I'm thinking I can get wristies out of the remainder.

The Noro Sock yarn scarf from the fall Interweave Crochet. The covered ring fringe is a little annoying to work, but so much fun to play with. This one will be a Christmas gift to someone, I'm just not sure who.

And I'm 4 balls of Plymouth Boku into a granny-square baby blanket. Apparently I don't want to give away the green Encore one until I've made a replacement for my stash of baby gifts. How odd.

And, since I've not blogged in forever, here's the rest of the finished projects I can think of from this year:

Last spring, right after I shaved my head, I finished up a simple cowl in a super-bulky white yarn that I think had Blizzard in its name. It was from a Secret Pal exchange, originally tried to be the croched edging scarf from One Skein, but there just wasn't enough yardage.

Before that I worked up a (one, two?) skeins of Auracania in a beautiful red into a travelling rib cowl of my own "design". I'm really not sure that you can call picking a stitch pattern that works over the relevant number of stitches designing. It went to my sister for her birthday. Ideally I'll get a picture of her in it.

Early last summer, I finished a pair of mitts in a vibrant green sock yarn. That pattern was from Knitting New Mittens. The sideways garter is so easy, and they're surprisingly fun to work for such mindless knitting.

Projects in progress that are worthy of note:

I'm still working on the Cobblestone pullover for Tcepsa. We're still getting married next August. That's definitely a project in progress. Planning a wedding is scary stuff. I'm horrified that I'll forget something important.

Anyways, that's enough rambling for now, especially since I sincerely doubt there's anyone still following this. Though bloglines is a wonderful thing, so there may be an audience out there... hi!

A is for Arisia

2008-01-19T19:43:00.001-08:00

A year ago this weekend (well, last weekend, they moved the convention a week so it could fall across the three day weekend), I drove to Boston for a con, Arisia to be precise. I wanted to see a friend from Washington (state, not DC), who'd moved to Boston for college (a long time ago), and the convention sounded like fun.
Tcepsa popped up and said he'd be there, sent me his phone number and we decided to try to meet up over the weekend. He popped up while I was registering, and we spent pretty much the entire weekend together.
Insert a full year, the first 3 months of which were spent saying that we were looking for fun, a relationship, but not a serious one, the next three months of which I spent in Seattle (home for the summer) talking on the phone almost daily, and a conversation that started in early November regarding the symbolism we'd be laying into a pair of bracelets he was making for us (the conversation was put on hold when I asked "so is this something normal people would be symbolizing with a ring?" neither of us was ready to deal with the answer we both knew was most appropriate for that question). The conversation ended over Thanksgiving break this past year with us becoming engaged.

So, A is for Arisia. Where I met this boy.

They also have a wonderful stairwell which I do not (yet) have pictures of.

Socks.. or rather Yarn!

2007-06-07T22:24:00.000-07:00

I have picked yarn for my sockapalooza socks.
I still haven't picked a pattern. Bother. I can default to one of my oldy but goodies, but I don't want to.. I want to try something new and interesting.

Unfortunately, at the moment, I'm scared of doing that.
I'm making a pair of socks for a friend that I realized a couple weeks ago at knitting group may well be far too large. Next week, I'll have her try on one of my finished socks to see if I need/want to pull hers all the back to a ball of yarn. Eek.

The other reason this may well happen is because I'm going to run out of yarn well before the toe, but could probably stretch it to something that looked reasonable if I did contrasting cuff, heel and toe. This obviously involves ripping back to re-do the cuff. I think I've already actually made a decision and will be ripping this sock. Whee... Good thing I'm a process knitter, right?

Giant doily!

2007-05-06T08:12:00.000-07:00

For the NWRSA fiber exchange, I'm crochetting a shawl. It's the cover picture on Amazing Crochet Lace by Doris Chan. In other words, I'm crocheting a giant doily.

Only I don't have enough yarn to do the whole thing, so I did the center section in the round, and folded it in half, and then am working the leaf pattern around a smaller section. I have just over one half the number of leaves because I wound up with an odd number of sections and as written, each leaf required two sections for its base. So I centered the odd one and made an extra leaf with only one section at its base. I hope I like how this turns out.

For those of you who read Spin-Off, it's the same technique employed by Regina Rooney in the Four Generation Shawl (Spring 2007). I would have loved to do that shawl pattern for this project, but I didn't make the yarn thin enough, or even enough. Alas. Perhaps I'll do it out of commercial yarn at some point, or maybe I'll get back to the spinning with a different fiber.

Procrastinating

2007-04-29T15:46:00.000-07:00

I should be studying anatomy for the final tomorrow. But I don't want to. So instead I'm updating my blog on the progress (or lack thereof) that I've been making on my knitting.

Yesterday I unknit about 1200 yards of Zephyr from the gauge swatch shawl from forever ago. I did get it all knit and cast off, but it's squarer than would be ideal for its actual size, so I decided to reclaim the yarn. Amusing how much faster it came out than it went in. Maybe I'll do something with it this summer. Then again, maybe not.

In the spinning front, I'm still working on the yellow wool and soysilk barberpole yarn that I'm making for the NWRSA swap. Yes, I realize that I'm very much pushing the deadline on this one. The conference (which I am not attending) is at the end of next month. At the moment, I have about 200 yards of roughly fingering weight yarn and am thinking that I can get the spinning wrapped up this week and start crocheting in classes. I do hope so.

My class knitting has been a pair of socks for Mary, in a lovely purple koigu. The cat has only chewed the yarn apart twice. Bad Kitten! Blessedly he likes the yarn better than the actual knit fabric. I'm going to try to get this first sock knit past the heel before I get home in May so that I can have her try it on. That said, I'm uncertain enough about the fit that I don't feel driven to get very much farther than the heel. Target finish date: end of this summer.

Tatami has languished in her bag for the last couple of weeks, but is definitely going to be finished this summer. Speaking of which, I've started packing. The knitting and sewing projects are all picked out and packed. Nothing has been packed by way of clothes or other so-called necessities, but I have the important stuff taken care of.

Still knitting

2007-04-20T14:21:00.000-07:00

*pokes head up from the hole I apparently fell into*

I've been knitting...
Doing a fair bit of it, in fact. Mostly in class.
What I haven't been doing, is finishing anything.
I think..

There are tickles in my brain of things that I'm done knitting, though I don't know that I wove the ends in.
Ooh, and the two things that I finished and gave away to Kappa Psi (fraternity) brothers.
But mostly, I've just been knitting, and getting distracted and starting new projects.

On the needles currently:
2nd sock of the trecking socks that had the first sock finished 2.5 times before actually being satisfactory on iteration 3.
Purple Koigu socks for a friend at home.
Tatami from Sundara in a lovely blacked purple.
Various and sundry other projects in various stages of being completely forgotten.

(Happy Kat? You asked, I posted.. So, neah!)

Re: Snow

2007-01-09T16:48:00.000-08:00

*Written mid-last week*

Snow is lovely.. however, we should not get snow the day before I am planning to spend 8.5 hrs in the car driving across a number of states.
I realize that this is partly my problem for deciding to drive north in January, but still. We haven't had winter yet, would it kill someone to have it hold off for another 5 days or so?

It didn't stick, but when I looked up this afternoon and saw it my first two thoughts were, "Hey, neat, snow!" and "Aww, bugger, I don't want to have to drive in this, hope it doesn't stick."

It hasn't and hopefully it will stay that way.

Snow is fine, when I have a functional transit system to rely on (as in St. Petersburg, Russia), or when it is restricted to mountains that I (or others, I'm feeling benevolent) visit with the express purpose of playing with it. I suppose it's fine anywhere it doesn't get in my way, that's what this really boils down to.

For the history portion of this story. I've driven in snow exactly twice in my life. Both times were last December (2005).

The first I was at the fire department listening to people talk politics after a regular drill night when someone looked out the window and said, "guys, it's sticking, anyone with a drive better head out now." Given that I had an hour drive, I did. It was fascinating. Anti-lock brakes feel quite strange when they engage. But it was just loose pack snow, no ice under it and I got home just fine.

The second was that Saturday morning. I'd taken a red-eye flight to Dulles airport and as I started hearing the news in the terminal I realized that perhaps the Thursday's snow was a practice run for my drive to Winchester. It's very unnerving to go pick up your very first rental car ever, and have to scrape 4 inches off snow off of it before being able to depart. The radio was suggesting that everyone who didn't absolutely have to be on the roads stay home, schools were closed, etcetera. But here again I arrived safely. I claim blind luck and ignorance because on that trip I also discovered why it is a very good idea to also scrape the snow off your roof, but thankfully I did not run into anything while attempting to look through the that had (until I came to a stop) been located on my roof and was at that point covering my entire windshield.

So yeah, snow is only good if I don't have to drive in it.

*Post-trip addition*

Boston has come and gone. I drove back Sunday night in some less than pleasant rain, but blessedly there was no snow.

Yesterday the temperature here was 64 here, today the weather forecast is for a high of 34. A 30 degree drop in temperature overnight. Whee! And there are little flakelets of snow falling. They're so cute.

When it started snowing in Seattle last week, people started saying to the weather, "Go East where it's supposed to do this." I replied to many with, "No, not until after my road trip this weekend." It appears to have worked. Our very unseasonable weather held for long enough for me to get home and a generous margin of error thereafter. Thank goodness.

Kitten Approved Pictures: SP9 and Ornamental II

2007-01-09T15:57:00.000-08:00

My parents and I went to Williamsburg for the New Year's. The wreaths they had on almost every door were quite fun to look at. Here's one of my favorites, the dried yellow flowers sanding out quite nicely against the green leaves and red wall.

I promised a picture of the lovely package my SP9 sent me forever ago. The kitty has approved both the package and the picture. I am looking forward to working up some washcloths with the cotton, but I am trying not to start any more projects before I finish at least one of the ones I already have on my needles. We'll see how long I actually stick to that resolution. At any rate, here's the package.

5 balls of Sugar'n'Cream in blues and greens, some fabulous chocolate. I ate the last piece just before the New Year's trip, it's the first time in a very long time that I've liked chocolate enough to ration it. It was in such perfect bite sized pieces to do just that. The raspberry hard candies are slowly disappearing, I don't tend to eat as much hard candy as I do chocolate, but they are quite yummy. Up at the top of the book, you can just barely see some stitchmarkers with fascinating square beads. I've not started a project with stitchmarkers lately, but I am looking forward to using them.

And now for the amusing part of this story. This is, actually, my third copy of Mason-Dixon Knitting. Kat sent out a request in her SP9 questionnaire, and I do believe that the powers that be decided that the entire family must have been in need of this book. I love this book and am very glad that this surplus allowed me to pass on the joy that is MDK, but I do find it laughable to have 3 copies of it in a one-knitter household. I am now down to the much more reasonable number of 2 copies having put together a very similar package for my SP when it was revealed to me that she did not yet have a copy.

(however much the kitten might like yarn, he does not knit)

Which brings me to my next kitten approved package. I got my ornamental swap package, a lovely box full of Wee's, all the way from Australia. Thank you, Belinda, thank you so very much! Aren't they cute? Their faces are so expressive for so little stitching.

Last, but not least we have the two ornaments that I sent out. They are the ones described in my ornament recipe from December. Quite fun to knit and take almost no yarn, but infinitely variable. Looking at them now I wish I'd thought to needle-felt some embelishment onto them, but I did not, alas.

"The Gentleman's Sheep"

2006-12-30T21:03:00.000-08:00

Or, I've been learning about the Leicester while in Williamsburg with my parents.

These are the sheep raised as part of the Colonial Williamsburg rare breeds program.. They are lovely. One not very well known tidbit, they do sell fleece. The adults must be bought by the fleece, but the lamb's wool can be bought by the pound. So, I now have some amusingly authentic fleece for my stash. I hope to get it washed and spun at some point in the not too distant future, but I think we all know it's been a long time since I posted about spinning, and there's a reason for that.

As George Washington said, "It is a shame that it is illegal to import them (the Leicesters), for they have greatly improved my flock." I believe the rationalle used was that since the illegal action had already occurred (importation of the breed to the colonies), that breeding to them and using the sheep was valid... I happen to think that's a bit of a stretch, but..

Oh, and Virginia is a bad place to try to raise sheep. It can be done, but the climate is, a bit more humid that would be, strictly speaking, ideal. It's also a bad place to raise cotton as a cash crop because the type that grows here has a sticky green seed instead of the smooth black seed of cotton that requires an even warmer climate to grow.

I have seen a bed rug. Goodness those are unattractive. Especially the one that looks like a refugee from a 1970's VW minibus (black ground, blue octagons, orange squares, 1.5" loosely spaced tufts of yarn for the pile). I wouldn't want to make one, I might, actually like to sleep under one, but then I called my mother one year looking for suggestions for heavy non-insulative blankets. Yup, I'm odd, I like to know where my blankets are and in the summer, that means heavy cotton no batting.

Links.. and knitted ornaments

2006-12-26T17:12:00.000-08:00

The raglan pullover agreement is hilarious.

The little cork elves are terribly cute. My mother thinks the korknisser are scary.

The jingle bell buns are also terribly cute.

I am unlikely to make either of the ornaments. Much as I might like to. I find knitted ornaments are great fun worked up free form. This is what I did for my ornamental pal (they also make great kitty toys, just ask my kitty!)

Bethieee's ornament recipe:

Decide how many sides you want your ornament to have.
Cast on that many stitches (I suggest between 3 and 5).
Increase however you want until you get bored or are worried you won't have enough yarn to finish the ornament (I use the little samples from the yarn of the month club so running out is a very real possibility)
Decrease however you want, remembering to pause and stuff the bottom half of the ornament at some point while you can still get your finger into the ornament to manipulate the stuffing (ask me how I know this is important...)
When you have the same number of stitches as you did when you started, work i-cord until you have enough to make a little loop.
Thread yarn through stitches to "bind off".
Sew i-cord tail into loop, weave in other end.
Hang from tree merrily.
Retrieve from cat.
Repeat last two steps ad infinitum.

This is rather more detailed than my recipe for squash and pumpkin soup.

Muppet's pumpkin soup recipe:
(Forewarned, if this is made too early in the fall, people in the cafeteria look at you funny and wonder why you're eating pumpkin pie in September. The looks get funnier when they determine you must have run the pie through a blender. Explaining that it's soup doesn't help much, they still look confused.)

1 can pumpkin
1 butternut squash, chunked
1 can coconut milk
some water
some cinnamon, salt, pepper, ginger, cumin and cloves

On medium heat, cook pumpkin, squash and enough water that it doesn't burn until the squash is squishy.
Add coconut milk, salt, pepper and spices until it tastes right. (more cinnamon than salt, more salt than any of the other spices... yeah, helpful, I know..)
Stir together and cook on low heat for a bit.
Squish squash or puree, your choice (I prefer mine slightly chunky)

I'll know in about a week if this recipe freezes well. Tonights leftovers are in the freezer. I'll probably eat them early next month.

Finals done, holiday blues

2006-12-20T13:00:00.000-08:00

Hey there folks.
I know I owe you a couple of posts.
I've been knitting, but not finishing anything.
I've been taking pictures, but not getting them transferred off the camera.
I've been eating, but not really what I should be.
So, yeah.
I'm falling behind.
Again.
Sorry.

Toes of socks - II

2006-12-08T00:25:00.000-08:00

Today we talk about toes again. Once I get home from school and finalize the post, we'll see toes as well. (I found my camera cable, and have been having a slight argument wiht my battery about whether or not it's going to keep a charge... I appear to be losing that argument, I need a new battery)

I made pointy toes for my Sockapaloooza pal when I followed Nancy Bush's pattern earlier this year. They fit decently and I really enjoyed not needing to kitchener the stitches at the tip of the toe, however, most people I know do not have a very pointy middle toe. So, this toe was less than perfect for actual use.

I figured when I worked up the green Lorna's socks that I'd try modifying my standard toe to alleviate the need for the dreaded kitchener stitch (I have actually conquered the kitchener, I think I can even do it without going and looking up the directions again, but that's beside the point). My new favorite toe works up quite nicely to the shape of my feet. It's here in the green picture.

In the red picture, however you see a toe that I should have realized would be problematic and modified it accordingly ahead of time. I love the lace on these socks (Thank you Sundara). The pattern is from her Petals Collection fall mailing. The yarn is a lovely slightly varegaited collection of reds like one sees in fall leaves and it's a joy to work with. However, the toes of this sock are square

and mine are, most definitely not, see?

I wish I'd thought to modify the toe before I did a couple of repeats of the lace, but I'll rip it out and do it again because I am quite enamored of how the lace looks. I'll probably use the same lace chart for a scarf at some point in the not too distant future, it's just pretty.

And, just because they haven't shown up on the blog in person before now. Here are the Socks that Rock socks that I finished during Socktoberfest. The pattern is the same one as the sockwars pattern, but with more stitches. Aren't they pretty?

I mostly don't even mind the pooling around the ankles. There are days when I wish I had more patience for doing contrasting color short-row heels just so the color patterning on the leg and foot wouldn't be interrupted. Alas, I prefer heel flaps and even if I did a contrasting flap, the gusset would still throw things off. I'll just pretend I don't notice that part and love them anyways.

December already

2006-12-06T12:56:00.000-08:00

So it's already December. Finals are next week and I'm not quite sure how they got so close.
I have a post about sock toes written, and need to get the pictures put into it before I post it.

I also need to post about the lovely box I got from my Secret Pal over the weekend. It was fabulous, but that's all your going to hear until I get pictures.

So I'm still here, stressy as all get out, but classes are wrapping up and one by one I get to tick them off my list. Tonight I go into town (DC area) for a reading and tomorrow is class. Friday's class is already technically finished, but I have things to do that morning, so it's not (quite) a long weekend.

Ooh, and the current knitting. I made the cutest alien skull patch. Pattern courtesy of Sol, modified by the both of us. It's terribly cute. And socks, the ever present socks, only one pair on needles at the moment, but that will change.

I knit and pulled out a scarf width version of Lady Eleanor (in green Silk Garden); I didn't have enough yarn. I really enjoyed entrelac though, so I'm thinking a felted entrelac bag.

Anyways, off to edit the paper that's due tomorrow.

Toes of Socks - I

2006-11-19T13:59:00.000-08:00

I have just discovered a new favorite toe.

I finished a pair of green Lorna's in a 4x1 rib. And when it came time to do the toe, I decided that it would be interesting to see if I could modify the pointy toes from Knitting Vintage Socks, so that I would not have toes that pointy, but could still just thread the yarn through 8 stitches at the end of the toe.

So I did a standard decreasing 4 stitches every other row toe until I had 8 stitches remaining on each needle. Then I decreased every row until I had 8 stitches total.

I love them. No kitchnering, and no pointy toe. This is my new default toe.

(Pictures to be added later when I find where the kitty hid my cable. He's decided that cords are fun to play with.. I'm trying to break him of that, and hopefully it takes soon!)

Knit Mitt Kit Swap Questionaire

2006-11-09T12:57:00.000-08:00

What are your favorite colors? Green, Blue, Purple, Red.

Are you a new mitt knitter? I suppose so, but I don't consider it intimidating at all. The first mitts I knit were my own re-write of an IK pattern made for my little sister a number of years ago ('02, '03, Kat?)

Do you prefer solid or multicolored yarn? Yes. I love pretty colored yarn. I'm trending towards varegated solids rather than true multicolors right now, but I really like them all!

What fibers do you prefer in mitten yarn? I prefer at least some wool content because it has the spring that helps them keep their shape. And I'm a natural fiber junky, so the synthetics don't do that much for me.

Where do you usually knit mittens? Everywhere I knit... which is to say, everywhere.

How do you usually carry/store small projects? In my purse.

What are your favorite mitten patterns? Any and all, I don't have any favorites that I've made. Fetching was fun and I've been meaning to do a traditional(ish) stranded pair at some point, but haven't gotten around to it.

What are your favorite mitten knitting techniques? I don't know that I have any. I don't like open thumb-holes on my mitts, I like to have at least a short thumb on open top mitts.

What new techniques would you like to try? Stranding is relatively new to me. The single stitch cables like on Eunny's recent socks, look interesting. Intarsia is not something I want to do, aside from that, I'm pretty easy, I think..

What are your favorite needles for knitting mittens? I use whatever's on hand. I prefer double points to magic loop and magic loop to two circulars, but I'm perfectly happy re-writing patterns to whatever needles I happen to be using.

What are some of your favorite yarns? Koigu, SundaraYarns, STR, my own handspun, any good basics, smooth spun, plied, natural fiber yarn.

What yarn do you totally covet? hmmm... I've been lusting after Beaverslide's for a while now. And Brooks Farm as well.

Any pattern you would love to make if money and time were no object? Ooh, something from Poetry in Stitches, probably this jacket and the red ruffled muff. Or Hanne Falkenberg's Mermaid jacket.

Favorite kind of needles (brand, materials, straights or circs, etc)? DPs and circs. Generally wood or bamboo, but I use metal with cotton and cotton blends, or if it's the only thing handy.

If you were a specific kind of yarn, which brand and kind of yarn would you be? ooh, I don't know on that one... there are too many good choices

Do you have a favorite candy or mail-able snack? Chocolate! (dark, please, I've gone vegan), ginger candies.

What’s your favorite animal? My puppy, my kitty...

Would you prefer super warm mittens or something more like fingerless mitts? Either would make me perfectly happy. I have uses for both and don't really have either planned into my project list.

If you were a color what color would you be? Maroon, just barely between purple and red.

What is your most inspiring image, flower, or object in nature? The patterns that water makes when it flows in thin sheets over rocks. The waterfalls were my favorite part of the summer I spent working in Yosemite.

Do you have a wishlist? That I do, drop me an email and I'll get it to you.

Anything else you’d like to share with the group today? My kitty's a spazzbucket. Bouncing off the walls, furniture and puppy. It's hilarious, I'm so glad the puppy doesn't seem to mind.

Dishcloth Shuffle

2006-11-09T09:45:00.000-08:00

I put this up on the exchange's blog a over the weekend and forgot to put it up here! Oops!
The camera's still nowhere to be found. Or, and probably more likely, it's right in front of me and I'm just not actually seeing it!

I had a wonderful mail day a couple days ago. There were a couple packages of stuff I'd ordered for myself and there was a package for me from Jussi.
Yay...
(no picture at the moment, my camera's nowhere to be found, perhaps the cat ate it)
There was a lovely paper covered box with green leaves and pink flowers, a pink and white dishcloth that I will adore using, a pink round cloth that will be set in a drawer somewhere and fondled when noticed, a bar of green and black's chocolate (it's already gone..),
a needlecase in pink and brown flowers and stripes, and a ball of taupe cotton that I'm looking forward to knitting with.
A fabulous package, thank you so much Jussi!

In other related amusements, I took a bar of the same chocolate (Maya Gold by Green and Black) to a study group on Monday night, and offered it around. The consensus was that it's nasty. For the rest of the evening there was neverending, "this is nasty, you try it" going on between the ones who had and the ones who had not yet. It was terribly cute. Especially the one who ran to the bathroom to rinse out her mouth. More for me, it's one of my favorites!

Socktoberfest Yarn Accounting and Contest Winners!

2006-11-05T15:55:00.000-08:00

Skeins of yarn:
136! That's right, I have over one hundred thirty skeins of sock yarn!
No one actually guessed how many skeins were in the stash, so both prizes go to people who guessed based on potential socks. There is one winner that guessed before the "end date" of Friday 10/27, and one who guessed after it passed.

Potential socks:
86...
I think I have some knitting to do...
This means that Kim (who guessed 66 pair, before the deadline) and Janell (who guessed 76, after it) will be getting some sock yarn from me.
(Ladies, you should have an email asking you some questions about what you look for in a sock yarn. Let me know what you like.)

I'm going to save the breakdown of these staggering numbers into type of yarn for another post. And, obviously, my sock yarn inventory is going to carry me out into November. But since I have no intention of ceasing to knit socks, that seems perfectly fine with me. For that matter, I'm thinking to start using Squirl to start keeping track of my stash. I do need to go check if it will output my collection or not, and, if not, then perhaps I'll set up something else. Checked, it will output as a comma delimited list, which is perfectly fine with me.

Socktoberfest Confessions & Contests...

2006-10-23T14:59:00.000-07:00

Containers filled with sock yarn:
7 shoebox sized sterlites
5 larger sterlites (I believe they're the next size larger)
There are around 6 pairs worth of yarn on the floor that didn't fit.
And 3 more floating around the apartment because they're "in progress"

I mentioned a contest. And I shall deliver.

Guess how many skeins of sock yarn I have coralled in my apartment.
-or-
Guess how many pairs of socks* those skeins of sock yarn could make if I knit from now until the end of time making nothing but socks... (have I mentioned I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by my sock yarn stash?)

The prize, you ask?
Yup, it's the predictable answer, sock yarn!
There are two questions, there will be two winners.
I'll ask you a few questions about what you like working with and your favorite colors and pick what I think is a good fit from my stash!
And, if you don't knit, or don't knit socks, I'm sure we can work something out, so guess anyways.

Submit your guesses to onmyneedles at bethieee dot org by the end of this week, Friday the 27th in order to enter the contest.

* For the record, I counted pairs of 50 gram balls and 100 gram skeins as one pair of socks. To make my life easier, 50 gram single balls were also counted as a pair of socks, but there weren't many of those. I can get footies out of one 50 gram ball of yarn, whether I actually choose to do so when it comes time to knit them, or not is another matter entirely.

Socktoberfest Sock Accounting

2006-10-23T14:11:00.000-07:00

Pairs completed: 2
Burgundy Rowan Wool-Cotton for SockWars (my target is dead)
Varegaited verdigris green and browns Socks That Rock using the SockWars pattern adjusted to 60 stitches. An out of date picture. They're done, I swear, I even wore them at school (after kitchenering the toes during my first class that day).

Socks begun:
Green Lorna's Laces, 4x1 rib, most of one sock was done before, ripped it out and started anew.
Blue Green Jaeger, SockWars socks - my target's target went AWOL, so I'm knitting for her target.

Socks due for completion:
Grey Regia Silk, rib pattern from Knitting Vintage Socks (anyone willing to make me a copy of that pattern? I loaned my book to a friend in Seattle and need to get it back from him still. I'd let you know what the rib count was, but I can't actually find the sock... Bother!)

Socks ripped:
Green Lorna's Laces, 2x2 rib.

Red Trekking, Jaywalker, converted pattern to toe-up, never liked how it fit.

Pink Bearfoot, Fancy Silk Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks, leftover from the Knitting Olympics and Sockapaloooza. This is the one that was too big even for my rather wide feet.

All three of those lovely, mostly completed socks, have now returned to being balls of yarn! Yay, new beginnings, possibilities, hope!
Or maybe I just have a terminal case of second sock syndrome...

Socks whose fate has not yet been decided:
Blue and purple, toe-up stockinette, from Karen for naming her fiber room "The Stitchery", I love the yarn, I'm just bored of the knitting and am not really fond of the magic loop.

Socktoberfest - Confession preparation

2006-10-16T12:17:00.000-07:00

I went into the spare bedroom this afternoon to prep for my sock yarn confession and found myself doing a minor edit of how my other yarns were shelved.

In the course of doing this I found a handful of projects that just needed to be ripped out. Among these, the bottom 6 inches of a tank top begun in 2001 and the cuffs of two pairs of knee socks that I am now comfortable admitting that I will not finish in that particular incarnation.

It's refreshing to rip something back to yarn and declare it a new blank slate. If I were being truly responsible, I'd re-skein the yarn and block it, but I'm not. I might do it when I decide to start something with the yarn in question, but then again, I might not.

Sock yarn confessions should come later today or tomorrow, but if not then, then not until next weekend.

SP Puzzle

2006-10-12T01:43:00.000-07:00

So this is the email I got from my new Secret Pal.

I'm so excited to start this round of secret pal. I must say, I do read your blog regularly, so I kind of know a lot about you. It's going to be so hard for me to keep my identity a secret. Lets see if you can figure me out! Until then, happy knitting!

EEK!! I feel so out of my league. I'm not so much good at puzzles like this though I will definitely be giving it a try to figure out.

I also received this in one of my comments recently:

what yarns would you like to try that you've never tried before?

And quite frankly, I don't know what to say in response to that question. I've been fairly bad about moderating my yarn purchases and most of the things I want to knit with I have and just haven't gotten around to yet. For instance, the STR socks that I'll be posting about at some point this weekend (it is Socktober, after all) are yarn that I bought over a year ago, but they are my first STR socks!

I know there have been some yarns that people got at fairs on this side of the country that I couldn't get at home, but right now I'm not coming up with any... wracking brain, wracking brain....

It's a quarter to two, I really should go to sleep even though I'm not tired.

Ooh, I remember one of them... it was... bother... it left...

No, wait, it's back again.. Brooks Farm Primero such pretty colors.
And for spinning fiber, I've been drooling over the colored tufts from Grafton Fibers.

Even shorter hair...

2006-10-09T20:58:00.000-07:00

Went in for a trim.
Had some miscommunications with the stylist.
She kept length in back that I wanted gone and took off the curls I liked so much pulled forward onto my cheeks. They had someone else try to make it better, but I was stuck with a mid-grow-out meh haircut when all I'd wanted was a trim.
I hated it.
So I went back and had it pretty much all chopped off.
Enjoying the new look quite a bit.

Not the best picture, but then what do you expect from the bathroom mirror.

Two cuts in two weeks causes a 75% redution in length.
I'm not planning on continuing with this rate of change.
I'd be bald by the end of the month. I'm not up for that this month.
(but I do, kind-of want to do it at some point... bother)

SP 9 Questionnaire

2006-10-07T15:13:00.000-07:00

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
Ooh, favorite yarns... that's a tough one.
I absolutely adore Sundara's yarn, especially getting the Petals Collection boxes every couple of months.
I'm on an Alchemy kick since Knit Happens had them on 50% off when I was in their shop a couple of weeks ago.
For staples, you know, those yarns you just keep going back to again and again, there's Koigu, Cascade 220, 220 Superwash, Lambs Pride and Cotton Fleece.
Color patterning favorites would have to be Koigu, Socks that Rock, Lorna's Laces, and Noro's Silk Garden/Kureyon
For baby stuff, Dale's superwash, 220 Superwash, and (though I hate to admit it) Encore.
I think that's enough. Pretty much, I don't really have any one favorite yarn. It all depends on what I'm working on.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
My apartment.
No, seriously, they're everywhere...

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
I've been knitting for most of 8 consecutive years now. I consider myself intermediate, though that's probably an underestimate because if you give me a pattern and enough time, I'll be able to do pretty much anything. (My tension on cables and stranding distresses me, but people tell me I'm being too picky)
My mom taught me when I was little. I taught myself again in college.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
I do, ask for the link if you're interested.

5. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products, etc.)
Not synthetic.
Pretty much I'm not too much of a scent type of girl (though I've been lusting after some Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs Imps for a while now and just not getting around to setting aside some of my spending money for them).
Generally I prefer my scents simple and dilute. I really don't like walking into a space and getting smacked by a scent.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
I have a chocolate tooth. (but I'm vegan, so at this point milk and white chocolate are right out... check the ingredients, the new allergen labelling requirements make it really easy, I love them)

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
I spin. I crochet. I sew (infrequently and badly). I dye (again infrequently). I have a cross-stitch pattern I'd like to work up, but haven't gotten around to it. Generally I don't finish needlework projects, so I really try not to start them.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
Almost any, and yes.
I have an oddly extensive collection of Latin pop (Thank you Muppet!), and a soft spot in my heart for hard rock/metal that actually has a melody line and band members that can sing. (Nightwish and Dresden Dolls are two personal favorites in that category). I also particularly like new(ish) folk, singer/songwriters, etc... (think Dar Williams, Joan Baez, Rebecca Riots, etc..)
My personal laptop spends most of its time playing music for me off an external hard-drive that is embarassingly close to full. And I haven't even put most of my CDs onto it yet... I don't think they're going to fit.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?
Favorite colors: Greens and Blues.
Colors I shouldn't wear: Yellows and Browns.
Colors I can't stand: not so much, every color has its use, the only question is whether it'll be useful to me. *giggle*

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
I have one pet, a lovely chow-cross named Zhenya.
Isn't he cute?

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
Yes, Yes, Yes, No.
I also particularly like shawls.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
Um... I have yarn for more socks than anything else, but I suspect that's just because as projects go, it's inexpensive and the colors keep inspiring me to pick up "just one more pair"...
I have lots of yarn for sweaters, but I seem to have trouble finishing them. (Poinsettia is earmarked to be finished before Christmas. We'll see if it happens, just one sleeve cap left to knit and then the finishing)

13. What are you knitting right now?
I'm not knitting. I'm typing.
That's not what you meant, is it?
I'm working on a lace sampler scarf of my own anal-retentive design, Poinsettia, Icarus, a baby blanket, a baby suprise jacket, Charming wristwarmers, and assorted other projects in various stages of neglect.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
Yes, absolutely.

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
I prefer pointy needles with smooth joins (I suppose that makes them circular, huh?), and double points for socks.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?
Yes. Yes.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?
Don't ask, I don't know. Maybe by flash your stash in April, I'll have found them all and will be able to tell you then, but for now I plead ignorance, pleading the fifth would be unnecessary.

18. What is your favorite holiday?
Halloween, Samhain.

19. Is there anything that you collect?
Yarn? UFO's? Little PMC or paperclay dragons made by the TattersMan at Norwescon? Train Lanterns from my Grandfather's collection?
None of these things are particularly useful as the start point of gifts.
Knitting books. Knitting patterns. I'd love to collect pretty crochet hooks, but I haven't started that collection yet. Would you like to do it for me?

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
Spin to Knit looks interesting though I'll probably not buy it for myself any time soon. Poetry in Stitches and Norsk Strikkedesign are two I've been lusting after for years.
I subscribe to InterweaveKnits and Spin-Off.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?
Not really. I'd like to get better at stranding, but that will come with time I suspect. I keep meaning to pick up one of each of the varieties of yarn holder ring-thingies, but forget where I've seen them.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
I am. I'll go find the measurements later.. I'm pretty sure they're in my SP8 questionairre, but I should get back to studying.
A related side note, I prefer my socks fairly tight around the instep.

23. When is your birthday? (mm/dd)
05/27
This means when I'm attending a state school I'll often get a holiday weekend for my birthday. Now that I'm back at a private school, I'll be done for the year before my birthday comes around.

Why I knit in class

2006-10-06T15:15:00.000-07:00

I knit in class for a small handfull of reasons.

If I'm interested it helps keep me focused.
If I'm not interested, it helps keep me awake.
If I'm pissed off by the lecturer, it helps keep my mouth shut!

Why do you knit where you knit?

SP 8 Reveal

2006-10-05T15:07:00.000-07:00

I got a wonderful last box from my SP8.
It came in just over a week ago and I've been overwhelmed since then.
So, better late than never, here we go.
My fabulously understanding Secret Pal was none other than The Wool Princess who lives over at Hand over the Wool!

For the last box she sent me:
Some lovely Ashland Bay fiber in a color that is bluer than it looks in this picture.
A Burt's Bees sampler pack. I've been lusting after these for so long and never quite justifying picking one up for myself. Thank you wonderful Wool Princess.
-and-
A copy of Mason-Dixon Knitting. It's a book I already have, (but may still have on my Amazon wishlist... I should go update that), but definitely a book I don't mind having an extra copy of. It's a perfect gift for people you've just taught to knit and I seem to be starting a collection of those. There's the boy back home who was taught by committee, there's one classmate, and another two or three classmates who have expressed interest. .

This last box was not as impressive on the yarn front as the second one that I raved about a while ago before I'd figured out how to get my camera to talk to my computer. Here's the absolutely fabulous second box she sent to me.

A copy of OneSkeing and a truly impressive assortment of onese and twoses of ballses of yarnses. (okay, maybe I need to go to bed early tonight, it's nowhere near late enough to warrant that level of (un)grammatical silliness).
The blue linen got made into 2/3rds of a handtowel and was ripped out last night while watching Grey's Anatomy. My classmates were appalled that I'd pulled something out... how much they have to learn.
The white puffy stuff was Blizzard and I was making it into the ruffled cravat from OneSkein, but misread the gauge so I ran out of yarn when I had roughly five-eights of a scarf. It too has returned to being a ball of yarn. I did, however fall in love with the pattern. I've made 3 and 5/8 of them this fall!
But they deserve their own post, later.

SockWars

2006-10-05T11:19:00.000-07:00

My sockwars socks are finished. They will go out in the mail today after school and from there I'm not really sure what will happen next.
I'm just happy that I got mine finished and mailed before I got dead.
Yay, bounce...

I really enjoyed the rib pattern, very simple, almost mindless but looks like much more once it starts flowing out behind your needles.
Unfortunately the box is packed and taped and I forgot to take pictures! Silly monkey!
I used Rowan's Wool Cotton in a dark red/purple that I had in the stash from a project that failed to come together as I'd expected it to. I enjoyed working with the yarn more than I expected, though there's no way I'd be able to use socks made out of it for anything other than slippers. This is a frequent problem for me, comes from having wide feet.

And now, back to Icarus and Poinsettia.
Over the weekend I will start the great Socktoberfest Stash Show.
The first step is actually finding my sock yarn... oy...

Icarus - begun/abandoned for now

2006-09-27T20:10:00.000-07:00

Today's knitting (before I was reminded of the SockWars' existence) was starting Icarus out of Alchemy's Haiku in the color Silver. It's a beautiful almost solid shiny grey and the striping pattern is lovely. I'm definitely going to go back and finish this one after the SockWars is finished.

Interestingly each repeat of the pattern took me one two-hour class. On the next row I'll add another set of columns, so I'm mostly done with the pattern repeat.

I can't believe that this pace will continue as the shawl gets wider, but it's fun for now. I suppose I could calculate out how many more hours I have to go before I get to start the border, but I'd really rather not. It seems overwhelming enough without going into such detail especially since it's bound to be a gross underestimate.

However, if I get bored in class and want to push some numbers around, I may just decide to do it anyways.

Forgetful Bethieee...

2006-09-27T20:07:00.000-07:00

I apparently had forgotten about signing up for the SockWars.
It started today. I'm already behind having no yarn picked and therefore no socks started.

So, I will be knitting socks for Socktoberfest.
I'll be starting them a bit early and we'll see how long I survive, but there will be socks... so long as I don't wind up dead before this Sunday, I suppose it could happen. Some people knit astoundingly fast..

In other news, I've been looking through my stash to find yarn. And I've found a couple more half pairs of socks in various stages of completion. This whole fessing up to how many socks I have on the needles is beginning to seem like not such a red hot idea any more...
But I'm going to do it anyways.

Tivoli - setbacks

2006-09-23T18:05:00.000-07:00

I've gotten to the waist on my Tivoli. So, good little knitter that I am, I tried it on. And that's where the fun began.

I have a larger than average hipspring and broad shoulders. In other words, if I want to show off my waist, what I consider one of my better features, I often need to take in my shirts, or buy knit ones that are actually too small across the shoulders. This is much easier to get away with in a tank top, so really most of the year I give up.
I put on the tivoli, looked in the mirror and what did I see? 3 extra inches of fabric around my waist.

The chest and shoulders fit me fabulously. I'm not sure the neckline is the best shape for me, but it is what I was expecting and aiming for, so I am pleased.

Between the fingers of my right hand the fabric of the top is tripled... I need to rip back to the chest so I can start the decreases higher up and add 5 decrease rows in addition to the ones called for in the pattern. This is going to be my first time modifying a pattern this extensively and I'm petrified, but what's the worst that can happen. I'll already have ripped it out once, what's pulling it out again, right?

I thought sweaters were supposed to get bigger when you worked on them...
Maybe I'll just pull this one out completely and work on it again later...

Socktoberfest 2006

2006-09-22T17:31:00.000-07:00

I signed up for socktoberfest.

And, asI said in the comments section of the sign-up form: "While I don't promise to finish any socks, I will post about them. I hvae quite a few pairs that need to be documented in their blessed unfinishedness and have their fate decided. Do I start the second sock, or do I pull the first one back to yarn..."

It should be fun. While I'm at it I will quite likely document some of my stash of sock yarn, if for no other reason than so that I know what I have, and besides, it's pretty.

Knitting in class

2006-09-21T18:14:00.000-07:00

I've been knitting, I swear...
Mostly during classes, keeps me awake, keeps me quiet, keeps me knitting, everybody wins.

Finished: one skein scarf out of Karabella's Breeze
Finished: another Fetching Baby Hat (so I can hopefully work out what I did for the decreases the first time)
Finished: my dishcloth shuffle dishcloth (it's been received, so I can post about it now)
Finished: oops, I guess that was it... pout...

In progress: blue linen hand towel from Mason Dixon Knitting
In progress: Poinsettia (still knitting on the last sleeve, then on to blocking and finishing)
In progress: a rather anal retentive lace sampler scarf using Silky Wool, I'll post details about it later
In progress: Fetching wristies... perhaps this one should be labeled "languishing in the hallway, complaining of neglect"...

Not yet started: a comissioned kitty hat for a classmate (I think it was probably crochetted)
Not yet started: Nautie for a baby I've not yet met (I've been looking for an excuse to knit this since I first saw the pattern!)
Not yet started: Licorice Twist from Blue Alvarez designs
Not yet started: Petals Collection socks.

Mostly abandoned, but I might finish them at some point:
Yellow baby sweater, Green baby blanket, Baby suprise jacket, various and sundry pairs of socks.

I really should rip these out:
That first jaywalker I knit forever ago but didn't like how it fit.

Secret Pal Box

2006-09-06T13:43:00.000-07:00

So I've been stuck without network at home for far too long (it's been just about 8 days since my last post and seems like forever).
Orientation week at school has come and gone, and it seems like in the press not to overwhelm us they left out some important tidbits (like the fact that we have lockers upstairs hidden just off one of the main hallways...).
The first week of school has come and gone. It seems to have gone reasonably well. My showing on the first couple quizzes seems reasonable. Not a reason to slack off in any way, but not the smashing of hopes I was irrationally expecting.
My first day at work has come and gone. I'm working at a yarn shop in town, Never Enough Yarn. Cute shop. They're new this year, weren't here when I came out for the interview before Christmas, but I like the proprietor and her husband and the other lady that works for them and they let me touch the yarn... what more could I ask?
The best news of the school year I just got yesterday. There's a local festival here for which we get a day off school. The local thing is always the same weekend as Maryland Sheep and Wool, so I may not make it to the local festival because I'm going to be up the road with all the other fiber geeks!

And on to the actual topic of this post.
Out of a combination of not being able to get my computer to talk to my camera and generally being an overwhelmed flake I didn't get a thank you post up for the box my secret pal sent me awhile after I moved into the new place.
There were numerous skeins of yarn (one of which I tried to make into a Ruffle Cravat.. that attempt failed because I misread the ball band, pattern calls for 3 sts/in, this yarn gets 2... I got a very short wide neckwarmer, so I pulled it back out). The book One Skein which I'd been eyeing, but had decided I really couldn't rationalize buying for myself. I'm so thrilled to have a copy of the book. I love it. There's a couple more patterns I'd like to make for myself or others and at the moment I'm on a bit of a Ruffle Cravat kick having finished 2 of them for various people I think will appreciate them.
More details on the balls of yarn will have to wait as I'm sitting in a computer lab at school
and I don't remember them all, but they were yummy. A handful of pretty fuzzy yarns and a book that calls for one skein per project, I don't think there is a better combination. Until you add in the tea. She sent me some wonderful black tea to help fill my tea cupboard to overflowing. I have more tea in my kitchen than I have chocolate and I have more chocolate than I have cereal... I'm amused at this display of my priorities and it's even been cool enough the last couple days for me to make a jug of tea in the morning to bring to school with me.

So, Thank you wonderful secret pal, I can't wait to find out who you are!

Poinsettia - so close, and yet so unmotivated...

2006-08-28T15:14:00.000-07:00

I'm so close to done with Poinsettia that, of course, I've rather run out of steam.
I changed the hem of the sleeves to seed stitch and it seems to take forever to do that portion. Add to that the nervousness that I get when trying to figure out what I did to shape the first sleeve so that I can do it again for the second one and we have a bethieee that's not particularly interested in working on that project.

So I'm amusing myself by working on other things.

Including a second Fetching Baby Hat (it uses the cable and rib motif from Knitty's Fetching) and a decrease system on the crown that worked much better than I thought it would. So I'm going to write it up as a free pattern. If anyone things that's not quite right for copyright reasons I'd appreciate it if this were taken as an invitation to discussion.

Tivoli - 2

2006-08-26T13:10:00.000-07:00

I could, in fact, count to 144 the other night far too close to dawn.
And since I chose to knit on Ticovoli during my last day of orientation for pharmacy school, I have gotten down past the armholes and am working on 5" of straight stitch.
More interesting progress will likely follow in a couple days. At the moment, however, it's going to be pretty boring.
Perfect for knitting in class.
I'll work on that next week. For the moment my parents are here for the weekend and we need to go couch shopping.

Starting Ticovoli

2006-08-24T02:49:00.001-07:00

I spent about 3 hours this evening (from 11:00 to 2:00 in the morning, as a matter of fact) organizing my stash. (Yes, I know I should be sleeping and not composing this post, but I don't have orientation tomorrow, I just need to open the door for the rug delivery and then I can go back to sleep)

I don't actually know what all I have or where everything is, but there has been progress. See instead of having a closet full (well, not quite full...) of yarn in boxes that were last touched by me before it was loaded into a moving van, driven cross country and unloaded by someone other than me and placed randomly into the closet, now I have a closet full of yarn in boxes that I have taken out, looked into, loosely grouped by either type or project status or fiber content or something and placed back into the closet. This makes it much more likely that when I want something my lizard brain will be able to walk me to the closet, move some boxes around and magically have me in the right general vicinity of the yarn that I was looking for.

While I was doing this I was thinking about projects to start (because I need another project, of course... speaking of other projects, I want to get everything photographed for next year's flash your stash (yes, I'd need to start this far ahead of things if I were even going to attempt it), and while I'm at it I might as well photograph all my UFO's and confess their chances of being seen through to completion, but I digress...).

Specifically I was thinking about the tank top from one skein. I have a skein of Lorna's Laces lace yarn. The only problem is that it's in a colorway that I'm not convinced would work well double stranded (Black Purl)...

Luckily, when I was sorting things, I found a number of skeins of Malabrigo lace-weight wool. I wound up deciding to use two strands of Paris Nights (mostly grey, only slightly varegaited, no clue about undertones (my lighting in here is really bad)). I started doing my gauge swatch and was thinking about adding waist shaping and then I realized that I might be able to get gauge for either picovoli or ticovoli (both Grumperina's, I saved the various ticovoli patterns before picovoli was released). I've been meaning to get around to making one (or more) of these for a good long time now, and why not do it with doubled lace-weight... so long as I can get gauge...

I got gauge...
And I'm thinking the 37" ticovoli is the best choice. Given how my gauge swatch looks I don't want too much negative ease (it gets downright see-through if pulled laterally too much).

Like I need another sweater on the needles...
Here goes nothin'
I'm casting on tonight (if I'm not too tired to count a gross of stitches (a dozen dozen... CO 144 sts...))

Unpacking and Knitting

2006-08-18T15:48:00.000-07:00

And periodically sleeping or eating.
And really that's about all I've been up to.

I've finished the back and both fronts of the purple sweater I'm working on.
The sleeves started with 5.5 inches of a "lacy" stitch that I didn't wind up liking (double wrap every stitch on every other row). So in the spirit of continutity with all the other trim on this sweater, I've switched their stitch out for the moss stitch that all the other accent yarn is in.
I hope I like it.

I'm working at getting my bench set up for some minor metal work projects.
Yesterday I finally managed to go buy butane and MAPP gas to run my torches and we'll see if I'm forgetting anything else when I actually sit down and try to do some work later this evening.

Not that there's that much more of this evening left.
I didn't get to sleep until 5:30 this morning and woke up around 2, but I've set an alarm for 10 to reminde me to go to bed whether I'm tired or not.
I need to be sentient in the morning on Monday and having the weekend start with my schedule shifted by about 7 hours from where I'd like it to be is not my idea of a good way to make that happen.

At any rate.
If anyone here doesn't know, Peacock had her knee surgery yesterday. Please keep her in your thoughts and wish her a speedy recovery.

I've arrived...

2006-08-08T12:52:00.000-07:00

And the move continues.

I've been setting up house in Winchester, VA for just over one week now. My mother left yesterday. Her help was invaluable. In one week, we are at least 3 and probably 4 weeks into the time I estimate unpacking on my own would have taken. I am very grateful.

I just got the key to my mailbox from the USPS today, so I can now receive mail. If you did not receive my new contact information and would like it, send me an email and I'll remedy my oversight.

Not much knitting going on here. I think I already mentioned that I finished the feather and fan shawl. It's lovely. Not blocked yet, but lovely. Sometime soon I will block it (using my new blocking wires) and then I will post its picture. (after I find the digicam).

The knitting I have been doing is the first piece of a new sweater. The pattern is Pointsettia, the wrap sweater on the coverr of the most recent KnitScene. I've substituted Nashua's Creative Focus Worsted for Classic Elite's Princess called for in the pattern. Mostly that was a price consideration. I also wound up flipping the two colors. I did not set out to use the same colors the pattern called for, but I picked purple as the main color and then a lovely maroon was the only color that worked with both my color preferences and the purple I'd already picked out.

Again pictures to follow later... It is such a bother trying to find things I know I packed. I'm down to maybe 15 boxes of things to unpack, but at this point, except for the 5 more boxes of books that won't fit on my bookshelves, all the boxes are labeled "stuff". While this label is not uninformative, for instance I know they're not completely filled with clothes, it doesn't really give me much to go on as there are quite likely some clothes in the box. I find clothes a wonderful stand in for tissue paper at times when tissue paper is just not readily available.

Hopefully pictures will follow soon.
And, if not, then they'll follow later.
There will be pictures eventually.

The Move Continues

2006-07-26T22:53:00.000-07:00

Tonight I sleep in Glendive, Montana.
Yesterday it was Missoula.
Day before that, Seattle.

Yesterday we drove in three different states.
(Washington, Idaho and Montana)
Today we're still in the state we started out in.

Day after tomorrow I'll be in Madison, Wisconsin.
By the end of the month, Winchester, Virginia.

There's not very much knitting going on here.
Mostly I just sit in the moving van and when I get bored of looking at the scenery I sleep. Periodically I take a turn at driving, but I don't tend to last more than a couple hours, so my father's been doing the vast majority of the driving (for which I am very grateful, he's also willing to go faster than I am in a 16' van with car trailer attached).

The project in my bag is a pair of socks, but I haven't done more than a double handful of rows on it since we started.
What I am doing is breathing.

(Oh, and if you want to know my new mailing address, drop me a comment with your email (or email me yourself) and I'll be happy to send it your way)

The Move Has Begun

2006-07-21T23:23:00.000-07:00

Well, my father and I left Gilroy this morning to drive to Nevada.
This means we arrived at Grandmother's house mid-afternoon and had the rest of the day to pack stuff up in the house and get it into the car.
We are, actually mostly done and will be headed north to Seattle tomorrow morning.

Knitting is largely at a standstill.
I finished my grey feather and fan lace shawl last Monday while taking 3 days to just sit at a friend's house.
My acid green wristies needed to have another couple inches ripped out. (I'd put the thumb hole up too far and so the second one was obviously longer than the first one).
A suprise present has been started and finished and now only needs its ends woven in before it gets given away when I'm in Seattle.
And really that's about it.
Oh, there's half a sock that I carry around in my purse. I do a round or two on it every couple days, but it's not growing quickly enough to make me happy.

It would grow faster if I knit more.
But that's true of all my projects.

Belated thanks for everything

2006-07-16T04:48:00.000-07:00

"So long and thanks for all the fish" ??

It's been quite a ride in my world and through it all I've had packages coming in (and going out) with nary a word on my blog.

Things have settled down enough that I have time to write my thank you posts and I've decided to put them all up in one humongous post so that your feeds are not cluttered with handfuls upon overflowing handfuls of me describing other people's generosity.

(My deepest apologies if I mis-attribute any of the gifts I've received, I didn't have the spare processing power required to keep the packages from intermingling a bit while they were sitting together "over there" waiting for things to calm down enough for them to get photographed. Please write me a note if the photo or description of your package is missing anything and I will make notations of my errata... If any of the chocolate is mis-attributed, there will be no new pictures, I've eaten it all. It was yummy!)

I believe that these are being put up in the order they arrived. I may be wrong.

This is the last package from my SP7 spoiler. I had hoped to link to her blog in this post as I finally got to know who she is, but the note she sent with this lovely package is packed and in another state, so I can't attribute it now. (if you're still following my blog, would you pipe up and let me know who you are again?... Yay, she did. My wonderful spoiler was Marla.)

I adored the blue book, it's a journal full of writing prompts so much that I sent a copy of it off to my SP8 recipient. This may be too much information, but hey, I'm not too worried about it at the moment. The grey yarn is lovely, it's a small farm's product and I'm really looking forward to working it up into a shawl of some sort. Speaking of shawls, the green speckledly background fabric is a lovely little handknit capelet. The envelope on top of it contains piggy stitch-markers (the big piggies now have grandpiggies... yay... more piggies... giggle...). And the card with the puppy pile on it is just too cute.

The second package to arrive looked like this:

And I knew that my Sock Savior had come through for me. Poor Colleen, as a result of my life blowing up in my face, was forced to wait for more than a month to get any public acknowledgement of how fabulous her socks actually are. I'm very sorry that I dropped off the face of the planet so shortly after receiving your package. I wish I'd dealt with things differently, particularly since I could have saved you the worry that your beautiful socks got lost in the mail and would never arrive.

This is what the box contained: A gorgeous pair of Pomatomus socks, and a whole bunch of fabulous chocolates. (they're all long gone by now... I tend to eat way too much chocolate when I'm stressed and life has been nothing but stressful since the weekend of my birthday)

Here they are on. They're wonderfully comfortable. Par for the course for handknit socks, they'll only fit inside one of my pairs of shoes, but I get to see them more often when I wear them around the house so I'm definitely not complaining. (I have wide feet. Handknit socks rarely fit in my shoes...)

And a close-up of the beautiful colors and stitch patterning. Thank you, Colleen!

Next up is a wee thank you giftieee from my SP7 spoiler. Heather was a joy to spoil, very appreciative of the koigu I chose to make the backbone of each of her packages.

And look what she sent me as a thank you. It's a drawstring project bag made of fabric that says "Creative Hands Touch Hearts" all over it! And a pack of knitter's notecards. Wheee, I am blessed.

That same week I got a package from my SP8 with two skeins of lorna's sock yarn in a heavier weight than I've seen before. (I believe it's Shepherd Sport, but as it's been packed for the now occuring move, I'm not quite certain)

The colors remind me of when I was a kid, I'm really looking forward to knitting some cozy house socks out of this yarn. There's just no way that a heavier yarn will play well with both my feet and shoes and I like the yarn too much to use it to knit for someone else. These socks are going to be mine!
Also included in the package were some lovely stitchmarkers with a different glass bead on each marker and two pots of jam that I can't wait to get into once I and my new kitchen are in the same state.

My Project Spectrum Swap package for May was fabulous to find in my mailbox. There was a lovely green skein of yarn, almost solid but not quite so you can tell that it was hand-dyed, but are still free to use a complicated stitch pattern without competing too much with the colors. An odd little leather basket that I think may be destined to be a catch all by my front door. You know, where keys go to fraternize with odd bits of change and pocket scraps... that basket. Doesn't everybody have one?
The chocolate bars were both in green packaging (and they were both quite delicious as well...)
And the manatee card and bar of soap completed a lovely package perfectly.

My last package was unremarkable in its exterior wrapping, but the tissue paper inside was so cute that it deserves a picture all of its own.

Mia sent me two skeins of Regia sock yarn. I didn't know they made a wool/bamboo blend, but apparently they do and the colors are just beautiful.

The last suprise in my mailbox that week came from the Peacock. She sent me a May postcard that arrived right at the end of the month. Isn't it fabulous in all its sparkly chartreuseness? Thus far I've been unable to make up my mind about whether the embroidery motif is a flower or a peacock's feather. I'm happy with either interpretation, and find it quite amusing that I can't decide.

And that's all for now. (I hope... again, if I've missed you, please ping me and let me know... no oversight is intentional)

At some point in the month of June I mailed and received blue yarn for the Project Spectrum yarn swap. I don't have pictures of the yarn I received... and I'm not going to be able to get any any time soon, either. Bother...

Also at some point in the month of June I received a ball of blue and purple yarn as a prize for naming someone's knitting/stash room The Stitchery. Unfortunately I don't remember who that was, so I've emailed her to ask for a reminder on where to find her blog. I've already cast on that pair of socks, but don't have any pictures.

Again, thank you all for your patience...

Bureaucratic Magic

2006-07-12T11:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was waiting with a friend for some prescriptions at a pharmacy particularly known for its bureaucratic nature and he told me, "they said 30 to 45 minutes, so in reality it could be anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour and a half."
We talked about running some errands and coming back later, but I thought that sounded like too much running around. So we settled into our chairs to read, knit and wait. I was starting my second fetching handwarmer and mid-way through the second cable row I realized that I'd forgotten to reverse the direction of the cables.
My friend patted my head and I tore back the 5 or so rows that were required to get back to the first cable row. No sooner than I'd turned my knitting into a pile of yarn in my lap did his name come up on the message board.
I'd committed to waiting for a while and they were done... magic!
And he had to wait for me for a bit as I could not just tuck the tangle of yarn into my bag.

Weekly posting

2006-07-09T02:02:00.000-07:00

I write this post in order to meet my obligation to post weekly.
(though I suppose only technically... it's not like there's been any knitting content for more than a month)

Hey, I do have some knitting content that I can be happy about.
I saw the new knitty on my last day working at the yarn shop, so I bought myself 2 balls of acid green cashsoft to make myself a fetching pair of handwarmers. I'm almost completely done with the first one and I'm glad I bought two balls as I decided to make them longer before the thumb than the pattern called for.

Good night.

Still here... mostly

2006-06-30T10:32:00.000-07:00

Hey all,
Things here are still not settled down to a point where I really think about anything else but how to get from here to July 15th.
Things are not okay.
I will be.
When things settle down.
Until then I need to post more often regardless.
Hopefully I will be able to come up with something more cheery and interesting than how, as I turn the page from this chapter of my life to the next, the page shatters in my hand.
Love and Hugs,
-Bethieee

Up in the air

2006-06-14T01:58:00.000-07:00

Still here.
Still breathing.
Still no time to write posts.

I received a bunch of things.
Including my sockapaloooza socks (thank you angel), my sp7's last box, a gifty from my sp7 recipient, a birthday present from handeyecrafts, a birthday present from mia, a postcard from Peacock, my first sp8 box and more.

I mailed a handful of things.
My sp8's first box, various packages for Peacock.

I still need to mail a bunch of things.
Sock yarn for June, transcripts for school, other assorted paperwork for school, my little sister's birthday present (a month early to make sure it's not late!).

I still need to post about a bunch of things.
All the packages I received (you all are wonderful and patient, I'm very sorry I've not posted in more detail in a more timely manner, you are not forgotten), the NWRSA conference and exchange projects the new one and the old one, the knitting I've been doing for myself and the shop.

(oh, bother.. I think the martian mountain cow project escaped before it got photographed... oh, well, a description will need to suffice as I do not remember the recipient's name... (recipient: if you've started reading this blog, would you be willing to send me a picture of the pieces you received?.. thanks))

I hope things will settle down here a bit.
They may be doing just that.
They may not be.
Please forgive my quietness.
If you need a response about something, please don't hesitate to email me.

May is Green

2006-05-31T22:12:00.000-07:00

If you're in Seattle.

No pictures this month... (wow, I'd intended that statement to refer only to Project Spectrum, but I just checked and I truly didn't post any pictures at all during the month of May (or at least I haven't yet and since I don't intend to do so today...))

I have, however been participating in Project Spectrum:

I sent of my Dye Swap yarn early with a box of goodies for the recipient. I haven't received my May yarn yet, but look forward to finding it in my mailbox at some point in the not too distant future.

Mostly I've been taking project spectrum on as a mindfullness project this month. It's been raining quite a bit around here and that means it's been GREEN.
Everywhere I look there are green growing things. Grass, trees, flowers... mold.
I've noticed quite a few green non-growing things too. The dots on books that say they're mine, the walls of the room I'm sitting in right now, a house I passed on my way home from a doctor's appointment the other day, and my car.

It's my Birthday... Part 2

2006-05-27T15:22:00.000-07:00

So, it's my birthday.

I'm having a lovely slow day at home with my sweeties and working on a tye-dyed pointy kitty (link to be added later on today)

I've moved quite a bit of my yarn stash to storage in preparation for moving to Virginia later this summer. Mostly it gets it out of the house so we can find homes for stuff that is staying here after I leave and get us some more space to work at packing my other stuff in.

I've gotten a handful of packages in the last few days, pictures will follow shortly.
Thank you all for the wonderful birthday wishes and presents.

It's been lovely finding things in my mailbox.

In other news I now know who my SP7 was... The package was delayed by a side trip to her sisters house care of the USPS (no clue why they thought it wanted to go there...) and there will be a post about the wonderful woman who was my last SP shortly)

It's my birthday...

2006-05-27T15:18:00.000-07:00

And in year's past, a bunch of stuff happened on this date.

* 1328 - Philip VI is crowned King of France.
* 1703 - Tsar Peter the Great founds the city of Saint Petersburg.
* 1813 - War of 1812: In Canada, American forces capture Fort George.
* 1849 - The Great Hall of Euston station, London opened.
* 1860 - Giuseppe Garibaldi begins his attack on Palermo, Sicily, as part of the Italian Unification.
* 1883 - Alexander III is crowned Tsar of Russia.
* 1895 - Oscar Wilde is sent to prison for sodomy.
* 1896 - The F4-strength St. Louis-East St. Louis Tornado hits in St. Louis, Missouri and East Saint Louis, Illinois, killing at least 255 people and incurring $2.9 billion in damages (1997USD).
* 1901 - In New Jersey, the Edison Storage Battery Company is founded.
* 1905 - Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of Tsushima begins.
* 1907 - A Bubonic plague outbreak begins in San Francisco, California.
* 1919 - The NC-4 aircraft arrives in Lisbon after completing the first transatlantic flight.
* 1923 - The first 24 hours of Le Mans race ends.
* 1924 - The Music Corporation of America (MCA) is founded.
* 1927 - The Ford Motor Company ceases manufacturing the Ford Model T and begins to retool plants to make Ford Model As.
* 1930 - The 1,046 feet (319 meters) tall Chrysler Building in New York (tallest man-made structure at the time) opens to the public.
* 1932 - The Sydney Harbour Bridge opens.
* 1933 - New Deal: The U.S. Federal Securities Act is signed into law requiring the registration of securities with the Federal Trade Commission.
* 1933 - The Walt Disney Company releases the cartoon The Three Little Pigs, with its hit song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?"
* 1933 - The Century of Progress World's Fair opens in Chicago, Illinois.
* 1935 - New Deal: The Supreme Court of the United States declares the National Industrial Recovery Act to be unconstitutional in the case A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, (295 U.S. 495).
* 1936 - The RMS Queen Mary begins her maiden voyage.
* 1937 - In California, the Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrian traffic, creating a vital link between San Francisco and Marin County.
* 1939 - DC Comics publishes its second superhero in Detective Comics #27; he is Batman, one of the most topical comic book superheroes of all time.
* 1940 - World War II: 97 out of 99 members of a Royal Norfolk Regiment unit are massacred while trying to surrender at Dunkirk. The German commander, Captain Fritz Knoechlein, is eventually hanged for war crimes.
* 1941 - World War II: U.S. President Roosevelt proclaims an "unlimited national emergency".
* 1941 - World War II: The German battleship Bismarck is sunk in the North Atlantic killing 2,300 men.
* 1942 - World War II: Operation Anthropoid - assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Prague.
* 1960 - In Turkey, General Cemal Gürsel leads a military coup d'état removing President Celal Bayar and the rest of the democratic government.
* 1963 - Folk music singer Bob Dylan releases The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan album, which features "Blowin' in the Wind" and several other of his best-known songs.
* 1964 - Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru dies in office.
* 1965 - Vietnam War: United States warships begin bombardments of National Liberation Front targets within South Vietnam for the first time.
* 1968 - Future U.S. president George W. Bush enlists in the Texas Air National Guard.
* 1974 - Jacques Chirac becomes Prime Minister of France.
* 1980 - The Gwangju Massacre: airborne and army troops of South Korea retake the city of Gwangju from civil militias, killing at least 207 and possibly many more.
* 1995 - In Charlottesville, Virginia, actor Christopher Reeve is paralyzed from the neck down after falling from his horse in a riding competition.
* 1996 - First Chechnya War: Russian President Boris Yeltsin meets with Chechnyan rebels for the first time and negotiates a cease-fire in the war.
* 1997 - The F5-strength Jarrell Tornado slams into the small town of Jarrell, Texas, killing 27 people.
* 1998 - Oklahoma City bombing: Michael Fortier is sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined $200,000 for failing to warn authorities about the terrorist plot.
* 1999 - The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands indicts Slobodan Milošević and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo.

Births

* 1332 - Ibn Khaldun, Tunisian historian (d. 1406)
* 1519 - Girolamo Mei, Italian humanist historian (d. 1594)
* 1576 - Caspar Schoppe, German scholar (d. 1649)
* 1623 - William Petty, English scientist and philosopher (d. 1687)
* 1626 - William II, Prince of Orange (d. 1650)
* 1651 - Louis-Antoine, Cardinal de Noailles, French cardinal (d. 1729)
* 1652 - Liselotte von der Pfalz, Duchess of Orléans (d. 1722)
* 1738 - Nathaniel Gorham, American politician (d. 1796)
* 1756 - King Maximilian I of Bavaria (d. 1825)
* 1794 - Cornelius Vanderbilt, American entrepreneur (d. 1877)
* 1819 - Julia Ward Howe, American composer (d. 1910)
* 1836 - Jay Gould, American financier (d. 1892)
* 1837 - Wild Bill Hickok, American gunfighter (d. 1876)
* 1864 - Ante Trumbić, Croatian politician (d. 1938)
* 1867 - Arnold Bennett, British novelist (d. 1931)
* 1871 - Georges Rouault, French painter and graphic artist (d. 1958)
* 1876 - Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski, Polish writer (d. 1945)
* 1877 - Isadora Duncan, American dancer (d. 1927)
* 1884 - Max Brod, Austrian author (d. 1968)
* 1888 - Louis Durey, French composer (d. 1979)
* 1894 - Louis-Ferdinand Céline, French writer (d. 1961)
* 1894 - Dashiell Hammett, American author (d. 1961)
* 1897 - John Cockcroft, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1967)
* 1904 - Chuhei Nambu, Japanese athlete (b. 1997)
* 1907 - Rachel Carson, American ecologist (d. 1964)
* 1911 - Hubert H. Humphrey, Vice President of the United States (d. 1978)
* 1911 - Teddy Kollek, Mayor of Jerusalem
* 1911 - Vincent Price, American actor (d. 1993)
* 1912 - John Cheever, American author (d. 1982)
* 1912 - Sam Snead, American golfer (d. 2002)
* 1913 - Wols, German painter
* 1915 - Herman Wouk, American writer
* 1917 - Yasuhiro Nakasone, Prime Minister of Japan
* 1922 - Christopher Lee, English actor
* 1923 - Henry Kissinger, United States Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
* 1923 - Sumner Redstone, American entrepreneur
* 1925 - Tony Hillerman, American writer
* 1930 - John Barth, American novelist
* 1933 - Ted Rogers, Canadian entrepreneur
* 1934 - Harlan Ellison, American author
* 1935 - Lee Meriwether, American beauty queen and actress
* 1936 - Louis Gossett Jr., American actor
* 1937 - Allan Carr, American film producer and writer (d. 1999)
* 1943 - Cilla Black, English singer
* 1943 - Bruce Weitz, American actor
* 1945 - Bruce Cockburn, Canadian musician
* 1946 - Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Danish musician (d. 2005)
* 1947 - Branko Oblak, Slovenian football player
* 1955 - Eric Bischoff, American professional wrestling personality
* 1957 - Siouxsie Sioux, English musician (Siouxsie and the Banshees )
* 1958 - Neil Finn, New Zealand singer and songwriter
* 1958 - Linnea Quigley, American actress
* 1961 - Peri Gilpin, American actress
* 1964 - Adam Carolla, American comedian and radio/television personality
* 1967 - Paul Gascoigne, former British footballer
* 1968 - Jeff Bagwell, baseball player
* 1968 - Frank Thomas, baseball player
* 1970 - Tim Farron, British politician
* 1970 - Joseph Fiennes, English actor
* 1971 - Paul Bettany, English actor
* 1971 - Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes, American singer (d. 2002)
* 1974 - Derek Webb, American singer and songwriter (Caedmon's Call)
* 1974 - Danny Wuerffel, American football player
* 1975 - Andre 3000, American musician (OutKast)
* 1975 - Jamie Oliver, British chef and television personality

Deaths

* 366 - Procopius, Roman usurper (executed)
* 866 - Ordoño I, King of Asturias
* 927 - Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria
* 1444 - John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, English military leader (b. 1404)
* 1508 - Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan (b. 1452)
* 1525 - Thomas Muentzer, German rebel leader
* 1541 - Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury (executed) (b. 1473)
* 1564 - John Calvin, French religious reformer (b. 1509)
* 1610 - François Ravaillac, French assassin of Henry IV of France (b. 1578)
* 1661 - Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll, Scottish religious dissident (executed) (b. 1607)
* 1675 - Gaspard Dughet, French painter (b. 1613)
* 1690 - Giovanni Legrenzi, Italian composer (b. 1626)
* 1702 - Dominique Bouhours, French critic (b. 1628)
* 1707 - Marquise de Montespan, French mistress of Louis XIV of France (b. 1641)
* 1781 - Giovanni Battista Beccaria, Italian physicist (b. 1716)
* 1797 - François-Noël Babeuf, French revolutionary and early socialist (b. 1760)
* 1831 - Jedediah Smith, American explorer (b. 1799)
* 1840 - Nicolò Paganini, Italian violinist and composer (b. 1782)
* 1896 - Aleksandr Grigorievich Stoletov, Russian physicist (b. 1839)
* 1910 - Robert Koch, German physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1843)
* 1926 - Srečko Kosovel, Slovenian poet (b. 1904)
* 1960 - James Montgomery Flagg, American illustrator (b. 1877)
* 1964 - Jawaharlal Nehru, Indian politician (b. 1889)
* 1986 - Isma'il Raji' al-Faruqi, Palestinian-born philosopher and comparative religion scholar (b. 1921)
* 1987 - John Howard Northrop, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1891)
* 1989 - Arseny Tarkovsky, Russian poet (b. 1907)
* 1991 - Leopold Nowak, Austrian musicologist (b. 1904)
* 1991 - Rajiv Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India, assassinated by Tamil terrorists (b. 1944)
* 1992 - Uncle Charlie Osborne, fiddler (b. 1890)
* 1993 - Mary Philbin, American actress (b. 1903
* 1993 - Werner Stocker, German actor (b. 1955)
* 2000 - Crawford Murray MacLehose of Beoch, British Governor of Hong Kong (b. 1917)
* 2000 - Maurice Richard, Canadian hockey player (b. 1921)
* 2001 - Ramon Bieri, American actor (b. 1929)
* 2003 - Luciano Berio, Italian composer (b. 1925)

Holidays and observances

* Lag Ba'omer in Judaism (2005)
* Feast day of the following saints in the Roman Catholic Church:
o Venerable Bede
o Julius
o Pope John I
o Hildebert
o Bruno, Bishop of Würzburg
o Eutropius

Wedding Knitting

2006-05-21T01:21:00.000-07:00

I brought a sock to knit at a wedding figuring that since I was only just past the gusset there was absolutely no way I'd run out of yarn before the day was over.
Boy was I wrong...

I got to the toe by the end of the ceremony (a lovely short ceremony to be sure). When I sat down at the reception to knit the toe I realized I had a problem. I'm following a Nancy Bush pattern from Knitting Vintage Socks and I only photocopied one page of the pattern. The page I copied did not contain the entire toe...

I knit what I could, but I may need to take what I knit of the toe out anyways since it may be too short to wear comfortably. I'm unfamiliar with how much length this toe adds and didn't have a handy way to measure, so I started it where it seemed right and hopefully it will work out.
I won't find out until after I get home because the rest of the pattern is two states away. What sort of monkey leaves the state with only a partial knitting pattern? Apparently the sort of monkey that I am.

The good news: I have 3 other projects with me.
One of them is samples for a super-secret commissioned project that I will be showing to the requester at some point in the near future. I hope they fit the bill because I'm looking forward to doing that sort of work again.
An other is the feather and fan "swatch" that has been on the needles since the beginning of time... okay really only since last summer.
Last, but not least is the pair of wristies that will be part of my NWRSA fiber exchange ensemble. I'll easily finish them on this trip and need to figure out what I'm going to do with the last half of this ball of yarn...

SP8 Questionnaire

2006-05-10T21:58:00.000-07:00

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?

Favorite yarns include Koigu (for socks and shawls), Nashua's Creative Focus as a good basic for felting and such, it's just a bit softer than Lambs' Pride (another favorite), Regia's new silk-blend sock yarn (not too keen on their scratchier wool/nylon blends, but the one with silk is fabulous.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?

Whatever I can lay my hands on! Different things for different needles. I use old button tubes for my larger dpn's and crochet hooks, ziploc baggies for some of my small dpn's, the original packaging for my small Crystal Palace dpn's, a strange binder sized plastic box for my circulars, and a zippered cloth bag for my single points.

3. How long have you been knitting? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?

My mom taught me to throw when I was little. About 5 years ago, I picked knitting back up and taught myself to pick continental style. I'm a convert and will not willingly go back. I consider my skill level intermediate, which is to say that I am comfortable tackling almost any project with a pattern (the only thing keeping me from completing them is time and follow-through), and designing my own small things on the fly (sometimes without documentation, a bad habit that causes my second socks to differ from their earlier cousins).
For some reason I can teach throwing, but I have not yet figured out how to teach picking.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?

I do, ask me where to find it and I'll let you know

5. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products etc.)

I don't do scented bath products so much. I do, however enjoy trying a new tea.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?

Dark chocolate. Rapunzel brand is a current favorite. It's suprisingly good dipped in a bit of a chipotle chili sauce.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?

I spin (often), I weave (infrequently), I dye (with enthusiasm), I braid (when a plied cord just won't cut it), I crochet (more frequently this year than last), I lucet (only at RennFaire), I sew (poorly).
I do not draw.
(I used to say, "I can't draw," but then I decided to earn a BA in Art and had to do a couple of prerequisite courses that involved drawing. Now I am firm in the opinion that I don't draw. If I wanted to spend the time to learn how to do it better, I could. I choose not to!)

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)

I like lots of music, rock, folk, indie, world, celtic, indian, some country, minimal pop, some classical.
My computer is perfectly capable of playing MP3s, (I think I even have a CD player somewhere that will play them, though I may be wrong about that... and besides, I've been thinking about getting an iPod)

9. What's your favorite color? Or--do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer? Any colors you just can't stand?

I like from green all the way around the color wheel to the near side of red. Or rather, green, blue, purple and the cooler reds. Orange and yellow don't really do anything for me, either when I'm wearing them or looking at them.
Favorite color would have to be green. I'm identified around the house by green polka dots on things and that's just fine with me. It makes finding my stuff much easier. (This will be a moot point next year when I've moved off to school and my own apartment, but for now it's very convenient and I won't mind having the green dots follow me around.)

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?

I live with my best friend and her husband. We share a dog named Zhenya who will become mine when I take him with me to school next fall.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?

Scarves, hats and mittens, yes.
Ponchos, no.
Not that I wouldn't wear the right poncho, it's just that it'd really have to be the right poncho...

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?

Socks...
Or at least that's what my project basket would tell you. I seem to have at least a few of them on needles at any given point in time.
Sweaters are my favorite things to have knitted, they're much more impressive and get complimented more than socks.
Lace is my favorite thing to knit. I enjoy being asked to pay a little more attention to my knitting than I normally manage. (I find reading charts much easier than following verbose lace instructions.)

13. What are you knitting right now?

I plead the fifth...
The projects that have been following me around are:
A sock in regia's new silk blend, a felted evening bag for the shop, a lace weight mohair scarf for the shop, the handspun hat for the NWRSA swap, some spinning fiber, a commercial sweater I'm ripping for yarn, and the chart for my first cross-stitch project in ages.
I suppose those aren't all technically knitting, but I don't really care.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?

Yes, they're lots of fun and often give a bit more information about the giver than a purchased gift would.

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?

Circular for anything I can't fit on a 7" or shorter straight needle. Bamboo for wool, Addi turbos for cotton... or, more honestly, I'll use any needle I can find when I want to start a project, with the exception that I won't use long straight needles for anything at all and I'd really rather avoid aluminium.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?

Yes, both.
Actually there are two ball winders in the house, one swift and an assortment of niddy noddies.
What we do not have is a skein winder, though we do have a warping board and a couple inkle looms that will do the job if necessary.

17. How did you learn to knit?

My mother taught me when I was little. I gave it up when I got bored and picked it up again in college when I couldn't find any crochet patterns worth their salt.
(I love that phrase. It's such a gem of an image from a time gone by. My mother once showed me a book all about the history of salt (Beneath the Salt, I believe the title was).)

18. How old is your oldest UFO?

Much younger now that I sewed up that sweater I knit in 2003.

19. What is your favorite holiday?

And the trite and slightly snide answer to this question is:
Memorial day.
Because it's the reason I often get a 3 day weekend for my birthday!

20. Is there anything that you collect?

Books, yarn, state quarters, unfinished projects...
Um, right now I'm moving and don't need any more knick-knacks.

21. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?

Books I want: Poetry in Stitches, One Skein, Mason-Dixon
Magazines I get: Interweave Knits, Spin-Off

22. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?

Well, I learned intarsia last night at Knit'n'Knuth.
And knitting backwards down the row to avoid purling at work that afternoon.
Mostly I pick up new techniques as they are required for a project I want to do. I'm not really intimidated by them.
I suspect entrelac is next.

23. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?

Yes.
Um... I'm going to cop out on this one.
It's listed in my SP7 posting
I wear a size 9.5 women's shoe.

24. When is your birthday? (mm/dd)

5/27

Baby Sweaters are Yellow

2006-04-30T22:44:00.000-07:00

I've already written this post once today. Please forgive me if it's not as interesting the second time around.

I started this project spectrum baby sweater a day early. I'll not be finishing it during April. It knit up so quickly, I thought I'd easily finish it by mid month. This is just over a week's worth of progress.

Unfortunately, it spent the last three weeks being ignored.
The reason it got sent to the corner of the knitting basket and ignored?
It's neckline.

I got this far into it and realized that the neckline as called for in the pattern would drive me batty with its asymetry and curling outward.
(Please ignore the tension oddites in the decreases on either side of the neck, they are my own doing and therefore I do not feel entitled to complain about them)

Confident that I would not have chosen a pattern destined to annoy me like this, I was angry that the model photographed in the book did not share the same annoying characteristics.
Then I looked at the picture again.

See? The model does almost exactly the same thing as my sweater.
Bother. At this point I decided to set the sweater aside and pretend it didn't exist. I like to let projects sit for a while while I decide whether I really want to rip them all the way back out and start over with a new pattern..

Then about a week ago, I mentioned my frustration to a coworker and she suggested putting a row of single crochet around the edges of the neckline.
Crochet seems like a perfect fix for my problem and has rescued the sweater from almost certain demise. I'll probably put a row around the bottom hem and sleeve cuffs just so the edges are finished the same way, but that shouldn't take very much time or yarn.

Now if I could just find the pattern book, I'd get started on the second half of the sweater...

Sockapaloooza Socks - Finished

2006-04-27T23:52:00.000-07:00

Oh, frabjous day, calloo, callay...

My sockapaloooza socks are finished. As of this past Tuesday evening (a wonderful evening all around), my toes are both finished and all that remains is the weaving in of ends.

Huzzah!

On a slightly less happy note, I got an email saying that my sock pal needed to withdraw, and not to worry I had already been assigned an angel, so there would be socks coming to me soon.

Being reassured that I have an angel is wonderful, where I'm having problems is dealing with the realization that all the wonderful socks I've been lusting after for the last few months are, definitively and without a doubt, not mine...

Pout.

Chair Frames are Yellow

2006-04-27T15:30:00.000-07:00

There was a knitting circle at Norwescon this year. It was not the lively stitch'n'bitch I'd hoped it would be, instead it was a gathering of about 8 women quietly working on their own projects in a room that was obviously set up for the standard panel at the front, audience facing them in rows type panel that is so prevalent at conventions everywhere.
I hope they have the knitting circle again next year and that more people show up for it. A bit more quiet social downtime would definitely add quite a bit to my con experience.

We didn't stay long as Peacock had spent too much time that day walking around on her injured knee. The next day she consented to being pushed about in the wheelchair for most of the day and did significantly better.

Dragons are Yellow

2006-04-26T15:00:00.000-07:00

Easter weekend is when Norwescon happens.

At con I normally run into a gentleman that makes polymer clay dragons at least once. This year, I found him in the halls and he was selling dragons made of paper clay instead of polymer.

This little dragon climbed up onto my shoulder and looked at me. He was so smitten I just had to let him follow me home and take up residence in my fishbowl-mug.

I've forgotten the name of the stone he's holding in his tail.

The artist catches a unique personality with each of his miniature sculptures. This was true in the polymer clay and may be even more true with the paper clay. He said the new medium is allowing him to work larger than the polymer allowed and I'm really looking forward to seeing what he does with the larger pieces.

Sockapaloooza Socks

2006-04-26T02:02:00.000-07:00

Almost finished..
Just the last little bits of the toes to knit and the ends to weave in and I will be ready to ship my socks out to their new home on May 2nd.
I really hope they fit.

As a break from my sock pal socks, I decided to make Peacock's pal a pair of baby socks when she decided that she needed another back-up plan. Since it's looking like she'll get her new pair completed in good time we're seriously thinking about keeping them as mementos rather than sending them off with their coordinating full-sized counterparts. Then again, maybe I should make a third one and we can each keep one...
The peacock, her sock pal and me (sung to the tune of 'the red queen, the white queen, and me' from Alice Through the Looking Glass)
So I spent some time knitting on these lovely little baby socklets. I think they're destined to be Christmas ornaments as I don't even have a teddy bear that could wear these.

They work up so quickly that I'm sorely tempted to make a whole slough of them for Christmas presents. However I'm reasonably sure that urge will pass quickly.

At Knit'n'Knuth last week we had our first mini-workshop. Peacock and I showed anyone who was interested how to make miniature socks. We figured this was the perfect introduction as they could be mostly completed in an evening rather than having a significant quantity of simple circular knitting before even starting turning the heel. So there've been a lot of baby socks being birthed around here lately.

Puppies are Yellow - Part II

2006-04-25T14:05:00.000-07:00

And blue is a complement.
I suppose that would make the puppy orange, wouldn't it...

Here's the very tolerant puppy modeling my Leaf Lace Shawl.
I'm very glad he doesn't chew on things or drag them around the house, if he did I'd have to be much more careful where I put things down.

Isn't he cute?

I'm still wearing the shawl at least once a week. It's almost getting to where it's warm enough to wear the shawl and a sleeveless shirt outside with no jacket, and I'll probably keep wearing the shawl all year.

I've bought some solid green lorna's laces shepherd sock to make another one.

The current verdict: If wearing shawls and constantly knitting makes me look like a grandma, bring on the grandkids!

I realize there are some technical difficulties with that idea as one generally has to have kids and be over thirty (or sixty if your family spaces their generations like mine does), but I'm not worried, it'll all work out in the end. Maybe I'll just borrow somebody else's until I get some of my own...

Sock Yarn is Yellow

2006-04-25T13:57:00.000-07:00

I got my Project Spectrum sock yarn exchange yarn in the mail from Karen.

I came home and saw a package sitting by the door. When I picked it up to see who it was addressed to, I almost had a heart attack.
My last name is exactly one letter different from one of my ex's and she misspelled it just right (fyi - mine starts with a 'z'). I didn't recognize the return address and was worried that he'd listed me as a relative for some unknown reason (This is not a completely unfounded fear, I got a call from a bank about a year back asking if I'd be a reference for the purposes of issuing him a loan. I politely refused).
The second option was that there was a type-o somewhere along the line and this was an exchange package, so I opened it up and found this:

The yarn is knitpicks dye-your-own, the dye is Kool-Aid
(I've misplaced the tag that said which colors were used)
I wound the hank into a ball and found the color striping wonderfully around the edges of the ball.

However, since the first ball was wound tighter than I enjoy working from, I re-wound it.
Look closely at the two pictures and absorb this lesson in how gauge affects the appearance of varegated yarn. The second picture is a lot more representative of how I hope the socks will look once they're knitted up. I like having all the colors mixed in with each other, in a wonderful mixed field of color.

Puppies are Yellow... ish

2006-04-25T13:31:00.000-07:00

Hair and Changes

2006-04-20T22:29:00.000-07:00

A week ago my hair looked like this:

And yes, that lovely sweater is the one that I finished earlier this spring as part of my UFOlympics. It's distinctly tardy, but I do have photographic proof that it exists.

I'm particularly fond of the stripes going different directions on the body and the arms. I'm not quite sure why as that is the one aspect of this sweater that I was distinctly worried about disliking while I was knitting it.

This is my hair now:

It is able to be laid down onto my head, but only with a fair bit of styling product and letting it dry while being squished flat by a headband....
A headband like my recently seamed panta. My only objection is that putting the ribbed panta on while my hair is wet results in slightly corrugated hair! I guess this means I need to make myself a stockinette panta-esque thingy...
I could just go buy a stretchy headband, but that would be too easy.

I like it!
It's really easy to care for, just wet, add goop with hands and let dry. The only thing I'm having trouble with is using enough goop. It seems to require twice as much as I think it ought to get it to mostly behave (like in this picture) and at least 4 to 6 times as much if I want it to pretend that it's straight and lay down behind my ears instead of poofing out around them.

Flowers are Yellow

2006-04-11T01:36:00.000-07:00

To be precise, daffodils are yellow.

I even took this picture.
They're in the planting bed in our front yard that has a rather paltry crop of daffodils and tulips at the moment, but will be absolutely dripping in irises a bit later in the season.
Ooh, and the lovely carpet of grape hyacinth that we have at the moment isn't half bad either. (even though it's not yellow)

Contest - Flamingos are Pink

2006-04-06T15:24:00.000-07:00

During March I posted a contest involving this picture:

I asked what the pink critters were and got a solid handful of correct responses.
Mary, Tracey, Vanessa, Laurie, and Trek all correctly supposed that they were flamingos.
Peacock took the picture when she was in Africa on a vacation a year or so before I met her, but was kind enough to share the picture with me.

Trek and Vanessa were the ones selected to win and will each be receiving a box of fluff in the mail.

This is one of them. Peacock carded it up for me out of mostly new zealand wool (we think it's correidale) with just a little bit of plastic glitz (probably not angelina, but pretty none-the-less).

Here's the other one, it's also mostly new zealand wool with a bit of plastic glitz, some angelina, and just a smidge of a merino silk blend added because it was a fabulous pink color. It's quite fascinating how much the merino silk blend changes the hand of the entire poof.

I'll leave who gets which one as a suprise for the recipients' mailboxes.
Thank you all for playing!

Baby Sweaters are Yellow

2006-04-01T13:38:00.000-08:00

So it's April and in Project Spectrum land, that means yellow and orange are the colors to be working with.

Accordingly, I've started a baby sweater for a little one that is due in May (I think). I'm using the very first pattern in Erika Knight's Simple Knits for Cherished Babies (I don't remember the name of the pattern) and an extra vibrant yellow cotton yarn.

Can you see the piggy? It's not yellow, it was trying to defend me from the sheepies on the yarn's label. See ??

I'm not sure what it thought the sheepies were going to do to me but it was adamant that I needed protecting.

I actually started the sweater early because there was a K'n'B on Thursday evening for which I desperately wanted a new project. I'm more than halfway done with the front of the sweater and I definitely understand how one of my friends from college got addicted to knitting baby stuff. It's so fast... If I adult sweaters knitted up this quickly I'd go broke buying yarn and my house would overflow with handknitted garments.

Sockapaloooza Socks are Pink

2006-03-31T23:35:00.000-08:00

And so are the piggies playing hide and go seek in my socks!

My sockapaloooza socks are also among the pink knitting I've been working on this month. I didn't get them finished, but I do have the leg done. This means I'm 3/4's of the way done with my sock pal's socks and there's pretty much no way that I'll be getting a pair for myself finished before the ship-by date for the exchange. Oh, well...

I'm getting tired of this pattern anyways and have already ripped out the second left sock of Knitting Olympics fame. I'm loving Nancy Bush's patterns so I'll most likely do another sock from Knitting Vintage Socks with my ball of this lovely pink sock yarn, just not this same one... at least not right away.

Plum Trees are Pink

2006-03-29T08:39:00.000-08:00

Literally, the tree's branches are slightly pinkish. Some of it is the last of the red berries from this past fall, but mostly the branches themselves look slightly pink to me.

As always photo credits go to Peacock.

Red Tree Fabric

2006-03-26T13:32:00.000-08:00

So I got a new project for myself while I was in Buffalo about a week back.

Mind you I don't sew.

Well, I don't sew very well, or very often, or particularly happily, but I fell in love with the tree fabric and the batiks went so well with it that I figured it couldn't possibly kill me to make a couple of pillows. I'll be moving this summer and needing to furnish an apartment so I'll need throw pillows for the couch, right?

You can pick a couch to match your throw pillows? Even if they're still embryonic throw pillows? I'm not willing to bet these fabrics will be anything but fabric by the end of the summer, but maybe, just maybe, I'll get my sewing machine to cooperate and I'll make pillow covers out of them.

Yarn Flowers

2006-03-25T22:32:00.000-08:00

I got the card at the yarn shop because it was pink and then realized the ball of yarn looked almost like the other piece of a pair.
The pink yarn is the same yarn I used for the Branching Out swatch. It has been ripped and returned to its natural balled state.

Contest - _____ are Pink

2006-03-24T08:03:00.000-08:00

A contest for all the project spectrum people out there (and for anyone else that's reading this blog too).
Many things in this picture are pink. What are they?

(hint: they're all the same thing, there's just lots and lots of them in the picture)

The prize is a bundle of pink wool spinning fluff blended and carded by me.
Send your answers to onmyneedles at yahoo dot com by the end of March.
If I get more than one right answer, I'll draw from a hat to find out who gets the fluff.

Green Presents

2006-03-23T23:07:00.000-08:00

Project Spectrum says March is for pink and red. My blog friends say March is for Saint Patrick's Day and green presents in my mailbox.

First I got a Saint Patrick's day card from Kim! It was a little misshappen when it arrived and I was afraid the post office had mangled it. However, it felt a little heavy and when I opened it I discovered a pad of sticky-notes with pink and green and brown polka dots. I love it.

Maybe a day later I got a package from Mia which had two green patterned handkercheifs, a card with a whole bunch of glitter poised ready to explode from the envelope (a clean-up project I narrowly avoided and then sent gleefully on to my SP (evil grin)), and some wonderful powdered sugar coated cookies. Peacock ate lots of them and said, "Mia makes the bestest cookies ever!"

I'm inclined to agree about the cookies. There are no more of them and my pants don't quite fit right at the moment... (sheepish smile)

Thank you both. You make me feel loved, and that is a very good feeling indeed.

Pink Knitting

2006-03-22T12:02:00.000-08:00

What's wrong with this picture?

That's right, this knitting is not pink.
The post's title is not completely without warrant because this knitting is quite pink.

The ball of pink yarn came to me from Andrea over at Mellow Trouble when she sent me the yarn for the SYNO scarf swap. The yarn, Rowan Summer Tweed has a very crunchy hand that is startling but not unpleasant to knit with. I thought about doing an entire scarf swatch, but realized that I was not anywhere close to making gauge and therefore could not possibly get an entire scarf out that single ball of yarn. Therefore it's a swatch and will be ripped back out at some point in the near future.

The white at the top is the Martian Mountain Cow from earlier posts. Since that is how it looks knit on size 8 (5 mm) needles, I'm willing to concede that I failed to spin fingering weight yarn. At this point I think the yarn is roughly dk or sport weight. Bother. Actually, a Big Bother. I was planning on knitting another Leaf Lace Shawl out of it, but discovered after knitting a significant portion yarn that there was just no way that it would get large enough to make me happy. I didn't even think to take a picture of it before I pulled it back out. Bother.

But life moves on. I'm enjoying Branching Out much more than I thought I would. I've made one minor pattern modification. Where the pattern suggests making a left leaning double decrease by sl-k2tog-psso, I'm doing a sl3-k3togtbl as suggested by Eunny instead. Her Majoring In Lace series has been fabulous reading and is increasing my understanding of what's going on while lace is being knit by leaps and bounds.

I have ~~delusions~~ images of making a branching out stole by mirroring the lace pattern on itself and winding up with something that looks more like an arbor full of leaves. Just not for this project. I have a lovely skein of green silky wool that I think would be perfect for that stole. Though I suppose if it is actually to be a stole I'll need more than one ball of yarn.

Pretty Pink Trees

2006-03-21T15:11:00.000-08:00

What's wrong with this picture?

That's right, this tree is not covered in pretty pink flowers! I asked Peacock to make me a copy of this picture for the blog because I could have sworn that this tree was a flowering cherry covered in lovely pale pink blossoms. I was wrong!

It's not the first time I've been wrong lately... ask me what time Morfey's Cake Shop closes on Saturdays. Now ask me why I know. I got the cake, I didn't get shot, all is well.

Here's a picture of a pretty pink tree.

It's a lovely tree and an nicely composed picture, but the tree is nowhere near as spectacular as the maple above. Oh, well... Not every tree can be blessed with such lovely lines.

Piggies are Pink

2006-03-20T13:28:00.000-08:00

A long time ago I promised an introduction to the Piggies.

They've been having too much fun playing hide and seek in my yarn to pose for a family portrait, so I told them they would be fenced out of the yarn stash if they didn't cooperate.

What'd'ya'know it worked.

All five of them clambered right up onto the photo fabric and demanded that pictures be taken.

Right after I got the formal pictures finished, they started demanding yarn to romp in. Realizing a photo opportunity when I had one, I got out all the pink yarn I could find. It is, after all, March.

Don't get between the Piggies and "their" yarn! How many Piggies do you see?

At any rate, I promised actual introductions instead of just the usual pictures.

Mommy Piggy and Poppy Piggy both came from Old Navy at Halloween a couple years ago. Appropriately they're piggy banks. They also happen to glow in the dark. Immediately upon unwrapping them I noticed that they were that particular shade of sickly plastic that should denote something that glows. It took me 6 months to catch them in the act... and when I did, I yelped and nearly jumped off the bed. Peacock responded by laughing at me!

At some point two little ones showed up. I didn't notice any signs of pregnancy, but that's happened with pets before... (ask me about the gerbils if you really want to know!). At some point after that, one more little one arrived. I guess no one told the Piggies that piggies have litters.

Leaf Lace Shawl - Completely Finished

2006-03-19T23:34:00.000-08:00

I blocked the blue koigu leaf lace shawl during the Knitting Olympics. I appear to have forgotten to post pictures of it. Now is the time to fix that error.

Isn't the puppy cute?
At that particular moment he was watching me wipe puppy slobber on the Boyfriend (he was wearing a grubby sweatshirt that was going to be laundered later that day). There is one fascinating characteristic of this puppy's slobber. It doesn't matter if you've wiped it off or let it dry completely, when you wash your hands the puppy slobber will instantly turn into SLIME. Not just your average slime, but 'oh, my gawd, what did I get on my hands' style SLIME. It's disgusting, but he's just so dang cute we love him anyways (it helps that we wear gloves when feeding him during training sessions).

This one makes it painfully clear just how large the shawl is. When I wear it I keep thinking it probably hangs to barely the middle of my shoulder blades. Of course it looks much smaller when I wrap it around my neck like a scarf. This does not show it off to best advantage, however it is lovely and warm.

Project Spectrum - Late Start

2006-03-19T15:07:00.000-08:00

So it being March 19th, it seems to me like I'm getting a bit of a late start to the whole posting about Project Spectrum thing.

I have a new button for it. It's over there in my sidebar. The rainbow background is hand carded wool from the Weaving Works.

At some point it will probably get spun up into a very small skein of yarn. I'm going to navajo ply it so the colors stay distinct, but since I'm expecting to get less than 30 yards of yarn out of this exercise, I have absolutely no idea what to do with it after that point.

The day I carded that spectrum, I did a couple others. One of them has already been spun, and I have no idea where it is. The other one I gave to Peacock and she spun at some point last week.

Hers is a bit muddier than mine because instead of using separate commercially dyed colors for each stop on the color wheel, I used 3 colors of wool to blend the entire rainbow. In both the fluff and the yarn, the bright yellow overpowers both the magenta and the turquoise. Now that I think about it the 3rd full set, the one I already spun was probably also blended colors composed of red, yellow and blue. If I recall correctly the purple in that set was downright brownish.

Blogiversary

2006-03-14T23:08:00.000-08:00

Eeek!
I missed my very first blogiversary...
Bother.
I had plans to have another contest with more prizes, but I was convinced that I started this lovely little journal at the end of March.
Turns out I was wrong. I started it at the beginning of the month.
Having lasted a year with ~~erratic~~ semi-regular updates, this is officially my longest lived journal ever. The prior record was one that I kept almost daily during the summer I was working in Yosemite National Park. It lasted all of one entry after I got back to school in the fall.
I desperately hope that this blog survives my move to pharmacy school at the end of the summer. I suspect that posts will become much less frequent, but as I have no intentions of ceasing to knit, I will ~~likely~~ hopefully continue to document them in this forum.

I've earned Pyrite

2006-03-06T21:17:00.000-08:00

I got the sweater done in time to wear it to the birthday dinner last night. I have no photos... but I did get compliments.

I am quite pleased with the fit and look, even though I can't wear it over anything more than a tank top. The neckline is slightly fussy as it's very straight across the front and back and tends to curl, but I like the effect over all. It looks rather like a faire bodice with relatively narrow shoulders set very wide on the shoulders.

Makes me wish I'd sewn it together years ago instead of letting my worries that it couldn't possibly fit stop me. I'd heard that Debbie Bliss' patterns ran small right about the time I finished the knitting and I was more interested in keeping it a UFO than I was having it fail completely... bother!

After dinner the sweater got ooh-ed and aah-ed over by two of the cutest little kids ever. The elder one is just beginning to knit and they both were quite impressed. The littler one asked about making it in some detail so I explained knitting the pieces flat, sewing them all together and crochetting the edging on afterwards.

Photographic proof to follow when I have the time to get a picture.

Olympic Pyrite

2006-03-05T16:15:00.000-08:00

A rather opaque title, I realize, however I find it amusing.

My Scoop Neck Cardigan was my project for the UFOlympics. I did not get it completely finished before the end of the olympics, I did, however put it into a sweater shaped conglomeration of parts and Natalie was kind enough to award me a bronze medal for climbing over the psychological hump that's been keeping me from finishing this sweater for the last few years.

At this point I am competing for a Fools Gold (or pyrite) medal. I started my olympic work on this project on February 19th. If I finish it completely by this Tuesday, March 7th, I will have completed it in 16 days, just not the right 16 days...

I have all the seaming done, have completed the crochetted edgings, and have the first (of 9) buttons attached. This should be completely do-able. Now I just need to do it! Maybe I'll get it done in time to wear it to a friend's birthday dinner.

Yummy... sushi... I'm pleased, my roomates, not so much... they'll be having teriyaki

Experimental Intarsia

2006-03-05T16:01:00.000-08:00

If you've been following this blog, you know that I have never before mentioned intarsia, except perhaps in a list of techniques I've never tried.

This would, by most standards make me an odd choice as a source for advice. It does not stop me from having an opinion, so when a friend at Knit'n'Knuth asked me for help figuring out how do create intarsia with shaping around the edges I was more than happy to take on the challenge.

The request: To make an argyle pattern that looks like the diamonds grow from the fabric rather than being flat patches of color.

The solution: To start the diamond with a triple increase and then place paired increases and decreases along the edges of the diamonds.

The end results:

Not my knitting, but he said pretty much followed the chart I drafted after a bit of swatching.
They look much more like leaves than I was expecting, but when the accent lines are put in with duplicate stitch, the intended effect will be obvious.
As to the pattern itself, it's a top down raglan that's been converted to flat knitting so the intarsia could be added. The yarn is a lovely alpaca blend knit loosely so the finished product will be wearable indoors. There will be one set of three diamonds down the sleeves and another set down the front of the sweater. It's a fun design and will look wonderful on the knitter.

We can't currently find the chart I wrote out. When it is found I'll append an image to this post. It's the first chart I've drafted and I'm thrilled it's working out so well.

Olympic Bronze ???

2006-02-26T16:30:00.000-08:00

Here's the "proof"...

It's a sweater. It's not what I would call finished, but it can, in fact, be worn.
It's even warm... And it fits.

I remembered when I started putting the sleeves together that one of the reasons I was so scared to actually sew the pieces together was that I had no idea if it would fit and was too scared to find out I'd done all that knitting for something that I wouldn't be able to wear.

So, as of this moment, I nominate myself for a bronze. This project has been languishing in my stash for far too long and I'm over the hump, it will be finished.

There is a possibility, however slight, that I will get both the seaming and the crochet edging finished by the end of the closing ceremonies. If that does occur, I will change my nomination to gold!
Peacock says that I entered two events, the seaming event and the crochetted edging event and that if I can get my seaming finished I should nominate myself for a silver. Anyone else got an opinion on this one?

Leaf Lace Shawl - Blocking

2006-02-24T21:35:00.000-08:00

In a fit of productivity this evening, we decided to block my leaf lace shawl at the same time as my Noro Cardigan.

It was all ready, ends woven in and everything quite some time ago, I just hadn't made time to get it blocked... and besides, I was getting a kick out of wearing it as a very textural scarf.
The darn thing's huge! (to make note of the scale, you can see the Noro Cardigan blocking in the background) Unblocked, it was just under two yards along the top edge. Now it's close to eighty inches.

Here's a close up showing the transition the multi color portion at the top and the first of the two predominantly blue bands:

In contrast to the unblocked close up:

I would have loved to be able to draw a comparison between the actual sizes of the two pictures, but I was not thinking that far ahead when the pictures were taken, so I have no clue what the real dimensions of the images are, making direct comparisons impossible. I am planning on making at least one more of these shawls with the same yarn and needles, so I should be able to directly compare this one blocked to the next one before blocking. That will be a fun comparison.

Knitting Olympics - VII

2006-02-24T00:45:00.000-08:00

And here are updates on all of the Olympics competitions entered by residents of the Bedside Manor (otherwise known as my housemates).

First up, the cuteness competition:

The puppy is constantly working on his cuteness scores. On the evening in question, he set a new record. He'd been carrying the pink fish around all day and settled between the boyfriend's legs for a nap. His head's pressed firmly against the blanket box and, well it's obvious he's been practicing. He just keeps getting cuter and cuter every day.
... or maybe I'm just smitten.

Next up, the Peacock:
The Martian lake cow Leaf Lace shawl is cast off, ends woven in and awaiting its turn at blocking. Pictures tomorrow as the shawl participates in the blocking competition.

Third, the UFOlympics:

I am getting a very late start on this event. The pieces went with me to Tucson over the weekend and quite a bit of progress was made. I sewed in all the ends and stitched the tops of the shoulders together. When I started trying to set in the sleeves I realized why the resources I referenced ~~suggested~~ insisted that blocking the pieces first was a Very Good Idea(TM). So I brought the pieces home and am currently blocking them.
Near as I can tell, it is still ~~theoretically~~ possible that I can get this cardigan finished before the closing ceremonies on Sunday

And last, but not least, the Knitting Olympics:
I am entered on the official Knitting Olympics list of participants thus: "bethieee - socks"
Look, a picture:

Socks!!!
Two socks that did not exist 14 days ago. I have triumphed!

Now for the question I've been asking throughout the games: What's wrong with this picture?
That's right, two left feet!

Not quite true as the socks are not actually shaped, but they are socks from two distinctly different pairs (note the two partially used balls of yarn lurking near the edges of the picture) so they might as well both be the left ones. This is my punishment for not swatching enough. I did swatch, really I did. I swatched on 1.5's and 1's and decided that my gauge on the 1's (the suggested needle size) was close enough and that I would proceed with the suggested needles. I had not, in fact, made gauge. I had merely come close and not actually close enough. The first sock, the larger one towards the bottom of the picture, is loose on me. The dimensions I get when I measure my feet are larger than those provided by my sock pal. When I realized the significance of this problem, I swatched some more. Turns out I needed to use size 0 needles to actually achieve the pattern gauge. So the second sock was done with needles smaller than those called for in the pattern and the sock is too small for me in all the right places.

The third and fourth socks will be knit after the Olympics are over and my wrists decide to start being civil again. They are of the opinion that I've been doing far too much knitting with tiny needles of late. They are right. I am now, officially on a sock sabbatical having reached my olympic goal. As a side effect of my Olympic knitting, I have fallen madly in love with Nancy Bush's sock patterns. There will be many more of them in my future. Here's hoping I have learned my lesson and will proceed at a more leisurely pace.

... yeah, right...

Presents !!!

2006-02-22T21:17:00.000-08:00

Somebody loves me...
Actually, a couple somebodies love me. I know this because I got presents!

The First Present: SNOW !!!

(Yes, I know the picture's broken... a gremlin prevented it from being loaded to the server, it should be fixed within the week. Gremlin, give my picture back!)
This is our front yard. I know it's not much, but it's snow and it actually stuck (well, at least until dawn, it was gone by the time I got up the next morning). I like snow, it's lots of fun to play in, just as long as I don't have to drive anywhere.

Second Present: A package from Cheerio my spoiler from SP6 !!!

Cheerio was a great spoiler, she said this package was going out before Christmas, and decided to wait until after New Years when I told her we were travelling for Christmas. Then, when she placed a KnitPick's order, she decided to order something for me. All this adds up to a wonderful suprise on my doorstep last week. In the package I found: a single skein of Caron Bliss, a whole bunch of strawberry flavored Hershey's Kisses, some gum, a lovely fuzzy crochetted scarf, and two skeins of Andean Silk in a pretty slightly yellowed green. I'm really looking forward to trying the Andean Silk, it's a lovely feeling yarn and I've been pleased with the other yarn I've tried from that company (that yarn was also an SP giftieee).

Third Present: A package from my current SP.

She's so thoughtful, a Valentine's day package that's just perfect for me. Dark chocolate truffle balls, a fabulous card (who'd'a thunk they actually made Secret Pal greeting cards... fascinating... ), Valentine's day magnetic poetry, a cute little clippy photo holder (the package said one photo and it meant it, when we tried to stand the card up with it, it wilted). Lastly, and most spectacularly, two skeins of gorgeous red Araucania Nature Wool Chunky.

Knitting Olympics - VI

2006-02-19T01:26:00.000-08:00

The Current Score:
First sock: completed.
Second cuff: completed.
Second leg: completed.
Second heel: completed... barely.

It's 1:26 in the morning and instead of going to bed, I'm going to go knit on my socks!

I have yet to start on the seaming for the UFOlympics, perhaps I'll finish it, perhaps I won't... It's gotten me thinking about that project again and if I get it done, awesome, if not, what's another couple months on top of a few years?

Baby Blanket

2006-02-18T23:14:00.000-08:00

As a result of some misguided project selection many years ago (yes, I did actually think I was going to crochet the sampler afghan from this book), I have a huge stash of Plymouth Encore in blue, green, red (all approximately the same value) and a pale varegaited mostly white-ish grey

While I do not generally enjoy working with this yarn, I do believe it has its uses. It is, for example machine washable and fairly warm. This makes it wonderful for knitting hats for charity, and baby blankets.

About 3 weeks ago I got a bee in my bonnet to start a baby blanket with no clear idea who it would be for. Many of my friends are procreating this year, so I had lots of choices. However today I discovered precisely who the recipient would be. The pregnancy was started right about the time I decided to start the blanket. I've been told this makes it my fault!

At any rate, here's the blanket:

Pattern: Big Bad Baby Blanket
Source: Debbie Stoller's Stitch 'N Bitch
Yarn: Plymouth Encore

I'm not sure how well it shows in the picture, but about 10 rows back, roughly where the needle is pointing (the needle that's pointing up, that is), I got a row of the border reversed. I'll be pulling the border back to see if I can fix it without needing to pull the entire width of the blanket. Here's hoping it goes well since I really don't want to have to rip that much of the blanket.

Knitting Olympics - V

2006-02-16T23:53:00.000-08:00

I finished the toe of sock number 1 before I went to bed last night.

And then I realized I had a homework assignment that was due this afternoon. I was up until 4:30 this morning finishing that darn assignment. It probably won't get a very good grade as I was feeling slightly punchy and obstinant... Oh, well.

I started sock number 2 this afternoon and worked on it at the fire department while awaiting my turn to demonstrate my ability to evaluate and correctly treat a cardiac patient. A couple of the firefighters commented on the yarn, a couple others ribbed me about having a different project every time they saw me. Given that I take a different project with me almost every time I go out, I suppose I can't complain.

The Current Score:
First sock: completed.
Second cuff: completed.
Second leg: 1/2 of 1 repeat knit.

Knitting Olympics - IV

2006-02-16T02:15:00.000-08:00

Current Score:
Cuff: completed.
Leg: completed.
Heel: completed.
Foot: completed.
Toe: 1/2 finished.

I could concievably be finished with this sock by the time I go to bed tonight.
Then again, maybe I'll just go to sleep. It is, after all 2:15 in the morning...
My decision will be posted here as part of tomorrow's update.

Happy Valentine's Day

2006-02-14T08:34:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Here in slightly snowy Seattle, my household had Valentine's day early so that we could attend Knit'n'Knuth on Tuesday night as per the usual. It was lovely. The boyfriend brought roses and we all went out for a steak dinner.

I got a huge box packed to the gills with a balloon, lots of yarn, some gorgeous stitch markers (which were proptly gifted back to Peacock because their iridized hearts looked perfectly like peacock feathers and, well, I love them, but she loves them so much more!), some candy, some tins, 4 bundles of quilting fabric, a mug, a hand-knit washcloth, a heart shaped hole-punch, and a pencil sharpener along with some other interesting paper products.

One of the tins had candy in it, it's missed getting its picture taken because I was busy nibbling on its contents when the staging was done. The other one had a bunch of little things, a bunch of metal buttons with nice fine designs on the front (5 of them plus the piggy's shield makes six and should be enough for the front of a cardigan), an assortment of cute little magnets, and a fimo charm made by Peacock which will be added to my collection of Faire favors.

6 skeins of Mountain Goat from Mountain Colors, 3 each in Red Tail Hawk and Granite Peak. I am so spoiled! No idea what I'll be knitting, but until I decide, I'll enjoy looking at the yarn just as it is.
I think the piggy wants me to make it a hat... too bad piggy, the yarn's all mine!

The other yarn was two different green Manos yarns. Peacock says she was thinking they'd work well together for color work. I'm not sold on that idea, but then her color sense is often much better than mine. My ideas almost always work, but they're rarely edgy. She has a much higher failure rate, but ooh, the wonderful combinations she comes up with.

These are the bundles of quilting fabric, I'm thinking to make little pockets out of them like Peacock did for the Ornamental exchange.

Monday night was spent making cookies to take to the knitting group. I hadn't realized that a pectin jelly candy could be baked into a cookie and come out of the oven relatively unscathed. For comparison, there's an uncooked candy sitting next to the platefull of cooked ones.

It being now officially Valentine's Day and therefore the 14th of February, I have officially failed to qualify for the drawing affiliated with the Jaywalker KAL. This is a sadness, but I'm displeased enough with how my socks fit that I'm not particularly worried about it either. Maybe I'll knit the second one with the edits I proposed earlier and maybe I'll reclaim the yarn for a sock that will get along better with my feet. Either way, I've learned that I like how Grumperina writes patterns in addition to admiring her designs. Odessa is definitely on the short list of patterns I'd like to knit in the near future.

Happy Valentine's Day, may you all be as wonderfully spoiled as I have been!

Knitting Olympics - III

2006-02-14T01:18:00.000-08:00

No picture tonight because I have an interview tomorrow and need to go to sleep.

However a fair bit of knitting was completed as we watched the rather terrible day had at the Olympics. It appears that the woman's downhill skiing hill was out to get people. 3 skiers were carried off after spectacular crashes. Add to that a luger getting knocked unconscious and 2 falls during men's speed skating and I wasn't sure I wanted to watch the pairs long program. We're not all the way done watching it, but so far we've not observed any casualties. I'd very much like to keep it that way.

The knitting score:
Cuff: completed.
Leg: completed.
Heel: completed.
Foot: 1/3 knitted.

I am quite enjoying this pattern, the stitch is interesting enough to keep me engaged and still very easy to keep track of while doing something else... like watching the Olympics! I'm seriously considering knitting a second pair in this pattern for myself right after I finish this pair, while it's still fresh in my mind...
More likely my wandering eye will stray to another project. I will, however, remember to look kindly upon Nancy Bush's patterns in the future as this one has been a joy to knit and I've heard nothing but good things about them from other knitters. PurlyWhites' Master Study comes to mind as a particularly good example of one knitter's devotion.

Knitting Olympics - II

2006-02-13T00:38:00.000-08:00

You met my socks ~~last night~~ early this morning. What you don't know it that they have a secret identity.

They're being knit for someone else...

That's right, I'm knitting my Sockapaloooza socks for the Knitting Olympics.
My tardiness with the Stitch Ya Neck Out exchange was something I would very much like not to repeat, so I am doing everything in my power to ensure that this project is completed well in advance of the deadline.
Look at it this way, even if I don't earn a gold medal button, I'll have a significant head-start on my socks.

Either way I win.

That said, I'm really hoping the darn socks start to behave a little better. Having to cast on 3 times is not really my idea of an auspicious beginning.

What's wrong with this picture??

That's right, six needles instead of the standard 5, one of them broken. No, I don't know how it happened. Thankfully Peacock had an extra set in the very same size so I've traded out the wounded teammember and continued knitting.

Here's the current score:
Cuff: completed.
Leg: completed (6 repeats instead of the 7 called for in the pattern).
Heel Flap and Turn: completed (15 slip sts along selvage instead of 17 in pattern).
Gusset: barely begun, but going smoothly.

Knitting Olympics - I

2006-02-12T03:14:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Friday, I got home from work at almost 10:00 pm and decided to sit down with a re-air of the opening ceremonies and cast on my socks. The TV schedule apparently lied and we got stuck watching a news-type show about the lead up to Torino. My socks must have been watching the TV with me because they just would not cooperate. I got about an inch into the knitting twice before giving up and going to bed.

What's wrong with this picture??

That's right, no knitting needles! Both attempts had to be ripped all the way back out as that was easier than trying to drop back and find the error.

This morning, when I went out to Hilltop East to find Peacock a needle for her Leaf Lace Shawl, I found that, contrary to my belief, they do stock Mountain Colors' sock yarn Bearfoot. I bought two skeins of Wildflower because I was worried about running short with the color I'd been using Friday (I only had one skein, 350 yards, and the pattern called for 430 yards, a significant enough difference that even knowing that I can get 2 socks out of a standard 100gr ball didn't placate my concerns). I'm still going to try to get both socks out of one skein, but now I have two skeins just in case.

This evening, I sat down with the Tivo's re-air, cast on and everything went smoothly. I have three plausible explanations for this.
1. The yarn didn't believe the games had actually started.
2. The first color wants to be used for something else at some later date.
3. Third time's the charm.

At any rate, things are going much more smoothly now.

Knitting Olympics Day 2:
Cuff: completed.
Leg: 1.5 repeats done so far.

Leaf Lace Shawl

2006-02-10T17:53:00.000-08:00

You all know that I got myself quite a bit of Koigu for Christmas this year. I picked 2 different spreads of color designed to work well in lace shawls that go from color to color (like Charlotte's Web, though I have no intentions of making that particular pattern).

What you don't know is that I just finished the knitting on a shawl of with this same general idea. The silly part, I used 3 colors that I had in my stash. I picked 3 different blues and the leaf lace shawl pattern from FiberTrends. The pattern was a joy to knit, I wound up using almost half a ball extra of the third color so I wouldn't need to pull it back at all, but since I had the yarn in stash, I didn't have a problem using the second ball. With the half a ball still remaining, I'm making wristwarmers, one's finished the other one's almost halfway there.

Here it is, not yet blocked. I finished the knitting at a friend's birthday party a couple weeks ago and wore it over my shoulders for the rest of the evening. I got lots of compliments on it and am looking forward to showing it off at knitting group once I've blocked it.

(Chinese) New Year's Postcard Swap

2006-02-09T23:57:00.000-08:00

Apparently today is swap update day, this is the third swap related post I've written.

I took part in MyLittleMochi's New Years Post Card Swap. My post cards all went out before Chinese New Years (as per the rules). And here's the obligatory representative sample:

Each one looked pretty much like this one, but in different colors, no two alike. The fabrics were all hand dyed by either Peacock or me while we were in school at UW. The puppy is an inkjet print coated with acrylic medium, for water resistance. He's our pup, a picture taken in the back yard sometime in 2005. The backing is cardstock. They were held together with fusible glue, I don't remember the brand. I was incredulous that you could use iron-on glue with paper, but it seemed to work quite well... r-e-c-i-p-i-e-n-t-s, did they get there in one piece?

As for the postcards I was sent, I have received eight of the ten I was expecting Hopefully the remaining two are coming from somewhere far away and will arrive soon. I was trying to wait until all had arrived, but I've decided it's time to post the ones I have, the others will be added when they get here. The cards are posted in (roughly) the order in which they arrived. I love the ingenuity each and every cardmaker showed in their designs.

The first one arrived from big_girlfeet and contained a wonderfully cute felt coin purse of the same design as the puppy on the card

This very stylized puppy, from Renee, came in almost a week later (the USPS works in mysterious ways).

The watercolored puppy with the spindly legs came from Jennie.

Skapande sent cards made with wallpaper.

Sarah sent out little felt terriers on a blue ground.

The scotty dog with the deco borders was sent by Moki.

Robayre sent a purple and yellow card with a row of gathered fabric roundells running up one side. The bottom one was run through the post office's cancelling machine and has wavy stripes of black ink on it. It took me awhile to realize what'd happened, but when I did, I laughed.

Karyn sent out a dachsund on a maple leaf background with a ribbon as a simulated stamp.

And that's about it, with 3 minutes 'till I have to go back and change the first line about what day it is, I suppose I'll sign off... It's been quite a lot of fun.

Secret Pal 7 - Package 1

2006-02-09T18:14:00.000-08:00

I got a package last week. Unfortunately my photographer injured her leg over the weekend and so I'm late posting about it due to lack of pictures!

From the left, I have a lovely skein of Cascade 220 in a gorgeous color, a bath bomb from lush in a lovely mild scent, the cutest card with marble pictures on the front, and two skeins of a fuzzy variegated mohair.

The Cascade made me particularly happy, it's the exact same blue with teal flecks that I bought to make a complicated aran sweater a few years back. I've abandoned the sweater during midterms the same quarter I started it (tension irregularities, kind-of like with Forbes Forest). I've been tempted to get into the yarn for half a dozen small projects since, but didn't want to break up the set of enough yarn to do a full sweater... now I don't have to!

Thanks SP, it's a fabulous package!

SYNO - Forbes Forest Finished, Sent, Arrived

2006-02-09T15:40:00.000-08:00

Well, it was 3 months late, but the scarf is finished, and has been received by MellowTrouble who has been very understanding. Here's the final product being modeled by the puppy:

And a pair of close up to demonstrate that blocking is a wonderful thing. I must admit I was incredulous, I even wrote a note to my recipient after knitting most of a ball of the yarn to ask her if I should rip it out and start over. She reassured me that all my problems would be resolved with a quick soak in warm water and being pinned out to dry.

Before blocking:

and After:

I suppose I should have believed all the people who were telling me that blocking was a wonderful tool to have in a knitter's bag of tricks. I'm a little slow, but I believe them now.

My Olympics start Friday...

2006-02-08T23:06:00.000-08:00

...and so, actually do everyone else's, but that's beside the point.

For the Yarn Harlot's Knitting Olympics, I'll be knitting a pair of Fancy Silk Socks from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks. I'm still not sure what yarn I'm going to be using, but I guess I'll figure that out by Friday, won't I.
If I get processed through the sign-up, I'll be knitting for TeamUSA Sock Knitters.

For the UFOlympics, I'm going to be doing the finishing on a sweater I knit shortly after I bought the yarn. I think that was 2001 or 2002... The sweater in question is Debbie Bliss's Scoop Neck Cardigan from the Noro Collection.

The knitting went quickly, I bought it just before finals as a Christmas present for myself and was done with the knitting by the end of break. The pieces, however have languished in my stash for the last 4 or 5 years waiting for seaming and finishing!

...Priceless

2006-02-06T15:58:00.000-08:00

1/2 tank of gas: 20.00

Lift tickets and ski rentals for two: 150.00

Getting to laugh at your roomate when she falls over at the bottom of the hill ...Priceless.

Having to drive her home after she actually injures herself in her last run of the day ...could'a done without that one, but at least we both had fun.
We were on the hill for about 3 hours. This did not seem like much return for the money until I realized that if we'd been there on a normal day, you know one where people have to wait in line for the lifts, the 6 runs we both did would have involved at least 3 hours of wait time at the bottom of the hill. Add to that the 2 runs I did after she went in to Ski Patrol with an annoyed knee, and you have 8 runs which one could reasonably expect would take the better part of 8 hours if there had been more skiiers on the hill...

No wonder I'm more sore than I expected for 3 hours of skiing. I packed a full day's worth into just 3 hours.

In related news, I ski better than I thought I would. It's amazing how little you forget even over a lapse of many years. It's been at least 6 since I was on skiis. I guess it's kind-of like ~~falling off~~ riding a bicycle, once you figure out how to do it, you never forget

Happy Superbowl Sunday !!

2006-02-05T22:05:00.000-08:00

Um, Go Seahawks??
Hope you all enjoy the game...

Me, I'm going skiing while the slopes are empty!

KAL Updates II

2006-02-03T11:10:00.000-08:00

So, in KAL news, I'm overbooking myself again. (I'm not as bad about this as some people I know, go look at Kat's schedule this quarter if you want to know what real overbooking is all about!)

Panta-along:
Knitting finished, need to weave in the ends and sew the bottom ends together. I used Cascade Fixation in a varegated blue. Signing up for this one is a little unfair. The knitting's was finished before the KAL started.

Knitting Olympics:
I still don't know what I'm going to knit for this. I could do the knitting for the NWRSA fiber exchange, or the Sockapaloooza knitting, or, for something completely different, I could make my first Baby Suprise Sweater a la Elizabeth Zimmerman. Probably the most challenging option, I could do the finishing on the oldest unfinished object in my stash. But that deserves a post of its own.

Jaywalker:
Still stalled, need to cast on second sock. It is not looking good for finishing the pair by the deadline.

Handknit Holidays:
Thinking about what to knit from this book next. I have a set of yarn for the floral fair-isle bag, but there are so many neat projects in that book that I'm not sure which to do.

Warm Hands:
Remember the green wristwarmer from December's KAL Update? It has resumed life as a ball of yarn. I decided the hand section was just too big and ripped it out. However, I have finished one wristwarmer just like Peacock's and the other one is on the needles.

Sockapaloooza:
Matches have been made!!! I know who my sock partner is. I'm plotting her socks at this very moment, though I currently have no actual decisions made about color, style, yarn or anything.

Postcard Swap:
The postcard swap is in full swing. My cards went out a week ago just before Chinese New Year. Each of them featured 3 different hand-dyed fabrics and a picture of my puppy. I've been enjoying receiving postcards too, look forward to seeing them in their very own post.

SYNO:
I got it finished and sent shortly after the hosts asked for the final round-up. It's 3 months overdue, but I've been in contact with MellowTrouble since before the deadline passed in November. She's been very understanding and is excited to see it when it arrives.

Martian Mountain Cow

2006-02-02T23:35:00.000-08:00

When Peacock mentioned her Martian Lake Cow fiber, she told you all to ask me about the Martian Mountain Cow fiber I received for the same project.

Sorry it took so long for me to get an image, the Mountain Cow would not hold still. This picture looks a bit odd, because the Martian landscape interferes with terrestrial photographic equipment.

As you can see in the picture, the Mountain Cow is not a happy creature. It is rather grumpy and capricious, perfectly happy to eat almost anything in its path. Notice that it was trying to eat the camera as I took its picture. It does not drink much, meeting its need for liquids with the solid food it consumes; this is due to the inherently grumpy nature of the Lake Cow which defends its territory quite fiercely. Neither beast is one I'd like to associate with ever again.

Fascinatingly, the Mountain Cow's fur is also capricious. The first time I spun it, I itched for a week thereafter. I've since spun most of the rest of the fiber and not had this problem recur. I think the fur decided it liked me. I have no other explanation.

The Mountain Cow is a nomad, a trait it passes along to its fur. I received the fur in early June 2005. Shortly thereafter, I spun some samples of it and spent time thinking about how I would spin it and what I would knit from it. Then the fur wandered off! I could not find it for months. When it finally reappeared, I sat down to spin it all in short succession so the wandering problem would not reoccur. The fur behaved wonderfully during the spinning, however being yarn has not helped calm its nomadic spirit. If anything, its current incarnation as yarn is even more mobile than before. One ball is on the coffee table, one in the bedroom, and one with the remains of the unspun fur in the Zen room. Hopefully it will be more docile for its recipient to whom it must return in May.

(In all honesty, the Mountain Cow is a gesture drawing of my puppy done in sharpie on index card. Does everyone now understand why my art degree involved avoiding as many drawing classes as possible?)

Contest Results - Happy New Year !!!

2006-01-29T01:16:00.001-08:00

It happens to be Chinese New Year this time around, but it is New Years Eve none-the-less.

And that makes it the perfect time to announce the winners of my New Year's Present contest.

I was so startled when I read the responses to my second contest post and realized that people were completely flummoxed. It was quite odd. I thought I'd picked a question that was fairly easy. I appear to have been wrong. This is one of the responses that I got,

"i've been thinking about this since you posted it originally and i'm either incredibly dense or it's well hidden...oh wait, you said it was in plain sight *rats* my original thought was that someone (peacock?) had gotten you a gorgeous assortment of koigu...but that wouldn't have been "made" for you...unless maybe it was enough colors for a really big charlotte (in other words 'making' a kit...yeah i know...weak) i'm fairly sure that the current photo was NOT the header photo i remember for your site...and of course there's no way to go back and check to see if i was right...it's not much of a guess but did someone make you the header photo for the blog? the only other thing i could think of (looking now) was perhaps something to do with the piggies but you posted that after the original post...argh throwing up my hands in frustration"

I find this so amusing because in this particular email all the correct answers were present in the text, but she wasn't sure enough to just come out and say it! It's also quite cute because I got myself the gorgeous assortment of Koigu for myself as a Christmas present.

The answer to the contest question is that Peacock made me the banner at the top of my blog and figured out how to install it so the corners were rounded and everything. She's wonderful!

So, for the winners: Laurie had the first response and Mia had the first correct response.
And the prizes:

I figured it would be appropriate to give Koigu as the prize when the wonderful present was a picture of a koigu rainbow. The stitchmarkers were made by Peacock and me, the yarn purchased at the Fiber Gallery in Seattle.

Jaywalker KAL - One Sock Done

2006-01-24T18:12:00.000-08:00

I have one of my Jaywalker socks finished.
Completely finished, off the needles, done. The ends are not yet woven in, but that's because I'm thinking about pulling it back out.

Why am I thinking of doing such a thing, you ask?

Because it's too tight! It pulls funny on the leg section and it's quite difficult to get on over my heel. The foot fits fine, it's wonderful in fact, I just can't seem to get the rest of it to cooperate.

It really is off the needles, I swear. I toyed about with skipping the ribbing on the top edge, but realized that if I did it would curl down my leg rather unfortunately, so a ribbed cuff has been added and the sock cast off.

Perhaps this trouble with the fit is all my fault for playing fast and loose with the pattern, knitting it upside down, and removing one stitch from the pattern rows in order to make it smaller, but I'm not entirely convinced. What I'm thinking is that I'll make the second one the same way up to the heel and then, I'll add that stitch I removed back into the pattern on two of the needles. I'm thinking that should probably done on the back two so the pattern can continue uninterrupted up the front of the sock and see if it fits better. If it does, I'll rip this one back to the heel and re-do the cuff.

Or maybe the Jaywalker gods will smite me for mucking about with the sock pattern that people who hate socks love.

Here's the sock and me waiting in line for Space Mountain at Disneyland. We went on that ride 3 times that day. It was quite fun. Every other time I'd been to Disneyland, Space Mountain had been under remont (translation: closed for repairs). I'm not sure why this made me desire to ride it as many times as possible, but it was fun.

Or maybe it's because I was sick and not up to walking all over the park. Waiting in line for most of the day gave me lots of time to knit and a fair bit of time to sit, right up my alley. I did tell Peacock a few times that, "If I were home, I'd be in bed," and sadly enough, I had no energy for the emphasis that conveying an exclamation point would have required. So when people went over to the California Adventure to ride some of the other rides, I sat down on Main Street to wait for the parades to come to me. (remember those trees I tried to claim I decorated for Christmas?)

CandyCane Hat - Finished

2006-01-21T13:11:00.001-08:00

I finished the CandyCane Hat!
The knitting was finished before we went away for Christmas.
The finishing... just last week.
The incentive, you ask? Friends with a brand new little one in Boston.

The piggies say the hat is theirs!

I had some trouble with the pattern, and got some help from the lovely folks at the Handknit Holidays KAL, but it didn't really help. Look at the picture.

See how where the crown shaping starts, the spirals seem to go straight up a bit? They really do that and kind-of even reverse direction on the crown of the hat. While I have come to terms with the idea that the hat does this on purpose, it is not what I was expecting.
I do, have to agree that it probably looks better this way than it would have if the spirals had gotten steeper as they went onto the crown of the hat. It really is a cute hat and a wonderful easy first project for stranded knitting.

I hope the piggies let me send it to the baby. Maybe I need to knit them something of their very own so they stop stealing my knitted stuff.