Yarn Liberation Front

Fifty years later...

2008-06-29T11:01:00.002-05:00

So, yeah. Been a while, what say? Crap, I almost don't remember how to do this! And what, pray tell, is the massive, earth-shaking event to bring me out of blogoverse hibernation? That's right, a stupid yarn meme!! Heh. Yup, I digs me some stupid memes. Maybe it's a nice starting place to reclaim my home in the innerwebs...

Knittergeek Meme Rules

Out of the top 50 yarns on Ravelry (by number of projects):
Bold the ones you’ve used and would use again
Cross out the ones you’ve used and would not use again
Italicize the ones you’ve never tried, but would like to.
Add comments as desired, and then pass the meme along to 5 knitters/crocheters.Link back to this post and to the person who tagged you.
(By the way, I copied this verbatim from chemgrrl's blog. The number of projects have surely changed since then, but I’m too lazy to update.)

1. Cascade 220 Wool Used this for several scarves & felting projects. Love it, fabulous all-purpose worsted wool. I've enough 220 for several sweaters, and can't wait to get started on them.
2. Patons Classic Wool Merino Used for a hat & a couple other odds & ends...another nice basic wool, readily available at Michaels & such, but not quite as nice as Cascade 220, imo.
3. Malabrigo Yarn Merino Worsted Omg, what kind of a crazy question is this?? How could you NOT fall completely in love with Malabrigo, and vow to use it regularly till the day you die?! Mmmmm, mmmalabrigo...
4. Noro Kureyon Really dig the Noro. BEAUTIFUL colours, so unique & interesting to work up. Working on a Lizard Ridge blankie with it right now, and have done several Booga Bags & hats & such. Scratchy, yes, but that's part of the charm.
5. ~~Caron Simply Soft~~ Yeah, not so much. I've used it before, and might use it again for baby blankies or something, but really, life is too short to use yarn that I'm not in love with.
6. Lily Sugar’n Cream Solid Eh...it's cotton. I'm not a very big fan of cotton. I'll use it again, no doubt, on washcloths & such, but again...eh.
7. Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Worsted Holy felty fuzz, Batman! Yup, made several felted things out of it (Kitty Pi, anyone?), but holy cow, does the mohair shed like a sonofabitch! After felting, you have to pull these huge wads of fuzz out. Kinda weird, really. Otherwise, it's a decent yarn. Personally, I prefer a clean, classic, smooth line to my yarns, but there's definitely a place for Brown Sheep.
8. ~~Red Heart Ltd. Super Saver Solids~~ Um, Red Heart. Ick. Squeaky, plasticky yarn. Life's just too damn short, man.
9. ~~Lion Brand Wool-Ease Solid~~ Never tried this one, but I've got a weird thing against Lion Brand, so I probably never will.
10. Noro Silk Garden LOVE!! Lovelovelove!! This stuff is GORGEOUS, and stripey, and colourful, and unpredictable. It made a beautiful sweater for me, a gorgeous scarf, and gourds only know what else it will be in the future. Love!
11. Koigu Painter’s Palette Premium Merino (KPPPM) Dude, it's sock yarn. What do you think? :-D
12. Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Darn handy yarn to have. Slightly thin worsted, not as substantial as Cascade 220, and less yardage, but holy crap is it cheep!! I lurves me some cheap, you know. And, they've just recently come out with some gorgeous Kettle Dyed colours, too...so pretty!
13. ~~Lion Brand Homespun~~ I've used this for a baby blanket (that my son just adores, and the cat's pretty darn fond of it too) and a few superfast crocheted scarves, but again, life's too short. In the interest of honesty, though, I do have a few skeins set aside to make another cat bed for my girl, since she's absolutely in love with the kid's blankie.
14. ~~Lion Brand Cotton-Ease~~ Again, Lion Brand. Bleah.
15. Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Multi Love! Again, it's sock yarn, so duh. Still, though, it's absolutely lovely to work with...gorgeous colours, soft, drapey hand, and fine, small stitches. Totally love this stuff.
16. Manos del Uruguay 100% Wool Y'know, I've only swatched this stuff, but I love it anyway. I've got two scarves worth in the stash, and they're just beautiful. And, I've heard extremely good things about their new silk & wool blend, so of *course* I must get my paws on some of that as well. Yum.
17. Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky Same difference as the worsted, I think, just fatter.
18. Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran I keep seeing such pretty sweaters in this stuff, but I've been unable to bring myself to cough up the dough for it yet. Someday, though, I hope to find a good sale.
19. Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock Lightweight Omg, of COURSE!! Luuurve this stuff! Freaky colours, and I even dig the pooling. The fabric it makes is sooo smooth & comfy under the feets. I can't get enough.
20. ~~Plymouth Encore Worsted~~ I've used it before, in Boy the Younger's sweater, and really, I don't care for it much at all. I originally liked it for the acrylic content, considering it was to be a sweater for a rugrat, but after working it up & seeing how it wore on him, bleah. It pilled too easily, which is something I can totally overlook in a fine merino, but it annoyed me in this. And, my boy said it was scratchy. Phooey.
21. Cascade 220 Heathers Again, same difference as the original Cascade 220. Just heathered. Which makes it darn purty.
22. Lily Sugar’n Cream Ombres & Prints See #6.
23. Zitron Trekking XXL It's okay, and I'll definitely use the skein or two that's in my stash, but I doubt I'll be going nuts over it. I'm a handpainted kinda girl.
24. ~~Patons SWS (Soy Wool Stripes)~~ Never tried this, but am unimpressed with it in the skein. The colours don't thrill me, and again, Life Is Too Short.
25. Rowan Kidsilk Haze I've used this for less than a foot of a lace scarf. Beautiful, with an ethereal appearance once knit, but omg, so aggravating to tink! However, because I cannot be bested by a string, and the end result truly is spectacular, I shall have at it again. Someday.
26. Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino Someday. Never had the opportunity to try this.
27. Pisgah Yarn & Dyeing Co., Inc Peaches & Creme Ombres Isn't this basically the exact same thing as #6 & #22?
28. Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece Never had a need for this, but I'm not opposed to using it in the future. As long as it's not too cotton-y...stiff cotton makes my hands cranky.
29. Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Mediumweight Hells yes. All the gorgeousness & fab feel of STR Lightweight, but faster to knit up. Rock on.
30. ~~Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick~~ Again, Lion Brand. Bleah.
31. Pisgah Yarn & Dyeing Co., Inc Peaches & Creme Solids Again, see #27
32. Cascade 220 Superwash Never used this, though I'd be curious to play with it. In all likelihood, though, I'd probably find something similar, but cheaper.
33. Berroco Ultra Alpaca I'm not generally a big fan of Berroco, but I've heard a lot of good things about this stuff. I'd like to try it out sometime.
34. Knit Picks Swish Superwash Love this!! Fab colours (dying for lemongrass heather, and squirrel heather), super cheap, and really nice fabric. Made a cabled hoodie with it, and while it does grow considerably, it still wound up perfect. TOTALLY use this again.
35. Knit Picks Essential I've never personally used it, but I had some brand-new knitter students not care for it much. However, since I'm a touch more experienced with splitty yarns, and they do have those gorgeous new kettle dyed colours, I do believe I'll be trying this out sometime in the near future.
36. ~~Lion Brand Vanna’s Choice Solid~~ Ew!
37. Colinette Jitterbug I know lots of folks are pissed about the short yardage here, but frankly, I have smallish feets, so I'm pretty sure I'll be okay. I have some in the stash, though I've not worked it up yet, and it's gorgeous.
38. ~~Lion Brand Lion Wool Solid~~ Sigh. Too much Lion.
39. Knit Picks Shine Sport Love this yarn! Even though it's a cotton, it's not hard on the hands at ALL. It makes a fabulous summer shirt, and I've plans to make at least two more picovolis with it, if not more. And again, so cheap!
40. Dale of Norway/Dalegarn Baby Ull Never tried it.
41. ~~Lion Brand Microspun~~ Used this for a scarf for my beloved, and frankly, he thinks it's great. Me, not so much. Pretty splitty, and while I do dig the microfiber thing, I can find it in better yarns. So there, Lion Brand!
42. Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Merino I've got several skeins in the stash, but now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever worked it up yet! Must remedy that soon...
43. Knit Picks Palette I'd heard this was sort of unimpressive, but on the other hand, there are legions of people who adore this like none other. The price is certainly right, and there are a million colours to choose from, so maybe next time I need a fair isle project...
44. South West Trading Company TOFUtsies I'm curious, what with the whole crab parts thing, but the colours aren't enough to make me do more than one pair in this.
45. Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool Soooo pretty! I can't wait to make sweaters with this. They have so many stunning colours, too!
46. Mission Falls 1824 Wool Never had opportunity to try this, it's not sold close to me. I seem to remember the price is good, though, so I may have to snag a skein & see what the fuss is about.
47. Rowan RYC Cashsoft DK I've got a sweater's worth in the stash, just haven't gotten to it yet. Very nice, soft wool.
48. ~~Red Heart Ltd. Super Saver Multis/Ombres~~ Bleagh!!!
49. Rowan Felted Tweed I've never seen this in person, but I'm totally keeping my eyes peeled for a good sale. I want ten skeins in Dragon for the Tangled Yoke Cardigan, and I think it'd be wonderful knit up.
50. Rowan Calmer I've not been willing to cough up for this yarn yet, either, but ohhh, I'd love to knit Morrigan in it!

Wow, thassalotta yarns! Good times...

Achtung! Sidebar Under Construction

2007-10-02T11:05:00.000-05:00

In an effort to update the sadly neglected sidebar, everything went straight to hell. Bear with me whilst I figure out this new template thingy.

Top Ten Reasons I've Been Absent Forfreakingever

2007-10-02T07:27:00.000-05:00

Post idea shamelessly stolen from KnittingJones, a really neat knitigator type specializing in family law, and who was also gone from blogdom for way less time than I. D'oh. In no particular order...

10. My beloved has gone back to school. This. Is. HUGE. He is doing SO well!! He actually started last January, but this semester is considerably harder/more intensive than last. His school operates on trimesters, which I'm still not accustomed to, so classes tend to be longer & a wee bit more demanding (at least in my opinion, anyway). He's delcared his major, which has a longer, more official name, but basically boils down to Music Education. On top of school, homework, practice, and learning multiple new instruments (flute this week, who knows what's next), he's also holding down two jobs, plus still occasionally playing in a couple different bands. The boy just amazes me. As for my part, I've been getting up before dawn every day to make his lunch & see him off, which may not sound like much, but omg, I'm a night person! It's hard to crawl out of bed at that hour! I've also been fussing with numbers, trying to make sure I can still buy groceries every month after the bills are paid. This is a tricky thing. Given that my sweetie's school is 35 miles away, and one job is 35 miles away, and that he has to come back into our town after morning classes to work job #1, & then leave town again in the afternoon to work job #2, well...he's driving about 560 miles a week, give or take. That's a little more than a tank & a half of gas each week, and at $40 or so per fill-up, it's REALLY sucking the money out of our accounts. Unfortunately, this is the only way to juggle work & school for him, so it's a necessary evil, but it suuure sucks when it's time to pay bills! As a result, yarn buying for me has come to a complete halt too. I'm not complaining, though...it's hard as heck, and SO BLOODY STRESSFUL, but oooooooh, is it WORTH it!!! We only have a couple years of this to get through, and then he'll get his degree, and a job that he actually enjoys (well, he enjoys one job, but the main one rather bites), and then I'll have my tiny little farm! Yay!!

9. I've rediscovered cooking. Summers & cooking don't really go together for me, because I rarely turn on the air conditioner, and any sort of cooking winds up making the kitchen *so* hot. It's just not fun if you're gonna roast while you're doing it. However, the weather has taken a rather glorious turn lately, what with autumn arriving & all, and I am really jazzed for all the good autumnal foods, like beef stew & muffins & pumpkin pie & roast chickens & such. Besides, the better I do in the kitchen, the happier my husband is, given that most things wind up in his lunchbox eventually.

8. Christmas knitting. Yes, I started some time ago, and even finished a silly hat for my ma. Nothing exciting, but it doesn't need to be. It just needs to keep her ears from falling off during chores in January. It's made from a skein & a half of KnitPicks Cadena, which is just Sierra, renamed & with more colours. The colour I used is called Peat, and really, I like this yarn. It's pretty bulky, which makes for quick knits, and it's got a hefty dose of alpaca, which should help keep her head from freezing to death.

Also for my ma, Plum Tree Socks.Mountain Colours Bearfoot, Moose Creek colourway, more brown/less purple in reality. My photography skillz are questionable at best. Size 1.5 KnitPicks dpns, which I adore beyond all reason. I'm actually past the gusset decreases on these, but this is the most recent photo I've got of them. Mother's made it quite clear that she expects at least one pair of socks for Christmas this year, and probably every year from here on out. Fortunately for me, her feets are exactly the same size as mine, so it's not too hard to get the length right.

For my dad, we have the uber-geek Binary scarf.KnitPicks Swish Superwash, which rocks, in black & green. I hand-dyed the green myself, and it turned out rather nicely, if I do say so. The binary code says "geek" every four lines, on the front & the back. I love it. My dad actually reads binary, given the nature of his work & the extent of his geekdom, and I'm betting more than a couple guys at his office do too, so I'm looking forward to seeing his reaction on Christmas. It's the first thing I've ever knit for my dad...he's not really a knitted item kinda guy, but he's been awfully patient about listening to me rattle on about yarn, so I'm betting he'll understand the effort that went into this scarf. Even if he's not fully aware that this is only the second stranded knitting item I've ever done.

For the beloved, a superplain, rather boring hat.My darling is nothing if not predictable. It's in RYC Cashcotton, and it's just a plain stockinette skullcap with a 1x1 rib around the edge, in black, natch. The fabric this yarn makes is quite nice, but I'm not sure my hands like working with it all that much. The cotton content makes it rather unstretchy, and the fact that it's a light DK weight, plus the extreme ginormousness of my sweetie's noggin, all sorta adds up to slightly unhappy hands. It's worth it in the end, though. I'm just working on it in small doses, so as not to get too annoyed with it.

In addition to all these projects, I also have the Placed Cable Aran sweater from the latest Interweave Knits magazine on the needles, in KP Shamrock, Fitzpatrick colourway. This is for my mom, who probably won't remember picking it out of the magazine & saying how cute it was. Her memory is worse than mine, which is a frightening thought. I'm about 7 or 8 inches into the front, and I do like how this yarn is working up--very tweedy & pretty. I'd love to have a sweater's worth in the Dougherty colour (green, of course). The best thing was the cheep factor...the whole sweater cost about $37, which is pretty darn cool, iffn you ask me. Which you didn't, but it's my blog, so there.

Not to leave the weasels out, each kid is also going to receive a pair of socks this Christmas. Anne very generously gave me the perfect sock yarn in a recent swap (plus a HUGE amount of killer good chocolate)(thanks, Anne!!) for my boys, though I can't quite decide which kid gets that particular pair. I've not started the boy sockies yet, but it will be interesting when I do. Since I homeschool, they're with me all. the. time. I'll have to wake up an hour earlier than usual every day so that I can work on them before the kids wake up. Fortunately, the weasels are *really* appreciative of hand knitted items, and really make quite a fuss about anything I make, so it's sooo worth the extra loss of sleep.

Once I'm done with aaaaall of that Christmas knitting, if there's time, I'll make a scarf out of the leftover Cadena from Mom's hat. Don't know what sort of scarf, though...it'd match best if I just did a plain rib, but I don't know if I can stomach *that* much ribbing.

7. Non-Christmas knitting. I finished my Plain Vanilla Sweater (no photo yet), which was a big ol' deal, as I'd not seamed anything before this. Seaming was really tricky, as it's a boucle yarn, so I couldn't see the freaking stitches to save my life. On the brighter side, though, boucle means no one else can see your mistakes, so it all sort of works out in the end. I quite like this sweater...it's soft, comfy, easy fit, matches my pretty new Mustang Sally socks (product of another sock swap)(thanks Nicole!!), and the best part by far--it cost $14. Seriously.

I'm also working on the Hourglass Sweater in burgundy Malabrigo ('scuse me whilst I drool a moment), my second Clapotis in Lorna's Laces Lion & Lamb, Safari colourway (LOVE this yarn!!), and the infamous Lizard Ridge. I've finished five squares thus far (only four pictured, and all rolled up into purty little tubes), and ooooh, lawdy, is it an addictive knit! Short rows are just all kinds of fun, and I do adore Noro & all the freaky colour combinations.

I've also finished who knows how many socks & other items this summer, but that's all for another post. This one's long enough as it is.

6. Homeschooling. I've been trying so very hard to get back on track with the weasels, and I have to admit that I'm failing miserably. Their education is scattershot to begin with, and I'm not getting much better, either. This is something that I truly cannot afford to mess up, and that weighs heavily on me.

5. Meeting incredibly cool new people. I was lucky enough to join some kickass knittyheads on a camping trip this summer, and it was such a great time! Elizabeth, Kathy, Seiding, Criosa, Pumpkinseed (blogless, sadly) & I all met up in southern Wisconsin for a fabulous weekend of knitting, yapping, laughing, and marvelling at Elizabeth's amazing organizational abilities. I had more fun than should legally be allowed, and I cannot wait for next year!

4. Stitches Midwest. There aren't words to describe it. I came home, of course, with a near epic haul of yarny goodness, and had a great time at the knittyhead meet-up at lunch. Shanelle joined me again this year, and it was wonderful. There was also a smaller, but no less detrimental to the budget, fiber fest in Crystal Lake a few weeks prior to Stitches. Yep, I got a pretty great haul there too. I'm just rolling in the fiber bliss right now.

3. Ravelry. Again, there aren't words to describe the awesomeness that is Ravelry. Casey & Jess are gods among men (well, Jess is a woman, but whatever). It's a massive timesuck, which can be a problem at times, but oooooh, so COOL!! I'm CelticCoyote on there, iffn ya wanna poke around at my (rather extensive) queue.

2. Baseball. I spent the first half of the summer juggling baseball games, because each kid was in a different league. Conveniently, both kids often wound up playing at the exact same times, on completely different fields. There was much running from point A to point B, and considerable guilt on my part that I couldn't be in two places at once. Both weasels had a blast, though, and can't wait for next season. Recently, the baseball has been of the vintage variety (1859 rules, uniforms, gear, lingo, everything). I adore vintage baseball, and really, there's no better way to spend a sunny afternoon than knitting on the sidelines of a sod field, watching the Regulators stomp the Ganymedes or Plowboys or Marauders. Good times.

1. Inertia. The more I don't blog, the more I don't blog. There's just so much to say that it's overwhelming...where to begin? Top ten lists are handy for that, though my loquatious nature does sorta stretch it out a wee bit. Heh. Anyway, hope to change that, and all that optimism. It's cooling off, and next week promises to be about twenty degrees cooler than this week, so I expect to be inside a bit more then. I've spent nearly every single day this summer at the park with the boys. It's been great fun, and the weasels have certainly enjoyed it, but I look fondly forward to a day when I can just kick 'em out the back door into a real yard, and I can blog from my own porch (because my lofty dreams involve wireless laptops and other fun toys). Thanks to my darling beloved, that day may yet come. Yay!

Christmas Around The World Swap Questionnaire

2007-09-09T08:16:00.000-05:00

Christmas Around The World Swap Questionnaire
1. Are you religious? Religious no, spiritual yes. I don't consider myself a Christian, but I do agree with and believe in many of the same ideals.
2. How long have you been knitting? Would you consider yourself a Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced? I've been knitting for two years this coming January. I'd definitely consider myself an advanced intermediate...the skills that I have learned, I'm pretty darn good at, but there is still plenty more out there yet to discover. Such is the beauty of knitting. :-D
3. Do you have any other hobbies besides knitting? I love to read, especially mysteries or short stories. I'm a history nerd. I also enjoy cross stitch and embroidery, though I've not had much time to devote to it as of late. I LOVE antique samplers, and collect cool sampler patterns. Eventually, I'd like to work up a number of reproductions to hang on my walls. I love antiques, especially anything from the 20s-30s or earlier. And, I'm married to a musician, so I'm sort of a music geek by default.
4. Favorite color(s)? Green! I love greens, especially olive tones. I'm fond of jewel tones, like deep ruby red & sapphire blue, and I look best in neutrals & earth tones, like camel & olive & such. The only colours I *don't* like are neons, like hot pink or lime green.
5. Do you collect anything? Sock yarn! :-) Sock patterns, too. Um, I likes me some socks, iffn ya couldn't tell. Hee!
6. Are you allergic to any fibers or animals? Nope, not actually allergic to anything, but I am highly sensitive to cigarette smoke.
7. Do you have any pets? One crazy kitty that likes to supervise my knitting. She doesn't shed a huge amount, but the occasional hair is rather inevitable.
8. Coffee, Tea, or Hot Chocolate? Hot chocolate, mostly, or hot herbal tea. I don't do caffiene, so black teas are out. I love a good hot chocolate, though, especially with a shot of Bailey's Irish Cream in. Yum.
9. Cookies or Sweets? Um, yes? :-D I've a serious sweet tooth, so there is no "or" here. Chocolate is my friend, especially in fudge form.
10. Do you knit socks? Well, one does have to justify all the sock yarn, doesn't one? Indeedy I do knit socks! Loff them. I'm working on my 20th pair right now, actually.
11. If not socks then what? (tell us about your favorite knits) I like knitting most anything, really. I love a good challenge, so Fair Isle and lace rock my boat. Cables make me incredibly happy (married to an Irishman, so it fits). I've made a number of nice sweaters, hats, scarves, & such over the last two years. I'm not as fond of scarves, because it seems like they never end, but I do make them if the occasion fits. (I'm making a geekcentric scarf for my dad for Christmas right now, actually.) I make weird stuff for my cat. There's not much I won't make, really, if I have a use for the finished object. Can't stand ponchos, though...
12. Do you put up a Christmas tree? If not then what do you do? Heck yeah!! As soon as possible after Thanksgiving, the tree goes up. I adore the Christmas season, and like to wallow in it as long as I can. It's much harder for me to get sick of it than it is for most people, as I don't work in retail (so I don't have to have all the unpleasant aspects, like long lines of cranky customers, muzak that won't quit, etc.), and I don't have television, so I don't get bombarded with commercials & jingles & holiday specials. It's not as up my nose as it is for most folks, and as a result, I can more easily filter out the less amusing aspects of the season, and keep the ones that I enjoy. Life Is Good. ;-)
13. Favorite holiday treats? Every year, I make several different varieties of fudge. My peanut butter fudge ROCKS, thankyouverymuch. I've also a nice butter cookie recipe, with little dots of raspberry & strawberry jam, and dusted with confectioner's sugar. I sometimes make my mom's old Christmas cookie recipe, which isn't particularly sweet, but flavored with nutmeg, and then frosted & decorated with the kids. I like to make spiced almonds & pecans (my mom is addicted to them--they're just like the ones at the fair), and frankly, I even love the non-treat holiday foods, like the roast turkey & stuffing & such. Mom usually gets some Godiva truffles for the table, too, which is always a nice treat. Loves me some Godiva!
14. Favorite holiday smells? Oooh, I'm really sensitive to smell, so this one is important to me! They say that a large part of memory is directly related to the olfactory sense, which seems right on to me. I LOVE spicy scents like cinnamon & cloves, and pine, and spiced oranges, and apples & cinnamon. I really love some of the Yankee Candle Company fragrances, like Brown Sugar & Spices, or Mistletoe. I always like to set out a lot of candles at the holidays, and make the whole house smell nice. It just sort of makes everything seem cozier.
15. Do you celebrate Christmas in a traditional or unconventional way? Please elaborate. Pretty traditional, I think. We tend to repeat ourselves year after year, and I quite like it that way. There's something very comforting in tradition, in knowing that no matter what ugliness rages on in the world outside, that things will always stay sane & comfortable by your own hearth (even if the hearth in question has to be metaphorical, like in our teeny little apartment). Christmas Eve is spent at home with my sweet little family, watching The Night Before Christmas (it was the Alistair Sim version when I was a kid, but now it's the Muppet version, which is my all-time favourite Christmas movie ever). After dinner, each person gets to choose one present to open, then the rest has to wait until morning. Christmas morning, I whip up a batch of muffins or cinnamon rolls, and we pretty much tear into the presents first thing. Stockings are always last, and then after the wrapping paper has been cleaned up, we head down to my parent's house for the rest of the day. Mother's tree is always quite a sight, very Victorian & beautiful, and she makes it a point to wrap all the gifts beautifully. (She even makes her wrapping paper match the color scheme of the tree & parlor...she's weird that way.) Dad's got a fire going in the fireplace, and the dining room table is heavy with cookies & truffles & thin sliced ham & onion rolls & all sorts of tasty things. We find it's easier to just graze when the mood strikes, rather than spend all the time preparing an elaborate sit-down dinner on Christmas. It's also a lovely excuse to get out my great-great-grandmother's fine china, which just makes the whole table sparkle. We generally stay at my parent's farm until nighttime, and then pack up the car (my folks love Christmas shopping for our boys) & head home. The weeks leading up to Christmas are spent watching all the cool Christmas videos we can get our hands on, baking, wrapping, and all the other assorted fun traditional Christmas stuff.
16. What are your favorite holiday traditions? Well, I suppose I got a bit carried away in the last question, so there's not much else to say. :-P I love piling the kids in the car & driving around to look at the Christmas lights. I love snuggling up on the couch & watching Charlie Brown's Christmas special for the fifteenth time. I love putting up the tree, hanging ornaments, and pondering all the happy memories they hold. Aside from wrapping five million oddly shaped items for my kids (why does everything they want come in really weirdly shaped packages?!), there's not much I *don't* like about Christmas.
17. Finish the sentence: “For me Christmas is all about....” Family. Watching my little guys' faces, knowing they're still young & innocent enough to fully believe in all the magic the world can hold. Seeing my beloved husband, who's really not much more than an overgrown kid himself. Happy memories, and connection with a timelessness that we don't often experience.
18. If you were a Christmas ornament you would be…….? Probably a slightly shabby, but well loved patchwork angel. Just a small one, with a muslin face & yarn hair (hee!), embroidered black eyes, & a little patchwork calico dress fraying at the edges. Not much to look at, but well loved, and watching over the whole family every year.
19. What was your favorite gift you've ever received? Or given? A couple years ago, when I was first learning to knit, my insightful husband realized the addiction was coming even before I did, and decided that what I really needed was a comfy corner all my own in which to feed that addiction. He gave me the most beautiful chair for my corner of the bedroom, super comfy & really attractive to boot, and a really bright lamp so that I can see the stitches. That was just the most thoughtful thing EVER. Of course, last year he made a large blocking board fitted into the back of a huge picture frame (so that it can have an out-of-the-way place to live when not in use), so he's pretty good at the whole thoughtful thing. I gave my youngest son a pair of socks last year that he still wears all. the. time, even though he's long since grown out of them. (The heel is in his instep, but he doesn't care. He just loves 'em to bits.)
20. When do you start your Christmas? Well, I start the season immediately after Thanksgiving. I get my husband to haul the decorations & tree & stuff out of storage the day or two before Thanksgiving, and then first thing in the morning the day after, I start putting everything up. I'm really lucky that he'll humour me so. He works in retail, and gets pretty darn sick of things most years.
21. Do you send Christmas cards? Do you make them or buy them? Ha! Every year I have grand plans of actually getting Christmas cards out, but in nine years of marriage, I've only actually succeeded two or three times. Oy. I always bought them, when I did actually do them. I've sort of given up on them recently, not because I don't want to send them, but because I don't want to stress about it. I've got enough to worry about, they're not very high on the priority list. Hopefully when I get older, I'll be able to do 'em again with more regularity.
22. What is your favorite Christmas dish? Well, like I said, we mostly do a buffet-type Christmas dinner, with little finger sandwiches & such that everyone can grab at their leisure. That said, the turkey or ham on my mom's onion-dill rolls, with a thin spread of english mustard...oh my. SO good.
23. Carolers are at your door. What do you do? Good heavens...I don't know! I've never had carolers at my door! I live in an apartment now, and before that, I lived in the country. I went caroling a time or two, though, and several nice ladies offered us hot chocolate or hot apple cider, which was lovely.
24. When do you open presents? Christmas eve or Christmas morning? Like I mentioned before, one on Christmas Eve (helps with wiggly children, you know), and the rest on Christmas morning.
25. Do you celebrate with family or friends or both? Christmas & Christmas Eve, in my opinion, is a time for family. I love doing things with friends in the weeks leading up to & just after, of course, but those two days are just for family, to me.

I'm really looking forward to this swap, and I'm hoping that this post marks the beginning of my return to blogging. I've taken the summer off, and truth be told, there's just SO MUCH that's happened over the summer that I don't even know where to begin! It's hard not to be super wordy, too, even though that's my personal m.o. We'll see...

Sock names, freaky knees, and sniper rifles. Fun!

2007-06-03T08:02:00.000-05:00

It seems I've gotten the virtual thwap for the Seven Weird Things meme. The odd thing is, while most folks consider me plenty freaking weird, I feel perfectly normal, so I'm not sure which seven things to single out as being odd. Mother, for example, thinks the simple fact that I knit is weird. This coming from a woman who owns six horses. Anyway, on with the sideshow...

1. If y'all have read this blog for more than five minutes, you'd know this one, but anyway...I name my socks. Not the machine made ones, of course, or the weird kitty socks my mom gave me for Christmas, but the ones I've knit myself. I figure that I spend 12-16 hours with them, personally creating every single one of the ten thousand or more loops that make up their whole existence, and I enjoy the process & the yarn so very much that they become like weird fibery friends. Besides, I've got *lots* (LOTS)(really, you have no idea) of sock yarn, and saying "the Caoimhe socks" is so much nicer than saying "the 342nd pair of blue socks".

2. My knees bend backwards. Yup, they're more or less double jointed, and can bend backwards like the hocks on my cat, though not *quite* as far. Entertaining for me, creepy as heck to most other folks.

3. I've got an unnatural attachment to my books. I'm not at all the type of person to reread books, since I pretty much remember everything (and it's not much fun to know the ending right from the start), but I can't bear to part with them, even though I know I'll probably never pick them up again. They're my friends too, they take me places I've only dreamed of, and I hope that one day they'll take my children for a ride too. In the meantime, I've got many (MANY) hundreds of books in a 900 square foot apartment. Fortunately, my beloved is a patient man.

4. I don't particularly like my food to touch each other. I don't go so far as buying plates with separators in them, but I really prefer to keep things segregated on my plate. The idea of everything smushed up together is nauseating.

5. I took a class at Northern Arizona University when I was fifteen. As a result, I have a boatload of continuing education credits in the field of education that I'll probably never do anything with. Needless to say, I was the youngest person there.

6. I'm a hardcore hermit at heart. If I had a billion dollars, I'd buy a nice huge chunk of land in the middle of nowhere, lease a part of it to farmers so it would be useful, and live in the center with my sweet little family and NO NEIGHBORS. I never used to be this bad...its the idiots who live near me who've caused this extremism. Really. I have wild fantasies of sitting in my bedroom window with a high powered sniper rifle. Heh.

7. Okay, maybe the seventh weird thing is that I can't think of a seventh weird thing! I'm sure those of you that know me can think of a dozen more, but nothing's really standing out as odd to me. Ooh, I just thought of something bizarre...I'm allergic to grass. Yup, regular ol' grass. Actually, I believe it's technically the chlorophyll that I'm allergic to, but whatever. Basically, I break out like crazy on my elbows & knees, and it's kind of itchy, but it's not respiratory, so I more or less ignore it. I've never taken any medication for it, and while it's definitely all kinds of weird looking (I got made fun of like crazy in grade school because of it), at this stage in my life, I just don't give a hoot any more. I'm grateful that that's all it is, rather than some of the awful respiratory allergies I've seen in other folks. I'm also seriously allergic to wasp stings, but since I generally try to avoid those, it isn't really an issue.

Yup, my weirdness seems like a colourful brand of normal to me. I imagine at least a few of you are backing slowly away from your computers by now, but that's okay. I like being me.

*Fyi, a meme, so far as I know it, is a weird internet-based thingy that gets passed around from person to person. Some of them are cheesy or lame, some are really insightful, and some are just plain bizarre. It's usually a questionnaire sort of thing, or a fill-in-the-blanks sort of like, like the above. You post it on your blog, and then tag other people so they'll post it, and their respective answers, on theirs, and so on & so forth. Some folks are downright obnoxious about them, but I try not to be. Um, even though this is the second one in a row...ahem. At any rate, I try not to tag specific people, but for this, Christine, I'm making an exception. Hee! Consider yourself tagged. Now go fly your freak flag, girl. ;-)

The official meme cop-out--now with 100% more knitting!

2007-05-19T07:56:00.000-05:00

Yeah, I owe y'all a real post, but in the meantime, have a meme. Don't read if you're fussy about such things...it's more for my own entertainment anyway.

Bold for stuff you’ve done, italics for stuff you plan to do eventually and normal for stuff you don’t intend to do ever.

Afghan
I-cord
Garter stitch (who hasn't, I'd like to know?)
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl (I'm assuming lace here)
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk (I've used all kinds of silk blends, though no 100% yet...*yet* being the operative word here...)
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns (Ahh, Clapotis, how I love thee!)
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns (I've got one OTN right now, actually)
Knitting with bananafiber yarn
Domino knitting (Like miters? Sure, sooner or later I'll get there.)
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with Bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan (again, on the needles right now!)
Toy/Doll clothing (nothing spectacular, but I've knit a good deal for the boys' stuffed animal collection already)
Knitting with circular needles (as often as possible!)
Baby items (I've got all kinds of patterns picked out for the grandbabies already, too)
Knitting with your own handspun yarn (oh, that's hilarious...my handspun currently looks like teal cat yak. Someday, though...)
Slippers
Graffitti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Continental Knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns (LOVE anything cabled!!)(so smug that I married an Irishman)(rather wish he weren't a *huge* Irishman)
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book (maybe possibly someday?)
Scarf
Teaching a child to knit (Eldest Boy learned to knit, Boy the Younger will soon, plus all my paid students)
English knitting (my preferred method)
Knitting to make money
Buttonholes
Knitting with Alpaca (oooooh, soooo nice!! especially an alpaca/silk blend...yum)
Fair Isle Knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dying with plant colors (someday when I have my farm, this might be fun to try)
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cosies…)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars (this method REALLY didn't agree with me)
Olympic knitting (finished on time, and it's my favourite scarf!)
Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn (I've got some lovely stuff in the stash, just waiting to find the right pattern for it)
Knitting with dpns (always!)
Holiday related knitting (seems a rather silly question...)
Teaching a male to knit (Eldest Boy & several male paid students, who, interestingly enough, picked it up WAY faster than their female counterparts. Go figure.)
Bobbles (so not a fan...I've crocheted bobbles, though, and still not enthused)
Knitting for a living (well, sort of...I taught knitting for a while, though I sure couldn't have lived off of it)
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking (meh...maybe if I find a striking pattern, but otherwise, smocking just reminds me of the late 70s)
Dying yarn
Steeks (eeep!! Scary scary, but I will do it someday)
Knitting art (depends on your definition...personally, I consider all my works to be art. Some are better than others, but they're still artistic expressions, and yeah, I consider myself an artist. Not that I'm going to rent a loft or wear angst like a cloak, but still...fiber artist all the same.)
Knitting two socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars simultaneously (I couldn't stand the 2 circs thing long enough to bother with two at a time...but I do two socks on two sets of dpns all the time!)
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool (heehee!)
Textured Knitting
Kitchener Bind Off (ADORE Kitchner!! SO cool!)
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching (not as well as I ought, but I do swatch mostly)
Long Tail CO
Entrelac
Knitting and Purling Backwards (weird, but I'll figure it out eventually)
Machine knitting (bleh...unless I start churning out tons of sweaters for sale, I don't see the point)
Knitting with self-patterning/selfstriping/variegating yarn (ooooh, variegated sock yarn! Best thing on the planet!)
Stuffed Toys (oh, heck yeah!)
Baby items
Knitting with Cashmere (sooon, my pretties...sooooon...)
Darning (I have no problem darning a beautiful sock in order to prolong its life. I also have no problem knitting so bloody many socks that none of them ever get a chance to wear out. Heh.)
Jewelry (I knit a lovely beaded bracelet for a SP last year. I rather wish I had another one for me...and I just might do it sometime soon, too.)
Knitting with synthetic yarn (I prefer to avoid it if possible, but sometimes it really is the best choice...like, for example, a sweater for a five year old boy.)
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia (Y'know, this just doesn't really have much appeal. Maybe I've not seen the right finished pieces with it...)
Knitting with Linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows (SO freaking cool!!)
Cuffs/fingerless mits/armwarmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine (omg, with things like Knitty & Magknits around, how could you NOT?!)
Rug
Knitting on a loom (eh? how the devil does this work?)
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets (my very first project was for my Crazy Kitty. Hee!)
Shrug/Bolero/Poncho (um, not so much...)
Knitting with dog/cat hair (intentionally? no...)
Hair accessories
Knitting in public (ha!! every freaking chance I get!!)

Gee, I've tried more than I thought. There's not much I'm not planning on doing, too, which is kinda cool. I'm so glad I taught myself how to knit!

Overindulgence

2007-05-04T15:27:00.000-05:00

Oof. Okay, public service announcement time: Ben & Jerry's Americone Dreams is really, really good. Vanilla ice cream with thick caramel swirl & fudge-covered waffle cone chunks. Yowza. However, eating 3/4 of the pint in one sitting is *not* quite so good. Well, it's good at the time, but lordy, do I feel blorpy now! Everything in moderation, my friend. Sage advice, let me assure you.

Well, as it's been almost two months (!!!) since my last posting, this will be pretty darn random. I'm sure y'all are SO surprised...me, random? Never! But anyway...

1. The sock lust groweth. The Louisa socks from the last post are finished, as are the Chloe socks. Chloe's not been mentioned here yet (bad blogger!), but I used Fleece Artist Merino in the Parrot colourway, toe up with a twisty cabled leg from MSKS.

For some reason, Chloe didn't agree with my feets. I think I started the ribbing too late or something, but either way, the socks didn't suit me, so they went to live with my mom, who grinned like a Cheshire cat upon receiving them. Chloe was my April Socktopia submission, for the Bumblebees & Butterflies theme. I chose the theme, and the name, because of a story I'd read many years ago about a little girl named Chloe who had an orange kitten and a magic garden. It's sorta hard to explain, but it sure made sense in my head, screwy as that may be.

Also in the Department of Feetlike Coverings, I knit a plain stockinette pair of socks for Eldest Boy. Sadly, something went horribly wrong (don't know what...I've never made egregious gauge errors before!), and Eldest Boy's socks barely fit Boy the Younger. Eldest Boy is SOL, but Boy the Younger is thrilled to pieces. Thus, I've got yet another pair to cast on soon, as Eldest is miffed at his lack of new sockies. His feets are growing dangerously close to being the same size as mine, though, and that's just all kinds of disturbing.

2. April 1st was Flash Your Stash day. My whole stash got flashed here, if y'all wanna go gawk. Just because I think it's gorgeous, here's my sock stash, sans notes.

Isn't it purrrty? It makes me happy just to look at it. Just imagine the possibilities! Actually, though, the sock stash has grown even just since these pics were taken last month. Pardon me, my addiction's showing. Ahem. It's not so bad, though. Most of my purchases were paid for with the help of the Destash Blog. I unloaded some yarns that didn't really suit me, and was able to replace them with yarns that truly make my heart sing. Yay! New sock yarn p0rn in a future post, hopefully.

3. See that gorgeous blue STR in the top sock stash photo, bottom row, third from the left? It's lightweight Socks That Rock, Sapphire colourway, and I LOVE it! Anyway, it's been cast on using the Waving Lace pattern from IK's Favourite Socks book (yeah, the cover photo). It's turning out beautifully! It looks like water rippling down over rocks in a little stream, and I'm just having a blast with it.No flashing or pooling yet, just gorgeous liquid blues. Size 0 needles were required to get gauge, for those of you technical types who care about such things. And, can you see that tiny, tiny little stitch marker on the left hand needle, about five stitches in? It's an Entrelac stitch marker, and it is SO perfect! They're incredibly affordable, and so bloody cute that once I had this set, I had to go back & order two more. Heh. Really just perfect for socks & lace, though.

4. See that gorgeous reddish dropped stitch thing that the blue sock is sitting on? That would be my finished Clapotis. I found a killer sale on Lorna's Laces Bullfrogs & Butterflies, and while it's not the much-coveted Lion & Lamb, it was still a really nice yarn for this project. It's the Tuscany colourway, and it was way too much fun to make! I can really understand why some people make many different versions of this wrap. I'm keeping my eyes peeled for a good Lion & Lamb sale. I'll wind up with at least two of these, maybe even more. Dropping stitches on purpose is surprisingly satisfying. 5. The blue STR isn't the only thing on the needles right now. My BPT cardi is still moving along, though not as fast as before. It got sidelined completely while I made the Clapotis, but it'll be put back in the regular rotation this weekend. I actually managed to get a decent picture that wasn't just a dark blob, too!

The sleeves are on waste yarn, and I'm working down on the body. Sleeves will be picked up later, as will a hood. There's a zipper involved, too, but I'm ignoring that until the last minute. Sewing my knitting sorta freaks me out a little.

Also OTN, my first Kidsilk Haze project: the Party Lace scarf, with swarovski crystals at either end. The colourway is called Villain, but it's more of a walnut to me.

Well, it looks purple in this picture, but whatever. Such is the fickle nature of my camera.

I'm all smug that I was able to snag some June Carter Cider Moon from the Loopy Ewe recently, and it's gonna be cast on yet this evening. Cider Moon is my latest love. It's sportweight (they do have a fingering weight, but I've not seen it yet), it's super soft & squishy, and the colours are absolutely to die for.

It just screams "springtime", doesn't it? That's just a gauge swatch, mostly because I'm *still* debating on what stitch pattern would be most flattering to the yarn.

6. There's loads more to say, but I'm going to cut it short for now. (Aren't I hilarious? Like this is a short post. Ha!) I've participated in some wonderful SPs, found an awesome new KAL or two, and have loads of gorgeous yarn p0rn to talk about next time (assuming my camera will cooperate). In the meantime, apologies for the extreme lack of blogging. Everything in moderation, including time off from ye olde blogosphere.

In the meantime, enjoy this Circle of Stripey Fur, served with a side of Random Paw.

Kitteh!

The good, the bad, and the ugly

2007-03-13T10:46:00.000-05:00

First, the good. Y'all know I'm in the Favourite Colour Swap II, right? I have been SO BLESSED in this swap! I've been corresponding with my upstream for a while now, and she is just the neatest person. We seem to share many of the same interests, and she even turned me on to this blog, which is fast becoming one of my favorites. Sadly, Alice (my upstream) is currently blogless, but I'm hoping to pester her into changing that soon. Alice is also lucky enough to live in London, so when a box arrived stamped "Royal Mail", I knew just who it was from. (Does it really show my dweeby side to say that the Royal Mail stamp was really really cool? I'm easily entertained, I guess...) I'm telling y'all...words cannot even begin to describe the coolness of this package. First off, everything was wrapped beautifully, in pink tissue paper & tied with satin ribbons in a beautiful dove grey. If I'd had a brain, I would have photographed the wrapping, because it really was lovely! Where to even begin? Well, there was some fabulous chocolates ("was" being the operative term here--they're long gone already), white chocolate with lovely Spring-coloured pastilles on them & some fabulous orange flavoured white chocolate wafers. The orange ones are squirreled away, so that they'll last longer...they are SO good! There's some cute-as-heck little sheepy soaps from Get Knitted, and a kickass gift set from Lush (I've never tried anything from Lush before, and now I see what all the fuss is about!! LOVE the body cream! Mmmm...), and a really yummy smelling tin of lip balm, which is going straight into my knitting bag so it can be with me all the time. There's one of those neato WPI tools, and yeah, I admit to going around & measuring every skein of yarn I can find, just because I can. Heh. (Note certain edible items missing from photos...some family members "helped" me with the disposal of same. They're lucky they're all so cute.)

This is where it starts getting REALLY cool, y'all...we'd discussed my love of antiques & books & all things early-20th-century, and dang, but she must have really been taking notes! There's a Christie's catalogue of first edition books, which is SO cool!! Firstly, because I'd never even seen a Christie's catalogue in person (Lock, Stock, And Two Smoking Barrels hardly counts), and secondly, because it's just so bloody neat to look through. It contains many books from the personal collection of Lady Ottoline Morrell, as well as a brief account of her life, and it's truly just fascinating. That's not all, though...there's three MORE books to read, too!! One is a really cool looking mystery (I'm so weak for mysteries!) set on the Welsh border, one is a really sweet copy of a book that Alice herself enjoyed tremendously as a child, and the third is a copy of Kitchen Essays, by Agnes Jekyll, originally printed in 1928. Talk about interesting!! I've already started reading this one. It's really fascinating, as the author includes recipes as well as her thoughts about all things domestic, which is really one of my main areas of interest in history. I seriously squee'd out loud at that one. OH, and let's not forget the yarn!! It's freaking cashmere, people!!! Not just one, but TWO skeins of Posh Yarn, in the most gorgeous shades of tweedy green & autumnal reds & greens! I'm soooo in love with this yarn! I'm looking forward to sorting out a proper pattern worthy of such a luxurious fiber. I'm telling you, this was a fabulous package! Just what I needed this week, too. (WAY prettier in person--my camera is somewhat less than one would hope for for yarn p0rn purposes.)

There was also a lovely long letter, and even a Union Jack for my boys, too! (My five year old especially gets a huge kick out of hanging the Irish flag in his room, since his Da is Irish, so now he can hang the English flag as well, for the other half of his heritage. Yes, I have slightly weird kids.) Alice, I truly cannot thank you enough. You really went above & beyond, and I am just overwhelmed with how perfect everything is. Even the print on the card was perfect (1930s travel poster!!)! And it came at such a perfect time...

Also in good news this week, I've finished Boy the Younger's green sweater. It's cute as the dickens on him, though I did have to rip out the collar bindoff & redo it to accomodate his ginormous noggin.

Again, this is a really washed out & somewhat crappy photo. Something about the light levels that day washed out the blanket that the sweater was on, making it look like the Amazing Floating Sweater, and really hosing up the colour. Believe me when I tell you that it's cute. Green suits Boy the Younger very well, too, though next time I'll go with a more tweedy shade, rather than one quite this kelly green. Not that one could tell by the picture, of course. Argh.

Also finished--the Caoimhe socks! They're all purty, iffn you ask me. The feets aren't really as long & narrow as they appear here...they just didn't wanna sit right for the photo. I've *really* got to get a set of sock blockers, so I can take pretty sockie pics like all the other cool kids do. Caoimhe was done in Interlacements Tiny Toes, Irish Heather colourway, using the Laburnum stitch pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks. Gourds, but I love that book.

Currently on the needles, we have the BPT cardi for me in KP Swish Superwash, Truffle colourway. I'm loving the fabric this yarn makes! Super soft & squirshy, and really quite nice to work with. I'm not too far into it, which is why there's no picture, but that's okay...I'm in no hurry. Also OTN, my March Socktopia socks.

I chose the What's On TV? theme this month, and because what's most often on *my* tv is History Channel-type stuff, I picked a pattern that was originally printed in the year 1900. This is the Fancy Silk Sock pattern from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush, in Lorna's Laces Sheperd Sock. I believe the colourway is Glenwood, and while it's really not colours I'd usually pick out for myself, it is nice & springtimey, and that makes me happy. I hope to finish them tonight or tomorrow, if all goes well. And yeah, this pair got a name too...this is Louisa, in case anyone's wondering. Yup, weirdness abounds at the Front. Also still on the needles, though rapidly veering into UFO territory, is the huge cabled guy sweater for Wonder Husband & the Elizabeth I scarf. They *will* get finished one day, but lord only knows just when that day will be.

In the Stash Enhancement department, we have the results of a trip to Wheaton, IL...

Top skeins are Koigu KPPPM, unknown colour (who actually pays attention to those weird alphanumerics, anyway?). It's a GORGEOUS colour in person, though...reminds me of violets under the apple trees in the spring. Bottom is Great Adirondacks Soxie, in Paprika, I believe. Pretty colours, but I've not heard anybody talk about knitting this yarn up before, so we'll see how it goes. This was a really big purchase for me, as there's been NO extra money for yarn for quite some time. This was paid for out of the Stitches fund, actually.

Speaking of being broke, Wonder Husband has officially finished his first trimester at school. He had several great performances in the last couple weeks that I got to see, and he really seems to be enjoying himself. His teachers like him, and he even won a performance scholarship last week (though we're unsure as to the amount yet). I'm SO FREAKING PROUD OF HIM!!! Ahem. Anyway, it's only going to get tighter around here, as he's hoping to go full time next fall. Yipes.

On to the bad part...well, aside from the whole impending poverty of doom thing. March has been a helluva month around here thus far. Eldest Boy turned 8, which was wonderful, in a scary my-baby's-growing-up sorta way. After his birthday, though, things sort of went downhill. My last remaining grandparent, my mom's dad, seems to have developed cancer, among other ailments. He's not your average old guy, so this is very weird to me. He's only sort of retired (he owns a large company, and they can't seem to kick him out of the office for love nor money), and he's never been even remotely frail or sickly. He's a big brick wall of a man, very much in control of his business & the world around him, and is still as active & everything as he's ever been. Unfortunately, he's also not got the best relationship with my mom, and while he & my mother are trying to rectify that situation, his new wife seems to feel threatened in some bizarre way by it, so she's sort of making things difficult. At any rate, he was admitted to the hospital last week for surgery to remove a kidney, and only barely made it through. His heart is not so great, so it was pretty iffy that he'd live through the surgery, and even though he did come through successfully, he's still in the hospital, and not looking very good. My mom was able to go visit him, though I couldn't, due to irritating financial issues. There's just generally been a huge amount of heartache & worry over this whole thing, and the surrounding weirdness with his new wife, and other assorted family members, and it's really worn me down.

On top of all that, my mother's beloved mare, who she's had for 15 years, colicked and died this week. Mozette was a wonderful quarter horse, and very much a part of the family. It really came as quite a sudden shock to us. Basically, in a nutshell, March has sort of sucked lately. Add to that the general depression I've been dealing with, and it's just not a pretty picture (hence, the ugly). BUT, the weather has been turning for the better, and I'm trying really hard to maintain a positive outlook. Things will get better, dagnabbit! At the very least, I've got some kickass yarn & books to carry me through. :-)

Such a sock yarn addict

2007-02-18T08:15:00.000-06:00

So I've been doing pretty good with the New Year goals thus far. I taught myself Fair Isle a couple weeks ago, and knit up the Faux Isle hat in Noro Kureyon 157 & Patons Classic Merino.

Purty, huh? Too bad I didn't think to give extra length to the floats until *after* I'd finished the hat. The two colour parts are considerably more snug than the single colour, so it doesn't fit my head at all. Granted, I've got a freakishly large head, but still. As I've already woven in all the ends & everything, there will be no frogging of this puppy...it'll just go with the rest of my decorative hat collection. I don't know how many hats I've knit so far, but only one of them has actually worked properly. Argh.

Also in keeping with the goals thing, I finished my February Socktopia socks. These are the Conwy socks from Knitting on the Road, by the amazing Nancy Bush.

I used Socks That Rock for the very first time with these socks (Ruby Slippers colourway), and dang, it's nice stuff! It's soft & squirshy, and the colours are gorgeous. They did turn my hands pink as I knitted them, but that's no big deal, I guess. It sure as hell won't keep me from using STR again, that's for certain.

Speaking of my adored Socktopia, I thought I'd clear it up a wee bit for y'all. Socktopia is a year long KAL, basically. Each month, the lady running it posts themes (Bed of Roses is the theme I chose for the Conwys, for example) on the website. Your job as a Socktopia member is to choose a theme, and knit a pair of socks based on your interpretation of that theme. When you're done, post pictures of your socks to our Flickr group. Everyone who posts their socks in the allotted time frame gets entered into drawings for cool things like sock yarns & other goodies. There's also other random prizes, and weird games, and just a general fun community of sock knitting addicts like myself. I really like it there...you get to see tons of pictures of gorgeous socks, and get new ideas for patterns you might want to try, or yarns, and hear other knitters reviews of such as well. And, at the end of the year, you wind up with twelve pairs of socks! You can't argue with that, imo. I'd wanted to knit a pair a month anyway, and the themes just make it all the more entertaining for me.

Since I did finish my February socks already, I went ahead & cast on for another pair at random. This is the beginning of a toe up sock in Interlacements Toasty Toes.

It's a totally crap picture, but trust me, it's GORGEOUS yarn. I'm using the Irish Heather colourway, and have decided to name these socks Caoimhe, in honour of my friend's lovely daughter. Yes, I'm geeking out like crazy & naming all my projects from here on out. Partly because it's otherwise hard to tell the difference when I'm talking about "the blue toe up sock", because I've made *many* blue toe up socks, and partly because I just like naming things. So there. And yes, I know that some people will undoubtedly laugh at me and think me weird, but that's hardly anything new, so there you have it. The Caoimhe socks are coming along quite nicely, and I'm REALLY digging this yarn. It's pretty thick, nearly sportweight, I think, and soooooo soft & sproingy! The colours, since you can't really see them worth a shite here, are deep blues, greens, & purples, and really saturated & pretty. I pulled this yarn out of the stash as a break from all the red socks I've been doing lately. Don't get me wrong, I adore my red socks, I just wanted a change for a while. The Caoimhe socks are working up quite quickly, which is also nice for a change, after all the superhigh stitch count socks I've been doing. (I'm using size 2 dpns on these, and they feel huge.)

Also on the needles, with a wee bit more urgency, is this sweater...

This is a simple raglan rollneck sweater for Boy the Younger, in Plymouth Encore worsted. The urgency comes in when you realize that February is half over, spring will be here soon, and Boy the Younger is growing by the minute. I did make it a bit on the largish side, but I'll be sad if he doesn't get to wear it at least a few times! I finished the body last night, and will pick up the sleeves today. There's a rolled edge at the cuffs & waist hem, and I'll pick up for the collar shortly too. It's pretty mindless, as it's entirely stockinette in the round, but that's okay. Sometimes mindless is good.

When this sweater is done, I'll be casting on for BPT, using KnitPicks Swish in a gorgeous deep brown, appropriately named Truffle. I'm looking forward to this one, though the sewing in a zipper thing sorta scares me.

I'm still enjoying the swap thing beyond all measure these days. I was in a "lightning round" VD swap (heh) via the knittyboards recently. Basically, it was a Valentine's Day themed swap, one package, superfast & really fun. My upstream sent me a fabulous package! There were two really interesting books, a pattern-a-day calendar, lots of chocolate & yummy goodies, and the most GORGEOUS bag of merino & silk fiber!!! It's a lovely shade of plum, and omg, it's soooo soft! I'm waiting to spin it up, though, until I'm better at drafting. I'd cry if I took that beautiful fiber & made it into a skanky looking mess (which is about all I've made thus far). It's great motivation to improve my spinning, though! Thank you so much, KnitChick07! Sadly, no picture, as we sort of fell onto the contents of the box like wolves. :-D I'll definitely be posting pics of the fiber, once I'm worthy of it, though!

Also in current swap news, my KnittySP8 ROCKS. I received a package just the other day, and let me tell you, it really picked me up!

It's been really cold here lately, and in all honesty, I've been terribly depressed. It's partly seasonal, partly otherwise, but at any rate, this package really brightened my day. There's three different kinds of Jelly Bellies, two different kinds of chocolate, treats for my goofy cat (smelled creepy, though most cat food smells creepy...the cat disagrees, of course), the COOLEST air freshener ever (I can't drink coffee anymore, due to the caffeine, but I love the smell...it's a little takeout coffee cup, and it smells fabulous! I love it!), and omg, be still my beating heart...Socks That Rock!!!! It's absolutely stunning!! It's lightweight, in the Tide Pool colourway, and oooooooh....I loves it. Thank you SO much!! Holy overuse of exclamation points, Batman!!

First Finished Objects of 2007

2007-01-25T08:15:00.000-06:00

Okay, so actually I finished these things a couple weeks ago, but we all know how frequently I post here, so there ya go. First item finished was a lovely Booga Bag in Noro Kureyon colour 172, and it's for me!

I may re-block it sometime, though, because when I felted it, I didn't have anything to block it on, so it's sorta shapeless right now. My sweetie bought himself a pair of enormous shoes last week, so at least I've got a suitable box now! I love the colours, especially the band of rusty red. Currently, this bag is holding extra balls of yarn that are waiting to be cast on. Unfortunately, I won't let myself cast anything new on until I finish at least one project that's already in progress. I've got five things on the needles right now, and while that doesn't bother me in the least, I can't cast on any more because there simply isn't enough room on my little knitting table to put them down when I'm not working on them.

Second thing completed this year:

The most gorgeous pair of socks EVER!!! Mountain Colors Bearfoot, colourway Sierra, on size 1s with a baby cable rib on the leg. These were done toe-up with a short row heel. This yarn is so wonderful...it has small shots of olive greens & burnished golds in there, and it just makes me so happy. On the instep, the olive green wound up with a plummy colour right next to it, and that made me really want to get my mitts on a skein of Puck's Mischief STR. I'm not generally a fan of purple, but the green next to it really made it lovely. These socks were also done as my January Socktopia socks, in the Blue Monday theme. Little explanation of how I got red socks for Blue Monday here. I have my own weird rules in my world. So pretty!!

On the needles right now, we have a non-photographed pair of socks for my Sockret Pal. My lovely downstream Sockret Pal is into pink in a big way, so I'm using a pretty pink/blue Koigu with the Crusoe pattern from Knitty. (Geez, I'm just all kinds of link-happy today, aren't I?) It's certainly not my colour, but it is nice to step outside my personal box, as it were, to do something different. The pinks range from pale cotton candy to bubble gum to hot pink, with bits of blues & purples, and I'm really liking the way they're turning out. The pattern is way too fun, and I hope to make another pair someday for me. It's also my first time working with Koigu, and I really think I love this yarn! The twist is really nice, and it makes a pretty fabric. I'm down to the toe decreases on one, and halfway through the instep on the other, so I hope to finish in the next couple days. I may, however, make a second pair of socks for this lady...she recently had the most adorable baby girl, and since it's a sock-themed swap, I thought it'd be nice to have a pair for the wee one, too. We'll see how much yarn I've got left over, though.

Also OTN, my beloved's giant sweater. I'm a few rows farther along, but I don't work on it often, so it's nothing too impressive yet.

I didn't take a picture of the whole thing, since it just looks like a lump of black, but here's the cable & rib detail. It's some 220ish stitches across, so I only get to do a couple rows at a time. Not the fastest knitter, I. My sweetie loves it, though he's very realistic about how soon he might actually get to wear the thing.

Also in the realm of unphotographable lumps of black is a hat I'm making for myself. It's just a plain ol' roll brim stockinette hat, but it's in black Malabrigo, and it's the first hat I've made for myself. Lord knows I could sure use it right now! It's freaking AWFUL outside! Well, okay, it could certainly be worse. It's sunny, which is a big deal for me, and it's not terribly windy, and it's not dumping big piles of snow on me, but oooh, it's cold! I don't like cold all that much. Anyway, I'm looking forward to finishing this hat. It's painfully soft, the first Malabrigo item I've made, and verra warm. I loves it already.

The last item on the needles (aside from the Elizabeth I scarf, which hasn't made hardly any progress at all) is a weird antimacassar thingy of my own design. See, I've got this beautiful chair that my beloved gave to me last Christmas, and it's my knitting chair. I adore this thing! It's gorgeous, it's comfy, and it's the nicest piece of furniture we own. Unfortunately, due to my poor kitty's neurological problems, it's getting damaged already. Tipsy has a lesion on the right side of her brain (I think I may have mentioned this already?), and it messes with her balance something fierce. She has good days & bad days, and while they don't seem to upset her too much, it's wreaking havoc on my poor chair! She stands on the arms of it to cry at the closet door (she wants IN, make no mistake), and occasionally falls off, dragging her hind claws all across the finish as she goes.

As you can see, she's ruining my beautiful chair!! That's not the only gouge in the wood there, either. It's really breaking my heart (and making my husband mad!), and I certainly can't tell her not to sit there. So, I pulled a couple skeins of chestnut Wool of the Andes out of the stash, killing whatever project I'd intended them for, and started knitting up a superthick antimacassar pad to go over the arm of that chair. I'll probably felt the thing when I'm done, hopefully making it all the harder for her claws to get through to the wood. Cross your fingers for me that this works...I love that chair! Poor Tipsy, too. She sure can't help it, and it does make me sad that she has to go through such un-catlike indignities.

So that's what's on the needles as of right now. I'm really hoping to finish up at least the socks & hat within the next week, because I'm dying to cast on my first Fair Isle project, and also a pair of socks in some Socks That Rock. I've not decided yet which colour STR, or what pattern, because I'm waiting for our next Socktopia themes, but I'm really excited about it. I've had a couple skeins of the much-coveted STR in the stash for a while now, and haven't yet had a chance to work it up. I'm also dying to get my hands into that Fair Isle stuff...it looks really fun! In a challenging sorta way, anyway.

Oh, and while I'm in the posting zone, a big ol' HI to my Knitty SP8!! I'm crap at remembering to reply to comments, though I read each & every one of them and love hearing what y'all have to say. I think that should be another goal this year...to remember to not just read the comments, but respond as well! Oy...

Happy New Year, and all that rot

2007-01-02T18:48:00.000-06:00

Hello, Aught-Seven! This promises to be an interesting year, here at YLF headquarters. Firstly and most importantly, the hubster is back in school. This is a Big Deal, as not only is he a bit older than most of his classmates (he'll be 34 in a couple weeks), but it's been a looong time coming. I'm so very, very proud of him, and SO FREAKING EXCITED. He'll have his BA in Music Education in about two & a half years, and then I can finally (FINALLY!!!) start looking for a house. Yup, a real house, one that I can actually own & paint & love. Have I mentioned that I'm a wee bit jazzed about this?? His first day of classes was today, and things went quite well, from what I've heard so far. He's only in a couple classes this semester (trimester actually, but it sounds weird to say that), due to financial aid stuffs, but next se(tri)mester he'll be attending full time. Unfortunately, this does mean that the next couple years will be incredibly hard around here. Not only will I never see the boy, between two jobs, school, practice, homework, and the bands, but we'll probably have about thirty cents to spend at the end of each month, if we're lucky. We've always been poor...we've lived below the poverty line for years, so I'm rather used to it, but it'll be even MORE tight than it already is, which is a very scary prospect. SO TOTALLY WORTH IT, though!! Pardon my hollering. I'm just so damned excited, and not just a wee bit relieved. This is a massive step forward in our lives, and I'm just so proud of him, and so grateful, that I could freakin burst.

Sadly, this does mean virtually no expendable income for yarn this year. Or next year. Makes me almost feel faint... Thus, I'll probably join the whole Knit From Your Stash thingy, though I've not thought out parameters yet. I'll figure that out in a future post. The good news is, my beloved does recognize & respect the joy that knitting brings me, and so he is doing everything he can to help add just a wee bit here & there to the Stitches Fund. Oh hell yes, there is a Stitches Fund. I flatly refuse to put my life on a credit card, so the only way I can go to Stitches & not just burst into tears is if I save like a crazy woman all year. I just had so darn much fun last year, and I'm sooo looking forward to having Shanelle up & doing it all over again this summer!

I've been thinking a good deal lately about goals & things I'd like to accomplish this year. I'm not much one for resolutions per se, the cheese factor always sorta put me off. I do have a considerable amount of goals, however...

2007 Goals & Aspirations, Knitting and Otherwise

Complete the ginormous man-sweater for dh, and not fuss about the fact that it's black & cabled. I'm making it because I love him, and love doesn't fuss about piddly details, especially when it's the details that make the beloved happy.

Complete the Elizabeth I scarf, gaining some level of semi-proficiency in lace along the way. This has been languishing on the needles way too long, and it's far too pretty to sit there gathering dust. Also, one must be worthy of the huge honking cone-o-Zephyr one snagged off of Ebay last summer before one goes tangling it into knots.

Teach myself Fair Isle colourwork. Nothing too huge or fancy here, I just want to learn how it works, and get a respectable level of competence with it. Elaborate beautiful Fair Isle sweaters are planned for later years...this is just a learning period.

Knit more for ME. I certainly don't mind knitting for others, I rather enjoy it, actually, it's just that I hardly have anything handknit for myself. I mean, I've knit probably eight or nine pairs of socks so far, and only two of them are mine! There's something seriously wrong with that...

Learn to spin *properly*. I tried last year, with the most beautiful drop spindle ever, but my drafting is hideous, and I wound up getting caught up in a million other things & haven't had a chance to play with it since. I'm lucky enough to live within half an hour or so of The Fold, so it's not like it's hard to find fiber or someone skilled at spinning to guide me. Unfortunately, there's no way in hell I can afford lessons, so it's trial & error for me!

Knit sweaters for each boy. I bought some yarn early last year with that intention, and never got around to it. They're growing like freaking weeds, so I really ought to get on it before they're too darn big for me to want to knit for 'em. Boy the Younger adored his purple Chrimmas sockies, btw, and that's wonderfully encouraging.

Knit at least one pair of socks per month, with the amusement & assistance of Socktopia. This is such a cool idea...basically, it's a KAL with themes each month, and cool contests & drawings & such. I'd planned on knitting a pair a month (at least!) anyway, so this is a neat way to get ideas & share patterns. Yay!

Save a wee bit of money every week for Stitches Midwest. Try not to squee too loudly when doing so. It freaks out the cat.

Blog more frequently. Granted, the holidays really louse all kinds of things up, but I've not been so hot about blogging regularly anyway. Also, take more pictures. Yes, my camera isn't so great, and I'm no Ansel Adams, but at least some photographic content is better than none (which is what you're getting this post, I'm sorry to say).

Get more on top of regular schedules, especially when it comes to homeschooling the weasels. It's been pretty scattershot thus far, and though all my contemporaries assure me time & time again that it's perfectly fine, and the boys are still learning adequately, I'm just not satisfied with the situation as is. Those boys and their education are my highest priority, even more important than yarn, if you can imagine such a thing.

Take more time to just enjoy the now. I spend a good deal of my life looking forward, waiting excitedly for what's next, whether it be an event, a season, or whatever is upcoming in our lives. I really really want to slow down and just be grateful for what is, and not miss it in the anticipation of what will be.

And yeah, knit more socks. Because honestly, what better goal is there?

Have yourself a Merry little Christmas

2006-12-24T07:45:00.000-06:00

Ah, Christmas Eve! Hardly a white Christmas Eve in my neck of the woods...unless you're imaginative about the incredibly thick fog out there...but that's okay. A soggy greenish Christmas has its benefits too. The annual trek down to my parents house is easier when the roads are clear, and it makes the whole day a little less worrisome if nobody's in danger of getting stuck by the side of the road.

For the first time in years, I'm not spending Christmas Eve panicking, finishing up last-minute things in a big spastic hurry. All of my knitted projects are done & wrapped, save for one pair of socks (I'm down to the toe decreases on the last sock, so no big deal there) & the Ben & Jerry's cozy for my dad. The cozy itself is actually done, but I still have to wrap it. Those are, fortunately, the last two items to be wrapped, and I'm just thrilled about that. Even my husband had commented on how I tend to stress out a lot during the last week before Christmas, because I tend to get overconfident about what I can accomplish in a certain amount of time. Not this year!! It's really been quite wonderful...I've spent a good deal of time with the boys, watching silly Christmas movies, and with my husband (he beat me at a game of Scrabble the other day...he's terribly smug about it, too), and the stress level has been quite low this year. I have to say, I'm quite proud of myself. No, I didn't finish the Christmas stockings, but that's okay, I've got stockings that we can use, and I'm not going to fuss about the knitted ones. I'll finish them in January, I'm sure.

Speaking of finished knitted objects, I finished the alpaca sweater for my Mom, and it blocked up beautifully.

The discoloured splotches aren't really discoloured--that's where it was drying faster than the rest of it. It's not a great picture, but the sweater looks fabulous, and I gotta say, I'm really proud! The braided cable opened up very nicely, and the sleeves blocked to the perfect length. I really really hope Mom likes it...and if she doesn't, I hope she gives it back! I also knitted a couple Noro tea cozys for her, as well as a pair of Fuzzy Feets & a pair of lovely brown socks. Boy the Younger also gets a pair of socks, since he's such a sock nut. I did take a picture of his sockies, but Blogger won't post them, so I'll just tell you that they're made from Lorna's Laces Sheperd Sock, in the Black Purl colourway. They're more fraternal than identical, as one has more blue to it, and the other has more pale purple, but that's okay. Five year olds rarely care about such details. The boy just loves purple, though, so I think he'll like these.

In other news, I received another lovely package from my Sockret Pal! She sent some wonderful goodies, like some wonderful smelling tea, a yarn ornament for my tree, a green Chibi (oh Chibi, how I love thee!), some of my favorite hand cream (how did you know??), a sock pattern from one of my favorite vendors, and an adorable baby sockie coin purse (that my boys promptly swiped for their own nefarious purposes...I think they're carrying a marble collection in it or something). Thanks so much, Sockret Pal!! And speaking of my lovely Sockret Pal, she also sent me a cool little questionnaire the other day...y'all know how I like these silly things...

1) What's the oddest gift you've ever received?

Hmmm...well, I'm pleased to say that my family is pretty darn good at gift giving, so not too many weird ones so far. When I first moved out of the house & was just getting on my feet, my mom gave me a pretty odd gift...it was a huge bag full of just about every cleaning supply known to man. She had mops & brooms & rubber gloves & silver polish & floor wax & dish soap & a million other things...it really was a pretty darn cool, and very useful, gift, but it was just a little weird to open. I plan on doing that for my own kids someday, when they get their first place too. :-)

2) What's the oddest gift you've ever asked for?

Well, odd is in the eye of the beholder! My mother thinks I'm completely warped for wanting sock yarn for Christmas this year. Heh. It seems like a perfectly reasonable request to ME, though. When I was younger, my family was really fairly poor, so I always wrote out my Christmas list with that in mind. I'd include things from all price ranges, just so my folks would have a nice range to choose from, and wouldn't feel bad if they couldn't get everything on my list. As a result, every year I asked for a Boeing 747, and every year I was dissapointed. I never got a little genie of my own, either. Heh. (There's a certain irony here in that I *did* get a pony, even though I'd never actually asked for one for Christmas. She wasn't a Christmas present, but I was the only little kid I knew who ever got a pony.)

3)What's the oddest gift you've ever given to someone else?

Heehee...dh gets some pretty weird ones. He's incredibly home-oriented, one of those guys that would much rather hang out at home with his family than go out with the guys all night. He really liked the silly bathroom accessories I'd gotten once, the kind with little fishies floating in the base of the cup or soap dish, and was all happy when he'd found a shower curtain to match, so last year, I got him a bathmat for Christmas. It's shaped like an ironed-out duck. It's cute & dopey, all at the same time, and while I worried that it'd be a lameass present, he really did love the silly thing. Of course, it's not the only present he got, but it was indeed a weird one.

4)What's the worst gift you've ever received?

Oh heavens, that's a tough one! I really haven't ever received any bad presents that I can think of. Pretty much anything received from a teenage boyfriend could probably go on that list, but I can't remember what anything was. Like I said, my family's really good with gifts...dh is known for picking things that are really sweet (he's incredibly sentimental & thoughtful), my mom has really fabulous taste in all sorts of stuff, and my dad is getting a reputation for sniffing out the coolest, weirdest books & things ever. I'm really quite lucky that way.

Good questions, Sockret Pal! It's fun thinking back on Christmases over the years. This is the 8th Christmas I'll have spent with my beloved, and boy, we've had some good times. My parents love my husband, and really enjoy spoiling him at the holidays, and that's a lot of fun to watch. Y'all probably know that my sweetie is a drummer, and also a teacher. The first Christmas we'd spent together, my mom & I conspired to purchase a really nice snare for him (Yamaha Maple Custom, matching the rest of his kit, for those who care), and omg, the look on his face when he opened that up!!! He was literally speechless! Well, not completely speechless...he kept saying "Oh shit" a lot. Heh. He LOVES that snare, and was so happy to have it.

This year should be just as interesting...my sweetie is finally going back to school to get his Bachelor's degree (WOOHOOOOO!!!!!!), and he'll be starting class in a little less than two weeks. He'll be taking piano & voice lessons (the BA is in Music Education), as well as percussion, and the aging keyboard we have is kind of not so great...keys broken (thanks a lot, cat), sort of small, not very up-to-date. Don't tell my sweetie, but my awesome Mom got the mother of all keyboards for him this year! It's a full size keyboard (I think that means all 88 keys or however many octaves or whatever...it's over my head, either way), with all the weird MIDI bells & whistles & whatever else he wanted. It is, however, freaking huge, so we're going to have to drive both cars down to the farm in order to bring it home. Dh still doesn't quite understand why we need to drive both cars, and it's entertaining watching him contemplate the reasons. I'm really looking forward to seeing his face tomorrow!! This keyboard should be a huge help with his schoolwork, too. He practices as much as possible already in between teaching (there's a piano in the lesson room where he teaches), but now he can practice at home, too! Yay!

Okay, now I'm just getting way too excited about tomorrow. I can sure tell that I'm getting older, though...I've hardly given a thought to what I might receive, and all my excitement is centered around seeing other people open certain things (mom's sweater, dh's keyboard, Boy the Younger's sockies...). Life is Good. :-)

Merry Christmas, everyone!!!

O Christmas Meme

2006-12-11T08:10:00.000-06:00

Shamelessly stolen from Old Lady Pen Pal (a really cool lady from my beloved knittyboards).

Christmas Edition of Getting to Know Your Friends

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Can't I have both? I love egg nog, but real egg nog, not that bottled stuff from the store. Mother's gonna make a huge bowl of real egg nog on Christmas, with likker to be added in individually, since the boys certainly can't have any, and my sweetie is a big baby about liquor (HATES it. SO not the Irishman one would expect.). I also love hot chocolate, and it's even better with a hefty shot of Bailey's Irish Cream in it. Yum!
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
Santa doesn't wrap, generally speaking. Therefore, in our house, Santa provides all the weirdly-shaped shit, and MomMom & Da provide things that are relatively easy to wrap. The boys haven't caught on yet...
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
Coloured lights, to be sure. Someday I'd love an all-white tree, but while the kids are little, the more colour, the better. It's part of the magic of childhood.
4. Do you hang mistletoe?
No, primarily because I can never find/afford the real stuff, and the fake stuff just looks so plasticky and fake. I'm not a big fan of fake, if I can help it. Besides, I get tons of smooches every day, regardless of the season.
5. When do you put your decorations up?
The day after Thanksgiving!! I absolutely love the Christmas season, and can't wait for it to start. I also don't get tv (no Christmas commercials, no Christmas specials, no Christmas movies/tv shows/parades/whatever), and don't work in retail (no Christmas songs on the Muzak 24 hours a day), so the Christmas season isn't shoved down my throat like it is for other people. If I want to really get into the season, I have to manufacture it myself, and it doesn't wear me down as fast as other folks. If I start right after Thanksgiving, then by the time Dec. 27th or so rolls around, I'm happy to take down the tree & put Christmas away till next year. If I waited till closer to the 25th to start, I wind up feeling ripped off & sad when Christmas is over, like I didn't get enough. This way suits me just fine.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
Excluding dessert??? Gosh, that narrows it down...I'm all about the desserts! Well, I make a Boursin cheese that really rocks (we do a cheese & cracker board for most of the day at my mom's house, and then a dinner in the evening). Mom usually gets this incredible smoked Mozzarella that's really good, too. I sometimes make a ham with a maple rum glaze that I really love, and mother's onion dill rolls are awesome. Um, but we're mostly about the desserts...pies, fudge (several different kinds, all made by me), cookies, etc. Yum.
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child:
Snuggling up on the couch after the presents were all opened, & going through the contents of the stocking. I'd pull a blanket over my lap, and carefully lay out each item one by one. There was always a box of chocolate covered cherries (made by Brachs, before the bastards quit making them. Grrr.), and you had to be careful that they wouldn't get all melty in your hand, since the fireplace was usually going. I miss having a fireplace!!
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
I was about six, and my evil older sister told me. She even dragged me halfway down the stairs to spy on my parents setting stuff under the tree. It really crushed me...
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
Yep! Even before I had kids, I kept that tradition. It's nice for the kids, as it helps to lessen the spastic excitement about the next day, and it's also a nice incentive to help shove 'em into bed afterwards. Heh.
10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree?
It's really eclectic. It's just lights & ornaments, no garland or tinsel (tinsel's dangerous for the cat). Each ornament has a story, though, and I adore every one of them. I only hung one or two ornaments myself...the boys & their Da hung all the rest. As a result, it's not very evenly spaced, but whatever, they were proud as heck to do it. Someday, when the kids are older & out of the house, and we have a real house of our own, I hope to have one main big tree, and then lots of smaller trees throughout the house, with goofy themes. My sweetie will get a tree in his studio with all his drum ornaments, and all the music related ones, and probably all the freaky Star Wars ones too (yes, we have a crapload of Star Wars ornaments on our tree. Not really what I'd think of when I think Christmas, but then, I'm not a guy, so whatever). I'd like a tree just for all my Disney ornaments, and a little teeny tree in my knitting corner with lovely yarn garland, and tiny knitted mitties & socks, and little bitty sheeps. Yeah. That would be nice.
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
Love it, now that I live in town. Back when I lived on the farm & had to do chores in all that stuff, I HATED it. It's hard work to slog through three feet of snow & chase horses! Now, I really like to look at it out the window, though I still don't like to be in it very much.
12. Can you ice skate?
Heck no! That requires waaaay too much skill & coordination.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
My most favoritest recent gift was last Christmas...my beloved husband, who takes great pride in his shmoopie-ness, picked out the most perfect chair for my knitting corner, and a lovely bright lamp to go with it. I LOVE the chair...it's the perfect colour, and the style is so very me. More than that, though, I love the thought behind it. See, I already had a chair (a crappy little one that did the job, but wasn't terribly comfy or attractive), but he knew how much I enjoy things like knitting, so he wanted me to have a tiny little sanctuary to do my thing in. It was just about the sweetest, most thoughtful thing ever. He's pretty darn good at stuff like that. He also helped the boys make a nice pile of lovely bookmarks for me last year, too. The boys coloured all kinds of pictures on both sides of strips of construction paper, and dh laminated them. I use those bookmarks ALL the time, and I really treasure them.
14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
The magic of it. That general feeling of old, old magic, a special, intangible sparkle that's almost timeless, and makes you warm in the darkest days of winter. More importantly, passing that magic on to my children, with their big wide eyes and open, believing hearts. Also, it's the one time of year that it's okay to spend money on things for my loved ones (we're REALLY poor, so extra money is rarely spent on gifty things). It's so much fun to do that for my husband!
15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
Um, yes. All of them. Ahem. Really, I love my own Christmas cookie recipe a lot. It's not too sweet, and flavored with nutmeg, and makes the best cutouts. I made some this weekend, and they're almost all gone already. I also make several really good varieties of fudge (my peanut butter fudge is like crack...it's a wonder I'm not 400 pounds by now), and though I don't make it often, my caramel recipe is to die for.
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Wow, I don't know...I like them all! I love getting up Christmas morning & watching the boys as the come into the living room. Their eyes get so huge! I love bundling up the family & taking a long, leisurely drive through town late at night & looking at all the Christmas lights. I love decorating the tree, and hanging the wreaths, and listening to Christmas carols while I clean the house (don't so much love the cleaning the house part, though). I love hauling the kids & the presents for my parents down to the farm on Christmas Day, and snuggling with my hubby in front of the fire there, and seeing my mom's face when she opens whatever weird stuff I've made for her that year. (This year it's the alpaca sweater, and ooooh, I hope she likes it!!) Yeah, I pretty much like all of our traditions.
17. What tops your tree?
A lovely porcelain angel in a burgundy dress, with golden wings & dark brown hair. The only thing I would change if I could is to give her darker skin, so she'd look more like us, but whatever. It's not a big deal, and she really is awfully pretty.
18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving?
I like both equally. I adore giving things to those I love, especially things I made by hand & worked really hard on. It's like a physical representation of my love for them. Sappy, but true. I'm also not so stupid that I don't like receiving, especially from my parents. Mom has fabulous taste, and often picks out things that she knows we'd otherwise never have because we can't afford such luxuries. I've gotten so many cool kitchen things from her! Dad has the most wonderful, if completely bizarre, taste in books, and always gets the COOLEST books ever for me. Most of the time, it's titles I've never even heard of, but really suit me. My husband, like I said, has a major gift for choosing the sweetest, most thoughtful things possible.
19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?
Carol of the Bells, if it's done by a really good a cappella choir. Gabriel's Song, by Sting, also. I tend to prefer classical tunes, rather than pop tunes, and pretty much anything made/written since the 50s annoys me after one hearing.
20. Candy Canes… Yuck or Yum?
Yum! Especially the multicoloured cherry flavoured ones! Mmmmm...

Oops!

2006-11-19T08:09:00.000-06:00

I can't believe I haven't posted about my first Sockret Pal package yet! Geesh, and I've had it for a week, too. I'm very excited to say that I received the incredibly awesome sock book by Nancy Bush, Knitting on the Road!! I'm a huge fan of hers, and I've been gawking at everyone else's Conwy socks for ages, so I'm really excited! There was also some lovely stationery & a cute little bitty pen...thanks so much, Sockret Pal!! And, I'm sorry I didn't post earlier...I feel awful, because I know how frustrating it can be, waiting for your downstream to confirm that it got there. I live in fear of my little packages getting eaten in the mail, never to be seen again, and I get antsy waiting for confirmation of their arrival. The brain has been somewhat consumed lately by thoughts of the holiday knitting...and concerns over Second Sleeve Syndrome. I hope to finish the alpaca sweater within the next week or two, but that still leaves about a half dozen smaller projects to finish...oy!

Happy Blogiversary to me!

2006-11-13T08:08:00.000-06:00

Yup, one year ago today, I created this weird little space. I imagine it was probably just as grey & rainy then as it is now, being November & all. Big thanks are due here to Kathy, who I leaned on a lot when I started, and who pestered the heck outta me to start a blog in the first place. I don't often make sense here, and I rarely write well, but it really is a nice little place to vent & keep track of my geek progress. And speaking of geek progress...

The alpaca sweater for my Ma is looking pretty good thus far. It's nearly to the bind-off in this picture. I worked a seed stitch hem at the bottom there for about an inch or so, and picked up the stitches on one of the sleeves last night. The sleeves will have a seed stitch cuff as well, though I still have no idea how I'm gonna do the collar. The braided cable, btw, is the River Run pattern from Vogue Stitchionary #2, and really pretty, in my opinion. Also on the needles these days...This here is the beginning of the first of a pair of Fuzzy Feets, also for my Ma. I'm using Forest Heather Wool of the Andes, and lemme tell ya, it's weird making socks this huge & loose. Furthermore, there's... The first of a series of four Christmas stockings. Well, five, really, if you count the little one I'm going to make for the cat. Yes, I'm knitting a stocking for the cat. I am a Crazy Cat Lady, and I wear the badge with pride. These are done in Reynolds Lopi, Fire Tweed & Spruce Tweed, and I really like the way they're turning out. So does my sweetie, who picked the pattern and the yarn, which is pretty darn impressive for him. My only complaint is I'm unsure about how to join the new yarns (can't I just spit-splice 'em? or would it make the colour jogs weird?), so it's stalled out in favor of the alpaca sweater lately. That brings me to the one & only project that's not intended for someone else...My much adored, and badly photographed, Sierra socks (Mountain Colours Bearfoot...yum). These socks are moving at the speed of frozen molasses, unfortunately, as the Christmas knitting does take precedence. They are the most beautiful socks I've ever made, though, and will be well worth the wait, I'm sure. I really wish y'all could see the colours...my camera isn't the best, nor am I all that hot at knowing how to make it better, so you'll just have to believe me. It's a gorgeous deep red, with small shots of olive green & gold & maroon...soooo autumnal, and soooooooooo pretty! Also pictured in my Photo of Pretty, a really kickass notebook given to me by the lovely (and generous!) Kathy! I'm sort of weird about blank books like this, and I admired this one in Borders the other day. It's a gorgeous metallic green, with deep red accents, and a little leather magnetic clasp. I loff it. Anyway, Kathy took pity on my drooling, and presented it to me as an early Christmas present. How cool is that? It's keeping track of knitting & Christmas lists right now. Even Stripes approves of the sweater. Y'know, it's interesting to think of how far I've come in the last year, since starting this silly blog...I didn't know how to knit at all a year ago, and now I'm working on this gorgeous cabled sweater...kinda neato, eh? Oh, and while I'm back on the topic of the sweater, let me voice my fears about it...it's absolutely gorgeous, and I'm really proud & everything, BUT. I tried it on after I bound off the bottom hem, and it fits me like a glove. It's beautiful. Problem is, it's not for me, it's for my Ma, who generally speaking, likes things to be a bit looser than I do. Yeah, we're pretty much the same size, and it really fits me beautifully, but she's in her fifties, and I can't remember seeing her wear something so...not loose! It's not tight, but nicely skims the outline of my shape (the shape in question being "lumpy", but that's neither here nor there), and while that works wonderfully for me, I'm not so sure she'll be thrilled with it. I'm kind of honked at myself for not erring on the side of caution more, but in my own defense, I really didn't want a huge tent sweater, either. Fortunately, I think she'll be honest enough to tell me if she'd never wear it, because if that's the case, then I really want it for me! I'd happily make her another one instead after the holidays, but there's no way in hell I'm ripping this thing back all the way to the beginning. I've been working on it since August! (Yes, I am a slow knitter...I have started & finished a whole buncha other projects in that time, though, also.)

As long as I have your attention, I think y'all should go on over to my dear friend Kerrie's blog, and congratulate her on the birth of her SEVENTH baby!! (I shit you not, SEVEN kids!! Personally, I would have croaked years ago, but Kerrie's of strong Irish stock, and a fabulous momma.) And, she deserves huge congrats on the building of her new house! I'm so happy for her that she gets to have so much space now...because honey, I know tiny living areas! Heh.

And that concludes ye olde Blogiversary poste. Yay that I've made it this far, and yay that I can tell y'all about it! Woohoo!

(And yes, I'm a dork. You should have known that by now, don't you think?)

A picture is, indeed, worth a thousand words

2006-11-04T06:58:00.000-06:00

But sadly, I haven't any pictures for you today, so you'll just have to sit here & listen to me babble incessantly. More picture-taking to come in the near future, though! I've quite a pile of projects on the needles right now, so I've got lots of pictures to take. Work is progressing nicely on the alpaca sweater for my mom, and even though it's on ungodly tiny needles (size threes, and while that's rather big for socks, it's pretty daunting for a whole freakin sweater) with a gauge of 8st to the inch, I really am enjoying it. The fabric is beautiful, and the cable looks really nice, if I do say so myself. As much as I like the speed & quick satisfaction of chunkier yarns, I'm beginning to think that I may be a fine-gauge sweater convert. Anyhow, I'm about 3/4 of the way done on the body, and then all I'll have to do is the sleeves & pick up & knit a collar, assuming I can finally decide what I want that to look like. I think a large part of the enjoyment factor comes with having started this sweater back in August...if I had allowed myself less time, I'd definitely not be liking it as much.

In other news around the Front, I've gone & done something completely weird, yet cool...I got a job. Seriously. I'm the new knitting instructor at my local Michael's! How cool is that? I'm less than enthused about the whole prevalence of fun fur thing, but whatever, they're paying me for it. My first beginner class starts soon, and while I will be repeating the beginner class regularly, I also want to throw in a few small project classes here & there. Any ideas, using only materials that can be purchased at Michaels (bummer, I know), are really welcome!

Also in the news this week, from the Department of Meow...Tipsy had a seizure of some sort not long ago. A loud noise set it off (the loud noise being me hollering at a kid, now how guilty do I feel??), and she lost all control of her eye movement (nystagmus is what it's called...basically, her eyes moved back & forth very rapidly, and she lost almost all balance completely). This lasted for twelve minutes, and upset me greatly. I mean, I knew she was a "special needs kitty" when I adopted her, her foster parents were very clear on that, but sheesh! That was scary! I did a bunch of research, and was oddly vindicated when she visited the vet the next day & he confirmed my suspicions of peripheral vestibular disease. The bad news is, it's likely caused by a lesion on the right side of her brain. The good news is, the treatment was relatively inexpensive, and has helped tremendously. She gets drops in her ears twice a day, which she hates with the fire of a thousand suns, but her head is on straight now! She's not tilted at all! It's kind of weird to see, really. Anyway, while the seizure was really freaking scary, I'm rather glad it happened, because it made the diagnosis MUCH easier, and she otherwise might have gone untreated for ages. Poor kitty. She is feeling perfectly fine, though, aside from despising her meds, so I'm a happy camper.

Sadly, I managed to miss most of Socktober, though I did get at least one pair of socks finished anyway. I don't have a picture of them, but sooner or later I will. Eventually. Ahem. I finished my Booga Bag, which was sent to the lovely LkManitou (check out her blog...*she* has pics of the booga bag, even though I'm too much of a weenie to remember to take them myself!) for the October Knitted Thing swap. In the same swap, I was lucky enough to receive a superwarm pair of pretty red Fuzzy Feets! Fuzzy Feets of my very own! Mmmm...thank you, Valkyrie!!

In which I stop being British for a moment

2006-10-21T08:33:00.000-05:00

...and say thank you to everybody. This whole grief thing is really hard for me...I don't really know how to handle it. Yeah, three out of four grandparents have died in the last ten years, so it's not like this is the first loss I've ever had, but all three grandparents died after a prolonged, painful illness, so it was something I was prepared for ahead of time, and almost a bit of a relief. They had all lived long, full, wonderful lives (well, my maternal grandmother died way too young, imo, but it was a relief for her...the cancer was terrible), and while it was very sad to lose them, it seemed okay, somehow. Ric, on the other hand, is only 37, and still hadn't gotten around to pulling his head out of his arse. There was just so much unfulfilled potential there!! That, and the violent & sudden way he died is sort of hard to process. Anyway, thank you so much, to everyone who has been so kind & thoughtful, and has just been there. I really appreciate it, even if I'm uncomfortable talking about it. That's the one crappy thing about being British...we're soooo stiff-upper-lip in my family, it's unreal. Grief, in my experience, has been an incredibly private process, which is all well & good except for the fact that consequently, I don't really know *how* to grieve. Oy. Suffice to say, it's been a rough week here at Chez Yarn n'Likker, but it is getting a bit more normal. Normal being a matter of opinion, of course.

Also, I'd like to thank my awesome SP...I got a beautiful skein of stretchy cotton sock yarn (like Cascade Fixation, but hand-painted!!) in the mail the other day, plus a great pattern!! Y'all should see the yarn...it's lovely! Gorgeous shades of olives & blues & mustard & plum...very fall colours. Thank you so much, SP...the timing couldn't possibly have been better! I'm looking forward to working with it, too...these will make great summer socks, and for me, me, me!!! (Ahem...'scuse me, I'm just feeling a bit snarky, given that fully half of the socks I've made thus far have been for gifts, and my feets are beginning to complain. It is my long-range goal to have exclusively hand-knit sockies for my little feets, only relying on machine made socks for emergencies. Heh.)

Again, thank you, guys. Your thoughts & words & prayers mean so very, very much to me. It really helps to know y'all are out there when I need you.

Saved by the meme

2006-10-19T07:59:00.000-05:00

Heatherly (the Yarn Yenta...what an awesome name!) posted a meme/contest just the other day, and it serves as a convenient space filler to hopefully make y'all forget that I still haven't gotten any new pictures up here in a coon's age. Ahem.

1. Where is your favorite knitting spot?

In the corner of my bedroom, in the special knitting chair that my beloved gave to me last Christmas. It's beautiful, all camel coloured sueded fabric & reddish mahogany stained arms & such. It's very 1930s, and I absolutely adore it. It's also comfy as heck, so that's a big bonus. Anyway, the chair faces my bed, and it has a good view of the tv, and it's right next to the bookcase with a buncha knitting reference books & space for a drink or two. There's a silly little table on the other side of the chair that is invariably covered in books, patterns, and loads of WIPs. I love my little corner.

2. If you suddenly could never knit again (shudder) - what would you do instead?

Good heavens, I might just croak. I'd probably set about to converting as many patterns as I could to crochet, assuming that the reason I can't knit is because of some evil gnome with cruel spells or something, rather than arthritis or something that would affect use of my hands. I'd also finish more cross stitch samplers, without a doubt, I'd probably bake more, and read WAY more than I have been lately. I used to read a ton, but every extra minute has been spent knitting Christmas gifts as of late. Not that that's a bad thing, mind you.

3. If you could travel anywhere in the world - where would you go and why?

The British Isles, no doubt. My family is frightfully British, and I *will* see England before I die. My beloved husband is Irish, and I'd love to see where his family came from as well. Besides, I've had a weird fascination with the UK for as long as I can remember...the history is amazing, and the countryside (from what I've seen in pictures, anyway) is just stunning. Yeah, I'd definitely go to England, with side trips to Ireland, Wales, & anywhere else I can reach.

4. When you were little - What did you want to do "when you grew up?" Are you doing it?

I wanted to be a police officer more than words can say. I still do, really. Pretty much anything in that field thrills the heck outta me. I'm not doing it now, unfortunately, but it's for good reason...I'm a stay at home mom, and these boys are more important than any career in the world. Maybe I'll go back to school after they're grown, but it's hard to say at this point.

5. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?

Ooh, hard one! I currently love Ben & Jerry's Dublin Mudslide, which is an irish cream flavored ice cream with espresso fudge ribbons & chocolate cookie chunks. Fabulous, I tell you. I'm also fond of mint oreo, and a really well-made french vanilla. Yum.

So damn tired

2006-10-17T09:17:00.000-05:00

My apologies for the lack of blogging lately. The camera's batteries are just about shot, so no pictures here until the hubby gets paid & brings me some more batteries. I've been knitting like crazy though...I've currently got six or seven things on the needles, and another five or six that need to be made for Christmas gifts. Fortunately, most of them are relatively small things, so I hope to get them all finished fairly soon (or maybe I'm just a delusional optimist...time will tell). I hope to get pics up in the next week or so, too...the sweater I'm making for my Ma is gorgeous!! The braided cable is turning out really nicely, and the fabric is sooo soft. It's going to be hard to give this one up.

In other, less happy news, my favorite uncle was killed yesterday. Ric was an amazing person...freakishly brilliant, yet consumed by drug & alcohol addictions. I've not seen him in several years, but I loved him deeply. He was on a bit of a pedestal for me...he's ten years older than I, and all throughout my childhood I heard about how brilliant he is, how far he could go, how well he was doing in school. I remember wanting to be just like him, and when my mom declared that we had the exact same weird, dry sense of humor, I was so proud! I just adored this guy. He fell pretty hard off his pedestal a few years ago, when things started getting really bad with the addictions. He did some pretty stupid things, lost his fabulous job, and went downhill quickly. I still loved him, though, and still had hope that sooner or later he'd pull his head out of his arse & get back on track again. Sunday night, I had a lovely dream, involving him & several other uncles of mine. He was whole & happy & free of the pain that he's been in for so long, and we had such a good time! My grandfather had grilled some amazing steaks, and we just hung out & ate & goofed off...it was wonderful. Then I woke up, and Mom called to tell me that he'd been in a car accident, and his pupils were fixed & dilated, and he may never wake up. I knew he was dead...he'd come to say goodbye already. It turns out that he was a pedestrian, crossing a street, and got hit by a car. Brain death was immediate, and for that I am grateful. He's suffered enough in his life, he didn't need to suffer any more. My dad & his sister authorized a DNR order by early afternoon, they harvested organs to donate, and pulled the plug sometime yesterday evening. He'll be cremated & brought home to Indiana, but I've no idea when the memorial service will be...our family can be sort of slow in that respect. (We sort of figure he's not going anywhere by that point, and then everyone waits until the *whole* family can make it all at one time...it took two whole years to finally get my great-grandfather buried.) I do rather hope it will be sooner than later. I'm just so incredibly sad about it all...I'd kind of like to get the closure & just move past it. I adored him so much. I'd still hoped he could turn his life around, but now that will never happen. It's just such a waste, and it breaks my heart.

I slept like a brick last night, and dreamed only of my husband (it was a *good* dream, too! heehee), but I'm still just so damn tired. My head has ached almost non-stop since Sunday night (freaky little irony there, huh?), and I'm just worn out. Thanks for reading, if you've gotten this far, and I promise there will be more knitting content in the near future.

Sockret Pal Questionnaire!

2006-09-28T09:12:00.000-05:00

Oh, how I do loves me a good swappin'...

The basics:
How long have you been knitting?Do you consider yourself a beginning sock knitter, an intermediate, or have you been doing this so long you could probably knit a pair in your sleep?

I've been knitting for just under a year now. My learning curve is pretty steep, though, so I'd say I'm intermediate. I've finished three pairs of socks, plus a few baby booties here & there (do they count?), and have three more pairs on the needles right now. It's probably my favorite thing to knit, though I'll knit darn near anything I can get my hands on. Oh, and I've got Christmas stockings on the needles, which have the same cuff-down, heel flap construction as a standard sock. I *want* to be good enough to knit in my sleep, though!

The measurements:
While your pal may ask for some additional info to ensure a great fit, please provide your shoe size, or any other fitting related info you think is pertinent.

I wear a 6 1/2 shoe or so, once in a while a size 7, depending on the manufacturer. The ball of my foot is about 8 1/2 inches around, and it's about 9 inches long, toe to heel. My feets are pretty narrow, and I have no arch whatsoever. Y'know how when you walk with wet feet on concrete, it leaves footprints? My footprints look like duck feets. That's how flat my arches are.

(fiber related) Favorites:
What colors do you love?

Ooooh, I love all kinds of colours!! There's previous questionnaires on this blog where I go bonkers describing all my favorite colours, so please feel free to refer back if you wanna. My favorites are olive greens (well, most any shade of green except lime is awesome), deep reds, and jewel-toned blues. I also love neutrals, chocolate browns & tans & creams look nice on me. Pretty much anything except neons...I really don't care for neons (hot pink, electric orange, bleah! I had enough of those in the 80s). Most shades of yellow don't flatter me...I've got yellow skin, so yellow on yellow makes me look sorta dead. In socks, however, I don't think yellow would be a problem...it's far enough away from my face, and next to blue jeans, so it could be doable.

Do you prefer solids or variegated?

Either one. For my own personal use, I like solids for complicated patterns, like lace or something, and variegateds for simpler patterns. I'm *really* fond of nearly solids...the kind that stick to one colour, but vary from lighter to darker shades of it. So pretty! And I'm SUPER weak for handpaints. My stash is full of 'em.

What fibers do you most love to knit with?

Natural fibers, to be sure. I'm a huge fan of wool, alpaca, silk, and the like. I also really like blends, like when a wool sock yarn has a bit of nylon or tencel or something in it...I hear it helps with durability. Softness is a main qualification, of course.

Who do you consider your favorite yarn vendors?

Oh my, this list could go on for days! I love Webs, KnitPicks, LittleKnits, The Loopy Ewe, my local yarn stores (the Fold, Wool & Co, & Yarn Exchange), Simply Socks Yarn Co, Blue Moon Fiber Arts, among others, and a buncha smaller outfits, like Fearless Fibers, Lisa Souza, that sort of thing. I like to support small businesses, of course, but I tend to go wherever I can get the best deal. I have very very few extra dollars to put towards my knitting habits, so I have to get the most out of them that I can.

What projects (other than socks, of course*S*) do you most enjoy knitting?

Socks!! Heh...well, I'm really enjoying a couple sweaters that I'm working on right now. I like lace a lot, though I don't have much time to work on it (I tend to knit in front of the tv, and I just can't pay attention to anything else while knitting lace. Once I'm done with the few shows on dvd that I'm into, I hope to get back into the lace more often). I like smallish projects, because lord knows the instant gratification thing is nice. I love anything with cables...my beloved is Irish, and I've been dying to make a beautiful cabled Aran for him. He'd look gorgeous in one! And, um, socks. Yes.

(fiber related) Dislikes:
What fibers can you not stand to knit with? To wear?

Not much, really. I'm pretty easy. I don't care for squeaky acrylics, though there are a few acrylics that are actually pretty decent (though they are few & far between...Plymouth Encore comes to mind as a good one). I really don't like novelty yarns...fun fur, laddered yarn, that sort of thing. I tend to lean towards smoother yarns, rather than hairier, though I'm not against mohair-y type things. Aside from novelty yarns & squeaky acrylics, I think I'd knit with pretty much anything!

What colors would you never wear?

Like I mentioned, yellow makes me look sorta deceased. Neons are just unpleasant on me...I've dark hair & dark eyes, with the yellow skin, and I feel like I'm supposed to glow in the dark in neons. I have a tendency to stick to earth tones, generally speaking.

The Tools:
Plastic or Metal? Bamboo or wood?

Metal, if they're the KnitPicks ones!! Ooooh, I luuuurves me some KP needles! I've got a buncha dpns, and one circ, and I'm just smitten with them. I'd like to get the Options set one of these days, but I'll probably wind up buying one or two bits at a time, & slowly building up a set that way. I like bamboo an awful lot too, and it's all I used before discovering the KP dpns. Wood is fine, and I'd really love to try some of those rosewood & ebony needles, the ones that were reclaimed from musical instruments. How cool is that?? I really can't stand plastic, though, and pretty much all the aluminum needles I've had (not counting KP) sucked. They were long, heavy & unwieldy...and now I can't get rid of 'em.

Circs or Straights?

Both! I like straights if they suit the project, and aren't too long. Anything longer than my arm (about 12-13 inches) is too long & awkward, though, so I love circs for those sorts of things. The big black cable-y sweater that I'm making for dh would kill me if it were on straights. And, I'm *really* fond of knitting in the round...one day, I hope to be skilled enough to convert all my sweater patterns to in the round, rather than pieced together. Round is fun.

DPNs or Magic Loop?

Dpns, absolutely!! I've not tried magic loop or 2circs, and frankly, I don't have a huge amount of interest. I love dpns, and the KP ones make sock knitting very fast & fluid. Yeah!

Are there any knitting accessories you don't have in your collection but would like?

Not too many...I'd sure like some Smokey Joe kitty sock blockers & lace blocking wires. I have a sock bag by Trek that I really like, and it'd be nice to have a second since I like to have multiple pairs of socks on the needles at one time. A big pile o' time would sure be nice! That's the one thing I'm lacking most...time to knit.

The Extras:
Do you have a wish list? If so, please share the link!

Heck yeah! The Lust List, on the sidebar over there, and one on Amazon. The amazon one is about a mile long, but there's lots of good knitting books & things there.

Do you like sweet, sour or salty? (or all of the above? *S*)

I love sweet, almost to a fault, and I love salty. Sour, however, is NOT my friend.

Do you have any allergies your pal should know about? (Certain foods, smoke, pet hair, etc)

Nope, no allergies. I *hate* the smell of cigarette smoke, though, being an ex-smoker. Pet hair is not a problem...Crazy Kitty keeps me in good supply of it.

Favorite scents? Scents you can't stand?

I love fall/spicy scents! Yankee candle has a few fall fragrances that I just love...sadly, they discontinued the Brown Sugar & Cinnamon that I adored a few years back. Bastards. Anyway, fall scents are wonderful, and anything spicy/homey is nice. I like very light florals, but not heavy ones. I really can't stand heavy florals, or heavy sandalwood...I make soaps & toiletries, and one of my most popular scents (Vanilla Sandalwood) makes me gag. There's irony for ya, huh?

Do you collect anything (other than yarn and knitting toys of course)?

Mostly just yarn! Especially sock yarn...yum! I do collect books, though...mysteries, history books, and knitting books. Antique books as well, but those are hard to come by. I also cross stitch, and sampler patterns (especially antique samplers!) are really cool. I'm just getting into collecting antique maps, but again, they're hard to come by. I have a really cool map of England & Wales that was printed in 1903 that I just love. But I'm weird like that. But yeah, my sock yarn collection is my prized jewel.

When is your birthday? (month and day is fine!)

August 31st.

Do you spin? Dye your own yarn?

I've just barely started spinning. I've been given this stunningly beautiful drop spindle, and I have a bit of roving, but I'm not particularly good at it yet. Sadly, I've had to set it aside in favor of all the Christmas knitting I'm doing. I'm really looking forward to January, when I'll have time to pick it up again, and really figure out how to do it well. I don't dye my own, because frankly, I've got enough irons in the fire. I don't need another addiction! Maybe someday I will, though. In the meantime, I lust like crazy after other people's hand-dyed yarns...they're sooo pretty!

Your favorite author/band/vacation spot, anything you think will help your pal know you better...

Gracious, I dunno...My pal mentioned that she's already a reader of this blog (it blows my mind that I have readers at all, y'know!), so she probably knows plenty already. Feel free to ask questions, though! Oooh, here's something important for you to know...my memory is crap, and I frequently *think* I've answered an email/post/comment/question, when really I've only thought about it in my head, and not actually typed it out. I never mean to ignore anybody, I just don't realize that I never actually spoke my answers out loud. I'm kind of a dolt that way. Feel free to remind me/holler/poke at me with knitting needles till I do cough up a response. I don't mean to be a twit, it's just a sorta natural default position for me. Oy!

I'm really looking forward to this swap, though...y'all know how I love swaps, and how I love socks, and honestly, what could be better than putting the two together? Throw in chocolate, and my head just might burst from the joy of it all. Yay!

Random Monday, yet again

2006-09-11T07:51:00.000-05:00

Evidently, randomness works for me. First up, thanks for all the kind birthday wishes, y'all! I am now officially older & a wee bit more crotchety. And that's okay. My birthday was a quiet affair, which is just fine & dandy with me, that involved much lazing about in the sun at a park (while weasels played on the playground, and I knit, of course), and my beloved husband gifting me with this book. I've been eyeballing it for quite a while, and I'm really excited to have fifty billion different cast-ons available to me now.

Fall is a season of change, and just as the summer ends & autumn begins, so endeth & beginneth the summer & fall swaps. Over the summer, I was really pleased to be involved in the One Skein Secret Pal, the blogosphere Secret Pal 8, and the knittyboard CheapAss Secret Pal 2. I had an absolute blast in these, and met several really interesting people to boot. I absolutely adore my upstream SP8, Suzanne. She's brilliant, funny, and flipping psychic. She always knew *exactly* what to send, and she really made my summer special. And, check out her blog...she also has gorgeous daughters who knit as well! (And, there's a picture of that drop-dead gorgeous drop spindle she sent to me...my blog somehow refuses to post pics of it here, which honks me off tremendously, but hers doesn't seem to be quite so snarky.) My One Skein upstream is also a wonderful, interesting person, not to mention a member of my much-loved knittyboard! Cindi is a regular contributor on the boards, and I've noticed that I'm also following her all over the knit swap world. Who knows, maybe next time I'll get to be her upstream! I really had a grand time in these swaps, but all good things must come to an end, and so I'm on to new, exciting swaps. And yeah, I'm a confirmed swap ho, and dang, but I love it that way! This fall, I'm involved in the Sockret Pal swap (a secret swap that involves knitting a pair of socks for your downstream...I'm *so* looking forward to this!! I'm dying to get my hands on socks someone else has knit...I really want to compare technique & styles & fit & such!), the Chocolate Swap (oh, be still my beating heart...yarn and chocolate...heavens...), the knittyboard October Knitted Thing swap, the knittyboard Spooky Swap, and the Favourite Colour Swap. Before y'all start to thinking about how insane I am, do realize that all but one of these swaps are one-month, one-package commitments, so it's not really all *that* much. And, the Sockret Pal swap goes bi-monthly for six months, thus stretching my time in which to knit the socks considerably, which is good, because pretty much all my knitting hours until December 24th are booked solid.

Speaking of the Favourite Colour Swap, I received my box the other day!! In retrospect, I don't suppose I was very nice when I filled out my questionnaire...the main point to the questionnaire was to state my favourite colour, but being the indecisive type I am, I more or less stated why I liked all the colors. Oy. I didn't even realize I did that until after I'd sent the thing in. Fortunately, my upstream is a doll who was patient enough to read through my ramblings, and she went with blues & greens, which are right up there with my all-time favorite shades (especially green...and the bonus is, it looks good on me, too!).

Check it out...Patons Classic Wool in a lovely shade of green (dh says I need to fish up some chocolate brown to match it, and make a stripey sweater...that could actually look really cool!), a pretty green photo album (it's hiding, because it was hard to squish everything into the photo), green point protectors in just the right size for all my sock knitting (thank you! It sucks getting stabbed!), green tic-tacs & Mentos sours (you can't tell, but the Mentos things are half gone already...dh stole them straight outta the box), some gorgeous merino sock yarn that she dyed herself (omg, I'm SO saving this for those awful grey days in February!! It's so bright & happy, and really just beautiful...perfect for the colourless days of mid-winter), and an absolute treasure--Interlacements Toasty Toes in Irish. 'Scuse me whilst I pass out from the stunning colors. I mean dayum, I could sit here & gaze at the subtle gradations in the greens, blues & purples for hours, I kid you not. And, I've been coveting Interlacements for ages! Truly, this was a fabulous box. Thank you so much, Nicole!!!

Elsewhere in my little knittyworld, I've actually finished something... Half finished something else...

And started some other things too...Yes indeedy, it's the WIP Parade! Clockwise from top left, we have the Noro Booga Bag, body of bag completed, nine miles of i-cord begun; the first of four Christmas stockings for my family in Lopi Fire Tweed & Spruce Tweed, pattern compliments of this book; the fluffy green scarf for my friend Brandie (that I must admit I set down over the summer & didn't work on much...it's a warm scarf, and it's not much fun to knit warm stuff in warm weather, but I've recently picked it up again & hope to finish it before our next meeting); the beginnings of the pretty camel-colored alpaca sweater for my Ma, not yet cast on, but ready to go now that my kickass KnitPicks circs are in; two sock cuffs (cursed 1x1 ribbing!) in Lorna's Laces Camouflage, using a basketweave pattern from this book; the second of two adorable little baby hats in KP Crayon for my friend who is going to cough up twins in the next couple months; the lace scarf I started a coon's age ago in Misti Alpaca (I adore lace, but I really need to be able to focus on just that while I'm doing it, lest I lose my place in the chart, and quiet time has been hard to come by around here lately); and finally, the giant cabley sweater for my beloved, which is actually really cute, even though it's enormous & black & hard to see. So yeah, I've got a lot of knitting to do. It doesn't help that I keep coming up with more cool ideas for Christmas presents for my Ma, either...

Remember I mentioned a visit from my cool pal Shanelle? Did I happen to mention the incredibly awesome needle case set she gave me??? I kid you not, this is one of my most favorite knitting items ever (all three of 'em!). See, we'd made a swap of some yarn for some needle cases, and LORDY, did I get the good end of the bargain!! There's a notions bag (big enough for all my goofy bits & bobs), a dpn case that's longer than my arm & holds every darn dpn I have, which is no small feat, and a kickass circ case that not only holds every circular needle I own, but has plenty of room for many more (that I will undoubtedly collect in the next year or two)!! Check 'em out... The fabric is beautiful, the braided ties have little wooden beads at the end, and the sewing is perfectly professional (which is amazing, because if I remember correctly, she didn't even use a pattern!!). The circ case has sixteen pockets, very generously sized, and I can even keep 'em in there in their little envelopes if I want (helps to keep tabs on what size they all are, especially if the darn needles aren't marked--the only downside to the new KP needles, imo). This is a close-up of the interior of the dpn case. I'd show you the whole thing, but I couldn't fit it all in the shot. That's how long it is. Not cumbersome-long, by any means, just perfect. There's about a million pockets, and they're just a touch wider than usual dpn case pockets, which is great because I can again fit the envelope/sleeves in them (oh, how I wish KP would brand their needles with the sizes!). Freaking awesome, I tell you. Y'all, you too can get your hands on kickass cases like these...Shanelle is working on opening an Etsy store!!! Please be patient, though, she's a busy girl with a demanding job, so I'm not sure exactly when it'll be open for business, but feel free to drop her a comment on her blog & encourage her to cough up some cases! They're really wonderful, and I fully plan on sending some as secret pal presents this winter! (And thanks again for the incredible trade, Shanelle!!)

Meme-O-Matic

2006-08-27T12:31:00.000-05:00

If you're reading this, you're tagged. So there.

1. Grab the nearest book. Open the book to page 123. Find the fifth sentence.Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.

The ensuing sock knitting craze gripped the state and assured that no Alabama soldier would lack warm socks even though he suffered from other shortages. Attached to a shipment of 1,200 pairs went this note from knitters: "{M}any willing fingers are diligently plying their needles to furnish much more of the needed socks." Those fingers continued until Alabama's heavy casualties compelled them to produce linen and bandages for hospitals.

This is taken from No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting. Damned interesting book, and though I have a copy from the library, I really wish I owned it. The passage in question is speaking of knitting during the Civil War.

2.stretch your left arm out as far as you can...what do you touch first?

Um, air? Well, the couch is over there, but I'd be more likely to whack the stack of papers & stuff-to-be-filed on the end of the desk.

3. what was the last thing you watched on tv?

Oz, the first season (again). I don't actually have cable tv (or any tv reception, for that matter), so everything I watch is on dvd or tape. I love my Netflix, lemme tell ya.

4. without looking, what time is it?

Noonish?

5. what is the actual time?

12:39

6. with the exception of the computer, what can you hear?

The neighbors banging around upstairs, the kids little pencil scratches (they're working on math & writing right now). Not much else, as the windows are closed right now, due to insane amounts of humidity.

7. when did you last step outside?

An hour or two ago, to check & see if the humidity had gone down enough to open the windows back up again. Sadly, it's still sticky as heck. NOT good for even tension on your knitting, ya know.

8. what are you wearing?

A chocolate brown scoopneck t-shirt, jeans shorts, and flip flops. Standard uniform for the summer for me.

9. when did you last laugh?

This morning, at my demented kitty.

10. seen something weird lately?

My cat carries her kitty cookie jar around in her teeth. It's just a small plastic container that holds kitty treats, and I only put in a few at a time, because she likes to take it down & open it up & eat the contents. It's really entertaining to watch her get into it.

11. what did you dream last night?

I can't remember for certain, but I know it involved my husband somehow.

12. what's on the walls of the room you're in?

A bulletin board, an Ansel Adams print, several Art Nouveau advertisements, the family coat of arms, photos of my kids & my wedding, an antique map of England & Wales, a couple mountain bikes, huge amounts of books on the bookshelves, and more music/drum gear than you can shake a stick at.

14. what was the last film you saw?

Well, lately it's been more about the tv series on dvd & the documentaries than actual movies...we watched an interesting documentary on Theremin the other day, and I watched a few silly Learn To Knit videos (sadly, I already knew everything she taught, though I can see how it'd be a good dvd for a brand-newbie). The last movie I saw in the theater was Monster House.

15.do you like to dance?

Um, not really...I'm terrible at it, so I don't really have any fun because I'm too self-conscious.

16. would you ever consider living abroad?

Heck yeah! I'd love to live in Ireland or England somewheres. Especially the Yorkshire countryside. Of course, I'd probably only live there for a limited time before I came home to the midwest, but I'd sure love to try it for a few years!

17. if you became a multi-millionaire overnight what would you buy first?

A home! Actually, what I'd buy *first* would probably be a nice dinner out. I've been dying for a really good steak for months, but can't cough up the dough for a decent steakhouse. Wildfire in Chicago calls to me. I tell ya, the filet mignon there will just about change your religion. But I digress. I'd definitely buy my cute little farm in the cornfields somewhere, and pay off my car. I'd take dh on a shopping spree at Interstate Music, just to watch him go crazy. Then I'd go on a major yarn binge, and get all the pretty colors I've ever drooled over. Heh.

18.tell me something about you that i don't know.

I've never broken a single bone in my life.

19. what would you change about the world?

Good heavens, where does one start? Well, I think the first thing I'd do is give every person an acute awareness of how their actions affect others. Just think how different our world would be if Hitler had had a conscience.

Now will it work?

2006-08-24T19:16:00.000-05:00

The aforementioned loot pictures...

Isn't it wonderful?? Lessee here, we have on the top row, starting from the left, two skeins Lorna's Laces Sock in Camouflage, two skeins Lorna's Laces Sock in Tuscany, Mountain Colors Bearfoot in ??(can't remember...I want to say Wild Cherry, or something like that), Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Obsidian, six beautiful skeins Socks That Rock (scroll down for color names), Koigu KPPPM (dunno the color, but it's purty...looks like clouds on a summer day), Koigu KPM (again, dunno the color...bright red, though, and not as brick-like as I'd thought. Oh well.), and my first skein of Opal, color unknown. Bottom row, from left, begins with some gorgeous Claudia's Hand Paints in Chocolate Covered Cherry, six skeins Malabrigo in Olive (sweater for meeeee!!), two honkin huge skeins of a squishysoft 100% alpaca 3ply that's being swatched up & blocked (sweater for my ma, who hopefully never reads this blog), three skeins Noro Kureyon, rather unfortunately purchased *before* I saw the sale table at Webs, selling the exact same thing for three bucks less per skein, and one skein Transitions by Noro. The Kureyon is already on the needles, working towards becoming a Booga Bag, and the Transitions will sooner or later become a scarf. Isn't this just the most gawjus stuff EVER?? Here we have the much-coveted Socks that Rock, in colorways Fred Flinstone, Lagoon, Ruby Slippers, Highway 30, Metamorphosis, and Terra somethingerother. Soooo pretty! Honestly, the Highway 30 is incredibly pink for me (really, when was the last time you saw something pink on this blog?), but it's just so pretty, I couldn't leave it behind. Besides, maybe it can become socks for someone else for Christmas or something. Or maybe I'll just pet it a lot. I'm such a sock ho.

And, because I am so very much in love with my sock yarn collection, I pulled the whole darn thing out & rearranged it several times, just for fun. I do have a picture of the whole beautimous thing, but of course, it refuses to post. Sigh.

I'm not dead, I swear!

2006-08-24T07:35:00.000-05:00

I am, however, massively behind in the whole posting thing. Good lord, where to begin?? Okay then, random & barely coherent it is...

First of all, I had a lovely visit from my pal Shanelle, who is an extremely talented knitter, and a fabulous seamstress as well. She's incredibly nice & interesting on the boards where we met, and REALLY nice, interesting, and damn funny in person. And, she brought me fudge, which always wins my heart. I'm cheap that way. She went with my parents, my boys & I to an old-timey steam engine show, where we went half-deaf from the engines, ate corn dogs, gawked at the awesome antique cars & tractors, and just generally had a grand 'ol time. I just love events like this...the whole thing is held in the back 40 of some old farmer guy, and there's huge trees everywhere, and old men in overalls & seed caps, and farm kids learning to run the hundred year old machinery, and fried food, and such an air of history! These are the machines that created America as we know it, and being so close to the country's history like that is just amazing to me.

Shanelle also accompanied me to that wonderous mecca of all things fiber, that black hole of finances, that paragon of yarny goodness...Stitches!!! Oh my good lord, I thought I'd died & gone to heaven. The only way it could have possibly been any better is if I'd had a special card that assured me that every skein would cost only a dollar for me that day. Hey, a girl can dream! It was soooo much fun, though. Shanelle & I were lucky enough to be at the very front of the line to get in, though we were beaten to the door by a *really* determined older woman, who got us laughing so hard that I almost couldn't walk properly. (Seriously, this lady raced us up the stairs! It was a good way to start the day, laughing & running like crazy people. Which we are.) I, of course, immediately made a beeline for Blue Moon Fiber Arts, home of the much-coveted Socks That Rock. I reeeeaaaalllly wish they'd get around to finishing the updating/upgrading of their website. Many of the colors that they had aren't listed there, and dangit, I may want some more lightweight soon! I did, however, come out of there with six skeins of the gorgeous stuff, which pleased me immensely. After we managed to pry ourselves out of that booth (omg, it was packed! I'm really glad I chose to go there first), Shanelle & I started a methodical, don't-want-to-miss-a-single-thing pattern around the room. Truly, it's the only way to do it...there's just SO much fiber, SO many beautiful colors, that you'll get completely overwhelmed & scatterbrained otherwise. I still can't believe all the fibers...it was so amazing just to touch them all! Silk & quiviut blends (oooooh my!), finest merinos, bamboo, buffalo (!!).... Endless amounts of fibers & yarns. Honestly, I just wanted to hop on the tables & roll around in it. There were gorgeous orenburg lace shawls that were so beautiful it almost made you weep, socks in every color known to man (and a few previously unknown), sweaters of every skill level imagineable. Let me tell you, quiviut lace is something everyone must feel before they die, in my opinion. It's so light, so feather-soft, you almost can't feel it as you hold it. Becoming skilled enough as to be worthy of a skein of quiviut laceweight is one of my loftiest goals.

Of course, I was a complete dolt & forgot my camera at home. You do, however, get pics of the spoils! Now, see, this is where my single-mindedness & planning really pays off...I'm really rather poor, financially speaking. Putting a day like Stitches on a credit card is just shockingly unwise, and having much extra money at any given point is highly unlikely, especially since we just bought a car. Knowing all this, I started saving money for Stitches back in May, setting a little bit aside every week, and earning small amounts here & there that also got socked away (like the stupid pun there?). I'm incredibly proud of myself for that, I'll have you know. It was WONDERFUL to be able to buy all the pretty yarns I coveted that day!! Granted, given the opportunity, I could have spent ten times what I did, but I'm still quite pleased with what I brought home.

*SIGH* It seems Blogger doesn't care to post my pictures right now. I took pics of the whole sock stash, too...grrrr. I'll try that part again another time, I suppose. My Stitches loot amounts to 14 pairs of socks, two sweaters, a Booga bag, and a scarf. Yeah!!

More at a later, more cooperative (in the Blogger sense) time...

Yarn & oddments for swap/sale!

2006-08-05T08:23:00.000-05:00

Help me clear up some space in my stash for Stitches! (Have I mentioned, by the way, how BLOODY EXCITED I AM about Stitches??) Okay, here's what I've got....

This is a sweater's worth of Hayfield Vintage DK (60% wool, 40% nylon, machine washable). There's 10 50gm balls, which adds up to about 1230 yards or so. Some have been frogged, most are in yarny cakes (I do so love having a ball winder!), but ball bands are (obviously) there. This is a really nice, soft yarn...I just don't do pink, generally speaking. This is four balls purple boucle (I think that's what you'd call it), and four balls blue boucle. I have no idea what fiber, probably acrylic, but there's no ball band. Each ball is about four ounces, so there's a pound of purple and a pound of blue (And fyi, they aren't *together* or anything...if you just want the purple and not the blue, or vice versa, that's totally okay. I just took the picture like that to save photo space.). This is all a VERY soft, fleecy chenille sort of yarn...I have no idea what it's called, but it's really soft (and likely acrylic, I'd think). There's 2.5oz of each color--blue, pink/purple/blue, and white with pastel flecks. This would make terrific baby hats, or something of that nature. This particular yarn is really neat...I'm guessing it's mohair, as it's got a pretty halo-like quality to it, and is very light & fluffy. There's 4.5oz of the natural/cream color, and half an ounce each of the grey & moss green ones (I'll just throw those two in with the cream). The pretty multicolor at the top is 13.5oz of the same fiber.These also would make great baby yarns...each ball is 1.5oz, and the two on the left are pink & yellow, the two in the middle are muted rainbow colors with a neat plied stripey effect, and the two on the right are more pastel versions of the two in the middle. Again, all wound into nice yarny cakes for you. These three are all random balls of off-white cotton. There's about 4ish ounces total. These would make good dishcloths, I think, or scrubby things.

I also have a few more things not pictured...

1lb white Red Heart (y'know those ginormous One Pound skeins? Yeah, that.)

1lb off-white Red Heart (same thing, slightly different color)

2.2oz Caron Jewel Box chenille yarn in a really pretty cream color

1/2oz Berroco Quest in Ruby Red. There's only a small amount, but maybe somebody can do something neat with it. It's really pretty!

1sk black Caron Wintuk

3sk TLC Macaroon super bulky, moss color

6oz cream/off-white cotton chenille--really nice yarn, perfect for those flower facecloths from Weekend Knitting

Interweave Knits-Spring 06 (I wound up with two of them)

Fiber Trends pattern in page protector sleeve-Chained Melody (vest)

Fiber Trends pattern in page protector sleeve-Easy Hat & Mittens

Crocheters Value Pack crochet hooks (comes with size 5, 7, & 10 steel hooks and size G, H, & I aluminum hooks, plus basic instructions)

Pile of Random Crochet Hooks (size D, H, J, E, E, I, & H)

Package of four Button Clams (weird little plastic doodads that you can place over ceramic/decorative buttons to protect them in the laundry)

And these aren't knitting-related, but they're in great shape and awfully darn cute, so it's a shame to let them go to waste, simply because my kids have huge feets...

Buzz Lightyear slippers! These are size 11-12, and they're in darn-near-new condition. The cool thing is, when the kid steps down, the buttons on Buzz's chest light up. And Mickey, too! Mickey Mouse in a car slippers, size 7-8, and like the Buzz Lightyear ones, when the kid takes a step, the headlights on Mickey's car light up. Very cute.

All of these things are up for sale or swap. I'm interested in Paypal, all kinds of sock yarns (Lorna's, CTH, Mountain Colors, STR, etc. etc), dpn cases (my sewing skills still aren't up to par yet), sock bags, gift cards, natural fibers, knitting books, whatever! Drop a line in the comments here, or over at the boards, and help me clear up some storage space for my trip to Stitches!!

I am so very blessed

2006-08-01T08:21:00.000-05:00

Y'know, I have no idea what cosmic good I've done to deserve my lot in life, but it must have been spectacular. I have the BEST swap pals right now!! Y'all know I'm in the One Skein swap, and this is the first time the organizers have done anything like this. I'm really hoping they decide to do another one over the fall/winter season, because I'm having a blast! My downstream girl is absolutely adorable, and just so much fun to shop for, and my upstream is wonderfully generous & has fabulous taste! I recently received the July box from her, and oooh my! She chose sock yarn (and heavens, how I do loves me some sock yarn) in a beautiful green/blue/purple colourway. I'd tell you the name of the maker, but it's really German, and I don't know if I'd be copying the name of the company, or simply the german words for "sock yarn". It's beautiful, though, and even comes with a really generous skein of matching reinforcement thread! Not only that, but she also sent along a Chibi, which I've been wanting for quite some time (how did you know?). It's a clear case, with blue caps, and it's perfect to toss in the pocket of my knitting bag. Thanks so much, One Skein Honey!! You rock!

I'm also really enjoying my time in the Blogosphere SP8. It's absolutely HUGE, and just way too much fun! There's about a million people involved, so it's really fun to go blogstalking & see who else is playing too. My downstream is really interesting here too, and again, it's just *so* much fun to shop for people! My upstream, though...oh my. My upstream has this weird mind-reading thing going on, and I absolutely worship at her feet. She's got a real gift for choosing the *perfect* things, and she's totally topped herself this time. I've been wanting to learn to spin for some time now, pretty much since I started knitting. I've always loved the idea of a spinning wheel, especially the classic ones that you see in museums, but I *know* that even if I could afford to buy such a thing, I'd never be able to keep it in my home! Space is soooo at a premium around here. I live in a small two bedroom apartment with my cat, two boys, all their billions of toys (omg, the legos!!), my beloved husband, and his DRUMS. There's very few musical instruments that use up more space. Fully half of what would actually be a fairly generous living room is taken up by my sweetie's drums & electronics & random gear. Long story short, there's zero room for a spinning wheel, and I don't expect to be able to get one for at least five to ten years or so. I've been eyeballing drop spindles, though I'm pretty clueless yet about the pros & cons of each. Anyway, I open up the mailbox the other day, and omg!!! The most beautiful drop spindle EVER, custom painted for ME!! My all-time favorite flower is painted on the whorl, and wow, you can almost smell the lilacs. And, it even came with some beautiful wool roving started on it, spun into the finest laceweight. I'm sure I'll goober it up when I start to spin it, but no biggie, beginners always start sorta sloppy. I'm just SO excited about this!!! Having a spindle just opens up sooo many possibilities, and I'm incredibly fortunate to live within reasonable driving distance of The Fold, which is a spinner's wet dream. I blame that store for really making me want to spin...she has these huge sacks full of rovings of all kinds, and you can stick your hand in & grope them to your hearts content. The alpaca roving is so soft it kills me, and omg, the Blue Moon Fiber Arts roving has the most incredible colors!! Of course, I'll be starting with less amazing wools, because I want to be *worthy* of the really fine stuff before I go winding it into a wad, but someday, I *will* be skilled enough to make beautiful yarns out of that stuff. Thank you thank you thank you, SP8!!! I'm just so excited about all the incredible options that are open to me now, and I can't wait to get started!

*Wanders off to roll in fiber-induced bliss coma...*

I is for Infuriating

2006-07-28T07:59:00.000-05:00

Also irritating & inconceivable. So y'all know I've been working on this pair of socks for Eldest Boy forever now. I'd finished sock #1, and Eldest Boy *loved* it. I'd gotten all the way to the toe decreases on sock #2 when something really didn't seem right...it seems I'd managed to foob up the sock all the way back at the freaking gussets. I was SO pissed. The pattern was written for four needles, but I'm definitely a five needle girl, so when I went to place the markers next to the heel flap, I clearly didn't pay enough attention. The gusset was off by a full INCH.
You can see where I've sewn a lifeline, and how the gusset mistakenly starts about seven or eight stitches away from the heel flap. Oy freakin vey! *That* is how close I was to finishing when I figured it out. Considering how bloody long it took me to get there, I was less than amused, to say the least. Here we have the lovely Tipsy, modeling the frogged sock with yarn ramen. She even looks as pissed about the whole thing as I am. She's a great cat. This was my first experience with sewing in a lifeline, and I have to say, I LOVE the thing!! Good lord, how screwed would I have been without it?? I'm afraid to contemplate. Fortunately, though, both socks are now completed, and Eldest Boy is quite pleased.

The rugrat in question modeling the socks. Note the slight bagginess around the ankles...yes, I did make them a little large, partly because it's flaming hot here right now, and I expect his feets will grow a bit by winter, when he'll want to wear them. The bagginess, however, I think is due to him having the skinniest legs ever. He's a very stringy, narrow little boy, and lordy, that makes buying pants for him tricky! Whenever I find a pair that are the right length, they're so wide around the waist that he can't keep 'em up. This is why I love summer...I can just put him in little bitty shorts, and not worry about the length. Anyway, he's thrilled to pieces that the socks are done, and now Boy the Younger is beginning to make noise about when *he'll* get socks, too. I just love children who openly encourage the knitting habit.

As for now, I'm working on my Very First Toe-Up sock, using Plymouth Sockotta (neato blue color), my kickass brand new KnitPicks dpns, and the pattern in Wendy Knits. I've just gotten past the toe on the first one, and so far, I'm loving the yarn & the fabric it creates, I'm LOVING the needles, and I'm learning to like the pattern. I really really like the idea of toe-up, especially for sizing & fit & maximum yarn usage, but holy cow, picking up wrapped stitches (especially with this yarn!) is tricksy! I'm hoping it'll feel easier on sock #2, which I'll probably cast on today. I also cast on for my husband's huge cabled sweater the other day. This thing may take all year...my beloved is a big man, 6'3", and he wants it in black (of course) with a grey stripe, so not only will it take forever to knit, but I'll need perfect lighting to do it, lest I go blind from the blackness of it. Granted, it will certainly look good on him, but oy...it's hard to see black stitches unless you've got surgical lamps over your shoulder! I'm using Wool of the Andes, because frankly, a sweater big enough to fit my sweetie would cost a bloody fortune if I used anything pricier.

And speaking of KnitPicks again, have you SEEN their new yarns?! Oooooh, I'm excited! I love the idea of a WotA Bulky...chunky sweaters in the winter just seem so cozy. The Swish Superwash is nice to have, too, for kid sweaters & such. And, most interesting, imo...the Gloss sock yarn!! A merino/silk blend (!!) in the most beautiful colors...I simply *have* to get my hands on some of that soon! Of course, all yarn shopping has been put on hold for me until Stitches. Bummer, yes, but I really want to save my pennies for the major haul that day. Yay!

I'm a swap ho

2006-07-25T20:59:00.000-05:00

Whee! More swap fun! The latest in my growing series of swaps is the Favourite Colour Swap, generously hosted by Nichole. I'm having minor issues in the whole joining-of-the-blog thing, but it'll get sorted out sooner or later, I'm sure. In the meantime, here's the 'ol questionnaire...

Favorite Color Swap Questionnaire

1. What are your top three favorite colors?

Oooh, greens (especially olive & earth toned greens...purty! But no neon or lime...they make me look like I've been dead for three days), reds, & blues. I like deep, rich colors...pastels are nice, but not my favorite. I have very yellow-olive skin, so yellow or orange tones don't work on me well...warm colors look fabulous though (think red with a hint of brown). Ooh, or maybe warm neutrals...like warm shades of brown--chocolate & coffee & camel & all kinds of things that start with c. I recently received some cream & camel colored alpaca in a trade that are just lovely! Overall, earth/warm tones are best. I'm pretty darn easy to please, though. It doesn't take much to thrill me.

2. What crafts do you really enjoy?

Knitting!!! I also crochet, though nowhere near as much since I discovered knitting. I also like cross-stitch (though I'm sort of particular about the patterns...my favorites are old samplers, especially historical ones), embroidery, a bit of sewing (I'm *really* new to it, but I'm learning!), and a little bit of paper crafts (mail art & the like). Mostly though, I adore knitting.

3. What products do you really covet?

Oh my...sock yarn is my most dearly beloved these days! Aija keeps talking about these gorgeous ebony needles that are made of reclaimed musical instruments, and that is just incredibly intriguing. I love pretty much all natural fibers, most notably merino, silk, & alpaca. Yum. I'd really really like a nice needle case--especially one with lots of pockets for the billions of circulars I have. I've been wanting to figure out how to make a dpn case for myself for a while, but since the sewing thing moves rather slowly around here, I'd certainly be happy to have one that I didn't make myself (besides, I kind of want to see a nice one, so I can try to deconstruct it in my head & figure out how to make my own!). But yeah, mostly sock yarn...all kinds, all colors. Socks That Rock, Mountain Colors Bearfoot, Koigu, Lorna's Laces, Cherry Tree Hill...they're all my soft, fluffy little friends. Good lord, I sound warped.

4. What other activities do you enjoy besides your favorite crafty things?

I love to cook & bake, I'm a rabid book addict, I really love being outside-whether it's hiking, mountain biking, or just plopped in a chair in the park (knitting, natch), just being outside amongst green living things thrills me. I'm a farm girl, born & bred, and this apartment life is HARD.

5. Is there anything you collect?

Um, sock yarn? Heh. I collect books--knitting books, certainly, cookbooks, and I really like mysteries-especially the cozy mysteries that run in a series. Yeah, they're fairly light & fluffy, but that's half the appeal. I collect antique photographs--the older, the better. I really really covet the ones that aren't posed, but they're hard to come by. I also collect antiques, anything from the first half of the century or older is wonderful. I generally only spend money on things that are still useful, but I've been known to buy things simply because they're pretty and/or they call to me.

6. What is your zodiac sign and/or Chinese zodiac symbol?

Um, I'm a Virgo, and I'm pretty sure I was born in the year of the horse, but I don't honestly put much stock into such things.

7.What are your favorite……

scents/smells?… I like fresh, green scents for personal fragrance (soap & body care), and also cinnamon-y, Christmassy fragrances (if we're talking candles & room scenting). I wear Vera Wang Sheer Veil, DKNY Be Delicious (STUPID name, really great fragrance), and Calvin Klein's Euphoria.
types of music and/or bands?…Old jazz!! I LOVE the music from the 20s & 30s, and the big band/swing of the 40s. I also like the brit bands of the 80s & 90s, like Depeche Mode, Information Society, Tears for Fears, The Smiths, etc. Actually, I like most anything, but those are my favorites.
authors?…Well, I like fluffy mystery novels, so Diane Mott Davidson, Tamar Myers, Ayelet Waldman, that sort of thing. I also really like Stephen King, Ann Rule, David McCullough, and just about anybody who can write about history, and still be interesting & maybe a little funny. I LOVE history (non-fiction, not historical novels). The only thing I really don't like is romance.
animals?…I'm a Crazy Cat Lady, without a doubt. I'm also fond of dogs & horses (my mom's a trainer, and I was heavily into horses when I was younger), but cats are my favorites by far. Especially my own demented feline.
places to shop?…Yarn stores!! Also bookstores, Amazon.com, that sort of thing. Good antique shops are soooo fun to poke around in, though I only buy once in a great while.
season?…Summer/spring. I love the renewal, the fresh warm breezes, and the way everything is so green.
yarn/fabric/paper/other craft supplies?…Oh lordy...sock yarn is my favorite! Like I mentioned above, Socks that Rock, Lorna's Laces, Cherry Tree Hill, Koigu, Mountain Colors...they're *all* my favorites. I'm awfully fond of natural fibers, but it's also nice when there's a little nylon or something in certain yarns, to keep them from wearing out quite so quickly.
candies or goodies? . . . Oooh, hard one. I'm a chocolate addict, but it's virtually impossible to ship chocolate this time of year. I like an awful lot of junk food...I've got a serious sweet tooth. There's very little that I *don't* like!

8. Do you have any wish lists?

Yep, on Amazon.com. I used to have one on KnitPicks, but they've since done away with that option, which is a bummer.

9. Are you allergic to anything?

Chlorophyll, if you can imagine. It's the stuff that makes grass & plants green, so it's pretty much EVERYWHERE. It's not a respiratory allergy, but a skin one, so when I come into contact with grass (or whatever), my elbows & knees break out. It's itchy as heck, and a little bit weird looking, but frankly, I just ignore it. I'd much rather be a little itchy than not sit on the lawn! Oh, I'm not exactly allergic to cigarette smoke, but I'm an ex-smoker, and I HATE the smell now!

10. Do you have any pets? What are they?

My beloved Crazy Kitty, Tipsy. Um, her picture is all over this blog, so I'm sure you know what she looks like by now. She's my shelter baby, and we've had her for about a year & a half. She is truly the most wonderful, patient, gorgeous cat I've ever had the privledge of knowing. And she's completely off her rocker, which is a great bonus.

11. Please include anything else you would like your secret pal to know about you- anything that would be helpful in finding you little gifts that you will really enjoy.

Gee, I dunno...I'm drawing a blank! I'm a stay-at-home homeschooling mom, I'm married to an incredible man (who is also an incredible musician...there are drums everywhere in my house!), I adore my demented kitty, I LOVE to knit, crochet, cross stitch, embroider, a little bit of sewing, read, write a little, cook, bake, dream about my someday house, I love history, especially anything from the first half of the century, Prohibition & the Depression intrigue me to no end, and I have a really warped sense of humour. I can't really think of much else right now, but if I do, I'll be sure to let y'all know!

I'm a boring sort

2006-07-19T07:45:00.000-05:00

Life experiences meme courtesy of JenLa...

Life Experiences Meme
Bold = experiences I've had
1. Bought everyone in the bar (pub) a drink
2. Swam with wild dolphins
3. Climbed a mountain
4. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
5. Been inside the Great Pyramid
6. Held a tarantula
7. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
8. Said 'I love you' and meant it
9. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby's diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 10 provinces
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer then you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your cds
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Posed nude in front of strangers
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an "expert"
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music (I help my husband sometimes...does that count?)
87. Eaten shark
88. Had a one-night stand
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror.
96. Raised children.
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
98. Created and named your own constellation of stars
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an illness that you shouldn't have survived (not an illness, but an injury)
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Petted a stingray
110. Broken someone's heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours (well, I WAS a teenager, after all)
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Petted a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
135. Selected one "important" author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146: Dyed your hair
147: Been a DJ
148: Shaved your head
149: Caused a car accident
150: Saved someone's life

FYSS, part deux

2006-07-01T20:21:00.000-05:00

And again, we try...

Ooookay, so it seems we have a four-pics-per-post rule on this particular blog. Alrighty then. Anyway, to continue with the Flash Your Sock Stash, here we have the most recent aquisition, four (!!) skeins of Mountain Colors Bearfoot, colorways Moose Creek, Yellowstone, Red Tail Hawk, and Wilderness. I can't tell you how much I adore the Mountain Colors colorways...they're just so me! And sooooft, too. These were all on sale at The Fold, which helped the whole spending money thing tremendously. I'm hoping to not buy anything else, though, until Stitches, at which time I plan to go completely apeshit with the shopping & the stash enhancement. After all, I've only been saving & waiting for this event for eight freaking months, by the time it happens, and that's pretty much my whole knitting life, so there. I'm such a pathetic schlub, I even printed out a copy of the floorplan & highlighted my most important shops to hit. Heh.

Because honestly...doesn't this yarn need more friends to keep it company??

Flash Your Sock Stash!

2006-07-01T19:30:00.000-05:00

Oooh baby...

First off, we have some Regia 4 Ply, can't remember the name of the color...Patch Antik or something like that. Next to it is a skein of that weird Austermann Step, the yarn "mit Jojoba und Aloe" built in to soften your hands as you knit. I'm really curious to try it out, but I'm waiting until winter, when my hands will benefit the most. Next to that is another skein of Regia 4 Ply, again in a color I can't remember, and yet another of same, in yet another nameless color. I'm not *usually* quite so brainless, I swear! Below those, we have four skeins of KnitPicks Sock Garden in the Hollyberry colorway, and two skeins of Ruby Red Wildfoote. Here we have two skeins of KnitPicks Essentials in Cocoa, two in Fawn, and three skeins of Nature Spun to make two pairs of socks with contrasting heels and toes (or at least I will, as soon as I figure out how). Below those, there's two skeins of KP Dancing Two Step (to be sockies for my Ma), two skeins of KP Parade Forest, and two more skeins Regia 4 Ply...I believe it's called Sand. Or something like that. Now we begin to get into the really pretty stuff, the prized bits of my collection...the handpaints. Lordy, how I do love the handpaints! First up are two skeins of KP Landscapes in Cape Cod (a very Eddie Bauer colorway, imo), two Landscapes in Mesa, which I think is just purty (and I've got a third skein just waiting to become fingerless mitts, too...how very matchy-poo of me), two skeins of Koigu in God only knows what colorway (but it's purty!), and two lovely skeins of Lorna's Laces in Blackwatch. The first two skeins are from my much-adored SP8! They're the incredibly soft Sheldridge Farms yarn, and I'm (again) not sure of the colorway name. I call 'em Atlantic Tide Pool, but that's jus' me. Next is Lorna's Laces Gold Hill...not my usual color scheme, but I love it anyway, and am pleased to try something new. Beyond that, I have four skeins of Cherry Tree Hill Possum, which has been discontinued, which is a bummer, because it's really quite soft & nice, if a bit hairy. It grosses the living heck out of my mother, who thinks all possums are like American possums, and wants to whack 'em with a shovel just on principle. Here we have some loooovely Mountain Colors Bearfoot, Rosehip on the top, and Sierra underneath it. Aren't they gorgeous?? Below that is my one lonely little skein of Socks That Rock, colorway Sapphire. My STR definitely needs some friends, don't you think? I'm really looking forward to finding some new friends for it at Stitches this August. Specifically, Sapphire's good buddies Emerald City & Ruby, among many, many others. Heh. Below Sapphire is Cherry Tree Hill Potluck Blues/Purples. It's a lot more purple in real life, but I love it anyway. Below that is Fleece Artist nameless pretty blue sock yarn. It even comes with a pattern on the band...how cool is that? In the second column, we have three random skeins of Cascade Fixation. I'm not sure if I'll actually make socks out of this. I originally bought it to make a Ben & Jerry's cozy for my mom, and maybe a couple others (I believe I got it all on sale). The stretchyness really threw me off...maybe I'll try to make socks out of it later, when I'm a bit more skilled. Below the Fixation lies my sock-yarn-that-shall-become-fingerless-mitts stash...KP Garden Daffodil, KP Garden Hollyberry (Christmas mitts!! heehee), KP Sock Memories Fly Fishing, and KP Landscape New England Foliage. The last one isn't a favorite of mine, so feel free to offer a trade, folks.

There are, in fact, two more pictures yet to post. They refuse to post here, however, so we'll have to try again in a *new* post. Ask me how I feel about this non-posting of the pictures, I dare you.

In a funk

2006-06-29T08:10:00.000-05:00

Not of the George Clinton variety, however. I've just been terribly down lately, and I'm getting tired of it. I'm one of those people who is totally understanding when others have this problem, but I have absolutely no patience for my own frailties. Bleah. The dishes haven't been done, the laundry is piling up, there are tumbleweeds in the corners in the kitchen, I haven't baked anything in ages, and I'm tired all the time. Food doesn't even taste right, which is really irritating. I've been skipping meals, though not necessarily on purpose, because nothing sounds good, and when I do make myself eat something, nothing tastes good either. One would hope that this would help me on the whole weight loss thing, which would be a major bonus & darn near worth the crappy attitude, but sadly, it's not to be. I even blew off cleaning the cat box for nearly a week, and let me tell you just how dangerous THAT can be. It's like a kitty version of Russian Roulette. (Gotta love my Stripes, though...she never did a thing to chastise me for it. Or at least if she did, she hid it so well that I still haven't found it yet...eeg...)

Anyway, suffice to say that I'm not feeling myself lately, and I'm fed up with it. In perkier news, however, my much adored SP8 sent the most lovely thinking-of-you gift a while back--a cute little notebook (I truly do have a weakness for such things, which would make a bit more sense if I wrote more, but hey, we cannot control our loves) & an awesome lotion bar in a tin. The lotion bar is wonderful--it smells incredible, and is the *perfect* size for popping into my knitting bag. I tend to have dry skin, especially if I've been working a lot, and I hate the way my hands feel on my knitting when they get that way. A couple rubs with this lotion bar, and I'm good to go! Thanks so much, SP8!! Oh yeah, and she also sent a kickass postcard that says "Friends Don't Let Friends Knit Drunk". Major wisdom right there, my friends. I *have* knit while drinking (though never fully drunk...I don't drink enough to get that far), and lemme tell ya, the stitches, they do get wonky.

And speaking of drinking, and my lovely SP8, I hereby present the very simple, yet damn tasty, aforementioned Apple Martini recipe. Shake equal parts green apple vodka & green apple Pucker (stupid name, tasty liquor) with a splash of Sweet & Sour mix & cracked ice in a cocktail shaker. Strain into giant freaking martini glass, add a maraschino cherry, sip, and holler "dayum, that's good likker!". Or, of course, you could always just be like my not-so-much-a-drinker-yet-still-Irish husband & forego the booze & just eat the stupid cherries. He's a little weird sometimes.

Before I go attempt to tackle the huge pile o' laundry, monster stack of dishes, and vacuum up an entire colony of dustbunnies, I leave you with this parting shot. We've been getting a ton of rain around here, which seems like a pain in the arse, until you remember that last year at this time we were dealing with such an awful drought that half our farmers couldn't even break even for the year (and then you sorta shut up & qwitcherbitchin). It's really slowed down the playground time for the boys, and the lack of sunshine is hard on me, but sometimes, it's all worth it in the end.... Well, there WAS going to be a pretty shot of the view from my living room window, with stormy clouds & gorgeous lighting & a pretty rainbow, but NO, Blogger REFUSES to freaking post it! Omg, I'm really getting irritated with this! I try to upload the picture, and it even goes so far as to show me the blue "done" button, but no picture ever appears!! Grrrrrrrrrr!!!

Stitch markers for swap, part two

2006-06-21T16:14:00.000-05:00

A couple more photos of stitch markers available... (For more information on the swapping of the stitch markers, refer to the original post down below this one.)

Top row, starting at the left--These first two are honey/topaz colored sets, very warm & pretty. The next two are very much like the amber/tiger's eye sets in the previous post. The fifth set in the top row is a mix of translucent & opaque blues--very nice! The second row begins with two colorful sets that remind me of aliens. The beads have tiny little bumps on them--very cute, but rather alien-y. Or maybe I'm just weird. The middle set in the second row is light blue & pink, variegated like polished gemstones. Next is a pretty blue set with tiny silver accents, and the last set is ~~a red, blue & green & crystal set with beautiful swirls of color~~swapped. In the bottom row, we have first another colorful alien set, then a GORGEOUS pink/crystal set (the large bottom beads have tiny roses painted inside them--how cool is that?!), and finally ~~three~~two colorful sets with a sparkly gold accent swirl. The top two rows of this picture are the bottom two rows of the last. The bottom row here starts with a green/crystal set with blue accents. Next is a ~~pretty translucent blue set~~ swapped, then a pink/opaque crystal set, another lovely blue set with blue flowers & butterflies, and finally a green/crystal set with red accents. The first & last ones are personal favorites of Eldest Boy, who picked the beads out himself.

Let the swapping begin!

Rubber kitty not included.

Stitch markers for swap!

2006-06-21T15:34:00.000-05:00

Up for swap--billions and billions of stitch markers! I started making a set or two for my secret pals, and then I figured I oughta use up the leftovers, and then things really got out of hand. Heh. These are all hand crafted by moi, and each set has five stitch markers included. Each set is unique, uses only glass beads (don't much care for plastic), and each set is valued at roughly $10 (US currency, and I honestly have no clue what that's worth anywhere else in the world). Some sets are identical, some are fraternal, and some even have one that's just different enough from the others to be a great end-of-round marker. Each set also comes packaged in a cute little organza drawstring bag (not pictured). And, because I'm cool like that, I'm more than happy to ship directly to your Secret Pal, with a note in the package & everything. Yay!

I'd love to swap for all kinds of yarn, especially sock yarns (Socks That Rock, Lorna's Laces, Mountain Colors, Koigu KPPPM, etc. etc.), knitting books, or make a suggestion! Just leave a comment & we'll see what we can do! First come first served, of course, since each set is unique. I'll do my best to update this post regularly, too.

And on to the sparkly little jewels themselves...

From left to right, top to bottom--The top four are very similar sets, and I really wish my camera could show you just how beautiful they are! These are probably my favorites, as they're a very warm, amber/tiger's eye color, and have tiny flecks of gold & green in them. Just beautiful! The second row starts with a funky multicolored set, followed by ~~a sparkly pink set, a pink/crystal/purple set~~ swapped, and a pink/crystal set with tiny silver flowers. The bottom row has two sets of very bright, happy stitch markers, with neato little polka dots all over. Up next, we have a gorgeous blue & bottle green set, with gold embellishments (the beads are beautifully painted with gold swirlys & tiny pink accents--just beautiful!), a cobalt blue set, and two more amber/tiger's eye sets. Second row holds a lovely red/crystal set, a stunning red/white/black set, and two very colorful sets that remind me of fruity frozen cocktails. Bottom row starts with two colorful sets with tiny silver butterflies, and two pretty dark red/silvery black (like malachite) sets. The top two rows of this photo are the bottom two rows of the last, but the bottom row starts out with a pretty purple/crystal set with tiny silver dragonflies, a purple set, and then two more of the dark red/malachite sets.

I survived my HS reunion, and all I got was this kickass knitted shirt

2006-06-19T08:21:00.000-05:00

So I made it through my high school reunion! It was the most surreal night ever...all these people I'd grown up with, but hadn't seen in a decade. They all looked like grownups, for the most part, and that was really bizarre. Most everyone is doing pretty darn well for themselves, which is good to hear, though it was sad to note just how many people have been divorced already.

I'm glad I went...all horrible nervousness aside, I'm glad I got the opportunity to see what everyone's been up to, and to show them all that I didn't go & self-destruct or anything weird like that. It was also good to realize how much *I've* grown up since then, too. I've put on a large amount of weight, which is especially awkward because I was always the really skinny one, and while I don't look bad or anything, I do feel pretty unhappy about it. I'm also really short, so the weight doesn't get distributed nearly as well as on taller people. I have to admit, for a time there I was feeling like the squat little troll next to everyone, but I'm glad that I was able to shake that off, more or less. It was also hard going in there without a fabulous career. Several of my friends are doing incredible things, and are really successful in their respective careers, and I am SO happy for them for that! Unfortunately, saying "yeah, I'm a mom" doesn't get quite the wow effect that most jobs get. It was interesting to see what others expected of me, too. One guy was absolutely certain I'd be a vet by now! I have to admit, that's really flattering, in a weird sort of way.

It's good to know that I have done a few things right since high school. I've got two adorable, frightfully intelligent little boys, and I've got the ability & skill to homeschool the little weasels. I've got a gorgeous husband who truly loves me (and it's painfully obvious to anyone around that he does...which is SO cool!), a successful marriage, and a happy home life. I can pretty much guarantee that if I did have the cool career, these are the things that I'd be longing for & wishing I had. The grass is always greener, eh?

I am bummed that I missed out on meeting Aidan at the World Wide Knit In Public Day in Chicago, though. Personally, I love to knit in public, and do it as often as I can. You can elicit some really strange looks from people that way. Most recently, I knit at a vintage baseball game, in the rain, no less (fortunately, we were under a park shelter, so my sock didn't get wet, but it sure was humid! Made the needles feel sticky.). I figured since they're playing by 1859 rules & everyone's in (semi) period attire, me & my sock knitting should fit in just fine. Eldest Boy was pleased, too, because it's *his* sock that I'm working on right now. I promised myself that I'd finish his socks (top down, basic stockinette with heel flap) before I'd allow myself to cast on any more socks and/or boy items. I've actually had these socks on the needles for a month or two now, and I feel awful for it. I don't generally mind letting a WIP languish, except that he's so excited about them, and gets these big hopeful eyes every time I sit down to knit. I'm determined to finish them this week, mostly so I can make him happy, but also so I can cast on a couple more pairs of socks. I'm such a junkie. Anyway, I'm dying to try Wendy's Toe Up socks, from Wendy Knits, and I'm also just giddy with excitement over receiving Sensational Knitted Socks, and can't WAIT to pick a pair to work on from there. There's literally hundreds of options, once you take into account all the pattern variations, and the fact that she works each pattern on 4 dpns, 5 dpns, AND 2 circs. I mean, dayum! How can I choose??

I'd also like to cast on for a boy sweater sometime soon, too. I've got everything I need, but again, I promised myself I'd finish the socks first. I like to have a nice variety of things on the needles, so I can work on complicated things when I've got time, and simpler things when I'm watching a really interesting movie, etc. I've got the pattern all picked out--just a very simple rollneck sweater, but one that promises to look really cute on my weasels. My only concern is even if I make it huge right now, will they have grown out of it already by fall? They're such stretchy little people...Boy the Younger has recently had a bizarre arm growing incident that has me thoroughly baffled. He tried on a long sleeved shirt from last fall, and while the body of the shirt fits just fine, the sleeves are about 3/4 of the length down his arms now. HOW can just his arms grow?? He doesn't look like a disproportionate gorilla or anything...what the heck happened there?! I know the shirt didn't shrink somehow, either, because we tried on three or four, all with the same effect. Sheesh. So yeah, I'm a bit nervous about knitting sweaters for those two.

Speaking of knitting shirt-like garments, I did finish my Picovoli!! I didn't get to wear it to the reunion, but that's okay, because it was surprisingly cold & rainy that day. It's not yet blocked, but it is finished otherwise. Blocking will involve setting up my ironing board in my kitchen, which is a big 'ol in-my-way pain in the rear, so I've been sort of putting it off a bit. I really do want to get on that, though, so I can wear the darn thing in public. It's SO snug right now! I've heard good things about blocking this particular shirt, though, so I'm hopeful. Sadly, I'm completely picture-less today, but I hope to remedy that soon.

Other things that I need to take pictures of--my One Skein Secret Pal sent me the most GORGEOUS skein of Malabrigo!!! The color is called Hollyhock, and it's absolutely beautiful...shades of violet & purple that almost glow. I'm going to have a tough time deciding what to make with it. I suspect I'll spend a good deal of time just petting it for a while. Malabrigo is just the softest thing EVER, imo. Thanks, OSH!!!

H is for Ponies! No, wait...

2006-06-05T09:30:00.000-05:00

Yeah yeah, I'm horribly far behind on my ABCalong. Deal. Anyway, H is for...
McEachan. Wait...that begins with M...but whatever. This is my mom's latest love last month. He's still mostly a baby, so he's not grown into the gorgeous Freisian that he will become, but he's not half bad right now. She also owns a couple quarter horses...

This is Mozette, and her son Andy, but don't ask me which is which. They're virtually identical, and look like bookends when they stand together. This photo was taken last summer, as you can see by the height of the corn in the background. Andy is actually even bigger now, and is fully in training (Mom trains horses for a living, though she's semi-retired now, and mostly just working on her own ponies these days). Mozette was quite the showhorse in her day, but she's mostly retired too, and spends most of her time telling the other horses where to go & how to stand. She enjoys her job. She's a daughter of Mosby, who is a big fat hairy deal in the AQHA* world, and I believe he's even been made into a Breyer horse. McEachan's daddy was made into a Breyer horse just this year, too. His name is Goffert 369, and he's puuuuurty. Then there's also this guy. This is Forrest Gump (no kidding), a quarter horse gelding. This isn't the best pic of him, but the only one I've got. He was getting Reserve Grand Champion at some show or another in this shot, hence the huge honkin ribbon & goofy grin on my mom there. He's a great show horse too, but he's edging into retirement as well, partially due to aggravating allergies. (Yep, horses get icky allergies too. Drives them nuts, sometimes even worse than it does people.)

She's also got a cute-as-a-button older'n dirt pony (yeah, a real pony, not just a horse with a silly nickname) for the boys named Henry Ryder. I'd post pictures of him, because he really is cute, but the only shots I have of him have my sons in the picture too, so y'all just have to take my word for it.

Sadly, the pic that was *supposed* to be at the end of the previous post refused to post, and I'm beginning to think there's something wrong with the picture itself, because I can't get it to post here either. Oy. Sorry about that...but believe me, it was a cute cat & yarn shot. Feh.

*AQHA is the American Quarter Horse Association. Basically, the breed registry, and if I'm not mistaken, one of the largest registries in the world. Mosby has sired all kinds of world champions, which is pretty durn cool, imo.

Yay, SP8!!

2006-06-03T08:38:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I meant to post this last week, but blogger has been giving me fits, so things have been moving slowly on the computer front. Last week, I found the most gorgeous postcard in my mailbox, from my AWESOME Evil Secret Pal! It had huge hanks of handdyed yarn on the front, with lilacs tucked in amongst the strands. I'm beginning to think that my secret pal is psychic...lilacs are far & away my favorite flower! She's quite a tease, too, and for good reason. Yesterday, I got a box in the mail from a nameless sender. Heh. Everything in it was beautifully wrapped in bright, cheery summery colors, and I'm sorry to say that I didn't think to take any pictures before I tore into it. I literally squealed out loud, which if you know me, is quite a thing...I am *not* the squeal-y type. My wonderful secret pal sent me Sensational Knitted Socks, by Charlotte Schurch, which I have been coveting forEVER!! I am SO excited about this book!! (I even called my mom to squee about it, and now she thinks I'm insane...she doesn't get the joys of a book about socks. But geez, it's got detailed instructions for working TONS of gorgeous socks & stitch patterns on 4 dpns, 5 dpns, AND 2 circulars!! I mean, GEEZ!! How cool is that!) Not only did I receive this cooler'n hell book, but she also sent stitch markers, a needle & hook gauge card, AND the most gorgeous handpainted sock yarn from Shelridge Farm! It's in beautiful shades of blue, and makes me think of Atlantic tide pools. I can't wait to see how it knits up! It's incredibly soft, too, which is always appreciated. My Secret Pal rocks!!! Honestly, anyone who can make *me* squeal out loud, thus freaking the heck outta my cat, is awesome. Thanks, Secret Pal! (Sorry for the weird quality of the picture...it's the best natural light I could get, but there's shadows from the sliding glass door & balcony railing...oy.)

Crazy Kitty sez this yarn belongs to her. (No, I didn't pose the cat...she did that by herself, and frankly, I couldn't pose this cat if I tried.)

My husband calls 'em "boozles"

2006-05-18T20:02:00.000-05:00

Yay springtime! Well, at least I'll be able to say that next week...this week, frankly, has sucked. At least in the springtime department. It's been cold & rainy almost non-stop for YEARS. Okay, just a few days, but geez! It's May! It's supposed to be all purty & warm! Honestly, I should stop complaining, because we had a nasty drought last summer & this rain is sorely needed. Still, the greyness bites. I've got a raging case of seasonal affective disorder, which is all associated with light levels & such, so cloudy days really slow me down. It's supposed to be nice & warm & sunny next week, though, so yay spring!

In the meantime, I've got my Mother's Day presents to keep me entertained--dh bought a set of martini glasses & a cocktail shaker set for me for Mother's Day. Doesn't that make me sound like the worst alcoholic? Actually, we rarely drink, largely because we're pretty darn impoverished, and alcohol ain't cheep. Also, dh doesn't really like alcohol (only Irishman I've ever met who has never been drunk. Seriously.). I like a cocktail now & again, though, since I'm not a beer drinker. On a recent (much deserved) girls night out with Brandie, I discovered the joys of apple martinis (thanks, Bran!!). They are good. Dangerous good. And, it turns out, I make a damn fine one at home, for way less than in a bar. Bonus--it's purty! Slainte!

Holy pic-intensive post, Batman!

2006-05-05T08:45:00.000-05:00

Oy, it's been a while again! You'd think I'd get better about posting more regularly...yeah, you'd think that, wouldn't you? Heh. Things have been busy at Chez Spaz. This...

Has finally become this...

Yep, it's the exact same sweater. Don't ask me why the colors are so off--it was even the same camera that took the pictures. Sheesh. Anyway, the bottom pic is WAY more accurate for the color, and yes, I'm standing on my bed. Don't tell my mom. Or my kids, for that matter. It's not *entirely* finished, though...I still need to weave in the ends, but I'm not quite ready to commit to that. Isn't that pathetic? See, I'm kind of thinking that the neck needs to be taken back a couple rows, but that would be SUCH a pain in the arse, because it's a top down. Basically, I'm procrastinating like crazy, largely because it's too damn warm out to wear this thing now anyways. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure not complaining about the warm. I LOVE the warm, it's just that the warm isn't exactly compatible with the BigAss Giant Chunky Sweater, y'know? It really was fun to make, though, and it was a dandy first sweater. My gauge was, I swear, TWO stitches to the inch. Yowza.

Currently on the needles are... A fluffy green scarf for my dear friend Brandie, which also counts as G is for Green...

It's made out of JoAnne's brand Angel Hair, with a strand of fun fur held together to give it that sort of kablooie look. It's simple garter stitch, which makes it really nice to work on while watching particularly interesting or detail oriented television.

Also on the needles is this sock for Eldest Boy...

This is a very plain, simple stockinette kid sock with 1x1 ribbing at the cuff, in Patons Kroy sock (I think the color is called Krazy Stripes, or some dopey thing like that). Eldest Boy is very pleased about this, which is really nice to hear, though he does pester me to work on his sock an awful lot. I'd really like to cast on the second sock soon, too, as I really feel that it's just smarter to work two at once for me, otherwise, sock #2 may never see the light of day.

And finally, the last item currently on the needles...

Ze Picovoli ist finally in production! Yay! The reasons for this are twofold--first, I really did want to make this soon, as the irritation produced by finishing the BigAss Giant Chunky Sweater just in time to *not* wear it is pretty severe. The second reason is that I'd really really like to wear it on June 10th--my high school reunion. (Eek!) I was soooooo NOT the crafty creative type in high school, and I'm betting nobody will believe that I actually knit now. Knitting is such a big part of my life, which is kind of dorky, but there ya go. I'd really like to be able to say yeah, I made *this*. It's a rather big accomplishment, to me, to be able to take sticks & string & create actual clothing that not only fits, but actually even looks kinda cute. It's kind of a lot to be riding on a little pile of blue cotton (KnitPicks Shine, in River, btw), but there it is. Is that lame? Well, regardless, it's a fun knit anyway, and oh my, Shine is sooo soft! I've really only worked with ubercheap cottons before, so this is a really pleasant surprise. I loves me some KnitPicks!!

And now, for you yarn p0rn addicts, my latest acquisitions...

From left to right, Mountain Colors Bearfoot (no idea what the color is called, but it's GORGEOUS. Sadly, it shows up really dark in this pic, but it's got lots of reds with bits of autumnal shades, like olive & rust & browns--just beautiful!), Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Black Watch, and Regia Patch Antik in Kuba. The Regia link takes you to Little Knits, which has excellent customer service, and TONS of sales. The Regia in question is still on sale, in fact. Also, speaking of excellent customer service & kickass prices, I highly recommend Chez Casuelle. This shop has my much-lusted-after Malabrigo, in shitloads of colors, for only $10.95!! AND, she does free shipping for orders over $25. This is the shop where I got my Lorna's, and I've also got some burgundy Malabrigo on order from them as well (though it's backordered right now). It's a newer shop, I believe, but I'm loving them thus far.

Also, I had the good cheapass fortune to come across enough coupons to get these two...

If I've not mentioned yet how much I love the Yarn Harlot, well, I've been seriously remiss. I've read both of her previous books, and this book does not disappoint. There's more technical instruction in this one than the other two, but it's still just as entertaining as ever. The other book is one that I've been eyeballing at the library for ages, and is widely known as a good basic pattern book, so when I had a 50% off coupon at JoAnns, well, how could I not? Yeah, I'm weak.

In other exciting geeknews, I've signed up for Secret Pal 8 (blogosphere version)! I'm really excited about it, and to my upstream SP, I promise I'll get my questionnaire up soon!

SP8 Questionnaire

2006-05-04T10:13:00.000-05:00

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

Geez, I'm pretty darn easy to please! I LOVE alpaca, and merino wool, and pretty much any natural fiber. I'll happily use/buy acrylics, if they're nice & soft & in good colors. Squeaky acrylics aren't so great, but that's kind of a given. Plymouth Encore is a good example of a decent one...it's what I use for sweaters for my boys. I'm in deep lust over Malabrigo, as are most folks, and I also love Cascade 220 & Manos. I've never actually worked with Meunch's Touch Me, but I plan to one day make a pair of Fuzzy Feets out of them...I hear they turn to velvet when felted, due to the wool core! Mmm... Anyway, I'm also a HUGE sock fiend. I loves me some Socks That Rock, and pretty much all of the popular sock yarns--Cherry Tree Hill, Lorna's Laces, Mountain Colors, Koigu, etc. etc. I really like superwash sock yarns, but honestly, for something as small as socks, I don't mind handwashing. Pretty much the only yarns I *don't* like are novelty yarns...I'm not a big fan of overly trendy stuff anyway, and they just don't look good on me.

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

Well, I'm a cheapskate, so I use a 97 cent pencil bag from Walmart for dpns, and another in a different color for crochet hooks & odds & ends. Straights currently live in a basket under my chair in my little corner, and circs are residing in an expandable file folder (letter size). Honestly, though, I'm not very happy with the circ situation...I'd love any suggestions for better storage! I've got about a million circular needles thus far...

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

Honestly, I've only *really* been knitting since January, all of four months. I'm really pretty darned adventurous, though, and there's very little that I don't want to try (okay, nothing that I don't want to try sooner or later), and I've made a pretty broad variety of items thus far. I guess you could say I'm an adventurous intermediate, listing towards the newbie side. Heh.

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

Yep! I loves me some Amazon. Last I checked, I had one at KnitPicks too, but I'm annoyed that there's no wishlist button under the Memories sock yarn, or several other yarns, for that matter. My Amazon list is enormous, though...

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

For candles, I love spicy, fall fragrances (since I don't burn candles much in the summer...the windows are always open, and candles + breeze= not so great), like Yankee Candles' Brown Sugar & Spice. I also love coffee/vanilla candles--Target had a coffee bean candle for a while that was WONDERFUL. The jerks don't carry it anymore, though. I tend to prefer lighter, citrusy scents for bath products, especially citrus/mint combos. Oh, and a good fresh cut grass smell is wonderful in just about anything. But then I'm weird like that.

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

Oh my yes! I have a rather overactive sweet tooth...I love all kinds of candies, most notably chocolate (though it's tricky to ship in the summer), caramels (the buttery chewy kind-especially homemade!), Twizzlers, fudge (oooh, maple fudge! mmmm...), and all kinds of baked goods. Y'know, I'd LOVE recipes for such things as well, if anyone wants to share a good one!

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

I love all sorts of crafty things...I knit & crochet (though knitting takes definite precedence these days); I love embroidery & cross stitch; I can do needlepoint, though I've not thought of a project in some time; I can't draw worth a darn, but I love to color with colored pencils in those silly Dover coloring books--makes me feel like a kid again; I like to write a bit, and have a weakness for pretty journals (which is really kind of dumb, because I don't write THAT much, especially now that I have a blog, but the weakness persists); I make soaps & toiletries as part of a teeny tiny home business; I like to pretend that I can sew, and I WILL learn to use my sewing machine one day; I love to cook & bake, though it's not a really crafty sort of thing; as far as spinning goes, I'd sooo love to learn! I won't be able to afford ($$ or space) a wheel for many moons to come, but in the meantime, I've been eyeballing this drop spindle kit (scroll to the bottom of the page--it's the Deluxe Kit) for a while now. It looks like a heckuva deal, as you get a top whorl spindle, a full color instruction book (VERY much needed!), and two 1/4lb NZ Corriedale rovings for all of $30! Granted, I don't know much about spinning, so if someone knows of a better deal on these items elsewhere, please let me know! I'm going to wait until Stitches Midwest, and see if I can find a similar, cheaper kit there, and if not, I'm gonna git me some spinning fun when I get home. Besides, with such a small investment (versus that which a wheel would require), if I decide that spinning isn't that big of a thrill (which I doubt), it won't kill me to have spent the money, you know? And, if I decide I *do* like it, I'll be able to go to the Fold & drool over her huge sacks of alpaca roving some more, and actually do something with them (besides want to crawl inside & take a nap).

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

I love all kinds of music! I'm lucky enough to be married to a professional musician, so we have a *wide* variety of music in our home. I particularly love old jazz, especially from the twenties & thirties (and I really love WWII-era big band & swing, too!). I also really like 80s brit bands, like Depeche Mode, Information Society, The Smiths, etc. I'm into recent stuff as well, though boy bands & bubblegum pop annoys me (for example, the whole Britney Simpson/NSync/whatever the crap thing). Dh introduced me to a lot of good world music, and I'm a sucker for Celtic tunes (dh is Irish). Sting & U2 will always be my all-time favorites, though! Sadly, I can't do MP3s on my computer, though regular mix cds would be great! Honestly, I like tons of music, and am always open to hearing new bands, especially regional ones (like if they're big in Scotland, but no one's heard of them here) or little known acts that are really talented.

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 really don't have a favorite color...in clothing, I tend to stick to neutrals, with browns & greys & olive greens figuring in a good deal. Basic black, too, of course. I have yellow skin & dark hair, so yellow tinged colors don't look good on me--for example, I can wear blue based reds, and really like them, but orangey reds just look weird on me. Straight yellow makes me look sort of dead, which is a bummer, because I like the color. I've noticed that I've been drawn to colors in knitting that are very jewel-toned, like Cherry Tree Hill type blues & reds. I'm not usually into such bright colors, but boy, those yarns are compelling! It's nice, really, because it's helping to break me out of my color rut. My favorite yarn colors, lately, are deep, rich colors, like the aforementioned jewel toned blues & greens & reds. I'm not a big fan of pink, and I don't care for light purple, but darker shades are okay. I like warm colors, I suppose. As far as color family, I think fall looks best on me, but again, I'm in a wee bit of a rut, so I'd welcome anything.

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

I'm incredibly happily married to my husband of eight years, and we have two awesome sons together. If you've looked at this blog for more than four seconds, you'll know that I have a demented little stripey cat, named Tipsy McTilt. She has a bit of a head tilt, hence the name. She's my little shelter baby, and just a wonderful (if insane) kitty.

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

I wear scarves all the time in the winter--those northern Illinois prairie winds can be brutal, don'cha know. Hats & mittens all the time too, though I tend to prefer gloves with fingers if I can help it. It makes it easier to channel surf on the radio in the car if I have fingers. Of course, I've always wanted to try making those thrummed mittens, so someday I'll just have to get over my finger thing. I'm not a poncho girl at ALL, but I do love a good shawl or wrap. I'm always cold, it seems, so it's nice to have things to snuggle up in.

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

Geez, what a tough question!! I like everything, really! I like to have multiple items on the needles, so I can pick & choose what to work on based on my mood & other activities at the time. I always like to have a big project going, like a sweater or something, and a small, portable one (or two!), like socks or mitts or something. I also like to have one that's really brainlessly easy, so that I can still work even while watching an incredibly interesting movie or tv show. It's nice to have something with a little bit of a challenge to it, too, to sort of balance the easy item. I really really like socks, and I REALLY like sock yarn (it's such an addiction!). I'm really looking forward to getting into lace soon, as it's just incredibly beautiful, and it looks to be a really fun challenge. I've not done any colorwork yet, but I plan to someday!

13. What are you knitting right now?

I'm mostly working on my Picovoli, in hopes that I can finish it in time to wear it to my high school reunion in June. Also, I'm working on a green fluffy scarf for a friend, a pair of Kroy socks for Eldest Boy, and I really hope to cast on for an Elizabeth I scarf (lace!!) soon. I've got a list of projects on deck that's about a mile long, too...

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?

Absolutely!!

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

I use both, but I'm not very fond of my straights. Most of my straights are aluminum, and too bloody long. I have a few that are shorter & bamboo, and I LOVE those! I don't care for plastic needles at all, and I pretty well hate the aluminums that I've already got, so I'd say I definitely prefer bamboo or hardwoods. I really like circular needles, especially because I can use them if I don't have the appropriate size of straights for a lot of projects. I just wish I had a better way to store them all! Oh, and as long as we're talking needles, I loves my bamboo dpns! Especially the sock ones--they're really short, and that's just awesome, imo.

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

Yes, and I'm absolutely in love with them!!

17. How did you learn to knit?

I taught myself out of a book. It was a rough start at first, as I messed up the stitches & didn't realize it for a long while, and was simply knitting incorrectly for a long time. When I figured it out, I put the needles down in disgust & didn't pick them up again for two months. When I finally *did* pick them up again, I was armed with a new book & a lot more determination, and here I am! I've never had a single lesson, and have only had to have one or two things shown to me. I have to admit, I'm very proud of that--I taught myself to crochet out of a book as well.

18. How old is your oldest UFO?

Well, it depends on how you look at it...if it's knitting only, then the oldest one is only a week or two old. If it's anything, well, I started a beautiful crocheted blanket for my youngest son a couple years ago. It's blue & yellow, with white accents, and it's been languishing untouched for AGES. I feel really guilty about it, because he was very excited about the blanket. Oy.

19. What is your favorite holiday?

I really love Christmas! I can't decide if it's more fun to be the mom, who gets to decorate the house, & plan everything, & do all the shopping, or if it's more fun to be the kid, who gets to live with such incredible anticipation, and doesn't have to pay the bills. I'm very much into the whole cozy family holiday thing. It helps that I have a cozy family, though. I also really love Thanksgiving, because I looooves me some turkey! Fourth of July is fun, too, because it's all warm & sunny & beautiful out, and the boys just love the fireworks. Any excuse to break out the grill is a worthy holiday in my book.

20. Is there anything that you collect?

Yarn? Heh... Well, technically, not really, but I suppose you could say I collect books. Especially good cookbooks, and antique books, and mysteries. And history books. And cat related books (fiction or non). And knitting books. And cross stitch pattern books. Um, yeah, I collect books. And sock yarn. And other yarns. I also sort of collect really really old cartoons, like the picture show shorts from the 20s through the early 50s. I've got several good sets of early Disney cartoons (LOVE Mickey Mouse, & the weird Silly Symphonies!), and some cheap dvds of really early Warner Brothers ones. Black & white or color, I love them all. But mostly yarn. And books.

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

Oooh, this could be a dangerous question! I'm insane with lust over Malabrigo yarn, and most sock yarns. I'd love to get my paws on the Vogue Stitchionary, and the second Stitchionary (it's supposed to be all cables!!). Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks looks way too cool as well, and I'd really love to read Wendy Knits. I'd love any cool sock books, and any good lace ones too (A Gathering of Lace is gawgeous!!). I'm a pattern hoarder, and I'm nutty about sock patterns, lace patterns, cabled/aran patterns, and really pretty much anything. I keep most of my patterns in a three ring binder, so I'd be happy to have individual, single patterns, too! I'm really curious to work with Meunch Touch Me yarn someday--it's so bloody expensive (and for so little yardage!), I've never actually bought any, but oooh, it feels nice! I really want to try making a pair of fuzzy feets out of it...I hear it has a wool core, so it felts into a fabric that's just like velvet. Mmmm... I know this isn't really a knitting book, but I've been lusting after Jane Greenoff's Cross Stitch Antique Style Samplers for ages. There's a pattern in there for an old map of England that I'm dying to make!! Yes, I'm a hopeless geek. Ooh, and any Nancy Bush books, too...the only one I own is Knitting Vintage Socks. She's always got such neat patterns! As far as magazine subscriptions, I already subscribe to Interweave Knits, which is fabulous. I'm honestly not all that impressed with many of the others, though, so this is the only one that I get.

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

Oh heck yeah! Actually, there really aren't any I *don't* want to learn! Steeks won't be for many many moons to come, but I'll get to them eventually. Colorwork will hopefully be within the next year or so, and lace will be (hopefully) started yet this month sometime. I consider pretty much every aspect of knitting to be an enjoyable challenge, and am always looking forward to the next new thing. I also really want to learn to spin, and hope to get myself a drop spindle & how-to book sometime soon, and one day (when I'm considerably wealthier, with lots more room to spare), I'll have an actual spinning wheel. How cool is that??

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

Absolutely!! I've been pretty much addicted to socks from the get-go. Um, I'm not sure what foot measurements you'd need...I wear about a size 6 1/2 shoe (american, obviously), and my foot is approximately nine inches long. They're a little on the narrow side, and I have no arch at all (really! I leave flat footprints when my feets are wet...it looks like a giant duck walked through...). Oh my, I would loooove a nice pair of hand knitted socks! It sure would be nice to have something to compare my own efforts to, and honestly, who doesn't love hand knitted socks?!

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

08/31

Sorry for the length of the post, y'all...I am nothing if not loquatious, and I'm a sucker for these goofy poll/questionnaire things.

Dang, I nearly forgot!

2006-04-17T08:20:00.000-05:00

It's Crazy Kitty's birthday today! Well, sort of...she's a shelter baby, so we're not exactly sure when her birthday really is. We brought her home from her foster house a year ago today, though, so we figure this date is as good as any to celebrate her birthday. Yeah, we're dorks like that. Anyway, Tipsy is officially four years old today, and I honestly can't imagine life without her. She's completely insane, thoroughly entertaining, and absolutely beautiful. Did I mention insane? Happy Birthday, pretty girl!!

Heavens, how time flies

2006-04-17T07:58:00.000-05:00

It's been a busy April down at the Front. The weather here has been downright stunning (a record 84 last week!!), so I've been hauling the weasels outside as much as possible. The only downside to this is it takes me away from the computer, thus dragging out the time between posts here. Whoops. And y'know, what is it about pulling up a "compose" page that makes your brain go all blank, anyway? Sheesh...

The Bigass Chunky Giant Sweater is actually almost finished, I think. I need to weave in ends & block it, and I'm debating taking the collar back by a couple rows, but beyond that, it's done. Photos will have to wait a bit, though. I'm really pleased to have this finished...I'm dying to cast on Picovoli, and while I really do love the BCGS, and it is actually fairly flattering to my chunky figure, it really is a large project to go hauling all around to knit on. I mean, between the sweater & the accompanying yarny cake, it was HUGE. Had it's own bag & everything. It didn't use all the yarn I bought for it, either, which is remarkable...I'd originally purchased four hanks of Burly Spun for this pattern, but it turns out that it only required 2 3/4 hanks, so now I've got a big pile of superfat just-this-side-of-roving red yarn. Maybe I could make a hat and scarf set, or something similar...

Today is unfortunately not going to be a very knitty kind of a day. I've got a bunch of errands to run (oh, the life of a mother), and I've got to prepare for a class I'm teaching tonight. Eek. It's a home spa sort of thing, an offshoot of my soapmaking business thing, and while I've taught this very same class several times before, I'm still getting all kinds of nervous. It's totally worth it for what they're paying me, and I fully plan on setting the money aside for Stitches (woohoo!), but yow...public speaking sucks! It's too bad I can't knit while I teach...

Huh?

2006-03-25T12:54:00.000-06:00

It's time again for Random Randomness, brought to you by the letter F. First up in our Random Randomness today--music! Yup, I've recently discovered two new tunes that just thrill the socks off me. Heh. Anyway, y'all have no doubt heard of these artists already, as I am almost always hopelessly behind the times, but whatever. The first new amusement is a really interesting fella called Matisyahu, a Hasidic Jew who does reggae. Seriously. It's actually really darn good, too, even though I'm not exactly a huge reggae fan. The Jamaican accent is a little questionable--sometimes it sounds like maybe he spent too much time on his Grandma's farm in Minnesota as a kid--eh? Yah. The music is incredibly well done, though, and the lyrics (at least what I can process of them...the brain doesn't work as fast as it used to) are really interesting & well written. Honestly, King Without A Crown is the only tune I've actually heard yet, but between that one & the reviews, I think I need to own this disc. I'm telling you, this kid is good.

The other awesome new music in my little world is KT Tunstall, a chick from Edinburgh who has only fairly recently come to light here in the states. At least to my limited knowledge, anyway. Her single Black Horse And A Cherry Tree is really bluesy & strong, and makes me crank up the radio in the car & sing really loudly. Actually, I'm even more thrilled about this disc since my beloved husband surprised me with it the other day. Score some major brownie points for the sweetie there. There's really only a couple songs on the disc that aren't just awesome, and dang, but I was needing some good strong female vocals lately! So yay on that one.

Next on this edition of RR, your latest installment of the ABCalong...

F is for Finished!! (Finally!)

My Very First Sock(s) is finally finished! They are knit in KnitPicks Parade, which is apparently on its way out the proverbial door, so if you wants some, best gets some now. I used an evil Lion Brand top down pattern, and it'll be the LAST time I use that one. I did, however, get some fabulous help from Entrelac and Socks 101, without which I very well may have gone completely insane. No, the stripes aren't lined up properly, but it's my first pair, so I'm not that concerned yet. They're close enough to make me happy, and I like that folks refer to this kind of pair as "fraternal". Heh.

Now that the socks are finally off the size 3 dpns, I'm free to cast on my second fingerless mitt in the round, except I've already got the first fingerless mitt on size 3 straights, and I don't like working from both ends of a ball. Sigh. I really hope that this won't give me Second Mitt Syndrome.

Finally on the RR show, my most recent stash acquisition...lace! I've been wanting to try my hand at knitted lace for a while now, so I snagged the Elizabeth I pattern from KnitPicks (which then mysteriously disappeared off the site shortly thereafter), and a few skeins of laceweight as well. From top to bottom, they are Gossamer in Leprechaun, Shadow in Sunset, Alpaca Cloud in Moss, and Shimmer in Morning Mist. The Shimmer especially feels incredible...suuuuper soft & silky. I love the Alpaca Cloud as well, though I've heard that some folks have frustrations with it due to how thin it is. I have no idea which one I'll start first, or when, but I'm excited anyway.

I'm still working on the aforementioned fingerless mitts, obviously, and also the Bigass Giant Chunky Sweater. The Bigass Giant Chunky Sweater is amazing...very soft, very warm, and very huge. I'm using Burly Spun, and a pattern that I picked up from a lys (but can't remember the name of). It comes in these huge fluffy hanks, and winding it into a ball was tricky, to say the least. The ball was simply too big for my standard ball winder, and I had to move the little metal doodad around just to be able to finish winding it up. That first pic is seriously the post-winding yarnycake, and that's even after I'd already knitted the collar section. The cat isn't far away, the yarnycake is actually sitting right on top of her, and she's no kitten. I mean, geez...it even makes my hands look small! It's not as pink as it looks, though, it's really a gorgeous rust color, and I'm really excited about it. Except that it will almost certainly be done just in time for me to turn on the air conditioner.

Playing catch-up, always

2006-03-19T07:30:00.000-06:00

So, here we are again, behind on the ABCalong doodad. You can't see me rolling my eyes, but trust me, they're a-rollin. Am I the only one who has crazy fantasies about being ahead of everything for a change? Anyway, without further griping and/or whining, here it is...

E is for Educational Excess

So I went to a two day homeschool conference last weekend, a veritable bonanza of educational information. By the end of the second day, my brain had melted & leaked out my ear. There was just SO MUCH INFORMATION. Quite overwhelming, let me tell you. These photos are only a small fraction of the material I wound up taking home, and they don't include the books & things I bought, either (did you know there's an Elementary Algebra for seven year olds? Me neither, but The Boy is starting on it next week). Don't worry, I'm not overloading my kid by any stretch. He's extremely eager, and loves to "do school", especially math. As for me, I wasn't so hot in math, and I really don't look forward to higher studies in that field. As a result, I'm really hoping that I won't wind up moving too far away from my parents, so that I can lean on my dad to help when the time comes (he's a professional geek, and knows way more than I about such things).

Being the good little knittergeek I am, I of course brought my sock to the conference to work on in between seminars. The organizers wisely had a "knitting room" set aside during the lunch periods, so I spent a good portion of time in there, talking with other parents & slowly working on my stripey little sockie. It really was a nice bit of downtime in the middle of a really intellectual day, and I got to hear about some new (to me, anyway) yarn stores in the burbs. One woman sat down next to me, squealed over my sock, and pulled up her pant leg to show that she was, in fact, wearing the exact same sock that I was making. How cool is that?! She turned out to be an incredibly interesting person, too, so that's a bonus as well.

The sock in question is made from KnitPicks' Parade sock yarn, in the Blues colorway. I'm using a Lion Brand pattern, but I won't link to it, because it's irritating & wrong in places & I wouldn't recommend it, and besides, it makes me snarky, so there. There are a million other good sock patterns available out there anyway, if you're looking for one. Anyhow, I'm about 75% done with both socks. Yep, both socks--I'm not a stupid girl, generally speaking, and after getting halfway through the ribbing on the first cuff, I decided to pop for an extra set of size 3 dpns, because if I don't work both socks at the same time, I'll *never* get to the second one. I'd have a drawer full of dozens of single socks, and a raging case of Second Sock Syndrome. I just finished the gussett decreases on the second one last night, and am working through the endless stockinette of the arch of the foot now. I hope to get to the toe shaping by tonight on at least one of them--partly because I'm really looking forward to finishing my Very First Sock and wearing the darn thing, and partly because I really want my dpns so that I can start the fingerless mitts. Yeah, I know they're supposed to be worked on straights, but seaming sucks, so I'm gonna do 'em in the round. I hope, anyway. I've got a skein of KP Redwood & a skein of KP Fly Fishing for them, so I can have two different pairs of mitts. Have I mentioned lately how much I love KnitPicks?

It's been a while, eh?

2006-03-05T08:29:00.000-06:00

Good heavens, where to begin? It's been nearly a week since I've been here, and plenty has happened. Most notably, my eldest son turned 7 on Friday. Not to sound like a pathetic, slobbering wreck of a mother, but omg, my baby is SEVEN!!! I look at the pictures of him from even just a couple years ago, and he has changed so much. All the baby fat is gone from his face & hands, and he's very tall & slender now (VERY tall...his head comes up to the middle of my chest). I'd post pictures, because I am intensely proud of my boy, and he's incredibly cute with his little turned up nose & huge dark eyes & freckles over his cheeks, but I'm just not comfortable with my kids on the internet like that. Y'all will just have to believe me...my boys are cuties. Heh. It's become a tradition every year to take the boys into the city to a museum for his birthday, and this year we went to the Museum of Science & Industry. It was the first time there for the kids, and the first time for dh since he was a kid himself, and we had a blast. All three of them (the two boys & dh, who is really just an overgrown kid himself) went nuts over the giant model train setup. As for me, I just wanted to stuff the 1936 Cadillac under my coat & sneak out the back door. It was a convertible, and one of only six left in the world. It was really weird to see how long it was, and how far the front wheels are from the back, but it was gorgeous just the same.

After we finished at the museum, we went to the Lego store downtown, and Loopy Yarns (where the boys all sat in the car & waited for me. Go figure.). The yarn store, to be honest, wasn't that exciting. Granted, I'm fairly spoiled by my local yarn store and the semi-local Wool & Co., but still... They had some nice yarns, like Lorna's Laces, and a cashmere sock yarn that really wanted to go home with me (but for $43 a skein, it stayed right where it was), but it was largely novelty yarns, and I'm just not a big fan. Meh. Still, it was fun to poke around.

Speaking of yarn shops, I managed a GREAT score at another semi-local yarn store that sadly went out of business this week. Their entire shop went for 40% off the day I was there, and I snagged a huge load of Cascade 220 for about $4.35 a skein. I also got enough Plymouth Encore for two more boy sweaters, a couple balls of Cascade Fixation, and about four balls of Wendy/Peter Pan for an undisclosed item in the future. On top of that, I picked up several new circular needles (and OH, how I wish I'd had my list of what I needed with me!! I would have gotten several more, if I'd only known which ones to get), a gorgeous Brittany crochet hook, and three new knitting books. One is a knitting journal by Melanie Falick that I've been coveting for ages--it's got a handy little chart to list all your needles, so you won't have to miss out on deals when you're in yarn stores with sales anymore. The others are Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush, and Knit Christmas Stockings, by I don't know who offhand (it's shaped like a stocking, if that helps any). I was SO THRILLED with my haul! The only downside is the financial nausea afterwards. I mean, honestly, when am I ever going to see gorgeous Cascade 220 for four bucks a skein?! But on the other hand, we really have very little money to spare right now, and I feel like a heel for spending it all on me. While I was out that day, I also stopped at The Fold, a really cool little yarn shop in Marengo. Well, actually, it's just outside of Marengo, on a little bitty farm in the hills. It's got a really sweet, homey feel to it (it helps that it's actually in the lady's house), and it's just fabulous!!! I mean, hot damn! There is SO MUCH in this little shop...I really wish that I'd had more time to browse. She's got TONS of spinning supplies--beautiful spinning wheels & drop spindles, huge bags of roving stacked to the ceiling, and yarn out the wazoo. I don't spin yet, so I don't know much about it, but oooooh, those bags of beautifully colored roving...*drooool*. They were soooo soft, I just wanted to crawl inside them and take a nap. There were sooo many different yarns, too...lots of really high quality fibers, incredible colors, some I didn't recognize but wanted anyway. I only bought one skein there, though--a skein of Socks That Rock in Sapphire, and a pair of short size 2 dpns. Socks That Rock is so beautifully colored! I was actually pretty glad that she was short on stock that day, because I could really get addicted to the jewel-like colorways. They aren't cheap, though I hear that you get what you pay for with this yarn, so we'll see how it knits up. Oh, and the big bonus with this yarn? It's superwash merino. Mmmmm... Toni Neill, the owner, was incredibly nice and friendly, as was her enormous German Sheperd, Eric. Eric was just the biggest sweetheart, all friendly tail wagging & soft brown eyes. I've got a major weakness for GSDs, so that helps too, but he really is a cool dog. And honestly, I just adore small shops with pets in them. I've always thought a bookstore with resident cats is about the most inviting thing ever, so a yarn shop with a dog is pretty darn cool too. And, amazingly, I didn't see ANY dog hair on any of the merchandise, not that it would bother me anyway. My cat sheds on it as soon as I get it home, so it really makes no difference to me, but it was pretty darn impressive.

D is for DONE!!

And now we get to the yarn photo section of the day, folks: I've finished two major (for me, anyways) projects this week! Yay! First up is the Ben & Jerry's Cozy for my mom. I found this pattern in Knit Wit, by Amy Singer. It's made with Cascade Fixation, which is 98.3% cotton and 1.7% elastic. The elastic makes it really weird to work with...I hear it's great for socks, and I suppose it would be, but it turned out just slightly loose on my B&J carton. I'm looking forward to making one for me next, now that I know more about how Fixation behaves, and how to work with it to make it do what you want. At any rate, it's pretty cute, in a stupid sort of way. Blogger's being snotty about posting pictures right now, though, so I'll have to come back in a bit to try again.

Second finished object is that weird felted purse for my mom (notice a trend here yet?). Now, I've never made a purse before, and this was based on a pattern but then largely altered, so keep that in mind. The strap is super wide, but that's what she asked for. I even put a pocket in the inside, which was REALLY tricky to sew. Um, I'm not a very good seamstress, either... But anyway, it's done, and I'm hoping she'll like it.

I'm really glad to be done with these two. Next up is my very first sock! I cast on last night, and I've got about an inch of the cuff ribbing done so far. Yay!

My apologies for the boring, unimaginative nature of today's D. It's just a brainless kind of day here today...snowing & cold & sorta grey. Bleh.

OH, and I nearly forgot to add--yay Olympics! Yay Team Dekalb! Yay goofy gold medal! Heehee...

It's a crutch

2006-02-25T08:45:00.000-06:00

Because I can't think of anything brilliant and cool for the letter D, I give you a meme instead. (Actually, you'll get D eventually, but in the meantime...) So there.

4 jobs you've had in your life
1. EMT
2. waitress
3. CNA-nursing home & home health care
4. Owner/operator/only damn employee of a small (REALLY small) soapmaking business

4 movies you could watch over & over
1. Indiana Jones trilogy
2. Chicago
3. Road to Perdition
4. Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels

4 places you have lived
1. Bloomington, IN
2. Peru, IL
3. a tiny faux apartment in someone's garage
4. in my own little head

4 tv shows you love to watch
1. Mystery Science Theater 3000
2. Oz
3. Coupling
4. Scrubs

4 places you have been on vacation
1. Washington Island, WI
2. Disney World, FL
3. Nashville, IN
4. Four Corners region

4 websites you visit daily
1. TONS of knitting blogs
2. Non-knitting friends blogs
3. weather.com
4. my local library's website--I've almost always got some book or another coming in

4 of your favorite foods
1. steak (filet mignon, medium rare, and if it's from Wildfire in Chicago, so much the better)
2. fried chicken & biscuits
3. really good sweet corn, with butter & a teeny bit of salt
4. fine chocolate (damn straight it's a food)

4 places you would rather be right now
1. Disney World!!
2. in a huge, well-stocked yarn store, with a $1000 gift certificate
3. right here, holding the $200 million winning lottery ticket (heh)
4. in a little house in the corn that belongs to ME

Alright, I'm tired & useless today, so if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged.

Actual interesting knitting content will return tomorrow, I promise.

I did it!!!

2006-02-24T09:15:00.000-06:00

I finally finished the Olympic scarf!! Yeah! I was seriously doubting that I would for a while there. At this point, I think I've decided not to block it for now. Maybe I'll change my mind later, but for right now, I rather like the close, snuggly look. It actually is the same scarf in the pictures...I have no idea why it shows up purple on my table. If you look closely at the dapper fella in the fedora over my right shoulder, you'll see that he is an actual, honest-to-God Guy Noir bobblehead. Seriously. My parents gave him to my husband for Christmas a few years ago. I have a weird family. And yes, I desperately need some sun. Flash doesn't help, either.

At any rate, I'm really pleased to have finally finished this thing. Now I can devote my knitting time to finishing the felted bag for my mom (still have to finish knitting the endless strap, and then felt the thing & sew it together), and also start my latest project, the Ben & Jerry's pint cozy in Cascade Fixation. I'd originally planned to make this just for myself, but then my mom got wind of the idea and warmed up to it quickly (after first laughing at me for making such a goofy item). Now I get to make two. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. The husband so generously even cleaned out a pint for me to block it on. Isn't he so sweet & selfless?

In other happy yarny news, I finally got the yarn swift in from JoAnns the other day. Perfect timing, too, since I can now start all sorts of new projects that need to be wound into gorgeous little yarny cakes. I also received the 1942 knitting book, which is all kinds of cool in that not only is it in surprisingly good condition, but it's also pretty darn well-written, and looks like it will really be a useful resource, in addition to the coolness factor. Yay! And, as if that weren't cool enough, the Knit Picks order finally came in!!! It's largely Wool of the Andes, and a large portion of that belongs to dh's huge boring cabled sweater (in black & dark grey, natch), but still! There's several skeins of really cool sock yarn, and a handy pile of dpns to add to the fun. Yay! Of course, looking at the photo now, everything looks really dark...it's not ALL dark yarn, it's just a crappy picture. Sorry, y'all. I can't wait to get my paws into all of it, though, and start five million projects. Never enough time, I tell ya...

C is for Chicken Car and Cat-in-the-Box

Now here's a vehicle you won't see cruising with the low-riders. The Chicken Car was featured in a bizarre documentary I watched this morning called The Natural History of the Chicken. You gotta wonder how that's street legal. And yes, I photographed my tv on pause.

Cat-in-the-Box is a favorite game of Crazy Kitty's, and while it does make for great entertainment, it also makes packing anything really difficult. Note the yarn in the background. Ain't life grand?

A is for Argh! There's only 7 days left!

2006-02-19T15:29:00.000-06:00

Well, not really... Actually, I was feeling pretty down about the whole Olympic project for a while there. I seriously underestimated the time required for this project (at least for me, given all my other responsibilities). I also underestimated the time it would take me to get used to the pattern, and the whole cable thing. Lucky for me, it finally clicked the other day, and yesterday was spent doing not much more than knitting on the scarf. I'm now officially past the halfway point (yeah!!), and I have lofty goals of actually finishing early (though by "early", I mean maybe an hour before the deadline or so). The latest progress is shown in my letter A photo, which is also conveniently my "yay Kerrie" photo.

A is for Adorable/Awesome/Accessories/Ack, How Did She Not Go Blind Making These?

They're definitely cooler in person, since my little camera kinda sucks at taking super-closeup detailed shots, but you get the idea. They're absolutely tiny, and incredibly detailed. The orange one even has slightly sparkly stripes, which I love. Kerrie, who really really ought to get a blog, made these for me just recently, and I am SO pleased!! It's almost disappointing that I don't actually need stitch markers for this particular project.

And, as long as we're at it and trying to catch up...

B is for Ball Winder on Big Blue Blankie

I just got this awesome ball winder off Ebay the other day, and I am loving it! It's ridiculous how fun this thing is. I also managed to snag a swift for $29.99 from Joann.com (thanks to a kind soul who shared her 50% coupon code), though it hasn't arrived yet. I've been asked to bring it to the next SnB, and everyone else will bring their unwound hanks. We'll have a ball winding party, and it will be weird, but more fun than one would expect from a little tube o' plastic.

Big Blue Blankie is actually the first FO ever for me, though it was crocheted and not knit. I learned to crochet several years before I picked up knitting, and the first thing I wanted to make was an afghan for my exceptionally tall husband, who never could manage to find an afghan long enough to keep his feet covered when he pulled it up to his chin. I'm not exactly one to mince around when starting something new, and it was an awful lot of fun, so I figured I'd just make the world's biggest, most obnoxiously sized afghan. Well, at the time, I didn't realize the size was obnoxious, but whatever. It's about 7 1/2 feet long (!!), which is great for dh, but pretty durn awkward for me, given than I'm all of 5'3". It was made out of no dye lot Caron Wintuk acrylic, back before I learned of actual yarn stores and only shopped at JoAnns & Walmart. No dye lot my arse! They were all the exact same color name & number, and there's still weird shade variants throughout the blanket (though not in a pretty, variegated way...more like a jarring, wtf kind of way).

Basically, this is not an attractive blanket in any sense. And of course, because it's the one thing I've made that I'm the least proud of, dh has fallen hopelessly in love with it. He insists on throwing it across the bed for extra warmth every night, even though I've asked repeatedly if I could just make another one that is sized to fit our bed (not to mention actually matches the decor). He's quite attached, and while that is really sweet and sort of flattering, the fact remains, it's not a pretty blanket! It's heavy, too, and pulls the rest of the blankets off the bed if too much hangs over the edges.

At any rate, the guy is fond of it, so I suppose I must deal. I *am* going to make a nice one, though, one of these days. An actual bedspread maybe, in soft yarn that matches the colors of the room, sized perfectly to fit our queen-sized bed. Well, maybe after I finish the five hundred or so other projects that are in line ahead of it...

Happy Day-After-Valentine's Day

2006-02-15T08:57:00.000-06:00

Well, I'm overdue for an Olympic update. The Irish Hiking Scarf was decidedly slow to start...I've never done cables before, and I'm not used to working with such small needles either, so it took quite a while to get any level of speed or rhythm going. I even made an unpleasant mistake towards the beginning, but didn't notice it (or didn't care) until later, so there it will stay. I am SO not ripping this puppy back! I've also not had a huge amount of time to work on it, so I'm feeling rather uncertain as to whether it will actually be finished on time. It is darn pretty, though, and I'm pleased with what I have thus far. Besides, it's nice practice for the big huge enormous cabled guy sweater I'll be making for dh soon, so that's a bonus.

Speaking of dh, he's scored some brownie points lately. Y'all know how hard this whole sick family thing has been on me, right? I've gotten virtually nothing done around the house, since all I had time for was caring for the children & knitting a stitch or two here & there. When I came home from the yarn shop on Friday, I found a wonderfully clean kitchen, with all the previously filthy dishes drying in the rack, looking all kinds of sparkly & shiny clean. It was WONDERFUL. It darn near made me teary, it was that much of a relief. Then, after agreeing that we weren't going to do anything for each other for Valentine's Day (no money, which kinda sucks), he came home with a sheepish, I've-done-a-stupid-thing grin on his face, and said he wasn't sure if I was gonna kill him or kiss him. It seems he had a fit of guilt about the holiday, and stopped at a fairly high-end chocolaterie down the road from his lesson studio, and spent WAY TOO MUCH on really exquisite truffles for me. Really good chocolate, but omg, it was WAY too much money! If I'd spent that much money on chocolate, he would have laughed at me for a week. (He knows how desperate my chocolate habit can get...) Still, as much as the price tag made me choke, I am really touched by his thoughtfulness. He was especially proud to have picked out some cinnamon-espresso truffles, and some particularly awesome maple ones, because he knows I love those flavors. He's awfully cute when he gets so proud of himself.

The kids, fortunately, are feeling much better now. I'm actually sleeping at night again, and I'm hoping that we're done being sick for the whole winter now. Of course, I never got sick at all, just really tired...I've got this bullet proof immune system, and no matter how ill everyone around me is, I never get anything. I think maybe it's just a mom thing, that my immune system knows that I simply don't have time for it. Anyway, I'm really glad that the kids are back to semi-normal again.

The rest of this week will hopefully be spent working on my Olympic scarf, since I'm feeling terribly far behind right now, and catching up on household chores. I also get to spend my time looking out for my new best friend, the mailman. I've got all kinds of kickass knitty things coming this week--I won a knitting book on Ebay that was published in 1942 (SO cool!). I also won a brand new ball winder (woohoo!! I'm so excited! I'm such a geek!) that should arrive this week as well. On top of that, my dear friend Kerrie has created the COOLEST little stitch markers EVER, and will be sending those along shortly too. I can't wait to see them! She's sent pictures, and they are incredible...the detail is just amazing. I'll post pics as soon as I can...they're just so cute! And, the big honking group order from KnitPicks should be coming sooner or later too. I'm hoping sooner rather than later, because I'm an impatient cow, but last I checked, it was still being processed. In the meantime, I'll wait patiently, knitting away in my little corner, and watching old Bugs Bunny cartoons with the boys. Yeah, this will be a good week.

Citius, Alitius, Fortius, Knittius

2006-02-10T07:46:00.000-06:00

It is Day One of the Knitting Olympics, and hopes are high! I'm having the breakfast of champions, of course--an incredibly sugary, colors-not-found-in-nature kind of cereal--and lest you think I'm stealing it from my children, let me assure you, I wouldn't feed this shit to my kids in a million years. I don't do coffee anymore, though, so a little sugarbuzz in the morning is nice once in a while. I'm certainly not going to get a caffeine jolt ever again. But I digress...

Today at two o'clock, knitters around the world (or at least in their respective time zones) will cast on their own individual olympic challenge projects. How cool is that? Team Dekalb will be meeting at our lys to cast on together, because honestly, knitting is more fun with rowdy, yarn-habit-enabling company. I'm really looking forward to it, because not only do I get to knit with some really cool people, but I get to leave my home for a while. Allow me to sound like a really terrible mother for a moment...my children are both so sick, and it breaks my heart to see them feel so awful. Not only does it break my heart, but omg, it wears me down! Keep in mind, my babies both slept through the night by about 6 weeks old, so I've been somewhat spoiled thus far...lately, though, there has been NO restful sleep for me, and virtually none for my poor children, either. My youngest has a cough that would make a sea lion proud, and my oldest has an ear infection that made him literally yell out loud from the pain (fortunately, we're pumping him full of amoxicillin now, so at least his ear feels better). The little guy is the worst, though. That cough is CONSTANT, and it goes through the night, which makes him cry from frustration (and presumably pain in his throat by now). I do my best to comfort him at night, and generally feel helpless, because nothing I've tried has really helped it quiet down. During the day, it's aggravating as heck to try to watch a movie or have a conversation, because the poor little guy is barking so constantly that you can't hear what's going on very well. He feels awful, and that kills me, and as much as I want to make him all better, I also really just want to run away to someplace nice & quiet & warm. I feel so terrible for getting annoyed at the constant coughing, and I NEVER let it show to them. It's just so never-ending! He's been coughing for a week, and so has his brother, and his father was coughing for a week before that, so it's been at least 15 days or so of solid, non-stop coughing. Even at night. If anybody has any brilliant ideas about how to bring my poor little family some relief, I'd LOVE to hear them!! If the little guy is still hacking come Monday, I'm hauling him in to test for whooping cough. I hear it's going around the school system in a nearby town, so you never know...

But anyway, enough whining. Back to the yarn! I've got this gorgeous deep red alpaca & silk yarn for my Olympic scarf that needs to be wound into a ball before cast on today. I'm also planning a huge KnitPicks order, which should pretty much cover me for projects till 2008. Which is fabulous.

It's Random Thoughts Monday!

2006-02-06T07:54:00.000-06:00

I am seriously way too tired & out of it to string my thoughts together in any sort of logical manner, so you just get random thoughts today. Yay!

1. This weird little critter is a word cloud, which comes courtesy of JenLa (and also Kathy). Basically, it's a program that scans your blog for the words used most often. I'm curious what their standards are though...I mean, "doo"? Where the heck did I ever say "doo"??

2. A large part of the reason for the tired & out-of-it-ness is that my entire family decided to be sick this weekend. Dh had a raging fever last week, but after a few days it degenerated into a nasty sinus-y cold, so no big deal. He's much better now, though he still has the shniffles. Unfortunately, he also shared it with his sons (thankyouveryfreakingmuch), and they are both *still* running unpleasant fevers, after several days of high temps. I'm getting very little sleep and worrying too much, so this is plenty old now. My poor little babies are sick to death of it too, and getting more impatient with the whole thing every day (not that I blame 'em). They even declared that they're completely sick & tired of television! I gotta admit, I'm kind of secretly pleased about that one. They haven't watched too much, really, it's mostly that they haven't had the energy to do anything else, and tv gets old fairly quickly, especially when you don't actually have cable, and have to stick with videos & dvds to watch. Anyway, they're going to the doctor today, and hopefully no one will barf in the car on the way there. I sure hope the doc can do something for them...they've been feverish way too long!

3. My much-loved local yarn store absolutely rocks. Not only did they have an awesome sale this weekend, at which I spent way too much money (but considerably less than I would have without the sale!), but they recently ordered a bunch of Malabrigo Merino, all because Kathy & I asked for it! Well, it wasn't quite that simple, we really had to throw a sales pitch, and then a Malabrigo rep came out to talk to them too, but still...ask and ye shall receive!! I'm really excited...I don't know when the first shipment will come in, but who cares? It's coming! This is easily my favorite yarn, it's incredibly soft and comes in a huge range of stunning colors. Yay!!

4. I'm nearly done with my mom's purse/bag thing. Only a few rows left, and then I'll make the strap, and then felt it. It's easier than I thought it would be, and I'm really hoping she likes it (and orders more!). Once the bag is done, I think I'll move on to an actual, honest-to-God sweater. Yowza. I bought a huge pile of super-thick Brown Sheep Burly yarn, in Prairie Fire, for it...the pattern is really cute, though I can't find it online to show y'all, and it's going to be a super-warm, chunky sweater for me. I have NO idea how long it'll take me, though, especially considering the Olympics start soon. Speaking of the Olympics, I picked up the yarn for my scarf, and it's gonna be preeetty! It's an alpaca/silk blend, which just makes me feel all kinds of la-de-dah, and is a really pretty shade of cranberry. I can't wait to get started on it. Several of us are getting together on Friday for a group Olympic cast-on, which sounds goofy but promises to be fun. I tell ya, I don't know what I'd do without other yarn geeks around! I feel really blessed to have this circle of friends about me, and it really just makes the whole knitting experience that much better, when I can share it with someone who understands & actually cares. Not that my sweetie husband doesn't care, he really does, but it's not the same. Anna, Kathy, Sandiwhomustgetablogofherown, you guys rock.

5. Barfing, fevers, and lack of sleep suck. Just in case I hadn't mentioned that yet.

6. Also at the sale this weekend, I snagged a skein of the most incredible Manos ever...I think it's called Woodland, or something goofy like that. Trust me, it's even more gorgeous in person. I'll have to try to post the picture later; my computer's being cranky right now. Argh. Yay, now it works! Isn't that just stunning? I'd been admiring it for a while, and the other ~~enablers~~ people at the yarn store kept saying how that color would so work for me & all that. I blame them entirely. The photo doesn't do it justice, though...it's got these gorgeous shades of olive in there, and it just about glows. Le sigh. :)

Knitter for hire

2006-02-03T07:19:00.000-06:00

Is that not just the coolest idea ever? I mean really... I'm clearly a process knitter, not a product knitter, so it really doesn't bother me at all to give my creations away. (Except for my Very First Hat...I'm still kind of sad about that. Only because it was my very first, though.) My awesome mom has recently discovered the joys of felted knitting, and has requested a purse/handbag/thing in a coffee-colored wool, felted. Get this, though--she's actually paying for the yarn & needles. Is that not awesome?! She's also made noise about bags in other colors, and possibly hats, and I've got a felted vest pattern I'd like to show her...I mean really, she could keep me in free knitting for months! I'm so excited! This will also keep the husband happy, too, as I know he starts to get a little nervous when I go to the yarn store three times in one week. We are trying to save for a house, and the stash can sometimes make that pretty difficult.

Anyway, the bag itself is of very simple construction, as I am still pretty new to this, but I hope to practice on my mom's stuff enough that someday I'll be able to make this bag for my husband. Mom's all excited because she gets relatively inexpensive bags customized to her specifications. I'm just happy that I get to knit good wool, and not pay for it. Poverty's a real bitch sometimes.

Of course, all this free knitting still won't keep the Stash Gods completely happy. They've instructed me to take advantage of a big sale at The Yarn Exchange this Saturday, and geez, who am I to argue with the gods? I'll be picking up some super bulky yarn to make a sweater for myself (really, for ME! What a novel idea!), and some alpaca (maybe alpaca silk blend?) for an Irish Hiking Scarf. Twist my arm.

And that's another thing...after much hemming & hawing, the final selection for the Olympics project is officially the aforementioned Irish Hiking Scarf, of knitalong fame. It's all cable-y & cool, and while it is a scarf, the cables are completely new to me, thus creating the challenge required. The nice thing, too, is that once I get the whole cable thing down, I'll be that much more ready to attempt a sweater for my gorgeous Irish husband, who would look awesome in cables. Even if they must be black & grey cables. Men & their crappy color aversions suck.

Life Is Good

2006-01-30T08:31:00.000-06:00

Well, I've had a productive weekend! On Friday, I felted the kitty pi, and blocked it on my husband's djembe from the Ivory Coast. Of course, I wrapped the djembe in plastic & a towel first, so it was completely protected, but it turned out to be the perfect size. It dried remarkably quickly (I suppose that's saying something about how bloody dry the air in my apartment is), and Crazy Kitty loved it immediately. I'm really pleased with the Kitty Pi, though it is a bit of a deep-dish. Maybe I should get a second kitty to help fill it up...

Friday afternoon, I got to hang out at our local yarn shop with a great group of knit geeks & yarn addicts. It was a gorgeous sunny day, and the light filtering through the windows onto the yarn was just beautiful. While I was there, I managed to cast on, knit, and actually complete my second knitted project! I made a super-teeny hat out of Katia Nordic, in black, on circs & dpns. Everyone at the shop SWORE that it'd stretch & be just fine, but omg, it's way too teeny for any of the large-headed types in my family. I'm holding it on my fist in this photo...that's how little it is. The brim rolled up a bit more, so it looks more normal, and less conehead-like now. It sure would look cute on a baby, though. The husband doesn't understand the logic behind having another baby to fill up a little bitty hat, so it will be shipped off to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, where there are already babies premade & ready for little hats. Convenient, no?

In other awesome news, I'll be making a family jaunt to the yarn store tomorrow (yay!). Dh has an unusually good sense of color & style, and I'd like his opinion on some different yarns before I make any more new-project plans. Also, they're having a great sale soon, so one must be prepared, of course. My six year old son is very excited about the yarn store, because he REALLY wants me to make a hat for him, after viewing the teeny baby hat. The eldest wants a blue one, the youngest has requested a purple one...except the purple hat over a navy & yellow coat might look a bit odd, so we'll see if we can't steer the little booger towards some more agreeable colors. I gotta tell ya, it is SO COOL that my sons are excited about spending time in a yarn store! I imagine the four year old's patience will wear thin rather quickly, but hey, it's the thought that counts. Even cooler than all that, though, is this...my six year old son asked me to teach him how to crochet & knit. How awesome is that?! I told him we'd start with crochet (easier for a little guy to pick up, I think), and he already has plans for some little pink scarves for his stuffed animals. I can hardly wait! He's soooo excited about it, too...he's been talking about it ever since he woke up this morning.

My kids are awesome.

Yay! Finis!

2006-01-27T07:45:00.000-06:00

Finally!!! The Kitty Pi is complete! Well, not completely complete, as it still needs to be felted & blocked, but I'm done knitting on it. I'm really quite pleased. Even Crazy Kitty approves.

Keep in mind, this is pre-felting, so it's really floppy (like the cat) & really huge. I'm quite pleased with the overall results, though, and I'm even more pleased that I managed to do it properly. Here's hoping I don't kill it in the wash.

The big question now is what to make next? The ribbed scarf must wait till the Olympics start, which is still a couple weeks away, and lord knows we can't just sit around projectless until then. So many options...the super-bright socks, the malabrigo hat, the baby grande alpaca anything...what to do? I'd like to pick a pattern yet this morning, too, because I'm meeting with a gaggle of other addicts this afternoon for a little stitch & bitch time at the local yarn store. The idea of going to a stitch & bitch at a yarn store with no project in hands is just scary...if I don't have something else to focus on, I'll wind up spending our rent money on yarn for God only knows what super-ambitious project I'd find there. No, we must go prepared, lest our husbands decide that we can't be trusted in yarn stores unsupervised anymore.

In addition to the stitch & bitch this afternoon, I also have a big honkin' load of laundry to do (as well as the kitty pi!), groceries to get, and dishes to do. Not to mention figure out something for dinner for my family. Busy day ahead...suppose I should get started (though I'd much rather just knit!).

Edited for clarity

2006-01-25T09:30:00.000-06:00

Okay, in the interest of clarity & honesty, I must amend my entry into the Olympics. Originally, I'd signed up to make a ribbed scarf, which was to be my First Project Ever, but unfortunately, my impatient nature just couldn't wait till February to start knitting (as evidenced by the kitty pi). My entry will still be the ribbed scarf, and I'm obviously waiting on that one till the Olympics start, but sheesh...you can't dangle all this interesting knitting information in front of me and not expect me to make something with it!

Speaking of the kitty pi, it's coming along quite nicely. It's still on the circs, so it looks more like a large, deflated mushroom cap than any sort of a comfy bed, but I'm hopefull. I've got about 15 more rows to complete before bindoff, and I hope to felt it on Friday (I hate having to wait till I can afford to run the washing machine! Laundromats suck.). The intended contents of the kitty pi is doing her best to assist, and by assist I mean park her furry bum right smack in the middle of everything as often as possible.

The addiction groweth

2006-01-24T14:14:00.000-06:00

I'm nearing completion of the Kitty Pi. Knitting, once I got the hang of it, has become remarkably rewarding to do. In fact, I even picked up some loud & obnoxious self-striping sock yarn in Krazy Stripes, and some new dpns, so that I can try my hand at socks sometime soon. Yowza.

Meanwhile, I'm really excited about teaching myself all the ins & outs of knitting, like increasing & circular knitting & splicing two skeins of wool together (which is SO cool!). Progress was hampered somewhat by the Migraine from Hell on Sunday night (that lasted through most all of Monday, too), but I'm still very pleased with the whole thing.

For Jamie, you know I love ya

2006-01-21T20:47:00.000-06:00

My dear friend Jamie has admitted to Yarn Envy, that longing of the uninitiated to become one of the few, the proud, the yarngeeks...yes, folks, she wants to take up knitting!!! Yay, Jamie!! She's asked for book recommendations for the brand-spankin-newbie, so if anyone out there has any suggestions, please feel free to post a comment. In the meantime, Jamie, I don't have any personal experience with the Knitting/Crocheting for Dummies book, so I can't really say on that one. However, I can highly recommend Donna Kooler's Encyclopedia of Knitting, as well as Donna Kooler's Encyclopedia of Crochet (and also her Encyclopedia of Needlework, should you ever choose to go that route too). I also like the cheesily titled I Can't Believe I'm Crocheting (also a knitting version) books from Walmart. They're really slim, and only have a couple projects, but the instructions are clear, concise, and the crochet one is all I used to learn, so many moons ago. Another great knit resource, imo, is Mother of Purl, by Edith Eig. She seems really into name-dropping, which can be annoying, and I'm not entirely fond of the patterns, but the instructions are fabulous, and she's very detail-oriented (like as in how to get as professional a finish on your sweaters as possible...very handy!). That was the book that made English knitting click into place for me recently. Y'know, while you're at it, you should check your local yellow pages, or google for local yarn stores in your area. I've not known a yarn store yet that didn't offer lessons, some for very cheap, and there's always somebody really knowledgeable around to help you through any rough patches you may have. Oh, and check your local library, too...that's a GREAT way to try a new book before paying for it, and libraries often have classes in such things too (ours has knitting & crochet classes for less than five dollars, which is a steal).

Now, on to your tools...Walmart carries a decent selection of needles (for knitting) and hooks (for crochet). Pretty much everything at Wally World is either aluminum or plastic...personally, I prefer the aluminum, but that's just me. Once you get into it, you'll find that there are bamboo, birch, rosewood, basically all manner of gorgeous tools out there, but for just starting out, the walmart cheepies are perfectly suitable. Hooks are dirt cheap at walmart, too, so that's a bonus. Choosing the right yarn for a beginner is fairly important, since aggravating yarns can discourage a newbie pretty quickly. For right now, stay away from the neat homespun yarns (it actually says homespun on the label, so you'll know which ones I mean), and also avoid the fur types. You want a nice worsted weight wool or acrylic, which you can find in millions of colors at either Walmart, JoAnns, or Michaels for a very reasonable price. Personally, I started out on Caron Wintuk yarn, but it's entirely up to you. I'd avoid the walmart brand Mainstays, though, as it has a nasty tendency to come untwisted, and occasionally break. Not fun. Anyway, pick whatever color thrills you, though it doesn't have to match anything, since you're just going to practice for a little while anyway. On the paper wrap, called the ball band, there should be a series of symbols telling you what size needles & what size hook are appropriate for that particular yarn. Most worsted weight yarns are likely to call for G or H hook, and 10 1/2 needles. (Hooks have letters to designate size, needles have numbers.) Pick up a hook or some needles, depending on which you want to learn, and you're off!

Oh, and one more thing I'd like to stress...see if you can't set aside a small corner of your house that's just for you. You KNOW how tiny my apartment is, but my beloved created a warm, snuggly, inviting corner for me in the bedroom, and suddenly needlework is just SO much more enjoyable now! There's a comfy chair, a good lamp, a side table for patterns & books & tools, a little shelf to hold my drink, and all my books are near me...it's just wonderful! I can even watch tv while I knit. It's turned knitting into a sort of escape for me, a comfy little sanctuary where I can create, and when I'm done, leave the knitting out & waiting for me to return (rather than put it away so people might actually sit on my couch, like I used to do). Of course, that's a good thing to have whether you knit or crochet or not. Even just a little reading corner is so very valuable, in my opinion.

Okay, I think I've babbled enough for one post...I hope this has helped get you going a bit, Jamie! If you ever have any questions or anything, please feel free to email, too. Good luck to ya!

Because, really, I simply don't have enough to do

2006-01-21T08:45:00.000-06:00

I must be completely out of my mind. I have at least half a dozen UFOs*, another half dozen WIPs, and a list of things I want to make a mile long (no kidding!). I'm also in the Knitting Olympics, which means I'll be starting yet another project as soon as the Olympics start (though honestly, I have no idea when that is...sometime in early February, maybe?). And, of course, we'll not even mention all the millions of non-needlework things I have to do...housework &cooking & childrearing & all that rot. Regardless, against my better judgement, I started yet ANOTHER project last night--the Kitty Pi. Not only does this look like something that Crazy Kitty would just love, but it's a great opportunity for me to work on several aspects of knitting that I thus far have no experience with. Also, if I foob it up too much, it won't matter...the cat can smash herself into most anything, regardless of size or fit. I'm using Lamb's Pride bulky weight wool in Chocolate Souffle, a lovely deep shade of brown. I'm a sucker for fat needles & fast knits, so I'm using size 13 dpns*, and lemme tell ya, they're weird to get used to! I think I've about gotten the dpn thing down, but I've never increased or decreased before, so this oughta be interesting. I'll post pics when I'm done, assuming I finish this thing anytime soon.

Oh, cool side note...the Kitty Pi needs to be blocked on something round, and of the correct size. One lady had posted a picture of her kitty pi blocking on an upside down garbage can, and that's just brilliant, but I don't have any nice clean garbage cans like that. It suddenly struck me last night...dh's drums are the PERFECT size & shape! I'll have to wrap them well with plastic & a towel to keep them from getting wet, but how cool is that? I've got tons of sizes to choose from, and they're fairly portable (thus keeping them out of the main route of traffic through the house). I'm really looking forward to trying my hand at felting, too. Yay!

*UFO=UnFinishedObject, the bane of my existence. WIP=Work In Progress, or that which I am actively working on, in various stages of completedness. Yes, that is a word. So says I. Dpn=double pointed needles, used for working small rounds, like socks or hats or dopey kitty beds.

Let the geeks begin

2006-01-20T06:50:00.000-06:00

Okay, so I am quite possibly the LEAST athletic person I know, but this is an event I can handle! I've officially joined the Knitting Olympics, thanks to the evil lures of the Yarn Harlot. Basically, it's a personal challenge type thing, where everybody picks a project that would be reasonably attainable, but still a challenge, to complete during the Winter Olympics. That gives us sixteen days to fully created any knitted object, which for many folks, is no big deal, but frankly, I've not actually completed ANY project EVER, so it's a heckuva thing to me. The project I have chosen is the ribbed scarf that I *tried* to make for my mom for Christmas. It's been fully frogged, and is now sitting in a peaceful green ball in my knitting basket. You aren't allowed to cast on until the games officially start, though, so in the meantime, I'm practicing my knit & purl stitches on the pink rectangle of doom. Remember, I'm a brand spanking new knitter, so no laughing!
I started working the knit stitch from the bottom, and you can see where I switched to purl...for some reason, I have a hard time keeping my tension accurate in the purl stitch. Anyway, after arguing with purl for a few inches, I switched to stockinette, which is very satisfying, in a dopey sort of way. ("Look honey, it's like a real sweater!")
Closeup of the loose, floppy purl, and the pretty little knit V's hiding in the shadows. Someday I'll get the whole lighting thing right. Anyway, that's my little pink rectangle of ~~doom~~ training/practice. I'll be working on it some more this evening, as we've got quite the snarly-looking cold/snow front coming through, and honestly, what better way to spend wintery days than knitting?

Bosnian crochet fun

2006-01-15T09:19:00.000-06:00

I have no clue who the heck named this Bosnian crochet, or if it even has anything to do with Bosnia at all, but whatever. This is a trivet/potholder that I've been working on for my mom for ~~too freaking long~~ a few months. It's made out of cream colored worsted weight cotton, which is awesomely offered by the ounce here. I used a size F hook, in case anyone cares. It's worked so that it will be like a square pocket, and when I've finished, I'll turn it inside out & stitch the opening closed, which will make the pretty stripey pattern be on the outside, and also make it a double thickness of cotton so Ma doesn't burn up her countertops with hot cast iron pots. This is a picture of the outside (well, it's the outside right now...it'll be the inside when I get it finished.

Here's a pic of what is now the inside, and will someday be the outside...

Note the pretty stripey/slanty pattern. It really will be neat when it's finished, it's just a pain in the butt to get there. It's UFO #364, I think.

Oh, and for the record, I don't really have fat hands. It's just a crappy angle from the camera. Really.

Oh, crap

2006-01-13T18:56:00.000-06:00

I've always been fairly particular about language in front of my children. Apparently, however, I've missed a phrase or two...

My sweet, innocent four year old is playing a game, and was apparently losing. Usually, he says "rats" or "oh, man!". After recent repeated viewings of Harry Potter, however, that has clearly changed. What did my darling little baby-faced boy say just now?

"Bloody hell!"

"Meme" is a bizarre word

2006-01-13T09:08:00.000-06:00

But anyway... I've been tagged by Kathy with a meme, which is completely new to me. Apparently, they're weird little listy things that go around the net from blog to blog, kind of like a cold, but with no vaccinations. Frankly, I love 'em. But y'all already knew I've got a dork streak a mile wide, so no surprises there.

Seven things to do before I die...
1. Visit Ireland & England
2. Take the weasels & the hubby to Disneyworld
3. Get a dog
4. Knit a sweater that actually fits well
5. Take the hubby to Arizona
6. Own a little house in the country
7. Learn to bake bread compentently

Seven things I can't do...
1. Swim (no, really!)
2. Go braless
3. Play the drums
4. Speak Aramaic
5. Reach the wine glasses in the cupboard without standing on a stool
6. Wear a bikini in public
7. Stand up to pedal on a bike

Seven things that attract me to...
1. ...my sweetie...his wonderful, if seriously warped, sense of humor
2. ...books...the ability to go anywhere in the world, or even farther, without spending a bloody fortune
3. ...my crazy kitty...her infinite patience with my children, and the amazing calming effect she has on me when she purrs
4. ...knitting & crocheting...the idea of creating something with my own two hands that will last, and keep my loved ones warm
5. ...the country...the solitude, and the smell of fresh, green corn in the fields can't be beat
6. ...my peanut butter fudge...omg, it's bloody addictive! Killer easy to make doesn't hurt, either
7. ...my adorable little boys...their wide-eyed innocence & trust. They are so completely guileless, and it's incredibly refreshing in an often cynical & jaded world.

Seven things I say most often...
1. Oy vey.
2. No, we do not have any pizza!
3. Poopie!
4. I love you, my sweetie (um, to my sweetie, obviously, about a million times a day).
5. Freaking cat!
6. You have to have at least two bites of everything on your plate...
7. I love you, my guys (to my cutie boys, who started the wierd "my guys" thing years ago. It's really adorable.)

Seven books I love...
1. Mental Floss Presents: Condensed Knowledge
2. Mental Floss Presents: Forbidden Knowledge
3. Mary Thomas' Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches
4. Animal Farm, by George Orwell
5. More of a series than a single book, but the Diane Mott Davidson books
6. Again, more of an author in general than any one single book--Ann Rule books
7. The Fannie Farmer Baking Book

Seven movies I watch(ed) again & again...
1. Road To Perdition
2. Shawshank Redemption
3. Indiana Jones Trilogy
4. Chicago
5. Ghostbusters
6. The Green Mile
7. Muppets Christmas Carol

Memes are more fun than they ought to be. I hereby tag Brandie and Shanelle. So there.

Here comes the sun, doo doo doo doo...

2006-01-12T07:33:00.000-06:00

After decades of darkness (well, okay, not really...but it feels like it), the sun is finally making an appearance today!! 'Bout freakin time! It's supposed to be unseasonably warm here, which is awesome, and I hope to take the weasels out to play for a while, assuming it's not *too* muddy out.

It's interesting what relativity does to you...the high for today is all of 48, but considering that last month at this time we were in negative numbers, 48 ain't looking too shabby.

Meanwhile, back in Yarntopia, the pink rectangle of practice stitches grows ever-longer. Purl is beginning to finally tighten up & not look so sloppy, which is good, and I may do a couple inches of stockinette today, just for kicks. Let the dorkiness descend.

It makes sense!!!

2006-01-09T16:32:00.000-06:00

Hallefreakinlujah!!! It's about darn time... I finally picked up my knitting needles after a rather long, and much needed, hiatus over the holidays. The ribbed scarf that was *supposed* to be for my mom for Christmas languished in a basket all this time, waiting for me to figure out just what the hell was wrong with me (I'm not a stupid girl, so WHY was knitting melting my brain?!). I finally ripped the scarf this week, wound everything back onto the ball, and vowed to start over from scratch, practicing a good deal before attempting any sort of project again. Well, yay for me...I made another attempt at the knit stitch the other day, and am very pleased to say that it FINALLY makes sense! I'm doing it correctly & everything! And, as it turns out, I prefer the English style to the Continental, and I wonder if that didn't have something to do with my ineptitude before. I've spent a good part of my day knitting today, which is wonderful, and while I have no actual object to show for it, the pink rectangle of garter is just wonderfully uniform, and that makes me happy.

I realize that it's been a while since I've posted, and there's much updating post-holiday to do, but I'll save that for another time. As for right now, the knitting needles await. :)

Never enough time in the day

2005-12-21T07:44:00.000-06:00

Oh good lord, it's only 88 hours till Christmas!!!! Fortunately, I've only got four or five projects to finish by then. Granted, I've still not started several of them, but still...

Today is December 21st, the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. I'm not entirely thrilled about the winter thing, but I am soooo glad that the 21st is finally here! That means that it can only get better from here...the days will be getting progressively longer, and I can start looking forward to sunshine & warm breezes again. I know, I know, it'll take a while for the warm breezes, but whatever. I need to be an optimist, or I'll go nuts.

I'm also looking forward to January, because I'll no longer have any Christmas-type deadlines, and I can finally take an entire afternoon off to read without feeling like I'm losing time somewheres. Yay! I leave the house as little as possible, mostly due to the cold, and snuggle into blankets & read like crazy all winter. My beloved brings me hot chocolate periodically, the babies play happily with their new toys, and all is right with the world. Sigh.

But back to my current reality...I've got four days, including today, to finish as many projects (more, actually). I believe I'll go get on that before the enormity of the schedule really sinks in...