knitpurldrop

Backwards

2012-01-29T06:58:00.000-08:00

In the omnipresent battle with my stash and project count, I feel as though I lost this week. I finished 2 projects and I'm very pleased with myself there, but I started 2 more and bought a ton of future projects.

Let's start with the first stash additions- Wednesday's cross stitch threads. These were a gift from my boss who sometimes brings me back pretty little things from trade shows. She did very well this time...

It's a collection of cotton flosses from Weeks Dye Works. My favorite colors are "Louisiana Hot Sauce" and "Sally's Sunshine", I'm so excited to come up with a project for them!

Thursday brought more stashing with the closing of Needle Fever, one of my favorite embroidery shops. The sales were pretty awesome, so I added to my Weeks Dye Works collection, doubling up on my favorite colors and adding some new ones. I got 2 fall patterns (one Halloween and one Autumnal, non-specific. I love fall colors.) I got a baby pattern because everyone around me is trying to get pregnant and I have a feeling that it's all going to happen at once and I'm going to be prepared. Plus it's about counting sheep and we all know how I love sheep. I got a great deal on a big project's worth of aida cloth and I thought I had done pretty well. I paid, turned to leave and saw the best projects ever- the Pirate Queen and a little pineapple that says "Do Not Mistake Endurance For Hospitality". My parents live in Florida and everyone has pineapple everything down there, so I might make this for their guest room. My dad is totally obsessed with pineapple ownership but my mom is unenthused, so this could potentially be a Father's day present. And yes, I know this is a really strange Father's day gift idea, but he and my Mom are the most difficult people to shop for. Ever.

Got home from work Thursday to see that my plant globes I had ordered from etsy for my air ferns had arrived. I'm quite pleased. I got 2 because I didn't want my little cluster of ferns to be lonely or look so random, but I don't have another air plant to fill the second globe with. Yet. I believe the etsy shop was called Bluebird and Bumblebee or something like that- I highly recommend them.

Thursday night I finished knitting a little surprise for my old Babysitter, Morgane. Since she reads sometimes I won't post it here until I've heard that she's gotten it so I don't ruin the surprise.

Friday night I finished a scarf for Jaclyn. I really just had this finishing spree because I didn't want to make 2 trips to the post office, so they were finished within a day of each other, blocked and shipped yesterday morning. I'm glad to have that scarf done- it's been on the loom since June. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I was a little sad that I had promised to give it away but that sadness quickly turned into a new warp on the loom. Funny how that happens...

Here is the new weaving project- another scarf because I'm boring. The warp is some lovely hand-dyed wool from the Bear Necessities, my favorite dyer in England. The English stash is getting low, and I have all of the yarns I got there on this pedestal which is making picking a project very difficult. I really love this color but I haven't found a suitable project for it yet. First it was socks but I thought that it was just too pretty for my feet. Then it was a shawl, but the colors were just too much with the pattern, then it was a baby cardigan, but I didn't want to give it away- how would the recipient know that it was from the dwindling England stash? Would they care? Would they think that I'm a notch crazier than they previously believed? I have been wanting to do a sock yarn scarf on the loom for a while...

The problem (or thrill?) of weaving is that it's so final. In knitting and crocheting, you have an infinite number of times to change your mind about your project, frog it, and start over. Once you cut your yarn in to your warp, there's no turning back. It's weave or bust, and you hope it turns out like it did in your head. So far it has. The weft is the infuriating not-worsted from the previous post. I really like them together. More on the scarf when there's more than 10 inches of it.

Saturday/Yesterday brought a trip to Castleton for a movie, but since I was there and happened to have 3 coupons for Joann Fabrics, I thought I'd stop in and see if anything tickled my fancy. Hey look. Another dress.

And finally, a green hat. Stay tuned, this one should be fun.

The Healing Power of Paisley

2012-01-24T06:08:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was not the best day ever. Yesterday was night number #6 in a row of not really sleeping and I'm just one of those people that needs a lot of sleep to be a functional person that doesn't snap or cry at the slightest agitation. And yesterday was agitating to say the least. Mondays at work at normally pretty quiet, a good chunk of yarn shops are closed which means I get all caught up on my filing, do things I've been putting off for a week and sometimes leave a smidge early. Yesterday there was a warehouse emergency which I won't go in to, but it was a bad, cold and very long day.

On the way home I checked my email and there was a response from Mr. Alabama. He's not interested. Naturally. Got home to find that some yarn I ordered from Etsy was all wrong and the artist is telling me that it's a heavy worsted even though it is very clearly a sport weight yarn. I like to think I know a thing or two about yarn and when someone tells me that I am WRONG WRONG WRONG and that the yarn that looks best on size 4 needles is a heavy worsted weight yarn and I spent a lot of money on this sweater's worth of it, it frustrates me.

I thought about opening a bottle of Chardonnay and watching last season of "Being Human" so I'd be caught up for last night's episode, but instead I wiped up the mascara that was running down my chin and sat down at the sewing machine to work on the sun dress. And today I'm

feeling a little better. Now if only I could get some sleep.

In pleasantly surprising news, it turns out that I am much farther along in my Knit it Forward surprise than I thought. It is the red thing if you are one of the knitters who has seen my mystery project. The pattern calls for 9 repeats of a certain (very large) chart and since I've made this pattern before and vaguely remembered the size and how long it took me to make, as I was halfway through my 5th repeat of the chart and I thought I'd double check and see if I really did the whole 9 that the pattern asked for- this thing is starting to get close to the size of the first one I made. I also seriously doubted that I had enough yarn to do the full 9 repeats plus a final chart. Nope. I did 6 repeats before moving on to the chart. Don't you love it when you're suddenly much farther along in the pattern than you think you are?

Anyhow, here's the dress in the gray light of an Indiana winter morning.

A close up of the front. Can you see the curve where the skirt meets the bust? That was supposed to be a point. My bad! I also tightened the cleavage band (probably not a technical term) to make it look more ruched. There will be a zipper and a hook and eye...when I get over my fear of installing a zipper. It still needs straps and the bottom hemmed, but so far so good (that means that it started out as a dress and hasn't turned into a tote bag yet).

Procraftinating

2012-01-21T13:35:00.000-08:00

There are several things I meant to do or still need to do today. I meant to go to Zumba at 9:45 this morning, which meant that I needed to be out the door by 9:15 at the very latest, which meant that I had to be outside shoveling snow at 7 am Saturday morning. Sorry Zumba, maybe next week.

And now it's 4:30 in the afternoon and I still haven't made much progress, save for a nap, a foot or so on a scarf, a slightly cleaner kitchen, a couple hours of audiobook and a completed border. You see readers, I'm procraftinating. I've also been procraftinating with a couple projects I can't show on the blog because they are for people who may check in by the time I finish the project and get it to them. I've also been procraftinating with my cross-stitching and have finished border number 3 and realized that since there's an extra stitch length-wise and an extra stitch width-wise, my wonderful checkerboard pattern isn't going to work at all and I need to come up with something else in its place. So then I started working on a different project that I haven't touched in 6 months to avoid sitting down with graph paper and coming up with a new border. It's a vicious cycle.

So at this point you may be asking yourself what I'm avoiding.

1. Snow shoveling. It sucks, I hate doing it. But I've decided that if I listen to Shakira while I'm doing it, it counts as Zumba.

2. Mr. Alabama. I went on a date a few weeks ago (January 6th to be exact) and I thought it went really well. He seemed to think I was witty, I thought he was very nice, I didn't overdo the martinis, he likes animals and didn't seem to be overly bothered with my being a vegetarian. We emailed back and forth a lot before the date and a couple times after the date and since I thought it went well (and he told the mutual friend that set us up that it went well) and I was pretty sure he'd call me. But it's been quiet. I've stopped jumping and running to the phone every time there's a text or new e-mail, but I'm quite disappointed that nothing happened past that. Following a friend's advice (if he wants to date you, he will find a way to date you) I haven't contacted him except a quick email to say thanks for the drinks/had a great time/how was your trip to Chicago you were telling me about...and I'm just not sure what to think.

I know he's recently divorced, and I'm a runaway bride so that's not a great start. Did he think that I wasn't interested? So I've decided to call him. Or email him. Or just contact him in a non-dramatic way and say that I'd be up for another round of drinks or perhaps a sober activity if he's still interested. I think we're past the point of me sounding desperate/clingy since it's been a couple weeks. Maybe it's the Valentine's Day decorations getting to me.

But I think I'll finish a few more projects first.

No, I'm not afraid of rejection- why would ask that? :p

Here's a few pictures of my weapons of procraftination.

Border #3- done!

Scarf I haven't worked on since last June

This is one of those projects that I can't show you yet. But I get to be a Lantern Moon snob and use my Lantern Moon circs and my Lantern Moon sheepy bag all in one project!

tgif

2012-01-20T06:38:00.000-08:00

It's been a long week. As you may know, I work for a yarn company and have been making dozens of flowers to use as part of the new trade show booth. I also made a last minute scarf, and I needed to have all of these done by Wednesday. It was a long week of burning the midnight (and 3 am oil) but I am thrilled to say that I did it and it's over....until there's a new work project. It was lovely to go to bed Wednesday night and not have to think about how many mums needed crocheted the next.

On Tuesday my mom's little cat, Lacie dissapeared. While Lacie isn't a huge fan of me, I think she's beautiful and I try to cuddle her (at the risk of my face) whenever I see her which isn't too often because she and my mom live in Sarasota for most of the year. I didn't hear about her being gone until Wednesday morning after she hadn't come home the night before, and when an animal goes missing around where my parents live, it is generally assumed they fell in to the water and are gone for good. And that was the assumption. And my mom cried, and I cried, and we drank a glass of wine over the phone. And then after I was all tired from crying and not sleeping (between those flowers, the scarf and Lacie how could I?) the little shit came home Thursday morning like nothing had happened. The assumption now is that she was stuck in someone's garage or found her way on to a work vehicle. So then happy tears, but those don't count. Seriously- why do our animals do this to us?!

Yesterday started off with a snow storm, and a nasty trip to work. On a good day it takes me around 45 minutes to get to work, yesterday was almost 2 hours, white knuckles all the way. Once I got there it was a long day in the warehouse unloading the latest shipment and packing up a huge pile of backorders. It's cold and exhausting and then I went to Zumba, where by song 3 I felt like laying down on the floor and having someone wake me up when the class was over. Luckily Kim and Jessica were there or I would have probably wimped out and gone home.

Got home, showered, decided to sneak in a few minutes of my wonderful cross stitching/

audiobook time which you guys are sick of but I'm going to show you anyway. There's 5 parts to the border, and I just started the 3rd. The 4th border is the largest by far, it is 6 rows of checkerboard in ecru and a bazillion shades of gray and black to keep it interesting/annoying. I'm also going to have to get creative with this bit of the border, because I have an extra stitch somewhere that's going to throw off my perfect pattern.

I have also abandoned the dress and started on that's a little more user-friendly. The pattern is a Laura Ashley pattern I've had for a while, the fabric is 5 yards of bright paisley that I got for $12 forever ago. I had a little bit of a rough time piecing the skirts to the bust line, and after an hour with the seam ripper and some colorful language, I modified the pattern so it's a more curved bust line and not as pointed. I will probably make this dress again, but I'll be more careful with the bust line.

I'm not making as much progress with this because if I'm tired, I don't sew. If I've been crying, I don't sew. If I've only got 10 minutes to spare, I don't sew. That being said, it's a wonder I've gotten this far.

It's bright, it's cheap fabric, and I actually kind of love it.

Mums the Word: Tutorial

2012-01-13T09:49:00.000-08:00

For a big project at work, I've had to come up with a couple flower patterns, and I figured I'd share my favorite with you guys while I finish up the last 7 of them.

Here's how to make mums! It's a crochet recipe (not pattern- I'm not that meticulous) and while it required only chaining and single crochet, it's a little fiddly so I don't suggest it as a first crochet project.

You will need some yarn (I'm using Fino from Alpaca With A Twist, held doubled). You'll need an appropriately sized crochet hook as well.

1. Chain 4 or 5 stitches, join in to a loop with a slip stitch.

2. SC around the loop you just made- you should end up with around 7/8 stitches on the loop. Join in the round with a slip stitch.

3. Chain 20, SC in to next SC, repeat until end of row. This is your first round of "petals". So far so good? Now is the finicky bit.

4. See those SC's you anchored your petals down with? You're going to pull your petals forward and put 2 SC stitches in each SC stitch- you will now have twice the SC stitches from the last round and a solid SC round, forcing the petals forward. The solid SC round serves as a foundation round for your next row of petals.

5. Chain 25, SC in to the next SC, repeat until end of row. This is your second round of petals.

Repeat rows 4&5 until you have desired size of flower- I have 4 petal rows total in mine. Hint: You don't really have to do another SC row around your last petal round- it doesn't show and you don't need a set-up row if you're done with petals.

Make your new flower a few friends and have yourself a nice little bouquet!

Questions? Comments? Want to show me your finished mums? Shoot me an e-mail at peaceloveyarn@aol.com.

cough. cough.

2012-01-11T11:00:00.000-08:00

The trouble with colds is that you never really remember how awful they can be. I'm like, hey- I might be catching a cold. How inconvenient to have sniffles for a few days.

And then you catch that cold, and you walk- scratch that- shuffle around in pink fleecy pajama pants making sounds like a pug while you consider giving up 10 years of vegetarianism for a bowl of chicken noodle soup (In case you were wondering, I did pick the chicken bits out and gave them to the cat- she was pleased. I know this is being a very BAD vegetarian, but when I'm sick I really don't care.)

Since my cold is gross, I'll talk about my crafty things.

1. I bought a new dress. There is some assembly required.

2. Yes- I'm aware that making a couple stockings last month does not make me a seamstress. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

3. I still have a buttload of flowers to make for work, all by next Wednesday. I'll get there. Here's what I have so far. I'll try to crank out a couple more today between naps while watching Jane Austen costume dramas. Lizzie Bennett makes everything better.

4. I also need to have signicantly more of this scarf done by next Wednesday. I know it's technically "ok" if I don't finish it and we can use the unfinished one as part of a display, but it will still feel like a gigantic failure to me.

5. I have this new white tea with rose petals in it that makes me feel like a princess when I drink it. I tried opening my windows and whistling in hopes that the animals from the woods would come in and help me clean my house for book club tomorrow, but that didn't happen. Perhaps I'll try a different tune.

6. I finished my super fun and super fast crochet doily and it now lives on my nightstand. As you can see, I had loads of help blocking it.

That's it for today- I'm just knitting furiously to get these flowers and the scarf done so I can get back to selfish knitting, embroidery, (and sewing- squee!). Stay tuned for a tutorial on how to crochet mums!

New Year, New Project

2012-01-02T07:18:00.000-08:00

So the other day when I realized that I was down to 7 (omg!) projects, I finally put two and two together. The world is supposed to end in 2012, I was going to finish all my projects in 2012. So I started a new crochet project last night- you're welcome.

*I do not actually believe that the world is going to end- or at least it had better not end. I'm so close to finally growing out my pixie-cut, it would be a shame to have a proper bob just in time for the apocalypse.

** Nor do I believe that my project count is significant enough to end the world. It might stress me out a bit, but I think that's as far as it goes.

So, while we're on to the new year, I'll share my resolutions.

1. Work harder, play harder. Cut down on Saturday nights wearing fleece pj-pants digging through yarn stash.

2. Be a tidier person. Actually put up my clean clothes instead of putting them on the floor until I wear them.

3. Learn to say NO. As in, "Paige, my car is out of gas and I'm a really bad driver. Can I borrow Bumblebee?" No.

4. Stay under 10 projects. Staying around 5 projects is better.

5. Use a lot more sock yarn, not necessarily on socks.

6. Learn to quilt.

7. Get over hatred of working out. I actually joined a gym and signed up for Zumba classes last month, and I need to stick with it. Jessica- you have my permission to drag me out of my house and take me to Zumba if I miss more than 2 in a row or have a really lame excuse. I always like it once I'm there- I just come up with a thousand excuses in the process to talk myself out of it.

8. Get back in to salsa dancing.

8 projects, 8 resolutions. I think that's fair, right?

Here are a couple updates on projects, since this isn't a resolution blog.

Funky Doily. I know doilies are generally solid colors and lace, but I did just call it a "funky" doily. Yarn is Lana Grossa Cotton Maya from a Valentine's Day swap several years ago. I love the colors, but I'm really not a fan of cotton in anything but baby blankets and potholders, so I've been hoarding this yarn until the perfect pattern comes along. I'm hoping this is it- I think it will look pretty awesome on my nightstand with my lamp and Castle book on it.

Anyhoo, the pattern calls for around 330 yards of yarn and I've got closer to 450, so mine is naturally going to be a little bigger, probably with a fun shell stitch border instead of the suddenly-out-of-yarn slip stitch finishing. I'm 7 inches in now (doily in pattern is 13 inches across but I know that these things acquire 8 more stitches every single row and 7 inches does not mean at all that I'm halfway through.) I worked on it for more than 2 hours last night and it doesn't look like I made a dent on that yarn ball at all.

And then...the cross stitching. This thing is an absolute black-hole. I have been putting around an hour a day in while listening to my audiobook. It takes absolutely forever to make the tiniest difference....but then again, I don't mind. I truly enjoy working on this. I know you're tired of reading about this little project, so I'll cut back on the embroidery posting.

I will say that I f-ed up somewhere and my border isn't going to go where it should and I'm going to have to add another column of sky and leaves to compensate. Oops.

Another year's ending

2011-12-31T07:43:00.000-08:00

I like to use the end of the year as a time to wrap things and up finish the things I've been putting off. There's a few more projects I had hoped I'd have finished by now, but I'll get over it. I started 2011 with 87 projects, and I'm pleased as punch to be starting 2012 with 7 projects. Total. Okay, there's one work project but that doesn't really count. To me at least....

Since there's one big project I'm going to try to finish today, I'll blog briefly. Here's the projects I've finished recently...

Tiramisu Baby Blanket in Baby's First- cotton blend with pink satin ribbon.

This has been sitting on the corner of my desk for a couple months waiting to be finished. Glad to have reclaimed that spot again!

Christmas Kate for my Mom using Cascade 220 and some purple mystery wool I dyed a few weeks ago.

Sigma Nu Hat for Clay. He threw a fit when I tried to get a picture of the hat, so he is off the knit-list.

Magic Octopus Socks. Yarn: Three Irish Girls Adorn Sock. Color: Octopus Garden. Started on way to Harry Potter theme park, finished while watching Harry Potter 7.2 received for Christmas. Gotta love circular projects!

And here's the projects that I'm going to carry with me in to the new year...

High-Maintenance Mittens. I had hoped to finish them before the first snow, but then cupcake hats and cross-stitching happened and I lost momentum. After I finish my cross-stitching, this will be my new Outlander project. That being said, it might be May before I finish the cross-stitching and then June before my mittens are good to go.

Another baby blanket...Encore Worsted. I keep these things stashed- you never know how short of notice babies are going to give you.

I love this blanket...need to finish work project before I get back to this...

Biohazard Sweater. I think it's too big- I need to put it on scrap yarn, try it on, figure out how much I need to rip back, bite the bullet and do it. Then keep knitting until I have a sweater.

Sock yarn blanket. Meh.

Woven Scarf for Jaclyn. I'll get there. I need to just sit down and not get up until it's done. It might take all of 3 hours- tops.

And the black-hole of time cross stitching. I love it. I only have to finish the top bit and then do the border. That should *only* take about 20 more hours. Seriously- why do I like doing this?!

So that's the last post of the year. Stay tuned for resolutions, project finishing, and then little bursts of new projects. Happy New Year!

T'was the Day before Christmas

2011-12-24T06:30:00.000-08:00

And there the knitter Paige sat,

smugly weaving in ends on a hat,

wishing the ornaments would knit themselves,

or wondering is Santa would loan out his elves.

The stockings were finished last night by machine,

Paige's big mistake making her furiously green.

Enough of this rhyming crap Paige said,

and she picked up some eye-lash, first green and then red.

The Christmas spirit in finally starting to arrive with only about 15 hours to spare.

At work we took off yesterday afternoon and I dasher-ed home and prancer-ed over to my knitting basket. Okay, enough of that too. In short, by the time I would normally be leaving work, I was home and weaving in the ends on my little bro's Sigma Nu hat. The pictures are terrible, but I'm terribly pleased with the end result. I don't have time to block it, but I'll explain that if he wants it a smidge bigger, I can make that happen. It fits my dad perfectly, so I think it will fit Clay pretty well. Hopefully I'll get a good picture on Clay's head. I did make my mom a gift too, but there's a slight chance she'll check in on my Christmas crafting before she unwraps her present, so you're going to have to wait to see it too.

I dug out my mom's sewing machine last night (I had forgotten that she brought it back here instead of leaving it in Florida) and finished my second stocking with everything going so smoothly. I kept waiting for the catch and finally found it after I sewed on the button- the button-hole and button are on the wrong side! I guess my stockings will have to face each other instead of spooning. Oh well- at least I didn't forget to put in the middle part of the stocking or sew the top on wrong-side out, so I'm fine with mis-matching button application. I touched up a couple loose bits on the first stocking too since I had the machine out. All and all, I'm pleased.

I have my cross-stitching sitting next to the computer, which happens to be the best-lit room in the house. This also means that every time I check facebook, ravelry or blogs, then I am reminded that I'd much rather be cross-stitching and listening to my audiobook than working on yet another fun-fur ornament, but I've only got one day of this fuzzy logic left so the cross-stitching will just have to be patient. Okay, it will have to be patient while I finish up 16 more laceweight flowers for work, but that's a different story. At least my cross-stitching has company in my new sheepy from Kenya, a Christmas gift from Jennifer. It's adorable and I love it!

And finally, a quick picture of the ornaments. I'd like to give away 3 sets of 4 and 1 set of 2 (they already got 2 last Sunday) which means I've got 4 more ornaments to make today and only enough eyelash for 2 of them. So that means the first 2 ornaments are going to go crazy-fast and the others will have to go back to sock yarn- probably with beads because I am a procrastinating masochist.

And that's all for now. I have a couple more things I'd like to wrap up before the new year, but I'm doubting that they're going to happen. Considering where I was in the project-count this time last year, I'm okay with my 10-ish WIPS instead of last year's 87.

Happy Holidays to all and to all a great day!

Little Victories

2011-12-21T20:31:00.000-08:00

I know that since only 3 days remain before Christmas I should be more concerned with Monumentous Achievements over Little Victories, but a win is a win, and I'm thrilled with any of those at the moment.

Last night I finished the Tangerine Guacamole Regret Cap, and dropped it off this evening on my way home from work. A little cha-ching always helps around the holidays, even if it was pimpin' out my knitting hands for 1/4 of minimum wage. My ego and right index finger will recover eventually. I did get a quick picture of the hat before I took it to it's new home. Please be gentle- I am neither a morning person nor a hat person and it shows here. And I should probably be wearing lipstick.

That's one of my bigger victories this week- a stocking cap in 3 days (day 2 felt a cold coming on and knitted for 20 minutes before going to bed and sleeping for nearly 12 hours).

My (hopefully) last holiday knitting project is broken up in to "Little Victories". Today's Little Victories included starting my brother's hat, finishing the ribbing of said hat, and getting through the first of 3 fair-isle charts- all of which I made up the other day so that he has a custom Sigma Nu hat in Purdue colors. It's my second fair-isle project (which in itself is another little victory) and my first project with more than 2 colors. Here it is a couple minutes ago, after the first round of the second chart.

Stay tuned for more Frat Hat and to see if I actually get in to the Christmas spirit this year. But don't hold your breath for the second one.

Tangerine Guacamole and Similar Regrets

2011-12-18T17:35:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy week in the Paige, Madeline and Tubby Custard household. Since my split with Bam Bam and my season off of rugby, I've been a little...hermity. This week was a fantastic break from that, and all things considered still highly productive.

Tuesday I went to see the first 7 minutes of next summer's Batman movie with Meghann's husband AND IT WAS AWESOME. That's about it for that.

Thursday I joined Jessica at Zumba and while I couldn't move for 3 days, IT WAS AWESOME.

Friday I signed up for a rather impromptu sewing class on Mass Ave called at a quilting shop called Crimson Tate. I haven't sewn since high school (pj pants and an embroidered pillow- oh yeah) but I was really pleased with how my Christmas stocking turned out. I got there early and got started early and then finished in time to start another stocking before meeting my friend to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie. Robert Downey Jr. and I are going to get married, but more on that later. Here is the completed first stocking, and it might be a while before it has a twin- my sewing machine fell in to a coma as I was finishing the top and it needs to go and get itself fixed. Here's a fun fact: Rowan also makes fabric, and it turns out that I am a fabric snob too. Madeline disapproves of my fabric selection.

(do you like my buttons? I couldn't decide which to use so I used both!)

Saturday came and I put on my wonderful Christmas sweater (bought at Goodwill, embellished with stash) and headed downtown to the Hoydens officer election Christmas party. I had a great time and a couple G&T's and found some awkward pictures on facebook this morning.

This morning I met with a knitter who called me yesterday in desperation because she had promised her grandson a knitted hat for Christmas and either couldn't make it or didn't want to make it (her story kept changing). She had bought yarn to match his coat in gross acrylic in the shades "Tangerine" and "Guacamole". Naturally, he wants a stocking cap, which takes effing-forever and she only thought to ask for help exactly one week before Christmas. She also thinks that because she paid for the yarn, then I should knit it for free, because really- it surely won't take more than a few minutes? I'm good- but I'm not that good. She thinks $20 or anything over that (for something that is going to take me around 10 hours) is waaaaaay too much money. I was quite offended when she insinuated that my time is worth less than $2 an hour and that I should just make the hat in the holiday spirit (see two posts ago for my feelings on holiday spirit). But in order to leave and get her to stop complaining about how "expensive" my services are, I said I'd see what I can do. Seriously-why do I do this to myself?! I should have left and told her that I've got my own darn presents to finish and her poor planning is not my emergency, but that would require my growing a backbone which I don't see happening any time soon. ARG! I hate people sometimes. Here's the damn hat- or at least the start of it.

And while I'm ranting, something else that bothers me. See something funny about this key? Yep- two colors, one symbol. I just wish I knew which was which since I've done one color of red on the main house and am using the other red (before I realized the key mistake) on the upper houses and as the border. It should turn out okay- but denial is more than a river in Egypt.

The Stash

2011-12-11T07:36:00.000-08:00

I was just over reading (and laughing at) the Yarn Harlot's guide to what to get your loved one that happens to be a knitter for the Holidays.

And I'd like to put my two cents in for anyone reading MY blog in hopes of getting gift ideas for ME. Please. Don't buy me yarn. Let me show you why. I'm very proud of my stash, and I've finally hit a point where adding to it makes me cringe a little. I've got plans for nearly everything in here, except for one drawer- which I'll get to later. Enjoy your tour of my stash (this isn't all of my stash- somehow the giant drawer of Cascade 220 got missed, plus there are small deposits of yarn spread over 3 rooms, but these have moved over from the "Stash" category to the "Project" category.

Here is my tub of roving, or for the non-knitters reading, the not-yet-yarn pile. This is all going to be spun someday, and then I'm going to find all of the roving that doesn't fit in to the tub, and then spin that too. It's not a short process, but I'll get there.

The sock stash. There are some that believe that sock yarn doesn't count as stash, and to that I say, "Bless your heart." I have enough sock stash to make a pair of socks a week (which is knit-suicide) for almost 2 years. For non-knitters: a large sock stash is a common occurrence. This example is a little larger than normal, but I can explain. Sock yarn is really easy to buy. Most yarn shops have a large selection of sock yarn, and odds are- there's a brand or color you've next seen before and therefore must have. It is also very easy to buy because you know exactly how much you need to make a pair of socks (or mittens, or hat, or shawlette). You need 1 ball or 100 grams. It's really easy to get sucked in to the "it's only one ball!" thing and before you know it, you have to keep your sock yarn in the bathtub to accommodate it. I also find that it makes a great souvenir. See the sparkly blue ball, front and center? A trip to the Marine base last year to visit a guy. The guy didn't work out, but the local yarn shop sure did. The orangey-red above that? A trip to the upper-peninsula of Michigan, also with a guy that didn't work out. (I swear, those are the only two). The pastel-colors under the white box full of beads? From my favorite dyer in England. I've got three more of hers in there too. See how easy that is to accumulate? In order to stop buying sock yarn, I'd have to stop traveling, stop meeting fascinating knitters and dyers, and stop visiting new yarn shops altogether. It's impossible, but I am trying to slow down the process by knitting more socks so that the stash can once again fit in a drawer instead of a cedar chest. The sock-yarn-eating blanket also lives in there. I keep hoping it will "help itself" to the stash and start knitting itself, but so far it's resisting.

Not yarn, but I'm quite pleased with my needle organization system. See that top drawer? Size 2 needles. Size 2 straight needles, size 2 dpns, size 2 circulars, all size 2. The next drawer is all size 3 needles and it continues in this manner until you hit size 10 on the bottom. It's bulky, it's not a cute little bag, but darn it, the system works so it's staying there. This is also a handy place to keep spare size-checker-things, tape measures, stitch markers and things like that, but keep in mind, it's the needles we're talkin' about here. The crap yarn. Or the baby yarn. Let's rephrase this: the machine-washable yarn. The acrylic yarn.See this cluster of bags? These are projects-to-be. Inside each bag is a project's (most commonly a sweater's) worth of yarn, wound and ready to go with the pattern and needles inside. There are 10 of these bags total, this is merely a cluster of 3.
One of these bags on the inside. Needles to be picked, pattern to be improvised but the folded bit of paper is a collection of cable patterns that I like. The special stash. I've got 2 drawers of the special stash, and it's yarn that I'm terrified to use. That's because it's from people that I don't want to disappoint by knitting something ugly with the lovely yarn they bought or made for me. In the drawer below this, there is yarn from a knitter who has since "cast off" (non-knitters might say, "passed away"). In short, I'm waiting until the heavenly light shines on to a pattern and the angels sing "for the vintage rowan in the drawer......". The lace drawer, 1 of 2. Any knitter who knows a thing or two about lace, know that there's 10 years of knitting in this drawer. So naturally, I've got 2 drawers. I'm a planner.The handspun drawer, 1 of 3. I have issues making things with my own handspun, I'm working on it. Don't be too judgmental. So that was a super-quick tour of the stash with over-exposed pictures. Naturally, there's more but if you want to see that, you're welcome to stop by and see for yourself.

While we're talking about stash, here's a couple of my stash-busting projects.

And that's all, folks!

Hellidays

2011-12-08T12:22:00.001-08:00

Most of the time I quite enjoy being single. I'm not obligated to go spend time with someone else's family at get-togethers, it's at least half the price when it's just me doing something, nobody can tell me that I knit too much, and I'm the reigning queen over the remote control.

The Holidays do not fall in to that "most of the time" category. The Holidays are the time that you spend with loved ones, laughing and drinking that disgusting eggnog crap and just being all around merry. And as a veteran Holiday singleton (this will be my 6th in a row and 22nd total), this reliable source can tell you that Holidays when you are single suck pretty hard.

The Holidays force you to listen to your friends bitch about how they don't know what to get their significant others and they can't decide whose family they will spend Thanksgiving or Christmas with. The Holidays force you to lose sight of your good qualities (I have nice ankles and bake well) and start to see why you're single- why would anyone ever want to date a warehouse girl with 2 cats, too much yarn, and hair that is a complete mess most of the time?

And that's probably why I was really really excited to have a friend set me up with a date that should have been this coming weekend. I figured out how to make my hair look cute despite it's awkward length while I try to grow it out, bought new stiletto boots, and had even picked out my outfit for that evening. And then he changed his mind. I tried to shake it off and work on a hat for a friend, with then before I knew it I was in the shower, sobbing at the idea of yet another New Year's Eve, watching the ball drop, totally alone. I hate the Holidays.

Anyhow, here's a hat, blocking on a partially deflated soccer ball.

A Weekend's Work

2011-12-05T05:34:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Outlander, I had a very crafty weekend. Unfortunately, none of it was Holiday crafting. I've only got 4 hours left in my audiobook (before I get the next 5 of them from my friend David) but I'm telling myself that the end of the audiobook means the end of cross stitching until a significant chunk of my holiday knitting is done andbound off.

I really have no idea what is so dark addictive about this little farm sampler. But I'm a little sad that I need to put it down- a far cry from the 5 year itty-bitty cross stitching I finished earlier this year. I think I'm finally at a point where every little thing (and there's lots of them) makes a difference and I can't wait to see how it will look an hour from now. There's something so satisfying with getting a tree done, and then a fence, and then oh look- a little hat! There's going to be a little person under there in about half an hour!

I know that me making little X-s on pre-made fabric is not the most riveting blogging, so I'll move on for a bit.

I didn't really work on my wonderful blanket this weekend in the ususal sense- I did spend much of Saturday afternoon dyeing up new colors to add to it in addition to the new handspun colors. I worked 4 more circles in to it, but that's not really blogworthy. I am quite pleased with my dyed yarns though- so I'll brag on those.

*Dyers: I know they're not fabulous but I'm really new to this stuff so be gentle!

From left to right: Gross Celery- aka- Original color, Super dark purple, much lighter purple that was dye-pot leftovers from the previous purple, Super dark teal, royal blue handspun shetland, and a strange Avacado green.

I love most of them, but I've already got a purple that's so similar to the darker one, I probably won't be adding this to the mix. But that yarn (until Saturday) had been a gross farm wool that had been a nasty shade of yellow that just looked like dirty sheep to me. With exception of the royal blue shetland, all of these colors had been the celery green that you see on the far left.

And moving on...to the hat. I made this for work and finished up last night. I quite like it- but we'll see.

And finally, the Magic Octopus socks have been reduced to purse knitting, where they will be lucky to see an inch a week. I'm still a little determined to have them finished for Christmas. And mittens. And 60 circles attached to my blanket. Oh yeah, and tons of Christmas knitting too. I wonder who could arrange for me to sneak

in an extra month before Christmas?

Outlandish crafting

2011-12-03T06:58:00.001-08:00

The house is mine again for a couple quiet weeks, and I'm spending every moment I can listening to Outlander on audiobook while crafting. I don't know if it's the book or the projects that are so addicting, but I'm quite fine with it. Except that I really shouldn't be working on my granny-circle blanket and farm sampler and SHOULD be working on Christmas presents! I've got 3 medium projects (4-6 hours each) to make and I'm going to make as many small projects (less than an hour each) to give away to people like co-workers, extended family (they'll get several small presents), the neighbor lady, and so on.

But the good news is there's only one present I HAVE to finish before my mom comes back on the 19th. The bad news is, I really don't want to work on anything but my blanket and cross-stitching.

Here's a quick update on those...

I'm running out of a few of the colors in the blanket. This is because they are either favorites that just get a lot more playing time, or they were itty-bitty yarn balls to start with. To compensate and not end up rotating between 3 colors on my later circles, I've added a couple handspun skeins of a comparable weight and will probably over-dye some pale green today to a couple darker shades.

I'm totally addicted to this little farmhouse. Since this picture I've finished all the windows and have started with the lettering above the house- it is a sampler and therefore must have very doodley letters you know.

It's a wonder this project isn't going faster, considering how much help I have.

Day Tripper

2011-11-28T17:21:00.000-08:00

One way ticket, yeah.... it took me soooooo long to find out, and I found out.

Not really. This morning I took a little trip to go to the Clay Purl in Nashville, Indiana. It was my first trip to Brown County, and I thoroughly enjoyed walking around Nashville because I was an hour and a half early to my appointment.

Here were some of the sights (it got quite drizzly and I put my camera away- I'd rather keep it dry if possible). I found the most wonderful little shop called Madeline's, and it smelled like Gardenia candles and had fantastic vintage dress forms that in hindsight, I wish I had bought.

I did a little damage waiting for my appointment- I bought a nice little jar of lemony lotion that isn't greasy at all, and a pair of sheepy socks. Then when I went out to the car to get my rep bag, I found that I had a stowaway...

...who turned out to be quite the Olive Garden party animal.

The Happenings...

2011-11-27T16:07:00.000-08:00

The Holiday season is upon us, and that means it's time to bake enough to provide a small army with love handles, knit until your index finger bleeds, and run around taking care of things that you've been meaning to do since July.

Or maybe that's just me.

Anyhow, here's a super fast update on what I've been up to since my last post.

Finishing my wonderful red tweed cardigan.

Cross stitching in my wonderful red tweed cardigan while listening to "Outlander" on audiobook. I've had to put that on hold for a while, it's getting smutty and I'm afraid someone will walk in on me, blushing and stitching very quickly. They might just get the wrong idea...

Finally weaving in my ends on a shawl I started in July and finally finished in October.

Making a 12" blanket square (that is so thick that it could survive a nuclear holocaust) for a wounded veteran Kim knows.

Finishing up my cupcake orders (for a while at least).

Making Magic Octopus socks.

Tending to an overachieving Christmas Cactus.

And working on my new love, my stash-eating blanket.

And that's about it for now. My show is on in a few minutes and I need to figure out how I'm going to do my decreases on a hat I'm designing for work before Prime-Time Knitting Hour starts.

Cross-stitching in my sleep

2011-11-20T08:23:00.000-08:00

I had the strangest dream on Thursday night. I was sitting, working on my Halloween cross-stitching project that I LOVE and suddenly, I was out of aida cloth. I was stitches away from finishing and it looked like I hadn't given myself enough cloth to finish the project. Since this was more of a nightmare, I shot up and ran to my cross-stitch bag on the other side of the room, dug out the Halloween piece, and counted.

I didn't have enough fabric. And I have no idea how I did that! Luckily I wasn't almost done or anything. Dang. I'm glad I dreamed about it- I could have stitched for a few more weeks before figuring out I was 8 stitches' worth of fabric short. I was so upset (not really) that I turned on my "Outlander" audio book and grabbed the next p

roject in the queue. The piece is called Mrs. McKenna's Farm and it's a little sampler with a farm house, a few trees, and my favorite thing ever- sheep. Here's my progress after 4 discs of Outlander and half a bottle of wine (it was on Saturday night- drinking is allowed). I'm absolutely in love with it even though it doesn't really look like much...yet.

And here are all of the projects that have been utterly neglected because of the cross-stitch sampler. (I knew I shouldn't have started it, but I have absolutely no self control when it comes to NOT starting new projects)

1. Red Tweedy Sweater Beast. I'm going to wear this on Thanksgiving. End of story.

2. Magic Octopus Sock. Started on Florida trip so that I would have plain knitting to take to the Harry Potter theme park (hence the "magic" part). Yarn is Three Irish Girls Adorn Sock in "Octopus Gardens" colorway.

3. Teal Mitten. It needs to be closed at the top, given a thumb, and then given a mate. I'll get there eventually. Preferably before we have real snow.

4. Crochet Stash-Eater blanket. Was going to be a Christmas present for my mom who said she didn't like the colors. Whew- more for me!

So that's what I've been up to. How's your holiday crafting coming?

the hat

2011-11-12T20:16:00.000-08:00

I began this morning a little earlier than I wanted to, but all with good reason. I took a Fair-Isle class from Amy Detjen today and it was marvelous. I took my 8 rows of homework ribbing in and a dark and light color that I thought looked nice together (it's a very dark green if the pictures don't show it well). Within a few minutes, I was knitting with two colors! I never really got a fluid two handed-system going, and anchoring down stitches with the right-hand color is still a little over my head, but overall I'm very pleased with myself and my- scratch that- Meghann's new hat.The pattern is a little crazy because it wasn't really meant to be a hat, just a sampler where I get to experiment with things like color changes and floats, but if someone is willing to wear my first fair-isle on their head and look this happy about it, then I'm all about that.

It's improvised. It has mistakes. It had slightly wonky decreases. And I couldn't be happier with it. And Meghann seems to be happy with it too. (And isn't her owl sweater adorable! I totally picked the buttons :p)

Getting back in to the spin of things...

2011-11-05T11:13:00.000-07:00

I have immensely enjoyed my cupcake break this week, and even have a little to show for it!

On Halloween I repeated last year's theme- a witch costume and a spinning wheel on the front porch. We live in a cul-de-sac and don't get many trick-or-treaters, but the few that I had seemed to like the "witch wheel". One kid that was far too old to be trick-or-treating even stayed for a few minutes, watching and asking questions. I was thrilled to answer them, but didn't offer for him to give it a spin. I'm still a little snobby. I was able to finish my blue and yellow sparkly batt single and started a pretty pink, purple and green braid that I picked up a couple years ago in Florida and have been promising that it would be the next project since then.

It will be a few more days until I'm plying again. My usual plying technique is to wind the singles into a yarn cake and work from each end, meeting in the middle. It gives me a nice Andean ply and prevents any pesky 2 gram leftovers at the end of the project. But my ball winder has been sliding downhill and finally destroyed 4 ounces of BFL a month or so ago, and it had to go. I called and ordered a replacement a couple days ago and it should be here soon. But I'm really going to try to finish spinning the rest of this merino braid and the 2 others I have so I can just got nuts and have a big ply-day (I sure know how to party, eh?)

I've also been doing a little knitting on my fabulous red sweater, which thrills me to no end. I have some irrational hatred of sleeves that turn sweaters from a 1 month project to a 1 month, 2 years of hibernation and 3 week project. Not this time, red tweedy thing!

This sweater started life 8 years ago as Mariah from Knitty, a fabulous cabled hoodie on worsted weight yarn. I fell in love with Rowan Felted Tweed for this sweater, and I told myself that even though this a dk weight (who is Rowan kidding- it's a sport weight AT MOST) that my lovely worsted weight sweater pattern will work. (On an unrelated note, I believe that this is where Paige-Gauge began). After knitting both immensely cabled sleeves (This might be the source of sleeve-phobia as well now that I think about it) and the body up the armpits, I decided that I hated this sweater. Mostly because it didn't fit. Seriously peeps- check your gauge. I threw it in a corner for a year or so.

I'd like to point out that at this point in my career as a yarnoholic, my stash was in it's infancy, and I didn't have the ability to put something away and work on other projects for years without ever encountering it again. And so the red Rowan felted tweed and the Pariah Mariah sweater was revisited the following summer. This time I picked a pattern that called for the same size yarn (crazyness!). I knitted, I purled, I loved. I took it to the restaurant where I was bussing tables to show a fellow knitter and someone spilled a large container of fat-free raspberry vinaigrette all down my faux-Burberry with the real-Rowan inside. I took it off the needles, washed it, washed it again, washed it a third time, and frogged it and washed it again. I threw it in a corner for a few years.

And then Ravelry happened, and I joined the Ravelypics the summer before I left for my year in England. I signed up for the sweater sprint, and dug out that damn Rowan Felted Tweed. I picked the Central Park Hoodie and held the yarn doubled because I had plenty of it. I knitted. I purled. I cabled. I loved. I ran out of yarn. At this point it's been 4 or 5 years since the original dye lot was made, and I knew my odds weren't looking so hot at finding a matching skein or two to finish the project. I ordered some from England that looked as close as possible to mine and I told myself it would be fine. (At this time I would like to point out that de nile is more than just a river in Egypt) The yarn came, I thought it looked fine, I knitted, I purled, I cabled, and I finished on time with a lovely red tweed sweater to wear all over England for a year. Except for the fugly line across the middle of the back where I changed dye lots. Even the tweed was different. I threw it in a corner for a few years.

And then a few weeks ago I was flipping through a J-Crew catalog, wishing I could afford things out of the J-Crew catalog and checking out what they think a good cardigan looks like. I was flipping through the guy's section because I like to look at the guys in the J-Crew catalog, and I saw it. A super simple men's cardigan with a giant button-band that was ribbed with one button on the side. It was so simple, so perfect. I had to knock it off.

But that yarn should have been tweed. And not that gray-green. How about brown. No! Red! Deep red tweed would make the perfect fall cardigan! And that 2 x 2 ribbed button bad would have to go- maybe the farrow rib I love? And waist shaping is a must. So naturally it looks nothing like the cardigan from the J-Crew catalog, but I'm on to something. Now if only I had some deep red tweed yarn...

BUT I DO! So I dug it out, analyzed, and realized that I not only have to frog this sweater, I had to frog it, separate the two strands held together and then figure out which dye lot was which. That part was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be, thanks to Jazzle-Dazzle and Jen at Meghann's knitting party a few weeks ago.

So here I am, a few weeks later, just starting the second sleeve. I'm running out of the second dye-lot, but I totally have enough to finish this sleeve. The button band is a different story. I'm pretty sure that it will still work if I hold 2 strands of the original dye lot together, as it's not *completely* introducing a new color AND the shawl-collared button band is going to be that Farrow rib, and I think a slight color change won't be so obvious since the since the stitch pattern in changing anyway. But de nile is more than a river in Egypt.

Okay, good chat. Back to cupcakes.

Knee deep in cupcakes

2011-10-30T19:43:00.000-07:00

There's a lot of things I've been meaning to do lately. Things like take my old nail polish off, a laundry load of towels and white rags, brush Madeline's teeth, clean out the closet for things that don't fit, and of course, blog.

Since I got back from Florida I have been beyond swamped with knitting orders. Specifically- cupcakes. I took all of my knitted things that I had made for the craft fair that didn't happen and I'm not selling a thing- except cupcake hats. And every time I sit down to do something that's not a cupcake hat, I get this very guilty feeling that reminds me that people are waiting for cupcakes.

It's not that I don't love to make cupcakes. Okay, that's a lie. I'm so over the cupcakes. I had intended to make one or two to use up some of the stash yarn and now people won't stop ordering them. I love having the extra cash on the side, but I have been knitting nothing but these darn baby hats for weeks and I want to knit my things- not to mention get started on Christmas knitting! Plus I'm really not banking that much on cupcakes, they're by far the most expensive and time consuming things I make for sale. But today the most tragically glorious thing happened: I ran out of the "frosting" yarn. And I went to Joann, the only place in town that sells that yarn. And they're out (I bought all they had last week). And so even though there's a giant waiting list for cupcakes, I'm done for a week, or until my online order arrives. Until then, I really hope people look at the dozens of *other* items I have for sale. Please? Buy my blankets? And my ogre hat? I really don't want to bring them back home again.

So what shall I do with my glorious few days off of cupcake insanity? I'll think of something...

A little song from Florida!

2011-10-11T14:02:00.000-07:00

Martinis and knitting and sunsets on beaches,

Cross stitch and naptime and tartes made from peaches,

Mani's and pedi's and playing with string-

these are a few of my favorite things!

Ahhh, October

2011-10-01T09:09:00.000-07:00

Today I am 7 days away from giving Madeline a little kitty sleepy-pill and boarding a plane to go see my Mom in Florida. Today I am also 30 days away from my very favorite holiday, Halloween. I don't have anything more to say about Halloween right now other that it's coming, and I'm pumped.

But my vacation to Florida has induced quite a finishing-spree, and I couldn't be happier with my progress. Last night at Quarter 3 Emergency Knitting night, I finished a crazy-shawl that I started on the airplane to Vegas on July 3rd. I worked on it diligently the whole time I was there and on the flight home, realized that my stitch count was 50-something off on the row that you pick up all your stitches and add the lace border. I did what I shouldn't have done, and stuck it away in a dark corner until 3 days ago. I tinked back, read the directions thoroughly, and guess what- it worked. I did add an extra 12 stitches which happened to add 2 lace pattern repeats to the left side but whatever. It worked. Here it is blocking.

The pattern is called Lazy Katy and is translated from German. See on the right side of the shawl there's a purple part that starts out with a couple stitches and gets a little bigger, ultimately changing colors and making up the body of the shawl? You start there with a couple stitches, adding two and then decreasing one stitch per row which is how you end up with that funny shape. Then you do a bunch of YO's at the end and that separates the body from what's about to be your border. Then you pick up 2, YO across the short side of the shawl (I kept trying to pick up 1, YO across which threw me off quite a bit) and then you've got your asymetrical border picked up wit 32 pattern reps on one side and 17 on the other (it was supposed to be 15 but I'm such a maverick :p). After that picking up border stitches business it was over in 2 days and now that it's blocking and Madeline is outside and can't pull the pins out, I really love this shawl and am frankly embarassed at how long it took me to finish it. This yarn had originally been the start of another shawl, but I wasn't pleased and since this is part of the dwindling English stash, I wanted to be thrilled with the end result. And I am.

I also made a kitty rug/blanket for the girls so that I could use up a ball of novelty yarn that's been taunting me for a while. Here is the ball, the bed pre-felting (future pair of socks included for scale) and post-felting. It's had a cat on it fairly consistently since I pulled it out of the dryer, so I am once again, very pleased with the result.

And here's another little picture: I got a French children's book in the mail the other day. My good friend and penpal of 14 years has become an illustrator. She's always been artsy and her letters are absolutely saturated with...just, art. Her writing is spectactulary elaborate, she doodles all over the envelopes, and she's just one of those people that could sneeze and have a painting fall out. I'm so envious of her talent. I've bought a few paintings of hers and had her send them here, and this summer she sent a "portrait" of me quite randomly. It's a woman sitting, having a cup of tea in a hand-knit sweater, reading a book. I've had it framed and it's so cool, I'm probably going to design a room around this picture. (I do send her little knitted things in my letters in case you were wondering). But this week in the mail, I got a copy of a French children's book that she has illustrated, and it's absolutely stunning. It's the first book she's illustrated, and I am so ridiculously happy for her. And I'm really thrilled that she sent me a copy! Here it is with the sock that WILL be finished before I go to Florida (I've just turned the heel and picked up the gusset stitches yesterday).

And lastly, a huge thank you to Jen and Jasmine for helping me frog a double-stranded CPH last night which I've been putting off for 3 years. I have grand plans of a Fall cardi that should wait until I finish a baby blanket, a sock, and a woven scarf, but will probably be started today because today is the start of Quarter 4 knitting. And I'm so excited to have finally reclaimed a sweater's worth of Rowan Felted Tweed that I'd like to have a cardi as soon as possible. You know. It's a knitting thing.

Smitten With Mittens

2011-09-28T19:33:00.001-07:00

So those lovely ladies in my Sunday afternoon knitting group are probably tired of hearing about how smitten I am with mittens (I've been craving a pair for months now!). So I bit the bullet and finally made a pair. And then I wrote the pattern. And now I'm going to tell you about how Alpaca With A Twist is doing a mitten knit-along in October using 2 hanks of Mojito (but if you shortened the ribbing you could totally make a pair out of 1 hank). And should you feel like participating in a knit-along for which there would be prizes, you should email paige@alpacawithatwist.com for more information and a free pattern. But for now I'll just show you pictures of my mittens and Macy the Wonderpug (disclaimer- not my pug).

Craft-astrophes and Feasts

2011-09-27T18:39:00.000-07:00

So you know that crazy big craft fair that I've been furiously knitting for? I missed it. The lady putting it together gave me the wrong date, and then called the day after (which I thought was the day before) and yelled at me for not showing up at my booth. I checked my email and sure enough- she had given me the wrong date 3 times. Here's a baby hat that I made for the fair that I think turned out especially cute.

So does anyone need a baby blanket? I took them to a boutique-y place where they look lovely on the shelves, but I'm not doing as well as I'd hoped there either. They called and raved about the cupcake hats and a scarf and the baby blankets and requested more hats, but when I went today only one hat had sold. So now I'm REALLY in the hole having paid for 2 booth spaces and of course all the of yarn I bought to make the blankets that I've been cranking out for 2 months. So that's what's happening on the knit scene.

Thank goodness I go to Florida in 12 days. Not that I'm counting or anything.

I also went to the Feast of the Hunter's Moon this weekend, which is always one of the highlights of my fall, which is my very favorite season. I went with Bam Bam because we're trying to be friends and I really wanted someone else to drive so I could knit mittens on the way. More on those later. Anyhoo, we walked around, we ate a variety of apple-based products (meat on a stick isn't really my thing) and we chatted with lots of people. I was wearing one of my favorite knitted wraps over a big fleece to stay warm, and I had the good fortune to run in to many knitters in this fashion. I had a lovely time talking to people and it turns out that I've been buying witchballs and almond soaps for years from a dyer that I'm working with through work. Small world, eh? Anyhoo, got more of her lovely soaps and a lovely witchball to add to my collection. In my dreams of my someday/grown-up house I have them lined up in the kitchen window like a curtain. I also scored some fun beads that I will make in to ornaments and a little hook that you put on a wall with a sheep on it. Someday, in my grown-up house, I will hang that sheep hook on the wall and it will hold something fabulously woolly. Here's a blurry picture of my finds from the Feast, as well as some fiber-related pics from the event. I didn't buy anything fiber related this year- my usual roving lady wasn't there this year. I hope she's back next year, I've got a crush on her BFL. Bam Bam got a lecture from a dyer there on the wonders of natural dyes, and he seemed genuinely intrigued. Which is odd, because when I explained it, it was the most boring thing ever. Bam Bam also had a near death experience at the Feast. By that I mean I nearly killed him- he whined to every knitter that we chatted with about how I won't make him socks. Really? You got drunk and destroyed my kitchen and now you think you deserve socks. Like I said, we're trying to be friends but I'm not sure I can handle him.

After the Feast we met up with my best friend in the whole wide world, Ben. Ben, who has earned several knitted hats and wears and loves each of them, understands my frustrations. I think I might make him another hat. Anyhoo, we all had a wonderful Thai meal on campus at Purdue and then went to one of those paint-your-own-pottery places, which is a regular Paige & Ben activity. Bam Bam made a travel mug, Ben made a non-travel mug, and I went crazy and made a bowl. I find myself using bowls more and more as they're great ways of storing current small projects, especially if there's beads involved. Here is my bowl (pre-fired) with a current sock project that WILL be done before I go to Florida in 12 days. I also have a small list of other projects that WILL be done. Want to know why? Because I'm going to start some fabulous new ones on the flight down there.

Did I mention that those new projects are going to be fabulous?

T minus 5 Days

2011-09-18T17:29:00.000-07:00

I am now five days away from my craft fair, and I'm starting to feel pretty good about it. I made a cupcake hat today (new yarn, bigger pain in the butt but much softer- might be worth the trade off) and will hopefully finish 2 baby blankets tonight while honoring HBO night. I'm super-pumped about the new season of Boardwalk Empire. I also finished a little sugar-plum hat yesterday (pictured here with Apple and Pumpkin) and after a few more little projects, should go in to the this craft fair feeling pretty good. I just hope it's nothing like the craft fair where people told me that the blankets were cute, but they wouldn't pay more than $20. It's hard to be nice when people expect you to sell a blanket to them at even below your costs. Want something cheap? Walmart is down the block. I sell things so that I can buy more yarn and put a little away in savings- if I wanted to give something away I'd take it to Goodwill and then write it off my taxes.

And in case you couldn't tell, I'm REALLY excited to have this craft fair over with! I'm putting together my totally selfish knitting bag for my trip to Florida on the 9th (I like to get things done early and then have it ready in case I think of things I need to add to it). So far the plans for trip knitting are a Baby Surprise Jacket out of the beautiful sock yarn that didn't want to be a shawl, a pair of cabled mittens that are also made out of sock yarn, maybe the start of a new sweater but I'll only take one or two hanks of yarn, and then my fabulous Halloween cross-stitching that I'm itching to get back to! Bam Bam also thinks he's still getting a hat and socks. The socks are not happening. But I've already put the yarn and needles and pattern in a bag and in the queue for knitting, so that might happen before the end of the year. But I'm certainly in no rush to get to that. I'm just excited to have the leftovers to add to my sock blanket.

Plus on a selfish knitting side note (I keep thinking that I'll be better about finishing things if I announce that I'm going to finish them on the blog) I intend to have the shawl I started in Vegas DONE before I start any of my Florida knitting. I really just need to figure out how I'm supposed to only have 50 something stitches on a side that is clearly over 130 stitches. And then of course do the crazy lace piece once I get a more appropriate number of stitches picked up.

Oh, oh! And then do you want to see another project I'd like to do? Check these pillows out- they're fabulous! I've been really crushing on these Kaffe Fassett pillows I saw in my Martha Magazine. Tapestry isn't normally my thing, but I said I'd never do any holiday-specific cross stitching either and look where that got me. Here's the link (www.ehrmantapestry.com). Just be prepared to hide your credit card before clicking- so many pretty things!

Well, I'm going to go try to finish a couple more baby blankets while Madeline works on her bikini body. Happy crafting and have a wonderful week!

Spoken Too Soon

2011-09-15T16:12:00.000-07:00

It's bound to get out eventually, so I'm just going to put it out there and be done with it. Bam Bam and I split up yesterday. We really didn't date all that long before we got engaged, and once we started getting in to the knitty and the gritty, we realized that we have entirely different ideas on a lot of "the big things", you know- financial management/responsibility, how much is acceptable to drink, how many animals is too many animals, why the house needs to be clean if you have a lung disease and a couple cats, etc. It wasn't a nasty or overly dramatic break-up, but it's over now and that's okay. We both have a lot of working out of our individual kinks before he and I could functionally be with other people. I also have a lot more things I was hoping to accomplish before I became part of a couple for good, and he and I just didn't share the same goals and ambitions. So it's over and we're okay.

And I'm really looking forward to MY pair of charcoal worsted weight socks to wear under my stiletto boots this winter. And I totally just booked a flight to go see my Mom in Sarasota for the second week of October, so I'll be pinching my pennies for a little yarn shopping since I've been super-frugal in the personal arts & crafts department this year. Plus a little sunshine in October would probably do me some good.

Hats and Milestones

2011-09-11T15:30:00.000-07:00

Firstly, thanks to the wonderful readers that offered suggestions about the shawl. It has since been frogged and will be used as a warp for a scarf, the weft will be undyed sock yarn. I just love that combo for some reason. That being said, I still have Jaclyn's scarf on the loom, and won't be touching anything non-craft fair related for 2 more weeks. Plus maybe a couple more weeks after that, I've signed up for another craft fair because I'm a looney and have gotten several orders since then. I really can't complain though- orders mean money which means I am that much closer to moving in to my own place.

Secondly, I am going a little nuts with the baby hats. I'm having a great time with them- I'm trying not to do many repeats, so each little hat is still quite fun. I'm working on my favorite style- Ogre baby- right now, but here's a pic of what I have so far. I hope to have at least 12 ready for the craft fair (currently working on #6). I also would love to have 9 baby blankets done for the craft fair, and hope to finish the 8th this evening during True Blood. Grr baby. I have enough yarn to do 11 blankets, but probably only time for 9. Oh well- it's not like they go bad, and I'll just add them to the stash for people that sneak up on me with babies I didn't know about. I'd also love to make a plastic bag holder or two for the show. I love mine and use it all the time, maybe someone else will like them too? If not, more for me.

Thirdly, Bam Bam and I hit a little milestone in our relationship Friday evening. He and I picked out yarn for his first pair of hand-knitted socks. Okay, it might only be a milestone for me, but I was really pleased with how involved he's trying to be with these socks. We (and by that I mean I) decided on a worsted-weight superwash wool so that they go quickly and won't be accidentally turned in to a shrinky-dink in the dryer. I explained that these will be a tester pair of socks- much like training wheels. We've had numerous conversations around the lines of "you'll get socks when you start cutting your toenails" and so far, he's filled his end of the bargain. And so we bought yarn. But I'm still not taking *that* big of a chance- he's getting worsted weight socks until he earns fingering weight socks.

The yarn we picked out is a Lion Brand superwash wool/cashmere (just a smidge) and nylon blend. He likes the color, I like the gauge. I haven't had the best taste in my mouth when it comes to Lion Brand ever since my attempt at frogging and re-knitting Homespun, but they're really starting to impress me with some of their higher end yarns from the Lion Brand Studio. I looked up this yarn on Ravelry and no complaints so far, so we'll see. I did tell Bam Bam that his socks are going to have to wait until after the craft fair, post-fair orders, and I need to finish up a green and pink sock before I'm even looking at his socks. I will try to have them made by the time he starts shoveling snow for his friend's landscaping company this winter though. I'm not THAT mean.

Second Opinions Needed!

2011-09-07T17:07:00.000-07:00

Hey there wonderful readers!

I know I said I would resist personal projects (especially new personal projects) until this craft fair is over with....but I haven't had the best day and I had a weak moment and suddenly I have the start of a new triangular shawl.

But I'm not sure about it. The yarn is part of my dwindling English stash, and I've been saving this yarn in particular for something stunning. So far everything I've started with it hasn't even come close to meeting my expectations. So in this previously mentioned

weak moment, I began crocheting (gasp!) "Elise"- that's the pattern should you feel inclined to look it up.

But I'm not in love with it. I'm not sure if I don't like the pattern, I'm not sure if my hook is too small, I'm not sure if the colors are clashing with the pattern, I'm not sure if it's just wonky because it's unblocked....and I'm not sure if it's all in my head since I've put this particular sock yarn on a ridiculously high pedestal.

What do you think? I'm stumped on this one.

Craft Fair Knitting

2011-09-03T15:46:00.000-07:00

Twenty days to go until the Craft Fair and I'm feeling...okay. Naturally, I overestimated how much I could get done, but there's still time for a few more knits. I finished the ruffle scarf and the cowl, which I will try to unload at the fair since I could use cashmore than I could use 2 more neck-warmers. I've also made a couple baby hats, and intend to make several more as they cost me next to nothing and can be made in a night if I'm really determined.

So I don't have a picture of the cowl and ruffle scarf because I still need to weave in my ends,

but I have pictures of everything else. I also have pictures of my cotton plants that are growing out at Gpa's house. They're doing a lot better than I thought they would! Here's a few pictures of my little cotton babies!

That's all for now- I'm still determined to make this craft fair kick butt for my savings account, so I'm going to stop writing and get back to baby hats.

My poor neglected blog

2011-08-28T13:34:00.000-07:00

Did I mention last post that I'd been persuaded to do a craft fair? If not, I have. It's a month away and I'm already regretting signing up. I'm so tired of crocheting baby blankets. But I'm going to keep on truckin', because I paid the entrance fee and gosh darnit, I'm going to do as well as I can in an hour and a half of crazy selling. So in short, I've been really productive, but it's boring blogging. (Here- another baby blanket- tada! Oh look, another!) I've also gotten a head start on Christmas presents, which I may end up selling at the craft fair if I don't make my project goals. So I'm going to try to make this blog post interesting.

1. My dill plant hatched today! (I am aware that plants don't "hatch" I just like that word better than "germinate")

2. The never-ending ruffle scarf is still never-ending.

3. I started a new spinning project! It is green and yellow and purple and sparkly and I love it. More later.

4. I can see the bottom of the bead container for my cowl, which means I only have a few more hours of work. That being said, I've knit about 10 beaded rows today and it doesn't look like I've used any of the beads. I'm quite sure they are reproducing in the bottom of the little bead tin.

5. I skipped rugby practice on Thursday and went to Jimmy Buffet instead. It was fabulous. Best skipped rugby practice ever.

That's all for right now- I'm quite determined to finish the beaded cowl today, and the sooner I quit writing, the sooner I can get back to the COWL OF DOOOOOOOM!

The hooking continues!

2011-08-07T15:19:00.000-07:00

Looky here- a new Peace Lily!

Yesterday was not the best day. I woke up bright and early (there was an overweight cat sitting on my face) and thought I'd go to the State Fair to see if I had won anything- the suspense has been killing me!

I took 6 items and placed 2nd in lace- any article (tablecloth- yay!) 3rd in handspun-alpaca (which surprised me- I thought that was my fugly item this year) and 4th in scarf/shawl. For the scarf/shawl contest I entered my green silk beaded lace shawl that I worked on for nearly a year. I was thrilled that it placed- there was some tough competition this year. At least I was thrilled it placed until I saw what placed before it. I lost to a 1x1 ribbed scarf. Really? It was a really nice ribbed scarf, I'll give you that, but a ribbed scarf? Plus my shawl was displayed inside out, which makes me question if it was judged inside out, but who that was supposedly expert enough to judge knitting competitions wouldn't see that a lace garment was inside out? I know I'm being ridiculous, but I'm just...sad. I mean, I just finished a 1x1 ribbed scarf and sent it to a charity. Whooda thunk I could have placed 3rd in the State Fair with it? Bitter knitter is moving on...

I signed up to do a craft fair. I did loads of them in high school and a couple my freshman year in college, but had kinda gotten burnt out on people asking if I would take $10 for a $60 baby blanket. Then this lady that has bought a few baby blankets off me called this week and asked if I'd be willing to do a show that she's organizing. The booth space is reasonable, so I said yes. If I only sell 4 or 5 things, I'll break even. Plus my car needs a new front strut, so I'm not really in a position to say no to any work.

So for the next month and a half, I'm going to be making as many baby blankets, hats, and fast scarves as possible. Hardly a recipe for riveting blog entries, but my car isn't going to fix itself. Here's a few pics of current projects for the show and an addicting new cross-stitch pattern I just started. It's a halloween cross stitch (hence the rabid-looking bat) and I've done approximately 1/5 of the first of 6 charts. I might be working on this for many halloweens to come. (Good thing halloween is my favorite!)

Totally hooked

2011-08-05T06:51:00.000-07:00

I don't know how this happened...but I can't stop crocheting cotton dishtowels. I blame Jessica from Sunday knitting. Not that "blaming" is a bad thing...

On the bright side of washcloth addiction, I only have enough dishcloth cotton to carry on at my 2-balls-per-day rate for another 3 days. Then I have to quit or buy more dishcloth cotton, so I think you're safe from too many dishcloth related postings. Carry on!

My Fair Tablecloth

2011-07-31T16:51:00.000-07:00

You may have already seen it on Ravelry or Facebook, but I finally finished the State Fair shawl/tablecloth from the Queen Anne's Lace pattern. I loved every stitch of it (the second time around) and see another one or two in the future. I had a blast with it, but for now I'm glad it's over. James helped me block since I've been having a hard time breathing and moving around on the floor blocking a large shawl was something that just wasn't going well. I think he did a fabulous job, and I dropped it off at the fair (with a couple other things) on Friday. And now I wait...But in the meanwhile here's a few pictures that I snapped before it went to the fairgrounds.

*Please ignore the red hair and dirty blonde roots. I'll get there eventually.

**The designer asked if he could use the third picture on the pattern page on Ravelry- I'm absolutely tickled pink!

And a little something I said I wouldn't start but did anyway... It's just a little baby blanket in a crocheted shell stitch. My mom is at the age where her friends are starting to have grand-babies and I'm at the age where my friends are starting to have babies, so I try to stash baby blankets. My mom picked up this fun yarn at Hobby Lobby a few months ago and I'm just tired of looking it at in my stash room, so I'm gettin' it over with. And I might have to make a Paige-sized blanket in this stitch pattern too- it's crazy addictive!

Another Two Bite The Dust

2011-07-25T17:17:00.000-07:00

I don't have to terribly much to report, just a couple finished little projects that were started a little while ago to eliminate some stash and some mostly blocked pictures of the Handspun Hemlock. I'm going to go over the hemlock with a steam iron onemore before it goes to the fair this weekend. I'm also knitting and spinning furiously to finish 2 more, projects-one of which is the never ending doily/tablecloth I started back in March (or was it February- I'd rather not think about it). So here are some FO pictures before we move on to knitting camp...

I got to go teach a knitting camp this weekend in Henryville, Indiana! It was more of a retreat with a couple surprise projects. I got to teach a beaded lace cowl, which was most everyone's first lace, first lace weight yarn, and first beads. There were a few people who had learned to knit within the past month, and I was impressed at how hard they worked and how well they ended up doing with the three new challenges all in one. Nobody finished the project (including me) but here's my half-done picture. (much better picture on Ravelry, project is the Scarlet Starlet)

The second project was a much faster project- knitted Christmas ornaments. We each made two and then "yarn-bombed" the other guests and people working there. To those unfamiliar, that means we just randomly gave non-knitters knitted ornaments. I gave mine to a banker that was there on a company retreat- he was very surprised to get one. He thanked me quite a bit and said that he had never been randomly gifted something before- was he supposed to give me something back? Here's pictures of the finished ornaments and what they looked like before we started. We used sock yarn scraps and there will be more of the these in the future. Guess what everyone is getting for Christmas this year! :p

I'm off to spin, knit, and help Bam Bam study for his psychology exam all night. The fair is coming up much faster than I would like it to.

Hemlock , Day 6

2011-07-17T07:38:00.000-07:00

I should have posted this yesterday, but a day of watching rugby and knitting in the sun, alternating snapple and adult beverages proved to be quite exhausting. I am very pleased to say that somewhere between the 3rd and 4th game, I finished the Handspun Hemlock! I'm going to wait until this evening to block it so I can show it off at my knitting group today (first big handspun project feels like a big deal to me!) and then I'll post blocked, artfully arranged pictures after that.

Here's the technically-finished piece...

And here is Tubby Custard, the fiber snob cat, approving the doily.

Okay, it's time for more lace, but red this time. With beads!

Hemlock, day 5

2011-07-15T18:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, the Hemlock gave me the day off. I have been having really hard time with the humidity and my gimpy lung, so knitting was not exactly a priority yesterday. I think I managed 3 rows, which at this size, is not bad. The downside? It's only 3 rows.

So since my last post, I've managed to knit an astounding (not really) 8 rows. But I feel like I should mention that at this point in the Hemlock, I am currently working 536 stitch rows. I also feel like I might have just done my last increase, and I have 4 rows of plain knitting and then a crochet bind-off. I'm not really sure though, I'll just have to see how my yarn ball is holding up four rows from now. It's handspun, so I can't get any more and I don't want to run out in the middle of my bind-off. I just hate to have a ton leftover, ya know?

Tomorrow is a rugby day, but not mine. As a White River groupie, it's my responsibility to go watch my man do his thing and sometimes bring muffins. Luckily, I'm not the only team knitter, so if I whip out a doily at half time, it's no biggie since these guys are used to it. If whipping a doily out at half time is the difference between a 6 day doily and a 7 day doily, you bet your batts I'm knitting.

Have a great day and hopefully my next post will look something like blocking!

Hemlock of DOOM (day 4)

2011-07-13T20:14:00.000-07:00

Have made it to day 4. Spent much of last night helping Bam Bam studying for a psychology exam and not knitting. Did manage to make it to the end of the seemingly never-ending yarnball a couple minutes ago. One more giant yarnball to go.

Also poured some resin into mini-sock molds (am going to try a new way to finish them), gave the ugly plastic pot a first coat of paint and repotted several spider plants.

Speaking of which, would anyone in the Indianapolis area like a spider plant?

Hemlock: Day 3

2011-07-12T16:31:00.000-07:00

The yarn ball is smaller, which generally means a little progress has been made. It looks the same to me as it did yesterday but like I said, the yarn from the shrinking ball has to be going somewhere. That or I will win some prize for discovering the space-time continuum.

I'll try to come up with something wittier to say tomorrow.

Meanwhile, another project. It's really just sanding and spray painting a plastic flower pot so that all of my African Violets can live in the same pot. Not terribly exciting, but I have been looking for a solution for the violets for a while now, so I'm looking forward to having a nicer looking home for them.

Handspun Hemlock: Day 2

2011-07-11T15:48:00.000-07:00

So this plan may backfire, but I'm putting it out there anyway. I'm going to *try* to post a picture of the handspun Hemlock every day until it's done. I did a little cross-stitching over TNNA and posted a picture of it every day on facebook to see how it progressed. I was able to see a difference every single day which helped me keep chugging along and even better- I got some really great encouragement and comments. I felt like I couldn't let people down- I had to do just one more row before I went to bed.

I know that it's silly to think that people were checking back to see the daily progress, but it totally made me work faster. And so I'm going to be posting a daily picture of my handspun hemlock with a few comments, if only to convince myself that I'm making progress. So this may be a boring week or so of posting, but I'm doing what it takes to get this thing to the State Fair. Extra points if I have time to block it.

Handspun Hemlock, Day 2:

Knitted furiously through True Blood. My dad wanted a ride to the airport this morning, and I agreed provided that he drove while I knitted. Knitted for a good 8 minutes at lunch today, and switched to a bigger needle when I got home. Hemlock is now to the point that it's starting to look more like a doily and less like a sunburnt boob.

Very excited to see how big it gets. The Brooklyn Tweed version calls for 600-900 yards heavy worsted on size 10 needles for a throw. I have roughly (maybe? hopefully?) 600 yards heavy fingering,worked on size 5 needles. I know I'm not going to get an afghan out of it, but I'm curious to see just how far that handspun llama can go. Doily? Tablecloth? Shawl? Only time and more knitting will tell.

Up, up and up again

2011-07-10T13:51:00.000-07:00

I do this every time. I get my project count low(ish) and then have a week where I forgot to make this and this is due and I haven't even started that...and I'm back up.

The good news is my new project-high is still better than my old project-low, and there is a realistic end in sight for each project. For example, I could feasibly finish a woven scarf and send it off to Jaclyn Bailey tomorrow in the post because she was the only person to suggest a Vegas project. I didn't make that project in Vegas, because toe-up socks scare me and I didn't want to risk getting on the flight and then having a project that hates me. I started a shawl instead....on which I have come to a screeching halt. I've goofed up somewhere, or the pattern is poorly written or all of the above, but I'm going to put it away for a while as I finish up my State Fair knitting.

Because I totally committed to the "knitting with handspun" competition in hopes to force myself to knit with my own handspun. 7 starts later, I think I've found a project I'm happy with. I intend to make a Hemlock doily/small tablecloth from 600 yards of fingering weight llama. We'll see- I don't have that long to make it. Then again, nothing bad happens if I don't make it, I just feel disappointed for a while. So that's two more projects.

Plus a work project.

Plus a class-teaching project.

And then that wedding gift for the couple who got married in Vegas.

And the pile of purple yarn that used to be a sweater then a purse and is going to be yet another cat bed as soon as possible.

And then I'm overwhelmed again.

So I'm going to take down this llama doily and this woven scarf first. And then the filet crochet wedding doily. And then whatever tickles my fancy, because that's how I roll today.

I am glad to see two more projects truly done though, thanks to Jasmine the wonder-crafter. She took my sheep pillow parts off of me a couple weeks ago and handed me back a wonderful pillow and a crocheted market bag today. Didn't she do a great job?

Big News!

2011-07-02T06:42:00.001-07:00

hint: the big news is not the finished cross-stitch

What goes down must come back up again

2011-06-28T15:42:00.000-07:00

I am referring to my never-ending struggle with my project count. For the first time in a very very long time, my project count hit the single digit category for two glorious days.

And then I kept on cleaning my craft room. I found two more partial projects, which is kinda cool because hey- I already have the first sock done...for two pairs! The not so hot part? I'm back up to 11 projects, and I have two more projects that I'm itching to start. I'll quit my bitchin' though, I already found the rest of the yarn for both pairs of socks AND know what size needles I used for each. I'm going to put these in their own special bags (because I have so many free now!) and get to them after I finish this $%$&)*5 cross stitching.

You still have a couple days to enter the "what should Paige make in Vegas" contest for a handwoven scarf- see the previous post for more details.

Three down to one

2011-06-25T08:23:00.000-07:00

I'm just going a little nuts here with the UFO's (unfinished objects for the non-crafters that read) and it feels really good. Over the past few months I've knocked out perhaps a dozen never ending projects, many of which I had not touched in several years. I'm now scraping at the bottom of the barrel for little projects to finish before my trip to Vegas July 3rd. I've only got a few "small" projects left, one of which is not small at all, but it fairly close to being finished. They are as follows:

1. Filet crochet name doily- wedding gift for the couple getting married in Vegas. No actual rush on that one, but I'd like to have it out of the front seat of my car and in their house for good. They do have a fairly long last name though, which sort of blows.

2. Button stitch markers. If you're confused, that's because I haven't posted them on the blog. They're a work project and I'd love to finish them and turn them in because while it's a little project, it's a big mess all over my desk. Every time I show the house I put it all away which just delays completion all over again.

3. Dolly Mama cross stitch project. I know you're tired of hearing about it, I'm tired of saying I'd like it to be done and then not working on it. Must. Kill. Project. And then I'll frame it nicely.

4. Doily/Small tablecloth/Queen Anne's Lace. I'm improvising after my uber-flub, and I'm really pleased with how well that's going. Going by my new guesstimations, I have roughly 12 rows left. The downside? Those rows take about an hour each. Bleh.

5. Woven scarf. I've had the warp on the loom for a couple months now, and I even bought enough yarn to finish it. I'm actually going to give it away to a reader (keep reading for details).

6. Lace cowl for class I'm teaching late July. Doesn't have to be done before the Vegas trip, but it would be really awesome if it was.

I've also outsourced 2 crochet projects because I'm a terrible person. Okay, I didn't outsource, I traded. Jasmine from my Sunday knitting group crochets very well, very tightly, and at the speed of light. She and I worked out a deal that involves me handing over roughly a pound of roving and her finishing my sheep pillow by crocheting a back for it and then crocheting me a tote/market bag out of some farm wool I bought several years ago and have made several market bags with, all of which were really very terrible. A few years ago after I decided I was done with novelty yarn, I went on a farm-wool binge as it was the furthest thing removed from novelty yarn that I could think of. I made a sweater out of some minimally processed Border Leicester, which I wore once before felting and fashioning in to a cat bed. After that, 9 hanks remained, 6 in off-white, 3 in deep green, and they were banished to a drawer in the craft room. I had started knitting two more cat beds at some point and a market bag, because those partial projects were thrown in that drawer of doom too with needles and notes still in there. I frogged everything and this week, 4/6 off-white hanks became a crocheted granny-square cat bed and the rest went to Jasmine to return in tote-form. Here's the cat bed/ yarn vacuum. I'm very pleased with how much yarn it took and how it only took 3 days. Possum-cat is pleased with how it feels as she rubs it all over her face while chirping.

So now that all of these little projects are vanishing, here is what will remain after these 6 projects are finished.

1. Brown alpaca sweater on size 4 needles. I started this late in December and worked on it for about a month before getting tired of brown stockinette on size 4 needles. Really looking forward to getting back to it though!

2. Green and black striped sweater, started during the ice storm. I'm doing this top-down and am past the yoke and working on the body. Could probably knock that out in a couple weeks if I really tried, but is on very pointy needles and it starts to hurt after knitting for more than an hour.

3. Mitered square sock yarn blanket. Itty bitty squares, itty bitty needles. This is going to take me 5 years, and I'm totally okay with that. I'm in no rush at all to finish this.

4. Crochet circles scrap yarn blanket. This will also take me a while, but I'm totally okay with that.

And that's it. I will have spinning projects, but those don't seem to pile up like the knitting and crocheting projects do (thank goodness). I also do have a couple more sweater projects lined up, but nothing beyond the 10 projects mentioned today actually in progress, which makes me panic a little. So I guess the question I'm going to ask my readers is...

What should I make on the Vegas trip?

*I'm looking for a small project. By small I mean something I can tuck in my purse and drag all over town, not necessarily something that I can knit in 2o minutes- it's a long flight and a quick project does me no good.

*Something that keeps my interest is good. Something that requires 30 charts, an Ott light and reading glasses is not so good.

*It would be really awesome if I had yarn in my stash that would work. I have tons of everything but bulky.

*It doesn't have to be a knitting project.

*Be as specific as possible please! (ie Monkey socks by Cookie A, not "socks")

I'm open to any and all suggestions, leave them in the comments below. If your suggestion is chosen, then you'll get a green and purple woven scarf! If your suggestion is chosen and you don't like green and purple woven scarves, we'll working something out. Leave your suggestions by July 1st, leave as many as you like. I look forward to hearing from you!

Tubby hates socks

2011-06-22T06:47:00.000-07:00

I finally finished a pair of socks...

....and Tubby Custard is NOT HAPPY.

Red Scarf Liberation

2011-06-20T15:27:00.000-07:00

Since I'm still on this crazy finishing-spree, I decided to dig up a little project I've been dreading for a while. Like, 8 years-while. I started a red scarf for my very first boyfriend out of rather nasty acrylic yarn on size 6 needles in 1x1 rib because I'm crazy like that. I worked on it every night for the entire two weeks we dated, and after the very juvenile Instant-message breakup I threw the partial scarf in a see-through drawer in my craft room where it has sat, catching my eye ever since, reminding me that it is, in fact, my oldest and probably easiest WIP. So since I'm finishing things I figured the best project to finish next would be this scarf so that I never had to see it again and so that something positive could come out of that little container that was collecting dust and various craft supplies. And it took me two days of knitpurlknitpurlknitpurl but dangit, that scarf is done. So there you have it.

And just to make it a little bit better of a finally-finished-project, it is going to the FCS Red Scarf Project, a charity that collects scarves as part of a winter care-package for orphans.

Back from the Show!

2011-06-19T15:56:00.000-07:00

Wow it's been a crazy week. TNNA was last weekend, and while parts of it are quite fun, I'm really glad it's over. It's a very tense week leading up to TNNA with last minute-prep and I could do without the spotlight feeling that I have the whole time I'm there. That being said, I knitted a lot, cross stitched a lot, drank a little, ate A LOT and had a good time. I even came home with a souvenir and there should be more souvenirs coming in the mail in a few weeks.

My first little prize is from "Moving Mud", this new little artist that I saw at the show. It's a shawl pin- isn't it fun? I feel like I need a bright pink or blue shawl to wear with it! I just love it- so unique!

And I ordered some goodies from Lantern Moon again, but they're not here yet. They're all sheep- surprise!

I did do quite a bit of knitting and even took down a good chunk of Bam's cross-stitch pirate, finishing it up on Tuesday night and framing it yesterday. I think it turned out really well, but a pro cross-sticher reading this might disagree. Oh well, it's going in a man-cave, so it's good enough for me.

And lastly, I'm trying my best to take out a few more projects before my Vegas trip at the start of July, including the lace beast, Queen Anne's Lace. I flubbed up pretty bad at row 138/160 so I'm just going with it and making it a design feature. I threw out the pattern and am finishing it the way I want to finish it. Stay tuned- this could end badly.

*** my 300th post is coming up and I'll be doing a little give-away, so stay tuned! I'm also open to suggestions for a comment topic for people wanting to get the prize. Let me know!

The incredible depth of Orange

2011-06-07T16:27:00.000-07:00

The project finishing spree continues, and I have finishedone work-knitting project and hit the halfway point in a work-beading project (that I have been *working on* since February but we all know how I *work* on things). No pictures of those yet, but we'll get there.

The end is in sight for a current cross-stitch project and a request has been made for the next cross-stitch project: Bam Bam would like a pirate cross-stitching to hang on the wall at his place. Those who know me personally may remember the Pirate-Paige phase where I ate, drank and slept pirates. I still want a skull and crossbones tattoo, but instead of proper crossbones they would be knitting needles. And now I'm rambling- Bam Bam asked for a pirate cross stitching, I said yes, and now I really want to finish my current project so that it doesn't get lost to Davy Jones' locker again for five more years.

And finally, the incredible depth of orange. This is one of my fastest spinning projects to date and I'm madly in love with this heathered orange merino. I picked up a grab-bag at Fiberworks in Beaver Creek Ohio last May because this obscene orange merino called out to me from a dark corner. We guessed it to be about 4 ounces and I paid the woman and was on my way. Anyhoo, finally spinning it and it's going insanely fast. Like 1 episode of Treme and half of Game of Thrones and my bobbin is full of singles. So I'll stop rambling and just show you my pretty orange in order of it's creation. I've still got about an ounce that wouldn't fit on the bobbin, so I'll try to tackle that tonight during Letterman. So here we go, my beautifully heathered orange.

The birthday post

2011-06-01T18:11:00.001-07:00

Yes, I realize it's been nearly a week since my birthday (and a little longer since I've finished anything) but I feel like I've got to brag on a few of my gifts.

1. A picture frame. My mom took my apple pie sampler and had it steamed, matted (twice!) and framed. It's currently hanging in my bedroom but it goes in the kitchen of my someday house because my someday kitchen is pale yellow and in my world, those colors go together.

Anyhoo, it's framed beautifully and it makes me look like I knew what I was doing!

2. Cherry Tree Hill "Silky Kidd". It's naughty. 52% silk, 22% merino, 18% mohair, and 8% nylon. 6 hanks- she done good. I'm thinking a cowl-neck pullover but am very open to suggestions.

3. A pie I made from last year's mulberries. A gift to myself- I ate most of it.

4. My very favorite from my Bam Bam. I'm ridiculously in love with this ring- it was his mom's and she's passing it on to the next May baby- me.

The spree update

2011-05-25T16:09:00.000-07:00

Well Spree,

We had a good run. I'm sorry I wasted all that time on the sheep rug that didn't work out (who knew a 12" pillow front wouldn't go on to a 12" back without puckering? Now I do!). I'm also a little disappointed that I didn't get my TNNA knitting finished- that last colorwork block looks about as fun as a bikini wax. But I'll get there. I do want to thank you though, Spree, for the last three projects we finished this week. Thanks, and I'll keep chugging along...those projects aren't going to finish themselves.

Paige

23 tomorrow

Handspun Suri/Merino/Bamboo blend from Flaggy Meadows mill. 4 oz, roughly 188 yards, fingering weight. Color: Daffodil

Baby Newsboy cap. On etsy site if you're interested!

Pink ripples baby blanket. Made from Lion Brand "Baby's First" which is ridiculously soft but a little splitty. On the etsy shop if you happen to need a pink baby blanket!

The black hole of pink lace

2011-05-22T13:13:00.000-07:00

As the spree continues, I have unearthed yet another project that has been taunting me for a while: the pink baby blanket of DOOM!!! (dramatic reverb)

I started it last June (or July?) for a friend's baby girl- I decided I was done with the cheap-o acrylic bulky baby yarn and that this blanket was going to be special. I did buy bulky baby yarn, but that was only to ensure that the baby got it as a "welcome to earth" gift instead of a gradation from high school gift- and after about two weeks of fan and feather and only a foot or so of blanket to show for it, I went to Walmart (of DOOM!!!) and bought some cheap-o acrylic baby yarn that squeaks when you knit it, sat down and made the blanket in one night, promising myself I'd finish the original blanket and post it on etsy when I finished it hoping to get back the money I dropped on the yarn. And now it's May. I have 5 balls of yarn and had hoped to use all of them, but at my Sunday knitting group we decided that finishing the current yarn ball (which happens to be #4) would be enough, and that sounds pretty good to me. I'll try to use the last ball on squares for a friend's charity so I never have to see this pepto-pink bulky yarn again. Okay, it's really not that bad, but I'm really tired of seeing it. I have so much I want to knit, I just can't cast on without feeling guilty for not finishing a thousand projects first, ya know? Moving on...

...to the Dolly Mama cross stitching kit. I dug this out the other day and sat down to work on it for a few minutes (all that's left is border, backstitching, and a string of french knots on the apron) and found a stain that I hadn't seen in the dark. I googled how to remove a stain from cross stitching that's not finished yet and didn't have much luck, so I ended up wetting the spot that was dirty, using my Victoria's Secret "delicates" wash, scrubbing the crap out of it (I highly doubt the stain was actual crap, this is only an expression) and then rinsing again with cold water. It's not 100% dry yet and I haven't seen it in good light, but until further notice I'm calling it healed. Border shall begin once it is dryer than dry to avoid more stains on white cloth. I'm sure I won't be so lucky next time. (In case you were wondering, this is why I NEVER knit with white yarn- I'm terrified of the stains that seem to follow me. Same rule applies for white clothing and white furniture) And moving on again...

To spinning! Here is some very pale yellow (not white!) suri alpaca/merino/bamboo, percentages of each unknown at the moment as I think the cat ate the piece of paper with the percentages on it. It's roughly 4 ounces but I'm not sure how much the cats have eaten. I'd really like to finish this tonight during my HBO time and let it sit on the bobbin for a few days to set before I ply it, but we'll see how that works. I'm not sure what it wants to be when it's graduated to actual yarn, as I always have grand plans (like socks) for handspun before I realize that weeks and weeks of spinning has only left me with a very dense 94 yards of fingering weight yarn. C'est la vie d'une tricoteuse.

And lastly for today, the sheep pillow (also filed under DOOM!!!). This pillow has been in progress for more than a year. I bought all of the rug hooking necessities at Greencastle last year and began that night. I didn't dish out the money on a frame, thinking I'd just save money and use a cross-stitching hoop. That worked well for about 3 days when the project outgrew the loop and I had to borrow Laurie's frame. That worked really really well until I ran out of fabric. There was a month-long period of sending fabric snips back and forth to the dyer before we settled on a blue that was close enough. Yay- finished the rug and decided to make it a pillow. Bought a pillow and some lovely red fabric that complemented the rug and sat down at my sewing machine to discover that the fabric and my sewing machine would just not work well together. Put it away for a while in disgust. Cleaned out my stash room last week and found pillow and it taunted me while I cleaned. Threw the pillow, the red fabric, and the sheep rug in the car and drove around town looking for someone to make the pillow out of the red fabric so I could hand sew the rug onto the front of the pillow. After 4 alteration shops, I finally found one that would do it and while I was appalled at how much it would cost to sew a 12" circle into red fabric, I agreed so I could stop searching for someone to make the pillow. Picked it up Thursday and am slowly making my way around with a needle and thread, pulling the rug on to the pillow and trying to make it look nice. This one might be good for my next birthday.

the spree begins!

2011-05-19T17:17:00.000-07:00

I am very pleased to report my first FO of the birthday spree, an apple pie sampler that I've been working on since last July. A little sad that it took a year? Yes. Glad it's over? Yes again. But now the heck do I do with it? I don't have apples or cross stitchings anywhere!

(the ubiquitous art shot. check out the sexy on those French knots- oui oui!)

I've also dug out a Dolly Mama cross stitching that I've been working on since my sophomore year at Purdue (5 years?). Naturally it's not that extensive or difficult, I just have the attention-span of a goldfish when it comes to needlepoint. I am going to try very hard to finish this, my rug hooking sheepy pillow, and my TNNA knitting before next Thursday. And if hell freezes over and they all get done, then there's a partially knitted baby hat I found while looking for a crochet hook this morning.

Bring it.

deadlines/checkpoints

2011-05-16T15:50:00.000-07:00

I know that most people live in fear of deadlines, but I have learned to embrace them. I've learned to love them- I find that I stress over the project or task until the deadline until it's officially due. This was especially bad in college when I'd finish a paper a week early and then wonder for the entire week if it was terrible because I had finished it early and should have spent more time on it. I was always relieved when I hit the point in time where the project was done- done and turned in and there was nothing more I could do about it even if I wanted to.

I continuously find myself creating deadlines for tasks that need finished- the main floor needs vacuumed by Thursday, these mittens need to be done before August. Absolutely nothing bad will happen if I fail to meet any of these deadlines, but I still feel a sort of failure when I miss them. And by never making them in the first place, I put things off forever and projects are banished to dark corners never to be seen again.

Each year, I have two big self-imposed deadlines, and they're fairly evenly spread apart. It's a little challenge to myself to see just what all I can accomplish when I really set out to finish things. The first "deadline" is my birthday- I see finishing several lingering projects as a gift to myself since I can finally wear/gift/sell/cover up with whatever I've been putting off. The other "deadline" is Christmas- and that's just because I like starting the new year with fresh knitting, a class out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new.

But my birthday is sneaking up on me and I'm starting to sweat a little. Yes, I've finished a couple shawls lately, and Meghann's wedding gift squares are done as is a little work knitting, but there's still no much I had hoped to accomplish! True, I have until the 26th, but I highly doubt that I'm going to cram 3 sweaters, a blanket, spun singles, a sock, 2 cross-stitchings, a good resin session, and a rug hooking in before then. Plus work/working out/rugby/hanging out with Bam Bam.

So let's just see how much I can finish. I'm going to be better about documenting for all four of my readers and I'm just going to see how much I can possibly get done. And I'll try to have a little fun while I'm at it :p

I'm also curious- do you have a system? How do you finish things that you've been putting off? Do you put things off in the first place? Leave it in the comments- I love it when you guys have something to say!

Crabby Mother's Day!

2011-05-10T15:35:00.001-07:00

I know- it's a few days late, but my mom just flew in to town for the summer about an hour ago and saw her gift waiting for her! (She even said she liked it- it's a little on the random side but I'm thrilled with how "Jean-Claw Van Crabbe" came out!)

Here he is checking out Steampunk the fish...

And proving that man-crabs still do man-things...

Having a steam-bath...

and my favorite- having a little crabby cuddle with Bam Bam!

*pattern is the Deadliest Crab from Knitty, yarn is my handspun.

** I know! I finally knitted something with my handspun! And nothing bad happened- isn't that weird?!

How is it May already?

2011-05-04T19:10:00.000-07:00

I swear- just a few weeks ago I was anticipating my first rugby practice of the season (and my first season as a Hoyden), waiting for my daffodils to bloom and was still giddy from my first date with Bam Bam.

And now it's May. Which is a good thing. My birthday is in 19 days, and I'll be 23. Not that it's monumental or anything, but it's still a birthday and those are good things. The rugby season is over, which is both a good and bad thing- I can nearly confidently say that I won't have a black eye tomorrow, but I will miss the games, I will miss the camaraderie, and I might even miss the sprints. Probably not the sprints. And Bam Bam and I are still going strong. I even went up the the UP of Michigan to meet his parents for Easter- which wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it would be.

But you know what's really not happening? You guessed it- knitting. I've done a little here and there, finished a pair of socks, finished a scarf that was coming up on a year in progress, knitted the front of a ruffled pillow for work, started a Mother's day gift, started more work knitting, made a little progress on the Queen Anne's Lace shawl which I'll be using as a tablecloth, and am chugging along on some super secret un-bloggable knitting. I'm even spinning a little! Here's a few quick pictures of knitting and a few pics of why I haven't been knitting after that...

Now that rugby is over we should return to more regular blogging. At least I hope so!

The end of a taunting

2011-04-01T16:19:00.000-07:00

Remember that whole 10 shawls in 2010 madness? I'm now officially free of it- I had two shawls drag over in to the new year and finally finished the second this week. I began Clothilde in December after I decided my Annis was far too small to count as a shawl and ended up sitting it on the corner of my desk until a few weeks ago,when the taunting became more than I could bear. I could hear it whispering to me in the night "only a few more hours...just a few more rows..." and after a small road trip, a few lunchbreaks at work, a drunken knitting night and a Glee rerun, I've silenced it. And it feels darn good.The yarn is some indie-dyed merino sock yarn I picked up in Scotland a couple years ago (has it really been that long since I've been back state-side?). True to blue, it bled a lot and after 4 baths to stop it from bleeding blue all over the place, I finally blocked it. I pinned it in to place and went to bed, enjoying a night of not looking at it unfinished on my desk. I woke up to pins all over the kitchen floor and a fat gray cat curled up on the wet shawl, looking very pleased with herself (she loves to lay on wet things- her favorites are post-shower towels). I blocked it again in a cat-free room and wore it to dinner with Bam Bam that night.

All and all, I like it. It's not the vivid blue that I fell in love with but it will do.

And in other news, I have someone buying me flowers. I think I'll keep him.

No time to knit!

2011-03-24T18:29:00.000-07:00

Wow it's been a crazy few weeks! We are now officially three weeks in to the spring rugby season and my first season as an Indianapolis Hoyden. I'm not the biggest(by far) and I'm not quite the fastest, but I'm having a really great time with some really awesome people. It's been a little rough- my entire right thigh is just one giant bruise- but I'm having a great time and working out a lot means I get to eat a lot, which is always a good thing. Unfortunately that does mean that my knitting time has been sliced down to a minimum.

PLUS I have a new boyfriend. He is also a rugby player but doesn't play on the same team as me since I play women's rugby. He's super nice and super sweet and I think he's pretty sexy- there's nothing quite like a big hug from a guy who is all muscle and tats. I think I'll keep him. Plus he's got a puppy. I'm quite defenseless on this one. He goes by Bam Bam (rugby nickname) and I'm Tinkerbell so we're just an itty-bitty (he's nearly the same height as me- how cute is that?!) rugby cartoon couple.

I have managed to get a little knitting done- including finishing the Ferngully shawl that I started last May and then frogged in July and then started over in August but added beads the second time around. I had planned on doing 4 reps of the large leaf chart but after the third decided that there wasn't quite enough yarn left to risk it before moving on to the border. I figured my chances of getting a matching dye lot on yarn I bought 4 years ago was slim. Anyhoo, I'm thrilled it's done but I kind of miss it. I fell madly in love after blocking it and have to show you because well, it's a knitting blog. It's info in on Ravelry but feel free to ask questions if you have any!

I'm also trying to finish one more little project by the end of March- the pattern is Clothilde and the yarn is some indie-dyed sock yarn that I picked up in Scotland and feel like it's too good to use for my feet. I'm really liking this pattern so far- it's really simple but then all the magic happens in the border. I convinced someone else to drive home last weekend from our game in St. Louis and I managed to knock out a 24-row repeat on the way, upgrading Clothilde from a part-time project to a finishing priority. Plus our daffodils are up and I had to show them off.

So that's it- rugby, boyfriend, knitting. And I'm okay with that. I'm really really okay with that. More posts when I'm not so tired from sprints though! Have a great day and I'll be back (hopefully with knitting!)

Stop thinking. Just knit.

2011-03-02T15:02:00.000-08:00

I haven't had the best week. My brother randomly came home on Friday, which meant that I did not sleep for more than an hour at a time until Monday evening. I'm one of those people that gets pretty crabby when I don't get any sleep, and it wasn't pretty. Anyhoo, Skippy likes to park in the middle of the driveway which makes it impossible to get around since his truck is huge. And in the middle of the driveway. Our driveway is kinda torturous in the best weather and since we still had a little ice hanging around this weekend I asked him to pull in to the garage so that I could get out of the driveway without hitting him.

Sunday morning I was leaving the house and his truck was naturally parked in the middle of the driveway. I tried to wake him up and get him to move it but it's probably easier to wake the dead than it is to wake Skippy- he is the world's deepest sleeper. Anyhoo, couldn't wake him, couldn't find his keys, decided to try to drive around him. And I actually made it! I had to kind of serpentine my little car around and made it halfway up the driveway, hit a patch of ice and skidded down the driveway sideways, right in to Skippy's G-D truck which I have asked him not to park there a thousand times.

Monday was sleep deprived, angry, and a Monday. And then I went home and cleaned up cat barf. Enough said.

Tuesday I got up early to go to Carmel before work and pick up my tickets for Smiley-prom because the Plain White T's are playing and it's super cheap to see them at prom. I got my ticket and was headed to work and making great time when I hit a pothole because the city of Indianapolis can't maintain their G-D roads until the potholes are big enough to swallow a small yellow hatchback, which is pretty much what happened. Flat tire on the side of Meridian. Called GM roadside assistance because even though I'm confident I can change a tire, it's free for a year so why not? I was furious since this is the second attack on my car in three days, and I just bought the darn thing in November. So instead of spewing profanities while waiting for my guy with a jack to show up, I knitted. And things were a little better. Got to work an hour and a half late, had a very productive day, decided to go to Broadripple to pick up the beads I need to finish my green silk shawl and on the way home POPPED MY SPARE TIRE ON A G-D POTHOLE! That was the point that I started to lose my cool. I pulled in a parking lot, examined the damage, got back in the car, locked the doors, and cried. After a few minutes of that and the re-application of my mascara, I called a tow truck and walked 3 blocks down to my favorite bar, ordered a very large glass of wine (I wasn't driving anywhere- why not?) and got out my sock and started knitting. I actually managed to finish the heel flap I've been avoiding for 3 weeks as well as turn it and pick up the gusset stitches before my tow truck arrived and I left with them. Naturally, I left a sock needle in the bar and won't be knitting on that sock for a while. The tow truck scratched up the front of my car loading it and I called my aunt to pick me up and take me home, where I had another glass of wine, ate a cupcake, and started a new project. I'm actually knitting with my handspun because after a day like yesterday, why the hell not? Here's my new project, which will be a gift for someone. If you know what the pattern is, here's a brownie point! Keep it to yourself though until I finish it. This is the last picture you'll see of this project for a while.

Let's see...it's March 2nd, which means the name-that-plant contest is over. I'm growing cotton and nobody guessed that. I'll just hang on to the prize and do something for the 300th post, which is not too terribly far away. Thanks to everyone who guessed though!

So since I just got the estimate for the repairs and feel like I'm about to switch from Jekyll to Hyde, I'm going to stop thinking and just knit for a while. And things will be better tomorrow. Wanna know why? Because Spring is finally on the way (here's some photographic evidence of that part) and I am going to kill my brother and fill the potholes with his body.

Not really, but it's a pleasant enough thought for now.

a little clue

2011-02-28T06:27:00.001-08:00

This morning I had two different starts sitting on my kitchen table!

Guess what my plants are by March 1st and get a little surprise!

epic lace fail

2011-02-26T15:50:00.000-08:00

Today is one of those "why am I a knitter again?" days. I've been crazy-busy this week and haven't really touched my knitting in a few days and was very excited to knitting with the Zionsville group this morning. But I had a little surprise visitor last night- my brother came home from school which means there will be no sleeping until he leaves Monday morning as our sleep cycles are the exact opposite. I went to bed last night and had to listen to screams and gurgles of blood all night as he watched the Saw movies very loudly in the living room. I can't wait to move out and have a place where he can't come crash for the weekend.

Today got up and went knitting. Found cat pee on the floor. I've been blaming Madeline for the past few "accidents" but caught Tubby Custard in the act the other day. Can't decide if Tubby is senile or angry. I don't really care- I just don't want to clean up cat pee first thing in the morning. Or at all really. Anyhoo, went to knitting. Knitted a lot on my Queen Anne's Lace. Made it to row 72. Realized I've been knitting it wrong since row 23. Will be frogging it tomorrow and starting again, making this knit-along, take 3. I'm just embarrassed at how badly I've blown this. It's like the Yarn Harlot says, "experienced knitters don't make fewer mistakes, they just make bigger mistakes faster." The chart shows every other row (1,3,5,7,etc) until row 23, at which point it kinda just does what it wants, skipping a plain row here, adding an extra repeat there. I wasn't really paying attention because hey- it's a chart, how hard can it be, right? I kept doing the chart row, plain row system and now while my stitch count is perfect, my row count is far from it and I'm afraid that's something that no amount of blocking will hide. Bought some Dream in Color Classy (colorway Wisterious) because I was angry. It will be a hat. Really wanted to buy 10 skeins of Kureyon in a fabulous new color I'd never seen before but was somehow able to restrain myself.

I've got a million things to do tonight but I'm going to try to catch a couple hours of sleep before the Saw marathon resumes.

***Little reminder- you have until March 1st to try to leave a comment guessing what is in my garden. There's one prize for a knitter that wins and there's another prize for a non-knitter, because you never know who is reading.

cloud 9, 10, and 11

2011-02-22T15:51:00.000-08:00

Ever just have one of those days where nothing can go wrong and everything turns out a little better that usual? I'm on my third of those days in a row. Sunday started a little rough after a late Saturday night that involved 15 pounds of sausage, key lime cupcakes, lots of balloons and a little booze. But Sunday got a lot better when I got in the car to go to my awesome Sunday knitting group and GOT TO SIGN AUTOGRAPHS! I know it seems really silly, but it's a first for me so I was tickled pink when I got to sign not one but *three* magazines with my pattern in it! It was so fabulous.

I left knitting early for my cousin's going-away party (he left for Basic Training today- good luck Torey!) and worked on my chemo cap there a little bit once things were quieting down and I was getting twitchy from sitting without knitting. I got pretty far in to the hat and was able to finish it during Big Love. One project down, eleventy-billion to go.

Monday began with a text- no work. It's a holiday and my boss was out of town anyway. Always a great start to the day. I spent the day writing, napping, spinning, knitting and repotting plants that had outgrown the planter they came with. I also had to take a little trip to Walmart for another pot- the pot I had planned to use contained chives that I thought were dead but after bringing them inside to dump them, I realized that not only had they made it through the winter, they were already growing! Score one for the chives! Bought some groceries while I was there since keeping food in the house is not one of my strong suits. Had plantains sauteed in butter and brown sugar for desert and then sat down to watch my Monday shows, Being Human and Castle. I seriously want to be the Queen of Rick Castle. Grrr.... But the awesome doesn't stop there!

I finished TWO projects during my shows! I finished plying some llama that's been an on-again-off-again project for 2 years and gave it a bath and then kept on going with the scarf I started for the neighbor girl as payment for cat-sitting. Boom! Finished that too! I threw that in the wash and it had a little knot or something come untied and unravel a bit, but that was a real easy fix. Since I was knit-invincible, I figured I'd cast on for the Fino knit-along I abandoned last month and poof- was 40 rows in. I must have gotten in the groove or something- I had no idea I could knit that quickly. So here are my finished things and my new circular shawl-my pictures aren't great- it was kind of overcast today and getting dark when I got home but here's the gist of it.

Today started a little earlier than I would have liked- I had a doctor's appointment before work. I'll spare you the details, but something's been a little off and I had some tests run last week. My blood tests came back absolutely perfect. This is the first time since I can remember that they haven't come back to say that I'm super anemic and should really consider giving up this vegetarian shenanigans and eat a steak. So boo yah, wimpy blood. I am not anemic right now and I feel fabulous! After that I went to work and had a super-productive day with my awesome not-anemic blood and had an awesome lunch while reading my awesome book and heard an awesome new song on the radio and then remembered that Glee is on tonight and that's really awesome too. Now I'm going to go have some awesome dinner and hit the treadmill. Make it a great day, readers!

pretty things

2011-02-18T18:33:00.001-08:00

New leaves

2011-02-17T15:04:00.000-08:00

I'm turning over a new leaf tonight. I'm not going to my Thursday night knitting group. And I don't think I'll ever go again. While I love all of the knitters that go, there's just been drama. Too much drama. So much drama, I can't remember the last time I left on Thursday night saying, "wow, I'm really glad I went tonight" because it's just not fun anymore. I look at knitting groups as a small sort of sanctuary- I may go feeling miserable but after a few rows and the company of friends, life is great again. The past few times have been the opposite- I've gone feeling great and just absorbed everyone else's drama, so I'm done. Knitting needs to be fun again.

Continuing with leaves, I've made it to the third repeat (I think I'll do four) of the large leaf chart in my green silk shawl. This project is sort of bittersweet- I love working on it, but I'd also love to see it off my kitchen table. We've been together since last May, and it's time to move on from the silk. I'm starting over on my knit-along for the AWAT group but am still hoping to finish a couple other projects first, including the scarf for my neighbor (could finish tonight if I actually sit down and work on it- crazyness!), a chemo cap for my cousin's friend (I can't say no) and of course, green silk beast. There has been a minor setback in that project- I ran out of beads and the shops where I bought them is going to be closed until March. So my ideal deadline is blown, but I can still totally finish it for my Q1 challenge. Totally.

Let's see- oh yes! We had a holiday in there, didn't we! I skipped my usual Valentine's sulking and chocolate eating tradition and watched a lot of tv while cleaning the kitchen. I've been doing that a lot lately- helps clear my head. You should have seen my house Friday after Thursday's knitting group- it's never been cleaner. Anyhoo, I was going somewhere with this....oh yes! I got a Valentine's Day surprise! One of the ladies that I've knitted chemo caps for left a little surprise in my mailbox, which totally made my day! Aren't they cute? There's a pretty little bracelet that I've been wearing all week. I'm not normally a pink person, but I feel quite thrilled to be gifted something from one of my hat girls.

And now that I've bored you all to tears, let's see who all is reading! I'll do a little giveaway (prize yet to be determined but it should be pretty good!) to the person who guesses what is in my garden.

Just to be fair, all regular members of my Sunday knitting group are disqualified- y'all already know what it is. So is my mother. She has no need for a knitting related prize anyway. To enter leave your guess, a way to identify yourself (avatars/names/email addresses) and your favorite color of crayon. Very important step. Submit your guesses by March 1st to qualify. If you'd like to suggest an idea for a prize, leave that too. I'm open- but the green silk shawl is not on the table for this one.

Just go with it

2011-02-12T14:39:00.001-08:00

I'm trying very hard to keep chugging along on my current projects- especially socks and my lace shawl (because that now has a deadline). But sometimes you're digging through your stash trying to find one of the dozens of sets of size 7 dpns that you own and can never find, and you see a skein and a half of green Lion Brand Cotton-Ease and you decide that right now, you need to make a scarf for the neighbor girl from this exact yarn because you promised her one back in November. Since I was there I grabbed a few yards of a few other colors (I'm trying to be more creative with my weaving) and suddenly I was warping across the kitchen. And then I'm dressing the loom. And then I realized I'm doing this part backwards and try to be all sly and just pull it through the heddles. And then I get a really big knot, swore a little and went hang out with friends and have a couple hard ciders while thinking about whether this green cotton is worth trying to untangle, or if I should cut it off the loom and throw it away.

And then after 2 episodes of Six Feet Under, I had this.

I'm so in love. It's cotton, it's cascade 220, it's some berroco shiny yarn, it's awesome. And I totally made the warp long enough for 2 scarves so I can have one too. I'm even marking it every foot so I know when I hit 5 feet and can start the second scarf without ever taking it off the loom.

Sometimes when you get the urge to start something new, you just have to go with it.

Things that are Awesome

2011-02-07T16:32:00.001-08:00

Just a quick little post today. After a very big day of Super(bowl) knitting, I have a little progress to show on my two main projects right now! I'm sorry for the not so hot pictures, I took them in the murky light this morning before work and planned to take more this evening, but used up all the daylight sitting in the vet's office.

So...first things first- my Valentine's Day socks! They're not even remotely Valentines-y, and that's how this bitter knitter likes it. I worked on them furiously through the Superbowl and was able to kitchener during the Zombie dance on Glee. I wanted to go to bed (still not 100% back from my strep) but casted on the second sock immediately so I wouldn't put it off for months and months. It's a little bigger now since it was my waiting room sock this evening.

Secondly- the shawl. If you look closely and know what you're supposed to be looking for, you'll see that the leaves are getting bigger! Have I made it to the fourth chart? Or am I just holding the camera closer to the ends to play tricks on you?

And lastly but so not least-ly, I made a pair of socks! I actually made them in July, but had to keep them super secret until now because....drumroll please.....

They're my first pattern published in a magazine! They spelled my name right and everything! It's the March issue of Creative Knitting magazine and I'm thrilled with how they made my socks look! The model even looks all happy to be wearing them and everything. I was so happy to get this in the mail on Saturday that I...just kept doing yarny things, but with more confidence.

And that's a wrap (and turn). Have a great day and knit on!

Stuck again...

2011-02-05T15:21:00.000-08:00

I finally got the ice to break up enough to get the Yukon out on Friday for an afternoon of work. probably wasn't quite ready to go back- I got really tired after a couple hours back in the warehouse. That being said, it was nice to get out of the house. Iwent back home Friday night thinking I'd do a quick turnaround and go meet some friends, but that didn't work. I ended up knitting in front of the tv and calling it a night early.

I woke up today with a to-do list and saw that winter wasn't over with- another few inches of snow had fallen on the six inches of ice. The bank and Joann Fabrics will have to wait. Luckily my brother came home from school last night, and his truck can get through anything. I ended up using it running to the vet when Madeline started acting funny and bleeding in strange places. This cat will be the death of me.

I'm mainly chugging along on just a couple projects while I try to get things finished. My Sunday knitting group has pledged to knit 12 pairs of socks this year (ideally a pair a month) and since Jo's socks took much longer than I predicted, I'm already running a little behind. We've also committed to a quarterly challenge- this is different for every crafter in the group. My first challenge was to knit a sweater on size 4 needles in 3 months. I'm a little too ADD for it and it's been stuck in the naughty corner while I changed my goal to finishing the green silk shawl with beads. I explained in the last post how the repeats work, and I'm on 21/22 for the main section of the shawl. I'm not going to make it to 24 repeats- I desperately need to move on to something more exciting. Here it is as of Thursday ( I think). I've put in quite a bit of time on it, but you really can't tell. It's moving very very slowly.

Here is the newest sock, the first sock of my second pair of the year. (My first pair is one Farrow sock and one pooled orange/purple sock. Who said they had to match?) Yarn is Berocco Sox Metallic, it's from a trip to Florida several years ago, and I adore it so far. I knitted a large chunk of it on the treadmill yesterday.

And finally the Pi Shawl. I joined a Pi shawl knit-along on Ravelry and I'm hardly enchanted with it. I was really in love with it until I started the second chart, which has tons of YO's and twisted stitches, and 6 rows in I was over it. I've frogged it and will be starting something shiny and new when I finish a couple other projects.

Wow this post was boring. I really need to leave the house.

Out with the old, in with the sparkles

2011-02-03T09:50:00.001-08:00

From actual fever to cabin fever

2011-02-02T07:23:00.000-08:00

It's day 2 of winter storm insanity, and day six of being stuck in the house with 2 fussy cats, one of which will not stop bringing me her mousies to play fetch again and again and again. It's only cute for a couple hours, okay Madeline?

So while I'm actually feeling okay to go to work again thanks to those miracle antibiotics- turns out it was just a really nasty case of strep- I always thought there was a point/age when you just stopped getting strep, like there's an age when you just stop peeing your pants...before the age that you start your pants again of course. I guess not. I firmly believe that strep sucks a lot more as a 22 year old than it did as a 12 year old though. But anyhoo, even though I think I'm ready to go back, there is no way of actually getting to work. The Midwest has spent the past 2 days getting pounded with layers of snow and ice and it has turned my neighborhood in to the Himalayas. Okay, that's a slight exaggeration- or is it?

*View from my back door, the small bowl you see at the bottom is the bowl I keep out for the unloved kitties next door, the table and chairs in the distance are actually bar stools/tables and are actually up fairly high- I'm not angling my camera funny to give the snow drifts more credit than they've earned.

So in dealing with the cabin fever (since there's no actual fever as of yesterday morning) I've watered all of the house plants several times, rearranged some furniture, moved it all back, written a few partial articles, contacted several knitting related publications about selling these articles, made a fort in the living room, vacuumed the main floor, watched daytime television (that was scary) and naturally, done lots of knitting and spinning including the starting of one new spinning project and one new knitting project. I did stop myself from starting a crochet project while I was at it since I started one of those a couple weeks ago and haven't touched it since.

So...projects.

1. Farrow rib socks. Haven't touched those in a few days. Should probably try to finish them so they can leave my kitchen table forever. I really hate ribbing on socks.

2. Green Silken Beaded BEAST. I actually added 4 lace repeats, but you can't really tell unless you study the pictures from the last post. I need to start placing markers in to prove progress or this could be a few weeks of really boring blogging coming up. The shawl is Photosynthesis by Emily Wessel, and like many triangular shawls, it's a series of several charts.

You work the set-up chart once (naturally) and then work the subsequent chart 10/14/16 times to be the bulk of the shawl. Since I have done this 16 times and have nearly 1000 yards left of green silk laceweight, I figured I'd do a few more. As long as I have an even number, it shouldn't mess with the pattern, only test my sanity. I think that last time I knitted this shawl, I decided 22 repeats was ideal. I might as well for that again, but maybe I'll do 24. Depends on how long this storm lasts I guess.

Then you move on the transition chart, which only happens once thank goodness. Then you move on to a much bigger chart, which happens 2/3 times but I might throw it in four times- depending on how my yardage is looking at that point. Then you move on to the 18 rows of border stitches, which happens once and then on to a very time (and yarn) consuming bind off.

3. Cabin Fever Sweater. Pattern is called $5 in Paris, they're all over Ravelry. I an untangling a giant rayon knot that has formed over 5 years of neglect (since I last touched this yarn) and unraveling nearly finished sweater that it currently is. In case you were curious, I had only to finish the sleeves and assemble it. But then again, I'm not the same size as I was 5 years ago, so finishing it would actually be quite pointless. Plus I need a sweater to go with my Jeggings.

Yarn is Patons Katrina, which is an extremely sproingy rayon/polyester blend that would ordinarily make me gag a little, but I'm kind of loving it. And the fact that once I finish it, I can have my favorite Kate Spade uberbag back for non-knitting purposes.

4. Handspun! I finished the llama handspun which I have been spinning on-again-off-again like a bad boyfriend for 2 years now, but I'm going to let the twist set for a few days before I ply it. I also spun some more of my Spunky Eclectic from Christmas a couple years ago, but once again, letting the twist set. Plus my wheel is busy again with a Crosspatch Creation roving from the Trading Post. It's the same bag that I carry around the store for an hour every time I go there before I decide I don't need more fiber. I really didn't need more fiber this time, but it was 20% off.

So that's it- back to writing/knitting/polishing the cat.

Under the Weather

2011-01-31T09:30:00.000-08:00

So I've been pretty gross the past few days. It started nearly a week ago with a headache, but nothing a little aspirin can't fix, right? That was Wednesday and Thursday. I headed back from Thursday night knitting early and went to bed. Friday was spent on the couch moaning and sweating, drifting between waves of nausea and a ridiculously high fever. On Thursday evening, a couple of us had made plans to go to the Trading Post for a couple hours of knitting, and on Friday evening during a very hot bath my fever broke- so I was feeling pretty happy about that. Saturday morning came and I was a little achy and grouchy, but nothing those brave Thursday knitters haven't seen before so I took a couple Advil and went with it. Getting out of the house seemed like a good idea for an hour or two, when the headache got a lot worse and the sweating returned. I got home and went to bed. At 4 pm.

By Saturday my walk-it-off bug had turned into the bubonic plague, and I returned to the moaning couch with bad Saturday television, turned down very low so I could hear what was going on without disturbing the little gremlin in my brain that spent the last week beating on my temples with a gong. Saturday night I was convinced I was going to die, so I had a little cough medicine and suddenly it was Sunday morning, and things were a little better. I showered (and moaned because every single drop of water hurt my muscles which were obviously mad at me for something) and decided to try going to my Sunday knitting group with the help of my BFF Advil. I got there a little late, left a little early and the plague found me again within a few minutes of getting home. My neighbor lady (who happens to be a retired RN) and talked to me for a few minutes and told me that it sounded like Mono. I called and made a doctor's appointment first thing this morning, so here I sit, waiting for the call to tell me what the H is going on inside my head and throat.

So, on the positive note- things I learned from my weekend on the couch.

1. If you're planning on catching the plague, don't buy a curved couch. Laying in a crescent-shape starts to suck after a few hours.

2. Headaches and dark lace don't mix.

3. Headaches and socks don't mix.

4. Headaches and cat ownership don't mix.

5. If you are sick enough, you will eat Chicken and Noodle soup, despite being a vegetarian for 10 years (I did pick the chicken bits out but I'm still feeling really guilty about it).

6. I could have SARS and/or be bleeding out my eyeballs, but I will never be sick enough to try alka seltzer again. That is nasty.

7. I really need a dude who can throw me over his shoulder and take me to the doctor in the event that I am ever that sick again. I'll get on that when I stop sweating profusely and can stand in the shower long enough to wash my hair.

Here are some pictures of my weekend of very little fiber crafting... since it is a knitting blog and all.

the box and barter socks

2011-01-28T11:19:00.000-08:00

A while- maybe 6 months ago- my mother threw out an old wooden box for the trash guys to pick up. The top was broken, some boards were cracked and even though it was in 3 pieces, I recognized it immediately as a box that my dad had made in probably 7th or 8th grade for his mom. She was an amazing knitter and kept her yarn in it, and I was a little bit appalled to see it broken and waiting to become trash. I scooped up the pieces and put them in my car.

At work that day, I was explaining the box (there are some very handy people that hang out in the warehouse) and Jo offered to fix it. Tight for cash, I nervously asked her price. "A pair of socks," she said, "just not pink." We agreed there was no rush- I didn't need the box the next day or anything, and I wasn't going to be able to even start the socks for a while, but the box went home with her. I made the first sock in November (the Farrow rib one that took FOREVER) and started the second one about a week ago. I got my box back on Wednesday and hauled it upstairs and put it to the best possible use I could think of... I filled it with sock yarn.

Once a yarn box, always a yarn box, right? My goal is for this box to one day contain ALL of my stash, which means I've still got a lot of de-stashing to do. I realize that there's a good chance this will never happen, but it would be nice if it held a good chunk of my stash- I'm fine with having a rubbermaid container in a dark corner filled with odd balls that are too nice to throw away.

So here's the box and the socks. There's 2 pictures of the socks, taken to show you exactly how slow they are going. The first picture was taken Thursday morning, and the second was taken this (Friday) morning, after working on them for about 3 hours yesterday. As you can see, there's progress but not much. I'd love to get them done by the time my Pi shawl knit-along starts (rescheduled to Feb 1st) so I can get them to Jo and cross them off my list FOREVER! Muahahahaha!

*the blue bin on top of the box is my never-ending sock yarn blanket, in case you were wondering. That's where all of the oddballs of sock yarn go when they die.

**when moving my sock yarn to the sock yarn box, I did a quick inventory. I have 65 skeins of sock yarn that aren't currently "tied up" in a project which means...my stash is way down. Go me!

the weekend of done

2011-01-22T10:58:00.000-08:00

I have decided to devote this weekend to finishing things. I'm still waiting on my knit-along partner to get her needles in the mail to start our Pi shawl (I'm a little relieved, I would love to finish a couple more things before we start). Last night I finished the first of my crazy-pants awesome-socks and the last Harry Potter book. I read it when it came out about 5 years ago, and then saw the movie last month with my dad. He kept asking why this was a certain way and why this person couldn't do that...and I didn't have the answers. So I went back and re-read it so I'm ready for the second half of the movie to come out...whenever that happens.

I'm a little hesitant to knit the second crazy-pants awesome-sock because my yarn cake is surprisingly small after finishing the first sock. Plus that whole second sock syndrome thing. I am going to take a little break though and finish a scarf and another pair of socks before I get back to the second sock, so that should help.

I've also got some serious sanding to do this weekend. Here are some of my unfinished resin projects that I would love to finish and post on my etsy shop this weekend. The buttons just need sanded down on the edges and holes drilled, but the itty bitty sock blockers need sanded (a lot) refinished on the dull side (3 days of curing) drilled and filled with the appropriate hardware to turn them in to keychains. Unless these things really take off, the itty bitty sock blocker phase could be short-lived. I do think they're super-cute though and would love to try to take them to a fiber festival someday, but that day is not today so I'll get there when I get there.

And I'm going to try to deliver the not-prayer shawl to my Aunt Cathy, since it's been finished and clean since the night of the funeral but still undelivered because I'm a terrible person and she lives clear on the other side of town. But today is errand and finishing day, so I'm doing it. And then I'll clean my kitchen. And then my hottie Chiropractor's scarf is going down next.

totally doesn't count

2011-01-20T08:34:00.000-08:00

So I thought I'd show you all my awesome new yarn...and then tell you why it's awesome. Ready? It's awesome because it totally doesn't count as stashing. I also don't have any real knitting to show you since all of my knitting time has been spent making new yarn. Well- one little knitting project. Just a little one.

1. Fiesta Yarns "La Boheme". This is my fabulous gift from Francie from the Sunday-group gifty-switch that happened a few days ago. I destashed nearly 1,000 yards of yarn that day and am thrilled with my gift! It's so pretty and fluffy and I love the colors. It's a mohair/rayon blend that's two yarns spun together. I think it's going to be a cowl because I have a coat it would match perfectly.

2. Patons Classic Merino. This color used to be off-white. Then it was celery green. Now it's Emerald and Mallard. It's going to be part of a new crochet project, which was started during a weak moment and will be explained at a later date. But the point is that it doesn't count since I didn't buy it, I only changed its color.

3. Handspun! This totally doesn't count because I'm not ADDING to the stash, I'm just moving things around. I've got 2 and a bit to show off today and should have more soon- I've been getting loads of spinning done since I moved the wheel back downstairs. The first is an art-batt that I bought last time I was in Sarasota. It's got tons of different wools and lots of sparkle, which normally drive me nuts but the lady at Batts in the Belfry does it in a way that just makes me want to spin 4 ounces in one sitting. But that's a lot of spinning so I try to break it up a little.

The second is from The Shepherd's Wife, my favorite vendor at the Feast of the Hunter's Moon, a historical reenactment of when the French voyageurs discovered the Lafayette area while floating down the Wabash. It's a great time if you're a history buff, bead-junkie, foodie, or fiber-enthusiast like me. But anyhoo, it's 4 ounces of Border Leicester in a fantastically subtle blue/green mix. I think it wants to be a hat or mittens.

Lastly, I've got a little bit of a mystery yarn from Abbie's class I took back in September. I've still got tons of little bits of fiber hanging around from that and have been trying to spin them in to little sock yarns for my blanket, which is feeling all neglected right now. I'm really just trying to clear up my fiber stash, as it appears to be breeding. It used to fit nicely in to a basket, then a slightly larger basket, then a tub, and now it's a fiber-jungle upstairs. I'm working on it... I'm also considering throwing in some birth control pills to see if that stops it from breeding.

And finally my knitting! It's my super-bowl scarf which is slooooooowly getting a little bigger. Last night there was super-scarf knitting at the Creation Cafe downtown and it was very fun. I highly recommend the house white wine. It makes you blush a lot and tell people holding cameras that you are a knitting superhero. Back to knitting. I'm not sure what to do with this scarf, you see. I know the end result- finish it and give it to the super-bowl committee to give to a volunteer, but I'm not sure if I should put the nearly-finished scarf on hold for a month until the next super-scarf meeting, or if I should finish it and be done with it and then cast on another in a month? Decisions, decisions.

In unrelated news, my Christmas Cactus is actually a Thanksgiving and MLK day Cactus. Thanks for reading and have a great day!

a round tuit

2011-01-16T16:39:00.000-08:00

Today I was sitting with my G-pa, watching TV and saying that there's this scarf I really need to finish for someone...but I'll get around to it when I get around to it.

I should probably get knitting.

reclaiming

2011-01-15T10:47:00.000-08:00

I have a strange living situation. I live in my parents' house, but they actually live in Florida. They're home for the summer to make sure my brother doesn't get in to too much trouble, and they're here for the holidays, but normally it's just me, Tubby and Madeline, and various houseplants. I love living by myself- the house is quiet when I need it to be, the only smelly shoes all over the place are my own, and if I want a thousand knitting projects strewn about the house, there's nobody here to tell me to do otherwise. That being said, I kind of like having my mom here- she brings her cheetah-kitty, Lacie and she and Madeline play-wrestle all day, and there's normally food in the fridge. I also have someone to watch Castle with when she's here.

But anyhoo, she headed back South this morning. Within a few hours of her leaving, there was crochet in the kitchen, dyeing in the sink, resin in the laundry room and spinning in the living room. Plus the usual cross-stitch and five knitting projects that migrate back and forth from the office, the kitchen table, and my knitting basket.

The house is mine again- at least until we start showing it in a month or so. Then it turns in to a museum where nothing can be touched for fear of fingerprints and I have to Windex myself out every morning on my way to work. I hope this thing sells quickly. I think...

finishing

2011-01-12T17:57:00.000-08:00

This week has been good: I've finished two projects so far, bought a new pair of shoes for salsa dancing, had a pedi with my mom and tonight I treated myself to a massage! (Don't you love gift certificates?) I think it's about time to touch up my roots too- so I might need to take my freshly-groomed self out on the town this weekend after I gets my Nice and Easy color 111 on.

But you're not reading a knitting blog to read about my sparkly pink toenails and how I can move my shoulders after having the knot beaten out of them for an hour. (My masseuse must think I'm the angriest person in the world- she's always curious as to how those knots got that big in the first place) But yes...finished projects.

I finished my Snuggle animal bed and will add it to the pile of Snuggles to take to the humane society. I just need to be in the right mood. If I had gone today to drop it off, I would have probably come home with a Pit-mix and a one-eyed cat with diabetes because I'm a sucker for animals like that. So I'll get the Snuggles to the humane society...eventually. Or tell someone else to do it for me.

In bigger news: I finished a filet-crochet doily for my neighbor lady! She's super-nice to me and my kitties and I figured that nothing said "thanks" better than her last name in lace. Well, for her at least. I was so relieved when she confirmed that I got the spelling right- I kept thinking that a 7-letter last name surely required more than one vowel.

That's it for today. I'm hoping to finish a cross-stitching project still before my Saturday cast on for the Pi shawl, but we'll see...cross-stitching always takes a lot longer than you think it will.

Project Porridge

2011-01-10T18:22:00.000-08:00

Ever have one of those weeks where none of your projects seem to work for you? I'm not have lace issues or crazy-gauge or anything, I'm just not totally in love with any of my projects right now. Winter blues maybe. I have three projects (one cross-stitch, two crochet) which are uncomfortably close to completion, but I can't really be bothered to finish any of them. None of them seem just right- this knit is too heavy, this is too bland, this is too complicated, this is too blue. I have a knit-along coming up that starts on Saturday* but I haven't even been motivated enough to go out and buy the needles. I gave my mom a written description of what I need and have told her that if she wants the Pi shawl, then she needs to hit up the yarn store for me. I simply can't be bothered right now.

So here's a little list of things that I'm working on or have finished in the past couple weeks...

1. Comfort shawl. Thanks to Jaclyn for a proper definition of a prayer shawl (see comments of last post). I tried to finish (and wash) it by Saturday, which was the day of the funeral. That almost got done, but it's done now and hanging in my laundry room drying. I'll get pictures when the light is better.

2. Purple sparkly hat. Totally a Twilight pattern even though I'm not a Twi-hard. I just think that Alice Cullen is da bomb and I want a hat like hers. But purple. And sparkly. And a little bit different from the actual pattern. It's made from Kraemer Sterling and Silk sock yarn, held doubled on size 8 needles. It's way too big for my head but otherwise totally awesome and it will be going on to my etsy shop later in case you're interested...

3. Dooooooily. I am making one of those filet-crochet name doilies for my neighbor who feeds my kitties so I can go to drunken knitting night. When I told her back in October that I planned to make my mom a doily for her birthday, she led me on a doily tour through her home. I've been planning her doily ever since. I took this picture a few days ago and have managed a few more letters since then- this is one of those nearly-finished projects now.

4. The Christmas Tube! I finished this a while ago but only got the picture yesterday. My G-pa Darling is a little nuts and collects things like galvanized steel buckets and free yardsticks from the state fair and home shows. He's been joking (or is he joking?) about which of his children or grandchildren will get his yardstick collection when goes- and I figured that I'd put my name up a little higher on that list (because I totally need 27 yardsticks) by knitting him a yardstick cozy. I thought it was the best gift ever (if you knew him, you'd understand) but shortly before posting the yardstick cozy on my blog, I found out that he occasionally reads- so I held off. The yardstick holder was a very funny surprise Christmas morning and would have been the best handmade Christmas present ever....but he's totally allergic to it. Yup. Did not count on that mohair allergy.

5. Crazy-pants Awesome-sock. Need I say more?

6. Snuggle for homeless pets. Every once in a while I pull together tons of little oddballs and crochet them in to little beds for animals in shelters. I have quite the collection now and promise to actually take them to a shelter....after I finish this one. I'm really close though- I swear!

7. Handspun! This is my one super-happy project! It even spoke to me when I was working on it. Somewhere between the chunk of blue glitter and the crimson curl, it whispered "mittens...mittens! And a matching hat if there's leftovers!" and so the yarn has spoken. It's a crazy art-batt, and I'm really excited to see it when it's finished!

But until January 15th, I'm going to knit/crochet/cross-stitch furiously to finish as many projects as possible to start my Pi-shawl guilt free!

***IF you'd like to join in on the knit-along, we're doing it on Ravelry as part of the Alpaca With A Twist group. You'll need 2 skeins of Fino. The pattern is Firmaments by Bonnie Sennot but we won't kick you out if there's another pattern you prefer.

the hug

2011-01-07T07:56:00.000-08:00

As knitters/crocheters/weavers/overall fiber crafters, we've all felt the need to keep people warm and comfortable, even if it's 90 degrees with eleventy-billion percent humidity. It's just our way of saying that we love people and we're here for them. This week I've been maniacally crocheting a prayer-shawl for my kinda-Aunt Cathy, who lost her husband on Monday night. The shawl itself is nothing special, it's a crochet shell-stitch with Patons Decor- the same yarn I used for my first Harp-woven project. I mentioned this on Ravelry and got the question, "what is a prayer shawl"?

I don't know. Sometimes a shawl is called a comfort-shawl, and sometimes a prayer-shawl but I prefer to think of them as big wooly hugs. There's tons of hugs and comfort after you lose someone as everyone hovers around, but after days and weeks and months pass, the shawl remains. The shawl is something physical to hold and people say that helps. I'm not overly religious and I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be praying while making the shawl, or if she's supposed to wear it while praying...but I think the message is the same: the shawl is here for you always, and part of me will always be there within it.

*On a side note here's a picture of the two projects side by side from the same yarn. I'm always amazed at how you can start with the exact same materials and end up with something so amazingly different. But that's the beauty of fiber arts, n'est pas?

Resolutions....I guess.

2011-01-02T14:38:00.000-08:00

All across the blogosphere there's a lot of posting resolutions. I normally joke that I'm going to give up chain smoking and steak (I've never smoked in my life and I haven't touched meat in 10 years) but I'm going to try to come up with a few, knitting related or not.

1. Join something. Meet people doing it. Stay joined in that something.

2. Work on letting go of things...sometimes I get angry. Sometimes I stay angry. And then I get this knot in my shoulder that makes knitting uncomfortable.

3. Work on finishing things. This is everything from knitting projects to not being sidetracked while cleaning the kitchen. And books. And tubes of chap-stick.

4. Become a cleaner person (this is a repeat). Just to clarify, this means be tidier, not shower more. I don't stink. At least I think I don't stink.

5. Smile more. I'm getting frown-lines.

6. Be more creative. I'm not quite sure about my plan of attack on this one, but I think weaving is going to help me branch out and put things together that I normally wouldn't. Only time and warps will tell.

So now that's done... I've started the new year off well (I think) with resolution #3 and resolution #5. I really need to work on #2. Stupid rugby boy.

Let's start with the smile.... (New Year's Eve in Broadripple with BFF Frank)

And 2 finished things already! Last night I took my first scarf-thing off my new loom! And then about 20 minutes later, I finished a chemo cap! The scarf-thing is a little wider than I had intended to make it and not quite as long. I got progressively tighter throughout the weave, starting at 8 weft-threads per inch and ending at 13 weft-threads per inch. The yarn is mostly acrylic and pilled while I was working on it, and there's a mistake halfway through and the sides get tighter and looser throughout the whole thing. And you know what? I love it anyway. Because your first weaving isn't supposed to look perfect. I still need to wash it and trim the fringe so it's a consistent length, but since I was able to remove the loom from the living room floor, I'm calling it done for now. (Sorry for the sideways picture, the computer refuses to believe that it really needs to go the other way)

I also finished a chemo cap that was requested. It's my usual Socrates held doubled hat recipe, which I think works really well since it's a great yarn for hats and there's normally enough yarn leftover at the end for a few squares on my blanket. I think the pattern is called Claudia- it was really kind of a pain since you're doing itty-bitty cables with worsted weight yarn on size 4's, but after you get the little lattice-bit done you decrease a whole bunch and go up to 8's, and then you're done before you know it.

So that's my year so far...howabout you?

New Year, New Shoes

2010-12-31T14:06:00.000-08:00

Bring on the new year, new projects, new love, and some kick-ass red shoes. Happy NewYear, everyone!

relapse

2010-12-29T11:14:00.000-08:00

While the holidays are a wonderful time filled with gifts, rushed knitting, relatives, Christmas cookies and more football than anyone should ever watch, it gets lonely. When you're single (and not because you want it that way) you feel the pang all year round when you check facebook and five more friends have gotten married or engaged in the past few days, or when you go to the family Christmas party to find yourself as the lastsingle girl. Seriously- my 12 year old cousin was telling me alllllll about her new boyfriend (it is weird to be jealous?). I have developed coping mechanisms over the past few years as people constantly feel the need to remind me that I'm the last single Darling girl... (oh really? I hadn't noticed!) and while none of my methods are that great (recklessly ice skating, compulsive baking of cupcakes and baklava, taking hateful cats to get their picture taken with Santa at Petsmart) there is one coping mechanism that I really need to boot.

You guessed it- OCO. This painful condition is short for "Obsessive Casting On" and can vary in degrees from random-new-hat (mild) to 2-new-sweaters-4-new-scarves-and-12-new-hats-while-thinking-about-3-different-shawls (acute). This holiday season, it's especially bad. I took a picture of approximately one third of my new projects because I'm flat out ashamed of my 12 weak moments that have me stressing out about knitting again. Seriously- I'm stressed out. This sucks.

But let's start with happy things. This is my new shawl and even though it's quite small, I'm calling it my tenth shawl of 2010. I love it and have already worn it a ton. I'm trying to tell my mom that she needs one for V-day because I totally want to make another. Anyhoo, this shawl is called Annis-seed, pattern in Annis from Knitty, I used beads instead of nupps but made no other modifications.

And...a potential pattern! I made this after I saw something similar at Kohls. Yarn is Alpaca With A Twist Surino (brand new!). Stay tuned for more info on this, like whether I'll ever weave in those ends or not. Also keep in mind that the sweater is much too big for the model and the real pattern will come in more sizes than this one...

Weak moments...

And in unrelated news: there is a cheetah in my Christmas tree.

Christmas is for weaving

2010-12-26T08:58:00.000-08:00

Wow it's been a while- sorry about that! I've had deadline after deadline over the past few weeks and haven't had time to sleep, much less blog. And even though I've still got quite a bit of work to be done by tomorrow, I feel like I owe it to you guys to get in a quick posting.

Happy Holidays! Yesterday for Christmas I got a loom! I spent a good chuck of yesterday putting it together with my dad and then making a warp using the legs of the dining room table while my dad pointed at the directions that came with the loom and tried to explain how nothing would work since I was doing that part wrong. I was weaving an hour later (yay! victory dance!) Anyhoo, I am using some Patons Decor (which may turn out to be a terrible mistake as it's mostly acrylic but we'll see- it's old stash and I could care less what becomes of it) and I wove for about an hour last night and a little this morning and went to get my camera to show off my new harp and....

Someone else decided it was their turn with the loom.

In other news... mini sock-blockers coming soon!

Nine....and a bit.

2010-12-12T16:45:00.000-08:00

Today I thought I finished my tenth shawl. I have been working at my Annis with flying fingers since I started it on Wednesday night during Glee, beading and purling at the speed of light in that delicious Visual Purple. I took it to my knitting group today with hopes of getting just a few rows closer to the end and with the help of a good caffeine buzz and an extra long knitting session, I even managed to bind off at my knitting group withJasmine's moral support. And my newly finished shawl is.....way too small. It's fabulous, and wonderful, and beady, and by no stretch of the imagination could it ever be anything more than a scarf. It's still lovely, but I really wish I had knitted something else for my tenth shawl, that way it would have actually been a shawl. I guess the Paige-gauge was too much- and now the shawl is too little.

Since plan A, B, and C for 10 shawls in 2010 have failed, we move on to plan D. I just need to figure out what that is first. Wish me luck.

Amendments

2010-12-10T17:04:00.000-08:00

So....this List business. I've decided to make a couple amendments in order to salvage a wee bit of my sanity and make a few bucks on the side. I'm not totally abandoning The List, just updating it. For example, I have a sweater to make by January 4th. I am quite confident that it can be done, but it certainly can't be done WHILE going by the list, so for the sake of cold hard sweater-cash, I'm putting everything else on hold. Almost.

I'm still chugging along on the Christmas Tube. Some of you know what it is, and the rest of you will have to wait until Christmas, since I just found out that the recipient of the tube has been reading this blog. Anyhoo, after SnB last night (thanks Laurie!) and knitting through a movie this evening (when I wasn't biting my nails- Oh snap Harry Potter!) I am quite pleased to say that the Christmas Tube is a little longer- I only have about about 6 more inches before I can start working on the closure part. Luckily it is bulky and is going quite quickly. I bet it would go even faster if I would stop biting my thumb nails and just keep knitting. Christmas is too close to take a day off.

AND.....I have abandoned attempts 1 and 2 at shawl number 10 in hopes that a little bitty Annis from Knitty.com will be easier to finish within a reasonable amount of time. I started on Wednesday night during "Glee" and worked on it for a while last night, and have most of the tricky bit over with. I can totally finish that by New Years Eve. I think. Here it is so far, yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy from stash, I'm not sure what the color is because they don't make it anymore, and the beads are from a giant purchase of the wrong size beads ordered a couple months ago. So far so good!

nine!

2010-12-03T20:12:00.000-08:00

Ask me how I'm feeling- I'm feeling victorious. It's Friday evening, I have a big gray cat passed out in my arms (she really needs some lovins since Lacey went back to Florida) and I finished shawl 9/10 for 2010. I can seriously get this done. I think. I'm currently (very slowly) designing one and if I'm not close by Christmas, I'll cast on an emergency Ishbel to finish or something.

But since typing is bothering Miss Sleepyhead and I'm not able to use my left hand and arm, I'll post pictures and be done with it.

Pattern: Sweet Honeysuckle Wrap

Yarn: Alpaca With A Twist Baby Twist, just shy of 2 jumbo hanks

Overall thoughts on the shawl: Boy I'm glad that's over with. I was not a big fan of that pattern. But here's my pictures...

Happy Leftovers!

2010-11-26T13:50:00.000-08:00

Where has November gone?! I know! I spent it cleaning the house to get it ready for a couple showings and then Thanksgiving. I didn't even have time tobakemy signature red velvet cake! Crazyness! I did sneak in a little knitting when I stopped cleaning for the night (one can only breathe in so much bleach per day) and managed to cross one more project off The List. Here's Madeline's Pinwheel blanket, and it is very loved. This yarn has been in my stash since high school and I'm very happy to be liberated from it. I had about one ball leftover after the ruffle (I seriously underestimated how much yarn it would take) andit got passed around last Sunday until someone grabbed it- Thank you, M, you've done me a huge favor. Now to get rid of the other 8 sweaters' worth of stash yarn.

I also finished the first of Jo's Farrow ribbed socks, or as I like to call it, I'm halfway past the point of no return. It is thick, it is warm, and I really don't want to give it away! There is a good chance that by the time I finish the second, I'll never want to look at them again so that could come in handy.

Let's see...what else...I joined a swap! I picked up the last item today and ran to the post office to send it but they were closed so I'll try again tomorrow. Boo! I've had a great time coming up with little gifts for it and I really hope my person likes it! AND I've updated my etsy shop with some buttons and other things AND even had my first sale! So you should totally go buy stuff so I can buy more resin and make more buttons. I do have a couple more styles that I haven't uploaded yet, but I thought I'd take them to my knitting groups and see if anyone wanted any before I had to do that whole listing fee thing. That's all I've got for now- enjoy your leftovers! Because I totally had pumpkin pie for breakfast....and lunch.

Goodbye, beach!

2010-11-15T15:30:00.000-08:00

Okay- I'm so enamored with the beach that I have to show you a couple more pictures and then I'll stop. Mostly because I'm back in Indy now and the only thing remotely close to a beach is a children's sand-box with a puddle in it.

And I got to go to a fundraiser! I know it sounds really lame, but I thought it was really fun. I got to go buy a dress (75% off! score!) and even bought a little head-bandey thing to go with my lack of hair. Thank goodness I took my just-in-case black heels- I never travel without them. And the best part? It was a fundraiser for the Humane Society, a cause of which I thoroughly approve. Where else can you get all dolled up and have your picture taken with a llama?

Speaking of animals, Madeline and Lacey did finally start to get along- they had about 2 days of hissing and slapping and then this switch flipped or something and they were BFFs. They play-faught for the rest of the trip and my mom told me that when Madeline and I left, Lacey kept walking around the house crying for Madeline. Madeline is laying down next to me looking all sad for herself, so it looks like it's mutual. Good thing Lacey is coming over for Thanksgiving- I'll be sure to share some cat-attack pics.

I feel like I'm forgetting something- oh yes. Knitting. And things of that nature. I took 2 knitting projects and a cross-stitch project with me to Florida, all things on "The List". For those who are just tuning in, "The List" is a giant post-it note with a list of all of the projects that I would like to finish in 2010 whether they're knitting, crocheting, rug hooking, or cross-stitching. It's a big list, but I'm chugging through it. I did have to add one itty-bitty little shawl because I'm going to be teaching another class soon and would like to have my own pattern ready so I don't have to worry about the rights and getting everything okay-ed and getting everyone paid. It's just easier that way- except for the whole designing part. But I'll get to that later.

Barter Socks

These socks are part of a trade: this woman will fix an old cedar chest for me that will someday hold my stash in it's entirety (which means I need to STOP BUYING YARN) and she would like paid for her services in socks. Which is just about perfect- especially since the yarn I'm using is stash. Anyhoo, the pattern in called Farrow Rib, which takes so long that if I weren't already past the gusset on the first one, I'd change patterns. That being said, it's absolutely perfect for Jo and is very squishy and should last a very long time. Yarn is Alpaca With A Twist Socrates in the Macaw color. Now if only I could find a dentist who would take a blanket for some veneers...

*This is my new sheep from Sarasota! I found her in a set of 2 at the Women's Exchange, a place that is either really fun or really terrible- depending on how long your mother wants to look at Dutch-made ceramics.

Hillbilly Sampler

I totally love my Apple Pie cross-stitch sample even though it's very country and doesn't really go with anything other than my love for kitschy decorations and making pie. I actually got quite a bit done in Florida- I found it very enjoyable to sit on the porch in the mornings and stitch while nearby lizards licked their own eyeballs. Very zen. Sorry for the crap picture- we've now hit the time of year when pictures must be taken before work in order to use natural light, which means little to no creativity in the photography.

Madeline's Pinwheel

I didn't take this one to Florida, but it is a current "List" item. I have a frogged sweater's worth of this color and I'd like to see it gone. Plus my little breakfast-enthusiast has outgrown her felted kitty bed and would like something nice and wooly for winter. Once again with the crap picture thing.

So that's it! I had a great time and can't wait to go down again in January to teach my classes!

Another post from paradise

2010-11-12T14:53:00.000-08:00

Catching some rays and stitches in Florida

2010-11-09T15:15:00.000-08:00

Hi there! Having a great time in not-as-warm-as-I'd-hoped Florida! I have already hit up 2 yarn stores and blown my vacation budget, but it was well worth it. I went to Picasso's Moon yesterday and bought a fabulous Batt in the Belfry since I just finished my second one and I'm in a little bit of withdrawal...

Isn't it cool? I'm trying to branch out with my fiber purchases- I'm really enjoying spinning off fibers but I find that making the plunge and actually buying them in the first place is the hard part.

I also picked up a little roving and some Noro-awesome at A Good Yarn on Tamiami. I love it there. It's like Disneyworld, but with yarn. So much selection and everyone there is just so nice...like I said. Love. Anyhoo, this Noro is going to be Lanesplitter from Knitty and this roving is going to be whatever it wants to be. I think it's merino like the stuff I bought there this past spring and loved spinning. I'm also talking with Susan, the owner, about maybe doing a couple workshops in January, and since I loved teaching at her shop this past May, I'm all for it!
That's about it so far...I did bring down my big cat Madeline who is not really getting along with my Mom's cat Lacey. Actually it's really the other way around- 3-pound Lacey is determined to beat my 10 pound cat up. Madeline is just a big furry pile of love though and seems a little hurt that Lacey doesn't want to be friends. Maybe Lacey needs a little attitude adjustment. Just sayin'...
And tomorrow I'm going to go hang out with my friend Alan that I haven't seen since Purdue Rep. Dance Company- he moved down from Purdue to USF and is only about 20 miles away so we're meeting up tomorrow- super excited! I may have to ask him about how he likes USF...maybe going back to school isn't the worst thing in the world anymore. Especially in a place with no snow or windtunnels.

eight!

2010-11-06T11:33:00.000-07:00

Wow it's been a crazy week!

I bought a car! This is Bumblebee, a 2010 (yay year-end clearance sale!) Chevy Aveo. She is awesome and drives a little like a go-kart, which is even more awesome. The Jeep died a terrible frame-bent death a couple months ago and after a good long time in denial, I found Bumblebee in Plainfield. She's the first car that's ever been in MY name, and it's pretty exciting. Plus she gets over 350 miles per tank which is pretty awesome.

I finished shawl number eight!

Pattern is Zetor Scarf, yarn is Malabrigo sock that I brought back from England a couple years ago. My stash that I accumulated over there is slowly disappearing but I think that this Malabrigo was well spent. Plus I hadn't really stashed since I was saving for a car but I love this shawl, I'm thrilled with it even though I did a lace pattern that was really not what I normally like to knit. And I'm really excited to wear it on Thanksgiving since it's very season appropriate.

I finished some handspun! This is the last of my Batts in the Belfry that I stashed this past March visiting my mom in Sarasota. It's a couple different types of wool, a bit of bamboo, and lots of sparkles, which don't show up very well on the picture. It's a smidge over 3 ounces and a hundred yards. I think it wants to be a hat.

And I'm going on vacation! I'm going to go see my mummy in Sarasota and catch some sunshine now that we're getting flurries and such. She's been telling all of her friends down there that I need a "Mommy-fix"...I'm not sure I'd go that far but if someone is going to pay for me to fly down to Florida, I'll take a Mommy-fix. Madeline will also be going because she will destroy my house if I don't take her. Plus we would like to start introducing my mom's cat Lacey to Madeline and Tubby Custard since she'll be spending Christmas here.

That's about it- I've got a bajillion things to do and this afternoon to do them. Stay tuned for the Floridian adventures of Paige and her yarn!

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T16:36:00.001-07:00

Look! A hat!

2010-10-26T16:24:00.000-07:00

Hey look- I finished a hat! I was *almost* even monogamous with the hat- I cheated a little with the pumpkin shawl which I had hoped to have done by now (carving pumpkins with Frank tomorrow).

It's the third chemo cap I've made for my Mom's friend D, and I took it over to her after I wove in the ends and plopped it off the plate on which it was blocking. She seemed to really like it- it's totally her colors and it's all autumn-y and it's not like anything else I or other people have given her. To re-cap it is Mountain Colors Crazyfoot in the Moondance colorway, pattern is One Day Beret (it's all on Ravelry if you need more info). I kind of love it and wish I were bold enough to wear berets because I totally want one.

And I spun yarn! My wheel has been a little under the weather and is having balance issues and subsequent squeaking and weight distribution problems, which throws the wheel all over the place as I'm spinning. So I spun like crazy to get this beast done and plied so I could take my wheel to see my G-pa, who figured out the problem immediately. Anyhoo, here's some new handspun! I love it, but I have no idea why there's so little of it. Everyone says you need 4 ounces to spin sock yarn, and this is 4 ounces, and it's fingering (maybe a little on the heavy side of fingering, but still totally sock yarn) but there's only 190 yards of it! I counted 3 times to make sure! I have no idea where my wheel puts all this extra fiber- maybe the nargles are taking it when I'm asleep?

And my annoying cat-lady story (people who aren't fans of M can click away now, I won't mind).

Madeline and I have little nightly rituals: make dinner for cats, make dinner for me, knit and watch a little TV, shower and get attacked once I step out of the shower, and after some more dilly-dallying around, go to bed and watch Letterman and play fetch until one of us falls asleep. Yes, she plays fetch. And she's really good at it. She normally brings me one of her favorite toys and we play fetch with that like Lavender Mouse or Woollyball, and she can retrieve for hours. But last night she took a little longer to get the game going and when she jumped up on my bed and did her little chirp (she doesn't meow) she had a something new in her mouth.

She brought a little bottle of lotion to bed. I didn't know if she wanted me to throw it or moisturize. Goofy cat. At least it wasn't as gross as the time she brought a frozen shrimp to bed. That was nasty.

noooooooo!

2010-10-22T06:15:00.001-07:00

For those of us counting, this is the second time I've run out of fabric for this particular project. Maybe I should stick with knitting items that use a predicable amount of materials....

fall...ing off the list

2010-10-20T15:52:00.000-07:00

So the leaves are falling and I'm looking at The List, getting a little antsy. Back in March I started rug hooking with a sheep kit that I bought at the Whispering Pines booth at the Greencastle fiber fair. I started it that night and worked furiously until had reached the point where it would no longer fit in the cross-stitch hoop. I asked a friend to borrow her frame but that never ended up working out, and after a month of asking, Laurie lent me her frame shortly before my nose surgery. I had hoped to tackle the sheep rug over my week of downtime but I didn't get a whole lot done that week except lying around watching bad TV. I worked on it a little between projects but quickly realized that it required far too much concentration to be TV crafting, and then progress slowed. I started running low on fabric. I put it off some more. I finally accepted that I wouldn't be able to finish it with the little but I had left, so I dug through the bag until I found the receipt and called, trying to explain the plaid lavender I had bought from her this Spring and how I desperately needed more (I knew it was a long shot, but I had to try, right?) She said to send in a sample and I did. Then I waited. And waited. And called and left a message. And waited. And left another message. Three weeks later, I finally got a hold of her (turns out she had been on vacation) and she said what I feared she'd say. That color was long gone, but she had something close. I was nervous, but told her to send it anyway.Worst comes to worst, I'll blend it with the fabric I had left and kind of ween in the new color. The new color came, and it's dark blue. Not lavender. I decided to just go for it- it's my first rug hooking and I just want it done.

And Bev must have known what I didn't. This color combo kicks butt. I'm going to hook like crazy tonight to try to finish (or get to the point that I could finish at knitting night tomorrow) so I can give Laurie's frame back and have it off the back burner forever. I know you're not reading this Bev, but good call. You had me worried but this is way better than what I was going to finish it with. (the green circle is another ring I drew around the design so that the sheep fits the pillow I bought for it. JoAnn Fabrics was out of the 12" variety so I had to go 14")

I'm also making another hat in awesome fall colors. It's a generic beret recipe and I'm making it as another Chemo Cap for D since she seems to be wearing the first two I made her quite often. The yarn is Mountain Colors Crazyfoot (90% superwash merino, 10% nylon) and the color is "Moondance". I kind of love it. It's a generous skein too so I may be able to squeak out a second hat for me, or at least a pair of wristlets. I cast on Monday night so I had something to work on during Castle (most of my knitting projects start out like that) and I'm loving it. I'd love to finish it this weekend and have yet another project crossed off The List.

And more Castle knitting! I started this pumpkin-pretty for last week's Castle and I luuuurve it. I feel like I need to hurry up and finish it so I can go pumpkin-picking with it. It's Malabrigo Sock that I bought in London at Socktopus when I was all bummed over missing Thanksgiving. This year I'll wear it for Thanksgiving, carefully avoiding cranberry sauce. Pattern is slipping my mind, but it's in my Ravelry notebook if you're genuinely interested.

And I started playing with resin again! It's messy but it's fun and I'm trying my hand at making buttons. Here's what I have so far...still pretty rough but none of these are officially finished yet. If you're in the market for large, sparkly buttons let me know and I'd love to make something for you!

That's about it- I need to clean my kitchen up so the lady who feeds my kitties on Thursdays doesn't think I'm hoarding yarn and compulsively starting projects while drinking hot tea by the gallon....not that I do that sort of thing of course :p

Good Day, Good Socks

2010-10-17T19:15:00.001-07:00

Today was awesome. Why, you ask? Well every part of it just kicked butt.

1. Tubby Custard and Madeline waited until 9:30 before they decided they would die if not fed immediately. They have the ability to sense the days on which I plan on sleeping in and then decide they are hungry anywhere from 5:20-8 am. 9:30 is pretty awesome. Plus Madeline's frequent tooth-brushings seem to be helping with the gingivitis and her morning kisses aren't so bad any more.

2. I got to go to my new Sunday knitting group. I'd call it an SnB, but the B part isn't really there. Everyone is just so happy! Yay for positive energy! My new friend Kim wasn't there today though because she was busy getting married, so that's entirely excusable. New friends Jasmine, Susan, Jessica and Meghann were there though, and it was fabulous. Francie, if you're reading this, we missed you today and that sinus thing must end so you can come back. Anyhoo, M is doing this 30 by 30 thing and one of her things she wants to do by her 30th birthday is learn a new language. Jessica and I kind of maybe pushed her in to French because we both speak it and I thought it would be funny if we began speaking to her in outrageous french accents the whole time, starting with my personal favorite, Julia Child. I should have worn my pearls today. The french thing lasted about 30 seconds and we got to stitchin'.

3. I finished socks. They are awesome. And they are totally not selfish. See number 6.

4. I went out to my G-ma Darling's house. On the way there, a chicken crossed the road in front of me. Pretty awesome. Still have no idea why she did it though.

5. G-ma food is the best. I even got to bring some home.

6. I gave my newly finished socks to G-ma. I think she likes them. I told her to wear them until she wears them out and I'd happily make her a new pair. My biggest peeve with knitting people things is when they don't wear them. If I didn't want my knits used, I'd make another shawl because I love to make them but rarely find large beaded lace shawls situation-appropriate.

7. Saw Madeline kick Spot's butt. Spot is the evil cat next door who beats up on my kitties. Tubby Custard has had to go to the vet several times from nasty bites from him that have gotten infected, so I think it's kind of hilarious that Madeline can beat him up. Here's Madeline struttin' her stuff and then Spot hiding in shame.

That's about it...I'm going to finish cleaning up the kitchen from my attempts at resin-casting today and then I'm off to bed with my fabulous book. Toodles!

dooooooily

2010-10-15T18:47:00.000-07:00

So last year when my brother left for Purdue for his Freshman year, my mom went to Florida. She comes back for the summer and holidays, but she's pretty much a snowbird now and now that the warehouse at work is starting to get cold again, I can't say that I blame her. So pretty much since she moved to Florida she's been asking for a turquoise doily to go on her table in her dining room, which is copper. It's a cool table, but the idea of making a doily sounded a little painful due to the reinforcement of the stereotype that knitting is for old ladies. So this summer I got a crochet book called Beyond the Square by Edie Eckman, hoping to make enough circular motifs that I could join them together and call it a doily. I made 14 of them and used an entire ball of crochet cotton. Trouble is, it was still REALLY small. I told her I'd try to block it or iron it while stretching it before I put all the pieces together, but after looking at my little crocheted failures for a couple months, I threw them all in the trash. Well, I put one of the little flowers on a hair clip but since I don't have enough hair to clip it does me just as much good as it was when it was part of the doily-to-be. Anyhoo, I threw the doily-bits away. So less than a week before my mom's birthday I decided to make her a new turquoise doily but keep it totally secret because she still totally thought she was going to get the "spechul" doily. And if I've ever tried to keep a secret from you, you probably know that it doesn't work very well. Seriously- I'm like a first grader. I just can't keep secrets.

So I dyed the yarn. It's Alpaca With A Twist Socrates in the natural colorway- they're selling to Indie dyers now and if you have a tax ID number you should hit that stuff up. Because it's awesome. You heard it here first, y'all.

I started the doily on Monday right before Castle. I frogged the doily right after Castle.

On Tuesday, I started again, and by Wednesday morning, I had this.

I went to SnB on Thursday night with my deadline doily and kept working. I finished Friday night, soaked and blocked it and went to the post office on Saturday, still blowing on my doily to get it just a little bit dryer before I stuffed it in an envelope and sent it to Florida.

I got there 13 minutes after the post office closed. I stuck my fist in the air, made pirate noises and headed back home, defeated. I found a funny card. Funny cards make things so much better, especially if they have to be a day late.

I went to the post office first thing Monday. I commented how it was ridiculous that it costs $15 to send a doily. It's a stupid doily. I sent the doily anyway. I held my tongue for four days. It was reallllllly hard.

And then Thursday morning (her birthday was Wednesday) I was talking to my mummy on my way to work and she went to the door for a little package delivery. And I think she likes it....

Yarn: Alpaca With A Twist Socrates, natural, overdyed with Jacquard turquoise, buttercup, and cobalt.

Pattern: Hemlock Ring Doily, pattern and charts downloaded from the Rainey Sisters blog.

Needles: Us size 4.

Teapot: From a trip to China my Junior year at Purdue, just in case you were wondering.

Old Friends

2010-10-11T12:48:00.000-07:00

Fall is here and I'm running outside chasing Madeline in the crunchy leaves. It's not really chasing, she plops down on the ground and acts like she wants petted, and as soon as you get close at all, she pops up sprints a few feet and rinses/repeats. The colors are absolutely beautiful and despite the telltale signs that winter is coming, the summer temperatures are hanging in there. Seriously- it's October and I'm wearing shorts and a tank top. It's hot. I'm loving it.The colors of the leaves are making me a little jealous- and I'm craving a bulky cabled sweater in the deep reds that are scattered all over the backyard. I'm sticking to The List though- and there's not a single red cabled sweater on it. It does offer a little flexibility which I have found most helpful, while it has a selection of things that should really be finished by 2011, there is no set order and there's even room for a couple cast-ons, one of which happened yesterday.

I re-casted on my silk shawl that I started in May and goofed up in July and then made my mother frog in August. The pattern is Photosynthesis and I am using the same yarn and needles as last time (it's still in my Ravelry notebook if you'd like more info) but this time I'm adding beads that I picked up at the Bead Angel in Broadripple. It's kinda wonderful there. It's a pretty simple and straightforward lace pattern, at least for the bulk of the shawl. I still had it hammered in to my brain from this Summer and casting on again was a little like visiting an old friend; familiar but not boring. Plus I kind of missed my hand-painted green silk. And for those keeping count, this is the third green beaded shawl in a row. Are we maybe sensing a theme here? :p

seven

2010-10-05T16:22:00.001-07:00

Haruni in Finespun Wool by Imbued Fibers in the Sexy Paige Green colorway. Added size 6 seed beads, clear lined with silver. Seventh shawl of 2010. I'll let the pictures say the rest.

The List

2010-10-03T17:08:00.000-07:00

Where has the summer gone? I swear I was just saying how I'm going to spend more time outside this summer, and then I looked up and a leaf fell down and poked me in the eye. I had hoped to be a lot further in my 10 Shawls of 2010 by now, and I had hoped to be doing more things that I love, like signing up for dance and creativewriting classes. Now I just work, go home, sleep, work, go home, sleep and knit sometimes on Thursday nights. It's pretty pathetic. The only things that are out of the ordinary are things that I kinda wish weren't there. For example, today I got a notice from traffic court that my driver's license will be suspended if I don't appear in court on the 17th about an "unposted violation". It took me a minute to figure out what could have happened but I'm pretty sure it's something along the lines of this: I got rear-ended in early May. My insurance company wouldn't do anything until late June, when I dropped my car off and got a rental car from Enterprise. They've screwed me over 3 times now, so I'm calling them out on it- I don't normally name-drop when I'm angry. I got pulled over in my rental car because the plates were expired. I got a ticket in my rental car because the plates were expired. The cop told me that I need to give the ticket to Enterprise and they would deal with it. I gave the ticket to Enterprise and they said they'd deal with it. I called Enterprise a week after I gave them the ticket to make sure they had dealt with it and they promised that they had.

But of course, they didn't. And now I have to go to court because some stupid rental car company can't keep their plates current and then when people get tickets because their plates aren't current, they don't take care of it. I paid enough or the rental car, I shouldn't have to deal with their mistakes.

There. I feel better now. I think. So...knitting.

I went to The Feast of the Hunter's Moon with my bff Ben. There were lots of spinning wheels, Yoyageurs, Scots, and a nearly nekked Indian. I meant to take hundreds of pictures but only took one. And only because she had the best long-draw I've ever seen. I also bought a little sheep and took her picture on my kitchen table. But she's from the Feast, and I think she's really cute!

I finished a chemo cap for my mom's friend D. I'm not going to post it to Ravelry since I didn't get any decent pictures, but D called the day after I left it at her house and told me she loved it. She kept calling it "stunning". Well worth the cabling. This is#2, and I plan on starting #3 when I finish my Haruni, which could be tonight or three weeks from now. My mojo is a little off again.

I made a list of all of the craft projects I would like to finish before Christmas, or at latest before New Years. Not that I expect you to decipher my scrawl, but here is a picture of the list that shall taunt me until every project is done. I really think I've made it realistic- I have a few projects that I haven't started yet for when I catch myself at a weak moment and need a fix-me-up cast on, and there are projects that need a few hours to finish and there are projects that need a few weeks to finish. The important thing is that there's quite a variety of projects, so it might be doable. I'm feeling a lot better about my abundance of UFO's since I made the list. Naturally, there are quite a few projects that aren't on the list, but I'm just not worried about them right now.

And to finish: a sock, some handspun shetland, and a Christmas cactus from Ben's mom, who I finally met and she's totally awesome. And she might just be a bigger "plant enthusiast" than me. And her house is this awesome old farmhouse that she and Ben are fixing up and it is soooo cute. I kind of just want to move in. Right now.