Last One And I'll Shut Up, I Swear!

Okay, I'm annoying today, I know! But you have to see this.

Honestly, HOW can I be expected to work when I turn around and see this?

They don't cuddle together often. It's hard to resist that level of adorable. But WAIT. It gets WORSE. Pan out a bit.


There's cute, there's cushy comfy chair, there's lovely sunlight, and there's spinning! And I'm chained to my desk-not-desk working!

I am SO dedicated. Hurray for my work ethic. Ooooh, it's lunch time!!

Last SAFF-Y Post

I don't know what the difference is between one gargantuan post and three posts in twelve hours. Just bear with me.

Let me talk about my dyeing classes now. If this sort of stuff doesn't interest you, admire the pretty colors, skip the words, and scroll a bit.

This is the skein of silk that was dyed up in my One-Pot Multicolored Yarn and Fleece class. (By the way, I did NOT feel slighted from the materials fees cost - I walked away with a ton of really good stuff from each class!) The silk took the color sort of oddly (as silk is wont to do) but the technique is fantastic. Basically, you put the skein(s) in the pot (circle it around the outer rim of the pot as best you can) and then carefully pour each dye mixture in segments. For this one we had four colors, so we poured four equal amounts of dye in four "pie pieces". The dye draws down (not out) and is absorbed in sections. There's some poking and prodding (no stirring, obviously) to get the dye to draw and strike where you want, but it's mostly a pour-and-leave-it-alone thing. (I like that.) We didn't mess with ratios - the pot required four ounces of dye, so we put in an ounce of each. Simple. Obviously, you'd want to mess with your ratios and use more of the lighter colors and less of the bolder if you wanted more of a balance. The light color is really overpowered on this skein.

The mohair, however:


Took the dye like gangbusters! I LURVE this skein. Great tech. If you like acid dyes. I could take them or leave them, although I'm not sure if my lack of enthusiasm had more to do with the fact that I just wanted to buy my wheel and nine pounds of wool and head home.

I took the Colors from Nature dyeing class the next day, and I had to tear myself away from the wheel, but I'm glad I did. It's probably the crunchy organic girl in me - I LOVE this dyeing method. First of all, it's cheap. (Yay, more money for cashmere roving!) You can gather up leaves or onion skins, boil them, and dunk the yarn. How is that not fantastic? Second of all:


Holy crap! Who knew you could make a vibrant purple or a salmon color out of WOOD??? The colors aren't quite true, and I have roving and yarn in each shade. Left to right, excluding the little bunches of yarn at the top left: Purple - Logwood. Red - Cochineal (bugs!). Salmon (not orange) - Red Sandalwood. Pale peach (not pink) - Brazilwood. Light tan - Henna. Alum is used as a mordant in each example, except the little tiny skeins up above the logwood. Those two were not pretreated, and the brownish-grey bit was done in logwood with cream of tartar added to the dyepot. The lavender bit was done in logwood as the bright purple was, but then doused with ammonia out of the dyepot. It's incredible what the slightest change can do to these skeins - drop a bit of copper tubing into your dyepot, and the color changes dramatically. I bought some mordant and some dyes. (Some of the dyepots, like the brazilwood, were done with bits of wood, and some were done with sawdust purchased from a dye distributor.) And then there's the bugs.


They kind of look like those candy rocks kids eat. (Kids, don't eat bugs.) They're also expensive as all hell. (An eight ounce bag is about forty bucks. I bought an ounce or two.) But look at that scarlet color yarn - you can't resist!

Some handspun:


Four ounces of Merino/Tencel spun to 210 yards. We're getting further from bulky, but not close enough to sock. Sigh. This lovely teal-ish evergreen color sure looked like blue to me in the arena (bad lighting and the haze of fiber intoxication makes for bad judgment). Still.....getting better. This is a heavy yarn, very dense. Not sure I'm crazy about it. Seems reeeeally bulky, even at over 200 yards.


About an ounce of alpaca. (I bought a lot of sampler bags so I could see what I like spinning and what I hate.) Much more even spin on this one - still a bit large, though, at 35 yards. Heavy worsted weight, about.


About an ounce of Brown Welsh top. (I know what this looks like. I kind of giggled too, because I'm really a six year-old at heart.) 50 yards...better all the time! Spin and ply more consistent yet. Still not sock weight. Must keep trying.

Couple of hats I whipped up on the drive. (Also finished a pair of heavy socks, already dirty.)


A beanie for Travis' little sister, no real pattern used. Just seed stitch along the bottom for an inch and a half, then stockinette (other than her initials, which I purled in). This is my handspindled merino/tussah (ha! spindle, kiss my grits!) and it's her high school colors. Birthday gift? I'm hoping that little bump in the top will come out in a wash. I don't like nipples on the tops of my hats.

Speaking of which.


Beanie from Ozark Handspun, which I still love for funky hats. Kinda pointy, though, huh? It looks alright on a head though. (You just really don't want to see my head right now. Telecommute day. Head looks kinda funky on telecommute day.) This hat also weighs about nine pounds. But it's so cute dammit.

Am I done? I'm looking around at my piles of crap I now have to find a place for....I think I'm done showing off.....I'll let you know if I step in any more handspun. (Hopefully it won't look like that Brown Welsh.)

Animals Parade (Photo Heavy)

Hey, the grass is greener on the other side of the fence for them, too!

I LOVE sheep. We'll definitely have sheep when we have land. I love their little "maaaaa-aaa-aaaaaa" noises, and how sweet some of them were. Travis actually had to literally be tugged away from one he deemed his "favorite".


We met some llamas too. I also definitely want llamas.


Llamas, however, do NOT want Travis.


(Note that he has his carved stick.) The llama gave it some thought:


And decided against him, again.


"You have been judged and found wanting." Ouch! And heh.

The smiling blur approaching, whom I've pointed out using my handy red Photoshop arrow I now love so much, was the owner. He friendlied right up when she got there. (Yeah. "Friendlied." I said it. It's my word, but you can use it.)


Alpacas are cute. Alpacas are pretty. Alpacas make pretty fur. But I do not want alpacas. Why?

Alpacas are ASSHOLES. Seriously. I couldn't get anywhere near them. This one let me get kinda close, but check out the stinkeye:


Moments later I attempted to pet him and if he'd been able to, I think he would have pooped and thrown it at me in disdain. Jerk.

(No offense to any alpaca people out there - they're probably very sweet once you get to know them. I know they're just aloof animals. I understand - I would be too if strangers kept fondling my hair and shaving me periodically.)

They are, however, REALLY funny.


"Hey guys. What's up over here? No, I'm just hangin' out. No sweat. Hey, what's that over there??"


"Mmmummmmph-crunch-crunch"

Okay, I do like THIS alpaca. He's after my own heart.

SAFF Recap (Photo Heavy and Long)

In the interest of time-saving measures, I'm typing my blog post on the drive back to Florida. (I'm hoping to someday parlay all of my expertise into a $450/hour efficiency consultant position. I'll let you know how that works out.)

OH MY GOD I think I love fiber festivals! Do some of you really only go for one day?! I spent very nearly every waking hour wandering the halls and arena floors, until I was ejected because everyone wanted to go home. It helped me tremendously that one of the main organizers of the event is a good friend of my parents - my folks live on a former llama farm and the previous owners became close with them. And thankfully so, because they're absolutely wonderful people - and the wife is on the SAFF Board and coordinates the workshops, which means I managed to squeeze into all the workshops that had filled up before I sent in my registration. (More on those later.) She's also a knitter/spinner with too much fiber and she sent me home with a complimentary three pound garbage bag crammed with Border Leicester that she declared she was merely, "happy to have out of the house." When you have nine llamas to shear, and a flock of goats, I guess there's probably no shortage of fiber.

ANYWAY.

We drove north. We got hungry and reluctantly stopped for donuts and crappy gas station coffee. This made Travis cranky.

We then discovered we were three miles from Forsyth, Georgia, the home of Uncle Frank's. Uncle Frank (so named because his sister has ELEVEN children...and another on the way, we learned) runs one of those great old home restaurants with collard greens and rutabaga and fried chicken and homemade meatloaf and a hundred other buffet items, all homemade, all you can eat, for six bucks. And homemade apple cobbler. And sweet tea.


We left fat and happy - which is the only way Frank lets anyone leave.

I finished plenty of projects on the drive. I'll show those off in the next post...there's plenty of eye candy to go around in this one.

Immediately upon arriving, I thrust Mom's birthday gift into her hand, demanded that she open it, and threatened to club her over the head when she objected that it wasn't her birthday yet. (I remembered to snap a few hasty photos the morning we left.)




I'm relatively happy with how it worked out, and she thought it was lovely (and threatened to frame it rather than wear it.) We entered it into the Skein and Garment competition at SAFF, but it didn't win anything. I hadn't much expected it to - some of the stuff that was entered was pretty baffling.

I scored swag, bigtime. There was a lot of stuff there - more fiber than I could imagine in one place, man. Mom was volunteering on Friday and Saturday, and I was in classes most of those days too - we went back on Sunday to shop a bit and visit the critters.

I learned spinning first thing:


(The first, and not the last, kinda crappy blurry photo. The arena was not really photo-friendly. It cared for neither flash nor no-flash. Jerk.)

The class was great fun, and the instructor was just darling. She had a helper who cracked me up too - and thank God for the helper....no one went unattended.


The red arrow shows Julie, the instructor. The green is her helper. I have to toot a horn here...the helper (I can't remember her name, lousy me) declared almost immediately upon seeing me, "You're gonna be good at this. I can just tell." It must have been that slightly wild-eyed glint of impending hysteria, that sort of rabid hunger that we all get when someone presents us with yet another fiber-related option.


My first single! Okay, I wasn't fantastic right off the bat, but I dug it hard, and I wasn't terrible either. And I had a hard time concentrating in my next class because I wanted to go back to the wheel.


My next class had to do with dyeing a variegated yarn or fleece in one pot (note the instructor). That was actually a really cool trick, and we ended up with some really interesting results. (They had to dry, I didn't get photos yet - that'll be next post too.)


It was freakin' COLD out there, too....but we endured. Because there was fiber involved. The arrow you see points at Rahaa (who is just as tall as she seems to be.) She was a cool cat. And I felt that worth pointing out.

At one point in this class, some guy and his wife wandered up and asked a bunch of questions about what we were doing and got all up in our business - to the point that in order to get dye into the pot, I had to ask him to move. He was obnoxious as hell, but curious, and the instructor finally gently pointed out that we had actually PAID for the class, and he'd need to move along.

Speaking of men:


Look at all the spinning boys!!!! (I've kind of gotten arrow-happy with my Photoshop program...sorry - every once in a while I start playing with a new gadget. You'd never believe I have the thousand-dollar ultra-mega Photoshop version.....I have no idea how to use it. The ex was a software engineer....there's a lot of great stuff on here I can't use.)

This has nothing to do with anything, but it amused me:


I believe he was the husband of the shop owner, and he was modeling a shawl for some purpose. All I know is that this is what he looked like when I turned around, and I asked him if I could get a picture. Very patient soul - wish I'd bought something from them. (It was the Interlacements booth....no shortage of stuff I could have picked out.)

Here's where I blow your mind - I didn't buy a single commercially-spun skein of yarn. NOT ONE. As a matter of fact, I only purchased four skeins of yarn, and three were for an SP. All four handspun....everything else I bought was fiber. And I bought fiber from very nearly every animal there is. (We had to fold down the backseat, okay? It's crazy in here right now.)


This isn't all of it. This is just what I had on Saturday. There's more. I got a little bit of everything. Merino, Merino/Tencel, Corriedale, Brown Welsh, Border Leicester, Cotton, Angora, Cashmere/Silk, Merino/Angora/Silk, Yak, Camel, Llama, Mohair (prizewinner, that one), Alpaca, Cashmere (mmmmm).

But what to do with all that?


Meet SanDeE*. Julie the Spinning Instructor also happens to be Julie the Lendrum Dealer. So behold my Lendrum double-treadle. It's what I learned on....I've never sat at any other wheel, but I LOVE this one. (And there was a discount.)

(By the way, I'll give a skein of probably small and rather inconsistent handspun to the first person who can - WITHOUT the aid of Google, thank you - tell me why I named my wheel SanDeE*. No cheating - you just gotta know. Knitters aren't cheaters.)

When I wasn't at SAFF:


Welcome to my weekend. Each skein got a little better. I got a lot better quickly....I picked up drafting and spinning at the same time right away (because all that predrafting was a pain in the arse.)




The first skein (Border Leicester spun during class), the second skein (about 7 ozs of merino, 140 yards...heh), the third skein (the last ounce of merino, much less bulky).

I have more of that too. Later.

Travis wasn't bored out of his skull, though.


I signed him up for the Wood Spirit Carving class, and he loved it! He brought home a few more sticks with us. He also met another Travis in his class - what is it with knitters gathering up Travises? I don't know many men named Travis, but I do know of four Fiber Women with a Travis. Weird. But yeah, he had fun with his little carved guy:


And he spent plenty of QT with my dad, too. We also went out for a few dinners and saw Flags of Our Fathers, in case you think I just totally ignored my parents all weekend.

Okay, there are critters too, and my Natural Dyeing class (I learned that I definitely prefer natural dyes over acid dyes), but I've been going on longer than I'd intended...so I'll post those later also. We'll push back those FO knits and FO skeins until another day.

In Case You Thought I Was Kidding...

I finished plying up those singles. You know how there's bulky yarn, then there's super-bulky? I think I need a third category. I'm calling this "hella bulky", 100 yards per metric ton. It was fun to spin, and good stuff, but MAN did I make the singles too big.

Presenting my completed hot mess of a plied yarn:

To give you an idea of how huge this skein is, that's a REAL FULL-GROWN SHEEP! (Yeah, of course it's not....but still, it's a big skein.)

Okay, this next one is vaguely less embarassing:


About 100 yards spindled from Spritely Goods batt, maybe fingering weight? Laceweight in places? Purdy stuff to spin. Love it.

What's that? You want to see my handdyed yarn again? Skeined? Okay...if you insist:


Oh, and like I said, I did swatch it:


Yep. I love it.

Gratuitous lamb-n-handspun shot?


(Not a crazy beanie-baby lady....I just love lambs.)

A friend is having her birthday dinner tonight at Cheesecake Factory. I doubt she'll stumble on here between now and then....wanna see somethin'? She's a belly dancer, and they get all those awesome accessories, like armbands and jingly hip scarves.....and crazy hair falls with dreads:


There's all KINDS of crap in there....some leftover bits of silk, cashmere, Ozark Handspun, sari silk, Noro Blossom, Hanah silk ribbons, some roving I natted up and dyed with Kool-Aid....i-cords, twisted cords, braids, felted i-cords....I dig the way it all turned out. And it was a fun project - kind of like knitting, but with a punk twist.

'Kay, I'm done.

That Other Festival

Oh yeah? Oh yeah??? Well, I'm going to SAFF this weekend, Rhinebeckers, so NYAHHH!

(What? You've never even heard of SAFF? Well, that's just because you're not knitty enough! Okay?! It's a hundred times cooler than Rhinebeck, that's what it is! Yeah!! They have 47 square miles of fiber vendors, okay?? And they guarantee 800 HERDS of alpaca. That's right. 800 herds. Don't question it.)

Okay, so I lied - SAFF is comparatively small. But it's growing leaps and bounds every year. And there are classes there on spinning and dyeing, and I'll be taking a few of those. There are even some "entertain your husband" classes - Travis is taking a wood carving class (say goodbye to my banisters). And there will be fiber - although I think it's still primarily an animal-fiber festival and judging, so there's probably going to be a pretty heavy not-yet-yarn slant to it. Heaven for a newbie spinner with no boundaries. (Yes, I have every intention of picking up a wheel.)

Given the amount of cash I dropped on my last NC trip...well, I'm concerned. There wasn't even a fiber festival that time. We usually fly up there, but we're driving this time so that "how do we get all this crap home?" won't be a problem. I've no doubt Travis would barely blink if I came home Saturday afternoon with two sheep, a goat, an alpaca, and six Angora rabbits stuffed in the backseat.

The festival also has the distinction of being 15 minutes from my parents' house near Asheville, NC. I cannot WAIT to spend some time with them - I love them, I love their property, and I love the area they live in.

I did a bit of spindling this weekend, *finally* plying up some singles Vicki gave me during SP8. (Psst: I'm making the ugliest damned two-ply out of the prettiest damned roving...I would assume I'll get better at this. But it's sort of lovably ugly - even Travis said, "I kinda like the way it turned out." Or he just loves me a lot. Either way.) I also wrapped up half of a laceweight-ish single from Spritely Goods batt. (Which I had planned to spin two singles of and ply, but with only 100 yards off my first half of the fiber, I think I'll go with the singles...seems like I always end up with 100 yards or less, and I want a bigger project!)

I also knitted up a gauge swatch out of that yarn I dyed for my dad....I can't stop staring at it. Damn, it looks good. I know you want to see it, but don't worry - you'll be forced to endure many pictures. I'm playing with an idea for a pattern designed just for him, and I'm going to try making it work. If I fail, I'll just make the Boyfriend Socks or something equally manly.

(Um...I also might have hit Chez Cas and picked up a few things, like some Ozark Handspun yarn and silk top, some soy silk laceweight, etc....)

Alright, I gotta go sell a kidney so I'll have enough money for all the stuff I'll want to buy this weekend.

One Down....

The first of the Bells & Whistles Socks has been completed! I was home ill yesterday, so that gave me plenty of time to nap, catch up on the TiVo, and knit the foot.

I LOVE the pattern. It's clear, concise, and easy to knit. (If you can count to five.)

(Photos are just a little bit blurry - it was still early and I didn't have full light.)

Even with it being and almost knee-high sock with lace and cables, this thing flew off the needles. (The plain ol' stockinette foot helped.)


I'll have project details when they're both finished...but to sum up, Mondial Extrafine Merino, US size 2 needles for the ribbing and first pattern repeat, US size 1.5 for the rest of the leg and foot. Started Saturday night (the 14th) and finished last night (the 19th).

I absolutely LOVE how the pattern extends down onto the heel flap. I think it's a great detail.


(Don't mind the bathrobe - it's rather difficult to get a decent photo of one's own heel.)

And this pattern also features my new favorite toe decrease. Even if this sock is a little small for me (Mom has smaller, narrow feet - I have boats), the toe is perfect....I love how it fits the shape of my toes. (Socks that decrease straight up both sides to a point mush my toesies together...no fun.)


Very highly recommended pattern and yarn. (If only I had Squish-o-Vision - this yarn is so cushy!!) I'm still baffled at how QUICK this knit was. (Maybe it's just because I've been working on one Eleanora sock since May.) Oh, and the Mondial is 175m, and I had maybe 10m left over at the end - so any standard sock yarn should work just fine.

I also spent a bit of time yesterday in the kitchen with Kool-Aid:


I had intended to dye up some nice deep navy blue sock yarn for Dad's Christmas socks. Then I realized that there would really be no way to dye navy blue from Kool-Aid without it having a strongly purple slant. I could get close....but not what I wanted. So I just started playing, once again falling back on the ol' reliable colors befitting a military man. I started with two skeins of Koigu in a sort of oatmeal color, and layered and splashed and soaked and just kind of generally slap-dashed it with Tamarind, Changin' Cherry, Watermelon Kiwi, Switchin' Secret, and Grape. Eventually (after an over-dye when the first attempt came out a bit too purple), this is what I came up with. I love it.



I'm sort of surprised and pleased with myself that I managed to make a nice neutral Army-Guy skein out of Kool-Aid. Just think of what I could be capable of with real acid dyes!

Okay, that's all - now go! Knit!

Just So's You Know...

The surprises are up on Knitty. (In case you've signed up for the mailing list but never get any emails, like me.)

I subscribed to Interweave, finally.

A new Anticraft issue is up.

I was out sick today. There was much socking and a bit of Kool-Aiding. Photos to come.....

"One...Two...Five!" "Three, Sir!" "Three!!"

Remember that scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail? That was me last night.

Travis hit the sack around 11:00. I stayed up to knit two last rounds, as I had determined I NEEDED to finish the cuff/leg of my first Bells & Whistle sock last night, since I hadn't gotten much done on them. (You know, turns out teleworking isn't really conducive to knitting all day after all. Damn. Whatever, it's still conducive to working all day without pants.)

Ten minutes, tops - right? Yeah. At 1:30 A.M., I finally headed upstairs with those two rounds complete.

Jeeezus.

I had finished Chart A, and only had the first two rounds of Chart B. I knit the first round of Chart B. I examined four little lost leftover stitches still hanging on my needle. I tinked. I counted...not enough stitches, bad tinking. I tinked another row...enough stitches. I knit back around to start Chart B. I examined the charts. Chart A, ends with 68 stitches. (Count....good.) After Round 1 of Chart B, I should have 64 stitches. Mmmkay. Chart B's Round 1 operates on 64 stitches, including two 2/2 cables. Wait....where were the decreases, then?!

Review chart. Count live stitches. Count charted stitches. Squirm around on couch. Count stitches. Stare at pattern. Look at Interweave website for errata. None. Google for errata. No one's knitting these yet. Google for designer's name, find blog, check blog for errata notice - nope. Stare at chart some more. Email Interweave. (You annoyed yet? Me too.) Stare at chart. Find a place to squeeze in some decreases, knit the round. Realize this is causing there to be too few stitches now. Try to figure out where to add in increases. Consider taking up origami instead. Realize it's 1:11 a.m. Sigh loudly. Pray Travis doesn't wake up and come downstairs to declare me officially insane. Think hard about giving in and going to bed. Flatly refuse.

Glance back at chart and suddenly realize, as if God Himself had highlighted it - out of sheer frustration that one of His own couldn't FREAKING COUNT - that the two cables in the chart are each 3/2 crosses, not 2/2 crosses. Work that chart twice....hey, there's those four stitches I'm missing.

Hang head. Email Interweave again apologizing and praising their perfect pattern. Tink and knit properly. Shove damned sock in bag and tell it to think about what it did.

I think one of the healthy things about knitting for me is that I have to recognize that I can't do things perfectly all the time. And that NO ONE does. No knitter has managed to avoid facing some dumb mistake or oversight. As a matter of fact, the BETTER we get, seems the MORE likely we are to make mistakes. We don't have to agonize over every step of the process, and we stop all that beginner stuff: scrutinizing patterns, reading them over and over, looking stuff up, writing notes to ourselves - it becomes very "Yeah, sure, got it - no problemo" and we just dash right in headlong. We get really good at picking up those gusset stitches and grafting the toe, but we forget to turn the heel or skip twelve rounds of decreases. I'm waiting for the dreaded "At the same time," error that the Harlot is so fond of. It's bound to happen someday.

But not today. Bring on the 3/2 cross, bitches. I'm ready for you now.

Why Do You Rock So Hard?*

Seriously. Dude? Seriously.

Three boxes on a Monday. THREE! MONDAY!! (Psst: Can you spot the cat? Introducing Indiana!)


First up, the stuff I paid for - all acquisitions from a Destash seller. The first six skeins from left to right are her own handspun (I love handspun). There's also a Habu Silk Kusa (the teeny green ball with great yardage); the second from right is some handpainted School Products cashmere (40) silk (60); the far right is Lorna's Shepherd Sock in Black Purl.


Next! Goodies! Golden goodies!


I got distracted momentarily by the bubble wrap.


My Tea Swap treats! Valerie (who is still freakin' awesome, in case you were wondering) provided loads of hard-to-find and gourmet goodies. Having tasted pretty much everything, I can say it's all fabulous. Wanna hear the best part? The yummy strawberry & pepper dark chocolate (no, you read that right) is delicious, and Travis doesn't like it. (Hallelujah! I can keep it all for myself without feeling totally greedy and selfish!) There's also more tea (more tea!!), a rose black tea - there are whole little rosebuds in there! - and a Mate Latte, which smells delicious, a lot like something Travis would love. Travis came home to something like this:


Then I let him smell the Mate Latte. And it got ugly.


But WAIT! There's MORE!!!


My Secret Pal has struck....ALREADY!!!! She is freakin' awesome too - get this, she sent me an email on Friday to let me know that Bono was going to be on Larry King! (So thoughtful....and yet I still ran late for call time at the theatre and totally forgot to set the TiVo - boo!) She burned me a Tori Amos MP3 CD (we both love us some Tori Amos) and the latest Pete Yorn disc, both of which I will very much enjoy jamming to during my telecommuting day tomorrow! There's food (peanut butter cups, taco soup mix, chipotle chili rub, and a big ol' bag of vanilla base and recipes for all the goodies I can make with it - I love that she provided starter course, main course, and two desserts - 'atta girl.) There's notecards, pens, and a notepad, which all coordinate with the new decor in my "office" (a special term I like to use for the now-yarnless tiny corner of my fiber room necessitated by the teleworking arrangement). There's the Harmony Stitch Guide (Volume 2) - I LOVE stitch guides because I love knitting dishcloths, scarves, and socks from off-the-cuff patterns I generate with the help of a stitch dictionary. This one's got some GREAT stuff, and tons of cables (I want to make a butch man-scarf for Travis for Christmas, and I want something with beefy cables.)

And there's the yarn.


I think I'm reading the label right - Hub City Knits (I think?), a sock yarn with 65% superwash wool and 35% silk. Luxuuuuuuryyyyyy! The colors are so perfect for fall, and this yarn just jumped to the tippy-top of my must-knit list. (For myself - damn this holiday season!) Maybe I can sneak in a few rounds here and there..... (It doesn't hurt that the label has a picture of a teeny perfect little McLambykins...I'm a sucker for lambs.)

I would have taken more silly photos of me playing with all my swag, but Travis got home from work and I didn't have a need to entertain myself with the camera anymore. (When I'm alone with my camera and some props, I tend to take all sorts of ridiculous photos. As you've seen many times in the past...Sock Hat Lady, Crazy Yarn Lady, and so on.)

Pals, you have made my WEEK! Already! And it's only Monday! The rest of the week oughta be smooth sailing! Smooth, high-calorie sailing. Rock.

*Footnote, Aija-style: A few years ago, I got to be a part of a fantastic show, Noises Off, here in the area. It's a spectacularly funny play about a play, and my costar Josh and I played a couple in the play-play - him a well-meaning bumbling oaf who never finished a sentence, me a ditzy blonde incapable of dealing with curveballs. Our chemistry worked and the show was a blast - every time we came offstage trailed by uproarious laughter, Josh would turn to me and ask, "Why do we rock so hard?" which has since become part of my regular vocabulary. The show was a smash success with a sold-out run and huge reviews...we liked to assume it was totally because of us. The entire cast was spectacular, though I've no doubt Josh's comedic timing was responsible for a lot of our energy.....but I'm going to pretend that the fact that I was a size four at the time and spent 2/3 of the show in flashy lingerie might have had something to do with it.

It's Not About Me....

(There are so few times anyone will ever actually hear me saying that...)

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Time for me to officially, definitely put down my self-knitting (including Razor and the Tilli Tomas project) and dedicate myself strictly to gift knitting. (Wonderful, my ass....I want to keep all this stuff for myself!)

I'm still in progress on my Eleanora. Still. (Why am I starting to think it'll be like, an entire year before I finish these?)

It's not that I don't love them - Oh God do I - but the yarn is so tiny, and the needles are so tiny, and there are so very many stitches, and the whole sock is k-p-k-p-k-p....oh, all the yarn movement! I was terrified if I focus solely on them, I wouldn't get anything else finished...


I started the Bells & Whistles Socks from the Holiday Interweave. I love this pattern too, and I especially love the yarn. My LYS is carrying a whole diddleload of new yarns, and this is one of them - Mondial Extrafine. It's a 100% Merino, non-superwash, and so ridiculously soft and squishy. These will be for Mom, who doesn't have to worry about non-superwash socks felting on her feet like we do down here. (Lucky.) Great knit - lots of interest, well-written, quick - I just started it last night and have made good progress without spending a tremendous amount of time on it.

Tuesday begins my once-weekly telecommuting option. I get to skip the toll-laden hourlong drive! I get to work in my jammies! I get to go to "work" with no makeup on!! I get to work the same eight hour day, but with pets and a comfy armchair.

Of course, I will NOT BE KNITTING because that would just be WRONG. (Imagine it spoken too loudly in no one's particular direction, in that sort of "Of course I'll totally be finding a way to work and knit at the same time because I know I'm capable of it, even if no one at the office believes that and thus I have not yet been given an opportunity to prove myself.")

Lastly....


Awww.

Meet My Fierce Protector

Last night after ballroom dance (we learned to waltz!), we sat down for tea. But I couldn't use our cruddy ol' plain mugs to break in the Adagio and the spiffy new (deceptive) teapot (which holds five cups of tea in an apparent bottomless chamber).

So I had to break out the china AND the silver for the first time in.....in.....you know, this might have been the first time since I acquired it from my mom.

I have no knits (why have I not had enough knitting time?) so I'm providing another form of interesting visual.

When we got home from ballroom, I noticed something about Travis. Whenever we go do something that isn't typically manly, he has a "Butch It Up" outfit - specifically, his Bruise Brothers Boxing School t-shirt. He's not a guy who has a need to look super-macho, but it's just something he seems to do. Witness:

We have Exhibit A:


Travis at Sip & Knit, learning how to knit, sitting in front of a wall of baby yarn. Pastel Butch.

Exhibit B:


Travis last night after ballroom dance. Nametag Butch.

Finally, Exhibit C:

Midol Butch. Tampon shopping requires extra butch, hence the Dallas Cowboys hat. (Travis doesn't even watch football. That's my hat. Minus four butch-points.)

(Seriously, waltzing, knitting, tampons....would you even BELIEVE me at this point if I told you he's a motocross-riding auto mechanic?)

(Okay. I admit it. That last photo was staged. But he did wear that to the grocery store, so he was asking for it.)

(I'm sorry. I'll come up with something knit soon - I did block Swallowtail, so I will get those posted one of these days soon.)

Whaaaaaaat?!

AWESOME.

I got a package from my KTS2 swap pal! I have been so blessed with wonderful swap pals who seem to intuitively know exactly what I'd like and what I'm dying to try, and I am once again stunned!

My pal is Valerie, who - oddly enough - read my blog even before she was assigned to me! (I'm no Grumperina, so that one came as a serious shock.)

This is my first of two boxes. (That was the second serious shock, met with an out-loud "No shit?!" This was more than I expected already!!)

I opened it thinking I was getting a package from a Destasher. But no....surprise!


Travis immediately spotted something he wanted, and I had to slap him away and take the box elsewhere. But not before he managed to snatch something away....


When he goes all crazy and wall-eyed like this, I know I'm losing...


The goods! (You may make out a few curious souls here - I know it seems like you always see the same two pets - they're the nosy ones. Rooster's easy to spot...Bitty's the blurry brown smudge on the right. Told you she never stops moving.)


Hee hee! Okay, we got Debbie Bliss Cotton/Angora in black (that's what Travis tried to steal away.) The dilemma begins...a tank for me? A hat and scarf set for Travis? A couple of sweaters for the twin boys his cousin is pregnant with? It's sooo soft...sooo very soft. And, oddly, she picked it up in one of my favorite places in the world - Bainbridge Island, Seattle area. (Psst: see the blur just to the left and above the yarn? Bitty again.) Then there's the Lipton - only it's from Australia, where they apparently have awesome badass Lipton that's way better than our Lipton. Caramel Lipton? COOKIES & CREME Lipton? Are you kidding? (And with milk and sugar, perfect! I won't need dessert! I mean, I'll probably still eat dessert - let's not get stupid here - but I won't NEED it.)


I wanted to try Adagio tea SO BADLY. I've spent so much time on their website trying to decide what to order. Did I ever mention that? No. (See, that's where my luck kicks in....Valerie just knew.) Chocolate, cinnamon, darjeeling, ceylon, and almond. All flavors I will love, all great with milk and sugar (oh, she's good.) But then - THEN! - there's my Adagio teapot! I don't have a service-worthy teapot - just the ol' metal one that goes on the stove. I've been wanting a presentable teapot, and this one's perfect, especially since there's just the two of us (Travis drinks tea too, on occasion). And it's a steeping pot - there's a strainer thing that pops right in the top. I LOVE it!! And all my straining implements seem to end up at work somehow or another, so I can never seem to find anything to strain my tea at home - this is way too nice to take to the office.

Thank you SO MUCH, Valerie! I'm so lucky!!!

Rooster feels lucky too, by the way:


Yarn or the box? Yarn or the box? Such decisions.....


Awwww, what a well-trained boy!

(Okay, gotta go slam a cup of tea quick - Travis and I start our ballroom dancing lessons tonight! Dancing with the Stars finally got the better of me!)

Random Stuff About Me - Obeying, Part 1

My SP hostess is awesome - she hosts these contests, but they're also great "get to know your pal" opportunities - so here's mine, and hopefully my pal will be posting hers too! A few of my favorite things.....

(Nothing's ever easy with me....so I bet I can't keep the answers short!!)

Actor: Ian McKellen is the first one to come to mind. I'll see anything with him in it - I just think he's stone cold brilliant. There are a lot of other actors I enjoy for pure entertainment value, too.

Actress: Hilary Swank, probably. I admire that she takes roles outside the Hollywood girl standard.

Animal: A liger. Bred for its skills in magic. (Heh.) I always wanted a hedgehog. And I liked stuffed lambs as a kid.

Band: U2. (Bunches more, but that's the top.)

Beverage: Hot tea, or sweet iced tea. (Ahh, the south.) And I love bubble tea. Yeah, pretty much anything with the word "tea" in it.

Book: Fast Food Nation, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, anything by David Sedaris (I'm seeing him this weekend!), and especially anything by Kurt Vonnegut.

Bubble Bath: You know, it's a great concept, and I love having candles and bubble bath on hand, but I hardly ever actually take any. Sometimes when I'm really bummed, Travis will draw me a lavender-scented bath.

Candy: Unusual stuff. I love chocolates with strange flavorings - wasabi, rose, lavender, hot pepper, stuff like that.

Color: For what? Clothing, vehicles, residences, yarn? I love so many colors - I wear a lot of blues/greens/blacks/browns. I love bright colors though - not neon, just vibrant. And my house is decorated in neutrals with deep bright accent colors - blood reds, cobalt blues...

Flower: Here again...oodles. I love orchids, lily of the valley, calla lilies, peonies, hydrangea, dahlias...

Food: Thai or Mexican or Italian or sushi. Probably like Thai the most though. I LOVE spicy food.

Lip Balm: I carry Burt's Bees with me everywhere, and I have one in my desk at work, too. And there's a rose salve by my bedside, which I put on at night. And in the winter, I put Mentholatum on my lips before bed - I find it helps prevent chapping.

Lotion: If I ever run out of lotion, it means the world has no more lotion in it. Oddly, I hardly ever use it. But there's lotion EVERYWHERE. I don't have a favorite, although I seem to favor citrus and minty scents.

Movie: Don't get me started. I have dozens. Mary Poppins, anything by Kevin Smith, Shaun of the Dead, Tim Burton flicks (particularly the animated ones), Wallace & Gromit, Million Dollar Baby, Clue, Monty Python anything, Princess Bride, Fight Club, Office Space, Apt Pupil...oh, I give up.

Song: There are tens of thousands of songs on my iPod. They're all my children...I couldn't just pick one. (Travis and I have about 18 songs to choose from if we get married - we don't have just "our song", we have an entire CD.)

TV Show: You're killin' me. Boston Legal, Nip/Tuck, Scrubs, My Name Is Earl, The Office (US - I keep trying the UK version and I just can't get into it), Heroes, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, The Simpsons, Dancing with the Stars, Project Runway, America's Next Top Model (don't you judge me), Lost...but I really do try to avoid watching too much TV!!! I just keep getting hooked on stuff.

Vacation Spot: There are so many places I love going. Asheville, NC; Seattle; Taos, NM; NYC; Victoria, BC....I love traveling, and I love going to new places and trying new things.

Using My Big-Girl Colors

I seem to be fixated. I'll let you see if you can figure it out...

The wee beginnings of a project from the Tracey Ullman/Mel Clark book Knit 2 Together, in Tilli Tomas Ruby Wine.


The Razor Cami in SWTC Bamboo. (Yep, still working on that one.)


Eleanora socks in Lisa Souza Sock! Merino, St. Valentine's. (Yes, this is the same sock I started in May. Shut up.) Beautiful pattern, no? Only single sock pattern I've ever purchased. I loved it that much.

Finally, it was time to pretend we might actually STAY in this residence for a while. See, in the last year, I've sold my house, moved out of that into a rented house waaay in the middle of nowhere, moved out of that and into another rented house with Travis, and moved out of that and into a home we purchased together....that's three moves of everything I own in a year - two of those moves also involving everything he owns...which, thankfully, wasn't much. So I'd grown accustomed to a cardboard-box-lifestyle, and was finding myself not caring that we have a house that, on the outside, looks like it should be owned by successful young professionals - and on the inside appears to be inhabited by squatting hobos.

You may have been horrified by a recently posted photograph of our bedroom. (If you don't recall, click the link - it makes the before and after so much more effective. I would post it again, but I suddenly realized that it's sort of embarassing.)

Time to move up and be grownups!


Our "new" bedroom makes me feel rich....luxe fabrics and colors, high thread count sheets and duvet, down comforter, feather pillows with silk cases....all Target! God I love Target. AND I managed to decorate in my colors, yet it meets the approval of the man who sleeps here too.

Yeah....I think I'm feeling saucy, sexy, sassy....very red indeed.

Eye Candy Friday

Ugh, Blogger is kinda apeshit today.

I can't seem to get my head wrapped around any of the projects I want. I cast on for one and completed 24 stitches of the first row before I went all "Hey, look, a chicken!" and wandered off on it. Then there's the sock. And the blocking that needs to happen on Mom's shawl. And then there's the project I started last night, a truly experimental mess that could end up really fun - it's a birthday gift for a friend who, however unlikely it may be, could wander on here....so it has to wait.

Non-traditional eye candy....my kids, and then a tale.

I love how Rooster gets all jazzed every time I open the blinds.


I love how Bitty's all blurred (cause she CANNOT stay still) and Rooster's sniffing her paw like, "Um, excuse me, you're not putting DIRTY paws up on MY windowsill, are you?!"

Last night I had dinner with a girlfriend at a little Vietnamese noodle place. Right before we left, the lady seated directly behind me ordered dinner - only she didn't want the noodles her order came with. She wanted the "hearty" noodle. If that didn't crack me up enough - the server wasn't entirely sure what noodle to which she was referring. So she had the server - and I swear to God I am not making this up - go into the kitchen and BRING HER A NOODLE.

This was TORTURE for someone like me. Seriously. I was shaking-crying-stomach-hurting (mostly-silent) laughing. I almost peed.

You think she knew I was laughing at her?

Live, From Spoiled-Rotten Central!

Okay, there's a whole lot of drool-worthy fibers in this post. Don't say I didn't warn you.

First, I weighed my shawl and teensy scrap of leftover yarn to see if the skein had been short (then I'd be able to go back to Handmaiden and ask for a kickback). I couldn't figure out how I could have run out of yarn.

In the interest of exonerating Handmaiden and Fleece Artist:

You win, Handmaiden. I suck.

Next! Here is the latest - so yummmmy......


Click either for detailed view.
Project Stats:

Pattern: Luxe Neckwarmer from Knit 2 Together
Yarn: Handmaiden Cashmere 8-Ply (I'm on a Handmaiden roll!)
Needles: Size 9 Addi Turbo circs
Started: October 2 (just the cast-on and a couple of rounds)
Finished: October 3 (This could easily be a night-of-TV knit.)
Changes/Thoughts: Just knitted til I ran out of yarn. Even if it did take me eons to do, I loved the cable cast-on. I don't use that one much - I usually do the long-tail 'cause it's quick, even though it's not the best choice. Great quickie pattern - not sure how useful it'll be in Florida, but it's the perfect way to use a precious skein with limited yardage (80m).

In case the Sea Silk shawl and the cashmere neck warmer doesn't make me look fiber-snobby enough (and I assure you it's normally much cheaper around here):


Check out what Alyson found in her post office box today, baby. There you have four skeins of Tilli Tomas in Ruby Wine from Sarah's (there's a pattern in Knit 2 Together I've already earmarked for this yarn). And of course, because I'm hooked, more Handmaiden Sea Silk - in Ocean and Autumn - from Colorsong Yarns. I've spent the last fifteen minutes just dragging all this stuff across my face. (And sniffing. I admit it - I'm a sniffer.)

If that's not enough, Sarah sent along a color card or two. Or eight. Lambs, merinos, silks, cashmeres, silk/wool blends, silk/cashmere blends...


This is what we call "enabling," boys and girls. Can you say that? E-N-A-B-L-I-N-G.

Ugh....I'm off to cut up my debit cards and cancel my Paypal account before it's too late.

FO, FO, I Have An FO!!!

But it's not the FO I'd planned on...that'll be tomorrow's post.

When we last saw our hero....

Shortly after this photo cuts off, so does the yarn for the bind-off. But it's lookin' pretty good up to there, eh?


I love those nupps! (And they weren't nearly as difficult as I was expecting - just a p5tog, not so bad after all!)


Look at me! I'm happy! I'm binding off, without buying another skein of yarn! Aija clued me in to the ol' crochet cast-off. Um...duhr! You'd think it might have occurred to me at some point...but nope! Thank goodness for her!


Okay, I don't have the same flexibility in the edges, but I think it'll block out pointy enough. And if it doesn't....well, I hate to be like this but.....it ain't me who's gonna be wearing it!! (I think it's gorgeous either way.)


(The color's off in the above photo, but the pattern definition is good.)

Project Details
Yarn: Handmaiden Sea Silk in Capri
Pattern: Swallowtail Shawl from Fall '06 Interweave Knits
Needles: Size 6 Susanne's Ebony circ
Start: September 10
Finish: October 3 (officially)
Changes: Due to the yarn shortage, I removed the last two rows of the lace edging, then changed the bind-off and did the crochet cast-off instead. (And yes, I do plan to block the thing, I just figure it might be a while, so I wanted to post the stats before I forget them.)

Thoughts on the pattern - uh, LOVED IT! If there weren't 47 other things I was planning to knit in the next month, I'd love to knit it again.

Finally: this cracks me up. 'Tis the season for my favorite kind of ice cream, which I can't find any time other than Christmas...and turns out that I've been eating it all wrong. See the serving suggestion:


Get that? Alright, I gotta go - time to knit a scarf for my ice cream.

Oh! Hello!

(See, you have to picture me walking by a camera like I totally didn't know it was there, then stopping suddenly as if I'd just seen an old friend. I love when they do that in film. It's hammy - and I LOVE hammy. You should know me. I am QUEEN of Ham. As you can clearly see.)

So yeah....I'm just electing to pretend my Swallowtail never existed right now. I let my mom know she might not have the shawl when I had hoped. She may have it in time for her birthday, but I'll have to mail it. (The AGONY of making something breathtaking and not getting to see the look on the recipient's face. Boo!)

I've emailed the person from whom I obtained my skein. In my perfect fantasy world, she bought five skeins, used three-and-a-half, sold the whole leftover fifth to me, and still has 200 yards just lying around. (Please don't spoil my sunny optimism. It is so rare...) And Nancy from Colorsong made lovely offers to ship what yarn I can scrap together back to Handmaiden, where they will dye-match it to create another skein for me. Which is what I'll do if all else fails...but for now I'm scrambling around looking for scraps. However, I was so steadfastly impressed with Nancy and how lovely and sympathetic she was, I immediately purchased two more skeins of Sea Silk from her. (Autumn and Ocean, if you're wondering.)

I picked up Knit 2 Together on Sunday. I've already started a project from it, and have plans for another. There's not as much exposition as I'd expected (which was somewhat disappointing, since Tracey Ullman is so awesome,) but there are quite a number of really charming and classy (and a few silly!) patterns. Worth a look.

I'm back on my Eleanora socks (finally!) They're a Christmas present, so I have to get them done. It's about that time - gotta start focusing on others.

It was killing me to not have an FO in so long, though, so I should have a little scrappy something to show you tonight. (And I guess I could go ahead and take photos of Swallowtail in her current state. She's being so dignified about this whole thing, and she deserves a reward.)

Blink. Blink Blink.

I finished the shawl tonight.

Sort of.

I cropped out the last two rows of the peaked edging chart. I did the final two rows, and I started binding off.

I ran out of yarn.

I RAN OUT OF YARN.

I could weep. I didn't run out of yarn and have a gauge swatch to rip back. I didn't run out of yarn I could trot down to the LYS and pick up for seven bucks.

I ran out of a backordered-for-nine-weeks, $35-for-475-yards-and-you-only-need-nine-yards-to-finish yarn. I don't NEED 466 yards of this stuff lying around. I've already worked this colorway! Time to move on! And I had planned to enter this shawl in a show. (Just for fun.) Then give it to my mother for her birthday. (I've emailed Colorsong in the hopes that they'll be getting some in sooner. Or would be willing to throw me a bit of Capri they might have stashed, in exchange for an order - I want tons more of this yarn....but not in Capri!!!)

And if I'd known I was going to run out of yarn anyway, I wouldn't have shortchanged the pattern! This should have worked! Vanessa knit hers on larger needles and still had a ton of the stuff left over!! What...???

Please, does ANYONE have a clump of Sea Silk in the Capri colorway lying around?

I think I'm going to throw myself onto my needles now.