Now With Touch-O-Vision!

Oh, how I wish I could let you all touch the batt. Or the Malabrigo. Or whatever I am chirping about next week. How 'bout this - email me with an address, I'll mail you some samples, anytime. Really. If I can't con people into spending as much money as I do by way of my bloggy enabling, I am willing to go to all the effort of stamping an envelope to enable. :-) (I'm so deliciously evil.)

Also, if you're interested, I did a bit of digging and discovered that Malabrigo got its start as the (inexpensive) worsted weight on Handpainted Yarn. They no longer have the worsted weight on their site (they probably figured out it was worth far more than they were charging for it) but they do have tons of other wonderful yarns and, more importantly, rovings - all in beautiful colours and wonderful prices. I haven't ordered anything from them yet, but I'll report back if when I do.

Oh, and I may have placed a rather significant order with Pure Knits...again. Perfect Green Malabrigo aran sweater, here I come.

So!! I finished spinning the first half of my Pink Guava batt, and I have a tiny little handspun skein - it's by no means perfect, and I'll need to work on keeping my fiber output and twist more even, but I'm really proud of it anyway.



And I got a special delivery today!!



I know everybody says it, but I really do have the best pal ever! Two skeins of a beautiful tweedy brick-coloured Misti baby alpaca (the way to my heart!), some candies (the perfect size for stuffing into my notions bag) and chocolate mints (I LOVE chocolate mints) and magnets and some absolutely deliciously scented hand balm (just for knitters!) that smells like it was mixed up just for me and disappeared into my knitting bag immediately. And lookit - she included toys for the kiddies too!



Brodie was really excited about sharing this toy, as you can see. I took this picture 20 minutes ago, and he's still lying in bed, tearing the hell out of it.

Oh, and I might have finished that Malabrigo scarf and started another Malabrigo project....oops.....

New Favourite!!!

I LOVE PURE KNITS!!

From the moment I opened the box and saw all that delicious ribbon and tissue paper, I knew it was love.



I love brown and pink - probably my favourite colour comination - and isn't it wonderful how Yahaira ties up each bag with that beautiful ribbon?



(Both batts have firestar added - you can really make out that beautiful firestar in the green batt if you pull up the larger picture - just click to see larger version.) And there was a handwritten note (always a wonderful touch) and samples - the way to my heart. Note to self - order some Fable Handknit baby alpaca. (It was like buttah, I tell you.)

So how did I spend the evening? By turning my Spritely Goods batt into (kinda) yarn.



I'll be honest, I hated spindling at first. But I was watching the Spelling Bee National Finals on ABC (CHICKS ROCK!), and that propelled me forward. And if all those kids can spell all those difficult words, I can spin yarn. And I came to love it. So much so that my hands had to let me know:



And by the time I was done for the evening...



Not bad. Oh, and I found the "Don't Suck" button on my camera - finally I can take photos with decent definition (but I chose not to use the flash, so it's a bit blurry). None of these pictures shows the true colours quite right - it's a sort of bright salmon and orange, with that delicious sparkly Firestar added. When I touch the batt, I'm not sure I'm touching anything, that's how airy and light and soft it is.



Oh, and there's more. Wait for it...

Wait...

Wait...

As of today...Pure Knits carries MALABRIGO!!! AND for $11, which is $1.00 less than the usual MSRP. That's right...and I hate to call you out personally, but Rene, I think it's time. All the planets have aligned to provide you with one wonderful place to get started spinning and Malabrigo-ing. (And did I mention the cashmere sock yarn???)

I Love Non-Knitters

Are you ready to be impressed? Since starting my Malabrigo scarf on Tuesday, I've completed 27 inches. My Odessa hat that I started on Friday night was finished on Monday morning.

Are you in awe and stunned by my awesome knitterly power? No. Of course you're not. The Odessa is probably a three-hour project, and the scarf should take maybe four hours (hey, there's a pattern involved, and lots of purling). But when I mentioned at lunch on Tuesday that I loved the hat I made over the weekend (Susan had seen the photo), coworkers were STUNNED that I could finish a whole hat in a mere weekend. Travis gazed in awe at my measly 27 inches and goggled at my ability to complete so much so quickly. (I think my slowness has to do with the fact that I can never just sit down and clickety-clack away...I watch TV, I wander down to the kitchen, I pick up a book...I love knitting, but I love my crappy attention span more, I guess. I hate that...I wish I could just buckle down.)

But non-knitters make me feel accomplished, usually just in time to save me from getting discouraged.

My #1 non-knitter Travis picked me up a few belated birthday books at Borders last night. (And he didn't have to tolerate any poking and prodding from me whatsoever...right?)



Of course, I've been wanting this one since the day it was released. Love it already. Funny, clever, witty, fun to read....who cares if I never make a single thing in it (I will) - the writing alone is worth it.

Then there was the book that I'd leafed through once before, a while ago, and decided didn't suit me at all. A more mature knitter now (four months later and, hopefully, beyond garter-stitch scarves for a while), I fell in LOVE with it.



My first project? The fingerless gloves that call for one skein of Manos del Uruguay Malabrigo wool! Perfecto! (Laced up with a bit of silk ribbon....dreamy.)

My second project (well, depending on how long it takes to gather the materials) will be the Bridgetown T-Shirt Rug. T-Shirt yarn! Gather up oodles of t-shirts, cut them into spirals that equal one giant 1/2" wide bit of yarn, and start gartering! (So freaking simple and clever...I wish I'd thought of it first and written a damned book.) I want it to be special, so when I have my housewarming party, I'm going to ask all my guests to bring me one of their old t-shirts. That way, I'll have a rug for my knitting room that reminds me of everyone I love. Awwww.

Who Needs Teddy Bears?

(Warning - I have the TV on and a heightened attention span problem...expect a few disjointed ramblings.)

I got a package in the mail today, which happened to contain yarn I purchased from Destash and promptly forgot all about.

Malabrigo. Colours so rich and/or vibrant I want to swim in them, yarn so soft I want to sleep with it. (No, no...in a cuddly way, thank you.) The comparison would be to Manos (or maybe Rio de la Plata), only infinitely softer. Better still, 215 yard skein for 5 BUCKS. (Er, Destash price. Retail is $12, I think.) It knits up like $5 cashmere. No, $5 cashmere would probably be pure crap. It knits up like not-$5 cashmere.

I was so anxious about the stuff I couldn't wait. I actually couldn't even be bothered to come up with a decent one-skein project for it - I just started whipping up a skinny scarf in a simple lace pattern from the summer Interweave.

(Side note: I just now caught the "Damian...Look at me, Damian....It's all for you" nanny sequence preview for The Omen. If that movie wasn't freaky enough the first time...and then there's the release date...yeesh.)

Anyway, back to things less creepy:



The colors aren't showing quite right, but they're close. The fact that I photographed it in poor light on a green blanket doesn't help...it's dusty pinks and smoky lavender colors, sort of a sophisticated version of pastel. I LOVE this skein - even the colours are similar to a cashmere (which is WAY not $5) that I've been eyeing at my LYS. I was so sure I'd love this stuff that I bought both skeins the seller had - the other is crazy magenta and hot pinks, and I even love that. (I also love my Lantern Moon needles, which are super pointy, a lovely thing for size 11 wooden needles to be. Even if they are slippery as Ken Lay.)



My camera afforded a rare moment of stitch clarity. Figured it was worth sharing.

(Does the world need another Fast and Furious movie? I remain of the belief we didn't need the first two. This is why I avoid commercials...I see too many things advertised that distress me.)

I'm too upset about Hollywood sequels right now...I can't go on. Back to my lovely, lovely Malabrigo!

Odessa On The Town

Odessa took her first journey today, and we celebrated her birthday (a day after mine...she was a late arrival.)

Odessa went to the final day of the Fringe, seeing the Blue Venue Patron's Pick, the hilariously funny and clever Mark Baratelli's Improv Cabaret. (It was Odessa's first time seeing the show, but my third - I LOVED the guy.)



Odessa wishes I'd fixed my hair before this photo, and she felt I was trying to make her look bad.

Odessa was photographed with my Travis, with whom she flirted mercilessly all day. Trollop.



Odessa explored the limits of bad taste on a furniture shopping excursion. (Excuse the fuzz - I had to turn the flash off in order to not arouse the suspicion of disinterested salespersons.)



(It's worth clicking on for a closer look...everything is covered in faux marble cherubs. If this is your thing, I apologize...but if this is your thing, MAN you're into some tacky shit.)

Odessa enjoyed a birthday lunch (and my own belated birthday meal, as we chose to celebrate last night with a group of friends rather than just the two of us as previously planned) at the Cheesecake Factory, where she was treated to a lovely surprise (which led to Travis being dispatched back to the car to fetch the camera before the whole thing went up in flames):



(I love the chocolate balloons on the left side of the plate.)

Beautiful as it was, it met a tragic demise:



Odessa and I pleaded to be allowed a few bites, but the reaction was rather hostile and unaccomodating:



I'm asking you to believe that I didn't eat about 2/3 of this thing before allowing Travis in on it. Please? (See Also: complaints of "inexplicable and sudden" weight gain.)