Flashing my Stash

The knitting secret pal swap I'm participating in for the next few months asked us to post pictures of our yarn stashes this past week. Since I'd already gone through the work of pulling it all together for ElJay, I thought I'd post it over here. Compared to a lot of the knitters in the swap, I have a lot of yarn. Im guessing compared to some of you, maybe not so much.

I realized as I was doing this, that I have a LOT of yarn. A LOT. And having my husband watching while I was doing this, now HE knows just how much I have, too. I think I'll need to lay off the yarn buying for a while. Heh. I'm okay with that - it's gotten to the point where I almost feel overwhelmed by the stash - there's just too much of it that I love and want to work with to keep buying yarn. It meant I went to NH Sheep and Wool last weekend and bought a grand total of 3 skeins of yarn - two to make hats for the husband and daughter, one to send off to my secret pal.



I'll start with some of my tools, though, since I've got a lot of those too.

First off, my needle cases. I got these from Crippenworks Needlecases, and I love them


Here's all four of them - Circulars on the left, crochet hooks and DPNs in the middle, and straights on the right.


The insides of a couple of the cases.



My swift



My ball winder. The dresser that it is attached to is where most of my yarn lives.



Most, but not all of my books.


And now, the yarn. On all the yarn pics, if you click through to Flickr, I've added notes and stuff to the pictures too.


This is my collection of ends and bits and bobs. I do actually go back to these for some projects, which is why I keep them around. There's all kinds of stuff here - cotton, wool, alpaca, silk. If it's natural, I'll knit with it, pretty much.



These are my one-offs, those single balls that you acquire either as gifties or at swaps, or because they were so divine you have to have them. I'm sure you all know what I mean. My favorites in the batch are the purple boucle and the silk my friend D brought for me from Japan.



Here's all the sock yarn - Clockwise, from the top left, Schaefer Anne, Fleece Artist merino, Running Wild cormo wool, Great Adirondack silk/wool, three colors from Sunshine Yarns on etsy, Cherry Tree Hill supersock, Koigu, Fleece Artist merino, and the few balls of Regia and Kroy. Lots of sock yarn. The koigu is officially no longer stash yarn, since I ended yesterday's session by winding it up and starting a new sock with it. Since I took this, I've added two new skeins of Sunshine Yarns - one in the Ravenclaw colorway for a friend, and another all for me!



This is my current collection of project yarn - I'm still stuck in baby knitting hell, and all of this is for that. Jaeger Matchmaker (car seat bunting), Kareoke (baby sweater), Cascade superwash (Widget sweater), Jaeger baby Merino (baby sweaters), Kertzer Butterfly Super 10 (Baby Surprise Jacket, if my figuring for stockinette stitch works).



Most of the rest of my project quantity yarn collection - Dale for ladybug sweater, Fleece Artist Thrummed mitten kit, with extra skein for hat, Alpaca from New Mexico, Mostly Merino yarn, Cotton Comfort mill ends, Touch of Twist silk-merino laceweight, Frog Tree Alpaca. My favorite out of this batch is the NM alpaca - because we got to meet the alpacas from whom the yarn came, and toured the spinning mill where it is made up in Ruidoso when we were out visiting my MiL last winter. It was a really neat side trip. I'm most excited about the Fleece Artist thrummed mittens kit that I just got.



This is my Sea colors yarn. Solar dyed in sea water, no photograph can convey the depth and pure gorgeousness of this yarn. The blue is destined to be a sweater for myself. The pink and green I bought just to have.



This last one isn't technically stash yarn, since, as you can see, I've started the project. But I love this yarn sooooo much, I had to include it - it's a lambswool cashmere blend, in a fantastic shade of true red with all different colors speckled into it - blue, yellow, purple, white. It may be my favorite yarn I've ever seen or worked with. The kicker is that I can not remember who makes it.

Well, that's my stash. There's actually more, but it's pretty boring collection of wools in natural colors, and I couldn't bring myself to haul those last bits of it out of storage yesterday afternoon.

The other thing I realized when I was pulling this all together is that I like to buy yarn when I travel, which means that a lot of the yarns in my stash have stories to them, even if it's just "Oh yeah, I found that yarn in this little store in Cleveland when I went out there for that server upgrade..." It's like a mini personal history.

The power of denial

I am a knitter in some serious trouble. I've been deluding myself for a long time now, but I need to face the hard truth.

I have many many friends who are expecting babies. All of these babies are due in late June and early July.

There's E, my high school best friend; she needs something super special.

There's J & J; they've had a rought time getting and staying pregnant and I'd like to do something really nice for them as well.

There's L. She's another HS friend, one I've only recently come back in touch with. Definitely needs at least a small something to welcome the new one. Her's needs sending off early, since she's over in Britain.

There's C. She's an online-only friend, but one who I really like, and I don't need to tell y'all that online-only does not necessarily mean not-as-good-as. She's had a tough stretch of it as well, definitely needs cute handknits for cheering.

There's M. Another online friend who I've met a few times in real life.

Okay, that's five, and I know I'm forgetting at least one. I've been blithely sailing along, not worrying about it - after all, there's not due until summer! I have plenty of time! I have less than three months. Maybe even less than that, since there will be showers, and present due then instead of when the babies are born. I need to get cracking.

I was reminded today of the super cute and relatively easy baby kimone sweater - I suspect I'm going to be whipping out a few of those real soon.

Sunday Sky

Didn't post yesterday, because I was was just too beat at the end of the day.

Yesterday was a half cloudy half sunny day - still a little nip to the air, but a hint of warming in it as well. Today was definitely springlike.



Thank you for the kind comments on the daffodil socks. I've very happy with them, after wearing them for a few days.

Clapotis is finished, but not yet blocked. I've started on Ms. Widget's new socks.


This is the yarn. It's lovely - perfect for a
little girl who loves pink.


They're toe up knee socks with the foot and cuff patterned with the Oblique openwork pattern from Sensational Knitting Socks. That pattern in knee high cuffs is going to take an age, but it's coming out so cute that I don't mind it so far.

And to round this one out, some cute cat paws! I had been looking at pic people have posted of their pet's paws and when I walked out of the office, Pye was lying on the couch, obligingly showing off all of her's. I couldn't resist.



How was all ya'll's weekends?

Great day!

Yesterday was a great day.

I finished the Daffodil socks around midnight on Sunday, and so I got to wear them to work. Just wearing these socks makes me happy, they make me think of spring and flowers and warm weather.


This shows off the color more clearly. And proves that I
actually did make TWO socks, not just a singleton to fool ya'll.


This here shows of the pattern, somewhat. They're a wee bit
short, and they're on the loose side, but I actually like that.
With wide ankles most socks are a wee bit too tight, and are
just not comfortable. I do think that these will be a bit better
when I block them (if I do) because then the lace pattern won't
pull them down as much.

So, that alone was makings for a good day.

But, even better, I got to spend my evening with my favorite baby in the whole world! I'd promised my friend Carrie that I would babysit so that she and her sweetie could go out for a nice dinner. And really, how can your evening be bad when you get to spend it with these two cuties?


The only tough part of the evening was convincing Widget
it was time to go home with Daddy.

After Widget and Wiley left, Katie and I played and babbled at each other until she passed out in my arms and slept for the rest of the night while I read my book. It is so much easier to just be zen about baby stuff when it's not your own baby. When Widget was a baby, I would have tried to put her down to sleep and gotten agitated when it didn't work and it would not have been happy for anyone. Katie? I just settled into my chair with my book and enjoyed the baby snoozies. She makes me want another baby in the same way that I "want" a dog. In theory, but not in reality.

Got home too late to do much of anything but go to bed.

Now that the daffodil socks are finished, I have to get started on a new pair of sleeping socks for Ms. Widget. She's bogarted my lovely pink and white stripe Lorna's Laces that I got at Purl when I was in New York, and somehow talked me into doing another pair of freaking knee socks for her. So, that and finishing Clapotis are the foreseeable future.

Oh, and one last administrative question. I've been having trouble leaving comments on other Blogspot blogs lately - the word verification image thingie isn't loading. Has anyone been seeing that here? (assuming anyone's trying to leaving comments, of course. Heh) I've turned off verification for the time being, hoping that I won't get bothered with spam.

Saturday Sky

03_03_07
Originally uploaded by siercia.

Today's Saturday Sky. A beautiful warm Saturday afternoon.

An especially nice Saturday because the rest of the family is off on the ski slopes, leaving me to a wonderful book and the cats.

Bliss.

Homeless yarn

In the end, the homeless yarn ended up just getting crammed in the closet before bed last night. Living with your very own stash weasel teaches you (sometimes) not to leave yarn out in the open, unsupervised.

It's a mess, but at least it's a mess behind closed doors, for now. Hopefully tonight I'll be able to muster the energy to deal with making it neater. For someone who purports to like organization, I'm not very good at it.

And, just for the record, that was most certainly NOT my whole stash! Hee. No, what I showed you last night was (most of) the oddballs and remnants in my stash. Most of the real stash lives in my bedroom. It just got a nice new home in a dresser that my lovely husband was discarding. I'll admit, it is smaller than many stashes (no yarn rooms here!) but there's at least 13 pairs of socks, 2 sweaters, 3 shawls worth of yarn up there, plus all the random single balls that I have no idea what I should do with them. So there really is a stash.


Pye would like you to believe that she is decidedly NOT a stash weasel. "If I were a stash weasel, would I sleep instead of molesting Mom's Clapotis that's RIGHT UNDER OVER MY nose?" Don't believe the cute snoozing cat.

Good grief!

There has been major upheaval here at Chez Siercia. We've been changing rooms all around, finally acheiving my many years long dream of having a living room (with comfortable chairs! and nice light to read by!) that has no darn TV in the middle of it, gumming up the works. Now the tv is in it's own little room off the kitchen and it is very nice. I was so pleased to be able to sit and read while Mr. Man was off watching car racing.

The downside is that we're getting rid of the quite large entertainment center that we had for the tv in the living room. It's too big for the nw tv room, and new mr. LCD tv doesn't need all that space. BUT (and it's a big but, people), that piece of furniture has long held a chunk of the yarn in my life. I'm sure you know how much of mess this has created in my house.

So, yesterday, we moved the knitting books from the closet to the bookcase, because they're more presentable and organized. Oh, but since that space didn't just appear from mid air, first I had to find homes for the books that were on that part of the bookshelf. Thankfully, there were homes to be found, because I'm still on a crazy book culling kick. So did that first, then moved the books. They actually take up about the space I was expecting - slightly more than half a shelf on a good sized bookcase.

See?



Then, I made the big mistake. I started trying to sort the yarn in the closet of doom. After all, I had all the space with the books gone, right? Now the closet is less full, but much more full of mess.

See?



And there's still a whole lot of crap in my living room that is homeless.


The sad plight of yarn with no home. This isn't even all of it.

I swear, it's felt like every time I turn around I'm finding more damn yarn. While I know I shouldn't be complaining (after all, what's not to like about yarn, right?) I'm kind of starting to feel like my yarn owns me, instead of the other way around.

Anyone wanna come shop at my house?

In actual knintting news, one daffodil sock is finished, but since I've been feeling ick with the cold this week, I've been doing some brain dead Clapotis knitting.



This here? It's much bigger now. But my husband already thinks I'm weird for taking pictures of the closet, so I'll leave you with only a pic of the infant Clapotis instead of the toddler clapotis.

Finished!

Completed sock!


Close-up of the heel and gusset.

Finished mom's socks late on Monday. Of course, I've not managed to mail them yet, but I'm hoping I'll get them out tomorrow morning. I'm quite pleased with how they came out. The garter rib works nicely with the varigated yarn, and is a little more interesting than plain old 2x2 rig.

I spent the rest of Monday night (where "rest of" means I stayed up until nearly 2am) futzing with the daffodil socks. Suzanne, you were so right in your suggestion - ripping them down from the top simply did not work. I wasted a good 45 minutes or more trying, only got about halfway around the cast on edge before realizing it was hopeless. Were I smart, at that point, I would have done exactly what she suggested, threading a bit of thread through the stitches I wanted to capture, then cutting the socks where I wanted it. Instead, I cut and carefully pulled out the stitches, picking up the newly freed stitches very carefully (and slowly!) as I went.


Here one of them is after surgery waiting for some love.

Last night I picked out my stitch pattern for the new tops and got about half a repeat done on both socks. No pictures of that, since there's not enough there to be photogenic yet. I'm currently debating going up a needle size after the first half repeat to make the sock tops a little looser, to accomodate my tree trunk legs.

Last, but not least, Ms. Widget wonders if Mom is ever going to finish taking pictures so that she can sit on the couch again.

One day, one toe

Technically, I'm going to be finished my Mom's socks in time. Or I should be, since it's 2/19 and I only have the toe decreases to go, ends weaving and blocking left. It's only a technical victory, though, since I'm not going to see her tomorrow. We'll have to settle for the victory being that the socks will go in the post by her birthday, to arrive later in the week.

I found a lovely shawl pin on Etsy to go with the shawl for my friend. That arrived late last week, so if I'm truly organized, I'll get that packaged up tonight and in the mail as well. I hope she loves it.

After that, I move to continuing work on the mini-clapotis for my godmother, and re-jiggering my daffodil socks. They're plain jane stockinette now, and a bit shorter than I wanted. Turns out I have TONS of yarn left over, and I want to make them more exciting. So I'm going to try to rip them out from the cuffs and re-knit the tops in a cool lace pattern. Or at least that's the theoretical plan.

A sock in progress

Just when I thought I was done with gift knitting, more comes to the forefront. My mom has asked for socks. I suspect she was being somewhat facetious in her request, but I'm taking her seriously. Now, her birthday is the 20th, and I'd really really love to have these done for then. But I know myself, and I know about how likely that is, so I think I'll be happy enough if she gets them before the end of February.

Since a knitting blog is nigh useless without knitting pictures, here's a couple of the barely started sock. We're working the Garter rib pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks, in Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn, colorway "Cabin Fever"***. I'm enjoying the pattern, and absolutely loving the yarn. Easy to work with, gorgeous soft fabric.

In this, you can see why I'm not hopeful about the 2/20 deadline. 2 1/4 inches of cuff.



This is less useful for seeing progress, but is a fairly close representation of the color. Actually, on second thought, it's great for displaying my non-progress. Look at me, not thinking about it too hard.



And now, I should go knit on the sock instead of writing about it. Much better chance of finishing them that way.

Before I go, thanks to those who commented on my post from yesterday. It's nice to think I'm not entirely insane. It truly boggles my mind that this is even being raised as a serious question. And someday, I'll figure out a way to actually answer comments in e-mail, too.

***This yarn has a story. We were on our annual vacation with my parents, 5 of us, stuck in a teeny tiny cabin by bad weather. My mom, dad and I went out for a jaunt to go see a glass making shop near where we were staying, and there was an unexpected yarn store in the same building. I wandered through the yarn while my parents browsed the glass. I came accross this yarn... I'd been meaning to pick up some of this to try, and although it was not a usual color choice for me, once I saw the name, it absolutely had to come back with me.

Awesome, and a rant.

Well, I'm pleased to say that Linda of Grafton Fibers is as gracious and funny as her fibers are beautiful. I had such a wonderful fun and relaxing time at her studio on Saturday. It helped that I found that I really enjoyed the needlefelting. It was technically very simple - take fiber, stab with needle, repeat - but at the same time allows for such a broad range of creativity and playfulness that I was totally mesmerized.

Here's a pic of my second creation. I wanted to try out the face techniques that Linda was demonstrating, and seem to have created a wild woman.



She's going on my wall at the office, just in case my co-workers didn't already think I was weird.

The other piece I did is a neat abstract that I think looks rather celestial. Widget loved that one, so it is going to hang on her bedroom wall.


Felted Universe

And now on a slightly rantier note.

If you're reading this from my actual blog page, you might notice a new non-knitting button on the sidebar. You might even wonder what it's all about.

There's a furor brewing in mom-blogger land over the issue of women imbibing alcohol while at social gatherings with other mothers. I first read about it this motning at DotMoms. That led me to the blog of the woman who touched off the furor, which led me to Z Recommends' "Statement of Belief" on the matter.

There's a WHOLE lot that I could say on this topic, but I'm not sure I could be entirely coherent. For anyone to imply that a mother is a bad mother because she has the audacity to drink alcohol while she is with her child is beyond offensive to me.

There was a lot more to this rant, but I deleted it, because the truth is, I shouldn't even have to say it. Any woman's choice with regards to whether she drinks or not in the presence of her children is her choice to make, enough said.

I hope that sometime before I die, I can see a society where moms (and really, women in general) spend as much time working together and helping one another as they do tearing each other down and critizing the choices other women make.

Mermaids

Isn't this a beautiful felted creation? I snapped this pic at Rhinebeck in October. As I note in my caption, I was so amazed at the sculpture that I managed to entirely miss the beautiful batts of fiber that were right there next to it. I intend to remedy THAT oversight tomorrow.

Tomorrow, I get to take a field trip to Vermont with some of the other lovely knitters from Circles to visit Grafton Fibers for a lovely day of touring their studios and learning needle felting.

To say that I am excited would be an understatement.

More finished objects, Washcloth Edition

This week a crazy week of finishing up the loose ends of many many projects, so I'm going to post new stuff as I get them finished, and we can all pretend for a few minutes like I am some kind of incredibly prolific knitter, finishing multiple projects all the damn time.

Today's collection is a sampling of some of the washcloths I knit for holiday present this year. It started when I wanted to share the love that is Althaea Soaps and Herbals. I'd heard several online friends raving about this soap, and when one friend gifted me with some last summer, I immediately understood why. It is simply great stuff (my favorite is the Iced Black Keemun Tea scent). But, just giving someone soap seemed a little... weird. And somewhat impersonal.

So I was inspired to knit washcloths to go with them, for at least 8 gifts. These last samplings were the three that I knit for a few of my girlfriends. They're all knit with Sugar N' Creme cotton (which, while maybe great for washcloths, really did a number on my hands, which is odd, because I normally love knitting with cotton.)

Here's one in the near-ubiquitous slip stitch brick pattern from Mason Dixon Knitting.



These two are Feather and Fan. Top shot shows the pattern better, bottom shows the real colors of the yarn. Could Feather and Fan BE any more boring to knit?





This was a pattern of my own design. I used stockinette and reverse stockinette to create zig zags. I started off planning to make them even, then decided halfway through to make them longer in a few spots, just to make things more interesting.



There's one more gifty thing still on the needles. Okay, not even started yet. But it'll be a quick knit once I get it going.

Tomorrow, pictures of the purple shawl I've been working on forever and ever. And maybe, if I'm really lucky, some daffodil colored socks as well.

Red Scarf

It's been finished for nearly a month, but because I am always behind on everything, it got blocked this weekend and packed up today.



This is my single scarf contribution to the Red Scarf Project. It's simply garter stitch, because I couldn't find a stitch pattern that I thought made the yarn sing. I knit it in Rowan Cashsoft, because it was the most yummy soft yarn at Circles that was a beautiful red.

As I was packing it up at my desk today, a few of my co-workers were very curious about what I was doing. I think the thought that you would take the time to knot for charity flummoxed them a bit.

Saturday Sky

No pictures of today's sky for me, as the husband took the camera with him to his NER thing in Connecticut. (Having to share a camera makes this picture a day thing a wee bit difficult, darn it.)

So instead, a picture of the sky over Rhinebeck at the Sheep and Wool Festival.

When we left our intrepid heroine...

I was about to crash asleep in my chair after hoofing all over Lower Manhattan.

Saturday morning, when I woke up, I mapped out my plan for the day, making one critical error (which you'll see in a bit). While at dinner on Friday, my sister had mentioned an exhibit she enjoyed a great deal at the Whitney Musuem - a show of Picasso and some of the American artists that he had influenced. I looked it up and found that it was still running. The lure of that show combined with my sister's warning that the Guggenheim is often crazy crowded on the weekend made me change my plans, and I am so glad that I did.

The show was amazing! Now, I don't know much about art in general, and I really don't know much about modern art, so I was coming to this from the vantage point of the mostly untutored. The show was eye opening. Unfamiliar with most of Picasso's work, I got to be astounded at the depth and breadth of his work. Seeing how his work evolved over time, and then seeing how that caused other artists to change and move into new areas gave me the first glimmerings of understanding how modern art came about. I kind of "got it" for the first time.

After the Picasso exhibit, I wandered around the Albers And Moholy-Nagy: From The Bauhaus To The New World exhibit for a while. That was neat, but not nearly as stunning as the Picasso.

Done with the museum, both because I was tired and because it was now also getting crowded. I walked a few blocks, found the bus to take me downtown, grabbed a quick (and sadly yucky) lunch, and found habu. What neat stuff they have there! It was very fun getting to touch and fondle what they had, but in the end, I didn't buy anything.

After that, I walked over toward School Products, found the building, and it was closed. Confused, I wandered around for a few minutes trying to figure out if I was in the right place. Finally decided that I was, and it WAS closed, and I groused a bit and walked back to the bus. Later on, I looked again at their web page to realize that they close at 3:30 on Saturdays. I'd gotten there at about 3:35. (There's the critical error.) Dammit. Next time, I'll know better.

After that, I was seriously footsore and beat, so I found the bus and headed back to my hotel. Stopped at a restaurant nearby, at a quick light dinner, grabbed a cab and headed for my train. I ended up so engrossed in my book that I didn't even knit at all on the train ride home. The book was The Best Thing I Ever Tasted by Sallie Tisdale, an if you've not read it, I would highly recommend it. Thoughtful, interesting, and in a few places, heartbreaking. There were more than a few places where it felt like she had climbed inside my head before saying what she had to say. An excellent choice for an impulse used bookstore purchase.

This week, I've just not been knitting. I'm at the uber-boredom point of a few projects, at the super tough stage of another, and nothing is lining itself up to be worked on at the moment. In a few minutes, though, I'm going to go watch the new Monk and Psych, and hopefully barrel through the tough project.

Of course, it also didn't help that I spent two days in Toledo. With a new and very eager co-worker, so there was not much time to myself on this particular trip. No matter, it was still a good trip, and the new co-worker did well, and (I hope) learned a whole lot. It was fun that he seemed very intrigued by my knitting (socks, especially, seem to intrigue non-knitters. It must be all the needles and the weird shaping.)

Tomorrow afternoon, Widget has a friend over for a playdate. I'm hoping that they'll play together and I'll get a bit of time to putter, even if it's time that's full of little girl loud.

Man, am I beat

Well, made it to NY. Made it through a couple of days of one site. Finished early ehough on site today that I had more than enough time to get to Purl before they closed. In fact, had I properly done my homework, I could have swung by School Products as well. But, best laid plans, and all of that, right?

I was good at Purl - I bought a couple skeins of Lorna's Lace sock yarn in one of their "Purl only" colors (white and pink, for those wondering), and a couple of skeins of Koigu, in this neat orange colorway. The only other thing I was looking for, a good, not stupid expensive laceweight, they did not seem to have. C'est la vie, and all of that. It's not as if I need more yarn, right?

I got *SO* lost trying to find Purl. That end of Manhattan always messes me up. Got off the train, spotted one of my marker streets (where I was meeting my sister later) and confidently headed off... in completely the wrong direction. Figured out it was wrong fairly quickly, and corrected in the wrong direction again. After doing that again, I finally found a map, figured out where I needed to go, and finally made it. What should have been a half mile walk turned into at least twice that, with the huge heavy laptop backpack. Next time, I bring a good map with me!

Had a lovely dinner with a friend last night. Spent most of this evening chilling at the bookstore my sister volunteers at, waiting for her to finish up. (Should you find yourself in NY, I'd highly recommend the Used Bookstore Cafe on Crosby St. It's a charity shop for an AIDS action group called Housing Works, it's a great space with a good selection, and a nice cafe to have a coffee and relax. It's a 10 minute walk from Purl.) We had dinner after she got off work, and now, I'm finally back in the hotel resting.

Tomorrow, the Guggenheim and lunch somewhere nice, maybe School Products yarn, maybe Habu. We'll see how long my feets want to hold up.

New York, New York, it's a wonderful town!

So, my work often takes me to New York. Sadly, it usually takes me there with little time to do much besides grind out a 12 hour day, grab a good meal and sleep.

This week though, life is good, and I am not only getting to go on a trip that promises to will hopefully be relatively easy. Upgrade on one small site's server Thursday, checking in with them Friday, then training a new admin at a second site Friday afternoon.

Even better than that, since it backs up onto a weekend, I've managed to arrange to stay over an extra night, and catch a late train home on Saturday evening. Now I have to figure out what I want to do! My brain is shutting down as I contemplate all my options.

So, any suggestions? I'm torn as far as whether I want to hit yarn shops. I am, in theory, trying to focus on knititng from my stash for at least the first part of the year. But, at the same time, Purl and habu are calling my name - the former to check out their selection of Moving Mud shawl pins, the latter because their stuff is so interesting and uncommon, and not easily found out in the world. If I go with yarn shopping, any suggestions?

If I don't go with yarn shopping as my preferred sport, any suggestions? I'm not much of a shopper, so schlepping around to a bunch of stores doesn't sound super fun to me. I was thinking I would try and maybe see if I could get tickets to some kind of a show for Thursday or Friday night. Saturday, I was thinking might be a good museum day - perhaps the Guggenheim, which I've never been to see.

Oh, and I just had another thought! What about Ellis Island? I've never been out there either. Maybe if the weather is nice(ish) that would be a good choice.

This will be the first time I've been in the city on my own AND have had time ti kill (I've been with friends for leisure, and I've been by myself for work (see above, re: 16 hour days). I'm dizzy with all the possibilities!

I'm SO excited!

New Year, @whee

So, blogging wise, my only New Year's resolution is to start actually remembering to post in here.

When I go through funks, I withdraw and stop posting - it's true here and in my LJ as well. Then when I feel better, breaking the not-posting trend is difficult, to say the least. But, I am at least going to try to be better about it.

So, just like the past year, this year is looking as if it will be full of babies (at least two on the way already). So there will be more baby knits. Ms. Judy has inspired me to do more charity knitting, so there will be more charity knitting. I've got some other crafty things cooking, so there may be some of that as well.

I've also (possibly foolishly) signed up to do A Picture a Day with Maryse over at Monster Yarn. My pictures, should I manage to keep up, will be over on Flickr. Any really good ones or knitting related ones, I'll probably post here as well.

Later this week, (See that? Committing to posting again this week?) I'm going to have a wee little contest, for the 4 people who are still reading this thing.

Saturday Sky

A cloudy Saturday, with just a wee bit of blue sky starting to peek out... Perhaps it will be sunny later?

As for today, I must say that 67 degrees in January in New England just feels wrong.

Rhymes with Orange

Did anyone else see this Sunday's Rhymes with Orange?

Here's a link.

You must go read it.

Sock Wars, Round Two

Got my Round Two socks in the mail the other day (the socks being knit by my target's target, I believe, or perhaps my target's target's target.)

I didn't feel much like working on them before, but last night I pulled them out and finished them off. There wasn't much work left to them - less thn half a foot and the toe. I got them finished last night (kitchenering at 1 am is NOT recommended) and hit the post office this morning to get them in the mail.

Still waiting for my sock to arrive in the mail - no idea when or if they're coming.

In an administrative note, can anyone out there who uses Blogger tell me how to get the e-mail notification to cough up e-mail addresses for my commenters? They show up in my inbox as being from "{noreply-comment@blogger.com}", and I can't reply to them. Some people, I can track back to their e-mails, but others I can't, and it's bothering me that I can't respond to comments people are leaving for me.

Wheelies!

I had great fun stumping my co-workers today with my current knitting project.

Too flat to be socks, too small to be clothing. They had no idea! (I'd make y'all guess, but I'm lame, and have no pictures.)

In the interest of using up some of the old stash, I'm making myself a wheelie. Now, since it's stash yarn, the colors are not really perfect for my car interior, but this is a totally fun knit. Easy enough to do in company, with juuuust enough pattern to keep it entertaining. And it's the instant gratification of a small knit, even if it's done on smallish needles with smallish yarn.

Eris continues. I've finished the collar, it seems to be the right size, I just have to sit down and power through picking up all the stitches around the edges. Perhaps that'll be the task for tomorrow evening at Circles, before we go out for dinner.

Sock Wars!

That might be the fastest I've ever knit a pair of socks. It helped that the gauge meant that these will really be more like bed socks than real everyday wear socks.

I was not helped by the fact that I forgot all about sock wars, until my assassin e-mailed me on Monday morning asking for my address. Oh crap! I forgot all about it! Thankfully, I had yarn in the stash that worked for the socks, and I was off and runnning.


Knit like a damn fool all week, and got these off in the mail juuuuust before the post office closed for the night on Friday evening. Just checked my tracking number, and saw they'd been delivered this afternoon.

No sign of my socks yet, but I'm expecting to be toast any moment now.

Details:

Pattern is yarnmonkey's sock wars pattern (duh) found here.

Yarn is Cascade 220 (black) and Lorna's Laces Bullfrogs and Butterflies (Bittersweet) for the toes. I know the pattern called for DK weight, and I think the Cascade is technically worsted, but I didn't like the fabric I was getting at that gauge with the thinner yarn. Didn't seem like a good sock fabric. So, I found something I liked better that I was getting gauge with.

Complain, and the universe provides?

Hopefully, that's not really today's lesson.

After my whining a whole lot on Monday about knitting frustration, my lent out needles were returned to me when I wasn't expecting them to come home for a little while longer, and I was able to dive into knitting Eris. I am totally in love. These cables are beyond complicated, but it feels like just the kind of thing I need to get my knitting interest and joie de vivre back.

Something interesting and challenging, and not just knitting around and around and around.

And Suzanne, thank you for your generous offer!!!! I'll e-mail you to see if we can arrange something.

Time flies

Man, I go away on vacation, and when I come home, it's like I've forgotten all about the blog.

Which, of course not, but life gets in the way of computer frippery all too often I find.

Finished the "gamer's wrap" for my sweetie while on vacation, but I don't have pictures of it yet. I'd started it in the spring and abandoned it when it got hot. It was awfully nice to have on those chilly New Hampshire evenings, all piled in my lap with it's warm fuzzy goodness. I made it for him after catching him using my shawls to keep warm whileplaying computer gams in the middle of the night. His computer is in the coldest corner of the house, and he stays up late into the night, after we've set the thermostat to lower the heat (good for me, since I hate sleeping in a hot room), but at least now he has a crazy warm wrap to bundle up in.

Finished the peapod sweater and hat. Pleasantly surprised by only needing three balls of the Cashsoft to finish it, depsite being dead on for gauge.

I'm plodding through some socks as my take along project, and am almost, finally finished one.

I'm currently being stymied in my plans for starting new projects. One, I can't start because I lent the needles I need to a friend, and she's not returned them yet. I don't want to buy new needles in a size I don't use that often, just to do one small part of a sweater pattern.

The other, I think is going to make me insane. Needs both DPNs and circs in teeny sizes. I generally get rather different gauge on Addi's vs. bamboo, so I need to track down and find bamboo circs in itty bitty sizes, and hope I'm on gauge so I don't have to buy 17 pairs of needles. Add in that the pattern calls for metric sizes, and the bamboo circs I've been able to find seem to not exist in one of the sizes, is making me just a wee bit crazy. TWITCH. (I know, I need to just let it go and start swatching with wht I have on hand, and figure the rest out as it comes. I know this, and still, twitchy!)

More baby knits

This year has been a busy year for new babies within my circle of friends - we're up to four new babies, with at least two other couples actively trying to get pregnant. Lots of babies means, of course, lots of baby knits.

I knit a blanket, hat and bootie set for the newest of the new arrivals - my friend Carrie's new little girl Katherine. Katherine arrived last Saturday afternoon, and she is as beautiful and entirely enchanting as I expected her to be. Carrie and her husband William had decided to leave the baby's sex a surprise for the birth, and so we were aiming for genger neutral colors. I've held off posting pictures up here, but I'm hoping to deliver the gifts this afternoon, and I doubt Carrie's doing much blog reading at the moment.


The blanket is from a pattern in Knit Baby Blankets, which is a great collection of cute patterns. I used Kertzer Butterfly Super 10 mercerized cotton, which is a great baby yarn - soft as anything and entirely machine washable. The pattern used two balls of the yellow and orange, and a smidge more than a ball of the green.



The hat and booties were (obviously) knit from the same yarn. The booties are the Pirate Booties from 50 Baby Booties to Knit, and the hat I just made up by myself. It looks tinny in the picture, but the entire hat is a knit2 purl2 rib, and it stretches to about double the size you see here.

Next up is a project that's going to be an enormous challenge for me.

Anyone want to guess what, from the last two pictures?


Lots of different colors, eh?

















Does this help a little bit?














Lastly, two things. First, thank you for the words of condolence - I've passed them on to Wiley and he say thank you as well. Second, I loaded all my pictures from Georges Island up onto Flicker. If you want to see them, they're over here.

You can get a lot of knitting done on a 17 hour car ride

We spent this past weekend on an unexpected trip to western NY because my husband's grandmother passed away last week. She lied in a small town west of Buffalo, and it is a long, long drive to get there from Boston.

The trip was sad, but not overly so, and despite 17 hours in the car with Widget and Kate, my mother in law, I'm glad I went, to see many people I'll likely never see again and to say goodbye to Westfield, which, although not nearly as central to my life as to my husband's, was still a little place I'd come to really be enchanted by.

The other upside to the trip was, of course, the knitting time. When we left, I had a sleeve and a half done on the Pea Pod sweater. When we got back, I had this:



Nearly the entire sweater finished, as well as both sleeves. It needed about an hour's more work on the back, and I wove ends in last night. I'll block it tonight and hopefully start seaming it, and then I'll just need to knit the neckline and finish up the hat.

And a couple close-ups of the lace on the front:





This is a fantastic pattern. I'm knitting it with Rowan Cashsoft DK, which I am loving. It's come together so quickly that I think I'll make another for the newest new little girl in my life (more on that later).

Kate was in town through this morning, so we all decided to take a mental health day and headed out to George's Island (a trip we were supposed to make on Saturday for Wiley's company's summer outing). Kate lived in Boston for years and years, but doesn't get much chance for ocean enjoyment in Roswell, where she's lived for about 11 years now.

We thought a relaxing day on the harbor would be just what we all needed. We roamed all over the fort - Hannah's finally old enough to be really fascinated by all the nooks and crannies of the fort, and then settled in for a rest while we waited for the boat back. The best part was getting to sit and knit with this stunning view.

Flowerbasket shawl(s)

So, Suzanne over at Double Helix has been allll on my case to write about my Flowerbasket shawl(s). I have to pluralize it, because it's a pattern that I've knit three times over now.

There are two of them in this picture. A corner of mine, and a good view of my daughter wearing the one I made for her. She insists on wearing her shawl "inside out", with the reverse stockinette on the outside. While pretty, I don't think it shows the colors off to their best advantage. There are pictures of all three shawls on my Livejournal picture gallery, if you want to surf over and see them.

So, the stories of the shawls. The first one I made was for a gift for my grandmother in law. I had some beautiful fuzzy re-claimed angora blend yarn that I pulled out of a sweater for Goodwill. I desperately needed a good gift for Um-um one Christmas, and hit on the shawl as an answer. As a first lace pattern ever, it was challenging, but not impossible, especially since it's knit with non-laceweight yarn (a key for me on a first lace project attempt). It came out beautifully, if I may say so, myself. I thought that someday I might make one for myself, but with so many things out there to knit, I don't often re-knit patterns.

But then, last summer, I made plans to go visit my friend Carrie and her husband in Japan. Faced with more than 30 hours of flight and travel time, just to get there and back, I knew I needed a good project. It couldn't be too easy or I'd get bored. It couldn't be too big or too small (either too hard to carry, or I'd risk finishing it on the road). It couldn't be too tiny or too dark, since lighting might be an issue. I'd had this nifty hand-painted silk yarn in my stash for a while, and I decided that a lace shawl was just the thing for the yarn, and for the trip.

My goal was to try and start and finish the shawl on the trip, and if I'd not decided to add extra repeats at the end, I'd likely have done it. This shawl went to Tokyo, went to the Izu Peninsula, went to Mt. Fuji, went to the Tokyo Stitch and Bitch. It saw endless trains and busses and lockers as we roamed around Japan with no car. It even survived customs at LAX, which is something that I nearly didn't manage. LAX sucks rocks.

When I came home and blocked out the shawl, my daughter made her customaty request, whenever I knit anything. Momma, could you make one for me? I had a LOT of yarn left over. In fact, even after making her shawl, I have a lot of yarn left over - the incredible non-shrinking ball of yarn. I was feeling generous, and agreed to make one for her too. She loves it, and often asks to wear it with entirely inappropriate outfits. Best review I could ask for.

I find mine is just not quite the right size. Too small to be a proper shawl, too big to be worn like a scarf. I love it, though, and wear it anyway. Who cares if it looks a little silly?

So, that's the story of the flowerbasket shawl(s).

Little Fluffy Clouds

Has anyone else here ever heard the Orbital song "Little Fluffy Clouds"?

"What were the skies like when u were young? They went on for ever and they when I we lived in Arizona and the skies always had little fluffy clouds and ahh.. they were long and clear and there were lots of stars, at night."

The song's been stuck in my head for days, since reading the Yarn Harlot's description of her trip to the Southwest. Mmmm, the skies are one of many many reasons I want to live out in the desert someday.

Today, our skies are nearly as perfect as New Mexico sky; full of blue so bright it hurts to look at them and fluffly clouds just to make you see how bright the blue is.

Another lovely evening

Another lovely knitting circle hosted by Suzanne.

Once again, the food was delicious, the company delightful, and the kntting plentiful. H and her daughter hit it off well and spent time playing together.

But the highlight of the evening? Definitely the flinging of shrimp shells into K's knitting bag. Am I a genius, or what?

What interesting things have YOU done?

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

Meet Pye

Pye is one of our three cats. She's adorable, sweet-tempered and only sometimes really crazy.

She's also probably the cat that is closest to being a kindred spirit, because, you see...


Pye has a yarn fetish that rivals even my own.

Not to knit with, of course, since her lack of opposable thumbs would make that a bit difficult. No, she likes to make yarn nests. In the middle of our very small upstairs hallway. If there's yarn to found anywhere in the house, I'll come home to find it all piled in the hallway at the top of the stairs. She doesn't even discriminate between fibers! Her love for nasty acrylic seems as boundless as her love for my beautiful hand-dyed wools. All piled together in harmony.

I've lost any ability to leave yarn out anywhere in the house. She has an incredible yarn seeker sense, and seems to be able to find it in any hiding place. So, most of my yarn has been restrained and crated into locking plastic tubs.

She stands in front of them and cries at me.

Silly cat.

Back home now

One photo so far, of the sky and water Saturday night. This was our view as we waited for our table.


Returned from Newport yesterday afternoon. Glad to be home, sad to be home, a little bit of both.

As predicted, we ate well, we drank well. We walked ourselves stupid doing (most of) the cliff walk, touring fancy houses and shopping. We got pedicures, and I bought cute shoes.

Knitting? I re-knit the heel of my sock 4 times, because I just could not get it right. So while there was a great deal of knitting, there was very little knitting progress accomplished.

You know you're a knitter

when figuring out what *project(s)* to pack for a long weekend trip consumes more brain time than what clothes to pack.

Going away tomorrow for a long weekend to Newport with my dear friend S. Shoes will be bought, fancy houses will be toured, good food will be eaten and a lot of wine will be drunk.

This is going to be GREAT!

New camera!

Hip hip hooray!

My new camera arrived today!

To celebrate, two pictures:

First, a Tuesday sky, since I missed Saturday. All around Boston today are thunderstorms. Yet, even though I can hear thunder off in the distance, you'd not know it to look out my back door. Clear skies, little puffy clouds.

After that, a peek at one of my current WIPs - stripey socks in grey and pink. The yarn is Shelridge Farms, the pattern is just a basic toe-up sock. Love the yarn, love the colors.

Bad Saturday Sky-er

Signed up to join Saturday Sky the other day, but my camera hasn't arrived yet, so no pictures for me. The old camera remains entirely among the missing. And next week, going out of town for the weekend. Bad Siercia.

Thanks to Rebecca and Suzanne for their compliments about the corset. It is beautiful, pattern issues notwithstanding. And yes, Suzanne, you are correct that patterns fail people all the time, in numerous dimensions. While I'm getting more and more adept at spotting pattern issues coming, and at tinkering with them to make them fit me, I wish we could see more discussion about how to adjust patterns within the patterns themselves - especially ones with tricky construction or exacting measurement standards.

Might as well wish for the moon, eh?

Finished the baby blanket today while I was covering the office for the Fourth. Started some baby booties to go with, but quickly decided that I didn't have enough of the yellow that I needed (which maybe I did, but didn't want to get almost to the end to find out I was wrong). So, pulled those out, and will start with plan B for the booties later tonight. Hopefully there's enough left for a little hat too. Perhaps I should do the hat first - that's probably a more useful accessory.

Sorry for no pictures yet, but between my camera going missing and the seekrit - gifty nature of the current project, there are no pictures as of yet.