Category: yarn p0rn

gimpy

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My new work nickname :)

Going up and down the stairs was hell, but at least the swelling has gone down enough that I can actually bend my knee now. Of course, having spent the past day and half with my right leg elevated, I got a lot of knitting done. I’m to the heel on my second Distracted sock – which, in accordance with it’s name, I screwwed up as I waited for the bus this afternoon. Note to self: do not attempt to knit whilst, and at the same time, watching for your bus.

As a result of this afternoon’s adventures, I have a new definition of extreme knitting: tinking back a heel on a crosstown bus.

Oh, yeah, baby. I like to knit dangerously.

The other progress I have to report?

a sock

I’m past the heel of my first “Pretty Petals” sock. The name just doesn’t work for me. I’m going to have to come up with a nickname for them, since the yarn is so bloody fantastic. I totally have to get more yarn dyed by Knitted Wit in the future.

And, on the subject of yarn p0rn, here is a photo of one of my high holies in the stash:

Knitters W/O Borders yarn

Blue Moon Socks That Rock Lightweight in “Knitters Without Borders”. I have 2 skeins set aside for knee-highs and another for a Sock Knitters Anonymous prize. And, if you’re thinking of raiding my house, Blue Moon has promised to make the colorway available on their website very soon.

That’s nearly everything. But, since I can’t post the details of the Knit Purl Sock Club quite yet and don’t have a banner or badge or anything for my new Guild, more updates will have to wait. Back to watching Top Gear and knitting for now.

Completely pointless yarn p0rn

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If you read the other blog I sometimes write for, you can just skip this post. I couldn’t help it. The yarn is soooo pretty. Which I take absolutely NO credit for. The exquisiteness of this yarn is entirely do to the dyers at Fleece Artist:

Fleece Artist BFL handspun

I mean (sigh), really. The moment I saw the roving on display I knew I had to have it. I spun 100 g in one night and knit with it over the course of the next two evenings.

And now I want more. Heaven help me. But, good news, my make-it-up-as-I-go pattern actually worked :)

Pictures tomorrow, I promise. The FO is blocking at the moment and shouldn’t be disturbed during such a stressful point in its development.

Fruit salad

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After spending yesterday catching up on the laundry and cleaning (I even ironed my work shirts!), I decided to be lazy on my last day off for a while.  So what did I do all day? I indulged myself and sat on my tuckis in front of my wheel for 2 – 3 hours and produced this:

fruit salad

100 g of Merino yarn that I love muchly. I have absolutely no specs for you, sorry. I’m fairly certain it’s a DK weight since it looked like it. But since the skein is blocking, I don’t have WPI or yardage. I think I’ll make a hat with it, to entice the warm weather back (it’s like bringing an umbrella to prevent rain).

On the subject of handspun, I still have these beauties, which I finally wound this afternoon. I want to make something with them. Two somethings, really. Suggestions would be great, since I’m completely hopeless. The green is getting 4 SPI on US 9 and the purple-pink will probably get 5 SPI on US 7.

And that is everything.  So sleepy.  The Robitussin is making me fuzzy.

One week later

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What have I been doing this week? Mostly battling the monster that is the Knit Purl website. I have, finally, managed to fix all the code AND standardize the Habu Textiles Kits page. Of course, doing so, I discovered duplicates of many of the kits – and left them there until we can figure out which ones are correct. I also helped Terrisa take photos of all the new yarns lines we’ve gotten in and a bunch of other stuff.

Mostly, it’s been a long week. So, Saturday, I met up with Opus at a cafe down the street from Twisted and we spent a long time being lazy and indulgent at both the cafe and LYS. Before we dragged ourselves off of their couch, I snapped a photo of the yarn I’d bought and some of our WIPs:

socks-n-stuff
(Above: my Casbah socks in “Vintage”, Blue Moon Silkie in “Blue Brick Wall”, and Opus’ now-dubbed ‘Carmen Miranda’ shawl made with Kauni-EQ)

From there we crossed the river and hopped, skipped, and jumped around The Pearl. I even found some more guilt-free, fair trade, mind-blowing chocolate. Eventually, though I had to turn around and go to work for the Dreaded Inventory.Why it’s so dreaded, I really don’t know. Having done it the old-fashioned way with clipboards and books of inventory sheets, having 3 scan guns and a computerized system makes it totally manageable in my mind.

Anyway. We (Opus decided to volunteer to help) arrived and were greeted by this:

Only, you know, in black and white and in The Oregonian. My coworkers had found the photos taken last week, whilst St M was visiting. I knew it’d happen (sigh). Oh course, the photo is completely out of context. I was laughing because M threw the Boa on, shrieked, and nearly fell over it was so heavy. I think it also bonked her on the head, too. It was funny as hell (I’m a bad friend, I know). But I wasn’t laughing at the Boa itself. Ohwell :)

Back to Inventory. We had decided to just do the Habu and Malabrigo earlier in the week, expecting them to be some of the worst. They really weren’t. With 2 extra volunteers (8 total), we got through the two in less than half the time we’d scheduled. Which left us a lot of time to reorganize the yarn and munch on pizza.

Again, it was nothing on doing inventory on the Knit Shop or at the Museum.

But now I have to go and battle That Sweater pattern for the 3rd time in 2 days. It’s going to be the death of me.

mmm… pink

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Today was a long day, but it made up for it by being very quick and resulting in gorgeous yarn. Knit/Purl is doing a limited series of naturally dyed sock yarns (100% superwash fingering weight, really), which are being dyed locally at Abundant Yarn & Dyeworks. I’ve been lusting after them since D first showed me the samples two weeks ago. The line finally went on the shelves tonight. Instead of grabbing two skeins for two different sets of socks, a rare insight hit me. I just bought the pattern for Seraphim, by Miriam Felton, and didn’t have yarn for it.

Ahh, I love my staff discount:

yarn4seraphim

The yarn is so pretty. Unfortunately, I won’t get to play with it until Jan 15 (pout) because of all the commissioned work I have to turn in… (sigh). But, hey, I have it and it’s in the stash and it’s MINE. And I might just have enough yarn left over (385 yards per skein!) to make a pair of socks, anyway.

After snagging the object(s) of my desire, I took a shot of tonight’s Sip’n’Stitch, for which we ran out of seats (again):

sip'n'stitch

This is becoming an interesting trend. I plan on lobbying for a lounge area. I am determined to find a way to fit it into the floorplan.  We need a couch, darnit.

Other stuff? The chocolate crawl/ unBirthday Party has been tentatively rescheduled for Sunday, so Terrisa can come. And, to explain to my confused readers, a chocolate crawl is like a pub crawl – except we’ll be hitting chocolateries and patisseries like, oh, Pix. I vividly remember my last visit to Pix. I had the Amelie. It’s actually hard not to drool at the recollection.

Also, MORE good news. D, trying to encourage me to take on more hours, mentioned today that if I work 30 hours +/ per week I get health insurance. Well, that’s definitely good news. Now all I have to do is NOT spend my paycheck in one place… And find time to design and knit for, you know, everyone.

Ooh! my laptop is due to arrive on Monday. I need to get a bag for it (and my new dayplanner, courtesy of Leslie -who, incidentally, spent a half hour planning the next two months of my schedule for me, bless her). Maybe that’s what I’ll do on Saturday…

But, right now, it’s time for bed. ‘Night.

May I present the Emperor Fabulous?

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The peacock (who keeps coming back because my parents can’t resist feeding it) has a name now. Emm and I jokingly decided to call him “Emperor Fabulous” when the ‘rents called from Eugene the day after my, uh, shock. Somehow, the name has stuck. Like tar.

He’s getting spoiled, too. 2 granola bars, a handful of oats, and 2 handfuls of sunflower seeds in one day. My parents are suckers for anything that looks hungry. Oy. They’re actually talking about building him his own feeder.

Anyway. The yarn p0rn I promised… Silk Puff in Ivory:

ShiBuiKnits Silk Puff

And, (this is so amusing) Nature’s Palette in…

Nature's Pallette - Mallard
Mallard.

I swear I didn’t know that was the colourway until I got home. I just really liked how gold and green and teal it was. This might be a bad sign. If I start decorating in yellow in green please arrange an intervention or shoot me or something.

Other news? The Knitting G-ds forgave me last night, as I slept. How kind and generous They are. Because I managed to (thank goodness!) finish today:

  • the second part of Project #1
  • complete the ‘medium’ item for the Discworld swap and make progress on the other items I’ve been plotting
  • organize my WIPs, including Projects #2 & #3
  • re-edit a couple of patterns (woot!) AND send one set to the tech editor

The Muses are also sweet as well. I’ve had several ideas pop into my head in the past 24 hours. Sometimes I really wish I didn’t have to sleep. Or, like Penny suggested, buy more time when it’s needed.  Another set of arms would also be good.  Then I could knit and blog at the same time.  Knit and eat.  Knit and (urg) clean.  Knit and knit, actually.  Oooh… knit and knit.  How fun would that be?

Oh, well. It’ll all get done eventually.

um, where was I?

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Is it Sunday evening already? Wow, that was… fractured. I had a couple of really low days there, so not much was done. Other than lying in bed, wondering what I had done to piss off Hashem so badly.

But I’m better now, and have finally admitted to myself that it’s time to buck up and go to a psychologist. The antidepressants are clearly not working. I hate having to try new drugs (friends and family can tell about the horror of me on Welbutrin), but I hate the lows even more.

Anyway. Enough drama. Somehow, I managed to knit a bit. The heels of the Baudelaires took longer than any other heels I’ve knit. This might be due to my own problems at the time, or it might just be due to the fact that the heels are f*cking insane.


Genius. I’m not denying the genius of toe-up heel gussets/ flaps. But insane. Clearly insane. Cookie A. must have some interesting thoughts.

Tonight was supposed to be a Knitting Southies meet-up (ravelry), but I ended up being the only one to turn out. Nice, I know. I forgive Aimee, as she has a young daughter. To make myself feel better, I indulged in yarn therapy. Looking around Mabel’s, I sought the perfect yarn for Mona’s Embossed Leaves socks.

Finally, I spied the Green Mountain Spinnery cubbies. Ah, c’est magnifique. The colourway “Yarrow” immediately made me think of Birch leaves in autumn, so I snatched up two skeins of Cotton Comfort (20% organic cotton/ 80% wool – and machine washable!), to be used as soon as I get some needles free:


Did I mention that I took out Favourite Socks and Knitting On The Road from the local library? No? Hehehe.

Aaand look, more knitting news!, I’m nearly done with the left sleeve of the SBT, now affectionately known as Miss Lizzy’s Spencer:


I’ve always been fond of the character Elizabeth Bennett, from Pride & Prejudice. Designing something with her in mind has been of interest ever since I read the “Jane Austen knitting” thread on Craftster.

In non-knitting news, I applied for 10 different jobs on Friday. I have absolutely no doubt that I will not be hired for any of them. Which is fine, I have tons of yarn to keep me company.

Oh, and finally, ravelry is going to steal my soul. Sockdown: Ravelry is a success. The SKA hyas 740+ members, and I’m losing track of all the forums I’m on. It’s worse crack than Craftster. Someone saaave me. (well, not really, I’m having too much fun)

Red Letter Day

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It was so hot and humid today, I almost felt like I was back on the East Coast. We’re expecting another thunderstorm tonight, which is shocking to me – 2 in one summer in Oregon? Strange.

This afternoon, I received four teasers – the 4 extra bobbins for my en route Journey Wheel:

*sigh*

After fixing the sewing machine (again) for Mum, cleaning, doing several loads of laundry, and slaying a small chimaera, I took the sock to Laurelhurst Park:


The sock didn’t like the weather, either. But we fared better than either of the ‘rents or the dog. It was quite pathetic, really, how droppy Charlie was – he wouldn’t even play with the other dogs at the park. That was another first.

Because we were on the right side of town, I dragged Mum, Dad and Charlie to Twisted. Oh, yes, Charlie came in, too, to ooh’s and ahh’s. I liked the store. They’ve made an effort to stock unusual yarns, like recycled rayon and Tibetan hemp. The store’s still new and their shelves are a little bare (good publicity has helped them with that), but I also really appreciated the fact that they had a wall of sock yarn. Sock yarn other stores in the area don’t carry, like Cherry Tree Hill (drool), Woolarina, aaand Dreaming in Colour’s ‘Smooshy’:


I’m sorry. I couldn’t resist it’s siren song. It kept whispering sweet nothings to me when the young ladies were chatting with Mum. ‘Knit me! Knit me! I want to be a pair of Embossed Leaves socks! I know you want me… Knit me!”

Oh, right. Speaking of Embossed Leaves socks… (deep breath)… Mona Schmidt, the designer, has agreed to be the SKA’s Mystery Sock designer for November! (little squee)

And that is all the news I have right now. So sleepy and we’re getting up early to drive along the Columbia River Gorge to the Dalles. Expect lots of traveling sock photos tomorrow…

can I have a do over?

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Today was one of those disconcerting, existential, surreal days. All day I felt wrong, like I was in the wrong body, living the wrong life. I couldn’t knit anything. I didn’t want to eat. And everything I touched turned to lead or broke.

Oy.

To make matters worse, the family was snippy again and I finally couldn’t take it any longer. I snapped and started screaming. It wasn’t pretty. But I’ve since apologized and sat in my corner trying to psychoanalyze myself.

First thing I noticed? Analyzing oneself isn’t the easiest task in the world. Finally, I just admitted to myself that this is all probably part of the frustration of the move, being unemployed and still living with my parents.

Let’s add a ‘gavault’ to that ‘oy’ above.

But, to make matters somewhat easier on us all, I come bearing more pictures of the Portland parks, and the PNW, from Lake Oswego:




The last one is something pretty cool and amazing (even for the 10-year-Girl-Scout) – a holly tree growing out of the stump of a long-dead cedar tree. Now, I’ve seen young trees growing out of the stumps of old ones, but they’ve always been the same type of tree. It was really cool to see a holly paired with a cedar.

And, on top of the pretty greeness, I also come bearing yarn p0rn:


You are looking at the LAST TWO skeins of Shi Bui Sock “Orchid”. At the Sip’n’Knit tonight, I saw (omg, what’s her name?) walking by with an armload of too-beautiful-to-be-real yarn and immediately asked if those skeins were what I thought they were.

They are. They’re also the last two in the store. The other ones in the shipment have been on order for several knitters for the past 3 weeks. Realising this might be my last chance for another month (or more) to get the yarn I’ve coveted for weeks, I immediately pulled out my checkbook.

And, you want to know something sad?, they didn’t even ask for my name or address this time. They have it all memorized. This is a bad, bad sign. And Opus didn’t even stop me! Bad girl. She promised last week that she’d stop me the next time I tried to buy yarn.

*sigh*

After buying the yarn, waiting for it to be wound, and knitting a bit, we decided to leave at around 7:30-ish. I hadn’t eaten and Opus hadn’t eaten what we would call real food. And it was hot in there.

Just as we finished dinner and were leaving the restaurant, the sky opened and lightning laced across the sky in an eerily East-Coast-sort-of-way. The natives were all excited and immediately started counting between the flash and crash. I, instead, though about getting somewhere insulated.

Summer storms in D.C. meant either: A) flash floods, or: B) tornadoes.

But, I managed to get home (damp and frazzled) safe enough to lose my cool. Joy. I’m probably going to be hearing about this for weeks. Oh, well. It happens.

Tomorrow we get to clean the house because the landlord is coming by. Oooh, what fun. I’ll even give you the Peace Corps update tomorrow, to keep the next post from being completely boring.

We’re heeeeere.

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Sorry for the itsy bitsy pictures, but I’m on Portland free Wi-Fi at the moment, and since it’s offered by MSN it inherently hates Blogger. Sooo… clickies if you want to see them bigger.

We got up at 9 am when the movers arrived an hour early and started frantically packing (well, I showered first, I can’t say as much for my brother). After 4 hours of intensive boxing and sorting, the kitchen was packed and Mum and I were thoroughly exhausted. The boys hadn’t finished loading the truck and actually suggested leaving my stuff behind because ‘there wasn’t enough room’.

Right. Nuh-uh. Mum and I left about an hour earlier than the boys and, alas, I didn’t get to test my Contortionist Knitting abilities as I had hoped. The trip was stop-and-go the entire way, so I had to hold onto Lapis’ tank with both hands all the way to the house*. I suppose I could have tried knitting with my feet (I can write with my right foot), but it didn’t seem feasible as my feet were resting on two bags and ensconced in shoes. Thus is my sad excuse for not making any sock progress.

But, I do bring yarn p0rn! When we went to open the door of our new rental house, I noticed some interesting bulges in the doormat. Our nice postal worker had hidden several packages under the mat! That’s a first. Tammy, lovely wonderful person that she is, sent me Socks That Rock! I mentioned to her at the Harlot’s Powell’s event that I was severely disappointed that I had never managed to get Socks That Rock lightweight yarn in Puck’s Mischief, so she sent me some! How sweet is she? And it’s sooooo pretty…

I simply must cast on with this yarn ASAP. And I already have a ‘thank you’ gift arranged, mwahaha. Think lavendar-ish. Anyway, that little parcel totally made up for the 6 hours of sleep I got, packing, moving, unloading, and unpacking many, many boxes and huge pieces of furniture.

Back to the honking big furniture. Dad and Emm (and Charlie) arrived about 1.5 hours after us (Mum and I went grocery shopping in that time), and we immediately got to work, so that everyone would have a bed to sleep in tonight (and maybe some clothes to wear in the morning):

We didn’t quite manage the ‘clothes to wear in the morning’ angle for Mum & Dad as their dressers were the first pieces to be loaded on the truck. Since my stuff was the last to go in, and the first out (I think there might be some envy about that), so I actually have a furnished room at the moment:

All I need to do is summon up the energy to get up, walk down the hall, and put sheets on my bed, and then I can lie in a horizontal position for as long as I like.

Now there is a happy thought. Thank you everyone for the well-wishes, now I think I’m going to sit here and think about nothing. Toodle-oo.

*this did not prevent me from singing Irish ditties as loud as I could the entire way.