Lorette

Oops…

Or,
April Wrap-Up
I can explain. There are a lot of reasons for the brief blog absence, but here’s the main one.

I finally made it into the 21st century and got an iPhone. To say that I’ve been captivated by it would be an understatement. I can finally get rid of all those little bits and pieces of paper and the paper so-called organizer that is NEVER in sync with anything else around here.

So. Here were the April goals.

I have some Corgi Hill True Blood Red fiber that I started last summer, spindle spun. I’m going to get half of it spun up.

The wheel project is that Spunky Eclectic fiber. It’s Targhee wool, the color is called Flannel. I’ll show you a photo next time, it’s gotten dark here and photos just aren’t working tonight. I want to FINISH that!

Get the bodice done on the Faery sweater, and start a sleeve.

Really, those damned brown socks that I’ve been knitting forever need to be done. I promise that if I don’t finish them by the end of April, that I will burn them in the backyard in a spectacular sacrifice to the goddess of knitting. Really. I’ll take pictures.

And how did I do? I got part of a batt of the red fiber spun, but nowhere near half. I didn’t come close to finishing the Targhee fiber. I have an excuse for both of those, which I’ll show you later. I’m very easily distracted, as most of you know if you’ve been following me for very long.

I did finish those brown socks. Thank God, I’d have hated to have to burn them in the back yard. Besides, it’s been raining here so much that I doubt I’d have gotten a fire started.

I didn’t come close on the Faery sweater. Here’s where I am.

So I did actually work on it. I’ve gotten most of the left front done, I only have a few rows left before I can put it on a holder and work on the back section. At this rate I might finish it in time to wear for NEXT winter.

I did read a couple of books, and I also did 8 blog posts in April. Plus several levels of Cut The Rope on my new phone. Don’t even ask.

And what was that excuse for not getting any spinning done, you might ask?

That’s 4 ounces worth of a very dirty Romney fleece, from a sheep named Peggy. Here it is getting a bath:

And here it is, much cleaner:

I think I’ve officially lost my mind. I have another pound of this, but can’t quite face it at the moment.

How about goals for May? I probably should set some before the month is over.

I really want to finish the body section of the True Blood Faery section.

I want to finish the Targhee spinning.

Blog more.

That’s it. I’m not over-reaching this month.

So if anybody has some cool, you-can’t-live-without-them iPhone apps, let me know about them in the comments. Just remember, for every game recommendation you send me, I’ll get that much less knitting done.

Happy Easter!

From our house to yours!

Trouble!

Or,

Don’t Leave Your Knitting On The Floor When The Cat Is “Sleeping” Under Your Desk

Temptation:

The Fall:

The Guilty Look:

Whaaaaat? I wasn’t doin’ NOTHIN’, mom!

My Life According to Chip Taylor

This one came from Vicki, AKA Knitorious. If you want to play, you have to pick a different artist, one artist, and choose one of their song titles that best fits each question, preferably not repeating song titles. This actually was pretty fun. I saw these two perform together in Seattle a few years ago. Chip wrote “Angel of the Morning” years ago, one of the highlights of the evening was when Merrilee Rush, who performed it and made it famous, came up unexpectedly on stage to sing it with him.

MY LIFE ACCORDING TO Chip Taylor/Carrie Rodriguez (they sometimes play together, sometimes not)

Are you a male or female:
“Magic Girl”

Describe yourself:
“Sweet Dream Girl”

How do you feel:
“Angel Of The Morning”

Angel Of The Morning*

Describe where you currently live:
“Midnight On The Water”

If you could go anywhere, where would you go:
“Oh Ireland”

Your favorite form of transportation:
“Same Damn Car”

Your best friend is:
“Hey Jonny” (john, of course!)

You and your best friends are:
“We Come Up Shining”

What’s the weather like:
“All The Rain”

Favorite time of day:
“Big Moon Shining”

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called:
“The Trouble With Humans”

What is life to you:
“Do Your Part”

Your relationship:
“I Can’t Help It If I’m Still In Love With You”

Your fear:
“Something About Losing It All”

What is the best advice you have to give:
“We Just Roll On”

Thought for the Day:
“What Would Townes Say About That” (Townes Van Zandt)

How you would like to die:
“Dance With Jesus”

Your soul’s present condition:
“Unglorious Hallelujah”

Your motto:
“Must Be The Whiskey”

I couldn’t find a video of this, but here’s a link to an NPR story about the two of them, click on the “listen” button, this is the first track they perform, and is about 2 minutes in on the audio.

Drop me a note if you decide to play along, I’d love to see what you all come up with.

*I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to get that fracking video to embed here. You’ll need to go on over to fracking u-tube to watch. Some days I hate html with a blind fury fueled even hotter by menopause.

World Grits Day, 2011

Well OK, it was Thursday, not today, but we did have grits, and I took a photo to commemorate the event. Kris tuned me in to this several years ago with her Grits & Sticks contest, so I included knitting in the photo.

That’s a nice plate of shrimp grits, with the first rosé wine of the spring, and my True Blood Faery sweater. You will notice that the wine matches the sweater.

I’m clearly not going to reach my April goal on this project, which was to finish the bodice and start a sleeve. The whole thing is knit in one piece up to where it divides at the armholes. I was pretty sure I had gotten to that point already, but I keep knitting and knitting cable rows, then measuring and getting the exact same number. I still have about an inch to knit on the bodice before it splits, but I appear to be in limbo at this point.

Last but not least, the spammers have gotten more clever lately with the comments. My spam filter is pretty good, it rarely misses a spam comment, and even more rarely dumps a real comment in the trash. I do glance through them before I permanently delete them, mostly just for laughs. Here are a couple of the recent ones that make me laugh. I’m excluding all of the comments written in Russian, since I would have no idea what I was posting.

Can I simply say what a reduction to find somebody who truly is aware of what theyre talking about on the internet. You positively know tips on how to convey an issue to light and make it important. Extra folks have to learn this and understand this aspect of the story. I cant imagine youre not more popular since you positively have the gift.

Well, thanks!

Hello there, Are you going to be publishing a follow up piece? My husband and me have squandered some time browsing over your web page and surprisingly enough you touched on some thing we had been discussing only the other week with our accountant. We often notice ourselves quarrelling over the smallest of issues, isn’t it childish? At any rate we wish you greatest wishes from the Usa.

Sorry, no marriage counseling here.

This looks to be a very active website. How do you manage to keep up with filtering out all the comments?

Good question, good question.

I’m off to get some stuff done, have a great weekend!

Saved From The Fires Of Mount Doom

Or,

Finished Project!

Project Details:

Yarn: Sanguine Gryphon Little Traveler sock yarn, color is Penny Pot, NJ. Go check out her yarn, her colors and fiber bases are wonderful. This is superwash merino.

Pattern: What do YOU think? Same old pattern, 72 stitches around, top down, this one with a ribbed cuff. I put Wooly Nylon in the heels and toes.

Needles: 2.00mm Blackthorn needles. I like these, and the tips are absolutely the sharpest double points I’ve ever seen. I was worried that these would hurt my hands, since my one go-around with the Signature needles did (enough that I sold them), but these are fine.

Started: July 2010. I’m not kidding, even though it’s a bit embarrassing to say so.

Finished: Today!

For: Me!

What I Learned: Medical conferences are really good for finishing sock knitting! Lookie here at what else I did today:

In the spirit of full disclosure, I didn’t do all of that today. This was my Wintergrass sock, and I was about half done with the cuff before I picked it back up today. I ran into two other knitters today, one of them did her best to try to convince me that I should buy a loom. She also said that I shouldn’t Mickey Mouse around with a small table loom, I should go right to a huge floor loom, and I wouldn’t regret it if I did. Who knew that a medical conference could be that dangerous of a place?

Here are a couple of photos that show we’re still having fun. I have been going to all the meetings, since in fact that’s what I’m being paid to do, but we did have a great couple of days before the meeting started. We’ve also been finding some wonderful restaurants in the evenings.

More meetings tomorrow, then back home to rain and cold (I am assuming, I haven’t bothered to check the weather yet).

Sunshine!

No rain, no clouds, it’s actually warm here. I can already tell that we will love San Diego and want to come back. We got here late yesterday, then had a nice dinner last night at an Iranian restaurant in the Gaslamp district.

Here I am at the airport.

No, that’s not that blasted unfinished brown sock. It’s on my Blackthorn needles, which I’m not sure I’d try to get on an airplane. I did put this away after we got here though, I’m going to seriously try to finish the brown pair this week.

Today we paid for one of those city trolley tour things. It was a relatively cheap way to get transportation all over the city for a day. We rode all the way around the city tour, but spent most of the day at Balboa Park. You could spend a whole vacation just there. There are great trails, nice gardens, and lots of cool museums. We ended up doing the space and flight museum, which was fun. I met a fellow knitter there.

That’s Amelia Earhart, with her airplane. I didn’t know that they had found her.

What, you didn’t know she was a knitter?? Look closely at her left hand. Click to make it bigger….

A sock knitter, no less. Funny, she’s knitting socks in the same yarn that I am.

We also saw one of the Blackbird Stealth jets at the museum.

It amuses me to no end that the jet is made out of the same stuff as my knitting needles.

Here’s proof that there are sunshine and flowers in southern California.

And some pretty scenery.

Tomorrow we have tickets for a Padres game. They won their home opener today, so hopefully it will be a good game tomorrow. We have the morning to goof off, but haven’t quite decided what we’ll do yet. My conference starts the following day, so we’re going to try to pack in as much tomorrow as we can!

More Knitting Time!

No photos today, since I’m supposed to leave for the airport in 2 hours and have neither showered nor packed (what? Plan ahead? I’m supposed to do that??). We’re heading to sunny San Diego for the week. The American College of Physicians has their annual internal medicine meeting there this year, and since I haven’t been to one in a while, I decided to go. It’s usually a really good medical conference, and it doesn’t hurt that it’s in a sunny spot in early April. It IS turning to spring here in Washington, but that still means rain, rain, clouds, 40 degrees, and more rain. And wind, let’s not forget that. So it will be nice to be somewhere warmer. And sun. Please, God, just a little sunshine.

I am planning to just take sock projects with me. I have two socks on the needles, one of which is in danger of immolation if it’s not finished by the end of the month, and the sweater is just too damned bulky to fit in a suitcase at this point. I haven’t researched yarn stores in SD yet, but I’m sure there are some. We’ll be staying in the Gaslight district, anybody have any suggestions for fibery things near there?*

OK, I’m off to pack. I’m taking Ernie** with me, so there might be blog posts if I have anything of note to report. Have a great week!

*Shhhhh…John thinks I just wander into these places by accident. Don’t spill that I research the yarn stuff before we go on vacation.

**Ernie is the Mac Air, he’s a great travel computer.

March Wrap-Up

It’s a new month, which only means one thing. A Wrap-Up! No joke!

So how did I do? Here were my March goals:

I’m getting back to that True Blood Faery sweater. My goal is to get at least half of the cabled bodice done in March.

I am going to finish that lilac fiber, and ply it too. So there.

I now have two pairs of socks on the needles, so I need to finish one of them. The brown Sanguine Gryphon socks need to be done. I have one sock done and the cuff of the second done.

I have some fiber from Spunky Eclectic on the wheel that I’d like to finish, but that might be a bit ambitious since there’s a pound of it.

We Have Winners!

Boy, I keep forgetting how putting up the “Free Yarn!” sign gets people to comment. I haven’t even come close to replying to all of you, but thanks for all the terrific suggestions for knitting patterns. I found some great suggestions in there, many that weren’t on my ever-growing Ravelry queue yet.

I know, I know. Quit yapping, Lorette, and get to the winners. I used a random number generator, crossed out the handful of people who said inexplicably that they didn’t want any yarn, and numbered the rest.

The first winner is Dorothy, of Missouri Star fame. She wins the red yarn (see previous post for a picture). I’m thinking that this would make a cute little girl’s dress! Or maybe an adult vest or short sleeve summer top. Dorothy’s favorite pattern is the Evenstar shawl, which I have as a UFO in a bag upstairs. It will get finished eventually.

The second is Debi, who commented that she likes to knit patterns she makes using EZ’s percentage system. This is actually a technique I’ve never tried, but may do so for my next sweater project. Debi gets the two skeins of sock yarn.

Next time, some finished spinning, and my report on how I did with my March knitting and spinning goals! Congratulations to the winners, and thanks again to all of you who keep up with my silliness!

Oh, and Lewey says “thanks” to all of you who were sad that he wasn’t one of the prizes!

Seven Years! Free Yarn!

Happy Blogiversary to me! Seven years ago today I started this blog. I’ve done 548 posts, and had 7626 comments in the past 7 years. I’ve met a bunch of really interesting people through my blog, and “met” a lot more virtually online. You all have stuck with me through silly knitting mistakes, goofy whiskey-related incidents, and one big accident that put me out of commission both for knitting and work for 3 months. You’ve cheered me on during bad work weeks, during a stressful job move, and encouraged me to be a better knitter/spinner, just so I wouldn’t have to show photos of crap here. I think I’ve become a better writer and photographer because of the blog, though I have a lot to learn still about both.

In honor of all of you, I’m having a contest! I have two things from my stash that I’m giving away. Here’s what you’ll play for, if you decide to participate:

The first is a sweater’s worth of Phildar Aviso that’s been aging in the stash long enough. It’s a cotton acrylic blend, and is a true crayon red. It is a heavy worsted weight, and there are 888 yards of it, enough for a short sleeved sweater (or something for a child!). I really like this stuff, but I tend to buy a lot of red yarn, and I have yarn in the stash for at least four more red sweaters.

Lewey approves, but wants to point out that he’s not included. Here’s a photo without the Corgi.

The second prize is two skeins of sock yarn. These are both from Three Irish Girls, and are two from her Sock Yarnista yarn club.

The one on the top is her Finley fingering superwash merino, color Seacoast. The bottom one is Beckon merino, a light sport weight, color Arboretum.

As usual, all yarn from this house comes with plenty of free dog and cat hair, though it mostly is stored out of their reach. There is no smoking allowed in my house, if that’s a concern.

How do you enter to win one of those prizes? Very simple: just comment, one comment per person, and tell me what your favorite knitting pattern is. I want to hear about sweaters, hats, mittens, whatever strikes your fancy. It can be something you’ve knit many times, or something you really want to make but haven’t gotten to yet.

Contest starts as of now, and I’ll pick 2 winners using a random number generator. Let’s say you have until Tuesday night, the 29th, at midnight Pacific time. After that, I’ll choose a winner! Good luck, and thank you all for 7 great years!

Ten on Tuesday

I don’t think I’ve ever done one of these. Usually I discover the TOT topic on about Friday, and by then it’s too late. This week’s topic is Ten Reasons To Be Glad It’s Spring, and who doesn’t love spring? So here goes. This is courtesy of Carole.

1. Baby ducks! We’re a ways out yet, but this little pair of ducks has been hanging out, so I expect they’re getting ready to make a nest. It’s cute how the guy duck stands guard while his lady swims around and eats.

2. The smells of spring. I love that damp leaf smell as everything warms up.

3. Spring flowers. The first things up in our yard are hyacinthoides. They grow wild along our driveway, and if they’re in sun they’ve already started to bloom in places.

4. Longer days. This is the reason we celebrate winter solstice so vigorously around here. Sooner or later we start getting more daylight.

5. Less rain, eventually anyway. It’s been a pretty typically rainy winter here, and I’m ready for a little sunshine.

6. Walks in the woods without a bazillion layers of warm clothes.

7. The dogs will get to play in the lake soon!

8. Chirpy birds in the morning. It’s only been in the last week or two that we’ve had a little bird choir to wake us up in the morning. We have a pair of Steller’s jays making a nest in our trees again this year. They’re more raucous than chirpy, but welcome anyway.

9. Willie the cat loves spring because he gets to start spending more time outside. He’s been absolutely nutso the past 2 weeks being cooped up inside with spring rains.

10. The farmers markets open in a few short weeks! Mmmmmm…green garlic, sorrel, new spring lettuces. I can’t wait.

What do you love about spring?

Still Life

With spindle…

And a closeup of that spindle.

I may actually reach my goal of finishing this fiber up by the end of the month. Here’s the handy-dandy drug dealer’s scale (AKA HDDDS) showing how much is left to spin.

21.2 grams, or a little less than 3/4 ounce. I started with 8 ounces of this stuff.

This post would have been up much earlier today, but it took me awhile to find the HDDDS. I finally located it under a pile of crap in my office. It amazes me how quickly this place degenerates into something resembling a poorly organized junk shop. On the upside, I found the sunglasses I haven’t seen since Wintergrass last month. They were in the bag I had at Wintergrass. Go figure.

I also forgot to post photos of our Fat Tuesday celebration. We had seafood gumbo and John’s favorite cornbread recipe. Here’s the roux in process.

And John stirring:

And the finished product.

Yum!

Even I Was Surprised…

At how many places I’ve been!

visited 34 states (68%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

The rest of the world* is little less well-travelled:

visited 18 states (8%)
Create your own visited map of The World

I have to laugh a bit at Canada. If you’ve been to one town in Canada, apparently you’ve seen an awful lot.

And here’s that map with some of the placed I’d LIKE to go!

visited 54 states (24%)
Create your own visited map of The World

So where have all of you been?

*Edited to add Morocco to the places I’ve been! Thanks, Kris, for noticing that, and you get the good memory award!

Because I Can

And, it’s Dorothy’s fault. Really. In her last post she mentioned she has an upcoming trip to San Francisco, and she asked about yarn shops. This reminded me of a trip from the past, and a yarn shop in SF, and some lovely stuff that’s been marinating in the stash.

Out it came, and here it is, started. There are no WIP Police in this neighborhood, and in honor of actually finishing something for once, I started a stole.

Click on that to see just how pretty that is. As you can see, it’s two separate yarns, the first is Houdini, a nylon ribbon, which they don’t seem to have on their website any longer. The second is Kyoto, a mohair silk blend. After I picked this out, I mentioned that I had no idea what I would do with it, and the shop owner sat down and sketched out a pattern right then and there. Fortunately I saved it and the needles in the bag with the yarn. It’s basically a rectangular stole, you knit two rows with the ribbon, then two rows with the mohair/silk. It starts with 3 stitches, increasing on each side every other row until it’s as wide as you want, then increase on one side and decrease on the other until it’s as long as you want, then decrease again on each side to narrow down to the other point. It’s totally different than anything else I’ve knit with. I have some of the ribbon in a deep red as well.

Here’s a photo of what I had for dessert last night.

It would seem like I’m on a gold-orange-brown cycle.

Happy Fat Tuesday to all! We’re having seafood gumbo for dinner tonight in honor of the day. I’ll get photos for next time!