Free Yarn, Part Two

Or,

The Winner! (see below)

Or,

The Slacker (me)

OK. I know I said the contest ended on Thursday, that would be two days ago. I’ve gotten sucked into work again for a week, and things got away from me. More on that later.

I was highly entertained by all your comments on my “Free Yarn” post. Thanks to you all, we now have about thirty years of vacation spots lined up, and we’ll likely never get to all of them. (Just like I’ll never get to knitting stuff from all the yarn in the stash…when did that ever stop me from trying?)

Without further ado, the winner is, by way of the Random Number Generator:

Charity, author of the blog Knitting In The North. Go check out her blog. She is a wonderful knitter, and has lovely children. Her little Liam is just the cutest thing ever born. And she lives in Canada. Who doesn’t love Canada? She gets the lovely electric blue Aran weight yarn, and perhaps a couple of little extras that I’ll throw in.

As to the work week. This is my last work week at the old job. I’ve joined a new practice as an internist in the same city, same hospital, but a different group, starting in November. I have two more days in my current position, then a couple of weeks off to re-group and get oriented, then it’s off to the races in a new capacity. It should be fun and exciting, and a little more of a sane work schedule, I hope. I definitely need more time to knit and spin (and sleep!), and to travel to all of those places that you guys recommended. Wish me luck! I’ll be back with a Project Update next week!

Free Yarn!

Now that ought to get everybody’s attention! First, though, thanks to everyone who sent fine birthday wishes, and also for putting up with the endless travelogue in the past few weeks. We made it home safely, though I’m still not quite recovered from the time changes. Even the switch to and from daylight savings time messes with my head, so an eight-hour change is really doing it to me. I’ve been waking up at 4 AM, which wouldn’t be so bad, but I’m a zombie again by about 6 PM.

I just downloaded all the photos off my camera this morning (after I woke up at 4 AM in the middle of a Halloween-slasher kind of nightmare). There are over 700 of them, and all I can say is thank God for digital. John has his own camera, and I suspect an equal number of photos. He’s in charge of photo selection and album content, and once he gets them weeded down to a reasonable number, I’ll provide a link to the online version for anybody who hasn’t seen enough already. I might post one or two here and there, just because I can.

OK, here are a couple before I get down to the business you are all really interested in.

One last Guinness:

We found this building in Kinsale. Read the sign over the door. I might need to join after 16 days of Guinness, wine, and Irish whiskey. Click to make it big enough to read.

Here’s that sweater that several of you asked about. As we rounded Slea Head on the Dingle peninsula, we had to make a stop for the “facilities”, and found a nice craft shop. A lot of the “craft” shops in Ireland are full of cheap trinkets, what I like to call “rubber tomahawk” shops, but some are quite nice. They had some lovely Aran sweaters that were labelled as hand knit, and were pretty inexpensive if they really were handmade. I couldn’t resist. John thought it was pretty hilarious buying a wool sweater when I’m a knitter, but I was cold, hadn’t found any yarn as of yet, and there it was.

It’s quite warm, too. I more or less wore it for the rest of the trip.

OK, now the moment you’ve been waiting for, the free yarn. I found this in a craft shop in Leenane, which I blogged about while we were on vacation.

As the label says, it’s Aran weight tweed, 100% Donegal wool, in a lovely blue color with little tweedy speckles. There is no weight or yardage listed on the labels, but it’s all one dyelot, and each weighs 50 grams. This would be enough for a hat, and perhaps hand warmers as well. It’s labelled as “A Green Product”, and “Natural Feeling”, which I find amusing. Once again, click to embiggen and get a better view of that electric blue.

One of my lucky readers will win this yarn, along with perhaps a tiny surprise or two. This is simply shameless promotion on my part. Since I moved the blog, my RSS subscribers have dropped from over 700 to 38. The competitor in me finds this a bit demoralizing, so one of the purposes of this contest will be to get you to subscribe. Just hit that button over there that says “subscribe”, pick your blog reader, and Bob’s your uncle. Of course, I won’t really know which ones of you are subscribing, so here’s how you can get a chance to enter the contest. Leave me a comment on this post, telling me about your absolute favorite place to travel. If you don’t have one, tell me where you’d like to go, if time and money were no object. I’ll let the random number generator pick a lucky winner. The deadline will be, oh, let’s say Thursday, the 15th, at midnight my time. Good luck!

All Good Things Must Come To An End

Here’s where we were yesterday.

Here’s where we are tonight.

We have a relatively early flight in the morning, so we’re staying near the airport tonight. It’s been a great trip, but it’s time to get home to the pups and kitties. See you on the flip side. Yarn contest in the next post!

They Say It’s My Birthday!

Well, yesterday to be exact. I was having too much fun last night to finish the post, so you get it early this morning.

We’re in Clifden, on the west coast in County Galway, and yesterday was just a glorious day. We have friends in England who warned us that this was a horrible time to visit Ireland due to the weather, but we’ve had just grand weather. (Notice how I’m starting to talk like the locals?) We had one day when it just plain rained, and we’ve had a couple of windy days, but mostly it has been sunny for at least a good part of each day. It’s been cool, but that I can live with. It gave me an excuse to buy a nice little sweater while I am here.

So how did I spend my 53rd birthday? We drove around the Sky Road west of Clifden in the morning, with glorious views of the ocean and the many (300) surrounding islands. Then we drove to Leenane, stopping at Connemara National Park for a little hike. In Leenane, I finally hit pay dirt.

I finally found yarn! There were four kinds, all of them Aran weight. My sweetie bought me enough pretty yarn to make a sweater. The prices actually were quite reasonable. Here’s what I got.

The color of that is all wrong, but I think you’ll have to wait till I get home to take an outdoor photo in natural light. I already get mighty funny looks just for knitting in public. I can’t imagine what the locals would do with me if I started taking pictures of yarn in the parking lot. There are roughly 2700 yards of that (not marked on the yarn itself, but I measured the hank, counted strands, and did the math). It’s a pretty, tweedy deep forest green. It will make a lovely sweater.

I didn’t stop there, always thinking of my readers. There’s more.

Those are both Aran weight Donegal tweed, about 200 grams of each color. One of these colors will go in a big blog contest when I get home, so stay tuned later this week.

But wait, there’s more! There was a little spinning and weaving museum attached. The lady who normally is there giving demonstrations was out, but the woman running the shop saw my dejection and let me in.

Here are just a few of the wheels that were on display.

After we left Leenane, we headed for Westport, where we walked around and then had a couple of pints in Matt Malloy’s pub. The bartender bought me a Guinness when he heard it was my birthday.

We drove through some more fabulous scenery, getting back to our hotel just in time for cocktails and dinner.

Back at the hotel, one of the owners, on discovering that it was my birthday, bought me champagne, and at the end of dinner, a birthday treat and singing.

And I got to knit! What could be better?

We’re in Clifden again tonight, then we head back towards Dublin tomorrow, then home on Thursday. We’ve been gone long enough that I actually am ready to be home, though I’ve enjoyed every minute of this trip. Well, maybe not the parts where we’ve been nearly run off the road by tour buses going 100 km an hour, but all the rest of it.

There may or may not be another post before we head home. Someone else thinks I’ve been hogging the computer, so I have to give it up. Remember, check back later this week for a contest post!

Pretty Much Random Irish Photos

We’re in Doolin, and have enjoyed a couple of nights of “good craic” in the pubs here. We met a couple of Irish women last night, Maeve and Martina, who pointed out that “good craic” in American English doesn’t mean quite the same as it does in Irish English. Here the term means good fun, in NYC, it might get you arrested. At any rate, we’re still having a great time, and here are some photos to prove that.

Fuschias were imported here some decades ago, and now grow wild. The hedgerows along many of the roads are about eight feet tall, and mostly fuschia.

There are a lot of sheep here. I still haven’t found yarn shops.

The Catholic Church is still here. There’s been a bit of a resurgence in the old faith with the economy tanking. There’s a surprise.

Megalithic tombs, standing stones, ruined castles. There are a lot of them here. If you’re lucky enough to have one in your pasture, you can charge admission.

Am I the only one who thinks that the Cliffs of Moher are really the Cliffs Of Insanity from Princess Bride?

Just a pretty photo to prove that there was actually a bit of sunshine today. We’ve actually had remarkably good weather for the past two weeks, though today it was blustery, with showers and enough wind that we could hardly stand up straight to take photos up on those cliffs.

We head to County Galway tomorrow for a few days. You know the drill. If there’s internets there, you’ll see photos!

Pints

Pippin: What’s that?

Merry: This, my friend, is a pint.

Pippin: It comes in pints?! I’m getting one!

Mostly Photos

We’re now on the west coast of Ireland, in a town called Kenmare, on the road to the Ring Of Kerry, which will be today’s adventure. Here are some photos from the past few days.

I was a little nervous about touching the standing stones, but didn’t go anywhere*.

There are lots of sheep here.

And a druid. I think he wanted to knit.

And some yarn, finally. I haven’t seen one yarn shop since I’ve been here, despite seeing flocks and flocks of sheep.

We’re off for the day!

*If you’re an Outlander fan, you’ll know of what I speak.

Kilkenny & Cashel & Kinsale, Oh My!

We’re on the road, having left Dublin after a three-day stay there. In every place we’ve been, we easily could spend a whole vacation seeing the sights and enjoying the local people and customs. But onward we go. It’s impossible to see everything in one vacation, even a relatively long one (16 days total for us).

Kilkenny was our first stop after Dublin. This is a very attractive medieval town with winding narrow streets and a huge castle that dominates the landscape. We took the castle tour, wandered the streets, and had a pint or two in a local pub.

We only spent one night there, then hit the road in the morning, headed for the Rock of Cashel. Driving in Ireland, on the “wrong” side of the road, is quite entertaining. So far, John hasn’t trusted me to drive, so he drives and I’m the navigator and map-reader. All I can say is thank God for Jill, the GPS lady who came with us on the trip. We’ve finally learned to just listen when she shouts “turn! turn!”. We took the little winding back roads for this part of the trip, which was a bit hair-raising. The N roads are the wider roads, just wide enough for two cars to pass without taking off the side mirrors. The R roads are a bit narrower, and when you meet another car, you have to make a choice. You either stay where you are and lose the driver’s side mirror, or you pull over and put scratches in the finish on the passenger side.

The non-N, non-R roads are what we drove yesterday. Mostly they are big enough for one car, and you just pray that if you meet someone coming at you that they are not going the posted speed limit of 100 km/hour, and that it’s not on a blind curve. So far we still have mirrors and most of the paint on the car.

The Rock of Cashel is an old fortress/cathedral that is in ruins, and highly worth the trip.

We didn’t sleep in Cashel, but drove on to Kinsale for two nights, which is where we are now. No photos yet, but you can be certain there will be! This is a lovely little harbor town, with a lot of historical significance, so we’re off for the day to tour the village and see the ruins of the Fort. I also had no clue that the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk right off the coast here, so that was an interesting factoid.

John’s clamoring for his turn with Minnie* so I’m off for the day!

*Minnie Dell, of course. What were you thinking?

More Dublin

We found some other fun things in Dublin besides Guinness. Here I am, checking out the lunch options.

And then there was dinner:

In case you think we’ve done nothing but eat and drink, that’s not true. In between those things yesterday, we saw the National Gallery, the National History Museum, and last but not least, the Book of Kells and the Long Room Library at Trinity College. For a bibliophile, the Long Room was fabulous. We also got a nice nap in there somewhere.*

I’m posting from a tiny mini-Dell (named Minnie), with a tiny screen and somewhat sketchy internet access, so answering comments may be a bit limited while we’re here. I also have to share Minnie with John, who seems to think he gets equal computer time. Thanks for all your comments nonetheless!

We leave Dublin today, headed west. Our first stop will be Kilkenny. On to the adventure of driving on the wrong side of the road!

*Not in the Long Room. It was pointed out to me that the way I wrote that sentence made it sound like we took a nap in the Long Room.

Dublin, Just One Photo Says It All

Yes, we’re having a good time. Yesterday was Arthur’s Day, the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Guinness empire. And no, we didn’t drink all those ourselves.

Blogging From 35,000 Feet

Who knew? You can get the internets from an airplane, and our new Mini Dell takes photos. Here you go.

We’re on our way to Chicago, then we change planes for Dublin. As you can see, I started the new sock. John has changed the color name to Squashed Frog. Who knows, maybe Lowenzahn means Squashed Frog in German!

And We’re Off Again

This time we’re off on a two-week vacation to Ireland. We leave tomorrow morning, so I’m frantically going through all the knitting bags to get stuff sorted out. Of course I have nothing else packed, but damn, I have the knitting ready. Here’s what I’m taking with me. This will also serve as sort of a mini-Project Update as well. Cool! Two posts in one!

First, here’s the spinning portion of the blog. If you don’t give a hoot about spinning, scroll down. I finished some pretty pretty yarn this week. A few months back, I scored a couple of Abby’s Batts. Here’s one of them all spun up. As usual, click to embiggen.

The fiber is 69% merino, 30% tussah silk, and 1% firestar (aka sparkle!). This is roughly a light fingering, and there’s about 600 yards of it, enough to make a pretty shawl. That’s not coming to Ireland with me, though. The color name is Green Green Grass.

I’m still working on John’s True Blue sweater, and am partly through the first sleeve. The front and back are both done. This will come with me on the trip. I transferred it from straight needles to circulars, to make stuffing it into a travel bag a little easier.

And I’m still working on the Peony socks. These will go in checked luggage, because of those wicked sharp Signature double points. I’m not crazy enough to try to get those on a plane.

Last but not least, some green yarn for another pair of socks, just in case I finish the Peony socks. This is one of my treasured Wollmeise skeins, in the color Lowenzahn.

And I have a suspicion that I might find some yarn while I’m there. At least I can hope. If not, I’ll drink lots of Guinness to drown my sorrows. We leave in the morning, and will have a mini-computer with us, so there might be an update or two along the way. Otherwise, I’ll see you in a couple of weeks!

The Next Big Thing

If I ever finish that True Blue sweater for John, here’s the yarn for the Faery Ring sweater that will be next.

This is Black Water Abbey yarn, in the color Haw. I think it will be perfect for this cardigan.

And what’s that little green velvet bag in the middle? Why, buttons, of course.

Those are just the most perfect thing for this pattern. They cost more than the yarn, but I could not resist. If the sweater wears out, I’ll cut the buttons off and re-use them. The goldsmith who make these is Carolyn Kent, though she doesn’t have her website up and running yet. These are silver, with real garnets in the center.

I’m off to the farmers market for provisions. Don’t forget that it’s International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Arrrr!

Playing With Photos

One of the WordPress features that I’ve discovered is that you can upload a thumbnail of a photo, but when you click on it, it opens a bigger photo in a new browser tab. Go ahead, click on that and see what happens.

Do you recognize that man? That’s my sweet husband, many many years ago when he was in Vietnam. He found an old box of slides from that era, and I convinced him to get them transferred to digital format. I have to say, he took some great photos while he was there. I’m trying to convince him to start a blog of his own, so I won’t post them all here, but here’s one more of my handsome soldier boy.

Jacoby’s Blankie

It’s finally done:

Project Details:

Yarn: Knitpicks City Tweed Aran weight, in Snowshoe and Brocade. I used 5 skeins of the former, less than 3 of the latter.

Pattern: Brooklyn Tweed’s Baby Blanket pattern, roughly. I started knitting based on a previous blog post, and then he released the pattern. The original pattern used the DK weight of the same yarn. I just started knitting away, and had finished most of the center before the “real” pattern was available. I just figured out how many pattern repeats would go around the outside and picked up that many stitches.

Needle size: Denise 10 1/2. Though when I got to the I-cord edging, I pitched them and used a large Addi instead. The Denise needle tips kept unscrewing as I was doing the edging, though I have never had them do that before. I suppose there was some twisting action of the I-cord that caused this.

Started: June 1, 2009

Finished: August 29, 2009

For: My first grand-nephew, Jacoby!

What I Learned: Start baby projects early. Seriously. They come faster than you think. Also, I love this yarn to pieces. We’ll see how it holds up. It’s softer than soft, so I’m thinking it might pill, but you could wrap it around a barenaked baby without any qualms. It’s not superwash, so those of you thinking this would make great baby clothes might think about that a bit.

I also learned that I’m not so fond of doing I-cord edging, though it is mighty pretty once it’s done.

Credits: Sweetpea, the stand-in baby model.