Lorette

Yarn Focus Challenge

Rebekah of KnitKnack (Basil and Abner’s mom) has started this challenge. We’re not buying yarn for the next three months, except on one “free” day per month, when we can go crazy. The point is to focus our yarn buying, rather than just hitting that “buy” button in every online yarn shop we find. We’re all going to donate yarn to a “yarn pot” at the end of the three-month period, and the winner will get the whole pile. April 1st is “Day Zero”.

This is perfect for me. I am the worst impulse shopper. I see yarn and patterns on other blogs, and just have to have it. The internet makes this incredibly easy, and the credit card bill here unfortunately takes the brunt of the damage. I will say that I have an unfair advantage in this one in that I have enough yarn in my yarn closet to last for about ten years of “yarn focus challenges”.

So in preparation for this, as soon as Rebekah announced it, I went and bought more yarn. No use taking any chances, right? And in fact some of it was necessary. I am probably going to run out of the “Bold Red” Lorna’s Laces for that two color sock, so I bought another stinking ball of it. I figured my license to shop would probably be revoked permanently if I ordered yarn and only got one stinking ball, so I ordered some Madil Kid Seta in lemon, for this scarf. One little skein of that, too.

If any of you are Lorna’s Laces fans, and aren’t on a Yarn Focus Challenge, Angelika’s, where I bought this, has the world’s best LL collection. You name it, she has it. And great service; after you order, you barely have time to put the credit card away, and the UPS guy drives up.

Speaking of which, somebody should probably let Alan, my UPS guy, know that I haven’t died or anything. And yes, I know my UPS guy by name. Doesn’t everybody??

I already know where my April “free day” will be spent. We’re going on a little pleasure jaunt to New York City later this month, and I have never been there. We already have tickets to a Yankee’s game, tickets to see “Sweeney Todd”, and tickets to Van Morrison’s concert at Madison Square Garden. And reservations for dinner at the Rainbow Room. We’re staying near Times Square; where are the best yarn shops? Any reader suggestions?

Aunti Meme

I’m not so much into doing memes. I love reading them, but by the time I get my sorry butt around to doing it, everybody else in blogland has done it and it’s so over. Here’s one from JenLa that I had to do though, if only because I loved the button and wanted to put it here. I didn’t think there was any legitimate way to steal the freaking button without doing the meme, so here you go.

1. A blog which you think people have not discovered.
This was difficult. It’s hard to tell sometimes who’s been discovered and who’s not. In the end, I went with a blog that’s relatively new to me. Knitting Underway’s Theresa is a fabulous knitter. Go look at her Olympic Medal winning sweater, Am Kamin, if you want proof.

2. A blog whose author lives close to you physically. Just get as close as you can, it’s all relative.
Kris, from The Knitting Wannabe. I should get double points for this one because until a few months ago she was a Floridian, which would probably make her the knitblogger who lived the farthest away from me in the US.

3. An unusual or weird animal picture.
This one was easy. I love Abner, from Knit Knack. Basil the bird is cool, too, but Abner might be my favorite blog-dog, next to my own Riley. Scroll down that post a bit to see Abner nosing the camera.

4. An entry that made you laugh and got you strange looks from family or co-workers.
Oh, no question on this one. Stephanie’s story of getting herself locked out of her hotel room in her underwear wins this one without a fight.

5. An idea you wish you’d thought of.
Well, most of them, really. Kim Salazar’s blog, String-Or-Nothing, though, is full of good ideas. Scroll down the right side of her front page and check out the categories. Gadgets is one of my favorites, and her Reference Shelf is priceless. Pee first and get yourself a cup of coffee, because you’ll be there awhile.

6. Something you’d like to knit.
I’ve already mentioned Am Kamin, and the Frost Flowers and Leaves Shawl from question #7 is high on my list. Hmmm. A blog I haven’t mentioned. Here’s a two-fer. Celtic Dreams, a design by Beth Brown-Reinsel. Knit recently by two different knitbloggers; Mary Beth from My Knitting Life, and also by Annie from The Knitty Gritty.

7. A picture of something you consider beautiful.
This was another difficult one. So many choices. The knitbloggers in general are a very creative, prolific bunch. I narrowed it down though. Eunny’s Frost Flowers and Leaves Shawl, which she completed in 16 days, is a beautiful work of art. Yikes. 16 days. And she thought it was a boring, easy pattern.

8. A blog whose author you’d like to one day meet in person.
Laurie, of Etherknitter fame. Even if she has gone over to the dark side of spinning.

9. A blog of someone you have already met in person.
Dorothy, of Missouri Star. I just wish she lived closer so we could meet for tea and knitting. Or wine and knitting, whatever.

Everybody’s tagged on this one. If you do it, go to JenLa’s blog and leave a comment, though. And read the rules.

Time Management

Once again, I have NOT fallen off the face of the earth. I got sucked into that big seven-day festival called my work week. While I won’t go so far as to say “work sucks”, this week had some special moments that added up to one hell of a 90-hour-plus fun time. It left no time for anything except a quick meal when I got home, followed by crashing into sleep to get ready for the next day. And I can’t even bitch about it publicly. It’s a good thing I love my job. Really, I do.

What all didn’t I have time for?

Knitting, for one. That really means it’s a bad week, when I only get a few pitiful rounds done on a simple stockinette stitch sock. I didn’t get to the weekly knitfest group that I love to attend. I didn’t get to see Kris cut the sleeves off the sweater she’s knitting for her husband.

There were a couple of days that I didn’t have time to even check email. Now that’s bad.

I didn’t get to participate in Celia’s Sunday installment of International Pajama Day. That just isn’t right.

I’m off as of last night at 10 PM. I got home, and my husband had a traditional Monday night dinner ready for me. It’s become a little ritual for us. I work the late shift three nights a week, meaning I am there from 7 AM to 10 PM. That means that we don’t see much of each other on those days. It also means that I have the opportunity for at least two hospital cafeteria meals in a row, which just doesn’t do much for me. Our hospital cafeteria is probably no worse than any other, but it isn’t any better, either. I have a personal rule that I do not eat two hospital cafeteria meals in a row unless it is really an emergency. So on my late nights, when I get home at 10:30 or so, John has dinner ready for me, and he waits to eat with me so we can have at least a few minutes of private time together before I have to go back to work.

On Monday night (which is my “Friday”) he does something a little more special. Yesterday he bought two huge Dungeness crabs, steamed two artichokes, made a butter-lemon dipping sauce, and put a bottle of champagne on ice. (Yes, I know I’m married to a real gem. Don’t even ask, you can’t borrow him.) We lit the dining room table candles, sat and talked, and ate the whole damn thing. And drank the whole damn thing. I even remembered, after a whole bottle of bubbly, to hit the “off” button on my alarm so it wouldn’t go off at 5:30 this morning.

This morning I slept in, then started the Tuesday version of International Pajama Day. The upper Left Coast version, if you will. I changed into my warmer pajamas* when I got up (10:30!), got my coffee, fired up the computer, and got my husband to take a picture. This one shows how much I love my blog readers. I am not even going to edit out the bed-head look. This is exactly how it is today.

I am SO ready.

I missed my 2 year blog anniversary over the weekend. I didn’t forget, I just didn’t have time to post about it. It’s been two fun years!

*You, too, can have this cool pajama top and cool coffee mug. Go to Bookish Girl Wendy’s CafePress site, and get your own cool stuff.

Half a Pair

I have one half of a pair of socks done:

The second one will be started as soon as I get this posted. And it’s a good thing, too, considering what came in my mail today.

I couldn’t resist joining the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Rockin’ Sock Club. If you haven’t received your first box of goodies, and don’t want the surprise spoiled, look away now.

There’s a binder with the first month’s pattern, a bumper sticker, the club pin, and of course the hank of sock yarn. The color is Rainforest Jasper, and included is a tiny little hank of yarn on a keyring, labelled Emergency Sock Yarn.

I will NOT cast on for these until I finish the Candy Stripe Socks. Really. I’m going to start that second one right now.

Balance in the Universe

I missed an important anniversary of sorts around here. Last week was the 1-year anniversary of this. I’m happy to say that at one year, the hand is functioning much better than I thought it would. I can do almost everything that I was able to do before the accident. My “disability” consists mostly of not being able to get caps off things (damn those screw-top wine bottles); and heavy-duty wrenches, and the husband, takes care of those for me. I think the importance of the anniversary lies in the fact that I’m better enough that I forgot about it.

I’m having a knitting dilemma. I seem to have too many projects going at once. Normally I have one big thing, one sock, and one other…the current configuration seems to be sweater, sock, and lace project. This configuration suits me, and I don’t get too discombobulated by it all. I threw an extra sock into the picture a few weeks ago, for the bluegrass festival, and now I’m a mess. I can’t decide at any given moment which one to pick up and work on. I probably need to just pick up that second sock and get the pair done, then life will be back in balance.

Here’s where things are. I didn’t take another picture of the eggplant sweater, as I haven’t touched it since the last post.

Sock number 1:

I’m in the doldrums on this one, for a couple of reasons. One is that I think that it’s still going to be too tight for me. I’ve never done a two-color sock before, and the gauge is pretty firm, making a smaller sock. The cuff would go around my leg, but I’m not sure that the instep is going to go over my foot. That problem could be overcome, however, by putting these in the gift pile for someone with smaller feet than mine (not hard to find, admittedly). A more worrisome possibility is that I have a sinking feeling that I’m going to run out of the red yarn before the second sock is done. I have two balls of the rainbow, but for some reason only had one of the red. This is a busy enough sock that I’m relatively sure that a different dye lot wouldn’t matter much. I’ll probably finish them, if no other reason than to prove I’m no quitter.

Here’s the second, dither-inducing sock; the one that threw the knitting balance off-kilter:

Maybe I need a knitting challenge. Let’s see how fast Lorette can finish a pair of plain socks, shall we? This is the first of the pair, so I either need another bluegrass festival, a long train ride, or a heap of good movies.

Last, but not least, is the lace project.

This does have a deadline of sorts, though it’s a ways off in the future. This will be a gift for somebody later this year. I’m a little shy of half done with the center part of the scarf, and have memorized the pattern enough that I can do this while watching a movie or talking. The pattern stitch is really only four rows, as the back side is all purl rows. It’s also easy enough to see where you are by just looking at the row before. I could see making another of these someday. It’s an easy project, at least so far. I’ll give you another opinion later when I get to the border section.

Speaking of lace, go look at Eunny’s blog for her “Majoring in Lace” series. She’s done three different installments so far (go back a few posts to find them). This is the best lace “school” I’ve ever seen.

I’m off to knit that sock!

Eggplant Sweater, v.3.0

Here it is again, in all its resized glory:

And a closeup of the center cable section:

It’s actually prettier than that last picture would indicate. This color is hard to photograph well. Either it’s so dark that you can’t tell it’s a cabled sweater, or it’s washed out from the flash.

I think the size/gauge is going to be correct this time out. And the number of stitches on the needles is correct this version, unlike the first time, before I found out that the pattern was incorrect. I’m sure that there will be some other glitch that I will discover, but only after I’ve knit another eight inches or so.

I got quite a bit done on this the past week, due to a trip to Phoenix to visit my sisters. I have two sisters, one lives there, the other one still lives in North Dakota. We all met in Phoenix for a week of sister activities. The long-standing joke is that if any two of the three of us gets together, the third one has to show up too, or the other two will talk about her. Because of this, we actually see each other rather often. I worked a bit on the two pairs of socks I have in progress, but mostly on the sweater. And I didn’t do any yarn shopping while I was there. There are a couple of yarn shops in the Phoenix area, but my sisters have a low tolerance for hanging out in yarn stores, and I really don’t need any more yarn anyway.

Ack. I can’t believe I just said that. I did buy some yarn online before I left, and it was delivered while I was gone. Here’s a picture, but it just does not do it justice.

It’s laceweight silk, from Hip Knits. I purchased it from a UK shop called Yarnsmith, which quite possibly has the best online service I’ve ever experienced. Good communication, fast shipping, lovely yarn, and a handwritten note in the package; what more could you ask?

And what might I be planning for that lovely pile of ivory silk, you might ask?

This:

This is the Frost Flowers & Leaves Shawl, from A Gathering of Lace. I have a few things to finish up before I start on this one, but I’ve been dying to make this ever since I saw it. When I saw the silk yarn, I knew that it was just what this one needed. I hope it swatches up ok, as I’m not sure exactly what else I’d do with 3600 meters of silk laceweight yarn.

When my sisters and I get together, usually there is a lot of fun and shopping involved. Often it involves wine and bourbon. (OK, it almost always involves wine and bourbon, but we’re getting more responsible as we get older.) One year we each got a second ear piercing done while we were together. This time it was a tattoo*.

Really. Well, only two of us got tattoos, my third sister decided that it just wasn’t “her”. Here’s mine, first, just getting started:

And finished:

Note that I’m smiling in that first picture. It wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable as I had thought it might be. I have wanted to do this for a long time, and decided to put the first (!) one where it can be easily covered up, in case I didn’t like it. I love it! The next (!) one might have to be knitting related!

*And no, there were no alcoholic beverages involved in this escapade. Tattoo places insist that you be sober and not under the influence of anything when you sign up for body modification.

Size Does Matter

Or, Why Gauge Is Important

Or, How Bourbon Can Be Useful While Knitting

Remember this?

I finished a couple more repeats of the cable pattern, then got the bright idea to transfer it to a circular needle to finish it, as it was getting sort of unwieldy on the straights. As long as I had it on a circular needle, I decided to measure it.

Uh-oh.

I found a top that fits nicely, not too big, not too tight, and compared.

Well, damn. I got out my trusty gauge-measurer and found that I was off by half a stitch per inch. Now that doesn’t sound like much, does it? When you multiply that out over the width of the whole garment, this is what you get. It’s about an inch and a half too wide, which means it would be almost three inches too big around in circumference. This is just not the look I was going for with this one.

As Norma would say, ” Oh for fucksakes!”

I contemplated this a bit, then got up, got myself a little fortification, and the camera. As long as I was going to rip the whole damn thing out, I might as well document it for the blog.

Here I am waiting for the fortification to take effect:

And here we go:

And my trusty helper:

And I started over, again.

The Church of Bluegrass, Day 4

Or, 364 Days Until Wintergrass 2007

I’ve learned after four years of going to Wintergrass that it just isn’t over until the final band has performed “Will the Circle Be Unbroken”, complete with audience participation, and until George (the emcee) says it’s over.

John always gives a big sigh of relief when they play that song. It means he can finally go home and not listen to banjo music for another year. For the record, I don’t make him go to the whole thing. We get two weekend passes, I sit through every note, he drops in and out when he feels like it, using the “I have to go home and feed the dog now” excuse.

Highlights of the last day? Sunday morning is always the bluegrass gospel show, and only the diehard bluegrass fans, or the ones who got some sleep the night before, show up. Everybody else starts drifting in to the pavilion around noon. Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum gave a fine performance, including an impromptu number called “The Vice President Has A Shotgun, and He Can Shoot Whoever He Wants”, that brought down the house. Mountain Heart had the whole pavilion crowd tapping its feet, and Del McCoury did a long set that was pretty good. He’s a little too much “high lonesome” sounding even for my taste, but puts on a good show.

I have 6642 bluegrass songs lined up on Rhapsody to tide me over for the next year. And I already have tickets for the next festival in July, the Adventure Bluegrass Festival in Stevenson, WA. My favorite bluegrass boys will be there; the US Navy Bluegrass Band, Country Current. And yes, John knows we’re going. It’s an outdoor festival, so he can take a book, or his Ipod, or wander around the Columbia Gorge area.

There was knitting going on yesterday. I got the heel turned and picked up the gusset stitches, and am on my way down the sock foot.

I wasn’t sure I was going to like that picot edge instead of ribbing, but now that I’ve gotten part of the sock done, it looks pretty cute. I have no high hopes of matching the stripes for the second sock, but I like how they’ve turned out on the first one.

Congratulations to all the Olympic Knitters out there! Whether you finished or not is not the point. There’s been some fine knitting going on, worthy of gold medals all around!

Added Later, Almost as an Afterthought:

I almost forgot, I needed to pick the favorite artist of the festival. I loved Uncle Earl the best. They play oldtime music as well as great bluegrass. Their banjo player, Abigail Washburn, also does many of their vocals, and has her own solo album. She also speaks fluent Mandarin. This may be the first time ever that there have been bluegrass songs sung in Mandarin at Wintergrass. If you like old time music, go buy their group album, She Waits For Night, as well as Washburn’s album. Their fiddler, Rayna Gellert, has a solo album out as well, and that one is a keeper also.

The Church of Bluegrass, Day 3

No, it’s not over yet.* Yesterday was all-bluegrass, all-day. And yes, part of it was in a church. One of the downtown Baptist churches loans their building every year as one of the venues for the festival. The sanctuary is a perfect place to play bluegrass; the sound is good, the surroundings are simple and lovely. The performers always like playing that stage, and it always shows.

Highlights? It was one of those great bluegrass days. Uncle Earl again was superb. The John Cowan band did a marvelous performance at the church in the afternoon, and the Wilders and Psychograss were wonderful. This morning is a gospel show at the main pavilion stage, followed by a great lineup of some of the best in bluegrass.

Knitting? Here you go. The Candy Stripe sock:

I discovered that I don’t mind doing heel stitch while bluegrass is going on. I suppose I could save all my sock heels until February every year.

And I managed to work in a couple of pattern repeats of this:

I sat up in the church balcony all afternoon, and at least part of the time there was enough light to work on this a bit.

I haven’t seen many knitters at the festival. A friend of ours was there yesterday with a scarf that she is working on, and I saw a woman down in the church seats yesterday with what looked like a sweater in her lap. Other than that, nothing. I think I’m an oddity. In between sets, I stand up and knit, to stretch out a bit. A woman came up to me Thursday night and said “It’s good to see you back with your knitting”. And Friday night I was standing and knitting during a break. After a while I noticed a young girl (maybe about 11?) standing next to me quietly, watching. When I talked to her, she got shy and left, but she clearly was either fascinated or horrified by what I was doing. I’ve gotten a number of “what the heck are you knitting?” comments, and a couple of “I didn’t bring my knitting because I can’t see in here” comments. Well, that doesn’t stop me. I just fix the mistakes later. A couple of times I’ve had to take the knitting out back where I can see it and give it a thrashing, but overall I’ve only had a couple of malfunctions.

I’m off for more coffee, then more bluegrass. There will be a final report later!

*Just be glad that I have no idea how to attach sound files to this, or you’d have to listen to bluegrass while reading about it.

The Church of Bluegrass, Day 2

Here’s what I accomplished last night. There would have been more, but I was knitting in the dark, and had to do a few rows over.

It is too bigger. Go look at the last post and check.

And in the spirit of full disclosure, this is NOT the Ladybug Rainforest yarn that I have been calling it. It is Opal, and it was in my stash. After I got to the first yellow stripe, I thought, hmmmm. Then that big stretch of red, and the repeating blue and yellow stripes. Hmmmm. So I got out the ball band, searched through my Access database*, and discovered that this is a different Opal color scheme. I called it Candy when I entered it into the database. I don’t know if that was something I made up, or the real color name. Opal just puts numbers on the ball band. This one is 518.

Pretty, but not ladybugs. So I’m now officially changing the name to the Opal Candy Stripe Socks.

Wintergrass was toe-tappingly good last night. My pick of the evening was the all-girl Uncle Earl. They even have a clogger-girl. How can you not like them? They’re playing again this afternoon, so I need to go get my butt in the shower.

It will be partial daylight for this afternoon’s shows, so I might get some noticeable progress done!

*Yes, I have an Access database of all my yarn. It includes the yarn, manufacturer, color, yardage, gauge, what I intended to use it for, fiber content, and a photo of each yarn. I also have my storage boxes numbered, with a number beside each entry so I can find it easily. It’s a beautifully obsessive-compulsive work of art.

Ok, Ok. Here’s a screenshot of my database.

And a little research reveals that the Opal #518 comes from the 2002 Collection. I apparently made up the name.

The Church of Bluegrass

Or, Day 1 Wintergrass Knitting Report

Thursday night at Wintergrass is always sort of low-key. The “real” Wintergrass doesn’t start until Friday night, and the crowd is always a bit sparse, with only one performance venue instead of the four or five that they have the other days. The “real” bluegrass fans show up on Thursday, though, and park their butts in a chair and never leave.

I didn’t take the camera, for a number of reasons. First is that it’s dark in there, and my pictures never turn out. Second, I’d have to put the knitting down to take pictures. Last, a few years back I lost* my binoculars at Wintergrass when I went to the bathroom and left my bag by my chair. Since then I don’t take the camera so as to not lose it.

The highlight of last night was the group Bluegrass, Etc. They’ve been around forever, but for some reason I’d never heard or seen them before. Byron Berline was playing fiddle with them, and boy can he play. They all are top-notch seasoned musicians, but their guitarist, John Moore, is just spectacular.

Here’s the knitting progress. I did work on the two-color sock a bit, until we decided to move closer to the stage and I didn’t have enough light to see what I was doing. I’ve finished the gusset decreases (again!), and am speeding towards the toe.

After I put those aside, I worked on the new socks for the rest of the evening. I cast on for these a week or so back, in anticipation of needing a mindless round-and-round project for the festival. Here’s what I accomplished last night.

This is one of the Opal Rainforest colors, in Ladybug. I have a bunch of Opal in the stash, but have never actually used it before. It’s lovely yarn, I must say. It’s also lovely having a plain round-and-round project after all that two-color, cable, and lace stuff that I’ve got going.

I have had a couple of questions in the comments about my needles on the two-color sock. They are Lantern Moon ebony dp’s. They are a dream to knit with; smooth, perfect points, short enough to not be in the way. The needles in the Opal sock are bamboo needles from S. R. Kertzer, purchased here. I love these; I also have a bunch of the circulars and a few of the straights. They are lightweight, flexible, and have perfect points. They are also a lot more economical than the Lantern Moons, which are a bit spendy. If I snapped one of those, I’d probably cry; if I snapped one of the Kertzers, I would say a bad word, then go buy another set.

Someone is making me bacon and eggs and grits (cheese grits, Kris, but not the instant kind!) for breakfast, so I’m off till the next post!

*”Lost” is of course a euphemism for “some sorry-ass person who can’t possibly be a true bluegrass fan swiped them right out of my bag”.

Bluegrass Knitting Time!

I have no pictures to post today. It’s gray and rainy here, but more importantly, my knitting progress pictures would look just like the last ones. I’ve been mostly working on that two-color sock, and got as far as finishing the gusset decreases and starting the round-and-round-to-the-toe part, which is my favorite part. I stopped to try it on, decided that the heel flap needed to be longer, tore it back, in the process losing the freaking instep stitches. I had to rip out the whole heel flap to the beginning, get it all back on the needles, and redo it. I’m now into the gusset decreases again.

Sigh.

On the bright side, I got to go out last night to one of the weekly knitting groups that I sporadically attend when work allows. There is just not much better in the world than sitting in a cafe, gabbing and knitting. We even managed to drive one guy out, after he gave us a very dirty look. I guess he’s not a knitter. Or a gabber, for that matter. It certainly seemed like he didn’t appreciate either activity.

On an even brighter note, Wintergrass starts tonight. For those of you who have stuck with me for awhile, you know that bluegrass is next to a religious belief for me. Give me a hot banjo man anytime, and I’ll be happy. I can happily expound on who the best players in the world are: banjo, dobro, fiddle, mandolin, guitar. Just ask. Wintergrass is an annual four night festival held right here in good old Tacoma. It runs Thursday night, Friday night, then all day Saturday and Sunday. Perfect, if you ask me.

The lineup this year is pretty good. There are a few “big name” bluegrass groups (if there is such a thing!). One of the “headliners” is an acoustic singer-songwriter named Guy Clark. He sings more Texas-style country folk than bluegrass, but he’s been one of my favorite artists for years. My other picks for “don’t miss” artists are the Grascals, Uncle Earl (an all-girl group), the Wilders, and Laurie Lewis, a perennial favorite. There are always one or two new groups every year that light up the stage, though, so my view is that you can’t miss any of it, just in case.

I have my bluegrass knitting ready, my festival pass printed out, and I am so ready. I’ll be back when they hang up the last fiddle.

Madrona

Well the Madrona Fiber fest was a blast. I didn’t sign up for any classes, as in my typically clueless fashion I didn’t know about the festival until they were all booked. I went anyway, Friday night to listen to Stephanie talk, and then again on Saturday to add to the stash.

Friday night I met Kris and Marti for dinner and the Harlot’s talk. We strolled up the street to a nearby Thai restaurant for dinner after meeting in the lobby. They both were a delight to sit and visit with, and yet more proof that you all are not “imaginary friends”, as my husband refers to you. The biggest hoot, I have to tell you, was sitting in a Thai restaurant packed with knitters, all talking about knitting, some of them actually knitting. I can’t even imagine what the restaurant people thought.

Here’s a picture of Kris and I. It came out a bit blurry, but proves that without a doubt we exist. For some reason I didn’t get a picture of Marti. And none of my pictures of the Harlot’s talk came out. Honest, I had green tea with dinner, nothing else.

Saturday I went again, this time to the market to shop. There were several local shops represented, and a few not-local. My favorite was Blue Moon Fiber Arts, famous around the blogs for Socks That Rock yarn. I have a couple of skeins of this in the stash already, but that didn’t stop me from getting more, as they had a fine selection of colors at the market.

From left to right, Yosemite, Spinel, Prove It All Night, and Heavy Metal. Only the fact that I already have enough sock yarn to last the rest of my life kept me from buying more. One of these will just have to be the next pair of socks once I finish the two pair I already have cast on.

Which reminds me, my one and only NY resolution this year? To have enough hand knit socks by the end of the year that I don’t have to wear commercial socks unless I want to.

I also bought this, which was a totally unnecessary purchase:

It’s pink, very pink. And alpaca, and it has just a touch of a silvery glimmery yarn spun into it. This will be a pretty little scarf, perhaps all for me. This is where we need that “touch me” feature in Typepad; this stuff is heavenly soft in person, not so much in the picture.

After the shopping, I went out to the lobby of the Sheraton, which was full of people knitting. I joined a little impromptu knitting session with these bloggers:

That’s Meg, from Knitting Knot. Go to her blog and tell her how sorry you are that we made her unravel a whole sweater on the spot. What are friends for??

That’s Jessica, from Rose-Kim Knits. She’s working on her Knitting Olympics project, and I learned a few new swear words from her on Saturday.

And that’s Rebecca, from Supergirl’s Blog. She knits at Warp 10, really. I kept staring surreptitiously at her hands, wondering how the hell somebody could knit that fast.

I met with Kris again, who was getting a lesson in the lobby from a spinner, Blogless Betsy, on how to use a drop spindle. And met Kris’ family, including that adorable child of hers, Anna Grace. If I could have been guaranteed offspring that cute, I might have been convinced to reproduce at one point in my life. I didn’t get a picture of Betsy either.

Now it’s back to reality, though I got a real gift this morning at 7 AM. I had signed up for an extra day of work today, for some reason that totally escapes me. (My husband reminded me that it was no doubt to pay down the yarn debt, which is starting to rival the national deficit.) As I was getting my butt out of bed, grumbling to anybody who would listen, the phone rang. It was from one of my partners, to let me know that they weren’t busy enough to need me, go back to bed. Free knitting time!! Here’s where I am on the sock:

That two color heel was truly a pain in the ass to do, though it looks very cool now that it’s done. There’s no need to remind me that I need to do a second one.

All in all a fun and productive weekend!

Project Update

Or, Picots are Pretty!

On the knitting front, I have actually been knitting. That two color sock looks just the same, as I haven’t worked on it a bit in the past week. I have picked up the Jo Sharp eggplant sweater from several posts back (the one with the misbehaving schematic measurements). It is very difficult to take pictures of dark eggplant colored yarn, let me tell you. Well it’s actually not hard to take pictures of it, it’s just hard to take pictures that show any detail. Here are a couple of attempts.

I also started a new lace project. It is the Estonian Garden Wrap; here’s a link to a photo. And here’s mine:

The yarn is Zephyr lace weight, in a bottle green that doesn’t look nearly that washed out in person. I’m loving this pattern so far!

And one new one. Though I didn’t sign up for the Knitting Olympics, I have one project that will be worked on for much of that time. Around the Knitting Doctor house, the third week in February is the Week of Bluegrass, better known as Wintergrass. I have tickets for the whole four day festival, right smack in the middle of the Olympics. I have one heavily cabled project on the needles, one lace project, and one sock in two colors, all of which require a decent level of light and the ability to count. None of these will work at a bluegrass festival that is mostly in the dark and involves a lot of foot stomping and clapping. So I started a new pair of socks that will be the 2006 Wintergrass project.

The yarn is Opal, I think the color is one of the Rainforest group, Ladybug. It’s my first attempt at a picot edge. I used Claudia’s excellent instructions, found here. Other than the picot thing, these will be just plain socks. Perfect for knitting in a dark music hall!

I just love those little picot points! Very girly!

If any of you are going to Madrona this weekend in Tacoma, I’ll be there for the Yarn Harlot’s talk tonight, then shopping at the market tomorrow. I didn’t sign up for classes, but can’t resist the possibility of yarn that I might not own already. Hope to see some of you there!

Word Cloud

I really like this one!

Go here to make your own!