I (provisionally) Heart Fridays

This last week has been brought to me courtesy of the Conduit to Hell. I am apparently paying for my cosmic meltdown at Stitches West in spades. Five tests and three papers. Bella had her first kicking-and-screaming temper tantrum, lost her reading textbook, and revealed to me that one of her once-a-month assignments was due on Feb 14th. She's a lovely, sweet child 99.9% of the time, but when she melts down, hooo boy. Watch out!

In other news, I'm out of Garter Rib Hell and into the Land of Peaceful Stockinette. I'm sticking to my single project at the moment, but since I need size 4 dpn's for the sleeves - which I don't have - I may begin something else if I finish the sweater body soon. The color is a lovely russet red-brown, and I am in mad love with the feel of the yarn. 

Tangled Yoke Cardigan as of 2/27/08

Closeup - I like how the slight mottling covers up my slightly uneven stockinette

Sock Madness begins in the middle of March, and I'm fairly certain I have all the required sock yarn (hahahhahah!!). I don't know if I'll get very far in the competition, but it'll be fun anyway. I'm not yet sure about working solely from my stash for a year. Certainly the job insecurity means I won't be buying yarn or roving any time soon, and I definitely have enough in the stash to cover me until such time as I win the lottery, but I've set the last date I bought yarn as 2/24/08. We'll just see how it goes.

ManCandy's old friend Erin is coming in tonight and will be around for the weekend. On Sunday, I've classically over-scheduled myself by promising to help move a bookstore and take Erin and her bf to San Francisco. Fabulous.

Panza doesn't care as long as the squirrels don't taunt him and he gets his kibble.

Oh, yea!

And not the "oh yea I forgot" type of oh yea. More like the Kool-Aid pitcher guy busting through the wall in the old 80's Kool-Aid commercials "Oh, yea!"

Yesterday I discovered this thing called a skein winder. It's the opposite of a swift; it's designed to wind yarn into skeins (imagine that...) and I NEEDED one. So, I used Google and found one - for $300. The cheapest one I could find online was about $115, and it was made of PVC. Here is how that little scene played out:

[thinking] A hundred and fifteen bucks for PVC? Screw that right in the ear. Home Depot is around the corner from my house!

[gets in the car and drives home, picks up ManCandy and drags him to Home Depot] Me:ManCandy, I need to build this thing like a 3D windmill to wind my yarn onto. ManCandy: Okay... [looks at me like I'm crazy] But, like a good boyfriend, he helped me and carried the heavy stuff. And didn't complain when I hacksawed 30 feet of PVC pipe into a 3D windmill and got plastic shavings all over the carpet. I glued the thing together and traipsed off to bed.

[the next morning]
Me:ManCandy! The plastic glue didn't hold the plastic PVC pipe together! W.T.F.?!? Gah, make me coffee!
[ManCandy hauls out a mysterious box] ManCandy: Baby, we could make you a yarn ball skein swift winder out of... [he opens the box] K'nex!
Me: ... ohhhhh kaaaaay...
[ManCandy proceeds to explain his genius theory] Then, we spent the next 3 hours happily creating a skein winder out of kids toys. And girls, it has an electric motor. So once I get the yardage figured out, it's good-bye hand crank and hello automation. Oh, yea!

So now I have an adjustable skein winder made of K'nex, and once the camera re-charges there will be pictures.

As if that weren't enough, I used the skein winder in conjunction with my swift and re-skeined all the yarn I dyed last weekend into tidy little bundles of colorful love. Tomorrow I'll photograph them, and then - ta DA! - Dye Trying will be officially open! Again, camera + recharged = pictures. Oh, yea!

And lastly, I finished my Sockapalooza socks. They're soaking in lovely Earth-friendly tulip scented soap right now and will be put out on the back porch to dry in the morning. Next up: finish the Test Knitting, then (the rest of) August is Scarf Month! Faina, I've got my eye on you... Oh, Yea!

Moving Right Along

Well, Jer has moved out and ManCandy is looking for furniture. The 7th Harry Potter book is out and I've finished reading it, the Hogwart's Sock Swap (Year 1) is over and Year 2 has begun. I'm working on my second Pomatomus sock for Sockapalooza since August 2 is next week - I may have to take an afternoon off to knit in order to finish on time! - and the moment I cast off the Pomatomus socks I'm putting on some test knitting, which I will be doing in my very own yarn from my very own Etsy shop. Sooner or later I'll get things going; I've been pretty good about doing something for the shop every day but what I'm really looking forward to is a week off in August with nothing to do but dye and photograph yarn. And catch up on my 15 bazillion podcasts, of course.

Speaking of which, I should dash. Those pomatomus socks are whispering my name from the other room, and tomorrow is the Relay for Life so I'll be up relatively early. I'm ready for my shift; I've got Lime 'n' Violet on the iPod and a little sock bag for my knitting, now all that remains is to see if I can walk and knit at the same time. Should be interesting!

The Things I Am Not Doing

1. I am not casting on for the Mystery Stole 3 even though it is Friday and Clue 2 comes out today, because I have not finished my Hogwart's Socks.

2. I am not registering for Fall '07 classes because I am waiting for my school to decide where all my transfer credits go. If I don't have to re-take Chem 101, I'm certainly not going to!

3. I am not freaking out that ManCandy has left Michigan in a car and is at this very moment hurtling toward a life with me.

4. I am not freaking out that ManCandy has left Michigan in a car and is at this very moment hurtling toward a life with me and will be here tomorrow night and there is nowhere in my room to put his clothes.

Okay, I may be freaking out a bit about the latter.

I stopped on my way home today and bought a basket that will eventually hold yarn in a pretty and convenient fashion, and a crochet hook for putting beads on Mystery Stole 3. I also printed out directions for my Sockapalooza 4 pal's socks and found a good project for Gabe's socks as well. Tomorrow is the Fair Isle knit-a-long at the LYS, which means no sleeping in for me but that I will be playing with Alpaca/Silk for 2 hours in the morning. Yippie!

Oh, and I'm in the home stretch for my Hogwart's socks. I may even finish them by tomorrow night, if Nadh and I don't get too much of a shopping bug. Perhaps Sunday would be a better bet...

Oooh, yes!

Please take note of the progress on the Harry Potter Sock Swap bar. Woot! One sock down and another a few inches in. I just cracked open the third ball and I'm about 4" into the second sock, so I'm pretty sure I'll have enough left over for another pair - another pair that will be tucked into the back of my mind to marinate for awhile, since I shall be heartily sick of Slytherin green by the time I bind off my pal's second toe. I've been slowly collecting cute things to add to the package, and I'm excited to finish the socks so I can send the whole thing off. No sock pictures until the package is in the Owl Post, though!

I also got my invitation to Ravelry today! Hurrah! All I want to do is go home and start entering things in, but alas I'm at work until 6. I also decided to head up to Mountain View to go to Bobaknit tonight, so the internet fun will have to wait.

Yesterday I caved, and caved hard. I joined a Fair Isle knit-a-long at my LYS and bought yarn for what is likely going to be the most expensive piece of clothing I will own, ever. A Fair Isle sweater made of Blue Sky Alpaca's Alpaca/Silk... good lord, it will be gorgeous and I'll want to wear it every day. I'm excited for Saturday morning to come! The girl who works at my LYS is so nice; I like her a lot. Maybe I'll start going in there just to hang out so we can become friends.

In penance for spending more than I should have, I spent the evening boiling pots of yarn and winding 100g skeins of the superwash sock yarn from the innocuous little box. Four skeins of blue/yellow that are probably going to go for another dip to even things out, and one skein that was supposed to be brown and red but instead became copper and pink. Hmmm... we'll see what it looks like when it's dry.

I had a look at my stash the other day when I re-arranged my room. It's growing much faster than I'm going through it, so I've decided it's time for a Yarn Diet, starting at 4pm on Sunday. And for this one, sock yarns WILL count as stash. The terms are: I cannot buy any yarn that isn't for Dye Trying (coming sooner rather than later, I promise!) until I have completed both of my sock swaps and all of my UFO's. The only exception will be the rest of the alpaca/silk for the Fair Isle sweater, since I'm a couple of skeins shy at the moment.

So that's it! No pictures (did I mention I'm at work?) , but soon there will be Ravelry. And what Ravelry there will be!

Oh... I feel I should mention, for those in the area: Sunday from noon-4pm at Full Thread Ahead there is a 40% off of everything you can carry sale. No baskets, no bags; if it fits in your hands you can buy it. Therefore, the Yarn Diet begins after I've hit up the sale - if there are Addi's included in the sale, this will be a good time to flesh out the collection.

One of Those Days

Have you ever had a day you couldn't completely categorize as "shitty" even though you sort of wanted to? My day has been like that. This morning at 8:15 my cell phone decided to automatically turn off my alarm so I was this close to being late for work after rushing about like a mad chicken. Around 1:30, I discovered that the way I told my 2nd graders to address a business letter is not, in fact, the proper way to address a business letter and got spoken to sternly by my boss (who is very sweet and I don't think would ever yell, but made my be-sandaled feet quake all the same). At 2:30 I left to give a final exam to the kids at the Satellite Center, only to make a U-turn at 2:33 because I had forgotten the Prize Box. By 2:40, I was on my way until I hit deadlocked traffic at 2:45. It seems that roughly 300 yards in front of where I was stuck, the median between Megahighways 1 and 2 was on fire, so I sat in my un-air conditioned car dressed in polyester pants in the California sun for an hour, which of course made me late to the final and had me fuming because if I hadn't forgotten the Prize Box... well, you know the rest.

Needless to say, by 6:30 I was more than ready for the day to be over. I came home, grabbed the mail and walked in the door to find this: An innocuous, much-anticipated little box!

And this:

An amusing Art History shirt! (Translation: This is not a pipe.)

But best of all, this:

A clipping from The Oregonian

A present from my favorite Coffeebean, who is obviously still thinking of me and loves me enough to send me newspaper clippings about the Harlot even though I am a horrible friend and never call her. Although the day is waning, it suddenly became much brighter.

During the week, I also got four cones of this:

2/15nm raw silk laceweight

It's some pretty potent stuff, that raw silk. Just reached out of the monitor and grabbed me! But I'm going to experiment with a bit of dyeing (more on that later) and should be able to - shall we say - recoup my investment. I also got some lovely sock yarn from 1870 Pearl, who is a dear and deserves all of the little bits and pieces I've been squirrelling away to send her once she arrives in her New State of Choice.

A lot has been happening over the last couple of weeks. The Boy was here for a week for an interview, and was subsequently re-named ManCandy by Elizabeth. So say we all! Then, he got the job. Then, Jer and Elizabeth (who hates "Liz" but isn't opposed to "Zab," according to her man) got an apartment in The City. ManCandy will be moving into my apartment in early July, just in time to use his man-candiness to help Jer and Zab move out. Then it's just the two of us, and we'll make it if we try, with a little help from Mr. Will Smith.

P.S.: I just nearly posted all of this to the Hogwart's Sock Swap page. I think it's time for beer and Scrubs, and maybe to open the innocuous little box. With a bit of luck I won't kill myself with the box knife... AND the sizing for this post is f'ed up but I'm getting a beer and leaving it be. Today is officially Not My Day!

Yarn pr0n!

All the stuff I ordered in my post-school year frenzy has arrived, and let me tell you... I am one sated knitter. First, I got my swift and ball winder from Knitting Notions. Isn't it lovely? Then came these from Australia:

From The Knittery: Wildflowers (top) and Passionfruit sock yarn accompanied by size 1 Addi's!

And these from Britain (on the same day, no less!):

From Colourmart: 6000 yards of 45% cashmere/55% silk laceweight in "Tussah"

Erick and I headed up to my mother's for the weekend, where he endeared himself to her forever by cutting down and then cutting up three of the dead poplars on the property. Oh lordy, that boy knows how to work the mom angle, let me tell you! Then, despite my determination NOT to spend any of the $50 I have left for the next 2 weeks until my first paycheck from the Tutoring Place, my mother and I spent a bunch of money on fabric at the local Ben Franklin's. But, dear reader, it was for a purpose! We spent yesterday designing and making these aDORable reversible sock project bags!

The first one with no pockets:


And the second one with 2 pockets (one inside, one outside):


I'm quite enamored of them, and came away with enough cut fabric to make several more. With what, you may ask? Why, with this!

My very own Bernina 1000!

I think I shall name her, but I don't know what. Any suggestions?

Since I was away from Darcy all weekend, I have no kitty pictures to show you. Instead, we visited my mother's friend Karenna and her newest addition:

Isn't she just too darn cute for words?!?

Hogwarts Sock Swap

Progress! Or lack thereof. I have cast on for my Slytherin's socks about oh, 4 times and the beginning continues to elude me. But at least she won't know who she is, since I haven't gotten far enough along for it to be discernable!


The yarn is Rowan 4-ply soft, 100% merino. I like it very much - it's springy and has good loft. I *might* only make the socks in green and make up the silver bits later, but that remains to be seen. Today at lunch I'm going to rip this incarnation of the cast-on and begin afresh, and hopefully make some good progress! I got my pal's stitch markers in the mail today. Green and white pearls from zero.etsy.com. Go Ravenclaw!

Maybe Erick will drive to my mother's today so I can knit in the car. Yea, he's here. Till next Saturday. More on that situation later, 'cause I'm late for work! We're taking the camera to The Farm this weekend, so updates will ensue.