A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes

Picture heavy today. I'm finally catching up from the Thanksgiving trip to Mexico and the birthday trip to Disneyland. First, Mexico! It was warm and beautiful and relaxing and I'm stoked to go again next year. Here's the view, mostly from my balcony:


The fam at a *fabulous* dinner of shrimp, ceviche and more shrimp, with some aguacates and gambas:

Gabe and I found some Tasty Diabetics at Wal-Mart:

And here is the Grand Mayan at night. Totally worth the trip.


Aaaaand Disneyland. Well, it's Disneyland. I get tired and irritated and I hurt my knees walking so I had to get one of those electric stroller things, but it was a blast.
We had fun on the way there:


Called some 'Toons:

Found my sister's dressing room (she's officially cooler than I am now and I hate her a lot):
And generally had a great time. It was really bright in the morning:

But quite pretty at night:
Alexander met Merlin from The Sword in the Stone:

And got a very fine hat (geekflag):


He posed with some losers:


and saw Santa:

Gabe and I had a fanTAStic time at Disney on Sunday night. We rode Indy twice in a row, hit Space Mountain a bunch of times and did the Matterhorn and Mr. Toad. Oh, and took this:


All in all? I'd do it again to see this face:


Totally worth it.

Oh, dear...

It's the last week of classes for Fall '07. This semester hasn't been the be-all-end-all of crappy semesters, but it hasn't been a picnic either. However, up until about 2 minutes ago, I still Cared. Those of you still in college, or who have ever attended college, probably know the feeling. There I was, trucking along on everything that needed to get done by finals, and then, BAM! No Caring. That doesn't mean I won't get things done. On the contrary, I'm more likely to work quicker and churn out papers like meat in my mom's nifty new grinder when I Don't Care. The meat quality, to overuse the analogy, will simply be less filet mignon and more sirloin steak. But if sirloin will help me pass, bring it on - I gave up on Pristine Grades back in middle school.

I am nearly done casting off the Victorian Lace Shawl, but I have yet to write the accompanying 1200-word paper (due Thursday).

In other news, I have pictures of Mexico that I'll put up when I have a Break From Finals. And this weekend I'll be jetting off to Disneyland to take Brother Number 6 for the first time - should be fun! More pictures there, of course.

Oh, and I turn 29 this week. TWENTY-NINE. Next year, I'll be thirty. Or maybe I'll just be 29 again - I haven't decided yet.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I know it's 2 weeks early, but here in My World, it's Thanksgiving. See, the Fam is all going to Me-hi-ko for a week starting next Saturday to take advantage of several advantageous circumstances that involved 6 free tickets on Alaska Airlines and only 8 family members who needed to be at this little reunion of sorts. Since I am leaving ManCandy and his lack of vacation days behind to serve the cats, we've decided with some other friends to have Thanksgiving so that everyone who wants it can have turkey and mashed potatoes and punkin pie and my mother's (or is it my father's? they argue about who owns the) broccoli casserole.

In other news, I've discovered something. I can write little bits of blog posts and save them and finish them later. Color me shocked - it never occured to me, so I've been sitting down and trying to get All The News into every post. Ridiculous, when you think about it. Which I clearly never did. *ahem*

So here are some things on my plate right now that will come up in future blog posts. I know I promise that, and then I fail to deliver, but just be secure in the fact that it's 'cause I'm living a fabulously elegant life full of rock stars and Chanel no. 5 and turkey and mashed potatoes and and and... right. Did I mention it's Thanksgiving? This might be my favorite holiday, and this year I get two!! Anyway, the stuff on the plate:

1) The nature of forgiveness
2) Graduating from college (no really this time, I swear!)
3) Moving out of The Bay to an as-yet undisclosed location
4) Learning to spin and how roving doesn't count as stash (or falling off the yarn-diet wagon)
5) The sending off of sundry packages that are WAY TOO LATE for my comfort
6) The requisite Yarn Pr0n that's been building up until the last time I sinned (Oct. 27, for those who are counting)

I've been knitting away on the Spiders Web Shawl for my Eng 56B class. I'm a row away from the second chart, but I've stopped for the last couple of days due to a rampaging headache on Thursday that kept me home from class. It's knitting up beautifully, and now the only decision is whether I want one more repeat of the center bit. I've got 1300 yards instead of the 900 called-for, so I think I'd be good on that front. I'm just not sure about finishing the darn thing in time if I make it bigger. Of course, "catching up" on all my knitting blogs doesn't help me get my shawl finished. *ahem*

Off to make turkey! Happy Turkey Day, and may you not be able to remember all the reasons you're thankful. I know I can't, and I'm thankful that my life is blessed in so many ways, I can't count them all.

Think Pink!

There's a contest for a pink Dyson going on, but I don't think you should join. Keeps the odds in my favor. :D

More Than One Can Chew

Ahhh, fall. It's probably my favorite time of year, especially in California. Summer is hot hot hot with none of the rain my Alaskan-raised soul began to crave once I had been out of the rainforest for about 6 years. I rouse slowly from my heat-induced lethargy and begin to long for productivity, soup, and warm mugs of tea. Which is why, when my Brit-Lit from 1800-Present professor announced that garment construction could be a viable term project, I fired off an email rationalizing why knitting something from Victorian Lace Today would be a good idea. I figured, I'm only 2.5 seasons in with Buffy, there're 5 seasons of Angel, and untold seasons of good HBO shows in my Netflix queue, so why not?

Then reality hit me on the head. A lace shawl by the 6th of December? Yikes. So last night I threw the atrocious Perlas Rojas into the dye pot with some vermilion and fire red, let it simmer and then cool in the pot overnight. This morning, it is drying in the fall sunlight on the porch. If I get the go-ahead from the prof tomorrow, I'll be ready to go, and if she thinks it's a weak idea, I still have 1600 yards of claret red lace that I didn't have before.

Since the last time I updated this thing, some stuff has happened! Nothing really major, I grant you. But stuff, nonetheless. First up, I finished the Gryffindor Socks for my pal! They knit up surprisingly quickly with only one skein of Lorna's Laces plus some Skacel yellow for the peasant heels and toes. I just need to block them - maybe I'll add them to the fall sunshine on the porch before ManCandy and I head to brunch on the hill this morning.

They make me wish I were a Gryffindor, but only for a minute.

I've turned the heel and begun gusset decreases for the Hedera's I'm knitting to be a Sock Savior for Sockapalooza. I feel a bit guilty that it took me awhile to begin them, but the pattern is a relatively quick one and the lady's feet are a teeny US size 5, so I'm hoping to have them in the mail by the end of October. This pair sort of makes me wish I'd learned to do 2 socks at once, but it wouldn't actually go any faster; I would simply not have the second sock hanging over my head.

I also swatched for the Secret of the Stole, which may be on hold pending teacher approval for the Handsome Triangle. I'm going to use the Clivia I got from Handpaintedyarns.com with some pearl-colored beads originally purchased for Mystery Stole 3. I was completely disgusted with that color when I got it, but it's grown on me a lot since then. I'm looking forward to working with it. I had a nightmare of a time printing the damn pattern - the printers at work hatehatehate me and refused point-blank to print, so I had to wait and do it at the school lab. But now the first hints are in my hot little hands.

Why are the top 3 rows of garter stitch so huge and the bottom 3 rows so tiny? ARGH!

Lastly, I mentioned the KP 45 in my last post. This little feature will have to wait awhile since I'm broke-ass for reasons I'll go into in a non-yarn related post (gasp and alack!). But here is at least one KP45 to tide you over, 'cause I know my yarny antics just get people goin' in the morning. Har.

KP Gloss in 4 colors, Palette in 2, Jaquard starter set and Options Harmony size 4's

Yep, forty-five bucks can get you a lot of bang if you do it right. HAH! I'm funny. It's actually been since the Purlescence birthday bash that I bought yarn, which was Oct. 13th. I'm going to see if I can make it for a month - depending on what that prof says about the Handsome Triangle, I may not have much of a choice!!

What did I buy at Purlescence, you ask? 1200 yards of BMFA Bambu in Calypso. Go big or go home, baby.

And I shall leave you this fine evening to go work on the Savior socks with this little tidbit I snapped awhile ago:

I call this: Can I Help You?

It's Alive!

Short post, busy as hell.

We're gearing up toward the end of the session at my Tutoring Center, the timing of which will coincide nicely with my midterms at school (joy!). I'm trying desperately to find time to restore the cat netting on the porch, do laundry, homework, and still have a life, but day-am.

Coming soon:
*Gryffindor socks!
*Sock Savior socks!
*Printing the Secret of the Stole trauma
*Fighting the startitis virus
*a possible new feature: the bi-weekly KnitPicks $45! (yarn diet? what yarn diet?)
*A review of my newest favoritest show: Pushing Daisies

And last but not least:
*a return from the incessant Buffy obsession that is 7 seasons of Joss-y goodness. Yea, I never watched Buffy before last Sunday, what of it?

I shall leave you, dear reader, with a rhetorical question: How does David Boreanaz manage to go from barely attractive to smokin' hot in just 2 seasons? Could it be the leather pants?

I'll See Your Wagon and Raise You a Boxcar

Do you ever feel that it's somewhat useless to blog because your life is passing you by so quickly? That's how I've felt the last few weeks. So much has been going on, it's hard to know where to begin. Sometimes we have to just give ourselves permission to only catalog what we remember and let the rest slip by for another time, which is what I'm doing today. (Doesn't "give yourself permission" sound like such a new-agey thing to do? Harumph!)

First, about 2 weeks ago my Knitpicks Options needles arrived! I hearts them, and I spread the love this weekend when the Mother Ship was here; she will be getting a set, probably of the Harmony needles since she works with more slickery fibers than I do. More on that later. The bummer with the KP set is that the needles don't come smaller than a size 4. Or perhaps that's good for me, since I tend to hover right in the size 1-3 range because I am a *cough*looseknitter*cough*. One of these days I'll knit a sweater (or seven. My Ravelry queue is getting sweater-heavy for fall).

Knitpicks Options needle set, now with toast!

In a fit of excitement, I fell prey to Handpaintedyarn.com and picked up several hundred yards of their laceweight and 10 ounces of roving. For the first time ever when I opened a box of yarn, I thought the company had sent me the wrong order. I was bitterly disappointed. I have a sneaking suspiscion that the photos are doctored, but I'm not sure and wouldn't want to cast aspersions. Here are some comparison shots:

____
Perlas Rojas from the website: rubies and pearls _____Perlas Rojas in person: rust and smog!

The roving is closer, and the Clivia seems to have mellowed since it arrived and sat in the sun for a day, but I don't know that I'll be ordering from them again. I do like the greys in the Perlas Rojas though, so I might pick up a few skeins of the solid pearl grey - just not any time soon.

To comfort myself, I ordered a pair of the Harmony tips in size 4 from Knitpicks. Of course, I couldn't pass up the free shipping for orders over $45, so I added $38-worth of stuff to my cart. Shut up, my math is excellent! In the package will be a Jaquard starter set (hurrah!) and the Gryffindor yarn for my HP Sock Swap 2 partner, so when it arrives I will be dropping whatever I am doing and cranking out those socks. I found a pattern, thanks to Bella Knitting! Sarah, you're awesome.

Then, up until this weekend, I hardly knitted at all because of school work and projects. The Mother Ship arrived on the train on Friday and we spent a happy evening surfing Ravelry (I signed her up) and helping her transfer her newest project to a set of my new KP Options needles. You see, she had started a sideways Feather and Fan shawl out of mohair, and was trying (poor dear!) to cram 246 stitches onto a 32" Addi size 9. Those puppies were popping off all over the place! So I handed her my KP size 9's with the 60" cord attached (I knew those extra sizes would come in handy!) and helped her transfer and count all the stitches. Within about five minutes, I ordered a set of the Harmony size 9's and had them on their way to her house - clearly wooden needles are best for a mohair shawl. Good lord.

Then on Saturday, we went on an impromptu fiber crawl. First we hit Yarn Dogs where I bought enough sport weight to make a scarf I've been looking at and half of the Misti Alpaca laceweight to make the Feather and Fan Shawl from AGoL. Apparently I thought 1200 yards would be fine even though the pattern calls for 2500... wtf, memory? I'll also be taking their 4-session spinning course in October, hurrah!

________

Frog Tree Alpaca in sage green _______Misti Alpaca lace, but only 1300 yards! Waugh!

Then we dashed to Los Altos and went to Thai Silks, where the cutest little old Thai ladies work and coo over all the choices their customers make. One lady patted my head and told me that she used to knit when she was a bride in her country, but has forgotten in all the hundred years since. So cute! Mother Ship bought silk enough to make a skirt and top, and then we headed back out into the California dew. Our foray into the rain was cut short by the discovery that Uncommon Threads was across the street (how did I not know that?) so we went there and discovered that if I ever want to make a sweater, this would be the shop to which I would turn. The ladies there suggested Purlesence as well; I had planned to skip it in favor of my pocketbook and going on Sunday for Tea and Sympathy, but since it was on the way home... to Purlesence we went.

I need to go more often. The ladies who work there are famous for their hospitality and energy, and their fame is well-deserved. My mother managed (with the help of knitters-by) to con me into making a pair of Clessidras for her by 1) reminding me that she gave birth to me I didn't know Camille at all when I made her such fabulous socks, and 2) buying the yarn. The knitters-by reminded me that she is my mother and I have to do what she says. All of these are salient points. I acquiesced and, as a reward for being nice to my mommy, bought myself a copy of IK winter 2006 and a skein of STR Geisha, and into my Ravelry queue went another set of Clessidras (I might be crazy a little).

____

Geisha in Carbon, perhaps a sweater?____Maizy in Hibiscus, destined to be (more)Clessidras

Now, dear reader, I have more yarn than I know what to do with. Well - that's not strictly true. I know what to do with it. I just have to find the time! Perhaps I should get a job at a yarn store instead of as a teacher... *sigh*

This whole weekend I have successfully hidden Faina from my mother, but since she doesn't read this blog here's a sneak peek:

____
Faina: 1.75 of 4 repeats done - that's nearly 1/2 way!

Last night, I started the second half of the Super Secret S---x project, only to find out that since I put it down last time my knitting skillz have improved drastically. So instead of being more than half done, I frogged the first half and have begun afresh. I am 2 repeats away from being 25% finished; it's much quicker going this time around - a slight relief. Perhaps I should start knitting tiny test socks before I attempt new patterns!

The kittehs continue to get along better and better. Both boys sleep on my bed at least at the beginning of the nights; I'm thrilled that Darcy is taking back his spot near my feet. School is becoming a trial and my faithful, trusty Saturn is slowly dying a painful death, but I'm hoping she'll last long enough for me to switch my work schedule so that I can take public transportation to both work and school - about 5 weeks (hopefully - fingers crossed!). And now, I must go plug myself back in to Jane Eyre while I knit. It may be slower going than if I were to just read the book, but it does mean I get to knit at the same time - a fair tradeoff for possibly not getting the book 100% finished by Tuesday's class, I think!

KEEL me now.

I discovered Veronik Avery's work today, which gives you two reasons to shoot me in my sleep. One, because I've been knitting for awhile now and never recognized her as a Goddamn Certifiable Genius, and two, because I will never, ever live long enough to knit all the amazingly beautiful things she creates, which will slowly tear at me from the inside out. Damn you, Ravelry!

Is there an acronym for accumulating so much Ravelry queue that you'll never get to it all? Something like SABLE, but PABLE doesn't sound right. AHH! I've got it; we'll call it KEELS: Knitting Exceeds Expected Life Span.

P.S. - Brie Ellen, this is all your fault. You and your stupid queue! We can transfer the blame to Kai if you like - he's hearty; he can stand it.

P.S.S. - I'm Tikabelle on Ravelry, for any who want to be my friend. Anyone? Bueller?

Why is it?

Why is it that I seem to spend all my time looking at knitting, thinking about knitting, but seem to get very little actual knitting done?
I think this has something to do with the overabundance of beautiful yarns and projects available both on Ravelry and the interwebs in general. Knitting Daily's free weekly patterns don't help either, I must say. That Quilt Wrap stole (from Folk Style but available to KD subscribers, go sign up!) looks like my darling Mother Ship, and if two of the Knitpicks Gloss colors I would use in said scarf weren't backordered until the end of October, I would be out some $45 right this moment. I'm the type of person who can get stuck in the toothpaste aisle for half an hour because I am struggling to choose the perfect item. So getting overwhelmed with the plethora of beauty on the 'net, well. Par for the course, my friends.
It's also something to do with a constant feeling that I should be doing something else - regardless of the usefulness or importance of what I'm doing at the time. Very strange, and yet reminiscent of the term I took 3 studio art classes at the same time - two from the same professor. I'm not sure why that is; I'm not overly strapped for time or cash at the moment (although I could stand to re-dedicate myself to the Yarn Diet... *cough cough*). Oh well - these things seem to work themselves out in the end.

In other news, I got my Options needle set yesterday, along with my Starry Night yarn from the Zen Yarn Garden ART Walk Sock Club. It's be-yoo-tiful. I'm on the lookout for a stole of some sort that I can make with 420 yards of fingering weight - this is too pretty to be socks. I'm still waiting on the stuff from Handpaintedyarn.com, but hopefully it will show up in tomorrow's post. Once it gets here, there will be a full photographic update, never fear!

The Senor Sancho Panza, Esquire continues to grow - soon he'll be full grown and we won't be able to call him the Wee One anymore. But in the meantime, his kittenhood is both entertaining and exhausting, especially when he wants to play in the middle of the night. Thank god he'll be grown in a year - what if he was a KID?!?

He has discovered my sock projects

And thinks the monitor is his own personal toy

But he sure is cute when he's sleeping!

Mr. Darcy is still not amused.

Scarf Month? What Scarf Month?

ARGH. I got to around row 100/423 on Faina and realized something important. That pain in my right wrist? From working on straight needles. I got tendonitis years ago from dance team, and it acts up every once in awhile. So Scarf Month has been put on hold - again - until I can get myself a set of Knitpicks Options needles. ::sigh:: I was just getting into that lace thing, too! But there will be updated pictures once the camera battery re-charges.

Money will be tight for awhile. I had my 3-month review at work yesterday and discovered that the vacation I took in August - the one I was encouraged to take - will likely not, in fact, be paid. Now, my boss is super-nice and may pay me anyway, but it means that the financial aid I was going to save for next years tuition might be re-purposed to pay rent this month instead. It also means that the previously mentioned Knitpicks Options set will take a little longer to arrive in my hot little hands. Bah! It also means that I won't be getting a spinning wheel for awhile. I'm a bit sad about that, but yesterday I consoled myself by hauling out my drop spindle and spinning up some of the wool that's been sitting in my closet for a year - or is it two? It's addictive, that drop spindling.

In the mean time, I've been working on my brother Gabe's Charade Socks. They're quite lovely (in a manly way, of course) and I'm enjoying them a lot. My friend Sarah IM'ed me last night and wanted to know where HER socks are and why, if I'm not currently making her some, I insisted on tempting her with all that lovely fibery goodness. To which I can only answer: Evil. Pure and simple. ::grin::

But enough about knitting! Yesterday, the kitteh announced that his name is Senor Sancho Panza, Esquire, and he would like you all to know that he is the clever one. And please do not disturb him while he is eating:


Or while he is watching bugs on the wall:


or for the love of God, sleeping:

A New Addition

On Thursday night, ManCandy and I went to the Rock Bottom Brewery with Jer, Elizabeth, and some other friends. To my surprise, the brewery was hosting a benefit for one of the local animal shelters. Can you see where this is going? There was a pair of kittens there - part Maine Coon by the look of them - who were feral until their foster mama took them in at around 3-4 weeks old. The little boy stole my heart and I brought him home last night. He's currently holed up behind the couch in the TV room, but he's come out a couple of times to play with string or get some pets before he remembers he's afraid and runs back to shelter.

He's between 10-12 weeks old now, has been fixed and gotten his shots and has a microchip already (hurrah!). Darcy so far seems supremely unconcerned that there is another cat in the house, but that might be because my brother got him so stoned on catnip last night he passed out on the living room floor. I'm hoping that because the as-yet-unnamed kitteh is just a baby, Darcy will beat him into submission and they'll live in harmony.

No yarn pr0n today, but I did manage to salvage the Hideous Raw Silk using an excess of blue dye. I used the leftover dye bath and dropped in my final cone of Kona, and I was rewarded with a lovely arctic blue that I will probably use as a base for some experimentation. We'll see!

Without further ado, here's the kitteh:



Isn't he aDORable? He purrs like a lawnmower. I hearts him.

Scarf Month is finally here!

Well, I bound off my test knitting last night, which means Scarf Month only took an extra 15 days to arrive. I think that means I can safely extend Scarf Month into September; I'll probably need to in order to get all of my scarf UFO's taken care of. There are only 3, really - but they're all doozys.

First up is Faina, because the Mother Ship has been bothering me in an only half-joking tone .

Now, let me go back a couple of days: Here's the haul my mom and I picked up from the lovely Fibers in Grass Valley.

And here is her portion:
The rest was mine. ::blush:: Isn't the tiny little iron just as twee as can be? It'll keep me from having to haul out the ironing board every time I want to press open a seam for the forth-coming sock project bags. Anyway, my mom let slip at the yarn store that she had forgotten what Faina even looked like, not to mention what color she chose for the yarn. WELL! Of course the Startitis virus that has been lying dormant in my brain began to twitch and awake. If she didn't remember, why on earth couldn't I start something else? No reason at all! To make it worse, when I got home my order from Knitpicks had arrived, including A Gathering of Lace and EZ's Knitting Workshop. ManCandy had to wrest me away from the Faux Russian Stole page in GoL, shouting what I've told him to say in situations like this: "NO! Don't give in! It's not you, it's the Startitis! Come back to me! Don't give in!" Sometimes it works, but he has to catch me early.

So I somewhat regretfully hauled out the original Faina: She's looking a bit neglected, isn't she?

Since I began this project, I have learned a whole lot about fiber and knitting and mysterious words like "drape" and "gauge" and "yarn weight." I knocked out about 1/2 of a row before I discovered that I missed a YO somewhere. Again, I contemplated ripping and starting the Faux Russian Stole, but I resisted mightily again - mostly because GoL was out in the living room and I was knitting in bed, and I knew that if I couldn't keep track of YO's in Faina, I certainly would muck up the FRS beyond recognition. Instead, I looked at the pattern again. The piece on the front of the pattern was knit in sport weight alpaca. I was knitting with worsted weight Cascade 220. Now, Cascade 220 is lovely, but it has no "drape" and is the wrong "gauge" not to mention "yarn weight." But damn if I didn't get the needle size right! No wonder it didn't look much like lace. I wracked my brain and remembered this little gem in my stash:Purple Kool-Aid Knitpicks Superwash Fingering Weight

So I ripped the Cascade - maybe it'll be a French Market Bag or something - and wound the Knitpicks into a ball. I don't think she'll ever notice, but if she does I hope she likes the Knitpicks Bare better. It feels lovely against the skin and it'll be easier to wash should it get dirty. Y'know, 'cause she lives on a farm and all.

Knitpicks vs. Cascade! Yarn weight? Whazzat?

And here she is, re-fitted and I think much more suited to herself:

She still smells like Grape Kool-Aid. Yum.

Here's some kitty pr0n as well, since I've been seriously remiss with the cute kitty pictures lately.

Waffles and Pierre lounging at the Farm

Darcy checking out the bed A new sleeping spot!

My Blog Contest

The Yarn Pirate (yes, that Yarn Pirate!) suggested I have a blog contest to get people over to my Etsy store, so here it is. I present to you, gentle reader, My Blog Contest.

What I need: a logo for my store, and a banner to put it on (yarrrrrr!)

Specs: The banner needs to be 100 pixels high x 760 pixels wide to conform to Etsy standards. I would like the logo to be something I can separate out to put onto a label tag. Feel free to manipulate this quote any way you choose (or to leave it out completely): "If we can't succeed, we'll die trying." The file needs to be in JPG, GIF or PNG format.

The winner will receive: one skein of sock yarn from Dye Trying, current or previous colorways. One sock project bag of their choice (pictures coming as soon as I finish the bags) and a matching set of stitch markers made by my mom, the master beader in the family. Oh, and bragging rights! Don't forget those.

The sorta-legal stuff: The banner I choose will belong to me to use for dyetrying.etsy.com, and the winner agrees that he or she will not give it to someone else to use commercially. Of course, the winner is free to use the banner in a portfolio etc. if that's what floats their boat.

I think that's it! I will accept submissions to my dyetryingshop (at) gmail (dot) com through August 29 and choose soon after that. Bring it on!

ADDED 8/16: If you'd like to buy anything until the end of August, because you entered the contest shipping will be free. Don't send your payment immediately and I'll send you an adjusted invoice. Just put your etsy name somewhere in your email along with your entry.

Irony, thy name is knitting

Today is Saturday. I wrote the following on Thursday:

I would like to stress – before I begin to rant – that there is nothing
wrong with the pattern I am test-knitting. The whole thing is quite
well-written and understandable. And yet there I was, all up on my high
horse, at the top of the heap, mixing metaphors with the best of’em.
Making my own sock pattern for my first pair of socks? Cake. Cookie’s
German Stockings on size 0’s? Simplicity itself. Knee-highs for someone I
didn’t know? A bit more challenging, but utterly do-able. But somehow, the
simple-yet-elegant pattern in these socks has both given me my
come-uppance and taken me down a peg.

The pattern looks a bit like this:
Row 1: [SSK, k6, YO] repeat to end of row
Row 2 and all even rows: K all stitches

Doesn’t look difficult, right? Let me tell y’all, something about “knit
all even rows plain” has got me all kinds of f’ed up. I seem to be keeping
one row for every three rows I tink, and it’s incredibly aggravating!

I can’t seem to do anything while I knit these socks. I think I’m just
going to have to pull them out on the car trip to my mother’s this
weekend and plow through them as best I can. At least I’m getting the
experience of knitting with my own product! I like the color variations.
This is the same base I used to over-dye Beatrice, but I think in the
case of this hank I used blue instead of Beatrice’s green. I don’t like
it quite as much – I prefer the multi-faceted greens to the
aqua-and-jungle-yellow of this hank. However, it’s still pretty, and it
stands up to the tinking pretty well.

Not even 2 hours after I wrote that, the pattern went *click!* and now I'm off to the racecs. Half a repeat (14 rows) left until I start the heel, which is short row so won't take very long. Hurrah!

My mom and I found a fantastic fiber store in downtown Grass Valley today. The yarns were delightful, plentiful and reasonably priced. The people at the shop were super-nice, and encouraged my mom and I to gab about the new Fall Interweave Knits (bought), the 25th anniversary Vogue (bought) and the possible benefits of spinning your own recycled sari fiber or making your own stitch markers. Mom bought a pattern and some Brrocco Ultra Alpaca for her first knitting project that will involve purling (and YO's and k2togs - never let it be said we're not an intrepid pair!) - a gorgeous scarf by Frog Tree Alpaca which just might be my new favorite alpaca pusher. 130 yards for 7 bucks? I'll take 5. Except I didn't. Instead, I bought 2 hanks of Shaeffer Anne in this white/green/pink colorway that reminds me of spring. 1120 yards of superwash merino/mohair blend. Score: yarn diet wagon: 0, Tikabelle: 2. Go me!

We also let some ideas about stitch markers for Dye Trying percolate, but that's another discussion for another day.

Sockapalooza 4!

I got a box in the mail today from - of all places - Berkeley. Who knew my sock pal was so close? I certainly didn't. Maybe she'll comment here and we can have coffee! I promise to wear my A-MAZING socks. Thank you, Aimee! Here's my loot!




Are you jealous? Aimee said that this is only her second ever pair of socks, which obviously means she's well on her way to being a fantastic sock knitter. And the Lorna's Laces? I put that color down yesterday with a stern "No, Tika! Bad Tika! Yarn diets are not about buying more yarn!" and what happened? The Yarn Fairy came through for me via my sock pal. I was going to swear off swaps for a bit, but getting presents in the mail is just too much fun to pass up.

Speaking of which, my sockapalooza package is going in the mail tomorrow morning, along with my Very First Dye Tyring order! Augh! I'm all a-flutter.

Edit: Does selling one skein of yarn allow me to buy several more in celebration? 'Cause KnitPIcks thinks so...

Going Live

As promised, I photographed the Dye Trying yarn yesterday morning and set up my Etsy store last night. I must admit the naive part of me was disappointed that it didn't all sell magically during the night, but the realistic part of me reminded myself that I merely set up the store and didn't make any announcements to the blogosphere or even to my friends, so it was to be expected [this was in conjunction with the me who was urging myself to get up and go to work this morning - it was a veritable convention of me's in my head this morning, and all of them (us?) were clamoring for coffee].

Here are the Pomatomus socks drying in the California sunshine:


And here, as promised, is my fab K'nex skein-winder! Hurrah for ManCandy! (Or, as Brie has dubbed him, BrainCandy. He's so proud of that...)

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!

Crash and Burn!

I haven't joined any sock clubs because - well, just because, really. But this one reached out its sneaky little hands and grabbed me by the scruff of the neck. Can you guess why? How could I not join? Anyway.

I've been listening to Cast On from the beginning. So far, I'm just about 14 months behind schedule, but I'm enjoying the Muse series. Ideas are percolating in my brain for a piece about Urania and Clio, but you'll just have to wait for those! I spent all weekend and several nights this week plugged in to my iPod, happily dyeing skeins of yarn. My first batch is going to be Henry's Attic Kona, but I think the next set will be Knitpicks Bare. It's inexpensive and already put up into hanks of 100g, which will make my life a bit easier. Plus, I can use several things from their Bare line which will give everything I make a bit of continuity. I will miss the textured feel of the Kona though. Perhaps if I can find a place that will put it up for me I'll go back to it eventually.

My Sockapalooza socks are so close to being done. I'll be able to send out my package tomorrow during lunch; only one day late. Argh! Then it's on to the test knitting.

Off to speed-knit. Pictures will be forthcoming once I stop blogging from work.