Blog Fodder

It's the end of the semester, therefore I've been busy. Busy procrastinating, writing papers, procrastinating some more... thankfully among Netflix, knitting and spinning I have a multitude of ways to procrastinate. I may have elevated it to an art, actually - hence this post.

I've been plodding away at my 12-Mile Quest. I haven't finished anything since the Reversai Socks, but aside from some Stutter Socks most of my knitting is long-term. I did, however, manage to finish spinning and plying the Millefiore and Quietude rovings from PRS. Then I tried to ply them together, as previously planned. However, despite my planning and good intentions, the results looked like ass, so I gave up and navajo-plied each bobbin on itself to great results:

Millefiore, 205yds, 3.7oz

Quietude, 171 yds, 3.9 oz

They're pretty enough that I've been hauling them around everywhere with me to show off to my friends. I've also picked up some stuff from Crazy Monkey:


And my friend Cynthia parted with this lovely gem because she lurves me:

Crown Mountain Farms SW Merino, 8oz

On second thought, she may not love me. Maybe she hates me and wants me to attempt to insulate my house with CMF roving while simultaneously going broke; it's smooshy and gorgeous and as you spinners probably already know, spins like a dream. I started a list of colorways in case there is a co-op order in the near future, and my list is already 18 bumps long. So much for Rule #1 of the 12-Mile Quest! But at least the others are trucking along nicely.

In other news, I finally started the Juno Regina shawl for my friend's wedding:


The Posset yarn is lovely and feels like a cloud; I love it. I actually have a confession to make: I'm secretly glad that I chose a smaller shawl so I can use the leftovers for myself. I know, awful right?!? But there you have it - I'm selfish that way. I also calculate the underarm stitches for my Tangled Yoke Cardi, so that may be coming out of the Time-Out Corner shortly. There are a million sweaters I'd like to try, but I feel like I should finish at least one before I start a sweater-making career.

ManCandy's friend from Michigan, Hetero-Lifemate, moved in yesterday. Already he's gotten more calls from ManCandy than I have, but I don't think I'll disappear him just yet. He's funny and has a nice cat who is currently hiding under the TV.

Was There Any Doubt?

What kind of yarn are you?

You are Cashmere.You are sophisticated and luxe. You can often be found in high-end boutiques and hobnobbing with the upper crust. You are one of the beautiful people and you don't let anyone forget it! Take this quiz! Quizilla | Join | Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

Dropouts Never Prosper (Unless They Do)

I spent Thursday of this week feeling a bit green around the gills. Since there's been a horrific flu going around, I called in sick to work and stayed in all day (by Saturday I concluded it was allergies - daily Claritin, here I come). I did, however, manage to jaunt up to Purlescence for some lace weight in order to start the third round of Sock Madness 2. The premise of the sock is pretty neat, with 2 strands of laceweight held together to create color striping. Omly's are an excellent example. For myself, I picked up some Panda Silk in pink and purple as a tribute to my first 10-speed bike. And to my wardrobe from the same era. Let's face it, if I could have, I would have painted my room and dyed my hair pink and purple when I was 10. But I digress.

Lovely aren't they? But wait, there's more!

The laceweight sock pattern came out, and man, I was ready. For the first hour, I was into it. Then I realized that the "laceweight" I picked wasn't actually making a sock that would fit anyone I know. Two strands of Panda Silk held together do not fingering weight make. And I wasn't having any fun, because the last socks from SM2 weren't socks I would wear either. And then, in a final deathknell for my career as a Tennessean, I realized that I could and would wear a pair of pink socks and a pair of purple socks if I ripped out my too-large monstrosity. So there you have it: I dropped out.

As soon as I finished re-winding the skeins, the weight came off my shoulders. Somehow it's easier to voluntarily drop out than to be beaten by someone else, so I'm fine with it. Next year for Sock Madness I'll either be A) recently graduated or B)only taking a few classes, so I'm sayin' it now, SM3 people: you've been warned!

This left me with only 3 projects on the needles, however. Two are sock projects and one is the Tangled Yoke Cardi, which is in time out until I get brave enough to connect the sleeves to the body. And the 2 sock projects are... well, let's face it: boring K2P2 socks. I've got a few spinning projects here and there, but I've caught Startitis and I'm not sure where it's going to take me. There are a few candidates, though. I told my friend Kate about the wedding shawl I'm planning, and it was the first time I've seen her pout about not wanting to get married. I caved and offered to make her a shawl since she is moving to Prague within the next year. We both knit, but I am the avid knitter (instead of the recreational knitter she is), so she requested a red shawl for cool Prague summer evenings. On Thursday, I found the perfect not-too-purple, not-too-orange red yarn that won't aggravate her sensitive skin:

Fiddlesticks Knitting Zephyr Laceweight, 4oz in Cinnabar

This yarn will grow up to be a Juno Regina shawl, but I haven't started it yet. Mainly because I was busy finishing the massive cabling project for the Posset yarn I got from Colourmart. And behold, the project, she is done!

2000 yds, 100% cashmere laceweight

Purple disc for scale; it's the size of a quarter.

It's as soft as a kitten and a lovely grey-purple color that I just love. The cabling makes it a very visual yarn; I think it'll show stitch definition really well. Y'know, if you care about those things. Which apparently I do. I didn't spin this yarn but I did re-spin and cable it, so I'm going to award myself 1/2 mileage for a total of 1000 yards finished. Hopefully I'll find a pattern for it tomorrow and get to start actually knitting with it; I feel like I deserve to after the oatmeal-brain-mush project it's been so far!

And lastly, today I finished spinning the PRS singles to go with the Quietude singles from spring break. I'm letting the fresh singles sit overnight (like a good little spinner) and I'll try to ply them up tomorrow. Getting things done is such a relief; dropping out was, in this case, the best thing to do. Here's a shot of the bobbin I finished tonight back when it was only half finished:

It'll be so pretty! I'm excited.
Millefiore SW Merino from Pigeonroof Studios

And lastly, I must say I agree that the anthropomorphized cat pictures can get a little... eye-roll-y. But Crazy Sarah put a caption on this photo that made me spit tea on my keyboard this morning, so I'm going to share anyway.

"I said MUSH, vile human!"

"Madness takes its toll.

Please have exact change. "

On Thursday night, I stayed up until 2:30 am finishing my Sock Madness 2 socks. Despite the fact that I'm not super jazzed about this pattern, they turned out well.

Reversai Socks, "Red Hat" colorway 347 yds.

Every once in awhile, it's good to do things you don't think you'll like. Once I got to the point where I could read the pattern in the sock itself, it went fairly quickly. Four days for a pair of socks isn't bad considering this time last year I was lucky if I could churn out a single sock every week! These will put me over the 2 mile mark on my 12-Mile Quest. Some parts of the Quest are going well and others... not so well. I've curbed my yarn buying by quite a lot; the only actual yarn I've bought since Stitches West is for a specific project, but I've definitely added to my fiber stash. Apparently I'm in a Spinning Place instead of a Knitting Place, but that's fine with me. I've been doing a fair bit of spinning in the evenings, so it will all even out eventually.

I finally got the lace yarn and beads to start Elizabeth's wedding shawl - the above-mentioned "specific project." It's this lovely shade that I've decided to call "Posset" because it looks like the wine/milk mixture Victorians used to feed their babies.

100% cashmere lace weight, ~2300 yards
It's also hard to photograph.

I bought 2 cones of 2300 yards each, which turned out to be a brilliant move on my part because I'll need to cable it together into a stronger yarn for hand knitting. Today I'm going to run each cone through my wheel to tighten up the original ply, then tomorrow I'll ply those two yarns together to end up with 2300 yards total. Then maybe I'll finally be able to start stringing the beads onto the yarn to begin the shawl... but I'm not holding my breath.

Yesterday I met a specter from the past. Jasmin 2007 came out to play, and we had a lovely time! First it was just an Etsy jaunt that resulted in some lovely roving from Crazy Monkey heading to us across the country, but then we decided to hit up Purlescence, where the real damage took place. We decided to split a BMFA Sheep-2-Shoe kit of Chapman Springs after seeing Nathania's lovely bobbin-in-progress at the shop, then got sucked into another S2S in Haida from the Raven series. My pictures are blurry because the little L2 doesn't like to focus on fiber, but you get the idea.

So all in all, I ended up with another pound of fiber yesterday. And it's all Jasmin's fault.

We also hit up DSW in a search for Kick-Ass Boots (as opposed to ass-kicking boots, which is another style entirely) but came up with bupkiss. Either we missed the winter boots or we were too early; only another trip will tell! However, we did find a pair of... shoes? that was squite amusing. A plain black Mary Jane style pump with a sewn-in knitted legwarmer. With cables. And there were only 2 pairs in in the aisles we looked through (sizes 7-8), which means people have bought these shoes. Multiple people. And the intention of some of them must have been to actually wear said shoes. This probably says something about the state of the fashion industry, but really I'm just too bemused by the shoe itself to pose a theory.

ManCandy is on a tear to clean the house judging by the clattering coming from the kitchen. This means I should probably go supervise before my things get relegated to Places Unknown.

Printer Kitteh does not like ur papr. Writ a new 1.

Aaaaaand, scene.

Why is it that just when I've gotten settled into a break, it ends? Sigh. Someday I'll graduate from college, and then I won't feel guilty when I slack off at home. Which I'm doing right this moment, by the way. Colleges should offer a degree - or at least a class - in Advanced Procrastination; that's the only way I'd graduate with a 4.0, I'm telling you!

I spent Friday and much of last night watching season 2 of Dexter with Jasmin and the Minions. This is a huge step for me because I hadn't finished season 1; in case you hadn't noticed, I'm a bit OCD about doing things in order. I've watched roughly half of season 1, and I was totally delighted to see my friend Sam show up in episode 5. Seeing my friends on TV is always a kick, and Dexter is a delightful show. ManCandy and I are negotiating getting Showtime added to our TV lineup, but I think I'll wait until I've seen The Tudors before I make a decision. I'm the one who pays the bill, after all. During Dexter I managed to finish the Black Magic roving. I'm quite proud of it, and it's my first spinning that I'd like to knit up into something wearable.

80/20 merino/tussah from Pigeonroof Studios, 383 yards

The roving seems to have gotten a little full of itself, however. It doesn't seem to want to co-star with anything else in the stash, so I'll have to see what I can dig up for this diva skein.

The weekend on The Farm was awesome. I rested and spun and knitted until I was ready to come home, and came up with some fun pictures as well. My lovely mother sewed buttons on the Egyptian Jungle Cardigan, and we promptly decided to torture Pierre:

He is clearly unamused. We, on the other hand, thought we were hilarious. Maybe because of the

Mmm. Wine. And because I can't think of anything else to say (perhaps the procrastination is getting to me?), I'll leave you with this:

Sound asleep.

Spring Break, wooo!

I finished my last (online) test today, so Spring Break has officially begun. Unfortunately for me, I let myself get so behind on papers that I'll have to work on them over the holiday. But at least as long as I keep up with my schedule I won't fall any farther behind!

I also finished the Zombie socks. Truthfully I finished them on the 19th, but I'm just getting aroudn to blogging about them today because I've been enjoying the stellar weather up at my mom's farm. Anyway, the Zombies are donedonedone!

Zombie Socks - Lorna's Laces "Red Rover"

I've lost some of my knitting mojo, I think. I worked steadily on sleeve #2 of my Tangled Yoke Cardigan on the way up here, but between waiting for Round 2 of Sock Madness to begin and waiting for the yarn for my friend's wedding shawl to arrive from Colourmart, I can't bring myself to really knit much. Plus I've had a good time spinning some of the Pigeonroof Studios superwash. I brought my wheel up to show my mother and aunt - since they helped contribute birthday/Christmas money to buy it - and I've actually plowed through about 1/2 of my 4 oz of Pigeonroof's "Quietude" roving. Jasmin 2008 and I were bemoaning the fact that it's now nearly impossible to pick and choose the roving we want at PRS updates since they sell out so fast. It's great for her, and I guess it just means I'll have to put in a special order one of these days. When I have money and latitude to buy roving!

Quietude roving, Pigeonroof Studios SW Merino

That's from Friday night - I've added significantly to the bobbin since then. My mom has misplaced her kitchen scale, so I may end up just putting all 4oz on this bobbin then spinning up 4 more from another order and plying them together. This is the moment that, despite the 16oz of roving I brought with me to give myself options, I wish I'd brought more. Tough life I lead, huh??

ManCandy left for home today and I'm hoping everything is all right there. We left the Aliens alone over the weekend as usual, but I began the process of changing their diet from Iams to Royal Canin on Thursday before I recalled that I wouldn't be there all weekend to monitor them. Apparently Iams is full of terrible things and owned by a rotten company, so we're making the switch provided the kitt-os are okay. Panza will probably be fine, but Mr. Darcy is a finicky eater with a picky stomach. We're giving them RC's Maine Coon food mixed with their Special 33 for tender kitty tummies, and mixing those with the old food to ease the transition. I have to give credit to the guy at Petfood Express - when he told me about the RC food, he also gave me both full-sized bags for free so that if the kittehs didn't like it, I didn't feel obligated to use it all. And on top of that, the food is buy 3, get 1 free. Granted, it's more expensive than Iams, but if it extends the health and happiness of my boys, I'm okay with that.

Mr. Darcy likes free kitty food too. It's almost like the food on his home planet!

Five Years Ago Today...

...the war in Iraq began. I remain unimpressed by our administration's refusal to take responsibility for its own flaws. I remain unimpressed by a government interested in revenge or retaliation instead of what is right. In truth, "unimpressed" is not the right word for the feeling of revulsion I get in my gut, my heart and my throat every time I hear more about the Iraq War. My brother went to Afghanistan after the attacks on the World Trade Towers. Then he went to Iraq. He didn't believe he should have been there, but he went. And now he deals with the deaths he caused and the deaths of his friends every day. For what? I honestly don't know.

I support Barack Obama for president because I like being spoken to as if I weren't an uneducated peon who simply can't understand the workings of government. I like his style, his attitude, and his heart. I think Hillary is less charismatic, and I believe that we need a charismatic and earnest leader to help the country hold her head up again. Senator Obama made this speech five years ago. It's time for a change.


"Good afternoon. Let me begin by saying that although this has been billed as an anti-war rally, I stand before you as someone who is not opposed to war in all circumstances. The Civil War was one of the bloodiest in history, and yet it was only through the crucible of the sword, the sacrifice of multitudes, that we could begin to perfect this union, and drive the scourge of slavery from our soil. I don't oppose all wars.

My grandfather signed up for a war the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed, fought in Patton's army. He saw the dead and dying across the fields of Europe; he heard the stories of fellow troops who first entered Auschwitz and Treblinka. He fought in the name of a larger freedom, part of that arsenal of democracy that triumphed over evil, and he did not fight in vain.

I don't oppose all wars. After September 11th, after witnessing the carnage and destruction, the dust and the tears, I supported this administration's pledge to hunt down and root out those who would slaughter innocents in the name of intolerance, and I would willingly take up arms myself to prevent such tragedy from happening again. I don't oppose all wars. And I know that in this crowd today, there is no shortage of patriots, or of patriotism.

What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other armchair, weekend warriors in this administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne.

What I am opposed to is the attempt by political hacks like Karl Rove to distract us from a rise in the uninsured, a rise in the poverty rate, a drop in the median income - to distract us from corporate scandals and a stock market that has just gone through the worst month since the Great Depression. That's what I'm opposed to. A dumb war. A rash war. A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics.

Now let me be clear - I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power. He has repeatedly defied UN resolutions, thwarted UN inspection teams, developed chemical and biological weapons, and coveted nuclear capacity. He's a bad guy. The world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without him.

But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history. I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of Al Qaeda.

I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars.

So for those of us who seek a more just and secure world for our children, let us send a clear message to the President today. You want a fight, President Bush? Let's finish the fight with Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, through effective, coordinated intelligence, and a shutting down of the financial networks that support terrorism, and a homeland security program that involves more than color-coded warnings.

You want a fight, President Bush? Let's fight to make sure that the UN inspectors can do their work, and that we vigorously enforce a non-proliferation treaty, and that former enemies and current allies like Russia safeguard and ultimately eliminate their stores of nuclear material, and that nations like Pakistan and India never use
the terrible weapons already in their possession, and that the arms merchants in
our own country stop feeding the countless wars that rage across the globe.

You want a fight, President Bush? Let's fight to make sure our so-called allies in the Middle East, the Saudis and the Egyptians, stop oppressing their own
people, and suppressing dissent, and tolerating corruption and inequality, and
mismanaging their economies so that their youth grow up without education,
without prospects, without hope, the ready recruits of terrorist cells.

You want a fight, President Bush? Let's fight to wean ourselves off Middle East oil,
through an energy policy that doesn't simply serve the interests of Exxon and
Mobil. Those are the battles that we need to fight. Those are the battles that
we willingly join. The battles against ignorance and intolerance. Corruption and
greed. Poverty and despair.

The consequences of war are dire, the sacrifices immeasurable. We may have occasion in our lifetime to once again rise up in defense of our freedom, and pay the wages of war. But we ought not -- we will not -- travel down that hellish path blindly. Nor should we allow those who would march off and pay the ultimate sacrifice, who would prove the full measure of devotion with their blood, to make such an awful sacrifice in vain."

Playing Hooky

Occasionally - okay, about once every 2 weeks - I blow off school and stay home. Usually I'm pretty productive around the apartment, doing laundry and such. Every once in awhile I even get a paper or two written. Sometimes I clean up projects or even just clean up (don't laugh!). Today I woke up in time for school but simply couldn't drag myself there. I don't know why exactly, but it probably has something to do with Spring Break beginning on Friday. I'm going to try to write a paper for my Northern Renaissance class this afternoon, and perhaps even begin my Archaeology synthesis paper, but I haven't totally decided yet. Anyway, enough about my academic trials and tribulations.

I've been avoiding something for a few days. This weekend, I finished spinning and plying my BFL Rhubarb singles. Since I crammed all 4 ounces onto one bobbin, I decided that another yarn cake would work just fine. Hah. I made the critical error of leaving the yarn cake out over night, and when I got up in the morning, the cats had performed a miracle: what was once one yarn cake was now two! After I finished kicking myself for stupidity, I plied up the least tangled portions and will probably felt the rest into what will become the softest cat toys on the face of the planet. Maybe I'll felt them with some catnip inside, but I'm not sure the little monsters deserve it. Anyway.
Since I finished plying, I've simply left the yarn on the bobbin, as if the task of winding it off were a monstrous time sink. But today, in the Spirit of Hooky, I finally turned it into a skein - in all of about 15 minutes, including pictures. I think maybe I was worried that it would be a tiny little worthless hank, but I ended up with a respectable skein:

Rhubarb 2-ply, 202 yds.

That means, for those keeping track (just me), that this would probably have been my thinnest yarn to date. Go me. It's not the tidiest yarn ever, but it's really soft and actually has some smoosh factor to it.

These colors are pretty accurate.

ManCandy and I are going up to visit the Mother Ship this weekend, and since Bella and I are on the same spring break I'll be staying at the farm until Wednesday. I'm taking my as-yet unnamed wheel, my laptop, and my knitting, but not my credit card. See how smart I am?!?

Sock Madness and A Tale of Woe

Bella and I are getting along better now. We've established some ground rules and she's more comfortable now that she knows what they are. She's never had rules before - something I've been told over and over isn't good for a child. She's largely stopped crying about little things like being told to sit up and eat her dinner and started crying about the things that really hurt her bruised little heart.

A few days ago, we arrived at her house and I sent her to do her homework. She sat down at her desk for a few moments, then I came into the room.

"Bella, come here," I said, pointing to the spot directly in front of me. She came over slowly and stood on the spot (progress! Obedience without questioning!), looking up at me curiously. "WHERE," I demanded, "is my big hug for the day??" She smiled and jumped into my arms - all 38.5 pounds of her, the tiny thing - and koala'd me.
"You didn't remind me!" she laughingly accused when she was done with her hug.
"I have to remind you now? You don't want to hug me on your own?" I wailed. She laughed and tickled me, and we giggled together. Then: "Bella!" I cried in mock sadness, with big grin on my face, "don't you loooove me anymore?"
"Of course I do!" she yelled, and buried her face in my neck.
"I love you too, button," I chuckled. Then I realized she hadn't moved her face, and that her little frame was shaking. "Baby, what's wrong?"
"You - you - you thought I didn't loooooove you!!" she sobbed. I was shocked. Somewhere my brain was chiding me for not remembering her utter and total lack of a sense of humor, but the rest of me went into instant Big Sister mode. I kicked off my shoes and carried her to the bed, letting her curl up against my chest and sob.
"Sweetheart," I explained, "I'm so sorry. I was making a bad joke, but I didn't think it would hurt your feelings! I know you love me, baby, and I love you too. Shhhh." And then it struck me. "Bella, honey, do you sometimes feel like people lie to you when they say they love you?"
She looked up at me with huge, watery brown eyes and nodded, still sobbing. "Who?" I asked. Seconds ticked by while she tried to call up a feeling she doesn't examine very often.
"My mommy - sniffle - my mommy never comes home even if she's not working, and she never does what she says."

I have never been kicked in the gut, but I can tell you exactly what it feels like. I think I stopped breathing for a moment. My family's not perfect, and we've had our altercations, but there has never in my whole life been a single second that I seriously considered that my family - all 12 of them - didn't love me. The idea that a little girl could have reason to question the very foundation of the word "family" breaks my heart. 

Poor little dear. Thank god it's Friday.

*****

I woke up early yesterday so I could print out the first pattern for Sock Madness, but it wasn't out yet. Another reason in my long list never to get up early if I can help it! It wasn't a big deal - I had no knitting time in those classes anyway. I swung by the school print shop between classes 2 and 3 to get the pattern. By the time class 3 was over, I had the ribbing and a few rows of the pattern done.

Originally I kicked myself for forgetting a set of smaller needles, but since the pattern grows organically out of the ribbing, it worked out okay. Last night I finished just over 1/2 of the first heel flap stitches and went to bed - probably good, since I have to look up my HPSS3 pal's foot size. The Zombie pattern is wicked stretchy, so I'm not too worried about the leg. Here it is so far:

Zombie Socks by Sheryl Ball

It also just occurred to me that this is the first time in awhile I've had any knitting pictures to show off. Sleeve 1 of the Tangled Yoke Cardi continues apace. As Brie hoped, my length gauge and I found each other; I've got about an inch or 2 of plain knitting to go and the sleeve will be done. Then only one more to go and Tangled Yoke becomes at-home knitting, as it'll be too unwieldy to carry around to classes.

I think it's time for more tea and some Angel, season 4. And some Zombies.

A Weekly Endeavor

Apparently my blog is going to become mostly a weekly thing. Fridays have become My Day since ManCandy is at work and I'm out of classes. Sometimes I clean, sometimes I play video games, and sometimes I just read the internet all day. I rarely leave the house if I can avoid it, and now that it's spring I open all the windows and let the place air out all afternoon. It's wonderful.

My knitting monogamy makes for boring knit-blogging. I've finished the body of my Tangled Yoke Cardigan and am doing mathematical gymnastics on the first sleeve. You see, I have stick-arms. More specifically, I have tiny little wrists and I like Nice Sweaters (as opposed to hoodies, etc) to fit prettily around my narrow bits as there seem to be fewer of them as I get older, new working-out regime notwithstanding. The sleeves for my body size are definitely too big around. The small size, ditto. So I did some fancy calculations and came up with a decrease rate that pleases me, and wrote it down. Don't look so shocked.

But then came the girls in the leotards with their weird "I win!" hands-in-the-air poses and ribbon dances and the gymnastics began for real. (Did I carry that analogy too far?) Personally, I find sleeves that hit me right at the wrist to be unsightly; I am "long-limbed" and things that hit me just at my wrists (or ankles) look too short. So I chose a good length shirt and measured the arm at the wrist-to-armpit seam. Twenty-two inches - and thus, the problem. The small measurement on the pattern is 17 inches. Let the games begin! I think I may throw my back out.

Project Monogamy is not, it seems my deal. I've been reading A Gathering of Lace almost nightly trying to find a lace pattern for the Sea Silk from Stitches. I planned to use it for a Print o' the Wave stole, but that calls for 800 yards and I want to use all 1300, so it's back to the planning stages. Maybe something with beads! Maybe I'll find one more skein of the red and make the Moroccan Days shawl... Ahem. Clearly this yarn and I haven't spent enough time together. It's afraid to tell me what it wants to be.

In the meantime, I know it's spring in San Jose because a tree outside my window burst into bloom this morning. Yesterday it was bare, today it looks like this:


Happy Spring, everyone!

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.

Stitches West '08, a.k.a. How I Went Broke, Officially

So I went to Stitches on Friday and didn't fare too badly. I met up with BalletMommy from the Lime&Violet message board and we managed to keep each other marginally in check. Sort of.

Then I went back today. Despite warnings not to, I went a) alone and b) with my credit card. And it's going to show. Tomorrow may mark the beginning of my #54 goal: work exclusively from the stash for one year, not including things for finishing projects (like needles or buttons). Maybe it'll be March 1, with one exception a la Wendy. I dunno yet; I'll ruminate on it over night and let you know what I come up with.

But enough of impending frugality! Show me the goods, you say! Well, I'll begin by tempting you with a (blurry) picture of the bag I picked up at the Fibersphere booth. There's no link to Fibersphere because their site won't be live until Tuesday (muahahhaha!), but rest assured, their product is cool. I didn't get one for myself, however, there will be two squee-ing ladies somewhere near Omaha as soon as I can get a box to the post office. Heh heh heh. Anyway, for me I got this bag, which is apparently not a bag but a basket because it was woven of grass, not cloth:

Crimson Basket from Baskets from Cambodia, a la Fibersphere

It's perfect for sweater-size projects and the bottom is shaped like a kidney bean so it molds to my leg or butt or wherever it's resting at the moment and doesn't flop around. I have the strange feeling I've typed this before, so I'll move on.

I got a thingy that will apparently help me control my spinning:

Spinner's Control Card from Carolina Homespun
I figure I'll take whatever control I can get.

And the proto-yarn with which to have said control:

8 oz of 100% wool from Interlacements

4 oz of 70/30 Merino Tussah from Carolina Homespun

8 oz Sheep-to-Shoe kit from Blue Moon Fiber Arts in Valkyrie

Why, yes, that IS over a pound worth of spinning fiber. And how much fiber have I spun up in, oh, ever? Roughly half a pound. That #54 is looking preeeeetty certain right about now.

I bought patterns!

Swirl Shawl pattern from Jojoland
3 new Cookie A patterns: Django, Trystero, and Stricken
Despite the current kibash on knitting socks, I could not in all conscience avoid these patterns.

But wait! Didn't you buy any yarn, Tika? Why yes, gentle reader, I did indeed buy yarn. Yards and yards of yarn. I bought, in no particular order:

Socks that Rock lightweight from BMFA, Bleeding Hearts colorway
This is my first STR. I don't know if there will be more, but I'm open to suggestion.

5 skeins of Melody by Jojoland
This is my first Jojoland. It will become the above-mentioned Swirl Shawl.
Cashlana yarn from Fleece Artist, 10/90 Cashmere/Wool
This is my first cashmere. I may pet it into oblivion.
3 skeins of Sea Silk from Hand Maiden, 70/30 silk/Seacell(C)
This is not my first Sea Silk, but I couldn't resist it anyway. I mean, really?

Whew. That's the whole of it. I also hooked up with Auntiesocial and CuteKnitter from Ravelry after today's buying binge and we chatted with a bunch of other Purlescence knitters for awhile. I like making new friends, especially ones with big stashes - er, hearts - and lots of entertaining anecdotes to share. I hope we all become good friends.

Oh, and one last thing I bought today. I gave Crazy Sarah - warning, tangent: isn't it weird how sometimes nicknames just stick? Despite the fact that Sarah is no longer crazy (neither am I, for that matter), I still think of her as "my friend Crazy Sarah" (to differentiate her from the OTHER Sarah's I know) and remember the good old days, complete with our attitudes and punk rockers and a golden tequila haze. Anyway, I gave Crazy Sarah back her Canon Rebel on Friday 'cause she needed it, so in my haze of purchasing I stopped at Wolf Camera on the way home and bought a little Nikon L2 and the sundry supplies that go with it. There's a 30-day return policy on it, so I'm going to play with it for a week or 2 then make a decision. So far, it's done okay. Considering I asked it to take color-accurate pictures with no flash under not-so-great lighting conditions at twilight in my room, I'd say it did pretty well. Some stuff is a bit blurry up close, but it's perfectly serviceable for blog work and should last me until I can save up for a Big Camera.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to try to shove all of this into my closet. Wish me luck.

C'est Finis!

Gentle readers, I give you (drumroll please...)

Faina! Knitpicks Bare in Kool-aid Grape, 462 yds.

Pretty cool, eh? I finished it on Wednesday but was struck by a sense of intense knitting ennui - is such a thing even possible?? - and haven't been interested in much of anything knitting-wise for a bit. It could be because I signed up for Sock Madness, thus necessitating a break from socks until the beginning of the... err... madness. It could be that I'm in a special Garter Rib Hell of Eunny Jang's creation. I decided to bust into my stash and begin a sweater since I seem to be procuring sweater-quantities of yarn at an alarming rate and have yet to make an adult-sized one. It's out of this scrumptious stuff, and I hearts both the yarn and the first name of the designer.

Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool, DK weight

Now, don't get me wrong - the Tangled Yoke Cardi is super-cute and I'm excited about the yarn, the pattern, and hopefully the fit. But for whatever reason, I can't wrap my apparently tiny little mind around a garter rib. I keep having to rip back and re-position stitches. It's maddening and I long for a little stockinette. I imagine I'll regret saying that later. The yarn, though... I am in lurv. It's a 50/50 silk/wool blend - surprise! I bet you though it was alpaca/cashmere! Ahem, sorry, little textile joke there - and it's lovely. It feels like old satin and is knitting up into a lovely fabric that should be perfect for summer evenings. Or mornings. Or anytime, really, since I seem to be an Ice Princess of the highest order and hardly ever get warm.

Oh, and that sweater-quantities of yarn I mentioned? Well, back awhile ago when the Yarn Harlot was making her Sunrise Circle Jacket, I picked up 3000 yards of this stuff from Webs:

2/4 Highland Tweed, Aran weight

And then I may have lost my head a teensy bit and picked up three sweaters-worth of this:

Valley Yarns Williamstown, Worsted (chocolate not pictured)

Ahem. So much for the 2:1 ratio of buying to knitting. However, I have been steadily plugging away at my projects and getting things done, so that has to count for something, right? Right. I'm glad you agree. And speaking of which, I passed the mile 1 mark on my 12-Mile Quest! Hurrah! I think I'll celebrate by going to Stitches West tomorrow. Again.

Finishalongapalooza, indeed!

Last weekend my dad, brother and I went to Squaw Valley so they could ski and I could snow bunny. I didn't get much knitting done on the mountain due to a sudden attack of shyness - those who know me well should please pick up their jaws off the floor, TYVM - but I did rip Faina back and finish up my first Hedera sock. The other night I knitted the last section of Faina, so now she is ready for ze blocking, woot! Maybe I'll get that done today and edit in some pictures. Right now I'm lazy.

I also finished up the Hederas yesterday during class!

Hedera socks by Cookie A. in Kool-Aid Valencia Orange, 268 yds.

(Yes, I know my legs are the same color as the table. It's winter.)

Reading for 6 classes has taken a serious bite out of my knitting time while I''m nannying for Bella, so I'm appreciating my in-class knitting more and more. These are the first socks I've knit just for me; bright orange really isn't part of my color palette, but they make me smile anyway. Maybe if I get a tan this semester - it could happen, shut up! - they won't look quite so out of place on my feet.

Ski slope and the gondola

Squaw Valley is a beautiful place. I took a billion pictures of the mountain in all kinds of light even though I know full well from growing up in Alaska that if you've seen one snow-covered peak, you've pretty much seen them all.

Point in case

I also realized that I need a night lens of some sort, because I really enjoy taking pictures of night scenes but can't seem to stop breathing for the 45 seconds it takes for my current lens. Don't know why that is...

Slightly blurry but still pretty!

Jer wanted his camera back, but my friend Crazy Sarah got a wicked cool camera for Christmas from her awesome man and loaned me her Rebel, which was totally sweet of her (thanks babe!).

I'm really close to my first mile in the 12-Mile Quest after finishing those Hedera's, so I think I'll man up and go block that shawl after all.