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.

Faina: 2, Me: 0

I found Faina tucked into a backpack (don't ask) and knitted away diligently. I knitted during class and during Angel season 3; I knitted while Bella did her homework and while I waited for her to finish her dinner - always a lengthy affair given that she had been allowed to skip the vegetables on her plate in favor of dessert until I arrived on the scene (again, don't ask). Anyway, I worked hard and I was proud of it.

The scarf has two tapering end charts and a body chart that gets worked 4 times. Here I am, three pattern rows from beginning the last end repeat:

Here's how much I have to go:

And here is how much yarn I have left:

Kitty paw added for, uh... scale.

Sigh. So after talking to my mom, I'm going to rip back the 4th repeat and just work the end chart. Hopefully that will give me enough yarn left over for the fringe, since "it just won't look right without fringe!" And I must say, I agree.

In other news, I actually DID finish some things!

Egyptian Jungle Cardigan (sans buttons)

Smooshy and Bare, 203 yards

Cargo Pants

Classy, 158 yards

The Egyptian Jungle Cardigan is waiting on the buttons I left in Nadia's car the other day. Ironically, I also bought a little Forget-me-not plant to put on my windowsill... and forgot them. Ahem.

This weekend - or rather, today - I'm headed up to Squaw Valley with my dad and Little Brother. They're going to ski and I'm going to sit at home drinking hot tea, fixing the damn Faina scarf, and doing my reading for school. Oh, and taking pretty pictures of the snow!

Until then, Señor Sancho Panza, Esquire, would like you to know that he's watching you.

Why, yes, I am slightly cross-eyed. ¿Por que me pregunta?

Book Review: The Orphan's Tale: In the Night Garden by Catherynne M. Valente

Since this is my first official review, blog-wise, I should probably disclose that I rarely hate books. I've been reading voraciously since I was 3 years old, and in the last 26 years I've developed a pretty good sense for whether I'll like a book or not by reading the cover/flap and maybe the first page or two. I don't read the last page first or skip ahead or even read other people's opinions of books if I can help it. It is my opinion that a book should stand up on its own covers without help from passersby or that guy from Maxim who got fired to shill the story. I also have a bit of OCD when it comes to reading things In Order. Terry Pratchett's Discworld series makes me itch not because the stories are bad (they are in fact wonderful and hilarious) but because they don't come In Order. It's something I'm trying to overcome. It may not work.
Lastly, I'm sort of a fiction kind of girl. I rarely read non-fiction unless it is the autobiography of someone like Charlie Chaplin or Katherine Hepburn. I read to escape reality, which may have colored my view of the real world just a little. And it will not surprise you, having read this far, that my book collection contains mainly Classics, Fantasy and Chick-Lit.

The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden by Catherynne M. Valente

Catherynne M. Valente's work is haunting and lovely. Also, her name is hard to spell. She does an excellent job of weaving her stories together; if In the Night Garden were a textile, it would be an intricately braided piece of silk - nearly impossible and utterly fascinating. The story begins with a girl who was born with raccoon-like stains around her eyes. Her people call her a demon and throw her out into the garden of the palace to die or survive as she may. A young boy - one of the sultan's sons - sneaks out to meet this strange girl and is told that the stains around her eyes are actually stories, written in impossibly tiny script. He begs her to tell him her tales, and from there it's a masterfully crafted web of fantastic stories one nested inside the other.

"Grown-up fairy tale" is a phrase that gets tossed around a lot lately; the media seems to be as enchanted by child-like fantasy with more adult themes as the public is. Studios attempt to lure in adults with no children using these words, trying to appeal to a sense of whimsy that has gone out of the world we know and been replaced by a slight sense of panic underlying everything we see on the news and read in the papers. This book is also a grown-up fairy tale, but not in the way that Pan's Labyrinth was with its adult themes, or Enchanted was with jokes that appeal to both children and adults. In the Night Garden is grown-up because of the multiple layers of complexity involved. It is whimsical without being ridiculous,which is a difficult line to maintain.

I like Valente's story-telling style. She has also written books of poetry, and her poet's background adds fluidity to her writing. I keep coming up with imagery that involves silk and water and other such smooth surfaces when trying to describe this work; suffice it to say that I found it utterly delightful and will be reading more of Valente's work, including her poetry.

Icicle Toes

I have finally figured out why I'm so cold all the time. Or at least since winter came and I moved my desk. The cat door that leads onto the porch is about 2 feet from my toes, and baby, it's been very not-warm here in sunny CA.

Now, I'm from Alaska. I know cold, and I'd like to make one thing quite clear. This weather? Not cold. But also, not warm. It's brisk and breezy and rainy, which makes my 1970's apartment complete with single-paned windows (and lots of 'em, thanks to being an end unit for which I am eternally grateful but also) not especially cozy. Ahh, I love a mystery solved. I knew it wasn't the over-indulgence in caffeine. Whew! And can I just point out that for an area that gets rain for a good 2-3 months out of the year (cry me a river), these South Bay-ers are NOT PREPARED for a little dew? The freeways are flooded and no one seems to know how to drive when they have to use the wipers, their lights and steer at the same time. Bah!

Several things have happened in the last week or so. I started another baby sweater and ripped the Seed Stitch Shoes, which will appear again in another incarnation, probably smaller. The baby sweater, affectionately dubbed the Egyptian Jungle Cardigan, has 4/5 of the pieces knitted and will be sewn, blocked and buttoned by the end of the weekend. Next up? Some sort of matching hat and booties. Perhaps the Cat Bordhi socks?

School started. Hooo, boy. This semester will be a test to see how well organized I am. Six classes, five of which are upper division? I'm a little nervous. Tomorrow I'm going out to buy what books I can from the SJSU bookstore, and ordering the rest from Powells. I'd order them all from Powells just on principle, but apparently textbooks ship from the "you pay shipping no matter what" warehouse. So there's that.

I also plied the Flor de Loto singles from a yarn cake, a la Miss Violet's suggestion. It worked like a charm!

Flor de Loto, 3.5 oz, 233 yards

I even remembered to set up the ball winder 6 feet away from the bobbin like Father Amos says to even out the twist in the singles. The plying did a great job hiding the inconsistencies in my yarn.

I got my grant money check from the school and promptly fell down in my 12-Mile Quest. A skein of honey-colored Trenna and some SeaSilk leapt into my cart before I could blink at Little Knits - that's 1686 yards of yarn on their way, so I need to get done with 3372 yards (2325 more than I have currently...) before I order anything else. That's gonna be a challenge, but isn't that the point? I DID have a metric crapton of fiber in my cart at Paradise Fibers, but walked away with only new bobbins and a tensioned Lazy Kate, which go under the heading of supplies - a heroic effort, I might add. I also got a 2-year Flickr membership, so now I'm "pro." Essentially that means the Disneyland photos are up and that I organized many of my photos into understandable groups.

Lastly, an interesting thing has happened on Fridays at Bella's ballet class. The first day I was there, no one said anything to me so I simply sat and knitted. The next week, one of the moms started talking to me about knitting and went to the car to grab hers. This week, there were two other women knitting with me and chatting, and one elderly Dutch lady who is utterly delightful offered me all her old patterns from "during the war" because she can't knit anymore due to arthritis. It's been fun and entertaining. Bella even got re-interested in her knitting this evening, and did two whole rows before her mother arrived to take her somewhere.

And now? I'm off to sit in a heated room and finish the cardigan. Ahhh, stockinette, where would we be without you?

Baby Boom

Last night I finished seaming the BabyBean's Boatneck Sweater! It's my first actual fitted garment project; socks and shawls and scarves (oh my!) don't really count as "fitted" in my estimation. I was thrilled and stunned that it worked out so well. I changed a couple of things in the pattern, but nothing major. I left both the front and back with looong tails on a Knit Picks Options cable so the last stitches would be live, then grafted the shoulders together and used a sewn bind-off across the neck. It worked quite well and helped cut down on the number of seams.

Happy Chinese Apple Sweater with Quarter and Kitty Foot

That's a quarter for scale - it's pretty tiny, so I'll have to get it to ButterBean quickly so that A) it still fits and B) it's still cool enough to wear in San Diego. The whole thing took about 170 yards total, which left me plenty of Classy for another couple of baby items. A cute matching hat, perhaps?

Then I picked up the leftover blue I dyed for my Egyptian Sock last spring and began a pair of the Seed Stitch shoes. See how well I'm keeping to the list? Enjoy it while it lasts, folks.

Amorphous Blob of Baby Shoe with Kitty Tocks

I know, they don't look like shoes, do they? But soon they will, or I'm hoping so; they at least look like the model in the book so far. I was totally enchanted with this pattern last night because apparently I like seed stitch. There are a few fun little tricks to this, like casting on 5 stitches cable-style at the end of a row to make a little flap. I've never knitted like this before, so it's kinda fun. Incidentally, the book for both of these patterns is Baby Knits for Beginners by the amazing Debbie Bliss. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to try some garment shaping without committing to a whole grown-up sized sweater. There are drop-shoulder and raglan sweaters, short row collars and even plackets in there, and all small enough that the project doesn't take 500 years. I may just work my way through it sweater-by-sweater.

And lastly, the What Socks To Cast On question has been answered! I know you all were on tenterhooks waiting to find out which sock I'd pick. I chose the Azure socks from Knitty, at which point I remembered that I'd never done toe-up socks before, and oh that cast on is new too. I think I ripped the toe of the sock about 4 times before it worked out. So after roughly 3 hours of knitting, I've got this much sock:

Mostly-correct Valencia Azure Sock

That's about 8 pattern rows in. It's slow going to say the least; the pattern isnt' very forgiving in terms of showing you where you messed up. But I'll get there, and in the mean time I'm enjoying knitting with a bright, happy yarn that still smells faintly of Orange Kool-Aid. And now I must take the new car to get an oil change and find out if there's a leak in the engine coolant tank or if it's just empty. Good thing there's a Starbucks nearby.

I finished Vallente's The Orphan's Tale: In the Night Garden last night. It's a stunning book, and there will be a review shortly. I'm working on it.

Twelve Mile Quest

On Friday night my Little Brother called and announced that he was coming to visit for the weekend, which turned out to be wicked good fun. We played World of Warcraft (Little Brother brought his new computer) pretty much the whole time, but I managed to finish his Charade socks and send them home with him. Of course I also forgot to take a picture because I am a Bad Blogger.

I also did this:

Singles with Wine (ahh hah hah...)
Wine brings things together
Closeup

That's the Copperpot Woolies Dye4U that I won in her Birthday Bash awhile ago. In the spirit of Finishalongapalooza '08, I completed the first sleeve of the Boatneck Sweater from Debbie Bliss as well. Only one sleeve and the blocking/seaming to go!

And last night I jumped in to the Frog Pond with both feet. I ripped Charade Sock #1 (The One That Didn't Fit Right), my Cookie A German Stocking and my dad's My So-Called Scarf. I also re-skeined the Blue Fir lace weight left over from the Victorian Shawl and the lovely sage Cherry Tree Hill I got from my awesome Hogwart's Swap 2 partner.

The skeins are all patiently awaiting a soak and their turn on the drying rack to return them to a useable state. When I'll get to use them is another matter entirely.

It's strange to have no socks on my needles. They've been my take-along project for awhile now, and suddenly I don't really have any. The shawls aren't so great for taking along with me to work since I tend to make it about 45 seconds before Bella needs a glass of water/help with a homework problem/me to shoo her dad out of the room so she can concentrate on homework. Perhaps I'll start my mother's Clessidra stockings. Or maybe the mini socks from Cat Bordhi's New Pathways book. Hmmm, decisions, decisions!

Lastly, I've decided to embark upon a quest to reduce the proportion of yarn/fiber I buy to how much I use. In the last few months, I've amassed an actual stash of fiber that, considering how long I've been spinning (2 weeks), rivals my yarn stash (1 year). In the last week I've picked up five pounds of roving. Yes, you read that right. Five POUNDS. OMG. There is a picture-heavy post in my future.

The Quest:
12 miles of yarn knitted or roving spun in the next 9 months. That's 21,120 yards of yarn or the equivalent of 48 pairs of socks (eep!).
My Start Date: Jan 6, 2008 (backdated from 1/14/08, see below)
My Finish Date: Sept 6, 2008

Rules:
1. Buying yarn/roving comes at a 2:1 ratio. Wanna buy 4oz of roving? Spin 8 first.
2. Mileage must be actual. If a pair of socks takes only 400 yards in a 460 yard skein, only the 400 yards count. Leftover yardage will be calculated by weight.
3. Items On The Needles/Bobbin count as of My Start Date
4. Only finished handspun counts (not singles)
5. Supplies such as extra bobbins/needles do not count, but pattern books do. Use the library.

I'm going to work backwards from Jan 6 so that I can count starting with the Grape Jelly roving and include the Charade socks - it's always nice to have a bit of a boost at the beginning. As Mario said, Here we go!

L&V's Finishalongapalooza '08

I've got the name wrong, I'm sure, but here is the thing I want to finish before I start anything else:

1. Gabe's Charade socks. Done 1/13/08, yay!

There's only one thing on the list because my dear friend LaurieBean's son Avery arrived on the 27th and it's time to start some baby things for him. I know that if I don't do it soon, he'll be big and the knitting will take longer, so I'm finishing up the Charades (about 55% done at this point) and then switching to the Debbie Bliss Baby Knits for Beginners book that I checked out from the Los Altos Library. Yesterday I went to Purlescence and picked up the Spinning Bible, a bunch of Dream in Color Classy and Smooshy:

Left to right: Classy Chinatown Apple, November Muse, Happy Forest. Smooshy Good Luck Jade

And somehow this jumped into my bag as well, oops!

Louet Arctic Wool/Silk, 8oz for eventual Mystic Waters Shawl

When I came home, I picked out a bunch of patterns in Ravelry for fingering or worsted weight yarns. They need to be finished before I do anything else, so add to the Finishalong '08 list:

2. Cargo pants Done 2/6/08
3. Boat Neck Sweater Done 1/16/08
4. Jacket with Seed Stitch Bands
5. Three pairs of mini-socks from Cat Bordhi's new book
6. Curly-Toed Elf Slippers from Weekend Knitting (also a library find)
7. Flower Power from Knitty Fall 07. (Isn't that baby in the picture ridiculously adorable? I want to snorggle his chubby little cheeks.)

I know those 6 things look like a lot, but they're small things on big needles. I think I can hack it. I'm pretty sure. Maybe I should start today.

After the BabyBean-a-thon, it's back to finishing already-started things:

8. Faina (still AWOL) Found 1/22
9. My So-Called Scarf for my dad

The scarf may end up a felted something-or-other. I really don't like the itch factor of the Manos Del Uruguay, and it's not going to make a good scarf. Maybe I'll get some Malabrigo instead and make a French Market Bag out of the Manos. So change it to:

9. Frog unwanted projects (German Stockings, MSC Scarf, etc.) Done 1/13/08
10. Swallowtail Shawl Frogged 2/7, will re-start at some later date

And that's 10.

I finished and sent off the Super Secret S---x Project. If you're not S---x, here's the finished product. I hope she likes it!

On the spinning front, I've managed to spin every day in January so far in honor of NaSpiMoMo. I know, it's only the 6th, but it's a start! I spun up and plied 4oz of Louet's Grape Jelly pencil roving:

Gratuitous pre-plying shot

and I'm 1/2-way through some Copperpot roving. This particular roving is a little slubby, so in my newbishness I'm having trouble drafting it well.

But I divided it in two and will put each half on a bobbin, then ply them together. Hopefully it'll be nice and barber-poley and not look like a jumbled mess!