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.

Moving Right Along

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

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

I've passed!

Hogwarts Sock Swap Questionnaire

Second Years

1. What Hogwarts house have you been sorted into? Ravenclaw

2. Shoe size? Foot length? Foot circumference? US 7.5, EU37. Foot length: 9 inches. Circumference at the ball of my foot: 9 inches.

3. List your three favorite sock yarns.

a. The Knittery 4-ply cashmere or cashmere/merino

b. Koigu KPPPM

c. Rowan 4-ply merino

4. Would you like to try a new brand of sock yarn? If so, which brand? Louet Gems, or maybe Tofutsies or Curious Creek or Panda Wool (I’ve tried the cotton), or or or… J

5. Do you prefer variegated or solid sock yarn? Either is lovely.

6. What colors would you like to add to your sock yarn stash? I don’t seem to have any browns or neutral colors, so probably those.

7. What kind of sock patterns do you gravitate toward? Lace? Ribbed? Fair Isle? I tend to like ribbed/cabled patterns and am learning to love lace. I have a super-high arch, so I tend to prefer stretchy patterns.

8. Do you have any allergies? (smoke, animals, etc.) I’m allergic to cigarette smoke, but otherwise no.

9. Will your socks be exposed to cigarette smoke or animals as you knit them? They will be exposed to my cat; try as I might I can’t keep the little alien away from my wool.

10. Are you willing to have an international Hogwarts Sock Pal? Of course! My uncle is extremely interested in International Magical Co-operation.

All Hail the Slytherins!

Okay, but only for a minute or two, I swear. I came home yesterday to a package from the Owl Post! At first, I promised myself I wouldn't open it until I sent off my own package. But then I decided to catch up on my knitting RSS feeds and found a picture of Ravenclaw socks that made me simply drool. Her blog said she was in Massachusetts, and the return address was in - you guessed it - Massachusetts. So what was there for it? I had to open the box! And here it is:

Presents for me!

Just loooooook at all those goodies! And they turned out to be awesome. Earl Grey tea for weekend mornings (like today! Yummmm), some Blueberry Body Butter (ManCandy approves!), Burt's Bees lip balm (which I had forgotten to buy at Whole Foods earlier last evening, thankfully!), a Solitaire game to keep my wits sharp, a lovely chocolate bar, beautiful casein DPN's (no nickel!), and best of all? The socks, hand-made stitch markers and matching earrings!

They're perfect!

I absolutely love everything, thank you so much, Omly! You utterly and completely made my week. Now, I'm off to wrap my pal's gifts and hit the Owl Post Office myself. Go Hogwarts!

Edit: I can't resist putting in a picture of the stitch markers and earrings. They're just too gorgeous to be real!

Darcy says:

There are many like it, but this shelf is mine.

Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy-warty Hogwarts!

I fiiiiiiinished my Hogwarts socks last night and got some goodies for my pal today, so I can send off my package on Monday when I hit the Post Office to get my passport. Pictures once my pal's owl is well on its way!

Next up: Pomotomus socks and some work on the Faina stole for my mom. w00t!

PS: Ravelry is evil. It sucks my will to finish projects before I begin new ones... damn start-itis!

The Things I Am Not Doing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some Like It

Dear Lord Above,

Thank you for California and the beautiful beaches and bitches and hot men and endless miles of freeway with toll boths (but Lord, is it really a freeway if I have to pay to cross a bridge?). Thank you that a bunch of my family live here and for Disneyland every New Year's Eve and happy cows and the Sonoma Valley that's so much better than the Napa Valley.

Lord, I know we people down here on earth have messed up the planet pretty good by now. I know that we do things and worry about the consequences later, which is probably a fault. I just want to point out in the politest and least judgy way possible that California has - as a whole - tried quite hard to contribute to the closing of the holes in the ozone layer and to lay off the CFC's. There are other states that are much worse than we are - Michigan and Illinois for example, not to mention Tejas. And Lord, forgive me if I'm being judgy or opinionated but my momma raised me to tell the truth and the truth is it's GODDAMNED HOT HERE AND WE DON'T DESERVE IT.

So Lord, if you could find it in your heart to have pity on this state, or maybe just city, or maybe just on my one little apartment in the South Bay, I would really, really appreciate it. Because the gardeners have decided that the best time to water the plants is in the late afternoon, which uses up all the cool water and leaves me with steam coming from my taps.

With love,
Tikabelle

PS - sorry about the profanity. Have I mentioned it's hot?

Oooh, yes!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One of Those Days

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

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

And this:

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

But best of all, this:

A clipping from The Oregonian

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

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

2/15nm raw silk laceweight

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

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

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

Not Again!

I ripped them. Again. Stupid Slytherin socks (although my pal is definitely not stupid; in fact she is completely sweet and that is probably why I'm struggling to make her socks *perfect* which is difficult to do considering she lives in... well, not in my hometown). The problem was that her leg is smaller than mine, and when I put on the sock it wasn't quite tight enough for my taste so it would have been too big for her. Completely unacceptable. So a week's worth of work was undone tonight in about.... 2.5 seconds. Maybe 45 seconds, but definitely not more than a minute including the mourning period between deciding to rip the sock and actually taking out the needles. It's sort of like ripping off a Band-Aid, isn't it?

I must say, that 4-ply Rowan I bought has taken all this beating and ripping and re-knitting with amazing aplomb. It's still springy and lovely after 5 (FIVE!) ripped beginnings. Tonight I'm trying to get through the ribbing for the last time (I swear!) so I can be back to starting the actual sock tomorrow. I'm annoyed that it's taken this long to get it right, but I also feel better for having started over. The sizing issue would have bothered me forEVer.

In celebration of starting the Slytherin Socks (yet) again, I allowed myself to wind the Passionfruit yarn I got from the Knittery into 2 50-gram balls. It will become a pair of Baudelaire socks for Nadia's fabulous and adorable ammi. I printed the pattern, but haven't started them yet because I am exercising great restraint. I also unwound all of the yarn that was languishing in my stash back into skeins using my nifty new swift. Apparently leaving yarn wound in a ball make it stretch weirdly - who knew?

Back to the Slytherin Socks. I'm nearly 3/4 through the first Harry Potter book with all this re-knitting. Woo!

Yarn pr0n!

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

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

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

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

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

The first one with no pockets:


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


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

My very own Bernina 1000!

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

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

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

Hogwarts Sock Swap

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


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

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