One Crazy Fiber Lady

While the fiber and the toys are fun, it really is the people.  The Cummington festival was no different than Maryland in that respect and in some ways was better.  It certainly was far smaller than MD, but there was no shortage of stuff to be bought and I did my part to support the fiber related economy. (Thanks go to Katy for this picture.  Bad blogger that I am, I barely remembered that I had a camera buried in this stroller of fun and she so nicely posted this on her recap.  Go read it.)  As it really was the people that made it a fabulous weekend, I’m going to concentrate there and maybe tomorrow provide detailed pictures of what you see weighing down the back of my stroller.

Because of the long holiday weekend, my beloved employer shut down early to allow us to get started a bit earlier.  While we closed at 1PM, I bargained away my lunch hour on Thursday to get in an additional hour and left at noon.  This gave me a chance to pack, pick up some last minute things and get the monkeys from the daycare center and hit the road to Cate’s and still get there at a decent hour.  Kat fell asleep somewhere after the Tappen Zee Bridge ( I noticed her asleep as we got onto 684) and Alex made it 15 minutes passed his sister.  They both blissfully slept until just north of Hartford, missing the icky traffic we encountered on 84.  (Note to the State of Connecticut – LEFT EXITS SUCK. ) 

After a 3+ hour drive we arrived at Cate’s house, where Kristen had just arrived as well.  Cate and I had met for an altogether too short amount of time at Maryland, so this was a most welcome opportunity.  Kristen was definitely a very sweet and perfect addition to the fiberholics party weekend though she left far too early.  I had the pleasure of meeting Cate and Rhys’ wondertwins who gave me a preview of what is to come in my future.  A dinner together was both entertaining and delicious.  I was quite relieved that my kids behaved themselves.  Velcro girl warmed up enough after dinner to play with the other kids, though she did more after Sara arrived with her pair.  While my memory is pretty fuzzy, short term cruddiness and all, I vaguely recall meeting Sara at Maryland, but couldn’t swear to it, I do very much remember this meeting.  It was structured chaos and my kids were exceedingly excited by the freedom offered by such a kid-centric house.  Where they are normally confined to a room or two, they wandered all over the downstairs, playing here and there AND had other kids to trail after.  After the kids went to bed, out came the beer, the wheels and the fiber.  All goodness in my book!  I tried out Cate’s new righty Hitchhiker and truly enjoyed it.  It was then that I decided the reserved lefty version was more than likely coming home with me. (As you can see in the above picture, it did.)  We stayed up far too late but it sure was worth it.

Saturday brought a wonderful bagels and lox breakfast at Cate’s house and a few new faces to meet.  Check Cate’s writeup as she caught names far better then I did, plus I was tot wrangling trying to get my pair dressed and ready to go to the festival.  The twins got up far too early, especially considering how late I stayed up, and when we were ready to leave for the festival, they promptly fell asleep in the car.  Kristen came along and I much appreciated her company. 

The festival was much like I expect the old county fair to be like.  I met up with and finally met face to face with a great number of people.  I finally had the pleasure of meeting, after years of chatting on various yahoo group lists, Helen of Bay Colony Farm fame.  While I was test driving my lefty Hitchhiker (thanks to Kristen for this picture – she captured the finished F&F socks making their debut as well), there was a blogger get together just outside the Merlin Tree stall (picture courtesy of Laurie).  I met Claudia (who was wearing her very cool knitted metal top), Rosemary (who had the greatest shirt – "I’m blogging this").  Claudia gave Laurie her first spindle lesson right then and there.  Laurie is a natural and by the time we were having lunch on the "grassy knoll", she was spinning a consistent lace weight, not really learning a new skill but "remembering" one.  Her husband is a serious keeper too!  I spent a very enjoyable day wandering around, touching, buying and talking.  I especially enjoyed Kristen’s company and most seriously appreciated her help with the twins.  Having received an email plea from Cassie on Laurie’s behalf, I happily lent what assistance I could in fiber selection, preparation and fleece types.  I also helped Kristen pick a spindle, a midi from the Bosworths and some good beginner fiber.  I just hope I didn’t overwhelm either of them with more info then they needed/wanted.

After exhausting ourselves and filling the stroller, not to mention the short people were starting to get a bit cranky, we returned to Cate’s house where her little people were asleep in the car too.  Mine sacked out within a mile of the fairgrounds and slept for the next hour or so.  We compared our hauls and Kristen nicely captured Sara and I looking at my stash additions.  As you can see, I’m pretty good at filling the back of my car.  She even documented the beautiful grey romney fleece that I bought from Mary Pratt.  I had fingered the fleece, took a lock at her insistence and started away from her booth, aiming to think about it and more than likely return later.  I never made it 4′ from the tent door.  I had this 4" lock in my fingers and turned to show it to Kristen.  The warmth of the day, which was gorgeous btw, had the lanolin nicely melted and the lock just flicked apart easily in my fingers.  I pulled out the Hatchtown spindle (MDSW purchase) that I had tucked in the stroller and spun it from the lock right there.  With how beautifully it spun up, and how easily as well, I turned back and bought it then and there.  Cate and I tried very hard to convince Kristen to stay for another evening, and I think we almost had her.  It was the burst of energy that she got from a badly timed ice coffee that had her doing the responsible, if less fun, thing of driving home to get a good day of studying in for her boards.  All thoughts on Kristen and her boards on June 7th!  We returned to the grounds for the potluck dinner, which was very enjoyable until Alex took a spill and scared the crud out of himself.

Saturday evening was spent much like Friday evening after all the kids went to bed.  More beer, more talk and more fiber.  Cate dug out a lamb fleece that had been languishing in her basement and gave her new drum carder a try.  Two passes later and she had a beautiful white fluffy batt to play with (almost motivates me to pull out mine.  almost).  I gave my new Hitchhiker some break in time with some gorgeous butterscotch colored fluffy batts of LincolnX wool from Barneswallow Farms.  Fabulous.  Truly fabulous.  The cranky twins that didn’t want to sleep in the Pack’nPlays put an end to my fun and I called it a night a bit earlier than I wanted to.

While there was more to our holiday weekend adventure, I will leave it here and continue the rest of it tomorrow, with pictures of the SEX.  I want to thank Cate for being a great hostess.  She’s fabulous and made this a great experience.  It was so nice to spend time with someone who really understands the whole twin-wrangling thing, not to mention shares the same fiber affliction.  She’s good people as my folks would say.  Rhys.  What can I say?  Darn wonderful.  Sara, I very much enjoyed getting to know you better.  Kristen?  You’re just great.

It was a great time and I’m so very glad I went.

This weekend might be Memorial Day to general American population.  To those of us who know, it is Cummington.  (Or as Cassie called it, the The Cummington Wool Cult).  I think Cate is doing her part to really get the cult status!  While the festival is a small one by MDSW or Rhinebeck (another cult you ask?) standards, the gathering promises to be one where friends can really enjoy it together.  My short people will probably get a great kick out of being in a house with other short, yet older, people.  They do so love it when their cousins come up for a visit.  The boy yearns to play with older boys and now that he’s a bit bigger, he got in on the reindeer games last weekend.  He was grinning from ear to ear while he chased after his big (almost 5 and 8 yr) cousins.

Tomorrow is an early out from work, and by exchanging lunch today for an extra hour tomorrow, I’ll hopefully be on the road early enough to be at Cate’s in time for dinner.  I’m bringing the baby benadryl just in case K&A take to sleeping there as well as they did the first night at MD.  I also hope that little miss velcro will detach herself from me long enough to enjoy the festival and mini-festival. 

Sunday we’ll be heading to stay with my folks on the boat.  The twins haven’t been there yet this year but as the boat is on the way back, sorta, we’ll be stopping off.  Right now we’re planning on an overnighter and I do hope it will go well.  It didn’t last year but again, that’s no indicator of what will happen now.  Heck the monkeys definitely have me on my toes and scared to commit to saying anything.  As soon as I think I have their likes/dislikes figured out, they switch it up on me.  I suppose I should get used to it.

I’m beyond the halfway point on the foot of the second F&F sock.  I picked up for the heel gusset on the PATH train last night and by the time I got to my car, I had 5 repeats of the lace portion on the foot done.  I counted how many repeats are in the first sock (15 on the cuff, 16 on the foot) so that I could match the two socks exactly.  As of this morning’s commute, I have 11 repeats complete.  This sock is going down.  I’ll have to bring something else for the weekend, in case I actually get some knitting time that is.  Cabled sweater is probably not a great idea for social knitting, but you never know.  Another pair of socks?  Maybe.  Not like I’m lacking for sock yarn.  And socks patterns.

Speaking of patterns, UPS’s little online tracking app is showing me that my latest order is out for delivery.  I’ve been watching Wendy knit Inishmore and my recent experiences with cables has me really itching to try something on a grander scale.  So I went shopping.  Online this time.  I bought the Starmore’s Fishermen’s Sweaters: Twenty Exclusive Knitwear Designs for All Generations and Elsebeth Lavold’s Viking Patterns for Knitting.  I’m itching to sit down with these books. 

Oh wait, must pack, or make a serious effort at getting everything ready to simply throw in the car tomorrow after work.  Sigh.  I hate packing.  I’ve done a lot of things to avoid packing,  including scrubbing a stove.  Don’t get me wrong, I love going places, I just hate the prep work in getting there.  Its worse now that there are little people relying on me to bring everything their fickle little toddler hearts might want.   Oy.  The weather (and I won’t go down that ugly path again today) is not making my packing any easier.  At least the NOAA webpage is showing Saturday as pretty decent and 64F.  Could be worse.  Oh and I’m bringing the little Saxony wheel, maybe just maybe it will find a new home.  I think I’m supposed to bring alone my Fricke drum carder.  Must check with Cate.  Wonder if I need the pack’n'plays.  Definitely must check with Cate.

Doubt I will have time to blog tomorrow and I must write a test plan now.. oh and I just found a bug I need to fix so I’m going to close it here.  Have a very happy, healthy and safe Memorial Day (to those celebrating – excellent weekend to the others) to everyone.  Fellow cult members: see you at the gathering!

When the hell is spring coming to the northeast?  A nor’easter?  In May?  I’m still wearing a friggin jacket to work.  What’s with that?  I can’t possibly concentrate on knitting with cotton when I really am seriously considering WEARING GLOVES.  Yes!  In May!  In NYC.  Holy crud.  When did NYC move above the arctic circle.  Will it ever stop raining?  Time to build an ark, but there will be no room for the animals as I have to pack my stash.  Oh all right, only animals that will contribute to the stash

SADD rant finished.  I’m well into the first front piece of Trellis and am super happy with it.  That Rowan ASC is just fabulous.  This Wool Snob (and if I had to find a name for a blog now, it would be that) is quite content with this yarn that has no wool in it.  Unlike the Brown Sheep that I’m using for the Knit Club group gift, this stuff doesn’t split.  The Cotton Fleece splits pretty badly so you do have to pay attention to what you’re doing.  I’m halfway through with my obligation to that project.  Yay.  Contrary to my normal approach that would have had me staying up all weekend in July getting it done at the last minute, I’d love to finish it and get it out of the way.  My mother just fell on the floor if she’d read that (she does read periodically and I got some tears with my Mother’s Day post   She’d be looking for the pod.

Anyway…. I’ve also made some respectable progress on the F&F sock.  No SSS for me.  Nope.  Besides, I have too much sock yarn and too many patterns that I want to try to let this one sit.  Not to mention that I’d really love to wear them.  I seem to be knitting very tight and while the pattern states that it is for a female medium, it is comfortably snug on my size 5AA foot.  Nice.  I turned the heel this morning on the PATH train.

That brings up the commute.  I did go back to the age old commute that I’ve been doing on and off since I started law school in 1988.  Bergen Line to Hoboken, PATH train to 14th Street, walk the rest of the way.  While the walking the rest of the way can be unpleasant (note the current crappy weather), the rest of the commute is more relaxed.  I’m no longer transferring all over the place, hopping from one mode of conveyance to another, making connections hither and thither.  I’m getting much more substantial blocks of knitting time to boot.  I’ve found I’m far more relaxed and further unwound when I get home at night too. 

Which is very handy as I started taking the twins home for dinner rather than eating at my parents house.  While they had a bad day and were pretty cranky when I arrived at my folks, I got them home, parked them in the living room with all their toys, Barney on ReplayTV and I went off to the next room to make dinner.  They quietly watched tv, Alex found a pen and doodled a design and Kat sat with Bear and Blankie.  It was all very civilized.  I made a stir fry of chicken, snap peas and carrots over basmati rice that was eagerly eaten by all.  They "helped" me clean up the kitchen and after play time, they went to bed without a peep.  It was nice being home at 6:30 rather than 8:00 for a change.  I was able to get a load of wash done while cooking dinner.  The twins went to be a bit earlier than they have been and all was just right with the world.

Yesterday there was another minor confluence of knitting/spinning bloggers.  I had lunch with Nancy at the Chelsea Grill.  I always seem to head out to these lunch meetups with a touch of trepidation and fear that the parties won’t get along and that we’d run out of conversation 5 minutes into the lunch hour (or so).  This time was no different.  And once again, the worry is absolutely pointless.  I had a lovely lunch with Nancy.  We talked about spinning and our stash (not surprisingly) but the majority of the talk was about our children.  It was a great time.  Sadly, once again, no pictures to document the meetup.

I need a nap.  Or  food.  Hmm, seems I’ve forgotten to eat lunch.

Friday afternoon I had lunch and as expected, yarn shopping at Purl, with Cassie.  I had a blast!  Nice to see eye to eye with someone   Though there seems to be a number of us petite knitter/spinner/bloggers.  While there was no knitting, there was lots of talk of it.  I lost all track of time and wound up getting back to the office pretty late.  Good thing my parents weren’t taking off to the boat early on Friday as I would have then had to leave at 4 to pick the monkeys up at daycare.  Unfortunately there are no pictures of this minor confluence of bloggers as I forgot I had my camera until I got back to the office. 
Naturally while the primary reason of the outing was to meet Cassie, and what better place to meet than a yarn store, I couldn’t leave empty handed!  Upper left is two skeins of Lorna’s Shepherd Sock in Poppy.  I think they’ll be perfect for the lace pattern that the variegated Twinkletoes failed at. 

In the upper right are two skeins of Louet Sales Gems Opal yarn in Terra Cotta.  These are bookmarked for the Aran Sandal Socks out of Socksx3 or the aran socks that were in the Fall’04 IK. Lastly are three skeins of Rowan Wool Cotton in 951 Tender.  It is earmarked for the baby jacket in the Summer ’05 IK.  All three are yarns that I’ve never used before but have wanted to for a while.  Unfortunately, as I look at the yarn cabinet, you remember the nice Kampe shelves that I got from Ikea in December that looked so roomy.  I’m not showing any pictures of it now, especially the packs of yarn that live on top of it.

While lots of folk enjoyed the Webs Tent sale this weekend, the twisted part of my mind wanted to schlep there and take advantage of the sale.  Okay that would be a bit far for a day trip, though I have done it in the past.  But that was before the babies.  Not to mention, NEXT weekend is the Cummington festival.  Okay, I bought yarn on Friday as well and of course I just commented how the cabinet is overflowing.  While on my way home from Oakland where I picked up the groceries I ordered online Friday night (I still giggle in excitement in that ability – hell I was knitting my sock while I waited for my groceries to be brought out to the car, how cool is that?) my shoddy memory recalled that Deb’s LYS was going out of business and having a sale.  I couldn’t remember when they were actually closing down for good, nor really what the name of the store was.  I did know the town where it was and that they carried Rowan.  So while the twins took their nap after we got home, I did some blog reading, email archive consultation and googling and came up with a possibility.  A call to that store proved my investigative skills to be on point for a change.  A little mapquest work and we were ready to go.  Well not really, the twins were still napping.  I figured a 25 minute drive or so was far more reasonable than going to Webs.  Right?  I thought so. 

Anyway, a nice trip to the store, some coffee at the local Starbucks, some snacks for the monkeys, I returned somewhat cash poorer and yarn rich.  I also picked up some nice new knitting hardware to go with the cushy software.  All at 30% off and a good thing we went as this weekend was going to be their last weekend. ( Deb, I thought I had your number in the car or I would have called you!  Sorry! ) 

I got a set of size 7 DPN’s.  I could swear I have some, but just can’t find them.  Must be stuck in a project someplace that I don’t remember, or better yet, in the basket of gadgets and extras next to my computer.  I also got a set of those row markers, which will come in handy for a variety of projects so I can just mark a row and not have to count the whole darn thing again.  Also is a 32" 7US Addi Turbo to be used for the next pi shawl, which will more than likely be the Shetland Pi in the KAL as I surprising found I had shetland wool in a gorgeous red in stash.  Okay I have 2+ POUNDS of laceweight….why?  Glad you asked.  I bought it as my first yarn purchase after getting a knitting machine and I actually remember working a dress from it.  I also remember frogging it.  I swatched while the twins slept and I waited for the yarn road trip and found with a size 7 it will be perfect. 

Sweet.  Stash yarn.  Means I can buy more.  Right.  Good.  Cause I did. Three full packs of Rowan All Seasons Cotton.  The colors are 182 Bleached, 199 Ravish and 216 Citron.  I love the feel of the yarn.  It is so soft, cushy and flows so nicely while knitting.  Damn shame its so expensive.  Though if I am admitting to the weekend SEX, I have to admit to purchasing two more packs of this stuff off eBay in discontinued colorways:  Orkney (yellow gold) and Slick (charcoal grey).  Nancy was absolutely right in predicting the yarn was in my future.  I wonder how much of it she saw?

I’ve already started using it.  And the pattern that Nancy pointed out to me, Trellis from Knitty.  I’m using the Rowan in Ravish.  It’s a very pretty color.  In some lights it reads very blue, like the photograph above.  In others it has a lilac feel and sometimes periwinkle.  I’m very much enjoying it.  The blending, 60/40 Cotton/Acrylic is just wonderful, far better than the same percentage pairing that Lion Brand is discontinuing (big mistake — keep that frou-frou stuff, I’ll go for the basic yarns) and just so pleasant to work with, even for a wool snob.  I also have to admit, this is my first cabled sweater pattern, and my fourth cable pattern overall.  Ever.  And I’ve been knitting for 30 years.  Whoa.  Far longer than I care to admit.  Anyway.  Hatmione, Cable Rib Socks and the long stalled Irish Hiking Scarf are my only cabled projects to date.  Until now. 

Behold:

Trellis.  The back.  Completed.  Worked on Saturday night and Sunday morning while the twins slept (@4 hours total) and finished Sunday evening with an additional hour.  I LOVE IT.  Cables rocks.  Notice I opted to put the shoulder stitches on holders (also purchased at the going out of business sale) and will graft the fronts to the back when the time comes.  I’m probably going to join as I finish the pieces rather than waiting to do it all later.  Less of an assembly process and more a part of the whole this way.  I’ve pretty much got the chart memorized and have to only glance at it time to time.  I can’t believe how quickly I was able to whip this out.  I still haven’t decided which impending bouncing baby this is going to be for (NYC or NOLA) but the color would would for either.   Heck, I have enough yarn (back only took a little over 1 skein) I can make the same color for both. 

While I wrote most of this posting Sunday night before bed and planned to write more this morning, an antihistamine/decongestant has left me very very fuzzy today.  Not to mention that it is now 11:17AM and I just got my computer back.  I came in this morning to find a bunch of wires where my computer had been sitting.  I went trotting off to the helpdesk and found that the weekend Norton deep scan had triggered a virus alert.  After researching, it turns out that a zip file that I’ve had (on many machines now) had files within that were infected.  Nice.  They removed it and just brought it back.  What did I do for the 2 hours I sat here as a computer programmer without a computer?  Knit.  Well knit and read a full chapter Programming Microsoft .NET.  Fun huh?   I wish I could blink at least.

Okay, first:  ignore the terrible look on my face.  I was seriously tempted to cut my head off in the picture but figured that would look even stranger.  Here is Ribby Shell in Rowan Handknit Cotton.  Love the sweater.  Hated the knitting of it.  I’m definitely planning on doing it again, but this time not in 100% cotton.  Honestly, I don’t think I’ll ever knit in 100% cotton again.  Ever.  Serious.  Good thing I live in a cooler clime eh?  Anyway, here’s the requisite shot of me wearing my newly (and I mean newly, I had just cut the last tail off when I pulled off my black shirt and put this on.  That also explains the black bra under this thing.) finished tank.  Nifty.  Comfy.  It will definitely get alot of usage if the weather ever frickin warms up around here.

Falling in the "As If I Didn’t Have Enough to Do" category is this.  I’ve joined in a little office Knit Club group project.  I don’t think the end user is a reader, but I know other members are so I won’t say too much.  I started this last night while watching The Apprentice (yeah I watch that on and off) and after an hour had 36 rows of 42 stitches complete.  I’m up to 64 rows as of this morning with a total of 72 to hit.  We’re using Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece and this is the My Blue Heaven color.  I’ve never used the yarn before but have been eager to try it.  OH. MY.  I LOVE IT.  80% cotton.  20% merino wool.  The wool snob (as Nancy correctly calls me) really likes the way the merino has softened the feel of the cotton.  It works up very nicely, though I do have to pay some attention as it is softly plied and subject to some serious splitting.  It is very nice and would be a contender for another Ribby Shell.  Need to compare it to the Rowan All Seasons cotton.

As I correctly predicted, I finished the first of the F&F Twinkletoes socks yesterday on the train home.  It fits very nicely and I’m truly pleased with it. 

Which brings me back to the commute home.  It was only yesterday that I musing out loud, so to speak, about my train options.  I opined that the trip in through Penn Station sucked while it was glorious going home.  Actually I think I said brilliant.  Kiss of death you know.  Not only didn’t it work brilliantly last night, but it just sucked.  The train left the station on time.  It chugged out of the station and then entered the tunnel under the Hudson River.  About a minute into the tunnel, the lights go out, the fan stops blowing and then the train coasts to a stop.  There we sit in the dark with only the emergency lights lit.  For 40 minutes.  Not only did I miss my usual connection at Secaucus, I missed the backup train as well.  Oh lets not forget the fact that I FORGOT MY CELL PHONE in my car yesterday so I didn’t have it with me.  There’s also the small fact that my father was waiting to pick me up!  Thank goodness for the kindness of strangers.. who don’t have NEXTEL service (they don’t work in the tunnel).  The gadget laden fellow across the aisle kindly loaned me his phone.  I got home an hour late.  ARG.  My father advocated skipping Penn entirely.  I’m inclined to agree with him.  I’m going home through Hoboken tonight.  So there.

Since I’m likely to be coming home from Cummington with a new wheel, I think its time to get rid of one already in the house that I don’t use.  There’s nothing at all wrong with this one, but with 6 in the house and maybe one on the way, its time to reduce.  I’m offering up my European Danish Flax Saxony wheel.  It is a small wheel and this one on eBay looks like it could be its fraternal twin as the drive wheel is slightly different between them. As you can see it has a removable distaff and integrated lazy kate.  It has 4 bobbins and with Baron immediately behind it, you can get an idea of the scale of the thing.  Those tiles on my floor are 12"x12" for further scale. Anyone interested, drop me a comment and I’ll be happy to discuss. 

Have a good weekend. 

Craft on!

For a process knitter who hates the artificial pressure of knitting for others, I set myself a deadline for the Ribby Shell and then had the audacity to move it.  Closer.  Now I do better with deadlines at work.  Seriously.  I like deadlines.  Now this doesn’t mean that I’m going to finish something way ahead of the deadline so I can coast into it.  No way.  That wouldn’t be fun.  Not this former Queen of the All Nighter.  Does this mean I’m going to knit until my fingers cramp just to get Ribby Shell done tonight so that I can return one stinkin’ skein of Rowan Handknit Cotton in Flame tomorrow?  Rest easy Cassie, no.  I finished it last night.  Woo hoo!  I still have to work in the ends and sew up the shoulders, but the knitting piece is D.O.N.E.  While I can’t find my receipt, I hope Purl will take the skein in exchange.  Not sure for what, but I’m pretty confident that I can find something.  I’d seriously doubt that it would be for more 100% cotton.  Maybe the All Seasons Cotton. 

Nancy was kind enough to forward this link over from the  Knitty.  The smallest size calls for 4 skeins of the All Seasons Cotton.  I do have two upcoming babies (not mine!) to knit for and I’m tempted to make this for one rather than a blanket.  It would also give me cable practice before I was sick enough to take on an adult sized one for myself.  I do think this sweater in a 6 month size would be good for my cousin’s pea in the pod.  She’s due in September and lives in New Orleans.  This would probably be good for the less than totally chilly winter that they get.  Though blankets have a longer lifespan.  Not to mention, cabling in cotton?  Should I just have myself committed now?

I’m really progressing nicely on the F&F socks.  I started the toe on the PATH this morning.  I should have it finished  by the end of my commuting today. 

Non-knitting content

Speaking of commuting, I’ve modified the whole thing.  I had been taking the Bergen Line of NJ Transit from home to Secaucus, where I then transfer ed to a Penn Station NY bound train.  At Penn I would either take the subway to the office or in a fit of extreme energy I could walk to the building.  Going home just meant reversing the process.  Now when it worked it worked very well and I could get from my parking spot to my desk in just about an hour. However, it doesn’t work very well very often.  The trains heading to Penn Station are never on time and are generally packed.  I find myself standing on the platform waiting and waiting and waiting.  When the train finally shows up, most days you need a shoehorn to wedge yourself in.  Certainly not conducive to good knitting time.  Now you also need to consider that all this transferring means a lot of short little hops.  12 minutes here, 10 minutes there, 2 stops on the subway.  Bleh.  More time walking and waiting than actually riding and knitting.  Granted I’ve still managed to be pretty productive, but all that moving about does reduce the knitting time.  The train alternative is to skip transferring at Secaucus, take the Bergen Line all the way to Hoboken and then take the PATH train to 14th Street.  Works nice and was my commute for years and years prior to the opening of Secaucus last year.  However, it does involve a two avenue schlep from the station to the office.  Okay, tis shorter than the schlep from Penn Station to the office, but lets be honest, I didn’t walk it all that often.  It also takes a little longer and makes for more of a 1hr 10 min commute car to desk.  Not too terrible considering I’ve had a seat, transfer ed only once and have been knitting almost the whole time.  However, I get home later as I can’t catch the early train home without leaving the office conspicuously early.  Now Hoboken works for coming in and Penn method works for going home.  Hoboken is cheaper than the Penn.  PATH is cheaper than the subway.  So what’s a girl to do?  Hoboken in.  Penn out.  Keep the monthly pass as is for the more expensive leg and keep my options open. Difference isn’t all the much but I could crunch the numbers and find a cheaper way to do it. I’ll see how it goes.

In the "You don’t see that everyday" category, get this.  Go.  I’ll wait.  I was one of those pedestrians on 14th street on my way to the office.  I saw (and heard) those two beautiful white horses trotting up 14th street towards the park, hooves clapping the pavement, harness chains jingling.  It stopped me dead in my tracks.  I thought I’d seen it all in this city.  New York.  Gotta love it.

Knit on.

Well yesterday I sort of promised a bunch of pictures.  Well I took the pictures, spent some time trying to dig up decent graphic editing software at home (found disk after disk) but foolishly only brought one with me to the office this morning.  Yes I remembered to put the camera back in my bag.  Well for some odd reason I couldn’t install the desired software so I was faced with either huge arse pictures eating up server space, surfing for free image editing software or resigning us to another pictureless posting.  I surfed.  Just so many blog posts I can fill up with text.  I’m no writer.  Even had a high school english teacher tell me that.  She was right.  I think.

But I digress.  I found a pretty decent freeware graphics program that isn’t your every day little beast.  Quite nice to use and it met the needs of this techie geek.  http://www.xnview.com for those who care.  So I bring you PICTURES!

Here are the Feather and Fan socks from Socks*Socks*Socks in the fabulous Twinkletoes yarn.  If there is one plus to having small feet it is that I get to make short socks!  Oh and I can buy sneakers in the children’s department.  But that also means that I need to look for dress shoes in the children’s department.  Not such a plus.  PITA if you really ask me.  That’s why I have a closet full of shoes.  If I find something that fits that looks decent I’ll buy multiples.  Especially if they offer several colors! Oo-la-la that is just heaven.  Now you know why I tend to favor my handknit socks and my Birkenstock’s.  Just easier and far less frustrating than shoe shopping.  Anyway, the sock fits beautifully and I’ll start the toe when the foot reaches 6.5".  I made it another 1" or so past this picture’s length during my much delayed commute this morning, but that’s a story for another day.

Here’s the Rowan Handknit Cotton Ribby Shell.  After this picture was taken, I came within an inch of finishing the left front.  I would have done it but I was so enthralled by last night’s episode of House that I couldn’t tear myself away to get another skein.  Ignore for the moment that I have ReplayTV and could have paused it.  Please further ignore that the ReplayTV was taping the thing all along.  Yeah.  I’ll have that piece done tonight and a good start on the right side.  I’m setting an even more artificial deadline for myself than next week for Cummington on this thing.  I’m meeting Cassie for coffee on Friday and since we’re surely going into Purl, I’d like to return the extra skeins.  I do like this pattern very much.  I don’t like the yarn.  Well I love the color.  I like the feel of the fabric.  But I dislike the inflexibility of the cotton.  Ick.  Ouch.  Even with the nylon needles, I still can’t work too long on this without paying for it.  I couldn’t use the Denises (though you see one serving as a stitch holder) as the joins suck and I spent far more hand energy pushing stitches around.  All in all a loosing prospect.  I sit in dread of the fact I have two packs of this yarn in different colors to make baby blankets out of.  Ugh.   Maybe I can trade for some wool/cotton blend or even acrylic/cotton blend.  I just can’t see myself knitting with this 100% cotton again.

Here’s the singles I’ve been spinning from the romney roving that I got from The Barefoot Spinner.  You can also get a good look at the wonderful Woolee Winder sitting on my Lendrum.  LOVE IT.  I’m ever so glad I picked it up.  The downside to the WW, it winds on so evenly that I get MORE onto a single bobbin and it takes LONGER to fill the thing up!  I try to sneak in a little spinning when I can, but it is competing with all the other projects that make up my crafting life, not to mention work and last but no means least, the short people who live in my house. 

Speaking of the short people, Kat has a new favorite word:  No.

Ain’t toddlers fun?

Knit Craft on.

Just a quick post, I’m still chugging along.  Been awfully busy for the last couple of days.  Work has had a combination that made it difficult to blog   Both having a deadline to make for a project and finally getting my new computer.  I had to clean off the old one and move the files that I wanted to save someplace else.  Unfortunately my network homedrive has a quota and I was going to go over it by a far cry.  I had to get the Helpdesk to copy a directory I put together on my old machine over the network onto my new one.  I finally got the machine yesterday at 4:30.  It is snazzy.  While I haven’t had a chance to put it through its paces, it has twice the memory of my old one and a considerable processor upgrade.  The old beast was a sluggish 733mhz pentium.  Slightly faster than my Sony Clie handheld, but not worthy of a software developer.  The new one is a womping Pentium4 3GHz.  Vrooooom.  I should probably notice the difference the next time I try to compile code.  It also has 6, count em 6 USB ports with two of them on the front of the machine! I spent a good deal of time today installing things that aren’t part of the standard package and have a few more things to go, like my Clie.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback on my Feather and Fan socks.  I’ve been plugging away at them, quite contentedly too and finished the heel on the train this morning.  I’m now an inch into the foot.  I haven’t tried them on yet, but will later.  I really do like the pattern very much and have no intention, nor urge, to rip the needles out again.

Work progresses apace on the Ribby Shell.  I finished the back portion last night and started on the right front (knitting backwards you know – right front direction is actually that written for the left front).   I should be pretty close to finishing the right front by the end of House tonight.  Love that show!  With hopes of not giving the project the kiss of death, I’d love to have it finished for Cumington.  We’ll see

I’ve also been spinning again.  Yeah, if only to justify going to another fiber festival and adding more stuff.  I moved my Lendrum upright to the bedroom so that it could stay set up and I could move my glider rocker to a better spot in the living room (it used to live behind it) and spent some time Saturday night trying out the new Woolee Winder (love it!) and spinning some of the new roving that I got at MDS$W.  This is a romney roving from the Barefoot Spinner.  If you check back at my SEX picture, it is the blue/pink blend that I’m doing now. I’m spinning it pretty fine and tightly twisted.  I’m aiming for a good sock yarn (big surprise) and while I have a pound of this roving, I think I’m going to do it all at this weight and sell the excess over my sock needs.

Maybe photos tonight.  All depends on whether I can remember to bring in the photo editor software to the office tomorrow.   Ain’t nothing good on the machine and the freebie stuff doesn’t allow resizing of graphics.  Dumb. I can rotate to my hearts delight but I cant shrink a 2048 pixel graphic to 480.  As I wrote in the feedback to one company as I was uninstalling their software, the automatic resizing is all well and good, but they severely lacked the manual option.  Just plain dumb.  Would that mean standard sized graphics on my blog?  Probably.  Is that a bad thing?  Uh nope.  I don’t think so.  But the geek in me doesn’t like when software makes all the choices for me.  Too big brother if you ask me.  I don’t like Wizards and tend to disable them.  No, I don’t have a pocket protector!

On that note, I’m back to play with the new toy.

Knit on.

The last we saw the Twinkletoes yarn was  on March 9th and they looked okay.  Not spectacular, but okay.  Okay was enough to get them relegated to the bottom of the bag and then the corner of the kitchen counter.  Ignored.  Unloved.  Though re-reading my post from 3/9, I was never completely happy with these and had been tempted by Jackie‘s work to rework it.  As I couldn’t decide, it sat.  And sat.  And sat.  So sad and forlorn.  Poor sock to be.  I even got so far as to pull out the needles but only to put them back in last week.  Strange I know, but I was looking for something that I could work on while I cooked dinner and it had been conveniently sitting there. 

We all know what happened with the poor sock on Tuesday night.  Thankfully there are no pictures to document that tragedy. Once again I was lured by the Twinkletoes yarn knit into the Latvian Socks from Folk Socks by fellow bloggers.  On the other hand, I’m being called by the Feather & Fan socks from Socks*Socks*Socks that Cassie is knitting.  As I have both books it was a tough decision.   I finally decided to go with Cassie on this one.  While catching up on some ReplayTV recorded programs, I cast on and got a respectable amount done.  Baron graciously assisted photo taking once again.  You might notice that the dark spot on his face is getting larger and darker.  This is normal for the breed, much like a Siamese cat.  The really dark bits should get considerably larger then it already is.  While the color seems to be pretty cruddy in this picture (and not so great in the original), I’m much happier with the results.  Let’s see if I can finish the first sock before the urge to pull the needles and remake it again hits.

Thanks to everyone for their kind words yesterday regarding Mom in Pi.  She might be lucky to have gotten such an item, but I truly am the lucky one.  She’s the one who taught me to knit all those years ago, reversing her right handed continental knitting for her severely left hand dominant daughter.  She also taught me to crochet, embroider, needlepoint and sew.  She’s my role model for being the mom I want to be to the twins. She’s invaluable where it comes to caring for the twins.  I can’t afford full time day care for them right now (even if I quit buying yarn) so she takes them two full days a week.  Because I can’t get home from work in time to pick them up from the daycare center before they close, she picks them up those days.  She makes dinner for us 5 days a week.  I don’t know what I would do without her.  Thank you mom and I hope you enjoy Pi.  It is really the least I could do.

Knit on

Now that the excitement of MDS$W has passed, life is returning to normal.  We’re getting back into our bedtime routine, which had been blown away over the weekend, including the babies NOT sleeping in their own cribs but with me one night in the hotel.  That, thankfully is in the past and we’re back to reality.

As if we didn’t see enough new animals at the festival, the kids were treated to something new this morning:

We were treated to seeing this pair of mallards on the front lawn.  I went out this morning to feed Yeti and heard some quacking.  These two wandered up and I treated them to slightly stale bread.  They were still around when it was time to head off to daycare/work.  The twins rounded the corner of the house and saw the ducks as you see them on the lawn next to my car (yup I made sure to smudge my license plate to protect the innocent). These ducks must be regulars in populated areas as they didn’t flinch as the twins squealed in delight at seeing them.  Unfortunately, we still needed to get moving so after I prodded the little people to continue the trek to the car, the ducks got up and flew away… much to the little people’s delight.  They’ve never seen anything that large fly.  Mr. Duck has had some issues recently and is missing a patch of feathers on his chest.  I’m going to keep my eyes open for the in the coming days as I wonder if they are neighborhood regulars.

Since Pi had to go to Maryland to meet the other EZasPi’ers, I was delayed in getting her to her final destination.  While some folk knew what I was going to do with pi, I didn’t announce it in the blog because mom does read it periodically.  Now that Pi’s obligations elsewhere have been fulfilled, I gave her to mom for a belated Mother’s Day gift last night.  Mom was surprised as I hadn’t told her that I was making it for her and as we all know, I’m a pretty darn selfish knitter.  She posed for a blogworthy picture last night after dinner.  Now I think she needs a shawl pin to go with it.  Happy Mother’s Day mom, I couldn’t do it without you.

Just so you don’t think I’ve done nothing but shop and quit knitting, here is Ribby Shell this morning on the train.  I love the color and how it is working up.  I hate working with the cotton though.  It is so hard on the hands, even with the nylon needles which do improve the experience.  Feh.  Give me wool any day.

I did get some knitting time last night and sat down with the poor Twinkletoes sock that was halfway through the foot working cuff down.  Was.  Not anymore.  I had been flipping through Socks X3 and found the Gull Wing lace pair.  Having seen Cassie’s lacey handpainted socks, I decided to use this pattern with this yarn.  I also wanted to play with the shorty sock dpns that I got this weekend as well.  So I ripped out the sock and cast on Gull Wing.  Except I didn’t like the shorty needles. The ends were poking me in the palm and I could only imagine the fight later on when working the heel and putting more stitches on one needle.  Not pretty.  I found longer pointy metal needles (gauge fun and all that) and changed to those.  While the knitting was nicer, I didn’t like the lace pattern in that yarn.  I pulled the needles and ripped back to the 2" 1×1 rib cuff.  I put it back on the needles and started to just straight knit it again.  About an inch into the stockinette, I really looked at the ribbed section and just didn’t like the 1×1.  I really wanted 2×2 like it used to be.  So I ripped it again.  Now I have no twinkletoes socks on the needles at all.  I think I’m going to try Cassie’s pattern now.

Its the process.  Ohm.  Its the process.  Ohm. 

Knit on!