One Crazy Fiber Lady

First I hope that everyone had a happy and healthy Christmas.  I was a busy little knitter whilst trying to avoid the last minute crush at the mall and finding something to do while the whole area shut down

Thursday night was the Knit n Nog at Modern Yarn.  What a serious blast that was!  The place was packed with all the regulars PLUS I finally got to meet Deborah in person!  I did the finish work on Ariann but left the buttons for Friday night and moved onto STS edging for the remainder of the evening.  Wasn’t much that got done thanks to the NOG and  shopping as I finally made use of my 25% discount and picked up enough Cascade 220 to knit two sweaters, including a second Ariann.

After getting home, I had to quickly wrap up the teacher gifts as they needed to go to school the next day.  Ain’t nothing like leaving it to the last minute, huh?  Here they are all lined up with the supervisor looking on.

Friday night was devoted to finishing off Ariann, which got blocked on Saturday.  I need to do a little touchup work on the buttonholes.  Either the buttons are too small, or the holes are too big, whatever it is, the darn things don’t stay closed.  As I love the buttons with the yarn, I’m going to sew the hole a tad smaller.  Right now though, I’ve taken to wearing it open!

Sorry.  None of the head shots are even remotely presentable so you’ll have to live with the Ichibod Crane versions.

After blocking out Ariann, I went back to work on the Shetland Tea Shawl.  I finally finished the bugger around lunch time on Sunday.  Dad had taken the shorties out for hotdogs and a trip to the park.  That allowed me to finish it off and get it blocked out.  Whew.  Glad this anniversary shawl didn’t hit the anniversary mark!  I fell about a month short of that date.  Lovely shawl and I’m so glad it is finally done.

Here she is hanging on the door to my desk armoire.

As an aside, the color in the second picture is true (at least on my monitor).  That picture is also courtesy of the Rebel.  Man that camera takes some lovely pictures. 

Now that I’ve finished off a couple of projects, that meant I could start something new!   As STS was drying, I had pulled out the yarn for the next one.  This time it is the Forest Canopy Shawl in Claudia’s Handpaint, Plumicious colorway.  What a great project this one is.  I think it would be fabulous for a newbie lace knitter.  It isn’t terribly difficult and very easy to memorize.  Par for the course though, it is terrible to photograph under way!

I found a sunny spot in the house this afternoon!  My new bedroom to be has a west facing window and this sun patch was on the folks’ bed.  I quickly took advantage of it as my current room only has north facing windows.  The Rebel ate this one up!

Having spent a day playing with the new shawl, I started a new sweater yesterday.  I joined Julia in an informal KAL of Celtic Dreams.  I’ve been intrigued by this sweater forever.  So when she mentioned it as a possibility, I joined up, ordering Blackwater Abbey Yarn in Bracken, as well as, the pattern.  I’m pretty sure I mentioned this before.  Well before the others go too terribly ahead of me, and since I had promised to join as soon as Ariann was done, there was no time like the present.  I cast on yesterday!

It took me a little longer than I expected to get really underway.  Deb, you’ll be amused to know that I had gauge issues with the shoulder saddles too.  The suggested needles are a US7/4.5mm.  Using that needle, my saddle was a 3" wide rather than the 2.5" the pattern indicated.  Ugh.  I dropped down in size and finally wound up with a 3mm Addi Natura.  Aran weight yarn on essentially a US2?  Oy.  I’m surprisingly far into it now.  Even further than this picture indicates.  I’m two rows from putting the back on hold and starting the front and have finished the second of the 24 row pattern repeats.

I’m off this week entertaining the monkeys during their school holiday so I’m hoping to get some bonus knitting time.  Tomorrow we’re heading down to visit my sister and her boys.  Thursday we’re hoping to get together with Lisa and her daughter for some ceramic painting and lunch. 

Today Mom and I keep them busy with a trip to Montclair looking for 32" wood circs in a 3mm.  Modern Yarn was closed, but I did get Naturas at Stix-n-Stitches.   I’m also incapable of leaving a yarn store with just needles.  I had to get the methadone of knitters:  sock yarn.  This time a skein of Austermann Step in Color 8.  I’m intrigued by that whole Aloe Vera/Jojoba Oil in the yarn.  It was one of those great mail days as well!  My Frangipani arrived today, as well as the next in the Sundara Petals collection (which puts me 3 behind now   Also sitting in the mailbox was the skein of SeaSilk in Pumpkin that I bought from Knit-Purl last week earmarked to be Eunny’s Print of the Wave scarf.

I’m pretty well set for stash knitting

Craft on!

First, a huge thank you to everyone who volunteered to be a ring checker!  THANK YOU!  As I mentioned in individual emails, I will be getting back to you shortly with more information as soon as we get more organized. 

While I didn’t knit as much yesterday as I normally do, I managed to finish the collar on Ariann last night.  YAY!  Now I have the finishing bits to do, weave in the ends, sew those two little beautiful underarm seams, attach the buttons and BLOCK.  Tonight is the SnB, actually a special evening which has been dubbed the Knit N Nog.  I might take her for those bits and then move onto STS, but haven’t quite made up my mind yet.  Anyway, here is Ariann laying in repose last night after she came off the needles:

I haven’t even worn this sweater but I already love it.  In honor of this fab Bonne Marie design, I’m wearing Twist today.  I have visions of working up a second Ariann in a jeans friendly indigo blue.  I’ll have to check the Cascade wall at MY tonight.  I should be wearing this baby early next week during my vacation!

Though, that vacation will be spent primarily in the construction zone, which is moving right along.  Judging from the new pile on the front lawn, the siding was finally delivered yesterday, only 2 weeks late.  I think they started sheet rocking the upstairs and the permanent stairs will be installed today.  Our builder is one of a few who installs temporary stairs while the permanent ones are constructed off-site.  Nice.  Look at what is taking up a good portion of the garage in its grand decadence:

Oh baby.  I’m putting down the knitting to use that!

Craft on!

I’m still making some pretty good progress on things.  The slacker mom is at bay for a while.  I blocked the two scarves that needed it last night.  The other two I figured could skip this process and end up just fine.  With the disarray of my room due to the window replacement, the fact that I normally block on my bed coupled with imminent bedtime, I found the only surface I could use last night:  the living room floor.  I put a blanket on the floor and did a rudimentary blocking.  I didn’t think dad would go for me poking pins into the living room carpet.  Hey, at least they aren’t curling anymore. 

The one on the left is a mini Clapotis out of Noro Silk Garden (two skeins IIRC) and the right is the Irish Hiking Scarf in my own cormo/angora handspun.  Tonight I’ll line all the scarves up and have the kids decide which teacher gets which scarf.  First I’ll take the formal finished pictures though.

After blocking was complete, I settled down to more collar fun on Ariann.  At least measure, I was about 3" complete so this baby is going down soon.  Two weeks ago I picked up some buttons (mother of pearl i believe) at Modern Yarn, which look just perfect with the sweater!  Sadly they are proving a tad difficult to photograph at night.  However the new camera was able to finally accurately represent the color of the yarn and you can get a hint of what the buttons look like.

I continue to work on the Shetland Tea Shawl during my commute and at lunch.  I managed to complete another 10 repeats of the edging yesterday bringing me up to 40 done.  Still a ways to go.  The math geek in me has figured out that I can whip out 10 repeats in about an hour and a half (2 commutes + lunch).  I need another 80 or so to finish the darn thing.  So… about 720 minutes (or six hours) of knitting left.  Whew.  Taken that way I might just finish it before it’s anniversary comes around!  While it needs a serious blocking, I can finally get a decent photo of a substantial amount of it without it looking like the amorphous blob of red dental floss.  (Photo also courtesy of the digital rebel)

I’ve been doing a little playing with the new camera (beyond the requisite knitting pictures) and am amazed at the quality of photos that baby can turn out, even with the kit lens.  I’m still using the automatic modes but hopefully with some time and the manual, I can put this camera through its paces.

What seriously impressed me was the level of detail the thing can capture.  At full 100% zoom, you can count the hairs on Earl’s nose.  Sweet.

In some Knitting Blogs Ring business, Nancy and I are about to take the thing over (1/1).  {Shudder}.  I’ll be putting together the new site for it over the next week or so.  In interest of hitting the ground running, we’ll need to add a few ring checkers.  Some of the existing ones can no longer do it and well, you can never have too many.  What’s involved you might ask?

1.  Regularly check each blog in your section (currently 50 blogs each) at least bi-weekly to see if the blogster:

    a.  Posted within the last month
    b.  Has the correct ring code and making sure the links go where they should
    c.  Report back with any problems

2.  If you cannot do it for whatever reason, just let us know and someone will cover

That’s it.  No heavy lifting.  Just a little web-surfing of knitting blogs.  I’ve been a ring checker since Nov. 04 when I was admitted to the ring.  Makes for a great way to find new blogs to read and get a dose of inspiration for future projects.  But then, you don’t even need to read the things.  Just check the date of the last post, click 3 links and poof:  done and move on to the next.  The more checkers we can add the smaller the groups that need to be covered.

Any takers? 

Craft on!

I’ve made progress on a number of fronts.  Alas, even with the camera collection, I don’t have any recent shots.

Last night I started the collar for Ariann.  By bedtime, I had done about an inch and a half of the four that the pattern calls for.  I did try the sweater on though and I really can’t wait to finish the thing.  Hopefully tonight after scarf blocking I’ll be able to finish the collar.

I have to admit, I found a copy of my Pi Shawl completion spreadsheet that was relatively up to date.  I modified it for my current status and now find that I’m 81% complete.  I have 34 out of 114 border repeats done.  Not too shabby.  I managed to whip out 4 this morning on the train and should get a few more done at lunch.  I’m really dedicated to finishing this damn thing before moving onto another lace project.  I have yarn lined up for two smaller shawls (not to mention a huge stash for lots of other large shawls) that I want to work on but won’t until STS is done. 

The second of the Handspun on the Web socks is now past the toe.  I know I told my SnB buddies that I was tossing this aside, but I sat looking at the poor toe hanging on the needles and that I had already finished one stinking sock.  It fit so well that I could tough out the second one.  Really, it shouldn’t take too terribly long and then I can move onto more pleasurable yarns.

I’ve decided to join Wendy’s Knit from Stash 2007.  Okay Deb, you can stop laughing now.  I know I failed miserably at the Summer of Stash, falling right off that boat in the first week.  But really, it is a laudable goal.  Here are the guidelines with my modified exceptions highlighted:

1. The Knit-From-Your-Stash-a-Thon will start
January 1, 2007 and run through September 30, 2007 — a period of nine months.

2. We will not buy any yarn during that period,
with the following exceptions:

    2.a. Sock yarn does not
count. What? You think we are made of stone?

    2.b. If someone asks for a
specific knitted gift or the kids need something that we really and truly do not have the yarn for, we may
buy yarn to knit that gift.

    2.c. If we are knitting
something and run out of yarn, we may purchase enough to complete the project.

    2.d. We each get one "Get
Out of Jail Free" card — we are each allowed to fall off the wagon one
time.

3. We are allowed to receive gifts of yarn.

4. Spinning fiber of any sort is exempt.

I hope this works for me as my stash has gotten somewhat obscene.  I’ve made one more purchase of yarn so as to have everything I could need this year (snicker) in stash:  3 cones of Frangipani for the Gansey Workshop over at EZasPi.  The colors I picked are 2 are in the claret colorway for the final sweater and a cone in the aran for the early projects.

And now a house update.  Its been a while since I showed a new picture of the house progress.  There’s definitely been a lot of work going on at the old homestead.  Siding should happen this week along with the heat and drywall.  Oh my.  The front door was being changed as I left this morning.  I’m hoping that the concrete walk that was poured yesterday dries quickly so we can quit using the garage to enter and exit.  Getting there..  I’m actually hoping to snag a sheet of the rigid insulation that they are applying to the exterior of the house (that greenish stuff) to use as a blocking boards!

Craft on!

Wow, maybe I really am not the slacker mom I billed myself as last week.  Even though I lost a day Saturday to a bad head cold, I managed to finish off Alex’s Drive-Thru yesterday. 

The first sleeve was done Friday night.  Saturday I managed to merely cast on for the second sleeve.  Yesterday morning I picked the sleeve up just above the cuff and went to town.   By the time the Survivor reunion show had started, I had finished sewing on the buttons and weaving in the myriad of ends.  Alex now has himself a very cute new sweater. 

Kat requested one in pink.  Big surprise.  Full project details here: 

I will definitely be using this pattern again.

Another commuter project done.  The brought the Shetland Tea Shawl out of the wings to resume travel knitting.  I managed to finish 3 repeats of the edging on the way in this morning and am trying very hard to not do the math to figure out how many more commutes it would take to finish the damn thing off finally.  I also sort of misplaced my completion spreadsheet when my Treo crashed a couple of weeks back and they gave me a new one.  Should I mention that I hadn’t synced with the desktop in a while?  Nah.  That second Treo is now gone too as we’ve moved to the Blackberry, which I got on Friday. 

Speaking of portable computer-y gadgets and the time-suck roles they can plan, I’d like to mention now that I found a version of Zuma for Pocket PC.  A good and bad thing as I have a pocket pc device that is supported.  Should I mention that I spent hours Friday night playing the damn game on my iPaq?  I got way further in the game on it then I ever did on the iPod, must be the stylus tapping thing versus the scrollwheel.  I hit level 12 before I lost all 7 of my frogs.  I had gained a number of extra lives there   Okay,  so I did play through Battlestar Galactica.  Fortunately the DVR caught it and I was able to watch it yesterday while the monkeys napped.  I’ve resisted picking it up since. 

Tonight I really have to remember to block the teacher gifts.  I was planning to do it this weekend, but that cold thing had me totally useless on Saturday.  Now to find a place where they can dry safe from monkeys and construction. 

Craft on!

I might not be such a slacker after all.

I finished Kat’s second mitten at lunch yesterday while watching coworkers play chess after eating.  They’ve taken to doing that daily and makes for good knitting accompaniment.

Last night’s commute was one from hell.  There was something seriously wrong on just about every leg of the trip.  My normal 1 hour door to door was an hour and forty minutes.  Except for that whole standing on a packed train from Penn Sta to Secaucus, I really didn’t mind it.  (But it does remind me of why I didn’t like Penn Sta before and prompts me to go back to the more relaxing but less weather friendly Hoboken option.)   The extra half hour on the train from Secaucus to home gave me some bonus knitting time.  I started Alex’s first mitten shortly after getting on and was about a half inch of reducing for the top when I got home. 

Since I was so late getting to the station, and a call home told me the kids had already eaten (I let them know I was running late and to not hold dinner for me – the one acceptable use for a cell phone on the train imho).  I gave em goodnight wishes and headed straight for the SnB.  I really can’t express how good a time I have there and how much I really like the women I knit with.  Thanks Ladies! 

So anyway, I finished the boy’s mittens at the SnB.  More info on the project page for anyone who cares

Today’s knitting has been Alex’s Drive-Thru sweater.  I hit the armpits at lunch and started the first sleeve.  They should go super fast. 

Hopefully this weekend I can finally finish Ariann.  I just need to knit the collar.  Maybe tonight during Battlestar Galactica I’ll work on that.

That’s about it for today.  Have a grand weekend

Craft on!

I’m such the slacker.  While I whipped out two munchkin hats and one mitten on Saturday, I’ve yet to complete a pair of mittens. 

Commuting has its upside:  more knitting time.  Yet there is a darkside
to this commuting thing:  more chances to lose things.  Yes, I lost the
first mittten.  Okay it was the same day that I also lost one of the
bamboo dpn’s to the escalator at the Secaucus Transfer Station.  Damn
it.  So while I’ve now knitted two mittens, I still have 3 more to go
before both kids have warm hands.  Thank goodness this seems to be the
winter of el nino and the temps are in the 60’s for the next few days!

At least I’m halfway through the mate for this one now.  While it is only about an hour or so of knitting each, they are taking forever to complete.  Could be because I’ve been distracted. 

I’ve been reading on the train recently as I’ve gotten deep into a book.  So deep that I actually stayed up waaaaay too late last night (2:30AM) finishing the damn thing.  Good book too.  I love Nelson DeMille.  I have his newest book all locked and loaded on the iPAQ to start next.

However, that wasn’t the only thing that had me distracted.  The new camera arrived yesterday.  Woot.  Naturally I had to play with it for a bit.  Sorry, no pictures yet from it, but oh man, it takes some nice shots! 

There’s a new addiction as well.  I managed to break free after a day of the Weffriddles to get hooked on something else.  Yesterday on the subway I spotted the girl next to me playing a game on her iPod.  I browsed through the iTunes store and found the game.  Zuma.  Oh.My.G-d.  I spent far too long playing it last night… oh and on the train in today.  I’m such a slacker.

My sister gave Kat a Disney Princess costume kit for Hanukkah.  Expectedly, Alex was the first to actually dress up in one of the costumes.  Good though that it triggered Kat to try on something too…

And finally, some long overdue kitty zen…

SnB tonight, I just hope I can stay awake that long, and shake this headache I have too

Craft on!

As predicted, the knitting dry spell has ended.  Thursday night was another glorious knit at the Modern Yarn SnB.  I couldn’t have enjoyed it more.  While there, I made it to the bind off of the neckline of Ariann.  This leaves just the collar to knit.  Almost there!  I picked up some lovely buttons that will be perfect for it.

As a bonus, MY had an event on Friday night to celebrate some new yarns.  Naturally I had to go.  Okay, so I nagged the heck out of Mom before she agreed to let me out for another night.  It was so worth it.  MY now carries Lornas Laces and was offering up a 10% discount on purchases of said yarn that evening.  I picked up a few skeins.  Now that the weather has turned frigid (okay so it has warmed up in the interim), the kids need new hats.  LLSW would be perfect for them and well, I had to get some sock yarn too.

Saturday was spent at home (with a space heater nearby as the construction has made for a nice draft) and the LLSW making hats.  By 8pm, I had two hats and two happy little kids.  Now I’m working on mittens.  One down, three to go.  For the hats, I pretty much made it up as I went along. 

Alex’s is the Icehouse colorway and Kat’s is Irving Park.  Kat has really taken to hers and I had trouble getting it off her.

Now if I could only get her to wear her coat!  Sorry, no picture of Alex sporting his new hat.

Sunday, we all piled into my car for the annual family Hanukkah get together at my sister’s house in central Jersey.  The little kids had a great time as they opened a mountain of presents.  Kat was the most excited and literally screeched as she discovered a puzzle mat my sister bought her.  My sisters and I agreed not to exchange presents this year, but to limit gifts to our folks and the kids.  I got my gift from my folks, a very generous cash present that I have since spent.  Buying one of these:

Canon Digital Rebel XT Camera

I’ve been drooling over this camera for ages now.  Nearly bought one for myself for my birthday but in the end talked myself out of.  Should have done it then.  But maybe not, now the that 10MP model is out, the price on this baby has dropped big time.  Though I must admit that I was sorely tempted by the XTi.  I did a lot of reading of reviews of the two models and from what I can tell, this is still the better camera.  Now to collect lenses

Craft on!

I’ve been doing a lot of spinning recently, even before the new wheel arrived.  Well maybe it was after ordering the new wheel that I started up again.  Might have been a subconscious attempt to justify (stop snickering) the purchase of one more wheel.

Whatever the reason, there has been a decent amount of spinning.  First, I finished 4 oz of handpainted  BFL from Spunky Eclectic in the Mandy colorway.  I can’t even begin to remember when I bought this stuff, but it was pre-move.  I accidentally found it in a box in the basement while looking for something else.  This was my spinning project on the Suzie while sitting in the den with the monkeys.  The colors are far richer than this picture captures as this yarn is giving me fits trying to represent accurately on film.  Anyway it is 302 yards at 4oz.  I plan for it to be my next pair of socks.  Brace for some less than spectacular sock pictures

The trusty old friend Lendrum has been seeing some usage as well.  I’ve finished spinning up the first 4 oz of some Crown Mountain Farms hand dyed superwash in Pink Cadillac.  Thanks to some seriously helpful hints from Deb on how to handle the hank that this roving comes in (break the loop open in one spot creating identical lengths), I’ve been spinning it very randomly.  I can’t wait to see how this turns out when plied.

I finished the second barneswallow bat on Vicki last night but sadly didn’t take pictures.  She’s in her box out in the hallway now as my room was dismantled today to replace the windows.  Hopefully Friday I’ll be able to ply up the two bobbins and make me some yarn. 

I know this is ostensibly a knitting blog, but I honestly haven’t knit a stitch since lunch time on Monday.  I’ve been reading on the train, or just gabbing.  Not sure what this lull in the needlework is all about but I’m about to rectify it by finally casting on for the second sock.  I’ll be going to the SnB tomorrow night so there is knitting in the near future.

For the daily construction update, that whole 16 week project estimate was tossed out the window.  Today was building day 14 and mom relates that the GC told her that we’ll be ready to paint the inside in 5 weeks.  OH.MY.GOD.  Didn’t I tell you that this guy was good?!  Rachel H wasn’t far off, but it still won’t be done by the holidays.  Good enough by me though.  Now I have to start thinking about the redecorating that is going to be done in my new room after the folks move out.  The carpet is getting pulled as there is a lovely oak floor under it.  The brown walls will be repainted with white ceiling, trim and below the chair rail.  I really want a bright sunny yellow for the upper part of the walls.  Mom presented me with some paint chips that she got at HomeDepot today and I think I found the color in the Behr line:  pretty sure I’m going with the marigold, but I do have some time yet.

Anyway.. time to cuddle up with the knitting and Top Chef.

Craft on!

We have the most marvelous general contractor and fellows on the premises working on the house.  My new wheel arrived yesterday via the USPS.  Someone, not sure who, put it in the garage.  One of the guys noticed that the box said "Fragile" on it.  They were scared it would fall over and get damaged, so the GC brought it into the kitchen and placed it on the table so that it would remain safe.  Love him. 

Anyway, I was able to play with the new toy last night.  When I wasn’t chasing monkeys or helping mom remove draperies from the big picture windows that are being replaced today.  I was able to get enough spinning time that I completed a full bat of that yummy lincoln x from Barneswallow Farm that I got at Rhinebeck.

Victoria (naturally known as Vicky now) is a sweet little wheel.  Much smoother than I expected.  I was surprised to find the she is Scotch Tension, unlike all her other Louet kin which are bobbin-lead Irish.  I was surprised by how tiny she is.  I knew she was small, but look at her next to my lendrum!

Can you imagine how small she’d look next to the Lendrum Saxony?!  Unlike the Lendrum which leans towards you, Vicky’s spine leans back.  She folds up nice and small, and very easily as well.  I’m not so sure about the spring that is being used for the Scotch Tension.  It makes for an unusual whirring sound.  I might just replace it, as I did with the Womack, with a simple rubber band.  Extra sensitivity that way without any funky noise.  I look forward to getting to know this little girl.  (Sorry Nancy, Sara wasn’t volunteering for photo duty.)

A house update, you can see we are now well on our way to a front porch.  After the porch roof is finished, and the existing front windows are replaced (probably tomorrow), we’ll be getting new vinyl siding.  I’m looking forward to that as it is a bit cold inside right about now.

Craft on!