One Crazy Fiber Lady

So much for my attempt to make it more than once yearly seeing as my last post was one year ago today. Oh well.
 
 Life has been extremely busy. I still love my job though it keeps me hopping through long days, long commutes and not enough time to get everything I need to get it all done. The kids are seriously getting older. They are now both taller than me, though that wasn’t much of a high bar. Kat has me by 2″ while Alex is now 8+ taller. I swear he grows each week while I’m in Maryland.
 
 In June I traded the Harley in on a new motorcycle. Meet Angus:
 
 

 I love Angus. He is a 2018 Indian Scout Sixty. This bike is a little heavier than the Harley, but with a lower center of gravity which makes it so much easier to ride. Angus has gotten a few extra chrome add ons over the last month.
 
 Highway bars or as I call them rollbars that keep me from getting crushed when I inevitably drop the thing:
 

 Luggage rack as I haven’t decided whether I want saddle bags or not:
 

 I do still craft and missed posting this in November. I picked up a brand new Norm Hall Mariah in Flame Cherry after Norm reached out and asked if I wanted one as I had hit the top of his wait list. Ha ha. Silly Question!
 

 Awesome wheel! Can’t wait to see how that cherry deepens with age!
 
 Periodic knitting still happens though mostly socks. Think I managed to finish all of two pair last year. I did start a shawl a few weeks ago though I don’t remember the pattern name offhand nor what the yarn is 🙂
 
 

 And because I had nothing else to do I got the quilting bug over the last week and dug out this much stalled project. So old that I can’t remember when I even started it!
 
 

 And now I have a partner in quilting! Kat is making her first.
 

 Now that I have coffee on board and before too many more folk wake up and hit the streets, I’m going to go for a ride on Angus. Maybe more sooner than normal as the kids and I are off to Italy for a week on Thursday! Venice has always been on my bucket list and I’ll be there in a week!
 
 
 – Craft on!

I’m  knitting a very familiar pattern that I have not done in a while.

This is the sixth time that i have knit drive_thru. I’m making it for my youngest niece.  I have the body and the first sleeve done and am at the half way point on the second.  I want to finish this quickly so that i can start some of the projects that I picked up yesterday at the festival.

Craft on!

These socks need to be renamed the Screw Up Pair. First I made the second one 4 stitches too narrow. Needless to say that I had to rip it out as it did not fit Kathryn.   I just checked my progress on the now re-enter cuff to see how much further I had before starting the ribbing:

My thumb nail is where the ribbing began on the first sock. I know what I’m doing tonight.  Seriously you’d think that this was my first pair!

Craft on!

Wow, another year blew past.  They are getting faster and faster.  Must be getting older 😉  Anyway, this was a year of much change. But then again, aren’t they all?  I added two beautiful new wheels this year that might have supplanted all the other wheels here.  I spun a lot.  Changed jobs a lot.  Hopefully that job hopping thing has stopped for a while.  I’m liking the current situation.

I tried to challenge myself to knit 12 pairs of socks in ’12 and did it!  Actually managed 13 pairs with only one pair of kids socks in the mix!  I also managed to complete  long term knitting projects (I finished Kauni 2 yesterday. It is laying on the matt in front of the central heating vent now along with Kauni Damask)!  All in all, a good year.

Hope everyone has a very happy and healthy New Year! We will be spending it quietly at home.

Craft on!

Look who asked me for a refresher course in knitting on Sunday night…

He’s doing very well at it and has already managed to figure out how to increase stitches !  He managed to increase from 20 to 35 in two rows!  After school yesterday, he sat with Mom to knit for a while.  After dinner and homework, he got ready for bed and then we sat and knitted until bedtime.  It was sweet.  He’s picked it up rather well.  He wants to make my mom a scarf for her birthday.  No idea what year he’s targeting

Craft on!

I know it has been a long time since my last post. And no, my prolonged silence does not indicate that I’ve been job hunting again! I am quite happy at my new job. While I won’t go into all the reasons why I could be lured into interviewing by the recruiter in this very public of fora, if you should really want to know, email me or leave a comment.  Suffice it to say, the things I didn’t like are no longer a problem.  I hit the one month mark today.  Yay!  I’m still loving it.

However, the learning a new company and new gig has me somewhat, well quite exhausted by the end of the day.  When the kids go to sleep, I’m ready to call it a day, which is why you haven’t seen a post from me in a bit.  It also means that the development work that I had started on the iOS port of KnitCounter is once again on hold.  I’m still plodding through the books, but not writing anything yet.  Soon.  Be patient grasshopper.

I am knitting though!  And I have lots to show progress-wise since my last posting.  Right before leaving the last job, I needed a bus project.  Enter another pair of basic socks.  This is Cherry Tree Hill Supersock that I got from Deb when we went to visit her towards the end of October.

I had even made some decent progress before ending that job.  I vaguely recall finishing the first sock and then the knitting sat and sat in my bag untouched.  I’ve been reading on the train/path (yes shorter commute!) and had other portable projects steal this one’s thunder.

Having finished the boy’s DriveThru, it was time to make the girl one.  Since she kvetched that the last one made from 220 was itchy, it also meant a trip to the yarn store for something “softer” for my princess.  She picked ack-rylic.  Decent ack-rylic, but still ack-rylic all the same.  It was Patons Canadiana at least, and not something terrible.  Glad I took her to a real yarn store and not a big-box. Goodness only knows what she’d pick there!  Anyway, here’s her finished DriveThru:

Drive Thru

• Size:  10
• Yarn: Patons Canadiana
• Needles: US7 & 8
• Started: November 12 2011
• Completed: December 4 2011

The kid is happy.  And mommy is happy that the kid wish list is now complete!  I can go back to knitting for me 🙂

I have a couple more that are finished in name only.  One is waiting on a picture of the finished item:

The yarn is some Jade Sapphire 2ply Cashmere lace weight that I tried to knit a number of items out of but the original color just made me ill working with it.  It was a clown-barf inspired bright pinks and greens.  Don’t know what I was thinking when I bought it but it was cashmere in the 50% bin at the yarn store.  Leann was awesome enough to overdye it and make it useable and gorgeous!  It is now a finished cowl that I’ve been wearing daily since the weather got cold.  Thanks Leann!

The other is waiting for a trip to the washing machine to felt.  I’ll give the project deets when all is done.

It will end life as a felted hat for Alexander’s teacher.

Finally, I just need to show this!  It made me smile when I saw the request to follow my twitter feed…

So say we all!

Craft on 🙂

I think, for a change, I made some productive use of my couple of days off between jobs.  As I start the new job tomorrow, the time for getting things done is quickly dwindling to an end.  While one of the options for the last couple of days was to work on the iPhone app, I decided to take  a vacation from the computer.  So beyond checking email and doing a little online shopping (new shoes from Zappos are on their way!), I stayed away.  I spent my time in a decidedly fiberlicious way.

I spun:

• Fiber:  Forbidden Woolery – Falkland
• Colorway:  Tabula Rasa
• Yardage:  438 yds / 4oz
• Spun/Plied on the Matchless – 2 ply

It wasn’t all finished yarn around here.  I started a new project on a wheel that you’ll probably see more of again.  I forgot how much I loved this wheel:  The Vermont Wheel!  Not sure how that happened, but there you have it.  I brought her back upstairs to my room a few weeks ago and have gotten back into using it.  I’ve finally gotten around to trying a fiber that’s been marinating for a little while.

I’m late in giving details and finished photos of projects that I’ve been working on recently.  Its time to rectify that little oversight.  First up:

Mommy Socks

• Yarn:  Forbidden Woolery Quattro – Poisoned Apple
• Needles:  US0
• Pattern:  Hedera on the cuff
• Started: 9.16.11
• Finished: 10.8.11

These socks were primarily knit on the bus.

Alex’s Hat

• Yarn:  Forbidden Woolery Footloose – Eastwick
• Needles: US1
• Pattern:  Sabeanie
• Started: 10.8.11
• Finished: 10.16.11

Kat’s Hat

• Yarn:  Forbidden Woolery fiber – Jack n Jill
• Needles: US5
• Pattern: the knitter’s handy book of patterns
• Started: 10.16.11
• Finished: 10.17.11

And now so as to avoid having the next project make its blog debut as a finished item, here’s this year’s first DriveThru sweater for boy.

The yarn is Valley Yarns Colrain.  I bought the blue off someone on Ravelry and the rest from Webs.  I knit both the body and one sleeve twice.  I had that brain fart where I was intending to make one size due to the gauge I was getting and totally muffed the cast on count.  Sweater would have been huge on the boy.  Then for the sleeve I followed the directions as written but that makes for a really tight sleeve.  Boy wanted something loser so after the cuff, I increased half the finished width stitches on the first plain row and then followed the pattern to the full width.  I finished the bulk during a Star Trek movie marathon today on MAX.

I found these wood buttons in stash and I think they go great with the sweater.  I’ll probably do the bands tomorrow, work in ends and sew these bad boys on shortly.  I’ll probably start Kat’s sweater tomorrow on the bus.  This is no longer travel friendly.

Speaking of which:  TWO MORE DAYS!!!

Craft on!

Two days in a row?  I know, amazing 🙂  I’ve had some photos sitting on my phone for a while and finally got them onto a computer where I can type words at a significant clip rather than the hunt n peck method with just a single fingertip on the phone.  Aren’t you lucky?

A couple of weeks ago, I took the kids to the Garden State Sheep Breeders show (NJ Sheep & Wool).  I picked up a few things including THE PERFECT BUTTONS for my Kauni 2.  The monkeys had fun playing in Leann’s display…

They have a natural affinity for fiber 🙂  And some pretty good taste. They both demanded something from her booth, Alex picked yarn while Kat opted for fiber.  Training them well!

As I promised yesterday, here’s the finished socks.

• Yarn:  Forbidden Woolery Lush in Gillyweed
• Needles:  US0 Blackthorns
• Pattern:  own over 48 st – toe up
• Started:  9/4/11
• Finished: 9/15/11

The boy is quite pleased with his socks, as am I.  I found I can actually fit into them.  Sweet.  So any further socks for him are not for naught with how fast his feet are now growing.  I’ll be able to wear them when he outgrows them 😛  Not to mention how quickly I was able to blow through this pair.

Taking the bus to work has been most helpful on the sock knitting front.  My bus ride is about an hour, give or take, depending on traffic.  I’ve moved to the bus because the three legged train to PATH to subway was sapping the life from me.  The bus is a longer commute timewise, but I don’t have as many connections to make, and I get to sit and relax for a longer stretch on both the bus and then the subway.   I always seemed to be waiting for the next conveyance, getting on and then getting off.  Exhausting I tell you!  So while the bus to subway is an hour and 45 minutes its more restful.  And it will be coming to an end.  Office move is tentative for mid-November.

I’m taking a break from the monkey demand knitting and working on a pair of socks for myself.  I’ll start in on the hats next, and then the sweaters.  Alex picked another Drive-Thru as the sweater he wants.  Checking back in my FO collection, apparently, I knit that sweater for him every two years.  Guess how long it has been since the last one?  You got it.  Two years.  Kat wants a hoodie.  Need to find a good pattern for that… though I’d be surprised if I don’t already have one somewhere.

Speaking of the bus, those of you who have never traveled via the bus lane to the Lincoln Tunnel don’t know how unnerving and disconcerting that express route can be.  Get a load of this:

Yes, we are on the same side of the road as the traffic moving AWAY from the tunnel.  The normal traffic heading to the tunnel is on the OTHER side of the concrete divider.  Takes a bit getting used to this view.  And yup, whenever possible I do try to sit in the very front of the bus.  Finds that it counters any natural tendency towards motion sickness.  Though that’s becoming less of a problem (as I hoped it would) as I was able to read on the bus last night and I was sitting way way back.  I was happy for a seat though.  The terminal was a mess last night.

Anyway, time to get back to the job.

Craft on!

There are pros and cons to traveling to work by bus. Which is something that I’ve been experimenting with recently. The three legged train to path to subway has been getting to me. So the only two legged option is the bus to the Port Atrocity Bus Terminal followed by the subway. There is another bus I could take to the GWB but that’s an icky ride on both the bus and subsequent long assed subway ride. So two legs is good. But the bad is something I didn’t have to deal with on the train: traffic. Ugh. Stuck in it now actually trying to get to the tunnel. But it does offer up superb knitting time.

Alex’s second sock after only two commutes by bus.

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Location:9th Ave,,United States