Autumn Sweater

Some Days Off

Thanks for all the support.  I'm reassured to know that it isn't just me.  I have to say that the funniest* thing about my last post is that the first commenter was my sister, who had called me earlier that day, and had left a voice mail that I hadn't listened to yet when she commented.  Clearly, in the event of an emergency, text me or email me... or comment on my blog.

*and by "funniest", I mean "saddest reflection on a set of priorities being totally out of wack"

I just got home last night after a few days in Seattle, the first actual get-on-a-plane-and-get-away vacation I've taken since ...um... 2004.  Yay!  What took me so long?  We stumbled around without much of a plan, walked a zillion miles, played pinball, saw a ton of art, went snowboarding in real snow, and took a ferry to Bainbridge Island where I found this:

No, there wasn't a pile of Mountain Colors by the side of the road.  There was Churchmouse Yarns & Teas, a fabulous yarn store.  I think there may have also been tea there, but I was too busy buying yarn.  This is almost as rare as me taking a vacation!  I don't know when I've seen so much really fabulous yarn all in one place (perhaps Rhinebeck?) and with really nice, helpful staff as well.  I was more than a little challenging to work with, and they were awesome.  I asked if they knew the Noro sweater with the cables that might have been Cash Iroha that was off white in the book but that I wanted to knit in some other yarn, maybe handpainted, but mostly solid looking, and not too bright, but not too boring.  And, about 15 minutes later, there I was with Mountain Colors Twizzle, in the Rosehip color, after consulting with the actual Noro pattern I was referring to, and some major math to sort out how the conversion would work out.  I want to eat this yarn, it is so freakin' beautiful.

So, I'm back, taking one last day off to do stuff at home.  Here's a WIP that doesn't photograph at all, made blogworthy because my cat insisted on being photographed with it.  In December, I left a yarn swap with a big pile of Brushed Alpaca.  Since the heat here is a bit shifty, I'm just knitting a big rectangle.  When I get through half of it, I'm going to cast off, and then knit another big rectangle.  With some sort of seaming, there should be an afghan.  There is an actual zig zag pattern of knits and purls, but it is almost invisible in real life.  In photo form, it looks like I'm knitting a pre-felted blob.

There's been a bit more frogging, and some sweater knitting (and when do I ever do that??) that I need to get on the blog.  Soon. 

Froggd

o

Tubey is on top of the Zara sweater in question (the first sweater I ever knit) for reference of a proper sleeve length vs. an improper sleeve length.

So far 2008 has been the year of the frog 'round here. More to come.

The good news is that the Xmas socks in the last post were finished mostly on time, and without incident.

Can Has Yarn?

I give up!  I keep thinking I'm about to have more time to do things that aren't work.  But no, really all I do is work.  And sometimes I have a vodka tonic.  Clearly, in order to give the blog a fighting chance, I think I need to simplify.

So, everybody has seen LOLcats, I hope? Welcome to LOLknitting.

The big secret Trekking project is secret no more.  Huge thanks are in order to Jenn and Melissa, for their technical and photographic assistance.  Mwah!  Thanks ladies!

Time Time Time...

The socks from the last entry are now in the 'FInished' album with all the pertinent details, if you're interested.  This made me realize that I have barely finished anything in the past year.  I know this is probably evident through my sad lack of blogging.  Where has the time gone?

I'm still working on getting the new place presentable enough to photograph.  What the hell is taking me so long?  Believe me, I'm sick of being in limbo.  There's two key things that still need to be built, and hopefully I'm no more than 6 weeks away from completion.  Here's one little pic... the best part of the new fridge is in fact the freezer.

Take that, evil moth things!

On the knitting front, the current project is ...well... secret.  I can tell you that it's Trekking.   Mmmmmmm....I love me some Trekking.   Here's a little tiny peek.

The last bit of news is that I simply MUST have a new camera.  In addition to the blurry mess that is the sneak peek, I photographed the entire stash this weekend.  All the pictures came out simply atrocious.  My old 3.2 megapixel Exilim from 4 years ago is about to be retired!  Woot!

Strange Effects

Last week I was in LA for work.  Work work work.  I'm not sure if this bizarre cloud effect stems from the LA smog or some other atmospheric phenomenon...

but it sure made for interesting photos.

I'm home now, and seem to have come down with the plague.  I stayed home from work today, and have been sleeping and (gasp) knitting!  Between the plane time and today, I actually finished something!

My sister's scarf!  The double helix effect didn't stay as consistent as I had hoped, but it still looks pretty neat, I think.

Then and Now, part 2

This year for Christmas, I gave my mom and my sister each a package of yarn.  Since they both knit, I suppose I could have just given them yarn and been done with it.  The plan was, in fact, to knit for them.  Since I had no chance of starting or finishing any knitting in time for Christmas, instead I let them choose what they wanted the yarn to become.

My sister's yarn is this yummilicious Shaffer Anne.  Once upon a time, I made socks out of this exact colorway.  The socks (finished, unworn, and un-blogged) were casualties of the Great Moth Invasion of 2006.  Michelle very sweetly gave me this skein (as well as some amazing STR, on a day that she helped me move!  Who has better friends than me?)  I stared at it for the entire month of December before realizing that I didn't have it in me to re-knit my socks.  However, I love love love this yarn, and knew that if I gave it to my sister I would be motivated to knit with it.

My sister also loved the yarn, and requested a scarf.  Socks were too hidden for her.  This is great, because I know in my heart that this is too colorful for me, and I only ever would have worn this colorway as socks.  But I really wanted to knit Trekking is for Necking.  So... (please excuse the crappy picture taken in a bar)

I'm really enjoying knitting this (although I am a bit shocked that I'm only halfway done!)  And check out the cool color effect... I'm knitting DNA.

Secrets

I've been keeping a secret. After the last post, a few people asked me where I was keeping my yarn.

That's right, in the freezer.

While packing, stressing, splitting up with the boy, and painting, I discovered a serious moth infestation. September was just not my month. Everything that I could salvage went into the freezer. A whole lot of yarn, as well as Ene's Scarf, Gentleman's Fancy Socks, and Go With The Flow Socks went into the trash. The carnage was brutal. I'll spare you the details.

Depite all of this, I am still going to Rhinebeck with the plan of not buying any yarn buying only enough yarn for one pair of socks. Budget simply does not allow it. Speaking of Rhinebeck, I got my Blogger Bingo card today, and realized I know almost no one on it. I don't know how I'm going to identify any of you people, especially those of you who don't seem to have photos of yourself on your blog??!!

If anyone's looking for me, I'll be wearing Tubey at least part of the time. My hair is quite a bit shorter and darker now. Tubey, on the other hand, hasn't changed so much. If you see me buying yarn, or looking like I'm contemplating buying yarn, please feel free to interrupt me with shouts of "Remember your closing costs, bitch!" or something like that. I'll thank you, really!

Finito! And early too.

Well, I had a lazy Labor Day weekend, involving amounts of sleep that I thought were physically impossible for me. Seriously. Friday night, 10 hours of sleep. Saturday night, 11 hours of sleep. Sunday night, a mere 8 hours. Just for reference, I usually am thrilled to sleep for 7 hours. Mmmmmmm, I love sleep!

I finished the Moderne Baby Blanket, several months prior to the completion of the baby! (I guess I had the easier job there)

Here it is reclining in a natural setting.

And here's the full blanket. Note how my sheets coordinate with the Silver Sage color.

More on the saga of the blanket, and the KnitPicks Shine later...

I also made multiple visits to Lowe's and Home Depot, and got a clear reminder that I am still working on this learning to drive thing. I admit it, the other drivers literally made me cry this weekend. I don't normally get so worked up. But, after a few sticky sitations, and a screaming match with a moronic guy on a bike, I was waiting nicely at a red light to make a left turn (with my turn signal on, thank you) and some really impatient fellow decided to race up behind me (after the light had turned green and I was already in the intersection making my turn) and try to cut around me ON MY LEFT. Not only did he nearly smash into me, but then he leaned on his horn and kept leaning on it while I freaked out and tried to figure out whether I needed to finish my turn or stop turning. Because a really loud noise always makes thinking easier! Of course he was in a huge ass SUV that could have flattened me and my tiny little car.

All of this home stuff is leading up to something really big. I'm going to sell my apartment. Much as I love the neighborhood, and the roof deck (on the 6 days in a year when I actually get to use it), I need to move back to my old place on 14th Street. So I'm going to be a bit crazed this month trying to neaten everything up and get this place ready to be sold.

Math

TV plus lots of yarn plus Moderne baby blanket pattern equals:

In fact, I have so much yarn, the poor baby might get a whole wardrobe in this color scheme. I swear, I did the math properly when ordering yarn! Really!

Plan B (or was it FBC)

I was going to post a picture of the garter stitch all sewn up ready to be felted into a box. It was going to be a nice photo with something recognizable for pre-felting size reference. Like a magazine, or a dollar, or a measuring tape or...

Well, Fred wasn't exactly what I had in mind, since "Fat Black Cat" isn't typically a standard unit of measure. However, how could I not share these pictures?

The technical post, where I talk about my confusion with the pattern (I know, it looks simple, but I managed to have confusion) and the *frightening* quantities of yarn that went into knitting this box, well that will just have to wait. Fred wants to stretch and enjoy the garter stitch before he squashes the box and licks his belly.