FO-licious.

EDIT: I just added new, better pics of the socks and shawl.

Man alive I've been busy, and I have lots to show for it too. Last night was the weekly meet with the spiders, at my favorite coffee shop, which is always a pleasure. And a double pleasure it was, as we got to meet both Colleen, who's in visiting from Boston, and Neoknits Melissa, who's a total sweetheart.

I had to dash off to get changed and off out again to The Rodeo Bar to meet up with Sharon, her hubby and friends to see some some live music (thanks so much for the magazine Sharon). Much fun was had my all, a little too much for Mr. B. who was bouncing off the ceilings after 3 of their famous Margaritas.

Okay, on to the real stuff. I promised FO's and here I am delivering. First of all we have the Wyvern socks:

Pattern: Wyvern Socks by Marnie Maclean
Yarn: This was knitpicks superwash - hand-dyed by yours truly.
Needles: Pony Pearls US#2
Adaptations: None

Next up with have the swallowtail shawl which I started last Friday at the Point (and re-started on Friday), was finished on Thursday - 5 days to knit, now that is a quick knit, I guess it helps that I was home sick on Monday, I found knitting to be very soothing :)



Pattern: Swallowtail Shawl from the Fall issue of Interweave Knits 2006
Yarn: Yummy Baby Cashmere from elann.com - 3 1/3 balls.
Needles: Denises US #7.
Adaptations: I did one less repeat of the Budding Lace 2 since I thought I was going to run out of yarn - ha!

I'm not sure I'm that into shawls, I don't know if I'm really a shawl kind of girl - I think I will stick with rectangular shapes if I'm to make any more. One more thing to show you. The spun and plyed Sage Merino from Carolina Homespun.


I love the subtle colors in this yarn. I'm just not convinced that I should have plyed it - I guess I got Katie's advice too late. I'm still pretty happy with it though.

One last picture (assuming I haven't completely bored you to tears). This is progress so far on the Ripple Weave socks from this years fall issue of Vogue Knitting. I love the yarn, and the pattern (it is so much like Cookie's Pomotamus socks). I like the Addis, except my toxic sweat is already getting to them - GAH!

No more secrets

So I kept you waiting on the Addi secret? Sorry, life gets in the way sometimes. I got my Addis this week, and immediately cast on with Marie's signature yarn, and what a yummy yarn it is. I was a little worried that I wasn't going to like Addi needles, I've not had good experiences with metal needles in the past. Convinced that I have toxic sweat that destroys the coating of needles, making them super-sticky and almost impossible to knit with. However, if I'm able to knit a pair of socks without melting the coating, I will become a true believer. So far, knitting with these babies has been much fun - once I let go of the death grip of course :)

My new toys.
But you don't care about any of this do you? You want to know where the hell you can get cheap Addis, and how cheap you can get them, right? So here is the tale: I was reading some blogs the some weeks ago and I saw someone who wrote of cheap Addis from a store in the UK. While I forgot the person who wrote the blog, or which blog it was from (sorry nameless blogster), I didn't forget to bookmark the site. So I ordered 3 pairs of 80cm/32" circs (2's, 3's and 4's), from kangaroo.uk.com. My order was less than $20, yes! You read that right! $20 for 3 pair of circs, including shipping, and that cute sweetie candy. Clearly the exact cost will depend on the exchange rate at the time of buying. There are other bargain places, in NZ, Hong Kong and that auction site.

I actually have some FO pictures to shoot and post, honest! I'm just waiting on some time and daylight, both of which I hope to have aplenty this weekend.

Baaaa!

Yesterday Sharon and I took a drive to a little festival known as the NYS Sheep and Wool Festival - AKA Rhinebeck. This was my first time meeting Sharon, and hopefully not my last. We ate Darrell Lea liquorice and her homebaked, chocolate, chocolate, chocolate cookies and chatted all the way there. She is a great person, very funny and interesting and it was a pleasure to spend the day with her. So, on to the day and a picture heavy post.

I was a Rhinebeck virgin, so "Oh My God!" was pretty much what was going through my head for the first hour or so at Rhinebeck. You've heard the chatter about "sensory overload" and all that. All I can say it that it's true. There is so much to see, touch, smell [well, sniff and smell] and hear. We saw cute bunnies,


petted alpacas,


saw sheep

Okay, not a real sheep. Here's a close up of a sweet friendly sheep.


and goats more sheep. This was a Jacob Sheep [thanks for the correction Karrie.


and llamas (at least I think this one was a llama).


So much yarn to see. And fiber to touch.


Sharon and I met with Cindy [it was great to finally meet you Cindy] and her blogless friends Ebony and Trina for Bratwurst and a beer. We drank warm cider and tasted wine. I bought a bottle of the Brotherhood Riesling.


In a very important moment in my life, I TOUCHED QIVUIT!!


It was better than I thought it would be, and took a lot of effort to walk away from it, but at $40 an ounce, I had to resist the urge.

Instead I took a 'step down' and got some bargain Cashmere and Alpaca - thanks Sharon, for putting up with my near panic at not being able to find Little Barn. I got enough wool to knit my first sweater of my own.



I found my perfect spinning wheel. EDIT: NO I DID NOT BUY THIS WHEEL, IT IS JUST SOMEWHAT SIMILAR TO THE ONE I ALREADY HAVE IN THE PICTURES BELOW. Sorry for the confusion everyone. While I'm going on looks mostly (the wood in this beautiful hand-made wheel was stunning). I saw one in action, and was pretty impressed. They are Robin Spinning Wheels and were stunning.

As for what else I got, I made out well, and can't wait to start playing with everything I bought. Well, if I'm honest, I have already nearly finished spinning this sage Merino. I'm so happy with this merino roving from Carolina Homespun:


I'm really starting to feel confident with my spinning, I actually want to show this to everyone I know before I send it out to my Mum - my big decision is whether to leave it as singles, or to ply it.



I also got some Corriedale Wool roving from them. I bought some tie-dye looking merino/tencel from Sheepshed, it looked so pretty spun up.


Last, but certainly not least, I could not resist this lace weight alpaca from Briar Rose, all 2,500 yds of beauty.


It was funny, because as I was stalking reading blogs last night I saw that Melissa couldn't resist it either, the color she bought is equally gorgeous.

And here's the money shot (the wheel is not one of the purchases, it's a wheel I've had for a while now).

Rhinebeck

Okay, there's a gazillion posts just like this in blogland, but I have to say it...

I'm going to Rhinebeck and am totally excited!!! Not only is there going to be all that gorgeous yarn and fiber to touch, feel and sniff, and the cute sheep, there will be fellow blog-knitters and spinners to meet. And as an added bonus I get 2+ hours (EACH WAY) of uninterrupted knitting as the wonderful Sharon drives us up there - looks like I will be closer the second time finishing Mr. B's zipped raglan by the end of the trip (yay to elann.com who had the same dyelot left and sent it to me in superfast time). Time for me to get some yarn for a sweater all of my own.

Sadly I will miss the spiders at Rhinebeck, since they are there right now, as I type this post. But I hope to have the advantage of knowing the best stands to get too. I just hope they leave enough yarn for me (honestly, I am a little worried that there won't be anything left tomorrow - please tell me I'm being silly).



So I had to get myself a little something when I ordered more yarn for Mr. B. look below and you will see a wonderfully, soft, luscious yarn. It is called "Baby Cashmere" in Tapestry Blue, it is an elann exclusive. It's 60% baby alpaca, 30% merino wool and 10% cashmere. Isn't it so purdy?


I love it, and cast on immediately for the Swallowtail Shawl from Interweave. This is the second time casting on for the shawl, I was having so much fun listening the chatter about Rhinebeck at The Point last night, I messed up the pattern (knitting where I should have purled) in a bad way. So I started again - I'm getting good at this huh?

LETS GO METS

I'm not ignoring you, I'm just busy watching the games.

I'm not sure how much more my heart can stand.

GARGHHHHHH!

Okay, I'm more than slightly pissed today. They say that you should never go to bed angry - that was really tough advice to follow last night after Mr. B tried on the, almost complete zipped Raglan (from LMKG), good Lord the damned thing does not f*cking fit - it's far too small, he looks comical in it. Had I not spent so long knitting the thing I might have seen the funny side. But not today, cos today I have to frog and find some more of this yarn. I fully planned to take a picture to show you all, but I just don't have the heart. I decided to swallow the pride and actually show the top, and how it doesn't fit.

Doesn't look so bad at the back.


Until you see the front and decide that this thing needs to be zipped up - errrrr....


Here's the sweater now - sad huh?

On a lighter note, the Wyvern socks are coming along nicely, I'm 1 & 1/3 of the way through, they are looking great, and I love the look of the ribbed sole - even if I'm not exactly loving knitting it ;) Now the color of these socks is super hard to capture, because they never look the same color in different lights. At the Point, for example, the yarn is almost a blinding red/orange, but it's not that bright really - honest.



Oh! And my tee-shirt arrived (Addis are still on the way):


Excuse me now, I have to go to elann.com to order some more Ravenna Cotton.

We interrupt this spinning...

Look to the left of your screen, no down a bit, down a bit more, just below those free patterns. See it? I'm now a proud button owner and new member of the wonder group known as the Spiders! Serious as sh*t! I was thrilled when I got the email from gleek. Mr. B. has smiled politely, trying to appreciate my happiness - but bless him and his little cotton socks (yeah, he claims to have a "wool allergy") I'm not sure he does.

Other news, well Mr. B's Zipped Raglan Sweater in [you've guessed it] cotton now has sleeves, ready to be attached, but that requires more thought than my brain is capable of this evening. I have spun and plied another bobbin of the silk merino and have decided that I'm not a particularly good spinner - time to think about lessons, or at least a decent video or book on the subject. Despite this, I still want to finish spinning what I have left and attempt to knit a Clapotis and have moved my mind towards colours. I'm thinking warm reds/plums/purples/browns and possible oranges. I selected a few pictures to show you guys, but it was just an ulterior motive to have a picture on this post. Instead, I will post a picture of a couple of things coming to me:


You know them, you may love them, I decided it was high time I actually tried them (esp. at the bargain price I bought them for - but more about that later).


Yup, it's the Recycling Tee from Threadless. They have some pretty cool tees, I'm sad that I had to wait a little extra time for them to move warehouses, it's coming soon though, it must be, they promised me.

Okay, that post seemed far too long to me... time for bed.

Spin, spun and all that.

It seems as though you have spoken with a most positive tone! I was so inspired by everyones enthusiasm, that I got started right away with the spinning. I already have one bobbin of plyed merino-silk. It's not much to look at in it's natural state so I won't bore you with pics. I have to admit that I'm not so happy with my spinning on this one, most likely it's just a result of me being a bit rusty, I will practice more this weekend (time permitting).

I met with the spiders last night again - God I'm really loving knitting with others, I have no idea why I didn't do it before. Anyway, after admiring the yarn of Lisa's sock in progress, Marie pulled out of her bag some skeins of her hand-dyed merino (what Lisa was knitting with). I was blown away by the beauty of the one you see below - how could I resist it? I was so excited to get my hands on this that I clean forgot to ask the name of the colorway, oopsie. Isn't it stunning? and let me tell you, it's soooo soft. Go check out Brooklyn Handspun's online store now, no affiliation, yada, yada, yada - just very satisfied with my yarn purchase, look see...




By the way, today is the 12th anniversary of the day that Mr. B. and I started dating. We moved in together about 6 months after that, and married 10 years after that. And before you say it, no, I don't look old enough, but we were mere children when we met (honest!). My how time flies.

I'm thinking...

Of spinning some yarn to make the so overdone, so passe, Clapotis. I have the urge for a big ol' French scarf [still feeling French, you see?]. Am I crazy? Clapotis in handspun, is this mad? too ambitious? Would the thick/thin be too 'uneven'? What to you guys think? To give you an idea of what I'll be working with, here is what I last spun with the silk/merino I'm planning on using (it was somewhere around a dk/worsted weight), colors to be decided: