schrodinger knits

Remember Me?

2010-01-17T14:55:00.005-05:00

OHAI! yes! it's me, I'm popping in to blog for the first time in, ahem, over a year, ahem. I guess I got busy and distracted, and blogging has not been top of my list of things to do. Everything is great here. Since going back to work (coincidentally, the last time I blogged was just around the time I returned to work) I've been pretty busy, and generally pretty happy about it. I'm really just chronicling my knitting at ravelry, flickring and occasional facebooking and other stuff. I moved to a bigger and better apartment over the holidays. Oh, and still I'm selling bags in my etsy shop.

Speaking of the shop, this is the reason for this erratic post, I decided today, in line with the amazing pattern sellers on rav doing "Help for Haiti" donations, that 50% of my bag sales will go directly to Save the Children until January 31st. Save the Children has worked in Haiti for 25 years with 100 staff on the ground. Will be providing food, water, shelter and child-friendly spaces. Because Save the Children's offices did not suffer the structural damage of other non-governmental organizations, other aid workers have taken refuge in the agency's compound, where operations are being run out of offices and tents (quoted directly from Charity Navigator)

So. If you've been debating about buying a cube recently, this could not be a better time to buy one, come on over and see if there are any that take your fancy.

For those of you who don't already know, you can find out when the shop is updated with new items either through following me on twitter, or subscribing to the shop's rss feed.

Me Knits?

2008-11-29T00:38:00.005-05:00

I've not a lot of time before my head hits the keyboard in a full-on sleep, however, I really wanted to post a couple of "me knits" (no longer are they to be called selfish knits in the Schrodinger household, there's already enough guilt involved in being a Mum without the guilt of 'selfish' knitting). Both took very little time to knock out, both were a pleasure to knit (hence the speedy knitting) and both are going to get great use.

First of all we have the Ilean cowl. I had some malabrigo and had started a cabled hat of my own design, it turned out too small, so I ripped and gave up, and then decided that I didn't actually need another cabled hat, I needed a cowl instead. I adapted this to add a button band and buttons, just to make things easier on putting it on or off when wearing headphones :) Details on Ravelry.

After seeing Maya's stunningly beautiful FLS, a bunch of spiders have decided to jump on the February Lady Sweater bandwagon by doing a little, unofficial knitalong. I was not for it at first, stating that I just didn't "have the time" but then kept seeing FLS's in progress, and I caved. Out came a webs gift certificate and before I knew it, I had an FLS (according to ravelry, this knit only took me 20 days).

Like so many people before me, I adore this sweater, I love the color and fit and style. I'm thinking I will feel even more comfortable if/when my "lady bits" decrease a little in size.

I'm too lazy to post details here when I already pumped them into ravelry, so you'll need to go there if you want that info.

The Blue Dress

2008-11-09T19:33:00.004-05:00

So I hinted that there was a lovely handknit for Baby E made by my Mum, her Grandma. It's a cute, blue dress. I ADORE this dress, it's so pretty, and I'm looking forward to when Baby E can fit in it and can model it. In the meantime, here's some pictures to keep you going.

I have no idea what pattern it is (Mum?) but I reckon I'm making a good guess that it's German.

I said this dress deserves it's own post, so that's all you're getting. Well, except that you should check out the shop, I'm celebrating my second year on Etsy (as a buyer initially). As of tomorrow, until the end of the month I'm offering FREE SHIPPING to the US and Canada, yes, you read that correctly, FREE SHIPPING in the US and Canada. The rest of the world is also getting just $1 shipping - how cool is that?! So, stop by and take advantage of the offer now at schrodinger.etsy.com

Turtle-y fun

2008-11-02T10:48:00.003-05:00

Baby E had her first Halloween - to be honest I think it went by pretty much unnoticed by her (we'll see if that happens next year). But as her parents, we had fun dressing her up in the costume that Grandma bought for her (cute huh?), and taking her out to see friends in a bar in the city (yeah, bad parents I know) for a couple of hours. Much as it was tempting to, we did not use her to procure candy for our own sweet tooth needs - there were plenty of other parents out there doing that ;)

Yeah, nothing handmade here... this year.

The obligatory Rhinebeck post.

2008-10-29T14:40:00.008-04:00

Okay, so my third time at Rhinebeck was such a different year for me, leaving behind my 8 week old child in the care of the incredibly capable Mr B. I caught a ride upstate with gleek (oh! and I've been meaning to mention, you should check our her new project, a new online magazine called Popknits, it's incredibly cool!) and Nancy, it was a beautiful day and I had a great time. Although I didn't get to meet many fellow bloggers (besides the spiders, of course, and Maryse [edited to add this info, sorry Maryse - it was great to meet you irl!) I was so happy to be out among the adults. I don't have an amazing haul to show you - in fact I've barely got a thing to show except the cool mug and yarn I bought from the last stand I went to.

I *love* this mug, I use it every day, now that my Mum (and lack of reflux) has helped my tea addiction come back in full swing. The [supersoft, lovely] yarn is most likely going to be used for some fair-isle mittens.

I don't have much in the way of knitting to show you this time, just a hat that I'm trying design - it's Malabrigo, which I also bought when upstate, from Fabulous Yarn we stopped in the village of Tivoli, NY for dinner before the Rav Party. The lady saw our desperate, yarn hungry faces peering in the window (yeah the festival didn't quite sate us) and she re-opened for us! how nice. I decided that I wanted a cabled hat, but could find no pattern that caught my fancy, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. I still have no clue what I'm going to do come the crown...

Oh yes, I am actually in the middle of a row here, in fact, it's mid-cable! The joys of motherhood :)

I have been sewing like a maniac though (well, when I get a chance) and the shop has never been so full. The reason for this? Well, apart from the huge daycare deposit and severe lack of income (aaahh, US maternity coverage is astoundingly bad) I actually have an ad running on Ravelry for November and thought I better have some bags to offer - this is VERY exciting for me.

Good news is, I have lovely bags to show for it.

I'm Schrodinger and it's been 5 weeks since I last posted

2008-10-14T15:49:00.005-04:00

Wow! It really is incredible how easy it is to neglect your blog and all blog reading when you have a baby. To everyone that has sent their congratulations, THANK YOU and please accept my apologies for not getting back to you. I've also neglecting blog reading, and am horrified when I see what I have to read - gulp! I have to admit, that it's not just the baby that kept me away, but also a new addiction... microblogging through twitter. My Mum also came to visit (Dad needed to stay back in Austria while they finish up renovations on their vacation apartments). Mum brought a ton of gifts for baby E, from them as well as other family over in the UK, one thing I had to share with you is this adorable sheep.

She also brought with her a stunning handknit dress that she had made, but that's going to wait for another time and it's own, special post :)

So, you can imagine there's not a huge amount of knitting going on here, but there are a few knits that Baby E has modeled so far to share with you all. I'm trying to take pictures of all the amazing handknits that Baby E has, as and when she wears them. There are still plenty more that she's yet to grow into.
Saartje Booties from Sharon, excuse the blurriness, baby E was fidgety here, this was the best shot I could get :)

Better than booties socks

Modeling the spider blanket before tummy time.

I've been knitting a bit myself (although the hat is the only FO I have to show for it so far)
I made this hat [rav link] last week, it has since been undone and reknit to add length, it fits better, but I've not taken new pics.

I'm thrilled to announce that Baby E is also able to bottle-feed, therefore I've been creating a stash of milk so that I'm free to go to Rhinebeck on Saturday - WOO HOO! Hope to see some of you there, you can distract me from buying yarn and fiber we can't afford.

2 weeks

2008-09-07T15:53:00.005-04:00

Wow, it's been 2 weeks since baby E first made her appearance. I want to thank everyone for their congratulatory comments, notes and emails - it's been wonderful to share our joy with so many people I don't even know :)

I did toy with the idea of sharing our birth story, it was pretty eventful for both of us - we certainly tested our amazingly wonderful midwife, and Mr B, but since it all ended well and I'm pretty private, I'm keeping those memories to myself. Instead, here's a shot of baby E and myself on the morning of her 2 week birthday, she's a bit of a blur, a combination of birthday excitement and bad camera methinks.

Also, I have some baby modeling shots to share with you. There's only a few, since baby E is wearing them as they fit her. The quality of the pictures is not so great thanks to our decent camera crapping out on us, apparently electronics don't take to swimming in half a bottle of Gatorade. We've ordered a new point and shoot camera (Canon Powershot Elph SD750)

First up are a pair of socks from Maya (link to her ravelry info).

Next we have the Baby Leaf Hat (ravelry) which I knit, but don't remember blogging about. This was a perfect accessory to wear when leaving the hospital.

I have more, but I'm going to save them since I'm probably not going to have much knitting to show you for a while (and baby E is demanding more attention). I think I've knit 1 round on 2 pair of socks since baby E joined us.

She's here!

2008-08-27T22:46:00.002-04:00

Introducing Baby E, my most ambitious FO. Born on August 24th, 2008 at 10:21am.

A shocking 8lbs 11 oz, 21.5" long of pure perfection.

Sorry for the blog update delay, we were held up at the hospital while Baby E worked on her tan. We were (finally) released and got home today.

Thank you to everyone for their well wishes and comments so far, we love reading them and apologize in advance for (potentially) dropping off the face of the earth while we drink in our new addition.

Sproglet-less

2008-08-20T13:05:00.002-04:00

Yup, I could blog and bemoan the fact that I'm 3 days past the estimated due date and I'm about ready to burst - but I've managed to do that to anyone who'll listen, so you lucky guys don't have to endure that too.

Instead I will show you the finished Sunrise Sunset blanket (ravelry link). I finally completed it last night, the carpel tunnel slowed down my crochet, and the sc, dc border certainly killed my mojo a little. According to Ravelry, this project took a little over 3 months to complete, but as Mr. B. said (and I totally agree), it seemed a LOT longer than that.

It was a perfect project to carry around, since you are just crocheting 4.5" squares. However, if you're not a fan of seaming, you might want to give it a miss, or find a really good friend who can stand it - I'm okay with seaming, esp. now that I've actually got my own chibi needles, wow! what a difference that bent end makes, how did it take me so long to own some? I love how the blanket turned out, and we're all just going to pretend that it's had it's final wash and block (c'mon, you can't make a 9+ month preggers woman get on the floor and pin the bugger down can ya?)

As for the log cabin blanket, it's complete except for the border (again), I did a whip stitch border as the pattern suggests and it looked awful. Now I'm halfway through a single crochet border, but just realized that the hook I was using is a tad too big. Tonight I try again. In the meantime, I started another project. I wanted to use the noro sock yarn I bought on vacation in PA, but actually didn't want to make socks [gasp!] so started the chevron scarf (rav link) instead. I think the colours are cheerful, Mr B is unimpressed. I promised I wouldn't make him wear it :)

No! No Baby yet.

2008-08-12T11:48:00.005-04:00

So I'm officially playing the waiting game, as are tons of anxious friends and relatives who's emails, calls and facebook contacts are sure to increase as the due date rolls nearer (which is Sunday btw). In the meantime, I finished work on Friday, I decided I could no longer handle the ~~NY arseholes~~ commute and heat, well, naturally it cools to the low 80's this week, but that wasn't going to encourage me to change my mind about work.

Before I update you one what I've been up to, I should show you once again, how wonderful people are out there. Sharon, not content with being super-busy with the birth of her second daughter (having just moved apartment, of course), she had to go ahead and send me this package of adorable goodies:

I believe I may have made even some girlie noise when I opened this package, the booties, the hat, the adorable little bunny, wow this bean is spoiled already :) Thank you Sharon!!

So inbetween watching the crappy NBC daytime version of the Olympics (which basically consists of beach volleyball and the swimming I saw last night) and finishing off projects I thought I better blog. I decided that I couldn't really sign up for Ravelympics as I could give birth at any time, but I could give myself some deadlines of my own to try and turn the giant UFO into an FO. You see, according to ravelry, I started the Sunrise Sunset blanket way back on May 10th, I have since distracted myself with numerous other, smaller, cute projects, but I know that I really need to finish this blanket. All the little Sunrise and Sunsets were made, some were finished and blocked, some were still waiting the end weaving (about 8 ends per piece) and blocking. Then there's the seaming together - not an enviable task, and not one that will do itself. If I just suck it up while I have the time at home, it will be done and I'll be wondering what all the fuss was about. As you can see, I made some good headway already.

I also wanted something pretty simple and satisfying, and kept looking at all the yarn that was left over from the amazingly beautiful Spider blanket. It kept bugging me that there is practically enough to make another blanket, and 3 baby blankets have got to be better than 2 right? So I cast on for a log cabin blanket for the bean. I've always wanted to make one, the simplicity of it and the squishiness of the garter stitch was too tempting. So I now have the goal of finishing 2 blankets before the bean arrives.

Good luck to me eh?

Showered

2008-07-27T21:29:00.003-04:00

I've been busy, but there's no excuse for not sharing the wonderful handmade gifts bestowed upon me and the bean a couple of weeks ago at our baby shower. The shower was a beautiful affair, held in a Manhattan garden of a good friend, the cupcakes were delish, sandwiches tasty, sangria plentiful (lemonade with mint for me) and company delightful. I have no pictures of the event, although Virginia has some, less-than-flattering pics of me opening gifts (I think I need to work on my "ahhh that's cute" face). Nevertheless, I was thrilled with all the amazing and adorable gifts, the spider blanket, which is amazing! I can't imagine the behind-the-scenes knitting and passing around that went on - but I have to say a big and public THANK YOU to all the spiders that worked so hard on the beautiful blanket, I'm so lucky to know such a wonderful group of knitting pals.

And here's a flickr montage of the handmade goodies from the spiders (click on the image to get more info from flickr).

No, not baby stuff - this time.

2008-07-20T10:27:00.003-04:00

I've been busy finishing stuff and making bags for the shop before I pop - I reckon it's my version of nesting. I'm now at the stage where I can say, "anytime now" from now for up to the next 6 weeks, yup I'm at that 36 week mark today - YIKES!

But I didn't decide to randomly post to talk about baby stuff... this time. I just want to let you know about Earthchicks amazing raffle. The prizes are fantastic (and I'm not just saying that cos one of them includes one of my cubes), and the story behind it all is incredibly touching. A $5 donation gives you a chance to win some phenomenal prizes - hands off the fabric though, it has my name written all over it ;)

Stay tuned, I do have some yummy handmade goodies to share with you, when I have the energy to write a proper post. So what are you waiting for? Go over and donate, donate, donate!

Cuteness, and a Thank You

2008-07-06T06:09:00.003-04:00

I hope everyone has been enjoying their weekends - for many of you this is a long weekend, and I hope you're loving that as much as I am. I've been pretty busy since I last posted, almost all of it surrounds the impending arrival of the bean, which I'm pleasantly surprised at how excited I am about it all. First of all, my weekend began wonderfully with an unexpected package in the mail from Oiyi.

How can anyone resist a fabric book on Care Bears? Oiyi, you blow my mind, I'm always inspired by the crafting and cooking that you do, despite the adorable new ~~distraction~~ addition to your family. Thank you so much for finding the time to make this book for the bean, who will adore it.

Next up, the nursery has evolved into an actual *gasp* nursery. We had a lot of difficulty picking the paint colour, well, until we had the curtain fabric picked out that is - then it was a cinch.

That Echino fabric is fabulous isn't it? So cute with the little dragonflies and spiders.

Mr B has been busy drawing some classic Pooh for the walls, all the pictures are great, but my fave is of Pooh climbing the tree.

I've still been knitting, although it's mostly been train knitting recently, but that hasn't mean that there's been zero productivity. First up, I made some cute socks (if they look familiar, that's because they are).

And, last weekend I managed to finish this adorable seamless kimono -deets (as usual) are on ravelry.

Some people have noted that I haven't updated the shop in over a month, I used to find this situation stressful, but I just can't let it get to me anymore - sorry to anyone who's been patiently waiting for some more fabrics. I'm really hoping to make a few more bags before I pop, but I'm going to have to see if I can enlist the help of Mr B, since the cutting of fabric needs to be done on the floor - we have no other surface that is big enough.

Meet Elijah (too)

2008-06-23T15:20:00.001-04:00

Ever since I finished the first Elijah for one of our newest spider mites, Mr B was pretty certain that we needed an Elijah for ~~himself~~ our growing bean. I have to admit that knitting this a second time was not twice the fun, far from it. I didn't really enjoy stuffing as I go since that took away the portability of this adorable project.

Mr B. chose the yarn (Lion-brand cotton-ease) and color from a limited selection of baby friendly yarn in the stash. I think he chose well, and I have to admit that I think he's adorable. More info on this Elijah can be found on ravelry.

Sad thing is that I would love to Sophie, but I'm not sure I have the mojo, I will continue with the sweaters and socks for now.

baby, baby, baby

2008-06-08T15:33:00.000-04:00

If you don't care for baby items, I recommend skipping this post all together, cos that's all I've got for ya! Apparently I'm in the middle of a baby boom and a ton of friends are going forth and multiplying, myself included :) So I've been knitting, a lot of baby stuff, and it's time to share some of that stuff with you.

First up a little hat and pair of socks for Sharon's newest addition:

Next we have the Baby Surprise Jacket for Kaitlyn's little Cassie:

Aren't those colors so cute together? Who can resist a little brown and pink? Here's something else in a similar color scheme. My coworker, also with child, left to live in Chicago for a few years, naturally she needed a cute ribbed baby sweater for her little one due in October - a sign of my appreciation for her putting up with my daily witterings.

With all this knitting for other people's baby's, I certainly haven't forgotten my own! Last weekend I made 8 burp cloths for the bean (well, I guess more for us). I got the fabric for a bargain from Intercourse, PA (tee hee). I really enjoyed making something really quick and simple, the cloths took no more than a couple of hours to put together - pattern is free from a website called "New Conceptions".

And today I finished the February Sweater (which I mistakenly called the BSJ in my last post - yikes! talk about baby brain).

Not only did I have enough yarn (one skein of STR in Amber) to make the sweater, but also enough to make the matching hat! How cute is that?

Best thing is that I think it will fit....

There are approximately 10 weeks to go before chaos reigns over the Schrodinger household (depending on what the bean decides, of course). I have far too many ideas of what I want to knit, but hoping to at least finish the couple of projects I have on the needles - good knitting and cooling vibes will be appreciated :)

Still ticking away

2008-05-24T16:50:00.005-04:00

So it's been a while, with many of lifes distractions keeping me away from the blog. All good stuff though, and the good news is that I get to have a few things to show you. First up, some WIPS.

I started the ~~baby surprise jacket~~ oops, February Baby Sweater [ravelry link] for the bean just before we went away on our babymoon. Yes, it was wonderful, we went to Lancaster, PA - Amish Country, and I strongly recommend the B&B we stayed at for the wonderful hosts and the delicious 3 course breakfasts. Here's a shot of it in progress while away, more is knit now, but I'll save further progress shots until it's finished.

It's being knit with Socks that Rock in Amber - I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the one skein will do it...

The sunset blanket is coming along. I have over 20 squares crocheted so far, I've blocked about half of them. The seaming won't be fun, but I can already tell that the end result will be worth it.

I managed to finish some stuff too though, first up is a gift for Amanda and her little one:

These better-than-booties socks [rav again] needed a matching hat, so I made this one up as I went along, I have no idea how I did it, and I'm just hoping that the little thing fits.

The biggest accomplishment this month is the quilt. Yes! I had a goal of making a quilt for the bean, and I DID IT! And I have to admit that I'm really happy with it.

It took some debate, but I finally decided on an orange binding for the edging, with a decorative stitch in yellow, pretty huh?

On the baby front, everything continues to go very well. I feel, surprisingly, healthy and happy - albeit a little tired - and we are told that all is developing well. Mr B and I have been doing some of the usual nesting stuff (decorating, buying and putting together furniture). I have a ton of projects in my head that I want to get done, but I'm being realistic and recognizing my time and energy limitations, one step at a time.

CONTEST!

2008-05-07T07:00:00.004-04:00

No not here! Nothing to see here, go here instead. There's some ~~great~~ fantastic prizes to be won, of course I'm biased since there's something of mine in there, as well as other great creative works, but what are you still doing here reading, go away! Enter Katy's contest she really needs the book recommendations!

Shameless plug

2008-04-16T21:52:00.001-04:00

Last week, Mr B. finished making a stop motion animation video for his band, Bellow. I'm so proud of him, I wanted to share it with you. Of course I'm aware this is a knitting/crafting blog, so I don't expect you to share my enthusiasm, but would be thrilled if you do.

5 Random Things Sunday

2008-04-13T11:44:00.004-04:00

1. QUILT
I went over to Veronique's a couple of weekends ago, she had kindly volunteered to show me some quilting skills. V is an amazing teacher and she gave me the inspiration and confidence needed to start making the quilt I wanted to make for the growing bean. And I think it's going really well...

I actually have the backing and batting together now, it's just the fun of quilting it all, maybe this afternoon.

2. PIN CUSHION
I used the practice square (wasn't quite happy with one of the fabrics in the first one) to make a little pin cushion, something very necessary with those funny little quilting pins.

3. RAV GOODIES
A few weeks ago the Spiders had some visitors, Jess and Casey (AKA Mama and Papa Rav), came along with Maya and the very amusing Steve, it was fun spending a few hours with them, although I was sad not to join them for drinks, Jess and Casey made up for it with these adorable gifts.

How cute is that Bob pin? I believe that the pins, stickers and other good stuff will (most likely) be available in a soon-to-be Ravelry store.

4. GREEN SWIFFER
I'm happy to find different ways to do my bit for the environment. So when I saw this ingenious swiffer cover pattern in Sassy's Rav queue yesterday, I immediately grabbed some dish cotton and knit one up last night while watching junk telly.

It's got to beat those crappy throw-away swiffer cloths, and it's reusable! I can't wait to try it out - well, actually I lie about that part, but I hope it works nearly as well as being on my hands and knees with a sponge.

5. CROCHET
I'm a little into crochet now too. I started a blanket this week. It's the Sunset blanket (ravelry), and I think it's going to be adorable in chocolate brown and rosy pink.

(more) News and Knitting

2008-04-03T21:46:00.002-04:00

The next step with beany baby was to find out whether the predominant color in my knitting (and other stuff) would be:

Pink*

OR

Blue*

Now the rather grumpy technician was quite adamant that we will be focusing on....

Nah, I'll wait until the end of the post before I tell ya (of course it's just a simple matter of scrolling to the bottom to find out).

So in practically one evening I used up the handspun I'd made a little while back, with it I made Ysolda's Urchin [rav link for details].

I haven't worn the hat outside among the "real" people yet, I don't feel I have the guts, and am not sure about me in a beret, but I'm happy with the pattern itself, the simplicity of the short-rows and the loveliness of garter stitch.

Mr B got his wish last week, a Munkee ~~all his own~~ for the bean. As I wasn't sure I'd have enough yarn to finish this monkey, I offered to make a shirt. Mr B. requested orange, his fave color, which also happens to be a Mets color.

While my embroidery skills are a little scant, at least you get the idea, and just in time for the opener too. Details about this Munkee are here [more rav].

Oh yeah, and about the sex:

The tech was very sure we are going to have a GIRL!! Exciting stuff.

* Buttons coming to an etsy shop near you soon.

Land of the toys

2008-03-23T17:21:00.001-04:00

Lately I've been on a bit of a toy-making kick recently. Possibly this has something to do with impending motherhood. Mostly I think it's because they're cute, relatively quick to make and perfect for the baby-gifting I needed to do the last couple of weekends. That's not to say there isn't other knitting going on in these parts - it's just not knitting that I can share with you at this time.

Anyway, on to the knitting I can share with you. First up is Elijah [rav link]. This adorable little guy was too much to resist after seeing him on Oiyi's Crafts blog. I actually had to go out right away to find some yarn to knit him with - and I found some no-name acrylic (yeah, there's not a great selection of yarn in Astoria).

I was able to gift him directly to Mum and monkeybaby last weekend at the babywarming - Elijah was greeted with a resounding 'awwwwwww' around the room.

Next up is the toy that Mr B has named Munkee (rav link here). This time I was inspired by Pam's adorable little monkey with attitude. This cute little guy was perfect for me to make up when I didn't really have an awful lot of time but had enough inspiration to teach myself a couple of crochet moves to get him made.

Mr B has been that taken by him that the only way he would let me give Munkee to the child he was intended for was if I promised to make him one for ~~himself~~ the baby. So I'm in the process of making Munkee #2.

I have also started using the handspun I made a little while back to make a selfish knit. I'm just a little concerned that I'm going to run out of yarn, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

An adventure?

2008-03-09T20:41:00.000-04:00

Yeah, yeah, I'm neglectful of the blog, but you'll be thanking me if you knew how little there was to share with you. You see, not so much knitting has been happening chez schrodinger, and what little there's been must remain under wraps until they've been gifted. However, I should have shared the wonderful sock that I was lucky enough to receive from the lovely Marie.

Isn't is marvelous? It's the poseidon [pdf] sock (pattern by the talented Elinor). The yarn is Marie's new 3-ply, softspun plus, however, I need Marie to rescue me with the name of the colorway. Look at that heel, impressive!

I want to thank each and every one of you for your sweet comments about my most exciting WIP, I really appreciate it. And I think that your well wishes have gone a long way since I'm feeling considerably better. A little tired maybe, and more than a little fuzzy-brained (quite peculiar and more than a little embarrassing at times), but better, and I like it that way.

More catching up/stuff

2008-02-16T11:22:00.004-05:00

There's a few things that I really need to catch up on.

First of all, both earthchick and aquaknits (and some spiders if you count the collective awards given out) gave me for the "you make my day award". And I was so happy to read that, I love both their blogs and have been reading them both for such a long time, they certainly both make my day (aqua, it's great to see you post again!). I have thought long and hard about which blogs I would nominate, and just. could. not. narrow it down to 10 blogs - how is that possible? So I'm taking the cowards way out and saying that I love all the blogs I read, each and every one of you - I love to see what's going on with little sneaky looks into people's lives. Thank you all of you for making my day!!

Second order of business is that, it occurred to me that this month brings about my 3rd anniversary of the blog!! This is actually more of an honorable mention than anything else, because I don't have it in me to do anything big and celebratory right now. But I did want to say a big thank you to each and every one of you who pops by to say hi, I appreciate each and every comment I get and love reading them, even if I've been a slacker at responding to them recently.

Third, this sock (which has been a royal pain the in my arse) is finally finished. And today it will be going to one of my spider buddies in our little valentine's single sock swap. It's actually a really great idea, where we each get a person to knit for (through this cute site called 'elfster') and knit them just one sock. You then give them this single sock, the pattern and enough yarn to make it's partner, while someone else will give you the sock they knit for you, etc. etc. It gave me a chance to knit a sock that I'm VERY sure I would not want to knit 2 of because of the concentration required.

The pattern is cablenet from knitty. Yarn is Regia silk is this beautiful burgandy/red - perfect for a valentines swap methinks, and all other deets will show up soon enough on ravelry. Not right now though, I have to get to a party at Marie's place.

Hope you're still here because this is where things get really interesting in todays post.

I have to admit to all of you that I've been holding out on you with one particular WIP. It's actually been in progress for about 3 months now.

Yup, the Schrodingers' Baby Bean!

I've gotta say that this particular project has taken more out of me than any other. I have never felt more like crap in my life - you know I'm not well when I don't even want to think about knitting. Good news is that I'm starting to feel much better now, and believe that I will actually be able to do more of the sewing and knitting I want to do. My big plan is to make a quilt for the bambino. Something that I've always wanted to do. However, it is more because I love the look of quilts, so I'm not sure I'm going to like the actual process.... Any advice from quilters out there will be gratefully received.

Now I really have to go, because this is what happens when you try to rush the cooling process of a banana, nut loaf, sigh! I'm off to buy a cake.

Mememeemeee

2008-02-03T19:17:00.000-05:00

Not much so show you, just one finished sock. Knit using 'knitpicks' Felici, it will be one ball for each sock. Toe-up, using figure 8 cast-on, I just knit until I ran out of yarn - doing some increases as I reached the calf.

There are other WIPs going on, but they must remain secret for just a little bit longer. Since I don't have much to share, here's a meme. I was tagged by Jacqueline. This was tough, so tough it took me nearly 2 weeks to complete - yikes!

Here are the rules:

Link to the person that tagged you

Post the rules on your blog.

Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.

~~Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.~~ I don't want to tag, it took me 2 weeks to think of 6 things, can't imagine how long it would take to thing of 6 people - if you want to do this meme - go ahead! Enjoy!

~~Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.~~ see above.

1. I tend to get fixated on certain lunches, and will have them at least 2 times a week for weeks on end. During the summer it was organic mixed greens salad, with avocado, mandarin orange, hearts of palm, turkey and walnuts. This week I had the "Italiano" Panini 2 times this week. I get completely thrown when they don't have exactly what I want and will sometimes just skip lunch altogether.

2. I hate going to the hairdresser, I hate having to stare at myself in the mirror for so long, I never really know how to place my hands (even though they are under a cape), I'm crap at small talk and many other things that just make me uncomfortable. I get really worked up when I get there and never fully relax, you'd think I was going to the dentist. I go as rarely as possible. I feel the same way about spa's and nail salons. But at the same time, I want to be someone that can go for a massage once in a while, I guess I need to find a non-spa massage place.

3. I told you about how amused I am when I hear many Americans pronounce "duties" or "Duty". I never mentioned the other one, which is when people have 2 do's run in a sentence, e.g. "It's important when you do do it that way". Dodo's make me giggle like a nine year old in the same way doodies do. And they seem to be much more common in important meetings at work.

4. At times I can appear really efficient and great at getting things done. Honestly though, I have to finish a task, or take care of a message etc, right away, if I don't, I'm going to forget and I'll be the jerk that never calls people back or finishes projects. So what may seem anal retentive to some, is simply self preservation for me.

5. Speaking of forgetting, I'm rely heavily on lists. While this is pretty common for many people, I will always email the lists/reminders to myself, so I will see them on my phone when I need to. I will also do this with hopstop directions and knitting patterns. I think I'd be at a loss without email capacity on my phone.

6. Going to work without watching NY1 would be an incredibly difficult thing for me to do. I like to touch base with the weather outside, and some of the random stuff going on in the city. It's an added bonus when I get to see Pat Kiernan do "In the Papers".

Socks, shells, spinning.

2008-01-21T13:09:00.000-05:00

Well, a week has gone by and I have some more stuff to show you. First up is some pretty yarn that I should have showed you last week, but I selfishly kept it to myself.

I won this on Tiennie's blog, I wasn't trying to win - honest. But it turns out that I was the 5,000 commenter on her blog, can you believe that? 5,000 comments!? Then again, if you've seen her blog, you will probably easily understand, Tiennie takes amazing photos of her beautiful projects. I, for one, am happy to have found her.

I have a couple of FOs for you, I finally finished sock #2 from the beautiful single sock sent to me by Nova. I really loved knitting with the Shibui, and it's a really great color (Pagoda). I did have some pooling issues in the second sock, but the color differences are subtle enough not to bother me. Ravelry Details here.

The other FO is very important to show you. After I publicly shamed myself on my inability to actually finish Sheldon, and probably traumatized at least a few of you. The first thing I did was pick him up and finish him that night...

Here he is. Details here (ravelry)

And the spinning? Yes, I figured out the plying and am trying not to feel too stoopid about not changing the drive band - the one consolation is that my real issue was that the wheel had come loose from the back. After tightening the bolt at the back all was well. I couldn't get a great shot of the yarn for some reason, hopefully this will give you an idea.

An FO. And a call for spinning advice.

2008-01-13T10:40:00.000-05:00

I finished hubby's henry while were were away, which makes it a 2007 FO - maybe. But then I didn't wash and block it (i.e. truly finish it) until we returned home, which would make it a 2008 FO, right? Oh well, either way, it's an FO and he loves it.

I managed to time the finishing perfectly for the warm spell we've had. It looks as though winter will recommence next week, so Mr B will get a chance to wear it without sweating bullets.

On the whole, the scarf is a winner for me, I love how it looks more woven than hand knit, and the fact that the recipient loves it is the most important factor - oh! and it's soooo soft. It was knit with ColourMart Cashmere 2/7NM DK weight, full details here (ravelry link). However, it wouldn't be fair of me if I didn't share the negatives. This scarf was NOT FUN to knit, in fact I do believe that it may have played a part in the disappearance of my knitting mojo.

It also doesn't have the finish I wanted. I tried the tubular bind-off, I must have done it too tight, because when I went to tug the scarf, the bind-off snapped in several places. I won't tell you how much fun it was to unravel that bind off and pick up the 450+ stitches again. There was no way I was going to risk trying it again, so I used EZ's sewn bind off. I think that the edge is so-so. Biggest disappointment for me is the ends, which are kind of... well, for want of a better word... frilly. Mr. B says it's fine, but I'm not the least bit pleased about them, and considering the special yarn and pattern, I guess I expected perfection, or something close. But no amount of tweaking, tugging, squishing or pulling during blocking could fix the 'frill'.

So, with the knitting mojo MIA, I decided to do a little more spinning. I finished 3 bobbins of some roving I bought at Rhinebeck from Little Barn. I couldn't wait to start plying, so I added the jumbo flyer and tried to get started, but this is where I need help from any fellow Lendrum owners, the wheel keeps jamming, I just can't spin it at all. I've tried all sorts of tensions but I just can't wrap my head around what I'm doing wrong. Could it be that I have to use the second belt provided? It seems to be the same diameter as the one already on there, but I could be wrong. Even if I had to change it, I can't quite figure it out, I'm supposed to take the wheel off? Or is there something else entirely different that I'm not doing? Any help/suggestions would be gratefully appreciated. It's figured out, thanks to some advice from Kristi and in the process of looking, I found that the wheel had come loose. So I changed the drive band and tightened the bolt, and have now finished plying my first 3-ply on the Lendrum :)

Since things have halted, I'm thinking that today might actually be the day I finally finish Sheldon, who has been in this sorry state of unfinished for a couple of months, poor thing.

Happy New Year

2008-01-06T11:43:00.000-05:00

Austria is a stunning place - the views are magical. This is what I saw out of the bedroom window the morning after we arrived at my parents (it was pitch black when we arrived the night before).

There are actually too many stunning views than I could shake a stick at, even just the walk into town had views like this:

this:

and this:

you can go to my flickr set for more.

As for other things about the trip, the beer and food were plentiful. And over the holidays the neighbors bring home-made cookies and highly alcoholic orange punch.

I managed to bag myself the cutest slippers ever.

I gave gifts of socks to my parents and a hat to little brother (never got a picture of the hat, sadly).

Childs first Socks for Mum (Lazy ravelry link - sorry)

Dads Earl Grey Socks (another lazy ravelry link)

All were well appreciated.

I even made some mitten ornaments for the parents:

The trip was a lovely and relaxing one, we saw Salzburg and even got a half day in Munich. I had no idea how stressed I'd become before we went away, with work being full on, and all the sewing during my free moments. I'm still on wind down right now, it's great!

I did a bit of knitting while away as well, but that's for another post.

Froche Weihnachten

2007-12-25T08:16:00.000-05:00

From Austria...

It's about time

2007-12-15T13:31:00.001-05:00

I wanted to write something before I go away to visit my parents in Bad Ischl, Austria for the holidays. But I'm not so sure I have that much to write. You see, I've been sewing a lot of bags for the shop (shocking huh?), people have been keeping me busy with this sewing. There are a couple more days left before the shop will, effectively, be closed for the holidays, so I'm trying to keep as big a selection in there as I can. As for my personal favorites, they change pretty frequently, although currently it's the blue version of the mini matryoska's cube and the monkeys cubes- how adorable are they?

Anyway, I promised myself that this blog wouldn't be about the shop, so onto the knitting. Believe it or not, knitting has happened, much of it will need to remain a mystery since the recipients haven't received yet. But I need to show you something, more of a tease than a show and tell.

I'm really excited about our trip, first of all I get to see family that I haven't seen in such a long time, and it will be in beautiful surroundings. I think that we will even get to visit Munich (as that's where we fly in to and out from) as well as Salzburg, which is just an hour away - I'm hoping that there may even be some yarn shopping to be done, but then, I have no clue what's out there, since the last time I was in that neck of the woods all I cared about was spaghetti eis and haribo jelly sweets (esp. the bears and sour chips). If anyone has any 'must see' suggestions while there, I'd happily take them, I don't know what our free time will be like, since we will have some painting and decorating to do...

One of the other essential parts of vacation planning is deciding what knitting to bring. Well, I'm currently knitting Mr B a Henry scarf in a tweedy colourmart cashmere:

I'm really happy with how this looks, I'm hoping this will be finished before we leave - first of all, he gets to wear it in the chilly snow, secondly, this gives me more room for new projects. I have been swatching for a sweater to bring. Of course I will make sure that there will be socks on the needles for travel time (I ambitiously plan on bringing enough for 2 pairs). I've no idea what travel is like to Paris and then to Munich, but I'm hoping that they will be nice and let me knit.

Last weekend was the spider's holiday party, where we friends got to celebrate the upcoming holidays and everything knitty, as well as silly songs, wonderful food, lots to drink, knitting and great company.

We also had a Secret Santa exchange. Sandra was my SS and she did good:

These earrings are some that I had my eye on in her etsy shop for ages, so you can imagine how happy I was to open this box.

Also from my etsy wishlist, was this adorable sheep button:

And, the pièce de résistance... fiber!! I love fiber and it makes me think that, someday soon, I'll be spinning again - stoopid full-time job getting in the way of real life.

4 ozs each of fiber-loveliness. Thanks Sandra!! And big thanks to Jess and Veronique for the wonderful job hosting such a wonderful party.

I have one last thing to show you before I end this longer-than-should-be-post. Yesterday was one of the more stressful days in my life - I don't remember ever being so scared, I'll spare you the details, as it looks as though things will be okay. But before the proverbial hit the fan, I did have one, big, up.

The. best. boots. ever! arrived from zappos, at work. I've heard great things about this shop, but had no idea that overnight delivery would count ordering at 7:30pm the night before!! Going to a snow-filled place for the holidays was the perfect excuse to buy these boots, well, that and the fact that they are adorable.

Okay, I wanted to wish you all very safe, happy and healthy holidays and I will see you in the New Year!!!

I love getting parcels

2007-11-11T19:20:00.000-05:00

I felt like I had a lot to show you this week, then there was the realization that there are people reading this blog who'd have their holiday surprises spoiled (hi family!).

So instead, I'll show you something that I've had absolutely nothing to do with making.

These goodies arrived yesterday. They are from Nova, who made that fabulous project pouch there. I'm so happy with the Green & Blacks chocolate - and am astonished that I still have some left. In case you're wondering why she only sent me one skein of that beautiful Shibui, it's because one skein has already become this:

Nova knit me a Pony Express sock by Audrey Paquin. The sock yarn is Shibui in Pagoda - from which I'll knit its mate. The sock fits perfectly, I love the yarn colour and pattern - I'm a happy bunny. Thanks Nova!!

I hope I'll have some more stuff to show you next time.

Catching up

2007-10-28T22:24:00.001-04:00

I just wanted to re-introduce myself to the blog. I'm so behind with blogging and bloglines, oh well, it's a sure sign of a busy life :) Everything is going well, lots going on, and much to show you. I don't want to bore you with a bunch of writing, so I'll catch you up with some photos.

First up, the dress - which I'm finally getting around to show you:

And the shawl, which I completely forgot to take a picture of actually *with* the dress, sorry for the crapola photo, I really struggled with this one:

Pattern: Muir from knitty
yarn: Yarn Place "Gentle" a cashmere, merino mix.
needles: US #6, denises
adaptations: I did one less repeat on the row pattern, making a narrower shawl, since I only had 690 yds. Worked out well for me.

I've knit a bit, and frogged a lot, so all the knitting I have to show today is this sock:

Pattern: It's the Honeybee socks by Stephanie van der Linden. The sock is available (in English as well as German) from a Yahoo German sock Knitting group. You need to join the group to access the pattern (yes, it's all in German, I used Altavista's Babelfish to help with translation, it's not perfect, but it gave me the gist). Once joined, click "Dateien", then the patterns are in the folder "Monatsmuster".
Needles: Knitpicks 32" circs us #1
Yarn: Opal in some yellow (obvious huh?) color
Thoughts/adaptations: I added some extra stitches in the purl part of the pattern and some extra pattern repeats for a longer foot. I'm very worried it won't fit the recipient (despite this being the 3rd sock pattern attempted for them), but I can't do another sock now, I. just. can't. As for the pattern itself, I've really enjoyed knitting it, but it took some time to figure out.

Other stuff: I went to Rhinebeck last weekend with Sharon, Cindy, Colleen and Nancy, we had a blast! I scored a good amount of fiber, a spindle and enough yarn for a sweater/cardigan, sorry about the bland photo.

(click pic for flickr notes on what I bought)

I had planned on buying a new spinning wheel at Rhinebeck, but the prices were the same as online, so I figured I would wait to get one delivered to my home, so my Lendrum Double Treadle arrived this week, and had some fun playing with some of the fiber bought at Little Barn.

It was fun, and so much smoother and quieter than my other wheel, I love it so much, I'm a very happy bunny now.

Just popping in to say hi

2007-10-11T15:33:00.000-04:00

Some of may have wondered what my total silence over the weekend actually means. Did I make the dress fit? Was the shawl finished and blocked in time? Well, both were a resounding success - despite my "add darts", "change darts", "remove darts", "remove zipper partway at the top - re-sew", "remove zipper partway at the bottom - resew", "completely remove zipper, re-press, re-sew", I ended up with a dress I was pretty much happy with. Although I did have to make an emergency stop at the drugstore on the way to the wedding for safety pins when Mr B kindly pointed out that I revealed a lot more of myself than I would want to, to anyone stood on my left, and I didn't feel like pulling a Janet Jackson in the church.

My ability to wear a cashmere/merino shawl was somewhat hindered by the 85+ degree weather on Saturday. The wedding itself was beautiful and touching, and the celebration afterwards was an incredible amount of fun (it helps that the groom is a bar owner in his real life). Sadly a picture of the dress in action has not been forthcoming - unless you count the picture of me and a bunch of drunken friends in the back of a limo at some ungodly hour, no. I won't be sharing that. Hopefully I will have a photo this weekend, in daylight.

In the meantime, here is a shawl teaser.

More socks!?

2007-09-30T12:25:00.000-04:00

Wedding outfit update: dress is complete, shawl is not. Dress is a little too baggy at the waist/back, it occurred to me to try darts - but maybe I'm crazy, I've already adapted the pattern. I've never followed a pattern before, hell, I've never even sewn a garment before, I'm beginning to realize I'm more and more like my father, who believes that the best way to learn anything is to jump in the deep end first.

However, I do have an FO to show you.

The Esther socks are complete, they are, perhaps, the most beautiful socks I've ever made. However, I don't think I'd do them again, I started them at the end of July, and only just finished them, I could not memorize the chart, and by the time I was finished with them, I was relieved.

On to the stats
Pattern: Esther socks by Stephanie van der Linden. The sock is available (in English as well as German) from a Yahoo German sock Knitting group. You need to join the group to access the pattern (yes, it's all in German, I used Altavista's Babelfish to help with translation, it's not perfect, but it gave me the gist). Once joined, click "Dateien", then the patterns are in the folder "Monatsmuster" - I believe it's the July 2006 pattern.
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in 'grapevine'
Needles: knitpicks circs 32" US #1

Right, that's it from me today, the shop is nearly empty, and I have a lot of sewing (AND shawl knitting) to do. Happy Sunday to you all :)

Look what I made

2007-09-23T14:57:00.000-04:00

No, it's not knitting, but I'm so in love with our new curtains, I needed to show them off. When I saw the fabric, I knew I just *had* to have it. It really makes me smile. I'm particularly proud of the top hem...

Good news is, I have enough left for a few cubes. If you want to know when the bags will be available in this, and other exciting new fabrics, you can email me to be added to the newsletter list.

In other sewing news, last weekend I went to purl patchwork and bought this fabric.

I blame the ADD Knitter for my new-found love for the "chocqua" combo (or at least giving me a name for it). The fabric is currently in the process of becoming the dress in the picture, I plan to wear it at a wedding in less than 2 weeks. I learned some new things so far in following the pattern, particularly the language difference - the term 'basting' had me particularly confused, until I found a US-UK sewing glossary.

I figured I would also need a shawl as it's a late afternoon wedding. Fortunately I had this beautiful cashmere/merino lace-weight (won from Red Head Skydiver) in the stash that was perfect.

Look how well they go together. I'm currently making the Muir shawl with it. I now have to keep my fingers crossed that both the dress and shawl will come out okay AND in time. I'm about a third into the shawl, I'd've taken a picture for you, but, as you could guess, it's just a blob.

Hope you're all having a beautiful Sunday.

PS: Hi Mum & Dad!!

Just Stuff

2007-09-14T13:59:00.000-04:00

First of all, a quick shot of the prize from Knitting Philistine, don't worry, I didn't win another prize, I already 'fessed up to this one.

There's some Gentle Lavender Natural Mineral Sea Salt Soak, Herbal Spa Treatments for Bath (also Lavender), Sweet Orange and Clove Soap, and Peppermint Wish Foot Balm. I have to admit to opening the foot balm right away, and I LOVE it, my post-summer feet ate it up, I've tried a lot of foot moisturizers in the past, and this has to be my favorite so far. Normally I feel that my feet are over-greasy. Forget walking on the hardwood floors afterwards! But this was much better than any other I've tried, I felt like it absorbed a lot better, and was much less greasy. I also felt a difference in softness. I've not tried the other things yet, I think we need some cooler weather before I'm taking a bath. But I wanted to say a big THANK YOU to Melissa. If you want to get some of your own, you can always check out her store.

Speaking of stores, I wanted to say that I'm blown away at the response to my box bags, the first batch sold out in less than 3 days, I've managed to add more here and there. I hope to do a bigger update sometime over the weekend. Anyway, big THANKS to everyone that's stopped by the store to visit, and those that have bought bags. I'm so relieved that people actually like them.

Every time I start a new project, I have, in the back of my mind, the ~~crazy~~idea, this time it may *the one*. You know, the one that has zero errors, the one without any fudged-up bits. Although I'm pretty sure this will never happen - there is still a part of me, hoping that just maybe....

So, a couple of (slightly) fudged up FO's for you. First of all Spiral Socks. I absolutely adore these socks. I really enjoyed the STR - which is a relief since I have 3 more skeins to use :) it's so... round. As for the socks, I thought I was doing so well with the matching of the socks, opposite swirls and all. However, the swirl came around a lot faster on the second sock than on the first. I could. not. figure it out for ages. Trying them on after finishing last night, I realized what the problem is, I think I actually had less stitches for sock #2!!! Oh well, they still fit (albeit tightly for #2), and I still love them, even though they're not perfectly matched.

Pattern: Swirl Socks by Sulafaye
Yarn: Socks That Rock Lightweight - in January One (btw, how cool to have a colorway named after you?)
Needles: US #2 Pony Pearls
Mods and thoughts: Only the 'oops factor'. I highly recommend the pattern, perfect interest and not too 'fussy' for a variegated yarn.

The second FO began with even higher hopes. Orangina was supposed be knit faster than anyone else has done it (planning to practically finish on vacation - HA!), be perfect, AND make me slimmer. None of these things happened, of course. I'm had moments of losing my place in the pattern at times, creating 'unevenness', and being the lazy knitter that I am, I didn't rip back. Ripping back only happens when it's *really* noticeable, which is rare in my book, my standards are low :) Oh yeah, and I gave myself a face, for a change.

Pattern: Orangina by Glampyre Knits
Yarn: Rowan 4-ply in "Sage"
Needles: Addis Tubos US #3
Mods: again, only the "Schrodinger touch" to certain parts of the pattern, oh! and I made the back slightly longer than the front - not on purpose. I'm undecided about the pattern, like I said, I wanted it to make me thinner. Shockingly - it didn't. Oh well...

And the winners are...

2007-09-05T13:00:00.000-04:00

Contest is over - woo hoo! What follows is a bunch of rambling, followed by the winners names, just scroll to the bottom if you just want to know if you have won a ~~bag~~ cube.

Choice A - autumn flowers
Thank you so much everyone for your overwhelming response. I was fortunate enough to have the week off work last week to have time to look over the comments - 247 all-in-all!! I'm not kidding about overwhelming, I can't believe how many of you knit bloggers out there came by to visit - it's exciting for me to see all these new blogs - even if I haven't had time to personally say hi. I really do appreciate your good wishes and support for the new shop (which is now open btw - check out the nifty little 'mini-shop' on the left).

Choice B - Purple Regal
Also during my week off I was been cutting, pinning and sewing like a woman possessed. I love my bags, I'm proud of them, I think they are excellent quality, and they look freaking adorable, but they take up a lot of time. So, if I haven't commented on your blog recently, please don't think I'm ignoring you, I'm still perusing blogs, but not commenting as much as I'd like.

Choice C - Greyscale Flowers
I have found a little bit of time to knit in the evening. The never-ending Orangina is now complete, just in time for the fall - my timing is perfect, as always. But I'm going to save all that knitting stuff for another post, because all you folks want to know right now (if you've not already skipped past to the names) is if you're a winner. First of all I want to let you know about my method of randomly picking - well I toyed with the idea of hats and scrap - for all of about 5 seconds!! Seriously, once you add all the extra entries for everyone, there would have been 364 pieces of paper to write/print and cut - no, I've got enough cutting going on here. Instead, excel became my friend, cut and paste my savior :) Then, after a bit of googling I found this formula:

=INDEX(A1:A364,ROUNDUP(RAND()*COUNTA(A1:A364),0))

Choice D - Amber Eternity
Apparently it works - well, I know it does, I tested it (on another list) a LOT, it's like magic! Now I'm writing this post before picking the names, so, right at this second, I have no idea who the winner will be (although there are a couple of bloggers out there who sent a huge amount of people over here - either by threatening physical violence, or just being known to post a LOT of contests).

Choice E - Golden Blue
Anyway, I think that it's time to put you, and myself, out of our misery and just do it already!!

So here goes - first name out of the hat is..... Jen W

Number 2....... Sally Villarreal

And the final name is .............. Cass (not surprising with over 30 entries in all), now we know, violence - or at least the threat of it, does pay ;)

Congratulations to you lovely winners. You get to choose one the the bags shown in this post. Just email me (schrodinger212 AT gmail DOT com) with your choice and mailing details. Again, thanks to everyone for your support and the amazing response. And don't forget, if you really, really (really) want a bag, you can find them at my store (sorry, couldn't resist one last push).

Next time .... some actual knitting - AND, shock, horror, at least one FO.

The one where I show you a bunch of half finished projects

2007-09-03T13:18:00.000-04:00

There's some still time left to enter, so if you're looking for the contest ---> click here

Happy Labor Day everyone!

I don't have anything complete to show to you today, but I do have a bunch of WIPs. I'm going through a major amount of startitis - it happens sometimes, esp. when I have so much lovely yarn in my hands that I want to knit - now!! First of all, let me share with you a pic of the beautiful yarn I won from Scout.

It's 100% merino in the colorway "Harlot's Mums" - it's a beaut right?

Now for the WIPS - the clap is really coming along, not much else to tell ya on this one - except the Sea Silk continues to be a dream to knit with.

I started my first STR sock on Friday - it took 3 false starts, and much ripping back before the yarn (in "January One" colorway) was telling it *had* to be this pattern. I'm obsessed with this pattern, I LOVE the asymmetry of the swirls. And you all know I love my swirls/spirals in socks. Look at it! I don't know if you could share the same love I have for this sock, but I just can't stop knitting it.

Which means that my poor Esther sock will remain partnerless for some time yet - but at least one is done for now - a super pretty pattern this is (click here for more info on the pattern - or check it out on ravelry).

That's all for today, I will be drawing the winners of the bags later on this week, in the meantime - I have some more sewing to do...

Big thanks

2007-08-29T16:22:00.000-04:00

If you're looking for the contest ---> click here

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but it was my birthday a little while back (maybe that's the reason for my run of luck?) and among all the other goodies, I got a gift from my fave . Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush - a book I'd had my eye on for ages, and a gift cert for Blue Moon fibers. So you can guess what I got....

STR - seriously, how have I never tried this before?

THANK YOU so much Spiders!! I love, love, love the book AND the yarn - you know me so well :) I chose the colours in preparation for fall/winter knitting, and I think I will forgo my other knitting and end up casting on for a basic sock tomorrow.

I'm a winner - now it's your turn!!

2007-08-27T17:29:00.000-04:00

CONTEST IS NOW OVER - WINNERS WILL BE POSTED SOON

Some of you are already aware that I'm such a lucky ducky these days. Not satisfied with winning a contest over at Bockstark's and Oiyi's blog. My name was pulled at a contest with Knitting Philistine, I've been dying to show pics, but I think the mailman is holding out on me :( Last week I won at Cass's 222 contest, lookie here:

Book of Knitting Tips and Trade Secrets - sure to help me out next time I have aeautiful SeaSilk - which looked stunning in it's hank (go see on Cass's blog), I had to wind it and cast on right away. The cold weather earlier in the week inspired me to cast on for my first ever clapotis (yeah, I'm a bit late to that party). Scout then contacted me to let me know that, just for donating some money to ravelry (something I should have done a long time ago) I won her contest, now I have a hank of her beautiful yarn heading over to me. Now, please don't hate me. In case you're wondering, I don't go trawling around blogland looking for contests. The contest have either been on blogs I read already, or stumbled across them from a blog I read regularly.

It's more than time to give back, yup. I'm having my own contest, right here, right now. I've actually been thinking about how to run this contest, there's been so many imaginative ideas (let's face it folks, so many contests) out there. I'm really not that imaginative, so I just say, add a comment here - something silly, benign, hilarious, whatever, and you're entered. Bonus entries go to those who tell others about the contest (just email me your blog link at schrodinger212 AT gmail DOT com), or if someone tells me you've come from your blog, you'll get another entry.

But wait! What's the prize you ask? Well, I think that there is nothing more fitting than the thing that has kept from from my knitting, more and more.

It's the ultimate sock knitting bag. These box bags - let's call them 'cubes' are about 4" tall, and about 5" wide and deep. I've been using them regularly for months and months now, I found it to be a perfect size to throw in your sock project (even if it's 2 socks), with needles up to 7", and a few notions.

I love my bags and want to share the love, so I will be giving away, not one, not 2, but 3 bags to 3 lucky commenters - 3 winners will be randomly selected after the contest closes. The contest will be open for a week (closing Sept 4th at 11:59pm ET) - which is when I'm hoping to open my etsy store*, selling these very bags.

Good luck!

CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED - THANK YOU FOR YOUR HUGE RESPONSE!!

* Link to etsy store is schrodinger.etsy.com

Twisted Tweed Socks!!

2007-08-14T21:36:00.000-04:00

Finally, I have battled the monster that is pdf creation. And the pattern is now freely available here. I have to say a big thank you to Harriet of Limedragon who gave me some pointers with little oopsies in the first draft of the pattern. Enjoy the pattern!

ETA: If you're a Ravelry user, you can queue the pattern here.

Click to Download
If that link doesn't work you can also try downloading from here.

Failling that, please try downloading from here.

Jan 2008 Update: I've changed one of the links for downloading the pattern. There are now 3 choices, all from free servers, that each have their own limitations - sometimes the bandwidth is exceeded for the day/week/month for one, which is why I have 3 choices. If none work, please try again later, or on a new day. Thanks.

Sunny Days

2007-08-11T16:31:00.000-04:00

It's finally sunny outside - which is great news for me, I could actually bring the camera and goodies out, and take some shots to share with you.

First of all some yarn acquirement, from the little trip last week. It wasn't a huge amount, to be honest, but certainly plenty to keep me happy.

I'm actually thrilled by a purchase of Cotton-Ease (strange huh?), this stuff is hard to get in the city, and I've heard good stuff about it, so when I saw it at Pearl Paint (who knew?!), I couldn't resist.

Next up is a little purchase from ImagiKnits, - some Misti Alpaca Lace. I plan to do Auburn Mist from the latest issue of Knitters mag - sadly I can't do Mohair, so alpaca it is. Shopping at ImagiKnits was a pleasure, the shop was near empty and the staff were super-welcoming and friendly. Even when I came back after my cuppa tea across the street to change needles (yeah, I bought the wrong size) they were helpful. Anyway, I'm going on, here's the yarn, needles and cute little needle holder. * I forgot to take a picture of the needles, they are Brittany US #1 dpns.

Finally, and most gorgeously, the Art Fibers purchase. I really loved this store, great atmosphere, beautiful yarns - I went twice!! If my budget were bigger I would have been buying many (many, many) cones of the gorgeous stuff they had on the shelves.

Since the sun shone, I was also able to take picture of the prizes I received this week. First up, I won a little contest at Oiyi's blog a little while back, the prize was a beautiful little handmade stitchmarker as well as a couple of balls of Zitron Samoa yarn - cool huh?

Bockstark had a little contest going, which I was very thrilled to win - first of all, this sushi bag that she made - dontcha just love the print?

The inside fabric is just as cool - see?

The inside was made even cooler as it contained this beautiful yarn from Tausendshon in "Das Rot", it's a 70% Merino wool, 20% silk, 10% Ramie. I'm so in love with the colour. I think I'm going to be tempted to buy more German hand-dyed, get it sent to my folks in Austria, then have some really cool Christmas gifts to look forward to when I go and visit them :)

There may be more to come but I believe the postman hates me :)

In honor of all that, there will be a contest here, promise! I know I've been dangling that carrot here for a while here, but life can really get in the way sometimes :) In the meantime, let me tell you about another contest - one that Cass is having a #222 contest, simply name your 2 favorite knitting books, patterns and blogs, go and check it out.

I'm Back

2007-08-04T17:38:00.000-04:00

Mr B and I had a phenomenal trip in San Fran. I'm amazed at how much we fit into a week (well 6 days). Highlights include: the Bridge (of course), having my fortune told by a mechanical wizard, the sea-lions on Pier 39, Muir woods, wine tasting, knitting on various modes of transportation (love public transport in SF), Uncle Vito's Pizza, Artfibers and ImagiKnits - both wonderful, friendly experiences, North Shore Jazz festival going up Coit Tower (what great views) among other things. Here's some random shots from the trip.

One downer was that when we got back our mailbox was empty, I called USPS to find out what happened, finally got a call back from the local office. After some 'discussion' it turns out that they don't know where my mail is, they think that the postman just took it all out when he thought the mailbox was too full and he may have kept it, or just returned to sender. We were away for a week, a WEEK people!! So now I have to go in on Monday to see if they have my mail. I don't know if they have my Netflix movies (LOST - Goddammit!), any cards and/or gifts for my birthday. I'm pissed! I've never had this happen before, I've never had my mail confiscated for going away on vacation for a week - WTF!?

The upper is that I had a nearly finished top to finish off waiting for me when I got home. I finished it this morning, and here it is, please excuse my San Fran t-shirt tan (yes, for me, this is tanned).

Yarn: Suss Cotton in Chamois
Needles: Denise's in US 9 and 10.5
Pattern: Lelah Top modified. By Knitting for Boozehags.
Mods/thoughts: The most obvious was the straps I added, I did them in a ribbing pattern. I did a single crochet edging. The top feels a tad too big, but I still love it!

I've had a test knitter (thanks Harriet!) give me excellent feedback on the twisted tweed socks and just have to tweak the pattern a little. Trouble is, I have to go out for dinner this evening, then Mr B has a gig tonight - technically tomorrow since it's at 1am! So I hope I get a chance to get it out in a few days. Thanks for your patience.

I - Just - Couldn't - Resist

2007-07-29T21:24:00.001-04:00

Having a wonderful time :)

A handmade sweater? That fits? Never!

2007-07-22T10:31:00.000-04:00

I don't want to make this post long - I don't really want to be reading or posting blogs right now - I've got THE BOOK (which already has 177 reviews on Amazon) and that's all I really want to think about and read. Yesterday was the Spider summer gala, which was even more fun than I could have anticipated. Virginia was a most gracious, imaginative and fun hostess, the weather was fantastic and the company, as always, was wonderful.

So, just here to show off my recently finished hourglass sweater:

Only one pictures because it's not blocked yet, and I was having some timer/colour issues - plus, there's THE BOOK.

Pattern: Hourglass Sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts.
Yarn: Jaeger Trinity in colour #439 - this is a vibrant orange/flamingo colour that seems to vary in intensity, and is a bugger to photograph :) I love this yarn, it is perfectly light-weight and makes for a perfect fall/spring sweater, and has a slight 'distressed' look.
Needles: Denises US #8 and #5 - various cable lengths.
Mods: I made the sweater longer. I also did 4 more decrease rounds at the neckline. my size is also between 2 sizes, however the gauge was off with the trinity, so I knit the larger of the two sizes, and i feel the fit is perfect. I'm thinking this is probably more luck than judgment.
Thoughts: This is just what I needed after the first sweater disaster. Had it not worked out, I'm not sure I would ever try another sweater. But it did, and it's nice to know that I *am* capable of wearable clothing, besides socks and tanks :)

Stay tuned, when I get back - a free sock pattern to be released. AND a blog contest (it's about time). Speaking of contests, you should totally check out knitting sutra has a great little contest of her own going on with fantastic prizes up for grabs - she wants help finding a non-pooling sock pattern, and don't forget to tell her I sent you :)

Have a wonderful Sunday/week, I'll see you all when I get back from San Fran.

Welcome to WIP-land

2007-07-15T21:00:00.000-04:00

Thanks to non-knitting stuff going on, there's not too much going on in the finished knitting department. Just a bunch of WIP's...

First up the boy charades in Regia 4-ply. The yarn started out as a pair of socks for myself, but Mr. B. commented about 5 times about the colour of the yarn. I got the hint, and after several false starts, the yarn sung with the Charade pattern - I had a bugger of a time trying to get a true colour respresentation on this one though - I failed.

Secondly, my latest WIP. The Esther* socks, I saw these this week and just knew that it was exactly what the Lorna's Laces languishing in my stash wanted to be. It's such a pretty pattern, it took a while to get the hang of the pattern, and the cabling nearly made my head explode and I'm probably doing it wrong, but I'd say it's worth it.

Finally there's the hourglass sweater from LMKG, which was left neglected some some time when the heat started to build. This week though, knitting has gathered speed as I realize that we will be in San Fran in less than 2 weeks!! I'm very excited about this trip, first time that far west, and a City that Mr. B. and I have been dying to see for a loooong time. I'm hoping he will be pursuaded to make a little detour to a LYS or two. My priority is to go to Artfibers. But I wouldn't mind checking out Article Pract and/or even ImagiKnits. Any other suggestions for while we're there (beit knitting/yarn/craft places or a not-to-be-missed restaurant/bar or random suggestions) would be greatfully appreciated.

* The link is to a German Yahoo, sock knitting group, there are a few patterns available if you become a member of the group, and the patterns are in English as well as German.

He loves 'Em!!

2007-07-08T15:10:00.000-04:00

Yes indeed, the Post office pulled through, they stopped striking and got Dad's socks to him in time for his birthday yesterday. When I called him and asked if the socks fit he responded "I don't know, I packed them already". The thing is, you see, my parents are about to experience a major life change - they just bought a house in Bad Ischl, Austria, which they will be converting into a place to live (for them) downstairs, and a couple of vacation apartments upstairs (you know, so they can earn money for food and mortgage).

My parents needed to sell their home in the UK in order to buy the Austrian house - they put their house on the market on Wednesday, and accepted an offer on Friday!! So, you can imagine that socks are not foremost in Dad's mind - although he did email me later to let me know that the socks fit, he loves them, and they will be perfect for those cold winter days in the mountains. I still can't believe how beautiful it all looks though.

In knitting news - twisted tweed socks are complete!

I've emailed the pattern to the people who volunteered to test knit (if you didn't get your pattern, check your junk box, or email me schrodinger212 AT gmail DOT com). I'm hoping the pattern will be available, for free, in the next couple of weeks.

I also finished one-skein wonder last weekend, but didn't get a chance to photograph it. It's a bit meh! to me, I'm not enamoured with it, maybe it's the yarn, the bulk of it, the feel, maybe it needs to be slightly bigger...

Yarn: ONLine Linie 44 Ravenna - black (about 3 skeins)
Pattern: One Skein Wonder by Stefanie Japel
Needles: Denises US 5 & US 8

One the sewing front, I did have success with these cute little headbands by Heather Bailey (thank you to gleek for pointing out the pattern).

They really do work, and are a cinch to make - best advice I got was to make many at a go, since they are so easy to do, so I have 3 of them, but I seriously wish I made more now.

Weekly update.

2007-07-01T12:35:00.000-04:00

Thank you everyone for your sweet and wonderful comments about the bowling bag, I did have some issues leaving my apartment with my gigantuan head for a few days :) The bag goes to work with me everyday, and it's working out perfectly - and, yes, I am still boasting when I get the chance.

Now on to what's been going on with my crafty life this week. Firstly, I have an FO: Mr. Schrodinger Senior (AKA, Dad) has a pair of socks for his upcoming birthday on 07/07/07. I have to get these in the mail tomorrow and just hope like crazy that they will get there for Saturday, which might be tricky thanks to a Postal strike in the UK.

The socks ain't exactly newsworthy, but they should be perfect for a man who'd want nothing more than "just plain socks".

Pattern: basic top-down, short row heels with 2x2 ribbing for the cuff.
Needles: Knitpicks US #1
Yarn: Regia Stretch Color, color #98
Thoughts and Outcome: well, they're socks. Actually perfect for train rides, 3 hour car rides to Staten Island (don't ask), Spiders, cabs and anywhere else I could pull them out and get a few rounds in. I'm a little concerned the leg might be a little tight for him, we shall have to wait and see.

And here's a nearly FO, my "Twisted Tweed" Socks. Partly nspired by Sandra's Charades and partly by how the RPMs worked on Trekking, I wanted something, spiral and tweed.

So I found this stitch patern and I think it is nearly perfect. I say nearly, because the row gauge is so completely different to that of st st, the foot looks quite bizarre when knitting it. However, after blocking it was a lot less noticeable and (in the true test) the sock fits me perfectly well.

I plan on sharing the pattern with you as soon as I've finished, there will be a toe-up and a top-down version available. Anyone wishing to test knit before then, just drop me a comment and I'll email you the info. I also have to work out where to store the pdf for others to download it - any ideas on this front will be gratefully appreciated.

Now for the jealous-making part. For those of you in tiny spaces, you might want to stop reading now and go to Katy's amusing post on sewing in an NYC apartment.

After 3 months of looking, I finally found it, and my "sewing table" arrived on Friday, Mr B. put it together for me yesterday - and what a star he was, the horrible thing took about 2 hours, thanks to some poorly drilled holes and other 'issues'. However for $82 (including tax and shipping - gotta love Target baby) we couldn't really complain too much, AND it's as solid as a rock and looks pretty cool too.

As you can see, it's not truly a sewing table, just a desk with a sewing machine on it, but it's perect for my needs. The height is adjustible and there's a little drawer for some knick-knacks. Now my craft corner is almost complete.

I say almost, because there is the little issue of this to take care of.

Some shelves, and additional cubes will be added as money permits, but it's certainly looking great to me. Now I have no excuses for not sewing...

Well... except for the small task of changing my online photo storage from fotki (which is a truly great site and I have no problems with it, ever) to flickr. While I still have my reservations about flickr (it just seems more limited compared to fotki), it does look cool, and it works with Ravelry, and that was enough for me to decide to make the switch now that my second year draws to an end with fotki. So, I apologize to those of you who get email updates from flickr, I will be adding a LOT of old photos over the coming days (and months).

Boasting and gloating.

2007-06-17T17:22:00.000-04:00

As promised - one bowling bag, tadaaaa!!!!

This bugger took me the best part of a weekend and cost some sore fingers - but it was totally worth it methinks. I made the bag based on a tutorial by qazicat, which I found through the craftster forums.

Her tute was for a much smaller bag from the looks of it, there are no pattern pieces, but I just figured out the size I wanted, and created the side shapes first. The other pieces followed on from there.

I'm exceedingly happy with my bag, it's perfect for work (I made it big enough to hold file folders, as well as pockets for other goodies...

I stayed quiet on the first day out with this bag - the next day I couldn't hold it in anymore, I managed to boast to at leasst 3 different people. The poor spiders got it on Friday AND Saturday - "look what I made". Now here I go again on the blog - I hope that it will be out of my system after this post. I mean, come on, the bag is far from perfect, I'm not overly pleased with the handles - they look a little too 'home-made', know what I mean? And I didn't get a good match with the black panelling at the side. But, it works and it makes me smile.

In knitting news. I finished a pair of Mother & Daughter socks, for a wonderful colleague and her daughter, who are re-loacating to Ireland and will be sorely missed. I'm pretty pleased with how well these socks match each other - this is important for non-knitters, who struggle to appreciate the "unique pairing" of colors us knitters can make.

pattern: basic toe-up (figure 8 cast on) stockinette socks with short-row heels. I found the sock-u-lator II very helpful for figuring out how many stitches to cast on.
needles: Addi turbo 32", US #2 (3mm)
yarn: Lana Grossa Cotton Fantasy, in color #809. and a little bit of Regia cotton surf for the mother socks (left over from the Ampersand Socks) - the cotton fantasy is almost exactly the same as cotton surf. I actually like this yarn a lot - even though it's a cotton blend - and think they will be pretty hard wearing.

I just hope that both mother and daughter love them - oh! and that they fit :)

Happy Father's Day.

It's all a charade!

2007-06-13T18:56:00.000-04:00

First of all, I want to thank everyone for your lovely comments about the cranes - all so sweet, and I even got comments from new people - thanks for stopping by!

On to the post, I've had these socks done a while now and feel like I've already posted about them but realised that I hadn't - oops. Anyway, the Charade socks, are complete:

Pattern: Charade socks by Sandra.
Yarn: Plymouth Sockotta in color #15
Needles: Knitpicks 32" #1 - magic loop method
Adaptations: I did make the heel a little longer so that the sock could accomodate my high arches - other than that I stuck to the pattern as is. If I were to do the sock again I would probably do toe up with short row heels. I love the pattern though, it really was fun to knit - thanks Sandra!!!!

Note: While I know this yarn will probably make the longest lasting socks ever - I hated it, I didn't like the feel of it, the short bursts of color were a little too short, leaving me with a muddled mix. There were several knots in the skein - bah! I hate knots.

Next time: a bowling bag awaits some photo weather for the photo-shoot that it deserves (yup, I'm proud of it).

1000 Cranes

2007-06-03T16:27:00.001-04:00

Not a lot to show off on the knitting front. So, for Earthchick, Samantha, Ceci and anyone else who might be interested - here's some shots of the Schrodinger Household's 1000 origami cranes I spoke of on the 7 random things post.

One lonely crane, with quarter to show size.

1000 origami cranes in a glass vase - pretty rainbow.

Cranes close-up.

PSA

2007-05-31T23:28:00.001-04:00

If any of you will be in Central Park this Saturday morning, pop by the bandshell and come see me. I'm volunteering at information booth at the YAI Central Park Challenge. It's a 5k run/3k walk for people with Intellectual Disabilities/Developmental Disabilities. Yeah, I know it's a shameless plug, but it is a fun day - fingers crossed it will stay dry.

Meme

2007-05-26T15:14:00.000-04:00

There is knitting going on in the house of Schrodinger, however, not so much of the finishing kind of knitting. So instead of boring you with WIP shots, I thought I would bore you with 7 random things about myself :) Thanks to Gabriella for the tag.

I'm the product of a RAF family, I spent my childhood not living anywhere for more than 3 years at a time. By the time I was 13 I'd spend 3 tours of 3 years in Germany - yet I've not been back since, although this should change at Christmas :) I miss Germany, I have many happy memories there.

Just before we moved back to England I had a memorable trip to Berlin with my school. We stayed in the Olympic stadium. I learned so much on that trip, it was my first realization of the horrors of what had happened during WWII. I also wrote my name on the Berlin Wall, and listened to the "Dirty Dancing" soundtrack almost endlessly throughout the trip.

When I was a teenager I tried my hand at a few different crafts, lacemaking, screenprinting, dried and live flower-arranging. I was lucky that my school was also a 'community college' for people in the town, so they offered these classes to the pupils in the school for free. As time has gone on I've also tried jewelry making, hemp jewelry, candle-making & sculpting, wood-working, metalwork, and the usual paining and drawing, bead and wire sculpture, pottery, origami.

I have a fork-lift truck license. Mr B found it when unpacking last week, and I looked at it and remembered the days. Since it was many years ago, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't how to work one now.

Origami was my last obsession before knitting took over, I folded 1,000 cranes for my grandmother, who - when she received them, acted as though I was quite mad - why on earth would I give her 1,000 of these paper things? She never really got my explanation. She has since passed on and my cousin inherited them, she loves them. Not satisfied with just 1,000 for my grandmother, I decided to make an additional 1,000 for myself and Mr B. They sit in our living room in a large glass cylinder in a beautiful rainbow of colours.

Since my position at work has changed, and I'm on the phone helping people much more, I have developed new pet peeves. For example, I've recently realized that I can get very frustrated when someone says "I hear you" while you're in the middle of a sentence - what's the point?

Over the last few years I've developed this adolescent/childish thing whereby, when I hear people say "duty" I tend to giggle. I think that this is because it's pronounced so differently here in the US, that it just sounds like "doodie" from the mouths of so many to me.

200 posts and still going.

2007-05-19T19:47:00.000-04:00

Well, I have a great many WIPS going on, so the basket is getting some good use :) It's basically like this, "oh, I really want to try Sandra's sock pattern" (see below), "ooh, I really want to knit up that habu silk [that I had just bought] into a shawl/stole", "oooh, I finally have yarn to make the hourglass sweater I've been wanting to knit forever", "oh yes, and I must make the mother/daughter socks for my wonderful co-worker moving back to Ireland next month". And guess what? I'm still looking beyond the basket to think about the other projects I want to get my hands on. I don't think that I've ever been this ADD with my knitting before - or maybe I forget?

At the back of my mind there 2 balls of Trekking XXL that I bought in a little sale at the Point last week - they want to be on the needles, right NOW. And to top it off, this landed in my mailbox yesterday:

Isn't it pretty? It's 5% cashmere, 95% Australian Merino. A laceweight called Gentle, in "Soft Aqua Blue" from Yarn Place. This was a prize that I won from Redheadskydiver a little while back. Isn't it pretty? Now it's tickling my brain, what lace project should it be? The card made me smile too. Thanks Redheadskydiver!!! It's soft and lovely. Yes, apparently I'm on a lucky streak - maybe it's time to buy my first lotto ticket?

As a result of all this distraction, I don't really have much in the way of FO's to show, just this one sock:

Now this sock - or was it the yarn? Pissed me off on Thursday. There I was on the train, happily knitting away, and out of the blue, the damn thing decides to tell me that maybe, just maybe, it wants to try being a different sock, perhaps a Monkey...

Now you can understand the reasoning behind this thinking, while in progress, it's really hard to see the great tweed-ish pattern - kind of a confused charade. So the yarn starts to worry, it wants to be seen in it's best light after all. But then. I try it on. No, the yarn was wrong, Charade was the right pattern after all - phew! all is good again (it's true that I still have a nagging doubt, however, I'm choosing to ignore it).

Oh, and there have been some requests for apartment pictures. There is still plenty to be done here in our humble abode, but I thought I would oblige. So, here's a couple of shots of the living room to tide you over:

And my crafting space - as you can see , this is still a work in progress - AND (with Mr B there for scale) it's obvious that my stash is a reasonably small size... right?

I'm going to have go now to get ready to go out to celebrate the Mets win :)

Luck o' the British?

2007-05-10T20:28:00.000-04:00

I'm a lucky bugger. Look what I won at a work event today.

Packed full of pampering Bath and Body Works goodies - about half of which will be going to work tomorrow where they will be surely more appreciated. But dude! Look at that basket.

I immediately gave it a job. Doesn't it make a great WIP basket?

And, a little teaser of the apartment, I will try to take more pics of the place at the weekend - but with me going to a Mets game Saturday, not sure when that's going to happen :)

Weekend update

2007-05-05T11:43:00.000-04:00

First of all, I just have to say 2 words Raverly Rocks! Frecklegirl Jess and her amazing hubby built up this phenomenal site for knitters - it's a perfect way to keep a track of all your projects (finished and WIPS), your yarn, your needles/hooks, your books, patterns your want to do, even your friends. Check it out now, you can only join by invite - so contact them, your invite will be given to you in the order it was received.

While deciding what ~~yarn to buy~~ project to do next, I picked out the baby silk I had in my stash and knit....well.... another shedir. Maybe it's a shedir addiction, may it's that I have tried several patterns with this yarn already and it just didn't want to be them, ever

And this is how much yarn I had left - I measured it, not even 21 inches - PHEW! That was a close one.

Okay, okay, you just want the stats - so here ya go...

Pattern: Shedir cap.
Yarn: 3 balls of Elann's Baby Silk in "Deepest Black", 80% baby Alpaca, 20% silk yarn. I doubled the yarn.
Needles: Addis Turbos, 32" #3's (magic loop method).
Adaptations: I did 4 of the 5 pattern repeats, again.

As for other knitterly goodness. I got my order from WEBS this week, I cast on for a sock, more about this another time.

I also swatched.

I might be pushing this one though, I keep getting 20 stitches, as opposed to the required 19 sts per 4". While I really like the feel of this yarn, I'm not convinced about the color - as is frequently the case with reds/oranges, it's impossible to capture the true color - but I would say there is a little more 'flamingo' going on.

And the spinning has been going well.

There's a little more white in it than I would like, but I'm sure that plying will change it all. Speaking of which, I'm not sure how I'm going to tackle the plying. I got an Ashford lazy kate some time ago, didn't really think about it until I assembled it. However it's too small the bobbins of my mystery wheel - doh! I've been plying from center-pull balls, leaving me with less than perfect plying, I don't want that for this beautificous roving.

Oh! and one more picture - Absorba out in the wild. Don't you just love our bathroom's subway tiles?

Enjoy the weekend - it's a beaut here!

Behold the great Absorba!

2007-04-30T00:39:00.000-04:00

ETA: COMMENTS HAVE BEEN TURNED ON :/

Huzzah!! The bathroom will now be fully dressed with it's hand-knit bathmat.

Pattern: Absorba, from Mason Dixon Knitting
Yarn: Peaches and Creme double worsted in #51 Apple Green.
Needles: Denises #15
Adaptations: What I did, is essentially knit a single crochet edging - I don't have a crochet hook that big, so I picked up 2 stitches, then pass the right stitch over the left one, then picked up a st and passed the right stitch over the left, etc, etc.
Thoughts/additional info: Knitting this was no piece of cake, it was challenging to knit what is essentially [a soft lime colored] rope on fat, fat needles, it hurt my hands a bit :( On the bright side, it's a pretty fast knit. The bathmat didn't really come out as flat and perfect as I wanted - I know, I know. Anyway, I'm blocking it right now (yes, blocking a bathmat - like that makes sense), but I think that will fix those issues for me. Oh, and I could not capture the color of this mat at all, it is a ~~more lurid~~ brighter green than pictured - which suits me fine.

In other news, I got some beautiful stitch markers from Zero Markers this week.

Did I hear you ask what that is in the background? Okay, okay, it's 8 oz of Superwash Merino in "wild thing" from Crown Mountain Farms.

I think it's going to make me some lovely sock yarn.

Now... if you'll excuse me, I have some spinning to do.

I'm not ignoring you

2007-04-22T18:05:00.000-04:00

I've just been busy. Unpacking, buying things, enjoying the company of friends and making the apartment our home - bit by bit. There's plenty left to do, but I'm very happy with how things are coming together.

I promise, there will be some pictures of the apartment to follow, but it's still a work in progress - with about 8 more boxes (mostly DVDs, books, knick-knacks) to unpack. But for now you will have to just be satisfied with knitting pics and stats - I forgot to ad that to the list, but I have been knitting too :)

First is a basic pair of socks for me in Regia

Pattern: I did the foot in stocking stitch and the leg in k2, p2 ribbing, with short row toes and heels.
Yarn: Regia surf in sand (color #5420). I think this yarn is great, it has a lot of potential to stand up to the machine washing, it's not as warm as 100% wool socks, clearly a better choice if you feel the need to wear socks during this heat wave. Oh! and see those curtains in the background? I made them a couple of weeks ago.
Needles: Addi 32" turbos, size 2.

Next is the most boring pair of socks ever - for Mr B - modeled by me, the man is busy organizing the spare room (AKA, the art/craft/fiber/sewing, music room) and I don't want to interrupt the progress - but here it clearly shows that he has gigantic feet.

Pattern: again foot in st st, leg in k3, p1 ribbing, with short row toes and heels.
Yarn: Knitpicks Essential Tweed in "flint" I had planned on making a pair of gloves when I ordered this yarn. However, it was absolutely not what I expected, I was hugely disappointed in this so-called tweed. It looks like a child splashed their paints on it - very primary colour-ish. Having said that, the yarn itself is soft, and Mr. B states that the socks are super comfortable.
Needles: Knitpicks 32", size 1.

Next is a couple of wash/dish clothes. I wanted simple and fast. I love the simple ingenuity of this pattern, the yarn color was inspired by a towel I was given a while back. The towel depicts Die Sendung Mit Der Maus - for which I have fond childhood memories, cute little fella isn't he? That and the green tea + aloe soap we had helped me decide that a lime green theme is necessary in our brand new white-on-white bathroom.

Pattern: 4-corners pattern by Abigail
Yarn: Lily's Sugar n Cream - in summer splash.
Needles: Denises size 7

Today I started the Absorba Bath Mat from Mason Dixon - in lime green, of course. My goodness, knitting with this stuff on the HUGE (to me) #15 needles is teeee-ough!! It will be worth it though.

no knitting here

2007-04-02T12:03:00.000-04:00

The move is complete!! I am now longer a Manhattanite, instead I have 'evolved' into a Queenster (or an Astorian, if you will). The move was difficult, moving from a 6th floor walk-up with some very (very, very) good friends is no joke - I am appauled at how much crap we have. But the weather was beautiful on the day of the move, and we managed to make the day fun. Every muscle in my body hurts - a LOT, I'm sure our friends are feeling the burn too. It was worth it though - I love the new 'hood, people actually say 'hello' on the street, they are friendly, that will take some getting used to, it's such a major change from our old neighborhood (don't get me wrong, I loved living there, and will miss it, but people being nice is great).

We now have double the living space, with a spare room for knitting/spinning/sewing (and Mr. B's art/music I suppose). The light in here is beautiful in here. There will be photo's, but not for a little while - no internet (phone or TV) until next week (Time Warner sucks, but I'm not telling you anything new am I?). As a result, I'm writing this post on my Blackberry, which is "interesting" to say the least, I have no idea if it will work yet. I have been trying to keep up with blog reading, but you won't see comments from me for a while yet, that is asking a little too much from the little bb. Thanks again for all your well-wishes with the move, it's appreciated - and I'm sure it helped.

Okay, I must go and unpack some boxes, if I can stand up :)

Like I "need" more socks.

2007-03-25T14:33:00.000-04:00

Pattern: Ampersand from "Through the Loops"
Yarn: Regia Surf #5411, thanks to Veronique's de-stashing.
Needles: Addis turbos 32", 3mm (US #2)
Adaptations: I added 6 stitches to the pattern, instead of 3 sts between the increases/decreases I had 4, I didn't want my socks to be too tight. I knit toe up and 2 at a time
Thoughts: I really like this yarn, I think the higher cotton content will be great for the upcoming warmer weather, the colours are nice and happy, and I think the pattern works for the yarn too.

I'm also getting really good at my short-row heels (if I do say so myself), thanks to Gleek giving me a little pointer, and me knitting a little tighter. Overall, these socks make me smile.

Not sure when I will be posting again, with ~~ensuring Mr. B. doesn't pack all my yarn~~ careful planning I will be able to continue knitting, but my internet access might be rudely interrupted after the move next weekend.

You Spin Me Right Round Baby...

2007-03-13T13:42:00.000-04:00

The song has been going around my head over, and over again while knitting these socks. I'm actually really relieved the that socks are finished so that the bloody song can finally stop. Oddly enough, when taking the pictures, the only place I could get decent light was on Mr. B's drum stool (well, apparently they are called 'thrones', but that makes me giggle). At least the pictures are in keeping with the music theme.

Pattern: RPMs
Yarn: Trekking XXL in color 105
Adaptations: None, that I recall.
Thoughts: I really didn't like this yarn at first, not sure if it was the color or slight scratchiness of the yarn, but the subtle striping and warm colors won me over in the end.

I also thought I would try the pointy toe in the pattern, um, not convinced I would use it again. Although I'm still keen to try the star toe.

Oh yeah, I'm sure you've figured out from this post that I'm still breathing and all that. We had a 10 day visit from Ma & Pa Schrodinger [the socks were a big hit for Mum btw]. And have been hunting for a new place to live, we are actually anxiously awaiting to see if our application was accepted for a place we fell in love with. In amongst all that, and the blogging blahs I managed to forget my 2nd blogiversary, and barely kept up with bloglines. I'm sure services will resume as normal sometime in April once we have moved - wherever that may be...

Monkeying around

2007-02-25T21:00:00.000-05:00

I didn't really think I had much to post about this weekend, but then I thought "I finished the socks". So here you are, Mum's Monkey socks are done, finished yesterday - and with the folks not arriving until Friday, there was bags of time.

Pattern: monkey socks by Cookie.
Yarn: South West Trading Companies "Tofuties" colour #722 "Stand on Your Own Two Feet".
Needles: Pony Pearls #2 dpns.

Made in a week, I have to agree with other bloggers that these really are a quick and easy knit, it clearly helps that my Mum has tiny feet (size 3/5-4 US) hence I couldn't pose in them, destruction of the socks was not an option :)

I'm feeling a bit of "blogging blah" at the moment. While there's other stuff to post about, I just can't be bothered. Oh well, I'm sure this will pass. Hope a great weekend was had by all.

Revival!

2007-02-19T15:57:00.000-05:00

I am so glad that I finally got the guts to rip out those jaywalkers, because now I have in my possession a fully functional, actually going to be worn, pair of socks. HUZZAH!

Pattern: simple toe up (psso short row toes and heels, Ala misocrafty) in 3 x 1 ribbing, I just knit until I (nearly) ran out of yarn.
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill, supersock # 325, a bargain from that auction site.
Needles: mostly, 32" addi turbos #2, but I switch out to # pony pearls for the leg of sock number 2.

Before I could bat an eyelid, yarn for a pair of monkey socks was on the needles. These socks will be for my wonderful Mum, who has a very special birthday coming up and has chosen to come and visit Mr. B and I for that birthday.

The yarn? South West Trading Companies "Tofuties" 50% Superwash Wool 25% SOYSILK brand fiber 22.5% Cotton 2.5% Chitin (made from shrip and crab shells!). The colour is #722 "Stand on Your Own Two Feet". I quite like the feel of this yarn, slightly silken, it appears as though it will be pretty hard wearing, and the look is very "Trekking"-esque. However, there is no give to this yarn at all, it is very much like knitting with cotton, which I'm okay with, but this can be bothersome to some.

On other news, yesterday was a Spider Baby shower, for 2 preggers spiders. A great time was had by all, I just wanted to give a shout out to Kaitlyn for organizing and to Jess for keeping us spiders in line with the blankets. I (to my shame again) did not manage to bring my camera, but you can check out Jess's post to see some photos of the event, betcha can't spot me :)

Dizzy! I'm so dizzy my head is spinning!

2007-02-12T17:12:00.000-05:00

First of all, thanks so much for your enthusiasm about my bags, I'm pretty excited about them, and will be working on perfecting the design over the next few weeks.

Please excuse the rather barren look of the blog as it goes through a metamorphosis.

I missed my usual Sunday post yesterday because I was busy at a spinning party at Marie's. Yes the Spiders met up for an afternoon on fun, food, films and flying fiber. Sadly, I forgot my camera, so you'd have to check some other spider sites to see photos. I have a picture of what I succeeded in spindle spinning...

Some Brooklyn handspun spinning batt on my turkish drop spindle
.
Pretty pathetic no? I concluded yesterday that I'm not a fan of drop spindle spinning, although it was my first time, I'm not patient enough to wait the ~~hours~~, ~~days~~, years it would take for me to produce enough knitworthy yarn for even a scarf. I will stick with my wheel thank you very much. Speaking of wheels, I did get to play with Marie's Lendrum, ooooooh what a dream! It was a pleasure to use and I actually think I was a better spinner with it than with mine. I did go home and spin some of her lovely fiber, freshly carded and a pleasure to spin with.

Don't worry, I haven't completely neglected my knitting. I have a few things on the go, but the progress shots are not worth it, but I did knit a sock.

This is actually from the yarn from the 1 1/3rd jaywalkers. Well, I finally frogged them!!

Ternion

2007-02-04T13:22:00.000-05:00

What's this here?

Yesterday afternoon, I decided, was for sewing, and here's the result.

It's a box bag ternion, just big enough to carry a small knitting projects around and I'm pretty chuffed with them. So I wanted to show them off to you.

I have been knitting too, but nothing worthy of photo's... yet.

EDIT: The bags are my own pattern, which is still evolving, there is still some work to be done on it.

Yippee!

2007-01-28T17:21:00.000-05:00

Now that the daylight managed to coincide with me having my knitting and camera at the same time, it's time to show you some FO's. First of all, Mr. B's socks. Man are his feet big! I was beginning to think I would never finish knitting these socks, but perseverance does pay off.

Pattern: Slipped Stitch's Boyfriend Socks.
Yarn One hank of Knitpicks bare superwash fingering weight I dyed it myself using Jacquard acid dyes, I just mixed some green, blue and purple until I got this cool turquoise.
Needles Knitpicks Classic Circulars, 32" #1's (magic loop).
Adaptations None.

Secondly, after a marathon knitting session yesterday, Shedir #2 is complete. I got to do the extra pattern repeat that I wished I'd done with the last hat. Now my ears will be warmer. I guess I should do stats again eh?

Pattern Shedir cap.
Yarn 3 balls of Elann's Baby Silk in "Oxblood", a soft, beautifully colored 80% baby Alpaca, 20% silk yarn. I doubled the yarn.
Needles Addis Turbos, 32" #3's (magic loop method).
Adaptations I did 4 of the 5 pattern repeats.

Of course, I had to do a top of the head shot again.

Bookworm

2007-01-28T14:31:00.001-05:00

My corner

I've been tagged.
BOOKWORM – tagged by Katie

Instructions:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5. Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.
6. ~~Tag 5 people~~

The closest book to me was right behind me on the bookshelf. I'm sure that environmental cues and show that this is my side of the sofa, the yarn, needles, and wheel in close proximity. The book that was closest was Philip Pullman's "The Amber Spyglass" the third book in "His Dark Materials Trilogy", numbers 1 and 2 were contenders for being close too.

Wasting no time, the Court commandeered a flight of zeppelins, and that same day a battalion of the Swiss Guard began to embark aboard the zeppelins waiting in the still air beside the lake of Geneva.

And the next 3 sentences are quite long, damn you Katie! Oh well, here goes:

So each side was aware that the other was also making its way towards the cave in the mountains. Ane they both knew that whoever got there first would have the advantage, but there wasn't much in it: Lord Asriel's gyropters were faster than the zeppelins of the Consistorial Court, but they had further to fly, and they were limited by the speed of their own zeppelin tanker.

And there was another consideration: whoever seized Lyra first would have to fight their way out against the other force.

Exciting stuff huh? Have no idea what my day's motto would, but I guess I'm best off steering clear of those zeppelins.

And I'll tag.... Oh! Whoever has the urge to try it.

BIG thanks!!

2007-01-24T19:07:00.000-05:00

Talk about RAOK!!

First of all, to back-track a little. Most of you are already aware of the loss of my Shedir. Thank you all for your positive and/or butt-kick promising comments, I think I had the most comments ever in that last post. Now, back to today, I got home from work a little while ago and I have a little package in the box. It's from Yo-Yo Knits, Alyson. It's replacement yarn (Elann's Baby Silk), enough to knit a new Shedir. This girl is fan-f*ckin-tastic! Not only was the yarn for the original hat a prize from her blog, but now she is sending me additional yarn to make a new Shedir!!

So I want to say a very big and public thank you to a very special person.

Avast Ye!*

2007-01-20T14:24:00.000-05:00

First of all, please join me in a moment of silence as I mourn the lost of my Shedir, which is probably in the hands of some hipster brooklyn-nite, somewhere in the depths of Williamsburg. It fell out of my jacket pocket when I was out for some drinks with friends last night, I went back for it about half an hour later, not there, no-one handed it in! I can only hope that ~~whichever thieving bast@rd stole it~~ whoever found it, is getting as much pleasure as I did, man I miss my shedir already. I guess I have to go shopping for more yarn now.

I finished my mitts last week, they took forever to dry in our ~~freezing bloody cold~~ rather cool apartment. I've been dying to take pictures of them so I can show them off. Fortunately, I managed to share them with my Spidey Pals, and now the weekend has finally rolled over and I can show them to everyone else. So, enough with the talk, talk, here are the pics and stats:

Pattern: Hello Yarn's cool, "dangerous" Pirate Mittens.
Yarn: 2 balls of Knitpicks Telemark one in Bayberry and one in Chestnut, inspired by the color combo used by Lisa with her Norwegian Mitts.
Needles: Denise's in US 5's, magic loop method.
Mods: None, the only thing I can say about the project is that I had difficulties with the fair isle initially, I ripped out that first mitt a significant number of times, but it was worth it.

One final word on fair isle [which I know really should be called "stranding", but just can't bring myself to use that term, plus "fair isle" sounds so much cooler]. I wasn't too happy with my stitches on the mitts, they looked uneven to me and not so great. When I blocked I blocked hard. I soaked them in soap-filled water, and basically beat them up in the water (not too hard, since I didn't want felted [or should I say fulled?] mittens. Once scruched of water I pinned them down on the blocking board, Mr. B. laughed and called me a Mitten collector. But I think the results were worth it.

* Apparently, pirate talk for get a load of this, me likey.

Boringly normal

2007-01-14T15:56:00.000-05:00

Thanks again to everyone for the advice on the pirate mittens. I ripped out the mitt and started again, and now know that that extra little tug I was giving was making the puckering. I am happy to report that the mitten is coming out really well, pictures will be coming soon, once I get some actual sunlight. I did, however, take some crappy pictures of my Glittens, which you've probably seen a lot of over blogland. They were a pretty quick and relatively easy knit, and I'm pleased that I tackled something that I was always a bit dubious I could make [gloves].

Pattern: Patons Convertible mittens from leaflet # 1159.
Yarn: Knitpicks Swish Superwash in Jade.
Needles: Denises #6 and #7, using magic loop, I also used a crochet hook to pick up the stitches for the mitten, it proved to be a tricky task for me.
Adaptations: I only cast on 40 sts (48 gave me a very baggy glove), so the fingers had 2 less stitches each, leaving me with a k1, p1 in between fingers. I knit less rows for the thumb, and also adapted the decrease pattern at the top of the mitt for a more rounded (rather than pointed) top.

And now for something completely different. This 6 weird things meme has been floating around blogland forever now. And, as usual, I'm a little slow on the uptake. To be honest, I put off doing this one because I was pretty sure that there wasn't anything weird about me, certainly not blogworthy. But, I had a go at it anyway, so here you are:

1. Like some others, I have difficulty differentiating my left and right. I usually have to say "right to write" and look at my hand to remind myself. I have successfully sent people with the completely wrong directions, unintentionally, only realizing way too late.

2. When I was a kid walking home from school I would sometimes imagine that a person walking or driving by was a famous filmmaker and they would see my amazing talent by the way I walked and come dashing over to tell me that I have to star in their latest blockbuster. There are some days now that I occasionally think about being 'spotted' when I see a limo drive. [yup, I'm actually pretty embarrassed by this one].

3. I practice Reiki (just first degree). While my attunement was a very profound experience and I've seen it have amazing effects on myself and others, I'm still a doubting Thomas.

4. My middle toe on my left foot is much longer and larger than the one on my right, it happened when I was hurrying over to the TV to turn up the music for "Neighbours" (oh, I miss Ramsey St) which my baby cousin loved so much - he was so cute singing along to it. I couldn't wear shoes for a week, the toe still hurts in the cold, and turns a funny purpley colour when it's hot.

5. Apart from my first [as an adult] project, I have never used the required yarn for a knitting pattern. I just don't think that it's in me. I clearly have the desire to be different and the need to make things more complicated than need be (I'm pretty sure that I can't be the only one in this one).

6. Since I spent a huge amount of my childhood in Germany, I would grow up watching at lot of stuff in German, I loved Neverending Story, even though I didn't 'get' everything that was going on in it, I watched the German version at least 3 times before ever seeing the US version. I was actually an adult before I realized that Sesame Street was an American show!

PS: I buckled and upgraded to new blogger, once I found out that I can now label my posts I couldn't resist.

Progress

2007-01-07T22:22:00.000-05:00

First of all, I want to say thank you to everyone who left lovely comments about "the incident". I really do appreciate all the kind words and suggestions. I'm afraid my action with the sweater will inaction at this time. I cannot face it, I don't want to disappoint any of you, but I can't pretend.

As I promised in my last post, I do have additional pictures of things I've been up to. First up is a Boyfriend Sock. One is done, knit using knitpicks superwash fingering weight, dyed by yours truly. Mr. B. liked the color, so I thought it was time for him get a new pair of socks - he was such a good boy after all.

Second up, thanks to Sandra for reviving my interest in these mitts, I've started the Pirate Mittens. I dunno though, I've ripped these out once already, and I'm trying my best to stretch out the knitting a couple of times a row the second time, but I still have puckering. What the #!@$ am I doing wrong? Suggestions gratefully received.

Finally, some spinning I did while Mr. B. was taken away from me by the in-laws. This is Multicolor Colonial Navy. 100% Corriedale Wool. From Carolina Homespun. There's only 4 ozs though, so not sure what I will make with it...

PJ Day

2007-01-03T15:39:00.000-05:00

Time to get the violins out, cos I'm feeling poorly - the taking the day off work, watching junk telly, wearing PJ's, feeling sorry for myself kind of poorly. However, the good news is that I caught up with some blog photos (yes, it's actually daylight in my apartment while I'm at home!).

Firstly, some of you may be wondering what happened to the Natucket Jacket I was knitting from the 2006 winter Interweave knits. Did I manage to fix it? Does it fit now? Where the hell is it? Honestly, I've been putting off posting about it, it still makes me sad now (5 weeks after, what shall be referred to as "the incident"). Anyway, here is a quick look at the result of "the incident".

I never did get to plan c (re-seaming) - plan b involved some water and a tumble dryer, one of the sleeves got a little too damp the felted result of which you can see on the right. There are other parts of the cardigan that are felted, and yet it still remains a lot too wide and a little too short, it is not savable, not even slightly. The cardigan resides in the back of the closet now, until I finally have the heart to throw it out.

On to a brighter note, I finished something else, which actually fits, and I'm totally in love with it. I think that these are my most favorite socks ever (aren't the latest pair always?). I went a bit nuts taking photographs of the socks, I won't bore you with all of them.

Yarn: 1 skein of Brooklyn Handspun's stunning Signature Yarn in "Rose Mocha" - man do I love this yarn, it's soft, the colors are gorgeous, apparently it fluffs up great after washing [can't wait to wash them] AND it's superwash.
Needles: 32" Addis, US #2.
Pattern: "Ripple Weave Socks" from the Fall 2006 issue of Vogue Knitting.
Adaptations: I opted for a garter stitch short row heel, thanks to gleek for her version. I also added a p1, k1tbl at the beginning of the k row of the sole, and k1tbl, p1 at the end of that row. This helped the pattern 'pop' and gave a little symmetry for me.

Close-up of the garter stitch short row heel, isn't it great?

There are more pictures (sock, mitten and spinning) to share, but I will save them. Just so you know, the Nantucket jacket has ensured that my future includes only small projects - socks, mitts/glitts, hats etc.

Happy New Year*

2007-01-01T14:32:00.000-05:00

Just a quickie to wish you a happy new year, hope you all have a safe and happy '07.

Here's a couple of shots of Mrs B. senior's scarf. She loved it, and Mr B. Senior loved his hat.

Pattern: My So Called Scarf by Stacey.
yarn: Malabrigo in color 137 "Emerald Blue"
Needles: Denises #11
Adaptations: I only cast on 24 stitches, giving me skinnier, longer scarf. Like the last scarf, I added a single crochet border.

My yarn arrived from knitpicks Saturday, so I have plenty on the needles (which I'm sooooo happy about), so there will be more pictures to follow. For now, I'm off to suffer the rest of my hangover...

*yeah, original blog title I know, but my poor brain is suffering today, it's the best yer gonna get.

A home for socks

2006-12-23T15:25:00.000-05:00

Look what I made! An ickle sock knitting bag. I was bull-headed and decided to just wing it based on a bag I liked.

I LOVE this bag and all it's imperfection. It was a nightmare to sew together. I am certainly not a pattern writer - but insanely thought I could do it after sewing from one pattern...once.

An important lesson I learned, metal zippers and fingering weight yarn just don't mix together. I'm off to make another bag, right after catching up with some bloglines reading.

Merry ChristmaKwanzaKah to one and all. Have a wonderful, safe and happy time.

Somewhat Cashmere Hat

2006-12-17T15:06:00.000-05:00

FIL's hat is complete, with me modeling.

Pattern F&P Jess's Cashmere Ribbed Hat.
Yarn Noro Cash Iroha (in color 16) a wonderful blend of 40% silk, 30% lambswool, 20% cashmere & 10% nylon - thanks Alyson!
Needles Denises size 6.
Adaptations Unless you count using the Noro, none. The hat seems perfect, let's hope Mr. B. Senior agrees.

And the money shot, the top decreasing is so simple, but perfect...

Mmmm, Mmmm, Good.

2006-12-10T15:12:00.000-05:00

What is that I see before me, is that more Malabrigo? Yes! It's Malabrigo in color 137 "Emerald Blue". This is such a vividly colored yarn, I can't wait to see how it will look for MIL's So-Called Scarf. Thanks again Alyson for the introduction to this stunning yarn.

This is the beginning of FIL's hat made using Noro Cash Iroha (in color 16) - thanks again to Alyson for the fantastic prize package, I know that Mr. B. Senior will love this color and fabric, so soft. The hat is going to be F&P Jess's Cashmere Ribbed Hat, I love the top of the hat, the decreasing is special.

Finally, the Shedir hat.

Pattern Shedir cap.
Adaptations I only did 3 of the 5 pattern repeats as I felt that I was going to run out of yarn and it would be long enough, and it is, except for the bottoms of my poor little ears, I wish I'd done 4 pattern repeats now.
Yarn 3 balls of Elann's Baby Silk in "Oxblood", a soft, beautifully colored 80% baby Alpaca, 20% silk yarn. I doubled the yarn.
Needles Addis Turbos, 32" #3's (magic loop method).

I love this pattern, isn't the top so pretty?

That was fast!

2006-12-07T20:16:00.000-05:00

Sewing machine is here already - I can't quite believe that it came that fast. Okay, right I have to go play with the machine and the new fabric I got. While I'm busy doing that, here's a couple of shots of my first finished Ripple Weave Sock from the Fall 2006 issue of Vogue Knitting.

It fits!

2006-12-04T23:45:00.000-05:00

So I finally made something that fits, which has been a tall achievement for me recently. It warms a knitters heart to complete something that can actually be used for it's intended purpose. I have to say that I love, love, love this scarf, the stitch pattern is perfect for this scarf, it shows off the beauty of the yarn so well.

Pattern: My So Called Scarf by Stacey.
Yarn: Malabrigo in "Velvet Grapes", courtesy of Alyson (thanks Alyson!).
NeedlesDenises #11
Adaptations: I only had one skein of Malabrigo, so cast on only 26 sts, giving me a 4 1/2" wide scarf, that was 56" long. Because of the tendency to curl, and since I'm getting a dab hand at it, I added a single crochet border, which completes it perfectly.

Coming up... one completed sock, and a hat (yes, that fits too).

In other news, the sweater, after blocking, is not only wide, but super-long now too - on to plan B.

Something new

2006-12-02T12:20:00.000-05:00

I bought a sewing machine! Now before you go getting too excited, I don't have it yet, it will be with me in 5-10 business days (can't complain at $1 shipping) and it's only a pretty basic machine, nothing too fancy. However, I did get a $300 machine for less than $90 - does anyone else love overstock.com as much as I do? This machine had a lot of great reviews, okay, it's factory refurbished - but I've had a lot of luck with factory refurbished items in the past. Anyway, the machine is a Brother XL3500T machine, here's a picture for ya.

FO-less

2006-11-29T10:57:00.000-05:00

I know some of you have been anticipating a modeled picture of my proudly finished Nantucket jacket. What I can say, is that it is finished, however it's far too wide for me, so I'm re-blocking it, stretching it length-wise, giving it length and thus, making it narrower (or so I hope). Failing that, I try shrinking it, failing that I re-seam - thanks Spiders for the hints and suggestions. Anything to avoid knitting it again. Just in case you're wondering, yes I did gauge swatch, I think I may have knit one size too big.

In the meantime, I cast on for My So-Called Scarf with that mmmmmmmalabrigo. I'm in love...

Defeat and Joy.

2006-11-26T14:42:00.000-05:00

Okay, the Thanksgiving deadline drew closer and closer and I gradually came to realize that Mr. B's zipped raglan would not be done (I had finished it - AGAIN - but the collar needed frogging and re-thinking). My sweater still had hope, until my social life became hopelessly busy, and before I knew it, I'd seamed only one side and BAMM! my family had landed. It was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and I, sadly, admitted it could not be done, all blog reading and posting stopped (well, almost all) and I was 'indisposed' I have the day off today, but they're still here until Wednesday. On the bright side, both items are so close to completion, it won't be long before I have some FO's to share with you all.

I had a wonderful surprise for me the day after Thanksgiving, a package from Alyson, not just any package, but a prize-winning package, and I mean this in more ways than one. I won the goodies just by commenting on her blog, which is no hardship, I love it, it makes me smile, and she has some pretty pictures (esp. now she's taken up spinning, they get yummier). If you don't read her blog, you should definitely check it out. The Haiku is fantastic.

Anyway, on to the what was in that pretty little package.

Number 1, Malabrigo in "Velvet Grapes". I nearly deafened Mr. B. when I opened this. I then had to see, touch and smell it - have you sniffed Malabrigo? Yum! The color is stunning, the texture is soft as a babies, you know. I'm already wondering what kind of knitter I am to have never even touched this stuff. This could be a dangerous affair beginning.

Number 2. Elann's Baby Silk in "Oxblood", a soft, beautifully colored 80% baby Alpaca, 20% silk yarn. If I wasn't sure about Elann.com before, I am sure now, I love this yarn, it's love and luscious.

Last, but not least, number 3. Noro Cash Iroha (in color 16). I do believe I am one lucky, lucky knitter. Thank you Alyson, you really spoiled me.

Just one last look at the prettiness all together. Excuse me now, while I go and play :)

Sweat shop.

2006-11-11T12:14:00.000-05:00

The Bloglines plumber has been in and clearly fudged things up - trying to tell me I had 100+ posts to read this morning, eh? Ha! They lie!

Anyway, I've got some pictures for ya! First of all, the love of my knitting life right now, the Nantucket Jacket. The back is complete, and have started the right front - no pics of that since it's just a smaller version of the back ;) I'm making the jacket longer in the body, since I like longer tops. I'm going to make the sleeves longer though. I just haven't decided between 3/4 length, or just going full length - ideas? opinions?

Now the neglected, but definitely not forgotten Man's Zipped Raglan from LMKG. Can you see in the picture that I partly blocked the right front? I'm posting a photograph of it here is to make me feel the urge to finish the damn thing (again!).

My goal (dream?) is to finish both of these for Thanksgiving - am I being too ambitious? Considering I've never knit a sweater before, it's quite possible that I am, but that's not going to stop me. I better be off to get some knitting done...

Endings and Beginnings

2006-11-05T15:32:00.000-05:00

Those of you with bloglines will probably be told that there are two new posts for this blog. I updated my list of FO's (I added pictures). So that's the endings.

As for the beginnings, here's a quick progress shot of the Natucket Jacket from this winters Interweave knits - I'm loving the pattern so far, but am a little concerned about the amount of seaming ahead of me...

Have a great week.

The Mailman Rocks

2006-11-02T18:55:00.000-05:00

Guess what I'll be reading on the train tomorrow...

FO-licious.

2006-10-28T18:57:00.000-04:00

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

2006-10-26T23:06:00.000-04:00

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!

2006-10-23T13:23:00.000-04:00

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

2006-10-21T14:03:00.000-04:00

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

2006-10-19T08:18:00.000-04:00

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

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

GARGHHHHHH!

2006-10-15T12:08:00.000-04:00

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...

2006-10-11T22:31:00.000-04:00

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.

2006-10-07T13:32:00.000-04:00

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...

2006-10-03T19:54:00.000-04:00

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:

Ooh La La!

2006-09-27T19:50:00.000-04:00

Feeling French? I certainly am today! I can keep you in the dark no longer, I have to say that I'm pretty pleased with with this FO, I love the color and the style, thanks Veronique! It is a slightly bigger fit than anticipated, but I'm okay with a little more breathing space :)

Excuse the electronic drum kit in the background, Mr. B. needs hobbies too eh?

Close-up of front detail

Pattern: Phildar #30, Débardeur, from Spring Tendances 2004
Yarn: Toccata by Lana Grossa in color 98
Needles: US 3 & 4 Boye Needlemaster (not my fave, but hey! they work)
Mods: Mostly the same, except I left 7 stitches at the end of the pattern on the front and did a k1, p1 ribbing for the straps, just giving a little extra thickness. It also looks a little neater to me.

While I'm on the French mode, I notice that my hit count went up on Tuesday, and I was curious enough to look at why. I was pleasantly surprised to see that someone had translated my supple rib armwarmer pattern into French. Il est fantastique! I feel so Cosmopolitan now.

Yoooo Hooooo!

2006-09-25T21:32:00.000-04:00

EDIT: while I wrote this blog on 9/25, it seems that blogger is not my friend. I had to republish again today. DOH!

If anyone out there was wondering, yes, I'm still here, and no I haven't given up on blogland yet. The dastardly cold virus got me, and it got me good. I had to work through it [well, went home early one day]. I had to bow out of the genius, and fun sounding Sock Wars. I was such a warrier at work, that I had no energy to get the unexpected goods required for battle. Did anyone see dk yarn and #5 dpns coming? I sure didn't. Having seen some of the socks that have already been completed, I'm impressed. I wish everyone good luck in the battle, may the best sockster win!

Naturally, I had to share the bloody cold with Mr. B. so the poor man had to suffer our exceptionally busy weekend going here and there, but struggled through. Weekend was fun, I wasn't so keen on the whole 80's theme of the party in CT, but had way more fun than expected.

I did manage to finish a knitted item though, here's a sneak peek. More photos to come when I can find some daylight, it's getting a bit shy.

Right, I better get going, I have a bunch of blog reading to get to - I have to admit that it's a little daunting to be so far behind. If I don't say hi quite yet, don't worry, I haven't forgotten you.

Fantabulous!!

2006-09-13T21:56:00.000-04:00

They're done, really done! I'm so frigging happy, these are my favoritist socks ever! HA! Take that Pomatomus socks, you thought you had the better of me first didn't you? How wrong you were, I won, yes ME, I win!!! The yarn, the color, the pattern, all a perfect team to create the beauties you see before you.

That camera strap isn't there, really
Look at those kitchener toes, best ever
PS, Please excuse the nasty flash photography, a typical knitblogger problem. The color is off (shame, it's closer to the one I wanted - LOL) a bad side effect of work getting in the way of beautiful daylight FO pictures - and knitting for that matter.

Pictures.

2006-09-12T19:27:00.000-04:00

I debated about posting this, but finally decided to. This was the view from our roof last night. It was a strange and emotional day, but the tribute in lights is a beautiful and touching tribute.

On a lighter note, come and have a looksie at the yarnmail I got last week:

Some cotton, for a secret pattern.

Some gorgeous cotton by Lana Grossa for a gorgeous Phildar Cami, probably will be complete just in time for the cold weather :)

Finally, some black cotton/acrylic (pretty soft and nice) for the Men's Zipped Raglan from "Last Minute Knitted Gifts" [YAWN] for Mr. B.

Anyone seen the new Knitty issue? I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. You should check it out.

In honor of the pot sock.

2006-09-10T20:05:00.000-04:00

A little ditty in honor of my current project OTN:

I'm near finishing my second Pomotamus,
Which for ages I thought was short for Hippopotamus.
It's a Cookie design,
(what an ingenious mind).
It truely is honorificabilitudinitatibus.

Spiders, Oysters and the blood bath.

2006-09-09T11:58:00.000-04:00

So, I ~~got up the guts~~ decided to meet with the Spiders at their favorite haunt the Point and I have to say that it was absolutely lovely to finally meet the girls behind the blogs I've been ~~stalking~~ reading over the past months. I am not so great at names (make that terrible) so I can't remember the names of everyone who was there. I'm not going to embarrass myself by trying to name all the Spiders that I met, I'll only end up missing people out or (worse still) making people up. But everyone seemed really great and I want to say a big hello and thank you to all of you that were were there yesterday, it was a pleasure to meet you all, and you made my first time knitting with a group most enjoyable. I do have to say a big thank you to Michelle, who originally invited me when I met her on the way to the Suss sale in July (I also briefly met Carrie) and thanks also to Veronique, who actually persuaded me to be there yesterday.

As I promised... the bloodbath story. It's the story of my Soliel and the ~~shitty yarn~~ Cotton Patine. I was hand washing it and had actually forgotten about the purple fingers I got when I was knitting it. Not for long though, I look and it bleeds the moment it touches the water - I figured they might have put too much dye in it, so continued to wash it. Oh my God!! I couldn't believe how quickly the water turned the richest deepest purple - more purple than my Soleil. So I rushed to the kitchen cupboard (don't worry, it wasn't that far away), grabbed the vinegar and added it to the water to stop the bleeding. It worked, but my top had a more distinctive odor and was about 10 shades lighter (one step away from frigging lilac). Don't believe me? Look, see:

See? Believe it or not, this is the same yarn.
Needless to say, I'm totally disappointed with this yarn, to anyone who plans to use and wash this yarn, I have one word to say to you.....vinegar.

On a lighter note, I will be heading off to the Riverside Park Oyster Festival later on this afternoon. Some music as well as Oysters and Guinness galore - I like neither oysters, nor Guinness, but it's a fabulous excuse to get out into that beautiful September day, enjoy the sunshine and have a laugh with friends.

Hope everyone else has a wonderful weekend.

Warning - contents in this post may be upsetting and/or offensive.

2006-09-05T23:18:00.000-04:00

So Mr. B and I went to BODIES The Exhibition on Saturday (yes! this last Saturday, the Saturday the skies opened and the wind blew mightily! And yes! we did get wet, really, really wet). Anyway, I emailed a good friend back home about various things, including this exhibit and she emails me back telling me there is a big controversy about this exhibit (I guess I was living under a rock, cos there are a ton of stories about this). God damn! Can't a girl just go and look at her plastinated cadavers without all this guilt?

Needless to say, I didn't know this before I went, and the biologist in me found much of it fascinating - my favorite part was the blood vessels, the body can truly be beautiful.

Knowing what I know now, I'm not sure if I would do it again...

Coming next: the blood bath - or how my Soleil lost it's lustre.

Hand-dyed Happiness

2006-09-03T13:41:00.000-04:00

Hand-dyed goodness in pictures:

Lacy hand-dyed
Good enough to eat
Hand-dyed, hand knit socks
SP Hand-dyed sockiness
Pomoto-whatsit
Hand-spun, hand-dyed
My latest, orangeade
What socks will this be?

Dedicated to my Secret Pal Samantha, whose beautiful quilts inspired me to play with color.