The obligatory Rhinebeck post.

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.

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

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

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!!

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

Sunny Days

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.

200 posts and still going.

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 :)

Weekend update

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!

Revival!

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 :)

BIG thanks!!

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.

Secret Pal Finale

First of all I need to say a big public thank you to my Secret Pal Emily. I just received my last gift in the exchange from her. Here is it in pictures [yes! two posts with pictures in two days]:



In this picture you can see: a cute cat card; an apple pie scented room freshener; a little box of Whitman's chocolate (the chocs are already gone already - where did they go?); a mini photo book; red white and blue floating star candles; a home-made needle holder in orange, fringed in fun-fur; plastic yarn needles (actually really great for me, since my sweaty hands seem to destroy anything metal; a fridge magnet and a couple of pairs of hand made earrings. Wanna see those last things up close? Here you are:


I think Emily may have picked up that I like orange - what I didn't say [brainless, I know] in my SP8 questionnaire, is that I love fridge magnets. What I missed out in photographing (there was so much, I was bound to forget something) is a little tube of curel lavender, chamomile moisturizer.

Finally, and certainly not least - YAAAARRRRRRNNNN!! Pretty much my favorite thing to receive ever. This is Knitpicks Shine in worsted (I love the sport weight shine, so I'm pretty sure I will love the worsted - makes for fast knitting right?) in 8, yes! EIGHT, different colors; along with the pattern for the funky florida bags.

Birthday Bowling - AKA my new haul

WARNING: This post contains yarn p0rn.

Last night I went out with friends to celebrate my upcoming Birthday (the dreaded day is actually tomorrow), we went bowling at Leisure Time Bowl in the Port Authority. The place is a dive, and the fact that you have to go outside into the station to use the public restrooms doesn't help allay this fact. However, I didn't take any pictures of us bowling.

One of the best things about birthdays is gifts. And I'm totally psyched with the packages I received. The first is from my friends M&T, they inform me that this is not actually my birthday gift, this is just "something from Germany" - M had recently returned from visiting family there.


This flannel/dishcloth has a character I have not seen in years, he is the mouse [maus] from a funny little show called Die Sendung mit der Maus [The Program with the Mouse], which I watched in my childhood in years when living in Germany.


See this! Ya see it!! It's Filatura La Crosa's "Buffo", isn't it stunning? It's actually better in real life. But I tried to do it justice in photos - let's get closer:



If that wasn't enough, I also recieved this little package from L&J.


So, we have a candle holder, a Brittany crochet hook (it's beautiful isn't it?) and Soutwest Trading's "Bella" - beautiful 50% soy silk, 50% wool singles. Wanna see up close?


And just another peek at the crochet hook...


Isn't it lovely? I think they did good and they are not even knitters! Thank you so much, I love my new yarn!

Suss.

After Jess posted about the major Suss Design Sale, I just HAD to go check it out. Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm cheap, so how could I say no to 50-70% off yarn? As well at 30% off books? I'd never been before, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't in NYC for all that long anyway. So I also went to say hello and goodbye. On the way there I was reading Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's Yarn Harlot. As I was getting off the subway someone came up to me to tell me there was a yarn sale going on in the neighbourhood. As I looked at her and realized that I recognized her, and before I knew what was happening I was telling her that I recognized her from her blog. I felt like such a prat, I mean, are you even supposed to talk about blogs in real life? Anyway, she was very polite to be, despite my dorkiness, and was as sweet as she seems on her blog. Anyway, if you're reading this Michelle, it was a pleasure meeting you, let's not forget the quick 'hello' to Carrie and, I hope that one day I will make it down to the point (sooner rather than later), to enjoy a little SnB.

So I guess you're all wondering what I got in my haul. There isn't much to show I'm afraid. I managed to get a little something, something for my Secret Pal - so no pics there I'm afraid. I did get a little bit of this pretty Cotton Patine, for a summer top (pattern to be confirmed) and I couldn't resist those $2 needles - aren't they pretty? Not exactly a big spender - particularly compared to the $200+ totals the ladies in front of me were racking up.


I also started a new pair of socks with some yarn that I dyed recently, I'm really happy with the colors. There's other stuff that I would love to show you, but secrets suck sometimes... I just LURVE the colours in this yarn, the purple/plum was supposed to be a brown, but sometimes accidents happen for a reason, I think that it goes really well with the cranberry and orange.


What's that? You want to get a little closer.... oh, okay then....

Productive

I feel I've had a productive day, and no knitting so far either. I dyed some yarn for more socks, and once it's dry I will take and post pics. I also got this in the mail today:

Madil Eden Yarn - in pink.

More accurate color representation.

I bought this fabulous yarn on Wednesday night on that auction site, can you believe how quickly it arrived? Part of it is earmarked for Picovoli which I'm very keen to get started on. Anyway, it took all my willpower not to start swatching up right away - it feels so soft! Instead, I did what a good friend is supposed to do, and finished a birthday gift that's been waiting for months.

What will it be?

Unfortunately, I needed to line the sophie bag (yes, from that long ago) and this meant sewing. Not any old sewing (I actually find sewing with a machine quite thrilling), I do not own a sewing machine however, so this meant hand sewing - and I HATE hand sewing, it's like I'm being punished. I worked hard, and it's complete! Don't worry about me posting the pictures before the gift transaction, this friend isn't going to read my blog - I think knitting bores her to tears.

It's lined!

And pretty neat job if I do say so myself.

Other news involves SP stuff, so all very hush hush.