Knittin' mittens for ma kittens!

bye bye bloggy

2008-06-26T14:23:00.002-04:00

Ladies, gentlemen, let's get to the truth of the matter. I am no blogger. Indeed, I forget I have this page from time to time, unless I receive a comment or someone mentions it to me. I suppose I just need to come to terms with the fact that the written word, at least on the internet, doesn't come to me as easily as others.

You can drop this poor neglected page from your (no doubt long) list of blogs to read. It's okay! I will admit I usually only look at the pictures myself. And if you need a handspun fix, you know where to go--you can always find me on my flickr page and etsy site. I'm also on Ravelry as RepoRebo.

So in honor of what may be the final death throes of this blog, here's the meme I was tagged for that finally stirred me to post again after so long. It's the least I can do.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
Raging against the machine as a fine arts nerd in high school in rural Georgia.

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list today?
- Ship out orders
- Spin a new yarn tonight
- Remove dead potted plants from the yard
- Eat lots of babaganoush and falafel for dinner
- Get super pumped to see WALL-E tomorrow (if I can get anymore pumped, I don't know)

3. Snacks I enjoy:
Granola and yogurt, hummus and pita

4. Places I’ve lived:
Tokyo
Roswell/Cumming/Athens/Atlanta, GA
Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Tampa, FL
New Haven, CT
Boston, MA
Long Island, NY

5. Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Travel constantly like Anthony Bourdain, donate money to women and children's causes, go back to school full-time, pay someone to do all my clothes shopping for me.

Goodnight, sweet blog!

Shop update - life update!

2008-05-05T12:01:00.002-04:00

**Shop updates this week!**

Now that we have moved out of the ghetto and into a nice, peaceful neighborhood, my thoughts have once again turned to yarn. Funny how living in fear of armed robbery and random gunfire can be such a distraction! But it is all over now, and our year of Ghetto Lyfe will be one we can look back on and learn lessons from. We are all settled into our new house, and I finally have the time and energy to list all the yarns I've been backlogging in the past month. I plan to list these throughout the week, so keep an eye on my etsy site if you'd like to snag one!

"Sea Floor"
5.5 oz
65 yards
Bulky thick-n-thin

Hand dyed millends wool, shetland wool, emerald bamboo, and firestar nylon. Plied with metallic thread strung with Czech glass beads and faux pearls!

"Buzzword"
4.2 oz
43 yards
Bulky thick-n-thin

Yellow superwash merino, hand dyed millends wool, gold firestar nylon, with red merino supercoils. Plied with crochet cotton strung with five vintage bronze beads.

"Canyon Trail"
4.6 oz
88 yards
Worsted to bulky slightly thick-n-thin

Two-ply yarn from handdyed millends wool in shades of peach, forest greens and browns, yellow superwash merino, and sky blue bamboo.

2008-03-26T08:59:00.003-04:00

There's a gremlin in my chest trying to claw its way out through my throat. At least, that's how it feels in the mornings. Allergies? Cold? Who knows, but I feel like ass. Fiber is taking a backseat to trying to feel better, but I do have some pictures to share from better days.

These are some batts carded up special for my dear friend Megan at Treats for Breathing. (Hey Megan, I gave them a name--HIP HIP HOORAY! Get it? Get it?) They are my own hand dyed superwash, some lovely cotswold locks I got from funwithyarn.com, plus some sari silk and novelty yarn snippets, and maybe some other bits and bobs I can't remember in my plague-addled mind.

I also experimented with carding up a crazy batt and running it through twice, rather than the once-through I usually give them. I thought this would be a good experiment, since my poor wheel has made it known in no uncertain terms that superchunky yarns spun from minimally carded batts are no longer welcome through its orifice (and really, shouldn't we all be able to dictate exactly what goes through our orifice, even our spinning wheels?)

I have one yarn to share. Still trying to decide whether to put it in the shop or not. It's a two-ply yarn spun from merino roving dyed by the Yarn Wench, with mohair locks from funwithyarn.com spun into one ply to give it some texture and character.

2008-03-18T09:17:00.003-04:00

Not even tornadoes can stop the wheel from spinning! But it does beg the question--if you put wool in a tornado, does it come out as yarn? A most existential question posed by the recipient of Wupatki II, DrKnitter.

I updated my etsy shop with a new yarn from some of my crazy-carded batts. My poor wheel is begging me to take a break from the super-duper-bulky yarns, so this is the last one for a while. It's named The Last Straw, and features lots of that plastic Easter basket straw. So much fun--so hard on the wheel. This yarn is crazy-thick, as thick as my thumb in some spots.

And I finally managed to hold on to some of my hand carded batts long enough to photograph them...usually I spin them up before I get a chance to take pictures. I am in love with these, though. I have to think of the perfect spin for them. They're my own hand dyed mill ends wool in shades of green and brown, with some bright yellow superwash merino and a touch of red merino and gold firestar nylon.

And on a personal note, how does the significant other keep himself occupied when I go into hardcore yarn-production mode? Why, with computer games and kittens, of course.

Musings, shop

2008-03-05T10:20:00.003-05:00

I am trying to find my voice in fiber. I feel like I am beginning to get close, that the vision of what I want to create is becoming more clear to me. My productivity is going through the roof. I have more yarn in my shop now than ever before, and still more to list. And of course I have plenty of handspun stash waiting for me to knit...but for now, I spin.

Shop updates are coming more frequently now. Here are my most recently listed yarns.

Wupatki. Hand dyed blend of merino, wool, and ingeo (cornsilk). This was an exercise in spinning based on a memory of a place I travelled to, and I am very pleased with how it matches the colors in my memory.

I'm also starting to list handspun sets--these contain "skeinlets" of yarn, spun either as experiments or samples and when used together would make nice coordinating yarns. Or they'd be a great introduction to knitting or crocheting with handspun yarns, including some novelty varieties.

"Cocooned" set. Hand dyed mill ends wool with merino/mohair/sparkle cocoons, paired with a handcarded blend of wool and bits of bright red bamboo.

"Crayon Box" set. 4 wool yarns, handcarded and/or handdyed. I love how they all look together.

Shop update

2008-02-25T09:41:00.002-05:00

I've updated my etsy shop with some new yarns!

And another update will be coming later this week. I'm in love with my new drum carder! My spinning output is going through the roof. And I need to order more wool--I dyed the last of my merino over the weekend. Gotta stay occupied!

2008-02-18T17:20:00.003-05:00

Life is chaotic and seems to be finding a new unpleasant surprise for me everyday, but I'm finding comfort at the wheel. I broke down and purchased a new Louet Roving Carder, and I've found that I can create exciting and fun yarns just by reaching into my fiber stash and running whatever comes out through the carder.

And I've been enjoying some lovely hand-dyed fiber and batts from the many wonderful fiber artists out there--in this case, Falkland roving from the Yarn Wench, and bamboo batts from loop on etsy.

Life may feel like a rollercoaster ride these days, but at the very least I can sit down with my wheel and fiber and regain some measure of control.

2008-01-19T15:31:00.000-05:00

If only all Saturdays were this rewarding. We've got beautiful wintry weather outside...

A lovely surprise on the doorstep...

Inspiration and materials at my fingertips...

And an all-over-but-the-blocking finished object.

2008-01-14T10:36:00.000-05:00

Guess what I did this weekend? Washed, dried, photographed, uploaded, posted!

(Huge pictures with more detail can be seen by clicking the photos and going to flickr.)

This is my new precious. It's a novelty yarn I spun from a batt created by the incredible loop.etsy.com, made of bamboo, corriedale, alpaca, and sparkle. I'm so incredibly pleased with how this turned out. My mother had brought me a necklace home from the Caribbean that had these pretty round, flat shell beads, but the necklace itself was poorly constructed so I took it apart to use in this yarn instead. I strung the beads on this lovely metallic thread, then when I was plying I carefully secured them throughout the yarn so they wouldn't slide everywhere when knitting. I plan to start knitting a scarf out of this as soon as a big ole WIP is finished up (and photographed and posted, of course!)

Here are the other yarns I spun during the holiday break. These two are some of my first yarns spun out of my own handcarded batts/rolags, and both are for sale on my etsy site.

Quiet Riot, a blend of oatmeal-colored bluefaced leicester, cotswold locks, silk noil, and firestar nylon.

Holidays on Ice (named for the hilarious David Sedaris book of short stories...don't the colors make you think of the holidays?) Blend of merino, wool, mohair and sparkle.

And here are a couple more novelty yarns I'm keeping for myself.

Jewelled Tapestry, spun from corriedale dyed by tisjewelart.etsy.com. I added cotswold locks and plied it with gold thread.

Spun from a crazy batt from luxe.etsy.com with lots of mixed wool, soysilk, fabric scraps, etc. etc. I added cotswold locks (once again!) and plied it with leftover Jaggerspun Zephyr laceweight in a lovely ruby red.

2008-01-09T09:03:00.000-05:00

I have a bunch of handspun yarns that need to be photographed, and a brand new digital camera (birthday gift from my boyfriend) to do it. But have I taken advantage of a single day of sunshine in the past two weeks? Hardly. Then again, I do need to wash and set the twist before taking any pictures, so maybe I should make that priority number one.

I spun my butt off during the holiday break. I'd taken a bit of a break from the wheel, but spent a lot of time carding up some blends with my SAFF fiber and new Strauch handcards, and couldn't wait to see how it would all look spun up. I'm quite pleased. I also did my first beaded yarn, can't wait to show that one off. Here's hoping for some sunshine this weekend so I can get the washing, drying and photographing done!

In the midst of garden planning for spring. I went to the hardware store yesterday and bought a shop light, bulbs, some chain and pulleys to make a simple grow light setup. After going back and forth on it, I decided to try starting from seed after all. Given how many different varieties of veggies I want to grow this year, it was just more economical. I've got three kinds of tomatoes (two heirloom and one cherry variety), an interesting looking eggplant, some peppers, and four kinds of squash. (I love squash.) Once the setup is done, I'll take some pictures of it.

All this garden planning, including making my two raised beds, and now I'm not even sure we're still going to be in this house come summer. After the car theft, and hearing repeated reports of break-ins in the neighborhood, I'm completely unsettled about where we're living. I'm trying to tell myself that crime happens everywhere, especially in Atlanta, but I'm also aware that we don't live in the best of neighborhoods. God, I really don't want to move again this year. I just don't. This house is so good for us, and affordable, and if it wasn't for the FUCKING crackheads in the area it would be fine. But I don't know if I can keep living here if I don't feel safe, and right now...I really don't.

So that's where I am. Someday I'll have those handspun pictures to share with you!

sick days are for yardwork

2007-12-18T14:51:00.000-05:00

Taking a break from raking our beast of a backyard. But at least it's at my employer's expense!

It occurred to me that I never posted any pictures of my trip to Arizona this past November. I went with a good friend that I met a few years ago in Japan, and this is our second trip together. (The first was last November, when I visited her in London.) We decided to go someplace neither of us had been, so we picked the Grand Canyon. We drove out of Las Vegas (and not a minute too soon...that place is the PITS) and into Arizona, down Route 66.

We stayed in a cute little town called Williams, at a restored brothel-turned-bed and bakery.

We saw the Grand Canyon, where some mountain goats put on a show for us.

And I put on a show at Meteor Crater, quite possibly the windiest spot on earth that I've experienced so far.

It was a great trip. Edited to add: I uploaded a bunch more pictures of the trip to my flickr page. Click one of the photos above to see the rest.

2007-12-09T18:15:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was a day of laying around, feeling sorry for myself, trying to fall asleep to escape from the depression and the boredom. (Can you tell classes were cancelled? Sadly, Insubordiknit's Jacey had travel issues that prevented her from getting to Atlanta.) Funny how the fates align to add an extra dollop of crap to an otherwise shitty week, but such is life. No one can predict it. Sometimes it just happens that way. And sometimes you need to let yourself wallow in the fact that you feel like ass, and just let it have its day.

But today is different.

I'm eating a salad that I grew in my backyard. We have a delicious dinner waiting for us in the crockpot. Tomorrow starts a fun week full of holiday parties at work and with friends. And last I checked, all my body parts were in working order--I never blogged about it because it wasn't that big a deal, but I had some medical issues since summer that were a real drag. Lady parts acting up. But they seem to have resolved themselves for now, with the help of the doctor and a little hormonal interference. And I'm very grateful for that.

Tomorrow I get to spend some time with some very special ladies, at the home of one particular lady who knows all about what it's like to deal with life's little curveballs. The good comes with the bad, and we have to make the best of what's been dealt to us. If we're lucky, we have friends who can help us get through the tough times. I feel like I have that, and I'm very grateful for it.

Enough! No more introspection, reflection, or moping. We've had enough of that this week. Time to raid the crockpot.

2007-12-07T12:32:00.000-05:00

Such a crummy week. One of our cars got stolen right out of our driveway sometime Sunday night, while we were asleep in the house. We woke up and it was just gone. Luckily, they only took it for a joyride and parked it maybe two blocks away from the house--no damage other than the busted steering column. But we still had to pay to get it out of impound, then more to get the column fixed and a killswitch installed. Plus we'll be paying for security lighting, a security system (if I can get our landlord to agree to it) and who knows what else until we start feeling safe again.

I feel so shitty about it. I knew the neighborhood we lived in wasn't the best, but somehow until it happens to you, you don't really worry too much. Now every time I get home I'm scoping the place out for evidence that someone's been there. And I'm scared of being there alone. But what are we supposed to do? Move into a gated apartment complex where we'll have a quarter of the space, pay twice as much, and probably have to get rid of one of our cats? I'll just have to wear down the landlord about the security system, because damned if I'm going to live there without one after this mess.

I just wish people didn't suck so fucking hard and do this kind of shit in the first place. And I wish I had millions of dollars so I didn't have to live in a "transitional" neighborhood, but I guess millionaires get robbed too. So I guess I mainly wish people didn't fucking suck.

This weekend I'm taking two classes with Jacey of Insubordiknit at Knitch. That should be fun, and a nice way to relax after the bullshit that has been the week of December 3.

But things can always be worse. I certainly know that, and it helps to remind myself of it...even if things could be better!

I broke my wallet at SAFF

2007-10-29T13:00:00.000-04:00

My Saturday at SAFF was a real treat after several months of general blahness. But I'm going to be paying for it over the next month--between that and my upcoming trip at the end of November, I'm going to be left eating nothing but ramen noodles. Thank god I have a roommate now. ;)

Damage done (pics coming soon):

1 pair of Strauch fine handcards
a pound of undyed merino
8 oz bag of undyed silk noil
4 oz bag of dyed silk noil
3 oz undyed Wensleydale locks
5 oz undyed mohair locks
bag of dyed Cotswald curls
4 bars of goat's milk soap
2 small bags of angora fiber

Is there more? Probably. But the worst part is that the FLOW OF MONEY WILL NOT STOP. I am hemorraging cash, people! Someone find the vein and pull it out and clamp it, for god's sake!
This morning I signed up for a carding class at Knitch in order to learn how to use my new handcards, and then on my lunch break I stopped by Needlenook and what did I find? Handpainted numma-numma sock yarn, which Karen was flashing all over the place on the SAFF bus like some kind of shameless harlot. And the numma-numma lady herself was even on the bus with us--can't recall her name, but a woman who names her sock yarn after toast toppings? How can you resist that?

Obviously I need to be restrained at this point. But it was worth it, goddammit. Every last penny.

Now I get what all the hype is about!

2007-10-25T11:04:00.000-04:00

It's official: Ravelry helped me find a sweater I actually want to knit. (Of course, if I'd picked up a copy of Interweave spring 2007, I would have found it a lot sooner. But let's give Ravelry the credit!)

I'm not a sweater knitter. I've knit a few, but nothing that I ever wear or really ended up completely pleased with. I've had the idea in my head for a while that if I did ever attempt another sweater, it had to have some requirements. First off--it had to be a top-down raglan. Second, minimal finishing. And third, some kind of interesting pattern to keep my going. Stockinette in the round just wouldn't cut it. And finally, it had to be a stash-busting project that would work with the yarn I have: Elann's Peruvian Sierra Aran, bought once long ago for a cabled vest that never came to fruition.

And folks, I've found it, all thanks to Ravelry. The Cable-Down Raglan from IK Spring 2007!

Now I just need to wait to get the mag in the mail (swapping for it) and get my gauge figured out. I can hardly believe I'm this excited to knit a sweater again! Maybe it's the cooler weather.

Oh, and if you're on Ravelry, friend me! I'm Reporebo.

Gearing up for SAFF

2007-10-21T15:50:00.000-04:00

It's been a long while since I took any pictures of my spinning. I haven't been incredibly prolific over the last couple of months, but I've spun a few skeins that I'm particularly proud of. Here's a line-up of what's come off my wheel.

(those first two in the bottom pic are up on my etsy shop. And there are tons more pics of the other yarns on my flickr.

But this is probably my favorite handspun ever to date, so it deserves some blogtime.

These are my babies. My BABIES!! I got a huge thing of BMFA merino-tencel roving, and spun some three-ply sock yarn. All for me. The little one on the left is navajo-plied from the leftover singles, and the big honker on the right is a real three-ply, as in three bobbins. I love these so much. Haven't counted yardage, but it's a real shitload. I mean look at this:

AHHHH! I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!!

I'll be at SAFF next Saturday (taking the Knitch bus) so I plan to get lots and lots of fiber to feed the monkey. I'm also planning to get a pair of handcards. After spinning from a few batts, I've realized that I'm in love with the kind of yarn you can achieve with a batt. And I'd like to try carding up some of my own novelty blends, maybe even put a few up on etsy if I get good enough. Thinking way ahead of myself here, of course. Anyway, hope to see some of you at SAFF! Can't wait!

this pretty much sums up my week

2007-09-26T10:29:00.001-04:00

Ever have a picture taken of you that somehow manages to capture your exact internal state at the very moment it was taken, without you even realizing it? Well then, let me present to you the final picture in a series of fifteen taken for our staff directory. I think you'll understand how I'm feeling these days.

Will you read this if I don't post a picture?

2007-09-19T09:22:00.001-04:00

...I know I wouldn't, but I'm just that kind of person. I need visual stimulation! But I feel verbose this morning, so I'm not going to let the fact that I have no new pics to share stop me from posting.

Tonight, of course, is the Yarn Harlot in Atlanta! Looking forward to finally getting a glimpse of the super-secret Hilan theater in Virginia Highlands. During my (three week) stint as an ice cream scooper at Ben and Jerry's, I poked around back there trying to get in, but could never find an entrance. I can't imagine that 700 people are going to be back there! I've got my sock knitting bag ready for Georgia's largest knit-in, the perfect knitting accessory as far as I'm concerned, purchased from mommamonkey.etsy.com. And the best part, of course, is getting to see all my knitting and spinning friends in one place. I love events that bring people together, though I am not the type to admit that in person. Only here do I let my soft little underbelly show.

I've been in a bit of knitting slump lately--perhaps not a slump in the truest sense of the word, maybe more like I've been distracted by another, newer hobby. Good christ, I need to get ahold of myself. The spinning, the dyeing, now the gardening. All hobbies I've been totally consumed by for a period of time, thrown more money than I care to think about at, all the while neglecting things like cleaning the house and oh, those other hobbies I have. But really, I love the gardening. Love it. It's a bit much for my impatient self to have to wait for seeds to sprout and plants to bear fruit (well, veggies in my case) but I suppose that's good for me. I do tend towards the obsessive, googling constantly for information about soil temperature's effect on germination and organic fixes for fungal diseases and soil amendments. I think I need to chill a bit and let the plants do their thing.

I've got a LOT in the ground right now. In the raised bed, I recently planted bok choy (two types), radishes, and swiss chard. The haricot verts and two tomato plants should be ready for harvesting very soon. In containers I planted spinach and a variety of lettuce seeds, it may yet be too warm for them to sprout however. Ragh! Me hate wait! Hopefully everything comes up soon so I can at least stop fretting over the poor little seeds, poking at the soil and fucking shit up before it even breaks the surface. That's me, can't leave well enough alone, gotta poke poke poke and then oops, shouldn't have done that, gotta start all over again. Life lessons.

That's enough out of me. Hope to see some of you tonight at the Yarn Harlot!

Return to irregularly scheduled programming

2007-08-29T08:41:00.001-04:00

Surprise, surprise--I've added yet another hobby to my collection. Funny how I say I'll never do certain things and then I end up completely addicted to them. Let's hope that doesn't happen with something like, say, smoking crack. Maybe I need to stop saying "I'll never do X" altogether, because it seems like as soon as the words leave my mouth, an all-comsuming desire to master whatever hobby or skill I'm professing to have no interest in suddenly takes over. Or maybe I'm just full of shit!

So what is it now? Gardening! Mostly vegetable and herb gardening, but I'm slowly working my way into flowerbeds as well. I've tried my hand at growing peppers, tomatoes and a few herbs in containers on apartment balconies. But since we moved into our house with the incredible yard, I've expanded my little operation to include a raised bed, along with container-grown veggies and herbs.

The raised bed currently has some haricot verts and two tomato plants, but is mostly bare and waiting for fall planting of lettuce, bok choy, and radishes.

These two cherry tomato plants have been incredible! I've never tasted better ones before. Definitely going to grow my own from now on, it beats paying $3.50 for a container of them at the store when you can spend that much or less on a plant and be supplied all spring and summer. I'd like to try another variety next year, like these yellow pears.

This is my tree stump herb garden. No idea what the bizarre plant that's growing out of the stump is in back, but it's a good spot for spiders to hang out and catch the bad bugs that want my plants, so I've left it. The herbs have really exploded in size since I planted them in May.

There's basil in its own pot, but stupid me went and planted two invasives with smaller varieties of herb that are now struggling for space in their containers. The Battle of the Mint and the Turkish Oregano:

And Lemon Balm vs. Lemon Thyme.

I've even started composting so I'll hopefully have some nice black gold ready for the spring garden. Our landlord left a bunch of these wire cages in a back shed, so I've been using them for the compost.

It's been so nice to have an outdoor hobby, even in the incredible heat we've had over the last month. It feels great to go outside and work in the garden, and to have so much space to take advantage of. When I'm in the garden Justin is usually outside working on his car, so it's nice to be able to be nearby, doing my own thing and having that kind of communal feeling of outdoor work. Plus knowing that I'm growing food for us is incredibly satisfying and makes me feel like I'm doing my own little part for the world, at least the place I live in. And there's nothing better than standing back and surveying my domain...

The power of the consumer

2007-08-28T11:19:00.000-04:00

Never underestimate the power of the consumer. In my marketing and economics classes in college, I learned that for every unhappy customer a company generates, word-of-mouth will stop 12 people from using that company's services. I don't know how accurate that statistic is, but perhaps my experience can help prevent someone else from losing money, time, and possibly the use of their vehicle. What follows is a copy of a letter I sent to http://www.jiffylubeproblems.com and cc'd to Jiffy Lube International, recounting a recent experience with the company.

Subject: Jiffy Lube Damaged my Car

I am a resident of Atlanta, Georgia, and I have taken my car to have the Signature Oil Service for the majority of my oil changes in the past years. However, due to recent experiences with the company I will not only never bring my car to a Jiffy Lube again, but I will also tell everyone I know never to use their services.

In late November of 2006, I brought my car, a 1998 Chevy Cavalier, to be serviced at the Jiffy Lube located at 2138 Briarcliff Rd NE, Atlanta. My oil was changed and my tires rotated. I noticed the technicians were very unprofessional and seemed distracted the entire time they performed the service, but I assumed they must know what they were doing since they were store employees. However, the next day as I drove my car to work, the check oil light came on and I smelled smoke. I immediately drove my car back to the Jiffy Lube, where it was discovered that there was no oil remaining in my car. The technicians apologized and put in new oil. As I drove home, I could literally see the trail of oil that had run from my car, right out of the Jiffy Lube lot and back to my house from the day before. I was horrified, and hoped that no damage was done to the engine after this incident.

However, the next day I once again discovered an oil leak. A puddle had formed under my car and I once again brought it back to Jiffy Lube. The techs offered hardly any explanation for these two leaks, only that they had definitely fixed it this time. I did not notice leaking oil after that service. I requested a voucher for a free oil change and received one. I promised myself I would not go back to Jiffy Lube after I used that free oil change voucher. In May of 2007, I brought my car to use this oil change voucher to another Jiffy Lube, located on Clairmont Road in Decatur, GA. The change was performed without incident, and nothing related to prior damage to my car was noted on my invoice. However, in August of this year, I again discovered an oil leak. Not knowing what the source of the leak was, I brought it to my local mechanic.

After examining my car, my mechanic told me that the oil pan drain plug had been completely stripped, and that as a result the pan needed to be replaced. He said the damage had to have been done during an oil change. I do not know if the damage was done at the Briarcliff Road location, since I had severe oil leakage after the initial oil change performed there, or if it was done at the Decatur store, since they did not note any damage to my car’s oil pan on the invoice prior to the oil service. Regardless, the damage was done by one of these two stores, and as a result, I had to pay $371.55 in parts and labor to have this fixed.

The treatment I received from Lucor, the franchisee that owns the two Jiffy Lube stores, was just as bad as I had expected after reading the experiences of others on this site. They refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing, and stated that I had no proof that Jiffy Lube was responsible. They refused to send anyone to look at the damaged oil pan, and said if I wanted anyone to do that, I would have to pay to ship the part to their corporate headquarters. They took their service manager’s word about the damage and basically told me my mechanic was a liar. Even when I told them that I had called several mechanics and dealerships in my area, explained the damage to the oil pan, and received the same answer—there was no fixing the damage, the pan had to be replaced or the leak would come back—they would not accept liability. Their tone was very unprofessional and dismissive, and it was only through persistence that I was able to get them to offer me half the cost of the repairs.

I would have loved to have dragged them into court, but like most people, I am a busy person and have limited energy to deal with this kind of situation. So I will take my half of the money owed to me, and make sure that I tell everyone I know—and tell them to tell people they know!—about what a terrible company Jiffy Lube really is.

My advice to you? Stay far away from this company. Take your car for regular oil changes to a mechanic you can trust, not these untrained fools. For more information about problems others have had at Jiffy Lube, visit http://www.jiffylubeproblems.com, or check out Consumer Affairs articles about the company.

by popular demand

2007-08-28T08:17:00.000-04:00

I'll be damned. There are actually a couple of people reading this. People who like pictures of KITTIES!

...and cute boys snuggling KITTIES!

...and handspun, handknit items for KITTIES~!! ...okay, babies. Not as good as kitties.

That's all I've got.

Spring Salad

2007-06-16T13:51:00.000-04:00

MMM!

I just can't stop! It's another art yarn, in case you couldn't tell. More superwash merino dyed with Easter egg tablets, with gold firestar nylon, plied into mini coils and beehives with a shiny blue-green thread. About 78 yards thick n thin. I love it! Hope you do too. :)

I done up and done it!

2007-06-13T08:42:00.000-04:00

...and what I did was open an Etsy shop.

I know, right?? But here is my reasoning. I am spinning a lot more creatively now that I actually know what I'm doing, and as such, I'm making a lot of yarn that I personally don't have a need for. I'm just enjoying the creative process and letting the chi flow, letting the fiber become what it wants to be--and sometimes that means I end up with something that is not my color, not my style, whatever. And so it sits in its little space-bag, unused, which to me is sad! So I figure, why not put it out there and see if it strikes someone's fancy? I know there's a TON of handspun on Etsy already, but I feel like it's worth a shot.

Anyway, the whole thing is pretty bare bones at this point, but if you have any suggestions for my shop, go check it out and let me know! I'd love the feedback.

Proof of Productivity

2007-06-11T11:31:00.000-04:00

In the last month and a half, we've moved into a new house, where I now have an entire room devoted to crafty endeavors. As such, I have a lot to show you! First off, here are my first attempts at dyeing using Jacquard acid dyes.

Some sock yarn...

And some roving. This is Corriedale; I was going for much deeper, more vibrant and distinct colors, but while carrying the crockpot into the house, I tripped and spilled half of the water and dye all over the floor! But it ended up giving it a neat watercolor effect, don't you think?

This is some oatmeal colored BFL, dyed with the same colors but using the "hot pour" method. (Heating up the roving and water in a pot, then pouring on the dye.) Too muddy for my liking, but hey, it's a start.

And I finally finished spinning and plying the Crown Mountain Farm "Sock Hop" yarn. The color is "The Beat Goes On."

And what do you know--I made another "art yarn"! This is superwash merino pencil roving that I dyed using Easter Egg dyes, with some novelty yarn snippets and dyed romney locks, and plied with a shiny holographic thread. No name for this yet--but it reminds me of cotton candy with the blue and pink.

Fiber Friday: Pistachio

2007-04-06T08:51:00.000-04:00

I may have come in last in our office bowling tournament yesterday, but I'd like to know how many of my colleagues who broke 100 (or even 50) came home and did THIS:

I am so proud of this skein--it is my very first novelty/art yarn, and it came out exactly like I hoped it would. I'm calling it Pistachio. It's hand-dyed Shetland wool from the Peachtree Spinning Guild dye day (photo of the dyed roving.) I split the roving into strips with about two colors in each strip, then held them together with the browns and greens on opposite ends of each strip, so that the colors would blend and barberpole as I spun it.

Taken with the flash so you can better see all the green firestar nylon I used throughout, and the gold thread it's plied with.

It came out to around 68 yards, extremely thick 'n thin. I love the big floofy parts!

I couldn't be happier with it. I can't wait to do more dyeing so I can make even more skeins like this!!

Socky Friday

2007-03-23T08:50:00.000-04:00

Well, I have taken a break from my spinning wheel for the past few weeks, and as a result I've gotten back to my first love--knitting my little heart out.

Completed Blue Moon Fiber Arts Rockin' Sock Club socks, in the EXCLUSIVE "Monsoon" colorway JUST FOR CLUB MEMBERS. (Why yes, inciting jealousy in others enhances my own pleasure, why do you ask?) I finished a pair of socks in (for me) record time--about a week and a half. They're February's "Inside Out!" socks, though the package didn't actually get to me until March...I reeeeally hope we all get our packages in April this time, as after getting this kit, I am DYING for the next one!

A close-up of the cuff (right side out...I forgot to take shots of the reversible cable!) Some folks are having a hard time getting the cuff over their heel, but after wearing mine for an hour or so they loosened right up and I had no problems getting them on or off. I figured out a trick for putting them on when they're freshly-washed and tighter--I just folded the cuff down and it was much easier to slide over my heel. Love these socks!! They are perfect for padding around the house.

After finishing that pair, I immediately cast on for Cookie A's Twisted Flower Sock (http://www.cookiea.com! Go check out all of her beautiful patterns now available for sale!) I'm using Gems Pearl in "Fern."

What a fun pattern! I love the twisted/travelling stitches. These are going to make perfect spring socks. And so will these, if I ever finish the second:

I'm also very close to finishing a UFO I resurrected after laying it to rest at the end of the last summer, my Peacock Feathers Shawl. No WIP shots, because right now it's just a big crumply mess of red lace, and I'd much rather show you pictures once it's finished and blocked. And the best part is, once I finish it, I can finally start the Swallowtail Shawl with that gorgeous skein of Sea Silk I've been saving for it! Whee!

Hand-dyed, handspun SOCK YARN!

2007-03-07T16:00:00.000-05:00

I actually have done a little dyeing recently! Thanks to some of the lovely ladies with the Peachtree Handspinners Guild who helped us dye noobs and showed us the ropes. Here is some shetland that bore the brunt of my experiments:

And here is the crown jewel of my efforts for that day, superwash merino for hand-dyed, handspun socks! On the bobbin:

Very happy colors. And here is the end result!

This was also my first navajo ply, not too bad I don't think.

Didn't measure the wraps per inch, but I'd guess it's about a sportweight. 300 yards. I am imagining some toe-up socks with big, loose cuffs for padding around the house!

FUBAR Friday

2007-02-16T09:02:00.000-05:00

That's how I feel anyway, after this week!! Craziness at work, strange things happening here and there...look at what happened when I opened up google maps yesterday. (Click for big)

Do you see?! Do you see the cat??

Freakin' WEIRD!!! I was asking people to go to google maps to see if they could see the cat too--it was blinking and flashing, by the way--but no one else could. My brother said it was probably a "cache mixup", which is apparently when your computer has a brainfart and pulls a random image from your cache and sticks it somewhere it doesn't belong. In this case, that's someone's avatar from the somethingawful.com forums replacing the google logo. WEIRD!

I spun the merino-tencel from funwithyarn.com (here it is before I spun it) and ended up with two small skeins--I was too lazy to figure out the weight or the yardage!

I spun it from the fold, my first attempt, so it's reeeeally uneven. But I really like how the colors look in both skeins, and how light and airy the resulting yarn is.

I am going to a dye party on Sunday with the Peachtree Handspinners Guild, so I'll finally get a chance to try some real dyeing. I ordered some BFL from one of the members who sells Louet products, and I am so excited to get my hands on it and start splashing colors around! Especially in someone else's kitchen, considering the size limitations of my own--and my dislike of post-crafting cleanup!

Have a great weekend everyone, and hope to see some of you locals on Sunday at the dye party!

I still knit.

2007-02-14T11:12:00.000-05:00

Really, I do. Here's proof.

Oh socks. I love knitting you.

It's not Friday, but...

2007-02-07T13:01:00.000-05:00

I just have to show off anyway. :D And who knows what the weather will be like later this week? I had to take advantage of the beautiful day and the chance to take some photos during my lunchbreak. Lucky me, I work in an office with a gorgeous courtyard.

Finished this last week--about 250 yards of worsted-weight-ish bluefaced leicester from Sweet Georgia. The color is called "Afterglow."

It's soft as butter.

And here is my first plied yarn on the wheel, two skeins (about 7.5 oz total) of Lorna's Laces wool top in "Glenwood."

I guess it's between a worsted and a chunky weight? I got about 222 yards out of the bump. I was disappointed because the batch I got, despite being labelled 10 ounces, was really only about 8.5. Plus it was expensive. It was nice to spin, though, with a lot of predrafting--it was a bit felted. I don't know if I'd buy it again at full price. :P

And here are all three skeins hanging out on an old well cover in the garden!

Hump Day fiber pron

2007-01-31T08:58:00.000-05:00

It's Wednesday and if I'm dragging ass already, I'm sure some of you are too. So here's a little fibery goodness to help get you through your day!

Oh yes, I've been doing some serious fiber stash enhancement. So much so that I'm putting myself on a restricted fiber diet for the next couple of months! I've hit my own personal critical mass when it comes to stash. But just look at all the goodies waiting for me to spin up!

That's some merino-tencel from Fun With Yarn, the color is called Starlite. I loooove her fiber! I also ordered some Wensleydale, in color Baked Spice. (I love that name!)

Some lovely corriedale from an Etsy seller, called "Faded Tapestry"...

Here's some merino from Spunky Eclectic, 8 oz in "Toronto", and the shiny stuff is genuine BMFA merino-tencel in "Bleeding Hearts". 9 oz! The thing is huge.

A sexy closeup of the BMFA merino-tencel...I love the gray and fuschia and purple all twined together.

Yeah, I really don't need to buy any more roving for quite some time. At least until I finish spinning all of this up! (Let's see how long that resolution lasts, shall we?) Oh, and here's my favorite new gadget...I should have gotten one of these ages ago.

That's all for now! Hope that little bit of fiber pron gets you through your day. :)

It's Fiber Friday! And I'm invited.

2007-01-25T08:40:00.000-05:00

Here it is...my first Fiber Friday! Complete with photos of my first completed yarn on the Fricke.

That's the corriedale pencil roving I posted earlier, in its completed state. I ended up with two skeins--no idea on the yardage, guessing it's bulky weight. Yeah, I'm real scientific with my spinning so far!

It's not perfect, but it's exactly what I wanted. The pencil roving was a great choice for a wheel noob like me--minimal drafting meant I could pay more attention to what the wheel was doing, how adjustments affected the results, etc. So what's on the bobbin now?

BFL from Sweet Georgia, in Afterglow. Here is what it looks like spun and plied on my spindle, but I think I will keep the wheelspun in singles form, to maximize the yardage.

And I can't neglect to show a couple of pictures of my spindle-spun merino tussah--I just completed a shawlette with this, and will post some photos when I get a chance. This is an extra skein that I'm keeping for sentimental reasons. :)

It's Ashland Bay MT 50/50, in Sea Mist. The stuff was heaven to spin.

That's all from me, folks! Can't wait to see everyone else's Fiber Friday posts. :)

Yarn pron, kitty pron...the best things in life

2007-01-23T16:47:00.000-05:00

I'm in a picture-postin' mood today.

I've been remiss in photographing my FOs lately, but here's a pair of socks I completed a month or so ago and actually photographed, though crappily. They're my favorite pair so far, they fit P-E-R-F-E-C-T-L-Y. And they are my first truly successful toe-up socks with short row heels and toes, using misocrafty's technique.

The pattern is Badcaul by Anna Bell. And the yarn is STR in Watermelon Tourmaline. What's that? You like the STR?

My small stash, soon to be greatly enhanced by the Rockin' Socks club. (Front to back is Sandstone, Rocktober and Fairgrounds.)

Kitty pictures!

Look how big Jonesy got...what a big freakin' chooch! Here's a funny picture of him a few months ago, checking out some artwork.

And this one's blurry as hell but it's still really cute.

The Cotton Gin

2007-01-22T08:47:00.000-05:00

Not a lot of time to blog this morning, but I did want to show you my new toy.

There it is in all it's glory, my Fricke wheel! Put together by me in about an hour, plus the time it took to run across the street to the hardware store for a wrench. This wheel has been dubbed the Cotton Gin by my boyfriend.

And this is what I spun up on it! Corriedale pencil roving from Crown Mountain Farms in colorway Pueblo--I got about two bobbins' worth.

Before setting the twist...yow!!

I've got a lot to learn, but I think the Cotton Gin is going to be the perfect companion to learn with. Now if only I could create more hours in the day to sit on my ass and spin!!!

Gimme gimme!

2007-01-18T09:59:00.000-05:00

What a week it's been. After the MLK holiday, coming back to work was really rough--a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it. I think things have settled down today, and I'm feeling better (sleeping for nearly 12 consecutive hours last night helped significantly. I'm a girl who needs her sleep!)

Exciting things are happening! If all goes well and UPS does not pull a fast one on me, my spinning wheel should arrive tomorrow. It's a Fricke S-160 double treadle, and I absolutely cannot wait to get it home Friday afternoon, put it together and start spinning!! I even joined the local spinning guild, after attending their Distaff Day celebration (my friend Claudia from the Intown Knitters Meetup took some great pictures, I'm in there spinning on my spindle.) I can't believe that I've gone from being someone who said she'd never, EVER take up spinning because it would just turn into another addiction, into a person who will in 24 hours have her very own wheel! Actually, yes, I can believe that. Because I have no willpower, really. I'm all id. Me want, me get.

Speaking of no willpower, I also joined the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Rockin' Sock Club. I pre-registered months ago, and went back and forth about whether or not to actually pony up when the time came. I did, but then after the whole bank fiasco they had where everyone's payments were refunded, I took it as a sign that I should save the money. But dammit, I couldn't help myself, so I went back and paid. I'm trying not to beat myself up over it and ruin the enjoyment of it! I want the anticipation of a surprise package in the mail every couple of months, the excitement of getting a pattern and color that's completely new to me, and to be a part of the community of other knitters in the club. And despite the part of me that wants to buck trends and do something different from everyone else, I've loved the patterns and colors from last year's club and don't really care that I'd be knitting the exact same socks as hundreds of other people!

So that's what's going on, and a cookie to you for reading it! Pictures of my new baby will, of course, be posted soon. And I might even have an FO to show off as well, out of my own handspun no less!

(And I almost forgot--I have to mention that I finished watching Six Feet Under this week. Ooooh, that show. I cried like a baby during the last episode of the series, it was just that moving and powerful. There are so many inspiring and important messages that I've taken away from watching it, lessons I've learned about life and death and what it means to be human. "You can't take a picture of this, it's already gone." I can't recommend it highly enough.)

A long overdue update

2007-01-10T10:42:00.001-05:00

I am a crap blogger. I know it, you know it. For someone who spends as much time reading other people's blogs as I do, you'd think I'd be more enthusiastic about keeping my own updated. My excuses are threefold:

a.) I have no computer at home. Any blogging is done undercover at work.

b.) I am lazy. When I have free time, I'd rather spend it knitting or spinning than taking pictures of what I create...but I'm trying to change that.

c.) There are a billion blogs out there already. Who wants to read my crap? My pictures aren't even that good! But then again, I created this one, so I suppose I might as well update it right? I'm going to go with that.

Anyhow, just because I haven't been blogging doesn't mean my life hasn't been full of things that people might--just might!--want to read about. Sadly this post will have little to no knitting content, but I promise in the near future to post about my knitting and recent plunge into the world of spinning. Promise!

But for now, a little photo travelogue of my trip to the United Kingdom in November! I went to visit a good friend of mine who I met back when I was an exchange student in Tokyo back in college. While she was at work I spent some time exploring London on my own, seeing the usual sights.

Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey...all that good stuff.

Trafalger Square...

Finding this place pretty much fulfilled a lifelong dream of mine. I've had a crush on Jeremy Brett since I was ten.

My friend and I visited Highgate, which was one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. We spent hours in both sides of the cemetary, looking at all the graves and meandering pathways.

A park in Highgate, we ate lunch on a bench by a lake and a rat named Lemmiwinks kept sneaking out to see if we would drop our food for him to steal.

We took a day trip to Bath to see the (what else) Roman baths, these are my favorite photos from that city.

Mmmm...pasties....

It was a lovely grey and rainy day!

Our other day trip was to Dover to see the White Cliffs...which I'm sure are far more impressive when it's actually sunny out. But we did get a few moments of sunshine while we were atop Dover Castle.

Look! There is some knitting content in the last two pictures! My Clapotis accompanied me on the trip, as well as a hat made from my first handspun. That's right--I succumbed to the spinning sickness! Next post will have some pictures of what I've spun up, as well as lots of wheel anticipation. If you're still around, drop me a comment so I know I'm not just talking to dead air! (Not that I wouldn't do that anyway...but a girl likes to know someone's listening!)

Mr. Stegs

2006-06-29T10:05:00.000-04:00

Despite my lack of blogging, I've been diligently knitting away on several different projects. Unfortunately the combination of life's duties and a lack of a digital camera has prevented me from sharing much of that progress. However, a co-worker and fellow knitter was kind enough to take a couple of pictures of my newest FO, which is a gift for another co-worker who is expecting a baby boy in mid-July. Behold my first knitted toy, Mr. Stegs! (Pattern available for free here.)

Knit with Tahki Cotton Classic Color, it looks much more "neon blue" in this picture than it does in person. I honestly don't remember the name of the colorway, but I think it makes for great dinosaur skin!

Here is a close-up of his face that shows not only the true colors, but the horrible, horrible job I did with the embroidery.

I mean really, he looks like he has some kind of genetic disorder. And what's going on with the stretched-out stitches where I was increasing? It's not overstuffed, the fabric looked that way before I even sewed it together. I wish now I'd tried to wash and stretch it more, to try to close up the loose areas.

So other than Mr. Stegs, I've been working on the Peacock Feathers shawl...but I would be surprised if I'm managing more than ten rows a week! I work on it exclusively during my lunch hour, since that is the only time I can really concentrate on knitting something that complicated. Forget trying to do it at home, the cats would make it impossible. I'm towards the end of the third chart, so I'll definitely get a picture as soon as I have my digital camera back (it's being borrowed for a parental vacation.)

And I'm also working on Tivoli, using some Rowan Cotton Glace that I got in a swap. I think it will turn out to be a good fit, though I'm really unhappy with my cast-on stitches at the underarm. I hope that a single-crochet edging with disguise the crappiness of it! So expect pictures of that WIP in the near future as well.

Apologies to all for my lack of response to e-mails and blog comments! If only I could afford to set up an internet connection at home, I'd be able to do more personal things like blog...but as it is, work is my only internet source, and web surfing has taken a backseat to, you know, WORK! But you will hear more from me soon, unless the cats eat me in my sleep!

Zee shawl, she eez done!

2006-05-31T09:34:00.000-04:00

I am a convert. A complete and utter convert. Everything involved with the creation of a lace shawl seems like a minor miracle to me. First off, the fact that a clumsy dork like me can knit one. Second is the fact that the entire thing, made up of thousands and thousands of tiny knits, purls, yarnovers, decreases and increases, all originates from three measly cast-on stitches. THREE! To three-hundred something by the time I reached the cast-off row, and god knows how many stitches in between! Unbelieveable. It's like a mathematical miracle in fabric form. And I don't even LIKE math!

And then, the final miracle is that something that starts out looking like this...

...crumply, bumply, messy and fussy, can turn into THIS:

It's light as a feather, crisp and strong, the colors are simply amazing. It is funky and cool, wearing it with a sexy tank top will completely blow any "old lady shawl" image out of the water. I could wear it naked. In fact, I just might, for more private moments--it is just that hot. A SHAWL! Who knew a frickin' shawl could be sexy??

Despite the fact that I used a laceweight yarn and went down a couple of needle sizes, this is still a large shawl, at least for someone of my height. I neglected to measure it while it was pinned out, but it has a length across the top of at least 60 inches (the length of my "wingspan") which makes for a perfectly-sized shawl for a shorty like me.

Of course, the pattern would be more apparent had I used the thicker yarn called for in the pattern, or even a solid colored yarn...photographing the blocked shawl is a bit difficult, but in person I think the pattern is subtle but still apparent.

I'm glad that my next shawl is going to be in a solid color, though--I've started work on the Peacock Feathers shawl, and oh man...I have to admit, the Zephyr is SENT FROM GOD. It's softer than the Helen's Lace and feels a little more substantial, knitting it up is like a dream. Plus the color I've chosen, Ruby, makes me drool. I'd post pictures of the (as of right now) teensy WIP, but I've hit my upload limit for the month on Flickr. It must have been all the kitten pictures! So to close, here is Jonesy in the new Kitty Pi (which the boys seem to prefer as a Kitty Pancake!)

Cats do not care if you live or die, only that you have finished knitting for them first.

2006-05-23T12:34:00.000-04:00

The Kitty Pi is finished but unfelted...it should make a trip through the wash a bit later this week. FYI, Buster is watching me go through the following thought process just a few feet away:

All right, my Peacock Feathers Shawl kit arrived! Oooo...look at that gorgeous Ruby red...

Oh boy, this is going to be fun! Look how cute this first chart is. Hm, seven more charts, shouldn't be so bad.

Huh.

Well, sure does get complicated...

Geez...my chest feels kind of tight...

Oh my GOD, was I INSANE?! Look at all those yarnovers! There's no way I'll be able to keep it all straight, I'm going to *kaaaaaaaaaaaaaacccccccccckkk*

"Hm, looks like the human has keeled over and died. No biggie, I don't really need this felted for me anyway!"

Not a lot of knitting, but a whole lot of cute!

2006-05-19T08:53:00.000-04:00

Knitting has been very sporadic over the last couple of weeks. It's been a bit of a rollercoaster ride for me, in both my personal and my professional life. Professionally, it was my first experience working Commencement weekend at the university. It was, to put it plainly, a balls-out, no-holds-barred, all-hands-on-deck academic extravaganza. All weekend long we had events--class reunions, faculty lectures, parties for the senior class, awards ceremonies, all in addition to the graduation procession on Monday morning. It was exhilarating but also incredibly exhausting. Even after taking Tuesday off, I'm so ready for the weekend it's not even funny.

The Lotus Blossom Shawl is on the final ten rows or so...ten loooong rows, including a bobble bind-off that should be heaps of fun. I've been working on it on my lunch hours, but since I've had few of those in the last week, there's been hardly any progress to speak of. I may take it home this weekend to try to get some of it done, but as you will soon understand, that may prove difficult.

I didn't mention it here at the time, but I lost my kitty to cancer in early April. Her name was Ripley, and she was a sweet, sassy kitty who was with my family for about nine years--seven of them outdoors, living with my parents and protecting her turf, and two with me, living the spoiled life of an apartment cat. She was beautiful.

The loss was very hard, but I tried to think of it the way animals do--death is a part of life, it's nothing to be afraid of, and the loss of one kitty will always open the door to another. And indeed it did--about two weeks later, I went to a rescue shelter called PAWS Atlanta and met this little boy:

His name is Buster, and he's about 2 years old. He was scheduled to be put down at a local animal control facility, and was rescued by PAWS the same day that I had my dear Ripley put to sleep. So it feels like it was meant to be. He is a joy to have in my life...a crazy, energetic bundle of joy. He is extremely friendly and sociable, loves to play--he will even play fetch with you--and sits outside the shower when you're inside, waiting for you to come out.

Now, there was an incident with the yarn stash the morning of Commencement: I woke up at 4:00 am to go to work and finding a pile of sock yarn, hopelessly tangled and lying in a heap on the living room floor. Thankfully it was not yarn that I was particularly attached to...a couple of skeins of Koigu, and half a skein of Socks that Rock that had been wound into a center-pull cake. But it was still aggravating, and it really opened my eyes to the fact that Buster was getting lonely, he was getting bored, and he needed to have a companion.

Enter the kitten.

That's right, I caved. All my bravado about not wanting to get a kitten because they were just too much of a handful was pretty much nullified once I realized how frisky Buster really was, despite being an "adult," and I decided that he needed someone around to help him work out his energy, to mature him a bit, and to keep him company while I'm at work. So this little seven-week-old fella was brought home, also from PAWS, and I'm very happy to say that they are well on their way to being best friends.

The kitten (who is as yet unnamed) has a real affinity for both my pattern basket and ball bands. Buster loves watching him, pouncing on and wrestling him, and then giving him a bath afterwards.

My other project, a stash-buster for all the leftover Lamb's Pride Bulky I have from the Fairly Easy Fair Isle, is a Kitty Pi...I really, really hope I can get a cute picture of the two of them curled up in it together once it's finished!

So yes, I've had my hands full, and not with knitting! But I did manage to cast on last night for a simple ribbed sock in the Socks that Rock Rolling Stone colorway. I'm using the Norwegian Purl method, and though it's a bit fiddly, I have to say I can manage it much more easily than trying to do all that purling my normal continental style. No moving the yarn to the front for 1x1 ribbing makes me a happy girl! And I do hope to manage to sneak in a few rows of the Lotus Blossom, probably while the boys are napping. I went ahead and ordered a kit for the Peacock Feathers Shawl, which seems to be a good next step after the Lotus Blossom.

Hopefully there will be more knitting progress for my next post...certainly there will be more cute kitten pictures!

It's like wearing a shawl made of kittens

2006-05-10T08:44:00.000-04:00

Over the course of the evening, I managed to go from this...

...a nearly-finished Clapotis with only a tiny, walnut-sized ball of yarn remaining. After a couple of hours of furious knitting and frantic decreasing, we arrive at this:

A new cat blanket, apparently.

This thing is so gorgeous that I think only a modelled photoshoot will do it justice. Suffice to say, the yarn MAKES the pattern. Oh, it's a lovely pattern all right...but the yarn, with its incredible softness, gorgeous colors and heavenly drape, is what makes it truly special. I think it's probably the most beautiful thing I've ever knit. I'm wearing it now at the office, wrapped around my shoulders, and it is so light and soft, yet wonderfully warm, that I feel like I could curl up and go to sleep. Which is totally not what I need to be doing this week at work. So with that, I'll sign off--and try my best to do a good photoshoot soon!

A long overdue FO post

2006-05-01T09:18:00.000-04:00

As a matter of fact, I have completed something in the past month!

A pair of Jaywalkers, modified with a picot edge and a belly-button toe (instead of that blasted kitchener stitch toe.)

Yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, colorway is Desert Flower. Two skeins on US 1 dpns. The new kitty likes them!

A good day for mail!

2006-04-11T08:32:00.000-04:00

I arrived home yesterday to find not one, but TWO bags of beautiful yarn on my doorstep.

This stuff is out of this world. Unbelieveably soft and smooth, I can already tell knitting with it is going to be akin to a religious experience. The colors are so gorgeous! Though I'm resisting the urge to cast on for Clapotis until I finish my Lotus Blossom shawl, I couldn't resist winding up a ball by hand just to feel the yarn in my hands. It has that funny silk smell, but even that is charming. This yarn is fantastic.

And this is what I received from Cara at januaryone as a prize for the Jaywalker Knit-Along! Not just the promised skein of Socks that Rock (I selected the Rolling Stone colorway) but also a bonus Chibi and the most gorgeous card I've ever seen! The card is currently sitting on the shelf by my computer at work...I'm sure my coworkers will wonder what it is about me and yarn, seeing as I also have a fiber-related desktop! Thank you so much, Cara, this was a great prize!

Fuzzy lace

2006-04-10T08:38:00.000-04:00

I'd just like to say that yesterday I said to hell with the season and wore my Norwegians to the Atlanta Dogwood Festival! Unfortunately, I failed to consider the fact that one does a lot of walking at the festival; let me tell you, while those brown pumps looked cute as hell, they did not make my toes happy by the end of the day. No sir. The cushiness of the stockings did help somewhat, but next year I think we'll stick with sneakers--no matter how badly we want to show off our knitting.

Speaking of showing off, if this thing ever looks like what it's supposed to, I think we'll have cause for celebration.

You know there's no point in trying to take a decent picture of unblocked lace, right? But you get the idea. By Sunday night I was through with chart 2, and it appears I have only three more very short charts to get through before being done. I wonder how big this thing will end up being? I can already tell I'm going to have a *lot* of Helen's Lace left over--maybe even enough for a small shawl or stole. Wouldn't that be nice?

And look what arrived on my doorstep Saturday morning...

...some very inexpensive, very soft, very lovely wool from Knitpicks, for Eunny's Deep V Argyle Vest. I just couldn't help myself...I mean, for less than $30, I have the yarn and the pattern--how could I say no to that? I should be shamed into finishing the Veste Everest, I know, but I just can't bring myself to pick that project up again any time soon. Who knew cables could be so damn boring? (Though I suppose I should at the very least finish the last few rows I have to go for the back. Then it can be stuffed away out of sight again, to be either resurrected or frogged at a later date.)

I had to reorder my Lion and Lamb for Clapotis off of Ebay, after the store I'd originally ordered from called to say they no longer had Sandridge in stock. I can't wait to get my hands on that stuff...man, why can't we have another few months of cold weather so I can justify knitting with it!

Just some thoughts on art

2006-04-06T09:00:00.000-04:00

As I approach the one-year "anniversary" of learning to knit, I find myself thinking about the progression of my artistic and creative pursuits. For me, art has always been a constant, though the media has changed; when I was a child I made little dolls using scrap fabric and string, took oil painting classes, created scrapbooks. My parents were always supportive and signed me up for all sorts of classes, and wondered where I'd gotten my creative streak from.

But for a while, especially after high school and during my first few years of college, I started to feel that I'd lost the creative spark that had fueled me for so long. Most of my energy was being put into classes and studying Japanese--the year I spent in Japan was life-changing, but marked by a significant lack of creativity and artistic pursuits. All my energy was going into trying to cram as much vocabulary and grammar into my mind as possible, not to mention memorizing Chinese characters by the hundreds. Art fell by the wayside, and it wasn't until I got back to the US that I was able to concentrate on reconnecting with that lifelong passion.

Drawing and painting were my passions in high school, but self-expression with those mediums was difficult for me. My drawing was always as precise as possible--I was probably the most skilled at recreating portraits from photographs, and doing still-life paintings. But there was always a level of anxiety and stress that I felt while drawing, as I struggled to depict what I saw exactly as it appeared before my eyes. The end results seemed impressive enough to others, but to me, there was not a lot of myself in those finished drawings and paintings. I'm sure that part of the problem was that I was very serious about my art class, and my projects became less about enjoying the process and more about having a polished finished piece that would receive high scores.

In college, after returning from Japan, I began to gravitate towards more "functional" types of art. I was getting back in touch with the love of crafts I'd had since childhood, rediscovering my passion for art--and creating things I could put to use. In my senior year, I had the money to take pottery classes at a local studio, and found a fulfillment and pleasure in it that I hadn't found in other kinds of artistic mediums. I never became that great at it, but to me it didn't matter if I ended up with a finished product on the wheel or not--at last, it was the process that was appealing, not just the end result. I began to love the way that pottery fuses art and function (much like knitting!): you use your two hands to create something beautiful that is also of value in your daily life, something you can use rather than just look at admiringly.

Though in the last year I've become more obsessed with things like yarn and fiber than I ever would have imagined, it's been a natural progression of my love of crafts and functional art. I still occasionally draw, but only when the spirit moves me. I drew a portrait of my boyfriend and I from a photo I particularly liked as a gift for our one-year anniversary, and enjoyed every moment of the process. Though I haven't done any wheel throwing or other types of pottery in about a year, I definitely plan to take it up again in the near future--though I certainly would need to set aside money that would otherwise be spent on yarn to sign up for a class or workshop!

Norwegian Stockings, over and out

2006-04-03T11:23:00.000-04:00

*prance prance* Why hello there! I just skipped down off a mountain covered in flowers and butterflies...

Notice the fraternal toes? :D

Completed project: Norwegian Stockings, Nancy Bush, "Folk Socks"

Yarn: Dalegarn Baby Ull. Grey (two balls), Watermelon (one and a bit more), and Peach (less than a quarter of a ball.)

Needles: 2.75 Bamboo double-points.

Modifications: A shitload!

-Knit inside-out to improve tension, especially at the corners of the doublepoints.
-Knitting in fingering weight yarn meant I had to change just about every number in the pattern. I cast on 100 stitches, decreased to 98 for cuff motif, then to 96 for leg motif--beyond that, I couldn't tell you what my numbers were. Gauge was about 8 stitches/inch. Getting patterns to line up correctly, such as for the heel flap and foot, required several rounds of ripping and reknitting.
-I began calf shaping after one full repeat of the two leg motifs; The stockings measure about 15" from top of cuff to bottom of heel flap, because I have short little legs.
-One toe is knit as the pattern specifies, the other is patterned slightly differently (due to my impatience and inability to read directions!)
-Elastic has been sewed into the cuffs, not the best craftsmanship, but it will do the job.
-Heel shaping: I ditched the Dutch heel and did a regular heel turn for a better fit.

Overall thoughts on the project: Despite all the fussing and ripping, the reknitting and reconsidering of everything from colors to tension to sizing, I am VERY happy with the finished product. As my first major fair isle project (I don't really count the Fairly Easy Fair Isle cardigan because I had no earthly idea what I was doing) I think I came through with flying colors. (Heh heh.) Once I grasped the mechanics of working with two colors in one hand, continental-style, I was able to concentrate on perfecting my tension and building up speed and rhythm. There were some rough spots towards the end of the second stocking's leg where my hand simply refused to feed the yarn smoothly, but blocking helped even it out quite a bit.

There are, of course, a few things here and there that could be improved upon. Certainly if I reknit these I'd do a more careful job with the feet, so as to improve the fit...as they are now, they are a bit loose, but still look fine when stuffed into my shoes. I could definitely have gotten away with more gusset decreases. I'd also like to the try knitting the elastic into the ribbing, I've heard tell of such a technique and I think it would look nicer than sewing it in post-knitting. I'm still undecided about whether or not doing these on dpns was the way to go...inside-out knitting was a HUGE help in keeping an even tension on the floats, but I had such awful ladders (which I usually can avoid on dpns) that next time, Magic Loop might be the best way to go. I think I'll try my next fair isle project right side out, and from there I should have a better idea of what works best for me.

Overall, I think these are just fantastic. I'm ridiculously proud of teaching myself fair isle. I can't believe I managed to get these to fit as well as they do. I'm proud of sticking with the project and enjoying the process as much as product. I think they make my legs look sexy as hell. And they were a ton of fun to knit.

But guess what?

IT'S TOO FUCKING HOT TO WEAR THEM.

Flash Your Stash 2006!

2006-04-03T08:47:00.000-04:00

While I finish selecting and cleaning up the Norwegian photoshoot, here's my addition to Flash Your Stash 2006. I hadn't planned to participate, but thought it might not be a bad way for me to take inventory of my stash and do a bit of reorganizing. And the weather was so nice this weekend, how could I not take advantage of that beautiful natural light?

First off, here's where I keep the majority of my stash (forgive the blur, I promise the rest are better):

Both the basket and the wicker cabinet are from Target.

Now, the yarn...all of these pictures have those nifty Flickr notes about type of yarn, colorways, and destined projects, so please give 'em a click and read on!

The top basket in the cabinet holds my nice sock yarns.

The second drawer holds leftover Fair Isle yarns, and a little more sock yarn.

The bottom holds my more extravagant yarns...thank god it only fills one basket! But oooh, these are nice.

The top layer of the wicker basket...

...and the bottom.

Of course, I have a couple of other stash places, namely a bag in my closet full of acrylics, and miscellaneous bags of leftover sock yarn. But other than that, this is my entire stash! Small and sweet, manageable but still indulgent. That's how I like it! Hope you enjoyed the yarn porn, and check in later for pictures of my completed Norwegians!

Itchy fingers

2006-03-30T09:47:00.000-05:00

I'm very close to the end of the Norwegians. It seems like this second one knit up so fast compared to the first--probably because it didn't need to be frogged and restarted twice over. Unfortunately it appears that the Variable Gauge Fairy (as my dear secret pal Jen and I referred to it) has decided to pay me a visit. It's subtle, but this second stocking is definitely tighter than the first, especially in the cuff. However, at this point there's no turning back--it will simply have to do. And besides, both of these stockings will be taking a trip through the washer and dryer when they're completed, to (hopefully) even out any tension trouble spots and especially those ladders. I normally don't get ladders when knitting on dpns, but knitting inside out requires keeping the new needle over the old needle, rather than the reverse, which is what I've found usually keeps ladders at bay. Unfortunately I didn't figure that out soon enough.

I can't wait to start my Lotus Blossom Shawl...unfortunately my needle collection isn't large enough to permit trying out a wide range of gauge swatches, but I have several needles between 3.0 and 4.0mm, and I'm guessing I'll find my sweet spot somewhere in there anyway. I'm going to look for Inox needles at my LYS, since they seem to be the popular choice amongst seasoned lace knitters. New yarn, new needles, new project--this should be exciting!

Project planning: my first shawl!

2006-03-24T11:11:00.000-05:00

Now that I'm cruising along on my second Norwegian, I think I'm ready to take on my next knitting challenge: lace. I've tried my hand at Branching Out and had good results, but I'd like to try something larger and more challenging, especially now that I have a big hank of Lorna's Laces Helen's Lace in purple iris just waiting to be used.

I really vacillated on whether or not to make that purchase (even with the great discount that Little Knits offers for Helen's Lace...almost $12 off!) because I was really on the fence about knitting a shawl. Sure, they're gorgeous, but when the hell would I ever use one? I'm certainly not girly enough to wear an outfit that would incorporate a shawl on a regular day, and I'm way too selfish a knitter to knit something like that and give it away.

But the more I thought about it, the more I decided I could get use out of one--whether keeping it in my office for days when the AC is getting overzealous, or for wearing at a special event, like the wedding I went to a few weeks ago. I remember thinking, "Damn, I wish I had some kind of cute wrap or shawl to wear with this outfit instead of the plain cardigan I've got on...a lace shawl sure would look nice..." And that's what pretty much sealed the deal on ordering the skein of Helen's Lace. Then of course began the search for The Perfect Shawl Pattern--one that would look good in a handpainted variegated yarn, be challenging but still simple enough for a lace noob like me, and suit my style. And today, I do believe I've found it in the Lotus Blossom Shawl. I mean, look at this example that some very talented knitter has created--that is just spectacular.

So today I ordered the pattern from Blackberry Ridge, and will be carefully reading up on all I can about lace knitting and people's experiences with this shawl in preparation. What can I say? I'm a thorough researcher. I can't wait to receive the pattern in the mail and start swatching...I'm a little nervous about using laceweight instead of DK weight yarn, so I'll have to experiment a bit. Any advice from seasoned lace knitters on making the substitution?

Suck my toe

2006-03-21T11:37:00.000-05:00

Look at this photo, and then tell me if you can spot at what point I stopped giving a crap and plowed on towards the finish line.

Yeah, by the time I hit the toe decreases, I was so ready to be done with it that I didn't really bother to get the pattern to line up just right. The lines that run along the instep are supposed to meet nicely right in the center of the toe, but as you can see, somehow I managed to end up with disproportionate decreases on the instep and the sole. Maybe I didn't have the right number of stitches on each needle, but how the hell would I know? We're in crazy yarn substitution land here! Numbers don't apply to us! We decrease as we damn well please!

Other than that crazy-looking toe, not too bad, right? Looks pretty decent when it's on:

...and the stupid toe will be stuffed in my shoes anyway. I don't particularly like the way the pattern looks on the foot, even when done correctly--for some reason it makes me think of duck feet. Does anyone see it?

You know what's crazy? These colors seem to be breaking the laws of knitting photography. When you're looking at them in natural light, the colors seem to kind of fade into one another--I guess this has something to do with "tone" or "hue" or somesuch color science. But when they're photographed, I'll be damned if the motif don't pop out and smack you in the eye! Strange, huh?

Anyway, just one more stocking to go. Maybe by the time I'm on the toe of the second, I'll have figured out the issue and will have a lovely little duck foot, just as Nancy Bush envisioned! (I ain't mad atcha, Nancy. I loves you.)

FRICK FRACK BRICKABRACK STOCKING!!!

2006-03-15T11:33:00.000-05:00

DUTCH HEEL SUCKS ASS.

*rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrRIP*!!!

----------

Okay, I am not going to let this break me. I WILL finish these stockings. I will. I'll remember my love for them and how beautiful they will be when they are finished. I will reconnect to the Process Knitter within. I won't let this one little setback ruin that for me.

But the latest issue? That frickin' HEEL. So yes, part of the problem is definitely the fact that I'm using a different yarn and have to wing it on most of the shaping. But come on, that Dutch heel is just crap. A big, fat, flabby square. Sure, I probably made the damn thing too wide because I didn't have any numbers to follow, but still. I'm going to blame it all on the heel style, because I've modified the crap out of this pattern and dammit, I deserve a little credit here!

So here's what I'm going to do. First off, since I'm also winging it on the toe decreases (insert a high-pitched hysterical giggle here) I will finish the stocking to see how the rest of the foot fits. Then, I'm going to have a couple of drinks, and I'm going to rip this bitch back to the heel flap. And then I'm going to do my standard heel (is it a round heel? I don't know, I think of it as the "thirds" heel, where you do the turn across the center third of the stitches in the heel.) And then I'm going to finish this skank of a stocking.

*sigh*

At least I can keep myself going by remembering how much more relaxing and easy the second one will be, now that I've got fair isle down and the pattern mods/sizing figured out. Of course, by the time I finish these it will be so humid and hot here in Georgia that the thought of hand-knit wool stockings will probably make my skin crawl...*DOUBLESIGH*

No, please!! Anything but the clap!!

2006-03-06T08:46:00.000-05:00

Something strange is happening to me. I feel like I don't even know myself anymore.

For the first time ever, I'm craving a clapotis. Why? Why me? Why now? Why does this rather humble little pattern, that everyone and their grandma has knit a thousand times over, suddenly appeal to me so much?

I suppose the reason is simple, really. I need something to justify my overwhelming lust for this.

All the difference in the world

2006-02-28T08:42:00.000-05:00

Now that I've had a chance to gloat in the last post, let me sum up the changes I've made at the start of this second stocking. First off, controlling yarn dominance in fair isle is probably the most amazing thing I've ever seen. The difference between the stocking I had been working on (which now I think is so horrendously fugly and amateur that I doubt I'll ever post a picture of it) and the cuff motif/beginning of the leg motif on this second stocking just blows me away. Who knew that something as simple as changing which yarn goes over and which one goes under could make the object as a whole look so much better? My tension overall is vastly improved, my stitches look so much more even and--dare I say it--lovely.

The second change this time around--rather than go down a needle size, I simply cast on fewer stitches. On the first stocking, I cast on 112 and decreased to 108 by the leg motif, which by my gauge factored in about 1.5" of negative ease. I was really paranoid that since fair isle is known to be less stretchy, that the stocking would be too tight if I cast on less. Not so, my friends. This time, I decided to stick with the 2.75 mm dpns and cast on 100--then decreased to 98 for the cuff motif, and finally down to 96 by the leg motif. The result? FAR, FAR better fit. They are certainly tighter on the calf, but not so much as to stretch the motif or be uncomfortable. The slouchy look of the stocking is gone, and I think they look a lot better with less ease, as they now help to slenderize my beefy calves.

And can I say that though they were not originally what I had planned when envisioning these stockings, I am loving the colors?? I think they will be perfect for the springtime, when it's still just a bit cool and the skirts are coming back out of the closet. The motif colors remind me of flower petals, and I'm imagining prancing through the meadows in my stockings, kicking up my dainty heels--okay, enough of that.

So the lessons I've learned are that yarn dominance = FAIR ISLE MASTERY, and with sizing, sometimes less is more. I fear no knitting! And if I did, that would be a pretty sad thing to be afraid of...after all, it is but sticks and string! I am the maestro here.

Can I get a whoop whoop

2006-02-27T13:12:00.000-05:00

Gentlemen and hos, it's time to get nasty.

My pimp gloves are back on.

A wordy entry that would be greatly enhanced by pictures

2006-02-24T15:29:00.000-05:00

In an attempt to reconnect myself to the "process knitter" within, my knitting goal for the weekend is to cast on for another Norwegian stocking, though the first is done only to the bottom of the leg. It is unmistakebly a stocking, and a fair isle one at that, but I can already sense I won't be happy with the finished product if it continues as it has been...widely varied stitches as I've experimented with tension, sizing issues, and a problem with my fair isle technique only recognized today after reading two helpful blog posts.

This second stocking will be an experiment in sizing and an attempt to both correct my fair isle technique and improve my overall tension. I plan to use US size 1 (actually 2.25 mm Plymouth bamboo dpns) from the start, which I switched to on the first stocking when it became apparent that even after the calf decreases, the ankle was far too roomy. It's still roomy, and there is a little space at the top of the calf that I think can be reduced by going down a needle size, though hopefully the motif won't be stretched by the overall reduction in circumference. I plan to use my regular tension, without trying to overcompensate by knitting tighter or looser than usual. Once again I plan to go inside-out, which has helped enormously with keeping my floats loose, especially on the corners.

Here's a note to myself that might help a LOT with tension issues, and overall appearance of the motifs: be sure to pick the main color OVER the contrast color, and contrast color UNDER the main color--this will help the CC motif to pop and be more apparent.

I'll keep the first stocking around for now to compare my results with the second--but hopefully, should this little experiment be successful, this second stocking will be one of the completed pair. And I promise I'll take pictures.

Knitting mojo vanishes into the night

2006-02-16T08:24:00.000-05:00

I am taking off that stupid "On the Needles" box I have on my sidebar, because it's just too depressing to have to keep updating it when I have to frog another project. Seriously, I'm having some bad luck with knitting these days. First it was those stupid, stupid Friday Harbor socks. Now, I've somehow managed to knit my way through half a Jaywalker sock only to find that I'm getting 6-7 stitches to the inch ON SIZE 0 NEEDLES. I mean, what the hell is that? If anything I'm a slightly tight knitter, and the gauge for this yarn is supposed to be 8 stitches to the inch on US 1 or 2. So how in the hell am I coming up with such a huge gauge?? I tried on the Jaywalker, which I'd been knitting on my lunch breaks at work, only to find that it was loose as hell on the foot. My rage was complete. Could I have gotten some sort of mutant skein of thicker yarn?

Well, screw it. I want a cute pair of Jaywalkers with the picot edge I've seen around town. I have a couple skeins of Koigu in a very pretty purple/pink colorway, I think they'd make very feminine and pretty socks with that kind of edging. Hm...maybe I'll try the toe-up Jaywalker pattern this time around, since I don't know how long a cuff I can get out of a skein. I guess then I have to figure out how to do a picot edge in reverse!

On second thought, maybe I ought to stick to garter stitch scarves for a while.

Holy crap!!

2006-02-15T08:34:00.000-05:00

Not only did I survive....

I WON!!!

Thanks again to Cara for hosting an awesome KAL!

Forays into Fair Isle

2006-02-13T08:34:00.000-05:00

I did some swatching for the Norwegian stockings this weekend, using the cream and peach Baby Ull. I'm expecting the purple and watermelon I ordered to arrive this week, so hopefully I'll have obtained a decent enough tension to begin the actual stockings by then. I'm still going to use the cream as the cuff motif, and I guess I'll keep the peach for another project. (I admit I am a little bit anti-stash...I tend to get nervous when I overpurchase yarn for a project and immediately start thinking of ways to justify overspending. I think I can get over that little hang-up eventually. :D )

This is the beginning of the swatch...it grew by several inches over the weekend, but it got so overcast that getting a decent picture of its progress was impossible. We even had some snow this morning, it was so pretty...cold, but pretty. Yes, snow is a big deal in Atlanta! Anyway, I'm (heh heh) fairly pleased with my progress, I think overall my tension is decent. There are trouble hotspots that I'm working on--namely the vertical stripes, which as you can see are puckered from not having a long enough float, and the same issue on the two corners. I'm using size 2 Addis for this, Magic Loop-style. I started out using 2.75 mm dpns, and tried the inside-out Fair Isle method. That helps a lot with keeping the floats loose, but I was getting 9 stitches to the inch instead of 8, so I moved up to the 3.0 mm Addis. I'm wondering if I can do the inside-out method with Magic Loop...it might be worth a shot. Otherwise, I'm stopping to stretch the fabric after each trouble hotspot, which seems to help keep it loose. Holding the two yarns in my left hand is going pretty well for me, too. Even attempting to hold one of the yarns in my right hand felt like a crime against nature. I doubt I'll ever learn to knit English style, but that's fine with me as long as I can manage Continental with more than one color decently.

Hey, Secret Pal! Look what a great use your plate has found...

A lovely Fair Isle platter!

Jaywalk-ahhhh

2006-02-10T08:44:00.000-05:00

I promised pictures, and pictures I provide! There are my completed Jaywalkers, in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, colorway Watercolor. (More pictures on my Flickr, if you're interested.)

I. Love. Them.

I think this is my favorite FO of my entire (admittedly short) knitting career. I love everything about them, from the yarn to the pattern to the fit. Absolutely perfect. I will be making many, many more Jaywalkers--in fact, I think it might just become my default sock pattern. Even if the popularity of some other designs sometimes eludes me, I can completely understand why this pattern is so popular. It's easy, fun, and the results are spectacular.

In other sock news, I did a little swatching for my Norwegian Stockings last night, and I think my choice of fair isle colors needs reevaluating. While the silver and peach are in and of themselves lovely colors, when they are together, the motif gets lost. I think it has something to do with the "value" of the colors, but I've never had a good grasp on color theory, so I'll just say that "they're both too light." The solution, of course, was to buy more yarn. (I use this solution for many problems I encounter in life.) So I went ahead and ordered two balls of darker, richer colors--of course, I was torn between purple and watermelon, so I went ahead and ordered both. I'll continue to do some swatching with the colors I have, in order to get my gauge and work on tension, and make the final color choices when my new order arrives. I've been ordering from kaleidoscopeyarns.com, which has a great selection and very good service--I'd definitely recommend them.

I also went ahead and joined the Norwegian KAL, so do check out the cute new button to see lots of other lovely FOs and WIPs. I feel like I'm having my own personal Knit Olympics with this project, but without the 16-day time frame. And 3,999 other people. Just little old me and my yarn--that's how I like it!

It's like Christmas in February!!

2006-02-07T09:03:00.000-05:00

...makes sense, since it's colder now than it was in December, anyway.

MY MELLOW SECRET PAL SENT ME THE BEST PACKAGE EVER. I can't believe all the amazing goodies she stuffed in there for me--all for me! The thought and care that obviously went into it makes even this battle-hardened badass choke up a little. I mean, look at it all!

FOLK SOCKS! What perfect timing! All I need now is my Baby Ull, a new set of double-points, and I will be in Norwegian Stocking heaven! (I hope it's heaven, anyway, since I just extricated myself from Friday Harbor hell.)

And would you believe she knit me a pair of socks?? I mean, how awesome is that??

Yes, I truly have the most awesome Secret Pal in the history of mankind. I am in awe of her generosity and good taste. ;) Thank you so much, my Canadian friend!

But where are the PICTURES??

2006-02-03T10:24:00.000-05:00

I've been a bad blogger--not a single post since my last Jaywalker update, despite the fact that I've finished the pair and even cast on for another! Oh, I have pictures taken, I just haven't had the chance to upload them. See, now that I'm at my new job, I don't feel I can spend as much time goofing around on the internet ("but what are you doing now, hmm?") and since I don't have an internet connection at home, blogging was usually done at my old job where it didn't matter as much if I wasn't busy, you know, WORKING. But I am hoping to get my laptop somewhere with a free wireless connection, so I can upload the images of the finished socks, as well as my other WIPs.

I have to admit to my Knittyboard secret pal that I did buy myself something yesterday, but I doubt it's something she'd have gotten or planned to send me. (Don't be mad at me Jen! I couldn't help myself ;) ) I've been dreaming of the Norwegian Socks from Nancy Bush's Folk Socks, and decided to go ahead and order the yarn for them. (The book will have to come later.) I ordered Dale Baby Ull in silver for the main stocking color, peach for the central motif, and cream for the motif on the cuff. I love pink and gray together, and I think these stockings would be so cute to wear with my pink coat and a nice gray skirt! I only ordered two balls of silver, and one each of peach and cream, since Eunny's blog has a good description of the yarn requirements for the project. Sometimes having short legs isn't so bad--saves me money on yarn! Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting the yarn and, eventually, the book...I've been eager to try a more elaborate fair isle pattern, and I think this will be the perfect project to practice on.

Onto current projects, I cast on for a new pair of Jaywalkers with a skein of Socks that Rock I had in the stash. The colorway is Carbon Dating, I had been a bit disappointed when I got it in the mail because it definitely didn't look the way it does on the site--I was expecting more gray and pink tones, but it has a lot more dark blue, black and burgundy, with a little yellow thrown in. But now that I'm using it for the Jaywalkers, I'm liking how it looks knit up, and the yarn itself is great to work with. I'm definitely eyeballing other colorways, especially Rolling Stone and Watermelon Tourmaline...I might order them from The Fold eventually.

I've been struggling with the cuff of the Friday Harbor Socks for a few days now. I started out using dpns, but all of the counting and rearranging stitches to get the pattern to line up was so frustrating that I cast on and frogged at least three times. Last night I cast on with 32" 3.25 mm addis (Magic Loop method) and managed to make it through the entire cuff chart with only a couple of minor errors. I still needed to do some rearranging of the pattern to make sure it lined up, and I completely disregarded the chart and instructions, instead just eyeballing the pattern to make sure I was getting it right. But I've made it through the cuff and should be able to start the leg tonight.

I really, really need to focus on finishing Veste Everest--I think I'll force myself to work on it a little each day, so that it actually gets done in time to wear it before it starts getting warmer.

So there's your update! I'll work on getting pictures up as soon as I can. I leave you with a movie recommendation, which is Michael Haneke's newest film, Cache. Excellent, excellent film--the tension is out of this world, and it definitely leaves you guessing at the end. There's so much about this movie to discuss and think about afterwards, I think I'll be seeing it again this weekend. It gets this film snob's highest recommendation! I suggest leaving the knitting at home, though...you definitely want to give all your attention to this film, especially the very last scene. Just a tip. ;)

socka socka!

2006-01-17T09:24:00.000-05:00

One Jaywalker down, and the second cast on yesterday! I'm happy to have gotten a little pooling on the foot...gives the sock character, and if socks are hand-knit, then out of principle and appreciation for the craft I think they ought to be fraternal. Just my opinion. ;)

I am having such a fun time with the Knittyboard Secret Pal round! I haven't heard anything from my downstream pal, and unfortunately her questionnaire was a bit sparsely answered, but I'm having a good time shopping for her anyway. I think I'll go to a bead/jewelry store near my apartment sometime soon and try my hand at making stitchmarkers. I want to include something handmade in her packages, but I am all knitted out for others at the moment. As a matter of fact, Justin's sock was frogged on Saturday night...I was well into the foot and finally had him try it on, only to find that it was too loose. Oh well! I was getting bored with it anyway. That boy's feet are big!!

My own secret pal has already been so much fun to chat with, even if only through cryptic messages here and there. ;) I am resisting the urge to use my detective skills to uncover her secret identity! Secret Pal rounds are such a great idea...you can satisfy your urge to shop, but since you're not buying for yourself, half the guilt is gone! Plus it's a great chance to make a new friend. <3

It's my last week here in the old department, so I'd better get some work done! Wonder if I'll be able to read knitting blogs at my new job...maybe if I'm sneaky...hey, at least it's not porn, right?

The yarn cuddling phenomenon...surely I'm not alone

2006-01-13T09:41:00.000-05:00

I still have a (relatively) small stash, so any new additions are cause for excitement in the casa del RepoRebo. I finally got around to taking a few pictures of my new additions to the fiber family, and what better place to show them off than here on my new blog?

Clockwise:

-two balls of Sierra Collection Peruvian Aran from elann.com, in color Cinnamon. I ordered nine and am using it for Veste Everest. It feels just wonderful, the 20% alpaca really makes it soft and squishy! The yarn is rather loosely plied, which isn't so great, but I'm living with it.

-I had been eyeing this yarn at my LYS, and finally decided to buy it to celebrate my new job...and discovered when I went to the register that it was on sale for 30% off!! I've never seen this yarn anywhere else, and it's so smooth and soft that I sometimes cuddle it while watching TV. *shame* I love the colors and the texture! I don't have a specific project in mind for it, but I think it will make lovely trim for mitten cuffs...once I get around to knitting mittens, that is. A close-up, so you can drool along with me:

-Next up is one ball of Rowan Kidsilk Haze in Wicked. I wanted to try this yarn, since it's so smooth and looks so lovely when knit up, but it's just so damn EXPENSIVE that I only got one ball. Plus I've read that some people really hate working with it, so I figured one ball would be good for an experiment. I'm thinking a shoulder wrap or capelet will be nice knit out of this.

-I got this in the mail yesterday...two hanks of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Bucks bar (one wound into a ball.) I looooove Lorna's Laces. Love it love it LOVE IT. I am a Lorna's Laces addict, and these colors are exactly what I wanted. Now to find the perfect sock pattern for it! I'm thinking Conwy from Knitting On the Road (which I caved and bought at Border's last week) but that could change.

-And finally, Mountain Colors Weaver's Wool Quarters in Clearwater. I'll use it for the Friday Harbor Socks from KOTR. Also wonderfully squishy, and has also been subjected to "yarn cuddling."

I think I can safely say I have enough yarn to last me for some time. And now that I've been assigned my Secret Pal from the Knittyboard Mellow SP, I can use that as an incentive not to spend any more money on yarn for myself!

I'm making slow progress on Veste Everest...the Jaywalker socks are getting most of my attention these days, but I really want to finish the vest before spring, so that I can wear it this season. I had some tension issues the first go-round and ripped back, but now I think things have improved. I'm trying a trick I learned from Nona's blog in order to keep my ribbing looking nice...wrapping the first purl stitch after the knit stitch clockwise instead of counterclockwise. It seems to be tightening things up, but this yarn is so loosely plied that I think I'm going to have to live with the fact that the stitches aren't all going to be perfect and even. I don't think it's going too badly, though.

My first tubular cast-on! That was fun, and looks great to boot.

To the experienced bloggers: can anyone tell me how to edit my HTML to make the subject field wider? I'd like to post the "medium" size pictures from Flickr instead of just the small ones, but as my layout is now, they end up breaking the tables. I can't seem to figure out which part of my HTML to change! If anyone can help, I appreciate it. :D

WIP: Jaywalker socks

2006-01-12T11:00:00.000-05:00

I'm making progress on my Jaywalker socks!

These socks are a ton of fun to knit. The pattern makes for a nice, snug sock, and I love the way the diagonal stripes look. I'm using Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Watercolor, which I got in a swap--I'm not really a rainbow kind of girl, but I could use a pair of crazy-looking socks! I love the sheen of the yarn, and the colors are really vibrant.

Turning heels is fun. Picking up gusset stitches is NOT. Man, I really hate picking up stitches...I never know if I'm doing it correctly (is it the running bars of the chain stiches I should be going through, or the chain stitch itself?) Plus I always end up having to try three or four times before I can get them picked up evenly.

I had a little trouble with the first few rows of gusset decreases--it took a while before I could get it straight which row to do the decreases, and which row to do the zig-zag pattern. I think I've got it now, and have done about half the total decreases.

The colors in these photos are close to true, but I'd like to get a shot of them in natural light. That might have to wait until the weekend...it's dark when I leave the house and dark when I get home during the week. I'll also get some shots of my progress on Veste Everest, and some recent additions to the stash. <3