Welcome to the foot.

The Harlot was right, I love the foot. Last night and this morning I did the gusset work on the S&P sock, and now I’m officially on the foot. Round and round and round we go, stopping only to make a toe. And once I figure out what shirt I’m wearing, my “wardrobe” for Monday night will be complete.

Then I just have to pack (!!) and decide what knitting project I will be doing while I wait.

Meanwhile, I’ve been receiving cell-phone pictures of Sip & Knit from DH, who had some spare time at the end of his latest business trip. After calling me to ask which bamboo needle I broke, and whether I needed any size 7 dpns, he later called back to describe the yarn he bought.

Sock yarn.

Skeins won’t necessarily match even though they’re the same colorway.

Hand dyed by six Japanese guys.

Noro sock yarn, folks. For socks for HIM. Why don’t I let him do the yarn shopping? Last time I really let go, I bought enough Cascade 220 to make a sweater. He’s the one with the color sense and the guts.

And here’s a bonus for those of you in Central Ohio: yesterday we got a shipment from Cheryl & Company. (Insert angelic chorus here.) Apparently someone (the author, actually) liked an article DH ran in his motorcycle club magazine. Three boxes of who-knows-what from Cheryl’s, which I immediately put in the fridge. I’ll take pictures after Mr. Beth gets home. After all, they’re really his cookies. (Unless there are some buckeyes in there — dibs!)

If you have had cookies from Cheryl’s, leave a comment and I’ll e-mail you your own personal picture of what’s in the boxes. Yum!

We’re going to need capes

Happy Earth Day!

Here’s the setup: Yesterday my kids found a globe in the basement. It was a Christmas present about two years ago, and kept away from the kids until we found a way to set it up so it wouldn’t be broken. But yesterday they found it, and I agreed to let them bring it upstairs. We spent a few minutes finding where Mulan lives, where Mowgli lives, and where Lilo lives, then I let them look at it on their own. Here’s what I overheard:

Colleen (5 years old): “Tomorrow is Earth Day.”
Jack (4 years old): “Earth Day?”
C: “Yeah, you have to think of ways to take care of our planet.”
J: “Could we be supers and clean up the whole world?“
C: “That’s a great idea!”
J: “We’re going to need capes.”

So, congrats to all of you who donned your capes and saved the world today. We’re honoring the earth by turning off lights and televisions that we’re not using.

Oh, and their whole conversation made me think of the things that Sean says over at Antique Mommy. It’s in my blogroll; check it out. It’s one of the parenting-related blogs that snuck in under the knitting radar.

Knitwise, I finished the Packer Hat on Saturday morning. I need to take pictures today so I can send it off in time for the NFL Draft. Will I make another one? Sure, make those checks for $200 out to….

I should call the pattern “learning curve.” If I ever write it up.

Bonus to this project being ended: DH picked up a display head for me. Unfortunately he couldn’t buy a single head; they only came by the dozen. If you’re looking for a display/blocking head for hats, leave a comment and I’ll get back to you.

And in other knitting news, last night I turned the heel on the Salt & Pepper socks! So it’s time to pick up those stitches, work the gusset, knit the foot, decrease for the toe, and Kitchener it all up. Easy as pie, and maybe even possible that I can wear them to the Harlot’s Madison event on next Monday Monday Monday!!!

(whew. breathe into paper bag.)

Now, I’m going to try to remember to put tags on this post before I publish it. WordPress moved everything around and now I have to scroll down to see the tags list.

Fleeced

Bwahaha, the fiber acquisition program has begun. Some would say it began a while ago, starting with “practice fiber” from Chief Enabler Lauren, and was augmented with raw llama fiber from a local farm last fall… and they would be right. But now I am starting to put them into Proper Storage, so it’s official.

I have a white Romney fleece, raw and somewhat skirted, from a sheep named Betty. And I have a black/brown Romney fleece, raw and not skirted, from “Pebbles.” I am almost completely ignorant of the processes I’ll have to follow, but I’m guessing my first step is making a skirting table so I can get rid of all the VM by hand. Then, figuring out what parts is what, separating them, and starting the cleaning and carding process. Hoo baby.

(If you know more about this than I do, which is quite likely, feel free to chime in.)

Knitting projects: all the same as last time, except I am into the plain knitting for the Salt & Pepper sock. I don’t remember what size needles I used for Sock One, and whether I changed them after the cuff ribbing, but it’s starting to look like I did. As in, the first sock’s cuff pulls in and the second one’s doesn’t. But I am perfectly willing to leave it be and treat it as a Learning Experience. (Those of you who have known me for a Very Long Time will realize this is small potatoes compared to some Previous Learning Experiences.) After all, these socks are for me myself, and only I should notice it.

Doctor Who update: looking forward to re-viewing “Army of Ghosts” and completely viewing “Doomsday” tonight. DH seems all for it as long as we can watch “Hot Rod” next. What can I say, he’s been on a lot of planes lately.

It’s stopped raining here long enough for the wind to blow everyone’s trash bins into the next county (for two days). Rain is forecast for five days out of the next seven, though, which might lead to more road closures around here. The Rock River in Jefferson is up almost to the tops of the pilings of the railroad bridge — can’t imagine that’s good for it. Any engineers out there want to calculate the stress-loading of that when a freight train rolls across the top of a bridge just poking through a fast, flooded river? Need pictures to work from?

Knit Night tomorrow, time for making elaborate Harlot-meetup plans with Dale-Harriet. Oh, and yeah, there’s a little Mountain Colors trunk show and sale going on. Someone please save me something, anything!

Acquisition

First of all, thanks to everyone who was keeping my family in mind over the last few days. I didn’t want to spread any icky personal details all over the Internet, but let me reassure you, we’re not worried about Tom. He is running full tilt into things and using more words every day, including (finally!) DADDY. The actual Person Of Interest has more doctor appointments and future tests scheduled and a leisurely pace. I think the thing that was freaking me out was how quickly the docs wanted to do things last week. (It’s never good when the doctors want things done immediately, is it? But we’re not on the “immediate” schedule for now.)

So. I replaced the size 7s with the only needles I could — Susan Bates aluminum circs. Get this, my nearest JoAnn’s does NOT carry aluminum single points. They’re all Clover-brand bamboo. Then there’s a mix of plastic and bamboo and aluminum circs, then aluminum crochet hooks. Well, at least they were 40 percent off. I have the Brioche scarf on them now but haven’t made one new stitch on them.

The jury’s out on how rough I was on the old needles. Well, clearly I did something wrong in expecting an infinite number of k2togs out of them. But seriously, it’s not like I was knitting bobbles. And now I’m left with a beautiful solo needle that could be a shawl pin for an elephantine-sized shawl. But probably I should have been using larger needles anyway, to make it more drapey.

Here’s the current project list:

Packer Hat. Gotta do it.
Salt & Pepper sock #2. Still in the !@#$% ribbing. After I get past that, it will fly.
Cotton demin aran socks. I snuck this one in on you, didn’t I? Unfortunately I’m beginning to think it’s a mistake and I should frog it. I’ll take a poll at the Harlot event on the 28th, or Knit Night this Friday.
Blanket for Colleen. Another one under the radar….then I got splinters in my needle tips. Must fix before proceeding.
Brioche scarf. Awaiting mojo.
Irish Hiking Scarf with MCY yarn. On hold, awaiting mojo.
Zigzag scarf. This is what I picked for my mindless knitting, and it worked! I memorized the pattern quickly, and Colleen has already claimed it for her own. The yarn is 90 cents’ worth of mystery acrylic from the thrift store, in a black/purple/evergreen colorway — I suspect it’s Patons.

I’m also set to acquire two raw Romney fleeces tomorrow — one white and one dare-I-say chocolate brown, from a very local breeder. She raises Romneys and sport horses, and is awaiting at least 4 lambs and one foal right now. How lucky! She will come by with the fleeces tomorrow night. I tried to time the transaction so she was here when my husband wasn’t, but oh well! it’s time for some honesty here about all this fiber. (I think he would be willing to overlook some more fiber if only I would start on his bamboo socks.)

Maybe it’s also time to start spinning some of it up. Maybe I can get some mojo from Molly Bee. Go check out her spinning results now. Yes, right now. Then come back. I’ll wait.

(taps toe)

I **KNOW**!!! Isn’t it stunning? I hope Lauren is getting some of that spinning mojo as well. (Why are so many of my knitting friends sitting around with their legs in casts? I’m afraid, very afraid….)

So…the hubby’s away tonight…what say you for a triple date with David Tennant to finish off his first season of Doctor Who? While I also fill out five sets (I think) of school paperwork and finish the Packer Hat, of course.

Frick and frack!

VENT ON

It’s raining, so I decided not to make the dry run to Borders.

I finished a giftknit last night, and tried casting on with the second skein of yarn I now didn’t need. I tried a stitch and totally failed to execute it, and ended up frogging. This morning I decided to try Brioche Stitch. I’m about ten rows in and the pattern is beginning to take shape…and my needle SNAPPED during a k2tog.

Guess what size? Yes, it was a 7. On top of that, it was one of the pair of Very Nice Needles I got from The Black Purl in Wausau, which used to be 30 minutes away but is now about a 3+ hour drive. The only other pair of 7s I have is too short for this project, and it’s bamboo. I don’t want to kill any more trees to learn this stitch.

I have aluminum 6s. I have aluminum 8s. And if I want to use either of them for this “mindless knitting” project I will have to frog and start over.

At least I have one wooden needle with a very sharp jagged end should I need to STAB somebody.

Any nominations for Mindless Knitting projects I can do while I’m waiting on someone else’s medical test results? (You can pray while you think up patterns. Please. Do.)

The Tsarina Effect

If this is your first visit to my blog, you’re probably here due to some of the fallout from the “Vintage Socks Pattern” thread on Ravelry. (If you’re not on Ravelry, today is one of those days when you can count your blessings. My word!)

I’m here to say that just as there’s a “Harlot Effect” that happens to small businesses after Stephanie Pearl-McPhee uses and praises your knitly product, here at Chez Chocolatesheep there’s a “Tsarina Effect” as well. As in, if I’m looking at my Blog Stats page and there’s a sudden spike in readership, all I have to do is look down to Incoming Links and find that Lisa linked to me at her blog.

So hi!!

I don’t have pictures yet, but I have TWO more FOs to report since last time.

I did indeed finish the Kelp Forest scarf during Late Night Knitting at The Sow’s Ear. I wove in the ends (thank you, Dale-Harriet, for the loan of your needles), Heather rang the bell, all that jazz. Then all the mojo went the heck out of the place. Lovely Mary moped. I moped. Dale-Harriet worked on a tocque or something (go figure) but our spirit had vanished. They still had to kick us out at 11pm of course, but still.

And on Saturday I had a brainstorm about a WIP: It was a square blanket, halfway done, but I was going to meet the recipient on Sunday. Why not make it a triangle instead? That way I could finish it and present it. I tinked back one row of decreases (it was knitted from a bias washcloth pattern) and finished it in the car on Sunday. Wove in the ends in the parking lot. And since I was so freakin’ brilliant, I didn’t bring my digital camera. I think I have **no** pictures of this particular project. But I took it to her, she praised it in every dimension, arranged it on her lap, and praised it again. 

Project done. Project gone. Immediate feedback. No proof it ever happened.

And now what? Finishing socks, finishing that blasted Tyrone sweater (eventually), finishing a giftknit, and getting the rest of the brim done for the Packer Hat. (If you’re reading this, buddy, I hope to have it to you in time to wear while watching the NFL draft.)

And a general announcement: I’m making a dry run to Borders-East in Madison Thursday morning, to make sure I can get there and back in time the day of the Harlot’s appearance, so if anyone wants to have a mini meetup there at 10am Thursday just drop me a line. Lauren, I’ll completely understand if you can’t make it.

Scouts tonight, more knitting updates tomorrow! Peace-out!

Hiatus

I hate to do this, but my computer problems have gotten so bad that I’ve become willing to hand off the whole iBook to a total stranger and hope he can figure something out. The computer itself works fine, I think, but the Internet connection drops out seemingly at random. As in, I’ve been trying all day to update Steele Knitting and at this point I’m just hoping this post will make it.

So. Kelp Forest is almost done. Late Night Knitting is this Friday. The Harlot is coming April 28 and sometime before that I need to make a dry run to make sure I can make it back from there in less than an hour. Anyone want to meet me at Borders at opening, some Tuesday or Thursday morning in the next couple of weeks? E-mail me!

I hope this posts. If it does, I’ll get some text up at Steele Knitting and upload the screen shots someday. (ETA: got the text up, plus a new post.)

Oh yeah — Top Chef tonight! It is what it is.

Happy Knitting!