Status report

Okay, everyone, get out your scorecards.

First, mark Big Tom at 50th percentile on everything measurable at the doctor’s office yesterday. One year ago this kid wasn’t *on* the growth chart. He was hospitalized for being underweight, for goodness’ sake. Now he’s smack dab in the middle of the chart. In fact, the doc wants to see him in six months to make sure he isn’t going screaming past the chart to the obese side of it. Hardly likely, but I appreciate the optimism.

For eldest son… tonight is the scout den party. End of the year for Bears/next year’s Webelos. Hmm, what will I take to knit?

My daughter decided yesterday that she didn’t need to go to school any more. She came home from school perfectly fine, no complaints, but in the late afternoon she was sobbing and screaming, “I don’t want to go to school any more! I already know my numbers and my letters and my colors. I ALREADY KNOW EVERYTHING!!!!!”

That leaves the other half of the Wonder Twins, about whom there is nothing to report except that he wants to go to school and does not want to use the toilet. Love and Logic, Love and Logic…….

As for me? Welll…….

I messed up my impossibly easy knitting (noticed this during the Turkish GP and set it aside in disgust), but I have tinked back, fixed the problem, and knitted past it.

I am two repeats into my first lace project. I was given a PDF for a lace cotton washcloth. I bought two balls of pale blue Plymouth Yarns Shire Silk, and cast it on to size 15 needles. I have a bright red lifeline in it, which I am moving up for each repeat. I didn’t work another repeat last night because I was too busy watching David Tennant.

I also cast on for a bias square to use up my Debbie Bliss Denim Cotton Aran yarn. I have two skeins of it in black and white, and while I was thrilled to buy it when I did (Debbie Bliss! Wow!), I didn’t have any plans for it that worked out. So I’m going to buy it when I find it on sale, knit six-inch squares out of it, and make an afghan someday-eventually.

A couple of days ago I decided to make a scarf out of some leftover acrylic yarn, using a pattern I found in a book. If I can get pictures to load, it might make for a fun guessing game to see if anyone can Name That Pattern.

Haven’t touched Tyrone. Haven’t cast on for the second Panda Cotton sock. Haven’t picked up the Irish Hiking Scarf. Haven’t done anything with the Hufflepuff-colored leftovers from the beret projects — should I make a scarf or a pair of mittens?

Oh yes, and last night I think I became one of the new editors of knitcircus, a new knitting ‘zine that is produced and distributed in Madison, Wisconsin. (Thanks Jaala!) No pay, but it should be a fun and creative enterprise. Right now it’s an all-color, handbound print publication, but the future may hold an online version that everyone can access.

And today I fixed the DVD/VCR combo! Thanks, Tom, for clogging the works with a Ritz mini cracker sandwich. Because we already replaced it with a DVD player, now we can pitch the old VCR which works fine but whose remote control has gone to the Great Beyond.

I never got to the spindling I wanted to do on Mother’s Day, but as soon as I can find my wool leader, I’ll put it in a good place and I’ll be ready next time. Who knows, maybe I’ll start running that llama fiber through the hackle again. Or start washing fleeces.

Big Tom

When I turned two I was really anxious, because I’d doubled my age in a year. I thought, if this keeps up, by the time I’m six I’ll be ninety.
— Steven Wright

Happy Birthday #2 to my little man — my friend Jen calls him Big Tom since he’s been underweight and behind the eight ball for so long. But he is catching up fast. He is such a sweetie and a ham.

Of course, the State of Wisconsin thinks he turned two yesterday. Silly trusting me didn’t bother to double check his birth certificate until after his first birthday, so apparently I need to do some legal filings to get it corrected to his real birth date. I was going to get this done in time to be a birthday present — but I didn’t.

My oldest son has wrong information on his birth certificate, too, oddly enough. Right after he was born, someone said brightly, “Look! Right at nine o’clock!” Everyone in the room turned to look at the clock, which was one of those enormous schoolroom types that you can see from the other end of the hallway. It read 8:50. Sure enough, when the birth certificate came, it said 9:00. That genius was the person responsible for reporting accurate information to the state. Sigh.

Anyway.

Thanks so much to everyone who entered the comment contest. I met a bunch of new (to me) knitters and read a bunch of new (to me) blogs, got a lace washcloth pattern to work on, discovered that there’s a whole blog dedicated to tracking knitting blog contests, and found out a lot more than 10 people read my blog. (Who knew! Well, now I do.)

Congrats to Molly Bee for winning! She has yet to pick her prize package.

I guess now I need to knit, and write about it, and post some !@#$% pictures every once in a while.

And everyone has been so kind not to bring this up, but I haven’t been mentioning much chocolate in the blog lately. I certainly haven’t stopped eating it.

That may change. There’s a local (within walking distance) pizza place that would like to offer desserts, and when I stopped in to tell the owner I was thinking of going to baking school, and would he be interested in my homework, he about flipped. I just bought a new pizzelle maker and will be making some samples for him soon. If that works out, I may be baking at his shop one or two nights a week. So I will have dessert pix to share! If WordPress lets me share them.

I’ve also got the WIS&W afterparty to bake for, and I gave myself a pretty ambitious menu to learn. But I’m one of those people who needs deadlines. Desperately. So blast it, it’s time to get started.

But knitwise… I decided to cast on for the bias square for the Doctor Who afghan. The plan is to collect enough squares for two afghans — the U.S. one auctioned to benefit Doctors Without Borders, and the U.K. one auctioned to benefit a hospice that helped care for David Tennant’s mother when she recently died of cancer. They are easy peasy 4 inch garter stitch bias squares, not even mitered squares (I guess that’s next), made from sock yarn. My first one is more than half done, and my plan is to just keep making them until I run out of leftover sock yarn. NOTE: I am NOT coordinating this effort. It originated in the Who Knits? Ravelry group (come and join us!), and I am just making tiny little squares.

I may start doing this with larger amounts of oddball yarn, too, and just tucking them away until I have enough for an afghan for myself. Maybe I’d better put an explanatory note in with them in case I get hit by a bus and somebody finds this bag of squares and thinks WTF.

Next on the list is starting the second Panda Cotton sock, so I can work two heel flaps right in a row and have a cigarette. I’m figuring it will be Just. That. Exciting. (I’m kidding, folks. I have never smoked anything I was offered.)

Knitwise the other projects are the Red Heart tube scarf, the MCY IHS, and Tyrone (sigh). I will probably knit that lace washcloth before I start any of them! That’s just the kind of knitter I am. I have to have a plan so I can thwart it.

ETA (edited to add): The Yarn Harlot has just shamed me into putting Tyrone at the top of the list. If anyone can encourage me through the weird first few raglan rows of sleeves-meet-body, please comment with said encouragement. I haven’t touched the sweater since last October, and it’s quite likely I don’t know what I was doing, or what to do next.

Contest time!

Hi folks….sorry for the lack of posts. The Internet connection is continuing to be crap, but now that we have DH has rearranged the living room, it seems to be better. (I know, WTF. It’s like the “magic” sticker on the big VAX servers in the Olden Days. Don’t touch it and everything will be fine.) Not knowing when I’d get dumped has kind of tarnished the relationship, yaknowwhatImean?

But anyway…..I just looked at my blog stats and saw the Comments total is at 987. You all know what that means, a goodie bag for the 1,000th comment! (Nothing for you, Mister Spam. Move along.)

I don’t know for sure what the prize will be. Odds are high that it could be a styrofoam head on which you could pose your latest knitted hat. Or, you could pick What’s Behind Door Number Two: a classic Chocolate Sheep care package from good ol’ Wisconsin. This will probably involve both yarn and chocolate. I’m planning an intimate party for 200 during WI Sheep & Wool Festival this year, so maybe I can test some recipes on you. If that sounds good, comment away!

Back to the knitting. The brioche scarf got totally frogged and converted to a tube scarf so I can have something for my hands to do when my brain is otherwise occupied. So that’s grinding along. In fact, I think that’s how I’m going to use up all my acrylic: cast on for tube scarves on 16-inch circs. Merry Christmas!

I’m a few inches (6!) into the first of the Crystal Palace Panda Cotton socks. The pooling is fabulous, like a fractal swirl around the sock. I think one more inch and it’s time to knit me a heel flap. And now that the Yarn Harlot herself has annotated Page 144 of Knitting Rules for me, I’ll never forget how to slip those stitches again. (Hint: the needles are tip to tip.) But before I get to that point, I’m going to take someone’s advice and cast on for the second sock and work it up to the heel flap, too. Then I get to do two heel flaps in a row, squee! (That may also mean I have to buy another set of size 2 dpn’s, oh darn.)

I did one repeat on the IHS-with-cursed-yarn and set it aside again. Just not in the mood, I guess. There are still at least three skeins to be wound up, so it’s miles to go before I sleep, it’s for me, there’s no deadline, yadda yadda yadda.

The Packer Hat was mailed out, and I never heard from the guy again. I don’t know if he even received it. I think I’ll just assume he’s on vacation in Door County or something. Hey Brian, give me a shout out when you get back.

I haven’t been brave enough to pick up the Tyrone sweater yet — what is my problem? But in other Backyardigans news, my BY blog Backyardiknits just got a comment from a Spanish language Backyardigans fan blog. I just finished adding them to the blogroll over there. See how trusting I am that my connection will be stable long enough to do such things?

OK, I’m not brave enough to try to add a picture. I’m sure there’s something I want to say that I don’t want to lose in the inevitable failure to connect.

Top Chef related: I totally called out Nikki on this one, though I would have been thrilled to see Dale go home after this episode. Whenever someone’s this poisonous and they get the feedback and they get to go on to the next round, it certainly doesn’t discourage them or their tactics. And bravo Stephanie! And Richard for giving Stephanie his prize sight unseen. She deserved it.

What else is going on? Mr. Chocolatesheep has a state of the art iMac in the other room so he can make other magazines at home in his spare time, when he isn’t at work making magazines. It is freaking awesome. It is so freaking awesome I knew he wouldn’t mind if I snuck away and did a blog post. Mind? I don’t think he noticed.

Next thing to cast on? Maybe that can be what I judge comments on. What should be next on my needles. Socks for myself? My Dale sweater I actually bought the pattern and the yarn for? A knitted thing for my Birthday Buddy Swap on Ravelry? Or a mitered square for a Doctor Who afghan?

I’ll be in touch with you, number 1000.

Harlot Day

What can I say to adequately describe Harlot Day?

Part One: The Morning

The forecast was for rain/snow mix, but the day started off with a very good omen. A few miles down the road from us is a field where I’ve twice seen an albino deer. It seems to be the deer’s home ground, so every time I drive past that particular field, I look for it. Monday morning, I saw the white deer, standing still just inside the woods, at the edge of the field.

All told, I saw a zoo’s worth of animals on Monday. In addition to the white deer, I saw a flock of while turkeys, a Great Blue Heron in flight, two raccoons, and several Sandhill Cranes. We are masters of the microclimate here in Wisconsin. Every animal’s residence is theoretically possible. The cougar that was shot in Chicago last week? Today’s paper confirms he’s the same one who was seen some time back in Milton, WI.

Anyway. I left the house at 9:11 (which was appropriate, considering I had just called Mr. Chocolatesheep to get directions to the freakin bookstore) to head to Madison to pick up my wristband. I made it to the parking lot (easy peasy) right at the stroke of ten. Several knitters were waiting for the doors to open; by the time I opened my van doors and wrangled my boys out, the doors were open and everyone was inside.

I quickly met up with KnittinKitten from Ravelry, picked up my purple wristband, chatted with Jennifer (fellow Hog-n-Blogger) and her three kids, bought the Harlot’s new book as well as a copy of her first book. It was while I was purchasing said books, and signing up for Borders Rewards, and being talking into purchasing a children’s book for some sort of charity program, that I managed to leave the store without the wristband.

Knitters are great — a knitter and a Borders employee figured out what happened, and who it had happened to, and I had my wristband back before I had the boys buckled up.

Now I had to hightail it home before the bus dropped off my five-year-old. I had already arranged for her to be dropped off at the neighbors’ house, but still.

Unfortunately, when I checked my gas gauge I realized I didn’t have enough to make it home. I decided to fill up in Lake Mills, and then maybe, just maybe, look for a new yarn store that Dale-Harriet had told me about. I didn’t have the address with me, but Lake Mills wasn’t so big, how hard could it be?

After cruising through Lake Mills without finding the yarn store, there was unexpected road work on Route 18 that led me on a strange detour into Jefferson. Of course I had to take another strange detour out of Jefferson on the other side, to get home.

I made it with half an hour to spare before Miss got home, but she was going to be so excited about being dropped off at the neighbors’ that I didn’t switch back to plan A. She spent a few minutes over there, collecting leftover Easter candy, before being brought home.

Meanwhile, I had a plaintive voicemail from Cheesehead with Sticks, who was being snowed on (seven inches) and couldn’t get her schedule rearranged to attend. Poor girl, no problem, she’s been my yarn angel before.

Then it was just Countdown Time until I would be able to leave for the Real Event. I packed my bag with my knitting projects (2), a Coke, my knitting toolkit, the books I’d bought in the morning, my digital camera, a red Harlotgift washcloth, a card Colleen made for Stephanie, and four twigs from the apple tree. I didn’t actually take anything else *out* first, so it was pretty crowded in there.

Part Two: The Day

We had lunch. I packed. I paced. I checked the clock. I read the new book. There were a couple of typos, but nothing that was the Harlot’s fault. It was cute and funny. I didn’t recognize much that was a repeat from the blog, either. When does she have time to do all this? Then I paced and checked the clock again. Snuck my knitting bag out to the car while the kids weren’t looking.

Did I mention that my eldest had his Pack meeting the same night and was getting his Bear badge? Mr. Chocolatesheep was taking him to it, and had arranged for a babysitter to keep track of the other three (bringing her daughter, too). Great, great, great, when could I go?

Part Three: The Evening

I was able to hit the road at 4:45, and I have a receipt to prove I purchased another copy of the Harlot’s new book at 5:30. Dale-Harriet had saved seats in the second row, and I gratefully took one. There were a handful of us representing The Sow’s Ear, and we all checked out each other’s projects for a while.

Here’s the view from the second row:

Then I got going on the Zigzag Scarf. I had one-and-a-half to two hours of joyous knitting time before me, and I didn’t want to waste it. Besides, I was getting closer to the end of the only skein I had.

While we knit, several other knitters got up and took “traveling sock” pictures of their own, holding their socks-in-progress up in front of the crowd. They took pictures of each other, and at least one knitter took a video of Ellenspn, whose knitting projects were too unwieldy to bring, and therefore brought roving and spindles.

I noticed a bunch of male knitters in the crowd, about one for every other row of chairs. That added up to about ten as far as I could tell, but other estimate were of more than 200 knitters in total. (Crocheters, I’m including you, too. Hooks down.)

Well, eventually the Harlot was introduced. She was clearly nervous at first, but we were her people, after all, and an appreciative audience of the speech she had brought with her.

Here’s the view from the second row, with the Harlot in place:

She took her traveling sock pictures of the crowd, and got going on her speech. I don’t want to ruin anything for those of you who are still waiting, plus I think I was laughing too hard to put everything into permanent memory, but if you just can’t stand it, just Google her and look for coverage of the Portland event.

I used my camera to make a short video of the “Headlines About Knitting” segment. It’s 3:02 long and almost 80 MB, so I probably can’t e-mail it to you, and I don’t know how to put things on YouTube, but it really showcases her comic timing and physical humor. (I know! Next time you’re in town, stop by my house and I’ll play it for you. That should work.)

After the speech, there was Q&A, and she retold the whole story about hiking into town and back from the remote cabin, to get beer and toilet paper. It was hilarious all over again.

When she kept asking for more questions, I wanted to ask, “How’s the gansey coming along?” but didn’t dare. That’s Rams’s territory. Little did I know Rams would surprise her by showing up at the Indianapolis event, the very next evening.

So then the questions were done and it was book-signing time. Jennifer and Beeb pre-boarded; I took a picture of them and Stephanie which you can see at Jennifer’s blog. Then I sat back down to knit, purple wristband be damned. I had no need to shove ahead of anyone. I knit on the Zigzag Scarf while I watched usually mature ladies fall to pieces while standing in front of Stephanie with their newly purchased books. One in particular looked as if the last time she had giggled and gushed so much was when the Beatles landed at the airport. She was just manic, and I thought, Stephanie is just a knitter, a writer, a mom. Calm down.

After about an hour of this, our group got tired of being hounded to get in line by the bookstore staff, and we packed up our goodies and stood in line. I was not pleased about this, because I was coming close to the end of my Zigzag Scarf, but I put it down and left.

I don’t know when we started standing in line, but I do know they closed down the cash registers at 9:45 and we weren’t up to the main table yet. (All that Resisting Temptation while we passed the cookbook shelves, for nought.) The woman ahead of me was knitting socks on two circular needles. D-H was a couple of knitters behind me working on a tocque, and when she laid it on the floor to measure it, we allowed as how it would have been the world’s biggest Willie Warmer. I guess there *is* more than one knitting joke!

At long last it was our turn. Stephanie remembered my comment-name (Beth in WI) from some e-mails we’d exchanged, and signed a book for me with that name and with Chocolatesheep. Signed a book for Cheesehead With Sticks. Signed my Knitting Rules! book by clarifying what type of slipped stitch to make on the sock heel flap. I gave her the washcloth, explicated Colleen’s card, and posed for the combo washie/first socks picture. Then I took her picture — if someone from the staff took our picture together, it vanished somehow. (I had five pics on my camera and only four uploaded. Unfortunately my settings were to erase the camera memory after upload. Ah well.)

picture of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, someday

Then I sat down, looked at the remaining amount of yarn in my project bag, and bound off the Zigzag Scarf and wove in the ends right then and there. Ta dah!

picture of Zigzag Scarf

But, Dudes. That woman is amazing. Flew all this way, drove (was driven) all this way, spoke all that time, answered all those questions, was a ton of gracious to every single person there, and then joked about having to drink so much beer (that we had brought her) when she finally got to her hotel room in Milwaukee that night, that she was sure she would wake up swearing, “I gotta get tuh M’waukee right away.”

I got in my car at 10:15pm. I got home at 11pm. And that’s all I had to do. For all I knew, she was at that very moment finally getting to pack up and ride to Milwaukee, check in, drink & eat, and get ready for the flight to Indianapolis the next morning.

I don’t know how Stephanie does it. But I’m glad she does!

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!