WiP Weekend

It has been a while since I posted any knitting progress , but that doesn't mean I haven't been knitting. Progress has just seemed slow lately, so I never feel like I have anything "blog-able." However, I suppose I really have done a lot since my last post. So here is a bit of an update.

As far as WiPs go, I've been working on Wicked by Zephyr Style. I cast on for this again in early January and have slowly worked away on it. I actually have one sleeve finished, but don't have any updated pictures. I'll post more about modifications and yarn notes when the piece is completed. I'm not happy with the length - while I added a couple of inches to the recommended length my torso is quite long so I'll probably rip back and add another inch or two to the entire length of the sweater. I'm just debating how I want to go about doing that.

I have finished a pair of socks this year. These are just plain stockinette socks made from Miss Babs' Sport weight sock yarn in the colorway Raspberry Cane. The yarn was purchased at SAFF 2007. I really enjoyed working with it, and would love to use her sportweight again in the future. I'm especially fond of Saturn. I carried it around for a long time at SAFF, but decided to get Raspberry Cane instead at the last minute. These were really great for those instances where I didn't have a lot of time to commit to knitting (Seems like there has been a lot of that lately).


These socks are especially cute with my new shoes that I got ultracheap this weekend.

Karen and I met up today so I could get my part of an order we'd placed as a group. Hooray for a sweater's worth of Cascade 220 (more on that later)! We had a delicious Indian lunch and stopped by the tea store next door. Inside I saw the most amazing tea wares. Mom always used to complain that I was hard to shop for because I didn't collect anything. I must say that if I find myself with extra money I will start collecting Franz Porcelain. I am especially fond of the Bamboo Song Bird, Luminescence Peacock, and the new Phonician Flight series. The shapes, colors, and details in these pieces are truly inspirational.

Proud to Announce

I am proud to announce that all of my Christmas knitting is complete. This includes blocking, but not the wrapping. I'd better get on that! Pictures will come after giftage commences. Hannah says it's pretty. :)

Home for the Holidays

I'm so glad my gift (2 skeins of Noro Kureyon) was well-received by Gena. I was lucky to get some luxuriously soft Baby Alpaca Grande (distributed by Plymouth) from Karen. I'm planning to make a loose-knit scarf so the yarn will keep it's incredible softness.

I've traveled home for the holiday and got to play with some kittens that my sister is raising. She's trying to decide which of these two she will adopt. You will have to excuse me for posting cute kitten pictures - because I don't normally get to spend time with animals.

Kitten 1 is poofy and clumsy (she is still quite young). She's normally very shy and quiet but she showed some aggression over a favorite toy.

Kitten 2 is the most developed in the litter. She's very intelligent and coordinated (for her age). Here she is snuggling up to the air register to hog all the hot air coming out.

This kitten also curls up in wool sweaters and falls asleep - therefore we had something to bond over.

Isn't it Fun?

Isn't it fun wrapping presents? Especially when said presents contain goodies for knitters? I'm really looking forward to Knit Picky's holiday party tonight. I hope the recipient of this gift enjoys what I picked! It's so difficult to shop for these things where anyone could end up with your gift.

The Queen of Vague

First of all, Happy Birthday, Gena.

I left out the details of my calorimetry in my last post. I'd heard from other knitters that it's a challenge to get the sizing right if you don't have the perfect gauge. So, I just started casting on stitches and stretching the cast-on edge as I went to guesstimate the number of stitches needed. I ended up casting on 60 stitches (on a size 9 needle) because I wanted a nice snug fit (no slippage, please) and I didn't know how far 55 meters of yarn was going to go. The fit is good, but I almost wish I'd gone with 64 stitches! Do note that I'm a really loose knitter so anyone using the same yarn/needles will probably need anywhere from 10-20% more stitches.

I gave it a test drive this moring on my walk to work, and I am in love. It still has that heady sheep/acetic acid smell that makes me think of wonderful places (yarn stores, of course). My ears weren't the least bit cold after I got to work and realized I'd left my badge on the coffee table. They were still toastywarm when I got back home to retrieve said badge. And when I finally arrived at work and realized I'd left my lunch at home (when I went to fetch the badge) my ears were still totally cozy. At that point I decided I wasn't walking back home for lunch and just had delicious chilli for dinner instead.

In other news - I have plane tickets to return home for Christmas! I cannot even explain how giddy this makes me!

A day of fiber and friends

The generous Karen hosted a yarn brunch today where we assembled a team to rip a disasterous sweater (details will be on Karen's blog). It took 4 people and more than an hour, but in the end we had all of that yarn in tidy little cakes.

I made a little progress on the sleeve of the tangled yolk cardigan. I'm not very inspired by it at the moment. Since the sleeve has seemed more like work than enjoyment, I made good progress on the Raspberry Cane sock. It came to work with me a couple of nights where I spiraled away on it while various assays developed. I like the way the burgundy/red pools on one side of the sock. It makes me think of the red tide.

I made a quick trip to a yarn shop that was having a sale (20% off all yarn!). There, I found a yarn which I've never seen in person before - Marisol's Sulka. It's a lovely Wool/Alpaca/Silk blend that is spun in a loose unplied single. I've been drawn to singles yarns since I learned to spin. They're just so soft! I got home and immediately cast on for Calorimetry. Since I wear my hair in a bun on a daily basis it's not terribly conducive to wearing hats. This garment solves the problem of chilly ears on windy mornings without the bun becoming an issue. I finished in 2 hours - exactly as Karen predicted! Any pattern named after such an explosive technique requires a bold color. I think I chose well. Please excuse the odd picture - it's really hard to photograph one's self. Once I finally got most of my head in the shot I no longer cared that I had a strange smirk on my face!

When I was at the LYS I found another singles yarn that caught my eye. It was a visual delight as well as a tactile one.

It's a laceweight - Malabrigo laceweight in the "Continental" colorway, to be exact. It was priced very reasonably - especially considering the yardage. Then, it was an extra 20% off! I have a pretty good idea what I'm going to make with it.

SAFF (boy am I behind)

Hello Friends,

I know it has been a while since I've posted, but those of you who know me irl probably already know the reason for my blog silence recently. I think the worst of the work will be over Tuesday when the external advisory board comes in for the annual review. Let's just hope things settle down after that. I really wanted to get this post up today before I go into work because one of my readers (who checks the blog obsessively) is celebrating her 14th birthday. Happy Birthday, Li'l Bit! I'm so sorry I can't be there.

Now, let's get into fibery goodness! A few weeks ago I attended SAFF (Southeastern Animal Fiber Festival) with Melinda (thanks for driving!), Karen, and Gena. All 3 were sporting gorgeous new handknit sweaters. I, however, did not have the blogger instinct to photograph said sweaters. I actually did want to, but when we met up it was still pretty dark outside so I figured we'd wait until later in the day. But once we got to SAFF we were all so overwhelmed that I completely forgot. Trust me, they were lovely. And, it was perfect sweater weather.

It was totally Tocktober in the llama barns. Check out these fluffiest of 'tocks! Llamas are not terribly friendly. One of them even snarled at me - he/she had this great Elvis lip action going on.

The vendor area was completely overwhelming for all of us as this was our first fiber festival. There were so many beautiful sights like this one. We were kinda in yarn overload.

I was so overwhelmed by all the yarn that I forgot my shopping list: FIBER, Shawl pin, Estonian Garden Shawl pattern. I did find a lovely shawl pin from Knitting Notions. I chose African Padauk because the wood matched my swallowtail shawl so well. The ladies working the booth were incredibly nice and they had the most gorgeous shawl samples on display. It inspired Melinda to make the Icarus shawl (here is a lovely example) from a previous issue of Interweave Knits.

I also found the Estonian Garden Shawl pattern at the Kid Hollow Farm booth. I've been wanting to make this shawl for months after seeing Firefly's (ravelry link). I'm so glad to have finally found the pattern - I already have the perfect yarn for it:

Now, recall how the first thing on my list was fiber? There were just so many fibers to chose from that the fiber-picking part of my brain went on vacation. I came home with none. I'm going to practice my spinning a bit more and brace myself for next year. Instead of fiber I came home with a skein of yarn. I'd show you a picture of the hank, but I'd already wound it in the car on the way home. Instead, some knitted up pictures:

The yarn was dyed by the incredibly talented (and friendly) Miss Babs. This colorway is Raspberry Cane - I really wish I'd bought Saturn as well!

After we got our shop on, the four of us migrated to the Ravelry meetup and met lots of knitters we know from blogland. It's been a few weeks so I'm sure I'll forget some people, but here goes! Aimee, TurtleGirl, ZKnits, Mean Girl, and Trillian. Aimee recently participated in a walk to raise money for Lupus research and asked the knitting community to aide her in raising funds. She raised a total of 4.6k! To help raise the money, she had a number of prizes available that would be distributed to donors. Much to my surprise (and delight) I won one of those prizes. Namely, the prize pack from the Zen Yarn Garden. It consisted of a cute lined drawstring project bag (currently housing the Miss Babs socks) and some ultra-squishy sport-weight sock yarn. The yarn is a merino/seacell blend so it has a lovely shimmer to it. The colorway is named Lilacs, and the hank had a whopping 375 yards! Dood, those socks are gonna be a mile tall!

What a day! I can't wait for next year.