Grab your knitting needles and come relax with me.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Fall is HERE!
It even feeeels like fall! The temps this week have been in the mid-60s. It's wonderous knitting weather. I had planned to start Fall Cleaning, but yesterday I tore the nail nearly clean off my big toe. So that put my plans on hold, as standing, squatting, moving objects, and scrubbing do not work well with a very painful throbbing toe. Gee, knitting--knitting I can do.
Right now I am working on Granny's Shawl. Christmas is less than 3 months away and I still need to knit her slippers. The shawl I think is nearly done...each row is taking FOREVER!! I might watch Wolverine to help take my mind off the EXTREME boredom.
I also need to work on my Super Secret Projects--there are still two. Hmmm and ya know what they are also blue. I am on a blue kick. Can not wait for RED. or Gold. Or Multi coloured!!!
Last week while we were all sick, Lorelei asked me to teach her to knit. She's showing a great amount of patience and diligence. I taught her the little knitting rhyme, "In through the front door, run around back, out through the window, off jumps jack." She's still using "training wheels," but I think in no time she will be knitting up her very own scarves.
When I was sick in bed, a day or so later, Jamey sent this to me in Yahoo Chat. (Too sick to knit, but I couldn't just sleep the sick away).
Micci asks are we going to the yarn store…. 11:23 AM
I ask why… 11:23 AM
and he says because it’s lori’s birthday… 11:23 AM
Lori says it’s my birthday and I want yarn because I know how to knit… 11:23 AM
ROFLMAO 11:23 AM
you have created a monster 11:23 AM
Mwhahaha!
I love it. So yesterday was Lorelei's fifth birthday and we took her to Hobby Lobby (she can wait for the nice high end fibers). She picked out some yarn (she took after me and loaded up her arms with yarn...Dad made her pick two), a pink skein of cotton and a variegated pink and purple skein of cotton. And I found her some of her very own needles.
This will be a nice part of our homeschooling day: a knitting lesson.
I somehow managed to re-work the alignment of planets and arrange everything just so; and was able to go up to Austin (The Knitting Nest) to meet and hang with Amy Singer (the editor of Knitty). It was a terrific afternoon.
My hubby confused the dates (I explicitly told him the date) and didn't have the day off. Aiiiieeee!! I was able to arrange not one, but TWO! babysitters. Woot! It was well worth it. I got to listen to Amy softly strum her uke, while my own tin whistle sat in my bag--too nervous to come out.
I completely forgot my camera (bad knit blogger no cookie) and even though I reminded myself, forgot to tell Wendy (my ride up) to bring HER camera. So no pics of Amy. Although we all did learn how to take awesome pictures (Wendy rocks)--because photographs are taking a 3D object and turning it 2D. Optical illusions are our friend and to be used! Double chin? Stick your neck out as far forward as you can and voila beautiful neck! and only one chin!!
I had great fun talking and knitting with Amy and other assorted Austin knitters. I even got to meet Sandra Singh! I also got sucked in by the malabrigo. Second only to Handmaiden Sea Silk--Malabrigo lures me in. I now have 7 different colours (8 hanks) of Malabrigo laceweight and not a bit of it knit up. This has GOT to change.
I was hemming over this minty Water Green hanging lovingly, temptingly on a rack.
Mint Green is one of my new IT colours. Although, red still is IT, always will be IT. But the other colours pass in and out of IT-ness. Plum and lavender have left to allow minty to come to the forefront of my senses. Lately, I have been wanting to pair minty green with this:
Then I saw this colour:
And something exploded in my brain when I did this to the two hanks of Malabrigo:
Wowazza!!! I am going to make something exquisite with these two hanks of deliciousness.
This is SO gonna hurt. I decided after a good week of agony to frog more than three inches of lace work. I asked some friends their thoughts on the matter, "Did this bit look okay?" I was beginning to be very displeased with how the lace pattern was coming out. Everyone told me it looked good. But still niggling in the back of my mind..."no no no no it looks like crap!"
I hate frogging. It usually takes me so long to knit--it's just going backwards right? But the wise Yarn Harlot says, but hey YOU GET TO KNIT AGAIN-YOU GET TO KNIT MORE!!! What's so awful about that?? (I had to shout this last bit to give me some confidence).
So here it goes...heavy sigh...somebody hold my hand?
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP...
soft sobs
Damn this is taking forever...ouch...hold tighter, please.
Whew. Done.
Wow. I feel much better, much lighter...even though I pretty much have to start all over again... It will be a better design. And the yarn is a delight to work with (it's Buffalo Gold Lux).
Sorry but I couldn't tell you WHAT I am frogging. It's super secret...but soon I promise to spill ALL the beans.
I am an admitted control freak (on a related note I also have trust issues). My friends and family have been trying to get me to use test knitters. You knit slow; why don't you farm out some of your designs that are ready to go? And I have always made excuses for why not. All sorts of lame and sad, pitiful excuses that are too embarrassing to even detail. But finally the knitting bunnies have well and truly begun to over run me. So I decided to take the leap of faith and put my newly hatched babies into others hands.
And it is STILL freaking me out. Part of me hates it because the patterns aren't totally ironed out--there's always a tweak I need to do before it's finalised. So my test knitters are seeing my naked underbelly (sort to speak)-dude totally not comfortable with that. Part of me wonders are they doing it right???? Because ya know no one can do it right but me...(yeah ego? me never.) But DUDE, these two test knitters are awesome, talented knitters.
Why worry?
Well because I can and do. I need a chill pill. It will be wonderful and I need to stop being an arsehole.
I've been knitting...but it's nearly all entirely super secret knitting. The only thing I am knitting that I can share in it's entirety is my Granny's Christmas present (I can share it because she doesn't read the blog, although her son does-I think he'd like to see what I am working on for his mum.) Right now it looks like a blob, but it WILL be a shawl someday.
I switched to my biggest cords--52 inches and I started the second ball of Marble Chunky. I think I will need to use every bit of that yarn. I am hoping it will be a full sized shawl. Big enough that she can keep cuddly warm in it this winter.
I am working on two new lace scarf* patterns...both of which I can't show you. The wildflower themed scarf is giving me a headache--and I may frog half of it. (I must be brave!!) The Lorelei scarf-I started it, but I paused so I could learn Orenburg Shawl construction (I am using that technique in the scarf). Basically it's how to knit the pretty edging on the scarf with out too many picked up stitches or sewing. The edging is knitted at the same time as the body, so when you finish you are FINISHED!!
I am only knitting a swatch--because I am using some left over lace weight and dude I do not have time to be knitting a another full sized scarf right now. I am thinking about putting it in a shadow box once I'm done with it. I am thinking it'll be the size of a handkerchief. But I as I knit this, I am wondering that after my current batch of projects if this type of scarf or stole should be next on my list. (Dontcha love how fast these knitting bunnies pop out?)
I am thinking soon, maybe tomorrow?? or next week??? I will see about repairing the Swan Lake stole that I blogged about last month. (And yes I know I promised a lace surgery video...editing still being done!)
*I am wondering if I ought to explain the scarves. Why do I just knit and or design scarves? Well, for one I LOVE scarves. I love how they can transform your look. Second, I live in S. Texas: I can get more mileage out of a scarf that I can a sweater or mittens or hats. C: I knit slow. I can knit scarves faster than a stole or a sweater. Fourthly: I also LOVE expensive yarns...so I can usually only afford to buy one hank...so I try to make one skein projects for those like me that are drawn to expensive yarns. Now I do have stoles/shawls on the way for the yarns I bought (still expensive) that have some serious yardage to them.
I totally forgot to write about my yarny adventure with good friend T. from Houston. She was in town vacationing right before school started...so two weeks ago. She had a free day and asked us SA girls if we could show her the sights (I kinda got thrown into planning it--a bit unexpected, but I rose to the challenge, hee hee). We (A., B.J, and K.) took her to both of the San Antonio yarn shops, Yarn Barn and Yarnivore, and dragged her up to Boerne to Rosewood Yarns (I had never been and I had been wanted to get some Denise Cords).
I of course brought my camera but took just one picture. Yeah, brilliant, I know! But it was just one of those, DUDE! Moments...
It was across from the Chinese place where we had lunch.
So, first stop was Yarn Barn. Lovely store! Nice sock yarns, nice handmaiden...I did sorta convinced T. to buy some Handmaiden Sea Silk. I didn't twist her arm or anything...but I can be slightly persuasive. Grin. She got a gorgeous rainbow coloured hank. And she let me pet it in the car too...I was told to get a private room next time I want to "pet" yarn. What can I say: I LOVE Handmaiden!!! She pretty much blew her budget...not just on Handmaiden...but dude vacation yarn DOESN'T count toward the budget or the diet!!! It's a law or something. Hee.
We tried to check out a highly recommended Chinese Buffet across from Yarnivore, but found it shuttered up. Sigh. So we went to a sit down Chinese place instead. (Don't try their egg drop--shudder!!) Yarnivore was awesome! as always. I bought a little hank of yarn for a Super Secret Project for Next Summer. It's gorgeous! It matches my hair! (But was a ROYAL bitch to wind!!) I (and B.J. K. and A.) then knitted while T. shopped some more--like I said vacation yarn doesn't count!!
Next we drove up to Boerne. It's about 30 minutes or less outside of San Antonio. After a few minutes of confusion we found Rosewood Yarns. Wow. I have GOT to go back!! With MONEY! They had some BEAUTIFUL lace weight silk I was slobbering all over. The vibrance of the colours...nearly made me weep. Yes, I have a soft spot for silk...a big huge all encompassing soft spot. I quickly grabbed my Denise Cords (I needed long ones for Granny's Shawl) and set to knitting, as not to be distracted and lured by the pretty silks.
Then we went to get ice cream, while T. ducked in an Irish shop. And look what she bought us (on sale mind you!).
So cute!!! It's big enough to be a sock bag or just a notions kit. Awesomeness! It even came with a matching pen. And look at the ZIPPER pull!
The cuteness!!!
We had such a great time. I love hanging out with my knitterly friends. Thanks to LSSK-I have so many AWESOME, fantastic knitterly friends ALL OVER TEXAS. I am truly blessed. The Hill Country Yarn Crawl is coming up next month. I am dragging my mate Phisto to this. SHE has a yarn stash that fits into an ottoman. WHAT? Into an ottoman? I am totally going to rectify this on the Crawl. Hee.
Oops, totally forgot to show y'all the finished head wrap!
I love it and wear it all the time. It's great for second or third day hair when my curls stay excellent but the front, not so much. I found the pattern through my Naturally Curly group on Ravelry. They've helped me learn SO much about my hair and how to make it look its best. It amazes me that I actually thought I had straight hair!
(I took this piccie after I did a deep conditioning treatment with honey and olive oil.)
You can sorta see what my hair looked like before I discovered it was curly/wavy. I just thought I had unmanageable straight hair. Then I learned to stop brushing it and stop using silicones and sulfates.
Anyhoo--knitting! I just finished a pattern submission, so I am taking a mini knitting break to focus on the house. I neglected it trying to make my deadline. Unfortunately most of what I am and will be working on is Super Secret. BUT, I have a knitting field trip coming up: gonna stalk, oh ahem, meet Amy Singer, the editor of Knitty. Then the following month is the Hill Country Yarn Crawl AND then the next month is Kid N Ewe Fiber Fest. Yarny goodness! I also have that extreme lace surgery to show y'all.
I've been a very bad blogger and I hope to rectify this in the coming days and weeks. Thanks for readin' y'all!
