Cattywampus

The Siren Song of Lace

So, I hear tell (that's one of my acquired southern phrases) that Christmas is coming...the goose is getting fat...and all that.

I feel the pull of *making things* for everybody for Christmas.  I feel guilty if I don't.  Why is that?  Y'all out there, you amazing knitters and crafters you, so many of you spend your time making wonderful and amazing Christmas gifts for those you love. 

Here's the thing (and OH is there a thing).  I am feeling distinctly selfish.  I have a few small projects I will make, neck gators for some of the menfolk in my family, socks for an unnamed relative, and I have dh's sweater cast on, but no more than that.  I do think it's a wonderful and grand idea to make things for people, but y'know...

Crap happens.  Or, more specifically, lace happens.  Beautiful, wonderful, haunting, amazing, lace. 

I had this conversation with my mother Sunday about how I feel BAD about being selfish with my knitting and her reply was so simple and straightforward:  Why? 

Why indeed?  Should I feel guilty?  Those who don't craft spend their idle time watching tv...do they feel guilty?  Why should I feel guilty that I have no actual idle time?  Why should I feel that I need to use my leisure time for someone other than me?

Don't get me wrong, I LIKE to make things for other people, but it's when I start to feel like I HAVE to make things for other people that I run into the brick wall. 

Some knitted gifts will happen.  None, of course, that can be blatantly discussed until after the gift giving season has happened, but first...first...I'm going to answer the siren song of lace.

Y'all remember Anne right?  Wonderful, amazing Anne the lace designer extraordinaire who I test knit the Bee Stole for?  Go over there RIGHT NOW (I'll wait) and she what she is doing.

I am going to test knit THAT.  Are you excited?  Cuz I'm seriously excited.

In the height of the time when I should be buckling down with my Christmas knitting list and getting to it, I am completely selfishly taking time to answer the siren song of lace and I am trying very, very hard not to feel guilty about it.

Morning Glory Stole FO

Morning Glory Stole

Resurrected from UFO pile in perfect time for a warm fall wrap.  The colors are a bit insane.  They were custom dyed by Crash Into Ewe to reflect the colors in a pink & purple morning glory.  For the record, I love it - I love that little splash of pink that comes out in between the purples.  It is not a nice, sedate, wear it to your cousin's wedding kind of a stole.  It's a hey LOOK AT WHAT I KNIT kind of a stole, and I think it will look lucious over an all black outfit.  I'll find out this weekend when I wear it out to dinner & a show and that should result in a better picture of it on me.

I do need to get some blocking wires.  I could have pinned all the little points out, but I just didn't have the energy and I didn't think I needed to run a string through the edges b/c it is dk weight, I thought it would hold itself in shape...I was wrong, the edges are curling in a little bit, but it's not noticeable when it's on.

Note to self:  taking bathroom mirror pictures of shawls/stoles/wraps = not such a good idea.

SAFF - The Stash Enhancement

Click on any of 'em to make 'em bigger. 

Rising Meadow Corriedale for the Sunrise Circle Jacket[pdf link] - the only thing I ventured out of my comfort color zone with.
Brooks Farm Mas Acero for a Clapotis
Brooks Farm Mas Acero for possibly a cardigan
Fleece Artist Blue Face Leicester Aran for a v-neck pullover
The Weaver 20/2 Tussah Silk for nothing imparticular but just because it's my favorite color in the whole world.
Interlacements Toasty Toes for a gift hat.
The Sanguine Gryphon - Little Traveller Colorway:  England, for the Stonington Shawl (ravelry link)
Brooks Farm Acero theoretically for the Henley Perfected - but it says online that it's fingering?  That makes me nervous, it said sport/dk there...
Brooks Farm Fourplay for the Caberet Raglan(ravelry link)
Delly's Delights Alpaca in Char (I LOVE that the Alpaca was that color, somehow that makes it so much cooler) for something very soft and snuggly.
Just Our Yarn Myne - Cashmere, for a small neck scarf

And last and oh-so-least...the yarn we dyed in the class.  I will probably over dye it at some point...

As you can tell, I dropped about 50% of my cash at the Brooks Farm booth, such GORGEOUS, gorgeous stuff.

I'm sure some of this will be re-purposed before I knit it, but that's what my thoughts are initially for it all. 

What I am really, really wanting to cast on for RIGHT NOW?  The Stonington Shawl.  I have been looking for yarn for that for MONTHS. 

I am totally and completely happy with all of my purchases - this is unusual for me...no impulse purchase guilt, no second thoughts about any of the colors, just a head that is full of thoughts of all the pretty, pretty things I can make with each yarn.

SAFF - Good times were had by all.

Friday morning when I left for SAFF, it was raining.  This was literally the first rain we had seen in 4 weeks, the only substantial rain we've had in 3 months.  It's amazing how exciting rain is in that situation.

We took a class on dyeing.  That's really all I have to say about that.

Here is the view from the entrace, see all the pretty, pretty things?  I know this is one of the smaller shows, but it was certainly big enough for my first trip to a fiber festival!  The pic on the right is the Sheep to Shawl demonstration.

We saw very cute & fuzzy things.  I managed to prevent Heather from buying an angora bunny, it was a close call though.  She had a rental car, it never would have worked out.

I used my Everlasting Bagstopper, it held up better than I expected with the ribbon handles and miraculously all of the yarn I got actually fit into it.

Here are our combined purchases, spread out on the hotel bed to better admire them.  {I will go over the yarn in detail in another post.}

And this is what we did Saturday night.  I'm wearing my Glastig FO.

It was oodles of fun - both the festival and hanging out with a friend I hadn't seen in years, and I'm soooo tired & worn out today.

And the winner is...

Suzy Girl!!

Thank you all for stopping by and entering the contest - I appreciate all of you out there reading!

Outta here!

Tomorrow morning I am on my way to SAFF for the weekend.  I am meeting my friend Heather there, whom I haven't seen in over 3 years - crazy, isn't it?

We have delightful weekend planned, we are taking a dyeing class, have a delicious dinners planned, and most of all just going to the festival and experiencing all the wondrous variety of fiber.  Oh & I'm bringing my EZ dvds for us to watch in the hotel room at night.  How fun is that?  In my opinion it doesn't get much better than too much fiber, good food, a good friend, some wine and EZ to top it all off.

I plan on having lots of fun, buying WAY too much yarn (I haven't bought yarn in THREE MONTHS PEOPLE) - and Heather has promised to get between me and any sock yarn I might manage to pick up, I have enough sock yarn to make 30 (Thirty) pairs  - that is plenty, thank you very much. 

The book give away and many, many pictures coming up when I get home!!

Some astonishment, a book review, and a contest

Have you ever wondered why wool is itchy?  What they do to it to make it superwash?  What on earth mohair really is?  Why your knits pill?  Why three plys are better for mittens than two plys?  What dyed in the wool really means?

If you've ever wondered about, well, anything yarn related, you should check out The Knitter's Book of Yarn by Clara Parkes.

It's a yarn text book!  It has all that information in it that makes little light bulbs keep popping up over your head while you read it and you make noises that sound like this:  "oooohhhhhh", sometimes with the phrase:  "that makes so much sense!" following immediately after.

For those of us who jumped into the knitting and have picked up everything we ever knew about fiber in little bits & pieces here and there, this is a crash course in fiber, all types of fiber - and most importantly - what that fiber will mean for our FOs.

The second half of the book is patterns (lots of patterns) with an explanation of why that particular type of yarn works well with that pattern.  The patterns are varied and for every skill level, colorwork, cables, and lace as well as straightforward patterns of mostly stockinette with a little something extra to make it interesting.

I think all you have to do is open this book & flip through and you'll be as astonished as I am that 1. nobody ever thought to do this before and 2. Clara did it, did it thoroughly, and did it so it's accessible to anybody with an interest in fiber or knitting.  GO CLARA!   

Now for the fun part - thanks to a mixup sending me a review copy - I have two books!  Of course, I like the book, but I really only need one.  So leave me a comment by Friday at midnight - why you want the book, why you read my blog, what you are knitting right now, y'know - just leave a comment - and I'll use the random number generator to pick the lucky winner when I get back from SAFF.

Half a Morning Glory

This is the first half of my Morning Glory Stole.  In an attempt to make some progress on my UFOs, I am attacking them in twos instead of working on each one an hour a week and wondering why they aren't getting finished.

I like the way the colors are working out, I was a little nervous at first that it would obscure the pattern, I know it won't be a subdued stole, but I think it will be pretty.  I am going to attempt to finish it to wear to the theater on Nov 2nd. 

And here are the socks that will be knee highs soon.

They're nothing special, a 3x2 rib, I just love the colors.  The yarn is Anne, I like the weight of this yarn better than thicker ones, like STR lightweight, this is better for the shoes I wear.   

I will bring them with me this weekend & hopefully finish them up soon. 

Where am I going this coming weekend?  I'm SO glad you asked!  SAFF!!!

Anyone else going to be there?  I can't wait!

A conferencing I go

I am in Baltimore, getting all learned & stuff.  And stupider.  Does anybody else feel that when you conference your brain gets so full that you just can't seem to trap the ideas fast enough & pretty soon after that your brain starts rejecting them b/c there's no more room?

The trip so far has been good.  I've been listening to a Harry Potter, I decided to go back through them from the beginning and I have managed to avoid all the spoilers so far, hopefully I'll make it through the whole set without finding out what happens.

I have knitted on socks that are intended to be knee socks, but are lacking just a tad still.  I have knitted on the Morning Glory stole.  I have seen the Inner Harbor and a Big Ship.  I went to the aquarium & watched the dolphins play.  AND I saw the Indefatigable.  Horatio Hornblower rocks.  I'm just sayin'.

And I have tried to control my naturally wavy hair in this humidity.  To no avail...the ponytail is my friend. 

Pictures of knitting to come later.

New projects? What new projects? *whistles and looks around innocently*

I got this for my goddaughter for xmas - how precious is that?

I worked on her quilt this weekend.  I didn't finish, but I'm working on the borders...soon, very soon.

I love the stained glass effect in these pictures.

I made the malabrigo loafers, I made the small size & I wear a 7.5 - I would say you could easily take out about 5 rows in the sole & just pick up less stitches for the slipper itself and they would still fit me fine.  They are v comfy, but I'm thinking malabrigo is not the best for footwear...they are already pilling quite a bit - well maybe they'll felt a little & shrink down to my size.  These took me 6-7 hours, really fast, really fun and PERFECT for xmas presents.  I think I'll use cascade 220 if I made more though, definitely something more hard wearing...

Pixie was helping...

And I finished in the middle of a movie last night, so since I had gauge, and LOTS of yarn left, I just cast on for a Very Warm Hat.  Totally generic hat pattern - 1" of ribbing, straight til I decreased for the crown, double thickness malabrigo - holy warm hat batman!

So, um, yeah...those UFOs?  Still UFOs.  oops.   And I managed to bruise my hand in a few places from trying to do all those decreases with the malabrigo double stranded on size 8 needles.  OUCH!

Now it's time to make brownies.  I MUST have brownies.