One Year Spinning Anniversary!!

Yesterday was my one year spinning anniversary!!! I never could have guessed that this fleeting interest would turn into my truest passion in life!! Still have news to share but no time now. Work and life have been very busy but I'll try my hardest to update with much info and pictures soon!!

Just a quick note...

to say that I have in fact not fallen off the face of the planet. There are VERY BIG life changes taking place right now and I'm very busy, but happy...well...getting there. I have pics of knits and yarn to share and NEWS but it'll have to wait a little longer. Well, I'd better get back to work, I have so much to do!!

Dad Socks WIP, Stash

Here's my progress so far on my Dad's socks. I'm using this Basic Ribbed Socks pattern with the size adjustments for large men. I have some twisted stitches that I keep noticing after I'm about 6 rows past them, but I don't have the strength to rip back to all of them (I'd be back to 1 inch of knitting). At first I thought it was just one spot, but now it's like 5 (ACK!). ::beats head against wall and then just keeps on knitting like she can't notice them:: Ahh the power of denial!

Other than the twisted stitches I am loving this so far! The Zen String yarn is makes such nice and squoooshy fabric and the colors are spiraling beautifully. The K3P1 rib pattern is boring but not as mind numbing to me as K1P1 or K2P2, and it is very nice in this yarn.

The picture below is a little more blue than reality (we finally got sun, but the light outside is kindof odd today). I'm about 5 inches down the leg, with 3 more to go until the heel flap. I chose this pattern because my dad hates socks that slide down, but also can't stand ones that have elastic or tight tops. I'm hoping the ribbing will hug his leg nicely for a custom fit.




Here's a stash yarn I got about 2 weeks ago but I've been unable to get an accurate photo of it (this is the best I could get and it's the 6th time). This is still a tad bluer than the yarn truly is, but it's fairly accurate.

I got this from White Willow on Etsy. Interestingly enough I was dissapointed when I got this in the mail because the picture she took made it look a lot bluer and I'm not a huge fan of warm purples. It was going to be socks for me because my favorite color is purple and it just wouldn't be right for me not to have purple socks, but now it'll be something for someone else. The base yarn, on the other hand, is lovely and the seller even included a lavender sachet with my order.


I got these skeins from SunnysideEllen on Etsy. They are dyed using the L0uet Gems base yarn and the colorway is called Dancing Leaves. I got one skein of this originally to make socks for Rach. My skein accidentally got shipped to another customer and I got hers. I mailed the other woman's skein to her and she sent mine back to me. To make up for that Ellen redyed a skein for me and now I have two! They don't quite match as they are different dye lots, but I have enough yardage for a small shawl for Rach. I'm not sure yet how they'll look knit up together, or if I'll be able to alternate skeins every few rows to blend them. I'm posting two pictures because the actual colors are somewhere in between these two.


I'm still waiting for my KnitPicks order to arrive so I can get started on the stole for A.

One sock done, Stash, More Holiday Projects and Babbling

Here is the first completed Monkey sock:

I decided to make these for my Mom for the holidays, and I followed Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's guidelines for foot length (as stated in her book Knitting Rules!) but they seem too long for my Mom's size 6 feet. I tried them on and I'm not sure if it's because of the stretch that the lace pattern gives the sock, but my size 9 1/2 foot fit it pretty comfortably. I'm going to have her try it on at Thanksgiving and I might have to rip out a repeat or two and redo the toe to make it fit well.

I like this pattern, but because the yarn I used didn't have a lot of stretch the cuff is a bit tight around my calves (I'm a big girl though so my Mom should be fine with them). I used the Twisted German cast-on for stretchiness, but if I made a pair of these for me in similar yarn, I'd probably cast on more stitches for the cuff and then work a couple of decreases before the lace started.

More Stash Aquisition to share (it's all from The Loopy Ewe):

Rach picked this skein out in "Lovely" from Chewy Spaghetti's Spaghetti II line. It'll be socks for her at some point:


This is the colorway "Verdigris" from Araucania's Ranco Multy (just cause it's pretty):

This is also from Araucania. The yarn line is Ranco Semi-Solid and the colorway is "Mauve."
These will be socks, but I'm still deciding who'll get them (no, they are not for me).

It's comletely overcast here [we had really wet sloppy snow last night (blech) and we have a winter storm warning in effect until Tuesday night...yay Western NY weather!] so I had to use flash in some of the pictures. The color of the mauve is closer to the second picture, but it was so unclear that I included both a flash and non-flash picture.



This is Zen String's Lotus Toes yarn in "Concrete Jungle." It is going to be my Dad's holiday socks, and I had to get so much extra for his size 12 feet (I got 2 skeins, that's 970 yards!), that I'll probably have enough left over to make myself some ankle socks from it...I hope!

I'm planning on casting on the Dad socks today so I can have one Mom sock done and one Dad sock done at Thanksgiving for fitting. Then I can make adjustments and make the 2 second socks between Thanksgiving and the winter holidays.

Of course using the excuse of needing to check the fit of the socks might be an elaborate disguise for Second Sock Syndrome, but I'm doin' it anyway!

I also found out on Saturday that we're going to North Carolina for my Birthday and Thanksgiving this year to visit my Sister, my Grandpa and his Girlfriend. ::HAPPY DANCE!!!:: The reason for this last minute descision is because my Grandpa was going to sell his car (due to some medical complications his eyesight no longer allows him to drive). My parents know my car is held together with sealing wax and chewing gum so they offered to buy it from him for my Birthday, but he decided to give it to me himself for my Birthday!!!!! ::100,000,000 hugs to my Best Buddy (that's what I've called my Grandpa since I was little)::

I am very excited as my car has no heat/defrost (or AC), the driver's side window doesn't work, the Anti-Lock Brakes are messed up so sometimes my car doesn't feel like stopping, the O2 sensor is shot so the service engine light is always on (which is really fun come inspection time), it has a gas leak, body rust and has had almost everything on it replaced once (minus the engine and the body). Yeaaahhhhh, I can still drive it, but it's a problematic vehicle. My Grandpa's car is by no means new (it's a '98) but he's taken great care of it and it's in immacualte condition. I am very excited!!!

Of course I am even more excited to see everyone and have Thanksgiving together!!! Rach is coming down too!! Have I mentioned that my family in general, and especially my parents are awesome and adopted Rachel as a "daughter-in-law" before we had even been dating a year? We've been together nearly 5 years now and we share holiday custody between her Mom and my family. This isn't Rach's year to spend Thanksgiving with us, since she spent it with us last year, but her Mom was pretty understanding. Thanksgiving always gets a little extra tricky because I want to spend my Birthday with her and it's the 25th, so it falls around or sometimes on Thanksgiving itself.

Anyway, babbling about my personal life aside, because we are going down in 2 weeks (yipe!!!!), my Mom suggested we bring them down their holiday presents early to save shipping costs. They can't open them early, but that still means I have to finish them...quick!

I hadn't thought what to get my Grandpa's Girlfriend yet. So, yesterday I decided that I'm going to make her the Andean Treasure Shawl (it's actually a stole). The pattern is a free PDF from Knit Picks that also has instructions for a scarf and a throw in the same lace pattern (if anyone is looking for a last minute gift idea, you should check it out!). It's a super-easy (but pretty) lace pattern done in sport weight, so it should go pretty fast. I ordered the yarn and needles yesterday, hopefully they ship soon. I'm making it in the yarn and colorway shown in the pattern and I got a pair of the Options Interchangable Harmony Wood Circular Needles to knit it on.

I know I'm probably going to be using the 14 hour drive down to North Carolina to work on it, so I figured circs would be easier with less chances of dropped stitches and dropped needles for that matter! I'm always dropping my DPN's and then freaking out hunting for them. I'm going to have to block the stole at my Grandpa's house, but I'm sure he won't mind. Of course if it's sitting wrapped up for a month will it stayed blocked?

Yikes, what a long post today, I've got to get off the computer and get knitting!!!

Monkey WIP

Here's my Monkey sock so far:


I am working on the 2nd lace repeat of 6 for the leg and it's moving along. The Imagination yarn by Knit Picks doesn't have as much stretch as I'd like due to the alpaca content and it's a bit splitty, but I really like the way the colors are working up so far.

I took advantage of the Loopy Ewe 20% Halloween Sale and I've got 2 skeins and a pattern coming to me for more holiday knitting. I still have to find something I like for my Dad's socks, but it's going to take a lot of yardage and I just haven't found the right thing yet.

I'm going to be crocheting some more cat toys for the kitties in our family this holiday and
I'm sewing up some super simple rice bags for my Grandpa to microwave and put at his feet at night. I made my Dad some a few years back and my Mom snitched one and uses it almost every night (she's always cold).

It's good to have so much of this decided so early this year, now to churn out some FO's!!

Finished Socks-New Socks-Stash

The 80's Glam Rock Socks are done!!!



I found out a few things knitting these:

1. I enjoy Kitchener stitching way more than most people.

2. I don't have the willpower to make it through a sock with a peasant heel without picking up the stitches and knitting the heel (in fact I barely made it halfway down the foot each time).

3. I like heel flaps better because it breaks up the monotony of the leg and foot on a stockinette sock. (Again, no willpower with the peasant or afterthought heel)

4. I like the star toe (I might go back and Kitchener the toes on these though because they're just gathered and I want the durability of the Kitchener stitching).

5. My socks are the coolest things ever!!!!


Moving on to pair #3:

I am knitting Coggie A.'s Monkey pattern in Knit Picks Imagination. The colorway is Lost Boys. I'm only down the cuff so I haven't taken pictures yet but here's the yarn:


Some new stash (more sock yarn...and there's more in the mail):

Yarn Lust's Silk Sock in Peacock:


Yeah, my family is getting socks for the holidays. So far I have yarn set aside for Rach and my Mom, but now my Mom convinced me to knit a pair for my Dad too (size 12/13 wide feet!!!). My Sister wants a pair for her Birthday (end of January) and my friend Mark wants Slytherin-colored socks that he may or may not be getting for the holidays.
Ack!
I'm going to be a sock-knitting fool for the next 2 months (well, 3 counting my Sister's B-Day pair and probably Mark's pair).

Happy Daylight Savings everyone!! Enjoy that extra hour of knitting or sleep or whatever you use it for!!

Art Quiz and Sock Update

Below is just a fun little quiz that I saw in Coggie's blog. Since I'm a Visual Arts major I thought this would be interesting...no surprises here with the results.

Quick sock update: I am done with the 1st "80's Glam Rock Sock" and am about 1/2 way done with the 2nd (past putting in the waste yarn for the afterthought heel by about 2 inches).

Your result for What Your Taste in Art Says About You Test...

Non-conformist, Visionary, and Independent

10 Abstract, 1 Islamic, 4 Ukiyo-e, 6 Cubist, -14 Impressionist and -19 Renaissance!

Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which exists independently of what may appear to others as visual realities. Western had been underpinned by the logic of perspective and an attempt to reproduce an illusion of visible reality. It allowed the progressive thinking artists to show a different side to the world around them. By the end of the 19th century many artists felt a need to create a 'new kind of art' which would encompass the fundamental changes taking place in technology, science and philosophy. Abstract artists created art that was diverse and reflected the social and intellectual turmoil in all areas of Western culture.

People that chose abstract art as their preferred artform tend to be visionsaries. They see things in the world around them and in people that others may miss because they look beyond what is visual only with the eye. They rely on their inner thoughts and feelings in dealing with the world around them instead of on what they are told they should think and feel. They feel freed from the tendancy to be bound by traditional thought and experiences. They look more toward their own ideas and experiences than what they are told by their religious upbringing or from scientific evidence. They tend to like to prove theories themselves instead of relying on the insight or ideas of others. They are not bound by common and mundane, but like to travel and have new experiences. They value intelligence, but they also enjoy a challenge. They can be rather argumentative when they are being forced or feel as if they are being forced to conform.

Take What Your Taste in Art Says About You Test at HelloQuizzy

My 80's Glam Rock Socks!!!!!

The Rock Star socks have been dubbed "My 80's Glam Rock Socks." I am done with the ribbing and have about one more inch on the leg to knit. This title came about rather amusingly...


My sock epiphany (as related to my girlfriend Rachel and my friends Mark and Mike while intoxicated at Mark's apartment thursday night):


"Oh my god guys, doesn't this sock look like a child's sweater sleeve if you turn it sideways? You know...that sweater from the 80's that your Mom made you wear because you were a little $h!t and dressing you like this was her secret revenge? The sweater that she took embarrassing pictures of you in and put them up in the hallway of your home for any and all strangers, family members and friends to see whenever they visited? This is that sweater!! These are MY 80's GLAM ROCK SOCKS!!! I FREAKING LOVE THEM!!!!"

Yeah...so...things we learned:

1. Knitting intoxicated, while humorous and enlightening, brings much frogging.

2. I LOVE THESE SOCKS!!!!

3. I must tell everyone I know about my 80's Glam Rock Socks!

4. My friends want me to knit them socks, preferably crazy ones.

6. Nostalgia directly enhances levels of awesome!

7. My Mother blatantly denies that she ever dressed me in anything as 80's-tastic as my socks.
(SHE LIES!!!...we didn't just learn this, I just thought I'd point it out)

8. Coggie is even more awesome than I thought because these are totally the BEST SOCKS
EVER!!!

9. Everyone who lived through the 80's remembers the cartoon Jem.

Coggie is awesome!! And a Finished Object!!!

Not only is Coggie responsible for giving me the confidence and advice to start knitting socks (not to mention giving me her vanilla socks pattern), and is therefore supremely awesome (well she's awesome anyways, but that ups her awesome score), but she is also an incredibly generous person!! In the mail from her today I got a set of #2 Crystal Palace DPN's and some Socks That Rock yarn in the Rock Star colorway!!!! I can't say enough thank you's!!

Be prepared to drool:


It is so scrumptious and squishy and, and, and...::hugs her yarn::
I am going to go cast on some new socks now, but before I go...

Check out the podcast Coggie does with Bams, it's called The High Fiber Diet and it is great!! They are very funny and they keep it real and there's lots of fibery goodness!

And...I finished my first pair of socks!!! (insert trimphant music here)
Yeah, that's right...I'm a sock knitter! ::happy dance::

FY Pics , Spinninfg WIP, More Leila Pics, New Book, Knitting Socks WIP

Some of my latest FY's (Finished Yarns):

The last of the Blue Icee chain plied Romeny/Mohair
(This has been done for awhile but was sitting around waiting to be photographed)



"Glee" 2-ply Ramboullet. There is a third skein of this which I haven't photographed yet but total yardage is 386 and the WPI is 28.


"Amethyst" 2-ply of superwash merino, 32 WPI and 328 yards.


2-Ply Coopworth (from the batt I got at Knox FFF), 21 WPI and 148 yards.


Spinning WIP

Plying 2oz. of bamboo and 2 oz. of BFL




As I was photographing yarn Leila became curious and I got some really cute pictures of her.


BIG NEWS!!! I have joined the dark side (feigned shame). I have learned to knit...SOCKS!! ::HAPPY DANCE:: This sock is actually done now but I haven't taken photos of it. I haven't cast on the 2nd one yet but I am still SO proud of myself! This is my first sock and my first knitting item. My Mom taught me the knit stitch as a child (7 or 8 I think) and I recall making a blob of yellow fabric which I inteded to be an afghan someday but never became anything.

I have been wanting to teach myself to knit socks out of my handspun for quite some time now. I finally bit the bullet and through the help of Coggie from The High Fiber Diet podcast and a couple of beginning knitting books I have picked up the DPNs!

I just used some cheapy acrylic yarn for my first socks in case I ruined the yarn through frogging. This is sport weight done on size 3 DPNs (because we don't have a LYS and I couldn't find Fingering weight yarn or #1 or #2 DPNs). I now have some Imagination Handpainted Sock Yarn in the Lost Boys colorway and Harmony Wood DPNs on order from KnitPicks.


Yeah those are my rainbow PJ pants!! :)



I also have a new book!!! YAAAAYY!!!

Tagged

I've been tagged by Steffi for the "6 Random Things About Me" meme.

Here are the rules....
Link to the person who tagged you.
Post the rules on your blog.
Write six random things about yourself.
Tag six people at the end of your post.
Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
Let the tagger know your entry is up.

1. I am obsessively in love with llamas! They are my favorite animal and I hope to own a few someday. I feel like I have a llama personality...but I don't spit.

2. I'm a pescatarian (I don't eat meat other than fish), because I'm allergic to meat (it gives me migraines), not because I feel any moral obligation to avoid eating animals.

3. I play Dungeons and Dragons every week with my friends. (Yup, I'm a dork)

4. I am a hardcore bibliophile; when I was little my parents would punish me by taking away my books because I wouldn't sleep, I'd just stay up all night reading. I always had all the flashlights in the house hidden in my room (with dead bulbs and batteries of course) and my parents used to take the bulb out of my overhead light at night to keep me from turning it on to read. I now have hundreds of books and my addiction will never be slaked.

5. My paternal Grandmother was the most important person in my life growing up and I spent more time with her than at home sometimes. I spent Sunday's with her from the time I was 11 until I left home for college and I practically lived with her during the summer. She taught me to sew, cook, garden, quilt, and so much more!! She was my friend, my confidant, my counselor, my teacher and a surrogate Mother to me when I was having difficult times with my own Mother while I was growing up. She passed on March 7th and I feel her with me every day.

6. Umm...hmm....something else random...oh, I hate butter because it freaks me out. It looks disgusting and I don't look at it, eat it or touch it unless I absolutely have to (like when I'm making sugar cookies). For some reason it gives my the heebie jeebies. It doesn't bother me if it's melted or once it's mixed in with something though. One year I went to the state fair, and my friend didn't warn me that we were in the building with the butter sculpture even though she knew I have this weird phobia :::shudder::: traumatic!!! (I'm not really afraid of it, but the sight of it gives me the heebies in the same way that some people get the heebies when they see spiders or something, so my friends like to pick on me and tell me I'm afraid of it..it's just squicky!!) Blech, I've got the skin crawlies just talking about it!

I've tagged Rachel (I didn't tag anyone else cause I don't like to bug people, well...other than Rach...and even though I'm not bugged by being tagged I feel bad and I don't know that many bloggers very well so I thought that might be weird and yeah).

Knox Farm Fiber Festival

As I mentioned in an earlier post I visited the Knox Farm Fiber Festival on the 27th. My GF and one of my good friends went with me and we had a blast! They were quite patient with me as I dragged them from booth to booth and back again, visited the llamas 3 or 4 times and searched for a sheep shearing that was advertised but no one in the place knew anything about. Did I mention the LLAMAS!?!? I LOVE LLAMAS, they are my fav animal (okay, it might be more like an obsession, but I WILL own llamas some day)!!!! All in all it was a great day and I got a great fiber haul (not to mention Mighty Taco on the way home!!!!)

This is my haul on my car:

I got 6 oz. of washed llama (it has some VM but I'm hand picking it and I'm scoping out some Indigo Hound Viking combs):


And a closeup:


4 oz. of combed llama top:


8 oz. of BFL (OMG I know why it's so popular it's luscious!!!):


A 2.5 oz. Coopworth batt:


A closeup:


2 oz. of Bamboo:


2 oz. of Tencel:


1 oz. each Silk Caps (in my fav colors):


8 g Silk Hankie:


Of course I couldn't post about the fiber fest without showing some animals!!

A very sweet female llama who liked to go in circles and trip you with her lead:


A very cranky male alpaca who growled at everyone:


3 very mean sheep who kept coming up to the fence like they were going to let us pet them and then scooting off to the far end of the pen whenever we got closer than 6 inches to them (they were taunting us!!!):


A llama momma and some babies from the booth I bought my llama fiber from (squeeee!!):