Why am I blogging...?

When I should be getting to bed?!

Well...you don't just go to work Stitches West, come home and go to sleep, that's why! It's just not like that! Especially when I got to see and spend seven hours with Cockeyed, Etta Mae and IrishGirlieKnits!!!

Here's Cockeyed, doing the 'serious' setting up the booth thing!

This is Etta Mae showing me the back of "Michael's" shirt. He's working with
Cat Bordhi on some iPhone knitting application...Sounds cool. I have no iPhone...

I mean, just LOOK at all this Blue Moon Fiber Arts goodness I was surrounded by!

The whole left side? Socks that Rock! That rack in the front
(right side of pic, left side of table...) is all Mill Ends! And if you look carefully in the center back,
you can see a couple of the sample shawls!

Sandi and Nathania dashed over and found stuff to add to their personal stashes! And they have full access to the stuff since they own Purlescence Yarns, the only California retailers!

Can you tell they are happy?!
Purlescence Yarns will be hostessing an After Stitches
"Show off Your Stitches West Purchases" aftershow get-together
at their shop on Saturday evening

Market closed up at 8pm and we were out fairly shortly thereafter. Cockeyed decided this was a picture she could not miss...

Yeah, as snail on a RAIL! Hmm...I think she was getting tired and needed to get back to her room for a little winding down! Yes, Cockeyed, we DO have snails in California!

So back to the Convention Center tomorrow, bright and early for another day!

Just in Time for Stitches West?

Do any of you remember this post, when I received my merino roving from Scout dyed in the "Pomegranate" colorway?

Well, I happened to pull a bag out with what I had spun of it and realized I only had a few feet left to spin! So the other night, I focused my efforts on spindling up the rest of the roving. I cheated a bit in that Lil' Emp decided he wanted to spin, so he actually spun up some of it. So here are his efforts:



And here, all my Pomegranate roving, ALL SPUN UP!!! I sure hope it will be enough for a pair of socks!

So now that I've spun up a whole braid of roving, does this mean I get to buy more at Stitches West?! OK, for the record, Nartian and IrishGirlieKnits--NO Addi Clicks, NO Signature DPNs, NO patterns, NO MORE ROVING (I already got the Pigeon Roof Studios bonus last time at Article Pract and supported our local artist!) SOCK CAMP! SOCK CAMP! SOCK CAMP!!!

The good thing is that, though I willl be at SW this whole weekend, at least I will be kept busy working and hopefully won't have time to do too much damage. It is not realistic to think I will not purchase a thing, but I think it is reasonable to try and be much more controlled this time around! We'll see...

TWO MORE DAYS!!!! I'm sooooo excited!

ETA: ok, we often say we shouldn't present all 'nos' to little kids. So on the positive side: YES, I may purchase a reasonable amount of STR (a couple for gifts, maybe one or two for me...), YES, I may purchase a spindle (it's my Carolina Homespun/Stitches/TKGA tradition!), and perhaps one or two other special somethings...I will have fun! I will see great friends!

Home Again, Home Again!

Ahhhh...to sleep in a warm, soft, comfy bed and have my feet up! To have the time to start my Queen of Beads!

These are finally started and I have reached the gusset!
I'm only beading the cuff...

We are back from a 3-day outdoor education that we helped chaperon. Lil' Emp's class went with the the other 3rd grade class to Point Reyes for a 3-day outdoor education. The facilities there are very nice, but let's face it-it was cabin camping!

As if I even had a desire to take a lukewarm shower in the freezing cold, I never really would have had the time to do it anyway! I was assigned to the Kitchen Crew and was kept pretty busy if not prepping, cooking or serving, then trying to be a participative parent in spending family time with Lil' Emp and SassyMan during the 'family' activities or looking after 'my girls' who were assigned to me since they were without parents. Love the girls, but waiting around for them to get ready meant I had little in between time.

I'm happy to report that I survived and am back home! I had very little knitting time at "camp", but managed to finish both hats for the teachers-one of them I had to rip back several times to get the right shaping of the top (it was too "coned" at first and after consulting with Nartian, decided it would be prudent to rip back and decrease every row vs. every-other...) WELL...I kinda had forgotten how many stitches I had and having finished a nearly-identical one for the other teacher, went into autopilot and went with the same stitch count. Bad idea, as one hat was fine decreasing every 6 stitches, while this other had needed to be decreased every 8! But I enjoyed showing one of the girls how to purl and decrease at the same time, so it was a worthwhile task.

No pics, as they are given away!

Before leaving on the trip, I stayed up late stringing my beads. I had wound the balls the night prior to discover 3 'sneaky' knots. I call them 'sneaky', as they consist of one ply, knotted, then spun with the second ply so that only one side is knotted. I cut where each knot was; hopefully the larger of the three balls of yarn will be enough for the one sock. And if I'm REALLY lucky, the second ball will also be enough for the other sock!

I've been lazy and recovering, but I will admit that Point Reyes is gorgeous...even in the Winter cold!

Clem Miller was our home for 3 days and 2 nights

And a very positive? It is now POURING down rain! We had a bit while on the trip, but luckily we missed the heavier rains.

On the first day, there was a small bit of rain; the kids had to hike down to the
Education Center since the bus was not allowed access all the way down

On Day 2, the kids hiked down to the beach, had lunch, flew kites and
made s'mores; the weather held out nicely for them that day!

And what would these pics be without knitting content?!
Handknit socks abound, as one of the dads on the trip promised
his wife (my bud, Knit One, Bling 2!) he would be wearing his handknit socks
while on the trip! So I photo-documented to keep him out of trouble!

And the same knitter had made socks for the teachers!
So of course, I had to show her that he wore his, too!

And to offer up my last knitting-related item: turns out that the women who direct the program are knitter! So they told me about a store in Petaluma that I will have to put on my list to visit!

Just think...all this--a little over an hours drive from San Francisco!A view Lil' Emp captured while on his hike

An Egret spotted on our way to set up lunch on the beach

Inspired Knitting

I love having knitting buddies! Especially ones who are so close that I get to see all their stuff (usually) first, before it hits their blog!

The very cool thing is that when I see something in person, I can get a better sense of what the pattern is like and if I'd like to knit the same thing, too...AND I get inspired by having knitted FO's before my very eyes!

And so was the case when I saw Nartian's Bella Mittens! They were so cute and I realized that right around the very same time I first saw them, I had just (again) promised to knit my niece a pair! Mind you, this child is patient. She has asked for mittens and been waiting on them for a good two years, I'd say!

I don't know why it was taking me so long to do. Maybe the thought or prospect of having to find the 'right' mitten pattern, sized for a child, not a tot? Maybe the prospect of having to re-size a pattern written for a tot and not quite being in the mood to do it?

Well, when I saw the Bella's Mittens, knit in bulky, I was ecstatic! I could knit this pattern in worsted and be done in a snap! And not have to resize (thinking this as I kept my fingers crossed!)

In the long-run, I started it in Cherry Tree Hill Sockitome "Spanish Moss" colorway, doubled. I finished one, but had to put it aside to work on last minute hats for a school trip. Now that I've finished one hat, I am reconsidering my deadline of (tomorrow) and thinking perhaps they will be an "in a week more" knit, rather than "by tomorrow"...!

So here is one completed mitt; I left off the first two or so repeats of the horseshoe cable to make for shorter mittens, starting at "Row 16", casting on 41 instead of 43 stitches.

A Proud Moment In Time...

...like when I finish a pair of mitts in a week! (For me, a week is GOOD...!) Even better is if I would get around to posting the finished product! So behold, the lovely Envy Flower fingerless mitts designed by Syvia Harding for the "Seven Deadly S(p)ins" club by The Unique Sheep!

Can I tell you all how much I LOVE these mitts? OK, let me tell you-I LOVE these mitts! I initially thought-"Oh, I can be all clever and add the thumb." Of course, someone on the Rav list had mentioned wanting to do that, then Kelly of The Unique Sheep said that you could knit the pattern as is, then seam it down the thumb area.

In the long-run, I decided that if I were to fashion the thumb separately, it would affect the overall look/design of these mitts. And this is where I think Syvia did such a wonderful job on this design: it truly does look like and enviable flower knit as is. I feared ruining that look if I were to make a shaped thumb and I am pretty sure I was right about that! And Kelly is one smart cookie in that she figured that out, as well in that she suggested a simple seam. This idea, I think, would create the desired separate thumb area without compromising the blossoming flower look.

I'm glad I left it alone. I love the lotus-blossom look to these gloves and like the idea of being able to cuff them up when it gets too warm because if I were to remove them, I'd probably lose one or both!

And at long-last, a second pair of Malabrigo Loafers. In this case, not-Malabrigo loafers since I knit this using double-stranded Wool of the Andes for the soles and Mountain Colors Weaver's Wool, doubled for the tops. Finally finished to give to a good friend so he can be a good son and gift them to his mother! (Truly, a continuous gifting of Shisheido moisturizing cream, no matter how pricey, must get old after a while...I took pity. Probably more so on my friend's mom than him, since he seems to have no problem re-running the same gift idea in a continuous loop! Or maybe this was because I couldn't deal with the idea!)

Color Ponderance

Iwas playing a bit with my spinning the morning and realized how spinning serves a constant reminder to me that color is not finite. We think we see one color, but is it really? It can really be so many more colors that combine into one and we don't realize that there are other hues within.

Take for instance, the Pigeon Roof Studios roving I bought (in a moment of weakness) the other week:

I love this roving! I loved the flash of aqua and plum mixed with the gold, brown and dark chocolate against the natural background. But I never imagined that this...


Would end up looking like this...
The aqua/blue blended in with a very subtle showing. The plum probably wasn't heavily present in the small bit I spun, but there is little to no evidence of it ever being part of the beginning colors.


I guess this was kind of a 'blending colors' moment in my week, since I was also knitting a square to contribute for a blanket for Alison Hyde (ETA: Nartian told me about Nathania's post, I thought I'd participate in participating in contributing a block or two, Tina blogged about Alison...and after reading her blog, especially this entry, I confirmed she is exactly as wonderful as all say she is...not that I doubted...) I used the Spunky Ecclectic Route 66 together with the Miss Babs Waterfall to result in this...

Apparently, she likes blues. The Route 66, though yellowish/cream to the eye, blended quite nicely with the Waterfalls resulting in a square that reads pretty 'blue' for the most part.

And speaking of color blending and blues, I will now share with you my first Rockin' Sock Club colorway of 2009...



This is our first shipment that included a Syvia Harding beaded sock pattern, so it came with beads, too.

No, as Tina points out in her Dyer's Notes, this is NOT a semi-solid, nor is it a 'watercolor' colorway. It is MULTICOLORED. Some members in the past had incorrectly referred to past shipments as "semi-solids" and whined at how tired they were of getting all semi-solids from BMFA as club yarn.

Well, I guess I'm just one of her "rabbid fans" because I loved all of them! I didn't see the first four shipments as 'semi-soid' at all; Nartian, being the more cranial of us two (I'm the 'feely', she's the 'thinky' ;) ), was able to break it all down and make the observation and correctly classify them into Watercolors, Multi and Semi-solid on Ravelry, but some people just don't get it...But I think Tina tried her best to explain this particular colorway in this shipment's Dyer's Notes and pointed out there are FIVE different colors in this skein.

And it is so...


...I counted!