Sycamore Grove

Yesterday was the day of craftiness, I think. I swung by Danner's (a local bookstore that also happens to carry yarn and stuff) to pick up some #3 circular needles. I had spun up some sock yarn (which was hand dyed, too; how awesome am I?), but I'm never sure that 4 oz of fiber will be enough for a pair of socks, so I decided to knit both of them from the toe up and at the same time.

Then I figured, well I'm taking pictures, I may as well snap some of other knitting related stuff that happens to be lying around. This next stuff is the yarn and swatch for the shawl I'm supposedly knitting for my wedding. The pattern is from Amy's copy of Victorian Lace Today. I was going to try to knit one of the more complicated patterns, but it didn't really work out very well. I must have made about seven swatches, and none of them came out without at least one glaring error. Hence, the simpler, yet not unrefined diamond-y pattern.

This last stuff is my stash, the blue stuff, at least. Seriously. It's really hard for me to buy yarn without a project in mind. I may not make that project, and that does indeed happen sometimes. And I can spin yarn and not have any use for it (although that's usually to sell). But mostly, I have a purpose for yarn.

But, when I was at Danner's buying my needles, I came across one skein of KnitPicks Shadow yarn (are they even allowed to resell KnitPicks' stuff?), in the colourway Jewels. It's so pretty, so blue-y and purple-y and gorgeous. I have no frickin' clue what to do with it.

So, that's all the knitting stuff that fit to print around here. I feel like I should maybe have more, but that's really all there is. Huh.

Spring Knitty is live! I love waking up to a new free online knitting magazine. Seriously.

I'm still making my way through the articles, but the "things I adore and must knit when we actually have money for yarn" list stands thusly:

Carolyn (but probably not in those colours. Pink and green maybe?)
Isabella
Briar Rose (for Hannah or Zoe)
Queen of Cups
Quill Lace
Clessidra

Oh yeah. I'm such a sock whore.

omg omg omg.

*deep breath*

Okay. So, I listen to a bunch of podcasts. One of them is Lime 'n Violet; it's two friends who get together weekly to dish about yarn and knitting and a bunch of stuff, usually, that doesn't even have to do with knitting. I luff them.

I also just opened my new Etsy store, Cloven Pine. I have this thing for websites with Shakespearean references in the names. I'm selling handpainted sock yarn with, surprise, Shakespeare names. Like I would normally do, I notified a few places that I had new product up, and left it at that.

Well, one of the places was the Lime 'n Violet forum. And Miss Violet was drooling (drooling!) over my yarn. So I said, 'pick a skein, I'll send it to you, gratis.' (I made the same offer to Miss Lime, am still waiting to hear back) And she said, 'yes, pls, thank you, I want that one.'

Miss Violet knows who I am! And loves my yarn!

*deep breath*

So, bottom line is, I have sold three skeins so far (I just posted them up yesterday), I found out that one of my knitting icons loves my yarn enough to lick her monitor, and, as a happy side note, will probably end up getting some awesome publicity from the podcast. They usually talk about yarns they receive.

Squee!

I had a lovely evening tonight. Normally, Fridays are our private Stitch 'n Bitch (there's one at a local store, but the drama-meter generally runs very high). Tonight, however, Indiana Eponine's husband (who needs a pithy nickname) needed the house for some academic thingy. So, instead, she and I and the Munchkin all spent the evening together.

First we went to the local Thai restaurant, which was very yummy. Eponine got pineapple fried rice with shrimp, and I got the shrimp hot pot with snowpeas, mushrooms, and rice noodles. Normally I'm not a big fan of savory-sweet taste combinations, but I generally tend to like Thai food. Maybe it's that there's enough of a spicy kick to the food that it overrides my aversion to the taste combination. Or maybe it's that the sweet tends to be subtle. Not like sugar on a steak.

In any case, it was friggin' terrific. Then we went to Baskin Robbins where I bought us ice cream. We introduced the Munchkin to the wonders of chocolate ice cream, which resulted in her eating half of her mother's bowl. Three wet napkins later, we decided to head over to campus.

Tonight was the opening of the student art show at the University Museum. Since I have a piece in it, we decided to go check out the scene. [A quick aside here; this is a really awesome thing. I was in the show last year, too, and I plan to have at least one piece in it every year I'm in college. That sort of thing looks awesome on one's resume.] So we went and saw my piece, and of course, everyone sighed over the kidlet, who was convinced that everyone had congregated to pay homage to her.

Once the announcements were being, well, announced, I knew it'd take forever until they were done. So while that was happening, we went out to the quad and let Munchkin chase the squirrels until she was completely tuckered out. Seriously? Anyone that says that sugar makes their kid unruly just needs to let them chase small fuzzy things that are inevitably faster than they are. Eventually they'll fall over.

After that, it was about time for the Munchkin to start heading for bed, so Eponine dropped me off at home and took off. I watched Margaret Cho on YouTube (omg funniest thing ever. I <3 her impression of her mother!) and knit on my lace scarf until Nick came home.

What? I was knitting socks? I know. But they turned out too big. Did I knit a swatch? Why yes. Two. And dutifully recorded the gauge. Which was the same. Both times. And now I am possessed of a sock that is at least an inch too big in diameter. So, I'll ignore it for a while, eventually rip it back and maybe make a pair of plain socks out of it. Eventually.

So now I'm knitting a scarf out of that green lace weight merino I posted earlier. I made the pattern up myself. It's based on some of the scarf patterns in Victorian Lace Today (in particular, the one on page 80). I chose a border from Nicky Epstein's Knitting on the Edge, but I don't remember which one. It's knit 'sideways' to the rest of the scarf, and has a diamond-ish pattern. Then stitches are picked up along the 'top' of that and knit in a simple faggot stitch (ooh, I wonder if that'll turn up some interesting Google searches). Then at the end, I'll knit another sideways border.

After that, I might actually cast on for the Wedding Shawl (if I write it in all capital letters, it's like I have to do it). Depending.

Maybe.

The cats woke me up early today, around 6:30. I know I'd been wanting to get up earlier than I have been (since the wedding, I've been getting up between nine and ten in the morning) but I was thinking more along the lines of eight-ish.

Still, it afforded me the chance to clean up my part of the office. It had been overflowing since the wedding (maybe even before) and I finally felt like I had the time and energy to deal with it. Now my desk is clean, the wedding dress is finally hanging up, there's no ironing board behind my head while I'm typing. Much better.

I haven't been idle, while I've been away from the computer. I've been reading (expect a few book reviews this summer; I'm trying to be better about that) and finally drawing again (there should be new stuff up here within the half-hour) and knitting.

What have I been knitting? Well, I've had the yarn for a sweater for the husband for a while now, but never really did anything with it. So I used my knitting software to write up a jumping off point for a raglan, saddle-shoulder, cable-sleeved cardigan. In green, of course. I swear, it's the only colour I can get him to wear.

The first picture shows the cable much better, but the second shows the colour more clearly. I have the two fronts and a sleeve done, and I've knit about an inch on the back so far. I decided to split up the sleeves so I didn't hate them completely, and I'm currently halfway done with the actual knitting part. Eventually, it'll have a zippered front and a stand-up turtle-neck-ish collar. The sweater he asked me to model the fit after has one of those, and I think tall collars make Nick look quite distinguished.

Surprisingly enough, I'm not hating knitting wool in the summer. I thought I might, but I don't. I think it's because I'm knitting inside, and our apartment stays relatively cool in the daytime. Also, I'm not knitting a blanket or anything, so there's not a lot of fabric to sit on my lap while knitting.

I was thinking of starting a pair of socks now that I've hit the halfway point, but I might just slog on with the sweater. The wedding shawl may actually have had the dubious advantage of turning me into a one-project girl. Once i start something, I just want to friggin' finish it, you know? Weird.

There's nothing really new to show on the awesome cabled sweater. I mean, I've worked on the back a bit (I'm at about seven inches, excluding the ribbed hem, out of the eleven I need before doing shaping). It's actually kind of boring to look at. Just a bunch of stockinette stitch. Between you and me? It's pretty boring to knit, too. But it makes for good "sit in front of some crime show and knit" knitting.

In the mean time, I have also started a new project. I know! The self-proclaimed "one project girl" started knitting something else. In my defense, I was literally being lulled to sleep by the stockinette. So I started these. Of course, I had to do some tinkering.

If you look at the gauge for those socks, it's "22 sts/30 rows = 4" in stockinette stitch." That's 5.5 stitches per inch, yeah? Well, for the adult size, it tells you to cast on 60 stitches. 60! 60 divided by 5.5 is 10.9. That's nearly eleven inches.

I have big feet. I'll be the first to tell you that. I wear a size 10 shoe. I do not, however, have feet eleven inches in diameter. In fact, my feet are a very respectable eight and a half inches around, at the ball. Needless to say, I did a bit of futzing (it's a technical term) to get what I wanted. Actually, all I did was to go down a needle size. I hope that'll be enough.

I'll post pictures soon, when I get home.

Sorry about the downtime, my payment arrangement with my web-host went all wonky. I think it's all fixed, and actually, I'm in the process of getting another half gig of storage for myself.

Anyway, first some knitting that doesn't really have pictures, cause I'm lazy. I finished the back of Nick's yummy cable sweater yesterday. All I have to do is knit the last sleeve, sew everything up, block it all, knit the collar and add the zipper. Okay, that sounds like a lot more than I bargained for.

I'm in a bit of a quandary, though. My gauge on the back is wildly different than the gauge for the fronts. I'm not sure what I should do. I think I could block the back out, and it'd be okay, but it seems so... inelegant. I hate that my gauge changes this much between sections of a project. Oh well. If worse comes to worst, I'll reknit the fronts. The sleeve looks okay, and anyway, I don't love cables that much.

Some other knitting, though:

Those damned socks. I ripped them out. That pattern is not written very well at all. I don't think I'll be braving it again any time soon. I started a toe-up sock in a k3 p2 rib, but I knit the foot too short and so I ripped it out again. Now I'm thinking of knitting Thuja because it's my gauge and hello, what a pretty sock. I'm not sure if I'm going to use the magic loop, two at a time technique, though. I like that it's quicker (ish) and that I don't actually have to take notes for the next sock, but I was getting ladders pretty bad, and I felt like my needles were really crowded. We'll see. I'm not starting them until I'm done with the sweater. I think it was knitting on the sock that fucked up my gauge.

Some coasters I made from that Peaches and Cream (or whatever) cotton yarn I had laying around. They do okay. Sometimes condensation will wet the cotton so that I still get a ring on the table, and putting hot drinks on there makes them stick to the table. But still. For an afternoon's work and no money, they're fine.

And for the grand finale, I leave you with an awesome picture of Finn, to make up for the no Eye Candy Friday's lately.

Oh. My. God. It's been how long? Almost five months. FIVE MONTHS!

I'm not going to go into a whole big thing; suffice it to say that I had a technical problem wherein my hosting company is a collective of slacker asses and took my money whilst not telling me that my name servers were pointed in the wrong direction (they had previously been fine). And then told me it was my fault and to renew my domain name (it doesn't expire until February) when I asked them what the hell was going on.

Anyway. Problem fixed.

So. I've been doing a lot of stuff in the meantime. Looking back on my to-do list from way back when, I see that I've pretty much completed everything there. A photo post on those will have to wait, as I have nothing in the flickr to document those, but they'll come soon.

I have been knitting, though.

A pair of Endpaper Mits by Eunny Jang, the awesome.
Yarn: KnitPicks Palette in Bark and Sky (I think. It was the lightest blue)
Needles: KnitPicks Options, size US1.
Thoughts: I heart them. I would wear them all the time, if only it'd get cold enough.

Also:

My Poison Ivy socks; Hedera, by Cookie. These are actually finished, I just have to get home and take a good picture of the end product. Then I can do the write-up.

Oh! I finally got my Ravelry invite. I'm known as 'beautysmuse' over there. I'm also in a sock swap-along over there, too, so I'm all jazzed about that. Hello, sock friend! I know I said some silly things about which socks were my favorites, but don't listen! I didn't have the book in front of me then. I have a copy now, and I'll update soon (like, tomorrow) with a revised list.

So I still haven't managed to get my act together with the photos. Which is not a good thing, as I have yet another pair of socks to add to that list (I finished my Spey Valley socks) and Nick's sweater looming close on the I-only-have-to-put-in-the-zipper horizon.

Next up will be the secret holiday Endpaper Mits, which I can talk about freely, as the recipient doesn't even know about this blog, let alone read it. The will be knit just like mine, excepting pink shall be substituted for blue. I think the gift-receiver will be most pleased.

After that are the socks for which I only have one ball. I don't know if said socks shall be knit in that colourway, or if I shall buy two balls of a new colour, so as to have a matching dye lot. I think I must have bought that first ball about three years ago. It sounds very mysterious I'm sure, and for good reason. The recipient of that gift is indeed aware of this blog, and I can't chance word of either the pattern or anything else getting out. So they shall remain the Very Mysterious Socks.

Um... I should quite like to add a hat in there, too, as my head is getting quite chilly when I happen to have the mischance of being outside. I don't quite know what pattern said hat shall take; I have been considering Le Slouch, or Urchin, or a hat that looks very similar to the Lily of the Valley by FishFish designs (although my swatches are magnificently refusing to turn out right. That ruffle! I tried two flat swatches and I think that's my problem: the wide bit after the increase row doesn't ruffle, it just spreads out. I'm going to try one more swatch, this time in the round before I give up this way of ruffling. End of parenthetical.).

I would like to finish my self-designed lacey scarf before Christmas, but I'm not too sure about how that'll go. At this point, I'm just looking forward to getting what I have planned done. I also need to make up some more dishcloths (about six, I think) and if I reserve weekend knitting time for those I might just finish them before the semester's over.

Speaking of the semester, I'm so tired of school. I'm ready to be done. It's not that I don't feel like I'm learning, it's that I don't feel like I have anything left over to be creative for myself. Honestly, the only thing I'm doing is knitting, and I make it sound like I'm doing more of that than I actually am. I'm not drawing or sewing (except when I have a commission, because I'm incapable of turning away money). Hell, I just started my first new book in almost four months the other night (Neil Gaiman's American Gods. It's pretty awesome.) and I haven't picked it up again since I was waiting for Nick's flight to come in on Friday.

I feel like it takes me forever to get anything done, even for school, and I'm just so drained and sick-feeling all the time that I'm incapable of creativity.

Ugh. Enough self-pity. Semester's nearly over and hopefully the break will rejuvenate me. I'm looking into yarn suppliers so I can resume work on Cloven Pine in the new year (hopefully sooner!). I have a feeling that I'm going to have to choose between knitting and drawing (or rather, a career in fiber versus a career in art), as I don't have enough time for the both of them. In the short run, at least. I'm not really sure which way I want to go.

Only a day late.

That's Nick in front of our apartment. We actually had a snowfall on Tuesday as well as Thursday evening, but I forgot to take pictures. I hope the snow stays through Christmas, or that we get more, but I'm not holding my breath.

Indianaeponine and I went down to Mass Ave Knits today, for a meet-up of the Indiana Knits Ravelry group. It was a fun time; there were more older ladies there than I thought there'd be. I guess I still fall prey to that "the internet is a young person's game" fallacy.

I met Chris of Chris Knits, and a bunch of other lovely ladies, including one girl (I don't know her internets name and I don't want to use her real one without permission) who will be moving up to our neck of the woods come late December. Eponine and I invited her to the knitgroup and I hope she comes. She seemed really nice.

I was really good and only bought a bit of yarn, half of which was actually for the Very Mysterious Socks. I'll post some pictures of the actual yarn (pics of the projects will have to wait until after Christmas) later. I also got some pretty cream-tan-lavender-and-sky-blue Tofootsies yarn to make into an eventual pair of socks for me.

And now, some J-random pictures.

My kitties, Finn and Bran.

The Mossy Lace Scarf.

Okay, so I'm going to try to wrap up a few finished objects that I've been promising pictures of for a while. Look at that, only out of school for a few days and already my grammar goes to shit.

First up, my loverly Poison Ivy Socks:

And a close-up shot of the stitch pattern:

Pattern: Hedera by Cookie A.
Yarn: Rowan 4-Ply Soft, colourway 337
Needles: KnitPicks Options, size 1
Notes: I've noticed that the heel is a bit long. I think instead of a 25 row heel, if I made these again, I'd do a 15 row one. The way the heel is constructed, though, with the s1 p1 (as opposed to the s1 k1) is really neat and easier. I also really loved the twisted ribbing. It looks so clean and neat.

Next up, my Misty Valley Socks:

Pattern: Spey Valley Socks from Knitting on the Road by Nancy Bush
Yarn: Brown Sheep Wildfoote Luxury Sock, colourway SY-29 Tomcat
Needles: KnitPicks Options, size 1
Notes: I like the ribs, uneven ribbing always appeals to me. The Vikkel braid is hard; I had to do it, like, five times, and I'm still not completely satisfied with it. After the first sock, the Vikkel braid went easier. I would make these again, I think, in a solid yarn. The purl "flower" motif on the cuff didn't show up very well with the tweedy yarn. I'm pleased with these, although they seemed very tight at the beginning. After a day wearing them, the yarn seemed to relax a bit and are quite comfortable. I think if I made them again, not only would I make them with a solid yarn, I'd make the leg a bit longer; they're about an inch shorter than where I like them.

And finally, remember my Husband Sweater? Yeah, at least it fits me.

Pattern: Improvised pattern based on one I made with my Knitware program.
Yarn: KnitPicks Wool of the Andes, colourway Fern
Needles: KnitPicks Options, size 7
Notes: I'm glad it fit one of us. I started it last winter, and I didn't work on it over the summer. I wish I'd just finished it, though. I'm okay with this sweater, but I wish it'd fit Nick. I'm already planning another one for him, though.

Okay, I think that's it. There's some other stuff still on the needles. One of them I can't talk about because it's a surprise for Nick. That one's almost done, though, and I'll have pictures after Christmas. The scarf is almost done; all it needs is the second border and a nice stiff blocking.

And as a final gift, I'll leave you with a sneak peak of the Very Mysterious Socks (with Finn assisting):

Okay. Seems it was a false alarm. Sometimes I put my tablet on the laptop keyboard when I'm not using it. Apparently I managed to put it down just right, so that the little wireless button got turned off. No wonder I couldn't get it to work.

I did just about everything to get it to work, and ended up calling my father the computer genius. He said, after a long-suffering pause, "Well, did you try pushing the little wireless button?"

And then I felt like a big idiot. In my defense, however, Nick couldn't figure it out either. We defragged, we did the disk cleanup, we transferred my lesser used files to CD. And it all boiled down to "did you push the little wireless button?"

Oh, well. As promised, I do have some pictures.

The Very Mysterious Sock. Which turns out to be (half of) a pair of Broadripples.

Now, that may not look so impressive, but wait until I lay a bit of "actual pixel size" on you:

Yeah, huh?

And some gratuitous kitty shots, because I can.

It's been a couple of days since the last post. I've been recovering from the holiday rush. Christmas was good; we spent it over at the in-laws' house. There's nothing more fun than a four- and a six-year-old on Christmas Day. We had a low key dinner of lasagna and salad and then I wasn't feeling good, so we went home. I have a couple pictures, but none of them were very good. Too little light and two hyper kiddos don't mix well in pictures.

After I got over my 72 hours of misery, I was fine. I didn't however, get the Very Mysterious socks finished in time. I gave them to the recipient, Joy, still on the needles. I know she appreciated them, as she is a knitter herself (and just finished her first sock; I'm so proud!). I just have to finish them, which should happen by this weekend.

Today, though, I've been working on another pair of socks. I signed up for the Vintage Sock Swap, where you knit a pair of socks from ___ by ___ and send them, along with some yummy smelling and tasting goodies, to your swap partner. I'm hoping I won't be late sending them out; they're supposed to go by the end of this week, but we'll see. Officially the deadline is the 7th, so I may be able to make that. The Very Mysterious Socks may have to take a backseat to these.

I started out with this Cloven Pine yarn, which is kind of a crappy dye job (I can say it, I dyed it):

After overdying it to a 1.5% depth of sapphire blue, it looks like this:

After knitting the cuff and a pattern repeat of the Child's First Sock, in shell pattern (page 61), it looks like this:

It's actually longer than that now, as I'm just starting the third pattern repeat. I'm hoping to be finished with the leg tonight. I have to work, but I should be able to get most of it done before I go. I want to do at least two more repeats before the heel.

New Year's pictures to come soon.

I think I may make the Vintage Sock Swap after all. In two days, I've finished the first sock. Oh my goodness, I love it.

I've made some changes in the pattern, only because my gauge was off a bit. Instead of seven repeats, I did six on size 1US needles. If I'd gone down a size, the fabric would have been stiff. As it is, it's thick and squishy. It is a bit splitty, though. I think this blank was Kona sock yarn, maybe? I remember thinking that it was a little under-plied when I got it. But it really doesn't detract from the overall look of the fabric, so it's all good.

So, without further ado, update pictures:

I love, love, love this design. It's funny, I picked this design partially because my swap partner thought it was a cool design, and partially because I thought it was something that I didn't really care to knit for myself. The thing is, though, this sock is awesome.

The design is so very intuitive. I spent about a repeat looking at the pattern (it's the same motif twice, offset) and then it was memorized. Well, not exactly memorized, it's more like I could see exactly what was coming next.

I have to go, you know, actually work on it, though. Otherwise I shan't get it finished in time.

Lots of pictures today. First off, I got a new toy:

I got tired of hand skeining yarn back onto my umbrella swift; it's not very efficient or quick. Now, with my yardage counter, my swift, and this skeiner, I've got a sweet setup for Cloven Pine. I've got another pound of sock yarn to skein and then it's on to dyeing it up. I've set a goal to sell 500 skeins this year, so I'd best get off my ass, eh?

Next, a small disaster.

What, pray, does this look like to you? Two beautiful Endpaper Mitts, you say? I would say so too, except that, if you look closely, you will see that one is normal and lovely and the other one is (brace yourself) felted.

I know. We went to see Sweeney Todd (better than I expected) and I had them on because it was cold. I went home and, still being cold, I wore them to bed. I woke up in the morning; no mitts. I figured I'd taken them off in the night and that I'd find them eventually. I couldn't, but I thought they were out in the car, maybe. I found one. I decided to do laundry. The rest is history. I've ordered yarn to knit a replacement; they're too pretty to let die.

And now the good news.

I got my Swap! I love everything! Besides the wonderful socks (that fit like a dream, Sara!) which I will come back to, there was a bunch of goodies inside, too. Some lovely butterfly stitch markers which, I think, will not go into general circulation, but wait for a proper project to use them. Some "Aztec Chili" hot chocolate which I can't wait to try. I love hot cocoa with a bite. Some Lush 'Helping Hands' hand cream. I've always wanted to try Lush stuff, but I've never had a chance. This stuff smells brilliant, like chamomile and eucalyptus.

And the socks, the socks! According to the darling sheep postcard she included (not pictured) the yarn is a Blue-faced Leicester wool dyed with natural dyes (from, you guessed it: Natural Dye Studios). Going from the little knowledge of natural dyes I have, I'm going to guess that this was dyed with madder. It's a little more pink than in the pictures, and a little more dusty. Honestly, it's the perfect pink for me, the colour is grand.

And one more thing:

I started my Monkeys!

Every time I make a resolution to try to update the blog more often, I get sidetracked. This past week was Spring Break (and it was, in fact, spring-like for most of the duration) and I spent a lot of time getting the house ship-shape. Except it is not, in fact, a ship. It is tidy, now, though, and I'm being a clean-freak now to keep it that way. I actually apologized the other day to Nick for being a crazy person.

But I did get some knitting done. See, I took pictures of the Retro-rib sock in progress, so that I could post them at the beginning of the week:

But then I went and finished them. The color is actually truer in the above pictures.

And I took some pictures of my yummy Koigu Monkeys, which are also finished.

(this picture was actually a mistake, but I really actually like it)

And a new project, Twist. I have since finished the first sleeve and gotten the ribbing and a cable repeat done on the second. I think I might have just enough yarn to make this sweater.

A swatch for the next big project, the Back-to-School Vest from Fitted Knits:

And just for fun, Finn Finnegan, who is much more photogenic than Bran:

Okay. Now hopefully, I'll be writing about three times a week and won't be spending every post playing knitting catch-up.

In the interest of Eye-Candy Friday, I present to you this picture:

That, my friends is true beauty. One skein of Colinette Jitterbug, colorway Lapis, and one skein of Claudia Handpainted, colorway Sea Dreams. Eponine and I went to the lovely Knit Stop last Thursday, to celebrate a Munchkin-less Spring Break. Alas, the only reminder of that week is two (well, three, if you count the super-secret anniversary-sock yarn that I bought for Nick) sock skeins and a very clean house.

On a less fortunate note, I seem to have misplaced my wallet. The trouble with having a very clean house, is that it lack clutter. Wallet-hiding clutter that I could use to convince myself that no, I didn't leave my wallet someplace like a big moron, it has to be here Nick and could you help me look, please? But without the clutter, I end up going straight to the oh my god I can't find my wallet and I called everywhere and no it's not in my purse so don't look there place.

I did call around a couple places, and I've narrowed the list of places I might have left to to four: the Atrium (a dining area which, if I left it there, I'm fucked), the Bookstore (I called; they haven't seen it), Work (called there too, no dice) and Someplace Else. It's that last one that really has me worried. Because, see, I had my wallet when I bought food and sat down to eat. And then I moved into the bookstore to read a magazine. Then I went to work, and then came home. If it's not at any of these places, it must be Somewhere Else. And either I dropped it there, or somebody came and took it there.

I didn't have any money in it, but all my stuff was there; you know, license, insurance card (for me and the car), social security card (I know, you aren't supposed to carry it around. What can I say? I've never lost a wallet before), and all that jazz. I don't want to have to go get all this crap again.

Okay. To end on a high note, I have new knitting pictures. First, a shot of my progress on Twist. As promised, one sleeve complete (not blocked, just pinned out) and just nearing the halfway point of the other.

And I started a new pair of socks for Nick. I guess it isn't fair that I have a bajillion pairs and he only has three. It's the Oak Rib sock pattern from Knitting Vintage Socks.

My girls and I went to the < href="http://www.ewetopia.net/UpperValleyFiberFestival.htm" target="new">Upper Valley Fiber Festival on May tenth. I brought my yummy camera and took lots of pictures.

This is Jen, getting us lost. Well, it was more of a little detour, really. We got back on track.

This was what I was knitting on the way there. I love my husband, but seriously? No more ribbed socks for a while. They take forever.

This was a restaurant or store or something, with a giant freaking bronze buffalo out front.

Seriously. Experiment Farm Road. No lie.

Hippie sheep! They didn't smell like patchouli, though.

This one was so pretty, I love that black nose.

These are the wool/seacell rovings from Creatively Dyed Yarns. I got some, it's really pretty.

This little angora goat was playing peek-a-boo with me. Only the hypothetical wrath of Nick stopped me from goat-napping him.

This lady was carding and spinning cotton from vitamin and medicine bottles. She had the most beautifully woven cotton place mats. They felt like silk.

This would be the 'after' shot of that adorable brown sheep above.

And the sheep shearing. This guy took fifteen minutes to shear the sheep from start to finish. It was crazy.

(This one's my favorite shot.)

And that's the brutal aftermath. A whole lotta wool.

There were Border Collies, too, that were herding ducks. I love Border Collies, they're so awesome.

And then we came home.

As promised, here are some shots of the SeaWool I bought from Creatively Dyed Yarn. First of all, it is so soft. Seriously, it's the softest stuff I've ever worked with, except maybe silk, and it practically spins itself.

And a close up of the singles:

There's eight ounces there, and I'm spindle spinning it up into something that'll be laceweight when plied (two strand; three's a little thick for what I want). For all that there's some really saturated bits, most of the fiber is light enough that when I spin it, it comes out this lovely opal-ish color. I think when I ply it up and knit it into some shawl or another (I haven't decided yet which one), it's going to be freaking gorgeous.

There was knitting this week, too. Sort of. See, there was a disastrous occurrence. That I documented in gruesome detail so as to be able to share it with you. Let me preface this by saying that I finished the back of the Chocolate Twist a while ago.

I was knitting on the fronts (both of them together, to prevent total nervous breakdown later when trying to match not only the fronts to the back, but also to each other) and things were going swimmingly. And really fast. To get up to the armscye bind-offs, I needed to finish three cable repeats plus a little bit.

I got to that point and thought, 'Wow, that went awesomely fast. I should probably check to make sure the fronts and the backs match. I'm not so worried about it, since I've been slavishly following my notes and everything, but sill. Just in case.'

So I did. The fronts were a good inch and a half shorter than the back. When I started breathing again, I tried to figure out why. As a fun exercise, I'm going to put it to you, gentle readers; what did I do wrong?

Didn't get it? Look again:

That's right. Those bits where there's two cable side by side, they're meant to have two twists each. Not one. About three minutes after I stopped beating my head against the wall for being such an idiot, my poor sweater looked more like this:

And now that I'm seeing these pictures, it looks like I'll have to rip back to the ribbing, as the cables there should have an extra twist, too.

Sigh.

Wow. Long time between updates. I hadn't meant to let things go for quite so long. In fact, I had a few entries on automatic update, so I wouldn't be a slave to my computer whilst sewing madly for both Con season and ensuing school. Unfortunately, it seems my server. or database, or whatever, is lacking the necessary component that makes auto-updates possible. Oops. I'll be posting those as I get the chance and inclination, and will probably be backdating them, so I apologize in advance if it screws with anybody's RSS readers.

So. GenCon. It was good this year. Nick and I wrangled to four day passes for the price of a two-year subscription to the dubiously relevant Indianapolis Woman magazine. Yeah, I don't get it either, but whatever.

We decided to forgo Thursday. There wasn't anything we desperately wanted to do, and the hotel reservation wasn't until Friday night. So I ran around the house like a crazy person, finishing costumes (though, curiously, not any of the ones I discussed before) and packing. I didn't get to sleep until, like three in the morning.

Friday we woke up early, considering the late night, and after picking Mary up, made our way down to Indy. After we figured out that we were going to miss the Changeling game (mildly disappointing, but s'okay) Nick took us to the Goose for sandwiches. oh, my goodness. I had a prosciutto and mozzarella sandwich with fresh basil on home-baked baguette. I think I died and went to heaven. Then we went off to the Con.

That's the Inara costume I wore. Not bad, I think, for a last minute kind of thing. You can't see it, but underneath the sari, I had on a one-shouldered tank that was nothing but clear elastic in the back, so it looked like I wasn't wearing anything underneath. Pretty smexy.

We met up with Ben and Mel and skipped the Vampire game for Nicky Blaine's. I had a dirty martini and hung out with a bunch of awesome friends (hi, Jim!). After, we tried to go to a party, but the people ended up not letting us in, even though we'd been invited. Whatever. So we went back to the hotel to sleep.

On Friday we dressed Steampunk. Doesn't Nick look so dashing? We got to the Con and couldn't go fifteen feet without it being paparazzi time. I'm not even kidding. Once, we had about twenty people around us, and with the flashbulbs and everything, I knew exactly what the red carpet felt like. That being said, I've found exactly two pictures on flickr of the three of us (that I didn't take). Makes me wonder what people are doing with les pics.

We went to the Vampire game long enough to bellydance a bit, get lectured by the local Lancea Bishop, and bug the fuck out when things got dicey and Elysium was broken. We changed and then went to the White Wolf party, which was held at the Ice Lounge (warning, music on the page) this year. It was much fun, except when I though I'd lost Nick. Some guy was so drunk that, when drunk-texting his friend, he couldn't spell 'here.' Really. I spelled it for him twice, and he still had to double check it with me afterward.

Then we went home and slept. I don't have a picture of Sunday's outfit but it's pretty much the same as this one. But my hair wasn't in braids. We didn't do much on Sunday, just walked around the dealer's hall and left. Oh. I bought a book from Stephanie Pui-Mun Law. Who is awesome. It's a tutorial kind of book, on how she does her watercolors. Since I'm always looking to get better at that, I picked it up. *heart*

I know what you're thinking. "Man, that was a lot of words that I don't want to read." Don't worry! I have the abridged version all ready to go, complete with pictures:

Got there, saw a stormtrooper in a kilt. Was mightily tired of Jack freaking Sparrow.

Looked totally hot. And was recognized. Weird.

Saw awesome costumes. *heart*

Kids in costumes are possibly the cutest things evar.

More awesome costumes. *want*

Steampunk!

Lederhosen, wtf?

(Courtesy of a_skopik)
Looked great again, got lots of pictures taken.

Got tired and went home. What, you wanted more?

There's a thousand things a day I want to stop and blog about, but I always forget. So, I'm totally gonna distract you with a massive knitting update!

First up, a project so super-secret that it can on;y be revealed now, in it's finished entirety! Actually, it just got lost in the cracks of my blog, so I don't have in-progress pictures. These are the Long Long Lacy Gloves from Lace Style.

And, a shot of them being worn. In real life. I was wearing this outfit at Goodwill (because I *heart* Goodwill) and there was a lady there who stopped me and said that I had "a unique style," but that she liked it. And I was all, "Thanks?" It was kind of weird. Like she liked my style inspite of it uniqueness, not because of it. Eh, whatever.

And something I've been threatening forever, but hadn't started until very recently.

So I was working on it, and after I took these pictures, I started in on the shaping for the neck. And kept coming up short on the stitch count. And as I looked at the pattern again, I realized that I'd increased for the bust shaping incorrectly. What else could I do? I ripped it all out.

Ad that's what it's supposed to look like. I just have to finish the bits around the arm and neck holes. And then I'll be done! This is the Back-to-School U-Neck Vest from Fitted Knits.

We all know how I'm incapable of not having any socks to knit, so it shouldn't come as any kind of surprise that I have a pair on the needles. They're the Raindrop Lace Socks from Fiber Trends, and I'm making them in Knit Picks Palette. I can't remember the colourway. Rainforest? Marine? Something wet.

So, I had this beautiful sock (not my favorite, I think, but very pretty, regardless) and the directions told me to, whilst shaping the toe, decrease to ten stitches. So I did. And ended up with a toe that looked like this:

Not being an incredibly pointy-toed person, I found this turn of events highly unsatisfactory. So I ripped back until I had eighteen stitches and grafted them together. The result?

Unmitigated success. And any way you slice it, that's a good way to end a blog entry.