Where does this cabley focus come from?

So I was actually planning (who knows if it would have/will actually happen, of course) on getting my shit together and posting a real post tomorrow, I'd like to share with my 4 readers (who see all my stuff anyway in person on Wednesday nights) all of my recent accomplishments which, it occurs to me now, add up to about 3 things, 2 of which I don't have pictures for so... um... oh well! :)

Anyway, I saw this blanket at Linens and Things a while back, it was a gorgeous shade of burgundy, the kind of shade that either doesn't exist or for which you have to pay $30 for a 10 yd ball of pure cashmere that you can't really do anything with except sleep with and dream about and rub all over your-- Ahem. Um.

This blanket at Linens and Things was cabled and soft and drapey and so gorgeous and $80. Like any self respecting knitter without $80 to spend on something she could knit herself I thought, "Jiiiiive turkey, please! I ain't paying $80 for something I could knit myownself!" So I didn't. Ever since then it's been in my mind that I should at some point start the blanket that probably, in all honesty, will never be finished, but I'd like to have started anyway. This Christmas I received a Michael's gift card, so I went tonight and found this yarn which I'm so ashamed I bought that I can't even say the name OKAY FINE it's Caron, but it's actually really quite gorgeous and totally cheap (CHEAP!) and was like, $3 a ball and oh, so soft and EXACTLY the color. So off I go to knit my never-to-be-finished burgundy cabled drapey throw that even if I did finish probably wouldn't really match my living room at all but I'd love anyway.

I got home and pulled out my brand new Stitchionary 2 (Cables!) to find some cool funky cabley awesomeness to apply to this surprisingly wonderful and cheap-ass yarn, when it occurred to me o SNAP I gots to look at Knitty, for her WINTER ISSUE MUST BE OUT!!!

HOW, in all this Christmassy Craziness, could I forget Winter Knitty?!!??

So I happily hunkered down with my laptop to e-flip through the e-pages of my favorite e-zine when lo and behold, I saw... The Next Socks... Please go here now.

Oh, these socks are gonna be knit...

These socks are gonna be knit and they aren't gonna know WHAT hit 'em...

YOU WILL BE ON MY FEET BY MONTH'S END, AZURE LOVELINESS!

If I hadn't already started embossing leaves on the gorgeous brownie Trekking XL that I got from Ariel at our Knitterly Yankee Swap last week I'd be Azuring the brains out of them...

What? Embossed Leaves? Why, thanks for asking! I DID in fact receive Favorite Socks for Christmas this year and I absolutely LOVE the Embossed Leaves pattern! It's a lace pattern that looks pretty impressive and is still easily remembered. I love not having to look at the pattern every row. It's great! It looks gorgeous on this yarn. Perhaps someday I'll have pictures. Of course, perhaps I'll just bring them on Wednesday when anyone who may be reading this will probably already be there.

In other news, Santa was good to me this year. Literally EVERYTHING I received on Christmas day was either knitting/fiber related or kitchen related. Um, couldn't have been more perfect. OH, and I am now the proud owner of an umbrella swift and ball winder. YAYAYAY! It's like I'm a real knitter now!

Ode to Austermann Step

O Washable East Eurpoean Wool...

You, infused with aloe
You entrance me, yes, but how so?
So soft, and yet so strong
We should have a knit along

I love to knit with you
If alive, you'd be my boo
You calm me, make me chill
Much better than taking a pill

True, you cost some dough
But so?


You stretch, yet hold the stitch
You keep me from being a bitch
Despite my hatred of poetry
You make me rhyme, Oh Noetry!

Fine, I stole that from Drew
But if only Drew knew
How I was in love with you
He wouldn't mind the plagiarism.

--

Okay so it kind of fell apart there at the end. But here is a photo, surreptitiously taken with my cell phone at work. Hee hee! It feels so good to be so bad!

(Unfortunately that particular tastiness is tempered by the fact that no one would actually care if I was doing a sock photo shoot at work, so I have to infuse that experience with a faux sense of illicitness. It's kind of like being excited about Santa coming when you're 28. WHICH ISN'T ME AT ALL! Shut up, just go with it.)

Bad day blues

NOBODY LIKES ME

EVERYBODY HATES ME

GUESS I'LL GO BUY YAAAAARRRNN!!!

BIG FAT FUZZY YARN

SMALL SKINNY SOCKY YARN

LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTSA YAAAARRRNNNNN!!!!!

::scowl::

------------------------------------------------



Aaaahhh, that's better. :)

Boston, you know we love you madly...

I am back to having access to a camera!!! Yay!

Okay so first things first, we've had a pretty awesome week, baseball-wise.



Oh, yeah.

Ken and I at Game One of the 2007 World Series, which our beloved Sox won for the second time in three (and, like, 90) years.



As I write there is a HUYUGE parade of Duck Boats carrying our Hometown Heroes travelling immediately outside the window of my office. I, however, am watching it from home, which is where I'm working today. A few pictures (of the television) of that:


Here is Kevin Yoooooouuuuuuuukkkilis, and what you can't see is that in this picture he is right outside the building where my collegiate a cappella group recorded our album in 2001 on Boylston.



And some photos of the Dropkick Murphys playing on a flatbed truck, with my Baseball Boyfriend Papelbon dancing and acting adorable in the kind of way that would truly irritate me if it was anyone else. :)









Yes, I took those off my television. I wish I was there but, alas, I have to work today. And yes, I really am working, just wanted to take a little blog break and write an as un-Jenny-like post as I have ever written.

What an amazing city, man... I've never heard of a celebration like this for any other baseball team. Any kind of team, really. I think all of the people in Boston are at City Hall Plaza right now, watching Papelbon do a fake Irish jig in a kilt while the Dropkicks play Shipping up to Boston, Tessie and Dirty Water.

OH! AND! Ken and I flew to Ohio this past weekend for a wedding and who sat next to us but Josh Beckett's mom! No lie! She was in the aisle, Ken was in the middle and I had the window! She offered me an Altoid! See, Ken and I were both wearing Boston hats and when we sat down she asked if we were Boston fans. We said yes and she kind of half whispered, half laughed "I'm Josh Beckett's mom." We kind of half smiled and wondered why anyone would say that. What a weird joke. So then as we touched down (that's when she gave me the Altoid!) I joked, "So you're Josh Beckett's mom, huh?" and she was like, "Yep! Sure am." "Wait. Really?!" "Yeah. Want to see some ID?" Ken said, "Uh. Yes."

That was kind of the highlight of the trip. That and seeing an actual, real live DeLorian. Ken rolled down the window and screamed "HEY! DOES THAT THING HAVE A FLUX CAPACITOR IN THE BACK?!?" But, I mean, the wedding was nice, too...

Okay, so no, I haven't forgotten this is a knitting blog.

Please excuse the previous burst of pseudo testosterone. Back to the stitches.

Currently on the needles we have the Boogie vest from Knitty. It's coming along alright. At the same time I'm looking forward to having it done so I can wear it and I'm also totally realizing that it will probably be exceptionally unflattering on me, lol. Meh, if it's that bad I'll give it away and call it a hand-knit gift. :D The color in this photo isn't entirely representative. The real color is much more of a deep olive.



Also on the needles: I'm making arm/wrist warmers from the pink and green yard I dyed during the AWESOME weekend at Martha's Vineyard with some of the closer friends I've made over the past year in my open, public, weekly knitting group. As an aside on that topic, I don't feel guilty about making friends with other knitters. In fact, I look forward to forming more friendships from that knitting group.

So here's how the warmers are shaping up. I'm using that slip/knit/slip thingy that you do during heel flaps. Sorry, no idea what it's called. :) I'm really psyched about how the colors are forming with the exception of one REALLY weird anomaly.

Both sides:





As I'm knitting these using the Magic Loop and I haven't been rotating it, I've got a consistant split down each side. One is alright and flows well, but on the other side the colors split at EXACTLY that point where I change needles. It is the weirdest thing, it looks like a badly planned seam, but it's just how the colors have worked out.



Bizarre, huh? Really, I'm not that worried about it. We'll see how the other one comes out.


Last weekend Ken and I relaxed and unwound from our very hectic Housewarming Party by going apple picking in North Andover. We had a really nice time and last night I made a pie from our apples. Yum!

My artful photography:



My gorgeous boyfriend:



My favorite picture from the day:



Awwwwwww...

GO SOX!

There is no I in T-E-A-M people.

Enormously inspired, yet again, from the lovely, creative and talented Librarian-In-Training, I have decided that creating a list of knitting goals is EXACTLY what I need to do right now! It is much more important than actually, say, working (not actually much to do right now) or PACKING for the move first thing tomorrow morning. I can't really put a time limit on these goals, pretty much rendering them useless, but at least it will help me to organize my knitterly thoughts.

1. Finish 2nd Kool Aid Charade sock

Once I've done that I can then compare the first (knit on US 2s) and the second (US 3s) and decide which one I like better, then I can get started on...

2. Knitting 3rd Kool Aid Charade sock

...using what's left of the ball (heh, ball) and probably having to unravel a bit of the reject. If I do not have to unravel the reject, I will felt it and make lovely flower lapel pins from it to place on my black Navy pea coat for the winter.

3. Finish the Boogie vest

I graciously offered to do a Boogie KAL with a newbie knitter friend of mine, then got so focused on finishing the back panel that I zoomed off on my own and finished it while the poor girl was still struggling with the 2 inches of 2x2 ribbing at the bottom. I'm a bad friend. :(

However, now that I've started it, it really just makes the most amount of sense for me to just finish it, right? Besides, now I will have already been through the pattern and I can focus more on her knitting next time we get together! See? It all works out!!

Ahem.

4. Set the twist on my blue handspun and get started on the mittens

Um, that one is self explanatory

5. Do SOMETHING with the ugly Kool Aid dyed superwash Knitpicks Bare

Seriously, it looks like a stoned Dead Head dyed it. I need to try to fix it or, worst comes to worst, just overlay it with something super dark.

6. Start the socks for my Rhapsody-in-Hot-Pink Knitpicks Peruvian that I dyed with, you guessed it, Kool Aid!

I think I will be knitting the Falling Leaves socks from Knitty... I think that pattern will look gorgeous on that yarn. Though I believe I may need to purchase a new set of needles for this one.

7. Finish Callisto!

Duh! I am so excited for this wrap! I put it down to knit roommie-Nathan socks and never picked it up again! Gah!

That's about it for now. Of course there are countless other projects both on the needles and ready to spring to the needles, but I can't focus on those right now. I need to get this stuff done first!

If you're REALLY lucky, I'll post UPDATES! GASP! OH, and just to let you know, a plain wooden dowel makes a fine Nostepinne. :)

So, in other news, today is my very last day as an apartment dweller. My very last night sleeping alone. Tomorrow morning, at the buttcrack of 9am, I am moving out and into the new house. I am so excited, even though I do LOVE sleeping alone sometimes, and even though I will miss living in Boston more than you can imagine. But like I always say in my supreme wit, as much as I love Boston I love Ken more. (Square.)

BAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!!!

(Dear readers, this is Jenny's wheel speaking. Please excuse the above horrendous joke. She's very stressed out right now and I think she might be losing it a little. I keep standing here, looking beautiful, trying to tempt her into more time working on me since it will make her feel better but she just keeps running around the apartment frantically pointing at things she will at some point need to pack and not packing them. Her hair is a MESS, too, it's flying all over the place. But hey, I just notice these things because I'm a wheel, and noticing flyaway fiber is just what I do.)

Fuzzy results

WHAT?!? WHAT?!!??? TWO POSTS IN TWO DAYS?!!? That just doesn't make any sense.

So the Cherry/Pink Lemonade yarn turned out a beautiful slightly variegated deep pink. I love it. So does the yarn. In fact, the yarn itself felt so warm and fuzzy about the color that it just kind of up and felted itself a little bit. Like a big self-hug. Oh yeah.

I'm hoping that in the ball-winding process I might be able to pry it apart from itself and salvage the yarn. I think I can, it just might not be so easy. Oh, I so desperately need a swift and winder... For now I think I'll use a chair back (or someone's hands) and a homemade nostepinne (read: wooden dowel from the hardware store) to try to create my own probably very messy version of a center pull ball. We'll see how that works. :)

Meanwhile, I am finished with the roommate's socks, I just have to fix one little thing. I've moved onto the second of my first Kool Aid dyed pair, however there's a slight change. I knit the first sock on size 2 needles and it is a SUPER tight knit. I'm knitting the second on 3s. I figure if I like it, I'll finish it and knit a third on 3s and then just do something fun with the tighter sock. Rip it out and make something cool, or just felt it and make cute little flowers to put in funky places. Oooh, that's a good idea... It would make a fine lapel pin, I do think.

So I'm realizing that I may have to miss the next two OR THREE of my regular Stitch and Bitch meetings! BUMMIN'! It's just gonna be a crazy month I'm entering into. Moving into a new house, moving in with that guy... Lots to do. I have two trips planned for October. One very exciting one to Martha's Vineyard with ma bitches, and then to EXCITING OHIO for a wedding. I have to SING at this wedding. This makes me nervous.

To soothe my nerves I think I'm going to sign up for the February Sock Club at Yarn 4 Socks. I figure if I sign up and pay for it now, I'll forget about it entirely and come February, my birth month, I'll be surprised with a nice little yarny package!

Yay for little yarny packages!

Which reminds me, the boyfriend and I were having a (very serious, of course) conversation about dong cozies (koozies?) on the T a few weeks back, and what color he'd like his to be, were I ever to knit him one. I said, "Baby pink?" He said, "Please. Royal blue." I told him Royal blue was simply out of the question but that I might consider Navy blue, to which he replied "Canary!"

Kool Aid Serenity Dye

So it's been kind of a frustrating day. Coworker issues.

I'm taking an hour for lunch so that I can dye some yarn with Kool Aid. I figure nothing to calm the irritated soul like a little childlike play and Carly Simon's "Into White" album.

Currently I am dyeing KnitPicks Bare 100% Peruvian Wool (fingering weight, of course- I have become a sock knitting addict) with two packets of Cherry and two packets of Pink Lemonade. I'm hoping for a little variation, but if the two colors decide to blend perfectly and create a gorgeous bright pink/red, I'll be more than happy with that.

I also want to take my recent FAILURE and futz with it a little. It came out like really bad tye dye, Ice Blue Raspberry, Changin' Cherry (which, it turns out, is emerald green) and Jamaica (what the hell does Jamaica taste like? Salt, dirt and BO? Meh, it's red) with a lot of bleeding into one another (yay, brown!) and some white spots. Yeah. Not pretty. Looks like a Grateful Dead concert, and not in a good way. I've decided to add a nice little overlay of Lemonade over it. I figure that's the least offensive color to mix around.

My hope is the red will turn slightly more orange, the green will turn brighter and the blue will turn a bit more like a spring green. The white will turn to yellow and the brown... well... the brown will just get browner. Which, actually, sounds like it could be even more hideous. Wot-eva, we'll see what happens. What are the successes without the failures, right?

Currently I'm writing this in my non-knitterly blog, which I'm realizing is just wrong. Hold on, lemme cutnpaste.

Ahhhh, here we are.

So I have a sneaking suspicion that the reason I NEVER update this blog is because I feel I need pictures for each post. I don't have a digital camera, I just use that tall guy's, so as we are not yet living together it's difficult for me to actually carve out time to take pictures, upload them and bring them over here.

In the interest of being more faithful to this here knittersome blog, I hereby declare myself free from the obligation of posting pictures!

Now that that's been taken care of (ooh! I think only two more minutes in the nuker!) I'd like to share some unbelievably exciting news with you which, GASP, hey! It actually comes with a picture!

Ahem:



We move in in two weeks! LESS THAN!!!! It is absolutely amazing to me how much buying a house (um, well, senor tall guy buying a house that I get to live in) inspires me to be every ounce the domestic goddess I so emphatically scorned as a super-liberal 7th grader discovering all the patriarchal injustices of our society.

Yeah, well, she AND her bad perm are gone and now I just can't wait to bake and CLEAN (WHAT?!?) and spin and knit in my new house.

First off, though, I'm painting my room. I have claimed the one very small extra bedroom as MY room. Well, what I call it is really dependent on the context of the conversation. If our friend Betsey is visiting, it's Betsey's room, if Jack is visiting, it's Jack's room. If anyone else is visiting, it's the Guest room. If no one is visiting and I'm doing something crafty in there, it's the Craft Room and if I just want to get the hell away, it becomes MY ROOM.

Ken can have the garage. ;) Kidding, the rest of the house will happily be his, I just want a room I can paint a bright, happy, funky color of appley green and sew in, with a bed that fits my back, should it ever go out again. Or, rather, when it eventually goes out again.

Ok kids, the yarn is done. Maybe someday I'll post pictures.

I GOT IT!!!

Okay so that title is straight out of Are You There God, It's Me Margaret and I know that didn't escape a single one of you, but WOT-EVA BECAUSE I GOT MY WHEEEEEEEEEEEELLLL!!!

Seeeeeeee, my lovely boss decided to give us all a sweet-ass bonus, which just happened to be enough to buy me my dream-first-wheel... a Kromski Minstrel in a lovely walnut finish! Beautiful!

I have been dreaming and lusting after this wheel for months and months and months. Literally dreaming about it. I have never wanted something so badly (cue the Def Leppard). Wasting no time, that night I drove down to Middleboro, MA, about an hour south of Boston, to see the GORGEOUS Cheryl at Spin-A-Bit, to buy my wheel.

And ooohohohohoooo my lawdy is she beautiful... We made sweet, sweet love aaaalll niiiiight looooonnnggg...

The following are selections from the near-pornographic photoshoots I've done of my wheel and my first skeins of yarn. (You're a demure little kitten. NOW YOU'RE A TIGER!) There were so many photos, these are only the good ones. Sure, I could have narrowed it down even further, but ummmm, it was a big moment and it's my blog so I win!

First, I present to you... The Wheel (she is as yet unnamed)














Ahhhh...


Here we have the very first yarn I've ever spun- this was made from the combed merino top I got at the Gore Place Sheep and Wool Festival this Spring with my knittas



Plus some lovely brown Romney wool that I got at the MaS&W, of which I do not have a picture.

I spun 'em (having, mind you, no effing clue what I was doing) and then plied 'em, and this is what I got:

Still on its bobbin:



And here we have Ken, TBF, displaying and presenting the bobbin:




Letting The Yarn Commune With Nature














And finally, here are the two skeins I finished last night, which will eventually become light mittens, I think. Oh, they are so soft! This was spun from the hand-dyed bat I got from Cheryl when I bought my wheel.










Never had ONE lesson! Whaat?! Whaaaaat?!?:










I am such a happy Jenny right now! What's funny is that my boss, when he was but a wee long-haired, semi-mulleted bass player in the late 80's/early 90's, had a band called Spinning Jenny. IT'S LIKE IT WAS MEANT TO BE.

So now, I'm still knitting my roommate's socks (big man-feet+stockinette=NEVER ENDING SOCKS), but I have so many projects I want to get started on! At least I know I won't be spending money on yarn anytime soon. Maybe a few more sets of needles, though... And MORE ROVING!!!

Sooooo, me and my knittas got together recently to do something we've been dreaming of for months now... To Dye.

I began the very exciting day by sending them a clip of Keifer Sutherland in the movie Flatliners saying "Today is a good day to dye." Because of course he was talking about permanently adding pigmentation in various shades to skeins of natural yarn... Well, as were we, my friends... as were we.

So, first let's start off with the undyed yarn (Bare 100% Merino fingering weight sock yarn from Knitpicks):

Aaaaaaand, the pictures post-Kool Aid:

The darkest color is Tropical Punch, the lighter pink is a mix of Pink Lemonade and Cherry and the orange is, of course, Mandarina Tangerine.

Pretty kick ass, if you ask me.

Meanwhile, I'm knitting a pair of socks for my awesome new roommate Nathaniel Daniel. He picked the yarn which, at first, I was not a fan, but now that it's knitting up I'm really liking it! I've decided to really go off the reservation and try a TOE UP pattern! Crizazy, y'all. I'm loving knitting this way, btdubs.

Here's the picture so far:



Okay so not a very beefy entry, granted, but I've not been in a blogging mood lately, so I'm just happy I put anything in!

Wheel Update: Still don't have one! But I'm hoping in the next month I will get my wheel. Hoohhhh I can't wait...

Visually stunted entry

I pretty much suck at keeping this thing regularly updated, unless "regular" can mean "once about every month or so." In that case, I'm just aces!

I do not have access to a camera right now, but whatevs, I say! Whatevs to that, because I'm going to post ANYWAY.

I'd like to begin by humbly touting my own spectacular genius. Now, it may be that every knitter this side of Knitsville knows this trick, but I have never heard it. All I've heard about this is "Well, there's no real way to tell how much you'll need, so you pretty much just have to guess. Try, like, 3 times the length. Hopefully you won't run out."

What am I talking about? Only the great enigma that is knowing how much yarn to allot for the Long Tail Cast On. O, you nefarious dog! How do I be certain that I'm not about to cast on 293 stitches when I truly need 297? How to be sure that I won't have a useless two and a half feet of $25-per-skein-alpaca left hanging limp and loose?

I, my dear knitterly friends, have figured out the secret. It was an inspiration so glorious that even my two non-knitty roommates were absolutely DYING to hear me explain it.

Are you ready? Are you worthy?

OF COURSE YOU ARE!!!

Simply WRAP the yarn around the needle as many times as you need stitches, then leave a little bit extra for error. You really won't need much extra, since my method here is FOOLPROOF. All you need to do at this point is to make sure the tail is the part wrapped around your forefinger. That's if you're right handed. I have no idea how you crazy but creative left handers do anything in this world. I have tried and tried to figure out how my sister contorts her whole body around a pen over a piece of paper and all that comes out is beautiful handwriting. I just don't get it. (Honestly? I'm just jealous I don't belong to the Left Handed Club that several of the women in my family belong to. But that's neither here nor there.)

Anyway, I thought, as I wrapped, "No. This is way too obvious." I thought, as I cast on, "This won't work at all." But then BOOM, there I was. I had cast on 160 stitches and had a solid and respectable 5 inches of tail. Jimmy Hoffa, here I come.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox that I was knitting for my boyfriend Ken came out great, except that there's only one, it's not THAT great, and a guy at work said, "Uh, does Ken have cankles?" He does not, but neither does the sock I knitted for him indicate that he would, it is simply that the guy at work was being a jerkface. Jerkface Marc, is what we call him sometimes.*

*That's not true at all. Marc is actually quite sweet. Except in this case. He really was just being a jerkface.

Anyway, the Red Sock was my Very First Sock, knit without pattern or measurements or enough time to make two before the birthday, so given how ridiculously stupid it was for me to even attempt something like that, I think it came out quite well, actually. He seems pretty pleased with it, at least. I was fortunate that it fit, but not perfectly enough for him to want me to make him another one, because the boy has GARGANTUAN feet and it would have taken me another 2 weeks of constant knitting when really I was just itching to start my own pair of socks from my first skein of beautiful Mind's Eye hand dyed yarn. When I have access to a camera again I'll post it.

Speaking of my first skein of beautiful Mind's Eye hand dyed yarn, why, I did complete those socks! Also without a pattern, but this time made perfectly for my feet.

Wow, this really would be a great time for pictures, huh? Well, you'll just have to imagine. Picture a self striping yarn of subtle kiwi green and a gorgeous deep wine color (it doesn't look like vomit, it's actually quite pretty), every stripe a different color, however where the purple turns to green there's a lightening there of a lighter pink, that swiftly turns to white JUSTFORASECONDANDTHEN back to green. Whew. Well, that pinky part pooled in this really cool way so as to spiral down the leg, and then again down the foot. It was pretty damn cool.

Um, you'll see them, um, someday. I really need a camera. :)

Currently I am working on a surprise wrap for my mother, based off the piquant blue version of the Tie One On pattern by nona, only I have a different (much easier) pattern that I concocted about an hour after I got home with the yarn that I bought. I was at the anniversary sale at Mind's Eye Yarns in Porter Square when I saw this gorgeous yarn from across the room. I immediately put everything I had in my overloaded arms back so that I could buy enough of this to make something beautiful for my dear mother. I had absolutely no intentions of making anything for her (I'm such a damn lovely daughter, aren't I?) but I saw this yarn and it made me think of a particular challenge she is trying to overcome in her life, so I decided on the spot that I needed to make her something to give her the confidence she needs to overcome it. I thought of how she would wear it, whatever it was, where she would wear it, whatever it was, and I came up with the idea that it needed to be a wrap made from this yarn. It is Cascade Eden Madil in Sprite Green. Hooohhhh it's so lovely. Knits up like a soft, shiny, drapey dream and I lurve it with all my heart. Hopefully she will too.

The lovely and amazing Lucy at Mind's Eye showed me how to knit two socks on one needle while I was there at the sale, so the SECOND I'm done with this wrap I will be beginning my second pair of socks, made with (again) hand dyed yarn dyed by Lucy herself (Really, I should get paid for how awesome I'm making her and her lovely yarn out to be, except that it's true and I do it because I love). This time I chose a gorgeous varigated green. A woman at the shop looked at it in the light and said it looked like "spun grass" which made me fall in love with it all over again. It's so pretty! I will have such lovely feet when sock wearing season comes around again! :)

Once again, pictures to come. Sigh...

The best news of all is that I have a lesson with Lucy on Friday afternoon and she is going to show me how to SPIN! I will have the opportunity to spin on several Ashfords, though sadly not the Traveller, which is one of my top choices for the position coveted by countless hunks of wood across the globe of First Wheel, however she does have the Traditional, which is another of my top choices. I just can't wait.

On the Stanky front, I only really got to go knit with the Stinkers for about 15 minutes last Wednesday, (and I was three sheets to the wind when I showed up- last day for a buddy at work equals lots of beer consumed on the corporate dollar at the bar downstairs, if you know what I mean. Which, I'm sure you do since I'm not speaking in any way euphamistically) and this Wednesday, once again, I will not be able to make it, for I will be at Fenway Park for the first night of my Two Night Run of Red Sox games! It's a good week when you get to go to two consecutive Sox games. I may just bring my knitting. I mean, come on, could there BE a better combination? Knitting, beer, Fenway and the love of a good man...

Yeah, but no. Not bringing any yarn to Fenway.

So that's that. A boring and pictureless knitterly post. Thanks for reading, all 3 of you! :)

(Donations toward an acceptable digital camera or wheel can be sent to PO Box 121, Pelham, NH 03076. I also accept Paypal.)

Swapping and Spinning

As I've always said, a happy Jenny does not update often. This is true with any blog I've ever had, but I thought perhaps a crafting blog would be updated more often, since it's not even loosely based on me bitching about my life.

I was wrong.

I was also hoping that whole "a happy Jenny does not update often" phrase would come out a little catchier, but apparently I was wrong on that count, too. Sigh... someday I'll be articulate and eloquent... Hopefully. (Just in case you're wondering, kissing the much-peed-upon Blarney Stone doesn't actually help in that area, as much as the experience may elicit quite a squak when your arse is slapped by the giggling old man working atop the castle.)

Anyhoo, I am a dirty slut for not taking pictures of the gorgeous yarn of which I have stumbled into ownership in the past week before winding balls and digging in to start several projects. I know. My plan is to do that today, though the pictures will not be as yummy as they would have been. Seriously, if you want to see some yummy pictures of yarn, head on over to see the Craft Pirate. Arrrr they be some yummy pictures of ye olde yarn!!!

Meanwhile, two yarny things of note have happened in the past week. First, the Stinkers held a little yarn swap last Wednesday. I'm excited just thinking about it. We all walked away very happy, I know I did. I got rid of a few skeins of stuff I loved but would never do anything with, and they went to good homes. I got ideas for some balls I've always loved but had no idea what to do with, and I SCORED with what I took home!

heh heh... I scored with some balls... (Sorry, I work with a bunch of guys. And I'm just really immature.)

So, I picked up some blue fingering weight yarn, with which I planned on using as my initial foray into the world of sock knitting (soon to be thwarted by other, greater yarn, but whatevs. I'll definitely still use it!) Notice the best part about it, something I never actually think about... it says SUPERWASH!!!!



I also got some sweet, hot-ass pink dishtowel cotton, with which I plan to make, of course, dishtowels! :) Good lordy check out that color! Love it.



I got my first ever Lamb's Pride from Ariel...



...with which I'm making the Fuzzyfeet slippers by Theresa Vinson Stenersen, as found on Knitty. They're striping up nicely, but they'll look totally different post-felting, of course.



Next up we have these two balls of Knit Picks... um... I forget, in colors Leaf and, um, I forget BUT THE POINT IS the colors were far more flourescent and obnoxious than the original owner had anticipated. So I swapped with her and now I'll make something fun and watermelony! :)



Here we have some lovelies who I picked up at a sweet sale in Meredith, NH a few years ago, which I've never figured out what to do with (what is going on with that sentence?) Anyway, I brought it to swap, because while I love the colors I simply had no ideas, but then Dear Blogless Jessica suggested I make wrist warmers with it for next winter. OKAY! :D



Now, see, Ariel confessed an early addiction (thankfully squashed) to Fun Fur and novelty yarns. We laughed at her, of course, but there was just something about the deep reds in this stuff that made me want to make pasties. This one brings to mind long strands of fake pearls, cigarette holders and flapper dresses. We call it... "Slutastic."



Hot sex. In that classy, subtle way...

Last but most certainly not least, we have what I considered to be the prize score of the night. Four leftover balls of KnitPicks Andean Silk in Lettuce. A yarn which I have been coveting ever since I saw Kat making her gorgeous Hourglass Sweater with it.



Sigh... what a lovely swap...


OH BUT I'M NOT DONE!!!

This weekend we all got together to visit the Gore Place farm Sheep and Shearing Festival! And what a festival it was!

I arrived late due to a slight error in understanding between Ken and I. It seems after borrowing his keys to get his GPS from his car he wanted me to throw them up to him on the balcony of his third floor apartment. I misunderstood and thought he wanted me to throw them onto the balcony of the second floor apartment, whose owners were away for the entire weekend. ::Forehead slap:: Whoops! Sorry! You weren't planning on going anywhere today, right Punkin? Great, see ya tonight!

First, the aminals.

Kingfella



I loved this little guy. I wish this picture could convey how incredibly small he was!



Now the Yarn!!!

I got this, my first real sock yarn, so beautifully hand dyed by Lucy from Mind's Eye Yarns in Porter Square (that's Boston, gov'na). Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of it in it's gorgeous state of skeinhood. I wound it that very afternoon into this ball.



Isn't it so gorgeous? I lurve it. I'm knitting my first sock on it AS WE SPEAK. Figuratively, I mean. Not that I'm figuratively knitting. I'm actually knitting my first sock on it AS WE figuratively SPEAK. Here's a photo of my efforts thus far.



So here's the deal with that. I was told standard is to CO 64 and go from there. About an inch and a half into it I saw that it would be way too small, so I frogged it all out and upped it to 80. I'm hoping now it's not too big. Meh, it's a first sock. This is how I learn. Also, because I can't just knit a sock, I'm including about 10 little purly waves. Hopefully they'll turn out looking good, and not really, really crappy. :)

Okay, so the biggest news from the day is that I discovered a deeply hidden obsession with spinning. I am now focused entirely on getting my own spinning wheel. Well, after I deal with a few financial obligations (ah, being 28 and still totally effing poor). But I'm thinking somewhere in the vicinity of June I will be able to afford my own wheel. June or July. By August, definitely. I plan on ordering the HitchHiker, from The Merlin Tree, located in lovely Vermont. It's small, has everything I need, weighs 9 lbs and is completely portable. Not to mention it's the cheapest one available. Even still, though, I love it! We met a woman spinning on one at the festival and I was entirely transfixed by what she was doing. I can't WAIT. I went to sleep that night with my right foot peddling oh, so softly under the covers...

My commitment is so strong to this newly discovered (and not yet realized) passion of mine, that I bouht TWO bags of roving! YAY ROVING!!!

Here we have some gorgeous and silky bamboo fiber. It's even softer than it looks. I got this also from Lucy at Mind's Eye. She's just lovely and once I get my wheel I plan on joining the Spinning group there.



And here, le piece de resistance... One full pound of pure, gorgeous, baby soft 100% Merino top.



Can you feel that? That excitement in your belly? Yeah. That's the combed top. What is UP. Seriously, I know it kind of looks like brains or intestines, but I prefer to think of it as looking like pulled taffy.

Sigh...

I dream of a wheel, and successful dyeing...