Ryan Seacrest is entirely too tan

FIRST! THE FIBER FEST!

So, as you may know, I purchased a Fall fiber share from the Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm, and this past weekend was their Spring sheep shearing festival. Here's what I have to say about that.

Susan Gibbs is my hero. She decided she wanted to be a shepherd, so she just... became a shepherd (it was THAT EASY, too!) She's the kind of down to earth that you don't realize is missing from so many people until you see it again, and she's funny and was so welcoming and sweet to us, and thankful that we bought shares into her business without really even knowing what we'd be getting. For some reason, I simply didn't have any doubt at all that it would be quality. But really, it wasn't just a fiber fest, it was a full on love fest as well. Starting, of course, with the star of the day, Basil, 2 months old (and HUGE):

Basil and I have a little snuggle:



Jess is in her element:



The handsome Roquefort:



Roquefort and I totally making out:



Ken and our charge for the week, Sandy (with whom I have fallen in love and almost cried when we had to give her back to Ken's mom Sunday). Yes, that's a mohawk. Because I can, and because she let me.



Look how fluffy she is! I LOVE this dawg.



Nothing like a man and his (mom's) dog



So, you may be wondering what the yarn looks like- the stuff that comes from those wacky animals on Martha's Vineyard. Well, I happened to get a skein! This is a GORGEOUSLY soft worsted weight in an incredible variegated green called Parsley. I insist you all go immediately to Susan's Etsy store and buy some for yourself.

The current combination of this yarn and size 7 circulars is producing the Sofia Cowl from One Skein Wonders with it, designed by Jessie Dotson.



Also on the needles is a plain vanilla pair of socks, knit in one of my favorites, Austermann Step, with a Trekking XXL heel and toe just for the hell of it.



And finally, the finished Eyelet Swirl socks (that rock.)

Okay now this is just crazy talk. It's been a long time since I've updated, and I even have a couple things to FO off. I don't feel I have anything particularly interesting to say, so I'll just break the block by putting up some pics. It's been pretty busy, though, I gotta say. The weather gets a bit warmer (FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST THANK GOD), little sprouts start springing up (see figs. A and B), my back gets a little worse, then a little better, and people in my department start using their vacation time, selfishly leaving me with more work to do. Don't they think of ME when they are making their plans? Inconsiderate...

fig. A


fig. B


But look at that sprouting! And these pictures were taken about 2 weeks ago. There are actual FLOWERS now! Or, at least, little flashes of purple, if not full flowers.


In knitterly news, I've completed my Embossed Leaves socks, which I knit with the Trekking XXL I got from Ariel last Christmas, and which have become my favorite socks. Heh... I just got that...






In addition, I've started on my second pair of Socks That Rock, mediumweight, in the Socktopus colorway (you remember good old Socktopus... she used to be so innocent...) This isn't an established pattern of any kind, I just took a stitch I liked from the Vogue Stitchionary Vol 1 called Eyelet Swirls, I converted it to knitting in the round, figured out the gauge and started knitting. This was a bit tougher than usual, given that the mediumweight is really too thick to use on usual sock patterns, and not quite thick enough to alter them by removing a full repeat of normal patterns. This pattern makes the socks a bit on the large size, but I'm okay with that. They're slouchy. :)






And finally, the most recent papercutting I've done. I've been holding back on the papercuttings, mainly because I'm having trouble finding the kind of paper I want to use, and also, trouble finding suitable frames. I got this image somewhere on the web. Couldn't find an owner for it, so I just printed it and cut it.

No real spinning news, mainly because I've too many projects and not enough bobbins. I desperately need more bobbins to spin my way out of the rut I'm in. I simply have nowhere to spin anything TO. Must resolve that issue... And fast!

I still smell like a beer

So last week I scored two tickets to see the Dropkick Murphys on St Patrick's Day at the Paradise in Boston. Needless to say, I've been buzzing with excitement since last week. I surprised Ken with them, all he knew was that we were going Somewhere on Monday night and we would be out late. He did figure it out yesterday morning, but that was okay, because that way he got a full day of the Excitement Buzzing as well.

The show was really amazing. A bit rowdy, since we found ourselves in the dead CENTER of the little mosh pit that started out of nowhere when the DKs came on. I have fun in that situation, it's fun to be kinda thrown around a bit, and to keep your balance and shove people back, but when I looked up at my very quiet tempered boyfriend to see if he was having as good of a time as I, he looked positively ALARMED. I looked in front of me again and realized that it had changed from a fun little bit of moshing to an all-out testosterone infused, beer-and-aggression fueled, sweaty man-fest in about the blink of an eye, so we moved to the back. I still got knocked into several times, but about half way into the show I realized that if I just kept my fists ready at waist level, if some stupid boy knocked into me I'd have the perfect opportunity to do something I've always wanted to do but have never had the opportunity or guts: randomly throw punches without any recourse to speak of, since my punch would simply be an anonymous one of many.

:D

So the Dropkick's were way cooler than I ever thought they'd be. So much fun! I find that one of the better feelings in life is knowing a song well enough to punch your fist in the air and scream "OI! OI! OI!" at all the exactly right moments. It fosters a warm sense of camaraderie, much like when you've crashed your plane into some snowy, mountain-top tundra and you band together with your fellow passengers to kill and eat the most annoying one of the bunch for survival.

I've also realized how incredibly OLD I've become. We left and instead of talking about how KICK-ASS the show was and how PUMPED we are and LET'S GO GET MORE BEER AND TEAR UP THE TOWN! It was all "Oh my goodness I thought those boys were going to hurt themselves!" and "man is my back sore" and "what?! speak up! I can't hear you for all the ringing in my ears!" Not to mention a few choruses of "It is NOT 11:30! Oh, my god, it is WAY past our bedtime!"

Yeah. So there you have it, my old-lady-already slash young-kid-still experience of last night.

Meanwhile, some friends of mine really came through on the Belated Birthday Present front last Friday night. I got 2 kickass books and the current issue of Interweave Knits Magazine. One of the books is about opening a specialty business, something to read when I'm getting closer to opening a yarn shop. Still a dream for me.

The other, however, is a REALLY amazing book on fiber dyeing.



I also received this in the mail last night, which I purchased off of Amazon for like $6.



Also a really great book.

I plan to bring both to SnB tomorrow night, should anyone want to look them over, and maybe plan a dyeing day sometime soon.

On the sticks: I have one and a half Embossed Leaves socks completed, knit in the Trekking XXL I scored in our Secret Santa Swap. I had actually put it down for several months while I did other things, and I picked it up to transfer the stitches to another needle, so I could use the needle it was on to start the Monkeys I'm planning on with the recently-deflowered Socktopus, however when I picked up the Embossed Leaves I found I couldn't put it down, so I decided to finish them. I finished that sock that night and am now halfway through the second, so hopefully by this weekend I'll have a new pair of socks, and be started on my second pair of Monkeys.

Aaaaaaand that's it.

FO FO Callisto!

I am so glad to say that after months of work (and months of letting it rest) I have finally finished this wrap, and am so immensely happy with the outcome.

I love the ruffles, I love the yarn, I love the size, it's just beautiful.

Pattern: Callisto, by DoubleHelix (I'll give you her real name when she gives me permission to do so on this here innerweb.)

Yarn: The RIDICULOUS Noro Silk Garden. Absolutely ludicrous, this yarn. I had a damn yarngasm every time I touched it.

Meanwhile, I just got to work, threw on my At-Work-Slippers, and noticed this. Today, I am wearing these socks:



...with these slippers:


  (not my photo- I swiped it from somewhere on the internet:  http://snarkittome.blogspot.com)

I'm wearing my Monkey socks with my sock monkeys! Isn't it an exciting time to be alive?

it would have been better if I could have made the photos grainy...

Do you ever feel like you are creating yarn porn when you take pictures of your new yarn? 

First of all, I have to admit that today this blog will be the unwitting victim of bad photography.  Which, really, just kind of pushes along the whole yarn porn thing.  However, I am limited on time and much too eager to share the gorgeous colors of Blue Moon Fiber Arts to really strive toward the great photography of my comrades in the knitterly blogosphere such as Miss Macoco, whose photographs are inspirational each and every post.

We talk about her pictures when she's not around.  Does she have a timer on that camera?  Does someone else take the photos?  Does she feel free to pose the way she does because she's alone and has complete creative control, so she can simply delete the embarrassing ones, leaving only the really great ones for us?  Or is she just that confident around whoever is actually taking the picture to do all the cool poses she does?  I know when I had to take the picture of the vest I recently did, Ken was the one holding the camera, and I felt like an idiot.  I am very comfortable around Ken, hell, I'm comfortable around anyone, but posing for pictures makes me feel incredibly silly.  Not comfortable in front of a camera, that's me.  And, as you'll see from the slightly blurry pictures below, I'm not entirely comfortable behind one, either.  :)  

(EDIT: Several of the... photos... below were taken after this was originally written.  Honestly, it started out innocently enough, I just wanted to take pictures of my new yarn, but then things just got a little out of hand. Next thing you know, as Ken says, "yarn on yarn action.")

Okay, so on to the loot.  I got three, count 'em three more skeins of STR, in shades "Socktopus," "Jade" and "Rolling Stone." These are the last 3 skeins of yarn I am allowing myself to purchase until I am actually on fairgrounds of some kind, smelling sheep poop, with a belly full of hot dog and fried dough.  This month, with the trip to NYC, the trip to Webs and the several times I've purchased "just one little birthday present for myself" I've gone a little overboard in my stash hoarding, and while I've enjoyed every minute of it, my credit card is starting to complain of shooting pains in its joints.  (Wuss.)  

So.  The sloppy, half-assed plot of today's yarn porn has to do with Socks That Rock.  And yes, you can rhyme those words with as many other dirty body parts as you can think of.  :)

First we have Socktopus, a sweet, unassuming little skein of yarn.  The kind of yarn creepy older needles (you know the kind, those metallic Susan Bates size 13s) might refer to as "barely legal."

 She's just hanging out on the streets of NYC (well, on the fake black pashmina that was purchased on the streets of NYC).  It's her very first time to the big city, and she's awestruck by the grandeur of it all, when along comes Jade.

Jade knows a few things about the streets, and what it takes for a young, naive skein to get by, so she takes Socktopus under her twist and introduces her to an old friend. One the other balls of yarn call "Rolling Stone."



RS, as he's known on the streets, immediately likes the look of Socktopus, and decides to show off his colors a bit.



"Hey..."



"Heeeyyyyyyy..."

Socktopus says, "Gasp! Wow... that end... it's just so... pink, and the other is such a deeeep purple..."

::Cue the theme from Shaft::













::Fade out music::



"Sigh..."

I think I'll call it Socktopussy.

---

Meanwhile, I'm officially a Masshole now!



I honestly can't tell you if I blurred out the license for want of some semblance of anonymity, or so that I could play with photoshop...

Honestly, I miss the NH plates already. I just like the green better. Plus, how cool is it to have "Live Free or Die" on your license plate?

Now I'm off, because I just received word that THE SPRING KNITTY IS UP!!!! YAY! YAY! PRAISE THE GODDESS OF SPRING!!!

What time of day am I

I did it, I took one of these quizzes, and while in reality I actually hate 3:15pm, I still agree that I may just be 3:15pm.

Um, yeah... that's not actually to say that I hate myself. It's just that I'm not in school anymore and 3:15 is still too far away from when I get to leave work. Everything else makes sense, though. :)

In the meantime, I'm trying hard to finish Callisto (I've provided the link just 'cause, I don't actually have pictures of the WIP- just the gorgeous yarn) so that I can start on my Cowled Hourglass. I'm at that point where, while I really enjoy knitting it because that yarn KILLS me it is so wonderful (Noro Silk Garden), I really just want it to be done. Done done done.

Oh, also, a woman drove by my house today, slowed down, took a picture of the house, and then sped back off again.

So, uh, you know... if I don't ever post again, she was a blonde in a champagne colored sedan. Oh! And she had sunglasses. So that should be enough to pick her out of a line-up, right?

Is "braggy" a word? Because that's totally what I am in this post.

Frankly, I think I caught the easy cold. About 60% of the people I know have been stricken down quite dramatically with The Killer Bostonian Flu. I, however, have had about 3 days of an annoying cold, and I'm feeling a lot better today. Nice. That flu shot, even if it was the wrong one, seems to have helped at least somewhat. Because of it, however, I haven't posted the pics of all the exciting, new, fun, awesome, shwag I've purchased in the past week.

My trip to New York was really awesome, as per usual. Jane and I have an amazing time together, even when we're wandering aimlessly around the city with no real clue as to what to do next. I've never been much of a clothes shopper, and I really wasn't this time, either, but I was able to pick up a pretty blue sweater, a beautiful Tibetan scarf, a cheap but soft off-the-street "Pashmina" and another for my mom, a Sox cap for Ken, and 3 really pretty frames from Anthropologie (On sale, of course. I'm not Jenny Warbucks.)

I saw a bus that had the most ridiculous advertisement I've ever seen on its side. Unfortunately, when my camera finally clicked it had started moving again.



What it says is "Clay Aiken in SPAMALOT" with a picture of current-day Clay, complete with moody smirk and tousled, emotional hair, in chain maille. In chain maille.

Jane and I also had occasion to stop for a drink (or 5) and a quiet little Soho bar, with grisly regulars and a bahtendah from Fall Rivah. The conversation centered around the Oscars that night, and eventually to Jane's current boy-troubles. The question being "Will he call?" and the answer (from me) being "Yes, just be patient," with the answer (from the grisly regulars) being "Are you sure he's really a firefighter? Have you actually seen him at work? Are you sure he's not married? Have you actually been to his house?" Which, while funny, pretty much put my very sweet but paranoid best friend off her center and flipped her out for the rest of the night. Thanks, guys. We, very soon after that, decided we desperately needed food in our bellies, and it had to be somewhere close since we couldn't walk in a very straight line, which led us to some Italian restaurant somewhere else in Soho. The only thing I really remember about the rest of the night is us eating as much bread as possible and it not really making us any more sober, there were two people on a date about a foot away from us, which, I fear, we were loudly critiquing, and our waiter coming on VERY strongly to the obviously inebriated Jane, sweetly telling us that while a) he had a girlfriend, sometimes he b) just gets horny and wants to get it on. Jane, somehow, did not pick up on this part, and happily accepted his card, until the next day when I reminded her of what he had said, at which point she immediately tore it apart. I vaguely remember a cab with a driver from India who would speak to us in English, but then, mid sentence, change back to Indian and continue talking. Also, I recently found this picture, which I in NO way remember taking.



Unfortunately, I am not the pretty smiling brunette. Unfortunately, I am the one who looks like she just stumbled out of Zeta Chi on a Tuesday night.

MOVING on to what this post is REALLY about: The Real Purchases, which came from Knitty City on W. 79th st, and Webs on the way home.

DID YOU HEAR ME?!?? WEBS!!! I got to go to Webs. I NEVER get to go to Webs. This was great fun.

First, I'll talk about Knitty City. I'm pissed it didn't occur to me to take some pictures of it, but it's a GREAT little yarn shop on the Upper West Side that really packs a yarny punch. They have an entire wall of sock yarn, and some beautiful boutique yarns. The women working there were incredibly helpful, both with yarn suggestions and lunch recommendations (dosas down the street! Yum!) I picked up this ball of Sockina Cotton, which has a LOT less stretch than I would expect for sock yarn, but I'll give it a shot anyway because it feels wonderful and I love the colors



And my first ever skeins of Lorna's Laces:



A word on these two. First, the skein in the foreground is the colorway I really fell in love with. There was only one, however, and one makes one sock, so I chose the second colorway because it went well with the first. I think I'll stripe them.
Second, and this in no way takes away from the gorgeousness of the yarn, I bought these in the same way some people buy Prada. I became a brand whore for this yarn. :) Isn't it preeettyyyy???

Now for what I bought at Webs. I seriously planned to spend about a half hour here, maybe $50. Pshh. What a noob...

Here we have the colorway of Austermann Step that I've been searching for all my life. No one has it, but Webs, of course, came through. :)



Inspired by Ariel's near-criminal obsession with tweed and Macoco's Greta Garbo, I picked up 12 of these:



I have no idea what I'll do with them yet, but it's a-gonna be a-fabulous!

I flirted heavily with this at Knitty City, but then I saw it actually knit up at Webs, so that's where I purchased it:



It's an incredibly thin yarn, I'll knit it on size 0's, which I've never used before, and it looks like it'll stretch out a lot, so I think a ribbed-all-the-way-down pattern is the way to go. It's su-hu-hu-huper soft, though, and every time I look at it I think "Yikes! Stripes! Fruit Stripes Gum!" which makes me happy.

I also bought some fiber for spinning. I picked up some good old fashioned undyed merino, however this merino also has some silk in it, so I think I may try dyeing it in the hopes that the merino will pick up the color more than the silk will, making for a very pretty variegation:



And here's an example of the same merino/silk blend, which has already been dyed for me, in just about the most gorgeous shade of green EVER ACHIEVED. It's called "Lichen," which makes me love it even more. Unfortunately, I'm not sure my camera really picked up on how pretty it is, but at least you'll get the idea.



Finally, some merino (I love merino!) that was hand dyed by one of the lovelies at Webs:



Spinning this will be a really fun discovery, I think. :)

In addition to the above, I also bought an adorable wooly sheep measuring tape (you know the one), plus a bottle of Eucalan no-rinse delicate wash soap, flavored Lavender, plus a pair of bamboo size 1 circs.

VERY worthwhile trip to Webs. Very worthwhile indeed. :)

In some very cool family news, I have recently recruited my mother into the Knitter's Fold. I gave her instructions on how to felt a toaster pad she wanted, and she got so into it she's already finished the back of a Debbie Bliss Donegal Tweed Cardigan! And called me about 13 times in the last 3 days! :)