join me at the blog party!

I saw this over at Pam's and it sounds like fun! I don't quite get it yet either, but it will be fun to check out some new blogs and there's swag! C'mon, it'll be real easy! C'mon!

ETA: For this of you who were frogging stitches in a dreadful shawl like me instead of attending Linky 101, Mr. Linky will not make his appearance until 03/02 on the Blog Party site. I'm rather proud of myself for going to the FAQ and discovering that. :)

p.s. i don't want into great detail because i don't want to cause a ruckus... ruccous... ruckous... ruccus.... ok, stir, but at the same time, i have to share... a certain well-known yarn company is sending me 13 hanks of free yarn (that retails at $9/hank) plus "something extra for my trouble" just for questioning the accuracy of a certain pattern. they are sure the pattern is correct, so it's not like i pointed out some huge error and saved them some trouble, yet they are sending me the gaggle of free yarn anyway... can you freakin believe that?! it was a happy monday!!!!

ETA/P.S. Part 2: I keep slipping these things in here, but since I have had NO guesses for the prior prize op, I will extend the game to another stolen quote found above: "C'mon, it'll be real easy! C'mon!" I'm not saying it's any less obscure than the first quote, but hey, I'm extending. ;-) Impress me, lovies. Please e-mail guesses if you dare! :)

kb out

I met Annie Modesitt!!!!

ok, so... before i write anything... i've had a couple drinks tonight and it has been MONTHS since i have drank, so forgive me in advance. i'm not like wasted or anything, but definitely a little sloshy.

ok, with that out of the way, the Original Sew & Quilt Expo is here this weekend. I missed all announcements somehow until I saw mention of Annie Modesitt on one of the boards. I wasn't able to get into either of her classes, but really wanted to get there because I am absolutely in LOVE with Men Who Knit & the Dogs Who Love Them and not just because of the dog friendly patterns, but there are some awesome techniques and tips in there. Usually when I buy books it's like, okay, I know how to cast-on and I know the knit stich, gimme the patterns, but this one isn't like that, totally a keeper. I heard she was doing a presentation at the Expo today so made a point to get there and catch it and actually woke up in time and did it!

Her presentation was initially going to be from the dogs book, but instead was a trunk show about her yet unreleased book that I have forgotten the name of, forgive me, but something something Romantic Knits and let me tell you ladies (and gents, but more the ladies) WATCH OUT FOR THIS BOOK! She had many knit up pieces that were just to die for, most especially sticking in my head was this long cardigan with lace ruffle edge at lapels, collar, and bottom, just GORGEOUS, this fabulous mohair/silk tank with a built-in bra, and this awesome tied silk skirt, made out of this new Lantern Moon silk stuff, just GORGEOUS! She went into how she came up with the projects and what I loved to hear is that many of them were mistakes! For instance, the cardigan was supposed to be cropped, but her knitter made it too long and it wound up being gorgeous! It was really neat to hear that even such an amazingly talented designer utilizes "design elements" like that to create such beauty!

Anyway, I had e-mailed her before the show so when the presentation was over, she was like, 'come talk to me!' which of course tickled me to pieces. We chatted and she gave me some handouts for cabling without a cable needle and asked if I wanted to walk the expo with her (I'm fainting with joy at this point) We stopped first at knit n knibble's table and she immediately grabbed this sock yarn, which I of course had to have:



it's called "Bearfoot" (precious, oui?) by Mountain Colors. My pic doesn't really do it justice, here's the one from Kaleidoscope Yarns I freakin LOVE it and can't wait to make the socks and they will forever be special since Annie picked it! I'm really excited about it because I've been plotzing to try Socks that Rock but didn't want to pay the S&H charges until I was ready to buy more than 1 skein, so this satiated me, at least temporarily. ;)

and what's that under the yarn? Why yes, it's my signed book!!!!

This is my very first author autograph and I am just THRILLED that it is her! She was so sweet and gracious and just a wealth of info and I adore her! Unfortunately, as I was waiting to pay, Annie decided to go check out the expo and I lost her, but that hour I spent with her was just an absolute gift and joy!

Ok, I just had to post this, but now I'm done. :) This was really my first show of any sort since I've officially been a knitter and meeting Annie really made it super duper special.

KB out.

p.s. i finished something! (mostly)

the heartbreakingly cute baby kimono is 100% done, YAY!



i made beth sew the ribbons on and sew some ends in, but i did the rest! :)

this was for a baby that is now about 6 months too large to fit it, but a dear friend of mine just became a grandma of a little girl and so I'm going to send it out this week. I was hoping to finish hats for the other grandkids before I sent it, but I don't want to miss this baby too so I'm just going to have to send 2 packages. :)

jaywalking in progress (and prize op!)

so with my KP Flower Power find, I have started like 4 toe-up socks and ripped them all out. Actually after the 2nd, I stopped ripping out and just started cutting the yarn, decided I was causing some bad luck thing to happen which is why I was unhappy with my socks. I figured out the toe-up thing all in all, but I don't think I like the way the short-row thing comes out on the sides. Pauline showed me another way where you flip the cast-on over and knit into the bumps and then just do increases and her's came out gorgeous, so I'm going to try that next, but had a lot of trouble trying it so gave up. Desperate for a sock to make, I cast on and started ribbing until I rediscovered Grumperina's jaywalker socks and commended with the knit. I am REALLY enjoying working on them. Here is the first one so far:




so then something funny happened. at least i thought it was funny.... maybe serendipitous is a better word... anyway, i digress. i woke up early today (early meaning before p.m.) and tried to work for not one but BOTH of my jobs and neither one of them had work for me! so here i am with nothing to do (except the hours and hours of cleaning that awaits me here) and being it's such a gorgeous day, I decided to download some podcasts, which I haven't listened to forever, and sit on my patio and work on my Jaywalkers. I of course grabbed an episode of cast on which i was JUST starting to catch up on before I stopped listening again, so I'm like 80 episodes behind again and then also read about a boy knitter's podcast, I think at Natasha's blog but I can't remember where now... anyway, it's It's a Purl Man and I got a couple of those too. I listened to Cast-On first, which was refreshing and wonderful, and I was totally tickled to hear her mention Earthchick on her podcast!

so i thoroughly enjoyed cast-on and it was like i'd never left, as it always is. i proceeded on to It's a Purl, Man which coincidentally happened to be an episode all about socks. As if that wasn't coincidental enough, who was joining him for that episode, but Grumperina herself as I sit there knitting her Jaywalker pattern. Needless to say, I was feeling totally one with the knit. ;)

something i am NOT feeling one with is how slow i am at sock knitting. people talk about what a joy it is and "instant gratification" and "fast" and "easy" and I say, 'baby, what have you been smokin'? (Prize for guessing where I borrowed that last line from. If I get more than one correct guess, we'll do a drawing next month. Prize will not be sent out into mid-to-late March so we'll leave it open for a while. Nothing huge and fabulous, but a good prize, I promise. :-) Don't google it; rather, impress me. (giggle)) While I have done enough attempts at sock knitting to agree with easy, fast and gratifying would not be words I would use... as many things do, it makes me question my knitting skills. I was able to do a sock with DK weight and size 6's rather quickly, of course, I think maybe 2 or 3 after-work attempts, but size 2s and fingering, forget about it. I'm losing my mind (not really, I actually am enjoying the process, but you get the idea.) What's worse is as I sit here knitting with the 2's, I think to myself, gee, this is nice and all, but what I'd REALLY like to do is drop to 1s or 0s. (maybe I'm the one smokin'.) is this normal, sock knitters? how long does it take to do man-size socks on size 2s? reasonably? i think i've got about 3-4 hours into my first jaywalker and i'm at something like 2 inches, maybe a little more, i have't measured really, but the ribbing is an inch, so I'm sure less than 3. that's like less than an inch an hour and i've got 6 inches in the leg and 10 in the foot, we're talking something like 18 hours a sock (adding for gusset/heel, blah blah.) can that be right? i was just getting pretty quick at knitting too since i switched to combination style and i am doing combination style except for the first 3 stitches at the needle changes, which i do english for whatever reason.... maybe i am just REEEEEEEEEEEALLLLLLY SLOW.

anyway, on that note, i must get to work. hope everyone is having a great week so far! kisses!!!!

kb out

ETA: Guesses should be e-mailed. :)

belated v-day post

V-day, which will forever be dubbed "Singles Awareness Day" thanks to my dear KG

I saw this at The Panopticon and had to repost:

Ten Alternate Ways to Say 'I Love You' to a Knitter

1. The lady at the yarn shop said you like cashmere but she wasn't sure which color to suggest, so I just bought everything she had.

2. You shouldn't have to pull boxes out from under the bed every time you need to get a ball of yarn. Let me give you my closet.

3. Which would you prefer for vacation this year, sweetheart–New Zealand, the Shetland Islands or Rhinebeck?

4. Is that all you want? Why don't you have another look around in the sock yarn while I get out my credit card?

5. You look so hot when you're reading lace charts.

6. I can see you're counting, so I'll just make dinner, clean up afterwards, and put the kids to bed, so that when you're finished you won't have to wait for me to massage your hands. Okay?

7. Too much yarn? Don't be ridiculous. We can always add another room.

8. But, dearest, I think it would be silly for you to have only one spinning wheel.

9. It's called "Koigu." Do you like it? Is twenty pounds enough to make a sweater?

10. Put down those needles and come here, you sexy thing. One more row? Of course I'll wait.

Hope all of you had a wonderful Valentine's!

experiencing technical difficulties

just a quick note, i changed ISPs and thus lost my 60 GB of storage space with the former ISP and the new ISP doesn't let you buy extra storage. ROT! I have already begun the transition, but you might notice some buttons, pictures, etc. not working until I get everything all updated, just FYI.

Thank you for your patience. :)

i'm sorry i can't make my car payment, sir, but....

....there was a fiber fair, you understand the emergent nature, no? ;) I really was moderately well behaved at this event, didn't spend near as much as I expected myself to... just money I shouldn't have spent, you know.

So it was a little fair thing at Uncommon Threads up in Palm Harbor, which is a LYS that I absolutely adore, but is about 40 minutes away from me and I am usually too lazy to drive it. It's where I take my spinning classes, though, and I was very excited to go this last weekend. Sarah was going to be there selling some wares, as well, and I haven't seen her in forever. So I go and the first thing I see while walking up to the tables is...

Four hanks of KP's Sock Memories in Flower Power, one of my very most favorite colorways in the whole wide world that they discontinued before I bought enough for a full pair of socks. After creating a big yellow puddle on the cement, I snatched them up and clutched them to my breast, proceeding to walk around like a caveman grunting, "mine. mine. mine. ooga" for about 15 minutes. If there was any debate, this made the 40-minute trip entirely worthwhile, although there were many other things that made it so. You can see on the needles another attempt at the toe-up sock from Knitty. That one took me 3 tries and at the point where you join the held stitches, I realized, AGAIN, that I had forgotten the slip stitches for the entire 20 rows, a problem I had last time I got that far in the pattern and posted to KH about... I am thinking I'm going to rip, as much as I don't want to, because I just don't like the way the side seams look now... I am not 100% sure that will fix the problem, though.... here, look:

I don't know if you can really see what I mean, but there are these tiny little holes... I *think* the slip stitch thing would have prevented that...

I digress. Along with Flower Power, as Sarah was packing up, she offered to sell me a $20 bag of recycled llama yarn for $10 and who could refuse such an offer? Certainly not I.

Here's a porn money shot of the full bounty. I see now I didn't take a single good shot of it (close-up of the sock is the best,) but in this photo, you can see the cream, oatmeal, and chocolate mini balls and the Glad bag in the background with more... I'm thinking about a couple of things to do with it... (By the way, the tag said in big letters, recycled llama, and I know Sarah so I am aware that she unravels sweaters and resells the yarn, usually after dyeing them, but these were left in the colors, but did that stop me from opening the bag and stuffing half my head in there to smell the llama? You decide.)

So I saw this pattern at Berroco and am debating whether or not it's androgenous enough for me to carry... if I decide that it is, I am contemplating using the llama for that with a green as the MC probably. The other option involves the wheel. It's all 2-ply and I am contemplating unraveling the plies and re-plying it as a 3 or 4-ply with different colored strands possibly... then what do I do with it.... that is the question. we'll see.

Back to the bounty. The thingie in the bag is a bar of Blue Skies goat milk gentle face soap that I don't know I'll be using on my face. I originally bought it as a little gift for Beth until I got down to the end of the tables and found a woman who hand dyes 100% cotton quilting fabric. I got to talking to her and found out that she uses Shibori techniques (added to the list of things to do) and found this gorgeous fat quarter and picked that up for Beth instead and she loved it. She thinks it will be a knitting needle case, which I think will be fabulous. I will try to get a pic of it because it truly is beautiful.


Underneath all that is the manly sweater progress on my brand new Susanne's Needles (formerly Holz & Stein, the ebony/rosewood ones made from recycled musical instruments.) While I had a bad experience with the circulars, Sarah talked me into the straights and I had to try them. Since these are already reviewed at the Knitter's Review Forum, I will be brief and just say buy them... buy them now... buy them in large quantities. Mind you, I still have mixed feelings about the circulars, so that instruction applies only to the straights. I was using my KP Options for this sweater and I love them, but after trying out those Lantern Moons (in the wrong size, dammit,) I really was longing for wood again and also longing for straights. Don't get me wrong, I love circulars for circular knitting, but for straight knitting.... I really miss the straight needles. There's something about them... maybe this is silly, but it makes knitting feel a little more authentic to me, I know my late Bubbie, may she rest in peace, didn't knit on nickel-plated aluminum interchangeable circulars, you know? I don't know that she knit on ebony, either, though, but that's another story. ANYWAY, I digress again. I realized the thing I love the very most about straight needles is seeing the end of the right needle bobbing up and down out of the corner of my eye as I knit.... there seems something rhythmic and beautiful about it and I really missed it and I am really happy to have such gorgeous needles to watch bobbing up and down now. Ok, the needles, I will elaborate a bit. First, they're gorgeous. (did I say they were gorgeous? I love both the ebony and the rosewood, but I favor the ebony and also hear it slicks up more with use, although they are perfectly slick out of the package. The weight of them is perfect, the tip taper is delicious, and they are warm and lovely. They do warp, just FYI, and you can maybe see that in the picture. I'm not quite sure why, but some online shops warn you that if you have a problem with it not to buy them. I don't have a problem with it.

last but not least, i got just 1 hank of the Berroco Ultra Alpaca to play with so I can decide whether or not to order 15 hanks of it to make the Kenobi Jacket. I got to see the color card and am madly in love with Pea Soup Mix and I think it's going to happen. I'm thinking now of ordering 2 full bags, which will leave me an extra 5 hanks, which would work deliciously well for the above bag, I think.... I might just have to go that route when the time comes, which I need to save for. How do you feel about those colors together, though? the folks at the fair talked me into it.... i figured I would buy a color that I could put together with that mmmmalabrigo to make myself another pair of felted clogs with. it would be the outside sole and the cuff.... i have mixed feelings, what do you think? the pic isn't great, it's a very deep teal, but heathered with some other shades....


I also got to see Yvonne, who I adore and miss fiercely. We have made a pact to see each other no less than once a month and we're catching up this Friday. :) She lives up by Rosemary's store and although it's in the same county and a city I used to live and work in, it just feels SOOOOOOO FAR AWAY. Vaughan doesn't get down my way a whole lot either so maybe I shouldn't feel weird about it, but it's like another world especially with the construction up there, I just dont' even recognize it.

all in all, it was a wonderful trip up there and i was thrilled to see Rosemary, Vaughan, and Sarah, and I got to meet a bunch of folks from an online knitting group I am a member of too, the B&N Knitters. I haven't yet made it to knit with them because it's 9 a.m. on a Sunday, but what a great bunch of ladies!!!! Cindy was spinning there with the most darling woman whose name I've forgotten already, who not only offered to let me sit down and try out her Lendrum, but also offered to let me borrow it for a week if I wanted to see if I liked it after knowing her for exactly 4 minutes. Fiber people are just awesome. Cindy also gave me some cotton seeds, so I'm going to plant some cotton when this "frost" is over. I know what she means, it is too chilly to plant, but frost + Florida = yeah right. I grew up in New York, so that's like a total joke, but she is absolutely correct, we actually did have a frost warning here not long ago, it just sounds funny to me. I also got to see Michelle, who is the one who had my Flower Power. I met her at the store a couple times and just adore her and we chatted for a while and also.... crap, I forgot her name too... another employee of the store who was so super sweet to me and Vaughan a LONG time ago and remembered us. That place is really great, I wish it was closer. Rosemary is truly one of my very favorite LYS owners, probably tied with Audrey and Eliot. I really miss her and love her shop and love her employees and if she was closer, I'd be in trouble. I'm really going to try to make it there more often, though, if only to see her and Cindy and Michelle and Sarah a little more. I did sign up for my spinning wheel class on St. Pat's Day, which I am plotzing over already. I so desperately need it and can't wait. Mike is such an incredible instructor and HEY! I'll get to see everyone again. :)

OH! I FORGOT! I finished a hat! I have a new recipient for the heartbreakingly cute baby kimono, who was just born 2 weeks ago, but don't want to send that up without sending a little something for the twin boys, so I'm whipping up some hats. The first one is done:

it actually isn't intended to be rolled up, i didn't make it long enough, but it looked cute in the picture. that right there is my first pom-pom ever, how about that! it was great fun. i fluffed and trimmed a bit more so it looks cuter now, but you get the idea. :)

ok, i'm out. hope all is well with all of you! xoxoxoxoxox