Spring?!

Guess what I woke up to this morning! That's right, snow.









Crazy, huh? By the time I took these pictures, it was already melting. An hour later most of it had dropped off the trees and flowers. I hope the poor lilacs will recover! The tomato looked a little shell-shocked.

In other picture news, I finally took a picture of my finished Forest Canopy Shawl that I made from a skein of Copper Penny from Earthly Hues. It reminds me so much of fall leaves.


I've been playing with the drop spindle recently. On the Lime and Violet Ravelry group, there has been a movement to spin up some of that fiber you have been intimidated by or that you think is just too pretty to use. This is some CJ Kopec 100% merino in Cowgirl Chic.

I started spinning it up at the Equine Affair (basically a really big teaching clinic for horses and riders) a couple of weekends ago. I've been getting better and better with it. Having spun on a spinning wheel made it much easier to use a drop spindle. It has been a challenge learning how to spin merino and use a drop spindle but it has definitely been fun.

Next is a pair of linen handtowels from the Mason-Dixon Knitting pattern. These were good mindless knitting projects. The first one took me a little more than a week to make. The second one, however, only took a weekend. It was the project I took to work on during my 2 day workshop. It made the time go much faster :)


I noticed something funny when I was packing for the overnight stay. Even though it was only a 2 day thing, I had 3 different projects with me. One project was the handtowel. Another is a shawl in the final stages of knitting on the border (after having to rip back a few rows because I ran out of yarn 6 inches before the border was finished. Not that I'm bitter or anything). The third was another shawl not even started yet, only yarn and a pattern.

I was rummaging around my stash trying to figure out what the third project could be in case I somehow miraculously got through the other 2 projects. I came across some sock yarn mom had bought when she was on vacation. It is Regia silk, a silk/merino blend. I love the yarn but I didn't really want to make socks out of it. Instead, I decided to make the Swallowtail Shawl from Interweave Knits (hurry, they have their 5 most popular patterns for free until May 14th!). The pattern calls for a laceweight so my shawl is definitely going to be bigger.



It has been a really fast knit. I started it on Sunday and am already close to being finished. There are just 2 charts to go. Unfortunately, somehow, my accident prone self hit the back of my hand on something yesterday evening. Within seconds there was a lump, bruising and lots of pain. It was kind of hard to drive home from work yesterday. I definitely didn't knit last night. Today, I have a lovely bruise, a bump and less pain than before. Fun times. Darn accident prone self.

Meltdown

So this week is not going to be fun. All of my practicum stuff is due on Thursday (AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!), I have my first book club meeting on Thursday night but I don't think anyone is going to show up nor have I re-read the book (The Devil Wears Prada), I have a 2 day workshop the next morning which will require me to wake up around 5 am and drive 3 hours in order to get there, I should have gotten a parking pass for it but I didn't, I should have rented a room for Friday night but I haven't, I have a 1 page book review to write for the workshop, also have to put together a 3 minute booktalk for the second day of the workshop, oh, yeah, also need to read the textbook and a novella (An Uncommon Reader) before the first day (have already read the Uncommon Reader and loved it and have skimmed through the textbook but that was almost a year ago), and, on top of all of that, I have to do the "fun" assignment for my stupid class which is 21 in-depth (aka really hard and involved) questions as well as participating in the online discussions regularly. So I'm thinking of hiding in a hole with my knitting, curled in the fetal position . . . .

I'll post again after this week is over! Might even have pictures of the various projects I've been working on.

random

So taking a typing speed test while having a head cold and being on cold medication isn't really the best plan. . . .

61 words

Speedtest

Tax season hatred

I HATE, HATE, HATE taxes. They are the bane of the public library staff. They are EVIL. And this tax stimulus package is even more EVIL. It makes this tax season worse than normal because people who don't normally file are coming in with no idea what they are supposed to do or what they need. Don't get me wrong, every tax season is bad because people always come in with no idea what form they should fill out. (How do you get to be in your 40s and have no idea what form you should pick up?!) But this one appears to be even worse than normal. You could not pay me enough to work for the IRS right now. I can't wait until tax season is over. I was discussing with my boss whether or not it would be worse to be an accountant right now. She pointed out that accountants can at least choose how many clients they can handle (and who they choose to be a client). The library gets everyone else (and usually the confused ones). Tomorrow should be "fun."

Best in Show

**ETA: Did you know about flickrSLiDR? The flickr badge just wasn't working out well because something with the coding for the javascript version (the one that acts like a slideshow) wasn't written correctly so it wouldn't post. FlickrSLiDR, however, let me embed the entire set as a slideshow. Enjoy!

The edible book festival I made that VERY red cake happened last Tuesday. This flickr badge has all of the pictures I took there.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Doesn't it look like a lot of fun? The best part was winning Best in Show for my Mount Vesuvius cake. The liquid jello, lemon juice and baking soda worked perfectly and lava flowed all over the place! Though it did make the cake rather lemon-y . . .

Lookie! Pictures!

I got my act together and started uploading pictures! Because, really, who likes a blog post without pictures? :)

First up, impulse purchases. I should not be allowed to go anywhere near anything small and cute in craft stores. That is how I ended up coming back to work with these little guys.

Tiny pots! With tiny bulbs in them! Cute!!!! OK, I'm finished now. I'm trying to grow them at work. We will see if this works. Sometimes I really have a black thumb.

Now we have some pictures of the BSJs. Aren't they cute, too?


Here is the blue one in the middle of the folding magic that is the BSJ. One second it is this blobby mass. . .

Then you start to fold it. . .
And *poof* jacket!
Here is a blob in progress.

On to the next project! The Forest Canopy Shawl in Copper Penny. Here is the skein (the flash gave it a rather pinker hue). I kept meaning to take a picture of it in the natural light but I kept forgetting and then was too impatient to wait to cast on with it.


Seconds after I took the picture of the skein, I cast on and, by the time I went to bed, had a couple of inches done. Guess that is what happens when you start on a Buffy and a Bones marathon. (Hulu.com has the entire 1st & 2nd seasons of Buffy and just put up the entire 1st season of Bones. Ah, hulu, you must stop (but don't really) because it is getting detrimental to my getting to bed before midnight.) Anyway, this next picture is a couple of days later.


Late last night (darn you, hulu), I was nearing the end of the shawl. Now, keep in mind that I flew in the face of common sense and knit the shawl without any lifelines. Crazy, I know. Especially crazy when you realize that you have 9 rather long rows left to do and only have enough yarn to do 3. So, at 1 am, I ripped out one 7 row pattern repeat very, very carefully. I picked up the stitches and decided, upon consideration, that it would be smarter to go to bed than to try to finish the remaining 9 rows.

So this morning, I finished knitting and bound it all off. It took a bath in woolwash and I stretched it out to block.


I didn't take any pictures of the blocking process because my room is such a disaster area. Remember me posting a picture a while ago about the disaster I call my fiber corner? Well, now it is NOTHING in comparison to the rest of the room. After next week, I'll have to go something about it.

Back to the shawl, I'll take some FO pictures of it tomorrow or the day after. All I can say about it is that I am completely in love with it. The copper/fall colors of the yarn are wonderful! Tricia at Earthly Hues did a great job. The shawl took me only 4 days to make. The pattern is great because you can make it out of any weight yarn. You just choose the needle size you like for a lacey look and do as many pattern repeats as you want. I can't wait to show you the pictures.

This evening, I realized that mom was having her church circle over tomorrow night. Normally that would not present a problem but it does this time. Tuesday is the edible book festival at my practicum library. Edible books, if you haven't heard about it, are edible pieces that represent books or book titles. This is an international event will people all across the world making books from food on or around April 1st (April Fool's day, hehe). My book is going to be Pompeii by Robert Harris. So I'm making a volcano out of round Devil's Food Cakes stacked on top of each other. Then, in the top one, I'm going to be putting a shot glass with a jello mixture that will foam out when you add lemon juice. I definitely couldn't bake the cakes in the middle of the church circle tomorrow so an extra task was added to my evening of finishing homework. The cakes turned out extraordinarily RED didn't they?

I'll take pictures when I start putting them together after the meeting tomorrow. It's so exciting!

In another sidenote, have you ever listened to a radio station where it is like they have reached into your head, found your favorite songs and favorite types of music, and started playing them? A new station came to the area and it is like they know exactly the kinds of music I will like even if I had never heard the artists before. For a while tonight I was listening to playlists on iTunes then I switched to the streaming audio on the station's website and it was like nothing had changed. I had never found a station before that was such a good match for my tastes. Interesting.

Some FOs and WIPs (w/o pictures)

I really need to rip apart my computer tower and get my memory card out of it. I guess I was sleep deprived the last time I was going to upload pictures. My computer has different slots for all different types of memory cards. In my lack of sleep haze I accidentally put the card in the wrong slot and it fell down into the guts of the tower. I've just been too lazy to unscrew the cover and take it apart. So I'm going to blame the lack of pictures on lack of sleep.

Do you remember that I was working on Wicked? Well, I finished it the other day and just had to sew the pocket down. It took me another couple of days to actually do that simple thing. Because it is actually thinking about being spring and getting warm, I needed to get it finished to actually be able to wear it this season. So yesterday morning I sewed the pocket down and wore it all around. I really liked the color. I swear that I will take pictures and post them here.

To answer Kristi's question, I went to the BSJ Wiki for information about the BSJ. It has some really great pictures and suggestions for making them. I found suggestions somewhere (probably a discussion on ravelry) for different weights of yarn and their corresponding needles and age range for the jackets. I'm making my DK weight jackets on a US size 6 needle and it will probably be for a 6-9 month old. The suggestions said you could use either a US 6 or 7 with a DK yarn.

I think my BSJ love might have dulled because I'm not thinking about casing on for another one and the one I was in the middle of has been languishing. Instead, I'm casting on for another Forest Canopy Shawl with the most gorgeous sock yarn from Earthly Hues in the colorway Copper Penny. If you haven't seen Tricia's yarn yet, go over to her Etsy shop or the shop blog or her webpage right now. I'll wait. Back? All of her yarns (and fiber) are dyed with all natural dyes. You wouldn't believe the colors she gets with them! I bet you thought natural dyes only come in browns and greens. I really, really love this one deep red shade. Yummmm. Anyway, the second I saw the Copper Penny color, I instantly thought of leaves in the fall. The subtlety of the colors are perfect for this shawl. The pattern is great because you can use any weight of yarn and make as many repeats as you want. I started it last night and am already a couple of inches in.

Crazy horses

Well, the past couple of days have been all sorts of fun with the horses. My friend just bought a horse, Jazz, in northern Ohio on Sunday. She is an adorable and petite Quarter Horse that looks more Thoroughbred-y than Quarter Horse-y (aka she is a lot more delicate looking than most Quarter Horses).

Jazz looking pretty

Jazz went out with the other 4 horses on Sunday afternoon. We let Java out with her first because he was least likely to bother Jazz. The entire time Java was out there, Cali was screaming in the stall and lunging at the door with her ears back and teeth bared. (She was very jealous of her man talking to a younger woman.) Java looked from Cali to Jazz to us, pondered, and walked to us rather than upset his mare.

Next, we let Bo out and he really wanted to be friends with Jazz. She is much more his size than anyone else and you could tell that he desperately wanted to say "hi." She took it in stride and firmly established that he was not to push her around.

Bo and Jazz

Bo looking very muddy

Capone was the next one to meet Jazz. He tried to bully her but she firmly said "I don't think so!" and threatened to kick him if he pushed her around.

Finally, we got ready to let Cali out. All the humans went to the safety of the stalls to stay out of the horses' way. We expected lots of screaming, kicking and biting between the mares. Cali burst out of the stall and ran straight to Java. She herded Java away from the new mare and refused to let him get anywhere near her. She didn't even say anything to Jazz, didn't sniff her, didn't go anywhere near her except to drive Java away. He looks very resigned to the whole thing.

Cali doing her "Pretty Warmblood" face

Java and Capone

Anyway, yesterday was when the real fun began. Everyone was going to go out to ride which has never happened before with all of our busy schedules. But it was like the perfect storm with everyone getting out of class or off of work at 5. So everyone was planning to be out at the barn at 5:30 and ready to ride by 6. As I was driving to the barn, I got a call from Diana and she said "The horses are gone." It turns out that someone (probably Jazz) ran through the fence in the back, breaking the wire, and let all 5 horses out.

By the time I got to the barn, Diana had heard from her husband that 4 horses had been found a few miles away, trotting down the center of the very busy and hilly road. A passerby was able to (somehow) corral them in a paddock of a run-down barn. Then he started calling horse people in the area. Someone knew that we had 2 greys and 2 bays so he drove to the barn and said where he had put them. All of us were thinking "But we really need that number to be 2 greys and 3 bays." Everyone was worried that the missing horse was going to be the new girl.

Diana's husband and father hitched up my trailer and drove over to the place where the 4 were captured. Greta had luckily gotten to the barn at that point and went with them. She definitely stopped them from trying to capture a horse statue and put it in the trailer :) They put Cali and Capone in the trailer and took them back to our barn.

At this point, I've gotten to the barn and Diana and I are getting all of our saddles and bridles for Bo and Java. We still had to find Jazz so one of our only options is to ride back to the barn the way they might have come. We were definitely blazing our own trails. In two areas we had to ride over fallen wire fences because that was the only way to get home. I'm so glad that neither gelding was stupid while doing that. It could have been a real mess. In another spot we had to go through a creek that had a 2-3 foot drop down into water with a steep (and narrow) deer trail leading to the stream. Bo definitely said "no" to that idea so Java went first. We were headed in the direction of home so there was no stopping Java! He blazed down the incline and ran up the other steep side, luckily avoiding all of the holes along the way. Bo followed right after him because he definitely did not want to get left behind!

While we were riding back and calling for Jazz, Diana's husband and Jazz's owner took a truck and went driving through a neighbor's field to see if they could see Jazz. Greta was saddling up Capone, getting ready to ride toward us to see if she would meet Jazz along the way. Diana's father took off on foot to follow the horse tracks. The people in the car spotted Jazz in the distance in the field behind the barn property. We think that she heard us calling her and started for the voices. They called Greta and she went out there. Jazz wouldn't come to a human on foot but she would follow Capone. Greta was able to get her back through the fence though the mare broke through the fence again in another spot. Once again, we were very lucky that no legs got cut up.

Diana and I were 2 fields away but we were able to see Jazz and Capone so we knew that everyone was safe. When we got back to the barn, everyone realized that Diana's father was still out looking for the mare and that he didn't have a cell phone (he doesn't like them so he never carries one). So Diana, Greta and I rode back out to try to find him. We rode directly to the top of the hill of the field behind the property and were able to see him. So finally we got everyone back to the barn.

None of the horses had a mark on them even after all of their excitement! We were just so lucky!

We kept riding around the arena to cool out our horses and so that Jazz's owner, Carol, would have time to saddle her up. Jazz was not pleased about this idea and started to act up a little bit. I got on her and, after a mini battle, we finally started to go around without popping up or giving little jumps. After a much longer period of time, we put Carol back on Jazz and they had a mini lesson.

Oh, I forgot to mention in all of this excitement that I had locked my keys in my car. Of course, my cell phone was in the car so luckily I was always around someone who had their phone still on them. Greta had to drive me home to pick up the extra set of keys and then back out to the barn. It was definitely a long and eventful day!

When I went out to the barn this morning to take pictures, everyone was thankfully still in the paddock where we had put them! Java is still looking browbeaten with Cali telling him where to go. Bo has definitely taken to Jazz and will stand up to Capone for her. If Capone trys to push her around, Bo will get between them with his ears pinned and head snaking. He is in love :)

BSJ madness

I've become a wee bit obsessed with the Baby Surprise Jacket (BSJ) pattern. And by a wee bit I mean that I've made 3 now and am going to be starting with a 4th soon. I hardly ever make a pattern over and over (unless it is something like fingerless gloves or socks, of course) because it bores me. This pattern, however, is the perfect quick thoughtless knit.

I had 2 balls of DK baby yarn in my stash that I wanted to use up in yellow and blue. So I started on an all yellow one. I proceeded to run out of yarn on the button band and had to buy another skein of yellow. (How is this helping to deplete the stash?) While there I decided to buy a pink skein, too. In order to make sure there was enough blue, I put in a stripe of yellow and did the button band in yellow. Wouldn't you know it but there was more than enough blue in the ball to make the added yellow completely unnecessary. Bah! Both the original yellow ball and the blue ball were supposed to be the same yardage but obviously one of them was lying. The next baby sweater I made was pink with yellow stripe and button band. I now have tons of pink left over so I might get one more ball of pink and make a completely pink jacket. Two of my coworkers offered to buy one off of me, one for a new granddaughter and one for a new niece.

If I do sell the jackets, I think I will swear them to secrecy that they got them from me just so I won't have to keep making them for people. There is a possibility that Thalia will be having the BSJ as a class at the Needling Yarn in the summer so I could also point people to that. I just don't want to be stuck making stuff for people. That sounds harsh but is true. After a while the newness and charm of the BSJ will surely wear off and I won't be interested in making another one for a very long while. But that would be the only thing that coworkers would ask for. So, yes, I think swearing them to secrecy is a very good idea.

So very tired

This post is probably going to be very boring and not about knitting. It is all about tired Anne. What riviting drama. I'm very happy this week is coming to an end. I can't remember if I've talked about my practicum on this blog much. If not, I'll give you a short recap. If I have, please excuse the tired mind. Doing a practicum, or working in a library, is one option for my library science masters. (The other option is writing a thesis. See why I chose to do the practicum?) Practicums are great for people who have never worked in a library setting before. You get to actually work as a librarian and do all sorts of different work depending on your library.

I've been building webpages, working the reference desk, collecting materials for library instruction, coming up with a podcast/series of instructional segments and author talks, and attending staff meetings. I'm sure I've done more but it is hard to think of it right now. As interesting as the work is, I'm just tired.

The praticum is 100 hours with an additional 50 hours on a project or paper. Today I wrapped up 80 hours. I've been working at my practicum site 10 hours a week since the middle of January. Most of the weeks, I've worked one morning 9-12 and then gone to my actual job to work 12:30-9 and then worked 9-4:30 on Friday at the practicum. The past two weeks, however, I've had to work at my job on Friday so that messes up the practicum schedule. So I've been working at least 2 mornings and a couple of hours on Saturday when the reference desk is staffed. This week, however, is even more different because I've worked 3 mornings at the practicum. Three 12 hour days in one week sucks. I don't know how people do it! The library will be closed on Saturday because that is when Spring Break starts.

I can't even tell you how much I am looking forward to it! I will have the whole week off from anything to do with the practicum. Then as a bonus, my practicum supervisor will be out of town the next week so I will have that week off too! (From the practicum, at least. I still have to go to my actual job obviously!) Well, I might have to go in Friday to help record some author book talks but that will be a lot shorter than a 9-4:30 day and will be very interesting.

On Monday, I recorded a sound bite/instructional segment about using the library catalog and requesting books from other institutions. Next, I added screenshots to the sound. It was pretty good if I do say so myself :)

In other library related news, I'm going to be doing a book talk for a group of retired schoolteachers/other influential ladies of the community in April. This will be my first chance to do a booktalk and I'm really excited/nervous. Trying to find books which interest them is really challenging because a) I've never done this before and b) I have no idea what they might like. There is a book called The Booktalker's Bible from which I will be borrowing heavily. I will also be talking about Tom Brokaw's book, Boom, because we are doing that for a One Book, One Community program during National Library Week. I really should get on reading that. How in the world am I going to be able to talk to a group of people who lived through the 60s when I wasn't even born for another 20 years?! Anyway, I hope this book talk will go well. If it does, I will be able to go to a lot of other groups. You would be amazed the number of places that want someone to come to talk to them about books. Now if only I could find a way to combine the knitting and the book talking :)

Shamless switching

I've finished knitting the body of Wicked and have started on the front pocket. Well, I did work on it until I got bored with that. So I put the pocket on an extra needle and started on the sleeves instead. Then I got distracted again by the lure of . . . .

The Baby Surprise Jacket or BSJ as it is known to many. What can I say, Wicked was getting really heavy and the BSJ had the added allure of a fast knit, being much lighter, being able to use some sock yarn that I probably wouldn't make socks out of, and being able to use up some stash yarn. So who cares that I have multiple projects on the verge of being finished? Don't judge me! ;)

I'm simply amazed that something that looks like this could turn out to be a baby jacket. It looks more like an amoeba!

After finishing wicked and some of the other small projects, I'm going to have to make one with two strands of sock yarn together for a slightly larger baby. This could be a perfect way for me to use up some of the sock yarn! In cleaning out my yarn/fiber corner, I've discovered way more than I remembered. I think it is reproducing.

Not dead yet!

Sorry that I've been AWOL again. My camera's battery died and I didn't have any charged for a while. And, after all, what good is a blog post without pictures?

First up, a while ago I entered an organization challenge at Purplepinkangorange.com. We were supposed to have our photos of the space we were organizing on our blog by the 27th. Oops! I was too disorganized to even post about disorganization! The space I am tackling? My yarn/fiber corner.

I have a couple of goals for the space.

• Put all of the fiber in one place
• Put all yarn in plastic bags or containers
• Make a spot for all of the knitting accessories
• Be able to put a spinning wheel (an upright one) in the corner
• Make fabric boxes to hold yarn/fiber
• Unfortunately one of the fabulous fabric stores nearby is going out of business and everything is 40% off. There was a slight falling down episode. The fabric stash (though not as impressive as the yarn/fiber is still pretty impressive) just grew exponentially.
  

• As a side goal, get rid of some of the books I never look at nor will ever read so I can have more shelf space.
  

Now, I might have to move all of my fibery stuff into a different place but those are the major goals. I really want to become more familiar with the kinds of yarn in my stash before the fiber festival season starts up.

In order to reacquaint myself myself with the stash, I've started making things out of stash yarn. I told you about starting the Princess Mitts pattern last blog post. I still haven't finished the second green mitt but I got pretty far on it. Then my chart marker fell off the chart so I had to find where I left off. Let's just say that the result was "interesting" and a good portion had to be frogged. I'm letting us both have some time off before I try it again. The other pair of Princess Mitts, however, are finished and are ready to be sent off as a random gift for my cousin. (I still haven't finished her Christmas present so I'm feeling guilty.)




I got a pair of mitts out of the one ball of the Zitron Ecco so I have plenty of yarn to make myself a pair. The color was just so much fun!

There were problems, however, with the pattern. The left thumb gusset is a disaster. The right one is a k2p2 rib. The left one is a k2, p1 rib. The two look nothing alike! What were they thinking?! Anyway, I got out some chart paper and made a mirror image of the right gusset. It didn't work out perfectly so I have some changes to make for the next pair. The left mitt should start the ribbing with p2, k2 rather than k2,p2 so the chart on the left and the right mitts can both be centered.

The next stash project is Wicked, a sweater that I've been wanting to make for a while now. I bought the yarn months ago but I was in a bunch of projects that needed to be finished first. Then Christmas happened and I kept not starting it. Finally, last Friday, I decided to cast on. By that Sunday I had already reached the armholes and was 3 inches below it. Superfast!



I did have a couple of problems, though. Mainly it involves my inability to read directions correctly. First, I increased in a place that shouldn't have increases and did this for 4 inches. So I frogged it down to the ribbing and started again. I reached the point where you put the armholes onto waste yarn and I realized that I didn't do all of the increases that I should have done. Once again, had to frog it. Even after all of that, I still really like this sweater. It is simple but is fun to make.

The main problem that I had with it, though, is its weight. Now, I don't mean the weight of the yarn. I mean the weight of the sweater itself. This is the first project I've made in a while that has a big of heft to it. Recently it's been all lace, fingerless gloves, and other small projects. The weight of it put a strain on my wrists and made them hurt. So, erring on the side of caution, I haven't been knitting the last couple of days. Instead, I've been sewing. I'm almost finished with one of those fabric baskets. I'll post the picture tomorrow.

In closing, I leave you a picture of Lily looking adorable.

Finishing and starting

Sorry I've been AWOL for a while. I've been busy at work and, after I get home, I don't want to sit in front of a computer. That has been a slight problem for the online class I am taking this semester. Hmm, should get on that. Anyway, I have been knitting, finishing and starting a lot during my slight blogging interim.

First up, a finished object! I finished the EMU shawl on Feb. 10th. It was a very fast knit and I enjoyed making it. The beads really make it look special. Too bad none of them really showed up in any of these pictures.





I might have mentioned that I was donating this shawl to a staff silent auction. I took it in on Tuesday. Ever since then, I've had so many people saying how much they liked it and how they were definitely going to bid on it. What I find funny is that this shawl isn't complex. Know what I mean? It is just a simple ktog or ssk and a yarn over pattern. Mom thought that I can't see how impressive it is because I have other ones that are more impressive to me. Because other people can't see the other shawls/stoles, they think this one is super impressive. I guess everything has a context.

Next up, finished afghan square!


I told you about the afghan a group on Ravelry is making for Terry Pratchett. This square is my contribution. It was influenced by the Tiffany Aching series. The sheep were really fun to make. I ended up duplicate stitching the black legs and faces on because I couldn't keep the tension even with three different colors. I sent it off on Friday to Scotland. Hope it make it there before the 29th (which is the deadline).

Next, a WIP. I'm on a fingerless glove jag. This one is the Princess Mitts from the Knitters Book of Yarn (though this is a free pattern online). I really have to get that book.


I just have to finish the thumb on the first glove and start the second one.

So instead, I started another pair. Good solution, huh?

The pattern was written for a DK weight yarn. This mitten is actually DK. The first one (the green one) is worsted so it is quite a bit bigger. I was going to give the multi-colored pair away as a gift but I think I like the yarn too much to give it away! The yarn came from a store in AZ that my aunt bought me a while ago when she was visiting there. It is Zitron Ecco and is knitting up sooooo well.

I've been working on a pair of alpaca socks for a friend. She is allergic to wool but wants warm socks. The Alpaca Sox yarn is wonderful to use but I think I need to go down a needle size. I've been making a pair of Monkey socks (top down, gasp) and it just isn't the fabric I want it to be. They might be frogged and started in a new pattern or, if I stay with the Monkey pattern, with a new needle size.

Other than that, I've been playing with stitch dictionaries and trying to find a stitch that I like for an alpaca neckwarmer. The alpaca yarn is a fingering weight and a natural brown. It came from a local farm. I haven't been happy yet with any of the stitches/needle sizes.

Meme and continuing with gray

Lisa tagged me with this meme/survey thingy.

4 Jobs I've Held:
pet-sitter
plant waterer (or landscape manager if you want to be fancy)
village office intern
library intern

4 Movies I Watch Over and Over
Clue ("This is war, Peacock!")
The Italian Job (the new one)
Love Actually
Pride and Prejudice (the A&E series)

4 Places I Have Been
England
Germany (Bavaria mostly)
Austria
Paris


4 Places I Have Lived
England (Lancaster and London)
Gettysburg, PA
Granville, OH
(I'm kind of limited because I live where I grew up)

4 TV Shows I Watch
Pushing Daisies
Chuck
Heroes
Criminal Minds

4 People Who Email Me Regularly
Does chatting count? Carolyn
Another college friend
A friend from England because we are in a class together now
A riding friend

4 Favorite Foods
Lamb Curry (but it has to have proper lamb! The stuff around here doesn't cut it)
Thai anything (yum, spicy)
Chicken with Chinese peanut sauce over cucumbers (again, yum, spicy)
Pizza Cottage Pizza (great, now I have to order that for lunch!)

4 Places I Would Rather Be:
Riding
London
Sleeping
Ireland

4 Things I'm Looking Forward to:
The end of my masters so I can have free time!!!!!
Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival
Buying my own spinning wheel
Summer so I can ride more

I'm not going to tag anyone so if you want to do this meme, copy and paste it in your own blog and leave a comment telling me that you did. :)

I heard yesterday that a knitting friend is having a medical scare. I wanted to give her something to give comfort so I took the Majestic Mountains stole to the knitting shop yesterday. It was going to be a mother's day gift for mom but I'll just make her something else.

In other knitting news, the body of my EMU shawl is finished and I am working on the border. Last night, I did a swatch of the border to figure out where I wanted the beads to go. These are the beads I used for the MS3. I really like the way that the gunmetal gray go with the gray of the yarn.

The border is going rather quickly so I'm hoping to have this finished really soon! The pattern is a perfect quick knit that doesn't require much counting or brainpower. Unlike the other version I made of the Shoulder Shawl in Syrian Pattern, I don't have to worry about running out of yarn with this one!

A gray day

I've been working on a lot of gray lace recently. So it seems to be appropriate to show you pictures of it on such a gray day.

Here is the Majestic Mountains stole lounging by the window with Lily. She loves sitting on the back of the sofa while peering out at the birds and squirrels.


Here it is in blob form right before blocking.


And behold! The power of blocking! It actually looks like something!




I blocked the stole out this morning before I left for work. I can't wait to take it off of the blocking wires and weave in the ends! If I had blocked it yesterday, the entire stole would have taken me exactly 3 weeks to make. As it is, 3 weeks and one day isn't bad at all.

I still had copious amounts of yarn left after finishing this stole up. You would have thought 2 stoles would have put a larger dent in the amount but it hasn't! I'm going to have more than enough for another Shoulder Shawl in Syrian Pattern from Victorian Lace Today.


I weighed the other one that I did and, if it takes the same amount of lace, the neverending yarn ball will still be over an ounce! This might call for making the shawl bigger. Then I might even have to make a scarf. I'm going to use up the gunmetal beads from the Mystery Stole on the border. I should have enough left to give it a little bit of sparkle.

I'm calling this my EMU shawl because I'm making it for the Employee Morale Unit silent auction at work. This might seem all generous and everything but it is really just because I don't think that many gray shawls/stoles are needed in one household!

Speaking of work, I started a new job on the 28th. We did all sorts of training last week. Today was the first official debut of the customer service desk. Things were a little interesting. Our department is a new creation and took over the existing desk and some of the existing duties of another department. Let's just say that they organized things a little differently before. We're going to have a lot of reorganizing to do so that it makes sense to everyone in the new department. I'm really, really happy about the new job!

Furious

So remember how I went to England over the summer for class? Well, I needed to get the credit transferred from that university to my university. In order to do that, you have to fill out all sorts of forms and get all sorts of people to approve it. I haven't heard anything for a long time so yesterday I sent a message to one of the lovely and wonderful ladies in the library science office asking about my request. She promptly sent me a message back saying that she COULDN'T FIND ANY RECORD OF MY REQUEST TO TRANSFER CREDIT and that IT LOOKED LIKE MY OLD ADVISOR DIDN'T TURN IN THAT PAPERWORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *Ahem*

Sorry to shout but I am furious! My old advisor is no longer with the university (he "retired") so I can't just go to him and demand an answer. My new advisor doesn't know anything about this situation other than the information that I was trying to transfer credit and that the process had started before she became my advisor. She is trying to help as much as she can. Oh, and also, they can't find my transcript from the other university. My university needs an original copy in order to do anything and no one can find it. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So yesterday, I had to scramble and put together another request to transfer credit as well as sending a request to the other university to have them send another transcript. Judging by how quickly it took them to send it the first time I should have it in, oh, July. Now I am really worried what this will mean for my graduating in May. I hate my old advisor.

Crafting extravaganza (apparently)

It's decided to be winter again for a while.

Somehow, snow makes the cold so much more bearable. A couple of weeks ago, it was in the single digits but there was no snow on the ground. The sun was deceptively shining and you thought that it would be nice out. Not so by any stretch of the imagination. At least with snow around, you know it is cold!

A couple of days ago, I talked about plying up some yarn for a Clapotis. I'm happy to say that I've gotten a little over half of the roving spun and plied for it. I'm in love with the colors.


In other news, on Ravelry there is a group (Ankh-Morpork Knitter's Guild) devoted to all things Terry Pratchett (a most wonderful writer). He was recently diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimer's. In response, our group decided to knit him an afghan which quickly became known as a Pratchgan. It is going to be 100 squares made by 97 different knitters. Everyone has been sharing their ideas and pictures (click here to see the Flickr group) and the creativity of everyone is amazing. I'm going to be making a green square with sheep all over it and the word "Ships" stitched onto it. (Sidenote: "Ships" is the word the wee free men (little men covered in blue tattoos who have wild red hair, a love of drink and of fighting) use for sheep. Say it with a bad Scottish accent and it will make sense.) I've completed one sheep and, other than his head looking a little wonky, I think it is going well.

Along with sending the square and some money (for shipping) to the person putting it together, I'm also going to be sending a thank you card to Terry Pratchett. So I decided to take the group's coat of arms and put it on a blank card. I backed it with some scrapbooking paper to make it look pretty :) Because I couldn't decide which blue I wanted to use, I took out 3 different kinds. After choosing which one I wanted, that meant I had 2 additional pieces. Then I saw a post on the CRAFT magazine blog about popups made by the Princess of Popups.

I was done for . . .


(Sorry for the crappy picture.) I'm completely entranced by the antennae and the little wings. I really wish I had the paper with me to make a fortune cookie one.

Spinning my wheels

I filled one bobbin with handspun this morning so I immediately put it on my niddy noddy to skein up and set it. We have a roaring fire downstairs so the yarn was almost entirely dry 30 minutes after I hung it down there.



I'm really happy with this yarn. It feels so nice and the white corriedale was a DREAM to spin up. I had heard people describing spinning up some roving was like butter and now I fully understand. It just flew between my fingers. I still have 4 oz of it to spin up but I don't have any empty bobbins right now other than the one I am plying on.

This skein is 242 yards and I'm hoping to ply up another bobbin tonight. That or get a good start on it.

Lace addiction

In the middle of all of the Christmas knitting, I had the strong desire to pick up the needles and cast on for the Majestic Mountains stole. I had everything ready for it. I already had tons of beads from when I went a little nuts in the bead store for the MS3. (There were so many pretty kinds to choose from! I couldn't leave those pretty silver beads there! And what about the green? They had to come home with me!) The yarn was already ready in my stash because it was left over from MS3. But I was a stronger person and said "NO! I must finish these presents!" So I ignored the siren call of the lace and beads (a deadly combination) and tried to put it out of my mind. Then last Sunday rolled around and I couldn't stand it any longer. . . .

I cast on in the morning and by that evening I had already finished one set of charts (there are 8 charts total).


By Thursday, I had almost finished the second chart.


By Saturday, I had started and finished the third chart and I was into the mountains!


Each of the mountains have little snow tipped peaks for which I am using silver-lined seed beads. There are a few pine trees in this middle section and I am using green seed beads for them. You probably can't see it but there are beads at each intersection of the diamonds. I used the silver-lined beads for those so that it would look like little flecks of snow.


The middle section of mountains and pine trees are going so much faster than the diamonds at the beginning. I think it helps that there are large sections of stockinette and because I have to pay attention to the counting for the mountains. They keep changing where they are and I sometimes have to put a bead on the tops. The diamonds look good but can become deadly boring after 2.5 chart repeats of them. It's the same pattern over and over. I'll have to fortify myself before I get to the diamonds at the other end of the stole.

I'm planning on having this stole done by May so I can give it as a gift. Hopefully the rest of it will go just as quickly! Now it is reaching the dangerous time of a project where you start looking for other things to cast on. . . .

In other news, I've started an etsy shop to sell niddy noddies that my friend is making.

I still have to tweak the shop and its profile but a couple of hours after posting it we already had 14 views! I'm planning on adding a couple of other noddies today and tomorrow. So if you need one, you know where to look!