Ah, broken is the golden bowl

I got my October sock club shipment, and it's the best yet. It's black lightweight STR with bits of dark blood purple. And the pattern that goes with it (Lenore) is perfect: a simple sock with columns of eyelets. The minute I opened the package, I knew that these would be the perfect socks for my sister in law. She's not quite goth, but just a little dark :)

Since these are for a gift, I'm not going to use one of Cat Bordhi's new sock patterns; I'm just going to use my standard toe up, short row heel. That way I'll know that they'll fit.

I think that I'll have to buy more of this yarn the next time I treat myself. I've enjoyed the sock club, because I love all special things, but this color has made it worthwhile.

In lieu of something new

I give you my last two shawls:



and



The first one is the Lace Garland from Shawls and Scarves. It took me a year to knit, mainly because I stopped knitting on it for 8 months! I love it, and I loved blocking it--so magical. It lives with my mother in law. Here's a closeup of the lace:



The second is the Ethereal Fichu from Heartstrings Fiber Arts. I used one skein of Schaefer Anne in an unlabeled colorway. It was an extremely quick knit. It lives with my sister in law--if her cat hasn't destroyed it yet. Here's a (slightly blurry) closeup:



I have too many shawls to decide from as my next project. The only thing I won't be able to do is use any of the Kid Silk Haze that I bought, since I'm so allergic to it. I'm trying to decide between the bee shawl or stole, the garter and lace from Shawls and Scarves slightly modified, a silk scarf from Victorian Lace Today, or just going it alone and making up a triangular pattern. I want something I can finish in a month or two, so that I have time to work on my Children of Hurin Shawl, but I need something light enough to work on when it's still warm outside (which is the reason I'm NOT working on the CoH shawl right now.) Argh...decisions.

I got my STR August shipment on Friday, and I don't know how I feel about it. The colors remind me of Mr. Freeze freezie pops, and the pattern for the cuff is vine lace (which I had a bellyfull of with the Lace Slip from KLS). I'm thinking of modifying the pattern to fit one of the new Cat Bordhi ones, but I'm not sure.

I'm also working on the Impossibly Cute Baby Kimono from Mason-Dixon Knitting. I'm using Cotton Flamme from Crystal Palace yarns. It's a really nice slubby cotton, and I'm enjoying working with it. I hope this little kimono works out.

Fie!

I was all geared up to work on the Silk Slip from Knitting Lingerie Style--I finished the knitted bits in one day, and then went to iron on the interfacing. Unfortunately, I forgot one important thing: if you use dark bronze yarn to knit a lace pattern, white interfacing ironed on the back is going to look really stupid. Thank goodness I decided to do a "test ironing" and didn't wreck my silk and cashmere lace! I ordered some black interfacing and will just accept that the lace will be a bit more subtle. Sadly, this means that I can't work on the slip today. Sigh.

I'm not one to be without a plan though: I ordered some Adrienne Vittadini Celia to make the Babydoll, so I'll start on that :) I also have a new pair of socks on the needles, since I still haven't gotten my STR shipment and I couldn't keep waiting!

American Psycho

That was the theme of Friday at work. I spent all morning getting yelled at by a co-worker who was trying to frame another employee for theft, then I had a visit from my local psychotic. A year and a half ago, I had a person come into the shop at my work (I'm going to call my place of employment BI from now on). He thought he was Jesus, and he wanted to "baptise me". It was VERY scary, but I heard from the police that he was committed to the local psych ward. Well, he obviously got out, because he came back to my shop on Friday. I didn't recognize him at first, but he seemed familiar. Then he came back in to say one more thing, and I KNEW it was him. He left, and I locked the door so he couldn't get back in, but it was extremely frightening.

After I got home on Friday, I had to sleep because the events of the day had given me a migraine. When I woke up, I got to thinking. The employee that was yelling at me is an older guy, veteran of WWII from Poland. He can't do his job anymore, but BI won't let him go because of his age. I hired someone else to "help" him, and he systematically tried to frame her for all manner of things and generally make her look bad. Then she left, and I hired a new helper. Everything was fine until a month or so ago, when he started doing the same thing. I can't tell if it's dementia or a guerrilla war, but I can't handle it anymore. But what I started thinking on Friday was that maybe he's trying to get me to quit or be fired. Maybe he blames me for taking his job away from him. We're starting a big fund-raising campaign at work, and it would be a bad time for me to quit. But if this continues, I might have to leave. It's horrible to never know what is going to set him off.

On the crafting front, I decided that I'm going to make the silk slip from KLS for the KAL. I'm going to use Handmaiden silk-cashmere from my stash:


Now I just need to get to the material store and buy the silk for the slip part. I think I have enough interfacing for the knitted bits. I'm excited for this project!

I still haven't finished the sockies...for some reason, I feel like it's a slog. However, my next STR kit is in the mail so I better finish them before it comes. I wish more people would post spoilers for the kit, since I can't quite tell what the pattern is like from the pics that I've seen ;)

I also ordered some things from the Loopy Ewe, and I may integrate them into KLS patterns rather than socks. I'm on a reds/purples buying kick, and I'm feeling the need to actively make things and not just buy the materials to make them with.

Too many projects

Sigh. I am just too tempted by projects. I'm currently working on my STR sockies, and I'm about a third done. I love anklets :) I really want to cast on for another project from KLS, but I should wait for the KAL to begin. During lunch, I was looking at knitty, and I think I'm going to have to make the Unmentionables. I just can't resist them. Plus, I have 4 skeins of yarn that are screaming at me to become 2 pairs of socks. Really--every time I walk past my stash tote, they shout at me. Can't anyone else hear it?

I also just got a gift certificate to my LYS from the mom of a bar mitzvah--$50! I'm so excited, I can hardly stand it.

(Looking back on what I just wrote, it reminds me of the moment in the TTC journey when you realize that you know [and use] way too many acronyms.)

I'm religiously following the trail of my Crown Mountain Farms roving on its way to my apartment. Spinning some of the batts from Abby has made me a lot more relaxed about my spinning, but also a lot more confident. I'm really impatient for that fiber to get here.

My italian sausages are almost done, so I better grab them before they burn!

Ain't No (Crown) Mountain High Enough...

My roving from Crown Mountain has shipped--I'm so excited!

To answer Amanda, my grasshoppers are not too droopy, though that might be because I ended them before I got to my calf. I think that would be the spot that could cause problems. I made the large size (I'm a size 10 wide), followed the directions for where to start the heel and had no problems with it. Though, "fiddlyness, thy name is reverse gusset heel." I love the end result, but the heel was a bit obnoxious. Nothing specific, just irritating.

I'm happy to see that the new Knitty is up. Wisp, in particular, is very tempting. Unfortunately, my mohair allergy has progressed to epic, palm scratching/breaking out in hives proportions, so I won't be able to knit with my KSH anytime soon.

On the surplice bodice front, my sister told me that I could use some of the purple ribbon she had left over from her wedding, so as soon as I see her, I'll be able to wear the bodice :) I now have to decide what to make next out of KLS. I'm thinking of the silk slip...

Spinsterism

So, yesterday I was bummed out because the Sock Hop yarn from Crown Mountain Farms that would be perfect for my sister-in-law's socks was out of stock. But as I was looking at all the other beautiful Sock Hop yarns, I realized that the names were familiar: I had read about someone spinning roving with those same names. Silly me, I hadn't even thought of that! I bopped over to the fiber page and ordered the color of fiber that I would have bought in the yarn. So, I'll just spin up the yarn and then I'll have what I need. (This also means I can dye the KP yarn I bought in some colors that I want:) )

My surplice bodice is done, but I found that the ribbon I had is not long enough--not even a yard. I'm going to have to trick someone into driving me to the fabric store at some point. I'm trying to decide whether to wear it with a tank top underneath (since it's really low cut) or to buy a fancy bra and let it show. I'm not sure how daring I want to be. No pic yet as it's still drying.

I cast on for the STR anklets; I may use the lace pattern from the surplice bodice for these sockies. Since it's Knit In Public day today, I'm thinking of going down to the Sundance Cafe and working on the sockies while listening to my LOTR audiobook. This version is the best I've heard. If you're a longtime reader of the books, you'll notice that sometimes Robert Inglis says the wrong words, but his reading is wonderful. It's much better than the BBC dramatization, which is too dramatic in my opinion.

Hooray!

Well, the yarn drought did not materialize--I got the yarn in time for the weekend, and worked on the surplice bodice all this week. Now I just need to finish one more armhole (k one row, p one row and bind off) and then it's done. I'm very excited.

I also finished my grasshoppers yesterday:


Pattern: STR Knee High to a Grasshopper
Yarn: STR Silkie April club yarn
Needles: US 0 circular, 47"
Modifications: I worked from two skeins, since I thought that I'd be doing kneehighs. I got bored, so they're only ankle length, but you can see that they're different dye lots. I also used k2tog, yo instead of p2tog, yo, but I can turn them inside out if necessary to mimic the real pattern:


My plan is to make a pair of anklets with the leftovers, then jump into either birthday socks for one of my friends or the next STR pattern, whichever gets to me first.

I also got a great tip from Amanda on some great black and yellow yarn. Of course, by the time I got to looking up the url it was sold out, but oh my goodness is it gorgeous.

I really need to look at my comments quicker!

Yarn drought

Argh. It may seem odd that someone with enough yarn for 10 pairs of socks, several thousand yards of laceweight and 15 pounds of unspun fiber could suffer a yarn drought. Alas, it's true. The one yarn I need more of is not here. It's on its way here, traveling from NYC, but it's not here yet and I'm totally bummed. I was hoping to finish my surplice bodice camisole from KLS this weekend, but if that yarn doesn't get here in tomorrow's mail, no dice. Double argh.

I read an interesting review of Kitting Lingerie Style here. I enjoyed seeing someone else's perspective on the patterns. The comments on the review are neat too. I think I'll be joining the KAL; I should have at least 2 pieces done by the time it starts, so I should have a grasp on how to knit the patterns.

In the "not all people are jerks" category, I had an awesome email back-and-forth with a rabbi in Israel yesterday. I've been looking for an English translation of one of his books, and I can't find it anywhere--I've asked booksellers all over the country, and no one has it. I found the author's email while surfing around, and I decided to take a chance. He emailed me back that he'll send me a copy! He was very nice about it.

I still need to finish the ribbing on the grasshoppers, so I guess that's what I'll be up to this weekend. I just got bored with the pattern and so couldn't make them kneesocks. Maybe I'll get more gumption at some point and be able to make a pair of knee highs.

It's Rainin' Yarn

Halleluia! I got my April STR kit yesterday, and I'm pretty excited about it. The pattern is a stockinette foot with lace instep and leg, and can be made into knee-highs if you order another skein of the yarn. Of course, that's what I'll be doing :)

Here's an artsy shot of the yarn:


It's very soft, and the colors are outrageous. I'm very happy.

On the "filling up the corners" front, I also bought a few things from my LYS:


Two skeins of Koigu, possibly for a scarf or some freak-out socks, a skein of Noro SG for the border of my CoH shawl, and some Kid Silk Haze to round out some numbers of skeins I already have. The wine color will be for (hopefully) an Ostrich Plumes shawl, and the violetta is for an as yet undetermined shawl for a friend whose favorite color is purple.

The CoH (children of Hurin) pattern is moving along. I've decided to go with a cabled applied i-cord border, to better suggest Glaurung's body. Before there's any outcry, I don't mind doing i-cord. I made a 10 foot length of it for my brother's girlfriend over a weekend, with the only payment being I got to keep the leftover yarn, and I didn't find the process all that obnoxious. While I was at work I googled "cabled i-cord" and found Eunny's version. It's pretty much what I was planning to do, so I feel validated. If I can get this pattern knocked out so that I can make sure my brain is wrapped around it right, I shouldn't really have a problem. I want it to be done before it gets cold again, since I'm planning on it as an autumn shawl.

I'm off to work some ribbing and come up with something for supper. Yargh.

April Showers...

Bring sock yarn--soon I hope!

I've been peeking at STR April installments (like here), and I'm darn excited. Hopefully I'll get my package before the weekend!

I also ordered two skeins of Knit Picks "dye your own" sock yarn, to make a pair of socks for my sister in law. She wants black and yellow socks, but they may end up being dark brown and yellow socks :)

I worked on the children of Hurin swatch last night, and I hope to have something picture-takeable by the weekend. It's a bit tricky for me to make a cable pattern into openwork, but I think I have a good scheme going. I really like how the colors work with the pattern, too.