WiPitty Do-dah...

Okay, lame, I know. Anywho, I've got a picture of my Razor Cami so far, on me! w00t! It's starting to look vaguely wearable. Thanks to my mom for snapping the picture.




Of course, after I got it back on the needles, I realized I had to un-knit a whole row, because I'd forgotten the last yarn over of the previous row. That was a bummer. But it's not a big deal to re-knit that row, so oh well.

BTW, I'm modifying the pattern ever so slightly. See, the finished size of the thing is actually two inches bigger around than my waist, and I wanted it to be a little more fitted than that, so after about 4 inches I've switched to needles one size smaller, and I'll knit 4 1/2 more inches on those smaller needles before switching back to the original gauge. Hopefully that'll bring it in just a smidge. According to the gauge swatch I did it will, but who knows what'll happen once it's all done. We'll see.

Tomorrow night, tune in as Joyce and I learn chainmaille basics!

"I don't drink coffee, I'll take tea, my dear..."

I know. Some trendsetter I am. Along with my lack of networking skills, I have no new spinning to display on this Handspun Monday. Still just working on the same stuff. Partly, though, it's because I've been taking some of my spare time to *gasp* read. Something I used to love to do, and now rarely partake of. And the book I'm reading is wonderful. It's not classic literature, it's not post-modern intellectualism, it's not even culture-sweepingly popular. It's just a sweet little cozy mystery set in Charleston, South Carolina and starring a tea shop owner. The Jasmine Moon Murder is making me really miss my tea-shop days. I mean really. So I'm once again on a tea-buying binge. I'm trying to control it and buy only small quantities. I'm also trying not to spend all day on www.teachat.com. At least my tea habit is less expensive than my yarn habit. At least, it will be as long as I avoid the mega-expensive super-rare extra-fine imperial-quality white teas...

Overload!

So, yarn safaris are wonderful and horrible. On Friday, after work, I went to the Eastern Shore with a friend from work so that we could check out the yarn shops in Easton and St. Michael's. And I spent wayyyy too much money. But I bought some beautiful stuff, including more Blue Heron Yarns (*squee!*) and you'll get to see some as Friday Yarn Pr0n. My friend had better self control than I did, but she got some Blue Heron too. I think it's my new favorite yarn. *sigh*

Also, the chainmaille beginner kits that said friend and I ordered came in on Friday. WOOOOT!!! I'm so psyched. I have super awesome plans for chainmaille. At least I hope they're super awesome. They could, I suppose, turn out to be super lame. But I'm going with super awesome.

So all of this happened on Friday. Why am I not posting until Sunday night? Well, because on Friday when I got home I crashed hard. And yesterday, my trivia team went to play in the quarterfinals for our trivia tournament. We came in third!!! WOOOOO! We were actually kinda surprised we did so well... And after that, my man and I went to hang out with Pam and her friends because she was awesome and invited us. It was a great time; Pam has awesome friends. And she kicks my butt at Karaoke Revolution. I need to practice more. ;)

Also, we just got new internet service, so I had to coax my computer to connect to the new network. I definitely need a new computer, one that's not senile. Any recommendations?

All this while I really want to get moving on quite a few crafts. I've gotta keep making progress on my Razor Cami, can't wait to get together with my friend outside of work so we can start learning maille, I've got design ideas I want to work on, a book I'm trying to read, and I want to get more time on my wheel. Oh and I have fleece to scour. Half of which has been in the trunk of my car for weeks. Ummm... gotta go...

Road Trip Swag

One of the things I like about my job is that it requires me to travel around the state occasionally. Whenever I go somewhere for work, I've started finding a yarn shop in that town. So last week, I had to go to the Eastern Shore, so I found a yarn shop listed where I was going, and my coworker and I stopped in on our lunch break. Oh dear.

I spent quite a lot of money.

It was worth it, though! Look at this wonderful yarn I got, which comes from a company based on the Eastern Shore!



The company is Blue Heron Yarns, and their yarns are fabulous.



And shiny!!! In a subtle way...



I couldn't resist buying it. Fantastic stuff. I think it's going to become some sort of capelet or cowl.

Tomorrow I'm going with a friend to another yarn shop over there across the water, so we'll see if I have anything new to post next week...

Hole in My Life

*cue The Police* There's a hole... in my life...
Or at least in my knitting. There are lots of holes in my knitting. But they're supposed to be there.



That's the closeup of my Razor Cami, from ohmystars.net (I linked to the pattern in an earlier post...) Here's a (sadly, blurry) overall shot:



See that flamingo stitch marker? That's from Pam :D She got those for me, simply because she's awesome. And she knows I love flamingoes :D 'MINGO!!!!! See? They make me happy.

So this camisole is taking its time but it's coming along. I can't say I've been working on it constantly, though I did even work on it a little in the car on the way to The Police. Not working on it today, though. My arm, wrist, and hand hurt, and I think it's from work. Stacks and stacks of paper are heavy, especially when you're holding them up so as to count them. Ah well. It just needs some rest.

That's all I have to report on this WiP Wednesday. A single knitting WiP, the awesomeness of Pam, and a hurty arm. And a pathetic Police tie-in. Hey, come on, you know I had to get them in here somehow...

Message in a Bottle

Okay, I did it again. I flaked out of a whole week. But I promise, I just wasn't home much so I wasn't around my computer. Which is getting to be an old excuse. And especially lame because of the excitement that I should've posted Saturday morning.

What is this excitement, you ask?

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOO I GOT TO SEE THE POLICE IN CONCERT ON FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!

OMGz it was freaking amazing. I had gotten tickets for my man (who is my enabler when it comes to The Police, as well as Sting's solo music) and my best friend, and another very good friend and her mom who is also a good friend, and so we drove to Hershey Park on Friday and had a blast. The seats weren't so great cos I didn't get tickets as early as I could've, but from my man's back I could see, and my friend's mom was the only other short person, so we were okay. Holy crap, STING! And Andy Summers! And, oh yeah, Stewart Copeland. Jerkface. I'm sorry, talking smack about your own reunion tour when you're not even two weeks into it? Lame. If he was still bitter, he shouldn't have signed on. But it didn't keep him or the others from playing awesomely. What a fantastic concert. I'm still excited about it. Wheeee!!!

And after that the weekend was busy anyway. Company on Saturday, and on Sunday I went shopping with my parents and *gasp* found pants that fit me! I am inordinately excited about this. Almost as excited as about seeing The Police. That's right. Almost.

But now it's Monday, and aside from being back to the daily grind that is life in the "real world" *pshaw*, it's also time to post some handspun goodness :) So here we have the llama that I got at MDS&W, all combed and being spun on my glorious olivewood Spindlewood spindle. Aside from the spindle itself being a dream to spin on (despite the slippery-and-breaky-ness of the llama), Steve, the guy that makes them, is a wonderful person and very accomodating. He emailed back and forth with me when I contacted him to order a spindle, trying to make sure I got exactly what I wanted. I couldn't be more pleased with the spindle. So here it is, complete with fiber and thread-like spun llama:







The wood is ever so slightly warmer toned than that, but as I've said before, my photography skillz are somewhat lacking. And yes, I spelled that with a "z".

P.S. After posting the above, I made a button of my own for Handspun Mondays. I know, people aren't really doing Handspun Monday very regularly, and those who do are few. But here it is, and should this ever become a trend, and should anybody want it, feel free to save it to your own computer and upload it to your blog. A nod in my direction would be nice, too, but I'm not gonna be hard-nosed and insist on credit.

Magnificent Monday

Well, sorry, I totally buggered out of WiP Wednesday AND Yarn Pr0n Friday last week. I wasn't home much, as usual. Mom keeps telling me I gotta get out of that habit. But hey, I did start a new project! I started that Razor Cami that I linked to in my last post. Let me tell you, that whole continental knitting thing is AMAZING. So much faster. A lot more like crochet, actually. I like it much better, and I think I might actually *gasp* enjoy knitting! Wow! And the baby blanket? Is on the backburner for a few days. Every time I tried to work on it the past week, I end up frogging as much as I crochet because I end up with mistakes at the beginnings of rows, which I don't notice until I get back there by the end of the next row. Very frustrating.

So where's the handspun? I know you're thinking it. I haven't done much spinning, and certainly haven't been spinning anything new, except that yesterday I went to my monthly spinning guild get-together, and I bought a couple of merino rovings that I just couldn't resist. The couple that hosts the guild has their own fiber preparation and dyeing business, and their rovings are beautiful. One of the ones I got is a colorway called "Denim." I've been wanting to make a shawl that I can grab and throw on with jeans and whatever I happen to be wearing with them, thus it must be a neutral or the same general color as the jeans. So when I saw the "Denim" roving I just knew that I'd have to make said shawl with my own homespun. Hopefully I'll be able to spin enough; it doesn't need to be a big shawl, but I'd like it to be big enough to cover more than my shoulders. Anyway, I'll quit yakking and get on with the pictures. First, the roving itself:



And here's how it spins up:



YUM. It's wonderful.

In other news, there are two or three obsessions competing for brain space right now. Psych, Transformers, and The Magnificent Seven. Let's for a moment take Transformers. The movie is beyond fantastic. It's everything a summer blockbuster should be. Don't believe me? See it yourself. Now, this does have a relevance to my blog. I've gotten the crazy idea to do Transformers themed yarns. I've got an idea for a yarn to correspond to each Autobot. No Decepticon ideas yet. Decepticons are boring and nowhere near as cool as Autobots anyway. But maybe by the fall or winter you'll see *gasp* art yarns here, inspired by the Transformers!

Another of my obsessions, and one which I haven't managed to work into my craftiness yet, is The Magnificent Seven. Not the movie, no. The television show. See, my best friend got me hooked while we were at college, and now that the show is on DVD we each have both seasons. Season two came out just recently, so I just got it a couple weeks ago, and I'm obsessed all over again. So it's not at all relevant, but I thought I'd share this absolutely perfect fan-made music video I found on YouTube. Enjoy:

Um, okay, apparently the computer has decided I'm not allowed to type in a title for this post. Screwy.

Anyway, even though it's Monday, rejoice! I learned three (yes, THREE) new knitting things this weekend! I ROCK! This is what I learned:

1. Knitting in the round. First on circulars and then on dpns. Way easier on circulars, but I'm getting the hang of the double points. Spiky!

2. Continental knitting. OMG. I had tried this once before and couldn't get the hang of it to save my soul. But for some reason, I tried it again and it just clicked. Woooo!!!

3. SOCKS! I haven't actually, ya know, knit a sock yet. But I know how! Lucy Neatby taught me :) See, Mom got her DVDs about sock knitting, so I watched the first one last night. And now sock knitting makes sense to me and I can totally do it on my own. Well, a basic sock anyway. I know how to knit a sock! *happy dance*

This all makes me really want to knit. I still have to finish the baby blanket though. But soon my yarn will arrive for the camisole I'm going to knit, and I will work on that. I'm thinking of trying to get it done in time to go see The Police. I hope I hope I hope. That's two weeks. Think I can get it done?

Anyway, today is also Handspun Monday. So here we go, this is what I was going to post last week. The roving I spun it from is mohair and wool, from Kid Hollow Farms, and I got it at Stitches last year. When Mom gave me my first Golding spindle for Christmas, I knew what to spin with it :) The roving itself reminded me of the sunrise over the Atlantic, as I watched it from a Redemptorist order's retreat house when I was a senior in high school. I'm planning on crocheting it into a mobius. So here's the yarn:

Carrie vs. the Sweater

And I won. w00ties!

See, one of the ladies at work, knowing that I like to dabble in yarny-type crafts, asked if I could fix a hole in a sweater. I said I've never done it before but I could give it a go. Well, I've had the sweater for a couple of weeks, meaning to get to it, but avoiding it because I had no clue how to do it or even if I could. The yarn it's made of is almost a chenille; it's little loopies held together at one edge. No stitch definition whatsoever. And the hole was about three stitches across. Well tonight I finally got it done. It took some doing, actually a lot of doing, but I did it! Check it (sorry, didn't get "before" pics):



Do you see any holes in this sweater? Here, have a closer look:

Can you tell where the hole was?

I feel so accomplished :)

Now, it's Friday, isn't it? That means it's pr0n day! I have one of my favorite brands to show off. I <3 Zitron. It's a German brand, distributed here by Skacel. I first discovered their "Avanti" yarn, which you will definitely see here sometime, as it is the most beautiful thing in the world. But today, you get to cozy up to a hot little colorway of "Ecco."


Nice backside, eh?


And the "I wish I was Kris" shots:




It's just so summery looking in this color. It reminds me of salsa. And I love salsa. It's in the process of becoming a plain crocheted bag, a summer handbag. For me. It will have the ultimate lining, oh yes. Pockets and pockets and pockets! I can't wait. It's my on-the-go project. Makes me happy.

Stars and Stripes Forever

Happy Fourth of July! I love this holiday, because it's the perfect reason to enjoy summer. Celebrate our freedom by having parties and barbecues and fireworks? Of course! Because we can! That's the point! It's awesome. (To be fair, I do also try to keep in mind why we can. Also the point of the holiday.) After all, freedom is the right of all sentient beings. (Points if you get that reference...)

But today is also WiP Wednesday, and since I missed Handspun Monday, I'm gonna get this one. Late, I know, but hey. I've been busy. We've had people here. Including small ones. Adorable small ones. Even my man found them adorable. But now that all our friends have gone home, I've taken pictures of my slow progress on the blanket for the newest small one. No stars, just stripes...



And by the way, we brought the important small one upstairs with her mommy to see the awesome painting job that her daddy did in our yarn room, and of course she was fascinated with Merriweather. I'll make a spinner of that little girl, just you wait... muahahahahahaha!!!

And now, if my neighbors ever stop setting off fireworks, I'm going to sleep. G'night!

What? Monday?

Okay, I'm lame. I haven't spun much this past week, but I did take pictures of some handspun that had yet to be documented (and yet to be set, but that's another story). However (there's always one of those, isn't there?), the batteries in my camera died before I could transfer the pics to my computer, and as it was already way past my bedtime I was not about to go hunting for new batteries OR my recharger for my tapped out rechargeable batteries. I know, lame. So I might post pictures tonight. If I do, though, it'll be late, because the Transformers movie comes out tomorrow, and I'll be at the first advance showing of it tonight at 8 (can someone please explain to me why they don't just stick to releasing movies on the release date? Midnight's one thing, but 8 pm the night before it's technically released? Come on...) because my boy is out of his MIND with excitement. I see an Autobot hat or scarf in his future. But anyway, that means I won't be home this evening to upload pictures. Sorry. I feel ridiculous, trying to start a trend and not even sticking to it myself.

Anyway, there's other stuff to post too. Yesterday the boy and I went with my parents to the Smithsonian Folk Life Festival. While it wasn't quite as cool as other years, it was pretty good. There were weavers from the Mekong River area, working on ikat fabrics that were unbelievably beautiful. And there was embroidery and crochet from Northern Ireland. And HATS. Oh my, the hats. I should've brought a camera, but I'm dumb (and the batteries were low anyway, remember?). This lady makes the most spectacular hats. They had feathers and were beautiful colors and I wish I could've taken one home with me. But alas, I'm sure they're also exorbitantly expensive. Oh well. Anyway, it was a fun time, anybody in the general area should try and get the chance to go this week.