Combination Thursday

I suck at this game. Haven't posted in over a week again. Lame... I'll just have to combine yesterday's WiP post and tomorrow's Yarn Pr0n.

Anywho, I've got new stuff going on. Got a new design in the works, which I've got pics of in progress, and I've got a gig doing costumes for Ragtime. A little intimidating. And by "a little" I mean "a lot." Granted, I won't be building the costumes myself, we're going to be renting them. But still. That's a big show to manage. *gulp*

Meanwhile, I've still got the Razor Cami on the needles.


But look!

Ten inches done!!!

And, as I said, I've got a new design in the works. It's a shawl. I'm hoping it's gonnna turn out the way I've planned.


And the yarn pr0n? It's the yarn I'm using for my new design! Mountain Colors Half-Crepe, in the Eureka colorway.





Yum, right?

By the way, is it Fall yet? I love Summer, but I'm very ready for Fall to be here. I'm getting psyched about Halloween. It's putting me in quite the Gothic mood. And this, from the new issue of Somerset Studio, made me gleefully Gothic. It's from the article "Model Behavior" by Michelle Ward (apologies for the crappy photos).

Who's that dapper gentleman on stage left?


Why, I do believe it's Ville Valo! *squee* Only, ya know, one of my ALL TIME favorite singers, from one of my ALL TIME favorite bands. Perhaps even #1 for me, though that's tough what with Blackmore's Night, David Bowie, The Beatles, and The Monkees around. Yes, I'm weird. But yeah, I've been flipping through The Victorian Trading Co. catalog repeatedly, looking at all their Halloween stuff, not to mention their usual merchandise. Gaaahhh! Is it Halloween time yet??? No, no... I can be patient... I can wait... Really...

The other thing that Fall brings is the Renaissance Festival. Oh yes. Can't wait to go! It's open, but this is me not braving the heat to go to the RenFest. I'll go, yes, but not yet. Also an opportunity for Gothic fun, by the way. Just a slightly different kind of Gothic. Whee!

I also need to order some superwash wool in navy blue and in gold. Football season is starting soon, there's a lot of gear I need to make for tailgates!

Gaaahhh, so much to do, so little time! EEEEP!!!

"You say you want a revolution, well ya know..."

The revolution had nothing to do with the Beatles. It had everything to do, however, with rock and roll. OH MY GOD did it have to do with rock and roll.

I just got home from Projekt Revolution at Nissan Pavilion. Now, we didn't stay for all of Linkin Park's set, because I'm a wuss and have to go to work in the morning, but still. I have some new favorite bands.

Of all the bands we caught on the Revolution Stage, only one impressed me, and they were the last to play. Mindless Self Indulgence. Wow. They were incredible. Witty, and energetic, and interesting, and not just the same emo-punk as everyone else.

The Main Stage opened with Julien-K, which apparently used to be Orgy, who I remember having a really awesome video for "Blue Monday" back in the day. They were awesome! And they played their song "Technical Difficulties," which is on the Transformers soundtrack :D But really we were waiting for two very special bands...

First off, Placebo. Now, I haven't listed to much Placebo, but what I've heard I've liked, and plus, part of the band was in Velvet Goldmine, which is one of my favorite movies ever. My best friend has listed to way more Placebo, and I will be doing so in the future. Cos damn. And yes, they put on a good show. Very energetic, which is extremely important but surprisingly not necessarily a given. And Brian Molko is just adorable.

The band my best friend and I were really there to see was next: HIM!!!!!!! Yes, the extra exclamation points are necessary. HIM is the greatest band since sliced bread. And, notably, Ville Valo was the first singer to hit the stage wearing something other than skinny jeans*. That's because he's made of awesome. They played wonderfully, it was actually better than either of the small concerts I've seen them in, because *gasp* it wasn't a crappy venue, thus Ville was happy, which made for much better on-stage banter. So wonderful. Jaime and I were melting all over each other. So good.

I missed most of Taking Back Sunday, but they opened with their song from the Transformers soundtrack, "What's it Feel Like to Be a Ghost?" They sounded pretty good from the merch tent...

Then the impressive one. I never knew I'd become a fan of My Chemical Romance. But DAMN do they put on an awesome stage show. They had pyrotechnics and everything. Also, the lead singer had on a black cavalry jacket with a sherriff's badge. He proclaimed between songs: "I'm the sherriff of fuckin' emo-town!" Oh yes. Very much the sherriff of emo-town. And yet, their music is really not emo. Not really much at all. Just their look, and their stupid stupid fans. But yeah, WOW. Amazing. Such energy, such a good rapport with the crowd, and hey, any lead singer that "collapses" to the stage and starts up with the bridge from Queen's Flash Gordon theme song is awesome in my book. Meanwhile, I need a cavalry jacket...

So okay, I know you want to know about Linkin Park. Yes, they were fantastic. It would've been nice to stay for the whole set, but not getting home til 3 AM just was not an option. But wow. Chester is a maniac. And I love it. I really need to see them again sometime. Really freaking awesome. Overall, the concert was definitely worth the money and the travel. Definitely.

*A note on skinny jeans: GET OVER THEM, PEOPLE!!! I mean, they're not even jeans! At that point, they're spandex! It's just not right. And we definitely saw more skinny jeans today than I care to count. And not all on people that ought to be wearing skinny anything. Mostly on girls who are oh-so-tragically-'80s even though they weren't even ALIVE in the '80s. Man, I can't wait til Grunge comes back as a backlash against the '80s revival. 'S all I'm sayin.

The Sisterhood of the Travelling Stash

That's us. My mom and our friends Pam and Carol and I went to Williamsburg yesterday to go to my favorite yarn shop ever, Knitting Sisters. And we had a blast. I don't know if I can sufficiently chronicle the day, but I'll try. This is Friday's yarn pr0n post, because believe me, we went to the yarn shop.

First of all, it was glorious enough to be back in my beloved 'burg. And on a beautiful day, no less. I was so excited, I started doing the Charlie Brown dance. Yeah.

We did walk around a bit:



And had lunch at the Trellis:


*yum* (Sorry, Mom, I know it's not a great picture, but the one of Pam and Carol on the other side of the umbrella pole is less flattering...)

And then it was off to see the Sisters. When I tell you that it is a yarn utopia on earth, I am exaggerating not at all. I mean, look at this stuff in its natural habitat:


And being petted by ravenous hunters:


The intrepid hunters considering their prey:


And being shocked by a particularly fine specimen (sorry Carol, you knew I had to post this one...teahee...):

(That's Ty-Dy from Knit One, Crochet Too... yum)

Pam's trophy:

(In her words, it jumped out and said "Hi! I'm coming home with you." Oh Lantern Moon, how we love thee...)

Pam wouldn't let me get away without having my own picture taken, so as we were enjoying the obscenely comfortable Knitter's Chairs, she seized my camera and snapped this:

*glee*

Carol found a sweater that had been a sample for the shop but they were selling it because they no longer carry that yarn, and she had to have it. But shh, don't tell anybody she bought it there, because her story is that she made it... while we were there... which means she whipped it out in about an hour and a half. Impressive, no?


It was so much fun. And Kathy, one of the three owners, was so wonderful to see. She's the one in the background of the Ty-Dy picture. Mom and I miss her as much as we miss the shop itself. Perhaps more. She's just really a delightful person. That's what really makes the difference there. The yarn shop itself is absolutely beautiful, but if the people there weren't nice it would be a miserable place to shop. As it is, the shop is beautiful and so are the people. They're just so friendly and fun and you can go to shop there and have a wholly wonderful experience. The ladies are happy to help you, to chat, to get to know you, to recommend patterns for yarn and vice versa, and just generally be not just a seller but also your friend. I hate having to leave the Knitting Sisters behind. That place is like an opium den. It's where you go to get addicted.

Continuing in that intoxication theme: After getting our yarn high, we went to the nearby bead store, Bead Haven, and got our bead fix. Gotta have the shinies. And so we got beads with which to make stitch markers. Naturally. I mean, what, do you expect us to do something unrelated to knitting with these beads? Puh-leeze. Anyway, that was a lot of fun too, though we didn't spend quite as long there.

And so, on this yarn-and-shiney high, we proceeded back to Colonial Williamsburg to walk down Duke of Gloucester Street again, this time to Chowning's Tavern for drinks. It was on the way there that we were talking about how fun it was to travel together for yarn and road tripping goodness, and remarked that we'd formed our own family of knitting sisters; we then dubbed ourselves the Sisterhood of the Travelling Stash. Or SoTS for short :P Which, given all the jokes we were making about yarn fumes and being intoxicated by yarn, is kinda appropriate. We are, in fact, yarnaholics. Hi, I'm Carrie, I have a yarn problem... Anyway, back on topic, we got our colonial-style drinks in the recreated colonial tavern:

Yes, the picture is fuzzy. Everything was a little fuzzy to me, that Hospitality Punch of theirs is strong and I am quite small (pocket sized, remember?). We also learned an excellent dice game, for which I remember the rules so don't worry Carol, I can remind you :)

The worst part of the day was having to come back. It ended all too soon. Eating dinner at an Applebee's at 10:00 pm, I realized that even worse would be having to get up for work this morning. Pam suggested I call out sick. Of course, I said... I'll tell them I have a terrible yarn-over! *rim shot* This, however, was not to be. I did have a yarn-over this morning. I did not call out of work. No work, no monies. Need monies, thus need work. Blargh. At least I got to take my lunch hour to go to our knitting circle today, though. Hair o' the dog, as it were... I can't wait for the next yarn safari though. I need a sign: Have Stash, Will Travel!

I know, I know...

...over a week. Again. I'm sorry. I haven't had much to post. No spinning progress as of last Monday, no discernable progress on the Razor Cami (it all looks the same, I mean really), and okay I didn't post Friday because I didn't have much time. Also, I was out knitting two nights, and cooking one. And Friday I decided to sit down at my wheel for once and pretend that I actually spin sometimes. It worked. Here's what I did:

I took this:


And made it this:



In case you're wondering, it's merino in the "Thistle" colorway from my friends at The Drafting Zone. I'm trying to spin it as fine as I can without losing my mind.

Also, this weekend my parents and I went to the National Museum of the American Indian (so is that the politically correct term now, not Native American? I'm so confused) to see the exhibit on American Indian dresses. WOW. The amount of work and the amazing skill that these women put into these dresses is remarkable. They are absolutely beautiful. And there are women who still make dresses with the same techniques today. It's an amazingly wonderful tradition. If anybody has the chance to go to the exhibit, you really should.

Of course, I needed something to do on the Metro, so I had my little spindle with me, with the Denim merino I'm working on, and I spun on that. On the way into the city there was a little girl that seemed to be peeking over her seat at me a couple of times, but on the way back out a gentleman came up and asked me if I'm a weaver, and if what I was using was a spindle whorl. He said he'd seen them in archaeology but never known how they were used. I explained that I knit and crochet, and showed him how I spin. He asked if it's less expensive to make your own yarn... heh, I had to tell him it's not particularly so anymore. There are so many gorgeous fibers out there, and so many of them are so expensive! But worth every penny :D

New Yarn, New Craft!

Friday is a happy day. Last week I went yarn shopping. And this week I get to show you my favorite of the fruits of that shopping trip!


Blue Heron Yarns, colorway "Chesapeake"






I love it. It's rayon with sparkliness in it. Yum! It's got the most luscious drape.

Also, an update. On Wednesday, my friend Joyce came over and we learned a new craft. Chainmaille! I've been wanting to learn for a while. So we were talking about it at work and finally decided we'd both learn. Ordered a couple of beginner kits from www.theringlord.com and when they came in we got together to learn together. Here we go!



Ring-a-ling-things:


Joyce at work:


I didn't get any good shots of my finished product, and it was just a strip anyway, but here's a pic Joyce took of hers:


I don't really need another hobby, but hey. I wanted to learn, and I think it's a valuable craft to have in my repertoire. I've got grand plans. We'll see how well it works out...