flyinmysoup

What?
i should be reading about the rise of Buddhism in America during the 20th century...but i haven't shown off my finished socks yet!  so, without furthur ado, may i present pair 2 of 2006:

Yarn: Baby Ull, 1 1/2 skiens; a charcol grey.
Needles: size 1 Addis...Magic Loop BABY
Start/ Finish: 13 january/ 22 january
Pattern:  none...just a generic toe up sock
Notes:  have i mentioned that i love this yarn?  i want to marry it.  i think i need to buy the yarn store out and make myself complete sets of clothing from Baby Ull.  another note, look at those loooooong cuffs!  i'm so proud.

and because i can't keep my hands still even for half an hour, i cast on for pair #3 for the year.  dig this--i stole the yarn from the fella's tinnie little stash.  it's Lion Brand Magic Stripe again, but it's not the Clown Puke colorway, so i've not a clue what it's called.  these guys have a short row toe, you know, to mix it up a bit.

I've plunked down my $3 for the Mystery Shawl-a-long 3 .  i had fun with the last one and figured "hell, why not?" 

Okay, some non-knitting content.  feel free to bail out if you wish.  you've been warned!
have any of you seen Brokeback Mountain?  i saw this almost 2 weeks ago with a dear friend of mine, and i am still being tortured by it....tortured in the very best way possible.  i read the story sometime before seeing the movie and cried my fool head off about it.  the movie was a fabulous adaptation (actually, the best adaptation that i think i've ever seen).  okay, that's all...i'm still pretty speechless about it.

Um, yeah, i edited this cause i was reading the nice comments everyone had left and i thought to myself
"Self, 4 days seems wrong...didn't it take you longer than 4 days to knit those socks???  it must have, cause that's just crazy talk..."
so, i checked, and i'd misread the 13 as 18....i'm overcome with shame....

ah, what does spring break mean to me? reading books that have absolutely nothing to do with school, that's what! i'm a voracious reader but i don't get to read for pleasure as often as i would like to, so this week i did a bit of catch up in that department. today i finished Empire Falls by Richard Russo. it has been in the cue for a while and i've owned it since january. it turned out to be really good. i also read the cleverly named Knit One, Kill Two and Needled to Death both by Maggie Sefton.  these are very cute books, high on novelty and sorta low on things like plot.  oh, well.  just goes to show what a sucker i am for anything knitting related!
i did get some more dyeing done.  i've come to the conclusion that i either have to attempt to start selling the dyed yarns or lay off it for a while--my stash is getting sorta biggish!  this first one i'm not too sure about.  i like it better now than i did before i re-skeined it.  it's just such an odd combination of masculine colors and then pink....it's not awful, and i'd probably buy it, but it's just kind of underwhelming, i guess.
now this one, this one is a different story entirely...this turned out exactly how i envisioned it!  i wanted something really reptilian.  i did have gift plans for this yarn, well, gift socks, but it's really going to depend on how selfish i'm feeling that day!

guess what came for me in the mail yesterday???  oooohhh, my yarn from Knit Picks, that's what!  holy lord, this stuff feels soooooooo nice.  and i'm very very tickled that the combonation of the Hollyberry and the Fog Merino Style is not at all vomit inducing (while i do like my socks to be a little, well---let's not mince words, shall we?--insane, other articles of clothing i prefer to not mimic circus folk too often).  in fact, it worked out just as i'd envisioned it with the hollyberry being a more blue red and the fog being cool as well.  the other yarn is just natural in color, but boy howdy is it soft!  the Austrian Knee Socks call to me, but so does my Sockapalloza pal's socks, oh!  and a little thing called homework.  sheesh. 

i decided i'm not going to swatch for the Deep Argyle V-Neck Sweater Vest yet.  i really need to focus on some other things, like afore mentioned homework and socks.  so....
yeah, really that line of thought lasted all of, oh 30 seconds.  ya know how it is.  you begin to whole compromising with yourself on the spending of your time.  isn't it beautimous????  i don't know yet whether or not i've achieved gauge (use US 4's) but this was really fun to work up, so i won't be shattered if i have to do it again.  ps.  after washing it up, the merino style doesn't feel so much like yarn anymore as it does velvety smooth butter, fyi.

and i've begun the stash reduction projects--wrist warmers knit up wilst i watched The 40-Year-Old Virgin --which was actually really really funny.  the wrist warmers are Cash iroha, fuschia, and i love them.

i am finished with this semester!!  all papers have been reworked and submitted, all make-up work has been turned in.  i think that all of the non-knitting i've been up to may pay off with close to a 4.0 GPA for the semester.  finally, i can get back to knitting!!!!

i sent off my Sockapallooza pal's socks today...they get to go over the ocean.  i really hope that they make it to her! 
here the socks are all finished up and done.  i'm pretty pleased with how they turned out.  and for any body that wants to know, you can totally knit the pompatomous socks with the magic loop technique.  whoot!

the sockapallooza socks represented the last thing that i had to knit, so i'm going to be doing some "me" knitting for a while.  i've got the Mamluke socks from Folk Socks in mind.  they are so beautiful. see?  aren't they just gorgeous?  the characters near the toes and heals (not the diamond shapes) spell out Allah, and that's gotten me enamored for some reason (i'm not Muslim, just a generally spiritual gal).  i'm also kicking around Calla from Magknits.  i've got the Svale, i just am sooo sock crazy....

i've finished the first Mamluke Sock!  wow...that was fast.  i think that i must be making up for all the non-knitting i've been doing!  i love how this sock looks...it's a tiny bit big around the ball of my foot but not too bad.  i'm using some Baby Ull in navy and Knitpicks dye your own merino sock yarn.  i loved the color combonation and figured that these socks will be worth having to hand wash.  the heel on these is kind of odd...it doesn't look or feel like an entire heel (it's the stripy part).  i'm really please how quickly this first one went--here's to hoping that Second Sock Syndrome doesn't strike in the completion of the second.  i think that i'm smitten enough with the pattern that it shouldn't be a problem. 

in other, non knitting news, i picked up some georgeous roses at Trader Joe's
tonight.  i've been trying to curb my flower-buying tendancies, but these babies were just to fabulous to pass by. 

(you should sing the title, ya know, for the full effect) 
so, after a weird coincidence of talking about Navajo plying and then, that very day, coming across a Spin-Off that contained a how to article on the technique, i broke out the spinning wheel.  gah. gah i say!  because i spun up a metric crap load of this cheap-but-pretty roving i scored into this fairly decent set of singles.  gah because my wheel, which i got for absolutely free and, therefore can not complain about too much, has such a severe wobble that i can't ply the singles into a 2 ply yarn.  the wheel was home made, i'm fairly certain, and not all that well put together.  the uprights that hold the actual wheel part in place where first glued in, then screwed in, and finally, cause obviously something somewhere wiggled, NAILED in.  consequently, repair is going to be a pain in the ass.  i am now faced with deciding if i should just go ahead and knit the singles into some biased lacey thing or to wait until a time when i can get a new wheel (le sigh) which will probably be in years, not months or weeks.  so, that is why the gah.

in happy, better news, i've started on an amalgamation of the Calla tank from magknits and another tank designed by Squeaky Weasels that uses a brillian DNA cable.  i didn't really like the all around cabley-ness of the Calla tank, and imho, Squeaky Weasels' tank was just too busy with the lacey lace panels and the DNA cable.  so, this is what i've got so far (forgive the picture, it's a bit bright).  what i really wanted to do, i couldn't find the lace pattern for, and being a lazy woman, i just said "screw it! i'll make do".  so, i kept the two smaller side cables from the Calla pattern, used the DNA cable in place of the center cable, and changed the back to plain stockinette with eyelet columns (a picture when i'm done cause really, it's wicked boring).  what i had envisioned what a very simple lace that almost mimicked the DNA cable.  when i have more gumption, i might have to plot that out cause i don't think it would be too difficult. 

now the reading part.  i try to make a "summer" reading list each year.  this year, i'm running behind and haven't even started my list, though i have been a reading fool.  the only concrete goal is to read the Narnia Chronicles (so i can return them to Megs who i've been borrowing them from for, oh, a year and a half).  this isn't going to do diddly squat for my summer after next week (it's taking me like 3 hours to read each of the first two books, and i can't imagine that the rest will be much different).  so, dear blog readers, how about some suggestions?  i'll read just about anything. 

is there a prize available for being a bad blogger?  if so, someone needs to nominate me, i think!  to anyone who still checks out my little blog with any regularity, i appologize for the hiatus.  i've been knitting a lot of lace, and i am of the opinion that most lace project updates are 1)very very boring, and  2) a pain in the behind to photograph since i have to pin out the project so that it doesn't just look like a wad of yarn.  that said, here are updates on 2 of the 3 lace projects i'm working on.  i've not pictured the Garden Shawl that's on the needles.  getting it all pinned out would have driven me to drinking.  when i'm feeling braver, i'll get a picture!
this is the almost half-way done center of the Fir-cone Shawl.  i am still in deep deep love with the Lacey Lamb.  i spoke with my LYS owner, and she said that she may pick some more up at Stitches.  (and that would be nice since there is exactly 1 ball of laceweight left in the store...in a color that i'm not fond of or i would have snagged it.  i'm hoping for some aubergine, but i digress...)  to save my sanity, i don't plan on taking another pic of this until i'm onto the edging.

here is lace project 2--the Mystery Stole 2006.  i'm almost done with the first half of clue 1.  i got a late start on this since my internet went down the Friday the first clue came out and didn't get going again until the next Friday. i'm using the navy merino laceweight i picked up at the going-out-of-business sale.  i'm actually glad that i took a (blurry--sorry) photo of this.  i wasn't sure if i was digging the combonation of a cobweb weight and 3.5 mm needles was to my liking or not, and they quite are.  it's wierd the little bit of perspective that a photo can bring....

between knitting on the shawls (it's sort of a round robing process i've been using--a row here, a round there.  it keeps me on my toes), i've decided to repot all of my plants.  i snagged some beautiful pots that didn't have any drainage holes in them and today, that all is getting fixed.  if there's something i love almost as much as knitting, it's power tools.  and see the safety glasses?  i'm so proud of me!  i would like to add that the drill is not mine, it's the Fella's and i think that i may just hate it.  it's pretty weeny.  i've been drilling for, oh, 30 seconds and then i have to let the damnedable thing charge up.  i need to get another drill....anyhow, my pothos is crying out for his new home, so i better get back to playing in the dirt!!!!

i broke down and bought some more yarn.  *le sigh*  i keep saying "i need to go on a yarn diet!!!  no more yarn until (insert goal here), and then, oh boy!"  yeah, i'm a damned liar.  i've had the pattern for the Eris cardi since 20 Aug 2005, and i really wanted to make it in a cotton/wool blend.  so it would be something i could probably wear for at least 3 seasons instead of 2ish.  i'd been eyeing the knitpick Main Line, but at $3.29 for 82 yds, it was a sucktastic deal.  well damn you knitpicks!  damn you and your sale!  i got the yarn in Red Velvet Cake.  and so the shipping would be free, i added in a hank of the brand spanking new Bare Merino DK so that: 1) the fella can swatch for the awsome sweater (the first one in 222) he's picked out to knit (when his socks are finished. one-project-at-a-time-freak) and 2) i can try my hand at designing a cardigan.  so, we'll see.

and, i've fallen in love:

red elf shoes.  **swooon** unfortunatly, they're a little bit salty for the wallet...that's a lot of yarn (not to mention food and stuff like that) to give up, even if they are red elf shoes.  (Fella, if you're reading this, keep an eye out for these to be cheap someday.  cause they would be the most rockin' thing....ever)

alright, let me first explain something about me--i'm a little crazy when it comes to how food appeals to the eyes not just the taste buds.  if something doesn't look good to me, it just doesn't taste as good.  so, you have to imagine the squeals of joy i let out at the market when i stumbled upon these: 
oh...my....sweet....lord.  yes.  that is purple cauliflower.  the brociflower isn't new, but it is a lovely shade of green.  i cannot wait to have these on a plate together. 

Eris is coming along slow but steady.  instead of twisted increases like these, i chose to use plain old increases.  i like the look better, and they are much easier on my poor little hands.  if i had made this in a more elastic fiber, i think that i'd probably have it all done by now.  if i make another one of these, i'll use a DK weight wool.  cause, seriously, i'm not sure why this pattern specifies Worsted Weight when it calls for a gauge of 5.5/8rows and 5/7rows.  i didn't really think it out before starting, and i can't figure it out now.  oh well, here's where she's at so far:

don't mind my wandering eyes....i thought i saw a bug on the wall, and i liked how the sweater looked in this pic, so i used it even though i look sorta vapid.

i'm getting dangerously close to finishing up Eris.  i've gotten the front bottom cable details completed.  the picture is a bit dark, but you get the idea, i hope.  i like the edging on the bottom of this: Rogue called for a hem, which can be a really nice touch, but in worsted weight yarn, the double thickness was just too much.  the bottom of my sweater always flairs out a bit, no matter how crazily i block the damn thing.  the edge treatment for Eris is a knit-on border that takes advantage of slipped stitch to cause the very edge of St st to curl under, making a nice clean line.  it's very neat and clean looking, but i've not got it finished and it would be a damned boring picture!

i'm a crazy lover of the old time radio programs, and i used to be able to catch them on the NPR station that was out of Xavier university.  i think that they must have not been a big draw at pledge time 'cause they stopped.  and i was very disappointed.  but today, the clouds parted and the sun streamed down onto me!!!  the fella sent me the link for OTR.Network Library, and i have a steady stream of radio programs available at a mouse click--for free.  i am beside myself with glee.  Inner Sactum, Suspense, and X minus 1  have been speeding me through work on Eris.

i've learned of a new knitting group that's just a block from my apartment.  i think that i'm going to check it out on wednesday--i'll let ya know how it goes if i do.

and now, cause i know you've all been anxiously waiting for it, the cooked purple and green cauliflower.  see???  it stayed pretty colored!!!  whoot.  i roasted it, and it was deeeelish.  if you'd like to try it, toss cauliflower florets with enough olive oil to lightly coat, some crushed garlic, a bit o' lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste.  bake on a cookie sheet in a 400 degree oven for 15-25 minutes or desired level of doneness.  my favorite type of recipe--simple, tasty, and beautiful!

this weekend involved running around to 3 different LYS.  mmmmm.  G and i finally got to check out Sheep Street Fibers.  It's a lovely shop, and i really wish that my wheel wasn't being a shithead, cause there was soooo many different spinning fibers there!  silk hankies, merino top dyed lovely jewel tones, cashmere, merino/silk blends...oh, it made me dizzy!  i resisted temptation, listened to the reasonable voice in my head saying "um...your wheel's all janky.  maybe you should just get some yarn..."  and i did that.  i picked up 2 skiens of Nature Spun Worsted in Coffee Bean and Garland for mittens (more on those in a second). 
then, we went to Stitches & Scones.  oh, i love that store.  we picked up one of their bags--and what a great bag it is--zipper pockets, big enough for a sweater in progress--that gives us a 10% discount every time we shop there.  how cool is that?  i also picked up a set of Bryspun DPN's (i love the Bryspun needles and their scoopy little tips) and a pair of 9 mm, 47" long Addis to use with mobius strip things.  i finally broke down and bought a skein of Malabrigo merino.  the colorway i picked at first confused me--it's not really of colors i normally would chose--then i looked at it all wound into a ball and it hit me:  it lookes exactly like autumn leaves!  autumn is my most favorite season, and i'm hard-core gunning for it to get here!  i think the yarn was my plea to mother nature to hurry it up!  i'm planning on making a felted bowl or bag or something with this.  it's really lovely yarn, and i sorta want to buy enough to make a little nest out of...*sigh*
i got some new beadworking tools, and i made up a few stitch markers on Sunday.  i love the subversive set on the bottom--they make me giggle so. 
i really needed a break from Eris, so i decided to make these awesome squirrel & oak mittens from Hello Yarn.  i got some Dale Falk at Mass Ave on Friday, cast on and finished mitten 1 in about 3.5 hours (whoot!) green and chocolate brown (they're gonna be "thin minttnes" hahaha).  blocked it out and all that, and CRAP!!!  i don't make mittens, so i'm not terribly familiar with the sizing and what not.  and, as small as i am, i have freakishly long fingers (i normally can't wear store bought gloves and such cause the fingers are always waaaayyy too short).  these factors combined to make a tiny weeny mitten that doesn't fit me at all!  and it looked so good!  i picked up some worsted weight yarn (above mentioned Nature Spun) and some 3.5 mm DPN's, and i think that that will make a mitten that i'll actually be able to wear.  i'm also going to change the pattern to make the thumb with a gore.
my Lace Swap pal let me know that my package is in the post!  it's coming from Australia!  how cool is that????  i'm super jazzed!

i'm certain that my needles would be smokin'.  i have 15 rows of the chart to complete before i can start a-steekin' the Skull v-neck.  and it is looking good, let me tell you!  it's not huge at all!  in fact, after blocking, it's actually going to be the size that i intended it to be!!!!!  i've been knitting on this like a crazy thing all week, cause of the dead line and the fact that i still haven't started the easier b-day gifts that are in the line up.  i entirely plan on having this bad boy completely done tomorrow (sunday at the latest) and you better believe a picture-heavy post will be soon to follow!  after a couple of inquiries, i decide to give posting the chart a go (check the sidebar).  any questions about the chart, drop me a line!
in non-knitting news, g and i are looking into buying a new car.  the one we have now--a mercury tracer wagon (shut up!) has put up with quite a lot from us in the past almost 3 years (at one point, g was commuting at least 120 miles a day for a couple of months), but i think that its rapidly approaching that fateful time of "holy shit everything is falling off/breaking down/what's that freakin' noise?"  we are looking at pontiac vibes (cause i love a hatchback like no body's business), and we have an appointment at a dealer's on monday.  i'm jazzed.

Pattern:  Eunny Jang's Deep V-neck vest
Yarn:  Knitpicks Merino Style; CC nutmeg (4 skeins), MC moss (5 skiens)
Needles:  3.5 mm addis
Start/Finish:  1 sept/ 10 sept 2006
Notes:  i added a skull motif to the pattern.  i'm wearing the vest  in the picture--one with the b-day girl to be added--mostly, i just hate when people post a FO that's just flat and not worn as it's intend to be.  makes it hard to visualize it for me.  any who, my measurements are different from the intended wearer--i have a bigger rack, and i'm a good 6" shorter than she is, so i think it's going to look alright on her.  if i make myself a vest, i have to figure out something different with the shoulder/arm area.  the shoulders are so wide and so arm holes are a bit floppy.  the vest is also a titch longer than i'd like it to be (i did some finagling to get it to look alright in the picture)
truth be told, meg (the recipient) and i did a fitting yesterday.  i gave her the choice of trying it on in front of many people or just me and G.  i was a bit worried about the fit at the waist and hips as i'm a bit smaller than her in those areas and couldn't get an accurate idea of if it would fit her or not.  i'm going to block a bit more ease into the waist/hip region, and it's going to be fine.  incidentally, she really really liked it--she gave me the best compliment ever "Kate, this looks better than store bought!"  i was tickled.

in other news, g and i ended up buy a new car yesterday!  we went to the dealer to check it out in person, and ended up taking it home!  (his name is clive--i name everything) he's really really red, and the nicest car that either of us has ever owned!

in closing, for you freaky check-out-the-innards-of-fair-isle people, a gratuitous, inside out shot of the vest!

i've been very unproductive as far as knitting goes this past week.  the friend that i'd made the Skully Vest for moved, and i helped out.  oh...my....god.  it really really sucked, but at least it's done with!  i failed to get pictures of her wearing the vest (i forgot the camera) but i'll get around to it sometime!  i also made another buddy of mine an alpaca hat--there was absolutely nothing exciting about it that's why no pics--but he loved it.  the 2 for 2 on knitted gifts this past weekend got me thinking about the Yule season and gift giving.  and also the fact that the majority of my friends have their birthdays within the next 6 months or so.  i think that i might start giving bigger knitted gifts for birthdays, and smaller ones at holiday time.  that way, i don't go insane trying to make 20 sweaters or shawls in the next 95 days.  it seems logical to me.
upcoming WIP's are as follows:

i received the Heere Be Dragone Shawl (HBDS hereafter) pattern in the mail on Saturday.  how fast was that???  (crazy fast is the correct answer)  i ordered it on thursday!  that's some stellar service, imho.  and the shawl is just as cool on paper with all the nutso charts.  looking at the charts, i felt something that i haven't felt in my knitting in a loooooong time--a tinge of fear!  the dragon motif is made up of lots of different types of twisted stitches, many that i've never seen before.  and, as of right now, it looks like it's going to be an interesting and slightly challenging knit.  of course, check back as the project moves along, cause you know how that can change over night! 
so, as i mentioned before, i got the HBDS pattern to make for a friend (Ms. HBD).  after going through my lace weight stash (which is not as large as i would like) i found that i had 1760 yds of KnitPicks Bare that had been previously dyed a sort of washed out mix of purples, fuchsias, and periwinkle-y blues.  it lacked a certain "umph", really.  so, i thought "well, Ms. HBD likes (and looks good in) blues, why don't we try an overdye and see if we can get some depth and darkness into this washed out mess.  that way, stash yarn is used and the project costs a measly $12"!  so, i skiened up all 1760 yds, tied it off, mixed up a big ol' pot of blue/purple dye and set the fuckers on the stove to simmer.  i ended up with something that looks sort of like this:  now, i'm utterly in love with how it turned out.  the picture simply doesn't do it justice (this is the best out of, oh 35, so...)  it's soooo rich.  i normally don't like my lace to be variegated at all, but this yarn makes me squeal a little bit.  from far off, it's this deeply purple-y red, and as you move in closer, the separate colors begin to assert themselves and EEEEEE!!!!  i just love it a lot.  however, i've never seen Ms. HBD where anything even remotely similar to the shade, and i became worried.  i inquired of a mutal friend (Ms. Skull Vest) "so, how does Ms. HBD feel about purple?"  "She likes greens a lot.....(really long pause) I don't know about purple."  yeah, that's exactly what i wanted to hear.  so, after deliberation, i've decide that i'm going to place a Knit Picks order and pick up some of the Alpaca Cloud in Moss for the HBDS.  it's green and alpaca, a good combonation as Ms. HBD has recently discovered how warm alpaca is and seems to be smitten with the fiber.  and it's green, which apparently she really likes.  and, at $16 for the yarn and $12 for the pattern, it's still an affordable project. 
i should have known when i found these yesterday morning taking xavier out, that it would all work out with the yarn.  cause now, i get to make myself something out of the re-dyed Bare, which is awesome, cause i was getting sad about giving it away!

so, i'm finally getting back into the swing of living by someone else's schedule. for close to four years, i've focused on school and things NOT of an employment nature, and, even though i'm not working full time right now, adjusting has been interesting. i've gone to being able to knit pretty much whenever i felt like it to having to decided if i'll be able to finish a row before i have to breeze out the door. overall, however, i am loving the new job. but seriously, i work in a pet store--what's not to love? plus, the added paycheck will eventually mean....you guess it YARN!!! (for a bit, it'll mean a boost to bills and the like, but eventually--mwha hahhahaha)
in knitting news, i've been working on the Beaded Swirled Pearl Shawlette. i ran out of beads and had to madly drive about to find some more. and then, the store only had one tube left. i hope that it's going to sufice, but we'll see. this pic was taken a few repeats back--i'm only one repeat away from finishing, and the shawl is bunchy on the needles so not good for photographing. i'm absolutly loving how this is looking so far. it's such a dead-simple knit (good for knitting while catching up on Grey's Anatomy and such) and the yarn--my fav. i'm using beads the same tone as the yarn, and i love that they add just a subtle little bit of sparkle and flair. i think this baby's gonna be a great to wear for the holidays!
and guess what i get to break in when it's time to block it???? that's right! blocking wires!! i picked them up at one of the LYS yesterday in lue of some really fabulous sock yarn (that will be mine so that i can make parrot socks, but all in good time). the set was cheaper than the Knitpicks set, and i got to take it home right NOW. it took all of my willpower not to go nuts and reblock everything that i've knit in the past year or so. i love tools, and i love knitting, and knitting tools are just about the best thing ever!

a couple of years ago, my parents forgot my birthday. after that happened, i decided that i would celebrate the 15 days of kate's birth so that, should they forget again, i would not be as upset about it. plus, birthdays rock. anywho, the celebration starts on 1 december and goes until my birthday proper (the 15th). i enjoy it, and gearl seems to think it's rather silly and fun.
this year, on the first day of my birthday, i also picked up my first paycheck in about four years. (what a great feeling!) and decided that it was a day for celebration indeed. g and i headed over to Stitches and Scones, and i picked up Barbara Walker's Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns. i love it. just browsing through it makes me feel insanely creative. in fact, i am using a stitch pattern out of it for some socks that i'm making in this lovely yarn that i picked up at Mass Ave on the fourth day of my birthday. it's Soxie from the Great Adirondack Yarn Company. the colorway is "Cancun" but i've taken to calling it Parrot yarn. i'll post progress shots of the socks when they are more than some ribbing! something not so wonderful happened last night when i was working on the Parrot Socks--one of my 2.25mm Brittany DPNs broke right in half! i sent out an email to them today so that i can take advantage of their 5yr replacement gaurentee. anyone have any experiance with that?

days three and four were spent at work, so not too excitting, but i did pick up a new orchid at Trader joe's last night (i'd put off adding a new one to the collection, but it's my birthday celebration and i couldn't withstand any longer) isn't it lovely?? and tiny???

so, it's been over five months since i posted on my little blog. (i have been messing about on Ravelry a bit, but anyhow) and i promise that i have some really good reasons for the hiatus:

Excuse #1

LOOK!!!! this is G's and my new house! that's right, folks--we are home owners. whoot! it's a swell little 3 bedroom ranch in a much nicer area of town (in the two months we've been here, i've not heard one gunshot!) we've moved so many times in the past four years that the prospect of having a place to put down roots is kinda strange. i've been taking a long time getting settled in--not having to rush is so nice. the best part of having a house?

my own room for my yarn and what not. (i'm still moving everything in)
Excuse #2
on the 30th of November, i got married!

see, i think those are pretty decent reasons to not keep up with the blogging! i was knitting during this time. want to see a FO?

Pattern: Lady Eleanor Enrelac Stole from Scarf Style
Yarn: Paton's SWS, Natural Plum colorway; 8.5 sks
Needles: 6mm clover bamboo
Notes: i love this finished object! it's the best kind of project--super simple, and completely fabulous looking.