Almost a month without an update?!

I found my camera. It's charged and ready to unload...except that I can't find the cord. So, when I do, I will have picture updates.

I have missed the ladies of knit night again. October was a really wonky month. I think I need a life-reset button.

In exciting news, I got home from work last night to discover 31 skeins of afghan yarn. Where did it come from? I don't rightly know. Who sent it? Even less of a clue here. No name, nothing. Nothing on the invoice but my shipping address, and I certainly didn't order it. It's all really nice, too. I guess this means I have to make an afghan!

Wanted: new life

Well, not so much a NEW life, per se, rather a life that involves much less drama, fewer family crises, fewer friends with dire circumstances (not to say fewer friends, rather BETTER circumstances for all friends involved), and a job that always ends by 5pm, M-F, that gives me a REAL salary, rather than pitiful wages, and allows me to do leisure activities in my free time.

Okay, so grousing aside, I'm just peeved because I keep making plans and I can never keep them anymore. I get in and by the time I get home, I want to get dinner ready. Wait. Backtrack. I get off work at 5, usually, then I am home between 5:15 and 5:40 (depending on Berea traffic. I swear, the most braindead of drivers exist in the handful of blocks that it takes me to drive out of this little city), and then I am famished and cranky and want food. By the time I finish deciding what to make, prepping, cooking, and eating, it is at LEAST 6:30. and that's assuming I have most of what I need on-hand.

That usually leaves enough time to do a thing or two, but then I want to unwind from the day of being out and not think about driving or moving or interacting with anybody.

So I missed knit night again last week based on chaos in life. Not fun, kids. I don't like drama and crappy situations. =_( I miss my knit ladies!

Random

Yesterday, we were out running errands and near Rocky River, so Jason decided we'd have an impromptu picnic in the sun since the weather was so gorgeous and because we were close to Heinen's. He was happy that he had his Kindle with him so he could sit and read...but what would I get to do?! Having no projects with my, no needles, no resources, what could I do?!

I was quick to make a plan.

Asking politely for a pit stop, I dashed to River Colors and picked up two gorgeous skeins of Malabrigo in Hummingbird as well as a pair of needles. I am now knitting a wide scarf using the Scrunchable scarf pattern on ravelry. It's really simple, but looks really nice when finished and these colors are WILD!

Check out some pictures here http://www.malabrigoyarn.com/wordpress/?tag=malabrigo

Raining

It's raining hard here in Berea and I'd love to be knitting. Instead, I am being a bad librarian and updating my blog during my work hours. It's okay, though,because I'm ahead on my projects with very little in my queue, so I don't feel hard pressed to be sitting here doing nothing by getting absolutely everything done. I'd be an overachiever then.

In the knit world, my shawls were a huge hit with my mom and sister. They agreed to trade, since mom liked the purple and orange Boneyard once it was finished. Originally, when she saw that I was contrasting the two colors in such a bold way, she was reluctant and thought they wouldn't match up well. Actually, she wasn't the only one. I found that during my process of that shawl, only other knitters agreed it was a good pairing. Everybody else gave at cocked-head stare and questioned my rationale for being so bold.

I've got one sock going. The cables are fun. In fact, this is not only my first success sock, but also my first successful cabled ANYTHING, so that I have the first section finished (from the toe up), I'm really excited. I've got loads more sock yarn at home from a recent yarn splurge, so I can keep crafting these things.

Last night, in treating myself for my good gym habits and my (2lb) weight loss, I bought the Amigurumi knits book! I will be knitting SOOOOO MANY THINGS!

That's all for now. I could really use a nap. I feel sore and tired and it's gray and raining. Husband is home on the couch with a sick tummy. I got him ginger ale (REAL ginger ale) before I left for work. I hope he feels better. Also had a bit of a scare with my brother's health over the weekend. He spent two days in the ICU unit, but they released him home today, saying there wasn't much they could do. This makes me very frustrated and further reminds me of how poor medical care is in the hospital in Marietta, but what can I do? Just hope for the best and keep moving!

Time to get back to work, I promise I'll get to posting pics soon!

Dw'in trio wybodaeth ddiweddaraf ond fi byth yn cael amser. I'm sure I botched a great deal of that last sentence, but that's what I get for not taking more time to learn more Welsh. 


At any rate, shawl done for my sister's birthday, and in a few more rows, the striped shawl "daybreak" will be finished. It's taken me since April to do it, because I am so short with my attention, so in a way, I'm sad to see it go. On the other hand, I've got socks to keep me busy and two skeins of Malabrigo sock yarn waiting for Daybreak round 2! 


That's the update for now. Sorry for being so absentminded.

Finally, an update!

Okay, so after over a week of looking for it, I FINALLY found my cable for my camera and uploaded pictures. They're not the best, but they're something. The shawls are underway. I started the Daybreak almost six months ago and it would have been done faster except that I am a lazy knitter and those tiny stitches take hours. In about an hour and a half of knitting, I only got two rows done.

Then there's the second round of Boneyard that I'm working on. The purple and orange were the first take, and this new one is striped. I've used the wool/flax yarn I was bitching about on CKW group, and it's coming out BEAUTIFULLY! I LOVE IT!

I contrasted it with Malabrigo Solymar, which adds quite a bit of nice, rich, dark color to this gray yarn and the texture between the two is great. I put it on hold, however, so I can finish the Daybreak shawl, which I will gift to my mother for her upcoming birthday (September 30). I've got two more skeins of Malabrigo sock yarn to knit up another one, which will also take me like...a year to knit, but the new Boneyard (the gray and striped one), I think I'll keep!

Finished shawl

I swear, I am the worst time manager ever. I can get stuff done, but I get home lately and it's like the life crap-storm doesn't stop. This past week, family drama, life drama, work drama, home life drama, friend-related-drama (not between me and my friend, but a situation my dearest friend is in resulted in a MASSIVE ton of drama, so that's why I missed knit night.).

Okay, this is not me bitch-about-it-blog.

In the chaos, I finished my big purple and orange shawl. I promise I'll post pictures. I liked the pattern so much and the finished product that I started another with the flax/wool yarn, and more malabrigo that I had stashed. This one, however, will be longer and striped and the texture is already just delicious. At least, it is to me.

Anyway, that's the update. I think it's time to try to learn sock knitting again.

New shawl started

Sunset

Purple Mystery

I need to get to posting pictures. I started another shawl three days ago and am already well underway with it. I had a full skein and about a quarter of Malabrigo Purple Mystery in worsted weight to use up. I couldn't pick a contrast, so I splurged and bought two skeins from River Colors in Sunset. I'm using another Stephen West pattern and making the Boneyard shawl, but instead of M1 for the increases, I've been using yarn overs, so the effect is lovely. I wanted something to contrast the purple, which I love, something really pops and punches, might even be garish, but will definitely achieve what I want. The owner of River Colors was so helpful  in her suggestions, too, and agreed that this should work out nicely. I arrived too early to go in, since the store opens at 11, so I went to the Blackbird Bakery and bought a baguette and some pastries and sat in the public park across the street under a tree and knit up furiously with the quarter-skein, getting quite far and it really gave me something to go with once I got there. A few minutes later and I had what I need and was on my way. Actual pictures of my progress to follow soon.

The shawl

I mentioned I'm working on the Daybreak pattern by Stephen West. I love it. I have fun doing it. I just realized, however, that I've been working on it since April.

In fact, I was looking through old posts on CKW, and found the start date: April 15. The post was pretty funny, really, because I could not get my head around the idea of rotating the piece 90 degrees. Two people and fifty explanations later (well, not really, but my skull is very thick sometimes), and I was underway...too bad I ended up ripping it all out and starting over at LEAST two time.

As of 1pm today, August 26, 2010, I was 14 rows of striping and 28 rows of finishing (so 32 rows total) away from binding off and being done! Then it's time to block that sucker and wear the living daylights out of it!

Yarn yearning

Stephen West makes my favorite shawls and knits. They're so pretty and I am incredibly jealous/in awe of his ability. I want to make fabulous things, too, damn it!

;-)

That said, I'm working through the Daybreak shawl, which would have taken me much less time if I had an attention span or endless time. Alas, I have neither, so I'm still working on the rows of stripes. I have four more stripes in each color (so that's 16 more rows) and then I get to do 4 rows 7 times (so another 28) and I can bind off and be finished. I am excited. It will be done in perfect timing with the weather change locally!

That said, I am going to work the Boneyard shawl next, but what I'm actually writing about today is not my man-crush on Stephen, but instead, my desire for more yarn.

As noted in a previous entry: private college + not full-time + undervalued employment = No money. No money + expensive yarn tastes = no yarn.

What makes this a problem? I am in short supply of things to do with the little yarn I have. Sure, it seems like a lot, and I could probably crank out soot sprite like they're going out of style, but I won't really be doing that any time soon, because they require stuffing, which I also don't have right now.

That aside, and for as much as I like knitting toys, I am on a big clothing kick. I really want to knit a sweater, but it would be for me and the amount of yarn required is prohibitively expensive for the things I want to make, so sweaters and cardigans have to wait.

Want. MALABRIGO!! 

The yarn

In the stash, I forgot to include the yarn:

Currently stored away, I have a variety of Malabrigo (a blonde, two solid brown, one Purple Mystery, two Lettuce, one mixed brown and blue, a lighter tan/brown, and about half a ball of...Vermilion), two skeins of Noro Kureyon (I forget the colorway, but it's got black, magenta, and green, I think), a locally made skein of light mixed colors (yellows, oranges, etc.), and...I think that's it. OH! No, two big bits of flax&wool yarn that I love the look of, but that is so delicate as to be nearly impossible to knit with. That stuff rips more than that tissue paper. In my big giant man-hands, especially!

Oh oh, and some mixed blues and pink yarns I got from back in my very early knitting days. I forget the brand, even, but I'm fairly certain they're still wool. Maybe Lion brand? Also two types of black yarn for knitting soot sprites (or if you want romanized Japanese: Susuwatari).

Lastly, Malabrigo sock yarn that I'm currently using for the on-going shawl! That's where the yarn stash stands at present!

The stash

Here's the scoop:

For those of you who don't know, I am incredibly underpaid and underutilized in my role as a cataloger/librarian at a small private college. It's not a bad job, per se, in fact, there are days where I really do enjoy it, but one of the biggest problems of no $$ is no spending ability and with no spending ability comes no yarn!

So, where I stand currently, I have to look for projects that either don't use up a whole skein, or projects that take only one or two skeins at best. I was lucky with my most recent scarf, because I had more than enough (thank goodness for large needles and chunky yarn!)

I also regularly depend on free patterns on Ravelry, Knitty, and wherever else I can get them, and also accept the kindness of strangers (or more often, friends), such as "A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns, by Barbara Walker", given so kindly to me by my friend Anne (as well as three magazines of Noro-specific patterns and most recently, Kaffe's Classics). I also have a few magazines donated by Annie in the CKW group, and I have sweaters lined up to knit from the Knitter's Vogue, with all sorts of menswear in it! LOVE!

My needles are almost all Brittany or ChiaoGoo and I noticed, as I lay them out, relatively few in terms of sizes. I have, in various lengths (and 2 sets of dpns), 5mm/US8, 5.5mm/US9, 6mm/US10, 8mm/US11, and 10mm/US15 needles. I also have an H/8-5mm crochet hook, though crochet continues to escape me. Too much one-handed-ness, and though I could make a pervy boy pun about one-handed activities (indeed there are many), I can safely say that sometimes, two hands are needed to get the job done right!

I also have my Lil' Guppie pocket utility man-objects (it's cute, though and looks like a fish...it has a bottle opener, wrench, knife, and 2 screwdrivers) The knife is the reason I use it. It comes in handy when I need to cut some yarn.

Pictures will follow eventually, though I recently had a massive hard drive death, so I lost a fair share of recent knit pics I'd taken. =_(

I also have Knitting with Balls, and two books from the Stitch'n'bitch series. Disconnected, I realize, but that's how I think. I switch topics like there's no tomorrow!

For the love of knitting!

After a long delay in getting around to this, I've finally started yet another blog to keep track of, but this time, instead of getting all my personal woes and tribulations, my "OMG" gossip, or the mushy stuff about my feelings, you'll get all my knitting tales, fiber fantasies, and progress reports.


This is inspired, in no small part, to my fondness for and my missing the Cleveland Knits West group. Meeting regularly on Thursday nights was not originally a problem for me, but life keeps throwing me curves and I keep missing those meet-ups. Hopefully this will be a way for us to keep in touch. =)

I'll post more as time permits and do a retroactive write-up for my finished projects, materials, etc. It will give me something fun to do with my time, that's for sure!