Entrelac

Momentous Event

2008-08-08T00:56:00.002-05:00

Please, come inside.

Please pardon that most everything is still in boxes...except Lenny and my yarn, of course.

Of course, the electronics are vital to existence, so they're set up and running already, though not in their final 'homes'.

My actual desk is over here on this other wall...and covered with STUFF and boxes right now.

Wondering why you haven't seen a bed yet? That's because it's over here. Yes, inside the CLOSET. Hey, it fits, so why not?

The chest of drawers will also fit in there, so it's essentially a tiny bedroom, with my actual 'room' becoming a sitting room of sorts. I really like this idea. Oh, and here's another bonus: I have my own (private) bathroom.

I really like the googley-eyed fishies on the curtain.

Oh, and Crackbaby? He made himself right at home REALLY fast.

See how at home he already appears to be? This makes me very happy.

Okay, enough photo-spam from me. I promise once this weekend is over and I'm done moving my stuff over I'll sit down and write out a nice, long, WORDY post. I'm sure you're ALL just waiting with bated breath for that one, huh? (not.) :D

Estes Park

2008-06-18T22:15:00.003-05:00

There is too much to relate quickly, and I'm just not mentally with-it enough to type out a major long post. So, I'll sum up. (And add photos later. Bad Gallery. No cookie.)

Trip to Estes: fast, effortless. Bradshaw Cottages yet again wonderful beyond wonderful.

Thursday: Altitude sickness sucks. Galina Khmeleva is really fricking awesome. Chendra (aka TheRedHead) is also really fricking awesome. Connie is a total sweetheart.

Friday: Orenburg lace techniques are mind-blowing. Chendra is worse than awesome, she's an evil enabler!

Saturday: Wool Market is crazy-fun-hectic. Many people are really fricking awesome, the fleece Robin picked out to buy wins THREE ribbons in judging, and Chendra is the most evil of all evil enablers. I bought a spinning wheel because of her. But Galina said I should continue spindle spinning, 'cause it's "good".

Sunday: Slept late. Blissful. Robin and I drive up the mountain to see what there is to see, and knit at 12,000 feet. Then we crawl back down saying 'owie headache'. Went back to wool market to pick up Robin's judged yarn and shawl, spend the rest of my life savings, and get one more hug from Galina.

Monday: (happy birthday me!) Wake up painfully early, get back to airport, eat birthday chocolate cookie in airport, fly home with goofy funny flight attendant guy, slug about at Dad and Mamash's ('cause I forgot to bring a house key) until Ceci picks me up after work.

Tuesday: Dying of the plague. *sniffle* Colds suck.

FO: Revontuli

2008-05-30T03:27:00.003-05:00

Can you believe it? One month I'm taunting you with yarn photos, and the next month I actually have a finished object! Okay, I'll wait for you to wake up from that faint...

Look look!

Now, bear in mind I took that in the middle of the night less than five minutes after I finished binding off and weaving in the ends. It WILL be blocked (Robin the Great has offered her blocking space as I don't have a blocking space), and then there will be final finished prettypretty FO photos! But until then it's been going with me to work and back every day right alongside the cashmere/wool shawl that Robin knitted for me, and the two of them together are super mega yummy warm and comfy for when the A/C at work is set to super subarctic. Which is all the time now that the weather outside has the audacity to hit 90 degrees F.

In other knitting: The easter bunny barf scarf is moving along swimmingly, the yarn ball is noticably smaller almost every day. Oblique is even starting to show signs of progress -- I attached the second ball of yarn just the other day. Bad news: after knitting two rows with the new ball my fingers had the faintest blue tinge. Could be...interesting. And last but not least, I'm part of the Slow Bee Mystery Shawl Knitalong, and am true to the KAL's name, slower than sludge. Here's what I have so far, less than half way into clue #1. Keep in mind that this week the hostess releases clue number FOUR. Le sigh. Oh well, I wasn't planning on trying to win any speed races with this one anyway.

Crocheting: Hm. Kinda not really doing anything in this field right now, but I'm watching a thread on the Crochet Liberation Front in Ravelry, where there's the possibility of a mystery lace shawl crochet along. Yeah, I'm getting into those. I have no illusions that I'd keep up with a crochet mystery any better than I do a knit one. But it'll still be fun.

Spinning: Still almost no progress as I still don't have a wheel. I'm still up in the air about getting a new place to live, and I can't really justify a $600 purchase until I decide one way or the other once and for all, you know?

Stitch Markers: Just keep swimming... I added some new stuff a week or so ago, and I think when/if I get the time and wherewithal this coming weekend, I'll add some more to both stores. We'll see. Here's a peek at what's in the store now:

Other news: I very much WILL be at the Knitting Nest this Saturday for Franklin Habit's 1000 Knitters photo thing, and I plan to be there by the time they open their doors and I plan to stay until they kick me out. Okay, that's pretty ambitious as it'd mean being up, showered, dressed, and out the door at least an HOUR earlier than I do for work, but hey, this is a once in a lifetime thing. I think it's worth losing even more sleep than usual.

Okay, enough blather for tonight.

Sad moment: Destashing

2008-04-28T00:07:00.003-05:00

I never thought I'd have to do this (and considering I have 15+ year old yarn in my stash, I was doing pretty well there for a while), but times are bad, money is tight, and I don't really have many other options. And before you think I'm doing this just because, Ceci's going through her stash as well. I'll be posting on Knittyboard and on Ravelry offering the items to sell. Click on each photo to see the details in my Gallery.

Of course, I'm not expecting much, but anything will help. Thanks.

And now, to TAUNT you..

2008-04-08T18:14:00.002-05:00

Jealous yet?

The yarn was custom handspun for me by Robincat and is a merino/silk blend that was custom dyed for me by Dragon Fibers. And what am I doing with this yummy stuff?

I'm knitting Revontuli -huivi shawl with it to wear in Estes Park this coming June. Wish me luck with finishing it in time!

How gorgeous is this?

2008-04-01T20:57:00.003-05:00

EEE! I LOVE IT! My wonderful customer Gill sent me a photo of some recently purchased stitch markers in action -- it looks like a professional protrait, doesn't it? I'm going to set it as my computer wallpaper RIGHT NOW! :D

(And, uh, give y'all a more informative post later. Promise.)

Ravelry Meetup: Sunday March 16, 2008

2008-03-12T16:38:00.002-05:00

The Knitting Nest in Austin is having its second Ravelry Meet-Up this coming Sunday, March 16. Why am I mentioning this? Because Stacy, the owner of the Knitting Nest, asked me to be there as a vendor! So if you're gonna be wandering around South Austin this weekend, drop on by and say hello! (And, um, to laugh at me while I fumble about trying to learn this vendor stuff on the fly. Hm, I wonder if the people here at work would loan me a POS program to use while I'm there.... Kidding! Or maybe I'm not...the thought of having to keep a reciept book is daunting!)

Another thing to woohoo about: Spindlecat Studios agreed to send me some of HER gorgeous markers to offer at the Ravelry Meet-up alongside mine! YAY! We love Spindlecat! Her markers are so gorgeous, I'm considering buying some for myself and making earrings and necklace from them. :) And Ceci has already said she'd love them for earrings too.

And last but not least (by NO means least), Robin is ALSO going to be at the Meet-up as a vendor! YAY!! She's gonna be there with her super mega yummy handspun yarns to sell, as well as demonstrating spinning on a spinning wheel -- and she's borrowed my Ashford Joy to demo with (her gorgeous Kromski Symphony production wheel gets carsick easily so is staying home). So come say hi, and marvel at how scary FAST she is at spinning even on what she calls a "slow" wheel. (Which, when compared to her Symphony is true. My little Joy is like a moped, and her wheel is a Jaguar.)

Hope to see you there. Y'all come down now, hear? :D

Easter Bunny Barf Scarf

2008-02-16T14:36:00.004-06:00

Silly name, sillier scarf. The colors make most people cringe, but I have to admit I'm really enjoying knitting it. The pattern is easy without being mindless -- perfect for knitting on while I'm at work. Putting it in my carry-everywhere bag has really helped to keep it moving, as it's always right there for me to pick up and work on when I'm waiting at the post office or whatever.

That was taken on January 30, and it's already grown another few inches since then. One of my fastest knits to date. Pathetic, huh?

Other knitting: Pretty much everything else is stalled, though I did break into the ELECTRIC blue Malabrigo I bought for Oblique because I simply HAD to swatch the stuff. Verdict? I had every size but the one I needed in my Harmony set. Of course.

Crochet: I'm still SLOWLY working on my design submission for the CLF book. I really don't think I'm going to get it in time because I can only work on a row or two of the prototype before my hand starts to ache. And I can't send it off to a test crocheter until I have at least the baseline pattern written out. Phooey. I need bionic hands/wrists.

Spinning: A whole lot of not much. Surprised? You shouldn't be.

Stitch markers: Still steadily rolling along. I have WAY more stitch markers finished than I have photos, and that's what's killing me right now -- lack of photos because of lack of secure, uninterrupted time and space to take the photos. Soon, I hope. Soon.

More later.

Article repost: Do you have Twisted Stitches?

2008-01-23T15:42:00.001-06:00

This is an article I wrote back in 2004 for the Knittyboard, reposting it here for posterity and for folks on Ravelry. I've made all photos clickable so larger versions of the images are available.

Twisted stitches. Sounds like a really campy rock band from the 80s, doesn't it? Or maybe what happens when you accidentally throw a hand-wash garment into the washing machine? Actually, what I'm talking about happens WHILE knitting.

Have you noticed that when you try to knit a square, it ends up looking like a parallelogram? (one of these: / / ) Do your stitches all lean to one side or the other, as if they're looking at a Picasso, or maybe were inspired by the leaning tower of Pisa? When you make a garment and sew it up, do the side seams spin around to the center front and back of the garment? Do your scarves coil up like stretched phone cords?

Guess what? It's possible that your stitches are twisted. This may be something some newer knitters haven't ever even heard about, but I'm going to try to explain it as best I can here so everyone knows what to look for. Finding twisted stitches and correcting them is actually pretty easy, especially before you become very comfortable with the way you hold your needles, wrap the yarn, and all that good stuff. It's always easier to build good habits now than break bad ones later, yes? And then once you've gotten all comfortable with knitting stockingette and not twisting stitches, you'll find that there ARE uses for them later on, such as to make visual effects, to help maintain fabric structure (as in Knitty's Clapotis), or to intentionally get that parallelogram shape that used to be the bane of your knitting. But first you need to know how to tell twisted stitches apart, right?

Okay, here comes the pictorial portion of my yippy fun little lecture here.

First, I have a swatch that has both untwisted and twisted stitches in it. The top part has every stitch twisted. It's kinda difficult to tell from so small a piece, but if you're sharp-eyed, the top section is leaning to the right.

Now, closeups. The first is the untwisted section. I used Photoshop to draw in a pink line following the trail of the yarn through the fabric. You'll note, they look like a series of interlocking horseshoes pointing alternately up and down, and never cross over each other.

Now, the twisted section. In this much closer look, you can almost see where the yarn crosses over itself at the base of each 'V'. The pink line follows the 'loop-de-loop' path of the yarn.

So, what the heck does that mean? And what do I do about it? The best way to stop twisting stitches is to recognize what a stitch should look like, and thus know when it looks wrong. I hope my photos convey this well enough. I added text to them while cleaning up the photos, so the next section will have less chattiness unless I feel something needs to be better clarified. These are, of course, based on the way that I knit -- needles held like knives, yarn in right hand, wrapping yarn counterclockwise for all stitches. Since -- as so many of us have said on this board -- the way each person knits is a matter of personal preference, I tried to avoid making a primer of my method of knitting.

To knit, put the needle through the stitch so the right leg is to the right and the left leg is to the left, essentially through the opening of the horseshoe. I know most people say front leg or back leg, but that can be misleading in this case.

I know I said I wasn't going to illustrate how I knit, I added this only to emphasize that however you wrap your yarn, make sure to be consistent.

If you twist a stitch, you'll notice that the legs of the stitch being worked into don't stay on their own sides, they cross each other kind of a like looking at a corkscrew from an angle.

A completed twisted stitch shows the crossed legs at the bottom of the 'V' and the tendency to lean even when all the other stitches around it aren't.

Now, on to studying stitch structure from the purl side.

Another view of the horseshoe shape of an untwisted stitch.

And yet another view.

Wrapping my yarn again. If you find that your stitch is sitting on the needle so that purling is really difficult, try wrapping your yarn a different direction on your next knit row.

Another needle-on view of an untwisted stitch, this time a purl one.

There's that horseshoe shape again, purl side, off the needles.

Here's a stitch about to be purled that is prone to being twsted.

Purling that stitch. The pink line shows that the yarn is crossing from the left under the needles to the right. Uh oh.

The purled twisted stitch is harder to see, but following the pink line shows that the yarn path is indeed a 'loop-de-loop'.

I hope all of these photos help clarify how to tell if a stitch is twisted or not. If not, feel free to pester me some more. Maybe I can somehow make a little movie to show the stitches. (Written June 27, 2004...edited Sept 22, 2005 to ensure photos are viewable...reformatted Jan 23, 2007 for blog.)

Holy needleburn, Batman!

2008-01-07T21:07:00.000-06:00

I've been knitting!

The Autumn shawl is bound off and just needs to be washed/blocked/ends woven in. I'm going to ask Robin to borrow her blocking space.

The pink and blue scarf has officially hit the final edging. I'm a little more than halfway through the first repeat of the final edging, and it's going fast. I can still remember the edging pattern, so that's helped a lot. No stopping to look at the chart on every row.

The winner of the now-vacant spot in my everywhere bag is....the Easter Bunny Barf Scarf! It's another easy and hopefully mindless knit, so maybe I can crank it out in a reasonable span of time also. And, yes, I broke down and started knitting the Lorna's Laces spider web half hexagon.

Anyway, that's all I have to talk about right now. Photos eventually.

Just stuff

2007-12-30T13:23:00.000-06:00

Yeah, yeah, I know. Falling back into old habits of never posting. Y'all are probably used to it by now. Again, no photos, sorry.

Update on Bruiser: I got an email back from Sheila Bosworth saying that they would do their best to repair him. I know they'll send him back as good as new, even if he does have a scar to remind me to be more careful. I'm okay with that.

Spinning: A whole lot of not much. Big surprise there. Don't expect much change in that regard.

Crocheting: Seraphina's shawl is on hold for now, my last crochet bout left my hand hurting and I did not like that. I might pick it back up in the next week or two, we'll see.

Knitting: The pink and blue cashmere scarf is still plugging along. I THOUGHT I'd reached the point where I needed to knit the ending border, but when I finished two repeats of the border, I realized I still had CHINGOS (that means a lot) of yarn left. So I did some slow and sloppy yarn measuring (which means I frogged the edging, doubled the amount it took to knit what I did, then marked that spot in the yarn by slip-knotting it around an omega) and am back to knitting the body of the scarf. I have, so far, knitted an additional EIGHTEEN inches into the body of the scarf. Was I way the heck off or what? I'm still so far away from that omega in my yarn that I can't even see it yet in the teeny little ball of yarn still to be used. It boggles my mind. But, this isn't complaining. Really. It means I simply have THAT much more cashmere to enjoy knitting. Yum. :) The autumn scarf is actually very close to being finished, and then I'm going to borrow time in the knitwear blocking space in Robin's house ('cause there sure as heck ain't any safe place in my house) and then... *fanfare* it's done! Some other things in my UFO list are starting to surface, vying to be put back into my carry everywhere bag so they can get worked on some more, but I'm trying to decide which ones will make the cut. Also, as my Christmas gift to myself (because I was at work with nothing else worthwhile to do), I wound the hank of Lorna's Laces Helen's Lace yarn that bestest knitting buddy Renee gave me before she moved to Dallas. And I have to say, I didn't think this was possible but the yarn is prettier in a cake than it was in the hank. Scary, huh? I've been itching to start knitting it right away, but I'm sticking to my guns. I will NOT start it until I have finished at least ONE lace project I already have on my needles.

FOs: *gasp* I actually have one! Though really, it's kinda silly. An acquaintenance of mine (and avid kite flyer) finally explained to me (the kite noob) why I can't get my 10-year old diamond kite to do anything more than crash over and over. It needs a tail. And not just ANY tail. He said it's got to be at least TWELVE feet long. More like 20 is better. ACK. Well, I could to buy one...but where's the fun in that? So I knitted one. I broke out the royal blue funfur that Kate gave me as a gift a few years back (thank you, Kate! :) ) and cranked out a precisely 12 foot long by 1 inch wide kite tail. Photos when I get it attached to the kite and in the air.

Stitch markers: Apparently the end-of-year buying frenzy is in full swing. Either that, or a lot of people got money for Christmas. No kidding, I have had no LESS than four orders every DAY this past week. And I am NOT complaining. It's awesome, especially seeing the international orders I've received. It almost makes me want to find a way to have an online map with little pushpin things on it to show where my customers are located. Almost. (It would require effort, and as I always freely admit, I'm lazy.)

Okay, and with all of that blather, I'm gonna go shower so I can spend at least a LITTLE time at Gauge today.

Update on Bruiser the Broken

2007-12-07T13:26:00.000-06:00

I emailed Sheila Bosworth lamenting my loss, and she once again proved to be one of the most awesomest people in existence. She asked me to return Bruiser to her with the broken bits, and she and Jonathan would see what they could do for me. I'm fully prepared to pay for them to replace the whorl altogether, but if they're able to salvage the current one somehow, I'll be even happier.

Guys, if you're looking for a GOOD drop spindle that'll last a lifetime (sans being mistread by a moron like me), definitely give the Bosworths a look-see.

May I cry now?

2007-12-06T13:16:00.000-06:00

This is how geeky I am.

2007-11-25T15:18:00.000-06:00

I am posting this from Gauge Knits RIGHT NOW. Heh.

By gosh, I think I got it!

2007-11-21T21:03:00.000-06:00

With the help of a really nice coworker, I think I finally have permalinks set up on my blog. YAY! There will still be some tweaking to do, I think, to make the title a little more visible and other fancy crap. But hey, it's working. I'm happy.

Actual content later.

Crochet gauge, a tutorial

2007-10-21T23:33:00.000-05:00

There was a question from a new crocheter on the Knittyboard asking about how one measures the gauge on their crocheted fabric. And in searching about, it occurred to me there there wasn't a tutorial anywhere I could find with good, clear, close up pictures. So, I broke out my faithful Canon with its spiffy new lens to get photos of several crocheted swatches. NOTE: I use American crochet terminology. I don't know the names for these stitches in the UK terminology or I'd add them here. Sorry about that.

* Every photo in this tutorial is a clickable link to a gigantic version of the image so you can get a REALLY close look....but only if you really really want to.

Measuring gauge on single crochet:

Here is a swatch of all single crochets. The fabric is pretty well uniform and it's difficult to tell one row from the next by the way it lays. But if I take a closer look, I can see the individual stitches, which helps me determine where to set my ruler for measuring. At first glance, the crocheted fabric looks like a bunch of tiny sideways bowties, but as I look closer still I can see that the 'center' of each bowtie is the distinctive bar across the back side of each single crochet stitch. The front sides of the single crochets have a distinct lean to them, as if they're stretching to their right. The back sides of the single crochets remind me of teeny tiny greek Pi symbols, or maybe little Spinal Tap Stonehenge shapes. Knowing that, the Vs of the 'front' side of each single crochet suddenly reveals itself, standing on top of each back bar of the stitch below it. (Hee, pardon the difference in photo quality there. I realized AS I WAS TYPING THIS that I'd photographed my single crochet swatch UPSIDE DOWN. Duh. So if I ever try to proclaim myself flawless, please swat me upside the head and point me back here. Thanks.) I lined up my ruler with the left edge of one stitch, and now I can count how many stitches are in 2 inches (as per this sample image. The 4 inch images were too far away for the stitch definition to be clear.) I count about 7 and 1/2 single crochet stitches in 2 inches.

Now, for row gauge it's pretty much the same thing, except that you line the ruler up with a vertical column of stitches -- the horizontal bars from the back sides of the single crochet stitches are very useful here. Counting on my image, I see about 9 and a little more rows for 2 inches. The nice thing is, if your gauge is really really tiny and you can't quite tell where the individual rows are, you can count the lines that are visible above each front side row.

Measuring on half-double crochet:

Here is a swatch of all half-double crochets. First things first, why the heck is this poor stitch carrying around an oxymoron for a name? Well, when making this stitch, you start it off like a double crochet but then finish it like a single crochet. Hence, it's only half of a double crochet. Couldn't we call it a super-single? Hm, no. A single plus? Now that sounds like it should be a real stitch for real women with real curves. Heh. I guess I'll just go with it and move on. ;) Taking a closer look at the swatch, the telltale pillar effect of taller crochet stitches is starting to become apparent, but this stitch still tries to be like its short single crochet cousin. It's got that pretty diagonal swirly effect going on on the front side of the stitch that is reminding me of Hebrew characters the more I look at it, and a little post holding up a horizontal swirly shape for the back side of the stitch. More Hebrew? I'm liking this poor misnamed little stitch more and more. It's got a uniqueness to it. Anyway, back to measuring. On this image, I count the tiniest smidge less than 8 stitches per 2 inches.

Again, now we have row gauge. Thsi one isn't quite as easy to line up vertically, but really, as long as your ruler isn't all crooked on the fabric it should be okay. Again, if your stitches are way teeny tiny, you've got horizontal visual cues to make it easier. This time, it's the pretty swirly effect from the back sides of the stitches. On my image here, I see that my row gauge is a teeny bit more than 6 rows for two inches. Man, what's up with my gauge measurements all being a teeny bit more or less than whole numbers? Hmph. Oh well. This IS just for display purposes. ;)

Measuring gauge on double crochet:

Hey, now this is really starting to resemble what everyone thinks of as crochet. You've got wide rows of very pillar-like stitches, but they still have that distinct horizontal bar across the tops of their back sides like single crochets do. So they're still related. Cool, huh? And, more so than the singles or half-doubles, the lean in the stitches is visible on both the right sides and wrong sides, so you get this faintly zig-zaggy effect going on.

Looking closer, the pillar appearance of the double crochets is apparent, and there's a bit of a visible gap between each one. The front sides still have that tendency to lean to their right, and the back sides have two layers of vertical lines and two horizontal lines, one more prominent than the other. The gaps that are now much easier to see make counting the individual stitches easy. In that image, I count a little less than eight stitches for 2 inches.

Back to row gauge. Since the double crochet stitches are so easy to distinguish, measuring row gauge is as easy as measuring stitch gauge. Like the half double crochets, you really only need to make sure that your ruler isn't set against the fabric crooked and then you count the pillars. In this image, I see about 4 and 1/4th rows per 2 inches.

All subsequent taller stitches than the double crochet are measured in exactly the same way, though it's not common to see pieces of fabric made entirely of anything taller than a double crochet. I guess the gaps are just too big at that point.

Measuring gauge over a pattern stitch:

Sometimes a knitting pattern will ask you to measure gauge over a specific pattern stitch and not plain single or double crochet. In that case, it's easier to make a swatch with the number of stitches they want for the gauge (example: 20 stitches = 4 inches) or as close as you can get without using less than that number. (example: 1 repeat of the pattern stitch is 11 stitches, so 2 repeats would be 22. 20 would mean having to fudge the pattern stitch to make it fit, and that's a can of worms for another day.)

Let's say that the above pattern wanted a gauge measured in pattern stitch. You've made your swatch, now lay your ruler on it and estimate the gauge as best you can. Some patterns make it easy to count stitches and rows, some don't. This example is one of the 'not cooperative' patterns as it has stuff leaning different directions and different numbers of stitches in every row. Give it your best shot, and if all else fails, you can start your project and measure the total size after an inch or two to compare against the pattern's given dimensions.

I hope this helps you with determining gauge on your crocheted fabrics. And if not, let me know. I'll see what I can else I can do. :)

2007-09-28T15:34:00.000-05:00

Okay, now I KNOW the world is going to end. I'm posting for Yarn Porn Friday....AND Ceci is posting about a finished knitting project. Anyway, without further ado, photos.

Yarn: Zen String Esquire, 100% British merino roving, hand spun to (hopefully) worsted weight.
I've not set the twist or measured the yardage/WPI/etc yet, so no details. Just pictures.

And that's it. No blather. Just photos.

2007-09-25T01:07:00.001-05:00

Photos? faints

Knitting: Some projects have been moving faster than others.

This is a scarf I'm working on from Victorian Lace Today, using some really pretty pink/blue cashmere yarn sent to me by Gundel. This one's shown the most progress in the past week, the 'body' of the scarf having doubled in length. I'm going to keep working on it, I might even finish it before 2010!

This snazzy little number -- well, not so little anymore -- is my Jaywalker Stole, thus named because I pulled the chevron design from the sock pattern and am using it to make this stole. I'm about halfway through skein 4 of 5, with most of skein 4's progress having been knitted during the Sunday afternoon knitting group. It just grows really fast when I actually work on it. Sadly, it's at the point in size where it's no longer easy to carry. Which, coincidentally, makes it even better to work on at work. ;)

Here is how LITTLE progress I've made on Serrano. Told you. And a closeup photo of the Autumn colored shawlette thing, to show how prettily the colors are starting to fall. Mary, for an "oops" skein, this thing's PRETTY. :)

Spinning: I have only one thing to show off for now, but it's a pretty one. :)

These three pretty pictures are from the (hopefully) laceweight handspun I've been working on everywhere (including the Def Leppard concert). I just love the way the colors stacked on each other against the cutouts in the whorl of my superlight super fast spindle. It makes me happy. Angelina asked me to spin up some handpainted yarn for her at a worsted weight, and for once I took her up on that. She gave me the roving to spin, and some more roving as payment (woohoo!). I'll have photos of that soon. I've already finished spinning the singles for the first batch. Went much faster than I'd expected.

Stitch markers: I'm working on photoediting as much as time and motivation allows. I hope to have lots of new stuff appearing by the beginning of October. And maybe I'll finaly develop a system so I don't end up having to edit 200 photos in one sitting again. Pfeh.

Okay, until later. I gotta get some sleep now.

2007-09-17T23:32:00.000-05:00

Cover your ears if you're sensitive to loud noises...

SQUEEEE!!!

Okay, I'm done now. Here's what I mean, though, I mean LOOK at this!!

And more photos here, all clickable thumbnails:

Can we say HOLY CRAP!? Y'all, I can't say enough good stuff about this Etsy seller! Go look at her store! Quick like a bunny! Eeee! :D

2007-09-15T14:38:00.000-05:00

Yup, my monthly blogpost. I'm not even going to try and say that I'll be posting more often. Either I will or I won't. We'll see. Anyway. I was hoping to have photos galore of everything for y'all, but I can't remember where I left my CF card reader for my camera, so either I retake photos of everything with my phone (phooey) or I make y'all wait longer. I'm opting for the latter, because I'm one of the pickiest people about photos and I'd feel bad subjecting y'all to subpar images when I HAVE better already waiting. Oh well.

Knitting: The monster Jaywalker stole is now on ball 4 of 5...is that...*gasp!* progress?? Heavens no, that can't be true. I don't ever finish anything. ;) The lace scarves and things are also all showing small signs of progress, but it's Serrano that's languishing the most. It's those 300+ stitch rows. They're killers, and I hate putting it down in the middle of a row because my chances of messing it up go WAY up when I do.

Spinning: Again, wheel is packed away in its bag, for the next time I feel like spending a sleepless night. My wonderful little Woolly Designs super light wonder-spindle, however, has been a busy little bug. I'm spinning some rainbow DragonFibers majorly soft roving on it, and it's gone with me everywhere -- including the Def Leppard concert. But more on that later.

Stitch markers: I've been slacking on this front, shame on me. I have no good excuses, either. I have my laptop, I have photos of most everything. Note to self: get those darned photos cleaned up already. Okay.

Other: Ceci said I have photos of the Def Leppard concert. And I do. Click on the image here to go to the album where they're all stored. DISCLAIMER: I took these with my phone because I knew that there was NO way I'd get my DSLR with its telephoto lens past security. I didn't even try. And in case you're wondering why I took so many...well, both of my friends Renee and Deana couldn't go and both of them were really bummed about it. So I took as many pictures as I could so they could at least see a bit of the concert themselves. :) D and R, missed you guys there, it wasn't the same. Next time!

2007-08-06T04:02:00.000-05:00

Ceci's back in the blogging world!

After Blogger changed over and Ceci couldn't figure it out, she finally gave up and has started a new blog kind of thing for herself through Yahoo. Here's the address: http://360.yahoo.com/ceci9293. Change your links, go see new photos of the mons..uh...monk...uh...nephew. Yeah, nephew!

In other news...

Knitting: Still pluging along on everything I've mentioned in the past. Nothing's finished, but are we surprised? Shouldn't be. At least I can see the progress, however slight it might be. No photos this time around.

Spinning: Same as the knitting. It's progressing, albeit slowly because I can't spin in the monkey's presence. He finds the wheel just too fascinating and I won't run the risk that he's gonna stick those lightning-fast fingers of his into some moving part on my wheel that'll break his fingers before I have time to react. That's just a fear I can't shake and I don't want to risk.

Stitch markers: The Etsy and online stores are plugging along happily. I have a good amount of new inventory to get up online, I just haven't yet because I'm working on upgrading my "photo studio" and my photo editing/store updating capabilities. My first step - I got a new laptop! WOOHOO! First new laptop in TEN years. I'm so excited. Now I can get those stitch marker photos edited and uploaded and all that happy fun stuff without having to lock myself in my bedroom anymore. Ceci's so happy too, because that means I'm not locked in my room. Next thing on my shopping list: either a new digital camera with majorly nice macro capability, or a new lens for my Canon Rebel DSLR that's a dedicated macro lens. I'm really leaning toward the latter, though the lens I found that's PERFECT is also EXPENSIVE. OUCH. If I'd known about the lens sooner, my laptop purchase may have gone rather differently. Oh well. Not going back now! So expect to see me online and doing stuff earlier than 2am from now on. YAY!

Other stuff: Hm, can't think of any other stuff. Oh well! Talk to y'all again soon, and I promise pictures soon too!

2007-08-06T02:44:00.000-05:00

Estes Park Epic Story, cont'd

Saturday - I wake up early (well, for me) but of course, Renee's already up and about because she's one of those bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, chipper first thing in the morning kind of people. Instead of going to a restaurant somewhere to eat, we opted to buy bacon, eggs, and bread and Renee cooked us breakfast. Sadly, I woke up with possibly the WORST headache I've ever had. And I've had some doozies. It was so bad I could barely eat, and after eating I was positively nauseous. Both Ceci and Renee felt bad about my feeling so bad, but opted to run over to the wool market and check it out while I tried to nap some more. I lay down in the living room of our awesome little cottage and was soothed to sleep by the sound of the river just outside.

Ceci and Renee woke me up around 1pm, having just come back from the wool market with some serious loot to eat lunch and check on me. I was feeling much better but not truly 100%, so they showed me the adorable sheepies they got (ACK, scary face!) and then convinced me to get up and go back to the market with them. After all, that WAS why I was there. I changed clothes, Ceci braided my hair for me, and off we went. We stopped in at the glass place again as we'd promised the shop keeper we would, and Ceci and Renee both left wearing some fabulous earrings and bracelets. I...just couldn't get enthused about the glass. Then we walked next door to a kitschy little hot dog stand and had us some REALLY good hot dogs. That really hit the spot and I started feeling like myself again. The we went back and got the car, and headed to the wool market. Like a moron, I opted to NOT take my DSLR camera with me, thinking it'd be to bulky to carry around.

We got to the market and split up -- Renee went straight back to the vendor tent, and Ceci and I went to check out the goats. She thought the Pygoras (Angora/pygmy goat crosses) were adorable, I bought a sample of Pygora/alpaca blend fiber and spun up a bit of it for the girl in the booth to show other customers as a sample, then we went to look at the alpacas. Ceci promptly fell in love. They have the sweetest little faces, and of course are majorly soft. Ceci started snapping photos with my cellphone (so please pardon the crappy quality here), and we chatted with some people, petted a few cuties, and made off with some yummy alpaca fibers/yarns. Then we went to the vendor tent to find Renee.

Ceci steered me first to a spindle maker that she saw there earlier and thought of me, and sure enough I was not disappointed. The gentleman, Tracy, and his wife were both very friendly and chatty, and we talked spindles for a good little while (and Ceci got to sit down and rest). Tracy freaked us both out by showing us his "Spindle Safe", a sturdy plastic tumbler with a hole drilled in the bottom that when he put one of his average-sized spindles into was strong enough for him to STAND ON. I wish I'd gotten a picture of that, but I was too busy trying to scrape my jaw off of the floor. I bought one of Tracy's uber-wonderful spindles, a megafast top whorl that weighs -- no kidding -- 4/10ths of an ounce. Woohoo! Then Renee found us, said she wanted to get to the town's LYS before they closed to have some of her yarn wound (they were offering free yarn winding services for people who bought yarn at the market that day).

We moved on, and I got sucked into a booth with some of the most luscious Cormo yarns and finished items I'd ever seen. I immediately thought of Robin, and of getting her some Cormo to spin as I didn't think it was anything she's gotten her hands on before, but this booth didn't carry fiber for spinning. Just yarn and finished goods. They were very sweet, though, and gave us the business card of the company they get their cormo fleeces from, and Ceci bought a single 1000-yard skein of their woolen spun single-ply laceweight yarn. If she doesn't knit the stuff up soon, I will! They also told me that another vendor down the way was selling cormo wool for spinning. I thanked the ladies profusely, and went to see the cormo. Ceci and Renee got sucked in (again) by the Textiles A Mano booth (can we say AMAZING 100% silk hand dyed yarns?) while I talked with the very sweet lady selling the cormo. She helped me rustle up a full pound of the cormo (carded into very airy sliver, yum) and I bought it on the spot. At that point, Renee said it was nearly 3pm and we needed to hustle to get to the LYS, so we skedaddled. I didn't really get to see much else, and I sure didn't get to look for Mittenfarce or anyone else who was supposed to be there. I figured I'd already missed them anyway.

We left the wool market and I used Renee's handy dandy Knitter's Shop Finder to get the phone number of the town's LYS and called them for directions, and what do you know, it was less than three blocks from our cottage. Go figure. But we drove on over anyway because we were already in the car. We reached the building and just stared for a moment. It was a really ecclectic looking multi-level affair, with multiple staircases to reach the various stores inside, and a restaurant on the ROOF of the whole shebang called the Smiling Elk. We resolved to eat dinner there, then started wandering up the stairs to find the LYS. I could tell pretty quick that I was still not back to 100% because I climed one flight of stairs and promptly couldn't breathe, so Ceci and I stopped at this really gorgeous fountain/pond/creek/thing that was running through the open center of the building. Once I could breathe again we started again the way Renee went, and then realized the fountain/creek thing had honest to goodness REAL trout swimming in it. Pretty darned cool.

Then we turned around to get our bearings, and the LYS was RIGHT there behind us. Whew. No more stairs. Renee was already camped out on the chairs outside the shop, knitting and chatting while her yarn was in line to be wound, so Ceci and I slipped inside the store proper to look around. Nice place, well-laid out considering they didn't have a whole lot of space, and of course having those cool mountain breezes coming in the oen windows helped a lot. There weren't any WOW yarns in the store -- and we'd blown all of our money at the market anyway -- so we went to sit outside and relax for a while. I started chatting with a lady who drove up from Denver, I think, and when she saw my new spindle she mentioned that she'd been trying to learn to spin but had been struggling. So I pulled out my trusty spare spindle (I swear, they're like towels, you want to always have one on your satchel!) and pulled off a little chunk of my just-bought cormo to sit down and help her get the gist of spinning. I showed her the park and draft method (which she already knew), and helped her realize where she'd been struggling. She made a good little piece of very nice and even yarn, and thanked me for the help, and then went on her way. After a little longer, Renee's yarn was wound, the LYS was closing, and the three of us were starting to get hungry. So we climbed some more stairs to the Smiling Elk Restaurant.

The restaurant had an indoor seating area, but there was NO way we were gonna sit INSIDE to eat. So we sat out on the roof of the building under some really neat umbrella awnings and ate dinner while listening to the live music. (We couldn't help but think that the guitarist guy singing really looked like WIlliam H. Macy with bleached blonde hair.) It was an unhurried, peaceful dinner, with the breeze keeping things pleasant, the direct sunlight behind the mountains, and the craggy not-quite-mountain things all around us. The three of us could not help but note repeatedly that it felt like we'd been there for a week already, and yet it wasn't even sunset yet. Amazing and magical and very, very calming. After we finished eating, we headed back to our cottage to relax and enjoy our loot while the day wound down.

That evening Renee finished the back piece of her Eileen from NSFY, I (with Renee's help) finished Ceci's Christmas stocking, and Ceci...well, she got a LOT more knitting done than she had in nearly two years. ;) We took photos of our loot all piled together then separately, and photos of our WIPS and FOs, and of other stuff. Then we called it a night early, because we knew Sunday was gonna be an EARLY day and especially rough on Ceci and me since we weren't used to waking up at 7am like we needed to to get to the airport on time.

Sunday - 7am arrived WAY too soon. We blearily (except for chipper miss Renee, darn her) got our stuff in the car, left a thank you note for the wonderful cottage people, and then were on our way back to Denver. We dropped the car off at that HE-YUGE rental car place, got on the shuttle bus back to the airport, and got into the airport proper. We oopsed and got in line for the checked baggage/boarding pass check in, but the lady was really nice and got us our our way pretty fast once we got to her. Then we went inside the airport. And nearly freaked. The LINE to go through security was -- no kidding -- worse than any I ever stood in for the big Astroworld roller coasters. We started worrying about making it to our flight on time, but then realized that UNLIKE the roller coaster lines this line was moving. And FAST. I don't think we actually stopped and stood still for more than 10 seconds at any time, and only stopped still three or four times at the MOST. Color me really impressed. When we got to security, again they were all very nice and MUCH friendlier than most horror stories would lead you to believe, and...Ceci got stopped AGAIN. She'd tucked a bottle of water into her bag and forgotten about it. Thankfully the security guy was very nice and joked about it, and just took the bottle and let us go on our way.

We made it to our terminal (Ceci got in line at the McD's in there to get us all some breakfast), and were able to relax and wait for about 20 mintues. We ate our breakfasts, met a very nice (not easy on the eyes) young man who graciously let Renee borrow his laptop to check her email, and then started boarding. We got onto the plane and got underway, and the waking up too early hit me like a brick wall. I used my Jaywalker Stole as a pillow and half-dozed until we were about to land in Austin. We shuffled off of the plane and promptly called Dad, who was already waiting for us in the arrivals area of the airport. We walked out to meet him, then he drove us home.

And that's the end of the story. Sorry, no morals. Just the desire to go back next year, with more time and something to better combat the elevation sickness. Oh, and finally, here's where all of the photos we took reside: Estes Park Photo Album

2007-07-16T10:00:00.000-05:00

Only ONE month late...

I'm finally here to share with y'all about the Estes Park Wool Market. Yes, there will be photos too. Woo. (note, they were taken alternately with my Canon DSLR and my cellphone, because SOMEONE *sheepish smile* forgot the camera in our cottage at one point. Really, I just didn't feel like carrying it. So pardon varying quality in the images.)

....ooookay. Maybe there WON'T be any photos. Not yet, anyway. I know Ceci uploaded them to my gallery, but she didn't put them anywhere that I can find. Meh. I'll add the photos to this post later. Warning, I'm going to make a long story EVEN longer.

Friday:

Woke up early, even though I had taken the day off of work. Pre-trip excitement and all of that. Got packed up, loaded Renee, Ceci and the munchkin, and our schtuff into the car, picked Dad up (he agreed to drop us off at the airport and wrangle the kid until Ceci's husband got off of work), and started our list of errands to do before leaving. We stopped at Robin's house superfast so I could make sure the chinchilla and cat would be fine food-wise until we returned on Sunday (picture the confused look on the chinchilla's face as I give him his food in a bigger than usual bowl that says "MEOW. It's a cat thing." on it), then we swung over to the Greek Pita House in Pflugerville to eat lunch. Zakiya (I hope I spelled her name right) was, as always, a wonderful hostess. I mean, how many restaurants can you think of where the owner runs the counter, recognizes you on sight, AND greets you with a hug? Renee is now also enamored of Zakiya and the REALLY good Greek food, and Zakiya is enamored of the idea of learning to knit and having us meet at her place for knitting sometime. With a photo to commemorate the beginning of our trip, and the gift of a scarf from Renee to Zakiya, we got back on the road to the airport.

We stopped to fuel up Bloo on the way, and that was about when it started RAINING. Not raining, RAINING. As in, rain going sideways so hard that I got SOAKED while gassing up the car well under the awning. We laughed about it and Renee, the airport veteran among us, drove to the airport. We unloaded and Dad left pretty quickly because the munchkin was passed out asleep and we didn't want him to wake up and freak out at Ceci leaving. I'd already printed boarding passes for us so we were able to go straight to our terminal...well, almost. Ceci got stopped by security because she didn't stop to check her bag before we got there, and they confiscated her lotion bottle (well, that one I warned her about and she was okay with it), and a little mini-Leatherman-esque multitool of mine that she had forgotten she had. Oh well. Only a minimal delay and the security people were all in all very friendly. Many kudos to them, they have a ROUGH job. Being able to do that day in and day out and still smile is a rare gift.

We chatted and knitted (of course) while we waited for the plane, and then boarded. (Amusing little side note: The Frontier Airlines planes each have a different named animal on their wings/tails. On our plane on the way to CO we had a heron whose name I can't remember, and who we forgot to photograph.) Yes, I got silly on the flight up and photographed (well, Ceci took most of them as she claimed the window seat) the ground below, the cloud cover when we got high enough, our WIPs, the altitude tracing thing on the neat little TV screens on the seat backs in front of us, and so on. Yeah, we were probably the obnoxious ones in our section of the plane. And then, we were in Denver.

Okay, I've had little to no experience with flights and airports, so my knowledge is limited to a handful of smaller airports, Austin, DFW, and now Denver. Of all of them, I think the Denver airport was the most...wow of them all. Huge, busy place. (And Renee walks FAST.) We took a shuttle bus to where our rental car was (can we say HUGE rental car lot?), got our car for the weekend, and then headed on our way to Estes Park...um...after one wrong turn and an extra loop around the airport. Did you know that the Denver airport (or at least part of it) looks like a giant spikey caterpillar? Now you do.

The drive up to Estes Park was at first pretty normal. EXPENSIVE toll road, normal highway, truckstop diner with REALLY good food and evilevil desserts, more normal non-interstate highway, and then...we hit highway 36. Okay, you know how people talk about those twisty, turny roads on the sides of mountains with a rock wall on one side and open air on the other? This highway wasn't QUITE that impressive, but it sure felt that way to me. (TONS of pictures of the drive up because we got snap-happy.) It took us longer to get to Estes Park proper than I thought it would, but I wasn't about to complain. I mean, the stuff we saw on the way up was GORGEOUS .... except for that giant chicken statue. That was just amusing.

Have you ever researched a place so much, looked at so many maps and read so many directions that when you get there you know which way to go even though you've never been there before? Yeah. That was Estes Park for me. I didn't need the directions I'd written for myself to get to the cottage that I'd reserved, and when we pulled in, Mr. Bradshaw himself was waiting for us. Very very sweeet and wonderful people, the cottage owners/managers. And our little cottage was tiny, quaint, and PERFECT. Now, when they told us the cottage backed up against a river, I expected the little house, maybe a bit of yard and some other stuff, and THEN the river. Nope. The little cottage was literally on the edge of the river, as in one foot closer and it would have been IN the water. Very cool, and amazingly soothing when we'd open the windows and hear the water rushing by.

We still had about an hour of sunlight left and Ceci and Renee wanted to see what we could before dark, so we took off walking. Everything seemed to be in easy walking distance. We stopped into a glassworker's shop that had some beautiful stuff but didn't want to spend all of our time there, so we vowed to return and continued on. Then we took lots of silly photos as we wandered about, and ended up in a fun little touristy T-shirt shop. Nothing really caught my eye, but Ceci found two things: a tshirt for the munchkin, and a little chipmonk looking critter hiding in the racks of shirts. The shop manager tried to catch the poor little critter (I at least got a photo of it), but it was just too small and too fast. We left there with Ceci worrying about it.

Then, it was dark and stores were closing so we went back to the cottage. Ceci and Renee went out to look for a grocery store for snacks and breakfast fixings for the morning, I stayed at the cottage and napped. (The river sounds are just that soothing, okay? Not to mention I got less than 4 hours of sleep the night before.) Then we spent the rest of the evening knitting, chatting, watching TV, and generally relaxing. GREAT first day.

(to be continued)

2007-06-25T13:28:00.003-05:00

Today is mondo-photo day.

I finally have the WWKIP photos uploaded and ready, and ALMOST all of the Estes Park photos are ready too. But I'll begin at the beginning. As usual, the thumbnails will all be clickable, and there will be more photos in the gallery than are linked here. Now, on with the photos.

My day at World Wide Knit in Public Day. A lame essay by me. Ahem. It was a warm and sunny Saturday in early June. I'd seen an email saying that the WWKIP day was going to be held outside of the state capitol building at 11am, so like the punctual knitter that I am NOT, I arrived at about 10:45. I didn't see any other knitters about, so I claimed a bench in the shade of a tree and set out my WIPs to get progress photos. Of course, I had to get a photo of my WIPS in front of the capitol building, so there they are, sitting on a park bench in front of the state capitol. Whoop-dee-doo.

And the WIPs in play that day were:

From left to right: Ceci's Christmas stocking, or as EVERYONE asked "Is that sock for you?"; Serrano, using the grey/cream Robert Kidd wool/silk that's been aging in my stash for about 10 years; The Manos stole in a modified Jaywalker chevron design; a painfully bright to-be-felted oven mitt; and the autumn triangular shoulder scarf/shawl thingy. And there they all are, in a pile next to my bag. Amazing that they all fit in there easily, huh? Oh, and with stitch marker boxes tucked in the bottom too. I love that bag. But I digress. So after my WIP and random area photo shoot I sat down to knit for a few minutes, and finally saw another knitter arrive. I scooped up my stuff and wandered over to say hello, and then we both noticed another lady setting up a blanket on the grass under a tree smack dab in the middle of the greenway in front of the building. That's got to be it! So we went over and said hello and over the next hour or so, more people arrived. The photo on the right is our max turnout.

So, over the next few hours, we all introduced ourselves, chatted about everything, oohed and aahed over everyone's knitting, and I let everyone choose stitch markers from the boxes I brought as gifts for showing up. And I got a good laugh when another lady showed us the Jaywalker sock she's working on...and it's almost the EXACT SAME colors as my Manos! Look, children, this is an example of "Gauge". See? Small. Big. Gauge. Hee. I've been wanting a photo like that since I started that wrap. Thank you mucho bunches to the awesome and sweet knitter for amusing me and letting me photograph her sock!

By this time it was about 2pm, the temperature was rising fast, and our shade was disappearing faster. People started packing up and leaving, so I did the same. But not before I got a few parting random "wow. tree." photos. Heh. I remember somewhere someone telling me that that lawn area in front of the capitol building is the same as it was when the place was built. So these trees are OLD. They've seen a lot. And I hope they see a lot more.

And that was my WWKIP day. The next post will be about Estes Park, Colorado. Woo!

2007-06-10T00:34:00.000-05:00

World Wide Knit in Public Day

Dang that was a lot of fun. I got to wander slowly through the gorgeous front lawn of the state capitol building and snap a few photos. Then I met some great knitters, saw some gorgeous projects in progress, got some knitting of my own done, and sweated buckets. It was totally worth it. :) I have some photos to share of my WIPs and so on, but will need a day or two to get them off of the camera and processed.

After I left the capitol, I went and ate a late lunch with Dad and Ceci and Brent at Bennigan's. Can we say evilevil banana cheesecake dessert? Serious yum. Then we picked up a few things at the HEB and went back to Dad's for the boxing match he invited us to go see. Not my bag by any stretch, but I go to help Ceci keep the munchkin entertained. But, uh, I ended up falling asleep for something like 3 or 4 hours. It seemed to work out okay, though. Ceci and B had some friends of their join them (with the husband/dad watching the boxing match with Dad), and we watched kid's shows on a bedroom TV until the match was over. All in all, a pleasant day.

Pictures soon.