Giving up hope of ever being a good blogger

Well, it's pretty clear at this point that blogging isn't exactly my forte. I'd rather be knitting than writing about knitting, I guess. I could make the time, I know, just like I could make the time to do all of the laundry or mop the bathroom floors (though, admittedly, blogging would be much more f8n than either of those)....

...sigh.....

I do have quite a lot to write about, actually. No pics to post (and I hardly ever read other people's posts without pics. Maybe that's why I stall so much... 'cause I know this'll be boring w/o pics.)

Okay, 'nuff whinin'. Here goes:

WIPs

• Ethan's toesies socks (only 2 toes to go and they're done!)
• Reycled Silk Feather and Fan Comfort shawl --one or two skeins to go, then I'm done. This is reaalllly heavy, but beautiful. "Gee, Allison, can we see a photo?" "No!! Now go eat your soup!" (huh?)
• A surprise for a relative (it's on Hello Yarn)--actually there are two patterns here for 2 relatives, but only one's OTN so far.
• POTW2--Eunny's awesome pattern.
• The Woodland Shawl, by Thrifty Knitter I'm doing it in Silk Garden Light (greens, neutrals, orange--don't remember color#). Great pattern, and it's gorgeous.

FOs

• Grandmother's Shawl. I used the free Kiri pattern. I actually made it twice. Once in KSH "Ice Cream", and I thought partway through that it just wasn't jazzy enough for Grandmother's 80th birthday, so I finished that one and immediately CO another with Kid Silk Night in a deep purple. (Remember the poem that starts "When I am old, I shall wear purple"? I thought of that and knew her shawl had to be purple.) I added beads to the last repeat, and she loves it.
• Apple Laine Funny Girl socks. Very plain, pretty, comfy WARM socks. Not cold enough here to appreciate them yet!

I just wanted to make myself blog some, in the hopes that I can develop a habit at some point. I need to take pictures. And post them.

This is really just for me to have a, well, ya know, log of what I've been doing. Shouldn't be a chore. Or a bore. Somehow I've turned it into both. Need to change my thinking on that.

ok. bye.

It's Crunch Time!

Okay, I have abandoned all hope of finishing Stripes and Torchon Lace from VLT. I like it, but there's something that's keeping me from enjoying this project. Slippery silk yarn, slippery needles, I dunno. I had ple-heh-henty of time to work on this when I first started it, but today I crunched the numbers on it and realized that I'm only a quarter of the way through something I am not enjoying knitting.

Life's too short.

So, I went stash-hunting and found some awesome stuff. I decided on the Kidsilk Haze in a lovely light pink. Almost a light pinkish mauve. I think it was called Ice Cream. I wanted something that won't take forever, as it's a gift that has to be ready in exactly 4 WEEKS! I have wanted to knit Kiri for some time now, and I can't think of a better occasion. I have been hesitant to mention it, because I don't want to ruin the surprise, but this is for my Grandmother's 80th birthday. I haven't told her about the blog, becuase I knew I'd blab, so I'll just make sure not to mention the blog until after the big day. Eeek. 4 weeks. Can I do this with work and the boy, etc?

I have no choice.

My DS started Kindergarten this week. He is loving it. He loves Music and Science, and I am thrilled. I have been really surprised by his intense curiosity lately. About everything, really, but quite a bit about math as of late. He's been figuring out addition and subtraction problems (the other day, with sauce packets at the Chinese Restaurant). When he comes to my room after school he gets the dry erase boards and writes out a problem or two and then we figure them out with base ten blocks or toothpicks (or whatever). It's been so much fun.

Anyway, I'm off to start a new shawl. Wish me luck!

Oh, geez, I can't finish this post! I haven't mentioned getting Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One.

Oh. My.

I can't sing high enough praises. I didn't know what to expect, but this book is both more ingenious and yet simpler than what I had imagined. Cat's mind mystifies me.

I'm not dead, just ADD

Okay... I said it would happen, but it really wasn't my intention to fall of of the edge of the blogiverse.

ADD, indeed.

You think if you can't ever remember to take the daily second dose of your ADD meds, that they MIGHT not be working?!!

sheesh...

Well, I have no pics (BOring). But I wanted to try to get back in the habit.

Stash Enhancement!!

Is there anything harder than waaaaaaaaaaiiiitinnnnnng for your yarn once you've pored over pages and possibilities, taken the plunge and placed a purchase order?

The wait is ovah! In the middle of sunny Meheeco, I have finally gotten my yarn! Here's your pr0n:

Whole haul: Knit Picks circular needles (sizes 0, 1 & 2, 32" second set of each for either 2 on 2 circs or Magic Loop so I can have 2 socks going at once), Knit Picks Felici in Pebble and Arugula, Knit Picks Gloss in Pumpkin and... Lorna's Laces in Rainbow and Apple Laine Apple Pie in Funny Girl from The Loopy Ewe. Oh. My. Good. Lord.

Knit Picks New Felici Sock Yarn in Pebble (not as grey as the pic, but wonderful browns)



...and in Arugula (yes, good enough to eat, and again, not as grey-ish as the pic).




Gloss in Pumpkin (yum-o!)



Apple Laine Apple Pie in Funny Girl (the pic hardly does it justice, folks)



Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Rainbow.

Now. I know that many Knitters out there have hauls like these delivered to their doorsteps on a regular basis, but although I have been knitting (get this!) for 29 years (okay, more "off" than "on"), I have been a knitter, rather than a Knitter, until just about a year ago. I never knew what I was missing. Then my dear, dear Grandmother got me a gift certificate to a real live Yarn Shop. A good one. Now I'm hooked (and enjoying getting to know all of the fab yarns that so many of you already love--getting to know it all for the first time ... *sigh*)

Let me back up a bit. You see, I took up knitting again, like so many of us, when I was pregnant with my son, roughly 6 years ago. I was living in the middle of Mexico, where the only yarn shop in town sells only acrylic (and not the "good" kind) that they wind into cakes for you from cones or huge whe-+els. The selection was sketchy at best, but I wanted to knit, so I made do. On trips to the "city" (about an hour away) I could find better yarns at (gasp!) WalMart. Yes, my friends MUCH better yarns. That should put things into perspective.

It's not that I enjoyed knitting with that crap, but it was the only crap I had. After a while, I finally found the outskirts of the online knitting community, but I couldn't order good yarn because it was way out of my price range (I was living on a peso budget) and the shipping alone would have killed it for me.

Long story short (read: a divorce, online classes in the middle of the night and a move to Austin later) I was finally walking in to my first real-live yarn store. I actually felt faint and giddy at the same time. I stayed until it was clear they had to close and get home to their families, and I couldn't even buy anything that first trip because I was so overwhelmed. I knew I wanted to knit a lace stole or shawl for a dear friend, and I knew I wanted a particular shade of purple (that being her signature colour). I went home and pored the internet for days, as all of the knitting books I'd accumulated over the years were in storage in Mexico (I could only bring what I could fit into a van). I found Eunny Jang's Print O' the Wave Stole and knew it was the one. On the next trip to the yarn shop I found the perfect yarn in the perfect shade: Suri Elegance in Purple Mountain Majesty. It had enough yardage in one skein, which was good, as it was the only skein they had in that colour. It was the most expensive yarn I'd ever bought. $48 dollars per skein. I found out later that the retail price for that yarn is far, far lower, but it really was worth it. That project changed me from a knitter to a Knitter.

I knit good wishes, health and joy for my friend into every stitch. I would wake up an hour early on occasion to sit and watch the sunrise in silence to knit on it (and I am a night-owl kinda gal--I normally don't do mornings). I loved every minute of it. And then I got to block it.

Seriously, if you've never knit lace, you owe it to yourself, if for nothing else, then for the blocking. You feel like a magician or a faerie. It catches your breath. You visit it in the middle of the night to pet it as it dries. It is astounding.

I didn't realize that I was going to get into all of this in this post. In fact, it was meant to just be an update to show off the yarn and to say "Hey, I'm sewing the seams on Butterfly and she'll be done soon." Who knew all this was in there?

Anyhoo, since I waxed poetic about my first Print O' the Wave, here she is:

Post-Block on my son's bed

Obligatory window shot.

My friend cried when she saw it. But somehow, I feel like I got the real gift.

I Got the Fever!!

I am soooo loving the Mystery Stole 3! There are over 6,300 members and counting! Actually, in the time it took me to post this, the number jumped from 6,328 to 6,391 (Hey, gimme a break, I'm new at this!) I did have to go on digest, as there were over 1,000 emails in the account I created just for the MS3 (sheesh!). Anyhoo, I wanted to get started on Clue 2, but I promised AnnaMarie I would post a pic of the MS3 in Lane Borgosesia Baruffa Cashwool.


I tried a close-up, too.

In other knitting news (not world-wide, big, important, earth-shattering news, but private, big, important, earth-shattering news) I blocked the back and fronts of Noro Butterfly, and it's gorgeous. I didn't even take a pic before I sewed the shoulder seams. But here she is, ready for the collar, which I will start today. (the laundry be damned).



Here's a comparison pic of the sleeves (unblocked) and the fronts (blocked) just for you non-blocking-believers still out there.

It's like magic, people.

Hmm... my pictures are lookin' crappy in the preview. I wonder what that's about. Lemme post and see if it publishes that way. And if so, then I've got to fart around with photos instead of KNIT, which is really what I'd rather be doing. Here's hoping!

...I FIXED IT!! And it didn't take more than 3 minutes! (How dorky is it that I'm so excited about that?)

Random Craziness on the Homefront

Okay, so my 5-year-old son looked at my Mom and said "Oops!!!!" He was watching TV, eating pudding and, taking after his mother, he spilled a dollop of pudding right on my Mom's dachshund, Woody's head (Yes, my mother named the wiener dog Woody). My dad caught Woody and Mom, being the quick-thinking woman that she is, called my Beagle, Lucy, to the scene. She licked the pudding off of Woody's head and all was well.

This is how we problem-solve around here....

...and people wonder why I have issues.

Knitting in San Miguel de Allende

Well, who woulda thunk it? I was knitting at a restaurant and a lovely lady approached me and told me that there is a knitting group here in gorgeous San Miguel de Allende, that meets Monday nights. I went and there were a few women there that I knew from when I lived here. It was great to see them. When I took Print O' the Wave out of my knitting bag, they all told me that due to the amount of chatter and drinking that goes on, they only bring their mindless knitting to group. Well, all I have OTN with me are three lace stoles and my Noro Butterfly Cardigan, which I need to block before I attach the collar--but the sleeves are now done!:

Print O' the Wave, by Eunny Jang in Karabella Lace Mohair

Stripes and Torchon Lace, from Victorian Lace Today in Colourmart's 100% Silk 2/34 (Note the boo-boo on the second repeat. I'm planning on putting in a lifeline there and making that my provisional cast-on, removing the first two repeats.) This is the "secret stole" I mentioned in the previous post.


Swatches for Mystery Stole 3 by Melanie from Pink Lemon Knits. I'm using Lane Borgosesia Cashwool in a light-ish grey. You can still join (until this Friday) here on Yahoo Groups. There are over 4000 of us now. I created an email account just for this purpose, and I'm glad I did! I'm getting tons of emails per day! Too many to read, really. I have started the stole, but I'll wait until I've finished Clue 1 to post pics.

Here's the back of Butterfly

And the fronts. No pics of finished sleeves yet, but I hope to block by Thursday, so I should be able to get some pics and get started on the collar by then.

Now... did I get pictures of the lovely setting where we had our group? In a stained-glass gazebo? Aw, hell, no... While I remembered the projects I meant to take and moolah for the wine, typical of my ADD-self, I forgot the camera. Well, there's always next week. Oh, I found a link to the La Jacaranda where we had the group. We were in the restaurant of the hotel. Here's the gazebo,where we met, which they oddly call a "Kiosk".

A New Knitting Blog to Feed Your Addiction!!

Hi there, ever-buddy! Welcome to my blog. Sit down, relax, have a cuppa and knit to your heart's content.

I have no business creating a blog, really. Well... yeah, I knit.

Compulsively.

But I know me, and my ADD will either make me quit before I start this endeavor or will make quite public the full extent of my insanity. Then again, that might just be entertaining for you and cathartic for me, so what the hey!

I really don't know what I'm doing yet, so bear with me. I'm willing to learn, so this might get interesting yet. You wanna come along for the ride?

My WIP?
Print O' the Wave Stole, by the incredible Eunny Jang, the first design I have ever knit twice. Already did it in Suri Elegance, Purple Mountains Majesty as a gift for a dear friend, and am now using Karabella Lace Mohair in Pale Flannel, a very pale green, oddly not listed on the linked page. I'm about, I dunno, a third done with this. Uhh, maybe a fourth. Haven't done the math.

Butterfly Cardigan from Noro Knits in Kureyon, shade 51. Lurvely greys, burgundy, greens, browns, black, oooooooooooooh. I've got the shoulder caps, collar, blocking and seaming to go.

A Feather and Fan Comfort Shawl, by Sarah Bradberry. This is a great free pattern, and I'm using some of that fabulous recycled sari silk, which I bought on eBay. I love the idea of supporting women's groups in Nepal while feeding my need for mooooore yaaaarn. I won't be working on this for at least a month, as I'm in Mexico for the summer and this project didn't make the cut.

A secret stole in Colourmart 100% silk laceweight from Victorian Lace Today. I'll post pics if I can be sure the recipient won't be seeing this blog.

About to be OTN
Mystery Stole 3, by Melanie from Pink Lemon Twist. I have decided on yarn that I happened to bring with me (ahem). It's Lane Borgosesia Cashwool in a nice grey that I got at my LYS. First time with this yarn. Need to swatch.

SOCKS! I finished my Baudelaire socks by the incomparable Cookie A. in Knit Picks Essential, Grass, and now I have no socks OTN and I'm going slightly mad. However, a friend is going up to Austin for a week and I sent a shipment (or two) of sock yarn to her hotel so she could bring it back for me. Yeah, you could call it a slight addiction...

I know, I know, a post without pics kinda blows, and I'll try to rectify that asap. In the meanwhile, if you manage to find me, WELCOME! I never thought I'd be doing this!