Reading

I absolutely have made boring to look at progress on two project this week, and I'll show you a progress picture of the big one in a minute, but to put things in a bit of perspective, this is what is taking up big chunks of my day.

The blue circle are the resource books (not to mention a few binders) that I need to be familiar with for this school year, the green are the books I've already read, and the blue are the ones I need to/am currently reading. I'm hoping to finish Herodotus in the next few days as well as do an online course for teachers at my new school before I go in for another Omnibus orientation meeting on Thursday. And I have that stack to keep working through, as well as hopefully get my science materials so I can start working through that too. So, simple knitting it has been for while I relax in the evening after a days reading with a few errands thrown in. One of many reason why I wanted to move down as close to two months before school as I could!

In addition to doing a lot of reading, I've been doing a few other things. All my DMC embroidery floss is now neatly put away in boxes again--I brought it back from Zambia in bags to save weight.

I made a small cake with my mini spring-form pans,

and I tried mini pizza waffles- some more tweaking is needed, but they were acceptable.

I splurged on some beautiful yarn that I've wanted since I first saw it a few months ago and Yarnia just got a fresh stock of- Amanda Hope's Aegean colorway. Not only is her yarn amazing, but it's also locally dyed!

And, I'm almost ready to start the bust shaping on my Cityscape tank; I'm adding a bit of length as I have a long torso 'cause I'm tall, but I need to do a bit of knitting math before I determine exactly how much. If my stich gauge was slightly off, my row gauge likely is as well.

Sorry for that last picture being a bit blurry; I had interference from a certain Ginger Pants while trying to photograph it. It's so nice to have a cat around the house again!

Well, that's all for now; more history of the Persian war in Greece tomorrow!

Very few pictures to document not enough (for my sanity) knitting

So, since my life has been insane/frustrating for the last few weeks, a whole lot of interesting knitting has not been done. I’m going to be lazy and you’ll just have to take my word for it, but I am almost done with the first sleeve of the baby vertebra, and I started the cuff patterning on the second Tintern Abbey sock. I got through the second ‘swish’ on the second sock of another pair of Mystik Spirals, and I put down a few rows on my handspun cowl.

The big thing I’ve been working on is getting my long hibernating Bluebells past the lace detail at the waist, so I can take it and the yarn home with me (hopefully) in December. Miles and miles and MILES of stockinette in a plain yarn is not rivetingly exciting, but I am just about to decrease for the bust and at long last start that lace band. I haven’t decided if I’m going to make it wider; we’ll have to see what it looks like as written. I guess I aught to re-check my row gauge… I’m not thrilled with the yarn; Loops and Threads Wool-like. The problem with this second ball is the yarn is plied funny and a strand stretches and bunches as you go. I ended up ripping back quite a bit on Friday where it was actually affecting the garment, but now things seem to be at least knitting in well even if they are awkward in the hand. So, yes, it was super cheap, but I don’t think I’ll rush out to buy it again.

Oh—I was weak and snagged some yarn I’ve been wanting for over a year—Nomadic Fiber’s “Sirius.” Not all her dyed to order colors are available at all times, and I just happened to see this one was up again. I personally wish the name of this colorway was Lupin as he is my favorite character in Harry Potter, so maybe I’ll knit Lupin socks with the Sirius yarn. So pretty!

I just finished First Lord’s Fury, the last of the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher. I’m glad I finished the series; there were some interesting elements of world building, and I like the protagonist, Tavi. I almost abandoned the series after reading book 2, then book 1, but a friend said she had enjoyed it, so I decided to give it a proper go. I find it slightly hard to believe that no major characters died in the cataclysmic battle at the end, but I like this series well enough to finish purchasing them for my Kindle eventually. Now to indulge in a mystery!

The one piece of knitting I actually have a picture for, is this cat hat for Java (yes, she deserves it!). Yes, there will be a picture of my little punk rocker soon, but for right now here it is in all it’s improvised glory. Some short rows on the top of the head might be good for next time… That’s what you get for tearing up my things!

Parting shot: Trying my hand at some paper flowers for a sister--not half bad, but much harder when your floral tape is dead!

Colorado and some beautiful yarn

This weekend I got to spend some time driving to Colorado with my sister, and then helping a brother move. I was captivated by the scenery of west Texas, New Mexico, and southern Colorado, and I really appreciated the time spent with my siblings.

I got to see Cadillac Ranch from the road, and I used cruise control for the first time ever. It was great to meet some of their friends and to visit the Garden of the Gods.

I got to carry an axolotl in a bucket on my lap, and I unloaded a moving van in the snow. I visited a delightful yarn shop, Woolly Works Knit Shop, and bought a beautiful gradient kit from Frabjous Fibers. And, yes, they pretty much had my money as soon as I saw the name!

I had my first designer cupcake, the salted caramel one,

and I got to wake up to snow outside my window...though admittedly it had been there last night!

I knit a whole color sequence on my Firefly socks while watching Silence, and am ready to start the fingers on the second glove.

I meet the adorable kitten, Scout,

and was introduced to The IT Crowd. Busy? Yes. A lot of work? Yes. Worth it? Heck yes!

Why yes, that is the yarn name. 'Cuase ain't I just.

I did not get a lot of knitting done this week; after some bonefire lit knitting on my Monkey socks I mainly worked on quick, instant gratification in the form of cup cuddlers. So, I re-knit my pumpkin cabled one; I still need to tweak the pattern, but I like this version much better.

I used some yarn from the lovely Annie to make this loud broken rib cuddler,

and some leftover yarn in a lovely bluey-heather to make one of my favorites, the cabled one.

Oh, I did manage to finish the ninth chart on my Names of the Doctor scarf! Only one more to go! Remember, the goal on this is to be able to wear it in London.

Today, Halloween/Reformation Day was a bad day of epic proportions, so I decided that looking at Desert Vista Dyeworks would help make up for the mighty vacuum debacle of 2016 (don’t ask). Oh boy did it ever! Meet my October pick, just under the wire. “Big Damn Heroes” six color self stripping. You can’t take the sky from me!

My sister who is hopefully heading to a very cold place next year dropped a sock request…so I might need to tackle my first ever pair of stranded colorwork socks. Why yes, this IS what love looks like!

There are only 30 more days until freedom y’all…

Parting shot:

Knitting and Tea Pretty Much Saved My Life This Week

This past week was pretty awful. By the end I was physically and emotionally exhausted, and it was a rough weekend on. However, I had my knitting, I had chai, I prayed a lot, and I am now coming to a place of peace with the storms around me. Also, I got my birthday box, and there were some things in there that helped a lot. Like these fun bits of media!

I also got these fun bottle toppers to make my on hand oil more elegant.

Probably one of the best things in the box in terms of this week was the wild colored hair extensions. Green, pink, and blue hair in the evening helps for some reason. Here I am modeling my finished Pogona shawl (much in need of a blocking) and some green hair.

Here is the shawl drying on my oh so glamorous towel after it's bath today.

While down at the river I got some good work done on my Groovy Socks. I found an interesting 'forethought heel' in one of my sock knitting books; if I had two balls of self-stripping yarn I think I would have gone for it, but as it is I'll just do a classic afterthought. Measuring for the foot length will be a bit interesting though...

The other big news for this week is that I have not finally seen The Force Awakens! Some initial reactions:

* BB8 is adorable and I want him.
* That being said, how does he work?
* Finn is adorable too!
* Why does everyone look at the Falcon and say, "Junk!"
* I love Sci-Fi mechanic/tec jargon.
* Why was the Falcon conveniently fueled and charged? It was parked a scavenger depot! Like no one would have checked it out?
* Since when is light sabar fighting intuitive?
* What is wrong with the Skywalker boys?
* Why did R2D2 randomly wake up at the critical moment?
* Whatever they paid Mark Hamill, it was too much. Talk about being trolls!
* Did they let Josh Wheddon get at the script? Really? Han?

All in all, it was a fun ride, and I think they did a great job of bringing in thrills for fans of IV-VI, and I thought the score was particularly well done. Unlike The Hobbit where they quoted too heavily from the original trilogy, this one used snippets of old themes beautifully, and had a fresh, new sound for the rest. Watching this 'with' my mom was one of the best parts of the weekend.

Oh, the other fun thing this week was 'falling down' at Knitpicks and socking up on 5 socks worth of their self-striping yarn Felici. I got more Time Traveler, and a few other colorways that took my fancy. It really is a great deal on sock yarn, and I look forward to knitting it up.

Well, I need to look up some pictures for my history lesson tomorrow, so I'll sign off. Things can only get better, right?

Parting shot:

A Gift of a Weekend

This week has been quite busy, and one of the reasons I pushed so hard was that I wanted to be able to *breath* a little this weekend. Saturday night was a real treat—while waiting for my mom to be ready to watch The Decoy Bride with me, I worked on my birthday Pogona and listened to my audio book of Neil Gaiman’s The View From the Cheap Seats. I have been a fan of Gaiman’s for years, and listening to his speeches on the importance of writing and books, and his thoughts about life is such a treat. Why aren’t more people like him teachers?

I am so glad that my mom came up with the idea of watching movies ‘together.’ Yes, we are separated by 7 time zones, but to be able to enjoy the same films together and text our snarky comments back and forth (everyone in my family is a chronic movie talker) is a great way to celebrate a weekend off. I really enjoy that movie as well; it’s not a typical RoCom. I love the witty lines, the unexpected twist, and that the main leads are awkward human beings who make ‘complete twats’ of themselves and talk of going ‘man vegan.’ Plus, the accents don’t hurt either!

An exciting thing that happened this week was that I won a skein of beautiful “Proud Lady Mary” sock yarn from One Twisted Tree in the Stitch Sister’s Downton Abbey trivia contest! I am so tickled; I have been drooling over most of One Twisted Tree’s stuff since I looked them up, and of all the prizes in the contest, that is the one I most hoped to win. One of the really cool things about OTT, is that she gives pattern suggestions for her yarns, and so, since most enablement is always a good thing, right? I checked them out. Now I know exactly what socks I want to do with this yarn, Tintern Abbey. I’m wondering if there is a way to incorporate some beading into those arches now… I shall have to get the pattern and explore! Also, speaking of Downton, I realized that two episodes of Jeeves and Wooster take place at Highclere Castle, and when checking out their website I learned that it was the seat of Lord Canarvin, as in King Tut! They have a collection of minor antiquities that he brought back from Egypt that was cataloged by Carter himself! As if I didn’t want to visit Highclere enough already…

One of my knitting goals this weekend other than to do as much of it as I could, was to get a pair of socks past the forethought gusset stage. This is the first time that I have attempted the whole process—forethought gusset and afterthought heel—on a full sized sock, and so far I am quiet pleased with the results. I am so pleased with the neatness of this solution, and just need to figure out a way to make it available to other sock aficionados. I’m not sure if I should just make up a ‘how to’ and post it to my Ravelry store, or if I should build it into a sock pattern. Which would of course mean that I need to design a sock pattern…in all my spare time. I do have a pretty cool idea involving beads kicking around in my head; maybe in December I’ll be able to make it a reality. So, here is the sock with it’s odd looking forethought gusset ready to return to being river knitting—mindless and enjoyable.

I have also made some good progress on the second Blink sock; the chilliness of my floors has provided excellent motivation to turn out more socks, and while I have decided that these will wait till December to be worn, I’m still excited.

I had to put my Names of the Doctor scarf into a bag because my cat has started running over and attacking the cakes of yarn while I’m sitting there watching her; such subtlety, eh? Once I get my birthday scarfette done—hey, I like that name!—I plan to pick that back up again. Call me crazy, but I find myself contemplating doing another double knitting scarf; maybe the Sherlock one or one of the Regency patterned ones. I think this holiday I might try my hand at charting a few nerdy things to double knit into hotpads, and one of these days I need to make myself my own gates of Moria and banner of the king. It’s just a matter of how much suitable yarn I have left. After two years of almost exclusive ‘knit from my stash,’ my options are getting quite limited. I foresee falling down quite a lot in yarnstores next year…

Well, that’s me for this week! Enjoy your summer, you in the Northern Hemisphere, and keep knitting!

Parting shot: This rosebush is amazing; I wish you could smell the loveliness through your screen!

Home again and a little show and tell

Yesterday I got up at 4:15am so I could catch my 5:30 flight, and I almost sort of regretted for a moment my decision to drive down to Cinncinati with Jennifer so we could go to the Contra dance. Almost. I had so much fun dancing for those two hours that the 3 hours or driving was TOTALLY worth it. It was also nice to have a better idea what I was doing--too bad there isn't a dance group near me in the bush!

On the way home from the airport we stopped at a Starbucks and saw a place called, "Yarn Heaven." Said place had lots of SALE signs up in the windows. Of course, we had to go in, and after finding out that the sock yarn was 75% off, I ended up scoring several single skeins of Lorna's Laces as well as a nice big roving from Mountain Colors for a fraction of their original price. You can never have too much of a good thing, right? I've been to yarn stores in St. Louis, Billings, and Columbus now, so I thought I'd give you a little peek at my treasures.

Some sock yarn that pretty much screamed my name as I went by,

Some lovely Mountain Colors mill ends at a great price--all the cooler because this is Montanan yarn! (Not the best picture though, sorry)

And a lovely skein of luxury lacewight.

My mission should I choose to accept it (oh wait, I don't get a choice...) is to finish shopping for the more mundane items I need to take back with me, sort through everything I have already acquired , pack some boxes to ship and some suitcases to take, and say goodbye to all the people, places, and foods that I'm going to miss. Easy, right?

A good way to spend a Friday...

Breakfast-

Fine Art Museum-

Yarn store-

Souvenir yarn of much happiness

*Happy Day!*

I may have fallen down in a yarn store...

Today my mother and I went to Stitches 'n Stuff--sometimes known as "The realm of perpetual bliss and serenity" or "the place where I tend to spend too much money."

You see, twice a year everything in the store goes on sale for 20% off, so I decided to get a few more things before I head back to the yarn storeless Zambian bush. I found some yarn for a pair of twins who will be arriving around the new year...

Some yarn for a wedding shawl,

And some sock yarn that I couldn't resist!

Tomorrow I head out to St. Louis; I'll have two days there to check out some free attractions and some local Starbucks. I guess I should go pack for that...