Yarn Maiden

So I went to the midnight premiere of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince… it was spectacular! I seem to be remember being a little bit let-down by Order of the Phoenix (at least at the first showing, subsequent showings made me like it a lot more and honestly I can’t remember what my initial complaints were) This one was fun, funny, fast-paced, entertaining, progressed the story, and was just well-played in general. Two thumbs up : D

Direct quote from Cat Bordhi’s book, New Pathways for Sock Knitters: “Relax and enjoy the adventure – there is a lot here, and it could take you years to try everything.” I’m here to tell ya, she’s not exaggerating. 8 completely new and unique methods of sock construction and within those “pathways” she offers a pattern or two and also gives advice for incorporating your own stitch patterns into the various constructions. I feel like she has given us all a gift, the gift of her creativity and knowledge. I look at this book as an invaluable tool for the sock knitter.

The very day I got my book I cast on for a pair of Spiraling Coriolis using Plymouth Yarn Happy Choices (color #5). In one night (at knitting club) I finished the toe and got up to the point where I was supposed to start increasing for the gusset (i.e. the spiral). Unfortunately I had left my knitting toolbox at home so I didn’t have my stitch markers handy. (Forgive me for the addictional plug, I swear I’m not connected to these people in any way. I highly highly recommend Lizard Toes stitch markers for avid sock knitters). I spent the leftover time at knitting club just glancing through the book and I’m super excited. Can’t wait to try them all!

How about a knitting related post? I just spent a bit of time updating all my side widgets including stashalong details, queue, and works-in-progress.

This month’s mystery sock class was on the 19th. Great pattern as usual, it’s called “Bamboozled”. The pattern was designed for Alpaca Sox yarn and in the spirit of using stash yarn I brought Knit Picks Imagination in the Looking Glass colorway. The stitch pattern is meant to look like bamboo and I tell ya that blue was not cutting it for me. I ripped it out after row 24 or so and started a pair of Hedera instead. I think it will be a better use of the yarn and I’ll just restart Bamboozled when I get my hands on some brown yarn or something more bamboo-ish if you will.

I haven’t been doing all that much knitting or spinning lately cue to the fact that I’ve been putting all my spare time into watching The Sopranos (newest addiction, I just started Season 3 today) and also working out. The weather has been getting a lot warmer so that sort of limits the number of different types of projects I can work on without sweating my bum off. Blankets and large shawls are off limits for the time.

As usual life itself has become a distraction. My connection to the interwebs lately has been through little tidbits on Twitter. Well all this won’t fit on Twitter so I’m posting it here.

In a place you only dream of, where your soul is always free
Silver stages, golden curtains, filled my head plain as could be
As a rainbow grew around the sun, all the stars I've loved, who died
Came from somewhere beyond the scene you see, these lovely people played just for me

Now if I let you see this place where stories all ring true
Then will you let me past your face to see what's really you
It's not for me I ask this question as though I were a king
For you have to love, believe and feel, before the burst of tambourines take you there

Green grass and high tides forever
Castles of stone, soul and glory
Lost faces say we adore you
As kings and queens bow and play for you

Those who don't believe me, find your souls and set them free
Those who do, believe and know that time will be your key
Time and time again I've thanked them for a peace of mind
That helped me find myself amongst the music and the rhyme that enchants you there

-The Outlaws, “Green Grass and High Tides”

I’m particularly taken with the phrases: “In a place you only dream of, where your soul is always free…”, and “Then will you let me past your face to see what’s really you… for you have to love, believe and feel” and finally, “Find your souls and set them free, those who do believe and know that time will be your key”.

I first heard this song on Rock Band and because of that I find that I like the cover version better than the actual version by The Outlaws. C’est la vie : )

I’m on Spring Break and have been for a number of days. I figured that knitting time would be sort of scarce and it hasn’t been at all. In fact it has been rather copious. I have finished 2 pairs of socks (both pairs started pre-break, I’m not that wicked fast). Oh how I crave some sock yarn!

All I have left to work on is my Highland Triangle Shawl which is much less convenient for travelling and what-have-you. Not to mention I still haven’t come to a decision regarding how big to make the center section, either I’ll stop when the pattern says or I’ll sit down and do some math to make it bigger and fit better with the number of stitches I have to pick up around the border. I hope I can make it until Sunday evening when I will be reunited with my stash.

So I’m experiencing some relative project monogamy. Allow me to ellaborate. I have 3 projects going on but they are all vastly different and they cover different knitting opportunities. For dedicated/movie knitting time I have my Highland Triangle Shawl (just started 5th of 5 repeats on the middle part), for class and bus knitting time I’m working on some plain old socks using SWTC TOFUtsies (75% done with first sock), and for watching tv (specifically Lost) I have my Moderne Log Cabin blanket. I’ve been going through this rotation for a while now so I figure any day now I’ll get the wicked urge to make a little instant gratification project.

I did something, something big-ish. I am not yet prepared to share full details until I have a picture to show you guys. At that time I feel confident that you guys won’t blame me in the slightest. Apologies for being cryptic but all will be revealed in the fullness of time. (next Tuesday-ish if my calculations are accurate)

In other news, Bloglines doesn’t seem to be picking up my new posts in any sort of a hurry. On my Blogroll the January 28th post JUST showed up. It makes me wonder if maybe it’s holding onto other people’s posts and holding out on me. Not cool Bloglines.

It occurs to me that I need to go into my Excel spreadsheet of stash and adjust the totals to reflect yarn that has been all used up. On the other end we have newly acquired stash which includes: 2 balls of Knit Picks Essential Kettle Dyed in the Wine colorway, 3 skeins of Knit Picks Shadow Lace in the Jewels colorway which is to become the Pangea Shawl (these 2 yarns are for my February free day, it is important to note that I have actually earned 200 grams of sock yarn but only bought 100. Progress!), and 2 balls of Rowan Kidsilk Night in Moonlight that I got in a trade. A trade that was financially even but in terms of yarn weight I’m the winner! Think DESTASH winner. It was 50 grams in and about 200 grams out. The difference is that she will probably have hers knitted up before I can blink and my new acquisitions will take a bit more time. My friend (Ravelry link) is also trying her little heart out to fine-tune her stash and resist the temptations of yarn for the sake of her credit cards. We have much in common. I’ve been trying to find a good mohair to pair with my Schaefer Anne to make some sort of 2 row alternating color shawl/wrap/scarf. The colors of my Anne make it kind of difficult, white would have been too bright and I had it down to black and a blue that I wasn’t thrilled about. I think the sparkly silver/grey that she gave me will be perfect.

At some point this week I would like to have a Lord of the Rings marathon and just knit my little heart out. It’s a shame that class always seems to get in the way. 9 hours of work on my Highland Triangle would be great!

Well people, March is very nearly upon us. In fact it’s so close that I think I’m going to go ahead and draw my next bag from my little stash of PSC09 kits! Stay tuned.

Looks like the winner is Leyburn Socks using Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in the Winona colorway! No problem. I’ve actually alread used the stitch pattern for my Ravelympics project. Pattern called Mahayana’s Flying Gloves which I titled my “Honeyduke’s Gloves“. It was a pleasure to make and as the Yarn Harlot says they seem to go inordinately fast. An excellent feature in a pattern I’d say. Oh and it’s toe-up! I have a new passion for toe-up socks. I’ve always felt that they make the most sense in terms of yardage and efficiency but I just now got around to taking the time to learn how.

Hmmmm, looks like I haven’t posted here in a while. Let’s see if I can’t catch you guys up to speed.

Current [active] projects include my Mystery Sock Class #12 socks charmingly titled “Cablicious”. The first sock positively flew off the needle and the second sock (which I cast on straight away) is threatening to do the same.  I’ve decided to make these my February socks for my Personal Sock Club ‘09. Now officially I drew the bag containing Knit Picks Felici that were supposed to be turned into Jaywalkers but I chickened out about the stripes. I knew I’d drive myself batty trying to keep both socks the same so I avoided them and avoided them until my Cablicious socks fell into their place ever so nicely.

I’m also working on my 3rd pattern from Cheryl Oberle’s Folk Shawls, Highland Triangle Shawl using the positively sinful Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca & Silk (sapphire colorway). I’ve finished the first full repeat of chart 1 and also number one of  five 14 row repeats. Follow that? Yeah me neither, moving on!

I’ve also started Cherie Amour using the recommended yarn from handpaintedyarn.com . Quite fun so far but it has been momentarily put in the knitting basket so that I can finish my February socks.

Also on the needles is my Moderne Log Cabin Blanket although I seem to have accidentally purled a stitch many many rows back (in a field of garter stitch) I wouldn’t worry about it but it was a purl on the wrong side meaning it is painfully obvious on the right side. Dropping stitches to fix things in stockinette is no problem but fixing garter is just plain annoying. If I devote just 10 minutes to it I know it will be fine but there are just too many other thrilling projects in the basket right now. It can wait.

Alright then, you can now consider yourselves caught up : D

Three cheers for the winter storm! Classes have been officially cancelled for the day! Feels just as good as when it used to happen in high school. Buckeyes rejoice!