seven

Haruni in Finespun Wool by Imbued Fibers in the Sexy Paige Green colorway. Added size 6 seed beads, clear lined with silver. Seventh shawl of 2010. I'll let the pictures say the rest.

The List

Where has the summer gone? I swear I was just saying how I'm going to spend more time outside this summer, and then I looked up and a leaf fell down and poked me in the eye. I had hoped to be a lot further in my 10 Shawls of 2010 by now, and I had hoped to be doing more things that I love, like signing up for dance and creativewriting classes. Now I just work, go home, sleep, work, go home, sleep and knit sometimes on Thursday nights. It's pretty pathetic. The only things that are out of the ordinary are things that I kinda wish weren't there. For example, today I got a notice from traffic court that my driver's license will be suspended if I don't appear in court on the 17th about an "unposted violation". It took me a minute to figure out what could have happened but I'm pretty sure it's something along the lines of this: I got rear-ended in early May. My insurance company wouldn't do anything until late June, when I dropped my car off and got a rental car from Enterprise. They've screwed me over 3 times now, so I'm calling them out on it- I don't normally name-drop when I'm angry. I got pulled over in my rental car because the plates were expired. I got a ticket in my rental car because the plates were expired. The cop told me that I need to give the ticket to Enterprise and they would deal with it. I gave the ticket to Enterprise and they said they'd deal with it. I called Enterprise a week after I gave them the ticket to make sure they had dealt with it and they promised that they had.

But of course, they didn't. And now I have to go to court because some stupid rental car company can't keep their plates current and then when people get tickets because their plates aren't current, they don't take care of it. I paid enough or the rental car, I shouldn't have to deal with their mistakes.

There. I feel better now. I think. So...knitting.

I went to The Feast of the Hunter's Moon with my bff Ben. There were lots of spinning wheels, Yoyageurs, Scots, and a nearly nekked Indian. I meant to take hundreds of pictures but only took one. And only because she had the best long-draw I've ever seen. I also bought a little sheep and took her picture on my kitchen table. But she's from the Feast, and I think she's really cute!

I finished a chemo cap for my mom's friend D. I'm not going to post it to Ravelry since I didn't get any decent pictures, but D called the day after I left it at her house and told me she loved it. She kept calling it "stunning". Well worth the cabling. This is#2, and I plan on starting #3 when I finish my Haruni, which could be tonight or three weeks from now. My mojo is a little off again.

I made a list of all of the craft projects I would like to finish before Christmas, or at latest before New Years. Not that I expect you to decipher my scrawl, but here is a picture of the list that shall taunt me until every project is done. I really think I've made it realistic- I have a few projects that I haven't started yet for when I catch myself at a weak moment and need a fix-me-up cast on, and there are projects that need a few hours to finish and there are projects that need a few weeks to finish. The important thing is that there's quite a variety of projects, so it might be doable. I'm feeling a lot better about my abundance of UFO's since I made the list. Naturally, there are quite a few projects that aren't on the list, but I'm just not worried about them right now.

And to finish: a sock, some handspun shetland, and a Christmas cactus from Ben's mom, who I finally met and she's totally awesome. And she might just be a bigger "plant enthusiast" than me. And her house is this awesome old farmhouse that she and Ben are fixing up and it is soooo cute. I kind of just want to move in. Right now.

Sp-bingeing

I have been on a spin-binge. It started a couple weeks ago with the purchase of a drop spindle (of doom) and some nice fiber from the Trading Post in Pendleton with a specific project in mind. Okay- I want to make a large shawl out of it. I have about 5 picked out and I'll just go with the one with the closest yardage to what I actually get from my almost-pound of fiber. But that's close enough to a plan that it's keeping it interesting. When I need a break I spin a couple ounces of something else that's been in the stash for a while, freeing up some space and having enough to make a hat, not that I would because I have issues knitting with my own handspun. I'm really hoping that this laceweight changes things for me.

I also had the awesome opportunity to take a class from Abby Fraquemont! Yay! The class was also at the Trading Post (it's quickly becoming my new happy place) I had a very weak few moments (I've had a very rough week and somehow convinced myself I needed more fiber, even if it means packing my lunch for the next month) and basking in the afterglow of the class, I got her book and a couple of her famous batts in addition to the freebies that came with the class. I also got another pretty that I have flirted with a few times at the shop...so in total I did a little damage, but not that bad. Plus she signed my book and my new spindle.

In other news which I think is pretty darn awesome, I have been published! There is a brand-new magazine called Spool and if you're like me and do all sorts of needlecrafts, then you should totally check it out. Or if you only knit, there's tons of stuff in there for you, too!

Anyhoo, you can buy a single issue or subscribe to the magazine (it's quarterly) at www.spoolmag.com. And check out page 10- it makes me look like a real writer!

Just...things.

So there's a few exciting things that I'd like to start with...

1. You can now buy my Forget-me-not Shawlette pattern from Patternworks! Woot! I feel like a real designer now (I know I've got a long way to go before I'm a Designer with a capital D, but Patternworks is a start!)

2. I finished my Wasabi Citron and put hundreds of awesome beads on the cast-off edge. I made it one section larger and then beaded the cast-off but those are the only changes I made. Since I've had a couple weeks from hell, there is currently no picture of me without swollen red eyes, a swollen/bruised nose, blue and green acid dye all over me, or really strange hair. So you'll have to wait until I can pull myself together enough to look human for the time it takes to snap a picture. Anyhoo, Wasabi is number 6/10 for 10 Shawls in 2010.

3. I hate this damn chemo cap. The yarn (Berroco Pure Merino or something like that) has had an insane amount of knots in it. When I spend $10 for 98 yards, I have certain expectations of a yarn. Lots of little knots is not in there. Plus the pattern in smarter than I am. Dern you, Ysolda!

4. I started Haruni from Knitty in a yarn from Imbued called Sexy Paige Green. Naturally, I am beading unnecessarily for the sake of bling. I kind of love it. Depending on when it gets finished, it will be shawl #7, #8, or #9. This means that I have no idea what to do for my 10th shawl, and I would love your suggestions!

5. I *almost* finished my rug hooking before I ran out of fabric. I sent my last scrap in to the store where I bought it in hopes that they can match it and hook me up with another few inches so I can finish this and stop holding Laurie's frame hostage.

6. Pretty new handspun. It's 70% merino/30% bamboo from Frog Tree Fibers. 4 oz, just short of 200 yards. I absolutely HATED spinning it and plying it was downright painful. But I took it off the niddy-noddy and fell in love. Isn't she pretty? Her name is "Ravishing".

That's all for now. I'm beat and heading to bed with my Grayby (Gray Baby Madeline). Have a great day!

The Answer We've All Been Waiting For!

The mystery crocheted item from a few posts ago is.....

A plastic bag holder! If you have pets (and the poop-duty that goes with it) you understand how important plastic bags can be. They're also some ofthe more hideous things you can have laying around the house. So while this isn't the most beautiful hand-made item in the world, it's one of the more functional ones.

It started with mine that I made a few months ago in efforts to convince myself that nothing bad will happen if I knit my own handspun....

My mother saw it and had to have one of her own, which is the crazy one I just made with some of my first handspun. If you like this handspun, you can find some of it in my etsy shop (over on the side of the blog). I spun the etsy shop yarn a couple years after I spun this particular batch, so it's a much nicer yarn. I just made this so I could stop looking at the yarn in my stash while it taunted me as I worked with everything else in my stashroom.

And while nobody correctly guessed what it was, Laurie did submit two pretty good guesses and has been letting me borrow her rug hooking frame, so I'll be making her one anyway! I'll even try to make it within a reasonable amount of time :p Here's my first ever rug hooking to show off Laurie's awesome frame that I am trying to be done with as quickly as possible- only a little bit more left! I'm also getting pretty close to finishing my Wasabi Citron- hopefully I'll have some finished pictures for the next blog posting. Only half a giant row and a beaded bind-off left! Yay!

Spinning Clouds, Dropping Spindles

Like the rest of us, I simple can't resist when yarn store has a sale. Today I even went in with a mission: I needed a drop spindle. I am twenty days away from taking Abby Franqument's class- "Getting more done with Spindles" and just the other day it occurred to me- I can't get ANYTHING done with a spindle. I told this to Nicole who whipped out a spare spindle so fast it nearly broke the sound barrier, and she showed me how to do the "park and draft". I was not amused. I quickly regretted having signed up for Abby's class and wasting a space where a real spindle-spinner could have made herself a more efficient crafter. I learned to spin on a wheel and it might just stay that way.

But today I woke up and the sun was shining and the drywall was not so wet and I decided: today I can do anything. And there's a huge sale at the Trading Post. So an hour later, I was fondling fibers, yearning for yarn and letting Seasilk whisper sweet nothings in to my ear while I shopped (you want me to get nekked? Here? But there are others, sweet seasilk. They might get jealous) I didn't get the Seasilk, but I did some sparkly deep red Sterling & Silver sock yarn and about 2 pounds of fiber. I got 13 oz of this pretty stuff that I think looks like a cloud...

14 oz of this pretty blue thing....

and 5 oz of Falkland to destroy with my new Bare Bonesies drop spindle (and now I know when they call them DROP spindles).

So how was your labor day?

When it rains, it pours (in the kitchen)

I haven't had the best couple days. I keep trying to be a little ray of sunshine on my blog but the truth is the past few days have sucked pretty hard. On Fridaysomeone pushed a door open on my foot and tore one of my toenails off of my foot. I got 4 stitches under my toenail from the torn skin and then had my toenail glued back on top of that. I was told to keep it up as much as possible for the next few days. So I chilled at home, workedon a chemo cap and went to bed early. I woke up at 2:30 am to what sounded like a thunderstorm...in the kitchen. I ran downstairs to see water pouring down through the light fixtures and collecting in the ceiling and under the paint on the walls. My brother had come home and decided to shower at 2:30 and while turning off the water, managed to break the faucet right off. He couldn't turn the water off and it kept on pouring water, but this time inside the wall instead of the shower. My peaceful night of foot-up-as-much-as-possible wasn't going so well. I managed to turn off the water and stop most of the laundry room waterfall and we went to bed and waited for the plumber. He came, he sawed, he conquered, and he left. I went to Broadripple for a little retail therapy ($20of beads from the Bead Angel, one of my new favorite places ever!) Got back home, poured a nice bubblebath so I could soak my nasty foot, grabbed a trashy murder mystery and a glass of wine and jumped in to a freezing cold bathtub. Our water heater apparently committed suicide sometime during the time where our kitchen had been a rainforest. Oh joy. Got out, dried off and curled up with a heating pad to warm up. Cast on a new lace pattern with shiny new beads, worked a few inches, and called it a night.

Got up and cleaned a little more (drywall damage leaves quite a mess!) and then went to my G-ma Darling's for lunch. There's something about the drive out to the country with my Joni Mitchell CD that makes the crap melt away. My G-pa has a huge garden with lots of flowers around the outside and the butterflies are breathtaking. I snapped a few pictures for you guys so you can see my happy place...

That's all for now...I've got a chemo-cap that is smarter than me. Somehow I've got 20 more stitches than I should. Maybe I'll just put it away for a couple days and knit some more on the Wasabi Citron. It's more friendly anyway.