Casting Away

This came out about a month ago but I only just saw it.  Hilarious!  Especially the cat yodeling part.  Oh, I should say that it is about cats so if you aren’t into that thing.  It also makes a little fun of engineers…so if you are sensitive to that sort of thing.  But I think they hit the nail on the head…snort!

Its sort of yucky outside but the perfect day to catch up on some things I need to blog about.

First, remember this?  The gorgeous yarn I won for simply leaving a comment on Tiennie’s blog?  Look at what I did with it!!!

Cider Moon Sidewinders
Sidewinders: A PerpenSOCKular Pattern by Nona
9-10M
US 1½ / 2.5 mm
Cider Moon Blizzard
No mods.
LOVE THEM!!!

Non-knitting:

Its a Puzzle Gourd…cool, huh?

Oh, gosh, I have other things to show you, too, but I’m just too lazy.  WordPress changed how you can put photos on here and its really just not user friendly anymore.  I hope they find an easier way soon.  Anyway, I will leave you with some more kitty photos.

Bonita being her normal, cheerful self.

Marmalade LOVES his alpaca mouse.

And everything is good in the world….

Sophie was the first one I caught.  She is also the first to offer her tummy for scratching and the first to purr.

Socks is the little boy in the group (as far as I can tell…hee).  At first he was shy but he is warming up now and is definitely the most playful.  Really, how could I not have a cat called socks!  BTW, that is a Kitty Pi that he is lounging on.  They love it!!

And Sassy.  She was named for her spunky attitude in the beginning but she has really become so sweet.  She was the second one to purr and offer her belly.

They are just hours of entertainment!!!  I really hope we can find them good homes and, preferably, together.

I did want to report that I FINALLY finished and got the HSS3socks in the mail and to their recipient!  And she likes it!  She really likes it!  She is Sally-Anne Skrewt or Twice Knit!  You can link there for the picture of the whole package (cause I forgot to take a picture).   But I did get a picture of the socks:

Pattern: Hiiumaa Mismatched Socks
Yarn: Louet Gems Merino Sport Weight in Ginger and French Blue
Needle: 2.25mm
no mods.

Gotta show you what has been distracting me for the past week:

Starting at the 3 o’clock position: Socks (white feet, ya know!), then at 7 o’clock we have Sophie and then at 10-11 o’clock we have Sassy.  These are some “feral” cats I rescued from a mom in my neighborhood. They were born just before Easter.  They have another brother but he escaped after I caught him.  Anyway, the other 3 are doing great and will be adoptable in about 2 weeks.  Anyone?  More pictures will follow.

I just wanted to say hey to everyone that I’ve not said hey to in awhile.  I have sporadically been reading all the usual suspects and a few new ones but have not always left comments.  I know you’ve all been there before and you understand.  Also, to those who have left comments on this blog…thank you.  I appreciate you taking the time to comment even though I have been lax in responding.  Again, I’m sure you have been there. 

Speaking of blog readers, have you ever checked out what people are searching when they happen to come across your blog?  What do they call it?  Search engine terms?  Some of them are so out there!  I sometimes, when trying to avoid something that really needs to be accomplished, will Google what they searched just to see what else pops up.  Oh, what a time waster. 

And how many of you find that you might blog a little less now that we have Ravelry?  Sometimes after I have entered everything on there I just can’t even think about putting it all on here.  Or vice-versa.  I know not everyone is on Ravelry…but it makes you wonder what will happen when Rav goes public.  It would be terribly tempting to just say “go here.”

With that said, forever ago I put these up on Rav.

Summer of Love Lace by JC Briar
US 1½ / 2.5 mm
Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock –Flower Power
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!
couple of mods: Added my “signature” ribbing on the bottom, as usual.

The only other mod was to add a couple of short rows on the bottom of the sock right before starting the decreases for the toe.  I hoped this would add more length to the bottom of the sock so that the tip of the toe didn’t pull under when I wore them.  So far it seems to be working.  They are certainly some of my best fitting socks.

I’m thinking that if I finish one pair of my Socks that Rock Sock Club socks (say that 5X fast) every month that I will be caught up before too long.  I’m working on, and nearly finished with, Lenore.  That leaves 3 that I will have to do and, hopefully, only one more kit will arrive by then, if my math is correct.

Oh!  And the others I finished sometime ago….

Rainbow Socks by Susanne Kitzmann (from the now defunct Magknits )
US 1½ / 2.5 mm Yarn
Zwerger Garn Opal Saphir 6ply
Colorway 1201
Ingenious pattern. A little fiddly on 1 circ but the results are worth it.
Only a few mods based on length of foot.

And with that I will leave with a little *sigh* over the loss of a great free pattern resource, Magknits.  You will be missed.  In the meantime, if you are trying to track down some of the patterns before they completely disappear,…I have removed this link per the comment you will find below.  I have only the highest respect for designers and their intellectual property and feel that this is the right move.  This, however, is not a comment on what others choose to do on their blogs.  Did I cover my butt well enough?  She did a great job getting together all the links to the patterns ”in memoriam” to Magknits.

Nothing pulls you out of a blogging slump like getting a package in the mail.  Whew!  Thanks, Susan! 

I won’t go into the details but I’ll just say that I wasn’t having a very good day when I pulled into the driveway and saw the package.  My first thought was, “what did I buy this time!?!”  As I opened the package, it became obvious what it was.

My Hogwarts Sock Swap 3 package!!  My pal, Lavendar Kadavra (aka Susan), sent me socks from a pattern she wrote herself (seen top left), the best stitch markers (better picture below), lots of HP candy, a kitty notebook and stickers, some HP trading cards and Knitpick needles!!  SCORE!!

The socks really are great.  I believe that she handdyed the yarn as well as wrote the pattern, so WOW!  The yarn really is so very soft and it has this shine to it like it has tencel or silk in it.

And this is just the best bit…little tongues on my “snake socks.” 

And I had to show you an upclose of the stitch markers.  Aren’t they perfect?!?

Thank you, again, Susan for such a wonderful package!!

And where, do you ask, am I with sending my package out?!?  Oh, well, I won’t give too much away but I will say that I have contacted my pal to let her know that they won’t make it by the deadline. 

I mean, would you wake her up????

I spent the day cleaning today.  For you to truly get the significance of this I would first have to tell you just how bad my house was.  Yeah, no.  It is really embarrassing.  Needless to say…I spent most of the day just on my living room.  And I have to admit that it isn’t completely put back together.  I have company coming in a week and I had to do something.  So in my effort to clean/organize I thought I would share some of the ways I use yarn to decorate or “how I try to disguise stash.”

The obvious way is to use it as a center piece, like fruit, in a bowl or basket on a table.  Simple yet somewhat effective (if a little messy…I’ll straighten that up).  At least it looks like I meant to do it!

Another version of this is to do a “holiday-themed” centerpiece.  Here I attempt to use spring, pastel, Easter egg colored yarn to make a Easter bowl, of sorts:

This is how all this works together in my knitting/living room space:

You can see that I use baskets to disguise all kinds of yarn!!

I use this same technique in my guest room on top of the wardrobe closet.  I think it works especially well here:

Now for somewhere that you would never suspect yarn to be stashed:

Did you spot it?

Yep, in the false fronts of my “pasta” drawers.  Hopefully it will work a lot better than the pasta I used that attracted bugs!  Yuck!

Oh, and back in my living room, my friend, Bethany, allowed me to babysit her warping board while she was overseas and I use it to decoratively hold a lot of my stash.

Hopefully she won’t be needing it back right away.

Now I need to go stuff some stash down the arms of my winter coats (per Yarn Harlot) since it is getting warmer and warmer everyday!!  Yay

Just after midnight last night I finished these:

pattern: Belle Epoque from 2-At-A-Time Socks by Melissa Morgan-Oakes
yarn: Jitterbug copperbeach
needles: 40″ Inox 2.5mm
mods: none

LOVE EM!!! Love the yarn, the socks, the technique. If you’ve ever wanted to do try the 2 socks at once on one needle…I recommend this book. There is some errata but what book doesn’t have that!?!  Both the publisher and the author seem to be very actively trying to correct the issues.
In the meantime, I have SOCKS and in 6 days (really 5 and some change).

Wait! What’s that? On the very tip of the toes?

Yes, that’s right. I ran out of yarn…darn it! Well, that’s Jitterbug for you…only 265 meters. They really should increase the yardage on their skeins. I mean, 265 is not really enough for a pair of socks and 2 skeins would be WAY too much. If I ran the world (or at least Colinette Yarns)….
In other knitting news…
I loved the Melissa’s technique so much that I cast on these fingerless gloves. Unfortunately that is a Ravelry link and is the only link I could find. I apologize if you can’t see it. Might I suggest that you go and submit your email to be invited? It is a wonderful resource. In the meantime…here is my picture:

Simple yet effective.  And just in time for temperatures in the 60s!
pattern: 220 Fingerless Mitts (see link above)
yarn: Cascade 220 (can’t recall color # right now)
needles: Inox 40″ US4
mods: other than customizing it to my hands (basically knitting more rows than called for in pattern), none
Update on Summer of Love Lace…

Slowly but surely. Can you blame me? Its all stockinette now. UGH!
And this is one I cast on on the way to the Bahamas that I haven’t really worked on since.

The pattern is Mad Weave. Its a very interesting pattern and I’m really liking how it is coming out in this Ranco semi solid yarn.

I know I have more to catch up on.  Soon.

So, as I was saying, I came home.  Did laundry.  Reconnected with the cats.  Developed one heck of a cold, TYVM!! 

And packed.  See, my friend, Jennifer, had been accepted into the Philadelphia Buyers Market of American Craft as an exhibitor.  She is a jeweler.  She lives in California and when she does east coast shows I try to help.  I picked her up on Tuesday the 12th in one heck of a winter storm moving through our area.  People, I don’t drive in this kind of stuff!!!  Course, Jennifer thought I was a wimp…she lived in OR for 8 years or so. 

 Anyhoo, we began our whirlwind, crazy week.  Wednesday and Thursday was set up.  You just never can predict how much time this sort of thing takes!  But we did it and got the booth done in time for the Thursday night Jewelry Preview.

I think Jennifer did a terrific job with the visual concept of her booth.  She wanted it to feel more like a gallery and less like a jewelry store.  I say she accomplished that!!

One of the highlights of our week was our proximity to Reading Terminal Market.  What a great place!  We got terrific lunches and these great flowers that Jennifer picked up on Thursday afternoon right before the Preview.  Now, if you remember, Thursday was Valentine’s Day.  Do you know how hard it is to find flowers on Valentine’s Day?!?  Luckily, white, apple green and orange are not the colors of love.

Not the best picture of some of her work but you can find that here.  She started with a line of rings and has added the necklaces and earrings in the last couple of years.  She does really unique, beautiful work!  And she picked up 5 shops/galleries while we were at this market.  Seeing as it is her first year, everyone said this was really good.  Something about how the shops like to see you come back year after year before most will pay attention to you.

There she is…the artist!

No knitting was done during all of this…surprise!  However, I did see lots of knitted, crocheted and woven items while at the show.  Along with jewelry, glass, and ceramics, there was a large fiber area.  We were right on the edge between the two so you can guess where I was when I took a break.  People are really so amazingly creative and talented!!  I just loved walking around.  Sorry I don’t have pictures but you weren’t allowed to take them.  Understandable.  I also saw many of the exhibitors knitting away in their booths.  All said it was a bit of a slow year.

Great fun spending time with Jennifer (and her mom, who visited a couple of days).  We really didn’t get much a chance to explore the city but we knew that this was a business trip, not a social one.  We hope it can be a little more social when she is back in August.

Since I’ve been home in a self-imposed quarantine (I have got to get better, dang-it!), I’ve gotten a little knitting done.
 

These are my Feb socks for SAM5.  I really wanted to finish either the Summer Of Love Lace Socks or another pair but with all that has gone on…it just wasn’t going to happen.  These will go in the baby gift closet to be given to all those babies coming down the pipeline (other people, NOT me!!).

Pattern: Little Sky Socks from New Pathways for Sock Knitters (C. Bordhi)

Yarn: kool-aid dyed (by me) worsted weight yarn

needle: 40″ Inox US7

Enjoyed this new way of knitting socks and learned a lot that I think will translate into other sock patterns.  I’m looking forward to making more from this book.

I also frogged the Dublin Bay socks and re-casted on that yarn to make Belle Epoque socks from 2-at-a-Time Socks (Melissa Morgan-Oakes).  These have been fun, too, and I hope to catch up on all my picture taking soon.

Yes, I am still alive.  Exhausted but recovering.  For a homebody such as myself, February was extremely tiring.

You probably won’t feel too sorry for me when I show you where I began the month.

Yep, I was in The Abacos, Bahamas. Its a dirty job…etc.

I am lucky enough to have in-laws that like to spend their winter in the Bahamas and take their boat over every year to do so. For the last couple of years they have chosen Hope Town as their homeport.  We pretty much just set out from there for short cruises up and down the chain.

We arrived a couple of days before the Super Bowl and, therefore, had been invited to a Super Bowl Party being thrown by some of the local yacht club people.  Not being a football fan, I just enjoyed the people and the food!  I did try to do a bit of knitting but found that even I got a little caught up in the last inning…I mean, quarter (hee!  I KNEW that!).

Our first cruise out of the harbour (formerly a British colony) was to Great Gauna Cay. There we began our quest for the best rum drinks in the Abacos with a Grabbers (very tasty–lots of grapefruit juice–and very potent!) and we experienced our first unobstructed sunset.

From there we ventured south making our way to Little Harbour.  On the way, we visited an old friend of the family’s that resides on Tilloo Cay (if I remember that correctly).  He is an artist that built his own house on the island.  I found some of his work featured here (click on the gallery button).  We had a great visit and we bought a couple of his pieces. 

I have a habit of “collecting” cats on my journeys and Frenchie nearly ended up in my bag on the way off the island.  Isn’t she beautiful!  Bill said she adopted him shortly after one of the hurricanes that came through.  She had me at “meow.”

Onto Little Harbour where we visited Pete’s Pub and sampled another rum drink.  Another potent drink.  After only ONE my world looked like this:

…disturbing in so many ways!

Oh!  You probably want to see the boat we were cruising around in, right?

Its the Kadey Krogen 42 trawler which, btw, is on the market so you can see inside since I didn’t take any pictures.  Its a very roomy and comfortable boat, should anyone be looking for their next boat.

Oh, but I do have one picture.  I like to take pictures of my gifts in their native environment once they are given.  Take a look:

And didn’t she just give it the loveliest view, too!  I can’t believe how well it goes with the curtains!

Must show you a picture of my sweetie having a good time:

Our little dinghy doesn’t go this fast so he enjoys it while he can!

So, next we decided to stop off at Tahiti Beach at the southern end of Elbow Cay.  On the plane on the way over while filling out the entry forms, we suddenly realize that the last time we were in the Abacos was a little over 10 years ago!  And what happened 10 years ago?  We got engaged!  And where did he pop the question?  On Tahiti Beach!  Well, you can see why we stopped off there.

We were dinghied ashore by our Captain and photographer (father-in-law).  I just think that is such a beautiful picture!  Very little had changed about the beach but, to be honest, I don’t remember a whole lot about the beach itself, you know! 

It was very special to visit that place again…and on such an accidentally significant time! 

On the evening he proposed, right after I said yes, a little octopus (I kid you not!) was on the edge of the water and squirted water into the air!  Well, we didn’t spot an octopuses (I looked that up) but we did spot this on the way back to the dinghy:

It didn’t comment on our celebration.

I did get a little knitting done there…very little.  But I’m sure you understand why.  Anyway, here is proof that not only did I take my knitting…I even picked the needles up once or twice!

Note the sun poison.  Me, sun, saltwater and sunscreen just don’t play well together.  This is why I like sailing in the Northeast better.

This is what I woke to the last morning that we were in Hope Town:

AH!

So we get back home and ….

ugh!  This took me a lot longer than I expected and you are probably tired of it all (if you are even still reading this).  I have more to share and it was fun and important so I don’t want to just tack it on at the end.  Stay tuned.