Ravelry and Memeing

Shortly after the old laptop died, I received my invitation to Ravelry. (Great timing, huh?) Well now that I've had a few days with my new computer I've gotten quite a few of my projects up on Ravelry - I'm Stariel there too if you want to check them out. :)

Also, I was cruely tagged for a meme. ;)

Seven Random Things About Me:

1. I listen to my iPod (or music on my laptop at home) pretty much constantly.

2. I have suddenly developed a fondness for pink in the last year or so.

3. Although I'm very organized (yarn spreadsheet anyone?, alphabetized books) I am also messy.

4. I own a multitude of black band t-shirts, many from concerts I have attended. So many, in fact, that when helping me pack for moving my friends commented on how many there were - and there were still a bunch left in the closet! I don't wear them all that much anymore, but for about 11 years of my life I wore one almost every day.

5. I plan to move back to the west coast... someday.

6. I have an obsession with keeping 20 emails or less in my inbox, and meticulously label (see, organized!) the others and archive them in Gmail.

7. I kind of want to be in a band, but I don't play an instrument.

I'm not tagging anyone, but if you see this and want to do it then consider yourself tagged. :)

Listening to: Passenger ~ Deftones, Trapped Inside ~ Brave, A Story At Three ~ A.F.I.

Time away means more knitting to show!

Whew! Well here I am typing from the new laptop and I've got lots to tell you!

First off, I got a package from my amazing Spring Fling pal!



It had lots of yummy goodies, the yummiest being a bag of mini Almond Joy! However, the yarn and fiber was pretty yummy too. Some nearly solid Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Violet, a beautiful hank of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock, and some pretty turquoise fiber. She also knit me a washcloth!

Next up we have a few FOs. I was plugging away in my goal to finish 4 of my WIPs from the beginning of the month. Before the Great Computer Disaster I had finished two, and now I've finished four!



Yes, the long neglected Hippy Crunchy socks are FINALLY finished!



The dishcloth is finished and gifted!



And I also finished these socks out of my handspun as the second pair for my knittyboard sock swap.

Where did I go?

My laptop died rather unexpectedly so I won't be posting til I get my new one. It's on order but it might take a while.

The knitting is lots of socks lately. :)

Sheep On a Leash

I woke up this morning bright and early (on a Sunday!) with Korn's song Freak On a Leash stuck in my head. It's an old song - I do have the new version with Amy Lee, so I'm assuming that's why it was stuck in my head.

So I showered, dressed, grabbed some coffee on the way to the ATM which refused to give me money (!) and got on the T to meet bryghtrose and Patrick and head to New Hampshire. (Don't worry, we stopped at an ATM that did give me money on the way.)

I got the front seat and the job of navigator, there were muffins, and before too long we were there and contemplating how lucky we were that it was not freezing cold, pouring rain, and flooding like last year. :) Of course I brought my camera and didn't take any pictures, although there is one of me that I have to retrieve from my co-S&Wers.

Now back to the title. I had that song hopelessly stuck in my head to the point that I was actually singing it aloud (quietly) in public, the original radio edit version complete with the abrupt pause when they edit out a bad word. And then we started talking about cute little lambies and I remembered the sheep I met last year or maybe the year before - a very small pet sheep. A Sheep On a Leash. Bryghtrose was nice enough to join me in singing this new rendition of the song.

I bought a bit of blue sock yarn:



Left to Right: Van Cal Car Acres ~3oz, End of the World Farm, Ball and Skein, French Hill Farm's French Twist - none of them have color names

I've also finished two pairs of socks, as you can see in the count and progress icons. Here's a flat picture of the blue ones - the others were a test knit so I can't show you just yet.



Pattern: Lichen Ribbed Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks
Yarn: Peruvian Quechua from Elann
Started: 4/25/07
Finished: 5/4/07

I knit them as written in the book. I was a little weirded out by the strange heel and toe, but I guess the recipient loves them so it's all good.

On the needles now are *two* pairs of toe-up socks - one test knit and one for a sock swap. I don't even like toe-up socks, how did this happen?

Listening to: The Outsider ~ A Perfect Circle, Heresy ~ Nine Inch Nails

Maryland Sheep & Wool - Part II

Well, it's a little longer than I intended, but here goes:

We got up bright and early Saturday morning, hit Starbucks on the way, and headed to the festival. We arrived at about 8:10 (gates opened at 9) but discovered that they were already letting people in and there were lots of cars.



It didn't take me long to make my very first yarn purchase!



The other person in the picture is the one who dyed and named my new yarn!

After we got through what we thought were all of the buildings we got some funnel cake and sat down in the shade of a barn to knit.



At this point it was 11am and we were already almost yarned out. Rachel met up with us a little later, but headed off on her own to go through the parts of the festival we had done already.

But after a little break and going to meet some Knittyheads we discovered we had missed the main building! Of course we had to stop there too, and buy a little more yarn. Then it was time for the blogger meetup, where I got to meet Adelle my SSS pal, along with many other great bloggers.

Soon after we met Rachel again and headed back to Amanda's house just missing the rain! When we got home we lined up the yarn - the blue part is mine:



We did a little bit of celebrating Cinco de Mayo...



complete with socks!



And then tucked in for an early night preparing for the very long drive the next day.

THE END

But, as for news since I came back, look at the awesome package I got for winning the Loopy Ewe blog contest!



Perchance to Knit - awesome! Thanks Sheri!

And stay tuned... this weekend I head to New Hampshire Sheep & Wool. :)

Listening to: Her Silence ~ Sculptured, Cheer ~ Saves the Day, Sang Real ~ Dredg, The Kill ~ 30 Seconds To Mars

Maryland Sheep & Wool - Part I

Thursday night Rachel picked me up and we headed to her house in Connecticut to spend the night. Her family has a very old house, especially for a west coast girl like me, so I was rather fascinated with the oldness of it all.



Above is the barn and outhouse, and below is a keyhole in one of the floorboards.



We got up Friday morning and headed down to Maryland via Philly where we stopped at Rosie's Yarn Cellar and got lunch - I had a vegetarian cheesesteak!



Rachel dropped me off at the airport to meet Amanda, and then headed into Baltimore to meet her friend. Amanda and I went to the Nautilus diner to meet Trillian and Turtlegirl for some dinner. Since I had finished socks in the car (and I didn't bring my blockers - I'm not that crazy!) I decided to make them pose with the socks. The other patrons quite possibly thought we were totally nuts.



The socks are Lichen Rib from Knitting Vintage Socks (1/24 for my goal). I'll post more project details when I have a better picture of the socks from the recipient.

We had a lovely dinner and got a group picture before heading back to Amanda's for the night.



Coming soon... Part II!

Listening to: Wicked Game ~ H.I.M., Weaken ~ God Lives Underwater, Dose ~ Filter

Whew!

This weekend was great, but very tiring. I was in 6 states today! I finished a pair of socks on the way.



I may have bought all the blue sock yarn at Maryland Sheep & Wool.



Listening to: Capricorn ~ 30 Seconds to Mars, The Rest Will Flow ~ Porcupine Tree

Oh, the guilt!

I have a confession...

I have WIP guilt. I have so many things on the needles and I am starting to want to stuff them in the back of the closet to muffle their little cries of "Knit me!" Oh... wait... not quite. ;)

In an effort to come clean and maybe get some help (so, bug me about these WIPs once in a while!) I'm going to post them all today.

So here goes in kinda-chronological order from oldest:

1. The Ribbed Ribbon Tank

I bought this yarn on sale to make the Ribbon X Back from knitty, but when I swatched I discovered that even though the yarn was supposed to be the right gauge I really didn't like the fabric. I tried going down to smaller needles, but I didn't like all that seed stitch. I decided to design my own tank, and I was afraid I wouldn't have enough yarn. This one might just get ripped.



2. Elizabeth I

This one doesn't have a good story, I just don't often have the time alone and the attention to dedicate to the chart. It also seems to be MIA... I think I packed it "somewhere safe".

3. Hush Hush

I intended this to be a long-term project, and it is. Also the yarn is on a cone so it's not very portable.



4. Fun Blanket

Another one that was intended to be long-term. Actually just whenever I get bored I'll work on it, although I do want to get it finished by December.



5. Felted Bag

I guess I'm just not feeling the love - it's a rather boring project. Although I should just get it done with cuz there's not much left to do.



6. Canal du Midi (greenish)

I don't have a good excuse, except that I kept taking the needles out for other projects.



7. Test Knit (pictured above, brown)

These are recent so I don't need an excuse. :)

8. Hippy Crunchy

20 row lace chart. That's all I have to say.



9. Dishcloth

Now that is just pathetic!

10. Cherie

What was supposed to be mindless knitting has now scared me when I read about problems others were having with the pattern.



11. Cables

My cabled scarf. This project is for me, and I won't need it til next winter, hence no motivation. Also "somewhere safe".

12. Mystic Sea (tiny)

Socks started at sock camp, and I have had other more deadline-oriented items.



13. Lichen Rib (blue above)

These are actually progressing quite nicely.

P.S. There are actually two more scarves that I started in fits of boredom that have no intended recipient or purpose, so I'm not really counting those.

So, what do I intend to *do* about this? Well I am setting a goal to finish four of these items in May. Not just four items, cuz then I would just start and finish new stuff. It will probably help that I dragged them all out of their hiding places and now have them relatively organized and accessible.

Listening to: Miss Murder ~ A.F.I., Sweet Dreams ~ Marilyn Manson, Enjoy the Silence ~ Depeche Mode, Declarations of Faith ~ Zwan, 6 Underground ~ Sneaker Pimps, It Scares Me ~ Mesh