A little mystery...

So, I have this yarn...

See, usually I'm very organized and I put all of my stash into Ravelry and keep ball bands and all that jazz, but this yarn has a story.

I acquired it sometime before October 11, 2006 when it first appeared in a picture of my sock stash for Socktoberfest.



Then it marinated for a while until I got into Ravelry and put it in my Ravelry stash, strangely using a different Flickr account than my normal one, on June 28, 2007. Apparently I created a second Flickr account in June of 2007, uploaded stash pics over a couple weeks, and completely forgot about it.*

*until tonight when I was going crazy trying to figure out the details of this yarn!

In the fall of 2008, I gave the yarn to my mom to start her second pair of socks and deleted it from my Ravelry stash.

Fast forward to December 2011, when my mom declares that she should knit a second pair of socks and I remind her that I gave her yarn and needles. She can't recall, and goes and finds the barely-started socks in a drawer. (Minus the ball band and any identifying yarn information, of course.)

She declares that she doesn't like the way they look and is going to go buy some other yarn, so I pull the socks-in-progress off the needles - of course she wanted to keep the needles! - and take them home to knit for myself.

This is all well and good, except for the fact that I have absolutely no idea what the yarn is. And, being me, this starts making me crazy when I try to put the project into Ravelry. So I spent several hours last night going through my blog archives and trying to find where I posted about the yarn, since I seem to recall that it was a gift. I never posted. But I did find the stash pic above which gave me a clue about when I got it.

Then while falling asleep I think that I wouldn't have deleted the stash pics from my Flickr. It popped into my head at knitting group, so tonight when I got home I went back through my Flickr archives trying to find the time when I was photographing my stash in the summer of 2007 shortly after getting into Ravelry... but I couldn't find it.

In fact, I came and started this blog post thinking I would beg for the help of the internet in identifying the yarn from that first crummy photo, when I suddenly thought "Hey, didn't I have a different Flickr name once?" and found it.



And those are the lengths I'll go to to solve yarn mysteries... knitting is so relaxing. ;)

At last!

Well, I have been slacking on my promised post with more about Sock Summit. The problem, you see (other than all the secret knitting keeping me busy) is that I have camnesia. It's a horrible disease where I bring my camera to Sock Summit yet take pretty much no pictures. It's true, I have a couple of pictures of my socks in progress and a few more of food. That's it.

So I borrowed some from Shannon Okey.

Here's Shannon's picture of me in the Cooperative Press booth. It's not a great picture of me, but I spent lots of time in the booth, and I helped hang up all those socks. :) Plus, it proves I was actually at Sock Summit.



The Monday after Sock Summit, Shannon and I headed to Knit Picks where we got to hang out, see pretty yarn, and make some videos. Here's me about to be interviewed by Stacey:



Of course, my eyes are closed. Maybe there's a reason there aren't more pictures of me at Sock Summit!

And further proof... my friend noticed that I am visible in Harry's (Franklin's ball of sock yarn) Sock Summit adventure video. I'm trying to squeeze out of the Goth Socks booth at about 2:14 in the video.

So now that you believe that I was there, here's what I got...



Just in case you were wondering, I still like blue.

L to R
Canon Hand Dyes Charles Sock Yarn
2 skeins of Three Fates Yarns Tethys Sock
superwash fiber from MacKintosh Yarns
a Magic Ball from Sophie's Toes
Fiber Optic Yarns Foot Notes
Sanguine Gryphon Skinny Bugga

And the Goth Socks:



The two on the right are the same, I'm hoping to knit some gothy knee socks.

While I was photographing yarn, I thought I'd give you a sneak peek of some of the yarns that are going to be in my book - some of them are from Sock Summit, some aren't.



It's not a complete list, since some (strangely the warmer colors!) are currently being knit. But the ones pictured here are (L to R):

ms. gusset
Tactile
Swoonish
MacKintosh Yarns
more Swoonish
kitchen sink dyeworks

Now back to knitting!

Yarn

Well, this is a knitting blog, and so I shall talk about yarn.

First off, I was in a swap on the knittyboard - you may have seen my earlier package posted in the beginning of August. Well for the 2nd month of the swap the person that we originally sent *to* sent back to us. I was away for a few days in the first week of September, but I came home on Labor Day to find this:



My pal sent me a couple skeins of Wildfoote, some handmade soap, notecards, a needle case, 2 skeins of Cotton Ease, and a "Blast Off Spinners" shooter thing. The last is for the cats - I haven't tried it yet since I was a bad recipient and didn't take a picture until today, but I'm sure they'll enjoy it soon.

And now for a bit more yarn talk... I've been using the end of my Summer of Stash to make sure all my sock yarn is up on Ravelry. So no, I did not just buy all of that yarn that went up on Ravelry. For the most part it was from Sock Summit (yes, it took me a year to get it up on my stash) or yarn clubs, but a bit was from the yarn crawl in May. None of it was bought this summer, as I haven't been buying yarn since June 21st.

While I may buy the occasional skein once my stash commitment is over on the 23rd, I'm still going to stick to my 3:1 rule (using 3 times as much yarn as I buy).

I also need to get crackin' on some of these WIPs, so I can cast on this:



Yes, candy corn socks, here I finally come!

Summer of Stash

After finishing and mailing my secret and complicated project, I was glad to be able to get back to some simple knitting this weekend.

I got quite a bit of knitting done on Blurple Waves, and thought about taking a better progress picture. Of course, I didn't get around to it until after the sun went down, but it works:



As you can see, it covers my double bed, and is almost halfway done length-wise! Java thought she would help me take the picture.



Which was appropriate since her brother Pan was so helpful with my designing earlier.



As for the post title... I've decided to knit from my stash this summer. No new yarn! I have a lovely bunch of yarn already, and I just picked up some more on the LYS tour in May. I figured the summer would be a good time to focus on using yarn I already have. And because I don't think I really showed it much after I moved, here is the stash in its home... the knitting nook.



It lives there with my knitting books and patterns, my spinning wheel, and the little table that I like to photograph yarn and socks on.

Yarn? Is that you?

A while back I ordered some Opal Feelings yarn on eBay. I've wanted some - particularly the blue one - since it came out a couple years ago, and now that it's gone I still wanted some. I've been waiting patiently for it to come in the mail.

Well, the weather in Seattle has been particularly bad these past few days, and tonight when I arrived home I was getting my mail out in the rain (and in the dark, I hate you DST!), I grabbed a package which I thought was a book that I'm also expecting. But upon bringing it to my apartment, I realized it was my yarn. Except... book shaped.



Yes, my yarn was vacuum packed. Supposedly to save on shipping, but I've found that yarn shipping to and from Canada is really very reasonable via air mail. In any case, it was amusing. I made a cut in the bag and a hissing sound started and soon I had two very normal (if slightly flat) balls of yarn:



Yay for Opal Feelings!

Now, as for the knitting, there have been many secret projects lately. A pair of socks which I forgot to take a picture of (but one has been promised by the recipient) and this:



You may remember the other Harry Potter scarves - I knit one of the old style for each house, though I never got pictures of the Slytherin one. Well, this PoA one is a gift. :D

That is a lot of stockinette. Even more than the first ones, because this scarf is longer. Whew! But it's done and I think it turned out really well. It's on the way to it's new home and I hope she likes it!

Oh Snarfy...

One of the fab Salem knitters, Snarfy, had her birthday at Sock Summit on Saturday. I wanted to give her these socks before leaving Oregon last weekend, but they weren't quite done. (See, the socks actually have nothing whatsoever to do with her birthday, but I figured it was a good occasion.)



Yarn: Dashing Dachs in Froggin'
Started: 5/20/09
Finished: 8/13/09

I posted this yarn in my stash on Ravelry one day, and Snarfy commented "OMG hot". I almost thought it a joke because... well let's just say this yarn is not really my style - but you could have guessed that. Of course, while I was knitting it I got comments both ways, so it seems that Snarfy isn't the only one who really liked this yarn.

In case you're wondering, skeined up it looked like this:



I got it from the Woolgirl club, and it was destined to sit in my stash for all eternity... but then Snarfy rescued it. Since I hadn't used Dashing Dachs before, I told her I'd knit the socks.

The base yarn is that standard 2-ply merino that many indie dyers use or have used - I can't remember the name off the top of my head, but it's quite thin and rather loosely plied. It knits up nicely, though. Even though the colors weren't my favorites, I have to say I'm impressed with the dyeing. The black is *very* black and most of the colors have pretty clear "borders" and don't bleed into each other. The light blue does blend a bit with the bright green to make it a little bit of a darker green, but it looks good. And the bright green and yellow sort of fade into each other. But there aren't any muddy spots where the colors touch, which I was really pleased with.* Overall a very nice yarn!

* When taking the dyeing class with Tina from Blue Moon at sock camp, she talked about how she loves the magic of the colors blending together and forming other colors in between. Maybe it's my analytical / control freak tendencies speaking, but I can't say the same. ;)

Listening to: the menu music for Tru Calling... I'd better go finish my DVD!

Settling In

First off, if you haven't seen this video of sheep-herding art, it really is a must see. And I am not someone who usually posts links to YouTube on her blog. I saw it on Shannon's blog this morning and it is pretty amazing. And I haven't seen it everywhere yet, so I figured it was worth posting.

Now, back to me...

I've been working here and there on a few projects, but a lot of the knitting has been put aside in favor of apartment (and stash!) organizing. I know I've said it before, but it is sure great to have knitting friends. Especially knitting friends like MJ who knits with me on Skype and, occasionally, does crazy things like stay up til 4am (actually 6am her time) organizing yarn in my new Expedit on Skype. Yeah... But let's rewind.

Monday evening, as planned, I took a trip to IKEA with my buddy and partner in furniture acquisition, Brian. We made a really quick trip through IKEA and got most of the items on my list and magically fit it all into his Jetta. The Jetta totally wins. Now, granted, IKEA furniture is flat-packed, but we got a big (4x4) Expedit, a TV stand, 2 lamps, a drying rack, and a few assorted smaller goodies all into the back of his car. Then, after dinner, we got to put it all together.

There are many reasons why I love Brian, but one of them is that he is a guy who reads directions when assembling furniture. :)



And I was so excited I kept exclaiming about how great my new Expedit was while it was still in pieces on the floor!



Then we finished and when Brian left at about 11:30 it looked like this:



It would have ended there, but MJ was online and I exported my Ravelry stash to a spreadsheet and assigned bin numbers alphabetically by yarn manufacturer. MJ was still around so I emailed the spreadsheet to her, and she checked off yarns while telling me what bin they went in over Skype. Yes, we are both nuts. And now it looks like this:



I still have a few yarns to add to my Ravelry stash - some of the stuff I got right before moving from Boston didn't make it in, and there was a bit of yarn acquisition in the intervening 6 months. Also I've found that I'm really *really* bad at remembering to add my Rockin' Sock Club yarns. Probably because of the whole spoiler issue, and then after a month I forget.

I was going to show you some pictures of my socks-in-progress, but this post is already unwieldy so those can wait for another day.

Listening to: Alone ~ Amorphis, Enjoy the Silence ~ Depeche Mode

Starting the year off right

Yesterday the knitting group in Salem was having a yarn swap, so I gathered up a few less-loved colors of sock yarn and a bunch of odds and ends that weren't sock yarn and headed out. Not many people brought much yarn, but I did manage to make a couple swaps with the sock yarn for other sock yarn and offloaded a bunch of other yarn that was nice, but just not something I'm going to knit. I've realized that I really do knit socks *way* more than anything else, and I like it. I've tried to convince myself to knit other things, but the truth is I don't often want to. So I'm embracing my sock-knitterness and paring down the non-sock stash.

The best part about this is that my Stasholution is now in the black. I have a stash rule that I can only bring in 1/3 the amount of yarn (measured in grams) as goes out. The "out" yarn is anything I destash or knit up. I was a bit in the red at the end of last year, but now as a result of this yarn swap I have a few new-to-me skeins of yarn and "credit" for 33.3g of yarn. Yeah, not even up to a skein yet.

As for the knitting, these past few days have been all about the WIPs. The second of the two scarves has been started and is threatening the progress on other WIPs - everyone wasn't kidding when they talked about how addictive it is!



Watching those little stripes form is so fun! And I hate 1x1 rib. I'm sure it will be even better when the colors change... you can see that the turquoise is starting to become green. I'm using colors 40 and 233.

I've also be participating in the Leyburn KAL on Ravelry. A bunch of people in the Socks That Rawk!! group are knitting this pattern in different colors of Socks That Rock - the idea is to get as many colorways as possible.



Mine are in Carbon Dating. I changed the pattern to cuff down and had to mess with the numbers a bit to get them to fit, but so far I think they're going really well. It's an interesting pattern, but very easy to memorize and fun to knit.

I should have a couple finished projects this week if all goes well, and neither of them are pictured above.

Listening to: I'm Not the Only One ~ Filter, Bruise Pristine ~ Placebo

Casting on some more...

So, as I said in the last post, that wasn't all of my casting on frenzy.

Freeing up those size 1 needles allowed me to rescue these little toes which had been hanging out on 2.5mm needles for a few months. (And that was after being the Reversi socks for Sock Madness which I just didn't like and ended up frogging) I started the toes intending to do the Jacobean socks while coming home from sock camp last April (I know, I know...) but since toe-up socks aren't my favorite and I needed my size 1s for much more pressing sock concerns... well they got neglected.



Now that the size one needles are free they're back in action using the Anastasia Socks pattern that I've been meaning to make for about forever. Overall a success... so far.

And of course getting the 2.5mm needles out of those toes allowed me to cast on for a much more important pair of socks!



My friend Rachel bought this yarn long ago and I promised to make her socks with it. And I tried, really I did! First I started the Canal du Midi pattern from Knitting On the Road, but I just hated knitting it so much I knew it would never get finished. The socks sat around for about a year until I frogged them, then I moved 3 times in 2 months and the yarn got misplaced. I found it and started one of the patterns from Knitting Vintage Socks, I honestly don't remember which one, but it also was not a winner.

So now it's been easily 2 or 3 years and Rachel is getting married in January and asked if I could pretty please make her the socks for her "something blue" and really, how could a friend deny a request like that? Especially since I've owed her these socks for years now and have made about 100 other pairs of socks in that time. I am really a bad friend. So I have started the Monkey pattern which is perfectly mindless and never fear, the socks are already much farther than when I took this picture a couple days ago.

And last, but certainly not least, I present Blurple Waves:



I thought up this project quite a while back as a solution to all my gorgeous 1 or 2 balls of worsted-ish weight yarns in blue and purple. I got many of them as gifts from the many secret pal swaps I participated in, and a girl can only use so many hats. Plus, as you may have noticed, I don't knit many hats. These are really beautiful yarns from Lorna's Laces Worsted to Colinette to yarns from little farms across the US - and they really deserve to be used.

So I came up with this idea... I could knit a blanket in a chevron pattern with all these yarns, since they are all blue and purple and go well together. I can knit up what I have and add to it when I get special gift balls of yarn, and if I start doing SP swaps again I can ask for yarn for it too. :) I had the forethought to buy the needles a few months ago so it was all ready to go, and after casting on 299 stitches (eek!) I'm off!

Packing the Stash

Knitting has been largely preempted by moving lately. It's no fun, but it's the way it has to be.

I started packing and one of the first things to get packed was most of my stash. I've decided that if I pack all of my yarn I'll be less likely to start new projects and more likely to finish knitting the things I already have in progress. I'll save out a ball or two for the road trip but otherwise all the stash is being boxed up.

Tonight I went out to meet polarg for an evening of knitting and crepe eating. It was lovely.



Doesn't it look perfect? It was an awesome way to get my mind off of the moving at least temporarily.

Listening to: A Desolation Song ~ Agalloch, Credence ~ Opeth

SPA yarn and Flat Feet

Can you see Cathy's influence on my SPA yarn purchases?



The furthest left is yarn from Dye Dreams - the first booth we stopped in! There was a beautiful dark blue-teal yarn that Cathy really liked *shock!* so I got it for her as a birthday gift. Then there wasn't another for me, so I picked up this blue and pink one. It's really pretty!

The middle yarn is from The Woolen Rabbit and is called Harmony - the color is Black Velvet. Cathy and I were ogling this yarn for both days of SPA and finally bought it Sunday morning when there were only two skeins left.

And last but not least, some pretty yarn from Pine Woods Yarn. They're in Maine and dye on a wood fired stove, and the colors are all unique. There were some multis and even some blue ones but my goal was to stick with semisolid for the most part, so I went with Cathy's pick of green.

So that's my yarn from SPA, fiber perhaps to come at a later date, or if not then when I spin it for sure!

I also started a pair of socks from my new Flat Feet. The yarn comes knit into a large flat piece with waste yarn down the middle. Each side is about 12" x 15" unstretched.



I cut the waste yarn to make two flats so I could knit my socks 2 at once.



Then it was time to start unraveling and cast on!

The curlyness of the yarn was a little annoying during the cast on, but not too bad. While I knit it doesn't bother me at all, but I think this probably has something to do with my knitting style. I knit continental so I don't drop the yarn between stitches and I keep it at a pretty good tension so the part I'm working with is pulled taut and not curly at all. I can imagine if you are dropping the yarn between stitches then the frogged yarn could be really annoying.

January Goals

I've done pretty well on my goals for January. After going through my goals posts from the end of 2007 and beginning of 2008 I've figured my goals are the following:

1. Reduce the stash
2. Try new yarns (from the stash)
3. Knit more Rockin' Sock Club socks
4. Knit a sweater
5. Finish old WIPs

So in January I did the following:

1. I bought 500g of yarn - all sock yarn - during the month of January. This includes sock clubs which I purchased last year but which arrived this year. I knit 200g from the stash. Not too shabby, almost all of it was sock clubs and "holiday" yarn purchases. Since I returned home to reside with my stash, I'm doing very well. ;)

2. I succeeded in this by trying the Panda Cotton (which I bought on my holiday trip) and Inspinknity. The Panda Cotton socks were started in December, so Inspinknity is my official January New Yarn.

3. I started my newest RSC package as soon as it arrived and I've made good progress so far. The yarn is wound and ready for Marble Arches as my February RSC sock.

4. No progress on the sweater yet.

5. I finished the Olympia socks this month, which were technically a 2007 WIP. I did frog Canal du Midi and make good progress on the California socks. I also found and made minimal progress on Mystic Sea - I intend to work more on those this month and finish them before sock camp in April for sure.

A Very Knitty Houseguest

This week among the blizzards and such, I had Monkee staying with me. It's been a blast - she has been very awesome and has helped me put together IKEA lamps, hang artwork in my bedroom, organize yarn, and she even does the dishes! I am happy to let anyone that awesome crash on my couch for a few days. ;)

Because of her I've also been having a yarn-filled few days catching up with other local knitters and visiting yarn shops.

She arrived on Thursday just in time for the huge snow storm, so we just spent the evening knitting and trying to stay warm. Friday after work we headed to A Good Yarn for some yarny goodness, then out to Harvard Square for some noodles and shopping.

Saturday we went to WEBS for the 2-at-a-time Socks book event. It was pretty interesting and I got a book even though I've already got that method down. I also got some Plymouth Happy Feet and a bit of Shi Bui for some colorwork socks.

Today the weather was crummy once again but we did manage to go over to Cathy's place where I brought her some BMFA Leticia in Rooster Rock that I found in my stash-diving adventures (I have two skeins so I gave one to her) and she managed to whip up an Unoriginal Hat in just a couple of hours.

As for me... still knitting socks.

Listening to: Dope Hat ~ Marilyn Manson, Mayonaise ~ Smashing Pumpkins

The Stash Grows

Tonight Cassandra and I headed over to Catherine's to record a bit and I got my BMFA Socks That Rock in Raven colors and Atomic #6.



From left to right: Haida, Atomic #6 (nope, not a Raven) and Rook-y

Then when I got home I had a package from the L&V Prize Patrol also full of sock yarn:



The yarn on the far left was dyed by Miss V and the rest is a variety of Knit Picks yarn that I strangely don't have.

Listening to: Miss Murder ~ A.F.I., In The Shadow of Our Pale Companion ~ Agalloch

The Sock Stash Multiplies (AHHHH!)

Ok, I admit it. I've been buying yarn.

I feel kind of silly, my stash is ginormous and I joined the Sock Stash Elimination Campaign, and then I went and bought sock yarn.

It all started with some yarn that Catherine bought at Rhinebeck, Ancient Threads - I was desperate to get some but I hadn't seen the booth while I was there - and it's so beautiful and naturally dyed. Well we thought they didn't have a website, but it turns out they do! One of them contacted us to let us know and I went and bought some beautiful naturally dyed sock yarn. I can't wait to get it!

Then to continue with the madness, Blue Moon came out with the Raven colors. Now I've been not-so-patiently waiting for these since I first saw the banner about them on the front page because the yarn picture there (Rook-y, I'm pretty sure) was a yarn colorway that I had imagined a while back and was on a quest to find. Well, now it's out!

And then maybe, just maybe, I might have gotten some Buffy yarn from White Oak Studios.

I'm so bad...

Listening to: Behind Space '99 ~ In Flames

You've been patient, so here's a treat!

I realized today that I promised more info on my Taste of Germany package and then left you all hanging! Life (both real and knitting) has been hectic lately. But now things have calmed down a bit so here goes:

When I heard about the Taste of Germany blue kit I knew I just had to have it. I mean, blue sock yarn! What could be more me?

I lucked out and got a spot (actually Alexis got it for me because I was on a train somewhere in Philly) and received my beautiful yarn fairly quickly afterward.

In alphabetical order, to be fair...

Das Schneeschaf Marisilk



This is the one everyone was drooling over at the last FiberCult recording session. It's also my favorite colors of the bunch - blue and purple, who knew? Still not sure if I'm going to keep or gift this one - I'm not a fan of silk and I'm sure many people would love to have it.

Drachenwolle Merino/Silk/Ramie Sockenwolle



Handgefaerbt Sockenwolle Merino Light in Downstream



Sheepaints Sockenwolle in Wunsch Brunnen



Wollmeise Sockenwolle in Vergißmeinnicht



I think one of the most interesting things was to see how differently all of the dyers interpreted the 'blue' theme. The Drachenwolle is more of a slate blue, the Wollmeise is just blue, and the others are some combination that contains blue. But they're all lovely!

In knitting news, the tight deadline design socks are done and off in the mail (2 more pairs completed, but I can't show you of course!) I am usually a pretty quick sock knitter, and I don't think I really thought very much about how different it is to crank out a pair of socks from a pattern and to write a pattern and then knit the socks while triple-checking every word. They took much longer than my usual pairs!

And now that that's over with it's time for me to start my Secret Spook projects, but never fear! I'll do some non-secret knitting too so you guys have something to look at.

Listening to: She Came On ~ Super Deluxe, 405 ~ Death Cab for Cutie

As promised, yarny goodness

Well today I had a chance to get to the post office and pick up a couple of packages - the first was from my knittyboard Rut Bustin' Sock Swap partner, who turned out to be Bad Amy!

The outside of the box had pictures of people knitting - one even wearing yarn on her head! The whole thing before unwrapping the little individual packages:



The Thelonious pattern, treats for the furry residents of my household, and star beads - I'm really going to find an occasion to wear those in public!

And after some unwrapping I found these lovely goodies:



The sheep tape measure is just adorable, and I can never have enough tape measures as they seem to always get (temporarily) lost. I find them, stockpile them on my dresser, then take them every time I can't find one in my bag. Eventually I go through older knitting projects and bags I don't use frequently and look under the bed and find them all again.

The Toblerone brings me great joy since I have always longed for one. Now, don't laugh, I'm being totally serious here! I have had the chance to taste Toblerone before, I've had small pieces of other peoples' and I think I had a few mini ones once. However I have never had my very own full size Toblerone, and I look at them and think about how I want one every time I see one in the store! Apparently at those times I always decide to 'be good' and I don't ever buy them.

There's also some Mandarin body scrub, a little peanut butter chocolate nubbin, and a new kind of chai to add to my collection.

And now the yarn you've been waiting for:



Both of these beauties are Fleece Artist mill ends.



The purpose of the swap was to send yarn that busted the recipients "sock rut" - my rut is blue, in case you didn't know. ;) I think my pal managed to do this quite well and still send yarn that I love!

And a teaser for next time... I got my Taste of Germany package!


What? I never said I didn't like my blue rut!

Listening to: Moonlapse Vertigo ~ Opeth, Don't Know Why ~ Saves the Day

The Epic Yarn Diet Challenge

On Friday morning while I chatted with Amanda before work an idea was born. She was saying how much she needed a sock yarn diet (my need is pretty apparent!) and I said maybe we really should. We could pledge not to buy yarn before the weekend of Stitches East - she's probably going, I'm probably not.

My suggestion for a "punishment" should we fail was that we would have to give twice the amount of our yarn purchase to the other participant, but Amanda said this wasn't severe enough. Her punishment is that we don't get to buy any yarn at Rhinebeck!

We do have a couple of exceptions - buying yarn for our SPs or Secret Spook pals and receiving yarn we previously purchased/ordered.

One of the last skeins I got in is this yarn I special-ordered from Tyler a while back, but which is ready now:



I don't have the yarn in hand yet, but he sent me this lovely picture. I gave him the idea of "variegated black" - basically a dark yarn with a black base that had slightly variegated shades of dark grey, blue, and purple. He says the picture is a bit lighter than the actual yarn, which sounds about perfect.

Of course today I spent the day at the yarn store and thought about buying yarn about 10 separate times before remembering each time about my yarny challenge with Amanda. So finally I caved and bought this instead.

The knitting lately is mostly secret, which is why I've been pretty quiet. However I have a couple of knitting-related packages at the post office waiting for me to retrieve them on Tuesday so there should be more content soon.

Listening to: A Million Years ~ 27

Home Improvements

First off, there's a new episode of FiberCult up! I probably won't keep updating here for all the episodes, so if you're interested you can subscribe to that blog or to the RSS feed in iTunes (there are instructions on the FiberCult blog).

Now, down to business! Over the weekend Cathy and I headed to IKEA and I picked up a bit of furniture for my room.



A desk and chair for my computing and a yarn shelf. ;)



I felt really cool putting all my new furniture together with tools. Then last night a new opportunity to use tools came up:



I closed my bedroom door when I was leaving the house, and when I came back it wouldn't open! My doorknob was apparently past it's prime. Luckily I was able to get my room open with this lovely contraption and hopefully I'll have a new doorknob soon.

Hope all of you have a lovely 4th of July. I'm heading out now to sit outside with friends, knit some socks, and watch fireworks when the time comes.

Listening to: Move Together ~ AEC, Kill Caustic ~ A.F. I.

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