Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Distractions


All weekend long I worked on Clapotis. See the progress... I'm now working on the straight sections and am dropping stitches on schedule. However now I'm starting to wonder if I'll have enough yarn. What you see here is my progress on the first ball. I have 2 hanks of Primero in the color Honeysuckle, about 1000 yds. It's a year old so it's not like Sherry has more sitting in the stockroom at this point. Right now my plan is to finish this ball and see where I am. Hopefully the answer really is halfway.

At times I like mindless knitting and this is actually a pretty simple knit. All the patterning is on the knit side and the stitch markers clue up to do anything different. I worked on it all through the MK World Live session on Saturday. Heather had been tweaking me about actually managing to attend one since the session watched back in October. And I had slowly been acquiring what was needed. A reliable internet connection, a camera for laptop and a headset and microphone. Of course I couldn't get the microphone to work at all. Evidently they could see me, but communication from me was limited to nods and IM. I don't know what the others thought but I think it went rather well. At least all of the participants were still there at the end of the scheduled time and then some.

My current distraction is this. An Alligator Scarf from Morehouse Merino. It's in garter stitch and generally there is some sort of shaping on the right side rows. The color is Orinoco which is a rich blue purple. In theory I'm about 2/3 done with the body but I haven't finished the first ball. I'm seriously thinking about using a provisional cast-on and knitting the tail. Then going back and knitting body scales until I'm almost out of yarn and then kitchnering it together.

And last but not least... My sister and I have each other's name for Christmas. Typically we acquire lots of little stuff for each other over the entire year. Then the challenge in December is to remember where you put it all. This year Robin managed to misplace something. Unfortunately she still hasn't found them, but she went out and got me another set. Fortunately they are something that she likes for her house too. Last night they came home with me.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Brrrr

It's cold. -10F this morning, and it never got past single digits all day. It's windy on top of it, so the wind chills are dangerously low.

Yesterday with 7 inches of new snow on the ground, I had to take the bus to work. The car was in the shop getting new brakes front and back. I hadn't used public transit in Columbus since high school. Let's just say it was a while ago. I did my research, figured out which buses to catch and where and when to meet them. It might have been better if I hadn't decided to walk about 6 blocks to the office rather than taking a transfer. It was a cold walk through the snow but I got there on time and didn't mess up the route. And taking the bus means that you can say "the bus leaves at ___, and the next one is in an hour" and walk out the door on time.

The trip home was more of an adventure. I caught the bus outside my building without a problem. The driver was very helpful about answering my question about where my transfer stop would be. And oddly enough one of the passengers said something to me as I was waiting to exit and was slightly unhappy when I didn't respond. He was satisfied when I pardoned myself, and mentioned that I hadn't really heard him. Waiting at the transfer point was a lesson in why you should wear layers. It's downtown, among the high rises. The street layout and the building heights turns the streets into wind tunnels and the wind was fierce. I had layers but had a gap between basically my hips and knees. Jeans and tights were not enough.

I learned my lesson and today bundled up top to bottom. Even my eyes were covered with wrap around sunglasses. No bare skin for me. Nanook of the north is what I call the look. Thermal shirt, hooded wool pullover, down vest, wool vest, flannel lined oilskin duster with tights, wool socks, jeans, gaiters and gore-tex lined hiking boots. Topped with wool scarf, hat and fingerless gloves inside my mittens. Did I mention that I don't like being cold...

Game plan for the weekend, stay out of the cold, do chores (yuck), maybe dye yarn (messy but fun and I bet I can get the wool to cool down quickly so it can be rinsed) and knit on my Clapotis. I've started the straight part and am on my third repeat. And finally manage to participate in an MK World Live session tomorrow evening.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Ooh pretty


It's here. The very first shipment of Creatively Dyed's Fantasy Fiber Club.

It is 4 oz. of a blend of Milk Protein, Seacell and wool. The colors aren't that far off. Oh so pretty. I need to put an empty bobbin on the wheel and start playing.

This is the bag of goodies that arrived with it. A wraps per inch tool, a Creatively Dyed Calendar and a pattern card from the new Knit One Below knitting book. It was waiting in the front front door when I got back from work and the mechanics this afternoon.

The car, a 2001 Sebring, front wheel drive, manual transmission, a car that actually goes on snow, had a windshield wiper just stop working today. And to make life really interesting we got hit with our first true winter storm. Snow, several inches fell during the day, and is still falling. We have something like 5 inches so far and more predicted overnight. Plus we're heading for sub-zero temperatures.

So after spending an hour plus making a drive that should have taken about 20 - 25 minutes on the crawling freeways, the car was left at my favorite mechanic. Brian thinks that its' just a bolt that is loose (fingers crossed), but while it's in there he's going to change the oil, check the brakes and put the new wiper blades on it. The wiper blades I bought last week and intended to install when it wasn't cold or wet. Nice thought that.

So my dad picked me up and dropped me home and I waded through the snow to get in. My game plan is to go out this evening and shovel off the drive and walks. Already someone has come to the door wanting $10 to shovel them off. It says a lot about the economy, I've been in this house since '91 and this is the first time someone has shown up wanting to shovel. And I just took a large pay cut in an attempt to employed this year. I have no extra money to spend. And I was unemployed all last winter, I know how they feel.

Clapotis continues to grow. I'm almost to the point where I can start going straight and dropping stitches.

I need to go shovel snow.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Movies

I am a book and movie junkie. My library of fiction is enormous, and I love sci fi/fantasy books and movies. The DVD collection is pretty large too. And movies make for great knitting time.

Clapotis continues to grow and I've discovered that I can get the book I'm reading His Dark Materials Omnibus, by Philip Pullman to lie flat so I can read and knit at the same time. This is the triology that starts with The Golden Compass. I saw the movie when it first came out and amused my companion with my "ooh that's Tom Tower and that's the Bodleian Libary and that's..." I really believe that all students should spend at least one term studying abroad and I went to Oxford while I was in college.

I don't know about anyone else but I'm always thrilled to see places that I've actually visited show up as settings in movies. I visited friends in Dunedin, New Zealand in November 2002. I hadn't seen The Fellowship of the Ring before leaving but several friends had commented on the beauty of NZ as the setting for Middle Earth. And they were right New Zealand is amazingly beautiful. I swear they filmed all over the entire country and I couldn't help visiting several locations over the course of the trip. But the thing that stuck in my mind was during The Two Towers, there is a scene that shows them looking up into the night sky. I had gone to see it with Barb and her husband right after I had come home. He asked if anything had looked familiar. I remember saying, "Yes that's exactly what the night sky looks like. There were so many stars and it was crystal clear. It was so amazing."

Off to do the long put off chores.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Tired

Saturday, after hours of the weathermen trying to terrify us with winter storm warnings and predictions of several inches of snow, I woke up to a thin layer of ice on the trees. As the day progressed it changed to rain and all the ice melted. The snow went north. I spent the day knitting and watching movies.

Then this morning was sunny and yet there were fairly large snowflakes blowing. Actually by the time I made it to church, just enough to hide the ice in the parking lot. I thought I was going to slide sideways into my Mom's car.

The afternoon was much better. I met up with two of my friends for a long delayed gift exchange and to celebrate my recent birthday. Merida and I sat in the restaurant and work at untangling the yarn barf that was keeping Barb from binding off a late Christmas present. After a delightful lunch the three of us split a slice of three layer, double fudge cake. Yum...

Then Merida and I went to check out the new LYS in Clintonville, WonderKnit. It's in the 3000 block of N. High, about a block north of Nancy's diner. They've only been open about a month and are still building up inventory. They have wood floors, high ceilings, lots of light and several seating areas with tables. While they seem to be carrying some basics like Cascade and Manos, I noticed several independent labels on the shelves. They had some wonderful 2-ply lace weight cashmere from ArtYarn. About the finest 2-ply I've seen locally. Actually they had a lot of different yarns from ArtYarn. If they can survive the economy they should do well. They seem to be carrying yarns that aren't found in the other LYS.

We finished the afternoon by joining the ladies at the back table at the Merc and knitting for a while.

Friday, January 9, 2009

Happy Birthday

My name is Lori and I'm a fiberholic. I knit. I spin. And I always have multiple projects underway. And sometimes they actually get finished. If you're on Ravelry, I'm lasknits and you can find some of them here.

My grandmother taught me to knit over 30 years ago. And boy did the lesson take.

Currently I'm trying to finish this my black alpaca kimono. Black is insanely difficult to photograph. The shiny bits are the safety pins basting it together. And the black is also making it difficult to seam except in really good light and while I'm wearing my glasses. More details can be found here.

This is Clapotis and the yarn is Primero from Brooks Farm. The color is Honeysuckle. I can't believe that I'm actually knitting this, but the yarn was begging for something much simpler than the Mystic Light shawl that it tried to become. It puddled too much for that pattern.

My library of knitting/fiber books and patterns continues to grow and I'm always looking to learn something new. Cables, lace, color work, you name it and I'm willing to give it my best shot.

One of my newest additions is The Essential Guide to Color Knitting Techniques by Margaret Radcliffe. Like many knit knitters I have been collecting handpainted yarns for several years and sometimes just haven't liked how they look when they are anything larger than socks. This book offers some great ideas about how to use them and has LOTS of color pictures to back it up.

My yarn stash is very much in the SABLE category and I own two knitting machines in the hopes of trying to conquer it.

I also own two spinning wheels and numerous spindles which have their own fiber stash and feed the yarn stash.