Quiz

"If you had only three minutes to live, what would you do? I know what I would do. I would eat a peanut butter sandwich." - Stephen Fry

Odd.

Jet lagged.
The house has not one decoration displayed, unless you count the BSA Christmas wreath that spent a month in the trunk of my car and now resides in a plastic bag on a chair in the living room.
On my way to my Dad's until Boxing Day. Sans spousal unit, who will be working every day and for whom Christmas is, apparently, not an option this year.
Will spend the next 3 days driving Dad to wherever he needs to be as he can't manage to do so himself now.
And cooking/caregiving.
And *acting* cheerful, even if I'm not quite feeling it this year.

What do you do when you forget your yarn at home?

You find a yarn shop and buy some! Found some sock yarn and dpns. Even in the Philippines people knit socks, but I'm not sure who wears them!

Pomatomus at last

I started a pair of socks using this pattern about 7 years ago. This was a new pattern then. And it was the pair I couldn't manage to knit. I put the pattern away and tried again recently. The socks flew off my fingers! It's a great pattern and knowing what I know now, with all I've learned about knitting in the last 7 years, it was a piece of cake!
Who knew??
I think they are very pretty. The yarn is Tuscan Grove Venice. The colorway is "Mamma Mia".

The Tuscan Grove sisters don't seem to be online any longer, which I find very sad. It's lovely stuff and very generous skeins.
Sigh. Another proof that the safest place for yarn is in my stash.

Because of this day, I exist.

I will come to a time in my backwards trip when November eleventh, accidentally my birthday, was a sacred day called Armistice Day. When I was a boy, and when Dwayne Hoover was a boy, all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.

Armistice Day has become Veterans' Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans' Day is not.

So I will throw Veterans' Day over my shoulder. Armistice Day I will keep. I don't want to throw away any sacred things.

What else is sacred? Oh, Romeo and Juliet, for instance.

And all music is.

Kurt Vonnegut
Breakfast of Champions (1973)

EZ Pi Shawl Complete! Another photo

 

EZ Pi Shawl Complete!

 

This was knit with mystery yarn given to me by my SIL. Laceweight wool. Size 2 needles. It blocked out to about 50" in diameter.

In my yard

 

Double knitting photo

 

Double knitting

I think I'm getting the hang of this.

Although there is snow, there are signs of Spring

A pair of mourning doves are making a nest under my kitchen window. There is constant activity as they bring twigs and grass from the yard to the bush and weave it all together to make a nest.

Four kittens were born last night in a basket in my dad's garage: two gray ones, two gray-and-white ones.

The hollyhocks are beginning to grow.

The days are longer and longer. Midsommar Dag will be here before we can blink!

Prom. I saw the limousines.

The sailing season has begun.

A little knitting, a little yarn...

I've been working on this for awhile. It will eventually be the Queen Silvia shawl from Knitted Lace of Estonia, by Nancy Bush.

Eventually it will look like lilies of the valley, but right now it doesn't look like much. Lace never does at this stage, I guess.

I also added to the stash today. Here are the latest additions, although the photo doesn't do justice to any of them. They all look very blu-ish, which they are, but you really can't see the colors. I'm not sure what's wrong with the camera. I tried an outdoor photo and then an indoor one. Neither worked, but this one is the best.


From left to right, Three Irish Girls Westerly SeaSock (70% merino, 30% seacell), colorway: Estuary

All For the Love Of Yarn Sumptuosity (70% Baby Alpaca, 20% silk, 10% cashmere), colorway: Bluebell

Three Irish Girls Beckon Stretch Merino (100% superwash), colorway: Aurora Borealis

Because it's just so pretty...

I had to post a WIP photo of these socks. It's the Embossed Leaves Socks from IK Winter 2005. The yarn is Tuscan Grove Venice-style, 100% Superwash Merino, colorway: Topiary.
Love the yarn. Love the pattern.
I purchased this yarn several years ago at Soft N Sassy Yarns in Broadview, OH. This is a great shop and I always enjoyed visiting when I was in Cleveland for business trips. I hope Tuscan Grove is still producing yarn. Their colorways are lovely.

Yarn Quest 2011

I couldn't let the yarn crawl happen without me, so today was the day to participate. We finally have warm spring weather - lots of sunshine - and it was a pleasure to visit some familiar shops and discover some new ones.
Stop 1. I started out at The Yarnery. The pattern is a buttoned cowl made from 1 skein of All for Love Yarn (colorway: Calypso). The yarn is 80% superwash merino, 10% cashmere, 10% nylon.
Stop 2. Darn Knit Anyway. This shop is new and I really liked it. It would be a good place to explore when it's not as busy. Their pattern is also a cowl this year and the yarn is by Three Irish Girls - Wexford Merino Silk (colorway Luxor).








Stop 3. Lila and Claudine's
Really, really liked this shop. It's relatively new and it, too, deserves a good explore on a non-crawl day. Their pattern is a small shawl. The yarn is Happy Hands Hand-Dyed Yarn - Superwash Merino Worsted Weight (colorway: Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds)








Stop 4: Sheepy Yarn Shoppe. I got the pattern but did not get the yarn. As you can see, if you clicked on the link, it's a yarn that is not local or particularly noteworthy. It was a little disappointing, but the pattern is nice - a lace rib scarf.

Stop 5. Shepherd's Choice. This was my first time at this shop. Shepherd's Choice makes their own yarns. The special pattern is a felted bag made from 2 skeins of their own yarn. They were selling kits for the bag, but I didn't buy any.


Stop 6. Amazing Threads. Always one of my favorite shops. They did not disappoint. Their yarn was available in a couple of different weights, which was really nice - you could get worsted, sport, or fingering. Their pattern is a very pretty shawl. The yarn is another offering from Three Irish Girls. This time, the colorway is Lovestruck. I got the fingering weight - 80% merino, 20% nylon.








Stop 7. Coldwater Collaborative. I like the pattern that was offered this year. Another shawl with a pretty box-stitch pattern. The yarn offered is one I've looked at a number of times - Schaefer Audrey, but today wasn't the day to buy that yarn. It's very pretty and glossy, but I didn't think I wanted to make something from lace-weight yarn, held double.


Stop 8. Skeins. I liked the pattern, a ruffled neckwrap. The yarn was Mountain Colors Twizzle (colorway Watermelon Salsa), which is a limited edition color. It was pretty, but it wasn't something I needed to buy.

Stop 9. I told Steven that I saved the best for last. I think his new shop, StevenBe, is really wonderful. I've shopped at his original location, Yarn Garage, for several years and always enjoy it. I look forward to exploring this new venture when there isn't a CROWD! The pattern is a hat - very cute - using the yarn crawl charms as a decoration. Instead of one unique crawl-only yarn, Steven has 4!
There are two different skeins of Three Irish Girls Adorn sock, 80% merino, 20% nylon. The other two skeins are Madelinetosh Pashimina, 75% merino, 15% silk, 10% cashmere. The colorways (from left to right) are Three Irish Girls Glitteroti, Three Irish Girls Limelight, Madelinetosh Pashmina Confetti, and Madelinetosh Pashmina StevenBe Blue.

So lovely...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3ZX5hFN-is

 

 

Word o' the Day

 apotropaic

Finished Projects

This is the most traveled pair of socks ever. While in-process, these have been back and forth to the Philippines 4 times in the last year. It's hard to knit when it's warm - but this was a nice yarn for the trip. The colorway, Aquarium Shimmer Sock by Sereknity, felt tropical, and the blend, 60% superwash merino,30% bamboo, 10% nylon, felt nice even when it was warm and muggy. It has a lovely, silky sheen that doesn't really show up in the photo.


A pair of socks (fraternal twins) from a skein of Trekking XXL that I've had in the stash for several years.

This is the beaded rib pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks.










Finished this just in time for the new great-nephew. Blast-off Cardigan in the Classic Boy colorway.

You know it's one of those days when...

…you get almost all the way to your desk before dumping your food on the floor, and by the time you’ve cleaned it up, you don’t have time (or $$) to buy any more.

 

 

Time to...

pack!