I'm a little late for talk like a pirate day, but what the heck. The first 3 month installment of the yarn pirate booty club wrapped up this month and I have been very remiss in blogging about it. The silver cable sweater kind of swept me away from the land of sock yarn for a bit. (Not that I stop buying sock yarn, I just didn't talk about it) In order of closest to frog there is colorway Rumrunner in the 100% merino sock, Calamity in BFL sock, and Butternut in the merino/tencel blend. I signed up for round two of the booty club, which made missing this months loopy ewe yp update easier to swallow. (It still blows)
I have to take a break from knitting for the rest of the week due to neck/rotater cuff pain. It sucksss. I'll be reading the phantom tollboth and pretending to be 12.
The husband and I had a nice lazy weekend at his parents house. Most of it was spent eating, talking and watching movies. We did get up off our fannies to help harvest the last of the grapes from my father-in-laws vineyard. There would be some pretty pictures of that if we had brought the camera. I did steal the in-laws camera and snap a couple action shots of grape crushing process. I'll get those in the email sometime soon.
Much much much knitting was done this weekend. So much that my rotator cuff is not pleased and wants me to know how much it has been abused. It's the baby sweater curse I tell you! The first Christmas sock for Mom is "finished." Except it probably isn't finished. I'll have to wait two weeks to see if it fits the foot it's made for. The second sock is started, but will probably waste away for a couple of months. First sock from my woolgirl sock club is started and boy does sport weight knit up fast. It's the fun project you want to knit but have to put aside for obligation knitting.
Six inches were added to the silver cable cardigan and all the neck decreased finished. It only needs a few more inches to finish out the shoulder. However it will now sit around waiting for it's size 6 needle I stole for the dreaded baby sweater.
Proof that little frogs will get cookies if they pester the baker long enough.... Or maybe I just use frog as a scapegoat for my own cookie enabling.
Proof that baby sweater is really cursed... I will be at the in laws this weekend, where I only have to eat, sleep and talk while knitting. Because of this wonderful chunk of knitting time I was hoping to have new pattern book for evil baby sweater on Friday. (Time of departure) When the ordered was placed Sunday the thought was that the book would be shipped Monday or Tuesday. Today I got an email from the owner of the store with an apology. She was in the middle of moving right now and wasn't able to mail the package until Wednesday. I totally understand her circumstances and don't blame her a bit. Besides, it's obviously the curse of the baby sweater reaching out to mess with her life. I think it's up to a Darth Vader level of evil.
Proof that there are other things to take my mind off of knitted evil.....
Oooo Mr. postman, you bring me such nice things. Now if you bring me my yarn pirate sock club tomorrow we will really be friends.
The brain works in funny ways. The thought of trying yet again to knit Christmas socks for mom was distasteful........ until they became an alternative to knitting the baby sweater. Now these socks are the best thing ever. And it seems that the third time is the charm because these look gooddddd. I've gotten the cuff through to the gusset in 6 days worth of knitting time, which is pretty fast for me. Just hope I have enough yarn left for the whole foot.
I'm waiting for yet another pattern to come in the mail for the baby sweater. I added up all the money that I spent on this darn thing and I could have bought a nice pair of shoes instead. The new pattern is from the yarn manufacturer so I hope to have no gauge problems. Their advertising assured me that the patterns were easy, please, please let this be true.
It's the kind of day where you feel happy even when you're hanging the laundry up.
The weather is beautiful today, warm but with a touch of fall in the cool breeze. I took the long drive to Woolgathering to buy some more Louise Harding yarn to finish the gray cable sweater and some addi turbos for the evil baby sweater. Even though the drive is long, most of it is nicely wooded with historic houses peaking out, instead of miles and mile of strip malls. I was very good at the shop, only buying the two things I came for ....not 9 balls of felted tweed to make tangled yoke cardigan. On the way back out of Kennett Square there is a fabric store, easy to miss since it is a converted house. It was really time to check it out and I was pleasantly surprised. For me the rating of a good fabric store is based on it's wool selection. I can breeze through the brightly colored quilting fabric without a second glance, but will fondle gray wool/cashmere blend for 10 minutes. And Yes they had gray wool/cashmere blend and in several colors other than gray. There was a wool/alpaca blend that made me wish I could wear the color camel next to my face. It was gorgeous and would have made a lovely coat (if camel didn't make me look green). Near the wools was the corduroy shelf which contained a dark green that is haunting me. I can picture the kind of cute jacket that could make out if it. Almost makes me long for college days were I had big tables and yards of free paper to make patterns. Had to pass on all the fabric since I had just dropped anther 80 bucks at the yarn shop, leaving only with buttons and some embroidery floss that matches my gray yarn.
The mail man was just pulling away as I parked in front of the apartment. Was my first woolgirl sock club box on the porch? Yes Yes Yes, it was! I made myself wait until lunch was eaten and the laundry was underway before I opened the box. Frog saw that the box was from woolgirl and got very excited. He seems to have remembered that Jen once packed some Hershey kisses in a box and now he wanted to get in there. I explained to him that it was highly unlikely that there was chocolate, but he insisted on checking out the box himself.
What fell out first was a cute little notebook and pen in blue (my favorite color!) The cover says Woolgirl sock club journal hee hee hee fun. Then I pulled out the sock pattern which I like the look of. Jen said she design them to be weekend socks and they sure look comfy. Next we got out a pretty little stitch marker and some chocolate mint lip balm, mmm smells like junior mints. Finally out comes the yarn and oh my god it was the most beautiful thing ever. I know we put some color preferences in an email to Jen at sign up time, but I didn't expect the yarn to be exactly what I would have bought for myself. Frog was very good and agreed to model with all the club stuff. That yarn smells good so maybe he wanted a little sniff. After this picture was taken he grabbed the lip balm and scampered off. Maybe I'll get it back after he discovers it doesn't taste good. I can't really capture the color of the yarn, it has a lot of purple and a little bit of almost green in it along with the blue. The yarn dyer is Miss Babs and the name of the colorway is waterfall. Did they know I was going to do a post where it was stated that I buy any yarn with the words, water, sea, mermaid in the colorway? I blame my father for this weakness since he took us to the beach alllll the time. Water color yarn is better than the beach and a great way to end a good day.
I admit to reading the horoscope in the free newspaper every morning. It entertains me to see that one day I'm told to watch my budget and the next to go treat myself by purchasing something nice. On Tuesday it was, "Stop buying things you don't need." I believe I snorted because every knitter knows you always "need" yarn. I knew the Sundara update was that day and that Woolmeise was ready to drop at the loopy ewe any minute and I intended to buy! Wellll the knitting Goddess seemed to think my yarn drawer was already full enough. The Woolmeise went live on the loopy ewe some time during my 2 hour train ride home. It was all gone by the time I was even aware that the update had happened. I did get home before the Sundara update popped up and was lurking on the site clicking refresh every 30 seconds. Now lets pause a second and state that I have dial up. (I know, I know lets all laugh heartily at the silly girl using ancient technology.) So what happened is that everyone with high speed bought all the prettiest Sundara yarn before I even saw the pictures.
OK yarn goddess I get the hint. I'll have to wait for my sock club instead. I'm still buying chocolate....you got a problem with that?
Frog helping me do some calculations on those sleeve decreases.
Dear Baby Sweater, I hate you. You are evil, devil spawn sent to handicap me before Christmas knitting. That awful knot has returned in my neck just by working on you for 3 days. And what do I have to show for 3 days of knitting? Three frecken inches! Three! Thank God I figured out how to fix a missing yarn over or you would have found yourself unraveled and rolled up into a ball ready. I want to be like the cool kids, knitting tangled yoke cardigans and hemlock ring blankets, but noooooooooooo. I have to be chained to you. You sit there, so smug knowing that I would never tell a very pregnant, hormonal women that I couldn't churn out a sweater for her. Especially since she takes all of the lunch orders. Still I'm not touching you again until this weekend when I go buy a metal needle. Even scary pregnant ladies won't make me knit you until my neck seizes up and I cry. Until then Chicken is your master. She's a lot tougher than me so don't try your *&%# on her.
Some time last year I told my family that I wasn't the kind of person that would buy anything with a frog on it. I had only bought my Monkey Frog because he literally yelled, "Take me home, we'll be pals." Being a person with already low sales resistance to stuffed animals I said, "Duhhhh, OK." Now I should admit that I will buy most things if they have a cute frog on them. Case in point new frog journal. They were right in the front of the anthropologie store and I admit to thinking, "I'm buying one,.... should I buy two?" But the froggiesare so cute, especially the one with the bubbles coming out of his mouth. heehehee
On the knitting side, the baby sweater is trying to drive me insane. Yesterday I spent from 2pm to 11:30 pm trying to get something started and everything was the wrong gauge. Today I'm happy to report that I decided to go with the Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern and I'm getting though the garter stitch yoke. Frog is happy to report that the yarn is snuggly soft and a very pretty pink color.
Wellllll between being "lazy and internet difficulties I have not posted anything new. Bad blogger, no cookie! I have been knitting though, But just more of the same silver cable sweater. It is turning a bit boring having to repeat those cables over and over, but I can do it error free while being half asleep. What I can't do error free is surf ravelry and knit at the same time. This has not stopped me from continuing to knit while surfing. The second sleeve is well underway and looks like it will use up all the remaining yarn. Which means I will have to buy many more balls, ugghhhhh. I'm going to be the yarn shop owners new best friend since I was just there last week buying yarn for this baby project.
Yes I committed to knit baby items for a co-worker. It was supposed to be a fun baby sweater but instead has grown to a massive, nerve wracking, multi piece ensemble. And the co-worker didn't ask until a month before her due date. Never Again I say.
In retaliation I cast on socks for me (not mom's Christmas present) and got stuck on the second row of the chart. Gar! Nothing but aggravation with all my knitting.
As you can see the fluffies found the sock yarn drawer and had a bit of a frolic. Well at least someone is having fun.
