Is it Time to Knit Yet?

Frick!

Yes frick is my 'safe' curse word, as the other one that I don't say around The Baby (also beginning with F) is not so nice!  So all of a sudden my camera doesn't work anymore - wtf?!  There are lines through the pictures and to get it fixed would cost at least $150.  My gut tells me this won't be the only problem with this camera - is that silly?  Anyway, in talking about it with The Boyfriend, I got curious as to what most people would do.  Would you send it away and pay to have it fixed?  Or just spend a little more and go get a new camera?  I try not to live the disposable lifestyle so normally I wouldn't think twice about sending it in, but like I said I just have that feeling, as silly as it sounds.  So tell me what you would do if it were you and your camera...

In other stuff, The Baby had a fantastic day today in her princess costume at school.  So much so that she came home and promptly zonked out on the couch for an hour!  That is the only bad thing about preschool - no naps.  I wanted to share a picture but, can't do that now can I?  You guys are also doing great getting the comments in - THANK YOU!!  We still haven't gotten to 975, but hopefully that will happen with this post.  Keep at it!

Time for another contest

Well I'm getting somewhat close to reaching a big milestone in my blogging career - I'm about 40 comments away from getting my 1000th comment!  So in order to celebrate I will of course be giving some stuff away.  I think what I will do is give away a prize for the 975th comment, and then one for the 1000th comment when I reach that.  At the rate my comments have been going lately, it'll take me about 20 more posts to get there - but we don't want to wait that long do we?!  So it's up to you, my handful of readers, to speed things up a little bit.  I'll do my best to post often over the next few weeks so there will be plenty of opportunity for comments.  So what do you think - will you help me get to this milestone?!

So on to the prizes.  Since it is getting to be close to winter and that is of course the season for mittens and hats and whatnot, I'll be giving away some of my favorite yarns for warm accessories.  For the 975th commenter, I have some purty Manos.  And for the 1000th commenter, I have some purty and soft Malabrigo.  (Sorry, they are not great pictures!)  I'm pretty excited about getting to 1000 comments, so let them begin :)

Fiber binge

So remember I told you that I had a little bit of a shopping spree last week at Amy's store?  Well m y stuff finally came in the mail today, woot!  I ended up with some great stuff, on the left there is a whole 3 pounds of undyed merino - yes there will be some dyeing in my near future!  I also got (from left to right) 4 oz. of merino in the Ravelry colorway, 4 oz. of BFL in the Joshua Tree colorway, and 4 oz. of BFL in the Delphinium colorway.  They are all beautiful!  I'm rushing through the rest of the Under the Sea roving so that I can get to work on one of these new batches of fluff.  Most likely they will all end up as attempts at more sock yarn, what else?  I guess I should also get around to actually knitting up some of all of this handspun that I've been lately, yeah?  Never enough time...

In other stuff, I've been working away on the Ribby Pulli and I'm almost done with the main body and getting ready to start on some sleeves.  I'm getting excited!  And just for fun here is The Baby in her princess dress that she'll be wearing to school for Halloween :)  She obviously couldn't be bothered to pose for the picture.  Oh, here's something else I wanted to share!  It is my niece's birthday today but my sister's family celebrated on Sunday - check out the awesome cake she made!!  I think that definitely beats my Elmo cake - way to go sis!   

Friday night fun

Since I've been seeing a few Ribby Pullis done and also in progress on the blogs, Friday night I finally decided to pull out the yarn (I'm using Janice) I bought for it forever ago and get it dyed up.  I first had to use up some old dye I had sitting around, so I just grabbed what natural Knitpicks sock yarn I had on hand and got to work.  It isn't exactly the best stuff ever, but it turned out a lot better than I thought it would.  I did 3 skeins of the tweedy stuff and 1 of just plain superwash.  Again, not fantastic, but not horrible either right?

I hadn't planned on dyeing the yarn for the Ribby Pulli on Friday night but I decided that if I was going to make a mess I should just do it once and not twice, so I just went for it.  I don't know if it will work out how I was envisioning it, but I think I did an okay job on the dyeing part.  I had 6 skeins of 300 yards each before dyeing, and after dyeing it was around 250 yards each.  I did 2 skeins in the contrast color -sky blue and natural - and the rest was for the main color - sky blue, purple, and coal.  The next morning I hurried the drying of two skeins so that I could start knitting - I couldn't wait!  It is turning out a little crazy and not what I had planned (I should have done shorter lengths of color) but so far I'm still happy with it so I will keep moving along with it.

I also got off my duff and plied up the bobbin of singles that has been sitting on my wheel all week.  The fiber is from Snake River Fiberworks in the Under the Sea colorway and if I had to guess this would be about 3 1/2 ounces of it.  I still have about 4 ounces left that will be made into some bulky-ish yarn, that is the plan right now anyway, things could change!  I think I ended up with about 180 yards or so of an inbetween sock and dk weight yarn.  It is pretty, no?  I like it a lot.  I navajo plied it, which is quickly becoming a favorite method of mine.  My attention span is not what it used to be these days, and thinking about sitting through 3 bobbins of singles is a little more than I can take, so I'm all for the navajo-ply.

Okay, time to get back to knitting!

Random Post

I don't have a real post, but I've got a few random things to share here goes it.

• Too cool: This week I got a letter in the mail from the DMV offering me the chance to renew my license by mail.  Believe me, I jumped at the chance to forego the endless line at the DMV and starting filling the form out right away.  Then I noticed where it said "Renew online"!  Even better, since I don't have an actual check to send to anyone at the moment - use the credit card, awesome!  The only downside I guess is that it can take 2 months to process and even then you might not qualify or whatever.  I'm taking the risk anyway, how could I not?!
• I've noticed that I am wierdly anal about some wierd things, the one I'm thinking about most lately (because I am having a can of soup almost everyday now) is that I cannot bring myself to eat my soup with the same spoon that I stir it with in the pan.  What is up with that?!  I think it is because sometimes you get a little film of sorts on the spoon from stirring, but one would think you could just rinse it off and all would be well.  Not so. 
• I've already started reading a new book, probably the exact opposite of the one I just read.  It's from the author of I Am America (And So Can You!), I Am Amercia (And So Can You!).  So far it is absolutely hilarious, I laugh at least once on every paragraph.  I heart Stephen Colbert :)
• I added a new project (shame on me!) to my sidebar over there.  I'm doing a top-down raglan with some DK Peace Fleece that I have on hand.  I should be knitting some other things, but oh well.  I find that I am more happy when I just knit what I want, not what I think I have to!
• I got something different in the mail yesterday, some hemp top from Aurora Silk.  It is supposed to get carded with some cotton fiber that I bought at Three Wishes and then get crocheted into a yarn holder - a project from Spin-Off but right now I don't have the issue handy.  Anyway, we'll see if that ever happens.  I want to try it, but I'm not sure I want to do the carding by hand!

That's about all I can think of now, so have a great weekend!

Culture Warrior

First off let me say to my dear sister, in no way should you take any of what I say personally, you know that right?!!  (She is a fan of the O'Reilly)  I should also say that in what little I've watched his show, there have been some brief moments that he is actually entertaining - of course that is what it is about, entertainment, not news!

That said, this book was mostly laughable to me.  When I'm flipping channels at 9:00 pm in between The Daily Show and The Colbert Report and I come across The O'Reilly Factor, I hardly see this man as a Culture Warrior.  Supposedly his thing is calling out the media for what they fail to present or cover.  While that is a worthwile cause and it does need to be done since most of the media I know of is useless, I don't think the O man does that great of a job.  Especially since he apparently had Ann Coulter on after she made some pretty heinous comments about a certain group of people needing to be perfected, and he failed to call her out and actually said he didn't care about what she said.  If anyone needs to be called out it is Ann Coulter, no?  Just one example.  I agree with him that just because you can do something it doesn't mean that you should do it (we can get a little carried away in our culture today).  That's about the only thing good I can say about his book.  I won't talk about it too much because honestly, who really cares about this guy or his book?!  The whole thing is an attack on secular-progressives - I had never even heard this term before - and how they will ruin America if they have their way.  Well last time I checked, America was based on free speech and the freedom to have different ideas and opinions.  That is part of what makes our country great, right?, that just one type of people doesn't have ultimate power and makes all of the decisions.  It takes many different people and ideas to come up with good things for all of us, whatever party we belong to.  I tried to understand him but I just can't, and besides some pretty vile things that are going on, I just don't see what the big deal is. 

And I'm sorry that 'the left' is so dominating of the media and comedy, but do you think it could be that 'the right' just sucks at it?!  The best they could do was the Half Hour News Hour and that was the poorest excuse of a show I have ever seen.  Maybe if O'Reilly could convince traditionalists and conservatives to put it out there in a better way (and not just on Fox!) people would start to want to listen to them, maybel?

Anyway, a sentence that sums up my experience reading Culture Warrior?  Hmmmm...it would have to be this:

I'm glad that's over!

Broad Street Mittens

Minus the buttons.  I have yet to go out in search of two cute buttons for these, but I know it may take a while so I'm just showing them as is.  These were a pretty fun and easy knit, even though I had to frog the first attempt because I couldn't get as snug a fit as I wanted.  I should say that they didn't start out as Broad Street Mittens, just a pair of gloves using the Handy Book of Patterns by Ann Budd.  I knew I wanted to do something like convertible fingerless gloves though, so I used the Broad Street Pattern for the mitten shell.  They are for a friend that lives in what can be a very cold place in the winter (so I hear) and she rides a scooter around town there.  I thought they might be more functional than just a pair of gloves, so I hope she gets a kick out of them and can actually use them too.

• Pattern - A hybrid of Broad Street Mittens and basic gloves from Ann Budd's Handy Book of Patterns
• Yarn - Socks that Rock lightweight, colorway Rare Gems, about 3/4 skein
• Needles - US Sizes 1 & 2
• Took me - About a week
• Comments - These are so cool, and I don't want to give them away!  I may have to make some for myself.

Am I nuts?

I have been so obsessed with spinning lately, I've found myself looking all over for cool or new fibers to try and waking up having the first thought in my head be about sitting down to spin.  I've been thinking about it so much that I'm finding myself reading about drum carders and fleeces - fleeces?!  Am I nuts?!  When I started spinning I told myself I did not need to go there, spinning the fluff was enough for me.  But the more I think about it now, the more I think I'd like to try my hand at doing the whole process - from fleece to yarn.  I guess I'll let it simmer in my brain for a while and see what happens...

I've spun up, plied, and washed the first batch of the Snake River Merino/Tencel and I think it turned out quite nicely!  It's already been claimed too.  The Boyfriend really wants a pair of gloves and he thinks I should use this for it.  It is only about 200 yards of mostly fingering weight, so I don't know if it will quite be enough but I'm going to try working it out somehow.  At least he doesn't like the other batch I got so I can keep it for myself.

I also started spinning some more stuff, a Merin o/Tussah Silk blend also from Snake River Fiberworks.  I have about 8 ounces so there is plenty to play with.  I might do half of it for socks and then make some singles for a hat or something for The Baby.  I've also drafted a bunch of other stuff that is in line to be spun, now I just need more time to spin!  I admit I've been going crazy and my hands are paying for it, but they do feel better today.  I just need to make spinning a dailly thing so my hands don't go into shock after waiting so long between sessions. 

Other than that I've been knitting away on the second Queen of Diamonds sock and hope to have it finished soon.  I'll probably have to take some yarn from the first sock to finish the second as this half of the yarn is a lot heavier and it is being sucked up faster.  Hopefully I won't have to undo too much.  I also have Broad Street Mittens minus the button to show you, but that's enough for today don't you think? :)

Strange Days

Yesterday was definitely one of them.  Since we are feeling a bit better we decided to go to gymnastics as you may have read in yesterday's post.  I took the Moon Child yarn with me to show my sister and get some ideas on what I should make with it.  She immediately said she liked it and what should I make her out of it!  Anyway, after I got back home from dropping The Baby off at school following gymnastics, my sister calls me and asks if I looked at my blog.  So I look and see that she hijacked my blog!  (I gave her the password a while back when she wanted to blog about her kids)  We had a good laugh over it and talked about a few other things, one of them being that my sister-in-law is now pregnant (Yay!).  So later on I decide to write the lucky couple a congratulatory e-mail.  I just typed the SIL's name in the To: box and hit send.  A while later Kara of Knitting Lemonade lets me know that indeed she is not pregnant and I have sent the wrong person the e-mail.  How embarassing is that?!  Too funny.  I hope I don't get too red-faced when I see you at SnB again Kara ;)

In fiber-related news, I cannot stop spinning.  I'm totally hooked.  I finished up the rest of the Moon Child fiber and moved on to some Merino/Tencel that I picked up at Three Wishes.  This stuff is like butter!  It is so smooth and slick and shiny, I love it.  I just hope that I do a good enough job on it.  I also finished the Queen of Diamonds sock, and it looks like I might just have enough to eek out the other sock.  I only have about a gram or two to play with so I'm really crossing my fingers now!

So the question is, what should I do with the approximately 360 yards of sport/dk weight Moon Child yarn?!  The sister already said she wouldn't use fingerless gloves or mitts so that is out.  I'm willing to share, but I still need to make something for me out of it too - any ideas?  She wants a hat but I think she's dreaming, right?

How Rude!

Okay, so get this.  I go to gymnastics today with the Baby (she and my sister's little girl have a class together so we meet them there each week), and you remember the yarn in my last post?  Well, I show it to my sister, and she thinks it's pretty cool.  I ask her what she thinks I should make with it, and she starts rattling off all these things I should make for her with it!!!!  I mean, come on!  I meant what I should make for myself, but she just keeps going on and on and on about how much she likes the yarn and I should make something for her.

Now, I love my sister, but I think this is where I draw the line!!!

(Sorry, it's not April Fool's, I just thought this would be funny, based on our interactions today about your AWESOME yarn!  Time to change the password, eh?  Love you sis!!!)