Knitting Obsession

Long time no see

Hi! Wow, it has been a long time since I've blogged. I've been concentrating on my health (joined a gym and got a personal trainer and nutritionist) and that has taken up what little time is left over from the time suck of Ravelry. I'm a Helper there, along with a bunch of other wonderful women,  to help take the burden off the lone coder who is developing the site. The site is growing by leaps and bounds every day and it's amazing to watch. The organization of my stash alone has been great. The site developers are planning an Open House in January, since the site won't be out of beta for a while. It will be a chance for some of you to see what I've been yakking about for months (hi Mom!).

Needles-wise, I am slogging through Christmas knitting, and have one more gift to complete. It shouldn't be a problem, and I'll post those projects after Christmas. As soon as I finish Christmas stuff, I can get back to Jeanie from the most recent Knitty, which is entrancing. I'm using this gorgeous stuff:

which is Dream in Color Smooshy Sock in Black Parade, and I lurve it. I love the depth of this colorway. It is a little challenging to knit at night though! I need brighter light bulbs, I think.

My other WIP that is on hold till Christmas knitting is over is my first Clapotis, which I started to stave off my longing for Jeanie.

Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb in Gold Hill. Mmmmmm soft.

The kitties are doing well....and here is Tootsie, snoring on the scraps from one of my Christmas gifts.

She is so loud....wakes me up sometimes. Chloe has arthritis, so she is on a multivitamin with glucosamine. She is not very enthusiastic about her chewable tablets. I have to hide them in her food and bribe her with Greenies, and she still eats her way around the pieces. She is as active as ever, so she can't be in too much pain.

I did make it to Rhinebeck, and it was amazing. I drove up with two good friends from Ravelry, (bunnysquirrel and booksherpa) and we had a blast.

It was beautiful, and we met Casey and Jess from Ravelry, a whole lot of other Ravelers, and the party was so much fun. Bob guarded our car, along with bunnysquirrel Jess's animals.

We were sorry to come home.

I'm gonna try hard to blog more...a friend suggested following WIP Wednesday and Yarn Pr0n Fridays and I may try that. I also have been spinning on Katarina off and on (more off while trying to get through the Xmas stuff) and want to blog that too, as I am spinning stuff that looks less like garbage and more like string.

I am so far behind on my blogs that Google Reader refuses to count above 1000. I am a little (a lot) ashamed about it and need to remember to do the thing where you can save up a bunch of posts to read off line while I am in PA for Christmas. That will help me catch up though I won't be able to comment. But know that I am thinking of all of my friends and hoping you are having a safe and blessed holiday season.

Can I play with my swift for hours on end? Yes, yes I can.

And now for the shameless drooling and ogling and showing off of my Christmas gifties. It may seem like my family read Stephanie's letter to muggles the other day, but actually they were acting on "clues" in the form of catalogs with items strategically circled and in some cases starred. However, they just took that information and used it as a GUIDE and therefore I ended up with super fun stuff that I wasn't really expecting. I REALLY wasn't expecting both of these items...maybe one.

That is a Beka swift, in case you are wondering (scroll down on that link). I had never heard of them, but honestly I like it a lot more than the umbrella kind, not only because it's not as ungainly but also because my parents ventured into a real, live LYS to pick it out all by themselves.  This is the first victim of the yarn winder.

Toe up BRC sock, we hardly knew ye. Rest in peace. See you in your next incarnation, hopefully with a well-fitting heel flap.
While my parents were having adventures in yarn stores, they picked out a skein of Austermann Step and some little goodies:

My mom really likes these colors, which is good. I like knitting her socks. She wears the first pair I made at night a lot of the time so I know she appreciates them. Plus, with the jojoba and aloe, the yarn is so soft. I immediately wound it into two roughly equal balls using an ancient postage scale for help.

I was also having fun with the macro setting of my camera; can you tell?
Then I knit up a teeny, weeny swatch (didn't I say I wasn't going to do that anymore? Why am I so impatient to finish swatching? Remind me of this when I whine about how the socks don't really fit my mom so much as they fit a mutant) to see what my gauge would be with my Bryspun 2's.

Today I wound off a skein of BWA yarn for Kerry and the swift blew my hair around in its swiftness. The only thing keeping me from winding off every blooming skein in my stash is the knowledge that it isn't very good for the yarn. But that's the ONLY thing.

Did you notice the candy cane looking tube in the background of the Step and gadgets picture?

Hurray! Blocking wires! Oh, joy and rapture! Never again will I crawl around on the floor with 200 T pins in my mouth and bad words in my throat waiting to come out only to end up with a scalloped edge where there should be no scallops. These are from my Aunt Barbara, a smart and beautiful woman, and quite an inspiration to me. She is quite the crocheter, but since I started out that way I don't hold it against her.
Christmas, for me nowadays, is more about spending time with family and surrounding yourself in a cocoon of love. But sometimes it's also about the fun stuff.
Red scarves (3 only...I gave up on 4) are blocking on my guest room floor, to be sent off soon. Then I will start on Dulaan as well as get back to Kerry. I really want to finish Kerry by the end of January...I think that will happen, as she moves pretty quickly when I am knitting on her steadily. Remember....Knit from your Stash 2007 starts soon! Better get those orders in in the next couple of days (says the girl who MIGHT be ordering two sweaters worth of Cascade 220 tonight).
Happy New Year!

Heaven is a gray and white cat sitting on your chest

Whoo, Chloe is a heavy girl. She must have missed me over the last two days because she is giving me a lot of love right now, all up in my business.
How was your holiday? I had a wonderful Christmas, spent in PA at my parent's house. There was a lot of quality time spent with family, and a reminder of what a blessing it is to be so close to the ones you love.
The girls and I had Kitty Christmas a little early. Here is one of my gifts to them; a crinkle sack thing that is open on both ends and filled with something to make crackly noises like grocery bags. Since they love to lie on the grocery bags and it always makes me nervous for fear that they will eat the plastic, I knew they would like this. Tootsie made the first inspection, with Chloe in the background:

Then came an interior inspection by Miss Priss Brynn:

And, finally, the use which I knew would be the most popular:

All is right in the world when there is something soft and crinkly to sit on.

In knitting news, I had a little blog contest. As I suspected, I did NOT need to go to the random number generator. Kristen and Aija, packages will be in the mail tomorrow. Unfortunately, trek is allergic to cats so I can't send along a package to her. She requested that I donate her prize to another person who entered. Mom, who also commented, doesn't count (she doesn't knit socks. She does knit pretty scarves though). So that means just Kristen and Aija. I hope you like your little packages!

I finished the first of the toe up BRC socks, following Wendy's pattern. I....kind of hate it. Not the pattern...that was very well written and easy to follow. I hate the actual sock.

I hate the heel with a burning passion. It just doesn't feel right on my foot, like a heel flap does. The cuff, which I made an effort to knit loosely so it wouldn't feel like a rubber band around my lower calf, flares and slouches. For some reason, I feel like there is a rubber band around my ankle instead. All of this means only one thing: I am a top down, heel flap kind of girl. Not that
there's anything WRONG with a toe up, short row heel kind of girl. No, no, no. To each their own.  Needless to say, I will not be knitting a second sock following this pattern.

Now that Christmas is come and gone, I can reveal my one gift.

Mmm, wet goat! This is a lace scarf, made from Crystal Palace Kid Merino (gift of my sister-in-law). The pattern is also from their website but I used different sized needles and made the scarf quite a bit longer. Here it is blocking:

And here is a terrible picture of it dry and the mirror is streaked and I'm wearing the wrong color shirt, but you get the idea, and I know my mom won't let me take a picture of her wearing it.

Tune in tomorrow to see why I'm so happy that I will never have to pin a *scarf* with roughly 200 pins and still end up with scallops. Santa was very good to me this year....my family is so thoughtful and took my "I just want fun stuff this year since I don't really NEED anything" statement to heart.

And finally.....what could this be, Amanda Cathleen?

Pretty little tree; stupid little blog contest

Complete with lovely little decorations. I couldn't do my usual thing with decorating as I don't
want the tree to fall over (any more than it already will with the "love" and "affection" the cats are showing it).

And here is my pretty little Nativity. Please ignore the extreme piles of schtuff  in the background (and foreground for that matter). It looks much different today.

The Nativity was started for me by my mother when I was in college...I think a senior? Or it may have been the first year after I graduated. Anyway, she started me with The Holy Family

And then for my birthday or next Christmas, I received the creche and the Angel Gabriel and other glory-singing angels.

Notice the cat up in the eaves next to the green angel. Oh, and the one in front of Melchior next to Joseph. Good mousers...they have really big ears and long tails.

This is Gabriel, the shepherd. When I first got him, I was sure he was really supposed to be "The" Gabriel because his green cloak looks a lot like wings to me. In the background are a little choir of angels and a little village girl going to the well that is to the right of the creche. The buildings are so sweet and they really make it seem like a little village on my bookcases.

This is Beth, given to me by an aunt of the same name. She is really one of my favorites because look where she is! Surrounded by fiber and thread and yarn. This is the Weaver's Tent. The little details make it so fun. NOW I'm in the Christmas spirit.

So! I was reading Wendy's blog the other day, as I am wont to do, and lo and behold a worthy challenge! Knit from your stash 2007...count me in. I especially like the exceptions. I have already discussed doing something like this with my financial adviser/haranguer/mom and had budgeted a "yarn budget" into my monthly expenses. Now, I belong to 2 sock clubs (The Knitter and BMFA for 2007) so I have those coming already. I will use the yarn budget for them and whatever is left over will go in a kitty for my big "get out of jail free" card which will be MDS&W. I am in love with Black Water Abbey and like to buy sweater fix-ins from them and hope to do at Maryland. And, I also have the yarnivir exemption since that's fun and usually harmless since you can't buy more than you can get back in the plane. Theoretically. So, no sock exemption for me since one is already slightly built in. Also, I have enough sock yarn to knit for a small, colorful army.

Contest alert! Or shameless comment seeking, you pick!

Who's with me? Or I should say, with Wendy? First three people to tell me how they are modifying this for themselves get two skeins of Sunbeam St. Ives sock yarn, in Fenland,  perfect for those Nancy Bush fans out there. Here's how it looks knitted up in a Nancy Bush pattern:

I really need to finish these socks. It's a kind of heathery brown and muy soft. I say first three because I know two people who read this blog. If miraculously more than three people respond, I'll use a random number generator.  Ha! Ha!

Ha. Erm, sorry. Hi, Mom! Hope you like the plan. Mom has fired herself from financial advising/haranguing next year as one of her New Year's resolutions. I'm sure the iron is biting deep into her soul. I'm going to do my best to make sure she doesn't fret too much.