Bleargh & Uch.

Posting from home (over dialup) due to being sick yesterday and today. Pictures tomorrow, for sure, if I make it to work.

Not a lot of knitting progress, though. Too sick to knit is NOT fun!

I'm Raveled!

It was a good weekend for crafts. Lots of knitting happened... or, rather, lots of knitting repair happened.

First, the Secret of the Stole was pulled out and reknit up to the end of Clue #1. I'd done something seriously wonky on row 80, which threw off the entire pattern. Now that I've fixed it, the pattern works.


closeupI'm so totally in love with this Cheryl's Hand Painted Yarn in "Pistaschio". I love silk yarn. And the coppery pearl beads I found are just *perfect*. I'm going to love this stole. I know some folks aren't thrilled with the pattern, but it's not something I would've come up with myself, and I'm having fun. Not a chance in hell of catching up, of course, since National Novel Writing Month starts on Wednesday (I'm "Dances-with-Dustbunnies"), but at least what I've done is now correct.

Second, I gave up on finishing the Cat Sweater in time for the contest. Oh well. I had to re-frog the left sleeve once again, for adding an extra row to a pawprint block (which made it nice and square... and oh-so-obviously different. These live in the Orange Bag, B., Below. In the Green Bag, A., are the Rose Romance Sweater, Secret of the Stole (now fixed), the denim jacket that I'm going to line with a shirt I got at the Orvis catalog sale, the Peacock Scarf and what's left of two balls of crochet thread, orange/yellow varigated and yellow.Found all the yarn (indicated with a green arrow) that I used to crochet Ms. Driver's sweater (my design, for my carpool driver, based off a sweater she already owned and loved). I'm going to eventually make one for myself.

Jo Ruth (sorry about the misname, Ruth!!), the moderator of the NoVaKnits list, designed cool little mesh crochet bags; after seeing hers, I tried one. Hers look much better, but it's functional, and not bad for a six-hour first try.

Also doubles as a surprisingly adequate disguise.

Photo, very blurry, of the Sweet Life Knitting Group last Thursday. Eventually I'll get the names to go with the faces; right now, it's (starting at bottom left, moving clockwise), woman making lovely sweater; Vickie making socks, Jo teaching Laura to knit, Mom, woman making lovely hat with celtic band, Judy making shawl (falling leaves?), and Amber, the Group Mom. (She's got much better pics here, with names and everything.)
(Ooooh, she also has a photo of the yarn I bought off of Alli - it's VERY bright. View here.)

And last, but certainly not least, I got my Ravelry invite - yay! I'm "CraftyGryphon", of course. See you over there!

Yargh!

Okay, so really heavy day at work... so no actual post from there. Maybe when I get home, if the dialup works at all...

Y'all have a good weekend!

New Camera(phone)!

I spent some time yesterday running through all the blogs I've got listed at the right, seeing what people have been up to and looking at all the pretty pictures. Yay! I love seeing what everyone has going. Even though I don't comment that often, I try to hit everyone at least twice a week, just in case there's something wonderful I haven't seen yet.

Speaking of pretty pictures, here's up-to-the-second progress of the Rose Romance Sweater:


"Up-to-the-second?", you ask... "What's up with that?"

I got a new camera - the Samsung Juke. The shiny red one.

Positives:	I don't have to take pictures, switch the card out of the camera, carry the card to the convenient computer, futz with it, and upload it. Just futzing and uploading! Pictures will much more closely indicate actual progress, since they'll probably be taken at my desk at work.
Negatives:	The color balance isn't so hot, and while I can fix that on Photobucket at home, the whole point is to keep the home computer out of it. Resolution isn't up to my usual 7MPX, but my camera is much, much larger than this phone. I'll live. I can only send myself (or others) 250 pictures a month. But I only seem to average around a hundred, anyway, so that should be OK.

This means if I actually get more knitting done during the day today, I could concieveably post again!

I like Waffle Stitch.

Well, sometimes the other crafts sneak in; sometimes they pounce with all their cunning fibery wiles.


Here is the Cat Sweater progress. Please note that it is pretty much in the same position as before, denoting a complete lack of progress thereupon. (One of the stitch holders popped, so I had to reclaim the stitches onto said holder. Don't think that counts as knitting, though.)


Over the weekend, I stitched up this canvaswork trivet ("Adobe Sunset" by Donna Taylor Designs):


So last night, because I like doing Waffle Stitch so much (and had lots of hand-dyed purple and shiny purple floss left), I made this Whatsis. I think it'll be too thick to be a bookmark... unless I do a fusible interfacing as the backing with some lavender muslin... hmmmm. I may do this. Otherwise, I'll just wrap the corners and stitch it onto a totebag somewhere.


In my defense, I did drop by Stitch DC to get a set of size three DPNs. This has made the cabling on the Rose Romance Sweater *much* easier. Photos of actual accomplished knitting tomorrow!

Return of the Knitaholic

First, I redid the Britney sweater.

Here's the sweater as I finished it the first time.And here's the photo I knew I had of me reknitting it the day we went to Stitches East...Scroll down to yesterday's entry, and I'm wearing the new version - with the actual finished-with-ribbing armholes and neck, as per the actual pattern! Yay!

Next, the Cat Sweater.

I did a LOT of work on the Cat Sweater during my ten days off, not that you can really tell. *sigh*


I did get up to the shoulders, and seamed them, and cut the right-side sleeve steek.


See? It's a hole!
I then got 2/3 of the way down the sleeve (with cute little heart on sleeve right over my bicep and everything!) before deciding it was too bloody wide. So, I unraveled... have you ever unraveled two-color knitting? Good way to drive yourself insane, right? Of course it is! If you ever really want to drive anyone nuts, have them unravel some two-color knitting for you. Or go for broke, and give 'em three. Guaranteed basket-case in three small balls of yarn... if they get that far.

Anyway, I stitched up the bottom bit of the steek so it doesn't show, and cast on again, recentering for five pawprints instead of the previous eight. The decreases went from four per pawprint to two, due to many less stitches, so there will be more "block color" showing on the underarms.

I'm quite discouraged by this, as it's highly unlikely I will finish the Cat Sweater in time for the contest. On the other hand, my mother found some incredibly soft matching tan microfiber for the lining, so I'm totally finishing it before it gets cold. Which, given the way we're going this year on the mid-Atlantic coast, will be some time in January... if we're lucky. (If we're not, we don't get winter at all this year. Darned "global warming" debate!)

This is as far as I got last night:

And finally, the Caron SuperSoft accident that fell on the accidentally-bought short size 3 bamboo needles.

You see, there was this lovely romantic sweater in the North Country catalog:
Seeing it, I thought to myself (as we're all wont to do from time to time): "I could make that myself!"

Fast forward to not being able to stay at the Renaissance Faire on Sunday due to conditions beyond my control, and a buying binge at Michael's happened.

Included in the binge were a cool little one-skein tote, size three short bamboo needles, and five skeins of Caron SuperSoft in Dusky Rose. Evidence of the binge (and related inability to not start knitting SOMETHING when faced with too many fun new options) can be seen here:I should, of course, have also purchased little tiny cable needles. No-cable needle cables are easy with worsted weight on size ten needles. DK on size threes? Not so much!

More on Other Knitted Things tomorrow, assuming I get off work on time (HA!) and relax enough to pick something up once I get home...

I'm Back!!

Boy oh boy. I miss the internet. We have internet at home, of course... it's just dialup, not a T1+. Anyway, FINALLY, here's the fun Stitches East report! It was, of course, a blast.

We took Metro-B30 bus-light rail train up and back. About three hours of travel each way... or SIX HOURS of uninterrupted knitting time! Somewhere, there's a photo of me re-knitting the Diane Zangl "Brittney" sweater (I found more yarn, so I undid what I had and knitted it to pattern. Anyway, there was enough time that I finished it by the time we got to the convention center, and changed into it... as you can see in the photo below.


(Isn't my mom a cutie? I sure hope I got her "stay cute forever" gene!)
(Actual Postcard here)


First, as you know, you should never go to a Big Yarn Thing without something you're actually looking to buy. Something small, preferably, and inexpensive, but that will be enough of a challenge that The Hunt will keep you from (too much) random spending until you find the object of The Hunt. Mine was a size 14 metal crochet hook, pictured above. Not your ordinary one, of course; Mom found the Addi Turbo Plus with Carrying Case... probably 10 times more expensive than I was planning, but it is THE killer beading crochet hook.

And, because even with a plan, I get distracted, I got some glow-in-the-dark Jelly Yarn. It can be a B**CH to work with if you forget to wipe the nice smoothing cloth over your needles first, but even without that important step, I managed to do the bottom of what will be a cute little Fair Isle glow-in-the-dark bag in afghan stitch using a J hook, and the third cast-on (with size six needles) seems to be working as it should. It's not really a UFO, since there's a probability it won't ever actually work. If I get up to the bands of serious colorwork, I'll add it to the list. Available through their site, www.jellyyarn.com. It's fun!

The other thing I was hunting was "some non-animal-fiber yarn to make a fun shawl, and matching beads that won't need the size 14 crochet hook". From Interlacements LLC (www.interlacementsyarn.com), I found Rick Rack II, a lovely 100% rayon yarn with a bit of a wiggle, and in quantities vast enough that one skein will be PLENTY for a really big shawl. Got matching beads to put here and there, too. There are a lot of lovely colorways - this is one of the more subtle ones. Plus, this is the ONLY stuff I didn't pay cash for, which puts this as my least debt-inducing sojurn to a big Craft Mecca Event ever!

In the "Found Objects!" category, at the place I found my crochet hook, I also found this yarn. When knitted up, it will make two socks (or gauntlets) that are.... little American flags! Stars and Stripes! Eeeeeee! Naturally, I got some. Yes, it's wool, but it's superwash. I'll line the finished product with silk, and wear my light gloves to work it. Sometimes, in rare instances such as this, wool is worth the itchies. I'll check my receipts and find out where I bought everything, and get the links to all the other cool vendors by the end of the week.

In the "we saw it first, and came back and got it" and "my mother is a bad influence" categories, we have Sue Wright Pedersen's V-neck Ribbon Cable Tee, and the three skeins of microfiber ribbon yarn needed to knit it up. I hadn't planned to buy this, but she talked me into it. The ribbon yarn is soooooooo soft - seriously. Get some. Tess's Designer Yarns, in Maine (http://home.gwi.net/~tessyarn/.

So, stash was obtained, and I managed to only start one new project (the Fair Isle Jelly Bag, which isn't on the list yet) as a result!

Knittery Vacation

Okay, having lots of fun so far. Pictures to follow, assuming I remember to wake up at 4:00 tomorrow (Sunday) morning, so I can have something resembling a reasonable connection speed.

Sweetwater Knitters:

Got to meet a very small portion of the group: Ally, Vicky, Nicky, Jane and the woman who was also doing SotS, which thrilled me so much that I forgot her name entirely. Looking forward to meeting more this coming week - when Stitches East isn't competing with the event.

Stitches East:

Ran totally amok. Ran through all my cash, then I charged about $50 and my mom about $80. But worth it. I have enough stuff for five incredible projects now... photos of loot to follow.

Other running amok:

Ran through Fairfax Fall Festival before it opened, thus managing to say "hi" to all the vendors we knew, and yet managing to not spend anything. (They all know where we live, anyway.) Then, off to the George Mason Regional Library, where I managed to drop another $25 on books I would've bought full price and several out-of-print sheet music sets and pattern books. Yay, more patterns!

Small Press Expo:

Heading up now. This is The Boy's big event for the month, and I have to go take pics of hm and his favorite artists/writers. But, since I'm one of the writers/artists too, it's fun for me. Yay!

There will be pictures soon, I promise!

V-a-c-a-t i o n

As predicted, posting from home takes FOREVER. If I post at all, it will only be at four am or so, when we can get a (relatively) clear line...

Secret of the Stole

Spent all day yesterday curled up and knitting. Six rows left on Hint #1, and I'm soooooo glad I got the new coppery pearls. They look fantastic with this yarn. Not sure how I'm feeling about the pattern this far (evidently, I like my lace lacier than the end has been), but I'm liking the colors enough to stick with it.

Peacock Scarf

Um... nothing. Not until I finish those six rows.

The Cat Sweater

Again, nothing. But I have my six stitch holders, so I can finish the body. Don't know if I'm going to finish it in time for the Crazy Aunt Purl contest, but I'll have a fun cardigan for fall, now that it's finally here!

Sweetwater Knitters tonight, see folks there.
Sitches East tomorrow, see folks there. Look for the hot pink cabled poncho!

Mohair is Goat-ese for "Magnet", isn't it?

More fun with beading thread very fine yarn...

Did I mention it's a mohair blend? Being a bit on the wool-sensitive side, trace amounts of very fine mohair is the closest I've ever come to actually doing anything with the stuff. And I have a question for the girls and boys that work with mohair regularly:

How do you do this without going insane?

I mean, it's light, it's feathery, yadda yadda, but it sticks to EVERYTHING. Itself. My hair. My imaginary cat. EVERYTHING. The sheer amount of dust-bunnies I discovered accidentally by dropping it on the floor - they must have run top speed from under the way-far-back corner of the couch... I can just hear the Dust-Bunny General: "Look! It's MOHAIR! Get it, boys!" Every bit of fluff from every color I've worn since I started it has managed to tangle itself into the fibers. (The blues and greens can stay, but the bright red and hot pink have to go.) There's no gentle way to detach the mohair from its little prizes, either... fortunately, I've figured out that it's pretty strong stuff. And persistent. Really, really persistent. If I had an actual cat, said cat would now be lost somewhere between the beads of the 19th and 23rd rows. The sheer fiber-magnetism this "mohair" stuff exhibits is, as I stated, maddening.

And yet... it's worth it somehow. It's soooooo soft, and soooooo light and fluffy, even weighted down with a tube and a half of beads. (I'm so running out of beads, I just know it. Thankfully, there's time for one last trip to Joy of Beading at lunch.)

Now, the pics...

Note my lovely hot-pink lap desk/bead tray my husband just got me.
Mostly so I'd C&D about how hard it was to bead on the couch.

The obligatory close-up.
This is the last row before I start the "peacocky" bits at the "end" of the feathers.
(You know what I mean. The Eyes-of-Hera bits.)
Now, about the next ten days: I won't be a work, so my uploads may not be precisely to schedule - more "hey, I've got something to show you" rather than "oook, it's a weekday, must post!". Expected photo ops include the Secret of the Stole play-by-play how-to (if I can figure it out, and get pictures of how, then probably everyone else will already be ahead of me, but just in case...), my first trip to Sweetwater Knitters on Thursday, Stitches East on Friday, the Small Press Expo (There will be knitters. Lots of comic artists knit.), the SISMG hayride-trip on Sunday, and then a week of Home Improvements and Knitting. I'm expecting the better pictures will come out of this week, just between you and me.

Anyway, I'll be posting again eventually, probably before the end of the week.

Rah!

Peacock Scarf du Jour

Pop Quiz!

Knitting lace with tiny mohair blend is a good way to (choose one):
      (a)   Drive yourself insane.
      (b)   Discover colorful new vocabulary you didn't know you possessed.
      (c)   Go blind.
      (d)   All of the above, especially with the brilliant "add beads" idea on top of it.

As you may have guessed, I've been doing some lace knitting over the weekend. Quite a bit, in fact, on the Peacock Scarf, and yet nothing on Secret of the Stole Hint #1. (Being a history buff, I got the first clue pretty fast. Not sure I'm going to play the game for prizes, though.)

First, the Peacock Scarf:

The first several rows of this got done on Friday at lunch in a little park hidden behind the mall. (I wish I could knit at my desk without anyone noticing; I'd rather do that than pretending to do filing, which I'm totally saving up until I get back from vacation. Right now, everything is on my desk where people can find it!)

Using the size 14 metal crochet hook for these beads. I got this hook in a $5.00 bag of Stuff from an estate sale up the street at the start of the summer; it is, hands down, the most useful thing I got from that sale thus far. Mind you, the two BAGS of crochet thread will turn into some lovely things eventually. Did I mention I'm a charter member of the SABLE club? (That's Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy, if you didn't know. Evidently, the lovely woman who previously owned the several bags of goodies I purchased from her family had verifiable SABLE. Hopefully, the items I got from her estate won't wind up in mine...)


The long shot
and

close up this way

close up that way

Not too bad. Got several hours in on Saturday, wherein I got almost to the end of the second "feather bit" and decided that (a) I'd missed a stitch about twelve rows back and (b) Ithe "feather bits" didn't really show up as much as I'd like. Fortunately, mohair silk blend isn't quite complete hell to unravel. Got everything I did Saturday back in on Sunday, this time With Beads. I like it much better this way.

Next, the Secret of the Stole:

Friday at lunch, I hit Joy of Beading and found, of all things, sort of pale copper PEARL beads. Much bigger than the seed beads, size-wise, but I'll still need the size 14 crochet hook to get them on the shawl. I got four scoops; that has to be at least 150 beads, right?

I am completely flummoxed by having to knit in two directions at once - er, from two ends of my ball of yarn at once. I think I'll survive... once I start. I wish I could've found my row counters, I'd feel better. Or, rather, I wish I could have found BOTH of my row counters... I had one, and it would've been nice to have one for each end, because this going-back-and-forth thing is going to be quite enough of a challenge for me, thank you!

(That would be a "no, I haven't started it yet".)

I still have no idea how I'm going to be able to update from home while I'm on vacation. I can get everything *ready* at home (set up the photos, write the entries)... but uploading to PhotoBucket and Blogspot can take waaaaaay too long. Like two hours to do what I can do at work in two minutes (off the clock, of course).

New Project!

New Project Alert!

I couldn't find quite what I wanted to do with the peacock-blue Alchemy Haiku, so I designed something myself. Yay! A pretty beaded lace scarf! You'll know how it turns out; if it goes well, then the pattern will be available. If not, you'll get a few good laughs out of the misdaventure.

The schematic. I use my cross-stitch program to do these. I'll see how much yarn I have when I finish the first set of feathers; the diamond motif in the middle will repeat vertically until it's time to start the second set of feathers. I'm figuring about 10 repeats, possibly as many as 15, possibly as few as seven.

A bit of the actual pattern. The cross stitch program strikes again, with a different view. I was SO psyched when I figured out I could design lace using my cross-sttich program.

First, got the lovely yarn wound into a ball at Stitch DC. Was terribly embarrassed: I would've sworn that I'd bought it there - noooooo. It's one of the two things I've ever purchased at Knit Happens in Alexandria - *blush*!! I was allowed to wind it anyway, which was wonderfully sweet. Out of guilt, I bought some size two Addi LACE turbos. I needed them anyway, so I felt better. (I would've bought stitch holders, which I need for the Cat Sweater, but they were out today.)



Then hit Joy of Beading, the bead store in Georgetown Park Mall (now on the THIRD floor, not the first!!) and got four tubes of iridescent blue-green-black beads. I was going to get two, but if I got three, I got a fourth one free... you know how it goes. Anyway, look at the pretty beads!!


These are slightly larger than the seed beads I was going to use for Secret of the Stole, and I think I prefer them, so back to the bead shop at lunch today to get some golden iridescents for SotS! I just downloaded the Hint #1 Instructions and Chart - and DO download both. The instructions are *very* important, not just the chart!!

I got this far on the pattern before I had to take this picture (with the good camera, for today):


The Cat Sweater suffered due to lack of stitch holders. I'm only eight rows out from needing them now... I'll have to get some on the way home. I have some, I know.... WAIT! I think I've actually got some in my needle bag, where I can get to them! JOY! Unjoy. I only have one... thankfully, a quick trip to Michael's got me the other three I need for the Cat Sweater, and a box of 100 gold-tone jewelry fittings (little gold rings)... which I use for stitch markers. Cheap, shiny, and don't hurt the vacuum cleaner. I like that in my stitch markers. (You can sort of see little gold glints... um, no, you can't. At least I can't. Oh well... I'll play with the the REALLY good camera and my microzoom lenses this weekend.)

Next week, it'll be all about this and Secret of the Stole. And I'll actually get a LOT of knitting done between the 10th and the 20th this month - I'm on vacation - and at Stitches East!! Woohoooo! Is anyone else going to be there? Just look for the woman in the hot pink cabled poncho. I'm pretty hard to miss...!

Everyone have a good weekend!

I have a wallet-cam again!

I found TinyCam! It was in a very, very safe place in plain sight: hidden in a clear orange plastic ID holder. Which completely hid the orangeness of TinyCam from view, tiny electronic chameleon that it is. Thus, today's pictures are a bit fuzzy, as she doesn't process flourescent light very well, but it's better than the no-pictures alternative.

So, you've all probably not been wondering what the view out my office window looks like.

Of course, I work in the Keys, and the veranda with its attendant palm trees is just outside...

Yeahright. That's the painting next to my desk. Here's the actual view from my desk, through my boss's door... don't you think the bars on the window are a nice touch?

Oh well. Away from reality, and back to knitting. Over at Flint Knits again, and she mentioned that someone had mentioned Dental Floss as a lifeline for knitted lace. Wow, that actually makes a lot of sense. And the dentist keeps giving me little things of dental floss every visit that just have 3 yds in them (which makes no sense at all, given that I have a gajillion-yards-plus of the stuff in my medicine cabinet, but he insists). Wouldn't that just be perfect?

I did/did not remember to bring the Alchemy Haiku to have it balled up at the store. (Did I mention there's a nice little high-end yarn store two blocks from where I work? Yes, yes, you all hate me now, I know.) I found my TinyCam, so today's pictures are shot in ultra-low resolution with that. I remembered everything, in fact, except my cell phone and my allergy medication. *sigh* So, I'm sniffly and out of contact with the world. *sigh again*

Visible progress on the Cat Sweater! You can actually read the whole phrase now!

Here	Kitty Kitty

I will get to the shoulders tonight! Or at least up to where I'll need stitch holders. Drat. I wonder where all my stich holders are? Oh well, I'm going to Stitch DC at lunch to get my yarn wound, I guess I'll pick up some new ones there!

And don't forget... Secret of the Stole Clue #1 drops tomorrow!!

Wheee!

Yay! I'm on the Knitting Blog ring now, #1283! Wheeee! It's just amazing going through the Whole List, and seeing how many of the other blogs I recognize.

I can't actually predict the future, as it turns out.

The Cat Sweater Lives!
or, The Misadventures of Two Pounds of Yarn
I think that would make a fun book title, if I ever actually wrote a book on knitting. While I'm planning to write a book about a knitter (well, a young, single female mechanic at a midwest theme park who is also a knitter) in November, I don't really ever see myself doing a book on knitting. My patterns are a bit too fly-by-night to be taken seriously, and Stephanie Pearl-McPhee has pretty much cornered the market on Knitting Humor. But if I was going to write a knitting book, it'd be something like that.

Found something to do with the Alchemy Haiku. The Summer Shawlette from Interweave Knits (if the link doesn't work, the is pattern available if you're on The List for Knitting Daily, or, heck, it was in the magazine at some point), the link to which was on Pam's blog, over at Flint Knits (she's also doing the Peacock Feather Shawl, which I've done... twice now?), which I found through Carrieoke's knitblog. Yes, I know, there's a link to KnittingDaily right on my own sidebar. But this was a much more fun way to find it! And, in addition to Pam's blog, I also discovered Marguerite's, Stitches of Violet. Yay, more fun reading!

Back to the Cat Sweater. I'm 2.5 rows of pawprints from The End of the first phase of the sweater. (Sweaters have, you see, four phases. Phase I: the body; Phase II: the sleeves; Phase III: the finishing; Phase IV: the wearing.

[NO PICTURE AVAILABLE]*
You'll note that the finished sweaters you've been seeing of late really only exist because there is no Phase II. I really feel like stitching that on a t-shirt: "This garment exists because there is no Phase II." You and I would be the only ones who got it, but that would be OK. I do a lot of things that very few people get - no one would bat an eyelash over yet another strange Gryphon-y thing.

...about that Alchemy Yarn. Did I mention I accidentally started the Summer Shawlette? I didn't mean to, the yarn just fell on my needles again. Second time in a month, too... I've got to figure out how it's doing that.

Just to let you in on the secret: I wrote most of this entry yesterday, and minimally tweaked it today. It's really sad that I can predict my knitting behavior - and misbehavior - so well...

*edit: Actually, I can't predeict the future. Or, rather, I can't prove it. I have no pictures of the Cat Sweater, and I didn't start the Summer Shawlette, nor can I do so until at least tomorrow. My camera has died... and I lost the other one. The first, a lovely little Minolta digicam, has lasted for about three years. Something's gone squiffy with its light sensor; sometimes, it's fine; today, it's not. My other one is my TinyCam:


Very, very, tiny
I can't find TinyCam anywhere. It's not in the wallet where it's lived for the last X years, but this may be a good thing, as said wallet is really a bunch of leather vaguely held together by its lining at this point. But it's not in the immediate environs of the wallet, either. And, because I was looking for TinyCam, I totally forgot to bring my Alchemy Haiku to borrow the swift & baller at the Georgetown Stitch DC. No pictures, no lace yarn, no fun whatsoever.

And I finally finished the "HERE" on the Cat Sweater to show you, too. *pout*

Back to the knitting I *should* be doing.

Back on the wagon. Since finishing Britney, I've been a good little bunny, and I've been knitting up the Cat Sweater. Almost two rows of pawprints past the last picture, with two more full rows to go before starting the neck and shoulder shaping. At least I finally got the hang of really nice shoulder seams doing Britney, so my shoulder seams will look Really Good. And I'm going to switch dominant colors on the sleeves (since dominant on the body is dark brown), so that should give me enough dark brown for all the edging. I hope. Maybe by the weekend, I'll be ready to steek the front of lovely Cat Sweater. And ready to double-ball the remaining yarn so I can knit both sleeves at once (because if I try to do them one at a time, sleeve #2, along with the rest of the sweater, will never be finished.)


On the subject of sleeves, I found the sleeves for the navy blue sweater I started and since discarded. It's off the list, because it's not a going project, but I didn't unravel the sleeves. I knit them first, you see, and just the idea that I will, at some point, knit a navy blue sweater and NOT have to knit sleeves makes me incredibly giddy.

In other news, I found this while unpacking the ton-o-boxes this weekend.


It's Haiku, which is 60% mohair, 40% silk. It's super thin, so it doesn't bother me that much if I don't handle the whole hank at once. I've only got one skein, which is all of 325 yards... but it would make a lovely decorative scarf. With beads. Lots of beads. (I have lots of beads.) Silver pearls? Just silver? Just pearls? Or green-blue iridescent? And what pattern? So much to decide...

The word of the day is "shiny"!

Well, I had enough yarn to finish *something* for Britney. It doesn't have the sleeve/neck ribbing that the actual one did, but, fortunately, I'm good at winging it. Turns out there were six to eight pattern stitches that could be worked straight up at each slide of the armhole. Which works, since it looks like it's supposed to be like that! The neckline was a bit more winging it than I was really expecting (it's a bit lower than originally planed, duh!)... but it worked. I have thismuch yarn left.

Here she is hanging up. You can see that the back is a good bit higher than the front, but it hits perfectly on the back of my neck. And I'm going to find a nice matching mint-green tank top to wear under it, since some of those lace holes are (a) big and (b) inopportunely placed.
It's done!I also did some work on the Cat Sweater, but nothing dramatic enough to be worth taking another picture. Maybe tomorrow; I have four solid hours of TV-time on Monday nights, which pretty much means "knitting!"

Convention Report: I got to go to the giant Quilting & Sewing Expo out at the Dulles Convention Center on Saturday. Got there early, and got to see the fashion show by Jan Bones from Lingerie Secrets. Her stuff can be seen at www.sewinglingerie.com. I was really looking forward to that one, since I have a ton of ideas, and just needed a couple of basic patterns, which I now have. Yay!

There were lots of other pretty things, of course. It's a miracle I only spent $45! www.thimblesplus.com, with photos of all the open-top thimbles here. Major pretty stuff. I may get one for mom (but she wasn't sure); I have to figure out which one I'm going to get for me!

I'm also coveting one of the craft/sewing tables from Sew-Ezi, www.seweziusa.com. I mean, it's got a light box conversion. I'm a cartoonist. Sewing table AND drafting board in one... I want!

There was a company that had these GREAT iron-on sparklythings for tshirts, jackets, whatever. I got their card, but forgot to bring it with me today. Really, really pretty stuff. Didn't buy, since I want to be able to get a bunch of stuff off their webpage.

Got a really pretty ring, and mom got a lovely snowflake pin/slider - all cubic zirconia, so they really sparkle - and CHEEEP! As in my weighs-a-ton ring was $10. And no, it hasn't turned my finger lovely colors like every *other* cheap ring I own has.

SHINY!!

It's just so sparkly!!

The list of all the vendors, with their relevant contact information, is here, if you're interested.

Lastly, I was allowed by the creator to take a photo of this funny quilt:

I just had to show it to my husband (who had to mow the lawn this weekend). He rolled his eyes a lot, but understood why I just *had* to bring a picture home if possible.

After that, we hit the giant outlet mall out in Leesburg, and I wound up with a set of three shiny-copper hanging baskets, which will eventually hang over my chair in the corner, and hold all my Show Yarn. Yay! Lots of shiny things!