Hook on a Ring

So I managed to break my K-hook off my multi-hook yesterday. Not sure how I managed it, but there you go.

Turns out, it fits beautifully on my keychain! So... win?

Useful iApp for Knitters/Crocheters

I have tried a LOT of counters for my phone. I finally found one that does what I want. Here's the developers' site, as they can tell you all the bells and whistles better than I: http://counter.bluevine.net/category/app-development/

Here's a screenshot so you can find it in the App Store:

Seriously, this thing is wonderful and does EVERYTHING I want it to do. Highly reccomend!

Uniquities Fiber Festival

Today was the Uniquities Fiber Festival, and I was able to go. Managed to keep from overdoing. My goal was some light blue Wild Hare Galaxy:

I also got some fun buttons:

Also found a nifty gadget (available in many colors). Mine is shiny copper:

It's going to go on the Harper Shawl, because as it is a pain when the stitches slide off.

Not sure what the blue sparkly yarn is for yet, but it will be lovely!

Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival 2014

Okay, the MD Sheep and Wool festival happened! As usual, I took the Nature's Yarns bus up with mom, but this year, I had one thought firmly in mind:


So, I got through the day WITHOUT incurring further debt. Which meant (for a change) that everything fit in one small bag:


The Fiber Optic Yarns gradient (the big score, as they were getting low on stock by the time I got there - and if you click through to the website, it's ALL out of stock!) can be seen here. The Ribbon Yarn is from Tess' Designer Yarns. There's an album from Maggie Sansone that I didn't already own (much to my shock). I got a festival t-shirt and pin. I got a Footlights combo pack from Blue Ridge Yarns in Dragon's Breath (which is the colorway of my Clapotis).

I got Angora from Oasis Farm Fiber Mill - incredibly soft!


I got a kit from the Tsarina of Tsocks. (I really need to finish the kit from last year....)


The Vintage Rose Knitting Botique had the *coolest* little stitch marker sets. I got "Expecto Patronem", which has things that reference Harry Potter (including a little silver snake charm, which the darned Gryffie Lion is blocking in this photo).


I got a set of 40" size 8 (US) Signature needles (oh hai, 5% off everything sale online through this Sunday). I get one set each year; so far, size 4, 6, and 8, 10 next year, then 2...). I'm using the needles currently on the Fiber Optics shawl. In addition to a lovely tightening pad (free with purchase!), this little gem was included in the packet:


And of course, I got the new Sheep Incognito calendar.




There were also the mandatory lamb kebabs, ribbon fries smothered with everything, and dipped ice cream cones. Which was followed by the mandatory nap for the length of the bus ride home!

And now for something completely different...

              ...My new faucets!!

Hey, I said it was different.

Last week, we finally got the VERY LAST of the super-strange plumbing-that-came-with-the-house replaced. Since we were doing that, we also got SHINY THINGS.


New faucets. Without strange moving parts that break and are so old they don't even make replacements. With two handles, so the temperature can actually be controlled properly. With a second faucet JUST FOR HOT WATER FOR TEA. (And or dyeing, should it come to that.) The broken garbage disposal-from-HELL is gone, along with its cruddy drains and ikky ikky-ness. IT IS SO SHINY.

But that's not all.

See, whilst replacing everything else - or trying to start - it was discovered that the sink has no shutoff valve. NONE. All our other sinks got shutoff valves when the various floods happened - heck, we even replaced the whole house valve (did I mention our plumbing was CRAP when we bought this place?). We were saving the kitchen sink for last, and figured we'd get it done when we got the new dishwasher...

Old	VAST IMPROVEMENT

... but since we had to get a new refrigerator (MORE ON THAT BELOW) too, the plumbing had to wait a bit.

So, the day started with the electrician pulling the power from the garbage disposal and putting in the box for the Spiffy Hot Tea Water Heater. We then got estimates for several other things that need to happen. (Functional lights in the workroom. A switch for the middle room that actually works. GROUNDED PLUGS.) In the process of getting estimates, we discovered the plug that makes the refrigerator work had its polarity reversed. (HOW? HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?) While it's not a fatal sort of thing, it could cut down the life of my beautiful refrigerator, so that got fixed, too. THEN the plumber showed up. The poor guy expected it to be about a three-hour job.

Eight hours later (after more adventure and more "Good Lord, I've never even HEARD of this before!" while examining our under-sink wonderland, and one leaky water tank due to just being too damned tired at the point of assembly), everything was soldered, caulked, cleaned up, dried, tested and left to sit overnight. As of this morning, everything works!

Now we just have to save up for six months to get all the electrical things done. Maybe we'll win the lottery before then....

Cool little wooden tools

My dad does woodworking, and gave me & Mom each a darning egg and a cool little sewing kit (just add thread & needles).


He pointed out that he did NOT make these - he bought one set to see if he could do so easily, and determined that no, it would take about ten hours each at the end of which he'd be insane.



They're still really cool, though, and a great present! (And I just happen to have a glove that needs darning... hm....)

A cozy big enough for an iPhone with a case!

For Muggle Studies, we had an option to "Craft an item to match a company's logo." One of my pet peeves is that most iPhone cozies fit iPhones beautifully - but not if there's any sort of hardcore protective case on them. So, I decided to make a larger one that actually fit my phone *with case*. First, I needed to research the proper Apple logo:


I opted for the one on the back of my iPhone, which is the second row down, second symbol in. Because I expect this cozy to have a fairly hard life, I made it out of heavy-duty synthetic fibers - so it didn't block, well, at all. But my iPhone with case fits in it! The problem, of course, is getting photos of something in a case when you're using said something to take photos of itself... it just doesn't work. So I have photos, but they're of my husband's smaller backup case (without iPod in it). My case is bigger, and doesn't come off the phone/camera very well... but anyway, here they are!




Now a few notes on the pattern. I took the *idea* of the buttonless cozy from the pattern indicated on my project page, but I didn't follow the pattern AT ALL. I cast on what seemed like the correct number of stitches (16, I think), did garter stitch for five rows, then knit in stockinette until I had a piece long enough to go from top-middle front screen to where I'd want the bottom of the logo to be on the back. I then added the logo in colorwork, rather than duplicate stitch (colorwork is faster for me), then kept knitting stockinette until the whole thing could touch the garter stitch on the sides, then did five more rows of garter stitch.


I seamed the bottom sides first, then the top flap. It works the same as the original pattern, but required much less thinking on my part. And, hey, it works!!

Stuff I Got!

So, last Tuesday (the Day of the Earthquake), I was going to hit FibreSpace to soothe my rattled neves with yarn. I left work at 5pm; the Metro, which was running at 15 miles an hour, got to King Street Station at 6:53. I can't move fast enough to get up the street to the store in seven minutes. So, on my way into work (late) on Wednesday, I managed to sneak in a side-trip. I found needles, yarn, and goodies.


The needles are Kollage DPNs, which I would love just because they're shiny copper-colored things, but they actually work really, really well. I got a set of size 3's for starting my OWL later this week, and with those and a pair of size 5s, I'll be making a pair of Flourishing Mittens. I'll be doing them with some Mini Mochi, which I last used as the fluffy green edge of the Serenity Baby Blanket, and some Dragonfly Fibers Djinni Sock in the Espresso Roast colorway. I think the bright colors and contrast with the deep brown yarn will work really well. And the fibre content is *almost* the same - and it's all washable, which is key for mittens of mine that aren't mostly black!!


note subtle favorite NFL team plug
The goodies are another Herdy keychain (already clipped to the strap of my current totebag) and a lovely Perl Grey shawl pin. It goes delightfully with my new StellaLuna Ravenclaw shawl (see last post)!


So, I'm now really, really set to start my OWL, I've got a potential OOtP project (or at least a class project), and classes start on Thursday. I'm pretty excited!!!

Looped Yarn Works

Tuesday and Wednesday involved "going to work" - and allergies. But by Thursday, I was feeling quite a bit better (and it had rained!), so I hopped the bus up to Dupont Circle, and went to Looped.

When & Where: Thursday, April 14 - Looped Yarn Works

Looped is another go-up-stairs shop. I grinned a lot when I got to the door - they have a Gretchen doormat, too! The shop has three rooms, with a class table in one and a lovely little sitting area in another. Since it was lunchtime, the store wasn't super-crowded (I guess *all* the yarn stores participating in the Yarn Crawl were crazy-crowded on Saturday - lines out the door, down the hall, etc.!!), but it wasn't slow, either. I still got personal attention - one of the ladies not only showed me The Cool New Thing (some four-stranded untwisted color change cotton), but showed me the shawl she had started knitting with same. Naturally, I had to get a ball...


...and it *is* really cool.


I searched through Ravelry and found the Nancy & Judy Shawl, and it seemed perfect. It would work with cotton, it was interesting, and it would also work with a gradual color change. Since I'd just finished, right after breakfast, the Thing Then On My Needles, I even had some lovely Addi Lace Needles to start the shawl right away. Which nicely solved the problem of "nothing to knit during the long commute home".

As usual with Looped, something at the point-of-purchase display got me. This time, it was little pewter stitch markers with things like "SSK" and "M1" and "KF&B" in them. Since I'm starting to get a bit crazy with the shawl & sweater knitting, these will come in handy!


I was fifteen minutes late getting back to work, but, luckily, I could stay late & make up the time. (I didn't, though. I just had a short lunch on Friday.) But at least I had a project to start on my commute that evening, which was MUCH longer than it normally would have been!

Tis the season... to show the loot!

First post after Christmas... so let me show you the Knitting Loot from my boss-who-knits! (She goes to FibreSpace; gift certificates were obtained; stuff was then obtained, as said certificated quickly burned a hole in my pocked. You know how it is.) First up, the adorable new Knit and Puuuuuurl shirt. I had to get the version with the blue space-cat. I'm all about blue space-cats.


front




back

Then I espied the bargain yarn bin. Lookit those tags. Yep, Malbrogio LACE. In Orange/Tiger Lily (my favorite color), and Chartreuse/Apple Green (a color that's usually on me somewhere). I'll probably be combining both into one lovely shawl, but I'm not sure. It may be one big and one small thing. We'll see. But it's really pretty lovely soft yarn!!



The point-of-purchase display of needle gauges got me, since one of the things I tend to lose with regularity are needle gauges. It's pretty, and flat, and will now live in my backpack. (Which, just so you know, is chartreuse.)


Whee! I got stuff!!

Goodies Into the Mail

Down in the Dungeon, we had a Yule Exchange!


Slytherin Yule!!
I had a great deal of fun finding things for my Spoilee, who happens to be a glass artist, too (except a REAL one - as in has stuff in churches, etc). I misremembered the mailing date, though, so mid-week last week, there was a flurry of activity one morning.

	First, there was All The Stuff. I had fun getting it all. Matchy-matchy notecards, notebook, pad & pencil (DPN) cases; shiny-matchy pen, notebook & magnets; a cute keychain calculator; tape measures (including some cool peel-n-stick tape measure), and, of course, the owlet twins, Bert & Ernie. (The whole thing was allegedly and ornament exchange, With Other Stuff.)
Then there was the Getting Creative With Wrapping. I did the obligatory "presents hidden in other presents" that everyone, regardless of age, thinks is silly out loud - but secretly loves.
	Then it was a case of getting everything (and everyone) into the box I'd lugged home from work the night before. Tucking things carefully into brown paper would, hoepfully, protect *and* keep from shifting.
Then, it was a case of making sure I hadn't forgotten anything. Which, of course, I had.
	So, a few things had to come out of the box, then go back in, then get nestled back into the protective brown paper. About three times, before I got everything to fit, finally. (It wasn't that much stuff, and the brown paper didn't take up that much extra space; I think there was a tiny spacewarp on the lid of the box or something. And I managed to forget to add the card enough times that I'm pretty sure it was sneaking out of the box on its own.)
Then I stuffed the CUTEST OWL ART ever, with a greeting, down one side of the box. (Seriously. Cutest. OWL. EVER. Must track it down and attempt to get real, live prints - I just adore it!)
Then, it was time to decorate the box. Because if you've ever gotten a package from me, you know: the box is all this lovely blank space just waiting to be filled up with pictures. Since it's a Slytherin exchange, the art kinda flowed all by itself. And yes, I own red and green sharpie markers - doesn't everyone?
Off to the post office (which isn't open at 8am any more, so it was more like "take bus in the cold to block next to post office, walk up steep hill, discover post office is closed, trudge the half mile to work, work for a while/warm up, then trudge half mile back to post office, mail thing, trudge back to work, make hot cocoa) to get proof of mailing, which I wanted to be able to show to one of the exchange's Organizer Elves, as I was about a week late with the shipping.
Then it was just waiting for my Spoilee to receive her package. I was hoping she'd take a photo - but she took a bunch. The following four pics are from her. This first one is The Loot emptied out of the box...	Photo from Spoilee
Photo from Spoilee	... and here it is all unwrapped.
Photo from Spoilee	Bert and Ernie fluttered around the house, before finding the highest point on which to perch, while they wait for the Holiday Tree to go up. Plus, let's be real, they're hoping that someone will drop food so they can swoop down and grab it before it hits the floor. (They're like that.)
And the Shiny Magnets formed into an appropriately Snake-y shape on the refrigerator door. Wheee!	Photo from Spoilee

The day I mailed the package, while I was trugding back to work the second time, I noticed this sweater at one of the Hip Cool Stores(tm). It matched the notebook, pad, cards & pencil cases I'd just sent. I didn't get it for her, since it cost Actual $$, but I totally thought about it. Plus, I would've had to find a box and go back to the post office a third time - and that wasn't going to happen!


Once my package from my Spoiler arrives, I'll let you know what sort of goodies I got!!