How about me?

Hey Robin,
Me too? I did yours, now you do mine :) I LOVE my Daemon's name...



It is all my fault. I take full responsibility ;)
Later!

I'm such a fangirl

Hey Kate,

This is your fault so now you have to help me find my daemon.





I don't know where they get responsible or dependable from those answers, but I took the test 3 times and got the tiger twice. So, now you gotta make sure he's the right one. Again, this is your fault.

Later,

Robin

Stuff and Nonsense

Hey Robin,

Gosh I feel badly that I haven't written in FOREVER! I have been so frantic with the knitting-for-Christmas that my fingers have forgotten how to type! Well, not really... but you know how it is!! I am outta time!

I finished the Bells and Whistles socks finally. My goodness they take forever! They are beautiful though, and now I know for sure who they will go to. No, not me unfortunately. But therecipient is sure to appreciate them. I don't want to put her name down here because there's always the chance someone besides you will read this!

I know... it's a long shot but you never know!

Here's a pic of the lovelies:

Sorry for the low-light situation. I have no idea what went wrong there. Here's a shot I took previously:



















All-in-all it's a lovely pattern for a lace sock. I'm not altogether sure how many more of those I will want to make (except maybe one for me!). Being lace, they take longer for me to work through, and that's really not what I am looking for in a sock pattern. I want something fun to knit, sure... but i really want something that will be finished quickly and thereby satisfy my urge to FINISH SOMETHING!

The next thing I threw on the kneedles is a vest pattern (another gift, I'm not saying who it's for) by Oat Couture, the Oregon Vest. It had what I was looking for, simplicity and an already-done conversion to three different yarn weights. SOLD! I have some 'used' yarn for it that I rather like. The only thing i know about it is it's 100% superwash wool... and I got a whole lot of it for $6. Well, I use the term "whole lot" loosely here. It's probably enough yards for me to get halfway into the last front-piece. A fact which I will stubbornly ignore until I get to that part and want to throw the whole thing away. Actually, I suspect this might be some Brown Sheep, Lamb's Pride Superwash Chunky. Lookey here:

I attempted the knitting-in-the-ends thing that we just learned! You can see that I had an issue with the end that was "knitted" (on the right). The end that was "purled" (on the left) went much better. I am not sure what I did wrong. I need to review the whole process again. It was nice to be able to get rid of those ends straight away and not have to worry about them later. I'm liking this method very much!

The color is much darker than this, but like Anne, I am having trouble taking pictures of purple... it's a really lovely aubergine kind of color... I hope I can figure out what to do when I run out!

Remember the Baby Brunhilde hat? Here's a pic in situ:

Isn't she the cutest little smidgeon??

Do you have the Ride of the Vakyries running through your head too? I hope it's not just me...


Later!

I MET HER! I MET HER!

Hey Robin!

So like... there was this book signing... and stuff... and i don't really remember all of it. It's kind of a happy blur. I mean, Yarn Harlot is my HERO. SO I tried to take some pictures that I might have something to talk about. Or at least some proof that I was there. So I might be a little biased. But this crowd... They were awesome!




Wait that's not a good picture, here's a better
one:
When Harlot/Stephanie came out, the woman who was escorting her showed a beautiful afghan that was created by their knit-night group for a local charity. How cool is that? And my less-than-professional photography skills caught Stephanie rushing to help her hold it up. My less-than-helpful camera didn't catch up fast enough so that I could get a better picture of the two of them holding it up. But since there were about a billion other flashes going off... i am SURE some blog somewhere will have that picture and put me to considerable shame. *sigh*



So I had a great seat... can you tell?
Note to self: Stephanie is short, next time sit to the SIDE, so you can actually see her whole face. Yeah.
















These are the lovely ladies who were near me in the audience. I was so happy to meet other knitters. To the lady on the left... i am REALLY. REALLY... really sorry. And I didn't get your name. So. I'm REALLY sorry about the unfortunate timing on the picture. These ladies were so great. Everyone was, really.

That's Danica, far left. She was really funny and so cool. She gave me a Yarn Pirate sticker. Awesome. Penny, on the right (in red) just started knitting recently and is already knitting her first sock! The force is strong with this one... Carol, in the middle.... taught Penny. She was working on her second scarf for the red scarf charity. That's so awesome. I wish I had mine to show her. She was making some wonderful, yet simple scarves. So pretty! Yay! New Friends! :)

Stephanie spoke for about.... an hour? It's all a blur, I haven't laughed so much for so long since I saw George Carlin in Las Vegas on my honeymoon. Seriously, she's that funny. She deserves my adoration. She was as good as all of her books are, but instead of reading and grinning ear to ear and nodding your head... you are LISTENING... and grinning ear to ear... etc etc.

Do I really need to repeat how wonderful it was? Nah...

Next was the signing line. I was lucky enough to have an "A" on my ticket so i really didn't have to wait very long. The bookstore has this system DOWN and it was all handled quite well. It's a fantastic bookstore, I just wish it wasn't so far away. Incidentally that was Third Place Books, in Lake Forest Park. Awesome independant store. Awesome.

So many people wore their creations and were knitting new ones. I didn't want to be presumptuous and walk around asking people to hold up their wonderful things and ask to take a picture.... but I snuck this one in while i was waiting to meet my Hero. This woman and her Husband (I am assuming here... he sure seemed husbandly) are both knitters and had gone to meet Stephanie in Victoria BC. Anyway!! Look at this jacket! Noro silk garden (of course... isn't it obvious?!). I hope she doesn't mind that I am posting to to posterity :)
And of course there is Stephanie being charming and wonderful :)




















Here's Stephanie trying to get a pic of Carol's beautiful cardigan for her hubby. Her sleeves were a little too long and she was asking how to fix it with the least amount of trauma.

I was the one who suggested steeking Stephanie. Call me! :)



I was totally going to bring her a beer too. I should have. Man... I should have. Because I really didn't make an impression on her. Oh well.


And here's the SUMMIT of the whole night. I am giddy. I hope you are more successful than I. Maybe YOU can mention steeking too... just drop it in the conversation. ;) Later!

Super Cool Nerd Here...

Hey Robin,




HA! I'm a nerd too! Ha!

...wait a second...

Uber Cool Nerd Queen

Hey Kate!




What? You expected yarn talk? Too bad! (hopefully later)

And seriously, how'd I score so low on the Dumb/Dork/Awkward part of the test?

Later,

Uber Cool Nerd Queen Robin

You can't felt-out a stickinette-roll...

Hey Robin,
Yay a new FO! Woot! I managed to satisfy my need for a quick-project by making myself a purse/bag/thingy. I'm so excited. It's attempting to dry if I would only just leave it alone... here's some pics with some story. See previous post for last-seen pictures...

So The striping was actually coming along nicely, it was seriously fun mixing up all the teensy-balls of Noro and things-of-questionable-wool-content. I was getting past the handle though and was supposed to make more stripes for 10 rows. I wanted some nice striping there but when I glanced at my mini-stash to see what was left to choose from, I had very few options. Gah! What to do? Use the yarn that had the greatest length and just do one hefty "stripe"? Or go to the lys and get something to make some multiple-stripe-action. Hmm... which do you think I did??

I think you will recognize what I found:
Wait. Can't see it?














Here, try this one...
It's like Paton's (The SWS stuff) knew what I was doing ahead of time and hurried up to make sure this was in the bin where I was looking when I needed something. It's... it's like... EXACTLY the colors of the rest of the bag! Shocking! Ironic, because I have looked at this ball before and not been interested.





So anyway, I used, almost-exclusively, the SWS for the handle... it striped VERY well at this diameter and looked GREAT with the rest of the bag. I knitted up very nicely compared to the last time I used SWS (see earlier posts because I still don't know how to link to another post here...). Anyway, i finished it late at night and didn't feel right trying to felt it in the washing machine while certain other household inhabitants were sleeping ;)

This was the first time I felted something in the washing machine, with the zippered bag, tennis balls and a pair of blue jeans. I was nervous because I have a front-loader and all instructions talk about filling it with the water, THEN adding the soap, THEN adding the "contents". Also no spin etc. So YAY ME! There's a "no spin" option on my machine so I wasn't going to have to camp-out in front of it like it was soapy-TV.... i checked it often... nervously... like looking in the little window was going to ensure that everything worked properly. I'm such a sucker.

Here it is outta the bag and after a bit of semi-blocking-type encouragement!

I should point-out that the expedition to acquire new yarn for the handle that would fill-out more stripes and stuff was totally unnecessary. Why? The top TOTALLY rolled on me and I can't get it back up. So the beautiful SWS is hidden. In a roll. *sigh*






In other news, I have a garden too! Mine isn't as beautiful or prolific as other knitter's, but i got THIS:
For anyone with a background in Art History (myself included) or Ancient History/Archaeology this kind of find speaks volumes on what our made ancestors believe in certain-types-of-gods. Isn't it beautiful? I hate to eat it...










Later!
:D

Oy!

Hey Robin,
How did I go from getting-around-to-writing-a-post to full-fledged project-updating on Ravelry?? WTF?

Inspired by you, I had finished the orphan scarf (doesn't look much different from the last time i pictured-it, so I won't bore you) and had to cast-on something FAST. Little Guy started pre-school yesterday and so I wanted to do something that I could work on and maybe finish by the end of the week.... a real change from how projects have been going this summer!

Anyway, it's the Felted Striped Tote from One Skein, but I am calling it the Felted Ad Lib Tote... here it is in it's messy-lump stage. I'm using my leftover Highland Wool from Elann (that i used for the kitty-pi) and some bits and bobs leftover from someone else's project! Most of them have been identified as Noro, but there's some other stuff in there mixed in. I am afraid that one of those balls might not be something that felts... but oh well. We're living on the WILD SIDE.

...It must be that smell of short-term-freedom i get each morning ;)

So, are you going to knit something stylish for Loki and Thor so you can enter CAP's contest??

Later!
Kate

Knot again!

Hey Kate!

So, my frantic search for a skinny scarf to stitch ended with the V8 pattern that I found on Ravelry. It's a free pattern from Interweave Crochet and the lovely pattern search function in Ravelry got me there. It is totally beginner, totally mindless, totally easy and no casting on/chaining 300+ stitches since it isn't stitched sideways like most of the other patterns I found.

I'm using the discontinued Bernat Acacia that I got on ebay ages ago. The yarn sucks. It is 60% Viscose/40% Cotton and the cotton parts look like a tissue accidentally went through the wash with the yarn. And the yarn has knots in it! Grrrr. But it looks kinda neat when stitched up and the odd texture hides the ends well.

I have a lighter peach that I want to make into a tanktop. Interweave Knits Spring has a couple patterns I want to try, but I have to get a back issue since JoAnn's doesn't keep back issues in the store -- boo! Do you have any ideas?

Oh and here's Emme picking a winner.

Later!

Robin