old friends and new tricks

I can't believe I didn't blog about this!

So last May (and I know it was May only because of my project page) I had Jury Duty. I was super excited because it was my first time on Jury Duty, and I like new experiences. I asked a whole bunch of friends and family what to expect and was told lots of sitting around and wanting to leave, but I was undaunted! When I called the hotline Monday night & they told me I had to go in the next day, I was psyched. I prepared - me, prepared! - a whole bunch of knitting projects, a book or three, charged my ipod, and then I even left the house on time. I parked ok, got to the metal detector, and mini-disaster struck: no knitting needles allowed! They said to go leave my knitting stuff in my car - good thing I was slightly early :) - but that crochet was ok. Well fine, I didn't really want to crochet my acorn (it was coming out wonky even then), but thank goodness I had it.



(See, not thrilling, right?)

Anyways, about 30 minutes into the opening schpiel about doing our civic duty and everything, I was happily crocheting away and I noticed a woman sitting a few rows up knitting a sock. After the talk when everyone dispersed, I moved my seat over near her, and we were happily knitting and crocheting away when another sock knitter found us! They commiserated about my trouble with security, I admired their very nice-looking socks, and we hung out all day. We even got called up to the same potential jury pool but they only needed 1 guy. During our lunch break we walked to Garden City Stitches together. It was very fun! We got dismissed at about 3:30, and it was really much better than going to work for the day. Best Jury Duty ever!

Last night Gryffinitter invited me to her Spinning Guild. Her friend Alphawave, who she taught to knit, was recently elected president, and did a good job of going over guild business and explaining some stuff to the n00bs. Then there was a really interesting talk about Mohair from one of the Guild Members. I always thought mohair meant scratchy, hairy (ugly!) sweaters, but that's completely innacurate! It was sooooo interesting. And all the while, I was spinning away on my little Drop Spindle, using some great fiber I received in an HSKS from Sara. Fun night! Afterwards, I met the Sock Tsarina! (::swoon:: I love her patterns! And Rachel talks about her sock club All. The. Time., which I love). She was as cool as Rachel & Gryffinitter described, and when I mentioned that I knew Rachel from Panera, she mentions the Sunday Panera that they do, and points out two friends of hers from that Panera group.

One of whom, of course, was one of my Jury Duty friends! So now I have to go one Sunday, because a) I was invited b) JDf is very cool and c) as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I enjoy new experiences, and from what I've heard the Sunday group is a blast.

As for my new trick, I ordered some yarn off Etsy and didn't completely love it. Someone on Ravelry was looking for 1 more skein for a big project, so I PM-ed her about a destash. Learning to let go... a very good thing :)

games both non-magical and magical

Yesterday I played a pickup game of softball in the park with some friends. We played against a bunch of guys that have a longstanding Sunday game. I have NO IDEA why they'd want to play a bunch of 20-somethings, 1/2 of whom are girls, all but two of us hadn't played since high school... and Dani & I play on our company teams, but neither of us is spectacular - we just know how to throw the ball properly. We were up for a while, but they picked up about 5 runs in the last inning, and it was all over. It was a LOT of fun anyways. The other team wants a rematch next week, but idk if we'll be able to reassemble our team again.

Last night I finally caught up with all 500+ posts in the Reducio swap's round 10 chatter thread. Someone had a good idea for the handmade item - a pouch for gobstones. I like that idea a lot, especially since it'll be useful, but I don't have gobstones to put inside. I was thinking of doing stitchmarkers instead, maybe reducio'd Quidditch balls out of Fimo, with a hole through them, and turned into stitchmarkers? All still very useful - I like pretty things that are useful :) Then I think I have to make a Golden Snitch tape measure, since I wrote the pattern. But its not reducio'd so it won't count as the second handmade item, in my book.

I was reading the Wikipedia article about Quidditch to check what colors of Fimo I'll need, and I'd forgotten all about the Golden Snidget. I have the yellow wool crepe yarn from the Secret LYS that I could use to crochet a tiny bird.

Considering that last round, I went through 3 failed ideas before coming up with something that I liked enough to mail, I am very happy to now have too many ideas of what to do. Something will work out right!

Oh I forgot to mention, yesterday I ordered yarn for some baby blankets. Two of my first cousins' wives, one on mom's side & one on dad's, are due in July. Of course neither side knows - or wants to find out - what they are having. The cousin-in-law on my Dad's side - let's call her L - is very quiet around our family so I'm not sure if she likes us. I checked with my cousin first, and he was ok with me knitting them a baby blanket (in fact, really liked the idea). So I called L to check what colors she likes. It took a few back-and-forths but I am so glad I asked, because she requested Cream or Yellow. They aren't really my taste, but who cares? It's not my kid that's going to be using the blanket!

The cousin-in-law on my mom's side - A - is super religious, and those super-frum types have very specific ideas about appropriateness, especially wrt colors. But, she's really really sweet, and I think they'll use it no matter what color it is. I ordered Knitpicks Comfy Worsted in Seafoam, a blueish-green, and Pomegranate, a cranberry red color. Boy or girl, they can pick whichever color they like best.

field trip

Last Tuesday, I met some knitters from my neighborhood in Queens at our local Starbucks. Friday, 3 of us went on a field trip to a Secret Yarn Store! It was pretty awesome, the kind of hole-in-the-wall place that you'd never find without an experienced guide, with lots of interesting yarns inside.

I bought a cone of hemp yarn to make a shawl, and some "Wool Crepe" yarn in Gryffindor colors for my Reducio swap package.


The theme for round 10 is "magical games and sports". I have no idea what I'm making yet, but getting the yarn is a good start :)

what happens when I order from smileys

What happens when I order from Smileys online yarn sale is this:

6 skeins are going to Gryffinitter, the rest will become a Hemlock blanket, a sweater, and probably some hats :)

felted bowl/vase/thing

Yarn: 1 skein of Chaco, color #59 which is a green.
Needles: Size 10.5 Clover DPNs
Knit using 2 strands held together - I wound the yarn into a cake and pulled from the center and outside.

CO 6 stitches on 1 needle

Row 1: KFB into the first stitch cast on and the second, use a second dpn to kfb into the next stitch, use a third dpn to kfb the next two stitches, and use a 4th dpn kfb the last stitch (12 stitches)
(Adjust your stitches every few increase or decrease rows so that all 4 needles have similar #s of stitches)

Row 2: K in each stitch around
Row 3: *kfb, k1* around (6 times)
Row 4: K in each stitch around
Row 5: *kfb, k2* around
Row 6: K in each stitch around
Row 7: *kfb, k3* around
Row 8: K in each stitch around
Row 9: *kfb, k4* around
Row 10: K in each stitch around
Row 11: *kfb, k5* around
Row 12: K in each stitch around
Row 13: *kfb, k6* around
Rows 14-15: K in each stitch around (2 rows)
Row 16: *kfb, k7* around
Rows 17-20: K in each stitch around (4 rows)
Row 21: *kfb, k8* around
Rows 22-29: K in each stitch around (8 rows)
Row 30: *kfb, k9* around
Rows 31-40: K in each stitch around (10 rows)
Row 41: *k2tog, k9* around
Rows 42-49: K in each stitch around (8 rows)
Row 50: *k2tog, k8* around
Rows 51-54: K in each stitch around (4 rows)
Row 55: *k2tog, k7* around
Rows 56-57: K in each stitch around (2 rows)
Row 58: *k2tog, k6* around
Row 59: K in each stitch around (1 rows)
Row 60: *k2tog, k5* around
Rows 61-64: K in each stitch around (4 rows)
Bind off all stitches

I had about 4 inches left after binding off.

Photos before felting:


Stay tuned for photos of post felting... laundry day is Friday.

ravelympics report - day 11

Three down, lots to go.

So after I finished the Divine Hat I got back to knitting Traveling Woman. I finally finished at 1:30 am last Friday! Lots of rave reviews about the color, but it desperately needs to be blocked:



Close up of the lace:


I earned 3 medals for this FO!


(well I got this one twice, once for the Divine Hat too)

Tonight I finished another hat project called the Slouchy Hat. Usually I look terribly in slouchy beret-type hats, but this hat is made of alpaca. I'll make it work :)



PS - Taking a photo of a hat that's on my head, from the side to get a good view of the slouchy? Not easy.

ravelympics report - day 5

Some of you may recall from Thursday's post...

Proposed project schedule:
2/12-2/14 Traveling Woman & Citron
2/15 - both Divine hats
2/16 - 2/18 - the Elegant Ribbed Stockings
2/19 - 2/21 - FLS
2/22 - 2/25 - Bella's Mitts
2/25 - 2/28 - Maple and Wrenna

So far I am way off the pace. Sigh.
Saturday night I worked on the Slouchy Hat and Traveling Woman.

The Slouchy hat came with me to Chavi's to watch The Wiz with some friends. OMG. That movie is nothing like the play and very trippy to watch. Anyways, the hat is coming along just fine - except it's not slouchy. I started on the recommended size 6 needle, but I went up to a 7 instead of the 8 the pattern calls for because I usually knit loosely. Well anyways, end result = no slouch. By Sunday afternoon I was up to the decreases for the top, but I decided Monday that I need to rip back about 30 rows and use the size 8s the pattern calls for. Oh well, lesson learned!

The Traveling Woman was coming along fine... until I hit row 9 of the second repeat of the lace chart A, and realized that in the first repeat I'd used row 9 of the lace chart B the first time through. Majorly demoralizing! Sunday my friend Emm1e talked me through it. It's not a glaring mistake, and I'm just repeating it in each repeat of Chart A so it looks uniform (because I'm OCD).



Anyways, right now I'm up to the 4th repeat of chart A. I'm doing 4 or 5 repeats of A before the single repeat of B (and binding off). I hope to be done tomorrow, realistically by the weekend is do-able.

Yesterday I crocheted about 1.5 divine hats. I started one on the Subway to Manhattan, where I met O to do a mini yarn-crawl. That would be the .5 - because I dropped the hook on the way home, and although I wrapped it in napkins and will wash it thoroughly before using it again, there was simply no way I was going to use it unwashed.

The yarn crawl was awesome! It was great to see O!! We went to School Products first, where I got some lace yarn for a reworked Citron (the original yarn choice is not a good fit). O got some cashmere that I won't talk about b/c it's for people. Then we both got 1lb cones of Jute (yellow for me, Navy for O) to make these cute crocheted bags - there was a sample in the store and the lyso told me how to recreate it.

Next we walked downtown to the Lion Brand Yarn Studio. Despite the lowbrow rep that Lion Brand Yarns might have, it's really really really worth a trip. O got some LB Baby Alpaca, and we both got some of the LB Wool with Stainless Steel to try different projects - knitted scarf for O, crocheted necklace for me. I also picked up a couple things for my Reducio package - house unity stitchmarkers and a mini sock blocker keychain.

Monday night was the big Ravelympics meetup slash hat race at Panera. It was fun!! R finished a Ravelympics project already - a very pretty Ear Sweater in blues and black. B and M brought WIPs to show us. Ph finished a Divine Hat-inspired cowl she is designing called - what else? - Intervention! Lol. Ch wasn't doing the Ravelympics thing, but she brought a Sock Monkey to work on.

M, Ph, B and I all worked on Divine Hats, and although M and I came close (under 2 rows left) nobody finished theirs before leaving Panera. I finished mine quickly after arriving home, so I present my Ravelympics 2010 Team Uniform:



This morning I logged onto Ravelry to find that I had been awarded a medal for finishing the Hat Half-Pipe!!!


Ravthletes are also awarded a special Ravatar:

ravelympics training

Ravelympics to do list:
Write up project schedule
Print out all patterns (in duplicate)
Pull Ravelympics yarn from stash (so it's easy to find)
Arrange for period well-being checks from a local knitter (because a non-knitter might miss-interpret the yarnbarf and have me committed)
Grocery store: stock up on hot chocolate, tangerines, bread, honey and peanut butter.

Ravelympics project list (so far):
February Lady Sweater in Nashua Focus Superwash - Emerald Green (b-day gift from Gryffinitter!)
Wrenna in Rowan Biggy Print - hot pink
Citron in BMFA STR Rare Gem - purple/red
Maple (possibly more than 1) in Chaco - colors tbd
Bella's Mitts in Louet Riverstone - Aqua
Elegant Ribbed Stockings in Louet Gems Worsted - Neptune
Traveling Woman in Dream In Color Stardust - Firefrost
Divine Hat (2+) in Chaco - colors tbd

On the fence:
Arden in WOTA Bulky - Red and Black
I bought the kit and want to knit it, but I worry that the colorwork will slow me down too much.

I am SO excited for the Ravelympics, it's not even funny. Of course I tell non-knitters I am excited for the Olympics but I really mean Ravelympics. Although I do like watching the Olympics on TV. I'm especially looking forward to the Cross Country Skiing, because I just started doing it last year and I love it. So I want to see how the pros do it, because I'm sure I'm doing it wrong, lol. And of course the Figure Skating, Snow Boarding, and Skiing are great to watch. Especially the Figure Skating!

As for strategy, I think I should get a few projects out of the way before I hit the February Lady Sweater. The Divine Hats, Stockings, Maple, and Bella's Mitts are the most portable so I'll save those for when I am out of the house. I also want to have FLS be my first sweater, so I think I will start with Traveling Woman and Citron the first weekend, then do the FLS, and anchor my big projects with Wrenna - which is Super Bulky and should be good for the final stretch.

Proposed project schedule:
2/12-2/14 Traveling Woman & Citron
2/15 - both Divine hats
2/16 - 2/18 - the Elegant Ribbed Stockings
2/19 - 2/21 - FLS
2/22 - 2/25 - Bella's Mitts
2/25 - 2/28 - Maple and Wrenna

Ok, I just re-read that. I might be insane...

ETA: Crap! I forgot the Slouchy Hat with Picot Edge. Um... maybe I'll do that this weekend also. Because, you know, 2 shawls aren't enough.

reducio

Despite the snow, an hour ago an adorable little owl tapped its beak on my window. I didn't even catch his name before he flew off - he absolutely loved the snow - but he had an unbelievable package for me from Selina/ZTAgirlknits!


The little socks are so cute. I'm 90% sure I have a skein of the purple yarn (from Hobby Lobby, right?) so obviously the color is a hit too :) And I love love love the mini knitting bag!

Selina sent tons of little goodies:

Check out the house unity teabags! And the hot chocolate with chili sounds yummy :) And new Potter magnets for my collection! And the Slytheriny stitchmarkers - you probably can't see how awesome they are, but one even has a dragon.

Thanks Selina! I hope the package you receive is as excellent as the one you sent me.

snow photos

I'm working from home today so no day off, but the snow is beautiful outside my windows.
My kitchen window:


The building across the street. Can you see the huge snowflakes falling? It's great.


My air conditioner...


Aren't snow-covered trees beautiful?

sock progress

I'm up to the heel gusset on my Luna socks, but I'm not feeling it. Or maybe I just have caston-itis. Anyways I really wasn't feeling the Luna sock vibe this morning, and my Inside Out socks are at the point where I need to try them on a lot... so I cast on new socks.

The pattern: Leafling, a Socks That Rock club pattern that I picked up at MDS&W '09.
The yarn: STR MW mill end, purchased at the BMFA website sale of 12/31. The 3rd skein from the top (or 2nd from the bottom)



The yarn is about 1/2 leaf green and 1/2 yellows (from golden yellow to yellow-green), with a splash of dead-leaf-brown thrown in. I'm calling it "First Signs of Autumn" in an effort not to hate the yellowness.

In other news, Gryffinitter talked me into signing up for the Reducio mini sock swap. It's only fair considering how many Ravelry-related things I've talked her into, plus she's always telling me about the swap and the people in it and how fun it is. It should be a good time.

The theme of this round is house unity... I hope I get a Hufflepuff to mail to, because I now have the perfect green-and-yellow yarn to use for a mini sock...

if luna were a gryffindor

I worked in Manhattan yesterday, so I made a lot of subway-knitting progress on my sock:


The Pattern is Luna's Moonlight Socks by Ann Kingstone. I got on a kick last weekend after my brother and cousin came to visit, and had a very strong urge to knit this pattern. The Ravelry photo shows a midnight blue (shaded solid?) sock but I didn't have a similar color, so I stash dove and found a skein of Kettle Dyed Essential (in Wine) from last month's Knitpicks order. I figure Luna hangs out with enough Gryffindors in DA that she can pull off a pair of Gryff-colored socks ;)

I am loving the pattern, and the yarn makes me very frustrated. It's really nice to knit up, but the "Kettle Dye" translated into a mostly-solid sock with dark stripes every so often, which make the sock look wrinkled, no?

Last night I was going to hit Gotham Fine Yarn after work but they posted on Ravelry that they'd be closed, so I went to Seaport yarn in search of Louet Gems in Worsted Weight... which they did not have. They did have some other, very reasonably priced (!!!) yarn - so I got a skein of beautiful purple sock yarn, and Arauncia Ranco in dark blue for another pair of Luna socks - I did mention I love the pattern, didn't I? Also picked up a set of square dpns to try.

Wednesday night, I discovered, there is a Knitting Circle at Seaport Yarns. I was too tired to go straight home so I sat down and started working on my sock. Two cool things happened then:
- Every single person (all 5) said that they really liked Ann's sock pattern! I'm looking forward to passing that along to her :)
- One of the people knitting there lives about 5 blocks away from me in Queens, so she and I took the subway home together and had a nice chat about knitting.

As a reward for making it all the way through this post, the very pretty skein of sock yarn:

dog

Isn't he cute?

funny sign

whiskey

Drunk testing = bad
Drunk blogging = ok if it's socks!

@ the HP exhibit

rhinebeck the second

 The day started out drizzly and cold and finished just cold.  Perfect weather to pile on the handknits!  I wore a tan Divine Hat (my fave hat pattern at the moment), a purple & green Malabrigo Darkside Cowl (first time wearing it!), purple, blue & green Fetching, and handknit socks that noone beside Sarah saw 'cuz they were in my boots.  Sarah rocked another of my Divine Hats, and some wristwarmers that I'd crocheted last year.  She forgot her scarf home, but I saw it today and it's very pretty.  Gryffinitter wore handknit socks and a handknit-by-someone-else shawl - both also pretty.

 Speaking of pretty, the trees were all changing colors and stuff... gorgeous!

See that white tent on the left in the photo above?  That's a hot chocolate stand.  Gryffinitter saw this in their tent, and thought it was the coolest thing:

 

that's a LOT of cocoa powder!

We went to The Fold first so I could get my STR fix.  Last year at Rhinebeck Clidonia introduced me to STR , so I had to go back, right?  I got a pattern (inside out socks) and a couple of skeins of the mill ends - one is apparently a christmas edition but if my goishe radar wasn't tripped, I think the xmas tie-in is subtle enough that I can still use the yarn :) 

The authors were also in that building (B), and can I say that I was really disappointed this year?  Last year we had the Yarn Harlot and a LOT of other knitting book authors.  Including the other Knitbot who was awesome.  This year it seemed like 1/3 of the books weren't even knitting books!  Lily Chin was the "big name" - and she's cool, but the table had a sign that she'd be there at 12:15, so we didn't stick around 2 hours to meet her.

Next Sarah and I went to Building C and Building A and Gryffinitter hung out with an old college friend for a bit.  At 12 we hit the Ravelry meetup.  We chatted with Erica, who might be my favorite Rav staffer even if she's technically off the staff, and her husband, Jess's brother, who is also very awesome.  Frecklebrother hooked us up with buttons and we all chatted a while.  Then we took a photo with Jess and Casey and went someplace warm and dry.  

Back in Building C, Sarah talked me into some sock yarn and in revenge I talked her into a skein, too.  Gryffinitter made sure nobody bought an inferior wheel, and I talked her out of a sweet deal on a 4' loom.  Her husband would've been angry, so I pointed out that either she or it would fit in my car to go back to Queens, but not both.

We went to the Horticulture building next, where Gryffinitter bought a much-smaller-than-4-feet loom.  Sarah and I punked out and ate lunch - not as good as what Carma packed for MDS&W, let me tell you! Gryffinitter was still at it inside when we finished  :)  Then we dropped our stuff at the car and hit the Holiday Yarns booth to see the Tsock Tsarina's kits.  I got the beer socks kit, and I have my eye on the margheurita socks next.  Gryffinitter went straight to Carolina Homespun, Sarah & I detoured to Sheep Incognito & Creatively Dyed yarns and met her there.  Gryffinitter taught me what a Wanda is (and talked me into a couple, of course).  Sarah & I found a great deal on some Noro silk yarn at Cadogan across the aisle. 

At some point Sarah got a skein of alpaca that she wore as a cowl for the rest of the day.

Gryffinitter tried out this cute wheel for us.

 

It was really squeeky.

Sarah won our Scavenger Hunt, which was to find a copy of The Joy of Sox so we could see Emma's/Ann's Snow Bunny pattern!

(Please note the Darkside Cowl keeping my neck toasty warm.)

On the way out we hit one of the food booths for donuts and hot cider - although Sarah was good and just bought 2 apples.  That's willpower!

It was a looooooong day.

in other news

... Ann got a pattern published, in a real book!  It's called The Joy of Sox.  Of course I ordered one, and you should too!  I'm nowhere near skilled enough to knit her sock pattern but there's a couple in the book I want to try.  They are interesting (and pretty!).

... I am playing volleyball at work.  We had a game last night - well, we play 3 games in a row, so I guess you would say that we had a match last night?  I joined the team as a complete beginner and have attended all-but-one practice, and last night I sucked the least I've ever sucked at volleyball!  I might not even be the worst player on the team anymore :)  Our coaches-slash-managers from the "A" team said we might actually win a game this season - I'm told the "B" team didn't win a single game last season, so that's actually a compliment.  I think.

And now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

the city

On days that I work in the city, I get great views of the Empire State
building on my walk to the train.

Note the HBP advert on the bus.

Fun new trick!

I just discovered the coolest trick on my phone - I can email multiple
photos at a time.

May I present the only bit of knitting I've managed for two weeks: a
fleur-de-lis dishcloth. Half of which was knit on the plane ride home
from Chicago.