So if you didn’t guess by the title, this long weekend, we had another tatting party at grandma’s. I learned how to join on the picot (I had learned already, but didn’t do it for a while and promptly forgot). She gave me a really simple pattern that doesn’t use a chain (which isn’t hard to do). And some green and yellow thread (2 different spools, not together). I want to make a green necklace and a yellow bracelet. Or anklet. They yellow thread is tiny and hard to work with. I will practice on the green first.
I will post pics of all this when I get a chance, but I have some needles to finish tonight to ship off. And some other stuff for that. Labels and tags and whatnot. So I took the plunge and figured it out and with a yard of two different fabrics, I can make a straight needle case, a dpn case, and a sock pocket. Awesome. I made templates but got messed up somewhere in the ironing, perhaps, so I need to reiron the contrast color and I will have another really cute straight needle case. It is yellow-green pattern for the main color and the contrast is a dark brown. I really like it. The biggest problem with making all these cute bags and needle cases is that I want to keep them all for myself.
So on Monday, Abe and I got to find out what it would be like to do arachknits full time and I have to say that would be absolute heaven. Absolute. Heaven. To the heaventh degree.
Also on Monday, we took the dogs for a walk. Actually. I think this was Sunday. We were walking through our beautiful neighborhood and I was wearing my green paisley-esque skirt and a car drove by and then braked. She leaned out her window with a big piece of cloth and called out to us. I thought she wanted directions. But she offered me a skirt! She said she saw my skirt and that it was similar and thought I might like it. She had bought it at a garage sale for her daughter, who didn’t like it. So being as cheap as I am, of course I took it. It is a pretty white and turqoiuse pattern. It had sequins on it, so I spent the rest of the weekend with my seam ripper taking them all off. Wait till you see how many there were! So I carried it the rest of the way home and can’t wait to wear it…
So the weather has just been all over the place for the last week or so. One day its 83 degrees and the next its 50 and raining. At night its been really cold and both Angela and I have been having crazy dreams. Last night I had one where we were driving around in our car and something hit our windshield and shattered it. I started to get upset because we couldn’t afford to replace it but Angela said “Don’t worry I’ve got some lace weight yarn with me, I’ll just knit us a new one.” And a few minutes later we were driving away again with a windshield that looked like a giant white doily!
Angela’s foot is healing up really well. We’ve been washing it, putting antibiotic ointment and a fresh bandage on it twice a day since it happened. It was pretty funny. I was sitting on the ground playing with the dogs and Angela stepped over the little table at the end of the couch and right on to the dog brush. She started laughing hysterically and hopping around and I looked up just in time to see the dog brush go flying off her foot which she was madly shaking. then she collapsed on the ground and said “It hurts!” between spurts of laughter. She was laughing the whole time I was on the phone with the doctor. All in all it was a pretty surreal event.
The yarn trek was fun in its own way too. Saturday was my favorite day. We took the dogs with us and went to Bellingham to have lunch with Rijil and Isaac and then we drove to like 14 yarn stores between Bellingham and Seattle. It was cool to see the variety in the stores. And I really enjoyed chatting with Angela for such a long stretch of time. It reminded me of when we used to play EQ2 together. It was like a big long quest
Man I’m a dork.
Also, some amusement from http://icanhascheezburger.com/
I had a wonderful weekend with a horrible exclamation point at the end. Here it all is.
I did the LYS Tour - Destination: Yarn and got to every shop. What a blast. 24 shops in four days and I only bought 3 skeins more than one skein per store. I got 3 balls of yarn for free. Here is my “passport” with stamps from every shop.
On Thursday, we went to the stores in the area (after going to make an appointment with my new oral surgeon - May 29th I get my wisdom teeth out). First stop was in Edmonds - Spin a Yarn. Cute shop. Looks like someone’s stash exploded all over the bottom floor of their house and they are selling it to make room to live. Every where you look, there is more yarn. The pattern was for a simple lace shrug from Noro Kureyon Sock Yarn (color 149 - browns and black and white). Very simple pattern.
Then we went to Village Yarn and Tea in Moutlake Terrace. That place smells so good. And they had fresh baked chocolate chip cookies sitting out. The pattern was a sock. I don’t remember specifically what yarn I got, but it was sock yarn.
At Acorn Street Shop, the pattern was a felted puse using a giamongous skein of Alpine wool (color 2012). The purse on display had a little flower with buttons for petals on bright blue, but I am going to do one in “gold” and decorate it with a mushroom. I am really excited. If I can get it to look like what is in my head, it will be awesome. Weaving Works pattern was a crochet towel and a felted tea cozy. I bought the yarn for the towel becuase it looks awesome and I am sure I have yarn at home I can use to make the tea cozy. The towl yarn is bamboo. I got neutral colors so it will go with everything.
Then Bad Woman Yarn. Loved it. Their pattern was for neck warmer things. Very pretty. The crochet one is a little too ruffly for me, but the knit one is really pretty. I got the Urban Silk in Green (color 10). Abe also gave them my business card and they said they would check out arachknits. Awesome. They seemed more interested in the needle cases than the needles themselves, but we’ll see what happens.
I think then we went to Hilltop Yarn in Queen Anne. They were offering a lot of free patterns. I got the yarn for a free pattern that wasn’t part of the LYS tour patterns (cabled hat), so I also got the free pattern for cabled gloves. I got some red Malabrigo Chunky in burgundy, I think. Cute shop. I saw it when I went to the Thai restaurant with Abe’s friend Sam and his girlfriend Liz. I didn’t go in because I was trying to behave.
Then at the Fiber Gallery (I met the owner the one night I went to the Stitch n’ Bitch at Tully’s on Wednesday), the pattern was for a baby cardigan (the display was adorably on a teddy bear) with yak yarn. I don’t remeber the brand, but I got turqouise. They have a lot of books. I ended up going back there the next day because it is the closest one to our house and I need some knitting needles before we started driving all over town. Then we went to Full Circle Yarn, which is also a frame shop and smells like my mom’s old art studio (which oddly enough is now a frame shop…). They had a pattern for four different purses. Two felted, two non. I got the yarn for the non felted purses (as opposed to the clutch). I don’t remember what it was.
The funniest part of the day was that it was “International Fluevog Day,” so I wore my Katia shoes with 3 inch heels. My feet were so sore by the time we got home!!
Then on Friday, we only did three shops. Tricoter in Madison (no website) - I bought a beautiful navy blue skein of cashmere and silk for a lace scarf and some lace addi turbos. They were really nice and they gave out a than you kit with a description of the shop, some coupons (for the store and the neighboring coffee shop), and a keychain sweater. Seattle Yarn Gallery in West Seattle - Awesom shop with a billion tons of yarn. They had the biggest Manos del Uruguay skeins. I don’t know if they were for sale at that size, but I want one! They had a pattern for earrings and baseballs, but they were out of baseball patterns, so I just grabbed the earring pattern and went hunting for yarn (since it didn’t call for any specific yarn). I got the Berocco Comfort Sock yarn. I am pretty sure I got the Southland colorway. Here is the parking spot outfront for YARN. I thought it was funny. Yarn doesn’t drive!
The little fella in there is to make the picture more interesting but you can’t see it so it failed. It was the first sock monster I made. It is Abe’s.
Finally on Friday, we went to So Much Yarn downtown. I can’t remember what their pattern was, but I think it was socks and I think I bought the Dream in Color Smooshy sock yarn. A nice blue. Turns out I was trying so hard not to get green that I started only buying blue. While I was there, listening to the women talk about how none of them have the sock gene (which I think everyone does, they just have to be willing to try it a few times), a lady came in with an adorable rescued Italian Grayhound. They are such delicate creatues, but I totally want one.
Then we went home and collapsed. Marathon yarn shopping is more tiring that one would think.
Saturday was the best day. We started in Bellingham with lunch with Isaac and Rijl. I got my birthday presents from both (and gave Rijl her Christmas present). She gave me some wonderful Jasmine Vanilla shower gel, lotion, spray, and candles in a cute little basket. For Xmas (which I also got that day), she gave me some candles she had made in antique ice cream bowls. They smell great and the bowls look great. I can stick them in the freezer when they are burnt out and the wax should come right out. Then I can actually use them as bowls. Awesome. Isaac gave me this cool hand spun “Flamethrower” yarn.
Depending on how much I would need for this plan, I am going to make a Maltese hat (by Elizabeth Zimmerman) from my Summer 2008 Interweave Knits magazine. Couldn’t sleep last night thinking about it!
Anways, before we had lunch with them at the Colophon Cafe, we went to NW Handspun in downtown Bellingham. Their pattern was for a little baby beanie using Cascade Fixation. I think I got 9054 color. Their upstairs looked like it was full of weaving, looming, spinning, stuff. But we were in a hurry so Isaac didn’t have to wait at the cafe too long by himself.
After lunch, we drove up to J&J Art, which was a nice little shop. They turned me on to the Think Outside the SOX contest, which I may or may not enter. Costs $10 to enter, but I think that is to mail you back your socks. They offered a pattern for a water bottle cozy or wine bottle cover. I got the Noro yarn. Not sure which one exactly, but it was pink and yellow. We also met a old man who took art and turned it into cross stitch. They showed us his steps to make his blue ribbon piece that he won jointly for design and contruction with the lady who had asked for his help. Pretty cool.
Then it was to Burlington for Knot Just Yarn. Their pattern was a felted bag from Malabirgo chunky. I got yellow gold brown skein. They had a whippet sleeping behind the counter. I was wearing my whippet necklace so she asked. (Note: I got this far through this post before I realized I could change the size of the text window. Blerg.)
Then to Anacortes–Ana-Cross Stitch. This is great. The shop is huge and sunny for one. And they were offering a pattern for a shawlette, which I actually like, from some amazing handspun from a local lady. We talked for a while and as I was checking out, I gave her my card and she was so interested she looked at my stuff right there on her computer. I hope to be able to go back, because she had a bunch of Kauni yarn and I think I would like to make the Kauni sweater. I can’t find a good picture of it right now, but the Yarn Harlot knit one about a year ago and it looks awesome.
Back to I-5 and to Mt. Vernon-Wild Fibers. They had a one skein project hunt and if you counted the right number you got a prize. I got a skein of yarn! There were 18 or so that I counted. Holy Moly. I am getting tired just writing about this all again. Somebody dropped something outside that sounded like gun fire (but turned out to be 2×4s) and everyone in the shop ran out. I must have heard a lot of dropping 2×4s when I was younger because I barley even heard it. I just kept looking at yarn. Their pattern was a beaded cuff sock pattern. I got the yarn, but I think I will knit a different pattern. Yellow Pagewood Farms sock yarn.
Then Everett - Great Yarns. I was pretty tired at this point and am having a hard time remembering this one. I think this was the one… Nevermind. I have no idea. I did end up with a gigantic clear plastic bag that says Great Yarns on it though, so I know I was there.
Main Street Yarns in Mill Creek- very nice. She was vaccuuming when we came in because all the yarn shops stayed open late during the 4 days of the Tour. No site that I can find. I got some Fleece Artist Sea Wool yarn there in beautiful colors. They had a great big table up front for knitting at and very hand cards that accompanied every yarn with really handy information. (Not to take with you, but to review.) I am really excited to work with this yarn.
Last for the day was Let it Rain Yarn in Mukilteo. We drove and drove and drove and finally made it there. Nice little shop. Their pattern was a little purse from Frog Tree yarn. I also got some grey cotton/wool Cascade yarn to make another One Skein Shrug for these hot summer months and some 24 gauge copper wire! Plus it was all 10% off. How could I say no! It turns out that yarn fumes and tiredness weaken my yarn resistance. Woops.
At some point on Friday, we ate at Jack in the Crack and I had the best dang tacos! Then we went home and laid about. The dogs were with us the whole way and were as tuckered out as we were.
Sunday we had 5 shops left. Holy Guacamole. I am tired. Five to go. That is how I felt on Sunday. First was Bellevue - Hilltop Yarn East - that was a shawl pattern and I got some Dutechess Blue Alpaca with a Twist Fino. Nice shop. The owner was friendly and happy. Then to Renton - The Knittery- cable bag with Cascade 220 (I got rust colored). Then Kent - Renaissance Yarn - very nice. I liked it a lot. They had cool yarns and wi-fi which made Abe happy (even though he couldn’t use it). Patten was a washcloth with Sublime organic cotton - I think I got ‘clay’ color. Cute place. Burien - The Yarn Stash. Some cookies. The pattern was a silk lariat thing. I already started making it because I think it is the smallest pattern. More Urban Silk yarn, but in merlot. Then we parked downtown and took the ferry to Bainbridge and went to Churchmouse Yarn and Tea. I loved it. It was partly because I could finally relax. But I was so tired and hot by then. Their pattern was little gloves in Manos Silk Blend in the Stellar colorway so I will have little gloves to make my scarf. I have another skein of the regular wool in the same colorway, so I could make a hat, too, and have a complete set… They had a lot of great kits and yummy looking tea. I got something for my swapee in HSKS5 and a single thing of tea for me. Then we had pizza for lunch and took the ferry back home. It was a very fun weekend. Oh, they also gave me a free tape measure. Can never have too many of those!
Anyways. Here is the loot I brought home. The stuff I planned for:
And the stuff I bought anways or got for free. Including the stamped passport and all the patterns.
Wow. Lots of stuff. But wait! What does this have to do with a horrible ending (or really lucky depending on how you look at it. On Monday night, I was getting ready to turn the skein of gray cascade cotton/wool into a ball so I could start working on my new gray shrug. But I had to put some other balls of yarn away first. I stepped around the corner of the couch and BAM!
I stepped on the dog hair brush. It is collapsable from one inch down to 1/2, so I only ended up with 1/2 inch of it stuck in my foot. But it was stuck there and it freaked me out so I shook my foot until it fell off. Then I started laughing my head off. At first, when I started shaking my foot, I thought it was a tac. No. Anyways, Abe got me a wet towel because it was bleeding and called the doctor. I made it in for them to look at it and got a wonderful tetanus shot. Oh exciting day. Today there is a huge lump in my arm and I can’t step on my foot. It went right into the thick part that makes up your foot print. Fortunately I only stepped on the side of the brush, so there are only 2 puncture wounds and a scrape up the side of my foot. The doctor gave me some antibiotics and I had to sock it in hot soapy water last night, which actually felt really good after all that walking. Man that would have been horrible if I had that happen a couple day earlier!
Also, our sink is no longer plugged and we are probably getting a new dishwasher!! At no expense to us! Hooray for clean dishes. Maybe I can invite my mom down sometime for dinner…
It’s damn hot here in Seattle today. 83 according to that link and tomorrow is supposed to be 88. Thank god that global climate change is a liberal conspiracy.
We spent all afternoon driving around going to yarn stores. We went to west seattle, belltown and madison park. It was *awesome*.
I aced another music theory test this morning. It was 50% of my grade for the class. Now that two tests account for the entire grade I’m wondering if people are going to skip even more than before.
I emailed angela some cute / funny pictures this morning to cheer her up. I found ‘em on icanhascheeseburger.com Here they are:
When you are a WoW dork, the name has a double meaning because your unholy massive dorkiness is so impressive that people say “Wow. Dork!” when they see you. hehehe.
Today, and the rest of the week and weekend will be very yarn filled. The LYS tour starts today! Destination: Yarn, here I come. But first, I have to go to my consultation with the oral surgeon. This will be my second oral surgeon because my company stupidly switched health insurance. Last year, it would have fine to go to my first oral surgeon but then we switch to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas (say what! this is Washington) and I would have only been reimbursed $400 instead of half and I would have had to pay it all up front (over $1800). Screw that. So I am off to a new oral surgeon today. I hope they are cheaper. They should be becuase they are “in network.” The whole thing is really screwy because part of it is covered by medical and part by dental and the two pieces don’t like to talk to each other. Handy. I am not bitter. What? I’m not!
Anyways, I will be feeling better when these teeth aren’t in my head any longer. I am thinking my near constant low-grade headache will go away and that will be amazing. Until then, I will buy yarn. Lots of yarn. I should look up alternate single skein patterns perhaps. Oh well. I will just get something I like if the pattern yarn is too much (I read they can be as much as $50!)
So for my birthday, Abe and Nate and Molly also got me a swift! Which is great to use with the ball winder because now Abe doesn’t have to touch yarn ever. Except when I run out of arm room at Acorn Street. This is perfect timing, because I plan to buy 24 skeins or ball so of yarn. I already had 9 that needed winding and Abe bought me that gimongo skein of laceweight. I would imagine at least have of the yarn I buy will be in skeins. Lovely. And then after this weekend, I am going on a major yarn diet. I need to actually use the yarn I buy. I have 4 tupperware drawers full of yarn already. I am actually not sure where I will put my next 24 skeins! Anyways, last night I set up the swift and wound 5 or 6 balls of yarn while I watched the first full-figured model win America’s Next Top Model. Which is kind of impressive since there have only been 2 other full-figured model’s on the show (that I remember). (Careful on that site. I nearly peed my pants because I opened it and went to another tab and then Whitney’s (that is the winner) voice pierced through my headphones unexpectedly.)
Getting yarn, loosing teeth (as early as next Thursday). Should be interesting the next few weeks… NW Folk Like Festival is also next weekend, so I hope to be better enough to check it out and see if I want to try to sell there next year.
There’s a lot of stuff going on right now but I’m not comfortable talking about it just yet. Instead, here’s a really funny pic I found.
I’m doing really well in my music classes but some people are doing poorly enough that my professor has decided to make our next test and our final account for 100% of our grades. I feel a little cheated since I’ve been studying and doing my homework more consistently than I ever have in my life but, oh well, it’s a 100 lvl class.
Kobi is lvl 66 and has almost 40K honor stored up. I’m just waiting for Season Four to be announced and I will pimp him out with Season two pvp gear.
Yes I understand that only wow dorks are equipped to understand that last sentence.
You would think for my birthday, Abe would have written something nice about me. Oh well.
On Saturday we did all the mother visiting. Breakfast at the B and O on Capital Hill with Sindy, Nate, and Molly. Very nice. The place is adorable. Food is pretty good too. My eggs benedict were missing something. Perhaps salt. Molly suggested cumin. But my mocha was amazing. We got Sindy a cd player and speakers and rechargable batteries so she can listen to music. She loves it. I am glad.
Then Nate came over and he played Resistance with Abe for a couple hours. That game is pretty darn fun. The story is good. It is a little hard to learn because there is no tutorial, but you can eventually figure it out. I guess Abe and I should finish our save game of that. (As cool as their game is, their website sucks. Too heavy. Websites, imho, should be light (as in size) so they load nice and fast, get to the content quickly.)
Then we went up to my mom’s for dinner where she had made us delicious Stroganoff. Yummy. I love Stroganoff. We have a nice Fuexganoff recipe (ground beef, fried onions, and mushrooms in cream of mushroom (we use Healthy Request by Campbell) on brown rice). Very yummy also. She used delicious pot roast or something beef that melts in your mouth. I gave her some socks. No pictures yet, but I will have to remind her to send me pics. I designed the pattern. Ripple Rib. They are done. I need to make another pair and see which increate style I like better. Not sure what yarn to use. I might rip back the Lorna’s lace socks (again) and do those because I don’t like the pattern I am doing now (my own sl st pattern). But then we went to the Temple Bar in bellingham, which is nice. The band that played was mostly pretty darn good. I liked a lot of it. They sound a bit like Devotchka, great band.
My mom got me a big beautiful serving bowl. I can’t wait to use it. We want to have Nate and Molly over for dinner, so hopefully we can make something that will use it then. I will get a pic when we find the camera. Abe got me (on Friday) some great sock yarn, the front one in this picture. I am going to make the Jaywalker socks. (Note that the link is to google images because the pattern is only available, as far as I can tell, as a Ravelry download now that Magknits had to shut down.)
Then I took yesterday off work and knit and had a grand old time by myself in the morning. I watched the three original Star Wars (well, the remastered ones). I knit on the Pomatomus socks. I also knit on the One Skein Wonder shrug written by another Fall Fibre Arts Retreat instructor, Stefanie Japel. When Abe got home, he gave me some of my presents (the rest are shared given to me with Nate and Molly, I think), a beautiful skein of light green lace weight yarn (Baruffa Cashwool), a ball winder, and an almost full punch card at my favorite LYS (local yarn shop). He is not very subtle (I sat in the car as he went inside to buy the gifts), but he is very sweet. These are great presents. I already wound one ball on the ball winder. Turns out that skein of yarn was smaller than I thought (but I have three more and they were on clearance and are alpaca or angora, I can’t remember). But I have at least 5 more to go and one of those is the 1350 m skein of lace weight. I would give you a link, but I seriously cannot find any good links to it.)
Tonight we are going out for dinner with Abe’s family for my birthday and this weekend, at the end of a long day of getting the car tuned up and visiting no less than 8 yarn shops, we will have dinner with my brother and maybe my friend Rijl. This coming weekend is the Destination: Yarn tour and we are getting a brake inspection, 2 new tires (would be 4 but I already replaced 2 that went flat because of nails), and an oil change. I am so glad that the Kia dealership is now open on Saturdays for this!! And Thursday I have my second oral surgery consultation with a dude in Lynnwood. Then I might be able to get my wisdom teeth out as early as the next Thursday!! Whoa.
Last night, I finished the first Ripple Rib Sock in existence. It is a little smaller than I want, but I already used this skein of sock yarn to make one pair of sock and I don’t want to run out. It turned out pretty cool looking. I used travelling stitches, so it looks interesting. It looks like crap when it is not on a foot though. Like an ugly lumpy normal ribbed sock.
For a snack today, I ate Pringles Baked Wheat Sticks in Pizza flavor. They were surpisingly delicious, though not filling at all. I am just as hungry after eating that pack as I was before I ate the pack. Maybe more becuase now I have taunted the beast that is my stomach, poor thing. (By the way, the Pringles site is a little on the ridiculous side.)
Last night, Nate (Abe’s brother) came over and used my desktop computer to play WoW with Abe. They had a good time. I watched the Monday episodes of Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother online and laughed my head off. Those are two awesome shows. Somehow, the same station that runs these shows runs mostly crappy shows like Moonlight. Actually, looking over the list, I either love or refuse to watch every show in their list. Anyways, I missed watching those two shows on Monday because I thought it was Tuesday. Then when I woke up this morning, I was so confused after having Nate over last night that I thought it was Saturday and I could sleep in. Blerg to that. Two more days! But then on Saturday, we are going to brunch with Ab’s mom and Nate and his girlfriend and that night we are driving up to Bellingham for dinner at my mom’s house and then to the Temple Bar. (That MySpace page is seriously the best link I could find. The rest were things like Yelp and the Yellow Pages.)
And since my birthday is coming up, my mom and Abe asked for a list of things I want for my birthday. I gave them a huge list. Including this awesome looking shop Sock Dreams. I love over the knee socks. They are pretty much my favorite. Especially with skirts that stop just over the knee and some big platform shoes. (Oddly enough I can’t find a link to the flame platform shoes I bought at Hot Topic almost a decade ago. I don’t see any platforms from them!) And their socks are not that expensive. Looks like they are not handknit or anything, but they are not your run of the mill mass produced socks either. They have a store in Portland, OR, so now I really want to plan a three day trip down there with Abe so we can go see that and Blue Moon Fiber Arts store. I love love love their yarn. Especially the Ravenscroft colors. I need to get one of those to do Cookie A’s Gothic Spire Socks.
Anyways, I also meant to say that 1) that corgi in the video Abe posted looks like the sweetest little dog ever, so calm and delicate; and 2) I actually did update the arachknits site last night, so the pink is gone and I fixed the nav column so each item appears on a single line instead of wrapping sometimes.
Jerk of the week: Nate. He cursed my desk to fall madly in love with him and when he got up at the end of the night to leave (last night), it threw itself at him to try to stop him from leaving. I have one of those computer desks that has the draw thing for you keyboard and mouse, which are really annoying because then I have to put my chair all the way down so I can reach them without hurting my back. Well, when he got up to go, that drawer fell off. And we cannot figure out how. All but one of the screws are gone, like they got unscrewed. When he left he had a nice goose egg on the front of his ankle and it was bright red. We couldn’t figure out how to reattach it since all the screws were gone, so they ripped out the last screw and nearly blew the whole desk apart. Which makes it even more of a mystery where the other screws went. The wood that the drawer was attached to is fine as is the drawer where the screws are missing. So I think the desk must have unscrewed the screws herself to fling her lusting drawer at her new-found love. What a freak.
Tired of boring muggle socks that bunch up in your shoe?
Learn to knit and create your own magical perfect-fitting socks!
At the Hogwarts Socks Kit Swap 5, you get to create a sock kit for someone else to make a sock and receive a sock kit lovingly made by another wizard or witch. Join the fun!!
