I play with yarn

I'm a CNA in an Alzheimer's unit at an Assisted Living Facility. Until recently, we had a resident, *Mary, who was non-ambulatory and unable to communicate verbally or with gestures. Occasionally when I had extra time, I'd read Mary stories. But most of my one-sided conversations with her were when I was helping her get ready for breakfast in her room. Quite often, our conversations featured cross-stitching. She had a cross-stitched "Welcome" sign hung in her room.

( (Here it is..) )

Now, I have no idea if Mary cross-stitched or if this was a gift, but I hope she cross-stitched or at least was interested in it.. otherwise, I'm sure I bored the heck out of her. I always told her what I was working on, how it was going, or about past projects or just talked about patterns or floss or whatever came to mind.

She had been on Hospice for a long while. However, I still wasn't ready for her to pass. One day she seemed fine. The next, she wouldn't eat. Four days later, she passed away in her bed. By that time we were expecting it, and her power of attorney had been notified. But no one came to visit.

I learned her story. She had adopted a daughter. Her adopted daughter had a daughter, who she put up for adoption. Her daughter wasn't on speaking terms with her throughout her adulthood, I believe. But Mary had been in touch with the family who adopted her grand-daughter. So when she was failing, her grand-daughter's adopted Mother became her power-of-attorney, and was the one who paid over $6k a month for Mary to stay at the private pay ALF for many years, instead of dumping her in a nursing home. So Mary didn't have a lot of close family, which explained her lack of a single visitor the 5 months that I worked with her.

So, when she passed, the 'family' donated her clothing to another resident, and came at some point to collect a few of her belongings. Everything that was left was either to be donated, or trashed. In the trash pile, was her Welcome sign.. which I promptly took home with me and hung on my wall.

Now, I'm not normally a big fan of "Welcome" stitchery, as it's usually too cutesy or kitsch for me. However, I love this one, and loved it the moment I saw it. It's simple, yet elegant. So my question is...

Does anyone recognize the pattern?

Few things up for swap here:

Firstly, Rowan Bigger Picture, a pattern book featuring Rowan Big Wool & Biggy Print. Has very light cover wear, no writing, highlighting, marks, tears, rips, etc.

Next, sock yarn.

2 balls of Regia Sock Yarn, in color 5440. One unopened. The other still has its label, but I've made a small swatch with it. However, I didn't cut the yarn and I frogged the swatch and rewound it, so all of the yarn is there. 459 yards total.



2 balls (440 yards total) Knitpicks Sock Garden in Star Gazer Lily, unopened. Also, two balls (again, 440 yds total) Knitpicks Sock Garden in Hydrangea. Hydrangea. One is unopened, and the other seems to have lost its label somewhere in my stash, and a couple of yards came unraveled and I wound it back up, but it's never even been swatched. All the yarn is there. These are 100% merino. The Star Gazer Lily is the top righthand corner, and the Hydrangea is the bottom lefthand corner.




1 unopened ball (459 yds, enough for a pair of socks) Trekking XXL in color 101, blue tones, and 1 unopened ball Trekking XXL in color 71, earth tones.




And lastly, not sock yarn, but my handspun. 90 yards self-striping bulky handspun, in my etsy shop, but I can take it down if anyone wants to swap for it. It's 100% blue faced leicester wool, with long color runs. Check out that etsy link for more info on it.



(*Please note, none of these photos are mine, with the exception of my handspun. They were taken from the web with the intent of representing the yarn colors as best as possible.)


What I would like:

Old issues of Spin-Off (I only have 2 issues, so almost any issue will do)
Amazon/eBay/Wal-Mart/Applebee's gift certificates
If you have any etsy shop, I swap for handmade soap.
Fiber for spinning
This is a long shot, but hand carders.
The only yarns I can think of that I would like right now are Malabrigio and Manos del Uruguay.

And books:

Any Barbara Walker book, probably
Any Melanie Falick book, probably
Folk Knitting in Estonia, Nancy Bush
A Gathering of Lace

And, not knitting related, but I would really love the old A&E dvd version of Pride and Prejudice, the newly released Pride and Prejudice on dvd, and/or a nice hardback copy of Pride and Prejudice.

Handspun, handdyed spiral rib hat:





Trekking XXL stockinette socks:

In the past few days, I've made two projects in Leigh Radford's One Skein: the felted clutch and the asymmetrical hat.

I recently started a Mason-Dixon inspired Log Cabin KAL and would like to extend an open invitation to anyone who is interested in Log Cabin knitting.

I finished these socks just in time to wear to work today.

I have moved to a proper blog, so that I can easily adjust the sidebar and stuff and yeah. So go visit it.

Yes, like thousands of other knitters, I want to participate in this. I haven't mentioned this, but I have a general rule against WIP photos now. Seriously, half the fun of knitting is taking lovely photos of it and posting it on a blog. So... if I do that halfway through the darn process, then I want to start something else to blog about. So, general rule: No WIP photos. No sock photos until both socks are complete. It's a good motivator. However, the knitting olympics might be an exception.. cause I'll still have that deadline to keep me going. Yep, yep.

Now the problem is.. what shall I knit? I have yarn for my jaywalker socks, and yarn for hubby's ravenclaw scaf is on the way. I need to get hubby's ravenclaw scarf done, as it is intended to be a Vday gift, though he won't mind if it's late. But not too late, y'know.. I at least need to be working on it by Vday. There's no way I'm going to get it done before the Olympics, because Tubey is occupying my time right now. And I can't exactly knit jaywalker socks during the olympics if I'm trying to do hubby's scarf on the side. Pattern-wise, I think Jaywalkers will be more of a challenge. However, that damn scarf is knit in the round, so it is double the normal scarf width, and really long. Patience-wise, HP scarf is more of a challenge. But it's also the perfect movie knitting, which means that I won't be sweating like all my fellow Olympic Knitters.. I'll be watching Sex and the City or something.

Ooh! I know! I can learn the jogless join for the scarf.. which is something I'm kind of nervous about! There.. it tries my patience and my nerves! Officially a challenge! Woot, stay tuned. Hopefully FO pic of Tubey to come before too long.

So I've decided that I read Eunny's blog a little too much. How have I reached this conclusion, you ask? Upon glancing briefly at Grumperina's Jaywalker Gallery, I immediately noticed a tiny thumbnail photo of a pair that must be Eunny's.. even though I'd never seen her finished photo. I think I recognized her floor, her stellar skills, her photography style, and maybe even her feet. I clicked on the link.. they were hers. I'm frightened.

So I was at my not-so LYS today and overheard a conversation between two ladies regarding the pros and cons of a cotton handknit skirt vs a 100% wool handknit skirt. The owner was vouching for cotton, saying that it'd be easier to wash. "You would have to hand-wash a wool skirt." Then a 3rd lady who was obviously listening as well chimed in "Or just drop it off at the dry-cleaners." Um. No..? You can't dry clean 100% wool, right? Right?


Today's Haul:

The item that I actually went to the yarn store for:  my new shiny denise needles!  Also in this photo you can see some crystal palace size 1 bamboo DPNs I picked up.




And now everything else I snatched up and quickly ran off with before hubby realized how much it was going to be and made me put it back..


Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Camouflage.





Regia superwash self-striping sock yarn in color 5440  And Trekking XXL superwash sock yarn in color 71.




And yes, these photos have made me realize I really need to clean my desk.

So I could apologize for not blogging, but it isn't exactly like I've made a commitment to anyone. But I feel like blogging now. I will say that my brief hiatus was caused by.. World of Warcraft. Beautiful, evil game. But, like every other game, I got tired of it eventually. I still play an hour or so a week, and occasionally use it as an elaborate chat program, but my playing time has been significantly reduced. Significantly. That said.. I did not stop knitting.. only blogging.

I've made a couple of hats..


This cashmerino hat was gifted to mum.. since she likes the way the ribbing decided to curl up and I don't. Next time I'll use a 1x1 ribbing with smaller needles. I plan on making mum a short row scarf from magknits in the same yarn soon.






This is hubby's hat. I have enough yarn left to make myself a reverse one, with grey as the main color and black for the stripes. Mine will be knit with smaller needles and even smaller ones for the ribbing. 7s and 6s, respectively.



Both hats were done with DPNs instead of circulars.


I am working on the legwarmers from Melanie Falick's Weekend Knitting. The yarn is Rowanspun DK in Thor.




And am also working on knitty's tubey. This photo was a few inches ago, cause I swear this thing grows while I'm at work. This is Knitpicks Andean Silk in Cream. Mine will be a solid version, with some adjustments to the arms.

You know, there were things I just didn't like before I started knitting. Cables being one of those things, and tweed being another. Yet now, I'm hardcore craving some tweed yarn. I've got some coming from a swap, but I think it'll be a bit before she gets around to shipping it. This is probably actually a good thing, as playing with pretties won't help me get mum's birthday gift done. (The color is called 'Thor' - how cool is that?) And cables have been crazy love since the first cable swatch I made and husband and 2 roomies all remarked on how cool it looked and inside I giggled insanely knowing how easy it was.

I'm off to (most likely) finish up my second purse panel.

I actually added stuff to my userinfo. See? I think about things other than yarn. Of course, if you look at my new avatar, you wouldn't think so.

I'm so close to finishing my bag. 9 more rows, BO, blocking, and stitching together. I'm going to miss working with the Manos. It feels so nice, and is such a beautiful color. I think that's why I'm procrastinating on the last few rows. Granted, I've only put it down for a couple of hours, but it could have been finished by now.

I posted those tips from craftster a few posts back, and the one that I'm actually using is one that I'm not sure I posted. Instead of putting my row counter on my needles, where it either annoys me or I forget to change it, I've been threading it on yarn and wearing it as a necklace while I knit. For some reason, I actually remember it that way.

Have I mentioned that green is my new favorite color? Not because of the Manos. Probably vice versa actually. I've never noticed how beautiful green can be, and how varied in mood depending on the shade. Speaking of Shade, I watched an incredibly depressing movie yesterday called Gas Food Lodging. One of the main characters name is Shade. I rented it because it has Ione Skye in it, and I adored her in Dream for an Insomniac, plus she dated Adrock, so she must have something special. The movie was so-so. It had its moments, though, that made it definitely worth watching. But it was so very depressing.

The movie I watched today, Filthy Dirty Love, was a letdown. It was described as a comedy, but it wasn't funny. It was supposed to have dirty love in it. It didn't. Perhaps it could have been better if I'd have different expectations of it.

What does one do with 1600 yards of blue variegated 100% cotton chenille in worsted weight (or perhaps DK weight) that has absolutely no give or stretch so your tension looks like poo? Anyone?

This started as a comment on someone elses blog, but it got out of control and I realized that I couldn't post it there.

ha! Is it considered a swatch if you never get past the first 1.9 repeats on Branching Out? Because I can't. And I've spent hours on it. The pattern is easy. No, really, I know how to do all of that stuff. But the f'ing lace weight is too... thin.

I finally gave up & ordered Silky Wool.

I wanted to give up period, but mum knows what she's supposed to be getting for her birthday, and I can't tell her "oh, I'm sorry. I can't do it." No. See.. knitting I can do. I may be unable to please her because I didn't marry the right man, and maybe I can't figure out what I want to do with my life, and maybe I can't remove my tattoos and grow long, luscious blonde hair, but I can knit, damnit. I can.

So, for the first time, I went to a LYS.  Not very local, actually.  About 2 hours away.  But I'm sure it's someone's LYS.  Yarn Expressions.  It was amazing.  The owners were greatly helpful and very friendly.  There were about 4 women sitting there knitting, and if they had a problem, one of the owners was more than happy to help.  I stayed for about 1.5 hours.  I only bought yarn for 1 project, amazingly.  It's the Cute, Casual Bag from Easy Knitted Accessories that I've mentioned previously.  I bought this for it:

Manos del Uruguay.  I'm trying to get used to the varying thickness, but it's really a dream to work with, especially on the Plymouth bamboos I bought to use with it.

So I've gotten the front panel of that bag knitted and blocked.  No pictures until I finish the entire bag, though.

And from Little Knits I bought (& received) Lace weight Misti Alpaca (100% baby alpaca) for mom's Branching Out scarf.  It is, truly, unbelievably soft.  Unfortunately, going from knitting with bulky weight to lace weight wasn't the smoothest transition, and I'm already cursing the scarf.  I had 1.9 pattern repeats done, then messed up & had to rip back to my lifeline, so now I have 1 pattern repeat.  Yippee.  The pattern is easy;  I'm just not used to working with suck fine yarn.

Another item of interest is that I purchased (and also received) 1000 yds of 100% cotton chenille on eBay for the Big Bad Baby Blanket.  I've put aside the Branching Out for a bit (unless I'm very aggravated after work, I'll pick it back up then.  If I'm very aggravated, though, lace will kick my ass.)  So I'm doing the gauge swatch for the blanket now.  It calls for size 9s, but I'm doing the swatch on size 8s (hey, I didn't get the recommended yarn anyway!), hoping it will work so I don't have to buy another pair of circulars.  Here's a photo of the yarn:

I've been knitting less than two months and already crocheting feels awkward to me. I started knitting up the vomit yarn, tried two different patterns, and wow.. this looks like utter crud when knit up. So I'm like "hmm.. wonder how different it would look crocheted." I'm going to quote from my post about deciding to learn to knit. Then I'm going to update it.

"Crochet a chain? Easy. Casting on? Easy.... once you spend an hour cursing before it finally clicks. Sc? Easy. Knit stich? I can do this one.. but it still isn't comfortable. Dc? Easy. Purl? I can barely do this."

Crochet a chain? Awkward. My left hand barely knows what to do. Casting on. Easy peasy. Sc? It took me a second to remember, but I got the hang of it again. My left hand still feels strange. Knit? I can do it without looking. DC? Holy... I'd have to look up the turning chains & yarn overs. Purl? Slightly less natural that knitting, but still quick & familiar.

And the yarn still looks like crap when crocheted.

Okay, I'll post some FOs, but first, I want to post a pic of my adorable step-son that was taken at my wedding in June.




So I've been meaning to post photos of these.



Irish Hiking Wrist Warmers, from this pattern. These were dyed red after I finished them, which was a bad idea. I put the dye-soaked wrist warmers into a bowl and into the microwave. I should have known this from microwaving potatoes, but I didn't think of it: the portion of the wrist warmers that were in contact with the bowl is darker. Dye yarn before you knit it, people! I once saw an online dying tutorial that used a vat of boiling water with dye instead of the soak & microwave technique, but I cannot locate this. Darnit.




Yo, Drop It! scarf with the Haiti that I posted a photo of.


The short row scarf? I got about 1/3 done, made a boo-boo, tried to frog, discovered that frogging short rows in seemingly impossible, and promptly gave up. I redyed the sucker, since the watermelon look was annoying me. It is now in fall colors, waiting to be frogged completely and made into Knitty's French Market Bag.




I went to the Hobby Lobby 50% sale, bought some needles, two books, and one skein of yarn.



Yes, one skein. Not one of those "ooh, this is pretty. I'm sure I'll use it sometime." No, I have plans for it.. which I would put into play when I get the proper size needles. I bought them. Susan Bates bamboo straights in size 10. But the ends chipped (I now know I should rub them with wax paper before attempting to use them). I tried sanding and then rubbing with wax, but it's not helping. So I'm staring at this beautiful, soft, spring colored yarn (or vomit colored, if you ask my coworker) and I can't do anything with it.

As for the books,

The Knitter's Bible, by Claire Crompton. This has some nice cable & lace patterns, as well as a pattern for a cute knitted sheep! I've had fun this weekend playing with the cable & lace patterns since I can't use my spring vomit yarn.

Easy Knitted Accessories, by Jeanette Trotman. This has a few really beautiful things in it. There are 3-4 patterns in this book that I would have easily paid $5 each for online. She has some great patterns with beads, and one of my favorites is a bead/lace scarf (which I bought the beads for, too.) The lace scarf pattern is what caught my eye immediately in this book, but that pattern that I'm most in love with and will be making (hopefully immediately) after mom's scarf is called "cute casual bag." I can't begin to describe it, so I'm going to post a photo of the photo in the book. If this is a copyright violation, someone mention it & I'll take it down.

Just more notes.

Dale Baby Ull. For the basketweave baby blanket.

Needful Yarns Mohair Royal for Mom's Branching Out scarf.

Classic Elite Illusion. This seems to be discontinued & looks really f'ing soft. I need to snatch some up.

Hand Work Cora. Holy hell this is cheap. Maybe I should use this for the Basketweave baby blanket?