Consider This My Status Update

I don't have or want a facebook. Some of my friends get irritated by this as it means we actually have to talk to each other about what's  going on in our lives. I think social networking in some cases is dehumanizing society. It's so much easier to post it on your wall and walk away from the consequences,that people are starting to avoid  verbal conversation.

I realize that I am no exception to this. I often find myself texting things I'd never say out loud. I try to keep my posts here open and honest discussions though. After all, this is a form of expression and therapy for me. I just hope other people want to read it.

So, here it is, I am getting  divorced.

Its been quite the emotional roller coaster the last couple of weeks, but I think I am finally ok with it all.

Summer Reading

Lately I have been consuming books like oxygen. For the first time in as long as I can remember I was reading 4 books at the same time and managed to keep them all straight. I have also stepped outside of my literary comfort zone a bit and explored some the genres. So far there have been no disappointments, but these were mostly recommended by friends with good taste. 


First up, is Kresley Cole's Immortals After Dark series. I read the first book A Hunger Like No Other in a one day marathon and I am now on the sixth book, Kiss of a Demon King. This series averages around 400 pages a book, but is well written and intriguing so you just want to keep reading. The series follows a knot of supernatural immortals who in their long life have one fated mate and their adventures in finding and securing this mate. The Valkyries are really the main focus of the early parts of the series, but there are werewolves, vampires, demons, spirits and everything else you can imagine. There are some racy scenes as you can imagine, but nothing gratuitous or forced feeling like some Romance novels.


Next, I finished Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife, which I read as an audio book. Some other people who read the book told me they had some difficulty keeping the time line straight in their head. I don't know if the audio format helped, but I had no problems with it. The readers for the audio book were Wiilliam Hope and Laurel Lefkow who did an phenomenal job with the perspective changes as the occurred throughout the story. The story follows a man who time travels at random and without any control to places and times in his past and future and his wife. The struggles of living with someone when you don't know where or when they are or when they'll be back. The fear of ending up someplace hostile or somewhere you can't escape. Another recommended read from me.


With all of the hype, I couldn't help but want to read Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James. I both liked and hated this book. Let me start this by saying I mostly blame her lack of an editor. It is the editor's job to tell the author what their mistakes are and get them to fix them. Authors are often so close to their own stories that they can't see their mistakes or overuse of language. So not to beat the dead horse, by Fifty Shades is full of repetitive language, poor punctuation and grammatical mistakes that'll make you cringe. I almost tossed the book across the room after the first 20 pages, but then the story got me. The story is actually interesting if you can forgive the writing. It doesn't go the way you expect it to, which I really appreciated. It follows young Anastasia Steele from meeting the young, wealthy CEO Christian Grey and their relationship with all the twists and turns from there. The BDSM factor is over-hyped and there is very little bondage play in the story. So if you are reading it for that, then I wouldn't bother. The sex scenes are quite racy and pretty gratuitous in the first book. Fifty Shades Darker was much better in my opinion, though parts of the it seem compulsory. All in all, I'd say check it out from the library if your not sure about this sort of story, which is what I did.


Lastly, I have been working my way through George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones. I am about 25% of the way through it (gotta love Kindle reading) and am really enjoying it. It's not an easy read like the other books, so it's slower going. However, it is exceedingly well written, descriptive, evocative and fantastic. I can see why these books were made into a TV series, the characters are well thought out and rounded. I won't even attempt to summarize an epic fantasy like this. I will say I highly recommend it though. 


Of course there has also been knitting as well, but I'll save that for another post.

LYS Tour 2012

Let me start this off by saying it was really sad to see some of my favorite local yarn stores not on the tour this year. With Renaissance Yarns, Cultured Purls and Unraveled Yarn out of business and for some reason Weaving Works and Tricoter choosing not to participate I was a bit sad. I also found myself considering the rest of the shops for my regular business and carefully eyeing their standard stock. 

I managed to hit six stores today! We would have hit more, except that they all closed at 6 and we got started a bit late. Today's shops included The Fiber Gallery, Acorn Street Shop, The Knittery, So Much Yarn, Bad Woman Yarn and Tea Cozy Yarn.

Hand and Heart FO

First stop was The Knittery in Renton. The gal running the shop was super nice, helpful and friendly. It is always great to run into those kind of people amid the chaos that is an event like the LYS tour. Their pattern is the Hand and Heart Christmas Socking by Win Fisher. It's made using the very economical Lamb's Pride worsted. It does require 2 skeins, 1 for the main color and 1 for the contrast, but looking at it you could probably get at least 2 stockings from the pair of skeins. This is a really cute pattern for anyone wanting to get a head start on the holidays.

From Renton we ventured up to Seattle and So Much Yarn. My companion for the trip had never been there and laughed at my description of getting into the shop being an adventure of itself. I don't think I'd been to the shop since they changed ownership. I was happy to find the selection to be as varied as ever. Their Fishtail Shawl offering by Julie Novak and Betty Clune was quite lovely. Though anyone who reads my blog knows my love of shawls is no great secret. This pattern uses two skeins of Manos del Uruguay Maxima. It even includes both charted and written instructions!!

Fishtail Shawl

Chevron cowl

Next stop was Bad Woman Yarn. I always like this shop as it is well stocked and has a fantastic mark down section. They also had some yummy snacks for the yarn browsing. They had a Crocheted Ruched Cowl and Reversible Chevron Cowl, both by Lee Burrow. The crocheted cowl (which sadly I didn't get a picture of) used Skacel Kid Seta and Mosco to create a very lovely effect. It gives the shine from the Mosco and the soft halo from the Seta, definitely something you'd like to have around your face and neck. The chevron cowl used Tosh sport which I was sure to pick up a couple skeins of to enjoy the discount. The other nice thing (IMO) about Bad Woman is that it is next to Trophy cupcake (can you say YUM!) and Trophy was offering 10% off for people with LYS passports!! So I may have indulged in some cupcakey goodness.

From Wallingford we ventured down to Ballard and Tea Cozy Yarn. Their pattern is a really unique double knit amigurumi, The Tea Cozy's Bella and Bernie Bunny by Patricia McHugh. They are designed to use Cascade 128 Superwash and the clothing is knit separate from the bunny, so you can even change out their clothes if you like. This is the first time in the three years I've been doing the LYS tour that I have seen an amigurumi or doll offering. I think it was a great idea!.

Slouchy Hat: Spciy

The Fiber Gallery was our next stop. Thankfully my friend doing the driving knew the area well as I would have made a total mess of things if left on my own. I really like the new shop location, it seems far less crowded and easier to navigate. I talked with Hannah a bit about it and she explained there is actually less space, but that the layout was much better thus giving the illusion of more space. Still no sighting of the Doubleknit Twins, one of these years!! They have both a knit hat and crochet scarf offering. The Slouchy Hats: Simple, Striped or Spicy uses 2 skeins of Amber, a main color and contrasting color. The CCCCC patterns calls for 2 skeins of Rowan Colourspun. Both are very lovely offerings 

CCCCC

Traveling Rib Cowl

Our last stop was Acorn Street Shop. Their pattern offering was a very practical Traveling Rib Cowl by Janet Charbonnier, using 2 skeins of Noro Silk Garden. They still had a lovely selection of colors given that is was the end of Saturday. 

A few observations from today. I think it's interesting that the tour changed from it's one skein format to a two skeins. I really liked all of the one skein patterns as that is often what I look for when I want to try something new. Also, I saw a lot of Knitters Pride Dreamz needles in shops, but I was hoping to see the Cubix in person. It was nice to see most of the shops choosing fairly economical yarns especially since you needed to by two skeins for the patterns. I am going to try and hit a few more tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Dusting this Off

With everything going on around me, to me and with me, I had sort of abandoned my blog. This was originally created as a sort of therapy and practice for writing. So it seems when I could have used it most I didn't. Now that things have settled I'd like to get back into it. Also, it's LYS time again so what better way to get back on the horse? Between today and tomorrow I am going to try  to hit 10 of the LYS shops and post pictures of the FO's and other information as I have done in years past. Then I am going to try to post at least once a week to keep things up to date and keep in practice.

Catching up

It's been a while since my last post and I've had a lot going on, so I thought I should catch up. I am using the blogger ap for my phone, so my apologies for any typos. You would have thought someone would have made a spell checker  for droid by now.
On the needles are my clapotis and a shawl I am test knitting. I am using 2 skeins of Fresh From the Cauldron, silk sock, in Athena for the clapotis. I am about 2/3 of the way through it.

For the test knit shawl, I am using my Liberty's Yarn, turn of the blue, in message in a bottle. I love the color! It's actually a pretty light fingering or heavy lace weight. Very smooth and easy to work with. It'll make a nice summer shawl.


I've also been knitting some amigurumi in preparation for my panel at Sakura-Con. I've finished Ysolda Teague's Smith the hedgehog as well as a micro mountain from the Knitting Mochimochi book.

I was also able to buy a spinning wheel, and I have been having fun playing with that. I picked up done lovely BFL at Madrona, it spins like a dream.


The only  other things going on are planning the convention and I've started Weight Watchers again. I'm down 6 pounds in 2 weeks!

Holidays

I can't believe it's been a month since I last posted on here. Believe or not, I've been working on a post. However, I'll wait until after the holidays to put it up. It's a bit depressing, which is not what anyone wants right now.

On a positive note, I think someone slipped felix felicis in my coffee this morning. I went to the mall today. I know, brave and dumb. Actually it wasn't bad this morning. I found parking right away, they put a Lush cosmetics  (my favorite self pampering shop) in my mall and I got what I came for!! Not only was what I came for the last of said item (it's a present for Joe), but it even happened to be in the size I needed. How lucky is that? Now the sun is even coming out. What a pleasant day.

Now I get to watch the Doctor Who Christmas special marathon on BBC HD (thank you again Comcast), bake cookies and relax. Oh there might be some litter box cleaning and dish washing in there, but all in all, not bad.

On a knitting note, I finished my first pair of socks!! I started these last year as an intended gift for a friend. Instead, I got so frustrated with the second sock that they have been on hiatus. My friend ended up with my second pair of socks instead. He's loved them so much that he's been begging me for another pair. Since I had this lonely sock with half a mate in his size, I just decided to put on my big girl panties and get it done. They are far from perfect, but I think he'll love them anyway.

I also finished my starry night shawl! Ok, it's finished by my standards (aka it's off the needles), however my friend wants fringe on it. I'm not a fan of fringe, its boring and tedious. So I just I have to get down to it and get it done. Maybe Monday since I have it off and have no plans.





Happy Holidays to everyone out there.

My cute little tree

Mythology

I love Greek and Roman mythology. I first fell in love with it when I found a fantastic book at the public library as a child. It had gorgeous illustrations to accompany each myth. I loved how myths explained everyday things, all the whys and hows you ask as a child. Sadly, I can't remember the name of this book as I have been trying to find it again for quite some time.

In high school, I studied Latin (3 years worth) and was on the Junior Classical League team. Yep, NERD! My specialty, was Roman history and myths. My Latin teacher was really kind and knew how much I loved learning about mythology, so she's lend me books to read. I just never grew tired of the exploits of the gods and the poor mortals that got involved with them. It still amazes me how much of it crops up in every day life.

I still like reading those stories. What inspired this post is my recent knitting, at the TV I've been watching to accompany it. My Pegasus mittens and Aster Nyx shawl are two coincidentally mythology named projects. One named for the yarn I'm using and the other being the pattern name. Neither was chosen based on the name or with any theme in mind. It just sortof happened. Oh and as for the TV show I'm watching while knitting. They've got all of Xena on Netflix. I'm such a sucker for the cheese. I always like Xena better than Hercules. Something about tough chicks.


There was finally some decent light this afternoon, so I was able to get some pictures of my finished Pegasus mittens. I think they turned out rather well. The yarn as I've mentioned before the Fresh From the Cauldron merino/silk worsted. It's a single ply yarn, which means it is really warm and cushy. Like the other single ply yarn I've worked with, it's amazingly non-splitty. The luster of the silk gives fantastic stitch definition to the cables. While the memory of the merino makes doing something like mittens possible. I am so in love with this yarn, I have plans to do a matching hat and scarf with it.











As for my shawl, I finished the body today!! Now I just have to finish the 59 edging repeats by Wednesday. Sounds simple right? Even though it's only a 14-17 stitch per row 12 row repeat? Yeah it's taking about 15min/repeat at this point. I think I've finished 4 of them so far. Have so much shawl hanging off one side causes some twisting that slows things down a bit. I see some late nights in my future if I am going to get this done in time.

Wishes

With the holidays quickly approaching, Christmas stuff is everywhere. Knit Picks is again doing their win your wish list contest. To enter, you just add things to your wish list and then share it. So, here is my entry. Also, if anyone is interested in taking a peak, your sure to note my love for all things purple.

I noticed I never did a follow up post regarding The Black Prism. Let me just say, I can't wait for the next book. This was simply brilliant and well written and I'd recommend it to anyone. I also found out Barbara Bretton has a new Sugar Maple book coming out next month! I am pretty sure I've mentioned her books before. They are a guilty pleasure of mine, knitting mystery with a side of romance. What more could a girl want? The new book is Spells and Stitches. She has also put a free short story on smashwords. If anyone is interested.

The snapdragon mittens are coming along well. I've finished the mitt, now I just need to do the -en. I had gotten most of the way through one of the foldover bits and then noticed my picked up stitches were crooked. So I'll be frogging that part.

The starry night shawl is continuing along. I think I can still get it done by the end of the month. I am going to try really hard to do so. I'm on row 140 of 172 before starting the edging. It's taking me 30-45 minutes per knit and purl back row combo (or 2 rows total). So that means about 12 hours of knitting left to finish the body of the shawl. Put that way, it doesn't seem like so much. I'm a bit nervous about the edging though, I've never done a knitted on edging like this before. It's always amazing how lace looks like a dirty dishrag until it's blocked.

Sick Day

After 2 weeks of fighting it off, my husband finally managed to infect me with his cold. It's quite a doozy too. It started on Thursday and has been getting worse and worse. So today I've been sitting around the house watching BBC (in HD now, thank you Comcast!) and re-runs of the X Files and Star Trek the Next Generation and drinking Emergen-C. Joe was kind and made me some sausage and kale soup the other night, so I've been working my way through that. It's so delicious and makes me feel a bit better. The kale came from our first CSA box from Whistling Train Farm.

Yesterday it was some comfort in my sickened state that I received some lovely new yarn. I got 3 skeins Fresh From the Cauldron mythos in Athena, Artemis and Pegasus. The Artemis was a swap actually as the gal needed 3 matching skeins and I had one close to what she needed. The one I got from her is a bit darker, but works better for what I want it for anyway. I plan to make a matching hat for my Pegasus Mittens with the second skein I got in this package. My October yarn co-op package from Liberty's Yarn also came in. She can no longer get in her Jabbersocky base and needs to find something to replace it. So this co-op shipment included to different bases which are possible replacements. We get to try them and vote for our favorites. So far each has something I love and something I dislike. It'll be a hard choice.

Joe and his sockhead hat

October was a good knitting month for me. I finished my Elphaba mitts from my last blog post. I also made a sockhead hat for Joe using Rainy Days & Wooly Dogs strychnine in the multipass colorway. Using the leftover yarn from this I also made a yarmulke for a friend of ours.  Lastly I also made a calorimetry for myself. I'm not overly thrilled with it. It's a bit big and doesn't do much for keeping my ears warm.


The Pegasus mittens I am making use Ysolda Teague's Snapdragon pattern. It's a cute convertible (mitten to mitt) design with cables on the cuffs. For the hat, I am thinking of using Al Fresco by Faina Goberstein. I am going to try doing the cables in some Eyes of the Dragon (also FFtC) leftovers that someone was nice enough to give me. I just hope I have enough.


My work on my Starry Night shawl is going well. I am on row 128 out of 172. Once I am finished with the main body, I have to knit on the border. Other than a few bits here and there (mostly due to printing the pattern in black and white) the pattern is really straightforward and not overly difficult. The yarn is a dream to work with, soft and yummy.

Catching Up

It's been a while since I've posted. Things have been busy around here. I had 2 straight weekends of call time in addition to the other stuff in my life that hogs up my free time. I've been knitting like mad though. Joining the HPKCHC on Ravelry has given me inspiration of motivation to keep my needles in motion.

I've now finished several hexipuffs, and am waiting for more left over sock yarn to knit them up with. I came up with the idea last night while falling asleep of using some of my yarn samplers so I can try out the yarns. It'll also give me a wide variety of colors for the puffs. I can keep a small strip of the yarn to label for future color reference.

I have also been working on some yummy fingerless gloves using Rainy Days & Wooly Dogs' Laudanum Lache in Romantic and Valerie Johnson's Elphaba pattern. It was one of the skeins I managed to snag at Sock Summit. They were to be for the Halloween knit along in the Gothsocks forum as well as for HPKCHC. However, I didn't finish them by the deadline for HPKCHC, so I have until the end of the month for the Gothsocks turn in. The yarn is simply lovely, the cashmere in it makes it super soft while the wool and nylon keeps the halo to a minimum. It may bloom in the wash though, we shall see.

I recently broke down and purchased a Kindle. I've had it for 3 weeks now and I am madly in love. I think I actually read faster using it. It's so easy to use and with the e-ink I forget I'm not reading a paperback. I've bought several books for it already as well as put my patterns onto it. It's easy to read the patterns and I can zoom in on my charts. I don't know why it took me so long to make the decision to get one, but I am happy I finally did. It celebration of this I knitted a Doctor Who themed cozy for my Kindle, since both it and the TARDIS are bigger on the inside it seemed appropriate.

The last and most recent of my projects since my last post is an argyle cell phone cozy. I used some lovely yarn I got from the caffeine addicts swap a while ago. It is a Norwegian wool yarn called Dalegarn Falk. So now my phone is looking snazzy in charcoal and red argyles.

So with the purchase of the Kindle, I have added some new books to my reading list. The main one being Brent Weeks' The Black Prism. I just found this great YouTube trailer for the book. Who'd have thunk, a trailer for a book? Ah well, you may remember my rants about his Night Angel trilogy. This new series is even better. He's developed a totally unique system for magic involving turning light into solid. It's a pretty cool concept. Each drafter (his term for "mages") can use one or more spectrum of light. Each spectrum has it's own properties for drafting. For instance green is flexible, ultra violet is invisible and sub red is hot. I also love that the main character is chubby 16 year old boy. Something more realistic than the usual athletic sword trained men in more fantasy sci-fi. I'm about halfway through the book now, so I'll be sure to let you know if my enthusiasm holds up or if I am disappointed.

I think that is enough for now. I just hope that gap between posts isn't as long next time.

Yarn by the Pound!

I thought, while I am waiting for my friend Sabrina (yes there are going to be 2 of us) I might do a quick update. I am waiting for her as  we are going to the Knit Picks warehouse sale. We figured it was worth the 2-3 hour drive for lovely yarn at $12/lb! I wonder what they will have, I'm hoping for some aloft and maybe some WoTA in colors for my upcoming projects.

So, I  finished a pretty twisted bracelet. The pattern is from Knitty First Fall, 2011 and is by Cat Wong. I used a sample skein of Spincycle natural novelty yarn I got at Madrona last year. The yarn is a varigated grey to black thick thin yarn with slubs of deep purple mohair. The linen stitch worked well to even out the thick thin bits and the little pops of mohair I think look kinda cool. The picture makes it look a bit more messy than it really is.

I also started working on an Aster Nyx shawl for Alyx. It is my payment to her for making my steampunk costume for me. So far it's buzzing right along. It is also my OWL project for the HPKCHC on Ravelry. The Gaia lace yarn from Sanguine Gryphon that I am using for the shawl is just amazing! It's so soft and yummy. It's a bit bit like kid silk haze, without the haze. I might have to pick up some for myself.

unstuffed puff

Other than that, I have caught the hexipuff addiction. Hexipuffs are part of Tiny Owl Knits' beekeepers quilt. They are super easy to make, use leftover sock yarn and are really addictive. The reason being is it takes 30-60min to make 1 hexipuff, but then you've finished something! I really am jealous that I didn't think of this. It's blown up on Ravelry like no tomorrow and at $5.50 for the pattern, she's gotta be making money hand over fist. Much like the Monkey Socks, I think it's just brilliant in it's simplicity.

I think that's it for now. I'll try and post my spoils from the warehouse sale.

Updates

I keep saying I want to update this more regularly. Apparently I stink at doing so. I could make a long list of excuses, but I won't. I will say it's partially due to the fact that I discovered that my blogger droid ap was pushing ads onto my phone. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind seeing ads at the bottom of free aps, but pop ups, no way! So I un-installed it.

So, As I mentioned before, I finished my hitchhiker scarf! I even managed to get 42 teeth, even though the last one was 2 rows short. Joe even managed to take a good picture of me wearing it, which is nice. I have very few pictures of myself I like sharing.

Since I finished the hitchhiker, I've been knitting away. I managed to bind off the left front of my whisker cardi. I you all remember me talking about that a bit back. That just leaves the right front and the sleeves. Then all the finishing tid bits that I hate.

I've also resumed my fancy socklets, which were the culprits responsible for the breaking of my needle several months ago. I had managed to cast on and do 3 increase rows on the toe before the needle snapped. As you can see they are coming along well. These are from the Knit Picks fancy feet anklets kits. It is the Saturday pattern done in twinkle heather. The yarn is really fantastic It's soft and sproingy and not splitty in the least. The  stitch pattern is really showing up nicely. This is my first time following a pattern blindly, without doing all the math myself. I was really trepidatious about them fitting properly. It gives 2 different stitch counts for the cast on based on foot size, but the rest of the sock is all 1 stitch count. The heel you start once you are ready, it doesn't give a set length or anything. Which is good and I would have ignored it any way. What's amazing, is that I'm trying on the sock as I go and so far it is fitting well!!

Other than that, I've started horseback riding again. His name is Tiny and he's a lovely 18 hand Belgian lad. It's been fun to get back in the saddle. Riding was always the one form of exercise that I enjoyed. I will say it's a lot harder now that I am older and fatter. However, muscle memory is a blessing. Tiny's a lot of work, but at least I enjoy it.

You'll probably be seeing more regular project updates from me, and hopefully more reviews (I have lots of them to write up). I am doing the Harry Potter Knitting & Crochet House Cup on Ravelry this fall. One of the requirements for it is that you do a project a month. So I'll have lots of knitting to write about! Also, I might be going to Japan in October, so look out for more on that.

Reviews

So, just a side note, I updated some of my Sock Summit posts to include pictures and correct some typos caused by using swype to write them on my phone.

So, when I am looking to buy almost anything online, I like to look at reviews. I also like to look at lots of pictures. Since I've been knitting, I've noticed there aren't a lot of reviews out there for knitting tools. Sure, Vogue Knitting and others have some, but that's once every couple of months. Particularly, I've noticed project bags are quite limited on photos and reviews. I love project bags and am in fact addicted to them. However, they have to have the right kind of pockets and other things. So I am cautious when buying new ones. With that in mind and to help out my fellow knitters, I've decided to start doing reviews on my project bags and possibly other knitting tools on my blog. I am going to try and do a new one every Wednesday. If you guys like my reviews, let me know. If you know of another site doing project bag reviews, let me know. If you have any questions I don't address in my review leave a comment and I'd be happy to provide other information.

With just 1 caveat I'll begin this review. Please keep in mind that my reviews are in no way endorsed or influenced by the companies whose products I am reviewing. These are just my thoughts on products I have purchased. All photos are take by me (currently on my cell phone, I am hoping to buy a good camera soon). If this is your product and you wish to talk to me about my review, feel free to email me or leave a comment.

Slipped Stitch Studios sock bag

Since I am still in post Sock Summit recovery, I'll start with the sock project bag and pattern wallet I got there from Slipped Stitch Studios. I have been lusting after her products for some time, but given the cost and lack of interior bag pictures I wasn't sure about them. So I was excited to see she was at Sock Summit and I could look at and handle her bags in person before making a commitment. Laura had made some sock project bags to debut at the Summit (they aren't available on her Etsy page yet) and was offering a show exclusive price. Sadly I don't have my receipt, but I recall it being $16. These were available in her super cute assortment of fabrics. Mine is blue with hedgehogs and hearts on it. She also had her miPattern saver wallets $5 off with purchase of a magnet set. So I couldn't resist.

interior of Slipped Stitch bag

Let me start with the bag. It fit my 425 yard ball of sock yarn quite comfortably. It has 2 interior pockets which are roomy enough that I stick my needles in them when not in use and I could fit more. They are perfect for cable needles, altoid tins, spare needles ect... They are about 5in deep and 4in across and my caked ball of yarn sits mostly below the edge of the pocket with the bag open. The drawstring is handy when I'm feeding yarn through the top. It allows my cake to stay safe from the cat hair, while letting me easily knit from it still.

miPattern Saver Wallet

miPattern Saver Wallet and
magnet

The miPattern Saver Wallet is also great. Especially with the addition of the pattern magnets. The wallet fits several pages of regular 8.5x11" paper with no problem. I had a 5 page pattern in there last week and felt I could fit more easily. The magnet was strong enough to hold all the pages in place as well. The magnet is actually 2 magnets covered with fabric on one side  so that it is hinged with fabric on one end. This allows it to be used on non magnetic surfaces, but it also means the magnets must be lined up. This leads to my only complaint about the pattern wallet and magnets. When moving the magnet along a lace chart, I found that I had to stick my whole hand into the wallet to move the magnet up to the next line. This made it a bit cumbersome and annoying. So I ended up only moving it every couple rows or just moving when I was done knitting for a bit to mark where I left off. That said the magnets are quite strong and despite lots of jostling in the knitting bag, the magnet never moved between uses. The pocket in the back of the pattern wallet is perfect for storing your magnets or a folded up pattern or other supplies.

In addition the fabric used on all of these items is quite nice. The stitching is well hidden and very sturdy. After a week of heavy use I did not observe any wear or other issues. So from a structure and quality view point, these are also top notch.

I highly recommend these and can only imagine that Laura must put the same attention to detail into her other Slipped Stitch Studios products. They are a little pricey, but given the durability, lovely assortment of fabrics to choose from and attention to details, I think they are worth the cost.

This weekend I'll be posting about the books I just finished reading and my completed project.

A week late and a skein short

So, this will wrap up my sock summit report. I meant to do this last sunday when I got home, but I was simply exhausted. I was in bed by 8:30 and had to be up for work monday morning.

Saturday morning, I had a volunteer session in the bookstore again. It was fun, I got to meet some more authors. I also picked up 2 of Cat Bordhi's sock books. The reason for the books (other than I've been wanting them) was this mysterious whirlpool heel on the f2f pattern description. I wanted to be prepared.

Saturday afternoon was the planning for self striping success class. It was really good and taught us to forget measuring our socks and let the stripes do the talking.

Saturday evening was Stephanie's (The Yarn Harlot) lecture. It was nothing short of hysterically funny, informative and thought provoking.

After all that, Clarine and I decided to get some dinner. We decided seafood sounded good and after consulting google maps, we decided on South Park Seafood Grill and Wine Bar. It was quite lovely. I redeemed oysters and chardonnay for Clarine, so my work was done. After our lovely dinner, we walked over to Rougue where I had a ginger beer that was fantastic and I got to meet an author friend of Clarine's. I made a much later night of it than I wanted to, considering the f2f competition the next morning.

So, Sunday morning I was pretty nervous. I was actually too worked up to drink my coffee which is saying a lot. I met up with my team ahead of time, we were all wearing our matching t-shirts. Thankfully we got the pattern early on, do we were.able to review it and divide it up. It seems my panic was for naught. The cast-on's were all of our choosing as were the bind-off's. For the specific bits, clear instructions were given with a key. The only thing I looked up was a refresher on provisional cast-on's.

The sheep were adorable, and watching them get sheared was fun. Once the fleece was distributed, things were in motion. I got a quick and dirty lesson in flicking fleece and helped get our spinners stocked. Once they had spun enough yarn to get me started, I went to work on the toes. I did 2 at a time magic loop. Interestingly the increases called for in the pattern were the same ones I had learned in my Friday class. So thank goodness I asked for extra help with those.

Toes being fiddly and time consuming, I finished them around noon. Just in time for lunch. After quickly eating a hot dog and drinking nearly a liter of water I was ready to go again. I moved on to doing the leg of the sock, which had a lovely lace pattern.

2 of the pieces I knitted for f2f

A few notes here. This fleece came straight off the sheep, with not time to wash it. While the sheep wore coats, there was still some vegetable matter. Also, all of the natural lanolin was still on the wool. So while my hands were soft, there was this pervasive smell. As I knit with it, the wool warmed up and it just made it smell worse.

It was a lot of fun. There were reporters and importers running around and taking pictures and asking questions. In the end, my team won. We raised almost $400 for doctors without borders. My thumbs hurt for 3 days.

Since sock summit, I have finished my hitchiker and started a new secret project. It is for a steampunk swap on ravelry. I'll post pics of tge hitchiker shortly dvds the other project once my swapee received it.

yarn bombing at Sock Summit

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Sock Summit day 2

So, today (Friday) has been another good day. It started by getting on the wrong train to go to Voodoo doughnuts where some of the knitters were meeting up. Eventually though, I got there. The line wasn't even too long. I got a bacon maple bar, an old dirty bastard and an apple fritter the size of my face. Don't worry, I didn't eat them all at once.

My classes were chroma zone with Tina from Blue Moon Fiber Arts, Curvy Girl legwarmers and knee highs and arch shaping for toe up.socks. All of which, were good. I also worked a volunteer shift in the bookstore which was fun. I got to meet several knitting authors while I was there.

The highlight though, was that Clarine and I went to Pok Pok. Joe and I had wanted to go there, but tbe 1.5 hour wait was a no go. Luckily Clarine and I got a spot in the bar right away. Pok Pok serves Thai street cuisine, which is lovingly reproduced.

Our water was flavored with some sort of leaf, which made it smell like jasmine rice. We both had the Vietnamese coffee spiked with burbon, which was delicious! For food, I had the spicy boar collar served with iced mustard greens and sticky rice. Clarine had the curry with pork belly. We also split corn on the cob with creamy coconut sauce. All of it was stellar!! For desert, there was mango sticky rice. I can't even describe how good of a meal this was.

I am really having so much fun!!

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Sock summit day 1

This is a little late, as by the time I got back to the hotel last night, I was exhausted.

I was up by 7 and taking a nice walk to Stumptown coffee by 7:30. From there it was a quick ride on the max to the convention center. My morning class was heels for toe up socks. I was proud for having done all of my homework, until I discovered that the homework changed while I was at comic-con. Suddenly I was scrambling to make the modifications from the changed homework. The class was good and I learned quite a bit to point me in the right direction for my socks.

After class was a quick lunch, and them camping for the marketplace. I met some lovely people during my 3 hour wait and made a lot of progress on my hitchhiker. I am up to 32 points. Sadly, my center pull ball has fallen into disarray. As I am writing this some lovely knitter next to me is untangling it. She said she loves to untangle and asked if she could help. I love knitters! Anyway, back to the waiting. We all got bunched up at the doors before they opened, and despite the fact that I was first in line, everyone shoved, pushed and elbowed. So despite my patience, the Rainy Days and Wooly Dogs's booth was empty. Luckily they had some tucked away that I got my paws on. Not as much as I wanted though. Poor Clarine even had yarn ripped out of her hands. For shame knitters! I also got some Sanguine Gryphon skinny bugga. Other than that, just a couple of project bags came home with me. I'll post pictures later.

The opening night reception was fun. Tina and Stephanie were really funny. There was also vodka. Nursing our wounds and toting our precious cargo Clarine and I headed back to the hotel before going out for some beer. We went to the Deschutes brew house. It was yummy.

More coming soon.

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Sock Summit Day 0

After a little frantic lady minute packing, I got myself out the door and headed south. The drive was really pleasent and traffic was negligible. The farther south I got, the sunnier it got and it ended up being nice and warm. I had some podcasts to keep me company, Knit Picks, Never Not Knitting, Ready Set Knit and Stash and Burn, so I was able to get caught up on those.

After checking in, I met up with my friend Clarine who is sharing a room with me. The hotel is absolutely gorgeous. It is the nicest hotel I have stayed in, including the 5 diamond I've stayed in. I am currently blogging from their roof top lounge.

Once we got settled, we headed to the convention center and git checked in. We did lunch at Burgerville, which was awesome! I then reported for my volunteer shift on the loading dock. It was fun seeing all of the pretty yarn come in. I got to plot out my course of attack for when the hall opens.

Now, I'm finishing up my homework, for my 9am heels for toe up socks class.

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SDCC 2011: The rest of it

Ok, I was going to try and blog each day, but out just didn't happen. Partially, because my phone was usually dead as a doornail by the end of the day. Also, because I was constantly, moving and exhausted. So, here is a break down of Friday- Sunday.

Friday, I premiered my new steampunk costume. It went rather well. I managed to wear it for 7 hours, which is pretty good considering the corset and 3in heels. We wandered the exhibits hall some, working on the Doctor Who QR code scavenger hunt. Also Joe picked up a Bender (Futurama) print he had been wanting for years. We also worked the ANCEA/Sakura-Con booth and took donations for Peace Winds America.

Later we met up with one of Joe's former co-workers who had just moved to San Diego 2 weeks ago. She's already got a great tan and is really happy. We also had dinner with one of my Japanese guest contacts. It was this great Brazilian place. Fantastic good and drinks!

We were waiting outside the restarunt to say goodbye when a lady walked up to us and asked if we wanted to see a movie. We were all tired so we kindof shrugged and asked what it was. Turns out it was a pre-showing of Fright Night, including a pre-funk. We all agreed and were lead to this gorgeous Spanish style house. After convincing the bouncer that Alyx was indeed 31 and no that's not a fake ID, we were allowed into the bar area. The drinks were good, my glass of Svedka with a drop of cranberry juice was delicious! The inside of the house had been totally done up with a coffin in the corner and all kind of other vampire themed decorations. After a few minutes Colin Farrell and other members of the cast (sadly no David Tennant) showed up to introduce the movie.

Next we were given stainless steel water bottles that said holy water on them and lead down the street to a movie theater whet our phones and cameras were checked and we were given sweet 3d glasses in a coffin case, popcorn, candy and a drink. The theater was large and nice and had been booked just for this event. The movie itself was rather good, I love David Tennant and he was his usually crazy self. My friends who had seen the original said it was a really good omage. It got out around 1:30am and we all wandered back to the hotel and passed out.

I'm not smiling because we had been taking pictures for 10min

Saturday was Steampunk day at SDCC, so I wore my costume again, minutes the heels. I ran into one of my best friends from high school, Hector, who read also in costume. We went to the meetup together, which was a lot of fun. There was also a photo shoot at the Privateer Press booth in front of the War Machine statue. I then abandoned the costume for the day.


Joe and I wandered the exhibits hall, handing out Sakura-Con brocheures and looking for anything we missed. We met up later with the FUNimation crew for some drinks before an early night of packing.

Line for hall H

This morning (Sunday) we were up at 7am, so we could make it to the Doctor Who panel at 12:30. We got into line at a great time as right after we got there, it started filling quick and ended up across the street and down the block. We got into the hall right when it opened, which meant sitting through the Glee and Supernatural panels. Neither of which I really cared about. It was worth it though.



Matt and Karen are just as funny in person as they are on camera. They showed clips from the next half of the season, which have me wondering about a great many things. The show is just simply brilliant!

So, now I an waiting at.the airport to fly home. I have lots of laundry to do before Sock Summit and my homework for class.

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SDCC day 0 and 1

This has been a really good SDCC so far. Day 0, was initially a bit rough. There was trouble with the hoyUtel. First, their fax machine had been jammed for 18 hours and they didn't realize it and therefore didn't have our paperwork. So our check in was delayed an hour. Then, apparently SDCC collapsed the grid and we lost power in the hotel. I had to carry 40 pounds if flyers down 10 flights of stairs.

Once we got to the convention center, check in went well. We had to lug those flyers about a mile though. Setting up the Sakura-Con booth was pretty easy. It's pretty much booth in a box at this point. So, that left us plenty of time to stalk the exhibitors hall. I did some work for Sakura-Con while we were at it.

I managed to score a TARDIS bobblehead, 2 Doctor Who shirts, a my little pony and a Futurama plushie robot devil. After that, we got some room service and decided to call it a night.


Today, I decided to get into room 6A for the panel before the one I wanted to see. It was the Oh You Sexy Geek panel. It was about women in the world of nerdom and the self image of women. It was ok, Seth Green made an appearance even.

What I was there to see was the Putting the "epic" in Epic Fantasy panel. Patrick Rothfuss is one of my favorite new authors and he was on the panel along with Brent Sandersen (Wheel of Time), George R. Martin (Game of Thrones), Christopher Paolini (Inheritance Cycle) and others. It was literary masturbation, but I loved it. I also managed to get Patrick, George and Chris' autographs.

After that Alyx and I went into the exhibits hall to talk to some people and do some shopping. While she was checking out I was looking around and saw 2 guys hugging. One of them I realized was John Barrowman!!! For those of you who don't know who he is, he's Captain Jack from Doctor Who and Torchwood. We got a picture and a hug. So, my weekend can't be bad after that.

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Craftspolsion

Finished wrist cuffs

Lace Wrist cuffs blocking

So, leading up to SDCC and Sock Summit I have been doing a lot of crafting. For my steampunk costume, I had to cut all the fabric which Alyx kindly sewed. I had to cover my nuclear grade welding goggle in leather and brass studs and paint them. I finished knitting my lace cuffs and neck collar and had to decorate my felted hat. I even made myself a necklace. So, my house is an utter mess and there are bits and pieces of costume remnants everywhere!

The good news is, I think blogger droid is going to work great for posting from SDCC. I also got a new battery for my pedometer, so I can tell you guys how far I walked each day. It'll be fun! I hope you will enjoy my report.

goggles

Me Wearing the necklace I made