Knotty-K

I’m having a social issue right now. We live in a society where an aricle like this can be written about “sexy knitters” and naughty things they can knit, and an article like this can be written about breastfeeding in public and how some people consider it lewd and indecent exposure. The LYS that I frequent has no problem with me nursing an older toddler in the store, but the owner opened up the box of “Sexy Little Knits” and promptly closed it up and sent it back, deeming it too lewd and figured that people wouldn’t buy it.

I think I’ll step off my soapbox now. Just needed to blow off some steam.

We all know who this is in the photo. She’s wearing “the wedding shawl” and yes, it is even more beautiful in person than on her blog. I look pregnant due to having my camera bag shoved in my sweatshirt pouch, but one does what one can.
Sarah decided that we needed to go to the Madrona Fiber Arts Festival and get our books signed, so we dumped some kids and spouses and ran for it. As we were walking in to the hotel, we saw Stephanie in a small meeting room and almost turned ourselves in to little window suction cup creatures, squealing “that’s THE Yarn Harlot! She’s right there!!!” We kept walking and then turned around and there she was walking a way behind us. Sarah asked me if she thought she would mind if Sarah ran up to her and just gushed and hugged her. I believe I said something along the lines of “don’t tackle the Yarn Harlot.” We got our books signed, met a fun new blogger in the Port Orchard area, and purused the marketplace.

So, that was obviously The Good. The Bad is that my father has confessed something that is very upsetting to myself and my mother. My parents have been divorced about 22 years, but they’ve stayed close, and this was just a BIG change in the world as we’ve known it for like the last decade. I feel horrible. I can’t do anything for my mom to help her hurt less and to heal. I feel like I can’t do anything for her. But being a knitter, I’ve decided that there’s one thing I can do to at least keep my mind from going nuts and keep her warm: I can knit her socks. I can’t fix the problem, I can’t run away from life and take her with me, but I can knit her socks.Which leads in to The Fiber. Above is Blue Moon Fibers Sock Candy in Velvet Moon colorway. I plan to knit my mother footie socks in this since it’s cotton and elastane. I’m burnt out on Cascade Fixation and I’m not really loving the Cherry Tree Hill North Country Cotton socks I’m working on. The Cherry Tree Hill is just cotton, no elastic, so it doesn’t really give a whole lot.

My other purchase was a skein of Handmaiden Sea Silk in a lovely, kind of french vanilla color. It’s for me, a little neck shawl thingy to wear in the European style. I have some gift certificates for clothing and I think I need to look at updating my look a bit. After all, handknit shawls don’t really go with sweatshirts that you’ve had longer than your children…
Some of you might be saying “but wait, didn’t she say she was on a no-yarn spree until April 1st?!” I had planned to go to Madrona, see the Yarn Harlot, walk around the marketplace and then just jot down what I liked and make my purchases after the self-imposed yarn moratorium. My husband had a different idea. He said take some mad money, buy a little bit, be happy, you’ve had a crappy week and you need some lovin’ and this is what I can do for you right now. So technically this isn’t really stash, the projects are planned. I ordered Fiber Trends Flower Basket Shawl for the Sea Silk and will probably just use Mom’s Fast Florida Footies pattern for the Sock Candy.

I was pleasantly surprised by this on the front page of the Arts and Entertainment section of The Seattle Times this morning. I think I’m going to check KCLS and see if it’s in the system yet.

Still working on the fingers of the second Broad Street Glove. I just didn’t have the oomph to deal with small DPNs last night, so I cast on and completed the top shell of the turtle pattern from FiberSpace. It’s an easy knit, I’ve done it before, and it’s on fat needles (well, 10.5’s, but bigger than 2’s).

I love Wallace and Gromit, have since I was in college. In the short “A Close Shave”, Wallace builds himself a autowash machine where the sheep are loaded, washed, shorn, and the resulting wool immediately spun into yarn and knit into sweaters. Boy, how I wish that little contraption was real.

I decided to wash Craig’s gaiter so he can wear it on the slopes tomorrow. The yarn smelled pretty sheepy while I was working with it, but not really any more so than Cascade’s Eco-Wool did.

The gaiter hit the water…

15 minutes in SOAK wash, citrus scent… sniff, sniff, SHEEPY.

Call to The Knittery to ask for help. Suggestion of mix of dawn dishwashing soap and hair conditioner for at least 3o minutes, or if that doesn’t work, get a cheap bottle of white wine and soak for at least 30 minutes.

30 minute soak in dawn/conditioner mix… sniff, sniff, less sheepy, but still evident.

45 minute soak in a stronger dawn/conditioner mix… sniff, sniff, less sheepy to my nose, but I’m not the one who’s going to be wearing it. Craig sniffs, calls it good enough, so the gaiter is drying on the rack.

If you see a harried woman looking for really cheap white wine at the local Safeway, smile gently, she’s not the local wino, just a knitter.

Tuesday morning after the last snow fall. Thursday morning.
Friday afternoon.
Snow’s all gone, just in time for more rain.

I hope to be close to finishing or finished with the second Broad Street Glove for Bryan this evening. It’ll be nice to get that project out the way. Then I can go on to the second Lace Anklet that calls for the same needle size.

Mirror, mirror on the wall, our garbage men do exist after all… Our garbage men have been MIA due to snow and ice, so our garbage hasn’t been picked up since the week before last. I was so happy to see them, I had to take a photo.

I know I said I wouldn’t buy any new yarn unless it was for a specific project. Well, this yarn was purchased for chemo caps for kids at Boston’s Childrens Hospital (info on the project here). There’s a cancer ward there full of 10-16 year olds that need hats. The girls apparently love the fun fur, but having two boys of my own, I figured the guys would appreciate something more manly, like camo. The yarn is Bernat “Camoflage”. I liked how the skein has the look of miters. I’m going to wash the hat and make sure it washes up soft before I break into the other two skeins I bought. If it’s not soft enough, back to the store it goes. This is the only yarn I’ve purchased since New Year’s Day and it’s not going to the stash, it’s getting worked up and going right back out the door. I think I’m doing pretty well, unlike a fellow knitter I know… but I still love her dearly.

There is joy in the house: there was SCHOOL today! Started 2 hours late, but hey, if it gives my nerves a bit of time to recover, I’ll take it!

Craig requested a gaiter after freezing up on Snoqualmie Pass last weekend during ski lessons. I looked at the gaiter from “One Skein”, adapted it for my yarn, Craig’s measurements, and my gauge, and here’s what I’ve got. Craig requested it to be longer so that he could pull it up over the lower half of his face and snug it up to his goggles. No problem!
The yarn is part of a 392 yard skein that I purchased at Warm Valley Orchard on Orcas Island near the ferry terminal. It’s 50/50 handspun merino and silk dyed a lovely pewter color (color in the photos are not accurate). I purchased it because it was our anniversary and I was hoping to make Craig something out of it.
This is my first completed cabled project. I’m so proud of myself. And I still have enough yarn to make another small project.

I took down our nutcracker flag yesterday and put up this winter one instead. We were supposed to get some snow and then it was to turn to rain..Um, yeah, I don’t see any rain here, just a solid 2 inches of snow on top of the snow that we’ve had since last Wednesday night. All the little snow-covered lumps in the yard are monster trucks and tractors. Gee, can’t tell we have an all-boy house here, can you?

Of course, this means another snow day. That makes 3 in the last week. The state is discussing not having schools make up the snow days because the kids would be going to school until Independence Day, or later in some school districts, due to flood, power outage, and snow days. We’ll have to stay tuned and see what they decide.

Hmm, doesn’t quite look right for my knitting area… Could this be the reason why I’m crammed into a small seat with my sock?
Yup, I’m weird. I knit and I like to go to the monster truck shows. Above are Grave Digger and Blue Thunder.
Grave Digger catching some air. How can you not get into this?

I did have a few little problems. I was grooving along on my sock, had picked up the gusset and was two rows in, and realized that I had forgotten to turn the heel. D’OH! So I ripped back and turned the heel and carried on. Then I got home that night and realized that I had missed a row of the lace pattern on the cuff (the sock is Lace Anklet by Cherry Tree Hill in High Country Cotton) and it looked wrong, so the whole thing got frogged. Lesson learned: socks probably aren’t the best project to take to a monster truck show when you’re also trying to take decent pictures. If you’re interested, here’s my flickr set for the rest of the show.

Since Blogger is being mean and won’t let me upload my photos from the monster truck show, here’s a comic that’s sure to tickle most knitters’ funny bones.

ETA: Look at the comic for Sunday, January 14.