Lace Galore

Thursday, February 28, 2008

After getting the mail today I now have more lace than I can handle. And boy does that feel good! Lol. I love that I have it all planned out and on hand so when I want to start I can.

First up we have more Jaggerspun from Sarah's Yarns. There is my Pewter zephyr wool silk which I adore. I think I will in fact use this for my wing of the moth shawl and use the white for the lily of the valley. It's very silvery and I think that's the perfect color for moth wings. :)
Next up is my Mulberry superfine merino for the Gretchen shawl.
And then Peacock superfine merino for of course a Pretty as a Peacock shawl.
Here we have some more zephyr wool silk I got in a Ravelry trade. It's Turquoise and very pretty. This is the only lace I have no idea what I will do with yet. Not like I don't have plenty in my queue to choose from...
More lace I traded for on Ravelry...Cashwool in a gorrrrgeous lavender color for the Rona lace shawl. This stuff is beyond soft.
Then there is some sock yarn I bought, yes from Ravelry. It's Yarn Love Juliet and the color is Cloud Nine. Mint green, yellow, white, hot pink, and some lighter pinks. Very pretty!The last thing that was in the mail were some ACEO's that I bought from one of my former secret pals. Well she was my spoiler. I LOVE these. They are about baseball card sized and she has put them in a hard plastic casing and into a plastic bag. I can't wait to find the perfect way to display them on the wall.
I have a few more of these I want from her. Especially because she did a lily of the valley one and I'm a bit obsessive about those. I love that this one is a set though.

I'm halfway through the border on my knitter's project shawl, and hope to finish tonight or tomorrow. I've also been spending some time each day knitting on my ms3. It's going fast, I should be done with this first half soon!

No more news today. It's been pretty boring around here but at least the sun is out today! I had the car window down all the way to the post office. I think it's close to 50 degrees, but it's warm enough for the time of year!

Hopefully there will be a FO in my next post...off to knit on it!

CRAP

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Today is turning out to be a suck ass kind of day. I just have to vent here for a min. Back in like, I dunno actually, months ago, we got this satellite internet installed. When I called they said they had two payment options. Pay it all OR pay 1/5th of the fee and have the rest of the equipment cost added onto your monthly service bill so that is wasn't all at once. Well they told me that when the guy came out to install the equipment to tell him which way we were going to do it. I wanted it added on to my bill. So I told him that and he told me they had already set it up to be paid in full and that if I wanted it to be the other way that I'd have to call the service provider and have them switch it to that. They charged me the $100 bucks and that was it.

So I did as he instructed, and the service (Hughesnet) told me that no, they don't do it that way and they couldn't change it and that they weren't going to collect the money for the satellite blah blah, etc etc. among other things. Since then I've only been billed the monthly service charge and haven't been contacted about it. I probably shouldn't have left things at that, but figured if no one wanted me to pay them...who was I to make a fuss?

Today I logged on to my bank account to find that over $400 dollars had been charged to my account from the company that installed my satellite. Freaking out I called them to find that they apparently checked with Hughesnet to make sure I paid and when I hadn't they decided to charge me the full remainder.

STUPID PEOPLE. I had no call about this. The lady I spoke to said she has been calling about this for months and has left dozens of messages. Um, NO....

There were no messages. There wasn't even a number on the caller id. So I don't know what that's about but she had the right number to call...

Either way she's refunding the full amount and I've worked out payments, but it's ruined the day. I am so wound up and stressed now. I swear it's always something...

I was going to go cast on something new to cheer myself up but thought better of it. I'm three rows away from the border on my spring things shawl, and think it's best to work on that instead. Finishing something will feel even better.

On a good note, I got my loopy order yesterday...

Posh Lucia in Raspberry. For being part cashmere it's really not that great, or soft. We'll see if I like it better knit.Shibui Sock in Peony. LOVE this.
And Louet Gems fingering in Lilac and Goldilocks. The yellow is a different color than I thought it would be...not sure if I like it.
And a few kid pics...Alexis being silly.Nicholas in apron and chefs hat.
And this which I found amusing. Chad was sitting with the kids at dinner and he looked over on Nick's tray and saw a mashed potato snowman...
Goofy kid. I thought maybe Chad did it for him, but nope, he did it all on his own! Lol.

Tonight Chad has a "dinner" he has to go to for work, I get to go too. It's not formal but we have to dress nice. Like nice pants, button shirt type of thing. I don't have any "slacks" or dress pants so I picked some up at JcPenny today (on sale!) and got some super cute shoes (also on sale! Originally 70 bucks too...but they are leather). I wonder if they are getting rid of them since they aren't on the website...I might have to get them in brown too then... Anywho the brand is Strictly Comfort and they have a nice squishy bottom and support my instep. I like. I got another pair but I'm taking those back since after wearing them for a few min around the house, they made my foot hurt. They had a short heel on them though, and I have trouble wearing heels anymore. So perhaps I'll just exchange them for another pair of these.

So that's it for today. Hopefully we won't have to stay there forever tonight, and it's not too boring. Chad already told me I can't take my knitting...(should I hide a sock in my purse? lol).

Marilinda halfway there!

Saturday, February 23, 2008

That's right, today I finished the first Marilinda sock. After I got past the leg and heel, it went pretty fast I think. It fits well and I really really love this sock. Out of alllll the Cookie A. patterns, this one is my favorite. Twisted Flower was, until I started this one. It's just gorgeous I think.
I got a few things in the mail since the last post. My lace came from Sarah's Yarns and I've already ordered 3 more colors. I wasn't sure if I'd like the plain merino or not but I do so I got the colors I wanted originally.

Here is some white zephyr wool silk. I will use this either for a Wing o the Moth shawl or the Lily of the Valley. I have some Pewter coming which is a silvery color that might be better for the moth shawl, so I won't decide till it gets here. No hurry anyway.
Ebony wool silk, posing with some beads Melissa sent me ages ago. This is for the Honeybee stole, I'm still debating the beads. This is the shawl I will start first, since I want a black stole for my anniversary in May. I plan to go somewhere nice to eat. Unlike last year which got screwed up and we could only find ONE decent place open to eat at 10 pm. I can't remember what happened...but I didn't get to dress up.
This is the Jaggerspun superfine merino in chamois. I got this for the bee fields. I know I know but I like BOTH bee shawls...
I've got two more colors of this stuff coming in the colors Peacock and Mulberry. The peacock is for the Pretty as a Peacock shawl, which I could resist no longer, and the Mulberry for a circular shawl called Gretchen that I found the pattern for on etsy.

It's funny the lace obsession has hit me again. I realized I had NO lace in sufficient quantities for any of the ones I wanted to make, and sort of freaked out and bought a bunch. I also traded for a lavender skein of Baruffa Cashwool for another shawl...

Besides that I got a pretty new roving. It's superwash bfl which I'm officially in love with. I got it from Pigeonroof and it's called Pink Lady. Can't wait to spin it, but I might save it since it's the only sw bfl I have...
AND my lovely order from Crystal Creek came in. My 10 ounce HUGE batt of rambouillet and silk in Seafoam is just gorgeous. I love love love it and will be buying more...
I also got a pound of rambouillet roving, but it's not much to look at so I won't show it. I added it to my ever growing pile of wool to dye.

I also got two baggies of sample fiber from them. One I have NO idea what it is. It's either angora or doggy. It's just kinda hard to tell since it's white and super soft. It has dog listed on that card in the baggy along with the other stuff they carry so I'm not just crazy.
AND I got this gorgeous silk. I KNOW what that is. It's soooo freaking soft and gorgeous. I just keep opening the bag to pet it.
Anyway I'll be back later. I'm off to try and get to the border on my spring things knitter shawl so I can finish it already.

Tiny Sock!

Friday, February 22, 2008

Just a drive by blog post here:

Finished the first Carolina sock. It seems teeny tiny b/c my sister has teeny tiny feet! It's really only an inch shorter than mine are usually.I have been lazy about photographing stuff as it comes in lately. I've got a few rovings from the past month that I never took pictures of at all and I thought I should add them to my Ravelry before I forget I have them.

This one is 4.2 ounces of bfl in Glade from Pigeonroof Studios. I have two more of hers on the way as well.
Some Funky Carolina: this one is corriedale and not that soft but I liked the colors. 4 ounces in Peach Cobbler.4 ounces of bfl in Meredith.
4 ounces of gorgeous merino silk in Wonder.
Then I got some targhee awhile back from Spinning Bunny. One in Roses for You,
and one in Hibiscus.
I'm dying to spin one since it feels so much different than other wools. I've got 8 ounces of targhee I got from Paradise Fibers to dye as well, and it feels different than even this targhee. I've also got some superfine merino to dye which is GORGEOUS.

Did I mention that I've got some Rambouillet on the way? No probably not. A pound to try out. Probably will dye it and sell the majority. We'll see depending on what it's like! I've also got a batt of a rambouillet silk blend to try out.

Don't ask what else is on the way. I went a bit nuts with a small tiny portion of the tax return. I really need to go on another diet after all this. Ok well I'll tell you anyway. I got some zephyr wool silk from Sarah's Yarns for a few shawls, and some undyed from Catnip Yarns to dye for a swap and another shawl I want a particular color for.

I bought some art from a friend, they are gorgeous, I'll show those off later.

Now it's off to bed, I'm tired and it's almost 1 am. I haven't been up this late in AGES.

Just a bit of an update.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

So things with Nicholas went fine yesterday. He had a blast in the waiting areas they had. There were a couple of those little cars they can get in and move like Fred Flintstone. They gave him stuff to calm down and after that he was soooo out of it. I took pictures, I was cracking up. His eyes are actually open but it's hard to tell. He had to lean on my MIL because he wasn't strong enough to sit up at that point.
Anyway, it did wonders to calm him down. He didn't even make a peep when they rolled him out of the room.On the way home he was groggy but feeling a bit better. We had our sun glasses on so of course he had to have some too.I did get to knit while he was in the O.R. but not a whole lot. I spent some of it snacking, and some watching stupid tv. I was hoping to have made a bit of progress on the scarf. I did maybe an inch or two...

I almost forgot to mention that I made it to knit group on Saturday. We meet every other week just about at Paradise Fibers. Check out this huge back room they've got!
See all the wheels they moved out of the way for us? They are back behind the ladies to the left. All set up to test, etc. It's hard to not go there and want to buy EVERYTHING.
It was a small group this time but we had a lot of fun. I love that there is enough room for us to bring our wheels.

Other than that the only other new thing is I got my hair done! FINALLY. I feel like it's been forever. I dyed it a dark black, with a purple hue to it which will only show in the sun. I cut it a bit short again. At least, short for me. Anything shoulder length and up is short. I like how it came out and am glad to feel like it's decent looking again lol. My highlights were SO grown out and bad.Well that's about it right now. More when I have it!

Forest Canopy Pictures

Sunday, February 17, 2008

So finally here are pictures of my Forest Canopy shawl. I think it turned out well! It's small, smaller than I think any of my others, but it's still big enough.
I like the striping effect you get with handspun yarn. It's unique and doesn't take any work at all!
I am glad to have this finished, now I can move on to other things!
Nicholas' surgery is in the morning, and I've decided to go after all. I'm taking my Jaywalker scarf for a mindless knit. It needs to be worked on for a good long time anyway. I would like to finish it while I can still wear it! Other than that I plan on dyeing one of these days. We got a new microwave which will go in the kitchen and I'll take the old one to dye stuff with. So now I just need the time to do it. When I do it's going to be a marathon session so I can get some stuff in the shop!

Ok well I'll be back later tomorrow probably to update on how it went....

SPARKLY

Thursday, February 14, 2008

So I still have no real pictures to show. The only pictures I took were of my Tendril Embrace socks and I can't show you those. Not yet anyway. I still have the thumb to finish on the baby mitten. I'm not in a rush because Chad doesn't see Sean often. I will finish it soon though because I need the needles for my gloves. I still haven't ripped the start of the first one out yet. It's too pretty! I don't want to rip it until I know I'm starting it again, and I can't start it over until I finish the baby mitten. Maybe I'll do that tonight.

I've been working on other things though. Melissa and I have been planning to do the Charlotte's Web shawl, and I asked her when she wanted to start it. Her answer was that we should each finish off three WIP's first. And my baby mittens don't count lol. So I set to work on my Forest Canopy and finished it yesterday! I was further than I thought. I was at 10 repeats and was thinking I had to do 15, but I only needed to do 11. So I did that and then on to the border. I have to block it still which means cleaning out the kids play area, since that's the only place I can pin it out. I usually have to block overnight as well, since I obviously can't have them in there while the shawl is, and with all of those pins.

But that's finished. So I'm pretty happy about that. It's my second shawl knit from handspun. Speaking of handspun and this is a tangent real quick...I soaked my superwash bfl that I spun for socks, remember it? Well some of the dye came out and now the white parts of the yarn are dingy. I'm a little disturbed about that. I almost don't even want to knit with it because it looks different...but it smells SO good now since I used soak on it and it's even softer than it was before. It fluffed up a TON and it's still pretty. Just weird that it did that...

Ok back to the shawls thing. So after that one was off the needles I dug out the shawl I'm doing for the knitters project. It's that spring things shawl in sage zephyr. I really don't know why I haven't been knitting it, because I love the pattern and the yarn. I think it's the tags. I like writing them, but they weigh the shawl down and tangle the yarn and are in the way. I'd like to finish it though because it will need to be sent off soon. I can't wait to get to the part when I can put the beads on.

So that is my plan, and it should be the second thing I will finish of the three I have to do before I can knit the other shawl. Then I need to finish one more thing and it will probably be a pair of socks. I don't care which ones, I just want a pair done.

Besides that stuff I plan to dig out my mystery shawl and work on that. I'm close to being halfway. I need to finish it. It's so pretty anyway, I'd love to have it done. That and I have like five more shawls I want to knit...Clapotis...well I'm counting that as a scarf since that's how I wear mine. There's the Juno Regina I'm spinning for. There are so many others as well. I think I finally picked a shawl to knit with my Melon seasilk. And there are countless others I need to buy yarn for. I just realized that I have almost NO lace yarn. And tons of shawls that I want to knit, which need more than the 600 yard balls of several colors of zephyr I have. So I plan to start stocking up on the lace, now that I have PLENTY of sock yarn.

Ok well for not much going on I sure do have a lot to say...I think sometimes I use this blog as a substitute for a journal. I used to write in a journal everyday for years. I don't anymore and I do miss it. It's just that Chad is nosy and wants to read everything I'm writing. And it's not like I'm writing anything major but it's like having someone reading your mind you know? It's personal. And I just like it to stay that way. I used to write when he wasn't home, I might have to start that again lol. It would help me keep track of things I think. I used to refer to my journals a lot about events that had happened.

Nicholas goes for surgery Monday to fix his teeth. I'm a bit nervous since they have to put him under to do it. Chad took the day off to go and I think I'm going to let my mother in law go with them and I will stay home with Alexis. It's not that I don't want to go, but I have a hard time watching them do things to my kids. They will have to run an iv and put a tube down his throat, and I can't handle that. I get sick when they do that stuff to me. I'm a wreck when I think about it. Gayleen my MIL worked at the hospital years ago before her injury and knows what they will be doing and handles it better. Plus I think she wants to go for some reason. I will wait home with Alexis and worry and take care of him when he comes home. Monday is going to be a long day...

Since there are no good pictures I'll leave you with a sparkly. I took my wedding ring set in to size it down half a size and it doesn't seem like they did anything, they are still too loose. BUT they cleaned them and did an acid bath and they are looking brand new. They had a yellowish tint to them from wear before. I can't stop looking at them now! Just like when he first gave them to me...(Man I sure know how to ramble on...)

An unexpected visitor...

Monday, February 11, 2008

drops in. Unexpected and most UNWELCOME. So last night, I'm sitting here at the computer and knitting on this:
It's the second toddler mitten if you remember. Chad's buddy Sean and his wife Sadie have a son that just turned one. I made them a hat for him ages ago and I guess they loved it to pieces but it no longer fits. They want another, and that made me think of these mittens. So I'm knitting the second one now. They should fit Syler perfectly.

Anywho, back to my story. I'm knitting along and it's almost time for bed, so I'm trying to relax and feel sleepy since I have to be up in FIVE hours. Suddenly I feel something graze my skin. Now, my hair sheds a lot, so I usually assume that's what it is. And I'm wearing a v-neck, so it's entirely possible that it's a hair tickling me. So I lift up the bottom of my shirt and find this:
I know it's hard to see but look in the bottom of the bottle. See that black spider? Yeah. THAT'S what was IN MY SHIRT. I was screaming and freaking out, and Chad's looking at me like WTF? Anyway he did find it on the floor where I had brushed it off me and he caught it in the bottle. FRIGGEN GROSS. I'm assuming it dropped from the ceiling but who knows. Sheesh. I'm still disgusted and my skin crawls when I think about it.

The only ONLY good thing is it is just a little black house spider. OMG if it'd been a Hobo spider, I would have really freaked out. They are at LEAST two or three times that size, and if they bite you get big holes where the skin gets nasty and just like, dies.

So that was really relaxing...NOT.

Either way there hasn't been much other progress. I discovered on my mitten for me, the brown and mint one from the last post, I'm using the wrong size needles and it's too big. So I need to rip and redo in the right size. That's ok though, I didn't get too far, so I'd rather realize it now. I have been knitting on all the other things too at different times. I should finish the mitten tonight, and then I will probably work on the carolina sock. I decided the pair will be for my sister. I owe her big time. And have repeatedly promised socks. They are totally her colors, so they will be hers. I will probably rip out the mitten too since I haven't done that, and rewind the balls or something.

Ok well that's it for my meager update. More when I get something done!

Stalemate?

Friday, February 08, 2008

I have slowed down a bit on my blogging. Mostly because most of my projects I'm working on are at the point where they don't look any different than they did last time I showed them. I do finally have some progress shots though, so here ya go.

First up is my forest canopy which has grown immensely since my last shot of it. I really like how it's going and it's sooooo easy to knit. I've got a few more repeats of the body to go before I hit the border.
Next we have my Marilinda sock. After a day of knitting I finished the heel and it's gorgeous. I apologize for the cruddy pic but Chad took it and it was night...
Then I have two new projects to show off. First up is my sock that I'm knitting for the Sock Stash Elimination Campaign. This months "orders" were to knit a sock that was designed by Mama Monkey, in honor of her passing. Anyone who knits a pair of her socks will be put in a drawing and I've donated some roving for the prize. It's not yet dyed so I can't show you, but I'll be doing that soon and it will be up on that blog.

Anyway, this is the Carolina sock, but I've made a few modifications. It didn't look good in the self striping yarn and the purl rows, so I omitted those and did a knit row in it's place. I also changed the knit-3-together to a slip 2 as if to knit-knit 1- pass 2 slipped stitches over. It's neater, since in the original version, the k3tog was hidden a bit by the purl row. I really like how this one is coming out, it's super easy to knit, so it's good knitting when you can't concentrate much. Sorry the picture came out so dark...not sure what happened there.
Lastly I started another pair of Selbuvotter mittens. I couldn't help myself after I picked up a few more colors of the Baby Ull. This is mitten pair NHM #7, but I'm using the cuff, and probably the thumb of NHM #9. I think it's going well so far and I love the colors. I also got more black and a baby blue to match my coat, well both coats actually. I still have the red and white too. Oh, and what's that plastic thing you ask? Why that my dears is a NeedleKeep. I got two of them in sizes 6 and 7 inches from Marelle on etsy. I love them to pieces. I was always too afraid to take my socks or things on dpn's with me anywhere since they could break. These are made from PVC pipe so they are really sturdy and I don't have to worry anymore! Now I can take things and throw them in my sock bag, and they are good to go. I definitely recommend getting them if you are worried about that like I was. One cap is fixed on there permanently and the other cap is attached to it with elastic, and that's what keeps it on the end. The removable end has a charm on it so you know which one to pull on. You can't see it in my pic, but I have a kitty on the right side. Either way, now I want the other sizes, since I also have dpns that are 5 and 8 inches. So I'll be buying two more of them eventually.

I'm spinning still, some lace from bfl. I'm hoping to get a good amount to use for the Juno Regina shawl/stole on Knitty.com. That's the main stuff right now. So I'm off to go feed the kids lunch now. And me, I'm craving some salad with chicken and shredded cheese...yum!

Some stuff.

Monday, February 04, 2008

Couldn't think of a better title.

Annnnyway. I haven't posted in a few so thought I should. I haven't been up to a whole awful lot but I have a few things to share.

I went to knitting group on Saturday, and it was the first time in ten days LITERALLY that I got out of the house. I DID manage to remember to bring my camera. But forgot to take any pictures. Sigh. Maybe next time. It was a blast though. I stayed much longer than I planned and there were so many of us this time! Food, knitting, spinning, and fun conversation. The next one is in two weeks and I cannot wait.

While there I finished spinning the second bobbin of the superwash bfl. Then last night I plied it. I think this is by far my favorite skein of yarn I've spun. It's soft and gorgeous and I'm so in love with it. This is also the thickest I've been able to spin! I thought I'd be stuck spinning lace-weight forever. There are 330 something yards and I'm going to make some socks with it.I've been knitting on other stuff. Mostly socks and my forest canopy. No real visible progress so no other knitting pics.

I will leave you with this picture. I saw these at wally world and thought Nick would loooove them. I got them out and said "Here momma got you some bunny ears, put them on!" and he goes "No, I no put on bunny ears." So I got Alexis to put them on. Love the funny face she's making. And you know of course, now he likes them, since SHE had them on. Lol.