Lynn in Tucson made me do it.

Cuz we all know the Devil has nothing on your Enabling Friends.

But first! We didn't do the whole "end as you mean to go on" thing. Unless you count the fact that I mean to continue ignoring the housework... Anyway, I finally had the fortitude to face B-Side, and picked out the sewn-in sleeve, ripped it out, googling the instructions on knitting a set-in sleeve top-down from picked-up stitches, and worked some maths. I think the maths are right, I can't be sure of the counting. I also think I don't particularly love the decreases-while-short-rowing look, and if the sleeves are otherwise satisfactory I will probably rework them to include a centered double-decrease down the "crease line" of the sleeves on future patterns. Either that or I will need to fix my wrapping techniques on the short rows cuz I think I might be wrapping in the wrong direction. In either case, I'm not fixing it on this sweater. Partly because I don't think the yarn can stand much more ripping, and partly because, renewed with hope and love of knitting as I am, another setback on this sweater might turn it to crackers, a là Cookie. I also think blocking will help a bit. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.



And so, we enter the Year of the Mitten. Or maybe a more appropriate title would be the Year of Colorwork. Primarily since my SIL has been hinting that she wants more hats like the one I crocheted for her, and I can't find any other crocheted patterns I like, and will henceforth be diving into the Land of Colorful Tams. (Appropriate, as she's Aunt Tam, no?) (As soon as I get over the Flaming Resentment of her repeated "hints" for knitwear.)
Anyway, I've been slavering for Latvian mittens. I have the book, I have the time. (Well, I have some.) I have access to my little stash and some inexpensive local or internet yarns. I was making a purchase that vaulted me over the line for free shipping, and, well, it was just financially responsible to go ahead and order a few fingering-weight solids. This year I have vowed to get my finances under control, and how better to do that than to buy enough to avoid shipping fees? It's a no-brainer, really.



Since it is not my intention to carry around the better part of a sweater, even though my new bag (squee!) allows me to, the mittens may become my lunchtime knitting after my scarf is done. (I wasn't going to finish T's dad's scarf in time for Christmas without seriously killing myself, so I appropriated the one I'd knit for OFA and am replacing it with the one (same pattern, nearly same color) I started for him.) It seems that the good thing about putting some projects in extended timeout is that after a while, they become exciting again. I have Madli and some Nutkins I'm anxious to get back to, also, though I'm pacing myself and alternating with new projects to avoid burnout. :D

Still a loser

But an organized one.
I got a wild (nesting) hair to clean again. I have been working in my bedroom for the last few days. DH has been nesting too, though his nesting comes in the form of removing every piece of greenery in the back yard that he doesn't want to maintain and that doesn't offer shade. (If he tried to touch my ash trees they'd never find his body.) So far we've lost two very ill citrus trees, some sort of tall shrub/short tree that had died, and its partner, and about 50 feet of shrubbery along the fence. I hear tell that the old cracked, leaking and scarily wired spa is going bye-bye too. The yard looks huge.
Since yesterday, I cleaned and rearranged the little stuff on the dressers in the bedroom, finished cleaning out my side of the closet, including the purging of shoes, installed my old stereo back again, and am currently in the midst of documenting and purging the rest of my stash. I started with this.



(That doesn't include the stuff in my yarn vase or in the WIP basket, but I think that's all catalogued on Ravelry anyway.)

I sorted through my box of no-longer-used needles, I made a pile of stuff to donate, I organized and photographed. Turns out that if you include the undyed sock yarn I have (roughly 1.5 lbs) I have a whole tote of sock yarn. (Well, there are three tiny skeins of laceweight in there too.)



I'm working my way through the bigger yarn tote, and a lot of that is going to Goodwill. (Why in the hell did I think I needed 10 skeins of black acrylic fingering weight yarn?) I had to stop and download photos since I'd filled up my camera card. I wasn't only taking pictures of yarn.







Back to the salt wool mines.

a bunch of crap and some links

I decided to get off my butt and take some photos. Alas, none of them will do much to warm Joan up, since it was just at dawn and the sky was cloudy anyway. Still, it's yarn and Bugs and that's always good in my book.

First off, I have some of Judy's Arequipa in the Atlantic colorway. This stuff is so soft I want to eat it. Or stick it in my bra. I rubbed it on Bug's cheek and he said, "Soft for Mama!" Yes indeed, it's all for me! It's being turned into Anne's Gust scarf, and it's so delicious I can hardly stand it.



(Forgive the craptasticness that is that photo. The yarn has a bit of halo, but it's not THAT fuzzy.)

Next up, we have the beginning of the Year of the Hat. This is Cascade 220 Paint in some colorway I forgot to look up. It has plums, browns, rust, and all shades in between, and will (most likely) be a Coronet for SIL R. (The picture didn't capture the colors well - those bright red streaks are actually a muted rust.)



The Bug blows you a kiss.



Joan sent me a little You Make My Day bloggy thing. She said something about my willingness to break the law at her behest. You know, only the best for Joan. :-) So I'm supposed to list 10 blogs that make my day (besides Joan's, of course) and link them for your enhanced reading pleasure. This is hard, since I don't read blogs unless they DO make my day, but I'll try to narrow it down a bit

Here you go:

1. Center of Gravitas. I always learn something, and no one does teh snark like GayProf.
2. Frank Notes. The man is a crafting genius, and I gain a pound every time I LOOK a picture of his cake. (Yes, actual cake, that is not a euphemism, you sickos.)
3. Purling Dervish. For the Def Leppard bed socks alone.
4. Shut Up And Knit. Because it's Cookie. And I like the abuse.
5. Cabin Cove. The colors! The spinning! The asses!
6. Knitspot. I want to be Anne if when I grow up.
7. The Seated View. I hate it when she posts things that make me think.
8. Smatterings and RiverRim. I'm combining these two because I love them for the same reason - the peaceful beauty of the pictures and the amazing work they both make look easy.
9. What Housework. Piggies and cows and peacocks, oh my! And Milo, and pumpkin pie from scratch, and Real Vermonter yarn, and buying local... It goes on and on.
10. Trailing Yarn. I love that she complains about not having enough knitting time and whips out all these (handspun) sweaters all the time.

Still milking the birthday

Here are the fibery gifts I received (in some cases, from myself HA) for my birthday...



(Click to embiggen - you can't truly see the lovely colors on that tiny little picture.) From left to right, Merlot Vine sock kit from Yarn4Socks, October Sock Club, Cabin Cove sock yarn in a colorway that's escaping me right now, and Cherry Tree Hill in Green Mountain Madness (I think). All purchased throughout the last months with my birthday in mind. I actually left the box from Cabin Cove on my dining room table until Saturday when I allowed myself to open it. I'm glad I did - I'd ordered it early enough that I'd forgotten the colorway and got a great surprise!



5 oz of superfine merino roving from Blue Moon in Rocktober, from the incomparable BigAlice. She actually sent this as a "just because she though I'd like it" giftie, but it was close enough to my birthday that I'm calling it a birthday surprise. I do love my bloggy friends!



A bump (4 oz? I can't remember now, I'm high from the wool fumes) of the softest, most beautiful alpaca/corriedale mix to ever enter my house. (Bonus: from a new spinning shop in town I had no idea existed!) From Blogless Lynn, enabler and conspirator extraordinaire. Mother of Queen A of the Bubbles (from last post) and a fine knitter, spinner, beader, potter, sew-person, and... I know I'm missing a few crafts in there. Y'all are seriously missing out because *I* get to see all the beautiful things she makes and you don't. Urge this woman to blog - you won't be sorry.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to have to go roll around nekkid in my fiber have a little lie-down.

My little boy and his queens

The Bug is TWO today! I can scarcely believe it. Thank goodness he's still a little snuggle-beast in the mornings. Soon he'll be pushing me away and saying, "NO, Mama!" when I want hugs. [sob]



In honor of the little man's birthday, I present a photo dictionary of Bug terms.



Nanas.



Daubers.



Queen. (He has two Lightning McQueens, and carries the smaller one everywhere, along with "May" - Mater.)



Truckie.



Mama. (Hanger included for scale. That's cashmere laceweight, people.)



Fuck.

As promised

Some fiberotica.

Click to embiggen, as always.

First, Dream in Color Smooshy.




Beach Fog and Wisterious.

Next, Hand Jive Nature's Palette Fingering.



Iris.

Souvenir Mountain Colors Bearfoot.



Juniper.

TA-DA!!! Dizzy Blonde (aka La) yarns.



JenLa. (Isn't it gorgeous? The Bug thought so. This one really deserves its own post, but since I can't figure out how to spell that Homer-Simpson-drooling sound, I saved it for last here.)

And now, some stitch markers!



Won on the Kidnapped Can Opener naming contest, from Sachi's Purls.



From La. Aren't they cute?! They're Bugs, get it?

Fiberific

That's me, today.

In the last little while I won two blog contests - one from Pretending to Farm, and one from Trailing Yarn.


Desert Sunset roving from Carmela the Shetland Sheep


Snap roving from Yarn Witch

Then I spun my first ever yarn! Yippee!


Bad bad 2-ply

And now here's an artsy shot.

Up close and personal.

I started to catalog all my yarn and fiber for my eventual Ravelry invite. Oh boy I can't wait!
The Bug is overwhelmed by all the fiber.

Back in the saddle

Ahhhh, nothing like a new project to help you recover from the Curse of the Unknittable Socks.
My sea silk decided it did not want to be a design I came up with - it wanted to be a Swallowtail Shawl.

Smooth and crunchy. All good things.

I love it even though I am apparently honor-bound to forget one YO per row.

More lovelies to assuage my pain.


Mmmmm, soft and lacey.

Elann Peruvian Baby Lace Merino in Irish Moss for the Mystery Stole 3. Now I just need to find the beads.

Sadly, I believe my Gryffindor socks are still cursed. I decided to switch to the Ball and Skein maple leaves, with toes and heels in Lorna's cranberry, but I just don't think the dratted yarns work together. (I am not so secretly okay with this because I covet the Ball and Skein socks for myself.)


Close enough? You tell me.

I will probably knit the toe and part of a foot with the two yarns to see if they work better knitted up. I'm kinda running out of options AND time, and y'all, it's pissing me off.


Standing on the corner, watching all the Disney go by.

Good fiber, bad fiber

YAY! My Rabbitch special yarn came in the mail yesterday! Squooshy, squishy, and PINK! It's love. (It's not just any yarn that gets posed in the flowers.)


Jazzberry Toe Jam.

Go now, to her store. Buy some, then come back.

Mondays are for spinning in pacaland, and so I did. I finished up the little bit of easter egg roving I was working on, but only had one spare bobbin, and hadn't dyed up the roving that I want to ply the easter egg with. So I did that after. I just used the little food coloring droppers, 3:1 green to blue, and got creative with the vinegar. (Pouring it on the fiber directly is what caused the light spots, which was what I was going for.)


It's really that bright. Mebbe brighter.


I think it will match pretty nicely with the easter egg, but not be too boring. Hurry, roving, DRY already!

And now for the bad. Juno posted yesterday about how she started thinking of her hair as fiber, and how it was important to get it cut regularly so the fiber would stay in good condition. Along the lines of Hair As Fiber, I present:


Bad to the Bone.


Mommy loves me.

Now where's that photographer with the kiddie-sized Harley?

Unofficial eye candy

Look what I got.


O. M. G.

3 hanks of Great Big Sea Silk in Periwinkle, from here, for this.

All the colors I'd hoped for, the shimmery depth, the softness... Scuse me while I roll around in it nekkid.

And now, a shot of my latest project unholy mess.


Again, I say: O. M. G.

Short and pathetic

That's how this post will be. I am feeling MUCH better - I could probably use another adjustment from the chiropractor, but I'll wait for my bone bruises to go away first! As for the rest of it, I've slipped into that spring ennui, that feeling that everything is so beautiful, all I want to do is lay around and look at it. So, my startitis was short lived and now I have a ton of WIPs that have no P.
I got my Hogwarts yarn in the mail though. Gryffindor yarn (actually Lorna's in cranberry and sunshine, from emtnestr), atop the unfinished deck railing.


MMmmmm, cakes.

I can't wait to start these. I've picked a pattern that's a little ambitious for me, but I think I can do it. Fingers crossed it won't take too much time, because Sockapalooza 4 is gearing up to start! YAY!

Thank you!

Thanks so much for all the well-wishes. I have been too wiped to answer them all individually, but I hope to get there soon. I finally dragged myself to the ER yesterday, on the advice of the triage line at my doctor's office, and it turns out I have strep throat. I haven't had it in years, but as a child I had it multiple times on Easter. It's just a thing, I guess.
Anyway, penicillin, motrin and tylenol are making a bigger dent, and in front of me at this time is a BLT, made for me by my husband, the most food I've eaten in three days. So, in order to get at my food sooner, I give you the pictures I meant to last time.


Classic Elite Four Seasons, plus some new pattern booklets


Delicious Posh sock yarn in the Scuffle colorway

The above yarn was generously provided by Ms Etherknitter and her lovely random number generator. YUM!

Finally, skeinlets! These are the bits of sock yarn left from my sock surgery a few weeks ago. These entertain me to no end. Car keys included for scale.


Baby yarns

Hot damn

Lookie what I got!


Yarny goodness

That's two skeins of MCY sock yarn (celestial and Santa Fe golddust) at the top, a skein of Sock That Rock (Ruby Slippers), two skeins of Blue Moon Sock Candy (Thunder), another skein of Blue Moon Socks That Rock (Thistle), two skeins of Regia Bamboo (1068), one skein of Bearfoot (Evergreen), and one skein of Cherry Tree Hill (African Grey). All purchased in a month-long sock yarn orgy.

Knit from my stash, indeed.

Pretty good

This morning I was late, so I had DH drop me off at work. I felt guilty about not walking, so I took the extra-long way home. After a short while, I wanted to kick myself for doing it - I was tired. But half way home I bumped into a professor I knew briefly in college, who walks the neighborhood around my house, and I had a lovely chat while I walked most of the rest of the way. Walking alone is nice, but chatting with an interesting person is pretty awesome too.
Thanks for all the commiseration on the yarn. I spent a while working on one skein and I think I made good progress. I have the other skeins hanging to dry, in the hope that they'll be easier to untangle later.

Today:
1.86 miles walked

And now for something completely different...

I bring you Silk Dyeing!
I had some silk I bought from eBay - it was a sweater someone had thrifted and unravelled.

Yarny goodness

Some of the yarn had rough or weak spots, but I figured there would be enough good stuff to make a Shetland Triangle. I skeined up my yarn, mixed my dye, threw it in the pot


Steamy

let it cool, gave Bug a haircut


Buzzzzzzzzzzz

and chucked it in the washer to rinse out the excess dye. I think it was La (or mebbe Jen) who said that the rinse cycle was a bad idea, so I heeded that warning and selected the soak cycle. Turns out (you might wanna sit down for this)


Ouch

My washer agitates on the soak cycle.
That is six and a half skeins of silk. I managed to separate the skeins from each other, but haven't even thought about trying to detangle that mess. Turns out I also tied the skeins too loosely. Damn.