Yarn!

Yesterday, all the yarn from Knit Picks arrived! That's not totally true. The post office delivered it on Tuesday, but because of the apartment building I live in, I couldn't pick it up until Wednesday. There are things I love about this place, but that's not one of them.

Anyway, I picked up a box full of about $100 worth of yarn! Absolutely free! Well, I've agreed to do a lot of work with it, but it won't cost any actual money.

I had requested Wool of the Andes in either Baltic Heather or Marine Tweed, and gave them a choice which they sent. I was secretly hoping to get the tweed, but they sent Baltic Heather.

Here's the Marine Tweed:

When I went to look for what the Marine Tweed looks like, I realized that they're discontinuing the color and it's on sale! That's probably why I didn't get it. So, if you're looking for something like this, Knit Picks is the place to look. There are some other colors of Wool of the Andes Tweed that are on sale. Check it out.

Isn't it pretty, though?

Anyway, the Baltic Heather yarn is just beautiful! If you look at it closely, you can see so many colors in it, but from a distance, it looks more like a tonal color. I'm really pleased with it. . .

It's every bit as beautiful as the photo shows it to be. In real life, it's even more beautiful.

That's the yarn for the scarf.

The shawl is going to be knit in City Tweed DK, in Porpoise.

It's hard to decide to call this blue or grey, but it's truly beautiful. The Wool of the Andes feels good, but this stuff feels more like an angora rabbit!

I'm really looking forward to knitting with this stuff! It's true luxury fiber!

In the meantime, I'm enjoying the Wool of the Andes. It's knitting up so nice. I finished the first short section of the scarf, and have finished most of the section for the woven knot and will try what I think will be an easier way to weave it. I'll be on to the long straight stretch to the second knot later on this evening.

I've been bored to death with all the Spring TV shows that have finished up last week and left a wasteland in their wake.

Tonight, however, I have pizza, some good stuff on TV, and a scarf that is an easy knit, but looks so great that it's a real joy to knit! I'm planning to kick back and just enjoy the whole thing! I'm going to try to rest my elbow at least several times during the evening.

I wish you an evening as fun as mine is going to be!

Fabulous News and Bad News

Monday, I got an email from Knit Picks telling me that two of my designs had been accepted for their independent designer program!

The first of the two is a scarf with a woven knot in it. I've already done a sample in Wool of the Andes sport weight, and have some really bad photos of both projects.

The wonderful, fabulous camera my sister gave me seemed to be malfunctioning, and the wonderful camera I bought before that seemed to be doing the same thing. Luckily, the problem was with the batteries, but it took me a little while to figure that out, so these photos were taken with my tablet computer.

Here's a view of the overall scarf:

As mentioned, that's in sport weight, and I'm also going to do one in worsted weight.

One of the ladies (Beth) at my knitting group (Flying Fingers) started knitting it. I was there for the meeting yesterday. Beth came in a little late, and when she saw me, her mouth opened, and before she could say anything, I said, "You want to talk to me!" She asked how I knew that, and I told her that she was close enough to weaving the knot last week that I was sure she'd be up to it by now, and I suspected she couldn't figure out how to do it.

So, we sat there, and wove a section of her scarf together. It really is a job for four hands. It was kind of fun working with another person so closely. There were cheers and words of encouragement, and everybody had fun. Afterward, every once in a while, she murmured, "I'm so pleased!" It gave me some ideas on how to adapt the job so it can be done with just two hands.

The other pattern that was accepted was the triangular shawl with the Saint John's cross on it.

You can't see it too well in the photo, but it really is spectacular! The fringe around the two sides is finished, in other words, there are no cut ends to fray! And you can't really see it too well in the photo but there's a picot bind-off across the top. I made it for a friend, who bought the yarn, and I'll have to knit it again for the pattern in Knit Picks yarn.

I'm so excited about this opportunity!

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The bad news is that about a week or so ago, a big, soft lump came up on my right elbow. I ignored it for a while, hoping it would go away, but it hasn't gotten any better so far.

So, today, I looked it up on the internet, and it says that the bursa in my elbow is inflamed. It says to take ibuprofen, use a compression bandage, try to keep my elbow elevated, and stop doing stuff that irritates it!

It said it makes your elbow hurt, and I hadn't noticed that. But then, I'm really good at ignoring things like pain. Once I stopped everything and paid attention to my elbow, I discovered that it really was hurting.

Stuff that irritates it includes knitting!

So, Knit Picks has sent out yarn support for the two projects. It hasn't arrived yet, and I'm going to at least stop knitting until it arrives. I may delay starting it or at least take it easy when I do start.

That not only includes knitting, but also typing, so I'm going to stop now, and you may not hear from me for a while. If you do, it may be very short.

I do have a doctor's appointment, so relax. The internet may be helpful, but doesn't really replace a doctor. I can't see her instantly, though, so I can at least start to treat this before seeing her.

In the meantime, have a wonderful week and the best Memorial Day Weekend ever. I'm going to try to get out at some point to see Rolling Thunder. I don't have to actually go anywhere to see them, they're pretty much everywhere on Memorial Day Weekend, but not in my apartment. I'll have to go out to see them.

Anyway, have fun!

Happy Birthday, Robin!

Happy Birthday, Robin!

Holly's boyfriend, Robin is having his 40th birthday today! I say again, 40 isn't old if you're a tree. Happy birthday!

Robin doesn't have a Facebook page, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't read my blog, but I did send him a text message earlier today. He's also lucky enough to have today and tomorrow off of work, so he can celebrate in style.

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For you knitters out there, this is the last week of Knit Pick's book sale. They have fabulous prices on a lot of wonderful books, so check it out!

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Update on the Mobius Hat instructions: The Screaming KnitFit version of the instructions are almost finished. I've been writing as I knit so that I won't miss anything you need to know in the instructions. I should point out that this is the easy version of the hat without the cables, so it has a plain cuff.

I'm almost finished knitting the actual hat itself, and I've been taking photos as I go along. I have just the top of it to do, and the trim around the cuff. Now I just have to invent what I'd like to design for a scarf and cowl or something to go with it, knit it and write the instructions. Oh, and because of the complexity of the construction, I need to put together a table of numbers to go with it. Example: if you're knitting at 5 stitches to the inch, you should have X number of stitches.

I've ordered the yarn for the cabled mobius hat, and it was shipped out yesterday, so it should be arriving soon. A lot of the instructions for the hat at least will be able to picked up from the instructions I'm writing now, but there will be a lot of charts and other things, and I'll probably make the accessories differently.

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I've been having lots of problems with my new TiVo, but some of them were because I didin't understand some things about the new version. Some of the problems haven't been solved, but when I called Comcast to ask them if they were making the problems, I got a recording saying that there is an outage in my area. So, I'm going to wait and give them a chance to fix it before I go nuts over it.

It's insisting that I don't get some of the channels that I was able to get as recently as yesterday (early), and that I've had for the past four years. There was an outage in the past that did that, so that may be what's wrong. We'll see, eventually.

The sad part about all this is that Flix had A Boy and His Dog on last night, and that's one of the channels that went out. I thought I'd talked about this earlier on my blog, but only mentioned the movie.

A Boy and his Dog was a short story written by Harlan Ellison because another writer said that his stories were so dark and twisted that he should write something cheerful and fun and challenged him to write a story with that title.

So, Harlan wrote a novella with that title about the aftermath of thermonuclear war. The dog's name is Blood, he's telepathic and smarter than the boy. He keeps trying to teach the boy, Vic, (Don Johnson, in his first movie) history, but it's hard work because he isn't interested. The reviewers at Amazon have done a much better job than I could of telling the story, so click the link and read. The only thing I can add is that Harlan Ellison said it's the only thing he wrote that was filmed and he liked the filmed version. Although Harlan was not only an advisor on Babylon 5, but appeared in it and pretty much got his way because every time someone wanted to do something different from what Harlan wanted, Joe Strazinski always sided with Harlan.

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There's a new Big Bang Theory on tonight! That's always a cause for celebration.

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Right now, the temperature outside is 65 degrees, which means it was probably around 70 for a high, like it was yesterday. I'm already feeling it with the heat as "off" as I can make it, the windows wide open, and a temperature of 85 degrees in my apartment. I'm hoping for highs of around 50 between now and late April, which is when they turn on the AC here.

I ran into someone the other day who was waiting for the elevator, and they remarked about how warm it was in the building, and that was a cold day, when we could cool off by opening the windows. Once it starts to warm up, it's a sauna in here!

Have a wonderful evening and keep cool!

Knit Picks Giveaway!

Knit Picks is having a giveaway! You can enter to win a copy of a Noro book and a ball of their new Chroma yarn!

If you click on the title of the book, you can see (by clicking on the photo of the cover of the book) about a dozen of the designs in the book, and by clicking on "Chroma" you can see the colors it's available in. It seems to be available in both sock and worsted weight.

My favorite colorway is Midwinter (bet you saw that coming!).

I was looking at a knitting magazine I bought a bit more than a month ago, and noticed some very rich colors. After reading the instructions, I discovered that the colors were so rich because they were knitting at a knitting worsted gauge with two strands of fingering weight sock yarn that was self striping, and the colors were deliberately not matching at any one point.

Beautiful!

This kind of striping would also look great done in entrelac. It would make a stunning entrelac lap robe or afghan!

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I can't believe it's Wednesday already! I went to Joann Fabrics yesterday to get what I needed to finish a few Christmas presents. I didn't get to see anyone on Christmas, and won't get to see anyone I'm giving presents to before this weekend, so it's OK. But I'm knitting like a crazy person trying to get it all done. There's a pile about a foot high of things that need to be blocked that I have to get around to real soon now, and a decent sized box full of presents to wrap yet, so I'm way behind, as usual.

Anyway, it took so long to go to Joann and shop and deal with the bus that it's almost as if yesterday didn't exist, although I did manage to get a lot of knitting in on the bus, and even waiting for the bus early on. It was warm enough yesterday to actually knit without freezing my fingers.

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There's two hours of Human Target on tonight, and although I think they're reruns, it's always worth watching.

There have been loads of reruns of V on in the past few days, and I hope you haven't missed them. I think they're trying to get people psyched for the new season.

Other than all that, not much is happening, so have a wonderful night watching TV and knitting!

It's the First of December, and There Are Only 24 Days Until Christmas!

Happy December!

I can't believe it's December already!

There are still Christmas presents to make!

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I have an appointment at the VA Hospital in DC on Friday, and I thought I could find some helpful person or agency that would give me a ride over there. I've been trying, but it hasn't worked out. So, it looks like I'm going to have to be out at the bus stop early, and probably won't be home until the last bus arrives here. There's going to be a lot of walking, and I'm not only going to be exhausted when I get home, but in lots of pain from so much walking.

I'll be talking to someone about getting new hearing aids, and probably getting an ear mold so that they can make the hearing aid just for me. The aids I have now can't be adjusted adequately so that I can actually hear right anymore.

That means that I'm going to have to do this all again when the aids are ready for me to get them.

I'm not looking forward to the trip on Friday or the other one, although I'm hoping that they'll be able to do something that will actually help me hear.

I have in-ear aids, and they just can't provide enough amplification for my right ear, so I'm probably going to have to go to a whole different kind of aid.

I guess I'll find out on Friday.

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Signature Needle Arts is having a sweepstakes! The prize is a Signature gift card, so if you're a knitter or want to buy for a knitter, check this out! It looks, if you just read the headline, like you need to buy something to enter, but if you skip down to the fine print at the bottom, there is a way to enter without purchasing anything. When I click on the official rules link, nothing happens, but there is an email address to send for the rules.

Good luck!

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Knit Picks currently has many of their books available with a fairly large discount. If you're looking for knitting books for someone, it might be a good idea to check it out.

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The major good thing on tonight is Human Target. Wednesdays are pretty disappointing, but I believe there's a new episode of Psych, too, and they've really been promoting it. It's worth checking out.

Have a fabulous evening!

Post-Birthday Report

I got the best birthday present EVER yesterday! The exact camera I really, really, REALLY wanted turned up in the mail yesterday, a present from Lynn!

It's a Canon PowerShot A1100IS 12.1 MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.5-inch LCD!

Lynn really hit the jackpot on this one. It's an excellent camera! It takes AA batteries, which makes it just a smidge bigger than I'd like, but means that if the batteries in it die and I don't have any recharged batteries with me, I can get batteries for it anywhere. Pretty much every 7-11 or gas station I've ever been in has them! It also has a real viewfinder, which most digital cameras don't seem to have these days, and I find a viewfinder much better for action. It has a longer zoom than most small cameras, and the zoom is very easy to get to the precise point you want it to be.

Well, I immediately put batteries in it, and attached the hand strap, and called Lynn to thank her. She was out getting groceries (I learned from her voice mail), so I went straight out to play with my new toy, which is why I missed her return call.

Here's the pond behind the building I live in from the covered bridge:

When I got to the other side of the bridge, I took this one of the bridge, itself:

And here are some of the buildings on my side of the pond (taken from the other side):

You're probably getting tired of seeing the same place over and over again, but the wading bird that lives back there didn't show up. I was disappointed in that, but it seems to have a sixth sense, and never shows up when I have an actual camera with me. Either that, or I walk right up to it without noticing that it's there, scare it half to death, and it flies away before I have a chance to pull out my camera.

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Since yesterday, I've discovered that some other well known people have the same birthday I do, notably Julie Newmar and Bjo Trimble! Oooops! When I looked up Bjo, it turns out her birthday is the day before mine. On Facebook, it looked like it was on the 16th, but no, it's actually on the 15th. Still, there are a lot of people born in August!

I loved Julie Newmar in Oblivion! If you haven't seen it, and liked Tim Curry in Rocky Horror Picture Show, check it out. Musetta Vander plays a female version of him, but with a whip in this movie!

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I got my newest copy of Knit Picks catalog in the mail yesterday, and they not only have a new cashmere blend yarn, they also have brand new colors in so many of their existing yarns! I've been drooling all over the catalog ever since it arrived! My special favorite at the moment is the double knit weight in City Tweed. I've been wanting to try it for a while, and I'm going to have to break down and get some soon.

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It looks like Tuesday has turned into the good night to watch TV! There are new episodes of Warehouse 13, White Collar, Covert Affairs and Memphis Beat on tonight. Enjoy it while you can, because most of the summer shows will finish their seasons this or next week.

Last night, I got a fabulous birthday present in the form of an episode of The Big Bang Theory! 

Years ago, as a tech illustrator, I worked on a project for an aviation toilet. There I was in a room with about eight guys, all working on illustrations and maintenance diagrams, etc., of a toilet for a new military plane.

There were spaces of five to ten minutes of silence, interspersed with jokes about what we were working on. First of all, I wouldn't have thought the topic could be so genuinely funny, and I never would have believed that it could continue to be funny for more than two hours straight, but it was! This particular sentiment was echoed by Sheldon in last night's episode, where they try to fix a design flaw in a toilet for a space station.

The Big Bang Theory is always up there among the top 10 shows I've ever seen for how funny it is, but last night's episode was a gem! It has to be seen to be believed!

I've got to go or I'll never get this post up! Have a great evening and enjoy all the terrific shows while you can!

The Very Last Dollhouse Is Tonight!

Well, as you know, Fox has gotten rid of another fabulous Joss Whedon creation, and tonight is the very last episode of Dollhouse.

I doubt that Fox will be generous enough to rerun them, so tune in tonight for Armageddon! If you've DVRd them and still have them, go back over the last few episodes.

Tonight, we're out of the Dollhouse and into the real world, and it's going to get nasty!

This is the episode they were filming when Eliza broke her arm! She tweeted about it as she was leaving the hospital, wondering if they could cover the cast with wardrobe. She only had the very last day of filming left to finish it completely. We'll see what happend.

We also have a brand new Ghost Whisperer (on at the same time as Dollhouse--I hope you have a DVR or TiVo!), and Medium on CBS, and a new Caprica on SyFy! Immediately following Caprica, SyFy will be rerunning an episode of Warehouse 13, which is always a treat, even though a rerun!

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One order from Knit Picks arrived on Monday! I got the book from Holly for Christmas: Continuous Cables, and my copy of All New Homespun Handknit! I have a copy of the original Homespun, Handknit (somewhere), and it's one of my favorite knitting books. Even in projects that I'm not interested in making, there are so many slick and easy ways of doing things that it pays to really read the patterns. I've looked through the new Homespun, and there are projects that I like, and some that I love! I haven't had enough time to really read through the whole thing, but I already found one slick tip: how to make a crochet provisional cast on, which, when unzipped, leaves you with all your stitches on a lifeline, so you don't have to pick them up as you unzip it! That's almost worth the price of the book right there!

Soon after I placed that order, I realized that I'll be finishing the Christmas presents soon, and will then need something to knit, so I ordered the yarn for Holly's sock and some light grey Palette for a wimple for me, and there's probably enough of it for mitts, too. That order arrived yesterday, but I lost track of time, and didn't realize it was after 4:30, and too late to pick it up. I got it today, and it's all ready to knit, and the first thing I did was cast on with the new provisional cast on I learned from my new book.

One thing that I forgot to mention is that in the new Knit Picks catalog, they have cable connectors, at last! Add a pack of them to your next order if you use Options Needles! They mention that you can use them to make extra long cables, but you can also use them to substitute a different size cable for the one you're using in your project. Just unfasten one tip, add the size cable you want to switch to, put the tip you just remove on the other end, and pull it through your work. Then, remove the old cable and put the tip from the old cable on the other end of the new one, and you're done!

All that has me happy with Knit Picks, but I submitted a design for their designer program, and they turned up their nose at me. It was the hat that I made for my friend's daughter.

OK, so they don't have eyelash yarn available, but the basic design doesn't have to be made that way. Anyway, I plan to write it up (and do a few more samples) and publish it myself. New pattern coming up!

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The weather people are saying that it's going to start snowing late tonight, and on into tomorrow, and I'm wondering if I need to go out and get any supplies today. Then again, maybe it would be fun to walk around while it's snowing. Actually, I don't think I need anything, but I need to go assess the situation.

The overcast that's happening now, and the snow that will be happening later are going to make it impossible to view the first full moon of the year, and the best one we can expect all year! I'm disappointed!

I have lots to do, so that's all for today!

Have a fabulous weekend!

Christmas Presents Gone!

Most of the Christmas presents are finished and gone. Holly came over yesterday, and since she was sending presents to some of the same people, she took those so that she could mail just one BIG box to the recipients. She also took the presents for people she would be seeing real soon. I'm sorry that these didn't get out sooner. Mailing was delayed mostly by weather, snow, sleet, extreme cold, and/or wind, plus a couple of days that I was feeling really bad.

Unfortunately, that doesn't mean that I've finished all the presents.

I've been going crazy trying to think of a present for Robin. It's really difficult, because Robin has so much money that he can buy whatever he wants, so he has everything he wants, and I'm so short of money that I can barely afford anything. But, after 3 months of looking for the perfect present for him, inspiration finally struck. Actually, two inspirations, one to make, and one to buy. The one to buy has been ordered over the internet, and has been shipped and is on it's way. I bought most of the yarn for the other one yesterday.

The other person who hasn't got a Christmas present yet is Everett. I've been trying to find yarn to make his present, but haven't had any luck so far. We looked at Michaels, and AC Moore yesterday, and neither had what I needed. Well, actually, Michaels had three of the six balls I needed in the color I wanted, but in different dye lots. So, I'm still looking.

While out, Holly and I stopped a Borders. I finally got a calender for the new year, plus the Septimus Heap book that is the fourth in the series (Queste), and out in paperback at last. I have the fifth book (Syren) ordered at the library, but it will be a while before I get it. Holly had a 33% off coupon for me, and I used it to buy The Sorceress of Karres! Now I have lots of great stuff to read!

Oh, and I forgot to mention that Holly gave me a gift certificate to Knit Picks for Christmas! Now I'm mulling over what to buy.

Knit Picks has piqued my imagination with their new designers program. I have got to make some designs for them and for myself! I'm considering making a hat for my first project.

While we were out, we stopped at the WalMart that's at the Manassas Mall, and were amazed! This WalMart is so big and has lots of stuff that the others don't have! Having all that stuff available would seem to be an advantage, but it is so big that I got tired of walking before I got everything.

We topped everything off with a trip to Ruby Tuesday and a lot of catching up and fun.

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There are lots of programs on TV tonight with new episodes! They include: Chuck, Heroes, Castle (this is the episode with Alyssa Milano), Fringe (on a different night), and The Big Bang Theory! Unfortunately, Heroes, Fringe and The Big Bang Theory are all on at the same time, thus exceeding my DVR's capacity to record two shows at once.

I promised John that I would finish the work he wanted me to do on the Steve Canyon poster today, and it's not done yet, so I have to go.

There will probably not be a post tomorrow due to my last dental appointment! There will be drilling and a dubious filling will be replaced, and I will get my final caps, and I'll be done. I don't feel that I can really say that I'll be happy to go, but I'll be happy to get it finished!

Have a great evening and a wonderful week!

Happy 9/9/09!

Today is the ninth day of the ninth month of 2009! From the standpoint of the numbers, this is a memorable event, and some people on Twitter found this nice site to explain it. Today is (according to numerologists) associated with forgiveness, compassion and success. Actually, I could use plenty of that today for all the errands I have that need to get done.

I haven't heard back from the dentist, and, providing I understood him correctly, I should have had new front teeth by now, but haven't heard a word. So, I'm going to drop by there and let him have my new phone number, and ask what's happening in a polite, friendly way.

I'm also waiting for my package from Knit Picks, which has a good chance of arriving today. I ordered yarn for Holly's socks for Christmas, and a whole set of Options Zephyr needles. I am so excited about this that I can't tell you!

So, you can see that this will be a short post. Well, I'm going to try to keep it short. I keep finding more and more things I want to write about today, though.

Another thing I found to post about is a post on the Knitting Daily blog about knitters who are pickers or throwers. It includes a quick tutorial on both methods, and I plan to put a link to the page in my side bar, so you can find it there in the future.

Someone in the comments said that figures 1 and 2 are reversed, and it looks like they are, so check it for yourself.

I really have to get going if I hope to finish my errands today!

There's a new Leverage on tonight and Ghost Rider will be on FX! And Jake 2.0 will be on SyFy's daytime rotation tomorrow!

Have a great 9/9/09!

This Is Bizarre

Check out this news story from China. You'll have to follow the link. I can't possibly do it justice. 

I've seen this in a couple of places where people can comment, and the comments are all very mixed. The general reaction seems to be bouncing back and forth between horrified and laughing.

The weirdest part is that I knew someone who probably would have pushed the man off the bridge. My family will know immediately who I mean, but I don't want to admit it publicly.

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My package from Knit Picks arrived today! Such an event is always cause for rejoicing! I got a pair of Harmony tips in size 6, and three balls of Merino Style in fog. Or mist. Or something. It's light grey, and it's going to be used to make the copy of Hermione's hat from Half Blood Prince. It's for a class in the Harry Potter House Cup KAL. I intend to wear it to the movie, too.

The first thing I have to do on this project is write the instructions. So, I'm going to get busy and do it.

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There's a brand-new Reaper on TV tonight, and unless I'm mistaken, it's the season and series finale. There are a lot of people who are very unhappy about this. I'm not terribly enthused that it'll be off myself.

There's a rerun episode of the The Mentalist tonight, too.

And tomorrow night, there will be the Monster Quest episode about the Jersey Devil on the History Channel. I grew up with Jersey Devil stories, so I'm looking forward to it.

Have a great evening! I hope the weather people aren't promising you three more days of rain to go with the two we've already had like they're doing here.

Tax Day

Happy Tax Day. 

If that's not an oxymoron.

I went through tax day yesterday. 

Back in January, the IRS sent me a copy of form 1040 with an instruction booklet to help me fill it out. I quickly read through the part that said that I have a small enough income that I don't need to file taxes, and put the envelope aside.

Then the IRS sent me a certified letter. A certified letter from the IRS is something that's enough to make me certifiable. It said that they had discovered that I owe them taxes from 2002, and they've assessed interest and penalties, and therefore doubled the amount I owe. They wanted about a thousand dollars instantly.

Since this is more than my income for a month, I didn't have it.

Since I didn't have it, I am now saddled with an agreement to pay them some money every month and file a return and pay taxes owed every year. So, now, suddenly, at the last minute, I find that I need to file taxes.

I spent the whole day yesterday filling out 1040EZ, finding out I owed $79 (which I don't have), then reading it again and finding out I'm not allowed to fill out that form, tracking down the correct forms and information online (because I didn't keep track of forms I knew I didn't need), doing more arithmetic than a math lesson, and finally finishing up last night with the discovery that I actually don't owe anything, and getting the whole mess in the mail.

I still have more stuff to fix with them, but it doesn't have today for a deadline.

I hope it was a better experience for you than it was for me.

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I ground my teeth, bit the bullet and sent another order to Knit Picks to replace the yarn that I have to return to them. Not that I can afford that, either. I chose the (I hope dark) purple shade of Gloss Lace called Pinot. This would work even if I'd already bought the beads.

I've been repeating to myself over and over all month "I'm saving money for the Sheep and Wool Festival." It hasn't helped me save any money so far, though.

In the meantime, I'm knitting socks from the yarn I bought at AC Moore almost a month ago now, and have almost finished the first pair. There's enough yarn for another pair.

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I got a comment from somebody at ReaperDMV yesterday thanking me for my mention of Reaper and asking me to fight for a third season. If you're a Reaper fan, get on over there and join the fight! Even if you're not a Reaper fan, get over there and click on the link to save a whole list of other shows (including Dollhouse), and there's also a lost cause category for shows that are not just in danger of cancellation, but that have already gotten the ax. The catch is that you can't vote for Chuck, Reaper, Dollhouse and Life. I wanted to vote for all of them, but you can only pick one. It will ask for your email address and password, but you don't have to be a member to vote, just fill in your name and the little box with the word they give you.

Lost is on again tonight! A new one, following Better Off Ted.

Have a great Wednesday! Remember, if it's Wednesday, we're half-way to the weekend!

Disappointment

I ordered three things over the Internet and two of them arrived yesterday and were both wonderful and disappointing.

The first was a corded headset for my G1 phone. It came, and it had a USB plug (as promised), but I discovered that there are a lot of different USB plugs on the market, and if I want to use this, I'll need an adapter. It has the original USB plug on it, and my phone uses a different one, I think mini B. See this explanation, and scroll down to "Types of USB connector." So I can't use it yet.

The other order was from Knit Picks, and it's the first time that everything wasn't superlative about my order.

I bought some of their stitch markers, the flexible ones and the ones that look like little safety pins, and they're both wonderful. The stitch markers look like dark purple in the catalog and online, but the ones that look like white are really a pretty shade of grayed-out lavendar. I got a set of their double ended crochet hooks, and they're great, too.

The problem came with the black lace weight yarn that I ordered. It looked black in the catalog, and black on the screen on their site, but when it arrived, although it was very dark, it was green!

Green really wasn't what I had in mind.

I have to return it.

So, I don't have yarn to start knitting the shawl I wanted to knit.

I'm bummed about that.

The quickest thing would be to return the yarn for a refund, and place a whole new order. But that requires more money. And time.

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I watched Arabian Nights on SciFi today for the first two hours. It's recorded on my DVR, so I'll get a chance to see it later. The SciFi Channel is having movies on all week during the day.

Fringe is back tonight with a new episode!

Also new tonight is Reaper. And there's also a rerun of The Mentalist.

I have lots of stuff to do today, so I'm going to cut this short.

Have a great evening!

I'm Sad

There's no reason in the world for me to be sad, but I am. I haven't a clue why.

Yesterday, I stopped at JoAnn Fabrics and got some fun stuff, which I thought would cheer me up, and it did, for an hour or two.

I bought a copy of Knit.1 Magazine. It has a lace shawl that I've been thinking about ever since I saw it in February when the new store opened. It's called the Sparkly Shawl, and they did it in light blue, which is always something to get my attention. It has clear glass beads with a silver lining, and the way the beads are done is interesting. Because the beads are strung as you go along (with a crochet hook), and because of the looser nature of lace knitting, I suspect that the beads show equally on either side, making it a bit more reversible.

I really liked the Shipwreck Shawl from Knitty, but the urge to knit lace has been building up for a while, but I think the sparkly shawl will teach me enough to branch out in new directions in lace design. It will certainly give me the chance to practice some new techniques.

So, I ordered the yarn from Knit Picks today, plus a small crochet hook from Etsy to pick up the beads. You'd think that if yesterday didn't cheer me up, that this would. There's more cheerful stuff about yesterday, by the way.

I'm going to do the shawl in black with blue/purple rainbow beads, so it will look very different from the photo in the book. I'm also thinking about doing three panels rather than two, which would give it a better shape. I haven't ordered the beads yet, and I'm thinking of trying to persuade Holly to go to either a new bead shop in Occoquan or to Beadazzled. JoAnn has some beads I like, too, but I'd rather look a bit before I settle for something when there may be something better out there. I've already looked at the Fire Mountain Gems website, and they probably have everything available, so I've probably already seen it all.

Anyway, back to yesterday and my swag.

I bought a tiny latch hook tool which I had hoped would fit through the hole in the size 6 seed beads. No dice. The latch hook is very small, though. A latch hook is always handy for knitters, so it's still a good buy, and has a very nice, ergonomic handle. If you want something like this, look in the section with the sewing tools. It's made by Dritz and has a pink (ugg) handle with rubbery soft fuchsia inserts to make it easy to hold. It would work well with sock or lace weight yarn for picking up stitches. It's a good tool for any lace knitter.

Here's a photo of the shawl from the magazine and the neat latch hook.

I've gotten hooked on latch hook tools lately. They're really good for fixing knitting problems, rather than having to rip back to fix it.

You can find a larger tool here and a slightly smaller one  here. It looks like the first one would be a good size for worsted and bulky yarns, and the second one for thinner yarns. Even better yet, I bought a few seed stitch tools last year, and I love them. It's a double-ended latch hook that you can use for latching up mistakes in both knit and purl stitches.

You'd think that all this would cheer me up, but it really hasn't.

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The other cheerful stuff I bought was at Borders.

The newest Dresden Files book is out, and it's called Turn Coat, and I bought a copy. The only problem with that is that I have a book out of the Library, and another one to pick up and read, and all of them have to be back soon, so I have to read them first or wait for them to come up in the lists for another go at them.

But I read a bit of the beginning of it on the way home on the bus, and it's dynamite so far!

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There's a new Lost on ABC tonight, followed by the premier of The Unusuals. Right before that, there's also a new episode of Better off Ted, which is a really quirky new science fiction/office drama/comedy.

Have a great evening!

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Addition:

I found a really neat stitch marker shown here. She has instructions for making a similar device here (scroll down for the row counter). She just makes tags with shrinky dink material with whatever markings are appropriate, and slips the lower ring each time. The tag on the top tells her what she's doing each round.

Holly was doing something similar to this a couple of weeks ago while she was knitting a circular blanket. She put "YO" on one side of an index card and "K" on the other. Each time she finished a row, she'd flip it over to remind her whether she was supposed in increase with a yarn over at each stitch marker or just knit around.

I like both of these ideas.

Blitzed by Knit Picks!

Today, I got an email from Knit Picks telling me that they have new knitting tools available.

Wow, do they ever!

Check this out! There's a fabulous ball winder, and it's half the price of the nice ball winder that just went off the market! And interlocking foam boards that you can use for blocking or as a background for photos. All the best stitch markers are available much cheaper, and without those ugly colors like lime green and orange. The cheapest sock blockers I've seen anywhere, and they're still good quality. A device to hold your DP needles while you're knitting a sock to keep you from losing them and/or impaling yourself on them.

And the best gadget of all, a set of double ended crochet hooks! These are great because you can fix a stitch several rows below, even if you were doing seed stitch. Unravel to the mistake, use the hook from the knit side to latch up a knit stitch, and when the next row demands a purl, just slide the hook through the work to the other side and make a knit stitch on that side! You don't have to drop the stitch off the hook and try to pick it up on the other side!

I love Knit Picks and want to marry them!

One of the things I like about them is their shopping cart. You can just throw anything in which you're interested into the cart and then sort out what you can afford to actually get. The stuff you don't get will be in the "save for later" portion of the cart, ready for when you have a bit more money. It's great, because you don't realize the day after an order that you really wanted to order something that you forgot. You don't forget because it's already in your cart.

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I'm also excited about John being at the "Reel Stuff Film Festival!" I doubt whether I'll hear too much from him until he's back, but I'm really excited for him. He has been putting notices up on Facebook. If you are on Facebook, you can read about Steve Canyon here. And If you'd like to find out more about John, check him out here. I was lucky enough to be his friend and work alongside of him for a lot of that, the medical illustration, and some other work. He's made nothing but wonderful changes in my life.

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There's some great TV on tonight!

There's a brand new Supernatural, and a brand new Eleventh Hour, too! 

For those of you who aren't SF fans, there's also brand new episodes of Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy, and Private Practice.

Have a great evening!

More Tour de Fleece

I haven't been doing much for the Tour de Fleece, but I didn't set myself a very difficult goal, either. I have been doing a bit of spinning, although not as regularly as I'd like. But I'm starting to get back into the swing of things.

After a look around today, I found a total of four regular (plastic) bobbins for my Majacraft Rose wheel. I had one, and bought one at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, and found two more today. 

I am spinning my current project on the baby bobbins, and I've discovered that I don't like the fact that the center of the bobbin is so thin. No matter how much I back off on the Scotch tension, when I first start on an empty bobbin, the choice is between tug-of-war or no intake onto the bobbin at all. Once I ply the current batch on the baby bobbins, I'm going to see if I can find something to make the center section a bit thicker. I was looking at the photo of the baby bobbins in the link I provided above, and it looks like the updated bobbins have a thicker center, so that probably won't be a problem with the new ones.

While on the Majacraft site, looking at the baby bobbins and their improvements, I found another improvement. Majacraft has out a spindle that works with their wheels, and even has a bobbin that works with it.

Photos tomorrow.

As I said, I seem to be picking up speed, volume, and interest on this spinning project for le Tour de Fleece. While finding the bobbins, I found some pretty roving, some wool (in a soft blue and other colors), some wool and Tencel (in a very soft light and very dark green), and some pastel multicolored silk (really beautiful stuff). 

I was reading over the article in the Spring issue of Spin-Off about wrapped yarn. The woman in the article uses cotton crochet thread for a core, but it strikes me that wooly nylon might be a better core, and I'm thinking about trying that. If you're not familiar with wooly nylon, the photos at that link won't give you a clue. It's nylon thread, suitable for sewing (on a sewing machine or serger) with. When under tension, it looks like regular thread. But when the tension is released, it bulks up a bit, and looks remarkably like wool (hence the name). It's strong, and has elasticity that's very similar to wool. If you're interested, check it out in a fabric store.

I'm getting down to the end on the triangular shawl I'm knitting in Knit Pick's Telemark (royal heather). The royal heather color looks darker in person than I anticipated from both the printed and on-line swatches.

After ordering this yarn and knitting with it, I realize that Knit Picks doesn't really carry any sport weight yarn. Telemark is listed as a sport weight, but I'm finding it isn't really.

If you look at the yardage for their worsted yarns, they average around 110 yards for 50 grams. Skip to their DK weight yarns, and you get more like 160 yards for 50 grams. DK is thinner than worsted, so the finer yarn yields more yardage. So, you would naturally expect the sport weight yarns to have even more yardage per 50 grams. 

Wrong. Telemark is listed at 103 yards. I thought that was a typo, and that there was actually more yardage, since it's even finer than DK. So, I ordered the amount of yarn by weight, expecting to have a generous amount of yardage, but I think that what they did was take their worsted weight yarn and just give it more twist to make it thinner (and shorter). The yardage they claim is probably correct, and the shawl is turning out kind of skimpy. It's also stiff, being over-spun/plyed, scratchier than a more softly spun yarn would be, and still really worsted weight. I usually use a size 6 needle with sport weight, and get 6 stitches per inch, but a size 6 needle was giving me something that would stop bullets with this yarn. I had to go up to a size 8, and the resulting fabric is still stiff. I'm hoping that blocking will cure it, but I'm not happy about blocking because it isn't necessary with this pattern (my simple triangular shawl pattern).

Oh, well. Photos real soon now.

Doctor Who on Friday evening was outstanding! The episode they showed was Turn Left. I hope you got to see it, but I won't discuss it in case you didn't, except to say that Rose was back, and it's starting to build up to the season finale.

My granddaughter, Malaia, is moving to Baltimore tomorrow, and I'm really excited about it. Her aunt, Heather, is very upset that she's moving away from Toledo.

Oh, and John corrected me on my post about him yesterday. He will be at the National Cartoonist's Society Booth #1307 at Comic Con, and "I'll be hanging out there off and on when I'm at the con. Laura is tagging along with a big HD camera and is going to videotape the panel and stuff for me to use on the DVDs." 

Laura is my friend from so far back it's hard to remember. She's the reason I have a computer to blog on instead of my phone. She's been at a lot of the SF Cons I've gone to, and worked on one of the movies I worked on. I cannot wait to hear about it all!

I hope you're all having a great weekend!

Science Fiction Update

This evening, there will be two episodes of Doctor Who on the SciFi Channel, Silence in the Library, and Forest of the Dead. Since I saw Silence in the Library last week, I can tell you that it's the first of a two part horror story. Tune in and find out why people are afraid of the dark!

Once again, I don't have a lot of time to write, so this will be short, and I'll get back to photography soon.

I have finished all the feather and fan socks (at least for the moment), and have started on the Marionberry color Risata yarn from Knit Picks. I am not sure if I like it yet. The stitch pattern I've chosen biases. That's not a problem for the top of the sock, but may be if I carry it down the top of the foot as I plan to do. The gauge also seems to be significantly bigger than stockinet stitch. The pattern looks so nice that I'd like to make a shirt for myself out of it. We'll see. 

I have to go.

Have a great Friday, and a great weekend.

SciFi Friday!

The SciFi channel has done it's best to make it a wonderful day for me. Charlie Jade and Doctor Who still coming up!

I got a comment from my friend, James, who is interested in getting info on camera gear to take photos of stuff to sell on the internet. I suspect there are a lot of people like that out there.

So, leave a comment and tell me what kind of stuff you want to sell, and I'll do my best to help you find the right equipment and learn how to use it.

Knit Picks saved this evening with a care package which will enable me to knit the runes bags (5 size 6 DP needles) plus yarn for 4 more socks.

I'm off to an evening of sitting and knitting while watching fabulous science fiction on TV. Right after I make and eat dinner.

Have a great weekend!

Feather and Fan Socks

You'll need to know something about knitting socks to do this because I assume you know how to make a gusset, heel flap, etc. I made my heel flap in plain stockinnet because things tend to irritate my feet and give me blisters easily, so I'd rather darn a hole or knit a whole new sock than limp around on blisters.

Stuff you'll need

1 ball of Knit Picks Risata for each sock. Mine are in the color Dusk.

Size 1 (2.5 mm) needles of your choice (DPs, 47 inch circular for magic loop method, whatever)

Measuring instrument (tape measure, small ruler, whatever)

The tapestry needle and scissors you need for every project

Modified feather & fan stitch (in the round)

Rows 1, 2, & 3: K around

Row 4: *K2 tog* 3 times, *YO, K 1* 6 times, *K2 tog* 3 times

Row 5: Purl around

Gauge
8 stitchs per inch. Just make sure that the total stitches around fit your foot circumfrence.

Start Knitting

Cast on 108 sts.

K1, Sl 1, K1, PSSO around, placing marker after 18 sts. 72 sts.

Work 11 repeats of modified feather & fan stitch.

Work 1 row of K. Next row, *K3, K2 tog, K 8, K2 tog, K 3* around (4 reps) there will now be 16 stitches in each quarter (64 sts total).

Work even in St St for 1 inch. Mark work.

Work heel flap (3.5 inches for me)

Make square heel: *K to center of heel flap, K 7, K2 tog, turn. Purl to center of heel flap, P 7, P2 tog, turn* Rep until all side stitches are used.

Pick up sts on sides of heel flap and make a standard gusset.

K even until about an inch from the end of your toes. Measure this and note the length for the next one.

K to within 2 sts of the end of first needle, SSK. At beg of next needle, K2 tog, then work across in K. Repeat. One dec rnd made. K 1 rnd even.

Alternate dec rnd with even rnd until 12 sts rem at end of dec rnd. Work one more dec rnd without an even rnd between it and the last one.

Weave toe together. Darn in ends.

Make another one just like it.

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Additional note: Knit Picks has discontinued the yarn I used for these. You can use any fingering weight sock yarn. I think the original yarn came in balls that were 230 yards, but the socks didn't use quite a whole ball, so you could probably get away with less, but if you buy yarn that comes in 166 yard balls, you're going to need three of them for a pair.