Now that the rain has left DC for a minute, I can finally show you the socks I finished on my recent Texas trip!

Pattern: Rainy Day by Yuliya Sullivan; Originally from MagKnits, pre-implosion. Now available as a Ravelry download.

A 6 stitch x 4 row repeat even I can memorize!

Yarn: Lorna’s Laces, Shepherd Sock. Colorway: Ice Storm (January 2008 colorway from JimmyBeansWool.com)

Needles: Addi Turbo US 0; 32″ (magic loop!)

Time: March to May 2008.

Mods: Figured that since it was a 6 stitch repeat, I could just cast on more stitches to use some of my extensive collection of Lorna’s. So I went with 72 stitches (more stitches = more time to knit; therefore they weren’t so much a sock for a Rainy Day, but rather a Rainy Weekend). I also did an Eye of Partridge heel. I didn’t like it very much, although it is very pretty with the handpainted yarn–

I *heart* picots!

Yay for new yarns!

This year was very much like years past — drove up with my friend bloglessStephanie and her friend bloglessCristie; saw lots of fun things, ate a delicious lamb sandwich, and then promptly fell asleep on the way home.

I didn’t hit any of the meetups, and for a change only ran into a few people I knew (instead of EVERYONE).  I also didn’t go as crazy buying yarn - I just have so much at home that I can’t wait to knit up; so adding more super cool yarn (especially when I couldn’t/wouldn’t cast on for new projects until returning from Texas; and already had a project earmarked).

Spirit Trail Fiberworks;100% Bombyx Silk Laceweight:

I sent my mom the URL for that photo; she asked me “what’s that giant silver Kentucky thing under the yarn?”  … “A quarter.”  My mom’s not one to read the spinning blogs :-)

Brooks Farm, Willow (30/70 bamboo/wool):

I’m thinking of making a cute summery cardigan. Probably top down, so I can get as much sleeve as possible.

Green Mountain Spinnery, Sylvan Spirit (50/50 wool/tencel):

Although it’s a single ply, I’m going to use it to make the Tangled Yoke.

So that’s it.  I figure I still have a few things (actually, pretty much everything…) from the last sheep and wool.  Must get knitting!!  The yarn needs to fulfill its yarny destiny!

]]> http://yarny.wordpress.com/2008/05/11/maryland-sheep-wool-2008/feed/ http://yarny.wordpress.com/2008/04/30/we-interupt-this-radio-silence-to-bring-you-a-fo-and-more-radio-silence/ http://yarny.wordpress.com/2008/04/30/we-interupt-this-radio-silence-to-bring-you-a-fo-and-more-radio-silence/#comments Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:02:41 +0000 Amber http://yarny.wordpress.com/?p=183

Pattern: River Rapids [pdf] by Sock Bug; (River Rapids Ravelry Page)

Yarn: Shibui Sock

Needles: Addi Turbo, Size 1

Notes: Magic Loop, from the toe-up.  As seems to be my new norm, I used Judy’s Magic Cast On and the gusset from Widdershins.

I also modified the pattern, 64 stitches was way too big for my feet.  I dropped one purl stitch from each repeat, making it a  7 stitch repeat (56 stitches total).  The instep was a little wonky - I had to add a purl stitch to the end of the needle for the top of the foot, as well as move one sole stitch knit to the instep in order to prevent laddering.

It took me forever and a day to memorize this repeat.  I think somewhere around the middle of the second sock it finally clicked. 

I really loved working with the shibui - it was so soft and squishy.  However, I guess softness comes with a price: after ONE DAY wearing them around, the heel is totally matted.  I’m going to go to my happy place, where I think this means the heel will be more durable the next time I wear it.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.

For now, back to statistics.  I have a huge project due Monday — but really due Sunday because I have to go to Texas for work on Monday (gone for 4 days).  The only thing I’m letting myself start between now and the time I turn in that project is the second Rainy Day sock (Rav link) - as much as I want to start Labyrinth (I even have the yarn all picked out), I’m being strong.  Of course since I’m not about to take a big raglan to Texas, I won’t really start that until I get back, so I guess there will be more socks in my future.

Camellia by Kate Gilbert?

I think I’d probably leave off the ribbon ties, and maybe make the sleeves ever so slightly longer, but I really like it.  And now the real problem: WHAT COLOR??

I woke up this morning with a burning desire to knit Ariann.  I’ve never really thought about it before, but suddenly, I must have it.  However, I’m a little torn.  I’m going to make the 40″ size, and the long sleeve version calls for 1250 yds; the 3/4 length sleeve version calls for 1140 yds.  I have 1040 yards of Shelridge Farms in Pink Lemonade (5 balls); and 1300 in Silver (6 balls).  For some reason, I really want the gray to be a cabled pullover (hoodie?) so I feel like it’s off limits; but on the other hand I don’t really want to buy more yarn right now (even if it’s just one ball, it would have to come all the way from Canada, and there’s the dyelot issues [although, it's handdyed, so I could probably alternate with more success...]), so I feel like I should make Ariann out of the gray; and save the pink for something else.

Like that doesn’t cover all the weirdness you thought possible (who wakes up going “I think I’d really like an Ariann“??); several weeks ago Karen tagged me for the “7 Weird Things About You” meme.  However, I think I’m probably the last person on earth to do this, so you all know the rules.

1. I learned to drive and bought a car in a span of about 35 days.  A kid threw up on my shoe while I was riding the bus to work.  I’d rather spend 5 hours a day in my car than 20 minutes on a bus or a Metro train (of course, DC Metro is a very … special kind of transit system).

2. I once stormed Canada in an effort to end the ongoing abuse of Koigu.  I failed, but intend to go back someday, better armed.  (The trip wasn’t a total bust, I got to visit Shelridge Farms.)

3. Jobs I have thought I’d be good at in the past 5 years: Advice Columnist, health/behavior science researcher, statistician (at a think tank, at a television network, at a casino).  I’ve only come close to one of those.  I will leave which one to your imaginations.

4. I have some really great stories about working at a yarn store (”No, you don’t want Aryan yarn, you want ARAN yarn.  Yes, there’s a difference.”  “No, you may not cut 1″ off each of the balls of yarn to take home with you to compare with your other coat.”  “No, I won’t give you a free ball of yarn because we’re out of some other yarn you want.”  “No, I won’t give you a refund because you don’t like how the handpainted yarn looked when knit up.”  “So um, are you going to buy the yarn your child is chewing on?”) 

5. I’m completely repulsed by the smell of most cheeses.  I had some roommates in college that LOVED cheese.  This was a real problem for me.

6. I broke my jaw when I was 7, from falling off my bike.  I had to have my jaw wired shut for 6 weeks (you can’t put a skull in a cast!).  When I tell people (adults) this, they often ask if I had to learn sign language.  I think that’s just about the strangest question ever because … well, haven’t YOU ever spoken with your teeth clentched together?  Dude, my jaw was wired shut, my lips weren’t glued together! 

7. As directly related to #6, I had to go to speech therapy for about a year, for sluring my “th-” sounds into “s” sounds (thistle = sisle; think = sink).  As a result, I still enunciate more than most people, and a lot of people think I have a British accent.  Once, at the bank the manager asked me if I needed anything while I was filling out my deposit ticket.  I said, “No, thank you.” And she said “I love your accent!  My friend just got back from the UK and he’s using all these cute British-isms, like ‘lift’ and ‘flat.’”  I had no idea how to respond (without sort of embarrassing her, when she realized I wasn’t British), so I just sort of smiled and tried to get away.

7b) I cannot stand it when someone says “birfday.”  Speech therapy was during teacher read-aloud/story time; and if I had to miss story time to correctly say “th”, I expect everyone who did not miss story time to say it correctly!

I think I’m the last person to do this meme, and there’s no one else left for me to tag.  But let me think; how about Natalie, Judy, Beth, Laura, Amber, Rebecca, and … yeah.  I think those are the only people who I even kind of sort of know (and read my blog to see that they’ve been tagged…) and haven’t done this already.

I know! I gave you a little taste on Friday morning, but you probably thought that was it. Just me being weird. Oh no. I had a vision.

Pattern: Chick Egg Cozies, (don’t worry, craftster won’t bite)

Yarn: Darker yellow is Karabella Merino Superwash; lighter yellow is Aurora 8 (blogless Jess made the Aurora 8 ones, since I was running out of yarn and the smallest bag of plastic eggs was 18 count, and what was I going to do with all the extras?)

Needles: US 8. Although gauge isn’t totally critical, you want to make sure that 10 stitches covers about 3/4 of the egg, or cast on more stitches.

Extra Supplies: 6/0 black seed beads (eyes), orange felt (beaks), plastic eggs (or real, but then they can’t really sit out and be decorative), needle & thread. If I wanted the eggs to stand up unsupported, I’d also get a bag of washers from the hardware store and use my hot glue gun to glue the egg to the washer to provide a base.

Mods (You know I’m crazy when I’m doing mods on egg cozies): Pattern calls for regular cast on and bind off, then sewing the edges together. I did a provisional cast on and a three needle bind off to save time. Also at the end it has you do two shorter short rows (knit 7, w&t; knit 6, w&t) - I omitted these and just did a knit 8/w&t and then did my three needle bind off - I can’t even pick out the ones with the shorter short rows.

The new background on my phone!

The baby chick up front. As someone pointed out at late night on Thursday, aren’t they all baby chicks, by the virtue of being a chick, and not yet chicken?

Jess made a demonic chick with one red eye. Why there were red beads on the floor of a yarn shop, I don’t know.

Flock of chicks!

They’re going to be up in the window until Easterish, so if you’re in DC you should stop by the Georgetown Stitch DC and see them (and me!)

One ball of Karabella Merino Superwash will get you like 8.5 chicks.

(I was neither drunk nor talking to my chicks. I was talking to bloglessJess. She was on my left right [eta: it's amazing I can get anywhere with my inability to tell left from right]. Really.)

Pattern: Sweetpea, by Melissa Morgan-Oaks, via Knitty Summer 2007

Yarn: Claudia Handpaint Fingering; Pink Posey

Needles: Addi Turbo US 1, 32″ (magic loop)

Mods: I wanted to go toe up (because I LOVE toe up!) but also wanted to try a toe up gusset, so I cobbled one together based on Widdershins.  However, both socks are different - on the first one I wasn’t really thinking and did 10 gusset increases, whereas on the second one I did 15 gusset increases.  So the heel flap is about 3/4 of an inch longer on the second sock.  (In the future, I think 13 might be a good number of increases for my foot.)

The 10 increase gusset foot

The difference between the two (however, they really are the same length, the one on my right foot is just a little slouchy)

Fun story (all my knits have to have fun stories!): I started these (cuff down version) on my first day at Stitch DC (June 2007).  It took three tries to cast on the right number of stitches (60), and I couldn’t get past the first repeat (kept loosing my place in the pattern, you’d think being so repetitive it would be easier).  Frogged and put aside until my last trip to NYC (November 2007), cast on again, but toe up.  Worked out much better for me!  Finished the first one and cast on for the second right away.  Took it to the new knitting group at my day job, and promptly screwed up the pattern (!! It’s a 10 stitch repeat!  I couldn’t manage to count to 10!).

They’re fun, beautiful socks, and I think the color/pattern/yarn go together perfectly.  But I’ve never been so glad to finish a pair of socks. 

Two people have called me a bitch since Friday and I began Saturday by flipping off Marie (who owns the store where I work).

You see, on Friday I was crossing the street as I left Starbucks, at the crosswalk at a stop sign.  There are no cars at the intersection (4 way stop), but one car approaching from my left, but still 15ish feet away.  So I head out into the street to get to the other side.  Forcing oncoming car to STOP at the STOP SIGN.  After I’m past his car, he rolls down his window to yell:

“Bitch! Next time I’m going to hit you!”

Because, again, I was crossing legally in the crosswalk at the stop sign.

(The other guy who called me a bitch was today, Sunday morning.  He was blocking the handicapped spot with his BMW - not that I needed it, but on principle - and basically being an ass because the way his car was positioned it prevented traffic from being able to go both ways. (And there were plenty of spaces available.)  After I parked as I was walking past I hit the hood of his car as hard as possible with my fist and cursed him for blocking the spot.  This Starbucks has a lot of elderly people and they shouldn’t have been blocking the space.  He called me a bitch and I called him some other names.)

But yesterday (Saturday) I’ve still got Friday’s jackass on the brain.  So I’m at the same corner, but crossing to go to Starbucks, to get some coffee before I go work at the Leap Weekend Sale.  I’m about 3/4 of the way across the street and a car approaching on my right honks at me.  And I’m so pissed because DUDE, I have the right of way and I was in the walk long before you reached the stop sign and how DARE YOU?

So I flip the person off, as I’m turning around to shout FUCK YOU!  And I see that Marie is smiling and waving happily from behind the wheel (so glad the kids weren’t with her!!)  She rolled down the window and says “Amber, are you flicking me off?!”  And I explained the guy on Friday, and she totally understood and we had a good laugh about it (when I called the Capitol Hill store later that day to check on a yarn I hear her say to the other person working there “Is that Amber? I’m not talking to her!” but in a funny, teasing sort of way.)

So where does Karma fit into all of this (besides my low sales total on Saturday; when I told my mom she said “Well, maybe if you didn’t flip off the customers they’d buy yarn!”)?  Well, let me ask.  Do you see something odd in this picture (click for large photo):

What about here?

If you said “Hey, you have two balls from different dye lots, and you’re doing two rows from each ball to try and minimize the obviousness” then you win … the Captain Obvious Prize.  (If you said “What?  What is it?!  I don’t see anything!” You win my undying love and affection.  If you said “Well, I didn’t see it, but now that you point it out I can’t unsee it!” I don’t like you anymore.  There’s a tree diagram in there somewhere…)

Anyone have a spare ball of Ella Rae Silkience, color 7, dye lot 91754 they’d be willing to part with?  I have two in a different dye lot, or a metric tonne of other yarns.  Or money.  Or cookies.  Or all of the above!

ETA: Correct dye lot found via eBay.  Yay!  No yay for realizing I knit at least one, and possibly both front pieces to be one inch longer than the back.  Will be at home crying in my cherrios tonight.

I finished off the neckline today, and now all the interesting parts of my Vintage Pink (Raspberry) Cardigan [ravelry][interweave - buy the pdf!] are done.   I finished one sleeve and the back last week, and now I have one more front side and one more sleeve to go.  All ribbed cuffs and stockinette, all the time.