Yarn Sale Survivor

This was a very busy week: Lots of errands (Mom's laundry, taking de-stashed paperback books to the library for their October sale, prescriptions to pick up, etc.), lunch with my good friend Fran (from 'my' seniors' charity group), SnB on Monday with Marie and Madge, SnB on Friday night at Unwind with Deb and Mary Ellen, and so on.

The biggest part was getting the last sorting and pricing done for the yarns I was taking to the Giant Crafty Sale at Marie's. On Thursday, Madge and I went over to help with the setting up and met Marie, Mary and a couple of Marie's DDs. Thanks to all gods that Mary and Marie's DDs contributed the use of their canopies; otherwise we'd have been a puddled mass of knitters and yarns in the 80F heat. Marie and Ellen have posted great photos of the set-up and the event, so check out their blogs.

We sold a LOT of yarn, scrapbooking and quilting stuff. And we made a fair bit of money, over $650. I pretty much broke even, spending my earnings on yarns for me and some for the seniors' group, including the 'yarn skeins bigger than our heads' for the seniors. For me, I swapped some long-marinated Koigu for some beautiful lavender Laines du Nord Cashsilk(50% fine merino, 25% cashmere, 25% silk), snared a man's sweater's-worth of pale grey/white Austermann Peru (70% baby alpaca/30% merino), and some other little bits and pieces. Here are pix of my bigger treats:

And BTW, if the pictures at Marie's blog of me look tired, it's true. The pictures on Marie's blog are from 8:30am on Saturday. Getting to her house at that hour meant leaving Chez CBM before 7:30am, which meant getting up at oh-dark hundred. I *don't* do well at being places early, especially not on weekends!!

We closed up the sale and were on the way home by 4:30pm, leaving a pile of boxes of leftovers to be taken to various charities, including Stitches from the Heart's charity LYS in West LA.

I sold over $150 from my Ravelry stash, and I have a lot of yarns still available to sell; check them out! If you need pictures, I'll put them up; at the moment, I really don't want to look at more yarn, even the most lovable cashmere.

Just for fun, here's a new quiz: Chocolate Cake is good, yes??

You Are a Chocolate Cake

Fun, comforting, and friendly. You are a true classic, and while you're not super cutting edge, you're high quality. People love your company - and have even been known to get addicted to you.

What Kind of Cake Are You?

More Bits & Pieces

".. at the end of the storm is a golden day .."


I woke this morning to a glorious fall day - intensely blue sky, big white puffy clouds, crisp air and warm sunshine. Back in the Dark Ages of my junior high years, I had a chorus teacher who favored all the classic choral music, and "You'll Never Walk Alone" was part of our repertoire. And so this phrase was immediately in my mind. Brunch on the patio, oh, yeah!!

Burbank received nearly an inch of rain in the last two days, nearly a third of our rainfall for all of last year. Lots of mudslides and flooded areas and power outages. We had a big shock last night; I looked out the kitchen window and couldn't see the barbecue grill! We rushed out, and it had fallen over, just below my line of sight from the window. Cause: We had to have the outfall sewer dug up and replaced last spring, and have yet to replace the paving over the big swath that was cut out of our old concrete patio. We've recently had some caving-in in that area, and DH has been investigating, but without yet finding the reason. Well, the heavy rains collapsed a 4-5 foot section, and the barbecue had been sitting partially on the soil, not on the concrete, so it fell over. The noise must have been masked by the rain drumming on the roof. We think there's no damage to the grill, but we turned off the gas connection and more investigating is needed.

I had a nice catch-up message from my good friend Jayne, she of the gorgeous See Jayne Knit Yarns, so I remembered that I haven't shown off the yarns I bought while I was in Vancouver in July. Here's all the goodies:

Here's a huge skein of Café au Lait, 860 yds of beautiful fingering yarn, based on some Henry's Attic yarn.




These are CBM private colors, hand dyed before my eyes. I had a bag of the South West Trading Optimum dk in a boring odd sort of grey, and Jayne made it up into 2 batches for me. One is a bit more intense, and there's 300 yards of that; the other 1200 yards are more pastel.






And then there's another special yarn. Elann had a small batch of Cashmere Wool tweed yarn (70% cashmere!), and Jayne turned one skein into this gorgeous Blaze of fall color, nearly 400yds.







This is a very special present from her to me: a skein of her popular 'Jeans and a Tee', but this is 'Jeans and a Purple Tee'. In a wild coincidence, the day the package with all this yarny goodness arrived, I was wearing - jeans and my favorite purple tee. LOL!!

You may have seen a theme to my favorite yarn colors here, blues and purples and lavenders. Ah, yes; there's quite a lot of these colors in CBM's Stash.


I thought I'd end with a cutesy thing. Some time ago I put out an old throw rug, for Midnight to lie on when she's outdoors with us during our weekend brunches. The last few weeks, I've kept finding it dragged off the porch, and it's sprouted long pieces of yarn, ripped from the rug backing. I mentioned it to DH, and last week he came in laughing. He'd just seen a squirrel trying to make off with the rug. When he came around the corner, the squirrel panicked, but found that the yarn was caught and it took a bit for him to free himself. Today when we went out to have brunch, this is what I found, caught in the plants by the back steps; I'd left the rug neatly folded by the back patio door. Squirrels!!

Where My Yarn At?

A couple of posts ago I wrote that I'd ordered some Dream in Color Smooshy Sock yarn and a skein of Hand Maiden's Sea Silk from the well-known Sweet Sheep. I ordered on September 12. I got confirmation that it was shipped on September 13 via Canada Post Expedited, the free option for orders over $80. Mine was $86.

Today is September 22. Why do I still have no yarn? Because, dear knitters, Canada Post seems to have decided that the yarn needs to marinate in their possession at their Newcastle, Ontario postal centre. As of today, CP says I should probably get my yarn on September 27. The standards say, and I quote:

Expedited Parcel - U.S.A. has a delivery expectation of 6 to 12 business days between major centres in Canada and major centres in the U.S.A. (Some exceptions apply)

Darn them, from Sept 13 to Sept 27 is 10 business days. On the calendar, it's 14. Seems like last month.

I inquired of The Sweet Sheep staff, who quickly responded that 'normally' it takes perhaps 8 days to ship to California. So much for free Expedited. Have you had similar endless waits for yarn from The Sweet Sheep? Or other vendors who use "Expedited USA"? Elann has me spoiled. I pay for the shipping, regardless of order size, though they charge barely $2 handling over the actual cost of Priority Mail. It gets here the 3rd day after my order. Next time, I'll see about paying to get my yarn.

Small childish tantrum here - "I want my yarn and I want it now, already!!" It's been a cranky week.

My Bit of Fame

A year or so ago, one of the talented knitter/designers who is part of the regulars at the Elann Chat site had a chance for a book of her designs. Several of us 'Elannites' knitted up the patterns and sent them off to Elann, which was supporting the project. Sadly, the book deal didn't work out, but the finished designs and projects have been appearing as featured projects with the yarn used.

TODAY is the day that my project shows up! Woot! The bolero jacket is being shown on the beautiful Margaux, who is the spokesmodel for Elann.



Somehow the professional photographer didn't take any pictures of this from the back, so I'm posting the pictures I took of the bolero on me. Sorry, but it's far less elegant-looking with my ponytail and plaid shorts, lol!!



I'm going to be posting detail closeups at Ravelry, though if anyone should want these, with knitting the bolero in mind, LMK and I'll send them to you.

I'm jazzed!

Bits & Pieces

Most of the friends who were part of the group at the Yarn Harlot's talk have posted their photos, and here are some of the links: Knitdevil, mehitabel, and slowknitter. But here's a picture of the Harlot herself with our whole crew. Slowknitter is the brunette in the black top right next to the Harlot, and I'm next to her. I'm still jazzed about how much fun Stephanie's talk was.

It's been a quiet week Chez CBM. I took a tumble on Monday, another of my 'congenitally clumsy' moments, and bunged up my knee, just a huge bruise and all that. So I've spent a lot of time on the couch under the influence of good painkillers with my knee up and iced. No knitting, but a lot of good reading time. No, I will not show off the Technicolor feature - I'll leave that to your own imaginations, lol!

I took this really cute picture of Midnight the other day. Cute Overload had this adorable video to a 'Munchkin' kitten - a genetic variation that causes cats to have very short legs - and Middy was just entranced by it; sometimes she notices the moving pictures more than others. This one has a musicbox sound track and she kept patting the monitor. There was a Munchkin cat living at my aunt's assisted care facility when we visited there last fall; just an ordinary-looking cat with very short legs.

I've nearly finished cataloging my stash at Ravelry, and it's shocking how much yarn I have. It's being a real benefit, though; I'm completely lacking in yarn hunger, well, nearly. After all the oohing and aahing that Wendy Johnson has done about Dream in Color's Smooshy sock yarn, and then seeing and feeling several socks-in-progress at the YH event, I fell into order mode, and I'm looking for 2 skeins from The Sweet Sheep, which had a really wide selection last week.

A friend has started a KAL - Entrelac'tober, and I'm so tempted by the Danica scarf; I just happen to have 7 skeins of Rowan's Tapestry yarn in a good colorway, greys/browns. (BTW, am I the only one who thinks the guy modeling the scarf looks like the younger Ben Cross??) But then Knitdevil and I have been planning an Arwen-along. What to do, which to cast on first?

The Harlot and other stuff

Knittery Fun in LA!!!
Yesterday was the Yarn Harlot's visit to LA, and oh, did we have fun! I joined Madge and a large group of the knitters I've met through her friendship in a jaunt to spend the day in downtown LA; the Harlot spoke at the main Los Angeles public library. I forgot my camera, but I think I was the only one, so there will be lots of photos, and I will post links to them later. Stephanie was so gracious, even after more than an hour and a half signing books following her talk; she took the time to have her photo taken with our entire group.

It was quite clear that the library security staff had no experience with such a large, chatty and gently unruly group as we knitters were, fussing at us about water bottles, about sitting on the floor to knit (many of us queued up nearly two hours early to get the best seats), and trying without success to keep us in an orderly line. They did bow to the inevitability of our taking our cameras into the auditorium whether it was allowed or not, lol!! One woman on the security staff seemed particularly annoyed by our behavior, and kept insisting on moving the line around, seemingly just because she could.

I met a couple of friends from my Friday night SnB group, Sue and Deb, who has just started a blog, KnitAtNight; and I also met some new knitters, Suzann aka Yarnhog and Kathleen of Quail Hill Knits. Both are attorneys who traveled a long way for the event and they were a delight to meet; the three of us were notable flouters of the no-sitting rules, lol. I notice that Kathleen has already posted a great blog entry about the event. Check it out.

This n That
Thank you all for the kind comments about my scarf patterns. Feel free to copy them and use them, though I warn you that they have not been test-knitted by anyone. I wrote up the patterns from the FOs; I knitted the scarves as gifts to the men in our family-by-love for Christmas 2006. So please don't think the magic knitting fairy helped me knit these recently!! I plan to set up links in my sidebar so you can come back to them easily. And I thank my good friend Marie, of SmarieK, for encouraging me to publish these patterns. She herself has published many lovely patterns for facecloths, hats and scarves.

Today I hope to get some more of my stash entered into Ravelry, and begin to organize the yarns that I'm not keeping. mehitabel is hosting a yarn sale/swap in a couple of weeks, and I'm planning on these yarns finding new homes. I will note that going to a knitters' gathering, like the Yarn Harlot's talk, is a good/bad way to find out about yarns you may not have seen before. I ordered some of Dream in Color's Smooshy Sock Yarn last week, and oooohhh! Wen, one of the friends in our group, was working on socks in Blue Lagoon, a beautiful light blue colorway, which I just happen to have ordered. Oh, yeah! Knitting that is going to be a major treat!!

Plaited Cables Seaman's Scarf

Plaited Cables Seaman’s Scarf
(cable design adapted from Barbara Walker’s Treasury of Knitting Patterns, Vol 1, pg 244)

Design
Seaman’s style scarves are knitted with two flat panels divided by a section of ribbing. The ribbing fits closely around the neck. The two flat panels, the ‘tails’, are knitted from the middle, working from a provisional cast-on. This enables the pattern to match as the scarf lies on the wearer’s chest, rather than having one side with the pattern upside down.

This scarf is done over 48 stitches. Each side has a 4-st seed st border; you may wish to make a 6-st border on each side. The 2 outside panels have a 4-row cable worked over 9 sts, set off by 2 purl sts on each side. The central panel is a 2-row cable, worked over 6 sts and also set off by 2 purl sts on each side. The plaited effect is gained by alternately knitting extra stitches before or after the cable; thus, a 6-st cable worked over 9 sts. The borders and panels are separated by a column of knit sts. In writing the row-by-row directions, I have used semi-colons to separate the panels and dividing stitches.

Yarn, Gauge and Needle Choice
Gauge is not important for this scarf. Choose a yarn you like and a needle size that suits your yarn, probably close to the size recommended for the yarn. This pattern can be knitted in nearly any yarn, though it will be narrower in a lighter-weight yarn. If you use a circular needle, you will be able to knit the two tails at the same time.

The photos show a scarf knit with approximately 400 yards of worsted weight yarn (Grignasco Nature, 50% merino wool/ 50% alpaca; now discontinued), knitted on a size 7US (4.5mm) needle. Unblocked, it is approximately 7.5in wide by 58in long. This pattern will look best if it is not blocked severely.

Abbreviations:

• B4 - k1,p1,k1,p1 (seed stitch) If you choose a 6-st border, read this as B6 [NOTE: you may wish to slip the 1st st and knit the last for a chain edging]

• CN - cable needle

• C2F - Move 2 sts to CN, hold in front; k2 sts, then 2sts from CN

• C2B - Move 2 sts to CN, hold in back; k2 sts, then 2sts from CN

• C3F - Move 3 sts to CN, hold in front; k3 sts, then 3 sts from CN
  

• C3B - Move 3 sts to CN, hold in back; k3 sts, then 3 sts from CN

Pattern
Cast on 48 sts, using a provisional cast-on, such as the Crochet Provisional Cast-on. Knit one row. Beginning with the right side, follow the instructions for Plaited Cables; you will knit Row 1 only once. Knit one repeat of the pattern, to get comfortable with it.

Pick up stitches from the provisional cast-on, and knit the Ribbing pattern to the desired length, based on the neck size of the intended wearer; the length should be nearly the actual neck size. When the ribbing is the length you want, begin the second tail following the Plaited Cables pattern.

Work both tails to the length you desire, based on the height of the wearer. End with a WS row following either Row 3 or Row 7. Rows 1 and 2 of the Bottom Border pattern will reduce the stitch count to avoid the border ruffling, and will give a nice edge to the top of the border, setting it off from the cables.

Plaited Cables
Row 1 (RS, setup row) B4; k1; p2,k9,p2; k1; p2,k6,p2; k1; p2,k9,p2; k1; B4
Row 2 (And all even rows, WS) B4, knit the stitches as they present themselves (knit the knit sts and purl the purl sts), B4
Row 3 B4; k1; p2,C3F,k3,p2; k1; p2,C2F,k2,p2; k1; p2,C3F, k3,p2; k1; B4
Row 5 B4; k1; p2,k9,p2; k1; p2,k2,C2B,p2; k1; p2,k9,p2; k1; B4
Row 7 B4; k1; p2,k3,C3B,p2; k1; p2,C2F,k2,p2; k1; p2,k3,C3B,p2; k1; B4
Row 9 Repeat Row 5

Repeat Rows 2-10 for pattern.

Ribbing
Row 1 (K4, p4) across
Row 2 (P4, k4) across
Repeat Rows 1 and 2 to desired length, ending with Row 2

Bottom Border
Row 1 B4, K2tog*; k2, k2tog, k1, k2tog, k2, k2tog, k1; k2tog*, k2, k2tog, k2, k2tog*; k1, k2tog, k2, k2tog, k2, k2tog, k1, k2tog*; B4 (37 sts) [NOTE: k2tog* means that the vertical dividing stitch should be knit together with the stitch next to it, either to the left or the right]
Row 2 B4, p1, k across to last 5 sts, p1, B4
Row 3 B4, work across in seed st; B4
Continue to work seed stitch rows until the bottom border is the same width as your side borders. Bind off from the right side in pattern.


Variation: Work one of the outer plait cable panels with the cable twists running opposite to the other panel. Rows 3 and 7 would read:

Row 3 B4; k1; p2,C3F, k3,p2; k1; p2,C2F,k2,p2; k1; p2,k3, C3B,p2; k1; B4
Row 7 B4; k1; p2,k3,C3B,p2; k1; p2,C2F,k2,p2; k1; p2,C3F,k3,p2; k1; B4


I first became aware of this style of scarf here and here. Then I found Myrna Stahman's book Stahman's Shawls and Scarves at Marsha White's Needle Arts Book Shop. At the moment (9/14/07) neither Amazon nor Barnes & Noble have new copies, so the link is to the Needle Arts Book Shop. Besides patterns for many beautiful Faroese-style lace shawls, Myrna has adapted the same stitch patterns for seaman's style scarves.

© 2007, CatBookMom's Yarns. This pattern may be used only for personal or charitable purposes.

Twisted Rope Seaman's Scarf

Twisted Rope Seaman’s Scarf
(cable design adapted from Harmony Guides Vol 3 , pg 51)

Design
Seaman’s style scarves are knitted with two flat panels divided by a section of ribbing. The ribbing fits closely around the neck. The two flat panels, the ‘tails’, are knitted from the middle, working from a provisional cast-on. This enables the pattern to match as the scarf lies on the wearer’s chest, rather than having one side with the pattern upside down.

However, since this cable pattern really has no direction, you may choose to work it straight from end to end, without the neckline ribbing section.

This scarf is done over 42 stitches. Each side has a 4-st seed st border; you may wish to make a 6-st border on each side. The 2 outside panels have 3 2x2 ribs which cross over each other in alternate pairs. The central panel has 2 2x2 ribs which cross over each other in alternate directions. All cables are twisted every 6 rows. The design ribs transition smoothly to the neck ribbing pattern.

Gauge, Yarn and Needle Choice
Gauge is not important for this scarf. Choose a yarn you like and a needle size that suits your yarn, probably close to the size recommended for the yarn. This pattern can be knitted in nearly any yarn, though it will be narrower in a lighter-weight yarn. If you use a circular needle, you will be able to knit the two tails at the same time.

The photos show a scarf knit with approximately 350 yards of worsted weight wool (Elann's Peruvian Highland Wool, color Deep Blue Sea), knitted on a size 7US (4.5mm) needle. Unblocked, it is approximately 6in wide by 57in long.

Abbreviations:

• B4 - k1,p1,k1,p1 (seed stitch) If you choose a 6-st border, read this as B6 [NOTE: you may wish to slip the 1st st and knit the last for a chain edging]

• CN - cable needle

• C3F - Move 3 sts to CN, hold in front; k3 sts, then 3sts from CN

• C3B - Move 3 sts to CN, hold in back; k3 sts, then 3sts from CN

Pattern
Cast on 42 sts, using a provisional cast-on, such as the Crochet Provisional Cast-on. Knit one row. Beginning with the right side, follow the instructions for Twisted Rope Panels. Knit one repeat of the pattern, to get comfortable with it.

Pick up stitches from the provisional cast-on, and follow the instructions for Transition Ribbing; then the Ribbing pattern to the desired length, based on the neck size of the intended wearer; the length should be nearly the actual neck size. When the ribbing is the length you want, begin the second tail following first the Transition Ribbing and then the Twisted Rope Panels patterns.

Work both tails to the length you desire, based on the height of the wearer. It is best to end with the 3rd row (WS) after a cable twist row. Rows 1 and 2 of the Bottom Border pattern will reduce the stitch count to avoid the border ruffling, and will give a nice edge to the top of the border, setting it off from the cables.

Twisted Rope Panels -
Outer Cables
Row 1 (RS) B4; k1,p1;k2,p2,k6,p2; k2,p2,k2; p2,k6;p2,k2; p1,k1; B4
Row 2 (WS) B4, knit the stitches as they present themselves (knit the knit sts and purl the purl sts), B4
Row 3 B4; k1,p1; k2,p2, C3F,p2;k2,p2,k2;p2,C3B,p2,k2; p1,k1; B4
Rows 4-8 Repeat Row 2 and Row 1 twice, then Row 2 once more
Rows 9-20 Repeat Rows 3-8 twice
Row 21 Repeat Row 3
Rows 22-24 Repeat Row 2 and Row 1, then Row 2 once more

Inner Cables
Row 25 B4; k1,p1;k6,p2,k2,p2; k6; p2,k2,p2,k6;p1,k1;B4
Row 26 Repeat Row 2
Row 27 B4; k1,p1; C3B, p2,k2,p2; C3F;p2,k2,p2,C3F;p1,k1;B4 (See NOTE)
Rows 28-32 Repeat Rows 26 and 25 twice, then Row 26 once more
Rows 33-44 Repeat Rows 25-32 twice
Row 45 Repeat Row 27
Rows 46-48 Repeat Row 26 and 25, then Row 26 once more

Repeat Rows 1-48 for pattern. NOTE: On alternate repeats of the Inner Cable section, in Row 27, change the center C3F to C3B; this will alternate the direction of the central cable.

Scarf shown was worked with 2 full repeats of the pattern, then ended the 3rd repeat with Row 36.

Transition Ribbing
Row 1 K4, (p2,K2)across to last 4 sts, k4
Row 2 P4, (k2,p2) across to last 4 sts, p4
Repeat rows 1 and 2 twice more

Ribbing
Row 1 K4, p4,k4,p3,k4,p4,k3, (p4, k4) twice
Row 2 P4, k4,p4,k3,p4,k4,p3 (k4,p4) twice
Repeat Rows 1 and 2 to desired length, ending with Row 2

Bottom Border
Row 1 B4, k1,p1;(K2tog, k2, k2tog; k2, k2tog,k2) twice; k2tog, k2, k2tog; p1,k1,B4 (34 sts)
Row 2 B4, p1, k across to last 5 sts, p1, B4
Row 3 B4, work across in seed st; B4
Continue to work seed stitch rows until the bottom border is the same width as your side borders. Bind off from the right side in pattern.


I first became aware of this style of scarf here and here. Then I found Myrna Stahman's book Stahman's Shawls and Scarves at Marsha White's Needle Arts Book Shop. At the moment (9/14/07) neither Amazon nor Barnes & Noble have new copies, so the link is to the Needle Arts Book Shop. Besides patterns for many beautiful Faroese-style lace shawls, Myrna has adapted the same stitch patterns for seaman's style scarves.

© 2007, CatBookMom's Yarns. This pattern may be used only for personal or charitable purposes.

Progress, of Sorts

I've been rather distracted from knitting for a while, what with Ravelry and all. But it's not just Ravelry's fault. It's the books, really.

I may have mentioned that a friend introduced me to Amelia Peabody, the staunch heroine of many of Elizabeth Peters' mysteries. Full of style that evokes the books of the early 1900s and the female version of the British "stiff upper lip", Amelia cracks me up, in a properly quiet, understated sort of way. I read a couple of the more-recent books, and then headed to my local library for the backlist. I found some of those, but not enough, so yesterday I descended on B&N for more; I'm nearly done with Crocodile on the Sandbank, which introduced Amelia and Emerson and the other members of the ongoing cast.

Along the way at the Burbank PL on Tuesday, I came across a couple of other treats, including Nora Roberts' newest, High Noon, which is included in a section of books that add to our library's fundraising system. To get a book THIS hotly demanded - it just arrived at the library on August 23 - it costs $3 for a week. I finished it last night.

So there's been a lot more reading than knitting.



Moving right along, here's the progress on my Vine Lace Vest, which you last saw a couple of inches past the ribbing. As the Yarn Harlot says, we will not speak of this again.




However, I do have progress on a nice vest for the current Afghans for Afghans campaign. This is being knitted from assorted colors of Patons Classic Merino, Cascade 220, and some leftover Nashua Creative Focus. This is the vest pattern from the website, and I have issues with the increase method to get from the central front edge to the shoulder. However, having frogged about 5 in once, it's moving along as is, though I will be adding a ribbing or seed stitch edging to the front bands, neckline and bottom edge; this will cover lots of wonkiness and ends, all at once. This photo shows the beginning, which is knitted vertically from the right front band, to the beginning of the left side of the back neck decrease. The grey section is the underarm.


When I was digging out the yarn, I discovered 3 hats that I'd done quite a while back; one is a very near match to the vest. These only need the ends woven in and a quick bath in Eucalan.



Tomorrow I'm going to my seniors' group and to my Friday Night Unwind SnB. Then Saturday it's even more exciting: the Yarn Harlot speaks in LA!!!

Maybe I need some wine to help me deal with all this excitement???

Some Yarns Don't Age Well

Oy. I'm inventorying my stash and inputting the data to Ravelry. Oh, yeah, I mentioned that. I've finished with the really good stuff, and I'm working on the kids' yarns, the oddballs and so forth.

The 'so forth' is um, mostly fluffy yarns. Or 'floofy' as I usually call them. I just *know* I had projects in mind when I bought the floofy stuff. Some of it is really soft, luxurious floofiness. But ya know, that was 3 years ago. Floofy isn't prime fiberart these days.

I wonder how long it will take to come back into style?

Don't Hurt Yourself Laughing!

I discovered the 'lolcat' phenomenon via Ravelry, and these particular websites, I Can Has Cheezburger?, (Cheezburger)and LOLCats have some really funny pix. The 'akrilyik' picture is from the Ravelry discussion. The Grammar and Spelling Nanny in me deplores the lousy grammar and the likelihood that this will make our schools' jobs of teaching good English a lot tougher, but, oh, goodness, these are FUNNY!!


In knittery news, my dear friend Madge spent most of Thursday helping to sort through and catalog about half of my stash. She is *SO* good at helping me be strong about laying aside those yarns that I honestly will never knit. I now have 100+ posts to my Ravelry stash, though there are few pictures. There's a group of friends who are planning a yarn sale/swap, and some of these orphans should find new homes - another friend from my seniors' group took home some goodies yesterday, and I now have extra $$ to spend on the new KnitPicks Options Harmony needles. These are laminated, colored birch needle tips, which fit into the Options cords; there are also fixed circulars with these tips, and sets of dpns (SIX in case of breakage!!) Oh, yum!!!

Happy Saturday!

Do Something!!

Recently a shocking tragedy touched my good friend Lisa's family. A longtime friend of her DD's was killed in the last of a series of domestic violence events. Lisa's DD has organized a fundraiser for the local domestic violence shelter.

Here are links to Lisa's original post and to another Elann friend's post about the fundraiser. I can't say anything better than they did.

Lisa's blog post

The Knitting Channel blog post

Please - Do what you can to support your local domestic violence shelter. Send $$. Knit stuff. Buy extra toiletries the next time you're shopping at Costco or wherever and contribute them. Contribute those extra clothes you've been meaning to clear out of your closet or your kids'.

Limited Knitting Content

Busy week!!! Losing all of Sunday and most of Monday and Tuesday to Ravelry - OK, lots of Ravelry time on the other days, too. Ravelry is awesome: The incredible database they are building for books, patterns and yarns; the worldwide knitting community with the forums and links to other knitters; and the speed with which it is growing and the capabilities they keep adding to the site. I don't know about other knitters, but I'd think it was a bargain if there was an annual fee in the $25-50 range to support the work they are doing. I do realize that there are many knitters for whom this would be a financial problem. OK - hey,CBM! - you can just contribute. Duh.

Thursday I went to see Shui Kuen and her mother again, and had more wonderful dim sum. Then we went back to SK's mother's house and just hung out, chatting about our lives and our knitting. I saw SK's original Forget-Me-Not shawl; let me tell you, she does a wonderful job of blocking! I'm going to be more aggressive with the yarn in the future. She says there's still another SK pattern in the not-too-distant future, but she didn't offer more details, and I didn't ask - it will be a nice surprise when it happens. BTW, Elann has some more of the gorgeous Alpaca Fina yarn coming up for sale in September, along with - ta da!!! - their first superwash merino. There are dozens of colors of the alpaca, too, lovely solids and heathers.

Last Saturday I took a dear friend from my seniors' group to see Josh Groban at the Honda Center in Anaheim. I have a bad, bad history of getting lost in Anaheim, so DH insisted that he should drive us there and back. (What a treasure my DH is!!!) He packed up his laptop and a DVD and hung out at a nearby bar to watch a movie while we were at the concert. My friend is going through chemo and is rather frail now, so the front-door delivery that we were able to give her was really needed. She treated us to dinner at the Phoenix Club, a well-known restaurant and banquet place, a gathering spot for the local German crowd. The concert was quite good, but I had forgotten that our near-the-front seats would also be near the speakers. So it was LOUD. They set up 2 big video screens, so we had up close views of Josh as well. Josh's music has evolved, so he did only one or two of the songs from his first album, which are my friend's favorites.

I also 'discovered' Amelia Peabody, Elizabeth Peters' archaeologist character in Egypt at the turn of the 20th century. A friend gave me an audiobook of one of the later books, "The Serpent on the Crown," and I discovered a lonely paperback, "Seeing a Large Cat," in my book stash. So I spent a lot of knitting time reading. I'm a newbie to the concept of audiobooks, so I wanted to enjoy the paperback first. I was immediately ready for more, including the back list. And for a change I remembered the public library, so my trip there on Wednesday brought home as many books as I could hold in my arms.

OK, finally the knitting. It has NOT been a good week or so for the knitting, more like knit one stitch, frog two. I'm working on a scarf-sized version of the Pewter Lace Shawl from Knitting Daily, using more of the teal acrylic/mohair that I used for the Comfort Shawl. That's moving along at a reasonable if slow rate.

The real problem is the Vine Lace vest from Classic Elite. Knitters, this is *vine lace*! It's one row of pattern, shifted by one stitch every other row. This is the easiest lace pattern ever. I've made about 3 scarves using 2 or 3 repeats of this. But can I manage to knit it in this vest without F**KING it up? Not. I am wondering if the yarn will be worn out by the time I get the first 6 inches knitted. I have frogged and tinked and frogged again. And again. When I left my Friday Night SnB group at Unwind last night, I had perhaps 4in of the lace done. Came home, worked on it a bit more, and about 10pm really looked at it. Great *&$^% error about an inch down. Again. Trust me, it's hard not to heave it across the room. But this is the exact sort of vest that I like and know that I'll wear a lot. I decided to frog nearly all the lace and start over yet again. Then I stomped off to bed.

Tonight DH and I are meeting Knitdevil and her DH for dinner, so the holiday weekend will have a really fun start. But it's the 4th day of a record-setting heat wave here in the LA area; right now (10:49am) it's officially 94F in Burbank. Yesterday at 3pm it was 106F on our shaded back porch. So the main plan for the weekend is to stay indoors and be indolent. Knitting should be a suitably low-energy activity. Unless Vine Lace keeps on kicking my butt. Temper tantrums take more out of me.