Of Socks and Books

Before I get into the meat of my blog I wanted to show you a package I received in the mail last week. Inside was a pattern for a baby blanket.
If this is how my mail looks before the government starts going through it I hate to see what it will be like when they do. Hopefully yarn and patterns will not be considered terrorist level threats.

I have started the test knitting socks for Warm Woolies. This is how far you can get in one day.
Toe through the afterthought heel and onto the leg.

And the next day you just might have this:
I like this sock. 1. It's toe up. I love toe up. 2. It had an afterthought heel which I had never done before but fully enjoyed learning how to do (P.S. I think if you actually follow directions you will a) not run out of yarn on the heel and b) not have a super pointy heel like I did, though I'm holding out hope that it will block out a little.) 3. The heel and toe are knit on smaller needles making them sturdier. Simple. Genius.

These are actually a really nice fit for me in all except the toe where it's an inch too long. Which is good because my feet are exactly 9 inches long and these needed to be 10. Perfection. Except that pointy heel....blocking, my hope lies in thee.

On Sunday I went to Woodstock to hear a book reading by the Yarn Harlot, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.
Standing around pre-talk with all her books. Crazy to think they are all humor books on knitting. What a niche!
During her talk/reading.
Post talk getting goodies.

I would have liked to have gotten a chance to go by The Whole Nine Yarns (the LYS who was hosting the event) but I waited until the end of the line to go through and get my book signed and get a picture of this:
Stephanie with my current socks in progress, the Warm Woolies test socks (and proof that the second sock has indeed been started).

The Yarn Harlot is always great fun to have a visit from and she did a nice little talk and book reading. I'll hopefully get the chance to go out to The Whole Nine Yarns because it seemed lovely in the 10 minutes I was in there picking up my ticket and a bottled water. For now I'll be knitting on the socks, finishing a sweater, and starting a baby blanket. The light at the end of the tunnel is that tomorrow is my last day of teaching with students for this school year. My summer break will almost be here!

Sweater Mania

I finished the Half and Half Sweater tonight. I think it turned out pretty well.
I love the hand dyed yarn. It was a lot of fun to work with. Plus so soft and cushy! And I'm not just saying that because it's my hand dyed yarn :) Tomorrow I'm going to try and write up the pattern. Then I'll have some people test knit it (any takers?) and try and decide if I want to offer this for free or for a little fee.

Now I've taken up work on the Warm Woolies Mystery Sweater #2 (a.k.a. the Calda Lana).
Why have I not been knitting on this? I don't even know. I'm just on the plain stockinette for the sleeves. For some reason I was thinking there was lot more to this than there really was. But now I'm back on track and I'm knitting away.

I've got a lot of things on my knitting list:
Baby blanket due by the middle of July
Test knit sweater due by the end of June
Warm Woolies test sock (no due date but need to be knit in a timely manner)
Another pair of socks for myself
A clapotis scarf
Other stuff that seems to be alluding me at the moment but will probably show up out of the blue on the blog

And...I've also been in talks with my LYS, Rare Purls, about teaching classes there this summer! Their store will open the first of June and hopefully I'll get the chance to help out a bit. I'm just excited about having an LYS in my area!

Only 4 more days of school with children and then 3 days of post planning (yeah, I have to be back the day after Memorial Day, total suck fest). The countdown to freedom is on.

The Countdown has Begun

Only 369 more days until my brother gets married. Where will I be?
Not just standing up front but...
Standing beside my new sister! Tonight I went to dinner with Brandi and my brother and they asked me to be their maid of honor. I'm so, well, honored! I've never even been a bridesmaid before but I am so looking forward to this opportunity :) I'm soooo excited for them. It's going to be a fun filled, busy year for all of us.

I've also got some uber cute pictures for you so get ready :) First a little back story: My mom works at an animal hospital as a receptionist. To say she's got a soft spot is an understatement. I think it makes her perfect for her job. She rescued her cat L.C. from the woods beside the office one day. L.C. is lucky she has such an awesome momma because she's got some respiratory and kidney issues and a heart murmur but my mom takes care of her just like a child, because L.C. is family. Well, in the past year another cat, Siamese has taken up permanent residence on my parent's front porch. And just about 6 weeks ago a lady came into the animal hospital with one of her outdoor kitties. My mom knew this woman pretty well because she had been coming to the hospital for awhile. The lady was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer and was trying to find a home for all her pets. She wanted to find a home for her cat, Suede, but Suede was pregnant and no one would take a pregnant kitty. Well, you can spay a cat and abort the babies but my mom just didn't have the heart to do it. My mom took in Suede and put her up in a little room in her basement until the kittens were born. I think we're all glad that she did because these are quite possibly the most adorable kittens ever. The Cuteness Meter is off the charts:
We had them out on Saturday in my parent's bathroom playing with them. My dad named them after each of his kids:
T.J., named after my brother even though he's a she (we figure it stands for Tammy Jo)
Brandi (my future SIL)

And Melissa, my namesake. I just love the crazy look in her eyes in this picture.

My mom has been very fortunate in finding homes for all the kittens but she's still looking for a home for momma cat Suede who is one of the sweetest animals I've ever met. Seriously, she never stops purring. I think she'd make a nice pet for my parents :) but they said no more inside cats. Don't worry though, another outside cat has begun sleeping on top of the transformer box in my parent's front yard. She's black and white so we're thinking her name will be Moo Moo.

And for the dog lovers here's Luke:
He wanted to check out the kittens when they came up from the basement. He's only 9 months old and already outweighs most fully grown adults in his breed.

Breaking the Silence

So what have I been up to...?

1. Knitting
Warm Woolies Mystery Sweater KAL #2. This is a picture of the shoulder piece. I've actually joined for the first sleeve and knit a few rows. I think I may rip it out though, I recently learned how to pick up stitches and make it look nice (amazing how actually reading the directions in your beginning to knit book can help you).

2. A Wedding
Two of my close friends got married last weekend at Pensacola Beach in Florida. I'd never been to beach wedding before but it was beautiful and tons of fun.
Bye bye shoes!

My friends Kelly and Steve with Kelly's son Brayden during the sand ceremony. Lovely!
The McMansion (on the right) where the reception was held. Kelly's cousin lived there and it was basically on a private wharf/peninsula. He was a really nice guy and opened the whole house to the guests. The setting was amazing. I had a lovely time hanging out with friends all weekend and enjoying a mini vacation.

3. Guild...ing
Last night I drug Albert to the Atlanta Knitting Guild meeting so he could help me with my table of hand dyes.
It was the first time I'd ever taken the yarns on a road trip but I really hope that there will be more chances for me to do so. It was so wonderful to hear all the nice things people had to say about my yarns. And seeing them all laid out was pretty awesome too since they normally live in a plastic container in my living room. It made me realize that I actually have been productive. And I actually sold some things! This picture was taken after several skeins of sock yarn had already been made off with :) My wheels are turning with new ideas that I can't wait to try. Thankfully summer is just around the corner which should mean more time to dye.

4. More knitting and a little designing
Sorry for the horribly frumpy picture. This is the half and half sweater sans one sleeve. Made from all hand dyed yarn. It's a youth medium so it's a little small on me but only in length so I'm on course with size I believe. I'll be writing up the pattern and offering it in some form here and on Ravelry, but that's a whole other set of tasks.

Penelope wanted you to know that she "helped out" when I was labeling all the skeins for Thursday's meeting. (I'd laid the blanket out to set the skeins on to keep them clean while I labeled each one)
Technically I'm not *on* the towel.

Not Pink Floyd

But definitely a wall. And I have hit it. Not writers block or knitters fatigue but a wall of sheer exhaustion. Most people can either see this coming or they never suffer from it, at least not in any sense of regularity. I, however, am not most people. I do this to myself more often than I would like to admit because I have no sense of balance. No sense of how many activities constitutes "too much". I have to have my hand in every pot: dyeing, knitting, working for this company or that, regular job, knit nights, guild, blogging, working out, church, nursery, missions team, leadership team, book study, plan this, plan that... I enjoy it all, I really do. But that's the problem, I enjoy it all.

I also find it incredibly difficult to go from "vacation" mode to "work" mode. I have to ease into it. I loved my time in Washington over Spring Break but found I was even more despondent than usual when returning to work on Monday. And I didn't help myself by taking a day off the very next week for Stitches. Now I'm counting down the hours until I can send the kiddos off for the summer and I can start breaking down my room.

And so, I find myself up at 10:00 on a Wednesday doing some "light" pattern editing which (again, I loved to do and gladly offered my services) left me mentally exhausted. I was already physically exhausted because I had little sleep in the previous nights and no naps for the prior 2 days (which is kind of a big deal to me). The result was my OCD flipping out and simultaneously turning into the grump monster from H-e-double hockey sticks. Luckily no one was around to see it.

Today has not been much better. In fact I found myself crying this afternoon because I'd gotten snippy with my mom because I didn't want to talk about finances.

But now I have calmed down a bit. I will call my mom and apologize later when I am in a more right state of mind. I have called a dear friend to come and give me a massage (she's a licensed and has her own table and everything!) and I'm about to go have a little lie down for about 30 minutes.

In the near future I see myself really taking a look at all the things I'm involved in and analyzing the things I really want to stay involved in. I will not stop knitting or going to knit nights or drop out of church or anything like that but I've got to stop trying to be the hero of everything.

Ok, I've whined enough for one night. I'm going to go take a nap.

Congratulations

To my little brother and his girlfriend Brandi.
They got engaged on Saturday night!
I'm so excited for the 2 of them and I couldn't have asked for a better sister!

Epic Adventure-Part 2

In which our heroine runs into her nemesis Yarn Budget and soundly vanquishes him.

I went armed for battle.
Like the shirt? You can get your own here.

My first stop of the morning was in the Market. I thought there would be much more of a rush of people but it didn't seem too bad for me. I had a plan though and I was sticking to it.

I headed straight for The Yarn and Fiber Company booth. They were selling Cascade Eco + at a good sale price. I got this nice burnt orange (I'm really into this color right now. I can feel a burnt orange stage coming on...)
and this slightly heathered blue. It will make some nice sweaters. Because sweaters are kinda my thing.
Then it was over to Cast-On Cottage and Needlepoint Garden's booth. Oh how I wish their store was closer to where I live! They carry every color of Cascade 220. Every color. And the ladies there were all really nice. Helpful without being pushy. Funny and generally pleasant. Just a wonderful experience all around. I made out like a bandit.

2 skeins of red tweed
2 skeins of a twisted grey, black, brown, and white (one of my favorite purchases of the day)
2 skeins of a sunny yellow
And 2 skeins of black that are destined to be combined with some already in the stash yarn for...wait for it...a sweater! Bet you didn't see that coming.
My last stop was at Purrfectly Catchy. They were selling hand made sock blockers and stitch markers. I was really impressed at the quality of their sock blockers and their prices were great. $35 for 2 hand made, wooden sock blockers! That's a deal considering I've seen places that sell plastic ones for $22 (plus shipping). And these blockers have been used by many of the big names in knitting for photo shoots. I got the star ones since, well, I'm a rock star :)
After all my shopping I stopped by the Malabrigo reps booth for a picture with the Malabrigo Junkies from Ravelry. Then Antonio and Little Bob went to lunch with us.
After lunch I took a phenomenal Celtic cables class with Melissa Leapman. I really wish I had taken one of her design classes now. She's a really, really smart lady who translates her technique well in the classroom setting. Unfortunately, at the end of the class I'd been concentrating so hard on making cables that I developed camnesia and didn't get a picture of Melissa. I will, however, show you the mad crazy cables we made. It all starts with a circle.
Then jumps right into a simple knot.
I finished a little early so I tried my hand at designing a figure 8 cable following Melissa's directions.
I was on the right track. Look at that axis cable! Maybe I'll try my hand at the third swatch.
Maybe not tonight. Penelope is unimpressed by it all.
Stitches South was a ton of fun and I can't wait to see what next year will be like. I hope it keeps growing and there are even more vendors and teachers and friends to meet. I had a great time and, while I did go a teeny tiny bit over budget, I really felt like I got some good purchases. Now I just need a massage from head to toe. Buying yarn is exhausting!

On a somewhat separate note, I had an epiphany last night. I think I want to own a yarn shop that carries every type of Cascade yarn. All 4 lines, all their hundreds of yarns. I thought up this idea while wondering why I can find Cascade 220, Eco, and Eco + at some places but can never find an LYS that sells Magnum or Heritage sock or many other lines. To me it would be heaven. I'd call it Queen of Cascade since I am the Queen of Cascade (John from Churchmouse said I was!). Think I should email the Cascade rep I met and tell her my idea?