Found Some Yarn!

You would think, being in Ireland, that I would be up to my neck in the stuff. You would think that I would be sick of wool, that I would have enough wool to last me for the rest of my life.

The truth is, wool has been in somewhat short supply over here. It seems like the Irish want you to buy their already knit sweaters, not knit your own. This doesn't make a ton of sense to me, but then, I think everyone should knit everything. Everyone needs a thneed.


Also, were you aware that the sun, essentially never sets over here? It is literally birght as day here, and it's well after 9PM as I'm typing. I'm too exhausted to write much more tonight - it's been a pretty go-go-go vacation - but I wanted to post some pictures of the finished Henly Hoodie - literally finished 45 minutes before the cab came to go to the airport.


When it was first finished I was somewhat disappointed, but decided that I would wear if for two weeks on vacation, and if I still wasn't sure I would pull it apart. About a week in now, and I've decided I love it. I did buy buttons for it, but decided to 86 the buttons. I like it just the way it is.


In these pictures, by the way, I'm standing in front of the Passage Tomb at Newgrange, one of the oldest surviving man-made structures on Earth, 500 years older than the pyramids. I got to go inside. And can I get a whoop-whoop for Dream in Color yarns? Look at that Deep SeaFlower, especially in the above picture. They know their dyes.

I'll be telling you all about the wool that I bough on INISHMORE the largest of the ARAN ISLANDS when I get back. I might have bought 6,000 yards. Maybe.

Regularly scheduled blogging will resume 1st week of July when you will be treated to entry after entry of me desperately trying not to get kicked out of the HPKCHC.

Where Have I Been?

It's been a long time since my last post, and the truth of why is that I am lame.

1) I have become utterly obsessed with Battlestar Galactica. Jorah and I like to buy dorky tv shows for special occasions. Our 2 year wedding anniversary was right after he left for New Mexico, and we celebrated by getting Battlestar Galactica. Let me just say that it is testing my loyalties in many ways. I love and adore Joss Whedon, and sincerely believed that there would never be anything better than Angel, Firefly, or Buffy (in that order) but I am LOVING this show. I'll be able to give a full verdict later this summer after the 2nd part of season 4 comes out. In the meantime, I have barely even checked my email.

2) All my knitting is boring. I haven't finished a single thing since the last post. I did fix all of the problems I was complaining about in May, but things are still fairly boring. Here's a WIP photo tour:


The Henly Hoodie. The truth is, I'm not crazy about the armseyes - there's something rotten in the state of Denmark. I need a sweater to wear in Ireland/Scotland though, so I'm finishing it - armseyes be damned. If I'm still unhappy with it, I'll pull it apart when I get home and reknit it - the Classy is to good to frak with. As you can see, I'm almost finished the hood. Then I just need to deal with the ends and put the buttons on.



The Stock Socks. These used to be my Mermaid socks, but they were too small. I decided I ought to come up with a basic sock recipe for myself for a plain old sock, and so these are it. They are my purse socks, and and they travel around with me.



The Cabbage Leaf Baby Blanket. I pulled back the whole thing not long ago all the way to the CO. I'm knitting it again, 20 sts narrower. I dig this blanket, although, as you can see, I still have not been able to take a decent picture of it.



And finally, because I've been going crazy knitting all this stockingnette, I started some Shur'tugals out of some Dream in Color Starry - Nightwatch. I'm pretty crazy about the Starry, and I don't usually like glitzy yarn. I have some in Romeo Blue too, and that is going to become - you guessed it - Viper Pilots!

I had so much fun knitting in May because I gave myself some deadlines. This month has been really hard though, because I'm leaving the country for two weeks. I have homework to do for the Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup, and I don't know when I'm going to do it - whatever it is, I'm going to have to post it to the net pretty quick after I get back - homework is due by midnight on the 30th.

I also wrote up two patterns in May, and found that it gave me a lot of focus and structure. It's something I need to do more often. This guy thinks so too:



He likes to sleep under my desk while I type. This is him sleeping on one of my slippers. Since this picture was taken I've moved one of his beds under there. He's much more comfortable now.

Simon Tam Pattern

The pattern for my Simon Tam is now available as a Free Ravelry Download!

I had some technical difficulties in the last few days, but the Ravelry Shopkeepers Group sorted me out. Thank goodness.

This is a great little pattern, if I do say so myself. Although there are only two of these on my project page, one I knit for Kate and the other for me, I have also made a pink one for my sister, a red one for my mom, a gray one for Jorah's grandmother, and a white one for my grandmother. I can make one in six hours, and it's one of my very favorite presents to give.

It's made by holding 2 strands together - Ultra Alpaca doubled for the cuff, and then one strand Ultra Alpaca, one strand Tilli Tomas Rock Star, which is a glorious beaded silk. It's knit on size 10 needles, so it knits up quite quickly - I can make one in less than six hours.

I haven't had this pattern test knit, (apologies) so I'm offering it free. If you find any errata, I hope you will leave a comment or email me right away so I can help. This is the first pattern I've written up for other people, and I want it to be good!

Mad Color Socks

Mad Color Socks are finished! Nine pairs since the start of Sock Obsession 2009!


These are my homework for May Defense Against the Dark Arts for the Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup. The assignment was to make something that would protect us, and so these are the Protego Socks. They will protect my feet from the cold, but they are also so bright and cheery that they will protect me from Dementors or the ill effects of proximity with Horcruxes.


In all honesty, I love these socks. I wanted to find a way to use this colorway and looked at some pictures of it knit up on Ravelry. I saw these from knitglit who writes Jumble of Wonderful and fell in love. I ordered some for myself and was off to the races. The colors are gorgeous and most correct in the second photo.

The pattern, Mad Color Weave, was also really fun to knit. If I do it again, and I predict that I may, I think I'll change the twisted rib on the side, although I don't know what I'd do differently. The yarn is of course, Spawn of Braun Socks that Rock Lightweight. It was a joy to knit with.

Humiliating (But Great) Geeker Freakout

Today at the yarn store I was ringing up a lady's purchases, thinking that she had good taste, when she handed me her check.

I looked at the check. I looked at her. I looked at the check. I looked at her. Finally blurt out, "Are you the Patricia C. Wrede?"

PATRICIA C. WREDE CAME TO MY YARN STORE TODAY!!!!!

She was very nice. Her friend explained that they were in town for WisCon between effusive babblings of joy (from yours truly.) I told her that The Enchanted Forest Chronicles were my favorite books when I was a kid, and that I saved my money so that I could buy them all in hardcopy, I told her that I also loved Caught in Crystal and that when I was a kid I checked it out of the library over and over, that I had read her books to the kids in my After School Program last fall and then gone online and seen that she had written more books, but I hadn't found them in a bookstore yet.

I am sure that I came off like a complete crazy person and Patricia C. Wrede, if you're out there, I'm not usually like that. I'm usually really reserved and private, but you have to understand, you are the hero of my childhood. Reading those books made me want to be a writer. Reading about how amazing and awesome Cimorene was made me want to be that awesome and amazing. The female characters are great, and I wanted to be them! (Mendenbar also rocks.)

My sister's online handle is the name of one of the cats in Calling on Dragons, after I bought the hardbacks, I gave my brother the paperbacks and he read them over and over again, I have a sketchbook at home full of painstaking drawings my fifth grade self did of her characters. I have read these books literally dozens of times - anyone suggesting upwards of thirty times would not be accused of crazy talk - and they basically sparked my voracious love of reading as a child.

She's the first writer I read who played with the reader and had funny little references. I just remember how clever I thought she was when Cimorene posted that sign about "No Salesmen or Rescuers THIS MEANS YOU!" and how delighted I was by The Wicked Stepmothers' Traveling, Drinking, and Debating Society, Men's Auxilary. I wanted to learn Latin because of these books so I could conjugate Draconis with Cimorene, and this is where I learned the expression, "Rare as hen's teeth." I also learned that you never trust a wizard, but magicians are okay, that everybody gets lonely, even the King of the Enchanted Forest, and that gingerbread and apple cider almost always make people feel better.

I babbled like a monkey, but I just hope she took it in the spirit in which it was intended: utter delight and admiration. Honestly, I'd made such an ass of myself already, I only wish I remembered that I had my camera in my bag. I could have asked for a picture!

Who is the hero from your childhood it would render you incoherent to meet?

The Opinionated Knitter

Yesterday after work I ran down to the yarn store just before it closed to pick up a few more colors for a striped scarf. One of my coworkers had bought me The Opinionated Knitter, which I mentioned a few weeks ago I wanted. Madison people are just nicer. This woman is a remarkably kind, incredibly talented knitter, and I am just flattered down to my toes that she thought of me. Jorah is out of town for the rest of the summer and the yarn store ladies have really gone out of their way to let me know that they are there when I need them.

The Opinionated Knitter is a great book, incidentally. In addition to having the Baby Surprise Jacket, (one of my all-time favorite patterns), it also has this amazing blanket that brooklyn tweed knit last year. I've also been planning on knitting a version of the Classic Brooks Sweater for my dad. And I've been wanting a Bohus Yoke Sweater for myself.

It's a great book.

While I was there, just to round out the EZness, I also bought the new pattern from Schoolhouse Press for the Adult-Baby-Child Surprise Jacket. I urge you to go to the website and look at how cute the Child Surprise is - I can't wait to knit one!

And since this post is called The Opionionated Knitter, here's an opinion from me: The Backwards Loop Cast On is way better than Long-Tail. Ha!

Victory!

Found my bluetooth charger! You may return to your regularly scheduled lives.