I came ... I felted ... I dyed.

Welcome back, folks! It’s been a while since my last blog post because … well … I felt un-blog-a-riffic. I wasn’t happy with any of my ideas for content because I didn’t HAVE any content. I hadn’t finished any projects, hadn’t taken any photos, didn’t really have anything new to report. So I didn’t.

But now … NOW … I have something. I have been working on something super duper top secret for the past week or so, and I will be dropping hints throughout until details are finalized and I know I won’t get fired from my day job or hunted like the scurvy dog I am for posting it on the internet for every Tom, Dick and Harry to read. But until then … I present:

FINISHED OBJECTS
and other random wooly goodness

This past weekend, I did my first felting project. I forgot to take a photo of it before I started felting (I have issues remembering to photograph various stages of projects … it’s part of my charm), but here it is in the first stage of felting.
Ooooh the Thrills! The Chills!

And here it is on my lovely hat model, Gwyneth.

Say hello, Gwyneth.

Still planning on needle-felting a little something-something onto this, but that will have to wait until I get a couple more finished objects completely finished (almost doesn’t count in this case, as they are gifts).

Also spent some time dyeing my latest hand-spun effort.

Mmmm, my favorite. Purple Kool-Aid Yarn Soup.

The color is a little washed out, but it’s actually a lovely and bright purple.

I love the smell of hot, wet Kool-Aid-y Wool in the morning.

To be plied together with my other hand-spun effort, dyed a maroon color. But that’s another blog post.

Everything else I have that I would like to share – will be shared in later postings. Gotta save my material, you know?

In un-related to knitting news, Dear and I went to a Polo match this weekend – my first! I felt so British! Cheerio, pip pip old chap! We had a great time, even though it was hotter than Hell (I’m going to start saying hotter than Houston. It’s more accurate).

Awww, so cute!

And the horsies looked like they were having some fun.

Pass the Pimm's Cup, please.

Hope everyone who cares is celebrating World Wide Knit in Public Week (June 12 – 19)! I got together at Memorial City Mall on Sunday to scare the Muggles … what did you do?

Rewind to Vacation

Where did the last week go? It simultaneously seems like 10 minutes and 10 years since we returned from Vail, and I’ve been a bad little blogger and not posted a word about it. I guess the time in between was filled with dinners, season finales, a wedding, baseball, and some valiant efforts to refresh some stagnant areas.

How’s this for awesome? Who knew Einstein hung out in Vail?


Vail was absolutely gorgeous, and the weather was pretty perfect. We spent two days in Denver, then two-ish days in Vail, then one more night in Denver before returning to the Humid Reality that is our daily lives. While in Denver, I got to spend 20 blurry minutes at the Fancy Tiger (so blurry was I with tired and hurry that I didn’t take photos … I really am a bad little blogger), which I immediately fell in love with. They seem more sewing-centric than knitting-centric, but their fabrics are adorable and I would totally shop there for fabrics if I ever needed them. They had a great selection of yarns, and Dear even picked out a couple of hemp-based yarns for a future beanie. They had some fibers upstairs, and what I was really excited for: needle felting kits. I know these are relatively easy to come by, but they make their own starter kits, one of which is an anatomical heart. I don’t know why I found this awesome and endearing, but I did, and I quickly bought one Heart Kit to make two hearts, and one Owl Kit to make two owls.

My first attempt at needle felting was met with only one accidental stab in my thumb (minimal bleeding, none on the owl) and a warm-and-fuzzy at the satisfaction one gets when repeatedly stabbing a sharp object into fur makes something stupid cute.

Hobbit and Herbert

Most of the time we spent in Vail was spent a) walking through Vail Village, b) swimming in the heated pool, c) drinking, and d) playing Cribbage. Much in Vail was closed because we hit it at that two-week period between Ski Season and Summer Season, but I liked seeing the Village when it’s totally empty. Very picturesque and quaint at parts, modeled after small German villages … which, of course, I love.

That Sunday was Dear’s birthday, and we went out to meet a couple friends of his that night. The Bartender served the most clever Birthday Car Bomb I have seen, and probably inadvertently started a new Birthday Tradition for us.

From left: Sock-in-progress, shot of Jameson/Bailey's, half-pint of Guinness. Knitting at the bar bonded me with the Bartender (a crocheter).

In this picture: my sock-in-progress (a tribute to the Yarn Harlot), the car bomb shot, and a candle cleverly placed in a beer mat. It was lit by the time Dear came back from the bathroom.

As for the beanie that I finished for Dear’s birthday … a simple enough pattern (2x2 rib done on straight needles, then seamed up one side), and the yarn was a dream to work with (Spud and Chloe sweater in olive green) after the Great Colorado De-Tangling.

This took four seconds to create and over an hour to un-do.

The hat came out fine, except his next one will definitely be done in the round. I didn’t want to mess with circulars on this trip (I don’t know why), but the seam came out less-than-pleasing (to me). Still looks cute on him.

Here are some more scenic photos of the drive and of Vail, simply because they make me happy.

Finished Object! Finished Object!

I love finishing projects. Especially when they are projects for myself. Not only do I get a sense of accomplishment and excitement from seeing something I’ve created stitch by stitch, piece by piece, yard by yard – but I love the excitement of choosing what to start next.

Yesterday after my first-of-ten yoga class, I took my sweaty body and red face to High Fashion Fabrics and picked up these
so that I could do this

I’d like to present my complete Damson shawl {rav link}, pattern by Ysolda. Knit with 80’s Black Out superwash merino from Light Brown Hare’s Etsy Store. This took (I’m guessing) a little over 500 yards of fingering weight. Since the pattern calls for about 440, I’m glad I took the advice of Ravelry knitters and KnittingReader and overbought. This pattern uses more than 440 yards of yarn and I would have been FURIOUS if I had reached the 547-stitch bind-off only to discover that I didn’t have enough to actually bind off.

My first shawl, and I’m very pleased. I’m enjoying wearing it today and I think it will be a lovely accessory to take on the plane with me to Vail in a little over a week.

Now the other kind of excitement: the excitement of the next WIP, also to be my travel-knitting. I have this

to make a ribbed beanie for Dear. (Spud & Chloe Sweater in some kind of olive-green color.) Could be a quick plane knit and would be nice for him to have in Vail if it’s chilly at night. I know he won't need it in Houston for the next 7 months at least, but it’s also a quick vacation project that will leave me satisfied and I can’t wait to try out the Spud and Chloe. There is also this

to make the Takeout for Two {rav link} socks from my Joy of Sox book (all the stuff towards the left). This is Debbie Bliss Amalfi, a nice cotton/rayon/linen blend that I’m hoping will be good lounging around the house socks even in the dead heat of summer in Houston -- three colors: light blue, a darker blue and brown. Aaaaaaaand I've got this

Knit One Crochet Two Ty-Dy. I want to make a pair of socks out of this, but I’m thinking they’d look great with a funky insole from Cat Bordhi and I want more mindless knitting than that for vacation.

In a totally unrelated subject, I’ve got yoga class #2 tonight. I’m doing Hot Yoga for ten consecutive days. Yesterday was true Hot Yoga – they heat the room to between 102 and 105 degrees with about 80% humidity. Today is Flow Yoga – slightly cooler with the temperature between 95 and 98 degrees and 40% humidity. While that still sounds fucking hot, it should be a little easier and hopefully I’ll avoid the dehydration headache that I had all last night. Then it’s off to buy new athletic shoes for running and hiking. Lord help me, my boyfriend is turning me into one of those outdoor athletic types, totally against my will. I wonder if I can learn to knit and hike at the same time?

Take the Edge Off

This weekend was a busy whirlwind of family visiting (Dad from Illinois), moving (my brother), working (me representing at the Annual Boy Scout Fair), baseball, fireworks and eating (ball park food, Italian, jumbo pretzel, kolaches, Mexican brunch). In the midst of all that, I still found time to buy yarn.

Five more skeins of Lion Brand Thick & Quick in black for Big Brother’s Never Ending Humongous Yeti Cabled Afghan. Purchased with the aid of visiting Dad – he brought Big Brother a baseball glove and me a Michael’s gift card. Given the sad state of my current bank balance, I re-gifted (something I don’t usually do with gift cards) and purchased as many more skeins as I could, and a little something for myself.

Since when do I cross-stitch? I’ve never really had the desire to, but for some reason on the way to the store, the urge hit me and I decided to run with it. I went for the cutie-pie pillow case (Eeyore is hands-down my favorite terminally depressed children’s literature character) and figured it was as easy starter-kit as could be managed. Everything is included (even the needle!) except the embroidery hoop, of which I have my Nana’s. Not sure when this will commence, but it’s kind of nice to have something else on the horizon, if not on the needles.

All of this was a direct reaction to this:

BassPro Outdoor World. A somewhat terrifying experience for my non-camping bug-attracting personality.

Let me explain something. I don’t camp. I’ve been camping twice: once for Girl Scouts where I slept on a stable floor and my mom’s allergies were so bad she sounded like the teachers in Peanuts cartoons. The second time for a week with my 8th grade class, called Outdoor Education – kind of like a field trip, but with tents and campfires and more psychologically damaging. Now I live with an avid camper who has reminded me on an almost daily basis that he wants to go camping. SOON. With a tent. And sleeping bags. Outside. Away from home. I’ve done everything I can to put this off, but he keeps buying supplies (gas for the camping stove, pots and pans, silverware) all meant for camping. I’m afraid I’m running out of weekend excuses, all commencing at the worst time of year in Houston –soon the temperature will not drop below 75 degrees even after the sun sets. Humidity is thickening and the bugs are getting bigger. Please keep me in your thoughts, fellow blog-readers … I fear the end of my non-camping persona is coming to an end, and I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it.

Coming up next: Adventures in Blocking, or I Hope I Never Have to Bind Off 547 Consecutive Stitches Again (the Completed Damsen).

In Which Nearly Invisible Progress Is Made

I swear I've been knitting. Girl Scout's Honor. I just seem to have very little to show for it.

I've reached the stockinette portion of Damsen, and it's really turning out quite lovely. The color is blackish with greyish bits in some lights, dark blue with greyish bits in other lights, and even has tints of green in bright sunlight ... so it will really match anything.

It's actually much bigger than this ... it's just too big to lay out flat.

The goal is to finish before we go to Vail (t-minus 16 days and counting) so that I have fabulous neckwear to wear around and be effortlessly fabulous. And I have the added bonus fun of choosing a new vacation project (re-start the frogged tye-dye socks?). One would think with the small amount that I have left that I would be able to crank it out in 16 days, but there is Dad-visit looming (this weekend!) and this pesky thing called "work" that seems to suck up a fair amount of my time and energy (who does that?). Let's just say I'll be pleased with myself if and when it happens.

The other thing sucking up time and energy? My lovely Dear. As much as I love him (and I do), the fact that I am now 10 lbs and a size bigger than when I met him is not putting me in a happy mood. Now that our twitterpation has worn down a bit, we're both realizing that we need to get back into our somewhat physically active habits and maybe cutting back on the booze during the week wouldn't hurt either (but it sure is kind of boring). We've had some lovely bike rides on the weekends, but now running has entered the conversation. I'm willing to give this a try, but I have not forgotten the near-crippling shin splints that I experienced the last time I was a runner. My running career lasted about 6 months before my shin splints were so bad I finally went to see a professional sports trainer ... who then informed me that I had multiple hairpin stress fractures on both legs and I sure as hell better stop running if I didn't feel like spending the next 6 weeks in double leg casts. So I switched to low-impact and haven't had too much trouble with that ... but now it's time to step up the game. I'm hoping a combination of starting out slow, hot yoga supplements and serious stretching before and after a run will save me from the horrible pain I experienced previously. Mostly? I just want to be able to say I tried.

Have temporarily put the BSJ and Rob's Monster Afghan on hold. Damsen took over my interest and I'm not looking back. Sure hope that afghan gets finished by July, though .....

After a weekend of nice relaxation interspersed with physical activity and house parties, I am faced with another Monday. Thankfully, as I write this, it is mostly over and I have some tasty Ahi tuna steaks and acorn squash in my plans for the evening. Dear and I have begun a semi-diet. We both want to lose some weight, and so we are kick-starting with an Acai berry body cleanse and no alcohol during the week. Today is day two of the acai berry pills (four a day, two in the morning and two at night) and we’re both already feeling some assertive effects from it. Wish me luck.

Last week I started the Damson shawl (Rav link) by Ysolda Teague. A pretty little shoulder wrap, I found some hand-dyed from Light Brown Hare that fit my requirements of being black-for-versatility-but-not-too-black-for-boredom.

Photo taken from Light Brown Hare's Etsy Store.

After a few false starts, I found a Rav group that mentioned the same troubles I was having with my eyelet rows not coming out straight and took some advice and finally got it right. Made some nice progress over the weekend and am eager to use this as my plane knitting during our trip to Illinois this weekend. I have mental images of myself in this shawl as an effortless and graceful beauty. Because in my mental images, my personality flaws are overshadowed by beautiful knitting. What?

This shawl is larger than it appears.

Dropped in to Knitting in the Loop this weekend for some much-needed advice on my Baby Surprise Jacket. Turns out I was doing it right, it really does just look like that as you are knitting it. But I was told to press on, and so press on I will. As soon as I buy another skein to finish the damn thing.

I receive daily emails offering Houston-area deals for great discounts – it’s called Groupon. Today I purchased two tickets to see a polo match at the Houston Polo Club and I could not be more excited. I’ve always wanted to go to a polo match. Now I think I must buy a sun hat so I can wear that and big dark glasses while I go amongst the field pressing the bits of dirt back into place between chukkas. Don’t spill my mimosa! Also? We bought Roller Derby tickets. We are nothing if not diverse in our interests.

Next project survey: socks for me, hat for Dear, something else entirely??

A Resurrection Blog Post

Holy Crap. Has it really been this long? I suppose it has. Time flies when you’re dealing with a new relationship, the holidays, the death of a loved one’s loved one and moving all in a four month period. But I am still standing on the other side of it, and very very happy with my new loved one and looking forward to creating some kind of routine, or at least the vague semblance of one. So to celebrate this pending Easter holiday, I give you: The Resurrection of Knot For Knothing Knitteds.

Through all of these life-changing changes, I knit. I finished the Somewhat Cowl (by Knit and Tonic) sweater for my mom’s Christmas gift, and promptly presented it to her without taking a finished photo. So stay tuned – it will happen. I made a set of coasters for my brother to have in his new home with his new wife (pending in July) that have their initials embroidered. Again, not photographed. Whoops. Also made the monster socks for Tina's Brother-In-Law and a pair of fingerless gloves for Bill's birthday. Still no photographs. I'm a bad knitter.

I made a pair of socks for myself – the BFF Socks by Cookie A, knit with a yummy chocolate milk colored Malabrigo. Took a brief knitting hiatus between sock #1 and sock #2, and cranked out sock #2 in less than a week. Awesome – my first pair of wearable hand-knit socks made just for me! I wore them to work, happy as a clam, and then tossed them into the laundry and promptly lost one somewhere in the dark loads of the abyss. I’ve never lost a sock in the laundry EVER and the first one is a hand-knit?!?! FML. Here’s hoping it shows up in the sleeve of one of Dear’s hoodies. Already checked the corners of the fitted sheets, and that’s a no-go.

One sad and lonely sock.

Started work on my first Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann. Started over a couple times due to second guessing the stitch count, and because this is one wonky looking sweater until you can get it folded up and assure yourself you’re reading the directions right. Kind of fun to knit by the seat of your pants, though. On a brief hold because I’m second guessing myself again, but a stop at Knitting in the Loop this weekend ought to ease my troubled mind (they’re doing a KAL on the BSJ, so if someone there can’t help me, then I’m truly screwed).

BSJ unfolded

BSJ folded

Aaaaand I’ve picked up the dreaded black afghan again. Dreaded only because it’s a MONSTER for my 6’3” brother, now gone from a year-old birthday present to a wedding gift. It’s knit in panels, and each panel takes approximately 2 ½ skeins. I’ve done four of at least six, probably more like seven or eight, panels. Each panel is about 7’ long so that it goes from his chin to toes. Hard to photograph because it’s all black, but you can get an idea.

That's laid out on our Queen-Size bed. Told ya it was big.

The wedding is not until July, but I still have at least one and a half panels to do. Buggerall.


Anything else? A few other ideas pending, but nothing that I’m ready to post out to the blogosphere quite yet. A few other project ideas on the horizon, and I’m hoping to start dyeing again soon so that I can have something to not only put in my Etsy store, but I can create a huge mess in my very own kitchen like I used to when my mom would let me finger paint using my toes and chocolate pudding. Plan to cast on the Damsey Shawl by Ysolda Teague tonight or tomorrow (depends on if I get ironing done in a timely manner tonight), so look for more stitching (and definitely more bitching) in the coming weeks.