Dogs Steal Yarn

Let's just call it "Yarn

Let's just call it "Yarn Binge with Peonies," shall we?



I went a bit nuts at ThreadBear. This pile will become my suki and a sweater. Which colors for which? You'll just have to wait till Suki Sunday to find out.

I GOT A LETTER FROM

I GOT A LETTER FROM MY BROTHER IN IRAQ!!!! My mom and his fiancee had both received some letters, but this is the first one that's reached me. He wrote it 5/8 and I got it yesterday. Which was really exciting. And then. AND THEN... this morning I got an email from him! They have one computer at the command center where they can enter emails that are then saved to disk, brought to Kuwait and sent from there. So a little bit of lag time but still much better than the mail has been. And he sounds good. His email was a bit grumpy, and he wants to come home, but he sounds GOOD. Oh...this is going to be a wonderful day.

We're having some trouble motivating

We're having some trouble motivating around here today.



I have a ton of work to do--two deadlines coming up fast--but I just want to lounge around and knit. The real danger of being a freelancer is the Siren call of the knitting. Sigh.

Last night was meeting number two of our new knitting circle. We had a great time. The two new knitters each showed up with a good amount of knitted scarf that looked quite good. We were joined by Fernanda, who's from Argentina and knits (incredibly quickly) by tucking one needle under each arm. The needle points then shoot forward and somehow stitches get made that way. I'd never seen anyone knit that way and I still can't wrap my head totally around the mechanics of it. It looked like a cricket rubbing its legs together and growing fabric. Fernanda's a very experienced knitter but has never used circular needles--just isn't done in Argentina, she says. She was fascinated by the socks on two circs method that Andrea and I were using, so she's going to pick up some circs and some sock yarn for our next meeting. Another convert! :)

And what was I doing last night? Frogging all twelve inches of the tank top I was making for a friend. Genius that I am, I somehow managed to screw up the math when deciding how many stitches to cast on initially, and then screwed up my horizontal measuring (which, I admit, I only did once because the gauge was right so it never occured to me to check my math skills). So I was knitting it in the round and it came time to split it to flat to shape the arm holes. Once it was on two needles it could lay flat and I realized that the tank that was supposed to be 38" was actually...are you ready for this? FORTY FOUR. And with WITNESSES in the house, no less! Nothing to do but frog it. Ugh. I cast on again with better math last night and am two inches back into it. Of course, it'll go a lot faster the second time around without all those extra stitches.

I was a Lit major. I never promised math skills.

Warm and cozy socks just

Warm and cozy socks just in time for..oh...erm...well, flip flop season...



Actually, with the weather we've been having, I may get quite a few more opportunities to wear these before I can officially transition into all flip flops all the time. I wear flip flops all summer because it's the closest I can get to going around the city barefoot.

I'm writing this quickly because I have to leave soon for an interview for an adjunct teaching position at Brooklyn College, where I'll be starting the MFA fiction program in the fall. I'd love to get the teaching experience, but I'm afraid it might be taking on too much to teach a class in addition to taking classes, writing, and still working. Especially since undergrad wasn't exactly yesterday. It might take me time just to get back into the swing of being in school. I don't know...I'll go to the interview, see how it goes, and make my decision once there's a decision to be made.

My mom got an email

My mom got an email today from my baby brother, still in Iraq with his Marine reserve unit. Sounds like morale is good, though of course he wants to come home soon. It was so good to have word from him. I guess I'll break out his sweater and stitch some more love into the second sleeve. I'm putting off casting on for the XL body...the thought of all those stitches over and over and over again....oy vey! It'll be so worth it when he's home safe and sound and wearing his sweater, though.

I'd post pictures of the sleeves, but they wouldn't be much to look at online. My brother, like my mom and I, likes to wear very simple things. We also wear a lot of black. Great to wear--not so great to take pictures of. The sweater I'm making for him is just a nice, simple rollneck, with rolled cuff and hem--100% stockinette 'cause that's what the kid likes. He asked for black and grey, so I made the right sleeve all black, and knit the left sleeve all black except for a 2-inch band of a really nice grey. It's Peace Fleece Zarya fog--mostly grey but with beautiful flecks of blue and purple. It's got wonderful depth, not just flat color. And the black is a rich, true black. The sweater body will be black with one 2-inch band of that same grey.

Hope he likes it. Hope he gets home long before it's finished.

Turned the heel, did that

Turned the heel, did that weird acrobatic cross-needle thing (that seems like it shouldn't work but does) to pick up stitches, turn the beast sideways and set up for the gusset, and now I'm in the home stretch of sassy sock number two!





I'm determined to wear these socks to our knitting circle on Tuesday.

Matt and Rob at Threadbear

Matt and Rob at Threadbear Fiber Arts are my new favorite fiber source. I'm good with color in person, but don't trust monitors (even my mighty Mac) and online pics of skeins to make color combination decisions, and you can't collect color cards for every yarn brand, can you? So I asked the Threadbear guys for a color consult for my Suki. Well, Matt came through with the most beautiful combinations! If you don't have your yarn yet for the Suki Knit Along (you ARE doing the knit along, right, folks?) I highly recommend them. Plus they're friendly and affordable. A hard-to-find combination of traits in the yarn shops here in the city.

Woohoo! Another box of yummy delicious yarn in my future.

Here's the first sleeve of

Here's the first sleeve of my mom's 3/4 sleeve pullover. At the rate it's progressing, it might morph into a gift for her birthday in Sept. The picture doesn't look so great--black yarn makes for less than exciting images, I guess, but I'm happy with the way it looks in person. That's an inch of seed stitch at the edge, in case it doesn't show.

I spent a good part of Sunday swatching for and then beginning the first sleeve of the sweater that popped into my head at 3 am. I've taken to calling it the monster sweater. I think (I hope) you'll see why when I have enough done to post pics of it.

Sadie (the little brown ball of evil at the top of this page) ate one needle of the set of bamboo circs I was using for the sleeve. Charming little dog. She's graduated from just stealing and "killing" skeins. I'm so proud. Ugh. It was my only size 8 12", and my 8/16" is waiting patiently in my brother's sleeve, so I thought I'd have to set the monster sleeve aside until I could get to the yarn shop the next day.

Then I remembered this little blue piece o' plastic I'd picked up during Friday's Fiberfest. It's a size 8 8". I didn't even know 8" circs existed. But there it was. Plastic needles aren't really my thing, but this was so tiny and blue, and the package was in Japanese. Well, I had to take it home with me, even though Andrea warned it was a wrist breaker. But it's knitting up that sleeve just fine and my wrists aren't bothered by it at all. It's fun to knit with, too. It looks like a teenage knitting elf's tool or something. Not totally real looking. I would say it looks like a Barbie needle but it's not pink and...well...I hate her. There, I said it.

Sassy Single Sock Seeks Mate

Sassy Single Sock Seeks Mate




Single non-smoking Lorna's Laces Sassy Stripes sock seeks same for sunny days spent in clunky black shoes and cozy nights snuggled together in the sock drawer. Weekend trips to the Spin Cycle Spa. Matching pattern not especially important, but matching gauge important. No argyles please!


Well, one sock down, one to go. Socks are my favorite subway knitting, so I figure I'll get the second sock done exclusively on the train and dedicate the rest of my knitting time to the 15,000 other projects I have going. Well, not really that bad. It just seems I have a lot of gifts to get done in the next couple of months, but I also want to make things for me. What about MEEEEE????

Yesterday's Fiberfest was fabulous, wonderful, awesome etc. A good time had by all. Andrea and I ogled yarn after lunch, then went to meet Staceyjoy, as planned. Her shop is terrific, full of beautiful things, and she's just great. So glad to have met her in person.

In the evening we were joined by Sarah and Lisa, who wanted to learn to knit. It worked out perfectly because Andrea and Sarah are both lefties and Lisa and I are righties. So we split up that way and by the end of the evening both newbies had a a number of nice rows of even stockinette. Fast learners! We're going to start a (maybe biweekly) knitting circle. Andrea and I didn't actually get as much knitting done as we'd planned--actually none, though Andrea did try out my spinning wheel and did incredibly well--actually spinning a consistent yarn (sportweight, no less) her first time out, but it was still a great time.

I had planned to cast on today for the corset sweater from the spring Interweave, but woke up at three this morning with a sweater in my head that just had to get out. Have I entered a new stage of my knitting addiction? I'm swatching for it now and will give more details once the swatching is done.

Very exciting day tomorrow. It's

Very exciting day tomorrow. It's going to be (the first annual?) Andrea and Cari's Woolly Adventure: A Fiberfest.

My friend Andrea is the Typhoid Mary of Knitting--she's spread the habit to at least three people I know of, including me. I hold her directly responsible for the particularly virulent form of Knitting Disease that I contracted. Anyway, we'll be checking out a yarn shop in the East Village, then heading back to my neighborhood in Brooklyn. We were originally planning to visit my spinning teacher, Prophet, but the shop'll be closed for some reason. Instead we're going to drop in on Staceyjoy. After that, it's back to my apartment where we'll sit around and knit for the rest of the day. And if she plays her cards right, maybe Andrea can try out my Louet. Yup. Big day. I've actually been looking forward to it all week!

Here's a photo of my

Here's a photo of my first-ever skein of handspun that actually looks like yarn. (The first practice stuff would probably look like a sheep if I knitted it up.) It's drying in the bathroom right now. In fact, I had to stand in the bathtub to take the picture. Definitely not enough room for a sheep in there, much to my chagrin. Anyway, when I wound the yarn from the bobbin onto the skeinwinder it was all nice and taut and smooth, but as soon as I took it off the skeinwinder for washing it all bounced back and went all sproingy on me, as you see here. Any spinners out there with some advice or insights on that?



Oh...and then there's this stuff:



That same wonderful man who adopted a sheep for me a few months ago came home with three pounds of merino roving for me the other day for our anniversary. What a guy!

So now I'm wondering, is it better to dye the roving before or after spinning? I'm thinking before. But then how to do that in an apartment? Hmmm.

A few months back, my

A few months back, my wonderful boyfriend adopted a sheep for me from Mountain Shadow Ranch. She's a yearling Costwold ewe named Hoshi. No, I don't have a sheep in my bathroom here in Brooklyn, as tempted as I am sometimes to have one. The boy sent a check to Teresa, who runs the farm, and in exchange I got to choose my sheep and at the end of the year I'll get her fleece. My Louet S15 and I are both VERY excited about that. I just got an email from Hoshi last night (amazing sheep--she can type, apparently) that included a new photo of her.



Cute, hunh?

Well, we're packing the dogs

Well, we're packing the dogs into a rental car and heading out of town for the weekend. A much needed little vacation. Nice to launch a blog and then skip town, hunh? I think I'll be bringing the tank top and my mom's pullover along for car knitting. We're stopping at my mom's on Sunday for Mother's Day dinner. I'll show her the sleeve and however much I've managed to finish then.

Here's my most recent finished

Here's my most recent finished project, a baby sweater for a friend of the family's new son:

Here I go, officially tossing

Here I go, officially tossing my (circular) needles into the blog ring. Weeeeeeeee!

I've been reading the knitting blogs for quite a while now, and thought it was time to jump in and share some of my work too. I've got four projects going right now:

1. A sweater for my brother, who's a Marine reservist currently in Iraq. Hopefully he'll come home long before I finish the sweater. I have a sleeve and a half done so far, and I'm using Peace Fleece for it. He's enormous, so I'm using a hell of a lot of Peace Fleece. (6'4"!)
2. A 3/4 sleeve pullover for my mom out of Brown Sheep cotton fleece. I've got half of one sleeve done so far. (Can you tell I like to do the sleeves first?)
3. A tank top (no sleeves, so I actually had to start with the body) for a friend's upcoming 30th. She shall remain nameless, just in case she sees this before the big day.
4. Socks for me! My first pair. I'm using Lorna's Laces Sassy Stripes on two circs. I'm in the homestretch on the first one.

All of these projects are being knit in the round. I'll knit in the flat if I have to, but definitely prefer not to. And even when knitting flat pieces, I prefer to use circular needles. Addis, of course. :)

Pictures of the projects to come soon.