Category: I may be knitting a ranch house

Which do you want first: knitting or yarn p*rn.  Yeah, I thought so. 

Two skeins from Brooklyn Handspun yarns in Forest Floor (r) and the ever-popular Chocolate Covered Cherries(l).  Aren’t the colors great?  One is a gifty, but the other will join my ever-expanding sock yarn stash.

Some Mama-E goodness.  From left, PoMo (SO pretty, but hey, I might be a little biased), Mermaids (preppy spring goodness), and the skein I won in Mama’s contest, Lollygirl, named after the lovely founder of Project Spectrum.  I just checked, and there are six spaces left in the Mama-E Project Spectrum Club.  Did you get a load of May’s yarn?

I was a little sad yesterday as I was supposed to be taking a mini-vacation today, but had to cancel due to too much schoolwork.  Getting pretty yarn in the mail helped to cheer me up.  And I’ve worked hard all day and made good progress on said schoolwork.  So even though it stinks, I’m glad I stayed home.

Now for a little knitting content.  I hosted Crafty Friday earlier in the weekend.  Yeah, it was on Friday.  You get the picture.  And lucky for me, Laurie was there to help me get my two socks on two circulars going.  She’d helped me to cast on at SnB on Tuesday, but I was pretty tangled up until Friday. I can’t tell you how proud I am to be knitting 2×2!  These are my Sockapaloooza socks, for which I’ve changed yarn and patterns way more times than I ought to have.  I’m settled now on something I think will look nice and that I can finish in the next few weeks.  To sweeten the deal, I’m going to send the yarn I had thought of using to my Sockee.  She knits beautiful socks, and I’m excited to see what she makes from the Chlorphyll yarn I bought from Celia.

In other Crafty Friday news, Chad came and worked on his quilt (when he wasn’t playing Napoleon Dynamite), Dana worked on her cross stitch baby blanket, Jennifer (who learned to knit at the first Crafty Friday) is cooking on her scarf.  Her stitches are perfect!  Liz is making the gauntlets from Alterknits–beautiful in a pale pink Manos, and her charming husband Trevor taught himself stranded knitting (I think I have the right name for it) and had lots of thoughts about felting and how to play with colors.  Lauren finished up handmitts (which fit me PERFECTLY, but I gave them back), Cari cooked on her cotton Hourglass Sweater from LMKG.  Carmela worked on a new scarf on HUGE needles, and I’m not sure what Jeannie worked on…she seemed to spend a lot of time helping the rest of us out!  Noelle, ever the generous sweetie, had a wonderful orange roving that she spun, and that she let everyone who wanted to do so, spin.  Then, as she left, she handed me the bobbin and gifted the yarn to me.  I forgot to take a picture, but it goes well with the yarn that I purchased for the Loop-d-loop paisley bag. 

Yesterday I returned a boatload a cone of pink mohair to Village Wools.  I bought it with a project in mind, but that project wants a different (black) yarn. Yes, I want to make that wrap, and as Cari noted, I will get kicked out of the East Coast if I wear anything other than black. While there, I saw Scout and her dyeing board.  Go look at her blog to see the cool stuff she’s doing.  She’s not selling it, so don’t get your hopes up (but try to change her mind, ok?).  I was tickled when she introduced me as "PoMo" to one of her friends.  Don’t you just love having another identity, bloggers?

Time to get back to the grindstone, the grindstone that has prevented me from being in a tub with friends, under the stars, content with a mini vacation.  I’m not bitter, I promise!

Let me start with my final SP7 package and reveal.  Michelle from Soap Fibar Gal in Cape Cod is the Queen of Spoiling PoMo Golightly!  Get a load of these goodies.

See the skein of handspun all tied up with the lovely ribbon?  And that tempting felted je ne sais quoi peeking out from the wrapping?  Wouldn’t you have ripped it open, even if you’d just spent hours on an airplane, and it was 12:30 a.m.?  Of course you would.

Look!  A Lucy Bag in a fabu tomato color.  I may get nutty and line this baby with lots of pockets to hold knitting stuff.  Because, as you must surely agree, this bag longs to be my knitting bag.  I hear her crying from the kitchen chair where she’s perched right now:  "Put your Jaywalker in me.  C’mon baby, I NEED a project!" 

But lest you worry that poor Lucy has never had the chance to hold anything in her tomato-y embrace, take a look at all these goodies!  In her sweet note, my fabu SP wrote that there were things to help with my gauge issues (ah, she’s an avid reader!), something to keep my feet warm (yes, they’re still cold!), something to hold my knitting (Lucy, my love!), and something to help me survive the dryness in NM, along with other goodies.  Um, SP, how did you manage to knit all those socks on your blog while putting together this package?  Do you ever sleep, dear SP?

What was Lucy holding?  A knitting journal, 0000 dpns (ok, are you trying to be funny!?!), a nifty gauge ruler, my favorite Yankee Candle scent, Clean Cotton, handlotion, soaps by the soap gal herself (or so I’m assuming!), two skeins of Knitpicks Landscapes in Mesa, a variety of bubble bath goodies, a candle, and fabrics in Project Spectrum pink.  Isn’t she the best?  Thanks for all of the wonderful treats, Michelle.  You really made this so much fun for me! xx

While waiting in the Minn/St. Paul airport yesterday, I saw TWO knitting pals from NM:  Jenny, on her way back home from London, and Kim, on her way back from a shower in CT. We were all on the same flight, all had knitting with us.  Jenny mentioned some new stash that I can’t wait to see posted on her blog.  Go check it out.

I had a bad airport moment, though, when a young man told me that UCONN had lost yesterday.  They weren’t up by much as Neal drove me to the airport, and so, yes, I’m sad to say, I lost faith in my boys.  Luckily, when I called Neal to let him know I was home, he set me straight.  The crisis passed.

While visiting Neal I had digital cable Internet hooked up at his house.  I can’t deal with dial up while there any more, and now, dears, I don’t have to.  We even went to the computer salvage place in town and got him a new second-hand computer.  He’s pretty pleased with it in his Neal-ish way. 

Notice how I’m tracking back?  Because even though the new system was set up on Saturday, I haven’t had a chance to update here.  So it’s ten days, all at once. 

I had a great time in TN with MB.  I "forced" a shopping spree on her:  makeover, new shoes, new purse, new clothes.  I think I may look for a job as a personal shopper.  It’s fun to get other people to spend their money!  Especially when they buy you a bag to match their new one.  Aren’t I a spoiled little sister?  We booked our beach house for this summer (we’ll be in Old Saybrook, CT this year, a change from our usual OBI trip), got my taxes mostly done (note to self:  Income Earned statement is a critical component to tax processing), and perhaps almost as fun as hanging out with my cool niece and nephew was my visit to my favorite TN LYS, Threaded Bliss Yarns. 

I adore TBY.  I adore Sheila.  I adore Rudy.  Sheila and I were wishing we could trade lives…I’m envious of her beautiful yarn store.  There is a WALL of Cascade 220.  I bought pinks and green for my Noni purse (scroll down on the Threaded Bliss Yarns post to the Baguette.  That’s the one I’m making).  I was debating colors, normally not big on making the color shown, but those pinks and green together are perfect.  Perfect and pretty.  I can’t wait to finish up some socks and get that baby knit.  I also got a preview of Mason Dixon Knitting.  Yes, the artwork is Hatch.  Yes, it’s a big book.  Yes, you want a copy, and so do I.  Thanks, Sheila, for a fun morning!

Finally, or rather, to start this big adventure, there was AWP in Austin.  I love Austin.  It’s plain and simple.  Dinner at Guero’s one night–delish!  Here’s my new life goal:  I will be a writer who lives in a hotel permanently.  And that hotel will be the divine Driskill.  You may visit me there.  Friday night Valerie, Bernard, and I had drinks in the bar.  A pint of Guinness poured by an older Irish gentleman for me.  Yes.  Then after dinner elsewhere, Valerie and I persuaded our companions to return, to just take a look at this treasure.  So we sat at the piano bar, listened to sweet music, and drank a little Texan drink.  We ended the night back at our hotel, danced a dance or two to the rocking (!) band, then Valerie and I enjoyed the piano playing of Mark Sundeen, author, dancer, pianist, singer. By the way, pick up a copy of The Making of Toro.  You will laugh.  You will thank me.

I’m back on East Coast time, so it’s very late for me.  I’m going to toddle off to bed now.