'Ello Lovely!

I keep forgetting to share my pretty little friends that come in the mail! Not only am I going to share, but I feel the need to link some of them directly to a fun place to buy them from!


Clockwise from the left!

Whimzy Pinzy - Tippy Toes in Rainforest. Unfortunately the folks at Sonny and Shear had such a good sale it's all gone. I also linked you to the Whimzy Pinzy Etsy site, as I couldn't find a link to the colorway.

Tolkein - Three Irish Girls Sock Yarnista Sock Club. It's neat stuff - merino, bamboo and nylon, otherwise known as McClellan Fingering .

Mulled Wine - also from Three Irish Girls - Carys BFL. I'm smitten.

Ginger - Dizzy Blonde Studios. It's a beautiful copper semi solid. Super soft stuff! Warning - you have to stalk her Etsy store - it's that good kids!

Petit Fours - Three Irish Girls - Kinsale Merino Tencel. It's a 50-50 blend and very soft indeed.

In the center is yarn I named *ahem* from the Alpaca Yarn Company. You may all feel free to call it "Purple Rain." (I know I keep bringing it up, but it still makes me giggle!)

Enough pimpin'!

Oh wait, I take that back.

I also feel the need to yammer on in regards to Three Irish Girls Sock Yarnista. I REALLY liked how it's set up! You get a choice each month of 2 colorways - one that's more of a semi solid, and one that's nice and colorful! They also switch out base yarns which I like as well. As a knitter that is relatively new to sock knitting, it was nice to have options, and a good way for me to build my stash with a variety. I have determined that my personal favorite is the Cary's BFL which is a ginormous skein - 490 yards of superwash BFL and it's so very soft. If you are looking to join a club, I would say go for it on this one!

This year I am going to do a different club - Knitting Purls has gotten some Indie Dyers together and is doing their own sock club. It's six months, and there is a different dyer each month. I am looking forward to seeing what everyone has to offer! This month I ended up with another pretty from Dizzy Blonde Studios. Score!

Love, peace, and hair grease. I'm off to share some early Birthday cheer with Terri, whose day is on the 31st. Too bad Terri doesn't have a blog - I could pimp her out too!

Double Debbie Downier

Wine and some drugs. Seriously.

It's Friday. You know, TGIF and all that good stuff, right? Well, my quiet afternoon in the office turned into a moment of psychosis when I got a call from my landlord telling me that the condo below me had caught fire. Only after I started freaking out on him (I dropped a few f bombs like the poorly behaved young lady that I am) did he tell me it was on their deck, and that the fire men had to break into my outdoor storage unit just to check. Thanks buddy, you could have told me that FIRST!

At any rate, I came home to a scared puppy and a scared kitty, and a lovely haze in my condo, but that was it! I am just beside myself happy about that, and the fact that no one was hurt, nor was their any damage to people's personal belongings. I do, however, feel bad for the renter downstairs...

That's what you can see looking down from my deck (which has been checked for safety by the Fire Department, just so ya know). The open wall is where her storage unit is. You can't see it, but her hot water heater is in there. Mine is directly above hers.

We all use Natural Gas for hot water and heat. The main line runs right into the storage unit.

Seriously.

In a fiber related thought - I am very glad that I choose to keep my yarn in ziplock baggies. I know that some folks think it's a no-no, but I'm glad my yarn doesn't smell like a campfire! Could the couch and love seat smell like one? Yup, sure could. Could my clothes smell like one? Yup, sure could.

Yes, I am more concerned about the smell of my yarn. And of course my creatures big and small!

Mini-Me and our baby, Chulito - who is no baby, but we like treat him like one!

Two fingers is enjoying the open windows and says "Fire? Shoot... I didn't see no fire, but thanks for opening the window for me!"

Yes Mom, I'm Still Knitting On Your Sock

Gah. It wasn't even worth Plurking "I blogged" yesterday.

Today has been a better day! I'm relatively pleased with the fact that most of the snow has melted and that when I left work at 4:30 it was 53 degrees. I don't mind the snow, but I really prefer to have snow in an area that is equipped to deal with it. 'Nuff said.

For your general amusement, I have the following conversation to share:

Me: Why is there a half eaten piece of cheese in the garbage?

Mini-Me: Because I didn't want it

Me: Then why did you eat it?

Mini-Me: Because I wanted it.

(Insert massive, yet inaudible WTF here, please)

Ever since I made my favorite hippie a Calorimetry for her birthday, Wenders has wanted one. Being the wonderful person (cough-cough) that I am, I decided to make her one, and use the Noro Silk Garden again. In the process of making hers, I found out that Noro puts some fugly colors in their yarn. I can't quite figure out why the yarn people thought that we would enjoy something that is the color of cooked pork with streaks of royal blue in it. Seriously. Check it out:

Here's the dangerously close FO:

I will take a better picture in the sunlight. Promise.

Yeah..... No.

I'm not feelin' it today. I woke up late-ish, cranky and sore. Certain people are wonderful. Period. Kisses, hugs and hiney rubs to all of you.

Certain people belong on an island in a very cold location wearing nothing but their underwear and having nothing to eat but stale Corn Flakes.

In an attempt to make myself feel better, I will share with you a picture of roving.

I can haz yarnz.

For my FLS!

I ended up going with something that I didn't even consider. It's almost like Aporto, but it's more green than Aporto - it's almost like the reverse. Here check out Lake Chelan Heather. Because it's kind of neat, leave the window for that open and do a side by side comparison of Aporto. Same colors - different amounts of each.

I'm actually pretty surprised at my choice! I really thought I would go for a purple, but, hey, a girl only lives once, right?

Check this out! I made it for my girl Toby over the weekend. The grafting looks crazy in the picture, but honestly, once you put it on, you could never tell. A non-knitter would never know. Toby is a non knitter and when I pointed it out to her, she couldn't see what I was talking about. Yay.It was a really quick knit and used up less than a skein of Malabrigo. I would estimate you could do it with 2/3 of a skein. The pattern is the Crofter's Cowl and it's free on Ravelry.

Yes, mom, I'm continuing to work on your socks. I promise.

And so it goes....

Truly, there's not much to say today.

I have cast on two new projects in the last three days (no, one of them is not the FLS). I still have my mom's socks to finish. I am rather disappointed at my lack of knitting desire, but I really don't want to knit anything.

Why cast on new projects? No clue.

Why aren't I working on mom's sock? No clue to that either. Do the three rows I did Sunday count as progress?

Aren't I about to buy yarn for a sweater? Yup. Why? Because.

Meanwhile, I found this is funny.

Aporto Wins!!

Yup, that's what I'm going to use. I think my LYS even has some on hand!

Thank you for your input blog-buddies! I'm pretty darned excited about knitting this sweater.

That's all for now.

Wait! Not so fast - I have been asked to give some linkage to some yarnage and baggage.

This project bag was made by Acornbud! If you clickey on the linkey you will be taken to her Etsy site. This bag is made extremely well and I was completely blown away by it. Not that I want all of you to suffer, and you may want to kick me when I say this, but it's worth more than what she charges ;-)

This little pretty is from Allspunup. It was a gift. Thank you gifter!!!! Me likey.








Okie dokie! The green yarn is from Miss Bab's YummySock and Baby Yarn.
Left of that is Sanguine Gryphon Edios Sock in Meno, which isn't on their website anymore. It too, is super.
Left of that is Araucania's Aysen #813.
Left of that is from Creatively Dyed. She doesn't have this color on her website, so I just linkey to a page of what it is - superwash merino.



This most horrific picture is of another gift. Thank you gifter! Me likey this lots - very colorful and unique, which is very much like me!

It's by GypsyKnits and the color is Whirlygig



Ok, that's enough. Now go shopping courtesy of my linkeys.

Out With The Old.. And In With The New

So!

Last year my goal was to learn to knit socks. We'll consider that accomplished, shall we?

This year I am determined to knit a sweater. I've never knit one before.

Yes, I'm serious, and no, I'm not joking.

There are a few things about sweaters that scare me.

First, it's a commitment that requires stamina. My knees are quaking at the word commitment, and stamina? HA.HA.HA. Second, I cant' wing it. I am going to have to swatch. Sweet Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I'm going to have to swatch.

How on earth could swatching possibly scare me? Well, for a variety of reasons. Here they are, in no certain order:

What if I decide I don't like knitting with the yarn?

What if I pick out a yarn that is really the wrong yarn for the project?

What if I can't get the right gauge?

What if I can't get the right gauge?

What if I can't get the right gauge?

What if I can't get the right gauge?

Do I use bigger needles?

Do I use smaller needles?

You see my problem? Maybe I have just gotten lucky with socks and am halfway decent at eyeballing it - who knows. What I do know is that mentally it seems easier to rip out a sock than it is to rip out weeks worth of work on a sweater. Then again, maybe I am just lazy and would rather skip a swatch and dive right in than take the time to check my gauge. (Realistically speaking, I'll loose what, an hour, maybe two of my life here? Get over it, for Pete's sake!)

To over come my fears, and because they are just down right supportive people, Opal and Lisa are wanting to knit the same sweater. I think we are going to knit the sweater together, in our own crazy little Knit Along. And we are all going to knit the February Lady Sweater.

Now I have to pick a color. I like purple. I have a lot of purple in my wardrobe. If I had my way, I'd be using DIC Classy - Visual Purple. Or maybe something from Creatively Dyed - Jackie is nice, isn't it? Both are beautiful and both are calling my name. In a perfect world, I would have a credit card that automatically pays itself off monthly and has no limit!

As beautiful and noteworthy as these yarns are, I'm going to go with the practical side of my brain (err, well, let's say the previously unknown practical micron sized portion of my brain) and opt for using Cascade 200, simply because of the massive amount of color choices and the fact that it's rather inexpensive. I'm obviously in love with the following choices:

Aporto

Light Teal - which doesn't seem very light to me, but whatever, I'm cool with that

Midnight Heather

Italian Plum

If you know me well, you know that purple is my favorite color. It was hard to pick just one (insert whimper here) and so finally I decided that Italian Plum really did it for me. Just to be sure I did look at other websites to see the variance of color between photographs and TLE's seemed to be right in the middle. Perfect. Yes, all of that went into picking a shade of purple. God help me.

I need to buy the yarn, peeps.

Please.help.me.pick.a.color.

PLEASE!!!

So what else is new??

I know.. Megan posting on her blogs seems kinda new, right? As in where the hell have I been?

Well, life gets in the way sometimes. Basically, I have allowed work and life to suck the life out of me. Not good! It seems like for the last couple of months if my personal life hasn't been in shambles, work has. I have a bad habit of letting life get the best of me, and that's a bad thing. (I can see all of you, nodding in agreement - it's ok, I am nodding too) At any rate, a huge part of me just wanted nothing to do with blogging, because I felt like I would have to go and kind of re-live my craptastic day, and no one wants to hear about that!

Moving on! I have been having fun as of late. Here - I'll give you a quick run down:

1. I went to NH for Christmas. It was cold but it was still fun. (Wild turkeys - need I say more?)
2. Although I am missing her dearly, I had a fun time helping my favorite hippie move home to Massachusetts. Her going away party was oodles of fun.
   
3. I'm preparing to teach my first knitting class. (Please, share your experience!)
4. My chihuahua is staying with Mini-Me and I for the next two months. (He's the son I didn't give birth to)
   
5. I had the winning name in a "Name The Yarn Contest" - Paca Peds "Purple Rain". (Go check it out and buy a skein - think of me when you do!)

As for the prior blog post, in which I begged for suggestions here's what has happened:

1. Cabana Boy still remains elusive. I have high hopes that he's out there some where, I just have yet to find him and draw him into my madness.
2. The Christmas knitting went awry. The only one I accomplished was a hat for my sister. Mom's socks are still in progress, the hippie's beret is still in progress, and there is still yarn with names attached hoping to be used for next Christmas. (I will never knit for the holidays again unless I can complete it in a week or less. Period.)
3. I am going to share my pictures from SAFF. Seriously. I had a good time. I will go back next year.

On a VERY important note, I still have 2 skeins of yarn waiting to be claimed. RaeInWa, please let me know where to send your yarn, girl! If anyone knows this lovely knitter, please tell her to get in touch with me!

And now for some pictures. Enjoy. (I don't know why they look funky, and I'm not sweating it either - normally I do.)