Charity knitting

In college I was a member of Alpha Phi Omega--a service fraternity. I loved it. I love the friends I made through it, including the most-loved JLG. I like that we have this in common. We enjoy helping others, and it makes up for the really horrible things we do to each other.

A frat bro (who is a girl) contacted me because I knit, and asked if I would like to make some baby hats that her church was rounding up. SURE! Then I gathered up my FABULOUS knitting group that I love more than words, and EIGHT of us sat around making hats. Some for 5 hours. It was great and wonderful and amazing.

Just doing something I love for people who need it made me feel like I had paid a bit of my rent for my time on this earth....Plus I got rid of some stash.

Oh, and C threw away my plastic needles because I couldn't give them away...and I couldn't really get myself to do it. C did it...

THANK YOU to all the knitters--and to C for trashing the needles.

Stuff I like that I didn't think I'd like but I guess I do.

I do not like lace.

Nope not me. Don't like it. Don't like shawls. Don't wear them. Nope.

So why am I so fascinated with this

It's called Forest path. Estonian Lace knitting. Pretty Righteous.

It's stunning. It's made of entrelac lace knitting. It's like getting a doctorate in nanotechnology, while at the same time becoming a brain surgeon.

Someone, someone evil, thought "hey, entrelac is really complicated...so is lace. VOILA...ENTRELACE."

sigh. and I'm not this person.

Yet somehow, what I would buy in a store, and what i would spend hours upon HOURS of making for myself and then wearing...completely two separate things. Not even remotely related. WEIRD.



Like this.

I covet this.

I long for this. It takes every ounce of self-restraint not to beat on BLs door for some fingering weight yarn and make this RIGHT THIS MINUTE.

I've been practicing self control all week.

Must finish Christmas...when all i want to do is knit lace...

and i'm not a lace person.

except...i guess i am.

Blocking

Okay, it's drying now

I used wires

It looks really nice. And smells all lavender fresh (suave is your friend).

However...new rule. NO BLOCKING WITH A 4-YEAR OLD.

"Why are you using those?"
"Why are they green?"
"Can I touch it"
"Why can't I touch it?"
"You're touching it."
"Why are pins sharp?"
"Why are they called pins?"
"Why is it called yarn?"
"It's really soft."
"Why do I have to stop touching it?"
"What are gypsies?"
"Why are you going to sell me?"

Soaking

Now for the scary part.

I am going to take the malabrigo lace...and put it in water...with shampoo...

I am terrified.

I've read everything on the internet I could. I've only done blocking once/twice....but this is going to be a gift and I want to do it really right.

I'm terrified.

Pray to the blocking gods for me.

Knitting, Muffins and Dingly Danglies

Such a fun night.

Went to the knitting group at Panera last night. It was packed with some of my fav people--Alise, Candice, Bianca, Azar--and I got a lot of work done on the x-mas gift. Which is good because straight stockinette is starting to wear thin. Thank gosh it's awesome yarn.

So we're there and there are some new kids...Bethany...turns out it was another knitting group that just happened to be meeting same time/same place. We just merged seamlessly. We were telling yarn tragedies...like Vicki's yarn being stolen out of her cart at Costco...Alise washing a washable sweater only to have the three-needle bind-off come loose and ravel.

I told them of my trip to Hunt County yarns and my own horror.

So we go to HCY. Lovely store, and I'm walking around while A watches the monkey...At some point gwen finds a skein of rayon ribbon yarn in pink, orange and purple (this will be important). And she tangles the crap out of it. In fact, it's so tangled that I question if it was all gwen--or gwen is some sort of tangling prodigy. So I offer to untangle...how long can it take.

If you're wondering why I didn't buy it...because it was pink orange and purple. See told you important. It was seriously pretty dang fug.

It took an HOUR to detangle.

That said I did walk out with Knitted Lace of Estonia and some Zephyr lace weight yarn in sage.It's a wool/silk blend that I'm just in love with. I'm sure I could find it cheaper online, but dang it's pretty...

I'm totally loving this book, and it is by the strongest willpower imaginable I have not cast on ANYTHING. Yeah, I'm THAT good.

So I brought my purchases to the knitting group...where all oooheeed...and ahhhheeed. And at 8:00 when we had been there for 1.5 hours, they brought us free muffins! What could be nicer.

Yarn porn

Knitting with Malabrigo lace is wrong. I am dirty for lusting after it. It is...most definitely...yarn porn.

It is the stuff that you go on the internet for after your person has headed to bed...and you just need some "downtime." It is what clogs your inbox and takes up MEGABYTES in your hard drive.

I ordered my new options needle case in the poppy fabric (LUST FOR IT)

Here's what the insides will look like:

Now to figure out what the remainder of my b-day will go towards. Oh, the joy.

Casting off and casting on

I finished my scarf last night in the knotted pattern. Definitely needs to be blocked, which I'll try to do this weekend.

It's very long and very warm, and I'm really in love with it. It's so different, and just a great color. I don't know what I'll do with the remnant. I thought I'd keep knitting, but I was seriously verging on dr. suess territory with how long it was getting. Once fully blocked, it will be STUNNING.

Thank you to Alise who gave me a common sense guide to wet blocking. I had been doing the spray bottle kind. She uses..SHAMPOO and CONDITIONER. How smart. Obviously just for the natural fibers. After all, what's wool other than hair.

Andrew offered to help me block it last night, but I've got so much blocking to do. I'm just going to wait.

I cast on a wrap last night in the Malabrigo Lace--this yarn is obscene. It's like knitting with air, only soft and deliciously dyed air. I'm addicted. I want to make EVERYTHING using this yarn. It's for an x-mas gift.

That said. I'm a good 60% thru my christmas list. I've gotten A's entire family done, except for the project I have to finish...then I have a few friends done, and a few kidlings done. I feel pretty confident about this year--thank you etsy.com

Bad date with a new guy

I have learned that going to a new yarn store is kinda like a first date. You have really really big hopes (he will be the one, he will get my jokes, he will think i'm cute in that orange dress), and usually these hopes are horribly disappointed (unless you date my boy, then it all works out pretty well...that said, you date my boy and my knitting needles go thru your windpipe.)

I went to a new yarn shop. It was my b-day. I get to go. HA.

From the pics online, I expected massive amounts of selection, a smorgasbord of joy and alpaca, and undeniable things that would throw themselves into my bag in a frenzy of yarn lust.

Uh...no.

I think there was about 30-40 different yarn, and I'm being WAY WAY generous. Not a lot of color selection, and really limited on lace weight yarn. If you wanted to make a sweater, you're ordering. It did have a nice sitting area for knitting, and that took up a really large portion of the store--a REALLY large portion. I'm not sure how they pay rent. They had one TINY section of roving--if you're into that type of thing. It was like a revolving stand.

The people there were relatively nice. They didn't kick me. But computer illiterate. It took Andrew a while to check out because they had to put my name and address into their system. The woman doing so was using a hunt/peck method and she seemed to have short term memory loss. Because once she typed a letter--she was convinced it would NEVER be in the same place twice. So she started checking the entire keyboard again. From what I could guess, the prices were a tad higher than most places.

So it was a bad date. A very bad date, and I doubt there will be a second. And like every bad date, there is no getting around the good night kiss. No matter how bad it is...you gotta do the "oh...yeah...thanks...please please please don't use tongue..." kiss.

So I bought some lace weight yarn in a pretty blue color. It was the only thing there that I was pretty sure was a) cheap enough b) good enough I would use and c) I could make something with one skein so I don't have to come back and plead with the dye lot gods.

Though given my history with bad dates, I'm pretty sure the store is going to call me repeatedly and start dating one of my friends.

Where I've been

I do not handle stress or anticipation well. I don't enjoy tension or surprises or waiting for an answer. I have often wished for a fast forward button on my life. It's just I want to skip ahead to the end. And once I know how it ends, then I'm more likely to enjoy the journey.

Thus is why I've been incommunicado for the last days. My free time was given over to the political will as much as possible. But Tuesday is over, and my life has calmed down significantly.

On Sat, we drove up to SO Original in Olney. The owner is married to a coworker and it was their grand opening. This doesn't explain the 18 skeins of yarn I bought, but let's pretend it mitigates the crime.

I bought 10 skeins of Berocco Comfort DK in beet red for a baby blanket I'm going to make. I also bought seven in cornflower for a sweater gwen wants. I think I'm going to do the sherwood pattern again...because while in the store it was the only one I could remember the amount of yarn I would need. Note: next time take the laptop so I can do an instant "ravelry" search. I may go and look at my options just in case.

I also bought Berocco Ultra Alpaca fine in this peat mix. Not sure it was at all necessary, but it's pretty and I like it, and BL SWEARS that lace yarn does not qualify as stash. This is rationalization at its highest form. Plus you put alpaca and lace together--my ability to resist is crushed. It really looks more bluish in person.

That said, I'm a third of the way through my scarf. It will definitely need some blocking. It's all over the place. The problem is i have new needles. And my needles are lonely. I must start 77 new projects. I MUST.