Travelling Abounds

I'm off to traveling tomorrow. I will start with a weekend trip to Portland. My grandmother is from a tiny village in Greece and there are enough people from that little village that have immigrated to the West Coast that they have started having a Village Reunion every summer. I've never been so it should be fun. We will be staying with my Great Aunt Marina who I haven't seen in about 20 years.

I'm going to knit her a pair of socks while I'm traveling there out of this:


It is Sushi Sock yarn from The Unique Sheep in the Autumn in the City colorway. It looks like summer to me... :) It is Superwash+Bamboo and I Love it!









I'm going to try to hit a few yarn stores while I'm there and I'm also going to stop by the Oregon Brewers Festival
And have some yummy beer while I wait for my mom, uncle, and grandma to arrive.

After Portland I'm off to Upstate New York to visit friends. More blog later, must pack now!

Olympic Trials

The knitting Olympics are technically only every 4 years during the winter Olympics but I'm going to practice with the summer Olympics as an "Olympic Trial". The idea being to begin a project at the Opening ceremonies and finish by the Closing ceremonies. It should be something challenging. Since the Olympics are falling during my train trip to Colorado (lots of knitting time) I've decided to take on 2 Olympic Events. I'm going to be pulling up 2 projects from WAY back.

Project 1: Pixie Cables baby afghan






<-----The blue/green cabled blanket





I have had this booklet for at least 15 years. It has both crochet and knit patterns, but I only knew how to crochet back then. I remember looking at the cables and thinking that that would probably be the softest prettiest blanket of the bunch but that I didn't know how to knit, and mom could only knit and purl and was too busy trying to remember how to do it herself to actually teach me (and I had NO attention span for learning... It was probably more me...). I still have the book so in a weird way I think I'll feel a circle of completion to finally knit the first project I had ever wanted to knit. If I can knit that "unattainable 'cause its knitting" afghan from way back it will be quite the cool thing. So, until August I need to find some yarn for it. I was originally knitting this baby another one of my mitered baby blanket patterns but the stripes are annoying me and I think that one is not going to get finished. I don't think I want to use the Blue Sky Cotton for this one because the cables require something with a bit more elasticity, but I also don't want to go straight acrylic or wool. It would be really cool to do this in something organic but that might be a budget stretcher. hmmm... maybe panda cotton?

Project 2: Argyle Socks

In a random pile of old pattern pamphlets that my mom somehow gleaned from someone else I have patterns from 1940. Absolutely classic and fairly clean instructions for knitting argyle.




















Early in my kntting career just after I started doing socks I bought 4 colors of a super wash wool that I thought I'd make fair isle socks with. I spent WAY too much on the yarn and I don't even know if its enough to make 2 whole socks with so.... Not Gonna Happen. Instead I'm going to use it for argyle! That way I'll definitely have enough for the argyle part and I can use bits of different colors for the heels and toes, and it should use less yarn than fair isle would have since I'm not carrying the yarns around the whole row.

More to come on these...

Moving along

This is going to be one of those 'random' posts. Other people seem to do random Thursdays. I think I'm just going to have to do a random Monday.

1. Tulip on Crack is finished except for sewing in the ends.














Its still awfully cute, and I've started a little ear flap hat for her big sister to match.

2. We did win lots at the county fair this year...



















And those ribbons don't even include the BBQ!

3. I'm going to send in my entry for the Lambtown spinning contests July 19th in Dixon. I'm probably nuts, but it just sounds like fun.


4. Pebbles has just turned 10!

I got Pebbles from the Milo foundation as a kitten when K left me outside of Safeway while he ran in to use the ATM. Less than 5 minutes later I had a kitten. (K now knows better than to leave me alone at pet adoptions)

10 years later she is still the queen of bitchy spoiled kitties. And still quite the round fluff ball. She has stared down a hawk and was bit by a raccoon yet had no other scratches on her.

Many more years pebbles!


5. I got a new cell phone, after I was no longer able to charge my old phone. I got a Samsung Glyde . Its pretty cool. The pictures in this post were all taken on it! Considering our actual camera sucks, the pictures look decent. It also has a web browser (and I get 1 month of free browsing!) and can do movies and music too. Its definitly a step up for me but less of a jump than switching companies to get an Iphone.

More when I'm feeling less random. I'll start temping next week and I'm going to do some traveling in August.

Crack

Warning! Mature content! Not for the weak!

It can be addictive.
It can rule your life.
You think "but everyone else is doing it" or "I don't have an addictive personality, I can try it and leave it.....".
You think you can pick it up and just do a little.
You know people who have tried it and haven't had lasting side effects.
You also know people who have fallen into the cycle of highs and lows.
It is expensive.
The high may last for a full day before cutting you off.
The rush is incredible, It draws you in and won't let you go until its done.
You will find yourself scraping the bag for any last little bit until its all gone.
You may have to get more....




What am I referring to?


This.














The Dream in Crack Tulip Sweater
Isn't it just too cute! Aren't the colors too sweet!

I didn't think I would succumb to the trendiness, little did I know that when faced in person with this kit..... The wool fumes overcame me. I saw the kit. I had to knit it. I cast on immediately. I was halfway done by dinner. I would have been done in 24 hours if I hadn't picked up the button band like I was actually on crack. I ripped it back, then reclaimed the high by knitting the sleeves and I'm about ready to re-attack the button band. The baby I'm knitting this for isn't even due until October but I will be done in a total of 3 days (if not for the crazy button band it would have been 24 hours).

I paid more than it is listed on that website... but I still have this much left over...













I'm going to make matching little hats for the baby and her big sister. Just to prolong the high.

You've had your fair warning. Good luck.

Creating without (many) pictures

I think I am a creative person. I like making things. The things I make may not be gorgeous but I always enjoy the process and seeing results, whatever they may be. Lately I've been branching out a bit.... the county fair is a good starting point, I entered the Potato Pirate contest and the Marshmallow monster contest.
My potato is the big ship on the blue (so stable that they leaned a less sucessful entry on it!) I called my pirate "Yukon Goldbeard" and my marshmallow monster is Cuthulu in green on the far right with the blue base. Both won 1st place.

I also spent some time throwing pots at our school arts day a couple weeks ago. I nearly got a minor in pottery in college but hadn't thrown in years. Lots of fun, I won't have pictures of my creations until next fall (they didn't manage to glaze them before summer!) .

And... I'm making sourdough bread! How cool is that! I even started my own starter (Thanks to the naked chef...). I'm going on week 3 with it and it keeps improving. The hardest part is letting it rise then getting it in the oven without deflating it. It requires a 10-14 hour rise time (natural yeasts are much slower than the store bought kind) so it has to be protected. It also rises better if its moister. So I'm rising the current batch in a little glass pan that I can transfer directly to the oven and I have it in a big ziplock with toothpicks tenting it to keep it from touching (read: deflating) the dough. I'm glad I'm doing mini-batches because this stuff produces bread every couple days and we can only eat so much (especially since I haven't been getting the best results yet...) Pictures to come on the bread.

1 more day of school!

I'll Blog again soon.... Really!

SO... I suck. I haven't blogged in ages. I've knitted all sorts of things, lemme sum up:

1 pair of socks for last year's TA
1 pair of little socks for a 4 year old
1 little baby hat for a teacher at work
1 really little pair of baby socks for someone I don't actually know, but she loved them.
1 eye patch for the county fair (2nd place)
2 potholders for the county fair (3rd place)
1 silly bag (still needs handles)
1 green scarf for this year's TA
1 pair of socks for this year's other TA

I got a new cell phone and my horse has learned to canter (without bucking anyone off).

School's out in 5 days, look for more posts once I'm on break!

The little things...

Its been a rough week. So right now I'm trying to focus on nice happy things... Like...

The cutest little baby hat I have ever knitted!
Its a Bitter Melon! Really! I looked it up and the blossom and the color matches. :)
There will be many more of these to come, and I'll probably post the pattern too!