Too Much Yarn

So I don't have to answer Auntie Jennifer

So Auntie Jennifer must not automatically know I update my blog.  She checks my Flickr account instead.  I upload my photos to flickr and then just copy and paste here.  It's easier than uploading to typepad.  I have unlimited storage at Flickr so I might as well upload there for external storage in case my hard drive crashes!

Anyway, AJ saw my flickr account with all the shoes and emailed me, "Yo, Imelda, how many pairs of shoes do you need to show off your socks?"... I asked her to read my blog...  Today, she asked me, "And what's that in the Ziploc bags????"

The ziploc bags... well, I came up with this idea... I have bought so many different brands of MCN and I really haven't tried them, because I always go back to my favorites: STR, Bugga, and Hazel Knits Artisan.  So, I decided that I have to at least try a different brand each month.  I copied all the Solid Socks agenda for the year.  Then, I added the Sock Knitter Anoynomous agenda... their KALs... and then, I cut them up and taped them into gallon ziploc bags.  Then, I started collecting yarns that I should use for that month.  Like this:

For October, I'm going to knit a Hunter Hummersen's pattern in something variegated.  Then, I'm going to use a green yarn for the Kirsten Kapur Through The Loops Mystery Sock (double dip).  Then, I'm going to use Hazel Knits Green yarn on a Melissa Gooddale/underappreciated pattern (triple dip with HK/SolidSocks/SKA KAs).  So I came up with this:

Argh!  Guess what I picked:  a skien of Cuban Cockroach Bugga, STR in Spy Say Guacamole, HK in Cascade Canopy!!  Guess the bags are not working!  Well, maybe just not for October!  We'll see how this works further along!

Did I answer your question, AJ?

A disappointing kit arrived from Woolgirl. It's called Divinely Cup Cake.  I have paid for another Java Cuppa kit and I think I'm done.  I've not been happy with the last couple of kits and I should stop.  I'm unable to sell it right away as well.  I guess the color is just not very attractive, although it would be good if you're knitting something for a breasts cancer cause/survivor...  WEll, if you're interested, you can have this for $55 shipped (discount from my destash page!)

Hey!  I finished a shawl!  This is for Susan, my travel swap partner.  I have to block it yet.  I think I need another skein of Hazel Knits In the Clover myself!

I won't subtract this from Yarnwatchers until I've finished blocking it.  I have 24 hours to finish my brown socks to qualify for Solid Socks.  I have about 30 rows and a toe left.  I don't think I can do it...

So, off to knit!

p/s  I have woven in the ends of ANOTHER pair of socks!  YAY!

p/p/s I received a message from someone who was checking out my stash: "So I’m wondering, are you independently wealthy or do you go into debt buying all your yarn? You husband must be very tolerant because mine gives me a hard time!"

What Shoes do I wear?

That's one of the most common questions I'm asked.  What shoes do I wear with my socks (well, after they asked if I wear the socks I knit).  So today, I'll show you what shoes I wear.  Keep in mind that I also have to many shoes (in addition to too much yarn, too many needles, too many project bags).  I'm going to list them in order of my favoritism.

1.  Keen (don't know the model - you'll have to look them up)

  

2.  Privo by Clarks:

3.  Keen (may need a new pair - these are old!)

4.  Clarks (in both brown and red)

5.  Keen

6.  Naturizer:

7.  Born. These are getting donated.  Not comfortable!  Besides, I don't need another pair of black shoes.

What's wrong with these photos?  YES!  No blue shoes!  I'm thinking of getting these:

Today, I met Susan from Michigan.  I took her to 3 yarn stores and did not buy any sock yarn.  Instead, I gave her a skein of Bugga (Longhorned Beetle) so I'm -1!!

Say goodbye to:

Previous = 0, PLUS = 0, MINUS = 1, NET = -1

Catching up...

I just hate it that's it's just been 6 days since I last blogged and..and... and... I have soooooo much to tell you.  Let's start with Sunday, when I went to the Stitch & Pitch event at Target Field in Minneapolis.  It's really fun to be sitting with knitters and no one stares at you for knitting instead of watching the game. There were some males there who were not knitting.  Actually, Lisa sat next to a husband. I can tell he's a very understanding husband!  His wife was nice, too.. She wasn't bossy at all.  She was quite quiet.  We chatted about the game with the husband.  Here's Lisa and I - you can see some sock knitters near where we sat. 

This is the row we were at... See... people knitting at a ball game!  Fun!

It was a beautiful day, as well - except when the wind blew, it was a bit chilly.   We all bought hot cocoa that came in a nice reusable mug!

Oh Thursday, I received 2 items.  The first is the Chrissy Gardiner's CSK goody bag.  I was one of the first 150 people who signed up and I qualified for this bag.  There were samples from yarn dyers, but there are some useful things that I will be keeping... stitch marker, needle gauge, needle holder, patterns, sock key chain, and most of all, the tote bag:

Knit Purl's first shipment arrived.  It is an interesting sock and I do need red socks.  Should I cast on?  I'm thinking that I HAVE to set up some dyers that I haven't knitted (I have just collected) and I HAVE to knit them to determine if I like them or not.  If I don't, I'll destash.  If I do, I'll just continue to collect them!  Not sure when this will get knitted...

Yesterday, the yarn I won from Hunter (Violently Domestic) arrived.  The color was not quite I expected, but hey, it's FREE and zero points!  It's a new sport weight 8-ply 100% merino. 

Today, I received a yarn I ordered from a destash.  It was hard to capture the color. It's  more jade than pictured. Although, the name has "turquoise" in it.  For some reason, I thought I don't own any Sundara, but when I look at the label, it looks familiar!

Knitting-wise, I'm working hard at Susan's shawl.  I have 5 repeats left on the left wing and it just gets faster and faster because I'm decreasing!  I finished one sock for the Hazel Knits Mystery Sock and have turned the heel on the second sock.  I'm working on the heel flaps for both Arteimis and Apollo. I hope to finish both pairs by end of Sept. 

Yarnwatchers check:

Previous = -1, PLUS = 1, MINUS = 0, NET = ZERO!!!!!!!!!

So, I have the evening to myself.  Should I watch TV and knit or bake an apple pie?

A Sock Thief in my house...

It was finally time to wear my socks.  In fact, I even wove in the ends for 3 of the 10 socks I've finished since May and blocked them:

So anyway, I put on my Brainless sock (by Yarnissima) on Monday - knit with STR Pepe Le Plume.  I came home late from work and just took them off and left them in the living room.  Someone took them and wore them one evening this week and thought they fit him really well and that it was very comfy.  In fact, he even wore them to school (work).  I exclaimed that they were pink!  He said, not, they're plum! With so many pairs of socks around, I didn't really miss them until today, when I was wearing my new Raspberry colored shirt and was looking for that pair.

Look who had them on:

You don't see them?  Here's a close up!

Well, luckily, I did find another pair that matched what I was wearing...

We went to an apple orchard.  After that, we stopped by the historic downtown Stillwater.  Darn Knit Anyway was having their 1st Anniversary. If you brought in a handknit item, you get a free canvas zippered pouch.  Well, if you used yarn from the shop.  We were in Stillwater at 3:30 and I thought they would be closed by 4 pm.  I took a flyer from an Antique store and learned that they were opened until 10 pm!  I stopped by and Aimee, the owner, recognized me.  She asked me if I brought any handknit item.  I said not with yarn from the store.. She said, that's ok... so I showed her my Agrodolce (also a Yarnissima pattern). She took a photo and gave me this pouch:

I'll have to see if my socks make it to her blog or store website.  I plan to visit her again when Susan from Michigan visits.

Yarnwatchers:  no activity.  (darn it!  no packages today when I'm home.  The Sock Thief is starting to count the packages.  I'll have to tell him they're dark-colored yarn to knit socks for him!)

Blue Streak

I read blogs with the title "Wordless Wednesday" a lot.  I wanted to fill this post with just blue stuff but I'm just too talkative!  So you'll have to listen to me while looking at these blue stuff.

Yarn came from Zen Yarn Garden - all Serenity 20.  + 3 points

Bought this Kornblume (Wollmeise) from Melissa on her destash: +1 point

My Ishbel is dry so I'm going to show you photos from the photoshoot. Enjoy!  But before that,

Previous = -1, PLUS = 4, MINUS = 0, NET = +3.

YAY! I won!

I actually won a prize for commenting on Hunter's blog at Violently Domestic!  So, that means, I may get some guests visiting for the next couple of days.  If this is your first visit, welcome!  On my blog, I show you that I have TOO MUCH YARN and I can't stop buying.  I tried to go on yarn diets but they don't work for me.  The latest I'm trying is YarnWatchers.  It's a point counting system:   minus 1 point when you use up yarn on a completed project, plus 1 when you buy new yarn.  Yarn received as gifts (or prizes!!) have zero points.  Also, prepaid Sock Club yarns don't count either!  How fun is that, huh?

Well, I did receive some new yarns, but first, I want to you show you some projects in progress.  Susan from Buffalo is back!  She's knitting me this shawl: (Marina by Kate Blackburn)

We are doing a travel swap.  Susan went on a Mediterranean cruise, I went to London and Paris earlier this summer.  I'm knitting her the Meliae Shawl by Melissa Goodale.  I'm not quite at the 1/2 way mark yet.  I'm really liking this pattern that I may have to knit myself one of these.  This shawl is knitted end to end - my first!  The other shawls I've knitted were triagular.

Socks in progress:  Apollo & Artemis (waiting to knit the stockinette sections at the Twins baseball game this Sunday at the Stitch & Pitch event.  I am bringing my friend Lisa, who introduced my husband to me 21 years ago on Oct 29).  I also gave her a project bag that I bought from Briar Rose earlier this Spring and a skein of yarn (yay!  minus ONE!).  This is my first pair of socks that are fraternal.  The feet are just plain stockinette)  Yarn is String Theory Caper in North Haven.

I'm knitting two Mystery socks.  The first one is from the SKA Mystery by Adrienne Fong. I'm behind with this one.  Clue 3 is coming out in 2.5 hours!  Yarn is Hazel Knits Artisan in Sweet Crush.

This is the Hazel Knits Mystery Sock by Melissa Goodale. Yarn is Hazel Knits Artisan in Spice.  I've completed clue 2 for Sock 1.  I just cast on Sock 2 today.

I cast on this project when I was in London on July 4, but didn't really work on it until I was on the way back from London.  I knitted this shawl for 8 hours on the plane ride home.  This was how it looked on July 14:

Yesterday (Sept 13), it was done (minus 1).  This is Ishbel, knitted in Sanguine Gryphon Bugga in Potter Wasp. Took just 1 skein with a few grams left. I should weigh it. 

It is being blocked:

Tomorrow, I may  be able to model it for a photoshoot!

The Loopy Ewe Sept Sock Club shipment arrived.  Yarn is Madelintosh Sock Yarn in The Loopy Ewe Favorite Season: (zero points)

I gave this to Lisa for her birthday last month... (minus 1)

 

So, time check my Yarnwatchers points:

Previous = +1, PLUS = 0, MINUS = 2, NET = -1.

Under my desk is a bag containing 3 skeins of Serenity 20 yarn and I bought 2 skeins from people who needed money on Ravelry yesterday. It was for a good cause... So that's plus 5 there, but I won't count them until I officially show them to you.

A Boring Post...

And I'm not lying... No completed projects... no new yarns... how exciting is that?

Well, at least I have some work in progress to show you.  This is the shawl for Susan in Buffalo. It's the Meliae shawlette pattern by Melissa Goodale.  This is knitted in Hazel Knits Artisan in In The Clover:

This is a shawl knit from side to side - my FIRST!  So it's exciting but I'm sure I'll get a little bored in the center when it's full of stitches but it should get exciting again when the stitches are fewer and fewer and no bind off row of gazillion stitches!

I also cast on the Hazel Knits Mystery Sock, also by Melissa Goodale.  I like this artsy photo.  This is also using Hazel Knits Artisan in the August Sock Club color, Spice:

This was this afternoon, when I was working on the second lace repeat.  I should finish the entire clue #2 tonight. 

Next, I'll be working on the SKA Mystery Sock by Adrienne Fong.  I have the clue printed, but just have worked on it.

I'm feeling down lately. I learned on Labor Day (Sept 6) that a good friend of mine died unexpectedly.  He was 46 and left behind a wife his age and 3 young children.  The oldest may be 15.  He lived in my hometown in Malaysia.  With the distance apart, it was hard to imagine him being physically gone.   I feel a reason to go back home disappeared when he died.  Meeting him on my trips home was one of the highlights, catching up with him on what our other friends are doing now, what our lives are like now... I don't go home often, so we only saw each other once every 8 years or so with a couple of emails in between.  But those meetings were precious and much more treasured now as I won't be seeing him again.  The first day after I learned about this death didn't really hit me. I just stew around with the news.  The next day, my sadness had to be let out.  A big cry when talking about him to my husband, writing a tribute to him on my blog, and falling asleep in my husband's arms that night helped.  I'm slowly back to myself, I even bought yarn from Canada (which will take forever to arrive!).  By the way, my husband is a special ed teacher at the high school. He's very good at listening to emotional stuff, but not at things he has to do around the house!  Anyway, if you are interested, you can read about my tribute to my friend at my other blog, Too Much Energy.

No Mapleweave Math today... I was thinking of changing the name to YarnWatchers.  It deals with points, too...  

The Point of No Return

** WARNING - long post!   Go grab your coffee/beer... **

"The Point of No Return" is one of my favorite songs in  Phantom of The Opera. This song is sung in Act Two when Phantom has brought Christine (the other Christine) to his lair and told her this was it - the point of no return once she marries him, right before Raoul comes to rescue her and she had to make a choice: stay with the Phantom and let Raoul live, or refuse the Phantom and watch Raoul die.  I won't tell you what happened...  if you have the chance, you should watch this. I've seen this play 3 times and I would watch it over and over again.  I listen to the original London cast recording when I'm driving for more than 30 minutes in the car alone.  This is the only "opera" music I listen to.

So - what does that have to do with my knitting?

Well, I've past the point of no return.  I've acquired much yarn in the past week that  I don't think I'll ever return to the negative numbers.  It's been a week since I last posted and even though I had the week off, I have been knitting, but not as much as I would have liked to.

I completed 6 pairs of socks in August - well, really, only 5.  The 6th pair was completed on September 1.  Susan from Michigan finished 8 pairs so I owe her a skein of yarn!  She wants me to surprise her when I see her later this month when she's coming to visit her sister in MN.  Her sister lives less than 30 minutes from me.  We plan to visit some yarn stores.  Anyway, here is sock #6 - a pair of Monkey socks that I started in 2008.  This will look much better after I block it.  At this time, this is either going to be Emily's or someone else.  I've been thinking of this person as I knit it so it's very possible that this will be a gift for someone this December.

When I started this, Fauty Dyer was a brand new color.  As you can tell, these are not my usual colors, but I was attracted to them simply for that reason - completely different from my  normal palette.  Also, I brought the lace pattern down the heel and when there are 2 years between socks, you can tell that I made a boo-boo and had an extra stitch before and after the gusset decrease on the sock on the left!  Maybe I should make this my "signature" for the socks I knit - where both socks are "slightly" different"...

I finished one of the Slip Jig socks.  I had to... I needed the needles... yes, you can assume correctly that I'm not working on sock 2 at the moment.  But I should not leave it alone for 2 years or I'd forget what I did wonky about the toe:

Another cool heel:

So, the needles went to cast on the SKA Mystery Sock by Adrienne Fong.  I've only knitted one of Adrienne's socks - the very first pattern from the Rockin' Sock Club when I joined in 2008 - Serendipity. 

OK - I'm only going to knit one sock because I realized that I'm not going to knit the mate for the January Mystery Socks using beads...   While the pattern is completely different (in fact, I think the Sept Sock is so much more attractive), the same yarn and beads should mean the socks are "related".  If I truly fall in love with the Sept Mystery and want a matching mate, I can always frog this ...

Before I move on to yarns, there is one more cast on this week...  I present you Apollo & Artemis... This is Apollo.  I'm using String Theory Caper yarn to join in the KAL over at Solid Socks, but the lightbulb just lit that I need to use Solid/Semi-solid yarn from String Theory to qualify for prizes!  I purposely wanted to use some variegation on this pattern.  So, this sock now qualifies for just the Sock Knittes Annoynomous KAL prizes.  (yes, I knit for a "chance" to win a prize!).  An interesting thing about this pattern... I wasn't able to get the stitches to go the right way, according to pattern photos by following the pattern.  Instead of * (YO, SSK) * repeat, I had to * (SSK, YO) *.  I asked the designer about this and she said both should yield the same result.  Huh?  Why do I need to rip the 5 rows out TWICE if they produce the same results?  No one, and I mean NO ONE, mentioned this modification on their project page!  Well, now, there is one person who did - me!  Sure enough, after I posted this cast-on photo, I received a pm from someone who asked me how to get her sock to look like the photo because she wasn't able to and she frogged the sock!

I did cast on ONE more thing - a shawl!  I want to knit it further along before showing you the progress.  I want to make sure that it's going to work out... this is a gift for Susan in Buffalo, who is on her Mediterranean cruise now and she's past the 1/2 way point for the shawl she's knitting me!

OK - we're getting to the point of no return....  First, the zero point items.  These are from the Three Irish Girls Sock Club.  I joined for 3 months so this is month 1.  I picked both colors.  For September, I was good.  I only picked 1 out of 4!  They came with 2 chapsticks and a pattern! I didn't even know there was a pattern included - until Auntie Jennifer asked me about the pattern.  Apparently, a bunch of folks didn't get theirs as well so I had to contact them and they sent me a link.  Thank goodness for Ravelry (and Auntie Jennifer)!

Another zero point... August Sock Club shipment from Woolgirl.  Yarn is from Zen Yarn Garden.  While the yarn fiber is lovely (Serenity 20), the shipment has not been too popular.  Another Serenity yarn was included in the shipment in May 2009.  Both are from the same color family and yet, they're different.  If I had to choose between the two, I would pick the August one, but I have used up the one from last May to make my Sunshine socks by Cookie A.  And I hardly wear yellow - ok - never!  So I think this is going to be traded or destashed.  So here's the August one:

and the May:

Here's the Sock Club Package.  Not photographed are the patterns:

Next, are my MINUSes.  I destashed 3 skeins this week... Bugga in Red-Spotted Purple Butterfly, Skinny Bugga in Sea Star, and Plucky Knitter Silk Merino 50/50 in Loco Dempsey.

OK, now come the PLUSes.  The order arrived from Hazel Knits:

They are all gorgeous.. Nickel is a little boring, but I do need gray socks.  The biggest surprise was In the Clover. This was recommended by Dawn.  I'm glad I got it.  In fact, I'm knitting Meliae (sock club shawl pattern) in it.  This is the shawl for Susan.  But, I can always change my mind - keep it for myself or frog it.  Here's a close up:

Oh, I kept it from you (and I've been feeling guilty all week) that I bought these from the local yarn store.  These are the Frog Tree Pediboo sock yarn.  One hank has 255 yards, cost $7.45.  I like the feel of the yarn.  510 yards for less than $15?  Good deal!  It's 80% Merino, 20% bamboo.  I don't really care for bamboo - mostly because of the sheen.  But these guys are not shiny.  I bought basic colors... Natural and blue.

So, here we go...

Previous = -3, PLUS = 8, MINUS = 4, NET = +1.

YEP - that's what I thought.  I've past the point of no return.