Too Much Yarn

Let the Games Begin!

The 30th Olympics Summer Games started at 9:00 p.m. London time, which was 3:00 Central.  I promptly cast on these much-neglected Angee Socks from September 2009.  Sock #1 still fits so my foot didn't get bigger (as I've heard that your feet get bigger as you get older!).   This is for the Hazel Knuts Team.

The other project I'll work on is the Gush socks by Yarnissima - which I started June 2011.  This uses Bugga in Orange Assasin Bug and I'll complete this pair for the Team Formerly Known As Sanguine Gryphon.

As you can see, I haven't finished ONE sock.  I'm about 10 rows short... 

So these two projects are going with me on my weekend at my friend's.  I did pack my Honey Bunches shawl which is mostly garter stitches in case I have to pay attention to the socks.  I have 3 other socks that I know I'll finish in August, but they have been worked on recently, so they don't qualify for the Revellenic Games.  WIP Wresting events must not have been worked on since May 15, 2012.

I forgot to report to those asking me about using ziploc bags. They are only for storage so I can see easily which SIP to work on. Once selected, they stay in a "matching" project bag as you can tell from the photos above.  I ordered this project bag to use during the Olympics, but it didn't come on time - it was supposed to be delivered today!!  or even yesterday, according to the tracking... Anyway, it's not like I'm short of project bags!!

These bags are made by Michele of Three Bags Full Etsy Store.  She makes a lot of Anne Hanson's project bags so it's like I'm using project bags used by knitting celebrities...

Gotta go!  Have a nice weekend.  Not sure if I'll have signals where I'm at.  If I do, I'll be sure to send some photos of some lake views with sock progress, of course!

In honor of Jennifer's Birthday!

Happy Birthday, my friend.  Jennifer - you sometimes see her comment on my blog as Pinky is Amphibiaknitter on Ravelry.  I've sent her a package for her birthday... I mailed it late, and Canada Post has a bad reputation, so she may not see the package for a while.  In the meantime, you guys can pop over to her blog at AmphibiaKnits and wish her a happy birthday!  She has more stories to tell than me...

Jennifer had been reading my blog and about 2 years ago, she emailed me.  When I was at an Indian Restaurant, I checked my mail (on my phone) and told Emily that there's someone in this world who is just like me!  She likes yarn and has lots of them and she's been reading my blog.  Emily called her my "stalker".  I replied Jennifer - and the rest is history.  It has been a good friendship - it's like having an imaginary friend  (because I have not never met her so when I said, my friend, Jennifer - my family look at me funny), but I know she's real.  I have heard her voice over Skype.  Anyway, there is ONE downside of this friendship - I have been more broke.  At one point in time - maybe first year of our friendship - it's like a competition - we were buying yarn and just to see who found the latest MCN!  Anyway, we've grown up and have a better grip of our stash. She's on a Yarn Embargo now, but I'm not.  I don't know how.  She has better self-control than I do and she doesn't cave to KALs or schedule. She knits what she wants and most of the times, she knits for her daughter.  I'm more selfish that way.  Most everything has been for me.  In any case, I'm glad to have "met" Jennifer and hope to meet her ONE DAY.  If something were to happen to me, she's inheriting some yarn!

So, in honor of her birthday, I would like to show you my latest finished shawl.  This is the Solstice Mystery Shawl.  I haven't weighed my yarn, so I can't tell you how much yardage I've used.  But it's more than 1 skein of the Three Irish Girls Glenhaven Cashmerino Fingering yarn.  This was the finished shawl, unblocked:

The depth of the shawl before blocking was 13.5".  It was blocked on Tuesday night:

I decided to make this more of a semicircle shape.  I used 2 straight wires for the edge and a flexible wire for the top and I pull as far as I could.  The final depth was 19" in the center and 21" at the edge.

I'm very happy with it, but I did make a boo-boo which I decided not to fix. 

It was over a repeat where it was offset by a stitch.  I eventually fixed it.

I do wish it is a bit wider at the top - perhaps I can reblock so I'm not pulling as much on the ends.  Doesn't this look like a sweater?  My imaginary sweater!  This is what it looks like at the back.

If you look carefully, you can see the boo-boo just below my right shoulder at the back.

It's hard to catch Emily, so I am modeling instead and Alex is the photographer!

I have to go pack for my weekend!  Tomorrow, I can begin some knitting for the Revellenic Games (I'm going to say it! Ravelympics!).

Again, I hope you had a wonderful Birthday today, Jennifer!

Stuck At Home...

I came home at 3:30 so my daughter could take the car to work.  My son was at work. My husband was at the lake.  4 drivers, 3 cars.  I had to come home and work the rest of the day at home.  After work, I had the evening to myself - just my dog, Chip and I.  We took photos to share with you.  No photos of Chip, though.

First off, I'm binding off my shawl!  Here it is.  I had to get it done so I can concentrate on socks!!

While I had it out, I thought I'd show you my new camera - yep, I bought a camera to match my shawl.

And that's all the knitting progress I have to show you!  So what else can I show you?  What about shoes?  These were picked up today.

I'm getting excited about August.  It's the month I receive shipments from Cookie A, Hazel Knits, Socktopus, Twisted?  And end of July, expecting a package from Blue Moon.  But yesterday, I received the second of 3 packages from Verdant Gryphon.  This is the Cocktail Club.  Not too sure about this one... It's called the 1951 Martini.

Can't wait to use the napkins when I'm at a knitting retreat!

Remember I mentioned that Kendra and I went to StevenBe on Saturday?  I came home with these:

They are planned to be for a cowl. Honey Cowl?  Or the Cowl pattern I bought at the store?

And Twisted Club sent a package beginning of July?  So that means I won't get one until September... This is my first skein from Black Trillium, I think.  It's very pretty - called Burnt Sugar.

Well, I'd better go get my socks in a row.  I should be doing laundry and packing. I'll be away for the weekend again.  Not sure how much knitting I'll do.  My friend does not knit - maybe she fishes and I can sit in the boat and knit while they fish!

 

Getting Ready for August

I know the suspense is killing you. YES!  I bought those shoes.  Unfortunately, I didn't have any handknit socks with me so when I brought it home, it was a bit tight.  I could squeeze my feet and socks in the size 38 that I brought home, but my black Sanita's were sized 40 so I went back to the store and brought my socks and tried on a similar pair in 39 and that's the size I will go with.  The store was out of size 39 so I'm now waiting for them to come in to do an exchange!

As you may remember, August is the month I host a challenge in Sock Knitters Annoymous.  I started the  challenge 3 years ago on SKA called "Free Up Your Needles" challenge.  Now, it may be called "Knit More Socks Than Mapleweave" challenge.  I challenged other sock knitters to knit more socks than I do in the month of August.  "Pairs" of socks need to be finished in that month.  It was more of a personal challenge for me to finish up WIPs, but I wanted to add in some competition.  The first year, I lost with a mere 6 pairs of socks finished.  Last year, I finished 8 pairs, but there were maybe 6 other ladies finishing more than I did.  A drawing was held and Karen was the winner.  This year, she's hosting the challenge, but I will help her as well.  If you are a vendor and would like some exposure in the Sock Knitters Annoymous group, please contact me if you would like to donate a prize for our random drawings for finished pairs in August.

So, to prepare for August, I picked the socks I would like to finish.  I've come up with 8 of them and right now, I'm just starting the second sock to a point that I know I can finish them in August.  Some of these socks are old!!  I'll show you the photos while you wonder why I didn't finish them.  When I knit them next  month, I will give you more details as to the pattern and yarn I'm using.

This first pair is one that you've never seen before.  I was test knitting for Rosehiver and until this morning, the photos were "private" on my flickr account.  The pattern is Chendient and I used Sokkusu Original in Lapis, a gift from Jennifer for my birthday.

The rest:

I think that's good for now...

I had my annual meet-up with Kendra from SKA - she lives in Tokyo.  We checked out two yarn shops but I didn't come up with any sock yarn!  (Thank goodness!) I bought 2 skeins of MCN Worsted from All for Love of Yarn.  I haven't taken a photo yet. 

My Solstice Mystery Shawl is nearing the end.  Because I have two skeins of the yarn, I'm adding a repeat of patterns wherever I can.  I found another boo-boo that will be obvious, but I just don't have the energy to fix it.  It's going to be on my back so I can't see it and it may be covered by my hair.  I think it may be ok if I don't point it out to anyone.

Next week, I'll be spending the weekend with a couple who has a lake home.  The drive is about 1.5 hours.  My friend does not knit so I'm not sure how much knitting I'll do. But I do want to watch the Olympics!

I forgot to show you the new Blue Moon yarn I received.  I was a bit dissapointed at first, but it I think it will work out!  This one I really like:  Marmalade Sky

These two looked the same to me and I didn't understand what I was thinking. My first instinct was to return both of them.

But on the website, they look better, so maybe I have hope - it may just be the way it's skeined now, but when I knit it, the colors would look different!  Since I'm showing you more yarn p0rn, how about these Purpley "Iris" from Hazel Knits?  It's Wendee's featured color of the month:

Another purple from Three Irish Girls...

No, my favorite color is still blue!  I can't believe myself.  I've been good!  I haven't received any Buggas for two weeks!  Verdant Gryphon has been returning some older colors which I already have.  There is this new color - Malaysian Giant Shield Mantis, but I can't buy yarn because of the name as I'm from Malaysia, can I?

 

Nah!  It's not my type of colors.  Then, Cephalopod Yarns has this new color, Maxima Clam.

But I have this that is just too similar!  This is Three Irish Girls Glenhaven Cashmerino in a One of A Kind colors

So I deleted it from my cart.

OK - I think this post has gotten long enough.  Next time, I'll show some knitting progress...

 

At The Shoe Store

Uh-oh!!

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WIP

As promised, here are some WIP photos to show you.  I finished Part D of the Solstice Mystery Shawl.  And the final clue, Part E was released today.  I'm going to have another finished shawl this month!  I've added an additional repeat for all the sections Wendy had said we can add for extra depth/width/length?  I always don't know how to describe shawls!

Here's a close up and I happen to pick the section where I made some mistakes.  Please ignore them... Maybe if I didn't mention them, you may not have noticed!

On the sock front, I finished the gusset of the second sock of the Haystacks socks.  I'm going to leave them that way so I can finish them in August.

I'm now working on the heel flap of Dusty Corners, again, planning to work until I finish the gusset (second sock also) - I need to build up my inventory of close-to-finish second socks for my August KAL.

I lost my point and shoot camera so I had to go get another one yesterday.  I felt a bit naked without it in my purse.  Same as if I didn't carry a knitting project with me wherever I go!  I haven't taken it out to play yet.  I just had to get it yesterday as it was the last day of the anniversary sale from the camera store. It was their 98th anniversary so I was able to get a leather case and a 2 GB SD card for 98 cents!  Most of my photos on this blog are taken with the SLR camera, but once in a while, I need to use the same camera to get weird angles.

I was catching up with my blog reading, and Susan's blog, theraineysisters, may have enabled me to get these Dansko shoes!  It's called Funky Knit.  I may need to stop by the shoe store on the way home from work today.

p/s  Yvonne said I have to take Anatomy classes.  Those animals in New Glarus are Cows, not Bulls!  Well, I thought they were cows, but they had horns.  Do cows have horns?  But it's little Switzerland, I think of chocolates and milk.  Milk comes from cows and not bulls.. So I looked them up.  They are called "Cows of New Glarus" - there were 13 or 14 of them, I think I just saw 4 of them!

Back Home

This will be my last post on my trip as all the photos are on my phone. So I'm blogging from my phone this last time. On Saturday, I rode for the first time in a convertible Miata. I can see myself driving this vehicle when I hit my midlife crisis. I've hit my midlife, but not the crisis.

We went to the local Farmers Market. No yarn, there!! These are some pretty flowers in one booth.


And then, we found the yarn store called Simply Scarves. It has unusual fibers such as banana leaf and silk sari. These fibers are coarse and would require at least a size 17 needle to knit anything from it.





I did not buy anything here. Later that evening, we attended the play, Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. It was very good, but required concentration. It was an outdoors play so I was still knitting my sock when the play started. In respect to those around me, I put it away even though there was still light.


One of the characters even mentioned "Knitters and spinners"... I forgot the rest. The word "knitters" woke me up!! haha!

This was our group. We had a lot of fun and we will probably do this again next year.


Up next: I will post my shawl and sock progress and some new yarns from Blue Moon Fiber Arts.

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Golf and shopping

Nope. Haven't bought yarn yet!! Today, I went golfing. But did not touch my socks. I may start the heel flap tonight.

Saw this sign. Wisconsinites are famous for their cheese and drinking.


Here's what the bottom sign says.


Later, we went to Monroe. No yarn shop there. But found a cheese place.


Did not try the sandwiches there but my friend had it before she and her husband met up with us. She said it was very good. Here is the cheese case.


The town square was decorated with pirate sculptures as that was their summer theme this year. My neighbor and I took a picture as pirates.


Finally, we stopped at New Glarus, which is a Little Switzerland. There are several bulls in town.








I love the chef's pants!!


And no, New Glarus does not have a yarn shop, either!! But the town we are staying at has a scarf store and she makes her own yarn. I will check the store out tomorrow. I knitted about 6 rows of the mystery shawl. I think I still have 12 rows left.

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I found wifi!!

No idea where the wifi came from as the signal is very low. But now, it shouldn't take me to post photos. We stopped at a gas station.

I learned that squeaky means fresh cheese. When you chew on the cheese, it makes this squeaky noise! This is cheese country!

We had a good dinner.


Then, we sat and talked while I finished the leg of my second sock.


Tomorrow, I'm going golfing in the morning and maybe shopping in another small town. Also, when we were in Viraqua, our car was 30 yards from Ewetopia Fiber Shop. My husband was driving at that time. He did not bother to stop! But no worry! There are 3 stores with yarn in town. I'm in Mineral Point. Will take photos when I visit the yarn shop!!


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On The Road

Surprise! Thought I would leave you behind on my road trip? Not!!

Our first stop was at Pepin, Wisconsin. We stopped for a potty break and coffee.

Then, for lunch, we stopped at Trempealeau. It's now 91 degrees.


I didn't bring my laptop so I'll be posting whenever I find signal for my phone service. I just love unlimited data plan that I'm grandfathered in. I've knitted 10 rows of 300 stitches on my Solstice Mystery Shawl. But it's time to work on my socks. Here it is, at the beginning of this trip.


This is the second sock. Just finished the cuff.

Later!

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