Happy Holidays!

Sienna Cardi

C'est Fini!

Pattern: Sienna Cardi, Interweave Fall 2006

Yarn: Araucania's Nature Wool Chunky in Lime, 109

Time: started at the beach in Sept. Finished this past weekend. Made several things in between

Notes: First seamed sweater!! Thank you Stewart & Melanie!!

Oh, and I just found this pix from last night at Anne's - Of course, I'm wearing my new sweater! It was Project Runway night and I had to wear it!

New Obsession

My latest project is close to being finished! (thank god!) Today I will take advantage of the good natured Yarn Lounge folks to help me seam up my first seamed sweater! Once seamed, I'll post some photos of my copy rather than the Interweave photo.



Although I have tons of knitting projects half started or waiting in the wings, I've been temporarily enticed by a new obsession. The hubby just bought Rock Bank II for the Xbox. Typically, I could care less about gaming; I think it's a huge waste of valuable knitting and reading time. However, this game is awesome for anyone who is not musically inclined, but always wanted to be in a band. I have a really cool punk avatar (and anyone who knows me will laugh since I'm the furthest thing away from punk) with red hair in pigtails, a tattoo, jean miniskirt with studded belt and punk t shirt. I love it - the hubby and I have a band called the Mookies and the Pookies. I'm the lead singer and he plays guitar. We go on tour, and with each venue earn points, fans, buses and planes. Why am I so obsessed? I don't know but it's taking up valuable knitting time! Any advice for the addiction is most appreciated :)

I'm still here

Last week I visited my aunt and uncle in Nashville. My cousins flew in from Brooklyn. Although it was great to see everyone and catch up, the event was overshadowed by the fact that my aunt has been in the hospital for close to 2 months. After being diagnosed with breast cancer, she started chemotherapy. Unfortunately, her body reacted horribly to the chemo and she is now fighting like mad to heal. Seeing her in that state made me terribly angry, not to mention sad. My aunt is one of the sweetest souls I've ever met. She doesn't deserve the hell she's going through. It's so frustrating. After seeing her like that, I decided to knit her a new cap. The hospital is often cold, so I'm thinking alpaca might be a good blend for a hat. If anyone has a favorite pattern please forward. Please also pray for her and all other women experiencing this dreadful disease.

No Knitting. Just Kitten Fun.

A friend of mine just forwarded me this video. It totally describes our life with Bloo (except for maybe the bat to the head). We especially love when he "makes biscuits" on our face in the middle of the night! Ahh pure torture...

Apple Harvest Festival

I didn't get a chance to post these photos before I left for Milwaukee. The Apple Harvest Festival is held each year in Syria Virginia at the Graves Mountain lodge in western Virginia. We went to the festival Sunday the 14th of October and had a fabulous time - hayrides, apple picking, pig watching and Brunswick stew were just a few of our activities. We brought home a bushel of apples that we are still trying to figure out how to use!
The beehive:

My obsession with pigs:

Apples!

And more apples:

Entry to the park:

Did You Know?

The conference is good although I'm a bit "socialized-out" at this point. Conferences are difficult for introverts! I have met some really awesome people. It seems like the Northeast chapter of ASIST is very active. Too bad I don't live closer as they're a great group of people! SIG-Knit meets tonight which I'm expecting to be a blast. I'm also going to take a lunch and go to the Milwaukee museum .

In yesterday's plenary session, the following video was shown. I'm not sure who originally created the slides and/or the validity of the stats; however, it is very thought provoking. Enjoy,

Mixing Work and Knitting

Will Fall ever arrive? It's 80 degrees outside! I had hopes that my upcoming trip to Wisconsin would bring me some nice cold temperatures; however, as I looked up the Milwaukee weather today, I was surprised to find that it doesn't differ much from Richmond! Ok so it's a little cooler there, but I was expecting some hardcore 30 degree snow-filled days. Alas.

I am really excited about the trip despite no hopes of snow :). Although I'm thrilled to be traveling to a new city (have not been to Milwaukee yet) and attending ASIST for the first time, I am even more ecstatic about finding out that fellow knitters will be there. Last night I checked the conference wiki for Social Events, as there are quite a few SIGs (Special Interest Groups) that I want to investigate. The most curious is the SIG-KNIT group. Of course it's not an "official" SIG, but I was delighted to discover that I'm not the only person who wants to knit during conferences/meetings/events, etc.!

Milwaukee looks to be a great town all around so I'll be sure to post photos during the week. Hopefully, I can find a knitting shop in walking distance of the hotel!

Thank you, Swallowtail & new WIPs

Thank you for all of your comments about buying a new camera! Following Stewart's logic, I can spend $399 since I have had my current camera (Canon Powershot S30) since 2002 :) I think we paid an arm and a leg for it as digital cameras with a lot of memory were very expensive at that time. I can't wait to get a new one so I can stop griping about the old one!

I finally coaxed the old Canon into downloading pictures this morning before work. Before going to the beach the last week of September, I made a stop at TYL to buy yarn for the Evelyn Clark Swallowtail Shawl. Stewart and Melanie helped me out and I finally decided on O'Wool Classic 2-Ply in a gorgeous teal that I hope comes across in the picture. It's 100% certified organic merino. I *love* this yarn.



The Outer Banks is quite beautiful in September and thankfully devoid of tourists. We had the beach to ourselves many mornings.


I was a really productive knitter at the beach. I finished up the Swallowtail while we were there and blocked it when we returned home.






I also started 2 new projects. I had a bit of Nature Spun in my stash that I brought on vacation; I used it to start this cabled sweater from a Paton's pattern book:


I also toted quite a few skeins of Nature Wool Chunky in lime green with me to start the Sienna Cardigan from last fall's Interweave. I'm much further along now and will post about that soon. The yarn is a little disappointing. Much like Manos, you need to use more than one skein at a time as the colors vary greatly. I do like the feel of the wool though.



Last, but not least, I have one more shot of the beach. Isn't it magnificent? I can't wait to go back.

I am going to buy a new camera!

I have all these things to show you but can't get the damn camera to work right. So ladies and gents, I'm going to buy a new camera and need your help. Any suggestions? I really like the digital SLR's but they're so expensive. Any ideas would be appreciated!

OMG! I got my invite

Oh no, how am I going to get anything done! I received my Ravelry invite today. OMG! OMG! I've overwhelmed. Must stop working. Must take pictures of yarn. Must become full time knitter and quit my job. Must calm down! Must get new camera as mine stinks.

It's pretty cool, eh? Ravelry is a great Web 2.0 example - must use as example in my next Web 2.0 presentation to colleagues!

My code name is lemmie if anyone wants to add me to their network! Can't wait to see you there!

Saartje's Booties

I've got so much to show and have had so little time to even download pictures! The hubby and I went to the Outer Banks last week - wow, what a knitting week it was! I also found a wonderful yarn store in Southern Shores that I visited quite a few times. While we're waiting for me to download all the pix, I wanted to show off these cute little booties that I finished a couple of weeks ago (sorry for the blurry pix - couldn't get a good one of these little guys)

Pattern: Saartje's Booties
Yarn: Rowan Cashsoft

The Husband Sweater

A year later, the husband sweater is finally finished! The hubby looks happy in his sweater don't you think?






Pattern: Albrecht's Sweater from Morehouse Farms
Yarn: Carodan Farm Wool
Color: Bracken

Zimmerman February Baby Sweater

I knitted this Elizabeth Zimmerman February Baby Sweater as a test run. I'm glad it's not the real gift; although it looks really cute in the pix, I somehow messed up the pattern on the right side. I'm casting on again tonight to see if I can correct in the next version. Maybe it was the number of stitches I picked up under the sleeve?



Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmerman's February Baby Sweater
I *love* this pattern. It's so clever and knits up really fast.

Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton Ease. I have to confess that I bought 50% acrylic yarn! I can't believe it. It knits up very nicely and who can pass up $5 a skein for a baby sweater?

Notes: I lost count after picking up stitches for the sleeves and my Sea Gull pattern is off on one side. I didn't see this until I was done with the sweater. For the next one, I'm going to try and knit the sleeves in the round rather than flat.

Yarn Related

I have photos of WIPs and finished objects but can't find the time to download them! I desperately need a camera with bluetooth (not sure this is even a possibility?). In the meantime check out this yarn stash! It's crazy!!


http://mochimochiland.com/weblog/?p=111

and a funny for the day:

The Blogger Poll Sucks

So the blogger poll sucks. I can't see what the email addresses are for responses. I guess this makes sense if you're asking things like 'Do you agree with the war'. It doesn't work for polls where I'm expecting to send prizes. I'll run another one at some other point.

More to come later - I'll have several FO's to show. Off to the Yarn Basket now to buy some new yarn for the Swallowtail Shawl.

Relief?

It's been crazy hot here. I mean, last week I felt like I was in an oppressive sauna. The AC provided some relief, but at the end of the day it was still 110 degrees! I am from Greensboro, North Carolina, where summers were steamy. However, I don't think anything compares to the heat in Richmond!

Following in the footsteps of the Yarn Lounge who posted a list of movies that feature cold weather, I pulled out this photo from our first year in Richmond (2004). Isn't it beautiful! Enjoy!

anxiously awaiting ravelry

My Ravelry Status:

* You are #24405 on the list.
* 15728 people are ahead of you in line.
* 1 people are behind you in line.
* 34% of the list has been invited so far

I thought I signed up several weeks ago; Alas, I'm near the end of the list! Can't wait. I need to go buy a new camera just for the occasion!

i've been simpsonized

Tonight I was reading the Purl Parables which led me to Delores and Franklin of the Panopticon. Like Brandy of the Purl Parables, I'm a bit obsessed now with Franklin's writing (thanks brandy!). After reading all about Delores and ordering a T-shirt with her picture, I then linked over to Queer Joe's Knitting Blog which in turn led me to Simpsonize myself. Isn't the internet amazing?

Trellis Scarf

Pattern: Trellis Scarf from Interweave Magazine

Yarn: Art Fibers Alfabeto in #02. 76% silk 19% superkid mohair 5% wool. This is a gorgeous yarn to work with! I actually found it to be easier to work with than the Handmaiden seasilk. I think the small amount of wool helped.

Notes: I made the scarf narrower than the pattern called for due to the fact that I thought I would run out of yarn.

Recipient: me!

Simple Yet Effective Shawl

Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Listen hard. Practice wellness. Play with abandon. Laugh. Choose with no regret. Continue to learn. Appreciate your friends. Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is.
~Mary Anne Roadacher-Hershey~

Pattern: Simple Yet Effective Shawl from Cosmicpluto knits
Yarn: Handmaiden Sea Silk 70% Silk combined with 30% SeaCell
Color: Lily Pond (you can't really see the color in this photo unfortunately. Trust me, it's a gorgeous yarn)
Recipient: This shawl is for one of my favorite aunts who is battling breast cancer.

I'm hoping that the Seacell will provide comfort to her.
What is seacell? From the handmaiden site:

Seacell is a cellulose based fibre made from seaweed. That’s right – seaweed! It is highly breathable and very soft. When worn, your skin’s natural moisture will release magnesium, calcium and vitamin E contained within the seaweed. It has anti-inflammatory properties and has been shown to protect the skin. Amazing.

Finally some knitting!

There's been a lot going on this summer! We just finished a ton of renovations on the house just in time for us to probably move away! We're seriously considering leaving Richmond. We'll see what happens but top picks right now are somewhere out west or Raleigh, where we lived for 7 years. No offense to my Richmond readers as I think you all rock!, but after discussing this with a few non-natives, we've all decided that if you're not from Richmond, it takes a while to 'fit' into Richmond...Maybe that's true of a lot of cities; I know my hometown is very much like that. Raleigh and the Triangle area were really different in that regard. So....we're seriously considering going out west or back home to Raleigh. I'm looking at the doctoral program at UNC where I did my master's degree in IS. We're also checking out the jobs down there to see what opens up. If we do make a move it'll be next spring. I have a great house if anyone is interesting in buying next spring :)

On to other topics...knitting! I've completed the body of the KP&S wrap sweater in King Tut cotton. I'm giving up on the Caftan pullover I had planned to make with this yarn. There are just not enough hours in the day to seam up a sweater :). I'm pretty pleased with this so far. The only exception is that I think I need to pull out the cast-off edge as it's curling. I never seem to remember to use a smaller needle there. I guess that's the reason why it's curling? Does anyone know? I also made it a bit tighter than the pattern calls for. Hopefully it'll block out a bit.




I've also completed this trellis scarf from Interweave. It's an Ann Budd pattern that I thoroughly enjoyed! As Melanie at TYL noted, Budd's patterns are extremely clever. I made it a bit narrower than the pattern called for since I thought I would run out of yarn. Alas, I did have leftovers. It's difficult to see the beautiful colors of this Art Fibers yarn in this photo so I'll model it after it's blocked.




In addition to house projects this summer, Ben & I have also kept up with our kitchen garden. Yummies from the garden this year include fennel, heirloom peppers, herbs of all kinds (including chocolate mint which smells amazing), chardonnay grapes, beets, blue lake beans and tons of tomatoes and blackberries. The blackberry bushes are so prolific. If anyone wants a vine, let me know! You can basically put one vine in the ground and it'll multiply by next year.

kitten fun

i do have some knitting done but no photos! argh. alas. you'll have to bask in the cuteness of bloo.

who couldn't love a face like this!



i will eat you the first chance i get




my name is bloo and i kill mice



i can't see you!



officer, i am completely innocent



look ma no hands!

And still no knitting

no knitting to show - i think it's the heat?? it's so freaking hot here and not a drop of rain in sight. alas. I'm finishing up a shawl to show. pix to come soon. in the meantime, some fun:

I think I’ve done this before, but I’ll do it again anyway

4 Jobs I have had in my life
- I worked in a dry cleaners all during high school. I secretly loved the way they organized dry cleaned shirts versus laundered shirts
- For 3 years, I worked as an assistant to museum curator, organizing art exhibitions and talking with NY and LA galleries. God, I loved this job and don't know why I quit (oh yeah, couldn't pay my rent :)
- In college, I tutored French to disabled students
- I was able to get an internship with the world renowned software company
SAS during a summer in grad school. Man, was this cool! We had M&M's every Wed and doughnuts on Fridays. They had a grand piano in the main cafe. The original model for Yoda was in the R&D building in which I worked.

4 films I can watch again and again
-Any Poirot
-Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
-Arsenic & Old Lace
-Pride & Prejudice (the BBC version)

4 places I have lived
- I lived in France 2 different times. At age 20, I moved there for 8 months. During college, I lived there for a summer
- I lived in Chicago for all of 6 months!
- I lived in Raleigh, NC for 7 years
- I have resided in Richmond for 3 years

4 TV series I watch
-CSI
-Law & Order (still watch the reruns)
-Six Feet under (hilarious!)
-The Sopranos

4 places I have been on holiday
-Prague - Ah, what a great city!
-Switzerland - I haven't been in 10 years but would love to go back!
-Scotland - went there on my honeymoon
-France - where I've left part of my soul :()

4 things I do every time I go on the Net
-check my email
-check the news
-check Yahoo airfares
-check the website I'm responsible for

4 things I would NOT eat for anything in the world
- rhubarb
- a steak (although as a lapsed vegetarian, i sometimes crave them)
- brains and eggs
- pig's feet

4 places I would love to be right now
- on sabbatical
- in Europe
- visiting San Francisco
- upstairs knitting!

4 people to tag
- Cate
- Brandy
- Anne
- My Mum (sorry, Evelyn, can't remember your blog name!)

SoXperience 2007 and Magic Loop!

I attended SoXperience yesterday at Carodan Farm in Stanardsville, VA. Not only was the farm beautiful and peaceful, but I met so many interesting ladies! I learned how to do magic loop socks at 9am and proceeded to create a small baby sock using this method. Wow - it's easy. I can't believe I haven't learned this before. There is a disclaimer here though: The baby sock out of worsted was easy. I bought some sock yarn to try out an adult sock which was a bit more difficult using the magic loop method. I started over 2 times. I think I'll stick to worsted for now and move on to sock yarn using #0's or #1's after some success using worsted.

I would highly recommend going to visit Caroline at Carodan. The farm is so serene. She has several little sheep right now and 2-3 llamas which I found to be quite funny. The llamas definately do their job. If you walk up to a sheep, the llama comes running over to you to check things out. I found this to be a hoot for some reason!

Just down the road from Carodan is Rivanna Rivers alpaca farm. I met Dee Dee, the owner. She's a wonderful person who is passionate about her alpaca. She invited me to the farm for a look at the animals. I'm going to take the hubby to see if I can convince him to buy a farm :)

I'll post more photos as soon as I can download them. I did buy some wonderful sock yarn yesterday - 2 skeins made from shrimp and crab shells!

Isn't this blog about knitting?

Yes; however, my camera stinks so I can't show you any updates on currrent projects! While I'm trying to figure out what to do about the camera (ideas about a good, affordable camera are welcome!), I pulled this pseduo meme from Purl Parables. Try it. It's fun and a lot more difficult that it appears. Funny the things that pop into your head at 7am on a Sunday morning.

SCATTERGORIES.

Rules: Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following…they MUST be real places, names, things…NOTHING made up!

If you can’t think of anything, skip it. Try to use different answers if the person before you had the same 1st initial. You CAN’T use your name for the boy/girl name question and you can’t use a search engine… Now Go!

1. Your Name: Susan

2. Famous singer/band: Suzanne Vega

3. 4 letter word: sewn

4. Street name: South Street

5. Color: Silver

6. Gifts/presents: Soup

7. Vehicle: Saab

8. Things in a Souvenir Shop: Shells

9. Boy Name: Sam

10. Girl Name: Shelly

11. Movie Title: Sabrina

12. Drink: Sprite

13. An Occupation: Sumo wrestler (couldn't think of anything else!)

14. Flower: Shasta Daisy

15. Celebrity: Shelley Winters

16. Magazine: Southern Living

17. U.S. City: Sioux Falls

18. Pro Sports Team: Spurs

19. Fruit: Strawberry

20. Reason for Being Late for Work: schoolbus

21. Something You Throw Away: Scoopable Litter

22. Things You Shout: Shoot!

23. Cartoon Character: Sylvester

you know your burnt out when...

1 - you drink coffee and knit until 8:30am knowing you have to be at work at 9am. at 8:30 you rush frantically to take a shower and get in on time.
2 - you take 2 hour lunches every day thinking 'no one will notice'
3 - you continually make lists at work never crossing anything out
4 - you find yourself staring at the walls in your office
5 - you open up 20 mozilla tabs and think 'i'll organize my bookmarks today!'
6 - you clean up your inbox which has ~3000 emails
7 - you constantly talk with your female 30-something, career focused friends about how life as a homemaker would be grand
8 - you sit in meetings and give administration looks like they're the stupidest people alive
9 - you leave at 4:00p every thursday and friday
10 - you call in sick at least 1 day a week

can you tell i'm burned out with my job?! my friend lisa describes some of this angst as perfectionism. i am in her boat. i am a total perfectionist. despite this, i am beginning to see a real shift in women my age. i've talked to at least 3 women at work who,have careers and master's degrees and who want to stay at home and manage the house. my hubby's job offer for a director of domestic operations is looking better every day!

Latest and Greatest

It's been so long since I've written in my blog that I have no idea where to start! Work has been stressful this month. I'm finishing up a huge project which makes me really tired at the end of the day. Despite this, knitting continues. Believe it or not, I'm still working on Ben's sweater! I knit a couple of rounds, put it down for 2 days, then knit a couple more. I really need to just finish the darn thing. He won't wear it until winter anyways, right?

I also started on a stole from Interweave 2006. It's suprisingly easy. I'm using a beautiful skein of Art Fibers silk from San Francisco. (Ben bought this for me last year). It's gorgeous. I promise to post photos soon :)


Since I had so much cotton in my stash, I also started on the Caftan Pullover from Interweave 2006. Seaming this will be challenging as I have yet to seam a sweater! I'm hoping someone at the Yarn Lounge can help me out.



That is really all the news fit to print. Bloo is growing like a weed. We are loving his crazy antics! I'm off to give him the 2 hours of petting time he requires each evening :)