A Four Letter Word

I saw evil. And then I smashed it with a paper towel, so I cannot be certain, but since it was the second appearance of said evil I'm afraid (horrified, actually) that it was a clothes moth. Gack. I'd seen one the day before, just above a bag that contained some newly purchased yarn, but didn't really register it. Then another the following day. I got that sick feeling in my stomach, so the entire bag went into the freezer. I had no immediate plans for the yarn so I figured it could chill out for a while and kill any beasties, real or imagined. Later that day or the next I was cruising on Ravelry and noticed a posting labeled "HELP – Moths Attack!" and as (bad) luck would have it, Barbara had most definitely had an encounter with the little winged demons. The advice from fellow Ravelers was to use heat, so this is what I baked tonight:

The whole batch is going back into a sealed plastic bag and then isolated in its own plastic bin. I'll check back in a week or so, and if my paranoia continues I may have another baking session.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ms. R is going to a Speakeasy Study night – not what it sounds like, but a get-together for her AP History class to study for an exam, and all the kids are supposed to dress in 20's style clothing. I'd seen a really cute cloche pattern and Ray picked out some pink Cascade 220 and some pretty brown yarn (Nashua Julia, I think) for the trim. This was a fast knit, perhaps because I used a worsted weight when the original pattern called for DK, but I upped the needle size and knit it an inch shorter, and the thing fairly flew off my needles in spite of several late evenings working. I cast on Monday and was done Wednesday, then felted it on Thursday. She loves it. Still has to find a costume however...

I'm continuing to plod slowly along on a lace stole destined to be a shop sample as well as my Central Park Hoodie. The stole is nearly done but I'll need to write up the pattern (and I dread that part). The CPH is boring me to tears though.

I also have some socks started on the sample skein of Malabrigo sock yarn, but have had a change of heart about the pattern I'm currently using. Fortunately the cast on for the pattern I have in mind is nearly identical so I'm not losing any ground there since I've really worked less than an inch on the pair (I'm doing 2 socks/2 circs). For the first time though I don't like the Knit Picks needles, at least on this yarn – I seem to snag the stitch on the very sharp point of the left needle as I drop a newly completed stitch. I've never had this problem before, and it is frustrating me to the point I don't want to work on the socks though I love the feel of the Malabrigo.

I finally found what I think will be the perfect yarn for the Printed Silk Cardigan - Berroco's NaturLin, which my shop co-worker Paula swatched yesterday. The swatch feels beyond wonderful, with an amazing drape and silky hand. The yarn is hidden away but I can still hear it screaming at me. I'm determined to finish the stole and the CPH however and have vowed to plug my ears until they're done.

I have to fly to Boise next week to visit a client and like any good obsessed knitter, I am already mentally packing about a half dozen project for the two and a half day trip. And none of them are the stole or the CPH! I'm totally hopeless.

Stitches Overload

I love Stitches. Been totally addicted since I first went five (six?) years ago. It is huge fun for me and I always learn soooo much.

Recently I started knitting socks and finally "got" why everyone is so crazed about Blue Moon Socks That Rock. I was determined to buy STR. Really determined.

How do you think I did?

Now, admittedly, it isn't all for me. Nancy S. didn't want to go to Stitches this year, so she gave me a wish list of colors to look for. Unfortunately I saw only one of them and it was in the wrong weight. I decided to just grab whatever I liked and let her choose from them. It was a total feeding frenzy at the Blue Moon booth with rabid sock knitters packed in so tightly that often I was locked in place, unable to move. The checkout line was ridiculously long, and I heard "you dropped a skein" dozens of times. Torture, but fun torture. WonderGirl Rachel has already picked out two skeins for herself, and there are three that I'll most likely keep, but really I'm happy with all the colors.

But my best and most favorite score was this:

Yep. Malabrigo Sock. For freakin free! The color in the picture isn't true – this is a beautiful near solid deep lavender color. Gorgeous. I'm going to hold onto it and cast on something for Malabrigo March as part of the Malabrigo Junkies group on Ravelry.

I had no idea this was at Stitches. I stopped at the Malabrigo booth just to grope the yarn peek at what was there (they weren't selling, just showing their yarns) and chatted briefly with Tobias, the owner. I mentioned that I'd been following the discussion about the sock yarn and asked when it'd be available. Tobias put his finger to his lips and said "shhhhhhh….", then dove under a under the covered table for a box. Out came the yarn, with the explanation that this was a special thing for the Malabrigo Junkies members. I about fainted. Then I hugged him and asked him to marry me. He just laughed and said his wife would probably object – and I told him my husband probably wouldn't be too happy either!

As soon as I got around the corner from the booth I called everyone else I had numbers for that were fellow 'junkies' and told them about the sample skeins. Terry and Carrie both scored beautiful skeins of variegated colors that I covet quite badly, but I think that the semi-solid will be really nice for a lacey sock. Maybe Cookie A's Monkey socks.

Other odds and ends:

That is "Graceful Lace" yarn from The Yarn Place (1800 yards!) that I think is destined to become a Print O' The Wave Stole.

I wanted one of these as soon as I'd read about it:

An Ear Light from Full Thread Ahead. On road trips my husband almost always does the bulk of the driving and I knit, but I hate to have to turn on a dome light to knit when it gets dark. I've tried a couple of different book lights, but none worked well. I hope that this little gadget is the answer!

And Ravelry swag:

A bag (as if I really need another bag!) and two pins – a Bob head and the little Ravelry yarn ball logo.

I took classes too – Fiendishly Difficult Stitches by Merike Saarnit. No, I still cannot pronounce her name, and yes, the stitches were challenging.

This is a sample of "Alsacian Scallop Border" below, and then "Estonian Embrace Cable" on the top. Yikes. Merike is delightful and I hope to take Estonian Patent Stitches from her next year.

I also took a twelve hour(!) Fair Isle class from Beth Brown-Reinsel. Honestly, twelve hours barely covered it. We made cute little teddy sweaters.

Or some of us did. Mine is more of a vest – you can see it on the bottom right, in tan/white/green. I tried, really I did, but Rachel played in a Chamber Music concert on Friday evening and not all of it was chamber music. It is impossible to follow a fair isle chart while a kid is playing Brahm's Hungarian Dance No. 5 on the xylophone. And totally impossible when another is playing two very long pieces on the bagpipes (a little bagpipe goes a long, long, long way). Don't get me wrong, they were both very good – that bagpiper is a nationally ranked player – but still. Fair Isle done by a rank beginner should never be attempted under these circumstances. Ever.

By Saturday afternoon I was still way behind much of the class, so much so that when it was time to actually cut the steek I just wacked away at it because I wanted so badly to catch up. Only afterwards did I have that "oh my god, I just sliced up my knitting" moments. The guy that sat next to me in class had to have Beth stand next to him and admitted to having very sweaty hands when his steeking moment arrived. That first time is pretty freaky. The picture is missing a lot of the little sweaters – some classmates were done and took off before the photo – and you can see the amazing variety of colors. Sharp eyes will also see that the sweater shoulders aren't symmetrical either; the pattern worked two different styles of sleeves, one shaped and the other with a gusset, so the shaped side is much narrower at the shoulder. I have to practice (lots) because my tension is pretty wonky. Knitting my oddball style of continental didn't help either and I found my tension got a lot better when I switched to standard continental. I want to work some sample swatches and try it again two-handed instead of both strands on my left. It may take forever to lay out colors though – it is way harder than it seems on the surface.

I'm it.

I've been tagged by Terry - and for once, I'm actually ahead of the game! I saw this meme on another blog and figured I'd be tagged eventually, so already I have my list ready to go. The fact that I'm ahead is monumental because I always procrastinate.

4 job's I've held:
fabric store clerk
data entry clerk for a book publisher
yarn shop employee
software developer

4 movies I watch over & over again:
Amadeus
The Abyss
Independence Day
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

4 places I've been:
Paris, France
Namur, Belgium
Saltzburg, Austria
Venice, Italy

4 places I've lived:
Menlo Park, CA
San Carlos, CA
Hawthorne, NV
Belmont, CA

4 TV shows I watch:
Battlestar Galactica
Stargate Atlantis
Grey's Anatomy
House

4 people that email me regularly:
my husband
my daughter's swim coach
my dad, when he's out of the country
my client in Idaho

4 favorite foods:
Chocolate, preferably dark Belgium
Cheese - but not goat
San Francisco sourdough bread
Denali Chocolate Moose Tracks Light Ice Cream

4 places I'd rather be:
Sleeping in my bed
Any beach in Hawaii
Knitting on a houseboat on Lake Shasta
Venice, Italy

4 things I'm looking forward to:
Hearing my daughter play first chair in her band.
Hardwood floors being refinished in my living room.
A week off work.
Stitches West!!!

4 people to tag:
Bets
Carrie
Trish
Thayer

The Miracle Cure

Like many knitters I’m a big fan of the Yarn Harlot. I too read the article about the Valley Yarns English Tweed that, with a leap of faith and a whole lotta washing, turned into the most wonderous of yarns. A soft tweedy glorious yarn that, upon washing, would bloom into a thing of beauty that all would envy.

I got an advertisement from WEBS at the end of the year that eventually linked me to a coned Highlands Tweed yarn – and I jumped on it, thinking that this was the very same yarn that had Stephanie swooning. I’ve since lost the receipt, so I can’t be sure that this was the same yarn, but in any event, it was a whopping $7.00/lb so with a what-the-hell attitude I ordered two pounds of Silver Tweed. This set me back a grand total of $23.00, including shipping.

I have to say, the yarn is really very pretty, appearance wise. As I expected, it had a fair amount of spinning oil so I dutifully washed it. Twice. And for good measure, gave it a nice Eucalan bath. It did indeed bloom in a quite amazing way - this is a "before" (on the left) and an "after" on the right. You'll have to forgive the photo - I had a hard time with the flash and the closeup thing all coming together.


Then I made a swatch.

In my mind this was destined to become a Central Park Hoodie in a lovely goes-with-anything grey tweed. In reality this was a pretty rough yarn. I did the bra test, the back-of-the-neck test, the I’m wearing a tee-shirt test… and I hated it. So scratchy that my hates-wool-itch skin found it unwearable.

I took the swatch to my Tuesday evening SnB - and everyone remarked about how nice it looked but when it came to touching it… well… not so much. Diane tried to console me by saying it’d make great felted bags. All two pounds of it. (sigh)... I resigned myself to storing this yarn into the same novelty-yarn box purgatory where it would eventually be given away.

However – today while cruising Ravelry I spotted a posting about how to soften

Kauni yarn. Another Raveler commented on the overall scratchiness of Kauni in general – and wanted to know if there was any way to soften it up. One or two others piped up with the dollop of hair conditioner trick which I was thinking of trying with my scratchy tweed. Then another person added a post about hair conditioner being a very bad idea and instead suggested using vinegar to soften the yarn, and this caught my eye. She wasn’t clear on the terminology about how the vinegar actually worked, but what I got from it was that the vinegar somehow made the scales of the individual wool fibers flatten down somehow – and those very scales were what made the wool scratchy. Again, with a what-the-hell attitude I put my swatch in a bowl of water and added a generous glub of vinegar. To my utter astonishment it has been transformed. Yeah, it smells like a salad and I’d still want a tee-shirt, but I could wear this stuff – wow, what a difference. Now I know why Manos and Malabrigo reek of vinegar. I love Ravelry.

Swatches. Socks. Trucks.

I’ve been swatching for a lace sample for the shop. My hope/plan is that it will be simple enough for a newish lace knitter to handle without wanting to weep in frustration and challenging enough that I won't nod off with boredom while making it.

I flipped through every Barbara Walker, Vogue Stitchonary, you-name-it book and finally settled on two different laces, both from the recently published Harmony Guide: Lace and Eyelets. My requirements were that there be eight or less rows of pattern, that there should be no “work” on the wrong side, and nothing more complicated than an SSK. Any pattern that had a P2tog or K3togtbl was out! Both are pretty - and both break at least one of my "rules", but I still think they’re do-able by a beginner.

The first was “Snowdrop Lace”.
This is done in Zephyr Silk/Wool on US size #4 needles. It was my second swatch, so I was playing around with adding beads to it. The beads didn’t photograph well at all – they’re actually an iridescent rainbow on black.
This lace however has a “slip-1, k2tog, psso” – and I’m not sure if that makes it fail my little list of requirements or not. I really liked this lace – for myself – but am not so sure about it being a beginner lace. Altogether there are eight rows total with only the front four rows having actual lacework. And two of those rows are identical, so it boils down to just three “different” rows. I had it memorized by the second repeat.

And if you turn it upside down it you can rename it “tulip lace”!

This was my first swatch, done on US size 5 needles. It is pretty, but it blocked out a bit too loose to really show the Zephyr off well.



The second was “Lacy Zigzag”.
Also done in the same Zephyr – super easy pattern, but this one is twelve rows long. However – there are only two rows of lacework with each row repeated three times. The back is all purling. Super easy, I think. This was the one I expected to like the least, but of the three swatches this proved to be my favorite “beginner lace” which surprised me quite a bit.
I presented the swatches to the shop manager and was surprised again - her pick was the first one. Evidently several coworkers were there and they all chose #1 – the snowdrop lace.

My fabulous(ahem!) plan is to write a multi-tiered set of instructions for a lace stole. The first will be super easy with just the lace. The second will have additional instructions for a provisional cast on to allow the stole to be knit from the center out so that the lace will match on each end (I’m Libra – it has to match!). Lastly, the third version will have beads added to the last couple of repeats and maybe the edges.


In between lace swatches and a couple of killer migraines I continued to work on my socks.

I didn’t see it until I edited the photos – but I love how a couple of the stripes of color aligned themselves over the two socks. I’m beginning to do the short-row heels, and since I have trouble seeing where I am in the whole short row/both socks,same circular process I’ve started using markers to try and keep my place.



We got a new truck – a Very Good Deal, but still a lot of $$. We signed for it exactly one month to the day after the Jeep was wreaked. This picture isn’t the actual truck – just a stunt double. It looks just like this, only it’s parked in the driveway being rained on. It’s a Toyota Tacoma double-cab that had been a dealer rental/loaner – less than 4000 miles on it and near perfect body and interior. It actually seems like there is more leg room in the back than the original Jeep had. Nicely discounted, but still… lots of money. My daughter is over the moon happy about it. It pays to keep good records, because the insurance company paid out more than we’d hoped on the Jeep, but we we’re still pretty sad to let it go. Funny how attached you can become to things. That Jeep took us on a lot of great adventures and I’ll miss it.

so AWOL...

Yes, it has been a while (waving back to Bets!) It has be a freakin' busy time. I love/loath the holiday season. Too much to do and never enough time. I also tend to slip into a bit of a depressed funk that hits me every winter which leaves me worn thin and weeping at the least thing. The entire month of November I took exactly one and a half days off. I actually tried to quit my LYS job – but things were in a state of flux and my guilt level was so high I couldn’t in good conscience just walk away. As it turned out we have a new manager there – a woman who I hold very dear – and I’m going to do my damndest to at least put in one or two days a month. That sounds so very simple on the surface but there are so many things pulling me in different directions. Work mostly, but family stuff too. It would be nice to have a clean house once and a while!

I did however, knit my very first ever pair of socks.

I’m insanely proud of these even though I know there are totally brilliant sock knitters out there cranking out fabulous socks on a daily basis. That were I to participate in the Sock Wars I’d be killed immediately. But still:
Toe up, short row heels in Crystal Palace Bunny Hop. So toasty warm, and my perpetually cold feet love them. And I actually like the barber-polling that it did.

So much has happened. I went to Albuquerque for a technical conference in November and took a day to drive out to Santa Fe. Driving out there I was pretty underwhelmed, but once into Santa Fe proper I understood the attraction. It is a spectacular place and I could have spent days just wandering through the galleries and shops. I was going to put some really nice pictures [here] and [here] but I cannot seem to find the card that contains them…

Unfortunately I have a bit of a problem with altitude sickness and despite drinking quarts of water and snacking on ibuprofen by mid-afternoon I was feeling pretty ragged, so I left way too soon. The conference was great and I learned a lot, but it is always a bit weird and intimidating to be one of a very small handful of women in the group – I literally could count the other female attendees on one hand. I was actually brave enough this time to bring along my knitting, deliberately sitting in the back and trying to keep my needles quiet.

I worked on my Mr. Greenjeans and I did get a few odd looks. One of the guys I contract with asked me if I ever actually wore anything I knit – and I just happened to be wearing my “Leaf Cardigan” so I felt downright smug at that particular moment. Hah!

December flew by and was fairly quiet except for this unfortunate event:

My daughter was at her friend’s house studying for finals, so luckly she wasn't in the car. The other driver swerved to avoid a deer that ran out in front of her – thus totaling her car and ours, as well as damaging the car parked behind Rachel. Mind you, the Jeep is roughly 4500 pounds and Rachel had parked it with the wheels in the gutter. The rear end of the Jeep was push over nearly four feet (almost touching the fence) and back roughly three feet. Her friend’s mother called me and caught me as I was going out the door to try and finish Christmas shopping. I stood by and watched – for hours – as the other driver was extricated from her car and sent off in an ambulance, and the cars were carefully pried apart and towed away. It rained. I was wearing a light sweater and totally inappropriate shoes and my toes were completely numb by the time I got back home. Foolishly(!!!) I didn’t get the other driver’s insurance information (kind of awkward, what with the whole taking her away in an ambulance thing) and I guess I assumed that the police report would be available in a day or two. I was so very, very, wrong. Ten. Days. Later. Even with the report in hand we still needed to wait for some official database thingy before AAA could process the claim. Today – twenty six days later – we’re told that the Jeep is considered “totaled”. Not a huge surprise, but damn. This is our main towing vehicle. We have a boat parked in the driveway that isn’t going anywhere now, and it is pretty unlikely that any check we receive will take into account the low mileage, extra lift kit, winch setup, really cool wheels, brand new tires, blah, blah, blah, that will make finding a replacement vehicle possible without spending a lot more money. Did I mention the part about the likely layoffs at my husband’s workplace…? Thanks to the US Congress for cutting the physics research budget by 200+ million. Not the best time for us to be going into debt for a car. Rachel will be in college in another year and a half too - we were going to be looking for a decent used car next year, so I'm smelling compromise in the air.

I continued to (try to) stay sane by knitting and finally finished my Mystery Stole – the thing is just too big to get into one single picture:

You can’t see the tiny Swarovski crystals that are knit in, but they’re there and add just the right bit of sparkle. Very tedious to do, but worth it.

It is so very pretty - kudos to the designer (Melanie Gibbons) for a beautiful design.

I also finished my sister in law Cherrise’s Luna Moth, knit from Malabrigo lace weight. I can’t seem to get it mailed off because it keeps nagging at me that it is too small. The Malabrigo doesn’t block out anywhere nearly as big as the Kid Silk or Super Kydd versions, even with the same needle size and repeat count. I keep wanting to pull out the bind off and add another repeat – I have enough yarn to do it, but don’t seem to have the willpower...











I finished off Mr. Greenjeans too, after lots of frogging and fiddling to get it right.
This was totally worth the extra work. It fits! And it is so nice and warm. We don’t get a lot of wool sweaters in California stores because it really isn’t that cold; most of my store bought sweaters are cotton/acrylic blends, so the Lorna’s Laces worsted wool is a welcome addition.

On the needles now is my second pair of socks, made from Regia Galaxy which patterns in a way that I find enchanting. Two socks, two circs!

It doesn’t show here yet, but hopefully will look more like this:

I’ve also been trying - in vain - to find a lace pattern using Zephyr Wool-Silk laceweight that would be appropriate for a first time lace project for our LYS and that is proving to be much more difficult than I’d thought, so nothing to show for it yet but a provisional cast on and a heap of crumpled yarn that has been through several different (and unsatisfactory) trial runs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

See what happens when I don't post often enough? So many goodies. Yesterday I visited another LYS to the south - Purlescence (a wonderful place!) and found this - I'm in total lust:

This is Grace, from Fiddlesticks Knitting.

And a small stroke of luck occured when Elann had a bag sale of their Highland Silk - perfect for Grace. I was a bit bummed that I didn't get one of the colors I truly adored, but the blue that I did get will probably be nice on its own and if not then this'd be a great time to try my hand at over-dying. Extra happiness was had when I found that I'd hit my Elann bonus, so two bags are on the way for a mere pittance.

And I saw this on Ravelry - then spotted yesterday - this lovely is Corsica which will be made with a considerable addition to its length, given my belly area’s lack of charm.

And there goes my last nerve.

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHGGGGGGggggggg!!

Trying to deal with the frustrating mess that is Social Security / SSI / MediCal has fried me. My son Matthew is disabled. When he turned 18 we enrolled him in SSI and MediCal per our regional center case worker recommendation, but Matty stayed on our private health insurance. He is now living in a group home which means that our private insurance can no longer cover him (drat!) so I've been trying to A) get a piece of paper from the insurance company stating that he is no longer covered, and B) tell MediCal that they are now the primary insurance. This has been a friggin nightmare of one agency representative after another telling me I'm shouldn't be calling here (all very apologetic --- "I'm so sorry... why did they tell you to call us? They shouldn't have done that...") Just getting the termination letter was difficult because Matthew was no longer in the system and therefore a letter couldn't be printed! Ironically the very letter I needed arrived late that afternoon, but well disguised on the back side of the COBRA coverage explaination. (sigh).


Somewhere in this muddle I was told to physically walk the magic termination letter into the Social Security office. Waited for over an hour with knitting (but alas, without iPod), and when I finally got my turn the drone behind the desk looked at me like I was an idiot and I got the "why did they send you here?" speech. I came this close to smacking him with my knitting bag. I explain (again) and he disappears to speak to his supervisor, returning after a lengthy time, still muttering and looking annoyed. Papers are churned out, copies taken, and he finally tells me that since the regional center is the payee that "they" (again with the "they" stuff!!) should be taking care of this, but he's put it into the system. I retreated to my car and called the regional center from the parking lot, left a message for our vacationing case worker's stand-in, and went to Draeger's to buy the really good Belgium chocolate.


The regional rep called later that day telling me that she'd called MediCal and everything was taken care of. Yay! Two weeks go by, then the pharmacy calls to say that they still cannot fill Matt's prescriptions - MediCal is refusing payment because they're not the primary insurance agency. Round two: Call MediCal. "Why did they tell you to call us?" Explain. Again. Fax papers, get told it will take 2-3 days to take effect. Pharmacy calls and says MediCal often does not handle these issues (i.e. they lie) and that I need to follow up. I call again this morning - it isn't done. "Why did you call us? You should be calling Social Security." My head explodes.



I sat down and knit a row or two of this:

Still looking like a lace amoeba, it will be teacher Denise's Luna Moth. I checked out how the Swarovski crystals behaved with the Colinette yarn and it wasn't a pretty picture. The crystal chewed through the yarn quite nicely - I don't know if it is because the yarn is more fragile than the Elann Super Kydd I've used in the past, or because I'm using bicones instead of rounds. Either way I'll need to sew these on so I'll be making a run to the Really Expen$ive Bead Shoppe to get beading thread that will (cross fingers) match the yarn.

Wool fumes really do make thing better. Now if only I had more chocolate...