short and sweet

I'm a joiner. So far, we've got the SP5, Sockpal-2-za, and participating in the Rogue-a-long with my Denver Knitting crew. Now I've gone and joined this scarf exchange set up by Celia. She missed the deadline for the sockapal-2-za, and since it's winter down under, she thought an international scarf exchange would help soothe the wound. You can have the option of exchanging for a knit scarf, or a surprise scarf that's either knit, woven, or crocheted!

I'm also geekily excited about doing an international exchange with Celia. I'm getting some fiber from the land down under, while I get to chose some American made stuff for her!

Last, I've been a bad, bad girl. I'll wait to post about that this weekend. The locals here will get a preview of the badness, since the MHCKnitters are descending upon Jenifer's home on Friday for a knit group.

E vs I

Didn't I have a chat with all of you about the Myers-Briggs? Many are surprised that I come out introverted, b/c when I'm comfortable in a crowd of people I know, I can be a little bit of a ham. Once you see that the Introverts need time alone to 're-energize' though, it makes sense that I am an "I."

That's what I've been telling myself why I've not had a big night out on the town lately. Um, in a couple months. I know I've had a very social life lately, but almost none of it has involved any sort of interaction with a possible/likely romantic interest.

On to the actual knitting content.

progress on my Soleil tank. I was working on this tank last night at the second monthly meeting of the Littleton knit group.









Pics of the meeting:


That would be (L to R) Michelle, Terri, and Laura.
The Tattered Cover in Highlands Ranch is the most comfy knitting meetup
I've been to so far, with the exception of people hosting at their homes.
They had these awesome chairs that were RECLINERS. Thus, it has been decided that 8 is the perfect # of people to come to every meetup. The negatives? The place shuts down at 9pm. Hello? That's barely enough time to get my drink and knit a couple rows after oohing and aahing over what everyone else is working on. Hmph. I didn't even have time to purchase the new Interweave.


Laura, Stacey, and Wanda.











On Saturday, there were just three of us over here... Lesley, Stacey, and myself.



Oh, I'm sorry. Did you actually want to KNIT at a knit night? Ha ha. That's the same cat who's ear you see in the soleil pics. Cosmo. He's named after Kramer from Seinfeld. And yes, he's a bit hyper and intrusive of personal space, just like his namesake.









I realize I forgot to take pics of the OSW. Next time.

Alert! Alert! We're at DEFCON 1

You are all going to think I'm a bad bad ungrateful daughter. My parents are fairly traditional Chinese parents which means, they still call me on a regular basis on weekend nights to make sure I'm safe at home. In college, they used to just drive down on a random Friday afternoon, make themselves at home in my apartment (yes, they had a key, don't ask). I would come home from class, and there they'd be. Dad watching my TV, my mom cleaning my kitchen. Just what I had planned for my Friday evenings (this helps explain why I was not a drinker in college).

Now, I love my parents. I know they love me, and want what's best for me. But, if you could die from parental smothering, I would've been a goner long ago. Which is why I've chosen CO as my home, while the rest of the family lives in Michigan.

I got a call earlier this week from my Dad...

D: "what are you doing from July 1st through the 7th?"

Me: Shit (yes, this is the first thought I had. bad bad ungrateful daughter). "Umm, gee Dad, I'm not doing anything, but I leave on the 6th to go to Telluride."

Dad: "you're going to telluride? where are you staying?"

Me: (where the hell does he THINK i'm staying?) "mom didn't tell you? I'm staying at your condo with Alexis and her family."

Dad: "oh. well, then I'll just leave on the 6th and you can drop me off at the airport on your way."

Me: (since when did the airport become 'on my way' to telluride.) "uh, well, I was planning on leaving REALLY early. can you look for flights that leave on the 5th?"

Dad: "but that only gives us, um, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th together."

pause (while *I* think, gee, that sounds like an awfully long time to me!)

Dad: "oh, I guess that's plenty of time. Ok, I'm going to go buy tickets."

Me: "Ok. let me know." (and thinking, shit, I'm gonna miss Jenifer's knit night. bad bad ungrateful daughter!)

(side note: that conversation just doesn't sound the same in English)

Now, if you know anyone that's second generation (meaning, parents are immigrants, and they're the first generation to be born in the states), or any ABCs, you're probably familiar with this horrid guilt we carry around. Trying to respect our parent's values and traditions, but not understanding why they moved over here if the 'old country' was so freaking great. Sigh. Bad bad ungrateful daughter.

But yes, we can take it down to Defcon 5. My mom just called and said that they're going to LA instead. Whew! (bad bad ungrateful daughter).

I'm having a few people over tonight. A small gathering of the denver knitting crew.

I can show off the finished OSW made with candy blue cotton ease. I cast on for a different tank, using Classic Elite Provence, a mercerized (WTF does that mean?) cotton in 'heliotrope,' aka purple. I'm using the Soleil pattern from Knitty.

Last but not least. I've decided to do the Rogue a long with Cathi, Stacey, Michelle, and Jenifer. But I haven't got any yarn! Anyone want to suggest a yarn with 18sts/4inch gauge on size 5-8 needles (i would prefer size 7 or 8)? I want a solid color yarn or one with very subtle effects in order to show off the cables.

Void if broken? What?

I watched the Pistons vs Spurs game last night in the large screen room at ESPN Zone downtown with my friends from out of town. One friend (the cousin of my best friend) was rooting for the Pistons (of course, us being from Detroit and all), and his friend and friend's kid were all for the Spurs (boo! hiss!). Luckily, we were victorious. I can't wait for game 7...what's better in a 7 game playoff series than a game SEVEN?

In knitting news, I started the OSW after seeing both Cathi's and Stacey's in person, and Libby's on her blog. Beautiful.



And, if you read the post that I wrote yesterday, but didn't publish until today, you'll see that I need to sign up for Yarn Buyer's Anonymous, YBA if you please, because ever since the Wool Festival, I've been trying to stay high. A local LYS was having a summer solstice sale (35% off), and fellow Denverite blogger Jon works there... which made it a perfect opportunity to meet him AND feed my yarn habit. Jon was supernice, grabbing me a big bag when he saw my overly full arms. Here's what I bought:



I bought the Debbie Bliss Cotton Cash to make the Vogue DB tennis sweater (at least it's a fall knit) and the trendsetter yarn, Taos, to make the Donna, also a fall knit.

I probably wouldn't have fessed up to this extravagance (27 new balls of yarn) so soon after the Festival, but I ran into Wanda, Amy, and had planned to meet up with Stacey. I had hoped that Stacey's newfound willpower would rub off, but alas, she arrived too late to prevent this piggy from going to the market.

In a strange Laurie kind of way, my modem went kaputz on me last night when I got home from ESPN Zone. What am I supposed to do without my internet? AUUUGH. I called the 24 hour service, and it was determined that my modem had died a quiet death while I was away. I got up this morning and went to the local office, got myself a new modem and noticed...



I know the pics in this post are blurry, forgive me for rushing. But the little white sticker says "VOID WARRANTY IF BROKEN."

uhm? what? am I the only one that sees the problem with that statement?

As for the brown katia gatsby (cable) tank, it's almost done. I need to finish about an 2 inches on each strap, then block that puppy. FO reports coming soon!

I need a hit. STAT!

It's so good to be home, and to know I'll be home for more than a few days. I've been feeling a lot guilty about leaving the kitty kats while I've been away. I doubt I'll do it again, b/c the anxiety is just not worth it. Good thing I have friends who are more than willing to look in on the kitties for me.

If you want a yarn related post, scroll down to the ****s...otherwise, I'm just journaling some notes about my trip out East.

The whirlwind tour of the east coast isn't all that exciting, b/c it involved absolutely NO yarn. NONE. NADA, NIL, ZILCH. I barely knit a stitch. I flew into NYC on Friday night, and we ate at the Yuca Bar, including Yuca fries, coconut shrimp, empanadas, and calamari. My friend Anna and I polished off a whole pitcher of sangria, making our walk home very pleasant (if unsteady). The next morning, we splurged on some bagels from Ess-A Bagels. For those of you that think Einstein's and Bruegger's actually makes bagels, these would've helped you figure out the difference between round baked bread and a bagel.

Saturday and Sunday were spent on wedding events. Rehearsal dinner on Sat night, the wedding on Sunday. We left Manhattan at 2pm, got to the hotel, changed, and got to the rehearsal dinner in Philly at 7ish. Yes. FIVE hours of traffic.

The wedding on Sunday was a beautiful event. A couple that takes that leap of faith, vowing that they want to spend the rest of their lives together, is as close to a miracle as I can fathom. HOWEVER, all these beautiful emotions rolling through me did NOT prevent me from noticing the oppressing humidity (90%!) and heat (90+ deg F). While the couple was in shade provided by the Hoopah, the guests were getting close to having heat stroke.

After the wedding, my friend from MD picked me up. His family and I went to the Baltimore Orieles/Houston Astros game on Monday night. Though I prefer not to attend, watch, partake of any sort of baseball, it was fairly enjoyable! Since it was a night game, it wasn't horribly hot. The seats were club level, meaning we could escape into the AC when we wanted to, and we brought binoculars so i could people watch. Tuesday was spent in Wash DC, where I had too little time to see too much stuff. I stopped into the Holocaust Memorial Museum, which is not to be missed. Bring tissues. I spent a bit o time in the Natural History portion of the Smithsonian (which is a group of about 10 buildings, and are NOT interconnected).

****************************************************

So, now I'm back, and I've been to the Estes Wool Festival. I've been looking forward to the Festival since I stumbled upon the crack cocaine of yarns, Brooks Farm Yarns. I bought seven skeins of yarn, some of which were 16 oz skeins, and have not one iota of buyer's remorse. Wait, that's a lie. I have remorse that I didn't buy more crack.

What would any reasonable knitter do at this point? When she's already been looking at the website of the crack to see if she can buy more? She looks up their show schedule, and sees that they will be in Taos, NM in early October. Road trip anyone?
Bueller? Bueller? Bueller? (i know at least a couple of my trusty knitting crew will volunteer to enable my sick addiction).

I've made quite a bit o progress on the katia tank with the cable front. Amy schooled me in how to read the stupid pattern (which probably isn't stupid, the stupido is probably me). I've got the neckline and armholes done, just finishing up doing the straps.... quite boring.
Time to buy a blocking board!!

This little piggy went to the market...

aka baa baa black sheep have you any wool?

in which I reply, yes sir, yes sir, three bags FULL. (Jenifer, you were missed).

I'm back from my travels (finally) and recovered by going to Michelle's pre-festival sleepover/knit night. The whole crew was there! Amy, Wanda, Cathi, Stacey, Mishaele, Lesley, and Tami (who I didn't get to talk to much, sorry).





Cathi, damn her hide, has another FO.




We spent the evening excitedly eating, chatting, going through Michelle's stash, and enjoying Thomas' hosting skills. As you can see by Lesley's contented face, he makes a mean margarita!! Michelle and Thomas really put out the red carpet for us all,

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making brownies, crudite, personal sized lemon cheesecakes, guac, chips (of the potato and tortilla variety), french onion dip, and other goodies!

Michelle's got it good...Thomas played uberhost so that she could have time to knit (instead of pouring us rounds and rounds of margs), and her kitty



Tamiflauge, kept us all entertained until she pooped out in the wee hours of the night.


Stacey, Amy, and Tami left, but the rest of us camped out on the couches and floor so we could get an early start on the FESTIVAL. We met up with Libby, Stacey, and Stacey's mom at Flatirons (for coffee and ATM action). Off to the market did all these piggies go!

We went on TWO rounds of splurging. Pre-snack, and post-snack. Here's one of us with our first taste.


Here's what the spoils of Cathi, me, Michelle, and Stacey's mom looks like in the back of the car.




And by the way? The apocalypse is coming. Really! Stacey spent a good portion of the knit night actually KNITTING on her OSW. Then, at the wool market, she bought NO yarn.



She's either the model of restraint and wonder, or the little chick's predictions were true about the sky falling.

We stopped in Lyons to fill our bellies and come down from our highs.



From left front to left back: Libby, Cathi, Mishaele, Stacey, and Stacey's mom.
From right front to back: Wanda, Lesley, Michelle.

Here's what I'm adding to my stash:




From upper left: a gift for my SP, cotton ease in candy blue(from Stacey's trunk), interlacements (two skeins), three skeins of Koigu, and two skeins of Brooks Farm Yarns.

The interlacements: blue/green skein is 8 ply ray/flax (16oz skein, 1200yds, 85% rayon/15%flax) and dyers choice (16 oz skein, 1325yds, wool/silk blend).

Brooks Farm: blue/green/purple skein is Four Play, 4 oz, 270yds, 4 plies of 50% silk and 50% fine wool.
blue/gold/purple skein is Primero, 100% kid mohair, 8 oz, 500 yds.

I'll be making 2 pairs of socks out of the KPPPM. Genius figured I could use the solid skein to do heels and toes, using the variegateds for the major portions. The primero of BFY will turn into a Charlotte, the Four play will be a relatively simple scarf to show off the yarn, and I have no plans for the interlacements.

I'm considering going on a YNBA until fall knitting commences... Unless there's a good sale somewhere.

Eye-brow and low brow humor.

Re-tardy. That should've been the title. I'm tardy and a tard.

Item #1
Flashing my stash. I'm still down one purple/pink smaller lug-a-long, but it'll have to wait til I get back from the East Coast.



Counter-clock from upper left: Rowan DK Cotton, Berroco Glace, Artful Yarns, CE Provence, and Cascade Yarn Pearls.



CC from upper left: odds and ends (Manos & CE Lush), katia tank yarn (Elsbeth Lavold Tweed), scarves in progress (CE Wings and Cascade Shimmer), Jo Sharp Tweed, Cotton Ease (tempting), and sock yarns (Cherry Tree, Koigu, Sockotta)



Mostly feltable wool (some brown sheep seconds, cascade 220, and misc).



Ahem. I've done quite well over the last couple of months, no??

Item #2
The socks are finito. I had meant to take a pic of me wearing them, showing off the ever attractive cankle syndrome that occurs when one wears toasty toes socks. Alas, I forgot.

Upon successful completion, and some urging from Wanda, I joined the beginner's group of Sockapal2za. Here goes another try at a KAL. Perhaps a deadline, and knowing that someone will be expecting something will give me the motivation I need to be successful at one of these suckers.

Item #3
Tank tops.
WOE the fuck is me. The brown criss cross tank is being ripped tonight. I'm just about to the arm and neck shaping (about 4.5 cables in) and I realize...huh...gee whiz, I don't remember doing any SHAPING on this FUCKER! (pardonnez moi pour la fucking francais, but I'm pretty pissed at myself). So, I'll snap a pic of it before it gets ripped. When you've got boobies, you can't get away with not shaping your garments.

In my time of great sorrow, i decided to cast on for another tank top. (The truth is, the call of the new yarn was irresistable). The cascade yarn pearls is like the greek mythology sirens ( - it's the newest yarn acquired, ok?).

Edit: After a round table discussion with Wanda, Cathi, and Jenifer, it's been decided I should finish the tank w/o ripping. Since I conveniently forgot both decreases and increases for shaping, I'm actually right on for the width for the bustline.

Item #4
The need for relaxation in traffic... in order to calm myself down today (I was already suffering from pre-aggravation stress, caused by needing to find a dress to wear to the wedding this weekend), I was playing with my newly waxed eyebrows. One up, one down. Both up, one down. How come the one on the left can't go up independently of the right? I should be feeling good, since I had a day of beauty. Hair coloring, waxing of many body parts... The traffic managed to negate any sort of relaxing meditation I had managed while getting all hair ripped out of my skin.

Item #5
I met up with the knitting crew at St. Mark's tonight. Cathi had the brilliant idea to invite all the MHCKnitters...at a great coffee shop that's open late. We had issues with space, since there were 9 of us. Amy, Wanda, Stacey, Lesley, Libby, Cathi, Jenifer, Mishaele (whom I met tonight!), and I crowded around tables inside, oohing and ahhing over everyone's projects. All the pics I took were horrid, so please check their blogs for pics. We ended the night at Pasquini's...b/c have you HAD the bread?

Last but not least: I'm off for NY, PA, and DC tomorrow. I'll be back on Wed evening, hopefully with something to show for all those hours on a plane. Don't expect me to visit any LYS, since none of the people I'm visiting knit or crochet!!

A day late, a dollar (or more) short...

A huge shout out to Cathi!! In the chaos, I forgot to mention her extreme generosity! At Stella's, she gifted me with some much needed DPNs (size 4, clover takumis!), AND a bag full of cadbury mini eggs. If you don't know what these are, you are not a fan of easter or chocolate. These eggs will be horded for later enjoyment.

I also have some pics on my camera of the new stash organization. I don't have much of a stash (ahem, um... it has grown quite a bit the last month or so), but it's now nicely organized. I thought about putting out a Batmanesque distress signal out to my pur ling pa lz. I've been introduced by Stacey to those wonderful Sterlite lug-a-longs with latch tops. I needed the (gasp) purple and pink ones to store Summer stash yarn. I could only find ONE at each Target I visited, but found the mother lode last night! I know it's way past flash your stash day, but I'll be flashing my stash on tomorrow's post.

I know I'm not the only one that's geekily excited about the beginning of SP5. I've been contacted by my secret pal already and am impatient to find out who it is! My SP asked about my amazon.com wishlist.. so I'll try to link to it here. I'm heading over now to update it!

And here we have a failure to communicate...

leading to not just lack of progress, but hindering any sort of progress I might've made. My indecently short attention span has lead to the unfortunate circumstance of needing to rip back on two of my projects... the katia tank AND the second toasty toes sock.

Mistake #1
Not counting rows before crossing the middle stitches to create a cable effect. I was on my third repeat and figured I could 'eye' it. Guess my 'eye' needs a check up. I had to rip that sucker back about 8 rows. (for a net loss of -4 rows).

Mistake #2
The sock was about an inch and a half shorter than the first sock. Which means it didn't fit. Stacey and Cathi were very sympathetic about my plight (after they got done laughing). I had done the kitchener stitch and everything, and was so proud of myself for finishing my first pair of socks. Where did I go wrong? I made consecutive decrease rows instead of alternating a decrease row with an even row. Doh!

Yes, I know. Pics of my FUPs (Fucked Up Project) would've been highly entertaining for you... but I ripped em both before I took any pics.

The good news: I've successfully ripped and put stitches back on for both projects. The sock is about 4 rows from being finished, and the tank is back on track.

A friend from North Carolina is visiting me now, and we've been having a blast! Her first full day, we spent in CO Springs, where she received her second bachelor's degree. We visited a lot of her old haunts. The next day, we went shopping for yarn, where we bought some very nice stuff. She bought handpainted brown sheep-

handpainted


I bought enough Cascade Yarns Pearls in blue for a tank from Hot Knits.

blue pearl



Then, I made the mistake of going to both Target AND the Container Store. I found lots of stuff I wasn't aware that I needed at both stores. Some nice faux leather bins from Target (in which to hide some of the stash), and some these magnetic boards to use in the kitchen with this paper towel holder, this hook rack, and this towel rack to help create more counter space in my teeny tiny kitchen.

We met up with Cathi and Stacey at Stella's for a wonderful night of knitting. Cathi worked on her Chickami tank, Stacey worked on her HP Gryffindor scarf, I screwed up my sock, and Dar worked on her crocheted block afghan. Of course we all got hungry, so off to Jerusalem's we went for some serious hummus, falafel, and pita... topped off with baklava for dessert. Wanda was supposed to be there, but had to pick up an early morning shift the next morning. She was missed.

Tomorrow, we'll hit up King's Land for dim sum, then head back over to S. Pearl to visit the Farmer's Market and LaTiDa (where I have a gift certificate which needs to be used).

Busy bee...

Edit: posting w/o pics for now...b/c Cathi is impatient to read about my trip and my yarn acquisitions. let me cut the suspense right now and say that the blabbering below contains very little knitting content. Pics to come later when the camera is charged up. Plus, I'm busy cleaning. I got in yesterday afternoon, and a friend from the east coast is flying in today for a weeklong visit. Shit.

back to the regulary scheduled program...
My trip out to California was really fun... My best friend's little boy turned THREE and is about the cutest thing ever. He has finally developed long term memory, which means I don't have to spend 2-3 days getting him warmed up to me. He sure knew a sucker right off the bat! I played with hot rod cars, train sets galore, star wars toys, and read many many books.

I've had too much cake this month though... (we worked on the decorating for quite some time). See how excited he was about the cake?





I worked a wee bit on the tank (maybe 4 rows) but got quite a bit done on sock #2 of toasty toes. Is it just me, or does this sock yarn make socks that gives everyone cankles? (shudder). The yarn is really soft and a delight to work with, but I think these socks are only to be worn with boots.

(pics of cankles)- coming soon to a blog near you.

For more puppy pleasure, I introduce you to Bo:



We didn't make it to any yarn stores...which is fine b/c the $$ will be forwarded to the Estes account. Sorry to disappoint Cathi but between 4 kids, and Memorial day weekend, there wasn't much time to get to any LYS. The two of us were lucky enough to cajole the husband into babysitting so we could go see the new Star Wars movie. Yes, I used the term 'babysitting' very deliberately. My friend must ask her husband to 'watch' their son if she needs to do something sans kid. (the other three kids are his kids from a previous relationship).

Last, an interesting tidbit I just learned today.. will be of particular interest for some. This blog about a woman and her HORDE of kitty kats, is the same woman who created Jem and the Holograms. I've been reading about her moggies to offset any worries that I am crazy cat lady... and all this time, she's been the creative force behind JEM. It's truly outrageous.

Edit (again): When I got back, I had packages. I've been stealthily acquiring yarn via internet. I bought some berroco glace to make yet another tank top, and some cascade 220 came in for some clogs for a friend.