The Yarn Harlot is Hot.

Stephanie Pearl-McFee is hot.


My Wicked, however, is very much not:

I came so very, very close to being able to wear it. Unfortunately the plan to “lightly block it and let it dry while I’m in the shower” was a bad one. I tend to get a little carried away with the steam feature on my iron – something about the whooshing noise. The sweater was still sopping wet when I needed to leave. So I wore Adamas – if ever there was an event that it was appropriate to wear a fabulous hand knit shawl let me tell you this was it.

Stephanie rocked. The Bohus rocked. Her speech rocked. All of the knitters who showed up rocked. Pretty much the whole thing rocked. She even held my sock for a sock picture!

I feel so special!

Although I’m more than a little embarrassed that Stephanie actually read my blog (seriously, the Yarn Harlot read my blog!) and the last thing I posted wasn’t some fantabulous knitting thing but pictures of my drunken friends… oops.

I also got to hang out with some other wonderful knitters – Laura, Michelle, Linda, and Annie (both blogless), and a really nice lady in a fantastic green flower basket shawl who’s name I have sadly forgotten, and many others that I got to talk to but didn’t catch the names of. Unfortunately somehow I missed Andi and Karen. And you should have seen the handknits! Cleveland was representing bigtime.

Updated to add: I also somehow missed Anne Hanson (whose blog I read, who I have emailed several times, who makes me want to learn how to spin, who was literally 2 people in front of me in line, and whose hand spun sock I admired and somehow I still didn't recognize her.... doh!) and Debbie (Who has some pictures of gorgeous hand-dyed fiber on her blog. Seriously I have got to learn how to spin.) Sorry, guys!

And I can’t even begin to tell you how cool it was to be a part of a crowd of knitters… See, usually when I’m in a crowd knitting it’s because I’m waiting for the bus and I am very obviously the only one. Not that it’s ever stopped me, but still. Here it would have been completely odd not to be knitting. It was a great, great feeling.

Thanks for a wonderful and inspiring day, Stephanie.

Am I wickedly fast enough?

So this week was a little insane. I missed Monday and most of Tuesday of work so the rest of the week was spent working crazy hours with catchup – well, that and remaking the city.

Then last night I went out for the first time in a million:



Felt so good to be out of hibernation, finally!

And which pic of Osam should we put on Am I Hot Or Not?



Heh.

Aaaaanyways – the real topic at hand:

THE YARN HARLOT IS HERE TODAY!

I have no idea of any meetups or anything else b/c I have been totally and completely out of the knitblogging world this week. So yeah – if you’re there and you recognize me say hi!

I will hopefully be wearing my newly-completed wicked. If I can knit the cabely bottom band in the next 4 hours. Right.

Most likely I’ll be wearing either my Adamas shawl or my blue Green Gable (which somehow I never posted finished pictures of, huh.)

Hope to see you there!

So that sucked a lot.

Yup. That’s about all I got on the whole wisdom teeth thing.

Thanks so much everyone for all of your nice comments and encouragement! It was pretty cool to return to the world of the living and have so many nice thoughts to come back to… Knit-bloggers ROCK.

So while I was down and out I knit a lot. A whole lot. It was about the only activity other than watching Law and Order, sleeping, or eating frostees that I was capable of. I had planned on spending last weekend reading but holding all of those words in my head was just too much – and Suduku was a total bust. So yeah… knitting was pretty much my only source of amusement.
I tried to finish up the Wicked - but that didn’t work out so well. My increases for waist shaping were all nice and even – until I tried knitting on Codeine. Right. Apparantly remembering to turn my little row counter was too much for me to handle. Whatever, it’s wool, it’ll block out fine….I hope. I was at least of sound enough mind to quit while I was ahead in favor of something much simpler:

Yeah for charity hats! Always necessary, simple enough to work on while on narcotics, and fast enough to finish in a weekend.

This one is the kitty hat in the first Stitch ‘n Bitch book knit out less than one skein of wool-ease with absolutely no modifications (other than leaving off the ears):

I even got to make my very first pom-pom’s!

Which was super, super amusing at the time.

And this one is the Flame hat – also from the Stitch ‘n Bitch book – knit out of less than one skein of Patons Classic Merino held doubled. I changed it to be knit in the round, and I added in the twisty cable pattern from wicked:

I like it.

I think the best part of this whole wisdom teeth thing (other than the excuse to count ice-cream as a meal) is that I went to sleep and when I woke up it was finally spring.

Rational

So, I’m just killing time right now waiting for my "responsible adult" to get here (my mom b/c she doesn’t have to work on Fridays and my husband does)…

because in less than an hour I am going to have my wisdom teeth taken out.

Upon learning this, and watching a horrific video on potential complications and typical procedures I did what any rational person would do.

I bought this:

I’ve been wanting this yarn for a long time, and I know exactly what I’m going to knit with it, and the yarn store was on my way home. So really, how could I resist?

And I just love this color and texture:

Love. It. It’s going to become the Shetland triangle shawl from Wrap Style. I have been wanting to knit this since November when I took that book out of the library…but I have had no rational reason to unlike the other shawls I’ve knit - Adamas was to wear to a wedding, Cherry Blossom was for my grandma. And lace requires too much time to just be random.

So now I have my reason: I may have an awful weekend ahead of me but after that I get to knit something beautiful. With pretty yarn! Silky wool yarn! I’ll figure out what to do with the finished shawl once I actually finish it…

Does this mean I’ve crossed the threshold from a product to a process knitter? Hmmm…

The big bummer of this whole wisdom teeth thing is that I have to miss our rowing organizational happy hour tonight… Booo! I’m going to guess that I’ll be pretty narced up and out of it and that going out will be completely impossible... but I so wish I could go. Our team is looking to return strong this year – with some new additions that should make our boat go even faster. It’s going to be a great season! If anyone out there is looking for something really fun to do in Cleveland over the summer I highly, highly recommend rowing – you can get lots more info on it here.

Ack – my mom is here! Sorry if this was a little all over the place - I didn't get to proofread it…

Wish me luck!!!

Wicked Progress

I love daylight savings time.

Hope you had a Wicked St. Pat's!

First of all:

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

Secondly, Wicked is a seriously fun(and very green) thing to knit:

I’m to the point where I have to make a decision about the pocket and so far everything is going well. I didn’t think I liked the pocket but after trying it on I can see where it would be pretty cute:


(sorry for the crappy bedroom mirror shots. My photographer was out playing basketball)


I also had originally planned on knitting ¾ length sleeves to make a 3-season sweater. May as well get as much use out of the handknits as possible, right? Yeah. That was before I learned that Alpaca is WARM. Really warm. This is defiantly just going to be a winter sweater – which means that full length sleeves will probably be more appropriate. I’m not sure if I’ll have enough yarn to do both the sleeves and the pocket, though, so I’m going to knit the sleeves and then decide….

Oh and I’m adding decreases to the sleeves – I’m decreasing 1 stitch every 4 rows to (hopefully) end up with a total of 40 stitches at the end of the sleeve. From there I’m going to end with the same twist pattern that is on the yolk. That’s my plan anyways – we’ll have to see how it all works out!

Yarn Harlot!

So I just found out…

THE YARN HARLOT IS COMING TO CLEVELAND!!!!

Saturday, March 31, Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Legacy Village, 24519 Cedar Rd. 2:00pm.

I’m so there. So there. Who else is in? Any one else want to come to town for this event? Or send a hat so you can represent? I’d be happy to bring any hats you guys want to make…

Most importantly… who wants to go out for an after party?


And while we're talking about Cleveland knitting events ... anyone else going to this?

Vacation and Socks!

So Florida was great. Relaxing, fun, just good little mini break from winter. I got to take naps by the pool, get some sun, buy flea market t-shirts for $1 and spend some quality time with my grandparents.

And just like last year my grandma taught me a new skill:

I made that yarn myself! No, really! It’s merino that a friend of hers gave her… and she let me try spinning it. It may be a little ... rough...

but I made it myself!!! I can totally see why spinning is addictive. Especially with merino. She has promised to show me more when she gets back to Cleveland and I can’t wait.

In other knitting news, my mom knit my grandma socks for Christmas and she raved about how much she loved them and wore them all the time. Well then my mom told her "be looking for a package!" so she thought that she would be getting another pair of socks. And she did, sortof... The package contained a skein of Step and a set of sock needles! So before we got there she knit both socks down to the heel so that my mom could re-teach her how to turn a heel:

I, however, took a little more direct approach to providing my grandma with handknit socks:

Those are the Step socks that I made while stuck on the couch. I originally intended to knit them for myself but they turned out too small… luckily my grandma has small feet! I think they went to a happy home.

Here’s a closeup of them before they were finished:

I wanted to show you the Eye of the Partridge heel that I tried. It was a very simple pattern, a little confusing at first, but I love the way it turned out! The other specifics: Basic sock pattern, 64 stitches, top down, size 1 needles, out of Austerman Step yarn color 21.

It was a really nice trip.

Secret Pal 10

Hi SP10! Welcome to my blog! There’s also two old questioneirs you can look at if you want:
SP7 & SP8.

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
Um… I dunno… I’m very sensitive to wool (the horror!) but I’ll knit with it anyways – I just can’t wear it close to the skin… but basically I love knitting with anything soft and I absolutely do not like anything even remotely scratchy.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
A drawer and the storage that comes with the Denise Kit and with the Knitpicks Options needles.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
I learned to knit years ago but didn’t pick it up in force until college when I made a bunch of semi-hideous acrylic scarves for my roommates. But I have only been knitting seriously (meaning obsessively) for 2 and a half years – so I’m probably an advanced intermediate. I’ve made a few sweaters, knit some pretty advanced lace, and got really into socks for a while but I have yet to do any really complicated colorwork or design anything complicated myself.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
Nope.

5. What's your favorite scent?
I’m pretty picky about scents as I get migraines and strong, perfumy smells are something that can give me an instant headache… so anything mild. Vanilla is usually good.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
Yes. Love me some chocolate.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
Create things out of beads, paint and decorate my house, and I’ll pretty much try anything once. I also really enjoy dying yarn –I’ve tried the jacquard dyes and knitpicks yarns with really fun results! As far as spinning goes - My grandma has just begun to teach me so sortof not really.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
Honestly I’m not that into music. I guess I just don’t know where to start as far as what to listen to. I borrow a lot of cd’s and MP3’s from people at work and I pretty much like anything…. And am willing to be educated!

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?
I tend to like reds and pinks a lot. I always seem to be really attracted to those colors… I’m not really a blue person so much because I don’t look that good in blue… Actually I think it’s more that I like warm colors more than cool colors. But lately I’ve been trying to break out of my red/pink box so really, I’m open to anything!

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
I live with my husband and the cutest dog ever.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
Yes, yes, yes, NO.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
Hmmm… I’ll try just about anything once. I like quick project and I almost always lately have had a pair of socks going to knit on the bus… but now that it’s getting warmer I’ll probably get back into lace.

13. What are you knitting right now?
A malabrigio scarf, a Durrow sweater for my husband, and a Wicked sweater for me.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
YES. Of course!

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
I like my knitpicks set the best. Also - I have a few pairs of addi’s that I’ve used for lace that are AWESOME but I definitely prefer bamboo for sock knitting b/c metal double points are too slippery for me.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?
My mom and I share a winder and swift that we borrowed from my grandma.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?
Honestly I’m not too bad with the UFO’s. Things may take me a loooong time because I get distracted but eventually they will get done.

18. What is your favorite holiday?
Fourth of July! The past few years we’ve thrown a huge party that weekend and all of our out of town friends come. So much fun.

19. Is there anything that you collect?
Beads. And Yarn of course!

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
Um… I dunno… I like learning about things knitting wise – so any books of stitches or techniques or any of that would be good. I don’t really own very many knitting books other than the two Stitch ‘n Bitch books. I’m not sure about specific patterns. And I’m always up for trying new things as far as yarn goes… I subscribe to Interweave Knits.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?
2 handed colorwork has been on my list for awhile. But now that it’s becoming summer again that may have to wait until fall… And I have a feeling that the second my grandma gets back from Florida I’m gong to learn a whole lot about spinning.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
Yes. I wear a size 6.5.

23. When is your birthday?
April 17, 1980.


Ok – hopefully tonight I’ll finally have some time to download my Florida pictures!

Wicked Winter

So here I was all excited because there are hyacinth to be had and spring must be near and blah blah blah… and we get slapped with 6 inches of snow.

Boo. Luckily I’m leave for Florida tomorrow! Yup… I get to pretend I’m retired for a weekend with my grandparents – just like last year. I can’t wait.

The one little, tiny downside to the trip is that I am leaving without my husband, on his birthday. I felt bad about that for exactly 2 seconds – until his response when I asked him if it was ok was "Sweet. I’ll have a guys weekend" Yeah. While I’m gone a heard of out of town guys is taking over my house. It’s so going to smell like feet and cigars when I get back…

Aaaanyways - I need some vacation knitting because obviously I can’t take all of my many projects with me. Clearly.

So I bought the yarn for, and started, Wicked:
I’ve been stalking this pattern for awhile now (the ladies over at the Sexy Knitters Club are knitting it) but I wasn’t sure what yarn to use. I debated buying the Super Merino called for in the pattern only in a different color… but I just couldn’t justify it. Especially when I have 2 projects going right now that use very luxurious yarn and are still not finished (the mmmmalibritgio scarf and Matt’s sweater). So I wanted to go a little more low budge with this one....

So I’m using Berrocco Ultra Alpaca (5 skeins @ 215 yards of ultra alpaca and Peruvian wool!) in a great shade of Green… pretty sure it’s called Fern. And this totally fits the bill of not knitting anymore things that are pink or red b/c honestly I’ve kindof been in a rut with that.

My original plan was to wait to cast on until I was on the plane on my way. Right. So then I was just going to knit the cabled yolk and start the raglan increases on the plane. You see how well that worked out for me.

So now I’m going to try to get it to the point where I can split off the sleeves before I leave tomorrow. That way I’m into the mindless body knitting for my trip. Should work out perfectly.

I plan on knitting the ¾ length sleeves, leaving off the pocket, and adding in some short row bust shaping. Oh and my gauge swatch totally lied to me – I knit it flat and the sweater is knit in the round so I think it’s just a case of me purling looser than I knit. To accommodate for that I’m just adding rows to the raglan part until it fits….

Does anyone know if you can bring the knitpicks options needles on a plane? Hmmmm...

I don’t care if you want to pet me.
I have no intention of moving until spring.

$1.50 worth of spring

So it may have snowed last night and it may be only 11 degrees out right now…. But I know spring can’t be far away:


Buyers outlet has started to stock their spring bulbs! So now my entire kitchen smells like hyacinth. And spring.

In other news – last night we went to see a play called “the clean house” by Sarah Ruhl at the Cleveland Playhouse. It was hilarious. Very amusing. It runs through March 25 in case you’re interested.

Knitting Roundup

So … I have lots on the needles right now and I’m getting kindof bored with of all of it. I think this is just a case of taking on too many largish projects at the same time. Here’s what I have going:

Step Socks:

Haven’t blogged about these yet b/c I figured they would be done super-quick and I would just wait and show them as a finished project. That was weeks ago when I was first told to stay off of my foot. I knocked out the first sock in no time….I think there was some sortof thing going on there – my foot hurt so I was compelled to knit socks to keep that foot nice and warm. Well now my foot is feeling better and the second sock is taking for-ev-er. Although today I started back with taking the bus so hopefully with the bus knitting they will start to grow faster….

Oh yeah – the yarn is Austerman Step…. It has aloe in it. It's amazingly soft and nice.

Matt’s Durrow:

Ok this one I’m not really bored of at all….I’m fine with it taking forever. It’s supposed to. It’s my long-term project. And cables like this don’t appear overnight:
Yeah. My plan that this was going to be done by his birthday (which is in 8 days!) is soooo not going to happen. Perhaps for next Christmas….

Mmmmmalibrigio Scarf:

Haven’t blogged about this one yet either b/c I figured it’s a scarf. How long could it possibly take? Silly me. It's on size 9's and has many, many cables. So not a fast project... but I'm loving the yarn. This is my first malibrigio project and it won't be my last!

I think I need to pick one and obsess over it until it’s done. That way I can move on to bigger and better things….

Like ripping apart my kitchen.