#6 Tuscany

So for the Tuscany colorway I started with my memory and worked backwards. I remembered Tuscany as being very golden – gold light, gold fields, gold stucco on the buildings. But when I looked through my photographs most of them were more green and gray:

Devil’s Bridge


Me with a school in Pieve di Monti di Villa that I decided that one day I would buy and restore. Since I was there in 2001 someone has done just that – now it’s a hostel for bikers. How fun would a Tuscan bike trip be?! Perhaps someday…



Church where my great-grandmother was baptized


Just a pretty street

So I started to think that it was just my warped memory – something about the sunlight there that makes the place just feel gold. I even made a flickr mosaic of Tuscany pictures to prove to myself I wasn’t crazy:


1. PIeve di San Giovanni Decollato, 2. Torre tarugi, 3. Tuscany Italy, 4. Tuscany house, 5. Side street, Pienza, Tuscany, September 2006, 6. Tuscany : Villa il Lecchio after the rain, 7. rooftops of Castello Vicchiomaggio Tuscany, 8. Tuscany Italy, 9. Tuscany : Vignale apartment Pinot Bianco 2007, 10. Val d'Orcia, Tuscany, 11. Tuscany colors - Val d-Orcia, 12. pienza door, tuscany

But then dug out the album from when I went to Italy with a group the summer between high-school and college and found these:




That is how I picture Tuscany. And that is how I dyed the yarn:


Which is now available at Destination Yarn. And since I’m posting Tuscan pictures I had to include this one:


Us at Pieve, September, 2001

So while Matt and I were doing the backpacking through Europe thing after our quarter abroad the plan was always for me to meet up with my grandparents in Italy and travel with them. That way they could introduce me to relatives and show me the places that I’m from. Well I got to the train station where I was supposed to meet them and my mom was there too! And so was my brother! And then my aunt and uncle and cousins appeared at the hotel! It was one of the best surprises ever. And how cool to be able to do a trip like that as a family....

Have a great weekend everyone!

Fourth of July Recap and Stitch ‘n Pitch

Ok first of all – is everyone as excited as I am about Stitch ‘n Pitch tonight? Because I can’t wait. I’m meeting some of my knitting friends (who aren’t on Ravelry so probably have no clue how big this event is going to be) at the Winking Lizard on Huron before the game for some happy hour fun in case any of you SnPers want to join us! Also super-fun? This:

I’ve spent all week getting my crap together so that I could bring some Destination Yarn to the game with me. I don’t want to sell anything tonight b/c I’m sitting in a section with a group from a yarn store and I really don’t want to step on the toes of the lovely people at French Creek Fiber Arts. I’d feel funny peddle my wares in their turf… but I do want to show everyone what I’ve been working on because I’m just so excited about it.

And did I mention that I have 2 new colorways that haven’t been listed yet? That are completely unseen by the internets? Find me at Stitch ‘n Pitch and I’d be happy to give you a sneak preview….

Anyways! Enough about Etsy how about some life?

Last weekend was our annual 4th of July activities with our friends. This is just my fav. standing tradition and possibly my fav. holiday. I mean when else can you spend the day with people you don’t get to see that often sitting on a roof drinking mojitos? Because that’s just the bestest. Also fun? Indoor cornhole:

Yup. It was raining so we brought the game inside:

Luckily Sarah has a big apartment:

It worked out pretty well except that I kept getting foiled by the doorway…

Then on Sat night we had a wedding to go to of one of the girls that used to be on our rowing team. Sadly I have very few pictures (stupid camera) but I did get a choice shot of Osam supermaning:

The wedding was completely lovely. Everything was beautiful and very classy and attentive to details. However I have to be snarky about one thing that has nothing to do with the bride and groom or their wedding in particular …

The reception was held at a brand new “state of the art” reception venue way out in the burbs that was built specifically for weddings. It featured a grand stair that – while it doesn’t actually go anywhere since it is in a 1 story building is just perfect for photographs. Ok. I’m an architect. I work in urban revitalization. Shit like this makes me crazy. I mean a grand stair to nowhere? Really? Are we that fake as a society that we need to not only build fake downtowns but also fake photo-op stairs? And we think it’s super awesome? Apparantly so. The best part is that when this was described to me I pictured it dying into an acoustical tile ceiling trimmed in ridiculous crown molding.

And it totally did.

Because nothing says class like acoustic tile.


Matt was equally amused/horrified.

So of course we had to take advantage of this “beautiful photo opportunity” - notice that the “second floor” is just a hallway to an access panel. Shudder.

I’m picturing a developer whose daughter got married and who thought “Dude I have got to get me a piece of that billion dollar industry.” That has to be the explanation for crap like this.

Anyways all in all it was a fabulous weekend. We even got the 5 of us girls who talk every day together in the same room:

My people.

You know you are good friends when you can not see each other for months and the just pick up right where you left off… funtimes, indeed.

Oresund Test Socks

So when trying to figure out Copenhagen I knew pretty much what I wanted it to look like… but didn’t know how to get there. So I dyed a test skein. And since I had no confidence in my dying abilities and thought it would take a few tries to get right I only dyed half of the skein to start with. Luckily on the first try I got what I wanted:

So I had half a skein left to play with. I decided to make it an experiment in repeatable colorways and try to dye the second half exactly the same:

So close! Definitely within the tolerance of a dye lot. So that made me happy.

I also decided to make this an experiment in dye sequence. What I did was for the first half I started with a small skein and dyed that. For the second half I wound the skein into a larger circle and dyed it exactly the same. Everything else was a constant – the only variable being the size of the skein dyed. (my high school physics teacher would be proud of my use of the sciency-lingo there). So then of course I needed to knit some test socks.

Sock 1 – small skein:

Meh. The colors are pretty but the pooling not so much. The heel flap made me swoon, though:

So then I decreased an extra 4 stitches in the foot just to see what would happen:

Me likey.


Sock 2 – large skein:

Ooooooh shiny!!! It made stripes! Not like perfect Parisian stripes but fun swirly stripes!

It has a pretty heel, too.

I don’t know what will happen on the foot b/c I’m still knitting it but so far, so good. The pattern is the Dublin Bay Socks (Rav link here) – I figured that the lace panels on the sides would keep me from screaming with boredom but wouldn’t break up the color repeats too much….

I like my fraternal socks. I’m calling them the Oresund Socks after the strait that seperates Copenhagen from Malmo.

And because I liked the second one more I dyed all of the Copenhagen yarn for the shop the same way I dyed the second one. Obviously individual results will vary with gauge and pattern and all that but still…did I mention that there is another 3 skeins of Copenhagen available now at Destination Yarn?

Nuked the Fridge

Lots has been going on. How about a list?

1.) Friday night Jennifer had us over for a wine and knitting night which is always SO much fun. This time was especially colorful since John was there to tell us tales about the semi-finals of So You Think You Can Dance. He’s a crocheter and Carolyn’s friend from highschool and finished a scarf that matches Guinness perfectly:

Cute! I brought my yarns with me to show everyone – not really trying to sell anything I just wanted my friends to see what I had been up to… and I sold 2 skeins! Crazy! John bought one of “Tampa” to make a scarf for Carolyn and Jennifer bought one of “Paris Night” to make something for her lil’ pumpkin. I can’t wait to see what they make!

2.) Surprise parties are fun! Especially when you force the surprisie to wear a blindfold while you drive them around in circles in the Valley trying to confuse them on the way to the party:


Heh.

Also fun? Pinata’s.

Even funner than that? The Goodtime III.


I hadn’t been out on it for years and while the DJ was a bit shady it was still funtimes.


3.) I didn’t get nearly as much done as I wanted to on Sunday thanks to the one two punch of a hangover and an America’s Next Top Model marathon. If anyone has any tips on climbing out of the swirling time suck of an ANTM day please let me know. I am totally susceptible to back to back Tyra Mail. Even though I hate Tyra and her stupid wigs. I did, however, manage to dye a little bit of yarn.

And yes I altered this picture in photoshop. A lot. It was a crappy on the way out the door pic and I didn’t want you to see this colorway until I can take some decent pictures of it…I’m tricky like that.

There will be a serious DestinationYarn update sometime very soon – including more Copenhagen!

4.) My new fav. phrase ever is “Nuked the Fridge” It’s like “Jumped the Shark” only for film. Here’s the Urban Dictionary Definition:

Nuke the fridge is a colloquialism used to refer to the moment in a film series that is so incredible that it lessens the excitement of subsequent scenes that rely on more understated action or suspense, and it becomes apparent that a certain installment is not as good as previous installments, due to ridiculous or low quality storylines, events or characters.

The term comes from the film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, in which, near the start of the movie, Harrison Ford's character survives a nuclear detonation by climbing into a kitchen fridge, which is then blown hundreds of feet through the sky whilst the town disintegrates. He then emerges from the fridge with no apparent injury. Later in the movie, the audience is expected to fear for his safety in a normal fistfight.

Fans of the Indiana Jones series found the absurdity of this event in the film to be the best example of the lower quality of this installment in the series, and thus coined the phrase, "nuke the fridge". The phrase is also a reference to the phrase "jump the shark", which has the same meaning, only applied to a television series instead of a film series.

Perfect.

Although I must admit while the movie was terrible the new Lego Indiana Jones game almost makes up for it. Almost.

5.) This weekend is the annual 4th of July extravaganza (here’s 2006, here’s 2007.) However this time we’re going to Cincinnati to play. I can’t wait!

Blogging the Bus

So yeah. A lot of people are talking about taking the bus right now. Even the local news (of course I couldn’t find the link). Which – dude- how suburban has Cleveland become that a bus ride is the lead story on the news? I mean really now. It’s just not that big of a thing. But I guess some people have never been on a bus, huh. Crazy that. I can’t even imagine – so many of my life experiences just wouldn’t have happened if I was afraid of public transportation. Like living in Copenhagen or traveling through Europe or living in San Francisco. One of the reasons we bought the house we did was that I could take the bus to work….

Anyways! Since I’ve been hearing so much about it how about some pictures of my commute. These were taken with my cell phone from the Shoreway:




I actually tried to write this post a few times but just wound up sounding bitter. Over the years I’ve gotten a lot of crap for my choice. Hell even just that – people assume I take the bus because we couldn’t afford any other option. So not true. We have two cars, parking is cheap, and gas used to be cheap. But I’d much rather take the RTA. It’s not dirty or smelly or awful. I never have to wait more than 15 min for my bus to come (and that’s only if I juuust miss the previous bus. Usually I wait less than a min. Once you have the timing down it’s just not a problem anymore.) I never have to worry about strangers accosting me. I’ve never, ever, ever felt even a little unsafe. In fact the worst thing that has ever happened to me on a Cleveland bus was when I dropped a double pointed needle and couldn’t find it anywhere. Tragic, I know.

So right now – with gas prices where they are and the same people who used to look down on me now asking me how I do it – I kindof want to do a little “I told you so!” dance. But that would be wrong. So instead I’ll leave you with this advice that I keep repeating to all of these people:

Ride the bus. It’s just not that big of a deal.
(and you can knit during your commute!)

Destination Yarn Contest Winner

Ack! It got late fast today. Anyways… so I had over 80 entries into this contest! And between MostlySelfTaughtKnitter and Ttownknitiot it seemed like half of the entries were of someone named Karen! Thanks again guys for making this week such a success! So the winner (as chosen by the random number generator) is… drumroll please….

Weezalana

Her entry was this:

“Tahiti - Bora Bora and Moorea to be exact. The colors that come to mind are deep ocean blue (we went on a catamaran), plumeria yellow (they were everywhere, as was the sun!), and rich brown (the furniture everywhere amde from natural woods, the over-the-water huts, *sigh*).”

Sounds beautiful! Anyways - you have your choice of any of my first 5 colorways. Don’t worry that some of them are sold out on Etsy – I didn’t list one skein of each just to be sure the winner would get their pick.

Thanks again for playing, everyone!