Yarnivorous

G'day all! I hope that this really is the last Stitches stash post. I forgot to write this one up offline. Lisa Souza's dyeing. Purdy! Sock yarn and Blue Faced Leicester fibre to spin up. Yum! anon!

G'day all! I hope this is the last in our little series of flaunting my new stash. I feel a tad embarrassed but I have a LOT less than some of the ladies I saw walking out the door (though they mostly said that they only had the opportunity to do this sort of shopping once a year at Stitches...). The first shop I raced to when I got in the door was Blue Moon Fiber Arts. I expected to find that an hour after opening that it was almost denuded, with rabid women fighting over the remains. Boy was I in for a surprise! OK the queue was 10 long but it was not the all-in brawl I had expected to find. I managed to navigate the store quite easily. My aim was the Raven series, of course! I found one skein of Rook-y which I originally intended to send to a friend Back 'Ome but I could not let the yarn go. Rook-y is a rainbow of colours under the black and you all know how much I love rainbow colours. The close-up shot is not the best but it gives some idea of the subtlty. Then there...

G'day all! Ah the siren call of the sock yarn. On Friday I had admired a lovely wussy colourway at Ellen's Halfpint Farm in a merino bamboo blend. I am particularly fond of of what I call lilypond colours - a blend of light spring green, mauve, baby blue and aqua. On Sunday, on my second go-round (I have NO IDEA how people could put up with going three days in a row!) I saw that the yarn was still around. So it had an accident, well my credit card had another accident, and it came home with me. MMmmmm, pretty, shiny! I also saw this plait of wool and umm silk? Bamboo? I don't think it is bamboo fibre cos it appears to have dyed the same colour as the wool base. That sort of rules out tencel as well. The lady at the stall (Carolina Homespun) said if it was warm it was bamboo and cool if it was silk, or was it the other way around? Anyway it is prettier in the hank than it is in the pic. It came home with me too. anon!

G'day all! Y'know there is a problem with some indie dyers - they are so indie that they don't even have a label on their products. Silly persons! Without a label how do I remember who they were and how to get more? This indie dyer won't be a problem - Fiber Fiend labels all her stuff with her name and store URL. Plus Snidknits tells me she is a local and a good friend of Cindy's. This is some bamboo in such a lurid colourway it had to come home with me. She was very pleased with how the bamboo turned out - I have the feeling she was a little worried it might not take the dye or something. Ahem. Here are the fibres that I will have trouble finding again. The lady seemed very quiet and unassuming, at least the one who dyed them, not her large and loud blonde Valkyrie friend who was very friendly and helpful and one helluva enabler ;-) And they didn't have labels on their stuff. I need labels cos the wool fumes in such a place completely overwhelm me. So...

G'day all! One of the delightful things at Stitches West was that various designers were there. It was like "Wow, you are a Real Person!" One stall was occupied by Cheryl Oberle, who wrote Folk Shawls and Folk Vests. She is based in Denver (CO). I had a lovely chat with her - apparently the winter has been very cold there this year (when I had online access I noticed that towns in the area were often around -18C, which is negative F). I ended up buying this book from her and she kindly signed it though you can't see the signature cos I blurred it out and cut off half of it. I am not really that interested in making vests per se but I love some of the patterns in the knitting and figure I can filch them to make other things. As long as I don't sell my patterns on or give them to people, it should be fine, right? anon!

G'day all! Did you know that White Lies Designs does sock yarn? I didn't either! But they do! It is not a lightweight sock yarn, more a sportweight/five ply but it will make socks. And lookie at this luscious colourway. Mmmm, all for ME! I have more on Joan's stuff in the next post. anon!

G'day all! Here is another of the projects I am working on at the moment. See this full bag of Noro Cash Iroha in colourway 103 G? Cost me less than $60 at Stitches! There were a few stalls selling bags of yarn but this was the one that women were going nuts over. It was the place I expected Blue Moon Fiber Arts to be. There were about 50 women all grab-grab-grabbing and a couple of the shop assistants were standing in the middle of the yarn "corral" pulling bags of yarn out from underneath and throwing them on top and tossing bags of yarn to those who requested them. The queue to buy yarn blocked most of the aisle. If you count the number of skeins carefully, you will realise that that is not a full bag. That is because of this: Mmm, lurid Noro with some Fearless Fibers sockyarn held double as a contrast. That is my "swatch." A swatch for a pattern that I can't even find a picture of online, not even on Ravelry. Looks like mine will be the first one...

G'day all! The Stitches stash pics will continue shortly. LOL. Of course this post will appear under them, but I thought I should say Happy Leap Year! It isn't often we get to see Feb 29th, so I thought I should make the occasion. (You don't wanna know what sort of mark though ;-) I am currently setting up internet access with AT&T. I know 10 years ago we would've run screaming from AT&T but compared to Comcast they are easy peasy to deal with. Maybe they've lifted their game somewhat. I hope I don't have occasion to eat my words.... So far it looks like we will be online next Wednesday, that is if I ever get through the three brazilian steps needed to complete the order. FREAKY! The windoze box next to where I am sitting with the laptop just randomly started up! I didn't touch it yet it is running. OK. 20 steps later, I think the order is going through! I have a confirmation number. Hooray! With any luck we will be online in less than ...

G'day all! I never knew SEX hurt so bad! On Friday I wandered around Stitches West for FIVE hours. Yep, five whole hours. And I bought an Unreasonable Amount of Yarn (UAY)(see below). When I hopped on the train for the trip to the mall to pick up some shampoo for Nathan (Body Shop ginger - the only thing that stops scalp flakes for him) and turned my head, I had one of those freezing moments when you wonder if you'll always have your head turned to one side. Yep, I suffered SEX neck strain. Ouchies! My neck unspasmed relatively so I looked as normal as I ever do but the referred pain down my arm was halfway to unbearable. The only thing that sort of soothed it, thank heavens, was Our Favourite Hobby, aka knitting. I knitted like a demon on the way home (see Doing the Solstice Slip). I still had to walk a mile from the train/tram too when I got back and my UAY was not exactly helping and it was trying to rain on me. The only time the arm stopped burning and hurting fierc...

G'day all! I have been starting to knit my way through last year's Sock That Rock club offerings (except for the last one, boo hiss which I lost cos I didn't email blue moon to say hold that parcel cos I didn't know I'd be getting one last parcel and I didn't have email for some time). Pretty, eh? The Solstice Slip in Firebird (I think that is the colourway's name). I knitted the toe and most of the foot of the second sock in Sunday whilst waiting to meet up with the SnB crew and then whilst waiting for the tram and being on it (note to self - check the time table and don't turn up 5 minutes late when trams run every half hour...). Note that the toe of the sock that awaits the EZ cast off is folded in. There is a reason for that. I should really learn to read the pattern better rather than hairing off doing my own thang. The second toe I did in garter stitch. It looks a little suspect: But the one I did in stocking stitch, then read that I was supp...

G'day all! I have a number of projects on the boil at the moment. Ages ago, at the Stitches and Craft Fair in Melbourne nearly 12 months ago (feels like a different life and I guess it was!) I saw a fabulous jacket, all garter stitch knitted up in Noro silk garden I think (I remember it having more silk garden type yarn than kureyon). It was asymmetric and made me think of Jedis. Well I Had To Have One For Me! And I hunted down the book - I had to drive all over town cos the book was discontinued. And there was much rejoicing cos I had driven about 150km to find this danged book, and I got it for about 50c! Hooray! Then I discovered I had already bought it three months earlier at a Christmas sale at my LYS. Ooops. I've remembered that jacket/wrap thing for some time and finally I had the yarn for it - a cashmere/wool blend from a thrift store jumper I unravelled. The yarn is all in greys but I can overdye it. I have some very nifty ideas about how to do that too. (I doubt...

G'day all! I've been trying to be good with the yarn purchases this month. Here's some I bought from Yarn Dogs early in the month before I remembered Stitches was on soon: Nifty, eh? Panda Silk, 52% bamboo, 43% superwash merino and 5% combed silk. Like the other panda yarns, and tofutsies, it is a very fine sock yarn. It has a lot of very fine plies and is quite shiny. Sooner or later I'll get around to knitting it but I have a LOT of projects on the boil at present and I want to finish them first. Speaking of tofutsies, one of the independent dyers at Stitches (should be called Stashes cos boy there was a LOT of enabling going on!) had some of the base yarn dyed up in her colourways. The tofutsies yarn has chitin in it, which is the protein that arthropod (crabs, prawns, yabbies, etc) shells are made of. The sign over the yarn proudly advised that the yarn contains cretin. Ahem. Just a little different, y'know. Since Someone forgot about Valentine's Day...

G'day all! Today my father would've been 90. And my car, now looked after by Gibbering, turns 10. And one of my family members quit their job and today is their last day. Hooray! They are moving to Melbourne after spending more than half their life in the country, albeit in a large country town. And one of my good mates had a birthday yesterday. But me? No significant stuff is happening today, I hope! Just for those around me. I already have an exciting enough life, what with finding my way around this place, doing the housework, knitting, spinning, gardening, what have you. LOL We've been here a month! How it has flown! And we *still* don't have an internet connection. I am going less insane than I expected but I have plenty to occupy me, like wrangling with the bank over my card - they tell you to ring a number to activate the card and then what happens? The card activation place tells you that they can't do it cos your name does not match that on th...

G'day all! Still not online unless I drag the laptop up to the business centre (= hassle, especially when it rains for five days in a row). And alas the pics I was going to upload can't be uploaded cos we had a whoopsie with the domain name, which has expired (thoug if i had the IP address I could upload stuff to there). I have so manyt hings to show off - when we get decent access and I can upload pics, be warned! Plus the pic I got at Stitches didn't come through to my email address so I can't put that up either even if we still did have a domain name.... So Stitches West 2008. This was my first big knitty event outside of Oz, and really it was the very first BIG event I've been to. For Australians, imagine a stitches and craft size show (and for Melburnians imagine it in Jeff's Shed). Imagine that instead of about 5 places having yarn, only about 5 places don't have yarn. That is what Stitches West was like. LOTS of yarn! Lots of knitting stuff! Lo...

G'day all! Stitches West is only a few days away. It is a loooong light rail ride away from me - will take about an hour to get there but in the scheme of things (as measured by Pacific Oceans) it is very close indeed. So Excited! If any of you out there want me to check out anything in particular, let me know. I'm not flush with cash at the moment* cos we are still in the moving in and acquiring Stuff stage but I'm happy to obtain samples of stuff for any who wants. Stitches West is pretty big - there's going to be quite a number of vendors there it seems. I have to get onto the ravelry group too and look up stuff there. Still don't have what I call good email/internet access - have to use either the business centre here (one computer crashes when I run IE and access Yahoo! - not a good sign....) or go to Nathan's work for anything that needs to be more secure. I don't trust windoze boxes as far as I can spit (which is a heck of a lot less distance ...

Help me, Obiwan Kenobi! You're my only hope! G'day all! I am in Nathan's office. He left for arvo tea over 90 minutes ago. I am not supposed to wander the building unescorted - heck I am probably not to be left in the office alone. I hope he comes back soon - I need to go toodleloo. Plus I need another drink cos he has two whopping big heaters, oops *computers* in here (plus a small computer and our laptop) and they make it really warm - who needs central heating? I also have over 300 emails to read or delete at my "leisure." If you haven't heard from me, please excuse me as yahoo is not the quickest way to read email.... and I am only getting to my email every couple of days. I have been knitting and sewing. When we have our own access, I shall show pictures! Plus I've got a cold though I am getting better, I think. anon!

G'day all! Our freebie internet access has dried up, so I can only get online briefly and with some degree of effort greater than walking to the computer (ie walking to the business centre at our apartments, but only during office hours, or visiting Nathan at work, which is some greater degree of hassle). We are trying to organise our own DSL but *They* need to find out if we are close enough to the exchange to get DSL. Considering how far we are from the front of the block of apartments, I reckon we will be a fair whack from the exchange. So if you don't hear from me for the nonce, you will know why! Missing you already (after only two days offline!). I should have a nice little pile of posts lined up by the time we get some online access... Pray that we don't end up with dial-up only cos that will kill us! We are in the heart of Silicon Valley, for Pete's sake! anon!

G'day all! I have LOTS of projects happening at the moment. There are two secret projects (one of which is not knitting!), I'm working on our "garden" such as it isn't (ivy and petty spurge infested), I have a jacket to finish knitting from last year - I nearly had it finished and then I realised that it was somewhat shorter than I wanted it to be (ie scraping my hip when I wanted it to be butt length) - still tidying up the place and finding places for everything, I bought some old tshirts at the Salvos yesterday to cut up into strips to make into rag rugs (prolly crocheted and can I just say that the local Salvos op/thrift shop is a flashback to the bad old days of op shops).... So due to overwhelming projectitis, I give you LINKMANIA! Not only do echidnas hibernate but they use latrines ! Never thought of this one - smoking a joint is much more dangerous than smoking a cigarette! And it rots your gums (and I ain't talking trees or chewy here either). M...

G'day all! How about some more sock love? I cast on this poor lonely thing the day after I bought the yarn at Imagiknit in SF. I decided to play with some fagotting patterns and see what happened. I intend to do the second sock slightly differently, just to see what happens and if it looks a bit less "busy." (Heh. I wondered why noone had commented - that is because I forgot to finish this post for two whole days!) Yarn details: Crystal Palace " Maizee . Pattern: toe up, using some random cross between the Riverbed and Ridgeline sockitectures by Cat Bordhi, lace pattern came out of my head using a faggoting pattern and the rainy day sock lace that I like so much. There are three repeats of the faggoting pattern (A) and two of the four stitch pattern (B). The colour of the sock is more accurate in the next pic. This yarn is interesting. It tends to "squeak" in that it is a bit crunchy. Sometimes it makes that same sort of squeak as lightly cooked gre...

G'day all! After the last panicked post, I have to show you something nice. Last year I was a member of the Rockin Sock Club (but I lost the last mailing, boo hiss for moving at the wrong time of the year and not having a forwarding address and not having told Blue Moon cos I didn't realise I didn't have all six mailings cos everything was in storage = no last mailing for me! They told me so - unless it is returned, they won't send me it. Isn't it a federal offence to throw out someone else's mail?). So how about we look at the second last pair of socks since I can't ever show you the last 2007 pair. Lenore, top down socks by the Yarnharlot. Pretty, isn't she? or they really. As always I modified the pattern. See the different toes? I decided not to keep the pattern going to the toe of the second sock as I keep sticking my second toe's nail through the hole at the tip. That is probably a bad thing to do. And the heels are different too. Do n...

G'day all! I'm all in a flap, again. DH has started with a project group who want him to work *only* in an operating system and programs he despises with the heat of a brazillion suns. Now he wants to go home. Some people would say well he should just use the stuff and get it done but it is like asking a fervent Catholic to become a Buddhist or a Muslim. In southern Australian terms, like asking a footy supporter to barrack for Collingwood when they despise that team. People get evangelical about their favourite operating system/hardware - just look at the Mac advocates or linux geeks (DH is the latter and I use linux all the time). Making a linux advocate use The Proprietary Software of Doom is just not going to happen. Forcing someone to do something that is against their values and ethics is foolish - noone wins. So what would happen if we went home? Well we would be in debt up to our ears - we would have to pay 11/12ths of the costs of relocating us and getting us vi...