FO's from my trip to Seattle

Yes I'm back from Seattle and now have a real connection to the internet. Granted I've been back for a few days now, but it's just occuring to me that I haven't posted at all since I got back.

The Manos that DH bought me on our Anniversary trip, or was it my B-day trip, either way, I finally plowed my way through the Marigold, which was a chore in itself, since it's not a color that I was fond of, but it did turn out rather nice with the green, if not a bit 70's'ish.

Here's Thelma trying out the bed before I could get it felted.


Here's Thelma after the felting. Louise wouldn't touch the bed pre-felted, but then it took me a couple days to get her to "allow" Thelma to jump in so i could take a pic comparing the bed with the same cat in it. I think this one is definately Louise's bed. Thelma is scared to go near it when Louise has decided to use it. I have a feeling there was a little bit of Louise exerting her Alpha feline position over this bed.

For my cousin, I knit up these beaded cuffs, they were a very quick knit even on size 0 needles and fun to do, despite the stringing of the beads. She loved them :) Happy B-day dear cousin.

Mom went with me to Hill Top Yarns East and oohh'd and ahhh'd over the choker sample, so of course I had to go back to Hill Top Yarns (the Queen Anne store is closer to where I was staying) and buy the yarn and knit this choker and bracelet for her without her knowing, not an easy feat since I was staying at their house, but I got it done behind her back and she loved the set. I did get a nice surprise, because the yarn was 50% off when I went back to pick it up at the Queen Anne store.


And last but not least, the first FO, yes these are listed backwards, Jay Walker socks from Mag Knits Sept '05 issue. When I found this sock yarn in my stash, I couldn't remember buying it or why I would buy these particular colors, they are not my normal color combination choice. But when I was knitting them, I figured out they would be perfect for my mother, and I was right. I cast them off, she tried them on and despite the fact it was 75 degrees in Seattle at the time, she proceeded to find shoes she could wear with them and went out wearing wool socks. I do believe she likes them.... a lot.

That's about it for the FO's from Seattle.

I did put up a new yarn buying ticker, but it's been reseet after 10 days, since I found the perfect yarn to go with the alpaca that came back from Peru with mom. I did pay for it, but it's on order and will be shipped as soon as it comes in, so no pics of that yet. Since I did pay for it in full today, my yarn ticker will be reset. No goal in mind this time around, just a means to keep track. It will probably be rest tomorrow since DH is playing in a paintball tournement, so I get to go yarn shopping, hopefully on him, but we'll see.

I was driving up the I5 and lookie what I found...

I know I know I haven't been posting, but this DU is so slow, I was going to wait until I got to a faster connection before taking pics of all my stash enhancements, a couple FO's and some general vacation pics and spread that out over a short period of posts.

But this was worth waiting for the DU connection to post.

I was driving up I5 today, about 45 minutes North of where I'm staying, half way to the Canadian boarder, well ok maybe 3/4ths the way. Anyway, I'm driving and look over, and what did I see on the side of the freeway:


Misty Ridge Alpaca Ranch to be exact.
A little blurb about Alpacas posted in front of these littles guys.

They must have thought I had food because they came right up to me, the little beggars.

This guy is in another paddock, he saw me coming from a bit aways because he was waiting when I got there.

This one was a little slower, must be all that fur slowing him down, but none of the others came up to say hi.

They have quite a few Alpaca and I wasn't even out looking for Alpaca, but I know where to find them now if you're ever up this way. I'm sure I'll be visiting them a few times once we're moved up there. The farm even sells their own fiber, both raw and in yarn form, of course I had to buy some, but you'll see that later when I post vacation yarn porn.

FO and stash acquisition

I arrived in Seattle safe and sound last Thursday night. Spent the night in Medford, sorry no pics, seems I forgot the memory card for my camera in the other computer, but a trip to Best Buy in Salem fixed that :).

I did detour to have lunch with my cousin in Vancouver WA, which turned into an 8 hour 2 meal detour. Her 4 yo daughter talked me into going to see her at her gymnastics class, and of course how was I to say no to my cousin when she wanted to go buy yarn, it was only Joann's but it's still yarn and I do try and encourage her when she gets a bug to crochet something, it's not often. I think I've even got her convinced to try her hand at knitting, we'll see how long that lasts.

Went to my 20 year HS reunion Friday and Saturday night, that was interesting, found some people I had lost and some that I wish were still lost, but c'est la vie. Had a blast none the less, sorry no pics.

FO FO FO....finally and FO.

Yarn: Koigu
Pattern: 2X2 rib, the wandering rib is from a pattern in Loop de Loop, for the tree bark sweater.
Model is my Mom.









Stash Aquisition:


Thank you to the lovely ladies in my PAS SnB group. The GC came in very handy, but I got carried away :) at Little Knits. It's not the store I thought it was. This one is in West Seattle. She only has Store hours on Saturday, the rest of the week it's by appointment. It's run out of a very cute little house, in the middle of a residential neighborhood, but it's zoned commercial/residential. She is just setting up her space, so it's not as organized as she would like it, but she is working on it.



The Damage:
3 skeins of Sea Silk colorway lily pond and 1 skein of Schaefer Yarns 100% cultivated silk - lace weight colorway Edith Piaf.

I have so far managed to go to Acorn Street yarns, that's the store i was thinking of that has the wonderful feel of an old book store, sorry again, no pics, forgot to bring the camera with me. I bought a Dale of Norway pattern there and a pattern for some beaded wrist warmers.

I did also check out The Weaving Works, lots of roving :), but more importantly books, lots and lots of books, I'm not sure i've ever seen that many books in a yarn store, there were 2 walls covered with books.

I went to Barnes and Noble this evening too and picked up the new issue of Vogue Knitting. Of course I had to check out their knitting book selection, and they too have a lot of books. I keep running into knitters here and not just in the yarn store. Wednesday night I'll go check out the Seattle SnB group.

I love my SnB group

Ok, I confess, I got tired of the heat and decided I needed to cool off a bit so I took a little drive to The Black Sheep in Encinitas and the beach of course. So what came home with me, some Reglia Bamboo sock yarn and 2 cones of Habu Textiles Wool Stainless Steel. It really is 75% wool and 25% stainless steel, it's lace weight, but curiosity got the better of me.

I love my SnB group, AKA my weekly therapy session. I showed up today and there was cake and presents. Someone said surprise and I think I asked what's the occasion...LOL. The occasion is my going away, even though I don't have a move date yet, I will be heading up to Seattle, sans DH, for 2-3 weeks, then it's just a matter of time until the house is sold and we move to Seattle for good. We had cake with our weekly knitting goodness.

They gave me presents....me....presents....*sniff* These are some of the sweetest ladies I know. They gave me a $60 GC to Little Knits, which also happens to live in Seattle, I know, I've been there it's an adorable little store. I'll have to take pics to share when I go there in a week or 2.

Back to the presents: A bag that was hand painted by our Joan, 3 candles also pianted by Joan, some stitch markers hand made by Joan...(I'm noticing a theme here), another candle and

some note paper.

And there was the basked, full of coffee, teas, hot cocoa, a glass, a margarit glass, a coffee mug and some ice cream toppings.

More yarny goodness:

3 skeins of Lorna's Laces Sock yarn for less that $6. I know such a steal, well it's not as good as all that I did manage to fill a card on my last vist to Unwind so that was $30 saved right there.

and last but certainly not least, some Blue Sky Aplaca - Aplaca Silk in amethyst.

Wow that's a lot of blog for one day. It's hot and I'm worn out.... back to the knitting.

When I fall....

When I fall I fall big..... Went to a fishbowl yarn sale yesterday and bought the Mountain colors, Koigu and Debi Bliss Cotton angora in the middle. Some how ended up in Long Beach this morning and 2 skns of Lorna's Laces Helen's lace followed me home.


Ok, so it's starting to look like yarn diets are good, it's the binge buying at the end of the yarn diet that isn't so good.

Mea Culpa

Bless me knitters for I have aquired stash. It has been 1 month and 1 day since my last stash aquisition.

I did it, I went a month without buying yarn !!!! Don't know how but at least i know I can do it...see it's not an addiction really it is I can stop buying yarn at any time NOT.


I wish I had stopped at 2 skeins of Koigu, I was good with the top skein, I only bought 1, but that bottom skein....well I bought 6. So I broke the yarn diet with 7 wonderful skeins of Koigu.

It's not like I planned on going to buy yarn, I actually left the house this morning to have my car serviced. Marie (TC) came out while I was waiting for my car and we went to coffee. Who put Unravelled between Starbucks and the Honda dealer? Somehow or another on the way back to the Honda dealer to pick up my car Marie's car stopped at Unravelled and well now we know what happened.

In my defense, there is an FO :).


One pair of toe up socks for DH. He likes his socks short, but since their dress socks and I like those fairly long, we compromised and came up with these. Simple 2X2 rib, worked toe up.

Llama Llama Ding Dong

May I proudly present Llama Llama Ding Dong. I know it's a strange name, but he's been called llama by Marie and I now for a few days in chat and last night he became a ding dong, not quite sure how that all happened but here he is.

The yarn is llama and hand spun, the pattern is from Fiber Trends and it took me all of 1 day and 2 nights to knit this quick knit. I'm in love with my LLDD.

So I got a little carried away....

I finally went out and checked out Stick and Stone last week, and look what followed me home.

From left to right: Baby Alpaca- black; Cashmere/Silk; Baby Camel/Silk; Optim; and the last 3 on the right are Merino/Tussah Silk (I think I'll ply the last 3 together)


I took a trip down to La Petite Knittery, Lori Lawson of Capistrano Fiber Arts Studio had bins and bins of fiberery goodness. Again from top left to right then bottom left to right: Extrafine Merino/Bombyx Silk - Colorway "Limited Edition"; Merino/Tussah Silk - Colorway "Nosegay"; Merino /Bombyx Silk/Angora - Colorway "Bordeau Marl"; Merino/Tussah Silk - Colorway "Tahitian Pearl"; Merino/Kid Mohair "Blue Bird";Merino /Bombyx Silk/Angora - Colorway "Tiger Lily Marl"

Ok, so I got a little carried away this week. Maybe it's time to add a counter for roving up top too, it really has helped me not to buy yarn.

*sigh*

Mom and Dad just got back from Peru. Before they left I asked Mom to pick me up some Alpaca, should she run into any. They went to a farm and look what they brought back for me. This is hand spun on spindles by the women as they walk around doing their daily duties, in true Peruvian fashion. There are no labels, and there wasn't enough in any one color so Mom picked me up "a few pretty colors". The yarn is in Seattle and will remain there until I go up in August, hence the *sigh* Since Mom wouldn't mail it to me and is making me wait I did ask her to send me a pic of the yarn, and now I want to get my hands on it even faster. I really don't know what the weight is, but am told that the balls are 3-4 inches in diameter.

House is being listed...

We met with our realtor tonight and signed a ton of paper work. The Town house is going in the MLS listings tonight, and we're planning an open house for 7/8. Wish us luck! I know the sooner it sells, the sooner we move. It's both good and bad, since we really do want to be home in Seattle, but it's bad in that I'll be leaving a wonderful group of friends :(.

LaLa Scarf

Presenting LaLa from the book Greetings From the Knit Cafe in all her glory pinned out and blocking.

I used Feza Kid Mohair, there are 275 yards in a ball. The label says it weight approx .88 oz, but my scale isn't that accurate, both the scarf and the remainder of the ball weight .4 oz, so it's about half of 275.... 137.5 yards for the scarf as it is in the pattern.

Next one I do, I will add more repeats and make it longer. As written in the book it really is just an accent scarf.

Edited to add: As Marie pointed out in the comments, this is made with 1 ball of yarn, the yarn is verigated so all the color changes come from the yarn itself. Thanks Marie for pointing that out.

No knitting content.

This is what my desk used to look like, no wonder I rarely used my desk top.



Well after a bit of organizing and purging, I found my desk. Amazing what little attention my desk needed to be a desk again.


Here's Thelma playing her little game of peek-a-boo. I swear my cat thinks she's not a cat, she sits and rolls over on command too.

Off the wagon I fall...

Marie is keeping me honest, and Mary caught me being honest. Yes I did fall off the yarn buying wagon, but for good reasons and I did reset my ticker to relfect falling off the wagon. I also managed to stay on that wagon for 12 whole days. I even went to a couple yarn stores and bought no yarn durning that time. Pasadena Daytimers SnB, my weekly group therapy, has been around for a year now and we are getting together for lunch and a KAL, we're knitting the LaLa Scarf from Greetings From the Knit Cafe


3 balls of Feza Kid Mohair. I was good this is all i bought. Needles don't count since they are tools and not yarn and I only bought the set seen in the pic.

Ok, now that I'm back to square one, and DH is wondering if I'm sick, he gave me a little bit of money to spend on yarn while he's off doing his paintball thing Saturday. We'll see if I go get a pedicure and a manicure or buy more yarn. I really need to get the pedicure and manicure, but I want to get more yarn (i really don't NEED more) We'll see just how far I can stretch the little bit of money he gave me. Don't worry I will be honest and update my ticker if I do buy yarn this weekend.

Yarn Candy

On the yarn crawl I picked up some wonderful roving at La Petite Knitterie.

I did remember to actually take a picture of the roving...but just barely. I had spun all but what is in the pic before I remembered....blog....camera...pic, but you get the idea. It started out like this:


This is Hand Painted Rovings by Lori Lawson of Capistrano Fiber Art Studio. Unfortuantely I can't remember the colorway, but it is approximately 2.0 oz and it's Alpaca/Merino Wool/Tussa Silk (50/30/20)

And this lovely yarn is what I ended up with. It is approx. 130 yards. 10wpi, so that makes it a worsted weight yarn, and it is wondefully soft. This is the best pic I could get, and I still don't think it does justice to the colors.

I'm thinking it either wants to become wrist warmers or a narrow drop stitch scarf, I haven't quite decided yet, we'll see what it finally turns out to be.

Group Therapy Field Trip...

...in other words my weekly group therapy....Knitting with the Pasadena SnB group, decided to take a field trip. We went on a yarn crawl in the OC yesterday. I haven't yet taken pics of my acquisitions...Yes I do realize I'm still owing on the last post, but I'm cleaning, organizing and packing and in the midst of all that I keep forgetting to take pics.

This yarn crawl has resulted in me deciding to go on a yarn buying fast, hence the newly added ticker, you can get and customize one at Ticker Factory. Oddly enough I knew about Ticker Factory even before it went live, I am a guide at Fertility Friend and have been for years and know the owners, Ticker Factory actually sprung from the message boards at FF and grew to the point where the founders/admins of FF decided they needed another site. As a member of the guide team, I get to preview new developments before they go live. Oh where was that thought going....oh yes...I knew about way back before it went live, but it wasn't until Marie (The TC one, sometimes it's hard having a friend with the same name) pointed it out to me on someone else's blog that I ever thought to use it as a yarn purchase ticker. So far so good, 1 day and no urge to go acquire more yarn, we'll see how long that lasts.


I arrived at Yarn Lady to find Mary and Melise already debating about yarn in the play pens at they're June Bag Sale. No worries it was still early, and even as I was checking out the busy workers there were loading more yarn into the "play" pens.




The sorting....

My take, less one bag of white Lullaby. A bit more than I expected to spend, but it's still not the most I've spent at a Bag Sale, and Mary did spend more than me, I think she held the record there.

At this point, the batteries in my camera decided to die on me, so you'll have to enjoy the rest of the pics at Mary ,Jillian and Teresa's blogs. Honestly, my camera is a good camera, it's just a little thing that doesn't ring, which why I have so many problems with it....I can't call it to find it so I rarely remember where it is, but when I have it, I forget that it needs batteries.

After that we went to lunch, needed to refuel for the rest of the day. Over lunch we went to a lovely little knittery called, La Petite Knittery, I had been there once before, and fell in love with the roving they have. This trip, I fell in love with the hand painted yarns. The owner of the store is very helpful, and grateful to have our little troupe stop in, none of us left empty handed. Definitely a store I hope to visit again, before I move back to Seattle. I will take pics of what I bought there, but it's 2 skeins of hand painted, 2 balls of lace weight silk and 2 bags of roving.

After taking pics, we were off and running again, no at this point I guess I hadn't spent enough money, because I ended up buying some Rowan Denim and some DMC crochet thread at Velona Needlecraft. A veritable warehouse of yarn, thread, books, and crosstitch supplies. This was only my 2nd trip there, but it still is a bit overwhelming, row after row of yarn on shelves that seem to go to the ceiling, they may have actually gone that high, but I'm not really sure. Definitely a place to explore over the course of several trips. Luckily we had Madge(who is sadly blogless) to guide us through the store, she is a Velona Vetran.

What good is a group knitting therapy trip without stopping to knit and chat. We drove to the other side of the parking lot, it really was hot and we had done quite a bit of yarn shopping at this point, to stitch and bitch for a bit while restoring our energy for the trip home at Starbucks.

All in all a very worthwhile Yarn Crawl and I'm glad I didn't bail out at the last minute, DH's wasn't so happy when he heard how much I have spent... he hasn't seen the bags of yarn yet and I don't thing he will see it all at the same time, well at least not in a way he can tell when I bought the yarn.

That's a lot of yarn

Sorry all no pics.

I just finished spinning 10 oz of llama and it's downstairs hanging to dry. It's roughly 380 or so yards, which really surprised me. My spinning is getting better....i think, which is kind of hard to do right now. I sat down to spin a little this afternoon, and ended up not stopping, so now the skein is drying.

Oh, I did do some Stash enhancement, I'll take pics in the next day or 2 and post them. I had to use some of my Bday discounts. Luckily DH had a Paint Ball tournement near LBC, which resulted in a trip to Almitos Bay Yarn Company. Take was 2 balls of Katia Jamaica in purples/pinks/white(verigated) 3 balls of Trendsetter Super Kid Seta - Animal Print and 2 skeins Lorna's Laces Sock yarn - Uptown teals/purplse and pink verigated. Yes, that last is Sock yarn, I have tried to avoid making socks, I don't like making socks, but they seem to be sucking me in, I suppose someday I could actually like making socks, they are sucking me in, I really like the 2 socks on 2 circs method, it helps me to avoid the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome.

But my stash enhancing didn't end there. Yarn Lady just started offereing a 10% Bday discount recently and of course DH handed me the post card entitling me to that discount last night. I took that as a mandate to take a trip down there today and take advantage of the discount....DH didn't know (but I'm sure he will when he reads this) that I went and brought home 8 skeis of Debbie Bliss's Pure Silk in mauve.

FO and a new "tool"

I know I know, I'm such a bad blogger. I really haven't had much to blog about. I'm happily unemployed :), my last day was Friday 5/12. There's money in the bank and more coming as soon as the paperwork I just turned it gets processed, so I'm not worried about fiber aquisition for the time being.

I did finish the Caftan Pullover from the Spring 2006 issue of Interweave Knits, last Thurday, but just now finally got around to taking a pic of it.



Monday was my B-day and I got myself a present (with help from DH, Mom, Dad and my former employer :). I took a trip back up to Solvang, this time I took my car and not the other way around, but I still forgot the camera. I'm going to have to nail that thing to my hand if I'm ever going to remember it.

So what did I come home with....well no roving this time around, but I did come home with a Lendrum Folding Spinning wheel, double treadle, complete with a fast flyer, a plying flyer and bobbin, and a tensioned lazy kate with 3 additional bobbins for a total of 4 bobbins. WHOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!




That baby sings, she's smooth and flies great, I do believe I will be quite happy with this wheel for a long time to come. I am still spinning llama on the Louet, but after that's done we'll see if it will stay or not. Regardless I'm quite happy with both wheels, but happier with the Lendrum.

a dapper teddy bear

Teddy, yes that really is his name, I know, I know, not very creative, but I didn't name him, the little girl that gifted him to me named him, who am I to change it, besides he likes it very much. Anyway, Teddy is just helping me out here. It's the sweater that he's wearing that I'm showing off. From One Skein, this Baby Bolero is meant for a precious baby boy due at the end of June.

So, as promised, a bit late, but here none the less, my aquistions from Solvang.
One can never have enough tools (or so I'm told and so inclined to believe) I purchased a Staunch Jumbo Ball Winder, the ball next to it is 17 oz of yummy chenille. Yes that is just over 1lb of yarn in a ball, the ball winder works quite well.
This yummy lucious 4oz ball of goodness is 80% Merino and 20% Angora.

Here we have in "pewter" one very large ball (1.72 lbs) of Merino roving. I think it's going to be a sweater...or something, we'll just have to wait and see what it wants to become once it breaks out of it's cocoon and grows into yarn.

I'm back to working on Dad's Golf Shirt yet again, we'll see how long it lasts this time. On the Caftan Tunic, the back and front are done, I'm making quick trips over to Sleeve Island, once those sleeves are done I can do the inserts and finish it off. Sounds so easy when I put it that way doesn't it. Also OTN is a scarf for the mom of the precious baby boy that is getting the bolero. I'll be casting on some bibs for the baby, and face towels for everyone, then boxing it all up and it will work it's way to Beaverton OR. I would love nothing more than to deliver the whole bundle personally, but baby is due a month before I'll be in the area, so I'm thinking a quick quilt and will just hand deliver that when I go up to Seattle for my reunions in August.

I got my tote :)

I have finally reached the end of my quest for a moebius tote. Finished it Friday, but DH had the pic on his camera and just gave it to me tonight...finally.

i'm weaving in the ends on yet another FO, the Baby Bolero from One Skein. Pics of that tomorrow when I have better lighting.

Oh my car kidnapped me Friday and took me up to Solvang. My car didn't give me any notice and fogot to bring my camera, so i don't have any pics. I did tell my car that the next time she decided to do something like that to at least talk to my camera and give it a chance to come next time. I am in love with Solvang, it's a quaint little town. More on that tomorrow when I take pics of what came home with me.

almost forgot this FO

Opps I almost fogot to post this FO. Thank you Melise for reminding me. This was a special request from my DH, so I knitted it up for our Anniversary, he absolutely loves it.

I hate fringe, and I avoid it at all costs. But DH insisted that finge was called for in the pattern. Of course it wasn't, since the pattern came off the top of my head, and no where in my head does it read "fringe required". The things I do for DH. I did have help with the fringe. I brought the fringless afghan to Pasadena Evening SnB with me last week, and Melise and Marie helped me fringe it, thank you again ladies I owe you for the help.

Recipe for this afghan
Yarn: 8 balls Trendsetter Pandora
9 balls Trendsetter Omega
1 skien of Prism ribbon whose name eludes me.
Needles: US #19
Notions: Crochet hook and VCR box (I think I used the Little Mermaid, but choice of movies is optional)

Using Pandora, cast on 100 sts, knit until you run out of that ball of Pandora, *Change to Omega, knit until you run out of Omega, change back to Pandora and knit until you run out of Pandora, repeat from *

The fringe: wrap Prism around VCR box lengthwise, and snip, repeat for Pandora and Omega. Using crochet hook, add fringe using 1 strand Prism ribbon and 1Omega, alternating with 1 strand Prism Ribbon and 1 strand Pandora.

For the fringe, good company helps, and helpful company speeds up the process ever so much (thanks again ladies, I simply can not thank you both enough for the help, I so detest fringe)