kmkat and her kneedles

Winner!

But first, mutterings.

1. Industry :: complex.
2. Jerry :: rigged.
3. Detour :: around.
4. Mug :: Jenny the Potter.
5. Steer :: -ing wheel.
6. Link :: fun!
7. Harmony :: guides.
8. Epic :: saga.
9. Suspect :: Tse-- however that is spelled.
10. Translate :: Russian.

* * * * *

Awhile back I won a contest at knitnzu.com. It was so long ago, in fact, that I don't remember what the contest was! Lisa offered the winner her choice from a number of different yarns. I gave her my list of favorites and told her to surprise me, so when the box came it was like Christmas and my birthday.

I warned Lisa at the time that the winnings wouldn't appear on the blog until after tax season. The time has come!

Yes, the yarn sat in its box until today.

There are three skeins of Lane Cervinia Cabrezza, a lovely soft woolen worsted which apparently was discontinued so long ago that even Google couldn't find it, let alone Ravelry.

Ha, ha, suckahs! I have the last three skeins in existance!

All lint and animal hair courtesy of our menagerie; opened box sat on couch for a l-o-n-g time.

Then there were two skeins of Knit Picks Palette, a yarn I have been contemplating. I bought one skein of Jamieson's fingering weight, thinking to experiment somehow, but it was so scratchy that I lost interest. The Palette, however, is a lovely soft wool. Methinks there may be some detailed colorwork mittens in my future (someday).

What colors would go with this rich bright brown?

Last but not least was this little treasure. Light fingering weight merino/nylon. Scarf? Socks? Time will tell.

Thanks, Lisa!

Yarnover!

Yarnover, the one-day knit/crochet/yarn/fiber extravaganza sponsored every year by the Minnesota Knitters Guild, was Saturday, a week or two later than usual this year. This meant that, A, no one had to worry about bad roads due to a blizzard, and 2, it was (almost) too warm to wear wool. Whereas other years I have been able to post photos of gorgeous sweaters, this year... not so much. Lots of shawls and vests and scarves on display but not so many sweaters. Bad blogger that I am, I have photos of exactly none of those.

I do have some photos, though.

This year's swag:

A bottle of soak in my choice of scented or unscented and the awesome-est travel tumbler ever made.

I won a multi-media-style door prize:

From the left: one skein Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport (100% superwash merino) in Perle Point; one small bottle soak, unscented; one small bottle soak hand cream; and one bottle nail polish. Not shown: the fingerless glove pattern. Yes, I can make a pair of fingerless gloves from the yarn and have nails to match!. Whoever thought of packaging these items together deserves the 2013 Thinking Out Of The Box prize.

I took a morning and an afternoon class. Morning was Slick Set-in Sleeves, taught by JC Briar. I had not heard of her before, but she turned out to be an excellent teacher. Homework was to knit the first 5" of a child's sweater back (from the top down, of course). then pick up stitches at the cast-on edge and knit the first 5" of the right front. Instructions were provided in the class description. I totally forgot that there was homework to do, just happened to check on Thursday night after work. A quick dash to Needlework Unlimited for three skeins of Ella Rae worsted* in two different colors, a #7 and a #5 circ, some clip-on markers, a new Chibi, and I was set. I knit busily that night and the next day and was fully prepared for class.

Knitting a set-in sleeve from the top down turned out to be surprisingly easy, probably because JC was such a good teacher. Pick up stitches around the sleeve opening --- the number of stitches being the number that will be in the widest part of the sleeve, disregarding the underarm stitches -- then use short rows to knit the sleeve cap. I won't go into the nitty-gritty details of the process -- take her class if you ever have a chance.

Oh, and I met someone who reads this blog! Hi, Shirley!

My top-down, set-in sleeve. Those wonky stitches? Oh, those'll block right out.

Afternoon class was Groovy Garter Stitch, a good choice for afternoon because, really, how tough is garter stitch? No mind-boggling problems nor counting in this one. The instructor, Ragga Eiriksdottir, is from Iceland and had taught an Icelandic sweater class in the morning.

The Icelandic sweaters were still on display.

In the garter stitch class we learned how to do short rows in garter stitch, how to make a garment flare, how to do the loopy edge often seen on Shetland shawls, how to do an I-cord edging and an I-cord bind-off, and probably some other things I don't remember off the top of my head. The funny thing was she was so loosey-goosey about it all. There were no hand-outs; she might tell us, "Cast on some stitches, oh, about ten, and work a few rows." A few minutes later she might say, "Okay, now slip the last 3 stitches of every right side row with yarn in front for a while." A few minutes later someone in the class would say, "Oh, we're doing an i-cord edge!" That's how the whole class was -- we didn't know the goal of what we were doing with our needles and yarn, just the steps to get there. Still fun, just a different way to learn.

The swatches. 

As is the case in all yarn extravaganzas. there was a market. I was able to stick to my yarn fast, but I was looking for a shawl pin and that required that I check out every vendor's display. No luck on the the shawl pin... and eventually I fell down on the yarn fast. 

This is 500+ yards of lace-weight mink yarn.

Mink yarn. It is as soft as angora but not as hairy. I have no idea what I will do with this, but I had to have it. My father was a mink rancher, and I spent the first 18 years of my life surrounded by those nasty, stinky, vicious little mustelids. This yarn is my heritage. How could I not buy it?

This year I also attended the instructor dinner on Friday night. Food was excellent, company was even better. I sat with several of my knit buddies from Knit Night Orphans. Mind-boggling was the moment when I realized, I am sitting in the same room with knitting rock stars! Stephanie Purl-McPhee, Franklin Hablit, Annie Modesitt, Nancy Bush, Stephen Be, Drew Emborsky (who let me go ahead of him in the line at the bar, what a sweetie! We will forgive him his obssession with crochet), Melissa Leapman, Sivia Harding, Stephen West... 

Guess who had only her iPod camera?

* It was painful to have to buy this yarn, since I am on, not a yarn diet, but a yarn fast. I resolved earlier this year to knit entirely from stash, no exceptions, until all my yarn will fit into the existing Rubbermaid bins. But I was in Minneapolis and my stash was in Wisconsin. No choice had I.

MN knitters' days.

I went to MN Knitters' Days, a weekend knitting retreat, for the first time this year. The teacher was Lucy Neatby, who obligingly posed for this photo...

...and taught 38 experienced knitters double knitting.

I knit A LOT but had darned little to show for it. Double knitting is awesome but extremely slow when one is first starting. Let's just say that I am now very proficient at tinking DKing.

My DK swatch (in fingering weight yarn), front and back:

 

After I got home I cast on another DK project, this time in worsted weight, to reinforce what I learned. I'm getting a lot faster.

I plan to felt it and use it as a trivel when it's done. In other words, if I screw it up the errors may not show (much).

The site of the retreat, as I mentioned before, is gorgeous. This was the view from the window of our classroom looking out over the Mississippi. The foreground is MN, the hills in the distance are WI.

The weather was beautiful -- chilly nights, warmish days, lots of sunshine. We had the opportunity to visit a nearby alpaca farm. (Technically it was a working dairy farm, but the wife had 17 alpaca.)

This is Eleanor The Diva Alpaca. She posed beautifully for us. Really, she did!

Kris, whom I know from the Knit Night Orphans, was taking photos with her iPad. The alpaca followed her around, very curious about what she was doing.

Kris found that when she held up the iPad to actually take the photo, however, the alpaca were rather less interested in her, probably because they couldn't see her face. Kind of like that peek-a-boo stage of infant development, where, when the baby cannot see a thing any more, it no longer exists. So, if you are wondering, the mind of an alpaca is equivalent to that of a 3- or 6-month old infant. (Sorry, don't remember my child development specifics.)

The cows were interested in what was going on, too.

This lady Holstein licked my fist. I didn't give her a chance at my fingers.

The alpaca lady sends the fleeces to a mill to be spun into yarn, which she then dyes. She had a display of her wares in her house for us to admire.

A little bit of it came home with me, two skeins of laceweight in a gorgeous teal.

Thanks to Kris for this photo, showing Lucy in all her colorful glory.

And thanks to soxanne for letting me in on this retreat and being my roomie. Go check out her blog post -- gorgeous photos, less blather.

Things organized neatly.

Things Organized Neatly is a site I look at occasionally. These two photos had to be shared.

Yarn, gift yarn, souvenir yarn, and socks.

Last week I remembered that, while I knit for charity and I knit for loved ones and I knit to create garments for myself, I knit primarily because I like knitting. Knitting is, or should be, fun. The things currently OTN were not fun. What I really felt like knitting was... socks.

So I cast on a pair of socks.

According to the photo metadata, I bought this sock yarn in June 2010 and, going by the other photos surrounding it on my hard drive, I bought it in Kalispell MT.

Here.

Yep, time to knit those puppies.

A couple weeks ago a package arrived in the mail. This was when Smokey was sick with the wound infection that we didn't know about. The package and all the rest of the mail sat in the mailbox at the end of the driveway for several days before Elder Son and I picked it up. I was very surprised to find a package for myself; hadn't done any online shopping in weeks. What could it be?

(Camnesia struck. I have no photos of the package nor of its contents.)

It was a sock kit from Kym, who had surmised from my bulleted blog posts that I was under a bit of stress and needed some love. What a sweetheart! Yarn Hollow merino/bamboo/silk sock yarn and a pattern that I had admired on her blog.

I pondered that yarn for the better part of a week until I figured out a plan. The pattern was written top down using a US#2 needle; I prefer to knit socks toe up, foot on a US#0 and leg on a US#1 or 1-1/2. While we were on the North Shore I figured it out (mostly) and cast on.

Something I have never had before: two different socks OTN.

Both have progressed past turning the heel since I started the post. And both socks are, in a word, delightful.

I needed to wind the hank of Yarn Hollow yarn into two equal cakes before I started the socks, but I had no ball winder, swift, nor scale with me in the mini-mini-motorhome.

LYS to the rescue!

This yarn store was just a few miles up the Shore in Tofte. I had been there before and liked it (photo is from 2010). So I popped in, picked out some souvenir yarn to salve my conscience and earn some brownie points from the clerk, and asked if I could wind some other yarn. The store owner stopped in while I was busy and admired my yarn. Both she and the clerk are very nice people.

My purchases:

   

At left, some Lambs Pride superwash wool worsted to replace the mortar and pestle holders I made last year and which subsequently disappeared. At right, two skeins of Frog Tree Pediboo to make a pair of fancy stranded socks (photo below kinneared with my iPod). I also got a pattern for a baby set because the sample on display were so cute. 

As I was driving home from the North Shore I started counting in my head how much sock yarn I had at home. Not all my fingering weight yarn, mind you, just the yarn specifically destined for socks. I quit when I had counted eighteen (18!) pairs of potential socks at home in the stash. In other words, I really, really, really needed those two skeins of Pediboo ;-)

Yarn bomb!

Found here. The site says this is a bus in Mexico City, but the writing on the bus is either Korean or Japanese according to the comments. Nevertheless, it is an awesome yarn bomb.

* * * * *

Smokey update: he continues to improve. Occasional slight nausea, cured by small peanut butter sandwich. Pain level on slow decline. The searing leg pain, from which he has suffered increasingly over the past few years, is totally GONE! That was the main goal of the surgery; there was a pinched nerve in his lower spine that was causing it. Surgeon put a 10mm spacer between the two vertebrae that were touching and screwed it in place.

The haul.

 
 
 

Clockwise, from top left, posing happily with my rain gauge:

• Fingerlakes Soft Wool, worsted, 100% wool; 4 ounces, yardage unstated. Color is actually a heathery soft light brown, not gray as it appears here. Audrey had a pair of socks on on display made from these. The yarn blooms beautifully after washing and becomes very soft, and this will become a pair of bed socks for me. I have been planning to make some for two years, but the yarn I originally planned to use has gone MIA somewhere in my house. (from Fibre Functions)
  
  
• Patons Kroy sock yarn, 75/25 wool/nylon, destined to be another pair of socks for my feet. (Fibre Functions)
  
  
• Blackberry Hills Mohair Dream, 65/20/15 kid mohair/wool/nylon; 8 ounces, 625 yards. Yarn is 2-ply and seems to be DK to light worsted weight. Dreamy soft, it will become something for Younger Son's fiance Alex. Those are her colors.
  
  
• Adriafil Knitcol Trends worsted, superwash merino, self-striping; 3 skeins @ 137 yards each, to make the baby sweater pictured. I assume the yarn is from Plymouth because the pattern is from Plymouth Yarn Company, but that name does not appear on the yarn label. (Shelley's Yarn and Fiber Shoppe)
  
  
•  Malabrigo Silky Merino, 51/49 merino/silk; 50g, 150 yards. This will become a scarflette for me. I never wear purply-pink colors because they make my coloring look sallow, but the non-purple parts of the skein are peachy and olive. I think it will work with my skin tone. (Even if it doesn't I'll still wear the scarf. Srsly, Malabrigo? Merino and silk? Of course I will wear it.)
  
  
• Crystal Palace Cotton Chenille, 100% cotton; 2 50g skeins, 98 yards each. The washcloths in our bathroom are at least thirty years old. 'Nuf said.

I seem to have gone on a purely unintentional yellow/orange/brown kick on this yarn hop. Those are not normally my preferred colors, but what can I say? I loved each one for itself.

And now the non-yarn part of the haul, also my favorite part of the haul: a Laurel Burch bag.

I have a ton of tote bags that I use for knitting bags, but most of them flop over when I set them down. This one is stiff and will stand up nicely. Inside it has a zipper pocket and a pouchy pocket for a cell phone. Size is too small for an entire adult sweater and rather big for a pair of socks, but perfect for anything in between. Love!

Saturday.

This was the Saturday activity for my friend Colleen, the county librarian and fellow knitter, and I. She picked me up at 10 am and we were off.

First stop was Fibre Functions in rural Frederic, WI. (No website; link is to the Facebook page.) Audrey, the owner, is in my book group and in the alternate-Thursdays-knitting-group I attend when I can, and Colleen had taken a knitting class from her, so we were already acquainted. (Such is life in small towns.) But I had never been to her shop, which is housed in a small building behind her lakeside home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audrey had LOTS of yarn crammed into the tiny three-room building. We spent nearly an hour touching, squeezing, stroking, and drooling. (Wait, that sounded pornographic. Yarn, people, yarn!) After doing serious damage to Colleen's checking account and my credit card, we were on our way to the next stop....

...which was Blackberry Hills, the enterprise of Jerry and Loretta Pedersen. They have sheep and llamas and alpaca (and goats and cow and rabbits, oh my). I have seen and purchased Loretta's yarns and fiber at Yarnover and Shepherd's Harvest. The studio, in the walk-out basement of their home, has Loretta's spinning wheel(s) and loom(s) and lots of fiber. More damage to our respective checking account and credit card ensued. Happy damage, though.

[digression] The day before the event it occurred to me that the very last thing in the world I needed was more yarn. However, what was the point of going on a yarn shop hop if I didn't buy some yarn? So I resolved to buy something at each stop. Buy local, support local businesses, etc., etc. So I did. [/digression]

By this time it was noonish and we were hungry, so we headed to St Croix Falls to find some lunch. On the way we passed Chateau St Croix, a local winery that you have seen here before, where we noticed many tents on the grounds and lots of cars. We stopped to see what was happening, which turned out to be an art fair. We briefly walked through, but the food for sale did not tempt us, mainly because the outdoor temperature was quite possibly equal to the surface of the sun and we did not relish perching on a picnic bench in said sunshine to eat. So we left, but not before I bought a quarter pound of truffle cheese upon which to feast at bedtime.

And also not before I took my sole photo for the day.

Wine-themed ceramics. Click to embiggen so you can read the inscriptions.

Lunch was at Grecco's in a shady corner of their lovely outdoor deck (sort 0f) overlooking the St Croix river. Grilled salmon sandwich to die for for me, grilled chicken sandwich and a cup of carrot ginger soup (also to die for) for Colleen, and a glass of cold Sangria for each of us.

After lunch we headed across the river to Shelley's, site of my other knitting group and housed in a former bank. That is the former drive-up window at lower left in the first photo, and, no, Shelley does not sell drive-up yarn, sorry.

These photos are old and have been patiently waiting their turn on the blog.
Today is the day, guys!

I left Shelley's with yarn and a pattern for the cutest baby sweater EVAH (no, I don't know anyone who is having a baby, but they seem to crop up about once a year; this time I will be prepared) and the yarn to make it.

There were lots of knitters and shoppers in Shelley's small shop while we were there; it is just that sort of welcoming place where one feels the urge to hang around and chat and maybe sit and knit a few rows. I overheard a woman say to another shopper, "There are shops with yarn, and there are Yarn Shops [I could hear the bold and Caps in her voice]. This is a Yarn Shop." I totally agree.

Last stop was the St Croix Art Barn in Osceola, where Mrs. I was selling her inventory. Her shop had been located in a former church on Main Street, but she had recently closed it and is looking for a way to continue her business with lower overhead. I left there with a couple balls of cotton chenille to make the softest face cloths on the planet.

Tomorrow (or soon), photos of the haul.

* * * * *

Colleen and I had both been to Shelley's and the Art Barn many times, so we had no trouble finding them. But Fibre Function and Blackberry Hills were both out in the wood and unknown to us. The day before I came up with this: screen shots on my iPad of the Google Map to each place.

Sometimes I just amaze myself.

Yarn bombing!

  

Younger Son and I were on our way to dinner one night last week when we spotted this.
Happily, his cell phone has an 8MP camera, and he was able to capture what we saw.

  

Thanks to City of Lakes Waldorf School, 2364 Nicollet Ave, for providing blog fodder!

Best colorway names you are ever likely to see.

Found at Indigo Dragonfly.

Tweety Of Versailles

I've Never Been Up With People Before

 Have Fun Storming The Castle

Did I Listen To Pop Music Because I was Miserable? Or Was I Miserable Because I Listened To Pop Music? (High Fidelity series)

Squid Vicious

Who's A Guy Gotta Kill to Geta Drink Around Here? (Angelus)

Kathleen Turner Overdrive (High Fidelity Series)

Never Go Up Against A Sicilian When Death Is On The Line

 

I Made This Mixed Tape Just For You (High Fidelity series)

Is She All Green And Fuzzy And Mossy? (High Fidelity series)

River Song

Between Love And Batteries

Sonic F$#*ing Death Monkey (High Fidelity series)

And Then Buffy Staked Edward. The End.

Bright Lights, Big City, Busy Highway, Slow Unicorn.

As God Is My Witness, I Thought Turkeys Could Fly

 

Groverkill (i.e., it has all the colors of Grover)

 

Tiny Bloodsucking Dancer

 

Self Elmolation

Nancy Spungenbob

Shortbus

Grr...Arg.

Up Until The Punching, It Was A Real Nice Party 

 

Also I Can Kill You With My Brain

2 Minutes For Sarcasm

Hootnanny: It's Chock Full Of Hoot, Just A Little Bit Of Nanny

You Punched The HighLights Out Of Her Hair!

My World Is All Askew

Paging Dr. Smartass

I could show you, but then I'd have to kill you.

Back in the days of novelty yarns, I made a scarf for my SIL. She asked for one in red and purple to wear to her Red Hat meetings.

I obliged.

 

 Did she ever wear it? I don't know (she lives 400+ miles away). Would you?

Thing #4. And the beginnings of Thing #5.

  

Yarn: Noro Silk Garden #271 and 279, about 1/2 skein each.
Needle: US#7. Or maybe it was a #6. Or maybe I did the ribbing on #5 and switched to a #6 or a #7 for the stockinette. Anyone? Bueller?
Pattern: A pastiche of hat patterns. I wanted a hat that got bigger after the ribbing, sort of a slouch/tan. This is that, if I rearrange the slouch -- which is minimal -- after I put it on.

Now I have a sort-of matched set of hat, scarf, and mittens. They are all Noro, just not all the same Noro.

 

 

* * * * *

Matthew requested another hat for himself, this time in charcoal and 2x2 rib. He specifically said, No cables, no cuff, none of that stuff that is such fun for knitters. Sorry. Mom. He also does not care for the lines formed on the crown by columns of decreases, thus, the 2x2 rib that can hide the decreases. I sent him links to about a dozen different superwash merino DK yarns in charcoal. He chose Tanis Yellow Label, a yarn I had never used nor even heard of before I googled.

As soon as I ordered it I started noticing all the Ravelry projects made from it. Once the yarn arrived and I cast on, I learned why it is so popular. Nice stuff! Soft like merino but still with a bit of woolliness. The color is tonal, and it looks GREAT in ribbing -- very 3-dimensional.

What is that gap in the ribbing, you ask?

I could tell you it is for the unicorn horn at Matthew's hairline, but that would be... a lie.

Most of you already know this but just in case somebody doesn't: when knitting in the round, it is NOT necessary to join immediately after the cast on. That way lies madness twists.

Knit back and forth for a few rows, then join. You can easily see how the knitting should be joined and avoid that dreaded twist. Use the tail from the cast on to sew up the little seam; no one will ever notice when the garment is worn.

Observe:

In the case of the hat, above, the viewer will be so distracted by the jog in the stripes (does anyone have a good method for avoiding that job when the stripes are only 2 rows tall?) that they will never notice the seam in the ribbing. In the mittens, I defy you to find the seam.

* * * * *

In other breaking news, I tripped over something invisible in my office last night and fell. My can of soda and bowl of popcoarn went flying, and I smacked my hand on a chair. (I know the thing that I tripped on was invisible because after I got up there was nothing there to see.) No huge damage to myself, and Lucy The Wonder Dog was thrilled that I had thrown an entire bowl of popcorn onto the floor for her, instead of the usual few kernels, but the index, middle, and ring fingers of my right hand were very sore. So sore, in fact, that I could not knit.

Wah! It doesn't look bad -- no swelling, no bruising -- but it is sore.

The next day the fingers were still sore but not enough to prevent knitting, only to make it go a bit more slowly. Yay!

 

Why, yes, the dogs had a nice New Year's. too.

On Sunday Matthew came up to the lake for the day and brought along Ser Percival. Percy and Lucy and Misha, our new dog (more on her another day) romped through the house and play-tussled and and play-bowed and played tug-o'-war with doggie toys. They were hilarious and entertaining and overful of energy.

At one point we put the three of them outside onto the deck, from whence they could access the little fenced-in area at the foot of the deck stairs. Misha and Percy wiggled through a small opening and went for a nice runaround across the yard and into the woods and over the hill and across the driveway and through the woods on the other side and through the neighbor's yard and eventually back home. Matthew and I were watching out the window. We saw Misha make a l-o-n-g jump over a gully -- I swear her hang time rivaled Michael Jordan's.

Later, after the dogs were tired and resting comfortably on various soft places about the house, he and I went to New Year's Day gathering of some library friends. We had a lovely time.

We came home. Andrew was visiting a friend in Madison for New Year's; Smokey had worked the night before and would work again that night, so he had slept all afternoon. The three dogs puppies were unsupervised.

::cue ominous music::

What greeted us:

Ruh roh...

   

   

I laughed until tears ran down my face. Sometimes that is all you can do. The yarns had been in a basket on a table in the laundry room, safely behind a closed door (I thought). But one of us (his initials = Matthew) has great difficulty remembering to close doors. I gathered up all the yarn and put it safely out of the way until I could start detangling it.

Oops, I left a tiny bit hanging over the edge of the snack table. Guess what almost happened again.

I spent hours on Monday -- hours that could have been spent productively knitting -- detangling. Still, I was sitting comfortably in my recliner with my audiobook playing (A Feast for Crows, thanks for asking) and playing with yarn, so it could have been worse.

The result.

1. The balls I wound on Monday.
2. The unsalvageable bits.
3. The ball I wound Tuesday morning whilst chatting with Andrew and Smokey.
4. The several yards detangled by Smokey but not wound into a ball yet. (His detangling method differs from mine.) 

The pink and brown yarns are much, much harder because they were still skeined. The other yarns had already been wound into balls; that made them much easier to detangle.

Was/is it worth all the work? Who knows, but I got a pretty darned good blog posst out of it ;-)

Happy Wovember, people!

You have probably seen references (I first typed "reverences", which may be appropriate in this case) to Wovember. I cannot decide if this is a British thing or if it is world-wide, but really, who cares? It is a chance to celebrate a wonderful fiber*.

A few facts cheerfully stolen cheerfully lifted gleaned from Wovember.com:

• Unlike nylon, rayon and other man-made fibers, wool is a renewable and natural resource.
   
• There are 1,000,000,000,000 sheep in our world, or approximately 1 sheep for every 6 people.
   
• China and Australia are the top wool-producing countries in the world, tied at 302,000 tons each (that is 604 million pounds!).

One last factoid:

As far as their reputation for stupidity is concerned it turns out that sheep are not half so dumb as we have always assumed. Recent experiments have shown that sheep are really quite bright. They have the ability to recognise their shepherds and each other. Nor do sheep have a short attention span. It was proved that sheep could remember the faces of their shepherds and other sheep amongst whom they had lived for up to two years. Some sheep have also learned to roll across cattle grids on their backs and new measures may have to be taken in order to keep them penned in because it has also been shown that they can teach each other this naughty trick.

- Alan Butler, Sheep: the remarkable story of the humble animal that built the modern world

Do go to Wovember.com and look around. They have lots more information about wool and sheep, plus an abundance of sheepie photos.

.

* A fiber that, tragically, I have some trouble wearing. Unless it is very nice merino, it itches. And unless the indoor temperature is somewhere south of 66˚ F, one that is too warm for this post-menepausal woman. But I persevere in my knitting of it...

Yarn bombed polarity.

Yarn!

I have been accumulating a little pile of yarn. Time to photograph it, blog it, and upload it to Ravelry.

  

    
  

Clockwise, from upper left:

• 100g (420m) of Marks & Kittens Kattens Fame Trend sock yarn, 74/25 superwash wool/nylon,420m in another imaginatively named color '662' (good brand name -- the yarn really IS soft as a katten kitten);
• 4 oz (116g)(425 yds) of Sweet Georgia Tough Love sock yarn, 80/20 superwash wool/nylon, color 'Kill Bill';
  
• 100g (420 yds) of Dream in Color Everlasting 8-ply sockweight, 100% superwash Australian merino, color 'Tidal';
• Three skeins of Yarn for Sox, a worsted weight sock yarn; each is 4 oz (116g)(215 yds), 80/20 wool/nylon, colors, from left, 'Oatmeal', 'Ecru', and 'Greystone';
• 100g (800 yds) of Misti Alpaca handpaint laceweight, 100% baby alpaca, in the enchantingly named color '29'.
  

The orange/copper/gray sock yarn was acquired at the knitting event I attended in September. Don't remember the vendor. It is lovely soft; comments in Ravelry make me think it may not wear well enough for socks. Perhaps another Citron, this one for me...

The Kill Bill sock yarn is destined for a scarfy shawlette for Alex. More on this below.

The Dream in Color sockweight I acquired months ago, from Webs, I think. It has been draped lovingly around my mannequin's neck ever since. Don't know what it will become, but probably NOT socks. No nylon in it, plus the tonal colors are too pretty to hide under pant legs.

The worsted weight sock yarn will be... socks. Very warm socks, socks that will have to be hand washed. I found the yarn at The Tall Tale in Tofte, Minnesota, little town on the North Shore. The proprietess, a very nice and friendly dog lover, told me that one skein was not enough for a pair of socks but that I could get two pairs from three skeins. Hence, the multiple purchase. Don't know what they will look like yet, but they should be fast and fun to knit. The yarn is rustic, i.e., a bit scratchy -- perfect for rustic socks.

The laceweight alpaca is nearly the same color as the laceweight Schaefer I bought at Knitty City in May, but is thinner. Guess I am attracted to pale, pale browns and grays.

Oops, forgot some other recently acquired yarn.

That is 6,000 yards of lace weight cashmere from Colourmart. Actually, it is not lace weight; it is more like cobweb weight, much thinner than I expected which is why I got the second cone. Some of it may become a scarf, some may become a sweater. Someday.

Now, the Kill Bill.

Last year Matthew bought himself a hand-made bike painted in a Kill Bill color scheme. 

Here is a better picture of it, taken by the person he bought it from.

(Why a bicycle painted in a Kill Bill color scheme? Who knows...)

When I saw this yarn on the Simply Socks website* I knew it had to come to my house. So it did. 

When it arrived I emailed Alex and Matthew and asked if anyone was interested in a pair of socks or a scarf to match the bike. 

A few more emails, a few Rav searches, and it was decided: the yellow yarn will become this.

* Does Simply Socks's website remind anyone else of a 1960s Betty Crocker cake mix? It's the two-tone red horizontal stripes and the vaguely spoon-shaped thing at the top of the page that does it. 

Out of nowhere... the next project.

Interweave is offering a download of Knit Accessories 2009 for 10 cents until August 29. Never one to pass up a bargain, I jumped on that bad boy immediately. Paging through it just now, I came upon this little lace shawlette/scarfy thing.

 

Given that I am now a lace knitter, this one appealed to me -- small, quite open so it wouldn't take much yarn nor take forever to knit. Idly I perused the pattern. Hmm, Halcyon Yarn Silk Gemstone 2/5. I wonder is that is laceweight or what, I thought. 

Ravelry to the rescue.

Guess what I have in my stash, just waiting for the right project?

Just in case you are not familiar with that yarn, here are the deets.

I don't necessarily believe in kismet or karma, but this just seems... foreordained.

This yarn has always been intended for a lacy scarf. I had been considering Amy Singer's Montego Bay. And that would have been a lovely scarf, too. But this is better. We are leaving tomorrow for ten days on the North Shore, and a lace knitting project requires some uninterrupted knitting time at the beginning. Perfect.

::scurries off to pack the silk and needle and a tool /notions pack into its own special tote bag::

Random musings.

I am a charter member of the apostrophe police, and I currently trying to find out who I need to arrest for this egregious overuse of the little curvy devils.

 
* * * * *

This year's birthday was quite restrained, but Smokey and I did go out for dinner at a very picturesque location nearby. Tthe menu turned out to be unimaginative, but the food was excellent and the setting was lovely.

* * * * *

The shawl is slowly coming off the needles, which leads me to the all important question: what to cast on next? Should it be the sweater on the left but done with vertical stripes like the swatch on the right (please turn the swatch 90˚ clockwise in your mind), using the Noro yarns below?

 

 

Alex has requested a rugby-style doggie sweater for Percy, her and Matthew's rescued pit bull terrier, and has chosen yarn from my stash:

    

I am all excited about lace knitting and am considering using some Rowan Calmer I bought on closeout at Webs for a Cece (but I would make it longer and with 3/4 sleeves):

 

(I am not fond of the color of the Calmer -- color at right side of skein is truest -- and am thinking of overdyeing it. Tea, for a browner tone? Rit, if I wanted dusky blue? Anyone have experience?)

There are a number of other project swimming in my head but I'll stop here.

* * * * *

I picked these wild blackberries three feet outside my front door.

Small but tasty.

International Yarn Bombing Day!

So I was having breakfast with #2 Son and BGFE* and they excitedly told me about the yarn they had seen on their way to the diner on their bikes. That reminded me that today was International Yarn Bombing Day. Nothing would do but that I took a detour on my way from the diner to Wisconsin to check out the reported yarn bomb.

It was awesome.

This is a pedestrian bridge over I-35W at 40th Street in Minneapolis. 

View to the south, toward the suburbs:

View to the north, toward downtown:

View overhead:

.

* Best GirlFriend Ever

Souvenir yarn.

 The interior of Knitty City, LYS of Kay Gardiner.

   
Not only do they have lots of yummy yarn, they give great bag.

In my bag were the following delights:

 Two skeins of Koigu KPPPM in the imaginatively named 720, destined to become a Baktus for me. When I did a pattern search for Baktus, though, I found that there are a number of scarves that would be fun to make with this. Stay tuned.

 
One skein, 700 yards of Schaeffer Audrey laceweight, 50/50 merino/silk, in the rather more imaginatively named Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. This stuff is to die for and will become some sort of scarfy-shawly thing for me.

 
Two skeins of Alchemy Silk Purse in copper. Also to die for and also destined for some sort of scarfy thing for me.