Crafty Contradictions

I  just bought 20 skeins of Louet Gems Fingering in the Champagne colorway.  I probably won't use all 20 skeins, likely only 10 of them, but it is much easier to return the extra than to hunt down more yarn in the same dye lot.  I had to special order this yarn since no shop in the area carries this color, and it comes 10 skeins to a bag.  The horrible thing is that I have to wait 2-3 weeks for it to come in!!!!

Any guesses as to what I'll be making?!?!

So I said I was finishing things, right?  Anyone remember that purple vest I started 4 years ago?  Yeah, you heard that right!  FOUR YEARS AGO!  I had the front done, the back done, the shoulders seamed, the neck knitted on, and one armhole knitted on.  And then I put it down.  The tedious task of picking up and spacing stitches just bowled me over.  I just couldn't do it.

But last weekend I had the urge to finish things.  I didn't really want to start anything new.  I used it as my motivation to FINALLY finish this!
 

Pattern: Ticuna Vest
Yarn: Knit Picks Andean Silk in Cornflower; 5 balls
Needles: US 7 and US 6
Size: 36" bust

Now, I do not love it finished as much as I loved knitting it.  The Andean Silk was like butter through my hands, but since it has Alpaca in it, I can't wear it next to my skin.  And you would think by looking at the model in the pattern, there is some form of waist shaping.  Nope.  Not a single bit.  It's definitely a bit too baggy on me since I made it a size larger than normal so that I could fit a shirt underneath.  But, I did start this before I learned about any of those things.  I will wear it.  It just won't be one of my favorite articles of clothing.

At least I can say I finally finished it, so you all can stop asking about it now! :-)

I wanted to do some knitting today, but lacked the motivation to start anything new.  Maybe I should finish some of the many projects I've started an abandoned!

Well, pretty much all the projects that I would like to see to fruition are completely knitted.  They just need the finishing work to be done.

So that's today...Seams, Seams, and more Seams.

I hate finishing!!

It is done!  I love how this shawl turned out!  I think the flame motif of the last 2 clues is absolutely beautiful.  It was a pleasure to have been able to be part of Anna's Mystery Knit-along.  I promise I'll be joining the next one.  I can't imagine why I was so apprehensive to start this one.   :-)

The finished shawl measures 5'6" in width and 3'6" in height.






Pattern:  Mystic Light Shawl
Yarn:  Bollicine Dolly
Needles: Addi Turbo Lace US7

80% complete!

This clue introduced lace work on both the right and wrong sides.  It took me longer than expected to finish this because I lost my motivation about half way through the clue.  But, alas!  It is finished!

  

Gas Prices

The day I got my driver's license: $0.99

The day I graduated college: $1.95

Today: $3.69


It's sad that I remember those prices.  But, I remember that the day after I got my driver's license (I was 17 by the way), gas prices crossed the $1.00 mark.  And I remember telling my parents to fill up their tanks in Minnesota before going home since it was over $2.00 in Wisconsin.  And then today, gas prices dropped $0.10.  There are exactly 4 years between each of those gas price dates.

Crazy, huh?

I am done with Clue 3!  (Those blue lines you see running through the shawl are my lifelines and mark the end of each clue.)  This is when the motif changed to those little "x"'s you see across the top.

 

I'm not usually a big fan of motifs changing within a shawl.  I feel it cuts the piece in half (or thirds, or whatever the case may be).  I'm about 5 days behind completing this clue, and Clue 4 has already been released.  I guess I'm already half way there, so I got to keep going!!



My favorite part?  The braided cable down the center, and the fact that I don't have to pick any stitches up along the sides for an edging!

As a congratulatory gift to myself for getting my promotion and raise, I got a new camera!

It's a very beautiful Samsung L200Black!  It's a big upgrade from my 4.1 megapixel camera that I was using.  This new camera has 10.2 megapixels and makes a world of difference!

 

Friday was my nephew's 2nd birthday, and we had his party yesterday.  My niece and I were playing with some of the features of the new camera.  It does this really cool thing that helps you take pictures of yourself.  It beeps when it recognizes a face as being in focus on the screen!  You can also set it to different color settings for the photo.  Is this not the most beautiful photo ever?!



Today, we went to the Milwaukee County Zoo.  Chris and I decided that our "thing" will be to travel and see zoos.  Someone told us that she and her husband travel to visit presidential libraries.  It was their thing.  I want to travel the world; Chris prefers to stay close to home.  But zoos are safe.  I'm a zoo fanatic (I think I've told you all of that!).  I think that it's a wonderful idea!

 

Still working on the shawl!  This clue took longer than the last one only because of other parts of my life getting in the way of my knitting.  But that's okay.  Those other things have been a lot of fun!



And here's a close-up of the center cable:

Remember the Mystery KAL I said I was joining?  So far, I'm very happy I joined!  I have completed Clue 1.  It took me only one week to complete. 

 

Oh, it was a FABULOUS trip! The weather was great all week. It started out in the mid-sixties and ended in the 70s. The wind was a bit chilly, but I still only had to put on ONE sweater! That's less than I wear at work!

I have over 200 photos from this week (wow!), so I put them into slideshows for whomever would like to view them.

slideshow: Views from the Plane and Day at the San Diego Zoo
We had good weather flying out of Chicago so we were able to get some great pictures of the Rocky Mountains, Monument Valley, and Grand Canyon from the plane. We spent all of Wednesday at the San Diego Zoo. We saw every single exhibit! After the zoo, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe. Aaron (my sister's husband) was really excited to go, Rachel had never been to any Hard Rock, and Chris and I hadn't been to the San Diego one. And so we went! We had the waiter do the "birthday thing" for Aaron and Rachel, only instead of saying, "Happy Birthday!" everyone shouted, "Have a Nice Life!" It was too bad that Aaron wasn't feeling so well (nervous for the next day?)


video: Monkeys playing with Sea Otters at the San Diego Zoo
It might take a moment or two for your eyes to find the difference between the monkeys and the otters. The smallest monkey was swimming underwater with the otters and looks just like them! There is sound (although not much added by me), so turn up your volume if you can't hear anything!


slideshow: Rachel and Aaron's Wedding Day
We went to Oceanside Beach in Oceanside, CA, for the big day. Chris performed the ceremony as the Deputy Commissioner of Civil Marriages (only in California and only on that day). It was beautiful! Rachel wore my dress (severely pinned in the back to make it smaller for her!) and Aaron wore his Marine dress uniform. Afterwards, we drove down the Pacific Coast Highway and stopped for dinner at The Beach House. It was the best seafood I have ever had! Seriously, if you are ever in the San Diego area (or LA for that matter) visit here. You won't regret their sunset dinner!!)


slideshow: Old Town San Diego - Wells Fargo Museum
How could I resist? I work for Wells Fargo and I happened to be in the town where the bank all started. So when we visited Old Town, we stopped at the Wells Fargo Museum. Old Town is certainly a great place to spend a day. I wish we would have had more time (but we had to fly back home).


The actual just plain pictures can be found here on my Flickr page.

(Sad Wisconsin.  This is the morning we left.  It had been raining for awhile, so the 90 inches of snow was pretty well melted!)

I have to say, I don't miss Wisconsin one bit!  I just don't know how much more of that state I'll be able to take.  Sure, gas prices are cheaper and sales tax is lower, but the weather?  OMG, it's in the mid-60's here!  And it's March!  And there's no snow!  And everyone is wearing short sleeves (some even shorts)!


(Our hotel pool.  Yes, we have used it!)

The weather is pretty much a deciding factor for me.


(Look...PALM trees!)

Today we spent the whole day outside walking around the San Diego Zoo.  Yes, I am the hard core zoo person who was there from open to close (9am-7pm).  No one complained.  It's a freaking HUGE zoo!  And it was soooo nice outside (compared to Wisconsin).

We kept scrunching our noses and saying, "What is that smell?  Why does the air smell so different?"  Ummm...LIVE GREEN THINGS!  We haven't smelled real flowers, trees, or grass since late September.  It's so strange to smell the fragrances so pugently in the air.

Tomorrow is the big day!  Hopefully, I'll find the time to post some more pictures and even a few videos! (268 pictures came off my camera just from the flight and today...crazy, huh?)

We've had a lot of the "ick" in this house, and I've finally given up.  It seems that the moment I start to feel better, Chris gets sick.  Then he gets better, and I get sick again.  The bed comforters have been sent to the cleaners, sheets and towels have been washed, the bathroom has been bleached every day, and toothbrushes thrown away.  I haven't gotten to take any time off of work, so I tried to comfort this last 50 hour week with some knitting.

I won't even show you my coffee table.  I will tell you that it is strewn with almost a dozen knitting projects.  I've knit a few rows on each one this week, but feeling as I have, there has been no motivation to be monogamous with any one of them.

I have decided to go ahead with the Mystic Light Shawl KAL!  One of my projects this last week has been the swatch, which Anne has designed to be a USEFUL swatch.  This is very important to swatching.  I despise wasting yarn!  I am using Bollicine Dolly which, depending on how the shawl turns out, I will dye afterwards.

 

I signed up for a Mystery KAL (knit-along).  It's a lace shawl that will have the pattern released in phases.  The designer is the same person that hosted the Mystic Water Shawl KAL.  She calls this new mystery pattern the Mystic Light Shawl.

So many things about this terrifies me!!
1)  I'm not a big fan of the Mystic Water Shawl.  Too many designs: waves, swirls, squares.  Your eye doesn't have one place to rest.  I do, however, like the Sumac Shawl she designed.
2)  I have no idea how this new shawl will look when it's done (isn't that the idea of a mystery shawl?!)
3)  She used a slightly variagated yarn...but I don't like the way many variagated yarns look in a shawl.  Or might a solid color do it injustice?  I don't want to spend the money on a yarn or invest the time in a shawl I'll hate.

But here's what thrills me:
1) I need to be a fearless knitter!
2) Things done in stages are better accomplished.
3) I will be proud of what I do no matter how it looks.

As for yarn choice...I suppose I could invest in some KnitPicks Bare, knit the shawl, and then dye it.  Or dye it before I knit it up...

...or just wait for all the pattern clues to come in and then decide if I want to knit it at all!!

I thought I might be insane in starting this project:

Fingering weight yarn + US 2 needles + Blanket =  INSANITY!



But look at how cool it is!!!

This is 1 skein of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn in the Seaside colorway.  Right now it measures 16 inches in diameter.  I'm aiming for 36 inches, I think.  I started with 5 stitches, and I'm up to 400.  Now I have to think about how I would like to finish it with the edging.  A picot edge?  A ruffled edge?  A garter stitch edge?  A crocheted scallop edge?

I don't know who this is for yet.  The yarn just spoke to me.  It said, I need more than socks!  I need to be displayed proudly and boldly.  Show all my colors!  There are plently of pregnant ladies around me.  I am sure it will find a home.  (Or maybe I'll keep it for that someday for myself!)

Ech...now to get it back on the needles!

My coworker (oops, now boss...she got a promotion!!) has a pension for wild and crazy hats.  So I thought it was time to get rid of all those novelty yarns that I just won't use for myself and make her a hat out of them!

 

This is going to make a CRAZY spiral ribbed hat!  Stay tuned!

Over the Christmas holidays, I was gifted some fabulous 7" US2 double pointed needles from Lantern Moon.  I immediately cast on a pair of socks with them!  However, I knit very tightly, and look what I did!!


There was no way I could tell the person who had given these to me that I've broken one already!  So searching through their website, I came across the contact information for Annette Pronk.  I pleaded with her for an opportunity to purchase a single replacement needle.  I really didn't need a whole new set, just 1 to make up for the one I broke.  I didn't hear back from her for about a month and a half, so I thought it was a lost cause.  I set the sock aside until I could round up one of my other US2 needles (which I actually had another sock sitting on!)

Earlier last week, Annette returned my email, appologizing for the delay in her response.  She said she was sending me a replacement needle (plus one for good measure!) right away.  How wonderful!!

Here's when it gets good!  I had the package delivered to my workplace today.  This is what I found inside:


2 new needles, and that absolutely ADORABLE bumble bee tape measure!!  Now was that not just the most thoughtful thing ever?  I was so excited when Annette said she was sending the needles, she really didn't need to go above and beyond that!

I urge you all to support the mission of Lantern Moon by purchasing their handcrafted products and giving Vietnamese women and their families a fighting chance in this world!  Plus, they have INCREDIBLE customer service!!

(oh, and that's a Baudelaire sock in progress!)

 hehe!  bad joke, really bad joke...

So I have been doing some knitting since I've been back from Germany.  The weather here has been crazy.  Freezing cold one day, then snow the next, rain the next day, and then back to freezing.  I realized as a knitter, I live the ultimate paradox.

I do not own a hat or scarf.

I likely won't ever own a scarf.  I hate the feeling of having something, anything, that close to my neck.  I rarely wear turtlenecks (unless they have a very loose neck), choker necklaces, or long hair.  But hats?  I could use a hat!



Enter, the Inga Hat.  I think it's the perfect length; it covers ALL of my ears!


I particularly love the braided edge.


Yarn: Berroco Comfort in Rosebud and Smokestack
Needles: US5 and US3 circulars
Ravelry Link: Inga Hat

So the Yarn Harlot is coming to Madison on Monday, April 28th, for her book signing tour.  She'll be stopping by the Borders in East Towne on Zeier Rd at 7:00pm.  I'm seriously thinking about going!  I started reading her blog this year.  It's a very enjoyable read with plenty of pretty pictures.  I think it's quite evident she's a writer.

Here's the thing...I'm still scoping out to see how popular she's going to be in WI.  I know the places who agree to host her signings very rarely calculate how large the knitting community is and often run out of room for everyone who comes to see her.  Right now there's no scheduled stops in Chicago, so I wonder if a lot of people from Northern Illinois will come out to see her (think I'm kidding?!  I've seen people post that they're going to drive 3-5 hours to see her when she's in their STATE!)

So, if I do decide to go, I might see if I can't get Monday off of work (it's hard to say with how short-staffed we are right now) and go out to Madison early.  In that case, angels_ember, would you like to get together?!  If I can get off on Monday, I'd like to come out on Sunday.  Otherwise, it'd be at least a 1/2 day on Monday.  I think I could very well use this as an excuse to actually come see you!

Alright!  I finally made it back home, intact, with all my luggage!  I am certainly done flying for awhile.

But I am already missing Germany very sorely!  I miss the mountains the most, I think.  I couldn't resist taking one last picture at the airport.


This last week is one that I'll certainly remember.  I had so many good times with old friends that I saw again and the new friends that I made.  We made quite a few inside jokes (that I'm keeping to myself so I don't run the risk of having to say, "guess you just had to be there!") that will always bring a smile to my face.  Chris says I'm a different person than when I left.  Germany brought back that wild side that I let lapse in my real life here.  I tried to explain to Chris that Germany is just a place where I feel at home and can be my whole self, even if I don't live there anymore.  I think he understands since Milwaukee has always (obviously) been that place for him when we moved away.

I don't think words could explain how much I miss that country and all of my friends there.

While I was there, I worked solely on my toe-up Jaywalker which I have named Black Tie Affair (ravelry link).  This sock has knitted into it all of my stresses of flying, all of the fun, all of the calm, all of the memories from my trip.  I love this sock.
 

Once I had the chevron pattern memorized, the rest kind of went along like any normal sock that I do.  I love how the yarn stripes perfectly around the leg.  It's a cool sock, no?!

Pattern: Toe-up Jaywalker
Needles: US2 Lantern Moon Sox Stix
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Multi in Pin Stripe