A bit of Yarn P0rn to help you get through your day

The oh-so-irresistible Silky Merino came in on Monday. I have a habit of not showing extreme emotions like rage and excitement... I'm usually really good at keeping them in check. The excitement almost consumed me but I managed to hold it in and in doing so almost passed out from giddiness. I should let it out one of these days. ^_^

Immediately after opening the bag I dumped it out on my bed to feel it. I then proceeded to look at each hank and note the color names. And then I piled it back together and had the strongest desire to jump into it. I, as usual, held back and decided it was time for a photoshoot.

Come over and jump in, the water is silky smooth!



Oh how I wish I could keep it all... just to look at and touch and admire. I really have no idea what I would make with any of it... probably a nice sized swatch to keep in my pocket to fondle and appreciate. Sadly, ... and happily, it'll be going to winners of various contests and things during Malabrigo Cast On Week. It's not too late to join! So, if you want your chance at some of this delicious Silky Merino then Cast On a few projects in Malabrigo worsted and post in the Malabrigo Junkies group.

My mercurial desire to organize, order and inventory lead to this:





Oh yarn... I seriously think yarn is my favorite part of knitting... hmmm.
Well, I need to Cast On a few more Malabrigo projects this week so I'll leave you with a few more pictures.
Haven't hard coded a table in a while. Enjoy this one:




Row 1: Burgundy, Raspberry, Camote
Row 2: Sand, Spring Warter, Sunny Lime
Row 3: Ankara Green, Celeste, Turquoise
Row 4: Green Gray, Azul Azul, Light Hiacynt
Row 5: Bahia

Delicious, no?

A fun start to Malabrigo Cast On Week

I received a package from EarthChick on Saturday. She had a contest on her blog a little while ago and I had won. ^_^
Here's what I got:




Two skeins of Malabrigo in Indigo. Mmmmmm. It came just in time for Malabrigo Cast On Week. ^_^ I think it will soon turn into an Irish Hiking Scarf.

I also received these hand made beauties:



Stitch Markers! =) They're so beautiful. I actually used them right when I opened the box. The mittens I was working on required 2 stitch markers and I figured that I might as well break them in. Sadly, I wasn't able to take any pictures of them in use... so, instead, I CO for a new Scrunchable Scarf in Malabrigo for Malabrigo Cast On Week and I slipped the markers into my work, just so I could get a picture of them "in use."



They actually came with a tiny jewelery bag as well:



I was on a picture taking binge this morning. ^_^ I'll give more on my Malabrigo projects throughout the week. I also found out on Sunday that I received my Ravelry beta T-shirt as well, so, pics of that soon to come.

Blog hard!

Warm Woolly Mittens

Miraculously, I managed to finish the pair of mittens in time.
The first, original mitten was knit over 3 days. Before I actually finished it Danielle had tried it on and found it was too big for her. So, frogged, and started a new one yesterday as Danielle started on her scarf. It took me about 3 and a half hours to knit the real first mitten. Not too bad, I guess. The second one took me a lot longer. o_O It was fairly late in the evening when I started the next mitten and feelings of exhaustion had set in. We had just eaten a huge meal at Chili's and not only did it give us food coma, but we were also uncomfortably full. To make matters worse I was having this really in-depth conversation with Danielle about certain... promiscuous phases I went through during college. The intensity of the feelings and emotions I had were channeled into my mitten in the form of regular mistakes requiring regular tink-ing and ripping. Normally, I'd just leave small mistakes alone and just continue, but, I was knitting two of something that had to be the same, so, it required that I follow the instructions the exact same way I had done it before. .... Maybe this is why I can't knit socks?
Well, it got pretty late and Danielle needed to drive about an hour back home, so, we said our good byes. I had about a third of my 2nd mitten complete while Danielle had less than half of her scarf finished. Would we be able to finish by 10:30am tomorrow in time for the surprise party?
I sat down at my laptop at around 1:20 and started knitting. I stopped every few rounds to check on my e-mail and Ravelry. o_O At about 2:15 I realized I had not completed much so I went to abc.com and caught up on Grey's Anatomy and Ugly Betty. The familiar feelings of watching my stories, sitting, and knitting made things go much faster. I had already reached the main body which was simply stockinette in the round.
At about 4:20am I weaved in the last end. My stitches had turned out really uneven so I decided I'd give it a wash. I filled up the sink with water and a few squirts of Soak and left the mittens in there for a good 15 minutes. At this point I was head bobbing trying to stay awake.
After the Soak I squeezed, rolled, and laid them out to dry. Everything was as it should be.

My phone alarm was set for 9:00am. It beeped on time and in a foggy, half-awake, dream I grabbed my phone, pressed many buttons, and reset my alarm for a 10 minute snooze.
I set it wrong because I woke up again and checked the time... it was 10:00am.
I immediately jumped out of bed and grabbed the mittens. ...
They were STILL WET! In a panic, and knowing this was the stupidest idea ever, I threw them in the dryer.
I showered and got ready all the while praying that my mittens wouldn't felt. ... Luckily, they didn't, I had enough sense to put the temperature on low. The mittens did shrink a little... which was great because it looked like I had knit the mittens too long. So, aside from my being very, very late for a surprise party (I ended up getting there at around 12:30), everything turned out well.




Pattern: Warm Woolly Mittens by Theresa Gaffey
Yarn: Catalina (Alpaca & Silk), 1 skein
Needles: US 4 & 6
Size made: Adult Small




The mittens were still wet in these pictures. I had snapped a few shots before I tossed them in the dryer. ^_^

I think it's time for me to pull Beau out of hibernation. I REALLY wanted to wear him during Thanksgiving, but, that's not looking like it'll happen.
On the plus side, I've decided to attempt to knit both of the sleeves at the same time on 1 circular. Mmm, acquiring new techniques... fun. =)

For those of you who love Malabrigo... and are on Ravelry... Cast On some Malabrigo projects this week using their awesome worsted yarn and then upload them to your notebook, leave a post on the Malabrigo Junkies message board and possibly win a prize! It could even be a skein (or two) of the soon-to-be-new Malabrigo Silk Wool!

a quickie!

Prodigy student Danielle came over today for a hardcore knitting session. One of our friends' birthday is tomorrow (I think I mentioned this) and we both had major knitting to do. I had finished most of one mitten.. and Danielle tried it on and it was too big for her... the recipient is significantly smaller than Danielle so I had to frog and reknit.
Danielle decided to start a scarf with alternating colors. At one point Danielle realized that she could cut the original color from the scarf after she had attached the second. She picked up the scissors and snipped the yarn and was like, "Oh shoot. I cut it too short."
I looked at her and thought to myself, "that should be easy to fix."
Then she looked at her knitting again and realized that she actually snipped the new color yarn. o_O Good times.
More to blog about tomorrow.

Knit hard cause we are.

My stories

I've mentioned this before: most my knitting is done sitting in front of my laptop watching my stories. Once in a while, after a trip to Blockbuster, I'll pop in a good movie, but, for the most part I catch up on TV shows.
Here's my show list for this season (in no particular order):

• weeds
  
• top model
  
• house
  
• dexter
  
• the office
  
• avatar
  
• bones
  
• beauty and the geek
  
• pushing daisies
  
• ugly betty
  
• grey's anatomy
  
• prison break
  
• heroes
  
• chuck
  
• extreme makeover home edition
  
• 30 rock
  
• how i met your mother
  

Those are a lot of hours in the day spent in front of my laptop. One thing I'm thankful for is that most networks now broadcast their shows on-line. ABC and NBC are on top of their game and have the newest episodes on-line the next day. Fox and the new CW, however, can take more than a week for some programs.

I love that, for the most part, I can knit without looking. Complex lace patterns are obviously out of the question, but, that's how I get most of my knitting done.
I feel like I should review all the shows, but, ... it's getting late... and I just remembered that Son of a Stitch & Bitch is out and I need my copy. Let's hope the bookstore is still open!

Blog hard!

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Update: The bookstore was open but they didn't have the book out. I asked them when they'd get it... and they found out that they did receive it but it was in the back still wrapped up on one of those huge trays... and they wouldn't open it up and get it for me! I was pretty angry and sad at the same time because everyone else has been getting their book.
I almost drove out to McDonald's to eat my feelings, but, the fog of wrath cleared from my vision thanks to Fiona Apple's awesome cover of Sally's Song from Nightmare Before Christmas... and I was once again rational. ^_^ I'll just get it tomorrow at a different bookstore.

Fall forward?

I've been trying to add Haloscan to my blog, but, I've been getting weird results. One method really seemed to work fine except it wouldn't show any of my blogger comments... and that's kinda sad. So, I'll be fiddling around with it a bit more in the future.

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How about another photography post?
Last time we left off with "Cloning"... cloning lead to some other interesting editing journeys. Here's one of my favorites:

This was actually a test. I had seen someone do something similar so I wanted to see if I could do it, so, on a random day I asked Lora to lie down on the floor with my laptop and that's what I came up with. ^_^ It's basically a lot of layers and "cloning" of things.

From there I started focusing more on portraits with a little something extra. Here are two similar pictures.

Both of these were actually taken in the shower. Kevin wanted to have a photoshoot in the shower with water running so I agreed and we tested some things out. I had hung this sheer black fabric on the shower wall, brought in a lamp and started shooting. I used the flash and it managed to freeze the water droplets coming from the shower head. This actually wasn't at all what I was going for, but, I think it turned out better than anything I could have thought of. My friend Minnie ended up really liking Kevin's pictures and asked for a similar shoot. The major difference in her images is that I hung up orange fabric behind the sheer black.

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Heather regularly posed for my camera (whole other story on the camera!). She was always up for a shoot and seemed to enjoy it. I believe this outfit is from India, it was specially ordered for her by the mother of one of her friends... I think. This image was taken in the corner of my living room. I pinned fabric to the walls and took pictures. It looks like there's so much more going on, but, that's all it was. ^_^

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Now I shall bombard you with pictures!

This is Thea. Same corner, different fabrics hanging in the background. ^_^

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Same corner, different fabrics, and added a couch. This is Precious.

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Same corner, no fabric. And Benny. =)

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Same corner... just kidding. ^_^ Now I'm on location. This is Maria and her boyfriend laying in the grass.

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In the forest with Michelle!

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This is Paul. He had actually done some modeling with other photographers in the past.

So, there's a deeper view into my pre-yarn obsession photography. This every day blogging is a lot easier than I thought it would be. Speaking of yarn, my mittens are working out pretty well. I definitely think I can finish by Sunday.

In somewhat related news, the main clock in my bedroom hasn't... "fallen back" yet. It totally trips me out. It's awesome. hahahaha A minute ago I was thinking to myself, "I'll blog for a quick 20 minutes and I'll have time to make it to the restaurant before it closes."
So, I blog away, finish the main portion, check the time and I was all, "I just spent an hour and a half blogging! Now I won't be able to eat! Time flies when I'm on-line..." ... and then after I had run to the fridge to see if I had any edible leftovers, I realize that the clocks in the kitchen say that I still have a good hour. Oh, daylight savings. How fun you are. =)

2 Days of yarn in a row?!

I panicked a little this morning. I woke up relatively early ... technically 8:45am which is relatively early to my usual 12:00pm. Since I was up so early I decided I'd take a trip to McDonald's for their breakfast menu. I'm not a big fan of McDonald's except when it comes to the Sausage McMuffin with Egg. Mmm. As I was sitting there enjoying my sandwich I suddenly realized that I have a birthday party to go to on Sunday and I have no gift. I decided I'd knit the recipient a pair of mittens, so I drove over to the other LYS: The Gifted Purl and bought a bit of yarn and a pattern for mittens eye had been eyeing. She had knitted up a sample pair in angora and they were completely luxurious. I opted for a nice, pale shade of green (the recipient's favorite color) in an alpaca/silk blend and... I actually haven't started.

Isn't that some luscious yarn? ... Mittens are fast, right? I know I've been able to whip up a pair of Dashing in 3 days, so, mittens can't be THAT different. I mean, it's shorter on the arm and longer in the hand. Basically the same thing... right? ... RIGHT?! Well... hopefully I finish by Sunday.

This doesn't seem to be the true color of the yarn. It's a bit greener in real life. Hmm.

In other news, I solicited donations from Malabrigo. o_O ... ^_^ I told Tobias (from Malabrigo) all about Malabrigo Cast On Week and how beneficial it would be. He agreed to donate some yarn-ish prizes in the form of preview skeins of their new Silky Wool. I'd like to thank college (and Kevin) for my awesome solicitation letter writing skills. See, I actually learned something in college that I didn't know back in high school--it was NOT a waste of thousands of dollars and 6 years of my life! ^_^ I'd also like to thank Tobias for being so cool.

Here are a few current shots of my Exchequered scarf which is coming together oh-so-slowly.

Not much of a difference from last time, right? I keep telling people to knit hard, but, in reality I'm actually knitting pretty soft. I would like to say that I love double knitting. If I've been having a down day and need to feel better about myself I whip out Exchequered and watch myself knit a few rows all the while telling myself how cool I am that I'm knitting with two colors in two styles at the same time. ^_^ ... the things we need to get through a tough day.

That's all for today. I'm assuming tomorrow will be back to the "about me" entries because I need to go on a yarn diet.

Knit (and blog) hard!