I have a dream.

So, I don't know if anyone realizes this but I'm actually filled with a lot of doubt and indecision.  I suppose it's not uncommon.

Where is today's post coming from?

I know that folks know why I originally started this blog.  I wanted to use the talent I have to make my in-laws lives better, while taking care of them.  (And let me assure you, I'm still not positive that talent is the right word here.)  We all know how that turned out, and this post isn't to dwell on it.

Unsurprisingly, the folks who visit here on a semi-regular basis (and really, I only post on a semi-regular basis, so I'm just thrilled that people enjoy my insanity enough to keep visiting) are knitters.  I know, shocking!  Knitters would rather make their own stuff than buy something someone else knit... after all, knitters are enterprising and intelligent people who can also do stuff with string.  *wink*  Again, shock and awe!

So, the original purpose of this is not being terribly well served.  And this is okay, I'm enjoying the ride and the excuse to knit my brains (what little still survive) out!

But, there are still things I'd like to do around the house to make it nicer.  Fencing the yard so shorty has a safe place to play would be a start.  We live on a numbered road that the great State of NH cares for, so we get a lot of faster-than-it-should-be traffic as you can well imagine.

Add to that, I want so very much to be in a position to give space to my folks when they're ready for it.  And overtime or chances for extra work at work are far and few between in my current position.  Not that I don't have to work overtime to get the job done, but it's not approved overtime... just what is necessary.  So, yeah.

This is completely inappropriate, but I keep flashing on the "I had a dream" section of Rose's Turn (done really well by this actor in Glee):

So, completely inappropriate given that I hate being in the lime-light and have horrible foot-in-mouth when in person.  (So bad, it should be illegal!)  In fact, those 2 things may be an effect + cause kind of thing.  And also completely inappropriate given that I am not attempting to shove my family into the lime-light either.  Also?  Not good to watch while working, because it always makes me cry.  Ah well.

But what all this rambling boils down to is, while I had my broken arm I spent a lot of time designing.  I even have a shawl design that I'm afraid to cast on for, although that's another post in the making (Orenburg meets Japanese Stitch-Dictionary... what was I thinking??).  I didn't just design lace.  I did a lot of lace thinking, but I also did some sweater thinking, some colorwork thinking, some small-but-useful-project thinking...  and I've been writing them up.

I have a small collection of the first year of 200 shawls.  I have a handful of discrete 'other' patterns that just kind of happen when you think about what to wear the shawl over.  Or what kinds of things would be fast and loved by recipients.

But is this something people would even be interested in?  I'm wordy.  Each of the patterns I've written has a techniques section, and a little bit about the how and why the idea came about.  They're not short, either.  Although I've come up with a 'clever idea' to get around that.

But am I being presumptuous?  I'm a kook who knits on her front porch in the middle of summer, and who wants everyone to love knitting as much as she does.  I'm not a great knitter.  I'm not a wise knitter.  I'm not a visionary, or a pioneer... I'm just me.  There are so many great designers, and great Knitters out there.  Is there room for a Just Me?

It's funny, but the ideas don't stop.  I was worried that I'd run out of ideas (although my problem seems to be that I need to knit them about 7 times apiece before I'm satisfied with them).  Instead I find that the more I come up with, the deeper the well goes.  Simple things, complex things, crazy things that make me faint-hearted to think about knitting.  Some days, I'm writing seeds of ideas down on napkins in the middle of writing emails just trying to keep ahead of them.

But (said to the tune of the video above) all this work, and would people like it?  All that time, and would people buy it?  Am I nuts, or should I go for it?

Blah blah blah...

So, if you've read this far through my fears and my indecision, I thank you.  I know today is a bit of a heavy post and I apologize.  I'm a weird mixture of excited and maudlin today.  But on the other hand, I do have some sneaky-peek shots to share.

That last one is for you texture lovers out there.  You know who you are ;)

I think I'm going to put up a poll.  Is anyone interested in the stuff I'm writing?  Would you buy it?  Am I smokin' crack?  Hahaha.  Anyway, if folks who visit would take the time to vote in the poll I'd be really grateful.

Happy knitting, and may you find your dreams.

BABIES are taking over the world

An old friend just reached out from out of the blue!
And they have a BABY!

You know what this means, right??

Baby knits!

Heh-heh.

I finally got the camera battery situation sorted out just in time to be steamrolled by work.  Joy.

I've got some pictures, some things blocking so I can take pictures, and some plans for more pictures.

Did I mention pictures?  I might have forgotten it in all the BABY excitement.

Now, if only I was an LDAP expert today would go smoothly.  Alas, my field of work lays elsewhere.  Onward, to programmatic battle.

Plus, I have knits, pictures, and pictures of knits to savor soon!

PS, did I mention recently that I <3 you guys? 

bad battery h-e-double hockey sticks

Ok, so here I am again.  I have not been posting because I don't want to put up *another* pictureless post when I've been doing photo-worthy stuff.  Even if it's not knitting, it's been photo-worthy stuff.  So, I am attempting to take pictures and I get low battery warning.

Three days later, the battery still hasn't finished charging?  In fact hasn't gotten more charge at all? 

Time for a new battery.  Tonight?  Tomorrow night?  Soon, my precious, soon...

In this next 15 short days, I'm feverishly preparing for our one year celebration.  This has been a wild ride so far, and I want to do something special to mark it.  I'm not a great blogger or a great mind, but this has been very rewarding.  Not even counting just being able to put things out there knowing that "this is what I did" and this is how I was feeling, I got to meet a bunch of really fantastic people in the past year directly because of this blog.  I never thought it would happen, and it's totally worth celebrating.

I'd love to give you sneaky-peeks on the stuff that is debuting on the 17th, and am frustrated that my technology turns itself into a brick around me.  On the other hand... if I can't be online or playing with the camera... I do have a lot of knitting time left over.

Speaking of which;  in the middle of this unholy heat we lost power for a few hours.  The guy from the electric company who was running around trying to figure out how far down the line the outage went actually stopped to stare at me for a few minutes while I knit on the front porch.  I heard him telling the guys on the radio "I think the locals are starting to get heat stroke, there's some weird stuff going on" as he pulled away.  I guess my laughter (maniacal, with tears streaming down my face) didn't help.  But seriously dude, it's linen.  I'm not as crazy as you think.... and what do you think the folks down the street were doing that he got really weird-ed out by knitting?  The world may never know.

good lord

Ok, how the heck did I become the top google hit for "porno tube 17 yaren"

Yikes,  I didn't know knitting was so risque.

So, there I was...

Just minding my own business.

No, let me back up a bit.  I broke my arm in December, and it healed up nicely.  With that came some unfortunate weather-wise aches and problems with my tendons. So, since Sunday night I haven't really been knitting.  I haven't really been able to use the hand because the tendons swelled up... and it put off the blog posts. 

I don't have any knitting progress since the tendons decided they needed attention, but I'm back to typing and I can show you what I got done last week at least.

So, this is where the big russet blob is:

And this is where the giant peach blob is:

I'm actually through 8 repeats of the center on this, and working up to edging...  I really enjoy this pattern, and want to try it in a tencel lace-weight next.

For fun, there's this blob:

It's a combination of 2 laceweight yarns, and it's in kid-mohair, alpaca and wool.  I may even get around to blocking it if I can stop petting it.

And last but not least, I';ve been test driving some possible patterns for quickie-gifts:

Aug 17 is coming quick!

I hope your knitting is treating you well & you're not melting in the heat.

wordful wednesday?

So, I'm in training this week and oncall this weekend.  I suspect I will not be free to blog for a decent chunk of this due to scheduling conflicts.  I'm going to make an attempt to get a couple of progress posts up between now and next Monday... but it's going to be based on how busy I end up.

My Mom was over today for a number of reasons.  The one pertinent to this blog is she's helping me choose the projects for the 1 yr anniversary and giving valued opinion on the yarns available.  So, things are happening.  But not things I can blog just yet.

la la la linoleum

So here we are and somehow it's not Friday.  Friday kind of got away from me there.

In between thinking evil thoughts and answering crazy questions this week, I also cast on for one of the new patterns.  With one of the yarns I'd skeined, even.  I know, that's crazy talk... but bear with me a moment:

See?  I almost managed a full repeat of the center instead of just the border....  craaaazy talk!

This picture is actually color accurate.  The above, not so much:

I just love this color, and I can't figure out why.  It's Molding Pink Grapefruit by Dye for Wool.


They do some amazing things.  Both their super saturated colors and their tints are just gorgeous, and the yarn bases they use are yummy.

But, since I can't hike 2 charts (large form for my tired eyes) into the next state and comfortably work from that, I'm taking the 2nd skeined yarn from the other day in gorgeous russet reds for a travel project.

These are the yarns shown side-by-side for comparison:

You're not seeing wrong.  The autumn reds single ply is thicker than the pale peaches 2 ply.  Both are considered lace-weight, but sometimes it's interesting to note the variation in a weight-class.  The 2 ply is not cobweb weight.  That's even wispier.  But, when you see the 2 shawls side by side, the single ply shawl will be more robust, while the 2 ply one will be more ethereal. 

To that end, I share the song that has been stuck in my head all week.  I hope your weekend lets you keep cool and knit in peace and happiness.

Thank you!!

Hokay, so as I mentioned yesterday I was having a craptastic week and I suddenly got an outpouring of unexpected goodies.  Everything was small and cute and just perfectly wonderful.  So, in order of the date they were posted, I'm going to upload photos.  Some of these were posted a while ago, so my postal hub is definitely experiencing technical difficulties.

I'm going to keep the senders identities for their privacy, but I know who you are and really appreciate all of the effort and affection that went into each of these.

First up was a really fantastical envelope and card.  Inside was something pretty fantastic!

Lookie, the other side is just as exciting:

Hehehe, I just love the puffy sheep!  I may have to admit that I've already got it helping me keep my spot in one of my Japanese stitch dictionaries.

Next up were these beauties:

Aren't they pretty?  They're soft jewel tones, and I just love them!  So much fun!

Next, I got an envelope with a weird squishy feel to it.  Inside was this little guy:

Hahaha, I love him.  I don't know if it's the pink or the squishy, but he's my laptop mascot now.

Here's all the loot together:

Seriously, thank you guys.  I was completely surprised and it was a complete 360 on how the last 2 weeks have gone.  You really brightened up my day, and I'm still giddy over it!

Thank you, for thinking of me and for sharing a bit of your whimsy and heart.  I really appreciate it.

For those curious, I used this as my staging for the photos:

Can't beat natural light for capturing stuff.  And the wooden bowl completely makes my questionable bread look decent haha.  I'm trying to do my photos in natural daylight so that I get accurate colors, and this will pretty much be my staging area for a little while.  Tomorrow, I will have a few progress shots on something new, and I am continuing to curse(?) fight(?) work(!) my way through the FO shots so hopefully I'll have some posts on that forthcoming (work allowing).

So thank you all again, I have to say that knitters really can't be beat for generosity of heart!

random driveby post

So, I had all these good intentions to blog more frequently this week.  I forgot I'm still covering for one of my coworkers, whose accounts are utterly filled with crazy people.  Those aren't the words I've been using all day today, but they'll work.  I'm too tired for vitriol tonight.

So, in no particular order, here are the things I photographed today.

In order to keep colors from blending where I don't want them to, I do a single color per day on each of these.  Today was yellow on concalls day.

I keep wishing for snow.  Thinking about snow.  Contemplating a nice fire and a white-out outside.  I think it has to do with these 2 above....  the left is knit with a single strand of elann baby peruvian lace and a single strand of elann silken kidd.  The right is knit in cashmere.  Touching them is like a pile of downy goodness.

As you can see, wishful thinking abounds here today.  Both of those are projects I'd like to see on the needles in short order.  But first I have to free up the 60 inch, size 3us needles for the red.

And finally I'm debating some possibilities for the 1 year anniversary.  I like this dyer a lot, and these skeins are random madness.  Gotta love me some random madness.

I actually want/need to do another thank you post because I got a buncha unexpected goodies in the mail today.  I can see that some of them were posted a while ago, so I know my main branch office has been behind(?) playing games (?) having a bad month (?) as well.  I'm just so touched, I owe them their own post.  I won't forget, but want to photograph in natural light so that everyone can see how cool and uplifting they are.

Hope your week involves keeping cool and knitting lots!

Friday Winners, and a Thank You

You guys are really too much.  I can't thank you enough for participating in these little give-aways.  I've had so much fun, and from what you've said you are too.  I'm grateful and happy that you all have enjoyed this as much as me.

This is the final prize I have to give out from this series, and I used child labor to pull names once again (don't worry, the child is rewarded with toast with honey on top so he feels it's fair).  I have to admit that this time only one of the winners expressed an interest in a particular object, so I also popped the yarns into a bag and let him pull them out to match them with the winners. 

So, for the Alice with Flamingo bag and the silk dk we have Penny who said:
WOW!! Look at these yummy giveaways!! Lovely. The yarns all look so breathtaking. I love all three project bags as well! :)

For the daylily bag and the prism blues we have Mujercita who said:
That blue laceweight and Daylily bag is beautiful. It's so nice of you to be doing giveaways like this!

And last but not least we have Girlieknitwit who said:
These giveaways have been the highlight of my summer (so far) These new prizes are just too awesome. Those project bags are phenomenal. You do beautiful work. Thanks to much for your generosity and the fun of this!!

I wish I had enough to give to everyone who entered, you've all been just wonderful through the whole thing and I love sharing :)

This brings our give-aways for the Fiber Fair to a close for 2011.  I hope all of you had as much fun as I did and that everyone gets a chance to go to one of these sometime soon.

I hope everyone will check back around August 17, as I'm working on a project giveaway for the 1 year anniversary of this blog and all the craziness and joy around it.  Just between you & me, I'm putting together a large project, a medium project, a small project, and a single-skein weekend project.

There will be some changes with the blog, and I've got a stack of FO to 1 block and 2 post about in the next few days of the 3 day weekend.  I realized I must block when I saw this waiting for me:

Erm, that color combination can't be allowed to continue, so the blocking must be accomplished.  Thanks again everyone, and congratulations to the winners.  You've really made this fun, and I hope to do it again next year after the 2012 fiber festival!