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Tuesday, August 29, 2006
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Stuff and things and etc.
I am going to Eau Claire to see Ms. Harlot come heck or flooding! My RSVP has been submitted and I've got two potential rides (driving and I aren't very compatible when it comes to longer trips). The folks in Eau Claire are going to wonder just what they got themselves into.
Flirty ruffles has a good start on 'er. I'm about a third of the way through the second chart, and true to form, I made some sort of silly mistake (likely, I just wasn't paying 110% of my attention to the row) which will take me a half hour to figure out. After that I'll speed along for awhile until it happens again. The yarn is absolutely soft and gorgeous and the whole thing will be phenomenal.
A sleeve is halfway finished for my craaaaazy sweater. Sometimes you just really need something on size 10 1/2 needles, just to make you feel like you're able to actually accomplish something.
I have a craving for cables. Let's hope I can stave it off until I finish with my lace craving.
Tipper @ 9:06 PM * link
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Sunday, August 27, 2006
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Days of yarn and roses.
The TCKnit picnic was today, and it was much less stressful than last year's, that's for sure. I think everyone had a good time. (I had a good one, even though I wasn't feeling particularly interesting or social.)
I made friends with this guy:
And these people:
There were lots of familiar faces and an equal number of new ones.
I knit on my crazy Chicago sock:
And my crazy sweater (I am happy to report that the ruffle bit is d-o-n-e):
I've also started the flirty ruffles shawl, but since I'm just halfway done with the first chart, there really isn't much to share. I think it'll be awful purdy, though.
Lots of knitting this weekend, though not much accomplished. Still feels good.
Tipper @ 8:09 PM * link
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Friday, August 25, 2006
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Cool by proxy
Even if the Yarn Harlot is avoiding Minnesota (I am sorely tempted to go to Eau Claire when she calls on that town), at least I get to meet her via my mom.
I am now one degree of separation from Ms. Pearl-McPhee.
Someday I will show you a picture of the very long scarf-like thing that is the ruffle bit of my new sweater.
Can you believe it's almost fall?
Tipper @ 10:12 PM * link
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Tuesday, August 22, 2006
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Bitchin' and stitchin'
Tonight I went to the first *censored* I have been to in a very, very long time. Goodness, it's gotta be over a year since I've attended one. This one was at the Loring Park Dunn Bros., and six fine lasses (including myself) attended. I didn't know a-one of them, so it was very exciting.
The best part was that everyone was a competent knitter, and none appeared to be afraid of a challenge; that's a very different dynamic than similar meetups have yielded in the past.
This Sunday is the TCKnit picnic, held in the Rose Garden near Lake Harriet. Since I totally dropped the planning ball this year, we'll be bringing blankets and lunches and doing a really laid-back thing. I'm looking forward to it.
Annie Modesitt will be in town then, I think; I dropped her a line to let her know about it. Maybe she'll show! I'd love to meet her, as I've heard that she's great fun.
I think part of what makes knitting inspiring is the people you meet. I feel rejuvenated after tonight.
Tipper @ 9:56 PM * link
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Sunday, August 20, 2006
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Fun with Flickr
I had no idea it was so cool.
I've put my finished object galleries here:
Finished objects (knitting)
Finished objects (other)
This method is SO much easier than the difficult-to-update thing I was doing before. The Flickr interface is just so handy and simple and... !
There's also a Scarf Style/Wrap Style group, which I hope will fill with finished objects in no time. To my surprise, people had stuck stuff in there without any advertisement from me.
Hey, I've been knitting!
I think I've sorta got my mojo back. If I didn't before, I do now; looking through my archives for info about my finished objects has made me feel very, very guilty about not finishing anything for several months. Months, people!
I've been plugging away on my Fleur sweater (though, really, it needs a new name - I think "crazy wild stripy thing" will suffice). The crazy wild stripy thing has about half of its "ruffle" done, and I really like the seed stitch coupled with the thick-and-thin of the yarn. I did a little spinning last night. I'd have a lot more done if my car hadn't died on the highway yesterday, necessitating a wait for a ride, a tow truck, and taking said ride to lunch to express my undying gratitude.
I am very calm about the car thing. Maybe it's because I've been knitting.
Tipper @ 11:02 AM * link
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Thursday, August 17, 2006
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Acquisitions
I am certainly making up for my yarn diet (and certainly going back on one).
Purchases, in no particular order:
Yarnzilla - I hadn't been to Yarnzilla in ages, so I popped in today. I ended up purchasing the Flirty Ruffles Shawl pattern, a new pair of bamboo size 0 DPNs, and eight balls of Rowan Yorkshire Tweed 4-ply to make various fair isle gloves/mittens for Christmas presents. (Enabling ahead: all of the Yorkshire Tweed products at Yarnzilla are 30% off!)
Kindred Threads - What should be two pounds (well, I paid for two pounds, anyway) of organic Coopworth fleece raised around Viroqua, Wisconsin. I visited this shop with Matthew and Bobby for the first time yesterday. It's a delightful shop.
Fitting Knit Shop - I really hate this store, but I have to stop by every so often when I'm in La Crosse, Wisconsin. It's mostly what I think of as "Grandma" yarns - pastel acrylic blends, along with a few decent brands. What's weird is that all of the yarn is stuff you don't find elsewhere, but it's not good yarn, necessarily. I did find some skeins of Manos del Uruguay - three in navy, and one pretty colorway that I had admired previously - for 50% off. It may become a one-skein wonder for someone or other; either that or some form of outerwear.
WEBS (at Stitches Midwest) - Once again, a sample drew me into its web. This time it was Fleur, which I will be making in "Asters". Five balls are winging their way to me. I also bought a cone of alpaca/silk laceweight, in what they call "red," though it totally looks burnt orange to me. This will become the Flirty Ruffles shawl. On our first pass through, Matthew and I bought some sock yarn; he'll be making some socks.
Yarn Barn of Kansas (at Stitches) - Irrestistable Knits (for $10), Latvian Dreams (for $15! - and, my goodness, is this an awesome book!), and some DPNs for Matthew.
Shelridge Farm (at Stitches) - 2 skeins of fingering weight merino and the paradoxical mittens pattern.
Blue Moon Fiber Arts (at Stitches) - One skein of lightweight in Philosopher's Stone for me, and one skein of mediumweight in Covelight for a friend as payment for birdie-sitting.
Windy Valley Muskox (at Stitches) - A very cute sweater pattern ("Gracie Top") that they don't seem to have on their website. Also: the knowledge that musk ox are ornery.
This sock, which I'm knitting using handpainted yarn I obtained in a swap, kept me company in Chicago while I was honeymooning. It had a grand time going places such as the Adler Planetarium (the humans had a less thrilling time) and Navy Pier (where we all enjoyed a ride on the tall ship Windy. I like it, despite its silly-looking, ill-executed yarn-over short rows.
Stitches, in short.
I was terribly underwhelmed by Stitches Midwest. From the talk I heard ("Buy your tickets in advance to avoid lines" "It'll take you a day to go through the market!") I was expecting a heckuva lot more than I got. We were able to get in the market without any waiting whatsoever (honestly, it's more crowded at the Yarnover) and it took me less than two hours to see every booth. Well, not every. I skipped the booths that were simply yarn shops imported into the convention center, since most of them were full of novelty yarn or full of full-retail-price, I-can-find-it-anywhere yarn. It was a bit silly how generic some of the booths were; I think that in order to really make an impact, you need to impress people with the sheer size of your booth (i.e., WEBS or Yarn Barn of Kansas), bargains, or specialty.
The food at the convention was astronomically priced to the point of being totally unreasonable. I am a bit thrifty, and the prices everywhere I went in Chicago really, really annoyed me. I hate it when people take advantage of people attending attractions and events, especially when the products they're providing are subpar.
Adding to the disappointment was my inability to find Beth and her Stitches companions when it was time for our little meetup. This was mostly owing to the vast numbers of Beatlesfest attendees that were swarming the hotel where we were to meet. After a fairly disappointing day of shopping (of course, the disappointment didn't stop me from spending a nice chunk of change, though not more than I had planned to spend) and having to deal with oodles of people everywhere, I threw in the towel pretty quickly.
For those of you interested, here are some honeymoon photos.
Matthew and I really liked Chicago, and it wasn't at all what we expected (though I'm not sure what we expected, exactly). I hope we can return someday to visit things that aren't tourist attractions. I think we had the most fun when we were around "normal" people.
Tipper @ 6:09 PM * link
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Monday, August 14, 2006
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More wedding photos
Thank you all so much for your congratulations!
(Matthew also wanted me to make sure you knew that the dress is not what I created. I gave up on that, as it just wasn't working out and was causing far more stress than I could handle. I ended up finding that at Ann Taylor Loft and a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders.)
To see all of the photos we have uploaded (so far), visit my Flickr page.
Hula dog!
Actual knitting content to come!
Tipper @ 12:06 AM * link
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Sunday, August 06, 2006
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Officially hitched
Tipper @ 5:28 PM * link
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Wednesday, August 02, 2006
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Green.
I'm so envious of all of you and your beautiful projects - the lace, the spinning, the colorwork, the tweed, the sweaters and shawls and socks...! Not only do I lack time, I lack inspiration. This hasn't been a good year for my knitting.
My Lucky Clover cardigan still languishes at the first sleeve. I've made progress measured in rows, not inches. At this point, I wonder if I should continue, since I won't have it finished when I need it to be. (Although, the possibility of finishing while on my honeymoon and blocking it in our hotel bathroom has crossed my mind.)
What I really want to knit is something tweedy, cabled, and fast. Fall is fast approaching (can you believe it's already August?) and I want to greet it in style. A vest is in order. A vest or two. And I have this urge to knit lace, though a pattern escapes me; maybe I'll make another Madli shawl in the Polwarth laceweight from my stash that has been calling to me.
I will, though, feel very guilty if I don't pick up my Crichton cardigan immediately upon finishing the Lucky Clover one. It's sat unknit for too long, and since I always dreamt of entering it into the state fair, and the deadline is just far enough away to offer me hope (or, at least, the masochistic desire to meet that deadline), maybe that should be my next project. It is not an unappealing prospect; it is just old.
Speaking of green, Minnesota is covered in it. Our high temperatures (which I actually loved, as there was no humidity to speak of) have been washed away by torrents of rain, and now I'll have plenty of weeds to pull tomorrow in preparation for our reception on Saturday.
Five hours from now I'll be on vacation for over two weeks. Lordy, I need that. It's unfortunate that I can't spend the whole time home, alone, just me and my fiber. (But I suppose a honeymoon - and a visit to Stitches, where I hope to find SOME inspiration even if I can't afford to buy much of it - and a visit from family isn't so bad, either.)
Fifty-six hours from now, I'll be an old married woman.
(By the way, I lowered the price on the book. I need to get it out of here - so, heck, make me an offer! PayPal is preferred if you want it.)
I'd love to know: What is the most beautiful knit item you've seen lately?
Tipper @ 9:39 AM * link
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