What Do You Think?

Okay, this is Tempting thus far, at perhaps 17.5 inches in length, maybe 18. The pattern calls for it to be something like 21-22 inches, but I'm thinking I might not want it to be much longer. So I've posted a pic of it thus far, so let me know if you think I should keep knitting or what? It will need a ribbon, but for today I just wanted to see a)if it even fitted, and b) how it looked on, if it was long enough, etc.

That's all for now.

Where in the World Has Wanda Been?

It feels like it's been ages since I last blogged. You would think I would have all this free time to blog, but not really. I guess I have the time, but not the energy. I might spend time reading blogs in between looking for jobs while I'm at the computer, but that's through Bloglines, so not the same in creating a post.

The job search is still going, but not hearing anything back yet, which can kind of be a bit depressing, but I figure everyone doesn't move on "Wanda time", although I'm not really sure why! But I am taking some classes with the outplacement agency my former company partnered with today, so that's a positive thing and will make me feel a bit better. I was also working for 3 days full time at Eddie Bauer, my part-time job that I had, but in the Home store as it's going out of business. 8.5 hours days on my feet is not a good thing and boy was I tired, but it was good to get out of the house too.

Knitting-wise, my last post sounded as if I hadn't been knitting at all, which wasn't entirely true, but I guess if you don't post for 5 days, you have a little more time to actually get some knitting done. I did go to a knitting group on Saturday, in the a.m., didn't make it over to Miss Cynthia's as I had to work at the aforementioned Eddie Bauer that evening. I'm making great progress on the sock, almost to the toe decreases, so I'm happy to have that almost done, so I can get started on my sock pal socks. I'll have to post some pics, hopefully tomorrow, of which yarn to use and possibly sock patterns or just go with a stockinette sock with self-patterning yarn, hmm.

I do actually have some knitting pics today, so here's the sock:

I have to say for never doing any sort of pattern for a sock, other than just letting the self-patterning yarn do its thing, this was a fun pattern to do and I really love the yarn I'm working with too. It has subtle variegations of the brown yarn but it's working up wonderfully.

Me and Donna, which I absolutely *lurve* is moving right along. I have finished the front and am now working on both sleeves at the same time. I also decided to make the sleeves shorter, from 11.5 inches to 6.25. Quite a difference. One of my friends at Strawberry Tree (my LYS) helped me by figuring out the increases and changing my number of cast on stitched to make the pattern work. I'm very excited to be somewhere near finishing this thing in the next few weeks. Here's the front, in case you wanted to see it:







Tempting, oh how I don't love thee anymore. I did pick it up last night and knit a few rounds, but it looks like I've got at least 5 more to go. I will probably just sit down a couple of nights in a row with a movie and go to work on this thing. Although while we were watching some tv last night, I was getting into a rhythm, but this thing takes forever to grow. I swear it just eats yarn. Even if I watch say two movies for 2 hours each, I might get two inches total out of this thing. I have to just do nothing for the better part of a day to get 3-4 inches and by then my hands are aching, but I do want this thing to be through. The good thing about knitting in the round is that there aren't a ton of ends with pieces and nothing to seam up. Just finish attaching the sleeves to the piece and weave in the ends from the yarn. It is looking better:






It was good to get out with friends this weekend, that helped fuel my knitting desire again. I also completed my knitting inventory yesterday. While digging through the 3rd and final bin, I found some yarn that I'd been gifted with before that I picked up greedily at the time, but now realize I have no real use for this yarn and I don't plan on ever doing that much baby knitting with the same yarn, over and over again, so I've cleared it out of my stash. As well as more of the plastic Katia Sherry I have that I don't know what possessed me to ever buy. I think whenever one of the local yarn groups does a yarn swap or something I will take that yarn over and see who wants it. It's not bad stuff, I just don't want it. Especially as I looked over at 90% of my stash is stuff that I really love. There's other stuff, such as scraps, which are just there, but they do take up a little space and some baby yarns for all those folks that keep reproducing, so it's okay stuff there, but I'm not just all "up" in love with that.

Oh and for you blogger/blogspot users, did you notice that the upload image button is actually working and you don't have to do all the runaround stuff to get your pics in a post? Very nice, I'm just trying it out today for the first time. You do have to be careful when you upload it as it puts the picture at the top of the post, but you can cut and paste it to the spot where you want it. You gotta love the people that do this stuff, Blogger, Google, Hello and Picasa, it's pretty sweet for free. And if you people didn't know it, I love free!

A Little Clarification

Regarding Estes, it does look like my purchases were restrained and they were for me. However for my Secret Pal, I bought a few more items, I just can't post them on the blog as of yet.

Knitting-wise, I've been knitting but not that much. I worked on Donna last Friday and that's been about it for that project. I did pick up my blueberry waffle socks that had been lingering around for a bit. I got to a point where I needed to do all the heel stuff (working the heel flap, turning the heel and picking up stitches) that is usually not conducive to doing while knitting with friends, so I put it down and then kind of forgot about it for awhile.

Since I've been home (in my hot house with no A/C), I haven't felt like pulling out Donna and think I had some residual guilt about that sock, so I pulled it out and began working on the heel. I've finished all the stuff for the heel and actually done all of the decreases and am now just working on the foot. That's what I love about socks, their portability. I've been forced, er, watching the finals with the bf and have gotten to work on the socks quite a bit. Although Donna is lingering, I will probably pick her up today.

Tempting is not tempting me at all and for now, it's just sitting there. I will finish it because I've put this much work into it, but I'm not feeling the love.

Oh and regarding the Cotton-Ease hoarding behavior as of late, a la Cathi and Monica and Lynette, the sugarplum Cotton Ease was purchased last week at Hancock Fabrics, which mine was not even on sale. But then the two bags of Popsical Blue were bought at Tuesday Morning on Monday evening. (Sorry Michelle, I couldn't make it to Tuesday Morning on Monday morning, hehe!) And Stacey went hogwild over CE last weekend and I picked up some Cherry Red that she didn't want. The picture showed one bag, but I, in fact, have two bags of it too.

Following the lead of Julie, I've begun cataloguing my stash. It's actually something I've done a few times, but I always stall out on the data entry side. But seeing as how I have a little free time right now (ahem!), I figure I've got time to get my stash catalogued and entered in Excel as well as my books.

Cynthia told me that I have a large stash, which I don't think it's that bad. I mean, I only have 3 large tubs of the clear variety. However, as she mentioned, it doesn't sound bad until you start looking at what's all in them. And as I was cataloguing the 1st bin (please note: I haven't even gotten to the other two), that yeah, I have a butt-load of yarn. But I do love my stash.

And to make matters worse, my LYS was having a sale yesterday and I went to it. I actually only wanted to purchase an additional 5-6 balls of Mission Falls 1824 Wool in a mustard gold colorway. I'd purchased this yarn to make a lacy rib sweater from one of the Missions Falls books a few years ago and have enough yarn for me, but as I started swatching for it, I wasn't that enthused by this sweater. M keeps saying how he loves this color and I could always make one for him. Since I've promised him that I would make a sweater for him by this Christmas, I thought I'd get more of this color. But sadly they were out of the colorway, so I needed to find something else for him. I did find a nice merino wool in a mossy green color. I was attempting to get home and get it put away before he got there, but in typical fashion, that didn't happen. So, when he got home, I just showed it to him and he loved the color, which was good. Now I just need to find a pattern.

I'll try to have pics in the next post. I was just too lazy to bother today.

oops, I forgot to mention, while at my LYS, I ran into Cynthia and helped her shop for yarn, as well as seeing AmyB and her little sweetheart Edwin, who was not interested in meeting any of Mommy's friends! Stacey came by for moral support, but it didn't stop Cynthia's foray into the Dark side of Knittery (heh-heh!). We also saw Jon who was helping push the crack, er, yarn. He was also sporting the clean-shaven look and it looked good on you Jon.

Estes Weekend Recap

You know you're in for a good time when your evening starts like this:




When we arrived at Michelle's, a skein of Lorna's Laces was there to let us know we'd arrived at the right house. Michelle and Mr. Sittin' were great hosts. Mr. Sittin' made us many a margarita or poured wine if you preferred. We had lots of great snacks to nosh on and we twittered on until late into the night. We got to go through Michelle's stash, which is plentiful and lovely, and finally near 2 am we realized if we were going to get up at the butt-crack of dawn,we needed to get some sleep. Poor Stacey didn't get to stay over and had to drive back home, but amazingly, she did knit throughout the night. It was a first, truly!! :-0

The next a.m. after only a few hours of sleep, we headed out to Estes. I talked Cynthia into riding with me up to the Starbucks where we were meeting other friends, probably much to her dismay. We got to talking so much, we missed our turnoff and thankfully our friends waited for us while we took a back road and finally made it to the meeting place.

Once we got to Estes, the whole pack of ladies spread like wildfire. No one really stayed with anyone for long, just going from booth to booth checking out yarn. Lesley and I kept running into each other around the same booths for much of the day, it was pretty funny. While I had a great time at Estes, not too much yarn was actually purchased by me. I did buy some, but I realized later that the majority of things I purchased were for my Secret Pal, which was pretty fun to shop for.

Here's my sad little bounty from Estes (that I can show:)



At first my strategy (as if there was really one) was to walk around everything once and then go look at those places that really called to me. There was lots of rovings and fleece that I wasn't interested in, so much of that was easy to exclude. However, I passed one place,Yarn Today, that wasn't necessarily spectacular, they just carried Trekking sock yarn and I saw a pretty skein (pictured above)and I bought it. Then katty-korner from them, was Plain & Fancy Sheep & Wool.

I absolutely *heart* this vendor. They only do a few trade shows a year. They are located in Henderson, TX and have no website. They don't even take credit cards, just cash or check. But they have lots of variegated yarns, which I love, in sportweight and not as pricey as Brooks Farm, which I do like their yarns, but when I got to Plain & Fancy, I knew whatever I wanted, I needed to buy then. The good stuff doesn't stay long. I learned from experience at my first Estes 3 yrs. ago when we went up on a Sunday and there were only 1 or 2 items left in variegateds, not enough to make a garment with. But this year, I stopped myself from buying enough for a garment and actually bought the two skeins you see to make a Clapotis.

We took a break at one point for lunch and really just had a snack and then hit the market once more with a fierceness! On our way out, Cynthia got to pet a llama





and then we took a group shot:




By now, you probably already know who the regulars are, so I'll be lazy and not post them.


And just as a teaser:







Just take a guess as to when I got those?

Heading off for a Wild, Woolly Weekend

Not sure how wild it will be and even if it will be that Woolly, but I'm going to Estes tomorrow! I'm excited. I too will be a .

So cool, I'm pretty excited. Michelle is hosting the MHC Knitters at her house tonight for a knitty get-together as well as sleepover, if we like. As we will head out in the a.m. and meet other knitters that couldn't stay over at Starbucks and then onwards to Estes. This will be so much fun. I'm very excited. Oops, looks like I said that already.

That said, I almost decided against going. I felt like I just lost my job, so I really shouldn't be going to spend money on yarn. Although before I was laid-off, I planned on going but not spending too much anyway. M told me that knitting was something I loved and I should have fun. He also said that I knew I couldn't go too crazy, but I would probably spend something and just enjoy it. Since knitting brings me pleasure, I shouldn't feel guilty about it. That did it, and I decided to go ahead and go then. He's such a sweetie. I feel a little bit guilty about being gone tonight, but not bad enough that I won't do it! :-) He's such an understanding and supportive guy. (Awww!)

And lastly, I wanted to let all the Denver area knitters know, via the knitting drum signal






that Nik drummed up regardings sales.
A)I've heard on more than one blog that Tuesday morning has Cotton Ease on sale. I'll check it out after the weekend for sure.
B) Strawberry Tree will be having its annual summer solstice sale. On Tuesday, June 21st, from 4-7 p.m., there will be a sale for 35% off all non-sale yarns, including Garnstudio and other kits, books, needles and other accessories. Not to sound like an ad, but it's my favorite LYS and 35% is a great price. For summer yarns and any wool yarns and other stuff there!

Enjoy your weekend and happy knitting all!

Coming Up for Air

Hi all,
Thank you so much for your words of encouragement. I really appreciate it. Losing your job just sucks big-time. I've been trying to get over the shock and start looking for jobs. Also had to brush up on my resume. Thankfully, my knitting girlz were meeting up last Thursday, a good idea to get me out of the house and to stop being so morose.

It was great seeing everyone: Cyn, Michaele, Cathi, Libby, Stacey, Amy, etc. All of my pictures turned out pretty crappily, but if you check out Cathi's or Libby's blog, there are pics.

I was supposed to meet up with Joanne and some others this past Friday evening, but I just couldn't make it. I made myself leave the house during the day on Friday, went to an Einstein's and used their wi-fi to work on my resume while my DSL connection was down. Once I arrived home, I was so beat, I laid down and the next thing you know it was 6 p.m. And M's brother and his gf have been in town since Wednesday evening, so we were off to hang out with them. They leave late tonight for NYC, so maybe now my evenings can be my own again too. Although it was good to get out of the house.

I ran into Jon at my LYS this past Saturday and he asked me how much knitting time had I gotten in since I didn't have to report to work any longer. Sadly, not much has been done. Just getting over the shock led me to not knit much at all and then the rest of my time has been searching for jobs. I did get work on Donna some this weekend, now on to the raglan shaping and V-neck shaping.

Tempting is not tempting me much lately, but I do need to plug away on this so that I can soon be done.

However, we do have a FO in the house! The one-day poncho that I worked over Memorial Day weekend has been completed.

From this:



to finished poncho:






That's all for now.

Well I Had A Good Run

9.5 years at my company and today I was laid off. Business hasn't been great lately and there have been layoffs at my company and today I was impacted by that. 9 1/2 years that it feels like meant nothing. I don't guess it's all bad. I do have about 6 weeks of severance, so we'll see how it goes. They refer you to a placement company. I was holding up ok until coworkers (former?!) came by to offer their sympathies that I began to break down.

I have 10 days to find a job within the company or be off payroll and a month's pay after that. I know I need to hit the ground running, but today I'm going to mourn. Tomorrow will be another day.

Sockpal2-za joiner!

Just wanted to let you know, if you hadn't already joined Alison's Sockpal2-za and missed out the first time last week, here's your shot. Go to her site and click the link to join in. I'm in and can't wait! Someone to make me a pair of socks? How cool is that?! And so much fun to make them for someone else. Cyn, I think you should join too!

Later.

Promises, Promises and yet . .

So I kinda lied, not intentionally, but yet I did not post on Saturday with pics of a tank I finished last summer. It is made from Rowan Linen Print and the pattern I followed was from a Rowan Cotton Tape pattern. I got close to the gauge written for the "vest", which is what it was called, although it was a sleeveless v-neck tank in my opinion, and was modeled sans another shirt beneath the "vest". Anyhow, I worked diligently on this top last summer and I always have issues with Kim Hargreaves patterns, something with the neck split for Vnecks always seems to get me, the decorative way of decreasing always screws me up. Nonetheless I finished it, but by then the summer season was almost over and I sent it to my LYS to have the ends woven in and blocked and it was never worn. Once I got it home, I realized my armhole was lower on one side, dangerously so and the top was longer than I really wanted it.

I wore this top a few weeks ago with a camisole on so that I wouldn't flash half of my boob or bra on the too-low armhole. After wearing it, the top just grew and grew until it felt like a couple of other people could fit in with me and I was pretty dismayed. I decided that I would rip and reknit it, but it might not be on this summer's knitting lineup. I wanted to wash it, but was too lazy to handwash, so I threw it in the washer. Not such a good idea. When I took it out of the washer, the fabric felt hard and crunchy and I just knew it was ruined. Since I'd already messed up the garment and figured I might not even be able to rip it out, I'd just machine dry it and then see who it would fit. Turned out when it dried, it was softer than before and it had shrunk enough that it fit.

I wore the "shrunken" tank again this past Friday to work and now it fits. A little large, but it fits nice and I like it. The armhole is still a little low on one side, but not it's acceptable. Unfortunately neither of my pictures is all that great. My bf took them and one is a gratuitous boob shot he took, but it shows the colors very well, so I'm still including it. What's a little embarassment among friends?







and secondly another picture that's really for fit and form as opposed to color and knitted fabric,





So please pardon my goofy pics and my even more goofier-looking self, but those are the pics, and just the pics.

More knitting progress was made this weekend. Finally got the short-rows done this weekend at the LYS. I thought I would never get it right. I screwed it up 3 times and had to rip it back, but finally got it done(mostly) before I left and went home and finished the short rows and am on the right track.

While there (at the LYS), I did manage to find the perfect shade of taupe in a worsted weight yarn that I can use to make the One Skein Wonder. I was so excited and it was a yarn that was $3/ball, only needed two. Of course to make this stupid thing, I've bought 3 different colors of yarn and maybe spent $21 just buying all this different yarn, but I guess I will be making 3 of them. I bought some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino in a vanilla color, but I think now I will take it back and get a different color, something different than black and taupe, perhaps the teal or pink, just to not have only functional colors.

Tempting is moving along. I joined the sleeves to my knitting, but it doesn't look right. I will try and post a pic in another couple of days to show and see if it's right.

That's about all for today.

Happy knitting all.

It's Gon' Rain on Yo' Head

The status of our weather here in Denver lately has been cloudy, kind of fog-like and rain. Rain is good, rain is our friend. With our drought conditions, one mustn't complain about the rain, but yet, with the dark, gloomy clouds we've had all day today, it doesn't exactly seem like summer.

Nonetheless it's been all summer knitting all the time over here at WW. The Donna is still stalled, but I'm planning to stop in at the LYS tomorrow, where a friend is working so I can get help on the short rows. I'm not that good at learning from books. I'm much more of a visual learner. Show it to me, I get it. Those that can teach themselves to knit from books amaze me. I just look at it confused and then put it away.

However, since I've been picture-less for a few entries, here's pic of Donna stalled at the short-rowing for the front/bust for your viewing pleasure:





In case you were curious about the poncho, it's still not seamed up yet, but since I'm meeting up with Stacey and Cyn tonight at a coffeeshop for some knitting, hopefully I can ask Stacey for help on where and how to whipstitch the ends together, so it may be finished soon. Here's a pic of just the knitting, no finishing happening here (not yet, anyway).





Tempting, however, seems to be the only thing I am knitting on. Not that I've gotten all that much knitting done this week, but what little time I've had, I finally made it where I could put some sts on waste yarn and begin knitting the sleeves. I'm on the first sleeve now. Although the pattern calls for the sleeves to be 3 inches, at the size I'm knitting it, I decided I want the sleeve to be slightly longer. Not much, just making it 4 inches or maybe 4.5, just depends on how I feel when I get to 4 inches.






I'm gearing up to start the OSW courtesy of Glampyre pretty soon as I'm in desperate need of a shrug. I bought some cream-colored Debbie Bliss Cashmerino, although it seems to be really difficult to find taupe-colored yarn that goes with everything. Hopefully I can find some this weekend.

I have an interesting story to tell, maybe tomorrow about a summer tank I did last summer that I've just gotten to wear this summer for the first time. But I'll stretch that out for another entry, that I need to make this quick. And I took some more pictures, so I'll have a pic or two to post of me in it, too.

Happy weekend to all,
Wanda

Secret Pal 5 Questionnaire

Hmm, since I joined Secret Pal 5 and I have heard from my pal, I suppose I should send this thing in. Here goes nothing . .

1. Are you a yarn snob (do you prefer higher quality and/or natural fibers)? Do you avoid Red Heart and Lion Brand? Or is it all the same to you?
Some people take offense to the term yarn snob, but not me. I don't like going around saying I'm a snob, but I do prefer natural fibers. I love wool, mohair , not as much, alpaca, I adore, merino wool is wonderful. Angora is also nice. That said, I will use Encore for baby projects and I just bought some Bernat acrylic to make a baby sweater, so we'll see if I can stand the acrylic, but if it feels soft, I might be able to get over.

2. Do you spin? Crochet? No and no. No interest in spinning at all, they make such lovely yarn at the store. Small interest in crochet, but probably just enough for edgings and to one day make an afghan.


3. Do you have any allergies? (smoke, pets, fibers, perfume, etc.) No allergies, although I would prefer anything I receive to smell like smoke or pet fibers left behind. Don't mean to be picky, but I'm a non-smoker, so anything that smells like smoke is a big turn-off.


4. How long have you been knitting? 4+ years, still feel like I'm just an advanced beginner, but who knows what all the terms means. I've been finding myself slowly taking more leaps with knitting and trying more techniques, whereas before I was just doing the same thing and was pretty happy with it.


5. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list? Yep, right here



6. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products etc.) pear, honeysuckle, vanilla, lavender, some clean scents. i.e. rain or sky, but no food scents and nothing overtly floral


7. Do you have a sweet tooth? Unfortunately yes, love chocolate (milk or white are faves, although I do like dark chocolate, but no chocolate with fruit or fruity fillings), but really not too much candy and sweets as I am trying to cut back


8. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Nothing else, knitting is enough of an addiction


9. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
I don't know if my computer could play MP3s or not, so I'd probably say no. I have a wide range of musical tastes, R&B, neo-soul, jazz, latin and world music. There are other various artists I like here and there, but it's really too random to mention.

10. What's your favorite color? Or--do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer? Any colors you just can't stand? Purple is my all-time favorite color. I also love teal, turquoise, apple green, fuchsia, most bright colors bring out my dark skin tone. Pale colors and pastels are usually not my friend. I love chocolate brown but it does nothing for me as I am already chocolate, so that would probably be an avoid, as well as pastel colors. I really would not like putrid green, hunter green or dark fall-type colors as they are rather blah on me. Oh and I also love red and bright blues!


11. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets? I live with my SO Maurice, no kids and no pets. I'm not a pet kind of girl.


12. What are your life dreams? (really stretching it here, I know)


13. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? Probably merino wool or anything very soft and alpaca. Love, love, love it!


14. What fibers do you absolutely *not* like? I'm not really a huge fan of mohair. I love how it looks knitted up, but I find it hard to find mohair that is really soft and when I knit with it, I always gets bits of it left everywhere, on me, and in my mouth, yick.


15. What is/are your current knitting obsession/s? Currently, all knitting seems to be my obsession. Not a particular thing


16. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit? I guess my favorite items to knit are things for me! Gee, is that selfish or what? I knit for other people, but I love enhancing my closet with more knits. I love making sweaters and tanks (in the summer) and love knitting socks.


17. What are you knitting right now? Too much stuff, that's for sure. Tempting (a ribbed sweater with low neck and short sleeves), Donna (summery sweater with v-neck and ribbing around waist, v. cute), a summer poncho (well, that's all done with knitting), an errant pair of socks and have a couple more tanks in the queue, as well as a shrug


18. What do you think about ponchos? I don't think everyone should have a ton of them, but I do like them. I knit one this winter that I absolutely adore. Now that I just finished one for the summer, I might be good. But I might just make a different one using the Harlot's pattern, we shall see.


19. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Circs all the way, baby. Really can't stand straight needles at all. I fail to see the purpose.


20. Bamboo, aluminum, plastic? Aluminum Inox Express or Addi Turbos are the favored needles, Bamboo only when necessary and plastic, hmm, I guess if Pony Pearls count for dpns, love them for sock knitting


21. Are you a sock knitter? Yes and I have quite the sock stash to boot!


22. How did you learn to knit? classes at a yarn shop, which I found quite by accident


23. How old is your oldest UFO? About 2 years old (sad, but true) A pretty blue tank top


24. What is your favorite animated character or a favorite animal/bird? none


25. What is your favorite holiday? all of them, I love holidays. Well, okay, maybe not all of them, but Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving, my birthday (8/27) the best day ever! (I might be a little biased there!), I guess that's it.


26. Is there anything that you collect? Besides the yarn I horde and covet, hmm, books. I love to read and have tons and tons of books, as well as lots of CDs.


27. What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have? None currently, I let them lapse when I last moved, although I regularly pick up Interweave Knits and Vogue Knitting. I'm usually pretty happy with these, less so with Knitters, almost never with Knit 'N Style and Cast On, I almost never buy the last two.


28. Any books out there you are dying to get your hands on? Probably best to see the Amazon gift list for suggestions. I know when the new Sally Melville Book3 comes out, I will be all upon it.

That's all for now.