Cattywampus

While I do refuse to stand in line at The Fold for things I can buy online at the same price, I do tend to wander past their booth at Maryland Sheep & Wool once the crowd has cleared. One of the skeins I picked up this year was a skein of Cattywampus in Socks that Rock Lightweight


I had noticed and admired this colorway when it popped up on BMFA’s site with the most recent batch of newbies.


I just like the color combination. I think it’s a very happy colorway.


Since they had decent stock of Twisted in Cattywampus, I came thisclose to purchasing two skeins of Twisted for another Shawl that Jazz, but I talked myself out of it. Too similar to the STJ I already made.


So I figured a single skein of lightweight was a good compromise. I had known going in that this was a colorway I’d purchase eventually. May as well avoid shipping charges, right?


I mean really. I was supposed to resist this colorway? I don’t think so.

Opinions, Please!

I am going to start working on Pavillion again, probably tonight, but I need something to take with me to Oklahoma City next week and the Women’s College World Series. Pavillion does NOT fit the bill for travel knitting.

The last two years, I’ve knit plain stockingette socks while watching softball championships, and those are two of my most-worn pairs of socks. You can see them HERE and HERE.

So here are a few options for what I will take with me to the WCWS next week:

Option #1:

STR-Lightweight in Cattywampus that I got in Maryland. But I kind of want to knit Everyone Outta the Pool with that skein, and I’m really in the mood for a basic ribbed leg on a sock.

Option #2

Cabin Cove Yankees sock yarn. Well-marinated in the stash. Would be a plain stockingette sock with a ribbed leg.

Option #3

Zen Yarn Garden in “Represent” which was Roxanne’s entry into the Dye for Glory contest last summer. Also for a plain stockingette sock.

So those are your options. Please help me decide!

Scylla Socks

My sock mojo is back. Hooray!

The yarn for these socks (and the pattern) took a little plane trip to Mississippi with me before they got started in the car on my way to Maryland Sheep & Wool on May 1.


I didn’t think my favorite toe (garter toe) would work well with this pattern, so the standard toe it was.

Toe pic!

As with the previous slip-stitch patterns I’ve done, the biggest challenge was judging where to start my Riverbed arch expansion. The instep and sole grow at drastically different rates, so I essentially measured to the middle. “Split the difference,” I’d say.


Riverbed heel. I did the foot over 66 stitches and the leg over 68, as it required a multiple of four. Easy peasy.


Looking at the pictures, I can’t believe how perfectly these socks match. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this level of matchy-ness in a variegated yarn. Neato!

Scylla Socks

Pattern: Scylla Socks by Fiona Lucas
Yarn: Socks that Rock Lightweight in Metamorphic
Needles: US 1.5/2.5mm Hiya Hiya 16” circs
Started: 1 May 2010
Finished: 24 May 2010
Mods: Stitch pattern plugged into Cat Bordhi’s Riverbed architectures from New Pathways for Sock Knitters.

More Jazz

I didn’t actually go to Maryland Sheep & Wool with a list, but I did have a few project ideas in mind. I was seriously considering Timpani from the latest Twist Collective. I think that the pattern needs a yarn like the one suggested from Green Mountain, but after checking out the yarn in person, I decided I didn’t really need to make that particular sweater.

But I digress.

I loved knitting my Shawl That Jazz so much that I had my eye out for yarn to knit that pattern again. On Saturday, I saw an amazing blue-black yarn in Brooks Farm Solana that quickly became a front-runner. But I didn’t buy immediately. And when I went back, it was gone!

This precipitated my first-ever foray into the Tess tent, and I came away empty-handed and not in any hurry to go back. Which took me back to Brooks Farm. Where I found this.


Meet three skeins of Brooks Farm Trio. Each skein is 420 yards of 70% wool, 20% alpaca and 10% silk.


It’s a lighter weight yarn than the Solana and the yardage per skein is higher, so this turned out to be a cheaper second Shawl That Jazz than if I had scored with the Solana, which was my original plan.


It’s the one yarn I bought in Maryland with a specific purpose. I have no idea when I’ll cast on, but this will become a Shawl That Jazz before too long. I’m looking forward to it!

Vertical and Breathing

Since my last post, I’ve primarily been sleeping and coughing. Fortunately, those things have been pretty mutually exclusive, so there’s a sliver of hope that this bug is on its way out.

Meanwhile, between waiting around for this and that on Tuesday and Hurricane Knitters last night (of course I went!), I’m nearly to the heel turn on my second Scylla sock.


And no, I still haven’t touched Pavillion. But I will. Soon.

A Totally Normal Tuesday

Except it wasn’t.

What did you do today?

I was here. Driving a car. In the motorcade. Yes, THAT motorcade. (as were my mom and a knitting buddy whose schedule was clear when I was asking vague questions last week)

Rumor has it that I’ll get a print of my (group) picture with 44 in the mail in the next few weeks. Meanwhile, Tigger was a little shy, but I can show you a few things that happened when I didn’t have to have both paws on the wheel.


Tigger and I drove a media van. “Camera 1” to be specific. We had lots of TV photographers and two official people from the plane with us, since we were the lead media van and had a brief part of the route at the venue where we weren’t following the leader.

While we were waiting for everyone to tour the V&M STAR plant, Tigger wanted his picture taken at the venue


After “The Remarks,” 44 did a little meet-and-greet with some factory staff. Look for the red collar on his black coat


Need a little more help? This is super-zoom on my point-and-shoot camera, so it’s not the greatest


And with that, my friend (yellow tie) who gave us this incredible opportunity shook hands with the guy in charge of the motorcade volunteers


And we were off. Back to the Air Force base and all of our passengers were gone faster than you would believe. A few more photos …

Yeah, It’s THAT plane. And it’s HUGE

Tigger is a camera hog

Buh-bye!

There are a couple more images HERE. They’re wire photos, but there’ pretty cool (I think). You can click around a bit if that suits your fancy.

And on that note, I am exhausted. And coughing. A lot. Here’s hoping that a good solid night’s sleep will solve both problems nicely.

Father Time

As I browsed my way through Maryland Sheep & Wool, I noticed the great big Three Irish Girls at the Cloverhill booth on Saturday. But in the same visual sweep I found Pam and Cristi, so I figured if I was meant to pick up some 3IG yarn, it would have to be there later.

It was.


The 3IG display at Cloverhill was much smaller on Sunday, but there was still a goodly amount to chose from


The Father Time colorway appealed to me, even though I didn’t distinctly remember it from the Dye for Glory contest, which isn’t surprising since I purchased it reskeined, which is very different visually from their Dye for Glory entry.


Of course, then I touched the yarn. The 80% merino/10% cashmere/10% nylon content is extremely soft and squooshy. And hey, 370 yards will make something.


I just don’t know what. ::sigh::

Taking a Sick Day

Yes, I’m late with WiP Wednesday, but I took a sick day today. My sinuses finally won the war yesterday – after about six weeks of allergy-induced uncomfortable, I had massive sinus headaches and was feeling generally yucky all last night. And how does an unemployed person take a sick day? I didn’t set the alarm clock and have done virtually nothing all day. I think the weather matched my mood, since it was overcast and drizzly all day.

But I did take a few minutes to snap a crappy photo of my Scylla sock:


See? Progress! Sock mojo is back!

I’m going to get back to Pavillion very soon, but I think Scylla is better hockey knitting for tonight. Let’s Go Pens!

Maryland Sheep & Wool

Sorry it has taken me a week to get around to telling you about Maryland. It has honestly taken this long for me to get caught up on my life after two straight weekends away from home! Yes, I got yarn, but I’ll dole that out in chunks as Fridays roll around. I promise I’ll even advance-post YPFs for when I’m in Oklahoma at the start of next month!

Tigger mostly hid in my bag trying to stay cool It wasn’t easy! But he did want to prove he came along, so here’s a picture of RT with some sheep

Baaaaa!!

Meanwhile, I did make a few non-yarn purchases and met some excellent people!

I started off the day running into Trillian42 (Pam) and Turtlegirl76 (Cristi) almost immediately and in almost exactly the same spot where I met up with them in the main barn last year. No, it wasn’t planned, but who am I to argue with fate?

After a few hours of walking around with them, I needed to find the one other contingent that I absolutely needed to find before it was time to leave the fairgrounds for the day to get lunch with my mom and aunt.

I still Plurk just about daily, and two of the crazies I enjoy the most came down from the NYC area for the festival!

HolyKnitballs (Sharon), Sairy (Sarah) and me

Sharon and Sairy were quite hilarious to cruise with while walking around the festival. I’m so glad I made sure to meet then and get to know them a little bit IRL when I had the chance. Maybe next year, Zarzuela will be able to come down with them!

As I’m quite certain you’ve heard from just about everyone who attended the festival, it was quite warm the entire weekend. Around 1 p.m., I checked in with my mom and aunt and we decided we’d scram and find a place to eat lunch in air conditioning. And then visit a few quilt shops. So I took my Plurk Peeps and headed off to find my first set of running buddies from the day.

Turtlegirl76 (Cristi) and me

I was not in “NEED PICTURES NAO” mode when I found Pam and Cristi (and their friend whose name I can NOT remember) in the morning. And if you go over to Cristi’s post about MDSW, you’ll notice that a goodly number of her people pictures are from that top-of-the-hill spot near Brooks Farm. I’d guess they were all taken within 10 minutes of the above picture of me with Cristi.

So yes, I hung out with Pam and her awesome hat (I’ll get back to that). I saw RosiG and met Bezzie (YAY!) but it was hotter than Hades and nobody was really in picture-wrangling mode, so I got the above picture and then left to go cool off, knowing that I’d be back the next day.

Yes, I bought some fabric on the trip. Hell, I bought fabric before we left the state of Pennsylvania, since we stopped by Sew Much Fun in McMurray because they were having a sale! After leaving the fairgrounds on Saturday, we trooped over to Mount Airy, Md., to visit a really good quilt store over there and I got a little batik. But fabric pictures are boring, so you’ll just have to trust me.

Aside from the STR that Celtic Queen picked up for me on Saturday, I actually didn’t buy anything at the show the first day. I figured there was nothing I really needed, so I’d just pick stuff up on Sunday. That plan turned out just fine.

I had been a good girl and applied plenty of sunscreen before heading into the fairgrounds on Saturday, so my winter-pasty-white arms and legs emerged unscathed from my hours on (what felt like) the surface of the sun. My face, however, was not so fortunate. I had been with Cristi and Pam when Pam bought her kick-ass hat (third picture down HERE). Since my aunt Suzie is a hat expert, I took her and my mom up to the Australian Shop tent first thing on Sunday morning and took a cue from Pam:


I love my hat and I wore it all day on Sunday to rave reviews. Until I got home and the Hubster asked me where my knife was and called me Crocodile Dundee. Oh well. He’s just jealous!

After years of listening to KnitNat rave about the honey that she purchases at the festival every year, I checked out the booth for The Bee Folks. Holy customer service! They give you a tiny spoon and let you taste every single honey they had in stock while telling you what that particular honey would be best used for, answered every question anyone could think of and made recommendations when asked. I came away with a jar of Wildflower honey (since that was the one I liked the best) and a bag of their lemon-honey candy. YUM!


I took my purchases out to the car and executed my planned meet-up with Makinika (aka “The Knitting Lady”) and KatieBell, who I had actually met on my very first trip to MDSW! A picture was taken, but not on my camera. You’ll just have to take my word for it. We left the fairgrounds around 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, hot and happy, having enjoyed another festival weekend.

Oh, and Derf wants you to know what his normal headwear is at the moment

Let’s Go Pens!

How Many Months …

… does it take to finish a pair of socks? In this case the answer is, apparently, FIVE. This may be a new record for me. I swear, it didn’t even take me this log to finish my first few pairs!

Full disclosure, I did knit an entire different pair of socks while these were in progress. Those were the Holiday Holidazed I knit for my sister-in-law for Christmas. But yeah. These socks were in progress for.ev.er.


I got this yarn and pattern from the July 2008 Rockin’ Sock Club. When I opened the package, I probably literally said “Crap. Pastels.” But I decided I was intrigued a bit by the Gumdrops pattern and the colors were just strong enough that I wasn't going to loathe them.

Cat Bordhi Riverbed architecture. Arch increases on the sole of the foot, New Pathways heel.

Then I saw Cristi’s Gumdrop Socks that she did for her sister. Toe-up, Riverbed, and she loved them. So I figured I’d take a hack.


Cristi got to put up with me while I brain-farted my way through getting started on the pattern. Fortunately, Teh Stoopid didn’t win and I was off to the races. Think Tortoise, not Hare.

This pair got bumped back up to the top of the rotation when I decided that Pavillion was inappropriate travel knitting for the Mississippi trip. Fortunately, they have rekindled my sock knitting mojo.

Toe pic!

There is certainly a rhythm to knitting this pattern. I may knit them again, someday.

Gumdrop Socks

Pattern: Gumdrop Socks by JC Briar (July 2008 Rockin’ Sock Club)
Yarn: Socks that Rock Lightweight, Goody Goody
Needles: US 1.5/2.5mm Hiya Hiya 16” circs
Started: 4 November 2009
Finished: 30 April 2010
Mods: Knit toe-up in Cat Bordhi’s Riverbed architecture from New Pathways for Sock Knitters. Assist from Cristi/Turtlegirl76 for her toe-up chart.

Rare Gems

Sorry I haven’t been feeding the blog. Two straight weekends away from home have required every thinking-required minute during the week to even pretend I am caught up. Which I finally am. I think.

So to prove that I am still sneezing and wheezing (holy cow, allergy season has GOT to finish up soooooon!) and since I still have 52 minutes of Friday left, I now present to you a little Yarn Pr0n Friday.

Last weekend’s trip was to Maryland Sheep & Wool. I didn’t get a ton of yarn, but I did get some. Oh, and I had good friends to enable me. CelticQueen gave me advance notice that she planned to stand in line at The Fold for potential Rare Gems. And she was kind enough to snag one for me!



This means that I now have STR Rare Gems skeins in Lightweight, Mediumweight and Heavyweight!



This particular skein is Heavyweight



And while the Rare Gems I purchased from the New Year’s Eve online sale are nice, none of those skeins hold a candle to the ones that were selected for me by my friends.



Obviously, it must not be very hard to figure out what colors are going to appeal to me. Turtlegirl (Sock Summit), KnitNat (Rhinebeck ’09) and CelticQueen (MDSW ’10) have all picked total winners.

I have no idea what this skein of Heavyweight will eventually become, but I know I’m gonna love it.