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.

WiPing as Fast as I Can!

Hi there! Time for the one bit of weekly blog fodder I can count on in my exceptionally boring life!

Pavillion got a lot of good work Wed/Thu of last week. I’m a cable cross away from dividing for the neck, but I haven’t touched this since I got home (except for getting it out for its WiP Wednesday picture). I know I’ll get back to it soon, but the mojo is elsewhere at the moment.


After an exceptionally long hibernation, my gumdrop socks are back in the rotation as my primary knitting. Most of Bill’s female gameday workers made some kind of comment about the socks, and the TV talent for Friday’s rained out game asked WTF I was crocheting during the two-plus hours between when we were supposed to throw the first pitch and when we were officially rained out.


Of course, I corrected the boys in as smartass a fashion as possible, then explained what I was knitting. I learned long ago that if you’re knitting two of something and the first one is finished, keep that first one in your project bag. It helps the muggles figure out what the heck you’re talking about when they can see the finished first sock (or mitten or whatever).

Shortly after taking the above photos, I did a little more writing for pennies, then finished the heel turn on the sock you see above. I’m now back to the pattern and tapering away. If I remember correctly from Sock #1, this pair should fly from here.

More Tigger Travels

Roaming Tigger and I took a super fun trip last weekend. We got up well before the crack of dawn on Friday morning (I’m not kidding. 4:30 a.m.) and flew to Memphis. Got a rental car and drove down to Oxford, Miss.

Full disclosure here. I am extremely lame and didn’t manage to take any pictures of humans. Moron.

It was overcast the whole drive down and through most of the day. We were scheduled for a 7 p.m. first pitch at baseball. But then it started raining around 3:30 p.m.


Yeah. We got really used to that look. It rained off an on until about 9:15 p.m., when the game was officially postponed. It was coming down in sheets for a while. Fortunately, while we had lots and lots and lots of rain and thunder, we didn’t have any tornadoes.

On Saturday morning, Tigger and I were up earlier than our host (but not as early as his parents!) so we were nebby poked around a bit in the living room. Look who we found!

Do you see something familiar? How ‘bout now?

It’s the Christmas Hippopotamus! He lives in a place of honor on Bill’s entertainment center. Yay!

By the time the 3 pm game time (for a doubleheader. Yikes!) rolled around, we had nearly perfect weather. Tigger had his credential all ready to go and was psyched to get to work.


The press box has little bits of real estate shared among the Diamond Club area. Diamond Club tickets have many extra perks, including covered seats, an air-conditioned area, unlimited fountain drinks and a buffet meal. Since we were early for the game (!!!!), Tigger and I had plenty of time to check out all the amenities.


Have you ever seen such a swanky bathroom in a ballpark? Tigger hadn’t either. Tigger thought the sinks were plenty big enough for a bathtub for him!


There are great seats just outside of the glass, but you can watch batting practice or even the whole game from the tables in the Diamond Club. Tigger thinks there’s a great view from there!


You’ve seen Tigger with the logo on the tables before. They have high-top tables and regular ones, all with the logo on the top


There are tons of little lockers in the back part of the Diamond Club behind the broadcast booths. And when you come upstairs in the elevator, there are signs for when “Servicing” for the next game will be. I had to ask what that meant.


It means that Diamond Club people can stock their lockers with booze during that half-hour. No wonder Rebel baseball is so popular. There are 324 liquor lockers up there!

Since we knew we’d be booze-free for the duration of our stay, Tigger and I walked around a bit before Sunday’s game. There’s a nice little picnic area over behind the left field stands


And then we were ready for the Rebels to finish off the three-game sweep over LSU! Much fun was had by all, and since we got all three games in and they were all wins, RT and I are cleared for a return trip. Hooray!


We also spent some time at Bill’s house, and I got some great pictures of his dogs. The entire Flickr set is HERE. Meanwhile, here are some highlights.


Jackson is still Large and In Charge. He’s getting a little gray around his nose, but he’s still totally skinny, all legs, and pretty tolerant of the little hoodlum he shares the house with. What hoodlum, you ask?


That would be Peggy. You saw her when she first arrived in Oxford and was just a little bit of fluff. Now? She’s just full of personality and doesn’t do a very good job of sitting still for more than a few seconds at a time. Oh, and if you look at the post above and check the Flickr set, you'll see that some things just haven't changed.


But when it’s time for breakfast, she comes RUNNING. Thanks for bearing through the photos of my trip. I’ll have another whack of photos next week, when I get back from Maryland Sheep & Wool. Meanwhile, I have some stitching to get done. Have a great week!

The Hurrier I Go

It’s been a busy week here at chez DPUTiger. I’m doing my best to cram a five-day week into four days, since I’m skipping town super-early tomorrow morning. Which has me freaking out that the only way I'll be ready to leave is if I stay up all night. ACK!

Yesterday (Wednesday) was consumed by the write-for-pennies blog, a visit from the heat/AC folks to check out our air conditioner in preparation for summer, a trip to the gym and an evening with the Hurricane Knitters.

I did stop moving long enough to snap a few pictures of Pavillion at my starting point on Wednesday morning:


The back is finished and I'm through the ribbing on the front. Yay, progress!

I got through two more cable cross repeats at Hurricanes last night. Hopefully I’ll get a bit farther along tonight at the store, but this sweater is NOT making the trip. Trips call for projects that are compact and don’t have “at the same time” instructions. Since I’m three cable crosses from splitting for the neck of this sweater, it most certainly does not qualify as a travel project.

Expect to see socks around these parts next week. Pavillion will jump back into the rotation when I return home on Monday night.

Brittany Jumper

So my niece had a birthday. She turned 1 yesterday, but the big family bash was on Sunday at Klavon’s in Lawrenceville. (warning: link plays music. ::sigh::) By the way? If you are in Pittsburgh, visit the Strip District and want some ice cream, GO TO KLAVON’S. It’s a really neat store, everything in there is original, and the people who work there are excellent!

Anyhoo, I needed to make something for Ellie for her birthday. CelticQueen suggested a dress and Michelle at Bloomin specifically suggested the Brittany Jumper from Minnowknits, at which point I was off to the races.


This should have been a very simple knit. Cast on at the bottom edge. Work the lace pattern for about two inches, 6.5” of stockingette in the round, then knit the bodice. Well, I had to rip out the bottom of the dress when I was nearly two inches in because I had twisted the round and not noticed right away. I blame it on the fact that you start the lace pattern immediately from the cast-on round.


Once I re-started and managed to not twist my round, the lace pattern was simple and steamed out beautifully. As simple as the 1x1 ribbed bodice was, I had to knit the back three times to get it right. Pure user error. The pattern is fine. There is a picot crochet edging on the bodice. I took that in to Bloomin to get help from Sandy, and the next thing I knew, Sandy had finished all of it! Don’t worry. I’ll be doing “real” crochet before you know it. I promise!


The buttons were easy to attach and I got all the ends woven in on a Thursday night at the store, between helping other knitters with their projects. All in all, a simple knit that was extremely well-received by everyone in attendance at the party. Including the staff at Klavon's!

Brittany Jumper

Pattern: Brittany Jumper by Jil Eaton/Minnowknits
Size: 1 year
Yarn: Louet Gems Worsted
Color: Neptune
Amount: 2 skeins/350 yards
Needles: US 8/5.0mm KA Switch
Started: 31 March 2010
Finished: 6 April 2010
Mods: None

WiP Wedneday: Crappers!

I’ve been cranking on Pavillion.


But there’s a problem.

Can you see it there in the green box? Hang on, I'll get you a close-up.

Yeah. On Monday night, I was cabling along and realized that I had a 9-stitch cable block instead of a 10-stitch block. I tried to find a dropped stitch and I couldn’t. So I made a new stitch in the cross of the cable, checked that it was absolutely invisible, and went along on my merry way.

Last night, while counting stitches to make sure I was ready to move on to the next set of decreases, I discovered, to my horror, that one of the 8-stitch non-cabled stockingette stripes was a 9-stitch stripe.

See it now? Yeah ... what should I do?

I guess that’s where the missing stitch went. Crap.

It’s on the back of the sweater. Armpit-close. I’ll never see it while I’m wearing the sweater. I have to check the whole way across to find the problem. It’s going to take me a really long time to re-knit what I’d have to rip. And laddering that stitch down to make it a purl is going to be way more noticeable.

I think I’m going to ignore it.

What do YOU think I should do?

Another Wednesday, Another Boring Post!

Hi! My life is boring and I have no blog fodder. Well, I have a tiny bit. I finished the gift for my niece with an assist to Sandy at Bloomin, who helped me muchly with the picot crochet edging. A FO post for that one will be coming once I get the ends woven in and the buttons sewn on.

Which means I’ve gotten back to knitting Pavillion!


I finished the second sleeve during the early parts of the Duke/Butler game on Monday night and was on to the 2x2 ribbing of the back by the time things got really interesting. Which was perfect, because what’s better for tense knitting than a nice simple 2x2 rib?

I’m also hauling the gumdrop socks around. They have seen very little action since you last saw them at the end of January, but here’s a new photo anyway:


Yeah. Exciting stuff there. But still, I’m going to get going on these again so I can move onward and upward to a happier pair of socks. Hooray!

April? Really?

Yeah, I missed WiP Wednesday again. Had to write for a measly salary and work some softball yesterday, so I ran out of time. But hey! I can still show you what I’m working on, right?

Pavillion is moving along nicely



I am almost to the cap shaping on the second sleeve, but this project is going to snoozeville for a little while. I’ll get back to it very soon, but I need to put it aside for a bit in order to do some gift knitting.



At Knit Night at Bloomin last week, I was bemoaning the need to knit something for my niece for her first birthday. CelticQueen said to knit some kind of a dress and Michelle pointed out a store sample of the Brittany Jumper from Minnowknits. I grabbed some sale Louet Gems light worsted and got started.

Sadly, I struggled with the join on this dress and as we were nearing the end of Hurricane Knitters last night, I realized that I had twisted the damn thing. KnitNat helped me rip the damn thing out. I re-wound the yarn when I got home and got right back to work. I’m already back to where I was when I had to rip it out and I’m nearly to the 6.5” of stockingette in the round. Hopefully I’m correct that this project will start to zoom along and I’ll be back to Pavillion in short order.

Meanwhile, my favorite four-legged neighbor is enjoying our beautiful weather



Every time I go over to visit, I get the “dead dog” impersonation so she can convey her need to have her tummy scratched. Silly dog!