Insaknity

“I” is for…

Invitation!

My friend Jasmine is getting married next weekend!   I’m really excited to attend the ceremony (I’m bummed that I have to miss the reception).  I’ve never been to an Indian wedding and I’m sure it will be lovely.

I can’t wait!

Pink?

Are you sure?

Such a shock.

Sunday morning, bright and early, seven knitters set forth to see the Harlot.

We also may also have done a wee bit of shopping…

(the Harlot Haul)

We saw friends:

Melody and her SIL Sarah.

We ate:

Herrell’s Ice Cream…yum! (yay!  another H!!)

There were sweet lil’ babies (well, one in particular. But, I am biased on this one):

Oh! And there was knitting:

 (l to r: nice lady whose name I can’t remember, me, Erin, and Heather)

All in all, a great time was had by all:

(l to r:  Jessica, Erin, and Dan) 

I told you I had a plan for H, didn’t I?

 Good Grief. (this counts for “G”, right?????  RIGHT??????);)I know, I spazzed and totally missed “G”, and now I’m already a day late for “H” to boot.At least I have a plan in place for “H”.See you soon! 

Never mind this week flying by, the past few weeks have been a total and complete blur. We’re gearing up for the “busy season” at the shop: weddings, proms, dances, and graduations, so there’s been lots going on down at the shop.

There has been some knitting though!

The Clap, she is finished.

Some minor color leakage issues with hank #2 of the BMFA Twisted (my fingers were turning purple), but Tina, sweetheart that she is, quickly responded to my plea for HELP and provided me with instructions on how to set the color again, and even offered to do it for me if I was afraid to do it myself. All I had to do was mail her my Clappy, and she’d take care of it and send it back. So nice of her, wasn’t it? But I just know she wanted my Clap for herself. No way, Jose!  This is MINE!

Ah - and that hot pink Blue Skies Alpacas Organic Cotton I bought back in March?

Well it did grow up to become a Baby Bobbie Bear.

Very cute, if I do say so myself.  (and no, one of the legs is not bigger than the other, just a weird angle or something!)

And the Green Tree Jacket?

Ribbit.

Enourmous doesn’t quite begin to describe how large this sweater was going to be. The size of it certainly explains the alarming rate at which I was chewing through balls of yarn. I mean, I know the balls are light on yardage (93 or 96 yards - something like that), but I was going through them cray-zee fast!

Here are the remains:

And yes, you see the beginnings of a new swatch sitting on top of the carnage. And I will need to go down TWO, yes TWO needles sizes. As soon as the yarn emerges from time out, I’ll cast on again.

There have been some minor stash enhancements:

2 hanks of Dream In Color Classy in the Dusky Aurora colorway. I keep taking it out to pet it. I’m having trouble finding a suitably gorgeous pattern to use if for…any suggestions?

And last but not least:

Some Rowan Damask, a really nice blend of viscose, linen, and acrylic.

It was begging to be knit into one of these:

A Dream Swatch head band thingy. Talk about an addictive pattern! Even with the fiddly crossover row, I have trouble putting it down!

That’s it for now!

Have a great day!

This is the first day that I haven’t felt ANY of the effects of the creeping crud that has had its grip on me in varying degrees for the better part of the past 2 weeks. This vessel of misery was definitely not your garden variety spring cold. It was bordering on a flu-like affliction that was sucking my very will to breathe/live/speak/work/knit/spin/sleep/BE. The exhaustion was unbearable. The death rattle that had taken up residence in my chest has finally moved out, taking with it the the majority of the remaining phlegm that this damn thing had poured into my respiratory system. My chapped, chafed, red nose was proof of the millions of honks I had to blow. The sheer volume of Puffs Plus I used is alarming. I’ve never blown my nose that much…EVER.

For much of the invasion/duration, I didn’t even have the will to knit. The little bit I DID knit, I probably shouldn’t have. Not only am I sure it’s riddled with germs, it needs to be frogged. Ribbit.

I did manage a couple of small, mindless FOs, though. Berets to be exact:

Beret Number 1:

4 ozs. of handspun wool blend in an unknown Spunky Eclectic colorway…

Size 10 needles, cast on 54 stitches (I think) or thereabouts (however many you need to go around your head), knit ribbing till sick of it (or 1.5 to 2 inches), increase a lot one in every other stitch all the way around (I may try increasing EVERY stitch next time…just for kicks), knit straight for a while 5 or 6 inches or so, decrease symmetrically down to around 8 or 10 stitches.

Voila.  A beret.

Beret Number 2:

Less than 1 ball of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Superchunky, on size (I think) 10.5 or 11s.

Same recipe as above.

Granted, one of them is too small for my melon (the handspun one), the other one is large enough, but it just doesn’t fit right.  Into the shop they go!

And now that I’m back amongst the living (at least physically) and the weather is improving (at least marginally), I have the best of intentions to get my shit together and do some spring cleaning. Both mentally and physically. I try my best to stay positive, but emotionally, I haven’t been in the most ideal of places for the past (many) months. I’m unhappy with myself, and I need to change that. I deserve to be happy, dammit!

I hope the Goodwill boxes are empty…I feel a purge coming on.   It’s funny.  Erin and I were just having a chat about purging a few minutes ago.  Though I’m not planning on purging the stash.  I have my limits.  =)

Fenway Park!

Americas oldest ball park, and the home of my beloved Red Sox.

We usually manage to get to a few games every year,  and sometimes I even luck out and manage to get in on a Sox pack and can see a Yankees game, too.  Always a good time!

But I usually end up sitting in a co-workers seats. He’s got a couple of pairs of sweet seats as a season ticket holder:

This is the view from one of his pairs. Truly fabulous seats behind home plate right at the edge of the screen. Beer, food, bathroom, and exit right at the top of the stairs. Aisle seats. The other pair is behind the home dugout.  Not too shabby.

The Green Monstah:

Truly awesome in its green-ness. I love watching my boys send ‘em soaring over the montsah.

Instead of Angels in the Outfield,

How about O’s in the Outfield? The Baltimore Orioles during warm ups last year.

The John Hancock Sign in Right-Center Field over the bleachers:

And, of course, the bleacher seats:

Getting their groove on to Sweet Caroline midway through the 8th inning. A Fenway tradition!

This little guy was sitting across the aisle from us at one of the games we went to last year.

He’s a cutie, huh?

And with that, I’m Finally caught up!!!!!!

Onto “G”…

is for EXCUSES:

Fucking Mice .

They stashed food (and pooped and god-only-knows-what-else) in my sweaters. 

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW 

This started a chain reaction of emptying the storage closet where my dresses, sweaters, and most of the stash lives, and a complete inventory of the stash was performed (insert scary music here).  I washed every last damned thing that was in the closet and that was not sealed in plastic.  Now I’m just waiting for the guy to come and find whatever holes they came in through and seal them shut so they can’t get back in there.

Thankfully, they didn’t get into the yarn or the fiber stash at all.   Ziploc bags and Rubbermaid bins are worth 10x their weight in gold, platinum, and silver.

Sorry if you’re a “friend” on Ravelry.  I’m (just about) done clogging up your Friends activity page now.  All that’s left to enter is some handspun and my fiber stash.  =)

So, while I was late for “E”, I think I had a damn good excuse. 

I feel a contest coming on, too. 

Have a great day!   

Every once in while, when 128 is looking remarkably like a parking lot,

I take the slow boat to China home. For me, that boat is otherwise known as Route 20.

Besides the quaint towns and nice scenery, there’s another good thing about going home that way: It takes me right by a fabulous little yarn shop named Knit Purl. It’s been open for 2 years now, and unfortunately I rarely make it over there. In fact, I hadn’t been there since shortly after their Grand Opening.

I have to say, I was incredibly surprised and deliriously happy and at home in this shop. I wasn’t immediately attacked to see if I needed help, and once I had been approached, they left me to my own devices without hovering, and when I did have a question or two, they were responsive and extremely pleasant and helpful.

I was impressed with the extensive selection (Ironstone, Berroco, Rowan, Schaefer, Prizm, Noro, Brown Sheep, blue sky, Debbie Bliss, NY Yarns, Tahki, DIC Smooshy…you get the idea!) and, amazingly enough, there were extensive quantities of all of them! Yes! I think I could have picked up a sweaters-worth in any ball of yarn I picked up! I was so happy because insufficient quantities is one of my biggest peeves with many LYS. I understand the issues that plague small businesses, I am one after all, but ordering single bags of 10 different yarns is far less effective, IMO, than ordering 2 bags each of 5 different kinds of yarn. At least with the latter, even if someone grabs 2 or 3 balls to make a scarf or mittens or what have you, you’ll still have enough in stock for an adult sweater. If you only got one bag, the person that wants to knit a sweater is SOL and will bring her business elsewhere.

Anyways, On this particular trip, I was thrilled to find two new (to me) yarns. One of which I had been wanting to try and the other was a completely new find for me!

The one I had been wanting to try was blue sky organic cotton. I’ve heard it feels like cashmere once knit and washed. I reserve my final judgment until I’ve knitted with it (I’m generally anti-cotton, FYI), but DAYUM! This stuff is SOFT!

It’s going to be knit into one of these:

The Baby Bobbi Bear from blue sky. I’m an occasional reader of the blue blog, and I happened to see hers a few days ago and was immediately smitten, then overcome with desire to make one. I had also heard so so many good things about the yarn and what better way to try it out than on a such a small, cute project?

My other find was this:

Lambs Pride in one of the new(ish), at least new to me, “swirls”. It’s a yummy blend of pinks that’s appropriately named Strawberry Smoothie.

I HAD to cast something with it right away, and I had stumbled across a cute hat “pattern” on Ravelry yesterday morning that seemed like it was a perfect match!

My head must be substantially larger than the girl that cooked up the “pattern” though. I had to re-work the numbers and add like, 12 stitches in order for it to fit my melon. AND she had NO GAUGE listed, AND I just couldn’t wrap my head around the way she had written the pattern up, so I’m basically winging it at this point and re-writing as I go using her notes and The Knitters Handy Book of Patterns  for general reference. (I gotta say it…HOW can you write a HAT pattern and not list gauge????) shrug

So all in all, it was a relaxing and enjoyable ride home. I may have to take that slow boat a bit more often!

Doors!

Back in October, right after I got my new DSLR, I spent a Sunday morning walking around my neighborhood (the first 6 pictures) and then I drove downtown and walked around down there.

When I was first unloading these pictures to my computer, I realized the theme I had unintentionally created, and I thought that a series of postcards, all of doorways in Worcester, could really be a nice addition for our stock of local merchandise. Especially since postcards featuring Worcester haven’t been easy for us to find for the shop!

(clicking will embiggen any picture)

The pictures above are all homes located on Massachusetts Avenue. Mass Ave. is part of Worcester’s historical district and features many old and beautiful homes. Once a year, usually in June, Preservation Worcester sponsors a “Tour of Gracious Homes” that opens many of these houses for public viewing.

Worcester Memorial Auditorium (also known as the Lincoln Memorial Auditorium), has long been shut down. It’s a grand, classic revival structure that was built in the 1930’s.

Bancroft Tower, built in 1900 to honor George Bancroft.

The old Worcester County Courthouse. Replaced in 2007 with a brand new structure 2 blocks up Main Street.

I hope you enjoyed my little tour of doors, and I hope you all have a great day!