9 out of 10 Jane's Agree

SnB on Tuesday nights can be quite entertaining at times. We had a decent-sized group there last night and I was able to finish the second sleeve for the Marissa sweater. I'm hoping to get it all seemed up tonight. I don't know if it'll be warm enough to wear it tomorrow since it went and turned cold again, but if it is and I finish the seeming, I'll be wearing it for sure.

Ann asked us last night to make some squares for an afghan she's putting together to raffle off. I grabbed the ball of blue Cascade 220 superwash and will be making one of those. I have to do a couple of dishcloths first though since my great-grandmother wants six of them. I already have 2, but knitting 4 more won't be too terribly hard.

I'm still kindling too. The scroll feature is wonderful for knitting and reading at the same time!

Knit on...

Inspiration from Panera

Renee, Kim, and I went out to Panera last night for dinner, knitting, and general poking fun of all the sorority girls who were cramming for finals in a crowded, loud place. I never understood that since I need at least controlled quiet in order to study. It was a good evening and it inspired Sweeperman part 2, finishing a sweater sleeve, and a few other writing and knitting things.

Anyways, here's the finished sleeve:I mentioned yesterday that I would be giving a Kindle full-review here today. So, here goes:

The Kindle is a bit pricey and this is my one big minus against the unit. It's 400 bucks. For your 400 bucks, you get the Kindle, the carrying case, charger, and USB cord. The case is OK, but I don't feel like it's quite secure enough for my 400 dollar baby, so whenever I show it to people, I generally take it out of the case so that it doesn't fall out on them while they are holding it over a floor.

As far as specs go, the thing can hold 200 normal sized books on just its base memory. I found that loading a bunch of books on the base memory that are picture-heavy slows the unit down quite a bit, so it's better to go ahead and get a memory card (SD slot) and put the books on there. It takes between 1-2 seconds to turn a page on the Kindle unless it involves pictures. If there's a picture on there, it's going to take a while to load. This is my biggest pet peeve about the Kindle, but it's not unbearable.

Small knitting charts show up well on the Kindle if they have been converted to Mobipocket. It's a free software to download, so it's not difficult to change it over. The Kindle does have a picture browser on it as well, so you could always save smaller charts to a jpeg and have them show up as well.

Overall, the Kindle is a very nice product. If you're not planning on being overseas for a while like I am, it might be worth waiting to see if they work out some of the bugs in the next generation. If you can't wait though, you won't be disappointed. It's well worth it and I keep unlocking some of the easter egg features each day. So far I've unlocked GPS, Minesweeper, and thanks to Ravelry, the scroll feature so now I can knit and read at the same time.

Knit on...

A Weekend of Pretty Days and Not Much Knitting

This weekend, the weather was entirely too pretty. It was so nice in fact, that after seven years of having no desire to throw a softball again, I actually picked up a ball and my glove and made a fool of myself by trying to pitch at one of the local softball fields. I sucked arse, but I was at least entertaining to watch if anyone was even paying attention. I did take great solace in that by the end of my hour of throwing the ball against the fence, I was already throwing more accurately than the 16 and under division pitchers on the field next to me who were playing in a league. Take that, kids... :oP

I also did some spinning this weekend for Jessi, but forgot to take a picture of what I've spun up so far. She picked up some superwash merino off Etsy and asked if I'd be willing to spin up some sock yarn for her. I'll never turn down the chance to play with more roving and try something new, so I started spinning it up yesterday. I got through about a third of a bobbin yesterday and I'm hoping to do a little more today as well.

I did actually work a tiny little bit on the sweater, but since I spent so much time outside on Saturday and then was sore as hell yesterday, I didn't get much done. Here's what I have so far:Sorry for the super dark picture. I took it at 6:30 this morning while grumbling that it was entirely too early to be going to work again.

Also, to answer a few comment questions...

The bunny slippers came from ThinkGeek. It's a catalogue of all kinds of fun, geeky things and very much worth checking out.

As far as the kindle goes, I have been reading:

Reffein's Choice-free fantasy book from Tor and quite good I might add.
Brave New World-I read this book at least once a year anyways!
Darkness and Light-A rather steamy romance novel my great-grandmother accidentally purchased.

There's a lot of other stuff on my kindle right now, but I finished Darkness and Light, am 3/4 of the way done with Choice and on the second chapter of Brave New World. I'll try to start keeping a running tab of what all I'm reading and what not. Also, I hope to have a full-fledged kindle review tomorrow with all my likes and dislikes about the device.

Knit on...

Finished the Back

I finished the back of the sweater last night and will cast on for the sleeves tonight. I also finished a book on my Kindle and read more on a second one, so God help me, I'm addicted. I love the NowNow feature as well. Oh, and you can put PDF knitting patterns on it. Yeah, I need to buy Amazon stock :oP

Anyways, sorry I don't have any pictures today. I completely forgot to charge my camera last night and since it won't turn on without a battery working, I guess I can't take any pictures. I'll hopefully have a finished sweater to show you on Monday. If it's not finished, it'll be pretty darned close to being done anyways.

Knit on...

I Thought I Read a Lot Before...

Yeah, the kindle has taken over. I read a lot anyways, but I've read a ton in the past two days of owning the little sucker. I need to force myself to quit reading at night since I have been staying up entirely too late in order to read more. Anyways...

I did do some knitting last night with Renee and SB at Starbucks. I almost finished the back of the sweater, but stupid me forgot to put yarn in the knitting bag, so I ran out about 1/2 inch from being done. Oh well. I'll finish it today at lunch if I don't mess with the Kindle some more...

Knit on...

I Can Haz Kindle? And Reason #5,987 that Mom is Cool

Yes, I can. My Kindle came yesterday and it was ready to be played with as soon as it was taken out of the box. I played a little with it last night and wirelessly downloaded a book and about 100 sample chapters to the device. I love the screen and it was really nice when I finally laid down to go to bed. Fit perfectly in one hand and controlling the buttons wasn't bad. I'm not thrilled with the case it came with, but that's not a big deal.

Anyways, Mom sent me a present in the mail yesterday too. I got home and saw the Amazon box I was expecting, but then there was also this huge box. It contained these:Aww, little fluffy bunny slippers! Oh, wait, these aren't the friendly kind:Yep, Monty Python Killer Rabbit slippers. And behold my purple nightgown in all its glory! :oP

I went to SnB last night and got some armhole decreases done on the sweater back. I should be done with the back of it tonight so I can work on the sleeves the next few days. I still want to be done with the sweater by this weekend, but the new Kindle may put a damper on this. We'll see!

Knit on...

I'm like a kid waiting for Christmas

My Kindle has shipped and will be in my hands sometime today. I'm rather excited that it's on the way and that I will soon have it. I had canceled my order for the device back when it was so back ordered that who knew when they were going to ship. When I popped on Amazon yesterday and saw that Kindles were in stock and ready to ship, I jumped on it and bought the little pricey device. I knew that I really wanted one before I went over to Korea since I read a lot anyways and can't really take a ton of books with me since I need to take other things like yarn and clothing :oP

I worked some more on the shirt back, but didn't get as much done as I had hoped last night. I ended up going over to Erica's since she may not be home on Thursday when we normally hang out. I'll get some more done on the shirt back tonight at SnB, that is if I'm not playing with my new toy.

I'll be tracking the package all day I think :oP

Knit on...

Spinning Lessons and Knitting

So this weekend I went over to Kathy's and gave her a spinning lesson on the wheel since she had never spun on a wheel before. I think she now understands why I wouldn't let her use the wheel until she was starting to get the hang of a spindle. She started to get the hang of the wheel towards the end of the lesson, so she was getting it at least. I did some spinning this weekend too and finished this:375 yards of sport weight shetland/angora blend. It came out really soft after it was washed. I think this will become a pair of mittens for sure, maybe more depending on how much is left over. I also worked on the back of the sweater. It's almost to the armhole decreases. I'm hoping to be close to being done with it tonight so that I can get the sleeves done this week and have a new shirt by the weekend.Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Knit on...

Earthquake!

Yeah, that's right. We had an earthquake...well, Illinois had an earthquake, but courtesy of our nice lime formations and stuff, you could feel it here apparently. Louisville actually got some damage. I personally did not feel anything, but I did wake up at the time it was supposedly happening here in Lexington. It was a 5.4, so not too shabby, but not enough to do any major damage. Since I work as a geotech, here's our seismic line from Lexington where we recorded the quake:Gee, where's the earthquake on the seismic line? :oP

I also knit last night, so here's a really crappy picture of the back of the Marissa sweater:I really need to take better pictures of my knitting! Anyways, I'm probably going to go watch the ponies run this afternoon since it's supposed to be such a nice day and everything. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Knit on...

Headaches...must mean Spring is here...

I go through this every Spring. The weather turns nice, the bids are chirping, stuff is blooming, and I'm at home under the covers with a migraine that sucks arse. Today was one of those days. Thankfully, I have discovered a means to get rid of said migraine with tylenol and extra sleep. So, I'm finally in to work now, but I'll have to make up time. Joy.

Anyways, I finished the secret project last night and now have to write up the pattern and get it to them by tomorrow. I still have to add decorations to the finished thing and that might take more time than anything else. I'm definitely much better at freeform crochet (see Beholder) than I am at freeform knitting. I could probably spend a bunch more time on this project, but I'm not going to. I know they want to get this show on the road and I'm dealing with preparations for finally making the potential move overseas.

I'll have actual knitting content on here tomorrow, I promise. I'll finally work on my sweater back tonight and maybe tomorrow. It's supposed to be such a nice day tomorrow that I might see if my grandparents are open to the idea of hitting Keeneland for the afternoon. We'll see.

Knit on...

Spindles Need Weight

Yesterday at lunch, I was helping Kathy out with her spinning since I'm definitely back in the spinning groove after the Fiber Event. Kathy was having a hard time with her spindling, and once I tried it, I was having a hell of a time too. Then we compared weights on the spindles we were using. Hers was way too light and wouldn't spin longer than about 3 turns before it would just be hanging there. I gave her my spindle to try out and she immediately got the hang of it. Today at lunch, I'm taking her to ReBelle to look at their spindles and to see if she likes the Ashford or the ones they carry better.

Last night at SnB, I worked on the secret project again. I'm pretty close to finishing it now, so hopefully it will be done tonight. I still can't show any pictures of it until the event starts, so sorry for the pictureless post today. Hopefully tomorrow I'll at least be able to show some spinning progress or some work on the sweater back.

Knit on...

Insert Decent Title Here

Yeah, I can't think of a good title for today, so that's what you get for now. I'm dragging this morning for some reason, so hopefully a good cup of coffee or tea will start waking me up here. I did do some knitting last night though. I finished the front of my shirt:Sorry for the terrible picture. I also worked some on a new secret project. I'm having to design something for a competition that is coming up, but can't give any design hints about it until it actually hits. Hopefully said project will be done today sometime or tomorrow at the latest so it can be sent off and tested by the people in charge.

I also did some spinning this weekend:Roving from Insubordiknit in the Drunken Sunset colorway. It's a Lincoln/Merino cross and it spun up rather nicely. I have about 200+ yards of the stuff now.

That's it for today. Hopefully I'll have more stuff to show you tomorrow.

Knit on...

Monday Massive Post

Ok, so this is going to be a massive post. I had a great time this weekend at The Fiber Event at Greencastle, Indiana. Jane and I left after work on Friday and got caught in some massive traffic events on the way past Louisville. We did eventually make it to the Red Roof where she had made reservations and we sacked out, getting ready for the day's events the next day.

The first place we walked into at the event was one of three vendor halls.Yeah, this place was massive. The colors and people were just fascinating. Now, I've never been to a fiber event this large, and I know it doesn't compare to Maryland or anything like that, but for me, this was huge. Here's a few pictures of some of the colors:I was fascinated by all the colors. There were also lots of natural colors:There were animals:There was shopping too. Here's what I came home with from the event:
Gray Shetland/Angora blend roving. There was black too, but it has now been all spun up and I'm working on this now. I'll be plying them together.Midnight Tulip Alpaca/Angora/Romney blend. Love this stuff!6oz. Alpaca batt. Super soft.1oz. French Angora. I took an angora spinning class, so felt a need to obtain a little more to practice on.Silk Hankies. These are perfect for travel spinning and they lay flat, so no worries when they're in a suitcase.And a new spindle. There's actually two new spindles, but they look the exact same, only different sizes. Now I can take some spinning with me whenever I get to go over to Korea.

Well, that post took me over 45 minutes to write and load, so I better just end it there. I'll put a link to all the pictures I took from the weekend on the sidebar under the Vacation Photos link.

Knit on...

A Shearing Good Time

Yeah, so yesterday I was at an all-day meeting where there was no internet, no phones, and no fax (the latter proved to be really annoying when calling in the catering order), so in turn, no blog or email. The meeting went smoothly, aside from the lack of technological stuff working. I knit before anyone else showed up since I had arrived early to set up everything, only to find out that the guys out at the barn had set up early ahead of me. I finished the armhole decreases on the front panel of the Marissa shirt, but seeing as my camera is at home charging for this weekend right now, there's no pictures to prove this. I'll have a ton on Monday.

Why, you ask? Well, Jane and I are taking a little trip tonight and tomorrow. We're going to The Fiber Event in Greencastle, Indiana and we're taking a spinning angora class on Saturday. Since it's a good 4 hour drive, we figured we would go up tonight and just stay in Indianapolis and finish the extra 30 minutes on Saturday morning instead of trying to get up at an early hour and drive all of it in one day and then try to enjoy the fiber. This way we can spend more times in the wool fumes.

Hope everyone has a good weekend. I'll be back on Monday with hopefully lots of fiber-related pictures and videos and such.

Knit on...

Chugging Along

The Marissa sweater is just chugging right along. It's at 13 inches now, so just about time to do some armhole decreases. It's not the most photogenic piece this morning since I brought it to work to photograph under the flourescent lights and it really doesn't like those. See?It's looking nice, if not a little too big, but still nice. I'd rather have it be loose than too tight as of this point. Hopefully at lunch SnB, I'll be able to get some work done one it and start decreases for the arms.

Last night, I went and rescued Erica from her study friends. She was getting frustrated with them and they looked like they would never leave, so I went over there after work and soon after, the study people left. I didn't realize I have that effect on people when I want to, but hey, it seems like that could be a decent skill to have on some days :oP

On a personal note, I'm frustrated. I got the B vitamin thing all settled down now, but my weight jumped back up to where it was before I started being back on WW. The good news is that I look thinner because of all the exercise, but the weight issue is really starting to wear on me. I decided this morning that I'll try switching to the Core plan to see if that will maybe jump start things. It just gets rather frustrating when you're trying to be good and lose weight, but no matter what you do, no matter how well you stick to the program and exercise, the weight just keeps staring back at you every week when you weigh. Anyways, there's my personal rant for the day. Hopefully Core will give this weight loss a kick in the arse.

Knit on...

Spring is in the Air

You can definitely tell that we hit that random day when it suddenly feels like Spring. The robins are back, the rain has been, well, raining, and the flowers and trees are blooming like crazy. That, and the weather finally turned into non-frigid temperatures and has led to two beautiful days and today is supposed to be yet another nice day. It'll rain tomorrow. Anyways, one tradition I have every Spring, just about as soon as the weather and ground permits, I go and till up the ground in my little corner garden and plant some stuff. Now, I don't have much money right now since I've been sinking all of it to that last credit card (Friday next week, be prepared, there will be celebrating), but last night I went to Home Depot and picked up 26 bucks worth of flowers to plant out there. Here is the fruits of my labor:It doesn't look like much right now because it never really does until a few months later when all the little flowers take root and then go crazy courtesy of our earthworm friendly soil. I planted 6 mums on the border, 16 petunias, and three random flowers that kinda looked like snapdragons, but weren't, on the other side. Here's another view:I still need a few more flowers, but they'll have to wait until next paycheck. In the meantime, the ones I just planted can go to town and start budding out. I also knit last night:I'm just chugging along on this shirt. I like the diamond motif. I'll definitely need to go out and get a silk camisole or something to wear underneath so that I don't show people a little too much of me, but I'm really enjoying the pattern. It's Marissa from Hot Knits. Hopefully I'll work on it some more tonight and be done with two full diamond repeats. I also think the shirt is going to be too big, but I'd much rather that it be too big as of this point than two small. I can always wear it a little baggy.

Knit on...

A Very Long Post

Yep, today will be a very picture-filled post from this weekend. We'll start with Saturday first. Renee and I decided to hit a movie with Kim before heading over to the Harlot event that evening. We went to go see Run, Fat Boy, Run and it was very funny. Then we killed some time and headed over to the event. There were lots of people there, but blogger is not showing me the love this morning and it won't post pictures, so I'll add some later on when it decides to play nice again. (ETA: Now adding pictures) Ann, Katie, and baby Gretchen.Danger Heather!

I ended up doing some running around before the event because Jessi needed some help with the raffle tickets, so a bunch of us pitched in and did what we could. I got a lot of comments about the Kiri shawl too, which was rather entertaining. Finally, the talk began. I really should have brought my SLR with me to get better pictures...The talk was good, and knitters will take over the world was the gist of the thing. It was the first time I had ever heard her give a talk before, so that was fun. During the talk, I frogged the Dragon Shawl. I figured if I did it during the talk, I wouldn't curse, scream, or cry about how much work went into that stupid four inch triangle. I behaved myself and took a picture of the yarn with Stephanie when I went to get my books signed. I also started a couple of projects this weekend since I had finished Kiri and needed something to do. I also frogged Branching Out. I was really hating that scarf and instead of putting time and effort into a project I despise, I decided it was best to just get rid of it. I did start on Clessidra and got the ribbing done. I also started a generic sock. And then yesterday I cast on for a summer shirt that is from Hot KnitsAnd I made a chainmail necklace this weekend from a kit I picked up when Renee and I ran to Hobby Lobby:There's the weekend in a nutshell, now with the pictures.

Knit on...

And There Was Knitting

Thursdays are notoriously bad knitting nights for me since I go hang out with Erica, who while she tried to learn to knit, it never stuck. But last night I did actually get in a little bit of stitching while we watched some Battlestar Galactica reruns. I started the Branching Out scarf from Knitty and got three repeats done:Sorry for the horrible picture. It's raining and I'm listening to the water drip into the bucket just outside my cubicle, so good pictures are not high on my list of priorities right now. Here's a shot of the yarn I'm using:It's Classic Elite Alpaca Sox that was given to me by DKSWife on Ravelry for the 500 contest from the Christian Knitters group. Since it was feltable, I knew I didn't want to use it for socks, but the yarn was just too soft and dreamy not to use it for something. When I saw the KAL for April was going to be Branching Out, I thought that this would be a good use of the alpaca. The yarn really is a dream to work with too.

I probably would have never gone out and knit this pattern had it not been a KAL. I personally don't like lacy scarves that much, but I figure if nothing else, this will make a good Christmas present for someone. Might as well get some stuff done early this year (remind me of this when it's 2 weeks before Christmas and I'm trying to finish 5 sweaters or something).

This weekend, I'll be going to see the Yarn Harlot over at JoBeth. I'm looking forward to it since I've never actually heard her give her talk and have only been able to say hello to her for a very brief moment that involved me holding the traveling sock. Anyways, should be a fun weekend. I need to get some raffle tickets too for a very awesome basket of goodies that Jessi, ReBelle, and Magpie Yarn all put together. The proceeds go to Doctors Without Borders and the basket will be raffled on Saturday at the Harlot event. Tickets are just a buck, or 6 for 5 dollars. You can pick them up at ReBelle or Magpie, or just see Jessi the day of the event, which is what I'm doing since I had to wait until I got paid today to spend any money!

Knit on...

The Knitting Mojo Was Good Last Night

So last night, the knitting mojo was just great. I met Renee over at Starbucks and she got over 2 inches done on a new tank top, plus about the same on a sweater coat and I managed to finish a pair of socks. Prior to heading over there, I blocked Kiri as well. Before I get to that though, here's the finished socks:Sorry the picture is so dark. It was late last night and I was ready to go to sleep when I took this picture. I'll get better shots today when Erica tries them on. I'm just glad to be done with these.

Wait, how did more Lorna's Laces get into my stash yesterday? :oPSheesh, another really dark picture. It's the camoflauge colorway, so mostly green and black with a little brown thrown in there for good measure. Darned stuff just seems to find its way into my stash...

Ok, on to Kiri. I spent a good hour yesterday as soon as I got home from work blocking the shawl. It was fairly easy to block anyways, but it definitely grew a lot. Here's the finished shawl, all pinned out and drying:I don't think I could have asked for this shawl to have turned out any nicer. The wool is still a little scratchy feeling to me, but with it being a shawl, I really don't care that much. It still reminds me so much of a sunset. It's a great pattern, well worth knitting. If I could change anything at all, I would have gone up to a size 9 for the bind off so that it had more give to have a more pronounced scalloped edge on the shawl. I'm still thrilled though. Here's a shawl glamor shot:And the best part? I still have enough Kauni to make at least one more shawl. I'm thinking it would make a gorgeous Falling Leaves shawl. If nothing else, it'll be a good Christmas present knocked out of the way too.

Today, I'm casting on for Branching Out. It's the latest KAL of the month for me, so I'm looking forward to the lacy scarf. It'll probably wind up being someone's Christmas present too.

Knit on...

A New Day, and Time for Some Stalking

OK, so I woke up this morning and I feel like my normal self again. It's just been very weird to find myself so tired, depressed, and just not feeling like my head is quite there. It's nice to wake up this morning and feel like my brain is actually inside my skull again and not be crying about it :oP Anyways, I worked on the Kiri shawl last night and finished the edging rows. I didn't have time to bind off, but that will be happening today at lunch time SnB with Kim. Tonight I'll block the shawl and Kaye had a good idea about putting beads on the end of the edging to weight the shawl and to just add decoration, especially since she's on a bead kick right now. Considering the yarn was hers before the swap, I think I'll take the bead advice!

I didn't take a picture of the shawl since it looks like the same blob of pre-blocked lace that it did yesterday, only with one more little color added. So, I'll get pictures tonight while it's being blocked. I might even make myself work on Donegal again tonight since I've been meaning to work on it some more anyways. Wendy is working on another Starmore pattern that has the same kind of ribbing, and it's nice to know that I'm not the only one who thinks that the corrugated ribbing sucks arse.

This weekend though, I will be stalking a Harlot. I went on Sunday over to JoBeth and picked up this:Yep, it's the latest book. I've got all her other ones, but only Knit's End is signed since I sent that with Jane a couple of years ago, even though I did end up seeing her then. (Scroll down, I'm about half way down the post)

So the SnB is going to be at the Saturday event. I'm not sure what all the plans are yet, but I think there will be some stalking. It's only appropriate after all. And hey, I'm finally in town with nothing else planned, when Stephanie Pearl-McPhee decides to come to Kentucky. Year one, I had to get to the airport to pick up Grandma and last year I was at a photography competition with DF and his mom. This year, I'm going to actually hear her talk. And I'll try not to scare her with a giant camera lens like I did a couple of years ago.

Knit on...

ETA: I totally forgot to mention that I tried to go see Chelsea Clinton yesterday on campus. She was giving a talk over at the Student Center at 1, so Kathy and I headed over there and this was all we saw:She was in that room that everyone was staring at. Yeah, we didn't get in, so we headed back to work. Maybe next time...

Welcome to the Emotional Freak Show

Yeah, so I've had an interesting past few days. The medicine I'm on apparently drained my body of B vitamins, so on Friday, I had a breakdown, started taking B vitamins after visiting the doctor and finding out that's what it was. Saturday, I cried a little bit, plus took more B vitamins. Sunday, I lost it again and broke down and took more B vitamins. Yesterday, still feeling crappy, visited doctor, got a B vitamin shot and now feel like a totally different person. We'll see how I do this next week now that my vitamin levels are supposedly back in the semi normal range. Hopefully I'm done with the crying. I know it can't be good for my contacts anyways! :oP

I did do some knitting yesterday (not so much the days before that) and I'm on row 2 of 11 for the edging on the Kiri shawl. Here's a picture of the blob of Kauni:It really is looking much better than that in real life. It's just hard to stretch it out anymore since I don't have a 60 inch cable for the Options set yet.

And there is this certain matter of a contest that was going on for the past month. I told you all that DF was entering it and well, he won it. So, I decided to draw another name too since he doesn't knit :oP Janis, you're the winner! I know that you also spin, so just let me know if you'd rather have handspun yarn or roving instead. Congratulations to Janis and DF! :oP

Knit on...