Black Cat Handspun and Fiber

Henry in Handknits

2009-02-06T10:19:00.004-05:00

Henry at 14 weeks in his handknit Kipling sweater (I'd link to the pattern, but the knitters blog is down) and Chucks crocheted by Miss Halloween!

YAWN!

Um, yeah...

2008-11-04T12:30:00.001-05:00

I've been busy:

Meet Henry Ryan, born Oct. 20, 2008 (2 weeks early) by c-section (not a choice, but not an emergency, either!), 6 lb. 14 oz., 20 inches, totally adorable!

Update Update Update!

2007-12-27T18:23:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas Everyone!

There's a big shop update! Lots of batts, and some destash stuff, too!

Remember, you can sign up for updates by entering your email address in the Notify graphic on the sidebar!

Oh, and did I finish Christmas knitting? The world will never know...ok, I'll tell ya soon!

What to Do?

2007-12-12T22:30:00.001-05:00

What to do with 200 yards of laceweight mohair yarn, handpainted (by Tamara at Houndscroft Farm)? Soooo purdy, soooooo tempting hanging out in my storage system (I'll have to post pics - it's just a cheapo plastic shoe holder hangy thing, but it's so pretty with yarn stuffed into it!) What to do, what to do?

(stolen from Tamara's shop site...hope she doesn't mind!)

When it Rains, it Pours

2007-12-04T14:39:00.000-05:00

Into my basement, apparently.

But before I recount my tale of woe, let me first say a huge THANK YOU to the fiber buddies and bloggers who stopped by to say "happy birthday". I appreciate it SO much, that my fibery friends popped on over! Thank you all! MWAH MWAH MWAH!

There was copious stash enhancement from the bday, of which I have yet to snap pics. There has been knitting. And spinning. I met my self-imposed quota of handspun yarn (30 skeins) and handcarded batts (10) for Craftland, and sent those little suckers out mid-November. Hopefully they'll earn me some cash, because I vowed to put half on the credit card and half aside for MDSW in May. I would love to be able to not worry about how much I'm spending for once (I'm a splurger, I admit!) It's not like I have to add to the already embarassing stash, but I can't resist the pretties! So now I'm knitting Christmas presents (Durrow for hubby - body's just about done, just need the sleeves; the children's cotton tape sweater from Mac & Me for the toddler - 4 inches of collar to knit, then I have to sew in the snap tape to the front and finis!), working on sleeve 2 of the Tangled Yoke cardi (can I finish it in time to wear it to the Christmas parties I have this month? Inquiring minds want to know!), and I just plied 4 oz. of wool/angora/mohair blend batts to knit myself a pair of thrummed mittens. Oh! And I am 81 rows into the Hemlock Ring Blanket from the uber-talented Jared! It's a fun knit, especially since the feather and fan section is just one lace row and 4 knit rows, which I can power through. Granted, I only have 344 stitches in each round so far, and you increase to 600 by the end, but so far, it's a great time! I will also be having a big shop update hopefully by the end of the week, with lots of batts and lots of destash fibers and yarns.

So, I bet you're dying to know about the basement comment, huh? Let's put it this way - I've emailed our realtor to take our house off the market, probably for the next several months. Yes, it's that bad. Like, I should probably sell off my entire stash and maybe a kidney bad. Friday morning I ran a load of Hurricane's laundry, and when I ran down to throw it in the dryer, there was water in the laundry room. Not a huge deal, from time to time the washing machine leaks a little. So I mopped all that up, and when I turned and looked into the half bath, it was full of water, too! That's never happened before, so I thought maybe it was the tub the washer drains into (because it's almost right up against the bathroom wall - I don't know! I was grasping at straws!) and not the washer. So I mopped THAT up, too, and decided no more laundry would be done the rest of the day (boo hoo!) The rest of the day was a normal day, no excessive use of water, but when I ran downstairs real quick around dinnertime, I slid halfway across the basement floor through an inch-deep puddle of water! That's NEVER a good sign. Panicking, I ran upstairs and called the hubby, who had just pulled up outside, and then ran downstairs to get our computer out of the inch of water it was standing in. The entire laundry room and half-bath were in at least an inch of water, and it had seeped through the drywalled wall from the bathroom into the rest of the basement (which, luckily, didn't have carpeting anymore, just tile that I worked for MONTHS to lay myself). There was a stream of water flowing from the base of the toilet where it meets the floor, so I turned it off at the wall - oh, and the toilet? You can lift it up right off the floor - the seal around the base is completely gone!

Hubby and I got to work trying to mop and dustpan the water up (A wetvac! A wetvac! My kingdom for a wetvac!) The in-laws came over with a 13-pack of paper towels and a couple more mops and started helping. I emptied my linen closet of towels, threw them down to try to sop up the water in the family room section of the basement while we dealt with the laundry room/half bath area. I took pics and called the insurance company. The claims adjuster called within 20 minutes, sent a general contractor to help clean up the rest of the water and dry things out (we gave up after getting the majority of the water up, and had dinner instead). They showed up by 8:30, three knights in shining armor, who lifted all the furniture down there onto little styrofoam blocks to dry, tore all the tile from the laundry room up, cut the drywall that had gotten soaked, tore up half the tile in the family room up, set up dehumidifiers and blowers to dry things out, and put down Microban to prevent mold. I dread seeing my electric bill this month, since there have been SIX big machines running down there day and night since Friday night - they pick them up tonight. I have 3 litter boxes in my freakin' kitchen, since we can't let the cats into the basement with the Microban down, and we haven't had any more than a rudimentary internet hookup as I piggyback off of some weird "default" signal.

Hubby's cousin is a plumber, so we had him come by Saturday and see what the problem was, since we were afraid to use the water in the house and have a possible repeat performance from earlier in the evening - we'd ended up sleeping at the in-laws' house Friday night. He poked around, and was able to recreate the flood on a minor scale by just flushing the toilet a few times and running water into the drainage tub for a few minutes. Yup, definitely a backup in the main line, but he doesn't have a snake to snake out the clog. We called a plumber who did, and who luckily was having a $99 special, even on the weekend, and he spent almost 2 hours in the basement digging around. Turns out he could only get maybe 10 feet down the pipe before he couldn't go any further, because the pipe is so overgrown with roots the smallest blade the plumber had couldn't even get through. No, really. And, remember how I said you could lift the toilet right off the floor? The plumber said that means this has happened before, and they took the toilet off to snake the pipe and just never resealed it. Which means the previous owner most likely had the same kind of problem, and DIDN'T DISCLOSE IT!!! But there's no way to prove that it happened on her watch (although, according to public records, she lived there for 9 years, so chances are good). Sooooo...to the tune of an estimated (*estimated*) $6500, we have to replace the pipe with the "pipe burst" technique. Because we're in a rowhome, they can't really dig a trench through the front lawn (a small thing to be thankful for, I guess) so they have to dig up my basement floor at the front of my house, dig up the sidewalk in front of my house, and thread the new pipe right through the old, terra cotta one. WHY TERRA COTTA?!?! Doesn't sound like the best material for a water pipe that runs through ground in an area that FREEZES!! Even I knew that after one winter where I left a terra cotta planter out, and it split and then leaked whenever I poured water into it all summer. Hello? Terra fucking cotta?!?! (c'mon, you're secretly amazed I got through all of that and only cursed once, aren't you? That's because I cursed SO much Friday morning mopping up the first leak, and then Friday evening - but add copious tears that I'm almost cursed out. Almost.)

FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK!! We have to take our house off the market, mostly to do the repairs, but also because our monthly budget can't handle a new expense like the financing of the great Alaskan pipeline in addition to a new mortgage. We're hoping to make it through the holidays by being conservative with our daily water use before we repair the pipe, because I sure as hell don't want a bunch of sweaty, burly men in my basement digging holes in everything during the holidays. What we're also hoping is that, by spring, the market will have picked up a bit and we can list our house at a slightly higher price in an effort to recoup the expense. How much do I not want to have to put $6500 (or more! Remember, it's an ESTIMATE) into a house we no longer want to live in, especially in a real estate market that probably won't support a listing price high enough to recoup our losses. Although, when we do relist, we'll have new flooring in the basement, and a brandy-spankin' new pipe that's guaranteed for 20 years for the next lucky schmuck who buys our house.

For never was a story of more woe than this of Amanda and her stupid fucking basement.

They say it's your birthday...

2007-11-12T17:36:00.000-05:00

Oh, wait, no, it's mine! A rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday" from the students in the writing center, an e-card from a great faculty member, a check from the in-laws, flowers from the 'rents (and a card is on its way, but after *gulp* 31 years, mother dearest still hasn't figured out there's no mail on my birthday!), Tori Amos in concert (back in October) from the hubby (along with a mysterious bag on the dining room table that I can't open because he's not home yet), and a free ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery's birthday club! Oh, wait, scratch that last one! The one Cold Stone near me (that I drove to first through rush-hour traffic because hello? FREE ice cream!? From Cold Stone?!?! On my birthday?!? Sign me up ASAP!) was closed for NO REASON. So I drove another 15 minutes to the one that's actually closest to my home and that one? Closed FOR GOOD. All I wanted was some free ice cream! Sheesh!

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear MEEEEEE, happy birthday to ME!

Quiz Junkie

2007-11-09T22:42:00.000-05:00

?? Which Of The Greek Gods Are You ??

Morpheus
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IK

2007-11-06T19:43:00.000-05:00

Anyone else completely underwhelmed with the new IK? I got mine in the mail the other day, and I am completely not impressed. It's like they shot their whole wad with the fall one, and they had nothing else decent for winter. I mean, I like three of the patterns, (the bag, the El Sol Pullover, and the Ivy League vest - and what's with the Jennifer Garner look-alike? She's adorable!) Oh, ok, and the gathered pullover, but I'd love to see Knitting Daily cover THAT one for a D-cup woman. There's just nothing there I neeeeeeeed to knit, not like in the fall issue. Oh, well, I guess they can't be spot-on all the time, huh?

Ha! Verification from the Quiz World!

2007-11-05T07:09:00.001-05:00

what gothic animal are you??
created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as black cat

you scored as a black cat. your dark and mysterious..you love witches..and magic..

black cat

100%

wolf

67%

bat

67%

panther

17%

What is it with Firefly?

2007-11-05T07:03:00.001-05:00

Which sci-fi crew would you best fit in with? (pics)
created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Serenity (Firefly)

You like to live your own way and don't enjoy when anyone but a friend tries to tell you should do different. Now if only the Reavers would quit trying to skin you.

Serenity (Firefly)

100%

Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica)

75%

Heart of Gold (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

63%

Deep Space Nine (Star Trek)

63%

Bebop (Cowboy Bebop)

63%

Babylon 5 (Babylon 5)

56%

Moya (Farscape)

50%

Millennium Falcon (Star Wars)

44%

FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files)

38%

SG-1 (Stargate)

31%

Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda)

25%

Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix)

13%

Enterprise D (Star Trek)

Another one bites the dust

2007-10-31T15:55:00.000-04:00

But there's knitting, at least!

Yup, another seller, another completely unreasonable expectation as to sale price. We put in an initial offer on a house that is an estate sale, has no mortgage, original owner, had a blank seller's disclosure, blah blah blah. It was a low offer, but then again, the house needs quite a bit of work. We figured we'd try to lowball by bidding about 10K less than we were willing to spend. The seller was "insulted" by our opening offer and countered with an offer only $2400 less than his asking price! Ok, fine, we came up another 7K (just below our final price, figuring if he countered with a more reasonable price, we could come up that last little bit). His counter? Only 3K less than his first counter. There is NO way this guy is going to meet us halfway. Or even close. I'm not even disappointed at this point, because I was totally not expecting this jerk to come down even close - and I knew if he did, that every repair that house would need before settlement would have been a catfight to get his help on. This is the THIRD unreasonable seller or realtor we've come across since we started looking back in AUGUST. It's getting old. Really, really old.

But there's knitting content at least! And fibery goodness!

These are socks in action that I knit for Ella out of Trekking XXL (colorway lots and LOTS of pink, damnit!). She likes them, and I have enough yarn left over to either knit another pair in the next couple of weeks when her huge feet get even bigger, or to knit myself a pair of footies.

And here's a hat I knit for a long lost friend I recently cyberstalked and finally got up the nerve to contact. He was impressed by the yarn and the knitting liberally sprinkled throughout everything I do, and asked for a hat. So I knit up some of my FAVORITE yarn into a soft squishy hat for him - it'll be winging its way to him by the end of the week (ignore me, I always look like a psycho in "self portraits"!).

And when all else fails, these pics warm the cockles of my heart (WTF is a cockle, anyway?!?!)

The best part? She did that with no prompting from me. Gotta love her!

Craftland Skein Count: 20 down, 10 to go (oh, and 9 of 10 batts, too!)

Wow...

2007-10-28T20:56:00.001-04:00

Ever see someone wearing a sweater that you could swear was handknit, only to find out it wasn't? I was at a Weight Watchers meeting this morning, knitting on a sock, and this older, very well-dressed and -coiffed woman came in wearing the most stunning sweater! It looked like it started in a circle along her one side, and the pattern circled out from there. It was a raglan with a ribbed collar (measuring less than an inch, I'd guess) and ribbed cuffs. And the color? Oh, the color was the best part! Predominantly a dusky lime green, with swaths of berry that slowly blended from the lime green, and then became the only color, and then blended back to the green. The yarn looked like a Noro yarn or something, rustic, not a solid green but flecked and just damned interesting. And the stripes CURVED off the main circular motif at her side. Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous. I asked her if she'd knit it, and she told me she wasn't talented enough to knit (a nice compliment, since I was knitting my vanilla stockinette sock at the time). I didn't have the nerve (or the thought, really) to ask her where she'd purchased it, and while I was DYING to pull out my cell phone and snap a pic, I didn't. Now I'm wishing I had. SUCH a gorgeous piece of work!

Soul Sucking...and a Meme!

2007-10-24T15:23:00.000-04:00

I swear, why do people bother to sell their house? We've only had our house on the market for a month, and what an entirely soul-sucking experience it's become. C'mon, people, what the fuck do you want from me? It's a ROWHOME. A great starter home, but after 5 years here with pets and a kid, there's NO MORE ROOM. What brings this on? Today my new realtor (yeah, we've already had to fire a realtor!) came by to take some new pics of the house, and gave me feedback from the showing Monday. The one where I had 90 minutes notice, and no hubby to help. I almost had a heart attack literally running around the house the entire 90 minutes trying to clean up. Even though the house has been cleaned and straightened almost every day, it took me 90 minutes at full speed to get everything done. AND pile a cranky toddler, 2 of the 4 cats, a 95 pound dog, and a screaming cockatiel into my overloaded Mazda and get over to my in-laws' house. And the feedback? The floors are gorgeous, and there's too much stuff in the house so it's hard to visualize it. That's from the realtor. Wow. Too much stuff, huh? Well, let's see, we have a 3 year old who has enough toys to support a FEW daycare centers, we have NO attic, NO garage, and a basement with only minimal storage. We already moved TONS of stuff to my in-laws' house and I have 2 contractor trash bags full of stuff over there for a yard sale, too. And my realtor told me to put pictures away and do things like clear off my fridge. My fridge is cleared of everything but my daughter's artwork, and there's NO FUCKING WAY IN HELL I'm taking that down. Spare me. If you can't visualize what the house would look like with your stuff in it because my daughter's artwork is on the FRIDGE, you're a retard, plain and simple. This house is spotless, and yes, there are a couple of toyboxes in the living room (but in corners) and yes, the smallest bedroom (seriously, it's 6x10 - more of a walk-in closet than a bedroom!) is full of fiber (all neatly stored in either cubbies or storage containers) but it's a ROWHOME. It's a big rectangle. That's it. There are no redeeming features, no special things about it. It's basically an apartment you can earn escrow on. That's it. Get the fuck over it. We've mostly had positive feedback - from the whopping 7 people who've been in the house - everyone loves the floors (damn straight they'd better!), mostly people think it's well-priced, someone didn't like the garden (it's been a very dry summer, so the garden's looking a little past it's prime - oh, wait, it's FALL! Of course it's past it's prime!), and I can't change how busy the street is, or the fact that it's a completely nondescript ROWHOME. Sheesh. And don't get me started on the house we've put an offer on and that asshole's idea of a counter-offer. Just. Don't.

So, on that note, Colleen tagged me for a meme. Here it is.

You have to open the book you're currently reading on page 161 and read the fifth sentence on the page, then think of 5 bloggers to tag with.

"These horses were all we knew and recognized because from time to time they'd wander together across the farm to the little wooded meadow at the southern boundary of St. Peter's domain and stick their heads inquisitively above the gate that backed onto Goldsmith Avenue, where the crap game I'd come upon was taking place."

From The Plot Against America by Phillip Roth. He's verbose, huh? Let's put it this way, that sentence? The fifth on the page? Started easily 3/4 of the way down the page. Great fucking book, though.

I'm not tagging anyone. Just consider Black Cat Handspun the blog where memes go to die.

There is knitting. And dyeing (check Colleen's blog for pics of the day - I forgot my camera). And spinning (for this year's Craftland - oooh, the suspense - can she spin 30 skeins of yarn and card 15 batts by mid-November?)

Edited to add: This, though, this makes me happy!

New Feature!

2007-10-24T07:47:00.001-04:00

FINALLY! I have a mailing list! Check out the sidebar for my NotifyList.com mailing list. Sign up for updates to my Etsy shop!

More later, promise!

Distraction

2007-10-10T09:54:00.000-04:00

You are Marianne Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility! You are impulsive, romantic, impatient, and perhaps a little to vocal in your honesty. You enjoy romantic poetry and novels, and play the pianoforte beautifully. To boot, your singing voice is captivating. You feel deeply, and love passionately.

(Romantic? Sometimes. Impatient? All the time. Captivating singing voice? Oy.)

Dyeing to Dye!

2007-10-03T08:59:00.000-04:00

So! Excited!

I got an email update from loop yesterday, and they are having a sock yarn dyeing class with Beth Casey of LORNA'S LACES! I LOVE LL! And I've been DYING to learn to dye sock yarn (ha ha, yes, pun intended), really dying to learn ANYTHING fiber related from a pro - be it spinning, dyeing, carding, what-have-you. I dropped a quick email to Col, figuring she'd like to get in on the fun, and figuring it would be nice to have a buddy to drive into the city with! I checked my email at work every two seconds until she emailed back, and was on the phone to the friendly ladies at loop in a flash when she emailed back to tell me she was in. For $24, you get TWO skeins of the LL base yarn, and the opportunity to spend 2 hours dyeing with Beth, and hear about how she started her business (the opportunity to pick the brain of a successful woman in the fiber biz is irresistible!) What's not to love? It'll be a nice diversion, too, from house-related things (we're having an open house on October 14, and probably a big yard sale with my in-laws October 21 - oh, and we got positive feedback from our first - and so far only - showing...house is priced well, shows nicely, and the buyer just wasn't interested because he just started house-hunting. Maybe he'll be back! And we're thinking of putting an offer in on a house we really love, but that's priced too high, in the hopes that the seller, after having had his house listed for almost 8 months with no offers - because it's really priced too high - will take ours - ha ha! And isn't this the longest parenthetical ever?), medical problems for both me and Hurricane (possibly serious for both of us, but hopefully not), and just the stress of being back at work - albeit part time.

Can't wait till October 20!

Update Schmup - oh, never mind!

2007-09-27T16:12:00.000-04:00

But there is a SHOP UPDATE!

Some batts have already sold, so get 'em while they're hot!

Hello, bandwagon?

Let me jump on ya!

This scarf (pattern by the loverly Domesticat) was one of the quickest knits evah! Well, for a scarf! I usually HATE knitting scarves because they take so damned long (well, unless they're out of super-bulky, super-soft handspun!) I started AND finished it Labor Day weekend (yeah, it's a long weekend, but still!) I used yarn from Spincycle Yarns, which is totally overpriced for a 2 oz., 120 yard skein, but their colorways are irresistible. See?

That's "Rusted Rainbow" on the top (100% merino) and "Off With Their Heads" (100% BFL) on the bottom. There are "moments" in this scarf that I'm not totally flipped on, where the colors just didn't play out the way I wanted, but overall? Thrilled! I'm definitely planning on knitting another one of these, maybe in my own handspun.

Speaking of my own handspun, I got into Craftland again this year! So if you're in the Providence, Rhode Island area this December, you can find my handspun yarns and handcarded batts for sale! Last year I made a pretty decent chunk of change, so I'm hoping to have a repeat of that!

Oh, and WE HAVE A SHOWING TOMORROW! Our FIRST ONE! So you can imagine how much I'm panicking (and procrastinating, because, hello? Should I really be blogging right now? Um, what do you think - 4 cats, 1 overlarge dog who sheds if you look at him funny, a toddler, and a preoccupied football coach for a husband - yeah, I should totally be tearing the house apart!)

ACK!

It's official

2007-09-22T10:42:00.000-04:00

We're for sale!

This is the "big" pic on our online real estate listing right now, since the realtor came at night and couldn't get a pic of the front of the house (but if you've seen one brick rowhome in this area, you've seen them all - well, except for the fact that my entire front lawn is a garden!) Mookie is the black cat on the couch with the creepy glowing eyes - he says "You WILL buy my house! You WILL buy my house!" Anyone interested in a 3 BR, 1.5 bath rowhome in a great neighborhood with new laminate flooring in the LR/DR, hardwood in the master bedroom, a full finished basement, central air, and a fenced-in yard? Anyone? Bueller? BUELLER?

Ahoy Mateys!

2007-09-20T10:25:00.000-04:00

ARRRRR!

My pirate name is:

Iron Anne Bonney

A pirate's life isn't easy; it takes a tough person. That's okay with you, though, since you a tough person. You can be a little bit unpredictable, but a pirate's life is far from full of certainties, so that fits in pretty well. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

DOUBLE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-09-11T21:14:00.000-04:00

Check it out!

A big MWAH and THANK YOU to the Lime n' Violet gals! Thanks SOOO much!

EEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-09-11T20:26:00.001-04:00

My Ravelry invite came today! YAY!!!!!! I thought it would never come!!! And the best part? I can access it at work!!!! WOOT!!!!

Errata?

2007-09-09T21:06:00.000-04:00

Anyone out there knitting IK's Tangled Yoke Cardi in the largest size? I am, and the pattern's confusing me. I finally finished all the decrease repeats in the ribbing section and I'm at the point where I'm not sure what to do. I have to repeat the decrease row every 8th row 4 times
(check!) and then every 6th row 0 times. HUH? And then work 2 rows even to complete the correct number of rows and have the correct number of stitches - which I have (after spending a good 45 minutes doing the math for EVERY size and checking numbers, because things were off in the beginning when I cast on and started knitting - by at least a couple of stitches). So do I just work 8 rows even and then start the St st? Am I just overthinking this? ACK!

RIP Madeleine L'Engle

2007-09-07T21:19:00.000-04:00

Madeleine L'Engle is dead at 88. I am so sad. Her books were some of my favorites growing up, especially A Wrinkle in Time. I read that book over and over again, pretty recently, too. Go, pick it up and read it - you'll be glad you did.

Update Schmupdate

2007-08-30T08:53:00.000-04:00

Took me a sec to figure out the spelling of "schmupdate", but I got it!

Sorry I haven't updated with pics of pretty socks, or, well, just about anything else. I spent last week in Florida visiting the parents one last time before starting work(!!!!). I just finished my first "week" - if a week can be considered as 8 hours, spread out over 2 days! It's nice, though, since I'm an "english aide" at the private prep school my hubby teaches at. I can see him during the day if I want, I know most of the faculty there already since he's been there for 9 years, and it's great to hear the kids talking literature most of the time! And what I really like is the writing center tends to attract the more artsy/litgeek kids, so I can relate a little better to them! Next week I work one full day and two half days, and then I'll be on my regular schedule of 2 full days a week. Luckily, Hurricane's been ok with me leaving so far, and my in-laws are watching her, so I don't have to leave her with strangers. I'm a lucky gal.

So, um, I promised socks, huh? Well, here ya go! Basic stockinette on 2 circs (have I said lately how much I LURVE socks on 2 circs? LURVE!), CO 64 stitches, eye of partridge heel, blahblahblah. Knit from Icicle yarn in Apple Crisp from Cider Moon. I love this yarn. So much so that, um, I tripped and bought more. THREE more. I have enough sock yarn to knit nothing but socks for the rest of my life - some day I'll flash the stash!

Here's a closeup of the eye of partridge heel:

Not the best pic, sorry! I was getting terrible shadowing on the bottom of the pic and had to crop it like crazy.

So, here's the stash enhancement. From left to right is Taos, June Carter, and Pandora Rose. Like the Apple Crisp, the photos just don't do these yarns justice. I just can't decide which to knit first!

In spinning news, I have donated 9 batts to Cara for Spin Out 2007. Raffle tickets are $10 each for some amazing prizes, and it benefits Heifer International! Go bid! Here's the batts I donated - they're mostly merino blends, verrrrry gorgeous! I stole this pic from Cara because mine had my fugly couch in the background...

And in other news, here's a little toot of my own horn (or would this be ANOTHER toot? Am I getting too tooty?) I was just contacted by someone from Lime n' Violet's Daily Chum Pages because my Etsy shop will be a featured Etsy Site of the Day some time this week! So cool! I love gettin' love from the Lime n' Violet girls! Yippee!! Guess that means my shop update should be today instead of next week!

So that's all I've got right now! There was vacation knitting - a sock for Hurricane in some adorable stripey Trekking XXL in pinks, about five inches of Durrow for the DH for Xmas (I'm knitting it in the Kathmandu Aran Tweed, in a lovely tweedy grey - any excuse to knit with this yarn!), and more on the ribbed bottom of Eunny's Tangled Yoke Cardi from IK - just one more decrease repeat and I can start the main body. Here's a parting shot:

I know, I know...

2007-08-09T19:58:00.000-04:00

I was supposed to have a picture of the completed Icicle sock, but I am sick and feeling poopy and didn't feel like getting the sock on, and finding good light, and actually bending over to take the pic (besides, bending over with the way my nose is running? Let's just say I wouldn't want boogers on my new sock!) So I didn't take the pic yet. Maybe over the weekend. Maybe I'll even have TWO socks to show you - not that I'm all that far along with the second sock, but a simple stockinette sock is just what my aching head, tired eyes, and dripping nose needs.

So, why am I taking time out of laying on the couch moaning to myself to blog? I wanted to give 2 thumbs up to Annie Modesitt and her latest book, "Romantic Hand Knits". I got the chance to peruse it at the bookstore, and while I'm not lining up to knit any skirts anytime soon, and while there were a few nose-wrinkle worthy patterns, I was THRILLED to see that so many of them went to 50" bust measurements OR HIGHER. That just ROCKS! To acknowledge that we "well-endowed" women like to dress a little sexy sometimes is just great! Thank you Annie!