Guess what he got me for my birthday?

I’ve only been talking and nagging about it forever… I had no idea that memberships were closed, I thought it was a revolving thing and you just join whenever. I was sooooo disappointed to learn that whenever I went to the blue moon site. But then I checked the blog and it said that they had 20 memberships still open so I immediately told Michael about it and he signed me up for it!!! :) They’re going to be sending me the February kit soon and then the April one next week or so. So I’ll get TWO kits this month. I can hardly contain my excitement!!! Oh yeah, and they’re also restocking their medium weights on Friday!!!! I wonder if it will be like concert tickets where they will sell out in X hours. I am normally not a chevron scarf fan but I saw some pictures on flickr and now I want to make a ton of them, they are so pretty!

I frogged the pattern part of the Gothic Spire socks that I was knitting because I really didn’t like the way it was too tight with the yarn wraps. So it had bands of “tightness” and then regular the rest of the sock. It irritated me so much. I knitted maybe 2.5 pattern repeats, so it wasn’t that much to frog and I even considered just letting it go. But since I am doing this for someone else, I really don’t want to give them something that I knew I could’ve done better. So, frogged it down to the ribbing and started over. Last night and today I am almost back where I was (completed 2 pattern repeats), and it’s so much nicer now that I didn’t pull the yarn wraps tight. I am really happy that I decided to do it over. Also, this yarn doesn’t have any kind of pooling, no stripes, no real pattern, which is strange to me. Or maybe since the colors are similar, I can’t see it as well. Anyways, so if anyone out there is planning to cast on the Gothic Spire, remember to not pull the yarn wraps too tight!

I also got hooked on listening to Lime ‘n Violet’s podcast. I usually don’t listen to podcasts at all, but just out of curiosity, I downloaded the file. They are h.i.l.a.r.i.o.u.s!!! I really enjoyed listening to them talk about whatever and the stories are too funny. I got the serious urge to buy more yarn and it kinda made me crazy to buy EVERYTHING that they ooooohhhed and aaaaahed over. I thought it was just me doing this but I talked to d.knit at SNB today and she said that she had to stop listening to them because it made her go crazy with wanting to buy so much yarn. Wow, I’m glad it’s not just me!!! I guess when somebody talks about something and it’s like the best thing in the world, you just gotta have it. So, needless to say, I bought some Trekking XXL and some Fleece Artist. I still would like to buy some Socks that Rock (any color, they are all good), Mountain Colors, Colinette Jitterbug, and Cascade 220. My poor parents will have their suitcases full of yarn when they visit!!!

Now to the Secret Pal questions:
1) How old were you when you learned how to knit?
I was 20 years old and working for the Space Sciences Lab at UC Berkeley. I was just a lowly old “Principal Clerk” doing various administration tasks like answering phones, making copies, typing email, letters, faxes, etc. One of the women who worked there (Kath) was my idol. She was really smart and nice and worked her way into a programming job from an administrative position. She had 2 boys who were the most well behaved and smart boys I ever met, and basically I just wanted to be her. I tried my best. Now, 16 years later (gasp!) I also got a programming job at Microsoft, although now I’m a stay-at-home-mom of 2 year old twin BOYS! I don’t have her beautiful blond hair, blue eyes, fair skin, and thinness though. Damn. I hear cosmetic surgery is coming along though. Look at what they’ve done with Michael Jackson! ;)

Anyways, she brought in her knitting one day. I remember exactly what she was making. She was making afghan squares for a friend and it was of various San Francisco landmarks. I particularly remember one of the Golden Gate Bridge. I thought it was really neat and I liked watching her knit, it was mesmerising. Do I sound like a stalker yet?

That didn’t get me to start knitting though. Another day, she brought in some dishcloths or maybe I saw it at her house. I thought they were the coolest thing ever. I don’t know why. They were just dishcloths. She had a huge pile of them and she always gave them as Christmas presents. Well, that just made me squeal with delight and I immediately bought a book, yarn, needles, whatever and started to learn how to knit.

I got really serious about knitting then and hammered out a sweater in a week. I was quite impressed with myself. I still knit the dishcloths though and give them as Christmas presents. A lot of the people I knit them for usually has raggedy earlier versions of ones I gave them and felt too bad to ask for more. That makes me happy! I like useful knitting.

2) Who taught you?
You would think that my friend and idol Kath taught me. But really, I learned from a book. But Kath did correct some of my stitches. I was crossing some. I didn’t want to look like an idiot in front of my idol, so I had to teach myself.

Piece of Beauty yarn in Dark Matter and October Day colorways

Sushi kit from Pick up Sticks

Felting patterns from Pick up Sticks

I got more yarn from Piece of Beauty. Yeah, I know. I’m terrible! The yarn is on the expensive end but it is oh so soft! I also got some new felting patterns to try from Pick up Sticks. I also bought some sock yarn on ebay and wasn’t too thrilled about it. The colors were blah and the yarn itself wasn’t all that great.

I am still working on Bob’s socks, it’s coming along. I’m done with one side and almost done with the other (just the cuff left!). I should be done with it in a couple of days. My next project will be the Gothic Spire socks from CookieA. I broke down and bought the pattern. I’m going to knit it for my Secret Pal. I had problems printing it out so I emailed cookie and actually got a response from her! I thought I would get a generic email or from an assistant or something. She was really nice and it turned out that something is wrong with my Adobe Reader on that machine because I tried it on another machine and it worked fine. I told her that she needs to come to Europe to do a sock design workshop. That would be a dream come true!

I also decided to knit things for charity this year. So my goal this year will be to knit 5 caps for chemo patients in honor of my cousin Lynn, 5 preemie hats/booties/socks in honor of my boys being preemies themselves, and 5 helmet liners or socks for the military. I think this will be very rewarding for me and make me feel like there are people out there who really NEED it. The only bad thing is that I can’t just knit whatever, there are very specific details – like baby stuff should be made out of cotton or acrylic (oi!), the military things need to be in black/camo type colors and also very superwashable, none of this fancy schmancy yarn that I like, and the chemo patients need things to be really soft (again cotton or acrylic) using patterns with no holes.

So that’s all the news fit to print for now.

Yarn for felting projects

OK, this yarn acquisition is bordering on crazy. I am obsessed with felting now and want to make lots of cute bags. So of course I had to get some Lamb’s Pride to try my hand as well as some patterns. I always wanted to make the Fiber Trends’ clogs and I love these little cute gelato bags. We’ll see how it goes in the front loader.

A couple of days ago, I decided to make my SP10 a booga bag using Wollmeise’s worsted weight yarn in Amazonas colorway. It knitted up really nicely, let’s hope it still looks good felted. I only did 60 rows for the height, instead of the 64. Pre-felting, the bag measured 8x4x11in. I didn’t want to bother doing a felting swatch since it’s for a bag, the final dimensions don’t have to be super exact. I don’t want to post any pictures of my SP’s gifts, just in case she might accidentally look at my blog! Kind of a bummer though because I want to show you what the before/after pictures are!

Kureyon for a booga bag

I also bought some Noro Kureyon to make a 2nd booga bag. I love the graduated colors! So it’ll be a good comparison between that and the Wollmeise’s worsted weight yarn. I completed knitting both of them (1 per day) and today I’m working on felting them. Keep your fingers crossed.

I broke my rule of one project at a time, but I really didn’t feel like knitting icord at Sunday’s stitch ‘n bitch. So I just started another bag using the Noro. I also made the Noro bag shorter, this time I think maybe 52 rows? I used up 2 skeins for the bag body and will use a wee bit more for the handles. So exciting. I am getting prepared to be severely disappointed, since it seems like that’s what happens to most people on their first felting try.

My Regia collection

On my german sock yahoo list, someone posted a sale on Regia yarn at Kleines Wollhaus for €2,30, but when I emailed them they said it was €2,85. Still a deal! I just got it delivered today (pictures coming soon) and with it a list of their prices – €2,30 for Regia 4-fach, €2,50 for Regia 3/6/8-fach, €2,85 for Regia color, and €3,95 for Regia silk! I normally don’t buy Regia at all but for less than €3, who can afford NOT to??? I emailed them my order and I didn’t get really a confirmation so I was surprised to get a knock on my door today!!!

I ordered:
2x schlamm color 5574
2x skater color 5171
2x tansania color 1903
2x denim rauchblau 1936
2x jaquard tundra 5273
2x patch antik jeans 5759

Today I got my yarn from Wollmeise. I can’t believe how fast it came. I think I ordered it on Monday and it came today. Isn’t that amazing? I ordered some sock yarn (of course) and some worsted weight yarn for a fellow knitter. I thought the colors were so rich and gorgeous, I am so excited to start knitting with it!!! But I’m a one-project-at-a-time kind of gal, so I have to finish the socks I’m making for Michael. I’m almost done. I’ve already decided to do the Pomatomus sock again, with the blue and brown yarn.

oooo, look at those colors! the worsted weight yarn