Halloween

I took Swatchgrrl out to see Halloween in New York. Neat costumes!

Plea

East Village Books

Please, *please*, if you're in New York City, go to this book store and buy their craft books. Preferably all of them. It's on St. Marks Street, between 1st and A.

Tonight I bought "Knitter's Stash" for $14. Last visit I grabbed an Alice Starmore book (Fair Isle Knitting, listed on Amazon for $135+) plus two nifty quilting books for around $20 *total*. That's not a typo folks... *twenty* dollars. For all three!

Please. My wallet needs your assistance.

Bring cash... I think you need to spend $30 before they'll let you use a credit card.

WIP Progress

Durrow Front and Second Wyvern Sock WIPs

I felt like sharing some of my WIP progress. Here's the front of Durrow, and my second Wyvern sock. I may not finish it by midnight (the end of Socktober), but I'm certainly close to having my first pair of knit socks done. :) I think I've had a pretty successful Socktoberfest!

Once Wyvern is off the needles, I'll start my orange kitty. (For purely psychological reasons... I'd rather not break the 10 WIP/UFO boundary again.) I'm also putting off making a second washcloth for around here (hmmm... perhaps I'll whip one up before orange kitty) for the same reason.

I'm looking forward to starting the sleeves of Durrow. They should be exciting! (But hopefully not as, um, "exciting" as the pink lace scarf of doom.)

Blown Down Tree

Blown Down Tree

Remember me going on about the crazy wind recently? Well, this morning I discovered that during all that huffing and puffing, one of the trees in the "tree museum" near J's fell down.

(The park really does seem like a tree and grass museum, the way all the green areas are fenced off.)

This is not a test

We interrupt your regularly scheduled blogging for a trip to Montreal. This event includes a Halloween party...



...and a trip to the Montreal Botanical Gardens to see the Insectorium...



...and the Chinese lanterns.



We apologize for this interruption. Regular blogging will now resume.

Opinions?

Sock!!!!!!!

I need a costume for a party tomorrow night. I'm thrifty (aka cheap), and not near my pile of craft stuff and miscellaneous possessions. I have decided to go as a pumpkin: J has an orange shirt I can borrow, I'll make face features out of a cut up black trash bag... but J thinks I need a stem on the top of my head. I do not have green paper. Do you think this sock is green enough to pass as a pumpkin stem? (None of my other socks are any greener.) I do have green sock yarn with me, but I do know my limitations. ;)

I do at least have a piece of orange card stock, so I can at least make a "lid" to mount the sock on.

Yes, I'll post photos of my, um, "costume". Probably when I'm back in NY sometime on Sunday.

Sock!!!!!!!

Sock!!!!!!!

My first knit sock! (Marnie MacLean's Wyvern pattern.) One down, one to go.

Knitting is an addiction, I tell you. Once I got past the heel, and saw how (relatively) speedy I could do a repeat, I just *had* to ignore everything else and finish it!!!


The toe holes are due to me not having the tutorial with me when I started. I think I know how to avoid the remaining holes at the heels. (Needs wraps for first two rows.)


Hmmm... short focal range.


Have you ever noticed how hard it is to photograph the outside of your leg?

It's funny... most of the socks were knit using #2 dpns, but the last two repeats (and ribbing) were on #4 dpns... those #4s sure felt like *logs* after the #2s! Do you ever notice how you get used to the size needles you're using, and then others feel so different?

Touristy Stuff

Yesterday a friend of J's was in town, so we did some touristy stuff.




We also ate lots of good food: Peruvian for lunch, a three course dessert late afternoon, Kenka's for dinner, followed by a comedy show at Rififi's (we didn't stay for the burlesque), and cookies from a environment-conscious bakery.

I was exhausted by bedtime.

Dawn View

Dawn View

Dawn paints such pretty colours. Too bad it usually happens way too darn early in the morning.

Because Heather Asked

Lace Scarf WIP

I live but to serve.

Lace Progress

Nine reps done on the pink scarf o' doom. That leaves around twenty-three to go. :(

Socktoberfest Update

The current pair of crochet socks are moving along:


Warning: virtual happy-dance ahead.

Yay! A heel!!! A *knit* heel! My very first, with hardly any holes. :) Yippeeeeee! Look at me go!!!

I don't know if I'll get the pair done before the end of Soctober, but I'm fairly confident I'll have at least one done. :)

As for the scrap sock yarn blanket, no progress has been made recently. To minimize packing bulk, I decided to start the second triangle on this trip. However, I forgot to select out some scraps to take with me, so I need to finish at least one pair of socks before I can do another square. Whoops! (There wasn't room to bring all the scraps, but I think I had meant to bring a few.)

Message?

I've now had three or four Dove chocolates tell me to take myself and a book out too lunch. I'm guessing this means one of two things:

1. I should take myself and a book out to lunch.
2. I'm eating too many Dove chocolates.

Rhinebeck Blogger Bingo

Rhinebeck Blogger Bingo

I didn't mark off too many of my squares... possibly because I was so enthralled by all the fiber, I wasn't paying enough attention to looking for squares. Basically the only squares I managed to mark off were those that found me. ;) (Once again, my hat worked great!)

Socktoberfest Emergency

Can anyone help out a fellow knitter find a replacement ball of yarn?

Windy

"The wind tells a story--listen."

That message in a chocolate reminded me that I have a little "movie" of the clouds whipping by on Friday. It's been really windy around here, and the windows in J's apartment have been rattling lots!

Go ahead... watch the clouds roll by:


(BTW... who's the nitwit who took "noricum" on YouTube? Aaaargh! That's *my* userid! I guess I should have registered sooner. *sigh*)

Halloween Swap Goodies

Halloween Swap Goodies

Awesome mail! These are the goodies I got from Bron for the Fiber Freaks halloween swap. Roughly from top to bottom, there's a caludron (will be part of my halloween costume... once I figure out what that'll be), an awesome scarf, a hotpad, a spider mug (really cool!!!) and two spider candles, some Dove chocolates (mmmmm!), orange yarn for my cat project, and little halloween decorations.

I must say, Bron has excellent taste! Don't I look great in the scarf?

It's nice and soft too!

The dove chocolates come with sayings inside them. Here's the message on the first one I opened: "Fly kites in an azure blue sky." What a lovely image! (I must admit I've eaten more than one, though... ;) )

Mail!

Mountain Colours Handpainted Yarn

Mmmmmmm!!!!!!!!! Yummy, yummy, yummy! From Sallie. Thanks Sallie!!!!!

Socks Drying

Socks Drying

In New York, I do not have my drying racks. Nor do I have a clothes line. J does, however, have a very handy headboard. And patience with my, um, "decorating". ;)

Tomorrow

Oh... I have more that needs posting. Coming tomorrow: fun mail! The party never stops. ;)

Rhinebeck 3

...or "the long, slippery slope".

It started off innocently. I petted yarn. I petted fiber. I made mental notes so I could decide on my favourites, and spend my dollars wisely.

Then I found this excellent purchase:

A niddy noddy. Original price was $25, but they were marked down to $10 because they were the "old models"... the maker had switched to a different style. However, this one was even cheaper... $5, because one piece was broken. A piece that can easily be fixed with a bit of wood glue. I have wood glue. :) Even better, after I bought it, I discovered it disassembles to be quite small!

A niddy noddy to go with my lovely nostepinne!

Then another inexpensive purchase, washed BFL locks that will be perfect for needle-felting little sheep for Christmas presents:

Only $1.50 and ounce! I restrained myself from buying more of those perfect little curls... but only with difficulty.

However, I totally fell apart when I saw this:

A Maggie spindle. Made from satiny smooth cherry wood. Love at first sight! I have admired other pretty spindles, but nothing has dug it's way into my heart like this one. Should I? It's $32! I still basically don't know how to spin! But ooooo! Sooooo pretty! And smooth. It *wants* to spin! I had a feeling that I'd regret it if I walked away from it. But would I regret it if I bought it? Then the sales lady told me that the maker wasn't making any more, since he had been injured. I bought it. I don't regret it. :)

Of course, then I needed some roving, since I only had a wee little bit with me. (It takes up lots of space in luggage, so I thought I'd let myself buy a bit at Rhinebeck if I got a chance to spin there.) BFL, colour "Dragon":

John found me shortly thereafter, so I took a break to eat. I offered to make him a hat from this roving, but he said that he tends to lose hats. I'm thinking perhaps I'll either give him the alpaca-silk hat I'm mildly allergic to, or make him a hat out of non-handspun fiber. At least until I get more prolific with the spinning. ;)

After lunch, the spending spree continued. It's geometry:

(or a $10 Christmas ornament.)

For a friend:

It's inexpensive, and she brought me something back from Maryland Sheep and Wool.

Pencil roving:

Only $3, and I need something to put the BFL locks on!

And why not some pretty knitting needles:

I really wanted some of the Lantern Moon ebonies, but these were only about a third of the price, and rather nice. I wanted to get myself some nice little straights for knitting dishcloths, since I seem to be making those, and my 8s are busy with the lace scarf.

Well, by this point I was pretty shopped out. I didn't manage to see the sheepdog trials or the pumpkin chucking contest (J enjoyed them, though), but I enjoyed the shopping, and got to pet some sheep and goats. We plodded through the last few barns just to see what was there, and then headed home.

It was *soooooooo* nice! Next time, however, I think I need to bring less cash. Either that, or improve my income. ;)

Rhinebeck 2

Hmmm... it seems I used up most of my photos over at Travels With Swatchy. You really should go read the three or four posts I made there. I think I'm posted out!

Ah, what a lovely day! Here's some photos I took on the way home:



We stopped at the outlet mall so J could get himself some new winter clothes. I saw this, and had to take a photo for Stitchy McYarnpants:


Next up, my purchases!

Rhinebeck 1

I think I've used up my Rhinebeck cleverness over at Travels With Swatchy, so my posts here may just end up being a bunch of photos. I'll break them up into three posts, to reduce the size of each. Why? Dunno. Seems like a good idea. Here goes:






(Yes, they even had an artichoke booth.)