Daniel's Socks, Part 3

I have been thinking about the Socks today, during my lunch break. I have come to a conclusion:

I want to knit at work!

No, no... well, yes.

But I think that I might try blending some of the remaining roving with a pouch of dark brown alpaca down that I (possibly) also bought at the Whidby Island sale.

I also wanted to call attention to two great blogs: one is cute, and one is neato:

my bandmate Hunter's blog: http://orcaville.blogspot.com (they are expecting their first baby, and the pictures are adorable)

my friend Kim's blog: http://quatzical.blogspot.com (blame her for teaching me how to spin ;-) )

Flowers!

I felt the need to post some pictures of flowers I have acquired recently.

This first pic is of my new passionflower vine. I love passionflowers. I think I read somewhere that the flowers are supposed to symbolize Christ and the Holy Trinity and maybe the spiky petioles are symbols of the crown of thorns, but I just enjoy the exotic appearance of the flower, coupled with it's fleeting fragrance, the edible fruit that come later, and the fact that it is a great vine! I got this vine at Molbak's nursery in Woodinville, WA:



This next picture is of a bouquet I got at Pike Place Market. The dahlia in the middle was about 10" across at it's prime, so you know this bouquet was huge. I swear it weighed 10 lb. And it only cost me $10! An affordable occasional luxury... it is still partially here, two weeks later, too :)

This next picture is of this curious flowering plant I got at Molbak's. I think I threw away or lost the identifying stake-marker. If anyone knows what this plant is called, please tell me. I think the colors are festive and gorgeous, and I want to grow it again next year!

This was another purchase at my Molbak's orgy. It is a Miltonia, or "pansy" orchid. I got it because it had two flower sprays. I just noticed this morning that the second spray is starting to bloom, which is very exciting. A tip for those hunting for their first few orchids: try to buy one where the entire flower spray has not bloomed yet; you'll get a longer lasting flower show. And if you can find one with multiple flower sprays, you're definitely getting more for your money! :)

Yarn for Sale in Charm City!

Here is a sampling of the yarns I sent recently to Milagro, a fabulous little store in Baltimore's Hampden neighborhood, where I sell a few skeins of yarn here and there. I sent about 9 skeins of yarn, which means I should eventually get $100 or so back. Nobody ever said I was going to get rich off of this. ;-)

From left to right: a Bluefaced Leicester rainbow skein blended with real copper fiber (I wonder how it will wash? Will a verdigris form?), a black alpaca yarn blended with green Firestar, a multicolored BFL roving in greens plyed with a green rubber jelly cord, a "mystery batt" of fiber my friend picked up for me in CA, and an orange/yellow Bluefaced Leicester roving plyed randomly on itself.

I hope people like 'em! Kimry, the store owner, seems to enjoy them. :-) And that's all that matters.

...Sometimes I miss Bawlmer...but not the lack of being able to go outside and "do" something, like hike or bike or kayak. Definitely more of that here in Seattle. :)

Daniel's Socks, Part 2

Here is the continuation of the Pictures of Daniel's Sock Yarn in progress. For those who need a refresher, it is a yarn composed of one ply of alpaca carded with an olivey heathered merino/ silk roving (my guess is that it is an Ashland Bay roving... it looks like one of their colorways), and one ply of just the merino/silk roving.

Here is a pic of my Majacraft Susie wheel holding a partially filled bobbin of just the roving:




And here is the final yarn, already on the niddy-noddy! I should have taken a photo on the bobbin before I wound it off:

And another shot, so you can see the colors better. It's pretty muted, but I figured Daniel would want some sort of "quiet", "manly" sock color. He tends towards very bright orange and red shirts, but his socks are pretty much either black Navy issue or white athletic socks.

So, I am very excited! Finally, a yarn full of love! ;-) It was a very different experience spinning this one than spinning the yarns that I sell at Milagro in Baltimore... it was more of an "I want to get this done!" feeling rather than "I have to get this done."... :-) (although I do love spinning for the appreciative folks in Baltimore!)

My next step is to split the yarn in half. Then I am going to spin up what is left of the roving (which is about 2.5 - 3 oz) and see where that leaves me. I may have to invoke some millspun yarn into this project (gasp! ;-) )

I am loving socks. I just bought the new Cat Bordhi sock book...something about Socks doing their thing with 8 different sock architectures.... oh, if you search on Amazon, you'll see it. She is my new Sock Queen. Although I also want to get...well, I want ALL the books, but I want to get the "Knitting Vintage Socks" book, and also the Twisted Sisters sweater book (though I realize that is not a sock book ;-) )...

Daniel's Socks - Part 1

When I first started dating The Boy (heretofore known as Daniel), I decided I wanted to make him a pair of socks, using my own handspun. However, I knew there might be consequences. I had made a pair of Knitty.com's "Cigar" gloves for my ex, and he hated them, and called them "gay"....however, my brother loves them. So There!! And I am well aware of the "Boyfriend Curse", so I figured socks would happen more quickly than a sweater ;-)



Anyway, it's been, what, nine months and I haven't gotten around to this yet. I had picked up some alpaca at a fiber sale on Whidbey (Whidby?) Island (which he had taken me to) back in the springtime, and I wanted to blend that with some manly-colored wool for some nice dress-socks for him.



I bought a merino/silk blend roving from the Weaving Works (one of my local yarn stores), in an olivey-heather tone. Here is a picture of it next to the alpaca down:







Here is a picture of both fibers next to my Strauch handcarders:

I carded the alpaca with the merino/silk roving and started spinning it pretty finely onto my Majacraft Susie wheel. Here you can see the very beginnings of the bobbin:

Here is a shot of me drafting the alpaca rolag:

And here is the finished bobbin of alpaca/roving blend. I then made another ply of just the roving (since I have a whole 4 oz of roving):

The other pictures will be in the "Part 2" post. This site wouldn't let me post all the pictures in one blog (probably too big of an upload time)...

My First Sock is done!

Yay! My first knit sock ever is off the needles!

I used the Simple Sock pattern from Cat Bordhi's book, "Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles". I used Zitron Trekking XXL yarn for it, and knit it on two circular size 3 bamboo needles from Clover.

My only regret is not buying the Addi Natura needles; the joins on the Clovers leave a little to be desired.

Here is Picture 1:

Another picture off the foot:

And, of course it's out of order, but this is a picture of the sock in progress last week. I zoomed down the foot because it's a chunk of "mindless knitting" and then did the toe decreases yesterday and today on the ferry. I came home with only the Kitchener stitch grafting across the toe to do. I looked it up in one of Debbie Stoller's "Stitch 'N Bitch" knitting books (I have both knitting books and the crochet one, too), and though I didn't really understand what I was doing, I followed her directions and it came out great!

I also love that Trekking XXL really gives you a TON of yarn for the money, and it knits up very well; no weird split stitches like some yarns.

A Labor Day weekend cold...and fun!

I have been fighting the effects of a cold I caught from my friend Kris for the last week or so. I've been hacking, and my voice sounds like a cross between Bea Arthur and Chewbacca. But otherwise I feel fine. I did choose to work from home today, though - both to protect my voice, and not spread the germs to my coworkers. No need for me to be in an office full of old sick guys!

But I managed to make the most of the extended weekend. I chose to take two 3-day weekends instead of a four-day weekend with my 9/80 day off, so I telecommuted Friday. It was just as well. The boy was working a duty shift, so I had the afternoon to myself. I can't recall if I went to look at the Ballard Locks (their official name is the Hiram M. Chittendam Locks) on Thursday or Friday, but I went and looked at the salmon running upstream through the salmon ladder. It is really amazing - I forgot how big most salmon are! I think if the waters were calmer right there, you could latch onto one and have it take you for a ride... :-)

So I believe I spent Friday night with myself. Saturday morning I picked up the boy from the ferry, and we had a little time to ourselves before he organized and met up with his friends who were visiting from Texas. I really enjoyed meeting them; they are thinking of moving here with their currently 2 year old son in a couple of years. I hope they do! :-) We left them around 9 PM, after dinner, and came back to my place. Sunday we ended up sleeping in far later than normal (for me, anyway) - I slept till 10:45! This is pretty unusual for me, since I usually "sleep in" till a whopping 7:00 or 7:30 AM on the weekends, but I figured I was sick and the boy loves to sleep in till I won't let him anymore. ;-) We hung out in the afternoon, rented "Idiocracy", starring Luke Wilson - a dumb but hilarious movie - and then had an early dinner with my friends Adam and Liz. They were nice enough to drop us off at the ferry terminal afterwards, too, so we hightailed it to the boy's house and slept there for the night.

I took the 6:20 AM ferry back to Seattle, and met my friend Kris for an early breakfast and shopping expedition. I think we were out a total of 10 hours hoofing it through downtown Seattle. Oh my. I did good, though - I only bought food, some chocolate nibs, a couple of bath bombs from Lush, and a 10 lb bouquet of flowers from Pike Place Market (you really can't beat 'em for fresh color and fragrance (if you're lucky). Kris made off with an all-white bouquet that had a tuberose spray in it, and I bought a white and purple bouquet that had a centerpiece of a 10" dahlia in it!)

So that was the extent of my weekend: boyfriend, friends, fun, shopping, and LOTS of eating. :) Oh yes, and I managed to squeeze into a size 8 at Banana Republic! :) (Not that it actually looked good, but it did close, which is a step in the right direction. :) )