Stash Acquisition

I checked the mail tonight, and I got my order from Loop on Etsy! It is beautiful! I ordered two batts: Lavender Mint Tea (I think), and African Violets. She even included a lavender sachet (aww) :-) They are pictured below. Lavender Mint is on the left and African Violet is on the right. They are gorgeous and soft and I can't wait to spin them!!


And here is a picture of what I bought at Weaving Works earlier today. The Spring IK issue, the Fortissima Socka coordinating sock yarn, and an alpaca sock yarn (house slippers, perhaps?) The alpaca sock yarn is a lot more colorful than what is shown in the picture.

WIPs - 2 November 2007

Here are my WIPs for the day...

Last night, after I got home from dinner with a couple of friends, I cast on for Daniel's Socks. I decided on using the "Simple Socks" pattern from Cat Bordhi's "Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles", because I figured I'd be using enough different yarns, that I didn't want to distract with a crazy stitch pattern.

I am planning on using my handspun - one skein of which is a two-ply blend - one ply is alpaca down blended with a merino/silk blend roving from Weaving Works in a soft olive (main color), plied with just the merino/silk blend. This yarn will be used for the leg portion of the sock. The instep will be a two ply of just the merino/silk blend roving. The soles will be made of Fortissima Socka yarn - I found a coordinating colorway at Weaving Works today when I went searching (it was also 20% off! Yay!)

As you can see, I am probably about 4" into the leg of the first sock. I was impressed to see the subtle striping of the alpaca-plied yarn:



Now, here is the (THIRD) beginning of the toe-up "Dove" socks. I just started the gusset increasing... this time I am just following the pattern for the women's size. I think it's turning out well, though - it fits great!

That's all I got for now. I just opened an Etsy shop, and am in the process of updating my Paypal account to use it on Etsy. I think it's time for dinner! Daniel is working tonight, so I am entertaining myself...cooking and eating, and lots of knitting.

Should I admit that I got a couple of other things at Weaving Works? I picked up a skein of Honey Lane Farms Alpaca yarn in a soft grey (the queued pattern for that is "Fetching" fingerless gloves, from Knitty), and I also picked up an alpaca sock yarn (Alpaca Sox, from Classic Elite)... and the Spring 2007 IK issue. It had a great Entrelac Sock pattern in it!

I'm on Etsy!

Hello!

This is a quick post. I just opened up an Etsy shop!

My username is "dhshippie"...

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5340484

I have a Grand Total of 3 items posted right now (all handspun yarn), but I plan to post more as the holidays near!

Go Visit, and Tell Your Friends!

Club Insanity

I feel a sense of accomplishment. I bought my airline ticket to go home for Christmas today. FINALLY. And it ended up being cheaper than when I looked at the beginning of October....go figure. PLUS I was able to coordinate scheduling my return flight with my sister, who just found out she's going to get to go home for a few days after Christmas, too! (YAY!) I am so glad she's coming out, though I wish the rest of the family (i.e. brother, sister in law, and brother in law), could come out, too. Hopefully I can wait to go out to dinner with my grandpa till my sister gets there... I need a buffer, especially now that he is more feeble than before. I ...can't...wait... to see his house.

Anyway... Club Insanity has struck me! I am signing up for the Blue Moon 2008 "Rockin' Sock Club" tomorrow. I am stoked! A year of bi-monthly sock yarn in special 'exclusive' colorways (they put them on sale the following year), along with an original pattern, and "mini-skein" key chain (ok, I have no use for the silly mini skein and would rather get something else for my money, but I suspect I might be able to make swatches out of it?). My friend/coworker Jen has been a club member for the past two or three years, and she loves it. She is also a really good knitter - her socks are freakin' amazing! I am also trying out another sock club, which ships luxury sock yarns (which, actually, should probably Not be used for socks...e.g. cashmere. Maybe that skein will turn into gloves or something).

Note: My Ravelry ID (for those who didn't get it already) is "DHShippie". For those who don't know what Ravelry is, ...it is a beautiful thing. It is a blend of a social networking site with an interactive database for knitters and crocheters. You sign up (although right now you have to get on a waiting list to be invited), and you create a profile. Within the profile, you can list your WIPs (works-in-progress), FO's (finished objects), yarns in your stash, queue of patterns you want to make, your book library (I haven't figured out if this feature is to list the books you have , or to list the books you want ... I am using it as a list of books I own). Once you list all this stuff down, you can see who else is making the same pattern(s) you are, with the same yarn, or different yarn, or who is using your yarn to make something completely different. You can search by tags or types of garments / objects, or designer, etcetera. And, of course, you can collect friends and groups. I've already searched out Liz, Jen, and Kim. I was actually talking about it with my coworker Adam (Liz's huz), and he agreed that it seemed to be a very well implented website. All Hail The Ravelry!

Ravelry and Trever

First off, I would like to say Hello! to my friend Trever. He and his partner, Jason, came out to Seattle last weekend to provide go-go dancing for a party called Tricks-N-Treats at a place called "Ouch My Eye" ... I am sure they were fabulous. I thought about going, but I didn't want to spend $150 on tickets (for Daniel and myself) only to be tired by midnight! Gawd, I'm old. ;-)

Below is a little candid shot I took of Trever and myself at Pike Place Market:


The entire set is on my Flickr page. My ID on there is (guess) "dhs_hippie".

Now, on to knitting.... I am FINALLY on Ravelry! My ID on there is (heh) "DHShippie", so if you need a Ravelry friend, hit me up :-D ...

Here are my WIPs. First up are Metamorphic (STR) 2-at-a-time-top-down socks:

Here is the newly cast on (AGAIN) Rhodonite (STR) "Dove" sock from Cat Bordhi's Pathways book:

I should note that since this picture was taken, I am significantly farther on the toe. I am almost ready to start gusset increases. Whee!

Below is the newly cast-on "Nakiska" headband. This will be my final attempt. If it doesn't fit me or a family member, it might fit a child, Hobbit, or girdle a small animal. I might sell it on Etsy, although I don't know if that is allowed (?)...(I mean, I don't know if it's allowed to make something using a free pattern and then sell it, even if you cite reference to the original free pattern).

As you can see, I'm not very far on any of it! But that's OK. I've been busy.... work has been insane. My moody coworker is on vacation for the next week and a half, so I have been filling in for him where I can. I never realized how busy he was. I think if I knew more about the engine I could do a better job (ie probably handle both of our jobs), but this is a good trial-by-fire. :-) My lead is very understanding, which is great.

Eye Candy Friday, and more

Eye Candy Friday, you say?

Well, I think I've found my winter coat. I just got this from Lulu Lemon today, when I in fact ONLY went to the mall to pick up some Lulu pants that had been hemmed:


The other coat I was really liking was from Eddie Bauer. It's called their "Girl on the Go trench", and it's a pretty nice fit, too, but I like the belt here, and the fun plaid.

So here is my Cautionary Mall Tale:

I went to the mall today to pick up my pants. I got sidetracked in Sephora, and was looking at their acne care products, when a salesgirl told me that some Stila makeup reps were there, doing free makeovers. Yay! So I waited for one of the makeup artists to become free.

She did my face, and all was well and good.

I was shopping around, and about two minutes after I had gotten out of the chair, I noticed my face was itching. And hot. I went back to her, and told her, and when I saw the horrified look on her face, I looked in a mirror. My face was completely red. And it burned. It burned like I had a fever, and it itched like hell. So my artist and another one went and got me some Caudalie toning water on Kleenex, and I started to remove the makeup. I surmised that it was the brush cleaner they had been using, because I've used Stila before and never had an adverse reaction, especially like that. The stuff is called "Brush-Off", or something, and it is awful. They don't even put the active ingredients on the bottle, so this other girl gave me the website and phone number off the bottle. I couldn't take my face any longer. I wanted to rip the skin off. My artist-girl suggested I go to the bathroom down the hall and use cold water.

Where did I go instead? Lush. Luckily, my friend Alyison was working there. I waited for her to finish helping another customer, then hugged her and pleaded for her to help me! She gave me a sample of Aquamarina mask to use, since it has calamine and some other calming stuff. I slapped it on and walked around the store like that for 20 minutes, then washed it off with plenty of cold water, then I was pressing Eau Roma Water compresses on my face for another 10 minutes, then I finally got around to moisturizing with Gorgeous face cream. My face felt much better, but it was still freakin' pissed at me. Alyison's coworker told me she used to work at Nordstrom in the makeup section, and she said that the brush cleaner I encountered was really harsh because it had to kill all the germs on publicly used brushes. I totally understand, it's like a public pool. And, by the same reasoning that I refuse to use public pools (except the salt water one in Seattle), I don't like using public makeup brushes. But that is the first time I have had a reaction like that. I've had my makeup done at lots of different counters, but maybe those people are better with the cleaner....?

Anyway, I ended up dropping a wad at Lush (it is both great and evil to have a friend like Alyison be your salesperson. She knows exactly what I like, and on the other hand...she knows exactly what I like. However, she was great about giving me small sizes of stuff, like I had requested).

So that was my horrible trip to the mall. I bought the jacket after that. No more Sephora brushes for me.


Prior to the mall, I had hit the grocery store so I could buy additional ingredients for my cooking orgy later today. Check out what I found:

In case you don't know who that is, that's Frank Zappa. On a beer bottle. I LOVE IT. Frank Zappa is one of my favorite musical artists, and has been for the better part of a decade (ever since my brother brought me a tape back of FZ stuff from college....yes, back in the days of TAPES!). Anyway, so you know I had to check the beer out! :-) It's made by Lagunitas Brewery. I haven't tried it yet, but I'll let you know. Usually microbreweries aren't bad, even in their mediocre stuff.

On my way home from the mall (the day went: oil change, groceries, mall, yarn store), I stopped by Weaving Works *my LYS*, and flipped through a large pile of books to decide what I would potentially want as Christmas presents. I ended up buying the new Vogue Knitting, the Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts issue, and a ball of red alpaca yarn (7 st/in) to use for a pattern created by the guy who writes Brooklyntweed ... it is a gorgeous hat. Very textural, like fishnet but solid. I was between the red yarn and a gorgeous emerald green. I asked the saleslady, and she liked the red on me better. I was impressed - this little ball of 100% alpaca was only $6.10. A Fabulous Deal, if you ask me.

Here is my current project list:

To Redo:

- second "Hurry Up Spring" armwarmer (thumb on wrong side)

- "Nakiska" headband (was too small)

- chenille tape blanket (at some point; holes in crochet were bothering me)

To Finish:

- "Dove" socks from Cat Bordhi

To Start:

- "Koolhas" (sp?) hat from IK Holiday Gifts (IKHG?)

- some socklets from Knitty

- Clessidra stockings

- socks

- socks

- more socks

- did I mention socks? :-)

- more gloves / accessories...

- SPIN YARN for Baltimore store Milagro (She doesn't actually have a website, but I hope she gets one soon!)

********

Now, on to cooking. It is 4:54, and I just pulled the apple bake-thing out of the oven. Here it is, at the beginning of the cooking process:

What did I do? Coalesce a lot of other recipes. I basically needed to get rid of a bunch of apples. So I cut maybe 7 or 8 apples - a Golden Delicious, a couple of Fujis (?), and a few Granny Smiths, and tossed them with 1 lemon's worth of fresh-squeezed juice. I then tossed those into a buttered 9x9 Pyrex dish (ok, it could be 9x9, I am assuming that those are it's dimensions). In another bowl, I mixed 1 cup AP flour, 1 c white sugar, and 1 stick of butter to make a crumble. I mixed half the crumble in with the apples, and threw the other half on top. I dotted the crumble with another 1 T butter and sprinkled on the tad of lemon juice left in my juicer, and also squirted on some Madagascar bourbon vanilla extract. I threw it in a preheated 400 deg oven till I could smell it. MMM.

This is the other thing I cooked: my first potato gratin. I also had a few pounds of potatoes to get rid of (do we see a theme?) This used my bigger Pyrex dish, pre-buttered. I basically cut potatoes to make a single layer, then threw down some shredded parmesan, salt, and pepper, and repeated till I got to the top. Then I poured in enough cream to come to the top (yes, real cream), and pressed down to make sure the cream got in everywhere (a tip I picked up from "Good Eats"). I then sprinkled the remainder of the cheese on top, as well as additional salt and pepper. Into a 375 deg oven till it was brown and lovely. I think it took 30-45 min?

Socks! Flickr!

OK, so I have just found this really neat website: Go Here

My diamond "Dove" sock is progressing. A WIP picture will follow soon.

I am taking some extra (like I need extra) knitting to Leavenworth this weekend. I am thinking that glove (if I can't whip it out tonight and tomorrow), the Dove socks, and possibly trying my hand at the "Knitting Circles Around Socks" book - I like the technique, but not many of the patterns... I'll try her lace pattern, though...it should be interesting, anyway.

But I just wanted to share that really neat site above...