365Knits

A new blog and a new journey...come join me

Yippee!!

I recently convinced Carl to let me bring my wheel from my Mom's to our apartment. We picked it up yesterday along with a brand new computer (woo-hoo). The deal is that I have to put it away whenever I'm done with it so it now hides under our spiral staircase when not in use. He usually works on Sundays so I get the house to myself and I can just spin! I took it out this morning and I finally finsihed plying some of my first yarn from the wheel and I think its great! Its one ply of merino and tencel from CJ Kopeck and the other ply is a blend of alpace, wool, silk and angora from Glacial Ridge Alpaca's. Its lumpy and bumpy but I think it's just perfect.

When I was in Rhinebeck a couple weekend ago I bought myself a DVD called Spinning Wool - Basics and Beyond and after watching it the other weekend I got really excited about getting back in my wheel and trying out some of the things they talked about. After I was done plying I pulled out some beautiful targhee top from The Wool Room. I'm trying to spin it as fine as I can so I can either ply it and have a heavier fingering or not ply it and have some lace weight yarn. Its a really pretty color and I can't wait to finish it. I worked on this yarn for about 2-3 hours this morning but I had to stop because we have to clean our apartment before guests arrive on friday so I put it away and started sorting my summer/spring and fall/winter clothes. Now I'm off to do the boring things.

Oh and GO YANKEES!

Has it really been 4 months?

Man does time fly? I can't believe my last post was in July! A lot has happened since then. I'll do a super quick recap.

Most importantly I found my Lady Eleanor shawl so everything is now right with the world.

At the end of July I ended up hurting my arm and spent over a month trying to get rid of my cubital tunnel syndrome. There wasn't much knitting going on during this period but I tried to finish the Cabled Riding Jacket for our Ireland trip at the end August but I failed. It still needs a sleeve and collar but I'm a little to mad at it to work on it at the moment. I think the cables are what hurt my arm the most so I'm bitter.

Ireland was absolutely amazing! I wanted to post throughout the trip but my little netbook didn't work half the time we were there. While we were in Ireland Carl finally popped the question so I'm now officially engaged which is super exciting and a little scary since I now have to plan a wedding (eek!). We have a date, 10/9/2010, a reception place and we meet with the Reverend this weekend. I think we're making good progress.

September was uneventful. I basically spent the month going to PT and trying to get my arm back in tip-top shape. I got to a point where I could knit again and I finished a really lovely sweater of my own design and I'm in the process of writing up the pattern. I really want to get it written and maybe submit it to knitty.com just for kicks. When they reject it I can just put it up on ravelry for all to see. I really like this sweater I think its classy but sexy. Hopefully it's unique enough for knitty to want it.

Last weekend was Rhinebeck and of course I went. Saturday was also my birthday so I spent the day buying myself many presents, petting sheep and gorging myself on yummy food. The only negative was that it was so cold that I couldn't even be bothered with taking pictures. That and I had so much stuff I could barely carry it all. Of course now my arm hurts again but I'll just have to try to not knit for a little while (yah right) and it will be better.

I hope there are still people out there reading this but if not that's cool. I'm looking forward to blogging again. Especially, with all this wedding planning I think I'll need somewhere to just let it all out. I hope you've all had a great four months!! And we'll talk again real soon.

Help me choose!

I found these knitting mugs on cafe press and I can't decide. Number 1 is cute and funny but Number 2 is outragous but it could be too much! Which would you choose? Should I be bold or cute?

 

Sorry for being MIA but our laptop broke and I haven't been able to replace it yet. Once its fixed I can update the shop (i have so much to add!!) and I'll be able to blog again. Hopefully we'll have a new computer soon.

Its a sad day...

It is official, Lady Eleanor has been lost. Just join me as I long her passing. She was a very good knit. We all loved her. She warmed us while we napped and comforted us while we had to flight in death machines...I mean planes. She will be missed.
MySpace Generators

Things that need to be explained to me...

Watching the Open at Work - Good

Knitting on a break in a conference room with co-workers - Bad

 

Ponder that!

Pondering...

I found this article about etsy being a false feminist fantasy and I really don't know what to think about it. There are bunch of people over at the etsy shop group on ravelry talking about it and that's how I found it. I know that I set up my shop as an outlet for my creative side. I'd love to be able to dye yarns for a living and become the next Lorna's Laces but that's not what I expect from etsy. If I wanted to make this a real business I'd probably come up with a real business plan, talk to some of the friends we do have in the textile/wool industry, make deals with bricks and mortar stores in my area and get my name out there at festivals. But I'm not doing these things. I feel like etsy gave me a community of people, yes they are mostly women, who love to be creative too. I would still be dyeing yarns and fiber even if I didn't have an etsy shop but I wouldn't be able to experiment as much because I'd run out of room in my apartment! Etsy has given me the freedom to create. I don't know why there are less men on etsy, maybe they're just not interested. Maybe the first commenter on the article summed it up. If its not getting them off or its not something they really need men just aren't interested. Women like the impulse buy. Maybe its as simple as that. I don't know...any opinions?

Nothing like brown baggin it!

Sittin in the park drinkin, cold, and watchin Carl play some softball. I hope I'm not a bad luck charm...

Another night at the ballet

Tonight I'm seeing Giselle and its supposed to be amazing. I wish had someone to share this with but I guess that's why have you all.

I'm currently standing in line waiting to go in. It's just me and a lot of old people. I was hoping they'd be open so I could run in and pee but no I've got to wait. I'm off to do my pee pee dance.

New Knitty

Go, enjoy, knit!

Poldark!

I finally found someone selling both volumes of the original production of Poldark. I spent the weekend watching 4 of 8 discs while spinning, dyeing and even doing my accounting homework. How managed to squeeze nearly 12 hours of movie watching in between all that work I will never know. I got a bunch dyed, including all the club orders which are drying and should ship out in a day or two!

My spinning is getting much better too. I finished this 5 oz batt of angora/alpaca blend and start on some awesome merino from LuLu's Yarns (I might have that name wrong but I know she's on etsy so Lux something so search for that undersellers. She was my secret pal last year and her stuff is gorgeous).

Tha cabled jacket is starting to frustrate me so were taking a break for a day or two. I managed to finish one shetland shopper on friday and it's great for holding almost anything. I can't wait to go to the "country" and got to some farmstands and fill it up.

I guess the weekend is over and I should get back to the after work relaxation.

woo..

New Twist Collective! These little gators are so stinkin cute! And this sweater is awesome! I need to resist buying the pattern...

 

Does this mean the new Knitty will be up soon?

Lazy Saturday

I should be doing my work for accounting class but instead I'm working on the Cabled Riding Jacket for our Ireland trip. I'm just about done with the charted bit and then I have to spend some time trying to understand the written instructions. Hopefully this will all happen today.

Tonight we have yet another birthday dinner for my brother (he turned 30 on May 23rd, man is he getting old hahaha). And afterwards Carl and I are going to get back to planning his little trip. Of course this trip means I can't go to Sock Summit this year but  sometimes you just have to be selfless. Poor me, I have to go to Ireland instead...

I doubt any will care but I'm very excited so I'm going to share. I finally found someone on ebay who was selling the complete Poldark Mini-Series for Region 1! I don't know if any of you ever watched this but I used to love it when I was kid. I used to check every PBS station, no matter where I was, to see if I could catch an episode. I've been looking for the tapes or DVDs for my little (read: HUGE and obsessive) movie collection for years. Last night at about 11pm I had a feeling I should check ebay one more time and there it was. And the seller had 8 copies! EIGHT! And now he has 7. I can't wait for them to get here. Hopefully I can kick Carl out of the house for a few nights so I can hunker-down on the couch and watch. And one want to take a cute, nice, funny, half Argentine man for a couple nights? But you have to give him back!

OT: I'm currently watching How Clean is Your House and they have a blind man vacuuming and waxing the wood around the house. I'm very impressed that he does all the things he does. He spends his day riding horses and mucking stalls....very impressive.

OK back to work... 

Just Wonderful

I'm on the bus headind back from the ballet and it was wonderful. I think it might be my new favorite. The second act was amazing. The men had some impressive passes across the stage. There were moments where they seemed to stop in mid-air. All in all a great night out, even if I was all on my own. Though I will never understand why some people think jeans are appropriate attire for a friday night at the ballet...

Despite the Rain...

Summer is here!

Last summer I started treating myself to ballet tickets for the summer. I just love the ballet and tonight is my first night of the summer. I'm seeing Le Corsaire which will be filled with lovely male dancers. Sadly, my favorite, Angel Corella, isn't dancing tonight. He's just beautiful. He's leap, he's turns...I could watch him for hours. Made I'll get to see him next time.

Look at him he's just gorgeous!



The other sad thing about the ballet is that I have to go alone. Carl tried to go with me once and just hated it. Sometimes I can rope a friend into coming but its rare. I'm going to grow up to be one of those little old ladies who go to the ballet alone. I should bring my knitting as practice!

Have a happy friday everyone!

Yum...

Just made some sour dough. I can't wait for it to cool so I can eat it already. I hope it tastes as good as it looks. We really need to get a good bread knife one of these days.

I wish you could smell it...its wonderful!

Mothers Day Update

I finished Mom's present early last week, gave them to her on Sunday and she absolutely loved them! She makes a great foot model too! I used the Althea pattern by Kirsten Kapur and 2 skeins of Louet Gems. She's on a pink-kick at the moment so she was super excited to have pink socks. We then ate some breakfast and headed over to Flying Fingers in Tarrytown so she could find some yarn. Of course she found all sorts of pinky things she wanted and of course I fell off the wagon and bought 14 skeins of yarn to make the Cabled Riding Jacket from Loop-d-Loop. In my defense, I only did this because I knew I would only make the thing if I actually bought the yarn for it so I seized the moment and made the purchase. The silk shawl I'm working on is about a finished. I need to pick up more yarn for the edging but I haven't decided what I want to do yet so I'm going to put that down till the weekend and swatch for the jacket.

 

I think I was inspired to make the jacket 1) because it gorgeous and 2) because I'm in the process of planning Carl's 30th birthday trip to Ireland. I know its an extravagant gift but I love the kid and he really wants to go so I'm scrounging up the cash and scouring the travel guides to find the absolute cheapest way to do this trip. So basically, if I'm not working, dyeing (shop update this week woo) or knitting I'm looking at flights and hotels and destinations...so if you have any tips, ideas or deals you know of please send them my way! I was originally planning to go during the off-season but things changed and we're now going at the end of August so my planning has been ramped up.

 

Ok back to work...I'm a busy busy bee!

You spin my head right round right round...

I got to spend the afternoon trying out my first ever spinning wheel. I love love love my wheel and I'm so sad that I have to hide it at mom's till I'm able to clear out enough space (as dictated by Carl) to bring it home. I guess I'm going to be spending a lot more time with mom. Anyway, today a managed to spin up a 4 ounce batt of merino and tencel that I bought from CJKopec a long long time ago and its beautiful. Ok it lumpy and bumpy but it still beautiful to me. I only have the one single so I wonder what I will ply it with...also I probably should invest in a lazy kate so plying will be easier. Anyone have any pointers for plying?I'm sure I'll spin up something this weekend and will want to ply right away.

Yeah! Yarn!

I managed to squeeze in one knitting store, Great Balls of Yarn in West Palm Beach. It was great and there was a really cute puppy and the ladies were so nice. Carl waited in the car which I thought was a bad move since they apparently ply the men with beer to keep them happy while they wait. I only bought two things. Some yarn to make this cute sideways sweater they had as a sample and a little something for Karen (a.k.a Ms. Choo Choo Knits).

We're off to the pool for some sun (and some poolside knitting)