Sock Virgin....

Well, I *was*... I think I'm partially de-flowered at this point, but in an embarassing kind of I've-been-caught-at-second-base-while-parked-in-a-car-with-a-boy-by-a-cop way. Not that that ever happened to er, anyone, um, I know. So, back to the sock... I'm definitely not photographing my progress at this point because I'm convinced that I have done something horribly wrong with the heel turn. I'll blame it on too much sun at the cottage while kayaking (soooo much fun, by the way), on super cold ocean water that I braved up to my ankles, and on knitting while in the car in I-95 Memorial Day erratic traffic. In any case, no photo-evidence until I can self-correct. (Hey, I'll even be optimistic and add a condition 'or until I determine that I've done everything right'.)

Just saw X-Men 3.... loved it. Mmmm, Wolverine. ;-)

Wednesday Night Stitch & Bitch

I refuse to cease and desist.

It was awfully quiet last night... just Jessica and myself for most of the time with a newbie - Angie - joining us a little later. We had to reassure her that there were normally more than TWO people at the New Haven Stitch & Bitch... I'm not sure if she believed us. :-)

Did I mention that I have an 18 hour car trip (each way) coming up next weekend? Yes, we're *driving* to Sydney, Nova Scotia to attend a wedding - slightly crazy yet an exciting adventure since neither of us have been back to Nova Scotia since we first met there on (obviously) separate vacations in 1999. My cathartic bicycle tour through Nova Scotia netted a wonderful man with a fine taste in literature (I started talking to him because he was reading Camus' "L'etranger") and music (one of our first dates was at a Middle East Hometown Throwdown Mighty, Mighty Bosstones concert - if you live in Boston, you know what this is... one of our later but still early dates was Great Big Sea at Avalon on St. Patrick's Day). So, where was I? Yes, THIRTY-SIX hours in the car (my god, are we crazy?) next week, so I will need to pack some knitting to do while it's my turn at Navigator. :-) I see my first pair of socks being christened my "Nova Scotia Car-Ride Socks".

Second Scarf Progress

A-ha, my second scarf is still pretty puny (less than 1 ft long), but the sun is out! The sun is out! This 2 x 2 ribbing is technically the backside, but I don't think the pattern is officially published by Alchemy yet, so I just peekabooed the other, more interesting side here. Hopefully, I'll be able to photograph the whole thing by the time I've finished.

And this is Aston, jumping onto the sunny (yet slightly dirty) windowsill. I blame my lack of housecleaning thoroughness on my lack of houseguests here in New Haven. Somehow, for me, houseguests = clean house. No houseguests = more slovenly behaviour. I guess incentive for me getting a "real" job (i.e., an engineering job) is that my salary would then support a cleaning lady. :-) That could be nice. In fact, that could be totally decadent.

Anyway, where was I? So, the scarf is coming along and here are some pics of the fibre's former owner:
Frankly, I can't remember her name - I think it is Dreamweaver, but I'm really not sure. I'm such a fibre slut - not even bothering to stop and pay attention to my fibre's provenance!

Boston vs. New Haven

2,082 members of Boston's Stitch n' Bitch. Two THOUSAND eighty two members. I think I'm going to miss New Haven's cozy 221 members... oh, and 24 different weekly meeting places ?! ... including three in Cambridge alone (including one at Red Line which is a martini bar next to Woolcott & Co., my former LYS)... I guess I do have options... but then again, when I lived in Boston until 2004, I never "went out to knit". I wonder if I'll revert back to this behaviour...

Martinis and Good Company

Zarzuela's post about our amazing group of New Haven knitters said it best. What a group of lovely and talented women! I'm sad to be relocating yet again and leaving this community. Our martini outing on Saturday night was filled with interesting conversation and (surprisingly) only minimal talk of knitting.

So, I've been working on this for little "Octavian":

The baby is due in October, so I'm hoping to have more than a foot blankie done by then.

...yesterday, I finished the incredible reversible cable (Ruby Cable) scarf by Lauren for Alchemy in dark brown llama wool. Unfortunately, I wasn't sure that I'd wear a brown scarf since I wear a lot of black and accessorize with dark red (the yarn looked black when it was in the skein)... so, I offered a trade - I gave the finished scarf to my M-I-L and I got more llama yarn in a colour I might wear. This off-white/beige colour is combined fibre from Molly and Dreamweaver:

Ok, the colour is kind of wonky between photos, but please, it's still grey, dreary and raining - so hard to get good natural light!

Running out of llama wool...

I'm almost done with the incredible reversing cable scarf (designed by Lauren for Alchemy) or rather, I'm almost out of llama yarn (this yarn shortage is a recurring theme for me these days). I may get another skein of the llama stuff this weekend if we go to visit my M-I-L for Mother's Day... a plan in the works and dependent on the progress of Brendan's evil dissertation. This paucity of yarn may lead me to cast on the Egyptian cotton and get cracking on this blankie that will take me *forever*. Here is the yarn haul from my Canadian trip last weekend - only four skeins to make a small-ish (car seat) blanket. It's hard to make out the pattern, but it is under the navy blue clothing in the photo here. I cast on and got an inch or so done last night - it looks good, but man is it ever fine... wow. The tiniest cables ever.

Yarn Rigamarole

Back from a lovely visit to the Motherland over the weekend - one where I visited my alma mater, spent time with my sister, brother-in-law and my niece and visited a favourite (former) LYS. The idea was to get more Lemoine Point yarn to finish this... unfortunately, the cupboard is bare. Yep, that's right, I'm going to have to frog this and come up with a simpler (i.e., less yarn intensive pattern) but still exterior friendly pattern. *sigh* The yarn is unprocessed so it has that lanolin feel and is a tad bit scratchy (perfect for the fisherman knit sweater I "designed" and knit for B) but not perfect for every pattern - it's definitely an outerwear yarn. I bought a whole whack of this stuff for B's sweater, then used it for the Aran pillow and then estimated that I'd have enough for the VK 2002 sweater. The owner of said LYS had bought 400 lbs of fleece from the farmer, washed it and stuff and then sent it off to be spun (read: LIMITED quantity). She sold her last skeins recently so I'm definitely out of luck.

But since I was there.... I *did* buy 100% Egyptian Cotton yarn from Norway ("Sandnes" of Norway), more addis (3mm, 60 cm), and a huge-ish patternbook of babystuff. The "mandarin Petit" is in white for a nautical themed baby blanket - my friend grew up in Barbados, so I thought it was appropriate for her baby. No?

To Canada!

...until Saturday, anyway. Not.Long.Enough. Trying to get into The Wool Room in Kingston on Saturday morning and pick up some more local wool.... more on that later.

The Baby Llama has Arrived!

Yay! So, after picking Brendan up from the Providence airport, we popped into my in-laws to say hello yesterday afternoon. The llama had just been born - it is a "he" - first boy llama born there after two girls. He was 3 weeks late for their normal 1 year gestation period. His mum, Contessa was doing well. Hell, *he* was doing well considering he was FOUR HOURS old when I saw him and took these photos. I guess that llamas start humming when they're going to give birth, so yesterday morning my M-I-L found all the llamas (there are seven) standing around together, humming. Contessa's last crea, now fully grown, Molly, was very confused all day because her mum was humming away but not with/to her. At noon, Contessa gave birth to this long-legged cutie. He has no name yet, but she wants to call him "Kokopelli"? It's an original idea... though probably won't be teaching the little crea how to play the flute anytime soon. :-) My vote was for "Java" or "Cocoa", hee hee or "Coco Crisp" but then what if *he* ever became a Yankee? So, city girl me was amazed by this miracle of nature, i.e., giving birth to a thing that huge with no medical assistance. Yowzers.

I have to confess that I'm sooo much more interested in the llamas (selfishly) now that I'm knitting with llama wool. If I keep feeding my M-I-L knitting patterns and help, maybe she'll keep hitting me with more fibre. A girl can dream. :-)