Uncle Leona's Day Camp

Take it! Take another little piece of my stash now baby!

We had a fun little stash reduction project presented at our knitting guild last week, a diagonal garter scarf. Everyone brought bits and pieces of their stash to share, we all cut off pieces to knot up and roll in a ball the size of a grapefruit, then with a simple pattern, you see what happens. I finished up the scarf during TV viewing over the weekend.

As I took this picture, all I could visualize was Janis Joplin. It's my swift and Bobby McGee. Will I ever wear it? Who knows? It's still a fun project. Besides, my niece hasn't seen it yet; she has a tendency to stake claims.

I think I mentioned a while back that I was dyeing my own fiber on a whim. Well, I spun and plied the southwestern rainbow stuff with some black stuff that I boiled up in a cauldron (and felted a little...live and learn). The results? 200 yarns of cool:

What will it become? Who knows? It still turned out cooler than I thought it would. Best yet, it was a nice little home workshop on what to do and, more importantly, what not to do when dyeing your own fiber.

I did have some leftover black stuff that I didn't spin right away. It does have a use, though.

A long lost cousin, I guess.

A button for the overwhelmed

Just in case anyone else out there is thinking that this little knitalong may be the end of them, too. I'm not sure why I'm feeling this sense of impending knitting doom. I mean, I'm a pretty fast knitter, I don't require a lot of help, and I do have vacation time in the middle of this thing.

(Thanks to all for the support for the size 3 Addi Turbo, by the way. I plan on forwarding all of your comments to the TSA representatives at Cleveland Hopkins Airport.)

My Mom has been the one with the most commentary as to the insanity of my goal. She just doesn't understand the psyche of a trained athlete, I suppose.

Or is that psychosis? Whatever.

As far as stash reduction, the Fab Freebie Boucle Pullover's front is done. I'm also working on a mindless stockinette pullover in Debbie Bliss Cathay (it's mindless once the edging is done):

And the obligate extreme close-up:

I'm loving this yarn. It's a cotton/silk/microfiber blend that just feels wonderful to the hand (remember: I hate silk). The stitch definition is also amazing. I'm hoping this and the boucle will be close to done once February 10 arrives.

I'm a dreamer.

This Olympics may be tougher than I thought

Upon further review (yep, I've been watching far too much football), the fair isle is going to be a bitch to finish in 16 days. I'm going to have to figure out some way to do two color knitting on that airplane, starting with how to get the Addi Turbo on board without someone thinking I'm a terrorist.

"Everybody stay calm....she's packing a size 3!"

But I'm not going to change my mind. This is the ultimate challenge. The Olympics.

I'm doomed.

Speaking of doomed, I'm posting at this moment from work thanks to the death of my DSL line at home. I'm supposed to see the SBC weasels today. I'm guessing that "he'll be there between 9 and 5" will mean he'll show at 4:45. As long as it's fixed, I'll be content. I'm a broadband junkie in need of a fix.

This is the only Olympics that'll accept me

As many of you may know by now, Stephanie, aka The Yarn Harlot, is hosting The Knitting Olympics. The rules are pretty simple: cast on a project after the flame is lit and finish before the torch goes out (16 days). Now, I am, without question, the world's biggest Olympics Junkie (yes, that's with the proverbial capital "J"). I plan on spending some quality time in front of a television for that fortnight (and that includes the time I'm in Santa Clara...anyone know a good sports bar?). I need my every four year crash course in the intricacies of bobsled steering and the difference between a lutz and a toe loop.

Yep. I'm a sick, sick, little fanatic.

So, in the spirit of the Games, I will embrace the "Citius, Alitius Fortius" ideal and attack an item that has been languishing in the bottom of a yarn basket for several years.

This is a kit I got a while ago--I'm making the exact color combo on the cover. This should prove to be interesting. I've never steeked. I've never cut my knitting.

Well, not intentionally anyhow.

My experience with fair isle is one golf club cover and a class I took at Stitches East two years ago in anticipation of doing this vest. This ought to be good. But no one said being an Olympian was easy.

I can just see me on the Wheaties box now.

I did start up a new sweater today using one of those fab freebie patterns off of the Garnstudios site. I'm using the boucle I got at Halcyon Yarns in August--I need to empty out Ikealand in anticipation of the Stitches West booty. This is the ribbing:

The excitement is palpable, isn't it?

Over the weekend, I got a little creative. I won some dye off of eBay, so I grabbed a little bit of leftover Blue Faced Leicester and attempted to do a little rainbow dyeing in the oven. I spun it into singles this evening before Grady decided it was a meal. I was going for a Southwestern color palette:

I'm going to ply it with a solid--probably black. We'll see what happens. Next time, more turquoise, less coral. I think.

I have found the motherlode

Well, as predicted, the Jennifer Guernsey made up in record time:

I may have to turn on the air conditioning when I wear this puppy. It does need a good Eucalan soak to de-barn the wool, but otherwise it's ready to go. Of course, the weather gurus are now predicting that we're going to have another warm-up this week; no snow in the forecast for at least 10 days. If you study Uncle Leona's Almanac, however, you will see exactly when the next major winter storm will hit the Greater Cleveland area....

Thursday, February 16 just before 7 AM. That's when I need to be at the airport. I hate flying.

This morning provided one of the nicest little web surfing gems I have found in a very long time. While I was looking to see what a mohair boucle sweater should look like (I'm hopeful that I won't knit myself up into some semblance of a poodle), I came upon the Garnstudio's free pattern library. Whoa. Just enter a gauge, and you're given a ton of beautiful patterns for FREE!

That would be gratis, no cost, cheapskate friendly patterns. And most of them aren't goofy looking. Some are, but what can you expect? I printed up about five right from the get go; we'll see what happens. I'm just happy that most are sized for the ample bosom of the Germanic heritaged among us.

Thank God for Scandinavia.

God bless size 13

There is nothing more satisfying than a project that moves along at light speed. So goes Jennifer's Guernsey. Thanks to a spinner who decided to create a lazy girl's yarn (yeah, that would be me...), I have managed to finish the back:

and part of the front

in one day. That's right, thanks to size 13 needles and 2 1/2 stitches to the inch, I've plowed through nearly half a sweater. I love this. So far, I'm pretty happy. The only issue is that I will likely run out of yarn before I finish the second sleeve. Not to fear: I actually have Blue Faced Leicester roving in my stash. Go figure. For those of us relatively new to the spinning thing, I must recommend the BFL roving; it's like buttah.

Yes, it will be a heavy sweater. I live in Northeast Ohio; it will be used. Likely quite frequently.

Poo.

I received a long-awaited letter in the mail today. I now have my homework assignments for Stitches West! Woo hoo! I can smell California now! OK, maybe it's just my Tropical Breeze Arrid Extra Dry, but you get the general gist.

I received a nice note from Jewel about meeting up at Stitches West. I'm all for it! So, if anyone out there is thinking of heading out to Santa Clara, let me know. I'd love to meet up with some of youse guys over a beverage or two. I'll be there for the Market on Thursday, then for classes all day Friday and Saturday--I'm available in the evenings every night right now, but I have a suspicion I may be meeting up with some folks off of my golf board while I'm out there as well.

It's good to be loved.

I don't think bivalves like me

I have never been the biggest fan of seafood, but over the years, the palate has been able to enjoy several sea creatures without any issues. That includes sushi. I heart sushi. Anyhow, I was having a craving yesterday for a little bait on rice, so I headed off to one of our local Japanese restaurants. After perusing the menu for a while, I decided to take a chance on something different: a roll with spicy (yet uncooked) scallops. I was feeling oh so courageous.

Now I'm feeling oh so stupid.

As a child, I distinctly remember my father being violently ill after eating fresh from the ocean clams in Nova Scotia. Apparently, he has done that twice. His seafood eating has paralleled mine (that is, we both have had our tastes change over in our thirties), so I have made it a point to steer clear of clams. Why I thought another bivalved mollusk would be safe, especially an uncooked one, is beyond me.

Yep. I was violently ill. Both ends. Finally ate a meal again this morning (oatmeal with apples and cinnamon...yum). I'll stick with the fish next time, thank you.

I did finish a new project after all of the fun yesterday, though. At one of our LYS, I saw this made up. It looked like a quick, different thing to try, so I tried it.

It's basically a simple feather and fan scarf with a loopy border, but the border is beaded. I used some wonderful ArtYarns supermerino and Rowan Kidsilk Haze. The only real headache on this pattern is the threading of the beads, and even that isn't too miserable with a good skinny needle (which I thankfully have). The pattern is from the shop--sorry, I don't think I'm at liberty to give it out. It turned out very nice. Too bad I don't do scarves with my parka. I'll try to remember it for Stitches West. It doesn't snow in Santa Clara, does it???

For those who were concerned, the garage door got fixed, but not without the obligate "You really need a new garage door" comment from the repair guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah...get in line. The house needs painting first.

Next on the needles will be a stash buster of more handspun:

Gauge? 2 1/2 stitches to the inch on size 13's. This should be quick.

Hostage Crisis in Westlake, Ohio....film at 11

GM was desperate. I received not one, but two pleas for me to turn in my leased Saab three months early (on their dime) if I leased a new GM vehicle. I've been lusting after the new Pontiac G6 sedan for a while now, so I figured I'd give it a test drive. Well, long story short, I was signing on dotted lines not too long after the test drive (more car for $60 less a month? Hello? Momma didn't raise no dummy here!). Wanna see it? Here you go:

No, the garage door isn't supposed to look like that. When I closed the door last night, I heard a thunk.

As a rule, a thunk is not good. Remember that.

Anyhow, once I got back out to the garage, the door was moving up and down over about a half inch distance. I grabbed the "rip cord" on the door opener, which was supposed to release the door from the opener. Well, my Herculean strength snapped the cord in two.

OK, it could have been the worn nature of the rope, but I digress.

The door did manage to free itself of the door opener, however, and all of the machinery shut off. Unfortunately, the door was jammed shut. On inspection, I found a snapped cable, a bent track, and a wheel that came off the track at the top of the door. I now have a beautiful new car trapped in a garage. Thankfully, I haven't turned in the Saab yet, so I do have transportation. The door gets fixed tomorrow. So much for Christmas cash.

On a more happy note, the days are counting down quickly to Stitches West. I realized recently, however, that I haven't completely used all of the stuff I got at Stitches East a few years ago. Most notably, this mohair:

Why do I need to use it? Other than the logic of using up stuff I bought whilst cutting my last swath through the Stitches Market, it's this:

It wasn't purchased as a Grady toy.

Kato denies all involvement, of course: