Stash: future Van Doesburg

I need to take frequent breaks from the jellyfish shawl (see post below) so of course I'm always poking around on Ravely or someone's blog.

I realized a couple of days ago that while up here in the mountains I have worn my

Aestlight Shawl from The Shetland Trader practically non-stop.  I also have one skein of The Sanguine Gryphon Little Traveller left in my stash, so I'm thinking of using it for

Lisa Mutch's Van Doesburg shawl.  I always need something to "counter" lace/colorwork or to have to work on in the car, and this looks like it might fit the bill.

Lisa is Northboundknitting and has wonderful yarns and patterns.  I'm sitting on my hands NOT to order yarn for her shawl though ... too bad for her LOL.  I still have a lovely skein of hers that I won in a giveaway -- when I get ready to use it, I will look for "more" or something else to go with it on her etsy.com site. I've been working on Lisa's Variance during the holiday season in the car and am probably 80% finished with it.

 I do really like the Little Traveller and hope that one of the "new" companies out of The Sanguine Gryphon will be re-issuing the yarn.  It is "sproongy" but very very comfortable -- not scratchy nor does it make you "sweaty."

Back to the jellyfish! 

2012 and getting organized, in the best ways we can

Thanks to a link on the aplayfullday podcast blog, Tami at Tami's Amis and other creations has a nice little plug for WIP Wednesdays and FO Fridays ..  we all think about these from time to time, but this is a nice way to put a little more structure into all our goals

.... which seem to be everywhere in the knitting world:  WORK ON THE STASH.  (ps.  good luck!) I know I'm going to have a hard time with that as I'm always finding some new "eye candy" yarn that I THINK I need. :)

2012 .... moving forward!

I had actually thought I would put the blog on hiatus, but have reconsidered!  I've played around with putting knitting items I like up on Posterous, on tumblr .... there are just too many places and I just need to get organized LOL.  I also  try not to get on Pinterest too often -- I can spend an entire day there!

SO.  I do have a few knitting goals for 2012:  work on finishing up my (many) "beloved" WIPs, and work on knitting down the stash.  AND I want to knit a sweater for myself -- it has been years since I've made anything but the "box style" early EZ type.  And I so have to smile -- yes, I did a lopi YEARS ago.  As much as I love colorwork, I don't really need to do one of them again.  They are warm, and I don't live in Russia anymore LOL.

We are winding up our stay in the Sierra California mountains (still no snow this year!) and I'm trying to finish a very fun project: (progress shot)

the blue cable section is quite long; I haven't measured it yet.  I won't be able to take a full-length shot until I get home though:  there are no "plain" surfaces up here on which to get a shot that is not "mountain wood".

                                     the jellyfish scarf from Interweave Knits Accessories 2011

I'm using Shibui Silk cloud in ivory for the "jellyfish" part (2nd part of pattern) and have used  "wrought iron colorway" mohair lace from Margaret from french market fibers on etsy.com.  The cable part of the pattern with the inky blue mohair is really nice, and the ivory part with the Shibui Silk cloud is going well.  My scarf doesn't look quite as ruffly though -- but it will still be fun to wear!  The mohair is light and fluffy, but oh-so-warm, so I'm hoping that I get good use out of it.
From the yarn(s) websites:
Shibui Silk cloud

unfortunately I didn't take a photo of the skein of mohair lace from Margaret, so we'll have to wait for my FO project.  I have 10 grams left from the original 50 grams, so I may try and play around with that in a photo.

I'm using size US8 Addi Natura circular needles -- they grab the mohair and silk well!

Holi-days, December 2011

I hadn't realized that hubby had linked my blog to our annual Christmas e-letter -- so if you have found me from there .....

Happy Holidays!  Still no snow for skiing in the Sierra.  Last year there was TOO much snow; this year ... well, maybe by New Year's?

In the meantime, I'll going to eventually stop eating Christmas goodies and try and get some knitting in LOL 

Baking along .....

So much for posting every day!

But this week  I've been doing lots of baking, so I thought I'd post my/our favorite family recipes for cookies and candy. Each recipe is doubled or tripled, so there has been lots of mess, flour and butter and ... listening to great Xmas music.  Let's just say there haven't  been fancy dinners though!


Peppermint Crunch Bark  (All time FAVORITE/move over William-Sonoma)
  (you MUST be prepared to hunt down Lundt white chocolate -- in 4.4 oz bars)

Cranberry Jewels cookies

Chocolate fudge from the Marshmallow fluff jar recipe (shock! but the best!)

Mexican Wedding Cake cookies from Rose's Christmas cookie book

James Beard's Quick Cranberry Bread

that's all for this week so far!  Tomorrow -- black and whites, and maybe something "new".

December 1st .... hopeful

Did you know there is a Yule Goat? I like to think the "bag" below is full of knitting yarn for knitters around the world :)

All "holiday celebrations" aside, I'm almost stunned to realize today is December 1st.

We've had a busy and complicated year, and I don't want to count the combined times hubby (mostly hubby) and I have packed and unpacked suitcases during the year.

I'm hoping for a quiet December, and I made a huge push to get Christmas shopping done by today.  We helped family members during the year, so basically I just needed to take care of "stocking stuffers".  That is done, and Amazon.com has taken care of the rest LOL

So I'm looking forward now to some quality knitting time, and yesterday I spent time with my swift, winding balls of yarn that hopefully will become fabulous knitted gems.  Some of the items I wound yarn for:

Ziggity shawl  (photo from Ravelry designer page)

I have some Madelinetosh tosh merino light in gray and ginger for this!

An early Xmas present from Swans Island Yarns arrived for Kate Davie's funchal moebius 

and
a lovely giveaway by the "aplayfulday" podcast and Lisa of NorthboundKnitting  netted me a SUPER skein of Lisa's BFL fingering in a shimmery blue sea-foam color .... I'm in love.  {Lisa is lisa312 on Ravelry if you want to check out her designs and more of her yarns.} 

I think I'm going to give myself a gift this month and try and blog every day ... it should be fun!

Happy December!

Glorious Fall

We're back in the US - both the husband and myself!  Kazakhstan  this summer was wonderful to return to, and oh-so-bitter sweet to leave again.  After returning in late September, we both sort of got over jet lag, and then hubby was off again to Geneva for a few weeks.

We met up last week in Virginia for a family wedding, and have just returned.  We had hoped to go up to the mountains immediately, but the kitchen upgrade my brother- in -law arranged in September isn't quite finished yet, so we are back in our Sacramento home for a week.  THEN we hope to go up to the mountains!

While in VA, I had some time to myself and had two or three trips to the Fibre Space knitting store in Alexandria, VA.  Oh my.  Fabulous place -- saw the new Brooklyn Tweed LOFT yarn, saw the Viola brand for the first time and more.  I came away with a few goodies:

This magazine:

,

I had seen the issue before and hadn't thought I'd make much in it.  At a second glance though, there are quite a few accessories I really liked, so I was happy to pick it up.

Santa came early -- the shop had Jordana Paige bags, and one was on my Xmas list.

 The bag is put away and waiting for wrapping.

I also had fun getting some  yarn for a Issey scarf

by Olgajazzy (photo from her Ravelry pattern page) and

some needles that I've not used before (the ChiaoGoo lace needles w/a red cable). I needed a size to work on a travel project, and do like the points and the cable.  The stainless steel  metal is quite rigid, but I quickly got used to it.  I guess I still am a "polished" Addi circular girl at heart though!

While sitting and knitting, I met a woman and her husband who live in Bethesda/Silver Spring  but originally come from New Orleans.  Of course we had a conversation about ... food :) She is also a dyer and has a shop on Etsy! and a new blog for her fiber updates at french market fibers .  I'm looking forward to trying her items!

Brooklyn Tweed's LOFT yarn was lovely, but I actually didn't buy any.  It is fingering weight, tweedy,  and has great yardage.  But I actually have plenty of Scandinavian/Norwegian yarn like that, so for me it wasn't a "must buy."  It was lovely to "see it in person" though.  Fibre Space also stocks SHELTER, so it was nice to see all that, too.  The shop is GREAT -- elegant yarns, great sitting area, near to a nice area and very easily accessible from the King Street metro stop. Fun!!

First Day of School

We are still in Kazakhstan, and it is the first day of school.  That means, like almost every place else in the world, summer comes to an end and we all get back to some sort of schedule or rhythm.  It also means we have about 3.5 weeks left here, and then we'll be back home!  Yay!

Today I'm going shopping to get a few things that are hard to find in the US -- you know. like my favorite Faber- Castel pencils with erasers

and a manti steamer (metal steamer to steam any type of dumplings).  We like to make manti the way our friend Laura G (this is not her recipe though) does, and you really need a proper pot.  Here they make a different/larger type and I finally found a photo of a steamer!

And in preparation for eventual packing and trying to keep some sanity in my life, yesterday I organized my WIPs and stash that I have here, and tidied up stash/project info on Ravelry.  Now I can go into the fall with "photos" of what I have on the needles ready to get finished.  I have a couple of small projects I hope I can finish very soon, but need to keep working on these (and more....):

I also tidied up my stash photos -- sometimes I had to add photos from the web but now I can also "see" what I have.  That's why I "joined" Ravelry in the first place "so" many years ago -- to keep track of what I have.  "Who Knew" that it would turn out to be such a fabulous place for us all?

I couldn't stand not blocking this, so I tried a new method LOL -- steam iron.  Somehow, the wool was not affected and it turned out lovely.  The Aestlight shawl from The Shetland Trader - at least something got finished ROFL!

10,000 Hours knitting project

I "belong" to a lot of groups on Ravelry, mostly to gleam information from generous knitters who have already knit a project that I current am doing or plan to do.  Periodically I go through my group list and "leave the group" if I really haven't checked it for a while.

This morning, on the Art Knitters group I found a link to a 10,000 Hours project. Laura I. is taking the premise of it "taking 10,000 hours to become a master at something" to her knitting, and documenting her progress along the way.  Quite interesting!  And what a "job" LOL to document everything.  I imagine a lot of us have put in hours and hours and hours over the years, but never think about how these "minutes" add up.

Many knitters are like me:  we like to knit for many reasons. .  But I suspect those "lots of reasons" really boils down to the love of learning something new about the craft of knitting.  I'm always taking on a project because "I've not done that before."  This weekend I want to finish the 2nd sock of a pair that I used "Fleegle's heel" on -- a fun, strange knit, but it gives you a heel that fits like a dream.

This fall I will start "Knitting From the Library."  I have hundreds of pdfs in my Ravelry library, tons of magazines, tons of books and a ton of stash.  I've invested in some Signature circulars this summer, hoping that those dreamy needles will help me keep to projects and not get too diverted.  I of course am waiting with many others for Signature to come out with the smaller sizes as  I use so many circulars for magic loop, in the size 0, 1 and 2 size.

But for a while ... wish me luck on the WIPs I have with me! 

Social Media and Ravelry

I joined the Google+ group on Ravelry as soon as I joined up with Google+, but honestly haven't had a chance to look at the threads.  I peek at Google+ as often as I can, but have had more time in the last few days.  I now see I've "missed" a Google+Rav KAL ... but it's making me go and read the threads on the group ...

which is GREAT because I've discovered there is a database now for Rav/Google+ members.  Wow.  I actually started adding people to my Google+circles but then realized .... ummm .... there are over 800+ people in the database.  Wow.  So I'm just going through the database to see if there is anyone I recognize and adding them.  It will be interesting to see what we all do with Google+ as Rav people.

Otherwise, August is marching along.  The light is changing in the mornings ... kind of weird after bright early early morning sunshine.  I started the WestKnits Mystery KAL but didn't like my yarn combinations and then realized I'm not in love with the whole design so far (I know I'm in a tiny minority in that!).  Anne Hanson's Knitspot Fall in Color Club has just started with the first pattern release on 8/15, so I'll be busy working on that scarf.

We don't have much more time here before we go home mid-Septemberish -- can't wait.  It will be a little strange to go into warm weather though in Sacramento -- it's been coolish here in Kz most of the summer, with some warm days and then a day like today where I have a sweater on.

Meanwhile .. back to looking at the Google+ Rav member list!