Tagged!

Yay! I love this kind of thing! I have been tagged by Stilaholic Nartian Knits with the Wikipedia Birthday Meme, which I did over here on the non-knitting page.

Next: Black Sheep Stash! DBF buys me YARN! And I come home to Socks that Rock June shipment! Yay!

Black Sheep Gathering Coming Up

I leave Wednesday for Oregon to attend the Black sheep Gathering. I will learn to spin! I will gawk at Sheep! I will purchase a spinning wheel! I will get drunk on Oregon Pinot Noir!
I'm very excited.
Any advice? What to bring, what to buy, what to wear, where to go in Portland or Eugene?

Baby Sweater

Started: Sometime after 5/25/07
Completed: 6/11/07
Yarn: W.West Designs Elysee 55% Wool 45% Rayon 50g/60y 4 balls
Pattern: Daisy by Stephanie Pearl McPhee (Yarn Harlot to you!)
Needles: Clover Bamboo #7s
This little sweater is blocking right now. I'm not sure which of two little baby boys will receive it yet, but since their births are imminent, I thought I should get a move on.
Now I just need to find some cute buttons!
(Does anyone else fear that buttons on baby clothes are a choking hazard? Anyone? Ideas?)

Oh: And did you see the new Summer 07 Knitty is up?

Real Live Wool- Still on the Sheep!

This is Gardenia, a baby Romney Sheep owned by my friend Jan. After a tough start she is still being bottle-fed (That isn't beer. I know it looks like beer but it really isn't beer. Although large beer bottles with nipple attachments would probably sell really well to a certain type of guy...)
Our little knitting group met at Jan's house for a field trip to visit her sheep.
This second photo shows the flock of Romney sheep. These are the ewes and kids. Aren't they out-standing in their field? (Har-Har: I am so easily amused.)
Unfortunately I will be off-island during their shearing this year. However, I will be taking a shearing class at the end of June and will hopefully be able to help next time. Can't you just see me wrestling one of these guys down and stealing their fleece? (And washing, drying, carding...)
Near Future Purchase: Spinning Wheel.
Anyone have any advice for a first-time spinning wheel purchase?

New Sock New Beach

I took my sock to the beach. My knitting recently has been squeezed in between working and diving and relationship and family and writing. New on the needles is this sock, the February Socks that Rock club installment in deliciously warm and cozy wool dyed in stormy colors and named "Monsoon".
Seems rather inappropriate beach knitting: Warm, Stormy, Wooly, Thick and double ribbed. Not to mention: Hello? I just started the FEBRUARY sock club sock...
Also on the needles:
A baby sweater in the wrong gauge.
That Cromarty Aran sweater in the wrong gauge.
A cozy little house sweater was began (in the wrong gauge) and ripped out so I could give DBF the yarn for a baby blanket he is whipping up (yup: That makes project# 3 for the new knitting man! yay!)
This beach trip was a spontaneous side trip during the surface interval between two shore dives he and I did on Saturday. Neither of us had been to this beach park, so after a bumpy off-road truck ride, we grabbed the small cooler and a towel, locked up the dive gear, and hung out at the beach for a bit.
Guess what he said when I pulled the sock out of the cooler and started a new row? Nope. Guess again.
"No fair! I was gonna bring MY knitting then didn't!"
Muh-ah-ha-HAH!

Check Out How Many!

Today I hopped over to the Mosaic Yarn Store site to see how many Hokie Healing squares they have already: Go take a look! Can it really be more than 2000 with more on the way? Incredible.

What have you Knit? MEME!

Bold for stuff you've done, italics for stuff you plan to do one day, and normal for stuff you're not planning on doing.

Afghan
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand
yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with
bananafiber yarn
Domino knitting (=modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo
yarn
Two end knitting
Charity
knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with
circular needles
Baby items
Knitting with
your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffitti knitting (knitting items
on, or to be left on the street)
Continental knitting
Designing
knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Lace
patterns
Publishing a knitting book
Scarf
Teaching a child to knit
American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)
Knitting to make money
Button holes
Knitting
with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian
knitting
Dying with plant colours
Knitting
items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths,
tea cosies...)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular
items) on two circulars
Olympic knitting
Knitting with someone elses handspun yarn
Knitting with dpns
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Bobbles
Knitting
for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting
smocking
Dying yarn
Steeks
Knitting art
Knitting two socks (or other small tubular
items) on two circulars simultaneously
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener BO
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long
Tail CO
Entrelac Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting
Knitting with
selfpatterning/selfstriping/variegating yarn
Stuffed toys
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for
preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless
mitts/armwarmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern
from an online knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting
on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

Hokie Bird and Squares

This morning I mailed off my Hokie Healing squares to Mosaic Yarn Shop. Please, if you can, this is turning into a beautiful project: Take a look at some of the squares they have already gathered!
I worried a little while knitting these. I kept obsessively checking the measurements and worrying that the yarn wasn't nice or soft enough (no local yarn store and all). I obsessed over the Hokie Bird chart because I had never done intarsia before (and ended up falling safely back into semi-fair isle/ semi-intarsia).
Finally I settled into the thought that it is the action of knitting that becomes the prayer, and I relaxed. About that time I noticed that the squares were 32 stitches long. Huh.

Bamboo Socks

My boyfriend is allergic to wool.
I KNOW! Right? But we have decided to try and make it work anyway.
Just kidding!
But to that end, when I found some nice bamboo yarn at the hardware store, I snapped up a couple balls and brought them home. When he saw them, he joked, "What are you making me?" To which I cheerily replied, "Socks! Bamboo socks!" He was shocked, and flattered, and pleased, and a bit confounded (as am I) that they can make yarn out of bamboo.
I immediately cast on for some toe-up socks. He usually only wears socks while working, so these were specific socks that he can wear up at my house where it is cold. Socks for warmth, socks for comfort, socks because and only because his girlfriend loves him.
The ensuing evenings were spent knitting away, and every now and then grabbing his foot and trying on the sock-in-progress. I was obsessed with his feet: Noticing the slope of the point of his toes, the curve of his long arch, the somewhat narrow heel. When I turned the first heel, he showed the amazement of a new knitter: Awe that this tube could be structured into three dimensions, could hug his heel exactly.
When the first sock was done, he remarked, "I've never had a sock that exactly fit my foot before!" He wore the one sock around the house. (It got a bit stretched out. I don't recommend this, since it makes it difficult to compare progress of the second sock. But who was I to resist? He wanted to wear it around the house! Knitter Pride!)
In the meantime, he went back to the hardware store and bought me two more skeins of bamboo yarn, "Just in case" and of his own violition. Of course I took this as the cry of a knitter-to-be: Muggles (especially MALE muggles!) just don't fondle balls of yarn at the hardware store unless they can sense the magic within, right? He apparently told anyone who asked that his girlfriend was knitting him socks! Out of bamboo yarn! And he needed to make sure she had enough of it!
So of course I taught him to knit: His first project can be seen below, and his second project, a knit cap, is currently being reduced in the crown. (12 rows to go!)
Last Tuesday night I completed his socks. The group was over at my house, and he had quietly taken the chair in the corner to work on his knitcap, while the girls gossiped and knit and compared projects and praised him for his plunge into the knitterly arts. When I was done, I knelt before him and slid his socks onto his feet: Feet I had come to know so well as I wrapped each angle in love and yarn.
What do you think?

Bamboo socks:
Pattern: Made it up. Toe-up, short row heel, bit of ribbing at the top cuff.
Needles: 2 circs: knitpicks #2's.
Yarn: Filati Punto Su Punto Bamboo Color 801 "Earth" Two 50g/ 125m balls plus about 12" of a proffered third.
Began: Sometime last month.
Finished: May First.

April Sock Club Yummyness!

Spoiler Alert!
I received my April Socks That Rock in the mail yesterday! I was so surprised because I just assume that everything will take longer to get to Hawaii! It is beautiful: Soft and vibrant and silky. "Walk on the Wild Tide" Merino and silk. The inside of my ballband reads "Black-Tang". I can't wait!
However, since I still have yet to begin my February Monsoon Inside Out socks, maybe these will have to wait.
In the meantime: I scoured the stash and the store for Maroon and Orange yarn for the Hokie blanket squares, and was dissapointed in the selection. I hope I can make quite a few. Just feels right.
And on the needles are the bamboo socks for DBF, almost done. In fact, I should get to work because I have quite a list of knit-wants building!