Call off the search party...

...I'm still here, and still knitting. My week on call ended last Saturday, and on Sunday my parents arrived for a week long visit. I'm back on call on Saturday, and I can't wait. Time spent with my mother is very tiring. Speaking of searching, a knitblogger (whose name/blog I am blanking on - she's a medical student) tagged me for the "7 random things about you" meme a while back. I thought I'd adjust it a bit to: "7 places that you can find yarn in my house" (this doesn't count the yarn I keep in my office at work) The bins, of course. The bookcase. The basket (on top as well as inside) The cheese box The stainless steel picnic basket (at least that's what the thing looks like. For all I know, it could be a lobster trap - we picked it up at a garage sale) And 2 somewhat less traditional storage spots (because everyone has cheeseboxes and picnic basket/lobster trap hybrids sitting around their living room, right?): Check out these handsome souvenir mugs I picked up on the cruise: Surprise! Finally - meet our chest freezer. We don't really need it for food right now. So... I like to think that this gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "Cool Wool". Is it any wonder that I couldn't find the rest of the yarn to knit the Sideways Cardigan? I'm not going to tag anyone for this meme. Instead, I'll run a contest; I'm calling it the "You put yarn WHERE?!? Contest". What's the weirdest place that you've stored yarn in? Post about it on your blog, and leave a link to the post in the comments. On July 1st, I'll select 2 winners - one at random, and one that the cats deem most creative/weird. If you link to this post, your name will be entered twice in the random draw. Posting a photo of the yarn in the hiding place also gets you a bonus entry. If you are blogless, leave an email address in your comment - or take this opportunity to enter the wonderful world of blogging! I can be bribed...

I am an idiot.

At 1 AM this morning (about 4 hours after blocking the Consolation vest), I was looking for some worsted weight " I don't like it enough to save for something I would knit for myself or as a gift" yarn because I need it for a short row class on the cruise. I checked in the various plastic drawers the main stash is in, as well as some of the stash overflow sites. Then, I decided to check inside the closet in our loft. There was a bag there that I recognized from the Eurotrip. It contained 7 or so skeins of Lana Grossa Colore. I probably had enough yarn to knit the Sideways Cardigan, but didn't realize it because it wasn't all stored in the same place. Sigh. I'll have to see how much I enjoy the Consolation Vest, but I have a strong suspicion that it will get frogged when I get home in a week and a half. Since I spit-spliced the ends together, it's going to make a hell of a ball of yarn! Be back on the 18th!

Ukrainian Cat Pelt Yarn

The Downtown Knit Collective Spring Knitter's Frolic was this weekend, and a few skeins of yarn followed me home. I've yet to photograph them, so today I'm showcasing my most unique yarn aquisition of late: Maggie brought it to SnB several weeks back; a Ukrainian supplier sent her to try out. It's mohair, but it doesn't feel as soft as you'd expect. It felt very familiar, and eventually it hit me - it feels like Greedo's fur. His fur is a different texture from Somerset's; it's firmer, and feels more like guard hairs than undercoat. For some reason, the yarn fascinated me, and Maggie was kind enough to give it to me. BTW - Maggie probably has a few skeins of yarn left over from the Frolic; check out her store for updates in the next few days! So now I have to figure out what to knit with it. It's 50g, and I have no idea what the yardage is - it looks like laceweight, so it should be pretty decent. Maybe it would work well as the "knitted curtain" from Mason Dixon Knitting. Whatever it becomes, the project will have to live up to the name "Ukrainian Cat Pelt _____" Hey! What's with all this talk about Cat Pelts? Might I point out that I AM CANADIAN!!!

Finally!

Melinda was kind enough to take a picture of me wearing the Lines In The Sand Sweater at The Purple Purl this afternoon: One of the other women at The Purl was knitting a sock out of Noro sock yarn, and I realized that it was the same colourway as the lighter colourway in my sweater. So even though I had planned to let the Kureyon Sock train pass me by: You got it - Lines In The Sand Socks! (There was no sock equivalent to the darker colourway, so I went with the purple/black). I'm going to split the skeins, and knit the socks toe up. I'll have to figure out what the optimal stripe thickness is - I am guessing 3 or 4 rows. Because I don't already have enough projects waiting to be knit! BTW - note the new background; The Gambler and I finally got around to buying a decent coffee table.

Home is where your stash is.

I'm on call in the ICU this week. I got my day off to a nice early start when I had to head in to the hospital at 3 AM because a patient was crashing. So I ended up spending an inordinate amount of time at work today. But although I was away from The Gambler and the cats, I can't say the same thing about my stash. Here's my desk - see the bottom drawer? I'm hazarding a guess that not many offices in my hospital contain enough Mission Falls yarn to knit Rogue.

I liked it so much...

...I bought all that was on Ravelry! Sadly, I think that the woman who handpainted the yarn for my March Madness Monkey Socks is no longer in business. I was looking to see what other colourways were on Ravelry, and noticed that someone had Knitwerx yarns for sale. So I am now the proud owner of Ravelry's largest Knitwerx stash. Autumn Woods: Raspberry Mousse: Falling Leaves: Plus I've got 2 more skeins of a pink/olive colourway that I bought at the same time I picked up the Monkey sock yarn that I haven't photographed yet...

Stash update

For some reason, my body decided to wake up super early today. What better use of the extra time than taking and uploading stash photos to Ravelry? This is a very belated photo of the Silk Mountain that I got from my supergreat SP 11 Secret Pal. Small world - her upstream was Rochelle, who I know through GTA knitting activites - most recently I been semi-regularly attending a SNB that she belongs to. Some weirdness that I just noticed this morning: Check out the Japanese yarn content listing - what is the 13% it refers to? Vegetable fibre content? This yarn is to be knit into gloves to match a winter coat I just picked up at a local consignment shop: Which brings me to a pet peeve - fingerless gloves. I hate them, or at least the concept of them. If it's cold enough to wear gloves/mitts, I want to cover my whole hand, thankyouverymuch. Think about it - what part of your hands has the largest surface area/size ratio? It's not your palms! And the argument that they can be worn under mitts doesn't convince me - because you are still leaving your fingers with less coverage! Now I am generally a live-and-let-knit kind of person; if you want to spend all of your time and energy knitting dishcloths, or shapeless/matronly sweaters, or representations of internal organs, then you go ahead and do just that. However, the Ravelry pattern browser (which is my knitting pattern source of late) is not sophisticated enough to give one the option to exclude a particular type of garment - so when I search "gloves", I end up having to scroll though dozens of fingerless glove patterns. Although I was quite happy to stumble across these instructions for converting a sock pattern into mittens, because even though my hands are large, mittens are still much faster to knit up than socks, and I am more apt to get lots of wear out of funky mittens than funky socks, or to knit mittens up as a gift for someone else.

Some things never change

When I was young and foolish, I had a boyfriend who was really into music. He would buy a record (because I am old enough to have purchased vinyl records in my youth), tape it, and then we'd listen to the tapes. But he firmly believed (somewhat irrationally) that fast forwarding was hard on cassette tapes. So frequently, when I would suggest we listen to an album, he'd reply "We can't; it's not wound", meaning that we couldn't listen to side A until we had listened to side B. Drove me nuts. Fast forward 23 years (Oh God, I am old!), and I am in the throes of startitis, trying to decide what to cast on next. Kaleidoscope - damn, all 3 sock yarns are still in skeins. Lady of the Lake jacket - Mission Falls wool is ready to go, but the Lorna's Laces is in skeins. That groovy sock yarn that I thought of knitting into Monkeys - skeined. Handspun for Candleflame shawl - skeins. Laceweight for Tuscany - big hank o' silky goodness. Everything I want to knit right this very minute - I can't. It's not wound. Drives me nuts. Yes, I do in fact own both a swift and a ballwinder, but I find winding yarn kind of tedious. Partially because I don't have many convenient surfaces of the right width to accomodate the swift/winder clamps, so I end up with all sorts of weird arrangement, including holding the winder in my hand. Plus I always end up with one end of the yarn hanging free, and it wraps around the winder pole, and then Somerset wants to get in on the action...My life is sooooooo haaaaaaard! But speaking of hanks o' goodness: This is the great laceweight that my awesome Blogger Secret Pal sent me Isn't it lovely?

Kill me now!

Ack - I agreed to do a procedure on an out of town patient (because apparently I am the only doctor in Ontario available to take care of patients, or maybe it just seems that way) this Thursday morning. The procedure is scheduled for 7:15 AM, but in order for me to assess him beforehand, I have to see him at 6:30 AM. And it's a 35-45 minute drive from home to hospital. Eek! Oh well. The Warmfuzzy is turning out to be a very effective cat magnet. Between the broomsticks knitting needles waving around in the air, and the 4 different balls of yarn which compete as to which one will roll the furthest when it hits the floor, it is the source of much entertainment. Heck - there's even the convenience of 4 strands of yarn that hang right in front of anyone who sits on my lap. Luckily the halo from the Parisienne should disguise the cat hair. Since scarf progress shots are not exactly fascinating at this point ( "Look! It's a scarf! Again! Except this time it's 6 rows longer!!"), I instead bring you one of the recent additions to my stash: Llama Lace Because I'm such a prolific lace knitter, don't you know... 1300 yards of a heathery purple/rose with a bit of gold thrown in. My initial reaction was "ick" (because of the gold), but then it followed me home...I bought it at the same shop where I picked up the PomPon yarn; it came from a "local" (to Winnipeg) farm. What ended up attracting me to it is how rustic it is. Kind of a polar opposite to the PomPon, eh? I think it calls for a fairly unstructured pattern - along the lines of the Shoalwater Shawl. Oh dear; now Somerset is kneading the scarf...gotta go before she starts grooming it!

SP11 contest

The hostess for our SP11 group is running another contest - flash your stash. Since our flight leaves in 16 hours, and I still haven't finished packing, I'm flashing my "stash in situ" rather than pulling it out of the assorted hiding storage spots. Some spots are practical, Some are decorative Some involved no thought whatsoever.

Prodigal yarn, and another SP 11 quiz

Suitcase #4 made it home safe and sound yesterday afternoon! Here's a few things that were inside: 6 skeins of Lorna's Laces Grace in the charcoal colourway (5$ each! Such a bargain!) An unknown yardage of a rayon/silk blend yarn that I bought at the Santa Monica Fibre Fest. I'm thinking of using it to knit Tuscany. Here's another SP11 quiz for me to answer: 1. What is the one knitting accessory you could not live without? Internet Access. 2. If you're heading on vacation, do you take knitting with you? Of course! If so, how much and what type of project? Usually more than I could hope to complete if all I did during the vacation was knit! I would HATE to run out of stuff to knit!! This year I have generally brought socks to knit with, because of my plan to knit a pair of socks per month. I've also taken baby stuff, or scarves. My next trip is September, and I will bring along my next Clapotis, because the Clapotis KAL starts during the trip. 3. Where have you travelled to that you'd consider your favorite spot? New York City - I love the fact that there is so much to see and do, and it's so easy to get around on the subway! 4. What is your favorite knitting book at the moment? Do you own it? It's a tie between Yarnplay and No Sheep For You - I just got NSFY from a Secret Pal!! 5. Do you listen to podcasts? Which is your favorite(s)? I was listening to CBC Radio One podcasts, but then my Dell DJ died. I've only listened to a single knitting podcast - Debbie Bliss was interviewed (Cast on?) I intend to get myself a new mp3 player before October. I'd rather not get an iPod - because I am an iconoclast. Or maybe I should say I am an ipodoclast. 6. If you could only knit with 1 color for the rest of your life, what color would that be? Green - as long as the definition of green could be stretched to include teal and turquoise. 7. If you were far into a project and then noticed a mistake near the beginning what would you do? Try to figure out if it was a fatal error, or one that was glaringly obvious. If it wasn't either of those, I would leave it. If it was something that I couldn't ignore, I'd see if there was ANYTHING that I could do to fix/repair the mistake. If it was absolutely necessary, I would frog it, and then be bitter about it. 8. Where is the most unsual spot you've ever knit? In the Poker Room at the MGM Grand Casino in Las Vegas. This yarn wasn't in the suitcase - it's Noelle's Noodles that I bought during the Sea Socks cruise. I came across the Candleflame Shawl on Jinxsa's blog, and now I want to knit it. I was considering using this yarn for it, but I don't know if the 430 yards will be enough. Plus I think there's too much contrast in the colours. But I'm really not sure. Some days I couldn't decide my way out of a wet paper bag.