nuts4knitting

Knitting (and spinning! The Good, the Bad, and the UGLY)

Friday, April 30, 2004

I'm off to Greensboro tomorrow morning with Maria. We're going for her brother and SIL's housewarming party Saturday afternoon. Because I bought a new outfit, a couple cute tops, and a new pair of black slides, plus having spent just under $150 at TKGA Market last weekend, I have not planned to stop at any yarn shops while in NC. I had found one listed in Greensboro and one in Winston-Salem that sounded interesting, I will show restraint and not talk Maria into taking me there.

That said, I do plan on knitting while in the car. I will take the orange Svale "fuse" sweater with me. I've been making good progress on it; I'm about six inches (got to go another 5.5 until I reach the arm shaping). I was able to work on it some Thursday on the bus to our first state soccer play-off game at FBHS (we won! 4-2!) because I took some Dramamine. I have some with me to take tomorrow in the car so I can sit and kit the miles away.

Have a great weekend! I'll check back on Sunday afternoon.

Saturday, April 24, 2004

Oh, by the way, PINS is today from 2-5pm!

(Purple Iris Tea Shoppe Needle Society)

Anyone is welcome to attend! Bring a project to work on! C'mon locals out there!

Here's a teaser about my purchases at the TKGA Convention Market until I post more later today:

Habu Textiles-100% bamboo/336 yards per ox/6.7 oz/$27.80

I'm not yet sure what to do with this yarn, but I couldn't leave it behind. It has a unique texture and sheen. The whole booth was filled with amazing, different yarns never-before imagined. They were packaged in tiny balls, but because the threads were so fine, the yardage was impressive for the size.

New Era Fiber Processing Company 4oz alpaca yarn reduced from $20 to $15/yards not listed

Lovely! Local! I would love to visit them (only 40 minutes away) and see their farm. They had beautiful skeins and swatches knit up. Their color selection was limited, though. I really do wish I had asked about the number or yards in the skein I bought.

Genuine Purl, Chatanooga, TN a shawl named Atlanta. I saw a finished shawl and fell in love. Theirs was made in a white colorway which they were out of. Silver is a great evening color on me, so I chose the one they had left in silver. I have some reservations about the pattern only because it calls for some crab stitching which I would have to learn (and will!). The finished shawl was as light as a cloud. The spaces between the stitches were filled with the polymide (I'm guessing) from the second yarn held with the first. Truly, I can find no words to adequately express its qualities.


Jade Sapphire Exotic Fibers
1 ball of yellow silk and lamb's wool. I can find no info on the web. The booth had them in boxes of four balls, and they had about 10 different colors. I skein of Cashmere(45%)/Silk(55%) 2-ply yarn in reds-to-purples. It has 350 yards/skein and is lovely to touch! I bought a lace scarf pattern from them to use for the red skein, but I might do it on something different.

Saturday, April 17, 2004

Anyone going to TKGA National Convention on April 22-25 in Atlanta? Since I am only 40 minutes away (give or take with traffic), I would love to meet my fellow bloggers/blog readers. Who's going? I'm thinking about taking Friday off and seeing if Daye wants to come with. We had talked about attending the convention, but both of our budgets could not afford the high cost. Yikes! So, instead we discussed just going to the market one day (or maybe two!). I have not brought it up again, but I think she'll still want to come.

So? How about it? Let me know who's coming! Maybe we could set aside a location and time to meet everyone from the kniting/spinning blog-verse. Email me or let me know on the ZonkBoard.

Today is too beautiful to sit in here long, but I do feel the need to post since it's been so long.

Miguel worked all night, but I didn't expect him home yet at 8:30 AM. I decided to pull out my yarn stash to check out what I had in cotton for the BellyAlong. First, I had decided to do Rosebud from Knitty. Not so sure now. That's why I dragged out the stash box and the various shopping bags still crammed with loot. I have the Katia Sevilla tape in pink and blue which I picked up recently. I also have orange, red, and black Svale. I could make Fuschia from Dale out of that. Or, maybe, I should use the six balls of Cotton Ease I have in a nice electric blue. Wait. There's more. I have 7 skeins of Plymouth Fantasy Naturale in pink. I had originally bought it to make a cabled Berroco vest. Hmm...Not sure yet.

While perusing and pondering the yarn stash and its many inhabitants, Miguel came home. Early. Like around 8:45. He saw the yarn and asked me where all of it had come from. I told him mostly sales. He really didn't admonish me as I though he would. Thankfully.

As for other news, I finished the front and back of the Rowan peach sweater. I'm about two-thirds done with the sleeves. I opted to change the design of the sleeves for short ones so I can wear it more. I would love to finish them today.

I've been outside sitting on the back patio alternating between the sun and the shade. I've got a good beginning of a tan from back at Mom and Dad's house over spring break. I came inside to grab some lunch (or just maybe some more cinnamon swirl bread from breakfast) and then sit outside again. It really is a gorgeous day!

Sunday, April 11, 2004

Time to go back to work.

Spring Break was terrific! I can't believe how it's flown by, though. Last night's game was exciting. Bases loaded in the eigth. Julio Franko, 45 years old, must have hit 8 foul balls before getting 3 RBIs to bring the Braves from behind. We had wonderful seats. At least three foul balls came to our section; one was two rows up and another was two rows behind us. Exciting!

Today was a quiet day at home. It was a day for savoring the last moments of free time and silence. A time to recharge the batteries before returning to the classroom. I hope I don't have any surprises to return to at school. I hope my kids all had a wonderful and safe vacation. Maybe I'll even get a new student or two?

Not much knitting done today. I still haven't caught up to where I had to rip out the yarn. Hopefully I'll be on track again, soon. This afternoon I've been mostly reading and doing laundry. I still have a few things to tidy up and do before bed--change sheets, put out my clothes for tomorrow, grab a shower.

Back to the grind.

Saturday, April 10, 2004

Here are pictures!

Pictures of the new dishes. I love them because they are hand-painted. It looks like something I could paint, and I just love the spring/summer colors.


Here is the back of the Rowan sweater. The color is very true to the actual color.


Here you can see the progress I've made on the front. I've got about three more rows until I bind off for the sleeves. The picture is too orange-y.

The good. The bad. And the ugly.

First, the good. I bought a new set of dishes for four at a local "Shabby Shack". Sixteen pieces for $22. Yippee! All hand-painted, too.

Another good thing was getting up early this morning, watering, and planting some wild flower seeds in my front beds.

The bad. I had to rip out six inches from the Rowan sweater. I read the pattern wrong. Grr. It told me to stop 18 rows before I got to the neck haping. I read "sleeve" shaping. Rip. Rip. Rip. I've been too busy to do anything this morning, but I was able to work up to where the armhole shaping is really supposed to begin last night. Grr.

The ugly. I tried to download an ebook reader onto my Zire 21 handheld Palm. For some reason, I could not get the HotSync to work. I fiddled with it for an hour. It finally worked but would not complete the download. Grr. I called up Palm to get it sorted out. They told me to uninstall and reinstall. Did that. However, when I tried to rerun the CD for reintallation, the CD won't work. Grr. Another (long distance) call to Palm. They will send me another CD in the mail. Righ now my Palm works fine. Hopefully, it won't crash before the new CD arrives. Grr.

I still need to grab a shower. Miguel and I have the Braves game to go to, and I'm not sure when he'll be home from work to pick me up. Must get ready in case he wants me to come with him to his soccer game at 3 PM. If that's the case, we'll probably just leave from his game and head to the BIG game.

:)

Thursday, April 08, 2004

Just fiddled with the 100 Things About Me list. It really needed updating. Check it out. Can you find what I changed?

:)

I'm ba-ack!

Actually, we're back. Miguel and I had a wonderful time in Florida with my folks. We had amazing weather for our visit--low to mid-70's with lots of sunshine. We went to the beach one day (Coquina Beach), sat in the sun for a few hours, and ate lunch at a restaruant on the beach (aptly named The Beach House). We had dinner one night at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse (the best steaks anywhere) and went to the outlet shops in Ellenton (bought a new Liz C. purse, some cute bracelts, and a couple cute warm-weather bucket hats). We had a wonderful, relaxing time and no stress plane trips.

I finished the second book in the Sevenwaters trilogy (the first one was The Daughter of the Forest) named The Son of the Shadows. It, too was amazing, and I devoured it in only four days.

Lest you think I only read, I also did a bit of knitting. I finished the front of the peach Rowan 31 Evia sweater. I have about 7 sinches done on the front, so far. I brought along my socks but really did not do more than a row or two.

I would have loved to go the two LYS in Sarasota. Miguel was with me (bad for the shopping vibes, ya know). There really wasn't enough time to spend an afternoon out there (the pool was much more inviting!), and I really didn't need anymore yarn or pattern books. So, with this in mind, I didn't even mention the yarn shops. (Although, I would love to get another Rowan mag or three. Sigh.)

Today, I woke up early with Miguel because he had to go back to work today. He really wanted to call in but did not. I have the house to myself (Tiger has finally left my side and has gone to sleep on the bed) to do a little cleaning. It's supposed to rain for much of the day (yippee for the yard) so if I do any errands, I won't be gone for long.

The last few days of vacation are good. A scheduled massage tomorrow afternoon. Saturday Miguel and I have tickets for the Braves vs. Cubs game. (Look for us on TV!). And lots of relaxing in between. (Oh, I have lots of grading to do, too. Rats!)

Thursday, April 01, 2004

One more day of school

Thank. Goodness. We are all on each other's nerves, and I don't think I could handle another day of squirrely students. Really. Really really. Spring. Break. In. Florida.

Ahhh.....

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

So. What knitting to take? First, I have to double check if I have enough Sirdar to finish my Rowan sweater. I keep pulling balls out of the closet, but I haven't checked to see how many (of the ten) are actually left.

I will also probably take the socks along, too.

I haven't spun anything in a LONG time, so I'll take along my spindle and some fiber (prolly the alpaca of old). I have been reinspired by the latest Spin Off magazine.

I have not knit a stitch since about Monday. Busy with soccer or running errands. I imagine I'll get some done at the airport on Saturday (off to see Mom and Dad in Florida with the hubby!). I also bought the next two books after The Daughter of the Forest and have deliberately waited to start them until I'm on this trip. :)

I'll try to post again tomorrow.

PS-Anyone into Tru Calling on FOX? Give me a yell!

:) Peace!