Textile Stockpile

Packed up and moved out

noreply@blogger.com (Candice & Ryan) — Mon, 17 May 2010 13:13:00 +0000

** If you tried the link below and it didn't work... it does now! **
It's been quiet around here because I've been working on this:

I've created a whole new blog and website over here. Please change all your bookmarks and links!

You can change your rss feed here.

Snow today, gone tomorrow

noreply@blogger.com (Candice & Ryan) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:47:00 +0000

Last week here in Michigan we got A LOT of snow. I'd guess it was almost a foot over a whole week. 8 inches of it was all in one day, and I even got to have a SNOW DAY from work!!! So when I saw that the temperature for the coming week was going to get into the balmy forties, I decided I should use the snow while we had it.

My mom-in-law told me about Snow Dying, she said you layer the (soda-soaked) fabric in a container however you wish, then cover with snow and pour the dye over the snow. So that's what I did. I waited until about 4:30 Saturday afternoon and soda soaked my fabric while I mixed 5 dye concentrates (I don't use a recipe or anything, I just mix between 1 tsp to 2 Tbsp dye powder with 1 cup of warm water). I set the dye concentrates outside to cool a bit while I wrung out the fabric and got my containers together.

Outside on the picnic table covered with at least 8 inches of snow, I slapped the buckets deep into the snow to keep them upright in case it got windy. The first bucket, I put about 2 inches of snow in the bottom, layered the somewhat scrunched fabric on top and then more snow. I packed it down a bit too. It was really heavy, wet snow. Good snow-man snow (and boy, you should have seen some of the pretty impressive snowmen around our house!) Then I poured the dye concentrate over the snow. The liquid was still pretty warm, so it did melt the snow a bit.

Bucket 1, one yard of fabric, two dye concentrates, lots of snow

In the other bucket, I scrunched the fabric into the bottom of the bucket and packed some snow on top. I poured the first color of dye concentrate over the snow and let it sit for just a minute (I was outside with no coat and just rubber gloves, and I am impatient). I layered a second piece of fabric, with more snow and more dye and did it all once more so I had three layers of snow and fabric. I basically followed the Parfait Dying instructions from Color by Accident by Ann Johnston, but added layers of snow.

These are two from the 'parfait' bucket

I figured for the best results, I would leave the buckets outside overnight and let them thoroughly re-freeze and make sure the dye can really get into the fiber, which I thought may have been slowed a bit by the cold temperature. The next morning I brought the buckets in and put them in the bathtub to warm up enough to scoop the snow out.

Then, rinse, wash and admire.

I didn't realize when I was mixing my colors that I was pretty much making purple each time. oops!

Next time I think I'll try layering the soda soaked fabric and snow but leaving that outside overnight (depending on how cold it is, it may only take an hour) so the fabric can freeze. Then pour cold dye over the snow. I think that would give me crisper lines and more mottling.

Also over the weekend, I finished my first toe-up sock! I knit around and around until the leg was about 12 inches from the heel. I was worried that the taller the sock got, the tighter it would be on my leg, so my first thought was to increase stitches. But I couldn't decide how to stick to my 2 by 2 ribbing and also add increases. So I increased every 8 stitches on one round, but changed to all knits to create a roll top sock. I did a few more increase rounds and maybe had a 1/2 inch worth of stockinette and decided I didn't like it. I ripped back to before the increases and decided all I would need to do to make the leg circumference bigger AND keep my 2 by 2 ribbing is go up one needle size. So for the last two inches of the leg, I used size 2 dpns.

Toe-up sock #1, toe taken from IK Summer 07, heel and cast-off from Socks from the Toe Up by Wendy D. Johnson

I don't think I've been this fiber-productive in a long time. It feels pretty good and I think it fended off a cold I felt coming on. Solid proof: knitting heals your soul and your body. I'm sure the chocolate helped too.

Done with one... not so successful on the other

noreply@blogger.com (Candice & Ryan) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:58:00 +0000

We spent the whole weekend finishing up the living room. I am thrilled with this room. I feel like I'm in a totally different house! Here's a quick reminder of what it looked like before:

Note the DARK green walls, blue/grey cove, and dusty purple on the inside of the doorway. Also, you can just see the edge of a weird section of wood paneling on the left. What you can't see in this picture is that whoever painted this house used flat paint. So you can see every fingerprint, smudge and scratch from anything or anyone that has ever come near these walls. No one had ever filled a nail hole and the window and base moldings don't match the rest of the house.

Here is that same corner in the middle of the re-do.

Nail holes filled and sanded, moldings removed and wall partially removed. Also, no more paneling!

And here it is as of last night at 9pm.

New wall color is called Magnolia Spray. It's just on the yellow side of cream with just a touch of peach. It is so bright and clean. We had such a problem in here with the dark green paint, even with our big bay window it was always dark in here. We had FOUR lamps in here and with them all on, and all the kitchen lights on, it was still not light enough to read or knit comfortably. Last night I turned the lights off in the rest of the house and turned only two lamps on (and the new lights over the new breakfast nook) and it was totally bright enough to knit. Not that I was knitting...

Which brings me to my confession. I haven't been knitting. I have held it on my lap and stared at the chart. I have held the first 20 rows and stretched and examined them. But I haven't knit a stitch since I realized that every 4th line should have a little cable twist over 3 stitches and I wasn't doing them. I am having such a hard time reading the chart, I don't understand why the chart couldn't be ONE BIG chart with all the stitches for the whole 36 row repeat. I've never really done any cable projects before. I did one pair of socks with a very simple cable over 4 stitches and I am currently working on a baby cardigan with a cable over 10 stitches. I admit I am inexperienced. But I am not dumb. I can read a chart but why am I expected to remember so many repeats. Is it so hard to print a complete chart?!

See those sections of stockinette. They aren't supposed to be stockinette.

For the past three days, I've picked up the first 20 rows of the shrug and stared at it. Comparing it to the chart. Deciding which I want more; a finished, perfect shrug or a finished in a week shrug. I think I have decided. This is the first large garment I am making for myself (or anyone for that matter) and I do want it to be perfect. What's teh point of spending $65 dollars on yarn, another $5 for the magazine/pattern and all that time if the finished product is shoddy at best? I would accept a missed cable stitch in a sock. I've looked past bigger mistakes than that, and generally I am a 'make it work' knitter. But this is too much.

I think at this point I have figured out all the possible problems I'll have with this pattern and chart. I think I have the knowledge now to rip back and start over. I will start over with the confidence that it will be the last time I rip back and cast on for this project.

I am disappointed. But I am also sitting in my bright new living room. So I'll take the good with the bad this time.

I'll leave you with some more pictures of the finished (but mostly unfurnished in these photos) living room.

Day 4

noreply@blogger.com (Candice & Ryan) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 01:55:00 +0000

Or is it? Ok, right, this is day 5 of the Olympics. So far I am not making good time on my shrug. I am on row 9. That works out to about one and a half rows or about 140 stitches per day since Friday. Since there are 33,372 stitches (give or take a couple hundred) in my cabled shrug... I'll be finished in... um... about 240 days...

I cast on 103 stitches Friday night during the opening ceremony and worked the 'set up' row. No problemo. I moved on to row one and proceeded to cable my little heart out. I was just using the page right out of the magazine but I photocopied it so I could use my magnetic board to keep track of what row I was on. Moving along the charts to about row 4 when I realize there are two pairs of symbols in my chart that look exactly alike. But they have different descriptions. I was totally perplexed. I stared at the photocopied chart for too long and had no idea what to make of it. So I picked up the magazine and looked closely. The symbols WERE different. My photocopy just hadn't picked up the tiny little corners that were white on one pair and grey on the other pair. In addition to that problem, I was not even sure which of the four symbols I was using where.

So I ripped and cast on again.

I wasn't too mad or frustrated, but glad I figured it out before I got through one whole repeat of the 36 row chart. I got up and got four different colored markers. I filled in the four different symbols with four different colors. I didn't put too much thought into choosing what color markers to use for each symbol, I just grabbed four colors that would look pretty on my chart together. Blue, light blue, turquoise and purple. See where this is going?

Here is my color-coded chart. What? you only see two colors in that chart? yeah... let's not dwell here too long, the problem is obvious. Well, now it is anyway.

I ripped and cast on again.

So today I enlarged the big chart on the photocopier at work. and also made two enlarged copies of the smaller side chart (it goes on either side of the big chart). I cut the charts out and frankensteined them back together in the orientation I would knit them. I chose four VERY distinct different colors and carefully color coded my enlarged Frankenstein chart. I made little notes on the margins reminding myself of the tricky little things I had discovered during the four times I worked the first 5 to 9 rows of the charts.

So now I am home. The Olympics are on tv and I am ready to give this new chart with the knitting equivalent of training wheels on it a try. Because the fifth time's a charm, right?

I am not sure the 9 rows I have on my needle at the moment are correct. Some little sections look like they are setting up to be cables. There are other sections that look like I've been making stuff up as I go along. I think I'll try to follow the charts for a couple more rows and see if those rows start to make sense. If not... I'm going to have to call in reinforcements. I don't know who or what they'll be yet, so this color coded Frankenstein chart better help.

Cozy shrug for the Olympics

noreply@blogger.com (Candice & Ryan) — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:42:00 +0000

I had decided a long time ago, exactly 4 years ago, that I would try again in the 2010 Knitting Olympics. I did not get a medal in 2006, so this year I have extra motivation to accomplish my goal. My first idea was to make fingerless gloves. The kind that also have a mitten part that folds back to reveal bare fingertips. I couldn't decide if that project would be too easy or too ambitious. I guess I just wasn't feelin' it.

There is a project in the very first knitting magazine I ever bought that I have always gone back to and oogled and oohed and aahed. It has cables and requires quite a bit of yarn. So I always had some excuse why I couldn't make it. Either I didn't have the money to buy enough yarn that I would actually want to touch my skin (yummy wool perhaps with silk) or I didn't think I could successfully read and follow the cable charts.

A couple weeks ago it was really cold in my house and I couldn't get warm. I couldn't keep a blanket on my shoulders and the one on my lap wasn't enough. In that moment I decided I had to finally make the Cabled Shrug from Interweave Knits Fall 2005. And with the Knitting Olympics coming up, maybe I had a better chance of actually starting it AND finishing it. And maybe even get to use it before it starts warming up this spring... haha, ok that last part is just funny. I live in Michigan, I'll still be using this thing in June.

Thursday afternoon I headed out to Knit A Round in Ann Arbor and used the gift card I got from my coworkers for Christmas. I found a gorgeous 100% wool that is softer than any pure wool I've ever felt. I couldn't believe it didn't have a bit of acrylic or silk or something in it to make it so soft. I picked out a nice rich chocolate brown but there wasn't enough. After another 20 minutes of petting each color (there had to be 25 or more colors to choose from) I decided on a green. Not quite sage, not quite celery, somewhere in between.

As an added bonus, the yarn I chose was made in Michigan!

And... I can't leave a yarn shop without some sock yarn... two skeins of Koigu. This colorway is so NOT me. I think that's why I like it. It's all rusts and orange and gold with just a few bits of light blue and a scant bit of purple. I've never used koigu before and have seen so much of it on other blogs for years and years.

I can't leave this post without an update on our living room remodel. It's not done yet. Soon though.

Kitchen wall: now you see it...

Now you don't!!!

Ryan is building a butcher block style counter top to go there and we'll have a little breakfast nook. I am SO excited. I have the most amazing and talented husband!

Hopefully this project will be accomplished peacefully along with the Knitting Olympics... fierce competition around here.

Pining for a lazy Sunday

noreply@blogger.com (Candice & Ryan) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 16:36:00 +0000

Our living room is still torn up. I spent half the day yesterday with a palm sander, going over every inch of the old paint. There have been so many coats of paint in that room and each one had a worse finish than the previous. So many drip marks and bumps and places where it looked like they dropped the paint roller on the floor and kept painting, not caring that there were little bits of who-knows-what in the paint. You can see a line around the whole room where it was poorly cut in. So, we're sanding every inch of the room. Since we are painting a light cream color, every little bump and ding will be very obvious. We are also patching a ton of holes. I think we are the first owners in this house's nearly 60 years of existence to ever patch a nail hole. I am not a perfectionist, by any definition of the word, but you can't just paint a room without removing nails and patching holes.

Because there is so much sanding and mess going on in there, we've cleared out pretty much everything except the dining room table and a couch. The tv and stand got moved into our bedroom and everything else is now in the sewing room.

Wish us luck, I hope to have this project done before Valentines Day...

It is a dark, cold, rainy Sunday here. It is after 11am and I am still in bed; with my laptop, a book, knitting, and the tv all right here... going back to the palm sander feels like punishment.

The rest of '09 and looking toward '10

noreply@blogger.com (Candice & Ryan) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:13:00 +0000

I've had some people prodding me for an update, so here it is. Just a quick recap since October.

Halloween

I'm a trucker and Ryan just got out of bed. Bella is the doggy that had to stay home.

Thanksgiving

R to L is Ryan, Shannon, Daddy, me, Leah. We stayed with my little sister Shannon in Chicago. She and Leah cooked us an amazing Thanksgiving meal Wednesday night when we got there and then on Thursday we went to Maggiano's for an amazing family style dinner where we gorged ourselves on crazy good bruschetta, pastas, traditional thanksgiving faire and amazing desserts!

Santa came

He brought us a Wii and Super Mario Wii, and Wii Fit Plus. I haven't been doing a whole lot other than playing Mario. I am addicted and in less than a month have gotten to the Castle at the end of World 5. I keep telling myself to slow down because if I beat the game this fast, then what am I going to do?! But I just can't stop.

Ryan's birthday is the day after Christmas and I planned a surprise birthday party for him. It was great and he had NO idea anything was going on.

Surprise!!!

For his birthday I gave him a pair of (one finished but unfelted and one almost finished) clog slippers. Here they are finished and ready for felting.

The only other gift I made this holiday season are the cutest pair of baby slippers I have ever seen! My cousin and his wife are having a baby in February. Her shower was the first weekend in December, but the slippers weren't done until the 26th. So I gave them to her at our family Christmas.

FiberTrends Pattern

I think Bella got more gifts than any of us. She was due though, she was a good girl this year and all of her toys were getting worn out, her balls didn't squeak any more and none of her stuffed animals had any fluff inside of them.

As for 2010, January is shot. We are in the middle of painting our living room. As you can see in the "Surprise" picture above our front room is a dark forest green. I've hated it since the day we moved in, possibly since before the house was ours. The room is not very big, and we have a lot of furniture packed in there since it is a living room slash dining room. That dark color on the walls makes it so dark even when the sun is shining through our large bay window. We are going to work on it all week after work, getting it prepped for paint and then hopefully have it done by the end of next weekend. After that is finished, my sewing room is an absolute mess. A lot of the stuff that had to be cleared out of the front room for painting ended up in my sewing room. And it was a pretty nice disaster before that happened too. Things just keep going into the sewing room and never coming out. So don't look for any sewing projects to be coming out of there anytime soon either.

I'll be knitting though... if I'm not playing Mario.

At what point?

noreply@blogger.com (Candice & Ryan) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:11:00 +0000

I have come to a stopping point in nearly ALL of my knitting projects. Each one has it's own little problem that I haven't had the time, ambition or energy to tackle.

Problem One

I started this Cabled Raglan Baby Sweater (free pattern for subscribers to Knitting Daily) with Louisa Harding Kimono Angora yarn. You'll never guess where I got this yarn. Tuesday Morning. Yes, the TJMaxx-ish home goods store. I found 5 balls of it, each marked 3.99. For angora yarn. There were others of the same kind there, but the colorways were particularly awful. I just hope I have enough of this pink to finish the sweater!
The problem with this sweater is fairly simple to fix, I think. Each row starts with knit 5. well, about 5 rows ago, somehow I purled 5. so I have three rows that look like stockinette for the first 5 stitches instead of garter stitch. If this were in the middle of a row, I would be able to easily (as easily as possible with fuzzy angora yarn) ladder down and fix those 5 stitches. Since the problem is the first 5 stitches of the row, I'm having a hard time laddering down and rearranging the stitches so they look nice. They got all stretched out. So, I think my new solution is to rip back to before I screwed up. But the problem there is that there are all kinds of increases for the sleeves through the middle of every other row. I am not sure once I rip back that far if I'll have the right number of stitches. I really don't want to unknit 5 or 6 rows one stitch at a time.
When I am only about 20 rows into a project, can I/should I rip it completely and start over?!
Why is there so much pain in knitting!?

Problem Two

I bought this sock yarn with a gift certificate that Ryan gave me for my birthday in 2008. I held onto it for more than a year for some reason. I went in May before the wedding to pick something out and decided I'd need a new pair of socks to start and take with me on our Honeymoon to Wilmington, NC. It turned out I did very little knitting on our honeymoon, imagine that! So, I've been knitting on this sock very rarely (see this post for part of the reason) and partly because it's not easy 2 by 2 ribbing and actually requires I read a pattern.
Last week I noticed that I have at least three pairs of socks on the needles and while I have TONS of sock yarn and can't seem to stop acquiring more, I think I need to stick to one pair and finish it. I also realized that this yarn is not superwash. it is 100% alpaca. I do not like to hand wash my socks and this yarn seemed to be making a sock that wouldn't hug my leg and may be a tad droopy, which I really don't like. But I didn't want to frog the little bit that I had started.
I left the partial sock on the needles and didn't break the yarn. I started from the other end of the ball and started a scarf. If I end up needing the whole ball, including what is started on the sock, I'll frog it then, but for now, I can't commit to the sock or the scarf.

Problem Three

This is a Malabrigo sock yarn I bought in Chicago last month. I love this colorway! it is not as teal in person as it is in this photo. Definitely more royal blue and charcoal. The problem with this is that I may have cast on too many stitches. It is a Christmas gift sock for someone. We do not have the same size feet, so I can't use myself as a guide. I really don't want to start over, but I really don't want to knit any further on this until I decide if it will fit.

Problem Four - SOLVED!

I started these Lorna's Laces toe-up socks at least a year ago. Possibly TWO years ago. The toe was fine and easy, I knit around and around for the foot until I got to 1-1/2 inches before the heel. I tried the heel twice, from two different patterns. Each one had it's own issue that I couldn't deal with (and can't remember because it was probably two years ago, and I won't bad mouth any patterns I used, because I'm not sure it was the pattern's fault). So, I frogged the heel twice (at least). A couple weeks ago, I was perusing the knitting section at Borders and saw this book by Wendy D. Johnson (pictured with sock above). It looked like it had great patterns and really great illustrations and step-by-steps. So I thought I would give it a try. It WORKS!!! I have a perfect toe-up heel with no holes and no funky issues! I am soooooo excited! I have wanted to learn toe-up socks for such a long time.

Since this is the only thing I've figured out among all the problems, this is what I've been working on. Instead of the Christmas gift socks. He's pretty used to getting a box with one sock in it for Christmas though, what's one more year. Does three years of doing the same thing make it an official Tradition?

None of this has stopped me from looking online for yarn, or wanting to start another pair of socks. And none of it has motivated me to do anything about any of it.

The Adventures of a Modern Squirrel

noreply@blogger.com (Candice & Ryan) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:08:00 +0000

Back in my day, we had to walk to school. Up hill, both ways. In three feet of snow. Gas only cost 29 cents per gallon. A loaf of bread was a nickel. Someone delivered your newspaper to your door every morning. And squirrels ran around all autumn burying nuts in the ground. Yes, digging a hole in your lawn or your flower beds and burying a nut and carefully replacing the soil.

But this is 2009. This is the future. The squirrels of today know that the best place to hide his or her nuts for the long winter is not in the cold, wet (not to mention dirty) earth. The best place would be somewhere dry, relatively clean, with some sort of covering to keep the snow and wind off of them. Somewhere like... our shed.

I got home from work on Friday and Ryan and Bella met me outside for some frantic tail wagging and little howls of delight... (Bella was excited too... haha, sorry, couldn't resist). We stood in the driveway a couple minutes and then Ryan asked me if I wanted to see something funny. He took me through our back yard to the shed, only about 40 yards from our back door. Opened the door to the shed and didn't say anything, just pointed to the salvaged dresser drawers on the floor. They were full, nay, overflowing with walnuts. Every nook and cranny had walnuts packed into it. All along the walls where the angled roof meets the walls, there were 5 to 10 walnuts in every little space.

So we stood in the doorway of the shed, flabbergasted, just laughing at how many there were. Ryan said that it only took the squirrel about two days to fill that drawer. I haven't been back in there since Friday, but I expect the next time one of us opens the door it will be like that famous episode of The Dick VanDyke Show where he has a dream of opening his closet door and thousands upon thousands of walnuts pour out of the closet. (That is a youtube video, the scene I'm talking about happens around the 1:30 minute mark, but I strongly suggest you watch the whole thing. freaking hilarious.)

Our shed is old and not in the greatest shape. I'm sure there is more than one entrance for the squirrel to get in, especially this big gap under the door.

We are going to leave the walnuts, we will probably clean up a bit, but all the nuts will stay in the shed. We're not into causing squirrel starvation. And, this is a good test to see if squirrels actually do remember where their nuts are hidden. It would have to be a really incompetent squirrel to not remember this big pile!

But he'll have to watch out, because Bella's on the hunt!

Meerkats and socks... if only it were meerkats WEARING socks!

noreply@blogger.com (Candice) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:02:00 +0000

It has been a busy September for me and busy in a good way so far. The beginning of the month brought me a new job! It is kind of funny because it is also my old job, where I worked from 2003 to 2006. I am now fully employed again at a 9 to 5 office job, no longer working at home for Chris Roberts-Antieau. Which means I once again have paid vacation and sick days and I get evenings and weekends off AND... I get my sewing room back!!! (that's what I did this past weekend, I cleaned out all of the stuff that belonged to the studio and re-arranged my room to make it more cozy and efficient for what I want to do in there, pictures to follow.) So I think this new job was the perfect change for me. I love the people at the studio and especially Chris, but there were so so so many memories there of my mom that at first were comforting but now are painful. My mom had been working at the studio for more than 10 years when she died, she was the manager, she knew everything, ran nearly the whole show. Without her, everything was kind of handed to me to handle/figure out. Some of which I wanted to do, some not so much. Most of that didn't bother me so much. It just got to the point that I would stare at the art from about 10am until 5 or 6pm and just want to cry all day. I was tired of looking at it, mostly because it just reminded me of my mom and that she's not here.

The middle of September took me to Chicago to visit Shannon and go to the Renegade Craft Fair. It was very cool. Definitely what art/craft shows SHOULD be. I love that it is kindof small, so you don't reach your absorption limit for art goodies before you've seen all the booths. I'm used to the Ann Arbor Art Fairs, that really, if you wanted to see every single booth and go into the neat stores around Main Street and South University, it would take two days at least. But this we did in an afternoon. The reason we wanted to go to the fair was to check out if I wanted to be in it next summer. I DO! My goal is to stockpile up as much stuff as I can to sell there next year. I can stay with Shannon and have very few expenses. I am already getting excited!

I didn't buy anything at the craft fair, (if I had, it would have been this) but we did sneak into Nina and I did buy some yarn.
I stayed from Friday night through Monday about noon (yay for vacation days!). On Monday we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo where we saw lots of cute animals. My favorite was the Meerkats. They are just so cute the way they snuggle together. Of course I took many pictures, here are a few.

It was a hot day, and we were there right about 11:30, so most of the animals were just hanging out, sleeping. Except for this guy.
I don't know what was in the corner of that little pool, but he was really interested in it. He was staring into the corner and pushing the water into the rock and it was splashing his face. He did it for a long time too. Maybe that bear has OCD?! Maybe he had to push the water into the corner 49 times before he could get out of the pool.

Monday was also Bella's birthday! She is now 3 years old. If that makes her an adult, someone needs to tell her about it, because she is still as feisty and playful as she was 2 and a half years ago. Except much more well-behaved.
(she moves so fast, it's hard to get a good picture of her). I brought home some of Chicago's best bacon from the Original Pancake House for her and her dad got her a stuffed lamb, a pig ear and a rawhide bone. One week later and all three are gone. She made quick work of that.

The end of September brings ArtPeers in Grand Rapids. Ryan and I are both participating in this event that places art in participating stores throughout downtown Grand Rapids. Anyone in the area this weekend should come to Clothing Matters to see my work and to Literary Life to see Ryan's work.

In October, I hope to start working again on a commissioned wedding guest book quilt for a friend that we started together in 2006. I also told Shannon that I would make her a quilt for above the fireplace in her new apartment. I am going to make some really pretty fabrics and make a Chicago city skyline for her. I'm also knitting about thirteen-hunnerd things... ok... maybe like 3 socks and a baby sweater. Not counting the things on the needles that I haven't touched in at least a year and the stuff not on the needles yet that I have in bags with the yarn, pattern and needles ready to go. And I'm not making any promises that I'll finish anything before I start something else.

Cabled socks, another good day

noreply@blogger.com (Candice) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 01:22:00 +0000

These are Trekking XXL Cable Rib Socks from Interweave Knits Fall 2005. I have been working on these for quite a while. I have noticed a pattern, I tend to do the first sock pretty fast, then get to the heel on the second sock when all of a sudden doing the heel and especially the gussets seems like a HUGE pain in the butt. So I leave it and start something else or don't knit at all. Then when I finally get back to picking it up again, it goes so quick and I wonder why I let it sit there for so long.

I made myself finish these socks because I have started at least three other pair since stalling at the heel months ago. I have so much new sock yarn, that I wanted to start another pair, so I told myself I couldn't start another sock until these were finished. And it only took two evenings to finish them.

When I started these, I was using a bamboo cable needle from Knit Picks. It was big and too long, and just kind of awkward for sock yarn. So, I thought I would try to use one of those row markers that looks like a stubby safety pin as a cable needle. That was working ok, but I really couldn't knit the held stitches right from the marker, I had to slide them back onto the working needle. So, I was telling my mom all of that sometime last spring probably, and then the next time I saw her, she gave me this:
She was always breaking her size 1 bamboo needles. So, she took one of the broken ones and sharpened one end and sanded it real smooth and it is now my size 1 cable needle! Genius!!! It is the perfect size, obviously because I was knitting the sock with size 1 needles, but it's also the perfect length. It is short enough to not be in the way, and long enough to actually knit the held stitches right from the cable needle. It's perfect! Except that it is just small enough to get lost, or accidentally mistaken for a used toothpick and get thrown away. So I am careful to not leave it out on the table.

When I finally got to the end of the toe and started to use the kitchener stitch for the seam, I thought I remembered how to do it. I was too lazy to get up and walk a couple feet to the sewing room to get my sock book for the instructions. I did the first four stitches of kitchener right. then must've skipped something and was knitting the purls and purling the knits, and ended up with this half 'innie' and half 'outie' toe.

So today while I was waiting for the roast chicken to reach 165 degrees I un-kitchenered, and re-kitchenered. And now they are done and on my feet.

Getting it back

noreply@blogger.com (Candice) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 12:09:00 +0000

I think I had a little break-through yesterday. Since December when my mommy died I have not really wanted to do anything, and planning our wedding took up a lot of my time and brain power. Since the wedding is over I have had a lot of time and extra brain cells to do the things I used to LOVE to do in my spare time. But somehow, none of it really interested me. I would stand in my sewing room and rifle through things, flip through a pattern book, feel up my stacks of fabric, dump out a bag full of already cut-out pieces to a project and then put them all back in the bag again. Knitting had even lost it's luster for me.

My mom and I used to talk on the phone every day. I'd tell her all the mundane details of my day and she'd listen as if I were telling her about my first African Safari and each round of a sock was a new animal I'd discovered. When all of a sudden I didn't have her to report to every day, I stopped doing things.

Until yesterday.

I got home from my meetings at work at about 2:30, ate lunch and took a little nap. Then while Ryan cooked dinner I sat on the couch and knit on a sock for more than an hour. Before yesterday I hadn't knit on anything for more than about 5 minutes at a time, and probably less than once a week.

After dinner we cleaned up the kitchen and I made a bee-line (B-line? what is that expression? V-line would make sense...) to the sewing room. Ryan seemed surprised when I didn't join him on the couch after dinner and asked where I was going. I told him I was going to go play in the sewing room. I think he had been waiting for this moment too.

So from about 8:00 until 11 I was in the sewing room working on this green shibori quilt. I started it quite a while ago, I dyed the fabric while I was still in school, the quilt top was cut and pieced when my sewing room was still in the basement. (the color in these pictures is so wrong. it's an avocado green, not so much gray)

I had started quilting it a couple different times on the sewing machine, but I never liked how it looked and ripped it out each time. I wanted to do something that would enhance the shibori design, not make it harder to distinguish. So I had some shiny embroidery floss in a pale yellow and tried that. I decided to use it to just make a running, almost like a basting stitch, from top to bottom. I made it wavy on purpose and left different widths between each row of stitching. A clever disguise to not-so-perfect piecing abilities.

A couple months ago I had found a big shoe box full of old thread. It must have been my great grandma's because the spools were all wooden. My mom could never throw anything away, so I sorted through the box and got rid of any empty and almost empty spools. I found a bunch of spools marked "pure silk" and wondered if that really meant it was silk. I don't know why I don't trust the spool, maybe it's really cotton, but they called it silk because it was really strong and shiny or something. I don't know. But I separated all the silk spools and set them aside to use some day.

So in the spaces where I left empty pockets between rows of stitching I used the "pure silk" thread to make smaller rows of stitches . It's not that visible from a distance, but up close I think it looks neat. So far I've only used a reddish color for the smaller patches of stitching. I think I'll do the whole thing that way before I decide to add another color. I thought maybe of adding patches of some french knots. We'll see.

What do you think so far? I'm not sure that the patches of red are even necessary. And I think my pictures are kind of crappy today, so maybe you won't even be able to tell me what you think.

Today I will try to continue with my productivity. I have to work all day, and all of my Etsy listings have expired, so I need to put some things on there to sell. I have quite a few new things, so I'll let you know when they are up. Ryan's website needs to be updated with some new show info too. So, on that note... I am stepping away from the computer. Not to return until I have accomplished at least 5 hours of work. Wish me luck!

Oh yeah, I got married

noreply@blogger.com (Candice) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 12:08:00 +0000

I haven't been blogging like I said I wanted to. I have no excuses. Just laziness. The laziness has spread to many aspects of life lately. I got a good swift kick in the pants and really need to stay on top of the blog and also MAKE the time to do the things that I want to do.

So, In the time I've been away since January I just got married; no big whoop. ;) hehe

So many details and stories to tell... But I think I'll just let some pictures speak for themselves.

Lighting the Unity Candle (I thought it would look nice if we used the big unity candle along with two stubby votive candles. It did... but we had a funny little moment where the candles were too fat to reach the wick of the big candle. We eventually got it lit.)

The kiss

When I couldn't find the cake toppers to purchase anywhere, I told Ryan what I had pictured, and he used leftovers from our first Christmas tree to hand-carve these two little birdies. He is amazing!

mmmmmmmm cake!

Ryan successfully retrieved the garter!

And of course... the Chicken Dance!

So, that was our wedding... about 9 months of planning, a lot of money, a lot of misunderstandings, agreements and disagreements, for about 8 hours of fun. Totally worth it.

Cheap and Not-So-Cheap Thrills

noreply@blogger.com (Candice) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:47:00 +0000

First things first, let's get the most important news out of the way.
I have new sock yarn. Yep, that's the most exciting thing going on right now, and believe me, in my current state I will take any little thrill I can get! I was reading someone's blog the other day and clicked over to a pattern and then saw a link for a contest, clicked that and saw the word "Sale" on the sock yarn store, clicked that, and only 2 minutes later I had new yarn on it's way to my house. It was such an impulse buy, but at only $24, including shipping, I got TWO skeins of Arucania sock yarn and it arrived yesterday. Perfectly timed arrival too, as I was having a shitty morning.

The solid skein is actually a gorgeous dusty purple, it looks more gray in this photo. I plan to make socks and use the purple as the toe and heel. Then, I'll have to use some leftovers of another skein to make purple socks with contrasting toe and heel. (I bought my mom a ball of this yarn in a blue and purple colorway. I can use that to go with the purple, it will be PERFECT! That brings up a question for another day about an in process sock she was working on before she died.)

On another side note, Shannon... I LOVE MY NEW CAMERA!!!
My old digital camera was only about 5 years old, but that is probably about 50 years in technology time.

Ok, so there's the exciting news out of the way. Next to tell you about Christmas gifts.
I had many many projects to finish before Christmas. I was working on a pair of socks for Ryan using Knit Picks Risatta. He got one... the other is ready to turn the heel.

The other Christmas project was a pair of thrummed mittens for Shannon. One is done, the other is about 5 inches in, I'm ready to put the thumb stitches on a stitch holder.

I have a small box of stuff to send Shannon this week, so my goal is to get it done and include it in that box.

But, (there's always a "but") I have been casting on new projects left and right over here. I knit a whole baby bootie that I didn't like so there won't be a second one. I cast on for a Calorimetry using straight needles, and needed a circular to fit all 120 stitches onto, and didn't want to get up to get one, so there that project sits. Then I also cast on for a neat little headband I stumbled upon on Pepperknits that uses leftover sock yarn. I have tons of that and boy do I need a headband! I was at the drug store last week and they wanted to charge $8 for ONE cheap-looking black spandex thing. So, I am totally enthralled and entertained by this simple 4-row repeat project. And I'm using leftover sock yarn that I LOVE LOVE LOVE from the Michigan Fiber Festival. It is just striping way more beautifully than the socks did and I am getting such a cheap thrill from this project that I want to just work on it all day!
So that is the competition for Ryan's second sock and Shannon's second mitten (and of course, actual work I have to do for a paycheck). Pretty fierce competition.
LOVE the new camera! Thanks Shannon, Love you too!

And one last little thrill. It amazes me after someone close to you dies, how important their STUFF becomes. Things they probably never looked at once it was thoughtfully placed on a shelf, their impulse purchases that they didn't like any more, their yarn that they coveted and never used because they were waiting for the PERFECT pattern. Every time I go to my mom's house since she's been gone, little things catch my eye. There are the obvious things, like, the sock box that Ryan made for her, the quilt I made for her, anything in her handwriting, old photographs and Christmas ornaments. Every time I go I come home with a bag full of stuff. Sometimes it is something that I need that now don't have to buy. Other times it's just a nick-nack that catches my eye. The most recent visit, I saw this cute little lamb, sitting on a lawn chair. He just spoke to me and I had to take him home.

So I put him on a shelf in my sewing room next to a card that I gave Mommy for Mothers day in 2001. He makes me smile when I look in his direction.

So tonight is my first Wedding Dress Fitting! My bridesmaid Kristy is coming and so is my future Mom-in-law (I'm going to say "mom-in-law" becuase it doesn't have that bad connotation that "mother-in-law" does, because she is certainly not "one of THOSE". And I am NOT saying that because I know she reads this, Hi Gayle!) I had forgotten about the dress fitting, and on New Years Day I was changing the calendar over to January when I saw "Dress Fitting, 6pm" staring me in the face and it felt like someone punched me in the stomach. The first wedding thing that Mommy can't be here for. I panicked and immediately got on the phone with Kristy to see if she could come with me. It is going to be fun and it's really going to suck at the same time.
I have to make the best of the situation. This WILL be my only wedding, this will only happen once and I have to start getting excited about all the little details again. It was destined to be this way, and I have accepted that. That doesn't mean I have to like it.

A brand new sewing room for the new year!

noreply@blogger.com (Candice) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:10:00 +0000

So, I've been taking some time off work the past couple weeks, to let my mind and body mend after the shock of losing Mom. I decided to use this time, in combination with some money I got for Christmas to get new carpet for the sewing room. I have been wanting carpet in there since before it became my sewing room in February 2007. I also wanted to get the carpet in this week so that I could clean out the sewing room and rearrange the furniture and give me a project for a couple days. So I went to the Carpet Outlet in Adrian, MI and looked for a remnant for less than $100. I found a lot of very nice things, some way out of my budget and some that were just close enough to work. So I picked out a nice off-white berber and we came back the next day with the truck to pick it up. I hadn't yet thought of how it was going to be installed, with what tools or who was going to do it. I just had to have carpet... it was going to happen.
So here is a before picture of the total mess that was my sewing room only two days ago.
Note the wood floors: pretty but cold and hard. Bella doesn't even like to stay in there with me during the day while I work.

Wednesday morning I got to work packing up the sewing room. Our house is fairly small, so I had to stack everything up on top of, around and under the dining room table. We had to disassemble my sewing table, and take the doors off the closet.

Then Ryan pulled up all the trim while I drove to the lumber yard to rent the tools. It was only $30 per day to rent the big power stretcher (that we may have broken) and the knee bumper.

When I got back I pounded all the nails out of the trim. It only took two nails before I asked, "How much would it cost to just buy new trim?" So I went to Lowe's.com and looked for our molding and got my answer. At least $80. That's more than we wanted to spend, so I went back to pounding the nails. Then all the holes needed to be filled, the whole thing needed to be sanded and then painted. (all things that never occurred to me when I was buying carpet)

Ryan was in the sewing room nailing down the tack strip and stapling down the padding, and I was in the dining room pounding nails out of the trim. Bella was under the dining room table looking very worried. That was a lot of noise, and she was already nervous about me moving all of my stuff out of the sewing room. She followed us with every trip to and from the sewing room to the dining room with arm loads of books and supplies. So as soon as we laid the carpet out in the sewing room, she planted herself on it. I think she really just wanted to help.

Except that Ryan was on the other side of the room trying to pull the carpet into the corner. Not so easy with a 30 pound fur ball sitting on the other end.

At about 10:00 last night, the carpet was pulled, pounded, stretched and we think, finally in place and the trim was freshly painted and nailed back onto the wall, closet doors were back up where they belong. So we assembled my table, and moved the rest of my stuff back in. Here it is!!! (it's still pretty messy and unorganized, but it will probably never be spotless and uncluttered)

And this is what a guy looks like after his first time ever laying carpet.

After only watching one or two videos on the This Old House website, and me saying, "I remember when my parents hired a guy to lay their carpet I saw him do this..." I'm sure that was very helpful, since I was probably 14 the last time my parents got new carpet. And I'm sure I was paying such close attention! Ryan did a great job. Never complained, never threw any tools, didn't break anything (except maybe the rented stretcher, but I think it can be fixed) and we only lost the carpet knife once; right before we needed it and found it after the room was finished. Naturally.

What a guy. I love that I can call him on the way home from the store and say, "I just bought carpet" and less than a week later, that carpet is in our house, perfectly installed and no one is mad at the other one.

The finished project of 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Candice) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 14:05:00 +0000

The only other things I didn't mention in my previous post, are the stuff that I have this blog for, the art stuff. I had one major project that I started in April and finished in... November. It was a big one though, so I guess 6 months or so isn't too bad.

I started with the leftover fabric that I dyed for the background of my X's quilt. I cut half of each color into 4.25 inch squares and then cut leaf shapes out of the other half of each color. I arranged the squares on my design wall and then fused them to the batting, with extra room all the way around.

My original idea was to have a leaf in each background square. So I pinned them all up, varying the color combinations.
That seemed pretty boring when I finally saw it all together. I liked, it, but it wasn't anything special. So I added some more leaves and moved some around, so it looked more "messy" and I was happy with it.

All of that only took two evenings to accomplish. The quilting was what took the most time. I used a tight satin stitch to sew the veins and stem on each leaf, and then did free motion quilting everywhere else. And the result is:
This is one of my favorite finished projects I've done. The colors are very soothing and I think the overall design is pleasing and has interesting focal points without being too realistic or representational. The only thing I could still do to it is clip all the threads on the back. Does anyone know if that is necessary if it were to be in a show? Do the judges look at the backs of the wall quilts?

The Ups and Downs of 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Candice) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 21:37:00 +0000

The year in review, since it has been that long since I've posted.

January 2008
Ryan has life threatening sinus infection. Needs emergency surgery. Has no health insurance.
Judge's score: 1
We qualify for Charity Care discount and get most of our bills covered at 90%
Score: 7.5

April 2008
April fools day, I make dinner that looks like poop in the grass, but is really meatloaf and rice.
Score: 9.8
My birthday: a wonderful two-day long celebration that included wine, yummy food and yarn.
Score: 10

I had a kidney stone.
Score: 2
I have health insurance and I took lots of vicodin and slept for two days
Score: 8
I passed the stone at home
Score: 6 (there's another stone waiting in there to wreak havoc another day)
May 2008
We find a family of baby birds in our back yard that are learning to fly
Score: 10
Bella finds family of baby birds in our backyard that are learning to fly
Score: 2

June 2008
Ryan has a sinus infection again. Goes to doctor for drugs and is told to go to the hospital for pre-op bloodwork.
Score: -4
We still qualify for Charity Care discount
Score: 8.5

July 2008
I get engaged! Ryan asks me to marry him on the two year anniversary of closing on our house! I say yes!
Score: 10
August 2008
I harvest the few vegetables that grew in my mostly weed covered garden
Score: 6
September 2008
Bella turns two
Score: 9
Bella is still a puppy
Score: 7
October 2008
My mom and I pick out and purchase my wedding dress
Score: 10 (no pictures, in case Ryan reads this)

Engagement photo session with my friend and Bridesmaid Kristy
Score: 10

We are goofy
Score: 8.5

It must have been the windiest day of the year
Score: 3.75

November 2008
Shannon comes home from Chicago for Thanksgiving and Dad's birthday. We go out bowling and to a very nice Seafood restaurant in Saline.
Score: 9 (not a 10 because Leah couldn't be there too)

December 2008
Shannon buys tickets for she and I to go to the Lyric Opera in Chicago to see Porgy and Bess. We spend 2 whole days together shopping, laughing and eating awesome food.
Score: 10
I ride the train both ways and DO NOT mis-read my ticket and DO catch both trains
Score: 10

Saturday the 20th. I spend the whole day, from 11am until almost midnight at my mom's house baking cookies, chatting and even threw in a trip to the new(ish) Plum Market in Ann Arbor.
Score: 9.9 (not a 10 because the day is just never long enough!)
Sunday the 21st. Ryan and I go bowling with his parents for his dad's birthday. I get a Turkey (that's THREE strikes in a row)! and my final score is 163! My best ever!
Score: 10
Tuesday the 23rd. Wake up and get the kitchen cleaned up and ready for a whole day of baking bread for Christmas presents.
10:48 Call Mom because my kitchen Aid mixer is acting up. No answer, wonder why.
11:19 Text Mom to tell her Ryan fixed my mixer. No response, think it's strange.
noon Call Mom at home. No answer, get worried.
1:45 Call Mom on her cell again. No answer, really really worried.
2 something. my cell phone rings, it's the Washtenaw County Police, calling from my Dad's cell phone. They identify themselves and ask for Ryan. I start shaking uncontrollably.

Deborah Candice Schuyler
October 7, 1956 to December 23, 2008
My mommy, my best friend.

The judge has no score for this one. I can barely put my thoughts together for this. I am just completely lost, discouraged, pissed, and just totally totally sad.

The rest of Tuesday was spent waiting for Shannon to get home from Chicago, a day earlier than planned, and for Leah to get here from Grand Rapids.

Wednesday was Christmas Eve, which we usually spend with Ryan's side of the family. I felt numb and ok enough to go with Ryan to that. It ended up being very nice to be there. I planted myself on his Mimi's couch next to my soon-to-be cousin Deanna (who recently married into the family and also lost her dad two years ago) and was able to participate in Christmas there and also zone-out when I needed to. I got a hug from every single person there and that felt great. After Mimi's party we went to Ryan's parents house for our gift exchanging. I got everything I asked for and more. And everyone else loved what we got them too.

Christmas morning we packed up all the gifts and Bella and drove to Chelsea for my family Christmas. My mom had finished her shopping on Monday and had everything wrapped. So we still had presents to open from her. We weren't sure what to do, if we should skip it, or just go on with our usual traditions. We decided we would open things slowly. Open a few gifts, then eat breakfast, open a few more and then lounge and watch a movie. We wanted it to last as long as possible.

The first gift I opened was a hand-knit teddy bear, wearing a tiny hand-knit scarf. We all started crying and decided it was time to stop and have breakfast. She knit me that bear and must have been so excited for me to open it on Christmas morning. She had told me a few weeks prior that her tree was up and decorated and there was only one gift under it, and it was for me. I'm sure that was the one.

We proceeded through the day; laughing, crying, eating what little we had the appetite for.

Friday was the visitation, Saturday the Service. SO many people said wonderful things about my Mommy. Shannon and I both wrote something to be read by Leah. She was the only one of us strong enough to stand up there and speak without crying. Every single person at the service cried. The men you thought never cried in their life were crying. My mom was beautiful, smart, a smart-ass, so creative and talented, an amazing mother, a natural care-giver. There is so much to say that I can't put into words.

So, Because I know she loved to read my blog, because once a week was not enough of a visit for her. 2009 will be the year I start blogging again. I WILL work on my own art. I WILL make time for everything and everyone. My mom NEVER said "no" or "I don't have time" or "I can't" to her girls. When I grow up, I want to be just like her. And because you can never say it enough: Love you Mommy!

Christmas Re-enactment

noreply@blogger.com (Candice) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 15:54:00 +0000

Here we have our Christmas Tree. It is real. I like real trees. Plus, someone else cut it down and was selling it in town. We didn't want it to die without having it's day of glory. We got the tree a little late in the month, less than a week before Christmas, so the tree is STILL up today. Not for long though.

Last year's tree was stripped of all it's branches and the trunk was saved. Ryan kept it out in the shed until this year when he cut the top 5 inches off of it and made my christmas gift this year.

Ryan carved it by hand with an exacto knife out of last year's Christmas tree. Amazing, huh?! The flash kindof washed out the detail. The body is carved in one piece and the little nose is carved too. the eyes and buttons are beads raided from my stash and the hat is fabric that he stiffened with glue. The arms are little sticks from the garden. The arms make me nervous. I try not to touch them, I feel like they will break just by looking at them.

I made a few Christmas gifts this year, I made a great hat for my sister. The yarn is Knit Picks sock yarn and the pattern is Chapeau Marneir from Knitty.

Fortunately her outfit on Christmas morning matched her new hat perfectly!

I also made my mom a scarf. While I was out buying her some sock yarn for Christmas, I found some perfect blue Angora blend yarn on clearance. Whenever mom looks at yarn she immediately rubs in on her neck, makes a face, puts it down and then goes back to the sock yarn. Most yarn is too picky for her to wear around her neck. So I hoped that this would be soft enough for her.

The pattern is simple:
Knit first three rows
K3, * (P2, K2, repeat, ending with a P2), K3
Knit back
End scarf with three more knit rows.

All of the gifts I got are great, here are some highlights. From my parents, I got a Kitchen Aid Mixer!!!!! I thought I was going to have to get married to finally get one. I've already used it to make a carrot cake and it was SO FUN! I love my mixer!

Also in the picture above is my new watering can. It's the tan colored camel on the left. It is metal and must be pretty old. We saw it in the window of a consignment/antique shop and I loved it, but the shop was closed. My mom went back later and found it. It is so fun to use that I am probably over-watering my plants.

I got some great books, some that I asked for, and some that were surprises.

Ryan picked out a great knitting book all by himself; the Knitting Answer Book. So far I've just flipped through it and it seems like it will be a great reference. I got another knitting book that isn't shown in the picture, because it took forever to ship and didn't arrive in time for Christmas. I think the book is Simple Knitted Gifts, or something along those lines. I know it is one I asked for, but I can't remember the title.

And of course for Bella, we got her a 34 inch rawhide shaped like a candy cane. We let her open her gift first, so it would keep her busy all morning. She saw me wrapping it just before we left home for Christmas morning at my parents' house. So she was already really excited about it.

We had to put it in the trunk of the car so she wouldn't rip into it before we got there.

Back to August: Michigan Fiber Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Candice) — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 17:48:00 +0000

Ok, getting back to posting about things that happened a long time ago now.

My best friend Leah and I agreed that instead of getting each other birthday presents in 2007, we would go together (along with my mom too) to the Michigan Fiber Festival at the end of August and spend the money that we would have spent on each other, on ourselves. It was a GREAT TIME. None of us had ever been to this festival in Allegan County, and Leah had never been to a fiber festival at all. I took my camera with me, but didn't take any pictures. I wish we had had someone take our picture with the Alpaca though.

We got to the fair grounds around 1:00 and had our game plan all mapped out. Since we all had a fixed amount of money we could spend there, we decided we wanted to see everything, and then go back around and buy. We got halfway thru the first barn and asked someone what time the thing was closing. When they said 4:00 we all panicked! We thought for sure we had until 6:00. Of course that assumption was based on absolutely no facts, just hope. So, we started just buying what we wanted assuming we might not have time to get back to what we wanted.

Since this was our first time at this festival, we thought this one barn was all there was to see as far as things to buy. Somewhere there was a barn full of animals and sheering demonstrations. There was supposed to be herding dog demonstrations. We did find the barns with the animals, and on our way there found a whole other barn full of yarn to buy. I was kindof disappointed because it was 3:40 when we found it and Leah and I were out of money. We'll have to plan better next time. And definitely go on the Friday or Saturday instead of waiting until Sunday to go.

So, this is what I ended up buying:
My first and last purchases: Sock yarn. I grabbed up the trekking because none of the yarn shops within an hour's drive of my house carry it. And the red colorway there is a superwash hand dye that I spent my last $18 on. I hope it looks as good knitted as it does in the skein. because I would consider NEVER knitting it if it doesn't.

This was the only yarn I bought with a specific pattern in mind. I brought the book with me so I could make sure I was getting the right stuff. It is a mohair loop. It is held double for the pattern and this picture shows it already wound doubled.

This yarn is 100% wool and very soft, about a dk weight I think. Each skein has almost 500 yards on it and I hope it will be enough to make a sweater or something. The color is somewhere between these two photos.

And for some current material; this is what I am working on now. I am to the point of cutting the yarn and winding it through the last 8 stitches of the mohair hat. It is supposed to be slightly felted when it is finished. When I tried the hat on at this point in the knitting, it doesn't really fit, so I decided to take some yarn from the other end of the barn and make a swatch to see how it will felt. Well, it doesn't. So it's going to stay on the needles until I decide what to do about that. (another reason why the only projects I seem to finish are socks.)
My other project on the needles is a pair of socks that I started on vacation in August. Specifically, Hartsville, Ohio.

The reason they are taking so long is because I really really dislike the colorway. I loved it in the skein, but now it is showing all the nasty browns and other pukey colors in the stripes. I know I will wear them when they are done, but they are just not fun to knit. So my new motivation is to get them done so I can start on the red hand dyed stuff from the fiber festival (see photo above). I also had to stop knitting on them to work on some Christmas knitting. That will be for next time.

I think I have the blog updated well enough to cover the important stuff that happened while I wasn't blogging. I hope to be blogging more in 2008. I also hope to get back into the habit of using my sewing room for my own work. It has been a hard year for me as an artist. Struggling with the issues of being paid to do someone else's art. when I do that for about 35 hours a week, it is hard to stay in there and clear all that out of the way to work on my own. I know it shouldn't be hard, if I really am the artist that I think I am. So this year, I will try to stay true to my own label as an "artist", not just the "paid to be" artist that I was in 2007. Wish me luck!

Travelling further back in time: August

noreply@blogger.com (Candice) — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 12:32:00 +0000

We didn't go far, or stay for very long, but it was a lot of fun anyway! We left our little Bella with my parents for the long weekend. It was the first time we had been away from her for more than overnight.

Our first stop was Cleveland Ohio for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We spent the day there and saw everything. We had been talking about going there for years, pretty much since we first started dating. I thought it was interesting, but not at all what I expected. I can't describe exactly what I thought it would be like, but I can't help but feel cost of admission was a little high for what is there to be seen. It was fun though. We left as the Hall was closing and found a map and planned out how to get to the restaurant we had picked out for dinner. About an hour later, we found it. Great Lakes Brewing Company. Food was good, beer was better.

After we waddled out of the restaurant with full bellies, we headed toward the hotel, which instead of being on Lake Erie, like I wanted, we had to drive about 35 minutes south to a small town outside of Cleveland. We had a limited budget and couldn't spend $100/night for all three nights. The hotel was ok. No frills or anything special, just a room with a bed and a bath. All we needed.

We hadn't quite decided what we were going to do the next day, so we browsed the tourist magazine that was in the hotel room. The only idea I had for the next day was to go on to our next destination and see the city. Our next destination was Columbus to bet on the harness races at Scioto Downs. Post time wasn't until 6:30, so we had a whole day to kill. In the magazine there was an ad for an enormous flea market only about 45 minutes away from our hotel, and somewhat on the way to Columbus. We only got lost a couple... ok, we got really lost quite a few times. But we found it. A couple of the vendors had puppies and after being away from Bella for less than two days already, I wanted to snuggle them. The sellers were pretty firm about the pups being held by SERIOUS buyers only. jerks.

We headed toward columbus and got there just in time to plan out our first couple bets and re-familiarize ourselves with the process. Unfortunately we did not come out ahead. The first time we had been to the harness races we did really well. We had no idea how to read the program other than to read the names of the horses and what race they were in. So we just picked horses by their funny names. We did pretty well for first timers. I think we broke even that time. This time though, we had some knowledge and could pick out a little information from the program. We bet on the first 5 races trying to use that information. The last 5 races we went back to our funny name system. Neither way worked. Out of the 10 races (and us betting separately for each race, so really 20 bets) we won ONE. One single race. Good thing we were only betting $1 on each race.

That night we stayed at the most filthy, scary, awful and not cheap hotel I've ever seen. I booked all our hotels ahead of time online. This hotel was scary. The room had a bed and a tv. that is pretty much all we had. No alarm clock, no remote control, no ice bucket, no plastic cups, no hair dryer. I think all we had was a single bar of awful hotel soap. The room reeked like paint and was visibly dirty. If I were more like my mother I would have complained and/or left and gotten my money back. I don't know where we would have stayed, we surely would have had to charge a more expensive hotel. So we ended up staying there. Even though we were tired from a long day and a lot of driving and getting lost, I couldn't get to sleep because I was thinking of all the different ways we could possibly be killed in our sleep.

We woke up the next morning (good thing I have an alarm clock in my cell phone) in time to shower and get the hell out of there. We glanced toward the continental breakfast on the way out, we paused and looked at each other and I just said, "let's go find a bakery". So we hit the road looking for some kind of little bakery, starbucks or ANYTHING. We found a Tim Hortons a little ways down the road and loaded up on caffeine and naughty breakfast items. Things with frosting and cheese and chocolate in and on them. And headed toward the next and final destination: Cave City, Kentucky.

We drove the 4 or 5 hours to Cave City and arrived at the hotel right at check-in. We walked in and told the woman at the hotel we had reservations. I guess we missed the time zone change sign on the freeway. It was an hour earlier than we thought. So we decided to go to the Cave first and come back to the hotel later. There were a lot of Cave tours to choose from in this part of the state. Mammoth Caves were right near our hotel, but I saw one online called The Lost River Cave, this one had a walking tour to the cave entrance and then a boat tour inside the cave! So we had to go to that one. It was amazing and I could do a whole blog post just about the cave, but I won't because this entry is already getting to be pretty lengthy. So here are some pics and brief explanations. If you want more, you'll have to go take the tour yourself. It is not expensive at all and is worth every penny.
This is a blue hole. One of the 5 or so places the river is above ground.

This is a section of the river that was above ground. Picture was taken from just outside the mouth of the cave.

After the cave tour we wandered the hiking trails and found something we could set the camera on and use the timer to get a picture of us together. It only took 4 or 5 tries to get one of me in the shot too. We were standing on some rocks in a little stream.

After the cave tour we headed back to Cave City to our hotel. This was the only night we spent at a NICE hotel. This room had a King size bed and a 2 person Jacuzzi tub in the room. I also found an ad online for a nice steakhouse. I looked at pictures and a menu online. It showed $20+ steaks and lobster and all the things you expect at a fancy steakhouse. So we showered and got all dressed up and went to the steakhouse. We drive up and from the outside it doesn't look very fancy. We think maybe they just don't spend their money on the OUTSIDE. So we go in and see everyone in cutoff jeans, tank tops, SWEAT PANTS. So, we're a little overdressed. We wait to be seated and look around. The walls are 80's wood paneling, with the tables and chairs that you would have found in a Pizza Hut in 1987. There is a small, not so fancy salad bar in front of the open galley kitchen. We sit down, thinking, maybe the menu will redeem the rest of what we saw so far. We glance over the menu, looking for steaks, seafood, wine list and beer selection... We see steaks. Just your average American restaurant style dinners, and no alcohol at all. So we decide to leave before the waitress comes back. We hi-tail it out of there and drive back to the hotel. We didn't see anything else along the way. The only option looked like a steakhouse Saloon type restaurant that was attached to the hotel across the street. We go into the lobby of our hotel and ask the attendant for a recommendation. We should have asked about a fancy place or steakhouse specifically, because when we asked for a good restaurant, he immediately referred us to the little mom/pop BBQ joint practically in the parking lot behind the hotel. We also asked where we could buy some alcohol. He pretty much just laughed and said, "welcome to the bible belt". It was Sunday and there is absolutely NO ALCOHOL sold on Sundays. We were pretty bummed that we couldn't have a glass of wine or beer with dinner, on the one night of the trip we were doing our romantic type stuff. But we ended up having a really nice dinner at the hotel steakhouse across the street. After dinner we had a soak in the Jacuzzi tub and watched the ever so romantic show "Ice Road Truckers".

Monday morning we slept in a bit and headed north toward home. Of course, I had scoped out a yarn shop and planned to hit it on the way home on Monday. It was in a little town called Bellevue right on the border between Cincinatti, Ohio and Kentucky. I had $50 set aside for splurging there. And I did. I got some nice variegated laceweight and a skein of Schaefer Anne. Turns out, I drove to Kentucky to buy laceweight yarn that is manufactured only an hour from my house.

We returned home and unpacked the car and then I went out to check on the garden. My mom and sister had been there Saturday night to water the garden and pick anything that was ripe. I had been having a problem with Japanese Beetles on my green beans. So I had a spray bottle of soapy water out there. It just takes one squirt and they die and fall off the leaf. In the two days since Mom and Shannon had been there I had an enormous swarm of Japanese Beetles. I probably did a bit of damage to the plant by spraying so much soapy water all over it to get ALL those bugs.

*shudder* makes me feel all creepy crawly.

Next time: Continuing with August, The Michigan Fiber Festival in Allegan County.

2 finished objects and a dog's birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Candice) — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 13:50:00 +0000

I have been working on these socks since last summer. I cast on after we moved into this house in August. I started working on them again over the weekend and was surprised to see how close I was to finishing them, it only had about an hours worth of knitting left. Here they are,

Pattern is from Interweave Knits, Winter 2005. Yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport in Bittersweet.

If I had to do these socks again, I would definitely not continue the lace pattern along the bottom of the foot. I think it's wasted time/effort, but also it feels kinda funky on the bottom of my feet to have all that texture. I didn't even think of making the bottoms solid stockinette until the first sock was completely done. The pattern also calls to cut the yarn after the heel and start again, I think I would change that too. I get nervous about my socks not all being one long peice of yarn.

The thing in this house that makes me most nervous though... is this:

AHHHHHHHHHHHH There's a sock murderer loose in my house!!!
These are the worst things you could possibly ever step on. The nails stick up just enough to catch on a sock and RRRRRIPPPPP! I have lost quite a few socks to these strips, fortunately though, only store-bought ones. But it makes me extremely paranoid when I am wearing my knit socks.

The next finished object is a bag that I made for a baby shower that was last Saturday. I couldn't make it to the shower because my sister Shannon was home for the weekend. I hadn't seen her since April, so I thought that was a pretty valid reason to not attend the shower. I finished it Sunday night and will give it to the recipient when I see her this Saturday.

And now we travel back in time to September 15th 2007. Since Bella is such a good girl and just loves to play with other dogs, we decided to celebrate her first birthday by throwing her a HUGE party. There was probably 35 or 40 people here and at least 15 dogs. we had People food and dog treats and I made a cake (for people) shaped like a dog bone:

It wasn't that difficult to make the cake. I used three box mixes and baked them in a 9 by 13 rectangular pan. (each separately because I only have one 9 by 13 pan) then stacked them up with cool whip in between and let them sit in the fridge overnight so they would be more solid. Then I just used a sharp knife and carved out the bone shape using a paper pattern that I drew out first.

Here are two of the dogs that attended the party. Cricket is in front and Jada is in back. They are patiently waiting for the hand made dog cookies that are there on the picnic table. Just after the picture was snapped though, cricket jumped up onto the table and snatched as many as he could before his mom caught him.

The next morning, Bella opened her birthday presents. She got quite a few balls and bones and toys. She even got some scratch-off lottery tickets. She didn't win anything though.

The party was quite a success. there were only a few little scraps here and there and the only major problem was the weather. It was only about 62 degrees here. After a whole week of 75 to 80 degree weather, and then the whole week after the party it was in the 90's. We had a keg and a fire so the cold wasn't bothering me.

Happy Halloween (2 days later)

noreply@blogger.com (Candice) — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 13:39:00 +0000

I've taken a very LONG vacation from the blog. Long enough to get kicked off some of my Rings. So I am going to try to really make an effort to blog more than once a week. I thought I would start with Halloween and go backwards. I won't make it all the way back to April in one post though.

I made Ryan an award winning costume this year. In early October, we were at a birthday party for a friend and we started talking about Halloween and Ryan just blurted out, "I"m going to be a pissed-off sunflower for halloween". He said he hadn't even been thinking about it, but it just came to him, right then. Everyone thought it would be hilarious and my wheels started turning about how to make the costume. I would need a costume too, so I decided I would be Marilyn Monroe and enlisted my mom to make the white dress from "The Seven Year Itch". The costumes were for a Halloween show at a local dive venue in Ypsilanti where Ryan and the guys play quite often called "the Elbow Room".

This is him playing drums with his costume on:

and here is a better picture of the costume.
I used felt and sewed each petal shape inside out and stuffed them with fiber-fill and sewed them all to a store-bought knit cap. Originally I started with flat petals with wire clothes hangers glued inside, but that made it really heavy, so I had the idea to use stuffed petals and it really worked well. I sewed each petal to a strip of brown felt and then sewed that to the hat by hand. then I picked a couple places on each petal to sew it either to the petal next to it or to the hat more toward the top of the head, to keep it from just flopping down in front of his face. Then to hide all my stitches, I sewed two strips of brown together and cut slits into it and sewed it around the face opening, to look like the center of a sunflower. He had the best costume at both shows he played that weekend. The second show is where he won the costume contest. It was down to him and one other guy wearing a store-bought costume tied for first place. So they arm-wrestled for it and Ryan won! First prize was a brand new iPod Shuffle! I ask you this though... Who really won? The guy who wears the costume or the gal who made it? I don't want the iPod, I already have my own, but I just want a little recognition for it!

This is the only picture I have of me in my costume so far. I'm still waiting for a friend to send me the pictures she took with her camera.

On Halloween proper, we went to Monroe to go trick or treating with Ryan's niece and nephew. They were freaking adorable in their costumes. Ryan wore his sunflower head too and got comments from almost every person we passed. Kids laughed, older kids just said, "HA! HE's a Giant sunflower!!!!" After trick or treating we came home and charged up the camera batteries and emptied the memory stick onto the computer and gathered up some flashlights. We waited until midnight and then drove to some really old scary cemeteries. We took pictures in the pitch black hoping to see some gnarly scary ghosts on the images, but didn't really see anything. There are quite a few spots on the pictures, like glowing bubbles sort of, but I'm sure they are just light reflections off the moon or the flash or something.

This picture actually has some of the spots on it, but you proably have to make it big to see them.

Nothing too scary happened while we were out. I was expecting to get really freaked out and RUN back to the car. The first cemetery was the scariest. It is really really old, it is on the side of a road near our house and just sortof in the middle of a bunch of corn fields. We got out of the car and held hands as we walked up the the stones and shined the flashlights around and saw something moving... it was an american flag at one of the grave sites. So we just sortof stood at the edge of the cemetery and took the pictures. The next cemetery was completely fenced off, so we just pulled up and took pics from the car.
At the last cemetery we got out and walked around a little bit. There were some houses sortof near it, but it was way out in the country. All the stones were really old, people that died in the mid 1800's. We were standing there and heard something. kindof like a metal pipe hitting soemthing else metal. we stopped and just looked at each other, still listening. We heard it bang three times and I said, "OK, I'm ready to go". We got to the car and looked back and one of the houses near the cemetery had their outside lights on and we could see someone walking around, so we were pretty sure that's where the noise came from.

Ok, I think this post is long enough, next time I'll go backwards into September and tell you about Bella's First Birthday party!

I went to Chicago and all I got was...

noreply@blogger.com (Candice) — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 17:25:00 +0000

sick, and some ribbon.

So, I visited my sister in Chicago for the weekend and it was a lot of fun. I took the train from Jackson, Michigan Friday night, which was an hour late when it picked me up, then eventually became two hours late getting into the city because of other trains being in our way.

Saturday we went shopping and walked around town. We went to a cute little shop in Bucktown called Soutache. It was a little store with a whole wall of ribbons, a wall of buttons and a some other findings and metal clasps and things to make dog collars and key chains and stuff. I bought one yard of this pretty ribbon and a fob attachment to make a key chain. Shannon bought some cute used clothing at an upscale "value world" type place. And I did my big sister job of not letting her spend $250+ on a pair of shoes. Actually, my job was to not let her spend more than $250 over the whole weekend. We had a nice lunch at Silver Cloud and then went home for a rest. Then we hopped onto the El and headed toward downtown with the eventual destination of The Cheesecake Factory. We stopped at a dissappointing "chicago fabric yarn and button" or something or other store that had bolts and bolts of UGLY fabric. Stopped at the BEAN; My sister said we HAD to go see the BEAN and I didn't know what she was talking about and it sure didn't sound too exciting. But it was SO cool.

We did make it to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. We did not order dinner. We each had a coffee drink and a piece of cheesecake for our early dinner. Shannon had Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake and I had the White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cheesecake. If you know anything about me, this should sound weird to you. I am a chocoholic. I didn't order the full on chocolate overload cheesecake because I also ordered a Mocha to drink, which has chocolate in it. I thought it might be too much. I was wrong. I could have handled more chocolate. But I had enough of Shannon's to get my fix and neither of us finished our huge slices.

Sunday we started out early and went to breakfast at the Hollywood Cafe or something. I forget what it was called exactly. Then we took the EL for a while and walked for quite a while to get to the little neighborhood where our Great Grandma grew up. We had an address off of an old postcard, so Shannon mapquested it and we found our way to the house. It was kind of dissappointing to walk what was probably a mile or two from the EL stop to find a house that looks like it was built in the last decade. This is the house, about 20 feet from the railroad tracks. This is significant because Great Grandma had a little sister named Leora. When Leora was 4, she and a friend were walking to the store and had to cross the tracks. The girls walked between the cars of a parked train and stepped out on the other side onto the second set of tracks, just as another train came. Leora was killed. So it was very eery to see how close the house was to the tracks.

One redeeming point during our long walk to the house was this:

We were walking up a city street in a not so wonderful neighborhood very near the freeway when shannon stops and points across the street to this chicken, just mosey-ing on down the sidewalk. It was hilarious.

After we looked at the house we were tired of walking and I was not feeling very good. I had woken up with a migraine and I don't think breakfast was agreeing with me, so we figured out the shortest distance to a bus stop. Our next stop would be "Midwest Discount Yarn". The online description said they had mill ends and discontinued yarns at discounted prices. This place was pretty far away, but it sounded worth it. So we took two busses to find it. Closed. Closed on Sunday. of course. SO we got back on the bus headed for a yarn store that Shannon knew was open and was worth the trip. We were on the second bus when I started to feel a little queasy. I took a couple deep breaths and started worrying about this busload of people who might all get to see me puke soon. I told Shannon I didn't feel good and we got off the bus. I just needed some water and I started to feel better, but wasn't ready to get back on a bus yet. We walked a couple blocks along the bus route so we could just hop on when I was ready. We finally made it home with no puking in public. But without any yarn either. Yes... I felt that bad that I gave up a trip to a new yarn shop.

We had to leave Shannon's apartment at 5:30 to make it to Union Station so I could catch my train home. We got to Union Station at 6:19 or so and strolled toward the monitor to see what gate I should wait at. It wasn't on the monitor. So we found an amtrack employee and asked what gate the detroit train should be leaving from, he told us and we went in that direction, but the people at that gate were not even going to Michigan. I was starting to get nervous because the train was supposed to leave at 6:30. I saw another amtrack employee and whipped out my ticket and just said, "where am I supposed to be?" She said, "that train's already gone. It left at 6:00" as she pointed to the ticket where it says "6:00pm". "IT"S GONE" I mouthed to Shannon across the room. She looked puzzled. I got over to her and showed her the 6:00 on my ticket and we both said F***!. but then Shannon exclaimed, "you get to stay another night!!!" Which would have been great and awesome if I still didn't feel like crap with my stupid migraine. So we exchanged my ticket for the first train out in the morning and of course double and triple checked the time with the ticket lady. When we got outside Shannon stopped for a smoke and said I should call Ryan to tell him he doesn't have to pick me up tonight in Jackson. I just looked at her and started BALLING. I lost it. I was sick and when you're sick you just want to be at home. And honestly after only two days away, I missed Ryan and Bella and was excited about him picking me up at the train station. (Of course it's always more romantic in your head). It ended up being a good thing that I didn't take the train Sunday night. It would have been a long miserable ride with the migraine I had. Especially if I didn't get a seat to myself so I could stretch out.

So, that was my trip to Chicago where all I got was a neat piece of ribbon.

few and far between

noreply@blogger.com (Candice) — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 17:39:00 +0000

I just thought I'd stop by my own blog and drop a line. Once every two months seems to be my limit on posting. Not that there isn't "blog worthy" stuff going on around here. I've been sock knitting like crazy. I'm just stuck in a sock rut, and every sock I've worked on, including starting new ones have all been my old stand-by, not toe-up. I was just not in the mood to learn something new I guess.

I've been working on this sock for quite a while. I think I cast on last summer after we moved into the house. I'm getting pretty far on these, despite the needles being stolen and eaten right out of the stitches back in January. Luckily Bella was only interested in the bamboo, not the yarn. Maybe she doesn't like wool... I think in this case that is a good thing.

I have one more 16-row lace repeat to do before I start the toe. This is only sock 1 of the pair. hmmmm that kind of makes me want to go finish it right now.

So after my last pair was finished I cast on this sock. I think the yarn is Trekking, it came from my grandma's stash without a ball band. It seemed like it was a little smaller guage than usual sock yarn, so I was using size 0 needles. I was going along and after 6 inches of 2x2 ribbing and the heel flap and turn heel and even a few gusset decreases, I tried it on.... way too small. So, I stared at it for a couple days, then finally pulled the needles out of it. and there it sits. I'll eventually re-wind the ball and RRRRRRip the sock, but I just can't do it yet.

So after that, I started on my favorite yarn from my stash. My Trekking. I just love these colors. These are for me. I just finished the gussett decreases last night and heading toward the toe on sock one.

And of course I am still working on this pink silk/wool tank top from the cover of Interweave Knits (don't know what issue, magazine is upstairs and I'm lazy). Last time I worked on it, I had an extra stitch in the last row and just did a k2tog with the two stitches before the marker. So now I'm discouraged and think it will mess up the alignment in the lace.

I have not even started working yet today. I have the rest of today, most of tomorrow and all Monday to do almost 20 hours of work. I should be getting it done today and saving myself the stress of finishing 12 hours of work on Monday, but, that's how I do things I guess. Procrastination. Instead of working I have been ADD cleaning, packing, unpacking, doing laundry and snuggling with Bella. Oh, and washed a sink full of dishes. Which included a whole lotta stuff that we got yesterday at IKEA. It was the first time either of us had been there and we (well, I) went nuts; throwing things in the cart left and right. It was all a birthday present to myself. I told Ryan, in lieu of a birthday present this year, I just wanted us to spend a day together and go to IKEA and do some other fun stuff. So that's what we did yesterday.

Then we went to my parents' house for dinner (Seafood quiche, salad and yummy homemade bread), presents and cake. No singing. We don't sing. Except for my sister Shannon, I got a quite lovely saranade over the phone of an off key, out of tune, exuberant Happy Birthday song from Shannon. And since Shannon couldn't come here on a wednesday for my birthday, I am going to take the train tomorrow night to Chicago to see her and spend the weekend. I am SOOOOOOO excited. and kinda nervous. I've never ridden the train alone before. So I have to pack up a big bag of knitting and stuff to keep me busy for at least 4 hours. I am really excited about having 4 hours of knitting time though.

Here's some other stuff I got for my birthday from my parents.

I also got a 10 piece set of CALPHALON pans. Yeah. They are AWESOME. They are all washed and ready to use. I just want to go upstairs and cook a HUGE meal.

And of course, here's another picture of Bella. She has a little raw spot on the top of her nose from burying bones and treats in the couch cushions and in the bed. It's so cute how she pretends there is dirt there to cover the bone up with.

Ok, I think I have gotten all the non-work stuff out of my system. Now I need to get a start on this week's load of work.

Next post (hopefully some time before June) will have some Quilting/sewing content.

What could be better?

noreply@blogger.com (Candice) — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 21:27:00 +0000

Today I learned how to cast on and start a sock from the toe up! Very exciting. I was saving this Twizzle yarn until I learned the toe up method because I don't want to waste even an inch of it. So here is the start of it.

But even more exciting than that is THIS that was waiting for me in the mail box when I got home!

Thirteen sets of 5" DPNs. I can hardly contain my excitement! My mom bought these for me on Ebay for less than $30. What a deal!! I was planning on going to the yarn store and getting new sets of size 0 and 1, to replace what Bella ate. But now I don't have to. Now my only problem is this:

I have too many needles for my needle case... I don't think I'll complain too much about that one.