Tuesday Tens: Ten Things My Readers Should Know About the Last Ten Months (more or less)

It's been a while, and I'm not quite sure what to say. So I decided to say it in a list. A Tuesday Tens list.

1. I haven't gone anywhere, I just haven't been myself for a while. Last summer was tough. I was starting to get back in the blogging habit in October, then I got the the Swine Flu and everything came to a grinding halt. (Yes, this right before the vaccines became available to the general public.) Between that and all the other things I'm about to talk about, I just fell out of circulation. It's not just the blogging. It's the knitting, crochet, spinning, yarn sales, knitting groups, local yarn shops, Ravelry and everything else that goes with it. Some of my knitting friends probably think I fell off the face of the earth. I feel so embarrassed. I didn't know that Bluebonnet Yarn Shoppe closed, and I'm only vaguely aware that The Knitting Nest moved. I'm not sure what happened. Maybe I just needed a break. Maybe I'll be back even bigger and better than before.

So if you've messaged me on Ravelry, left a comment, e-mailed me, etc and I haven't responded, I'm sorry. But now I'm back. Feel free to contact me again. You'll probably get an answer.

2. Jules and I are no longer together. We haven't been since last October. I'm not going in to details except to say we didn't get along while we were living together. He moved into his own place in October, and then back to California in January. We still talk on the phone every now and then.

3. I'm unemployed again. Not many people can say they've been laid off by the same employer twice. But this time there was no rehire. It happened February 12, and it was the exact opposite of the other lay off. I didn't see it coming, and I was the only one (on that particular morning) that was let go.

I was having a good Friday morning when it happened. Mid-morning my pen ran out of ink and I needed a new notepad. I was finishing up entering stuff into the computer, and I was going to find the office manager to get more supplies when they called me in. They cleaned out my desk for me, and I tried to get to my car as quickly as possible before I saw anyone I know.

But don't feel sorry for me. Between collecting unemployment and a little help from The Bank of Mom and Dad, I'm doing fine and looking forward to a fresh start.


4. I'm cleaning my apartment. Seriously. After lots of false starts over the past few years, I'm really, honestly, truly making progress. The picture above is my "Wall O' Yarn." (It's all cataloged on Ravelry, except for a couple of specific categories.) You can see more pictures of my apartment on Flickr. Maybe someday I'll be brave enough to post the "before" pictures.

5. I have contacts now, but the headaches are back. Last summer I talked about my new glasses hurting. It was awful. The pain around my nose traveled to the back of my head and down my neck. It went on for months, until I finally gave in and got contacts for my birthday in December. For a while, all the pain went away. But then in March I developed a headache in the left side of my forehead (the same side as the pain from the glasses.) The pain also started traveling down my neck, so I know they must be related to the pain I had with the glasses. It's been a problem since March. I'll probably blog more about it later, but there are medications, doctors and a chiropractor involved now.

(The good news is that my contacts are awesome!)

6. I may blog about non-yarn things more often. I've had the urge to write more about other topics than what will fit in a Facebook status update. So you'll probably see more non-knitting stuff here.

7. I have all sorts of unfinished business to blog about. There's an FO that's never been seen on this blog, a follow up to the Potholder Swap and all kinds of pictures to post.


8. This is my most recent WIP. I'm calling it the "Back in the Saddle Scarf," for obvious reasons. It's the Easy Drop Stitch Scarf, only wider. I'm planning to add some fringe as well. I'm using Noro Lily from Bluebonnet Yarn Shoppe.

9. I feel incredibly guilty about crapping out on the Gauge Scarf Circle. I really owe a big apology to Gauge and all it's customers, especially those in my scarf circle. I never finished the scarves, and a couple have been lingering in my house. I was late, then I was ashamed, so I avoided going, and that made me later and more ashamed and guilty, and then I really avoided dropping them off, and it went on and on like that for months. I'm probably the reason the scarves in my circle weren't finished. And now that I've blogged it, I'm think I'm brave enough to return the scarves in my possession.

10. Guilt has been a huge factor in my absence. It's irrational, but every time something knitting, blogging or fiber related came up in the past few months, I couldn't enjoy it because I felt guilty. Guilty for not keeping up, for being out of the loop, for having big plans and not following up and, in a few areas, guilty for not following through on my promises. So I avoided it. I know this doesn't make sense, so I'm going to push myself back into it until it feels right again.

yarn pr0n: Picks from the Knitting Nest

Last Saturday they had a sale at The Knitting Nest, and I forgot my camera.

D'oh!

Fortunately, I didn't forget to buy yarn.


This is Cascade Alpaca Lace in Garnet.

If you're really on the ball, you may have noticed that I bought almost 3,500 yards of lace weight, enough for 2 or 3 shawls. That's a lot of yarn, especially for someone who usually dabbles in single skeins.

I took a big risk here. I was flipping through Maggie Righetti's Sweater Design in Plain English this evening, and I happened to turn to the page where she recommends buying a single skein before investing in a sweater's worth of anything. It was almost as if she knew. But she didn't say anything about Easter Eggs promising big savings. (My Easter Egg gave me 15% off.)

I have big audacious plans for this yarn. Big, audacious, secret plans. But perhaps I've already said too much...


I also came home with our good friend Malabrigo. The top skein is "Cuarenta" and the bottom skein is "Strawberry Fields." I like these colors because they go together without being too "matchy matchy."

I have design plans for the Malabrigo as well, but they are not-so-secret and not-so-audacious.

I also hung out with Emily, Ana, Ceci and Gigi while I was there. Emily said someone saw the picture of her combs that I had posted online, and purchased them from her. Whoever you are, mystery purchaser, I'm glad I could help.

I also talked about formats for patterns. I realized publishing patterns on Ravelry was a lot easier than I was making it seem. So thanks to them, I posted this on my blog and on Ravelry this week. The pattern brought record traffic to my blog from the Ravelry page.

Yay for Ravelry!

FO and Pattern: Broken Scarf

Remember the Broken Scarf? I actually finished it last summer, and I've been wearing it this winter. But I never did an official FO post because I wanted to write up a pattern. I finally realized that:

1) The scarf doesn't need a new name.
2) Writing up the pattern (especially a one-row pattern like this one) isn't as hard as it seems.

So I now present to you, the official pattern and FO entry for the Broken Scarf:


I was so excited that I managed to snag the last two skeins of this particular colorway of Malabrigo Silky Merino. I knew I had to do something special that would allow the colors to shine.

Broken Garter Stitch is a great way to show of variegated yarn. It adds some depth without getting in the way of the colors. And it’s super simple. This scarf uses the same pattern row knit over and over again. It makes for great knitting while watching television, and it’s a good choice for beginning knitters.

Many hand dyed and hand painted yarns, such as the Malabrigo used here, will vary a lot from skein to skein, even within the same dye lot. I alternated two skeins every two rows to hide inconsistencies in the two skeins. It’s also a good way to avoid pooling.

If you alternate skeins, you will be switching on the same side of the scarf. Be sure to not to pull too tightly when you switch yarns. This will help keep the sides even.

Yarn: 2 skeins of Malabrigo Silky Merino (shown in Bahia) – 300 yards/274.3 meters

Needles: US Size 5/3.75 mm
(Always use the needle size that will give you proper gauge. My gauge tends to be looser than most, so most knitters will need larger needles.)

Notions: Tapestry Needle for weaving in ends.

Gauge: 20 stitches/32 rows per 4 inches/10 cm

Pattern:
Cast on 23 stitches.

Row 1: Knit 3, Purl 2 across, ending with Knit 3

Repeat this Row until the scarf reaches the desired length. Mine is a little over five feet long (or about 1.5 meters.)

Alternate yarn every two rows if you wish.

Bind Off. Weave in the ends with a tapestry needle.




Broken Scarf by Sally Villarreal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Special thanks to The Knitting Nest in Austin, Texas for letting me take pictures at the shop.
http://www.theknittingnestaustin.com/

Ravelry Link

Ravelry Weekend Awesomeness

Valentine's Day is tough when your significant other is in another state. So I was lucky that I had something to distract me. On Saturday, The Knitting Nest hosted the Ravelry crew, and people came in from all over to celebrate.


Here I am with Jess (left) and Casey (right). They were pretty cool. You can read the story about how they started Ravelry here.


And here I am with Mary-Heather, who is the third member of the Ravelry team, and Jess.


Former Austinite Caro of splityarn came back into town for the event.


The guests of honor (and Jess and Casey's dog, Bob) had Valentine's Day Stockings filled with goodies...


...a banner that everyone signed...


...and official status as Honorary Texans. (Sorry for the blurry picture.)


One group (from out of town, I think) brought special gifts for the guests of honor. A scarf for Casey and pasties for the ladies. This was the best shot I got of all four of them. They were surrounded by people taking pictures. (There's a better picture of Casey's scarf here.)


Of course, there was plenty of stuff for the customers. They gave out door prizes every 15 minutes, and I won the very first one! I got a Cascade beanie bear, a set of US size 8 needles in a very nice wood, and a skein of Cascade Lana D' Oro.


This was my first trip to The Knitting Nest since right before I went to the hospital, so I saw all sorts of new yarn that I hadn't seen there before. The Malabrigo Sock Yarn was the most popular by far. They had it right at the entrance, so everyone saw it when they came in. Some of the other highlights included Cascade Alpaca Lace, Queensland Collection Haze and Cascade Soft Spun.


They also had lots of Malabrigo Worsted in "Ravelry Red."


I finally got my mojo back with Double Knitting. I got going on my Tapestry Cowl again while I was hanging out.


Here's the yarn I bought. Jess helped me pick out the Cascade 128 on top. I'm considering it for the Montera coat. I had a hard time deciding which color. I had it down to the purple and an apple green. I asked several people, and Jess said she thought the purple was better.

I also got some Malabrigo Sock in "Impressionist Sky" and a skein of yarn to finish Jules' Gloves.

It was an awesome day.

You can see all of my pictures from the day here. Also, everybody's pictures from the event are on Flickr with the tag "ravelryweekend."

Ravelry Wrap Up

Casey works the room
Originally uploaded by frecklegirl

Thanks to Flickr's "blog this" feature, I'm doing a short entry before bed.

I spent all evening uploading tons of photos from the Ravelry Party at The Knitting Nest on Saturday. We met Ravelry founders Casey and Jess. I'll have full details later, but tonight I'm posting a photo by Jess herself. I'm wearing my Entrelac Scarf in this one, and Casey is talking with me and some of the other knitters. Casey is the one in the red shirt talking to all of us.

The Knitting Nest is asking everyone to upload their pictures of the even to Flickr with the tag "ravelryweekend." So you can see my pics and everyone else's here.

Mooching at The Knitting Nest

Last weekend when I went home to mooch off Mom and use her wheel, I also made a trip to The Knitting Nest to mooch off Stacy and use her yarn meter. As you can see, they're celebrating their victory.


The shop had several new yarns, including Queensland Collection Tahiti, Elizabeth Austen Andes and Rozetti Baby Soft. However, the Baby Alpaca Chunky Paints was my favorite new yarn. It's soft, pretty and makes for a quick knit.


Of course, I had plenty to do with my own yarn. Here's my Coopworth Single. I now know I have about 251.66 yards (or 755 feet.)


Remember my two-ply merino? I have 202.33 yards of it (or 607 feet.)


Then it was time to measure the Cookie Monster Single I had a lot of problems with it breaking. I may have spun it a little too fine.


I had 208.66 yards (or 626 feet) total.


The hardest part was spinning from the ball so I could have to singles to ply together. Each single is about 104.66 yards (or 314 feet.) Not bad for one ounce of fiber.


Did I mention that I got to spin on Stacy's wheel? It's an Ashford. I'm not sure if it's a Traditional or an Elizabeth.


Somehow, the wheel has both Scotch tension and a double drive band. I'm not sure exactly how that works. I think you can decide which one to use.

I'm starting to think I'm an Ashford person.

You can see all my pictures from my last trip to The Knitting Nest, including more spinning wheel photos, here.

Hill Country Yarn Crawl 2008

After some debate I decided to go on the Hill Country Yarn Crawl and take the bus that left from Hill Country Weavers. I couldn't make it today, when most of the people went and the bus went to the shops out of town. But I did have fun going to all my local shops and getting to see a new one.

You can see all the pictures I took on the yarn crawl here.


I got to Hill Country Weavers nice and early, where I picked up my passport and my tote bag for all my goodies.


Hill Country Weavers gave out skeins of Plymouth Ocean Side Organic cotton yarn and a booklet with patterns for these dishcloths.


Trish of Tanglewood Fiber Creations was there, with all her beautiful, luscious handspun yarn.


Pam got a skein of Tanglewood yarn. It was 50% silk, 50% cashmere, with beads. It was so soft that she decided to wear it as a necklace.

There were only eight people who went on Saturday, so they reserved a 15 passenger van. The van was late. Way late. So more than an hour after we were supposed to leave, this is what showed up to pick us up:


Yep, there wasn't even enough room for eight, much less 15. They had confirmed the time and the size of the van the day before. We weren't thrilled.

So we waited for another van to come.


Finally, a second van arrived. This one was bigger, but there still weren't enough seats. We ended up taking both.

As we talked to our driver in the second van, we discovered that she wasn't a driver, and she didn't have a fleet van. Apparently she works for the owner of the business, but not as a driver. She was driving her own personal van. Her boss had called her up and asked her to come let us use her van. When we needed two vehicles, she got roped into driving us all around town.

The driver was very nice despite the situation. She enjoyed the shops, and she may try knitting. (She already sews.) We had a good time talking. She said she had a great time, and I told her not to tell her boss that.

So that was the main hitch in the plan. We still made it to all the shops, but we didn't have as much time to spend. But we didn't let it ruin our day.


Our first stop was The Knitting Nest, where they gave us kits for spider headbands, just in time for Halloween. In addition to the new notion holders, they had several new yarns including Cascade Greenland (the same stuff I got from Wildfire), Laines Du Nord Calipso, Cascade Cotton Rich and Knit One Crochet Too Ty-Dy Socks. And they had this...


This is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in Amy's Vintage Office, the limited edition color I've been drooling over. Stacy said they ran out of the sock weight already, and these three skeins in Shepherd Worsted were all that was left. I bought one of them.

Speaking of Stacy, there's a story behind this picture:


Stacy is a trooper. She cut her hand when she broke the vase her anniversary roses came in. Since then, she's had surgery on her hand. (She showed me her stitches.) This was less than a week ago, yet she was at the store, on lots of painkillers.

She agreed to let me take a picture, and I said I wouldn't put it up if I didn't get a good shot. She joked that I could edit her face out.

Well, I got a bad shot, and Picnik had some effects that matched the Halloween decor. So I went for it.


The next stop was Yarnorama in Paige, where we had lunch. I'll have a full entry on them later, but I wanted to show off the hand dyed silk hankies. We each got one with a little kit that had instructions for knitting a little pouch. Susan, the owner, showed us how to stretch the silk into roving that we could knit.


I bought a pound and a half of fiber. But that doesn't compare to Clara, who bought a spinning wheel. (It's in the box she's holding.)

After Yarnorama, we went to Bluebonnet Yarn Shoppe. We didn't have much time because they closed at five. But we did have time to look around. Everything was 10% off for yarn crawlers. (Even the clearance yarns were 60% off, instead of the usual 50% off.)


Everyone got a kit for these little pouches and a pattern for both knit and crochet versions. They were in paper bags, so we didn't know exactly what we got until we opened them.


The final stop was Gauge, where they gave out vouchers for free classes, and their yarns were also 10% off for yarn crawlers. They still had a good selection of Handmaiden Sea Silk and Double Sea Silk. I snagged a skein of the Double Sea Silk in the "Vintage" colorway.


Cheva was there sporting her latest creation. (Also, Carly was sporting some cool felted bangles.)

I was happy to find that Gauge has some roving for sale. Now I can get my fiber fix closer to home.

I was exhausted when we returned to HCW, and my arms were full. Here is what I got on the crawl.


There are more details about the yarn here and the fiber here.

And here's all the freebies.


The bus ride is over, but there's one day left to buy your passports, get you free gifts and enter the drawing. They're at all the participating shops.

Tapestry Cowl Class

This blog has been lacking in knitting content recently, although my life hasn't. Time for some catch up.


Last week I took one of Staci's classes at The Knitting Nest. I learned double knitting and started the Tapestry Cowl.


Here's where I was at the end of the class. We practiced casting on several times.


See, it's pink on the other side.

(By the way, the gauge got larger when I did double knitting. It turns out US Size 2.5 is not too small for me. It's closer to five stitches per inch now.)


The first half of the class was Tuesday night. Wednesday night I cast on the actual cowl. I started with the magic cast on on two different needles. I put a stitch marker every ten stitches on both sides to keep track of things.


Then I put all the stitches on one needle, alternating colors.


And here I am, one row in.


Here's where we were at the end of class on Thursday. Fran's is on top. She spent a lot of time perfecting her technique and waited to cast on Thursday night. Jo's is on the left. She got a lot of work done between Tuesday and Thursday. I'm on the right somewhere in between.

I've done the first nine rounds, and the next round will involve colorwork. So far it's going pretty well, although my purls (the blue side) are bigger than my knits (the pink side.) I'll go more into my technique later. I'm still looking for the best way to handle two yarns at once.