More Stuff I've Learned

1.                  Judy’s Magic Cast-On is magic.

2.                  Cat Bordi’s video for the cast-on is both funny and informative

3.                  Malabrigo sock cannot be made into socks on a #2 (3.0mm) circ.  At least not by me.  Drapey socks are not good.

4.                  The BF has narrow feet.  Long, but narrow.  And those gross witch toes.  You know, the one’s where the 2^nd toe is longer than the big toe?  Blech

5.                  I can’t find my Knit Picks circular 1’s & 1.5’s

6.                  Knit Picks doesn’t care if I order more needles.  At 2:00am.

7.                  Along with some yarn to make knitted panties.  That I need like a hole in the head. 

8.                  My daughter, who is home from college for a long weekend, cannot find her way from Massachusetts to New Jersey.  She’s only done it 20 times.  Her gps is apparently more useful when left in her desk drawer at school.

9.                  And she has absolutely no sense of humor when you ask if the exit she saw for Springfield was perhaps only meant for the Simpson’s- not her.

10.              And all that started because she missed her train, because college doesn’t teach you about having a sense of time, the realities of traffic, or friends not remembering where in the parking lot they left their car.  Although physics did teach her that you cannot get a half an hour away in 12 minutes- in a car.  Even if I was driving it.  Sigh……………

11.              College students will steal the Bunny Nugget you just made and not give a rat’s ass that you didn’t get a picture of it.  Or that it involved learning a 3-needle bind-off.

12.              3-needle bind-offs are totally cool.  And easy.  And kinda fun- but I thought Kitchener was kinda fun.

13.      Pom-pom making hasn't changed since I was in Middle School and used to make them for my roller skates.

14.              Regia 6-fadig has some weird (read: gross) color transitions. 

15.              Although, it knits up faster than fingering weight.  Duh

16.              My back is out. 

17.              Ice makes it feel better than heat. 

18.              Chiropractors are closed on Sundays.

19.              I am dreading coming to the heel of my sock. 

20.              Typing this blog is keeping me from getting closer.  lol

21.              Word refuses to accept that “lol” should not be capitalized after a period.

22.              My 7 month old Chessie likes to pee on the rug in the room the cats hang in.

23.              The cats don’t care.  Frankly, they think she’s stupid.  And gross.  I tend to agree.

Rhinebeck and Beyond

On Friday night, I stayed over The BF’s so I would be closer to Rhinebeck.  It saved me an hour of travel time, but the trade-off was that he was sick and a little whiney.  I also had to sleep in a queensize bed with a 6'2" guy and his 3 Maine Coon cats. Oh well, it got me to NYSS&W that much faster. 

 This is Wicket.  She is my favorite.  Just don't tell the BF.

 This one is Honey.  This is a regular size laundry basket she is laying in.

And this is Willow.  He weighs 30 pounds.

When I arrived, I met up with two of my girlfriends from our local Ravelry group.  They were quite the enablers, although I purchased a skein of laceweight, a half a pound of undyed Polwarth roving and some delicious fried artichokes before I even met up with them.  lol  

My mission was to get a pound of undyed Cormo, but all the Cormo I came across either felt too rough, or it smelled rancid.  Someone told me that smell was probably because it was from a ram, not a ewe.  We went from building to building, touching, rubbing and smelling everything we could.  Here are some pictures of the wonderfulness that is Rhinebeck:

 boothy goodness

 alpaca cuteness

 3 guesses what these are

 The Ravelry Meetup on the hill

 Angora bunnies, which I am deathly allergic to

 more boothiness

Designer extraordinaire Jesh, Susan and Kathy, who is holding an infamous chicken pot pie

but eating a flourless peanut butter cookie.

And now, pix of my purchases:

 This is the most amazing Alpaca I have ever touched/worked with.  It is 665 yds. of brown/black

sportweight from Times Remembered.  As you can see, I couldn't wait to start making something with this.
 I already emailed them and told them I need more.  lol

 This is a laceweight from Yarn Place. It's called Graceful and is 903 yards.  No clue

why I bought it other than I like the colors.  I don't do laceweight. Yet.

 8 oz. of Polwarth roving from Sliver Moon Farm. I have a total of 1 pound of

this creamy goodness to spin.

 The picture does not do this justice.  The jewel tones are so rich in this, it will be a

shame when I spin it and fuck it all up.  It is an alpaca/silk blend from Gale's Art.

and this is 8oz. of Merino pencil roving that looks great but smells like vinegar.

Beats smelling like wet monkey, but still.  It's all I could smell on the ride home.  For 2 hours.

And my favorite thing:

This is a really shitty picture, but too bad.  It's a pin- of knit stitches!

How cool is that?  Sheesh!  I am such a dork!  lolol

When I got home on Saturday night, I wound the Alpaca into 2 cakes, sat up until 2am finding the perfect hat pattern for the BF, and cast on.  First I made swatches.  Yes, I'm a good girl.  :-)  I doubled the yarn and long tailed 72 stitches on 8's with a 16" cable.  It was torture.  I went to bed.  Sunday morning I went to the store and bought dpn's.  I've never worked with dpn's before.  I transferred the stitches onto them, then decided that they were cold and slippery, and that I need some nice wood ones.  bbwwaaahhhh!!!  Also, there were only 4, and it was fiddly, so I found a plastic 9, and rejiggered the stitches.  Then I noticed that when I switched from the cable to the dpn's, I hadn't completed the whole circle, so it was half a row off and looking pretty wonky.  But all in all, the dpn's were ok to work with.



Soooo, I ripped it out and redid it with a really long cable and magic loop.  This seems to be going pretty well.  He should have his hat by January.