yarn p0rn

This is what I bought for myself in BA

Merino top roving





Manos Clasica





I started the Wii Active 30 day program yesterday.. I'm a little sore.
This morning after the Wii session, I tamed the jungle yard. Cut the grass andtrimmed the holly and roses and weeded all the beds. It took me almost 4 hours. As I was weeding it started to spit and rain... but I didn't cave... I'm a bit tired now... so the afternoon will be an easy one for me.

More pictures tmrw of knitted items!

avenida scalabrini

today was MY day. MIL took me downtown to the street with the yarn shops.

I think we hit every yarn shop there... and i picked my favorites

#1 favorite...Milana hilados
they have roving AND manos del uruguay... i thought I had died and gone to heaven. I bought some roving for me and some for a friend :-)

#2 favorite...hilarte
very nice yarn!

#3 favorite...yanabe they have looms and beautiful yarns cotton and wool as well as synthetics

and there´s a place with wooden buttons and shawl closures called arte norte. Very nice stuff.

there was one more shop that my MIL bought this merino/silk blend for about 70 pesos/kilo Really nice yarn....but the name of the shop escapes me.

I also bought about170 grams of black yarn.. .don´t know the composition, but me thinks it´s acrylic with maybe some silk... for like 8 pesos... unbelieveable the prices I tell you. I could have brought back mountains of yarn and wool... but DH would have had a fit... he started by saying you can go and look... just look..what´s the point I ask!

ok.. well this day was one of the best for me. I am a happy girl

la tour de France fleece

silly me... what do I know about bike riding, except that I used to do it all the time in my youth. Well I've actually spent quite a bit of time watching the tour while spinning myself... not on 2 wheels though only on one and only using 1 foot. And here's what I have to show for it so far:

2 bobbins(started the third) of single ply BFL. I admit to cheating a bit on this, as it had been started before the race, but it's mostly what I'll be spinning this month.






and 408 yard of navajo plied Finn. This was taking up a bobbin and seeing that I only had one bobbin, I decided to practice navajo plying. (took me forever to do all 400 yards) It's my first attempt at this type of ply so it's not too bad. I'll probably dye this and make socks for myself :-)

I did a bit of spindle spinning early (as in 2 AM) Monday to try to finish off the Licoln fleece that I have. There's only about a pound left and I'd like to get it all spun. Have no clue what it will become... and also return P's Ashford spindle. I prefer the top whorl to the bottom whorl, but want to finish all this yarn the same.


Monday, we went to the DaVinci Science Center DD has been bugging me to go for months. Finally I found a place where I wasn't the only dalfujensia in the family :-) (I'm not sure I spelled that correctly.. I'll ask DH in the morning). It's like a please touch museum of all things science. DS2 wasn't impressed but found some things that he was attracted to. I'm sure we'll be back to visit again, especially since it's only about 15 minutes from home! Afterwards we went to the nearby Perkins for a late lunch (we were all starving). As we were almost ready to leave an older woman came up to me to remark how beautiful our children were. And how patient we were as parents (you talkin' 'bout me?????) Actually the kids were having a good day. And were in a particulary snuggly mimos mood. Anyway, that really warmed the cockles of my heart, so thanks ma'am!

Guess I need to think of something for Tuesday! The in-laws leave for home Wednesday evening. I don't know if we're all going to the airport or just DH... probably the latter. It's such a long trip to drag the kids on, plus the van is still in the shop.

Speaking of..... the shop called today. Apparently it's all related to the alternator. When the alternator goes wacky, so does the computer and all the misbehavior is related. I had DH mention to the mechanic about DS2 thinking that the cassette player was piggybank last summer. (Oddly enough a woman called in to car talk about this very thing last week) Carlos, the mechanic, said "oh.... that's not good" meaning that it could also be related. So we may be shopping in the junk yards for a new radio/tape/CD component to install (click and clack's suggestion as well) Maybe it's unrelated, but for a while the radio would turn itself on and off depending on how the coins were in the tape deck. I retrieved quite a number of them, but some are impossible to reach and I'm sure have worked their way in even farther. He was an equal opportunity depositor... any denomination worked as long as it was a coin! Even pesos, bridge and chucky cheese tokens. That's my boy... an investor!

OK... now for some knitting news. I've started Lizard Ridge square 12 with my new LM needles. I think that they are cursed. I've had to rip back 3 times now and each time I was on the last wave repeat..... it's ok, I'm method with this one. no rush to finish!

But these are finished:

Pattern: Charade by Sandra Park
Yarn: ColorMe
Color: Regal
Needle: KnitPicks Harmony dpns US2 (3 mm)
For: ME!!

Love the stitch pattern. Wish that this yarn didn't flash but oh well.... this is a great stitch pattern for a guys sock as well and super easy to memorize. I'll probably make DH a pair in a solid (black, blue, brown, or tan... you know a boring color) But they will definitely be on my feet as soon as the weather cools a bit. (I wore them to spin last night hehehe) I'm really loving the sock thing right now. It's become my new obsession (pushed dishcloths right out of the running... but they'll be back) I have a few skeins of sock yarn to use... then I have an excuse to buy more :-D


In nature news, we have 4 painted lady chrysalis now. One fell off the little paper that it was suppose to attach to and is laying at the bottom of the butterfly garden. Hope that doesn't damage the metamorphosis process. I tried to take pictures but they don't do them justice. They're kind of a brown with these shiny gold dots on them. and only about an inch long, much smaller than the black swallowtail that we did last summer. I think about 10 days we'll have butterflies. I learned when we were at the butterfly house that black swallowtails will not voluntarily feed when in captivity. You need to uncurl the proboscis onto the nectar.... which explains why our guy was not interested at all in the watermelon pieces we gave him. Had I known... at any rate he was released in plently of time to eat and mate (which after all is what they're supposed to do) I'm excited for the kids to see the process again. DD will be studying about growth this year as one of the units of inquiry and they concentrate on butterflies.


Well I'm off to spin some more before retiring...

happy crafting

yarny goodness

so here's the scoop.....
the acrylic that I bought for school and the charity blanket knitting. With the rate my kids are knitting, they're eating this stuff!




the wool is in 2 groups:


this which I hung out for 2 days on the line like this, and the odor is completely gone!




and this group which I reskeined every single skein so is in a pile right now on the chair until I get another storage bin. I'll count them up sooner or later but I'm thinking 23 full plus 2 partial skeins patons merino, 4 skeins SWS, 4 skeins Knitting Fever Alpaka, 1.6 skeins of noro kureyon, 1 skein Big Mexico, 4 skeins Lambs Pride. enough you say???



And this is the cotton. I'm gonna start cloths for gifts and also next years church auction.


I've made progress on the baby kimono

and envision it complete b4 the weekend is over.

what looms, finishing the BSJ, the prayer lap blanket, and my poncho.

The chorus concert is weighing heavily on me, which is why i'm still awake. guess i should hit the rack.

coming up next is a tutorial on turning chopsticks into knitting needles.

YAY!

the PSSAs are over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hip hip hooray!

the knitting was really a success. I was much more laid back this year and the kids really enjoyed it. We'll see how much of a blanket we get made. But I have some that I think will be lifelong knitters...so I am happy. I'll post pictures of them all later. They're in my other camera.

I finished another LR block today. This is Noro color 102Y. It's really more subdued than this picture more pinky and less orangy.

I also fixed my friend's Louis Vitton bowler's bag today. The handles were coming off, so at lunch I grabbed a needle and some 8 pound fishing line (that's all I had at work.. well actually she had it in her desk) and fixed it. She's thrilled.. glad I could help!

It was a beautiful day and the kids and I sat outside for quite some time after I got home from work. While we were outside, my long lost friend K and her dd stopped by. It was so good to see her... wow a sight for sore eyes. It really made my day! Thanks K, if you ever read this and let's not stay away from each other for so long anymore! While they were here, I actually looked out front (boy do I need to work in the garden) and saw that there were grape hyacinths blooming... so cute and petite. Like perfect little bells.


am so tempted to cut my daffs and bring them in and shoot proper pictures of them. And I am reminded that I MUST plant more bulbs this fall, because I love them so much in the spring. I'd also like to get some of those miniature ones.. they are so cute. Our neighbor has them in her backyard (which is an impeccable garden) and they take my breath away every day!

I'm going yarn shopping on Saturday morning to a listing from craigslist. And I can't wait. I know I'll get some amazing bargains. I'll be sure to tell all about it later.

Oh and say a prayer that I get the taxes done on time. Why do I always procrastinate so long?????

sick kid

poor ds2. he had a busy day... gymnastics then home for lunch and then to the park with friends and their house for dinner. DH and I went to pick him up and at about 8 he crawled up into my lap and fell asleep... short time after, I was showered with his dinner. fun! why is it that they always lose it on mom... and while I'm holding them on my shoulder??? we came home and he went right to bed but woke up about 30 minutes ago to get sick some more... hope he's better tmrw.

Thought I'd post my latest dyeing... this was with leftover egg dye. I'm calling it spring green. I think it looks a bit like all the greens on the flowers and leaves right now. This is about 92 yards of single ply romney that is about 18 wpi.


Speaking of flowers. My daffies are really starting to come out and the tulip buds are getting 'ripe' I really love spring.

Back for Christmas 2006, I made pop the coronet from Knitty. Mom gave it to me along with the my so called scarf I made him this year and his little turtle knits felted slippers. I shrunk the slippers more so now they fit me, the scarf... well that's fine the way it is (and I don't believe that he ever wore it), but the hat was too big for me (in height) so I took out the lining and frogged about 4 inches from the top..reworked it with a spiral decrease over 16 rows and now it fits me! :-) I think I'll fix the lining and sew it back in because it makes for quite a toasty warm hat. I can carry a bit of him with me all hat wearing season. I still can't believe he's gone.

DH went to pick up the furniture for the boys room. We're keeping it in the garage until their floors get refinished. So I told DS1 since his bedroom furniture would be in the garage, he'd have to sleep there (in the garage) He didn't believe me for a minute. That kid is too smart for me! This End Up bunks but with 2 drawers below instead of two, a 5 drawer dresser, a 3 drawer dresser , a desk with study carrel and a tall bookshelf We got it from craigslist. DD has the daybed with three drawers under it and the 5 drawer dresser and desk in her room. We also found that on craigslist. If you're looking for something, I highly recommend checking it out. We've been so happy with our finds and feel great knowing that we're re-using and keeping stuff out of landfills. I <3 both craigslist and freecycle. Plus you save $ to boot... always a good thing!

more knitting planned

I got my Knitpicks order yesterday for two baby projects. All of the yarn is Swish Merino in DK. It's superwash which makes it perfect for those surprise baby events....


This yarn is for Mabel's BSJ... Hoping that it's knit a bit bigger than the original since the gauge is a bit fewer stitches to the inch (like a .5 stitch per inch)







This collection is for the wild stripes blanket at knitty.com. This baby isn't due until mid September, so I should be able to work on it a bit at a time (So exciting)



These beautiful flowers were sent to me by on of my colleagues and friends. Such is the promise of spring and new life... each day brings more healing.

so quick and easy

Pattern: Circular Scrubby
Yarn: Lily's Sugar and Cream
Color: Key Lime Pie
Needle: US7

super easy to make and a great user of leftover bits of yarn. I've read that it's great to make with acrylic. Along the lines of Japanese Tawashi. I'll be making many more of these, I'm sure. This one is for school. We need something that can scrub the dishes. I threw it together in less than 30 mminutes while DS2 was at gymnastics class this morning.


I've gotten several notes from folks who can't locate the pattern at knitability (and as a matter of fact, neither can I) I got the pattern as a .pdf file from ravelry but there is a pattern exactly like it here, so I hope this helps some of you!
I was at ACMoore to get some storage stuff for DS2's trains and they had the Bernat naturals yarn on sale. With so many babies just arriving, I though what better than some organic cotton for those mamas that don't want to handwash? So I bought some to try. It was on sale for 2.99 a skein. Can't wait to cast on. I have the urge to knit, just no time.

wowza

DH and I went to hear Denyce Graves in recital last night at Moravian College. It was an incredible performance. The woman commands such stage presence and conveys the message of the song or aria so believably through her acting. I was completely enthralled. Her accompanist Brian Zeger was amazing as well. The collaboration between the two was so evident. It was the highlight of my musical year so far. Thanks honey for insisting that we go and finding the way to make it happen. You're a dream!
The program you ask?
Schubert Heimliches Lieben, Der Tod und das Mädchen, Gretchen am Spinnrade
Brahms Nicht mehr zu dir zu gehen Meine Liebe is grun, Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer, Die Mainacht
Celia Acerba Volutta from Adrana Lecouvreur
Mascagni Voi le sapete from Cavalleria Rusticana
Robert Saari When the Forsythia Bloom (a cycle from a new composer)
DeFalla Siete canciones populares españolas
A set of spirituals: Scandalize my Name, Prayer, Swing Low and Git on Board
3, yes 3 encores... including Habañera from Carmen by Bizet and two very humorous encores I need a dog and I'm hungry both of which had one foot in the classical realm and the other foot in the musical theatre genre.
The audience was totally engaged. I wasn't alone in my admiration for these artists.


On the knitting front, I present to you:

Pattern: Chinese Waves by Margaret Radcliffe
Size: CO 49 stitches
Yarn: Lily's Sugar 'n Cream
Color: Key Lime Pie
Needles: US6

I am not a real fan of green. I made this for a colleague that I work with. But I have to say that this cloth shouts spring to me and I need that about now. Fortunately I have another skein of this in my stash, cuz I think I'd like one for me too! It's a great pattern for using varigated yarn and this will rank right up there with the infamous DW cloth that I also LOVE to make! I found this pattern through the weekly dishcloth group on ravelry, the place where I spend most of my web time.

I got some yarn from ebay yesterday in the mail. The woman who sold it posted that it smelled of mothballs but there was 500g for $9.99 in a mixed lot of wool so I bit. Before we left for the concert I took the odiforous skeins outside and hung them to air out. I brought them in after returning from work today. Granted it was a very windy, sunny, sometimes snowflurry 24 hours but there is absolutely no remnant of odor on the skeins. DD claimed the lot of this (2OOg of worsted weight) for mittens and a hat There are another 200g in a similar colorway and then 100g of some fun thick and thin mostly browns but with teal yarn.

The cruddy part of the day was the walk through of the construction site where I'll be teaching K and 1st grade music next year. Once again, it's evidenced that our school is the stepchild of the school district. Makes no sense, cuz our kids do as well as if not better than those that come from the Taj Mahal in the country... go figure. One of these days I'll stop sucking on the fuzzy end of the lollipop... they won't care though. I'll just be replace with an incompetant boob and they will be blissfully unaware of the difference. What a shame!

multiplying yarn

Yesterday, I took the older 2 kids and DDs friend to see the Hannah Montana concert 3D movie..... at 8 AM. Yes, you read that right AM. It was the only show that wasn't sold out. That means on Saturday that gymnastics were cancelled and we COULD have slept in, we were up at 6 to get dressed and eat and be awake enough to go to the movies. Crazy I tell you.

In the late afternoon my brother and I met at the rents house to sort and clean. FUN! Actually I came away with quite a few goodies, hence the title of the post. Each time I'm there I come home with yarn or needles or books or some crafty thing. Yesterday was no exception. Here's the stash:

Brunswick Windrush in Brown Ragg 100g each and 2 of the same dyelot. It's orlon.. goodfor charity stuff or my dad who throws everything in the washer and says that wool is too scratchy for him


More Brunswich Windrush yarn in the color Rose Mist Ombre and again 2 skeins. This would NOT be a good color for dad. Guess it's going in the charity knitting bin.




This is 3 Brunswick Fore 'n Aft in Red Ragg and they're 50 g skeins, same dye lot.





More Fore 'n Aft 3 50g skeins of Blue Ragg. There's also a 100g skein of Windrush in the same color (different dye lot obviously) but since they're both orlon, I wonder if it isn't the same yarn.




4 skeins of Paton's Diana which is a 70acrylic/30 nylon blend. It feels a bit like mohair. Could make something nice for mom with this :-)



2 skeins (50g) of Brunswick Eleganza which is a blend of 80 acrylic/20 kid mohair. In one of ballbands is a pattern for what appears to be a möbius cowl scarf that could be pulled up over the head. It takes 200 yards and the ballband isn't marked as to the yardage but it seems to be fingering weight so there may be enough. Could also be nice for mom!

12 skeins of Rugger bulky yarn in bisque heather. This yarn is 80 orlon/20 virgin wool and each skein is 50g/70yards. I'm really hoping that there is enough here to make pop a cardigan vest (he's so thin, there should be enough) He's always cold so it could be perfect. Now to find a pattern.


This rug(?) that has been started I think crochet along with 3 more skeins of the deep rose and 3 more skeins of the black. The yarn is Clarks cotton rug yarn. Reminds me of kitchen cotton though.


And now for the motherlode:

3 100g skeins of unknown wool. (I did the burn test.. it's all wool)







100g skein of a light aqua wool yarn








100g skein of darker aqua wool yarn







100g skein of navy blue yarn.





and the piéce de resistance:

10 skeins (50 g/ 200y each) of Superfine Alpaca. from 1st Quality Andean Yarns all the smae dye lot and mom paid 4.60 total for the 10 skeins. (Can you believe that? Obviously before alpaca became a desired fiber) This will be a shawl, I think.

I brought home many different sized dpns, argyle sock bobbins(?) 2 circular needles some stitch markers, and a small stitch holder.


There was also this gem:


It's so cute. Mom offered it and I snatched it up fast.








She sent DD polished rocks and theses cute magnets. They're perfect for the magnet board we'll hang in her room.






I better get knitting!

What I've been up to.......

As you can see, I've been editing, pretty unsuccessfully, the sidebar for my WIPs. Please bear with me. I am wanting to use those cute little icons of objects instead of rectangular progress bars. Always have, but this week when adding something to my older progress bars, I inadvertantly changed some of the html. I'd fix it, but I don't know what I deleted... (oops) so, I've spent some time working on it, to no avail. At any rate, if anybody can help me out, I'd appreciate it. I have the little gifs of the cute icons in my photobucket account under the BlogItems folder.

On to other happier events. This afternoon all 5 of us went to see Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium rated G for general audiences and F for my father (meaning it's worthy of him seeing) It's a great movie but hit a little close to home as I'mdealing with my dad's seemingly fleeting time left with us. DS2, much to my husband's chagrin, is still not movie going ready yet... Shame too cuz I'm tired of missing all the fun kid movies. That was the first I had been to since the re-release of the Shaggy D.A. with Tim Allen.

In the morning, DD and I went to Joann's fabrics to search for fabric to reupholster the desk chair to the new to her This End Up bedroom furniture we've acquired from a purchase through craigslist. It's former owner was of the male gender and the upholstery on the seat and back of the chair is blue... won't do for a 7 (almost 8) year old with a soon to be pink room. So we bought these fabrics to cover the chair, make valences and some pillows for her bed.







I also bought some Christmas fabrics to wrap gifts in. I had read about tsutsumi or furoshiki on this great blog tip nut (you can get a daily newsletter if you don't want to miss a tip) I'm going to make my own reversible cloths and hopefully if the recipient won'tpay them ahead, I'll take the wrapping back and reuse it myself!





We also bought these cute buttons. At 50% off, I couldn't resist. I'll find a use for them I'm sure.





On the knitting front, I cast on Amanda's Squatty Sidekick after dinner on Thanksgiving and cast off just a bit ago. Here it is in it's pre-felted state. While at Joann's, I wanted to get fabric to line it. Of course I forgot to pick it out before I had all the previous fabric cut. The line for the cutting table was too long to get in it again, so I looked at the fat quarters and found these. The pattern is for the lining and the solid for a pocket in the lining. While we were looking at buttons, I found these for the purse.I bought some buttons for some fingerless mitts as well, but I'll save those to post with the mitts.

In the mail today came 7 skeins of Peace Fleece in soyuz apollo teal... I got it off ebay (oops.. slid off the wagon, sorry honey). Yesterday my folks decided after much discussion with myself and my siblings that their best choice of living accommodations would be Wood River. I'm very happy about that. I think it's a great choice.

Up for today, decorate the gingerbread houses make the marble magnets for the special area teachers and maybe clean up the yarn and get out the Christmas decorations??? Sound like enough to do? Well the kids are all awake, so I better feed them and get them busy doing something that keeps them away from their father.