Holy cow, where did the time go?

Well, Jiminy Christmas, it's been a while. What's happened, let's see...I've

• taken a new job
• moved the family 1100 miles back to the East Coast
• had a baby

Sounds like one of those questionnaires looking at life stress, doesn't it? What's the same about my life anymore? Well, I'm

• still knitting!

Vacation - on a stick

The family just returned from the Minnesota State Fair, likely 5 pounds heavier, each. Among those things eaten include:





Deep fried Oreos


Pronto Pups


Honey ice cream


French fries


Corn fritters


Pizza


Hot dogs


Smores


...and my uncle ate a deep fried Snickers bar.





Oof.





Since I was in the Twin Cities area, I availed myself of yarn shops...including the one set up temporarily by a group of area yarn shops in downtown St. Paul: Yarns for All. Pretty cool idea. I also hit Yarn Garage and Borealis Yarns (who are one of the shops in Yarns for All). So...I got 6 different sock yarns, and some worsted weight Dream in Color for a Clapotis.







Yummy!

Back to work with a vengeance tomorrow, I'm afraid. *sigh* In-house overnight call. Bleah.

But Wednesday is...my daughter's pre-school open house. She's such a big girl! Cool.

Dye lot weirdness

rose garden shadows2, originally uploaded by iron knitter.

These two skeins of yarn are the same colorway.

I'll repeat that: These two skeins of yarn are the same colorway.

I received the skein on the right first. I was a bit perplexed. It is lovely. But the photo on Etsy looks like the skein on the left.

So I contacted the dyer, who said that some people had wanted more green in this colorway, called Rose Garden Shadows, so she had put more green in the second batch she dyed, and less grey overdye. She didn't update the photo on Etsy. She actually offered to take back the skein and overdye it with grey for me. How cool is that? However, I am keeping these both the way they are (I bought the one on the left from some beknighted person on Ravelry who, get this, wanted to SELL IT - how crazy is that??). The dyer suggested I might want to make a shawl, alternating the 2 skeins. It's a thought. For now, I will just pet them and love them (and call them George).

The back is done!

Elegance knit back, originally uploaded by iron knitter.

After reknitting the top right shoulder THREE times, I think I got it. It's not blocked, so the sides are curled in, and the neckline is all on the holder, so you can't see the shaping there.

Onward to the front!

Cool avatars! Meez.com

Cool beans.

Japanese knitting progress

Elegance knit2, originally uploaded by iron knitter.

Ta da! The first repeat of the pattern! The pink stripe is the provisional cast-on, which I wouldn't have known about without Japanese-translation help from maymay on Ravelry.

Not too exciting, true, but at least I gt the photo up, which I've been meaning to do for a few days.

WWKIP Day!

I had a great time KIPping at the Viroqua Farmer's Market, and then at Ewetopia Fiber Shop (with a nice leisurely lunch in between with CathyCate from Ravelry). I'm afraid I didn't bring a camera (yes, a blogger's faux pas). I only bought one ball of handdyed sock yarn, plus a nifty magnetic board so I can more easily find my place while I knit The Cover Sweater (see earlier posts). Sweet.


In other news, after seeing that KnitPicks is now selling sock blanks, Judy, the owner of Baskets of Yarn decided to try knitting blanks on her Bond "Ultimate Sweater Machine." The Bond knits sport and heavier, so we hadn't thought to try it before...but KnitPicks knits the yarn doubled, so that the socks are identical when knit. Fingering doubled is approximately sport/DK weight. So...she tried it, and it worked! So I have (literally) dusted off my Bond (Incredible, upgraded to Ultimate, what will they call it if they ever improve it again???) and am poised to knit my own blanks. Hee hee hee!!