AmphibiaKnits

Best Mail Week Ever

This is my third or fourth blog post this week.  I'm on a roll.   And so is Canada Post.

I've already blogged about a bunch of stuff which I received this week, but I got a metric crapload of mail today, so I feel the need to blog again.  

But before I go into the world of mail goodness, here's a photo of the soup tureen / yarn bowl empty. See what I mean?  The motif on the handles just does not match the rest of the pattern.  It's bizarre.  I wonder whether someone in quality control at the Mason factory was asleep at the switch. Anyway, it's funky eclectic.

I promised you that I would show pictures of the Tanis Fiber Arts and my project bag from Satomi at JapaneseHandmadeEtc.  

The Tanis Fiber Arts was a double parcel because I got both January and March together.  January's parcel contained a blue tote bag with the TFA logo on it.  The yarn is a beautiful  brown with purples and greens.  It's kind of reminiscent of a Raven.  The colour is Truffle, and it's the Blue Label 80/20 MN blend.  The pattern is called Formation and it's a scarf by Hannah Fettig.  

The March offering is a new blend which is exclusive to the club.  It's an 80/20 Merno Silk blend.  The colour is called Sprout and it's just beautiful.  It almost glows from within.  The pattern is a scarf named Sencha by Julie Crawford.  Sencha is a premium green tea. The scarf measures 6" x 70" without the tassely fringe. 

Someone explain to me how a skein of yarn makes 2 socks.  They aren't all that big.  So how can the same skein of yarn possibly make something 6" wide and 6' long?  It amazes me.  Anyway, I thought it might be nice to make this 9" wide and a little shorter (? what would that be? 48"?).  We'll see.

The project bag from JapaneseHandMade is just gorgeous.  It's also pretty big.  It fits at least 6 skeins of yarn.  (I know, because I filled it when I came upstairs).  So I think it would be good for a larger project.  But I can also use it for socks if they're feeling a little claustrophobic.

Check out the zipper pull.  It's an intricately braided knot.  It's beautiful.

When I got to work today, I had one of those tyvek envelopes waiting for me.  It contained my two project bags from ZigZagStitches. They arrived flat.

But when you pull them up, they become little project bags.  They're about 8" long by 3" high and 3" wide.

When I got home from work, there were two more parcels waiting for me.  One was from Dye Hard, and the other was from Christine!  So I opened Christine's first.

For those who don't know her, Christine is Mapleweave on Ravelry.  She has an amazing blog and amazing projects. Check her out.

This is what she sent.

The mysterious green thing is a skein of yarn.  And the pink thing (because I am Pinky and she is the Brain) is a GoKnits pouch full of goodies.  And on top of it is one of her cards and stitch markers.  They're great because they're no-snag.

Inside the GoKnits pouch (which I have been eyeing at the Loopy Ewe for a long time but have never actually purchased) was a ton of cool stuff.

There's highlither tape (in pink, of course) for charts.  I live in such a backwater that we can't even get highlighter tape here. 

She sent a frog tape measure.  She must have known that the dogs ate the turtle tape measure.  

She also sent some Nudibranch eyeshadow.  Where did she get that???? I assume it's from the Verdant Gryphon, but it's Nudibranch colour.  It didn't come with any of the Nudibranch yarn this year, so it must be a special thing.  It's a silvery grey colour, very pretty.

She also sent some samples of mineral eyeshadow from SweetLibertine.com.  I think there are 4 different colours in all.

And there's a little crochet hook / cable needle combo (also in pink), which will be a lifesaver while knitting.

The yarn is a skein of MN from Stricken Smitten.  It's a beautiful purple colour.  The photograph of it on its own is too washed out.  It doesn't really look like this.

It looks like this.

Amphibiajunior wanted to be in the photo.

So a great big thank you to Christine for the parcel!  It's fabulous.

The second order of yarn from Dye Hard arrived today.  

I am so going to be awash in stripey socks soon.  

And I discovered that Princess loves the afterthought heel.  It fits her foot perfectly.  So she'll get some afterthought heels and I'll get some sweet tomato heels once I figure out whether I can add a couple of plain knit rows between wedges.

The final thing that arrived this week was my monthly installment of pencil crayons from Felissimo.  You'd think they'd be Italian.  You'd be wrong.  They're Japanese.

They have 500 different colours.  And you can buy them, but only 25 at a time.  So if you subscribe for about 18 months, you eventually get them all.  I decided to treat myself to that for my birthday last year, although I think I probably pay monthly.  I don't ever actually bother to read my credit card statements.  Anyway, this month's offering is pinks. 

Check them out.  Each one is named in English and in Japanese.  I'm only showing you the English side.

Take a look at them a little more closely.  Specifically, take a look at B00907.

It says "Scarlet."  Um, no.  It's not Scarlet.  Scarlet is red.  Mistress Mary might in fact be scarlet.  But B00907 is not scarlet; it's a variation of pink. 

Whatever.  Maybe it was just an error in translation.

Happy knitting, folks. TGIF.  Tonight I am going to beat the dogs into submission finish the first Crocus Vernus sock and maybe wind some yarn.  

The Knit Girllls

This is the first of two blog posts for today.  This one is just text.  The next one is the one with pictures.

This is for LaLa and Leslie.

I was in the post office last night picking up my Japanese pencil crayons, and because there was a line-up I was checking my email on my iPhone.  I squeed when I discovered there were two Typepad comments from LaLa.  At first I thought it must have been a different LaLa.  After all, why would a fancy knitting celeb be looking at my puny blog?

But no, it was her.  In the virtual flesh.  I’m so excited.

I think they need to rename their podcast The Enablerrrrz.  Here’s the damage I have suffered in the approximate three weeks since I have been watching their podcasts.  After I finished watching all of the Round the Twist with Carin podcasts, I moved to the Knit Girllls. I watched from episode 1 up to the current one, along with the tutorials and special editions.  Bad move.  Here’s why.

1)    They have revivified my desire to do toe-up socks.  That in itself is not necessarily a bad thing.  Really I just need to learn when to stop the instep and start the heel.  I think Wendy once said that she does about 60 stitches on the foot before starting the heel.  That seems about right, depending on the pattern and the yarn.

But back to the Knit Girllls.  They’ve videocast from Wendy’s own house before.  Thus far I have resisted the allure of the Toe Up Socks in a Box.  But I did have to download the Kindle editions of both Socks from the Toe Up and Toe Up Socks for Every Body.  And I already have them in paper. 

Let me rant here.  What is up with publishers and the prices for their digital books? I mean, seriously, *somewhere* they already have all the text typed up and saved in some kind of a word processing file.  Ditto the images which accompany the text.  So really, isn’t it just a matter of a wee bit of formatting to plunk it into ebook version? Does it really have to be more expensive than the paper version???

Most Kindle books (and I have about 500 of them, because I’m as obsessive with books as with everything else in my life) are cheaper than the paper versions.  That makes total sense.  Less paper, less colour, less packaging, no shipping, no warehousing, etc.

But the knitting books on Kindle seem to be more expensive.  I think I paid $25 each for the Kindle versions of the Wendy Johnson books.  I hope she’s getting the extra cut, but I somehow doubt it.

So the Knit Girllls are increasing not only my toe-up sock mojo, but also my Kindle collection.

Heaven help me if I start to download the books LaLa talks about.  I also like sci-fi fantasy and paranormal stuff, so I think I may be skunked there.

2)    I also have the Knit Girllls to thank for my new project bags.  I have a whack of project bags already, mostly thanks to the prior enablement of Christine.  But for some reason I didn’t have any box bags. 

And there they were, those two pesky Knit Girllls, flaunting their Piddle Loop and other project bags.  Well, I just had to have some.  So I have now invested in some funky bags.  I have a larger one (which would be perfect for lace if I ever get my rear in gear) from JapaneseHandmadeEtc on etsy, and two sock boxes from ZigZagStitches.  I also have some Jessalu bags bookmarked.  And of course if I can ever get any PiddleLoop bags, I’ll want some of those.

3)    The third thing for which I thank the Knit Girlllls is the self-striping yarn.  There they are, with those funky little self-striping afterthought heel socks every week. 

I’m grateful to them for the tutorial on inserting the afterthought heel which they put on their website.  If you haven’t seen it, you should check it out.  It’s kind of revolutionary.

But thanks to them, I now have a hankering for something called Vesper, and Two Ewes and several other self-striping yarns.  I have about five different sites bookmarked.  And as you can see, I have already given in to my self-striping urges.  Sorry, Magda, the self-striping yarn is here to stay. 

Fortunately, I can never find any Numma Numma, so I haven’t broken the bank with that.  But I’ve certainly tried, because the Knit Girllls knit with it a lot, and it’s pretty nice looking. 

Same thing with Tempted Yarns by Stacey.

So I’m trying to avoid buying all the beautiful yarns which the Knit Girllls showcase on their show, because quite frankly, my stash doesn’t need any enhancement.  If my stash were a bra size, it would be a triple HHH and counting.  I need no extra padding.

But I am a teeny bit worried about spinning.  I have always said that I would never spin.  Ever.  Ever.  Why would I spend all that time and effort in order to end up with something which looks like handspun, when I can cut to the chase and start with the real thing? 

But they sure make it look tempting.  It was bad enough when Carin was knitting mittens out of the BMFA silk hankies.  My finger was hovering over the Add to Cart button at the BMFA site. I managed to walk away without doing any additional damage.

To be honest, I am sorely tempted by this whole spinning thing.  They make it look very easy. But I know that it would be a huge investment.  I’d have to be like Leslie and have 3 wheels.  And I’d have to get niddy noddies and high speed flyers and bulky flyers and and lazy Kates and orifice hooks and all those other things.  And that doesn’t even include the fiber.

Who am I kidding?  If I brought bags of fiber into my house, the dogs would have a field day.  My entire house would be awash in whatever bits of fiber the dogs didn’t manage to eat and subsequently poop out.

And let’s not even think about the skill level required for something like that.  I count myself pretty lucky having figured out knitting in the first place, and being able to kind of use the left hand continental stuff for when I’m doing my colourwork.

No way could I get the hang of spinning. There’s something called drafting and pre-drafting.  I don’t even know what that is.

The reason gift bags were invented was for people like me.  Open bag, insert tissue paper, insert gift, insert more tissue paper.  Done.  I can do that. 

What I cannot do is actually wrap a gift.   Open paper, lay gift down.  Centre gift on fold of paper.  Measure approximate width of paper necessary to cover gift.  Cut paper.  Re-centre gift.  Discover paper is too small.  Roll out more paper or unwrap next sheet.  Repeat again, leaving more space for gift.  Take flat edge of paper and put on gift.  Roll gift over like a mummy.  Discover paper is at an awkward angle.  Unroll and re-try.  Discover cut edge of paper is crooked.  Unroll.  Fold cut edge of paper.  Reroll gift.  Tape flat edge of paper down.  Make a mistake and get finger in the way.  Attempt to remove strip of tape.  Remove part of the paper with it.  Flick finger in air in attempt to remove tape.  Finally wipe hand with tape on pant leg in hopes the tape will stick.  Get new piece of tape.  Stick it down.  Look at ends of gift and discover there is 16” of paper hanging off one end.  Hack extra paper off with scissors.  Slide gift down.  Discover too much paper has been cut off.  Slide gift back up.  Attempt to crease wad of paper and fold envelope style around the bottom of gift.  Stick more tape down.  Repeat above steps with tape.  Swirl gift to other side.  Repeat. 

End up with misshapen lumpy gift.  It looks like it was wrapped by a kid wearing mittens.  That’s me.

So why do I think I would have any competence in spinning? 

Because I’m an idiot who is easily tempted. 

But I think the finances will constrain this particular brand of lunacy.

I would never be tempted to start with a drop spindle.  Heck, no.  I would have to start with a Shacht wheel.  

So I thank the Knit Girllls for all their wonderful gifts and their inspiration.  I might one day be inspired to do some shawls, but I’m not betting the farm on it.  I might one day be inspired to knit a sweater, but after seeing Leslie’s luck, I realize I just don’t have the patience for it. 

I should stick to what I know.  Extremity accessories – socks, hats and mittens. 

Thanks for sharing, Leslie and Laura.  It’s like I have two more friends. 

 

Stripes Galore

This is shaping up to be a good mail week, if not a good knitting week.

On Monday I got my February shipment for the Yarn Love Sock Club.  The yarn is a sportweight Polworth / Silk blend (80/20, I think).  I've never seen Polworth before; it has kind of a nice sheen to it, but it doesn't seem to take up dye in the same way that merino does. Polworth seems to be more of a semi-saturated yarn.  

The colour is Serendipity, and there are 330 yards in a skein.  The colour is somewhere between these two shots.

And I see that I misspoke.  It's 85/15 Polworth / Silk.

I haven't put in a colour selection for the March offering.  Maybe I'll just let Katie choose for me.

Yesterday I received my two skeins of self-striping yarn from Nalani Yarns on Etsy. I ordered two skeins, and they make me ridiculously happy.

Perry the Platypus is a 100% merino, and it looks to me like the typical pebbled 2-ply.

Classic Minnie (as in Mouse) is an 80/10/10 MCN blend.

The reason I chose this over the Mickey is the spots of white.  They represent the polka dots on her dress.  I may go back at some future date to get some Mickey.  

She also has some other cool self-striping yarns at the moment such as Thing One and .... Well, she DID.  She had New Minnie and Donald Duck, but they seem to have sold out.  Oh well.  

I think Amber does custom orders if you're interested. 

The thing I'm really loving about all these self-striping yarns right now is how bright and saturated the colours are.  

I finished the first sock out of the other skein of the Dye Hard yarn.  I think the colour is called "You Had Me at Hello."  

I did another 64-stitch sock on 2.5 mm needles, but I decided to do it top-down rather than toe-up.  I also decided to try the Sweet Tomato Heel with it.  It worked, but I need to figure out some mods.

This was the sock the other day.  I decided to use the soup tureen from my parents' Ironstone china as a yarn bowl.  The kids hate the china, but I love it.  It has a ton of sentimental value to me, and the kids could care less.  It's a generational thing.

Even though there's not a little cutout for drawing the yarn through, it makes a pretty good yarn bowl.

I was using one of the little two-handled teacups as a yarn bowl for the Jubilee sock when I was down to just a small thing of yarn.  

As you can see, the pattern itself is quite intricate and has an Indian or Asian motif.  But the handles and the feet are some wacky fruit motif.  It's pears and apples and whatever else.  It completely doesn't fit.  But it's funky eclectic.  And it only appears on the soup tureen, not on any of the other pieces.

Anyway, I finished the first sock.  Because of the way the sweet tomato heel works, I ended up with alternating stripes of black and purple on the instep.

The Sweet Tomato short row wedges are done over 2/3 of the stitches rather than over 1/2 of the stitches like a regular slip stitch heel.  I'm not sure of the rationale for that.  Perhaps it's in Cat's book, but I haven't read all the text yet.  So I can see that it will be a little difficult for patterned socks using anything other than an instep of about 20 stitches. 

Does anyone out there know the rationale for this?  If I had extra arms, I would experiment and try the Sweet Tomato Heel over 1/2 the stitches.  Maybe I'll do that. It might end up being a Sweet Potato Heel. 

I also think that for the self-striping yarns, it might not be a bad idea to knit several rows of plain stockinette between each wedge.  That would hopefully prevent that odd single-row striping thing which I have going on in the first sock.

I haven't even decided on a project name for the sock yet.  Any suggestions?

I also started a Crocus Vernis by Hunter Hammersen in Plucky Knitter Primo Fingering in a purple.  It's coming along nicely.  I've been working on it this evening and have turned the heel and am on the foot decreases (using the double gusset decrease).

This is how it looked earlier.

There's actually more pinky/red in the yarn than that.  When the socks are finished I'll get better photos.

This is a bit too red.

I think I might be a little bit in love.  The Primo Fingering is fabulous.  It's 75/20/5 MCN, and it's nice and thin.  It has a nice twist to it as well. I'm very much enjoying knitting with it.

I wonder if anyone wants to trade some Bugga for some Primo. Hmmm......

In other happy news, it got up to 25 degrees here today.  I don't know what that is in American, but it's pretty hot here. And considering the fact that we had snow on Friday, it's bizarre.  And we're expecting more snow on Sunday or Monday, apparently.

In other unhappy news, I had to separate Desmond and Delilah who were fighting, and Delilah bit me big time.  She is quite literally in the doghouse now.  

This is a troubling trend.  If the beasts are moving from chewing inanimate to animate objects, there will be severe strife on the homefront. 

ETA: I think I'll call the sock Good Vibrations.  I really do like the way the stripes work out on the heel.  

Today in the mail I received my box project back from Satomoi of JapaneseHandmade on Etsy.  It's gorgeous.  I'll photograph it tomorrow or Friday.

I also received the January and March kits from Tanis Fiber Arts' Year in Colour Kit.  I'll photograph and blog about those as well.

Speaking of Etsy, I have a serious hankering for this skein of yarn by See Jayne Knit:

I'm NOT going to order it.  I'm NOT going to order it.  I'm NOT going to order it.

Well, not today anyway.  Perhaps one of you could order it and put me out of my misery.  Look at all that delightful colourful goodness.  

Okay, gotta go.  I finished watching the Season Finale of the River.  Talk about an awesome show, but it's unfortunate that there were so few episodes.