October II

Picture post! Lots of eye candy! 

Before it gets too late and I end up having wasted my time taking all these photos. :)

Hartford Convention Center

Oooo, Stitches East 2014 show was fun. Last year I didn't see much that excited me but this year I wanted EVERYTHING.  A whole convention center of everything you want. It's so sweet and so cruel.

Did indeed start some knitting up before we left for the show. Can't go to a fiber festival without some fiber involved.

(Yarn is Trekking XXL, pattern is Fruit Stripe Gum.)

I don't think I did too badly with my purchases considering I wanted everything. Right?

A couple skeins of rainbow striping yarn from White Birch Fiber Arts.

Navy/blue australian merino from Windy Valley Muskox Co.

Regia. (Great for socks. Wears like IRON.)

And a sparkly turquoise yarn from The Periwinkle Sheep.

Also a lobster hat kit. BECAUSE why not? (This was the hubby's pick.)

Those rainbow striping yarns are like a Lisa Frank/unicorn/glitter bomb happy making thing. Rainbow. Stripes. 

I regretted only getting two colorways........so I *may* purchased have another two the week after the show from her Etsy shop. Maybe. Nobody saw. (Feel free to judge.)

The hubby did his own purchasing: a big ole hank and a cone of alpaca for weaving. 

Soooooo soft. *pets*

There were A LOT of weaving samples up at the show. I dutifully took pictures of all the rigid heddle ones I want him to make for me. *ahem*

Snaps from the top of the cliffs down the road from my house. Is there any better season than fall? I THINK NOT.

 

That is all for now. Super super super busy with bead orders this month. Tis the season and all. :)

Ta!

October.

 Yay! An update! I keep meaning to do this and meaning to do this but it never seems to happen. Grrr! I lost a bit of time there in September due to a vacation week and - even more importantly - a BRAND NEW COMPUTER. I am no longer computing like it's 2006, people! 

My old computer actually wasn't in terrible shape, aside from being nervous of a hardware meltdown happening at any time because, you know, that stuff wasn't built to last forever and 7-8 years is asking a bit much of it. *ahem* The bigger issue was that more and more things weren't working with Windows Vista now that it's no longer supported so, rather than upgrade an old computer, we just got a new one! (A Windows 7 machine though because, MAN!, have I heard horrible no good things about Windows 8.) I was dreading moving everything over but apparently things have changed a LOT since I last bought one of these dang machines and it was actually pretty easy. *blink*

ANYWAY. I'm in a good mood today (mostly) because tomorrow is the Stitches East show and I looooooooooooooooooovveeeeeeeeeeeee the Stitches East show. And now it's here and I'm excited, even though I haven't been knitting much lately. I did so much knitting over the summer that I decided to take a break from it for a little while and get more stitching done. 

Turns out when you work on stitching a little bit each day (or most days) you actually FINISH THINGS UP. I know, right? It's miraculous.

These finishes here are the L*K Song of Spring kit , the rabbity 'small' that comes with that and the 2nd part of the BBD Honeybee Hill. (I haven't had occasion to use that sparkly green linen before and I quite like it here with Mr. Rabbit. )

I finished another piece as well but that may/may not be a gift so I don't want to post it and I have a big Plum Street piece 'in progress' that I am plugging along on. I can't go to the SE show without something on the needles though so stitching progress might be halted for a bit while I get my sock knitting on. :)

Relatedly, that new iPhone x-stitch app making the rounds is quite brilliant. An online/device accessible detailed accounting of everything in your stash?  YOU KNOW I had to snap that up immediately because I *LOVE* a good spreadsheeting, organizing, finger snapping, alphabetizing project. 

I went through pretty much everything I have pattern wise, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap and.......

Honestly, it's not AS BAD as I thought it was going to be! Of the 315 patterns I own, about 75-80 have already been stitched. Now, that is still more than I can probably REALISTICALLY finish in the years I have left to me (or have left in my eyesight/hand dexterity). And it doesn't take into account that I own 14 years of the JCS ornament issues which, well, have a lot of stuff in them. But. It's STILL not as bad as I thought. I would have guessed I had no less than 500 patterns to get to, so, yay? Buy more? ;)

(Also not counted: the patterns I have given away over the years. I gave away a GIANT stack of used Shepherd's Bush/misc. patterns at some point, a fact I am a little bitter about, to be honest, because REASONS. Things did not turn out well on that one. *sigh*)

After the patterns were done, I did my hand dyed threads but not my DMC. (Because I own ALL OF IT so I don't need a stinking list for that. ) All of the info is in that mysterious Cloud thingy now  and I can open it up on my phone or Mini so I have NO EXCUSES not to keep up on it. The app is really great and I wholeheartedly recommend it for anyone with Apple devices and a wish to have an easily searchable database of their stash.

OH well. I probably had a million other things to say but this will do for now, right? :)

BTW - those little guys at the top are the new Mummy beads I posted on Etsy/my site this week. Cuties! :)

Ok.

 Which one of you is responsible for letting me go a month without posting? HUH? Please come forward. Because, surely, it's not my fault. It's got to be someone else out there who fell down on poking and prodding me into doing it......right? :)

Also, how is Thanksgiving already upon us? I'm feeling a little shell shocked over that and how close Christmas is, too. *scared*

 Tis the season for lots and lots of bead orders so I've been mostly keeping my head down and just trying to keep up. (Trying being the operative word here.) Muttering under my breath about how slow it will be halfway through December so I don't totally lose my mind over it. I can do it. Right? Just keep on trucking and a day off from all things work related will magically appear at some point? FINGERS CROSSSED. :)

Well, I can't go back and recap a whole month so I'll stick to the good stuff. Firstly, this year's Stitches East show has come and gone (earlier this month). I have mad love for this crazy convention-center-filled-to-the-rafters-in-yarny-goodness but I wasn't feeling it.........much?...this year. I mean, it was great to see everything but nothing was really sticking out to me. Am I jaded? Am I over the 'yarn thing'? Do I need an anti-depressant? Or have I just realized HOW MUCH FRICKIN YARN I HAVE STASHED away and how much I do NOT NOT NOT NOT need a single yard more? I think it might be the latter. Digging through the stash lately to find yarn for the husband's weaving projects have really made it clear how much yarn I have. *gulp*

Anyhoo. This is all I purchased at this year's show. I got the yarn/pattern for a pair of gingerbread mittens I wanted last year at the show and the hot pink sock yarn was 'just because'. (You don't actually come across NEON pink sock yarn very often. It's usually softer tones of pink only. Because most knitters, I assume, are adults and don't want neon colors. I happen to love neon colors but I'm not out there trying to pass as normal either. lol)

The neon colors are a thing with me right now, I guess, because I finished using up this yarn from my last post. I thought it wanted to be gloves but I ripped that out after I finished the first glove. Wasn't using up enough yarn. (This yarn was NOT cheap so I wanted to use up every last bit of it.) So I poked and poked around for a new pattern and came up with a free cowl pattern by the name of Inspira. The pattern is more an 'idea' than a hard and fast pattern. You adapt it to the yarn you want to use and just wing it.

Hmm. Cowls are kinda hard to photograph unless you are into selfies. (Which I'm not.) It's so sad and...........flat.

There. Much better with a model. Livvy loves poking her head and sitting in bags so she was a natural. Just plunked her in front of it and watched her go WHEeeeEEEEEEE A BAG, A BAG! while I snap a picture. I'm still a little dubious of how much wear I will get out of it (I like scarves) but it was fun to knit and the colors worked out quite nicely with a minimum of fuss. (The yarn changes color on it's own. No cutting/weaving ends in here!)

 I also had a MaMaMonkee as a model but I think the Livvy pic is much better. :)

This was all I had leftover of the two skeins of yarn, too. WIN! :)

Babies are babies no more. They had their junk ripped out and are officially sexless now. :) Poor Livvy and her boo-boo belly. Stitches come out the day after Thanksgiving so she's almost better now though. Just a little longer to go. Small price to pay, I think, for not being forced to give birth to your brother's babies. *snort*

Zoom.

Another week just zoom, zooming, zooming by! 

 I swear I don't feel like I've had more than a second to just sit and breathe in weeks. And then I realize that a lot of that is self-inflicted and get over it. lol

Case in point: the picture above. We went hiking the day after walking like 5 miles around Hartford. No one forcing me to do THAT. Heh. Can't beat that view in the fall though. There is a state park about a 1/2 mile from my house and, if you've got the legs, you can climb to the top of the cliffs and get treated to some spectacular views of the area. (I live in the green area to the left.) 

 It's quite the hike though because the first mile is straight up up up up, very rocky and very 'rooty'.

A good trekking stick is your friend here if you don't want to feel like you are going to tumble all the way down to the bottom. Thankfully, the last 2.5 miles are a lot easier on the feets. (And the knees.)

The hubby is still sore in the ribs but he powered through it and made it up there too. (He was slated to be on vacation this week even before he got hurt so he decided not to change that so technically he's on vacation this week, not out hurt, so he's trying to do what he can to enjoy it because, you know, vacation time is precioussssss. He's feeling better every day though and is hoping the doctor signs off early for him to go back to work before the 4 weeks is up.)

Stitches East Stash!

Probably disappointing though because I didn't end up buying all that much from the show. (Which is different than saying I didn't spend all that much. *ahem*) It can be so overwhelming, just aisle after aisle after aisle of stuff. It took me 30 minutes to get through the first aisle and my 'eyes' had already purchased hundreds of dollars of stuff, so by the time you get to the end you're exhausted! (And I never buy anything on my first go through - only on the second pass.) I was looking for some more Twinkle Toes sparkly yarn (above) from a local dyer by the name of Tucker Woods and it turned out to be the very last booth I came across. It was like a tall drink of water after being stuck in the desert. (A really wooly, really colorful desert.) OH THERE YOU ARE! I thought she wasn't there this year, which would make me sad, because I always buy something from her. And then I bought a box. 

Not just a box though - a goody box. It has the fixings to make a bunch of knitted pumpkins, including some faux floral leaves and vines. Very cute all done up! Should probably, uhhhh, get on that before fall is over and the pumpkins are gone. 0_o

There was even a super big booth of Scandinavian and Germany, etc. cross stitch items. So you know I had to get something from there. I liked a couple of the models they had from this book. (Which is German, I believe.) Very cute!

And finally, I got the fixings for another scarf. One that is Boy Approved (so far) so it should be a uni-tasker and be worn by the both of us. (Or so he says. We'll see.) That's a truly terrible picture of the Kauni yarn because look at the difference once it is caked up:

BOING! HELLO COLOR RIOT.

The scarf is knit sideways, in long long long rows, just back and forth with the lacier alpaca breaking it up a little bit. It's not so much a 'pattern' really because even someone who learned to knit, like, a day ago could probably manage really well with this project. It's more about maximizing the striping nature of the Kauni yarn. Knitting 350 stitch long rows is not for the short-attention span peeps though. I timed a couple rows yesterday and each one takes about 15 minutes to complete. Hahaha! For ONE row. 15 minutes! This will either be mindless/good or mindless/KILLMERIGHTNOW. Time will tell!! :)

Stashing!

That post got a little long yesterday. So I ran out of time to do a full stashing report. No fear though, stash report coming up, because everybody likes looking at the stash porn, right? :)

I went into the show not wanting to go TOO nuts because, upon looking back at last years show, I realized I used very little of what I bought last year THIS year.  

Thanks to my exhaustive and detailed stash blogging (handy, in turns out) I know last year I purchased: 2 hat patterns, 2 bunches of yarn to make scarves (free pattern for one, undetermined for the other) and a Big Giant Skein to make a blanket. The blanket got made right away....

The rest? Still buried deep in the stash. Poor neglected yarn. *sniff* 

At least they have a lot of friends to hang with in Stashland. :)

So this year I walked out with....

 New Della Q bag, Because it's iridescent and I'm a sucker for TEH SHINY. (And it matches my smaller Della Q bag.)

Bailey's Twinkle Toes yarn - which has strands of Gold Stellina in it. Gold glitter. In the yarn. *happy sigh* Doesn't get more 'me' than that.

 A purple mitten kit. 

I've been staring at these Fair Isle mitten kits from the same seller for the past three years now. Literally. I finally broke down and bought one this year.The first year I didn't get one because I'd never done Fair Isle before and wasn't sure I would be able to do it but I stared that Fair Isle monster in the face this past year and slapped her into submission so it's totally doable now. :)

 A sweater pattern book with a sweater inside he liked (and was only $1) and a sweater pattern that I liked (that was not even close to costing $1). 

It's called Olive:

Lovely. Slouchy and shapeless? SIGN ME UP. That's the kind of sweater I can get behind.........and FILL with my behind! But seriously, the sample was done up in beautiful colors and felt AMAZING. Once you touch it, you are a goner. 

(Bonus points for any Fringe fan who can double-dig the name Olive. :))

This was a compromise, of sorts, from a crazy sample scarf that had entranced hordes of people that was done up with this wool....and extra panels of knitted stainless steel. So odd, that stuff. And strangely appealing. 

It make a scarf that you can mold into shape and it just..........stays there. Because it's a super fine steel thread. I wasn't so sure I would want to WEAR that sort of thing though so I got the pattern and stuck with just wool yarn. I had the thread cone in my hand and..........put it down and walk away. I figured if I'm still entranced with it next year and it wasn't just 'show fumes' clouding my mind, I'll go for it. :)

Okay. So my verdict for THIS year? Wellllll, I didn't buy too much yarn, so that's good. Project wise though...........total crappers. I predict the mitten kit will go first, and soon, possibly the scarf too. 

TWO sweater projects though? Could be a long, long wait. Welcome to Stashville sweater patterns!! :)

Whew! Weekend overload.

That was such a crazy weekend I needed a few days to recover from it. Seriously.

First up was the crazy overwhelming and much-anticipated Stitches East show in Hartford. 

 

(Picture from last year because I wasn't brave enough to thwart security this year and try and sneak a pic. They are CRAZY SERIOUS about no picture taking inside the venue.)

God, this show is exhausting. I mean that in a good way - but it's so big and there is sooooooooooooooooooo much stuff. *fans self* A huge convention center full of knitterly goodness every which way you look starts shutting my brain down after 4-5 aisles, you know? DON'T WORRY THOUGH: I pushed through it and made it to the end *and* even managed to be coherent enough to buy something from all corners of the room. I take my responsibilities for propping up the US economy with my purchasing power VERY seriously. *cough*

I did collapse here in the hall for a bit though to get my sea legs before taking off though.

After a quick jaunt to West Hartford for an outdoor lunch (to enjoy the perfect fall weather) and a little shopping at stores that aren't around here (Penzey's) we made the long haul back to our part of state and had just a wee bit of time to freshen up and haul off to Foxwoods Casino to catch a Kathy Griffin show. A love her/hate her comedian to be sure...........but I'm partial to foul-mouthed broads. Not gonna lie. : )

I'd never been to the MGM Grand theater here before and it was quite nice.......inside anyway. I haven't been to Foxwoods Casino in a long time (I only manage a trip every 5-8 years, even though it's only 30 minutes away) and, yep, I still HATE the place with the burning passion of ten thousand white hot suns. Choking with cigarette smoke, drunk hootchie-mama women traveling in ho herds everywhere you look and the place is just waaaaaaaaay too big for me to the point of utter ridiculousness. And this is coming from someone who LIKES Vegas, mind you. (A Vegas joint is a 500 sq. foot NYC hole in the wall compared to the size of this place.) Anyhoo. I was so annoyed with the casino areas and the awful smell, per usual, that I forgot to play a few quarters in a slot machine 'just in case' I had some lucky ju-ju hanging around me at the moment. *snort* 

Oh well. I'm sure they won't miss my dollar. :)

 

Such a picturesque setting for a fall festival. Perfect!

We got home late late late but didn't let that stop us from heading out to the Johnny Cake Festival at the Kenyon Grist Mill the next morning. Johnny Cakes are, I BELIEVE, a distinctly Rhode Island thing? (Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.) They're basically little fried up corn pancakes dating back to the Civil War era. Crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside, with or without maple sugar and that sort of thing. The Kenyon mill has been grinding corn the same way since 1696. I kid you not. That's crazy, right? 

 Though the building they still grind in *only* dates back to 1886. ONLY. *snort*

 

Round and round the stones go, grinding corn and other things all day.

This was a great festival because EVERYONE had free samples to try and TRY I DID. We noshed on locally made chocolate milk, pumpkin seeds, chai tea, hot apple cider, bbq sauce, freshly made bread and, of course, those johnny cakes. There were lots of other vendors demoing their wares like potters, chair caning,  and broom makers, etc. Very fun to watch! Will definitely have to hit this festival up again next year.

Of course we had to take home some purchased goodies from here too. Tea, pumpkin seeds, two jars of honey (as if we need MORE honey in this house!), johnny cake mix (OF COURSE) and I liked this piece of pottery that looked like a beehive to me.

It was nice to get out and enjoy the weather before it turns nasty for good, that's for sure. They are predicting a nor'easter for this area this weekend so that might be that as far as 'enjoying' the fall goes. *sad*

(Don't worry - I'll do a post about my Stitches East purchases. I think I need a whole separate post for that. lol)

One GIANT-sized monkey is off my back...

...because my Giant Skein is no more , and from it's ashes has emerged a Giant-sized lap blanket.

I do so love it and I'm sure I will use it a lot this winter, thrown over my legs and such. (I do, however, find it a teeny tiny bit itchy on bare skin. I'm pretty sure I'm allergic to mohair - or is that normally very itchy? Only 2 of the 12 yarns used in this have mohair so it's not crazy itchy though by any means. THANKFULLY, I have no such issues with wool! OMG THE HORROR IF I DID!!!!!!)

 

It measures out around 65-ish inches by 48-ish inches. (It's hard to measure something that wants to stretch this way and that way!)  A little wider maybe would have nice too but, truthfully, after three weeks of going like gangbusters on this, I was very ready to be done with this project. If I'd had more yarn, serious yarn fatigue would have set in and then it would have been anyone's guess when I finished it. :)

 It's a very simple, almost mindless really, Feather and Fan pattern, that results in gentle waves. I used up every last bit of that Giant Skein, all 24 ounces of it, planning out my last pattern repeat very carefully to maximize yarn usage. As a result this is *literally* all that was leftover after the knitting and fringe (not counting the wee trimmings to even this out):

 

Just one small handful of leftovers. :)

Ravelry link.