Shut Up & Knit!

Greetings from the mall, bloglines

Today's WTF is just how much money I just spent at the mall.  o.0

On the upside, I have fab new glasses and can actually see.  On the downside, I may never leave the house again. 

Note to Self:  Stay out of that mall.

The lovely and talented Karrie from Girl on the Rocks is having her annual post Rhinebeck contest for those of us who did not get to go.  Actually, I think anyone can play.  Go read her small print if you want to know for sure.

Try not to be shocked by the colors here.  I know it's surprising coming from me, but try to be brave.

On the left is two skeins of Lorna's Laces sock yarn in Black Purl.  In the middle is a well traveled skein of C*Eye*Ber Fiber softee sock yarn in Blue Waves.  This skein was purchased for me in Nashville and flew to Reno before arriving here.  It's a bit more purple than my photo shows, btw.  Ya'll should be thankful the picture's in focus... let's just be honest.  The two skeins on the right are from Nature's Palette.  It's sock weight yarn in the Lupine colorway.  I bought it thinking I would use it for the Embossed Leaves pattern from the Interweave Knits sock book, but who knows what it will end up being.

Can you believe I have that much blue/purple in my freezer stash?  And that's not all of it, either.

Hidden depths, people.  Hidden depths...

QuickFire Random Rants

Since someone mentioned that I'd be ranting today, I guess I have to.  Can't disappoint more than usual, now can I?

*Sock yarn is yarn and, therefore, counts.  The 'sock yarn doesn't count' lie was thought up by someone who sells sock yarn for a living.  Hello!  I think the only yarn that might not count would be handspun and that would depend on the spinner and his/her feelings about said yarn.

* I tend to think that people who need to sneak yarn purchases into the house and/or hide it from their partner/spouse have relationship issues that are far larger than yarn and knitting.  Then again, I also think you're nuts if you spend the rent money on fiber.

*Respectable people do not get animals from pet stores.  Respectable people do not see pets as something that can just be handed off when they get bored with those pets and/or as a fashion statement/accessory.  Respectable good people take care of their pets for as long as the pet(s) live and/or as long as the owner lives.  (My grandmother had a parrot that lived to be 120.)

*My HMO is too good at what it does.  They are helping people live longer than ever before... and making parking a fucking nightmare in the process.  Tiny old people with fabulous insurance trying to back a Buick up with abandon is not something I want to be anywhere near.

I know.  Kind of lame, but parts of my beloved state are on fire and it's breaking my heart.  So is knowing that mudslide season follows wildfire season.  This is our future and there's no escaping it.

Oh, and I had the weirdest dream very early this morning.  I think the high point was me tidying a fiber room that I don't have because EZ was coming to pick up her babies.  I'm not sure what that meant but it can't be good.

This afternoon I'm getting my eyes checked and hopefully get new glasses.  Keep your needles crossed I get happy news.  With my gene pool, vision stuff is always iffy.

Tomorrow I enter a contest and show ya'll some frozen yarn.

Where I Fake The Happy

For some reason, I liked the little chocolate kiss that said 'hi' before I ate him.

Plus he gave me something to show ya'll, which is a very happy thing as we're digging deep for this week's Monday Love.

I am so thankful and loving the first wind free day in several days.  Windy days are always very hard on me and the last few were harder than normal.  Must be my advancing age.  Goodie.

I love getting to read and see everyone's blog reports about Rhinebeck.  Is it just me or did everyone get a photo of that guy standing on those two horses?  *L*  Even more, I love the e-mailed reports about what really happened.  That was the best, I think.

I love blogline's beta.  Ya'll know about this, yes?  I like this version of bloglines much better and love that I can keep things by unchecking the "marked read" box. 

Proving I'm the town freak, I love having my stash in the big freezer in the garage.  Nothing stops me from casting on something new during the ten o'clock news like knowing I'd have to go out there to find the yarn I want.

Plus I love standing in the front of the open freezer door, peering into the freezer and feeling like there isn't anything in there.  Remember doing that with the fridge when you were a kid?  Love that.  I also may have a thing for cold yarn.

Shut up!

And no.  There are not more moths here.  I'm just too lazy to bring it all back inside again.  Maybe I'll just work my way through it and not add anything more out there.  I could do that.  After all, in my world, sock yarn does count.  ;^)

Happy Monday, people!

Cranky, Socks & Shit

I am in a mood.  Ya'll have been warned...
Last week, I could not get a sock started to save my life. 
The yarn and gauge swatch worked with the pattern to confuse me.

I frogged.

Then I tried my old faithful no pattern 2x2 rib sock pattern and the yarn was spiraling like a motherfucker and I knew I could do better.

Frogged.

I got out a hank of yarn that's special to me, caked it and tried a picot edge with a provisional cast on since toe-up just wasn't working for me.  The picot edge worked for the first time in ages and I thought my sock luck was changing.

However, the fab looking picot edge was slightly less than fab because of how the colors were knitting up.  I hate that.  So I frogged.

All failed sock yarns were returned to the freezer and I figured I was just doomed.  Partly because it had been that kind of week and partly because my life seems to be populated by people who think it's all about them all the time.  That tends to add to the general sense of doomed here at ShutUp&Knit!... go figure.

Then my best friend sent me a box of (sock) love and made everything alright... like she usually does... with or without yarn.

The yarn is from the hated knitpicks people.  It's Felici in Atmosphere.

The yarn is soft, lovely and what I needed.  As you can see, I'm even over my need to be matchy.

I really thought about ripping the toe back, so it would be all dark blues, but I realized that I was okay with how it looked and that's what mattered.  Plus if I started to obsess over the heel, I would go crazy and the world just isn't ready for that.

Tomorrow, I'll be trying to find the happy or just lying to ya'll about the happy. 

We'll see...

Raindrops on Roses & Whiskers on Kittehs

Just another weekend in October here in California.

Last night, I cast on for the dreaded black wool cardi.  I'm hoping to curl up with the kitty and work on it today.  Nothing says fall like miles of seed stitch using black yarn, right?

I seem to have lost my sock mojo (& an actual sock) and the silk lace shawl is still in question/time-out, so I'm hoping the black wool will save me.  Although, I think it's more likely that it will just give me eyestrain.  ;^)

Hopefully, I'll be able to cure the sock issues.  If not, I'm not sure what we'll be talking about next week.  Unless you want to hear a week's worth of rants because after this week, honey, I've got them.  o.0

Tomorrow!  Sock failure and my total lack of the sock mojo.