It's fat Tuesday. This Lent, I will…..

It’s Fat Tuesday to the rest of the world, and here I’m staring down the barrel of another Lent. A really early, early Lent. The time when Christians are called to 6 weeks of pointed meditation, introspection, sacrifice and alms-giving. Maybe stating that I’m staring down “the barrel” of Lent is a little harsh because really faith is a choice and something that I choose.

Traditionally, Lent is the time when I give something up to remind me of the Ultimate Sacrifice. As a kid it was the yearly question: dessert, TV, favorite game or activity….and really was a test of endurance. Where you knew that your parents would enforce your sacrifice even if you didn’t feel like it. While it was always a good idea before the start of Lent, during Lent it became apparent that sacrifice left something to be desired in the execution.  Now I’m an adult and I have to be disciplined enough to enforce my own choices. To follow through. Not to give it up somewhere between the third and fourth weeks when the novelty has worn off and the hard work sets in.

This Lent, I will respond and not react to my children and my husband. It’s not dessert, it’s not coffee, and at first glance it seems like corporate-speak which I abhor. (Come on, now. Let’s expand our global outlook with out of the box thinking, innovation, and improved efficiency. Bleh.) The giving up of coffee or dessert would be more traditional for me and actually easier to measure. Those are absolutely my favorite food groups. I love them more than they deserve. They bring me more satisfaction than they ought. I would eat them all day, every day except for the adverse health affects. Instead, this Lent I will: reflect before I ask the kids to do something, respond cheerfully even when inconvenienced or annoyed, and think less about what I’m giving up and more about what I can do to make Someone I Love life’s a little better. I think I’m going to wear a single, silver bangle bracelet which I will switch from wrist to wrist as a reminder when I fall short of my goal.

It’s intangible, which means I will lose the small sense of satisfaction in having achieved a measurable goal. However, I think it’s more to the purpose of my Lenten journey this year.  I want to be a cheerful, attentive wife and mother. I want to think of others more and respond to them with reflection and not distraction. Lent 2008 will be my personal retreat and mediation on who I am called to be and who I want to be. 

In less reflective and prettier news

New Yarn: Sweet Sheri. Dyed up earlier in the week, but it took two days for it to dry. It’s a special colorway for a really sweet gal. Sheri of The Loopy Ewe is having a birthday and the plan is to create a special pair of socks for her in a colorway that highlights her favorite colors: cranberry, navy, chocolate, and sage green. Also present are celedon and biscuit for a bit of better color contrast. We’ll see how it knits up….it’s definitely out of my color comfort zone.

Mitten Progress

Here’s the current mitten progress. I’m undecided about it. The design is not quite what I envisioned. My sweet, fellow swappers have told me that I shouldn’t rip it out, and I think I’ll leave it. It may improve with the flip top mitten cap. This might also fall under the category of “outside Katie’s comfort zone”.  There is the distinct possibility that upon being reassured that it really isn’t a disaster I will be comfortable with the result. I know a large part of the issue is that I don’t know for certain that the recipient will like it. In fact, my swap partner is having these knit for someone close to her, so I really, really don’t know anything about the recipient other than she’s a young lady, the mittens should be easy to care for and she has a deep coral/salmon colored coat. Hopefully the 5 different hues of salmon/coral present in the yarn will mean that it’s complimentary to the coat!

In which I ply you with crappy pictures

It’s been a productive week here at Casa de Yarn Love. So far I have:

*Knit one complete pair of Noro socks

*Finished one Vinnland Sock in Trekking XXL and completed 30% of the second.

*Dyed 5 ounces merino/tencel roving in three solid colors. (1.6 -ish ounces each color) Spun the singles and plied them into a single skein. Destined to be mittens for my No Hum Drum Mittens swap partner.

* Dyed two more skeins of yarn for the mittens once I figured out the hand-spun wasn’t going to be nearly enough. Now I have a solid skein of merino/tencel fingering weight yarn and one variegated skein. They’ll be held together as I knit so that it mimics the hand spun yarn. We’ll see if it works.

 And all that was just in my “play time” – it doesn’t include any yarn that I’ve dyed for the business. Thoughts about said projects in no particular order:

 Mitten Swap

Not going like I’d prefer. Mostly because I forgot that the tencel content of the roving really makes this yarn dense and heavy….with little yardage compared to spinning 100% wool or the wool/bamboo blend. That means I have a lot of work into a skein that weighs 5.2 ounces and only contains 175 yards. Not nearly enough for the project. Oh well, that’s where the two newly dyed yarns come into play.

We’ll see if I end up combining all three yarns. I like the hand-spun by itself. I like the two hand dyed yarns, too. I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to combine all three. Oi. Now onto the design phase. Here’s the pattern that won the most votes for the base pattern: Spooky Cabled Armwarmers. Now to swatch, knit and design the flip top.

 Noro Socks

I love the look of the Noro sock yarn. The color repeats and color combination are amazing. However, this yarn is not as soft or elastic as other sock yarns I’m used to working with. We’ll see if they grow on me. The upside is that because I prefer shorter length cuffs, I only used 50 out of 100 grams in the skein. I’ll get two pairs from a single skein. That makes a girl happy. I anticipate that I’ll be using this yarn again because the color is too amazing to get past. However I’ll probably attempt to spin up some “Noro” sock yarn on the wheel out of a softer fiber. I’d like a bit more elasticity. My current pair, while it fits, tends to slouch through the cuff more than it ought.

 Vinnland Socks in Trekking XXL

Bad yarn/pattern combo here. The pattern is gorgeous, and I thought the Trekking would look like the Noro when it knit up. It doesn’t. It’s very tweedy or marled looking and the color takes away from the beauty of the pattern. I have some mostly solid spring green Scarlett sock yarn dyed up to knit this again. I want the pretty pattern to show! Vinnland is a great pattern, and I want another pair in a solid color.

More later, I have to go dye now. I gave myself until the Jet album was done burning to blog….and it’s just finished.

Beer Geek

Since purchasing my lovely husband a basic beer brewing kit for his birthday in very late August, I’ve become a beer geek. Most probably geekier than even my DH himself. I blame the dyeing of yarn mostly. Because once it’s dyed, it has to be washed, dried and re-skeined. Thanks to my washing machine (Soak and spin with water supplies shut off, only! Do not send any skein of yarn through a regular wash cycle it will ruin it. You’ve been warned.) and a lovely drying rack and fan setup those parts of the process don’t take very long. But the re-skeining….oi, the re-skeining takes forever. So I started listening to knitting podcasts. But there just weren’t enough to keep up with the hours I spend watching the yarn go round and round. So I moved on to sports. I play fantasy football, so that was great. But once I got through all the pertinent backlog the knitting and the sports podcasts weren’t enough to keep up. I moved onto the beer and brewing podcasts. With their huge backlogs, and frequent updates, I’ve been a happy skeiner for a couple of months. Of course when you spend hours a day listening to a plethora of education programming on brewing and tasting beer,  you might just turn into a Beer Geek by osmosis. Your Darling Husband might also laugh at you and accuse you of being slightly obsessive. Your mother might start to worry about your drinking habits because you show up for all family events with at least a 6 pack of home brew, and politely demand the empties so they can be sanitized in time to bottle the batch of stout in the secondary.

The Beer Geek inside might also strongly suggest she’d like to visit a brewery as part of the Thanksgiving travel plans…..and that is how we ended up at the New Belgium brewery on Black Friday with my MIL & FIL. It was a great trip. Very interesting, even though we weren’t able to take a guided tour. We arrived in the early afternoon (I was having slight misgivings about going tasting in the early afternoon, given the prohibitionist attitudes towards alcohol here in the USA.), and all 140 tickets for a guided tour had been gone since 10 am that morning. Apparently, the Black Friday craziness had set in because there were people lined up outside the brewery before they opened. The tasting room was standing room only when we arrived, and the very hospitable New Belgium employee inside the door cheerily told us to make our way to the bar, as this was a lull and he anticipated a crowd making it’s way there in the near future. So after about half an hour we were seated and had the fun of ordering up four tasters of the beers of our choice.

Let me say that if you have any interest in beer, and are in the Denver area, you absolutely should visit a brewery. If you are near Fort Collins, you absolutely have to visit New Belgium. It’s a crazy fun place and everyone there is happy. The beer was great and the people there were even better. Despite the large number of people waiting to be served, our bar tended took the time to answer our (OK, my.) inquiries about their beer and ingredients. He even took the time to make me a photocopy of the ingredient lists for every one of their beers so I could try to replicate them here at home. Before we went, I was a huge fan of New Belgium based in their great beers, and after visiting them, I think I might be slightly fanatical. I love it when I find a company that I like outstrips my expectations.

Cheers, go find yourself some Fat Tire or Sunshine today!

Happy Thanksgiving

I’m late. I actually did have another blog post nearly ready before we left on Wednesday….until my 3 year old grabbed the mouse and erased it as I was typing. Fortunately, Word-Press has this feature where your post is automatically saved. Unfortunately, it re-saved about 15 seconds after she had erased it, but before I could figure out how to restore the post. Therefore the new, saved post had nothing in it. It was a great waste of 30 minutes. Lovely.

 We had a nice Thanksgiving. This was our year to travel to visit Nick’s parents. We trade off holidays. Thanksgiving last year was at my parents (who live 5 miles away) and so Christmas was spent with Nick’s family. This year we’ll be here for Christmas, and we were there for Thanksgiving. It was a nice visit, despite the fact that it means 20-22 hours in the car with three toddlers by the time we drive there and back. All I can say is thank God for portable DVD players. at 8 hours + our kids get a little cranky!

I knit all the way there and back (when I wasn’t driving). You would think that 10 hours of uninterrupted knitting tie would be enough to knit an entire sweater. Or at least something big. Something substantial. Something amazing. As it turns out between hopping over the seat to attend to the kids, rest stops and generally chatting it up with Nick, all that car time did not translate into something amazing, something substantial, or even a sweater. I did finish up a pair of Fetching. They’ve been languishing in a drawer around here for two years. Yes, they were 90% finished, but got put down for something else, and it took me 2 years to get back to finishing up the last set of cables and thumb. I think part of the problem was that they were well hidden. They are Fetching and really nice. It was cold in the Rockies, and these babies were warm and handy. I knit them from either KnitPicks’ Ambrosia or Elegance. I’m pretty sure it’s the Ambrosia, but they no longer carry the very light grey color I knit them up in. That’s what I get for storing a project with no ball band for two years. They’re not nearly as thick as I’m sure the original Aran weight ones are, but they are plenty warm with all that alpaca and cashmere. Yum!

I also finished up the first sock of a pattern I created out of some Gobble yarn from The Painted Tiger. The pattern is my own and very simple. Toe up socks, with yarn held double for the short row toe and heel (I hate that these areas wear out so quickly. Plus, I generally wear loose fitting shoes during the winter like Birkenstock clogs and Croc Mary Janes, so this works pretty well.), with and offset cable running up the outside of the foot and ankle. The pattern was created on the fly, and really is pretty. It’s also very uncomplicated, which means it works up fast, and I think the single, side placed cable creates great impact. The down side is that with the cable placement, you essentially have mis-matched socks, so you’ll have to watch it when you put them on, so you get the right sock on the right foot. Hopefully, I’ll be up for this when I’m choosing my socks early in the morning.

Oh, and I also took along my Hum Drum mittens, but opted not to work on them. I need to cast on for the second mitten, and since that involves a lot of necessary attention I’m waiting until this week. They should come together pretty quickly. I love the first one, it’s all complete, except for the thumb. I have to decide whether or not to thrum the thumb. I’m thinking I won’t because that will make it so snug-fitting. But I’m worried because it might not look right. I can always try it without and then change my mind. It’s only a thumb!

 More later. I have great photos from the brewery and also from my good friend and photographer (Think Christmas card fodder!) but I don’t want to make this post overly long. I’m already late posting mitten progress, so the knitting photos need to go up now!

Brand New, Shiny Blog

I’ve been meaning to start a personal blog forever. So here it is. I’m starting this one up especially for my No More HumDrum Mittens exchange pal. That way I won’t need to post my questionaire to the Yarn Love blog. If you just so happen to me my Mitten Pal, then you can check me out over at www.bungalowmum.blogspot.com. It’s more related to my yarn business, but there’s lots of info about me there as it’s been around significantly longer. Yay!

No More HumDrum Mittens Exchange Questionnaire

 Btw, I really like the name of this swap! It’s great!

How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? My mom taught me how to knit and purl as a child. However, I disliked it and only took it up again when I was pregnant with our first babies. That was a little over 4 years ago. I’ve knit constantly since then, and now I have a yarn dyeing business.

Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced? I’m somewhere between intermediate and advanced. I still feel like there are a lot of techniques out there that I’d like to try, but I have quite a few under my belt.

What are your favorite colors? Any you dislike? Well, I really don’t have a favorite color. However, my winter coat is bright fuchsia. I mean, this sucker is really bright. It’s a knee length down coat that is bright fuchsia. So if my pal would include perhaps an accent of fuchsia in the mittens, that would be awesome! I’m considering knitting my hat with a main color of chocolate brown or black and an accent of fuchsia to match. I really do adore color, and don’t be afraid of bright.

Do you like Latvian type patterns? If so, what are your favorite patterns? I do love Latvian type patterns, here are some that I found that I like. (I’m open to more patterns, too.)  http://www.liis.lv/cimdi/frame1.htm 

http://www.liis.lv/cimdi/frame1.htm 

http://www.liis.lv/cimdi/frame1.htm 

http://www.liis.lv/cimdi/frame1.htm 

Do you desire mittens for yourself, your “special someone else” or your child? For me!

What other things do you enjoy knitting? Socks and sweaters, hats and mittens. I’m up for about anything, really.

What sort of needles do you enjoy working with? (straights vs circs, bamboo vs aluminum) I’m a die hard nickel plated circular needle girl. I have a complete options set, a bunch of Addi turbos, and now just a few Harmony needles. I love the pretty colors of the Harmony needles, although they do slow me up a bit.

What’s one project you’ve not yet tried but are dying to make? Felted clogs. I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.

What’s one yarn you’ve not yet tried but are dying to work with? Cashmere…and most other indie dyers. I love indie dyed yarns. I did just purchase some Alpaca Sox yarn which I’m really very curious about, but I haven’t had time to cast on, yet.

What other hobbies do you have? Do you spin? Sew? Garden? Cook? I love to cook, I do sew, but not nearly as much as I used to. I spin fairly frequently, and I own two spinning wheels. The vast majority of my time is spent watching my kids, dyeing yarn, and knitting.

Besides yarn, do you collect anything? Not really….unless you count dessert. But I really don’t collect that, I consume it.

What kind of goodies do you enjoy? Sweets? Salty? Anything you hate or are allergic to? I love sweets like no other. Especially chocolate. I don’t have any food allergies, but I don’t prefer most fish or shellfish. But I doubt you’d mail me fish, anyway.

Do you have any kids? Pets? I have three toddlers. My oldest are three year old twins (both girls) and we also have a son who’s nearly 2 years old.

What is your favorite part of Winter? Snow! I love snow. I love how pretty it looks and building snowmen and sledding. I even like to shovel.

What is your least favorite part of Winter? How cold it gets here. -20 is not uncommon. Plus, I live at the edge of town and the wind sucks. I also hate trudging to the mailbox through the snow. It’s cold and it makes a mess in my house….but pretty yarn comes in the mail…and i love how the snow looks on the ground. I guess I’m picky.