Moving Day

Hey kids, the Phoenix was right -- I am saying goodbye to Blogger and moving over to WordPress. I've moved all my links over, including the ones that Blogger ate (which was pretty much the last straw on the camel's back that has been my experience with Blogger over the past year).

So change your links to include http://getyourhookon.wordpress.com -- where you can comment on what I have to say all the damn time, no matter where you're blogging from.

To celebrate my new digs, I'm hosting a giveaway over there, with these beauties as the prize:



It's KnitPicks Sock Garden in Morning Glory. The yarn line and the colorway have been discontinued, and that makes me sad. What makes me happy is that I bought four skanks of it before it went away. I'm using two, and I'm putting the other two up for grabs.

Come by http://getyourhookon.wordpress.com and leave a comment telling me your favorite thing about springtime knitting (or just "hello," I'm not picky). Do this by Tuesday (5/15) night at midnight (Central Time), and I'll choose a winner via random number generator.

Cheers guys!

Blogger Ate My Blog

Ack!

Since Google took over Blogger the comment setup is requiring everyone to get a Blogger/Google account or be Anonymous. I am not a fan of requirements of any kind to be involved in my blog conversation (except the requirement that you be a real person and not a spambot), so I decided to install Haloscan. Of course, having the non-updated version of Blogger's template I couldn't install the darn thing until I upgraded to the fancy-schmancy version that some of you have and enjoy. So I upgraded.

Now my blog looks like poo, half my links are missing, and I'm grumpy about it.

And, in yarn-related grumpiness, my kitchen scale (similar to this one) tells me lies about the weight of my yarn when I wind it up:


It's my Fearless Fibers Kildare, and I am going to be making two different sized socks from it.

Femiknitter Will Probably Appreciate This Most Of All

Hey kiddies, sorry to have left all that yarn up there for a week. I didn't mean to make you wach my commercialism on purpose. I spent most of last week either blowing my nose every three seconds, bitching about my inability to smell or taste anything, or under heavy sedation (god bless Nyquil), and wasn't able to get to the computer. And then, when I was able, I didn't really want to. You know.

But I started feeling loads better on Saturday and Sunday, and this is what happened:


This might be more impressive if I had a picture of what this corner of the office looked like before. Or what the insides of the drawers looked like, for that matter. I got rid of FOUR huge BAGS OF YARN (stop freaking out, it was crap acrylic) which I had acquired in the days when I was a new crocheter with high hopes of an afghan for everyone I knew! and purchased with quantity, rather than quality, in mind. Lots of Red Heart. Lots of leftovers. Lots of crap just taking up space. Those bags were surrounding the dresser like grumpy castle guards, making it very difficult for me to get into the drawers. Eventually I stopped using them for actual storage. When I emptied them out they just had a few scraps each. Excellent use of space!!!


Now, the dresser holds almost all my yarn (not the sock yarn, that's still in the living room). The top drawer holds leftover balls that are actually worth keeping around, a case of embroidery floss, my shears, and probably other things. (What? It's a spring cleaning, not a spring complete-conversion-to-the-church-of-Martha.) The other three drawers are packed with all my real yarn. I even emptied out the under-bed storage box and moved that stuff in with the rest.

The blue bag to the left of the dresser holds the crocheted ripple afghan my grandma Shirley was working on before she died. The plastic bags in the foreground hold all the yarn I'm trying to sell (see previous post and also here if you are interested and if you are I love you a lot). I do have one more large bag (another crocheted afghan project) that's currently out in the living room. It taunts me with its mass.


This is the top of the dresser. The wicker basket is holding my current WIPs. The crate holds my swift, ballwinder, and Eucalan (other stuff too, but I'll share that another day). The top of the crate holds some Cascade EcoWool (for swatching or for a house cozy - that stuff has some outstanding yardage), my straight needle roll, and the dyepot and dyecolander, which of course both hold extra yarn that won't fit in the dresser.

And that is the story of how a little case of cabin fever can turn into a giant destashing and a soothing feeling of having control over one's yarn. Let us hope it lasts.

Pssst! Wanna buy some Mohair?

All yarn has lived with me for 3+ years in a non-pet, non-smoking home, and has spent most of its time in plastic bags. It's lovely stuff, but mohair and I just don't get along. I'm open to PayPal and check (will wait until it clears). Shipping (you choose method) is not included in the price here, but will be when the order is compete.

For Sale Unger Legacy Cotton/Mohair


9 x 50g balls of Unger Legacy, one ball had been swatched and then rewound, but all the yardage (appx 140 yds per ball) is there.
32% nylon, 26% acrylic, 26% cotton, 16% mohair
Color #01, Dove
Price: $35.00 the lot

For Sale Mohair of Unknown Origin

A friend works at a place where yarn companies send their stuff to be made into color cards. They have huge amounts left over, and I got this batch in a sale a few years ago. It came to me in weird cone-shaped hanks, and I've wound them into yarn cakes. I don't know what brand this is, what the total fiber content is (though Mohair is pretty obvious), and I don't know the yardage. The yarn WPI is about 6 with space left for the fluffs to spread out.


Dark purple, 9 ounces
Price: $20.00 now $10.00


Blue/purple variegated, 11 ounces
Price: $24.00 now $12.00


Raspberry/deep pink, 10 ounces
Price: $22.00 now $11.00


Midnight blue, 6.5 ounces
Price: $11.00 now $5.50


Medium blue, 5.5 ounces
Price: $9.00 now $4.50


Turquoise/robin's egg blue, 2 ounces
Price: $4.00 now $2.00


Acid green, 3 ounces
Price: $5.00 now $2.50


Dark blue, 4.5 ounces
Price: $6.50 now $3.25

Want the whole lot? All Mystery Mohair for $40.00 plus shipping.

Having found my sub-niche

Thanks to everyone for your sympathy in my last two posts. I'm sorry I haven't been able to reply to all of you directly -- Blogger doesn't give me your email addresses all the time. Grr.

This week has gone better (dark chocolate and Merlot have kept me just out-of-it enough), and is ten times more better because I have tomorrow (Friday) off. And though that means I have to work Saturday, I'll be all alone in the basement of the library and can play music through the computer's speakers instead of my headphones. !!! That's just the kind of rebel that I am.

And for the record, I did totally kick winter's ass and send it packing. For about three days. Now it's cold and grey and rainy and entirely non-glorious today, and winter just sits out there, begging to come back into my life and telling me it's the only season that could make me happy, that spring doesn't love me like it does, and that summer's just a flash-in-the-pan.

Whatever. Winter, you suck.

And I suck for not having a photo of anything WIP-ish, but I am in a bit of a snit with most of my projects just now, and we're not speaking.

This, however, does not suck:



Yes, it's the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Knit Along. I'm a fan of Buffy, I'm a fan of knitting, it all works out beautifully. It's the whole pointy stick/pointy stick affinity. The sweet thing about this KAL, aside from the obvious BtVS-ness, is that there are no time limits, no mandated patterns. Just hang out and knit and discuss. Plus you get to pick which category you want to be in -- Slayers, Vamps, Witches, Scoobies, Watchers, Demons. It's awesome. If you love Buffy (or Angel), you should join. (I'm talking to you. You know who you are.)

I embrace the weird, and it embraces me back.

Revenge of the Snowed-Upon

Take that Winter, you bastard!

(It's a bad cellphone pic of me, kicking snow. Yes, I am twenty-seven years old and mature beyond my years.)

The Universe Slaps Me Down

Just a short post to let the internet know that I can't write a decent post right now. This week is not going my way in so many different ways that it's hard to know where to start the story of how I hate it. I'll give you a list, because as Femiknitter knows, there are few things I like as much as a good list.

1. It freaking snowed last night. Ugh. Winter is starting to act like the scummy, needy ex-boyfriend who won't leave you alone and leaves notes for you on your doorstep and slowly creeps into stalker territory. Winter is a stalker. Go away, Winter, you bastard.

2. I can't count. I have now put the heel in one of my socks twice, and both times I have had either too many stitches or too few. I have temporarily banished them until I have my wits about me. This may take a while.

3. I don't know what month or week it is. Seven times this week (and keep in mind that I'm writing this on Wednesday morning, so that makes it "in two days") I've thought that it's either next week or 5 weeks from now. Seven times in two days. I need more of something in my diet. Probably more vacation.

4. The software switchover at work is not. going. well. Day one? 1500 errors from the offline/back up system we were using last week. Day two? Staff records still not uploaded. What could day three possibly bring? My money's on a plague of toads. Toads or book-eating locusts.

5. I had ten people clamoring to get into my beginner knitting class, and I could only take eight, and ONLY FOUR OF THEM SHOWED UP LAST NIGHT. I could spit nails. And one of the four women left right away. She already knows how to knit (using a spool to make i-cord) and just wants to know how to bind off (she'll come back on the last day). Another woman just could. not. get. it. I felt so bad for her, especially after a 7-year-old girl came up to us while I was helping her do the long-tail cast on (she was trying to use two needles; she never did get it), and told us she learned to knit when she was five years old. After a while this woman just sat and cackled and tried to knit with three straight needles (I honestly have no idea). I don't know how to help her, especially as I've already put my hands on her hands and demonstrated the knit stitch and she still did not get it. Fortunately the other two women took to knitting like ducks to water and are even knitting continental (yes!). Only one of the four people who showed up actually brought the yarn (Cascade 220) that I put on their required materials list.

And now I have to get ready for work (deep sigh). I wonder how this day will go.