Not so loud

I have wet lab duty this week at work. What does that have to do with anything? Well, while the filters are being cleaned, I have about 15 minutes to kill by knitting. My Booga Bag is working up fairly quickly, and I've gone through about one and a third skeins already. However, it seems to be coming out a lot darker and more green that I would have expected. The nice bright yellows and oranges from the first skein got worked into the bottom of the bag and will never be seen. The color progression of each skein is off by just a bit, so I'll have to do some fiddling around to try and get more yellow in the body of the bag to brighten it up. When I get to the third and final skein, I plan on working the I-cord first and trying to use up the last bit of yarn in the body of the bag. At least I haven't come across any knots yet! *fingers crossed*

I absolutely can't wait to felt this thing though, regardless of how the colors come out. I need a distraction from hats and scarves, and felted bags just might be it.

Happy Birthday!

A little belated: my birthday was on Income Tax Day. Hooray. But I finally got my birthday yarn this weekened. I let Dave pick the yarn out for me, 3 skeins of really loud Noro Kureyon for a felted bag. I needed some kind of fun colors for summer, and I think they'll fit the bill. Before I let myself at that new yarn, I showed restraint and finished the preemie hat I'd been working on since the beginning of the month. I'm proud of myself for getting one hat done and finding time to start my felted bag, all while working on the house at the same time. We now have 2 rooms primed and ready for paint. The upstairs rooms even have screens now!

So, there's not much else to write when there's no time to knit. All I can say is that I'm really looking forward to this Wednesday's knitting group. We've made plans to visit the Fuzzy Farm next month. Gayle, one of the co-owners of the Fuzzy Farm, says that a new cria has arrived and another is due very soon. (A little overdue, actually.) It will be great to get out and enjoy the spring weather before it gets deathly humid and hot. I'm not sure if she'll have her fiber back from the mill, but I still have some stashed away from my visit last year that I need to work up. Guess I better get busy.

Who needs sleep?

No, I have not fallen off the face of the earth, though I just might if I don't sleep soon. The previous weekend, I tackled the chore of moving from one house to another, and since then it's been the typical "I can't find the _______, have you seen it?" routine. My main problem is the distance to and from work has gone from a 2 minute drive to a 25+ minute drive. And of course with the new house, you have to clean, and unpack, and fix things that aren't to your liking. Get up earlier, go to work, come home, cleanunpackfix, try to get dinner, try to sleep in a strange place, repeat. I'm wiped.

My knitting group last night was a much needed break from all that. I'm still trying to get preemie hat #1 finished -- the ribbing no less -- from last week's session. I hope to have it done by the end of the month at the rate I'm going. The cabled sweater? I haven't even seen it since the move. One of the last items packed and one of the first items moved in, which means it's at the back of a closet for safe keeping.

But even if I can't actually get a lot of knitting done, I can at least talk about it. Beverlee and I were talking about project design for a Chiengora item(s) auction to benefit her wonderful service dogs. It's already been decided to cut the poodle fiber with wool because this is VA, not the Antarctic. Next, what to make? Perhaps a hat/scarf set for those with a smaller pocketbook, and what I'd really like to do is a shawl from Folk Shawls, Best of, or some such. A Shetland construction or maybe a circular shawl. I love to wear and make shawls, even though this one wouldn't be for me, it would be a lot of fun to have the experience of working with a handspun, hand-dyed, Chiengora blend. I want to make the next step from simple triangle shawl to something a bit lacy. Assuming I have time to work on it, a shawl would take me about a month. Luckily, there's no rush for any of these items, so we have until late summer to come up with a solid plan, and if I start knitting items by fall, they'll be ready just in time when the weather turns cold and folks are looking to get their hands on something warm for themselves or a gift. I can't be the only person in the world who starts thinking about Christmas gifts in July.


Beverlee & Lennox

In other news, our Project Linus blanket may be just about done. A few more squares were submitted last night at the meeting, so hopefully we'll have a report (and a picture) on that soon. Whenever I happen to make it home tonight, I plan on turning in early. Maybe after I put a couple of rows on my preemie hat. Zzzzzzzzzz.....

P.L. blanket nearing completion

Yesterday was a complete bundle of chaos. We had lovely 80 degree weather outside and 85+ degree weather in our office because the air handling system at work wasn't doing what it was supposed to. It actually felt like the heat was on! That made for a pretty miserable work day.

Then I left to go and get my hair cut, and the guy that does my hair was way behind schedule, so I was an hour late getting to my S&B knitting group. But what a nice surprise to see our numbers increasing! The usuals were there, in addition to a returning member (back from a month with her new grandbaby), and two of her friends. I'm still miffed for missing out on a whole hour of stitchin' and bitchin' -- hey now, this really is my only social activity where I get out of the house and away from work! And as usual Bev, Lennox, Don, Shannon and I all stood around in the parking lot for a Welsh goodbye. I didn't get home until 11pm. So what did we do?

The Projet Linus blanket is nearing completion. I, as well as a couple other folks, brought in squares, so we're maybe 4 squares shy of completion. Being as this was the first meeting of the month, our charity project this go around was preemie hats. I'm not quite sure where they're going yet, but there were at least 3 finished hats and more than that on various needles. The hat I started is in a lovely dusty blue color using a very ancient ball of Lion Brand Le Chic imported from France. Honest. I wish the label had a date stamp on it because I'd really like to know how old this yarn is.

Another thing worth noting: one of the ladies in my group has a husband that turns pens. My boyfriend woodworks and has plenty of pen blank-sized scraps laying around. I gave him some of the aforementioned scraps and we got a free pen as a trade! It's made of cherry with silver accents, and the grip is intelligently turned so as to provide a very comfy grip.

And you know what? I just had a digital camera in my hot little hands Wednesday at lunch, but it was returned to its owner. Alas. There will be knitting pic updates within the next few days, but a picture of the pen will have to wait until the next batch. That will give the cherry a chance to darken up to a nice, rich red. So there!