On random yarn drops.

You know, sometimes the universe just knows you need boost, and miraculously provides.

My gunshot Mother's Day frenzied panic attack was drastically moderated by sassenach and her one year domain-o-versary, for which she generously dove into her stash for a "guess how much sock yarn I have" game...and I won.

Seriously, this is virtually unheard of. I never, ever, ever, ever win anything, but this time I guessed bang on perfect. Anyway, led to this landing in my mailbox this week...SQUEE!

(note the sneaky grubby little baby yarn coveter trying to pull a fast one?)

Could not have been more timely. Once again my faith in humanity is pulled up from the depths of despair by a random knitter. I will say it again. We should so be in charge. Of everything. Always.

Sassenach, my eternal thanks, hugs, and quite possibly not so virtual cookies to you!

So, that loverly skein of Lisa Souza Sock! Merino in Earth Birth goes to play with the rest of the sock stash, liberated from their zip-locked prison just for the occasion:


Though the Cherry Tree Hill remained under house arrest for colluding with a certain known grubby-fingered yarn thief...had WAY too much fun in it's toddler enabled maniacal romp through the house:

Off to drug my allergies into submission and reclaim 2/3 of the kiddies. Daddy's out playing this weekend, so they got an overnight pass to be spoiled rotten by my parents...must get there before sugar coma hits.

...and why oh why have my allergies been at an all time high this year? I can stop blaming the hormonal upset cause by birth of #3...sadly, I have figured it out. My favorite part of MN is ablaze and the smoke hit the cities this week. Our air quality is abysmal. But the thought of 75,000+ acres of this burned to char is much, much worse.

Decentralized Project Stashing

I now appreciate the genius of having little project bags tucked about the house. Or at least having several repositories for the working bits and a few spare balls o' yarn.

Why the sudden epiphany, you may ask?

And your answer:

I spent last night FREAK, FREAK, FREAK, FREAKING OUT!!! And without a scrap of yarn within usable distance. Trust me, I would have finger knit if there were even spare shoelaces within reach.

The story:

To cap off my horrendous week of sick-babysitter-means-no-billy-joel-concert-going, spinning-class-canceled, busted-budget-means-no-wool-festival-for-you, can-we-stop-pretending-about-mother's-day joy, some punk, jeans hanging off of his tattooed ass white suburbia living teenager came down into my sickeningly urban yuppie neighborhood with his wanna-be gangsta friends and ended up shot and bleeding all over the sidewalk across the street from my house.

Yes, we heard the gunshots...and saw the blood pool.

Yes, my 3 kids were sleeping less than 50 feet away.

Yes, I want to vomit just thinking about the what if.

And the worst part? The cops were freaking out about why these kids were here. I live in the city. Supposedly people move to the burbs not out of a love for Applebee's, but to stay away from what the city harbors. And the cops are freaked out about why this is happened here, in my urban neighborhood where this never happens.

WTF.

(OK, it sounds bad, but truly the worst part really might have been the sleepless night endured with out a stitch of yarnyness to work on because it was all downstairs and traipsing down to get it past the baby's crib, thus waking him AGAIN at 1:30 am when everyone finally cleared out seemed like a very bad idea. Must decentralize the project stash.)

Yesterday...

Guilty Pleasure: Hubby sneaking home in the middle of the day.

minds out of the gutter folks, now, you know these things don't happen to me, right? wait for it.....

Buzz Kill: Hubby dashing home mid-day after frantic call to pick up #2 at preschool as hyper-feverish, premolar cutting #3 barfed all over me on our way out the door to do just that.

Feeling I can forever and ever do without: The squish of curdled milk baby barf between my toes.

Thank everything the boy stayed home long enough for me to shower.

So, after that, what's a girl to do?

Knit socks.

These are all from the Sock of the Month Club I venture to one Saturday a month at a LYS called Clickity Sticks in Mpls.

The Ruffle Top Sock by Tamara Del Sonno, the owner and designer extrordinaire. My first successful attempt at Tofutsies...loving it now that I'm working it on US Os instead of the recommended 2s.


And another first...Regia Bamboo. LOVING doesn't describe the bliss I'm in working with this yarn. Triumphant chorus in my head. And the rainbow colors are so not me but make me happy. This pattern is a basic K2 P2 rib by Donna Johnson that has the Gerdine Strong heel, with a few tweeks I'm told, which eliminates the need to pick up stitches along the heel flap. ?!?!?!?! Obviously not there yet, but whoopie if it works!


EEEK! Cables! I've started these Irish beauties way too many times, and yes, I have still managed to mess up the braided cable but bugger me if I'm going to rip them out again. They're in Brown Sheep Wildfoot in Desert Grass, which I currently harbor ambivalent feelings about, but I'm willing to give it a go. The cables are going slow, and the chart gives me a headache since knitting charts are quite different from crochet charts and I can't seem to get the gist of why the little drawings mean what they do so I can't remember what they mean without going back to the directions...AGH!

And once again, accept my most humble of apologies for the camera that cannot satisfactorily accomplish it's singular task in life...focusing.

Funk Busting

Go.

Just GO.

Now!

HERE.

Guaranteed to make ya smile.

Craftstravaganza!!

Ah, the rogue artsy-craftsy glory that was Craftstravaganza! I tell you now, if you live anywhere within reasonable driving distance of Saint Paul, next year you need to come. Really. Go look. Dare you to get past the vendors page with out getting lost in links for a good hour at least. Do yourself a favor though and stash your cc with some unfeeling, trustworthy soul first. It should truly not be in any possible way accessible before you click that link.

My hands down fave vendor was "I Like You", a local consignment for local artists with attitude. This sock monkeys with arm hair, swilling a beer. Or another with a pink tutu and matching mohawk. Lots of fabulousness along the lines of "reduce reuse, recycle". They even shared the secret of turning your old LPs into kitschy bowls. Love it. I exhibited marked restraint and came away with this "rescued sweater" bag:


and some "reclaimed" modern bibs for #3...love the vintage fabric patches:

And from Sassy Art Goddess, truly the goddess of felted sweater bags...I could have bought them all, but would have felt very badly about the bounced check that would result...this one begged to come home though:

It's now a sweet repository for my latest sock projects. (check out her homepage for the Mamarox animation...l.o.v.e. it.)

And then we come to Aisha. Oh my. Yes, there was yarn. A whole table full of handspun and hand dyed yarn. Spinning batts too...which I could blissfully try to ignore as I don't yet spin...but she teaches classes damn it! At Crafty Planet. In June. AGH!

This is her handspun. Actually quite atypical based on what else was there, but it screamed "make me into mittens" when I touched it. Loverly and soft.


And this. Hand dyed, locally grown wool. She has a local farm she's fallen in love with. They have fancy shamancy French sheep that start with an R...Ramboulitte or some such. Too lazy to go unearth the skein. I'm thinking fingerless mits and a hat. Perhaps a bag though...we'll see. Fabulous and soft and I love the double local as much as I love my CSA. Aisha Celia Designs. Check her out.

That was the extent of my haul, mainly because I made myself turn around and walk straight out the door after buying the second bag. It's a good think I went alone. If I had to stay any longer, I seriously would have bought something from every vendor there, and that's saying somethin'. I'm usually very discerning at most crafty events. Not much usually calls to me. These apparently are my peeps.

...of pointy sticks and hooks

Both have been seeing lots of action since the vacation...which once again we're not going to visit in detail. Just haven't had it in me to finish that draft. See, I have these times when I seem to fall off the face of the earth, but this time, not only did I leave the planet behind, I think I've landed both physically and spiritually somewhere out near poor defamed Pluto.

Can't. Face. Anything.

Have crawled into my shell with my yarn and I sooooooo don't want to come out to play. UGH.

Yep, it's a full-blown, world-class funk.

Trying to crawl out of it with house purging and bits of organizational paraphenalia. Will it work? Stay tuned.

However, I do so very much have projecty progress to share.

Yep, the round ripple is waving once again. I'm totally working out of my head this time, and the decreases are needing a touch of fudging each round, but hey, it's working. Every third row is worked even, with the other two having either 2dc or 3dc shells at the peaks. Still in Plymouth Fantasy Naturale, and I'm still loving it. There will be many, many hanks of this consumed by yours truly in the future, I can assure you. Simply lovely cotton.

And that's the other bit of crochet improv I have rolling at the moment. The idea hooked itself in my brain when it leaped off the pages of Mason Dixon Knitting, wheedeled it's way in through my ear canal and lodged in my cortex, jumping up and down, raising quite the ruckus until I got it on the hooks. (and thank you to The Yarnery for timing their yearly purge just in time to scratch my itch.) Love the rug, but man, that would be a ton of work. And I so hate finishing in all it's many guises. I knew I could spiral much easier in crochet, and I was so right. This is working up in sock yarn and mercerized size 10 thread. To get the look I wanted, I'm working 2 "live" rows consecutively. A tad tricky with the increases, but I really like the effect. Felted wool rug so definitely in the future.

Ah, the tentacles. I do love them. Finished it up while driving to and from Milwaukee. CrochetMe pattern here. Lisa Souza Yarn here. Run. Play. Just remember to come back by dinner.

Ah yes, the socks they are done!! I finally gave in and bought another ball of the yarn since the "just in case" third I initially bought remains mysteriously missing to this very minute. My gauge was a bit looser on #2, so the heel is a bit sloppy. Wish I had taken time to try it on more, but I was rushing to get them done and proceed with yet more socks. Two other pairs already on the needles. Oh yes, I've got it bad.

Sorry this bit's a tad blurry, the camera refuses to zoom and focus at the same time. Not a good sign. This is my scarflet. The one I'm sending off to meet the world in my first ever "scarf circle". WHEE! It's in Mohana, a loverly cotton, merino, kid mohair, polyamid blend of German origin, made in Italy. Don't you just love how the yarn world works? The pattern I've adapted from the "Not in the Round Scarf" in Sally Melville's "The Knitting Experience, Vol.2, The Purl Stitch." Fare thee well, little scarflet. Enjoy your adventures.

Hopefully more soon...need to share my Craftstravaganza...off to funk some more.