I think the trick to having a healthy blog is to be busy, but not TOO busy.   What have I been doing lately?

Well, work for one.   Add in friends, the new guy (okay, I’ve been seeing him for awhile, ssssh, don’t tell), actually wanting to knit, read, pet my cats and my reality tv addiction, I’ve sort of ran out of time for blogging.

But don’t worry, I’ve been knitting!  First, we’ve go the hat and cowl set I made for Aimee.  The hat is from the Rowan Plaid Collection book.  The cowl is a heavily revised version of the Cowl from Vogue Knitting on the Go: Scarves (Vogue Knitting On The Go).  Both are made from Rowan Plaid, which is fabulous and sadly discontinued.

I’m working on a mystery project, too.  Yes, I know, its hot pink.  Some might say FLAMINGO PINK.

Oh, and I’ve been working on this Christmas Sock for someone.   The stripy bits are Lorna’s Laces Country Christmas, and the charted bits are Baby Ull Cream and Lorna’s Laces solid Navy.   i did start out with a chart, but I’ve been sort of messing with it.  Making the second sock should be a challenge, because I refused to, oh, write anything down.

What has Aimee been up to?  Apparently making scary Cheesy Goblin Heads for Parties.

And what has Katie been up to?  Being way annoyed at Hunter, who just got nuetered.  It hasn’t seemed to slow him down any.

He’s massive - he’s now almost 7 pounds, and as long as Katie, and as tall.

I think she’s REALLY annoyed.

This post will be a total picture dump. And I’m going to do it in under 6 minutes.

First up - these awesome shoes that Christine was wearing when we met at Knitche a few weeks back. They rock! Monica took the picture.

How cute are those?

Second, I present these excessively cute itsy bitsy sweaters that Monica has been knitting up. She’s promising me a pattern to post on The Island of Misfit Patterns. People, submit more!

They are from leftover Vesper Sock yarn.

Then, we have ugly to balance out the cute. I finished the rotting zombie socks. I actually ran out of my Cherry Tree Hill Sock yarn towards the end, thanks to excessive swatching. So I said screw it, and used a bit of some left over Lorna’s Laces. No, I couldn’t find my swatches.

Back in cute terrority, I finished my poisonous flower pillow. I went with a 14 inch pillow form which was a bit snug. You can’t see the white so much in real life, though.

Finally, here is a picture I took on Laurel’s and I Trip to Go Pick Apples in Rockford that I found on the camera. I was going for a faux “posing with sock” thing. Honestly, I believe that only the Yarn Harlot can do the “Pose with Sock” thing. Everyone else is just being a big old copy cat.

Okay, its 5, and I’m outta here. I’ll go back later and add helpful links. Or not . You never know with me.

Hi everyone!  I’m moved in, and hopefully, blog posts will become more frequent.  Well, as soon as I finish unpacking.  Here is the current view of the apartment.

The stash is in its new home.  It’s a good thing I’m not much of a clothes horse:

The big tubs are on the floor to the right - mostly hidden by the clothes.  The stash says its quite happy, but its not sure it likes being up so high.

What, your stash doesn’t talk to you?

In knitting news (Yes, I still knit.  And Laurel and I did have another Project Runway party, but I forgot to take pictures.  I swear, we’re not alcoholics - I hardly ever drink, unless Laurel is around.  Hahahahaha.), I’m working on Alice Starmore’s Queen Anne’s Lace from Stillwater again.

I’m actually up to the sleeve steeks now - that’s an older picture.  Also, that is the last picture that will have the Khaki couch as a background.  Let us all appreciate the niceness of the khaki as a neutral background for a moment.

Okay, moving on!

I also finished my Lorna’s Laces Swirl DK socks.  While I was on the train, leading to…

SOCKS ON THE TRAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hehehehehe.  I swear, that joke will never get old.

If you’ve been reading Dee’s blog, you know that Dee and I headed into the city for Lorna’s Laces tour and sale with the Windy City Knitting Guild (eek, they forgot to renew their domain name!).   Beyond the fact that the WCKG has a great newsletter and classes, getting to go on the tour and sale is well worth the cost of the dues.   Really.
When I signed up a few weeks ago, they already had 40 people signed up for the sale and tour.   They told us that they’d only allow 20 people into the sale at once, so we were determined to get there early enough to be in the first 20.

So, we decided that I’d pick up Dee at 7:45.  The sale was to start at 10.   I decided to drive because my car gets much better gas milage, and I never get to drive.  Probably because people say I’m perhaps not that great of a driver.  And they shriek in panic a lot.  Dee had never ridden with me, so she didn’t realize that she might almost die.   Twice.  I mean, Dee didn’t even shriek overly loudly - she’s a good trooper.

Anyways, after almost dying, twice, we arrive at about 8:45 and find out that we are number 5 and 6.  We jump for joy.  Then we sit on the dock waiting for yarn.

Oh, all pictures were taken by Dee, because I left my camera at Aimee The Sis’s house in Colorado, and she’s holding it hostage until Violet the Monkey/Rabbit is returned to her and the lovely arms of Franz.   And Violet is all like “I don’t want to go back to that stinky monkey Franz - I want to stay here with Cussing Cat”  and Cussing Cat is all like “Um, you are a rabbit.  Or a monkey.  I’m a cat.  I really just want to eat you for dinner”.

So its a little complicated here, you understand.

So, we sat on the dock, and froze our butts off.  Which is a good thing, because the more pain and suffering you go through in order to buy yarn then allows you to buy even MORE yarn.  For example:

Your SO:  How much yarn did you buy?

You:  Um, *mumblemumblemumbleamount*

Your SO:  WHAT!@!!!!!

You:  But I had to wait outside so long sitting on a dock that my butt is still numb.

Your SO:  Oh.  Okay.

Anyways, at 10, they opened the door, and we all raced up the stairs and was stopped here.

After much squealing of glee (rather than in fear of one’s life), the first 20 of us were allowed into the promise land.  We have no pictures before we attacked the yarn, because well, we were too busy attacking yarn.  But here’s what one of the tables looked like after the first group was done - there were three tables in total of mill ends and other yarn laid out.

The hanging yarn was all shepherd sock yarn, which was not for us.  But everything on the tables was.

First, I found yarn for Monica and Lynette.  We’re currently engaged in a complicated yarn swap, and my part of the deal was to find yummy Lorna’s goodness.  I ended up with 6 skeins of Shepherd Sport in Glenwood for Monica.  It’s a mill end, which means it has a few odd splotches, but its still gorgeous.    It was only 6 dollars a skein.  Lynette had asked for 2 skeins of Shepherd Sport, but it was so cheap that I picked up 3 total, in Sherbet.

For me, I picked up 7 skeins of Shepherd Worsted in Lilac.  For 10 dollars per skein.  I just about died.  I also picked up two skeins of Shepherd Sock in Camouflage, and two skeins of shepherd sock in a one of a kind colorway - its pretty close to Glenwood, but with more yellow.  (Speaking of Shepherd Sock, Little Knits has it on sale for 8 dollars a skein right now.)
The tour afterwards was very interesting as well.  We got to see Beth dye a set of yarn - they work in small batches - its not at all factory like.  Dee has pictures in her gallery.  They also have a fairly complicated system in order to get yarn to the right stores.   One thing that really impressed me is that all of her employees get health coverage - a lot of businesses don’t offer benefits.

It was totally worth getting up at 6:30 on a Saturday morning.