Raleigh, Meymandi Concert Hall, May 15.

Cat’s Cradle schedule

Tad’s review of Once. Suffice it to say we loved it and are so looking forward to this show!

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Now playing: Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova - Falling Slowly
via FoxyTunes

Our vacation in review will be brought to you in installments. It was just the break that we needed and we squeezed an awful lot into a week and a half (not the least of which - 60 miles!). We made so many happy memories along the way and there is just too much good stuff and great photos to squeeze into one post. I will save the 3Day write up and the contest results for tomorrow (we did the drawing this afternoon - I’m so excited!!), that whole experience is still sinking in and I need some more time to format pictures etc.

So, the first knitterly thing, on the very first day of our vacation, was my birthday gift (my birthday isn’t for a couple weeks, but since we’re restricting our buying, we’re using special occasions for those indulgent purchases that are difficult to justify otherwise.) Since we were going to be in New Hampshire, we dispensed with the surprise and mystery, and Tad and I made the trip over to Durham to visit Debbie of Nordic Fiber Arts. I cannot say enough about this fine lady, folks. If you have any interest in Norwegian colorwork, she supplies some amazing yarns and kits from Norsk Strikkedesign and Solveig Hisdal’s Poetry in Stitches (which are both in their last printing, two absolutely amazing books!) among others. She was very kind and accommodating and I really enjoyed talking with her about the patterns.

I had a couple of kits in mind, in keeping with my goals for 2007 and my admiration of the incredible designs in these books - I was specifically looking at the cover sweater from Norsk Strikkedesign, and the Wedding Sweater from Poetry in Stitches. I’m so glad that I had the opportunity to see the kits though; the colors were a little different than I remember them in the books. Debbie actually has a couple different kits made for the cover sweater from Norsk Strikkedesign, one with the actual colors called for and another that more closely matches the colors in the book. I was pretty certain that I would leave with one of those, but then she pulled out a sample sweater of another Solveig Hisdal design, in bright Fuschia with purple and blue accents - absolutely incredible, I wish that I had had the camera, the workmanship was stunning. I liked the colors, but not enough to knit a whole sweater in them. Then she pulled out the pattern and showed me the yarn for the cream and blue version, and I was sold! Click here to see a picture of the sweater in both color schemes, Debbie said that it was new and she hadn’t had a chance to add it to her website yet, so look for it there in the near future! The style is very similar to the Wedding Sweater, but what really drew me in was the band across the bottom, it’s so rich and the colors have so much depth.

I plan to wind a few of the skeins and do some swatching later in the month - Stay Tuned!

It’s funny how a little thing can make your day, huh?

Heather of HeatherKnits and Hege of Pine Cone Lodge both nominated me as a Rockin’ Girl Blogger

Man, it’s just a little pink button, right? But here I am, getting all silly and smiley over the darn thing! Heather’s totally right, it’s a matter of time before it makes it’s way around the knit-blog-o-sphere, but it made me smile nontheless! And it is so fun to see what blogs other people enjoy - just when you think you have found them all!

I guess the reason that it tickles me so much is that I did not anticipate how rewarding this ambiguous sort of relationship with my blog, the interwebs and the knit community would be. I didn’t really think too much about “readers” when I started blogging. I was doing it really for myself, to document my projects and fiber exploits; and because I’ve always enjoyed writing, it seemed like it might be fun. I didn’t have plans to keep up with it very regularly, or really any specific plans for it at all.

Somehow, it became this thing that I look forward to doing. I look forward to writing. I look forward to time spent reading other blogs - learning from and admiring other people’s projects. I look forward to hearing from other knitters in the comments and via email. I subscribe to a ton of blogs, some I read quite regularly, some only once in awhile and all of which I enjoy immensely; but I never considered that there might be a few people who would subscribe to & read my blog too, and that’s so fun.

I’ve met some amazing people, and that’s really just the coolest thing. Because I blog, there are a lot of GREAT people I’ve come in contact with that I would never have had the opportunity to meet in my daily life. I have had so much helpful support and advice on my projects and first design, some incredibly generous folks that I don’t even know have donated to my 3Day walk, and I’ve learned a ton - not just about knitting, either - I even learned why all those damn cucumber flowers weren’t making any fruit! All things that wouldn’t be possible without this little corner of the internets. Very cool. Way cooler than I ever thought having a blog could be.

Anyway, back at you Heather (truly, she is one Rockin’ Girl Blogger - Check her out. Master sock knitter extraodinaire, Spinner, World Traveler, All around cool chick) And Hege (Who is so incredibly kind, helpful and talented - have you seen her colorwork? Really, she’s amazing, and I so enjoy corresponding with her. Rock On Hege - you can totally say it!!)

And here are 5 other people that are Rockin’ Girl Bloggers in my book (actually folks, it’s really hard to pick just 5 - there are so many great ones out there, just check out my blogroll to the left. Believe me, with enough hours in the day you could multiply that number forever & ever. These are just 5 that I really enjoy and have gotten to know just a bit)

• Dawn - I think she’s my long lost sister or something. She’s an amazing spinner, she’s doing swatches for Melissa Leapman, and has had an essay published in a book by Annie Modesitt (which really, I need to get my hands on & read already!!)

• Ruth - Because without her, I wouldn’t have joined the design workshop and all the fun things that have followed. She’s a great knitter and a great writer. You need to read the adventures of Florence if you haven’t already.

• Mel of Remarkable Cow - Because she was my wonderful SP at one point (truly wonderful!), and is just an all-around really sweet person.

• Mel of Girl Eats Soup - Because she shares my name, love for knitting, and garden fumblings

(Who knew there were so many knitters named Mel! Mel, meet Mel - I think you are both in the same state too!)

• Jacque - Because she doesn’t know me, but she took a chunk of time out to help me out and give me some good advice from her experience. And she’s got some great designs! She rocks! Ooops - she’s already taken.

So here’s yet another!

• Susan - Because she is just terribly friendly and fun, a wealth of knowledge on plants, and a great knitter!

Seriously, there are SO many great girl bloggers out there - again, check out the blogroll for more!  Well, that was fun

And, by the way, Some pics of practice with the handspun!

Click for big! I’ve been swatching a bit with my handspun - I’m thinking a little airy shoulder wrap… Brioche stitch in the round with paired left-slanting decreases and increases. It creates a nice curved hem, which for some strange reason I didn’t anticipate - but really like. In fact, I was about ready to ditch this until I took it outside and started playing with it. Now I think it may have some potential… Reversible, a little extra warmth in the AC…. hmmmm. What do you think?

Actually, Tad did all the work to expand our vegetable bed while I was knitting (and, might I add, he did a bang up job with the design!). But I did get to have a little bit of fun too. Go check it out and see what we did!!

A touch of Spring first - even though it we’ve had frost the past two nights, the flowers seem to be surviving the sudden cold snap - These were taken at Foster’s Market (Wisteria) and the Duke Gardens (Helleborus & some kind of cherry, I think) earlier today. It was brilliant and sunny, if a little chilly!

And now for the latest installment of Maya’s Exhibitionist challenge - A WIP Roundup!

This mess is Nicky Epstein’s Floral Felted Bag from Interweave Knits Fall 2004 - the intarsia was killing me and it’s been sitting in a drawer since Winter 2005. Whether it will ever be finished remains to be seen if not this fall, then probably never - perhaps I should have gone Eunny’s route on this - beautiful, elegant, and EASIER!

Please excuse the terrible picture, it is very hard to photograph black, and very hard to spread this one out when it barely fits on the circular needle anymore! This is Vanille by Blue Alvarez Designs - for Tad. Started just prior to Christmas, it has been languishing… I work on it in fits and starts - unfortunately all that black stockinette is a little dull, but hopefully the result will be a great, classic sweater in a great yarn (Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton) - sometime this year.

And here is the latest, the Cocktail Capelet from Interweave Knits, Spring 2007. I had 3 lovely skeins of Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk from a former SP swap (bless you Stick Chick - it’s beautiful stuff), and I was convinced that there was enough, but unfortunately I was incorrect. I’m not quite ready to frog this, as I think it would be wonderful if I could modify it - I love it in this yarn:

And there is this one that I still intend to modify, so we’ll continue to call it a WIP in the meantime.

ChiChi is on deck now - so I think these will be on the back burner, at least for a bit.

The very special project for the very special little girl? Bubby is adorable, no doubt, but this is just perfect for the Beasta (aka “hamslice”) - see the link below. Tim and Martha, if you happen to have time amongst all the Beasta-rearing, schoolwork, work-work and homework and are seeing this, please DON’T click. Thanks!

ChiChi

This pattern is very special for another reason as well, which I’ll let you read about over at IndigoMuse. Just great stuff.

To market, to market to buy a fat skein ;)  Let’s hope I have better luck with ChiChi than the Bubster.

Well, the house is still in disarray and I am still a bit behind on everything, but making progress in small increments on both points!

Exhibitionist 3 - Where do you knit?

Ironically - week three was the week where I did not pick up my knitting, not once. These pictures were taken over the last week of me with faithful needles back in hand (phew!)

I knit on my favorite spot on the couch (though the couch isn’t currently where it belongs so the actual location is off - did I mention that the house is still in disarray?)

I knit in the car whenever Tad drives (which is most of the time, especially since I became a knitter!):

And I knit at the Borders coffeeshop - we go here almost weekly to sit, read, chat (and knit!):

Exhibitionist 4 - What (besides needles & yarn) is your most useful knitting tool?

This is probably not an original response, but here they are; without them I could not cast on, knit, purl, wind the next skein of yarn as I’m doing here, push-pull-poke-prod the knitted fabric as I’m blocking a piece, etc, etc. My hands are my most essential tool, and I am much more conscious of them now that I knit - at the moment they are in drastic need of some help, they are so rough from working on the house that I had little bits of fiber caught on my fingertips when I was done winding!

Isn’t this yarn beautiful? It’s a 100% silk single, dyed by Spirit Trail Fiberworks. I picked this up at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival last spring and it’s almost that time again - I can’t wait!! Finally, here’s a taste of my current WIP, also at the bookstore, where I viewed the new Spin-Off (yum!):

Maya’s challenge for Exhibitionist this week is to show our favorite knitting/crotcheting literature. Here’s mine:

I have several knitting books which I adore, particularly Melanie Falick’s Weekend Knitting, Joelle Hoverson’s Last Minute Knitted Gifts, and Teva Durham’s Loop-d-Loop and the list that I would like to own is much longer (and growing steadily - I finally saw a real live copy of Stefanie Japel’s Fitted Knits tonight).  But what I turn to the most are my copies of Interweave Knits. I never fail to find something that I love in each issue, and usually there are several patterns that make me swoon. The instructions are clearly written and easily followed and the articles providing in-depth study on various techniques are invaluable. I wish that I could keep them in pristine condition forever - unfortunately that won’t happen. I generally go to bed with one (or two, or five) either along with or in place of my evening reading, and Tad laughs at me for reading the same magazines for the hundredth time
Happy Friday everyone - It’s a cold and rainy one here, but Tad and I are at the start of a week “off” - woo-hoo!  Not really off-off, we have some big projects slated for this week - I’ll give you a sneak peek soon, maybe tomorrow!