not so crafty

1. Wash floors, inadvertently creating slippery spot.
2. Run down the stairs in a hurry (in order to get to the gym in time), slide on slippery spot, wipe out and land directly on knee.
3. Get to gym, run 2.5 miles on treadmill (out of a scheduled 6 for the day), have power suddenly go out, most likely due to earlier storm. Do not stop running right when power goes out, and instead, run into the front of the treadmill.
4. Power comes back on for a minute. Decide this means power will stay on, start running again.. and run into the front of the once again powerless treadmill a minute later.
5. Curse loudly, wipe down treadmill, leave.

3.5 miles left for today, except with 93% humidity, I am not doing it outside. Bah.

My camera is away in Pittsburgh for the weekend, which is a shame, because I really wanted it. So much, in fact, that I went out to go buy a new one, thinking I could find some wee little point and shoot to keep in my purse, take decent photos, and not spend a ton of money on. Wrong. I found one that almost would have worked, even uses xD cards like my current camera does.. but has a rechargeable lithium battery. (Mine now also has such a battery, and it dies really quickly. I'd like the option to just buy AA's at any corner store if my battery quits on me, instead of having to run home to charge up.)

Anyhow. So no new camera for me. Phone it is then.

There was a sand sculpting competition at Revere Beach. I hopped on the T, sweating a good deal because the A/C wasn't working, and it was 95 out before going underground to squish myself into a train with loads of other people.. Still, I'm glad I went.

sand main

sand 2

sand 1

As was expected, there was lots of fair food, and I grabbed a quick dinner.

dinner of champions

Eating like this may explain just how I manage to keep running further and further every week, and yet not lose any weight. Whoops.

The beach was not my only stop of the day - earlier, I went to Mind's Eye Yarns to buy some fiber. I walked in, mentioned that I would be interested in signing up for a spinning lesson, as I want to try using a wheel and probably buying one.. and before I knew it, I was sitting at a wheel and sort of making yarn. Wheee! The Ashford Traditional really wanted to come home with me (and would totally match the floors in my apartment), but I can't make an impulse purchase like that. (And my car still needs a new suspension.)

Whoa. Random, but apparently those freakishly intense thunderstorms we'd been having a few weeks ago are back. Loud!

Err, anyhow. I bought a little bit of fiber to dye and try spinning up. Just imagine a pile of whitish wool here. Also I could not resist this sock yarn, and have started a pair of Monkeys with it.

new yarn

Finally, I finished up that blue/purple stuff I was making. I swear I wasn't going for a very short length of novelty yarn, but that's what I've got..

fat

Off to the gym now!

So. I had a very short, very busy week, followed by a very long, incredibly miserable week which I'm still not quite over. I went to Vermont, which was fun, and pretty.

ice cream

Hand-churned ice cream. I kind of want an ice cream maker now, though maybe an electric one.

vermont

fake people

And slightly strange - downtown Bennington had fake people all over the place. I took more pictures, all from a moving vehicle, so this was the closest. Some of them took me a few moments to figure out if they were statues or people.

Vermont also has at least one totally awesome welcome center. (It was the only one I saw.) It was gorgeous, interesting, inviting..

welcome center

And there was yarn in the welcome center! Not for sale, but still!

Following Vermont was a bad week. I couldn't even knit. I thought about it. I picked it up, even. But it felt so wrong, like holding the needles and remembering how to make the stitches might just be the last thing my overworked self could handle. I still wanted to play with fiber, but not with needles.

size

So I got out the drop spindle that I bought at Rhinebeck, and the two silk hankies (also bought at Rhinebeck), and I tried to make yarn. The drafting hurt my hands, but the spinning itself was fun. I wound up with something like 37 yards of a rather unevenly spun yarn, but I think it's pretty. Not enough for much of anything, but I have a bit more fiber that sort of matches, and this other yarn I had in my stash, which is also half silk.

silky

Maybe they'll all go together someday.

After the silk hankies, I decided to play with some other fiber I had around.

spindle

Again, not so great, but I'm enjoying it. Once it's finished, I'll try plying it for a big chunky yarn. I do want to try using a wheel though, since I think a lot of my issues with the spindle would be eliminated with a wheel. I would like to try one out first though, or take classes somewhere, before deciding to spend that much money. Hasn't stopped me from buying some more fiber in the meantime though..

inferno

From the same Etsy seller as the blue that I'm playing with up there, Copperpot Woolies.

flawful

I decided to try something other than merino, and ordered this pretty stuff from Flawful Fibers.  I really hope I don't screw it up, because I love it more than I think I should let on. I got about 8oz., and I want to try to spin it as a fingering weight, so that should result in enough yardage to do something with.

sample

Oh yeah, and my first pair of SOS socks is just about done. Took long enough, eh? No pictures yet. Also, I am kind of bailing out on summer of socks - this thing about training for a half-marathon really takes up a lot of time (note to self: try to run faster), but running is currently a higher priority for me than knitting. Scary.

Monday resulted in two majorly good things:

1. I finally got in to see my doctor, who was able to find nothing wrong with my hip at all. Her conclusion was that I strained a muscle, and because I refused to stop, it took forever to heal. (It's still not entirely right, but it's better right now than it has been for the past month.) It seems that as long as I make sure to stretch and warm up properly before and after I run, I should be fine. (Though now I have no excuse for slacking with the half-marathon training. Guess that means I should man up and work out more.)

2. Ladytron!!!!!!!

Ladytron1

Ladytron2

I've not been doing so well with the socks lately. I decided to cast on a second pair, with the Noro yarn, and wound up frogging it. I knit some more on the embossed leaves sock, thinking that it was punishing me for being unfaithful in having cast on for something else. I finished the sock, went to try it on, and realized that I'd somehow made it about an inch too short. Ripped out the toe, set the damn thing aside, cast on for a different sock in a different yarn. Loved the colorway, didn't love how splitty it was, especially with the stitch pattern I was using. Frogged this one too, redid the toe on the first sock (to the correct length), broke a needle in the process.

I still really want to cast on for a new pair of socks, but I suspect I should finish this pair first before something really bad happens. Stupid cursed socks. I don't even like them that much.

first sos

In less frustrating news, I can still shop. Yesterday was the Boston Handmade Festival, and I bought a couple of things.

From Amy Burhoe Designs. (More info here.)

fused ring

Next, from Tanner Glass, another ring, and a hook to hang my keys on. Maybe this way I'll stop leaving my keys in the door.

cane ring

hook

Lastly, from Paper Menagerie, just because it make me giggle..

pigs

(In very few words.)

good sock

Nice sock. Pretty sock. Squishy yarn, easy pattern, nearly to the heel flap. Sock is good, despite my mental block when it comes to remembering that yarnovers are important.

bad sock

Teeny sock. Mere fraction of a cuff. Uneven yarn, not particularly soft, no squish factor to speak of.. AND A KNOT. No gradual color transition here. At least I think the color sequence is right.

I had intended to post this morning, but somehow the day got away from me. I'd like to say I got a lot done, but really I wanted to sit around and do nothing. I'm not the most social of all people, and too much being out, combined with a rough week at work meant that when this morning rolled around, the most I could manage to do was drink some coffee and pet some yarn.

(PS - there's knitting at the further on. Really.)

Not that it's all been bad. Unable to get tickets to the Celtic's final game, we went out to a sports bar Tuesday night. (Alas, this meant very little sleep that evening.) Luckily enough, the building I work in was right on the parade route of the rolling rally on Thursday, so once I heard the cheering from the streets, I ran out to go watch.

celtics

Another thing that I adore about Boston is that the Dresden Dolls are based here. Amanda Palmer (the female half of the dolls) played Thursday and Friday evenings with the Boston Pops, in Symphony Hall. I was able to get a ticket for Friday's performance, and I'm so glad that I went. (After the week I had, I was tempted to just stay in.)

symphony hall

As you might expect, the hall was gorgeous. I never bring my camera to events like this, because you aren't supposed to, and then I kick myself each time when tons of other people pull out their own cameras. They didn't even check my bag upon entering, the security guard said it was too small to bother with! Oh well. At least I had my phone, and my knitting to keep me company, which was particularly useful when I realized that the orchestra level was all table seating. The other four people at my table were all perfectly nice, but they were all together, so the knitting was a good excuse for not forcing myself into their conversation.

amandas entrance

My apologies for the awful photo, and the crude arrow. Amanda was fantastic though, and completely gorgeous. (I have a bit of a girl-crush on her.) There were three DD songs that evening (Missed Me, Coin-Operated Boy, and Sing, which her partner Brian made an appearance for), some covers, and some from her upcoming solo album. I loved it all. Except for after the show, when I walked back to the garage and realized that in my hurry to get there, I had failed to take note of where I'd parked my car. Stomping angrily around the garage for half an hour in wet shoes (I was caught in a thunderstorm) is probably the reason why my feet are missing a layer of skin now.

Errr... that may have been too much information. So, knitting! Juno Regina was getting bigger. On June 11th, it looked like this:

juno 0611

Today, it looks like this, and it's been like this all week. No matter how much I knit, that ball of yarn does not get smaller, nor does the knit fabric get any longer. I had rather hoped to be at least half done by now, but I'm still working on the first skein.

juno regina

There is also more new yarn. I ordered some Dream in Color to make the February Lady sweater, though I won't cast on for that until I finish something else. It's very pretty, and very purple.

visual purple

Since that was my 6th order from the Loopy Ewe, I achieved groupie status, which meant I got some surprises with my order, including a bonus skein of sock yarn!

chewy spaghetti

Speaking of socks, Summer of Socks has started! I cast on last night after I got home, and got through the cuff and one repeat today. (Photo is from this morning, of my totally uninspiring progress from last night.)

sos1

It'll be an Embossed Leaves sock, and is one leafy repeat in at the moment.


Just to be totally random... The boy got a free shirt from some lady at work today. It's a little on the big side.

4XL

I've been tagged! That never happens!

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?

Nothing exciting, that's for sure! I was about to graduate from high school (I was 8th in a class of 333, yes, I am a nerd), being as annoying to the school administration as I could manage (which was rather a lot, since with my nerdly, academically very good for the school status, they were willing to let me get away with almost anything), and hanging out at Denny's and punk rock shows on the weekends. How's that for a run on sentence?

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today?
Eat dinner, wind up yarn for SOS, put away laundry, call mom to complain about my hip, and find my Polish dictionaries so I can email my cousin.

3) Snacks I enjoy:

Chocolate (all sorts), peanut butter & banana sandwiches, blueberries.. probably if it's sugary, I will like it.

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

Start my own yarn-dying business, buy myself a house, and buy a nearby house for my mom, travel to Poland more often, have someone properly teach me the language, eat better food.. and buy sock yarn. Lots of sock yarn. I've seen some of your stashes, mine is miniscule in comparison.

5) Places I have lived:

Brooklyn, NY
Binghamton, NY
Pittsburgh, PA
Aspinwall, PA
Blasdell, NY
Waltham, MA
(and, since in total I have spent probably 6-10 months there throughout my left? Bialystok, Poland.)

6) Jobs I have had:

Babysitter, bookseller, 800-operator, advertising intern, stack assistant, advertising assistant, retail slave, newswriter, classified ad associate, administrative assistant, new business administrator. Gee, it's all so glamourous..

7) Bloggers I am tagging who I will enjoy getting to know better:

Errrr... I'm only going to tag two people.

Hi Emily. Post sometime, eh? =)

And EightOClock, who I met this weekend, and is charming even when covered in bird shit.

..Kinda sucks if you're feeling all overly-emotional and don't have the luxury of having a father to call or hug or argue with anymore.

I miss you Pop.

Some pictures from the Boston meet up for World Wide Knit In Public day!

There were knitters..

knitters

1 comment

There were pidgeons..

damn birds

bird pee

(Alas, we did not all get away poop free. At least the yarn was safe!)

I stopped at the yarn shop nearest my apartment on the way home, again purchasing something in a colorway I would normally have left behind. (My stash needed a bit more variety.)

pagewood farm

Nothing to do with knitting, but I did get a fancy new haircut. I would even go so far as to call it sassy.

new do