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Rhinebeck this year nearly didn't happen, as fate seemed to indicate that I shouldn't go. First Emily was unable to come out for the trip. The boy said he would go to keep me company, and things were good again. Then it got closer to the weekend, and the weather forecast was looking worse and worse. 50% chance of precipitation. 70%? 90%?? Snow AND rain? I didn't want to drive 8 hours roundtrip in that, nor did I want to drag the boy through it - he supports my knitting habit, but I didn't want him to be miserable, and was beginning to rethink if I should even go.

I decided that by the Friday before, I needed to make my final decision. (Why yes, my initial decision was to put off making a decision.) I could still cancel the hotel room, but did I really want to give up going? While I was whining about how much I wanted to go, but how much I didn't want to drive, and how I wasn't sure if going alone would be worth it.. I realized there are bus trips from Boston! Duh! I quickly found that there were still seats open for the Sunday day trip, made my deposit, and canceled my hotel room. I was prancing around the apartment, I was so relieved.

That is.. until Friday night when I got home from work, feeling more drained than usual. I woke up Saturday to find my head filled with goo - what a lousy time to get sick! I spent my day in bed, resting and trying to stay hydrated. If I felt well enough, I would still go. After all, I'd have a few hours on the bus to relax as well.

Sunday the alarm went off at 5, and with just a little bit of a residual runny nose, I took some dayquil, grabbed my things, and went to meet the bus. The weather was somewhat atrocious, snowing on the Mass Pike, drizzling and cold when we arrived at Rhinebeck, but I had layers, and I was there!

Fast forward ahead to today, where I am home sick, and being diagnosed by the boy as having "sheep flu." Ha ha. Funny, that guy is. There is a Swatchy post to be made, but right now I feel too miserable to do it.

rainy and kind of deserted

under budget

This year I didn't go in with a shopping list, as I don't really have any need for more yarn at the moment. Some beautiful shiny charcoal laceweight, a lovely shawl pin, and some maple cotton candy - I'm quite pleased with the miniature haul. Now, if only I would stop resembling a mucinex commercial..

Hurray! The sweater of doom is practically finished!

sweater of doom blocking

It needs to dry, and I need to make the Bruins logo for it.. but all the knitting and seaming is done. Seaming took forever (damn saddle shoulders), and my rough estimates for yarn requirements were very close at the end. I might have been able to knit one more round on the neckband. Maybe.

I sort of don't know what to do with myself now. I have some socks to finish, a ton of UFO's to attend to, and I need to decide on what color to use for the Wollmeise glove KAL I'll be taking part in. Here's my wee stash, with two unknown skeins still on the way (finally managed to catch an update at Claudia's site, and couldn't resist.)

modest wollmeise stash

I'm really not sure what color would be best to use. Arlene (far right) is begging to be a shawl of some sort. Red hot chili (far left) might be a little much for gloves. I'm leaning toward Pfauenauge, as that's the colorway I keep thinking is too pretty to put on my feet. Maybe one of the new skeins will be an obvious choice, if they arrive in time.

One last new purchase, some more seasilk, but in a 150 gram skein. Apparently I paid a bit more than regular retail with the previous skein, at $39 for 100 grams. The Loopy Ewe had some "mistake" 150 gram skeins for $42 - it seemed irresponsible NOT to buy one. =)

seasilk 150 2

Suddenly, all I want to knit is lace. I'm super slow at it, but it's sooooo pretty! (Alas, now I really have to finish the boy sweater first, since umm.. hockey season is upon us again, and I still just have a body and a sleeve.)

Before I pick up that blob of yellow and brown again.. let's have some pretty pictures to tide me over, eh? The swallowtail shawl was pretty tiny when it came off the needles - I think I should have gone up a needle size, but hoped blocking might make it wearable.

preblocking

For size reference, there it is with Cookie's Sock Innovation. I dunked it into a nice sinkful of water and hoped for the best.

soaking

Eeeeek!

Ha, I kid. My bathroom sink is red. =) Which isn't to say that it didn't bleed dye - it did. Just not as badly as the above makes it look.

soaking 2

I bought interlocking foam pads and a set of blocking wires from Knitpicks in anticipation of finishing this up. In case anyone is in such a hurry to use the wires that they think wiping them off in advance is not needed... Mine were pretty dirty, yo. Can you imagine knitting a nice shiny shawl, and then mucking it up with the residue?

residue from wires

I've never really knit (and finished) any lace, certainly nothing in need of some serious blocking. This wasn't the most expertly done, but it was way more fun than expected. It was amazing seeing this little wet blob open up.. then a little more.. and maybe just a little more..

blocking

Holy crap I love it, and I was relieved not to find any mistakes I wasn't already aware of. It did get a good deal larger - here it is on the same little table again.

after blocking

Yay! It still could be a bit bigger, but is totally wearable now. Even though I'm spending my Labor Day weekend with a nasty head cold that is producing ridiculous amounts of snot, I demanded that the boy take some pictures for me. (Just leave my head out, please.)

The shawl pin in the center picture is fantastic, very lightweight, and unlike my glass pin from Moving Mud.. I can't break it. Purchased from Nicholas and Felice on Etsy.

how I'll actually wear it

Now it's back to the boy sweater. At least I have pretty new yarn to daydream about.

Arlene 2

loopy september sock club

guide to galaxy 4

Mmmm... Wollmeise. =)

Dear anyone who actually reads this and also is a Facebook friend..

My Facebook account is hacked. If I seem to be sending crap your way? It's not me. I've reported the matter, and hope to have it resolved soon, but have no idea how long such a thing actually takes. Perhaps it's time to change all my passwords again...

The last couple of weeks at work have been rough, and my unofficial yarn diet? Totally broken.

Handmaiden last week.
A Wollmeise sneak up at the Loopy Ewe (one skein of sock yarn, pictures to come soon.)
The Loopy September sock club shipment, I peeked at spoiler pictures, and OMG. Love.
And then I wound up buying a skein of Wollmeise lace from another Raveler, as I am all about the lace lately.

Dear self - your life is really not bad, at all. Quit buying stuff because work has been stressful. (No regrets though, all beautiful purchases!)

Dear woefully neglected blog:

Look at that, will you? Two posts in a month! And more knitting - today finally feels like fall might be just around the corner. Also, I am totally a sucker for pretty sunsets.

sky

Apparently I am also easily swayed by colorways named after me. At least, I would like to think it's named after me. I've been desperately wanting to buy yarn lately, and when I saw this colorway, and the name Victoria.. well... There's still some room in the sock yarn stash bag.

casbah

casbah closeup

I did cast on some lace, even though I should totally be working on the boy sweater (soon, I swear!). It's so pretty, but I've just come to learn that I hate nupps.

lace

I seem to be on a Handmaiden kick, but who could complain about that? Welcome to my wardrobe, Swallowtail Shawl. I hope to finish you soon.

progress

All exciting! Even the parking ticket, because I was not on the receiving end of it. Friday night was gorgeous out, and every time I saw the sad state of my garden (tomatoes in dire need of stakes), it distracted me. I went out to Lowe's to pick up some gardening supplies, came back, and found someone parked across about half of the entrance to my driveway.

moron

The red car is mine. The driveway is mine. And yes, somehow, I managed to drive up onto the sideway, just squeak past in the space remaining, and get into my driveway without hitting the car, fence, or bush at the end. (However, there would be no way to leave again, as I live on a one way street and would completely be facing the wrong way.)

First I stomped around the offending car a bit, hoping the owner would come out so I could yell at them for being a moron and not parking in any of the numerous other completely legitimate parking spots on the same block. No such luck - if they saw me, they also saw I was too pissed off to be reasonable, and stayed indoors.

Still angry, I went looking for some paper, and put a sign on their windshield informing them that if a parking spot blocked someone's driveway, it was not actually a parking spot. That wasn't good enough though, because they would probably just read it, laugh, and toss the paper into my yard. The only other option I could think of was to call the police, which resulted in them getting a $25 parking ticket. (Could have had them towed, but that seemed a little excessive.)

Anyhow, all that was so I could clean up my garden a bit, and yay! I will have produce!

Just put up some wire fence stuff around it too, after losing too many green tomatoes and nearly ripe strawberries to the local wildlife. Hopefully it'll be enough of a deterrent. (Is it too much to hope that the critters feasting on my garden are lazy?)

Lastly, I have been knitting! Really! And listening to podcasts again! I desperately want to cast on for some lace, but decided I needed to finish something first.

finished enough

Okay, or finished enough. The first one I stopped short on the leg because I wanted to make sure I wound up with two socks that had the same leg length. Now that I have quite a bit of yarn left on each sock, I'll probably pick out the bound off edge and knit a bit more. I dug through my stash to see what I have for lace yarn.. and this is a terrible picture, but will have to do:

must cast on!

I think I have one more skein of the pink Malabrigo lace.. but should probably cast on something on the smallish side, since I (still) need to finish the boy's hockey sweater, seeing as how hockey season is somehow right around the corner again. I'm most tempted to take the Sea Silk and make it into a swallowtail shawl, but am having doubts about knitting up my pet skein. Perhaps I'll do that anyway, and then have an excuse to pick up a replacement. =)

Okay, more than two weeks later. I went away for two weeks, and my life sorta got crazy. Things are good though, just busy! I feel like it's still March, and here it's practically August!

So let's see... in April/May, I took a bit of a trip.

..

Well, no rumors. Just busy. And leaving for vacation tomorrow. Back in two weeks!

I don't know that I like being this busy. Hopefully all will be normal again in a month or so, when I'm done studying for my license, and done moving across town. Till then...

banana bread

I still bake, occasionally. And I knit a little, finally got my Rhinebeck socks finished!

socks

I'll weave in the ends some other time. Wanna do it for me?