Eye Candy Friday

It's been a long time since I did one of these.

Here are pictures from our recent trip to Hawaii featuring three things for which I am a sucker: palm trees, the ocean and sailboats.



Have a great weekend everyone!

Still Thankful

Well, Thanksgiving is over and we're back home from a wonderful vacation. We went to Hawaii where we met up with some of Chris' family and had an amazing time together. It wasn't my idea of a traditional Thanksgiving, but I loved every second of it and could definitely see doing it again.

The view from our hotel room. There was a park, then the beach and ocean.

The day before we left, we had another ultra sound appointment. We found out the baby is a girl!

Baby girl at 18 weeks, 6 days.

I think for blogging purposes and certainly until she has an official name, I'll call her Minnie Purl.

I've started feeling the "flutters" of her movements. It's pretty wild and a much more fun reminder of being pregnant than feeling sick all the time.

And my desire to knit is back! On the plane, I cast on for Oblique. I'm making it with Elsebeth Lavold Classic AL in a yummy, warm, brown color called Aged Oak.


I bought the yarn last year when Webs had it on closeout. (It's on closeout again and this link will take you there.) My plan for it then was to make the Nantucket Jacket from IK, but I just never got around to it.

I had been wanting to make a big, cozy cardigan for myself that will take me and my growing belly through the winter, but also work post-baby. I had a sort-of-plan for a very basic, no-pattern cardigan using a different yarn in my stash. But when I saw the pattern for Oblique, I put the sort-of-plan on hold. I went stash diving, found this Lavold yarn and immediately started swatching for Oblique.

I got lots done on it in Hawaii. One day, I went down to the park and sat myself under a tree to knit. It was lovely.

After a while, a woman approached me to say she saw me knitting and just wanted to come over and chat. She's crocheted for years, but only recently learned how to knit and loves it. She was very sweet and complimentary when I showed her my work. She says her daughters (who turned out to be my age) tease her and so she was happy to see that it's not a dying art. I told her she could find lots of fellow knitters on line.

I'm still working my way up the back piece. I'm about a half inch away from starting the raglan shaping.


Progress has slowed since being home, though. I took this picture yesterday, but I'm only about 3 rows further along now.

I also went yarn shopping in Hawaii. I found a delightful store in Honolulu called Yarn & Friends. They were super friendly there. At first, it seemed like they didn't have a very big selection, but as I looked closer, I realized they had a surprisingly large variety packed into their relatively small space.

I bought some gorgeous laceweight (Ornaghi Filati Merino Oro) in a very-Jean, brick-red color which will someday be a lace shawl for me. Not sure yet which lace shawl. I'm open to pattern suggestions. There's 1375 yds in this one skein.


I also got some Cascade Yarns Pima Tencel in a lovely pinky-peach color. I think I'll use this to make EZ's February Baby Sweater for my little one on the way.


I wish I'd had the presence of mind to take pictures of these yarns in a pretty, Hawaiian setting, but alas, after I thought to do that, I never had the yarn, the camera and some daylight all in the same place at the same time. Instead, I decided to embrace the little bit of Autumn-ness we get back home (hence the fallen leaves in the pictures).

Well that's all for now. Please send house-selling vibes my way. We close escrow on the new place tomorrow. Until we sell this house, we'll be the stressed out owners of two mortgages.

Excuses, excuses...

As promised, I will now explain why I fell off the face of the blogosphere back in August: Chris and I are expecting our first child in April.

A picture of the "seed purl" taken at 11 weeks, 3 days.
On the right side of the picture is the head and face in profile. The brightish blob on the top-leftish side is a hand.

We found out I'm pregnant on August 9th, our fourth wedding anniversary. There I was reading all your wonderful, special date stories in response to my contest, when a date that was already special to me became doubly special. It was thrilling and exciting. But I had no idea what I was in for.

Mid-August, Chris and I took a week to go see his family. We had a lovely time. Except that was when the morning sickness kicked in. I was so unprepared. I really had no idea what it would be like.

I didn't puke on that trip (that came later), but was taken quite off-guard by the constant nausea and unrelenting fatigue. One day, while knitting some socks for Chris, I suddenly had to put down the needles because knitting was making me feel dizzy. Not a good feeling when you're already queasy. That was pretty much the last knitting I did until October.

Dead give away I wasn't feeling normal: I'm clutching a bottle of water instead of some knitting. Also, check out the queasy smile.

I didn't even want to knit. On a theoretical level, losing my desire to knit was upsetting. But in all reality, I simply wasn't up for it. I was already feeling bad and knitting, horribly, made me feel even worse. This is a knitting blog and with no knitting, what did I have to blog about?

The other problem was that sitting at the computer was even worse! Looking at the screen totally exacerbated the nausea and fatigue. I could read a few e mails and scan/lurk a few blogs, but then I'd have to stagger to the bathroom or the bedroom. I started going for days without so much as turning on the computer.

During this time, Cara shared the news of her pregnancy. (She's about three weeks ahead of me.) It was very comforting to know I wasn't alone and that she was going through lots of the same stuff. But how she managed to keep blogging, I'll never know.

I must vent now, for just a little bit. I was sorely misinformed about the first trimester of pregnancy. Oh sure, I'd heard about morning sickness and fatigue, but I didn't really get it. I was under the impression that you would experience "episodes" of being sick or tired and when the episode had passed you'd be back to normal until the next episode. I could not have been more wrong. Nobody had ever explained to me that no, no... you will be both sick and tired nonstop for three solid months.

Okay, rant over. Because really, I know it wasn't as bad for me as it could have been. And I am truly overjoyed and grateful to be pregnant. So I feel a bit of a schmuck complaining about it. I suspect that it's similar feelings of guilt over complaining that prevent scads of preggies (and former preggies) from sharing just how hard it can be to grow a person. That, and maybe they know that if we knew how brutal it can be, we might consider skipping the whole ordeal. There are ways to have children that don't involve allowing a parasite to hijack your body. Shoot, it sounds like I'm complaining again. Bottom line: feeling sick sucks, being pregnant is a wonderful reason to put up with it.

I finally started feeling better at the beginning of this month. It was just in time for some more big news. We had put in an offer on a new, bigger house and it got accepted. Whoo-hoo, new house! Of course that means we have to sell this house. This house that I have loved so much. This is a beautiful house, almost magical, and it's been perfect for the two of us and the dog. But baby on the way means we need more space. Also, the new houses is in a safer neighborhood with better schools.

As you may know, the process of buying a new house and selling the current house takes a lot of time and effort. More things to eat up knitting and blogging time and leave me so tired I start falling asleep on the couch at 7pm. But it's exciting and will be worth it. Thank heavens I'm feeling better than I was.

I have done some knitting but I think I'll share that in another post. This one is really just about letting you know why I was gone for so long.

Finally, I'd like to give a huge, public "Thank You!" to my amazing husband, Chris. He has done all the heavy lifting (both literal and figurative) for me and for us since forever, really, but especially since I've been pregnant. I absolutely could not do any of this without him. I have been physically weak and emotionally fragile and he has been my rock. He has taken it all in stride and been incredibly loving, sweet and tender to me. I can't even imagine what I would do if he weren't here taking such fantastic care of me. I am grateful way beyond these meager words can possibly express. I love you, sweetheart. Thank you for everything.

Contest Winners!

Hi there. Remember me? No? I totally forgive you. I hardly remember myself, I've been gone for so long. In my next post (which hopefully won't be, like, months from now) I'll tell you all about why I disappeared from blogland and why it's taken me so long to get back.

But first things first.

Right before pulling my little disappearing act, I ran a blog contest. I asked to hear about dates that were special to you. I was delighted with the response and loved hearing all the stories about special dates. There were birthdays, anniversaries, first kisses, first dates, several cancer-free days, and even some stories of heartbreak and tragedy. The very special common thread through all these stories was a beautiful perspective on life. The joyful times keep us going and are to be remembered and celebrated. Meanwhile, the hard times can bring strength, clarity and purpose, even if we don't see it immediately. Reading through the contest comments tells this story in a remarkable, collective voice. I found it very powerful.

It was, however, still a random-drawing contest with prizes to be given. And that means there are winners!

First place went to Ellen! She doesn't have a blog, but you can find her on Ravelry as eroomje.

Second place went to Diane!

Third place went to Dr. B!

And finally, there was a winner of the Grand Prize. To win the grand prize, your special date had to match the date I had in my mind. And the winner is Annie! She doesn't have a blog, but you can find her on Ravelry as QTKnits.

Annie gave April 10th as her date because that's the birthday of her twin daughters. That is the date I was thinking of because it's also my birthday. She was the only person to mention April 10th, so she wins the cashmere outright. However, I would like to give an honorable mention to Glitter, who said that the 10th of every month was special to her, especially July and September 10th. Since I asked for only one date and since she didn't mention April 10th specifically, the judges ruled against entering her into a drawing for the grand prize. Still, I feel she deserves some recognition for coming close.

Well that's it for now. I'll try to be back soon to get caught up on stuff that's been going on with me. I've done only a small amount of knitting in my blog absence, but I do have some pictures to share. And some stories to tell.

A note to the winners: I mailed your prize packages today, so you should have them by the end of the week.

So Much to Say

Yeesh, I haven't posted in a month. Bad blogger! I don't especially feel like making excuses for my bloggy failings, so I'll just say I've been trapped under something heavy this whole time.

I haven't forgotten about my contest. I am thrilled to pieces over how many responses I got. Thank you all so much for participating! And super big thanks to those who linked to my contest on their blogs. I have not yet done the drawing, because I'm still working my way through the entries! I'll get there...eventually. Promise.

Yesterday, was the Los Angeles speaking engagement of our beloved Yarn Harlot. It was a fantastic event. From her blog and books, it's easy to know how funny and smart Stephanie is. But what really blew me away about meeting her in person is her remarkable charisma. She has that rare ability to both move an entire crowd and to make people feel special on an individual basis.

She spoke for about an hour. As an audience, we laughed and cheered almost non-stop. Some people were even moved to tears in parts. And of course, there was knitting. Lots and lots of knitting.

Like an idiot, I forgot to bring my camera. Luckily for me, knitters are delightful, friendly and generous with their cameras. This picture comes courtesy of Darcy.


See that yellow thing I'm knitting there? That's the hat I made to donate to charity. I finished it during Stephanie's talk. Whew, close call.

Speaking of the hats for charity, I had the honor of being on the "Hat Lady" team. I say hat lady team, because there were also representatives from the Sand and Sea Knitting Guild collecting hats. We collected a total of 45 hats. The baby size hats will go to Stitches from the Heart and the child and adult size hats will go to Kaiser Permanente's hospice care program.

Stephanie signed my books. Despite her "ridiculously long name," she credits knitting for her hand never getting tired, even when she spends two hours signing books.

These next two pictures are courtesy of Kathleen, who has an excellent post about the event on her blog.



You'll be glad to hear that when asked what her next book is about, Stephanie replied, "Knitting!" She also told us that Jayme-the-wonder-publicist is on "thin ice" with regards to getting those socks.

It was a really fun event. And I'm pretty sure all the knitters were successful in freaking out the library staff and patrons. Good job LA knitters, way to represent!

Massive Stash Enhancement

...And if you want to enhance your stash, be sure to check out my contest.

Before I get into this (and "this" is a lot to get into), I forgot something yesterday. I meant to mention my (very minor) modifications to the Loksins! pattern. I did a 2 x 2 ribbed cuff and I grafted the last 12 stitches on the toe, instead of gathering up and cinching the last 8 stitches.

I feel better now. Moving on.

Recently, Suss had a giant moving sale. They are moving just next door but the new location is probably one third to one quarter the size of the previous location. They needed to sell, sell, sell!

I ran amok in that sale. I was grabbing all sorts of things and not even keeping a tally of how much it was all going to cost. I got all this yarn...

And all these buttons...


...And headed to the cash register. I was eyeballing all this stuff and thinking, "If this weren't on sale, this would probably be in the $200+ range. Since it is on sale, maybe I'm looking at about $100."

Well, the girl rings me up and says, "That'll be $38." The first thought I had - and don't judge me for this, you probably would have thought the same thing, which is why I like you - was, "Only 38 bucks?!? For all this?!? I didn't buy enough!"

To be clear, here's what all that yarn is:
2 balls Noro Aurora
7 skeins Suss Bomull (100% cotton) in three colors. (One entire skein is not pictured because I've already knit it.)
8 balls of an ivory colored yarn with most of the ball band in a language I can't read (Japanese, maybe?). It calls itself "Extra Fine." More on "extra fine what?" later.
8 balls of that same "extra fine" yarn in chocolate brown.
4 skeins of a yellow yarn also with a foreign ball band called "Exceed Wool."
2 balls of Suss Cotton Perle, a fingering weight cotton string which I like for sewing seams.
1 skein of Suss Bamboo in chocolate brown
1 skein Debbie Bliss Pure Silk in a soft, yellow-gold color.

Having not spent enough, I went back to the sale the very next day. You know you would have done the same. Right?

Here's my haul from the second run:

6 skeins Suss Bomull in Raisin, enough for a sweater for Chris.
6 skeins of brown Cascade Pastaza, enough for a sweater for me.
5 balls of Karabella Aurora 8 in two spacedyed colors.
4 skeins of Cascade Baby Alpaca Chunky in that gorgeous green color.

(If you want to know the specific names/numbers of any of these colors, let me know and I'll find out. I just don't have it in front of me right now.)

The Cascade and Karabella yarns were a little more high-end, so this trip ran me $46. Still $84 for all this yarn (and buttons) from both trips is fan-freakin-tastic!

But the mystery of the non-English ball bands was weighing on me. I got the yarn for cheap, which is great, but it would be a downer if it's cheap yarn anyway. A bunch of yarn I don't want to knit is wasted money - and space in the stash - no matter how inexpensive it was.

The only thing in English on the ivory and chocolate brown yarn is "Knitting Yarn by Extra Fine Merino. Extra Fine."


I sure was hoping the yarn actually is extra fine merino, but I couldn't be entirely sure. Just because the manufacturer's name seems to be Extra Fine Merino, doesn't mean the yarn really is merino.

On the back of the ball band, I could see that whatever fiber this yarn is, it's 100% that fiber.

I was encouraged to know it's not a blend. It looks and feels like wool to me, but I was a touch concerned that maybe, with the excitement of the sale, I was being taken in by a good acrylic.

The yellow yarn was a similar deal. The ball band says, "Knitting Yarn by Extra Fine Merino. Exceed Wool." Same manufacturer, different yarn.


This fiber is als0 100% of whatever it is. But it's a different 100%. Again, it sure feels like wool, but maybe "exceed wool" is a euphemism for acrylic and I was too hyped up to tell.

Back home, I pulled out my trusty Knitting Rules and turned to the section on identifying mystery yarn.

The first test is the burn test. Oooh, fire, this is going to be fun!


The yellow yarn behaved exactly like wool for the burn test. The ivory yarn was a leeettle more flammable, but still more like wool than anything else. I'm feeling good they're both wool.


But I'm also having fun, so why not do the bleach test, too?

The bleach test says that wool will dissolve completely in bleach. And both yarns did! Because they dissolved completely, there's no point in an "after" picture. It was a picture of a bowl, empty save for some bleach.

The bleach test and burn test together have me confident that they're both wool. Obviously different kinds of wool than each other, but certainly not acrylic. Yay!

So I did the felt-ability test, just to see if maybe I had some superwash on my hands.

Nope. Not superwash. They felted so easily and quickly, though, it was the final proof that I did indeed score 20 balls of wool yarn for, I think, $1 per ball.

Sa-weet!

I'm out of town for the next week. I'm hoping to get some good "socks on vacation" pictures. Take care of yourselves. I'll "see" you when I'm back.

Finally! Some Finished Socks

...And if you like socks, remember I'm giving away lots of sock yarn in my contest. If sock yarn ain't your thang, there's some cashmere to be won, too.

Finished Zarina n0-pattern socks. The last time these socks were seen here was what? Like a month ago? And all that needed to be done was for me to graft the second toe. Well, if you can believe it, I only grafted those stitches yesterday. Let us not speak of what became of my mom's socks, the reason for the delayed grafting. I will say that these socks are crazy comfortable. I put them on for the picture and didn't take them off until bedtime. I hope they'll wear well, because I anticipate wearing them often.

Just yesterday, I also finished the Loksins!

What a fun, pretty pattern. Mine are in Fearless Fibers Superwash Sock Yarn, Chocolate Pink Cherry colorway.

The Fearless Fibers sock yarn is a little thinner than sock yarns to which I'm accustomed. But I didn't quite realize that until the socks were underway. I knit these socks on US 1 (2.25mm) needles (the first sock on bamboo dpn's, which I resent for being too long, bendy and dull pointed, but used for travel purposes; the second on Knit Picks dpn's...ahhh...much better, if just a hair short for me but that got better as I went on.) I think next time I use this yarn, I'll use US 0 (2.00mm) needles. There definitely will be a second time for the Fearless Fibers sock yarn. It's quite lovely and comes in scrumptious colors. But I think it would be well served by thinner needles. In this case though, it turned out to be a good thing I used 2.25mm's because my Loksins! came out a tad snug. They actually feel fantastic once they're on, but it's a bit of a fight getting them on. If I'd used 2.00mm's, I might not have been able to get them on at all.

Sadie likes them, too.


I'm going to try to be back tomorrow with a post about the massive yarn haul I scored at at the Suss moving sale. Then I'm going out of town for about a week. If I don't post tomorrow, you can just figure I fell into the time suck of trying to figure out which yarn and needles to pack.