Cattywampus

Before & After

So here's the before:

And here's the after:

I made the torch disappear!  I really, really had no idea it was THAT easy to do that sort of thing.

And if I knew how, I would erase the letters from his t-shirt and make it a different color so it would be a classier picture.  We weren't exactly planning on this one, I was just playing with the timer on the camera and he wandered by and got sucked into my madness.

We had the most gorgeous weekend...

Low humidity, clear, blue sky

Barely a cloud in the sky - and the ones that were there were entertaining

Perfect for sunbathing on the deck

And watching the wildlife wander by

Wildlife of all sizes...creepy and furry

Also - a gorgeous weekend to be out practicing various photographing skills.  I am learning how to use photoshop too, oh the THINGS you can do with that program!  It's a little bit crazy.  I have learned how to remove things from a photo and I have an example to share with you, I'll put that in the next post.  I'm quite pleased with it myself.

I am thinking about doing a 30 day photo challenge...thinking because it seems like a lot of work, there are days when I most likely just won't want to be bothered, but I think I'll give a shot and post them here as well.  So if I suddenly am posting every day you'll know what sort of madness I'm about.

Some oohs and a meh.

The gift for DH's Godmother was finished in time (imagine!) and she put it on when she opened it, so I think she liked it.

This one was a rousing success! 

I also finished the Peacock Shawlette 

(I did mention I was having fun with the shawls, right?)

I love that it's bottom up, I adore the feather pattern with the slipped stitch ridges running up the body.   I also adore the fact that it's only complicated for so long and then it goes super fast.

In real life, this lovely yarn has some lavender running through it and a lovely sheen, it's Fibre Company Fingering (and I have enough to make another shawl if anyone wants to buy it from me, I doubt I'll make it in the same yarn again...).  Details on my Rav page. 

This one was for my mother for Mother's Day and here she is looking accusingly at the camera after she received it last Saturday.

I know, you say - accusingly??  That's her 'I just saw you a few weeks ago and I didn't even see this!  How did you knit this without me knowing about it???' look.  ;-)

I do believe she liked it.

All in all, a successful few weeks of gifting.

I think it turned out lovely, so lovely in fact, that I am knitting one for myself, but in laceweight, so I have added some repeats.  I am currently obsessed with it, so maybe I'll have it to show off in a few weeks.

And finally, here is Gemini, from the most recent knitty.

I am not impressed.  So unimpressed, in fact, that it is frogged and the yarn has been skeined, soaked and is hanging to dry.  The body is okay, but it doesn't look fabulous or anything, and the lace at the top displays an alarming amount of my undergarments AND it falls off my shoulders incessantly.  

I feel that I have reached an important milestone with the frogging of this top, a place where I can step back and say 'yes, I knit this, and yes it represents dozens of hours of my time, but I really, really am not going to wear it and I am going to reclaim the yarn for something better'.

I am quite pleased that I pushed through the desire to hang it up in my closet anyway, knowing at the back of my mind that it would end up at the back and never worn.  So, even though the shirt was 'meh', I am happy with the outcome and now I have some Hempathy to repurpose.

I will leave you with this hysterical picture.

We had a flat tire last Friday night, and due to a long series of events that it is not worth explaining - call it a night where Murphy's Law ruled supreme - Pixie had to ride on the flat bed while we sat in the tow truck.  Sweet little Pixie, she was fine, VERY focused on us in the cab of the truck.  I think I was more worried than she was, and now this picture is pretty amusing.  I can just IMAGINE what was going through her little head just then.

More actual knitting

DH's Godmother is having her 70th birthday this weekend and it occurred to me a few weeks back that if ever I was going to knit her a shawl, this would be the time to do it.  She is certainly a woman who appreciates the time and effort that goes into a knitted garment, so all the more reason.

I decided to knit Ishbel, which I have made in laceweight in the smaller size.  I used Ella Rae merino lace, which is a heavy laceweight, about halfway to fingering, I'd say.

It went insanely fast, especially with the drive to Gloucester and back to work on it.  I am very pleased with how large it turned out and with how delicate the lace looks.  With the heavier laceweight I was worried it wouldn't look as...well, as lacey.

The first picture is a more accurate color.  I used about 600 yards for this, and I have enough left to make another one - it is tempting, it's quite a lovely color.

Instead, I started a different shawl...

Thank you all for your ideas about what to do with yarn that is weighing me down, I decided to go with the Yarnstorming group on Ravelry.  They take nominations, collect donations, and send yarn to charity groups and to knitters who are going through hard times, financial or otherwise.

I can convince myself to give up yarn in this way, somehow thinking that what is weighing me down will go towards making someone else happy in such a way makes the lost money seem worth it.  So this past weekend I went through and pulled all sorts of yarn, a paper shopping bag full, out of my stash and when I get a bit more free time I will go through and label all the unlabled yarn and get it in the mail.

This is related to the new shawl, I swear.

While I was doing this, I came across some yarn that I've had for a long time, but am still not quite able to give up - there is quite a lot of that yarn, actually.  Nobody is buying it, and I have lost interest in it, but it's not in the 'weighing me down' stage yet.  One of them sparked my interest this weekend and I decided to make the Peacock Shawlette.  

Suddenly finding a use for yarn that I had fallen out of love with (like the Kauni as well) seems to be at the top of my motivational list and I am going to take advantage of it while it's there.  The Ishbel was knit out of yarn I had decided to sell as well, but it was repurposed to good use.  Of course, once again, about 2 days after I cast on someone inquired about buying it.  Ah well.

It does also help to remember that while it's incredibly helpful to have one's whole stash on Rav to peruse at will, actually seeing your yarn and fondling it can help to spark an interest to repurpose the yarn, seeing a picture of yarn just can't duplicate the multi-sensory reality.  Shorter:  If you pull out your stash, you might fall in love with some of it again!

Now to the knitting (sort of)

While in Gloucester, we did, in fact, attend a knitting retreat.  I do not have one solitary picture to prove it though.

This was a colorwork knitting retreat, covering two handing stranding techniques, chart reading, the history of knitting in the different places it originated, and more less any question you could think to ask that related.

At the retreat there were people of all skill levels, some who came to learn, some who came for a vacation with a friend, and some who came to enjoy the company of other knitters.  It was really a wonderful group and we had a great time.

My mother decided to knit a Norweigian ski hat, which she has since finished, and it is quite impressive.  Of course, I don't have any pictures of that either.

I (of course) couldn't do anything as normal as a hat.  I decided that I should go ahead and use my Kauni yarn that I bought eons ago.  I had been trying to sell it on Ravelry, but nobody seemed interested (until after I cast on for the sweater).  

So I picked a pattern out of one of Alice Starmore's recently re-published books and chose a sweater pattern (raglan pullover) and off I went.

I have about 3 inches done...it's going to be a while, especially considering that I am obsessed with knitting lace right now, but more on that in a minute.

Other things that are happening - spring continues its accelerated journey this year.  The roses are blooming.  The roses bloom for my birthday - in early JUNE.  

This rose bush is on a little side street, and I love it, it blooms for my birthday, in late May and early June, and then again in September.  I do appreciate its beauty, but I am sad that I won't be able to appreciate it in another month instead.

I love that the buds are yellowish with deep pink edging, but when the flowers open they are almost white with just the barest hint of blush on the tips of petals.  

Sigh.  I don't know what's going on with the weather this year, far be it from me to complain about an early, long spring in which we have had few rainy days - but it's not normal and that makes me more than a tad bit worried about what that means for the coming year and of course, what that means in the bigger picture.  BUT this is not a blog to talk about climate change implications...

I also like this picture.

You could layer a hundred meanings into it or you could just notice how it's funky cool that the background is clear but the fence in the immediate front of the picture is blurry...your choice.

Gloucester

DH, my mother and I went to Gloucester last weekend for a knitting retreat (not dh of course, he went to visit friends) and we had some beautiful weather while we were there, so I got to practice my newly learned photography skills.  

I'll share a few of them with you here, you can click through if you want to see the whole lot in the album.

I've been assured, and I quite believe, that Gloucester is not supposed to be nearly this nice in mid-April.  

But darn the luck, we just happened to be there when the whole east coast is having an unusually sunny, dry, and warm spring.

We saw gorgeous surf.

Fishing vessels and lobster pots.

We took a tour around the harbor and saw some cormorants.

And we walked through Halibut Point State Park.

All of this and we haven't even gotten to the knitting yet!

We stayed at a quirky little b&b that happened to have a wine tasting one of the nights we were there - with food pairings prepared by a chef from Boston - again, some luck we were having!

I practiced my ability to take photos in twilight (aka the gloaming of the day).

It was just so gorgeous there, I would love to go back sometime and spend a little bit more time exploring the town and harbor.  The town has such a rich history and is still very much a part of the fishing industury, in our rushed tour before we started the knitting retreat we barely touched what was available to see & do, but we really enjoyed it.

Up next:  Knitting!

Tell me, fellow knitters...

What do you do when you have yarn that you don't want anymore, but has been listed for sale on Ravelry for eons and nobody has bought it?  New yarn, yarn that you bought with the best intentions, but for whatever reason it's just not doin' it for you anymore.

I have a number of skeins like this - either leftovers from a project, sock yarns bought on a whim, or yarn for some crazy half-cocked idea I had for something that never came to fruition.

Whatever they are for, they are weighing me down and I need to do something about them.  I have put an updated destash on Ravelry, but I am wondering if there's something else I can do with them.

I have considered donating them, but the types of places that take donations of yarn generally don't want non-machine washable yarn, and honestly I'm loathe to see most of it go anywhere that it won't be appreciated for what it is.  

I am considering having a contest of sorts and give some away as prizes, but I can't quite figure out what kind - and honestly, depending on what I was doing - keeping track of it all seems overwhelming - I'm way too busy right now to add something else to my to-do list.  

Maybe do a registry at Heifer and everyone who donates goes in for a drawing for prizes?  That's not a bad one...but do people donate this time of year or if I'm going to do that do I save it for the holidays and run it through the fall up to Christmas? 

I feel like the unwanted yarn is baggage right now, I'm ready to move onto to a new phase in my knitting (I'm really liking the idea of buying when I want to cast on more and more) and this is old yarn with old ideas and old vibes and I want it to find a new home.

What do you do with yarn like this?  Any grand words of wisdom you can share with me?

And not related at all - a picture of Pixie watching for me out the front window:  

Can you spy her there in the bottom right?

A journey of 1000 miles...

As the saying goes, begins with a single step.  So, to prevent myself from getting any further behind in my blog posting, I'm just going to get some pictures and updates up and not worry about the details (the being behind in general, the stress that is causing me to feel that way, the overall tiredness that makes me feel like I can't compose anything clever at this time).

Spring, as you may have noticed, seems to be coming early to the east coast.  A few weeks ago we were in the Poconos and I captured some some lovely photos that I have been meaning to share.

I love foggy mornings like this.  When I was kid I used to imagine that the rest of the world had totally disappeared and it was just me and the 50 feet around me in any direction, what a lovely, calm, peaceful feeling.

Daffodils, the harbinger of spring.  They are not my favorite, but they are ever so cheerful.

And a maple, with leaves budded and waiting for the next warm day.

I'm not sure if this pic shows the dew drops in this small blog friendly version, but it was such a pretty sight, with the drops hanging off the branches all sparkly in amongst the red leaflets.  I'm sure you can see them if you click for the larger version.

Here in Philly spring is almost over, the azaleas are in full bloom and the tulips are on the other side of gorgeous already, the trees are almost fully leafed out...it's a little nutty - it's just the beginning of april!!  I think we're almost a month ahead of schedule.  I am enjoying it (though my allergies are beating me into hoarse, exhausted submission) but I sincerely hope that spring simply lasts and we don't begin our 90 degree days before May 1st - heck, I'd take June 1st, but perhaps that's asking a little too much.

I actually have an FO to share.  The oh-so-appropriately named Venezia Worsted Top-Down Lace T-shirt.  Details in the Rav link.  It was a nice quick knit and perfect for this weather, but it will be too warm for summer wear.  Heavy cotton when it's 95 and 87% humidity is akin to torture for me - at least after the first few blocks...

I'm very pleased with it, and knitting it was fun, a good combination of stockinette and interesting bits.

And that is my one step on my 1000 mile journey of being a better blogger, getting caught up, and trying to post more.

Of things in progress

I have not one, not two, not three, not even four, I have 5 sweaters in progress.  I am really trying to focus, I am, and I'm going to try to get at least two of them done for the 'transitional period' coming up in spring - tho if the weather stays like this that transitional period will be over by the end of march and it will be summer by mid-may, but we can hope for an extended spring.  The silly thing about having so many sweaters in progress is that they are all at about the same stage - about half way done - if would just FOCUS I would have two actual sweaters by know instead of 5 half done ones.

Usually, once I tip the halfway point I get a bit more determined, so hopefully I will have a few that will at least look like SOMETHING in a few weeks.

We have decided to put our house on the market and look for something a bit more long term - which sounds odd, but we are currently in a condo in a large, old row home where we live and we want to go to our own row home in a quieter, more neighborhoody part of the city.  We would like a bit more space, some storage, an outside area to call our own and in a perfect world - parking.  We shall see.  

In the meantime, however, what that means is that we have to make our current place look like no one lives there.  So we have rented a storage unit, and a uhaul for next weekend, and we will be spending the upcoming week packing up half of our belongings to get put away for the duration.  I know that in this market it's necessary, but it doesn't make me happy.  I am looking at it by thinking that we are just getting a head start on our packing, it's work we would have done anyway - right?  Right.  

I am finding it tricky to find places to stash a lot of my knitting paraphernalia, but it's working out.  And in the process I'm sorting and culling, so that's good too.  

See how hard I am trying to convince myself that this isn't a giant pain in the butt???  It's work, but I am very good at spin, especially when it's my own brain I'm trying to convince - I know my own motivation and trigger points very well, and besides that - the short time table, 1 week from today, means that it will all be over a week.  And if I don't think about the HOURS I will be spending inbetween now and then making all of that happen, it seems completely reasonable.  

I am also continuing to learn about my camera.  I have slowed a bit, I feel like I have the basic functions down, and I'm starting the class in just under a month, so I'm just getting used to using it and playing with the settings.

A few weeks ago we took Pixie to the park and I spent some time trying capture her in sharp focus against a blurry background.  It didn't quite work, but her head is in focus at least.

See how fuzzy she is?  She is a double coated dog, not in the normal sort of way, but in the wire-haired way, which means that her coat needs to be stripped when it starts falling out - which means, in case you aren't familiar with all of this - that you have to pull it out.  It's not as hard and awful as it seems, for the most part she doesn't mind, but she's definitely not a fan of the process.  We do it once a year, but I understand for show dogs it's done every few months.

Again, this is me playing with the camera, the focus is on her head, so it blurs out the further away you get - I was learning how to move the focal point.

Remember, how fuzzy she is, and now look at this next picture. 

Doesn't she just look hysterically naked?  And teeny-tiny, the fur adds 10 pounds to her at least, and when it comes off, you can see the itty-bitty 17 lb ball of cuteness that she is underneath.

And one more picture for the road. 

I was trying to understand the f-stop/shutterspeed relationship and get that whole burry waterfall effect happening, which I did, but in the process I overexposed the flowers.  Still, I'm learning.  

It's a lot easier to accept a screw up in a photograph than in knitting, I have to say.  Bad photo?  *shrug* Just hit delete, adjust something, maybe reference the book to see what you're doing wrong and try again.

Bad sweater?  *cry* *wail* *swear that you did everything right and there's no logical reason the sweater is 5 inches longer than it should be* *try various ways of making the sweater shorter, up to and including half felting it in the process* *cry again* *jam the sweater in the bottom of a drawer and forget the whole thing ever happened*

Yep.  I figure if you can learn how to knit, and actually knit a garment that fits you, that means that learning almost anything else is fairly easy in comparison.  Not that I can necessarily be GOOD at photography, but since I'm just trying not to suck, I think I can befairly confident at my level of success.  

And now for something completely different...

A pattern release!  Woohoo!  I didn't actually plan on doing this, but when I finished this shawl I LOVED it, and thought - wow, I definitely want to make this again, I should write out what I did - and then I figured, maybe there are other people who don't want to use their leftover sock yarn to make a crazy colored blanket with 300 ends to weave in, if I write it up I should just publish it!

And here I am, publishing it.

Look at the madness that was this shawl just off the needles.

And one more shot for the cuteness factor.

And here, after a dye job and a bit of blocking, is the money shot.

The color is a little off there, it is more accurate here

The reason I ADORE faroese shawls is because you can tie them behind your back and go about your daily business without the ends dangling and getting in the way.

If you look closely you can see me holding the ends of the knot.

I am calling this, quite creatively, the Leftovers Faroese Shawl, and you can download the pattern for free on Rav if you are interested.

I am really, really happy with the finished product and absurdly happy to have found such a practical use for my leftover sock yarn.  I easily have enough to make another one in pinks and reds, but I may delay a bit before casting on for another one.