What's What on Wednesday

Lots of knitting stuff, plus a little bit of crochet.  Sewing?  I'm so busy knitting that I haven't had the urge to sew.  But it will come back, especially if it ever gets to spring.

Knitting

A somewhat fake gansey for elder DD.  This is undyed DK yarn, although in my head it knits up to a worsted weight.  About 3.5 " done.  Size 5 needles, gauge is 4.75 sts/inch.  The patterns are authentic Scottish fisherman patterns, but the yarn is not gansey yarn.  I'll work along with this until about an inch or so below the armhole, then do a cross pattern, and then work entirely different patterns on the bodice.  Those may or not be authentic, just whatever I like to do.  Sleeves?  Whatever strikes my fancy.  No underarm gusset nor shoulder strap.  This is not the real thing, but I did underarm gussets and shoulder straps about 20 years ago and got them out of my system.

Also in process, a pair of socks for me.  This is in a high twist singles yarn, so that's why you'll see the details of the stitches so well.  No nylon in this yarn, but I've already made 2 pairs of socks in it, and it seems to wear well.  And yes, it will stretch beautifully to fit my leg and foot.

An actual finished lace scarf!  Lili Lace yarn, which you can find in my Etsy shop.  The color reminds me of chicken tikka masala, a lovely paprika with a dose of cream in it.  The truest color is the top picture, just imagine it a bit darker.  It is delicious!  I have no idea what I'm wearing it with.  I'll have to do a sweater that lives with this.

Crochet

A cute little watercolor scarf in progress.  Pattern?  Something I found in one of my Japanese pattern books.  Mindlessly easy and pretty.  Rachel sock yarn.

I call these things "watercolor" since they are of variegated colorways, and the colors appear as little splotches here and there. 

And that's enough of that.

Book on nightstand is Red seas under red skies.  This is the second book in the Locke Lamorra series, and it's as delightful as the first.  Alternate world with a couple of charming thieves.  Good fun.

And that's it for today.  Oh, I forgot to add the obligatory weather picture.  Yep, it's snowing again.  Sigh.

Wednesday's Book and Tea

Wednesday is somewhat of an odd day for me.  All the energy I've expended on Mon and Tues has dissipated, and all I want to do is snuggle down, read a book, drink tea, and knit a bit.

Here's what I'm reading at the moment:  The winter sea by Susanna Kearsley.  I've not read anything by her before, and she has a large body of work.

Here's a summary from Baker & Taylor: 

Carrie settles into the shadow of Slains Castle in Scotland, creates a heroine named for one of her own ancestors, and starts to write about the Jacobite invasion of 1708. When she can no longer tell the difference between today and centuries ago, is she dealing with an ancestral memory-- a memory that might destroy her?


I'm only on page 110, and it's holding my interest. I love finding a new author, one with a nice oeuvre of work.

Today's book-reading tea is Elyse's Blend from Harney's, a glorious honey-flavored black tea.  It is one of my favorites.

On the needles is that lace sweater that I showed last week. Please understand that this is lace, and it looks pretty much like an old rag.  After a good washing and blocking, it will all straighten out and look lovely, especially that goofy-looking bottom of the sweater.

The top pic is closest to the actual color.  Don't you just love the mess at the bottom?  There are a total of 5 different lace patterns.  I'll put ribbing around the neck and at the end of the sleeves.  If the bottom doesn't lay flat, I'll pick up and knit a narrow lace edging.

Books and Hooks

 Books

 The Hubbo and I have to clean up this house before the super-neat kids arrive.  Not that our form of cleaning will impress them, but hey, at least I can say that we did OK for the two of us.  Besides, they know how messy we are.  But this is our chance to toss and straighten, and we have to do it.  And then we'll feel so virtuous that we'll keep it neat forever.  If you believe that, I know a bridge I can sell you.

So one of my problems is that I cannot stop buying crafty books.  I am pretty picky these days, but if it looks interesting, I buy it.  The result is a huge pile of books next to the coffee table, and on the coffee table, and on the couch and in the TV room.  Books everywhere, and all precious.  Well, I'm not going to toss the existing books in their book cases.  So, what's a girl to do?  Tubs!  Life's answer to everything.  When in doubt,  tubify it.  So, down into the basement I went, 2 tubs in tow, and schlepped 2 shelves of very heavy books downstairs and tubified them.  Away, gorgeous embroidery books.  Knitting and Crochet rule at the moment.  And the end result is no more piles of books everywhere.  Here are some very blurry pics.  The tripod refused to leave the living room.

And that, boys and girls, is just the tip of the iceberg.  What you can't see is that in the last 2 pics, there are shelves below with doors on them.  We are not going to talk about the books and magazines in them, either.  In my dream house, I would have a beautiful, sun-lit library with couches, tables and chairs, and all my books and projects.

Hooks

I had a lovely hooky day on Saturday.  We did our usual field trip, this time to Wycoff, had a lovely lunch, wandered about for a bit and I happily crocheted along the way.  And came home, and hooked some more.

I'm really loving this.  I keep finding long lost skeins of acrylic DK, and adding them to the mixture.  At the moment, the plan is to make a blankie, lap cover, whatever, 5 squares by 8.  I have to pick out a color to edge them and then put on a border, but I'm a long way from that.  Maybe white?  Who knows, but I have lots of time to decide.

Did a bunch of knitting, too.  I'm working on a mystery project, and I'm at the point of 382 sts.  I worked about an inch of the border, and don't like it, so frog I go.  Lately I design right on the needles, and I'm quite used to tinking and frogging.  It's just part of the design process for me.

And now here's my problem yarn.  I dyed this maybe last summer, and totally fell in love with the colorway and decided to keep it.  But here's the thing:  I don't like it worked up in anything other than socks.  And I don't feel like knitting socks at all or wristers or mitts.  Growl.   Any ideas?

And on that note I'm off to continue the never-ending process of putting my house in order.  Gah!

Kitten With a Whiplash - What a great idea.  Imagine the size of the thing, and how many project bags I'd have to use and how much yarn and all those orts.  Boggles the mind.  My giggle for the day!

PandaBearofDoom - DD and SIL are super neat.  Miss P understands our general slovenliness.  It's pretty funny. 

Henya - Pain in the neck, isn't it?  I have 5 more tubs to fill, too.  All those project bags will be tubified! 

Scrabblequeen - The answer is to use clear plastic tubs. You are totally doooooomed if you use boxes or solid color tubs.  Totally.  I'm still not happy about that yarn and motif. 

The Yarnarian Picks 4 Winners.

Using the Random Organizer, the 4 winners have been selected:

Resplendentquetzal - Top down for toddlers

Delia in NC - Knitting new scarves

KV - Knit so fine

Kitten with a whiplash - Kristin knits

Artseycrafts - Wendy knits

Congratulations to the winners! Please email me with your name and address so I can actually send you the books. fritzL234 AT yahoo DOT com

If you didn't win this time, never fear. I have more books to give away at another time.

Thank you all for participating in the giveaway and for sending me your good wishes. Who knew that I could blog for this long and still have something to say? Not me.

Ilix - I was a winner, too. It's a nice thing to give something away, and I cleared away a tiny space in the never-ending knitting corner. Of course, there are at least 10 books to fit into that little spot on the shelves.

The Yarnarian Has a Blogiversary Coming Up!

2 years of blogging. Talk about running of the mouth. I love doing this. I never liked writing at any other point in my life, but here I get to choose the subject and the tone, and it's fun. And it gives me a chance to display new yarns, and even more important, a way to connect with people all over the place. And let's face it, I like to blab.

So, I thought that this year would be a good time to have a little give-away: books that I have gently used, if at all. Gotta off-load in order to make way for new books. As the Hubbo says: books flow. So how about my books flowing to your hands?

Myers, Lisa R. - Knit so fine



Gemmell, Deb - Top down for toddlers; no-sew knitting



Johnson, Wendy D. - Wendy knits




Barr Lynne - Knitting new scarves



Nicholas, Kristin - Kristin knits




That's it. 5 very different books, by very different authors, and all delightful to knit from and/or read.

So here's the way it will work:

If you want to be in the pool for one of these books, please leave a comment with the name of the book you want in it. Then, on Sunday, I'll do a random drawing of the winners' names and will post those names on the blog. Please don't leave addresses or phone numbers or anything that's private and personal. We'll email back and forth to get the necessary information for me to mail out the book. I'll mail out either media rate or first class, depending on which is cheaper. Hey, you know I'm frugal.

Please, this time, only folks from the US and Canada, otherwise the shipping will be prohibitive. Next time, I'll do only one book and then the cost for shipping won't clobber me.

You can comment through Saturday.

Knitting News: Take a look at this amazing scarf given to me as a gift from a dear fellow dyer, friend, and super-spinner! This is her handspun yarn and I am just speechless at how lovely it is. Even the Hubbo, who rarely notices these things, was pretty amazed.




Lindsay is an amazing dyer of not just yarn, but of all sorts of fleecy, fibery goodies. You have to check out her Etsy site, and then buy her stuff and then spin it up very finely, and then give it to me. Well, I can try, can't I?