Knit for Brains

All about the hat.

I don't buy a lot of patterns these days, what with my ridiculous library and all the free patterns on Ravelry, but I had to get Everglade. Ever since I made Star Crossed Slouchy Beret, I am all about the slouchy hat! My first foray into the slouch was Felicity, which I loved. I guess I've made enough snug caps, although I really want to make a watch-cap. I'll have to find the link to one of may favorite patterns - free with variations built in! I've got hats on the brain, and itchy fingers...

It's just a pinky

...but it's broken, it hurts, and it is seriously impeding my knitting. On Thursday, August 13, I got my left pinky caught between the car door and the dashboard when I was pressing a button to close the back passenger door. I managed to get Maeve to camp and get back home to wrap the pinky in a bandaid 'cuz that's what I'd do with a toe, and I thought there was no way it was really broken. Later that evening, when David took a look at it, it was all sorts of gorgeous shades of purple. Since we were heading out for vacation a couple of days later, I decided to actually see a doctor.

The doctor got a kick out of me sitting in his office knitting with my busted pinky. BTW, all he had to do was look at my rainbow colored digit to guess that it was not all in one piece. I tried to convince him that I didn't really need an x-ray, that I trusted his judgment, and so I begged him to just splint me. He was very responsible, and immune to my pleas, and made me go all the way across the hall to get a picture of my bones. As expected, I had broken my finger. It was a clean break, though, so I got the splint and some pain killers and went off to the store.

The only bones that I have broken in the past were toes. These are very painful to break and make walking really uncomfortable for a while, but for a knitter, they don't cause any major problems. Broken fingers, on the other hand (oh, really no pun intended), are really painful to break, make most things done with that hand painful, and for a knitter cause major aggro. I can knit only two rows of 39 stitches before needing to take a break. The splint gets in the way, and I can't really hold the needle with my other fingers comfortably. Not being able to knit with comfort and ease is making cranky. Really cranky. I'm getting on my kids' cases with little justification other than the fact that I am just generally pissy! I do admit when I have flown off the handle for no good reason, and I do apologize, but it doesn't really make it better.

I also can't get ready for for the Harry Potter Knit and Crochet Housecup Challenge on Ravelry. I had a couple of projects I was going to finish while on vacation, and now I can't. My WIPs and UFOs are causing a bothersome nagging feeling at the back of my head. Like little woolly flies buzzing around. I did bring some projects that I can work on here. I figured that if I started something with the splint on, and finished before I had to take it off, I wouldn't have to worry about changes in gauge.

I'm done now. Not because I have run out of things to say. Quite the opposite. I have several other things I wanted to talk about, unrelated to the inconvenient appendage. However, holding the smallest finger on my left hand high in the air while it is holding up the added weight of the metal and foam in which it is encased, has tired it out enough that I have to call it a day.

Love dyeing!

Yesterday I went to the dyeing workshop with Susan Gibbs of Martha's Vineyard/Hudson Valley Fiber Farms. I was joined by fellow dyeing student Jesse who is a graphic design instructor/artist. He was a lot of fun, really interesting and knew a lot about color so it was great to listen to him talk with Susan about mixing colors, and the different printing methods that use different color combinations. Susan is so knowledgeable and generous with what she knows. I love that she shares her successes, experiments, and failures all with equal enthusiasm. Since there were only two of us in the workshop, she encouraged us to experiment. Jesse mixed several dyes to obtain an amazing, bright, vibrant orange. I went with one dye, and came out with a lovely pumpkin orange. It was funny that we both picked orange. Susan had every color under the sun for us to choose from:

And as I already mentioned, we could mix dyes to see what else we could come up with!

My 5 skeins are on the right, Jesse's are on the left. Each skein is 400 yards so I went from planning a sport weight shawl to dreaming of an awesome pumpkin sweater!

And this is a close-up of my future sweater! You can see Jesse's brightest skein, just there on the left.

Susan's table of yarn samples, and her skein winder, which I covet.

Solar dyeing, which I will be trying! (Ooo, and it rhymes!)

Some of her cool colors.

MV Day 1, 2009 - With Pictures

Before I get to the pix from our first day, I want to mention a giveaway that is going on here. I love Carolee's work. We found each other by way of Martha's Vineyard/Hudson Valley Fiber Farms and Facebook. I love her work and think she is so talented. Not only do I want more people to know about her, I get an extra chance to win this amazing box by linking to the post here. (Heh, heh, heh.)

So here are the pix from our first day. Now, I usually don't call our travel day our first day because we get here too late to really do anything. Not this time. We were on a 12:15 ferry, which meant that we got here at about 1pm.

On the ferry we got to see a cool nest, the name of the bird escapes me now, but Emmett will remember. I'll ask later. The zoom on my camera is apparently on vacation, too, so you can only just see it behind the Sea Gulls:

Here you can see it a little better on the left of the pole.

Maeve Loved looking at the water through the hole in the side of the boat. That could sound like a bad thing ... the hole in the side of the boat.

I was so happy to get to Bunch Of Grapes. This is the Little Store That Could! It was closed from fire/water damage last year, then just a year after the fire, after hanging in and re-opening, it was struck by lightening just before the big summer season.

This is just because I love a beautiful hydrangea. And a beautiful hydrangea in Vineyard Haven is a slice of heaven!

This bird house is just neat! It's been here since I don't know when and I just think it's cool.

Another hydrangea, this one at my MIL's hotel.

My boy knows my heart! Wandering around my MIL hotel, he found a bunch of alpacas. They were juveniles and adorable! One of them kept bleating.

I didn't get on the computer last night because David was on for ages so I will about yesterday tonight. Also, typing with the splint is just annoying me way too much. Tomorrow I am going to a dye workshop with the most fabulous Susan Gibbs of MV/HV Fiber Farms. I am so excited I could squeal, but I wont because there are other people around and I don't want to embarrass Fiona.

Hanging in there

It's August and we are on vacation! I am not even going to look to see when I posted last - it's all too embarrassing. Anyway, as we are on vacation, I am taking the time to blog again. I can keep current and catch up all at the same time. I was going to write all about today, but - and here's some catching up - I broke my finger three days ago and typing is a bit awkward, but also the little finger is at the moment in rather big pain. It's going to be interesting trying to figure out the best way to knit with the splint on. Not knitting is not an option, so I have to think of something.

On Wednesday I am going to a dye workshop with Susan of Martha's Vineyard/Hudson Valley Fiber Farms. I signed up ages ago, and I am so extraordinarily excited! I'll try to take pics, but I may be too busy having a blast turning gorgeous yarn all sorts of colors!

I am going to do the blogging thing in the morning, before my busted pinky has a chance to get cranky. Maybe if I get into the habit, I'll manage to keep it going when I get home - especially when I don't keep making typos with the splint that makes my wee finger look like Robo Pinky!

Random links to cuteness

I really do plan to write. Really I do.

In the mean time follow this link to come kitty cuteness.

Follow this link to some koala cuteness.

Knitting continues for the Harry Potter Knit and Crochet Housecup Challenge. Days off from the store are immanent. Blogging will occur - along with lovely gardening if the rain decides to stop. Everything in the garden is growing amazingly, including the weeds. It's all good though.

Pictures

Ok. Ravelry has changed the lives of so many knitters, self included, in so many different ways. For instance, right now I am deep into the Harry Potter Knit/Crochet House Cup Challenge. Basically, you sign up before the start of term, get sorted into Houses, once classes are posted you pick projects and knit for points. There is so much more to it than that, but that's enough explanation to get by.

One of the things I love about the HPKCHC is the sense of community. You really get involved with the people in your house. Another thing I love about it is that it is getting me knitting. For once I will post pictures quickly, then give explanations later. It's very close to the kids' bedtime so I think pictures will do fo now.

This is from last term. It is the only project I managed to do. The assigment was to make a normal item in miniature.

This was this term's first assignment for Muggle Studies. We had to knit something that was inspired by a muggle tv show or movie. This is Jayne Cobb's hat from Firefly.

This is what I handed in today. For Defense Against the Dark Arts we were practicing the Protego charm and had to creat something that provides protection. This capelet sort of thing protects me from the spring chills that pop up sometimes unexpectedly.

More info and pix forthcoming!

Baby Goats and Dinner For Breakfast

Last week I took the kids to see Susan at the Hudson Valley Fiber Farm. The kids were off from school, I took off from the store and I wanted to have a fun day out. We were hoping that there would be baby sheep and goats, but there were just some very, very pregnant sheep and goat mamas-to-be. We had a great time, as we always do when we see Susan. The people kids loved all the animals. One goat in particular decided that Maeve was yummy and nibbled on her shirt and hair incessantly. It was rather cute! The pictures are stuck in my camera 'cause the cord is at the store.

Because we didn't get to see any babies, we had planned to go back when they started arriving. Well, I was happy to read this. We planned to go back out to the farm after the kids' first day back at school to see the babies. I thought the kids had a good time the first time we went, but today was amazing! The kids got to hold the two new babies, Arno and Bell! They were so happy, and all of them, Maeve included, were so gentle with the babies. Again, pictures trapped in camera, coming soon.

When we got home Fiona made us French Toast for dinner. It was really good! My girl can cook! I have to say that I really love breakfast foods for dinner. And fluffy French Toast is just delish.

When we were at Susan's I picked up yarn to dye for the store. 30 skeins of perfect Cormo yarn, ready to be dyed by yours truly. I just have to decide if I want to stick with my turkey roaster or get one or two stainless steal pots. I may want to try two color dye jobs which would be much easier with two pots, as opposed to dyeing twice in the roaster. I also picked up some of her new sock yarn for my own personal use. I see some time spent on Ravelry trying to pick a project.

International Year of Natural Fibers

Susan Gibbs, of Martha's Vineyard and Hudson Valley Fiber Farms, wrote a bit about the UN declaring 2009 International Year of Natural Fibers. You can find her post here. I'm going back there right now to follow the links.

For those of you who are unacquainted with Susan, she is just amazing! Check out her blog, because if I told you everything she does, you would never ever believe me. You'll be hearing more about her here, because I am going to be getting her yarn to dye for various events and I can tell you I am sooo excited! Check out her photos. I'm sure that she takes the best pictures of the most beautiful sheep and goats, not to mention those gorgeous dogs. She loves her animals and they produce amazing fiber. Now go. Go, go, go.

Cast-On Snags

I have actually been knitting quite a bit lately - and even finishing some stuff! It turns out that my inability to stay awake once the kids were asleep, and therefore my inability to knit more than one or two rows of a very simple projects, was due to a sinus infection. Mind you I ignored the exhaustion and sinus pressure for two weeks thinking that I was just a little run down, that it was the weather, it was because I was cold so often (much to catch up on, but the propane truck couldn't make it to the house, the tank was almost empty so the temp in the house stayed loooow), any number of excuses. F got sick so I took her to the doctor and made a tag along appointment. Turned out she had the cold, I had the sinus infection that held on through two rounds of antibiotic. Next time I can't keep my eyes open despite a pm cuppa several days in a row, and my face feels like it's too full of wool, I will get my tuchas to the doctor!

So, now about the fun stuff! I have finished (and this is from memory so I hope I don't forget anything) 2 neckwarmers (one I whipped up off the top of my head), a Stolen Moments Shawl (although I guess my gauge was off so it's a bit small, more like a Stolen Moments large-but-not-too-long scarf), a Calorimetry (I'll check the spelling later) and something else, but I need to look around the house and check Ravelry because I can't remember now.

I will take pictures and post them with links. I will, and soon, because I now am taking 2 days off from the store a week. I was really going nuts, nothing was getting accomplished at home or work, it was just too much. This is the second week with my double days off (last week I still felt like a lump from the SI so I didn't get much done) so I am really trying to catch up on things and get somewhat organized and a routine going so I can get back to doing things I like - like blogging and finishing knitting project, cooking food for the family that requires more than boiling water/turning on the oven and opening a box. I love the convenience of open and heat meals, especially now that I can find healthy ones, but when it's every night it gets kind of old.

Well, the day must start! I got F off to school  already and I am going to go swimming after dropping off M, so I have to get organized. I can use the Vassar swimming pool as an alum, and I an determined to take advantage of the opportunity! Also, I get to hang out with some of my favorite people when I am there, so what could be bad?

Added after saving: Just remembered about the title - because of all the knitting and some dry skin I have a cut on my thumb and I have found it difficult to cast on with a band-aid. I was going to go somewhere with that when I started writing but I got distracted. I think that's a good thing. I guess I should put the title in once I'm done. Just a thought.