Toas Wool Festival Shopping List.

Things I want to buy:

• Niddy-noddy.
  
• Heavier drop spindle, maybe a top-whorl.
  
• Yarn. Duh.
  
• Something orange.
  
• Something fuzzy.
  
• Anything handspun or handpainted.
• Pale green cashmere laceweight, if it's there.
  
• Yarn Harlot's new book
  
• Maybe another book, though I can't remember what else I was wanting...
  

I wish Taos would put up their vendor list. I e-mailed them a few weeks ago and they said it probably wouldn't be up until well after the festival. Dang.

No closure

Well, Mom likes the non-lumpy, even gauge mitten better than the completed first one, but she insists she doesn't want me to rip, and that no one will notice the differences. She may be right. I'm going to finish mitten #2, see how different they are, then make a decision on whether to rip and reknit mitten #1. The perfectionist in me knows I'm going to rip/reknit, but it feels good to give myself the freedom to say, "To hell with it! These are handknit mittens and they are not identical! I'm OK WITH THAT!"

Only one more sleep till we go to TAOS!

HA!

I love this "revised" list of the Seven Habits of Highly Successful People. I personally would swap Napping for Golf and Knitting for Polo... now THAT's what I'm talking about.

Thanks to the Non-Billable Hour for the link.

Oslo, We Have A Problem

So, I'm working on a pair of Norwegian fair isle mittens for my Mom. Real traditional. Snowflakes, red and white, nice.

I finished the first mitten a week or two ago and it was kinda lumpy. Not noticeable, but my tension was totally not even throughout the first mitten.

So I started the second mitten late last week and worked on it this weekend. I have been really focused on maintaining an even tension, not pulling the stranded yarn too tight, and generally getting real zen about knitting this mitten.

See how well I've done?



Let's take a closer look, shall we?



Yes, my gauge has changed SO MUCH that the second mitten is going to be at least one and a half times bigger than the first.

Crap.

Crap Crap Crap Crap.

I guess I need to go back to my tight death grip hold on the yarn, eh?

knitting

Boring Blogger

Hi there!

I am suddenly extremely aware of exactly why I fell off the face of the blogging planet exactly this time last year. Completely overwhelmed. I'm going to try to hang in there!

Here's what my Mondays look like:
7:00: get up, scramble to shower and get out the door.
8:00-Go to school.
Go to work
Go back to school
Go back to work
Go back to school.
7:00: get out of school, go home.
7:30: scarf dinner while doing homework until 11.
11:00 try to sleep.

The other days are all the same, with the exception of Tuesday nights, my ray of hope, KNIT NIGHT. Ah, sweet leisure time! How I long for thee! Unfortunately, my weekends are looking like:
Saturday: go to school, catch up and do law review stuff.
Sunday: go to work, catch up and do work stuff.

Gee, I am SO MUCH FUN I can barely stand it. Somebody stop me before I party out of control!!!!!

I do have some knitting related news.
1. I finished the brown rainbow sparkle scarf. Looks pretty cool. I even have a picture, I just don't have time to load it.
2. I wore my Orangina to a job interview today under my suit, and it looked awesome. See #1 for explanation of why there is no picture.

No SockaPalTwoZa socks yet. You can rest assured that I will MAKE time to post a picture of those when they arrive. Until then, this is as good as it gets.

Ick

Can't tell if it's allergies or a cold. Feels like allergies, but it felt like this as I got sick exactly this time last year. Blech.

Had another interview today. These seem to be going really well. As much as I like my current job, I'm glad I'm interviewing. This firm is small enough that there probably isn't a job for me when I finish law school. And, with all this student loan debt, I'm gonna need a job.

It's intresting to note that first year attorneys at big firms here make about half what first year attorneys at big firms in Texas make. That's a significant chunk of change, kids.



ANYWAY, not much knitting. No time. I got home last night around 8 and did NO HOMEWORK. It was liberating. I watched Sex and the City reruns, took a bath, and went to bed at 10:30 (SO EARLY for me these days.) I was running late to school this morning and then discovered a run in my pantyhose, so I skipped my class. I changed hose, had my interview, and that was that.

So no knitting. Is it rude to knit at a wedding? I have one this weekend.

I LOVE my JOB!

I LOVE working at this firm. I'm doing really cool, challenging, somewhat important work. I'm getting good feedback from the people I work for, and it's just fantastic. YEAH!

Which begs the question, why I am going through On Campus Interviews with big boring firms that I don't really want to work for?

I guess the answer is, I feel like I'm supposed to do it, so I'm doing it. But the real reason is, the job I love doesn't pay all that well. It stinks. The big firm jobs do pay well. Very well. And over the course of a summer, it is a significant difference. As a student, that matters. Ah well. I can be bought, but I know what my price tag is. :-)


law, law school

SockaPalTwoZa Success!

My sock pal, Marie-france, got her socks! They made it to England in less than a week! It sounds like they fit, and she assured me that she will treasure the Koigu lovelies as much as I would have. I can now rest easy knowing my socks have a wonderful new home!

Can't WAIT to get my socks.

Ya know, it's kinda scary knitting for other knitters! But really, I'm just thrilled at the thought of something handknit for me. How cool!!!!!

knitting

Danger! Danger!

I started playing around with iTunes last night and I TOTALLY WANT AN IPOD. I'm really struggling between a 20 gig iPod and the new 4 gig iPod Nano. I don't have a ton of CDs, so the Nano is really all I need. And it is super cute and small.

And get this- my Mom is actually supportive of the purchase. (I KNOW! I'm shocked too!!!) She's supportive since I don't have a CD player in my car.

Yes, I am 28 years old and I shouldn't need my Mother's approval for this kind of purchase. It's rediculous.

Anyone have an opinion on which I should get? SHARE! Please!

And while we're at it, I'm thinking of moving to a new blog home. Options are TypePad and Squarespace. I know Squarespace has some really cool visual design features, but TypePad has the better price. Hmm, decisions, decisions.

Yarnventory .

Well, I did it. I inventoried my yarn. And just as I had suspected, I had forgotten about some pretty freaking cool stuff.

So what did I learn?

I have 43 projects' worth of yarn, unless I combine some things in multi-color projects, which is highly likely.

I have rougly 22,485 yards worth of yarn. I had to estimate on a LOT of that (2 mystery cones of lacewieght and LOTS of random balls of yarn without labels/yardage), but I think it's probably accurate. I know for sure that I have 11,754 yards worth of yarn that is labelled. Yikes- half my yarn is completely label free. What a disaster.

Most of my yarns are: off white, white, red, blue, or black, with some other colors mixed in. I heart bright handpainted sock yarns. I have mostly worsted, DK, sock, and lace weight yarns. Not much fuzzy stuff- I have a mohair deficiency.

I have enough yarn to make:

• 2 sweaters
  
• 4 lace shawls
  
• 10 pairs of socks
  
• 7 or 8 Scarves
  
• 3 hats
  
• 3 or 4 pairs of baby booties
  
• 2 Baby blankets
  
• 2 or 2 baby sweaters.
  

This does not include yarn for works in progress- add another 2000ish yards for that...


Yikes!

I did this little exercise so I can make intelligent yarn purchases in the future. I am banned from buying off-white or white yarn for a good long time.

I do want to get some:

• Fuzzy yarn- mohair. Kidsilk Haze, anyone?
  
• Yummy deep orange yarn- scarf would be good.
  
• Deep, dark chocolate brown yarn for a sweater. Just what I need- another big project!
  
• Warmer colors in general- I have lots of cool brights and pastels. Need to branch out.
  

UPDATE: Oh crap, I forgot about a whole bunch of yarn:

• There's a garbage bag full of misc. bulky weight wool in the garage. Mom has been raiding it for her felted bags. It's nothing I'll ever use, so it doesn't count... right? Even though it's technically mine? Dang. I thought so.
  
• There's another garbage bag full of half balls of unlabelled yarn in the garage. Looks to be mostly worsted weight. My friend Katie's grandmother is a knitter and apparently unloaded all of her oddballs onto Katie, who knits one thing a year, and Katie unloaded it onto me. Lucky me. I think this might make a pretty cool Psychadelic Squares Afghan.
  
• There's some yarn in my cedar chest which is currently in storage. It's the yarn that didn't make the "take it to the house" cut when I moved in February. I have NO IDEA what's in the chest.... Hmmmm. Nope, no idea.
  

Now THAT's all the yarn, I PROMISE. I even cleaned out my closet to make sure.

knitting

It's almost fall!

It has been really cool here in the mornings, and today was the first day that there was that undertone of chill in the air all day long. I know Albuquerque's high was in the 80s, but there was that slight edge... Fall is almost here!

Which is why I'm so freaking obsessed with yarn right now. In my mind, fall is knitting season. Alas, fall is also school season, and the two seem to be mutually exclusive right now.

We're knee deep in OCI scheduling (that's On Campus Interviews, for the non-law people). I applied with 6 NM firms and am waiting to hear if I get interviews with all of them. I also applied with a couple other firms that were asking for resumes (San Antonio, New York, and big labor firm with offices pretty much everywhere but here.)

According to the NY City firm, my resume is "rather impressive" and has been passed on to their recruiting department. Hmm. I'll try NYC for a summer! It'd be worth it just to be in the same city as Purl, School Products, Habu, The Yarn Co, String.... I do kinda miss the east coast right now...

knitting

Dreaming of Knitting.

I am really wishing I had more time to knit this year. I have so many things I want to knit, and so much yarn to use up!

Some projects I'd love to do:
Rogue. I have enough of 2 different kinds of yarn that I could make it out of... Off-white Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran or Navy Blue Jaeger Merino Aran.

Flora from Knitty. There are versions of this scarflett/ascot/neckwarmer thingy in almost all of this fall's fashion magazines! All the ones I saw were off-white. I have a ton of different yarns in smaller amounts that would be perfect for this: off-white pima cotton, Tilli Thomas Disco Lights in bluebell, Textiles a Manos silk/wool in variegated pinks/reds/oranges, my pale lilac single ply Alpaca from Victory Ranch and a TON of other things I can't remember... All these yarns would also make great hats, but I rarely wear hats....

Socks! I have so much sock yarn. And there's new stuff out there- have you seen Sunshine Yarns? And The Sweet Shop is about to open where Sweet Georgia will be selling her handpainted sock yarns. Do I need any more gorgeous handpainted 100% merino sock yarn in non-subtle colors? I have 8.5 pairs worth of yarn waiting for me. Literally- I counted.
Anyway, there are a million sock patterns out there that I want to make. Lots in Folk Socks, lots in Knitting on the Road, lots online, lots in various knitalongs, lots in old Interweave Knits, lots in Knitty.... Maybe I do need more sock yarn.

Baby stuff. I'm way behind on baby knitting. Already born knitted-gift-less babes: cousin's baby boy (born in May); college friend's baby boy (born in May); there's another one... And yet to be born babes- my law school best friend's baby arriving mid October. I'm thinking bonnets, and maybe a Knitty Trellis or two. And booties. So. Cute.

Other gifts. I have 2 gifts in progress- Mom's norwegian mittens and brother's camoflage socks. Both are kinda stalled. Should probably work on these. Also, Mr. C. wants a Team Zissou/Life Aquatic ribbed hat- already have the yarn.

And I'm dying to make one of these. Hill Country Weavers in Austin has a sample scarf like this that is absolutely spectacular.

Yeah. So a few projects.

knitting

Something's Gotta Give

I just have too much going on right now. That's all there is to it. Something has got to go. I haven't even gotten busy at school yet, and law review hasn't really started- that's next week. So this isn't even as bad as it is going to get.

Yikes.

The problem? I want to do everything I'm doing. The obvious choice is to cut the job, but I love it, love the people, love the work, love the environment... It's awesome. And I'm not quitting law review- very necessary for the jobs I'm looking at (especially judicial clerkships, state and federal.) I could drop Art Law. That is in fact a distinct option. But really, I'm already slacking on the work, and it only meets once a week. Must get that switched to pass/fail. That'll be a little itty bitty tiny bit.

Mom suggested cutting out knit night. I think she was HIGH- I need the hour of sanity every week. And it's my only social time all week long. I'm not kidding.

So. Busy. Yeah.
Did I mention a little bit overwhelmed, too?

AND I'm afraid I'm going to run out of yarn on the hourglass sweater. And I'm only 3 inches in to the body.

Goodbye, Sock Pal Socks!

I mailed off my SockaPalTwoZa socks today. Good bye, socks! They're going overseas, and I'm running late (gee, there's a surprise!) so I sent them Global Priority Mail- should be there next week at the latest- I'm hoping for a little earlier!

One last parting photo:



Oh, I do love Koigu. Mmmmmm.
knitting

And Family!

In addition to having a fabulous northern New Mexico minibreak, my baby brother was in town for the long Labor Day weekend! It's so nice to see him. He is such a fabulous guy. We had some qualiity time together on Monday.

Here are some family pictures:



Middle brother on left, baby brother on right. Me in the middle.

Good Food!!!!!

I had a fantastic meal last night at Graze. Graze's menu is all appetizer sized portions of yummy things designed to share. We had:

• The tomato, potato, rosemary, and pecorino soup,
  
• The cheese plate, an aged Tillamook cheddar with homemade crackers, lightly dressed arugula, and a mystery fruit jam,
  
• Sashimi of some kind,
  
• Deviled eggs,
  
• Cold Thai beef salad with carrots, lime, and peanuts, and
  
• Sunfish with spicy peanut lime sauce.

Everything was phenomenal. You could tell every ingredient was super fresh. Nothing was overdone- very simple, straightforward flavors that went really, really well together. We also had a decent bottle of wine and an amazing flourless chocolate cake with caramel ice cream for dessert.

I had been warned that it was obscenely expensive, but the total price wasn't bad at all. I DEFINITELY want to go back.

Back to their roots...

Hot diggity, the new Knitty is up. This is the first issue I've liked in a while. Feels like back to basics- nice, attractive, creative patterns that you don't see everywhere else, but that are still things I want to knit. Nicely done!

knitting

Cue the Angels, and Thanks to the World!

First off, HALLELUJAH! I have a law review topic. Whew! What a releif!

Second, thank you world, for the outpouring of support in the wake of Hurricane Katrina! I know we're not very gracious aid recipients, so on behalf of the United States, THANK YOU.

I heard a wonderful story on NPR this evening about how aid is coming from everywhere. Canada is amazing. Thank you. So is everyone else. I know it doesn't matter that some chick in New Mexico (is that even in the states!?!?!) is offering her heartfelt thanks, but I am. So thanks. Again. No, really. Thank you.

More food, More fiber, More fun!

Go check out Meg's pictures!

Now, where was I? Oh yes. Hike. Ouch. Hips are stiff. In a good way.

So after our little hike, we piled in the car and headed home, or so the Germans would have us believe!

On the way back, P made a suprise detour and took us to the Victory Ranch Alpaca and Llama Farm! Did I mention that P is wonderful?

So, pictures of cute furry animals:







And here's what I bought:


From Left to Right:

• Some red and slightly purple roving with SPARKLES! From Taos Sunflower. Love this stuff!
  
• Crocheted alpaca gloves from Victory Ranch. So cool and vintage looking!
  
• Opal Zebra sock yarn from Taos Sunflower. Wheee! More socks!
  
• Some fabulously soft alpaca singles from Victory Ranch in icy blue. LOVE it. So. Soft. Can't stop petting it.
  

Yes, it was a FABULOUS weekend.

Good Food, Good Fiber, Good Fun!

Or, My Labor Day Weekend With A Yarn Addict and the Man Who Loves Her

P and Meg kindly invited me to join them on a little north country adventure this weekend: a night of camping north of Taos. It was FABULOUS.

We left Albaturkey at 8:30ish and drove straight to Taos Sunflower, my new favorite yarn store. P is a good man, let me tell you. It was his idea!!! This is a great store- tons of fabulous yarns, tons of fabulous colors, all CLEARLY PRICED and DISPLAYED SO YOU COULD SEE EVERYTHING. Novel concept, I know, but IT WORKS. Wonderful little store! Pictures of my acquisition later...

Then we drove to a super secret campground that was mostly deserted, except for our middle aged frat boy neighbors, who blessedly passed out fast. The view from our camp site:


Yes, we were camped on the edge of the Rio Grande Gorge. Spectacular.







We had a mellow afternoon of reading, knitting, and a little walking. It was fab.

The Chef P flexed his culinary muscles and cooked up an amazing dinner of chicken fajitas. MMMMMMMMMMMMM. I don't cook this well in my fully stocked kitchen, people!

Then we made s'mores over the campfire. Turns out Meg and I have something in common: we're both scorchers. Stick that smallow in the fire and let it burn, baby!!!! We like our marshmallows charred and crispy



I have a great shot of P munching on a smore, but I want to get permisison before posting it here.

Sunday morning we got up and hiked down to the river and back. A wee bit more athletic than I normally partake of, but mostly enjoyable nonethless.


That's all I have time for now. Tomorrow: Part 2 of Food, Fiber, Fun! and stash enhancement!

On No! No state fair knitting for me!!!

Crapola! I completely forgot to get my Charlotte over to the New Mexico State Fair today, and I'm going camping with

What a beautiful world?

I don't get very political here, mostly because I don't have the fire that a lot of my more passionate friends have. But I have to say that I am so sad about what's happening in our world right now.

The stampede in Iraq is heartbreaking. It is so sad that people are living in such a constant state of fear that rumors alone caused over 900 people to die in a horrible, horrible way.

And the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is appalling. I'm sure no one anticipated how bad things would get. I'm worried about the people in the southeast, the people in New Orleans, the people who have been displaced. I'm worried about gas prices and our fragile economy. Mostly I'm just sad that things have devolved to such misery and violence in New Orleans. My heart goes out to the people who have been affected. Not that it matters much in terms of dollars or food or sanitation, but I'm sorry nonetheless.

Thanks for bearing with me. Will hopefully be more upbeat tomorrow. It's amazing how contributing at all helps feel better. Here's where I chose to give- hope you feel inspired to do so, too, even if it's just $5.