Hussie... Hoochie... HARLOT

Yep, we got the YARN HARLOT live and in person tonight. YAY!



She recognized my yarn as Koigu even before she looked at me... Truly a kindred spirit. If the Harlot comes to a town near you, GO. Don't think twice- she is kind, wondeful, funny, and completely totally down to earth.

Thanks, Stephanie! You made my day!

I got plenty of nothin...

It's hot.

No knitting.

Hence no photos.


Working a lot.

Verbal job=non-verbal activities when not at job.

Hence no posts.


Wedding planning.

Shockingly expensive.

Hence no yarnageddon style stash acquisition, despite nice lawyerly paycheck.

Also, trying not to buy dress that makes me look like (1) 12 year old, or (2) hooker.

Harder than seems.

Hence, cranky with saleswoman who tried to talk me into designing my own frankendress last weekend.

Good times!

Sorry, Charlie....

I just have to disagree with Scout on this one... I LOVE THIS WEATHER. It's simply fabulous. Hasn't topped 85, nice cloudcover (sun gets oppressive) and the soft rolling thunder and mellow rain last night was a perfect, perfect lullaby. The great thing about living in New Mexico is that you really only get days like this once every three or four months at most- so you can really enjoy it!

AND.... it's good knitting weather. I only got a few rows in on my Green Gable, but it counts. YAY!

In other news, we have a wedding date, a church, and a reception site! WOOHOOOOOOO!

Gah!

I must have a chronic illness.

Symptoms?

• Knitting once a week, halfheartedly, at knit night.
  
• Absolutely no desire to buy yarn, in person or online.
  
• No pressing need to order knitting books from amazon.
  
• Appalling lack of cruising ebay for cheap Alice Starmore books or yarn.
  
• 4 projects on the needles, and forecast for those projects to remain in current state indefinitely. SEE:
  
  
  
  I took that picture two weeks ago and the only change is that the sock is half an inch longer. Whopee!!!
  

It must be because:

• It's summer. Freakin frackin hot.
  
• I'm working 8-5 again and am really tired when I get home.
  
• Wedding planning/brainstorming is taking a lot of energy.
  
• It's HOT.
  
• My Main Knitting Buddy is about to move across the country, and I'm going to miss her!
  
• HOT. HOT. HOT.
  

What I Did on WWKIP Day

I did have my knitting with me on World Wide Knit In Public Day, but I didn't knit a stitch. In fact, the only time I spent with my Koigu was posing for this:



Because I spent the rest of the day doing this:



Yes, I learned how to golf this weekend (note the most excellent extremely vintage golf bag on the left- lent to me courtesy of a colleague at work.) I must admit that I was not thrilled with the prospect of having to play in a firm golf tournament, especially since I had never held a golf club before Wednesday night (panic-induced practice session) and I'm not keen on embarrassing myself in front of people I'm trying to impress. Nevertheless, I had a BLAST golfing on Saturday. I played reasonably well given my complete lack of exposure (we used 2 of my drives, 2 of my putts, and a chip shot in this best ball tournament), got to spend the day with three great attorneys from my firm, and it was a textbook gorgeous New Mexico day.



All in all, a very enjoyable way to pass a summer afternoon.

Ahh, the good old days

Just got news today that the last company I worked for in Austin went belly up. The investors finally pulled the plug on this technology startup company that never, in the seven years of its existence, had a product to sell. I'm shocked and appalled that it took this long, frankly.

This also makes it official: every company I worked for in Austin is now extinct. Granted, I arrived right as the dotcom bubble burst, and I worked for some really bad companies (did I ever tell you about the one where the owner's one client was his wife's company, and he had an affair with her secretary, and the bookkeeper was embezzling funds so that all our paychecks bounced, and speaking of bouncing all my coworkers were bouncers from a bar in Corpus Christi that the owner frequented while cheating on his wife? Good times.)

This company could have had a chance- but a biiiig ego CEO and a bad market combine for bad results. I'm grateful for my time there- learned a lot and met some fabulous people-but I'm sorry the whole exercise turned out to be such a colossal waste of money.

New job

Started a new job this week, with the law firm with a sense of humor that knows about the knit blog. The blog came up several times on my first day (hi guys!) and... well, I won't be talking much about work.

Except that I'm expecting to have a great summer!

Knitting was accomplished while I was out of town, but there has been no time to post. Soon. Promise.

Dye Job Success!

I finally got around to dying the yarn I bought from Greenwood Fiberworks. Carolyn was fantastic- even offered to replace the pink with a different dyelot. I really do highly recommend her yarns- this cotton lycra stuff is amazing, and her variegateds look really fab.

I went to Village Wools, the LYS, and they hooked me up with professional fiber reactive dyes. I bought the "strongest red" and "navy blue" (decided to dye the blue, too, while I was at it...). I was paranoid that I was going to give myself chemical burns while spilling dye all over the house, but managed to complete the exercise without either... Yay!



Instead of the very mellow dusty rose and cadet blue, I now have a true navy and a fabulous red- slight blue undertones, but really vibrant. I'm so pleased!

I found some great dye-ing resources while I was at it:

• How to dye cottons in the washing machine from Colorado Whoelsale Dyes (click "Instructions")
  
• Another set of great instructions along with tons of other info from G&S Dye Co.
  
• Great tutorials from Paula Burch

.

Two Weeks of Happy

I just got back from two weeks with the BF. Don't we look happy?



Wait... What's that on my left hand? Why, yes, it is what you think it is....



Mr. C asked me to marry him two weeks ago, and I said YES. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!! (And yes, I am driving- he proposed in El Paso and I had to drive back to Albuquerque the next day.)



I'm so very very very excited. Even more in love with him now than when we met. I'm so glad we found each other!

Lucky 13

Oh yeah- Add one for Becky.

Oy Vay. Anyone one else want to tell me they're pregnant before I publish this post?

Crazy

Sorry to have gone silent...

I survived finals, there has been knitting, and dyeing, and a WHOLE LOT of other stuff...

I even have pictures, but I'm in Austin and my laptop won't talk to the wireless network so I can't post them. (AURGH).

The next few days are looking pretty busy- C's sister's graduation from Pharmacy School, complete with influx of his family, is happening AT THE SAME TIME as my best friend's wedding, and we have some of our own stuff to celebrate, if we ever get the time!

Eventually, we will return to your reguarly scheduled knitblogging. Until then, hang on! It's going to be a wild ride!

Beee-yutiful

Have you seen january one's palette for a Mason-Dixon style log cabin? All Socks That Rock Heavyweight. And amazing color sense.

If I could only knit one thing before I die, this might just be it. Garter strips. Whooda thunkit...

Gimme a Break!

gimme a break!
gimme a break!
break me off a piece of that....


IT'S SUMMER VACATION- time for a break! And, incidentally, time for an adult beverage to celebrate the end of a horrendous finals session.

Catch ya in a few days....

OUCH.

I just got completely blindsided by an exam. Oh well- no time to linger- time to cram for the next one. Oy.

Internet Shopping!

The internet, iTunes in particular, make impuse buys WAAAAY too easy.

I just bought (well, technically, I just "licensed" from iTunes) KT Tunstall's Eye to the Telescope album. Wowza.

Gotta love this whole instant gratification thing. No need to go out to various music stores searching for a copy of the CD- I can just download it. RIGHT NOW!

I Heart Greenwood Fiberworks

I broke down and bought some of the cotton/lycra sock yarn from Greenwood Fiberworks that Grumperina was raving about the other day. Apparently I ordered it right before her most recent post because she promptly sold out of the cotton/lycra blend shortly after I ordered.

Take a look:



I love it. It's stretchy, thin, fabulous, and should make GREAT SOCKS. BUT, the pink looked a little more vibrant/raspberry/magenta in the photo on etsy; in person, it's a dusty rose. Me no likey as much as a louder, brighter, clearer color. Perhaps this is my chance to dye?

(Note: I will be ordering from Greenwood Fiberworks again- the shipping was lightning fast, well packaged, and totally professional- I am WAY impressed with her and I think this was more error in judgment on my part than anything else).

Some preliminary research indicates that kool aid dyes do not work on cotton. Damn. Any suggestions? And, color experts, is it even possible to overdye this in such a way that the color is deeper and more vibrant (ie not dusty)? All thoughts are much appreciated...

I'm A Sheep

Like everyone else in blogland, I have cast on for Green Gables (I love these knitalong blogs! So many great tips in one place!). I have also ripped it out to start over, but that part comes later in the story.

I'm using stashed organic Pakucho Cotton from elann last summer. YAY for stash yarn! I started with a knitted cast on (scroll down), and I hated it! SOOOO floppy. Also attempted to use size 8s, cause that's what I had on hand.

Yeah. Bad cast on + wrong gauge = rip!

Apparently the designers have recently indicated that a backward loop cast on is the way to go, but I don't much care for that... So I'm going to follow this advice and use the German cast on, which I frequently use for SOCKS.

Hopefully I'll get to restart tonight (as a reward for studying at all today...)

ETA: DO check out this post on sizing issues- saved me the heartache of a totally too big sweater.

A dozen....

Yep, that's right, it's ANOTHER baby update... This time an unkown babe for Carin in December.

Anyone up for lucky 13?

Hmmm. Finals.

I'm suddenly feeling much less panicky about my upcoming finals... There's still plenty to do, but I am elated by this feeling that it is all manageable....

Makes me want to knit something really complicated.... Or schedule my massage for tomorrow instead of after it's all over in a week....

I am not normal.

Albuquerque Favorites: Cake Fetish

Albuquerque has a cupcake store! Hurrah for Cake Fetish! Someone else has summarized the scoop, but I want to share.

Cake Fetish is located in the Encantada Square shopping center on the north west corner of Louisiana and Menaul (right across Menaul from Coronado Mall). They make FABULOUS cupcakes in really great flavors- Peanut butter chocolate, grasshopper, velvet evlis, sleepless in albuquerque, german chocolate, lemon, etc etc etc. The frosting is fabulous- exactly the right consistency- and the cake bases are wonderful as well. So fun!