two knits of ivory

I think my subconscious is telling me to pick up some old Judy Blume books. That's the second time this spring my muse called forth a title punned from "Are you there God, it's me Margaret." So I bought more yarn. Who'd a thunk? This most recent acquisition is filed under retail therapy. I was in need and it did the trick. Five months ago I darkened my hair considerably. When I was going more natural with the color, my clothes color range was as narrow as my palate: green to blue to beige to white. These colors have been my steady companion for at least 10 years. A couple of years ago I bought my first non-blue coat, and it's just been chaos at chez yarn. Absolute chaos. Now I'm wearing PINK. Me in pink. But you know, I think pink goes great with my hair. So, I'm trying not to let ms. inner kool kat laugh in that snide, condescending way she has, making me feel 12 and inadequate, and clutching for the fortification of an all black w...

In the flush of first love my husband told me he would bring me the jewels of the world. He's fabulously corny like that. He means it from the depths of his unironic, romantic soul. Of course, I'm a cynic. I smiled at him, most likely batting my eyes, and thought to myself, oh yeah, I'll hold my breath for that. Not. Other than requiring a big fat engagement ring to satisfy the poor girl chip on my shoulder, I have very little interest in jewels or jewelry. This weekend, though, I realized that my husband has been keeping his word. The skein of yarn above is Sundara sock in the Candle to the Sun colorway. (I'm not sure if it was a limited edition or one-off colorway). When I was sick a few weeks ago, my hunny offered to buy me yarn to help me feel better. This skein was one of three colorways I purchased under this directive. Almost all the yarn I've been stashing lately has been purchased by the hubster. Who knew when he promised me the jewels of ...

OMG do I need to get that self important drama llama ding dong from Tuesday off the top shelf! It hurts to look at it, but look at I do and do and do. I'm obsessed with my own experiences. I'm obsessed with squeezing every fucking drop of meaning out of every gosh darn thing. Hello, calling Mrs. M. Umm, that's how you roll. So deal. And deal I do. But today (yeah!) I am beginning to grasp at the fringes of self mockery and it feels awesomesauce. A.W.E.S.O.M.E.S.A.U.C.E. Ring around the drama llama. I've decided to blame Wharton for this recent setback. I finally took out a book and used my eyes to read it and it wasn't about Bella fuckin' Swan. Miracle of miracles! (OMG! what's that song?!? - "vanity of vanities the whole thing is a vain parade" - Hand of God, Soundgarten.) (Yes, welcome to two knits, the home of the vain parade. Snerk.) I haven't picked up Wharton in many years and my perspective on her writings has cha...

My ability to ignore the obvious is monumental sometimes. The irony in my last post about keeping things in moderation, while showcasing two large gift projects cast on in the same week, took days to grasp. Not the brightest bulb on the tree, I am. But moving right along, harnessing the willpower to clean out my knitting basket last month has finally borne its fruit. One of the projects I completed as part of this undertaking is a pair of cable rib socks in one of my most coveted colorways, Lorna Lace's Gold Hill (details ravelled ). Started as an easy Xmas travel project, on December 22, they lingered and lingered and then lingered some more on their needles. Almost two months passed before they were complete and when they were done, I questioned if I hadn't seen the last of any sock knitting for the forseable future. (I was pretty disappointed by this yarn. In more than one location I found what I believe are clumps of white nylon.) The ennui surrounding the project was ...

After the house cleaning my yarn and knitting underwent this weekend, I think I may have summitted the malaise. (Am I tempting fate by even writing this?) One thing is for sure, Nell made a great point in the comments: "Isn't it amazing how knitting can take you from feeling like a genius to an idiot in a few stitches?" I'm used to feeling like an idiot, therefore this aspect of knitting fits like a favorite pair of old boots. Having something in one's life akin to conquering if your own Mt. Everest, your own Mt. Washington, well, that is fascinating and invigorating. So yes, Nell, it is immoderately amazing. As I had hoped for, I finished my Sunshine and Shadows Shawl (not a triangle!) this weekend. Once I had blocked it out I stood back in awe. It was magic, this beautiful garment, magic. Somehow, this frumpy old hag (me) took two sticks and some string and made this: Am I straining under a pile hyperbole? Well, maybe just a smidge. When you feel so dark for so...

OMG I just lost my whole post and my heart is broken. I really had a lot to say about reading, and grammar, and audibooks, and omg... I just have to walk away and pretend this didn't happen. I even have an FO and some minor milestones in spinning. I will leave all the post labels as testament to what this post once was. May she rest in peace. Happy Sunday blogland...

My Sunday morning waking dream was the design of a sweater using the much neglected Cascade 220 Superwash that's nearing a year in my stash. Ya know, cuz the best time to knit a sweater is the cusp of summer, right? :-/ This lovely yarn has been the subject of several design schemes, none of which came to fruition, including a sweater or two. The heathered tones scream out to become the vining twine leaf pattern I used in Project Stole . I'm thinking of just transposing the stole's motif right onto the front and back of a sweater, paired with a mini cabled rib for the neck, arm, and waistbands. But before I even think of designing something as ambitious as that, I've got to find the end of the Sunshine and Shadow Shawl , which has, by nature of my pattern dyslexia morphed into a leaf and medallion triangle. Who knew that the patterns in a book called "Knitting Lace Triangles " were the size of large hankerchiefs and not adult-bodied-sized shawls. Yes, ...

Knitting Kris's comment about knitting her a pair of Digitessas got me thinking. Maybe I could post an ad on Ravelry, like "Will knit Digitessa's for free Wollmeise!" Sadly, at the rate things are going, this may be the only avenue open to me to ever own some of Claudia's yarn . I've just the cuffs left on both Digitessas, but am taking it slow. The row after row of p1/twisted k1 of the cuffs caused one of the worst flareups of tendonitis I've ever experienced when I plowed through my first pair. As soon as I felt an inkling of a twinge last night, I quickly switched the socks out with the Sunshine and Shadows shawl. It's was a touch choice, though, because my discipline to keep only two socks on needles at a time is stopping me from doing what I really want, and that is to try a new sock pattern. My inner martinet is telling me I should focus on finishing my Herbed Carrots . The problem is, I'm kinda hating on this sock at the moment. It'...

Sunday found me wiping my knitting plate clean, so to speak. I accepted that the log cabin afghan, which had been thrown over for a chevron afghan, was no longer a project, and that the Malabrigo lime and blue scarf/cowl/wtf should be frogged and put away, also. I then whipped out my swift and my ball winder and lost myself in making sock yarn cakes. When the cakes were done, I frogged my jewel rib sock and recaked the yarn. My knitting heart is elsewhere and I need a fresh start to take full enjoyment of it. So where is my mind? Two places. I hit an LYS Sunday and picked up these two beauties: I truly don't understand this direction my interest is taking, as I don't wear lace, and am not a lacy, ethereal, delicate type of gal. But my desire goeth there, so musteth I. I think my recent blogstalking of Cookie , over at Shut Up and Knit is making me a wannabe. Dogged Knit's Ashley's recently completed Shetland Triangle probably played a part, too. But as I contemplate ...

Knitting Kris called me out on my literary allusion in yesterday's post, and I'm sad to say I have so little memory of the either the Milan Kundera movie or book, The Unbearable Lightness of Being . I devoured a handful of his books a lifetime ago but the melancholy they left in their wake has proven easy to resist. They did survive the great book purge of aught six because I do look forward to reading them again, this time with the lens only age and experience bestows. So long story short, Kris? I can't say with any certainty, but maybe someday I may. :-) Someday. Well, as soon as I stop knitting with all my free time, that is. I must admit, I did not finish my first Digitessa sock. Nope. I'm just on the cusp of done. Today, though, I wanted to confess my binging ways, and with a woot! Over a week ago, I put in some time on my Log Cabin Afghan . I finally decided which direction to go with the color integration, only to be hampered by my needles. This projec...

Most normal people spend their weekends with their people. Me, not so much. I prefer being alone and somehow I managed to find a hubby (or maybe he was lucky to find me!!!) who likes being alone near me. We are an odd pair. But as the romance movie goes, "together we make sense." (Anyone remember that 1993 gem ?) On Saturday I was in definite need of alone time, as well as in full avoidance mode of both La Digitessa AND Yellow Toot . I barely knew what to do with myself. I picked up my two new books, Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitting and Clara Parke's Knitter's Book of Yarn and got comfy on my loveseat. I whipped through New Pathways, as it's a pattern based book and I'm not ready to take on a new sock project. I took my time with the Knitter's Book of Yarn, reading about 85% of the yarn section and then a quick perusal of all the patterns. I hate to say it but I was a teensy weensy bit disappointed. It's definitely a fabulous resource...

My Knitpicks package came Tuesday. Our mailman left it on a heap of snow next to our mailbox. I was a little pissed off to see that some snow had adhered to the box and in melting had saturated the cardboard. I was ready to get real pissy, as I all I could think about were the precious books inside being ruined by the moisture. I stuck it in the sink and pried it open and was relieved that everything inside was in perfect condition. Whew! So, what do we have here?! Clara Parkes' Book of Yarn. I had seen this book and consigned it to the novelty category, as far as level of wanting it. However, as soon as found out it was written by Mrs. Knitter's Review , it was immediately converted to must-have status. I'm not a regular over at KR, by any stretch of the imagination, but whenever I wanted some info on a yarn or needles or something, I have found it a fabulous and more importantly, reliable, resource. I expect nothing less from this book. Then there's Cat Bordhi's ...

This week as I mulled some important life questions I also was facing up to a glitch in my own behavior over the past month. Year upon year (really decade upon decade) of lean times has made me fairly parsimonious, or so I like to think of myself until I come face to face with my alter ego, Miss Sallie Spendthrift. Now I am a quirky person. I know this and I work with this. I learned early on, having made my own money starting with a paper route at age 11, that I have a bit of problem with spending monomania. Having little money meant that I wouldn't go shopping very often. So when I did the impetus sometimes was from a sense of compulsion, rather than a concrete need. In other words, I am prone to spending binges. Even as a young girl I knew what to do and that is let it run its course and then pick up the pieces afterwords. So, I'd buy up all sorts of stuff and then the next day, or week, I'd return most, if not all of it. The money was always needed for more pra...

With the kinks in Blueberry Moon just about ironed out, I've spent an inordinate amount of time stalling on getting the yarn for the Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran stole project . I tried to get to Wild and Woolly in Lexington, MA, which is listed as a retailer of the yarn. I was unsuccessful, they weren't open for the holiday. Pooh. But that's not the whole of it. I don't think any LYS is going to have 15 balls of the color I want, and I know an online retailer will. So why am I dragging my feet? I think I've finally acknowledged to myself that I'm not ready for a 1,500 yard cable project, especially since the yarn is going to cost over $100. I feel a strong pressure to use up the yarn I purchased this summer before moving on to new projects. Unlike most knitters I actually hate to stash yarn. I feel prisoner to all the unused yarn I've purchased in the past and never used. My stash is like a proverbial leaded ball and chain. So I've turned my attention to the...

I posted a review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on bn.com a few minutes ago. I'm sure my first impressions will change, as I expect the disappointments looming large now will fade, replaced by the overall enjoyment I've experienced reading the series. My review (slightly edited): I first picked up HP & The Sorcerer's Stone the year the movie of the same name came out. I dutifully began Chamber of Secrets upon finishing Book 1 but was soured by the formulaic quality of the story in the first few chapters: Once again the book began with Harry going off to school, once again the characters face a farcical dilemma. It read like serial fiction, not something I enjoy, and so I abandoned the books, giving them away to someone I hoped who could appreciate them, my nephew. In 2005 serendipity had me spending time around my nieces the week HP and the Half Blood Prince came out and being bored in rural NY it was only a matter of time I would pick up one of the str...

I finished the Harry Potter and the Dealthy Hallows last night and today, even after a good night's sleep, I'm exhausted. My brain is befuddled. I thought some knitting might help. I bought some buttons for the Summer Set cardigan Friday. This morning I tried the cardigan on and decided it's long enough to begin the 2 x 2 ribbing trim. The problem? I don't have size 6 circulars. Big d'oh. I do have have a pair of 12" straights that I attempted to use this morning. Yeah? not really. :-P I quickly realized it wasn't gonna work. Yet I'm in no shape to do anything about my lack of instruments. I've also cast on the second Sweet Tarts sock after turning the heal of the first. It dawned on me late last week I may be suffering from finishitis.

Harry Potter season is beginning at Chez Yarn, at least my part of Chez Yarn. Hubby just goes along for the ride and occasionally finds the inner resources to listen patiently to my earnest discussions of said boy wizard. Luckily for him, I'm not a year round fan. Prior to 2005 my interest in reading had all but disappeared for what seems like a decade. Was it marriage, home ownership or the "thing" we dealt with in the early aught years? I'm not sure, but in 2005, I took up reading again like a hungry man takes up his first free meal. For almost 35 years I've been reading at random. My interest had no focal point and so I wandered from one English or American classic to another. But I've never read one author or about one thing for than a month or so. Yet in the past few years I've developed a recurring reading schedule that although in its early stages, feels quite permanent. Summer has been Harry Potter season, fall has been Jane Austen season, and spri...