Black Sheep

Klaralund

I finished miss Klaralund .

Pattern: Klaralund from Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton Book 2.
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden in colorway 211. 8.5 balls.
Gauge: 16 sts./22 rows = 4″ in stockinette st.
Needles: size 8 - Denise interchangeables.
Completed: 11/14/2004

I finished her while I was working on the reference desk all day yesterday (shhh! don’t tell my boss! teehee). I wanted to get it done so I could wear it to a little 50th anniversary party for my library school. I also wore her again today, to work and got all kinds of compliments. I love her. I am so glad that I was inspired by Heather, Ei, & Froggy to knit her. What a fun knitting project!

Well, I’m off to finish some UFOs. And I need to get cracking on some Christmas pressies. The next few posts will probably be a series of gifts to various family members.

Hope you are all having a great week!

6 comments November 15th, 2004

San Francisco Fun

We had a blast in SF yesterday! We drove up highway 1 (kind of a long drive, but pretty) and parked in a parking garage down the street from Artfibers, which also happened to be a couple of blocks from where our little “stairway tour” started.

First things first. Artfibers. If you come to this wonderful, beautiful city, you have to visit Artfibers. It’s unique. You can’t find the yarn that they sell there anywhere else in the world. Okay, first let me show you my new stash enhancements (God, I’m so excited I can hardly contain myself!):

This was a bargain. All of this for a little over a hundred bucks! And that Chai on the far right? Pure silk. You get a 10% discount if you buy over $100 of yarn. They also made a pattern for me (see the Chai pic). They took my measurements and made the above pattern for me based on my specifications and measurements, as well as my gauge (they had me knit up a swatch of Chai). So this sweater is going to fit me perfectly! AND it’s going to be silk, baby! Yeah! Not only that, Kira (the woman in the picture on the website), actually called me and told me that there was a tiny little mistake in the pattern and told me how to fix it. This message was waiting for me when I got home. I was so impressed with that! I love this yarn store, and I will be going back. This time with some knitty girlfriends. My husband started to get a little bit tired of waiting for me (I can’t blame him).

After my yarn bliss experience, we went on our “stairway walk”. Again, highly recommended if you come to SF. The book is Stairway Walks in San Francisco and it is written by Adah Bakalinsky. This tour took us through the Financial District and along the old waterline of the SF bay. You are led around to some various historial sites, and up and down some of SF’s famous stairways. It was amazing! There were a couple of really cool stairways that wound through incredible gardens and past some really old houses. Eventually the tour walks through China Town, which is always a fun destination. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the walk:

Oh, I can’t forget Klarlund. I’m am nearly finished with the second sleeve. Maybe she will be finished today.

My yarn diet officially starts……..now. My poor credit cards. I just paid my bills. Oy oy oy. Time to get them paid down a bit. I think I am going to put some cash in jar each week or so to save up for the yarn to make Butterfly. I am so in love with that sweater. But it will just have to wait. This girl is on a budget

Hope you are all having a great weekend!

1 comment November 13th, 2004

Broadcasting Live from Sleeve Island

I’ve been stuck on Sleeve Island for the past few days:

It’s a very colorful place. Well except for the ugly brown carpeting. (I’m jealous of Ei’s beautiful white carpet…Love the leaf motif on it!)

I will hopefully be done with Klara in the next couple of days. I started the second sleeve yesterday and have knitting steadily on it. Otherwise, not much to report.

I think my hubby and I are going to go to San Francisco on Friday to do many things, one of them is going to Artfibers (and this will be the last time I spend money on yarn until I finish all of my projects. promise.) I think I am going to get some Chai - and have them help me with making a pattern. I think I will also get some Ziti so that I can make these wrist warmers. Of course, this might all change when I actually get there and see the yarn in person. But it’s always good to go shopping with a list, right? mmmm….I can’t wait.

The real reason we are going there is to do this “San Francisco Stairway walk.” These friends of mine at work were telling me about how cool it was. Apparently there are all of these hidden stairways all around San Francisco and there is a book that has all of these walks that you can go on that utilize these stairways. My friend gave me a copy of her favorite “walk” today. Looks pretty fun! I’ll get some pictures of it up if I find anything interesting to take a picture of.

The knibrarian knitting group has been meeting regularly for a few weeks now. I taught one librarian to knit last week, and she plowed through her scarf. I showed her how to bind off yesterday! We had some students knitting with us yesterday, too. And I’ve been getting all of these other staff members coming to me asking me to teach them to knit. It’s very cool! Still no pictures of our little group. I need to get up my courage to do it

The election debacle is still weighing on me, but I’m in really good company. Kerstin has been a firecracker the past few days and very inspirational! And she has pointed her readers to some other knitty progressives out there that are just as pissed off about it as I am. Don’t mess with progressive knitters. We have needles.

2 comments November 10th, 2004

Comforting Yarn

When times are tough you can always count on a nice, cozy shipment of yarn to make you feel just a little bit better.

I went a little crazy on e-bay over the weekend and fed into my Noro temptation. I started to become obsessed with Kochoran and decided I needed some. I was shocked when I saw how expensive it is. So I decided to try a pattern that doesn’t call for very much of it. That would be,Gesta from CTH2. I can’t wait to start knitting with it! sooo pretty and sooooo soft.

I also decided to knit Karlsro from CTH1. So I bought some more ebay noro. Actually, there’s a little story behind this acquisition. I bid on this yarn and it sat there for 2 days, with no one bidding against it. I kept checking on it the day that the auction ended, to make sure I wasn’t going to get outbid at the last minute. I went for a run, making sure I would make it home before the auction ended. Unfortunately, I misjudged and the auction had ended and I was outbid at the last minute! I was so mad! I mean, how lame can somebody be? Well, as it turned out, the seller offered me the same deal and I just bought it on the spot without bidding. It was very cool of her to do that .

Soooo, when I thought I had lost my bid on the Silk Garden above, I went for a smaller batch of Silk Garden. I will use these for various Christmas presents (that I better get cracking on!)

And finally, Here is the front of Klaralund. I *love* knitting this sweater. I love these colors. As I said before, I am totally mesmerized.

I am feeling slightly better….I am still pissed. But knitting is my solace.

6 comments November 4th, 2004

I am dissappointed

Well, It’s over. Kerry conceded. I am extremely dissappointed. I am even considering moving to Canada. Vancouver BC is a beautiful city and it’s close to where my family lives in Washington. Or perhaps Cali, Oregon, and Washington can secede? I mean California has, what is it, the 5th best economy in the world, (well, that was quite a few years ago..) I say, give all the red states to the crackers. Let em have it. We have agriculture, we have technology, now we have stem cell research (as of last night).

Anyway, sorry I’m on my soapbox here. Hopefully the regularly scheduled knitting blog will return tommorrow.

I should just call today a wash and go home and knit all day.

1 comment November 3rd, 2004