Covet! Wednesday

Sundara Yarn
Originally uploaded by zombiegirl1

I usually scour etsy and ravelry and various other websites for beautiful yarns and knitting tools but I've been in a bit of an organizational/cleaning/throw-everything-out kind of funk so time at home has been spent emptying drawers and closets and dressers instead of cruising on the computer. However I did receive my Seasons yarn club shipment on Friday from Sundara and it's rather mouth-wateringly gorgeous. It's 400 yards of fingering weight silky merino that's dying to be made up into a lacy little scarf. At first I thought socks but I've got a certain project in mind that will show off the color and feel uber-luxurious against a certain someone's neck.

I've noticed that while I've been finishing projects I haven't really been posting pics so that'll hopefully be remedied in the next couple of weeks. Motivation for picture taking is lacking when it's cold outside and all I want to do when I get home is to slip into comfy clothes and get toasty.

Music Monday

Morrissey has been a part of my life even when I didn't know it. I thought my first exposure was a mixed tape (yes, cassette tape) that Nickie made for me and that subsequent replays and replays and replays stretched out and distorted. I was wrong. The 80's movies that my teenage babysitter, Brenda, brought over and let me stay up late to watch were filled with instrumental Smiths songs. Ferris Bueller's Day Off when the crew is in the museum, Ducky pondering his unrequited love for Molly Ringwald in Pretty in Pink. There's just something about teenage angst and Morrissey that go hand in hand and Louder than Bombs is the best (in my opinion) vehicle for expressing that angst. A good friend gifted me with his double vinyl album that had made it through the 80's, desert heat, and a house fire not to mention my constant replay of favorites. There is such a broad array of subject matter, of music and vocal stylings that one can't help but to find something appealing and that expresses exactly a mood or fleeting feeling. Louder than Bombs is my holy grail of MOZ.

By the way, if you're on Ravelry there's a Morrissey Lover's Group. Join.

Covet! Wednesday

I'm in major love for all things aubergine/plum colored these days. Curiously enough I have nothing in my wardrobe to reflect this so I've been daydreaming about a little cardigan or pullover in this gorgeous stuff from Blue Sky Alpacas. Its a 50/50 silk/alpaca blend and I loooove it. The only thing holding me back is that it's fingering weight (ouch!) which is a bit well, tedious for a whole sweater and the price tag is about 10$ for 146 yds. Not too bad for the luxury of the blend but I'd need about 14 skeins for the project I have in mind. Maybe it'll be my one purchase from the tax return we'll be getting but I know I want to just bury myself in a pile of it and take a nap. Yum.

Music Monday

Almost forgot about music Monday, it being a holiday and all. The Black Angels album Passover is one I've had in the vinyl library for quite a while but it's not in constant rotation on the turntable. However I recently pulled it back out and had a listen - post-work funk and a tad anti-establishment feeling I felt right at home with it's droning, psychedelic sound. There's a blatant sexually intoned in the throbbing drums and hypnotic sounds. I never quite understood what people meant when they described a band as having a psychedelic sound, just that there were probably a lot of drugs involved in the album's conception. But I get it now, listening to the Black Angels I feel a tightening in my lower gut, an animalistic urge to take the system down from within, to start a fight, to close my eyes and roll with the drone. Fluid and intense the songs seem to melt any resistance away and leave one feeling curiously full yet hungering for more. Not for the faint of musical heart.

Madrona Loot

I'm still reeling from Madrona. Got up at 7 am grabbed a giant macchiato with an extra shot and drove myself down to Tacoma in time for my 9am class - Lace Basics with Evelyn Clark. This was my first knitting class in the less-than-a-year I've been knitting plus it was my first Fiber Festival/Retreat of any kind. A little overwhelming at first and my mind is still wrapping itself around everything I learned in class: old norwegian cast on, splicing yarn 4 different ways for different fibers, and how lace charts work and how to read them. I'm not going to run out and start knitting shawls right away (I prefer stoles anyhow) but I feel like I have good information and some great advice on techniques to get me started. I like Evelyn a lot and felt really comfortable asking her questions and fondling the shawls she passed around the class. Incredibly beautiful stuff and a great aid for teaching, besides who doesn't like to show off their knitting accomplishments? Class was really great for me and it made me want to return next year and take a few classes and stay the night and totally immerse myself in knitting. Drool.

After lunch with some of the ladies from my knitting group we trotted on over to the market place where a bit of damage was done to ye olde pocketbook. I reigned myself in a bit and only looked at things I couldn't pick up at my LYS. Blue Moon Fiber Arts broke me down and I picked up a skein of sock yarn from the Raven Clan Series and two skeins of Luscious (100% silk) for a Clapotis. The icing on the cake was Tactile - a fiber arts studio from the Bay Area that does naturally dyed yarns and fiber. I think I touched every skein in her booth and ended up with two skeins of sock yarn to make a stole of some sort. The woman running the booth was so nice and we chatted about natural dyes and how they work and I gushed over how intense and varied and beautiful the colors came out. I can't wait for their online shop to open, I think they're a new favorite. All in all I had a fabulous time and can't wait for next year to immerse myself in learning new things and buying new yarn.

Covet! Wednesday

Wednesdays are usually dedicated to knitting-related items that I'm interested in or that I've got queued up to buy in the future (sometimes this leads to spur of the moment purchasing - baaad!). But this week I actually made the thing I wanted - a knitting organizer. I joined an 'organized knitting' group on Ravelry to try and keep my small stash and knitting life organized. One of the ladies sewed up an awesome binder-sized organizer complete with pockets and elasticized loops and all kinds of things to hold knitting accoutrements in order. Inspired, I pulled out ye olde sewing machine, wiped the dust off, and went to work. I received this Marilyn Monroe cd case from my girl Nickie for Christmas. Gorgeous! But I don't have a cd player in my 93 Olds, I still rock the cassette player. So I ripped out the inside pages and lined it with some removable zippered pockets and a needle case.

Pockets were the next order of business so I used the cd pages as a size template, cut up some plastic needlepoint canvas to make the pages rigid and sewed up some pockets for my needle tips, measuring tape, and other little knitting necessities. I then sewed the pages into the 'spine' of the lining, attached the whole thing into the case with industrial strength sticky-back velcro, and hand sewed the lip of the lining to the zipper tape of the case. Voila! She's working beatifully and holds everything I need except my double points.

Get Happy!

Got a 95 on the mid-term I thought I may have failed. Whoot! Half way through the quarter, whoot whoot! Three day weekend coming up, whooooot!

Music Monday

Hands down, all time favorite, knock your socks off and dance till you drop James Brown album. It's so good I listened to it twice through when I first picked it up and it's been in constant rotation ever since. When you hear the words James Brown does your mind go straight to giant hair, a sweaty brow, bad polyester suits and a show-boatiness worthy of Vegas-era Presley? That may be true for 60's and 70's era Brown but in the mid-fifties his group The Famous Flames played straight up dancey R&B influenced by the likes of Little Richard and Ray Charles. The band is tight and the timing flawless and Brown brings the same energy to the dance hits that he does to his later albums yet there's a slight reigning in of vocal stylings that shows up in following albums. This all works to the advantage of the album - James Brown keeps the energy up, the band backs him up with rock n' roll precision and it never fails to make me kick my shoes off and dance around the living room until I'm out of breath.

Covet! Wednesday

My covetousness has over-ridden my yarn budget lately. Not too much but I had to have this beatiful Earthenware colorway from Fearless Fibers. It feels fabulous and it's eventually going to be made up into some Retro Rib Socks. This is part of my Year Long Gift-Along listing for February so I'm moving right along on my Minimalist Cardigan. I've finished up the Tangled Yoke Cardigan and am slacking on the blocking but pictures will be up as soon that's done. But back to the yarn....I love it and hopefully the recipient will be equally as thrilled to receive some nice squishy, soft, machine washable socks in such beautiful yarn. It reminds me of the Arizona desert early in the morning, gorgeous.

Music Monday

Tapes 'n Tapes is a newer favorite of mine, I hit up their show last year (I think) with a good friend of mine and we rocked till we dropped. Male vocals, some crashy drums, and sweet lyrics and I fell in music love. Even the Man is a fan, he prefers the song Ten Gallon Ascot for the yelling and chaotic melodies. The songs melt into each other giving a unified feeling to the album yet they can also stand alone. They've got a new album, Walk it Off, being released in April and I'm looking forward to the impending tour to promote the new tunes. If you wanna see them in semi-live action check this out.

Juno

Snow storm
Originally uploaded by zombiegirl1

Went and saw Juno today after some lovely knitting time with some lady friends and a 3 hour session of statistics homework. Yay & yuck. As soon as the Man and I walked out of the theater I turned to him and said, " I could see that again, right now." I loved it, all of it, every little aspect of it. And, you know, Michael Cera in running shorts is not something to be missed. It's beautiful and funny and sad and just really fricking wonderful, that girl is my kind of humor. My kind of soundtrack and reckless band name-dropping useless trivia geeking out action that I personally adore and have a bad habit of doing in life for realsies. Guffawed out loud without the rest of the audience and got all teary eyed with the rest of the audience and just fell in love with Ellen Page. I can't say enough good things, it's worth it.