Madrona Fiber Art Festival

Every single fricking class I wanted to take is full. I have knit-hate right now for all my knitting brethren who were on the ball yesterday and got into their classes. I believe there may be steam coming out of my ears. How do newbies get in on this type of thing? Is there a secret handshake? A decoder ring given out to the kniterati? A three page form full of knitting Q&A to be submitted with a personal statement? Maybe a jaunt down to Stitches West would be a good sub. Raspberries.

Brick Wall Knitting

Ene's Scarf
Originally uploaded by zombiegirl1

The progress on this project feels incredibly slow and painful. I know that I'm making progress since I'm knitting on it monogamously at the moment, yet no matter how much I knit at the time I feel I've hit a brick wall. The post-its on the chart are moving, the number of repeats on this particular chart are marked down and steadily growing. Why do I feel this sense of ....frustration? It's a gorgeous yarn, 70/30 angora/nylon and I love to bury my face in the resulting squishy and luxurious fabric. The end is almost in sight and yet the creative rush I feel towards the end of other projects is absent. Does my joy with a knitting project have an expiration date? Does it go off like milk in the fridge and start to sour? How in the world do I repair my love for Ene's Scarf? Finish it? Hibernate it (I tried this once and it didn't seem to work)? Close my eyes and hearken back to when I started the project to try and capture that lost knit-lust? She's there, waiting for me when I get home, do I tell her it's over or just continue along out of habit. *sigh*

Finished Object

I finished these babies up last week but gifted them this week. The very happy recipient modeled them for me outside of work. I call them 'Fetching Kate' since Kate provided me with garden fresh raspberries and tomatoes all summer long she deserved a little gift of her own. The yarn is Trendsetter Tonalita and I used just under the whole skein. I loved them so much I almost kept them for myself. Shame on me, yay for Kate!

Covet! Wednesday

My love for Etsy continues unabated. The past two weeks of purchasing has buoyed my addiction both to yarn and to indie craftsters alike. See that pretty pink yarn? See it? I am NOT a pink person. I own nothing pink, until now. Pink is from Yarn-Lust on Etsy and the colorway is called Lust. I believe she has colorways for each of the deadly sins. Who knew Lust would remind me of juicy raspberries? I looooove it.
Not in the knitting covetousness listing but something that is so insanely awesome I must list it here (covet, covet, covet) is Kolos Designs on Etsy. Bugs generally freak me out but I'm in complete love with these bangles and rings and things. They are beautiful and I actually ordered a pair of the cuff links for the Man for the upcoming Holiday which shall not be named because it came way too fast this year. I can imagine myself knitting away at knit night with one of the bangles attracting the oohs and aahs of my fellow knitters. Ohhh, Etsy you empty my wallet.

The pain! The pain!

Most of Sunday, all of yesterday, and I'm assuming all of today I have been or am in a great deal of neck-related pain. This happens every so often, I fall asleep in the wrong position and a neck injury I received while boating (actually tubing behind a boat) flares up like brand new. The Man has to help me out of bed since I can't actually move from my shoulders up and I struggle to get on with my day while trying to ignore my immobility. Why do I do this? It's mom's fault. Every time she was sick or injured she worked herself until she was about to drop dead. I follow suit even while thinking that it is incredibly ridiculous and I should be at home, propped up with pillows, and reading or knitting or browsing past issues of IK. So today is that day. The Man helped me up to post an email to my morning instructor, I will call work soon (I already tried but the machine wouldn't pick up), and I will shortly crawl back into my flannel-sheeted bed on much too much ibuprofen and, finally, rest.

Knit Winter

The Winter issue of Interweave Knits is here. I got mine in the mail yesterday and I found it, well, a little underwhelming after the kickass Fall issue. Don't get me wrong there are things I will knit from this issue but I didn't feel the wild knitting abandon I felt with the Fall IK. I like the swing jacket (left) and the sweater on the cover. Maybe it's the colors the projects are knit up in that turned me off or the fact that one of the models seems to give the stinkeye. I'm trying to visualize most things in different colors and with slightly different shaping - slightly longer or with shorter sleeves. It's a little difficult to do because I really want to like everything as is and instead am feeling knit-ambivalent. In any case, most of my personal knitting is on hold for Holiday knitting because I really just realized that the Holiday season is practically upon us. Must knit faster.

In with the In Crowd

Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Blue Moon Fiber Arts just opened up their 2008 Rockin' Sock Club for registration at 10am (PST) this morning. I printed out that membership form and stuck it in the work mail within nanoseconds. I'm pretty sure the hairs on my arms stood up and I might have suffered a slight heart attack. This is heady stuff, I have now attained (if everything goes right) the holy grail of sock clubs. Now I just have to wait it out until January when the first shipment comes. It's a good thing I have some (read, a crapload) of knitting to do until then. Oh, and the Holidays are coming up too.

In other news Jessica is on Stash and Burn this episode so check it out. FYI, I'm feeling pretty darn lucky about my knitting group and the rockstar knitters who are a part of it.