• A Pack of Filthy Lies
• 8

I had the best of intentions.  I have about two thirds of a hat…two thirds of what I am increasingly sure will be a cute hat.  I have the firm desire to show you this partial hat.  But you see, I also have three nefarious kitten overlords, a tendency to fill the bathroom sink to block swatches, and poor judgement as to how well the kittens will behave in the presence of a sink full of water.  Hi-jinx ensued.  The short version is that I now have a very damp partial hat that is in no way photo ready.  I also have a very soggy ball of yarn that needs to be skeined and dried before I can knit with it any more. (Do not knit with wet yarn, it will mess up your gauge.  Do not leave yarn to dry in the ball, it will take an age.)

So.  Yeah.  Nifty.  We’ll have to take a little pause on that one.

In the meantime, the Chez Violence Home for Wayward Knitting Props has a new resident.  It turns out glove forms are actually astonishingly nifty knitting props (and charming objects in their own right).  I made the executive decision that I did not have enough of them, so Rosamund is now joining Percival and Millicent.  She’s shown here modeling the Narcissus pseudo-narcissus Cuff from Knitter’s Curiosity Cabinet.  She seems to be fitting in well with her new roommates, and I have high hopes for her future.

And just as soon as the hat is dry, her buddy Esmeralda will step up and do some modeling for us.

• Giveaway
• 3

The fine folks at knitcircus have a copy of The Knitter’s Curiosity Cabinet to give away.  If you think you might just possibly be able to find a home for such a thing, head over that direction and follow their directions.

As for me, I’ll be back soon (hopefully tomorrow if the weather gods allow) with a picture of actual knitting.  Not swatching.  Not yarn.  Actual knitting.  Most of my knitting time lately has been going to swatches for the third book.  While that’s great fun, it does mean an alarming lack of finished objects.  I needed a proper project to play with, and finally have one done enough to show you.  Soon.

• And Then
• 0

Having successfully engaged in capitalism, we found ourselves in need of sustenance.  I mentioned before that I had stopped in Ann Arbor on my way home from my friend’s house in Lansing earlier in the month.  While there, I had popped into the Jolly Pumpkin for lunch.  This had occasioned a wee bit of envy on the part of The Boy, he having a much finer appreciation of beer than I.  A quick glance at a map revealed that we were, if not exactly close to Ann Arbor, certainly much closer than usual.  It seemed an excellent opportunity to remedy the unfair distribution of beer sampling.

We made the executive decision to head that way and soon found ourselves enjoying tasty food and delicious drinks.  We even discovered that Jolly Pumpkin has started making their own spirits and quickly procured what just might be the tastiest rye I’ve ever had.  We knew we were facing a rather long drive home, so we wandered around a bit before tucking back up in the car for the trek home.  We stopped in at the West Side Book Shop, then found ourselves drawn into a nearby game store.  We finished up by grabbing a few jars of cherry bbq sauce (to which I predict I will soon be addicted).  Thus fortified, we headed east.  We arrived home safe, if a bit later than expected, and were greeted by three very hungry kittens.  All told, it was a lovely (if rather long) Saturday.

• Luck of the Draw
• 6

Having fortified ourselves with pancakes (to do otherwise would be bordering on irresponsibility), we headed out to the Black Swamp Spinner’s Guild Market Day.  This year, they started charging a tiny (one dollar) entrance fee.  Given what goes into organizing something like this, I think that’s totally reasonable, and we were happy to pay it.  After we handed over our entrance fee, they had us write our names on little raffle tickets and dropped them into a bin.  My natural inclination in such cases is to write something ridiculous like Isabella Imogen Perseverance Paddington, but this time I actually wrote my real name.  The formalities accomplished, we headed on into the market.

Not five minutes later, someone called out The Boy’s name.  Turns out he’d won one of the raffle prizes.  We went over to check out the prize table.  Alas, none of the prizes were things that appealed to The Boy.  He graciously ceded his prize rights to me.  I grabbed a lovely length of Briar Rose spinning fiber (3.5 oz of polworth) in shades of pink and green.  Pleased with our good fortune, we went back to our shopping.

First up, I found a new-to-me company called Happy Fuzzy Yarn.  They had a skein of a wool/tencel blend that accidentally leapt into my arms.  I don’t usually like tencel blends (too shiny for my tastes), but the colors on this one were too good to resist.  It’s all greens and grays and blues and looks like tiny mossy things growing on rocks by water.  Not, perhaps, the most appealing description, but they’re just the sort of colors that grab my attention.

Next, I completed a small quest.  I don’t usually go to markets with goals in mind (it’s more fun to just browse), but this time I wanted to be sure to try and find some more pencil roving.  I got my first round of pencil roving here last year, and hadn’t seen anything quite like it anywhere since.  The first one turned into the best hat ever (warm, very lightweight, totally styling, adorned by a tassel, what else could you ask for), and I wanted more.  The same booth was there this year, so I got some.  Two rounds this time, one a medium gray and one a light gray.  Now it’s only fair to say that I have no idea what I’ll do with them.  It’s not the sort of thing you’ll find a lot of patterns for, and there’s probably a limit to how many awesome hats I actually need.  But I’m smitten with it and now have it on hand should the muse strike.

While I was tucking the pencil roving in my bag, someone called out my name.  Turns out I’d won a raffle prize too.  I went up to the table and handed over my ticket and said that perhaps they should draw another number.  It didn’t seem fair to win twice.  They said they had lots and lots and lots of unclaimed tickets, and that they were really hoping to find homes for all the prizes, so it would actually be better if I took one off their hands.  I protested a few more times, but eventually gave in.  I picked up a lovely ball of spinning fiber from Midwest Fiber Company.  It’s an alpaca blend (super soft), and while it is blue, it’s an interesting blue that should look lovely spun up.

I bought one more thing (well, I bought dozens and dozens and dozens of one particular thing), but it will have to remain a secret for the moment.  I’ll just say that I didn’t have any idea such a thing existed, but as soon as I saw it I knew it was the perfect solution to an ongoing problem I was pondering.  Remind me some time in June and I’ll explain.  But this has grown long, so I will leave you with a picture of the loot (ooooooh, shiny) minus the mystery item and then come back tomorrow with the rest of the day.

• Blue
• 10

One of the questions I get most often is ‘where’s the blue?’ or some variation on that.  I usually wriggle and squirm and more or less decline to answer.

The truth is that I’m not a big fan of blue.  I realize that most people like it, but it’s just never done much for me.  There are all sorts of other colors that grab me more (like orange, have you seen all the oranges out there–and gray, how can you waste any time on blue when there are dozens and dozens and dozens of grays to explore).

Now for KCC, I could explain it away pretty easily.  Those patterns are based on plants, and there aren’t a huge number of blue plants out there.  That’s not going to work for the next one.  The next one’s theme simply demands a few blue projects.  Which is why I find myself with a pile of blue (or blue-ish) swatches.  Surprising, but so far the results are encouraging.

And yes, this does meant that there is a book the third, thank you very much.  It’s already well underway, and I’m sure I’ll be boring you all to death with the minute details of its making over the next few months!