Jane, Jane, stop this crazy thing! Oh my! The number of things I want to write about far and away exceeds the time that I have to write!

I think a randomesque type entry is in order at this time. So here are a few things I need to get out!

First, I want to tell you all about 2 new blogs that hit the street last week. The first is a mothering/scrapbooking/poem writing blog written by my friend, Jenny, called Crops a Lot. The other is also authored by a friend of mine named Jenny, and it is a knitting, spinning, and natural dyeing blog called Spinning Spider Jenny. Check them out! I’m sure they will become favorites on your blogline subs!

Second, I just found out that the Yarn Harlot is going to be in Connecticut. And she not going to be here just for a book signing but as a guest speaker at a fashion charity event! She is going to be here the same weekend as the Northeast Handspinner’s Gathering in New Hampshire and I will not be in Connecticut when she is here! I’m not intending this to be a venting blog, so I’m not going to write anything about how upset this makes me. Nope, I’m not going to write about how upset I am at all. (I’m really not upset because in the next couple of months I’m going to figure out how I can do both! Maybe Scotty can beam me over or I can take apparating lessons from Dumbledore since we all truly know in our hearts that he is not dead.)

Third, I’m really not sure how carefully you are all following the amount of projects I’m starting or contemplating starting versus the amount I am actually working on. Let’s just say – that this summer is continuing to be long and I still suffer from summer brain lag. Um, actually, that is a bit of an understatement and what I mean by that is if the school bus does not pull up to end of my driveway anytime soon, the little men in the white coats will be here in all their glory.

So let us have some knitting progress updates, shall we?
Remember the Classic V-Neck Sweater I was contemplating making for IHA? (I’m thinking of calling it (him) Classy for short or maybe Classic Cubed because I so loved the originality of the name – Classic V knit with Classic Silk by Classic Elite.) Well, I did buy a ball of Classic Silk and I do love it very much and I started a swatch in the pattern stitch. I, however, already lost interest in the swatch and that is very odd for me since I LOVE swatching. This does not bode well for poor Classic Cubed or for poor IHA. I am going to move this project to the back burner. IHA has been asking for fingerless gloves since his office is apparently in the same climate zone as Siberia – I think that will be much more managable. Fingerless gloves use much less yarn and I could even spin or dye for them!

Remember how I was talking about designing a sweater out of Blue Heron Rayon? Well, that is still sitting there too. I have done no work on that at all.

I have not worked on Cece at all.

I have been working a bit on Rustic Rose. I’m getting there – though no clue if she is going to fit or not.

I did finish the socks I was knitting out of Socketta. No photos yet, as I still have to wash them.

I just turned the heel on my second sock out the Purple/Green Koigu from Vermont. Here are the socks before the second heel turning. I haven’t figured out what kind of bind off I’m going to use on them yet. I really like knitting with the Koigu, I just hope that when I start wearing them that I remember that it is not superwash.

I’m also still thinking about Simple Knitted Bodice (SKB). Here is what I have so far:

Undyed fiber and beads. I’m not sure I have enough fiber for the whole sweater, but I think maybe I can use something else for the contrast yarn and use this as the main yarn?

IHA told me that he likes Sizzle better than SKB. I’m not sure, however, if he was really looking at the pattern design when he clicked on the Sizzle link. I’m raising my eyebrows about that one.
I believe that about sums it up for now (or at least until tomorrow)!
Oh and don’t forget to go tell the King that the Blogosphere is falling!

OK, so don’t laugh, but I joined something called the Sexy Knitters Club. It looks like fun and I really like a lot of the designs they choose to knit. Really, don’t laugh! Being sexy has more to it than just being full figured. You can be an A cup and still be sexy! Stop laughing, it is true! (Just for example, I was at Knitcole’s website one day and she does lots of quizes and I did the one that told me my Celebrity Boob Twin and guess who my twin is? That’s right! Kate Moss! So obvious!)

Of course some sweaters are sexier on some than on others. For example my Stacy from Cool Crochet. She was nothing on me, but look what she does for my sister! (Or rather, look what my sister does for her!)

Fantastic! Don’t you think? Hardly a Llamafarm Girl!
So anyway, back to the Sexy Knitters Club… We just voted (I joined in time to vote) for a new sweater for the next Knit Along. Two patterns won. They are Simple Knitted Bodice and Sizzle. I really want to knit Simple Knitted Bodice. I first encountered the pattern a couple of months ago and was pretty enchanted. Of course, being that I have a tendency to make things as complicated as possible, I am entertaining the idea of dying and spinning the yarn for this project. I have the almost 12 ounces of Merino/Tencel fiber that I bought to make a sweater, I have some beads that I bought at the TKGA summer conference, and my new dyes just arrived this morning. I just have to do some math to see if I will have enough fiber to make this work. I’ve never seen the recommended yarns for this project in person. They are Tilli Thomas Rock Star and Tilli Thomas Pure and Simple both are 100% silk. To use these yarns to make this Simple Bodice it would cost about $160.00. So apparently a substitution is in order no matter what! I think a merino/tencel blend may work well for this pattern because it will have a bit of sheen to it which might give a bit of a silky appearance. I think it is going to take a bit more research – I think surfing some more knitting blogs (oh what a drag that will be -hahaha) may be in order – I’ve read that this pattern has inspired a couple of other knit alongs so there may be some good info out there in the blogosphere (I’ve been dying to use that word!).
At home today, we have rain. Rain, rain, and more rain. But coming up in exactly one week is the first day of school!!! One more week!!! And hopefully if we get through the rain today, the rest will be a fantastic week! Also in one week and one day, I have my first weekday back at work at Hither and Yarn! Working in a yarn store is definately going to up my Daily Fiber Intake (DFI) and I should be a much healthier and happier person! Yarn balls galore, knitting questions left and right, Addi Turbos as far as the eye can see! Yes, it is going to be a good fall!

According to the Harvard School of Public Health, adults should consume between 20 to 35 grams of fiber a day.

Fiber is very good for you. It does great things like lowering your risk of heart disease, diverticular disease, metabolic syndrome, and very importantly, constipation. Studies have also shown that a high fiber lifestyle is linked to a lower risk of Type 2 diabetes. (Conversely a lifestyle low in fiber is linked to a higher risk of Type 2 diabetes.)

Thusly, I would like to offer you some tips for increasing your daily fiber intake:

1. Take a ride on a llama for 5 minutes every morning:

2. Shop for new and exotic yarns in far away exotic lands:

3. Knit socks in public whenever possible and ideally while watching daughter win watermelon seed spitting contest:

4. Spin in public twice a week:

5. Wear niece’s spindle-spun yarn on head after every meal:

Fiber Sources:

1. Hoops and Yoyo and Hemlock Haven Farm

2. Kaleidoscope Yarns and Koigu Yarn

3. ECHO Aquarium, Burlington VT, Grossology Exhibit and Koigu Toe-up sock

4. Spinning Demo at Deerfield Valley Farmers’ Day Fair

5. Llamafarm Girl wearing Agent B’s yarn

We hope that the contents of this website will help to increase your regularity and promote a healthier lifestyle. We do not, however, intend to offer personal medical advice. Please consult your healthcare professional before drastically increasing your daily fiber intake. Please be advised that fiber has been shown to be highly addictive.

The socks in my house are starting to gather forces to prepare for Sock Wars 2006:

Watch out world!!!!

(Hahahaha – looking at this photo – I guess you can see that I’m pretty anal about my patterns matching up for identical socks! Now you know why I was so disturbed when my last pair didn’t work out!)

My mom’s so proud of her elephant ears!

Hoops and Yoyo moonlight as plumbers.

Fairies live here.

Hoops and Yoyo conspire with Captain Jack Sparrow to take over the world with the power of the flying afghan (do you think Knitcole, the creator of the guileful flying afghan, is the ultimate mastermind behind this scheme?)

Rare sighting of blog author in KnitScene’s Tweedy Vest made out of Debbie Bliss aran tweed.

Since I’ve decided at this time not to go back and catalog for the blog all my finished objects, I thought that this would be a good week to showcase a few of them. Today I have for you 2 Green Gables and a Picovoli:

The Green Gables are each made from exactly 2 skeins of Lamb’s Pride Cotton Fleece. The Picovoli is made out of Debbie Bliss Cathay.

I would highly recommend both of these projects and both of these yarns.

If you choose to knit Green Gables, take a trip over to the Knit-a-long. Even though I never joined because I was blogless at the time, it was fun to pretend to belong to something! There are a lot of great tips on casting on and sizing that I won’t go into here because it is all over there. OK, I do have to add one thing, well maybe two. First I knit this twice so I did different things each time – for the first one I did the long tail cast on because at the time no one knew that the backward loop was the intended cast on. I really think the one with the long tail looks better. It was easier and it doesn’t roll as much. I also think that the decreases are 2 close together and I didn’t like the way they made little “pouches” on the sides of the my first sweater so I did them singlely on the next sweater.

Picovoli – well there is nothing not to like about that pattern. It is one of Grumperina’s and it is perfect just the way it is.

The Cotton Fleece rocks because it has a little wool in it so that it is not as hard as 100% cotton on your fingers and it is super affordable and well, the Cathay is just exquisite!

Oh and I almost forgot – I made a mini-Picovoli for Agent J out of stash yarn:

Sometimes it just seems like it takes forever to start a project. That was how it felt with the Hoops and Yoyo album until we finally managed to get it off the ground!

One tremendously hot summer afternoon we headed down to Canton to New England Scrapbook Company for some quality table time to work on our Hoops and Yoyo album. The plan was to split up the pictures and we would all work on some pages. Well, we got there and it was really hard at first because all the girls wanted help all right away and all at the same time, but after a while they sort of settled in and we ended up doing 10 pages in just a couple hours!

Here are some photos:

Hoops and Yoyo helping Agent K choose her embellishments.

Hoops and yoyo posing for more pictures with Agent J. Agent K thought it would be a good idea to scrapbook photos of H&Y scrapbooking photos of H&Y and then take more pictures so we can scrapbook them scrapbooking their photos of their scrapbooking.

Agent B all packed up and ready to go with Hoops and Yoyo.

One of the things that makes it fun to scrapbook at New England is that they let you keep a running tab so you can shop as you scrap and just pay when you leave. The girls love that! They love being able to walk around the store and pick things out and then bring them to the register. They are pretty good about it too – they know that we can’t buy a pack of stickers for $5.00 and they always ask first to make sure it is ok. All in all the afternoon of scrapbooking cost less than going to the movies! I hope we get another chance to go back before school starts. Sometimes it just seems like there are so many projects and so little time! Oh, maybe it seems that way because there really are way more projects than time! How do people fit it all in?

My first major Crochet project was Stacy from Melissa Leapman’s Cool Crochet. Since I was taking a class with Melissa Leapman at TKGA, I thought it would be so cool to make something that she designed and wear it to her class!

So here is Stacy in Crystal Palace’s Shimmer:

She came out pretty nice! Even though I subbed the yarn – thanks to my obsession with swatching, she came out right to specs! I didn’t get to wear her to class though. No, I finished on time. She was ready. But I wasn’t. I thought I would be just fine knitting the smallest size. But it just didn’t turn out that way. The smallest size for Stacy is a 35, but I really needed a 32. I thought it wouldn’t matter, but it did, so I don’t think I will be wearing Stacy – she is going to have to go live with someone else…

So anyway, what I learned about crochet sweaters:

-mistakes in crochet can not be fixed from a couple of rows up – for even the tiniest mistake you have to rip back and do it over again.

-crochet pieces are easier to measure then knitted pieces as they lie flat and behave nicely.

-crochet is not as soft or flexible as knitting. The fabric is thicker and doesn’t do drape as well. Stretchy it is not.
-crochet is really hard to seam!

- I think I’m going to stick to knitting for a while

I did it!!!  I had a dyeing day!!!  It was just a starter dyeing day.  Mostly just to test out Lanscape Element dyes.  I don’t really like the colors that I have and can’t remember why I bought them.   I have blue and red.  Strange.  So now I have a red, white, and blue roving.

Roving in crockpot:

Roving drying in Holly bush (photo inspired by Irishmama)

So they work in the crockpot and they also work in sun:

That solar dyed roving was actually initially dyed with Kool Aid, but it came out really rather blah so I had to do a quick recovery and overdye it with Blue.  So now it is a pretty purple rather than a dreary red purple blah mix.

One of the benefits, I guess, of the Landscape dyes over Cushing dyes is a more uniform color.  Last summer when I was dyeing with Cushing a lot – I found that not all the colors dissolved completely and I had a lot of random flecks of color – in roving that is not so bad, but I was dyeing silk scarves.  I’m torn though – because I think the Landscape may be too uniform and not exciting enough for me.  I really like surprises when I am dyeing.  I guess when we go on vacation – I’ll see if I bump into a store that sells dyes and just go from there.  Also any dye brand recommendations would be appreciated!
Speaking of vacation, here is my checklist so far:

Wrote blogs entries to post next week:  check

Wrote blog entry for today:  doing it!

Cleaned Fridge and threw out all leftovers:  check

Fed hummingbirds: check

Read e-mails: check

Packed:  What?  I have to pack????  Oh, I can do that tomorrow!!!

I have to say, however, that IHA is not a fan of last minute packing and I am not able to pack til the last minute so sometimes going on vacation can be a bit stressful.  Agent K even wrote me out a checklist to get me going!  She is being a little bit of a nag today and I have absolutely no idea where she could get that from!

Have a great week and I can’t wait to read my comments when I get back!  I also have a couple of friends who are starting up their own blogs and I can’t wait to see what they have to say and add their links to my sidebar!

By telling the world that I want to knit something, does that make it a commitment?
This is what I would like to make for IHA:

It it is called Classic Silk Men’s Cable V-Neck Pullover and it is knit with Classic Silk by Classic Elite Yarns. (Great originality with that name! I personally think that sweater designs should have unique names so you can google them easily to see if anyone else is knitting them. Plus it is fun to give your sweaters fun names. So if I do knit this sweater, you better believe it is going to get a pet name!)

So far I have the pattern book. That is not too much of a committment. Yet. But now I’m talking about it public, I think that is bumping it up a committment notch. Next I thing I’m going to jump to the big step of buying one ball and knitting my swatch. Will I be able to take the plunge and buy the yarn? I don’t know. That is a lot of yarn and one heck of a big project.

I think this many need a pro/con list:

Pros:

The yarn looks really yummy! It is 50% cotton, 30% silk, and 20% nylon. I first read about it at Grumperina. It think I then did a search and saw this pattern. It is not easy to find a man’s sweater pattern that has a great V-neck like that!

I’m not always a big fan of knitting a garment in the sample color, but in this case, I really love this green (they call it Moss) color. There are other colors that IHA would look good in, but this is a big project and after the grey socks, I know that to keep my attention, I have to like the color that I’m knitting.This is a great priced yarn.This a great looking sweater.IHA would look awesome in this sweater.

Cons:

It is a VERY large sweater and in a “thinking” pattern. I tend to get bored knitting the same pattern for a long time when I really have to concentrate on it. Maybe since there will be so much knitting, I’ll learn the pattern like the back of my hand and it will turn into mindless knitting that I can do anywhere?

So what do you think? Should I just dabble a bit and swatch in the pattern and or should I go for it, take the plunge and buy all the yarn? Should I make this my knitting project for the fall (um, and winter, and um, spring, etc…) How long DO you think this will take to knit?

On another very exciting note – I was quoted on the Buzz page of the Library Thing! (third column 3/4 of the way down – hahahahaha – that page is huge – apparently I am not alone in my obsession!) Yup, my love affair with Library Thing is very public now – there is no denying that I am so head over heals that I had to make up words to describe my feelings!