Saturday, October 27 was our 17th wedding anniversary. Yes, I know! Wow, what a wicked long time to be married! For Dave’s anniversary present, I bought him a scanner with a document feeder (as apparently this is something that he needs to work at home more often). Anyway, since we now have a scanner, I have the ability to bring you photos of our past life, and not just our current life so I thought I would whip up the photo mosaic you can see above with Flickr Toys to commemorate our wedding day 17 years ago.

I don’t know what it is about the number 17, but it just seems huge to me.  I keep saying to everyone, “We’ve been married 17 years, can you believe it? Is that like super-long or what???” We’ve done quite a bit in the last 17 years.   We have lived in 5 different homes (we now live in a home that we built). Combined we have had 7 different jobs.  I completed med tech school while we were married and Dave completed a master’s degree, became a patent agent, completed law school, and is now a patent attorney.  We have 3 children and our oldest is a teen-ager (!).  We have gone through what seems like a million computers.  We are on our 3 or 4th set of washers/dryers for goodness sake!  And that is all just the big stuff.  I don’t know what the next 17 years are going to bring us, but I hope they are as wonderful and satisfying as the first 17.

Are you now wondering what my anniversary present was?  I was hoping you would be curious because it is a good one!  No, it is not a car, a cruise, or any sort of jewelry (He knows me better than that!).  IHA gave me the receipt for my own trademark application for (and I will quote) “The literal element of the mark consists of SPINCERELY YOURS.  The mark consists of standard characters, without claim to any particular font, style, size or color.”  The receipt says that the whole process from the time of initial filing to final registration takes 13 to 18 months.  That seems like a rather long time, but still, pretty cool, huh?  Agent J says said that it was “coolio” that Daddy got Mommy her own word.

Wow, the ending to Dancing with the Stars tonight really was a shocker just like they said it would be. I really thought that cute little Cheetah Girl chickie would be there until the end. I have to say I didn’t see her dance last night, but all her other dances were perfect and she has so much talent and potential.

Wow! Also, NCIS had a heart pounder of an episode tonight too. I love that show. Mark Harmon — yummy! I really just love all the characters. I might even go as far as to say that is currently my favorite TV show.

Ok, onto the knitting content that you really came here to read. I’m very happy to announce that I am once again friends with Dark Victory. We went to couples therapy, forked over a few hundred dollars, and worked out our differences. One of our biggest arguments was over those stupid 3 knit stitches in a row that I had the first time around. The first thing the therapist had us do, was to sit down together and hash out the stitch count and boy were we off. I had to apologize to Dark Victory. It was all my fault. I was supposed to have 4o stitches in the ribbing section but silly me actually had 42. Dark Victory was really very gracious about the whole thing and understood how bad I felt about our misunderstanding. What I misread was this: “With A, k1 (p2,k2)over next 40 sts, end k1.” I thought I had to complete the last k2 from the ribbing and add one more knit stitch (p2, k2, k1), but what Dark Victory really wanted was for me to end the ribbing with just one knit (p2, k1).

We also had some mediation directly from Annie. I can’t remember if I wrote here about how I was having problems because what I was knitting by following the written pattern did not look like the photo in the book. Well, that was another issue between Dark Victory and myself, but I e-mailed Annie and she came to the rescue. This was was where I was right, Dark Victory! (See, still a hint of bitterness still left in our relationship.) I was so right! Indeed, Dark Victory’s pattern and photo do not match in my edition of Romantic Hand Knits. I had to rip out everything that I knit and that was the turning point when Dark Victory and I got our relationship back on track.

You see, one of the tricks to getting along with Dark Victory is to understand that he has 2 personalities. His ribbed panels can extend all the way to his base or he can have a neato slip stitch pattern all the way around the bottom band. In the above photo, you can see I have chosen to befriend the Slip Stitch personality and that I do not any longer have 3 knit stitches flanking my slip stitch panel where I should only have 2.

DV and I are now holding hands for a while as I have to continue thusly (I know, but I like it!) until we reach 11.75 inches. We will stay playmates for a few days at least. I’ll let you know how it goes after that.

Do you remember when there really weren’t so many queues and really the only queue around was the print queue and the only time you ever thought about the print queue was when there was a problem with the print queue? Everyone at work would get upset because their stuff wasn’t printing and they didn’t know why and you would say “Well, did you check the print queue?” (because for some reason the print queue had a mind of its own and would just randomly decide to not preform the printing task you had requested?) and then they would look at you like you had 2 heads because they didn’t know what the heck the freaking print queue was? (OK, and well, there was also Q from Star Trek, but he is just Q and that is all.)

Now there are so many queues. My favorites are my movie queue at Netflix and my project queue at Ravelry. Ok, really I like my Rav Queue way more lately as my Netflix queue of which I have been quite neglectful lately. And I really don’t just like my Rav Queue, I LOVE my Rav Queue! It is the best thing since personal photo printers!

I spend quite a bit of time rearranging my queue. Today, I think I have it perfect (though who knows what pattern Cherylz a Knitting Enabler will e-mail the link for next and I will have to throughly reorganize again). I wonder if I can link to my queue. If you’d like to see it, you can try clicking here. I think you probably need a Ravelry account to see it, but if you don’t have one, I highly recommend signing up to wait in their queue so you can get your own project queue!

The first 4 patterns on my project queue arrived there due to my enabling knitting friends. I am going to make socks out of my Fiesta Boomerang because Sarah is a Boomerang pusher. I know she looks like a quiet and friendly librarian, but don’t let her fool you. Two words: YARN. PUSHER. Because, also, number 2 on my queue is due to her. I just clicked the Etsy Purchase button this morning to get some Rainbow Black Merino Sock Yarn from Perchance to Knit. And why? Because she carries these skeins of yarn around with her like they are candy and makes us touch them and squeeze them and covet them so much that we spend hours waiting for them to show up with a “purchase now” button on the internet! Number 3 on my queue is a hat that Cherylz a Knitting Enabler e-mailed about this morning. She linked to this blog post at Brooklyn Tweed. Gorgeous. I. Must. Make. This. Hat. And. Now. I have singles. I must ply! Oh wait, I just saw Koolhaas. Back to the Queue! OK, Koolhass is now number 4, which means that Tangled Yoke is pushed to number 5… and why is Tangled Yoke in my queue? You guessed it! Sarah and Cheryl are making it too!

Finished project!!!

Foliage

Pattern: Foliage by Emilee Mooney from the Fall 2007 Knitty

Yarn: Malabrigo Chunky in Hummingbird

Needles: Size 10.5 dpns and 16 inch Addi Turbos, Size 9 dpns for ribbing

Thoughts: This was very quick — I started Post Rhinebeck and finished already! 2 evenings with a touch of afternoon thrown in. I also had to unknit a bit (my error, not the pattern). One bit of advice I have is to make sure you bind off loosely. I had to go back and bind off with a larger needle size.

Thank you Emilee for a beautiful design and easy to follow pattern! (The lace pattern is both charted and written out.)

Agent K also finished 2 felted creatures from her felting kit from Sliver Moon Farms. I promised I would post her photos. Aren’t they cute? She said when she gets good enough she is going to have her own Etsy shop of felted animals.

Yesterday my Fiesta Boomerang arrived! I can make Boomerang socks like Sarah and Cheryl and Dara now! I love it! It is so soft and squishy! I ordered it from The Loopy Ewe and the packaging is incredible. My yarn actually came looking a bit like a grinder. I was a bit hungry when my mail came, so a grinder would have been nice, but YARN is SO MUCH BETTER.

Here is all the stuff that comes in the box with the yarn:

And here is the yarn in Raspberry Mocha. Once again — so yummy I want to eat it!!!

The gauge on the pattern label says 18 stitches = 4 inches. This yarn may work for Mr. Greenjeans. I think I will swatch for that before I start my socks. What if I like the swatch? Should I order 2 more skeins for the sweater instead?

I also have a Dark Victory update! Annie Modesitt posted an update about it on her website yesterday. It seems like what probably happened is that there were 2 sample garments and the wrong photo made it into the book? Anyway, there are 2 versions. One with ribbing at the bottom and one with the slip stitch pattern all the way around the bottom. The 2 versions can be seen here. Seeing both of them next to each other makes it a tough decision as to which version to make. I will have to think on it.

I’ve been surfing around Etsy quite a bit lately. I’ve bumped into a few shops with just such lovely things that I would like to share. Yesterday, I was window shopping at Knitting’ Pretty and admiring her beautiful handspun yarn. Heather’s colors are so pretty and she has some cute stitch markers too. Julie’s Creation Nation has lovely and unique felted items. My favorites are the Felted Nursing Mothers with Babies. Oh and has anyone seen this shop called Jelly Beans? I just love, love, love it!!! Maybe I should publish this post now, so I have some shopping time before work today?

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Well, yesterday was the national holiday called Rhinebeck.  It came and went so fast, I think we need to do it again.  (”Again! again!” like the agents used to say when they were little enough to be spun in dizzying circles.)

It was a gorgeous day.  There was no wind, no mud,  just lots and lots of sunshine…

We did the usual stuff. We shopped…

That is Sarah making the first purchase of the day.  She bought some silk rovings in beautiful colors.

We pet some sheep…

That is Agent K. She spent most of her day making her case for taking home a sheep or angora bunny.  I resisted though.  It was a bit difficult as everyone else seemed to be on K’s side, but I stuck my ground and no living creatures made the trip home with us.

We watched the Leaping Llamas…

The llamas and alpacas are very funny.  They either leap or they don’t leap.  They can be very stubborn.  If they don’t want to do it, you just can’t make them.

We had a Brighid’s Dyers meet-up…

That is Jenna, Leslie, and LFG.  The beautiful pink yarn was solar dyed by Leslie in cochineal and the lovely pink silk scarf underneath was also solar dyed in cochineal, but by LFG.

Then we did some more shopping and posed with some yarn.

This is Agent K again.  She is a fiber enthusiast in training.  I think we have finally found her fiber field.  She really likes needle felting.  One of our more fun fiber purchases was a ladybug felting kit for her.  She said it is more fun than knitting because you can do what you want as you create and you don’t have to worry about each stitch.

We bought any last minutes items we had missed, said our feet hurt and went home.

I don’t have any good “loot” shots.  My purchases were not too photogenic.  I bought a large blue felting mat for making felted scarves, a bit of undyed roving, and some double point needles for making Foliage.

All in all yesterday was a very fun day – lots of friends and lots of fiber!

Today is National Recover from Rhinebeck Day.

Going tomorrow!

Can’t wait!

I seem to be a bit derailed from keeping up with my blog. I haven’t been very good about reading blogs either. Part of that is Ravelry related I think. At lot of the information I previously found on blogs, I can now find on Ravelry. I do love blogs though and I’m making an attempt to read and comment whenever I have a moment.

I’ve also been busy scouring the internet for any info on Dark Victory. Through Ravelry, I did find another knitter attempting it, but she ran in to many of the same issues as I did. Someone also just posted a couple of days ago on the Romantic Hand Knits-Along that she cast on for Dark Victory so I will be looking back there to see how that is going. For now, I’m going to put it on hold. (Take that, you darn Dark Victory, I may even put you to sleep on Ravelry!) Maybe I will swatch to see if I can do Mr. Greenjeans in Malabrigo (Does anyone else keep having Captain Kangaroo flashbacks?). I will also e-mail the link to LFG to see if she likes Mr. Greenjeans. I think she liked him on Captain Kangaroo, so she will probably like the sweater too. (I know, I know, the name of the sweater is derived from the colorway of Miss Priss used by the pattern author, but I just can not think Mr. Greenjeans and not think of Mr. Green Jeans and Captain Kangaroo. Mornin’ Captain!)

So, I have this yarn (worsted) that I spun from a Funky Eclectic (please note at this point if there is anything incoherent in this blog post it is NOT my fault as I have a fourth grader walking by my door every 3.6 seconds with her brand new ginormous and extremely loud trombone…) superwash merino roving. I want it to be something. I don’t know what I want it to be. I have close to 200 yards so it can be more than a hat. I think my swatch is looking much more pastel than I would have expected from a neon colorway called Nuclear. It would be so perfect for a little baby girl sweater ( but I don’t know anyone having a little baby girl or do I?). Does anyone have any (non-baby) ideas for me?

I guess that is all I can cram into this post for now as I have to go begin making dinner, but it is a start to getting back on track. I think I will end with a couple random photos…

This is IHA and the Agents Geocaching at Kent Falls on Columbus Day.

This is the cake (carrot with cream cheese frosting) from Mad Knitter Dara’s baby shower. As you can see from his little bib, she is having a little baby boy. (I really can’t wait; there hasn’t been a baby in my life since Crops-a-lot moved to MI…)

Have a great evening!

I’ve had a rather odd week. If you happen to see a short, needing to exercise and diet, want-to-be blond person wondering around with a perplexed look on her face, that would be me. I’m just sitting here shaking my head. Every so often, I just close my eyes and shutter.

If I start to write about the oddness, I fear this post would be endless, therefore I’m just going write about Dark Victory. There are a few things about it that I’m finding rather odd.

First, I appear to be the only Ravelry Knitter currently listing Dark Victory as a project (compare that to 254 people making Tangled Yoke). I find that really odd. Also, an internet search does not turn up much besides comments on how much knitters like the pattern and the overall Romantic Hand Knits book.

Second, this. Perhaps this is why the project tally on Ravelry is so low? I have to say that the reason that I am making this for LFG is because last fall we saw the actual sample garment in person and it is stunning, so please don’t let that photo sway you! (Please note, that I think the model is absolutely adorable, it is just the yarn and color choice that I find a bit odd.)

Third, I seem to have a section between the ribbing and the slipped stitch panel that has an extra knit stitch, but since I can’t find anyone else making this sweater, I don’t know if that is normal or not. (This is how the pattern reads so it ends up with the 3 knits in a row: “…{place yellow marker} k1,(p2, k2) over next 40 sts, end k1, {place blue marker}…”)

The photo at the top shows how far I am, however, I am currently unknitting as I have some misplaced slipped stitches so I have a few steps back before I can proceed any further.

Crazy this life is.

As we all know, the start of a new sweater project involves much more than casting on the first stitch. Even though I have yet to cast that first stitch on Dark Victory, I feel like I have already been working on it for eons. I do have yarn and that is three-quarters of the battle, right?

Have you all seen the book Romantic Hand Knits by Annie Modesitt? Even if you never intend to make any of the designs, it is still a beauty of a book! I think it is definitely a must have. I’m gearing up to make Dark Victory on page 59 for LFG for Christmas. It is not going to be a surprise as this is a fitted sweater and I’m going to need her measurements and help along the way to get the best fit. It is made of Malabrigo which I adore! Here is a little quote from Annie: “If you thought wool couldn’t be sexy, you haven’t knit this tunic length Malabrigo yoke pullover.” I think this sweater is going to be perfect for LFG!

So, even though I know that I’m using Malabrigo and I’m not going to be subbing out the yarn, I have still spent hours choosing the colors! The pattern calls for 3 colors and LFG requested a pink/coral color scheme. Looking at Malabrigo online is just so difficult! To find an online shop which has good color representation and a good amount of skeins in stock is not easy. I almost ordered from Yarnzilla. I spent all last Saturday evening picking out what I thought I wanted just to have the site not work. I did send an e-mail and promptly Monday morning Linda wrote back a very nice note apologizing that their site had crashed and that I could go ahead and order. I so wanted to order from them after such a nice e-mail, but I decide that Malabrigo needs to be seen in person. They don’t really dye all their colorways to necessarily be compatable (they are not Garanimals after all) so on Thursday I decided to take my first trip out to Creative Fibers in Windsor, CT {after e-mailing to see how many colors they have in stock (30!)}. What a nice store! I picked out my colors with some help from the sales lady and I thought I would browse a bit before meeting my husband for lunch (he works 5 miles from Creative Fibers!). Alas, that was not meant to be as right as I was deciding on my “splurge yarn” the school nurse called and I had to return home to pick up a sick Agent. (I did quick grab an additional skein on my way to the register to pay — Malabrigo Chunky in Hummingbird for Foliage.)

OK so this story is getting pretty long, but I think I’m starting to catch up to myself. I have the yarn, LFG saw it and likes it. I’m starting to swatch. I am going to make a working copy of the pattern as I’m not going to write in this gorgeous book. I just need her measurements and I’m ready to start knitting.

Oh yeah, and I need some fall-like weather because I’m not knitting a wool sweater in 85 degree heat.