The F Words

F is for Friday!

This was a long week. But it ended quite nicely. I heard David Sedaris would be stopping into the studio on Friday, so I made sure to bring in his latest book "When You Are Engulfed in Flames," hoping to get it signed.



Mission accomplished! He couldn't believe someone could be shorter than him, so he's actually bending his knees to be the same height as me. I've met him a couple of times before and he's always sweet and chatty. Nice way to end a stressful week.

F is also for Finished!

About damn time I had something to show!
These are the Woolgirl Sock Club socks for June. In my mission to keep up with my one and only sock club for 2008, I started these the day I got the yarn.





The "Froggin'" pattern and the colorway were part of a Tree Frog themed package. Jen always makes each shipment special, with tons of treats and an amazing attention to detail. Even though this month's colorway was something I wouldn't wear (much less buy), I had a fun time knitting these and let's give it up for sportweight...it was quick.



The day I got the June yarn, I had finished the May socks. I really was trying to get them done before the next package arrived and I did with only a couple of hours to spare.





Love this pattern, called "Reina," and the yarn by Mama Llama too!

The final F is for Flat Feet.



I'm about to delve into the knitting 2-at-a-time pool. I'll let you know how that works out.

I've been away so long...

I've been away so long...in so many ways!

This may be my longest stretch without blogging and for good reason. There's a lot going on my life and I just didn't have the energy to post about it. Knitblog burnout? There's a little of that too, but life stuff, good and bad has been taking up my attention.

First the good...we went to Paris and London last month and had an amazing time! We ate well (even in London), took in as many sights as we could see and hit every museum we could. In London we managed to get to the Tate Modern and the National Gallery. In Paris, we did a short 2-hours at the Louvre, then the Rodin and the Pompidou. My mind is permanently blown from all the amazing work we were able to see. The Tate Modern had a great exhibit on Man Ray, Picabia and Duchamp, which I loved.

A few knittyish highlights:

• We went to the see the London Symphony and in preparing for the show, I found out that LSO conductor Sir Colin Davis is a knitter!
  

• I knit a sock on the Eurostar!

• At the Pompidou in Paris, which is a completely mindblowing place, there were several pieces that caught my crafty eye, including works by German artist Joseph Beuys, who used felt to cover different objects:
  

• And this 1968 work from Greek artist Jannis Kounellis: Four very tall posts wrapped with wool.
  

No yarn buying, though I did go to the Bon Marche in Paris and visit their yarn department. I didn't see anything I couldn't get here and with the exchange rate, it didn't make sense to buy.




Ten days was not enough...we want to do a longer trip next year and maybe hit Spain and Italy!

I neglected to tell you...

I neglected to tell you a couple of things....

First, I won a groovy prize pack from Yarn4Socks for being the first one to complete a pair in the Socks-O-Wool Kal!



There's Noro sock, Yarntini, Aija's Zero markers, a DellaQ bag and another sheepy charm bracelet! Nice. I am going to give that Noro sock another try when I'm off holiday knitting detail. I sold the skein I bought when it first came out because I just couldn't deal with it. I just found it a pain to work with...but those colors are just too hypnotic. I can't resist a second chance to love it.

Second, we're leaving for Europe on Wednesday! First London, then Paris. I can't wait!! If you have any favorite places in either city, let me know!!

PacNW Love

The PacNW trip was a blast. There was plenty of good food and great coffee, not to mention an abundance of cupcakes and yarn!

I flew into Seattle (thanks to a cheap fare on Virgin America) and saw my pal's Wendy's new pad. This the view from her balcony.



We had beautiful weather, and after a quick stop at the nearby Stumptown Coffee, we headed south for Portland.

We got a bit lost, but thanks to KnitMap (which is a travelling knitter's lifesaver) and my iphone, we found Twisted.



This is my kind of shop. The staff is super friendly, they have a tea bar and they have many, many indie sock dyers on their shelves.



Wendy enjoying the surroundings...


Oh, and of course they had lots of things I was searching for, like this pattern:



This is the A-Line Trapeze sweater by Bergere De France that I have been coveting for months. I'm psyched to have finally found an English version of the pattern and will start it soon. In addition, I bought these lovely hanks of mediumweight STR and Zen String as well as a bunch of other patterns, including EZ's Baby Surprise Jacket, Cookie A's Trystero, and adult version of the Knitting Pure and Simple's Neckdown Collared Bolero.



Love, love, love Twisted! I know I'll be back!

Unfortunately we had a little car trouble while we were looking for the make-your-own-yarns shop, Yarnia. By the time we got going again, they were closed. We were both pretty exhausted from the drive and the car trouble, so we headed to my friend Ellie's house in Kalama, WA (about 30 minutes north) for dinner and a good night's sleep.

Next day, we headed out fairly early and went back to Portland, directly to Powell's Books. It can be pretty overwhelming in there (and there were other yarn stores to explore) so we set a time limit of an hour and got out there fairly unscathed. After perusing the sewing and knitting aisle for a good long time, I ended up walking out with two buddhist books.

Just up the street was Knit/Purl. I was looking forward to seeing this place, since I heard all about the Koigu wall and knew that this was Shibui headquarters. They had some lovely display windows, though it was tough to get a good shot.



It's a lovely store, big on the modern design elements. Their upstairs knitting area had some Eames LCWs (aka Lounge Chair Wood), which I think are great chairs at home, but they're not the most comfortable to be knitting on! It's funny, I would have thought that this is the kind of store that would have apprealed to me the most design-wise, but I found it a little cold. The staff were nice though and it was busy for early on a Sunday. Wendy got a pattern, but I didn't see anything I had to have.

Next on the list was Dublin Bay Knitting Company.

We walked many blocks in the wrong direction before we found it! But at least there were some nice sights on the way, like this park:



And this cool use of an old structure:



And these babies from Cupcake Jones.



Dublin Bay is a pretty shop. I loved that they asked us if we wanted a glass of water or some tea after we walked through the door. That would NEVER happen in SF! Anyway, they had lots of yarns on sale and tons of Handmaiden/Fleece Artist.



I got sucked into the kit area and ended up with this origami type sweater, called Jane. It's a Perl Grey kit, which features Handmaiden's Ottawa yarn. It's a hell of a lot of stockinette, but the sample was really cool and I think it will be prefect for the person I'm knitting it for. My battery was low so I didn't get any pics of the shop! But it was a nice comfortable space, with a nice range of fibers and prices and great service, so it's another shop that I will try to get back to on my return trips to PDX.

We headed back to Seattle for a fab meal at Tom Douglas' Palace Kitchen. I had one of the best desserts ever, Butterscotch Pudding with candied nuts on top and beignets on the side. Perfect way to end this trip, until the next morning!

We had to hit one more shop before I got on the plane, so over the Bad Woman Yarn in Wallingford we went! I was cutting it close to my check-in time, so I really had time for a quick pass through and a bit of lingering in the sale aisle. I had to stuff this in the outer pocket of suitcase to make my plane! It's Classic Elite Renaissance that I got for a steal...



This yarn will eventually be a Garter Stitch Pullover. I just had a quick ogling of Trophy Cupcakes, but unfortunately no tasting!



I had just enough time to haul ass to my gate! I barely made it, but what a great trip. It was totally worth it!

Knitting up a storm!

The needles have been busy, even though this blog hasn't been. The short version: I've been having a hard time sleeping, we went down to SoCal to visit the in-laws (and check out their Prius) and it's crazy busy at work.

But forget all that. I have things to show you...finished things. Let's start with the most recent project off the needles:



Just in time for Earth Day, it's a pair of O-Wool socks.



I've been meaning to try O-wool for awhile, but just never got around to it. But on one of my virtual yarn crawls, I discovered Yarn4Socks was hosting a Sock-O-Wool kal and that's all the excuse I needed to grab a couple of hanks and cast on. In my search for a pattern, I read that sock designer Gigi Silva had passed away earlier this year, so I chose her Eleanor sock pattern in her honor. The pattern is not available right now (it was originally found on her Monkey Toes site along with many others) but you can see it on Ravelry.

Another cool thing that Y4S is doing is giving away a knitting charm to the first 50 people who order on the 1st of the month. I was one of those folks on April 1, so I got a bracelet along with the sheepy charm...



I'm still plugging away at my UFO pile. I finished another pair from 2007:



These are the Lattice socks from last year's Lucky Lurker (Duet) Sock Club. This was a super easy pattern, not sure why I left them hanging so long. I started these back in October!

I also finished a baby hat and booties from the Hacho I bought in Austin...



I made both from just one skein. So cute. The patterns for both the Saartje's booties and the Baby Cables and Buttons hat are available for free! Oh boy...in finding those links, I just came across another adorable baby pattern. I must resist!

Finally, here's a sneak peak at what I am casting on next...



It's the April shipment of the Woolgirl Sock Club. I love the colorway, the pattern and all the goodies.

This weekend, I'm flying to the Pacific NW to visit my pal Wendy. She just bought her first place and I'm dying to see it (and her). She's the one who really got me into knitting, so it'll be a crafty good time. We're planning on hitting many, many Portland yarn shops (Yarnia, Twisted and Knit/Purl perhaps?), Powell's and maybe getting a Voodoo Donut or two.

It's a Beautiful Day!

It was gorgeous today and it's gonna be hot this weekend. Hooray! I need some warmth. I've been sick for the past couple of days and going a little stir crazy at home...

But I'm soooo close to finishing another pair of socks from the UFO pile! Plus there's an adorable hat and booties set I need to show y'all...all they need are buttons. So no pics, but soon.

We're going to see Buster Keaton's "Sherlock Jr." at the Castro Theatre this weekend. It's one of my favorite films. The cool thing about it is they'll be a live band playing an original score. JM and I saw this a few years ago and loved it. We'll be taking our nieces (ages 8 & 12) and I hope they'll dig it.

Have a great weekend.

MagKnits RIP

Bummer. Magknits is no more!

Read Kerrie's goodbye letter.

I always enjoyed MagKnits and now I'm glad I printed out many of the patterns I wanted to knit.

The saddest part of the letter for me is this:

"The amount of negative feedback we have been receiving has hugely increased this year and to be perfectly honest there is only so much of ourselves that we can give to the site. Someone made a comment about us earlier in the week that we would be stupid to run a business that didn't pay us a salary, this made us sit back and think "Yes, you're right. We would be stupid to carry on giving so much and getting little in return.""

It's a drag that despite putting so much work into a site that offered free(!) patterns that she got some negativity in return.

4/9 updated to add: Suzanne pointed this out:

"Actually, her statement is referring to something else. She has not been shipping orders for HipKnits or paying the designers of MagKnits for MONTHS. She has not been paying her tech editor for months, either!

People on Ravelry called her out for not shipping paid orders or paying the writers the way she'd promised.

Had Kerrie actually followed through on what she'd promised and done what her business plan said, the negative feedback wouldn't come. Kerrie brought this on herself."

I had no idea this was the situation. Thanks Suzanne. Still a sad situation for all involved.