Alphabet Challenge #23 - Woolgirl, Winning and Wait, Wait, There's More!

How fortuitous! What timing! Wednesday afternoon I came home to find a package from Woolgirl waiting for me on my front porch. And look, now here we are on W day!

I know I've talked about the yummy packages from Woolgirl before but I've always torn right into them without taking the time to share with you the delight that is a Woolgirl package. This time I managed, somehow, to restrain myself. So out we went to the Front Porch of Photography.


Here's the pretty package, fresh out of the box. The back of the "Happy Spring" card had a hand-written thank you from Jen.


Move that note card out of the way and...what's this!? A sample of Soak in the Flora scent and...something shiny?!

Aww! It's a little sheepie stitch-marker. Such a cute little face on this sheep. The maker is on Ravelry. I think I need to contact her...I want another one. Not for stitch-markers...I want to make a pair of earrings out of these! Wouldn't they be the perfect earrings to wear to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Show? (Only one month! Whoo-hoo!)

And what's inside this pretty package?


Oooooh! At the top of the heap, Lavender Sheep superwash Merino in Mt. Sunset. (Oooh, pretty pinks.) In the middle, The Unique Sheep's (Hey! It's a U-company!) superwash merino in Blue Flame. (Rachel, you like this blue? They could be socks for you. You know, in five or ten years.) And, last but not least, Family Pendragon's superwash merino in Impressionist's Rainbow - I just love this colorway to bits. And how could I not since I think it has every color known to man in it.

Let's all think back to the S-post for a moment, shall we? I better get busy knitting some socks, huh?

Woot! I am a winner! Thursday I came home to this.


This is the first time I've won a blog contest! And just look at this -- on a dreary gray day, it was like coming home to a box full of sunshine. Lovely merino wool and a nice set of needles.

Holly, of Proseknitic, had a little contest, asking people to add to her "Charge of the Light Brigade" parody. Well, we do a lot of this sort of stuff over on Readerville, so I sort of had an unfair advantage. But the two little verses I added just rolled right out of my brain. In fact, I had a hard time stopping myself. Thanks, Holly! That was fun. This gorgeous yellow yarn comes from a very appropriately named website - Wolle-Lust! Something I definitely suffer from!

Late breaking news! The mailman brought me a nice box from Webs!

It had in it this:


Lots of Lopi in three shades of blue. Rachel wants a Jayne hat of her own, but she likes blues, not the yellow, orange and red of the original. This isn't wonderfully soft yarn but it's the right gauge and has an agreeably homespun sort of look that I think will be good for the Jayne hat.

And this:


Alpaca. I loves me some alpaca. Two of the colors (more blue-y colors, if I'm remembering right) were back-ordered so there will be more alpaca goodness coming sometime. I love this turquoise color. I might want to do some fingerless mitts in this.

Alphabet Challenge #22 - V Is For Very Expensive

Vintage Velvet - A scrumptiously soft, sensuously silky, lustrous scarf I'd love to knit but I probably won't ever do so. Too rich for my blood. Perhaps if I find Muench's Touch Me for half-price (the regular price runs about $15 a ball - making the scarf cost $75 to make) I would be tempted to give in. Guess I'd better keep my eye on eBay.

This post is very short. Perhaps it's been attacked by verbivores.

I got the latest Knitters magazine yesterday and finally got the chance to look at it when I got in bed last night. I almost ran down and amended yesterday's post because man, is it ugly! I always re-up my subscription, even though I don't like the magazine that much anymore. But I've been a subscriber since the premier issue...which I have somewhere, I think. So it would be a wrench to let it lapse. But this might just be the issue that broke the camel's back.

In other news...my cough is back. Feh.

Alphabet Challenge #21 - U's Pretty Tough, U Is!

So...U. I toyed briefly with the idea of making this post be upside-down but decided that would be tedious to do and annoying to read. I thought of unusual things, the universe of possibilities, Unitarians, unicycles, and umbrellas. But then I started getting a headache so I quickly had to think about unicorns, kittens and rainbows to calm myself down.

But here's an idea. Here's a list of some of my bookmarked favorites that begin with U!

Ukazoo - (This is cheating a little because I don't really use the website....we go to the store.) Sort of a disappointing used bookstore, really. (They never have any knitting books!) It feels rather sterile and corporate and not really like a real used bookstore. On the other hand, it is a used bookstore and I've gotten a few books there for cheap. Unfortunately, they are pretty cheap on their trade-in prices, too. (Actually, they may be giving the usual amount...it just seems awfully cheap to me.) Then again, on the plus side once more, they took over the space of an out-of-business furniture store and, perhaps because of that, they have little rooms with incredibly comfortable chairs where I can sit and read and knit while Mr. Pointy Stick browses.

Uncommon Goods - All sorts of wild and wacky sorts of stuff. These might have come in handy for this challenge. They have interesting earrings, zippy little pouches, and boxes for holding things. Alas, they're not cheap...but it's sure fun to browse.

Unemployed Philosopher's Guild - Need a pair of Freudian slippers? A Susan B. Anthony finger puppet/magnet? Some Jeez-It sticky notes? This place has got 'em.

Unwind Yarn - Well, thanks heavens! I couldn't call this a knitting blog if I didn't have a yarny sort of website for this post! They're in Burbank, CA, so my chances of dropping in are slim...but I can ogle their nice selection of yarn from the comfort of my East Coast home.

And just for fun, here are some unusual websites I like, even though they don't start with U:

Infowisps - This blog, alas, appears to be dead...but still, the archives are fun to read...and won't take too long.

Dark Roasted Blend - A collection of weird and wonderful links.

Dogblog - This guy can make me laugh. And some of the dogs make me go "Awww!"

Simple Knit's Page of Triangular Shawls - Shawl patterns. Categorized by yardage. What a brilliant idea.

And if you want to waste some time....Flight of the Hamsters. Though I still haven't gotten down the timing on the pillow. An awful lot of my hamsters only go 0 feet.

Alphabet Challenge #20 - T Is For Teacup and Traditions of Togetherness

When I discovered eBay, I was fascinated. So much stuff! And it's like winning a contest! For some reason I fixated on teacups. There are just gorgeous teacups out there and they weren't very expensive. And who doesn't like a pretty cup of tea?


Crappy picture, but the blue flowered Art Nouveau one is a Haviland. I don't remember the maker of the reddish one, but I love it because there is a little bridal procession marching around the inside rim...bride, groom, priest, drunkard. (The dogwoody-y china in the background came from a grandparent.)


I bought a few Shelley cups and saucers...Shelley was an old English company and had gorgeous designs. My aunt brought a couple of these back to me from Canada.


But this is one of my favorites. My mom loved Susie Cooper's designs and I bought her some coffee-related Susie Cooper pieces. But I don't drink coffee, so this is the piece I kept. A Susie Cooper teacup.

I don't know what I was thinking, buying all these teacups...I may have had visions of tea-parties or something. (Or, as one of my cousins used to say "teatarpies.") I certainly enjoy looking at them. But what do I pull down when I want a cup of tea? A big ole Dansk mug.

I think I may have a few too many teacups...

I got my copy of Larissa and Martin Brown's book, Knitalong: Celebrating the Tradition of Knitting Together. And what a nice book it is. It just feels good right out of the package. I know...not everyone thinks about the way a book feels. But this one has no dust jacket, just a satiny cover with a shiny spot in the middle. It's a nice size, too, and rests comfortably in one's hands.

Oh, you want to know about the insides?

Well, they're nice, too. There are six chapters, with subparts in each chapter, and each chapter contains a section called "Larissa's Diary" where she talks about a particular experience of knitting together. There are 20 projects and while a couple of them hold no interest for me (a French press cover? a felted peace crane?), the majority of them make me want to grab my needles and get started. A meathead hat is one project I definitely want to do...though I may make it for some small child. I think if I made one for me, I might cause Mr. Pointy Sticks to rupture something laughing at me when I put it on. I love, love, love the Eden scarf, a cascade of leaves and blossoms to throw around your neck. And I wish I had had the pattern for the Entomology hat and mittens back when my daughter was so crazy about bugs. I may have to make them for her just for old times' sake. (I would love to do these with the Fair-isle bugs done in a variegated blue-green-purple shiny yarn, to give them that iridescent beetle quality.)

There is wonderful writing about knitting together, from early knitting bees and knitting for war efforts to the current internet knit-alongs. There are tips for starting your own knit-along, tips for swaps, chapters about blogs, about competing in State fairs...all the many ways we have of staying connected to other knitters and crafters.

So...bottom line, this is a very nice book, and a great addition to your knitting bookshelf.

Oh, and the endpapers are filled with the names of all the people who participated in Larissa's knitalongs. How cute is that?

Alphabet Challenge #19 - On The Unbearable Slowness of Socks

I wish I could knit as quickly as the Yarn Harlot (read that post and then download the video....she's very fast!). Perhaps then I would be able to complete a pair of socks in under two years. Seriously...that's about how long it takes me, on the average. And we're not talking anything complicated here, people! No Cat Bordhi tricks, no beautiful Cookie A. lace! Just plain old ribbed socks. Take. me. forever.

(And there is actually a knit-along group that just finished up a year of knitting a pair of socks a week. Fifty-two pairs of socks in a year. My mind boggles.)

I love sock yarn, though. Boy howdy (to borrow an expression from a good friend - Hi, Kat!), do I love sock yarn. I think it's the colors. I'm all about color. Ask most people what their favorite color is, and most of them will snap right back with "Blue!" or "Red!" Ask me and what do you get? Dithering. "Umm...yellow. Or maybe a blue. You know that lavender blue you get in the evening? Or red. Or, you know what's really pretty? Cream and shades of yellow and purpley blues all together. Ooooh, or greens and purples. Reds and purples are nice..." And at this point you've wandered off to do something else, leaving me babbling softly to myself. "Some oranges and pinks together....or earthy tones...they can be nice..."

So I really need to get my socks in gear. The first step would be to finish these.



They've only been on the needles for a year.

Current Reading

I just finished my third (his second) Stuart MacBride mystery, Dying Light. Good gritty mystery, not for the squeamish.

Of course, now I'm stuck at work with nothing to read. Grrr.