Organizing.

My yarn was out-growing my 3 little stash bins. I upgraded to one big bin for the yarn, and used the little bins for magazines, needles, my bottle of Eucalan, my sock blockers, etc. Plus one bin is filled with my WIPs and the 3rd bin has a sweaters worth of Cascade Ecological Wool.

I dug all of my WIPs out of their various bags, buckets, bowls, nooks and crannies. I found some that I forgot I had, some I fell immediately back in love with, and some I hated. Like my mama's socks.

I don't hesitate to frog if a project is wrong. Example: A hat I knit and completed a few months ago that was supposed to be slouchy, but was dense and pointy. I never wore it, just left it. Today I frogged it and used the yarn (plus some skeins that were leftover) to start a scarf. (Which, in theory was pretty cool, and now I'm not so sure.) My mom's socks were another example, they just weren't right. The yarn wasn't going with the pattern, the toe looked wrong, and I just like top-down better. The second sock to my first sock ever? Frogged too.


I just get in a frogging kind of mood and it makes me happy. It's like, all of a sudden I have all of this wonderful yarn with so many opportunities instead of an ugly project I put in time-out because I hated.



Embrace the frog people, it means more yarn to knit with.



P.S. I've recently finished a hat, a shawl, and have made tons of progress on other items. All will be photographed soon, I promise. I've been really bad about it :(

I'm the luckiest girl alive.

Tonight in the small town of Pella, Iowa there was the Thursday Night Jamboree. (I'm not sure of the official name, but this fits.)

In addition to food and fun and mayhem, there was a woman with animals for show-and-tell.

The had an alpaca *swoons*, she had baby deer (so much more adorable than words can explain), she had a miniature horse, and.. get this.. 2 lambs (they looked more like grown up sheep to me, but what do I know?). They were show lambs. There were well groomed, clean, and gorgeous.

My mother (who I love dearly because I was too smitten to say anything) asked the woman who owned them if she used to the wool to spin yarn. Nope. The owner jokingly asked if I wanted it and my head snapped up so fast I may have gotten a wee bit of a neck injury.


Of course I wanted this wool. It's FREE WOOL. How much better could it get? The kind lady asked me if I was aware I'd have to wash it and "stuff" before I could spin it. Well.. yes. I had no idea how to prepare wool for spinning, but I could definitely learn how. "Alrighty, I work (at a place I'm not naming on the internet because she is MY free wool lady and no one will steal her from me) and you can come by and I'll give it to you. Have fun."


I then came home and researched the processes that need to be done in order to have wool ready to spin. It needs to be washed and carded for sure. (There's more than that, and many methods of doing each, but I'll leave it at that.) My mom has fabric dye, which after more research, works on wool as well. YES. In my dreams I'm going to be getting free wool, working with it, maybe dying it, and then selling it on Etsy and making big bucks. (Granted, I feel sort of inclined to give this woman some of my profits after I eventually start making money, but for now it's free and all mine.)


I'm going to try techniques from here and here. I'm tempted to buy this, and I need to buy one of these. Maybe eventually I can get one of these (which, as of now, is so far out of my budget it's not visible).


I'm really, really excited. (Did I mention she had an alpaca too? An alpaca just covered in lovely chocolate brown alpaca wool that looks so gosh darn hot in this Iowa summer and I have a feeling that the poor alpaca is going to need a haircut soon. I might have to ask about that.)



Oh, and onto other news, I am only a few rows away from finishing my green shawl. Today's a good day.

THE YARN HAS BEEN FOUND

I found the yarn in a box inside another box (cruel trick) and hugged the box, stroked the box, realized I was weird and set it down.


Now my set of sock DPNs are MIA.



I can't catch a break.



[Edit: Nevermind, they were hiding in my knitting bag because why on Earth would I look for them there? That's way too reasonable.]

I am devestated

Yarn was lost in the move.



Yes. Absorb that sentence, let the nausea pass by, and let the horror increase with this next sentence.

Handspun yarn from Capi. All the of gifts, cards, and yarn from my going away party have disappeared. Vanished. Evaporated.


All of my boxes have been opened and mostly unpacked. Once I realized the yarn (which I love and cherish dearly and will be heartbroken forever if it is really truly lost) was MIA, I began rummaging through the remaining unpacked boxes like a woman possessed. Nowhere. Nowhere to be found. My mom packed some of my stuff and so I called her at work and, very calmy, asked her where my !@#$ my yarn was. She has no idea. She knows it wasn't left in the hosue when we left, so she's pretty sure it has to be somewhere, but I can't find it.


Let me explain: I don't lose things. Ever. Sometimes I forget things, but I never lose things. Never. If I do, it's found within seconds. The only few, very few, things I've "lost" have been expensive (such as my phone, which would be a chunk of cash to replace, and was eventually found) or precious. If I do not find this yarn I will be devestated. So, so devestated.


Please send out yarn-finding good thoughts. (Yarn Gods, please help me out here. This is definitely not funny.)

Best Going Away Party EVER.

Yesterday was my Going Away get-together at Chi Town Pizza w/ my knitting group and it was great. Everyone came and ate and talked and I had a lot of fun.

Nobody ever told me that people brought gifts to going away parties, so I was definitely not expecting all the goodies I received. (Not pictured: A card w/ little blurbs from everyone and a promise of a gift card to my favorite yarn shop in Iowa.)



Ellie made me a spa cloth and brought me some fabulous lavender soap. (I'm all about the fancy soaps, gotta love 'em.)





And Capi brought some of her handspun and told me to pick two. Sooooooooo gorgeous I can't stand it.



I am really going to miss these guys :/

Cedar Leaf Shawlette!!

I was proud of this before I blocked it. Now, after blocking, I adore this thing. I'll wear it every stinkin' day. Love it.

Sheesh.

I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to go to knit night tonight at A Good Yarn. I went in with $50, and came out with 6 skeins of yarn (4 were gifts form Capi, more on that later) and Sock Innovation by Cookie A.

I started with one skein of sock yarn and the book, that was good. Then a woman came in with gorgeous hand dyed yarn, 550 yds. of deliciousness. How the hell was I to resist? (For the record, it's peach and pink and purple.. and totally girly. Love it.)


Oh, and Capi took me to her house (which is looks tiny until you walk inside and it never, ever ends. Ever.) to see her rooms upon rooms of yarn. It was great, it gives me an idea of what I aspire to have when I finally "grow up".



I'll photograph the yarn tomorrow and add it to Ravelry :) I have homework to do tonight.



P.S. TO anyone who goes to the Thursday night group at Starbucks, I won't be there tomorrow. My mama will be having some super fun procedures going on tomorrow at the hospital and needs a ride home.

I've been converted.

I like to think that, normally, I am an independent thinker. I don't let people persuade me, I don't let people get to me, and I do not let people talk me into doing or trying something. Yet, somehow, in the land in knitting, I am helpless to deny.

Alex, you should try knitting socks.
Alex, what about the Ravelympics?
Alex, knitting socks 2 at a time?

Yup. That last one is the latest and I am now knitting a pair of socks for my mama, toe up, 2 at a time on 2 circulars. Best. Thing. Ever. No sewing at the end, no running out of yarn - ever. No worrying about having to count and make sure the socks are the same size and definitely no second sock syndrome. It's (to me at least) just as quick and doing a single sock on DPNs.


Ollie (the nice woman who talked me into this) I, uhh, sort of love you. In case you were wondering.


I'll post pictures when I actually have something to show, but to tide you over until then:


Dream In Color Starry in the Some Summer Sky colorway. Super sparkly, super squishy, and pretty darn fantastic.

The DeStash Party: The Aftermath

Yeah.. I'm pretty happy with the yarn I got. The top 2 yarns, the Fearless Fibers sock yarn I bought for $15 a piece from Capi. Yeah, 550 yds. for $15 is like... I don't know, I tried to come up with some awesome description and I can't. It's just plain sweet.

It was really good and I'm definitely going to miss these guys when I move.

Dude. Babies.

I love babies. I adore babies. When there's a baby around, I have to end up putting my knitting down because I can not function properly when there is a tiny human in the room who is melting my heart.

I knew a certain someone (an adult, not one of my student-friends) was going to quit her job to be a stay at home mama as soon as the opportunity arose.

Guess who announced that this would be her last year working?! I am thrilled. Thrilled to the brim. As soon as I found out and the room cleared of anyone else who wasn't smart enough to guess, we started screaming and jumping and hugging and squealing and talking baby-talk.

And I, Alexandra Martin, and going to be personally responsible for covering this nice lady's baby in wool and all sorts of squishy, beautiful, machine-washable, neutral-sex colored wool.


The projects above are some of the items I'm considering. (Top to bottom: Mary Jane Booties, Seed Stitch Jacket, Baby Yours, and Tiny Shoes.) It's possible that I might be equally/more excited about this baby than the mother-to-be... but that's doubtful. Oh, and this kid is going to have a wicked shoe collection before he/she is even born, there's no doubt in that at all.