Taco Tuesday (as reported on Thursday)

Hello!

No Eastside Stitchers today as I am still down in Southern California helping out at my brother's house.  I miss my stitch buds!  Hello, everyone.  Can't wait to see what you are all stitching.

 Life

On Tuesday night, my sister, S, invited me out for her regular "Taco Tuesday" group.  Normally this group of friends meets at various taco restaurants around North Orange County for ... Tacos!  It is a very informal group, and they just have fun.

This week was different because they didn't actually go out to eat tacos, but headed down to Balboa Bay.


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This narrow bay is lined with gorgeous houses and shops,

 and has all of these islands that just extend the number of possible houses.  Many celebrities live there.

There are tons of sail boats and yachts docked all over.

It was just lovely.

We rented a small boat, the Knot So Fast,

and spent 2 hours just moseying around, enjoying the sunset

and eating a delicious picnic dinner.

HPKCHC

I have been working hard on my class assignments for the Harry Potter Knitting/Crochet House Cup. Or, I could say that I have been working on stuff that I already had planned to make, and am searching for class assignments that these things might fit.

What I do every month is make a list of the class prompts, then note possible projects that will fit.  For instance, for Herbology, the prompt deals with wands again.  This time, we are learning what types of magical animals provide the core materials that the wandwood we studied last month wraps around.  There are 2 prompts:  Make some crazy hybrid project, or do some cozy "from-the-core" crafting.  The second one is easy for me.  If I make an afghan square, that is definitely a "go-to" craft for me.  So any of the squares I need to make for my 2 afghans I am making for the 2012BAMCAL will work for this class.

So far I have finished both of the main 12 in. squares.  This month the square is Winterslace by Teresa Kohlhoff, and published in HeartmadeBlessings.

The next project I've started, and then had to restart after I just could not get the first filler square, In Treble by Julie Yeager, JulieAnny on Ravelry, to go from round to square.  Then I realized that I had hooked a 5 point star instead of a 6 point in the VERY FIRST ROUND.  Why is counting so difficult.  So no photos yet of this one, but just you wait. It is absolutely gorgeous.  I might turn it in to History of Magic class.  One of the options includes crafting an item to represent the ability to recognize the Fae or Fairy Folk (Seelie) of Scotland in all their exquisite glamour.  I'm hoping that I can sell a beautiful square as recognition of beauty.


I have cast on the second socks for my OWL, the Bubbly Socks by VeryBusyMonkey for Lily Potter.  I'm calling them "Lily's Potion Socks."  These are being knit in the Aussi Sock by Oasis Yarn in Amethyst.  I've finished the cuffs and am starting the pattern.  This is my first pair of symmetrical patterned socks.  I hope that I can keep the charts straight!

The other project is of course my Mobius Cowl, the pattern is Easy Mobius Cowl by Haley Waxberg,  for Pookie.  This is being knit by holding 2 balls of the gorgeous Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend together.

It is very fast and easy, so I am not working too much on it as I want to finish up the afghan squares and get a good start on the socks.

I will find a class for this project, also.  One idea that I have is for Muggle Studies.  In this class, we are studying muggle pets, particularly DOGS.  Ha!  So, one option is to craft something for a dog.  I think I can sell a mobius cowl as a dog collar for a large dog, a very fashionable large dog.  We shall see.

Stay safe and well.
Yours,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with lots of work to do.

2012 Bellingham Yarn Crawl part 1

Hello!

I am in such a great mood.  I know it's Tuesday, but I was exhausted on Sunday, and busy Monday, so I had to wait until today to post the first installment of blogs about the Eastside Stitchers' 2012 Bellingham Yarn Crawl.  

Many of us were able to take part in the 2012 Puget Sound LYS Tour in May.  We had a wonderful time getting introduced to 24 LYS.  But, trying to cram all of the shops into 4 days was challenging, especially since we traveled all the way to the Canadian border as well as visiting 2 islands involving ferry trips.  Basically, we ran in and out of the shops trying to get as much of a feel as we could for what each shop carried.

It was a good introduction, though, and it made us determined to come back and visit the shops again.  This was one of the reasons I knitted like a fiend this summer, trying to use up most of the yarn I purchased in May.  Ok, I probably would have knitted that much anyway, but it did dictate a bit of WHAT I was knitting.  On that Crawl, I basically just bought what looked cool.  I love the things I made, but, I have completely organized my stash, completely, and wow, I have a lot of random skeins of yarn.  

Before:

After:

 Ok, I still need some type of bins, but at least it is all organized by fiber, size, and for sock yarn, solid/variegated.

I organized my stash, then made a list of 4 projects I really want to knit next.  I guess this will be my year of the shawl, because I chose 3 shawl/shawlettes and a mobius cowl.  The cowl is for my son, Pookie, who plans to be a physics major in college next year.

I listed the amounts and types of yarn suggested for each project and made a vow to myself that I would stick to my plan.  

I planned to use my "Costco" method of shopping.  I love Costco, which for me is a local store as it started here in Washington, but, it is very easy to come out of Costco with a load of random purchases that you don't really need.  When I shop there, I always make a list, then hold the list in front of my face so I can't see any really cool things that just want to be bought, and run from list item to list item.  I am usually pretty good at sticking to it.

Well, I can claim complete success on the Bellingham Crawl.  I bought only stuff on my list.  Now, I need to knit up all 4 projects before May and the big yarn crawl!  Or before we plan another day trip to a new part of the Puget Sound area and some other yarn stores we haven't "tasted" yet.

So where did we go?  And what did we buy?

Stop 1 

NW Handspun 
1401 Commercial St. 
Bellingham, WA 98225

We arrived in Bellingham, WA at about 11:30 am.  It was gray out, but looked like it was going to be a nice day.  Bellingham is on Puget Sound and almost to Canada.  As we got close, driving up the 5 freeway (Interstate 5), we had glimpses of the water.

We found parking in a bank lot just down the street from the store,

where we were threatened with the full body-binding curse, Petrificus Totalus.  Undismayed, we continued on to the shop where we were greeted by the sight of a yarn bombing.

 

Yep!  yarn store in the immediate vicinity.  NW Handspun is a lovely little shop. 

They had some beautiful yarns.  Everyone went gaga over the Periwinkle Sheep yarns.  They were beautiful colors, and sparkly.  Upstairs, were the sale yarns and... Spinning wheels and roving.  I actually spent about 5 minutes looking at the different wheels, then said out loud to myself, "Back away from the spinning wheels.  There is nothing for you here."  Needless to say, a wheel was NOT on my list.  But the roving was beautiful, and well, reading the spinning chat in HPKCHC and listening to the KnitmoreGirls as well as the Weasley Sisters, and just about every other podcast I love, talk about spinning... Not on my list I repeat.


However, some Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend, was on my list.  The cowl I hope to knit (Easy Mobius Cowl by Haley Waxberg) for Pookie suggested that yarn, doubled.  Pookie wants gray.  He wants it to go with a purple sweater he has.  Gray?  just gray?  Why are boys, well boys?  

I had the foresight to bring the purple sweater with me, and I found the perfect yarns. 

I chose a gray (Nickle) :

and a variegated (Abalone):

It will look mostly gray, but with just a bit of purple, pink, blue, and cream to add interest.  But still masculine.  Definitely, still masculine.

It goes well with the sweater.

Now to just knit the cowl.  But since the HPKCHC dictates my stitching life, I can't cast it on until October 1, and hope it fits a class.  Ha!

Tomorrow, I will write about the 2nd stop.

Where in the world is f1bercat?

Yes!  the Bike Ride South is back.

I made it to the Y yesterday and today.  They have remodeled the entryway, and our little Y is quite lovely now.  The recumbent bikes were in the same spot, though, and one was empty.  

I was only able to knit for 20ish minutes both days.  Can you say, "Out of shape?"  Not horribly so, but still.  Anyway adding them together I knit for 8.13 miles on one of my Spa Washcloths.  

The first 3 of these were from the Liz Marino Gift Knits Club.  She sent the organic cotton yarn and the nubby washcloth patterns. 

 I loved the idea so much, that I am making sets for my 3 sisters and my 4 sisters-in-law for Christmas.  Always thinking of how I can fit what I intend to knit into the HPKCHC, I decided to propose these washcloths as a B.R.O.O.M (Basic Request for an Official Order Mission) project.  These are formally know as Order of the Phoenix projects, and and meant to take more time than a regular class, but less time than an OWL.  I suggested that I knit 8, but the Moderator in charge, asked that I make more, as 8 was not a sufficient number to count.  She suggested 10.  Ok, I can knit 10.  I mean, I think I can, with 6 classes each month, Quidditch games, and my OWL socks to knit.  Anyway, they are perfect projects to knit while riding the bike.

So, where does that put me?

The last time I rode (and posted progress), I was at 322.93 miles.  Which put me in the middle of nowhere:


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Now that I have driven this route, down and back up, I know that I am headed into some beautiful places, but pretty empty of people.

So, 8.13 more miles brings me to 331.03 miles total, just south of Yoncalla.

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Roseburg, here I come.


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Stay safe and well.
Yours,
f1bercat
Shaping the planet with new yarn!

Wooden hooks from NW Handspun