Moogie, Mole, Mutants, and Tonight

Hello:

I've been remiss at posting, but not because I haven't been knitting or crocheting.  It is the last week of the month and all my projects are due on Saturday for the Harry Potter Knitting/Crochet House Cup.  I have been frantically working on various projects in between work and watching movies with Doc and Moogie.

Moogie
Moogie got home from NYU last Tuesday (2 down 1 to go).  She was only home for 6 days.  She wanted to do a 3 day Juice Cleanse and wanted company in her misery, so I volunteered to do it with her.  Although I posted on Friday that I was hungry, that was not exactly true.  I started my 3 days last Friday, you get 6 bottles of different vegetable/fruit juices each day, and I was only able to finish 3 of them.  Every so often I would have a wave of hunger hit me, but mostly, I felt fairly full all day.  I am a very slow drinker, so I sipped and sipped and it took about 2 - 3 hours to drink just one bottle.  I actually never drank the last 6 bottles of my allotment. Since I was drinking them so slowly, I kept the cleanse going for one extra day, but still couldn't finish all the bottles.  The juices are all natural, and have nothing in them but the veggies and fruits, so they don't last very long.  I would totally do this again.  They all tasted good, and some were really delicious.  I lost about 7 pounds, but the best parts are that I kicked caffeine, and my desire to eat has shrunk.  I just am not hungry that often, now.  We will see how long this lasts.  I thought I might want to buy a juicer so I could make my own stuff at home, but wow, they are not cheap, so I will just eat the raw veggies instead.  If you are interested, the company we used is Juice Box Seattle.  We did the 3 day juice cleanse, and they delivered the juices to a place in Bellevue where we picked them up.

The big thing Moogie wanted to do while she was home, on top of the cleanse, was dye her hair silver.  Yes, you read that right.  The salon did a great job, leaving her with a blend of all shades of silvers.

Here is the Before Photo:

And here is the After Photo:

Here is what the hair looks like in back:

She loves it.  I think it is beautiful, but I love her natural color...

Mole
Beena caught a mole on Memorial day.

Poor thing.  But, I am a little glad not to have a mole in the yarn.

Mutants
We have the most beautiful irises in our yard.  They were here when we moved in, and come back every year.  The original owner's name is Bart, and these flowers are named Black Bart Irises.  Someone gave them to him as a joke.  They look really black before they bloom.

They are huge when they are fully open, so big that they often pull their stems to the ground with the weight.

A few years ago, I noticed that we were getting some regular purple irises in the yard in addition to the Black Barts.

These are smaller, and much lighter in color.  Then, last year we had this one really strange iris, a mutant.  This year, we had a bunch of these mutant irises bloom.

I have no explanation.

More Mutants
On Sunday, Doc, Moogie and I went to see the new X-Men movie Days of Future Past.  First, to get ready we watched all 6 previous X-Men/Wolverine movies.  We started Friday night, because I was working so late on Thursday night, and watched them all day and all night Saturday.  Not many of those are very good, the very first one was fine, and the last one was pretty good, but the rest are not so much.  But it was totally worth it because we were ready for the newest movie, and understood who everyone was and the history.

The new movie is excellent.  I'm not sure how much you will understand/not understand if you have never seen an X-Men movie, but if you are at all interested in this franchise, go.

Tonight
The next round of Sock Madness has begun, officially Round 5.  The pattern is called Tonight, and features a double-knit cuff.  Thank goodness I learned to double-knit last year.  I am using the dark blue yarn I knit my daughter, Allifer's, socks out of, I think it is Cascade Heritage Paints, and the gorgeous yellow that Redbird1 gave me last year.

I love how they are coming out, but, because you have to knit 2 stitches for every 1 normally, they are very slow going right now.

I might be posting very short updates as I try frantically to keep up on these and make it to Round 6.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with mutant flowers.

Juice Cleanse, Day 1

I'm hungry.

Quick Post of Ugly Socks

I don't think I even need to discuss these monstrosities. Poor color choices.  The pretty and interesting ankle cable is obscured by the fact that the brown yarn is too dark.  Although the soles are interesting, the alternating colorwork is obscured by how close the two colors often are.  I thought the orange yarn had more orange and less dark brow and olive.  Oh well.  I improved my two handed color knitting quite a bit while knitting the feet.

That is a win.

They fit beautifully.  I'm not sure that is a win.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with fuggly socks.

Eastside Stitchers: Babies, Babies, Babies

Hello:

3 new Eastside Stitchers joined us at the round tables near Half Price Books at Crossroads tonight.  Consequently, we had a full house.

Last week, BlueBerryMary started her first pair of 2-at-a-time socks.  Tonight, she brought the finished legs, and started on the heel flaps.

Pam2 had started another sweater.

Wajio is working on her Summer Flies shawl.  After counting her stitches, she decided that this was not the greatest social knitting project!

Readnitdream is making a sweater for her daughter.  These are the sleeves.  She has already finished the front and back.  She is a fast knitter.

Anerenbe is making the most beautiful wash cloths for her expected baby.

Can you see the owl?  CathieC has finished the second of her owl mitts and is ready to sew on the eyes.

Puzan has started a new cowl.  I checked her Rav projects, but I couldn't find a project page... so for now we will just call it, New Cowl.

JitteryKitter is making her third Tolt Hat.  She bought 3 skeins of yarn in 3 colors to make this hat, and has been able to make 3 hats!

GwenS not only brought the Beautiful Addie, but has started a new sweater for her, Harvest Sweater, by TinCanKnits, in Teal Feather Rios.

Chockelet brought her Age of Brass and Steam.

She is adding beads to the YO rows.  They look perfect with this color of yarn.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with new knitters.

Snowflake Monday

Hello: 
Here is my snowflake for this week.  It has only 2 rounds!  You can download the pattern on Ravelry.

2014.05.18 Snowflake

LYS Crawl

Magic Loop

Round 1:

ch 1, 12 sc in ring, ss in first sc

Round 2:

ch1 *sc , ch 16, ss in 8th chain from hook, 

ch 12, ss in 4th chain from hook, 

ch 6, ss in 6th chain from hook, 

ch 4, ss in 4th chain from hook, 

ss in first chain near hook, 

7 ss down chain, 

ch8, ss in 8th chain from hook,   

8 ss down chain, 

sc in next sc,* repeat around 6 times, ss in first sc.

Finishing:  Soak in a 50% Water/ 50% White glue Solution.  Pin out on blocking mat covered with plastic wrap until dry and stiff. 

Peace,

f1bercat

shaping the planet with a LYS Crawl and a Snowflake

 

2014 North Puget Sound LYS Crawl, Day 4: FINISHED!

Hello:

JulieMustKnit and I finished visiting all 25 stores in the 2014 North Puget Sound LYS Crawl today.  We were joined by Skeinherder as we visited the last 3 shops on the Crawl.

Seattle Yarn
5633 California Ave SW
Seattle, WA 98136
206.935.2010
seattleyarn.com

This is a wonderful shop.  It is quite large, and has a huge selection of great yarns.  There are wonderful big windows in the front, bringing in the light.

This shop is able to carry a lot of each brand and base, and enough of each color that you could easily buy what you needed for a sweater.

They have a huge selection of cotton yarns, linen, and hemp.

I asked the owner if that was a seasonal thing, and she explained that she has some regular patrons with wool allergies, and so she made sure to have a good selection on hand for them.  That is true LYS service.  This shop is big enough, that she can have a large selection of these non-wool yarns, but still have a great selection of wool yarns, as well.

The free patterns were a Knit cowl that uses Autumn Wind Hand Dyed Print by Lotus. And, a lacy Crochet Shawl that is hooked in Araucania Azco Izis.

I liked the cowl more than the shawl.

There is a small parking lot in front of the store.

(Puzan!  cowl pattern 12)

So Much Yarn
1525 First Ave. #4
Seattle, WA 98101
206.443.0727
somuchyarn.com

 So Much Yarn has moved to a new space right across the street from the Pike Place Market.  (I will now promote my children's book, Salt and Pepper at the Pike Place Market).

The new store is bigger and has so much light! 

They still have a wonderful selection of yarns.

Their pattern is a Knit cowl and uses Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Sock Yarn.

We parked off Western Ave. in the Market parking lot ($3 for 1 hour). 

From there it was a short drive to the Bainbridge Island Ferry and our last stop at...

Churchmouse Yarns & Teas
118 Madrone Ln
Bainbridge Island, WA 98110
206.780.2686
churchmouseyarns.com

This shop was as lovely and welcoming, as usual.  They have such a lovely staff, and everyone was helpful and seemed as fresh as though it was Day 1 of the Crawl.

They have a wonderful selection of terrific yarns, but it is also something about how they group and display the yarns.

They have a section for the Teas of the "Yarn & Teas," as well as other lovely gift items for sale.

They keep their wonderful Churchmouse patterns in the store

Their designers have a way of making a pattern that is achievable for a beginning knitter, yet fun for someone more advanced.  And the project is sure to be classic enough that you can wear it year after year.  This year's free patterns for the crawl were no exception.  Both patterns are for lovely scarves.  The Knit pattern uses two colors of Isager Alpaca Merino 2, and the Crochet pattern uses one or two skeins of Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Sock yarn.  I plan to make both.

If you finish the Crawl at Churchmouse, they ring a bell and celebrate with champagne.  Skeinherder finished with 9 shops, so she is in for one of the large drawings, and of course, JulieMustKnit and I did the whole insane thing.

I hope my posts about this crawl encourage you to try the crawl yourself, next year.  It is tons of fun, and you can really see how lucky we are to live in Washington where we have the most amazing Local Yarn Shops.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with champagne.