Life without a LYS

Abilene, Abilene,prettiest town I've ever seen...

...has NO YARN SHOP!!!!

Now, there are places to buy yarn in town. You can get yarn from Wal-Mart. You can get yarn from one of the two craft stores...Michaels or Hobby Lobby. However selling yarn does not a yarn shop make.

At first this was disconcerting to me. I was going to have to drive at least 2 hours into Dallas to find a "local" yarn shop. (Can one call it local when it is over 100 miles away?)

There were solutions. I adore KnitPicks. Jimmy Beans Wool is also nice. I could order yarn and have it shipped to me. I could make sure and ALWAYS find a local yarn shop to visit when I traveled. But what about when I just wanted to squeeze a skein of cashmere? Yarn shop trips are major stress busters for me!

Then I unpacked.

Hmmm...

I guess I do have a local yarn shop.



My stash!

SuperKnitter Relocated

I have been on internet silence for about a month now. I do have a good excuse.

I have moved. 2000 some odd miles I've moved!

I was offered my dream job at the university where I earned my undergraduate degree.

So I left California for...TEXAS!!!

I now live in Middle of Nowhere, West Texas...and couldn't be happier!

I should have a lot more time on my hands, since I finally finished graduate school. When I am done with work for the day, I won't have any homework to do...what to do? what to do?

Knit, perchance?

Finally Got Around To It

When NorCalGal was in the process of moving back down to CA, she discovered a really neat little yarn shop in downtown Sacramento. She brought back some rust colored Baby Alpaca chunky yarn for me as an incentive to get me to move. (I figure her thinking was that she could lure me south with the promise of quality fibers...and apparently it worked cause here I am!)

I only had one skein, but that was ok. I had made kool-aid dyed beanies for Sister and Sis-In-Law out of chunky yarn, but never got around to making one for myself. I decided to use the alpaca instead of doing a dye job...the rust was the ideal color, and not one easily achieved with beverage powder!

I had used my swift to ball the yarn prior to the move down. I just hadn't cast on. Other projects kept cutting in the queue. (Besides, I didn't NEED a beanie...I lived in CA!)

Labor Day weekend, I took the ball with me to WA to use as a nostepinde demo. (I didn't want to take my swift, so needed a ball instead of a skein.)I impressed the aunts with my nifty notion, and got a more usable ball in the process. As long as I had it rewound, I went ahead and cast it on. It was a speedy knit, and I got it made up in a single night.

Not a needed item. Not even that impressive of an item. But still something that I can check off the to-do list, and one less ball in the stash!

(It did turn out pretty cute though...didn't it?)

Keepin' On Keepin' On

Blondie leaves on Sunday night.

She is going to Florida for college, and won't be back in NorCal until Christmas. (She is spending Thanksgiving with her brothers on the East Coast.)

Her going away present is a satchel. A hand knit felted satchel adapted from the pattern in Hip to Knit by ???.

I made myself one a couple of years ago, that I came across when unpacking for the apartment. I love it, so quickly started using it again. Blondie saw it, loved it, and asked if I could make her one in emerald and forest green. (Mine is teal and turquoise.)

I of course agreed...I am a push over, and she was VERY sick at the time. I just can't seem to tell the kid "no"!

Now I have 3 days left to finish it. (including felting)

And I am not done.

The problem with felting is that you have to knit the pre-felted item a lot BIGGER than it will end up being. A satchel is not a small thing. The pre-felted pieces seem to be going on and on and on and on and on and on and on...you get the idea.

Its not even hard knitting. There is just a lot of it.

I am starting to hate emerald green!

Knitting + Beer Bread = Bliss

Tonight Broseph came over to help me finish with the move. But, since Twilight had been over on Thursday and today was my day off, I was pretty much finished. All that was left to do was hang artwork. After being surprised at how MUCH artwork I had, there wasn't a whole lot for Broseph to do. (Although, I did ask him to open a pickle jar that I had been trying to open all week...there are some things you just need a guy for...)

Once we had all the stuff on the walls, and had eaten some pizza, we decided to watch Music and Lyrics and decompress. I put some beer bread in the over and sat down to...KNIT!!!

It was glorious.

I wove the ends into 2 dishcloths that are samples for library programs:



I wove the ends into the 2 commissioned baby burp rags:



I wove the end into the first bunny burp buddy:



...and then I finished the second bunny burp buddy:



And then I ate some beer bread. Warm. With Butter. And Honey.

It was AMAZING: spending time with a friend, on my orange couch, knitting lots, eating fresh baked bread, in my own apartment, with my own pictures smiling down from the walls. Life is good.

Withdrawal

I have knit a total of 10 rows of one dishcloth since I moved.

I did reorganize the craft closet, but have just had too much to do around the apartment to find even 15 minutes in which to knit.

The 10 rows I did get done only got done because I happened to have the dishcloth in my desk at work, and things quieted down enough for me to actually take my break.

I need to knit.

I am going through withdrawal.

...maybe tonight?

Moving Moving Moving

I missed a day of posting...I never know what to do on months with 31 days, since I try to post on odd days. Do I post two in a row? Do I skip a day? Which day do I skip?

I feel justified in skipping this weekend, since I moved. I am up to my eyeballs in boxes. I forgot that I owned most of the stuff that I've been unpacking...storing everything for nearly a year will do that I guess. On the plus side...I have ALL of my knitting, scrapbooking, and quilting supplies in one handy dandy place again...and an accessible place no less! They get their own closet! (My sewing machine. I have my sewing machine back. I can hem my pants finally, instead of using scotch tape!)

Moving also means reorganizing. I have a lot of "display" baskets and bowls that I keep leftover balls of wool, sock yarn, etc in...not to mention the project box and basket that go in my living room. I am going to be forced, to sort through ALL of my yarn in order to determine what goes where now! What a hardship!

(And by the way...I am almost done with the last bunny blanket buddy for the library commissioned baby gift. I will hopefully be posting the pictures on Wednesday sometime. The downside to moving is that I don't have internet at my apartment yet, so I will have to upload my pictures and posts on breaks at work!)

Knowing What Really Matters

I spent a good part of yesterday with my friend Sushi looking for an apartment. I had been hoping to move the beginning of July/August.

We went to a very nice complex and talked to the management, picked up a rental application...and most importantly toured a vacant apartment.

There were several things that I definitely needed to know, such as: does it include a washer and dryer? is parking assigned? what utilities are included? is high-speed internet available?

Still...in the end...I knew what really mattered:

Would the closet hold all of my yarn?



(Turns out it would...so I went ahead and rented it. Now instead of mid-summer, I am moving next Saturday! My stash and swift will finally come out of storage!)

Parting Gifts!

I recently moved to another state. Before I left, the wonderful ladies at my church gave me a going away party...complete with parting gifts! There was definitely a theme...orange, coffee, and knitting! I was very touched and loved everything.

Among other things, I received a beautiful ball of sock yarn in colors that reminded them, and myself, of the local area. It was GREAT yarn. Unfortunately...sometime, somewhere, between swifting it and moving...the ball band went the way of the dodo...I don't remember which amazing yarn it was...

I knew that it would be a pair of socks. I knew it needed to be a special pair of socks...more than just a 2x rib. At the same time, the variegation meant that an involved or intricate stitch pattern would be inappropriate. So, I went with a bamboo stitch. This stitch is very architectural and structured, so it shows up even through the color shifts. It is also one of my favorite stitches for scarves. (It is a simple YO, K2, PSSO, P2, repeat.)

I got to work on them during my first day of training at my new job. I worked on them diligently for WEEKS. (Granted, a pair of socks should not take WEEKS...but cut me some slack...I had a lot going on!) I had set a deadline. I had to have them done by the time I went back for graduate classes. And guess what? I actually made it! I wore them on the plane back! The end results were stunning! As is readily apparent from the pictures. (I only wish I had had the opportunity to show them to the ladies...but then, that is why I blog!)