Needles

I came home to Knit Picks Options Needles on my door set. I am a happy Judy tonight. Not only do I get needles, I get to label the plastic holders. Yay!

rantings

I've created a new blog for my general rants. It is here. I have also linked to it over on the side bar there. Instead of just a random rant like the previous post, these are actually recurring rants that I have. I figured I should just compile them in one place.

Death of the crocodile hunter

So, everyone knows, and if not, now you do, that crocodile hunter guy died by a sting ray point to the heart. Now, I know this is all courtesy of Fox 10 'o clock news, and just fox news, one should take with a grain of salt, and evening news is another grain of salt, but how many things can you find wrong with the following statement from their 10pm news commercial:
"We'll see who is the most affected by the death of this superhero."

I don't mean to rant. It's just that society is so silly sometimes. Now, back to crafty content.

Oak leaf pattern is a pain in the ass.
I'm also making progress on my bag for my secret pal.

Labor Day weekend in Ithaca

This weekend I went up to Ithaca. Partly to see how Tina was settling in and take her shopping and to dinner. Partly, to eat and buy wine. I like to support the Finger Lake wines. I had 2 items on my list...wines, and a fudgy chocolate cake from Wegman's. I had also wanted to go check out Knitting Etc., a new yarn shop. Well, they aren't that new. They just changed ownership and moved.
First stop upon my arrival was Northside Wines and Liquors. This is the main liquor store in Ithaca. And I bought:

One of the bottles was bought purely for bottle amusement purposes. It was < $10 and the bottle was just too cute:
Why yes, that does look like a cat. I think it's a riesling, as that's about all I made out of the words on the label. And if it sucks, hey, at least the bottle is cute.
So, there were 13 bottles. I only picked up 6 at the liquor store. 4 of the bottles are apple cider that I picked up from Bellwether Cidery. I stopped at a couple of wineries along Cayuga Lake. This was the second one. I had originally planned on going to Sheldrake Point and had driven past the Cidery on the way up. At Sheldrake Point, I bought 3 bottles...I believe they are destined to become sangria.
Saturday, I also picked up yarn:

This is all going to become a bag for my Tote Exchange pal. Well, I think there's actually enough to make 2. I'll be keeping the second one if I ever get around to it. This is all anyone is going to see of this until I"m finished and my pal has received the bag. I actually got a lot done over the weekend. It's knit double stranded and I had only wound 2 colors while at the shop thinking that's all I'd get through but the bag knit up a lot faster than I had anticipated.

Finally, I would like to tell you about cake. I have been thinking about this cake for a while, ever since I knew I was going to Ithaca. The first time I had it, it was for my birthday. It's a chocolate cake with a fudgy choclate frosting, pecans around the edge, and some caramel on top. Yes there are 2 Wegman's here in northern VA that doesn't require me to drive 6 hours each way to get to. No they do not have this cake, trust me, I've looked.
Tina and I arrived at Wegman's where I proceeded to cakes and did not see it. So I talked to a guy in bakery who said that why yes, they do still make it and there should be some out tomorrow or Monday or I could always order the cake. I went with ordering so that it was guaranteed to be there. Tina was a little surprised. Hey, I did come 6 hours to get this cake, I wasn't going home without it!


Overall, it was a good trip. I hate the long drive cuz it's long and it hurts my back. I did keep a Thermacare heat pack on my back for the drive back so that worked a lot better. The weather was cool and grey, typical Ithaca weather but SO refreshing from this crappy hot and humid weather we've had. Ithaca is magical and I did think, "Gee, it'd be a nice place to retire!" Can you just imagine me retiring to an artist's life in the land of hippies? Even if I don't retire there, for me, it's a getaway. I am familiar with the area. I have friends there. I can be on my own. For me it is refreshing to be there.

What to pack?

I'm headed up to Ithaca in the morning and I intend to go yarn shopping and start in on the bag. One would think that a yarn shop would have a swift and a ball winder so that you can buy and wind up your yarn immediately, so that you can get started immediately...right? That means I wouldn't have to pack my ball winder and swift...?

Yeah, this is a lot tougher than trying to make sure that I've got clothes.

Saturday Evening Edit: Yes, they had a swift and ball winder! Whoo hoo!

Inspired by others...

And by others, I mean Amber, I will also set my goals.
My project goals for Sept:

• Start and finish knitting my bag for my Tote exchange pal.


• Write up the pattern for beaded maple and oak leaves.


• Hmm...figure out pattern for oak leaves...


• Somewhat Cowl!


• Anna Socks!


• Beaded spiral necklace

Hmm...I think that might keep me busy for all of September.

I got a new toy!

It's a swift!

I took advantage of this week's 50% coupon at A.C. Moore and bought a swift before heading to the weekly Thursday night meeting of the Sweet Life Knitters. I'm knitted out tonight so I think I'll do a bit more beading.

Onward and upward?

Thanks everyone for you comments on the shawl! Lace is an interesting creature. After such a project, you really learn to read the stitches in your piece. This drastically cut down on problems before I got too far along. I didn't have to rip back to the life line that I carried.

Now, I'm moving on. I'm back to working on the Somewhat Cowl to get it done. I'm taking it one ball at a time, and I'm almost at the portion where I put the sleeves onto holders and work the body. That's exciting because right now, all the stitches are cramped up on my 24 inch needles and it's driving me nuts!

In other news, I'm still trying really hard to hold off on buying the Knit Picks Options set. This week, A.C. Moore has the 50% coupon. I think I'm headed to the Fairfax A.C. Moore to buy myself a swift.

Finished - Peacock Feathers Shawl

Friday, I brought the shawl with me to work so that I could prepare to block. I had planned on using the Yarn Harlot method of blocking. So I weaved in my ends and ran a line across the top.
Friday night, this was the scene:

Note that it is blocking on a queen sized mattress. I think I could use a king size in the future for blocking.


A bit more detail. There are pins across the top, down the center, and in each loopy thing along the sides.

Drumroll...

With a little help from Patricia, Mary, and Chris while at the bead store, we managed to take this picture. I photoshopped out the background. But the loopy things wouldn't stay flat.

A woman there asked if I made these for sale. Well...I'd do it if I judged you worthy. This is kind of like how a bank runs a credit check...this is a worthiness check. Patricia's answer to that woman was, "Do you have $10,000 lying around?" Yeah. I loved the lace, but it is time consuming and detail oriented.
But putting this on for the first time, I decided that I must make another one.

Details

Pattern: Fiddlesticks Knitting - Peacock Feathers Shawl
Yarn: JaggerSpun Zephyr - 50% Chinese Tussah silk, 50% fine Merino wool
Color: Cassis
Needles: Addi Turbo size 4

Almost done! Almost done!

I just crochet cast off the peacock feathers shawl. I'd go take a picture and post it but I'm really just too lazy to run upstairs to get the camera. Tomorrow night, I'll go pick up additional pins, and block. This shawl is off the needles!

Gasp! Diet.

I think it's time for a yarn/bead diet. me == :-(
Why? I have a lot of yarn. I have a lot of beads. I really need to use some of it up. And I really need to stop spending money so I can do things like...get a working oven. I think I am allowed to buy stuff like wire...cuz how else am I going to use up my beads? But I think the yarn diet portion will start after next weekend...after the Knit Happens end of summer sale.

Beading, knitting, and use of my hands

Legs were still a bit sore yesterday when I tried to go running. Then I spent a good say with my friend Shawn where we sat and caught up and beaded. I went up to her house up in Ellicott City, MD. I laced my way through sunflower petals and peony petals and moved onto knitting.
Knitting excitement: I'M ON THE EDGING! I'M ON THE EDGING! of the peacock feathers shawl! I'M SO EXCITED! I'M ALMOST DONE!!!!!!!
In other knitting, I'm thinking of signing up for International Tote Exchange II. I seem to be having a bag obsession lately. Signups close on Aug 25th so if any of you are interested, you should go, read the rules and sign up soon.

Catch up Post, with pictures!

I bought some storage for my beads at IKEA. These are working a lot better:


On Sunday, I went to Stitch DC Georgetown to check out the yarn sale and noticed they had Rowan Wool Cotton on sale. Monday night at SnB, I posed the question of "Should I go buy the Rowan Wool Cotton?" and Amber replied immediately with "Yes, ALWAYS YES!" before anyone could get a word in edgewise.
I had this Rowan design in mind. It's knitted. It involves beads. It's a corset styled top. Those three together bring me to my knees. For my size, I need 11 balls of Rowan Wool Cotton.

But if you count here, there are 13 balls. Well, I wanted one that's a little longer, and I wanted ruffles on the sleeves too, not just on the neckline. I think they cheated a little by not using ruffles on the neckline. So I got the 12th ball. But then, there was one remaining ball sitting there all lonely...so it also came home with me.
Damn you Amber!

Goings ons

Items for this week:
DC Restaurant week is going on this week.
A knitting group at Bead Obsessions this friday from 6pm-8pm.

20K is...

• 12.4 miles. For about the first 11.5 miles, I thought 20K = 12.8 miles. Imagine my happy surprise.
  
• Less than the distance from my house to Bead Obsessions if I take the Beltway


• Less than the distance from my house to work (in Rosslyn) if I take 395.


• The distance I ran this morning, for which I got my butt up at 5am and drove to Leesburg for.
  

Now I have an excuse to lie on my couch all afternoon and either knit or bead. Cuz I don't think I'll have much energy for much else. And I don't really have control of my feet at this point.

Lax in my blogging

All right, it's been a while. I'm lazy.

Socks

I have never had a reason to knit socks. I've been tempted lately by some of the knee socks patterns I've seen, but nothing has really pushed me over the edge. Until today. I picked up the latest copy of Rowan at Knit Happens cuz I was killing time before my Sunflowers class at Bead Obsessions and I had seen some of the pictures on their blog. And I saw these knee high socks and went "Ohhhhhhhhhhhh!". So then after my class, I went to Spring Water Fibers and bought yarn and needles. I'm thinking black knee socks with a pink ribbon through the top.

In other knitting news

I'm more than half way through chart 7 of the Peacock Feathers shawl. After that I have only the edging rows to do and then I can block! Whoo hoo!

Beads-teaching

I taught the first session of the Sunflower class and in the next two weeks, I also need to make all my parts. It is getting exciting to see the students improve on their skills and make pointier pointy leaves.

Beads-patterns

I'm excited because of something that happened today. Someone bought a pattern through my website: Judy Yiu Designs (the first purchase!) and it was someone I didn't know which means people I've never met actually read this blog since it's the only place where I have ever mentioned it. How exciting is that?!?!

And I started working on the pattern for the autumn leaves. I've got instructions for a maple leaf half written and I've got a picture for an oak leaf. We'll see how this goes. Hope to have it finished by October.

Beads-making

I've been having some inspiration problems lately. I'm still working on a second peony to go into my peony and Bells of Ireland arrangement. I've got vast numbers of unfinished flowers. Some unfinished cabochons. Some unfinished jewelry pieces. And not really knowing what I want to do.

For now...

It's a really early bedtime for me this Saturday since I'm running a 20K in Leesburg tomorrow morning...I think this means I need to leave my house by 5:30am. Ick. At least I'll have an excuse to spend the entire afternoon lying on my couch.

Peony!

I like peonies! I have a peony bush in my back yard but the flowers lasted for about a week. And then Donna came up with her peony pattern...and now I have visions of a peony and bells of Ireland arrangement in my living room. That will be coming in a few months :-)

But for now... Peony pattern by Donna DeAngelis Dickt. It even has a cute little bud. The pattern calls for 8 hanks of petal color beads.

Peony viewed from the top.


Peony viewed from the side.


Peony viewed from the back.


The cute little bud and leaves

Stitches East 2006 info

Info can be found here.

I signed up for Fair Isle Knitting with Amber from my SnB. This is for Saturday afternoon. I also signed up for Joy of Finishing to learn to better my skills at finishing off projects. This is going to be fun.

Too much work, not enough play time. I've moved onto my second ball of yarn for the Somewhat Cowl.
I also started researching road bikes.

Back on the bike again

It's like that saying about getting back on the bike...gee, I wish I could remember. Anyways, it's July and it's time for le Tour de France. For the last couple of years, in July, I start to obsessively watch le Tour. I only started watching yesterday (instead of July 1st) because I only got tv back yesterday. Tomorrow morning: Individual time trial. Yeah baby!
So I went bike riding after work today with some people from work, including my boss. Rosslyn to Old Town and back. I gotta tell ya, all those cycling classes I took in the last 3 years really came in handy! I'm not too sore yet but I guess I'll know for sure tomorrow. My upper back is sore cuz of the time spent hunched over. I even have the marks on my leg to show you of my biking adventure. Not bad for the first time on a bike in 10+ years.

Activities for the evening: today's Tour de France highlights and the Peacock Feathers shawl. I'm finishing up chart 5. Whee!!!!!!!!!

Then sleep for tomorrow morning's ITT! When are we gonna get to some mountains???

Stitches East, and Happy July 4th!

July 4th, I'm home. Yay!

Okay, now the important stuff :-)
Anyone interested in going to Stitches East with me? I'd like to take class or two over the weekend. It's the first weekend in November and I got my workshop mailing yesterday. More info can be found at Knitting Universe.