In which Kate becomes a Teen Services librarian

So in lieu of working in a school library, I've been working more hours at my public library job ... and I am now the teen librarian (yay!). Even though I was "flipped" to this portion of Youth Services earlier this month, I am still really really excited about it.

When my Teen Advisory Board meets for the first time in November, I want to see if any of the kids are interested in a knitting group. Oh yes. A knitting group. I have a lot of extra needles and scrap yarn to get us started, and since I've already taught Andrea how to knit (I need to ask her what poem I used. It was a little violent and involved a fox and a hen-house), I think I can handle teaching teenagers. That, and they won't wave the needles around.

So. Any suggestions for programs? Anyone?

How a yarn store in Spokane, WA helped a girl on Long Island

Important Knitting Tip: When working on something, like ... oh ... a never ending wedding afghan, make sure you have enough yarn.

Thanks to Paradise Fibers in Spokane, WA, I will be able to finish this darn present. They seem to be the ONLY shop left on the planet that still carries Cascade Yarns 220 Superwash in Light Iris ... and they not only shipped two skeins to me, they shipped it to me IMMEDIATELY. I placed my order on Friday, the yarn arrived in Monday. I love Paradise Fibers, Ravelry, and the United States Postal Service immensely.

Now I just need to knit ;)

Movie stars and socks

I went on vacation to Berlin, Dresden, and Prague, and met this dude in the airport.

To quote one of my dearest friends, "You do realize this doesn't happen to other people, right?"

If I was an even better knitter (or a braver person), I would have asked Vin Diesel to hold my sock-in-progress for a picture. However, here's the sock (I was allowed to knit on the plane going to Germany, and the plane going home from the Czech Republic, phew), and the view from the Best Western am Spittelmarkt.

Snow day, with hardly any snow pictures

Used Judy's Magic Cast On and ... successfully cast on for toe-up socks. I also have some beautiful Ella Rae lace merino (from the last post), that I need to divide into two balls. If there is school tomorrow, I plan on asking around the science department, and see if anyone will let me borrow their scale for five minutes.

In which Kate is somewhat incapable of taking great photos of yarn with PhotoBooth

I just had a one skein of yarn photo shoot (yay PhotoBooth), and while I normally *love* what I take with PhotoBooth, tonight ... well ... the lighting is off. I tried taking pictures with one lamp on, then two, then three, and the pictures all came out awkward.

Here is a (poor image quality) picture of what I plan to knit into a pair of socks during vacation:

Yarn: Ella Rae Lace Merino. 412 yards.

...and I hear some little (hopefully little) creature in the attic above my room. Off to investigate!

Julie's Socks

It took only twenty days, but Julie's second sock is finished. I just need to weave in the ends, and I can send it off to her by Saturday. I hope she models the socks (and lets me put a picture on the blog!).

Sock information
Pattern: basically, my own. Very plain. Started off with the cuff for Cookie A.'s Pomatomus, knit in stockinette for several inches, did the heel from Pomatomus, knit in stockinette for several more inches, and then did the toe of Pomatomus. It's a very, very, very basic, plain sock, also knit up in Patons Kroy Socks Stripes (Mulberry Stripes colorway), on size US 2 dpns. It took a full skein, and then a few yards ... so I'm guesstimating about 175, 180 yards.

MacBook Cozy (or: what I knitted to protect my macbook from my bag)

Of course, I do not have a picture of my MacBook snuggled in her new cozy, but that's because the camera is in my desk (and I'm too lazy to leave the couch).

Started January 3, finished January 10th. I knitted like a madwoman. Knitted up on US 7 circs (which are Addi Turbos, yum). Casted on 80 stitches, knit flat for two rows, then joined in the round. I did a subtle striping pattern (and I finally figured out how to stripe without causing too many small disasters). Knitted up both balls of Cascade Yarns Luna in colourways 744 and 746. Realized I did not have enough of the Luna, but thankfully had some Cascade Yarns 220 Superwash Paints in Tropical Paint left over. Grafted at the end. Still need to weave in ends.

This week's knitting projects will include: Oh Yeah, I Should Probably Finish Those Socks for Julie and Heh, I Should Finish This Afghan Before The One-Year Anniversary!

Improvising

Ran out of the Luna today during lunch. Thankfully, I had some of the Cascade Yarns 220 Superwash in Tropical Punch left over. I don't have a lot of yardage, so this should be very interesting! Happily, I have the needles AND yarn (gasp!) I need for Julie's second sock. The goal is to cast on 72 stitches either tonight or tomorrow (24 sts per needle), knit the first 10 rows as [p1, k1tbl], and then knit in stockinette for an indeterminate number of stitches.

Thursday night knitting

Knitting at home. Project is almost finished ... though I might run out of yarn first. The chances of adding a pink merino wool are getting higher and higher.

Win a prize!

First person to correctly guess what this is wins a prize.*

*the prize may be stickers if I know you, or a link to your blog if I don't know you. ;)

Weekend Plans --- the blizzard is not allowed to interfere

Plan for the weekend if I manage to make it into Manhattan:

Dinner

Contra dancing

MoMA to see the Tim Burton exhibit if my host needs to leave super-early, and I am unable to get a train back out to Long Island immediately.

For my train and subway rides, I plan to finish the Pink Thujas (I've turned the heel on the second sock, and I have about two or three more inches to knit before I can start the toe), and read City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. It's one of the newer acquisitions for my school library, and I want to formulate a book talk on it.

Artyarns Addict?

I seem to be obsessed with Artyarns Supermerino.

Cue: it's been several years, but I bought my *third* massive purchase (massive being more than one skein) of Artyarns Supermerino, this time in colorway 151 Calypso ... for ... yes ... Thuja socks. I walked into Knitting on the Lamb, and emerged with three skeins of pink stripey happiness.

The first time I knit up some Thujas, it was the first time I had ever knitted socks ... and it was for a now-ex boyfriend. I was hooked after I finished that pair. They rocked. They were green. I post a picture of them here, but they do show the ex's feet, and I have a feeling that won't go over too well with him.

The second pair of Thujas I knit was the summer after that, in 2006. They were my mom's birthday present, and I call them her eggplant socks. They are purple, and as I ran out of purple for the toes, I finished them off with the leftover green. Here's an image of one of the socks in progress, sans green toes.

So tonight I have my three little skeins, sitting in my lap, and when I return from dinner I plan on winding them up. Never mind the other sock I need to cast on for Julie, the Celtic Knot afghan for Sean and Becky, the scarf for my nephew, the hat for my niece. It's getting colder out and I need socks, dammit.

Knitting, Baking, Grading, and Inspiration, all at once

Several things:

One: I just realized that on Ravelry, you can upload pictures from your computer. I no longer need to freak out about my Flickr account. On Flickr, the free account only holds 200 pictures. Because of Ravelry, I am almost near that magic number.

Two: I cast on the Judi & Co. Rococo (or is it Rayon Rococo) in Sizzle. I'm using US 11 needles, casted on 40, and doing a lovely garter stitch back and forth. This is rather simple knitting. I'm loving it.Three: I had a Banana Bread Mix. It required an oven, 1/4 cup oil, 1 cup water, and 2 eggs. Since the measuring cup was in the sink ... I guessed on the water, threw in two very ripe, very mushy smushy bananas, and a handful of chocolate chips. C'est magnifique!
Four: I need to do a ton of grading tomorrow. Grr.
Five: I need to get my hands on a stitch dictionary. Like now. This is what I want to knit. When J was on his phone, I happened to look at the base of the nearest lamp post. (We were by the 81st street subway station). Wow. Wouldn't that look awesome in a sweater or a scarf?

50% off yarn? You betcha I'm buying some.

Last Thursday night, I had fun. I had a lot of fun. That picture? That's just some of the fun I had.

One of the women in my knitting group used to run a yarn store. The store is currently in her living room, and needless to say, when we met at her house instead of our usual meeting place ... I barely paid attention to my knitting. I spent about two hours touching, smelling, eying gorgeous yarns of every fiber, weight, color possible.

This picture just shows *half* of what I bought that night. Five other skeins are scattered about my house (and in the case of two, in my car). Here, from left to right there is ... Artyarns Handpaint Stripes in 103, Perla Trendsetter Yarns in Linen (sparkly!), and two skeins of unknown parentage, but they are novelty ... and I'll be using them to give an extra punch to some plain knitting.

I'm incredibly excited about all this new yarn in my life, and have Grand Plans for some of the skeins. Eee!

Questions

I recast on with the 6.5mm Addi Turbo circs, and was steadfastly knitting away on the afghan when my niece piped up,

"You're making a big blanket? I can't believe it!"

I wasn't sure if she was confused by the needles being connected (this might have been the first time she saw circs in her life), or the fact that I was working on only 1/3 of a blanket.

On the other hand, I'm rather glad I went up a needle size. The difference in gauge is absolutely astounding. The panel is much wider now!

Off by .5mm

As I was knitting and watching Bones tonight, I realized something.

I've been using the wrong needle size.

See, the recipe for the Celtic Knot Afghan calls for US 10.5 /6.5mm needles. I grabbed what I thought was my US 10.5 circs, cast on, and have been happily knitting this thing for a week. I am a row or two away from finishing the first repeat of 40 rows.

What I grabbed was my US 10/6.0mm circs. It's not that much of a difference, though my gauge may be a bit off (I'm curious to know what the gauge is myself, actually).



Edit: This Friday afternoon I went to the nearest yarn store, where I reluctantly bought the correct size needle. Reluctantly, as Addi Turbos were the only needles in stock (and Susan Bates are much cheaper), and as I am really not looking forward to frogging this beast.

Not your average wedding afghan

I haven't been blogging as much as I would like to, and I've fallen quite behind in keeping up with my blogroll. I have a vacation coming up, so there will be some time reuniting myself with the knitting blogosphere.

Last week I cast on the Celtic Knot Afghan, and I reached row 19 tonight. I'm enjoying the pattern so far, though why, oh why, Nicky Epstein, did you not chart this?

Progress so far...

There would have been more progress made this weekend, but I idiotically left my knitting behind when I went to a lecture. I picked at my nail polish in sheer frustration.

Celtic Wedding Knot

Light Iris

Jelly Bean

I love my local yarn store, Knitting on the Lamb. The owners are incredibly helpful, and fun to talk with. After work today, I drove over to Huntington to get around 1700 yards of worsted weight wool for the Celtic Knot Afghan that I will be giving to my cousins as a wedding present, come September.

Five skeins of Cascade Yarns 220 Superwash Paints in Jelly Bean and three skeins of Cascade Yarns 220 Superwash in Light Iris... I think I might have enough yardage. I just need to scare up a size 10 1/2 circular knitting needle, my trusty cabling hook, and my row counter so I can cast on tonight.

My cousin and his bride-to-be already know they are receiving an afghan as a wedding present, and I doubt they know about this blog. So there will be sneaky pictures posted every once in a while!

I live!

The past two weeks have been absolutely crazy for me. I started my new job, as a long-term leave replacement school media specialist for an elementary school. I teach 700+ kids a week, and am the librarian for almost 1000 kids.

Julie's sock has been generating interest in the faculty lunch room, as is the baby hat I started to knit for my predecessor. I desperately need to take pictures of the current knitting pictures and post them!

No more leaves

So, as the most astute have noticed, Foliage Deux has disappeared. I was about eight rows from binding off when I realized I had about a yard of yarn left.

This was going to be a problem.

Instead of ripping back completely, I cast on one of my constant baby hats... and ....

Knitting a baby hat out of a grown-up hat? Quite possibly the easiest way to travel!

And in honor of Valentine's Day ... my dog, being utterly cute:

That's my pup, trying to make a nest on my bed. All shall bow before her.