the quacking fiber addict

Sorry for any confusion. Wordpress (alas for Blogger) offers file hosting and suchlike, which I'm going to be needing more and more as time goes on.

But, I had the camera-phone again. So, yay, blurry picture time! Aren't you sooo excited??


Tonight was the second attempt at a weekly knitting meet-up at Mabel's Cafe & Knittery. I think we can all safely pronounce it a success. After last week's showing of 4 (including moi) and my lonesome experience on Sunday, I wasn't too hopeful. Well, wow. Knitters upon knitters kept pouring through the doors.

You can't see 'em all in the photo (hey, I tried), but a couple of knitters and a knitting husband were hidden by the two A(i)my/ee's and Kate. So, yeah, maybe a dozen people for our second week? Not too bad. And lots of fun. The knitting class, shuffled off to the far corner, watched us curiously. One student even went so far as to say she'd come and knit with us after the class finished.

All in all, much more satisfying than Sunday. Although, I did get lovely, lovely yarn on Sunday...

Hmm, hard pick.

Also, today I got The Call from Knit/ Purl regarding my Spocks pattern. I am pleased. It is good. I realised after hanging up, of course, that I had a few questions to add to my list. Ahwell, I go to Knit/ Purl every Thursday anyway.

Knitting (actual knitting) news? I CO the Celtic Cables Cap yesterday. And, dammit, I swatched. Twice. I followed the pattern. By row 20 it was apparent that the FO would have fit a very large watermelon. I can't bear to rip it yet, oh well.

But I finally found the right length DPNs for the, ah, thingies for Stephieface's son. The ones I had been using were about 2" too short and I kept losing stitches. Oh, the joy.

In fact, I'm gonna go and knit on that for awhile and watch Eureka.

Labels: travelling sock(s)

Is it Sunday evening already? Wow, that was... fractured. I had a couple of really low days there, so not much was done. Other than lying in bed, wondering what I had done to piss off Hashem so badly.

But I'm better now, and have finally admitted to myself that it's time to buck up and go to a psychologist. The antidepressants are clearly not working. I hate having to try new drugs (friends and family can tell about the horror of me on Welbutrin), but I hate the lows even more.

Anyway. Enough drama. Somehow, I managed to knit a bit. The heels of the Baudelaires took longer than any other heels I've knit. This might be due to my own problems at the time, or it might just be due to the fact that the heels are f*cking insane.


Genius. I'm not denying the genius of toe-up heel gussets/ flaps. But insane. Clearly insane. Cookie A. must have some interesting thoughts.

Tonight was supposed to be a Knitting Southies meet-up (ravelry), but I ended up being the only one to turn out. Nice, I know. I forgive Aimee, as she has a young daughter. To make myself feel better, I indulged in yarn therapy. Looking around Mabel's, I sought the perfect yarn for Mona's Embossed Leaves socks.

Finally, I spied the Green Mountain Spinnery cubbies. Ah, c'est magnifique. The colourway "Yarrow" immediately made me think of Birch leaves in autumn, so I snatched up two skeins of Cotton Comfort (20% organic cotton/ 80% wool - and machine washable!), to be used as soon as I get some needles free:


Did I mention that I took out Favourite Socks and Knitting On The Road from the local library? No? Hehehe.

Aaand look, more knitting news!, I'm nearly done with the left sleeve of the SBT, now affectionately known as Miss Lizzy's Spencer:


I've always been fond of the character Elizabeth Bennett, from Pride & Prejudice. Designing something with her in mind has been of interest ever since I read the "Jane Austen knitting" thread on Craftster.

In non-knitting news, I applied for 10 different jobs on Friday. I have absolutely no doubt that I will not be hired for any of them. Which is fine, I have tons of yarn to keep me company.

Oh, and finally, ravelry is going to steal my soul. Sockdown: Ravelry is a success. The SKA hyas 740+ members, and I'm losing track of all the forums I'm on. It's worse crack than Craftster. Someone saaave me. (well, not really, I'm having too much fun)

Labels: baudelaire, depression, ravelry, socks, yarn p0rn

Arg. Throbbing headache. Short post time. Went to the Portland International Rose Tests Gardens today:


"Wow," says it all. The perfume was intoxicating, the scenery dazzling, and there was a rainbow of roses spread about. My favourite (other than the one above) was Amethyst:


Honest to goodness, that was the actual colour of the roses.

There was also the Shakespearean garden:


Every plant mentioned by Shakespeare in his plays, sonnets, whatever, was planted there. I couldn't help but wander around the beds barefoot, indulging in the feeling of lush grass against my soles.

Speaking of soles - baudelaire is nearly to the heels:


And, ouch, too much sun, too much champagne, and just too much stuff today. Gonna go and be quiet in the dark.

Labels: baudelaire, Portland, socks

Sunday was completely uneventful. Monday was... I've already forgotten, so one can assume it was also equally uneventful. Tuesday was not uneventful, so it warrants a belated post.

Yesterday, Mum, Emm, Charlie and I drove out to Sauvie Island. It's a large island located in the Columbia River, 30 mins outside of Portland. It's famous for having been a Native American, and later Pioneer, site. Of course I realised, as we were driving along OR-30, that I had forgotten my camera at home. Mum and Emm sighed and made snarky comments when I told them I'd use my camera phone instead. Neider, neider to them - it actually worked.

Here's the southern coast of Sauvie Island, inside the Wildlife Area, taken atop one of the dykes running along the coast:


I have to say that Sauvie Island was incredibly beautiful, and I'm embarrassed that I didn't get any good photos to prove this. Being incredibly fertile (located on an island in the middle of a river along a volcanic line), there were farms and plants of every type. We passed fields of waving purple at a lavender farm. Rippling gold and green were acres and acres of wheat and corn. And Bailey's gardening plants were being propagated, too. I even saw wild pears growing on the southern coast.

But, because I was so busy admiring, I tended to forget to take a photo until it was too late. I'm such a tourist, sorry. I can at least claim I remembered to take travelling sock photos:


Once in the Wildlife Area, we managed to get down to the beach. Charlie went crazy, because he loves to play in water. I pulled out my Crocs and Emm rolled up his shorts:




After playing on the southern beach, driving, hiking around the Wildlife Area - they have an island on Sauvie Island, can you believe it?, and finding fresh produce for Emm to devour, we went to the northern coast. The northern coast was different from the southern in a bunch of ways: the water was colder, it was windier, and there was sand:


The socks really enjoyed their time lounging in the sun. We all felt better for it, because they've been complaining incessantly about the trekking sock seeing all the action. Emm even offered to carry them into the Columbia:


By 4:30, we had to leave because I've started a Stitch 'n' Bitch at Mabel's on Tuesday nights, from 6 - 9 pm. Luckily, I wasn't too late (oops?), and I got to sit and chat and knit with 3 other PDX knitters for 3 hours. We're planning to make it a weekly meeting, if you're in the PDX area and are interested.

By the time I got home, I was completely exhausted and barely managed to keep my eyes open long enough to watch Eureka. I (still) <3 Eureka.

Today was pointless. I went to an interview for a job, but there's no way I can take it. It's too far away for too few hours for too little pay. *sigh*

But, I have my knitting. And I heard from D at Knit/ Purl yesterday - they're buying my pattern! I'll get the contract details tomorrow or on Friday. W00T!

That alone makes today acceptable. I'm gonna go and find something cool to drink, it's 92F out...

Labels: baudelaire, Charlie, family, travel, travelling sock(s)