Send the Peanuts to bed

I've got a little something for the peahens.


As further proof of how the internet is the worst thing to ever happen to procrastinators and the easily distracted I present this. I found it while researching something* for this post. It's clearly the love child of an infomercial and a Letterman skit.

*I was trying to verify that baby peacocks are officially called peanuts (turns out they aren't but I used it anyway because I know some people use it and it sounds better than peachick)

LOL SKEIN

I go lie down now, k?

Yeah Mondays are supposed to suck and everything but damn it would have been nice if I managed to get 2 whole hours of sleep before being forced to investigate the loud banging noises coming from the back of the house. Also, it would have been nice if I had some advance notice about the replacement of the screen door because really, I didn't need to wake up to two guys in my kitchen. Well, not those two guys anyway. Moving on, here's what was going to be my eye candy last week until something either distracted me mid-post or I decided I didn't like the pics that much. I can't remember which and I had already uploaded them so...
I think this is a useful tip. Of course, I'm the sort of person who reverses direction in the middle of winding yarn onto a niddy noddy so it's probably completely unnecessary for those that don't take the short bus to the yarn festivals. I always use a bit of scrap string to mark the end of the skein that will be in the center when winding yarn into a center-pull cake. Left unmarked it invariably disappears into the dark center and I tug on the some bit from the middle and turn it into a mess.

Must knit faster!

I think I'm a little more overwhelmed by the latest stash additions than I realized. Friday night I nodded off during a baseball game and when I awoke the TV screen was dominated by a shot of the diagonal striped field. My first thought? Clapotis! Then last night I dreamt that I was talking to my sister and said if I ever knit a Bohus sweater I would make The Wild Apple. I start flipping through Poems of Color to show her the pic but before I can find it she says "Yeah, that one is nice but I would make the Pink Goulash". I was so annoyed that not only was she already familiar with Bohus, she knew of a sweater design that I didn't. Of course, now that I'm awake I'm pretty glad I don't know what the Pink Goulash Bohus looks like.

When I wasn't dreaming of meaty sweaters this weekend I started a Bainbridge Scarf. I'm using some Fibre Company alpaca that I picked up at MDSW.

What's that other thing?

You know the thing you do with yarn after you buy it and after you enter it into the spreadsheet? What could it be...
Oh I remember now! Knitting. Nice way to spend a car ride, that knitting stuff.

Clapotis
Yarn - 10.5 oz (about 1.32 skeins) Brooks Farm Duet NY D 13
Needle Size - 4.5 mm
Measurements - 84"x20" (approx)
Changes - Finer yarn and needles & 4 extra repeats in the straight section (I was afraid it would be too short).

The colors in the pic are completely wrong. The pale sections are pale spring green and the rest is much more purple. My camera has issues with that shade of purple and I couldn't correct it for anything.

It's a clapotis. The pattern rocks. What can I say that hasn't already been said? It shows off the variegated yarn beautifully. The only pooling is a purple splotch in the increase section and a matching green splotch in the decreases. I actually like it, they make me smile. I made two mistakes because I didn't stick to Kate's instructions. Duet is beautiful and soft and I love how the two plies look but the mohair content made it an absolute pain in the ass when it came to dropping the stitches. I had to poke at every. single. dropped. stitch. Then I blocked it a little too much and flattened the columns more than I wanted to. I really just wanted to straighten the corners but i just kept pinning and spritzing. Maybe it'll bounce back while it waits for the cold weather to return. I wish I knew of someplace that really blasts the AC so I could wear it now! Someplace besides the meat dept at Fairway, that is.

Feelin' Sheepish

Being a slow blogger is great because it cuts down on the number of times I contradict myself. When I came home from Hawai'i the Maryland Sheep & Wool catalog was waiting for me. I wanted to go but having just spent so much money on the vacation there was no way it was going to happen. Long story short, my mom oh-ed and ah-ed over the catalog, our taxes were a pleasant surprise and of course I'm a greedy piggy. All of which conspired to put me in a Maryland hotel room Friday night with a crab cake in my belly.

I'm having a hard time writing about MDSW. I had a lot more fun at Rhinebeck and I'm not sure why. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy Maryland. There were some great vendors that don't make it up to Rhinebeck. Just, something was missing and I'm just not sure what. I do know that I'm sick of trying to get this post written. I give up. Let's just move on to my purchases.

I bumped into a friend there. When she saw my shopping bag she remembered her first time at MDSW. She said she was like a slut, buying up everything. I was no mere slut, no I was more like a wool crazed satyr. If there was a sexual equivalent to me at the fair you would probably find it in Mick Jagger's bedroom circa 1969. Which is why I will not show off all my purchases. Frankly I'm a little embarrassed at my total lack of restraint. I wasn't helped by my husband.
Me - [on line to pay at the Fold] - I really like Seal Rock and Amethyst too.
Him - So why not buy them?
Me - I dunno. Self control?
Him - [sorta rolls eyes] We did just drive 200 miles to get here.
Honestly, when you start the day off with that sort of logic you can see how I got into trouble. Here's a peak at the ridiculousness -


Hey look! A nearly finished clapotis! Amazing what guilt will do...

Fringe Festival

I did something today I haven't done in over 12 years. I had a pro cut my hair. I have bangs!
I could go on and on about it but it's hard to type and pet my new bangs at the same time. Also there aren't enough shiny surfaces near the computer.