Wow. Three months since a real post. Been a strange summer. Things that have happened since July:

1) Bought a new dining set.
2) And a new mattress.
3) And a new couch, good god.
4) Chickens have laid approximately 212 eggs. That’s nearly 18 dozen. That’s way more eggs than I know what to do with.
5) A has nearly sworn off eggs for life. It came to the front of her mind just where “nature’s perfect package” came from: a chicken’s feathered butt.
6) My garden grew 4 foot tall weeds, and I lost the onions.
7) I did, however, get three nice pumpkins.
8) The potatoes are still hunkered down in the soil, waiting to be dug.
9) I’ve knitted. And knitted. And knitted. Hurrah!

Some finished objects:

A pumpkin and my Lacy Kerchief Scarf! Woot. Also finished: Rowan’s Christmas gift, three washcloths, and a cat toy, none of which have pictures. No, that’s a lie. I just won’t put photos of the Rowan’s gift here, and I can’t find what I did with the ballband dishcloth photos. Oh well!

And gosh. I’m now on Ravelry - at last. Name’s katiad there, so if you’re on, add me as a friend!

There’s been lots of holes being put into things lately around here. Like this.

And this.

Yep, that’s the mystery stole - or chart A plus a few rows! Woohoo! It’s a lovely knit. This yarn is thinner than the Knitpicks Shadow I used last year, and I feel like I’m going to rip/hurt it with every stitch, but hopefully that feeling will fade the more I knit! The beading was difficult at first, but I’m getting the hang of how to do it without it being a huge hassle.

Here’s another hole.

That one’s in my garden. In the middle of what’s left of my rabbit-eaten lettuce, and… a bunch of weeds. Gophers are thick this year. Like flies. Seriously. For a while, you couldn’t get two feet down the highway for 60 miles without running into yet another dead one killed off by traffic. I wish something would get this bastard….

And here’s one last deliberate hole for you this week:

Weren’t expecting that, now, were you? Yes, it’s a bullet-hole - in the window at work, where some lunatic fired at A.’s head [she’s okay, wasn’t hurt at all, save a healthy, heart-pounding dose of mind-numbing terror] as she covered a shift for me.

Actually, said lunatic also fired shots at 8 other businesses (that we know of) in town, including my parents’ bar. Eight businesses, plus the freaking sheriff’s office. A. was the only real live witness or victim, though at my house, I heard shots being fired. A. handled being shot at like a champ, after the initial dive for cover on the floor, and did everything right, from locking the front door to crawling to the back office to use the phone were it was likely to be safer. Since, you know, our freaking desk is right there in front of the freaking WINDOW. Who knew working in a small town sheriff’s office could be so bloody dangerous?

Evidently, A. called up the deputy on duty, shaking, and in a very calm, subdued voice (if you knew A., you would’ve known right then that something was terribly wrong, because A. is not calm… or subdued… EVER) said that someone had shot at her (or at the windows, whatever). And our bright and shining hero asks: “With bullets?”

Way to win the Dumbass Question of the Year Award, pal! That said, he and our undersheriff spent all night looking for the guy and collecting evidence, and after daylight, all the reports of damage around town flooded in, and the Giant Rumor & Gossip Machine that fuels this town roared to life.

Wanna see some more?

Above is the window right by our desk in the dispatch center, where A. was sitting when she was shot at.

This window is on the other side of the counter - only a few feet to the east.

This is what happened to that second window.

Here’s a window at The Roadhouse Bar - which my parents own. The door was also shattered completely, but it was replaced within hours, so the damage isn’t visible in this photograph.

And here’s another window at the bar. I’d have taken pics of the other businesses, but I didn’t want to sneak all around town at 6am snapping photos like a bloody tourist, you know?

For anyone wondering… no, we didn’t have bulletproof glass, and yes, we are getting some, though the fucking moron county commissioners are still balking at getting bulletproof glass over the counter in our reception area. WHY? That’s where I’d be most concerned! We have psychos IN the office all the freaking time! Drive-by lunatics are rare! So it looks like I’m going to have to write up some sort of petition. I’m pretty sure most everyone in town will sign it. Clearly, the emergency dispatchers need to be safe, you know, in case of emergencies.

Anyway, we caught the guy within 48 hours. [Note: The media got everything wrong… There were 9 shots fired AT THE SHERIFF’S OFFICE ALONE - and more fired at all the other businesses, for example, and the windows at the bar were not shattered, just shot, and the doorw as shattered - there was no hole in it…] He’s in jail now. But we’re all still a bit jumpy down at the office. I mean, the windows are still all riddled with holes and shit. This is the first time any such thing has ever happend in our county. Deliberate attempted homicide just isn’t a common hobby around here. Of course, everyone’s saying, of the culprit: “Gosh, that’s just so out of character for him!” Don’t they always say things like that about psychos?

Now I’m off to make some more holes with my knitting, and maybe look into personal handgun prices. For protection.

Or more likely, that gods-be-damned gopher.

The Mystery Stole III swatch. I really do love it. Click on the picture (hopefully) for a larger view that shows off the crystal silver-lined beads on the top and bottom /\/\/\’s better. Camera didn’t capture them the best, but that’s life. Anyway, I’m anxious to begin!

That’s my knitted and beaded swatch for the Mystery Stole 3! Lovely ain’t she? I used two beads in this swatch - the top and bottom ‘rows’ are done in the crystal silver-lined beads, and the middle beads are done in the grey rainbow ones. They don’t stand out near as much, except in certain lighting. I mean, they’re gorgeous, but the way the sun sparkles on the silver ones… Yeah.

Slow progress on the Lacy Kerchief Scarf. I’ve bee feeling more like reading than knitting. Because yeah, I got some books to read, and so… fft. There you go. Right now, I’m delving into Wicked, which is fun and fascinating, even though I hated Wizard of Oz as a child (it scard me… don’t /ask/… I don’t know…), and I’m totally having to force myself to put it aside just to knit, which doesn’t make the knitting much fun, and thus, it’s going slow. I should just finish the damned book and then knit. But oh well.

I drug A out of bed this morning to hill potatoes. That was torture. Not really. Evidently, my morning chores, little as I thought they’ve been, have indeed given me a bit more stamina. I really wish I was one of those people who /liked/ physical work, but I’m really not. I swear I was some highbrow noblewoman in another life or something. Or maybe I wasn’t. Maybe I was a peasant taking care of pigs or cows or something, and now I’m rebelling. I have no idea.

The knitting goes on and on and on…

That’s my first sock. It fits… mostly well. Not perfectly, but it’s my first sock. Sue me. Still waiting on needle replacements, since I somehow LOST one somewhere between work and home. Joy. Then I’ll start the matchy matchy sock! Actually, I am almost positive that if I make my next sock slightly longer, and slightly better, I could probably get three socks out of my two balls of yarn, and, like, hang this first, not so perfect sock up for Santa this year. But maybe I won’t bother with that. I don’t know yet.

That’s the Lacy Kerchief Scarf in progress. I’m knitting it with Elann Sonanta (100% Mercerized Cotton, a nice sheen, but kinda stiff - hopefully it’ll soften up in the wash!), and Size 6 needles. Not bad to knit so far, but the cotton doesn’t stretch, of course, and… that’s hard on the wrists.

And last but certainly not least, my yarn and beads for the upcoming Mystery Stole 3! I’m so excited! The yarn is JaggerSpun Zephyr Wool-Silk, in pewter, and my god is it gorgeous. It looks like spun silver and feels like my Persian cat. Really. Actually, looks like my Persian cat, too. Hahaha. Moving on. The beads are all from The Beadwrangler (and oh, the yarn is from Sarah’s Yarns) And I would recommend either in a heartbeat. Ordered both this weekend (Saturday & Sunday). Received the yarn on WEDNESDAY, and I know it didn’t ship until Monday - holy cow, the service!) and the beads arrived today! So hoorah - buy from them! (Oh, and the prices on both are excellent - especially the Zephyr. Love it. Sarah also added in some color cards - for free - for all of her personal lines, and for the Zephyr.)

Anyway, I’ve decided to use the bead jar on the far left. (In the beads-in-the-yarn sample, this is the second bead from the left.) While the camera doesn’t showcase the glorious glimmer, let me just say that those beads look like raindrops on my yarn. Sooo pretty. But I really wouldn’t mind using the dark rainbow beads on my spare ball in some smaller project sometime! Wonder what else I can do with these beads…?

Now I’m off to put the chickens in for the night. Gotta take care of my babies!

Things I want to knit (or start to knit) this summer:

• Lacy Kerchief Scarf (begun! and so far, so lovely!)
• Clay Socks (awaiting new needles… guh…)
• Mystery Stole 3!!!! (yarn ordered - this will not be finished this summer I’m sure)
• Harlequin Fetchings (for R)
• Harlequin Scarf (for R)
• Felt Pumpkins (2) (for Halloween)
• Daffodil socks

Quite a lineup for me. I intend to always have something on hand to knit. Maybe I’ll even get a couple of things from this list done! Haha.

I’m knitting a sock (very very slowly, due to severe tendonitis-arm-hand-pain attack) in the gorgeous yarn my SP10 sent me.

Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in Clay. Oh, so earthy and so wonderful! It’s really sort of… late summery colors, or even autumn, and I considered waiting until… well, late summer or autumn to knit it. But she is a GODDESS and balled it up for me so I didn’t have to, and that sealed the deal. The very springtime/summery colorway (Daffodil? Something like that) that I purchased for myself was still in skeins. And there was no way I was going to mess with balling it up when I had a perfectly yummilicious yarn sitting there ready to knit.

Note to self: it would obviously be worth your time to invest in a ballwinder along with your beautiful swift. Really. You can spend $40 and make your life easier.

Anyway. On that note - my entire SP10 package for May is heavenly. And my pal outdid herself, really. She sent me an AUTOGRAPHED copy of No Sheep For You (drool drool - though granted, if the little “Your book has been autographed!” bookmarky thing hadn’t fallen out when I was flipping through pages, I never would’ve realized it, because I just went straight to the patterns!), and a delicious smelling soap that looks all earthy and mysterious, and some very lovely incense from a Japanese company.

There were two skeins of yarn in the package, but only one is show in that picture.

And that was not the end of my mail. Just the end of that package. The same day, I also got some other happy things that I ordered, including yarn for my spring fling pal (it’s on its way Monday!!), a cute pincushion, and happily, yarn from elann.

Some of that yarn is shown here, in a swatch I’ve begun (also on hold due to pain) for the Lacy Kerchief Scarf out of Interweave’s Holiday Gifts magazine.

Also, in other news, I finished Mom’s lavender sachet! I changed the pattern, deciding to do a lovely triangle instead of a 4″ square, which was neither as cute (I thought) nor as fun. This has the worst seaming job ever. Have I mentioned that I really have no idea how to seam?

Yesterday, I ended up a closeout sale at a quilt store. I bought lots. This first is for a quilt. The fabric line is called Almost Poppy, and I’ve been drooling for over a year. The only fabric that doesn’t go is the coral polka dot stuff, but it ‘matches’, even if it isn’t from the same line.

This, I picked up for a gardening apron:

And lastly, I picked up some charm squares in Moda’s “Sonnet” line. Love it.

I also got a few patterns. I wish I’d had the money for lots, lots more. As it is, I borrowed from Mom…

Anyway, I got my garden all planted at last, and now I’m just waiting for my muscles to stop spasming in pain so I can knit freely again. Hurry up, arms! Hurry up!

Copied from here. I’m such a meme-thief.

Bold for stuff you’ve done, italics for stuff you plan to do one day, and normal for stuff you’re not planning on doing.

American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)
Bobbles
Button holes
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Continental knitting
Darning
Domino knitting (modular knitting) ???
Drop stitch patterns
Entrelac Sorta…
Fair Isle knitting
Freeform knitting
Fulling/felting ~ both accidentally & intentionally
Garter stitch
I-cord
Intarsia
Kitchener BO
Knitting with circular needles
Knitting with DPNs
Knitting and purling backwards
Knitting smocking
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars
Lace patterns
Long Tail CO (both knitwise and purlwise!)
Moebius band knitting (Maybe)
Norwegian knitting
Short rows
Slip stitch patterns
Steeks
Stockinette stitch
Swatching Have done it. Don’t do it regularly.
Textured knitting
Thrummed knitting
Tubular CO (have attempted… failed)
Twisted stitch patterns
Two end knitting ???

Knitting with alpaca
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Knitting with banana fiber yarn ??? It exists? ???
Knitting with beads
Knitting with camel yarn
Knitting with cashmere
Knitting with cotton
Knitting with dog/cat hair (Inadvertently. *chuckle* I’ve certainly knitted it /into/ things. It’s everywhere…)
Knitting with linen
Knitting with metal wire
Knitting with soy yarn
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn
Knitting with self-patterning/self-striping/variegating yarn
Knitting with silk (Not 100% silk yet.)
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Knitting with wool

Afghan/Blanket (baby) (I don’t intend to… but it may happen)
Baby items
CardiganCuffs/fingerless mitts/arm warmers
Gloves
Hat
Hair accessories
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cozies…)
Jewelry
Mittens: Cuff-up (two mittens… of two different pairs…)
Mittens: Tip-down
Pillows
Purses/bags
Rug
Shawl
Scarf
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Slippers Socks: top-down (Doing that right now!)
Socks: toe-up
Stuffed toys
Sweater
Toy/doll clothing

Charity knitting (Honestly? I’m not that nice. Or rich. nor do I knit fast enough.)
Graffiti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Knitting art
Knitting for pets
Knitting for preemies (Only if I have one, or know someone who does.)
Knitting items for a wedding
Knitting a gift
Holiday related knitting

Designing knitted garments
Dying with plant colors
Dying yarn
Participating in a KAL
Publishing a knitting book
Knitting to make money
Knitting for a living
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Knitting on a loom
Machine knitting
Olympic knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Writing a pattern
Knitting in public

It’s finished! The scarf is finished, if unblocked.

See? Sorry for the awful photos. There was no sunlight to be had when I was taking the picture. The good news? The off-color mishap is not nearly as visible in natural light, like sunlight, or even in my house. Strangely, it’s most visible in the office under the really bright flourescents. So it’s not such a glaring mistake as I feared. Whew.

My mother and A both assure me that it’s fine. Annoying, maybe, but not so terrible as ‘can’t wear in public’. Hurrah. The blocking, I’ll have to do at later. A likes it all puffy, but while I like it puffy, too, I don’t like how thin it gets when it curls all around itself. Besides, it’ll slowly puff back up the more I scrunch and wear it, I’m sure. So after a stiff blocking, a little wear will probably make for a good happy medium.

Hopefully. we’ll see. Not like it can’t be soaked and ‘unblocked’ if I hate it.

And speaking of blocking… the STOLE IS BLOCKED! And it is good. No pics yet. Mom’s been, erm, ill…. Well, really, she’s been dealing with the unhappy effects of having a colonoscopy. Joys. Nothing like a camera up one’s ass to make for a happy few days. And between that and me wanting to take photos outside in the sunshine, pics have got to wait. Maybe I’ll get to snap some tomorrow or so…

I whipped out a dishcloth in a couple days. My first ‘entrelac’ attempt, though it’s really entrelac in all garter stitch. Not bad. Sloppy knitting. I’m not sure if it’s the yarn, or me, or the entrelac, or what. Anyway, the pattern came from here.

Also, some pics of the potholder I finished a while ago! Here it is prefelted:

And here it is post-felted. I never really blocked it. I think that’s why it’s so, erm, ‘wrinkled’. It could’ve maybe been felted some more, shrunk down to size. As it is, it’s more of a trivet than a potholder. But whatever.

Now, onto pictures from my Spring Fling (at knittyboard) secret pal! First, the first package. Or part of it. There was other stuff involved. Some nifty point protector needleholder things, a toy for the cats, etc. This is just the stuff I could gather up quick for a photo.

Lovely lovely yarn. All earthy. I still don’t know what I want to do with it. I can never decide…

This is package two:

Even more lovely than the first! It included some lovely bath beads (Oh joy, oh joy!), four skeins of yarn!!!, handmade stitch markers (see photos just below), a handmade row counter, some alpaca stickers, an adorable tin, a pin from the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival, a colorcard for Green Mountain Spinnery yarn (never heard of it, but the yarns look yummy!), and a an oh-so-handy needle inventory (also from Green Mountain Spinnery). Sweet!There was so much in this package, I may have forgotten some of it. Hmm.

The yarns included were:

Southwest Trading’s Bamboo. (I have used this before, and LOVE it… and what a bright, cheery color!)
Crystal Palace’s Cotton Chenille (So soft! My pal says it makes nice washcloths. So I’m trying that. Tonight.)
and The Fiber Co’s Terra, in medium indigo. Never heard of this before, either, but it’s merino, baby alpaca, and silk combined. Oh, the love. Two hanks of it. Yay!

I’m in love with this package.

Speaking of… I sent out my first (I know, I’m terribly late on the draw here) package to my Spring Fling pal last… Friday…ish? Something like that. It’s late, but I had to wait for the yarn to arrive from wherever the post office had it. And then I was just busy.

So naturally, my second package will be late, too! Better late than never though, I say. Right? Besides, the round isn’t actually over yet. It’s six weeks long, and we’re only a month into it! I sent a very nice package, too, I think! The first yarn I sent was some Lorna’s Laces sock yarn (strangely, I believe I ordered the exact same or similar color to the stuff I got in a swap last year, that I’d nearly forgotten I had [buried in yarn drawer], and if I’d known… I’d have sent the package earlier and just kept the new stuff for myself to get the package out sooner!), and then I added a ball of wool from my own stash to complete the package. Because everyone needs some nice wool. I didn’t get a photo. Again.

In other things, I’m about to order the yarn for the second package there, and I’ve already ordered yarn for my SP10 secret pal, too! It should be here this week sometime. I hope. I ordered me some yarn too. Some Lorna’s Laces for myself in a colorway I’ve been dying for for reasons beyond my comprehension. It’s not my usual thing. It’s like, BRIGHT yellow and green and blue, and all spring sunshine and grass and sky, and I must be having a hankering for something sunny and cheerful. I think they’d be great socks, though.

Moving on.

I have two cakes of Araucana’s Patagonia Nature Cotton from SP9… and I really wish I had three, because I’d LOVE to make a huge openwork summer shawl out of it. But I just don’t think 210 yards will do the trick. I don’t know though. I don’t even have any idea how I’d go about creating one, let alone knowing if I had enough yarn to do it. Will be looking for patterns…. Any ideas, just let me know.

Gahhh.

So, I may or may not have mentioned in an earlier post that I had to buy another ball of Karabella Aurora 8 to finish Backyard Leaves. Because 4 balls as was stated in the magazine was sooooo not enough. I don’t know what they did to make it work (maybe I just didn’t look at the errata… maybe it was a mistake…) but heck, I didn’t even swatch. Maybe it was my gauge, but really, I’m using the same needles, and my gauge is almost always spot on. And it’s awful hard to tell on a fabric like this one, anyway. No matter, I’m sure my gauge isn’t off /that/ much, in any case, and anyone could have the same problem. 5 balls should’ve been listed. Not four.

Because when I ordered another ball, from the same place, I naturally got a different dye lot. The kicker was that my original 4 balls did not have any color or dye lot stamp on them. The spots for these were blank. So I couldn’t even /attempt/ to match the dye lot, or request that they try to find one. I couldn’t even attempt it on a swap board.

Lame.

My new ball is indeed a different dye lot, in a shade darker and more wine colored than the original, which was slightly more reddish. It’s obvious. It’s at the /end/ of the scarf, the neat end, the nifty two-leaf tail. I’m very unhappy.

The only way to ‘fix’ this would be to maybe rip back a long long way to work every other row with each of the two different balls of yarn. But gegh. I don’t know what that’d turn out like, especially with the border on this scarf. No better, probably. Maybe worse.

Geh. What a disaster.

Oh well. With only 35 shortened rows to go… I can’t just quit. I just wish I’d had the money to order an extra ball in the first place. Usually, I wind up with too much excess yarn. Maybe an entire ball of excess. So I didn’t. And now I’m paying for it. Hoi.