Finally! There are pictures...

Dear Kristen,

Finally, pictures of the completed Whitby socks! As you will see, Simon loves them. Loves them so much in fact that his feet are doing the happy sock dance of joy...

(He is insistent that these poses are merely an effort to show off their marvelous construction...)


And finally, a pose with the cast off store bought. They do pale in comparison, don't they?

Thus ends another project this year! (Now I just have to find something other than socks to make...)

On Wednesday I had the joy of spending time with some of our favorite people, Joe and Rachel. As of one week earlier it was a complete surprise that I would be in Portland for work. Wa-hoo! They picked me up at the airport and whisked me off to Joe's (relatively) new house for the grand tour. I am so impressed with his adult abode. :) Afterward we were off to a Martini bar. Amazing how city-dwellers live in such style. I'm really starting to feel like a country mouse!


We had much to chat about, so while we awaited the drinks we swapped stories. I am totally in love with the Portland they shared with me. Not to mention that hanging out with the two of them is like getting together with long lost family members.

It is also important to note that Joe and Rachel are terminally cute. One of these days I'm going to keel over dead because of the cuteness! (see the evidence?!?!)

Drinks arrived. Mine is the one with the whipped cream and cherry. I can't remember what it was called, but it tasted like dark chocolate. As I was required to get up and work (give a presentation to alums and The President) the next morning I only had one, but oh was it tasty! Only God could come up with such perfection in alcoholic form...


After spending time with Joe and Rachel it was work, work, work, on Thursday and Friday after which I spent many many hours in the Sea-Tac airport. If it wasn't for this view and their wireless internet I think I would've gone crazy!


On Saturday morning (after the red-eye...never again!) Si picked me up and we headed to Baltimore to attend a Neil Gaiman signing. Ahhh...bliss. We heard him dialogue with Peter S. Beagle, read some phenomenal unpublished short stories, and then we waited in a very long line to have our books signed. Here the sock of the moment lounges with the book to be signed. It's appropriately black and lacy.... :P

And thus concludes the post!

Love,
Kate

PS: The wedding afghan? What wedding afghan? Oh, that's right! The one that I frogged completely when I realized that the fact that I was twisting my YOs when I knit them meant that it was 10 INCHES too narrow!!! *sigh* I cast on a second time last night and I'll share photos when...when....well, eventually anyway.

Sans Photographie

Hey Kristen,

I was so excited to read your fanastic post with the wedding shrug and tubey photos! So excited in fact that I was determined to create an equally fantastic photo filled post. Then the camera conspired against me. Cannon sells a lovely little camera that uses AA batteries to take it's beautiful photos. It's masterful really, no tracking down the charger when you want to shoot, just dump out a couple of easily found batteries and you are off! This darling camera has a little cord that connects it to your computer and voila, the photos upload. There they dance, happily settling in on your hard drive, ready for posting. Unless the batteries have been used before. That's right folks, if your batteries aren't FRESH OUT OF THE PACKAGE there will be NO PHOTOS FOR YOU. *sigh* I can't afford to buy new batteries every time I need to upload photos so I'm going to have to buy the right card reader. What a pain in my butt... So, I have photos of Si's finished Whitby socks and the wedding afghan progress but they will all have to wait. In the interim I will regale you with other stories and dreams of the new socks I am working on... Darn! Outed again. I can't stop. I just love the socks! Bad KATE! YOU SHOULD KNIT THE AFGHAN! (The Afghan would be much more enjoyable if I hadn't chosen a boucle for the base yarn. Who wants to knit a yarn with extra loops when you can work with something smooth and lovely like superwash marino sock yarn?)

Luckily there is still good news that doesn't require a camera to share. I recieved the graded copy of my final paper for my Hebrew Exegesis course. This paper was the first of my graduate school career of which I was actually proud. Thankfully my Professor also enjoyed it and gave me an A-. After a rather lengthy period of being completely convinced that I was in idiot I'll take it! There might be an academic future for me after all.

In other news, I'm heading to Portland and Seattle this week to meet with Alums of the fine institution where I work. It should be a really fun trip (our alums are wonderful people and I always enjoy spending time with them). The icing on the cake? I get to see Joe and Rachel! Wahooo! I'll take photos of the knitting, the flying and the visits on my cameraphone (which is way eaiser to use than the damned camera) and post when I return.

Take care!
Kate

tubey and le wedding outfit

hello miss kate!
ok, this is going to be mostly pictures. first WIP is my tubey sleeve in wool of the andes coal, hyacinth, tulip, and hush. second, i'm posting pics of me actually WEARING the dress and shrug i posted about a few days ago. a few folks asked me for them so here they are. (ignore my face and hair - i'm sick today!)





i hope you're feeling better! i seem to have caught your sore throat through the internet.
love
k

*swoon*

hey kate!
ok, i don't have any pics to show yet (though i might post part of my tubey later on today), but i just had to show you these amazing afghan patterns! you know how much of a science/math dork i can be, and all of these mathematical afghans are just incredible! i'm also rather keen on the labyrinth ones since they match my labyrinth tattoo. :) anyway, some of them are also rather quilt-ish, which goes along with my sewing and quilt-making hobbies, too. if ever there were soulmate afghan patterns, these would be mine! anyway, i just had to share i'll post some tubey later on. :) in the meantime, i'm going back to bed. (it's only about 7:30am and i've been up for an hour; lots of pain and ickyness this morning. i got up, ate some toast, took a painkiller, and now that it's kicked in i think i can sleep again!)

love
kristen

edit: oh my gosh, they have matching freakin' cushions! i <3 mathematical knitting!

shrug

hey kate,
oh man, it looks like you guys had a GREAT time at the festival! i'm so jealous! your yarn looks amazing, too... i can't wait to see it knit up! if you want to talk about lace knitting, let me know! lace is my very favorite thing to knit. it sounds like you met some really cool knitters. i really hope i'm able to go to one of the midwestern fiber festivals this summer. they're all still pretty far away, but we'll see. oh, and yes, that dog is indeed a border collie. :) they're great herding dogs!

update on the reunion: i *might* be able to come down for an entire day. i'm trying to work it out with my supervisor. we'll see. :)

so, i'm finally posting pics of the shrug i finished about two weeks ago. it all started last year, when i was supposed to go a wedding. i planned to make this vintage vogue dress (without the shirtwaist over it) out of a wild blue-and-green polka dot fabric and i wanted something to keep my shoulders warm, so i purchased some knitpicks shine to make knitty's frill. i ended up not being able to go to the wedding, so the unmade dress and partially-knit frill sat around for about a year. well, i got invited to a spring wedding this year and decided to make the dress. i liked the idea of a shrug with this dress better than a shawl, so i made one. i'm leaving for the wedding today, so hopefully i'll get some better pics of me actually WEARING the outfit. (i tried the photo-in-mirror thing and couldn't get the pics to look right.)

pattern: anthropologie-inspired capelet from craftster.
yarn: knitpicks shine sport in river, triple-stranded
i followed the pattern exactly as written, made no changes and it fits perfectly! (i did the math first to make sure it would; luckily it was the right size and i didn't need to alter it.)




anyway, that's all for now. i have to go pack. i actually have to work at hot topic tonight before driving to pittsburgh; i won't get there until around 2 or 3am. woo.

*hugs*
kristen

Dear Kristen,


Here is my VERY belated Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival update. It's now been more than a week since the event and I am still sorting through everyting I saw. The fair grounds are amazing and completely overwhelming. There was a sea of kintters...

And you could see fiber everywhere! In one of the first booths I saw this woman.
The picture isn't the clearest, but she has an angora rabbit on her lap and she was carefully removing tufts of fur (they almost slide off the rabbit) and then spinning them into some of the most beautiful yarn I had ever seen. I was tempted to purchase some, but the very high pricetag for a very small amount of yarn put me off it. Maybe next year when I think I can create things worthy of that expense...

From there I went for a wander which included cheese fries and ice cream for lunch. YUM! As I finished my ice cream I watched a sheep dog exhibition. I think that this particular dog was a border collie, but since I am completely inexperienced when it comes to dogs I can't be sure. You'll have to let me know. It was incredible to see the dogs work the sheep. I couldn't believe how confident they were. One small move and the sheep would completely turn direction.
After watching the sheep dogs do their thing I wandered through booth after booth of incredible fiber. In the end this was my "haul".

The purple and pink yarn to the left is 1000 yds of a merino/silk laceweight. It was by far the most indulgent purchase I made. The pattern next to it is the shawl that it will eventually become. But, because this fiber is so amazing and lux I'm planning on experiementing with lace a bit before hand so that I don't make any mistakes when I start working on the knitting. Next to it is a merino sock yarn for another pair of Si socks. The yarn is full of Si's favorite clothing colors, olive green, grey and burgundy. It's really beautiful and he was pretty excited about it. :) Next to that is a mother's day present, size 2 lantern moon rosewood dpns. My mother loves to knit socks on DPNs and has been searching for this particular set for ages. Finally I purchased some "everything" yarn. It's about 200 yds of soft merino?angora?and something sparkly in greys and pinks. I think this might be a scarf, but it hasn't told me yet. I figure I'll store it away and one day it will start talking. :P

After the festival I attended the Knitbloggers Ball! It was a fantabulous evening and I met some amazing knitters and bloggers. I had dinner with soapturtle and her shmoo. They are a really fun couple and soapturtle was working on an amazing lace shawl which she has now finished and posted about in her blog. I also had the pleasure of meeting mama-e...what an awesome host and dye goddess, and lightning chick who is a really sweet person and talented knitter. I see a few more sidebar links in our future! I'm hoping to make it down to their knitting group once in a while. They are exactly the type of people I was hoping to meet in this area, I just have to figure out how to justify the 2 hour trip each way.

This is the progress on my current project. They are modifed Whitby socks for Si. For those of you who don't know, Simon and I met in Whitby England so when I found this pattern I decided that I would knit us each a pair of these socks. I <3 mine more than I can say and Simon's pretty excited about his. I'm thinking I will finish them this weekend while visiting my brother for his graduation.

Alas, what this means is that I haven't made any further progress on my sister's wedding afghan. Yikes! I'm totally obsessed with socks when I need to be totally obsessed with finishing this gift. I'll be in big trouble with the fam if I am working on it the night before. (They were pretty peeved when I spent most of Christmas eve finishing socks for the aforementioned brother... *sigh* My little introverted heart loved that evening, but never again if I am to stay on the family's good side!)

Much love,
Kate

it's derby day!

hey k,
ok, i have 8 million things to say to you because i haven't responded to your last couple of posts yet. i've been waiting to take pics of my latest project but i keep forgetting. oops. so i figured i'd better just post and i can put up the pics later.

so. thing 1. I <3 YOUR FREAKIN' LEXIE BARNES BAG!!!!! i'm so jealous. you have the best husband ever. does he have any, uh, friends he could hook me up with? friends who like goth-minister-knitters? also, i love your sheepy pajamas. you have the best stuff.

si's whitby socks are awesome. i've been sitting on that pattern for a zillion years and i even have the yarn. i need to just do it! i've admired all of yours. yummm socks. :)

I'M ALSO FREAKIN' JEALOUS THAT YOU'RE GOING TO A FIBER FESTIVAL!!! there are a couple coming up in this area, though, so maybe i can manage to attend one. (and by "in this area" i mean "within a 5-6 hour drive.") i hope you have all the fun in the world! you should totally watch the sheepdog demonstrations - they're really cool. australian cattle dogs are my favorite herding dogs, though they're used more for cattle than sheep. i've also been itching to learn how to spin... my LYS just got some buttery alpaca fiber but unfortunately they don't sell spindles. *sigh* i can't wait to hear all about it! post pics of all the yarn you buy! (i know you'll buy some - you can't resist the yarn! it's like crack, only tastier!)

as for attending the reunion... we'll see. the trouble is that the IKEA grand opening is june 7 and as you know our reunion is june 8-10. i might be able to get a day or two off, but i certainly won't be able to attend the entire weekend, which completely bums me out. i was really looking forward to going. are y'all driving or flying? if nothing else, maybe we can meet somewhere between school and here and hang out for an afternoon? (i live about 3 hours from there.) well, we can talk about that more once i figure out what the deal is with work. if i come, i'll probably bring my tubey sweater and some socks. (i hate only having one project with me; i'm so ADD.)

also, we could totally use our real names if you wanted - i'd be fine with that. it probably gets confusing for our readers to see us addressing each other as k and k. ;)

so today was the kentucky derby. for any readers who don't know, i just moved to michigan from louisville and i miss it quite a bit. today i made all kinds of kentucky foods and watched horse-racing all day long. it was awesome. my horse didn't win, but i has the 3rd place horse right. if i'd been placing real bets at the track, i would probably have managed to make a little bit of cash. oh well. anyway, in honor of kentucky and yummy food with bourbon in it, here's a recipe:

derby pie
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temp
2 eggs
1 c sugar
1/2 c flour
1 c chocolate chips
1 1/2 c chopped pecans
2 T bourbon
single unbaked pie crust

beat eggs with cooled butter. add flour & sugar, beat until smooth and mixed well. mix in bourbon. fold in chocolate chips and pecans. scrape into pie shell and bake at 350* for 30-35 minutes.

enjoy!
<3 k

FIBER

Hey K!

I'm goin to a big honkin' fiber part-ay this week and I am so excited! (Si is less excited, but we'll just leave him out for a little bit...) This weekend is the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival and for the first time EVER my new home is actually close to something cool. Rock on! I'm hoping to catch the sheepdog demonstrations and purchase some fabulous yarn. And...I'm feeling a little drawn to pretty fiber that needs to be spun. Hopefully I've got another year or two of knitting before spinning looks too good...It's kinda like that procreation urge. Something to put off until there are no other interesting options in life. :P

In actual completed knitting news, I finished one of Si's whitby socks and have started on the second. I keep telling myself it's all because socks are good traveling projects, but the truth is that I'm sock obsessed... Haven't made any progress at all on the wedding afghan in the last two weeks. Not like the wedding is in 2 months! ACK!

I began the second sock in one of my more awesome location choices. I cast on while chatting with one of the Religion professors from the school I work at while we were on our way to the Save Darfur rally. Then, I proceeded to finish a pretty good ammount of the cuff while standing up (with the ball of yarn tucked under my arm) and cheering the speakers. The people watching was great, and I figured that by knitting I was just adding to the ambiance.

Activism and knitting made for a fabulous Sunday (and I figured that with those two together God would forgive me for missing church).

Now I'm back to finishing my FINAL PAPER! That's right folks. When I finish this exegesis I will never have to write another paper again...until I decide to go for that PhD in Pastoral Care that is!

*hugs*
and much love,
K

PS Are you getting any knitting done with the new job to keep you busy?

PS2 Are you planning on going to our college reunion, and if so, what knitting will you bring? I have to plan accordingly. (Not that I have an afghan to work on or anything...)