Two Days of Yarny Goodness

There is nothing better for a disappointed and aching heart than a little retail therapy.  Why is that? 

I think it has something to do with the newness of the items.  No bad energy with it (usually) so it kinda soaks up whatever is hanging around and levels out the qi.  In the case of yarn, thinking about and planning all of the beautiful things you’re going to make…  And when you think about beautiful things, it is that much harder to feel sad or grumpy or whatever.  Yarn is good.  And crafting is therapy.

I was in need of a little pick-me-up last week so I spent days and days filling up shopping carts and then emptying them out.  Picking out projects then searching Rav for the perfect yarns and refilling my carts and buying (I’m trying to only buy for projects from here on out).

Most of the yarn came yesterday and today.

First, my very first order from Eat.Sleep.Knit.  I am impressed.  Super-fast shipping (for free since I ordered $75+).  I got my Yarnathon Welcome Pack (photo below) and a scratch ticket (photo below).  There was a minor mix-up with the order, I got some Cocoa Kiss instead of Black Parade (and for those of you who know me know that I haven’t yet learned to love brown).  But after a quick email with Erin, I’m confident that things will be taken care of quickly (and she offered a $5 credit to my card or the store to cover the <$2 shipping back to her).  I have linked the site on my side bar.  Click it.  I get Yarnathon miles when you do, and if you order, a small store credit.  But I wouldn’t recommend them if I didn’t like them…  Tons of awesome yarns there.  And free yarn is one of my favorite things ever.

From ESK I got:  DIC Smooshy in Spring Tickle and Black Parade (not pictured, obviously) and some DIC Baby in Cloud Jungle (x2, my fave colorway) and Beach Fog.  Haven’t decided what exactly to do with the Cloud Jungle but I tried it out last night on a couple patterns (both of which didn’t work out right – one due to guage and one due to an accidental increase) but I loved it.  I think I’m going to use the Beach Fog for Seascape from the new Knitty.

Yes, my friends…  I won a free skein of the ever-delicious Smooshy!  How fraking cool is that?!  I gave Erin a couple color options and told her to surprise me – more fun that way.

A second package came yesterday.  From Susie at Martha’s Vineyard CSA (Ha!  I just typed “Vineyarn” on accident).  I was one of 4 lucky winners of a Manos Del Uruguay give-away which had an ungodly amount of entries.  It was an awesome concept and I just couldn’t help adding my $0.02 – and I won!  Which was just cool because I had just done the same thing she was doing (giving away yarn which held memories of a past relationship).  Anyway, got some lovely cherry-colored Manos.  Thanks so much, Susie!

Then today I got my package from Knit Picks.  YAY!  I got my Swish in Storm (I forgot which color I finally settled on and was happy when I opened the box) and nearly immediately (as in as soon as I took photos for my Rav-stash) I cast on for my Slouchy Cardigan (photo of row one of my first-ever sweater below).  There were also 2 skeins of Shimmer in Sherry.  Heather tells me I should wear more red.  So I’m going to make Upstairs stole and see how it goes.  I really like the color in person more than on the screen.  It isn’t too red and yet not at all purple or brown (I don’t really like when reds go purple or brown).

I must give a big shout-out to Shelly at Twist for helping me figure out which decrease should go where, advising me that “end with a wrong side row” means to stop after purling a row, and offering unconditional support should I need it.  I need to go to S&B more often.  I  Twist and Shelly.

Pax is insisting that I teach her to crochet tomorrow.  Maybe we’ll take the opportunity to go hang out at Twist for an hour or two.  She wants to make a dishcloth to clean up guinea pig pee.  What mom can argue with that?

Anyway, stay tuned for more photos of my first sweater (being my first, I’m sure there will be plenty!  I’m already ready for my first decrease!  How exciting!  And, more adventures in lace knitting.  And first socks!  So much new and so much awesome.

I have also been inspired by Susie.  I want to get a free pattern up and have a give-away to get people here to see it.  Hopefully in the next week or two before I start my first real grown-up job/career.

Started season 1 of Dr. Who today.  Hard to knit and watch at the same time.  Going to try knitting and a documentary tomorrow.

Yous wants craftiness?

How about a quick overview of current projects?  If you’re on my Rav friends list, this may well bore you.  I’m just sayin’.

Pax’s dress so far (just for you Megan!).  Using K1C2 Ty-Dy which is basically my new Favorite Yarn Ever.  This dress has a bit of an interesting story.  Went into Twist (see links, visit, give some love to Shelly: Best LYSO Ever), had an idea in my head, procured tape measures to “eyeball” the size of the kid and do the math to get yarn for dress.  Estimated size of child’s chest at 30″ (thinking I was slightly over-estimating because I refuse to run out of yarn).  But yarn accordingly.  Go home, measure child.  20″.  Remeasure child.  Re-do math.  Find different tape measure.  Insist child stands perfectly still while I remeasure.  20″.  Seriously?  20″??  Remeasure.  Yep.  20″.  Return some yarn.  Now, I have 4 balls and I’ve only JUST started #2.  I will maybe, just maybe, use a little of the 3rd.  But I love this yarn so very much that I am sure I can find something to do with the leftovers.

I decided that I needed some new potholders (apparently mine got left behind in the move back in January).  No, I don’t bake often.  Why do you ask?

Anyway, I also decided that I needed to add a contribution to the Examples of Pooling thread on Rav, so I purchased yarn accordingly.  I made this yesterday and it is currently in the wash felting.

In the process of making this for a baby-to-be.  I haven’t crocheted a whole lot lately so it’s been fun.  Unfortunately, the pattern I chose caused the blanet to be about 4″ wider than I was planning so I may have to ask my intended father’s in LA to do a little yarn shopping for me…  I haven’t been able to find an online source that I feel I can trust to get a couple extra coordinating skeins (Araucania Nature Cotton, if anyone has any recommendations – I’m thinking the lime green).  The varigated is Antuco by EA (I think they’re the same base).

The cat-vomit colored hat for my cousin’s daughter-to-be.  [Let your cat eat some Fruity Pebbles and tell me that I'm not right about the cat-vomit colored part...]  I used Noro Matsuri.

That was the second go of a pattern which I apparently didn’t save the link for.  Pretty basic, though.  Anyway, this was my first try.  My very first hat that was knitted in the round!  One minor mistake, which can go in the back.  I used Cascade Pima Tencel.  Lovely yarn with no give at all.  And I like knitting with cotton so that is saying something.  It was a little difficult, but it turned out lovely.  Very soft.

Other things I’ve been up to…  I taught myself magic loop!  YAY!

And, about 6 rows in, realized that I would never, ever finish a second sock.  So, I ordered Knitting Circles Around Socks and some KP Options in size 5 (and some size 2 for when I get good and can use the sock yarn I’ve already accumulated).  I’m going to use a skein of DIC Classy that I bought in LA.  May as well use the good stuff to keep me inspired, right?

The needles, along with some Shimmer lace and Swish DK (for my first ever sweater), are currently enroute to Wichita.  YAY!  I decided on the Swish because I remember my friend Aimee saying how awesome it is.  Now, sure, she gets paid by KP to make stuff…  But I don’t think they pay her to say nice stuff about their yarn (and I really don’t think she’d lie about it even if they did), so Swish seemed like a good choice.  I’m going to make the Slouchy Cardigan from Knit Cafe. 

The Shimmer lace, well…  I want to try lace.  I never wanted to knit lace before Rav.  Now it’s got me into sweaters and lace and is just insisting I hurry up with those damned socks.  I think, though, that I might start with a crocheted lace stole.  Crochet is by far my better craft and I know I can do that.  Maybe it would reduce my anxiety about lace knitting a bit.  Plus, I am in love with the Crocus Bud shawl.

Earlier this week, I got a box from Licking, MO.  Papa Don and his lovely wife Karol had mailed my new G hook to replace the one that the idiot taxi driver broke when I was in LA.  They were also kind enough to turn my broken one into a hairstick/shalw pin for me.  Love them.

I guess that’s about all on the crafty front. 

I received Sicko in the mail today from Netflix.  Watched it tonight.  Want to move to Europe immediately.

Peace Soup

I’ve been blogging for several years.  About my life, about…  Everything.  I recently took down my personal blog due to the pernicious behaviour of someone who got his/her hands on my password.  Not worth it.  But I still felt the need to chronicle the less personal aspects of my life.  You know, for posterity.

So, a little about me.

My name is Lynlee.  I’m a single mama of an almost 7 year old, quite precocious, darling daughter.  I just graduated college with a Bachelor of Arts and landed myself job that I am hoping is going to be a pretty interesting and successful endeavor.  I’ve been a gestational surrogate 3 times.  I’ve delivered 4 children and created 3 new families (all lead by gay daddies whom I adore).  I’m always happy to talk about surrogacy so if you’re interested, please leave a comment and I’ll email you.  In my spare time, I crochet, knit, read, and sometimes watch a little tube (um, posting in the 30 minutes before the next episode of Battlestar Galactica.  Wee!).  I just signed up for Netflix and have 85 disks queued.  I’m way behind on my movies ever since I learned to loop thee yarns, but I have a lot of simple projects coming up so I figure I can catch up on some movies. 

Things I love:  Laughing.  Hummus.  Fair trade.  Stuart Townsend (totally underrated – have you seen his abs?).  Browncoats.  Ben and Jerry.  Cotton yarn.  Norway.  Growing new humans.  RENT.  Documentaries.  Irish music.  Traveling.  Smart, open-minded individuals.  Tori Amos.  Parallel parking.  Learning.  A couple drinks with good people.  Acceptance.

Welcome to my new blog.  I hope you will all pour a cup of coffee, grab a seat, pull out your hooks and needles, and stay for a while.