a jumble of things

Last week, I went over to Catherine's to dye yarn with her and Ariel. Ariel and I both did a couple of skeins of sock yarn and Catherine did yarn she had frogged from a sweater. We used Wilton's icing colors, plus Catherine used some Kool Aid.

Here is Catherine's yarn being dyed, and yes it does look like raw meat. She was going for a burgundy/wine color which came out a more dusty rose.

Here are a couple of pictures of my first skein being dyed. I was going for a "tulip" colorway, in red, pink, yellow, and green.

And here's the finished skein!

My second skein I handpainted with violet and royal blue. The blue was originally fairly light, so a couple of days ago, I put the entire skein in a pot of royal blue to see how it would come out. I'm pretty pleased:

And now some random shots. I went for a walk along Comm Ave this weekend on a gorgeous fall day to take pictures of my starry scarf for the calendar. And here is a photo I took along the way:

And here is a picture of the pumpkin pie Ariel and I (she did the crust, I did the filling) made for Catherine's Thanksgiving party:

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Odessa

Fast projects are fun! I started this Monday night and finished it about half an hour ago. So here is Odessa, which will be a Christmas gift for a friend from college.



That picture is not true at all to the color; the picture below is closer--it's a very rich turquoise blue.



Knit up with Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK (which I now love), which has about 20 meters less yarn than the recommended Cashsoft DK, and it was certainly a close call as to whether I would have enough. I have about a two foot strand of yarn left, but I made it! I did this on 5s and 7s instead of the called for 4s and 6s, as those are the needles I had. I had made one before for myself and it worked out well on those needle sizes.

Baaaaaaaa

What can I say? I'm a sheep.

Ariel posted about this contest on her blog, so now I'm joining in. It involves posting a picture of the November page of your calendar. Here is mine:



It's from my Art Nouveau posters calendar that hangs over my desk. The poster itself is by Jane Atche and was done in 1896.

In actual knitting content, I cast on for an Odessa last night, which should be done in a few days, hopefully.

to play with clay

Two posts from me in two days--who can believe it?

On Thursday night I went over to Catherine's to watch Grey's Anatomy. We spent the time being our crafty selves and playing with Sculpey. And here is what we created:



A miniature Thanksgiving dinner! A golden brown turkey, peas and carrots, an ear of corn, a pumpkin pie, and cranberry sauce.

After that we wanted to make something else, so we made pens. Well, we actually took the shells off of Bic ballpoints and attached sculpey to them and then reinserted the rest of the pen after baking. But here they are:

jaywalking

I hereby present to you what may be the world's ugliest pair of Jaywalkers. Though now that they're finally finished they're starting to grow on me. And I think they look a little nicer in the picture.



(Please ignore the very messy coffee table behind my feet.)
And a side view:



I did a good chunk of the second sock in the last couple of days--yesterday while watching the movie Sylvia at home, and then while watching Veronica Mars at Ariel's, and they got finished during the Star Wars marathon tonight. Done in Lane Cervinia Calzetteria (the main part of the sock--I ran out of this yarn) and Lang Jawoll Superwash (the toes) on size 2 (2.5 mm) Inox circulars.

And now I'm off to something other than socks!

Reading: The Guy Not Taken by Jennifer Weiner, one of the only chicklit writers I'll always read.

sex and knitting

From the book I am currently reading:
"According to one of the coeds interviewed in Sex and the College Girl (1964), 'you could judge how good a girl's sex life was by how much knitting she got done each semester. "It took me two years to finish this sweater,"' she proudly told author Gael Green."

And I think I'll just let that speak for itself.

Reading: College Girls: Bluestockings, Sex Kittens, and Coeds, Then and Now by Lynn Peril.

hanging out with the Ladies

This has absolutely nothing to do with knitting, but it is the thing that has made me really happy when I haven't been particularly happy lately, so I'm posting it here anyway.

I've been a fan of the Barenaked Ladies since I started college. That probably gives an indication of how much of a dork I am, but they were part of what kept me (somewhat) sane in college, and I love them and their music. I've met a couple of the guys in the band before, Kevin at his solo concerts and Steve at a free concert he did last summer. But I had never met Ed, and Ed has always been my favorite.

BNL did a concert at BU on Wednesday night, which was fabulous. After the concert I spent two hours hanging out behind the loading dock, with a host of other slightly crazy fans. So, I look crap in the following picture, between being utterly exhausted (it was taken at 2 am) and having had truck fumes spraying my skin for two hours. But I am very happy crap in this picture.


I met Ed! And he was so sweet. I also met Tyler and Jim, and talked to Kevin and Steve again, and had a generally wonderful time. But meeting Ed kind of fulfilled a ten year dream, so that has made me very happy, which I really needed.