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Monday, April 26, 2010

 

manic monday

I just gave myself an ear worm! Now I've gotta play that whole Bangles song in my head. "It's just another manic Monday...wish it were Sunday...cause that's my fun day..." Make it stop!!


I was at the skeinwinder several hours this afternoon, and although it's nice to sit down and write a blog post, break time will be short 'cause there are basins of soaking yarn all over the kitchen needing dyed. My shipment of Titanium Sock finally got here last week, so I'm hauling arse to get caught up on orders.

But before I get too far along, I have to show you something that will melt your heart.



This is Leeloo. She is a 9 week-old Yorkie with a smidge of Silkie Terrier. Is she not the sweetest baby?!
Leeloo belongs to Tami. Last Friday they came by for a visit. Tami and I sat on the floor while Leeloo and Toki checked each other out. Toki did his usual running up and down, and Leeloo mostly stayed right next to her mommy, but she was curious about Toki and had some playful moments. Toki settled down a bit and sweetly lay down on his side, outstretched his paw and the two puppies just touched paws for a few moments...precious. Now Toki has two girl friends, Leeloo and Lily.
Shawl knitting complete. Here is my Multnomah (Ravelry link) or as I call it, "Maltnomah".

First, the hot sheet: I used just under 2 100-gram skeins of Mountain Colors Mountain Goat in "Gray Wolf". Which yielded only 7 reps of the fan & feather border pattern. I considered doing one more rep but the amount of yarn I had left was iffy, and I decided to play it safe. Check out this blog post by Yarnhog and the reason behind my decision will be clearer!
And to explain the deliberate mis-spelling of "Multnomah": in a previous life, somewhere in the 1980's, I was madly in love with a raging alcoholic and sometime poet. He was originally from Chicago but lived in Seattle when we were an item. I met him through friends here in Portland. When we went to Renner's in Multnomah (now "Multnomah Village" because it's about the shops and galleries, you see, and not just a place to get hammered) my paramour dubbed the district "Maltnomah". Renner's is now a restaurant, but back in the day it was a tavern with a back room called "The Suburban Room". Clever drunks that we imagined ourselves to be, we re-named it "The Subhuman Room". Ah, memories. Yeah, I didn't do much with the first 30 years of my life. My experience can attest to the fact that life does indeed begin at 30!

# posted by Sharon @ 4:16 PM 3 Comments

Monday, April 19, 2010

 

tiny pants


Wow, I haven't written anything on here since April 2nd! There just hasn't been anything blog-worthy going on; I've simply been doing the necessary things to keep this juggernaut Stitchjones moving forward. We are on for Black Sheep Gathering in June, where we will have a nice big indoor booth, and the Scio Lamb & Wool Fair in mid-May. I'm terribly excited about these events and hope to have enough product dyed to fill my booth. Selling out prematurely wouldn't be the worst thing, I know--but I always prefer "too much" to "not enough". I also have two sock clubs to dye for, and an appointment to meet the owner of a new yarn store in Salem (opening soon). So I'm popping my head up for a quick "Hallo" and then I'll probably be more on Facebook than here.


And now for an interesting segue: you know I love the Yarn Harlot to bits, right? Last week she posted from base HQ of Sock Camp with pics of the most adorable baby bootees evar. The cuteness of the tiny shoesies reduced her and Tina to baby-talking puddles of goo. Well, it did inspire me to knit something cute too, so I set aside my adult size projects temporarily. I am not a baby sock or bootee knitter, so I made the baby leggings from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac.





These are the leggings that are with the February Baby Sweater. It only took three evenings to make them, and I could spend weeks making more! Total fun. The fine print:
Yarn - FibraNatura Cobblestone (100% superwash merino, 154 yards) 2 balls
Needles - US 5 12" circ & dpn
Size - 3 to 6 months
Knit for: ?? I have two friends who are expectant moms, so right now it's a toss-up. This was the first time I used Cobblestone; I picked up two balls of it from The Naked Sheep Knit Shop and it turned out to be just enough for the pants. It's a great yarn! Different color plies to look like handspun, very soft, stretchy and springy which made it a good choice for leggings.
***
In non-knitting news, but very exciting to my world: guess who's coming to the Pacific Northwest this summer? Oh yeah. Aug. 7th, White River Amphitheater in Auburn, WA. Did we buy tickets for all three of us the day they went on sale? Does Pinocchio have a wooden butt?
OK, I'm done recycling my jokes. Back later when I finish my shawl or camisole...although those leggings do seem to call out for a cute sweater, oh and maybe a hat...





# posted by Sharon @ 12:03 PM 2 Comments

Friday, April 02, 2010

 

how did this happen?

So today I was in a hospital waiting room, having accompanied a friend who underwent a procedure, and while waiting I sat on a comfy couch intermittently knitting a sock and leafing through People mag. (I'll get more into that in a minute.) I was semi-aware of the Muzak playing, then I paid more attention as I recognized the song. It was Ballad of John & Yoko.

Not such a big deal, right? Well, let me take you on a little journey back in time. Imagine that it's 1969, you're 14, and listening to 45's in your room (those are vinyl records, for you young pups) and when John Lennon sings "Christ you know it ain't easy" you have to turn the volume wayyy down so your parents won't know that there's a swear word in the song, well...okay, just imagine it. Were we repressed much? Nah...

OK, now let's fast forward 41 years. Whoosh! So much music from my childhood and youth that we thought was edgy, or revolutionary, or just plain out there, is now blase canned music or being used to sell products on TV. I sat there listening to that, and even though I had to smile, I felt really old. When I was listening to those 45's in my room I never had a thought for where I find myself in life right now--approaching senior citizenhood. Just another graying baby boomer. The answer to the question in this post title, of course, is that I didn't die. Which is fine as paint with me!

It used to bug me, this ongoing trend of pillaging my childhood memories by mining entertainment from the 60's and 70's (now it's the 80s and beyond) and replaying, repackaging, remixing and remaking it to no end. Now I guess I'm used to it. I did see in that People magazine, however, that they are bringing to the big screen, none other than Gilligan's Island. Good Lord. The kid from "SuperBad" is playing Gilligan. The bombshell Ginger? J. Lo. I won't give away any more of the casting, just that it's inspired and pretty clever. Will I go see it? I'm pretty sure they won't be able to make what was a silly TV show into anything other than a silly movie--but out of sheer curiosity I kind of want to! And that's saying a lot, because I don't go to the movies anymore. The last time I did, I forget what I saw but I think I paid $9.50. It probably costs more than ten bucks now.

So when it comes out, if anybody's up for seeing it with me, tell me so in the comments! And thank you for indulging my old lady rant. Since I got up this morning, I had one of those days where I didn't feel like my usual, freewheeling, headbanging self, and that mood persists. On the plus side, though, I am making progress with a couple unfinished projects. Will check in again when I have pretty pictures to share.

# posted by Sharon @ 11:01 PM 1 Comments

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