Auntie Em, Auntie Em!

Well we have survived the crazy weather we've had down here in SC and GA this weekend. Saturday night there was a huge storm and a bunch of tornados touched down and did a lot of damage. Our house had zero damage, while many not far from us had trees through their roofs. It's amazing how powerful and how precise wind can be. Gail had a small tornado touch down right next to her house and tore down part of the fence, but didn't even loosen the vinyl siding on the outside walls.

But that's over and done with, moving on to wooly things!

All but one of my awaited packages have arrived, and I've already gotten started on them.
Behold, the wonder that is pure undyed merino top from Hello Yarn. A whole pound of it (with my average-sized spindle thrown in for reference). I actually spread it out on the floor and layed down on it. Well, I was mostly letting it air out, but I really wanted to lay on it.

I started spinning some up for Urchin, a hat from Knitty.com, but I've stalled on that since it turns out that spinning a lumpy yarn on purpose (at least for me) is harder than you'd think. Also, most of my practice yarns have been on the thin side, and I'm not used to letting a lot of fiber in at once. Oh well. Need more practice.

I also got 5 skeins from KnitPicks! The 2 on the right are undyed sock yarn, and the 2 on the left are undyed laceweight.

There's another skein of laceweight that I've already wound up and cast on for the Forest Path Stole. 10 rows of seed stitch take kind of a long time in laceweight.
Last week, Tita and I went to our LYS to cash in our store credit, and I used mine on 7 balls of Elsebeth Lavold Cotton Patine` for Blissful, a halter top from Stitch n Bitch Crochet.

While I was waiting for my packages, I didn't have a whole lot of knitting to do, but one thing I did do was a lot of swatching and experimenting. I decided to knit up the little bit of yarn I spun from the surprise Christmas fiber. I'm really digging the brown/grey/yellow portion, it reminds me of birds. I think I would name a colorway like that "Falcon."

Gail's computer was dead when I went over there today, so I didnt' get my fix of blogs and podcasts. Off to remedy that now!

An end, and a few beginnings

I'm not completely sure, but I think that Friday was the first day in over a year and a half that I have not knitted. chirp chirp. Yes, really. It kind of jolted me when I realised. But considering the circumstances, one can hardly blame me.



My Dearest Love and I had planned to go to a concert on Friday afternoon/evening, and he was going to pick me up from school. At least, that's what I thought. I waited for him for almost an hour before Tita came and got me. On the way back to the house, DL called and said that there had been a mix-up, he thought that he was supposed to come get me at my house, not school. I had been kinda freaking out before, but I calmed down and he came and got me in about 15 minutes.



The concert was over an hour away from us, and it lasted until 10:00 at night. We were smart and hopped out during the last song, so as to beat the traffic and avoid being out until 1:00 in the morning or later. As it was, we got back to my house shortly after 11:00 and bid our goodbyes (yes, I am using fancy words to peak your interest and keep you awake). I was exhausted, and went right to bed, not realising until the next morning that I had not knitted a single stitch the previous day. For the absolute most ironic part, read a little further.



Another end, this time a completely welcome one:

An end to this dresser's occupancy of my room.



I've known this house since before the lot was cleared. We were living just 2 doors down at the time, and my mom's parents had this house built so they could be closer to us. My room used to be a guest room, and it has always had this same stinking dresser. But not anymore.



No more, because me and Mom went to IKEA on Saturday and got a bunch of stuff, among which was,

My fabulous new dresser/bookshelf. Clothes are along the bottom, and the rest is mostly books and space for future stash storage. Go to my flickr page (KnitWize there too) for full details.

Another beginning,

My first entrelac! I made this using a tutorial I found via Ravelry. I don't remember exactly where, but just go to Patterns and search for "entrelac tutorial" and you'll find it. The steps are accompanied by pictures, and it's all in very simple terms. If you're a little nervous about trying entrelac, this is the way to go. It's really very easy, even if there are kind of a lot of steps.

Socks for Thing 1, toe-up in TOFUtsies.

More socks for Thing 1, this time for her birthday. She had full knowledge of the other pair, but this is secret. She's seen these, loves them to death actually, but I told her they were for me. I don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep doing that, but for now it's a wonderful system.

I knit these socks top-down, in KnitPicks Bare Essentials that I dyed with food coloring. I knit them top-down because I did a picot hem, and didn't want to have to sew it down. Still did a short-row heel, though.

These socks actually are for me, once again it KnitPicks Bare essentials. I am so tickled by the stripes!

Yet another beginning, and an end too, I guess.

All the spinning I've done so far had been using the drop spindle and light brown Romney top wool I got for Christmas. Well apparently my spindle came with a little packet of colorful fiber and a cool pin, but my mom misplaced them and didn't discover them until a few days ago. I spun up the fiber immediately, of course, and I'm thrilled. It's only a tiny amount, and I'm itching for more. The end being the end of my being content with my plain brown Romney.

Being no longer interestd in my plain brown wool, and