Flowers and a lot of Blue Yarn (Image Heavy)

I have been playing with my camera a lot recently. Maybe that's why I can't seem to put a blog post together! So here is a bit of a photo dialog of recent events.

Weaving is going well. I took the next step beyond plain weave and did a houndstooth pattern. The weaving was easy. The warping was a pain in the arse.



I have been getting out a bit more (gasp!). Yea, this one is a bit of a shock. First step out was at the Spotsylvania Courthouse Memorial Battlefield Park.

Saw the requisite cannon.



There were lots of spider webs.



They had just done a controlled burn, so the new growth was pretty interesting to look at.



A runner suggested I swing by the remains of an old house. Pretty neat.



The Dogwood trees were blooming.



I met a pretty accommodating moth, which perched still while I got my camera lens all straight.



And, despite normal horror over spiders, I had no trepidation over getting close to this little guy. And believe me, I did get close.



Just this morning I took a trip to Shenandoah National Park with Jen. I shot these all in RAW format, just to get a bit of practice processing the images. I thought it might give me a better feel over white balance.


I started off the morning looking for a shot like this, and finally found it as we were on our way out.



The angle of this shot intrigues me.



Jen pointed this scene out. I would have missed it totally otherwise. I wonder what the story behind this white tree is?




I did a close crop on this one because I'm pretty proud I got this level of focus when shooting in manual.



We stopped off in Culpeper for a rather unimpressive lunch. The place we wanted to go is closed on Sundays. But it is oh-so-lovely. The place we ended up going had "fresh warm bread," which I believe can be accurately translated as "microwaved croutons."




Oh yes, and the blue yarn. I shot photos of some of my stash again (for fun...I'm a nerd) and noticed the extreme preponderance of blue yarn. And this was in just two brands that I enjoy. It has been three months since I bought yarn, which is lucky. I think I have plenty.



Just to clarify, those are all different skeins. No matter how similar some of them look.  *headdesk*

It's rising!

Unlike my previous attempt at bread, this go-around is actually rising. It will be a couple of hours before I can see if it is successful, but at least I am showing signs of improvement.

I had a pretty nice Christmas. Got some neat gifts (including a Sonic Screwdriver from my cousin!). My cousin also made me this necklace.


We take artsy photos of her jewelry so she can add the pictures to her portfolio. I wish I had thought to bring my tripod with me. I could have done something a little better with the lighting I think.

Another one of my favorite gifts for the year was a macro lens. I'm still getting a feel for it, but I'm really enjoying it.



ZOMG, close-up shot of yarn!! Gah. I used chatspeak. I feel so dirty.

Some recent highlights in projects include some doubleknit bookmarks I did as a part of a swap with my friends. "Something handmade" was one of the required categories, so I pulled some charts from Alice Starmore's Charts for Color Knitting, and knit something up with tiny needles.



Next up was a Christmas gift for my mom. Her gift this year included a one-pound bag of cinnamon sticks (to stir her coffee with), some cinnamon-infused honey, and this scarf. She used both the cinnamon sticks and honey the next morning for breakfast. I'm not sure if she liked the scarf. She's the type who won't tell you if she doesn't like something. Unless it is my haircut. She doesn't mind referring to that as "Edwardian" (Still bitter about that one. I might dye my hair purple again just to make a point. Apparently, that really annoyed the heck out of her even though I was over 18 at the time. I might be taking my parenthetical bitching too far now.)

Anyway, I was pretty pleased with the scarf. It was my first time doing something other than straight plain weave. This was an extremely simple technique called Brook's Bouquet from the Weaver's Idea Book.*



And finally, a scarf for my friend Scott. The first scarf I ever knitted for someone was an Olive bulky weight creation, which I gave to Scott. Several years later, I wove Ol Olive 2.0.



I would like to do a proper heavy scarf for him within the next year, to complement the lighter woven one. Not much point for a heavy scarf at the moment though (this isn't my attempt to excuse my slow-ass knitting....not at all). It has been a pretty warm winter so far. I miss seeing snow, even if it does make it a pain to get to work.**

Of course, that scarf is just one in a queue of many items I would like to do for others this year. I know some people who need knitted socks. I think I have successfully managed my knitting to a point that it doesn't cause many carpal tunnel issues. I still have issues, but it mostly comes from work-related actions. Ah well, back to knitting. I need to knit some caps for some glittens.***

*I just checked the bread. It's still rising. HELL YES.
**The bread machine just started kneading again. Scared the crap out of me.
***mittens + gloves = glittens. Weren't expecting math on this blog, were you?

Knitting in the Fall

I've been particularly chatty this week. Mostly because Monday started well. My car was in the shop, but a most excellent friend, Jen, gave me a ride to work. I had both good conversation and my knitting with me. Chatty isn't something that happens often for me, so it's a bit odd. *looks nervously around at dusty blog*

I love Fall. The colors, the smell, the cooler weather. I got to see a bit of snow this October, although it was mixed in with rain. It reminded me of my first year at Virginia Tech. There was a freak snow storm that dumped several inches of snow. They cancelled classes for a day, I think. That is pretty astounding at that school. Even if it isn't entirely accurate, I have this wonderfully vivid memory of bright, snow-covered ground and autumn-decked trees. Even without difficulty with allergies, I don't have the same feelings about Spring. I'm not sure what it is about Fall. Ultimately, it is prime knitting weather. You see the geese in the sky on the move, the deer in the fields bulking up, and the knitter in her natural habitat.

I finished a couple of projects recently. First up is a wash of garter stitch and ribbed edging.
Mara in madelinetosh tosh dk, colorway burnished



This turned into a bit of a slog, especially the edging, but it used every last bit of yarn. I love projects like that.

I also finished up a hat, Windschief, in madelinetosh 80/10/10 MCN, colorway steam age. (Sorry about my hair. It's always like that.)



I enjoy the detail on this one. Complex enough to be interesting, but simplistic enough for everyday wear.



Back to work now on my current favorite projects.

A sock for the most excellent friend Jen:



And a lap blanket, for me:

One Year Ago

I've been having a difficult time the past couple of weeks. Pretty lethargic, despite an ever-growing to do list. Mostly because my mind has been on other things. I would really rather not go to work tomorrow, but there are meetings on the schedule, and I can't really justify it.

October 11th, last year, my grandma passed away. And I am discovering, the sadness from that loss doesn't really go away. It moves around the brain, like swirling water. And as the waves from that turbulence break, I sit in the quiet, and think of how dear she was.

She was good at so many things.

Cooking.



Gardening. Crossword puzzles. Killing palmetto bugs that were the size of Volkswagens to 12-year-old eyes.

Being a Grandma.






I'm thinking about you too, Grandmama. Thank you for all the love.

A Bit of Orange

(I'm trying something new with the blog...bear with me for the next few posts)

I can finally see the sun, after several inches (and several days) of rain. As you can tell from my previous post, there was a lot of damage all around. In my apartment, my own damage seems relatively meager in comparison.

Don't get me wrong though. It really annoys the crap out of me that this wall is pretty much a complete loss.

And the ceiling was the next casualty.

I noticed a bit of damage at the corner of the window sill 6-8 weeks ago. I notified the residential managers immediately, and one of them came in to look at it. During Hurricane Irene, it suddenly intensified. I put towels down to protect the baseboard and carpet, but that couldn't save the wall.

Leaks popped up around all four corners of the window. The two lower corners were the worst. I called the residential managers again. The lead came out with the building architect to look at it and figure out how the water was coming in. 

And then Tropical Storm Lee came in. I put towels down, and felt pretty prepared. When I got back from work one evening however, there was even more water streaming down the walls. Two large bath towels and several dish towels were heavy with water by the end of it. But it started coming in from the ceiling while I was at work, so there is significant damage now.

Moving on, I finished a couple of projects which are both, rather surprisingly, orange. Since my favorite color is grey, I was surprised how much I liked both the yarn and finished projects.

First, a wurm hat in madelinetosh pashmina, colorway amber trinket (Ravelry Link)

I wasn't sure how a slouchy hat would look on me. I'm still not sure actually. But I liked the pattern. It was relatively straightforward, and I didn't make any modifications.

Next, a plain woven scarf in The Sanguine Gryphon Traveller, colorway Gallifrey (Ravelry Link). Although I had some trouble with warp tension on this project, my selvages and weft are both fairly even. And man is this bad boy bright. My love for this scarf is due in no small part to the Doctor Who reference.

One of the nicest things about this yarn is that despite how much red there obviously is, when the scarf hit the water, there was little to no bleeding at all.

My last woven scarf in two shades of String Theory Hand-Dyed Yarn Caper Sock (Ravelry Link), turned my plastic reed purple. For the next weaving project, I think I will try something other than plain weave. Not sure what yet though.

Tropical Storm Lee

This rain has been astounding. I have lived in this area for over twenty years, and can't remember it ever being anywhere near this bad.

I just had to deal with leaky window. My parents, however, are having a harder time of things. Here is a picture of their driveway from today (all of these pictures are from my sister-in-law):



On the right you can see the cable from the telephone line, which was exposed by the rain and cut by debris. For reference, the culvert in the background used to be UNDER the road.

Little bit of scale:







Currently, there are only two means of travel. Even tractors can stuck in this mud, so my brother is carting people around as best he can:

I like Ramen

I’m such a bad blogger. I do THINK about blogging a fair bit, but it never seems to work out. But I was sick this week, and nothing seems to inspire me to write more than illness. And the best cure-all I know for being sick is Ramen noodles. My mom used to shovel it into us when we were young. I can’t say it really helped an upset stomach this week, but I survived, with only one day of work missed. Although I’m sure my coworkers think two days might have been better though. I had the vitality of a dish rag for two days. It would have been worse, if one of my super friends had not swooped in with anti-nausea meds on Monday (coincidentally, she also swooped in and gave me a ride to pick up my car at the shop). With all the swooping in my good friends do, they should really get frequent flyer miles.

Now, instead of overloading my readers with photos from the past two months, here are two collages covering the lot.

First, my super awesome cousin came to visit, and one of our many adventures was to Luray Caverns! So many pretty formations, so hard on my asthma. But it was a good way to spend a day averaging 110 degrees F.

Next up, some completed projects from August (and some yarn, for kicks).

Stranded mitts in progress, a cowl, a woven scarf, a hat, and some hexagons for a knitted quilt.

And here is a woven scarf, completed in July. Now, I am not typically one for pooling. I am usually a semi-solid girl, all the way, but my love of variegated yarn has left me with a pile of future projects begging to pool. And until now, I wasn’t sure what those yarns could be besides socks. I give you the Cringer scarf. The yarn was dyed for me as part of a trade. It is one of a kind, and I love how it pooled.

Cringer is my handle, and with good reason. I have a lot in common with that cat (except the whiskers). Timid nature, orange stripes, a hard plastic seam.

My carpal tunnel has been much better recently, although I am wary of overdoing it. I have been knitting a lot this weekend, so I think I will be good and vacuum now. And then maybe warp my next project...

Now with slightly less whining

I’m still having a difficult time with the carpal tunnel. I certainly think my arm has improved, but it hasn’t changed much recently, and I can’t go without the brace. The only knitting I have been doing is on my Mara. Rows of garter stitch might usually be considered tedious, but every stitch is a small achievement. I’d like to think about the next project I want to attempt, but it will take a while to complete this one. So in the interim, I caught up on the backlog of photographing and cataloging my stash, and grabbed a picture of my work in progress.

I have also been weaving on my Rigid Heddle loom (slowly, of course). My selvages are looking pretty even, and I am getting the hang of beating the weft evenly. Most of my problems are with the warp. I thought I followed the directions correctly, but I must have missed a step somewhere because my shed is pretty small. I will go through some more directions before I warp for the next project (you know, after I finish this one). I will also put an empty paper towel roll around my ties to even things out a bit more.

I worked on some more pictures of my grandma. The resolutions of both the original and the digital versions are low in some instances and I could only do so much, but I’m pleased with the results.

This is a great one. She makes a slouch look proper and right.

I wish I had inherited legs like these.

I can't even describe how much I love this last picture. I have a similar modern version with my cousin and some smaller tropical birds.

And now, since I have knit about as much as my arm can take this weekend, I am off to read another book!