Demonic Progress

Best Kitty Video in a Loooooong Time

Nora must have a twin brother out there named Sparta.... I found a great "Mean Kitty" video on YouTube, and I think you will love it! I had to watch it several times.

Click Here to go to the Mean Kitty

Odds & Ends, Catching Up

We got some new stuff at Unique One while I was out cruising, and today:

We got new summer clothing in a nice sunshiney yellow.

We got new Bartlettyarn. 

I finished my Mystery Sock #1 on Monday and have worked through clue 2 on the second Mystery Sock. Here is a picture of what the Mystery Sock looks like:

It has beaded butterflies on it :) 

I have a great coffee cup cozy that I put on coffee cups to prevent my hands from burning as I carry it back to the store from the Deli; it was lovingly crocheted for me by my dear friend Peggy (I think it was a free pattern on the Berroco website). I love it very much. Peggy made it from handspun yarn that she spun; she got the fiber from my friend and coworker Tracy, who dyed the fiber for her about 3 years ago or more. Here is the cup cozy. 

About a month ago, Tracy decided to dye some yarn and make herself a shawl/blanket from the book A Gathering of Lace. Here is her shawl:

So when I came in this morning and set my coffee cup down next to her shawl, it was kinda funny, because my coffee cup matched her shawl:

We decided Tracy must really like those colors! They are a good match, especially for hand dyed fiber and yarn, dyed 3 years apart. I told Tracy she should give me the shawl. 

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

Actually, it was a dark and stormy knitting cruise, but we made the most of it and had a great time anyway!! We were rockin' at the dock on Friday night, so we knit in the boathouse, which was fun. Then on Saturday, we actually had a little sun while we were taking a quick trip to Unique One to make last minute yarn purchases before leaving the dock, and then it got darker and rainier. However, the knitters were game and happily knit away, and the food was AWESOME.

Brenda has a fabulous crew, with John, first mate and master of entertainment. I will probably smile when I think of the  Chubby Bunny game for the rest of my life. I still kick myself for not taking pictures of it. Jackie is the most amazing cook. Everything was fabulous and there was plenty of it! I don't care if it pours every single cruise, as long as Jackie is there to feed us. Wow. And her right hand man, Mark, was hard working and fun and also very entertaining! They are a fun crew and made the trip really great :)

We got a lot of knitting done, and saved a ton on sunblock. No one got sunburned. I actually finished my second blue Wandering Path sock on Sunday, and have the first Ty Dy Sock "sweater gauge swatch" (wink wink) nearly half done.

Here are pictures from the cruise:

     

     

     

     

     

More Knitting Cruise Pictures

What the heck, you know you want more knitting cruise pictures, and I am still out on the knitting cruise. 

Here is an album of pictures from my September 2005 knitting cruise:

September 2005 Knitting Cruise

Enjoy! I will be back on land tomorrow :) 

On the Knitting Cruise.....

.... the second June 2008 knitting cruise, that is! I figured since I am currently out on the Isaac Evans, knitting merrily away, you might as well enjoy photos of one of last year's knitting cruises :) Here you go:

June 2008 Knitting Cruise

Knitting Cruise launch pad

Uh oh, I did a week where I posted every day and now this week I have almost gone a whole week without posting at all!! Sorry :) 

I have been busy at the store and at home and getting prepared for the knitting cruise. I board the Isaac Evans tonight!! I have been looking forward to doing this, very much. And this year I get to do it again in August, so I don't have to wait til September for the next knitting cruise. Have you signed up for the August cruise yet? 

I have the pattern for the Compass & Anchors hat all done, and ready to print. I have to fiddle a bit more with the Wandering Path socks pattern, but it is minor fiddling, so I will be ready to print that shortly. I have to charge my ipod and load new music into it. I got a great Joe Bonamassa CD, "Blues Deluxe", from my mother in law on my birthday (I took Tuesday off from everything, because it was my birthday. I am 50! My sister says I am now a woman of a certain age, but I should remind her that she will always be of a certainer age than I am.) I also recently got the B.B. King CD "Live at the Regal", and I just treated myself to two more CD's, Donna the Buffalo "Rockin' in the Weary Land" and Vassar Clements, "Livin' with the Blues". So, I got some music importin' to do. (Importing as I type, here). 

I have to pack my bag, people like it if you have clean undies on the boat. More importantly, I have to pack my knitting bag. It is only a three day trip, so I am taking my last blue Wandering Path sock, a new sock from Ty Dy Sock yarn that we just got at the store. Oh my gosh, I love this yarn.... it feels like the best quality pima cotton, or maybe a silk blend, but it is just superwash wool and nylon. It is by far the softest wool sock yarn I have ever worked with, and the colors are fabulous. I love this yarn. I am also taking my new Millpoint spindle and merino/tencel fiber that I got at the Fiber Frolic. Those 3 projects should keep me pretty busy for the next 3 days. 

I have to go to Camden, to Unique One, and pick up the porthole prizes for the boat. They would normally be called 'door prizes', but on the boat, it's 'porthole prizes'. :) 

Then I go to Rockland to Staples to copy the patterns for the Compass & Anchors hat and the Wandering Path socks, and add them to the passengers' folders of patterns, which I will give them after breakfast in the morning. And finally I have to go buy a few supplies, like deodorant, sunblock, and hmmm beer? mmmm, beeeeeer. 

Looks like a busy day. I better get a move on! Wish me sunny weather for the cruise!! :) 

Puzzled :)

I took my picture of the Done Roving sock yarn I just got recently and turned it into a jigsaw puzzle. Look, you can solve it here: 

Rainy Day .....

It's raining. So I got to thinking about my Rainy Day Scarf, which I put the pattern for on my blog one spring when it had rained something like 26 days straight, in May or June or something. I never knew it would take off like it did, and get popular.

I actually designed and knit the Rainy Day scarf in an airplane, flying back and forth from a TNNA yarn show. It was a fun way to focus my mind and shut out the dull roar of the airplane engines.

So today, it being rainy and all, I thought I would look at my Rainy Day Scarf again. 

I found 127 photos of my scarf on Flickr.... so fascinating to be able to see it in so many different yarns and colors!

In Ravelry, there are 264 Rainy Day Scarf projects, 20 blog posts about it, 33 forum posts, and after 151 ratings, it gets four stars out of 5!!! Wow, I am overcome :) 

More New Yarn

I got new stuff at Unique One yesterday! 

I filled in my much-depleted stash of Done Roving's "Frolicking Feet" sock yarn in all the luscious colors, and I also got a new Done Roving sock yarn called "Tapping Toes", which is a bamboo blend:

Tapping Toes is a superwash merino/bamboo/nylon blend, and it is a heavy fingering to sport weight yarn. There are 434 yards per skein, easily enough for a pair of socks. It has such a fabulous bamboo sheen, and it feels great in the hand. One of the colors is called Champagne Melon, and I love it very much..... a skein of it came home with me. Also, one of the new Frolicking Feet colors, Starry Starry Night, came home with me, too. Starry Starry Night looks like a solid dark sapphire blue/purple, but there are small bits of much lighter purple/blue spread through the skein, so when you knit it up, it looks like little stars...... 

I get myself into so much trouble owning a yarn shop. Sigh.

New Knitting Cruise!

Out of the blue, I got a call from Brian Thomas of the schooner Isaac H. Evans. Could I do a knitting cruise in August? They have a lot of teachers who wanted to go on a knitting cruise but couldn't make it for the June cruise or either September cruise.

I have always said I couldn't do anything like that in August, because July and August are just so busy for me. But this particular year I happen to have enough people who could cover me on the days in question, so I said yes!

The August knitting cruise will board August 4 and return August 8. Like all of the knitting cruises, passengers will experience beautiful scenery, great sailing, wonderful food (including a lobster bake), and all the knitting time you want, with a resident knitter fixer on board (me). It's gonna be fun! If you haven't already signed up for a knitting cruise but wanted to, now is your chance! I think the June and September cruises are nearly booked, but this cruise is wide open at the moment, I think, so hurry and sign up now!

Click here to go to the Isaac Evans website.