Favorites and Ughs

OK, I'm mesmerized by looking at favorites on Ravelry. I go to the people tab to check the "random assortment of favorites", and just keep refreshing the screen for more of those little thumbnails. (Unfortunately, this can go on for a loooong time). Sometimes I'll click on the thumbnail for more detail. Sometimes I'll even leave a comment. The ones that catch my eye most these days are stranded color work in knitting and tapestry crochet.

The "Ughs" are almost as fascinating. Why have these particular projects ended up in that category? Sometimes it's obvious, but sometimes I think "Hey, I kind of like that! Why is that an "ugh"?"

Explanations from the posters (both pro and con) range from extensive to non-existent.

Edited to add: the "ughs" are projects people have posted themselves and with the least happy of the smiley faces. No one is passing judgement on another persons work here........

The problems with knitting from stash (well, my stash, anyway):

1) My stash at this point consists largely of odd balls, sock yarn and that leftover pile of eyelash. If I want to knit anything larger than a hat I need to either buy more yarn or start getting really creative about yarn combinations. Creative is good. The fugly potential is daunting.

2) My oddballs are disorganized. This is an understatement. An extreme understatement.

3) My oddballs rarely contain the color(s) I want, in the weight I want, with the specific fiber characteristics I want, when I want them.

Possible morals to this story:

1) Only buy yarn with a specific project in mind. (Yeah, right, like that's going to happen).

2) Buy enough damn yarn at once to complete a sweater/shawl/other largish project. Buy a little extra just in case I'm off on my yardage calculations. Deal with the inevitable left over odd balls at a later date.

3) Win the lottery and buy a yarn store, so I can can have what I want on hand and maybe sell the leftover odd balls. (Why does this not sound like a workable business model?)

4) Sell the house, pack up and move next door to a yarn store so I can just run over and get what I need when I need it.

I think #4 has the most potential.

..........

Just so this post doesn't remain entirely pictureless:

This is the palm side of a mitten prototype. I'm not showing the front yet, because it's going to be a surprise. Well looky here, it's stranded color work! And it's fingering weight yarn from the stash! And it's going to be a little too small for me because it needs to be worked in sportweight, but annoyingly, I only have one color of sportweight wool in the stash and between the holidays and the snow I just haven't driven the 30 miles to the nearest LYS. But that's OK, really, because it's a first draft, and I need the practice on getting my tension even on the color work, and there is bound to be someone it will fit...

Befuddled

One of these things is not like the others (click on pic if you need to embiggen)...

Lovely as they are, holidays leave me feeling somewhat disjointed and missing my bearings. What day of the week is it, and am I supposed to be doing something, like going to work? Add lots of snow on top of that, and a husband who is home during the day and I'm pretty totally confused. Just this evening I was sitting in front of the TV waiting for the Saturday "Brit Coms", when I belatedly realized that it's Friday.

We had a nice Christmas. Mom and Dearest Daughter arrived early in the evening on the 24th and stayed until mid-day on the 26th. It was mostly low key, as we like, interspersed with some more boisterous jollity when we went next door to the Brother-in-Law's for dinner on the 25th. My Anglophile Mr. S made Christmas Pudding, as has been his custom for several years. This year he added Christmas Crackers to his repertoire, which were a hit. We all put on our tissue paper crowns, read aloud the corny jokes and enthusiastically employed our noisemakers as Mr. S set the pudding aflame.

One of my loveliest gifts came from sister A-Pazoo. These are earrings crocheted with silver wire. The artist, Maria Rudnick, is a silversmith and fiber artist, and a friend of Sister A.

Another most cherished gift came from Dearest Daughter.

This is a skein of handspun hand dyed Navajo 3 ply Falkland wool, worsted-aran weight (188 yds). She bought it at the High Noon Saloon Holiday Craftacular (next year I have to get there). It's absolutely lovely, and I'm needing ideas for something really special to make out of it. Something about the yarn says "cables" to me right now, though rationally I'm not sure the variegation would suit cables....

A Holiday Wish

The world is feverishly working to build the things of war,
The world is preparing destruction of a kind unknown before.
I hear much cursing of enemies, and arguments increase,
But oh, the world is longing, is yearning,
Is praying for peace--for peace!
Peace Pilgrim

Our lovely gentle hearted friend Carol is member of the Self-Realization Fellowship. Every year she sends us their beautiful engagement calendar. It's filled with stunning color photographs of natural scenes or animals, each one captioned with a quotation from Paramahansa Yagananda. Every page is a reminder of the beauty and value of the world we inhabit. I love just turning the pages and savoring and reflecting; and Mr S has saved many of the photos to use as starting points for writing projects with his sixth graders.



This year Carol included a wall calendar, too, the 2008 "Cat Lovers Against the Bomb Wall Calendar" from Nebraskans for Peace , and that is where the Peace Pilgrim quotation came from. Peace Pilgrim was a remarkable woman. Many years ago I had the privilege of hearing her speak, but to be honest, I hadn't thought of her in a long time. I was glad to be reminded.

So my holiday wish for myself and the world is hers and also that of St. Francis.

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

To a number of people who found my blog thru a search engine,

I apologize, I really, really do. Because what you're looking for? It isn't here.

I have no "Latvian sauerkraut recipe" (although I sort of wish I did, and if you find a good one, come back and let me know). Heck, I don't even have any Latvian mittens, because the pair I started so long ago never got any bigger than three inches of cuff. Not that I've given up, I haven't frogged (yet).

Whoever was looking for a "keep Christ in Christmas" label (sic) pin" may have been more irritated than disappointed. Oh well.

I hope that the person searching for a "Jack Frost Knitting Book" found it. I like vintage patterns, too. I do have one from that series.

It appears that in 1946 there was a demand for two needle mittens patterns, and also for children's sweaters knit in fingering at 7 - 7 1/2 sts per inch.

I was just amused by the "weird colors like periwinkle" search term. Who was looking for that, and why? And why did they consider periwinkle to be a weird color? I like it.

On the other hand, there are more people than I would have expected looking for patterns for soap sacks. And that I do have, though whether it was satisfactory or not I have no way of knowing.

****************************

On a completely different note, I finally got a picture that comes close to the "Sugarplum" colorway. Did someone say something about "natural light"?

OK what the heck is Elite?

Elann has a yarn in their newsletter with a fiber content of "85 % Viscose Rayon/15% Elite". I know what Rayon is, but Elite??? What is is made of? How does it behave? Why is it there? Does it contribute to the "fabulous elasticity" of the yarn? Does that mean it's elastic? Then why not just say so? Jeesh! First Draylon and now this. How's a girl supposed to know what her yarn is made of?

Well enough of the mumble, mumble, grump, grump. I know that this fiber is nice wool and nothing but wool.



The color still isn't right. This picture seems to have a greenish tinge. Oh well, maybe you just had to be there. Take my word for it, the color is nicer than the picture looks.

********************
Almost every Thursday evening for the last 5-6 years, my friends Lu and Lavonne and I have gotten together to knit (and gossip). This time of year we exchange small gifts, and I usually try to find something knitterly. This year I found two of these litte pins at The Sow's Ear.





So cute! And they are handmade by a woman in Belmont, so I was buying locally. Which reminds me that I haven't had any of the really good Belmont Brie in a while..... Shopping for holiday groceries tomorrow, must buy Brie.

************************************
I've decided it's time to finish off the Christmas Meme once and for all. (it's gone on long enough.)

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Christmas morning? Both (it's a long story...)

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Total commercialization of the season, that and the whole "Keep Christ in Christmas" thing (and the way the two seem to be intertwined). I could go on about that in about eight different ways, but I won't.

23. Do you decorate your tree in any specific theme or color? Completely eclectic.

24. What do/did you leave for Santa? Cookies. The cats would get at milk long before Santa had a chance. Well they probably would get at the cookies, too. It's been a while since we left anything..... There was at least one year when Santa had a really nice single malt Scotch, but he helped himself to that.

Have I Got a Great Sis, or What?

This morning, my sister emailed me the WSJ article about Sock Wars, great in itself, but then she also noted that it mentioned Ravelry.
"Are you in Ravelry?????"
"No, but I read about it in the knit blogs, and it sounds fun."
"You read knit blogs??????"
My sister makes beautiful jewelry, paints on silk, has sewn entire bedroom's worth of soft furnishings, painted murals on her son's wall and single-handedly installed a new glass shower door. But as far as I knew she had just about figured out how to cast on and do the knit stitch.
"Well some, mostly yours and a few others. I'm particularly enjoying Franklin and Dolores."
Thanks, A-Pazoo, you made my day. Maybe we can actually get those Potholder Wars going.... (though I may be surprised, one of these days, to hear that you have just finished your first lace shawl.)
Oh and about Ms K's present? Sorry about the beer cozy. The book has lots of simple projects, most of them age appropriate. Maybe she can make her Dad a birthday present....... And about your young Mr S's present? My Mr S swore he's old enough to handle it. No peeking now!

****************************************

Yarny goodness in yesterday's mail. This is some handpainted wool from Rachel-Marie at knittydirtygirl The skein on the left is worsted, the skein on the right is her handspun thick-and-thin, both in the colorway "Sugarplum" The photo color doesn't do it justice, as the darker shade is actually almost chocolate brown, and what looks pink here is richer and closer to red.



Since I've had mittens on the mind lately, you can guess what this will be.

****************************************
Ay Yay, are we really so close to Christmas? Well here's the meme installment.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay at home. If Mom's not visiting one of the sibs, she joins us. And Mr. S's brother is right next door - so we do travel that far.


19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Yup, and so can you, I bet. Go on, I dare you.