Cleaning Up My Act

As you saw in my previous post, I cleared off the KNITTING TABLE OF DOOM!!

I present to you, my dining room table:

No, I didn't just sweep everything off the table onto the floor. I did go through it and organized all my knitting stuff. My sister moved to a smaller place which didn't have room for this:

The dogs were very interested:

So, I gathered up all my knitting stuff - except for my stash ('cause it won't fit in there), organized it and ta da:

Awesome, no? The best part, if things get disorganized again:

Morganna says, "Great Momma, now come cuddle on the couch."

To Block or Not To Block -- That's One of the Questions

My Clapotis is off the needles. It has been off the needles for awhile but I had to clear off my KNITTING TABLE of DOOOOOM, so I could spread it out and take some pictures. I used Brooks Farm Solana (Ravelry) and did 8 straight sections. I have a little leftover ... I need to weigh it so I can see if I could've gotten another straight section.

Isn't it beautiful? But do you see the mistakes? Let's look a little closer.

How about little closer?

Yup -- I forgot to drop a stitch.

Twice.

Any suggestions on how I can fix this? I didn't notice until I had bound off all the stitches.

I know that most folks aren't blocking their Clapotis, but I think that it would look a little better if I get rid of the serious curling on the corners. Any thoughts?

New PodCast

No -- it isn't by me. (I can barely keep up with this blog, you think I'm going to take on a podcast??? Please, I'm still being thwarted by the KNITTING TABLE OF DOOOOOMMMMMMMM )

etsy Friday - YarnCon Edition

Last Saturday, thanks to the amazing Sherpa skills of Blooangl, I was able to attend YarnCon.  (I'm such a total suburbanite, that my travels to downtown Chicago usually consist of a train and then "Taxi!")

I purchased a few items and interestingly from vendors who are also on etsy.  All except one --

Pattern Tamers

These are neat ribbon covered magnets that are used to keep your place in your pattern, your book open, despite the efforts of small children and animals to knock your ruler off the page, rip off your post-it note and dragging the pattern onto the floor.    I've used the largest one to keep track of the my working row on the mystery shawl.  I've been very impressed that it hasn't moved.  I wish there was an easy way to move up or down a row, but that could be part of my lack of co-ordination and would probably render the pattern tamer as useless as post-its.  I also like the weight of them as they keep the paper from floating away.  I wish she had a web site or etsy shop, but only an email account.  If you're interested, leave me a comment or email me at errs at yahoo dot com. 

I got to meet Shannon Okey of knitGrrl fame...as well as purchase some of her lovely hand-dyed lace yarn: 

You can get some too at StitchCleveland, her wonderful etsy shop.

At My Small Wonders, I  found some sock yarn in lovely "water" colors.  I was thrilled to find that the designer & I were thinking the same way:

Lagoon

Sunlit Waves

I think they are going to be either a Chevron scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts (Ravelry link) or a Jaywalker Scarf (Ravelry link).

The best part was getting to meet Jen of Piddleloop! (Hey look, I'm famous!)  I think she got the bulk of my money as I picked up another project bag set,

and a small notions pouch, since my iPod lives in the other one I had..

and a larger pouch for all the stuff I seem to need no matter what I'm knitting...

I looked by the only skull designs I could find where with the scissors, not the knitting needles, and you've got to love the cool green/blue color...

But then Jen surprised me -- there was 1 more skull knitting project bag!!! Hurray!!!

Did I mention that they match my Pattern Tamers?

 

Blogging without Obligation

I hate to say it, but I'm totally overwhelmed.  I've got so much going on with the dogs, organizations and relationships because of the dogs, all the projects on my needles, projects at work, and stuff to do on the house.  Not to mention wanting to keep up with this blog. 

Since I don't want this to turn into a words only post, I looked around to find a graphical representation of chaos that is my life.  I present to you, dear readers, THE KNITTING TABLE OF DOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!

 

Underneath all of the stuff is my dining room table.  You can see my briefcase, magazines I want to read, the lining of my jacket, my blocking board, some recent stash enhancements.  A Piddleloop bag with a knitting project, the towels I use for blotting, and the drink I couldn't find two days ago. 

Faced with all this chaos, I did what any sane person would do.  I surfed the net and found my salvation.

I stumbled upon this post, which nicely summed up the way I'm feeling.  So, I have a new philosophy:

Ahh -- one thing back under my control.

etsy Friday

I don't have any new purchases to share with you. I'm saving my money for YarnCon tomorrow. But that isn't keeping me from looking at etsy stuff. :D

I forgot where I read about this, but there's a new Fiber Friday Promotion on etsy. You can either search for items tagged or look for the promotion thread in the etsy Forums.

I don't spin, but the items in Castle Fiber's shop have me seriously considering taking up spinning. Just look at this sampler pack - how can anybody resist.

There Will Be a Slight Delay

I'm still working on the pictures I took at the USEC Meeting -- both of dogs and of my travel knitting. I'll have a full synposis in a few days because I'm a little distracted right now. The Husband found himself in the dog house again and instead of flowers, I got this in green. Here's a picture to tide you over.