Knitguy

I haven’t gotten my act together enough to take pictures of my knitting however, I’ve been very busy spinning.

8 ounces and 747.5 yards of fingering weight 2-ply yarn from the superwash merino that I go from Crown Mountain Farms in the Hotel California colorway (with a quarter for scale). It will be used for what else, but socks. Probably the Houdini socks that are on Twist Collective.

Around 4 ounces of the 66.7/33.3 shetland tencel blend (the shininess as well as the white specks are from the tencel) that I bought from Sporfarm at Black Sheep Gathering.

This just got finished last night. Its also from Sporfarm (note to self, if ever start a farm, don’t put “spor” in the name, it looks too much like “spore”). It’s a bit heavier than the black which is a tad bit consurning because my plan was to use both the black shetland/tencel and the grey shetland to make gloves (or mittens) from the Selbuvotter book. So we’ll see, I’ll probably swatch with them when I decide to make them (sometime in the Fall probably) but I don’t know if it’ll work out. Either way, they are both really lovely yarns and they mark the close of my spinning Ravelry Olympic enteries (unless of course I decided to enter something else…could happen).

So I’m playing the procrastination game in regards to my blog right now, major progress however, has been made with my cardigan though and I have more spinning. Both need pictures taken though - hopefully that’ll happen tonight or tomorrow morning. That being said - a friend of mine found a meme on the Very Good Taste blog that looks fun…

Here’s what I want you to do:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Italicize all of the items you want to try. (My little addition)

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake (if I’ve had all of those does it count as 3?)
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

47 out of 100 isn’t too bad, and really I think the main reason I haven’t had all of them is that I haven’t had a chance to have them. Actually no, looking at the list now, some things I really have no desire to have - like say road kill or louche absinthe. And then other things I know I won’t like, cognac with a fat cigar orMcDonald’s Big Mac Meal. However, if someone wants to take me out to have a tasting menu at a three Michelin star restaurant, be my guest.

So now that the first few days of the Ravelry Olympics are over, I’ve made pretty good progress (that’s what happens when you neglect most everything else).

Above is the Rambouillet that I got from Lisa in exchange for short-row lessons. It ended up being about 8 ounches. I really really love it, the color looks really good on me, but I’m not too excited about the spinning. Normally I like to spin evenly and this just wasn’t wanting to do that. That being said I’m still excited about using it - I think its going to become this scarf slightly modified to account for the difference in weight between my yarn and Dream in Color: Classy. This yarn is 250 yards and around 7 wpi.

This was my project for today (or at least the one that took up most of the day), half of the CMF superwash merino fiber. In total there 8 ounces and that is probably around 3 on the bobbin. I’ll spin the next four over the next few days or so. I also finished the increases on the second sleeve Oregon Cardigan this morning before I began spinning but I don’t have any new pictures of that one yet

Today, August 8th, 2008, is of course the start of the 2008 Beijing Olympics (well ok the soccer prelims started two days ago - you can watch them on NBC’s website if you are in the US) but its also the start of the Ravelry Olympics, also known as the Ravelympics.

For those of you on Ravlery click here for info, but for everyone who isn’t, the concept of the Ravelympics is to knit/crochet/spin projects of your choice between the time of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics. You are the one who dictates what and how much you knit, the important thing is (for most of the projects) to start no sooner than the start of the Olympics and to try and finish it by the time the Olympics comes to a close. The one exception to the rule is for “works in progress” (aka “WIP”s). The people who came up with the rules for the Ravelympics also came up with categories and the one pertaining to WIPs states that you shouldn’t choose a project that you’ve worked on since the 12th of June. That being said I’m throwing that rule to the wind because a. in my mind, until my project is finished, it will always be a WIP and b. there are no rules in knitting.

So what am I knitting and spinning for the Ravelympics? Well…

• I’m going to finish up Avast finally. It needs to be blocked and a zipper needs to be bought and sewn in.
• I should finish the Oregon Cardigan
• I plan on spinning yarn for one or two pairs of mittens from the Selbuvotter book from the Shetland I bought at Black Sheep (grey and black)
• I’ll spin up the Rambouillet that a friend of mine traded for lessons on how to knit short rows
• And then I’m also going to try and spin up the 8oz of superwash merino that I bought from Crown Mt. Farms in the Hotel California colorway

I also, just for kicks, listed my Ziggy socks but I seriously doubt those will get finihed.

Oh, wondering about the Rambouillet? Well, I’m not all quite sure how many grams I have of it but I was given an entire grocery bag (the plastic kind) full which I finished carding yesterday evening. I ended up geting 60 rolags out of it.

Those are a fraction of the 60 that are distributed evenly between a basket and a box and sitting waiting to be spun. They were hand dyed by the friend who gave them to me in lock form and they range from a light, bright green, to a dark brownish, color. Ocasionally some red would also make an apperence.

My blog got an award the other day!

The person who writes NeedleFingers awarded this to me, along with lovely people like Neuroknitter and Abby (which were two people I would have awarded it to). So, onto the rules and then my choices:

1) Show the award. Link back to the blog that gave you the award.

2) Pick 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award because of creativity, design, interesting material, and contributions to the blogger community, no matter of language, and link to them.

3) Leave comments on the blogs to let them know you’ve given them an award.

4) Show the link to the Arte y Pico blog , so everyone will know the origin of this award.

5) Show these rules.

1. Ask the Bellwether - for both her amazingly infomrative posts along with the lovely fiber she sells.

2. Brooklyn Tweed - he’s a no brainer for this one. Amazing designs, amazing pictures, and he’s from the Northwest.

3. Tigers & Strawberries - one of my favorite food blogs, every recipe she’s posted that I’ve tried has been amazing, and she has the most adorible redheaded little one I’ve ever seen.

4. Jaden’s Steamy Kitchen - for the exact same reasons as Tigers & Strawberries except Jaden’s kids don’t have red hair.

5. Bunrab - Not only does she post almost every single day, she gives me just one more reason to want to visit San Francisco again (the food)

And with that - I’m off for the afternoon. I’ll post again soon (tonight or tomorrow hopefully but we all know about how I don’t exactly live up to posting perdictions) about spinning related things. (Go to my flickr account for a preview)

Reasons why I love the rain

And because I’m not Neuroknitter and didn’t feel like puting my knitting amongst the flowers (if I did it would envelop them and what’s the point in that)…

I got my new camera today! It’s a Nikon D40x and I am currently in love with it - and it was on clearance at Pro Photo Supply (so that price you see on Cnet - not what I payed for it ). I haven’t got a whole lot of time to play with it yet as I’ve only had it for four hours and two of those four hours were spent having coffee and another one of those hours was spent charging the batteries, but I have had a chance to take a few pictures.

The first photo is what I spun from ~3.5 ounces of roving that I bought from the Bellwether - two ply somewhere DK weight, and the second is 80 grams of merino that I dyed and spun 3 ply fingering weight.

So I sadly don’t have much access to a camera right now (well that’s not totally true, I could use my old one but I need to get new batteries for it) so I don’t have any new pictures today.

In other news, it turns out that I like spinning much more than knitting. It’s just about all I’ve been doing as of late and as I type this two skeins are soaking. One is 204 yards of fingering from 80 grams of the merino I dyed and the other is around 3 ounces of the Crosspatch Creations Triple Play Roving I bought from The Bellwether at black sheep. I also bought two 8 ounce bumps of hand dyed superwash merino from Crown Mt. Farms during their July sale which are - amazing, and then also 4 oz of camel down from Woodland Woolworks.

That being said I am also working on the Oregon Cardigan which is coming along slower than expected thanks to the destraction of spinning but such is life. I’ll probably (hopefully) be finishing the first sleeve today. My goal is to finish the entire cardigan for the Ravelry Olympics and then I’m also spinning some Shetland for mittens out of the Selbuvotter book and probably 8 ounces of superwash merino that I bought from Crown Mt. Farms.

I haven’t blogged lately because my mom has commandeered the digital camera but I have been spinning for the Tour de Fleece I got the singles finished yesterday and finished plying them this afternoon.

The darkest ply is the black alpaca that I got from black sheep, the brown just lighter than that is merino, and the lightest ply is fawn colored alpaca top that I got from Woodland Woolworks when I went over there earlier this summer.

Also - Kraftie (as well as the Lime and Violet podcast) informed me that Crown Mountain Farms is having a July sale right now on some of the natural fibers they sell. So I got the 8.5 oz of the superwash merino in the Hotel California colorway and another 8.5 ounces in the Knockin On Heavens Door colorway. I also remembered that I had $8 of “craft cash” from Woodland Woolworks and got 4oz of camel down. I see good mail days in my future.

That is what I spun from the Sheep 2 Shoe kit that I bought at BSG. Its my first ever cabled yarn and i’m really, realy happy with it.

I’m also spinning what will be a worsted weight 3 ply alpaca/merino blend for this year’s Tour de Fleece. 1 ply of the alpaca locks I bought from BSG, one of fawn colored alpaca I got from Woodland Woolworks a bit ago, and then a ply of the dark brown merino I got when I was in Europe.

Also - marionberries are in season! We somehow didn’t get a chance to get any last year so my mom picked up two pints from one of th road side stands near my house yesterday and will be getting more this weekend. They’re a little tart because they’re the first of the season so I made a little pie out of a pint of them this afternoon.

It was, very very tasty. I’m tempted to make another one right now.