Another knitty get-together

Last night I had a great time hooking up with Shetha down at Abundant Yarn and Dyeworks. You all might know Shetha as the designer of the awesome Alien Illusion Scarf from the first Stitch N' Bitch book. She also has her own Knitty Gritty episode and designed one of the inaugural Knitty patterns. I was totally flattered when she asked my advice as to what bind-off to use for the toe-up socks she just made. I of course recommended EZ's sewn bind-off, which I just used with such success for my Sockapaloooza socks. Anyway, it was really fun to meet and KIP with her. She also showed me a bunch of spreadsheets that she uses to design with, and I'm definitely going to have to rig some up for myself. I still do everything with a plain old-fashioned calculator.

I got a nice e-mail from Tara, editor of Spun, today telling me how much everyone is loving Cleo! Can you see me giggling like a little girl? She also asked for a correction on row 9 of the written directions. It is missing the last few stitches, so if you're working from the written directions, you should substitute this for row 9: k3 p3 k4 p5 TB4 TF4 p4 TB4 TF4 p5 k4 p3 k3. The chart is correct (but the chart has different row numbers, so this is actually row 13 on the chart - don't look at row 9 on the chart and substitute it for row 9 of the written directions...).

I also finally got the Mag Knits June design photographed and sent off. It gave me fits getting the sizing correct (there's bizarro shaping in the midst of a lace pattern and some short rows thrown in, just for fun), but I really think it turned out nice. I just wish I was a little more photogenic - I hate modeling!

I'm still in yarn shock from the weekend, but I don't want to write another long post with no pictures. So I took a little camera tour of the house today. Here is what Bill has to put up with around here.

My Blue Moon stash has come back out of the yarn closet.



I'm going to meet with them again soon, so I'm swatching like crazy. First I had to wind up a bunch of balls.



Sydney likes to help, and I really want to let her since I love her enthusiasm for yarn, but she has a tendency to get the swift going REALLY fast and then stopping the ball winder so the yarn goes winding around the bottom of the swift and has to be untangled. Even when she does a good job of winding continuously, she's less than smooth and the ball she winds is all floopy. I'll let her wind my smooth, worsted-weight wool but draw the line at the lace weight mohair or the raw silk...

Here is my workspace on the futon, squarely in front of the television.



I've got my remote, the phone, and EZ's Knitting Workshop (which is peeking out there from under the pillow). What else could I possibly need, other than a little peace and quiet? "I'll be quiet." "I'll be peace!" Who knows what movie that line's from? The purple swatch is for my upcoming Y2Knit design (which is coming along much more easily than the Mag Knits June design, thank goodness!), and the yarn is Blue Moon Bambu. I absolutely adore this yarn. It is smooth, cool, light - just a delight to work with. The only complaint I have is that it doesn't work well with the Addis. Slippery yarn plus slippery needles equals Chrissy knitting with her shoulders hunched and teeth gritted. I really need to switch to bamboo to knit the Bambu!

That's about all the news for today. I'll leave you with a pic of the boy with his new Beatle 'do. This is what happens when you try to cut the hair of a toddler who is determined to get his hands on those scissors. Could he be any cuter?