earth day swap 2009

Hey,

Welcome back. I’m going to start accepting sign-ups for the Earth Day Yarn Swap 2009 pretty soon. I’ve gotten a bit more organized this year and it’s all happening through Ravelry through the Earth Day Yarn Swap group! Sign-ups are open beginning February 1st and close on March 21st. I’ve got a great online form for people to fill out which should really help me out.

Most of you who signed up last year are welcome back. About 95% really. Unfortunately there were a couple of borderline cases where I just put out too much personal energy to solve and don’t feel like coping again this year or your situation required a swap angel and/or my own personal intervention. My perogative I’m afraid. If you think you might be one of the borderline cases you can e-mail me to see if you are going to be okay. If you plain old ditched, you can forget it. This swap got a lot bigger last year and I think it will again this year. Forgive me for knowing my own limits.

The great news is that there are so many more exciting yarns on the market claiming to be eco-friendly. We’ll be debating the environmental merits of the newer fibers, talking about buying locally and offering each other encouragement for reducing our impacts on the planet.

Hope you join us.

-Moirae

so freaking cute

As I mentioned before, I do knit. I’ve just not been taking a whole lot of pictures.

If you are BluEyedPenny on Ravelry in the Holiday Swap, no peeking!

earth day yarn swap

I was gifted some amazing stuff in the Earth Day Yarn Swap. Unfortunately, I’ve been swamped and haven’t had time to post about it! The photographs have been on flickr since April 23rd. I haven’t posted the Yarn Harlot event stuff either, if that gives you an idea. I just got back from a conference in Las Vegas and boy do I have some blogging to catch up on. I was supposed to be back at 1AM but got in instead at 10AM due to a flight cancellation. So I got 5 hrs of sleep and then got up to head to Portland. Finally!

Anyway, Owlette (Maria) sent me a great package from Canada for Earth Day. It included lovely yarn from Indigo Moon, dried pineapple (which I broke my diet to eat and it was good…), beeswax candles, and a pen and mechanic pencil set made from corn, soap nuts and Denman Island chocolate! The chocolate is all gone of course and now I’m going to have to figure out how to get more. The mint was my favorite, but I think I ate the espresso flavored one pretty quickly too. I don’t own nearly enough solid sock yarn and I’m totally into the green Tanis Fiber Arts yarn she sent me. (I love the blue-purple too.) The Indigo Moon yarn was bought from Trish Moon, a spinner and weaver from Gabriola Island off Vancouver Island. She uses natural dyes and was the only locally available yarn. It’s Canadian sourced wool too. Beat that! The goodies were local too.

Earth Day yarn swap

I have been knitting lately. I just haven’t been blogging. I’ve been spending a lot of my blogging time assigning partners to people for the Earth Day Yarn Swap. It’s all done now thank goodness. It was a lot of work. I’m pretty excited about this year’s turnout – just under 60 people. Now I get to focus on my partner!

Earth Day Yarn Swap 2008

I’m setting up for the (r). It’s a lot easier to set it up through Ravelry, so if you don’t have an account, sign up now! I bet you’ll get in before the swap sign-up deadline, which is a month or two away.

You will need a Ravelry account.

This is a swap for eco-friendly fibers. This would include: organic yarns, yarns made from more renewable resources such as bamboo, soy (byproducts) or corn (byproducts). In addition to the many fibers being produced by the Southwest Trading Company, the Vermont Organic Fiber Company, Blue Sky Alpacas, Trekking (ProNatura) and even Classic Elite produce more environmentally friendly yarns. Lots of Indie Dyers are using the new fibers too. Let’s influence the market for environmentally friendly yarns.

1. Sign up for the swap by March 17th and fill out the questionnaire (to be posted on my blog and to the Ravelry questionnaire thread by February 28).
2. Fill out the questionnaire and to the questionnaire thread by March 17th!
3. This is a secret swap!
4. If you do withdraw, please please let me know so I can try to get everyone matched up. Please don’t drop out without contacting me (MoiraeKnitting at gmail dot com).
5. Buy locally if you can.
6. Send out swap packages by April 7th – the idea is to get your package to your partner by Earth Day in the US (April 22nd).
7. Post about your swaps and enjoy your new fibers.
8. I’m sorry this is for North America based knitters only, because it’s not very eco-friendly to send yarn half way around the world. (It’s bad enough to mail it at all.)

Rules: 1. Dropping out without letting anyone know will earn you bad karma. 2. The suggested spending limit is $35, not including shipping. 3. Have fun!

Signing Up (Added 01/01/2008)

To sign up, please email me (moiraeknitting at gmail dot com.) Do NOT send me a message on Ravelry. Also drop a message on the Ravelry sign-up thread.

I need: Your Name, Your Ravelry Name, Your Blog Name, Your Address and Your Email Address. Otherwise you will not be signed up.

r=ravelry link

Finished objects and a knitting needle recovery program

Here is the Baby Baseball Tee from Knit 2 Together with the buttons actually sewn on (as opposed to sitting on the sweater pretending to be sewn on).

Pattern: Baby Baseball Tee
Pattern Source: Knit 2 Together
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Truffle and Nymph
Yarn Source: Digs in Northfield, MN
For: An unknown baby. It was going to be for a baby my friends’ adopted, but then I realized I didn’t have the faintest idea what size baby it would be. I made them a bigger sweater that won’t fit him for a year or two.

And here is the hat I promised my friend Liz. I said she probably wouldn’t see it until November.

Pattern: Kim’s Basic Rolled Brim Hat
Pattern Source: Last-Minute Knitted Gifts
Yarn: Malabrigo
Yarn Source: Nestucca Bay Yarns in Lincoln City, OR
Needles: Size 8 METAL DPNs. That was a really loud hat to knit! I have needles belonging to three people and I only have one set of size 8 dpns or circular needles (i.e., I own no Size 8 Circular needles). What is that, Stephanie’s Law?

twisted stich gauntlets and Monkey Swap Three

I really want to make the Twisted Stitch Gauntlets from Interweave Holiday Knits 2007. Probably just the thing for the two skeins of Louet Gems Merino that I’ve obtained from Ben Franklin. That is, if I don’t save them up for making the Katharine Hepburn sweater from Lace Style.

My other favorite project from that issue are the Teddy Bear and the Fireside Stocking.
I could definitely see the Fireside Stocking in a kind of pink, red, cream and green colorway. Do you think that’s too weird for snowflakes?

I’m also making some headway on my monkey socks for Monkey Swap Three. I knit the most of the entire foot on Monday and Wednesday nights and am just throwing in one more repeat before I get down to the toe. I’m using smaller needles for the toes and the heels in the hopes that they will wear well. Who knows why this particular heel took me four tries; this is my fourth pair of monkeys! My swap partner knows I’m a bit behind again, so all is okay. She’s behind too. (I’m in a direct exchange with the hostess in fact.) It’s going to be great. I can’t stop myself picking up additional monkey items to throw into the package.

I still want to know how it is my life went from -60 to 100 in the space of a month. It’s true that my job is very intense but it’s quite a change from unemployment and under employment. Now I can’t stop long enough around the trainings and the extensive commuting to knit a pair of socks? It’s not so bad.

now returning to our regularly scheduled program

I may have gone a little overboard during my vacation. Honestly, I didn’t think there was that much shopping or knitting going on, but I guess I overcompensated in the last few days of my trip.

Now that my friend has gone home to New York, I can catch up on the blog.

Overall my vacation was pretty awesome. I’ll be posting about it here and there for a few days to come. On the downside, I dropped my engagement ring somewhere at the Oregon Sand Dunes Recreation Area in Reedsport. It’s not an expensive ring, but it does have a lot of sentimental value. I had a brainstorm this morning and I’m working with some folks who perform metal detecting services to see if maybe they can turn it up. What a place to drop your ring!

While I was gone I finished my third pair of Monkey Socks. These are for my Sockapalooza 4 partner, who is excitedly anticipating their arrival. I’m also sending her a few other goodies, but I’ve got to go to pick up a few more things to make the package complete.

Sockapalooza 4

My sock package arrived from my Secret Pal, Regenia, and what a package it is!

The Reptilian Lace socks were knit in Claudia’s Hand paint in some gorgeous shades of green and tan, aka “Eat Your Veggies”. They are beautiful and the fit is great! Also included in the package were several yummy bonuses including Dr. Seus’ Sour Suckers, seasoning and recipes from the Blue Plum Festival, a card of the old downtown area, coffee and tea, a cute tin for notions and some wonderful hand-spun from Gatlinburg, TN!

Unfortunately my camera card appears to be dead and it won’t hold a photo. I stole one from Regenia though so you can at least see the socks if not the wonderful package. I’ll have to get a new one before leaving for Seattle tomorrow. I’ll get a photo in here eventually. Problem solved. I love the green theme.

The word on the socks I’m making is that they are going well and that I’m well into the second sock. Although, I must admit I lost a few minutes on the toe in the first sock when someone decided to take it under the guest futon! Since I’m not doing the driving, I should be done by Tuesday and I’ll be able to mail them out! Hooray! I’ll be hunting around Seattle for a choice goodie or something to include.

The next page contains a Loopy Ewe sock club spoiler. So if you haven’t got your yarn for the Fall yet, don’t look!

she sells yarn by the seashore

I’m still catching up on my blogging. Just a quick word to my No Sheep for You swap pal in Virginia though. Thank you so much for the Tofutsies! I know it has a little wool in it, but I wanted it anyway, so it’s great to have it. It’s really pretty and I can’t wait to try it (although my queue is huge)! If you have a blog, will you drop me a note with the link, so I can put it here?

In my two weeks in Oregon, I’ve been to three yarn shops in three cities. None of them we’re in Salem. No, it’s not the beginning of a logic problem. The first was in Portland. During the Harry Potter wait, I realized I’d left my size 1 needle behind in the car, but I knew that Knit Purl was nearby, so I used the needles as an excuse to check out the shop. I really liked the variety of yarns they carried. There were several things there that I’d never seen all in one shop, or I’d only seen online, as well as some unique items.

good friends give good yarn

Good friends give yarn when saying goodbye. Not that anyone who didn’t give me yarn isn’t a good friend. I’m just thankful to Devin and Rebecca for their wonderful surprises. Last Thursday night, I went out with some of the Knittin’ Kittens at Lyle’s and Devin gave me some very beautiful handspun! On Friday, I went to my last real knitting night at Knitter’s Palette and Rebecca gifted me with some Noro for my very own future Lizard Ridge. Now that I’ve got 5 skeins and a bunch of ends, I’m going to have to start a little pile of squares…Thanks again guys!

There’s been some problem with post office and the Hurricane Swap. I was given the wrong zip code and never thought to check . And of course it’s the first time I didn’t send the package registered mail. I’ve decided that if the package doesn’t turn up at either of our houses by Thursday that I am going to put together a package (this time insured and registered mail)! It will be a good one, so I’m almost hoping it got lost. But I don’t really want all that work to go to waste. (Thursday is the day my mail gets stopped here in Minnesota. If it bounces after that then it won’t turn up until August if at all and that’s crazy.)

no sheep for you

My No Sheep for You swap package arrived on Monday. It’s great! I got some Vicki Howell Craft and some Hemp for Knitting yarn. The greens are lovely! I’m not sure what I’m going to knit yet, although the bag pattern my secret pal included looks intriguing.

Thank you Secret Pal! Please contact me for my new address in Salem. I’m moving July 14th!

on knitting socks for others

I’m in a couple sock swaps this year. And for the first time, I’m picking out the sock patterns that I’m knitting for someone else. It’s hard to choose a pattern for someone else and to figure out the negative ease for their foot.

I made a huge mistake with the Hurricane Swap party, attempting to knit a really cool pattern. I thought, hey, it’s only one sock, how hard could it be? After a while, I realized that a) it looked terrible in the yarn I’d gotten for my swap partner and b) that the pattern wasn’t a great choice when you don’t really have the other person’s foot at hand,, so to speak. Now I’m trying to pick out something stretchy for my Sockapalooza pal. I’ve looked in her Ravelry queue and I have some ideas. The yarn is so so lovely, I’ve been dying to get my hands on it ever since it arrived from Etsy! Her shop (which I won’t reveal, because I think the yarn name is a giveaway) is soft and lovely.

The yarn I chose has very short stretches of each color, so I’m thinking about retrying the Falling Leaves pattern from Knitty. My main issue with my first try is that the sock was huge, even though I followed the directions and met gauge. I’d used size 0 needles. But my SP has larger feet, so that’s a thought. There are also some lovely rib patterns in Nancy Bush’s books. Devin has been making the Diagonal Cross-Rib socks by Ann Budd from Favorite Socks Gentleman’s Shooting Stocking from Vintage Knitted Socks (sorry Devin, I could have sworn it was a Nancy Bush pattern, but..) Unfortunately, Devin is a little nervous about using the digital camera. Go and poke him into showing you his beautiful knitting. The socks are to die for and I think I talked him into knitting them for himself. He usually knits for others. His socks are much nicer than the ones in the book’s photo and I’m convinced the pattern is actually wasted on solid yarn. (This part is still true.)

lazy tuesday

It’s been hot. And it’s still hot. Some news for you. I’m not moving until July 15th. My husband and I did this in an elaborate attempt to score an apartment within walking distance to Willamette and downtown Salem. It’s going to be a 9 minute walk. I’m hoping we’ll both shed a few pounds as a result.

Did I mention my interview went well? At least I think it did. I won’t find out until the 25th at any rate. In the mean time, I’m buried in applications. It really says something about the suitability of life in Oregon for us. I don’t ever remember applying for this many jobs during any other move.

I think somehow in the middle of all the traveling I’ve been doing I’ve gotten out of the blog habit and now that it’s hot, I’m feeling lazy. I’m not too lazy to knit in my air conditioned office. I’m just too lazy to take photos. Anyway, I’ve been working on my Hurricane Party sock, which is nearly three weeks late and am happy to say that I’m down near the heel. I’ll put up some photos on this entry tomorrow, but I’m determined to have an entry up now that I’m back home again.

My friends have adopted a little baby from China and I’m making him one of those Baby Baseball Tees from Knit 2 Together by Tracy Ullman and Mel Clark. I’m using Brown Sheep in baby blue and brown. I meant to use the brown as the main color and the blue as the sleeves, but I guess I got mixed up when I cast on. I’m just about to do the sleeve shaping. Again, photos tomorrow.

Someone asked me about how long I had the multi-directional scarf on and it was less than 5 minutes. It also wasn’t kind of breezy actually.

My reunion went as well as I could possibly expect. Fortunately, the drink tickets we got with our event tickets were worth some fairly heavy fruity drinks and I found the evening rather enjoyable as a result. As my husband pointed out, I was doing quite well. This is nothing my high school friends probably would understand as I think my social anxiety took a long time to fully creep up on me. Up until the time I met my husband, I was fighting it like the devil. In fact, that’s how I met him. I promised myself I would meet new people and make new friends for a couple of months in college. I ended up with Josh. Pretty good score, eh?

It was a pretty self-selecting crowd and I have to say it turned out about as well as I could have asked for except for my friend Nick not making it at all due to a personal crisis with his house. So maybe I’ll turn up for my 20. I think we got the people who don’t measure success in terms of money. Given that I went to a prestigious private high school that’s saying something. Granted, the school is still relatively down to earth. It’s all relative.

hurricane dawn

My Hurricane Swap Party swap partner, Dawn sent me an absolutely fabulous package which arrived on Saturday. I’m afraid I’ve been so swamped that I’m personally behind on my own swap package. I’m still knitting the sock! I told my giftee and she understands thank goodness. I did however buy all her goodies. Whee!

Back to thanking Dawn. She gave me a really funny hint. Ba Ba Ba. Turns out it was a Boston Red Sox themed package, since I don’t hail from a hurricane state!

There were peanuts and cracker jacks. And bubblegum. There were items from the Texas Rangers stitch-n-pitch And some nice things to listen to! There was a lovely hand-dyed red (originally Big Papi from Etsy) Horcrux sock and some kool-aid if I want to overdye the white spots (which I don’t). I’ll dye something else. I’m going to have fun knitting that up. And my favorite, I think, is the ‘I’d rather be in Fenway’ mug, but I’m also totally in love with that knitting notions bag.

Thanks again! All wonderful. Maybe I’ll go put some tea in that mug.

juggling scarves

Even when I’m under a deadline, I still make time for knitting. I went off to the Wednesday night meet up and had a good time again. I was a little late because I’d made a stop at Needleworks Unlimited to spend the last amount on my card before I got a $20 gift certificate. So I bought a pile of stuff. It’s not yarn diet breakage.

I purchased a couple of things for my No Sheep for You Pal which I can’t show you. I also made a huge mistake. The basic rule behind the No Sheep for You swap is the entire lack of wool fiber in the yarn and I picked up TOFUtsies, thinking it was mainly soysilk. Ooops. I guess I’ll bring it back. The other skein is pretty nice though and I’ll send it off over the weekend.

I guess I’m a little scarf obsessed at the moment. Not only am I working on two chevron scarves, but I started two Multi-directional scarves as well. One is in Noro Kureyon and the other in Silk Garden. But hey, I learned how to juggle scarves in college.Just not 4 at a time.

This weekend I’ll be working on my slightly overdue Hurricane Sock party project. SORRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My essays took priority.

zzzzzzz…

I’m supposed to be asleep. That is, it’s 10:32 PM and my plan departs Minneapolis-St. Paul at 6:40 AM so our alarm clock is set for 3:00 AM. I’m packed, but I have essays to write for a job I really really want, so I’ve been playing with Ravelry. It’s loads of fun. I’m an administrator now, so I’m helping to clean up patterns. My application is due next Friday. I am now, once again, the Alumni Class Vice-President, which means I lost the election again. I think that’s pretty funny. What this means is, four years from now, I will be going to reunion, working the tables and helping with whatever needs doing. I’m introducing our cluster (classes of ‘96, ‘97 and ‘98) speaker, David Orr, which is a bit of an intimidating job, but at least his CV makes it easy on me. Hey, did anyone else attend a college with it’s own disco? Oberlin has one in the student center, so I’ll be dancing to early 80’s music on Saturday. At the risk of embarrassing myself completely, I made the last minute suggestion that everyone dress early 80’s to early 80’s. This got published at the very very last minute and so I’ve had to pack an extra long-sleeved button down white shirt and I’ll have to stop for some hair spray, just-in-case.

I started a second Chevron Scarf. I frogged my RPM socks and my Mad-tini socks. I’ve come to realize that I’m just not going to wear socks made with medium-weight STR. I’m not sure how I feel about the color combinations, but I’m enjoying working on the scarf.

knitters in my backyard

I’m moving. I’ve been reluctant to say anything about it, because no one at my job knows this and I’m writing from work! My husband received a tenure track position at Willamette Unversity in Salem, Oregon and will start teaching there this fall. I’m not quite sure when we’ll be going yet, but we started packing this weekend. I would love to be there in time for Black Sheep, but I doubt I’ll be able to convince my husband of that unless there’s an apartment we have to have or if I get a job out there early. We’re going out there next week to have a look around and so I can do a little networking.

I’m definitely going to miss the warmth of the knitting community here. I got a warm welcome. People were so friendly and willing to travel with a complete stranger to see the Yarn Harlot. I met people at the knitter’s picnic and was invited to a S&B right away. I checked out what now is my LYS and where I work part time. It made what was likely to be a short term move much more fun and bearable!

christmas gifts and treats

I picked up several goodies for Christmas. My Dad gave me Cables Untangled and a gift certificate to the Knitter’s Palette. And my cousins gave me Victorian Lace Today. I’m looking forward to using both of them.

I mentioned previously that my husband gave me some Vesper for Christmas. I was allowed to pick it out but not see it until Christmas. I think I’ll have to use it in my new wall art project for Yarn Diet 2007.

Of course, I did some knitting shopping. My mom wrote me a check this year, so I didn’t get any yarn. I usually get yarn in the years where I see her BEFORE Christmas, which I forgot. Anyway, we headed off to Black Sheep Knitting, but they were closed the day after Christmas. Instead we went to Woolcott and Co. in Harvard Square. And discovered…

pirate cats, mystery object and a secret pal for the swap

There are only ten more days before I will announce Yarn Diet 2007. I was seriously considering posting a list of links on the Yarn Diet blog of yarns I totally covet. That would probably be mean, so I’ll add it to this blog. In the mean time, blog material is a little scarce (probably due to the fact that I have put another pair of socks on the needles – BFF socks by Cookie A). My cat Elmo probably would have liked Talk Like a Pirate Day. He and Josh do this all the time. I think Elmo is remarkably tolerant of this, but he doesn’t the like paparazzi.

Have you figured out what this is going to be yet? Consider this as a clue. It will be a while before the next hint, because I’m taking a break from it due to exceeding my budget already for the week. I only have to wait until next Sunday before working on it some more though.