knitting at slow speed

I am multi-tasking these days. Multi-muti-multi-multi-multi-tasking. Since I am usually a fairly monogamous knitter, things seem to be going so very very slowly. Closest to my heart, because I really want to wear it, is a lacy leafy lightweight sweater. It is in Tosh Merino Light - three skeins I scored from my lys when it changed hands.

I love it deeply.
 
It is a top down raglan and I particularly dote on the raglan increases.

I can't wait to separate for the sleeves and body, but since this one is really only for me, I have other things to do first.

I have a sagebrush infinity scarf to knit up out of Miss Babs gorgeous Yummy 2 ply in Beachglass.

A river watery shawl to knit up in beautiful Shalimar Breathless. (pics to come!)

And a lilacs scarf to knit up in Iridaceae sock yarn in one of the most beautiful colorways I've ever seen:  Irisberry.

I'm getting a lot of audiobook time in. :)

friday eye candy

I have long been a fan of Cephalopod Yarns, and I was super excited to see they had a booth at Stitches West (yes - I'm running a little behind on showing you goodies from Stitches, but bear with me)!

I was super excited to meet the incredibly sweet Sarah, the Cephalopod dye maven extraordinaire, and fondle her yarny goodness. There were so many incredible colors to choose from (I am such a sucker for great color!), but I confined myself to reason and left with three Bugga! lovelies and great plans.

Oh! how I love these colors.

So beautiful in the sun, but unfortunately my camera captured them a little lighter than in real life.

Here they are looking like themselves: Widow Dragonfly, Strawberry Crab and Ghost Moth. Exquisite.

Lucky 13

Happy Friday the 13th! Perfect day to announce the winners of the Easter Egg Hunt, wouldn't you say?

1st prize (copy of the upcoming shawl eBook subscription plus a shawl pin): Michelle - MistySnow on Ravelry

2nd prize (copy of the upcoming shawl eBook): Sally - SallyGeorgia on Ravelry

3rd prize (your choice of single free Romi pattern): Shelley (I will email you since I wasn't sure you'd want your last name posted!)

Congratulations ladies! It will be a couple of months before you get your eBook subscriptions, but I promise I won't forget! Thank you ALL for playing! I had an absolute blast and I'm so happy to know that you all enjoyed the fun!

In other news, things are getting into more of a routine here. The boys are really enjoying the swim team, but they haven't started back to school yet. Who knew it would be so difficult and time consuming to get them transferred from California Virtual Academy to Nevada Virtual Academy? We thought it would be so much simpler to have them finish out the year in that school (same company, different state) rather than trying to enroll them in physical school. We were oh! so wrong! At least they have extra time during summer to catch up.

I took another trip to my local yarn shop to knit with the knitting therapy group (love it!). They were wonderful and welcoming, and I found out that all but one of them is from California, as well. Heehee. While I was there, I had to score a skein of yarn that I had been dreaming about ever since I saw it last week.

You've gotta love a store that uses purple bags.

Am I right?

It's Ella Rae MEGA, and I'm dreaming up a quick and fun "moose lace" project. It's a little cold around here lately, and I think I need a neck warmer.

I'm getting my April club packages together, and things look like they're coming together. :knockonwood: And the taxes are almost done! Woot for Mr. Romi!

I'm off to a "mini meet" at the pool this afternoon. Have a great weekend!

Hippety hop

Down the rabbit hole for me! Things still seem so surreal. I feel like I will wake up any moment now back in California! I feel a little like I am sleep walking. But back to reality now....

I wanted to thank you all for hunting my eggs! I had a terrific time hiding them, and I'm so glad that you all enjoyed the hunt! There were over 400 entries, so I am still going through everything and will post winners soon. The eggs were hidden in Erato, Cáliz, Maia, Taygete, Toque Yo, Calliope's Odyssey, Lisianthus, Kleio, Polyhymnia's Triangle, Madroña, and Fiori di Sole. And the 12th egg was, of course, on my blog. ;)

While you wait for that announcement, I thought I'd show you the first skein of yarn bought in my new state. Isn't it pretty?

MadelineTosh from The Pioneer Yarn Company in Minden. The photo above is in the shade. The photo below is in the direct afternoon sun.

I love the way this colorway, Dusk, changes in light. It may be my imagination - no, it's not really: the colors here look more vivid. There is something different about the light. I am seeing shades in yarns that weren't apparent before. It's wonderful. I love love love color. I've just been staring.

Well, back to work with me. I have more to do before hitting my pillow!

Stitches West: Part 2

Moving a little behind schedule here, but wait until you see what I got at Stitches West! You will immediately forgive me. I hope. This is what happens when they let me out! I did this in less than an hour. And I wasn't going to take any yarn home with me. Heh.

First up, Kristine and I were next to KCL Woods' booth, and I could not resist going over there to drool. This incredible spindle immediately caught my eye.

Isn't it stunning?

Made of Bird's Eye Maple and inlaid with shell fossil.

And look at the spalting!

I can't keep from admiring it and fondling it.

I know it spins beautifully, but it's such a lovely work of art!

I've been staring and staring. Ken and his wife are such nice people and he does such amazing work! It was a pleasure being next to them and their cheeriness.

A little closer to home, I picked up some yummy Verb for Keeping Warm yarns.

This great duo is Magic Bean and Jade, both in the Metamorphosis base, 70% merino and 30% silk. They go together perfectly, don't they? I love Kristine's greens. :)

I wish these two colors photographed well. It's actually a dusky green (Jade again!) on top and a greenish-tan (Tide Pools) on the bottom. Both in Kristine's Slick base. And they are super yummy. This one is a dk weight and I am looking forward to designing a heavier two color wrap!

Then there's my favorite Verb color (aside from Magic Bean, of course): Glenda. This one is in the Shimmering (100% tussah silk) base, and I can't wait until you see what I have planned for it!

Moving on, I have some delicious Anzula yarn. Sabrina's Squishy base in Mauve and Shitake. It's that great 80% merino, 10% cashmere, 10% nylon base that I love every moment of knitting up.

Then on to Zen Yarn Garden's Serenity Silk Single in Goth Pink. I love the name! 75% merino, 15% cashmere, 10% silk, and 490 yards of lovely lovely lovely!

I so wish that I could do this next one justice. It has lovely purplish undertones and is just the right shade of taupe. It will be another heavier wrap, as this is a worsted weight. I've never used Tess' Designer Yarns before, but I've always been struck by their booth at Stitches. I am thinking of putting together a collection of neutrals. Those who have met me in person know how much I love color and also how neutral my clothes are! I am a black and grey kinda gal. And taupe. Taupe is absolutely perfect with black.

Speaking of neutrality...this is the "Brindle" colorway from Little Red Bicycle. Didi dyed up some beauties! This one is in Tandem Sock and it is a gorgeous deep brindled brown.

And then there's Lisa Souza. She is a Master (Mistress?) of color. Every time I pull out one of her yarns, Mr. Romi says, "wow. She really knows what she's doing." And he is so right! This one is a cashmere/silk. 400 yards of heaven in the Cameroon colorway. It is stunning. Really just stunning.

And I am always drawn to Lisa's greens. This is marked Vert de Gris, but I don't see it on her site under the Polwarth/Silk blend, or anywhere! (Isn't it cool how there is more breed specific yarn happening these days?)

From the Royale Hare comes a yummy Toffee in Karen's new Carneros base (that delicious merino/cashmere/nylon blend I was talking about earlier.) Soooo pretty!

And "Forest Green" in the same base. It's really a lovely almost beach glass color. It makes me think of water rather than forests, but I love it just the same.

And then we're on to more neutrality. I have never used Creatively Dyed yarns but wowza, what have I been missing?! I love the two I picked out. First is a fabulous grey with undertones of steel blue and purple.

I love it deeply. It's called Ireland. I'm thinking because it's foggy there? It does look rather like a lovely deep foggy and thunder-stormy grey.

And this one is called Turf. I was so drawn to this particular color that I could not put it down. And then after that, I kept picking up similar yarns in other booths! LOVE.

So there you have it: tons and tons of inspiration!

And speaking of inspiration, head on over and take a look at Kristine's lovely booth pics from Stitches! She did such an amazing job on the booth!

I've been knitting away on some secret project craziness since I returned from Stitches. A lot of it, actually. But I'll try to do something that I can show you. ;) This continues to be an "interesting" year. I'm working on rolling with it!

Blue skies

I'm definitely getting spoiled - in a way I would love to continue to be spoiled - with the gorgeous weather lately.Yesterday was my birthday, and it's the first one in a long time when there was no rain. It was a fabulous birthday present! And - may I say - I was so touched and buoyed by your birthday greetings on ravelry, facebook and twitter. Thank you all! It was a Good Day.

This was my big gift. I love that the inside is so high tech,

and the outside is so vintage.

This is the new Kindle Touch and the e-ink is incredibly cool. Since I love books and the printed page, I held out for quite some time. I've always had a huge collection of books and I couldn't stand the thought of losing the smell and feel of them! But I have to say that the convenience of the size is what finally won me over. And when I found out that the e-ink is actually little particles of ink, well. I couldn't resist. I may have dropped some (very broad) hints. I know the Fire is what Amazon is really pushing right now, but I passed on it and I'm so thrilled to have my e-ink instead! I spent some serious time just looking at the gorgeous photos of typewriters, pens and printing implements that serve for the cover page when the Kindle is turned off. If I were a black and white photographer, I would put together a portfolio for Kindle. It's that beautiful.

After opening my gifty, I headed over to knitting group where they sang me happy birthday. I wish I could have gotten my video camera (erm, iPhone) out soon enough to catch A's stunning performance, but alas, I was too late. It is burned into my memory though. :) My three boys picked me up for lunch and we had a lovely one at a local cafe. Later on, we all saw The Muppets (fabulous!!!) and went out to eat Ethiopian food. It was the boys' first Ethiopian and #1 Son was dubious as always. The Bear was entranced by all the lentils, though - his favorite. They both ended up absolutely loving it, and - as the portions were humongous - we stuffed ourselves and still took home as much as we ate. I did point out that - so very sadly - an Ethiopian family could probably live a month on the amount of food we ate. After dinner, we were treated to traditional Ethiopian coffee, and we could smell it roasting in the back as we were finishing our last bites. All I have is a poor iPhone photo, but this is how it was served, with incense burning.

I loved the top of the coffee urn, and was happy not to worry that it would fall out when I poured.

The coffee was the absolute best I have ever had. Truly. The waiter/owner told us the chef roasted cardamom with the beans. It was very strong, but had no bitterness or aftertaste, and didn't need to be sweetened. I would go back just for the coffee, even if the food weren't so amazing.

When we arrived home, I found a little parcel from France on the doorstep. I opened it and was reminded why I no longer use the iPhone app to order from Amazon.

For those who don't recognize it, this is "Singin' in the Rain." In French. But in the Amazon app, this information (language) is not important enough to put on the front screen; it was buried. Too funny. And too bad that international DVDs won't play on US players. I think this would be fun to watch. I might try it anyway. Heehee.

Next is some catch-up from my period of anonymity. At Stitches West this year, Miss Babs gave me some of her gorgeous yarn in Terra Cotta.

But while digging around in stash a couple of months ago, I wanted something to go with it for a two color project, so off I went to check around her site for a willing partner. I fixated on Plum, and she and her assistant kindly looked at the two colors together and confirmed that Plum is, indeed, a good mate. It is stunning by itself.

And don't they look happy together?

I've also been working on some lined cuffs to go in the pattern with my Poinsettia hat.

Just a simple little project to use up a skein of yarn and some left-overs.

And it shows a pretty little ruffle at the cuff of your jacket.

I'm quite enamored. And the pattern should be out very soon.

Last, I saw some great Melpomene FOs on Ravelry and wanted to share. This one is from Ali. She blocked the edge into rounded scallops instead of flat across the bottom of each scalloped bit.

Great color! And the following one is from Justine. I love the way the stitch pattern pops in this yarn (Tosh). Justine's is blocked with rounded scallops too. It's so cool how a different blocking method can change the whole look, isn't it?

I love looking at the different yarns and colors everyone is using, so I've decided I'd like to start featuring FO pics on my blog. If I use your photograph and you don't want me to, please just send me an email requesting that I take it down and I will gladly fix it post haste! Also, if you want to share your FO, please email me a little linky to your Ravelry project page. I will not use people's faces without permission.

It's amazing. For so many months, I've felt that I have nothing to say at all. Now I can't seem to shut up. I didn't realize I was so stressed. Have a wonderful evening everyone!

It's in the Air

Have you noticed? Fall is here! My very very favorite time of year. Lovely blue skies, a hint of chill during sunny days, smells of dry grasses and dropping temperatures at night. And acorns.

They're such pretty little signs of autumn.

I can't get enough of fall colors now. There's the Persimmon yarn from Alisha that I absolutely had to hold, and once I picked it up I had to wind it and knit with it. I simply could not resist any longer. And I did try.

And the lovely skein of dk weight yarn that Wendee of Hazelknits sent me.

It's called Equinox.

Here's a more intimate view.

Sigh. Lovely!

The club sign-ups went well yesterday evening, and I hope you all were able to get the spot you wanted! The options including pins were sold out in the first 25 minutes or so, but there are still yarn/pattern options available on my site. If you didn't get what you wanted, do not fear! Sign-ups will open again October 15th when another 50 pins and 100 skeins of yarn will be available. This time, sign-ups will be in the morning (and I will announce the time). After those are sold out, I will open pattern only sales! I hope that you all will join me for club fun next year. :)