Knitting is for Giving

So I have been doing several projects lately that have been gifts. I have managed to not start/finish a couple, but I'm trying to get to those.

I have, however, managed to finish some and actually give them away! Well, I guess it's really two but who's counting?

So a few people have blogged about this already, but 12 Bobaknitters put forth an effort to knit a blanket for the lovely Anabel who is about to have her second baby girl. (Yay! Babies!) Abigail somehow managed to get all of us yarn without the secret getting out! I am so tickled that I got to be a part of making something for Anabel, she is a lovely person who I enjoy spending time with.

Anyways, I managed to remember to take a picture of my square before I delivered it to Abigail. I also remembered not to upload it to my Flickr account until AFTER we gave Anabel the blanket!

Here's my square:

Pakucho is a very nice cotton yarn to knit with. I know it gets mentioned a lot that it is splitty, but I guess I didn't mind it so much since I had to deal with splitty cotton yarn when I knit my Adara rainbow shawl.

Anyways, Abigail got kind of crazy and thought we could sew up the blanket and give it to Anabel while Kristi was here the weekend before Easter. No one told Abigail she had just purchased a ticket on the "are you flipping crazy?" train, so we got together on Friday afternoon/evening and sewed it up. It wasn't bad sewing up the squares with lovely company (Lisa D and Karen and Abigail, of course). Here is the blanket in the state I left it at 11pm:
So she managed, somehow, to crochet a border around it, wash it again and wrapped it in time for our 11am meeting with Kristi!

I got several cute photos from our quick little get together, you can see them in my Anabel's Baby Blanket set on Flickr.

The next day was Easter and hubby and I had some friends over, one of whom was the recipient of Mr Hedgie. I failed at taking a photo of the recipient WITH Mr Hedgie, but I did get some silly pictures of the recipient:

Her brother:

And the zombie crew:
It was a really nice Easter. We haven't done much for a few years now for Easter, but this one was a lot of fun.

But man, it was nearly impossible to give away Mr Hedgie. I mean, look at this face:

Actual Knitting Content Ahead!

Yo! I knit! Who'd have thunk it based on recent content here?!

Anyhoo, a couple of weeks ago I finished my Clapotis that I made out of Misti Alpaca Worsted weight yarn. Yum, this stuff was nice to knit with. I had purchased 8 balls and I ended up using just over 6.

Not long after I finished, I went to the Pleasanton Scrapbook Expo and took it along with me as well as my Knitters Block and my box of quilting pins I use for everything. My little demons won't leave the pins alone at home, so I figured in the confines of a hotel room (we actually stayed at the Residence Inn in Livermore for the weekend after the expo) I could block the wrap without disturbance. And block I did!

I know that Kate Gilbert says she prefers it unblocked, but I seemed to get a little loosy goosy in the decrease section and it wasn't exactly rectangular. And as I knit it exactly as the pattern was written, it was a wee bit smaller than I had wanted for it to be. So I went ahead and wet blocked the hell out of it. The dye ran a little in the sink (I let it sit in Soak for ~15 mins) and it smelled a bit like wet dog. I was damned if that was going to stop my Clapotis enjoyment (I was finally a member of the Clapotis Clan, wahoo) so I tossed two bath towels on the floor and started blocking (ok, so first of all I set down the Knitters Block mats.. and quickly determined I should have bought two sets if I ever wanted to block something larger than a child's sweater).

While I was in the process of pinning it, I discovered that I neglected to finish dropping one of the stitches. After it was wet. Alpaca isn't fun to drop stitches with to begin with let alone when it is a WET alpaca stitch to drop. Ugh.


But, I showed it who was boss and managed to get it dropped. Really it was only the first stitch that was really sticky (I had to snip the fibers slightly), the rest of the rows seemed to drop much easier.

It got to sit for 24 hours on our hotel room floor unmolested:


I am SO happy I blocked it. The drape is so much nicer and it expanded slightly (blocked dimensions are 24" x 78". I think it is 24" wide. I knew I would regret not writing that number down). Thankfully it didn't become enormous, but it did get to be a size that was very comfortable for me. I have worn it multiple times since then, I am so in love with it!

Name Analysis Thingy

This is mostly true, though I'm not quite sure about being overbearing. (I hope I'm not!) I also don't quite know about the paranoia/jealousy bit being true. Or the inability to finish projects, I finish what I start for the most part. I'm so not Hannah! ;) (Love you Hannah, *mwah*!) Also not quite sure I'm a type A. Maybe in some respects. But I think that's more OCD than being a type A personality!!

What Christina Means

You are very open. You communicate well, and you connect with other people easily. You are a naturally creative person. Ideas just flow from your mind. A true chameleon, you are many things at different points in your life. You are very adaptable. You are truly an original person. You have amazing ideas, and the power to carry them out. Success comes rather easily for you... especially in business and academia. Some people find you to be selfish and a bit overbearing. You're a strong person. You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something. You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense. You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. You are the total package - suave, sexy, smart, and strong. You have the whole world under your spell, and you can influence almost everyone you know. You don't always resist your urges to crush the weak. Just remember, they don't have as much going for them as you do. You are a seeker. You often find yourself restless - and you have a lot of questions about life. You tend to travel often, to fairly random locations. You're most comfortable when you're far away from home. You are quite passionate and easily tempted. Your impulses sometimes get you into trouble. You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals. You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

At least I get along the best with the OCK

You Are An Exclamation Point

You are a bundle of... well, something. You're often a bundle of joy, passion, or drama. You're loud, brash, and outgoing. If you think it, you say it. Definitely not the quiet type, you really don't keep a lot to yourself. You're lively and inspiring. People love to be around your energy. (But they do secretly worry that you'll spill their secrets without even realizing it.) You excel in: Public speaking You get along best with: the Dash

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

Yes, you were right. Stinker.

Happy Easter

Mr Hedgie would like to wish you all a very happy Easter!

(Pattern is from Fiber Trends, wool is Lion Wool and the fun fur is Schachenmayr nomotta Salsa that I picked up at Stitches last year in the Knitter's Studio booth on clearance. I have enough to make another and thank god I do or OMG I would never give this dude away.)

I'll eventually have more photos up of him, but this one is from my iPhone and I am feeling supremely lazy! What can I say, cleaning my house until the wee hours is wearing me down.

Stitches Loots

Yeah, this is a week late but I will blame my lack of posting on the toxic plague that decided to move in as Stitches started. (Damnable germs!!)

Anyways, like I said before it was awesome to go again this year and see so many people I knew. And the shopping was awesome too.

My first stop of the day on Thursday was the Ravelry booth. I totally NEEDED to get a Bob pin. And I wanted to pick up my Ravelry passport. And pick up I did!


I didn't really buy much more that night, though I did purchase the Knitter's Block from Article Pract.


So when I say I didn't buy more that night, it doesn't mean I didn't get FREE STUFF. Yeah baby, Malabrigo lace samples!


And Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn samples!

(Ok, so maaaaaaaaaybe I might have returned a time or two...)

So Friday I returned, again with the OCK and her mom and a few other friends (and an enemy, my stupid cold that decided to take over). We had taken the day off to devote it to shopping. And a shopping we did go!

So my payment for knitting Ruby was a skein of yarn from the Fiber Fiend booth! I picked out this lovely Merino/Tencel yarn (yes Lisa, I know it isn't as stretchy as the merino I knit with. No I don't care, it's shiny. I can't help myself.) that Margit is calling Shiny Sock:

Mmm. Shiny.

I also went to the Tess' Designer Yarn booth and picked up a skein of their new sock yarn, Peruvian Sock, which is 60% merino, 20% silk, 10% alpaca and 10% nylon as well as their baby sweater pattern I've seen Jill knit a couple of times that I've been wanting to make.



Yeah, it is that shiny. God this stuff feels good. I thought I was having trouble capturing the real color of this stuff so I took a couple of pics. I think this one, while blurrier than the other ones, is closer to the real color:

Pretty stuff, I can't wait to give it a try. I guess it must be really new because it isn't even listed on their site yet.

I was wearing my Adara Rainbow Shawl on Friday and I might have found the PERFECT shawl pin in the Gita Maria booth:

Good, no? I was very happy to find it. I think it looks great on this shawl and I think it will also be good with my Forest Canopy Shawl.

Because it was Stitches and my no-sock-yarn-buying-until-I-have-knitted-a-bajillion-socks fee was waived, I picked up this lovely Baywood Yarn in the Nine Rubies booth:

It is pretty yarn and it's dyed locally, just up the Peninsula in San Carlos.

Across the aisle from Nine Rubies was the Comuknity's booth, which is where I picked up two skeins of the Malacrackbrigo Laceweight yarn:


I managed to buy some bulkier yarn (I know! Isn't it amazing what Stitches can do to a gal?!) in the Brooks Farm Yarn booth. This is the Brooks Farm Acero yarn as well as the pattern for the items that were on display in the booth (an entrelac hat and scarf).

Yee haw.

So as the day was waning, we wandered into the Just Our Yarn booth and I fell head over heels with their Maple Tree Shawl and before I knew it, my money had fallen out of my pocket and into their hands. I ended up with the kit in their colorway TTT07-049 and clear rainbow beads:


So pretty! I love the beads. (Again, shiny) I had assumed thought was silk is actually 100% Tencel!


I am dying to make this! I have some deadline knitting projects to get out of the way, but then I think that I will make this shawl. We will not speak of the OTHER beaded shawl kit that is otn elsewhere in my house.

At some point on Friday, I bought one of these. Yes, I bought one. Shut up. Apparently I am such a lemming that I decided to ignore it and not take a picture of it. I got it with the intent of using it to hold my balled yarns (like the dishcloth cotton balls) that I love to re-ball with my ball winder. Yeah, I'm a nerd. I'm also tired of chasing the damn dishcloth cotton balls around my kitchen floor when they decide to hop out of the bag/box/whatever I have put them in while I am winding them. So now I can put them in a plastic prison and knit away on them.

So I returned again on Saturday to work in the Fiber Fiend booth. Which was fun, I got to spend most of my time stamping Ravelry passports as well as running over to the Purlescence Yarns booth to get change for Margit.

I don't think I actually bought anything on Saturday. I think I spent Saturday walking around shoping with Linda (I think her blog is busted, so don't blame me for bad link-y!) and Jill after my shift and watched them buy stuff. Oh, I did buy something! (Again, that I didn't take a picture of. Duh.) I got one of these from the Bella Knitting booth. So now my new purse doesn't have to touch the filthy floor at Tapioca Express on Thursday nights! Hooray! Oh, and the OCK had non-buying remorse so I returned to the Carolina Homespun booth and picked up a yummy little fiber sampler box:


I got it with the intent of using it to do some needle felting.

Overall Saturday was nice, even though I felt like dirt. I got to spend some time knitting with an assortment of Boba knitters and I got to meet the very lovely Rachael of Yarn-a-Go-Go fame (while she was looking divine in her Jeanie shawl, hmm maybe the beaded laceweight will have to wait a little longer). I was wishing very much that I could have gone to the event going on at Bobbin's Nest Studio in the evening but I went home and died slept for 12 or 14 hours.

Sunday I went back, I had a bajillion yellow tickets to enter in the grand prize drawing and I had neglected to turn in my Ravelry passport so I crawled back to the convention center. I had also skipped buying a couple of things that I went back and corrected before the show ended.

I had neglected to buy anything from Fiber Fiend (I didn't shop during my shift like Tina and Hannah did!) so I went back to correct that and picked up two of her larger sized project bags:


Hannah had bought the colorway of sock yarn that I wanted from Tactile Fiber Arts on Saturday, but when I got to thinking about it I decided that hell would freeze over before she knit a pair of socks out of this yarn so I went back to their booth and bought the same color she did:


There was also a wonderful booth that I am too lazy to get up and figure out their name, but it was the cute booth with all the buttons and ribbons and such in it. I got these cute girl buttons that I saw when I first entered the booth (I think on Thursday) but didn't buy until Sunday:

How could I not buy those? And of course, while I was waiting to pay for these, I was distracted by these beauties that ended up in my bag too before I knew what hit me:


I love them so much I had to take closeup pics of them:



Yes, shiny objects did me in again.

My final acquisition of the day was FREE. I went back to the coveted Malacrackbrigo booth and managed to wrangle their final sample of... sock yarn!


I cannot WAIT for this stuff to come out. This stuff is SOFT and yummy. The amount that I got is only enough for probably a pair of baby socks. Or one Teenuh sized sock that I will have to snuggle up to until this stuff is produced for sale. Or until I wrangle the other half of the skein from whomever got it. I had to work to get this stuff! I had to yammer on about it for a while until the dude finally admitted it existed.

So, anyways, that is my 2008 Stitches adventure. It was fun and snot filled. Not quite the mixture I had wanted but at least it was fun!