New Pattern on Ravelry: Whistling Thorn Socks

These socks are so lovely, and the color from A Hundred Ravens is a warm green that feels just right for the project. Knit up in Iachos, Whistling Thorn is not only the pattern name, but the name of the colorway as well. Kate's newest colors are in a series called Ol Pejeta, which is an animal conservancy in Kenya, and to whom a portion of the proceeds from the yarn sales will also go.

Yet again, I found a stitch I liked in my mom's old Japanese stitch dictionary that turned out to be perfect for the socks Kate wanted. Easy to memorize, great in both tonal and variegated yarns, and with an added bonus of being both feminine and masculine in appearance. I truly enjoyed knitting them, and when I completed the second sock while at Stitches East, I gave them to Becca. Whether she ever gets to wear them is another story, as at least one sock is supposed to be a shop sample. :)

I spent September finishing up the socks, doing the final edits on another sock pattern (which will come out next year, and I am so excited about it!), and looking for full-time work. The days seem to be longer than usual, which is in contrast to the decreasing sunshine as the year deepens into autumn. It's my favorite time of year, perfect for leaf peeping, cowls, shawls, and of course, socks!

My casual mention of Stitches East belies the excitement attending the event. I had just said to my friend Cate as we drove back from Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival (which was a blast, and quite a great event itself) that I hoped to go to Stitches East someday. That night, I got an email from Kate asking me if I were available to work in A Hundred Ravens' booth there... and I naturally jumped on the chance!

Kitty and I drove up, taking our time. The air was crisp, but still somewhat warm. Leaves were changing, but nothing like what they'd be the following week when we drove back down! I had a blast working my first ever fiber show while Kitty enjoyed herself in the sunshine and glory of a fully-fenced yard with Becca and the kids.

I met an amazing number of people, and learned quite a lot about the intricacies of setting up and tearing down a show booth. We had a yarn tasting table, so folks could "taste-drive" the various AHR fibers, and quite a number of samples for folks to admire and fondle.

When I got home, I immediately cast on one of the projects I admired (and whose designer, Christiane, is marvelous!): Volan. I'm using two AHR club colorways for it, Gloriana and Scheherazade. Currently on the last ruffle, and I cannot wait to wear it! And, in a super cool moment, I got to meet Dizzy of Dizzy Sheep, and kiss his adorable lil face as he snooped around the AHR booth. Best first festival ever for me!

I've been knitting more than spinning lately, maybe because I now have a cute pile of handspun yarns waiting to become finished objects. The queue is long, the days are not, and I need more coffee already this morning. Adieu!

Post-Holiday Catching Up

Our vacation went quickly and nicely, with my sister and niece, plus my own two little cherubs, spending random hours together. We talked story, slept in, ate all the things (I love, love, love what local kine foods they have at Zippy's), and enjoyed our holiday.

I finished one of my vacation projects, spinning up 4-ounces of a luscious Greenwood Fiberworks BFL and silk roving, using my new Bosworth Moosie. This fiber is fabulous, drafted easily and flowed like water onto the spindle.

The roving I chose was dyed in even horizontal stripes, so I decided to do some fractal spinning. I divided the roving in half lengthwise, spun up the first half, then divided the remaining half again lengthwise. After I spun up half of that, I divided the remaining fiber in half once more. The last two strips were pretty thin, so I didn't split it further.

Sometimes when I spin, there are bits of fluff which cause nepps in the singles. Not so with this roving! I had absolutely no waste whatsoever! And it had divided pretty darn equally, so that I only had a couple of yards left on the original cop. I simply Andean plied it and added it to the ply ball.

As you can see in the photo above, the result is a lovely, shimmering ball of pliable goodness. I've been plying it together since my return home, admiring how the colors shift and meld along the singles. Though I thought I'd use this for socks, I may knit up a shawl instead, especially as I expect to get a lot of sport-weight yardage.

Most Expensive Graduation Ever!

My niece graduates from high school, and everyone in the family is heading over to celebrate.

This is my first trip away as a dog owner, and my goodness, it costs a lot to board a dog! The cost of the week for her to run around and lose what manners she has is half the price of my plane fare. O.o

She'll have tons of fun, though, and so will I. I've packed some spinning, a pair of socks to knit, and my shawl-in-progress. It took me longer to choose projects than to choose my clothes.

For spinning, I'm going to start a fractal spinning project using my Bosworth Moosie and a gorgeous braid of Greenwood Fiberworks BFL and Silk in "Skyfall."

The socks I'm finishing are my second pair of my own Aqueduct Socks pattern, which I've picked up and set down a million times as I'm not knitting them two-at-a-time Magic Loop, but singly on DPNs. This was to enable me to write out clear DPN instructions for the pattern, and also to try out my new Knitter's Pride Cubics needles. Really comfy, and I've always liked square needles as they're easier on my hands. And, for the price, the set was a decent deal.

And then today, I found a couple of 9-inch circular Kollage Square needles at Tuesday Morning. I've never used these, but Veronica bought one when we took our epic road trip to Yarnmarket a couple years back, and she's still using hers (which I believe are Hiya-Hiya). Plus, at half-off, it seemed like an opportune moment to scoop up the sizes 2 and 3 that were left and take them on holiday. Circs are always easier to deal with on a plane, right? :)

My shawl is growing right along. :) I'm going to post this, then finish winding the skein for the border lace. I'm not at that yet, but I will be after flying umpteen million miles tomorrow!

Rhinebeck on a Whim and a Budget

Technically, the New York Sheep and Wool festival, but everyone calls it Rhinebeck, after the town in which the fairgrounds are situated. Last Monday, Kate asked me if I would be interested in going up to New York with her, and after doing some budget crunching, I agreed.

We drove up late Friday night (I'd had a prior party to attend) and arrived in Hastings at 2AM. Exhausted, yet full of excitement, we passed out cold at Kate's mother-in-law's condo on the Hudson River.

Lili, Kate and Becca's adorable little cherub, came with us. She perkily arose at the crack of dawn, and so Kate and I very groggily prepared for our day with the sheep and the wool, with an emphasis on wool.

It was glorious. The day was bright and mostly clear. Predicted rain did not happen, and so though there was quite a lot of wind, we remained dry as we traipsed from barn to barn. Once Lili became disinterested in wool, Kate took her off to do stuff and I wandered along alone in the crowd, happily browsing for myself, and doing some sock yarn shopping for Anna.

As I do with gambling, I set myself a $40 limit for yarn buying, and stuck to it. Anna had given me some money and a request to find her more sock yarns. And so, at the end of day, not long before the closing announcements went out over the loudspeakers, I had done all the shopping I could, and we set off for our home base in Hastings.

We drove through Sleepy Hollow, which was filled with folks wandering around, looking for horsemen or at least haunted houses. We saw so many gorgeous houses, beautiful landscapes, and wonderful little shops all around the area. It seemed that every other moment, we were laughing at something, and promising ourselves that we would come back up sometime with Becca and just hang out.

Today, we wandered around Hastings in the morning, stopping at a soda fountain in a drug shop for a treat. I had my very first egg cream, which has neither egg nor cream, but is nicely chocolatey and refreshing.

And then, we drove home, nibbling on junk food and giggling like schoolgirls. Best weekend adventure in a long time, and such a nice getaway! And I have the yarns to prove it!

NinjaDoll and Owlchick Go to Dodger Stadium

In the grand tradition of a road trip slash quest movie, Barb and I, together with our coworker Archonix, headed north on I-5 to see the Police concert at Dodger Stadium.

As I commented to Archonix towards the end of the concert, it's a good thing he's not my boyfriend as he would have surely dumped my ass. :D

I was probably having a challenging day to start as I had to face my mother for the first time since moving her to California and disposing of her worldly goods. She seemed glad to see me, but announced her imminent departure. So did I: "It's time to goooooo!" I hollered at Barb, and so off we went to get Archonix.

We hooked up Gidget, Barb's talking GPS. Gidget is somewhat slow. She's the kind of girl who tells you several feet too late that you've reached the intersection at which you want to turn. But she can be useful when going somewhere that you're only vaguely familiar with.

After a late lunch in Tustin, we continued northward. Traffic flowed smoothly until we got into downtown, where it crawled to a stop as other concert-goers clogged the lane into which we needed to merge. An odd smell wafted into the car; we thought it was the truck ahead of us. But no, as the billows of smoke proved once Barb's car staggered into the Dodger Stadium parking lot, it was the car in which we rode.

"You go on ahead," said Barb, reaching for her miraculous OnStar, which is as handy a gadget as Gidget. We were already an hour and a half late, what with lunch and traffic. As Archonix (who had been regretting not using the facilities available after we finished our lunch...for the past twenty miles or so) and I crossed the parking lot on foot, Barb ordered a tow truck come to whisk her car to a repair shop. A diva in her own element, it seemed!

Dodger Stadium is very large. One cannot guess which entrance to use from the outside. Archonix and I chose poorly twice and finally got to the correct entrance which was handily close to the restrooms. We availed ourselves, found a short concession line and as we were heading on our way (of course, to the opposite side of the stadium where our seats were actually located), the Police came onstage and the main event began.

It was a pretty good show. Even though they did mess with the familiar tempo of some of the songs, everything was recognizable. When they finished the third encore, Archonix and I tried to find an exit that, as texts from Barb indicated, would lead us toward downtown LA and the Bonaventure, where she had decided to wait out the concert once her car was towed away. Um, and when she realized she couldn't rent a car without a credit card...which none of us had brought up, since we didn't envision car trouble.

"I'm a mile away, you can walk here," Barb had texted me. Dutifully, I stopped a security person to ask which stadium exit we should use to do so.

"You don't want to do that," she replied, recoiling in horror, "Those neighborhoods aren't safe. Head upstairs and you can catch a cab out that way."

But the escalators were blocked by other security folks, as were the stairs. Archonix and I tried instead to exit the way we had entered, but were told that there would be no taxis that way. The guard there pointed us back the way we came.

Would we ever find a way to leave Dodger Stadium and reach my sister? ...

See Tracy Travel!

Photos from Russia are up now! I still have some on my disposable camera, mainly of Red Square at night.

Moscow

I wish I had more to say about the Tokyo Game Show, but unfortunately we spent our days sequestered in a hotel suite showing our games to the Japanese press. We ran around the show floor for about a half hour on Saturday and wouldn't you know, my camera had spent the previous night filming my purse's insides and wouldn't turn on, so I'm relying on our PR manager's camera photos of the cos-play folks who were a really cool sight.

We arrived at our hotel in Moscow this morning around 1AM and found to our delight that it's exactly across the street from Red Square. I had breakfast in the hotel restaurant and stared out the window at the scenery listening to their Muzak version of Elton John's Little Nikita. How appropriate and ironic!

The guys from our Russian distributor (I believe that's the technical term for them) gave us a tour of their offices and then said we were going to head out for some sight-seeing, shopping and lunch. The drive was horribly exciting as apparently lines are painted onto the roads for decorative purposes only. Drivers, including ours, headed onto the road's shoulders and a couple of times, the sidewalks, as they jockeyed for position in the lanes.

It's 11:30PM in Moscow. We came back not too long ago from our tour of Suzdal, which was once the capital of Russia. Little did we know when we headed out that we were going two and a half hours outside of Moscow to do the sight-seeing and shopping. We walked all over this extremely picturesque town and around sunset, arrived at an orthodox convent that doubles as a hotel.

John, one of the guys from Akella and I were ahead of the rest of the group and entered the chapel just in time for the end of a service. The nuns' singing was so beautiful and the experience was surreal. As they finished their service, they turned out all the overhead lights so that the chapel was lit only by small electric candles that they then walked around and extinguished one by one. Beautiful.

Change in the Weather

While it's still hot out during the day, the temperature drops once the sun sets and then it gets much cooler.

I can always tell when the weather changes because Mittens will sleep at the foot of the bed all summer, only moving up to curl beside me when it gets cooler. Right now, he's curled up against my thigh, paws out before him like a little tuxedoed Sphinx. He's so cute!

My trip begins Wednesday, so I'll probably be too busy panicking tomorrow to post anything :) Our beta starts this week and I find myself anxious to know how it will be received. I've long since lost my objectivity when it comes to the stuff I'm doing for this one and not being here when our players first get to see it is going to drive me nuts! I'm sure SteveD is anxious for me to get out of the office for a while, for in the past week he's had to put up with my suddenly muttering profanities as I try to put this or that together.

Ah, well. I'm sure things will sort themselves out without me fretting over it. I need to nudge Mittens aside and slip beneath the covers to get some rest, for tomorrow will be a busy day.

Have a nice week, everyone! If I can get online while I'm away, I know where to look for you guys :)