just another manic thursday

Posted on Posted in lace/shawls, projects, Uncategorized

ever since i blocked that shawl i’ve been a scattered mess, as far as my fiber affairs are concerned. without a Seriously Big Project to ground me, i have drifted from one meaningless flirtation to another.

debbieKnitter contributed to my debauchery by giving me a beautiful skein of sock yarn

does this remind anyone besides me of the colors in an old celestial map? you know—the ones with the sun-that-has-a-face? i love those.
this yarn is from Mystical Creation Yarns, colorway mother earth; i am unfamiliar with their product, but am going to try it soon—like maybe when i finish this post. it’s really soft and very very beautiful. i can’t figure out how many yards are on this skein or how much it weighs; the tag must’ve gotten lost along the way. from the information on the website, it looks like possibly it is a 4-ounce skein that has 875 yards—wow. so, i could get a really big scarfy shawly thang out of it, OR his ‘n’ hers socks.
hmm.

d’ya think we are the his ‘n’ hers sock types?
(i mean, other than we don’t really care much what goes on our feet and that it could match or not for all we know? i don’t ask him what he has on his feet most days . . .)

and then, there is THIS which does nothing for my security right now

this is our stair hall. what you see is the upper regions. that ladder? the bottom of it is sitting on a weeny little step about halfway up. it is erected so that it slants across thin air 20 or more feet from the bottom floor and rests against a joist for the third floor. that dark blob at the tippety top of the ladder? that’s my beloved husband. right now, he’s not standing on one foot at the edge of the ladder and reaching four feet across to drill something, but he does do that. a LOT.

add the fact that he is up there fooling around with electricity, and i think what you’d have is a recipe for a wife-ulcer. this behavior makes me excessively nervous and unable to concentrate. i keep moseying through hall to peek, and then running away asking myself WHY i did that. (shudder). i can hardly stand this.

he’s hanging very simple light fixtures with very beatiful bulbs in lieu of chandelier. which i appreciate.
he has a knack for doing just the right simple thing that makes our home unique.
i just don’t want one of our home’s “unique” features to be a big splat mark on the hall floor.

i’m sure you understand.

so my knitting projects this week have been wide-ranging and varied, since i can only focus on any one thing for a short amount of time.

luckily, yesterday i had classes and escaped the house for a while. in fact, it was a good sunny day with a strong north wind, and my ride over was brisk enough to shake off most of that anxiety.

i finished one blue sock and started another

and made plans to go the the Yarn Harlot event in cleveland on saturday with some yarn shop buddies (we might eat sushi too!). i have my hat ready to bring and picked up one from susan, who can’t make it, but brought hers to class.

hers is the cute green one and mine is the one that looks like a popover. it’s cute too, when it’s on.
i am SO looking forward to attending this event. i’m bringing the tree scum socks to knit on during the talk (just look at them glow),

and the blue ones as well, in case i have trouble concentrating on the “bark” patten while listening
(the fact that i have issues with narrowing down my travel knitting even for day trips does not bother me in the least . . .).

i knit a bit on the pink ragg sox during a phone meeting yesterday

(see? all this knitting and it’s just bits and pieces—nothing really getting done)

i struggled some more with the software i bought, which in don’t have a picture of, thankfully. it was not going very well. then i had a brilliant idea.
i read the manual.
and you know what? there’s a LOT of good information in there. it cleared up several questions i had. unfortunately, it also sparked about 147 more questions, but i have enough now to work with, and actually made some headway.

the fact that this software upgrade is causing me all sorts of struggles and delays is duly noted and entered in my personal book of grievances. but in public, i’m sucking it up—waddaya gonna do?

with no new shawl to work on (yet), i turned to an old WIP for comfort

it’s a sweater i started, i dunno, last year, and it really deserves more attention. especially because it is a nice lightweight one, that i can wear in spring and fall. we’ll see how long this lasts . . . after all, i am officially done swatching for the Briar Rose shawl (after many, many swatching-and-ripping sessions) and will be able to get that on the needles tonight. yay! (i’ll show you the final swatch tomorrow).

i have several joint shawl projects lined up for the coming months. once the briar rose one is on the needles, i’ll start planning the one that i’m going to do with deb’s new merino laceweight yarn. i have the rubicum colorway and i’m lookig forward to knitting with it.

i haven’t decided on the stitches yet; but i have a few ideas floating around in my head.
(ok, i’ll come clean here. when i took this yarn out to photograph it, i treated myself to a little squeeze. let’s just say . . . there’s no such thing as a “little squeeze” of this stuff . . . )

i’m also going to work with anne on a design to go with her hand-dyed yarn, for a kit which she will be selling in her online shop. i have a very specific design that i’m trying to find the right color for, and anne is working on dyeing it for me (how special do I feel??).

today i received the samples from her first pass

aren’t they pretty? can you guess which ones i liked best? i’ll tell you more about that tomorrow, too.

for now, there’s this . . .

spring is popping out all over.

27 thoughts on “just another manic thursday

  1. My hands are sweating violently just looking at the pictures of your husband on the ladder! I do a lot of home-improvement projects, but I hate ladders. I especially hate that wobbly feeling they get when you’re standing a little too near the top, and you feel the wobble so you jerk a little with nerves, and that throws you off balance and the ladder wobbles more…
    Sorry, this probably isn’t helping all that much. Have you considered a net? Not to catch him when he falls; you could never do that. I mean, to catch him before he goes up the ladder?

  2. If the MCY is her sock yarn, it’s probably 560 yds. That’s how my two skeins were listed. I haven’t knit them yet, but friends from SnB say they’re very nice.

  3. oh man, I’m afraid of heights – I don’t know how your husband could go up on a ladder so precariously, like that! ::breaks out in cold sweat::

    That blue sock – is that austermann’s yarn? I just knit up a pair of socks in a green colorway of theirs, and they look like they’ve been bludgeoned. They have these purple/red splatters all over them in the most unattractive way. I’ll have to post a pic on my blog. It languishes so, my blog. But the blue sock looks fabulous!

    I really like the tree scum socks. 😀

  4. Those pictures of your husband on the ladderare FRIGHTENING! I know how you feel-my husband does stuff like that too, and I usually sit in another room with my cell phone in hand ready to call the EMT’s.I absolutely CAN NOT watch! (Can you tell I’m afraid of heights?)

  5. Whoa there Nelly! Too much to comment on! Firstly, YIKES! Scary husband action – I never trust ladders anyway. I’d have to have half a bottle of wine in me to watch my hubby do that without crying and nagging, “Be careful!” (Even with the wine, I’d lay pillows underneath, just in case…) Perhaps if you promise his ‘n’ her socks he’ll be extra careful… The lights look great though!
    Glad to see Scummy is shining, and the other socks are coming along nicely as well. Also like the sweater. Thanks for the yarn pron, very springy!

  6. You have officially made my fingers itchy for socks. I was thinking I had too many WIPs at the moment but socks don’t really count, do they? I really like the blue socks you are working on and I can’t wait to see what you do with that beautiful skein of yarn. I agree with you, it does remind me of an antique celestial map. So beautiful!

  7. My husband does the thing with the ladder on the stairs too, only he was painting the wall. I called him from work while he was doing it and I shuddered as he described his setup. He told me not to worry, the kids were home and they could call 911 if he fell. Horrors! Now I have to worry about an injured husband AND traumatized children.

    On a happier note, did the pallet for your yarn come from your image of the daffodils? It sure looks like it did.

  8. Wow, that’s a lot of yarn and a lot of new/resurrected projects you’ve got going on today!
    I just finished a pair of socks in the same colorway of Step that you’re using – what a coincidence!

  9. I must be the only person so stricken by the lovely new lights that I did not even notice the husband on the ladder. Now the lights I noticed 🙂

    Your shawl came out amazing I can understand why it would take you a bit to find something new. Now for those sample yarns they are all wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong – but I’m willing to take them off your hands if needed 🙂 Can’t wait to see what you create with the chosen ones.

  10. Seeing someone pecariously perched over space turns my legs to jelly. I’d rather be on the ladder than looking at someone else on it.

    Very interesting pattern in the blue/grey sweater.

  11. That ladder is scaring the crap out of me and it is not even my husband.

    I would be a bit unfocused too if I had all those pretty projects and lovely yarn hanging about. Oh wait, I am that unfocused. 😉

  12. talk about yarn porn! go to starbucks, panerra or the library while david is hard at work (or come here), I’d have a heart attack watching HIS work in progress, screaming let’s pay someone, let’s pay someone, i don’t care what it costs – i want you alive! (i’m NOT kidding). that said, i love the non-chandelier – you ARE artistes.

  13. husband on a ladder mid-air.. eeekk is right.
    It would make me knit really fast!
    hmmm… I like the S5.. how about you?

  14. Yikes, I get dizzy just looking at those pictures. You definitely will feel soooo much more relaxed when your dear hubby is safely down from above!! I hope you get going on your shawl soon, it sounds like your hands are just itching to get started. That sock yarn Debbieknitter gave you sure does remind me of those kind of maps!

  15. your husband is brave! (and well balanced!) I hate heights, so you wouldn’t get me up there! I love the bulbs he is hanging – simple and elegant – very nice!

    all the new yarns – i have heard good things about the MYC sock yarn, but also that it is a little thin for socks (like sub size 0 needles) – love to hear what you think when you start knitting with it.

    The bright green and orange are my two faves out of the bunch of test colors! I go for the bright!

  16. Wife ulcer. Heh. I used to have a bad one of those – newbie rider on a hot horse who likes to buck. (Are you still vertical, honey?)

    Do ya think you have enough going on? But I love the picture of your office – which looks like MY office. Obligatory computer stuff, strewn with yarn and patterns, and notes to self on patterns, and needles……. 🙂

  17. OK, several things:

    1) *gasps at first image of yarn and runs to look it up online because I MUST have some*

    2) the ladder on the steps thingie totally creeps me out. seriously, gives me the heebie jeebies (and I can’t tell you how much I loathe that expression…it gives me, well, the heebie jeebies.) However, my husband is a theatrical lighting guy, so I’m quite used to seeing him in random scary situations that he’s quite comfortable with

    2a) the new lighting fixture is fabulous, btw 🙂

    3) i think the wallpaper in your stairwell matches my new Kleenex box. I should take a picture and put it on my blog so you can compare.

    4) love all the yarn porn pics today!

    Julie

  18. I can’t even look at that photo of David without getting vertigo. Gaaaaah!… But the fixture (anti-fixture?) he’s installing is lovely. 🙂

    That bark sock is going to be great. I love that glowing, sunlit picture.

  19. OMG! I try to get my husband to NOT do things like that. It makes me queasy just looking at the picture! Dh wanted to go out on the roof and cut branches in the fall and I told him he couldn’t….it’s a LONG way down!

    Lovely yarns and lovely socks. I really must try to finish some projects so I can knit up some of my lovely FF yarn!

  20. Anne, you are so consistent with postings, it is simply wonderful!
    Haven’t visited for just a few days and there is so much to read and so many pictures to look at on your site.

    Of all the knitting websites I visit, yours never ever disappoints (can you feel the pressure now, Anne, hahaha!)

    Thank you so much for all your effort posting all that wonderful and delish stuff…

  21. Ditto-ing everybody else about the ladder and the height and the potentially-squashed hubby. Good ones are hard to come by. They should stay safely on the ground. Celestial map yarn is *lovely*. Check your email.

  22. You’re right about the MCY sock yarn – very celestial!

    You mean my husband isn’t the only one who does things like this? Thank god, I guess. Although, it would do our wifely hearts good if they would ALL Stop Doing This.

    So many lovely colors. I’m not sure I could decide.

  23. Wow, so many things in this post! To me, the husband with only a foot on the ladder and playing with electricity is a totally reasonable explanation for your so-called scattered mess… and then you’ve got a lot to show for these so-called meaningless flirtation!
    I really like the hat you made to bring to the Yarn Harlot event. I’d have to try something along these lines, I think it could be a good one for me.

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