Shibui Knits Sock
Today's fixation is Shibui Knits sock yarn. TheBoy has been asking for socks since fall '04 when we first started living together. At the time, I made my father and one of my fathers-in-law worsted weight boot socks for Christmas. TheBoy? He got the yarn for his in a box. And then I only knit one.
Now, my husband, bless his heart, has big feet. Size 13 wide big. So I knew if he was going to get the socks he wanted I'd better find some yarn (and a lot of it) that I'd enjoy knitting miles of sock with. I always seem to get the urge to buy yarn around nine o'clock at night, after everything local is closed so I've started buying yarn online from Knit/Purl. It's semi-local (in Portland) and my orders arrive within 2-3 business days of placing an order. I think this was the third or fourth order I've placed with them since October or so and I've always been pleased. So while I wholly endorse the yarn shop, let's talk about the yarn.
Look at the colors! The depth of color is wonderful and their semi-solid nature is fantastic. I'm knitting this into a fairly dense fabric (9 stitches per inch on size 1 crystal palace bamboo double pointed needles) and it's still sproingy and wonderful as a fabric. The twist is wonderful, it's a very round yarn which leads me to believe that it would make wonderful tiny cables, although the socks are likely to be far more boring than that. Shibui Knits is a Portland-based company, so I'm doubly supporting my local community (although I believe the yarn is milled elsewhere).
I planned for each sock to use about a skein and a half of yarn, that's almost 300 yards each. They'll be primarily seaweed with contrasting toes, heels and a stripe at the top of the cuff. I expect them to take me a fair amount of knitting time, but it's the kind of knitting that sets my mind on auto-pilot. They'll be my "knitting with other people" project, or my "knitting and actually paying some attention to the tv" project.
Fairwell my Plastic Friend
Had a little bit of a rough week, full of sad things. The least of which was the demise of my beloved and trusty plastic Royal brand ball winder. Above is the last cake of yarn it will ever make, an 880 yard skein of lovely olive green merino laceweight yarn that I purchased from the Yarn Chef for a super secret project.
Alas, when one's husband trips and knocks over the kitchen stool that the ball winder is attached to, the plastic handle may just break right off upon impact. And herein lies the greatest weakness of the plastic ballwinder. The plastic handle and the winding mechanism are all one piece. All plastic. So when the handle breaks off just where it projects from the base of the winder it is impossible to fix. We tried to epoxy it on but the amount of epoxy needed to seal it would have stopped the mechanism being able to turn. Not so handy in a ball winder.
So, I ordered another one. A wooden one, made by the Strauch company, complete with ball bearings. It's set to ship on or around the 22nd, and hopefully will arrive shortly thereafter. It's a more expensive ball winder, over twice the cost of the Royal but it's general sturdiness, better clamping abilities and the ball bearings mean it will last easily twice as long as the Royal, therefore justifying the cost. I'm buying for longevity, baby.
Speaking of buying for longevity, I should officially extend congratulations to T and Mr. T, on the impending purchase of their first home. Coming soon, a product review!
Doing vs. Discussing
A big part of why I don't blog as much as I used to is that I spend a lot of my internet time doing research for other big things going on right now. No, I am not going to have a baby, just to clarify things. Let's just say it will be great in the end.
Awhile ago I had the pleasure of meeting Jodie for coffee downtown. What a sweetheart she is!
As a side note to our meeting, the Pumpkin cookies at Palace Bakery are delicious, and should not be missed if you get the chance.
The main purpose of our meeting was to deliver fiber that I had bought from Jodie's new Etsy Shop. Four ounces of merino in her "Hebrides Overture" colorway:
Note the cute little stitchmarker near the tag. It even coordinates with the fiber!
I love the portrait of the composer on the back of the tag! Cute detail, I'm not sure I would have known what he looked like otherwise. Classical music is certainly not something I know a lot about.
The fiber was dyed so that all of the blue is at one end, all of the brown at the other and the green in the middle. I'm spinning it starting with all of the brown, then I'll spin the green, then the blue so that when it is knit it will be a really interesting progression of color. Originally it was going to be a hat for TheBoy but we'll see when it's all done.
Aside from meeting with Jodie I'm not sure that I've done anything of any great interest lately, that I can talk about anyway. We're waiting on the cd of the professional photos from the wedding and then I'll post and link to some of my favorites. Overall we're very happy with them.
TheBoy and I have been spending a lot of time together, and there has been knitting. Gift knitting and charity knitting. I am in dire need to finish up my package for the charity blanket swap and send it off, my downstream pal should have gotten part of my gift to her ages ago, and the blanket is still here. Newlywed life is no less busy than wedding planning life was, I'm not sure why I expected it to be.
Proof That You Can Find Anything Online
"Mangroomer® is the essential do-it-yourself electric back hair shaver for men. The unique design enables a man to remove unwanted back hair by himself in the privacy of his own home or while traveling."
Yeah. I don't even know what to say. It kind of says it all. Other than, Dad, be careful or you'll be getting one for your birthday. Oh, and this is post [or draft] number 666. So maybe that's a sign about the mangroomer.
I Vote!
This will be a little bit of a bits and bobs update. Last night TheBoy and I sat down with our voter guides and our Oregon mail-in ballots and voted. It was fun, like taking a take-home test. I would review the measure and the letters in support and opposition and then cast my vote. I got to take my time and not worry that someone was waiting impatiently behind me. However, I do worry a little bit that my vote won't ultimately be counted, but I have as much assurance of that as everyone else does right now. It's a sad state of things.
My simple knitted bodice body is done. I am done with the lace on one sleeve but boy, are sleeves kind of boring. In other knitting news, I ordered some yarn for mitts for TheBoy. He's been pulling his sleeves down over his hands to hold the steering wheel in the car in the mornings because we've had an unseasonably cold snap for the past week or so. That means he gets mitts to solve that problem. They'll be black and orange which is perfect since he loves the color combination and it's the colors of his alma mater; Oregon State. I also want to get started on some tall socks from my natural dyed yarn [more about that soon.] They will be stripey and fun I think. And I need to finish the second sock in the pair for TheBoy.
My wedding dress arrived in the mail the other day, a month and a half earlier than expected. It's in good condition, no worse for it's cross-country trek and it's even more beautiful than I remember it being. There's something about a dress that no one else has ever tried on that makes it a little fresher if nothing else. The beading also seems shinier and prettier. TheFabulousKristi will be coming over on Saturday to lace me into it and ooh and ahh over it. I'm looking forward to that.
TheFabulousKristi and I are also planning on seeing The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D. I've actually never seen the movie, nor have I ever seen a movie in 3D so it should be great fun. TheBoy is likely going to go with us, and then TheBestMan will be over for a visit since he's got to come partway downstate for a test.
My Christmas shopping is somewhere near 30% done. We started in August and I recently placed a few orders with places like amazon.com and a few different etsy sellers. For those of you that haven't heard of etsy.com it's a great place to get some really quality handmade goods. Like everything else online there's some crap but a lot of quality items as well. I recommend checking it out for your holiday shopping needs.