Krafty1

A new weapon

Look what arrived in the mail on Wednesday: my newest weapon and a treat my victim had picked out for her target as well as information about her progress.

At first, I was super excited at the thought of receiving a mostly completed pair of socks.  However, there was one problem; the finished sock had patterning on the sole of the sock instead of stockinette.

Surprisingly, a number of people on the Sock Wars board suggested leaving the sock that way...they thought it was neat.  But, knowing that my next victim had ripped out her socks twice because of gauge modifications she'd made to the pattern (a no-no according to the rules) AND knowing that I'd be disappointed with socks with patterning on the soles, it didn't seem right to leave them that way.  A quick note to my newest victim confirmed my thoughts.  If nothing else, I'm a merciful killer.  Besides, I strongly believe that what goes around, comes around!!! 

So, once the unfinished sock was knit, the patterned sole paid a visit to the frog pond.  I carefully inserted my needle to the place where the re-knitting needed to begin, cut open the toe and attached the ball winder to the yarn end.  Two minutes later, with the foot unravelled, a revelation: EACH stitch had "landed" properly placed on the needles without need for a single adjustment. I knew then that Karma agreed with my decision to reknit!  Never before has ripping back gone so smoothly.

And that my friends is why there was no Web Wednesday post on May 14th.  The only thing I missed mentioning that is time-sensitive: sign-ups for Secret Pal 12 begin today, May 15th.  This time around the hostesses have a limit of 300 participants and a participation fee.

RIP

RIP- Knit of the Purple Spatula  aka LiliBean (Rav linked) 

DOD- May 13, 2008

Our "doggie bags" from dinner the other night were packed in "evidence boxes"!!!  It seemed appropriate to also use evidence tape to seal up the parcel for LiliBean.

In my hope that a few goodies might soften her death a bit...

In addition to the socks, it seemed fitting to include flowers (notecards) in her favorite color (orange) and a bar of chocolate (Cinnamon & Blood Orange).  I also made a notecard with the photo from Friday.

She was thrilled to find out that her socks were made with THE BALL that was the feature photo on Friday.  (Which, since that time SWTC has asked permission to use it for their newsletter.  How cool is that!?!  The guys in the photo thought it was pretty neat too!)

LiliBean is an honorable warrior.  Her target now becomes my target.  She had finished one sock and had gotten to the end of the heel of the second sock prior to today's death.  She managed to get to the post office yet today (in her wounded state) to mail the unfinished pair to me.  What better epitaph than "honor" is there!?!

(BTW News from the battlefield is that my own assassin suffered an injury and ended up dying from her wounds.  I will live to fight another day.)

Pre-War preparations

Knowing that my weekend would be spent knitting with the bonecrushing lovely size US0 needles, my "war" preparations included knitting with needles that wouldn't quite kill me.  (Thank you Fairy Godmother the size 10 loaner!) 

One market bag for the Christmas box of knitting is completed.  Number two is already on the needles.

Next, I finished my brother's socks.  Granted, the needle size was pretty small.  However, I knew that after knitting socks at 88 sts per round, the Sock Wars sock would (72 sts) would fly off my needles!!  (Imagine if the war sock had been a 64 stitch!)

Heck, I even felt virtuous enough to give the lace a bath and pin block it.  There's even a chance it could arrive for a photo shoot later in the blog. 

See, sometimes we just need a little incentive to finish what's on our knitting plates.  I just didn't want them hanging around, unfinished, after I'm "gone".

War Stories

Progress was slow for my assassin's weapon on Friday.  That's not to say that the entire day wasn't devoted to "war".

First, there was the Battle of Little Round Top.  The re-enactors worked with almost 400 kids from 4 local schools to recreate the battle in the field near our home.  The entire day was spent learning "first-hand" what life was like during the Civil War, in addition to the battle.

At the end of the day, the kids gathered round and listened to the Gettysburg Address.  The kids were great!

My target's dossier was emailed to me while I was at work.  After work, I headed to watch the Battle of Little Round Top and cast on for the cuff of my weapon: The Detonator.  Unfortunately, heading home  from school didn't mean that the night was open for non-stop knitting weapon construction.

Our day of war wasn't over with the Civil War.  The evening was spent with WWII.  More specifically, Special K had a sleepover on the USS Cobia and I was to provide transportation for her troop.

Doogie came to my rescue and drove the troops so that I could knit enroute.  (What a guy!) As a reward for his service and valor, we went out to dinner after depositing  "the crew" onboard the submarine.  Besides, my target might appreciate knowing that she was "treated" to a proper "last supper" before being "killed".  After a day of war stories, it's time for some peace and knitting.

Due to a few administrative snafus for the Sock Wars organizers, the list of assassins needed to be published and my target now has an opportunity to check on my progress.  In light of that, no further progress photos will be shown until my target is killed. 

It's On!

Let the battles begin! 

And, for those of you who think we're nuts, we've made headlines!!!

Special thanks to the Civil War re-enactors.  Today happens to be the day the Civil War is being played out in the parks near Special K's school!  Thanks Guys!!!

Why not Ravel it? (acquisitions)

Ravelry. Such a wonderful resource!  Sure, it has great patterns and groups and forums and inventory lists and...on and on.  But have you used it stash acquisitions!?!

As you already know, Sock Wars begins tomorrow.  Tofutsies is one of the sponsors.  There are special prizes if you use Tofutsies yarn.  My Tofutsies stash inventory was used up in January.  Need/Want Tofutsies for Sock Wars.

Unfortunately, due to rising gas prices, my shopping excursions have been greatly curtailed.  Also, my stash inventory is sitting at 93 (of the ones that are uploaded) and doesn't need embellishment.  Need/Want Tofutsies for Sock Wars.  What's a girl to do!?!

Why not Ravel it?  Sure enough.  Look up Tofutsies in the yarn guide and you'll find that several people have marked theirs "Will trade/sell".  Devittles was offering her skein for $12 incl. shipping!  Like the wind, it was here in no time!!!  Just in time for Sock Wars.  Plus, she is Program Manager for Christmas at Sea, a volunteer knitting program that has been in operation since the Spanish American War.  How ironic!

Then, in addition to Sock Wars, there's this knitalong at Schoolhouse Press: Latvian Mittens.  These have been on my "to-do" list for awhile.  Plus, there is so much yarn leftover from the Fair Isle Cardigan "wasting away"...but not enough of any one color for the background of the mittens.

Sure, I could've ordered more from KnitPicks, but the yarn is only $2 per skein and I would've felt compelled to order enough ($50) to get "free shipping".

Why not Ravel it? That's how a trade with Cheeky came about.  Her six skeins of Palette Heathers for my skein of Artyarns Ultramerino 4.  It was an "even up" trade.  We each received the other's parcel today! No money exchanging hands.  No calculating shipping costs. 

No, there aren't any plans to give up on local yarn shopping.  However, it was fun to Ravel it!  Plus, three knitters (Devittles, Cheeky & I) have gotten yarn out of their stashes that was no longer wanted.  Win, win...why not Ravel it!?!

   

Needles at the ready

It's Wednesday...what's on the web?

• Sheep!  Who knew that phone cords could look so wooly!?!  Check out the artist's display here.
• But seriously, are your needles ready?  It's time for Summer of Socks. (FYI the link takes a seriously long time to load.)  The quick & dirty details are: it runs June 21- Sept 1...there will be contests & raffles...you can sign up here. (Another link w/ a seriously long wait...patience will be rewarded!)
• Socks Wars begins on Friday, May 9th. Whether you're in it or not, check out Allena's contest.  She has come up with a really cool "unofficial weapon bag"!  If you don't happen to win her contest, you'll be able to purchase one from her Etsy store later.
• And speaking of contests, Stash & Burn are having one with three copies of Harlot's latest book as prizes.  Because of SKP, I didn't get to the Madison book signing.  I was a bit disappointed that I wouldn't hear the voice behind the words I've read daily for the past three+ years.  If you are with me in that unprivileged group, you won't want to miss this week's podcast.  Harlot reads a book excerpt and Nicole & Jenny do a 20 minute interview...you won't be disappointed!
• And speaking of podcasts, Knitters Uncensored has two episodes with the Wollmeise herself!  I'm finally caught up.  Their episodes are usually quite long, but their show notes are complete and I base my listening habits on the show notes.  The note links are awesome! This episode's included information on...
• Ram Club, a yarn club for men (and those who knit for men). The yarn will be provided by Unique Sheep and the patterns by Stitch Stud. For the first time ever, a yarn club subscription is mine ours.  Doogie and I may end up with some interesting "battles" once the parcels start arriving.  Sure, the socks will be his, but who's going to knit them!?!  Needles at the ready, a duel to the "death"...

Ready for my close-up

Two days of sunshine and warming temps has me itching to get outside.  We aren't nearly as far along with spring as some others are.  Check out my lilacs.  They're not anywhere near popping, unlike Knitspot's lilacs.

But, a few of the tulips are making their presence known amongst the daffodils.  Spring is finally arriving in Eastern Wisconsin.  (It's about time!!)  I'm so glad that so many knit bloggers have been posting photos of their own blooms...it reminded me that spring would eventually arrive!

Not surprisingly, my knitting has "sprouted" warmer colors. Hope is in the air...thoughts of warm weather pleasures...farmers markets...market bags...rutabaga.  It begged for a close-up shot, just like the bloomin' flowers.  I'm just relieved it's not a sock! (13 hours straight of sock knitting will do that to you!)

So much nature

Ahhhh. nature. 

There's nothing like it to return calm to a soul that's been disturbed.  Disturbed I tell you!  No, my knitting has not pushed me over the edge...but my neighbors did.

If you're a regular here, you know it's not in my nature to use the blog to vent.  However, grant me this one lapse to share with you my deepest, darkest pet peeve: lawn mowing on Sundays.

That's right...it drives me nuts to hear lawn mowers running on Sundays.  Now, before anyone writes and says that it's the only day of the week that they are able to, let me just restate that it's my own personal pet peeve.  When I was a kid, Sunday was the "day of rest".  It was the day to play with your family, not catch up on the chores.  AND especially not fill the air with the obnoxious sound of lawn mowers.  Heathens, I tell you.;-)

This Sunday, when the eighth lawnmower's engine revved into gear, I snapped.  We grabbed the GPS units and headed into the woods.  It was beautiful!  There were flowers, lots of flowers.  There was mud.  WE didn't mind the mud because there were deer tracks in the mud.  There was a woodpecker rattling away at a tree to get his dinner.  He was the only "noise", besides us, in the woods. 

And there were geocaches.  Two of them to be exact, in the very same woods.  Notice Panda rearranging the "fallen bark" to re-hide one of our finds.  That one was the easy one.  The other, well, let's just say that some caches are large and some are small...very small...35mm canister small.

In fact, look closely and you will see the cache in the group shot photo.  The only hint I'll give is to say that it's a good thing that Doogie is tall. 

Ahhhh.  So much nature.  Peaceful nature.  (Then again, it was adjacent to a cemetery.) 

Recovery

There's always a bit of confusion when you return to the scene of the "crime".  Needles, yarn scraps all strewn about.  Remnants of the LONG night.

I must say, unlike in college, pulling an all-nighter at age 44 was far more like flying to Europe...up all night (who really sleeps on the plane), "landing" in the middle of the "night", then continuing to stay up and adjust to the new day.  Four hours of sleep is all that was managed on Friday morning.

Mildly rested, a trip to the mailbox revealed wonderful treats.  Celia's postcards arrived from her recent getaway.  Tulips!  They were my Olympic bouquet for my second place finish.

A cup of coffee and time spent reading postcards and Franklin's wonderful tribute to that special place in Northern Wisconsin that is home to Meg Swanson and Schoolhouse Press.  There was no better way to restart my day!  Ahhh, recovery!