JenLa

Ponchos don’t kill people; people who knit ponchos kill people.

F*@K!

Filed under: blogger hookup, knit blogs — La at 4:07 pm on Monday, April 30, 2007

Remember about a month ago I teased you all with that awesome bag? Remember also a few days later I ask you all to hold off ordering because, come the middle of April someone we all know and love was going to be carrying them? And remember me telling you that the new source for those wonderful bags and totes was none other than our very own Knitting Diva, CK?

No?

Fuck.

You can buy them here. Don’t be afraid to click around in her store while you’re there. She’s got lots of amazing stuff! Go ahead, I’ll wait…Well, what are you waiting for? Scoot! Before she sells out!

~~~~~~~~~~

(skimmers, pay no attention to the content behind the jump … )

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted

Filed under: Fiber Festivals, Knitting, Lace, Misc — jenifleur at 12:10 pm on Friday, April 27, 2007

I know I mentioned that I was knitting this:
MG 1 rpt
For a wedding in August. One of Jared’s cousins is getting married the day before my birthday. It’s taking place in my favorite city. Since I just so happen to have my brother moving here [farm sitter!], and since I never get to do anything fun for my birthday, I’ve decided to make a whole week of it. We have the wedding on a Thursday, then breakfast with the bride and groom Friday morning and a barbecue at the home of Jared’s Aunt and Uncle that Friday afternoon. The wedding is actually taking place in Assonet [which is perhaps my favorite name for a city EVER] and we’ll stay down there for that, but if any Bostonians are reading this, we’re looking for a decent hotel, not too pricey and within walking distance of a T stop for the rest of the time when we’ll be in the city. Any ideas? I will also field suggestions for yarn stores which are near T stops. I am very much looking forward to this trip and intend to spend whatever time is leftover after family stuff riding the train, drinking and sightseeing. And I intend to eat seafood again, the food poisoning we got at Legal Seafood last time has not diminished my craving. I am not afraid to go back to the ER.

Speaking of trips I’m looking forward to: all this talk of MDS$W has got the southern bloggers working on their long-range SAFF planning. The blogger contingent looks like it’s going to be bigger and better prepared this year. It’s six months away and we already know what we’ll be eating. We don’t have it quite as good as the MD or NY festivals; there is one crappy concession stand for food at the event. But we are booked into our hotels and there is a party suite in the picture this year. I’m growing my third liver as we speak. La will be put on a strict diet weeks before the event and she will be allowed only bread and water while in Asheville. We don’t have time for illness or fatigue this year. We will be needing someone to pick on, though, as Pixie is giving birth just a few weeks prior to SAFF and won’t be with us. Volunteers?

I don’t have much fiberly to talk about. You saw my Morning Glory progress above, and the PotW is looking about the same, but longer:
POTW 10 rpts
Totally easy pattern, I highly recommend it!

Have a beautiful, spring-like weekend! I, myself, will be working, but I hope to sneak in some more knitting. Oh, and my netflix is nearly empty and I’m kind of out of ideas of what I want to watch. I’d love to hear your suggestions. Bear in mind I can’t stand romantic comedies, but like most other genres….

Hypothetically:

Filed under: Misc, blogger hookup — La at 3:53 pm on Thursday, April 26, 2007

If you were having a well-known (in)famous knitter/blogger/published-book-author over for BBQ & margaritas and a bit o’ the knit on Saturday would you…

a) sit on it very quietly telling no one, respecting her privacy while secretly revelling in the fact that SHE contacted YOU she because she was going to be in town for a show, and that she had some down time and, oh, hey why don’t we get together for a drink?

or

b) shout it to all in Blogistan, because you’re just so excited you can’t stand it, that someone (naming names, of course) you’ve read and admired for quite some time is gonna share a meal, a few drinks, some knit time and lots of gossip with you right there at your very own kitchen table?

Or am I just being an *uberdork**?

*moreso than usual, that is
**rhetorical…you really don’t have to answer that.

shutup

Meet the Peeps…

Filed under: Misc, blogger hookup, yarn — La at 5:38 pm on Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Last Saturday I finally had the pleasure to meet another local(ish) blogger. Yes, it was at the Poppy Festival where the DH and I were being all Rometarded. It was nice being able to put a face the all the wickedness she has wrought.

Evil

…thy name is Stacey

Despite the many distractions and WTF moments…



…we got a chance to talk and get to know each other. Wanna know what I found out? She’s not as wicked as she pretends to be. It’s all a facade, built to conceal a very intelligent, fun, soft kind-hearted, sweet nature.

Then we exchanged care packages. Since I was limited on storage space at the festival, the one I brought for her only contained a yarn trade and a little extra something for her birthday

At first glance, one would think that she was over-generous…


2 balls of ultra-soft black Lacey Lamb yarn (ok, this is what I traded the Handjive for), some yummy smelling soap, wool soak, a cute sock coin purse..but look closer.

Is this Ronald McDonald’s toupee, or did Big Bird go through a molt?
(Little does she know I was wishing I had some fun fur in my stash. I have some serious reciprocating to do….mwahahaha)

And sample loops from The Loopy Ewe?

But wanna know what clinched it?


But La, she got that for Trixie so that she would stop chewing up yarn, charts, magnets and knitting needles. How sweet! She had the best of intentions…

Yeah? Well, I’m sure you all know what the road to hell’s paved with. Hell…where EVIL resides.

One Lamby squeaky toy (aka weeka)+ 2 weeka-hoarding dogs = battle royale at Casa de La.

Yeah, I’ve got your good intentions….

Yearn Over

Filed under: Knitting, Lace — jenifleur at 2:05 pm on Tuesday, April 24, 2007

You know it’s out, right?

IT!

I’ll wait while you go order your copy.

Pixie is the one that originally showed it to me one evening a little over a week ago. I absolutely flipped for it on sight. We both wanted one. I then jumped on IM and told Melissa about it. She needed it, too. The next day I was chatting with Pacalaga and we were talking about beautiful shawls we wanted-before actually telling her which one I meant, she said “have you seen Anne’s newest one?”. She also wanted to knit this. I showed La, she’s in with a couple of stash possibilities for knitting it. Stacey made a bunch of noise about how she’d join me, too, but now she’s being non-commital. That first night, Melissa and I were panting so hard for it that we actually worked on the possibility of deconstructing it in case Anne didn’t offer the pattern. Who knows, she could have been writing it for a book that won’t be for sale for months, and we couldn’t wait that long. I’m telling you, it’s been a long time since I’ve had it this bad for a pattern. In fact, it’s been a long time since I’ve wanted to knit lace. Lucky for us, she published it quickly.

I began pondering the yarns in my stash and wondering what I had that I could knit it from. I have that Brooks Farm Primero, but only one 500 yd hank. I got it in my head that this shawl would be the perfect thing to wear to an evening wedding this summer to combat the air conditioning. Never mind that I don’t even know if the wedding is indoors, that’s what this is going to be for. Pixie said to me during the course of this conversation, “Knit me one, too. I want mine in Sea Silk.” And that’s when I found myself typing these words:

“Buy me enough sea silk to make me one, too.”

I had a sort of minor panic attack when I read what I wrote, but then I realized that would probably put an end to the idea. Except that Pixie returned with, “OK. What color?”

Immediately I realized what a deep hole I’d dug myself. Knitting a big lace shawl for another knitter? Being paid in Sea Silk and having to actually fulfill my promise? Knitting a lace piece without mistakes? And then giving it away? I broke out in a sweat. Pixie assured me that: a) she didn’t have to have that exact shawl, she wasn’t picky [a completely new development in her life. We spell her name 'Picksy' for a reason.] b) she wasn’t in any rush and didn’t want to pressure me. c) she would leave the choices of design up to me for the most part, only wanting a veto power if she really hated the design. She said she wouldn’t mind it if it wasn’t perfect, she wasn’t going to go over it looking for mistakes and that she really just wanted to wrap herself in Sea Silk. Then she asked me what color I wanted. I still can’t believe I agreed to this. It is a testament to my lust for the yarn. I’d never even seen it in person, but 1000000000000000000000000000000000 internet knitters can’t be wrong. Right?

Pixie ordered the yarn. I researched shawl designs. I showed her some things. Here’s what we settled on for her:

POTW

It’s Print O’ The Wave from Sharon Miller’s Heirloom Knitting. It’s going to have an elaborated PotW edging, too. The color she chose was “Glacier” and she bought it from this ebay seller, who was VERY fast. After I worked up a swatch to show her, I told her she was going to love it and recommended she buy a second skein so I could make her a nice, big one she could really wrap up in. Which is easier on her than the rest of us, she’s just a wee little thing. I offered up the argument that if you’re going to splurge, do it for real and when someone is making you a lace shawl out of luxury yarn, you might as well make it worth everyone’s while. She ordered more. Hahahaha. Paybacks are a bitch, aren’t they?

So I’m not panicking about knitting this for her because for one thing, it’s an easy pattern. And it’s knitting with Sea Silk, let’s not forget that. For another, look what I got out of the deal:

morning glories hem

There’s no way I can not knit Morning Glories. I have to. I love it. But I also know that I need to get Pixie’s shawl done right away to clear my conscience. So these two projects are the focus of all my extra time. And some of the time that I should be doing other things, too.

The project is written for DK yarn, but this is laceweight. [color: amethyst] I added two more repeats to the center section to widen it and make it a stole and not a scarf to compensate for the yarn weight, and I’m using size US4 needles, for those who want to know. But I am seriously thinking of a winter version, knit with sport weight alpaca in size Ginormous for wrapping myself in to beat the cold. I have only knit one thing twice [charlotte's web] and it’s against my rules to even mention it, but I’m telling you, this pattern right now feels like it’s all I’ll ever need. La and I might put together a very low-key, casual, old-school KAL page if anyone else is interested.

Look at that, a whole entry about nothing but knitting! Yes, you’re still at JenLa, do not adjust your feeds. Regular mind numbing life stuff will resume shortly.

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