57.0
Just a quick one - 57.0%, Row 188 completed. I’m half a day behind, which is as I expected I would be. I should be able to make it up tomorrow, though. Tomorrow’s goal is row 200; only 50 more rows after that!
I didn’t make it out to see Crazy Aunt Purl at the Mall of America; it was just a little bit too much to try to pack into an already fairly busy day. Given that I had to present the next morning at the conference I was attending, and then drive the 3 or so hours home, I decided I should not over-exert myself too much.
Oh, and I did get the second Charade sock through the leg during the conference. Not sure I’ll be able to work on that one at all until the shawl is done, but there’s not too much left to go!
Oh, *snap*!*
Dude! Crazy Aunt Purl will be at the Barnes & Noble at the Mall of America tomorrow night. I’ll be in the Cities for a conference. I’m thinking I might have to figure out how to make that work… Might mean I don’t make it to the orchard with Mom, though.. we’ll have to see.
(Oh, and I’m still mostly keeping up. I was a little short yesterday, but am still up in total because of the extra I did Sunday. I’ve finished row 160, which is 41.3% of the total stitches, and the second row in Chart 6. It’s unlikely I’ll stay caught up today and tomorrow, though, but then I’ll have the weekend to catch up again, so I should be about 2/3rds of the way done by Monday.)
* Yes, I’m apparently channeling Joy this morning. It’s pr’bly for the best I don’t have any meetings until after lunch..
This…
(Pictures are clickable thumbnails; click them to load a larger version.)
.. is why I haven’t posted pictures of the Peacock Feathers Shawl. Here.. let’s try a different angle..
There you can see all the stitch markers on the needle. The pale green one is the center. There are 12 stitches between each stitch marker on either side of the center and there are six black stitch markers and five white ones on each side. That’s a 16 inch US size 4 circular needle (I had it on a longer Clover needle, but switched to my new Harmony wood needle last week because it’s pointier). there are already something like 278 stitches on the needle and I’m only 1/3rd finished. *sigh*
Even though I also have the second Charade sock started, given the deadline for the shawl, it’s likely that this little guy is going to be lonely for a few more weeks.
PSA: Yarnware closing sale
From an email from Yarnware.com owner Meredith:
I have decided to close the business to make more space in my life for my family and other creative pursuits. We have been blessed with wonderful customers. I have gotten to know many of you through your blogs, emails and in the store. I have also been blessed with a fantastic staff. It has been my privilege to do business with you and work with you. As a way of thanking you for your business and friendship, we are initiating a store closing sale. We are LIQUIDATING EVERY SINGLE ITEM of merchandise in our store.
All Patterns: 20% off
All Needles: 20% off
Addi Turbo Needles: 20% off
Lantern Moon Needles: 20% offEvery yarn in stock is marked down 20-75% off:
Eros Yarn: 30% off
Artful Yarns Cinema Yarn: 30% off
Lang Opal Yarn: 30% off
Trendsetter Sunshine Yarn: 50% off
Adriafil Stars Yarn: 50% off
Plymouth Parrot Yarn: 50% off
GGH Apart yarn 75% off
- Our prices will be dropping about 10% a week until the end of the sale, or until we are sold out. Shop early and often!
- Quantities of these items are limited. Orders will be processed in the order they are received. We will notify you by email before shipping your order if we have mixed dyelots, so you will have a chance to change your order before we ship.
- All orders are Final Sale.
- We will take orders online until Saturday Nov. 10th. Our store will be open until November 16th.
- If you have backorders with us, we will fill them if the yarn comes in by November 16th.
- If you know anyone who might be interested in sale yarns, patterns or needles, please feel free to forward this email to them.
Thank you for a great 8 years!
Meredith Bright
Yarnware
Honestly, I don’t remember ever shopping from them (I must have at some point to get on their mailing list?), but it’s still a little melancholy to see an online yarn supplier go out of business. :/ Also, just a bit of a warning - their servers must be getting hit pretty hard today as they’re taking awhile to bring the pages up.
Oh, and I’m up to 27.2% complete on the shawl (row 130 of 249).. made my goal for yesterday and am mostly there for today. We have theatre tickets to celebrate our 5th anniversary this afternoon, though, so I’m not sure I’ll be able to “work ahead” this evening, as much as I’m worried about being able to maintain this pace during the week. I tend not to try to knit complex lace like this in the car - it’s too hard to just put it down anywhere in a row and with legal-sized charts it can be too cumbersome to keep my place - but I might have to try it if I want to keep up. Wednesday and Thursday will be especially difficult as I have a conference to go to and will be spending a fair amount of time driving to the conference site (actually driving, instead of riding while Jack drives as I do during our normal commute) and hanging out with my mom and/or networking in the evenings. But Jack will be out of town Friday through Saturday sometime, so if I fall behind, hopefully I can catch up then.
19.3%
Right then. That’s how much of the Peacock Feathers Shawl that I have completed so far. I have 20 days left to finish it, which means I need to complete just under 4% of it each day, and that will only leave one night to block it, which is a little unrealistic, so let’s aim for 5% per day. As the shawl progresses, this will work out to fewer actual rows per day (I’m on row 109 and there are 249 rows in the shawl, each pair two stitches longer than the last pair), but still means I’m looking at needing to clock in about..
3100 stitches per day.
This is one of those times when being a statistician and a knitter is not particularly helpful. *sigh*
Not dead (yet?)
It’s been.. well.. if life is what happens when you’re not paying attention, I’m not sure what it’s been lately. Busy. (Hrm.. I thought I posted this last night.. guess not..)
I have been knitting - the first Charade sock is finished, I’m almost through half of the third chart of the Peacock Feather shawl, I’m a skein and a bit into a holiday gift sweater - but not as much as I should (the shawl is due in mid-November, has 7 charts plus, and each pair of rows is two stitches longer than the last two). I have the yarn for the DNA scarf that I’m knitting, along with four sets of the new KnitPicks Harmony wood needles - two sets of DPNs (size 0 and size 2 - the set I’m missing 2 needles from and the set I use the most) and two sets of 16″ circs (size 2 and size4 - both needed for the DNA scarf, though because the points are sharper than my Clover bamboos, I’m currently using the size 4 on the Peacock Feather shawl). So far, I’m *loving* the Harmony needles.. can’t wait to try out the DPNs (and I wonder if I swap out for the bamboo ones I’m using in the second Charade sock if it will mess up my gauge enough to tell..?).
I would go back through and link all that, but.. well, those that are interested also pr’bly have Ravelry by now and you can find the details on my projects in process there. 
I did join a swap - CoffeeSwap III - and I am looking forward to it. If nothing else, it might be a good enough excuse to replace our coffee maker, which died a not-so-glorious death about a week ago. But I’ve already heard from my swap partner and I’m already stewing on stuff to send her!
Work is.. nuts. Non-work “work” is also nuts. It’s time for me to start disentangling myself from things, but the earliest I can disentangle from anything is the end of the calendar year, so .. yeah. Might be kinda quiet-like over this way for a bit.
Coffee Swap Questionnaire
Whee! As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve already been in touch with my pal for the Coffee Swap, but I’ve been terribly remiss in keeping up with the group blog. So I’m a little late getting the questions answered, but I s’pose better late than never!
1. Whole bean or ground? I can go either way. We have a grinder, but usually buy pre-ground for daily stuff since we’re not worried about it “spoiling”.
2. Fully-loaded or decaf? Again, either way. I can’t have caffeine after about noon, but sometimes like a hot cuppa in the afternoons or evening, so we usually have both on hand.
3. Regular or flavored? Um. either.. sensing a trend yet?
4. How do you drink your coffee? Oh, look! One I can answer definitively! Cream (not milk, not powder), no sugar. I do sometimes drink the flavored creamers, but they’re often too sweet for my taste. A well-brewed cup of coffee with just cream is perfect.
5. Favorite coffee ever? Huh. That’s a good question. Jack swears that the coffee from the Olive Garden is the best in the world, and I agree that it’s good, but I’m not sure I’d rave about it quite the way he does. I can describe what I like - not bitter, not dark, flavorful and robust - but I’m not sure I can come up with a specific one to represent.
6. Are you fussy about your coffee or will any old bean do? It depends. *smile* I think it depends on the occasion. For the sort of typical daily morning coffee, just about any old bean will do. But if I’m sitting down to relax with a cuppa, I want it to *taste* good. Rich and .. this is going to seem a bit odd, but nutty is the best I can come up with to describe it, and I’m not talking about nut-flavored coffee. There’s a .. quality to taste that strikes me as nutty; I find it in dark, malty beers that I like, too. Sorry that’s not much help!
7. Favorite treats to have with your coffee? Oohh.. cookies. I actually rather like biscotti, though I really rarely ever get it because it’s so much better fresh than pre-packaged. But I like good butter cookies with coffee, too; something a little rich, but not overly sweet. I’m not a huge fan of chocolate - I like it in some things, but can’t do the death-by-chocolate type desserts - but I tend to enjoy coffee with dessert, particularly if it’s something served ala mode! Oh, and canoli, but I haven’t been able to find good canoli since I lived in upstate NY.. mMm..
8. Anything else about your coffee preferences? I lived in Seattle for several years and learned that I’m not fond of Starbucks and that Seattle’s Best, while tasty, isn’t quite.. right. Tully’s was usually my preferred. Not that that’s likely to be much help, but if you’re familiar with those three, it might! Oh, and Caribou is good, but if I’m going to be in a Caribou, I usually will opt for a froufrou drink (I like the pumpkin spice latte things they have now) since their drip coffee is sort of hit-or-miss for me in terms of how dark/acidic/bitter it is.
9. Yarn/fiber you love? Hrm.. most of them? Actually, I take that back. It depends on what I’m going to make with it. I’m very much a project-knitter - I don’t tend to buy yarn just to have the yarn; I buy yarn for specific projects. For socks and the like, something squishy but that will wear well. For sweaters or other larger garments, something that won’t pill too much. For shawls and lace-type stuff, I can go just about any direction. There’s lots of sock yarns out there that are truly gorgeous, but for which I have a hard time finding a pattern I’d like with the yarn, so there’s that, too. I’m intrigued by silk, but haven’t knit anything with it largely because it tends to run pricey and I’d be afraid whatever it was wouldn’t turn out exactly right. :/
10. Yarn/fiber you hate? Bulky yarns; it hurts my hands to have to manipulate needles that are really large with the weight of something knit in bulky yarn. Most of the novelty yarns or carry-along yarns - I just.. I think it’s that I don’t wear a lot of flashy or extravagent things, so I’m never quite sure what I would do with a novelty yarn in a garment. I also am not fond of the pre-patterned “fake fair isle” type yarns, but I love hand-dyed and how it pools. The only caveat to hand-dyed, is that I’ve learned that I don’t like it when it has too many colors and when the colors pool in pairs so you end up with stripes of two colors alternating. So I guess that means long repeats and/or subtle color shifts.
11. What’s on your needles? Holiday and other gift knitting: a sweater (worsted weight, mostly plain stockinette at the moment); the Peacock Feathers shaw; Charade socks; and once the Charade socks are done, I’ll be casting on for a DNA scarf.
12. Favorite colors? Rich, deep, saturated colors. I’m not sure I can wear a deep orange as a sweater, but I can wear just about anything as socks.
13. Allergies? Nickel. This will only matter if you intend to get me accessories, though!
14. Anything you really love, really don’t like, or just need to get off your chest? Patterns are always neat - especially patterns for sock yarns that either aren’t socks everyone’s making or aren’t socks. I knit in the car on our commute frequently, so socks are a great travel knit, but I get kind of tied up about patterns so suggestions or links or actual patterns would be nifty. I like cables and lace both, even together, and patterns that can hold up to hand-dyed yarns without losing the pattern or making the yarn look like a jumbled mess. Oh, and just in case, I’m verymelm on Ravelry!
I think this was precisely the thing I needed to boost my mood a little this afternoon. *smile* How wonderful!
