then I have to go give the dog her heartworm meds and cast on my besotted scarf!

I had fun at the snb tonight. Lots of people were there! There were quilting ladies and a few people I never even got a chance to introduce myself to. And I finally got to meet Adam! The notorious guy knitter of Albuquerque! This guy has fierce knitting skills yo. That intarsia blanket he made (for his THIRD knitting project) is great! And he entertained the crazy punk knitters among us (Swatches? We don’t need no stinking swatches!) with all his swatching, swatch-felting, measuring, and pages of design notes for his bag. It will be the perfect size of course. But all the notes were kind of cute. These engineers. They so funny.

Several of us brought our knits of shame tonight. Beverly had her crazy fair isle vest. Lauren had an amazing fair isle sweater and an intarsia bag. I had my Pumpkin Patch Shawl and Devan Sweater. The sweater was all knotted up in the extra yarn. It was a bit mess. But the shawl was a pleasure to pick up and knit again. I might even finish that one soon. And I turned the heel on my second Jaywalker sock tonight. YAY!

Project Runway fans might enjoy parts one and two of an interview Out.com did with Tim Gunn. I had no idea he was a practicing sculptor AND worked at the Corcoran Gallery in DC before moving to Parsons!

For this week in Yarn Stash Appreciation I took photos of all my yarn from South America. Mostly from Manos del Uruguay but one pair of skeins from Malabrigo.

Both companies sell yarn made by women in rural Uruguay - selling their handspun and dyed wool so they can support themselves and their families. They use wool from local sheep, spin the wool by hand, and dye it using a special technique. Their yarn is famous for having beautiful, deep colors and being extremely soft. Their fibers are used in their own in-house designs and company stores as well as by major manufacturers like Ralph Lauren, Donna Karan, and Marc Jacobs.

So this is all my handspun yarn from Uruguay.

(counter-clockwise from bottom left)

Three skeins of Manos Granite Multi
I bought them with a multidirectional scarf in mind.

Two solid light pinks and a multi (I think the multi is Bramble)
No specific project in mind for these I just liked them.

Three different Multis (I think it’s Autumn, Agate, and Prarie)
I bought these on Friday at my lys. I liked them because each one is a different colorway but each goes together. No specific project in mind.

Two skeins of Manos Wildflowers
Bought to make a pair of fuzzyfeet. Probably still will

Two skeins of Malabrigo Autumn
Also bought to make fuzzyfeet. Maybe. Not sure now.

I’m open to any suggestions you have for projects with this yarn! It’s a dream to use so I’m always happy to knit with it. I might make a “so-called” scarf and matching hat set from one of the three-skein groups since I finally got the copy of “Creative Knitting” with the crosshat-ch pattern in it.

And I’ve been using some leftover Manos (among other yarns) to make Cody’s patchwork fuzzyfeet.

I just finished this sock last night

Tomorrow or Tuesday I’ll take a photo and post the pattern for the flower Beverly was talking about earlier. It uses the leftover yarn from le clap and an interesting little technique I’ve made up.

That’s me holding it up. It’s taller than I am.

on the worktable

me looking through it

me wearing it!

So. I finished the Clapotis very late Tuesday night, or very early Wednesday morning. I even sewed the ends in Wednesday night! I haven’t gotten photos yet but that’s on the list of several chores we have today.

So gold medal for me!

First, we’re going to go pick up Zola’s ashes and pay the balance on our vet bill. They let you pay in installments in certain circumstances. As one of the doctor’s said, “When your file is this thick you can pay in whatever installments you like.” We’ll bring her back home because I’m not comfortable running errands with her ashes in the car. So she’ll be in the living room with Ascii’s ashes.

Then, we’re heading over to Village Wools to buy yarn for me and our friend in the Netherlands. I’ve talked her into making her Rogue with Silk Road Tweed so we’re picking some up for her and shipping it in a box of goodies we’re about to mail. She insists on paying me for the yarn which is ok but I hope to pick up some extra presents too.

Next we go to the dentist who is also allowing us to pay is gifuckingnormous bill in installments. This was our nice New Year’s surprise. We thought we’d paid our portion each time and the rest would be covered by insurance. However, we were never really given an estimate of how much it had all actually cost. Until after the insurance had paid their part, then we reveived a lovely bill for the remaining chunk of change. Happy New Year! This guy charges way way too much. But he’s the first dentist we’ve found in New Mexico whom I don’t want to punch in the head. So we’re trying to decide if we want to continue to pay these outrageous prices or take the risk of using another punch-in-the-head dentist.

Then it’s craft night at Beverly’s and hopefully, if her wheel gets delivered today, I’m going to bring my spinning wheel and get some spinnin’ done.

Somewhere in there we’re going to take photos of the clapotis and mail stuff. So I’m hoping I’ll have a chance to post photos sometime today but I’m not sure.

Another damned movie meme. Don’t yell at me about it blame Beverly and Courtney.

This is a list compiled by Courtney because she didn’t like the other list, said if watching those dull movies made her a buff she didn’t want to be one. So this is more of the fluffy fun movies list. And you’ll probably see that while I’ve caught a few arty flicks in my day I loves me some fluff films!

(Speaking of, may I also point you in the direction of my guilty pleasure movie post? It’s very funny and has photos!)

I was thinking. Wouldn’t it be neat to have a big collaborative list that everybody could contribute to? Listing their favorite movies - not so you can be considered a buff but so you can find out about some new movies that you might like. hmm.

Oh, before I get started I watched Gods and Monsters last night. It was good. A bit depressing. And very very quiet. Lots of ogling mostly nekkid Brendan Frasier and I don’t even have to endure a bad jungle theme to get it. I’ve really only started to appreciate Ian McKellen in the last few years but I’ve always loved what he did in Cold Comfort Farm.

+ - own it on DVD
* - own it VHS

NOW IN THEATERS
Brokeback Mountain
Walk the Line

SIXTIES
The Sound of Music+
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
Breakfast at Tiffany’s+

The rest of the meme is in the extended entry.
(more…)

Theme days are great if you’re not sure what else to post. As long as they don’t get stressful about keeping to the schedule. So. I might consistently post yarn photos on Sunday. I might not. When I do I will call it Stash Sunday. I might even make silly buttons for it what do you think about that?

My sock yarn stash (not including the two skeins I bought of this the other day)

click on the photos to see notes on each yarn

Yarn that isn’t technically sock yarn but I bought specifically to make socks with

Less than some people more than others. I’d love to dive right in and make a sock with each right damn now.

But, alas, I have those darn decreases in my Clapotis to start today. Which means that I might even be done by tonight. Wow!

If you’ve noticed I’ve been more commenty on your sites lately I’ve been making an effort to give feedback to the sites I visit. I’m still a big lurker but I’m trying!

Ok, I’m off to clap. Clapotis as a verb now. I’m getting carried away but there’s just so many times I can think about this word without playing with variations in my head. To clap, Clappypants, the Clapster..I’m sure none of them are original.

Just ran into a few articles and thought I’d post them.

Fairly recent articles
Interesting article about spinning last month in the NYTimes - via Maisy Day
Article about knitting in The Street.com (a financial online mag) - via my Mom
Knitting news category at Topix (news reader)

Slightly order articles

MSNBC article from a year ago about boys who knit
News compiled by Revolutionary Knitting Circle (last updated Feb 2005)

Older articles about knitting collected by straw.com (Crystal Palace yarns)

I originally saw this on And She Knits Too and found my way back to the source.

Yes, another movie meme in which I mark a huge boring list to show off how cool I am. Hey, it’s fun to do and it gives me an idea for good movies to add to the netflix queue. And while it’s similar to this and this it has more recent and obscure films listed and I found the groupings to be interesting.

According to these guys if you score over 100 (out of 205) you are a true film buff. So here goes.

+ have it on DVD
* have it on VHS

[X] Citizen Kane
[X] Casablanca
[X] The Godfather*+
[X] The Godfather Part 2*+
[X] Gone with the Wind+
[ ] Lawrence of Arabia
[X] The Wizard of Oz
[X] The Graduate
[X] On the Waterfront
[ ] Schindler’s List
[X] Singing in the Rain
[X] Ben-Hur

Total:10

[X] Seven Samurai
[ ] Magnificent Seven
[ ] Three Amigos
[ ] Yojimbo
[ ] Fist Full of Dollars
[ ] Last Man Standing
[ ] Hidden Fortress
[X] Star Wars*+
[X] Empire Strikes Back*+
[X] Return of the Jedi*+
[ ] Ran
[ ] Dreams
[X] Rashomon

Total:5

[X] Psycho
[X] Vertigo
[X] North by Northwest
[X] The Birds
[X] Rear Window
[ ] Dial M for Murder

a few missing (my favorite Hitchcock is Rebecca)..

Total:5

the rest has been moved to the extended entry.
(more…)

That’s right! I’m bringing FO friday back! At least for this week. And hopefully I’ll have my clappy done for next friday. Also I think I may use FO to stand for Fiber Obsession and show off some yarn sometimes too.

These are some oldie buttons I made a while back for it. Feel free to snag. I’m on a button binge so I might make some more.

So. This I finished this a few weeks ago but I’m going to show it anyway.

It’s a very very very long airy scarf. Like ten plus feet long. Knit using a nice little sportweight kid mohair new wool blend from Dale of Norway. Why yellow and why this yarn? Because it’s for my mother-in-law who loves yellow and it’s very hard to find a non-poopy colored yellow yarn that isn’t for babies.

I think she’ll like it. It’s long enough to wrap it around twice and have it drapey in the front. That’s how she wears her scarves.

In UFOlympic Clapotis news, I dropped the eighth stitch last night, the one with the longest drop in the corner. Halfway through ball four of six. I even watched some ice skating. I haven’t really been watching the Olympics because it seemed like every time I turned it on they were showing that silly curling stuff which automatically makes me sleepy. I’d wish I could catch more snowboarding (is that done?). Bill the houseboy used to go up to Taos to snowboard. Strangely, I’ve made my best progress while watching Dancing with the Stars. No idea why.

See? What your junior high gym coach said when he was teaching health class was true. You mess around you end up with the clap. Booo.

Lots to share today but I need to go get ready for the Stitch and bitch.

Firstly, I finally won something searching with Blingo! A ten dollar itunes certificate or a movie ticket. Guess which one I chose? In case you don’t know what it is, Blingo is this search engine thingie run by google but for some reason (don’t ask me why) if you register for this one and do searches you might be randomly chosen to win stuff. Usually small stuff but hey. Stuff! So if you sign up using this link and you win stuff? I’ll win it too! And if people sign up using your link? When they win stuff YOU win stuff. Nifty.

Also, for the project spectrum folks I’ve got this neat thing setup on my sidbar that rotates all my smaller buttons randomly. Refresh the page and you’ll see another one. If you want to display this on your site just use this address for the image: http://www.egeltje.org/images/specrandom/rotator.php
and this is what you’ll see Niftier.

I got a surprise present from Mr. Man this morning. I really wan’t expecting anything because I’d already gotten my silly tshirt, I was just hoping he’d pick up a mocha for me from starbucks on his way home from work. But he ran into this dapper little guy who wanted to meet me.

I’ve named him Dapper Dan. Because he’s so cute with his little pants and coat with a cute little white shirt and an adorable sweater. He doesn’t like Fop. He’s a Dapper Dan Man Bear.

And we got a basket of yummies from my parents for V-Day! Yay for presents!

So that’s about it. Oh, one more thing. After a little bit of sleuthing I found out exactly who it was saying those ugly things about the local knitbloggers. Have to say I’m saddened and disappointed. Apparently she’s done a lot of this backbiting behavior over the years and people are starting to get annoyed. Every religion has its own version of the concept of getting back exactly what you put out into the universe, whether it’s called the golden rule, the threefold law, or karma, so it might be a good idea to try being nice when you’re interacting socially. You’ll get a lot more out of it.

Sorry about the downer but it just had to be said. Stream of consciousness thing I guess.