Igorina

So, my good friend Stephania and I did something extremely cool. If you're a knitter, you're probably aware that Sock Summit is coming up... and ifhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif yohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifu're aware of Sock Summit, you probably know about Fleece to Foot and the accompanying Design for Glory.

I was whining one afternoon about a test-knit I was working on; next thing I knew, I had Steph saying, "We should enter Design For Glory. I'm thinking a steampunk theme." And.. a few days later (amid pencil smears, crisped brain cells, dirty diapers, and "helpful" toddlers) we had an entry. Lace, gears, sprockets, a ruffle.. bits you might find in a mad knitter's workbasket.

The pattern will be available soon; no promises, but we're hoping for either at Sock Summit or soon after.

More Sock Summit

Go here (those are apparently Barbara Walker's hands) and then look at the gallery, too.

Oh yeah, if you've ever had doubts about knitting and whether it can be feminist... go read that little bio.

Sock Summit '09

There's just too much to tell, but it was amazing. And I only got to go to the Marketplace and the Ravelry party!

I didn't take nearly enough photos, but here's what there is.

SockSummit09

The Infanta was wonderful; despite a very long day and only a short nap, she only melted down about once. I was bombarded constantly with compliments, mostly about her handknits, but also about herself herself. :) It was wonderful to see babies and children of all ages everywhere, all day; truly a baby-friendly event!

There are rumors circulating about "the next one", naturally; I'm just hopiong that they decide to come back to Portland soonish, and that I can actually get into some classes next time!

When I wrote my last entry I was really, truly down, but Saturday, spent with friends and yarn fumes, has eased my spirit considerably. It was an amazing day, and healed me deeply.

How does my garden grow?

Lushly. I even have some blossoms, suggesting that some of my veggies may in fact bear fruit sometime before the frost hits. Because, you know, late July is the best time to not even have immature fruit yet. *sigh*

The Infanta and the Garden

Yet another album starring the lovely Infanta. The first ten pictures were taken last week(?) while my mom was here; you can get an idea of the monster hill of pumpkins, reaching out to grab the toddler innocently pulling bean leaves. The latter portion were taken yesterday. Josh took Herself with him while he turned on the sprinkler, and then came and asked for the camera. Most of them were taken in our rather jungle-ish back yard, but the last several are in the front, as the Infanta reacts to the sprinkler spray. She's just so dratted photogenic...

I keep meaning to take and post some pictures of the garden itself, especially as it's so very... verdant right now, but I just keep getting distracted by shiny things, or a certain fussy toddler, or whatever. Maybe tomorrow morning. It's supposed to get very hot indeed in the next few days, so we'll be hunkering down in survival mode, and searching for air conditioning to borrow.

And for all you Ravelers - the voting for Dye For Glory is open! Be sure to go cast your ballots. I wouldn't want to influence you unfairly (oh, no, never), but especially check out the entries from our local Three Fates Knitting (yes, that's a totally unpaid-for ad on the left there, because she's my good friend and dyes awesomely) and Dicentra Designs. Between the two of them, they have entries in nearly every division!

More Linkies

Totally friggin' amazing birth story!

Also, some of the knitting I've been up to lately...

Black Sheep 2009

I finally made it to the famous Black Sheep Gathering! I went with a couple of friends from my local knitting group and assorted spouses and offspring; Snarfy and Mia and I (and the Infanta and Snarfy's boys and husband) carpooled down, and met some other friends there, including Stephania and her husband and houseguest.

I was surprised to find that this year,at least, BSG was actually smaller than Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival; from everything I've heard, I expected it to be bigger. Of course, I didn't check out the wool show, or take any classes...

I also didn't take nearly as many pictures as I wanted. Before lunch, I was a woman on a mission: I had $20, and I wanted to find a new spindle, a smallish one, and maybe a little roving to spin on it. I did finally find a spindle, and I had enough left over to buy a single ounce of merino roving - and I even got a chance to spin a little of it! After lunch, we went and visited the sheep again, and this time I had my camera out. I'm not skilled enough with a camera to take exactly the pictures I'd like, but I hope I captured at least some of the Infanta's delight and utter fascination with the big furries!

Black Sheep 2009

I've been slacking with the blogging lately. So easy to let it fall by the wayside when life gets rough, and then so hard to get back into the habit...

Complete denial?!

The Yarn Harlot was taking suggestions for dorky shows to accompany endless garter stitch today; a fair number of commenters were claiming that Firefly and Torchwood aren't dorky. Scroll down to check the comments. Um, either these folks are so dork core that they don't realize it, or they're in complete and total denial. Everyone in my living room at the moment is voting for the latter.

Linky!

Karen over at the Hissy Stitch has some great photos of the surprise baby shower our Ravelry group threw yesterday. Included in the set are some great ones of the Infanta; go check them out! Random bit of trivia: the cow blanket was part of my gift, which was supposed to be a certain handmade item, but since I ran into technical difficulties, I subbed in the gift I'd intended for the "official" shower. Here's hoping for some sewing time this week!

I did get about 5 hours of more or less solid sleep after my post earlier this morning. Not enough in the grand scheme of things, but enough for bare functioning today.

So I finally watched the pilot miniseries for Battlestar Galactica today, and I have one question for you all. Why in the name of Asimov hadn't one of you tied me to a chair and made me watch this YEARS ago?!

Oh, yes, Jamie Bamber is even cuter than when I first saw him back on Hornblower. Weird hearing him with an American accent, though, let alone trying to wrap my mind around him as the son of Edward James Olmos...

Do I even need to make remarks about the hotness of Starbuck? I didn't think so.

To complete my geekery, I'm going to have to find the pennies to acquire the Viper Pilots sock pattern (Ravelry link), and make them forthwith. Life is hard when you're a geek knitter.

Long day

I started with short sleep due to staying up entirely too late reading and compounded by a baby who squirmed next to me all night. I then woke earlier than usual, as I've been trying to do in an attempt to help said baby sleep earlier. Next thing I know, I'm chasing the Hurricane (but at least I volunteered.. and Bethany will chase the Infanta for me later in the week in exchange..). That pretty much wiped me out.

Except that while the Infanta was napping this afternoon, I started another pair of the bloomers, this time withe the intent of adding a skirt layer. Should be very cute, and use a skein of Peace Fleece that I bought for the purpose months ago. Although the pale teal is a slightly odd color for me, the fact that the colorway is called "Lena's Meadow" seemed serendipitous, and was irresistible.

It's 9 pm. I'm gonna take the baby and fall over now - wish me luck on the baby sleep!

Tonight's spaghetti sauce...

came out a bit "Cajun-ed". I blame this.

*squee*

eta: if you give your child blueberries for dinner, remember to give them a full-body bib.

D'oh!

One of the ladies in my knitting group posted about our Lenten charity project of more preemie hats. I keep forgetting that I still owe 3 hats for my resolution! Guess I know what I'm doing with the STR left over from Boheme... which I could swear I posted here about, but I guess I didn't, so here's Herself posing in her pretty little sweater:

Late Bloomers

Ok, these are late only in that I just finished the knitting on them (haven't touched the finishing yet). I found the pattern on Etsy the other night, and it ended up being my first-ever Etsy purchase. I'm such a dork.

Pattern: Daisy Head Bloomers
Yarn: Lyon Fishermen's Wool
Started 3/22, finished 3/24 (ok, but all I have to do is weave ends in)

Not yet Ravelrized, but so cute I couldn't not share!

Shiny Accessories

I got a really good yoga workout last night, and I've been stiff and achy from it all day, but at least it's a good stiff and achy. I also cast on yet another baby sweater this afternoon (Ravelry link here - yes, Bethany, if you want to see this adorable sweater, you have to sign up finally).

Speaking of Bethany, she was a bad person, and is lending me a carrier for the weekend. It's very, very shiny. I don't want to take it off. Since I must acknowledge that I will never, in the normal course of things, be able to afford a shiny like this made by someone else, I'm getting excited again about making one myself. I actually printed out a pattern, and have spoken to the husbeast about getting the fittings for it (straps, buckles, etc.) - hey, he's home this week on Spring Break, he can chase the Infanta while I get some sewing in!

And now for something completely different.

So, it seems the folks at Ravelry are looking for a (in my words) girl Friday.

Job description is as follows:

Hi Ravelry! Erica the Email Fairy is moving on, and Ravelry is looking for a new team member! This is a part-time (~20 hours per week), work-at-home position with flexible hours, and a definite possibility of growth with the company over time. :) We are looking for someone tech-savvy, friendly, and positive who is very familiar with the Ravelry site and community.

essential responsibilities include:

- Provide the first line of helpful support to all emails coming in via our contact-us page, the shopping@ravelry.com, and the advertising@ravelry.com email addresses (and alerting the rest of the staff to potentially important issues that come in). Topics in these emails can cover anything under the sun - designer/yarnie issues, confidential forum issues, happy people, Ravelry mini-mart questions, advertiser help, and more!

- Hook up designers, yarnies, and design teams with their Ravelry profiles and answering basic questions or directing to helpful on-Ravelry resources as needed.

- Assist users with Ravelry invitation issues.

- Provide help as needed on the Ravelry “work” forums: For the Love of Ravelry, Help!, Ravelry Shopkeepers, Ravelry Editors, Advertisers’ Caboodle.

- Assist Jess and Mary-Heather with ad approvals (image feedback, checking groups for competitors, etc.).

- Must be familiar with Ravelry’s site, vision, and tone!

- Must be able to stay motivated, level-headed, and work both independently as a self-starter on your own tasks, and as a part of our tightly-knit (har) team.

- Ownership of cute dog not required.

I think this would be a fabulous position for me - heck, I'm already on email all the time anyway! I could use some help from my faithful readers, however: One of the questions they want answered is

If you were a yarn-producing fiber, what would you be and why?

I offer no prize other than my gratitude (and probable adoration, especially if I get the job), but I'd love to hear your opinions on this! The deadline for posting applications is next Friday, so I'd love to hear back from you all by the end of the weekend.

Posting from the living room!

Okay, posting from the lappy will cease to be shiny soon (maybe).. but I'm still excited, so bear with me.

Some of you know I had hopes for getting knocked up this last cycle; it's an official not this time. Disappointing, but in all practicality, not a bad thing, especially not with a client due three weeks before I would have been! So, I can focus on trying hard this cycle. Don't be surprised if either of us is more tired than usual... ;)


One of the ladies from my local knitting group is an actual factual designer, and she has been working on a sock design recently that's likely to be published in a magazine (like, one you have to pay for). What's shiny about it for me is that I volunteered to test knit the design. So, I have a brand-new sock design on my needles, that I have to get finished expeditiously, and so I have the double bliss of a cool new pattern before almost anyone else, *and* I'll have a new pair of socks done for me before I'd be finished otherwise. Too bad I can't show them to you.

This assumes knitting time. The Infanta is in yet another iteration of her secret identity as Velcro Girl (now, with Static Cling!), and can hardly bear to be out of my arms, let alone be across the room or anything else so dastardly and inhumane, such as (gasp) being held by her father! Yes, Mom, I know about how I decided, at 3 months old, that I didn't want to be held by anyone but you; consider this karmic payback. But really, did I try to pull your face off when I was nine months old? (Probably.)

I had plans for the day that included the shocking idea of going out. So I should probably wrap up this post and get on to parts of my day like getting dressed, don't you think?

Yay, photos!

We figured out the issue my camera cable was having - corrosion on the contacts! Zomg! All hail the cleaning power of fingernail polish remover.



My local Ravelry knitting group keeps a charity project going every couple of months. This last time it was preemie hats for the local hospital. We found out they need upwards of ten a month! So, since they're so easy and fast to make, we've decided to make it an ongoing project. Ravelrized here.



The Infanta and her first cellphone. Actually, it's an old broken one of mine; she's been grabbing for ours recently, so we decided to pull one out that she can play with. She was enchanted. Shiny!



Finally: is that Mama behind those glasses?!

OMG.

The teacher list for the Sock Summit is up... and it reads like a freaking who's who of the knitting world. I swear, if EZ were alive, she'd be teaching! Her daughter is..

Let's hope the classes are priced humanly, eh?

Garden update: The sprouts I mentioned yesterday? More like six inches. And the daffodils are showing buds. I should really prune the roses this weekend.

Snow again, snow again, Jiggetty-Jig

It was snowing when I woke up this morning (the first time). So I pulled the curtain back to watch it, which we did until it turned all to rain. Then I went back to sleep for a while. So much for Stephanie complaining that in Oregon, snow is a singular word! Just because we're not generally buried under mountains of the stuff... and really, what kind of person willing lives in a climate where that's guaranteed to happen? :D

One of my current knitting projects is making a couple of preemie caps for my local Ravelry group's current charity project - preemie caps for our local hospital. Super easy - take fingering yarn and the size needles you prefer (I'm using 3mm simply because that's what came easily to hand), cast on a decent amount of stitches, knit for a while, cast off. I'm using Baby Ull (of which I have a fair bit of leftovers stashed), casting on 64 stitches, and knitting in 2x2 rib for 4 inches, before decreasing. For the one I've finished (yes, I've finished something!!!), I decreased at 8 points around with p2togs, which made for a pretty and easy top. I'm making another in "boy" colors (the first was lavender and white), and hoping that they bring some brightness to the lives of some stressed preemie parents. I'm taking the opportunity to kind of make them prayer hats, too, and knitting in intentions of health, warmth, strength, and love - I figure preemies can use that.

39. The Escape Artist

My Ravelry knitting group is meeting at the Ike Box a lot these days. It's a coffee shop downtown that's attached to our local YMCA. It's a generously-sized space, friendly to boisterous groups; it has tables and chairs, as well as conversation groups of shabby, comfy furniture. I gather that the place often hosts bands (there's a decent-sized stage dominating the largest room), and serves as a gathering place for many local teens. I can see why, and would have no problem with my own child hanging out there (well, if she were a teenager - spending time there while Mama's knitting is different!). The place is well-enough maintained that I have no issues with my crawler doing her thing on the floors, even in the evening or on a Saturday afternoon (after presumable lots of people and a show the night before). Oh, yes, it's baby- and child-friendly - actually, it tries to be friendly to all ages, and means that literally.

We had been meeting in a side room on Wednesday evenings; large enough for our somewhat rowdy knitters, and with doors that can be closed to contain the various babies (in addition to the Infanta, there's a three-month-old and two eleven-month-olds that make regular appearances). However, yesterday afternoon that room was closed off for some reason, and our group was gathered at a group of comfy furniture to one side of the main room, next to the stage. You experienced parents will see this coming when I point out the combination of a semicircular arrangement of furniture and a determinedly exploring crawler. I saw it, too, and tried to take steps to contain her explorations, but the Infanta foiled those easily, even contemptuously. She was deterred for a time by the combined blockades of a large basket of yarn and a friend's shoes with pink hippos on them (which were apparently fascinating conversational partners). But when the lady working with the yarn moved the basket off the floor, the Infanta suddenly became aware of the vast unexplored wilderness, and set out to conquer. She'd made it almost to the foyer by the time she was corralled the first time; we pulled a couple of chairs from a nearby table in hopes that they would be enough of a blockade. Herself laughed at our pitiful attempts as she raced straight through the gap between the chairs, which happened to be exactly wide enough to admit her. As I pulled her back this time, I brought a third chair over, to solidify the forest of chair legs crossing the gap. Alas, the chairs alone turned out to be inadequate, as the Infanta quickly found that even her slight mass was more than enough to move a chair aside enough to crawl through. As one of the other knitters remarked, she was acting like a cat - if her head could go through, so too could the rest of her. By this time, it was going on 5:30, and time to head home, so I called Josh for our ride and put our things away in preparation to leave. I had learned my lesson, though, and did not let the Infanta crawl free again until we got home.