Knitting in Texas

More water lilies?

2008-07-25T19:13:00.000-07:00

I've posted photos from our backyard pond before, but I just can't resist... yesterday, we had a double bloom on our water lily, and DH got a great photo of it. Isn't this a beauty?

Sadly, these gorgeous 4-inch blooms only last for two days, then they're gone. Cutting them doesn't work very well, they close up at day's end and don't reopen.

So we have to enjoy them while they last!

We've had lots of much-needed rain this week, courtesy of Hurricane Dolly, which thankfully didn't come anywhere near my area. Our pond is home to quite a few frogs and toads, and they serenade us all through the night (and day). They've been especially noisy this week - apparently, they're really enjoying the wet weather!

While trimming the groundcover around the pond last week, DH found a small snake - he said it wasn't a bad kind, but still made me a little nervous - I may have to rethink my habit of walking barefooted in the backyard!

I'm glad to report that I've been getting in more knitting time lately. I have hooked up with several knitting friends, and we meet weekly to knit together. I am making good progress on my Wrap Me Up shawl (pattern from Knitting at Knoon) in Noro Silk Garden. Today, I picked out my beads for the shawl, can't wait to see how they look knitted in place. I'll post more project details on my Great Yarn Company shop blog tomorrow.

Take care, and stay out of the heat!

Bob-tails and Billionaires

2008-07-06T21:59:00.000-07:00

Git' yer kitty pictures here. I mentioned way back when I started that my kitty Coco is bob-tailed, but never showed you how cute she is. Well, here ya go. First shot is when I woke her up with the camera flash, and she had a good stretch.

By the second shot, I could no longer hold her attention - the camera's flash isn't nearly as interesting as a full bowl of food. I know where I rank in her book - right after the kitty chow! And yes, it's a real tail - she was born bob-tailed, didn't lose it anywhere, and when she's annoyed, it goes around in little circles. Hilarious!

Today, I found a great meme on Fig and Plum, and I have to do it! If you use this for your blog, leave a comment here so I can read your answers!

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
In 1998, I was working at a large financial services company, as a registered representative. That's Wall Street lingo for stockbroker, but really, we mostly did financial plans and sold shares in mutual funds. I learned lots of neat stuff, and placing stock and options trades was a blast. Really fun! However, the work's very competitive, stressful, and only the top sales people make the big bucks. I wasn't one of those, so eventually, I moved on to something a little less stressful.

2. What 5 things are on my to-do list for today?
1. post to blog (yep)
2. start Ravelry group (yep)
3. make chicken salad (nope, didn't get done)
4. return Nancy's call (nope, waited til too late)
5. work on Wrap me Up shawl (not yet, but soon)

3. Snacks I enjoy:
Mostly salty and/or crispy things - crackers & cheese, chips and salsa, nachos, roasted almonds (or any nuts, really), green or black olives. But you can always tempt me with chocolate.

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire (in no particular order):
Buy a private plane, and several vacation homes in fabulous locations. Have more cats. Funnel lots of funds into certain areas of medical research. Contribute a lot more to charities, invest wisely, and of course, buy yarn.

5. Places I have lived:
Pretty short list. In chronological order, New Orleans, Metairie (a suburb of New Orleans), and New Orleans again. Then came Katrina, and now I live near Houston, Texas.

So there it is - feel free to copy this meme for your blog, and don't forget to comment here if you do!

I've got a new blog!

2008-06-27T22:50:00.000-07:00

Just a short note to let you know I've started a Great Yarn Company blog - if you're looking for the latest news about what's going on at Great Yarn Company, that's the place to look! And if you comment at the new blog before midnight, July 4th, you'll automatically be entered in a random drawing for a $15 store credit - see details here!

Thanks for dropping in - although Great Yarn Company keeps me pretty busy, I'll still post here too, mostly for Eye Candy Fridays - see ya soon!

Back from the Big D!

2008-04-12T12:39:00.001-07:00

We had a great time last weekend at the DFW Fiber Fest in Addison, TX, just outside Dallas. Lots of knitters and crocheters and a super lineup of teachers and classes.

This was our first year as a vendor, and I've gotta say, we had a ball!! And boy, were we ever busy!

Everyone was totally charmed by my sweet Mom - she's my best helper! There's even talk of getting her to be a model in next year's fashion show! (And big kudos to DH for all the lifting and toting he did, helping get everything set up. It's a big job!)

We met so many wonderful new knitting friends - and we're already looking forward to going back to see them again next year. Many thanks to the Board for all their hard work!

And can you believe it? There was a car COVERED in YARN!! How amazing is that? I think my favorite part is the license plate - I want that plate!

On the home front, we had a great Easter visit from my brother and his family, and in a few weeks, DH's sister and her hubby will be coming, so we're seeing lots of our out-of-town family members - that's a good thing.

Our extended family is full of happy news lately - we had a wedding, two college graduations, an engagement, the birth of a darling new baby grandson (not on St. Patrick's day, like I predicted), and just yesterday, we received word of another pending college graduation. Time moves so fast, doesn't it?

Lots of good things happening here - hope the same is true for you.

Eye Candy - long time no see!

2008-03-07T17:32:00.000-08:00

Finally, some Eye Candy. Bet you thought I'd forgotten all about it, eh? This is Blue Heron Rayon Metallic - beautiful, isn't it? I love the little sparkly bits... and that chocolate one has copper bits instead of gold - very nice. More about this yarn below...

It's been really weird around here weather-wise - cold and dry, cold and wet, warm and dry, warm and wet, pretty much any combination you can think of - makes it hard to figure out how to dress each day. Guess I shouldn't complain, this is a lot better than the severe winter much of the country has endured this year. We've got it pretty good here in coastal Texas - the azaleas in my back yard are blooming again and everything's starting to green up already.

We're very excited - our second grandson is due this month - his big brother was born on St. Valentine's Day, so I told my daughter she needs to shoot for St. Patrick's Day with this one, to keep the pattern going - it's gonna be close, I think!

You'd think I'd be knitting lots of baby things, right? Wrong. I'm still working on the "eternal socks" - no, that's not the pattern name, that's what I've dubbed the socks I've been working on for ages for dear hubby. The only time I work on them is Monday nights with my knitting group (hi, Clackers!) - and I'm starting to be embarrassed to show up with the same project week after week. Although it is kinda nice that everyone seems so impressed that I'm knitting them two at a time. (It's not that hard. Really.) So I use that as my excuse for being so slow on this project - see, I'm really knitting two socks at once, so it takes twice as long. Yeah, that's the ticket.

So about that Blue Heron. It's one of the many new yarns I've just added to Great Yarn Company. (You knew I'd have to mention Great Yarn Company, right? When you own a yarn shop, you love knitting, and you have a knitting blog, it's only natural that all three topics sort of merge, wouldn't you agree?)

The few past weeks have been really great. I've been receiving box after box of gorgeous yarns and enjoying fondling them, er, taking photos of them, for the website. This is a HUGE box of Rowan Kidsilk Haze that arrived a couple of hours ago - it's incredibly beautiful - took all my willpower to not just jump into the box! I'll be petting, I mean, photographing it ASAP!

Most of our new yarns are already available at Great Yarn Company - Noro Kureyon and Silk Garden (and Kureyon Sock is on the way, yea!!), Mission Falls 1824 Wool and 1824 Cotton, Frog Tree Alpaca, the afore-mentioned Blue Heron, and lots more.

And last but not least, we've got great patterns from Y2 Knit, Heartstrings Fiber Arts, Cabin Fever, Knitting at Knoon, and Noni. These will be on our website very soon. Here's a sneak peak - aren't those stuffed animals too cute? Kinda makes my fingers itch for needles. Hmmm... I really should do some baby knitting...

So that's life these days at Chez Sue. It's all good. Knitting (or pretending to), playing with new yarns as they come in, looking forward to grandson #2, and enjoying the fact that we don't live in ice and snow territory. See ya soon!

So many yarns...

2008-01-27T13:08:00.000-08:00

TNNA Long Beach was so much fun - this is the yarn industry's big semi-annual yarn buying market, and I do mean BIG. Hundreds of vendors, endless varieties of yarns and patterns -- it's totally amazing and quite overwhelming!

This was my second time at TNNA, and the thrill definitely has NOT worn off. I was so excited I could hardly sleep -- I had to keep reminding myself that this was a working trip. I was there to buy yarn for Great Yarn Company - and boy, did I ever buy yarn! I'm not sure how we're going to find space for all of it! New shipments are arriving weekly, so check our website often to see what's been added.

Just a quick teaser - pictured here is Mango Moon Recycled Silk - it's spun in Nepal from recycled silk saris - the colors just glow! It will be added to our website this week. Enjoy!

We've also ordered Noro Kureyon and Silk Garden, Malabrigo, Jojoland cashmere, Frog Tree alpaca, Claudia's handpainted sock yarn, Blue Heron, Lily Chin's new Chelsea sock yarn, and Mission Falls 1824 Wool and 1824 Cotton. We'll be adding these to Great Yarn Company as new shipments come in. Life's good, eh?

I also had the great pleasure of taking classes with the delightful Lily Chin, Mags Kandis (the creative mind behind Mission Falls designs and yarns), and the ever-inventive Cat Bordhi.

Great Yarn Company is open!!

2007-11-11T18:45:00.000-08:00

That was quick! Great Yarn Company is open for business!! Woohoo!!

The word's out, and we're growing very quickly, so come see what we've got in store for you, and check back often -- we're adding new products daily!!

Cascade 220 and Fixation, Margaret Stove's Artisan Merino Lace, gorgeous yarns by Cherry Tree Hill, plus Supersock and Sockittome in Cherry Blossom, a new award-winning colorway - we're taking photos as fast as we can, and all of these should be up on the site within a day or so - I'm SO excited!

I'd blog a bit more tonight, but I'm totally worn out from photographing yarns and updating website pages... this is almost as much fun as knitting!! Come see what we're up to at Great Yarn Company!

Yarn-y dreams and a BIG HINT...

2007-10-29T09:23:00.000-07:00

Isn't this gorgeous! It's the ubiquitous Noro striped scarf (a la BrooklynTweed's blog) that everyone's doing, and I love it. It's a surprise for my dear hubby (sshhh, don't tell him!) and it's my current favorite project.

Not that it's my only project. I have a growing list of WIPs, but I'm kinda swamped with an even better project. A very yarn-y project...

So my socks-in-progess are just sitting idle. And so is the Holly sweater you saw back in January.. (I know, hard to believe, I started it in January, this is late October, and it's STILL not done?)

And here's why...

Remember that 6o+ hours a week J-O-B that I was slaving away at? Well, long story short, I have moved on to greener pastures.

Much greener, much yarn-ier pastures.

It's so exciting - I can hardly contain myself. Well, really, I CAN'T contain myself - so I'm going to give you a BIG hint:

Great Yarn Company!

There... big enough? I'll fill you in on lots more details over the next few weeks, so check back often to see my progress - good (GREAT THINGS!) are coming soon!!

Dreaming yarn-y dreams...

Did'ja do these yet?

2007-05-13T07:31:00.000-07:00

Geez, Louise - two months since my last post - this wasn't the plan! I do feel a little better after seeing how many other bloggers, including some big names (you know who you are...!) are posting very infrequently lately, but I'm not writing a knitting book, or designing new patterns, or taking over the helm of a fabulous knitting magazine, so I'll just have to own up to being a slacker. (Well, there IS that new-job/long-hours thing I've got going...)

I shamelessly stole the following idea from Margene, and I really hope it distracts you from the fact that there are no knitting photos in this post! (Feel free to steal this for your blog.)

Knitting Stuff
Bold for stuff you've done, italics for stuff you plan to do one day, and normal for stuff you're not planning on doing.

Afghan
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with bananafiber yarn
Domino knitting (=modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Baby items
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffitti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Continental knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book
Scarf
Teaching a child to knit
American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)
Knitting to make money
Button holes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dying with plant colours
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cosies...)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items)on two circulars
Olympic knitting
Knitting with someone elses handspun yarn
Knitting with dpns
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Bobbles
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dying yarn
Steeks
Knitting art
Knitting two socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars simultaneously
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener BO
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting
Knitting with selfpatterning/selfstriping/variegating yarn
Stuffed toys
Baby items
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mits/armwarmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rug Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

There - wasn't that fun??

Time really does fly.

2007-03-01T20:05:00.000-08:00

How time flies when you're working 60+ hours per week! You may recall that I was job-hunting some weeks ago. I have good news to report on that front - I did start a new job a few weeks back, and I'm liking it a lot so far.

Unfortunately the location I'm working in is temporarily short-staffed, and I'm working lots and LOTS of hours. Working again is good, feeling valued for my abilities (that is, besides cooking, knitting, and laundry) is good, and having a regular paycheck again is very, VERY good.

So that's where I've been for the past month - I've been at work. And I have not been at home knitting, which is why you see no knitting photos in this post. I've got several WIPs - the Holly sweater is languishing and my motivation waning as the outside temperatures start to rise (remember, this IS Texas!). The purple socks (started as Badcaul but may rip and start over with another pattern, this yarn doesn't seem to want to be Badcaul) have not progressed one stitch since I showed them to you in one of my first posts.

And the plain navy blue scarf requested by my dear hubby (what can I say, he's a fashion conservative) will most certainly NOT be ready before it's too hot to wear it. I won't even discuss the pink baby sweater I've started for my new boss, whose wife is due to deliver their first child in six weeks...

So no new photos for you today - no recent knitting at all, and although I like my job, it's not very photogenic. There's hope that my schedule will become a little more normal in the next couple of weeks, so keep your fingers crossed for me - I may actually get back to my knitting soon.

A month already? Oh my...

2007-01-18T15:16:00.000-08:00

How on earth did I let an entire month (okay, a month plus 10 days) go by without a single post? Admittedly, I'm new at this whole blogging thing, but really - if you're gonna tell people you started a blog, you ought to post a little more often, huh?

So what's on the needles? First, I started the Holly sweater from the cover of Naturally Noro, using some Noro Transitions that I snagged for just over half price on eBay - not a bad deal at all. I've done a couple of nights worth of knitting on the back, and I'm realizing that although I'm spot on with my gauge, and the back is exactly the width it should be, said width is probably not going to be wide enough. Sigh.

Before casting on for Holly, I gave much thought to which size sweater I should choose, and now, in hindsight, despite all that analysis, I think maybe I chose the wrong size. Sometimes I wonder if I'd make better decisions by just jumping in, like the intellectual equivalent of "point and shoot." Don't think it through so much, just do it... naahhh, I like the analysis process too much, and it usually does result in a better decision. Really, it does. I think.

For Eye-Candy Friday, here's your first look at Coco - our spunky little bob-tailed tabby. Don't let her relaxed pose fool you, she's definitely a cat with attitude, a bossy little thing!

Here, she's taking her afternoon siesta on top of my Holly-sweater-in-progress. You can just barely see the knitting under her, so I'll have to show you how nicely the colors are striping some other time. (Can't move the cat, now can we?)

Fortunately she pretty much ignores yarn, even when she's on my lap while I'm knitting socks with the yarn pulling across her back. She actually seems to enjoy the whole process and watches with great interest.

I'm having fun with the Noro Transitions yarn - it's very aptly named, as it does transition noticeably from one stretch to the next, both in color and fiber - very interesting to knit with. The texture changes are particularly fascinating as the yarn slides through my fingers - sometimes just a normal wool feeling, sometimes a bit scrunchy, and sometimes deliciously soft with a lovely halo, which I attribute to the angora.

I admit to a certain degree of compulsiveness with my knitting, and yes, I am trying to keep the color sequences in order on each sweater piece as I change balls of yarn. I have sort of convinced myself not to try to match stripes exactly for front and back, since Noro is notoriously difficult to match, but we'll see if my resolve holds when I start working on the next piece and can see how it all looks together.

To accomplish the correct sequencing of colors, I wound mucho balls of yarn, because every time I hit a knot, which distrupts the sequence, I'd stop that ball and start a new one. This resulted in my converting nine skeins into 16 balls of yarn, so on average, I'm getting one knot per skein. I think that's to be expected with Noro, from what others have said. Doesn't really affect my impression of Transitions overall - despite the occasional twigginess, I really like the look and feel I'm getting.

More backyard eye-candy

2006-12-07T22:42:00.000-08:00

I thought those of you getting chilled by frigid temperatures this week might enjoy seeing a bit of summer color, captured at peak bloom. Just out of sight to the left of this azalea bush is our backyard pond - you've already seen pics of some of the gorgeous water lilies we had earlier this year.

As for knitting, you may recall (the name's a subtle hint) that this is a knitting blog... but there's been a dire shortage of knitting-related content lately. Probably because I've been focusing on other things, like job hunting (ugh).

However, there HAS been some knitting goin' on. After much back and forth, I finally decided that the eyelet rib was indeed the way to go with the striped socks, and they're nearing completion. See?

Did you notice the pretty blue stitch marker I'm using just for fun? Rabbitch made it - it was part of the prize I won for contributing to Claudia's MS bike ride. Being charitable is so rewarding.

Also nearing completion (I just love quick little projects!) is the scarf I promised Mom for her birthday (which was only 3 days ago, I'm not THAT late!). Wish I could tell you where I got the yarn - soft handpainted mohair with a shiny peachy strand - but I bought it a couple years ago on eBay and don't have any of the details. Pretty stuff. Wish I could show you - I took a lovely photo of it, but Blogger is being obstinant and won't let me upload it right now. Sigh.

I got smart this year. I'm not knitting ANY presents for Christmas. Two years ago, I kinda went nuts, and knitted six scarves, two pairs of slipper/socks, and a watch cap. All in about three weeks. Won't catch me doing THAT again. I'm actually enjoying both the Christmas preparations AND my knitting this year, since they're totally unrelated. I highly recommend not trying to knit a zillion gifts at the last minute.

Eye Candy Friday

2006-11-17T09:11:00.000-08:00

Don't ya just love all the creative photos people are posting for Eye Candy Friday? Makes me want to take pictures (or just read blogs!) all the time. Here's a artsy shot of a creamy white water lily with a lavender hyacinth in our backyard pond. I took the shot I use as my profile photo (upper right), but my dear hubby gets photo credit for this one - enjoy!

Noro Dreams

2006-11-15T08:51:00.000-08:00

Little progress on the knitting front this week, kinda two-steps-forward and one-step-back. I am currently drooling over the cover sweater of "Naturally Noro," and I'm having trouble picking out a yarn color. Of course, all Noro colors are gorgeous - decisions, decisions!

Meanwhile, I CAN show some knitting, although it's not my own - have you seen the new Penelope Cruz movie "Volver"? I haven't seen it yet, but I love the sweater she's wearing in this publicity shot:

Looks like a bulky or worsted weight lace cardigan, maybe a leaf pattern, with scalloped edges - does anyone know of a similar pattern? Very pretty, even in the bright green Cruz is wearing.

It's a start...

2006-11-05T19:13:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking for a while now that I'd really like have a knitting blog - so with that brief intro, I present Knitting in Texas.

Just for the record, I've only been a Texan for about a year, but I'm liking it. I lived in New Orleans right up until I evacuated, one day before Katrina changed everything, but we won't get into that. Just know that the spirit of my beloved New Orleans lives, the city IS slowly coming back, and she really needs your support and your tourism dollars. The French Quarter's rocking, the street cars are rolling again, and the food's as great as ever.

So, on to knitting. I just picked up a copy of Knitting Rules, by Stephanie the Yarn Harlot. She's SO hilarious - I can only hope to be one tenth as good a read! Give me a little time to find my voice and maybe we'll get there.

What's on the needles right now? Two pairs of socks - first up, these lovely stripey beauties. No particular pattern, just playing around with toe-ups. I do need your opinion, though - I've started the legs with an eyelet ribbing, but to my eye, the eyelets are too much for such a busy yarn, and I'm leaning toward ripping back and doing a simple 2x2 ribbing. Whatcha think?

(I know, my photos aren't Cara-quality just yet, but at least you can see the eyelets. Or so I thought until I looked more closely.)

Also in progress, just barely, are these tweedy purples, based on the Badcaul sock pattern, but I've converted them to top-down. Not that you can tell what pattern it's going to be yet, just some ribbing at this point. Can't remember the yarn names for either of these pairs, and of course, can't find the ball bands when I need them. Will post those details later on, when the bands surface again.

So that's it - we're off and running. I hope to post often enough to keep you interested and amused, and I hope you'll comment often enough to make my blogging efforts worthwhile. I'll post again in about a week - will be without computer access for the next few days. (Go on, surprise me with a lot of comments!)