It's all relative (but there's pictures!)

I realize my lengthy absence from this blog. I'd like to say that I was so busy having fun (and possibly knitting up a storm), yet the truth is that I was away starting my new job as a library shelver (I have been now trained to shelf adult fiction, nonfiction, AV, children's fiction, nonfiction, easy readers, magazines, drop-boxes and even now the conveyor belt) and also spending the last two weeks being connected to Joe's hip while he was in for his brief break before he spends another half a year in Iowa finishing up his degree. He's gone, though. I will survive (I doubt that I'll have to play that song at all), and I am back in the knitting business. And there will be pictures!

I want to thank those who cared to wish my grandfather "get better." He underwent major heart surgery, a valve replacement and preventative measures that his heart didn't literally "burst" (coronary). He was out for 3 days, and we were saddened to learn that he is not recovering as he should be. He will be transferred to a semi-acute care, instead of just rehab...and my grandmother-who is totally relying on him...she never learned to drive-is being shuffled around from family living quarters, and will have an eye surgery Thursday.

My other grandfather had bad blood clots in his leg after a tumble that wasn't looked after, and has to take mucha medicine for 6 months (and has had shots everyday in his stomach for 1-2 weeks).

As for me, I realize now that me and chlorine does not mix. After my third ear infection...I'd rather just buy swimming ear-plugs. Plus, I'm slowly (very slowly!) trying to get over the sensitivity from my cavities being fixed.

But let's cut the rambling updates. Here's some pictures!
I gave in, and went to Stitches Midwest with Joe on Saturday...and now my bank account hates me!
You're looking at two sets of Berroco's Light Ultra Alpaca yarn in heather green and skyish blue, that will turn into cardigans (the green, hopefully the "Infinity" Cardigan I was designing last Fall), 4 skeins of Happy Feet novelty yarn (will be a shrug), Noro sock yarn, Blue Moon Kid Mohair, STR in "Fairgrounds," buttons and a knitting mystery book signed graciously by the author himself.
Here's the promised pictures from me and my lovaaaa's vacation at Kalahari:
It was actually pretty cool out during our vacation at the Dells. It was around 60 degrees, I think. We spent most of the time in the indoor waterpark. Our last day was spent at the Tommy Bartlett show ("the greatest show" OFF water). Ha ha ha.
Ha ha ha...get this one: This was our "beach front" view. Right! Actually, it was really nice to see some trees instead. Joe and I were reading and drinking coffee (and later booze)to some birdies chirping along.

A bit of knitting being done.
I'm trudging through this 660 page book. It's really awesome though! I can't wait to finish it.
My handsome guy. We are so meant for each other...we love the quiet life, reading and such together. I'm so lucky to have him in my life...and I already miss him. Darn you school.
Cheers.
See an update on this shawl in the post above.

Be. back. soon.

It's been a long couple of weeks.
Interviews, applications, more job hunting...and then Great Aunt passing away while my grandpa was also going into the hospital for a double bipass, valve replacement and other such preventative measures...and then finally job orientation and packing....for...my....mini....vacation!

Joe and I are heading up to the Dells tomorrow and will stay until Thursday evening! I'm soo excited. It's just the two of us, and I plan on having the time of my life. Especially after all that has happened lately.

I have started an amazing red alpaca shawl around when I was waiting 8 hours in the hospital waiting room, but I will keep knitting up during our breaks at the Dells, and will report back with a nice little pic for you all to enjoy, as well as pictures from the resort!

Until then, life's a glass of pina coladas right now....

Now selling...

"Creature from the Black Lagoon Socks"

"Coiled Cables & Ribs Socks"

"Candied Love Socks"

"Blizzard Boot Socks"

It's official. I've waited long enough. I'm putting up some KUAS originals (from a past sock club that I designed for) up on my shop because the end of summer is near. The club's over. The only exclusive thing was the yarn. It's time to move on & up in the world...

It's time to think about cracking out those needles again, and working on some socks for yourself, or that long line of loved ones who just think that you can whip up a pair of socks for them like it's nothing.

Sale on yarn! Fri-Sun Only!
I will knock off $2 for any yarn for peeps who come through my blog. Email me (knittingupastorm[AT]gmail[DOT]com) first, and I'll adjust the price for you!

Eyecandy pt3

For all of you KUAS club enthusiasts...I'm just letting you know that after I get my teeth hacked away (again) by the dentist, I will be taking off the "Pride and Prejudice" club off the market. I plan to come home, watch Buffy until I get feeling back on the left side of my face, maybe eat (if I can, I just had my right side done Tuesday, and it's still sensitive to bite on that side), and then start the dyeing process.

The roving doesn't have a colorway name, so I guess I'll call it "Midnight Serenade." It has all sorts of blues, a subtle foresty green, grey and a tiny bit of a heathery pink. I'm trying to make the singles extra thin this time, so that I will get something like a fingering-weight or sport-weight yarn as a double-ply. This time, I'm bound to get a lot of yards.
I shouldn't really be stingey (sp?), I do have 8.4 oz of this, but I would like to save 4 oz for a single-ply yarn that I'll put up in my shop. Any takers? lol. You probably will have to sign up for "KUAS homespun yarn" in advance because I can't see myself making a lot for my shop. I want the yarn! lol.

Eye-candy, pt2

After attending the Midwest fair (see post below), I decided to finish up my double-plied yarn that I start way back. I drafted the rest Saturday night, and spun all of Sunday. It took all of Sunday night through this morning to fully dry. But hey, there's no real curly-action going on, which is good. It's worth the wait.
I bought a really nice niddy-noddy at the fair, and figured out how to use it just in time to wrap the newly finished yarn around it. It's really not complicated to use. You keep it at a 90 degree angle on the top from the bottom, and begin by holding the yarn end in the middle. Then, you wrap top to bottom & top to bottom until all four corners were used on the niddy noddy. Once you complete the process, you tie it up the yarn ends, count how many strands (each revolution around the whole niddy-noddy is one yard for mine), take it off, wash/soak it, hang dry it with large weights (cans) until completely dry, twist it into a skein, and go about your merry little way.I think the colors blend very nicely. It gives off almost a calming feel to it. It was really fun watching the colors blend together, even on the singles. When I drafted the yarn, the colors kind of separated where it didn't get died completely through in the middle, and the colors would twist with the white, making a single-ply look like a double. Now that I double-plied the yarn, some of the colors look quadruple-plied. I'm guessing the roving was a fine merino. It really was a pleasure to work with, being soft and all. One advice I'd like to give is that yeah, you can pretty much hold the yarn however you want when you are single-plying the yarn...but when it comes to double-plying two singles together, watch out! Look up on the internet how to hold your hands for this! If you hold it like roving, then some parts would curl up and get spun all funky, and the yarn will not have a real shot at looking normal. Both single-plied yarn has to be kept seperated. Like Bettas. (That's right, I just mentioned fish.) "Gotta keep them seperated."

Weight: worsted

Fiber: fine Merino wool

Yards: approx. 100

Needle size: 7-9US

Started: June 3rd,2008-July 20th, 2008

I'm not quite sure what I would do with approx. 100 yards, but maybe these will become fingerless gloves one day. Who knows.

Midwest Fiber Fair 2008

Mr. Paci and I had a great day! We spent 3 hours at the 2nd annual Midwest Fiber Fair last Saturday. We shopped around-lusted almost entirely over everything-and even mingled with a couple of suri alpacas. This fella above is happy to see another alpaca that looks like him! I even meet Bobbi from my sidebar right away when I got to the fair! What a sweety!! I think she had a great time too at the fair.
It was really funny and sad...they both were whinning the whole time. I have a video that I'll load to youtube later on, and you can see them walking around and whinning. The owner said that she brought one that was sheared, and one not, so that everyone could see the difference in what the hair does. Sheared or not, they both were very pettable...
See much lately, dude? Ha ha ha.... (I swear, they are always grinning!)So, ok. Here is one of the many locations where the vendors were (I really like the layout better for last year's fair...becauses everything was together!). People were selling in the hallways, in the gym, upstairs, and even outside. It was a bit much, and I couldn't remember which hallways I hit. This picture doesn't do justice to the vendor's station here. It was very trippy looking at all of her brightly colored rovings. She even did free felting demonstrations (which I missed). That's the table on the right. Now this is what I need! A sock machine! Man am I jealous now. This was a little small peice of heaven, this little walkway! You should have seen the soft skeins of sockyarn and rovings! They were selling sea-mineral blended yarn (or whatever), with some other weird stuff, and it looked and felt amazingly soft. I was a cheapo, and didn't buy really any real yarn, because it was at least 26 dollars a skein for anything. So, I kept buying rovings...and rovings...and more rovings!He seems to be famous. Never heard of him. I have a couple more pictures of him if you are interested. OK, some vendors were outside.It's like light to mosquitoes, right? It just draws you in!Here's the damage! I only bought two small skeins of yarn, but mucha mucha rovings to make my own pretty yarn!

I have finished spinning the double-plied yarn on the spinning wheel. I will post more eye-candy later after it has dried. You don't want to see the curlies, I suspect...so you'll just have to wait, like me!

Pictures: hopefully tonight!

All Aboard!

Mr. Paci and I are all ready to go to the fair tomorrow! I'm planning on bringing him in my purse (you know, like those tiny dogs), which happens to be my "All Twisted Up" bag (starting to deteriorate now...not so impressive) with lots of knitterly flare, and I will be wearing my green "Ya Herd" shirt from last year's Midwest Fiber fair.

This will be Paci's first major trip...and so I think we will be equally excited to go! Whoo-Hoo! (I've waited a whole year for this!)
I'll be there Saturday, at around 9:30am. Stop and say hello if you're coming, ok?
I'm planning on bringing my camera to take lots of pictures! If you're too far away to come, I'll be posting them on my blog when I get back.

Until then, look at the better post below. Chao!

200th post.

Well, I've finally done it. I've reached the 200th post mark. You almost have to celebrate. I figure that if you average 20 minutes per post...that's about 66.77 hours, or 4,000 minutes, or even 240,000 seconds of writing and uploading pictures!!!

Before you just look at the pretty pictures in the rest of the post....I was wondering who was going to the Midwest Fiber Fair (Crystal Lake, IL) this weekend??? I know of a couple of people who are already going...and If you all want to meet up, it would be pretty sweet to meet some of you in person, and buy some stuff! If you live in the area, I would highly suggest you go. This is their second year in the making, and they had tents and tents of heavenly knitting/crocheting things: yarn, rovings, needles, dyes, stuffed sheep/alpaca, jewelry, spinning wheels/drop-spindles, and anything else you could possibly thing of!!!

I plan on going Friday afternoonSaturday morning (they are only open late on Friday)...so drop a note by, if you wanna meet up and walk around to shop!

35 NEW Things I have learned since my first post:
1. designing my own bag ("All Twisted Up").
2. knitting my first sweater(the [not so] "3-hour sweater")
3. feltingthe first time (a clutch gone wrong).
4. Designing an inspirationalknit sweater.
5. designing my first sweater using my own noggin' ("Vintage Plum").
6. designing my own clutches from my "berry collection." The red one was from my "rasberry" collection.
7. designing & knitting my first top-down raglan.
8. Probably "following" my first knitting instructions for the "fake-a-gamo"...which I had to decipher and re-write because the instructions were "shortened" and confusing.
9.designing my own shrug.(the "Rose Shrug.")
10. designing $5 in Paris, one of the most popular top-down raglans for beginners on craftster.org.
11. designing and knitting my first washcloth, "the Unique Basket weave Cloth."
12. designing and knitting my first tanktop, "Amorè tanktop."
13. designing and knitting my first baby booties.
14. designing and knitting my first fingerless gloves,"Be Speckled."
15. designing and knitting my first raglan tee.
16. designing and knitting with fabric, "the Lightning-fast slippers."
17. My first granny-squares.
18. Knitting with REAL sockyarn for the first time. OH, and size 1 needles!!! (Hey, there's a concept!)
19. dyeing yarn for the first time.
20. designing and knitting my first skirt, "the Beach bum," created for the "self-conscious person" like me...when I went to the Dells.
21. spinning for the first time. On the drop-spindle.
22. designing and knitting my first sock pattern that has an actual pattern to it ("Joe's Office Socks").
23. designing my first lace sock pattern, "Candied Love" (version 1).
24. designing and knitting my first fingerless glove pattern with the cut-off fingers on it. ("Snuggles Fingerless Gloves.")
25. designing and knitting my first sock patternwith cables. ("Simply Ginny Socks.")
26. designing and knitting my first lace shawl"("the Cabin Shawl.")
27. designing and knitting my first beret. ("Gracie.")
28. designing and knitting my first cardigan, "the Infiniting Cardigan," (although I frogged it later on).
29. designing and knitting my first bag holder." ("The Quickie Bag Holder.)
30. Making my own stitch-markers.
31. Making my own jewelry(remember the owls?).
32. designing and knitting my first afghan, "The Ripple Reading Afghan."
33. design and knit my first table place-mat.
34. Start my first sockclub(the "Great Gatsby Club" was first), on the theme of reading the "classics."
35. Spinning my first yarn on my spinning wheel.

WOWIE! I really thought I'd only have like 15 things...that goes to show you have much you can do in under two years! Most of my designing was from the first year...which was in college. Those were the "golden" years, I guess. Now I'm a good-for-nothing knitter who rather read! lol.
NO...I've got some new designs in the process already.

So ok, on to some knitting stuff!

Here's what the "Dracula" club also got in their packages...my "Vamp City" sock pattern, along with their "survival kit" against the vamps (garlic and a stake!). It's a little like my "Creature from the Black Lagoon" pattern, but I changed up the lace pattern a bit, and added some ribbon flare!

I planted a garden this week:

From left to right: rosemary, Greek oregano, sweet basil, cactus plants, and another wee-bit of my "chandelier" cactus plant.

I've also been cooking/baking lately. Above is a chicken & potato stew, and below is some blueberry scones!

Some more unleavened bread/"everything crackers" above, and my dinner tonight below, "Southwestern salad"....with seasoned turkey, corn, tomatoes, cilantro, lettuce, and some spicy ranch sauce. I am trying to cut back on the pop (even diet pop)...as I am now dieting officially.
Joe and I are spending 3 glorious days alone at the Kalahari Resort at the Dells (went with family last year), and I am officially working-out hard core...until we leave 4 weeks from now!!! I have been working out for three weeks now, and have only lost 4-5 pounds. This week, I have finally implemented "actually eating really healthy" to speed up the process. I want to wear a bikini, and not feel so self-conscious. Joe is still at school in Iowa, and I see him in 3 1/2 weeks. Hopefully I will look somewhat different to him when he gets back. I cannot wait until our vacation!!!

Here is what I just casted on: a really simple tanktop with a grande cable in the middle, and a V-neck. I'm using my Cascade cotton yarn and size 7US needles. This cotton yarn drapes very well, so I'm not even doing anything special for the edge. I swatched several inches prior to casting on for this, and the edge stayed put! Danke. Like I said, I'm leaving for the Dells in 4 weeks, so you know I'll end up doing something special for Joe with my red alpaca yarn that had to be frogged from the raglan I started (too itchy for my neck, dang-it!). It will really be sexy! Stay tuned for that! (On the bed is the book I'm currently reading. I had to stop A. Christie's At Bertram's Hotel. To my dismay, the book was really boring...and Miss Marple hasn't even done anything for 100 pages...out of a 212 page book! What a disappointment! it seemed like such a good book from the cover! lol.)

The next themed KUAS club is "Watching the movies": October (scary movie & fall colors), November, and December (maybe Harry Potter?)! I've already had some unofficial sign-ups for this one, so If you know you would like to be part of this club, just PM me on etsy...so I'll add your reserved item on etsy in September. Otherwise, I am taking suggestions for movies in those months at any time! (the KUAS clubs will remain awesome and the most affordable knitting club around!)

Thanks for listening to my rambling for 200 posts! I appreciate every comment, and every new view of my blog! Thanks a bunch guys! You are the ones that make it worth-while to post!

KUAS August Sockclub: Pride and Prejudice

5 Slots left, guys! I just added 5 more slots for this month, because I had the extra yarn for it, and I need to "fundraise" myself for the fiber-fair coming up.

Creature from the Black Lagoon

Pattern: my own [RAVEL-IT!]

Well, I'd say it's been long enough, and everyone has their package by now! Here was the pattern I designed for Liz's June sockclub. I dub thee "Creature from the Black Lagoon."

What I really like about this pattern is that it it's playful, with the scales and divided toes. You can even wear them with sandals...if you're into that thing. Plus it keeps your footsies cool in the summer, with all of the lace.
They were knit on size 2's. The pattern is pretty easy to remember. it was a matter of actually sitting down and knitting another pair of sock (after doing socks month after month).

This one below really is hilarious to me. It's just so creepy...which is what the pattern has to live up to, in some way. *shivers*
I really like the close-up. This picture really shows off the lace and toes all in one, which was really hard to capture while millions of mosquitoes were sucking the living blood out of me.
I seriously got 10 bites on my right arm. But I think the pictures were worth it by my pond in the back of my house.

Until next time, a new design. One red alpaca raglan coming right up! Stay tuned!

Bleeding Red, White and Blue

"Oh! say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming."

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming.

And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? "

This is for all of the brave soldiers that have helped preserved what this country is today...a place for liberty and freedom for all! May we never take for granted what has been an absolute privilege for us!

Thank you America!

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!!