Over here: When Knitting Was a Manly Art, Jerry is mourning his Benjamin.

I went off on such a tangent that I forgot to mention that I did find something to do the Elizabeth I in. It’s Rowan 4 ply Soft in a color called HONK. I think it’s purdy. But…must…finish…shawl…
Actually, got a new chair today, so I should be cruising along in knitting style.

I took a day off today, because it just seemed like the right day to take off. I went to my NS(not-so)LYS in a sort of “yeah, right” kind of mood, thinking there was no way in hell that they would have any of Alice Starmore’s Dunedin yarn in stock. HUH? Yeah, they had it, and enough for the Elizabeth I sweater that I want to make, even enough for me to size it up to fit me. But the color? Eh! Camel. Nope. Camel would make me look like a camel. But I was surprised by the amount of AS yarns they had, even a kit for something called Grant Avenue? I am sure it’s in one of the books that I don’t know anything about. Plus a bunch of colors of Campion, a lot of one color of Bainin and some Fleet. I always thought this stuff was like gold, stashed away never to be found. I may go back with a pattern in hand and see what there is enough of to make a whole sweater.
I also picked up a book that had lots of Fair Isle patterns. (Not patterns for garments, patterns for the little designs that you combine to make a fair isle sweater.) I will use this book to design my fair isle of the mind. That’s what I decided to call it. It reminds me of that play, A Lie of the Mind. Sam Sheppard, I think. Just the name, I mean. I can’t actually remember the play, although a friend at the time was in it, called Eddie. Emerson College, 1990 maybe? Whatever. So, my sweater shall henceforth be known as the fair isle of the mind. Until I make a pattern for it, I guess.
The book? Fabulous Fair Isle by John Allen. I think I shall go and actually read it now. If it turns out to not actually be fabulous, I shall let you know, faithful reader. All two of you. 😉

They gave me a new laptop at work, with a DVD player, so I decided to test it out Thursday night by watching a DVD I got for Christmas, but had yet to watch. It was the Barenaked Ladies “Barelaked Nadies” which is a compilation of their videos, some concert footage, and the most fun part, commentary.
I am a fan of BNL from ’92, and used to go see them every few months, because they were around that often. It seems like forever since they’ve been around, and I really am looking forward to the new album and (I assume) tour following. Even if I don’t get to hang out with them after the show and take photos and stuff like in the early ’90s. They finally got the fandom they deserve, which makes it hard for everyone to get to them.
Back to the videos though, I just have to say one thing. Brian Wilson is so much better with the bongos, it’s like night and day. I mean, I love that song, I LOVE IT!!! but without the bongos, it’s like cake without the frosting, or sex without the glaven. It’s good, but you know it used to be better, and you miss it. Plus, I always had a crush on Andy. Kevin rocks, but he is a completely different person, and doesn’t have the Schroder that Andy had, and accordian is just not the same cool as bongos. And wow, I never did see the “Get In Line” video before. Poor Kev was all messed up on steroids and looked like a completely different person. I was so glad to see that he is looking great now over on the bnlblog.

I finished my first of the pair of celtic swirly socks, and now I am working on the second, and paying attention so I can write a pattern as I go. I will post a photo and the pattern when I am done (or shortly thereafter) and that will be kinda cool. I will attempt to make the pattern as correct as possible, but since I don’t know any other knitters, I won’t have any test knitters to help me debug the pattern. However, I will do my best, and if someone finds an error, I will hope they let me know so I can fix it.
Today, I am visiting the recipient of the socks, so I will be working on the shawl instead of the socks today. I have been so busy this week that I hardly knit at all. Just one of those weeks, I guess. Next week should be equally crazy. I am relocating from an office building over to “the lot”. I work at a movie studio, and so finally now I might get to see a celebrity! Actually, I did see the guy from The Guardian and the guy from Dawson’s Creek, but not being a fan of either show didn’t make either spotting very exciting for me.

Oh boy, taxes suck when you somehow miscalculated for the whole year and even though you thought you were withholding all that they could possibly want from you, they want even more! So, to console myself, and posted in reverse order, below you will see my future projects-to-be.

I don’t know why I needed this yarn, but I bought enough to make a scarfy-thing. To wear in Southern California. Whatever. I liked the colors, purple, black, white.

On the left is this great looking cotton/viscose yarn that I really dig, even though I am not much of a pink person. I think it fell off the back of a truck because I can’t find reference to it anywhere, and I don’t have enough to cover myself with it, so I bought this Pingouin in a close shade to mix with it. I haven’t decided if I will do a top and bottom kind of thing, or front and back, maybe? I think that I will make it into Joan M-M’s Shapely Tee though.
I picked up the pattern for her Heirloom Lace Jacket too, but I haven’t picked out any yarn yet. I wonder if the Harrisville Shetland Style would work for it? I will have to swatch. That’s on sale at Webs.com.

This is the yarn I picked up at the TKGA Conference from Shelridge Farms. It is destined to become, at least, a swatch for the fair-isle that I am imagining that uses the colors of the bachelor buttons from my grandma’s front flower box. I haven’t played with the yarn yet, but I will, after a few other projects are out of the way.

I picked these up at a store that was closing and they had a decent price. Since I hardly ever see solid colors of this yarn, I picked up 2 skeins of each color here.