'Tackling' Circular Needles

I thought I'd share my circular needle storage/organization solution with you all. I don't remember exactly where I got the idea (on the net somewhere!), but it seemed like a unique solution - and I love, love, love it!

Here's my needlecase:

Do you know what it is IRL? A soft-sided Tackle-bag. That's right, for worms! (Well, the plastic variety, anyway). Guess how much it cost. Go ahead, guess..... $5. At Wal-Mart. Came with 10 zipper pouches. I bought 10 more pouches at Outdoor World for $2, plus 10 smaller pouches (they fit as well) for another $2.

It has a zipper pocket in the front that holds my end caps, tightening screws, stitch markers, etc. Cramming the 20 extra pouches in was a little tricky, but now I have plenty of pouches for all of my circular needle components. (I splurged and got a ton of the Harmony interchangeable ones, btw!)

Anyway, I think it's a nifty (and cheap!) way to conveniently store the circular needles. It even has a handle and it zips completely closed.

On another knitting note, I wanted something to measure my new (size unmarked!) Harmony needles, so I wouldn't be lost as to what size they were. Of course, I could just get a little needle size thingamabob, but I don't like those - some of them don't have the half-sizes. The Engineer in me wanted a tool. A Caliper. I could have just spent 5 or 10 bucks on a plain old brass caliper. But no, I wanted the cool dial caliper. $30. To measure my knitting needles. Overkill? At least I'll know to the hundredth of a millimeter the size of my needles. Need to know your needle size? Come to me. The Chemical Engineer will measure for you. ;-P

Happy Birthday to Me!

Tuesday was my birthday - I won't say how old I am - other than to say that I'm now one year closer to the big 4-0. :-( I certainly don't feel like I'm in my (late!) 30's! But, man, I'm really happy with my birthday present - finally a Democratic Nominee!!!!!! Yipee!!! I'm so fired up and ready to go, ya'll!

Hubby got me a lovely tea brewer and some loose leaf tea. I had never heard of Teavana - they originated in Atlanta, so you'd think I would have heard of them. The brewer is the coolest thing - you put your loose leaf tea in and pour you hot/boiling water in and let it steep. Then for the cool part - you place it on top of your mug, and the tea filters out down into your mug - hard to explain, but the coolest thing I've seen in a while. Did I mention that I think it's really cool? Here's a linky to the brewer so you can see for yourself. :-)

So, let's see, it's been I while since I blogged - I've started and finished a Hemlock Ring Blanket - here it is blocking:

I used Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in the Lake Ice Heather color. I ended up using 7 skeins plus a little bit from an 8th skein. The finishing row took about 4 hours to do - and I ended up with over 500 stitches on the needles! Once it was blocked it was about 48 inches wide.

I am ever amazed with lace blocking. You start with an ugly clump of knitted material that looks like this:

And then you end up with a beautiful lace blanket:

And I started a pair of Pirate Socks (pattern is Jack Sparrow's Favorite Socks):

I'm using Chameleon Colorworks Bambino in the Midnight colorway, and Knit Picks Gloss for the heels, toes and fair isle bit. I am loving the Bambino (wool/bamboo blend) - it has a lovely sheen to it and feels so silky - goes well with the gloss yarn, since that's a wool/silk blend.

And here's some spinning I've done - a fingering weight yarn with a long color change (I was actually going for laceweight to do a Swallowtail Shawl with it, but it ended up a little too thick, at 330 yards):

It's Gale's Art BBFL Roving in Ocean Blues colorway.

I'm in the process of spinning up another batch much more thinly - Gale's Art BBFL Roving in "Stormy Seas" colorway:

This batch is going well - I think it'll end up a nice lace weight once I ply it.

Well, I'll stop there for now! Ta-Ta!

(Edited to add: Update on my FIL - they've determined the stage of cancer - it's Stage 3a. He's starting Chemo within the week. His doctor is very optimistic, and says that it's curable. Please continue to keep him in you thoughts!)

Swing Set! and New Shoes!

We got the DS's a new swing set a couple of weekends ago. Took us a good two weeks to get it put together (OMG - totally pay the money to have someone else put one of these together for you - I don't care how much they charge - trust me on this one!)


They absolutely love it! Here's some progress pics and the finished product (minus some yard tweaking, that is):







I finished my socks last week:

And snagged a new pair of shoes earlier in the week to show off my hand-knitted socks:

These are the Journey's exclusive clear Converse sneakers. I've been wanting a pair for almost 6 months now - but they are impossible to get your hands on! I just happened to hit the mall on the very day they got a new shipment, can you believe it?! (It actually looks like they have some in stock online now, too, so snag them while you can!) I'm hoping they don't rub too badly on the heel area, they feel a little snug there - I'm thinking I'll wear cheap-o socks to break the sneakers in before I risk my precious hand-knits.

My Mother's Day gift (a little early):

A Kodak EasyShare Z1285. I love it! It's small enough to carry around in my purse, and takes great photos! Plus HD video and photos too. I was wanting a carry-around-everywhere camera that took good photos and videos to replace my current way-outdated-slow-as-heck-crappy-camera that I did have (an old model Olympus D-560). This new one is fast as lightning and has 12mp. I'm happy. :-)

Some of you are already aware of this - my FIL was diagnosed with stomach cancer a few weeks ago. Thank you for keeping him in your thoughts and prayers. According to the CT scan and other tests that were done, it looks like it was caught early and hasn't spread to his other organs. He had an appointment with an oncologist earlier in the week, and they are doing more diagnostic tests this week and early next week. By Friday of next week we should have a better idea of what exactly we're up against, and know what the game plan is for beating it into remission. Please continue to keep him and our family in your thoughts and prayers.

Camping, Frog pond, and a Capelet

We took our new camper for a spin at Morrow Mountain this last weekend. Here it is:

It's so much more roomy inside than our other one. We love it!

(And we were so excited to find out that the park had added electric to some of their campsites, woo hoo! That means we can camp there over the summer and be able to run our air conditioner! Now if they would just take reservations it'd be our absolute favorite park!)

And immediately after getting it set up we were graced by some lovely deer walking right by us! (Then right before we left on Sunday a group of about 8 walked right by us again.)

Speaking of deer, DS was watching Bambi the other day, and was loving the bits with Thumper - I was able to catch a photo of a real smile (it's so hard to get either DS to give me a true smile in a photo!)

Over the weekend they were having a Revolutionary War camp at the park - we got to see a musket demonstration - it was really neat! I learned quite a few things - for instance, did you know that the civilian militia members wore their own clothes (no blue uniforms here! that's just a myth - most of them wore white - dyes were too expensive) and the riflemen brought their own guns as well. I did not know that the flints only lasted for about 15 shots before they had to be re-flocked, and then had to be replaced after a few times of re-flocking. I just figured the flints lasted forever. The riflemen had to make their own bullets, too, since the rifles were all custom sizes - so they were given hunks of lead to make their own bullets. Anyway, I found it very interesting. :-) I was able to snap a photo of them firing:

On the knitting front, I'm to the cuff on sock #2 of my Entrelac Socks. And I've frogged sock #1 down to the heel, so I can re-knit it to fit better. (Oh the agony of the frog pond! I started ripping it whilst at the Tuesday night Charlotte Purls gathering, and I could feel the ladies around me holding their breath! ;-) - but I think (hope!) it'll turn out OK - at least it should fit better - if I don't drop any stitches that is!)
Sock #1 wasn't going on over my heel, so I'm switching to 7 stitch blocks immediately after the heel to add some ease. Sock #2 is fitting much better as a consequence, so my OCD is making me redo sock#1 to fit as well. :-)

And I finished my Purls KAL Capelet a little while ago. Here's a photo Stacey snapped of me a couple Saturdays ago at Charlotte Purls: I've also spun up some squishy Merino/silk blend yarn to do Tudora with (I hope it's not too bulky to do this pattern!)

Well, that's it for now - sorry for the long post! :-)