House Cleaning!

Well, we've gone thru the house, and identified a mess of items to either sell or donate away.

The first batch is the kitchen stuff listed on the sidebar. They are now listed on eBay. Over the course of time, I'll be adding some formal dresses - all very nice, and still stylish, I just can't get into them anymore, and honestly, I can't think of a time when I'll be needing such dresses again.

Items that don't sell or aren't worth listing will be shuttled off to the local Goodwill or consignment shop.

Joining up again

In honor of being about a quarter of the way thru my last skein for Cozy, I have joined the Kepler Along in anticipation of casting on for my new project. Not only is Kepler a nice looking sweater, the pattern is free, and I have enough yarn to do it in three different colorways! Hooray for Stash Busting!

Nearly Neverending

While I will finish eventually, it certainly seems as if Cozy is a nearly never ending project. Cast on over a year ago, she's waited patiently as I've gotten distracted with other things, and on occasion seriously frustrated and fed up. I've come a loooong way it seems. What used to be a rather challenging lace repeat is no problem, I can even work it while "watching" TV.

It's nearing time to rejoice - Cozy and I have reached an agreement. I've nixed the fifth ball of yarn (setting it aside for some worsted weight socks) and will be calling her done after this ball I *just* joined is finished...it's not quite time to celebrate, as it's no small ball of yarn, I've got nearly 200 yards of yarn to knit into Cozy before I'm done....but at least I'm nearing completion!

In preparation, anyone know if Wool Ease can be blocked? (yeah, I knit her out of Wool Ease. It's a Cozy for the car. It needs to be durable and easy to wash.)

Goin' into Business

Well, I've always wanted to try to earn some money off my crafts, so I'm making a bigger attempt at it now.

While the stock is rather low right now, I have gone ahead and opened a shop :) I still have a shop space at Etsy, but I've decided to launch my own to cut down fees.

Please pay it a visit here, and spread the word!

The Calendar is up!

the Knitty Calendar is now available :)

Check it out! My Pasha is Ms. January! What a way to start the New Year :D

Baa Baa Black Sheep...

Have you any wool?

Yes Sir, Yes Sir....way more than 3 bags full!

I finally got around to cataloguing my yarn and fiber, and it's a little bit shameful. I have 11.5 kilos of yarn (almost 25.5 lbs!) - and that's just the yarn. That does not include my piles of fiber - of which there seems to be a somewhat alarming amount in and of itself.

I've discovered that while I enjoy knitting lace, I have very little lace weight yarn. By far, I have mostly worsted weight yarns, and most are natural fibers. Yarns vary from a pile of recently discontinued Cotton Ease (earmarked for a miter square blanket) to a pair of skeins of super luxurious bulky Classic Elite Sinful (100% cashmere - earmarked for nothing other than gazing at adoringly and a little bit of petting now and again).

I've put some of them up for sale/swap - in case you're reading via RSS feed, these include:

• Lion Brand Homespun
• Gothic, 1 skein
• Edwardian, 1 skein
• Paton's Beachcomber
• Dark Blue, 9 intact skeins + 1 full skein, partially unraveled
• Steinbach Wolle Maxi Ombre
• Yellow/Brown variegated, 1 skein
• Green variegated, 1 skein
  
• Southwest Trading Co Bamboo
• Purple, 1 skein
• Southwest Trading Co Oasis
• Canyon, 1 skein

If you're interested in any of it, leave a comment, or click on the sidebar to contact me directly :)

Dreadfully Remiss

I've been terrible at keeping track of the food goings on, but recent posts on my favorite foodie blogs have reminded me that I've just missed out on two fun IMBB events: Sugar High Friday (featuring dark chocolate, my favorite!) and the original Is My Blog Burning (this last one featuring souffles - not as intimidating as you might think)! IMBB is currently experimenting with Technorati rollups, so the unofficial results are available for perusal while the host does the manual rollup. Incidentally I also missed out on a new IMBB event, Cooking the Old Fashioned Way, AKA Disaster Preparedness which sounds like something I should be reasonably good at - especially considering how tricked out I am in terms of outdoor equipment, which I presume, I would grab in the event of a disaster. Ah well, go check em out :) you'll be glad you did!

Certifiable.

Some might argue I'm bonkers, but that's okay.

While I continue to churn away on Cozy (yes, I'm still working on Cozy, and I'm not allowing myself to cast on for anything else until that darn FO is finally finished!), and my experimental Karaoke Socks, I am also unspinning some yarn. That's right, unspinning. In my box of fantastically fluffy merino and angora were some balls of spun (but not yet set!) yarn - Because they are a bit slubby and aren't of the same thickness I would spin, I've decided to try to unspin the yarn to reclaim the fiber...so far so good, and I'm getting some lovely pencil-roving like lengths. I'll probably bundle a couple lengths together when I respin it so I have more fiber to work with to set the thickness as I see fit.

As for Cozy, we had a little chat - she's agreed to be 1 skein shorter than planned, I've agreed to knit her til she's done. As for what's happening with the other skein, I think I'm going to cast on for one of the Sandal Socks by Anna Zilboorg - after all, the yarn is worsted weight, and if I remember, her gauge is 6 stitches to the inch! Perfect, and close enough to an instant gratification project for me!

Sweet Sweet Handspun

Mmm. Delicious Yarn.

Lovely, isn't it? Looks a mite different now that it's plied, but more beautiful, I think - don't remember what they looked like unplied? Click for a refresher!

Incidentally, I'm an enabler...they're for sale.

Details? Why of course! Available here.

Bunny on the Brain

This morning, as I was headed out to my car I spotted a bunny in the driveway! The cottontail community must be getting healthy as I've been spotting rabbits in the neighborhood - even caught one wriggling under my side fence once though I'm really not sure what it found enticing in my back yard.

To add to Bunny madness, I got a pile of Merino-Angora (50/50 - can you say soft!) fiber - I won't call it roving, since it seems to be in semi-squashed batt form. I have about a pound of "Ecru" and two pounds of Silver-Grey color - I might blend the two as I spin them, to get a slightly tweedy yarn - I'm not decided yet though. I'm thinking of making a sweater out of it once the yarn is spun up, but I haven't quite decided yet as I hear angora is ridiculously warm.

Speaking of bunnies, have you ever seen an Angora rabbit in person? They are quite adorable - and rather funny looking after they've been harvested for their fur!

Happy Tacks!

Those fancy colorful baubles there are thumbtacks, believe it or not...if you go look at my finished objects blog, you will actually be able to see the shadow of the pin part of the tack in the close up shot! Neat, huh?

Hoo hoo! I'm published!

Or I will be anyway. This marks the 2nd and 3rd calendars I'll have photos published in :)

The first was a canyoneering calendar for the American Canyoneering Association - for 2005.

The second is the Knitty 1st annual calendar - if you recall, my entries featured Pasha...one of those penguiny photos will be in the calendar, can you guess which one?

and the third is actually the 2nd annual American Canyoneering Association calendar :)

A little cake, for all day munching

I woke this morning with an urge for cake. After purchasing some yogurt earlier this week for some curry experimentation, and then just not being in the mood for curry or the prepwork involved, the yogurt has sat, with nothing to contribute itself to. I generally don't like yogurt, especially that of the plain variety, but I do find it useful for cooking.

Wander over this way and see what became of said yogurt.

Pardon me. I have cake to tend to :)

All Wound Up

They look much more stunning wound up, don't they?

These three happy yarn balls are fresh off the bobbins, and are ready for plying. It was absolutely mesmerizing, winding them off the bobbins into center pull balls - and once wound up, they look just gorgeous. You can see the various colors in the yarn better in ball form than on the bobbin, I think.

Each one is about 90g (3 ounces) in weight, I can't speak for the yardage yet since I'm going to ply them up - stay tuned for results!

Singles Anyone?

Incidentally, you can click on that photo for a gratuitously large shot of singles...

I'm so pleased...you are looking at three bobbins full of singles I've spun :) A total of 10 ounces of blue faced leicester space dyed (not by me, I bought it that way) roving converted into fingering weight singles. Because I personally have not had much luck knitting with singles that thin, I plan to ply these up - 2-ply most likely, as I've not had much luck at all with Navajo plying (3-ply to keep the colorway intact) - I made a right mess the last time I tried that.

It is possible that the yarn is knittable as is (well, once the twist is set anyway) since I have a tendency to over spin, but I figure why risk the frustration? Once plied, I will likely offer the lot up for sale, as individual 2 ply skeins. While they all came from the same roving, the way they were split, some sections had more blue and purple and some sections had more pinks. Stay tuned for plied results!

A Fantastic ROAK

While I'm not an official member, I've been ROAK'd none the less. What is a ROAK? It's a random act of kindness. And I'm one of the multitudes of recipients of the ROAK planned by Elizabeth of My Favorite Things. After collecting all kinds of recipes from various knit bloggers, she formatted them, printed them up and bound them into a spiral bound book...272 pages of favorite recipes from various knit bloggers! She then proceeded to send a copy to each of the contributors! My copy arrived last night, and I've been perusing it for dinner ideas since then. Thanks Elizabeth!

You may notice the sidebar has been updated to include the various things I'm selling off. Please do contact me if you're interested in any of it. I'll probably keep it listed on my blog for a bit before taking it off to Ebay to try my luck there. I suspect various items will make an appearance as we actually go through our house and start clearing things out.

Apparently, I should go Purple.

No further cleaning has happened...and few things have found new homes. I figure I'll try here first, then perhaps post over to ebay.

Last night was spent going through a ginormous box of baseball cards - with a few football cards thrown in for good measure. Does anyone know how best to go about selling one's baseball card collection? (not mine, it's my husband's - I never would have guessed!)

Other things up for sale/trade:
a six inch black bladed Kyocera Chef's knife. It's in good order, and might need a sharpening (send it to Kyocera for sharpening) depending on how you like your cutlery, never been dropped or washed in the dishwasher.

In case you are wondering what's to be bought if I manage to sell off enough stuff? I'm drooling over digital SLR camera.

Oh and about that purple:

Your Hair Should Be Purple

Intense, thoughtful, and unconventional. You're always philosophizing and inspiring others with your insights.

What's Your Funky Inner Hair Color?

Cleanin' Frenzy

I'm not sure what is going on, but my husband has gotten on a cleaning kick again. I think it had something to do with some crazy PBS show that was playing in the background this weekend about cleaning up clutter...it must have worked its way subliminally into his mind because the next thing I knew, the front closet was being rearranged, and jackets and barely worn shoes were being placed in a pile for "redistribution."

I managed to escape unscathed so far, but will probably not escape for long.

Some items I know that will likely be looking for a new home include:

-A lightly used Omega 4000 Pulp Ejection Juice Extractor -why? I prefer smoothies, and love my Vitamix much more dearly.
-A lightly used Matfer Mandoline - because a sharp knife in my hand is much faster than fussing with a mandoline, even though I can't make crinkle or waffle cuts with a knife :D

In the way of Fiber, I'm likely going to be looking for a home for some of the following:
-Several skeins of Lion Brand Chenille - in various colors - I think I have a skein of purple, 2 skeins of black and quite a number of skeins (6 or 7) in Peacock (I think...actually, it's 8. I counted when I got home.)
-Numerous balls of Patons Beachcomber in dark blue

Any takers? Make me an offer...

just plain bored.

*sigh* I'm tied into completing some gift knitting and have high hopes for completing the other projects on needles before getting distracted and starting another project...

...sadly, I'm bored bored bored! The gift knits are easy knits, can be done anywhere, but I'm tired of knitting them (scarves. Two of them. At the same time. On the same needles. What was I thinking?!) The other unfinished projects? Cozy, of course - with 2 huge skeins of yarn to go (but I'm half way done!). I've considered ripping the thing out, and using the yarn for something else - but I don't know if I have enough yardage...the current candidate for the yarn should I be possessed to rip, is a wrap/throw from Alice Starmore...mmmm....aran knitting! The other project? Socks :D I'm on the cuffs...K2P2 ribbing...I've only got about a centimeter done...and it goes FOREVER because it's on US3 needles! The good news is I knit both socks together on the same circular needle (hooray for the magic loop - it's saved me from Second Sock Syndrome) so at least once I'm done, I'll have a pair of socks :D

Anyone else hitting a crafting slump?

BTW, I love my wheel...gratuitous yarn photos will be appearing sometime in the not too distant future :D

the Squid ate my Eggplant

...among other things.

Here at Half Baked, we seem to be troubled with minor technical difficulties....
First, yahoo groups is misbehaving, delivering messages all out of whack. It makes for wonderfully disjointed reading. Next, my email for my volunteer job kept wanting to do maintenance and kept logging me out (gotta love web based mail!) and finally, it seems I can't get into a couple sites from work today - one of them is SuperEggplant and I'm dying to find out what books she fetched from Kinokuniya (sadly bloglines truncated the entry, thus the tantalizing knowledge of a new craft book found...but which one?! Oh the curiosity is tremendous!) and it's not letting me into my volunteer webmail either. Both are returning various errors...but I've verified it is *just me* that seems to be affected. My computer has been rebooted, given a stern lecture and a time out, all to mostly no avail...after several tries using multiple browsers, I was finally successful in getting into my webmail using FireFox...but sadly, SuperEggplant's doings remain a mystery, a victim to a 113 no route found error.

Oh, and what's up with the Squid you ask? Beats me, I'm not IT savvy, but from what I can gather, it refers to this squid.

Technical Difficulties

My blog(s) seem(s) to have technical difficulties - pertaining specifically to photos uploaded directly to blogger....anyone else noticing these problems? The problem: The photos don't seem to load reliably - sometimes they appear, sometimes not. When they don't appear, often times the problem is fixed by refreshing the browser - other times, it doesn't work at all. I guess I'll have to post to blogger for assistance, and then if it's not resolved I'll have to move the photos to Flickr and update the blog accordingly. *sigh*

In other news, I did a little baking this weekend - if you are as partial to chocolate as I am, click here for details!

A day to Lament

Attn: If you have not already yet discovered, the Matcha Green Tea Frappuccino is no more.

It has officially been "discontinued" and replaced with "Pumpkin Spice Latte" or some such.

*mope*