Shiny New Plans

I have some shiny new yarn to show you! These skeins were purchased using my Afghans for Afghans discount:

CY Traveller, colorway San Francisco Bay

and these were from a destash that I just couldn't resist:

SG (now VG) Codex, colorway Lioness of Brittany

I've been waiting forever to get my hands on some of that colorway because it it the perfect silvery grey. I've also (finally) obtained some beads so I can (finally) get started on the cowl my lovely readers voted for sometime soon:

CY Nautilace, colorway Triggerfish

If there's anything I love nearly as much as knitting and yarn, it's making lists-- especially if those lists pertain to knitting and yarn! Inspired by Evelyn over at the Project: Stash blog, I am joining in with the Come Blog-a-Long group on Ravelry for the Year of Projects, which starts now and goes until June 30th, 2013. The idea is that you make a list of everything you'd like to accomplish this year knitting-wise and blog about your progress weekly. You could vow to knit every pattern in a book (I'd like to do that someday) or just make your own list. It seems like a great way to narrow down my goals, keep me accountable, and find new inspiring blogs to read.

Additionally, this is as good an excuse as any to really tackle my WIPs and SIPs and master my knitting-related-guilt. How I'm supposed to finish all of those projects while casting on for new ones and coming up with designs, I'm not quite sure yet, but I'm sure as hell going to give it a whirl! With no further ado, here is my list (with each project/pattern linked to its Ravelry page if it currently exists):


Works-In-Progess (0/10)
Beautiful Briny Sea   (shawl)
Color Affection  (shawl)
Fall Shaelyn  (shawl)
Figgy Dog Days  (shawl)
Magnificent Mittens  (mittens)
Mawata Mittens  (mittens)
Project Limulus  (shawl)
Quicksilver  (stole)
Snowy Sunset  (shawl)
Zuzu's Petals  (cowl)


Socks-In-Progress (0/5)
Lunacy!
Maia
Froot Loops
Silk Lace Lenores
Sweet Tarts

(I am feeling some deep shame over the number of my WIPs. Deep, deep shame. However, I have fewer SIPs than I thought! Yay, me!)


New Non-Sock Projects (0/15)
Chrysanthemum frutescens hat
Giving Comfort hat
Harmony shawl 
Honey cowl 
Magrathea shawl
Marigold shawl
Regina hat
Thundercloud cowl 
a shawl using Mithril
something using Zaftig
things for tiny humans
undecided other things (4 or so)


New Sock Projects (0/10)
Afshari socks 
Fences socks
Linaria bipartita socks 
Monkey socks
Ribby Holiday Socks
Fiasco socks for me this time
undetermined colorwork socks
undetermined other socks (3)


Of My Own Design (0/10)
Marshall's socks  (started)
Lilly's socks  (started)
Robin's socks
Barney's socks
Shawl
Cowl for Twist Collective
Print magazine submission
Knit Picks IDP submission
Malabrigo Quickie - Rasta
Malabrigo Quickie - Rios, Arroyo, or Twist


I changed the ticker on the top of my blog so that it tracks my YoP projects instead of finished socks. However (lest you think I'm cheating), I made sure that the projects I wanted to finish this year contained more than enough socks to meet my original goal of 20 pairs for 2012. I just need to make sure I finish 15 more of them by January (ah-haha, whose crazy idea was this again?)! And for those keeping track at home, the above comes to a total of 50 projects. I suspect I can make it, since in both 2010 and 2011 I finished 41 projects,  though as the charts show many of those were holiday gift hats so they flew by pretty quickly. We'll just have to wait and see!

Finally, anything lingering on the needles but not on this list IS GETTING FROGGED. Man, that feels good. :-D Who else is playing along?

Spinner-ific!

I got stood up for a job interview this evening!!! I had been trying to meet with this person since sometime in April... so three months now? I was looking forward to finally figuring out what this job would be all about, whether it would be a good fit, etc. and then they never showed up. Frustrating!

Instead of all that, lets go to our Happy Place and talk about wool. :) I had not been spinning too much and that made me sad, so I'm trying to spin a little bit every day. I wasn't on the ball enough to take part in Toure de Fleece (I think I missed the first few days) but I'm still enjoying seeing everybody else's progress and it's making me want to spin more!

Here's where I'm at:

Black Jacob wool.

I've just finished spinning up the 1 oz of Black Jacob wool for my spinner's study, so you can expect a post showcasing the finished yarn and a new breed within a few days!

CY Bugga Fiber, Merino/cashmere/nylon

This is the second cop of my Bugga fiber, I think I'm about halfway through the 4 oz. It's amazing how long it takes to spin when you don't work on it. ;) I'm not sure why I'm procrastinating this one. I don't really love the feel of the nylon, I think, and the fiber is somewhat compacted so it's not as easy to spin as fluffier stuff. The colors are lovely and it is plenty soft, it's just a little tricky to spin sometimes.

I think these will help me get more spinning done, though:

I have been on the hunt for good bags for my spindles since I got them and finally found a couple at a cookware store! Go figure, right? I actually cannot fathom what these bags are actually intended for but they're made of nice plastic-lined canvas, have velcro tops, and a handle and they are just the right size for a few ounces of fiber and a spindle so I dub them perfect spindle bags. How do you store/carry your spindles/spinning?

Fire!

OoOOOOOoooOoOoooh!

The family fun continues with a visit to the WaterFire event in Providence, RI! Every few weeks in the summer the event/art installation is held, during which over 80 fires are lit along the river that runs through the city while beautiful, international music is played everywhere. From the website:

"WaterFire Providence® is an independent, non-profit arts organization whose mission is to inspire Providence and its visitors by revitalizing the urban experience, fostering community engagement and creatively transforming the city by presenting WaterFire for all to enjoy. This award-winning sculpture by Barnaby Evans installed on the three rivers of downtown Providence, has been praised by Rhode Island residents and international visitors alike as a powerful work of art and a moving symbol of Providence’s renaissance. WaterFire’s over eighty sparkling bonfires, the fragrant scent of aromatic wood smoke, the flickering firelight on the arched bridges, the silhouettes of the firetenders passing by the flames, the torch-lit vessels traveling down the river, and the enchanting music from around the world engage all the senses and emotions of those who stroll the paths of Waterplace Park. WaterFire has captured the imagination of over ten million visitors, bringing life to downtown, and revitalizing Rhode Island’s capital city."

It's an interesting mix of street fair, cultural music fest, and bonfire. Truly something to see! The only issue I had with it is by the end of the night I really wished I had some marshmallows and a long stick. ;)

Pretty stars.

These statue-people were everywhere!

Lots of fire, lots of people!

Gondolas and motorboats went up and down the river. I like the ghostly effect caused by the night setting on my camera.

The Fiasco and me, and more ghosts!

You could purchase wish ribbons and tribute lanterns.

Sparks!

It was a really neat experience that I recommend if you're in New England in the summer. Have you been to anything like it before?

Hot Ducks and Sparkly Seahorses

I have been having quite the busy weekend! My parents and my cousins are in town so we've been jetting around visiting some local shops and street fairs. Here are some of the things we've seen:

Some really hot ducks at Old Mystik Village, the poor lady on the right was panting!

Here's an example of one of the cutesy little shops in the village.

Cutesy shops sell cutesy things, like these kissing manatee salt-and-pepper shakers that came home with me!

Henna tattoos happened, oh yeah.

After the glittery gel stuff flaked off... apparently it will be there for a few days!

Then we went to a local park for OpSail, where all sorts of tall ships come into port and commemorate the War of 1812. That's a big coast guard ship near the horizon.

This is some sort of hovering boat that landed on the beach to bring the sailors to shore from their ships.

Glittery seahorse tattoo done by my future niece! This has not yet washed off, either...

My adorable little cousins, sporting their own henna tattoos and face paint done by my future sister-in-law.

And best of all, I taught Olivia how to spin a little bit!

Tidbits

Here's a random collection of things I've come across in the last week or so that I love:

1) This might be the single most precious knitted thing I've seen in a long time:

Photo from needled.

How flippin' adorable is that? A sheepy carousel tea cozy! I don't even brew my tea in a pot like that, yet I still want to make one! Those colorwork braids are really fun to knit, by the way.And apparently the kit for this project is on sale at Kate Davies' new popup shop.


2) A little girl spindling:

If she can do it, so can you! (You being Katy, and Bridgit, and any other person I've been trying to convince to spin lately).

3) There's an excellent post on swatching by Jane Richmond over at her blog. The way she swatches for knitting in the round is something I honestly never thought of before! Basically, you cast your swatch stitches on to a circular needle or single DPN, knit across, and then instead of joining in the round, you just loop the working yarn across the back of the swatch and begin knitting again from the beginning stitch! This emulates knitting in the round because you are always knitting on the right side, without wasting time swatching stitches on the other side of the fabric that won't be in your gauge measurement. So simple, so brilliant!

4)

Yes, this is still funny.

5)  If you're interested in  The Knitter's Curiosity Cabinet that I spoke about earlier, you can enter to win a copy of it by leaving a comment over at Knitspot, Anne Hanson's blog. She also shows some more photos of the book itself.

That's all I've got for now! Have a lovely Friday, everyone. :)