My Blog as a Graph

I've reached new heights of geekiness. This is my blog blooming. If you want to see how your blog looks in a whole new light, click on the link below.

http://www.aharef.info/static/htmlgraph/

Ho Ho Ho...

Here's my three scarves I gave Mom, sister 1 and sister 2 for Christmas. Two Dayflowers and Liesel. The pink Dayflower is Debbie Bliss Cashmerino, as is the Liesel, and the green Dayflower is Lambs Pride Cotton. I enjoyed working on them all, but three Dayflowers would have sent me to the Funny Farm. The Liesel was easy, but there was little rest because the purl rows have some knit stitches here and there. I'm hooked on lace now. I made a scarf pin (a kilt pin actually) for each.

Here's a closeup of the Dayflower:




And the Liesel:

Child Labor is Alive in New York

My own personal ball winder:


She works for cookies. Current assignment: wind my hank of SuperKid Mohair from Mohair in Motion . Let's hope she didn't take the curl right out of it...

Rhinebeck Fever!

Here's a peek at my latest acquisitions...

The Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool Festival this year was overwhelming! There was so much fiber, and so many people! I didn't get there as early as I would have liked (coordination with mom wasn't at its best) but it was worth diving through crowds to get to all the gorgeous hand dyed lovlies. The cream colored yarn is from a llama named "Mabsoot" from Philo Llamas. At 180 yards for $17.50, I'm hoping that it will be enough for wristwarmers for daughter #1 who didn't like my Recycled Wool/Silk (see previous post). The pink yarn is for daughter #3's new socks. She fell in love with the color and texture a 50% merino 50% tencel combo. You can't see from the pic but it has subtle variations of dark pinks. It comes from Ellen's 1/2 pint Farm in Vermont. She loved the hank so much that when husband and I tried to roll it into a ball it became a major operation of tangles... He's very patient and good at getting knots out! The olive green wool is from Sheepy Valley in upsate New York. I'm thinking about using it for a scarf for husband that I found in this Irish Hiking Scarf KAL. The truly yummy SuperKid Mohair comes from Mohair in Motion in Minnisota and owner Betty Todd had a shawl out on display - just a big rectangle. A great easy project for those days when I can't count. I'll treat myself to a funky shawl pin when I'm done and hopefully wear it to Thansgiving. The gorgeous handpainted sport weight 100% superwash merino in shades of brown and green comes from Briar Rose Fibers. I'm using it for a pair of socks for husband. The needles in the pic are size 1s in dpns and 36" circulars, for all the sock projects I need to get to. These are impossible to find locally and I saved on s&h by finding them at the show. But the line at the register, Oy! Now I only worry that I'll snap them, since they are soooo thin.
So all in all I'd say it was a good day, although I wish it wasn't so crowded. There was a grea deal of roving for spinners and felting supplies for felters, both of which I don't do. Seeing it all though made me feel almost like I was missing out on some aspect of the love of fiber. The kids will definately stay home next year, or I'll have to adopt a Llama from the Northeast Llama Rescue to keep them happy...

Recycled Silk On My Doorstep

My recycled wool silk came today from Himalaya Yarn. It is the most beautiful speckled black. I'm making the Rustic Ruffle Wristwarmers from Interweave Knits. Each skein is 175 yards, enough to make a pair of wristwarmers. I ordered two skeins and they sent a third for free with a note that it was the end of the dyelot. Daughter wanted a pair but has changed her color preference (figures) so now I have these three lovely hanks. Maybe I should rethink my project to something that can use up all three hanks with...

Fall Clapotis Finis!

And I loved doing it. Really! It took 7 balls of Noro Silk Garden 201 on size 8 Lantern Moon bamboo circular needles. I frogged halfway through, "cleaned up my act" and got serious with paying attention to the pattern, and the result is terrific! I'm not blocking because I love the way it curls up around me. I wore it to dinner in Manhattan down in Soho last week and got looks (maybe "Where DID she buy that gorgeous stole?" LOL)

Knit Side

Purl Side - LOVE the valleys!

Boogie Fever!

Here's Princess G in her Kidlet Tank from Boogie Knits

She loves it!
Yarn: Filatura DiCrosa Baby for Tahki Stacy Charles Zarella, color pink 32 - 52% virgin wool, 48% acrylic. Needles #5 Bamboo Circular

Fake A Gamo Accomplished!

Here it is! And just in time for my birthday on Thursday!


Here's the lining. I added pockets for cell and lipsticks.



Here's a pic of some ideas for adding beads:


Dd thinks the bead idea is too much what with the curlicues and all. So I'll shelve the beads for now.
I'm so proud of myself. This is my first KAL, my first venture past scarves, and my first craftster, flickr and blogger picture upload. (You go girl...)

Knitting and Wine Don't Mix

I just had a glass of wine and subscribed to 20 or so knitting digests through Yahoo. I already get too much mail, and now I will be reading digests instead of knitting. ARGGH! All I wanted to do was find a local knitting group with someone that can teach me combined knitting. WHAT HAVE I DONE???

Fake-agamo Handle Hunt in NYC

So I went into my LYS, Knit Pick in Baldwin today looking for the perfect Fake agamo yarn. I told the owner Linda what my plans were and she laughed, whipping out the full page picture from a magazine, telling me that as we were speaking a friend of hers was in Manhatan (we live about 40 miles away) looking for the perfect handles, hopefully the same as the ones Sal used. Woohoo! I made her promise me she'd email me as soon as they (or a resonable facsimile or better) was found, and gave her some links to our KAL as payment. Don't you just love kismet? Oh, and she told me that I should go to Michaels for my yarn, that they might have just the right stuff. She's thinking about a cotton with no sheen that people use for the tops of dishtowels. She's an honest one. I just feel my Fake a gamo deserves better than Michaels!

Fake-agamo Fever

There's a gorgeous Ferragamo bag that some knitters at are trying to decipher the pattern for. I can't wait for the pattern to be available. We're going to do a Fake-a-gamo knit-along and it should be loads of fun. Guess I won't need to buy my usual Canal St. knock-off this year. A picture of the original bag is found on Stephanie's blog. Can you see why I'm jazzed about it?

I just love knitting sites. The slick photography of the yarn, the cool and sophisticated descriptions of the products. I love the knitting blogs. Some writers are quirky, others elegant. All have great ideas and great links to other quirky, elegant sites.
I cut my teeth so to speak on the WWW when my thirst for information concerning quilting exceeded my books, quilt shops, and fellow quilters (although I was pretty much a "lone quilter", not too into the guild stuff, but that's a whole other post.) The web sites back in the early 90s were pretty archaic, and many very dull. There were a few pioneer women, making as tasty a page as they could not knowing too much HTML (there were no programs to plug the code in for you back then). We relied mainly on listservs and ftp sites to glean info. "Anyone know a better way to _______ ?" - Check back in a few days for your 20 or so replies.
I still love quilting, but I think I might love knitting more. When I have the courage I will post pictures of my crude scarves and my current attempt at a sock. But for now I will skip across the wonderful pages that contain blogs and products, wrapping myself in them like a lace shawl. Let's hope I can balance my time between the thirst for knowledge and inspiration and the necessity of finishing at least one project so I don't have more than two going at the same time. No more UFOs, like back in the days of quilting.

I Feel Like a Kid When I Hear This

Flyin' me back to Memphis
Gotta find my Daisy Jane
Well the summer's gonne
And I hope she's feelin' the same
Well I left her just to roam the city
Thinkin' it would easy the pain
I'm a crazy man and I'm playin' my crazy game, game
Does she really love me I think she does
Like the star above me I know
Because when the sky is bright
Everything's all right

Flyin' me back to Memphis
Honey keep the oven warm
All the clouds are clearin'
And I think we're over the storm
Well I been pickin' it up around me
Daisy I think I'm same
Well I'm awful glad
And I guess you're really to blame, blame
Do you really love me
I hope you do
Like the stars aboveme how I love you
When it's cold at night
Everything's all right

Thinking about Making a Knitting Blog

I'm thinking about making a knitting blog. There are so many knitters out there with their own blogs - seems the right of passage from beginner to intermediate. But won't it take time away from knitting? Ebay is already a black hole, do I need another? Do I need another thing in my life that is less than neat and tidy and calls to me, nags to me, to come take care of it? Plus, I don't have a cat and it seems a prerequisite for making a knitting blog. Hmmm....