Flashin' the stash...

I've been stocking up on stash for Christmas presents and other various things to work on over the Thanksgiving holidays, courtesy of Summit Yarn Studio's amazing selection, and I think it's time for my first official bloggy stash flash.

First up is the Lamb's Pride worsted, which will hopefully become a Summit Yarn Chullo (ravelry link). The colors are more accurate in the closeup below.


Some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino in a pinky color, for a pair of mitts, also probably for me.


Next, a whole slew of Debbie Bliss Donegal Tweed Chunky in various colors. I think they will be hats... The tan is an extra skein to finish up my dad's Irish Hiking Scarf, and we'll have to see how much I have to use. My optimistic side is telling me that I'll have enough for a simple matching hat at the end, but reality will probably prove that impossible. I'll keep hoping though!




And last, but what I'm most excited about is... Noro! It's the worsted weight stuff, Kureyon(? I'm too lazy to go look at the label right now for the proper spelling), and I can't wait to try it out. The blue and grey skein is going to be a hat for my brother (he has requested a Thelonius Monk style hat... We'll see how close I can get to that), and then the pinky green one is going to be something for me. Maybe a little scarflet of some kind. Or maybe mitts. I don't know yet, but I'm excited about it none the less.



I think this is going to be the last of my stashing for a few weeks... I've got plenty of projects to last me through the holidays. Or at least until I get paid again. After all, car insurance comes before yarn... sadly. ;D

-l.c.

Busy as a Bee on this Musical Monday

I've finished the Collared One Button Scarf! Well, almost. I still have to find a button that's perfect for it, and weave in the ends. But other than that I'm totally done, and I love it.

The pattern itself was a very quick and easy knit, great for when you've got to multi-task, and the result is super cute. I suspect that in the future this will be getting as much use as my calorimetry pattern. I'll just have to stock up on big buttons.


I did have to do a quick steam blocking of it to even it out, as my gauge changed not only from my swatch but as I knit. Changing gauge as a project progresses seems to be a common problem of mine, and I'm not sure what to do about it. So far it hasn't caused any real issues, because a) I don't really do big projects yet, so no sweater sizes to mess up or anything, and b) it's usually fixed by blocking it out. However, whenever I do decide to tackle my first sweater, I hope I will have conquered that particular issue.

Just as I finished up the Collared One Button, I realized my Dad's birthday was coming up. Well, actually technically it's today. So, on Saturday I stopped by SYS and grabbed myself some chunky Debbie Bliss Donegal Tweed and cast on for the Irish Hiking Scarf. It's my first project cabling, and frankly, cables are SO MUCH EASIER than I thought they'd be. Like SO MUCH EASIER. Even so, it's been slower going than I anticipated, so it is not finished to give him today. I have about three feet done as of writing this post, and I have class and rehearsal later, so I've given up hope of it being finished by the end of his birthday at midnight. I tend to follow the scarf rule of "as long as the intended recipient is tall," (although that might just be a rule I made up, as I don't know where I got it from), and my dad is a little over 6 foot, so I'm hoping the finished length will end up being about five and a half to six feet. I think I bought enough yarn for that, but we'll see.



Other than that, it's been a crazy week in concerns to school work, and it's only about to get crazier. The library is going to be seeing a lot of me until the end of the semester, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I like our library quite a bit, actually. It's cozy. Anyway, I'll keep ya'll updated on the lead up to Thanksgiving and Christmas in the meantime.

For now though, it's Monday. And that means... Music to Knit By Day! I've missed doing these, and am determined to be better at remembering to post on Mondays. I've actually got all of December planned up already (HOORAY CHRISTMAS MUSIC!). But for now, I'm going to leave you with some Coloratura soprano awesomeness.

Everyone knows the Queen of the Night's aria in Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen (and if the German's not ringing a bell, Youtube it. I promise you'll recognize it). However, the character's other aria, O zitt're nicht...Zum Leiden bin ich auserkoren is not nearly as well known. The last minute or so of the aria is probably one of the most difficult passages out there ever written for soprano. So, what I leave you with today is actually a compliation of multiple versions of that last section by some of the greatest Coloraturas of the recording era, for comparison purposes. It is MINDBLOWING. Actually, more like BEYOND MINDBLOWING. Especially if you know anything about vocal technique and exactly how much control and supreme awesomeness this requires to pull off. (Also, I'll attach a recording of the full aria as well, in case anyone is interested in the, well, less showstopping part.)





Enjoy, and have a fantastic Musical Monday!

-l.c.

Fit as a Fiddle and Ready for Yarn!

Finding the Summit Yarn Studio has opened up a whole new world for me in terms of fiber. So much softness! So many options! The possibilities are so wonderfully overwhelming!


With the help of Mary Ellen (the shop owner), I made my first forays into the luxury yarn world (or at least it's luxury to me after working with only acrylic all these years!) and I'm loving it.


I picked up a ball each of alpaca and merino, for use in one skein projects, and three hanks of Silky Tweed in a beautiful chestnut brown with flecks of awesomeness, which I hope to use for my mom's Christmas present. She's got a coat that matches it perfectly.


As soon as I could after I brought it home, I used the alpaca to cast on for the Collared One Button Scarf that I had spoken about last post. So far it's going well. I learned the cable cast on for it, and while it took me a few tries, I think I've got the hang of it. I do suspect that my gauge has changed since I swatched (I undid the swatch to conserve yarn, which I probably shouldn't have done), but I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that it's not going to make too much of a difference. I'll keep you posted. It's going to be super cute.


Speaking of super cute, there has been a slight break in the weather the past two days, which has done me a world of good. My sinuses acted up again on Friday night, way siding me for any weekend festivities, but after sleeping well into the afternoon on Saturday I woke up fit as a fiddle (and ready for love? Not so much, but yarn? Yes!). Combined with the warm weather, my dad, the pups, and I were able to get some Frisbee time in.


Isn't she freaking adorable?

-l.c.

PS - I now have Fit as a Fiddle stuck in my head, and I hope you all do too! Gene Kelly = Love.

The Tale of Epic Fail. (Alternate title: Lunaticraft is an Annoying Perfectionist with Serious Issues)

So you know how I was so excited that my Swallowtail shawl was finally going to happen?

Yea, not so much. I'm frogging it.


One night as I happily knit away into the Lily of the Valley Border, my mother, a former knitter (now retired from the craft due to arthritis problems), looked up from her book and watched me for a minute, after which she let out a puzzled sounding "hmmm."

"What?" I asked.

"I've never seen YOs done that way. Does it work?"

Well, I didn't really have an answer for that, so the next day I pinned out a section of my Swallowtail, to try to find out. What I found disturbed me slightly. As far as I could tell, it was a busy mess where nice clean YOs are supposed to be.

Well, maybe that's a little dramatic, as you can see the photo above. But it certainly wasn't the nice, clean and clear delineation that I had been imagining. Every YO, instead of being one singular line of yarn as I have seen on other's knitting seemed to be forked. Two strands, diverging from each other in a "V."

But maybe it was just the yarn. Maybe it was because I was using needles that are two sizes two big. I comforted myself with these thoughts and turned to the last minute lace scarf that I had just taken off the needles (started on a whim during the daily show the week before). It was still not killed (it being Vanna's Choice, and not yummy natural fiber... I'm trying to use up my acrylic stash so I can replace it with better stuff now that I'm working and know of a LYS nearby), so I didn't yet know how it was going to turn out.


Many pins and curses later, I had my answer in a far more obvious fashion. Yep, my YOs were forked for some reason.

Now, in reality, I probably shouldn't feel compelled to frog the Swallowtail (I'm not going to bother with the scarf). The pattern is still identifiable, if not the perfect vision I had imagined. However, I'm an anal retentive ass. So, within hours of this post, the Swallowtail will be back to balls of yarn. Again. If I'm going to make this thing at this point, it's going to be all that I imagine and more. It's woman against yarn now.

In the mean time, I've been experimenting. Cue another stash ball of Vanna's Choice, and I think I've got my YO problem figured out. I was going to stop by Summit Yarn Studio and get some help (minus the ball of Vanna's. I'd have brought the actual Swallowtail with me), but the night before I had planned to, I managed to create this:


How much neater is that? Also, I checked my new technique against my mom's copy of Knitting in Plain English, something I probably should have referred to before starting the Swallowtail in the first place.

I did stop by SYS today anyway (about a week after I had planned to, because of work), and came out with some amazing yumminess. I'm going to try Alpaca for the first time on this Collared One Button Scarf pattern, which is super cute and is actually designed by the SYS's owner. I also picked up a skein of Merino in a beautiful charcoal color and some great chestnut brown silky tweed. Those have plans for them that can't be divulged until Christmas time, I think.


And those are pretty much the deets on my yarny life as of late. Hopefully, I'll be around a bit more in the coming months. But for now? Rehearsal time.

See ya on the flip side! (I'm feeling a little 80's and 90's lately)

-l.c.

Haunted Tidings

-l.c.

DISASTERS!!!

Well, crying disaster considering all else that is going on in the world may be a little melodramatic... and ridiculous... and downright hyperbolic... so...

RELATIVELY MINOR INCONVENIENCES!!!

I don't have a ton of time, and no pictures, so I'm just going to share with you an old fashioned list, in no particular order, and all kind of scattery sounding. (I'll include a Too Long: Didn't Read synopsis after each one, as these are bound not to be my best writing ever.)

Ah, lists. I love them.

1) My RSS feeder exploded. Or rather, totally reset itself to factory (or more likely programmer's basement) defaults. So I lost my entire blogroll and am going to have to go through and reassemble it through the LKS site. Luckily I have all the lists at my disposal, so as I go through and update the LKS blog (which will happen very soon), I will gradually cobble my blogroll back together. TL:DR - RSS feeder = kaput. Will get back to blogroll soon.

2) I think I have been doing my YOs backwards. I'll have pictures and details, and more information on that coming up soon. I popped into an LYS outside of Scranton looking for blocking wires last week, and in the course of talking the lovely shop owner was very helpful and comforting, so as soon as I have time I'm going to pop back in and hopefully figure out why my YOs look funny when spread. Not to mention walk out with way more yarn than I can currently afford, I'm sure (MY GOODNESS there was beautiful yarn everywhere... I'm SO GLAD I now know of an LYS within reachable distance, and especially with such a welcoming atmosphere... now just to find the time to get there). TL:DR - Might have to frog swallowtail, might not. And the Summit Yarn Studio is beyond awesome.

3) I finally figured out why I was not being called in as a substitute teacher, and over the course of a few days finally got that worked out. Which is actually very good, because while I was enjoying the extra time for schoolwork, my bank account was not doing so hot on gigging alone. However, this now leaves far less (or rather NO) time for me to get my shit done during the days when I have rehearsals and classes every night. So that's where the minor inconvenience part comes in. TL:DR - I am now gainfully employed. Sort of. As a result, schoolwork just became quite a bit harder.

4) I've been at all out war with my sinuses for about three whole weeks now. I developed my seasonal sinus infection about two and a half weeks ago. Now, I get these things three or four times a year. Me and seasonal sinus problems are old, intimate friends, and when she comes to visit, we just go everywhere together, no problem (and yes, my sinus infections are gendered, apparently). But this time, she turned on me. Stabbed that knife right in my back. I went on like nothing was different, as I usually do, but apparently this time she wanted more attention and fought back in the form of debilitating fatigue. I kept powering through, but she ran a blitzkrieg on my voice, stripping it away and leaving raw, irritated tissue in its place. Damage control was the name of the game at this point, with General Tea with Lemon, Commander Honey Water, and Special Ops Force Vitamin C leading the way. But then came the final blow... the cough made a surprise attack and the win went to the sinus infection. So two and a half weeks later and I'm finally finishing the clean up and getting better TL:DR - I've been sick. Rather sick, but I'm finally getting over it. Also, I'm terrible at making (somewhat inappropriate) military metaphors and probably should never attempt to do so again.

Other points of possible interest:

I am now on twitter! follow me @lunaticraft. Still pretty new to the whole thing, so lets see how this goes.

It's almost pumpkin pie time! I'm hopefully going to get some awesome pie pumpkins on Friday when I skip up to the Farmer's market after my class.

Paper season is quickly approaching. I'm going to try to stay ahead of the game this semester. For real this time. I've only got two big ones, so it should be a tad easier.

Aaaannnnndddd.... That's about all I have for now.

-l.c.

p.s. - Sorry for the scatteriness of this, and the lack of pictures. It's been a whirlwind of a few weeks.

Octo-beer.

The onset of October always starts that inevitable swing down to the holidays that I so love. Some of my favorite things come about in October. Halloween... Weather cool enough to require gloves when playing Frisbee with the pups so I don't get doggie spit all over my hands... Sinus Infection season... Err, wait. That one's not so fun. But, pumpkin lattes are! As are pumpkin pies... Pumpkin carving... Pumpkin everything, really... Blanket weather... Chestnuts... The turning of the leaves...

And of course...


OKTOBERFEST!!!

Now, I'm not a big drinker. Never have been. I'm one of those people who really didn't start imbibing until I was actually legal, and even now that I am, I don't drink often, and I don't drink much. Being buzzed or drunk is simply not a feeling that I enjoy. I like control too much, I think.

But that's not to say I don't enjoy a good beer now and again, and Oktoberfest is the perfect opportunity to try some new ones.


My favorite so far this Oktoberfest season has been the Spaten Oktoberfest brew, although nothing has yet come close to replacing Guinness as my all time favorite beer. But, even so, there have been a lot of good times with friends, with more to come in the next two weeks.

Sadly, all this social activity (compounded by the chronic sinus infections that hit me every change of season) means I have not finished my swallowtail shawl yet. The only things I've finished in the last week or so have been a number of pints, and a lot of homework. I have made some progress though, finishing the budding lace repeats, but it's going to be a little while yet before I can cast off and start blocking. I've also gotten distracted by a number of other projects, namely a lace scarf and some more matryoshki designs for a super special Christmas project.

But for now, I'm not going to worry about it. I'm just going to enjoy October for what it is, because once November hits, it'll be time to buckle in on my various papers. And then, before you know it it'll be Finals time, and then the holidays. So I'm going to have a pint here, do some knitting there...


While I still have the time to do it!

-l.c.