Busy busy busy

Boy, time flies when you're busy. Nothing much to show for it I'm afraid. Most things I have been knitting on over the last two weeks have ended up frogged. Or not appreciably further along. But I'll show them off anyway. I've got nothin' else that I've done.

A Very Late Birthday Present:

That's not that great a photo but that might be ok, since this pattern is going to need some rejiggering I think. I've been avoiding frogging it though. Mainly because it is so late a present already. 'Course at this point wool socks are probably not needed until fall anyway. Maybe I should just do it right and make it a half birthday present. Votes?

Clapotis 2:
Which, naturally - partly because there is only one yarn ball to cope with and partly because the magically changing colors is entertaining, is further along than Clapotis 1:
Which is being knit from two skeins of All Things Heather Merino/Silk so means changing yarns every two rows. I had to alternate because my skeins were pretty different. But they are making a kind of nice stripey effect. See:


I also recently got my first shipment from the Tactile Fiber Arts Fiber Club. Oh boy is it well set up!

Look at what I got:

That's Finn fiber dyed with weld in a solid and in a multi-color to pair with the solid. I'm not sure yet what I am making with these. Aren't they the epitome of spring though? I love it and I am soooo not a yellow fan usually. Here's a close up of the fiber:

And here's one of the awesomeness that is Maia and Brooke:

They know I need all the help I can get to keep track of stuff and so along with a binder they have included a couple of business card storage sheets and a little card that I can attach a fiber sample to and also a singles sample and then a finished yarn sample too for that matter. Is that not Brilliant!!! One of the nicest touches is that the binder is both made of recycled materials and also is itself completely recycleable. Awesome! There's also a fantastic info sheet on the dyestuff. I love this club.

Sadly that lovely fiber is not yet spun up (in my defense I have only had it a week). Unfortunately for my fiber fun time I have been busy with other things. Including, starting the work to get us ready to move back to California this summer. Which is getting closer and closer. And most recently finally making a trip to the Museum of Fine Arts here in Houston. We just managed to get there in time to see the exhibit from Afghanistan. They still have some info up about it. I found it to be a very interesting exhibit and I would have loved to have had more time to study it. I very much recommend going to see it if you get a chance. It looks like it will be in New York City at the Metropolitan June 23rd through September 20th. I thought it was interesting enough to seriously be considering making a trip back east in the right time frame to see it again there.

It has completely reawakened my fascination with ancient history and archeology. This is not necessarily a good thing considering the size of my to do list.

In the "slightly closer to textiles" arena there was also a fascinating art installation that was so like something my brother would have done (not in content necessarily, more just like the artist's mind works in similar ways to my brother's or something) that I find it a tad heartbreaking.

Ok, back to work.

I think I better give up sleeping...

'Cause that's the only way I am ever going to be able to come close to catching up. Or even keeping up were I to get caught up.

Since my last post, knitting has just not been going well. That's all there is to it. I didn't manage to make it through the third round of Sock Madness this time. Which is not necessarily bad. But isn't necessarily good either of course. But the attempt meant that other stuff didn't get finished either.

I went to Spring Fling at The Loopy Ewe which was a great deal of fun. I sure hope I get the chance to go again next year! At Fling I took a lot of classes (which meant I got no knitting done on my Sock Madness socks for long stretches of time) but I really enjoyed all the classes.

I took Sock Design classes from Wendy Johnson and from Cookie A. So in theory I now know how to design socks both toe up and toe down. LOL

I also took Anne Hanson's Advanced Lace class and was a bit worried about whether I qualified for an advanced lace class. But I kept up mentally if not with the actual knitting. Learned lots and had fun so I am very glad I took the leap.

Both Cookie A and Anne Hanson mentioned that they teach longer versions of these classes and I hope to someday take them because I can tell that I have barely touched the tip of the iceberg vis-a-vis what all three of these ladies have to teach. And I love to learn.

I picked up a few yarns at Fling but it will be a little while before I get going with anything with them so I will wait until I have a project for them before I start getting silly with the showing off or anything. I'm also still not properly unpacked from Fling so no longer remember what I had been doing before I left and can't remember where I tucked my current knitting projects so can't show them off either for the little progress that was made until I find them again. So I need to do some hunting.

In the mean time, I'm going to do a little WIP list from memory to remind myself why I need to spend more time knitting. So, in no particular order (and certainly not in need to finish first order):

Round 3 Sock Madness 3 socks
Round 4 Sock Madness 3 socks
Rounds 5, 6, 7 and maybe 8 are coming up soon too.
The Loopy Ewe second quarter challenge (I still don't know what I want to knit for this)
BFFs socks (my design which I think needs a little reworking which means tinking back because like an idiot I didn't put a lifeline in - when will I learn!!!!)
Cluaranach (it is too warm to work on this right now even though I am not that far along - the yarn is marvelously warm so when I do get it done it will be wonderful)
Baby Bee (class project from Anne's Advanced Lace Class at Fling)
Clapotis 1
Clapotis 2
Design project 1 (child's vest)
Design project 2 (shawl)
Design project 3 (mitts)
Design project 4 (hat and mitt set)
Design project 5 (stole)
Design project 6 (socks from Wendy's class)
Design project 7 (socks from Cookie's class)
Leaflings
Zazzlejeans sweater (need the needle tips from Clapotis 1 for this)

And then there are all the not even started yet things. Which I won't list because if I do it will damage my calm. Although I need to remember at least a few of them:

S's socks
A's socks
Socks for The FoUI (the Fount of Useless Information aka my DH)
Vest for the Remembrall (aka DD)
The Loopy Ewe Second Quarter Challenge project
my personal challenge to myself (knitting up all the yarns that remain unused from my first 6 orders at TLE)

I also need to frog some projectst that simply aren't going anywhere and either repurpose the yarn or put it up for destash.

So much to do... I better go get started. I hope to be photo heavy next post to make up for being so photo non-existant this time.