Red garter stitch

I dreamed of it last night... a simple piece of red garter stitch that was so beautiful that I remembered the dream this morning. A piece that you might imagine came from the needles of the marvelous Mr. Flood. That kind of.. simple.

It'll stick in my head until I spin something suitable, until I can come up with the right pattern, until I can turn the dream into reality. Or, until something else catches my attention.

And in that mode, Sherri, Tracy and her blackandredness, AnneK, have been helping me out with another dream; this time some simple, white lace. The longest time ago Sherri have me a partial bag of Columbia fiber from one of Tracy's sheep. I didn't know how to clean fleece, and had no idea how to use raw fiber, so it sat around for the longest time. Eventually I thought.. gosh, what a great piece to start with. Small bag.. nothing to lose.

Pfft.

It washed up sparkling white, and after being carded into the crudest rolag, spun into the most precious little skein of light fingering yarn.

I've been wishing and wishing that I could do some more; thinner, for a shawl.

Initially Tracy let me take all I wanted from a large bag of Columbia, but unfortunately the colour wasn't quite right (tho the yarn will be beautiful one day) I asked AnneK if she had any to spare. Affirmative! She brought a nice big bag of locks to the store on my birthday. Since then I've given it all a good wash and it's dried and ready to go. Tonight I pulled the locks apart and flick carded them.. then spun. I've got a really fine, white single that's looking fantastic on the bobbin. It's going to be perfect.

And simple.

Some news about knitting?

I got this, and I started knitting it out of Tiziano Red.

When it's finished I think I'll call it the Sandra Tiziano shawl.

There are 3 stitches that are garter but should be stockinette. I'm not mad enough to rip back an entire repeat and fix the stitches. I think a Tiziano is allowed to be a little tiny bit glitchy. So far it doesn't have any heels.

Seriously, I am

Riding, that is.

I was so so so so happy the other night when I came home because the mountain bike doesn't have a fender, and I was mud from here to there. I felt all.. well, hard core.

The feeling was completely null and void as I took the train to work the next day because I heard there was a skim of ice on the roads. I am telling myself that a measley 40 minutes of walking (all tolled) is better than driving.

In other news... I seem to have lost my signature arts dpns, which were last seen in a bag with 1.5 Hand Maiden, hand dyed, hand knitted socks. For charity, no less. I know they were in my bike pack, and after that, I have no idea. They'll show up, I'm quite sure.

The Miralda is in time out because I don't have the nerve to frog her yet. I might ask Aunty Tink to do that, because she's good that way. The last time I asked her to help me with lace she resorted to drink, and the shawl actually whupped her. The first one ever, if I remember correctly.

I don't know how I have the nerve (because I have about 10 things on needles that I can name off the top of my head), but I cast on a cute little sweater tonight that I plan to be wearing by next Wednesday. Me and Aunty Tink think we're going to get ours done before Munchie, purely due to the size of our girls compared to her girls. I didn't get much done tonight, but I believe I will be wearing that sweater on Wednesday...

It's good to be goal oriented.

Life, since I started stalking DonnaJ

I dunno.. you meet somebody and you know that they're somebody special.. and even at my age, you wonder if you're cool enough to be her friend. You hope you are.

There she is; funny, talented, interesting, and having reached SABLE (stash accumulated beyond life expectancy), laughingly shares that her yarn room had an avalanche. Damn, that room was amazing, even with the avalanche. If someone shut you in there, you'd starve to death before you ever tried the door to see if it was, in fact, locked. That same day several of us sat outside in her yard and spun yarn (I was working on the Bison for the Miralda shawl), drank iced coffees, ate fresh shortcake.. it was some kind of heaven.

Donna has a wheel collection, and she was kind enough to lend me her Majacraft Rose. I never gave it back (is that stealing?). She donated two (not one, but two) Tsock Tsarina kits to benefit the potluck fundraiser that Bellie threw for us. I was lucky enough to score both of them, through luck, the grace of God, and $40. I KNOW that I am going to turn the Golden West sock kit into a first place ribbon at Stampede. Watch me!

OK, so there was this purple mohair shawl that Donna knit for Sandra and Amy when the store first opened (Sandra told us how Donna used to come and basically taught her about the finer aspects of yarn). When I was managing the store, I used to wear the shawl around my hips, like a skirt, because my thighs were always freezing (go figure). Lately I've been thinking a lot about that shawl, and I asked Bess if I could buy it off of her. She told me I could have it (even though it is so pretty, and is a lovely store sample). I don't know how I'm going to repay her for such kindness, but I have GOT to tell you... today i wore that shawl all day long, and I just feel so great that it's mine.

Might just sleep with it. I haven't decided.

I'm not against the Mo.