Idle Knitting

I'm in Maryland spending a few days with my parents.  My extended family got together for dinner here and a good time was had by all.  The highlight of this by far was playing with my niece and nephew.  They have a knack of making you forget about all stress going through your head.

Today is much quieter; my mother went in for a heart catheterization procedure this morning.  She has a minor blockage in her artery that will be treated with medication and she'll be back home this afternoon.  I've been knitting this to pass the time.

This is the Prismatic Scarf, knit with Sheep Shop #3 yarn.  My husband picked out the yarn and he recently expressed interest in how great it would be to have an everyday scarf to wear in the cold weather.  He already has a scarf in blindingly bright rainbow colors, but he only seems to wear that during live shows.

I don't want to waste a perfectly good scarf, so sometimes I wear it out myself.

This scarf doesn't curl and the slip stitches keep it interesting.  I don't expect to finish this in time for him to use it for this season.  Once January 1st hits, I want to focus my knitting energy on socks for the January sockdown.  This is good to have around for mindless knitting to pass the time.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays

Nugget wishes everyone out there health, happiness, and lots of steak for the holidays.

I will be flying back to Maryland the day after Christmas to be with my family and then with friends at MAGFest.  I should be back by January 5th.

I Can't Decide

I've decided to participate in Sockdown: Ravelry! for the month of January.  I need to use up the tubs of sock yarn I have try to keep the construction of a pair of socks under two years.

January's theme is beaded socks, socks from an online magazine, or a mystery sock pattern by Emmie.  I really don't care for beads on my socks and I didn't want to deal with the uncertainty of a mystery pattern this time.  I'll be travelling in early January.

Searching through the internets has led me to the Licorice Stick Socks from Twist Collective.  It's in many Ravelry queues, but no one has started a pair yet.  For you Ravelers, the pattern link is here.

I pulled my sock yarn tubs out of the closet and started throwing sock yarn all over the bed.  I can't just look at photos of my yarn, I need to touch it and see it for myself.  I've narrowed it down to five...which one should I use?

1.  Yarn Pirate in 'Hard Cider'.  This was the "Booty" Club for last September.

2.  Socks That Rock Lightweight in 'Lenore' from the Rockin' Sock Club.

3.  Brooks Farm Acero in a denim colorway.  There isn't a specific color name on the tag.  I purchased this at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.

4.  Dream In Color Starry in 'Tea Party'.  This was purchased at The Loopy Ewe.

5.  Dream In Color Starry in 'Dusky Aurora'.  This was also purchased at The Loopy Ewe.

I can't decide.  It takes me ten minutes just to decide what to eat at a fast food joint.

Help Out A Fellow Raveler

I was scanning through the forums on Ravelry and found this post in The Loopy Ewe group.

My stash is or should i say was 95% loopy ewe. I put a freebie in the paper destashing the 5% non loopy ewe. Apparently someone called the house and came over to check out the stash while i was out. My hubby showed her the destash bag in my craft room. UPS knocked on the door and he went to sign for the package. Well this lady decided to help herself to my stash. She took all my yarn and stuck in in the bag with the destash yarn on top. Also my kp harmony interchangeable set. She paid the 15.00 i was asking and left. I came home to no yarn. none. all of it gone. no needles. i am completely cleared out…….. i am sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo upset. especially about my calypso hot hot hot…….right now money is tight and i literally have no extra money to replace my stash…..seriously who does that…

Myself and some others offered her some of our own stash yarn from The Loopy Ewe to help her re-build her stolen stash.   Want to help?  Join in the conversation here.

Excess Booty From the Yarn Pirate

This is the Yarn Pirate's Neptune colorway which was dyed exclusively for her "Booty" Club.

The chicken scratch is my self-imposed algebra homework.  I am trying to brush up over the holiday so I can test out of Intermediate Algebra and Geometry.

This is my TI-84 caculator echoing my frustration over the algebra.  I was learning pre-calculus about ten years ago, but it's difficult trying to remember it all again after such a long hiatus.

The real problem here is that I'm not supposed to have this beautiful yarn.  Nope.  I cancelled my "Booty" Club membership a few months ago.  I was so busy with my job; I didn't have time to knit with a new sock yarn every month.  I was also too busy to notice that I was still getting monthly shipments.  Once I quit my job, I realized that I received quite a few more skeins of yarn that I should have.

I felt horrible.  I did cancel my account correctly, but I was too busy to keep track of when I was supposed to get the last one.  So, I messaged the Yarn Pirate on Ravelry.

I offered to buy any extra yarn she sent me or send all of the yarn back.  I didn't want to cheat an indie dyer who happens to have a cute kid. 

She responded quickly and told me that it was an oversight on her part and to just keep the yarn.  Keep the yarn...at no cost.  Wow.  

Just to set things right though, I encourage you to try out the "Booty" Club.  Signups started on December 15th and it looks like the links are still up here.  You can choose to purchase  monthly or in three month blocks.  It's totally worth it!

Just don't be a nerd like me and loose track of your shipments.