UrbanGypZ–Stitchin’ Bitch

I lost my oldest companion last night. Sarsaparilla simple laid down by the fireplace and peacefully crossed over. No long illness, no tragic accident, no indication of rapid decline. Last month the vet said she looked good for 15. And just this weekend she broke up a squabble between the boy cats, obliged the young girl kitty with a quick teasing wrestle, and fussed at me for arguing with my fiancé. But after 13 years of unconditional love without an ounce of the typical cat aloofness, I could not have picked a kinder end for what I will always remember as the most amazing cat ever. I can’t begin to tell you how much I miss her.

Let me tell you I spent 6 weeks freaked out over bridesmaids. I am not the kind of girl who has a half dozen sorority sisters and a BFF to line up next to me at that big church ceremony. And actually it would have been just fine with me to not have a single attendant. B asked his BFF to be his best man the week after we got engaged. So, I decided I needed pick at least one of my friends to do the honors. Although I have to admit once you hit 40 it is actually almost like asking your “LYLAS” best friend to endure a firing squad in an ugly dress. We have all been bridesmaid once, twice, maybe seven times and chances are they were not the most memorable moments in a girls life. Although I do remember the hairstyle I endured for my brother’s wedding…and I am still recovering from it.

There are good friends who I am a little out of touch with. Friends who are too far away. Friends here? While I would love to plan a wedding with my posse, it just did not feel right for what seemed to be small reasons. And I did not want to hurt anyones feeling either way. I was really over-thinking it altogether.

After having a conversation with my mom over the woes of picking a maid of honor, I blurted out the names 2 people I really wish that I could have with me when I marry my sweetie. “It is your day and you can do whatever you think feels right”

So I slept on it. I read the etiquette bible guide. Once I checked the comfort level of all parties involved to make sure we were all okay with my unorthodox selection, I broke tradition and I chose my oldest friend who I LYLAS

Etiquette says he is really called a best man. I like to think of him as my Dude of Honor. And no I am not making him wear an ugly dress.

Let me just say I can not promise that this will never be a wedding blog. I honestly thought I was not that kind of bride. You know the kind of girl who practices writing her new married name.

To hyphenate or not to hyphenate…

Nor am I the kind of girl who buys wedding etiquette and planning books.

But yesterday I found myself in the magazine section of Barnes and Noble buying this:

I thought it was a craft rag, but low and behold it was a catalog of cute little wedding things. PURR-R-R-R-R

Someone put a spoon in my mouth and slap me hard. WTF? Am I really this girly-girl bride person? Is a sudden penchant for white flowers and tulle directly connected to having two X-chromosones and some estrogen? I think even my mother figured I would rather elope than have any kind of ceremony, much less want to attend a bridal expo. Those things are for young doe-eyed 20year olds. Not a career driven 40-something year old old-maid. Right? But I found myself truly upset that I missed the Asheville Bridal Expo in January. And I actually bit the head off the groom last night for suggesting I might be getting a little overzealous with the planning. Sweet Jezuz, I think I have become one of those bridezillas like that hilarious reality show on the WE TV. And it is only February…

BTW, I am looking for a wedding countdown thingy to put in my sidebar…Just putting it out there…

So, if you are wondering why my ETSY store is empty, well I have been distracted. Between yarn consignments and wholesale orders, other new hobbies {{{{cough cough wedding cough}}}} and life without a home computer, I have fallen behind on the shop updates. But I have some new base yarns in the works and finally bought a new computer. So once the dust settles a little bit I will start posting to the shop again. But if there is something you know you want email me. I can dye it along side some wholesale stuff.

I have actually been working on some knitting other than the Wedding shawl (which by the way must be performed alone with the phone off). I have signed up for a Ravelry club called the Thrifty Sock Knitters Club (that’s a Ravelry link). The group is for those of us who love the idea of those fabulous Sock Clubs (Oh, how I dream of belonging to Socks that Rock) but have a hard time justifying the $200+ to subscribe. The TSKC posts a couple of free sock patterns for you to download and it is a monthly knit-a-long. As you may (or may not ) know, I am lousy at the knit-a-long but great at the knit-b-hind. The first sock was Bellatrix by MommaMonkey (aka GiGi). I balled some of my kettle dyed merino and knit about 3 inches before I realized it was going to be horrifically big. I was using #0 needles and did not want to drop down any smaller. So the “sock” ended up in the UFOs and I awaited February’s pattern. Then, I read about GiGi’s untimely passing. What a shock, not because I was a regular on her sight. And not because I am a big fan of her pattern (I really was not familiar with her work). But out of the online knitting community, she is the first contemporary that I knew of that has died. I think of the online knitting community as so young and vibrant, that it is hard to wrap my brain around losing one of our own. We are still young and invincible right? And granted I am sure there have been a more than a few young fiber artists who have died in the last five years. Ravelry has brought the community so much closer together that news of GiGi ’s death spread fast. As a part of the online knitting community I felt the urge to honor a fellow fiber artist.

So I pulled the pattern back out of the basket and I bought some yummy Noro Sock yarn. Someone had completed Bellatrix in the Noro and it seemed to be stiff enough to show off the pattern well.

I had also ordered Knit Picks Harmony needles in every sock size, both DPNs and sets of 2 circulars (I LOVE THEM!) So with my lovely new needles and with a yarn that is a joy to knit, I am back to the Bellatrix in GiGi’s memory.

The March Sock will explore alternative sock structures with a Cat Bordhi sock or a bias knit sock. If you have not seen Cat Bordhi’s new sock book….go find a copy now.

At first I thought the designs were just weird, but then I realized Ms. Bordhi had totally reformulated the architecture of socks in 7? 8? 9? new ways. I want to just spend a year studying her new methods and applying different design elements to each. What can I say, I am a bit of a knitting geek.

I am also into exploring stranded socks and mittens. I work for Lark Books and have always been fascinated with our Fancy Feet and Mostly Mittens books. Right not those books are regaining some popularity despite being out of print and I have seen some great FOs and WIPs on Ravelry. So inspiring. I am dying some kettle stuff so I can play with the patterns.

I have a couple of other WIPs and pet pictures, but I will save them for future posts to break up my crazy bridezilla rants.

It has been sitting in the stash for almost 2 years now. A wickedly soft 5 ounce or so ball of alpaca lace weight yarn. You may remember my defeat in the Knitting Olympics 2006. I only made it two entralac rows into the pattern. Despite giving it my best and as much as I loved the pattern, there was no way I could finish in the allotted 2.5 weeks. Being a part of a knitting phenomenon was awesome. But once the knit along came to an end, I really did not feel very motivated to keep working the project. Even though I loved the pattern, a white lace shawl just was not very practical for me. It has been languishing in the UFOs ever since then.

Seriously, when would I ever I wear such an extravagant–albeit lovely–intricate lace shawl. You know… me–who NEVER wears a shawl.

Well I kind of have a reason now…

It happened on Groundhogs Day. After a great afternoon at B.B. Barnes planning out our first garden together, B took a detour to a near by park. And on one knee asked me to marry him… And I said “Are you serious?”

But then I said yes.

So at 41, I will be getting married for the first time, and he was well worth the wait. The date is set for late September and I am hoping to drape myself in the lovely Forest Path Shawl.

I swiped this from Cat’s blog. Pretend it is actual blog content while I finally download those LEAF pix people are verbally asking me about.

Your Brain is Red

Of all the brain types, yours is the most impulsive. If you think it, you do it. And you can get the bug to pursue almost any passion. Your thoughts are big and bold. Your mind has no inhibitions. You tend to spend a lot of time thinking about love, your dreams, and distant places.

Because David is kind enough to fix some glitches out of the blog and I just have not been able to post. See I don’t post and the blog tries to commit suicide. If it weren’t for Davids intervention it might have actually succeeded. But who knows…maybe I will actually post soon…like about the yarn…my new projects…my new “roommate”…and what I ate over the holidays.

So Bento lunch has gone out the window this week. You see, LEAF is this weekend. I have been slammed with preparing for the big trip to Black Mountain. I have been eating lunches at home and cranking out my heaftyto-do list.

For the first time since before I moved here I will be volunteering and camping at the festival. It is like a mini vacation for me and B. We will be immersed in new age, hippie, world music, it-is-all-goodness from Thursday night till Sunday evening. I have no doubt come Sunday, I will be sick of the flaky earthy mind set, make a stop through Taco Bell and go home to drink a non-organic soda and watch some HBO. But for 2.5 days, I will remember why I love Asheville and it’s conclave of free thinking liberals. And I will be reminiscing Fall LEAF 1999, and why I decided that very weekend to leave Birmingham and live here.

The yard sale was last Saturday. Big sale, lots of stuff, a great time and I made $50. Not bad for someone who just grabbed some stuff from around the house to put with my coworker’s grand purge. However, I was on the edge of killing a couple of early bird dealers who ignored my “no early birds” flyers. For instance some idiot pulled into my driveway with their LOUD truck at 6am. Or the Scary Mt. Man with the white beard and braid who was just looking for some old tools AT 7AM. But the worst was this one woman who stuck around for an hour. She had the most irritating voice (especially pre coffee–such as it was for me). And she was chatty. High maintenance chatty. We heard all about how she was just trying to furnish her double wide. Right… with bargain antiques. Hell, she knew what the jadite dinnerware was, but wanted the complete set for $10. I was surprised that I sold a lot of my old clothes. And I was tickled to unload the damn pond liner that I was never going to use. It was a great time, but I was exhausted. Spent Sunday staring at the walls, twitching.

So, ever since Monday, I have been making lists and packing for this coming camping weekend. I forgot how long it takes to pack for festival camping. Don’t get me wrong, I love love love it. And I am the queen of the festival camp site. In other words–I am a high maintenance camper. I am not talking pack what I can fit in a backpack kind of camping. I am talking pull the SUV up and unload all my crap kind of camping. Canopy, kitchen center, and the knitting (because what better way to spend my knitting time than at a music festival). And don’t think I did not think about bringing the spinning. Who knows. If there is room in the SUV, the wheel might actually make it to Black Mountain.

You see I have switched from one addiction to another. Sometimes in a search to break free of an addiction one might fall victim to a substitute addiction.

My new addiction—handspun sock yarn.

While I will always love making little babette squares, I totally love spinning hand painted roving into sock yarn. It takes for ever and a day to spin up, but so worth it. I was going to ball this skein up and take it with me camping and make some socks. But the minute I showed coworker G, she had to have it. No worries, I can make more.

ADIRONDACK Hand Painted, Handspun sock yarn–4oz, 426yds, 17wpi–100% superwash merino wool

I actually had time to make my bento this morning. all this week I have grabbed the same leftover beef stew out of the freezer. but today lunch will be this:

while posting these here:

And updating my Ravelry notebooks with this:

While this is lying at my feet.

He has been here all week because he has jumped the fence again. and I have not been able to assemble fence fix #2.

I have found time to do some spinning in between getting ready for a big yard sale I am having this Saturday. Some folks at work are pooling their crap and selling it at my house since I have the perfect yard sale location.
Email me if you are local…come buy my stuff so I can get some cool shoes.

On my sock yarn label it reads: Limited Edition Fiberart by Stacey Budge. Meaning, I really did not intend to be dying the same thing over and over. But I have settled into a system. And with wholesale orders it just becomes easier when I send a sample card and say this is what I dye.

But with fabulous and popular colorways like Avé Maria Sangria or Playing With Matches, I just keep pimping the same colors while the demand is there. I have been dying this “limited” edition for about a year now. It is way past time for some new colors. And I have been mulling over the possibilites for months now as I dye the same ole same ole.

Enter Babette.

I borrowed this picture from Interweave.

One of the 40 groups I belong to in href="http://www.ravelry.com">Ravelry, is the BAHBCA group(it stands for Babette & Hexagon Blanket Crochet Anonymous - For those of us who just can’t seem to stop). And let me tell you I can not stop. I think admitting you have an addiction is the first step. Before I gush on about my addiction to how I can’t stop making the cute little squares (Hmmm…more cute…I may be turning Japanese) First let me say I am not a big fan of any afghan like project. I think it is a lot of yarn for a thing that the cat will undoubtable use more than I will (and no doubt vomit on). And second it is crochet. I am not a big fan of most crochet like fabic, but I seem to love love love making medalions and granny squares. I have just yet to come across may patterns that justify all that yarn.

Babette is justifiable even despite the fact that it is an AFGHAN!!! First it is made from cute little Koigu yarn (see…and Koigu even sounds Japanese). And it looks like the background of a Klimt painting. I like the Heaxgon blanket from this group as well, but the different size concentric squares really make babette beautiful and interesting.

So, I started to play with the yarn I had on hand. I even toyed with the idea of a hand spun remnant or stash buster babette (and I still might do one or two or seven…What with my addiction and all)

I have been collecting a lot of Koigu yarn in hopes of eventually pooling it together for something (sweater? legwarmers? Charllote’s web shawl?) I just started making some squares. And then making some more squares. I probably need about another $100 worth of Koigu according to the pattern. And believe me nothing would please me more than shopping for $100 dollars more Koigu. But I had a thought.

I need more superwash for babette AND some new colorways for the Sock yarn. A wholesale customer had made a suggestion for some sort of solidish yarns. In 2oz skeins that complimented the existing “limited” edition, one could have contrasting heels, toes and cuffs. Plus I would have some more babette yarn. See how powerless I am over my addiction. Yarn business hell it is really all about the Babette. This stuff is soaking as I type this.

So other than to say my hour of Me time is up. I am posting a picture of Samson for someone who has bitched about my not posing enough pictures of the pets.

I have decided to chain myself to my computer at lunch. Not to catchup up on the insane amount of work that is flying across my desk these days. But to try to manage my online yarn life. Yes, I have been out of pocket (more on that later). And the yarn store has gathered a bit of dust. Topped with a promise to bring my lunch every day this month and a pathetic computer situation at home, I am finding my online me time approximately between noon and 1pm these days

Like everyone else in the knitting/crocheting online community, I am all a twitter (is so a word) about the Ravelry site. It took me a while to find time to surf. Because I am still without a viable home computer all my surfing time has to happen during office hours (unless I am just jonesing for some Zappos Porn, and find myself in the office on a Saturday). I just have not had a lot of time to explore the phenomenon that is Ravelry. All it took was Heather saying…I see you have not signed up for any groups. Okay. So, I looked at the groups. Oh. My. God. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking, but I am now signed up to 40 groups (yes, people, I said forty!). AS IF I had time to keep up with 40 groups. Granted, there is really only a handful that I am reading every couple of days, and maybe some weeding out will be in order. But you crazy knitters/community-lovers are adding new groups at a break-neck rate of 15 or so a day. Flight of the Conchords Group? Great! Sign me up. Anthropologie fan group? No, I do not get the catalog (yet). But, you guys seem like some hip knitsters…count me in. And, yes, I want to take better
pictures of the yarn…you Yarnographers rock my f-stop. So far, my favorite is the Bento Box group (ask me next week and the fav will be another group all together). Months ago I happened on the Flickr bento box group and became totally fascinated with the checking out everyones cute little lunch. What can I say, I am such a voyeur like that.

A couple of weeks, ago B and I were on a sushi kick. Sushi can easily become a $60 a week fix with just a couple of lunches out. So I found myself breaking out the sushi mat and hitting the local Asian grocer. I approached the counter with $3.47 worth of items (which by the way would cost me exactly $14.88 at a local organic grocer who will not be named). Having no cash on me, I handed the dude my debit card. “No takee, must be $10.00″. Four heads of garlic and a bento box later (Bento box for $4.99!!!). My foray into cute lunches thus begins.

So today here is my bento journal entry

Cute, n’est pas? Okay so it is not the artisan hand cut little smiling faces and animals that I have seen in Flickr, but it is a start.This puts a whole new fun spin on bringing my lunch. And just as well, since I am going to be chained to my computer over my cute lunch for the next month. Computer+smiling lunch= happiness+updated blog and ETSY shop

I am not going to leave this entry with a diatribe on woe-is-me-too-busy-to-blog kind of thing. But, here is an exciting picture of the yarn order for Sheri at The Loopy Ewe that shipped last week. That is 118 skeins, y’all.

And here is the picture of the pedicure I got with my spa gift certificate (Thanks, Jeff and Tina. Finally put that Xmas present to good use) shortly there after:

Cute, n’est pas?