A Rainbow Connection

Why are there so many
Songs about rainbows
And what's on the other side?
Rainbow's are visions
They're only illusions
And rainbows have nothing to hide

Here's just a taste of what I saw while driving from the west end of the San Fernando Valley across the 101/134 to Pasadena. The pictures don't do it justice.

And just so you don't think I spent the weekend chasing rainbows, I finished a shawl!

Pattern: Tapestry Shawl
From: Just One More Row
Yarn: Schaeffer Nancy in...ummm...I don't remember the color.

Modifications: Because I used the Schaeffer instead of the recycled silk the pattern called for, I went down to a size 13 needle. I also only did 14 points instead of 15, as I liked the way it fit at that point.

Also, my shawl is the "Featured picture" for that pattern on Ravelry! Whoo! This little guppy is just everywhere these days!

My coworkers have been watching me knit this shawl, and everyone LOVES the colors. (Trust me...the colors are much MUCH better in person). So after I finished knitting it Wednesday, I brought in something else to work on. My coworkers immediately started questioning the change. Keep in mind, these people have known me for exactly 3 months, and the conversation went something like this:

Them: What happened to your other project?

Me: It's at home.

Them: Did you finish it?

Me: Yes, I just have to weave in the two ends.

Them: Is it REALLY finished or do you have it in a drawer somewhere with all your other projects?

Can you believe that??? Three months, NONE of them knit, and they're giving me grief over my UFOs?!?!?! LOLOL They've got a lot of nerve doing that to a woman holding metal pointy sticks!

This weekend I've also cast on MimKnits's Hidcote shawl in purple Malabrigo Laceweight, and EZ's Baby Surprise Jacket in fuschia and acid green Cascade Superwash. I'm really liking both this pattern and the feel of this yarn. It's been a while since I've worked with such a standard yarn. Don't get me wrong. I'm far from a yarn snob. In fact I probably have more containers of Cascade than I do of Koigu...ok, that was a lie, but still! I have quite a bit! I've just been working on some specialty stuff, so it's been Alpaca this and Merino that and Noro over there. It's nice to do some basic, plain knitting. And since the baby isn't due until the end of December, I'm hoping I'll make the deadline. LOL

Wish me luck!

Lynda the Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks

Thunder and Lightning and Rain! Oh, My!

Yesterday while at work we were in the midst of Storm Watch here in Los Angeles. We were supposed to be hit with the worst storm in September in nearly 30 years. Traffic will be horrible! Cars will be sliding! People surfing the L.A. "River"! Hail! Rain! Flooding! Thunder! and Lightning! Very, very frightening!

Or, you know, not.

Four hours later, though, things were quite a bit different.


And we did get some serious weather last night. There was in fact thunder and lightning. No hail, though, which the GuppyMobile is very grateful for, as she was parked outside through the worst of it.

Today it's still raining off and on, but should clear up tonight. I love it.

Lynda the Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks

Choose, Matey, Or It's Walkin' The Plank!

Straight vs. Circular...

Metal vs. Bamboo...

Knitpicks vs. Addi...

Personally, I prefer Circular, Metal, and Knitpicks, but, frankly, I'm always puzzled by the people who say "I ONLY knit using X." How can they say that? I find that it depends on what I'm making and what yarn I'm using. And WHY, pray tell, would I want to choose only ONE type of needle when I can have all the needles in all the land! ARRRRR!

What brought this on? I just finished a shawl using size 13 Clover circulars. And now I've gone back to knitting on my cousin's pink ruffle scarf on size 6 Knitpicks options metal circulars. I had forgotten how much I love the Knitpicks Options needles. Don't get me wrong. I started on the Clovers and for anything slippery, they're the first thing I reach for. But the Options...Oh, my, the Options.

They're smoother, faster, pointer, and bendier. The cable join is smoother, the finish is slicker than the Addis, and the point can put an eye out if you're not careful. I really, REALLY need to purchase more of these.

I know a lot of it is going from a large project with bumpy yarn on huge needles to something small with alpaca and smaller needles, but these needles just feel great. Has anyone tried the Harmony needles yet? I've got a few of the tips in my shopping cart waiting for payday.

On to other things...

Today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. So be sure to say an Argh, Matey, and perhaps a Shiver Me Timbers today and confuse the heck out of your friends and coworkers.

My most exciting news so far? I'm on the Yarn Harlot's blog!!!! OMG!!!! It was a thrill enough when I met her and introduced myself and she said "Oh, I know who you are!" And I know it was the sock that did it. LOLOL But still...I'm there! And I'm about 2 seconds away from turning into FanGrrl. Somebody stop me. *ahem* Moving on.

I've ordered the pattern for Elizabeth Zimmermann's Baby Surprise Jacket. Does anyone out there have any suggestions for yarns? I want something superwash, as both parents work and they don't need to be worrying about handwashing anything. Too bad Noro doesn't do superwash. That would be perfect.

My mom is going to England in a few weeks. She's visiting cousins of mine. The cousin I'm related to, Jeanne, is a knitter and my family is from a part of England where all the woolen mills were. Unfortunately, I can't make it this trip, but Jeanne and my mom said they'd go shopping for me. When I told them I didn't want to load down my mom's suitcase, Jeanne replied with "Don't worry. I'll ship it."

This is going to be so bad. LOLOL.

Jeanne sent me the link to a store and asked me to let her know "how I get on" there. Oh, my. My, my, my. I think I'll get on just fine! I've been trying to figure out what to get, and here's what I decided. Nothing commercial.

I see all the name brand yarns, and if there's something REALLY spectacular, my mom will grab it for me. Between Jeanne knowing how something would knit up, and my mom knowing my tastes, I'm in good hands there. But if they're going to the actual mills, I'd much rather have the raw yarn. I'd rather have the natural, undyed yarn that comes on cones. That way I can experiment with dying all on my own and truly have one-of-a-kind yarn. Bought where my family is from, by my cousin and mother, and dyed by me. Trully a family project. Plus all the commercial yarns will be very similar to what's already available here.

Although if some Cashmere or Silk were to fall into someone's suitcase I wouldn't object.

Just sayin'.

Lynda the Guppy

aka The Fish With Sticks

A Very Harlot Adventure

When I found out the Yarn Harlot was coming to town and that you needed reservations, I immediately sat down and made a list of all the people I thought would want to go, and RSVPd for 10 people. Of those 10 people, because of various spousal health issues, birthdays, vacations, etc., only three of us from the original 10 went. I gave my extra seats back to the library for the waiting list, and off A'Harlotting we went.

First off, it was at the Central Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library. I have never been there before, so this was going to be particularly fun for me, as I'm a big fan of both books and the LAPL. LOL. Also, I had with me my knitting teacher, Anita. She not only is one of the sweetest, nicest people on the planet (not to mention has the patience of a saint...or former elementary school teacher), but she's the one who taught me to knit. And I was going to see the woman who wrote the first blog I ever read, and we were doing it only weeks after my 2 Year Knitiversary.

So my friends Anita and Alyson and Alyson's daughter M piled into my little Guppymobile and off we went. On the way down, we hit a little traffic. It seems a house crashed into an overpass while driving up the 101. Yes, you read that correctly. A house. I looked to see if there were any shoes sticking out from underneath, but it was on the opposite side of the freeway. But even with all that, we arrived at 1:45 and hooked up with Guilty Pleasures and Fiber Dreams. (Sorry for the bad picture!)

I took a look around the library. Remember, it was my first time there, if you can believe it. I DEFINITELY need to head back there and spend the day wandering. The place is massive.



This is standing at the bottom of the stairs looking at the library building with a "skyscraper" behind it.

Here's only a portion of this really great ceiling...


Then we were off to the Mark Taper Auditorium. It started more or less on time and she was introduced by Ellen who has the best Los Angeles blog. I learn more about the town I live in from her than anywhere else.


Then...Stephanie arrived.


We were promptly informed that clapping was creepy and to knock it off. LOLOL. She took the obligatory sock photo...


...And so did we. In this next picture, click on it for the large image and look at the audience. LOLOL


She was funny, witty, charming, and had me laughing so hard I was wiping tears from my eyes and at least at one point I could barely breathe. She spoke about those who try to undermine knitters, why knitters are "super responders" to things like charities and helping one another. She spoke about so many things and made me laugh so many times that I can't remember it all.

Here she is knitting on the Traveling Sock and answering questions...


And in this one, she's stroking her yarn. She had just been telling us different response to "Wow. You have a lot of yarn." And this particular picture went with the suggestion that we pick up a ball, pet it lovingly, and look at the person and say "Yarn? What yarn? These are my kittens."


Here's the Table Of Hats...


And my friends and I stood in line for a while to get our books signed...


While in line I met the charming Lori who helped pass the time with Alyson, M and I. She knit Stephanie a washcloth to freak out the muggles...It has a golden snitch. LOL. And I'm very jealous, because her picture is cute, whereas I look like crap in mine. LOLOL.


See?...


And what I'm holding in that picture is my first sock. I had read she wanted to see first socks that look like "arse." And mine more than qualifies. BTW, she thanked me for a first sock that looked like this and very kindly suggested I might have started with the wrong diameter. LOLOL Here's a better picture of it...


And finally, this next picture needs an explanation. LOL Mainly because I'm sure Stephanie is puzzled by my request, but she didn't even blink. She just looked, said, ok, and put the Traveling Sock up there. LOLOL I think that comes from years of saying to random muggles, "Here, hold this sock."

Through an affiliation with her hometown baseball team, the Hagerstown Suns, Nora Roberts got her own Bobblehead. It was so entertaining for herself and her fans, that her husband's bookstore is selling them.

One of the moderators of her messageboard got the idea for Bobblehead Nora to go on an adventure. So people are taking Bobblehead Nora (BHN for short) to museums, on family vacations, to work, to the beach, and I thought "Why not take BHN to see another author?" I thought BHN would have fun at a Harlot Event. So I give you, Nora Roberts and Stephanie Pearl-McPhee...

And that's it. That was the Grand Harlot Adventure of 2007. We had lots of fun, and it was a beautiful day spent with good friends.

What more could a Guppy ask for?

Lynda the Guppy
aka The Fish with Sticks

Love Thursday

Sheree of She Knit Shizknits has this great regular feature on her blog. "Love Thursday." Every Thursday she takes the day off and just gives a list of the things she's loving that day. From the big (one of her boys is starting school for the first time) to the little (new shoes) and everything in between.

So I thought I'd take the day today and do a "Love Thursday" myself. So here goes. Today I'm loving...

• Air conditioning
• Bruce Springsteen
• Hanging out with knitting friends tonight
• Hanging out with my "twin" last night
• iPods
• Good narrators for Audiobooks
• Finding the perfect knitting pattern for yarn my mother gave me over a year ago
• Bosses that go on vacation
• Season tickets to the Ahmanson Theater
• Friends that can give good theater ticket recommendations
• Yarn stores that let you hang out for the day in their air conditioning

So...

What are you loving today?

Lynda the Guppy

aka The Fish With Sticks

Catching Up: Sedona

I spent my last few weekends in Arizona and I took some side trips. The first was with my friend M up to Sedona. M is both a quilter AND a knitter, so when we were planning her trip, I was looking into yarn and quilt stores. And boy did we score!

We stopped at a number of quilt and yarn stores, so here are some highlights...

Our first stop was Quiltz in Phoenix. This place was massive. Because my mother is also a quilter (M was mom's friend first) I have been to my share of quilting stores all over the country, and I have never seen one as well stocked as this one. And they had their fabric grouped well, too. A lot of stores do it by color or fabric, and they did to a certain extent, but they also grouped by theme. So if you were looking for travel fabric, that was on this shelf. Dog fabric over there. English Florals in the next room. Really a great store. We spent probably about an hour there and M doesn't think she saw everything. In fact, while we were leaving we saw an entire stand-alone that had purple floral fabric on it that she had missed. And if you knew M you'd know how shocking it is that she missed an entire rack of purple. It's unheard of.

Then we hit the road. I can't remember where all we stopped, but we were hightailing it to Prescott. My cousin is going to school there and I heard there were good yarn stores out that way, and one we were NOT. TO. MISS in Jerome.

Prescott is a fairly small town. There's a junior college and an aeronautics school and that's about it. A town of a decent size, but it's still SMALL compared to Los Angeles. Even compared to Phoenix. There was not one...not two...but THREE knitting stores in Prescott. One was literally around the corner from the other.

The first store was mainly for spinning, and I picked up some gorgeous teal roving. Really pretty with streaks of purple and gold running through. Not sure how this will spin up, but we'll see. I wish I lived closer because this is the type of place I would come to learn about wheels. They really know their stuff.

The second store was nice. I've noticed Alpaca yarns are more readily available out there than here. I bought some great pink for a scarf and hat set for my cousin, this beautiful yarn that looks like a midnight sky, and a couple of patterns. One for the sky-like yarn.

The third store was more what I see here in L.A. A lot of space, not a lot of yarn, but what they had was really nice. And it looked like a comfortable place to sit and knit for a while. And if you needed needles, this was the place to go.

From there we were in a hurry to get to Jerome. I had heard that there was a store there that Should. Not. Be. Missed. I am so very VERY glad it wasn't.

First off, the drive from Prescott to Jerome. NOT for the faint of heart. Beautiful, but very twisting.

We were trying to get to Jerome by 5, as that's when the store closed. We made it with about 10 minutes to spare. Luckily the shop owner's hours are a bit...flexible. LOL

Begin Shameless Plug #2...

Knit 1, Bead 2 is one of those stores you wish you lived next door to. It is friendly, the owner was helpful, and the yarns were EVERYWHERE. And the Koigu! *swoon* Oh, my, the Koigu. I have never seen so much in one place before, and that's even including the Wall O' Koigu at Wildfiber.

I bought quite a bit of it, as you can see.


And M tried to help me out by making sure I left with a little less of it!

The thief! She's lucky she didn't lose that hand! LOLOL.

Once we left Jerome, it was clear sailing to Sedona. Found our hotel (actually timeshare) with no problems, checked in, and lugged all our belongings to the room.

And what a "room" it was!


The view from outside our front door...

Where we had our morning coffee at the Starbucks...

We did the Pink Jeep Tour (HIGHLY recommend them)...

and got to see some of the sights...

Check out Snoopy complete with Woodstock on his nose...

And did A LOT of shopping. Found some turquoise for me, finally. I even found a fish! M quite easily topped me in the "who bought more" contest. She bought the timeshare! LOLOL.

...But I still have my purple Koigu!

Next up: The Grand Canyon

The Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks

Peacocks and Lace

I need help. I'm trying to find a lace shawl pattern to use with the Malabrigo laceweight yarn I bought a couple weeks ago. I don't want anything superfine or delicate, because the yarn is kind of rustic and sturdy. After many MANY hours scouring through that time suck called Ravelry, I came up with a few options.

Leading the pack right now is the Peacock Feathers Shawl from Fiddlesticks Knitting with this yarn...

So...what do you think?

Anyone have any other suggestions?

The Guppy

aka The Fish with Sticks

Catching Up: Phoenix

You know, there are a TON of things I would post about on a regular basis. And what's holding me back is, primarily, the time to upload the photos that go with. So today, I'm playing catch up. To spare those with dialup (and even those without) I'm posting thumbnails. Click any of them for the full picture. Also, I'm breaking this up because it's WAAAAY too long otherwise. LOL

And you might want to send out for some food. You're going to be here a while. LOL...

I spent 2 months flying back and forth nearly every week from Los Angeles to Phoenix for work. My job and my boss moved and I looked around at the dry, brown, hotter-than-the-surface-of-the-sun Phoenix and said "NO WAY!" LOL Too hot for me out there.

While flying I worked on a sock...

And then ripped it back completely. A shop owner out there told me the best way to beat SSS is to do them both at once. For some reason that was a concept that had eluded me. LOL So I completely ripped it back. And since I ripped it...what about making the Jaywalkers? So I've re-cast on about a month ago and haven't touched it since.

While there I also worked on a scarf for my best friend out of some Alpaca sportweight she sent This turned out to be the pattern from hell. It's a pretty pattern with no errors that I noticed, and the yarn is PERFECT for it, as it has a bit of a halo from the Alpaca and a lovely shine from the silk, but it kicked my ass. What you see there is absolutely as far as I had been able to get, and it took me about 15 tries and nearly two weeks to get THAT far. Needless to say, It has since been frogged...

...A pink scarf for my cousin that I am discovering I don't like. LOL. I'm still plugging away on it, though, so she may see it in 2020...

And now Shameless Plug #1...

While in Phoenix the first weekend, I quickly found the local restaurants, grocery store, bookstore, and yarn store. Not necessarily in that order, you understand. And while surfing through the NUMEROUS sites for all the yarn stores in the Phoenix area, I found Tempe Yarn and Fiber. They are wonderful. The couple that own and run it are so helpful. I went once to one of their knitting nights and found everyone there to be sweet and funny and they welcomed me immediately and in the few sporadic visits I made there, I never felt for a single moment like I was unwelcome or intruding into an already established group. And the owner (and I feel like a total jerk, as I cannot for the life of me remember her name) was ALWAYS willing to just whip out the yarn and show me something or help me with anything I needed. Had I thought to pack my spindle, she could have taught me to spin, too. And since she was ever so patient with my questions, I know she would have been an EXCELLENT teacher.

If you're ever in the area, stop in. Lovely yarns, and lovelier people.

Next up...Sedona

The Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks

I'm Such a Geek

No, really. I am.

I e-mailed the Yarn Harlot to let her know that I saw "her" episode of Knitty Gritty is going to air again (June 29, 2pm ET DIY for those who want to know)...

AND SHE RESPONDED!!!

Now, I know this shouldn't be that big of a shock. I mean, if I hadn't believed she was going to read it, then why did I send it in the first place? And yet...for some reason...It completely blew me away that she e-mailed me back. LOLOL

I'm such a geek. Or is that geeque?

Lynda the Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks

Did You Do It In Public?

I'm talking Knitting, you gutterbrains. *grin*

Saturday was Worldwide Knit In Public day, and, sadly, I did not knit a single stitch in public. I DID, however go to the Yarn Lady's semi-annual bag sale.

As you can tell, there was a lot of yarn. And it feels like most of it came home with me. *snerk*







More on the Stash Enhancement once I haul it up from the garage.

Lynda the Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks

Look! A Finished Object!

...And, once again, something for my mom. LOL To be fair, I bought this yarn way back in September (I think) and I promised her a scarf with it. As soon as I saw this yarn, I knew EXACTLY what I wanted to do with it. And it took less yarn than I thought.

(Click to see the full image)



Yarn: Less than 2 balls of...ummm...I'm going to have to edit that later. Not sure.
Pattern: Karen Baumer's Multi-directional Diagonal Scarf.
Needle: Ummm....Again, I'll have to get back to you.

Next up...An Arizona Yarn Crawl.

Lynda the Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks

Pointing Fingers

I've had a very hectic few weekends. Went to Sedona (via every yarn and quilt store we could get to along the way) two weekends ago and to the Grand Canyon with my cousin last weekend. Both trips were fun and loads of pictures were taken, and more on both of that later, but in the meantime, I saw this over at Purls Beyond Price, And it amused me, so I took the test and...

You Are the Index Finger

You are ambitious, driven, and capable.You aren't afraid to take responsibility for your actions - or place the blame on whoever deserves it.You are honest, free thinking, and objective. You see things in your own way - and you aren't afraid to let everyone know about it. You get along well with: The Thumb Stay away from: The Ring Finger

So...What Finger Are You?

Lynda The Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks

BLOTD/N...

Back when I had my job as a Captioneer for TV/Video, my fellow coworkers and I used to play a game...We'd send around the "Best Line Of the Day" or "Night" depending on the shift. And there was no requirement for what was sent. It was whatever struck us as particularly funny, ironic, or just plain dumb on whatever show we were working on. There were some winners, let me just tell you. You haven't truly experienced the depths of the bottom of the TV barrel until you spend an entire shift captioning Irish porn about a family of shapeshifters. Or "Shark Attack IV: Megaldon!" (Which I still haven't picked up on DVD yet. Hmm...)

And because I know y'all are wondering it was... [SEDUCTIVE MOANING] and then later [MOANING CONTINUES] With an ocassional "Ooh, baby! Oh, yeah!" thrown in periodically.

Sorry. I digressed.

ANYWAY...I am out here in DamnIt'sHotVille, AZ and surfing the California sites and keeping an eye on the fire in Griffith Park. And in scrolling through the photos I came upon a Best Line of the Day...

"Dante's View was destroyed by the inferno."

Do you think the guy has any idea how entertaining that caption is?

Knitting content soon...Promise. I have another Clapotis on the needles as well as a lace snowflake, and a number of scarves, including one for my friend in Alpaca and Silk.

Lynda the Guppy

aka The Fish With Sticks

Guppy Flogging!

That's what should be taking place. I know I've been horribly lax in posting lately, but life has just been CRAZY.

There were family birthdays and the holidays, then some big projects at work, followed by my boss and my job (but not me) moving to Phoenix! So I'm traveling back and forth every week for a while and am hoping to get some stuff up soon. I have lots of time while sitting in my hotel room to update my blog. LOL. My problem is finding an easy way to upload my photos. But, again, lots of time now. LOL.

I've met a lovely group of ladies at Tempe Yarn & Fiber and they meet Tuesday nights. The first time I went I bought some sock yarn. It's a disease, I tell ya! I wanted to go back yesterday, but, well, work is still CRAZY, so be patient.

In the meantime, I have a couple posts that have been drifting in Draft-land ready to post, so you should be seeing those soon.

If I can just get around to uploading the pics...

Lynda the Guppy

aka The Fish With Sticks

Tagged! I'm it!

Rebecca has tagged me (meme!), so may I present SIX WEIRD THINGS ABOUT ME.

I can hear my friends now. "Six??? That's it??? That list is WAAAAAAAAAAAY longer than a measly SIX!"

In no particularly order I now give you...Six Weird Things About Me

THE RULES: Each player of this game starts with the "6 weird things about you." People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says "you are tagged" in their comments and tell them to read your blog.

1. I like dipping my french fries in my chocolate shake. I also like putting yellow mustard on my fries. (But not at the same time as the chocolate, 'cause that's just gross.)

2. I have a peculiar talent for casually glancing around a store and pointing out something to someone and it's the PERFECT THING for them and they never saw it.

3. I count stairs when I go up or down them, no matter how many times I've used the same stairs. I also used to hold my breath when I went up the stairs where I grew up.

4. I wear a full-blown, rhinestone-encrusted tiara all day on my birthday and on New Year's Eve. I wear it to work, to the grocery store, wherever.

5. I like my Nacho Cheese Doritos and and Cheez-its cold. And I put my Junior Mints in the freezer.

6. When I'm really concentrating on something, I chew my tongue. I've done it since I was a small child.

Ok. That's it. For now. *wink* Unfortunately I do not comment regularly on enough blogs for me to be able to tag anyone! So...if you're reading this, consider yourself...

TAGGED! You're it!

The Guppy

aka The Fish with Sticks

Merry Christmas!

I have had a fiber-filled Christmas so far! Last night I opened presents with my mom and I got some GREAT stuff.

As y'all know, my mom doesn't knit. But our friend M does, and mom always goes to her to find out what I want fiber-wise. My mom always gets the perfect gifts. So this year, in addition to my many MANY Christmas ornaments this year (she picks them up for me when she travels), she also bought me a Swift and Ball Winder!!! YAY! I used to use M's, and as "payment" I'd always wind a couple balls of her yarn, too. Now that I have a set, I told her she'd have to wind her own! She replied that now I have a set, she can just send it home with me. LOLOLOL

From M I got some ADORABLE Christmas ornaments of snowmen wearing knitted garments, a bunch of other knitting related things like the Spinner's Companion. And she gave me a skein of Cherry Tree Hill's Melange. Gorgeous. Just gorgeous. Oh, and a sheep windchime! He's ADORABLE.

But the big news...I finished my mother's Christmas present in time. I can't tell you how much I was sweating that. LOL. I knit her a Lady Eleanor in Noro. I started it Halloween weekend and finished it at 3:30 p.m. Christmas Eve. She loved it. I had a mental breakdown at one point and thought "What if she doesn't like it?" But then the brain kicked back in and I realized how stupid that was. LOLOL. First of all, she bought the yarn! And she knew I was going to make that for her, but I had told her that she wasn't getting hers until I finished mine. And mine is a LONG WAY from being finished. LONG LONG WAY. And because all my knitting buddies were sworn to secrecy, she had no idea I had even STARTED it, much less was going to finish by Christmas. When I told both her and our friend M that bit about her not liking it, they both gave me identical stares that very clearly said "Oh, no! She's finally snapped."

So last night I gave her a "gift certificate" to take her shopping for silk, as she wants to line it. I also gave her the last ball of yarn for the fringe, and then she opened the box. She was stunned. Absolutely stunned. And another friend of mine makes jewelry, and I had 'commissioned' her to make a shawl pin and she came up with a really pretty one in hammered copper that's PERFECT. I'm hoping to have pictures next week or the week after depending on how it goes.

So that's been my Christmas so far. All in all a good one, if a bit bittersweet as it's the first without my grandmother.

Off to dad's now to make pierogi. Hope your holidays are fun, festive, and filled with the company of those you love. Stay safe.

The Guppy
aka the Fish with Sticks

Free-For-All Friday!*

Ok, where to start...

First off, no pictures this time. Sorry. I have a bunch on my laptop, however the laptop is at home and I've put this post off long enough, frankly. LOL.

1. The Olympic Knitting Scarf has been located and completed. While I really like it, I wish I had gone with a drapey-er gauge. Although I don't know that cable scarves ever really DRAPE per se.

2. Super Secret Christmas projects are in the works! If I get them finished by Christmas (You there, Yes, you...Stop laughing! I can hear you!) I'll post pictures. Lots of fun.

3. I'm taking a class at A Mano Yarn Center. It's two socks on one circular. It's...Interesting. I think the classes were too close together. While the Yarn Harlot may be able to knit a sock a day I'm just not that talented. The first class was just confusing. The instructor was late because of traffic, we didn't know what yarn to get, so no one got their yarn before class, so it all had to be bought and wound before we could start, and then the cast-on is fairly complicated and new to most of the class. And I was having major gauge issues, so I didn't actually start really working on my sock until Wednesday, and by Friday we were to have finished the ribbing so we could do the leg shaping. So while it was interesting learning Magic Loop for two socks (or even Magic Loop at all) I don't think I got my money's worth.

When I left the first class, I had cast on the first half of both socks, and I knew how to complete the cast-on, but I had no idea how to join or how to actually knit it. Where do my needles go? How do the socks slide around the cables? It was very confusing and it took my friend and I several days before we could figure it out. Frankly, she figured it out on Saturday and I sat on her couch all Sunday until I could wrap my head around it. even then it was really hard until I got a number of rows done.

So we basically all had to teach ourselves the Loop method. Then the next class, no one was at the point to turn the heel, so we talked leg shaping and sat and knit. Then the third class we were supposed to be at the heel, and about half of us were (not me, of course). So people started their heel flap, but as far as I know, no one got as far as actually turning the heel or the gusset or anything like that. The last class is tonight, and it should be toes. We'll see how far along people are.

I like the teacher, and I think she's a good teacher, and I LOVE the store, but I think the classes were too closely set (a week apart) and this time of year it's especially hard to commit to X amount of knitting a week. I would have been happier if they had been spaced 2 weeks apart or if we were making slipper-socks and using a heavier gauge than sock yarn. Then it might have been more realistic to expect us to get to a certain point by each class.

Ok. Rant over. Moving on....

4. The socks are coming along very nicely, and I'm loving doing two at once. Although I think the next pair will be toe-up.

5. I'm headed to the Yarn lady tomorrow for the bag sale. YIPPEE!!! This is the yarn shop that's so fabulous that my mother (who doesn't knit) bought 9 balls of yarn.

6. Speaking of those 9 balls of yarn, 3 of them are for a scarf for her for her birthday (yes, I know I'm late). The yarn is Rowan Tapestry (in blues and grays) and I'm doing Karen Baumer's Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf and it looks great. And the yarn drapes beautifully.

7. And finally...I have Venezia yarn by Lang that I want to knit up into a lacy something or other (I only have 3 balls) but I need a super-easy pattern. Anyone have any ideas?

Well, I think that's it for now.

The Guppy

aka The Fish with Sticks


*Thanks to the Jamie Jack & Stench show on KYSR for the idea.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Happy Birthday to the one who taught me to needlepoint.

And when that didn't stick, taught me to cross-stitch.

And even though I enjoyed that, she tried to get me to quilt.

And when all else failed to make me truly passionate

about needlework of some kind...ANY kind...

She took me to my first (and her last) knitting class.

So happy birthday to one of the few people in my family

who truly understands and appreciates the time and effort and love

that goes into a hand-made gift.

(Note the scarf. See! I DO finish things!)

And as hard as I tried, other things got in the way, so she knows there's another scarf coming. Made with Rowan Tapestry and it's FABULOUS. I'm so glad I ended up with some of this yarn for me, too. So more pics of that soon.

And a HUGE thank you to mom for not only allowing her picture to be taken, but graciously allowing me to post it here.

Love you, Mom!

The Guppy

aka The Fish With Sticks