I am so totally sucked in. somehow I’ve managed to resist someone’s book reviews (scoffing at the idea of vampire romance. more because past romance preference here has been of the historical variety. ah, vikings…*ahem*). and then someone on the knittyboard mentioned she was giving in and going to read them. and a few of us decided to join her. and finally last week the library blessed me with the online download of the audiobook.

well, I made it through the first few chapters and was interested, but managed to ignore it for a few days (never a good idea, since the downloaded books have expiration dates). so I played it again on Saturday while knitting (I cast on a purple scarf. yeah, still don’t have enough projects in need of finishing), and obsessively listened to the rest of it on Sunday (interspersed with trying to watch Legend of the Seeker. which is absolutely nothing like the books it’s supposed to be based on, but I will continue to watch it - mostly because the lead guy is damn fine. *ahem*). I did finish the knitting of the pink blanket. and Wolfie claimed it as a bed again while I had it laid on the floor. and then I worked on the flower washcloth some more. that’ll be done soon. (in theory)

dear spirits, I am totally obsessed now and can’t wait for the movie. I am comforting myself with a lack of book two (cursed library waitlists) by having downloaded Midnight Sun. unfortunately I cannot stay up all night reading it because I have to vote in the morning before heading to work…

ok, enough rambling now. I have to get back to that PDF…

Tuesday morning edit: ok, good thing Midnight Sun is incomplete. I DID stay up reading it (and then succumbed to reading this site’s take on things, which had me in fits of laughter. I finally made it to bed at 4am. also stumbled on a Twilight trailer spoof on youtube that had me in fits of laughter for quite a while)

DSCF7230, originally uploaded by criosa.

(apparently red-eye settings do odd things to his eyes)

I have been knitting lately, just seems pretty boring working on the eternal WIPs. I’ve been heading down to Burnsville on and off the last few weeks to knit with Nancy & Rina and whoever else happens to be there. I went to Drunken Knitting Night at Merlin’s Rest with Kim and Becky from dance (and we encountered Dave, also from dance. He was one of the musicians, not knitting.) oh, and I knit ’round the campfire at my cousin’s fall gathering last weekend, where I was told that the two petals of the flower washcloth looked more like a bra or bikini top. hadn’t realized that, but he was oh-so-right.

Projects I’ve been working on lately have been the Positive Energy Stole (mostly at Burnsville), seaming the HP POA scarf, the flower washcloth, the short-row scarf of doom (aka Sea Lettuce) and the Zucca blanket. I bought a few needles for needle felting and a bit of blue fiber (I haven’t made anything more than a couple blobs yet) - I blame my sister for that. (ever since she got interested, I’ve had it in my head that I need to copy her. I figure I’ll add some designs to a felted bag or something in the future.) In spinning news, I finished the Miss Babs fiber and have started one of the Seawools from Creatively Dyed.

In non-knitting news, I wandered (well, drove) around the Twin Cities today for a quilting shop hop.
This is what I got:

and this is what the finished quilt would look like:

I only got the fabric for the squares right now (I can buy a kit with all the fabric for the borders and such to finish it up), and I only have 6 of the squares. (missing the yellow & green square in the center right and the green one with the red X in the center top). I’m thinking I might make a table runner or something instead of the quilt as shown.

I also fell in love with one of the shops (located next to All About Yarn) Block of the Month quilts:

It’ll be queen sized when finished - which is perfect since that’s what size my bed is (which is also good cuz the kitties try to crowd me - usually one on either side of me). It started in September (with the medallion in the center), so I’m not too far behind.

and, in parting, some kitty pics…

Wolfie napping (or attempting to, before I found him and grabbed the camera) on the treadle of my wheel

dinner time. Wolfie ways nearly twice as much as Kashka. though most of him is still fluff.

first up, getting started on the other half of the punta (which had been soaking in the synthrapol’ed water for a couple days by now).
I filled the pot with water, added what was left of the peacock dye, then put the pasta insert in before moving the wool over. let that heat up and got to work on the Wensleydale.

the wensleydale had a shorter pre-soak. pulled it out, drained it a bit, then over to the table. mixed up some more purple and some royal blue. wow, the royal blue is very purpley in liquid form - it was almost difficult to tell them apart. (the purple was a bit pinker if you swirled it). diluted the stock solutions (I tried a 3 bits water to 1 bit dye. diluted the green a bit more than that) and poured it onto the wool. ran out of color so diluted some more. the purples didn’t match (I’m wondering if I accidentally did two rounds of blue), but it still looks good. wrap the saran wrap around it and go back to the stove to check on things there.

at some point, the blue was more or less exhausted, so I diluted some purple and poured it in three spots around the edge, then went to wait for it to exhaust. it didn’t - it just kept spreading (so much for the thought of adding some royal blue to it later on). so I pulled it out and set it aside (the pasta insert came in handy for that, though may have contributed to the mucho spreading of the purple).

looked in the pot to see what the water looked like - very dark. very purple. couldn’t let all that dye go to waste, so I went digging through the undyed wool stash and pulled out the Falklands I bought at Maryland. measured out 4 oz and put it in the (hot) pot dry, using the steamer basket to assist with the submerging. put the lid on and let it sit.

I then worried a bit that it might have been shocked to death and felted, but at that point, there wasn’t much to be done. so it sat and soaked. meanwhile, the other two are awaiting their turns in the steamer basket. (I think I need another pot and steamer.)

around dinner time, I checked back on it and the dye was mostly exhausted. plop the wool from the water into the steamer basket, pour out some of the water, and steam away. realize the wensleydale is oozing purple so decide to steam that next. (thankfully the colors are deep enough that the bleed wasn’t really noticeable), and then steam the punta wool.

a careful rinsing once they cooled off a bit and on to drying.

here they are drying on the target clothes drying rack:

2 oz Wensleydale wool from littlebarn at Maryland - green, royal blue, bright purple (cushings dyes)

2 oz punta wool from The Fiber Studio - peacock & bright purple

punta wools - side by side (2 oz each)

4 oz Falklands 58s wool from littlebarn at Maryland - dyepot remnants (mostly bright purple, possibly some peacock). it doesn’t seem to have felted.

so, later Friday night after pulling the wool/bamboo blend out of the steaming pot, I decided to toss in 2 oz of the punta wool to soak up the dye that drained out into the pot (mostly teal, maybe a little of the green mixed in), heating it until the dye exhausted. then I dumped the rest of the diluted green into the middle of the pot and let it heat until that seemed exhausted. and then I looked at the clock and turned it off and headed to bed.

at some point Saturday afternoon I heated it up again and added some of the leftover Peacock dye (again from last month) into three places around the edges (and let the final drips hit wherever they would) and heated it until it looked like it was exhausted. left it in the pot to cool.

late Saturday night, I drained it (and since the water was nice and clear I didn’t bother with gloves. my fingers did not turn blue/green this time) and rinsed it and set it out to dry.

I love the semi-solid-ness of it. here it is dryed & braided:

next up - the other half of the punta wool and some wensleydale wool