I've also started on my Tina Shawl. The center seems like it will be a very fast knit. I'm nearly a third of the way through it now. The outer border and lace edging will be far more time consuming. This is being knit in Knitpicks Lace Shine, in the color Aegean. It's so pretty.

This weekend, I've pretty much hit the jackpot. Through various means, I've obtained copies of some of Alice Starmore's most sought after books. I was in love with In the Hebrides until I got Tudor Roses. I'm smitten. Now I have to decide what patterns I'll knit first.

We were talking Friday night at late night knitting about swaps and such. At that time, I mentioned that I'm a terrible swap partner. I'm so bad about time frames and such, but I feel like I'm missing out. Now, there's an LSG Random Acts of Kindness board. Only active LSGers can participate. Each month, we post a wish list, and people send you stuff as they can. It's totally optional, so I don't have the added pressure of deadlines. I'm doing a bit of stashbusting and I'm going to ship a few things off to better homes this week. My plan going forward will be to pick a person once a month and send stuff out. This should be lots of fun!

Here is what we have at the moment.

This is the back.

This is a close up of the steek stitches. The round now begins in the center of the steek so I don't have to weave those ends in! Woohoo!

I finally finished up the Blue Streak batt I got from the Art Club Batt Club. I decided on a one ply laceweight to get maximum yardage from the 2.5 oz batt. I ended up with about 800 yards so I'm content.

Note: it's hard to see the sparkle in the picture.

I also overdyed my yarn spun from Abby's batts. The color in reality is not quite as similar to the Blue Streak.

Stacey's knitting is coming along well. She's finished her second scarf. Stacey, how do you like your scarf and knitting in general.

Look at that! She's so happy, she has jazz hands! (And I am going to get my butt kicked for posting this picture.)

She also took a picture of her boyfriend Mike modeling the scarf.

I'll post more soon. I'm on jury duty for two weeks so here's hoping I get called in and dismissed early so I can knit more!

Enough griping though. I've got some pretties to show off! The Autumn Rose is coming along quite well. Yesterday, I reached the stopping point on the body. Here's what I have so far.

I've also started the steek panel at the neckline.

That's where I'll be cutting it open when all is said and done. I intend to have Ashley use my camera to make videos of me crocheting the steek and cutting it open since she wants to learn how to do it. Soon. Very soon.

I've started on the sleeve which is flying along, not that I'm past the color work ribbing. I hate that part.

I also received my Knitpicks order today. In it was this yarn that I'm going to use to knit the Tina shawl with. It took all my strength not to wind the first hank into a ball and cast on.

I also got 3 balls of Palette in Sky to make this baby sweater. I plan on using the left over grays and white for the color work in the yoke.

Stacey's knitting is coming along. She's purling now, and has even added her first project to Ravelry. I'm starting to win her over on knitting. Clearly, I'm an evangelical knitter. I will sing the praises and the glory of knitting to anyone who will listen. Knitting can save your soul (but maybe not your paycheck.)

After that, I laid down for about an hour. Then it was time to knit some more. I've spent most of my day knitting while watching Anthony Bourdain on the Travel Channel. Knitting and Tony... not a bad way to spend the day. Especially when I get to hear phrases like "I feel like a meat pinata at a pit bull party" and "as nutritious and delicious as Ryan Seacrest's love juice." Good stuff. Now I'm knitting while watching the Oscar's, though I'm typing this up during the boring stuff.

Here's my sweater now:

Stacey is making progress on her knitting. I finally figured out how she was getting increases with no obvious yarn overs. It's nothing major and something we've all done. I've also lent her my copy of Stitch and Bitch for as long as she wants it. I think now that she's overcome her main issue, she may start to really enjoy knitting.

In November, I finished the Cable Net socks. They are my first entry fro the 2009 Kentucky State Fair. I even knit them with the 'extra spicy' heels. I love them!

I've started on Eunny Jang's Autumn Rose in Mineral. HOTT!

I've also been knitting on my Pomatomus that I'm knitting from my handspun BFL.

And of course, I've finished another yarn since I posted a few days ago. This is my hand dyed superwash merino. Each skein is one sock. I haven't measured the yardage yet, but it should be plenty. The one thing I did differently is I navajo-plied each skein. Now, the socks will be self striping. I can't wait to see how they knit up.

I plan on getting the socks done very soon, and getting to work on the sweater. When I do, I swear I'll update. I've started using the Google reader to read my knitting blogs and I've set it as one of my home tabs. I'm hoping that will encourage me to post more!

My new Lendrum DT with fast flyer and very fast flyer. I ordered her from the Woolery along with a carrying bag. Oh I love her. Spins like a dream. She still doesn't have a name 2 months later, but she will.

Speaking of the Woolery, I'm very excited to say that they have moved and are now only about 40 minutes away. Now if I need extras for my wheel, there's no need to order that to be delivered. Of course, they have looms which is bad. I do not need to start weaving.

I've spun a number of new yarns:

Bordering on the Avant Garde (another Torchwood inspired roving)

Old Country Roses (a singles yarn! I don't do those very often!)

Science Fiction (I gave one skein to Ashley)

A merino/tencel blend from Creatively Dyed

And lace weight that needs to be over dyed. I have a total of 800 yards so I should be able to make a nice little shawl.

In other news, I've begun to teach Stacey to knit. One evening last month, Michelle hosted a small potluck at her house where we knit, ate, talked, laughed, and tortured small children (the last part was mostly Mike's doing.) We had so much fun, we may be doing it again on Valentine's Day!

Also, the LSG group on Ravelry is now a year old! To celebrate, people have been throwing regional parties. The first was the OHINKY (Ohio/Indiana/Kentucky) party. It was EPIC. No really. 18 knitters in a penthouse condo in Cincinnati. There were games, a gift exchange, drinking, eating, drinking, random calls from LSGers all over the country, drinking, and some knitting. We took lots of pictures! (FYI - Not all are safe for work. Just saying!) It was great.

I'll post again soon, with actual knitting content! I promise!

In other knitting news, after my Dragon*Con adventure, I decided that I was going to make hats for Eve Myles and John Barrowman (the other cast members of Torchwood). I finished Eve's hat, and I hate to even give it away. Mainly, because I LOVE the hat, and to a lesser degree, I'm scared she won't like it. The main reason I don't knit gifts is that I'm always worried that they won't be appreciated. Sure Gareth wore my hat around Dragon*Con, but was he just being nice? Last night I got a message from a woman on LiveJournal who was at a Torchwood convention in the UK this past weekend. She had to let me know that Gareth was wearing my hat! That's a great deal of relief!

Here are the photos of Eve's hat, from fiber to FO.

I've been told twice to write up the pattern. That may actually happen soon. We'll see.

I have more stuff that I can post, but I have to run some errands and get ready for a Halloween party tonight!

I have some finished objects and new projects to show off, plus the results of a Dye Day at Nicole's house.

First, I finished my Ianto socks this week. I love handspun socks. I mean really. It's getting to be an addiction. I love the colors of these socks. I've ordered another Ianto-inspired from YummyYarn, this one called "Bordering on the Avant Garde" that I plan on spinning up on my Lendrum when I get it soon! But anyway, let's look at the socks I knit.

I finished spinning my "Brooding" roving, and changed the nameo f it to "Black Magic." Because I must have a pair of handspun socks on the needles, I've cast on the Pomatomas socks from knitty.

I've also started on the Cable Net socks from knitty, that I'm making with Crystal Palace's Panda Silk. It's a gorgeous yarn and a gorgeous pattern. I think it's a prefect match.

As I mentioned earlier, Nicole hosted Dye Day at her house on September 27th. I brought roving to dye, the others had ordered yarn from KnitPicks. The weather was perfect and I think a good time was had by all. Of course, Nicole ended up dying NOTHING that day since I'd brought my drum carder for her to play with. Who wants to dye when you can play with a new toy? I lent her my drum carder for a few days and in return Nicole surprised me with 4 oz of Ramboulet roving. Yum!

In the end, I had the following rovings:

I also did a bit of dying yesterday, and while it's still drying, I'm too in love not to share it.

And to pimp myself just a bit, my fair knitting got a mention in issue 30 of This Week in Ravelry!

Two posts in one day... the world as you know it may be ending.

The morning before I went, I'd finished plying my second yarn from some of Creatively Dyed's roving. This time it was 60% merino/20% seasilk/20% milk protien/100% YUM! I don't have a creative name for the roving yet, but wow, it's just delicious. I ended up with about 260 yards/ just under 4 oz. I should have pre drafted better for a finer yarn, but it'll still make squishy warm socks. I don't have a cool name for the colorway at this point, but oh well, it's beautiful.

I spun up over a third of the BFL I dyed and named Brooding. I posted a pic of it a few months ago about 3 posts ago.

I was going to post more pictures of us all spinning and knitting, I need to make the bed and straighten around my apartment before work. I've made myself a deal. If I keep my apartment clean for 3 months (I'm past the 1 month mark! W00T!) then I get to buy a new spinning wheel. I'm going to get the Lendrum Original, double treadle, with carrying bag, fast flyer and very fast flyer (plus a few extra very fast bobbins). I'm looking at about $750.00 for everything I want, but I'll have a bonus coming in around that time. Plus... it'll make me feel better about my upcoming 30th birthday.

For the record... this beats my fair ribbons, hands down!

Let's start with the Ravelympics. The point was to start and complete a project during the Olympics. I decided to spin and knit a hat for Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto from Torchwood) and give it to him at Dragon*Con. Before the Ravelympics began, I prepared the spinning batts.

Once the Olympics began, I could start spinning my yarn.

Then I knit the hat.

At the Con, I met up with Susi (AKA Sushi the Great, who's blog I've been reading for a few years. We decide to go to the Torchwood panel on Friday. I get in line early and save a spot for her and her boyfriend. We end up in the second row, and I tell Susi that I have the hat with me. I had also bought two very dark chocolate candy bars for him since I'd read on his website that he loves extremely dark chocolate.

Anyway, Susi tells me I should give it to him during Q and A. I tell her no way, since I hate getting in front of people. She gently prods and tells me everyone will love it. I mull it over. Half way through, it's time for questions. Susi tells me to get up and do it! I take a deep breath, wish to myself I could take a shot of something strong, and I get in the line.

My question was lame. "What was the most fun episode to shoot?" He answers, and I'm only half listening, because I'm FREAKING OUT! So I tell him I had a gift for him. I walk up to the table and hand it to him.

He kind of teases and says "Do I want to open this?" Peeks in. "Anthony? You look for me." (Anthony is Anthony Lewis who played Tommy in an episode. Anthony's brother plays Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter movies.) Then Gareth opens the bag. The first thing he pulls out is the notecard in its envelope

He says he'll read it later. I make a lame attempt to say "I swear it's not dirty pictures or anything." It's not. It's a thank you and washing instructions for the hat. Gareth pulls the hat out.

And he puts it on. He says something during this and I remember "Rock and Roll!" being exclaimed. I don't know why, because I barely remember any or this. I'm convinced now that Gareth wanted me dead and tried to make my fangirl brain explode in front of everyone.

I tell him that I knit the hat out of yarn I'd spun up. His jaw drops. "You SPUN it?" I nod or something. The audience and everyone else at the panel table claps for me. He says something about "It's a good thing everyone likes it!"

Finally, he pulls the last two gifts out of the bag. Two bars of extremely dark chocolate. "Just like I like it" he says. Again, I nearly die.

He then wears the hat for the rest of the panel. And for at least an hour or so on the Walk of Fame. I hear on Sunday morning that he wore it most of the day Saturday, and to the special dinner that James Marsters had for fans.

Once again, the Rona shawl/tablecloth did not win (this time it was entered in the Misc. catagory). Whatever. I'm over it, or so I keep telling myself.

My hat and scarf didn't get a ribbon either. Nor did my Bar Harbor bag. But someone with different colors and the same pattern did get a 3rd place ribbon. Here's my bag.

I did get 5 ribbons though.

My booties came in 4th.

My Dickinson Pullover also got a 4th place ribbon.

I ended up with THREE blue ribbons!!

First, for my Twisted Flower socks.

Then for my baby sweater.

And finally for the damn shawl. Mom and Nana came over to help me block it the day before I turned it in. This bastard is BIG.

Now I'm in the process of picking out next year's entries. Guess I better start getting to work!!

I've been to two spin-ins on the river and had another bar knitting adventure at Starbase Q since my last update. I really can't say enough times how much I love Ravelry as I've made so many new friends through it. I also got the hook-up on some great patterns through a person on Ravelry. If you are a lace knitter, you've probably heard of Herbert Niebling. He's the godfather of lace knitting. He's been dead for forty years, but people are still crazy about his patterns. Most of them are out of print and only available through old issues of Burda magazine. The most popular pattern, Lyra, is really expensive. I have now obtained a copy of that pattern (and numerous others) though absolutely, 100% legit means * cough, cough *. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Say what you will about copyright, if the pattern is out of print and the holders refuse to republish, then I'm not opposed to obtaining it through sketchy means. The only person losing is the eBay seller. Trust me, I won't lose sleep over this. If you want the link to the patterns, leave a comment and I'll email it to you.

On the stash-y front I have some pretties from Greencastle and some more recent items to show off.

Have I said I love Creatively Dyed? I bought 8 oz. of her merino/seacell and I've spun 4 oz of it.

It spun up to a 3ply fingering weight yarn, approx 18-20 wraps per inch, 350 yards in all.

I also bought 4 oz of merino/bamboo that I haven't spun yet.

From etsy seller YummyYarn, I bought 4 oz of BFL in the colorway Ianto. It's inspired by our favorite character from Torchwood, and it's so pretty, I had to have it. I plan on spinning it up to a sock weight yarn. I'm currently working on a Ianto-inspired sock (and yes, I used proper grammar as it's pronounced Yan-toe).

From etsy seller allspunup, I about this merino/alpaca blend.

I ordered 4 oz of Targhee fiber in the colorway Northern Lights.

I dyed up some BFL myself and came up with this happy accident. It was supposed to be very bright with some dark spots. Whoops. But I LOVE this far more than the roving I'd originally envisioned. I call it 'Brooding.'

I've done quite a bit of knitting at work too. I've now finished three pairs of socks in the past month. Two came from handspun yarn.

The first are my Fancy Vines clog socks. The pattern is my own, and the motif is from Barbara Walker's 3 treasury.

The next are my Green Lake socks. The pattern is from a recent Spin Off. The yarn is a 4 ply cabled superwash merino.

Finally, there are my Fallish socks. These were knit with my merino/silk Head Over Heels kit. I utterly love this socks. The striping made it so interesting to knit up, as I had no idea what was coming next.

I've been working the late shift for almost 2 months now, so I haven't been able to knit with the Quills ladies. That's not to say I haven't been knitting though. I've been knitting with Ally (Knittin' Baby) on Wednesdays at Eureka Joe's. We started knitting together after she posted on Ravelry. This past Sunday, I went out and knit with two more Ravelers and a third knitter. I'd met Debbie once at the Rav meet up at Grinny Possum, but just met Sharri for the first time. They are both on the River City Knitters group, but we all came to each others attention from other boards we are all members of.

We ended up knitting at Starbase Q, this really cool gay bar on Main St. Sundays are movie night, so were were able to knit, then watch Juno. There were other wacky antics, but I try to keep my blog fairly inoffensive, so you'll have to ask for the story.

In some knerdy-knitter knews, I'm going to DragonCon this Labor Day weekend. Kirstie goes every year, and I've want to go but haven't. I found the one thing that sold me on it though for this year - my favorite actor on Torchwood, Gareth David-Lloyd is going to be there. I'm going to bled up some fiber, spin it, and knit him a hat. I'm such a nerd.

I went to the Fiber Event in Greencastle with Nicole where we played co-enablers. Then next day, was the alpaca show with Nicole, Sonya, Becka, and Cheryl. Since I'd come in under budget at the Fiber Event, it was justification to buy at the show.

Now to the knitting and fiber-y portion... I'm not going to go into too much detail, because I'm lazy and there's LOTS to post.

First, I'm done with the body of the damn shawl, and I'm on the border! I have one side done so far!

Close up!

I finished the body of the baby sweater and the sleeves. I cut the steeks as well, not I just have to seem everything up and knit the edging and button band.

Some before steeking images...

Now a grainy video of me cutting the front steek...

And the steeks cut.

Okay, that's it for now. I'm going to post some fibery stuff this weekend for you all to see.

What does that rant have to do with knitting and productivity? I busted my ass and finished the scarf and hat set (except for weaving in). I'm really happy with it and glad it's over.

I've since started on this cardigan. It's being knit with Knit Picks Palette. If you notice the stripes between the pattern, that is my steek panel. This will be my first real steeked project, so keep your fingers crossed for me.

I'm mainly working on that at work (love the freedom I have on my new schedule). At home, it's back to the damn shawl. In two days, I've completed more than half of the 6th chart repeat. One to go after this, and then I do the outer chart and the border. I'm figuring about another month.

See how much I've progressed since the last pic? What? It looks the same? What do you mean? Oh that's right! IT'S A GIANT BLOB!!!

I've worked this week also on charting out colorwork patterns. One for the fair isle sweater I'm going to spin and knit, the other for my felted project.

So what do you think? Have I been productive despite my TV addiction?