Zombie Blogger

Oh Hai, have you missed me? I've missed you. What can I say? Old habits die hard. Between work travel, several personal meltdowns, for reasons I won't bore you, I just really have cocooned myself without a whole lot to say. But anyhoo, so it's been awhile and I apologize for that. I do have a lot to show for myself, which is typical when I resurface from a blog hiatus.

First up, the first finished object of the year, is my Leyburn Socks. I am no longer a Socks that Rock virgin. Boy, do I love this yarn. This is a mill end I picked up at Rhinebeck in colorway "Lettuce Knit". I joined the Leyburn KAL for the Socks that Rawk! Group on Ravelry.

Pattern: Leyburn Socks by Pepperknit

Started: December 30, 2008

Finished: January 31, 2008

Yarn: Socks that Rock Lighweight in "Lettuce Knit"

Needles: Size 1 Addi Turbos

Mods: A few. The numbers had to be fudged because the pattern is written for Size 2 needles. Also, upon advice from a sock guru, did an "eye of partridge" heel. I like short row heels that do not involved wrap/turns. This one was ssk and p2tog. Glorious. Also, this is my very first toe-up sock and I love them. I *heart* Judy's Magic Cast-on and Magic Loop also!

My cuffs are a wee shorter than I like them because I discovered I had a severe loss of yardage on this particular mill end. Thank goodness it was a toe-up sock!

And since I can't seem to stop knitting socks right now, I finally wound up that ginormous skein of Knitivity Down Home Sock yarn in colorway, "Rodentia", you know for that Mickey Mouse lover in your life. Mentioned a little while ago, these are for socks for my SIL, KubusKrafts. The 920 yd skein was so massive, I couldn't help poking fun at its size prior to dividing it up into 4 individual skeins.

Not wanting to come off my Leyburn high, I used the pattern for these socks also. So, do you think you can see these socks through her Mickey Crocs? I do.
When I'm depressed, I shop. I shop for fibery goodness and this next picture is a result of when I tripped and fell on my face at Yarnissima's online shop. She puts together the nicest kits I've ever seen. It comes complete with a skein of Wollmiese in the "Spina di Pesce" colorway (bone of the fish in Italian), that was specifically dyed for this pattern.
I have been doing a lot of spinning in the last month also. Last post, I was spinning Zarzuela's Fibers "Stormy Dawn" merino. For our spin-a-long in the Ravelry group, the challenge was to learn to Navajo-ply and then knit something with the yarn you made. This is my first Navajo-plied skein and I don't think it's too bad at all. I am rather proud. This is definitely my new favorite technique and since you are plying a single onto itself 3-fold, there is no waste. The skein below is the first 2 oz out of a 4 oz braid.

I received my first installment of the Zarzuela's Fiber Club too. Now that everyone has received their shipment, I can blog about it. This is a 6 oz braid of Corriedale wool, a new fiber for me to spin. The colorway is called "Snowy Wood in January". Isn't it gorgeous? We kind of all agreed this would be a beautiful Clapotis.

I was oogling over this one for about 3 months now at Numma Numma's etsy shop and finally gave in. This is a 50/50 merino/alpaca blend and it's heavenly. The colorway, totally up my alley, is part of the baby food inspired colorways, "Peas and Carrots". OMG I love it.

Oh in case you caught the snark in my title, yes, it does totally poke fun at the whole "yarn dyer back from the dead" controversy going on right now on Ravelry. Note to self, if you ever want to fake your own death and live off of the charity of good-hearted knitters, pay the extra $8 a year to have a private IP address because we do know how to ping you, don't show up on flickr with your identifiable tattoos that your devoted pattern fans can pick out of a line-up, and finally, don't post from your Ravelry ID (changed 3 times since your death), and change your homepage to say, "Please leave me alone." Hi, guilty much? Don't f*ck with a bunch of good-hearted crafters. We are nice until you take advantage of our good will. Let that be a lesson to anyone considering faking their death and capitalizing on the donations. Am I opionated on this one? Yep. Is there enough proof to be opionated. Yep, check the LSG group on Ravelry under post, "She's NOT Dead". The title should be aptly renamed to "Warning: Shitstorm Ahead". Until the dead dyer speaketh, I have no choice but to decide on "guilty" in my head based on the surmountable evidence to prove she breathes...and lives on Ravelry with a now defunct pattern store (Rav pulled the plug) to which the funds were supposedly going to support her widowed husband and children. I do not like a fake. Period. Until there is evidence to prove otherwise, say exhume the dead dyer, I'm pretty certain to not be swayed on how I feel about this one. If you really want to read that whole thread and have a whole day of your life to get sucked into to it, let me save you the trouble and say go to page 100, round about where Casey puts the cabash on it.

Well, I just wanted to pop in, but I do have a sweater or two in progress to speak of and more stash enhancement. It was also a weekend of fiber-tastic proportions and there are pictures to prove it. Oh I was also given a blog award I'll talk about too. I haven't done much blog reading so if I wasn't emailed, I would have never known. I know I am a sucky blogger. Maybe tomorrow.....