Wiki Tiki Tavi

Did you know that there's a knit wiki? I had no idea until I noticed a couple of referring links from this page. I'm being quoted about Artfibers Kyoto, the yarn I made my fabulous corkscrew scarf with. I still get tons of google hits because of that scarf.

The word wiki still seems so silly to me. Did you know that it originates from wiki-wiki, or "quick-quick" in Hawaiian?

I'm tired of winter already. We just had another snow day today... at least tomorrow we go back to school, two hours late. Only 63 days 'til spring.

Kyoto Corkscrew Scarf

Hellllooooo luxurious fiber!

Corkscrew Scarf
Loop d Loop, Teva Durham
2 skeins Artfibers Kyoto: 69% silk, 25% super kid mohair, 6% extrafine wool, Color #23
Clover bamboo circular needle, size 10.5US/6.5mm

Super. As in super kid mohair. Extrafine. As in, hey, touch me, I know you want to. I already gushed about how lux this fiber is and how saturated the color is, but I cannot get over it. I keep touching it and staring at it. Oh my. I can't believe I was originally making this for someone else. It is so mine. Bwah ha ha haaaaaaa!

I followed the pattern as written except for two things: since the yarn I chose knit up at a slightly smaller gauge, I cast on 12 stitches instead of 10 so that it would still be nice and wide and floppy. More importantly, though, I changed the way the short rows were written... Teva Durham says, don't worry about knitting the wraps, the texture of the yarn will hide everything! I said phooey to that (the resulting enormous holes were icky) and knit the wraps anyway. I'm so happy with the end product.

I highly recommend this yarn. I want to knit something much bigger out of it. A bodysuit? Okay, maybe a sweater someday.

Everyone else in the knitting world is posting photos of where they knit. I'm so behind on that, I don't remember who started it. So if it was you, here ya go!

This is my end of the futon. There's almost always some sort of knitting paraphernalia at this end of the couch; right now, I just finished my scarf (did you see how pretty it is?), so it looks a bit more bare than usual. The books are two of the most recent issues of Interweave, a baby name book, and a Sudoku game book that Mr. Goodkarma gave to me for Christmas. I have my wee IKEA spotlight on the arm of the futon because the aforementioned husband gets really picky about lighting when we're watching DVDs at night. He gets all squinty-eyed and pretends the regular room lights are about to burn holes in his eyes. Yeah, whatever. Yes, those are dumbbells. The bowl recently held a couple of scoops of caramel ice cream. Mmm. That was good. Kitties are Julian (on futon) and Lennon (on rug). Basket with lid holds (almost all) works in progress. Decor courtesy of summer 2003 spent in India. Coffee table in front of futon always always has even more knitting crap on it and something to drink.

Ta da!

Merry Christmas, Baby!

After visiting with FOUR sets of parents over two days, I'm wiped out. Note to self: don't get divorced because your future children will have a much easier time during the holidays visiting their parents if they live in the same house. Whew. Yes, both my parents and Mr. Goodkarma's parents are divorced and the moms are remarried. So we do a fair amount of driving around every year at this time. Zzzzzzz.....


These Robeez are easily the best present I got for Christmas and I don't even have a baby yet! Aren't they cute? My mom couldn't help herself and got a little giftie for "the little peanut". Love them!

A close runner up is the gorgeous necklace and earrings that Mr. Goodkarma gave me. What a sweetie. (What a good boy. I showed him the Dabby Reid stuff at Nordstrom and hinted heavily that this sort of jewelry was #1 in my book. So he chose the style and color -- purple -- that he liked best.)

It looks like BIL and FFSIL might make a go of it after all. They have some stuff to work out but he loves her as much as (more than!) we do and doesn't want to throw in the towel just yet. I'm glad. I'm still keeping Corkscrew Kyoto, though. Unfortunately, it's sitting in my mom's living room right now, unfinished. I forgot to take it with me when I left on Christmas Eve... but I'll be over there tomorrow to help her set up the new flatscreen monitor we gave her for Christmas along with the Mac G4 that we passed down. Big improvement over the ancient PC they were chugging along with! :)

In all, it was wonderful to spend the holidays with all of our family members, in-laws, step-siblings, etc. It's a great feeling to know that you're there to spend time with your loved ones, not just to see what's under the tree.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

My Bad?

So. I'm knitting along on FFSIL's Kyoto Corkscrew and it is becoming increasingly apparent that I'm falling in love with this scarf. The yarn is so rich, it glows, people. Soft. Lux. And at the same time, the following things are happening:

- On Thanksgiving, I realized just how limited FFSIL's domestic abilities are, especially in the kitchen. I like her so much, I overlooked her inability to cook the rice for her three ingredient rice-broccoli-cheese casserole, helped her make it, and vowed to find her a great cookbook for Christmas.

- MIL tells us that FFSIL wants nice white towels for Christmas. Evidently, her domestic abilities also do not reach the laundry room. It seems that FFSIL lets her laundry sit in the washing machine long enough to aquire that lovely mildewy odor, but doesn't quite know why her towels are smelly and disgusting. I start to wonder... if she can't manage to launder her towels, how will she ever take care of this silk-mohair-merino scarf? (shudder)

- BIL tells us he's seriously considering breaking up with FFSIL. Dammit. He's been talking about this with DH for a while. They've been together for a few years, he's growing and changing, she's not, etc. Dammit. I like this girl! She has *Potential*! And, selfishly, if BIL does break up with her, then my own brother's got the only other FSIL around here and I willnot cannot put the extra F in front of FSIL for her. Even typing FSIL about my brother's GF gives me hives. But that's for another post...



I did find her a great cookbook with full color pictures and very good directions. I also bought some really pretty earrings for her. So. I'm falling in love with Kyoto Corkscrew. FFSIL doesn't know it exists. FFSIL won't know how to take care of it. FFSIL may not even be around for me to see enjoying it! Even DH thinks the color I chose is really perfect for me and he keeps petting it when I'm working on it (while we watch season 3 of 24... DH has a crush on Jack Bauer. Okay, I do, too!). I think the choice is obvious. Am I evil?


Yesterday, DH and I went Christmas shopping downtown together. It was awful. I like shopping alright if I'm by myself or with another human being who has that second X chromosome. He was completely overwhelmed and shellshocked by it all. Not so fun. The best part was when we were at Nordstrom and I showed him some jewelry I liked. I told him that any girl would rather get something more personal/pretty from her fella than knitting books (Did I just blaspheme? Let's leave the knitting books to MIL.) I hope he got the hint; at this point in our marriage I know that it doesn't work to be subtle. I have to spell things out! :) After shopping, we had a cocktail (lemonade for me) and then went to see The Chronicles of Narnia. Loved it! Little Lucy stole the show. Very sweet. Well, except for the bloody war and the stone table scenes. I couldn't believe there were families there with little ones -- preschool, even! There was a girl behind me, maybe 9 years old, who had obviously read the book and was excitedly explaining things to her mom, who was shushing her. Cute.


Also, we ran into my ex-boyfriend's parents yesterday. I haven't seen them in years. Fabulous people, too bad their son is a #$^@&. Fill in whichever word you like, I'm sure it will fit. I was with him for nearly 5 years, so I got to be pretty close with his family. My mom saw them not long before I did, and told them I was pregnant. They were very happy for me, we all hugged, they met Mr. Goodkarma for the first time. I was glad that I'd styled my hair and was looking fly (that's a joke, I mean, I was wearing Maternity Pants, for goodness sake. How fly can you look in those things?), cause I know they went home and told everyone about seeing me. Heh heh.

Getting into the spirit

So I started the Corkscrew Scarf for FFSIL again, and knit the wraps unlike the instructions call for. Fortunately, those big holes are no more and the lovely Kyoto wedges meld right into one another. Forgive please, the craptastic winter evening in Seattle (read: zero daylight to be had) photos.

Behold the lovely wedges with their seamless short rows (and never you mind why I'm wearing pink flannel pajamas with little chubby skiing children on them, and yes that is a LUSH bag in the background with pressies for my mama tucked inside):



And, what's this? The beginnings of a corkscrew (didn't I mention that my office is red the future nursery will need to be painted?):



This pattern is really easy to learn. I used the book for the first couple of repeats but now I can go go go without much thinking. That's perfect for me right now. I took Corkscrew to my science-for-teachers class (Circuits & Pathways, oooh electricity is fun!) tonight and got a few repeats done in between experiments. There were at least two other knitters in class (of about 20-25 people), so no knitterly guilt here.

Finally, I have to share this... by way of Jessica... our build your own South Park characters! There's me and my hubby! Remember how he always looks stoned in pictures? Well, it seems to be true with cartoon pictures, too! ha!

Still Here, Still Alive!

First off, thank you so much to everyone who left congratulations and well wishes! You made me blush. It felt good to finally share the news with everyone, that's for sure! As for how things are going... I'm feeling so well this week, it's amazing. I have more energy, less fatigue. I'm still very food oriented, heh heh.

I've been so busy since my last post, and wishing that things would slow down just a little so I would have more progress to share and the time to share it. Here's a quick synopsis; hope to have a more complete post soon.

-- almost finished with sweaters for my dear friend Lisa, whose twins are were due in January (but came early a week ago). Welcome to Jacob and Sarah! (What's with all my friends and their preemies lately? Are they trying to freak me out? Cause, you know, it's all about me. Heh.)


-- had the stomach flu over the weekend and gained a whole new perspective of my bathroom floor. Yes, sleeping curled up on the floor as to be nearest the toilet certainly gives us lots of new perspectives. One of them was the wish to DIE!! Oh man. But luckily, I rebounded well and feel 110% better than I did before.

-- am halfway done writing report cards for my students. Remember the good old days? Reading, writing, math, citizenship, penmanship, etc? Well now it's an 11x17" quadriplicate piece of ridiculousness that takes ages to fill out and is next to impossible for parents to understand. Hooray for progress in education.

-- began knitting the Corkscrew Scarf in Kyoto for Favorite Future Sis in Law. Ripped out. Began again. Ripped out. La Durham says there really isn't a need to knit the short row wraps in this pattern, since the garter stitch and the texture of the yarn will hide the wraps, but HELLO, WRAPS! They look like big yarnovers or extra loose stitches between each "wedge" shape, and I'm going to start again when I'm feeling perky and fresh. :)

-- received this sweet Knitwhits Felted Alpaca Flower Pin kit, called Hana Rose, as part of my birthday gift... from the dear friend who taught me how to knit. Cutie patootie! Looks like something I'll enjoy working on right after Christmas.

Enjoy the tail end of your week and I'll hope to post more soon. Must go button shopping for twin sweaters!!

Score!

Yay! Mail!



Have you ever shopped at the ArtFibers site? It reminds me of a friend of a friend who is an absolute artistic genius and who put her own portfolio together. The portfolio is chock full of Gorgeous art and Unique designs, but could have been stapled a little tighter or the pencil marks erased a little more completely. I'm so not complaining. I loved browsing their stuff. They use Flash, which is so cool, but the site doesn't perform quite as smoothly as it could.

The reason I'm telling you this is that I decided, after all of your input, to make the Corkscrew Scarf from Loop D Loop for my favorite future SIL. I thought it would be perfectly lux in some ArtFibers Kyoto. I decided that simply via word of mouth. I've never seen the stuff, just googled and read other folks' reviews and took their word for it. I hoped there'd be a pretty turquoisy blue, which is FFSIL's favorite color. I picked the blue that most appealed to me... wasn't really turquoisy looking, but I thought I'd chance it anyway.

Look at what I got:



I couldn't have dreamed up a more perfect combination of fibers (silk/mohair/wool), gauge, color, texture for this scarf. It's So Rich. It's even better than I hoped it would be. It's the perfect shade of turquoise, too. Sadly, photography (indoors in the evening in Seattle) does not do this yarn justice. Thank you so much, ArtFibers!

See, just like the genius artistic friend of a friend, the product is even more than I could have imagined, website/portfolio wonky or not. And maybe it was just my Mac that didn't like to interface? Who knows. I'm thrilled and will go back for sure! I can't work with this fabulous yarn without coveting *something* out of it for myself!