Virgin Wool

Mirroring my Blogger Blog here

Mary — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 18:53:03 +0000

Blogger is becoming more and more unstable, so I’m mirroring my Blogger knitting blog over here at WordPress, in preparation for the day when Blogger Classic blows up completely, and the folks at Blogger Support throw up their hands and quit in frustration. There are days when it seems as if that’s what they’ve already done. I know I’m about ready to do so. Day after day, recently, there have been issues with Blogger Classic, and when one checks the Blogger Status page, every post ends with the annoying sentence, “this is not affecting Blogger Beta”. So I’m guessing that Blogger has the same amount of staff now divided and supporting two different platforms, which is not good for the old platform that 90% of us are still using.

I have to say I’m fairly impressed with how easy it was to import my entire blog over here. Now I need to figure out all the other widgets.

I’m not sure if or when I’ll move completely to WordPress. There are many things in my blogger sidebar that I need to figure out how to recreate here. And I’m not all that impressed with the photo uploading capabilities here, and that is key. If they make it even more cumbersome than Blogger, then why should I move?

So, for now, this is just a back-up for the inevitable day when Blogger Classic dies a horrible death before all of us have safely migrated to Blogger Beta. That day may come sooner than we think.

Think Pink Contest Winners!

Mary — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 19:20:00 +0000

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Thanks, once again, to everyone who got involved with the Think Pink Challenge, and to those who responded to my blog contest in support of it.

The challenge goes on, but the contest is over. I have drawn names and winners have been identified.

The contest winners are as follows:

First Place:

Allison Gonzalez
Amy Kane
Margo Lynn
Sheddy Reese
Zonda Belmont

Each first place winner wins one skein of their choice of Blue Moon Fiber Arts‘ “Socks That Rock”, or another comparably-priced yarn of their choice.

I also felt like there ought to be an additional winner’s category for those whose names weren’t drawn to win the yarn, but who still made the effort to contribute to this cause. Therefore, I give you the following runner-up winners:

Honorable Mention:

Anne Margaret White
Deb Abresch
Gina Davis
Katie (Mary Jane‘s knitting friend)
Patsy Barr
Robin Hasty
Susan Chang

Each honorable mention winnner wins one pattern of their choice from Morehouse Merino.

I will be contacting each winner to work out the finer details of prize distribution.

Congratulations, everyone!

And once again, thank you!

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YIKES!

Mary — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 03:57:00 +0000

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Panic mode has officially set in.

I just realized that November is just days away. Meaning, Christmas is just weeks away.

YIKES!

So I just did some mental calculations and am wondering if I’ll meet my holiday knitting deadlines.

Here’s what I want to try and knit by December 17th, (when we’re having the big family Christmas):

9 mini-stocking ornaments – for my dozen nieces and nephews (3 already knit)
5 hats – one for niece’s November birthday (yikes!); one each for mom & dad; one for family member whose name I’ve drawn (maybe); one for our knitting group‘s Barnes & Noble give-away (1/3 finished)
2 Mason-Dixon ballband washcloths – for family member whose name I’ve drawn
2 linen dish towels – for family member whose name I’ve drawn

I’d also somehow like to squeeze in a hat for Rabbitch’s contest (due December 1st – yikes!) and a scarf for the Red Scarf Project (thankfully, not due until early next year).

I can do this, right? Right?

There’s a good chance I won’t meet my ambitious goals, but at least I’ll try.

I need to get cracking and stop fiddling around with knits for myself. They’ll have to wait until after the holidays, I guess.

Where did the time go?

YIKES!

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Tappahannock Tuesday

Mary — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 18:08:00 +0000

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I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again, knitting and knit-blogging have enriched my life. Yesterday was a perfect example.

But before I jump into details of yesterday, I’d like to review a little history, if you’ll bear with me, to reinforce the point made in that first sentence.

Soon after I learned how to knit I started this knitting blog to keep track of my progress. As with most knit-bloggers, I’m also inspired by reading other knitting blogs. This past January I stumbled upon the blog of a local knitter (hi Jane!) who had started a knitting group that conveniently met on my side of town. A month or two later, I started actively attending that group and have made many new knitting friends. (Hi TNKers!) Jane also turned me on to a few other Virginia knit-bloggers, one of whom is Queen Bess. I started reading and enjoying Bess’ blog regularly, and we began exchanging emails and found out we had lots in common, including that we’d both attended the same high school, (although not at the same time). One discussion led to another, and in April, Bess came to Richmond to give me my very first drop spindle lesson.

Fast-forward to June when Bess blogged about wishing for a digital camera. A lightbulb turned on in my head, as I’d been wondering for awhile what I’d do with my old digi-cam once I upgraded to one with a functional zoom. Jump to October when I finally get around to actually purchasing the new camera. The old camera then became immediately available for adoption, and the hand-off occurred at the Fall Fiber Festival. But I also promised to give Bess an in-person digi-cam tutorial, which we scheduled for yesterday, when I met her at her place of work, (where resides her faster computer).

Thus ends my personal history lesson, and begins the tale of yesterday’s fun.

It amazes me that I’ve lived in Virginia for most of my life, and there are still towns I’ve never heard of and places I’ve never been. I’d definitely heard of Tappahannock, but had never been there, and never realized what I’d been missing, until yesterday.

From my house, the little town of Tappahannock is exactly an hour’s drive. Just get on 360-East and keep going:

stopping just before you cross the bridge over the Rappahannock river:

Once you get outside the Richmond area, past the Mechanicsville sprawl, it’s really a lovely, peaceful drive. At 10:30am, after the morning rush has waned, there were stretches of road where I was the only car in either direction. What I love about living in Richmond is that, within fifteen minutes of the state capital’s metro area, you stumble upon scenes like this:

I found out later that one of Bess’ relatives (her cousin’s husband’s brother’s wife’s uncle?) grew up on Prestley Farm. Bess — feel free to indicate the correct connection in the comments!

I arrived at Bess’ shiny-new library building by late morning, and we spent a nice hour or so in her office for the brief camera tutorial, (she really didn’t need it — she’s a smart cookie and had figured it all out already), and then she showed me the fantastic progess she’s made on what she calls her “KipFee” sweater. She even showed me how she knits it continental-style, carrying both colors over her left index finger and just picks the desired yarn for a particular stitch. I had every intention of taking pictures and perhaps even a little movie of her knitting style, but we were having too much fun chatting and I never stopped to turn on my camera. Then she showed me the fantastic contents of her library’s knitting video and book collection, (it’s good to be Queen, apparently!), and I was amazed that there are knitting designs from the 1980′s that are still quite beautiful. I would not have believed it, had I not seen the books myself! (Bess – I hope you’ll highlight those books on your blog someday — I think they deserve their time in the spotlight!)

After our fun in the library, we had a delicious lunch at a neat former hardware store across the river in Warsaw:

On our way, we stopped for gas and I had to chuckle at the sign in the gas station’s window:

After lunch, Bess gave me the grand tour of Tappahannock, where she showed me things like:

wonderful old homes
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gorgeous river views
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beautiful stained glass window at an old movie theater
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The Essex Inn – wonderful B&B near the rivah
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17th (?) century Baptist Meeting House that’s now a dry cleaners
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old Customs House
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After the grand tour given by the world’s greatest tour guide, (no one can tell a good story like Bess can), we stopped on impulse at a neat little gift shop which held such girly treasures as:

peacock feather purse
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peacock tea service
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peacock feather mask
(can you tell I like peacocks?)

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snazzy spider hat
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beautiful necklace
(it wasn’t too hard to talk her into buying it!)

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All in all, a lovely day in a lovely town with a lovely person. I now understand more fully Bess’ penchant for waxing eloquant about her small town. Tappahannock would make a wonderful weekend trip, perhaps staying at a B&B, taking a boat trip up-river to a winery, and antique-ing at the half-dozen or more antique shops in the area.

Thanks, Queen Bess, for a great day!

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Think Pink Contest drawing soon!

Mary — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 19:22:00 +0000

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I’d like to extend a heartfelt “Thank You!” to everyone who contributed a knitted, crocheted or woven scarf to the Think Pink Challenge, and especially to those who rose to the last minute challenge of my blog contest. If you still have the urge to knit a pink scarf or turn in one you’ve only just finished, fear not — (although they won’t qualify for my contest), Sydney is still accepting them and will continue to do so, as she’s decided to make this an ongoing project. She’s also considering the creation of a 2007 calendar with pictures of some of the scarves sent in for this effort. If you’d be interested in such a calendar, please stop by her Think Pink blog and let her know.

Meanwhile, I am actively communicating with Syd to confirm her receipt of the scarves that will qualify for my contest’s drawing. If you have not emailed me before now to indicate your qualifying entry in the contest, please do so, (maryklarson[At]comcast[d0t]net), by noon EST tomorrow, Sunday, October 22nd, as I’ll be holding the drawing early next week — hopefully on Monday.

Stay tuned to find out the winners of free yarn!

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Hometown Tourist – Part Deux

Mary — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 07:15:00 +0000

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Well, it seems as if the Science Museum of Virginia is the place to be, these days.

I was there on Monday, and President Bush was there last night for a campaign fundraiser.

And I think I may go back tonight for LiveSky and perhaps a Sky Watch.

It’s quite the happenin’ place!

Here’s a little history about the building, (click any photo to enlarge):

Before it was a museum, it was a train station (1919-1975)
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Old postcard from 1920-1930′s era
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A couple of mid-century postcards
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The museum facade today
(I love how the original copper dome is now verdigris)
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If that dome looks familiar, it’s probably because the building was designed by the same architect as the Jefferson Memorial.

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Images you might recognize from Tuesday’s video

Foucault Pendulum
demonstrates the rotation of the earth

pendulum knocks over one pin every 24 minutes

Another huge marble globe – this one does not rotate
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globe close-up: Aloha!
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giant chess board

train mural
*Aluminaut
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remnant of a bygone era
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Hometown Tourist

Mary — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 22:45:00 +0000

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This past week my friend Debbie, who moved from here to Washington state a little over a year ago, was back in town visiting friends and family. As is our ritual whenever she’s in town, we made a date to go eat at the best sushi restaurant in Richmond. So we met there yesterday and I ordered my obligatory Unagi Don (freshwater eel over rice) — yum! — and Debbie had her obligatory Aji Tofu and a Richmond roll (avocado & cream cheese wrapped in rice and seaweed). We both left there very happy.

Debbie had some time to kill after lunch, so we went across the street to the Science Museum of Virginia and played tourists. I took a lot of pictures, which I’ll post tomorrow, I think, but right now, since I need to go get ready for knitting group tonight, I’ll leave you with this short video I took there.

Be gentle with your movie review. This was my very first ever movie taken with my digital camera, so it’s a bit wobbly. I also sound like a complete dork, (which is not unusual), narrating this. But I’m pretty excited that I figured out the whole movie-making-uploading-YouTube-thing. There may be more where this came from, if y’all can stand it.

Please, please, hold your applause until the end.…

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(Feedblitz subscribers: go here to watch video).

Wildlife

Mary — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 23:28:00 +0000

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I’m nothing, if not a procrastinator. Procrastination and laziness are probably my defining qualities, unfortunately. I never said I was an admirable person.

Case in point:

Anyone who has been to my house in the last year will have noticed two very large boxes sitting on my porch. I ordered them from Walmart.com last year, and kept meaning to open the darn things and assemble the contents, but there was always something better to do, or the weather wasn’t right. So, there they sat, as week after week and month after month passed, and they were exposed to the elements. The poor boxes got mushy and droopy, and there was evidence that some critter tried to make one its home. I was sure the contents of the boxes were being negatively impacted by all that neglect. A couple weekends ago I finally got around to opening those boxes and putting the contents together, and each item took all of fifteen minutes, at most, to assemble.

And so instead of a couple of huge, mushy boxes taking up space on my porch, I now have two very nice places to sit:

Rocker
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Rockin’ Loveseat
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It’s funny that after all that procrastination, they were so darn easy to assemble. Ten screws and and ten little wooden plugs for the screw holes, and voila’, all done! What’s also funny is that during the time that loveseat rocker sat in its mushy box on my porch, it was recalled by Walmart for being unsafe. (Apparently, if you rock too vigorously, the thing will tip over backwards). What’s funniest of all is that there isn’t enough room on my porch to rock vigorously (or even somewhat calmly) in either rocker, as doing so will cause it to bang against the back wall, or worse, the window. Ah well. They look nice, anyway.

In the aftermath of tidying up the porch a bit, I’ve noticed that other wildlife have made their homes in and around the place.

Tangled web
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Hmmm…. what’s this?
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Aha!
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So, what do you think? A purple finch egg?
So sad that it never hatched.
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Some other flora and fauna around the place:

It’s that time of year!
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But there are still a few roses left
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And the wildest critter ’round these parts, my baby girl, Ali:

A knitting bag is as good a place as any to sit

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On a more serious note, I see that there’s been an earthquake on the Big Island of Hawaii, where I lived for a few years, and that they’ve had to evacuate patients from Kona Hospital, where I used to work. I’ve emailed my old roommate, but don’t expect to hear from her for awhile, as it sounds like the power will be out for awhile. Keep them in your thoughts, folks!

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Hat Trick

Mary — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 19:29:00 +0000

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The weather has cooled down considerably around these parts, (I love October!), which has thus filled me with an urge to knit something soft and warm for my head.

And so, I give you, my very first ever (finished) knitted hat:

Self-portrait, sans eyewear.
(And it’s no mistake that I cropped out much of my honkin’ nose…).
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Hat specs:

Yarn: Misti Alpaca Chunky, (100% Baby Alpaca), color # 701 “Marina Melange“, ~100 yards
Needles: U.S. size 11: Denise interchangeable circulars; Crystal Palace bamboo DPNs
Gauge: 3 stitches/inch
Pattern: Cast-on 66 stitches. Join in the round. Knit every row for 7½”. Decrease & finish following Super Simple Hat Calculator instructions.

I have not blocked this hat yet – does it really need it, I wonder? It fits perfectly, but perhaps blocking would even out the stitches a bit, if that actually mattered to me, which it doesn’t, really. In any case, it sure is soft and warm, and I haven’t taken it off except to sleep since I finished it yesterday. It took just two evenings to knit, and I could have finished it in one, except that I had to run out to The Yarn Lounge yesterday to buy some size 11 DPNs. (Any excuse to yarn shop!) I resisted all their woolly goodness, however, even though I was sorely tempted by their Blue Sky Alpaca and Debbie Bliss and Jo Sharp and Manos and Rowan and… and… and…, and I just bought the needles I came for.

That Misti Alpaca came from Got Yarn, whose owner, Danna Savage, was nice enough to let me come by her closed shop a few weeks ago while she was packing it up. I ended up being the very last customer of her brick-and-mortar shop — her business is now strictly on the internet. I bought 7 hanks (108 yard each) of that “Marina Melange” colorway, (it’s teal, people!), and three hanks of the sage green, and I think most or all of it is earmarked for hats, unless anyone has other suggestions. I want to knit one with a ribbed brim, and perhaps one with a super-wide ribbed brim like Laurie‘s “Brangelina” hat pattern. I’ll probably have enough left for a nice scarf, as well, perhaps with some cables, like the Irish Hiking Scarf. (There’s also a knit-along for that — it’s fun to see that pattern knit with all different kinds of yarn).

My head is now toasty warm, but my hands are still cold, so I think it’s time to work on the wrist-warmers I started awhile back. Perhaps that will be this weekend’s project — good football knitting.

Gosh, I love quick-to-knit projects! I may never, ever knit a sweater or afghan!

Keep warm this weekend, everyone!

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Drink Pink!

Mary — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 19:16:00 +0000

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Last night some of our knitting group got together for dinner and drinks at Bottega Bistro, prior to meeting at our usual knitting location, (Barnes & Noble, Huguenot Rd.), to celebrate several occasions. Both Jane and Tammi have sons who work at that restaurant, which is reason enough to go eat there. Additionally, Tammi’s son Jonathan had a brainstorm about a month ago and decided to come up with three specialty pink drinks in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness (BCA) month. (We all then felt compelled to go there and “drink for charity”, dontcha know.)…

This past Sunday was Issy’s birthday, also reason enough for a celebration. And last, but not least, a knitting group member who recently had a lumpectomy was told that she does not have breast cancer. Whoo hoo! Let’s celebrate!

Here’s our group, with pink drinks all around:

Bring on the appetizers!
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Robin H., Issy and Deb
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Nancy, Patsy and Norma
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Deb, Tammi and Jane
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Mothers and Sons — Tammi & Jonathan; Jane & Charlie
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Happy Birthday, Issy!
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Later, at Barnes & Noble, look at what I spied:

Something in which to carry a pink drink, perhaps?
(These thermos’ and other travel mugs can be purchased here.)
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Great minds think alike!
I wonder if they’ve been talking to Syd?

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And speaking of the Think Pink Challenge, several ladies in my knitting group responded to my call last week and have knit some pink scarves for the cause (and the contest!):

Knit by Mary Jane‘s friend Katie — thanks Katie!
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Norma, Tammi and Deb.
Deb finished that pink scarf she’s knitting and has already sent it off to Syd.
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And knitter-extraordinaire Amy,

who knit Kate Gilbert‘s Sunrise Circle Jacket this summer and won a blue ribbon at the State Fair for it, (w00t!), got busy last week working on a pink scarf of her own design:

That’s a flying geese stitch pattern — so cool! It sorta looks like the pink BCA ribbon.
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Here’s the finished object:

And look at the fringe detail she came up with:

That’s right — pink BCA ribbons. Amy rocks!
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She actually sewed each and every one of those ribbons together like that. Isn’t it amazing?
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Finally, in response to my blog contest I got an email from a woman, Joan Columbini, (I don’t even know where she lives), with a picture of a boatload of pink scarves that she and her coworkers knit for the Think Pink Challenge. Isn’t this amazing? I was blown away when I saw this:

Hmmm…. I think I like the pink one.

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Thanks so much, to everyone who has contributed thus far to this cause, or in any way shape or form to cancer treatment, prevention, cure or awareness. Your efforts are gratefully appreciated and humbly acknowledged here.

I lost my Aunt Donna, who was also my godmother, to breast cancer 15 years ago. My sister-in-law’s mother has also recently been treated for it, and I have several other friends and coworkers who have dealt with it, so it’s a cause that strikes close to home. Here’s hoping that all these visions of pink will prompt more women to do their self-exams and get their mammograms.

Ladies — your loved ones want to keep you around for as long as possible!

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