my adventures at stitches west

i was a really good girl this year and did not buy very much. this may have been due to the fact that i was just getting over my second bad cold/flu for this winter. yes, it has been a very lousy winter. i wanted to buy some lace weight yarn but nothing really struck my fancy. and on hindsight, there were some indie dyed sock yarns i should have bought but didn't. i guess i really wasn't in the right frame of mind for stitches (and the weather was cold and rainy; totally yech!).

the ravelry passport was entertaining. jess and casey (gee, i thought he would be bigger- GRIN) are the cutest couple. wish i had thought to have them autograph my passport.

the fun part was hooking up with some on-line friends. it's nice to have faces match names. i enjoyed meeting the sockateers over at bluemoonfiberarts. i think i know how tina gets all those kits ready for mailing. those women have the endless energy of 5 year olds!!!!!! it's amazing!

nartian showing irishgirlie
how to "french" her scarf a la tapmouse's blog entry

tapmouse working on "serendipity"
and me working on the world's longest sock a la rockin' sock club style

(gads, i look like something the cat dragged in. please excuse me - it was rainy and cold and my hair "don't do rain". besides, my hubby made me get up at 5 am to ride down to the south bay with him. i am lucky that i still look awake!)

i did finish a pair of socks. are you wearing your sunglasses?

isn't a pair defined as "TWO" socks?!

on the left is "serendipity" (which i had to tweak. pathetic, huh? tweaking your own sock pattern...one that hundreds have knit just as it was written.) and on the right is a new pattern (yet to be written up) for crystal palace yarn in panda silk (my toes really aren't as funny looking as the picture shows).

the sun is out and it is a beautiful day in the bellybutton of california. excuse me while i go get a tan!

another contest

so many contests, so many chances to win MORE yarn! yippee!

go visit nancy. she is celebrating 300 posts! that seems like a lot to me. she has many ways to get brownie point entries. one is linking to her blog. and the other is to tell her that i sent cha over. deadline for entering is saturday, feb 22nd, 12 midnite est. wow! that's 10 more days.

is it "startitis" or finishitis"?

i have a bad case of one of those things, for sure. i think it must be "finishitis" because i have no problems starting things. right now, i have on my needles (which i am actively knitting on; ie., not my projects that are hidden away where i don't see them so i can pretend that they don't exists):

1. mate to "zen garden" which had been frogged and needed to be reknit per observations in a previous post. (this may just be a case of "bad sock" time out until i finish the other projects listed below.)
   
2. i just need to knit the toe to the first of my panda silk socks. then i need to write up the pattern. this is a new design for crystal palace yarn. (i am loving the yarn; so why didn't i knit the toe last night instead of winding "dragon dance" (rockin' sock club kit yarn) into a ball?)
   
3. i am still where i was with "swan lake"...almost done. i could probably finish off the rest of the shawl in a day (if i were to pick it up to work on).

i have 3 things on the needles that could easily be finished up in the next two weeks. so why did i start on "serendipity"? i admit that i have been delaying the start of these socks, partly because i was scared that I would not be able to knit the socks so they look like the pattern. how embarrassing would that be?! but i thought it would be fun to wear these at stitches next week; although, i really doubt that i will finish them. for some reason, my family think that eating and wearing clean clothes are a necessary part of life. but start them, i did. and my striping is working out so far. thank goodness.

so, do i have "startitis" because i keep starting new projects or do i have "finishitis" because i am not finishing the projects i HAVE started? help me. i think i have a problem.

so, what's your problem?

ps. i see you guys lurking out there....

happy chinese new year!

gung hay fat choy!

happy year of the rat!

took this picture of the lion heads in sf chinatown this summer
when my hubby and i decided to play tourists.

chinese consider RED a lucky color. so i proclaim RED to be the color of the month because i recently won two blog contests and guess what i won! YARN!!!!!!!

i received two balls of magic garden buttons in RED from gloria who lives in canada (i am so sorry but i didn't keep her blog addy...i am so embarrassed). we had to guess a number between 1 and 500. she was all excited about having 184 posts under her belt. so, what's a person to do? guess "184." she was going to give away 3 prizes. my guess came in just under the wire and she had 4 people guess her number of "184!" she generously gifted all of us with a prize. oh, what will these grow up to be?!

then monica who "knits a lot" had another contest where we had to guess how many pairs of socks she had in "ONE" of her sock drawers.
i reread her blog entry later and yes, it did read "ONE" of her sock

drawers which would imply that she has more than "ONE" drawer. i guessed "48 pairs of socks" and .....I WON this lovely skein of cherry tree hills supersock in RED, purple, and dark blue or black. love the colors. can you imagine 48 pairs of socks? that's a whole lotta socks and that's not all she has.

thank you, gloria and monica for your generous prizes.

my wayward "zen garden" has been frogged and reknit to the gusset. it is being timed out for now. i am having so much more fun with my new panda silk sock. i think i want to start my "serendipity" socks in honor of chinese new year. it is a fast knit. there are lots of people who had already finished their pair before the kit even arrived in the uk. unbelievable!

and i should just finish my swan lake (ms3). i think i only have less than 20 rows to go on it.

too much excitement

...dulls my counting ability.

here is my "completed" pair of "zen garden" for which barbara so kindly sent me her left-overs so i could lengthen the toe.

"zen garden"
my design for theknitter.com luxury sock kit (november 2007)

claudia hand painted yarn in exclusive colorway "zen garden"
us 1.5 needles (2.5mm)
gauge: 8.5 sts/inch

i have a BIG problem. i was wondering why one leg seemed shorter than the other when i tried blocking them. i thought perhaps that i had knit the mate tighter than the first. i was also wondering why the foot seemed a bit longer too. after all, i counted the number of repeats and they are the same on both socks.

well.......i just took a better look at the socks. the second sock is short half of a pattern repeat on the leg, thus making the foot a half of a pattern repeat too long! dOOh!!!!!!!!!! honest, i counted at least 3 times before starting the heel.

if anyone wants to talk to me, i'll be sittin' over by THAT frog pond over there > > >

ps. working on a new pattern for crystal palace yarn using panda silk...oh, so soft. great stitch definition too. i guess i'd better go play with the frogs.

we can both be winners!

go on over to the shizknit who is having an unusual contest to celebrate her upcoming post #100. you just need to leave her a comment that i sent you over and if she draws your comment, we both win a yarny prize. what could be easier than that?

i am almost finished with my ms3-swan lake (tortoise version). i am down to the last 12 rows or so. YIPPEE!!!!! then i can ponder which mystery kal shawl/stole i want to start next. i am soooooooo behind; but i can only concentrate on one big lace project at a time.

socks are another matter! and no, i don't know how many pairs i have going. i do have a LOT of needles!

and the winners are...

...drawn! but i guess i will be evil and write a little bit before i let you know who they are.

i have enjoyed reading all your guesses. some of them were pretty funny! i think one of the funniest was that i knit enough to reduce my stash! i haven't really counted my sock stash lately. i don't think i want to know. you know, ignorance is bliss and i can continue collecting. hey, stitches west market is coming up in 3 weeks!

my secret was outed this week. yes, i designed the first sock for the 2008 rockin' sock club!!!!!!!

tina was more efficient than i imagined that she was going to be and got all those rockin' sock club kits out in the mail in THREE days. normally, she waits a week between the international and the state kits so i thought i had until this week for the kits to start landing in mailboxes all over the world. can you imagine?! "ALL OVER THE WORLD" people are knitting my sock! totally mind-boggling!

i have been keeping this secret since october. it was really hard not to share. i finally got to see the kit colors about 3 weeks ago and was absolutely delighted with what tina had done. and i got MY kit the tuesday that blue moon fiber arts started shipping, so i had a preview. i have had a lot of fun and some anxious moments watching the kits arrive and seeing people's reactions to the pattern and the yarn. most have seemed positive, much to my relief. and "serendipity" made the new and popular patterns list on ravelry today. it is currently #7.

now to the winners. i did the names on papers in a bottle drawing. i put the numbers in another bottle and drew a number after i drew the name. the yarn will be a surprise.

first winner is ........... rachel o who won yarn #2

second winner is...........marcy (knitting golfer) who won yarn #3

and the third winner is.............sjmercure who won yarn #1

if the winners (who all appear to be blogless) would email me ajmcfong AT yahoo DOT com with their addys, i will get these babies out to their new homes.

congrats to all the winners.

ps. you guys would really buy a book of my patterns?! i am totally speechless! thanks for the ego boost!