My Big Fat (not Greek) Mess

I have no idea how initial posting with VIDEO CLIP (hellllllloooooooooooooo 2010) is going to work. A certain someone got me a Kodak Playsport* and I shot an initial video that I can't seem to figure out how to edit (could be the software, could be the ancient and abused IBM ThunkPad, and then again, it could just be me).

Chester DOES make a cameo appearance!

So, y'all are stuck with this very amateur little clip, good mostly for making you feel better about your own yarn and/or computer woman- (or man-) cave.

Upon review, you may join me in noting the following roadblocks to a Zen-like environment:
1. UFOs everywhere (UnFinished Objects)
2. Needles and tools everywhichwhere, too
3. UICs everwhere (UnIdentified Cords)
4. Just your basic ICFISITEAAISCFIATIWSFISIABIAPWIDHTLAIA (I Couldn't Find It So I Tore Everything Apart And I Still Couldn't Find It And Then I Was So Frustrated I Shoved It All Back Into A Place Where I Didn't Have To Look At It Anymore) mess times about each occurrence, say weekly, for two years, so times about 104.

(Sadly, those of you who've seen my office at work will NOT be shocked.)

Coming posts will hopefully take you through my journey to Nirvana - lots of yarn, lots of electronic toys; total organization. For at least a week.

Cheers!

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*Need prompted by a kayak flip with my iPhone. The rice trick did not work. Unfortunately, replacing the iPhone led to too much time in the Apple Store, which led to not only a replacement iPhone but also to an iPad. Could the PlaySport be a money-saving ploy to keep me out of Best Buy? Nah... but I love it. Thanks, honey!

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More Absolute Fabulousity! (no afghans were harmed during this photoshoot)

Another Colinette Absolutely Fabulous Afghan following the knitted "stripe" pattern option, in the kit colors named "Meadow".

I went a little crazy towards the end of last year and got on total acquisition mode on these afghan kits. Colinette isn't bagging them anymore (although if you get the instructions for one, you can assemble the yarn types and colors to make any of them, except when the yarn type has been discontinued by Colinette and there are just no more skeins to be found, even raiding Ravelry members' stashes).

A LYS (local yarn shop) was divesting itself of the kits it had in stock, and I snatched them up because they made me a deal for half off. So I think I got three that way. Then I saw the possibilities... I found some Ravelry members selling the kits and ordered a few more, at deep discount off the $190 that is the US list price as of the date of this posting.

This particular afghan came out pretty long and narrow and when I gifted it, the friend and her daughter both liked wearing it as a shawl. This was truly gifted from the heart - Terri is a childhood friend whose mother was an incredible artist, Patricia Bourgeois (sometimes Patricia Bourgeois Bailey). Pat was an all around amazing woman - belly-dancer and compost maker (both in the 70s, so she was pioneering the 21st century for us), artist, nurse, and mom. Pat had a great influence on me by just being herself - and I wish she was still here so I could let her know this.

In the meantime, I have beautiful art, some significant pieces, that she made, prominently in my home. They are daily inspiration.

This afghan/shawl was a thank-you to Terri for gifting me with some of Pat's pieces. I mean, how do you say thank you for something like beautiful art? Made by someone you admired? Whom you actually knew? This was the closest I could get.

I still owe Pat's granddaughter, Rosemary, a little sumpin' sumpin'... promised and not forgotten...

Love you, Terri - and miss you, Pat.

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HECK YEAH - Real Men Wear Pink

So. Here is something that takes about 2 hours to knit (Russian-style, did I mention how fast we Russian-style knitters are?) and can only be called a statement piece.

The yarn - my beloved Colinette brand Point 5 yarn in colorway Alizarine (probably also known as PeptoBismal swirl) in the Pansy scarf pattern from the Colinette pattern book Artyfacts.

Should this be the post where I spell out my frustration with getting Colinette yarn in the US in all colorways? In the past three years, almost every store in these United States that used to carry it, stopped. So seeing it in person in the US is not easy. The one place in the US that seems to maintain a strong relationship directly with Colinette is Flying Fingers Yarn Shop in Tarrytown, New York.

I have yet to make the pilgrimage, but must someday climb on the Yarn Bus! (People. If you click on no other link, you have to check this out. Truly a case of real life trumping fiction - I could not make this up.) It's been featured in The New Yorker magazine. I'm just faux-intellectual enough that this gives me goose bumps...

Gotta give props to Flying Fingers. They have saved my everloving behind a couple times when I haven't had enough of a skein to finish a project - and owner Elise shares my deep love of all yarns Colinette. The other great Colinette lover on the planet seems to be Sarah Durrant, of Australia, and she is also great at figuring out how to finish a project when you can't find that one last skein of something Colinette.

Colinette yarn is exported from Wales. Now, for you lucky Celts and Brits and Scots and Welshies, and for world travelers, there's this place where all the yarns are produced. Mad textures and colors - solids, stripeys, lots of fiber, lots of fun... true fiber artistry. The Colinette Mill Shop (ye olde mille shoppe, I'm picturing, a la Disney theme park for knitters) in Wales. And if you live in the UK or other select countries you can order their products online at the Colinette website. For really good prices! But I, alas, live in the US, and so have never seen ART or Hullabaloo, and unless I get to Tarrytown someday, I'm giving up all hope.

ORIGINS OF COLINETTE: From what I can find, Colinette Sainsbury is a real live person, an artist from Italy, and I've heard one person say they remember her selling her handpainted yarn out of a pushcart in Covent Gardens. Urban myth says her son now runs the business, and I'm glad for that (a world without Colinette - how would I exist?), but this distribution issue and the huge price discrepancy between EU prices and everywhere else (is shipping REALLY that expensive, and I know, I know, I know the distributor needs to make a living) - rough for a customer to navigate and unless you're really a freak, like me, you can move right along at the LYS (Local Yarn Shop) and start fondling the pretty stuff one bin over. Maybe they are staying small by design? This whole thing makes sense to someone, and I wish that I was in the know... rant rant rant.

OK, enough ranting about the sumptuousness of Colinette and the current sad state of distribution at retail across the US. I'm just trying to say that if I had to pick ONE YARN BRAND EVER to knit with, I would have a hard time saying goodbye to Noro and Artyarns, but it would be Colinette, hands down.

Sigh. Any updates as to the state of US distribution would be appreciated in the comments section under this post. Please note the date you make your update - many thanks...

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Christmas is coming, let's pretend the stash is fat!

Yes, it is barely autumn. But my new toys (iPad and an awfully pretty mahjong app) are making it gosh-durn hard to take my 3 month timeline seriously. I mean, the leaves haven't even turned and I still don't know what all the bonus tiles look like so why knit?!

Therefore, friends and fellow fiber freaks, I issue a challenge to you: post your dream list of finished objects to gift at the end of this year. Go a little crazy - you can pare it down later and get real, but indulge yourself with me and roll around in a fantasy jacuzzi filled with Colinette, Noro, Artyarns... Silks, kid mohair, baby alpaca... (dammit, now I'm drooling, and it's sooooooo not attractive.)

I will start. [ahem]

for mom - machine washable something that she won't ask how much the yarn costs (she hasn't figured out that how much the needles & miscellaneous supplies cost would probably cause a seizure - "how much is in your retirement fund?! And you paid how much for that set of Addi Turbo Clicks?")

For dad - well, 3 years ago I gave him some Great Adirondack Yarn for Xmas that was supposed to become a sweater. Didn't. Various reasons, probably none of which are that he has a lazy and distractable daughter ("oooh, is that silk?" -casts aside daddy's sweater which is getting boring and not measuring to the gauge swatch i didn't bother to knit). Last year I bought a crap load of Eco Wool ('cuz It was Friday night and I had just got paid and it seemed like a good idea at the time) rationalizing that it was machine washable (it's not, I was hallucinating that little portion of the label, go figure) and it seemed like a good yarn to start my first cable project on (it was, but key word here is "start"). So for dad, hmmmm, something (anything) that makes it through mom's criteria and that he might use. I'm thinking afghan. I'm thinking family room. I'm thinking Lion Band Yarn.

For my sweet sweet beloved - let's see. A) I have three promised objects on the needles (OTN); B) this blog is monitored by beloved; and C) I have no clue.

This is harder than I thought! Must do research and return!

Happy clicking!

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