I think can. I think I can

In 6 days, it's MSW!!! I love Msw, and now that I moved, I live much closer, I can drive down both days! My friend Jessica is coming down from philly and staying with me and we're going together! I can't wait!
So of course, my (pretty crazy) brain went HEY! Remember that super pretty roving you got at MSW last year? Let's spin it up, and knit a shawl out of it! to wear for MSW!!!! It will be so cooooool! Ohey ice cream!" My (albeit small) rational part of my brain went "you have 6 days, on four of those days, you have appointments. You also need to clean up the house, prepare food for Msw (since I'm allergic to pretty much everything there), and IT'S 6 DAYS ARE YOU CRAZY?" to which my crazy side of the brain went YES! We're going to do this!" and my rational side just gave up.
Last night, I dug up the fiber, and sat down and spun for about an hour. It's working up amazing, the roving is from Misty Mountain farms, and it's a 85/15 polworth/silk blend. I was thinking about plying it, but it's super pretty as a single. We'll see! I have a PLAN (run for the hills!) of finishing the spinning tonight, finishing cleaning up the kitchen, and also, somehow, finishing a pair of socks. Sleep? What's that?
The roving I'm spinning is the blue in the left corner! (this was what I got from MSW last year)

Paris and Violets

My mother's birthday was last month, so of course, I knitted her a shawl. Because I'm a good daughter like that.

She's had a two month migraine at this point, so it's lovely that the shawl can give her comfort and warmth when she feels dreadful.

The pattern was really great, and the lace was easy (so of course, I messed up on it several times!). I did a cable cast on, knit the large, and then did a k2tob tbl, put stitch back on left needle etc bind off.

I don't think I can say enough about how amazing this yarn is, I want to marry it. It's luscious, amazing drape, such great colour, and it was a pure joy to knit.

On rav here.


Mom loves it so much, and hasn't taken it off since yesterday!

Moving sucks. I mean, it really really sucks. A lot. Did I mention it sucks?

I really haven't talked about my move last fall. It was pretty much hell. No, that's wrong. At least hell is predictable what with the whole it's hell thing. We had less the three months to move (we were forced out, bought out?) and during that time everything that could go wrong did. My mother spent about 3/4 of that time in the hospital. I spent the entire time freaking out, tossing things in bags and boxes, and popping xanax. There was a storm and a tree decided to hit the power box a month before we were to move. The lights in the kitchen no longer worked. The water heater died, and the pump was on it's last leg, taking a shower was more of standing under a dribble of water then anything else. The ac died, I broke my nose and three toes. The movers, that assured us they would move some of my father's tools and my piano, showed up, and said no, we don't do that. We had to get cars towed (thanks to npr, it was no problem), and figure out what to do with the cats, and we had just finished clearing out my grandfathers house when we had to move. So a house with a bunch of crap from another house and the crap you have from living in a house for almost 2 decades is a LOT of crap. In the move, what happened was almost all of my clothes and all my shoes, save the pair I was wearing was tossed out. I lost yarn, knitting needles, books I wanted to give to my future kids, all my jewelery, you name it, I lost it. I pretty much wanted to have a nice long breakdown towards the end. I still don't know how I didn't
I thought it was over. I thought I could move on. But this past month has just been one crappy thing after another. I've been slowly unpacking things, and finding more things that are ruined. I found a bag that had some yarn for my beekeeper blanket, and all my puffs (about 50) trashed. They had gotten soaked and grew mold, and couldn't be saved. Boxes of my books got ruined. And yesterday, I found a bag with the rest of the yarn for my hexipuff blanket, some dvds (my true blood dvds, a few books, almost all of my cds, and some socks I had knit. All ruined. The socks were shreds. The bag that I thought had been in the garage, was left outside, and it got destroyed. I'm pretty much heartbroken over the socks and the puffs, and the rest of the stuff can be replaced, slowly, but surely.
I posted on facebook about what happened, and A few people have asked about what was ruined/lost. I've been making a list so I know what I need to replace. If you have anything on it, and don't want it anymore, I might be able to buy it from you. This list is just a small amount of what I've lost, and sadly, I'll probably be adding more to it as I unpack more things. It doesn't say that almost all my mugs are gone, or things like that, but I have to start somewhere. If you have something, email me at ktbea38@gmail.com
The list can be found here.
To end this rather emo blogpost, I want to share what I've been telling myself since this whole thing started. It's one of my favorite quotes.

The butler did it!

Hey everyone! Sorry for the radio silence. It has been a really stressful and busy week here at Ktblandia (I even have a flag). Filled with Er visits (two), blown tires (one), a shattered plate, and some really interesting (and painful) bruises.
So, it's been the opposite of fun. And I didn't really get much done, knitwise, or reading. I did read the last book in the Dark Rising book and loved it.
Today, I managed to get some shots of the Joji mystery knit shawl, Echoes of Colour. I had a blast making this, the pattern and all the yarns were a joy with work with. On rav here!

Yarns: Bah La Jolla, I used two skeins in Flamingo Pink. I can not wait to use this yarn again. It's so squishy and OMG the pinkness is stunning.
Done Roving Frolicking Feet, one skein in Southwest Gem. I admit, I was on the fence about using this one. In the skein, it had some variegation, and I was worried it would detract from the shawl. As you can see, I was (quite happily) proved wrong, and I truly love this whole line of yarn. Amazing colours, INSANE amounts of yardage (480 yards for about $21), and it's a great yarn.
Socktopus Sokkusu Original, one skein, in lime and basil. This yarn was a tad thinner then the others, but you can't tell. The colour, just amazing, so intense. Really liked this one! All the yarns were great and not a single one bleed when soaked. Talk about amazing.


I did have one mod to the pattern. I made the large, and ran out of the blue, so I only had enough yarn for one stripe at the top, but I looked at other projects, and I prefer the one stripe. So that worked out in my favour!

this thing is huge, and I just love it so so much! It matches pretty much everything I own, and it looks stunning! Except when I make this face....

The problem with secret knitting

Is that you can't really show or talk about it, which leads to a rather boring blog post. But I can share this.

Soon, soon you will know.

After doing the Joji mystery shawl (which I need to get pictures of soon) I've become obsessed with mystery knit alongs. Case in point, Evadine. This is one repeat done of clue one

And I just got this yarn for the Romi mystery kal.

The first clue was released today, so I have to go digging around for the right needles.
In other news, the kittens had their first vet appointment, and other then some ear mites, they're fine! YAH! Watson has started to wake up up chirping and looking at me like this

How can you NOT pet that face?

There's no place like home

This past summer, I moved. The move itself was traumatic and dreadful, so to deal with that and leaving the house I spent the last 17 years of my life in, I cast on for these babies. Rav link


I finished the first one before I moved, and thanks to Archer season 3 on netflix (go watch it, it's amazing and wrong and I love it), I zipped thru the second sock.
Yarn is Blue moon fiber arts in Rare gems. It's the first rare gems I ever bought, at stitches east back when it was in Baltimore.

The pattern is one I've used before, the baby cable rib. I love it, how it hugs the foot and isn't mind numbing ribbing, yet almost as simple. CO 58 stitches, top down, short row heel, and a basic toe. My poor knitwear closet is rather sad on socks, as I have no idea where most of my pairs are, so I feel a need to make ALL THE SOCKS. These are just wonderful and SQUISHY.
Since these are done, (GO SPRING FINISHING!) I've moved these to my wip sock bag.


There were supposed to a gift for my mother for christmas, but well, whoops. As Douglas Adams said, "I love deadlines, I love the whooshing sound they make as they past by".

Lazy Sunday

I've been pretty lazy all day, and it's been great. I did manage to make dinner, beef stroganoff over rice, it was yummy! I also made some artisan bread dough, which I'll use tomorrow.
Mostly, I slept and watched netflix, and have been knitting on this

I'm at the toe now and they should be finished by tonight hopefully. In case you were wondering, and I know you were, my polish is lola by zoya, and yes, it's that bright pink.