Big Sucking Sound

Like everyone else I know, I have my share of distractions. I can also find really good excuses to not do things. Last week I got my long awaited invitation to the ultimate fiber distraction--Ravelry! Like I need another knitting-related addiction in my life right now, but this is so cool! The big sucking sound you hear is TIME.

Ravelry is a place for knitters, crocheters, designers, spinners, and dyers to keep track of their yarn, tools and pattern information, and look to others for ideas and inspiration.

On paper (or screen) this sounds like it would be a giant time-saver! What a wonderous idea--a place for my stash, needles inventory, and patterns along with a place to meet up with other knitters, check out their stuff, send messages and get help. I've been tinkering with my profile (knittybits) but I don't have a lot entered yet. It's even more ultra-cool because it meshes nicely with flickr, so uploading project photos is a breeze. As I sit here and type I'm doing so a teensy bit begrudgingly because I know this is time I could spend lurking on Ravelry. I'm going to have to be careful. Here's a thought--maybe Ravelry will force me to confront my stash in a realistic and adult-like manner. Snork.

Sophie's Treat?

The other day I went to one of my LYSs for a fix. I may have mentioned it in a previous post. I felt-up a bunch of yarn and ended up purchasing three skeins of Plymouth Yarn Royal Bamboo. It's 100% bamboo and has a very silky look to it.

The color is simply #09, which drives me nuts. I would love to have the job of coming up with names for yarn colorways. This particular yarn colorway consists of ecru, ginger, pink and charcoal. The color repeats about 2-3". When I saw the yarn in the basket at the yarn shop, something about the colors drew me in. My plan for the yarn is a multi-directional scarf (google multidirectional scarf for the pattern--super easy).

One evening, I was knitting and set my work aside to let our dog, Sophie, in the house. She expects a treat each time she comes in, and sits very nicely by the counter where the treat jar sits. As I reached in the jar to grab a tasty morsel, I came up with the perfect name for the #09 colorway--"Sophie's Treat". See the photo.

How funny is that? The yarn is lovely and silky, but it tends to split. I have to keep an eye on my knitting so I don't snag stitches. I'll post photos when it's done.

Yarn Specifications:
Yarn Content: 100% Bamboo
Yarn Gauge: 5 sts = 1"/US8 needle
Yarn Length (yards): 93 yds/50g ball

More on the Japanese Album Project

Most of my blogging and online time has been spent on my Japanese photo album project. I've done a bit of knitting here and there, and even spent 30 glorious minutes fiber-fondling in a yarn shop, but when I'm online, I'm sleuthing. Unfortunately, I still don't know much more about the photo album than I knew a month ago. Japanese Kanji is not easily translated into the western alphabet. I've requested a book from the library, so when it comes in maybe I can decipher some bits and pieces.

The one thing I noticed about the album was the degree of care that went in to the photo placement, the manner in which the photos were mounted, and the elegance of the captions. It really is beautiful and is a striking contrast to my grandfather's album from the same period of time. Not that my grandfather's album is sloppy and unelegant, but the photos are taped in and captions are few and scrawled in pencil. The subject matter of the two albums is also quite different. The Japanese album contains very few action photos and there are many formal portraits of people and fellow soldiers. There's almost a sense of serenity eminating from the album. My grandfather's album, on the other hand, contains rather disturbing deptictions of the aftermath of the battle, photos of men working and no keepsake photos of those at home. It makes for an interesting comparison. I wish I had asked my grandfather more questions about it.

I'm just about ready to start decreasing for the toe on the blue/purple/teal socks. I'd take a photo but my camera is AWOL.