Egg vs. Egg

Today's lunches both included eggs, but in a different way than yesterday. Mine was seriously delicious (and so filling that I actually had to take a break before "dessert" (fruit). Today my lunch was inspired by the song "Black & Yellow", which I have been hearing a lot lately. Except there aren't a lot of black foods I'm willing to eat, so I went with green & yellow instead ;).

Click either meal for a list of ingredients!

Sisley
vs
Michelle

Lunch vs. Lunch

A minor injury is currently preventing me from knitting. To cope with all the extra "down" time I suddenly have, I've been focusing my creative energies on alternate outlets. One of my co-workers always has these amazing gorgeous lunches made for her by her mom and aunt; I decided that I too could have cute lunches. And so cute lunch vs lunch was born. Which one is cuter?

DAY ONE

Michelle
vs
Sisley


DAY TWO
Sisley
vs
Michelle

For My Next Trick....

Would it be me if I wasn't setting myself up with another challenge? Some people make New Year's resolutions; I am constantly resolving something or other. Most recently it was to knit only from yarn I bought at the 2009 TTC Knitalong and the 2010 Knitter's Frolic. I had 2 months between the Frolic and the 2010 TTC Knitalong and I was determined to pare down the stash a bit, or at least to curb my shopping in favour of knitting. In the end I successfully knit up 13.5 balls of yarn and allowed myself to buy 7 new skins of yarn at the Knitalong.

I would like to continue to pare down the stash (ahem, ignore the free yarn I also scored that day, that clearly doesn't count). So I'm taking up a similar challenge in preparation for another big yarn shopping event.


Here is the deal: I am planning to go to Rhinebeck this year. Jacquie and I have epic plans to meet in New York City (at the top of Empire State building, natch) a few days before for some exploration and maybe even a bit of yarn tourism, and then rent a car and head for Rhinebeck. I think it is clear that 7 skeins of yarn isn't going to cut it here... there are approximately 13 weeks between now and my NYC adventures, so a new epic challenge is definitely in order.

Epic Rhinebeck Challenge Rules

1. Just like the previous challenge, I have to knit 2 balls of yarn for every 1 skein I want to purchase in October
   
   
2. I have to be satisfied with the projects I'm making -- no knitting up crap just because it is quick and consumes yarn quickly
   
   
3. EPIC TWIST: For every newly purchased or acquired yarn I knit with, something older from the stash has to get used up
   

TTC Knitalong Stashquisition

I was a very good girl on this knitalong! I stuck to the rules of my challenge and knit only from last year's TTC Knitalong and this year's Frolic yarn purchases. In the end I successfully knit up 13.5 balls of yarn before the day of the TTC Knitalong. According to my 1 for 2 rule, that meant I was allowed to buy just 6.75 skeins of yarn on Saturday. I gave myself the .25 and decided I could buy 7 new skeins of yarn -- after all, during the 2 months of the challenge I also started and ripped 2 projects representing about another 3 balls of stash yarn.
Mmmm luscious luscious Madelinetosh. This colourway is called Gilded and it makes me happy just looking at it.
More gratuitous photos of Madelinetosh. This colour is called Baltic. I bought both of these at the Naked Sheep, and together, these yarns will be the most beautiful colourwork something. If only I can find a project worthy of their extreme awesomeness...These are lovely little circular needle cases from Namaste.I can't seem to stop photographing these adorable little cases!Can you blame me? Look how sweet and delightfully organized they are. I bought two, and they hold my expansive needle collection quite well. There is even a little bit of room for a few circular needles in key sizes... These lovely wooden needles and the cases all come from the Purple Purl. The cases I bought (I pretty much had to!) and the needles were free swag. I also scored a gorgeous orange Namaste DPN case as my free prize with purchase (wow) but I just can't seem to capture it...Oh sweet, Sweet Georgia yarns. This one is called Slate.
These yarns are so lovely I couldn't resist. I'm not entirely sure I understand the name of this colourway (China Doll), but together with the grey I envision a cozy stranded hat... And how cute is this little button box? I've been meaning to replace the little Altoid tin that previously held my stitchmarker collection, and when I saw these I knew I had to. The Sweet Georgia Yarns and this little box were all scored at Lettuce Knit. Thanks Megan!This lovely red Baby Alpaca was a from an illicit yarn warehouse. The price was decent and I'm happy to work with this lovely soft, drapey yarn again. This colour is just phenomenal!
Last but not least, I got these 2 skeins of glorious green Highland Simple Twist, a 100% wool yarn from Americo Original. I can always count on them to have something inspiring and they did not disappoint. I was so tired when I got here I just grabbed a seat to enjoy the A/C, and I literally spotted this gorgeous green from across the room. It was like a mushy love song, only it was with yarn...

See how that was only 7 skeins of yarn? Ok, sure, I bought a few other items but I always leave a shopping loophole, don't I? The point here is reduce my stash without going on a yarn diet or knitting from stash for a year (something I typically fail at -- loopholes are wonderful things, aren't they?).

Oh right, I almost forgot... our super generous sponsors sent us enough Bernat Satin & mixed Diamond yarns to sink a ship. As the head organizer I happened to go home with a few extra balls of these gorgeous yarns...
Some beautiful brown.Glorious pink.

And this lovely blue/green... all destined to become beautiful baby wear. Now friends, start having more babies so I can knit them things!

I also got some Galway in pretty heather.And finally this deep red ball of Superwash Merino from Diamond. Love!

For those of you keeping count, why yes the free yarn outnumbers the purchased yarn. THAT IS NOT THE POINT. Everyone knows free yarn totally doesn't count!

TTC Knitalong: East Red!!

Team East Red was awesome! We had the furthest trip to the Knitalong (Danielle came all the way from Hong Kong) the best knitticism (Mary said it first... how can yarn be so HEAVY?) and Jun most definitely needed a sherpa with more than 24 balls of yarn purchased thoughout the day. Meredith and I have captained one of the East Teams twice now and we have somehow always ended up with an awesome group of knitters to hang with on our TTC adventure. This year was no exception!

We started out at the Naked Sheep, the first LYS on our route. Lisa did an amazing job, putting out loads of snacks, giving out great surprises and offering a fantastic 20% off regularly priced items to TTC Knitters. I think between Teams Red & Blue we may have bought all the Madelinetosh she had to offer!

After our first stop we experienced the worst delay of our TTC-ing that day: we had to wait 13 minutes for the next Queen Streetcar after missing 2 in a row just as we left the shop. Finally it arrived and we headed Purl-ward.

Where we found even more delicious yarns and friendly faces - my intrepid co-captain Meredith was very pleased!

Purlificent! (Does that word make sense? Who cares, I think its totally accurate...)

And then it was back to the streetcars to head for our next destination... lots of knitting happening en route.

And our next destination was lunch! Some knitters headed for the Big Fat Burrito (a classic Kensington tradition) while the rest of us settled out front of the Grilled Cheese for some fantastic sandwiches in the shade just two doors away from our next LYS.

Lettuce Knit was awesome as always, as we packed the tiny shop and bought up loads of more beautiful yarns... Spuds and Chloe & Sweet Georgia were my faves! (Can you tell by now I was more into shopping and less in shooting? I totally forgot to shoot panos of Lettuce & Americo!)

We wandered South again to hit a few bonus shops, and on the way we encountered this amazing example of practical yet unusual knitted items in the wild. I love how the thick knitted lock cozy protects this pretty vintage bike frame from unnecessary scratches.

Next stop was a quick detour to this studio-warehouse sale where we scooped some deals and enjoyed the frosty air-conditioning and lovely views ;)

And finally ended up at Americo Original, one of my favourite sources of straight-up gorgeous wools and cottons.

And finally it was off to the Rivoli to recover, count our purchases up and give out prizes -- check out the official TTC Knitalong blog for the full details of who won what, and what kind of incredible prizes our sponsors contributed this year.

Thank you Team Red for making this such a fun day for your captains, too!

TTC Knitalong Challenge Update

So how did 5 weeks go by without an update? Well, add up students' year-end show, a major charrette the same weekend as the G20, numerous side projects, a multi-city trip to avoid my family in person see my family and a major knitalong to organize and my blogging time shrinks to nil.

All is not lost however, as I still somehow found time to create this fucking amazing updated TTC Knitalong map:

AND still fit in some actual knitting. I'm at 13 balls of Frolic and '09 TTC KAL yarn knit, which means I get to purchase 6.5 balls of yarn tomorrow. A bit short of my 16-ball goal, but still pretty decent -- and I might just give myself a break and get the full 7 balls despite it all ;) After all, we're talking about completing a cushion, a pair of colourwork mittens, a pair of colourwork socks, a kimono shrug, and a shawl in less than 8 weeks while working my usual insane hours.

TTC Knitalong Challenge Update: Week 1

So, my challenge so far has been going pretty well! I knit all 4 balls of Aquarella (from last year's KAL, bottom left corner) into a super simple and ridiculously cozy cushion cover to replace a terribly pilled one for a cushion form I already had. I happened to have 6 perfect buttons in my stash to finish this off with, and I'm snuggled up to the results as I type this!

I think this yarn looks best in just plain stockinette - the thick/thin texture plus the variegated colourway make it interesting enough all on its own.
I didn't spend too long working on this (giant needles! super chunky yarn!) but I did knit about half of up into an oversized cowl before deciding it really wanted to be a cushion instead and frogged it. So that uses up 4 skeins of yarn out of the total of about 32 skeins I have to work with for this challenge.


These mittens are so cute and fun to knit, and they knit up very quickly, considering how detailed they are. Mittens are the perfect stranded colourwork project!
This mitten only weighs about 40 grams. So technically, the finished pair will only consume about 1.6 skeins of yarn. I'm a bit torn about whether to consider this the full 3 balls (since I'll have completed the project I intended to use a 3 of them for) or try to really use them all up completely and find another project to use the remaining 1.4 balls somehow. Perhaps I'll compromise and call it 2 balls used and put the rest of the leftovers on hold for a future project.

So after 1 week of this challenge, I have knit up 5 of the 32 challenge skeins. That represents 2.5 new balls of yarn at the TTC Knitalong in July, so yay!

I've also cast on for my new Tattoo Kimono, which will certainly eat up the full 2 skeins of Fleece Artist Margaree I'm using. Should be a fairly quick knit again, thanks to the bulky yarn and 6mm needles I'm working with.

Completely unrelated: this video is crazy. It just keeps doing more things!

My 2010 TTC Knitalong Challenge

We're back! The TTC Knitalong will take place on Saturday, July 10th. The volunteers all met a few weeks to iron out the details and there are a few exciting new changes so stay tuned for updates. You can get those details either on the official blog or at the TTC Knitalong Ravelry group.

So in preparation for this year's KAL, I of course looked back at previous knitalongs... which also meant looking at the yarns I bought on those crawls as well! I couldn't find the details of what exactly I bought in October 2006 or June 2007, but I was able to dig up these fine yarn purchases from June 2009:

1. Americo Cotton, 2. Socks That Rock Mediumweight, 3. Romni Pure Silk, 4. Vicuna, 5. Alpaca BabyTwist, 6. Malabrigo Laceweight, 7. Malabrigo Aquarella, 8. Fleece Artist Nova Sock, 9. FibraNatura Mermaid

Which is all fine and well -- except that I've only knit with one of these yarns since then (the mediumweight Socks that Rock has become an adorable baby sweater and a pair of almost complete lace mittens). Which is just sad, and makes me think my *actual* hobby is yarn-shopping and not knitting, since I apparently do more shopping than knitting with the results!

On top of it all, I just went a little crazy at the DKC Knitter's Frolic this past weekend:


1. Shelridge Farms Fingering Weight White, 2. Shelridge Farms Fingering Lipstick, 3. Shelridge Farms Fingering Weight Black, 4. Van Der Rock Tartrazine, 5. Solid Chestnut Jumbo Ballwinder, 6. Van Der Rock Neon, 7. Winky, 8. Indigo Dragonfly MCN "Angst for the Memories", 9. Fleece Artist Margaree

So my first thought was that I should try to knit up all the yarns that I bought at the frolic before the TTC Knitalong in July, which is almost possible in the 8.5 weeks that remain between now and then. This is if I give up all other pastimes, work zero overtime and exclude the lifetime supply of carry-along sparkle from this challenge. I've already started a project using 3 of these yarns (a pair of black/white/hot pink Paradoxical Mittens!) and have plans for all but one of these yarns: the gorgeous and bright Van der Rock sock yarns will become a pair of Glenna's Neptune High socks, the Fleece Artist Margaree will be yet another Tattoo-less Kimono to replace my lost beloved original, so the only decision to make is about what to use Kim's incredible "Angst for the Memories" yarn to make.

But then I started thinking about all the unknit yarns I bought at last year's TTC Knitalong... and I'm ashamed to admit that I only have a plan for one more of those yarns (a plain stockinette wrap out of the Americo cotton that will probably be one of those projects that spans years).

So after all that rambling, here is my challenge. Between now and July 9th:

1. I will knit only from these two groups of yarns.
2. I will not buy any more yarns.
   
3. I will complete at least one entire project from each group.
   
4. And on the day of the TTC Knitalong, I will buy no more than 1 ball of yarn for every 2 balls that I knit up during this challenge!