RIP Betzi's Camera

Well my camera finally died. It has been on it's way out for a while, but it is now officially dead. Considering we've had it now for nearly 6 years, its probably time for an upgrade. (Wanna hear something funny? At the time 3.0 Megapixels and 2.8x zoom was top-notch! Makes me snort!) Its such crappy timing too--Rhinebeck is just a few short days away! Good thing I have a birthday coming up, right?

There have been many things gradually going wrong with it, but the last straw happened when I pulled the usb cable out of the port and with it came the thing you plug it into. Whoops. I'd take a pic of the carnage, but...well, you know...

I've been wanting to put up some pics of my DIY Hackle. I demo'd it at the last Virtual Knit and Spin in and it seemed to be pretty popular. I promised everybody I'd put some pics up but...well lets just say that's not going to happen until I get a new camera. I'll probably head to ol' Wally World to see if they have some sort of disposable digital camera. I abhor going there, but sometimes there just isn't any other place. (please check out the above link, you'll know why I don't like it!).

In Knitting News

A few days ago I posted about being a cast-on whore. It seems that I am actually worse than I thought. I not only cast on for Icarus and Scarf with the Really Boring Name, but I also cast on for a dishcloth that is very reminiscent of Kiri. I guess I can't get enough of that pattern, eh? Surprisingly I've made actual progress on all of three projects (proof to come when my camera is better/I get a new one). I'm already in my third repeat of chart #1 of Icarus. Its been pretty smooth sailing and the pattern is a breeze. The washcloth is a good take-along project. Since I have knit an entire laceweight Kiri already, a dishcloth-sized one in DK weight seems like a piece of cake. The actual pattern for this is on page 5 (?) of this pdf file, and it offers an excellent beginning lace tutorial. Check it out if you want to try out some lace!

Which brings me to the yarn I was using for it: Knit Picks Cotlin. I admit I was very skeptical about this yarn. There are a lot of cottons out there that are very splitty. Even the good ones tend to split--its not just a Peaches and Cream problem. Don't get me wrong, I have quite a pile of Peaches n Cream washcloths accumulating in my linen closet, but lets face it folks: its splitty as hell. Linen yarns tend to fall into the same rut. With my last KnitPicks order I threw in a ball of Cotlin just to try out. I had been thinking about knitting the Peasant blouse from Interweave Knits for a while and Cotlin would be a very affordable yarn to knit it with, provided it was...you know...not splitty. I am confident that I would be happy knitting a whole top with this yarn. It isn't at all splitty. It has a nice, tight twist yet drapes very nicely on the right sized needle. I haven't washed it yet, so I don't know how or if it bleeds, but I'm ok with a little dye bleed--its all part of the dyeing process.

In other exciting knitting news, my son is now knitting on a loom! I can hardly believe it. I taught him to fingerknit and he totally took to it like a fish to water. So I thought "hmmm if he is this excited about making cord, he'll love making he can wear!" And as you may well know, finger knitting is pretty much the same thing as loom knitting, and hats are perfect first time projects. He is super excited about it and is absolutely pumped to make himself a hat. Then he wants to make the entire family hats, including my cat. What a sweet pea!

He is already a junkie for the stuff. Good thing I got him started on some nice handspun, eh? Tonight when we tried to put him to bed he said "nononononono I'm knitting! Just one more round, 'k?" Sound familiar?

In Spinning News

No spinning right now! I have some spunky eclectic corriedale top split and prepped (colorway happy ending) but don't yet have any on my bobbin. I know when I get back from Rhinebeck I'll be insane for the spinning and won't get a lick of knitting done! So the spinning has been a little on the backburner lately.

Other news

Not much. I tried to take out the recycling yesterday but the center was closed due to Columbus Day. It kind of sucks because the kids actually love helping sort it out, and I feel pretty good about involving them in it. Plus I really needed to get those 2 out of the house. They were driving me crazy. So I was bummed and they were kind of bummed and we wasted a lot of gas driving to a place that is otherwise a very "green" sort of place. I shake my fist at you, Columbus Day!

Oh and I have a wicked bad cold. I am determined to baby myself so the worst of it will be gone by the time we leave for Rhinebeck! I'm definitely going to the Ravelry party. I'm thinking about wearing the bat shawl, but we'll see. I need to wear that thing as much as possible this month, while accessories with bats on them are still acceptable. Anyway, if there are any readers out there that are also going please say hello! And of course post here, I'd love to meetcha!

Hopefully I'll get one more post in before we leave. I am trying to get my hands on a disposable or maybe borrow someone else's to snap a few pics of yarn, hackle stuff, WIPS, and of course my knitting kid!