the Akamai Knitter

As 2007 ends, I can’t help but be thankful for the wonderful ladies in my local knitting group, the Aloha Knitters. It all started on Meetup with 3 women and a monthly meeting. (I think this was back in 2003, but I could be mistaken. My memory is quite shoddy.) Sometimes only one person would show up and that one knitter would spend a lone night knitting on their own. From there the meetings were increased to every other week with a small gathering of 2 or 3 people.

(Kbrow and Blogless Michelle)

Now we meet every week and you’re guaranteed a group of 5 or more knitters. There’s even been a few nights where our group have taken over half the cafe with around 12 knitters!

Having a dozen knitters show up in Hawaii has been unbelievably validating for me. Over the years, I’ve been mocked for my passion for knitting. I mean really, who knits in Hawaii? And who knits with wool in Hawaii? The support and enthusiasm, the aloha, that’s been shared within the group is amazing.

Let’s not forget the laughter either. Here’s Michelle showing absolute outrage at how little yarn Acornbud has left. Acornbud seems to be rather stoic about it. After all, she is an extremely experienced knitter, so she knows these things will happen.

And here’s Vron insisting to Anna that her fun fur scarf really is the height of fashion and cuddly as well!

So thank you my sisters of knitting, my sisters in yarn, for making every Thursday such a special day! :)

My mind is a jumble of thoughts as I didn’t go to bed until 5am thanks to the chai I had last night. Thank goodness for Random Friday.

1. Thank you for the big welcome you gave to my new kitty and for all the great suggestions for a name. I think we’ve settled on a name, but I’m not sure if it will stick. If it stands the test of time (that is if it sticks for more then a day or two), then I’ll be sure to share it with everyone.
   The new addition is slowly settling in and there have been several sightings. In fact, while watching a sad basketball game (I just can’t win this week when it comes to sports), he decided to investigate the living room last night.
2. I finished a glove. Finally. It felt like this glove just did not want to get done. Now I just need one more to have the pair finished.
   
3. I took the glove with me to that last night’s Aloha Knitters meeting. I can’t tell you how much I enjoy my knit group. They’re a great bunch of ladies and I don’t know what I’d do without them. Who else would understand my obsession with Fair Isle gloves in Hawaii?
   Here’s Veronica hammin’ it up with the glove.
4. Thanks to the insomnia, I finished a sock (Ravelry link). This sock seems to have been on my needles forever. Mostly because I’ve only worked on it in the odd moments I’ve had when I’ve been out of the house and when taking the sweater became too bulky to take with me.
   
5. Finally, I leave you with a video I found on my friend Becky‘s page. I apologize if you’ve already seen it, but I love it so much I thought I’d share it here too. ETA: You’ll have to click here to see it since I can’t seem to embed the damn thing. (Anyone have tips on how to do this with Word Press? I put the html in the html editor!)

That’s it for me for now! I hope everyone has a safe holiday weekend. Please drive safely. :)

I’ve been sick with a nasty chest cold this week, which is why I haven’t posted much. But before I got sick I got together with my new friend Bethany, sewing and crocheting extraordinaire, for a knitting lesson.

We met on Monday at one of the neighborhood Starbucks. I was surprised at how quickly she picked up the knit stitch. She’s a really quick learner! We probably would have gotten past the garter stitch of the dishcloth she was working on if we hadn’t been talking so much. I had such a good time!

Here’s a shot of her awesome knitted cast-on. She did every bit on her own!

While I’ve been recuperating from this round of the flu, I’ve still been knitting. Unfortunately, I’m not sure if I have enough yarn to finish the second sock of the Pomatomus socks for my mother. This is what I’ve gotten done so far and how much yarn is left.

If I were feeling better I’d get out my digital scale to get a more exact idea of where I am with regards to how much yarn I need to finish the second sock. Instead, I think I’ll simply use fervent prayer to the knitting goddesses.

Or I could start swatching for another project.

Yeah. Avoidance is the key.

That’s Cotton-Ease for the Ariann. The pattern calls for size 7US/4.5mm needles and I need to get 19 sts for 4 inches, but I’m a loose knitter. I got 16 sts for 4 inches and I’m now down to a size 5US/ 3.75mm needle. I really loved the drape of the fabric with the size 7′s, but I remain hopeful that the lace pattern on the size 5′s will be loose and beautiful.

That is if I get the 19 sts the pattern calls for on the size 5′s. Who knows, I might have to go down a needle size further. Only the smaller the needle the less give the yarn has and the less enjoyable it is to knit with. Which makes me think this would be the wrong yarn for the project.

So wish me luck in getting gauge! I’d hate to have to scrap this project before I even begin.

Yesterday, my friend Veronica and I went to Isle Knits. It’s in the Century Tower building in downtown Honolulu, which is an office building, and it’s all the way up on the 14th floor. So it’s a little hard to find for the novice, luckily I had been there before so navigation was a breeze.

It’s a small space, but it’s chock full of good stuff. Once you walk in the yarn fumes hit you like a physical presence. I get a little delirious with just the memory. It’s easy to go overboard with impulsive buys in the store, which is why I went in with a Plan.

I had two specific projects I wanted to buy yarn for. The first was for Mr. Hedgehog and the second, was for the Rock Lobster Lock Bag*. From the top, going clockwise, we have Ella Rae Classic in Color No. 28 (Dark Purple) and Plymouth Boku in Color No. 1 for the Rock Lobster Bag.

Continuing on, we have more Ella Rae Classic in Color No. 104 and I’ll combine that with some eyelash yarn for Mr. Hedgehog.

What about those other two yarns? What about The Plan?

Well, while I was asking how the Ella Rae and the Plymouth Boku would felt together, Sue proceeded to show me a basket she had done in both those yarns. That basket just happened to be crammed with sock yarn.

I couldn’t just ignore the yarn. I’m not that strong.

So a couple of skeins of Artyarns Ultramerino4 in Color No. 108 came home with me too.

And that skinny skein? The wild one on the very bottom of the picture? Well that caught my eye just when I thought I was home free. You know, when you’re at the register and everything thing is getting tallied. You’ve gotten through the hard part of selecting what to buy and once you pay, all you have to do is waltz out the door.

But I think this is the moment when I’m most vulnerable because of those very reasons. There’s a basket full of sock yarn nearby that I can be strong-willed about, but on the opposite wall of the register there’s a delicious array of yarns to feast your eyes on as your waiting for Sue to write up your bill.

So there was this funky cord that didn’t look like yarn. So I investigated.

I was doing this for educational purposes. Really, this didn’t look like yarn, so it was okay to touch. Just a quick fondle and I was going to be done with it.

Work with me here.

It turns out that this is another fabulous Noro yarn called Daria. It’s 55% Cotton and 45% Rayon. It’s so tightly twisted it’s like cording.

See how shiny? And Sue showed me a gorgeous sample of a piece she was crocheting. How could I resist?

I’m going to crochet cellphone cozies for my mother and myself. That’s the revised Plan. Yeah. Revisions are a goodness and it’s good to be flexible in life.

When all was said and done, Veronica and I spent over an hour in the shop. We left floating high on yarn fumes and money well spent. I got a few more odds and ends that I’ll share in the coming days, but nothing as stupendous as the yarn itself.

Here’s Veronica clasping her booty in front of one of the walls of yarn at the store. Doesn’t she look blissed out on the yarn?

After we left the shop, we headed to Kahala Mall to meet some Aloha Knitters. The Mall was an absolute madhouse and we were only able to find Jen. I’m afraid we might have missed some people because it was so crowded.

There were no tables to be found in the central area of the food court, but we were able to snag a mini-table at the Starbucks. After awhile though, the noise and the crowd in there started to get on our collective nerves.

Amazingly enough though, Jen managed to hunt down a bigger table in the lovely open space of the mall. I truly admire her table-hunting skills. I have no idea how she spotted it in the mad rush that was the crowd, but I will be forever impressed by that one feat.

It was a terrific day and I hope we can do it again, minus the Mall Mob.

Before I go, I wanted to thank everyone for the support and sympathy over the nightstand nightmare. All is well now and I’m no long angsting over it. My hands recovered nicely within a couple of days thanks to the wonder drug known as Celebrex.

I also finished Clue 3 of the Mystery Stole 3 on Friday. I can’t believe how quickly each clue knits up. More on that later. :-)

*Page 49 in her Pattern Catalog

Okay so today isn’t really Monday, but it feels like it since we had a long weekend.* It was a busy three day that included much knitting, movie watching, house cleaning, and receiving of the mail swag.

As you all know, Saturday was World Wide Knit In Public Day and the Aloha Knitters celebrated at the Aloha Tower. There were about 10 knitters there and we had a great time.

It was really interesting to see the stares we received. Though there were a couple of young girls that actually glared at us, which I thought was odd. Were they glaring at us because we were knitting or because we were a loud raucous party?

After the official WWKIP meeting, the majority of us adjourned to Gordon Biersch for dinner. All I can say is the garlic fries were absolutely divine and they made up for the mediocre service we received.

Here we have Kai, Veronica, and Jen expressing their knitterly joy.

While at the meeting, I could not restrain myself from showing everyone I my new shoes. Okay, I didn’t show the people had met for the first time. I thought they might think it a bit strange. :-)

They are the Dansko Camilla and I have been wanting these shoes ever since I saw them on January One a few months ago. Only I waffled back and forth over having to purchase them online.

What finally swayed me was a couple of posts by Crazy Aunt Purl. Instead of Zappos, I went with shoes.com because Zappos did not have the Camillas, but shoes.com had them! They were also cheaper, plus they ship UPS to all 50 states and they have a 365 day return!

I’m really happy with the shoes and I would definitely buy online again. In fact I even have my eyes on some sandals.

The goodies didn’t end with the shoes though. I also received a shawl pin from Chris over at Scotts Mountain Crafts. I’ve been needing one of these for awhile now and this design really caught my eye because it reminds me of a spiderweb.

I’m really impressed with how sturdy this pin is. I think it will hold up well and it truly is a thing of beauty. I hope to get more pins like these in sterling silver.

There was knitting done, but since this post is so long I think I’ll save it for another time. I also had another package or two in the mail, but I’ll also save it for another time.

And since everyone else is doing it, I’ll leave you with a belly shot of Quincy in all his glory. As you can see, he’s settled in nicely.

*Monday was King Kamehameha Day, a state holiday.