Apology to whoever sees it, for blog being so crappy

Without a working home internet connection, spare time and a digital camera, keeping this blog up is quite difficult.
Developments will come.

Squeeee

Got the handspun today!!!! After a really long day that included a root canal to start things off and a nonstop barrage of really time-sensitive work, this was just what I needed to see. Especially since my patterns are taking so fricking long to get here from New Hampshire.
It's sooooooo soft. It is true Dreamsicle colors and the variation is texture is really beautiful. I still don't know what I am going to use this for but I want to plan carefully. I have a little under 150 yards total of bulky-weight handspun and I want to use it wisely. I was thinking about using it in a bag, but this is way too soft to waste on that-- it needs to be used in something that I will wear. I think this absolutely would make a beautful hat but I don't look very good in hats and I want to show this off...

You Should Get An Asian Inspired Tattoo

Mysterious and expressive You like to show off, but you also like to keep some allure

What Tattoo Should You Get?

Not a bad guess-- I am planning on getting the "Zoso" symbol from Led Zeppelin IV when I eventually get a tattoo. So, really more of a Nordic/Celtic inspired tattoo. But at least they didn't suggest a naked chick or Anime character or "Born to Kill" or something else totally off the mark.

Your 80s Theme Song Is:

Pour Some Sugar On Me by Def Leppard

What's Your 80s Theme Song?

This is funny because I was in middle school when this song came out, and I loved Def Leppard back then, so in a way this really IS an 80's theme song for me. Although I would have picked "Welcome to the Jungle" over this song.
Strangely, the hardest part was identifying my favorite current/modern day song to take this quiz. I don't think I really have one. All of my favorite songs predate 1997, pretty much.
Oh, GOD. I'm getting old. That was 10 years ago.

Advance squee from Etsy

I just bought my very first handspun yarn. It is from JenniferJoyCreative on etsy, and it is a three-skein set called "DrEamCiclE". Hopefully, since I am linking to her seller's page on here, she won't mind if I post the pictures of the yarn I bought from her, so you can see how gorgeous it is. Her handspun creations are for sale at the site linked below: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=104476
If she happens to Google herself and see this, I also must mention the way I found her etsy store: I am a contributor to the No-Sheep KAL (although, obviously, I do knit with wool) and one of the other bloggers on the KAL posted a link to the Fake Sheep blog about vegan knitting, and when I visited that, there was a post about Jennifer's fiery red bamboo handspun. So, I went and visted her store, and this is the yarn I ultimately fell in love with.
I don't have a specific project in mind, but this yarn is so beautiful that I couldn't pass it up. Besides, I have recently hit the point in my relationship with knitting that I need to start pushing the envelope, and that includes forcing myself to stop depending too much on patterns. I modify almost every pattern I use, but I am still pretty nervous about straying too far from the basic blueprints.
Frankly, I have been wanting to start designing for about a year now, but I have been too timid to start the process. However, I'm tired of waiting for myself to get past the fear, and I have decided that I am going to start pushing past it anyway. This will be a great opportunity to design something where I am initially inspired by the yarn and only the yarn-- no patterns.

Possible solution for a problem spot in the stash!

Last fall, I bought about 1400 yards of Lily Chin Manhattan, which is a cotton/bamboo yarn with a nubby texture. It was one of the Yarn of the Month featured yarns, so I had a chance to test-swatch it, and I decided that I really liked it. I even went so far as to take the swatch for a road test-- I carried it around in my handbag for a little over a week (where it promptly gravitated to the bottom and got knocked around a lot) and, unlike most cotton yarns, the stitches actually stayed in place, which I attribute to the bamboo.
Anyway, after ordering all the yarn, I realized that I had no idea what to do with it. I am more of a stitch-pattern-oriented knitter than a colorwork-oriented knitter, and I soon realized that 1400 yards of a single color of nubby-textured yarn meant that I was going to be fairly constrained-- interesting stitch patterns, cables, etc. are pretty much lost on a yarn that already has its own thing going on with texture.
So, the big bag of Manhattan has been sitting in a cedar chest for about seven months now, and I haven't had a clue what to do with it. Finally, while browsing my favorite LYS after work yesterday (I am trying to make myself ONLY browse for a while, with the exception of a few books and tools, because I have to start making a dent in my enormous stash of yarns and UFOs) I noticed that one of the sample garments in the store might be just the thing. It's a shrug, basically a long rectangle which is doubled over and stitched into armholes at the top edges, after which you go around the perimeter and pick up a ribbed border, but the great thing about it is that I can tell it will be easy to modify the construction to fit my size and to lengthen the overall garment into kind of a cutaway, circular cardigan/jacket (I, like pretty much all plus-size, busty gals, look ridiculous in shrugs.)
Anyway, I am very excited about this project now. I finally found a project for the Manhattan that is casual enough to work with the character of the yarn, but won't be boring to make. Once I (finally) get a digital camera, which probably won't take too long to save for if I save up what I normally spend on yarn for a couple of months, I think I may have to make this project one that I document in this blog. It'll be my first official project where I use the pattern only as a suggestion and make the garment my own.

What have I gotten myself into?

Mmmkay...even after a half hour of trying to get my page looking halfway decent I am beginning to see the original wisdom of putting this project off...which is primarily...how the hell to people know how to format these blogs??!! I was looking at just a few of the blogs that I actually read and realizing that they had, you know, icons and lists and stuff...this is way over my head. I don't have time to learn all this stuff at this point...I'm going to have to keep this low-tech for a while (I don't even know if I got the No Wool icon on my blog right-- was I supposed to add it as a picture? Oh well.

First post...will this end up like the pile of unfinished blank journals in the closet?

Well, well, well, I finally got around to starting my knitting blog.
I have been telling myself for damn near a year that I was going to hold off until I was done with school (I go to law school evenings and work during the day) but I cracked-- I wanted to join the No-Wool swap and I was too lazy to wait for the KAL sign-up email to get to me. Funny how my laziness cured my procrastination in this instance.
I wanted to wait because I wanted this to be a GOOD knitting blog, not a half-assed one. We'll see if I can use my whole ass this time. Fortunately, even half of it should be ample at this point in time.
My two biggest immediate challenges? No digital camera and no home internet connection. Insurmountable? We'll see.