Barf-glob
/’bärf-gläb/ noun (plural -s) A wad of tangled yarn that comes out of the middle of a center-pull skein of yarn when you are attempting to knit from the skein.

Do you all think I should notify the Oxford English Dictionary?

This word came into being in my comments on yesterday’s post. It seems that I am not alone in my hatred of and disgust with barf-globs. There were some good tips for avoiding and dealing with barf-globs in the comments. Thanks, guys!

Frogner Update

I’m at the point where I am doing the neck shaping. At last!

In answer to Caroline’s question in yesterday’s comments, I’ve not yet found any problems with the pattern for Frogner. No errors that I’ve noticed.

So far, so good!

Lucy likes to lie in my lap while I knit on Frogner. One rather large, very furry, warm kitty plus the entire body of a wool sweater plus my continuing low-grade fever equals a somewhat warm and uncomfortable atmosphere in which to knit, even in my air conditioned home.

And that slows things down a mite. But there’s no way in hell I’m going to shove Lucy off my lap. As soon as she sees me pick up my knitting, she makes a mad dash for me and happily curls up in my lap, purring loudly. Sometimes she even sighs in contentment.

Sometimes it’s tough being a mom!

Lucy Sez

Have a great day and may all your skeins be barf-glob free.

Must we have these battles, over and over again?

Apparently we must.

In case you are wondering, I’m talking about the skein of Opal I’m using for my current SIP. I am of the opinion that it’s a center-pull ball and it thinks it isn’t. I am pulling yarn out of the center in great big globs that I have to untangle and wrap around the outside of the skein.

Doncha hate when that happens?

Uusually this phenomenon just happens at the start of the skein. You are groping around in the center of the skein, looking for the end, and you wind up pulling out half the skein. Which you then have to untangle and wind around the outside of the skein.

This ornery skein of Opal has barfed up a messy glob of yarn from its center four times so far. The only other skein of yarn I ever remember this happening with was . . . uh huh . . . another skein of Opal.

I’ve been told that you have to pull out the end from the top of the skein (which can be determined by the direction that the label is put on the skein) for the yarn to come out smoothly, but it doesn’t seem to make a difference sometimes.

Thank goodness my Daletta is behaving like the well-brought-up, refined yarn that it is. It allows me to find the end, pull it out, and actually knit from it, drawing it neatly out from the center of the skein.

New! Improved!

Just because I’m such a sweetheart, I’ve posted some revisions to my Generic Toe-up Sock Pattern. I added some tips and put a bit more detail in the instructions for the heel. I did this just for you!

Now . . . don’t you feel special?

Lucy is jazzed.

Saturday my sister-in-law and I went to the Westmoreland Berry Farm. Drivng up to the farm, this is what we saw.

Isn’t he adorable? He has his own skywalk that goes up and over the road, into a field. They called it a “Goatwalk” and you can read all about it on their website.

This fellow was wandering around too.

And there were children feedng these cuties:

But of course you know what drew my attention:

And:

We bought fresh tomatoes, peaches, blueberries, and blackberries. The peaches and blackberries made great daiquiris!

Aren’t you impressed that I managed to make the stripes in my socks match after slugging down booze all night?

New SIP

Here’s the new SIP — the Opal Inspiration. Interesting striping.

Speaking of striping, I was asked how I did get those Regia socks to match so exactly. A combination of skill and luck. I did start them at the identical spot in the yarn on each skein. But as we all know, that doesn’t always guarantee that your socks will match exactly. But in this case, they did.

Frogner

I am still knitting Frogner — honest! To prove it, here’s an update photo.

I may finish the front this week. I hope so. But I’ve been feeling low-grade fever-fatigued-headachy-sore throat-crappy for days, and that does cut into the knitting time.

The weather doesn’t help. My motto this week is:

“Blah, blah blah blah, blah blah.”

I did link to the fiber festivals page, by the way, from my knitting gallery page (link in the sidebar) so you can always find it.

Meow.

To Margaret in Chicago, the winner of the July contest, chosen by a random number generator.

And thank you to everyone who entered. I’ve compiled your list of fiber festivals, and the list is available here. They are in alphabetical order, by name of festival.

Good Weekend

Lucy seemed relieved to see us leave for my brother and sister-in-law’s beach house. She claimed she was going to take a nap, but she may have been planning her own little party . . .

So down at the beach, my brother and sil drove us past this house. Quite a mailbox, huh?

And they couldn’t let our visit pass without driving us through the trailerpark.

There is no way this photo can capture the true horror of the trailerpark. Suffice it to say that I thought places like this existed only in bad comedies.

So we were glad to get back to their house and hunker down for the rest of the day!

I did finish my transit delay socks:

And I started a pair using Opal Inspiration #5026. Photo of that tomorrow.

Happy Monday, all! Tomorrow . . . cute animal photos!

I think when I finish these, I’ll call these socks the Transit Delay Socks.

I knitted the first sock, starting Monday a.m. and completing it Wednesday p.m., entirely on the subway. And waiting for the subway.

That’ll give you some idea of the delays this week.

So I’m into the second sock now.

July Contest

Don’t fergit! Don’t fergit! Deadline to enter the July contest (see the July 14 entry) is 5 p.m. Eastern Time today. I’ll draw a name shortly thereafter and pick a winner, to be announced next Monday.

And I’ll probably have the list of fiber festivals up on my site Monday as well.

Weekend . . .

Not much knitting will be accomplished this weekend. We’re taking a quick trip down to my brother’s beach house to hang out with those guys for fun and frolic. I’m not even taking Frogner with me, as alcohol and Frogner do not mix. I’ll probably take the second Transit Delay Sock with me, though.

We’ll only be gone a day, so don’t worry about Lucy being left alone!

Lucy Sez . . .

Have a good weekend, all.