No Money Miracle

That's the latest Knittyboard swap I'm a part of. And yesterday, I got a package in the mail! A shoebox full of goodness.


Oh, what can it be? The anticipation...


So much wonderful goodness!


From left to right: A hank of lovely Thirteen Mile yarn in one of my favorite colors, a tape measure, a pair of wrist warmers in a deliciously soft and squishy fabric, a ball of Jojoland Harmony in the perfect summery beach colorway, a cute little book, sock patterns, and a super project bag. And to whom do I owe my thanks? The fabulous Verablue. Thank you, Jeanne! I love it.

November 8th

Today's knitting amounts to about 4 inches of garter and stockinette. Not very interesting photo material. I lazed about. Caught up on some shows in the morning, finished a book and napped midday. And in the afternoon we finished unpacking and picked up in the play room. We still need some furniture in there - there's just one shelf. But it's a start.

I decided to take most of my yarn out of the fabric cubes that the cat destroyed and display it openly. We keep the door closed, so the cat doesn't have access.

This is the sock yarn and books:


Looking at it makes me want to cast on for something. That mini-mochi in front calls to me. And the Fleece Artist and the Zauberball are enticing as well. But first I must complete the projects I have going on - it's for the best. And I fear that's going to take rather a long while at the pace I'm going. But Wednesday is a holiday, and I think I'll take Tuesday off too, depending if anything comes up tomorrow.

Signs of spring

It's cracked 60 around here today, and it's beginning to feel like spring. I started a shawl out of the coveted Kauni EQ the other day. I looked all over Ravelry, seeing what kind of shawls were best for the long color repeats of this rainbow yarn. I decided it need to be very simple. Eventually, I choose the Eliina Shawl, because it's knit from the top down, with simple yo details, and some interest at the bottom. And so far, I'm loving it! The yo rows create this barrier which divides up the color repeats pretty nicely.


Another sign of spring? Spring sale at the Dancing Ewe. Lots of nice yarn at 75% off. I picked up 12 hanks of Lana d'Oro in black - enough for a sweater, and less than $15. (Have I mentioned that I love a bargain?) I also got suckered into picking up three balls of Bollicina, a 65% cashmere, 35% silk blend, in a gorgeous burgundy which completely failed to photograph. It was 75% off and oh so soft.



I've also tackled a long needed project: I reorganized my knitting pictures in Flickr. I've been using flickr for 4 years now, and had no coherent organization method. But now I do! Hooray! Knitting and spinning by year, and a massive set for photos of yarn, past and present. Should be much more manageable.

Yarrrrns

I would do some kind of April Fools, but I'm not that clever. Also, it's still March on the West Coast, so neener neener. But I do have some yarn I made.

I picked up about 2 oz of three different rovings in Seattle on Thursday. I got Ashland Bay multi colored merino in Cranberry, solid color merino in Tartan, and 70/30 merino silk in McKenzie. So far I've spun up about half of the Cranberry on my Golding spindle.

I was liking the evenness I was getting, so I decided to keep the yarn as a single. Unfortunately, I overspun it pretty well, seeing as I didn't decide to do singles until well into the process. But I soaked it and thwacked it on the kitchen counter, and it's not so bad. It's slightly kinky, but it's not twisting back on itself. I'll put less spin into the next half of the roving. And next time I'll be buying more than just a couple of ounces; it spins up fast when you get in the groove (although my shoulder aches something fierce the next day).


With the flecks of blue in there, it makes me think of recycled sari silk, but much more pleasant to work with. I think I'll aim for a finer thread on the next color I spin up and ply it. I'm at about 165 yards so far. I hope I can get up to 300 with the rest of the Cranberry.

FO: Eleanor socks

It's all socks all the time around here. You know, except when it isn't.

These are the Eleanor socks. I knit them on size 2 knitpicks classic circs, 2 at a time top down. I substituted a short row heel for the heel that was written (because it's faster). The yarn is Icebox Fibers Superwash socks. I can find neither hide nor hair of this yarn on the internet, so I assume it is a very small local dyer. I found the base yarn to be a little thin. I would probably use size 1s if I were to do this again. But what is all this talk talk talk? Photos!




Had I said something earlier this year about not buying yarn? That must have just been crazy talk. I stopped by the LYS today to buy some yarn. Things have been crazy at work and I decided that yarn might be a nice soothing thing. So I got a ball of yarn in a color I don't usually knit: green.

Dream in Color Smooshy. I've never knit with it before, so I'm looking forward to it. I'm planning a pair of Thelonious socks for March. And I also got a hank of Chameleon Colororks footsie. The colorway is Indian Wedding, but I think of it as peach and raspberry sherbet. It was on sale. How could I resist?

I learned while I was in there that the folks at the Dancing Ewe read this blog. Hi Janelle, hi Cathy! Ain't the internet grand?

FO: Blackrose socks.

Blackrose socks from Winter 2008 Knitty. Knit up in Mountain Colors Bearfoot. I really enjoyed knitting with this yarn. Very solid and knits up nicely on 3mm needles. I substituted a short row heel because it's faster and I like to get finished.

The colorway is a bit busy for this pattern, but I can cope with it.


I've now started another pair of socks. But I think that, after I finish this pair, I'm going to focus on knitting down my lace stash for a while. I've done pretty well running down the sock yarn stash for the beginning of the year, but I seem to be accumulating the lace yarn (not all of it laceweight) a bit too quickly.

For example, I just recently swapped enough yarn for two pairs of socks in colors that weren't really doing it for me for this yarn:

That bit of lovely is a hank of Lorna's Laces Heaven. Destined to be a shawl of some sort or another. Time to get to getting on the lace front, I think.

EQ!

I moved 7000 rocks this morning. Well, lithics. Mostly chipped stone (arrowheads and that sort of thing). But it was still a lot of lifting! So I headed down to my LYS afterward. I had read in their newsletter that they had received a shipment of Kauni Effektgarn, and I was interested. You see, the EQ colorway knits into this beautiful rainbow and I wanted some. Like woah have I wanted the EQ colorway.

So I mosey on down and they have it! So I bought it. I'm thinking a triangular or half circle shawl for this pretty stuff.



Another yarn craving satisfied.

Spinning follies

I spin a little. And by a little, I mean a little. I have a drop spindle and all the training the internet has to offer. So I do... okay. I make yarn. Not great yarn. And not quickly. Like what I'm working on now. I bought 2.5 oz of black alpaca roving in JUNE 2007. And I've spun about half of it into 162 yards of a two-ply heavy-ish laceweight.


I think what's happening is that I'm underspinning the singles so that the plies aren't, um, plying enough. So it's a very loose two ply. And my operation is probably not the best. I wind the yarn off the spindle onto my ball winder and ply from both sides of the ball. Also, I haven't "set it" yet, which I believe involves soaking the yarn and then beating it vigorously on a counter top. But still, it is yarn, it is knittable and I did make it. I'm working on the other half, spinning a thicker yarn which will hopefully take less than 18 months. :P

My knitpicks order came!

40" classic circs in sizes 0-3, 40" cord for the options set, and a needle sizer with metric. My current sizer was a thrift store find with no metric readings... and old.

The current projects seem to be unphotographable. The light and the yarn isn't co-operating. Alas.

Economic Stash Enhancement

I went out on the town yesterday morning. Well, I went downtown anyway. I wanted to get some apple cider and I figured the farmer's market might have some. They didn't actually. I bought some at the grocery store instead.

While I was downtown, I decided to stop in at my LYS and see if they had anything left over from their Fall Sale, not that I need more yarn right now. And sure enough in the backroom corner there were some balls of yarn for 99 cents each. I got six balls of Naturally Dawn 2 ply silk-wool lace yarn. I'd bought three balls of this last year and have been hoarding them ever since - the yarn is so soft, and I surely do love some soft, silky yarn. So I jumped on these six. And I surely do love a bargain.




I'm making good progress on my Shetland Tea Shawl, but it's still very much in the lumpy bag stage and not an interesting photo op. Same for the Gathered Scarf - it's longer, but that's the main change. Although I did wind up the second hank of Silky Merino for the shawl: 600 yards down, a whole lot more to go!