A little stash enhancement

I went to Lettuce Knit to sign up for a class the other day - Learn to Drop Spindle! Yay! It looks like fun, and I've always been curious about making my own yarn, so I figure why not!

Of course, at trip to the yarn store would not be complete with out a few purchases.

A little mediumweight Socks that Rock for the Milkweed shawl. I've started this already and am really loving it already. I missed lace knitting.

I also got a pattern to make a shrug out of Dream In Color yarn.

Remember way back when I wanted to make Talia, and was sabotaged by the cats? Well, I don't think I can really return to that project thanks to the bad mojo. So, I got this new pattern; I'll probably frog the partially done Talia in a few weeks or so.

The last thing I got was totally spur of the moment. Lettuce Knit was having a 50% off Lexie Barnes sale. In a moment of weakness, I got myself this.

A Lady B in Utopia. It's too big for me to use as a day to day bag, but I really like it for all sorts of other reasons. With the new house, I've got all sorts of rooms where I can knit, so I actually use it to haul all my knitting gear around - from the garden, to the sunroom, to the couch by the TV, to upstairs. The bag holds pretty much all the knitting and crochet needles that I own, and a whole lotta yarn for whatever project I feel like working on at the moment. I can see this bag being great for drives to Ottawa. Only downside is that the Lady B is so nice and roomy that the temptation to cram it full is always there, which leads to a really heavy bag. I tried it out as my day-to-day bag once, and really did cram it full. My arms and shoulders weren't happy with me afterward.

I'll have some photos of my Milkweed in progress when I get a bit further along!

Yes, that's exactly what I meant it to be...

Meet Baldassare the Blood Drop. Working at a hospital, I thought it would be quite fitting to crochet up a little toy like this. Isn't he cute?


And now, the real story. I didn't actually plan to have a drop of blood for a toy. It was originally supposed to be a toy mouse.

Starting to get the picture? But since I'm really new to this crochet game, I'm still not good at gauging how much yarn I need to finish a project. So, before I could get the ears and tail done, here's how much yarn I had left.

Not exactly enough to make the rest of the appendages on Mr. Mouse. But since I already put the eyes on, I didn't want to waste the toy (such as it is).

And so, I'm sticking to the story that I always planned to make it a drop of blood, and don't all of you think otherwise (haha!).

Hmmm.

A few months ago, Woolgirl was having a sale on a whole bunch of different worsted weight yarns. So I bought some Madelinetosh Tosh Worsted in the colourway "Seaglass":



I knew it was going to be a bright, vibrant green from the photo on the website, but somehow I wasn't expecting quite this degree of electric neon-ness. It's in the process of being turned into this:



Will I be able to pull this colour off? Am I carrying my love of green too far? Will it be a fun awesome sweater or will I end up blinding passers-by? Stay tuned! =)


P.S. I totally fell off the yarn diet wagon. Some Calmer at >50% off was calling my name. I couldn't not do it!

More Cracksilk Haze

Not too long ago, I bought some yarn. And some beads.



Kidsilk Haze is rapidly becoming one of my favourite yarns (that, plus Silk Garden, plus Koigu KPPPM, plus Calmer. Hi, I'm a yarn snob). It's airy and light, yet oh-so-warm during those frigid winter months. I'm using this yarn to knit Trinket (Rav link), a scarf that I've coveted ever since the pattern came out years and years ago.



I'm into the second ball of yarn now (there are 3), and the scarf is around 3 feet long. I think I want the main part of the scarf to be at least 5 or 6 feet long, and then there's the knitted ruffle where all the hundreds of beads are attached (600 or so? I hope I have enough beads. Maybe I should buy another tube just in case. Or use fewer beads. 600 seems like an awful lot to hang on the end of such a light scarf).

Anyway, it will probably be several months before this one gets finished (by this fall/winter though, definitely!). It's almost June, which means that it's probably about time to start thinking about Christmas presents. =)

I can see why these things are addictive

Say hello to my new buddy. He has no name was of yet, but I'm still thinking of one. I suppose one could argue that this little octopus could be female, but I get the distinct feeling that it's male.

Here he is gazing wistfully out the little window by my front door.


I embroidered his eyes on, but decided that next time I'm going to use safety eyes instead. It was a pain to do the embroidery.

Lorna's Laces Sale (again)

Remember last year's Lorna's Laces tour and sale? It's hard to believe that it happened over a year ago, especially since I haven't touched the yarn that I bought that morning! Nevertheless, that doesn't mean that I shouldn't have gone out and bought MORE yarn this year, right? =)

Last year I was #40 in line, so this year I was determined to be one of the first 20 into the yarn room (oh, the things we do for yarn). I'm not a morning person at all, but having to get into work at 7 am some mornings recently really served me well, because I made it over there just before 8. I was #15, so there are 14 people who are crazier than I am. =)

I've been on a yarn diet since April 1, but I knew that I'd be going to this sale before that so this is the one exception until at least the end of June. Maybe that's why I went way over budget!



That's 7 skeins of Green Line DK in a one-of-a-kind colourway, 4 skeins of Lion and Lamb in Pine, and Shepherd Sock in Montrose and another one-of-a-kind (it reminds me of Annie Modesitt's Roadside Gerry). I was really hoping to get some Green Line DK today, so I'm quite happy about that. The Lion and Lamb is a bit of a luxury, and I have no idea what I'm going to do with it, but it's a yarn that I've always loved from afar.



I'm also seriously loving the Montrose colourway.



And now my stash has officially reached ridiculous proportions, and I may need to extend the yarn diet beyond the end of June.

February Lady Sweater

Oh, hello. I guess I haven't posted here in a little while (hangs head in shame). There are a couple of reasons (excuses), the first being that I haven't really been knitting much in the past few months, and the second is that my computer was dying a slow death such that tasks like uploading photos was too much for him and made him heat up and have his fan go into overdrive.

Alas, dear Melvin is now no more, and I've been slowly setting up a new machine (Melvin II), so I thought I'd finally post photos of a sweater that I've had finished since January.

This is the February Lady Sweater (Ravelry link) that everyone and their mother has been knitting, it's really an easy knit and makes a garment that looks flattering on just about everyone.



The buttons came from Bettiegee's vast button collection, I think it looks really good with the garter stitch (please excuse my unhealthy-looking hair in the corner there).



The yarn is Beaverslide worsted, which people have raved about with good reason. It's a wonderful yarn to knit with, and I am tempted to buy several more sweaters' worth to stash away. Not that I need more stash (really, I don't). But we need to support businesses we love in these hard economic times, right? =)

I've worn this sweater several times now, which makes it the 3rd sweater I've knit that I actually wear out in public. I think I'm slowly getting better at this whole "making garments" thing.

I also knit a good chunk (the lace parts) of a second Lady Sweater for Bettiegee of the buttons, using Lorna's Laces Green Line....dk or worsted, I can't remember. However I neglected to take any photos, so just imagine a second, pink version of the same sweater. =) The Lorna's yarn was really nice to work with, maybe I'll be able to snag some for myself at this year's Lorna's Laces tour and sale.