I have a deep and abiding love for Noro Silk Garden. In fact, a significant portion of my stash (almost a quarter of it) consists of Silk Garden. I usually only buy it when it's on sale or from eBay, since my budget wouldn't be able to handle buying much of it at full price. Over the past couple of years, I've managed to acquire a few skeins in darker colourways, colourways that fall far outside my usual palette of bright and pretty colours.
Not that I don't like the darker colours, they're just not the first things I'd reach for.
So what to do with these orphan non-girly skeins? How about a manly Noro Striped Scarf?
The only man in my life worth knitting for at present is of course my dad, so I'm thinking that this might make a nice Christmas present for him. The thing is, there are a couple of less-manly sections in the scarf, such as the one right here with the pink and green.
Looking at the scarf as a whole, I think it's plenty manly enough, and it's received positive reviews from at least one man (my coworker who was in the car with me when I finished the scarf on the way home from a conference). I'm posting these photos mostly for the benefit of my mom and sister, who get final say over whether the scarf can be gifted. What do you think?
(This scarf used 2 skeins of colourway 86, 1 skein of 82, and 1 skein of 88)
Hello! I'm back. I think. I have no idea how the entire summer got away from me like that, but here it is October and I haven't touched this blog in 3 months. But just because I haven't been blogging doesn't mean I haven't been knitting! I've worked on a sweater, a vest, some socks, an afghan, a scarf, and have also been doing some super-duper secret knitting. All of which will be revealed in good time.
But before talking about the knitting, how about some stash enhancement? This weekend was Yarn-Con, "Chicago's own yarn-centric exhibition", and I went with two goals in mind. To grab some more Sophie's Toes sock yarn (I made a patchwork scarf out of the yarn here, see also the Rav link), and to get a little project bag from Piddleloop. And that's precisely what I came home with:
See the bag? It's got flying pigs on it!
And the yarn, here's a closeup of the yarn. My camera doesn't come close to capturing all the pretty colours. Those are the American Patchwork (top) and Fall Mums (bottom) colourways (with Sophie cat's toes peeking into the photo), I was standing in the booth for the longest time trying to decide which ones to get.
And here's a little confession. By my reckoning I've knit 19 pairs of socks. I now have enough sock yarn to knit over twice that number. You think I should stop buying the stuff already? I've actually been pretty good lately about staying away, but I've got to support the indie dyers, don't I? =)
Well, it didn't take me long to get back on the knitting band-wagon. I'm out of my slump! I actually wound up doing pretty much everything that all you lovely people suggested to me. I indulged in other hobbies (a little crochet, some cooking, and reading), decided to start a new project, hung out for a little bit with other knitters, and purchased some more yarn. So, thank you, all you wonderful people you.
Here's the project I decided to start -- the Curvy sweater in Zen Yarn Garden's Gemilicious.
I absolutely love the colour. Just looking at it makes me happy. (Oh my gosh! I actually knit something of a gauge swatch!)
And then, a friend of mine from work found out that her best friend is now pregnant, and you all know what that means! Just like that, we were searching for baby blanket patterns for her to try (she's a bit of a novice knitter, but with great potential), and then it was off to Lettuce Knit to look for supplies. Once there, it was impossible for me not to get something. Or a few somethings.
Some Jojoland Rhythm for another EZ BSJ for my pregnant friend who's decided not to find out the baby's gender in advance.
And some happy, orange Koigu for me. I want some fun and flashy socks. The colour in the photo is quite bad since taking photos in the middle of the night proves, again, to be my nemesis. Let me assure you, this yarn is quite a brilliant shade of orange.
Since I'm on the topic of socks, I forgot to mention that back on Sept 24, Laura Chau had a book launch party at Lettuce Knit for her first book. I really wanted to go, but had a rehearsal to go to. That didn't stop me from popping into the store and picking up a copy to support a super awesome knitter.
I lucked out, and Laura was even there to autograph it for me! Exciting! Please forgive the horrible, out of focus photo.
