So, how was everyone's holidays? Right now, we're in Ottawa, enjoying time with Jamie's family. Andrew's been having a ball with his grandparents, and uncles & aunties. Since he's nice and occupied most of the time, I'm going to use this opportunity to update the blog a little. I've got a few FOs to talk about, so let's get to it!
Pattern: Mary Jane Booties by Sublime Yarns
Yarn: Sublime Extra Fine Merino DK
Needles: US4
I made these for my friend Becky's new daughter. These were pretty fun to make, and I really wanted to make some cute baby booties at some point in time, but those aren't really on the menu for Andrew. Again, the pattern wasn't very well written, but worked out pretty well in the end.
Next up is a little something for myself.
Pattern: Angee Socks from Sock Innovation by Cookie A.
Yarn: Koigu KPPPM
Needles: US2
I've been working on these for a while - just over a whole year! I finished the first pretty quickly, and then fell victim to the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome. This pair was finished on the ride up to Ottawa. Cookie A. always seems to have fun patterns, and Angee was no exception. I made a mistake and increased the heel every row instead of every other row, but it actually made for a really good fit. The socks are SO comfortable, and really reminded me why I love hand-knit socks.
I also got some crafty stuff from Jamie's siblings for Christmas, and I can't wait to make some of the projects!
This trip to Ottawa has been really productive from a crafter's point of view. For Boxing Day, we popped into a Michaels, and I managed to procure some new yarn.
This was a real steal for less than $8.99 a skein. There's over 450m in one of those suckers! I originally picked up 3; the sticker price was $12.99 and didn't feel like much of a savings. But then we went to pay, and I was surprised to see what they rung up. I even got 25% off the whole thing. So, I went back for 2 more skeins. I'm thinking of making a nice, cable sweater; still debating if the sweater should be for me, or for the hubby.
Hope everyone had a great holidays, and here's looking forward to an awesome 2011!
Sorry for the lack of posting! Things have been pretty busy, and I have to admit that knitting has kinda fallen to the wayside. I'm still working on a baby blanket for a friend, but I really don't think it'll be ready by the time she has her baby. Oh well. We'll keep plugging away at it. Might take pictures of it someday.
However, this post is about something else completely. As a reward to myself for finishing up a pretty major (non-knitting) project, I went to Lettuce Knit for some goodies.
First up, some lovely sock yarn.
Koigu is always a crowd-pleaser.
I really liked the sparkly bits in this Dream in Color Starry.
And lastly, some lovely Dream in Color Classy.
The sock yarn is actually going to be for socks. The Classy is going to be for something else, which I'll likely write about soon.
Remember way back when I ranted about losing some socks and patterns? Well, almost 2 years after losing it, guess what I found?
Tah dah! The pattern that I couldn't find no matter where I looked! Haha! Funny how things pop out of the wood work!
Lastly, and this will probably only interest Adrienne, but I'm gonna write about it anyway. Did any of you happen to notice the unfamiliar piece of furniture that I've been photographing all my new stash on? It's something that arrived at our house just last month after a lot of heel dragging on my part.
Yup, the Chang family piano has now arrived at the Chang-Wells home. I was really excited about it, and have actually played it a few times since it's gotten here. Jamie tells me that it's possible to hear it a bit on the outside, so I'm a little self conscious about playing now. I'm so out of practice that I actually want to start out by playing scales and exercises again, and that'll probably be really boring for other people to listen to. Oh well.
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!
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.
Yay! I've finished something! After a long, long time, I finally finished my toe socks! And this marks the last set of socks I will make on size 0 needles. Adrienne, I'm sending those needles your way. You're okay with bamboo, right?
With the finishing of something, it heralds the desire to start something new. Even though I'm not really suppose to be enhancing my stash right now, I really wanted to start on some new mittens. My current mittens are getting kinda old, and the thrums inside are thinning out and getting matted down, and hence not very warm any more. And so...
Starting from the left are three skeins of Cascade 220, which are slated to become Fiddlehead Mittens. The two skeins of alpaca are going to be the lining for the Fiddleheads. The last two skeins are just some pretty, pretty Koigu that I just wanted - they'll probably become socks. I also got the latest issue of Knitscene.
Why did I feel that it was suddenly okay to buy more yarn? Jamie confessed to me that he bought two books even though we no longer have any bookshelves :)
Did you all get the email about the Webs Silk Garden closeout sale a couple of weeks ago? Did anyone else buy any yarn? Because we (Karen and I) sure did. We didn't go entirely crazy like I'm sure some folks did (did you see how fast it disappeared?), but when I put in the order for 28 skeins I admit to feeling a teensy bit faint despite the fact that the yarn wasn't ALL for me (hey, I'm on a postdoc salary and can't afford to buy too much yarn at once, ok? =P).
I thought maybe the box would be enormous. Turns out, yarn is squishy. Here's the box with an 8-pound cat sitting on top:
The box of yarn balanced on my head:
And the spoils. I won't say who bought which yarn, but that's 3 colourways of Silk Garden, #47, #226, and #247.
The yarn is even prettier in person (top to bottom, #47, #226, #247). I love love LOVE this yarn. If I were stuck on a desert island with only one kind of yarn to knit with, this just might be it.
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.
What, you may ask, is in this compact package for me?
Thanks to the Ravelympics, I 'met' the fantastic Roxanne, proprietress of Zen Yarn Garden. We are both working hard for the Ravelry Team Canada. She was showing off some lovely blue sock yarn that she dyed for one of her events, and I couldn't help but commenting on it, what with blue being my favourite-est colour in the world. And so, she mentioned that she'd be happy to do a custom order for me if I wanted some of it. After cruising her website, I fell in love with the Curvy sweater, and told her that I loved the sweater, but not the pink. And so, she offered to make me a custom kit out of the lovely blue yarn, dubbed Azure.
And so...
MY KIT ARRIVED TODAY!! Can you believe it? Barely 3 days since we messaged back and forth about it! Thanks so much, Roxanne!!
And in other knitting news, I am desperately trying to finish my leaf-pattern scarf before the closing ceremonies finish. I'm not sure if I'm going to make it, but boy have I made loads of progress on this project that I definitely wouldn't have otherwise.
Yet again, Ravelry proves to be quite the enabler of my addiction...
[NOTE: To answer Marie's question to my previous post, BSJ stands for Baby Surprise Jacket. It is so dubbed because, as you knit it, it resembles nothing like a sweater, but at the end you do a little creative folding, and presto! You have a jacket! Surprise!!]
And here is more evidence that Karen is failing at the "I don't plan to buy more yarn" resolution.
This is slated to become Tums, for Jensen's daughter Alyssa.
"Why Karen, with those little buttons there, it's like you bought a kit of some sort." Why, what a fantastic observation you've made! Indeed, that is correct - I bought a kit to make the EZ Baby Surprise Jacket. In order to do that, I had to buy this though.
My first EZ book (^_^) I haven't read any of it yet, but I plan to. Oh, and the size 0 dpns aren't actually necessary, but I thought I'd give these a try for sock knitting in the future. You know, just in case I was wrong about swearing off size 0's.
Lastly, I thought I'd show one of the reasons why I've been so terrible with updating and knitting lately (though this is really only a small reason).
I am now the proud owner of a shiny new MacBook. So, I've been busy over the last month moving stuff over from the old computer to this one. The one laptop will be pressed into my mother's service. Greg and I both felt it was high time that Mom learned how to get use one of these suckers, and with her own, she won't have to worry about messing anything up for someone else. If all else fails, we can wipe the whole thing and start all over. The transition to Mac has been pretty painless, and while I'm not totally sure what the hype is all about, I am very happy with it. Installing peripherals is much easier than on PC, but there are some pieces of software that I used to use a lot that I've had a little trouble finding Mac analogs for. With the help of some friends, I did manage to get all the functionality of the old laptop onto the new one, but it did take a little help hunting the web for software.
One of the perks of being a member of the Windy City Knitting Guild is the privilege of being able to attend their annual Lorna's Laces tour. Not only do you get to see where all the magic happens and see a dyeing demo, but part of the event also included a mill-ends sale. Whee, sale!
The sale started at 10 am, but people got there good and early. Only 20 people were let into the sale at a time (space issues, it's really hard to believe that ALL of Lorna's Laces comes out of a few not-particularly-enormous rooms), so everyone got a number in the order of their arrival. I didn't manage to wake up early enough and got there at 9, so I was #40. To be in the first 20, I would've had to get there around 8, or maybe even earlier.
The sale was....rather overwhelming. While waiting outside for my turn I saw all these people walk out with bags stuffed full of the most beautiful yarn. By the time I made it in there, most of the stuff was pretty picked over and it was hard to find sufficient quantities of colours that I liked (i.e. lots of single sock yarn skeins, argh!). Which was probably a good thing, I went in telling myself I wouldn't spend too much money and I did manage to stick pretty well to my budget.
So, what did I walk away with? 4 skeins of Shepherd Sock in Child's Play and Glenwood, and 3 skeins of Shepherd Worsted in Aslan. I LOVE the Aslan colourway, and the Shepherd Worsted is the softest yarn ever. I have no idea what I'll do with it, perhaps yet another Clapotis?
We also got to see some yarn being dyed in the Lakeview colourway (which I must get some of, since that's where I live after all!), here's a rather bad photo of the yarn on the dyeing table.
And after the yarn is baked and rinsed, all the skeins get hung up to dry.
It was a fun morning, although the weather left much to be desired (cold, rainy). Spring, where the heck are you?
