I know I'm supposed to be trying to save money to pay for all that grown-up stuff, like the mortgage, but I just can't seem to help myself when it comes to knitting. Since I haven't been posting any photos recently, I thought I'd do that.
This is some Koigu Kersti that I bought about 1.5 months ago. I'm planning to make the 'Sacred and Profane' Mittens from Knit Wit (you'll see when you get your book ^_^). They're best described as convertible mittens. The variagated part is going to be the bottom half, and the solid purple is going to be the top part. However, due to the massive amounts of Christmas knitting that I'm doing, they haven't really progressed farther than this...
Then, I went to Lettuce Knit with my good friend Elaine. She wanted to check out stuff to see if she wanted to get anything. I told her that I really didn't need anything, but wouldn't mind checking things out. She was supposed to remind me not to buy anything. And then it happened...we spotted the 50% off table. At first, I resisted...but after we started walking away from the store I changed my mind and caved. So, I bought these 6 balls of yarn for $27+tax, which is a good deal...but I broke my usual rule of project first, yarn second.
[P.S. Elaine ended up being a 'bad' influence! She helped convince me that I could surely find something to make from it, be it a tank top, or nice scarf. Plus it was the last set of those particular colours, so I felt even more compelled to buy it. o_O Man...I suck....]
Lastly, I bought a new book today. Can you tell that I'm starting to feel the Christmas pressure?
So, all these goodies should definitely keep me busy for the next while!
I hereby declare myself mentally unprepared for winter this year. It is creepy to be working in the lab in the light of the setting sun, then to look over at the clock only to realize "hey, it's only 3:30!" And then today the temps dropped down to just above freezing, and I'm still wearing my fall jacket. Ooops. At least I wore a hat. So in order to prevent my fingers from falling off in the near future, I finally made a start on my Kathmandu Aran mittens. Remember those 2 skeins I bought about a month ago? Here is a closeup of the yarn knitted up, I love the little blue and brown flecks. You can see that the yarn is a little slubby, too. It's really nice to knit with (duh, merino, silk and cashmere??). This is colour 135.
Pics of finished mittens soon, hopefully!
This afternoon I was in Newbury Yarns, showing off an FO and browsing for gift yarn (I am now ALL DONE buying holiday yarn, hooray), when this punk-y looking kid wanders in with his punk-y looking friend. I assumed that their girlfriends or something would follow them in, because isn't that what usually happens, women drag their male companions into a yarn store and make them wait and wait and wait while they pick out yarn? But no, one of the guys wanders purposefully over to a shelf, picks out a skein of Colinette, then asks Aldrich how much the yarn is, and does she have size 13 needles? Turns out this kid is part of a boys knitting group, and is making a scarf for his MOM for Christmas. Awww....how sweet is that?
Wow, it's been a while since anyone has posted! Probably because we are both too busy working on secret Christmas presents and such. =) Anyway, I started a little something for myself on election night, mostly to calm my nerves and give me something to do other than stare at the TV and will the numbers to go the other way. I'm only showing a closeup because I've already knit up one of these things as a gift, and I don't want to give anything away. But I think you can see how the Cherry Tree Hill glitter alpaca knits up, it's very pretty. Can you see the bits of gold glitter?
The only annoying thing about this yarn is that it turned my hands and needles blue. Most of the blue on the needles came off with a little wipedown. My other needles are still red. Sometimes I wish I could knit with metal needles so I wouldn't have this staining problem. Or, that I weren't so anal about these things.
Okay...so this entry only has a teeny little bit to do with knitting, but I just want to complain....tonight, when I was planning to take things easy, I won't be able to do any knitting...grr...I went to give blood today. I thought, 'Yeah, after giving blood, I won't want to do anything particularly strenuous, so I'll just sit at home and knit'. But noooo....I had to have my worst blood donor experience ever....my entire left arm is completely useless right now...I'm not even using it to type right now. They kept adusting, and re-adjusting the damn needle, and now I have a wicked bruise and a good deal of pain at my elbow. And you know how much I'm needle-phobic too....gawd....and the kicker was that they had to stop the donation early, so I didn't even get to make a useful contribution after my trouble. The nurse tried to reassure me that they probably got enough for it to be useful for something, but I have a feeling that she just said that to make me feel better. I think it was a combination of them missing the vein and my low blood pressure that caused my problems. I noticed I was the only one they asked to keep squeezing that wadded up paper ball....ugh...
[not going to use capital letters anymore cuz it's just too much trouble to press and hold shift with one hand]
but in other news, i'm goin to a conference in montreal next week. 5 hour train ride = knitting!!! youpiee!!! je peu trichoter!!! hopefully i'll make all kinds of progress on my xmas gifts. less than 2 months, and I still have 3 projects to finish....yikes!
A while ago my sister requested that I make her a pair of handknit socks. I finally started them earlier this week, using some Lorna's Laces in the Tuscany colourway. I think I can post pictures of these because they aren't a surprise, she pre-approved the yarn ahead of time. But, they will still be considered a birthday/Christmas present. =)
Sometimes when I knit I experience some minor RSI in my right wrist, which is why I normally wear a support glove on that side. But after starting this sock, my left wrist started to hurt too. Yesterday during the day I was experiencing some interesting pangs of pain. It's ok now, and I'm hoping that I just needed to get used to knitting a tight gauge on teeny tiny needles (US1) again. I've never had particularly strong wrists. Have you ever experienced any knitting-related RSI?
OK, since there is literally nothing in the way of WIPs that I can post about, I figured I'd take some pictures of recently purchased yarn. Neither has been definitely earmarked for a specific project in particular (though I have some ideas), they were just too yummy to resist. =)
First, off eBay, some Silk Garden (3 skeins) in the discontinued colour 36. Note the beautiful pink!
I dropped by Newbury Yarns yesterday because I was in the neighborhood. They have a lot more yarn now, and parts of the store are taking on a bit of that yarn store clutter. =) I found some Cherry Tree Hill Glitter Alpaca in yummy colours:
You can't see it in the photo, but there is some gold glitter in the yarn. 99% alpaca, 1% glitter. =P
