Things I'm coveting

People who know me know that I'm a total SUCKER when it comes to bags. I just love them, with all their different styles, shapes, and colours. And let's not forget the oh so many possibilities when it comes to pockets, and other organizational goodies.

Here are a couple bags that I think are super cute, and would love to try to see how good they really are at carrying WIPs.

The first is the messenger bag from Jordana Paige. I think it's super awesome because it's specifically designed for knitting - slots for needles, circlets to prevent yarn from tangling, and lots of slots and pockets.

The second is the adorable Lady B from Lexie Barnes. I like the shape of it because it's not your standard tote.

Both are a lot more that I've ever paid for a bag, and considering I have an army of bags in my closet already, it's hard to justify the purchase of yet another one. Plus there are pros and cons to each of them, and I can't be sure what I'll think of it unless I try them out first. The nice thing about the Lady B is that apparently Lettuce Knit sells Lexie Barnes stuff, so I might try popping down there to check it out one day. I think I need to sort through my own bag collection first though; I might be able to use something that I've already got.

Ahh...I'll come out and admit it though...I'm a bag addict!

Christmas knitting in August

Several weeks ago, I made my very first trip out to Webs. Being without a car here in Boston can be really inconvenient sometimes, especially when it comes to missing out on visiting great yarn stores! I have ordered from the Webs website several times, mostly taking advantage of the great closeouts that they often have (who could resist Noro Silk Garden on sale? Or Rowan? Or Alchemy? Or....any of a million other wonderful yarns?), but had never seen the store in person.

Boy do I ever wish that it was my LYS. Not only do they have a wonderful and varied selection of yarns, but their WAREHOUSE in the back was just amazing. We spent about 2 hours there, but could easily have spent several more! One of the many things that I came away with (sorry, I was lazy about photographing the haul, but when I get around to knitting them up I will make a note) was this pattern for a Fair Isle sweater that will become my mom's Christmas present. She tried on a sample in the store and fell in love, and of course I have to knit it since she "can't follow a pattern". Never mind that she's designed and knit several of her own sweaters, as well as clothes for both my sister and I during our childhoods! But really I'm more than happy to do it for her, one of the ways I like to show my love is through knitting. Let's hope that this knit (my first Fair Isle) will be fairly painless! =)

Here is a photo of the pattern. It is a Valley Yarns pattern, and the yarn is Lenox, a lovely alpaca/merino blend.



I've knit part of a sleeve so far:



My gauge is a bit off at this point, it's a bit small even though I went up a needle size and am traditionally a loose knitter (I usually have to go DOWN needle sizes....). The original sweater seemed a bit loose, so we will stick with this gauge for now (although I hope this doesn't come back to bite me in the ass =P). I don't want my mom to be swimming in this sweater!

Tulip finished!

Hooray! Another baby sweater done! This was a really fun knit. Easy pattern, great yarn. I ended up calling Lettuce Knit to ask them if they had any more of that blue that I ran out of, and sure enough I was in luck! They're so nice over there; all I had to do was drop by and they just gave me another little ball.

I took the picture a few days ago, so by now all the ends have been woven in, and it's all set to be given away.

Details:
Yarn: Dream in Color Classy (superwash merino)
Needles: Knit Picks Options - size 5 and 7; bamboo dpns size 5 and 7

Now, on to the next thing! I think I might take a break from baby stuff since my other friends who preggers aren't due for another 5-6 months.

My first shawl

Okay, so the title of this post is a half lie. It's not the first shawl I've ever made, but it is the first shawl that I made for myself. Yup, this one is going to stay in my wardrobe, and not get given to someone as a gift.


It's the Swallowtail Shawl from the Fall 2006 issue of Interweave. I made a bunch of changes to it though. First of all, instead of using a lace weight yarn, I used a sport weight cotton. In fact, it's Shine Sport from Knit Picks in Turquoise. Secondly, because I ran out of yarn just a touch too early, my shawl has a straight edge instead of a wavy one. I actually wasn't a big fan of the finger-like edging, so I'm not really heartbroken.

Here's a close up of the lace.

You can't really see the little bobbles all that well, but they're there. It's supposed to be like little lily-of-the-valley buds.

All in all, a pretty fun knit.

Sockity goodness!

Hey, I knit some socks! I can't even remember when I started these, maybe near the beginning of the year? Anyway, they are finally finished!

The yarn is Sunshine Yarns, in the Wildflowers colourway. I love love LOVE these colours. My gauge was a bit tighter with this yarn than with other sock yarns I've used, so they are a bit snug, but wool is stretchy, right?

So close, yet so far

I was really planning to finish Tulip today, but things just didn't turn out that way. Here's as far as I got to.

First of all, I want to apologize for the horrible quality of the photo. The flash totally bleached out some of the colours. And the reason why I couldn't finish? Well, you see the partially finished sleeve on the right side of the photo? Well, it turned out that I didn't have enough of the light blue yarn in my kit to finish the stripe on that sleeve. So, I have to make a trek to the yarn store to get some more. I'm gonna see if they have any scraps left of it because I really don't want to buy a whole skein of that stuff just to knit 3 more rounds on the sleeve. But I suppose it wouldn't be terrible to have some of that stuff kicking around in my stash.

The border/edging is puckering a little bit strangely at the bottom, but I'm hoping that a little bit of blocking and maybe some ironing will help solve that. I-cord edging is fun!!

I've been knitting a muppet scarf

All knitters know that one of the Very Important things to consider when contemplating moving to a new area is the number and proximity of yarn stores. So when I was in Montana recently, I made a bit of time to drop by a LYS before flying back to Boston. I visited Joseph's Coat, a cute little yarn store in downtown Missoula. They are a small shop, but they have a good selection of yarns as well as rovings and some handpainted yarn. I needed some "souvenir yarn", so I bought 4 ounces of handpainted mohair:



And some Mountain Colors yarn. That's a skein of Bearfoot in the colour "Teal", and some pretty mill ends, I can't even remember what the yarn is, wool of some kind at least. Mountain Colors is based in Corvallis, which is literally 10 minutes away from Hamilton (where I was visiting), but sadly I didn't have enough time to visit their dye workshop:



I made a little muppet-like scarf with the mohair boucle. Held together with some Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride worsted, in the colour periwinkle. The scarf is actually not really my style, but it was a nice mindless knit, which is precisely what I was looking for. =)