Long time no post!

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.

It's fat! It's thin! It's still the same piece of yarn!

Last Sunday, I headed over to Lettuce Knit for my first class of Learn to Drop Spindle, taught by the ever funny and charming Denny McMillan. I had a great time playing with the lovely fiber that came in our little kit - so soft and cozy! Granted, it was probably one of the hottest days we've had here in Toronto for a long time, but it was still grand.


This is the lovely Ashford top-whorl spindle that came in our kit. Denny showed us how to use it as a bottom-whorl one, just so we'd have played with it both ways. As you can probably tell from this photo, the thickness of my yarn isn't exactly consistent yet. But you know what they say - practice makes perfect!

Here's a better look at how uneven my yarn is:


I haven't quite got the hang of drafting and spinning at the same time just yet; it really is kinda like patting your head and rubbing your tummy. I'm quite proficient at doing the head/tummy thing, but somehow I can't quite get the hang of draft/spin just yet. I'm wondering just how much of a crime would it be to pre-draft everything that I want to spin with!

A few things

With a few babies just entering the world, I managed to polish off a couple things.

There's the finished Helena for Kim's baby. I think in the future, I might make i-cord ties instead of the flat ones they have in the pattern.

And with Janice's new baby boy, I made a vest. She mentioned to me that vests were really easy to put on Anderson, so I thought I'd make one for Carter.

This is the Owl Baby Vest. I had a fun time knitting this one, but i have to say that the instructions for this needed some interpretation. But it's still a pretty fun little knit.

I'm pretty happy with the way these turned out. Hope the kids they're destined for enjoy them too.

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. =)