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. =)

I can see why these things are addictive

Say hello to my new buddy. He has no name was of yet, but I'm still thinking of one. I suppose one could argue that this little octopus could be female, but I get the distinct feeling that it's male.

Here he is gazing wistfully out the little window by my front door.


I embroidered his eyes on, but decided that next time I'm going to use safety eyes instead. It was a pain to do the embroidery.

Lorna's Laces Sale (again)

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.