Wonderful Weekend!

On Saturday I went and got a wonderful new haircut in the morning. It’s not that huge of a change really, but it is such an improvement! I have troublesome hair and Kristen at Buzz & Bliss knew just what to do with it. I was a little worried because when she styled it, it was much too big for my tastes, but after an hour or two it had settled a little. I’ve now styled it a few times and I’m comfortable with it and it even looks passable in a wash and go style too!

After this great haircut I headed to Snow‘s where I was greeted with that gorgeous sparkly gold bag topped with lavender tissue. I was a bit perplexed as my birthday is a month from tomorrow. Well, the wonderful Snow got me some goodies as thank you for designing Blankie II (aka Nautical Blankie)!

The above was what I found inside - 6 skeins of Knit Picks Color Your Own fingering weight yarn and Kathleen Taylor’s Yarns to Dye For. It has me itching to pull out my dye pot again like you wouldn’t believe. But, first I’d like to order some citric acid so I don’t have to use vinegar and perhaps even order some *real* dyes rather than just using the food coloring. I haven’t read the book through yet, but a review will be forthcoming at some point in the future.

Well, I had headed to Snow’s because they invited me along on thier second trek to Boulder in as many weeks to pick up yarn for Nautical Blankie. I was well behaved and walked away from Shuttles, Spindles and Stabbity Sticks (sorry, family joke around here) with only two 16″ US 2 Turbos. It was a bit easier to be restrained when I had been there 10 days earlier and am planning a trip there on my birthday next month with my mom.

It was a rather blustery day on Saturday so we went to Pearl St. and just ate. We decided it was too cold to window shop. But, we did eat at this really great brew pub called BJ’s. We had salads and pizza and it was really good. I’m not the biggest thick crust fan, but that was wonderful thick crust and I shall have to drag the hubby there sometime as he is a thick crust connoisseur. Then we kind of meandered our way back home via Border’s and the Dairy Store. It was a great day and I’m so glad Snow and G so kindly invited me along!

More Stash Expansion

Well, when I went on my own mini yarn crawl last week I came home with a bit more than the red/white/pink stuff that I made the Project Spectrum Wallpaper out of. In fact for the most part these others balls were the ones I was on a mission to get. I lucked out and got three orphans which were marked down significantly. I still had to buy some additional full priced balls, but I got all the colors I needed plus a couple bonus ones I’m pretty sure will get used. This does mean that I have begun swatching for the Nautical Blankie design, though it isn’t too much to see right now.

Then because I’ve fallen in love with Dalegarn I also bought the above. Well, really it was more the need for baby fingering weight cotton yarn to make those lovely Bathtime Blossoms and Dale Stork was used in the pattern and was easily found. There might have been another option there, but I didn’t want to look any further by that point as time was getting tight for me to get home and get Emma fed (she’s got a scheduled stomach that you don’t want to push by more than an hour). Now 100% cotton doesn’t usually like me too well. But, I’m hoping that since these are small projects and it is small yarn that it will agree with me a bit better. I’ve wanted for a long time to knit pretty washcloths as I enjoy making bath products occassionaly to give as gifts - bath bombs, salt scrubs, bath salts, bath oils etc. and it would be really great to say wrap a bath bomb in a pretty washcloth.

We’ll see how it goes. If it goes well, I think I may be on the search for other cotton fingering weight options. I know the other washcloth and soap bag pattern set from Fiber Trends uses a yarn that according to Yarndex is discontinued. So, if you have recommendations of other fingering weight cotton, please let me know! Stork has a pretty wide palette, but most of it still doesn’t appeal to me too much. I’d love some more adult colors - rich, deep colors rather than brights and pastels… Perhaps Laura at Textiles a Mano could hook me up… I suppose I better find out if my hands will survive knitting these first though, huh?

Also in that photo is one of the new Chibi’s with the clear case and the two sizes of needle! That wouldn’t have been my choice in color, but it was all they had so I guess yellow will do…

Sometimes You Just Gotta Go!

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I just need to get out of dodge. Sure, getting out the house helps some, but sometimes you just got to get out on a highway with the radio blaring and the sun beating in through the windshield and drive. Well, Wednesday was one of those days.

Right after water aerobics I hopped in my car and headed down to Loveland where I had lunch with DH at a great tex mex place near his work (it has the bonus that it gets DH some exercise as he walks to/from that restaurant), then I continued on down to Longmont and the knitting shop, Knit One, Purl Too (sorry no web site that I could find). Then I continued on into Boulder to visit Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins as well.

You see, I was on a mission. I’ve been working on a standed colorwork baby blanket to complement the Dalegarn Moons and Stars Blankie that Snow is currently knitting for twins arriving to a good friend this spring. She wanted a similar style and construction but different theme so the blankies are similar in difficulty yet different. Well, during this design process (there is a bit of a trip into my head and a sneak peek of the design, though not in it’s final form, as part of Creation Quotation Thursday this week if you head over there) I came up with a few colorways and we all liked them enough that I’m going to knit mini-blankies (aka swatches complete with borders) in at least one of the other colorways that will not be the full blankie. It will also provide me with something to steek at a group steeking party we will be having later this month. Even though I really need to learn to steek I’m having a tough time settling on mini blanket and instead have all these ideas for cute baby things using the same motifs. But I must resist the urge for now. Well, all this was to say I was on a mission for some specific colors of Baby Ull.

Knit One, Purl Too had a nice selection of classic yarns, though it seems that she did have a full line of colors in any of her yarns (a bit of a problem if you want to do stranded knitting). In Baby Ull she had only yellows, pinks, a bit of peach, and a bunch of brown. Since I’ve had about 25 other baby blanket/baby item themes running through my head and it is March, the month of pink and red, I opted to pick up three balls of varying shades of pink yarn. These might end up being socks, I’m not sure yet. I’m guessing I won’t get to them or much more of them than casting on in March, but at least I now have some Project Spectrum colors in my stash. I added a red and a white from Shuttles (as well as some others that I’ll share with you next week) and arrived at this very Project Spectrum photo.

Click for a large version suitable for use as desktop wallpaper!

I Went to Stitches West! (or not)

and all I got was this gorgeous 3 oz of silk hankies…

Okay, so truth be told, if I actually went to Stitches West I’d be sure to have bought much more than 3 ounces of silk hankies. However, this was much easier on the budget and the body.

The wonderful (and frequent traveler for work) Amanda brought these back for me from Stitches West upon my request for semi-solid silk hankies from Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks. She did an amazing job of color choice (these are Mendicino Hedges). Enough color difference to make a nice rich and deep yarn, but subtle enough to not be garish or to barber pole too bad when plied etc. I’m so excited to work with these as I loved spinning from a bell in our spinning class with Maggie Casey at Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins. I’m guessing this will grow up to be a shawl of some sort at some time. But for now I’m perfectly in love with gazing upon the gorgeous things in their hankie state (which is a good thing seeing as how I have 101 things that need doing THIS WEEK).

Of Yarn and Socks

I spent quite a bit of time in Woolen Treasures yesterday trying to pick out the best yarn for DH’s socks. We talked over lunch at Henry’s what colors were and were not acceptable. I was hoping for a nice heathered gray or oatmeal, but DH had said an orange/rust as well as most shades of green, tan, or gray would be acceptable, but nothing too bright. Well, I have alterior motives for knitting the exact same pattern immediately after completing a pair and that is to have a pair that is more photographable.

See, No-No Kitty Yarns has closed their doors, so my sample sock that I’d normally use for photography for the pattern uses yarn that is no longer available. And, that yarn is rather busy (but lots of fun) and kind of obscures the knitting pattern. But, because of this need to be able to better photograph the next pair I needed a light to medium color - no evergreen or charcoal gray or even a deep rust.

If I didn’t find any heathers in the DK weight I was hoping for something kettle dyed so there would be some variation in depth of color throughout the skein for some knitting interest, but that didn’t work either. I thought the Araucania Nature Wool would be nice, but I’m thinking they perhaps are not carrying it any longer. I know it’s labeled as a worsted, but I think it’s pretty light for a worsted so I thought it would probably work for DH’s socks. But, I ended up bringing home three balls of the Lana Grossa Cool Wool Merino Big. It feels much like a larger version of KPPPM, very tightly spun/plied and very springy. I have some gray reinforcing yarn I’ll use on the heels and toes (and I have better remember to use it this time) so I think it’ll wear pretty well and if it doesn’t it will likely have taken me just a little over a week to knit the pair once I knit them so it isn’t like I’m out a ton of time. And, even though they are solid colored, it’ll be fun to knit just because of the bright color. It also is almost a dead ringer for DH’s “terracotta” chinos he got from L.L. Bean this summer.

One thing I’m learning about “Mating Month” is that is doesn’t give you a ton of blog fodder. You’re being monogamous to one project, and one project that every one has seen take shape previously… But, despite the repetition, I’ll present you with what should be the final in-progress photo of Dimple Socks #1… I completed the heel flap, heel turn, gusset and a fair section of the instep yesterday! I should be done tonight as predicted yesterday. Though I’m getting antsy about having enough yarn. I know it’ll be *very* close, close enought that if I run out it’ll probably be part way through the toe decreases so I’ll probably just tip the second toe with some black yarn.

I think I’ll stop at Textiles A Mano this afternoon. It’s one of those crazy days with water aerobics this morning until 11am and then voice lessons in the mid afternoon. I’ll be back over to this side of town around 4pm or so and will probably just stop there until DH is on his way home from work. I think I like the gathering of people that end up there at the end of the night better, but it’ll be good just to be out of the house and interacting with people for a little bit and sometimes when I’m there at that time of day I get to see some people whom I used to see at another LYS that I don’t usually frequent these days who are also spinners. So, it’ll all be good!