Monday, Monday!

Here is a pic to brighten up your Monday!

It was a Heath Ledger weekend for me, which meant not a ton of knitting. I’m only 3 inches in on Dimple 2, but it’s progress and it is a quick knit so I’m aiming for another FO Friday this week…

Okay, back to this brightly colored photo. I gathered some fun colored Cascade 220 to add to my stash before Christmas in order to make some fun and fanciful accessories to go with my new parka that arrived just before the holidays. It’s been rather mild since our cold snap in early December that prompted me to get off my duff and place the order for the coat, though I have been wearing it with my handspun earflap hat and some polar fleece rust colored mittens at night. I am somewhat fortunate I haven’t had to make day time appearances with such wrongly colored mitterns, LOL!

I procured some of this from Woolen Treasures and some from Bo Peep’s Wool Shop end of year sale. Actually, the bright blue/green and the brightest pink were from Bo Peep’s and ended up being much more bright than I was going for. Though such is the risk when ordering via on-line color cards. That means I have more of it than I think I’ll need. I think they’ll make great accents, but they likely won’t make up the majority of any of the accessories.

Also purchased when I bought the other colors at Woolen Treasures was 45 Fine and Fanciful Hats to Knit by Anna Zilboorg. I am thinking of doing a brightly colored tam. In fact, I was planning the same one as Theresa made in November, but decided I didn’t have quite enough value contrast to pull it off. Then, I designed my own, but it will need tweaking as I forgot that the last 5-6 rounds of the straight section actually appear on the top of the tam. I love the book. I’m not positive that I’ll necessarily knit any of the patterns directly, but it is full of inspiration and insight via the charts. I also enjoy how the charts use symbols rather than color coding - it makes it much easier to make the patterns your own via your color choices.

I think the heathered blue/green may become a Wavy. And, I keep waffling between thrummed mittens and colorwork mittens. Of course, I’m sure I have enough yarn to do both which will probably be what eventually happens. Then left overs will likely become some sort of felted bag/purse as well. There is nothing like adding some wonderfully bright colors to a cold and sometimes dreary season! I’m open to pattern suggestions though, so leave me links to your favorite scarf, mitten, and hat patterns that call for worsted weight yarn and would look good in these bright colors.

Don’t worry, I haven’t broke my resolution for this month and cast on for anything. This is all just planning and thinking! I have Dimple and my second Mitten from Halland to finish first!

Goodies!

*Finally* Amanda and I got to see each other. With travel for SOAR and the holidays and my getting sick two weeks ago we hadn’t seen each other since the night before she left for SOAR in early November. She brought me back goodies too!

On the left is Socks that Rock (yes, I’m finally part of the cool kids with just the right yarn, LOL!) in Iolite. This was a fortunate thing for me, as Amanda and Margene‘s yarn choices for Snow overlapped and this was a doubled colorway so I was given the option to give it a home in my stash. And, as luck would have it these should blend wonderfully into my wardrobe once they grow up into socks! Wheeeee! Thank you!

Now that I went and looked at their colorways I have several others I’m coveting. Jewel of the Nile, Pebbles, Sandstone, Jade, Flourite, Cobalt Bloom… *sigh*

Then, the packet on the right has had me drooling since about 6:10pm last night… It’s a sampler of silk hankies from Treenway Silks. The colors are great and I *loved* spinning the silk from the bell in the spinning class in August. I can’t wait to play with this and then dream up something to do with it once it is spun.

Last night was also the first night this month that both Snow and I made it on the same night. Miraculously the universe has not started spiralling inward towards a black hole (at least not that I’ve heard so far). Yeah! It was kind of nice having just the hard core regulars there last night. Ashley’s fair isle cardigan is going to be gorgeous! She’s on a sleeve so it won’t be too much longer! And Linsey is getting close to starting sleeves on her gorgous orange Manos sweater for her hubby. *swoon*

I have progress to report on Grandma’s Albert Seaman Scarf, but that shall wait until tomorrow. I’m trying really hard to not cast on for the second Mitten from Halland, but I’m guessing I’ll cave before Saturday. While I’m making good progress on Grandma’s scarf, because it is mohair and it’s hard to see stitches clearly it just isn’t a visiting sort of project and I shall need a visiting project for the knitting tea. While I would love to report a finished scarf before Saturday I just don’t see it happening amongst work and preparations for the tea. That said, I’m coming into the home stretch enough I don’t think I’ll be in danger of casting aside the scarf in favor of exclusive knitting on the mitten. Wish me luck!

Stash Expansion!

Well, okay, not really. But it is still fibery goodness that arrived in the mail…

First up, I got this a couple of weeks ago. It’s 1-lb of Romeldale/CVM roving from The White Barn Farm in Michigan. I haven’t spun with it yet, but it feels great and what I’ve looked at appears to be nice and even and CLEAN. And, it’s a yummy oatmeal color and was shipped in an oatmeal box! DH gets a big kick out that. I’m thinking fraternal hats and scarfs and perhaps fingerless mitts (if there is enough to make through man sized of all of those) DH and I that go with our barn coats. Fitting, huh? :-)

Then, last night DH brought in a box from KnitPicks! My first ever KnitPicks order has arrived. I can’t really call it much of a stash expansion though seeing as it contained mostly color cards. I did pick up a couple balls of their new solid color sock yarn, Essential (in the color Fawn) and the Kimono Styled Sweater pattern. Having not knit it yet I can’t say too much about the pattern though the directions seemed pretty clear on the read through. My only complaint would be the lack of a diagram. As someone who often has to fuss with the fit diagrams are good friends of mine and I’d rather not have to figure it out on my own… But, I will…

There were five other skeins of yarn in there that I can’t speak of. Well, except to say that most of those won’t be in my house for long and that I won’t be able to show off pictures of them and what they grow up to be until after the holidays :-( But I shall share them as it becomes safe to do so.

Who is going to see Harry Potter on Friday? DH is going to the midnight show and then we’re both going to the 10:30am matinee on Friday morning! He’ll be there twice in less than 12 hours - that’s pretty crazy!

Saturday’s Splurge!

On Saturday we had tickets to the matinee of Little Shop of Horrors at the Orpheum theater in downtown Minneapolis. Not too far away was a shop I had seen advertised in Spin-Off called Creative Fibers. So, we headed out a little early (which was a *very* good thing as we stayed mostly ahead of some really severe thunderstorms) and visited this shop.

I had chosen two fibers for spinning and was looking at the sock yarns while mom was getting help picking out some economy yarn for a baby blanket. She was done and was checking out and to my surprise dad not only bought mom’s yarn and new circular needles (I’m trying to convert her as I think she’ll have less trouble with dropping stitches if she uses circs and grandma’s eyesight isn’t well enough to pick up her stitches anymore if she drops some, but she knits Scottish with a needle resting on her thigh) but he bought the two fibers I had picked out. Mom accused him of paying me to come visit and he said it was for driving mom around and helping with getting groceries and cooking while I’m home…

Anyway, I picked out this Color Me Woop Top in “Earthy.” There is no indication of the wool type. I suspect it is probably a blend of some sort. It is 8 oz and the colors are right up my alley for fall weather which I know will be on it’s way before I know it, despite the 110+ degree temperatures in Colorado last week.

Then, they had a luscious blend of 70/20/10 Merino/Silk/Angora that I couldn’t resist. I got 4 oz thinking I’ll perhaps make a scarf from it. It feels wonderful against the skin! *drool.* Of course I think I will fall prey to letting it age until I feel I can do it justice though… But, then again perhaps not. I think it might work quite nicely on my new Cascade spindle…

I really wish there was some way to show you how soft this is!

Then, I bought myself some yarn. For more socks, of course…

I love the colors of these. It’ll be a bit more of a departure from my wardrobe, but won’t require me to buy new clothes to wear with it. Despite the difference both balls have matching dye lots. I’m suspecting one was wound in the other direction, so I’m probably going to want to ball these again on my ball winder whenever I’m ready to knit them.

Then, because of the novelty and the fact that this is a luxury yarn and dyed right in St. Paul, I had to buy these…

The colors remind me of the MN river valley in the fall. The fiber is Chineese Camel (and it’s softer as heck). It comes from Silk Road Northwoods in St. Paul. It was $14.00 per 170 yd skein *gulp* but I was really hoping to find something that I could not readily get at home in Colorado and this was just the ticket. 170 yds will be a bit scant for socks, though it is more of a sport weight. But, I think I should be able to still get a 5 inch cuff or so as long as I don’t use a highly textured stitch. It will probably be the perfect time to make my first toe-up socks :-) But this is the ultimate in souvenier yarn purchases :-)

Now that my sister is home, thus ends the fiber shopping. She would not enjoy driving around the countryside going to yarn and spinning shops, LOL! That’s why we squeezed it all into my first week home. That still leaves several shops to check out in the metro on my next visit home.

I’m also very excited to get mom knitting again. It means when she comes and visits (we’re giving her free airfare to CO at the time of her choice for her 50th birthday - ssshhhhhh) she can come to Stitch ‘n Bitch and meet all the people I’m talking about all the time, LOL!

I probably won’t be writing much more this last week since there will be no shopping. Though I should be finishing my first Flatiron Clog sock soon. I ran out of yarn and am about 2/3 of the way to the toe shaping. I’ll want to have a decent start on the second sock before (whether it is a new Socka sock or the mate to Flatiron) I fly home. I hate trying to start a sock on the airplane or in a movie vehicle of any kind.

All you SnB gals, I’m missing you! We really need to get together that first week of August so I don’t go through full withdrawl symptoms :-)

Friday’s Fiber Goodness…

On Friday mom and I ventured up to New London, MN to go to Uniquely Knit. It’s right in the heart of downtown and is a nice little shop. She had a huge selection of Cascade, Lopi and Brown Sheep and a lot of novelty stuff. The sock yarn selection was kind of sparse, but this is a very small town and the shop is quite small in space so I’m not surprised. But she had shelves from floor to ceiling. They had no spinning stuff, though I expected that from the location and name of the shop. I still made a few purchases…

I of course had to buy some sock yarn from Minnesota so I’d have socks to remind me of the trip. I don’t see Socka around in our area shops at home. I think Lambspun might carry it, but I try not to go there if I can help it. So, I picked this up in the nice dusty greens, blues and neutrals. It has a touch of flash that may or may not be evident from the photo. I think these will fit into my wardrobe seamlessly!

Then, I’ve loved the Lucy Bag since I first saw a photo a loooooong time ago, but I hadn’t noticed this pattern at the shop I mostly frequent back home. So I bought the pattern and the yarn needed to make the largest version…

The yarn is a heathered purple so it has a lot of depth and I think will look really great when felted.

My mom also bought two skeins of Lopi and a coordinating eyelash yarn and a felted bag pattern for our neightbor’s youngest (and best friend of my sister). She’s a relatively new knitter but really enjoys knitting bags and mom fell in love with this bag that was on display and decided to get her the main supplies. It will be up to her to get the proper needles, but I suspect by the purse she was carrying when we gave her the gift that she may have them in her inventory already. We also gave her info on where to see the sample and the shop owner (whom we discovered my mom used to visit with when my dad used to play in raquetball tournaments well after we left the shop) said she’d be more than willing to help her should she need some assitance.

So, that concluded the fibery goodness on Friday.