Parades and UFO's

What a wonderful weekend I've had. I'll tell you all about it, but first there is a parade coming by. A SOCK YARN parade-the best kind. I don't really know what inspired me to do it, but here is all my sock yarn, snuggled up together. If you've been following my blog you know my recent obsession with socks-so addicting! Buying sock yarn is almost as much fun as the knitting
sock is. So, from left to right, top row: Hand-dyed sock yarn from Dani in the Neopolitan colorway, Lana Grossa self-striping sock yarn in black, grey, and white-destined to be socks for my husband, Regia self-striping cotton in the Sand colorway, Knit Picks Simple Stripes (2 balls) in the Vineyard colorway. Bottom row: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn in the Vera colorway, Knitpicks sock yarn (can't remember the kind or colorway-oops), and 2 balls of Artyarns Supermerino in colorway #134 . The last one is my new favorite, just in time for April's colors, it reminds me of sunshine. It's a varigated yarn in worsted weight, so it will make some heavy socks, but I love the color-couldn't pass it up. Since we're on the subject of yellows and oranges, check out my new pajamas:

It's Project Spectrum PJ's! I didn't buy these specifically for the PS or anything, but they're new and I realized they are perfect for April! Man, oh, man are they comfy too! Since we're on a yellow kick, may I present my dad's new toy:

That's a 2006 Dodge Charger Limited Edition. He has #3993 out of only 4000 made. I wish I could tell you more car stats like horsepower and whatnot, but I'm just a knitty girl, I have no clue about that stuff. I can tell you it's 4-door, leather seats, and it has a moon roof. So, what did I do this weekend you ask? What do I do every weekend that I'm off? Buy more yarn!Beth and I went yarn-store hopping again. This time we started in Raphine, VA (halfway between Lexington and Staunton) and Orchardside Yarn Shop. They have an outstanding selection and the staff was very friendly and knowledgeable. I found a plethera of back issues of knitting magazines-I was tempted to buy them all, but I restrained and only bought 2 old ones and the current Vogue Knitting. I FINALLY found the back issue of VK that I've been searching for-Spring/Summer 2004 (furthest mag to the right). I want to make the strappy tank on the cover, so I also bought the yarn to make it. That store was our only scheduled stop of the day but our yarn appetites had been whetted, and we were lusting for more yarn. So, on to Harrisonburg we went. We found a fairly new shop in H'burg called Knit Works that is my favorite store to date. It was large and bright, had walls and walls of yarn, and a super-friendly staff. Beth found a sample purse she loved but the owner hadn't drawn up the pattern yet. She didn't have the time to write it down for us, but she got Beth's address and said she'd mail her the pattern. When we walked in the door I glimpsed a book display on the counter and beelined for it. What did I find but none other than the Yarn Harlot's newest book, "Knitting Rules!". I didn't even know it was out yet, so I snapped it up, then browsed the sock yarn, settling on the black and white stripes for Doug's socks. The third and final shop was Rocktown Yarns on Water Street (near the courthouse) where I found the sunshine sock yarn. I wish I could motivate myself to spend as much time knitting as I do shopping for sock yarn. I just can't seem to resist getting my hands on more and more beautiful yarn. I need to go through the stash and really see what I have, it's a bit out of control.

Lastly, we have a UFO parade/sighting. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, UFO means unfinished object in the knitting world. I have UFO's a plenty. A few days ago I joined the Lent-a-long which in theory is supposed to encourage you to work on your WIP's (works in progress) and not buy more yarn until you've finished up a few things. We can see how well that not-buying thing went for me so far, so to balance it out I'm going to try to at least work on some of these. I realize that putting these out there on blogland for all to see I am opening myself up to all sorts of criticism and toungue-clucking if I decide to cast-on for a new project, but that's just something I need to face. I need to own up to the fact that I am awful at finishing things, so here goes.

First up, a sweater back from a feeble attempt at making my mom a sweater. I can't remember what holiday this was supposed to be a present for. Christmas, I think? Anyhoo, the yarn is LB Thick & Quick and it was a super-quick knit, but I miss-crossed the cable in two places and forgot some increases so I got discouraged and put in on a back-burner. The blue thing is the very beginning of a baby cardigan for my friend Lida who is due May 24th. She knows about the sweater, picked out the yarn and everything, so I really need to get cracking on it. It is a size 6-month, so I technically have until about Oct to finish it, but it'd be good to have it ready to go before the baby shower.Next you have a rainbow ripple blanket. I actually got pretty far on that one before I put it aside. Wanna know why? It's crochet. No, I'm not saying I like crochet better than knitting, quite the opposite. My point is, when knitting first started becoming "hip" again, I wanted to learn but had no one to teach me. In frustration I decided to pick up crochet again and went to town. This was all the yarn I had at the time (wow, remember when.....) and it was the only craft I had (my, how things have changed). About mid-way through the blanket I bought a teach-yourself-to-knit book and some needles and things have never been the same since. Sorry little crochet hook, someday you will feel the love again. The thing at the top is a little too small to see, so here's a better pic:This really isn't anything in particular, so I don't feel that bad about it not being done yet. I decided, after teaching myself to do nothing but stockinette and garter stitch for a while, that I needed to learn to cable. I had this yarn sitting around and just cast on and started going. The yarn is really pretty, white with a tiny sparkle running through it, it reminds me of fresh snow. I've thought about turning this into a stole, or a sweater, or something, but for now it's just my giant cable swatch. Last, but certainly not least:One day this will be a sweater for my husband. It's "Jesse's Flames" from Stitch'n'Bitch Nation by Debbie Stoller. I made great progress on the front and back, but then I got started on the flames and wow, intarsia is hard! I had done intarsia once before (I'll put a pic of that sweater on someday) but for some reason this was much more challenging. I got about 12 rows into the first flame and put it down. I bragged a lot about this sweater as I was making the front and back and how cool it was going to be with the flames, and as a result whenever people at work see me knitting they ask about this sweater. It's such an embarrasing reminder, so I think I will try to finish it up soon so I can finally reply "It's done!" when they ask.

Whew! What a long post. When I was getting those UFO's out, Doug kept saying, "I remember that one, I'd forgotten about it", etc. Kinda bad that these things have been sitting around long enough to be forgotten about. Eeek! Maybe by the next time I post I can show you a finished object, although it will probably only be my almost-completed Neopolitan socks.