Stash Enhancement

Yesterday I went on a "Yarn Crawl" of Richmond with Beth. Here's what I came home with:

I know, I know....much much more than I intended on coming home with. We started with Lettuce Knit, a cute store with a HUGE selection in a stip mall near Stony Point Mall. As we were pulling in to the shopping center I saw girl scouts selling their yummy cookies so we stopped and loaded up. That was the first sign it was going to be a good day. We then walked over to Lettuce Knit and ohmigoodness what a treat-they were in the midst of their semi-annual blowout sale. Up to 40% off some yarns!!! The store was packed and yarn was everywhere! Beth found some pumpkin-colored yarn for 40% off that she'd been wanting and I saw lots of everything I wanted. I settled on getting 10 balls of Elsbeth Lavold Chunky AL-enough to do a simple sweater. I also got a pattern book-Rowan Bigger Picture-based on a sample they had on the wall. I didn't get the yarn (Rowan Big Wool) there because they didn't have enough of the color that I liked, but I will order it online. Next up was The Knitting Basket. It was off of Grove St, kind of downstairs and on the back side of the building. They had a very impressive book and magazine collection (including back issues dating to the early 00's) but their yarn selection was a little lacking compared to Lettuce Knit. They had a sample knit up of the alphabet baby blanket from The Baby Knits Book by Debbie Bliss. I'd seen this knit up at Sweetpea Knits, one of my favorite blogs (see sidebar) and it's so soft. I bought the book. I don't have a particular future baby in mind, but we'll see how long it takes to make. Maybe it could be for my own one day. I didn't buy the yarn for that either, they had a good baby yarn selection, and good prices, I just didn't see this as a project I'd be starting soon. The third store was the Yarn Lounge in Carytown. This was my first visit to Carytown, and I liked it. Very hip shopping area with some cool sidewalk cafes. This shop was very modern, minimal selection but lots of quality stuff. They have lots of great samples to drool over. One caught my eye not so much for the colors but the texture of the yarn. I poured over patterns for quite a while trying to find the pattern that was the excuse to buy the yarn. I finally found it. I can't even begin to describe how soft this yarn is.

It's a cashmere/merino blend. I'd never heard of the brand before (RYC) but they had a great selection of yarns, mostly DK and 4-ply, with one aran-weight. I was debating between this and a striped v-neck sweater but I decided on this for a few reasons: 1) I'm still working on the last sweater I attempted 2)said sweater was all stockinette and rib and soooo boring after a few inches 3) see the beads? see the lace? different, challenging, the makings of something to keep me interested and finally, 4) smaller project=less time till I can start something new. Plus, it's PINK so I can start it for Project Spectrum. I've made a decision that I'm not doing anything else (except start those socks, whoops) until Tubey is finished. Speaking of, here is the current state of Tubey:

She is SO close to being finished. About 5 more inches. I *hope* to finish her today. It's hard to get motivated to knit a 100% alpaca sweater when it's 70 degrees outside, but that's what I get for procrastinating. The last store we went to was one we had visited before, Got Yarn in Midlothian. Beth needed to get another ball of alpaca (the same yarn from the nose ring incident) to complete her scarf. I couldn't leave a yarn store empty handed so I was browsing the sock yarn (*note-the previous three yarn stores didn't have a very good selection of sock yarn-the only one that could even begin to say they had sock yarn was the knitting basket but their color selection didn't do anything for me). I found Lorna's Lace in a beautiful colorway that reminds me of a rose garden-deep greens and bold pinks. Perfect! Another pink-ish yarn that can count for Project Spectrum (March is 80 days long, right?). I was browsing the store to see if they had anything new and we found a sample sweater vest knit up in the very same sparkly yarn that I bought the last time we went yarn-hunting. It was gorgeous and had such beautiful drape. The lady showed us the book she used to compute the pattern, and I got it. The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns-you can plug in what guage your yarn is, your size and what you want to make and get a pattern for basically everything. I am going to make a sweater-vest sort of thing, but with a cowl-neck so it wil be just a sleeveless sweatery thing. So that was our day, interspersed with a few Starbucks stops, some knitting in public, and people-watching. I'll leave you with the sock(s) I started a few days ago in the lovely Neopolitan colorway. So far so good, but we'll see what happens when I get to the heel flap.

Michigan is COLD!

Greetings from Virginia-we're back! Our trip to Michigan was full of food, family, and fun. I felt like I needed a flow chart to keep who was who straight. My husband's grandfather is really neat. He is a metalcrafter and has done amazing things over the years, including a centerpiece for their local university. Out behind their house he has a barn where he does all his work, called the Golden Anvil. See all that snow? That was what we woke up to Monday morning. Grandpa really gets the "crafty" thing. He was explaining to me how he always had to have something productive to do, so he'd feel like he was accomplishing something. He also said that he liked being in his barn more on the days when the weather was bad-it's comforting. I totally get that. There is nothing better on a rainy day than a nice ball of wool, needles, and something hot to drink. I had a good time in Michigan, but I'm glad to be home. (Hello, it was like 60-something degrees today!) In knitting knews (hee, hee), I worked a LOT on Tubey, but it's still not done. I'll spare you another sleeves and a half-finished body picture. I tried to start knitting socks, but it was too much to try to figure out while visiting with everyone, so I put it away. I did find a cute yarn shop while in Michigan and picked up some Regia self-striping sock yarn in sand colors. So far for Pink Month I haven't picked up anything pink to work on! I'll get there though. I'm suffering from a bit of Olympic Whiplash-I worked on my PS Postcard tonight and didn't have a single urge for knitting. I'm going yarn shop hunting around Richmond this weekend with Beth so maybe I'll pick up something gorgeous and pink while out. If you are my Postcard swap buddy, look no further! Ok, I think the coast is clear. I finished the postcard and here are the final results. On the front of the card I used actual thread and really stitched the Project Spectrum title into it. I've never done that before and was pretty impressed with the way that turned out, even if it is a little uneven. As for the rest of the cover.......eh. I wasn't super excited about it. Don't get me wrong, I like how it came out, but not my best work. The inside however, I love. I lined the inside of the card with a marbled pink paper, then used a punch to punch out the hearts. I then made a list of all the things I like that either have red/pink in the name, feature red/pink, or are colored red/pink. I hope my pal likes it and I can't wait to see hers!

March is Pink Month!

Yay, today is March 1st which means I can officially start something pink and un-Tubey and not feel guilty about it. Why, you ask? Because today is the official first day of Pink and Red month for Project Spectrum. I think I'm going to follow Lolly's lead on letting socks be a primary focus. I've never made socks, so we'll see how I feel about my first pair, but I'm super-excited about the prospect of them. I really like the Broadripple pattern from Knitty.com, but I think that might be a little complicated for my very first socks, so I might just do a straight stockinette or rib pattern. I'm still knitting away on Tubey (ugh), although thankfully I'm not suffering any alpaca/nose ring related problems like my pal Beth (see comments from last post). Tee-hee! Maybe I should will the alpaca-gods to continue to torment her nose ring so I can reap the benefits-that yarn is gorgeous! Just kidding, Beth. Even though what I want to do now is toss Tubey aside and cast on for yummy Neopolitan socks, I will stay on course. I'm about to do the brown stripe across the boobies, and then it's just miles and miles of ribbing left. Perfect for a long car ride where setting down DPN's at rest stops could prove devastating. Other exciting news? I was a winner selected at random for a Team First Sweater prize. I think it's some hand-dyed LB wool. If LB=Lion Brand, cool, I like (most) of their stuff. Hand-dyed is always amazingl too. I couldn't find a pic, so I'm not sure of the colors, but I will post a pic as soon as I get it. The Yarn Harlot announced on her blog that she is going to enter everyone into the prize drawing who participated in the Knitting Olympics-even if you didn't finish, and even if you didn't sign up online. All you have to do is send an email to gold2006ATyarnharlotDOTca and she will enter you. (It's an auto-response system, so you don't have to really say anything.) She hasn't revealed what the prize(s) will be yet, but based on the last ones she sent out you can bet they'll be awesome! I'll be keeping my fingers, eyes, and knitting needles crossed in the hopes I get a Harlot prize!

It's over

As you may have already guessed, I didn't finish. I tried, got distracted, tried some more, but no sweater for me. I'm still going to press on, just so you know. This isn't the last you'll see of Tubey. I'm taking a road trip on Friday to Michigan and I will be working on it non-stop up until then and in the car. Plus, once I finish this thing I'm never taking it off. I will wear it forever and ever and ever and ever. Me and my Tubey. In a last ditch effort to save face for the olympics I bought some Turbos yesterday. I thought the magic speed those needles bring would continue to knit my Tubey as I slept, but when I woke up it was the same size as when I went to bed. (I must write a letter to the company.....) Even though this sweater didn't exactly go according to plan I have 3 other sweaters lined up that I want to make because now I know I can do it. (well, I at least know I can start it and get halfway there) If any of you have seen the latest Cast On magazine, check out the cardigan that's cream, brown, and sage in color-YUM! There's also a poinsetta-themed sweater that I think would be just adorable for Christmas that I found in Knitting magazine. And last but not least, just to jump on the bandwagon, I've got plans to make the Hourglass sweater that is all over everyone's blogs. I actually bought the yarn for that one-Knitpicks Andean Silk Twist in Pumpkin. Great fall colors. Speaking of yarn purchases----you didn't actually think I went into TWO yarn stores yesterday and came out empty handed, did you? Yesterday Beth and I went to Richmond for shopping (yes I knit the whole way there and back) and to check out a couple of yarn stores. First stop was Got Yarn? in Midlothian. Small store, but great selection. I picked up a sock book penned by Edie Eckman, a Virginian designer that I met at the Knit-Out the past October. Beth got some super-soft, super-chunky stuff in a great color blue to make cabled scarf #2. (In case you were wondering, she did finish her Olympic goal-I'll post a picture soon.) Unravled, Inc. was the second store in Richmond we visited. Smaller store, smaller selection, but yummy yummy yarn. They also had a great selection of back issues of magazines. Beth and I each picked up a skein of this stuff. That's yarn that is hand-spun and hand-dyed by Blue Heron Yarns out of Easton, Maryland. I love a good story. This company started as just one woman spinning and dyeing her own yarn and selling it locally. Her one-woman operation slowly snowballed and now it's a small company that's doing well. The pictures really don't do this yarn justice. My colorway is called cactus and is mostly greens with hints of blue and purple and tiny fleck of gold all throughout. Beth got a skein that is all blues-ranging from dark navy to light blue with hints of purple and more obvious flecks of gold. Both are gorgeous. It's heavier than sportweight, but not quite worsted weight, and oh-so-soft. Sorry the close-up is so blurry, but it's truer to the colors of the yarn. I don't know what to do with it. I bought a pattern (picture below) for a cute lacey poncho. I was also thinking of a shawl pattern, like maybe the flower basket shawl that Carrieoke did, or maybe a Clapotis from Knitty.com. Anyone have any suggestions? I want whatever I do to really showcase the yarn. I have 550 yards, no more, no less. The ball band (well, it's not really a ball band, but you know what I mean) doesn't have a guage on it, but it does recommend size US 7 needles. Unravled is having a trunk show of this yarn the weekend of April 1st if anyone is interested. I might try to go. Oh! Almost forgot! One more thing. To anyone who was competing on Team First Sweater: congrats if you finished! Great job! To those of you who did not, I have a prize for you. "What's this?" you're thinking, "I didn't finish-surely there is no prize for me!". I haven't met too many knitters who were crazy about fun fur and all eyelashy sort of yarns. Last year I made a ton of them, most of which ended up in Italy-that's another story-but I'm left with a ton of eyelash yarn that I don't plan on using anytime soon. Simply competing in the Knitting Olympics is pretty cool, choosing an object like a sweater to complete is pretty outstanding, even if you didn't finish, and I think we all deserve a prize. However, we didn't finish, so we don't deserve the really cool stuff like the handspun, hand-dyed laceweight yummylicious yarn. C'mon, save that stuff for the gold medalists. But we all accomplished something here, so to those of you who didn't finish your sweaters shoot me an email (knittykarenAThotmailDOTcom) with your snail mail address and I will award you with your Olympic bronze medal=eyelash yarn.
Whew! I can't believe the Olympics are finally over! I can't tell you how relieved my husband is that now I won't have an excuse to not pitch in with the chores. He's been doing a great job without me, but the pile of dishes in the sink is rallying with the pile of dirty clothes and I think I heard something about mutiny, so if you'll excuse me I must put an end to that.

I think I can....

Sooooo close to finishing the first sleeve. I'd really like to deny myself bedtime until that cuff is done, but I don't think work would be too forgiving of me falling asleep on the job tomorrow. I'm off this weekend, so hopefully that will result in lots of knitting time before the closing ceremonies. On Saturday I'm going on a shopping adventure with Beth (of the just-finished-her-cable-scarf-ha-ha fame). Thankfully, she is driving, out of respect for my need to knit like a speed demon. We are going to go check out some yarn stores in Richmond. I'm so tired of Michaels. True, they have some great deals, but knitting with 100% alpaca has really opened my eyes to the possibilities. I'm pretty pleased the stripes came out at (approximately) the same height. To tell the truth, I didn't really measure....just eyeballed it. I was too deeply engrossed in the women's long program figure skating. I even got my husband into it! He was so cute, he waited to take the dogs out until they had announced Sasha Cohen's scores. I've resigned a new deadline for myself though, just in case I don't make this Tubey happen by Sunday. I'm driving to Michigan with my Hubby next Friday, week from tomorrow, to meet his paternal grandparents. I - will - finish - this - before - then. There you have it, in writing. No hopes, wishes, goals. A true deadline. Stay tuned to see if I pull a triple lutz and fall on my face.