Flash it!

What a weekend. Sorry for the late flashing, but here you go:
All the good stuff is in the last picture, though most of it is buried. The stuff on the floor is mostly acrylic (cheap-o yarn from Target and some Lion Brand) and the second picture is a mix bag. We'll just call these the before pictures and the motivation for me to get my yarn better organized. I'd promised some April P.S. pictures, but I'm not feeling exactly motivated at the moment. I'll get there eventually.

So Sleepy

Today is Flash Your Stash day and I had this grand plan to get out all my yarn, but there will be no stash-flashing from this knitty girl today. Why? Lots of reasons, the main ones being that I'm exhausted and have to be at work at 5 am tomorrow and don't feel like dragging out all my yarn and taking pictures. So I figure the list of people flashing is so long that it will take most of you a day or so to mosey on over here, so I have a grace period, if you will. So...update tomorrow, I promise, with lots of yarn-flashing going on. Plus, I have some pretty tremendous good news to reveal, and the line-up of April's orange/yellow projects.

Farewell March

Just a quickie post to say goodbye to the pink and red month and welcome in the orange month. Here's what I finished for Pink/Red March:
May I present my first ever completed pair of socks! I learned a few things while making these, like kitchener stitch is not as easy as it looks, and a three-needle bind off looks better from the inside. Pattern: Fiber Trends Railroad Rib Socks; Yarn: hand-dyed from Dani; Needles: US size 2. I'm so excited about socks now! I might do Jaywalkers as my next attempt, using Knitpicks dye-your-own in my own colorway. Or I need to find a good pattern to make my husband's socks (size 13-better be an interesting pattern). Tomorrow is Flash Your Stash day (I've got a lot of photography to do) and the first day of sign ups for SecretPal8 . It's also the very first day of Orange month and I've already got one project in the works! Stay tuned to see what's next in my knitty world.

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.

Finished Object Alert!

Finally! I've been trying to post pictures for a couple of days and it finally came out. To the left you have the lovely postcard that the talented Aliastriona sent me. Sadly she doesn't have a blog to link to, but I promise she is incredibly crafty, sewing fairy wings for her neice, painting, knitting, and cooking! Next you have the finished Tubey, finally! I love this sweater. I ended up seaming a teensy bit at each corner of the neckline so I could safely wear a bra and tank top underneath without any wayward straps. I'd read that this was a
problem for other people as well so I anticipated having to do it. My only complaint with this sweater is it's a little itchy. I have pretty sensitive skin so I have to be careful what I wear. I won't be wearing this for long periods of time or when I will be doing a lot of movement, but aside from that -yay I finally made a sweater. This thing was completed so long after the Olympics I don't think it should even count as a bronze. Speaking of Knitting Olympics, remember way back when I said I won a prize. Well, I have since received such prize and have yet to flash it. This is some hand-dyed Lion Brand wool from Sarah.
I really like the dark blues, but I'm not quite sure what i will do with it. It's a smallish skein-maybe enough for a boobholder or a felted bowl or something. Stay tuned for results. Other knitting stuff: Socks! And, yes I used the plural of that item because as you can see I've already cast on for the second one. I'm famous for never finishing things, or actually, getting distracted by the newer prettier yarn (whatever that may be), so the fact that I've already started socky#2 is incredible. I LOVE this sock yarn. I highly recommend it. It's hand-dyed yarn from Dani and WOW. I like the way the varigated looks in stockinette better than the ribbing, but it's beautiful either way. I used a cuff-down method with a short row heel and kitchener stitch on the toe. I need some practice on my kitchener stitch. The toe is a little wonky, but still wearable. Last but not least:
Yarn for dinner, anyone? This is the sock yarn I'm practice-dyeing for Zarah's Project Spectrum-themed sock yarn swap. You should check it out. Friday the 24th is the last day to sign up, and you don't have to have a blog to sign up. (Ahem, Beth, ahem....I hear sock yarn dyeing is more fun in pairs....ahem) I read a tutorial somewhere (sorry, I lost it) on making self striping yarn. I did loooooong sections of orange and yellow (April's colors) so hopefully it will come out. It's drying and needs to be re-rinsed (and soaked with a touch of fabric softener to get rid of the Kool-Aid smell, yuck) and then I will wind it and swatch with it to see how the stripeys will come out. I was really pleased with the way the colors came out, but I had to use a ton of lemonade to get that bright yellow color (15 packets to be exact). The cashier at Kroger thought I was crazy because I must've bought about 50 packets of various kool-aids. (FYI-the big jars of Kool-aid already have sugar in them so can't be used for sock yarn dyeing)

Wow, that's a lot of knitblogging. On a totally unrelated knitting note-guess what movie star came into my work tonight and I totally got an autograph from? Steve Carrell! Yay! I LOVE his movies and shows (Bruce Almighty, 40-year-old Virgin, Anchorman, The Office, The Daily Show, etc). In fact, Doug and I quote his character Brick from Anchorman all the time ("I love lamp"). He is so down-to-earth and nice. I felt a little bad interrupting his shopping but he was really sweet about it and swore he didn't mind. I ran over and bought a copy of the 40-yr-old Virgin for him to sign (I swear I was going to buy it anyway, not just for this occasion). The rest of the night it's all people could talk about it. We don't get too many celebs here in Charlottesville, so it's a big deal. I'd be such a mess if I lived in Hollywood, I'd be gawking at everyone.

Stay tuned this weekend: a sock yarn parade, UFO-sightings, and perhaps another yarn store review.