One Crazy Fiber Lady

Sorry for no post yesterday.  I awoke with a terrible headache and after getting the twins off to daycare, curled back up in bed for a while.  I did feel better later in the day and got some knitting done, but just didn’t want to play with the computer, even though I have a lot to show!  This was one of those excellent weekends (ignoring the ignoble end to it of a migraine). 

Saturday I had a play-date with Deb, who very nicely documented the adventure!  Here she is sitting in the Ridgewood Starbucks working on the early rounds of her shawl.  Yup, we had some of Starbucks very yummy Espresso Brownies.  MMMMMMMM.  I had a very enjoyable time with Deb, always do.  Lots of laughs and for the first time during our play-dates, we actually knitted!

What did I get?  At Majestic Yarns, I picked up 4 skeins of the Aurora 4ply for further Olympic training exercises.  I’ll knit some of the toddler mittens out of the Mittens book I mentioned on Friday.  I also picked up a set of size 0 dpns, because really, a girl can never have too many small dpns.  I’ve worked two of the mittens out of the book, and while there’s a picture of one below, I didn’t photograph the second. Some of the frustration of two handed knitting is receding.  While I can’t possibly say that I’m truly comfortable with it, I’m not as uncomfortable and frustrated with it as I was before.  My only complaint I think has to do with the projects I selected for training, little glove/mitten bits on dpns.  By the time I get up to speed, it is time to change needles.  I think I’m ready for the vest with the circular needle and should feel more comfortable as it progresses.  I guess I should pull out the yarn (which arrived on Friday – hmm forgot to photograph that) and swatch it at least. 

Anyway.. there were more purchases on Saturday.  I can’t tell you how ecstatic I was to find that second yarn store, Close Knits.  While Majestic is nice, it has a limited selection.  Fabulous if you want Karabella, but terrible if you want sock yarn.  Enter Close Knits.  Big comfy couch in the store and more Cascade than you can shake a stick at.  Finally a local source for Cascade 220.  They also have sock yarn!  I found these babies, Claudia Handpainted, and picked up enough for two pairs.  The blues/purples on the left are the new skeins for mom’s socks.  The others are for ME. 

I probably would have picked up some Cascade had it not been for this.  I bought this bonanza of Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran from Deb’s stash.  Yummy yummy yummy.  I’ve been eying this yarn and luck would have it, Deb wanted it out.  I’ll probably design something for this, right now leaning towards a simple cardigan with maybe simply cables running up the sleeves perhaps.  I have some time to decide, what with all the current projects and the Olympics coming up quickly!  There is a little crazy voice in my head that is whispering that maybe I should ditch the fubar pattern vest and go with this.  I’m trying to ignore it.  Yarn this nice deserves to be savored.  After the Olympics, definitely.

Those were my purchases for Saturday (well a couple of Sudoku books and some things for my BP), but the goodness of the day didn’t end there.  I got home to find a box jammed in my door.  Naturally I started mentally checking off all the things I’ve ordered and haven’t received yet.  While this probably says a lot of my shopping habits, I couldn’t think of what it might be, and didn’t remember placing an order with The Woolen Rabbit recently.  It never crossed my mind that it was from my better pal.  I had to wait until the twins were down to open the box.  I have the best better pal!  I found this jar of knitters & spinner’s cream, soap and 4 balls of bunny crack!  How very  cool is my bp???? I should have figured it out.  Friday night I opened an envelope that had the neat Yarn Yak notecards and a card telling me to watch out for a package.  Thank you again BP.  I love it all!  My BP is definitely going to spoil me:  first cashmere and now bunny crack.  Sweet.  Thank you!

One other purchase to display.  Last week Deb so nicely posted about more sock yarn she had purchased.  She even so generously provided the link to where she bought it on Etsy.  Such thoughtfulness of her!  Weak as I am, I had to click the link.  Even weaker, I had to buy some of the lovely sock yarn.  Who could turn down handpainted merino that comes with two tiny coordinating stitch markers.  Okay forget for a moment that I don’t need coordinating stitch markers to knit my basic socks.  That’s besides the point.  I picked up this skein in the "Autumn" colorway.  Gorgeous.  Simply gorgeous. 

Yeah, last look showed me kicking ass at the Buy More Yarn stashalong with 47 points.  I’m not entirely sure if that is a contest I want to win.  There’s also a skein of Trekking and a pound of eggplant colored corrie sliver that I added and haven’t photographed.  I’m not the crazy fiber lady for nuthin eh?  First step is to recognize there’s a problem

What else is there?  Oh it hasn’t been all about socializing and acquiring ever more stuff for my collection.  I have been knitting.  I finished the socks that originally started out as Mom’s belated holiday gift.  Except they were too big for her feet.  Naturally I found that out as I was halfway through the foot on the second one.  I just couldn’t rip out that much sock, and considering the availability of new sock yarn, I finished them on Saturday and they will be going off to my baby sister.  She’s been coyly asking for a new pair of knitted socks, and well, her feet are a bit larger than mom’s and mine.   Done.

Then there’s the EZasPi Anniversary Shawl.  I’m using the gorgeous ruby colored Zephyr that Deb gave me before the holidays at our last play-date.  I’m in love with this yarn.  Anyway, I decided on the Shetland Tea Shawl from Gathering of Lace.  Its getting to the nice sac-like dental floss look.  Since this picture was taken, I’ve transferred it to the 24" circular needles and moved into the 288 (or this case 290) stitch section.  I’m on the first round of the Horseshoe Lace pattern.  So far, so good and I do so love this yarn.  I dug out the old Pi Completion Calculation spreadsheet and dusted it off for this one.  I’m currently 8.885% complete.  Weeeeee.

To show that I don’t just stash the yarns I buy, and that I am indeed training, here’s the first of the practice mittens.  The pattern is the Chicky Feet from the Mittens book (link above) in the Red and Yellow Aurora 4 from Karabella.  Nice, soft, squishy yarn.  I made the 2 YO size, go figure.  Fits the boy short person perfectly.  Was good practice for dealing with long floats and tucking them in so the short people fingers don’t get trapped.  I was so involved with fighting with the yarns that I didn’t notice until 4 rounds later that I had only switched one of the three smaller dpns to the larger size after finishing the cuff.  Since this was "practice" and in the category that one size difference in dpn wouldn’t matter much to a short person, I left it.  I started another mitten yesterday after my nap, but naturally not the second Chicky Feet, but an entirely different pattern as it involved switching the colors more frequently.  Was an excellent workout for the dumb hand and it no longer feels so incompetent at the task.  Will be even better on a circular needle, and not the ML switching thing, come the games. 

As last night was a new episode of 24 (YAY) and I love me that show, I took a quick mental inventory of the current WIPs.  Actually since the mental inventory is notoriously bad, I actually hit the blog and checked out the On The Needles section to see if there was something I could work on during the show.  Naturally nothing is really mindless knitting.  While the STS is relatively easy, the small stitches are somewhat grabby and I have to make sure I am working them one at a time.  The Nachaq was ruled out last week and therefore already not good for this week.  I really had nothing.  The Olympic training still requires too much attention paid to the wayward finger and therefore wouldn’t suffice.  I needed something that I could glance at occasionally, like during commercials.  Left me with no alternative but to start.. wait for it… socks!  Figured not time like the present to start those Replacement Belated Holiday Socks for me.  I picked out the Claudia Handpainted in the Walk in the Woods colorway (though I’ve never seen a blue and purple woods), winded into a ball and got to work.  By the end of 24, I was well into the sock.  Here’s my progress, along with the kitten zen for today. 

The Claudia Handpainted?  Great yarn.  Reminds me a bit of Koigu, price is certainly in the KPPPM range, but feels a bit softer.  I like how these colors are working up.  Hopefully mom will as well.

That should be enough for today.  I’ll have more pictures tomorrow, including the second FI practice mitten and the stash extras that I forgot to take pictures of (need to document this for myself and a meme that Chris tagged me with.

Craft on!