Did I mention I was doing some spring cleaning? I found lots of red yarn, and even photographed some of my collection that wasn’t documented. Have you seen this Schaefer Miss Priss in Clara Barton I got from Full Thread Ahead?
How about this Arucania Nature Wool I got from my yarn pusher, I mean Little Knits?:
I’ve actually received quite a bit of red sock yarn as of late, but not enough time to photograph it, so you’ll have to be happy with the above. Speaking of which, I’m still destashing! …
Well, I’ll be damned. We were away this weekend and I got back to my new issue of Interweave Knits. I was flipping through it and saw this:
Look familiar?:
Apparently Karen Baumer and I chose the same stitch pattern to use for our socks. And I was planning on submitting the pattern for publication. I guess that’s out now. This is just the day (week? life?) I’m having.
Still hard at work on my 2 Olympics project (regular and “Special”). I’m doing pretty well on both, actually. I checked in at my LYS today and gave them a status on the Crystal Palace fingerless gloves:
And Amy was nice enough to help me detangle my yarn so I got some knitting done on my Jaywalkers:
I spent lots of time organizing at least part of my stash today, even though I should have been knitting. You wouldn’t believe how large the tub is that houses maybe 2/3 of my *red* yarn stash …
President’s Day status: I finished one of my fingerless gloves! The thumb gusset is actually pretty interesting, but I just hate the Crystal Palace Merino Frappe. And like socks, I have to make another one now!
Speaking of socks, I am still very much at the starting point on my Jaywalkers. And I’m not loving the Socks that Rock today. I am not a fan of unstretchy sock yarn, and this is a bit too stiff on size 0s. I’m not sure whether to restart on 1s and hope it gets smaller (it seemed way too large before) or just keep going. I seriously feel like my Crystal Palace dpns are going to break while knitting!
I also began Sitcom Chic for my MIL. The pattern is made in Cotton Ease and I still, even after A.Lo’s Banana Fish sweater have a boatload of Cotton Ease in Pineapple. Believe it or not, my MIL wears yellow and other bright colors. She is an art conservator, you know.
Tomorrow — cast on for the second fingerless glove, more of the Jaywalker/Olympic saga and hopefully I can make it through another round of pick ups at my sons’ school, where the drama has been unfolding since last week.
I should have time to take pictures today, but I don’t. I wasted yet another day and have barely started my third version of my Olympics project! I decided to just start the Jaywalkers after all with my Ruby Slippers Socks that Rock (I guess I really am a follower, since so many people have done this pattern in this yarn in this colorway you’d think that was what was written on the pattern!). I started with my 1.5 Brittany dpns, then down to 1s and it still looked large, so I pulled the size 0s out of my Peaks N Valleys socks and started again. We’ll see how it goes. I hope it’s not too tight now! This is the story of my life. I spend months wasting time starting and stopping projects, only to end up with nothing done.
I am also feverishly working on the fingerless gloves for my LYS. I thought it would be easy after the 50 row cuff (on size 2 dpns in double stranded mohair) but now there’s a detailed thumb gusset, then lots more knitting for the top. And I have to make two! No pressure … especially since I’m the second person working on this project and I know it was commissioned to them in early January.
Luckily I have at least 8 hours of driving/knitting time (BR will do the driving, fear not) on the way to our annual trip to Cambria. I can’t wait!
P.S. Even after I got back from Stitches I bought more yarn! The other night I woke up in a cold sweat pondering the aftermath of my Wednesday (as Shannon knows, it’s not that bad, but I’m building it up in my head) and couldn’t get back to sleep for hours. I decided to make many bids on cheap (inexpensive) yarn on Ebay. So I am now the proud owner of 2 skeins of Kureyon, 3 skeins of Artyarns Supermerino, a skein of Regia that matches the 1/2 skein I already have, and something else I’m blanking on.
P.P.S. I’m actually enjoying the Jaywalkers! I’m not sure why I wasn’t into casting on for a new project last week but now that I’ve settled on the Socks that Rock and size 0 needles (I really hope they work out) I’m getting into the pattern. A nice change from the K3, P2 ribbing on mohair for my fingerless gloves.
The good news: I went to Stitches West! And I randomly ran into my former coworker from the job from hell (the one on an actual Indian burial mound! Who knew?!)!
I actually had to leave early because I felt so guilty about the amount of yarn I bought! I skipped an entire row of vendors and didn’t go back to the two I had planned to (sorry, Hollis, I’ll have to buy that Cherry Tree Hill directly from the store …) after spending way too much on yarn. Is it just me or was Stitches West 1000 times better this year than last year? Here’s what I got.
The picture doesn’t do it justice. It’s merino and wool and gorgeous red and pink. I had wanted the silk and merino but I couldn’t justify the money. So now I know what I want for my birthday, March 26, hint hint, Ellen’s Half Pint Farm in the Eclipse colorway in the silk and merino blend.
I also stopped by a local booth, well it said San Francisco and it appeared to be roving and tools-based, but they had about 6 or 7 huge tubs of sale yarn and I couldn’t help myself. I got this gorgeous Merlin Camelot yarn from Louet Sales:
and since you got an extra 10% off if you bought 12 of the sale yarns, I also got this Crystal Palace Frappe:
And actually my first purchase was some gorgeous Lana Grossa sock yarn that ended up being more expensive than I expected:
It was at Ellen’s Half Pint Farm that I decided I had spent too much time and money so I said goodbye to my coworker and her husband and drove the 20 minutes home. And Stitches East is in Baltimore in November, so I may have to take a trip to see my parents and check it out …
The bad news is that there is very little chance I’ll complete my Olympics project. I will finish the fingerless gloves that I designated for the Special Knitting Olympics, but after turning the heel on a very strangely designed Knitty’s Straight-Laced socks pattern, I decided it looks horrible on me and I frogged it.
Sooo … what to do for the next, what, 9 days? Complete my Broadripples that are barely started? Start a new pair of socks? I did order every one (practically) of Heartstrings Fiber Arts’ sock patterns from Elann the other day, and I have a number of other patterns I could start as well as two sock patterns already started. This sucks, when everyone else in my knitting group is off to a great start and/or practically done. Not to mention some of the “challenges” I’ve seen on some blogs of doing a pair of kids socks, and those people are already done!
This doesn’t do anything to help my mood which is already foul after the week I’ve had.
I’m finally done! Here is my Katrina Rib, started in September, and if you remember I was going to finish in a weekend!
It actually does fit but since I’m approximately 40 lbs. overweight I felt fat in it so I won’t post a photo of me wearing it, but I will eventually! The top half looks good, it’s just the stomach part that makes me feel fat (hey, I had three kids!).
Stats: Cookie’s pattern, about 5 1/2 balls of Filatura di Crosa 501 in red. 9/1/05-2/16/06.
The greatest button ever (stolen from Rox, the Fearless Knitter):
How could you be depressed with all this gorgeous yarn (and supplies)? If you had to deal with what I did (I can’t be more specific, unfortunately) you would. When I could fall asleep last night I dreamt of sock yarn. So when I couldn’t get back to sleep I tried to remember the sock yarn.
However, I did get a gorgeous package from my Knitty SP! I love the Valentine’s theme!
Also, in my many packages this week (since BR is home I did get in a bit of trouble ;( ), I received what I will be using for my Sockapaloooza socks. My pal likes bright colors, and I ordered three different yarns but this was the brightest so I decided to use it. I’m planning on doing Cookie’s Pomatomus pattern.
Here is the status of my Olympics project:
And my Special Olympics project:
I have to work on the gloves more often since as you may remember they’re for my LYS and they already gave them to and took them back from someone else, and they were a commissioned piece from a customer. But the yarn is a pain. I’ve already had to cut some out because it was so tangled, and rip back because my weaving ends came out and it looked horrible. I’m about at row 25 of 50 rows before the thumb gusset, so getting there.
I’m having a horrible week. Today I had to go to DL’s performance in Oakland. BR and I usually stagger these (he went last year and now it was my turn, but I should have made him go), because someone has to watch the younger kids, and the performance is usually really boring. I made my way through the whole thing, but then had an incident afterwards which I will probably be embarassed about for a while to come. I was so upset (and still am) I don’t even feel like knitting. That’s bad.
But until today I was doing okay. I have 3 1/2 more rows on my Katrina Rib. Slowly but surely. I have settled on one sock on two circs for my Olympics project — Knitty’s Straight-Laced socks. I am into the pattern a bit but I need to check because I think I’m a bit off.
I also am working, for the Special Knitting Olympics and for my LYS on the Crystal Palace fingerless gloves. It is my first time working with mohair (?) yarn and it is really a pain. I think I’m doing better but it was slow going. It’s basically 50 rows of K3 P2 ribbing, then start the thumb gusset. And the person (I’ll keep my derogatory term to myself) who wrote the pattern made the gauge in stockinette even though the project is in rib and I hate the yarn enough that I’m not about to do a gauge swatch. It appears to be the right width for gloves, I’m just not sure if 50 rows is going to be long enough or not.
I am so depressed I wasn’t even brightened by a sweet Valentine’s-themed package from my Knitty SP and my Little Knits and Knit Picks packages. I’ll do some pictures tomorrow when hopefully I’m feeling better. School restarts then, though, and I have to face the principal so I’m not so sure. But I’ll try to shoot photos anyway.
