Travelling Yarn Gifts

There's not much to post here. I'm still working on a Christmas gift. It's taking a while, but it's a lot of fun to knit, so there's that. I'll chat about it after it's been gifted.

To prepare for life without Christmas knitting, I feel like I'm bringing an overabundance of yarn with me to Rhode Island for the holiday. Granted, I'll be there for a good week and a half with not much else to do but knit, I still feel like I'm bringing too much. Here's the list:

• I've got yarn to knit another cowl out of (the light blue one is awesome, but it doesn't match my hat!).
• Yarn for a pair of fingerless mitts for me (my hands keep getting cold!)
• Yarn to finish the Christmas project

Once I get to Rhody, I'm going to have to pick up an aran weight yarn to knit a pair of fingerless mitts for my brother's fiancee's mother. She's cool and will actually wear them. You know, looking at that list, I'm not actually sure I did pack too much yarn. Maybe it's the christmas gifts in my backpack that are taking up all the space. I totally should have mailed them instead of bringing them. Maybe I'll mail them once I get to work.

I should send out a public huge thank you to blogless NanLam. She gave me the coolest bit of yarn:


It's Dream in Color Knitosophy in the Superhero color way. It's a really great blend of colors. Kalajoki (RavLink) popped up when I did a search and I knew that the two were meant to be together. I'm stuck now though. Because this yarn would be perfect to tout around Comic Con and use for Yarn365. While I want to cast on RIGHT NOW for those socks, I should wait. I'll have to come up with something else in the meantime.

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Today's Yarn365 shot is of a centerpiece of knitting needles. In order to get this shot, I pulled a bunch of knitting needles out of the tin I keep all of my needles in. I seem to have a ton of needles I'll never actually use ever again. I think 2010 for me is the year of getting rid of clutter for me - liquidating material things that don't need to be around etc. I'll post a list of the needle type, size etc. once I get back from Rhode Island and y'all can see if there's anything you need. I figure I should just donate them somewhere to charity after that. Anyone know of any charities that accept knitting needles?

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I want to post about my visit to La Casita Yarn Shop yesterday, but I've REALLY got to get this damn gift finished!

Busy Busy!

I have certainly been busy! Most of my April was finishing up on Illanna's wedding present. It's done, sort of. It's being finished. Stan and I will be giving it to the Shapiros in a couple of weeks. Once I get a photo of it (and after I give it to them!) I'll post one!

I also knit Veronique (ravelry link) from French Girl Knits for the wedding. It ended up being WAY too big. I think I just need to take some yarn and pull it through the back seam to sort of pull it together in order to make it wearable. I'll do that eventually I guess.

Since the wedding, I've really been knitting on the Bog Jacket. I started the front side of one of the sleeves, so it's coming along. I'm feeling really good about it. I don't have any photos of that, of course. :) Really just imagine what you've already seen of it, but like, a TON more garter stitch. It's been really boring to knit which I think is one of the reasons I put it down, but I've recently really got back into it and am enjoying the meditative calmness it affords me.

I also started a new pair of socks out of some Scheaffer yarns that Beth gave me. I decided to use a rather simple pattern, so I'm knitting the Primavera pattern. It's a free pattern I found via Ravelry. It's simple, not too much going on there, and seems to be fitting the bill. As soon as this Bog Jacket's done though, you can be sure I'll be casting on for something way more lacy! I have a couple of tricks up my sleeve!

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I'm sure most people know by now that I used to hang out at The Point all the time. And I'm sure a lot of people know that Helene closed The Point recently. It was quite sad. I'm still kind of bummed by it because it was always the place I'd go when I didn't know where to go after work.

My dad has always taught me, however, that for every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction. So, while The Point's closure was a bad thing, I must say, I'm not too bummed with what I got out of the sale!

2 skeins of Kraemer Sterling Silk and Silver in White Veil


9 skeins of Ella Rae Bamboo Silk in Black


5 skeins of Rowan Calmer in a light blue
and a copy of A Gathering of Lace by Meg Swansen.

I've recently gotten quite a bit more yarn, but I'm afraid of making this post super long, and my lunch break is over!

We all need a little SEX sometimes...

Stash Enhancement eXperiences for you perverts out there.

I seem to be buying up my weight in yarn. It seems like I'm sticking to the laceweight and sock yarn as of late though.

First up is my own little tribute to Gramps. I bought it the day after he died because, well...touching something so soft was extremely soothing. And it's such a vibrant alive redish marroon I just had to have it:



As the tag says, it's from J.Knits. Lace-A-Licious is the name and i think the color is called Indiana or something along those lines. It's an alpaca laceweight and runs about 1200 yards which is pretty phenomenal. I could get another Icarus out of it, but I think I'll probably use it for one of the other myriad of shawls I currently have queued.

Next up, I met my friend Illana (that's a Ravelry link folks) for some good mediteranian food in Park Slope. I had de-stashed to her two and a half skeins of Twinkle's uber bulky yarn that I accidentally managed to get for $10 a ball (I KNOW!! Way cheap right!?). She told me to pick something from her stash I liked as an exchange. So I got this sexy looking thing:



That's STR lightweight yarn. I'm not sure of the colorway, I want to say it's flower power or something like that. I've used the STR mediumweight, but find that the socks I got out of it were a little too thick for my liking. They're really warm, they just don't fit in my sneekers. So I've wanted to test the lightweight stuff for forever, and this color way is just PRICELESS. It's actually really made me want to seriously lobby my parents come Christmas time for the STR Rockin Sock Club.

I also managed to get out of the deal this cute little number:


That's some sweet looking Malabrigio Laceweight yarn. I'm not sure what the colorway is called, but isn't it gorgeous? So, I think it was a pretty good trade. I got some smaller yarn out of it anyway. I should mention that those two photographs were Illana's, not mine. I never had anywhere near that amount of natural light when I take photos of my yarn. :(

I started organizing my yarns a bit more, in that I now have one BIG bag that I've been putting two smaller bags in. One of the smaller bags is laceweight yarn and the other is sock weight yarn. Those seem to be the two kinds of yarn I've been buying recently. They're easy to pack up with me when I go back to NY from wherever it is I've been, and I don't have to buy a ton of it at the same time.

That said, I'm just now knowing the wonders of a sweater that fits well. I LOVE wearing my TYC around. It's just the right weight. Most of my other finished sweaters I think are a little too warm actually, which surprises me because i'm usually always cold no matter what. My TYC actually keeps me warm, but not too warm.

Aditionally, I just cast on for Jeanie from Knitty. I have really only completed a row so far, so it's not even really worth showing a photo. The project looks somewhat challenging, but I'm sure that once I get into the pattern, it'll fly by.