The Luckiest Girl in the World

Okay, maybe not the world but I'm having a pretty good weekend so far. I came home yesterday to find my Fall IK in the mail. Today in the mail I received my yarn from my One Skein Secret Pal, who is totally awesome by the way. If I knew who she was, I would send her something awesome back. I hope she is enjoying the swap as much as I am. I also hope my secret pal is as well. I haven't heard if she has received the July package I sent her yet. I was a little nervous about my first swap, but I am really enjoying it.

Here's the awesome sock yarn my OSSP sent me. It's from Ruby Sapphire Yarns, Jade Sock Yarn in colorway Emma. 440 yds of 100% superwash wool. I absolutely love it! It has pinks, purples, blues, greens, and golds in it. I can't wait to try it out, these socks will most definately be for me! (Also love the sock form keychain!!)



On a sock note, I have finished the first sock on circs and yes, have cast on the second one.





I discovered a new podcast this week, Lime & Violet. I think these chics rock! You should definately check them out.

Just a little update

I'm knitting on the foot on the circ socks. I put it on and yes there are some lovely holes on one side where I picked up the stitches; I'll have to go back and fix that later.



My Trekking XXL I won on ebay arrived while my DH was on a business trip. DH made it home fine very late Friday night, although his plane was two hours late, his first business trip went well.



I need to get started on my One Skein Secret Pal project for August as well as my Think Pink scarf that is due in September. This Wednesday night is my last socks on 2 circs class so I may put sock #2 on hold so I can slip those scarves on and (hopefully!) off the needles in time.

No word from my One Skein Secret Pal yet on if she got her July package. I really hope she likes it. I did hear from my secret pal that my package is in the mail. I love getting yarn in the mail!

Yarn Crawl

While the cats away, the mice will play! Actually, my DH is away on a business trip in Dallas and I took a few days off of work to relax. Yesterday I did a little yarn crawl around the KC area. First I headed down to the Nelson-Atkins Art Museum and enjoyed a nice stroll through the museum.

Then it was up to Urban Arts & Crafts in the River Market district where I enjoyed perusing through their stock of crafting supplies. Stamping, scrapbooking, beading, knitting, I've done them all. I picked up a ball of Rimini Rainbow and Harvest Tweed. They had a lot of great samples and I think I will make a hat from the Rainbow and a had from the Tweed. I also picked up a great pattern for a Chain Link Cabled Scarf that I will try later on down the road.



My next stop was at The Studio off of the Country Club Plaza. I had to drive by a couple of times before I found the place, but it was well worth it. It is the only yarn store that I've been to in the area that carries the elusive Koigu! I managed to not buy any at this time, I want to get better at sock knitting before I spend so much on the yarn. I did pick up some Opal sock yarn and a skein of mohair that I hope to pair with my Malabrigo purchased in St. Louis to make a scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts.



Last but not least I met up with my friend Susan for dinner. We used to work together and don't get to see each other that often. We try to have dinner every few months and we just sit and talk for hours. After I got home, my DH called me before bed. I realized how much I miss him (this is his first business trip.) It was the perfect end to a great day.

Today we are being blessed with some much needed rain and cooler temps. It's been in the hundreds all week! I had planned to take a friend and head out to the Yarn Barn in Lawrence but we've decided to stay in town and see The Devil Wears Prada, have some lunch, and go shopping.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Yarn Pron and some updates

I went on a yarn buying spree this week. I picked up two skeins of Regia surf sock yarn from Simply Socks Yarn Company. Great store, got the package in the mail very quickly. I think my husband is starting to suspect something. Packages of yarn are now arriving at our house on a regular basis and he is asking questions. I also won my first skein of Trekking XXL on ebay this week. It should get here in the next week or so. Now that I'm hearing about all of these great sock yarns, I'm trying to try them all.



While at my knitting class on Wednesday I picked up some more yarn. A skein of Morehouse Farms Merino in pink to knit a scarf for The Think Pink Challenge. After reading their book I've been dying to try out the yarn. Now I wonder if I can figure out which sheep it came from in the pics in the book...



I also picked up a skein of merino wook in DK weight variegated pinks/purples for my One Skein Secret Pal. Without giving out TMI, she lives in California and I live in the Midwest. Do you know how freaking hard it is to figure out what to buy someone whose climate does not have the craziness that yours does? This weekend it is around 100 degrees here and in 5 months it will be around 20 degrees. I can use any yarn at some point during the year. Don't know if that is the same in Cali.

An update on the socks on circs. Here they are, on the gusset rounds. I really liked knitting the leg part of the sock on the circs but am not crazy about the heel and gusset portion on the circs. For some reason I like having the instep all on one needle and on the circs it is split between the two. I also had a horrible time picking up stiches on one side. I frogged it a couple of times and then gave up and kept going. They are holey on one side but I figure I can take some yarn and patch them up in the end. Nothing like a desire for mediocrity to keep you going.



I've also knit a few more rounds on the Irish Hiking Scarf. I really like it and everyone who has seen it has been impressed even though I tell them it's really easy. Note to self: cables make you appear an accomplished knitter even if you aren't.

Blog addict

It seems like I spent a lot of time looking at knitting blogs instead of actually knitting. I had heard of Bloglines but didn't really understand why it would be useful to me. I subscribed today after going to numerous blogs I had bookmarked only to see that they hadn't been updated in a while. Now with Bloglines I can easily and quickly go to new posts instead of wasting time navigating to a lot of blogs that haven't been updated.

One of the best things about Bloglines was that when I subscribed to my own blog, I saw that I already had 4 subscribers. I was so excited! I had turned on my rss feed a few months ago after reading a post on the Knitter's Review forum but I never really expected anyone to be subscribed. Today I added a button that will send you to my subscription page.

Thank you to my 4 subscribers, you have made my day!

Sock it to me

Last Wednesday was the first night of my socks on 2 circs class. It went pretty well. I learned a new cast-on, the cable cast-on. It was slippery as hell on the Addis! After I got my cast-on done then I crossed over some stitches to get the whole thing started which confused me. I've been doing pretty good with the leg so far. It's actually pretty easy once you get the hang of it. I'm just doing good ol' 2x2 ribbing so it's not complicated. Here's my progress so far.



I also started a new scarf this week. I've been wanting to make something with cables for a while now so I started the Irish Hiking Scarf. I really like how it's going so far. I think I twisted the stiches on the middle cable in the beginning but I've decided I'm not going to frog it. I think it gives it character!



Last but not least, I ran out and picked up a ball winder on Tuesday. Having a swift and no winder was killing me. Here's the first ball I've wound into a beautiful little yarn cake!

Yarn Swiftiness

I made a yarn swift!! Actually, my husband helped a little :-).

I have been wanting a yarn swift and ball winder for a while now. I tend to buy yarn and not use it right away and then I need to wind it. I've tried hand winding yarn and it was disasterous (see previous posts.)

Last Sunday I found this post by Bronte at Confessions of a Graveyard Gypsy. Knitting Badger made her a yarn swift from these directions. I thought, hey, I can do that! So that was our 4th of July project. It's not very pretty, but it seems functional. You can see it's a little off balanced from the pic but we are going to pick up another washer and wing nut for the top to try and sturdy it up a little.

Now all I need is a ballwinder! he he he

Knitting Loneliness

I have cast on for several new projects over the last week, but I can't seem to stick to knitting anything for very long. I really miss my knitting group. It seems that without someone to share the knitting with, it's just not as much fun. I guess knitting for me is a social thing as well as a hobby. It seems like I spent an immense amount of time reading blogs and listening to podcasts about knitting instead of actually knitting. I think it's because it gives me a connection to the knitting community that I don't feel like I have right now. I am supposed to start a new sock class this Wednesday (if it doesn't get cancelled again.) I am hoping this will relieve some of my loneliness.

Here's some pics of my newest projects.

I started my first shawl. It's a pattern from the Knitting To Go pack. The yarn is Plymouth Encore. I like it okay but I think the shawl would have been better in the yarn it called for which was Cascade organic but my LYS suggested this.



I posted before about wanting to try lace and found a link to this page on lace in the Knitter's Review forums. The Essentials of Knitted Lace. I read through it and started a couple of scarves in the Feather & Fan pattern. I really like it and it's not as difficult as I thought it would be. But I'm not using lace weight yarn yet.

This is Artful Yarns Serenade. It's a 70/30 cotton/angora blend. It's been shedding a little so it's kind of like having my own bunny without all of the poop.



I just started this second scarf and haven't started the lace portion yet. It's in Classic Elite's Imagine which my LYS had on sale since it has been discontinued. Normally I'm not a pink girl, but I really like this yarn.



Last but not least, one very happy thing happened this week. I finally received my first books from Crafter's Choice. I have now officially started my knitting library. Most of this morning was spent looking through The Knitting Answer book. I can't wait to start working with all of them. There are some great patterns in Scarf Style and Oneskein. I'm dying to make some socks out of Sensational Knitted Socks. And I've heard nothing but good things about Morehouse Farm Merino Knits (which I perused last night looking at all of the sheep pics.)