I took a walk...
And it was good.
Seriously, we hit 40degrees today and I told myself that was the "magical temperature" it had to hit for me to take a trip to the Local Yarn Store (LYS). I've been looking forward to taking a trip to the LYS since before Spring Break hit but it was too darn cold or I had too much stuff going on. Since it's Spring Break I have nothing going on. Well, alright, so I should be tidying up my room (today I decided I was going to reorganize my sock drawer so I could fit all my pajamas and things in one drawer. After "organizing" I discovered there's no way all of my stuff is going to fit in that drawer because for some reason I have enough pairs of socks to wear one pair every day for a month...and my sister has somehow managed to own all of the short cute socks during the winter months and I own all the old lady socks. Vengence will be mine.) But other than that (which I have every intention of continuing later today when the fresh air has worn off) its not like I have anything to do.
So, I took a hike to my LYS, it's just *counts* 10...11 blocks away, I can get there and back within an hour. I wore my nice new hat I knit a few weeks ago so my ears wouldn't get cold and on some subconscious level I believe I felt it validated me as a knitter. "Hey, I'm not just some idiotic person coming into your store by mistake. I knit. Look, I have a hat." Said hat is made of a mostly acrylic designer yarn that I did not pick out on my own but was gifted to me for Christmas a year ago but I digress.
The woman working at the store (Fiberwood) was very nice. And oh my God the yarn! Wool! Everywhere! I've never been so surrounded by natural fiber. She greeted me and told me if I had any questions that she'd be happy to answer them. I came right out and said I was looking for some laceweight yarn. (That is honest to God why I went there because I really want to make the Icarus Shawl from Interweave Knits Summer 2006 and the laceweight I got from my grandma is not enough and I desire lace knitting). The woman showed me several different kinds. I almost have to laugh because she asked me what kind of fiber I was looking for.
My response? "Just something that's going to block". Right, Susie. Good job. You show off that knitting knowledge. The whole store is filled with fiber that's going to block! In my defense I'm just graduating to "Big Girl Yarn" AKA Natural Fibers and I don't know enough to be picky. The magazine uses 100% alpaca but I know anything woolish will work out alright. She showed me some 50%wool 50% silk on cones and some 100% soy, and mentioned some people were using sock yarn for lace (This is probably true but I would not use the striping stuff on the shelf for this particular project). She also told me that anything on cones she would wind into the proper yardage I needed; I didn't have to buy the whole cone; that people who have never bought from coned yarn sometimes were confused about that. Thank God she told me that because I would have been worried about how much the trip was going to cost. (I'd been worrying about it for a while since I had poked my head into the store a few years back and remembered lots of yarn on cones and worried about pricing).
I looked, and looked and found this:
It really is just about that vibrant, and it's just what I was looking for. I had envisioned a lovely purple shawl sometime last night, and then I thought maybe an emerald green. In the store I looked and looked (was almost taken in by some blue and purple heathered stuff that was very pretty) but my eye kept wandering to this magenta...fuschia...whatever the crayola markers say this color is. I like it and I think it's going to make a gorgeous shawl. (It's the 50% wool 50% silk. Zephyr yarn)
I picked it up off the shelf, told the woman I needed 875 yards (told her this by memory after losing the piece of paper I had written down the needed yardage on and then found it again right in my pocket where I'd left it with my keys). What was the grand total for the "Big Girl Yarn"?
$13.51!
I had expected nice laceweight wool/silk to be more. I worried about pricing at the Big Girl Yarn Store. This price is cheaper than the amount I spent on yarn for my HP Slytherin Scarf. It is about the same amount as *quickly calculates* 4 skeins of Wool-Ease if I'm remembering the pricing at Drews' Variety Store correctly. (An HP scarf takes a good 6 skeins).
She had this cool electronic cone winder and weighed the yarn and the sucker ran and ran and I remembered I needed size 3 circulars to actually knit the shawl up so I bought those while I waited (this brought my bill total up a bit but considering the yarn wasn't extravagantly priced I was happy). I looked around as the yarn wound, noticed they have wool wash for sale (I'll need some of that later), and saw all the pretty yarn in general. I think I'll return there for my next project.
And then I walked home, took a picture, and my dog wanted to go for a walk so we walked. *sigh* Just what I wanted to do after walking 11 blocks there and 11 blocks back, take a spin around the block with the dog.
And now...I'm going to share some pictures of other projects I just finished up including my sweater! But I'll put it under a cut
Alright, so you saw the hat I wore today, I'll pop an actual picture up here.
It's Shedir from Knitty's Breast Cancer Issue. I had to majorly alter the pattern because the yarn was such a different gage. It fits really nicely, though and keeps my ears warm. I only did 6 panels instead of 8 and didn't do any repeats before starting the decrease of the pattern. I worried it wasn't going to turn out but it worked alright.
I made another hat, the Raisin Beret using size 10 1/2 instead of 10. Pay no attention to the crap in teh backgro
Or the stuff in the closet. I live in a constant state of disarray . The brim is a bit big but I think it will be alright. I used Moda Dea Beadnik, a little over 1 skein (hard to tell how much because the first skein had a length of yarn that wasn't attached so I just unwound it and set it aside. If I used the same amount from the second skein then I used exactly 1.
Here's some pics of my dad's Christmas Scarf.
Danica from Knitty.com in...Debbie Mum Yarn...if I knew where I put the label I could tell you what color so it'll have to do that I say this is two skeins, the yarn being self striping and my Dad thought it was really cool.
And now, the Piece de Resistance (or however the French say it) My Dollar and a Half Cardigan.
I blurred the background so you can't see what disarray I live in. Or at least it looks far more artistic.
This is a miracle sweater in that I used...*lowers voice* Bernat Satin 100% acrylic yarn. I thought I was in deep shit when I saw the bumpiness of the stitch pattern. *announcer voice* The miracle of killing acrylic is what made this sweater possible.
See the utter crap?
I wet them, covered them with a damp towel, and ironed/steamed the crap out of them and got this:
So I killed the rest of the pieces and sewed 'em all up and got a lovely sweater that hasn't reverted to being too Mr. Staypuft.
As a note, I took that picture of the finished sweater in the mirror so the cable is actually on my right hand side and not my left.
Oh! I forgot about my socks!
Horcrux Socks in Patons Merino in Rosewood. The striping amused me...though they aren't as comfy as my Patons SWS Socks.
I love their non-matchiness.
Seriously, we hit 40degrees today and I told myself that was the "magical temperature" it had to hit for me to take a trip to the Local Yarn Store (LYS). I've been looking forward to taking a trip to the LYS since before Spring Break hit but it was too darn cold or I had too much stuff going on. Since it's Spring Break I have nothing going on. Well, alright, so I should be tidying up my room (today I decided I was going to reorganize my sock drawer so I could fit all my pajamas and things in one drawer. After "organizing" I discovered there's no way all of my stuff is going to fit in that drawer because for some reason I have enough pairs of socks to wear one pair every day for a month...and my sister has somehow managed to own all of the short cute socks during the winter months and I own all the old lady socks. Vengence will be mine.) But other than that (which I have every intention of continuing later today when the fresh air has worn off) its not like I have anything to do.
So, I took a hike to my LYS, it's just *counts* 10...11 blocks away, I can get there and back within an hour. I wore my nice new hat I knit a few weeks ago so my ears wouldn't get cold and on some subconscious level I believe I felt it validated me as a knitter. "Hey, I'm not just some idiotic person coming into your store by mistake. I knit. Look, I have a hat." Said hat is made of a mostly acrylic designer yarn that I did not pick out on my own but was gifted to me for Christmas a year ago but I digress.
The woman working at the store (Fiberwood) was very nice. And oh my God the yarn! Wool! Everywhere! I've never been so surrounded by natural fiber. She greeted me and told me if I had any questions that she'd be happy to answer them. I came right out and said I was looking for some laceweight yarn. (That is honest to God why I went there because I really want to make the Icarus Shawl from Interweave Knits Summer 2006 and the laceweight I got from my grandma is not enough and I desire lace knitting). The woman showed me several different kinds. I almost have to laugh because she asked me what kind of fiber I was looking for.
My response? "Just something that's going to block". Right, Susie. Good job. You show off that knitting knowledge. The whole store is filled with fiber that's going to block! In my defense I'm just graduating to "Big Girl Yarn" AKA Natural Fibers and I don't know enough to be picky. The magazine uses 100% alpaca but I know anything woolish will work out alright. She showed me some 50%wool 50% silk on cones and some 100% soy, and mentioned some people were using sock yarn for lace (This is probably true but I would not use the striping stuff on the shelf for this particular project). She also told me that anything on cones she would wind into the proper yardage I needed; I didn't have to buy the whole cone; that people who have never bought from coned yarn sometimes were confused about that. Thank God she told me that because I would have been worried about how much the trip was going to cost. (I'd been worrying about it for a while since I had poked my head into the store a few years back and remembered lots of yarn on cones and worried about pricing).
I looked, and looked and found this:
It really is just about that vibrant, and it's just what I was looking for. I had envisioned a lovely purple shawl sometime last night, and then I thought maybe an emerald green. In the store I looked and looked (was almost taken in by some blue and purple heathered stuff that was very pretty) but my eye kept wandering to this magenta...fuschia...whatever the crayola markers say this color is. I like it and I think it's going to make a gorgeous shawl. (It's the 50% wool 50% silk. Zephyr yarn)
I picked it up off the shelf, told the woman I needed 875 yards (told her this by memory after losing the piece of paper I had written down the needed yardage on and then found it again right in my pocket where I'd left it with my keys). What was the grand total for the "Big Girl Yarn"?
$13.51!
I had expected nice laceweight wool/silk to be more. I worried about pricing at the Big Girl Yarn Store. This price is cheaper than the amount I spent on yarn for my HP Slytherin Scarf. It is about the same amount as *quickly calculates* 4 skeins of Wool-Ease if I'm remembering the pricing at Drews' Variety Store correctly. (An HP scarf takes a good 6 skeins).
She had this cool electronic cone winder and weighed the yarn and the sucker ran and ran and I remembered I needed size 3 circulars to actually knit the shawl up so I bought those while I waited (this brought my bill total up a bit but considering the yarn wasn't extravagantly priced I was happy). I looked around as the yarn wound, noticed they have wool wash for sale (I'll need some of that later), and saw all the pretty yarn in general. I think I'll return there for my next project.
And then I walked home, took a picture, and my dog wanted to go for a walk so we walked. *sigh* Just what I wanted to do after walking 11 blocks there and 11 blocks back, take a spin around the block with the dog.
And now...I'm going to share some pictures of other projects I just finished up including my sweater! But I'll put it under a cut
Alright, so you saw the hat I wore today, I'll pop an actual picture up here.
It's Shedir from Knitty's Breast Cancer Issue. I had to majorly alter the pattern because the yarn was such a different gage. It fits really nicely, though and keeps my ears warm. I only did 6 panels instead of 8 and didn't do any repeats before starting the decrease of the pattern. I worried it wasn't going to turn out but it worked alright.
I made another hat, the Raisin Beret using size 10 1/2 instead of 10. Pay no attention to the crap in teh backgro
Or the stuff in the closet. I live in a constant state of disarray . The brim is a bit big but I think it will be alright. I used Moda Dea Beadnik, a little over 1 skein (hard to tell how much because the first skein had a length of yarn that wasn't attached so I just unwound it and set it aside. If I used the same amount from the second skein then I used exactly 1.
Here's some pics of my dad's Christmas Scarf.
Danica from Knitty.com in...Debbie Mum Yarn...if I knew where I put the label I could tell you what color so it'll have to do that I say this is two skeins, the yarn being self striping and my Dad thought it was really cool.
And now, the Piece de Resistance (or however the French say it) My Dollar and a Half Cardigan.
I blurred the background so you can't see what disarray I live in. Or at least it looks far more artistic.
This is a miracle sweater in that I used...*lowers voice* Bernat Satin 100% acrylic yarn. I thought I was in deep shit when I saw the bumpiness of the stitch pattern. *announcer voice* The miracle of killing acrylic is what made this sweater possible.
See the utter crap?
I wet them, covered them with a damp towel, and ironed/steamed the crap out of them and got this:
So I killed the rest of the pieces and sewed 'em all up and got a lovely sweater that hasn't reverted to being too Mr. Staypuft.
As a note, I took that picture of the finished sweater in the mirror so the cable is actually on my right hand side and not my left.
Oh! I forgot about my socks!
Horcrux Socks in Patons Merino in Rosewood. The striping amused me...though they aren't as comfy as my Patons SWS Socks.
I love their non-matchiness.