Doing My Part

While on the East Coast I managed to do my part to help stimulate the economy.

Last time we were here, I bought fabric, lots of fabric.

and while we had a day in The City, I did not buy fabric this trip.

Mostly because I haven't sewn up most of what was purchased last trip.

but I did buy yarn.

My rule for yarn buying on vacation is to look for Local Indy Dyers

and only buy yarns I can't get at home.

One of those yarns was a gift, One is for a shawl.

Look for the rest to become socks in the future.

Retail Therapy

Not this past week, but the one before was very long and difficult.

Abby's face had swollen and we had no idea what was going on with her. It would get slightly better and then get worse again. On Friday I called our vet to see if I could get her in on Saturday.

Unfortunately, they were full and wouldn't schedule an appointment until Saturday morning. The same Saturday was my monthly ASG meeting and JB had to work.

After a run to the vet and a quick try on of a sock by Miss L. (it didn't fit her and will never fit a human). I met another friend at a LYS for a bit of retail therapy. I might have gone a wee bit over the top.

Apparently - socks are on the way out and lace is on the way in. The pale pink on the right and the multi in the front are both lace weight yarns. The dark grey is sock yarn to be used with some left over purple as accents. The other 4 balls of sock yarn are to be gifted. it was good.

Momma's Day

Somehow it's become a Mother's Day tradition to go to the horse races on Mother's Day. I loaded up my new knitting bag and took a brand new project on a road trip. The Princess - send me a package from Rhinebeck. Well she'd didn't send it from Rhinebeck - she bought it all there with me in mind.

I understand that she has a matching project bag. Like the lovely lace weight she sent me for my birthday last year - this yarn doesn't have a label of any kind. But I have been told that the dyer has guaranteed that the yarn is dyed to so that your socks will match - lovely, isn't it? The bag is a square version of the project bag that I made for our cruise. It's cute and functional? I like it.

Packages on the Porch - Part 2

The nearest LYS near The Princess is going out of business. The little darling gave me a call last week and asked if I *needed* any yarn. Well need is relative, right? Discount yarn - why not? So, she was shopping for herself and decided to pick up a few little gems for me too. First up is the Artyarns Merino Sock yarn. It's the lovely red/green in the first photo. the orange - koigu!I love koigu and the orange is fabulous. I have a pattern in mind. But there are many, many other yarns in front of them to be knit - unless I can't wait.

Stash Enhancement

Through Ravelry - I joined a new group ~ Sock Knitters Anonymous or "SKA." Every month there is a challenge. This month there are 3 - (1) to knit any yellow sock, (2) to knit any Wendy Knits sock pattern (there are tons of free patterns on her blog), or (3) to knit the mystery sock (designed by Nancy Bush) in yellow. Well - Can you believe I didn't have enough yellow yarn to make a pair of socks. I didn't! So - yesterday I stopped by VYT to purchase some yellow sock yarn. I bought two balls of a lovely soft yellow panda silk and still haven't decided what to cast on. I'm not knitting the mystery sock because they are 3 clues in and I don't love they way it looks.

But - VYT is getting ready to move and they are having a moving sale. So - I manged to pick up three hanks of Manos del Uruguary worsted to make colonnade from the current issue of knitty. It was on sale for right about $6 each. I wish they had more colors - but this is a really pretty raspberry pink and will be lovely.

While I was walking around waiting to check out. I found this hank of Fleece Artist Sea Wool. There is 350 meter in the one hank. It is a much darker red than photographed. I think I will make a second smaler colonnade from this - just using smaller yarn and needles. At least that's the plan for now - we'll see what really happens. Then, because the owner of VYT knows that I'm a sock knitter - she pointed out that there was a bunch of sock yarn on sale. So of course I had to take a look - even though JB is no longer handknit sock worthy - I still knit socks for him. Mostly because they are mindless and I can knit them in my sleep. He tends to like subdued socks - so I picked up these two balls of Lana Grossa Meilenweit sock. Both are self patterning - the one to the left is black, grey and red. The one on the right is in shades of brown.

All together - I spent less than 60 dollars for 8 balls of yarn. Not too shabby.

Belated Thanks!

Again - I'm late saying thank you. Last week I got home and there was a package on the kitchen counter for me. Along with a very nice note and some tea was this lovely hand-died sock yarn from GypsyKnits. Over the summer we started chatting and developed a friendship. Anyway - I had asked her to send me something and she included this lovely yarn.

I love brown and cream mixed with just about any soft color and this blue is perfect. It's such a lovely colorway - now to come up with the perfect pattern for it.

thanks GK - I love it. If you love it too - you can purchase your own by going to link for GK and then clicking over to her etsy shop. By the way - she has a lovely big dog named Mr. Bettis who she claims is always up to no good. In fact - he has his own legal staff constantly at the ready!

My Friends Have Great Taste!

Last week my friend GoldenTracks added a book to her stash on Ravelry. Well - books don't go into stash they go into Library. She was cleaning her stuff out and getting rid of the things she would never use. I have long wanted Wrapped in Comfort and now I have my very own copy - thanks to Miss GT. Thanks for everything - it's all lovely. She PM'd (private messaged) me through Rav and asked if there was anything else in her stash that she was getting rid of that I wanted. - Well, since you asked. Actually - I told her if she had sock yarn supplies that she didn't want and nobody was interested in - to just ship it. I would knit her a pair of socks or two. Wednesday when I got home, there was a box on my front porch. The top photo? That's what come spilling out of the box. 2 books - Wrapped in Comfort and Knitting New Scarfs. Another ball of Ty-Dy Socks. If you have a chance - get some of this it is so soft and lovely to knit. 4 hanks of Lorna's Laces in two different colorways and some Cherry Tree Hill. Unfortunately the beautiful Cherry Tree Hill is what convinced Miss GT that she didn't like knitting socks. She disliked it so much that she ripped them. It's too bad - there are so many lovely sock yarns. But what I really want to know - what's in the center?

personal yarn crawl - part 2

according to my Ravelry search for yarn stores in the area we were last weekend, there were 7. the first one we stopped at was closed the first day we went through. then on Friday we found out that one of the two in Wenatchee was out of business and the other didn't open until late - but we couldn't tell what time exactly because her open/closed sign was over her hours. so we headed to the two in Chelan. the first one we found easily. it was a quilting shopping who had a small bit of yarn at one time, but not any longer. after driving around in Circles we finally found warehouse woolery. the shop was small and lovely. the owner also has a business making curtain and doing what looked like some re-upholstery. she also has an office basset hound, but unfortunately miss hound dog got left home that day. my goal when visiting not my LYS is to purchase items I can't purchase at home. I'm pretty sure I failed miserably at that goal this trip. first JB saw the cascade fixation. he is on a mission to get some handknit short socks for wearing in the summer with his shoes (not sandals!). so he picked out the two balls of fixation and I've already started his new socks. next - when we were in Canada over mother's day, JB's sister asked me to give her my waterfall socks. I told her no, and JB been a bit irritated with me since. he doesn't understand why I will knit socks for just about anyone, but when his sister asks I said no. I gently explained, she didn't ask for socks, but rather for the socks I was currently knitting for myself out of gifted to me yarn. I wasn't saying I wouldn't knit her socks, but that she wasn't getting those socks. once he understood that, we were on the lookout for purple yarn for socks for sue. this was the first yarn purchased to make sue socks and it's Wisdom Yarns Poem Sock. it really reminds me of noro sock as it has that rather rough texture. I'm not sure how the color runs will be. but I actually picked up later a beautiful purple pagewood farms to make her a pair of socks. so, I won't have verdict on this for quite some time.

personal yarn store crawl - part 1

In Western Washington up and down the I-5 corridor, the local yarn store owners get together and host a tour. There are so many yarn shops between Renton and Bellingham that they give you 4 days to get to all of them. It's similar to the Quilt Shop Hops. You may remember, that last year I was able to go. That was due to the fact that JB and I had moved our annual May Vacation up so that we had the chance to visit with the VeeDogKnits clan before Mr. VDK got deployed. Unfortunately, our annual May Vacation falls on the same weekend as the tour. So, I did a little search in Ravelry for some stores where we would be. The first shop we stopped at was Wooly Bully Yarns in Leavenworth. It was lovely, but closed on Thursdays. So, instead we took a walk along the river and have a great time and made sure we came back. The shop was lovely but tiny and she carried a lot of the same things I could get at home, but I did manage to purchase several lovely things. Including the Noro Kureyon pictured at the top and the Berroco in the next photo. The owner helped JB pick the yarns because he wanted a new hat. He likes his hats to completely cover his ears. So the Kureyon will be the background color and the Berroco the main color for the swirls hat (rav link). The remaining lighter color you see in the group shot will be the accent color. I'm excited about this project because JB rarely asks me to knit anything specific for him. When he gets hand knits it's because I saw the yarn and thought of him, not because he did. I played no part in helping with this project other than I said the hat was neat. It also has lots of techniques that I want to learn like colorwork and braids. Look for a finish hat this Fall.

Her Name is Chan-non

Friday the UPS man rang the bell. Apparently the dogs bell didn't go off because I was downstairs and didn't know anyone was here. When I came upstairs to start dinner - I saw a box on the bench in the entryway. I was very confused I didn't order anything and I didn't recognize the name on the box. JB's wallet has been in the upstairs bathroom since Wednesday so I know he didn't order anything. Well I very gingerly opened the box - I mean who was sending me something? Well it was Channon. The first thing I pulled out of the box was paybacks for sending her some less expensive sock yarn with aloe. So she returned the favor and send me some Sock-Ease also with aloe. Also is the box was the this lovely hank of sock yarn from the Alpaca Yarn Company. The color way is called Potluck and I'll be very interested to see how this knits up. I can never figure out when it's hanked what the multi-colored yarns will do. Will it stripe? Pool? Who knows the answer?

So, here's the full contents of the package -minus the really cute card with the daisy on it. There was one more item in the package - it was a jar of pumpkin butter. You see Channon and I share a love of all things pumpkin. Tomorrow morning I believe there will either be pancakes with pumpkin butter or toast for breakfast.

Thanks Channon - It's great. I'm sure you'll know as soon as I start knitting with it.

Not A Sock

More thanks need to go out to Camilla, Clementine and Debbie Bliss. A couple of Springs ago, I had the idea for a skirt. It was a lined black and white graphic print made out of my favorite KS skirt pattern. The lining was nice white muslin, edged with handmade lace. I found a great black and white print fabric. Washed and dried it, but didn't cut it out. I did cut out the lining. I even sewed it together and then hemmed it. In the process of hemming it, I used a wing needle to make little holes all around the bottom to make the lace right on the bottom of the skirt. I bought a book of crochet lace patterns, but couldn't find one that fit the idea in my head. Then I saw the new Debbie Bliss Spring 2009 magazine. There was a pattern for a beautiful lace edging on a shelf. It was fabulous. Here's where Cami came in - we were talking and I told her I bought some Trekking to make the lace and in the box was 3 balls of Rowan 4 ply cotton. I love this yarn - it's soft and really white. I was reminded tonight that it is cotton and going to be put on a washable garment. So, I worked up these little swatch samples and tossed them in the dryer. The front sample was knit on US 2 and 3s the second sample was knit on US 3 and 5s. I'm thinking that I really like the 5s the best - but I'll know for sure after it comes out of the dryer. The plan is to get some lace knit quick - enough to go around the skirt, wash it up then attach it to the already made white lining. The skirt will be hemmed so that it falls right above the "faggoting" portion of the lace. Look for this to be worn at an office near you soon.

More Thanks

I might have mentioned at one time or another that one of the things I want to do in 2009 is learn to do fair isle. There are distinct advantages to having a friend who owns a yarn and fabric store - fiber at your whims. Wednesday, I got a box containing lots and lots of this pretty spring green frog tree alpaca - enough to make a cardigan. With enough balls of aqua thrown in to make a two color fair isle yoke. Now to find a pattern. I think I might try something really new with this project - maybe steeks? I want either a traditional yoked fair isle pullover or a yoked cardi. Anyone have pattern ideas? The put up for Frog Tree Sport Alpaca is 130 yards per 50 gram ball. I have 11 balls of spring green and 4 aqua. I'm looking forward to finding something for this.

Behind on Thanks

Some you know that The Princess went on a yarn crawl before coming to visit last weekend. And some of you even know that I left a few snarky comments on her posts about said yarn crawl as well as very detailed message about what would be an appropriate gift for a knitting mom.

Well, as you can see, my boy Beau thought the yarn was for him. Thankfully he only likes really expensive mohair yarn and this is not that.

This is Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Nantucket Red. This is yarn that I cannot purchase locally and there are four yarn stores within 10 miles of my house in any direction. Seriously - 4!

So, I'm thinking that the kid did good. Should be a nice way to spend a few more days nursing JB - who's finally figured out how to manage his pain rather than chase it.

Is It True

that sock yarn doesn't count as stash? And if so, why not? That, over there <------ that's the hanked sock yarn that I have. Just the stuff in hanks. I love looking at it. It's like a bouquet of sock yarn. I didn't count as I was tucking the hanks into the basket. I just tucked them around in there and remembered where I got them. Some were gifts. There's some beautiful Koigu that came from Jess, Cami's hand-dyed, New York vacation yarn, some gifted yarn, some traded yarn, two hanks of Socks that Rock, and yarn from the yarn tour this year.

This beautiful bouquet of sock yarn sits on the shelf in my studio. Everyone once in awhile I'm inspired by a hank in the basket. Truth be known - when I want to knit a new pair of socks, I almost always go shopping. I'm gonna have to get serious about using up some of this sock yarn.

My New Centerpiece

What do you do with the little balls of left-over sock yarn?

I piled them all into the silver basket I got last Easter

and put them on my dining room table.

Jumbled Thoughts

Every time I go into the studio - I see the stack of fabric that was purchased with Carolyn while on vacation in New York. To date ~ 3 months later ~ I've only sewn one piece. And that one was a simple skirt that takes me about 3 hours from cutting to hemming.

Also, while in New York I saw this beautiful sheath dress. I love it. I think it's Ann Taylor Loft but I can't find a photo on-line. I'm sure something in that stack would be suitable for this dress. But that's another thing - and this not a statement to hear "but you look great." Of course, we all do dressed! But it's how I'm dealing with how I look undressed that's the story

here. I have mostly dug myself out of the depression from this past Winter/Spring. I have gone back to Weight Watchers, I am standing up for myself when it matters and I've hired a personal trainer. I don't want to use 'good' fabric for a dress that I might not be able to wear for more than a season. I wear my clothes to death - that could be because I don't make enough to replace them, but that's another topic altogether. I also know myself well enough to know that if I make the dress to fit now - I . will . not take it in when I lose weight. So, I might as well wait.

Finally - I told you the thoughts are jumbled. I got this yarn last weekend with the Cashwool I ordered. I had to throw this is the virtual shopping cart because it was half off! Ever since it arrived in my house all I can think about it knitting it. It really wants to become plain stockinette ankle socks with garter stitch heels and toes. It's even been divided by weight and wound into pretty little cakes. The problem with this - well I just started the heel flaps on the Mockery socks; I have the Malibrigo Lace that I'm working on; the chocolate raspberry twinset which is on hold until I rework the neckline on the tank; and it's charity bear knitting season for Great Yarns. Like I need another project.

Well JB and I are going to see Batman tonight. I need to get ready - I'll be sporting me new sundress and will see if I can get JB to snap a photo or two.

A Funny Little Story

Saturday JB had to work. He works one Saturday a month. I generally prefer when he works on a day when I have plans, but it didn't work out that way this month. So, after spending a few hours (yes, I said hours) with the computer on my lap (uh -laptop?), watching sewing shows on PBS, while drinking coffee and talking to the dogs (JB was working remember?) - Beau talked me into going down to the studio. I was sitting at the sewing machine when Abby came running in from the yard - tell held high and when right to the gate. She was telling me there was someone here. I couldn't hear anyone, but who am I to argue with a little dog? So, I told her, I'd go check. Looked in the garage - JB wasn't home, there was nobody in the living room. But I turned off the tv and locked the front door. I just like being locked in when I'm home alone. And since I was up and moving I decided it was time to get ready for the day. So, I took a shower, dried my hair, got dressed and put on some makeup. Then I could run errands. I opened the garage door and went to the check the mail. When I walked to the mailbox, I could see 2 packages sitting on my front porch. So, while I couldn't see anyone in the house - Abigail was right - there was someone here. It was Keith, Mailman Extraordinaire! This is what he left. One package was for the The Musical One, but the other was for me. It was from Chan. We had been chatting about sock yarns and her recent purchases. I mentioned that I had been wanting to try louet gems fingering weight. She mentioned that she had some in her stash, that she had no desire to knit and that it would be plopping into an envelope and heading to me. I had fair warning that the yarn would arrived tangled and I'm okay with that. I'll untangle it shortly and it will become some socks. There are some beautiful stitch markers tangled up in there. Apparently this yarn smells a little too much like a sheep for a sweet dog to resist - or it smelled like his momma. But one very precious boy got into this yarn. Unfortunately it was making the yarn hang like a weight around Chan's neck. I have a little something up my sleeve with this yarn, but you all will have to wait to find out what.

It's all Bonnie's Fault

The mess is all Bonnie's fault. First she talked about the Sassy Apron Swap. It sounded like fun, so being the lemming that I am, I joined up. Then this weekend she completed her apron. Then in a conversation we had regarding the SAS, she pointed out that the packages were to be mailed no later than March 1st. I thought I had until April 1st! UGH. So last night I came home from work, dug through the cottons cupboard and pulled out some cute fabric for making a reversible apron. That's what all those fabrics in themiddle are. The pile in the back corner - the fabric for the bay window panels. The fabric in the basket on the table top - the stuff I cut out a couple of weeks ago. And the basket under the table - balled sock yarn stash. That and the wire basket of hanked sock yarn is the majority of my yarn stash.