Stitch 'n' Sip

Our local group of knitters went to a little get-together thing at Eric's house yesterday

It turns out that people don't drink or eat that much when they're knitting. But it was a great time anyway!

You know, I had my camera with me the whole time but I kept forgetting to take it out and get some pictures of the party. whoops. I should have Kinneared everyone.

Our local chapter of Project Linus put out a request for some Colt's colors blankets. Peyton Manning and some other Colts players will be handing them out at a local hospital.

We pooled some yarn and this is what we came up with yesterday. I'm hoping we have enough for 2 blankets eventually.

Incidentally, my daughter who is autistic got a Project Linus blanket at the end of a special needs camp this summer. She chose a nice thick quilty PINK one, and she loves it! It was really awesome to see all these special kids get their own blanket and walk away with it. They were all full of smiles. It's a great charity so if you have some extra yarn or fabric, go make a blanket!

I was going to finish the Noro longies but after doing only a couple rounds and making a mistake before I'd even had a drink, I decided to put them away for some plain knitting.

I cast this sock on at Eric's and this is how far I got. I haven't made a plain sock in so long, I'm impressed with how fast it went! And I really like the colors together. Go Gryffindor!

While I didn't drink a LOT... I did have a couple margaritas and a beer so I decided it best not to try to turn the heel, so instead I cast on this scarf for aforementioned daughter (did I mention she likes pink a LOT?)

It's impossible to photograph this particular pink. It's neon but not as amorphously bright as it looks. And it changes colors a bit, though of course all I got through was the really bright part. It's better in person. This is that yarn that was originally $32 and I got it free. I love free!

Not bad for 1 day! I was there from about 4-10:30? more or less. I also wound up a couple skeins of laceweight and stopped to eat occasionally. It was great, and after I got home I didn't have to frog anything (even better!)

Stitches 'n' Scones booty

I went with DD and my friend Angela and her daughter to Stitches 'n' Scones this morning for the big sale. They give away 75 gift bags, first come first served. So we were there when they opened (but we weren't the first).

Here's what we came up with....

The pink fluff on the left was in my goody bag. I has a tag on it that says Yarn Baby and nothing else. The original price on it (which I didn't realize until I got home) was $32!? I really like the yarn, and I picked it to make a very very pink scarf for my special needs DD2 who love love loves pink. But still.... $32?! Shouldn't it be cashmere or something?

The fiber on the top is Fleece Artist Merino. C picked out the greenish one, I picked the pink. Those weren't on sale but they were still a great price.

The middle stuff was in the clearance section and my yarn pusher friend Angela and some other yarn pusher friends talked me into buying it. It *was* a really good deal, but I still felt guilty because it was NOT for *ANYTHING* in my queue and I'd made a rule about that. But, it was really cheap and it was pink (and DD2 really really REALLY loves pink... did I mention?)

The fluffy ball on the bottom right was in DD2's gift bag. I have no idea what she's going to do with it, it'll probably be a scarf some day, but she's a bigger collector of fiber than a knitter of fiber. (I don't have *any* idea where she might have gotten that trait from.)

The really dark green and grey balls are wool for a Dark Mark scarf. I've been looking for the perfect colors for that, and I haven't wanted most of the greens I've seen. That one is almost black it's so dark. I love it. (It's Galway, btw).

And the red and yellow balls are Fortissima Socka, for Gryffindor socks, of course!

All that was $65, which is cheap but I was feeling guilty about it until I got home and saw my very first license purchase in my in box... yipee! So I came out pretty good for the day, not quite even, but I'm very happy. And now I wish I hadn't put back that gorgeous lavender wool from the clearance rack that I just wanted to cuddle with.

Hedera

I finished Hedera socks a few days ago but had to get help for the photo shoot.

In honor of the absurd pictures on the pattern...
Because the upside-down, sandal wearing photo showcases the knitting *so* well...

They really are SO much better than they look on the pattern pictures.

And believe it or not, I didn't alter them. Well there are a few less repeats in the ankle, because I like shorter socks, but, that doesn't even really count.

The yarn is really so very cool. It's Vlnap a.s. Sockenwolle Unipo Superwash, and I don't know where I got it. It is actually mostly purple and green and not really very blue at all.

To Janet

Who said in the comments:

"I KNEW that ultramerino was what you were wanting for Fawkes!"

I say:

Yes but did you also know that I would get it home and then decide that it wasn't really quite the right color and have to re-dye it?

I wrapped it around some canisters carefully to match the colors up again.

Both skeins re-skeined with the colors matching. See it's too *pink*
There it is after dipping half of it into some red. I *love* it now...

Conversation in our house the other day

The first full day of school for my older kids, I want to take my 4 year old out for the day.

Me: First we're going to the yarn store and then we're going to go to the play ground.

DS: But why are we going to the yarn store?

Me: To get yarn. (Duh ,right?)

DS: (Gesturing wildly) But we already have ALL these yarns around here!?

He spent the whole car trip there telling me about how we already have Yarns, we don't want any new Yarns, there's no place to put any more Yarns, we can't possibly need more Yarns.

And to those of you thinking he just wanted to go to the playground, he didn't. He didn't even want to go to the playground after we left the yarn store (he did enjoy it once we got there though!). No, he just couldn't wrap his brain around the idea of more yarn.

My son doesn't get me....

Finish and Start

The OVERWHELMING response to the Noro longies was keep going with the stripes, so I did. I'll post them Sunday hopefully. They're looking pretty cool, thanks for the advice!

So I'm on this big push to reduce the number of WIPs in my Ravelry page.

These are Caitie's tube socks. They're more like slipper socks. I started them early last spring. A lot of my hibernating projects are cool weather projects and it got too hot for me to want to finish them.

Made out of cheap acrylic yarn that she liked. No idea where I got it.

She loves them, and has slept in them twice since I finished them.

There was a little drama in the finishing. I went out with a friend for coffee last Sunday and decided to take them with me to finish.

The needles weren't in them but I was pretty sure I was working them on 3's, so I took them with me and worked on them for a while.

4 inches later I discovered something critical. Just because you use your needles so much that the writing rubs off doesn't mean the mm on there that you can't see anymore doesn't matter.

Size 3 needles and 3 mm needles are not the same thing.

But, they're finished now. And I had coffee with a dear friend, and I was knitting. so it wasn't like it was time wasted.

These washcloths are lovely and addictive until you've made 5. I'm pretty sure they wear off after 5. I had to force myself to finish the second one of these.

I'm just not as charmed by the simple and lovely pattern now. I still really like them, but, well I've made 5. And actually I really want a black one. I think what's fun about them is seeing what the color combinations will come out like, but then once you do 4 inches you know what they look like....
Last weekend I went to the Knit Stop because they were having a sale.

Ended up without any sale yarn (1/2 price). I kept picking it up and putting it back. I do not need more yarn that doesn't go with projects I already have in mind. And I have 148 projects in mind. (How shocking is THAT to know?!) SO I'm sticking with those. 150, yep, that's my limit. Err, maybe 160. But that's all.

So I got this Baby Alpaca for Branching Out, which I'm making for my mom's birthday, in November.

And some Cascade 220, boring, but I needed it for something. This is the insanely too tight ball that they wound for me. I've already re-wound it, I couldn't stand it. Be nice to the wool!

Today I met my long lost friend Julie who moved to Texas at Mass ave and got this.

The green Flake Cotton was recommended by Susan as a substitute for Euroflax in the Dragon Skin wand holder from Charmed Knits. I'm just not going to knit a wand holder with Euroflax. I like the skin on my hands where it is.

The other is Artyarns Ultramerino for the Fawkes socks.

It is taking ever ounce of will power in me not to completely drop my other projects and start those Right. Now.

And can I just say how very much more I like Mass Ave than Knit Stop. Seriously. Worth the drive in the wrong direction from everything else.