I'm on a bit of a yarn high right now. I just got back from Loop, a LYS in Philadelphia, where I bought five skeins of Blue Sky Alpaca's Alpaca Silk in peacock to make the Lacy Hug-Me-Tight from Knit 2 Together. The yarn is gorgeous and soft and the color is incredibly vibrant. Most of the knitting is just a big rectangle of K2, P2 rib, but I figure that won't get too boring given the monumental amount of baseball I will be watching during the post-season. I have a bit more than a month to finish this, if I want to give it to my Mom for her birthday, and I do. But I'm not going to pressure myself too much, if it's not done by her birthday it'd be a fine Hannukah present, and if it's not done by then it'd be a great Monther's Day gift.

Speaking of LYS, I find that I like Loop a lot better than the store right around the corner. I'm more comfortable there, and I feel like people are happy to talk to me. I think I may go there for most of my knitting needs in Philly.

Oh, and in other news. I finally sent of the Linus baby blanket to its intended recipient. Go me! It's only a year and a month late.

I have jury duty tomorrow. It will likely be quite boring. So I bought some new sock yarn (Louet Gems Pearl) in a lovely, pale pink and cast on for Cookie A's Baudelaire socks. They are lacy and pretty. The figure eight cast on nearly gave me a coniption, but I finally figured it out, and now I have the definite start to a sock. I'm a bit unsure about the size of the sock though. The largest size has a 8.5" foot circumferance, and when I measured around my instep I got 9". So we'll see how this goes. I mean, I only have a size 8.5 foot, I shouldn't have to make the largest size.

I have also finally conqured my fear of sweaters and cast on for my Something Green. I'm about halfway through with the initial raglan shaping, and I'm loving it. It's such a neat way to increase. I'm knitting on size 8's (7's are recommended, but I'm a super tight knitter) and the yarn is just so lofty and squishy that it's almost hard to work with. Especially since I'm working with sock and laceweight yarn for my other projects.

I have successfully avoided SSS and I'm about halfway through my second sock. I had some problems picking up stiches, for some reason I was knitting from the wrong side of the sock (ie I would have had to purl every stich on every row for the rest of the sock). I fixed that, although I don't know if I did it right. Eh, it still looks like a sock.

I finished the second clue of the Mystery Stole and it's looking good. It's so satisfying, especially the purl rows, because I can just watch my hands. I'm using Addi Lace needles and I like them, but they're a bit too grippy for tinking. Sometimes I find that getting the stiches back onto the needle can be difficult.

I finished the Branching Out for Millie and I think she loved it. I've taken a bunch of pictures of different projects to post on Ravelry, and I really like having them up. Since I give so many of them away it's nice to have some of them preserved.

Oops. I think I turned my heel inside out. It looked like a triangle and it just didn't seem like the right thing to be doing. So I took a look online. The decreases were running towards the center of the work, instead of slanting towards the edges. So I ripped it out and put the stiches back on my needles, I didn't even drop any. I'll try again tomorrow.

I realize that if I was a proper blogger I would have taken a picture, to explain my mistake, but I was too annoyed to think properly when I realized my mistake. I'm just not a Knitter yet, not with a capital K, for further proof, see this afternoon. I went into a yarn store and didn't buy anything!

I have started my heel flap! I'm using the Yarn Harlot's sturdy heel, which has right-side rows as Slip 1, k1 all the way across. And I'm not sure if I'm doing it right. Or rather, I'm pretty sure I'm slipping correctly I just don't understand why that would make the heel sturdier. Eh, we'll see. I bought some more sock yarn yesterday because I wanted to buy some yarn and I couldn't find it in me to spend much money. Sock yarn to the rescue.

Also I bought an Addi Turbo Lace #4 circular, so my mystery stole should start to grow. I'm hoping to get some quality time to work on the stole when I'm at home. It's just so cool to see it developing. Of course, I need to print out the rest of the charts (I forgot to do that at work) but I've barely started Chart 2 from the first clue, so I don't need to worry about that just yet.

I just uttered the phrase "It's not like I need more yarn." I do believe I'm about to be struck my lightning. The thing is...I'm not a fully fledged, Knitting with a capital K type knitter. I like to knit, I've been knitting for years, but I don't always have a project with me, or even on the needles. I realize, since joining Ravelry and reading through the entire back archives of several KnitBlogs, I'm being a bit of a poser. I want to get more into knitting. It's wierd. The thing is, I'm honestly too cheap to stash. The prospect of all sheep going bald is not frightening to me, as my favorite fibers are cotton and silk. I am very, very cheap. And I don't knit very fast. So I buy yarn as I decide on projects to make. And knowing that I'm currently working on four (with another one to rip out and restart) and I've got another two projects worth of yarn coming to me, I can't imagine the need to buy more yarn. And if I go to a yarn store, I probably will. Because I feel guilty for going and not buying. But then I regret it, because I didn't need it, and I likely did not have a pattern for it and it will therefore not be used. So I think I'm going to skip the yarn sale at Yarn Connection. Unless they're having a 50% off sale, in which case I'm buying some Handmaiden SeaSilk, because I'm becoming obsessed with that stuff.

In other news, I'm two-and-a-half inches into my socks. I worked on them last night, and during my morning knitting time, and while talking to friends after work and during the Wii tournament we had at work. I'm loving the yarn (both the colors and the fact that it's not bothering my hands) but the double points are rather tricky. I've avoided laddering by working the first two stiches on the current needle with the previous needle before moving on to the working needle. That way the stiches at the edge keep changing. Between my awkwardness with the double pointeds and my insane inability to hold onto the free needle, I really think I need to learn magic loop. Maybe on the next pair.

I really want to be working on my socks right now. And I have my stuff with me, but I can't because I have a clear glass door which will totally not hide my yarn involvement from those passing by. I want to work on my socks!

I did it! I started my first sock! I'm using Tofutsies yarn from South West Trading Company in a sort of tweedy, variegated, grey/blue/brown. It's 50% Superwash Wool, 25% Soysilk, 22.5% cotton and 2.5% Chitin. I'm using Yarn Harlot's "Good, Plain Sock" non-pattern pattern. I'm using size 3 needles (American sizing) and I think I'm getting around 8 stiches to the inch. Using the four DPNs is getting easier as I get farther in, though it's kinda hard to see progress given the tiny stiches. But I'm super excited. Probably way more excited than is merited, but I'll take my happies where I can get them.

Also, I'm not finding any discomfort with using this half-wool yarn, and I'm hoping that this means my historic wool allergy will not interfere with my knitting and stash aquisition.

Stash Enhancement

I have been listening to the Yarn Harlot's audio books, and I have been struck (as I've mentioned before) by my serious lack of stash. I am one of those knitters who buys yarn specifically for a project. The project may be put off into the future, and I may have several going at once, but I really don't have much, if any, un-project promised yarn about. So I thought to myself, I haven't really bought any yarn this summer, and I deserve yarn. I'm finishing up work next week and I'd like to buy something for myself to celebrate (ignore all the BPAL I splurged on, it doesn't count).

I'm still not comfortable with aquiring yarn without a planned pattern (unless it's a 2,000+ cone of laceweight) for fear that I won't have enough when I finally decide to use it. So today I compromised on my stash aquisition. I bought two projects worth of yarn and I already have the patterns. I bought three skeins of SWTC bamboo in white to make a Lotus Blossom Tank and seven skeins of Blue Sky Alpaca dyed cotton in green to make Something Red. I'm really, really excited. I can't wait to get my yarn. Sure, I have three projects currently on the needles and a fourth that needs to be partly ripped and redone, but I want to play with new patterns and new yarn. Plus, they'll both be for me. Rather unusual.

I'm going to have to play around with both patterns though, adding a bit of length but knitting a different size beneath the bustline then above. We'll see how this works out.

Frogging

I did a lot of knitting last night. I knit on my mystery stole from 6-7, and then I went downstairs to work on my baby blanket (which is coming along so fast and even though it's very basic, I love it) and watch the Yankees (who won, yay!) and after the game I took up my stole again. And a couple of rows into it I had the wrong number of stiches. I couldn't figure out where I had gained one, so I started tinking back. And then something happened. I took out the closest life-line in an attempt to pick the stiches back up (I know, stupid) and that didn't work. So I had to rip back to the previous life-line (I put them in pretty often, at every new border bead row) and then pick the stiches back up. It wasn't easy. Or pretty. I think I may be back on row 71 or so, and I'm not sure if I'm going to try it again tonight. Even with the ripping I did make some progress last night, which was good. But I think I've learned my lesson, no lace right before bed, I'm too tired not to fuck it up.

In other frogging news, I tried to add the crochet border on my Soleil tank last weekend. And I realized that little holes I made while decreasing along the right strap become much more obvious when I crochet into them. It actually is a cute effect and I'd keep it, if the left side matched. It doesn't. I think I know what I did wrong though - before I started Branching Out I assumed that SSK was the same thing as Sl1K1PSSO. It's not. So I think I'm going to rip out the right strap and reknit it using the correst SSK. Maybe that will prevent the holes. Of course, I'm not entirely sure when I'm going to do this...maybe before next summer?

I finally did it. I caved. This morning I was playing around on etsy...and I bought a spindle and some roving.

I am so excited! I've been wanting to learn to spin for a couple of months (feels longer though) and now I can actually experiment! I'm hoping that I'm not too awful and that my wool sensitivity won't act up too much. Apparently it's easier to learn on wool, and everyone loves it so much that I feel like I should love it too. But I can't love it if it makes me all itchy and blotchy. My fingers are crossed.

I think the package is going to be sent priority tomorrow, which means I may have it by Friday. My only dissapointment is that I'll probably be in Fairfield this weekend, so I won't be able to play with the spindle.

Dude. This is so exciting.

Knittin' in the Mornin'

Since coming to London I've been knitting a lot in the morning. Well, not that much, but I'm giving myself about an hour to get ready and get to work, and since the commute is about 5 minutes (including picking up a blueberry muffin from Starbucks) I have a lot of extra time. Which means I average around 2-3 rows on my Linus blanket every morning. And I really like having such a simple, soothing knit for the mornings. The pattern is meditative in its simplicity, the yarn feels good (it's Caron Simply Soft and it makes a really squishy, lovely fabric in this pattern) and I can really see my progress. This blanket is something I'd like to wrap my baby in, if I had a baby to wrap. I'm really liking the way the sky blue, navy blue and lemon yellow work together (though the navy blue is oddly more matte than the other two - could be a dye issue). I'm not looking forward to weaving in the ends, so I'll be weaving them in as I go, once I get back to the same continent as my yarn needles.

In future I think I'm going to try to have some easy, happy project to work on in the mornings, it's a good way to start my day. (We'll see if this lasts after I get back to NY.)

I need to learn to knit and read at the same time. My Grama used to do it, so I know it's not impossible. I'm not entirely sure what kind of thing I'd have to rig up to make it possible but it would totally improve my quality of life. I've gone the audio book route, and while I do love that, I really like the visual act of reading. Besides audiobooks are a bit pricey.

Post the First

I have no stash. Ok, that's not entirely true. I have two (or possibly three) skeins of Manos de Uruguay cotton in a pretty purple and two cones of ColourMart silk in cobweb weight. Apparently this is nothing. Having read through the entirety of Yarn Harlot's archives, as well as Wendy's, I realize that something is missing in my life. And that's stash yarn. I have no stash yarn.

Oh, wait, I just remembered. I have 10 or 11 balls of Rowan Calmer that I had intended to make my first sweater with. But I then abandoned that project because I was too scared to make a full on sweater and made a Soleil shell instead. Which is almost done. So maybe I shall actually start that Rowan sweater this time.

But still. My stash is pitifully small. And perhaps some would consider this to be a triumph of actually finishing projects and an economical use of my yarn budget (although honestly I don't really have a yarn budget, I just buy yarn when I start a new project and whince when I see the price tag). But now I want to have a stash. I want sock yarn of many colors. Which means I should probably learn to knit socks.