Stitches Stitches Stitches! aka Yarn Pron Monday, Vol 4

Wow. Just wow. What a fun two days I had going to Stitches West with, of course, the OCK. Lots of walking, lots of shopping, lots of fun! On to the loots!

First up is from Catalina Yarns. This is their Sol Joy woolen spun sock yarn, 100% superwash merino wool. Colorway 804. Nice stuff, new line. Will be mass produced by the summer. I purchased this in the Adirondack Yarns booth.


Next up is some lovely yarn from Ellens Halfpint Farm. 50% merino wool, 50% tencel superwash sock yarn. They have named colors, but there aren't any color swatches loading when I visit their website so I can't tell you what the name of the colorway is! This is destined to be a shawl of some sort:

Next up is Seacoast Handmaiden sea silk yarn, which will become a scarf using the pattern provided with the skein purchase. This is the Dragonfly colorway:

Next up is some pretty variegated sock yarn from Jojoland in their Melody line:

Next is a mixture of yarns obtained from the Knitter's Studio sale bins. The purple novelty yarn is Trendsetter Yarns Aura (not scratchy!!), the orange novelty yarn is Schachenmayer Nomotta Salsa and the wound ball of variegated yarn was labeled simply as "silk". I think it is a silk/wool blend. It is very nice yarn, whatever it might be.

That is all that I can post for now. I will add the rest later when I can keep my eyes open!!

I swear she did this on her own!!

I am very amused at the moment by an email I just received from my inlaws. As I mentioned in my post earlier this morning, I sent off the Paris Whiskers & Paw Prints socks to my mother in law on Saturday. They just live in Oregon so the package arrived yesterday (I think it is too early for them to get mail today). To show how excited she was by the socks, she took a picture!!

A pic of the socks on her feet and I didn't even have to ask for it! So amusing. Although, her email was more amusing:

So I get home from a round of appointments in Eugene, and what do I find? A package! From my favorite city in California!! And inside the package are a pair of the most beautiful, soft warm socks I have ever seen, knitted perfectly in fantastic colors in an intricate pattern. I am the envy of my cold-footed neighbors. Thanks so much for all your hard work and making me feel so special. I will wear them everywhere. You will have to pry them off my feet so that they will get washed.

I am thrilled that they fit and that she is so enamored with them. Hooray, a kitting victory! I am glad that they were worth the 6 week wait.

Edit: She is cracking me up, I just got a second email from her:

They fit fine, and I LOVE the color. I am wearing them with my Birkies so I can show them off. I am telling all my friends, "Look what I have--hand-knitted socks!" And YOU don't!) They are SO envious.

Catching up!

I swear, I have a good reason for missing 2 yarn pr0n Mondays... and Valentine's Day.. and the last week... um, yeah.

I realized while I was at work last Monday that when I uploaded my finished object pics, I deleted my lovely J Knits sock yarn that I got from The Loopy Ewe (2 weeks ago now, ugh) because, well, it wasn't Monday yet! Then when I got home that night, I apparently should have cooked something at home for dinner because I came down with viral gastroenteritis from (I think) my BK burger. It seriously went down hill from there (yes, for those keeping score, I had the stomach flu for Valentine's Day. Ugh.) And then for the rest of the week, I was getting over that, going to a seminar for work, going back to work and then enjoying my 3 day President's Day weekend. And then last night, my camera batteries pooped out so those had to be recharged before I could download my pics that had been neglected for days. At any rate, things are again wonderful in the world of Teenuh!

Here is the aforementioned J Knits scrumptious sock yarn in the Maryland colorway. I bought it because the colors were so watermelony.

Let's see, then came Valentine's Day. Not much went on because I was enjoying a lovely diet of saltine crackers and Gatorade. However, I was the recipient of 2 dozen beautiful long stemmed roses. My photography skills do these no justice.

I managed to finish the 5 Hr Baby Sweater for my brand new great-nephew. I did a single crochet tie that is a double strand of the Cotton Tots variegated yarn I used for the accents. It was a nice addition, it linked the variegated yarn to the top of the sweater very nicely I think.

Both this sweater and my mother-in-law's birthday socks finally got mailed out. Hooray!

After being sick for 2 1/2 days, I got my lovely dishcloth exchange pal's gift. She made me one of my favorite cloths, Love All Around, from Harvest Moon Designs and gave me a cute little Mary Engelbreit box and some notepads with cherries on them as well as a dark purple Sugar 'n Creme yarn that I didn't have in my stash somehow.

I also finished my dishcloth exchange pal's cloth so that I could get it mailed out by the deadline. I made her the double diamond cloth from the Dishcloth Boutique (I so love round cloths!). Here is my cloth without a flash, a little blurry but I think you get to see the pattern a little more clearly than when it gets washed out with the flash. I made this out of Bernat Handicrafter Cotton in Lavender Ice.

I have the flash version of that shot on my Flickr. I think that it is better without, even being blurry. I was also not clever enough to take a pic of my entire package I sent to her. I also sent her some lovely handmade soap and a ball of my precious Sugar 'n Creme yarn in Countryside Ombre (my favorite color!).

On Saturday, I headed out with the OCK to hit The Yarn Place's 20% off sale (hooray for pre-Stitches West sales!). I took it relatively easy.. even bought some non-sock yarn (but of course I did buy some!).


This is Adagio Fingering Yarn - color 606176, Graceful Lace Yarn - color 609214, and
Clouds - color 308. I love going to the Yarn Place. They have such nice yarn that is reasonably priced and the way the colors transition is so fascinating to watch. I also bought some beads to knit with, I will likely use them on a shawl like the OCK is doing now. Mmm. Oh, and I bought the Fiber Trends pattern for felted clogs. I can't wait to give that a whirl.

So that is the wonderfulness in the world of Teenuh this week. I have been knitting Cookie's Monkey socks out of my second Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock I purchased from Knitting Arts. Some wicked pooling going on with it, but the colors are so vibrant that I am going to do my best to ignore it. Pics on that later when I have more than 4 brain cells in my head!

Only 50 hours until it's time for the Stitches marketplace to open...

Finished Object Frenzy

It's a FO frenzy around here, let's get to gazing at the photos!!

First up is the oldest of the lot. This is the Fran's baby sweater.

This was initially started for another friend who had a baby this past fall, but I took so long to get a pair of circular needles to finish it that the baby has since outgrown the size I made this sweater. This is out of Lion Brand Homespun yarn. I realized I needed a second skein (though I didn't really, I think I had enough on the first) and went out and bought another of the same dye lot. But it's quite apparent when you look at the finished sweater that... the same dye lot was not, in fact, the same color as the first. Same basic colors but one is much deeper of a hue than the other. Sigh. Oh well, only another knitter would notice, I think. (I'm telling myself this so I don't get too anxious and end up not sending this to my niece..) I finished this a while ago but for whatever stupid reason, I never got around to photographing it. I am so cool.

Next up, the Nubbins Dishcloth from Knitting In a Happy Camper. This is really actually a very simple pattern but I love the finished effect of it. The yarn is Lion Brand Lion Cotton in the Sherbet Swirl colorway:

Side view with a close up of the nubbins:

Top view:

Next up is the 5 Hour Baby Sweater in the Boy version that I knit for C-P. This is in Bernat Cotton Tots in the Blue Berry and Jelly Belly colors. I am really pleased with the variegated inset in the sleeves and the body. I probably could have started the variegated a couple of rows earlier but I think it turned out just fine in the end.


I need to add some sort of ties to the neck but I haven't yet because I wasn't sure what I wanted to go for. Ideally I would have planned ahead better and added a button hole at the top, but you can see how well that planning gig went. I will probably just crochet some cords for ties and call it a day. This needs to make its way to Atlanta before the boy outgrows it. (And that would be a shame because it feels so yummy soft.)

And last, but certainly not least, the Yarn Pirate Paris colorway Whiskers and Paw Prints socks that I knit for my mother-in-law's birthday. These are not foot modeled because I'm afraid of stretching them out abnormally before she even gets to put them on. I know they're the same number of stitches around as my socks were (they're just shorter), but I'm just paranoid and I would hate to have anything go wrong before they get to her in Oregon. Yay for these being finished. I can finally knit some socks again that aren't this pattern. (I love the pattern, don't get me wrong. It's just... four socks in a row in the same pattern can really get to a girl.)

I really, really, really love this picot edging.

Back view of the socks:

Again, I left the heel detail off the pattern because I don't know that my mil will wear these in clogs or shoes without backs on them. I don't know that the beautiful detail would be that comfortable so I left it off. These were also knit toe up as my original pair were. I just can't yet convince myself to do a top down sock. I'm sure I will eventually, I just am stubborn.

Oh, and just to show how pretty the stitches are up close, here's a closeup shot:


The final photos are of my victory that was won today over the Lloyd & Diane Love yarn. Man did this take an extraordinary amount of time to fix.

And here is the ball in its prison.


Some of the yarn on the bottom did start to slip out of the ball after I took it off the ball winder. Sigh. It will be so beautiful knit up but until then it is a menace to my stash!!

See? It is a knitting blog. And Yarn Pron Monday will only have one skein of sock yarn in it... (On the needles now is a dishcloth for my dishcloth exchange. I still haven't figured out what socks are next up. I might just bust out some socks for my mom's birthday. If I knit my mil a pair of socks, how could I *not* knit some for my own mom?!)

Stick Stuff On Your Head Day

Ok, so this is totally late and I am such a lame ass for taking so long to do it. But pretend that this was posted on the 7th and it will all be good. ;) It's Stick Stuff On Your Head Day so I got my Longhorn on!! Thanks Chris, you totally rock.



P.S. Hey Beth, I totally didn't brush my hair for my photo either. ;)

I swear this is a knitting blog not just a yarn buying blog

I really hate when computers delete crap for no reason. I just had most of a spiffy post typed out and when I went to highlight it so I could turn the font purple... it decided to erase all of my text. For no reason. Grrr.

So I came to talk about how I have finally got some FO's to post! I finished the Paris Whiskers & Paw Prints socks for my mother-in-law. I have also finished the 5 hour baby sweater for my new great nephew who was born on January 31st. I also have the Fran's Baby Sweater finished that will also go to him. Another FO I have been sitting on is a really neat dishcloth for my friend that has been done for, oh, over a month that was supposed to be her Christmas present. Ah well, she will have a nice surprise on Monday at work when I bring it to her.

Here is a pic of the cutie pie that is getting the two baby sweaters. May I introduce baby CP:

Knitting pics later when I am home and with my camera!

Yarn Pr0n Monday, Vol 3

Mmm yes. It is time for some serious yarn pr0n today. So much loveliness, so little time.

I went to the Full Thread Ahead sale during the halftime show of the Super Bowl. Thankfully the Bears scored twice in the first half so we got 45% off our purchase.

First up: Cherry Tree Hill Cascade Lace in the Sugar Maple colorway. My first laceweight yarn purchase. I am excited to make a shawl out of this, the first CTH yarn I saw was this yarn.

I also got a skein of Interlacements Toasty Toes yarn in color 410 English Garden. I am still enchanted by their dyes. I could have bought more of this yarn in a different color very easily.

Next up is Misti Alpaca 100% Baby Alpaca chunky yarn in color 701. This stuff is very lovely.

I also purchased Cascade Yarns Sassy Stripes yarn in color 715. This was bought to be turned into socks for my hubby:


I also bought some of this delicious Cyprus Mohair yarn (color 11101). This stuff is 85% acrylic, 15% mohair. We had been wondering about it pilling with so much acrylic content but the floor sample scarf didn't seem to be knit and I'm sure that we weren't the only ones groping it so it probably will hold up without too much unwanted fuzzing.


And last but not least, I bought 8 skeins of Vickie Howell's Love yarn from SWTC. At 45% off, I just couldn't resist getting a skein of most of the colors!! Shown below, top row (L-R): Ennis & Jack, Andi & Blaine, June & Johnny. Bottom Row (L-R): Jack & Sally, Joel & Clementine, Mulder & Scully, Peter & Mary Jane.

Yes, that is only 7 skeins pictured. The 8th is in emergency balling hell. This stuff is so slippery. I was dropping skeins all over the store. Every time I heard someone say "Did someone drop this skein of Love?" I knew it was me. This one was, at one point, about 7 feet away from me with a trail of yarn leading to my arms. This is the Lloyd & Diane colorway:

I hit a knot in the skein and I'm stumped how to untangle it. My elbow is still quite sore from having my purse draped off it, so I'm not quite prepared to sit and futz with un-knotting the skein. I am sure there is more un-knotting to be done in another couple of twists of the ballwinder. Ugh.

I believe the Love yarn is destined for scarves. I will use some of it in a multi-color scarf I think. The colors all work so well together. I would love to knit this into an Argosy scarf, though it will have to be multi-colored since the scarf takes ~280 yards and the Love skeins are only 90ish yards. Vickie also posted her ascot pattern on her blog today. I will possibly (probably) turn one of the skeins into one of these. Not that I think it will necessarily fit ME, I think it would make a nice present.

So that's the end of my Super Bowl sale purchases. I am quite in love with the yarn I purchased. I can hardly wait to get knitting on it. First I must finish the Paris socks however. Then I knit other yummy things.

My postman was also very good to me today. I got my February yarn of the month from Posh Yarn. Again in their Lucia line, this color is "Kiss Me". It's a very soft pastel colored yarn. I am looking forward to basking in these yummy socks.


I wait with baited breath for my first Socks that Rock yarn club yarn to come in. Mmm. Sock yarn...

Vickie Howell Rocks!!

I am a bit tardy in posting this but I was sick the weekend before last with bronchitis and my brain has been sort of slow to defog itself.

Thankfully I was mostly over my bronchitis by Wednesday night when the OCK and I headed up to Full Thread Ahead in Los Altos to attend Vickie Howell's yarn tasting and book signing. FTA worked with SWTC to get in all of Vickie's yarn (Craft, Rock and Love produced by South West Trading Company) by the event and man is this stuff excellent. I love the entire line, most especially the Love line. Soo silky soft and yummy. This one was by far my favorite of the three, though I would love to knit with all of them. They did a really excellent job with the dyes on all three lines. They are very beautiful, rich colors. Being the varigated fan that I am, I cannot wait for them to produce a multi-color yarn but I am pleased as punch with the colors they have to start (as you will see when I get to posting my Super Bowl sale yarn..). After we got to hear about how the show is done and what she is up to lately, we got the chance to get her to sign her books that are out. I purchased her most recent book, Knitty Gritty Knits: 25 Fun & Fabulous Projects and got her to sign it. She is absolutely delightful to meet and she is doing awesome things for knitting. I was initially unsure if I wanted to head up to FTA on a weeknight but I am absolutely pleased as punch that I did.

(Special thanks to OCK for taking a pic of me and Vickie since I was too lazy to take my new camera to the event!!)