Starting the New Year off right

Last night I was watching Ace of Cakes on Food Network, and Duff’s crew made a yarn basket cake with balls of yarn and knitted things for a lady’s 90th birthday. Probably the coolest cake I’ve ever seen!

To celebrate New Years, my friend Katie and I hit up the two yarn shops in the Seattle area that were actually open on the holiday. Both were having sales, of course, and Katie (who is a relatively new knitter) experienced Crazy Knitter Syndrome for the first time ever. The first shop we stopped at had opened it’s doors maybe ten or fifteen minutes before we got there, and the place was already super packed. Katie was a bit overwhelmed, so I bought what I had been able to snatch up and we headed to the next shop. Luckily, we made it there a few minutes before they opened, and we were two of the ten or so people who were waiting at the front door. Sweet.

I enhanced my stash with yarns that weren’t actually on sale (doh!) but that I’ve been itching to get my hands on for quite a while. First up was some Malabrigo Lace:

Quite possibly some of the softest bit of fluff I’ve ever held. The colors remind me of a beautiful summer day in the Pacific Northwest. Love it.

Next up is a yarn that I’ve been eyeing since I first held it at Madrona last year: Kauni.

I’ve been thinking about delving into the world of fair isle knitting, and I think the Kauni will push me over the edge. I’m eyeing Ruth Sørensen’s hats as my first fair isle projects.

So yes, not as many additions to my stash as the last major stash enhancement mission, but I think Katie’s official initiation into the Wide World of Knitting really made the day. We got her started on her first hat when we got home, and I also have her on the invitation wait list for Ravelry. We’ve already agreed that I created a monster today. Mission complete!

What’s new on the needles

My knitting ADD has struck again. I’ve been finishing projects, but I’ve also been casting on new ones at an alarming rate! My boss has commissioned me for another scarf; she bought the yarn (Beaded Rhapsody by Artyarns and Kidsilk Haze by Rowan) and I picked out the pattern and will knit it up (Brambler, a lacy concoction from Anne). I was on my second pattern repeat when I screwed something up, and I decided to rip it out and start over. My gauge was a little tight, too. The second time has been the charm so far. I’m not the biggest fan of the Beaded Rhapsody, though. It’s absolutely gorgeous, but knitting with it has been absolutely frustrating. Ripping it out was no picnic. No pics yet, hopefully will get some soon.

I’ve also started another pair of socks, because really, how can I go so long without having a pair of socks on my needles?!

For Christmas, my boy got me a gift certificate to one of my favorite LYS’s, Hilltop Yarn (such a good lad). At first, I was planning on stocking up on some Hazel Knits sock yarn, but their selection was sadly lacking. I made one quick pass through the store, thinking I would just save the certificate until they had stocked up again, but then I saw some
Wasonga superwash merino sitting on a table. I couldn’t help it. It was $40 for one skein, but I couldn’t help it. By 5 am the next morning, I had picked out a little lacy nothing and finished several pattern repeats.

It’s really difficult to capture the true colors in this yarn. But trust me, it’s purty! And this pattern is so fun, I can literally stay up all night and work on it without getting bored. Love. It. Actually, I just realized that all of my new projects are Knitspot creations. I can blame her for my lack of sleep while I work on all of these…

Public Knitting

Happy Knit in Public Day! I was going to head over to Greenlake today to knit with a group of Seattle knitters, but I realized early on this morning that I wasn’t up for meeting a bunch of strangers. I don’t know, maybe subconsciously I knew I would be around a ton of people tonight at the graduation party I’m going to, and the bit of myself that’s introverted wanted to spend the morning alone. Ah, me.

So I went to the coffee shop to knit instead.

Afterwards, I went to the Weaving Works to drool over some yarn, and I picked up a little somethin’ somethin’ for myself. I’ve been good about not spending any money on yarn since I moved, and I decided to reward myself. One of the employees there was expertly drop spinning away, and I got to have a nice chat with her about it. I bought a drop spindle and some roving a while back to give it a shot, and my first attempt was absolutely horrid. (I won’t even post a picture here, it was that bad.) But after watching this lady spin away, I was inspired and decided to give it another shot.

We’ll see how it goes!

Socks!

One FO to report, as well as a work in progress!

Pattern: Toasty Tootsies by Allena Williams (Ravel that sucker!)
Yarn: Wooly Singles from Angora Valley Fibers

This is only the second felting project I’ve ever done, and the first wasn’t something fitted. I wasn’t sure these gigantic socks I was knitting would shrink down to the size I needed them to be, but three cycles in the washing machine took care of that! I think these will be the perfect size for the recipient and her chilly toes. (Seriously, people asked me if I was knitting socks for Shrek. They were ginormous.)

I’ve started another pair of socks:

I confess, I’m on an Anne Hanson kick. Her patterns are just so beautiful, and I knew as soon as I saw these socks that I had to knit them. The yarn is from Fearless Fibers, and I am loving it! The colorway is just so beautiful; everyone who sees me working on these gushes over the colors.

See that lovely little pouch that my sock project is in? It’s my first (and certainly not my last) sock pouch made by Satomi. It’s the perfect size to carry sock projects in, and I absolutely love it! Check out her Etsy shop, and let her know that I sent you. Us Seattle girls gotta stick together!

Controlled Mayhem

Last weekend was the ginormous post-fire sale at Hilltop Yarn, and I’m still overwhelmed just thinking about it! It was absolutely amazing; the line just to get in the store was going down the block when I got there 10 minutes after they opened the door at 11 am, and I didn’t get rung up and out the door with my loot until around 3:30 pm. The lines were long and plentiful.

We are knitters and hookers, however, so we all had deep reserves of patience to dip into to survive the wait.

I was able to snatch up some lovely yarn and notions, so it was definitely a Saturday well spent, despite the controlled mayhem. (Yes, it was controlled mayhem. Trust me.) At one point, I just put my basket of yarn in one of the classrooms upstairs and went to Tully’s to knit while I waited for the line to go down. While there, I ran into a fellow sock knitter, who revealed the secret of knitting socks on circulars. Seriously, this whole idea has been confounding me for quite a while, and tonight I finally got the chance to give it a try.

So far, it’s been a trial getting used to the metal needles. The ladies at the Fiber Gallery talked me into these over the bamboo, and when they were backed up by a couple of other customers in the store, I felt I had to give them a try. One of the reasons I hate metal is because I can’t for the life of me keep the stitches from slipping off. This is the problem I had when my mom first tried to teach me to knit when I was younger; my stitches would slip off the metal needles, and my tension was far too tight. My tension problems were solved long ago, but the slick metal needles are still my foe. However, these socks (my first Socks that Rock, yay!) are flying along so quickly, which totally makes up for the occasional stitch I have to save from possible suicide off the needles. Don’t get me wrong, I still love knitting on my wooden dpns. But when I need to whip up some socks in a (relative) flash, I think circulars might be the way to go.