knit1frog2

tweed can be soft

Sometimes it's easier to just knitknitknit than stop to take pictures, resize the image for the web, upload the image, code the image, post the image.  So that's what I've been doing, knitting.  Of course as I was taking photos of some recent knitting, it made me wonder what other people out there were doing the exact same thing on a Saturday morning...taking pictures of their knitting...funny thought, eh?

Did anyone else living in my city go to WW and use the 20% coupon?  It was valid thru yesterday.  I totally spaced and forgot that I had put some skeins of Karabella Soft Tweed on the hold shelf!!  I have been looking at this yarn for I don't know how long.  Z can attest to that fact.  I have never felt a softer tweed...ever.  I have been thinking about it ever since I first felt the swatch (though not with my face, thankyouverymuch).  I am not kidding.  I have thought about this yarn a LOT.  It is soft, tweedy AND light.  I really think this is what I'm going to knit the UA with.  I'm going to knit up a swatch tonight.

x13 (hover over for close up)

See what I mean?  It is lovely.  I think my dad would have liked it.

a little trip

The day was so overcast today and now it's pouring...I managed to get out and run all of my errands just before it started to rain.  What timing!  Now for a little recap.

What's a girl to do on a rainy day, except to put her Sockapaloozas on for an errand run?

First off, who knew that Kirkland had such a nice post office?  I didn't.  Also, big-up to the signage people who have marked our little town noting which way each point of interest is.  I thought I had an idea of where the post office was, until I realized that I was still too far North.  Sure enough, those little blue signs with the arrows pointed the way very clearly!  I half expected a townsperson from Oz to pop up from the brush with a little flower on their head...follow the little blue signs...!

After that I headed across the bridge to Weaving Works.  I have had a $20 punchcard burning a hole in my wallet for months and I've always wanted a pink sweater.  Yes.  Pink.  When I got close, I saw there was some kind of fair going on.  Great.  I thought it would be packed at the yarn store (yeah what? no idea why I thought this.).  There were 2 other cars in the lot besides me.  yay!

So...

I <3 my sockapalooza socks!

Um.  Have you seen the new Rowan Cocoon?!!  My god.  I wanted to put every single skein into my bag and run out of the store.  Seriously.  (I didn't.) This stuff is so amazingly soft (and yes expensive)...3sts of glorious, soft sheen.  yum.  I am dreaming of what I can make with it right now.  Oh, and um, faggoting.  Excuse me?!  Did you know that this is a basic lace stitch?!  The things one learns at the LYS.  Thanks to Barbara Walker's Treasury of course.

I did pick up the above yarn for a sweater that I've been knitting away on this evening.  I really needed a sweater that wasn't so involved.  That and I needed something besides the CNR to work on.  I've been pretty monogamous with that sweater for long enough (ha!).

While I was in the neighborhood, I couldn't drive home w/o stopping at Acorn Street first, right?  I wanted to see whether they also carried Karabella, alas, no.  But then again, I really shouldn't be buying more yarn when I have so much stashed already...right?  Argh. 

Although at WW, I heard a woman say she printed out her coupon from the web and I perked up.  WHAT?!!  Sure enough, I searched my mail and found the coupon.  yay!  20% off.  I may go back tomorrow.

7 sts on the bottom and 6 on the top

artyarns

I've always wanted to try Artyarns Supermerino4!  I can't tell you how many times I've looked at it, wondered how it would knit up, put it in my shopping cart and then moved along to something else w/o ordering...

Well, lucky me, Dani sent some in my Sockapalooza4 box!  Perfect colors for me to boot.  Check it out, doesn't it look yummy?  Z asked for a closer look...

It's really softie.

I somehow however, torqued my wrist really badly on Monday. I'm not exactly sure what the heck I did, but OMG my wrist hurts!!  I could barely hold a pen yesterday.  When I went to write my sockpal a note to include in the package, my writing was so wonky!!  I swear I wasn't drunk or anything...really.

This does mean though that I should probably rest it and not knit...at least for today... ^_~

gorgeous

Have you seen anything lovelier??

I haven't.

Picked these up from Z yesterday...she almost didn't give them up. Now I can see why. Puck's Mischief (medweight) and Rolling Stone (lightweight) are amazing...simply amazing STR yarn.  I don't know how they get the vibrancy in their yarns, but I am glad they've figured out how to do this!  Here's to hoping the lightweight isn't cumbersome (finer yarn = smaller stitch gauge)...but at least it will be pretty to look at while knitting!

Who wants some socks?

too hot for anything

OMG.  It is 87° outside and almost the same temperature inside my abode.  It's way too hot to do much of anything not to mention knit with heavy wool.  Today may be the day to start on a cardi...perhaps of this:

cracksilk in Meadow

Ahhhh isn't it such a pretty color? I adore that color and I think it will look nice in sweater form!  I'm planning on the Grannie Smith cardigan linked over there in the RH nav pane.  Or perhaps I will start the cardigan out of the Trance colored CSH.  hmmm, so many options!

One other thing, I had always wondered how quickly my nails grew.  Remember that disastrous day when I broke my nail into the quick??  Well take a look today...

almost completely grown out!!

There is a tiny tiny part that still needs to grow out, but didn't that seem fast?!  The last little reminders of the superglue and entire incident.  I wholeheartedly recommend China Silk when/if your nail breaks...that and superglue.  ^__^

Okay, off to sit in front of the fan now...

what's that sound?

I was awoken by this sound.  It was kind of a fluttering sound.  I wasn't quite sure what it was...could it be the fan making something move on the table?  I finally opened my eyes...walked over and opened the blinds.  argh.  It was POURING rain and the window was open.  THAT was the sound.  So much for a cardio jaunt around the neighborhood.  Rain, however is good for knitting!

Side note:  awoken is a word.  I dated a guy once who made fun of it all day long after I said it until I showed him in a dictionary that it did indeed exist.  As you can imagine, that relationship didn't last long.  I digress...

Thankfully the rain tapered off, but by that time, I was already on 520 heading across the bridge.  That last curvy bit where it hooks around past the U and goes to join I-5, there was a car...pretty banged up just around the curve.  How fast must this car have been GOING?!  I mean seriously, the front hood looked like an accordian and it was almost perpendicular to the curve AND us (scary!).  At least the barrier prevented it from actually breaking through and off the edge to plummet to the ground below.  The car was empty, the ambulance must've come and gone minutes before we all got there b/c the traffic hadn't backed up yet...we all got through with no problem and there was only one cop car with its lights flashing and one lane was completely open.

Up the hill I drove to the top of Queen Anne.  I arrived at HT-QA a little after it opened...thought it would be more crowded since there was a sale.  I was once again the 2nd person in the store.  They had signs by the yarn that was on sale.  This was a bit confusing of course...did it pertain to the yarn above the sign?  Below the sign?  "Near" the sign?  Was it the yarn that was used to knit the finished items that the sign was "sitting by" on the shelf? I had to ask about the Rowan room, b/c you know, that could make a big difference.  While I hadn't initially wanted to buy felted tweed, would I consider it now since it could be 20% off?  Of course, silly! ^_^ 

Well guess what.  I got the 3 skeins of cracksilk that I need for the kelly cardi for 20% off and it was the same dyelot and everything.  yay for that!  I wonder how all of that works.  How many skeins are manufactured in one dyelot...do they send similar dyelots to stores in the same city to make it easier for us knitters?

I needed one more ball of Rowan felted tweed in Herb for yet another project (all that previous talk about the stripes was still on my brain.  Be one with the stripe! ^_~), but they didn't have it.  They called the Eastside store and amazingly they had one.  When I got to the store, they told me it was a fluke that it was there.  The woman who returned it, did so yesterday and there was a debate whether to accept the return since they didn't have any to match the dyelot...lucky for me they did.  HT-E wasn't nearly as crowded as I thought it would be/should be for a yarn sale.  Then again, maybe a lot of people are out of town on holiday?  I did walk the store to see what was on sale.  There was this most beautiful couple of hanks of this cashmere stuff...my favorite colors too...bright magenta pink, lighter pink and chocolate...and it was 10% off.  I looked at the price.  Um.  $48 and only 10% off?  No thanks, but thanks for playing.  Since I had no project for it, there was no way I was going to pick that up.  See?  I do have SOME restraint!  I know you wouldn't think so after seeing what went in the bag...

for an upcoming project...

Oooh.  The colors look good together in this picture.  That makes me feel good.  It was a completely on-the-spur-of-the-moment-planning-session at the store.  The sweater that the beautiful yarn is for is knit in purples, reds and pink.  While I like pink, I'm not a huge fan of heathered purples and burgundy together.  I think I need a nap now.

yarny day

I swear I did many many thorough searches about the Kelly cardigan sweater by Erika Knight and I could NOT find the yarn requirements anywhere online.  I had a feeling that 7 skeins wouldn't be enough to knit that sweater that I had my eye on...sure enough, after finding the book at B&N today (Woodinville has another one on the shelf if you're interested...) I found the online yarn requirements (linked in the RH nav pane).  Figures.  And yes, I will need THREE more skeins.  ugh.  Here I am wanting to decrease my cracksilk buying...of course this pushed me over the edge.

There might be something else coming in the mail.  If said yarn did come to my house, of course it would be photographed and posted about when it arrived.  OMG I know.  Someone cut off my yarny internet endeavors...!!!  Honestly though, if I were to buy more, it would have to be at a great price...and it was--no tax to boot.

While at B&N I looked at all of the knitting books...wow, there are so many now!!  Some are interesting and inspiring and others are...not. 

the kelly cardi lives here.

There was a pretty cool one by Nicky Epstein...felted knits...definitely on my list to put on my shelf.

this is just marvy

I think I might just have to order it...I keep thinking about it. It has some of the most interesting and visually pleasing images I've seen in awhile...so pretty.  Funny thing though, I don't remember the flowers on the front!  Now that I look at it, see?  Isn't it interesting?  ^_^

intervention?

Um.  Hi, my name is Tania.

I think it might be official...that...I might have a cracksilk haze addiction...eep.

It all started innocently enough, right?  I went to HT-East today to see what they had since I took an official day off from work (yay!  officially OOF!).  One thing that I noticed was that Blue Sky Alpacas worsted feels like butter.  BUTTER.  I must get me some.  That will have to wait for another day though.

So um, yes back to the CSH.  Well as you can see...this is a beautiful color...

oooo pretty pretty.  as usual hover over for info

Yes indeed. But, let's pull out slightly from that picture, shall we?

indeed.

There is a cardigan sweater that I'd really like to knit with the CSH above.  Sigh.

But, remember the 4 skeins of the brown CSH that I recently picked up on this day?  Right.  And then well, I was rooting around a yarn hamper and discovered these...

good enough to eat...

I think I originally picked these up to make a scarf.  But that had to have been at least 2 yrs ago, b/c I took last year off from knitting.  Then I really wanted to make a striped sweater...the one here:

But I was told that I should not wear stripes. Dammit!  I LOVE stripes!! 

$aving$

As promised...the amazing savings from the Sunday Trip to HTQA!!

click for readable size

Yes indeed, the salesgirl took one look at the receipt and said, "WOW, it's almost like WE'RE paying YOU to take the yarn!"  Can you stand it?!!  Yay!

I'm sure you would like to see the yarn from said trip, right?  ^__^

even these look good together...

Yes, I decided to go with the seafoam green to go with the chocolate calmer from WW for the future hoodie!  Oooh softie goodness.  The red Cracksilk was store approved by the Yarn Police there for a new scarf.  The YP told me that I should buy more yarn in that color...whoulda thunk?

I think it's the first time that I've gotten out of that store for less than $50.  Heck, it's a new record...outta there for less than $40.

20% off? eek.

Editor's note:  This post is longggggg and has a lot o pictures...get some snacks, make yourself comfy...here we go!

I went to get my hair done in the U-district...thought if I had time, I'd zip over to Weaving Works since they were having their 20% off sale...it started on Thursday and I debated whether to go on opening day, but it all sounded so stressful and I have quite a stash already and there wasn't anything that I really needed...right?  Right.

So this AM, when I woke up (wow was it nice to sleep in until 9:30 instead of waking up at 5:10AM!) I logged in and took a look at patterns to see if there was anything that I couldn't live without.  I found one...an obscure little scarf and yarn I had never heard of.

I walked in and was immediately surprised at the lack of crowds...wow, what a relief that was!  (AND I got a parking spot in the lot!)  No maneuvering for space in front of yarn, no reaching wildly to make sure you got all of the skeins needed...none of it!  I perused the Noro lackidaisically...the Kureyon was pretty picked over.  I was okay with that.  On a shelf there were two lone skeins of this pretty Silk Garden Lite in pinks and greys!  Ooooh I grabbed both.  As I rounded the corner to see what else was there, I noticed...the Noro, it had a greenish blue in the middle and some red of the skeins.  Um.  No.  I didn't want those colors with pink!  So I looked on the shelf that I now stood in front of and saw this:

Rowan Tapestry

This, I thought was incredibly pretty and would make a nice scarf...I put the Noro back.

Next stop was the cotton section...I had NO idea they carried Brown Sheep fleece cotton!  I had just downloaded a cutie pattern that calls for this, but I didn't know the yardage.  I also saw that there were only 2 skeins of the Pinkaboo and I honestly wondered whether Z had picked the other two up.  Then my phone rang and it was Z!  I had to ask and sure enough, it was her that took the other two skeins...!  hahahahhaa.

Honestly, I'd never really looked at all of the yarns at WW...I had the handful that I typically looked at and bought...so today, I thought I'd really take a look.  WOW.  They have SO many different kinds of yarns that I couldn't believe it!  They even had Elsebeth Lavold.  What?  Yeah, I had never heard of it before either, but since I'm kind of on a scarf kick after that Razor, if WW had it, I would pick up the 2 skeins that it called for.  That couldn't hurt...right?

Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy

So then I look down and ooo DB Cathay...but the cupboards were pretty picked over...it IS Saturday afterall, the 3rd day of the sale.  I grabbed the two that were on the shelf and got on my phone.  Thank goodness for smartphones.  I quick brought up the Magknits page for the one and only Picovoli.  It said I would need 6 skeins.  I'd ask one of the sales ladies whether they had 4 more...it was a long shot, and hey if they didn't have it, I wouldn't be heartbroken, b/c remember, I only went for the scarf yarn above.

Yikes, they had the 4 skeins in the back.  It was like it was meant to be...

it's picovoli time!

Well, then something went awry.  I'm not sure what happened.  I blame it on low blood sugar.  Okay, I can't really, so I blame it on thirst!  But, I ended up getting the Calmer that I was dying to get the last time I was at Hilltop for a hoodie...I wanted to make the sleeves another color and figured I would get that with the 20% off at Hilltop and the rebate that I have there...wonder if they'll still have the yarn tomorrow?  We shall see.

now, do I get the burgundy or the sea green?

Um...and well, I haven't posted about it yet, but I'm working on a lacey scarf...I tried a couple of years ago and for some reason, I just couldn't do it...it's weird, but something just clicked and it is coming together after the razor...so I couldn't leave this behind either...

cracksilk haze...oooo

I was looking at the books and whatnot...and found this book was nicely put together and had some nice, basic patterns that I could springboard off from into other patterns...

patterns & supplies

Lest I forget...my STR yarn came...!!!  Hooray!  But, when I opened the package...it smelled a little odd.

lucy, nodding violet, LB foofoo

The smell...I wondered if perhaps the USPS person had stopped off at McDonalds and put their happy meal in the back with the packages b/c it smelled like um, french fries.  Isn't that WEIRD???  The yarn IS pretty though...see the one on the right?  It's a little shinier than the other two...I thought I'd try the FooFoo in Seduction...god, it's beautiful...it will be interesting to knit it up.  It's airing out right now...

So you know what this means, right??  Sockapalooza4 can officially begin here...I will wind the hank into a cake this evening!  mmmm cake.