That's Some Pretty Good Stashbusting

Of course, it wasn't all from stash. And I think that's about how much I added to my stash this year. Oops.

Slipped Away

I went away for five days and didn't even tell you. I headed to Port Townsend for my annual knitting retreat. As always there are no classes or any set activities. Just hanging out knitting or spinning or sleeping or shopping or reading or walking or doing whatever you feel like doing. Last year was definitely a spinning year. This year was a knitting year.

I knit a Koolhaas hat in Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk Aran.



I knit up all the yarn I had for Damson. I'm going to continue it in another colorway of the same yarn. It wont' match. I don't care at this point. It still turns my hands very blue.



I cranked on my hexagon blanket. I haven't worked on it since last November but this weekend I finished the main rectangle and have started to pick up for the border. I need to pick out a solid color to mix in tomorrow when I'm at work.

I bought some really primo stash. Someone was selling the exact yarn in the exact colorway I wanted for the Mondo Cable Cardi for less than I could get it with my discount at work. Yoink! I also got a sweater's worth of O-Wool Balance, a few skeins of Satakeili, many magazines and books and a small cone of shetland-type wool that shades from light to dark blue. I love it all!

Boiling Over

Gah! My life and my knitting have gotten totally out of control. I realize I never even finished my Sock Summit recapping and when I went to take some more photos I realized I never photographed things I brought home from camp! In addition to that I've lost my mind and am knitting on a bazillion projects at once right now. Or so it feels. I keep trying to remind myself of that FLYlady slogan , "You are not behind – you are just getting started." Am I ever!



Buttons from Jennie the Potter. They match my Miss Babs Sport perfectly!



Kimmet Croft Fairy Hare purchased at camp. It's 40% angora. Can you see the dreamy fuzziness? I think this might become a Featherweight Cardigan.

There was a free skein of Fat Fairy Hare with purchase!



Sensing a color trend yet?

Kim was destashing this beautiful Silky Merino Aran from Sundara in Green Tea. Current thought, February Lady Sweater. (She's posted some of her photos from camp. Man, we were silly this year.)



Did I mention that I finally steeked one sleeve for the GLMC while at camp?



Sadly, it hasn't been touched since.

I knit this one baby hat on the way to camp.



I started a second on my way home and--this part is going to start sounding familiar--I haven't touched it since.

I've been knitting a lot on Coraline.



The Cascade Pure Alpaca is dreammmmmy. But the sleeves on my sweater are giving me fits. The first go had to be ripped because it was crazy-huge. My gauge on double-points was so loose and floppy. I ripped it out and switched to magic loop on a smaller size needle and the sleeves still seem kind of huge to me. Do I rip again? I'm thinking maybe I'll cut off the bottom of the sleeve and work it into a slimmer fit.

And did you see Damson? Ysolda is releasing Whimsical Little Knits 2 one pattern at a time. The first is a dainty little shawl. I couldn't resist and cast on immediately with some sock yarn I got from Butternut Woolens a year or so ago at Madrona. It's indigo-dyed and gorgeous. It also bleeds like you wouldn't believe and turns my hands completely blue!



One last thing, since I have a photo. This is my sample swatch from my sock design class at Sock Summit. The yarn is Socks That Rock in a Rare Gems colorway. I was having a very difficult time finding a stitch that worked with this yarn. Lace didn't show, texture didn't show. Then I found this pattern in a stitch guide shown to me by Ellen and it was perfect!



I better go get some knitting done.

Oddballs

All knitters have that annoying collection of single skeins of yarn, leftovers from projects, friends' cast offs, skeins we bought with no idea of what to do with them. Once you start to work in the yarn business you get even more. At every event companies press skeins of yarn into your hands.

My sock yarn scrap blanket has been my movie theater knitting project for years now. But it is too big to take with me anymore. It's just unwieldy and I have have nearly run out of yarn for the project. It will have to wait until I knit more socks. In the meantime I need projects to knit in the dark.

It's time to knit up all these oddballs into hats for charity. The only trick is getting the bottom ribbing done before the lights go down. I tried to get a few ready on the needles.

This is Louet Riverstone. I made it generously-sized. I think it will make a great warm hat for a man.



I won this skein of SWS at a knitting fundraiser earlier this year. I hope it will keep a child warm this winter.



These were just the first few stray skeins I found. There are probably enough to knit dozens of hats.

A Moment in the Sun

The sun it out! And I'm home! I can finally take some pictures!


This is my Tulip Cardigan. The pattern is from Dream in Color and the yarn is some of my handspun from class samples from Madrona last year.


My progress on the Noro shawl. I got the pattern written up and we had our first class today. I have two weeks until the next class to get it done.


I got this skein of Rare Gems Socks That Rock at Madrona. I was trying to pick a Raven colorway and couldn't decide. They were all so dark I couldn't picture knitting with them. This one of a kind skein caught my eye instead.


These indigo-dyed skeins of sock yarn are from Butternut Woolens. Incredibly pretty, rich color.


A hand-painted skein from Heidi at The Artful Ewe. So my colors.


A pile of beautiful spinning fiber from Judith's classes. This is yak/merino and Shetland.

And now it's raining. With hail??

Forward Movement

I took Delf's advice. Using a random number generator, the 9th sock in my queue was selected. Laila's socks from Folk Knitting in Estonia. I pulled out some dark chocolate Koigu and an "oops" skein of Socks That Rock. I thought they went nicely together with good contrast.



I was wrong.



I'm not discouraged at all. I'm taking the brown to work to see if I can find a better contrast color. If all else fails I have some undyed Louet Gems fingering-weight that will do just fine.

Since the sun is out today (but cold!) I finally was able to take some photos.

I've been working on and off on Tailored Scallops from the cover of Lace Style. This is my Cormo/silk that I dyed a few months ago.



And I shot my yarn from the retreat.






On a bit of a green and chocolate kick, I guess.

And then there is my door prize.



Hmm, what's inside that pretty bag?

Why it's 493 yards of ridiculously gorgeous sock yarn! The colorway is "Birches in Norway." Thanks to the Twisted Ewe and Curious Creek Fibers for donating it.