Hi Knitty Kiddies!!
I missed Knitting Night... But I have a good excuse. Sorta... Visit my blog for details.
hugs,
Sista S
Hey there...Well I finally broke my rule about knitting for others. My E.D (eldest daughter) fell in love with the Sweetwater Vesper sock yarn I had in my stash. She asked me if I could make socks for her . I was hesitant to put in the energy because she is a senior highschooler come September and how many kids that age like handknits. But being the mommy I realized I really didn't have much of a choice . The mommy code of doing things that will make your children happy and all. Anyhow I am glad I did!! They were finished at about 7:57 am today and the E.D was almost out the door,saw they were finished, squealed with glee, ripped the socks she was wearing off and put my handknit ones on. Sometimes being a mom is so cool... Here are the finished socks by the way:
-Sista N
So while perusing some of my favorite internet sites I came upon a Flicker group with the most beautiful scarves: the Chevron scarf from Last Minute Knitted gifts. It seems like everyone is knitting this and lucky for me I had the book. In the original pattern it calls for Koigu but alot of people have used Socks That Rock instead. One of the most copied is Ashleys from doggedknits. She knit up hers in a combination of STR Watermelon Tourmaline and Farmhouse. I coveted it so much that I ran out to the local LYS to purchase the same. Here is the beginning of my copied Chevron...
I am so excited. One of my favorite sellers on Etsy has custom dyed some yarn just for me!!!
The first one is called Blackberry and the second is called Viola. I explained what kind of colors I like and viola, (excuse the pun) she whipped me up these gorgeous skeins. Very reasonably priced ($17 each) which will make a pair of socks. Woo-whooo, more yarn porn on the way...
-Sista J
Well girlz, I finally have joined the fun and have some new yarn to share. One of the ladies I work with bought a new winter jacket a few months ago and I agreed to make her a scarf. She is not able to wear wool (I personally think she just hasn't found the right one yet) and wanted alpaca in a grass green. It took me forever to find it but here it is...
Yes, that is Misti Alpaca Suri Silk in Peridot (80% baby suri alpaca and 20% silk). I was able to buy 4 skeins of it and it is honestly the softest yarn I have ever felt. I wanted to take it to bed with me the night I picked it up from the post office. One thing I did notice, however, is that the ball band does not contain any type of gauge information. Good thing I'm only making a scarf. So, while I had to purchase the Misti Alpaca Suri Silk, I figured I would have to pay shipping charges anyways so might as well pick myself up a little something-something. I just happened to find a gorgeous colorway, also in Misti Alpaca of a 4-ply worsted weight hand dyed skein. Oh what fun!
Although I did all of my research on the Misti Alpaca website, you can not buy directly from them. I was fortunate enough to find an excellent on-line yarn retailer, Yarnzilla. Linda has a wonderful selection of yarns that are a bit harder to find (especially for us northern-ers) and great customer service. She contacted me three times for my one order, to confirm shipping charges, etc, which I greatly appreciated. Anyways, this lovely Hand Dyed yarn was originally going to be made into socks, but it may have to be core stash - it's just too pet-able.
Lastly, I finally received Lace Style from Interweave Press and also found out they are hosting a Lace Knit-Along. I have to join... hmmm.... It is a good book, there are a number of projects I would actually knit up and the back of the book is an excellent reference resource for knitting lace, how increase and decreases effect your overall pattern and how to incorporate lace patterns into your knitting patterns. Overall, a good investment.
Well, that's all for now. Gotta get back to that alpaca scarf...
Knitta J signing off. Hugs...
Not to be outdone by Sista N, I'm posting some of the beautiful yarn that came in the mail for me on Monday...
Yarn Pirate, baby!!
I recieved my 4 uber-delish Yarn Pirate skeins: Isobel, Dogwood, Apple and Bitter Valley along with the Interweave Book, Favourite Socks (I've been coveting Sista T's copy ~ so I knew I had to get my own).
I've been buying most of my sock yarn from Connie at PickupSticks so she was nice enough to throw in some free goodies for me!!
Woot Woot!
I got a bottle of SOAK wool wash in Aquae and a cute little keychain sock blocker complete with instructions on knitting up the tiniest socks EVER!!
I can't wait to flash my new stash tonight!
Ciao ~ Sista S.
Here it is ... a beautiful skein of Vesper self striping yarn in the Sweetwater colorway. All of us knitta sisters are Vesper Virgins and have been trying to get our greedy little hands on it. It was even an ordeal to get this little baby.
It went up on the Knitterly Things website with a bunch of other Vesper lovelies and I think she sold out in about 10 minutes. Tonite,our regular Wednesday knitting night should be fun (well,it always is) with all of us oohing and aahing over this new batch of yarny goodness.
Well, can't hold out any longer I must put all other projects aside and cast on.
- Sista N
So as I've told the other knitta sistas, I joined a swap last month. For my swap, I spent a lot of time ready up on my spoilee's blog and got her some really nice stuff. I checked out the swap blog and saw all the nice stuff some of the participants were getting. Everyone was wrapping things up nicely and putting them in boxes.
When I got my package, I recieved not a box but one of those giant yellow envelopes. Nothing was wrapped up, everything was just thrown in... If you read my blog, you'll quickly find out that just like the other knitta sistas on this blog, I love to knit socks. You can also get a sense of the types of yarn that I like to collect. So imagine my surprise when I saw that most of the yarn from my "spoiler" was cotton...
After I got the package, I went to check out my "spoiler"'s blog. I saw that she had been in another swap and had posted what she had received...
You get where I'm going with this...
A picture's worth a thousand words so I'll let you all decide.
What I got:
What my spoiler had posted from another swap:
Dude, if you're going to regift... Don't regift stuff that you've posted about...
~posted by Knitta S.
My mid-afternoon "study slump" has officially hit, so instead of soldiering on through the next chapter of my Crim casebook, I'm going to take a few moments (ahem) and talk about the Koigu Incident.
Here in sunny (today at least) Edmonton, none of the LYS carries Koigu sock yarn. Sigh. To my extreme delight, when I visited my parents in Ontario this past Christmas, K-town's LYS had a whole wall o' Koigu. I squealed with joy in the store, and proceeded to horrify my mother by rubbing the hanks all over my neck and purring. Purchasing sock yarn is very much a Lays potato chip issue: betcha can't have just one. As if I was going to only buy one pair of sock's worth of Koigu! Pshaw! So, I left with five, and a bill for $112.00. Hence, "The Koigu Incident." One of these lovely purchases I've knit up (pictured below) and the other four, I've displayed for your viewing pleasure.
Here is the turquoise and black pair. They were knit with 2.25 Lantern Moon 7" DPNs. It was my first time using ebony DPNs and it was an experience of unparalleled bliss. The only thing preventing me from using the ebony needs on all my socks is my hang-up about the needles "matching" (and by matching, I mean looking good with or complimenting) the yarn colour-way. Anal, I know. But sock knitting enables me to get through a week of law school without crying, so I'm pretty indulgent about my idiosyncrasies.
Unfortunately, my sock-blockers haven't arrived yet, so I had the joyous and, as I discovered, somewhat awkward, task of photographing my own feet. And a very long Canadian winter means I'm once again a contender in the "World's Palest Legs" competition.
Here is the rest of my Koigu stash.
Okay. That's not entirely true. I gave one hank to a fellow Knitta Sista who kindly drives my car-less butt to Starbucks every week for knitting night, and who was clearly head-over-heels (pun!) for this particular sock yarn. The "replacement" hank, in yet another gorgeous colour-way, was dutifully mailed out by my mother, who has ready access to the "Wall O' Koigu" in K-town. I think the purple and turquoise hank is next on the "knit list" (isn't it so much better to be on a "knit list" than a "shit list"?), and, bonus, it'll "match" with the ebony needles.
Okay. Back to studying. Sigh. If I get these next two chapters done, I'm totally casting on another sock.
~ posted by Knitta T.
Hello!
This is my first ever blog post! I'm pretty excited! And it's way more fun than case briefs (surprise, surprise). Sadly, not much yarn porn to display as I'm still eagerly awaiting the arrival of my Loopy Ewe order, but here's what's been keeping me busy lately.
First, a gift for my grandmother, who taught me how to knit when I was in grade school. (For some inexplicable reason, I went on a fourteen-year hiatus. It's like the Eagles though, knitting and I "never broke up, we just took a fourteen-year vacation." I wanted to hone my lace skills, and I thought the "Branching Out" scarf from knitty.com would be a great way to go. I received the yarn, one hank of Elizabeth Lavold's Silky Wool, from the best LYS-owner in the world, Bonnie at Wool Revival, as a Christmas gift, along with the pattern. I loved knitting this (except for that one ill-fated pattern repeat on the plane ride home when the flight attendant had the audacity to ask me to put my knitting away on a pattern row. Who are these people?!) and highly recommend it to anyone wanting to try their hand at some lace-knitting action.
Wow! It worked! (Generally, I try to do something fancy with my computer and all hell breaks loose. This rocks!)
Okay, here is the scarf wrapped around my Valentine's Day roses. Pretty, eh?
In this shot, it becomes clear that I'm NOT a stylist. But, I did want to give a "shout-out" to the Lantern Moon 5mms I used to make this, and their sexy needle cozy. Lace knitting misbehaves a lot less when you use high-end needles and store them in silk cozies much the same way I misbehave a lot less after I go to the spa.
Note how the wine is "Red Knot"; I bought it becuase it seemed like the perfect wine to sip while knitting. Unfortunately, it is to wine what Red Heart is to yarn, so most of it ended up down the sink.
And here's a close-up shot of the lace pattern (on my duvet, which I have hitherto miraculously avoided getting high-lighter all over, despite my proclivity to read for school in bed.)
It's Sock Time!!!
Even those only briefly acquainted with me know that I'm, well, a bit of a sock whore. (This is the part where I break out into a rousing chorus of Meatloaf's "And I Would Do Anything For Love" but substitue, "Yarn"). It's true. I "might as well face it," I'm addicted to sock yarn. Here are the first socks for two pair I've made recently:
This is sock #1, in plain stocking stitch (so I can make them during my commute to school and those joyous ten minutes before class), made on 2.25mm in Apple Laine's "Sunset" colour-way. I was lucky enough to snag some from Pick-Up Sticks before the Apple Laine craze hit. Sadly, the Blue Sky Alpaca needles I used splintered to hell and back, so it's back to Brittany (not Spears. Good God no!) for the second sock (more on the needle saga later).
This is sock #1, again in stocking stitch (sidebar: I suggest we commuting knitters change the name of this stitch to "commuter stitch"), in Socks that Rock "Alina" in medium weight, on 2.5mm. I'm just starting the toe-decreases of sock #2 in this feisty pair. So expect more photos later.
Alrighty. Back to studying. But I officially declare this blog my ULTIMATE procrastination tool/study break. Thanks Knitta Sistas for setting it up.
~posted by Knitta T.
