Birthday Goodies

My mom spoiled me rotten for my birthday (my dad too, but he was unaware!). I went to one of my favorite yarn stores, Colorful Yarns, when we were visiting my parents in Colorado, and picked out the new Cat Bordhi book plus 3 different types of sock yarn. Before I knew what was happening, my mom had paid for the entire thing, before I could even get my wallet out! She is a schemer!

Here's a better photo of the yarns:



The first one is Dream in Color - Smooshy in the Strange Harvest colorway. I had seen this yarn knitted up recently and thought it was beautiful. Plus it's an extremely generous 450 yards, so it will be great for a pattern with lots of cables or lace, or both!


Here's a closer shot of all the lovely greeny-rusty tones:










Red Rocks Fiber Works created my next selection. The owner, Mary-Kay Tilden, is a local yarn dyer out of Morrison, Colorado. I really fell in love with the combination of fall colors in this selection.




The colorway is called Pueblo and each skein is 185 yards of hand-dyed 100% superwash merino. Mary-Kay doesn't have a website ready yet, but here is her blog. Her colors are amazing and the quality of the yarn is lovely.



The last one was rather unusual as it has different colors plied together, like a hand-spun. It is called multicolor ply sock yarn from Rio de la Plata. The colorway I bought is called evergreen - yellow corn - poinsetta and is incredibly soft. It's 100% superwash merino. It will be interesting to see how it knits up.

After I purchased these yarns it occurred to me that they all have fairly similar fall colorways (although the Rio de la Plata really has pinks too) but I guess that's where I am right now in choosing my latest sock yarns!

Moss Grid

I finished my first moss grid towel, from the Mason Dixon Knitting book. I knit it using the recommended Louet Euroflax sportweight linen yarn in the Sandalwood colorway. It is a gift for my mom and dad and I had intended to finish it before Thanksgiving so I could surprise them with it upon our arrival. Needless to say, this did not happen, and I didn't finish it during our stay either! It is finished, though, and I am pleased with how it came out.

It was rather wonky and baggy looking before I washed it:



Once it wash washed, though, it really relaxed and looked much nicer.





I knit it on a size 4 (pattern calls for a 5) needle as I got gauge that way, but next time I think I would use a size 3 as I am a rather loose knitter and would've preferred the stitches to be a little tighter together. Now I only have about 8 more to make for other gifts!

Stuck in the slump... and out again!

These Grasshopper socks took me forEVER to finish! I am very happy with them but I feel like I have been in a slump with my knitting. We've had several things not go well at home lately, which didn't help, but now I feel like I'm off and running again! I have been finding so many things on ravelry that I want to knit, so that has been very motivating. Plus, now that it is getting colder here I feel the urge to start something more substantial than socks, such as a sweater.

I have one in mind in particular, that I saw at my lys. It is an adaptation of the Shrug This from the One Skein Wonders knitting book edited by Judith Durant. It is hard to believe that you end up with the same sweater, because Cathy, the owner, took the pattern and made both the sleeves and the body longer, so it is more like an open cropped sweater with a one-button closure at the top. She knitted it out of Misti Alpaca Chunky, in the cream color. I think it will be a very fast knit, because the yarn is like a super chunky weight, and the pattern is quite small. Just what I need at this point, instant satisfaction!

Roses in November

This is an example of the amazing fall we are having here in the Midwest. I cannot ever remember roses blooming into the middle of November. What a lovely memory to keep with us during the dreary, cold winter days to come!

Renegade Craft Fair

In September (yes, I know that was a long time ago but hey, I've been busy!) my friend Heidi asked me to go to the Renegade Craft Fair in Wicker Park, a neighborhood of Chicago. It was so amazing. We planned to stay for a few hours before heading to our Stitch 'n Bitch and ended up missing SnB altogether! There were over 300 vendors with awesome items they had crafted. Even their business cards were aesthetically beautiful!

Here are some shots of the things I found there:



I was especially happy to find the cute little bag from Rosybird.com.



I had seen this bag on her etsy site and hoped to find something like it. Lo and behold, there it was in her booth, waiting for me to pluck it up! It has a fuzzy fleece liner too. I haven't decided what I'm going to use it for yet. It's too nice for make-up. Perhaps I'll use it for all of my dpns!

The other major purchase was, of course, yarn! I bought a lovely skein of sock yarn from traveling rhinos in a colorway called Go Dutch.



It looks even better after I wound it up on my ball winder. I can't wait to knit up a yummy pair of socks with it.

The other 2 skeins of yarn were from Aisha Celia Designs of St. Paul, MN. Her colors were so tempting. I chose a very colorful skein of sock yarn in blues, purples, greens and yellowy pinky overtones.



I really splurged on the handspun skein in particular.



I want to make a winter hat with it and will have to think carefully which pattern to choose so I don't mask the beauty of the yarn with an overly complicated stitch pattern. I'm thinking of the Foliage hat but don't know if it might be too busy?