Lead me not into temptation

The saga of the gold yarn part II:

After many, many hours of internet research, I discovered that Lambspun of Colorado, in Fort Collins, has a colorway in their Prism yarn (for which I happen to have a serious weakness) that just might be the right color gold. I wasn't sure which specific colorway, though, since there were several that might have been appropriate. Cue the need to take a quick jaunt to FoCo. And, since I'm going to drive all that way to check on this gold yarn situation, I might as well hit a couple of the other yarn stores up there. Because there's lots of them.

Which is how I found myself at the new (ish) premises of The Loopy Ewe. Which, in case you don't know, is enormous! And full of lovely things. Including the samples of various things that are now on my list of things to make. I had to talk myself out of unnecessary yarn purchases several times. It was easier because I checked my bank balance before I went, but still, it was a lot of temptation to be faced. I ended up with a bump of Sweet Georgia fiber, and a skein of lovely Skein yarn.

And, by the way, I made it to Lambspun and discovered the PERFECT colorway in Prism. So that was a win. Now I just need the perfect pattern.

I want to drop everything and drive to remote yarn store

Sorry for the long silence folks! Well, imaginary folks who read this blog. I have to tell you, the only reason I'm posting is for my own entertainment and to keep me off the streets.

Does anyone else have the problem where all of a sudden there's something you just HAVE to have and you want to chuck all of your responsibilities to go get it? I've been having a lot of those moments lately. Fortunately, I mostly have control over my urges and I have yet to skip work because of a need to go to a particular yarn store.

A couple of weeks ago I went to Shakespeare in the Park with my family members. It wasn't a very good play this year (Cymbeline, which no one has ever heard of for good reason. It's ripped off from all of his other plays and I would have been happy if they'd cut an hour out of it. But that's just me). The best part of the entire evening is when the cast was roaming around outside of the tent (They perform in a tent at Rockledge Ranch) being minstrels. They sang some stereotypically minstrel-ish song for some other group of people. When they came over to our group, my dad asked if they took requests and one of the actors said "Only if you're about to request "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" as your song." Of course, how can you say no to that? It was HILARIOUS. Much better than the play.

Anyway, one of the characters in the play was wearing a scarf or neckerchief or fichu or something that was a FABULOUS shade of marigold. Or goldenrod. Kind of an orangey-yellowy gold at any rate. I immediately became obsessed with owning yarn of this color. Unfortunately, my descriptive skills fail me and you can't exactly download a color image from your brain to the computer and then search for a yarn that matches. It just doesn't work that way, sadly. I managed to find some laceweight (from Fyberspates), which almost fits the bill, but I'm not 100% sure that it's right. And I didn't really want laceweight. I think that Lambspun might have the right color in their Prism yarn, but I've been so busy that I haven't had a moment to take a quick jaunt to Fort Collins. Which is probably ok because the last time I was there for yarn I spent entirely too much money.

But that's not the point. The point is, I MUST have this gold yarn that doesn't seem to exist and nothing I'm knitting now is good enough anymore. Not that I have a pattern in mind for the gold yarn. I'm pretty sure just owning it will fix everything and life can get back to normal.

The second time that I've been tempted to skip work happened just last night. One of the new ladies at Stitch and Bitch brought her big ole knit stuff organizer, which happened to include a large variety of stitch markers. WHICH WERE ADORABLE. She had Big Bang Theory characters, Star Wars characters (including Chewie!), Star Trek characters... OMG. I was so jealous. So I asked where she got them, and she told me The Lemonade Shop made them, but you can actually buy them at Stash in Castle Rock.

Cue my inability to concentrate at work today because I seriously want to book it down to Stash and see what they've got in stock. Because, hello! They make Ewoks. And Sheldon! And Amy Farrah-Fowler!

Sadly, I am a responsible adult, I don't like driving in after-work traffic, and Stash is kinda far away... but one day soon I'm going to forget my responsibilities and be unable to stop myself going hog-crazy on a stitch marker shopping spree. If that level of obsession is wrong, I don't want to be right!

Undisciplined

I have nothing to knit.

Other than a sweater, a sock (almost done!), various "hibernating" projects, and a colorwork hat. I was going to add the Jimmy Beans KAL mystery item, but it turns out I have to wait until tomorrow for the next clue, so I really can't knit that.

I guess the real problem is that I have nothing I want to knit. Nothing that's cast on anyway. And I'm very strictly trying to finish things, and casting on something new is not conducive to finishing old, BORING things. (They're not really boring. They're just not exciting right now. Even though I only have like 24 more rows left on that sock... I should really work on it.)

It's just, I got a pile of yarn in the mail, and the cowl pattern I ordered those for was free... and I saw a beautiful shawl pattern online the other day, and translated it from Portuguese with a lot of guess work, and now I want to see how that's going to work out... And I may or may not have accidentally purchased some yarn for that shawl when I was buying sock blockers for these socks of mine.

Oops. But I couldn't resist! It's merino/silk and it's such a summery color. Admittedly, this picture sucks. I blame the sun (or I would, if I weren't so thoroughly enjoying the sun).

So, I'm definitely not going to cast on a whole bunch of other projects, I'm going to behave and work on things that I've already got cast on.

Oops. That's the Uno, Dos, Tres cowl from Jimmy Beans. I'm currently enjoying the half-linen stitch pattern, but I'm sure it'll get on my nerves soon enough.









Don't look at me like that. I couldn't stop myself.

Deep Breaths

Folks, it has been a whirl-wind month for me here. I've been traveling, planning a party, going to work, doing homework (kind of... not always), and trying to make time to sleep and eat at regular times. Sometimes there's not enough hours in the day. But I still made time to make things!

I'm making my mommy some socks for Mother's Day, and I've finished one and a half so far! I'm only aiming for 2, so there's a pretty good chance she'll actually get a pair, which I think is a good goal. I discovered today that I was supposed to put the pattern on the back of the leg after the heel... too late now! This is a horrible picture, but I think the yarn is too dark to photograph well. I'll try harder when the pair is finished. I may need to go buy some sock blockers.

I'm participating in the Jimmy Beans KAL this month, which is a mystery KAL, so I have no idea what it's going to be. The clue this week is really strange and I haven't finished it yet, so this is a picture of where I left off last week. The colors look nice, I think. I guess I'll just keep hoping it turns into something I want to wear/use.







I've also been trying to use up ALL of my fiber from last year's Wool Market. I know this year's Wool Market isn't until June, but I figure I'm going to need all the help I can get to make this goal, so I pulled out the 8 oz of alpaca that I purchased last year, because it's the largest bunch I have to spin.

It started out looking like 2 very large balls of sliver. They turned out to have a lot of VM in them, so I don't think I'll be getting any of this stuff this year, but it's always nice to find out what you do and don't want.

I spun 3/4 of the sliver into singles, despite the VM. They're a very pretty color, I must say.

And I've plied approximately 4 oz of the singles into a VERY fuzzy 2 ply. If I wash it and the VM comes out, this could turn into something nice and soft. Not sure what, yet.









Apparently to make up for the fact that I've been busy and going out of my mind over a certain BRIDAL SHOWER BONANZA weekend, I've purchased a large amount of yarn for cowls. It's really not my fault, I ended up browsing Jimmy Beans because of an email they sent me, and there was a free cowl pattern that looked really pretty, and a bunch of kits they recommended and... well, I bought the yarn, not in kits, but one of each color.

Looks like EVERYONE is getting a cowl for whatever occasion arises next. At least the colors are pretty? I might need some more of the white, though. I'll wait until the first of the month, though. It's gonna be awesome. Ish.

And then I went and visited Caitlin, and she gave me a little bit of a yarn tour near her house (we got lost looking for a yarn store that may or may not have been hosted out of someone's house. We really don't know, cuz we didn't stop, we just kept driving.), and I fell down when I encountered Three Irish Girls in person. The colors were awesome and we're lucky I escaped with only 4 skeins of the stuff.

I'd blame Caitlin for allowing me to go crazy, but we all know that there's no way she could have stopped me. At least I escaped unscathed from the quilting store we visited.

I also worked on a sweater all last weekend, but it's in the other room and it's not going to photograph well right now. Suffice to say I made an impressive amount of progress, but not quite enough to allow me to wear a new sweater during the CRAZY weather we're having.

In future, I would like to avoid all this craziness. However, being realistic, knowing myself as I do... it's not gonna happen. We'll just leave it at that.

Whoops!

Where did March go? I'm serious, it just flew by and now I'm into crunch time. Weddings, pre-wedding events, friends visiting, going to visit friends, oh! and I should really do my homework. And, of course, the day-to-day grind of going to work and actually getting stuff done. Yikes. There's not enough time in the day.

I'm working on breathing deeply (it's hard to do, I've got a cold) and trying to take things one at a time. I should really quit looking at the big picture. It's overwhelming.

Let's look at something I've gotten done, so I can feel accomplished!

I finally found the wherewithal to complete the sleeves! And the sweater is lovely, but taking a picture of myself wearing it has proven unsuccessful so far. This is why I need a roommate.

Oh, and I also finished some fingerless gloves. The sweater was giving me such a finishing high that I decided to start finishing my other stuff. Like the two (two!) colorwork projects I cast on in a fit of startitis. This pair have been languishing for a month or more since I lost interest after finishing the first glove. They're pretty, but I don't like them very much. No more colorwork fingerless gloves for me!







I wish I had some pictures of the fiber from last time, cuz I finished spinning it and it's lovely, but I was cleaning up my house and had to put things away, and I may have put the spun fiber into the homespun box without taking pictures first. I know, I know, tactical error. Let's talk instead, about the fact that I joined a fiber club despite the fact that it's patently obvious that the last thing I need is new fiber to arrive on a monthly basis. And I've got 2 months worth of fiber hanging out in the fiber stash looking at me in a guilt-inducing manner.

This is the most recent batch, although it's actually only half of the batch, because I'm awesome at taking pictures beforehand, right? Anyway, it's BFL roving, and I'm not doing a very good job with it, but it's very pretty and I think I'm going to navajo ply the singles, so the color changes stay nice.

See? Very pretty singles. I like them, although I wish I'd taken more time while spinning. I think I was really in a rush earlier when I was spinning. I'll take more time on the second half and see if I like the fiber better.









One thing at a time, guys. One thing at a time. I'll work on breathing instead of freaking out on a regular basis about my schedule for the next month.

Impatient to finish

Folks, I got bit by the sweater bug this week. It was cold and snowy last weekend, and I really felt the need for a new sweater. And then I remembered the 2 sweaters I already have in progress... so I bought more sweater yarn, but I didn't cast anything new on. I started the sleeves on the stripy sweater, but it's going slower than I wanted it to. Because I'm impatient, and clearly starting a new sweater would be faster than finishing the sleeves on my current sweater, right?

Sleeves aren't any fun, as anyone knows. They're long, don't have much shaping, and take FOREVER.  So instead of working on sleeves, I'm finishing the Zombie viXen fingerless gloves.

They look nice, right? I gave them a bath in vinegar so that the dye which has been staining my fingers throughout the whole process. But they are done at last and they look lovely!

Also, I did a little bit of spinning this afternoon. Plying of the lovely 8 oz of fiber that I was working on last week. I turned 2 braids of this:

Into 4 little skeins of this:

I'm beginning to think that I need to purchase a larger flyer and a huge bobbin for plying because I really would prefer larger skeins as an end product...

For my next act, I'm still going to avoid the sleeves! I'm going to spin the last braid from Wool Fest last year...

Wish me luck!

Cranky

Guys, I have to tell you. I've been in a PISSY mood lately. I don't know what it was about this week, but I took Thursday as kind of a combination snow day/mental health day so that I didn't rend someone.

I think it all started on Wednesday. It was snowing all afternoon and carried on into the evening. I went to the Stitch and Bitch group I joined because I felt like I should, since there were only 3 other people planning to come and I didn't want to be lame. But guys! This SnB was waaaay down Colfax, and it was rush hour, and it was snowing. It took me like 40 minutes to get there. And I ordered a beer that I'd never tried before and didn't like it, and I screwed up the pattern of my Zombie viXen mitts... I was not in a good mood, so I didn't fix it. They're still residing in my purse, with a screw up 3 rows back.

PLUS! We were talking about stuff at SnB and I said something about how I'm working on finishing some stuff up, because I have like 9 projects on the needles. And everyone at the table looked at me like I'm a lunatic. I mean, 9 really isn't that much. But one of the ladies was a new knitter, one of the ladies knits mostly baby stuff, so it gets finished pretty quickly, and the last lady might be one of those fictional "one at a timers." I know a couple ladies from the group only work on one thing at a time. Which we all know is crazy. I don't have that kind of attention span for anything. Especially when it starts to piss me off. (I'm looking at pretty much all of my projects right now.)

So then on Thursday, I called in and said I was going to freeze to death if I had to come in and work in my cinderblock office. And I spent the day on the couch, doing homework, checking my work email, and knitting a little bit. It wasn't a particularly bad day, but I still felt pretty grouchy. I made the mistake of going to the gym and biking and then coming home and spinning. My calves were pretty unhappy, for some reason. I did finish another braid of wool fest fiber, though!

This was some kind of merino/bamboo in "Plum" from Bonkers fiber. I got a bunch of braids from her last time, some of which were really nice. This braid I wasn't so much a fan of, though. I think the fibers got felted in the intervening months since wool fest, and it's bamboo anyway, which is kind of sticky in the first place. It was NOT a joy to spin.

Actually, the Plum braid was the second braid of wool fest fiber that I finished. I also did some merino/tencel in "Calendula," which is much brighter than I usually purchase. It was kind of fun to spin, though.








And now I have one more braid of fiber from Bonkers, but it's green and blue and I'm trying to keep away from my color rut. And then I have a bag of batts, 8 oz of alpaca, and 2 braids of merino/silk/bamboo in another strange color for me.

You know, now that I list it out, it seems like a lot more than when I was just looking at it in my closet...

I think the real source of crankiness is the fact that I'm only working on things that I feel like I need to finish, and we all know that I don't like to feel forced to do things. I mean, I have a whole lot of new spinning fiber that seems much more exciting than stuff I bought 8 months ago. But I'll feel bad if I don't finish all my fiber from last year before I go to wool fest this year. And I realize wool fest is like 3-4 months away, but let's be realistic; how likely is it that I'll keep up this pace at spinning? Not very likely, that's for sure.

The good news is that I finished the stripy sweater body for the SECOND time. Well, I need to sew up the shoulders, but that won't take long. And then I get to break into new territory and cast on the sleeves! How exciting is that?!

In the meantime, I'm working on these colorwork gloves that I cast on a while ago. I got the kit from Knitpicks because it looked awesome, and it is! But I'm not really in a colorwork mood. Especially not 3-color colorwork. I'm almost done with the first glove, though. Just one more glove and an entire hat before I can kick this kit out of my stash. I really need to feel like I'm making some progress against the stash...







You know another reason I'm so grumpy? I'm not in the mood for anything I have cast on. I'm in the mood for lace. So, theoretically, I could work on the lace edging for the shawl I've been ignoring for MONTHS. Or that other shawl I've been ignoring. But what I really want to do? Is start another one... I'm not going to. Because I'm being well-behaved. But it chafes my soul. Like I said, cranky.

Ideal weekend

I have to tell you, I have had a pretty great weekend. I mean, last week I was kind of cranky. But on Friday night I headed up to Boulder to hang out with a friend and feed my brother dinner (it's the only way I get to see him). Oh, and I bought some fiber, because I was in the area of a yarn shop...

I have to tell you, I'm pretty sure I need to go on a fiber diet. I was doing ok for a while, but I wasn't actually cutting down the spinning stash because, while I wasn't buying any fiber, I wasn't spinning any fiber either. I finished my fiber from last time, though.

Like I said, it's polwarth wool and it's delicious. I really need to start thinking about projects to use up my handspun. I'll think of something.

Want to see some things that I have finished? I knew you did.

These are the Jimmy Beans Downton Abbey KAL mitts. I actually finished them... a couple weeks ago? They're lovely, though. I haven't threaded anything through the eyelets, but they're also not as slouchy as the designer may have intended. Regardless, I think they're marvelous! And the color is awesome too.

I also finished that wretched cowl. It's enormous! But very pretty and I'm sure I'll have a chance to wear it soon, it's been a bit chilly lately.

This isn't knitted, but I'm really excited and proud of it anyway. I made a Bohemian Carpet Bag from a pattern I purchased at the Fancy Tiger. It was more involved than I was expecting, but I really like the finished product. It's got lots of space, too. Holds an entire sweater's worth of yarn. Ask me how I know, haha.

Anyway, today I've spent my time knitting on the stripy sweater I had to rip out, spinning a little bit (the rest of that braid from last time), and baking things. Because who doesn't like fresh baked bread when it's cold?

Warp speed ahead!

Folks, I have to tell you, the holidays were rough. Then, getting back up to speed at work was rough. Then, I got assigned to wrangle 7 different vendors working on the same project during the same week, all on property, in different buildings. It's a little bit out of control, and the stress is giving me heartburn.

But on the crafting front, things are going well. I attended Knit Night at my LYS last week, which was fun in a quiet, old lady kind of way. I cast on some new fingerless gloves (don't judge me), but it took me forever because apparently a) I can't count and b) I can't follow a written pattern. It was a rough night... but the gloves are going to be pretty, even if the yarn did stain my fingers bright pink.

It doesn't look very bright, but it is, in real life. The pattern is Zombie viXen, because I thought the pattern was pretty, not because I'm a fan of zombies... The yarn is apparently Lola-doodle's hand painted yarn. I picked it up at Colorful Yarns in Centennial, because I was overwhelmed by wool fumes and the color was so pretty. I think it'll look nice with this pattern, though.








I got some yarn from the LYS for a chunky lace shawl that I've been eyeing for a little while. I wanted to do a natural color of yarn, and this blend had alpaca in it and it's basically perfect. I'd have a picture of the shawl but it's soaking right now so that I can block it and it'll look pretty for the actual picture.

Then, I attended a Stitch and Bitch in Denver, which was a much rowdier kind of fun. We talked about reusable tampons, why you should never put popcorn kernels down the garbage disposal, and born-again virgins. I think I'll be going back next week. I just worked on this cowl that I've had on the needles for a while, because I didn't have time to go home and get another project, and it needs to get done anyway. It's going to be really long, but that's what I was going for.

The pattern is September cowl, which my sister thinks doesn't really look like much of a pattern. I guess she's not much of a fan, which is fine, because it's for me, not her. The yarn is Galileo, from Knitpicks. It's very shiny, and I like it, in general.








Let's see, then there's the Jimmy Beans Downton Abbey KAL. Which is, you guessed it, another pair of fingerless mitts. Listen, I don't want to hear that you think I have a problem. It's only a problem if it's hurting someone.

I'm a little late joining the KAL, because it took FOREVER for my yarn to come in. It's this month's color of the month from Lorna's Laces, which is "A River Runs Through It" on their Sportmate base. I really dig the color and the yarn both.









Then there's many things to catch up on.

I finished the body of the laceweight sweater to the armpits. It does, as I suspected, take a LOT of time to make any kind of progress. On the other hand, the pattern is quite enchanting. And would be more so, if I could quit crossing the cables the wrong effing way. I don't want to talk about it.

You know what else I don't want to talk about? The fact that I finished the ENTIRE BODY of this sweater, sewed up the shoulders and started getting ready for the sleeves and then tried it on. Turns out it wasn't going to fit the way I wanted it to. So I... Ripped. It. ALL. OUT. That wasn't painful at all. And then I had to order a couple more skeins of yarn so that I'll definitely have enough.

But let's DO talk about these adorable little stitch markers that my parents got me for Christmas. Well, they didn't arrive by Christmas, they arrived several weeks later. But they were shipped from Israel, and they're adorable little vegetables on wheels! I thought they were Cinderella carriages when I saw them on Etsy. I find that I am enamored of the fact that there's a little artichoke on wheels. And a bell pepper on wheels. And an eggplant on wheels. It's just so cute!

OOH! And we can talk about the precious little counting bracelets that I made. They're definitely cute. And I love using them. Even for the stripy horror sweater. I found that the original counting bracelet that I made wasn't... working. The beads had holes that weren't big enough for ribbon or something with a higher coefficient of friction. So I found these slightly more grown up version of pony beads. Well, I think so, anyway.

Oh! And we can talk about how I spun half a braid of polwarth into these fabulous singles! They're very pretty, and the braid has more colors in it than the ones shown here. But I really love polwarth wool. I don't know what it is, but it's got all kind of qualities I enjoy. Like, it's squishy, and easy to spin. It feels nice when it's done, too. I like it.

Ok, well that's a lot of pictures. I hope you like them! I'll try to do this more often than once a month so it doesn't happen again, though