Trying to stay out of trouble....

.....the internet makes it so hard!!! I'm talking about yarn people! Y.A.R.N.! it's everywhere and so, so temping! everywhere I go it's calling out to me..."buy me, you need me, I'm the most beautiful yarn you've ever seen!" *sigh*
It's this and this that has me weak in the knees. I want some. very. very. badly. Sock yarn is so awesome! all the beautiful colors are what get to me. I'm trying really hard not to build up a gigantic "stash" and I've actually been doing really well. I do have a small stash but most of the yarn has an assigned project. With sock yarn it seems different though. It seems like one of those yarns where you can't have too much of. I mean, most yarn you know you can get it anytime, especially on the internet, but all this one-of-a-kind hand-dyed stuff that makes you drool....you just have to get it now or you may not have another chance.
Well, I haven't done any damage so far but it's tough! especially when you have a job where you sit at a computer all day and it's so easy to hop over to the virtual yarn stores to have a look. You know what I mean!



EDITED (like 10 minutes later): ooops

Pea Pod Baby Set

I have finally finished it. The baby is due next month but I made the 6 months size because they live in Alaska and winter lasts a long time up there. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the adorable hat that goes with this sweater because I gave it to the parents when they were down here for a visit and forgot to take a pic.

Pattern: Pea Pod Baby Set (hat and sweater) by Kate Gilbert

Yarn: Knit Picks Shine Sport in Green Apple

Needles: #6

Mods: I actually ended up having to change a lot. For some reason, even though my guage was spot-on, the length of the sweater from neck to hem came out a few inches longer than it should have. So I stopped the leaf pattern when I got to the correct length...otherwise the sleeves would not have fit into the sleeve holes of the body. And the pattern calls for a leaf pattern edge along the neckline but I didn't like how it looked so I ripped it and did the seed stitch neckline instead. Overall I think it turned out great! the color isn't really accurate in the pictures....it's actually a bit brighter. This was also my first time seaming a sweater together....and I hated it! what a pain in the rear!!
So, what motivated this sudden finishing of a sweater that has been sitting nearly finished for several months now? Well, it was a scary situation this morning that involved a near fatality of a certain shawl that I so happily showed you the progress of in my previous post! Yes, I woke up this morning to find that my evil cats had managed to OPEN the glass doors of a cabinate and drag out Ella. Luckily, they only somewhat mangled the ball of yarn and left the shawl itself untouched!! I nearly had a heart-attack, let me tell you! However, when I sat down to more closely examine things, I found that one of them had chewed on the tip of the bamboo needles....enough so that they snagged the yarn pretty good when I tried to knit with them. So, not having another pair of #8s, I decided to finish the baby sweater. The end.

Ella progress

This pattern is sooooo cool! I screwed up in a couple of places at the beginning near the tip but it didin't bother me enough to go back and redo. The problem was that I didn't "get" the pattern but once I finally understood how the pattern works it's been a breeze ever since! Aren't the colors pretty!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! It's amazing how many of us have birthdays in September!

A VERY good birthday!

I can't believe it's taken me so long to post about this!! My birthday was last weekend and look what I got! A beautiful new yarn swift and ball winder! My extremely talented and handy Dad MADE the swift! It's gorgeous and works great!


Very exciting, let me tell you!

I'm drooling

.....over this yarn! and these needles!

The yarn I speak about is Lorna's Laces Shepard Sport in the Vera colorway....love it! These four skeins will be made into Ella. I got them off of the ebay store Yarnbow, which I highly recommend! I ordered these skeins on a Tuesday and got them on Thursday! And the prices are very reasonable too. Plus they have such a large assortment of colors that none of my not-so-local LYS's would ever have. I say "not-so-local" because the closest yarn store to me is over half an hour away and costs $3 in tolls to get there.

Anyway!! onto the other thing that I received in the mail this week.....Bryspun circular needles! These things are great! I learned of them when reading Grumperina's archives. They are just a good as everyone has said they are. I really like how the tips are pointy but not so pointy that you're splitting yarn.

And yes, that is the start of the Counterpane accessories bag from Handknit Holidays.

A New Book

I'm so excited about this book! It has some really cool stuff in it.

I bought it because of the Counterpain Carpet bag pattern....I've seen some of the Accessories Pouches around on blogs and I love it! It will make an excellent gift for a lucky person I know. ;) I absolutely love the sweater that's in this pic as well! But I haven't quite summoned up the courage to try fair isle yet. Maybe something like this will motivate me to learn!

Anyway, lots of knitting going on. I'm almost done with the body of the Forecast cardigan but the Persimmon Lace shawl is slow work. It is something that I have to have full concentration for. I'm not rushing it though....it'll be around for a while, no doubt about it.

New Mag Knits

The new Mag Knits is up today! I really like the gloves on the front page. The stitch pattern is really pretty. I like these socks too!

Well, I partook of the WEBs Silky Wool closeout sale but did manage some self-control and only bought 8 skeins.....I regret this now and wish I had ordered some Silky Tweed as well. There is still time though!! heh, heh!

This is color #11 and it's kind of a medium brown. Of course I don't have a project for it yet but I made sure to buy enough so I could make anything I wanted with it.

Thank you all for your comments on my Picovoli!