yarn tootin'

Suitcase Full of Yarn

     The knitters have a trip to Comfort planned for tomorrow, so I thought I'd do a little Ravelry destash before I do any more damage.  I spent a couple of hours unpacking my summer yarn purchases and tidying up the yarn room the other day and I came across several skeins that are lovely, but that I will most likely never knit.  I also found a couple of gems that will be excellent for trading in the Completely Pointless and Arbitrary Swap Group on Ravelry.  I've been out of that game for too long and I've missed it.  

    

     I bought this suitcase at Target in early July because I needed a small carry-on bag for a weekend trip.  After the trip, I used it to hold my yarns, both the ones I'd brought with me for the summer and the ones I'd purchased during my travels.  By the time I arrived back in San Antonio in August, the suitcase was full.  After putting my new yarn away, I filled the suitcase with sellables and tradeables and wheeled it out to the backyard for my little photo shoot.  Maybe it's just me, but there's something very satisfying about a suitcase full of yarn.

  

Yarn Shopping

     As I mentioned in my last post,  I recently went to Kid 'n Ewe, our local fiber festival.  In previous years, I've come away from Kid 'n Ewe with large quantities of yarn, but this year I bought just one ball of sock yarn.  I had heard that Madelinetosh hand-dyed yarns was going to be there, but she (he? they?) were not there.  If Madelinetosh had been there, I'm sure I would have bought more yarn, but as it was nothing really called out to me, or maybe I finally have enough yarn.   Here is my one purchase...

  

     I bought this ball of Ty Dy Socks from  The Tinsmith's Wife.  I'd been looking for this particular yarn for awhile, so it was a welcome find.  I cast on not long after I got home with my super short (9 inch) Hiya Hiya circular needle.  I found the tiny needle nearly impossible to knit with and I've since moved the sock to 2 circular needles.  The first row on the tiny needle was the most difficult to knit, and even though subsequent rows were easier, the needle made my hands hurt.  I didn't feel like there was anything to grab onto and I had to hold my middle, ring, and pinky fingers in the air.  The one thing I did like about the 9 inch circular was the fact that I could just set the sock down whenever I needed to without finishing a row.  In that regard, it was kind of like knitting a hat.

     This week was an Austin Symphony week and I ended up killing some time at Hill Country Weavers.  A few weeks ago I saw this stripey sweater (Ravelry link) while browsing the interwebs and I resolved that I must knit one.  The only problem is that there is no pattern.  The knitter of the original is the kind of knitter who can just whip up this sort of thing without a pattern (I am not this type of knitter).  I sent a message to the genius in question and she said that she's working on publishing the pattern.  In the meantime, I'm getting my yarn ready.  My new favorite yarn is Dream in Color Classy and that is what I will be using for my stripey hoodie.  I already have a couple of skeins and assorted leftovers, and I got a few more at HCW.

 

     My plan is to have Cocoa Kiss (the black/brown color) be more prevalent than the brighter colors (L-R: Punky Fuschia, Pansy Go-Lightly, and Flamingo Pie).  I think this color scheme needs at least one more color.   I'm thinking about something in the green family.  Any suggestions?

Stash and Destash

     I've been naughty this week.  I had the day off on Tuesday, so I went up to Austin to get two of my bows rehaired, or as I like to say, I went to Austin to get new horses.  It takes a few hours to rehair a couple of bows, so I decided to make a day of it and visit my favorite Austin yarn haunts and have lunch with my old friend Amanda.  As luck would have it, Fiddlestick Bow Shop is conveniently located less than a mile from Hill Country Weavers.  I think that HCW might be one of my favorite yarn stores, period.  The selection can't be beat and for the most part, the ladies are friendly and helpful and they don't follow you around too much.  On this trip I bought a skein of Helen's Lace in Black Purl...

     I bought this with a specific project in mind.  One of these days, I intend to knit Juno Regina.  I realize that it would probably look better in a solid color, but I also realize that it's unlikely that I will finish this type of project in a solid color so I compromised and got what I'm calling a multi/neutral.  I was honestly more drawn to this yarn in Pilsen, but I'm pretty sure that Juno will look better and be more wearable in Black Purl, so there you have it.

     I couldn't walk out with just one skein, so I also picked up some souvenir Koigu...

This colorway begins with the letter P and ends with three numbers.  If you must know the specifics, leave a comment and I'll get back to you.  For the moment, I'm too lazy to go to the yarn room to find out.  It would be much easier (and more fun) if the good people at Koigu would name the colorways.  How many times have you bought yarn because of the name of the colorway?   I can tell you that I have done this several times.  Just this afternoon I was tempted by a Sundara sock yarn called "Electric Viola," but I managed to control my purchasing impulse and it's gone now.

     Because it's conveniently located on my way home from Austin (and because I had to pee), I made a pit stop at The Knitting Nest.  Even though I don't give a hoot about the Longhorns themselves or football in general, I was able to indulge my love of longhorn orange with this pretty skein...

Hill Country Yarns Instant Gratification Sock Yarn in Hook 'em Horns.

     As far as I can tell, the only problem with my yarn collection is where to put it.  In an effort to get rid of some stuff, I've made use of the destash feature on on Ravelry.  I continue to marvel at the sheer awesomeness that is Ravelry and the destash pages are no exception (if you're on Ravelry, you can visit mine here ).  Within minutes of posting my yarns for sale or trade, two skeins sold and I've had several inquiries on others.  If you aren't on Ravelry yet, you can view my wares on Flickr.  Email me or leave a comment if there is something that strikes your fancy. 

     It's Fiesta 2008 in San Antonio this week, so aside from teaching, I've had the week off.  With all of my free time, I think I've managed to knit too much and now I have a very sore wrist.  Typing isn't helping so I'm calling it a night.  Y'all have a festive weekend!

More Single Socks and Some Croshay

     I've finished a few more single socks...

     BFF Sock in Dream in Color Smooshy (Dusky Aurora), Perambulate Sock in Zen String Lotus Toes (Lufaloo), and plain old 4x1 rib sock in Twisted Fiber Art Kabam (Cordial).  All pattern information can be found on Ravelry.  If you knit or croshay and you have yet to join Ravelry, what are you waiting for?  It's not just a social network (though it can be if you want it that way), it's a fabulous resource.  It's also highly addictive, so if you're the type of person who struggles with that sort of thing, proceed with caution, but for the love of yarn just join already.

     I'm a little under the weather.  I have an annoying sore throat and I feel like I need a nap even though I slept for almost 9 hours last night.  I wish I felt more up to writing a fun and sassy post, but this is not the case.  Hopefully a little time spent with my DVR and the ripple blanket will be just what I need.   After many months in hibernation, I got out the ripple blanket again last night and once again, it has captured my fancy.

     The ripple blanket with three of the new colors of Lion Brand Cotton-Ease.   A little over a month ago, I discovered a few new colors of Cotton-Ease on the Lion Brand website.  As far as I know, the new colors are not yet available at Michael's, but I'm sure they'll get there eventually.  I ordered a few skeins of the new colors (Azalea, Cactus, and Plum) with the idea that they'd contribute nicely to my ripple.  I know this picture isn't great and it's probably hard to tell, but I'm not sure that Azalea and Cactus will make it into the ripple.  The Plum will be fabulous, but I'm not sold on the other colors.  Hopefully, I'll remain interested in this project long enough to find out.

    

Post Audition Celebration Yarn

     After any audition, win or lose, I usually buy myself some sort of reward.  I got this idea years ago from Don Greene, Ph.D..  Dr. Greene is a performance coach, and when I was a fellow at the New World Symphony, all musicians were required to work with him.  I found a lot of what he had to say to be a little bit over the top, but the one thing that stuck with me was his idea that a person should always shop after an audition to reward herself for working hard.  For years I bought shoes after auditions, but these days I head straight to the nearest LYS or my favorite online yarn retailer.  As luck would have it, Blue Moon Fiber Arts launched their new website and put up new colors right before my audition.  After hours of perusing the various yarns and colorways, I chose three skeins of Socks that Rock and one big skein of WooBu, a new yarn I hadn't tried or even seen in person.

STR Lightweight in Dixie Chick and Rockstar.  STR Mediumweight in Tigers Eye.

WooBu in Farmhouse

     Dixie Chick isn't a colorway that I'd normally gravitate towards, but ever since I saw it knit up on the Yarn Harlot's blog , I've coveted a skein of my own.  I chose Rockstar because it seemed appropriate given my audition success and Tigers Eye is one I've wanted for a long time.  I've never knit with anything other than STR and Silkie STR from BMFA, so I thought I'd try one of their other yarns.  I settled on WooBu  because it comes in a massive 620 yard skein and I thought I could make some sort of nice lacy scarf or wrap with just one skein.  In person, WooBu is soft and a little bit shiny and because of the bamboo content, it takes the dye less vividly than STR.  While I really love knitting with brightly colored yarns, I tend to like to wear more muted colors, so I think that I'll really enjoy whatever I end up making with this.  If anyone has any brilliant ideas in this department, let me know.

 

Happy Easter

     The Easter Bunny brought me yarn!  He must have been very speedy last Wednesday during the Twisted update because this stuff goes fast.  The Bunny scored with a skein of Playful in the Sherwood colorway.  I think it looks smashing with the other easter treats.  As soon as I free up a pair of needles I'm going to go to town with the Sherwood.  I'm thinking of knitting the Undulating Rib (Ravelry link) pattern by Ann Budd, though the Cable Rib (also from Favorite Socks ) appeals to me as well.
     Aside from a couple hours of practicing that I intend to get done sooner rather than later, I have very little going on today.  I will probably spend a good deal of time looking at my yarn and Ravelry and dreaming up possible patterns and less time actually knitting.  This seems to be the way it is for me right now.  I have a big viola event coming up and tons of knitting on little needles isn't always the best thing for my viola playing.  Bob is planning to make baby back ribs on the grill this evening for our Easter dinner.  Bob says that all Jews eat ribs on Easter.   I'm not sure he's right about that, but I'm going to go with it.  Have a good one y'all!

Acquisitions

     I've recently discovered that I'm something of a homebody.   Maybe it's because for so long I had to travel to see Bob, or maybe it's just that after years of unremarkable apartments, I finally have a real home, but now that we're back home in Big Texas I want to stay put for awhile.  In the last two weeks, I've been on 9 planes to 4 major metropolitan areas.  The one thing about the traveling that I don't mind is visiting faraway yarn stores.  At each store I visited during my trip, I was able to find yarn that I'd never seen live and that I'd been wanting to try. 

     In San Francisco, we went to Imaginknit.  I saw the basket of Fiesta Yarns Baby Boom as soon as I walked through the door which was perfect because Baby Boom is exactly what I'd hoped to find somewhere in San Francisco.  I chose two skeins and the new Knit Simple magazine.  Have I mentioned that I love Knit Simple?  It might be blasphemous to say it, but I think I like it better than Interweave Knits.  I also like Interweave a whole lot, but I've never actually knit anything from it.  Most of their patterns are too tricky.

Fiesta Yarns Baby Boom in Madrid

     The next day, we went to Berkeley and I was able to spend a few minutes at Stash.  Bob came in with me, and after about 30 seconds he said he was going to look around in the bakery a few doors down.  One of the women working there came over and said that she thinks they should buy the space next door and open either a sports bar or a hardware store.  I honestly can't think of a better idea.  At Stash I found a couple skeins of Shibui Sock. 

Shibui Sock in dragonfly

     A couple of days before the end of 2007, we left the Bay Area and flew to Atlanta to spend New Years with friends.  The first day we were there, Bob, Charlie , and I visited Stone Mountain (a.k.a. the Confederate Mount Rushmore) and found it to be lacking.  Compared to the real Mount Rushmore, Stone Mountain is just a sad little sculpture.  It was also cold and rainy and not a good day to be walking around outside.  After stopping at a German bakery for big pretzels, I was able to persuade the boys to take me to Knitch.  Charlie was actually somewhat interested in seeing what a yarn store was all about because he'd never been to one.  Knitch is a fabulous yarn store and if you're in Atlanta, it's not to be missed.  It's in an old house in a great neighborhood and the people there were very friendly.  Sunday afternoon is when they have Men's Knitting so Bob and Charlie weren't the slightest bit out of place.  I had the skein of Numma Numma Toasty in Fig Preserves that I bought wound because Charlie wanted to see how the ball winder and swift worked. 

     After a brief two day stop back home in San Antonio, Bob and I left again to go to Maryland to visit his favorite aunt and his dad.  Bob's aunt is a knitter, so when I said I wanted to go to a yarn store she knew exactly where to take me.  We went to Knit and Stitch in Bethesda.  It was a nice, though somewhat small LYS.  I found a couple skeins of Plymouth Yarns Happy Feet.  It seems like a very nice sock yarn and it's super cheap (just $6.60 a per 190 yard skein).  It's soft with a reasonably tight twist and it comes in a variety of pretty colors.

Plymouth Yarns Happy Feet in royals

     I realize that the last thing I need is more yarn.  Before I even left Big Texas, I was visited by the Yarn Santa (a.k.a. my mom).  Yarn Santa sent me a big box from BMFA chock full of yarny goodness.

Various forms of STR in Smoky Blue, Backstabber, Panzanite, Bantam of the Opera, and Olive Garden
(there was a sixth skein in Christmas Balls, but it's currently on the needles)

     I think that a general yarn diet is in order.  Specifically, I do not need any more sock yarn.  I've joined two new sock yarn clubs, the winter Zen String club and the White Oak Studio Romantic Comedy yarn club (a gift from Bob) so I'll be able to get a little fix every now and then.  I'm not making any strict rules for myself, but I'm going to do my best not collect any more sock yarn for the next several months.  We'll see how that goes.

What's Up With Colorway?

     This is my great big basket of yarn.  It's mostly sock yarn on the top, but buried under all of the skeins you can see are several balls of Lion Brand Cotton Ease that I'm using for the croshayed afghan that will never be finished, and ten balls of Debbie Bliss Cathay from a WEBS closeout last spring.  The bulk of my stash is sock yarn.  I generally don't buy enough yarn to knit a sweater unless I have a particular pattern in mind and I know how much yarn is required.  I guess you could say that I am a reluctant sweater knitter.  They're so big and they take so long, and unless you're making a sweater with Wool Ease (which I would never do) you need to drop a lot of money at once in order to get the yarn.  With sock yarn, the possibilities are endless and for around $20 I know that I'll have more than enough yarn to make something fun, portable, fast and functional.

     I have two different socks on the needles (one is almost finished) so I'm itching to cast on for another.  I went upstairs to my yarn basket after dinner and took everything out, admired it, and then put it all back.  I've always liked to do this sort of thing.  Apparently, it's genetic.  When I was home for Thanksgiving, one of my nephews took out all of his fishing stuff (he has a lot of fishing stuff) looked at it, organized it, and put it away.  I'm pretty sure that he did this daily.  His dad is the same way.  You should see his closet, it's perfect.  Anyhow, the three top contenders for my next sock are...

Chewy Spaghetti Sport Weight; I think this would make a nice pair of Thujas.

STR Lightweight in Space Dust; I don't know why these colors appeal to me.  They look like little kids' pajamas, but for some reason, I dig them.

Fleece Artist Seawool in Amethyst; I don't usually knit with monochromatic yarns like this, but I think I need to branch out.  I could make something tricky and Interweave-ish with this yarn.

     You may or may not have noticed that I did not use the word "colorway" at any time during this post and I had multiple opportunities to do so.  My mom and I had a conversation about the word colorway over Thanksgiving.  She asked why it wasn't just color and I didn't have a good answer.  I think I'm against colorway, but if there's a good reason we can't just say color, I'll consider it.  Does anyone know what's up with colorway?       

 

Dear Santa

In honor of the biggest shopping day of the year, I've decided to compose a letter to the yarn Santa.

Dear Santa,

In case you were thinking of bringing me yarn, here are some of my favorites.

From the almighty Blue Moon Fiber Arts , I covet sock yarns (STR lightweight, medium weight, or silky STR) in Christmas Balls, Olive Garden, Panzanite, Tiger's Eye, Backstabber,  Bantam of the Opera, and Smoky Blue.

BMFA Socks that Rock in Tiger's Eye

If you're more of a fabulous Etsy sort of Santa, there are always yarns from Hazel Knits , See Jayne Knit, Sunshine Yarns (the twist yarn is the best), and  Chewy Spaghetti.

Hazel Knits Sock Yarn in Sailor's Delight

      As much as I love The Loopy Ewe and her wares, she runs out of everything faster than a gal can say yarn, so I took it upon myself to find another loopy-like sock yarn vendor called  yarn4socks.  Yarn4socks carries several sock yarns I haven't tried, but would love to get my hands on.  These yarns include but aren't limited to Arucania Ranco and Shubui Knits.  Yarn4Socks is also having a sale this weekend, so check her out.

I'd also like to try Fiesta Yarns Baby Boom which is available at WEBS and The Loopy Ewe.

That's all for now Santa.

Yours Truly,
Courtney

Kid 'n Ewe Part Two: Brooks Farm Yarn

     The biggest vendor at Kid 'n Ewe is Brooks Farm Yarn.  I was impressed with their yarn last year, but I only bought one skein of  Primero because I didn't have any large projects in mind.  This year I went prepared with a pattern in hand, and after standing around debating the merit of all of the different colors, I bought four skeins of Four Play (wool/silk blend) in greens and grays.  I plan to use the yarn to make Mr. Greenjeans.  I bought a little more than I'm likely to need, but I think I'm going to make the sleeves a bit longer than they are in the pattern.  The idea of a woolly sweater with 3/4 sleeves doesn't make much sense to me.  I also have really long arms, so things that are 3/4 sleeves on most people are more like 2/3 sleeves on me and they hit me just below the elbow which isn't really a good length, especially for a sweater.  There's a picture on Ravelry of a woman who knit Mr. Greenjeans with long sleeves and it looks pretty good.

     I was looking forward to seeing the Brooks Farm sock yarn, but I'm not sure that they had it.  I'd heard that you can only get it at shows, but I didn't see any yarn that seemed like it was meant for socks.  Of course, one can knit socks out of anything, but I find that sock specific yarn works best.  Maybe the stuff they think is sock yarn is the Acero which is available on their website.  Acero comes in the same great colorways as the other yarns, but I'm not sure it would be my favorite for socks so I didn't buy any.  I might have bought some if I hadn't already bought two other skeins of sock yarn, but I think I need to be sure which yarn is supposed to be for socks.  I guess I could have asked, but I didn't.  Do any of you know?  Maybe next year.