I had a little accident

I accidentally ended up with a bit more sock yarn than I thought I would. I'm not sure what happened. Well, actually, I went to Michigan is what happened. You see, my LYS doesn't carry these yarns and I had to get these while I could. I mean, what if there is a sudden halt on the production of sock yarn and I don't get to try these brands out? Or, what if I'm not able to get back to Michigan for a while and I'd only bought a couple of balls? Or, what if THOSE yarn shops stop carrying this yarn? What's that? Yes, I KNOW I can order these online from a hundred different places, but that's not my point. What's my point? Uh... well... erm... Oh, yes. It was an ACCIDENT. It was out of my hands. Besides, one of my favorite sayings is - everything happens for a reason. There must be a good reason why I ended up with so much sock yarn. I must not question it. I just have faith that it is so.

Wanna see what I accidentally got?


Koigu KPPM! Oh, and Cherry Tree Hill on the far right. Okay, that one I got at my LYS, but only because I didn't think I could get Koigu. Anyway, 4 different colorways of Koigu! You've already seen my attempts using one of the colorways. I ended up frogging it and will try something else.


Austerman Step and Opal. I didn't even realize that the Step had aloe and jojoba in it until after I'd bought it. I'm using the green Step for Cascading Leaves from the Winter 2005 Interweave Knits. Here's a close-up:


I know it's a pretty poor close-up, but that's the best I could do under the circumstances. The circumstances: trying to take pics of all that yarn before Jim got back from doing laps at the pool and had a stroke upon seeing it all. The pattern, like most patterns, would probably be best suited to a solid or very subtle variegated yarn, but I'm fine with how it's turning out. I'm knitting them on 2 size 0 Addis.


Meilenweit Mega Boot Stretch. I got these just because I liked them and the yarn seemed a bit thicker. When I got home from Michigan I found that my LYS is now carrying this yarn. Oh well, there must have Been A Reason why I had to buy this in Michigan.


Assorted yarns. Plymouth Socka, Opal, Trekking XXL, Meilenweit Multieffekt, Online Supersocke 100. I got the Trekking XXL in April, the first time I went to Friends of Wool in Holland, MI. I'd been reading about it and wanted to try it. That night, I decided to use it. I typically pull yarn from the inside of the skein and that's what I tried to do with this. I just couldn't find the end and, after about 5 minutes of fiddling, ended up pulling a huge wad out of the center. Out came a completely separate ball of yarn. Not having used Trekking XXL before I thought, "Oh! Maybe it's just separated into 2 separate balls - one for each sock." However, the inside ball ended up being wound all funky and I threw the whole thing into my suitcase in disgust. After getting home, I re-wound both and found that the inside ball was actually 2 smaller balls. No knots, just completely separate bits of yarn. Weird. Anyway, the entire lot is 114 grams, so I actually came out ahead.


Cotton sock yarns. Regia, Plymouth Socka in 2 colorways, Meilenweit Cotton Fantasy and Meilenweit Cotton Fun. Normally, beige wouldn't be a color I would choose, but the Cotton Fun feels SO soft and nice that I just had to buy it. I HAD to.


Dalegarn Baby Ull in green and red and Plymouth Dreambaby D.K. in two shades of green. The 4 at the bottom are actually a green-gray in light and dark shades, but they didn't photograph well. These are so soft and nice and I thought they'd make nice 2-tone socks.


Knit Picks yarn. Okay, these I DID order from online, but only because they were on sale. You wouldn't want me to miss out, would you? All of these are Sock Memories and they are really thick and soft. I'm looking forward to using these.


More Knit Picks. On the top and far right is Dancing, bottom left is Simple Stripes and the red/orange is Sock Garden. The Sock Garden is really lovely to work with and I've already used the Hydrangea colorway to knit these:



This yarn knits up so nicely and these socks feel great! I knit these on 2 size 1 needles and decided to try a round toe. I like the way the round toe fits. The yarn knits up into a thick, very soft fabric. Of course, purple being my favorite color, I love these socks.


KidSilk Haze in 2 colors, JaeggerSpun Zephyr and Trendsetter Yarns Sorbet. My LYS doesn't carry KidSilk Haze or Zephyr, so I HAD to get these.


Last, but not least, JaeggerSpun Zephyr in 3 different colorways. Okay, I got these online, too, but they're for the Mystery Shawl 3 and 4 groups that I joined. I couldn't decide on which colorway, so I got the 3 I liked best. 8 ounces of each. Woo! I'm going to use one of them for the Amazing Lace project, but I haven't decided which one.

Hey, accidents WILL happen.

A challenge!

I just read about The Amazing Lace this morning. I'm in! I'm going to do the Summer into Fall Shawl from the Mystery Shawl 3 group. Woohoo!

Amusing stuff

I've got some knitting stuff to post, but haven't got around to editing the pics yet. So, in the meantime, here are a few interesting pics:


Jim and his friend gathered stray golf balls one day and dumped them out on the carpet to inspect them. For some reason, known only to cats, Ollie thought it would make a nice place to nap.


Last May, I took my Mom to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. While we were there, I spotted this water tower painted like an ear of corn.


When we drove back from the Mayo Clinic, we took the scenic route through the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We stopped at a Bob's Big Boy in Manistique. Instead of the usual Big Boy statue, we found this. Love it!


I did this as a swap piece on the Bead Art Forum. Humpty Dumpty is beaded over a wooden egg form and the 'wall' is beaded over a little box I bought at JoAnn's. I painted the inside of the box with Lumiere paint (love that stuff!) and added a fried egg.


This piece now resides in Washington. Jim wanted me to keep it, but I decided to send it in as a swap piece.

Just a quick post...

Tonight I'll be flying back to Michigan again. We're having Mumma's memorial service next Saturday and then will scatter her ashes on Mother's Day.

I miss my Mumma so much.

On a lighter note... some pictures of FOs.

My So Called Scarf. I finally got it washed and blocked. I love it! It came out wonderfully soft and drapey and it's, by far, my favorite scarf. It took 2 skeins of Noro Silk Garden.




My finished Kiri shawl. I think it turned out great. It took 2 1/2 balls of Crystal Palace Kid Merino. I think I used size 6 Bryspuns.

This is a simple triangular shawl made with Great Adirondack Yarn Company's Mohair Boucle. I liked the colorway a whole lot better when it was in the skein. Once I got it wound, I was really disappointed with how it looked. Before I bought it, I waffled back and forth between this colorway and a blue/mauve/cream colorway. I finally decided on this because the skein looked so vibrant. However, now it just looks kind of so-so. I should have gone with the other colorway.

A simple washcloth made with Lion Cotton. I got a sudden urge to make washcloths. I knit up about 8 different patterns before I found one I liked. Size 7 needles.


What could this be for?

Felted bags - what fun!





I really like how these came out! They're for my sister's birthday on the 9th. I'll give them to her this evening when she comes to take me to the airport. She loved the one I did last fall and these are much more her colors. The green one is knit with 2 skeins of Cascade Pastaza and one skein of Laines Du Nord Portofino. The striped one is knit with one skein of Pastaza and 1 skein of Cascade Quatro and 1 skein of Laines Du Nord Portofino. The Pastaza was knit with a single strand and the Quatro was doubled. Size 13 needles.

Last but not least... Jim put Ollie up on the shelf in the closet and he decided that he likes hand-knit items.