Friday, July 24, 2009

Garden Daze - 4th Shipment of Socks that Rock

I received the latest shipment of the 2009 Socks that Rock Club over a week ago. In that time, the pattern and yarn have not grown on me. This entire package is not something I would ever choose to knit. For my taste, the colors are too bright and a little too reminiscent of a vegetable garden. Having not finished the first pair of socks (second sock syndrome is in abundance), I won't be getting to this any time soon.

Loved this!

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Winding Yarn Sunday

I busted out the ol' swift and ball winder this afternoon. That was the best $100 I ever spent. I used to wind skeins using a nostepin and it was just far too difficult after a certain point. I wound three skeins of various yarns for a list of projects in my Ravelry queue: Cascade 220, Lorna's Laces Shepard Worsted Multi, and Blue Sky Alpalca's Dyed Cotton.

I just started on a pair of Cable Footies in One Skein by Leigh Radford. I've become an increasingly big fan of this book. The patterns are cute and who can argue with using only one skein. I've looked at the One Skein Wonder books and I can't say that quantity equals quality. All of the patterns in One Skein are easily recognized for their quality and uniqueness.

I'm thinking of giving the Footies away as a gift but haven't decided.

Self-Impsed Exile

After injuring my back, it was difficult to resume knitting for hours on end. I took a week or so off after the baby hat. I've started seeing a chiropractor and have started to take longer breaks between my knitting so as not to put myself in any further discomfort. I have managed to stay busy.

In the interim of my last post, I've knit one footie and finished a lace scarf using two skeins of purple Laines du Nord Mulberry Silk I had in my stash. I bought this on clearance with no clear intention of what I would do with it. After scouring Ravelry, I settled on the FishTail scarf. The finished scarf measures 5 feet; a little short for my taste but it'll do.


I purchased 5 skeins of Noro Tidiori to add to my four skeins. I bought the first few skeins because it was on sale for $5 each. Looking back, it wasn't really the wisest decision to make but I couldn't pass up Noro or sale yarn. I saw a few examples of Clapotis (check out knitty.com) made with Tidiori on Ravelry and it reminded me of Missoni. With a lot of luck, I was able to find a retailer still selling the yarn, which became discontinued a year ago. At some point, after the footies and the mystery project, I'll start on a Clapotis. I really have to stop having incomplete projects laying around. All the UFOs I mentioned back in March are still lingering about the condo.

I'm still queued on the Queen of Beads socks, which means I have have two other Rockin' Sock Club kits sitting in wait. There's a new kit that will ship this month. I'm so terribly behind.