May 22, 2008

I've moved!

Update your links!

May 20, 2008

Not Friday Yet

I did nothing today when I got home. Too much stress. I couldn't even bring myself to finish my sock. It could also be contributed to the mass amount of frusteration I have over the second sock.

I checked the mail. My Simply Socks order came in the mail today. Black Opal, 75% superwash wool, 25% Polymyde. It will go well with the orange skein of the same. Shibui, Sky Blue, a color I didn't have, and it helped to get the order above the free shipping amount requirement. Can't argue with an extra skein or two. Lastly, Farmhouse yarn, it's pretty in person. Sort of this crazy clash of colors. It should be fun to knit up.

I just don't know what to knit next. Or for that matter when I will find the time. I guess that's good news for my shoulder.

I fed the children leftovers. I learned that they like leftovers as much as I do. We went for ice cream. The thing we didn't know was that it was some local elementary school's fundraiser night. At least we got there "early," I don't like crowds.

I think I'm looking forward to the weekend. I'm just looking forward to the warm. I hope to have a *much* more relaxing weekend than last weekend of worry and drama.

May 19, 2008

Gimme and "S"...YAY, Stress!

I had a craptastic weekend.

It started on Friday with a call from my mom. There was an incident at the daycare. This is a very long story that I still haven't gotten to the bottom of yet. No one was hurt, but the story isn't very clear, and I was not personally notified, nor was my X.

So, I wandered home and I found Smooshy in my mailbox, and well, yarn always makes me feel a tiny bit better. Yellow, blue, and purple colors. Beautiful.

I'll tell you, I am completely a Noob at this whole "luxury" sock yarn thing, but I can't tell the difference between the mediumweight STR and the lightweight. Of course I don't have any lightweight. So I ordered some. I agree that the mediumweight is thicker than Koigu, but it appears to be of similar weight to Shibui. It's soft.

I went to Fontana Sushi in Littleton and Abe's Cafe in downtown Littleton on Friday. I had cheesecake. It was nice. I'm good at the description, huh? They had these cute little miniture snapdragons out front and the gentleman working called me "Carolyn" with his accent. I was amused.

The next day I received my order from Fearless Fibers. I've been impressed with what people have knitted with this yarn as it supposedly doesn't pool. Also, it's the 7 deadly spins sock yarn club, at least I think so. Either way, I like the colors, the prices are good, and the shipping is quick.

I met up with a friend on Saturday night and we went to Vines in Parker. I highly recommend this place. It's a tapas bar. I had some sort of filet migion wrapped in pastry and brie. Drool. It was good. I also had the bruschetta, I have to admit I like mine with chunked mozzerella, this one wasn't too bad. More of a cream cheese with tomatos and balsamic on top. The wines they serve in glasses, bottles or basically half bottles. They also have "flights" where you can try 3 types of wine. I thought that was kind of clever. The prices are from $3 - $15 for the tapas. They have a patio or a dining area. I'd post a picture except my phone won't allow me to email pictures to myself anymore. Another lesson learned, take the camera stupid.

That night too, my friend and I talked about the supernatural. So, let me start with this. My experience with people, in general, is that often I find myself talking about stuff with people, and I find that people seem to tell me all sorts of things without any sort of filters, for whatever reason. Also, I get creeped out very very easily. My X always found this mildly amusing and would like to scare me just to see my reaction. I hated this. Lastly, I do think that there are things that cannot be explained. So, here it is about 10:30 pm or so, and she's relating her story to me. I told her, that I'd be more happy to talk with her about it, but it needed to be during the day, this was after about 30 minutes of conversation. She said she understood, but how conversation often goes, she kept going. I then sort of shuffled her out of my place then. Blah, blah, blah, tired, etc, etc.

Well, the next day, I had had my phone on silent because I had been up until 5:30 am watching Star Trek, partially due to stress, partially due to a little creeped out. When I finally check the phone around 11 am, here is this voicemail... "I think you were rude, my feelings were hurt, I was trying to tell you a story, etc etc." Then an hour later, another voicemail... "I'm sorry, I know your under a lot of stress, just forget my prior voicemail."

sigh

I have drama. I'm so normal it's painful I think. Maybe it's because I don't know what I think.

Sunday I went to Michaels to find a cross stitch frame holder. I found one, and I like it, I think it will work with my frame, but...I also picked up a 50% coupon for next week. Rats. I think I'm going to get another one using that coupon. Why, oh why, do I find out about sales when I'm AT the store.

Anyway, my long winded weekend came down to this. Did you know that stress causes you to knit tighter, which causes your gauge to be thrown all to pieces? I know, redundant. :) Sarcasm is my friend. So, my sock, my loved little sock, the first one came out so perfect. The second one came out at least an inch shorter. The YO look way smaller. I almost frogged them both. Dang. I've decided just to finish them up. Chalk it up to a learning experience, otherwise I will be knitting these same socks forever.

I don't think I'm a great knitter. I don't even think of myself to be an expert. I do find people asking me questions. I know quite a bit about knitting and I haven't ever knit anything yet, that I wasn't able to interpret, eventually. One knitter I met not too long ago told me I must just be good. Knitting, it just makes sense to me, now if only the rest of the world did.

Lessons learned from the Noro sock.

1. Stress effects gauge.
2. Try counting rows.
3. Try knitting both at the same time on 2 different needle sets.
4. Don't be afraid to pull enough out so the socks can kind of match, if that's what you want.
5. If making your own pattern...WRITE IT DOWN...more is better than less...

May 16, 2008

Due to happen again

It's official...per me...I have too many projects going on at one time and none really reaching a state of completion.

1. Noro Silk Garden Scarf
2. Scarf for friend
3. Noro socks
4. Granny square blanket
5. Blanket for son
6. Socks for family member

Not to mention all of the other projects of non-yarn nature.

May 15, 2008

A gripe

It's occurred to me in recent months, I need to make some more friends. It's partially I think because some of the people I have known now, I have known for 10 some odd years. There can be some old drama that just doesn't heal in time. I'm glad to say that a lot has, but with some, the some I don't really talk to, it hasn't.

This occurred to me at a gathering that happened with people I don't always see on a regular basis. Apparently some of the group was pre-asked to give advice. I had no idea, I wasn't asked, I figured it was because I don't really get along with the host. We're sort of distanced acquaintenaces. However, I noticed that another newly divorced person there also mumbled about how she meant to give to this as well, but the way she mumbled it made me wonder if she had even been given notice. We were the only two non-married people there in that particular circle of friends.

So, it made me wonder, there were some rifts made when my X and I split. Not that he kept up with any of those friends we had had. I had the opinion that he had done something wrong in my opinion, and he had the opinion that he was doing the right thing. That in itself is neither here nor there. It was important to me at one point in time, now it just makes me think that it must be very hard to be friends with a person whom you know is actively cheating/lying/etc on their spouse.

It also made me wonder if there are any single women, who knit, have kids, like games, and are happily divorced. I only seem to run into mostly happy married people or singles who have never been married and who don't have kids. If there's anyone out there who fits the first category, please say hi.

I love my friends. They are very important to me in whatever capacity they are able to spend time with me or I with them. The constraints of my life however, seem to hinder a lot of the time I wish I could spend with them too. I wish too that I knew of more people who have had similiar life experiences like I have...ugh, I don't know, it's all just this sort of weird lonliness I think, where I realize sock yarn and the internet won't necessarily make up for real live people. Realizing too, that some of the interests I had, that kept me in constant contact with people, were not really mine, but my X's.

I'm over-sensitive, but I won't admit that to you.

May 14, 2008

In need of advice, or maybe just encouragement

Let's first talk about dp ladders from hell. They look SO big to me. Poo.

Ladders happen with dp right? They just do. No matter how hard you tug at the yarn between the switch, they just happen. Do they ever correct themselves? I've never really asked anyone I've knitted socks for. Besides the people I have knitted socks for are not knitters, and most certainly they would look at me as though I had lost my mind talking about the ladder in the garage.

Second, how important is it to count rows? I know that tension and gauge can often vary slightly from day to day, and mood to mood. I've always just measured. I'm sure my inner perfectionist is just having a hay day with my brain. Poking at the little worrier child in my head.

I'm using this cast on for my toe. I like it. It's less likely to need tightening. Although the first stitch seems to always be loose. On the first sock I just tightened it and left the little loop it left, the second sock I tightened and then knit it with another knit stitch. This I think may have left a tiny hole, so I may have to rethink my thoughts about that loose first stitch. I may just try the Knitty version of the figure 8 again. It's been so long I really don't remember.

On a side note...I'm so ready for it to be Friday.

It's always seems like I get home at night and all I want to do is sit down, read some blogs, and go to bed. It's not that I forget to take the pictures, I just seem to run out of time.

Today I had a first. I took back sock yarn to an LYS. I'd link you to their website but String, A Knitting Boutique seems to have had it deleted. I don't know what is going on there, but it remains at my least favorite. I'm grateful that they took back the 2 skeins I had. One was a Fortissma, and no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't convince myself that the cotton/wool/nylon blend was going to work with the wool/poly blend of the Opal skein I have to go with it. So I ordered a solid Opal skein instead, and opted to take this one back. I also took back a skein of Noro, not because I didn't like it, but I had 2 of them. I decided I only needed one. Instead for their store credit, I picked up Jitterbug and Koigu. A much better idea in my stash.

I'm still not crazy about this store. I went up to the counter and let the person at the register know I wanted to do a return, she informed me of the store credit thing. I said that was fine and I just thought I'd pick out my new selections now. She nosed through my bag and picked out the solid color Fortissma and said, "Are you sure you bought this here?" I replied, "Yes, here's my receipt." sigh. For that reason alone I don't think I'd really want to be a shop keeper. Maybe I'm a crappy customer having the expectation that you ought to have a basic idea of what is in your store.

I also went to Knitty Cat. Ann has Flat Feet in bright colors. She says she's going to order more. Yay, because the stuff she had, I don't think will last through the weekend. I hope she gets in some of the Noro Silk Garden Sock Yarn too when it comes out. She said she'd ask her rep. I went for Flat Feet and a Jitterbug followed me home.
The Jitterbug has so many colors in it. It's like a crayon box that tastifully threw up.
I also came to the conclusion today that I need to have yarn at my desk...on my desk as a display. For some reason it kind of just makes me feel good.

May 12, 2008

A little bit of Monday, a little bit of Tuesday

It never fails me. "Cycle" at work comes around, and I can't sleep at night. I hate that. So, the time when I need to be most awake comes at the time when I'm the most exhausted because I can't sleep. Goody. I also start falling behind in every other aspect of my life, blogging, bills, eating, etc. I've done this for 5 years. Oh, how I need a change.

I finished my first sock. Yay. Noro is nice. It can be rough on your hands. My skein had 2 knots, hopefully no more. The colorway looks great on the skein, but can be troublesome because of the knots. It has slubs and sticks. However, it keeps my foot warm. It feels soft to me. I didn't have any problems with breakage, although I have heard others who have had issues with that. I'll be interested in seeing how it handles washing.

Have I ever mentioned I hate feet? I think they're sort of odd looking. I don't paint my toenails and I don't like pedicures. I do like to knit socks.

My second sock has begun, and well, I've miscalculated the colorway. Poo. I thought about frogging and pulling until it matched closer...but...nah...forget it. It's my first set of my socks. I'm sure it will be fine. Yes. Fine. No frogging.

This of course is not the second sock. I haven't had the time to take a picture of the second sock, or post pictures of flowers from mother's day.

This is a picture of my "design," the one that made me slightly batshit insane. It's cute though.
Needless to say, I did nothing last night. I fed the kids, read, and went to bed. My cloud of fogginess is better today and my shoulder doesn't seem to ache, which I am sure is a direct result of work and not from knitting too much. *cough*

I ordered some Smooshy. Seems interesting enough, stupid sock yarn habit. The worst thing about this habit...is when I send my order to my PO box instead of my home address. Duh. Now I have to wait until Friday instead of stalking my mailbox.

I need to figure out how to wear my socks. This I can sense is going to involve a new pair of shoes. I'll have to ponder this. I don't like women's shoes much. I always like to tell the men I've dated, "Slow down. Next time you get to wear the heels." I normally wear some type of boot, heeled usually, looks sort of professional with my slacks. However, this does not bode well for socks. I think my Teva's will work well, but I can't wear those to work or in the winter. I did see some Mary Janes that seem sort of cute, heeled, and in an elderly sort of fashion. No offense to anyone, really, but I remember my father's aunt wearing those shoes. So, it's hard for me not to imagine a 90 year old German woman in association with those shoes, but I still like em. One day I'll even have a link so you can see.

May 11, 2008

Randomize

Geesh, I almost forgot. Look at the time.

I pondered it for awhile. I've read on other blogs people have just happened to mention that the first commentor never seems to be picked when people use randomizer.org.

So, I decided with my contestants that the old fashioned way was going to work okay for me. I penned up everyone's name, shuffled them up and tossed them in the air.



The winner of my first blogiversary is...

See you on the 30th?



Oh, mighty sock gods of frusteration...this looks okay right? After finally puzzling out the maddening zig zag...the end is now upon me...

A picot seemed the most perfect thing in the world. I knit, I picot, I knit and bind off, I cut...and try it on.

Oh crap.

The bind off is so tight it cuts off my circulation. I try and try to ponder how slouch socks will be okay.

Riight.

I frog. I start again. K1, P1. I made it 14 rows, I think, and now I'm going to sew it up, once I locate the nifty K1, P1, bind off in my books. Only one more sock to do cries.

May 10, 2008

Going, going...

Last chance. Happy blogiversary to me.

My order of Socks that Rock arrived. Mediumweight. Korppi, Haida, Rauen, and Stormy Weather.

grin

I like it. Sqooshy and soft. Not as thick as I expected. I think I'm going to be fine. I'm knitting my Noro sock on a size 3 needle. I think I'm going to be just fine. After all, I've knit worsted weight acrylic socks before. *ducks*

Progress on my sock.

I've learned a few things.

1) It's not the wisest thing to knit a sock at 3:00 am, you will make mistakes.
2) Frogging sucks.
3) It may be wise to wind the skein into a ball first before knitting, that way you can find the knots first (2 knots in this skein, can you believe it, let me tell you how pleased I was)

This is why the sky blue is kind of long I couldn't really determine, at 3 am, how long the colorways were, so I guessed.

Yeah, well...looky! I made a pattern. It is my special friend and I shall call it George. George is also the reason why I had to frog 6 rows...my zig didn't zag and instead made a line, and well my Borg perfection just could not have that. The second sock should look interesting.

May 08, 2008

No title is a good title

I've been pondering some about blogs lately. I've never really found myself to be all that interesting. I'm sort of full of self induced complaints, know-it-all advice, lousy grammar, and noncontinuous thoughts. I used to think that I was better at putting thoughts into words instead of words into thought, but I'm not finding that to be true. I'm finding that I simply am a random brained person who makes up words to describe their perception of the world. I think too, I don't have as much to complain about anymore. It's this sort of just acceptance of any given situation, and knowing when situations are simply out of your control. This doesn't mean it is any easier not to give my advice. I like running things.

Maybe that's why I enjoy knitting. I'm in control of how my product turns out. At least, most of the time. Like my sock for instance. I'm kind of following a pattern, but I'm improvising some. I'm pretty proud of myself. I'm enjoying my kfb instead of M1, although I wonder if they will be too tight.

I also like seeing progress. This is why knitting is so great for me. This too explains why I'm so frustrated with my job, but that is not a story for today.

The great part about knitting too, is realizing when you almost have the heel flap completely done, that you've knit it off to the side somehow, just slightly. Enough that you know there is no good quick fix, frogging is the only answer. Since I didn't figure this out until 10:30 pm last night I don't have a picture, because really, when I find my mistakes I usually don't go looking for my camera right away, because that would impede on my progress of correcting the error. So, all I have is this picture of the sock I'm working on. My happy twiney sock.

The thing that is bugging me the most today, is that fact that I cannot figure out how to tell someone that I think that they are a worthless ass, in a nice sort of PC way. We've had this discussion before, him and I, many, many times before. He just doesn't seem to get it though. So, I'm left with accepting the situation. I just hate sucky situations. I hate it when people don't understand what the right thing to do is. Even if it sucks for them too. Somehow it will puzzle itself through. This however is complicated in situations of divorce. Things become mine and not ours and responsibility is only okay when it doesn't involve money.

sigh

Somedays I wish I could just do more.

Did I ever mention I'm vague too? 3 more hours until work is over and I can go knit more. I'm reading Yarn Harlot's book, I think the first one, it has a little distressed looking sheep on the cover. Her humor and observations are delightful. I especially can relate the parts about children. Mine told me that for Mother's Day they will allow me to sleep in, even though they will be hungry. My daughter also informed me that she was going to just let me stay in bed if I wanted to all day, but no knitting.

Lol, what? What kind of relaxing day is it when one can't knit to relax?

May 07, 2008

You know it's time to clean the house when...

...you can't find the nifty wire device that changes your iPod into a cool thing that play music in your car. As a matter of fact, you stomp around the house like a crazed woman who's lost all her marbles. If you hadn't guessed, that would be me. I hate, hate when I hide things from myself. I moved it from my car when I had the car fixed. I should have just left the damn thing in the car. Then I'd know where to find it.

And you know what even makes it better? The X calls to see what your message is about, right when you are in the middle of your focus. Why, oh why, did I end up making children with the one person on the planet that aggrivates me the most? I'm sure this is a question many ask themselves.

I've been having some thoughts rolling around in my head today.

First, I like the rain.

Second, contest.

Third, I'm a fairly intensely private person. This in itself is a contradiction. So, perhaps the better description is contradictive. Anyone can ask me anything and I'll give them an answer. Sometimes answers they don't want to hear. My thought process being is if they don't want the answer, then don't ask the question.


Lastly, looky what I made.

It's a spaghetti holder.

No, no, really it's a wine bottle cozy. My adventure in bags, felting of bags, and yarn that was on clearance that I just knew was going to look wicked cool when felted. I was right.

At least I like it and see? I do knit from my stash.

It's functional and fuzzy.

May 06, 2008

Birthday baby

Tomorrow my baby will be 4. Kinda crazy how quickly time is slipping by.

Today we went to breakfast, hung out at the park, went to Posh, went to the store to buy cookies for class tomorrow, and to another store to buy a birthday present.

Whew.

The only picture I have is this. He helped me pick them out. Ah, yes, training my little ones to pick out yarn. Posh is a nice store, they have roving. It's small, parking can be complex, but they carry Shibui and Happy Feet. I liked the name of this store and the owner is very friendly.

Also, Imbrium, is the pattern gusset similar to this one? I'm lame, I know I could just email you too.

Lastly, a contest! Go check it out.

May 05, 2008

Alpaca's squeak

Contest...I still don't have my "prize." I don't know if I am being impatient or if they are sort of slow. I emailed yesterday.

Update: I'm kind of slow. I finally puzzled out the confirmation number out of 3 on the receipt, and wha-la...progress of transaction. They mailed it the day after I ordered it. So, busy weekend, I checked today at lunch and poof there it was. See what happens when I don't stalk my mailbox? So, this is the prize. Lovely, periwinkle.

So lovely, that I had to acquire a set for myself as well as the orchid colorway. Yipee. Maybe I should start counting sock yarn as stash?

All I know is this, after I finished organizing my stash, I ended up having more room in my stash boxes. So that means I need to fill those spaces right?

I think there was a time when I thought that it would be cool to have a few sheep or alpaca or other fleece producing animals. However, this has sort of changed. I'm sort of afraid of animals really, unless they are cats or fish. Dogs, I tolerate. Sheep, while cute, especially when made into a stuffed animal, are a little odd looking to me and a friend told me, full of ticks. Alpaca's...well they make this really weird screaming noise that kind of freaks me out a little.

Am I a bad knitter/spinner? I would like my fleece processed and colored and ready to go, as though it was never on the animal. Just like my chicken comes in cellophane, all clean and plucked...so should wool.

Speaking of wool. The Alpaca thing, I made it, on Sunday no less, but Saturday I had an ass ton of things to get done (help build a fence, pick child up from other parent's house, take child to birthday party, take child back to other parent's house, go home need shower from fence building, go to meet D, go to bar and listen to bands.) So, Sunday, I set my alarm, and I made it there right at 10 am. I didn't remember my camera. It is my talent to always forget 1 thing, on Sunday, it was the camera.

It's a little show. There were a few vendors. The vendors downstairs had a handful of fleece, all alpaca, all 100% worsted weight alpaca, seemingly handspun, some small skeins of milled. I wandered upstairs to the "fiber arts" area. I expected crafts however, to my glee, I found more vendors. The first one I run into, selling plain roving, and colored roving to needlefelt. Rats. I didn't want to purchase just plain ol' roving. What's the fun in that unless you're going to dye it. Sure, I guess the practice is good. The next one was the same as well, and then there were a few people to my delight, spinning. Roving, yay.

I found this at the Eye Dazzler Alpacas. It's ready to go and it mixed with silk. I bought 2, they were only 1 oz. sizes. They had red, yellow, purple, and a brown/black. The purple and the yellow were great, but I took home the purple. They teach classes at this farm, which is approximately 2 hours from Lone Tree, CO. They offer natural dye classes as well as acid dye classes, but not until next fall or spring, which is okay. All sorts of exciting. I'm hoping that perhaps I can take a class or set something up perhaps. They were very friendly and at this booth I learned how to spin and ply at the same time from a drop spindle.

This selection I found at the next place. I picked up some alpaca roving as well as merino. They had silk hankies which were beautiful, but I just didn't think I wanted to bother with them at this point. I also found this sport weight red/black yarn, socks of course, it's not superwash, but it's a really great color. Does anyone know, if you knit socks out of yarns that are not superwash can you still wash them in a cold water wash in the washing machine. I don't mind hand washing socks. Just curious. I keep pondering the socks I think I want to make for D, although I think he'd like slippers better, and I keep thinking that superwash is a good thing.

Speaking of socks...I'm making socks. Out of real sock yarn (yes, I make socks out of worsted weight acrylic). It's Noro sock yarn. I figured since I haven't really used super squooshy sock yarn to knit with yet and only the scratchy sort of Fortissma sock yarn, that Noro would be a good start. Besides I had 2 of this colorway in my stash, how did that happen? The reviews that I have heard from fellow sock knitters is, it's like knitting with twine. Hmm. Sounds great. I'm actually liking my twine though. I like Noro so much anyway. I'm enjoying the weird slubs and picking out my little bits of vegetation. Odd little knitter I am.

I only frogged the toe 2 times before I decided that the toe up K1, M1 was leaving a sort of little hole by the toe increase that I didn't care for. I only frogged once more after that realizing that I should at least sort of use a pattern in order to knit this in a sock that might fit me. D pointed out that my children have smaller feet than me and if the sock is too small I can just give it to them, practice practice.

Practice? What? It's not going to be perfect on the first try? I can't have that. My sense of Borg perfection cannot assimilate. Okay, so I didn't frog it a 4th time. It's going well so far, except for work and life getting in the way of my knitting time. I think it needs a pattern in it, however I want to practice the gusset heel instead of the short row heel. The short row heel is why I don't like to knit toe up, but the toe up concept makes me keep wanting to try.

May 02, 2008

Observations...and my first yarn tasting.

I haven't been checking my mailbox like a crazy yarn junkie. I've had the best restraint ever. However, that has caused me to wonder, where is my order (I need it for my contest)? Okay. It's only been 3 out of the 5-7 business days. This is the only reason I visit any LYS. I like to buy things online, I like their cheaper prices and I like free shipping but, damnit, I want it now.

Tonight is Yarn Tasting at A Knitted Peace. I've never been to one before. I typically don't knit with expensive yarns (unless it's a scarf) out of a weird sense of guilt. I paid how much for what? What if I screw it up?? It's as though I want to put it in it's own vaccum seal bag/box for posterity. I'll walk by it occasionally and think, "Wow. That sure would look pretty knitted into a sweater."

This was really a great event. Apparently, around 40 people had signed up for this. I can't say I met a lot of people. I saw a lot of people. My social skills are waning. If it weren't for my love of yarn I wouldn't have gone to this seeing that my social skills right now are on the bristly side.

They were busy. I would so go to this again. They had little appetizers, sushi rolls, crackers and cheese, and fruit. Wine and sodas.

I think I like this store because it's medium sized. They had about 5 sitting areas. Mostly around tables of some sort.

My little bag o' stuff had about 6 balls of purpled yarns (which was great, I like purple), a little sheet of patterns, a glass bowl, a sample of SOAK, a nail file, and a pad of paper. *grin* Now if I could only figure out what I ought to knit out of the yarn. I tried twice, but decided that my only pair of needles, size 7, weren't going to cut it. I forgot the rest of my needle set, but they had some "house" needles. I've pondered a scarf from this only because I don't really want a bunch of swatches wandering around my house.

I found some (clockwise from the left) Koigu, Kauni, Noro Silk Garden,and Berracco that just begged to go home with me. The Berracco everyone was raving about. The Noro...269. Happy, happy. Oh and they sell Happy Feet, I just couldn't find 2 skeins of the same colorway that I liked. I'll check back.

At the end of this year. They also have a ton of the Noro sock yarn, they did not have the Noro silk garden sock yarn. They said their rep would be coming by soon and that they would check with them. I want to try the silk twine. I still haven't tried my Noro, but I haven't heard great things so far.

Whilst I was at the yarn tasting, I noticed a sign for an Alpaca Fiber Festival and the National Western Stockshow complex...this weekend. Oh crap, roving galore...and me helping a friend tomorrow. Rats! Friendship. Perhaps Sunday then. Yes. Sunday. Roving.

I have a confession. One I've been avoiding for months now. It however is becoming harder to hide and one I can't deny.

I've become a yarn snob.

I know. Can you believe it? I still have 4 boxes of cheap acrylic yarn (verigated, solid, boucle, extra bits). I like cheap acrylic yarn...wait...before anything might be thrown at me for my tastes...it's easy to wash, I don't mind terribly if I totally screw it up, I have kids, it's worsted weight and makes fairly quick socks for people I dutifully think I have to knit for out of family kinship (and who think I ought to knit these things faster than I do.) My yarn snobbery is starting to show through more and more though.

It started with a box, just one, barely filled. A few skeins of Noro, a clearance wool from an LYS, a couple of balls of sock yarn. Then I went to the Estes Park Wool Festival with Imbrium and her beloved. It was like a small force of nature walking through the aisles of yarn. Laceweight, 2 of some sort (didn't keep the label, ah the innocence of not realizing how batshit insane that would make me now), 2 cashmere lace, and some roving later joined my lone box. My lone box however communicated to me, in a dream I'm sure, that the roving could not mingle with the yarn, you know, being roving. So the boxes became 2. One with roving and spindles, the other with luxious wool. No longer was it this itchy horrible nuisance to me anymore.

This brings us to the present. I got a great deal on some plastic bins at Target. The lone box became, the box of lace and worsted, commercially produced sock yarn, hand dyed sock yarns, and roving/spindles. They now rival my acrylic and I have this foreboding sense that it'll just grow larger. I'm hoping however that the higher quality yarns with just over take the boxes of acrylic. I'm not convinced of this. Especially since I'm expected at A Knitted Peace tonight and they have Kauni and Koigu. I sense that the Kauni and laceweight may demand their own box. Especially if there happens to be the black/gray or purple/black/gray colorways at the store.

Ah yes, my children will one day sit down and think, I wonder what mom left us...what?! Whadda ya mean 120 boxes of yarn? (6 in two years, divided by 2, equal 3, if I live to 70 and 3 boxes per year, would equal 120, which includes the 6 I currently have)

Lastly, I have a question, I hope somone can answer. Socks that Rock. I am the worst customer ever. I've emailed them about 4 times waffling, lightweight, mediumweight, mediumweight, lightweight. Oh hell, just stick with my mediumweight order. My friend once told me to quit reading about medical ailments online, this goes for yarn reviews as well. I don't know what kind of sock yarn I prefer. I've never knitted a pair of socks for myself. I've only knitted Fortissma, in the same colorway no less, 3 times. My daughter said she liked them but they were itchy. So, when STR colorways wandered into my view I had to have. I ordered 4 skeins of mediumweight. Am I going to hate this yarn?? I'm scared.

May 01, 2008

Blogiversary - Year 2

Yay...blogiversary month for me. So, here's the contest...leave a comment below on what makes a good blog. I like blogs because I like looking at pictures. Let's say that you can leave your comment until May 10th. On May 11th I'll stick all names in a hat and pick one, as I am unfamiliar with the random number generator god. The prize, cause that's fun too, is this. Two skeins of that actually. I don't have my own pretty picture however, because it hasn't arrived in the mail yet.

Here's a question for anyone, I hope someone can help me with this. Socks That Rock...lightweight or mediumweight? I ordered 4 skeins of mediumweight, then I read posts about how people weren't really crazy for it because it was very thick. What are your thoughts? I already have a list of other colorways I would like to acquire at some point.

I'm excited for tomorrow's yarn tasting. 1) because it's yarn, I like yarn...it is a problem, 2) I realized that Noro Silk Garden comes in 269 a way lighter color than what I got 267. The reason I am unhappy with 267 and 211 is that when I knitted it together it seemed to have gotten a yellow color from 267 and a sort of dark honey color in 211 to stripe very close to each other. I thought about frogging this. I hate it when that happens. My Kureyon scarf did that twice. I lived with it. I lived this too in the Silk Garden Scarf, but poo, I hate it when that happens. So, long story long, I want to see if they have any 269 available.