Merry Winter Solstice Celebration and a happy annual rotation to you!

For Christmas this year, I got some super nifty stuff. My sister bought me Mr. Funky's Super Crochet Wonderful, Elizabeth Zimmerman Knitter's Almanac and Amigurumi!: Super Happy Crochet Cute. Lots of cute stuff in there to make. And yeah, I must have been the LAST Knitter on Earth without the Knitter's Almanac in my library.

Teenuh got me a super cute Loopy Ewe Needle felting sheep kit that I can't wait to do. It looks so cute! It is wearing socks! She and I will hopefully do ours together.

My mother purchased 2 books for me, at the TKGA in Oakland a couple of months ago which I finally got for Christmas. Barbara Walker's Third book of charted knitting desings and a tiny spiral bound book on how to make any sweater into a top down seamless sweater.

I also picked out this super yummy lace weight silk, approximately half a pound making 800 or so yards and Mom bought that for me too. This was from the Solvang based The Village Spinning and Weaving Store, which was where I picked up that giant cone of red silk at Stitches. I buy all this fantastic silk and sea silk, etc and then I won't commit to using it. I am like Golem. I would hide in a cave rolling about in all of my "Precious" in the dark, never using it and never allowing anyone else to use it. I have to get over that and start knitting stuff out of it. I have 2 skeins of Claudia, 3 skeins of Handmaiden Seasilk, at least 3 more skeins of pure silk. Plus all of those amazing little skeins from Redfish. I think there is something wrong with me. Perhpas I should make it my New Year's resolution to use up more of my Precious regardless of how special it is, I know I can always buy more right!?

Also along lines of addiction. I made 2 more tiny, tiny sweaters. I sent one along with my mom to Hawaii to my grandparents. My grandma has probably already sealed it up in plastic and set it out in one of her many plastic "display" cases. Also I have finally turned the heel on the second sock of my Embossed leaves sock. So I am basically in the home stretch. As long as tragedy stays away it will be done soon and I can get back to cranking out that Madeira Stole. Mmm, that makes me want to go to Cheesecake Factory.

Ah, duh, also added to my stash about 2 weeks ago were somethings that I couldn't post about because it was a dead giveaway to what Teenuh was getting for Winter Solstice day. I orderd some yarn from the Netherlands. It took 3 weeks to arrive. The skein prices were so very reasonable, until you add on the international shipping rates.... The glory is the marvelous excuse I used to justify an order was that some was to be given as a gift. Thanks Teenuh, haha! I have 2 skeins of Kauni in the Rainbow EQ colorway. Hideously bright orange on the outside, beautifully rainbowliscious on the inside. I also have 2 colors of Kauni's sister yarn, beautiful color graduating, Evilla Art yarn. This is made in the same factory and has the same style of slow color graduations. One large skein of A-31 a warm fall colored rainbow of magenta, olive green, orange and dark purple and two smaller skeins of this blue-brown one, A-8. Reminiscent of that sock pixie color way I said look like Mud spilling into beautiful ocean water that I thought was so ugly. Funny how a little desire can change an opinion.I am ITCHING to knit some of this up. Discipline. Self-control. We'll see.

I am back on track again. I think.

My mysteriously lost Knitpicks order was reordered and finally shipped to me and I can FINALLY resume work on my embossed leaves sock. Somehow the gauge or yarn is different on the second sock and it was pooling so, so badly and you all know how obsessed I am with my socks matching. So Melissa, suggested I reduce by a couple of stitches and I decreased by 2 stitches. Miraculously the pooling disappeared, with just 2 stitches. Amazing. I am just hoping it doesn't return when I have to add the 2 stitches back in up at the ankle.

I took advantage of Commuknity's 20% of sale and purchased 4 skeins of Frog Tree Sport weight Alpaca in dark grey. This is already on the needles, becoming a scarf for DS's teacher. I am having a difficult time generating a pattern that shows up. The yarn has lots of lighter gray hairs waving out of it and it really obscures the stitch definition. I had a nice, reversible, manly pattern worked out in just knit and purl. But when I applied it to the yarn, the design was completely indiscernible, even after I had worked up 8 inches! Ugh! So I ripped it back and have been experimenting. I think I am going to stick with a 2 cable pattern with the cables running up the sides and garter stitch border. The lack of definition frustrates me though and makes me feel like I am going slightly blind. I tried a reversible cable scarf I found on the internet but it pulls in so much I would have to make the scarf like 80 stitches wide to have a reasonable width (about 8 inches wide) and imagine how much yarn that would use!

Also purchased at Commuknity was another skein of Claudia Handpainted Silk Lace in this fantabulous peacock color way. It is SO bright and beautiful and was purchased spontaneously, who could pass it was so lovely and 20% off. In the hopes that I will someday compelte the Ice Queen wimple, I purchased a ball of Kid Silk Night in Starlight. It is already has a little sparkle it it and it will look nice with some clear beads with metallic centers that I bought last week. Since I am now working on 3 projects I will have to finish up at least 2 (particularly the gift scarf!) before I cast on for that. Also spontaneously purchased was this ball of Melody that was up by the register. Damn tricky last minute buys. But look how pretty it is!!

Aha Guilty! I did not confess all of my recent purchases. I also bought, last Saturday at Purlesence 2 colors of Panda Cotton and 2 skeins of the humorously named Panda Silk (a whole 5% silk in there!) which I think I will probably make into another swallowtail shawl with beads like the Harlot did.

Stash enhancement, sewing and some knitting content....

Seems like I disappeared from the face of the blogging world. I was quite busy working on this:

Yes, I totally made her wear her knee pads, I tried to figure out how to put her helmet on with her hat as well. DD, picked this out for herself from the sewing pattern books about 3 months ago, the stuff they have in the stores is never anything that she wants to be. I had a very difficult time finding the black and white check. All the fabrics were purchased and cut out about 3 weeks ago. So what do I do? I procrastinate until the day before it needs to be done and stay up all night to finish it. It had lots of pieces and took longer to assemble than I thought it was going to. Whoops. Here she is with Ninja DS, he likes store bought costumes, luckily. They are on their way to a Halloween party. She is taller than he is with her skates on.

So I couldn't resist and I ordered from the Loopy Ewe. What I was really after was the Pretty as a Peacock Shawl by Jae Koscierzynski, I have been stalking this pattern on Ravelry since the first time I saw it. The gal finally made a pattern and is selling it. Quite nice. The Loopy Ewe was one of a few places selling it online and well, since I already had $10 worth in the cart, I needed to get just $65 more and I'd be in the free shipping... spend and save, right!? So just a few dollars later and this is what I had....

Resembling Koigu, quite a bit is Shibui Knits Sock. It is 100% Superwash Merino. Soft and springy!Seaoast Handpainted Yarn in Jewels. This yarn is a super soft 60% Merino wool, 30% bamboo and 10% Nylon. Soft.
The most expensive of my spend and save plan was this Schaefer Heather. The colorway is called Storm at Sea. It makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. Mmmmm. It is wonderfully soft 55% Merino 30% silk and 15% Nylon. It has a nice sheen to it. It is safe to say this is ANOTHER ball of Schaefer Sock yarn that will NEVER become a pair of socks. This color is almost exactly the same as this... and this ... the only difference is there is less gray. I guess I must like that color scheme...

I dorked out and in ALL my picture taking I forgot to photograph my Embossed Leaves Maizy socks. Sock #1 has already turned the heel and is working up the ankle, slowly. I've got a lot of other time consuming stuff going on that keeps me from having a lot of time to knit, unfortunately. I think the book fair can plan itself, right!? Knitting, is WAY more important.

I totally forgot to post some things! I got my swap stitch markers in the mail on Thursday! They are SO cute! I love the giant eyelashes on the star. I did not mean to ignore my fantastic partner, Brenda Flowers. Thank you Brenda!

Also in the mail, I got my latest installment of the the Shawl club kits. This is the Diamonds and Flowers Shawl, by Earth Heart Designs. The yarn is Heather wool, columbine blue, which is quite purpley I never listed my 2 prior kids in the stash on Ravelry, because I was not sure what brand the yarn is. I have asked and it is Jagger Spun, Heather.

Also I FINALLY got the new correct, Sock Pixie yarn. Here is it on the left next to its ugly stepsister Badlydyedlot on the right. The color is Poppy. The new skein is super gorgeous and it feels fantastic, I am looking forward to knitting with it. Thank you Sock Pixie!

Oakland TKCGA show.

Yeah, so it isn't Stitches, but you can go up and do it in half a day and get some stuff and have a good time. I went up with my best pal Teenuh, her MIL (in town visiting) and my mom. We parked for free out on the street. Strolled into the lobby about half an hour before opening, busted out our coupons and bought our tickets, only to be pleasantly surprised with GOODY bags!! Woo Hoo! They were apparently the goody bags for the people who preregistered for classes, which they had left over and were giving them out to all the early arrivals. We got a big bag from Red Heart that had an assortment of balls inside, (there was only 1 of these inside, but my mom gave me hers, citing that she would never use it.)There (and she traded me another ball not pictured for her matching ball of this washable wool) as well as a fabulous large black tote from Lion Brand Yarn that had 3 balls of hot pink Wool Ease and a pair of lion size 6 plastic needles inside, as well as a coordinating scarf pattern. Sweet! Everyone loves free, even if it isn't your favorite yarn on Earth, damnit! It's free!

So then we waited a bit, met some friendly ladies out in the lobby. Finally we got to go inside. The Village Knitting and Spinning Store was there from Solvang, CA they have the BEST selection of knitting books (never cheap!) with hard to find American selections as well as some really awesome German books. Of course I am such an idiot, I always buy books early on then have to carry them around until my shoulder feels as it will fall off. Well, actually my Mom came along and she bought them for me for Christmas so I had to carry them all day, but can't use them until after Christmas. We meandered around and I picked up some fabulous yarns.... Zephyr wool silk from Terylynn Needle arts
A beaded scarf kit, with Interlacements yarn and beads.
Then my very last purchase was this Silk Crack, as I have been referring to it. It is a soft, shiny beautiful, ultrafine silk yarn. It cost me an arm and a leg and some of my dignity, but I got it anyway. It is too marvelous for words, in my favorite peacock colors!! I could just sleep with this in my hands... Now this is something like 5,400+ yds. But I plan on holding 3 strands together at a time to accomplish what it is I want to accomplish, effectively cutting my yardage to 1/3 of that to 1,800 yards. Yippee. The booth people had made a beautiful sock out of this, with a size 000 needle, not in my future plans at all!!!

Still no pictures.

Heart break city, I can't find my damn Photoshop cd. Now I have fancy pants yarn to post pics of too. Today Teenuh and I went with Cynthia to a Cat Bordhi book signing at Purlessence. She was out promoting her new book about unconventional socks, New Pathways For Sock Knitters. About all I can say, she was unlike any other author I have met. She was quiet and didn't really have much to say.

That said, Purlessence did have some sock yarn on sale to celebrate this book signing. So I purchased some Crystal Palace Maizy, 2 skeins in Nightshade and 1 skein in Bittersweet, this is destined to become socks, with the solid Bittersweet on heels and toes. Not on sale, but undeniably NEEDED was Regia's Designer Line, Kaffe Fasset Landscape in Caribbean colorway, which is MUCH more blue than it looks in that picture.

Also joining my stash are 2 skeins of Sock Pixie. The first skein, Poppy, is a red - brown skein that really disappointed me. The color of yarn on the ordering page is a BRIGHT firey red easing into maroons and brown. In actuality there is no bright red, not any kind of actual red at all, only maroons blending into browns. Teenuh, also ordered a red, Ladybug, which had no brightness to the red either. Hers was a very muddied maroon mixing into just a tiny bit of distinct purple the rest was a muddy blend between the purple and maroon. The second skein I bought, did not disappoint. It was Stormy Seas and was every bit as stormy and sea-y as in the order page picture. It is exactly this kind of thing that reinforces my behavior to only buy things that come in shades of blue - green and occasional purples.... Ah, the yarn is spongy and soft and is dye stench free. Each skein comes wrapped in an individual cello bag, which I found a little bizarre, ever heard of this thing called environment? I would order this yarn again, but defintely nothing in red.... probably some Lake, or Peacock or Emerald sea....

Still plugging away on MS3, I have 20 rows to go until the end. I am going to try and finish it by this weekend, so I can get it blocked. My least favorite part. From what I have seen of other peoples shawls (well except the one woman who hung it on her dummy upside down!?), the wing thrown across the shoulder looks FABULOUS. I am excited to see mine finished.

Just a taste and an assurance that I am alive and knitting...

Doesn't it just gall you that the Harlot is here in our state, in our wonderful Bay Area nonetheless but so darn far up north that there is no way you could leave early, cross that evil red bridge and see her and get home at anything resembling a reasonable hour (or even an hour in this day) to get up in the morning and go on with life tomorrow!? Bummer. What about us Southies down here!? Don't we count for anything!? Commuknitty or someone (and we all know it isn't going to be the Knitting Room!) needs to get it in gear and book the woman!

Here is the Luna Moth shawl in JoJo land, good stuff.


I am really hating that beige stripe. Odds are though I will probably give this away (I hardly keep anything for myself) so that shouldn't be too much of a problem.

A quick glance at the March Shawl of the Quarter kit. The yarn is 50/50 silk merino and super soft.
I really want to do this project next, but have other things in the queue that need to be done, sooner rather than later. I was lagging in knitting these last couple of days, on Sunday (and those of you who know me know this is entirely possible and sadly most likely to occur with me and any mildly sharp object) I cut my middle finger on the metal edge of a tape dispenser. I got it pretty darn good, it cut deeper than one would think was possible. Then the end of my finger was aching and puffy and had gotten a little bit infected (not enough to warrant a trip to the dr.) So I was mildly incapacitated in my ability to knit. It s...l...o...w...e...d.... me down. Yeah, I know, what a spaz, but if I wasn't a spaz, I wouldn't be me, now would I?

Hooooooooray for Saturday.

Teenuh and I went on a merry yarn tour yesterday, visiting 6 wonderful yarn stores of the Bay Area Peninsula. We ran out of time and did not make it a perfect 10 by missing 4 of South Bay stores. The day started with me driving around in circles, having forgotten my cell phone at home. I picked up Teenuh and she gave me this lovely potholder set she knitted and felted. Then off to San Mateo to check out the Ashford Traveller, which turned out to be simply fantastic. I purchased that little jewel and the gal selling it offered up her entire fiber collection to sell piece-meal, which was simply too much for me! She dappled in spinning (meaning she jumped in with both feet and about 15 + lbs of various fiber) only to decide that spinning wasn't for her! My goodness did that luck out for me. Here is my new spinning beauty, I tested it out last night at 3 am after Teenuh and her DH went home. It spins like a dream. Double treadle is AWESOME. Here it is pictured next to my Ashford traditional. You can see the size difference is quite significant.

The first stop on our yarn tour was Nine Rubies in San Mateo. It is a new store, very nice, friendly people, the setup and locale reminded me a lot of Commuknitty. Teenuh made a purchase there, but not me, though when she got her bag, I had total bag envy over the heavy duty black polka dotted back she received. Our next stop was Purlessence where I really controlled my self and bought only 2 oz of silk hankies from Rainbow works. In yummy browns and golds. In spite of the Sheep To Shoe kit that had AMAZING purples and greens in it that SCREAMED my name. We proceeded on to Yarn Place to partake of their best 20% off everything sale. Some shiny black mohair roving. A cheap drop spindle and a nifty felting needle set, that can use 1-6 needles (scary, scary I can just see stabbing myself in the hand or leg or something with that) completed my Yarn Place purchases. We then drove back up to The Knitters Studio in Menlo Park to see the Annie Blatt trunk show, but bought nothing because of the high price of everything in the store. Then schlepped over to Full Thread Ahead in Los Altos where I sold myself on a some more Seasilk in this yummy aqua blue to beige-ish silver blend. So yummy. As well as some white Cascade 220 to make the edges on the Seven Ten Split bowling bag from Anticraft that I've started in black. Why is it so hard to find WHITE 100% feltable wool?? Doesn't anyone believe in white wool? Apparently only Cascade seems to. Our last stop was a dash to Uncommon Threads, just a few streets away from FTA. We arrived just before closing and had only 10 minutes to peruse. They have a nice selection of Lana Grossa that I want to go back to and sift through some more.

At 51 days. I lost my will and bought more yarn.... I guess I won't get my 60 day sobriety coin now. Hmm. Nobody seemed to be rewarding me for not buying yarn anyway. Not even DH seemed to notice. Guess I should have been buying yarn all along. I just couldn't resist buying the jumbo skeins of Seasilk that FTA got in. I ordered 2 skeins of the Nova Scotia colorway. Still having that thing for peacock colors. Now I am debating using that to make the Peacock Feathers shawl from Fiddlesticks instead of the purple mohair I have been saving. Oh the debate. Not that it is likely to be the next item off the needles but there is always some yarn to project debate going on in the back of my head somewhere, those are the voices in my head telling me what to knit.... Must obey voices....

Sunday at Stitches.

Well I am a psycho sometimes. Late Saturday night I finished the Falling Leaves Shawl while enjoying the festivities for my sister's birthday. We didn't get home until about 2 am. So like the fool I am I must/need/HAVE to block it. So I wet it and spin cycle it briefly and then pin the darn thing down, and now I realize I haven't even taken pictures of it yet, so that will be the next post. I finally rolled into bed at 3:30. Only to get up at 7:45 to be on time to pick up Teenuh for the last day of Stitches. We arrived right on time and wandered around. We realized we had missed a whole row of booths on the far left side on Friday, whoops! We picked up some of the things we had ogled on Friday as well. Then hit the Jane Sowerby talk on Victorian Lace Today, it was nice to see the shawls from the book, live and in person and to touch them and feel them, she is kind of humorous, with odd little quips here and there. We watched some lucky people win some money (why not me!!?) then hooked up with Tina's friend Amy and her friend Julia. We did some group wandering and then we went home at about 3:45. I was dead on my feet. A good time was had by all. So here are my Sunday purchases. Some rayon microfiber ribbon yarn in the Florida Keys colorway, from Tess's Yarns, if I had a choice (and the funds) I would buy enough of this to fill a bathtub and roll around in it naked for hours. These two silvery blobs of roving in Merino/ Tencel are from some store in SF that I can't remember the name of (maybe Carolina Homespun?), wow that leaves you feeling excited doesn't it!? Also added to my stash was this lot of odd balls. The sparkly purple is the super soft, not itchy Trendsetter Aura (which will become one of those generic potato chip scarves with some super kid or kidsilk haze), two yummy little tiny balls of angora in grey and two 50/50 wool silk balls of Horstia all picked at the Knitters Studio sale, buy 2 bags and get 1 free. This amazingly bright superwash merino/tencel fingering yarn is from Ellen's Half Pint Farm. The brightness in the picture looks almost computer generated or as if something weird has gone on with the pic, but it is really that bright, the shiny tencel helps. Funny thing about this one, I saw it at 10 am and didn't buy it, we came back by at about 3 pm and there it was, I knew it was meant to be, it will become something for DD not sure yet though she wants a shawl. She is the world's biggest fan of pink and purple and anything dramatic and girly. I also picked up some stubby Addi's in size 2 for glove fingers and some 0000 steel Addi's for beading. Finally, I have these precious little silk hankies ( 3 stacks) and some Firestar to blend in with them (as if silk weren't shiny enough, but my inner crow couldn't pass it by) all in the Pt. Reyes Reflections color way, from The Royal Hare in Santa Rosa. This place had lots of stuff I wanted to buy, including some sock roving in the same colorway among others.

All told, I spent a fortune (good thing I spent 4 months saving up for it.) If DH knew how much he would probably pop a circuit and have a stroke on the spot. Good for him he doesn't know. My stash has been enhanced enough to last until next years Stitches, don't you think? So if I buy more yarn this year, I probably need to be set straight or have my head examined.

I'm in stitches!

Yipee. Stitches was loads of fun. With the exception of my aching shoulder, I had a great time at Stitches West with Teenuh. I carried my Victorian Lace Today book, because Jane Sowerby was on hand to sign her book, all you had to do was catch her at any of half a dozen booths she was signing at. I did get mine signed, she seemed like a very nice lady. However I did have to carry my book the rest of the day and like a FOOl I bought another book right away in the morning. Added to my book collection, this lovely German book, primarily designed for knitting German socks, but full of nifty patterns not typically seen in the states.The show was huge. It took up pretty much the entire Santa Clara Convention Center Hall. The majority of vendors were yarn or knitting products, with some spinning stuff. There were also a few odd ball sellers, we really wondered what the seasoned olive oil guy was doing there.


We hit Cookie and Kristie's booth the Bay Area Knitting Co-Op. Where I picked up the Ostrich Plume Shawl Pattern and the Madeira Lace Stole Kit with black alpaca yarn (mmm alpaca, however black alpaca doesn't seem to photograph well) both designed by Lynn Curry. I also got 3 skeins of purple lace weight merino from Terrylynn Needlearts at the B.A.K.C.O.


Also added to my stash was 3 skeins of brown dk alapaca (that look pretty unappealing in this blurry picture) from the Yarn Barn that I am hoping will become one of the sweaters from Big Girl Knits, as well as 2 skeins of hand dyed sock yarn from Lisa Souza, the pink blend is the Sky Drama colorway and the Green is South Pacific, all of her colors were SO fantastic, I could hardly choose. I am SO in love with the South Pacific, I really have a thing for peacock colors of late. The skeins are a generous 400+ yards. For lace knitting I picked up a giant cone of red silk (1.10 lbs!) from Village Spinning and Weaving, that will probably end up as something from Victorian Lace Today or A gathering of lace, no specific plans yet. I also got a giant cone of rayon thread(about 1 lbs also), that I will use for some beaded knitting. That should be lots of fun. I also got this lace weight Harmony, color gradient yarn from Jojoland as well as some Melody superwash sock yarn, nice and soft. It is similar to the Yarn Place's type of yarn graduated yarn imported from China.



I also got 2 skeins of this Angora Cottage, merino/ silk blend roving that is so soft and lovely, I had 2 of these at home already, I am just padding my stash with this. Actually I have been torturing myself with spinning on the hokey cd drop spindle I got from the Serendipity Spinner's Guild, which is lighter than the wood spindle I have already. Maybe not so hokey, it sure doesn't look very cool though (because I am totally the image of cool, ha ha). Maybe I should stick some stickers on it?