I’m surprised January 13, 2009

I started knitting on Sunday and am surprised at how far I actually am!  Originally when I was in the yarn store I was thinking back to my last purse I knit.  I bought 200 some yards of yarn and it knit up only about 5″ high; so this time I thought that I’d need at least 600 yards for a decent size (I’ve been thinking messenger bag size).  Well, like I said in my last post, Prairie Yarns is sending me a second skein when it arrives, but the more I look at my knitting, the more I know that I won’t be using that second skein on this particular project.  The flirtation cable always makes my hands cramp up a bit (the whole 2 rows where it’s constant 5RPC/5LPC/5RPC and then 5LPC/5RPC/5LPC), so I try to do only a couple of repeats at a time.  Well, as of this afternoon, I’ve knitted 9 inches!  My plan of action is to knit 2 more repeats of the cable pattern and then 1 inch of straight st st so I can stitch the bottom together.  After this is done (probably tomorrow) I will start looking into what kind of fun fabric to use as lining.  I’ve always loved the fabric at ReproDepot and think that they will have something perfect.

It has been snowing and our entire state has been under weather advisories/blizzard warnings since Sunday.  I am so relieved that I can just sit in the house and knit or snuggle my kitties.  The only bad thing is that this bad weather is making me not so excited to wait for it to warm  up so I can go skiing or take the little guy sledding; I’m kind of just wanting spring/summer to be here already!

Misti Alpaca feels like Heaven January 11, 2009

Yesterday while perusing the yarn at Prairie Yarns, I caresed my first skein of Misti Alpaca chunky yarn.  Holy cow, it is soooo unbelievable soft and I wanted to curl up with it and cuddle.  I now really want to buy some and make a super soft sweater with it and I absolutely would wear it all the time.  Luckily I noticed all of this lushness after I paid for my yarn and was having my yarn wrapped into balls.  At the last second I caught some lovely skeins of Misti Alpaca sock yarn out of the corner of my eye and wandered over for just a second.  Wow, I just know that my next month’s project will be to acquire some Misti Alpaca yarn and knit myself up some socks.

For this month I have three projects in mind.  Since my yarn from KnitPicks hasn’t arrived yet (it may come within the next couple of days), I will c/o with the yarn I bought yesterday!  I bought some eco-friendly yarn in a heathered gray/brown color and in straight up cream.  Prairie Yarn was nice enough to order me one more skein of the gray/brown and will ship it to my house when it comes in!  The outline for my project is first to knit up a purse alternating the two colors and as far as decoration, I want to do 2 different cable patterns on both the front and back.  I think I would love to do the Flirtation cable (from Vogueknitting.com) in the middle and then a 6st crossover cable on either side of the Flirtation cable.  I’m really excited to get to work on it!

I picked the gray/brown color because I really liked the combination of it alternating with the cream color.  I am also very fond of putting together something classic that will last; the colors aren’t too crazy and it will go with a variety of things.  The heathered gray/brown color also reminds me of tweed 🙂

Today I plan on getting to work on that and we’ll see how far I get before my second skein arrives!

So many balls of yarn!!! November 20, 2008

Our mini yarn hop was a huge success!  We only got lost the one time in Fergus Falls (note to self: next time write down the names of the yarn stores alongside directions); otherwise it was a breeze!  I was very pleasantly surprised to see the gorgeous yarn my MIL bought for me.  In a big bag were several skeins of bamboo yarn in a celery green and then a few skeins of corn yarn in a green/brown/cream combination.  Sofrtly after our arrival in Fargo we immediately headed out for Boucle and then Prarie Yarns.  I know I said that I wanted to buy nothing but sock yarn, but so  many other yarns were calling out my name!  At Boucle I picked up Dream in Color Smooshy Sock Yarn in Flamingo.  It’s gorgeous and I can’t wait to knit with it!  While I was there I also got some ideas on what to knit with the bamboo and corn yarn.  They had a few examples hanging up in the front.  At Prairie Yarn I saw some new yarn that I had never seen before.  It’s Wisdom Yarn Poems.  I picked up a sky blue/green/purple blend to make a scarf out of to match my mittens.  Immediately Monday night I c/o for my scarf and am working 3 different rows of the Twisted Taffy cable from Lion Brand.  So far it’s turning out just lovely.

In Fergus Falls we swung by Crate of Yarn and spent a good chunk of time touching all the soft yarn and thinking about what we should get.  I didn’t splurge here, I picked out a skein of eco-friendly recycled yarn in a cream color to knit up another doll for my cousin.  Our last yarn stop on Tuesday was at Dream in Color in Alexandria.  I loved ALL of their yarn.  Everything was amazing and soft and I truly wanted to buy just about everything I touched.  There was some Uruguay (sp?) yarn in bright orange that caught my eye and I kept wandering back over to it.  But as much as I loved it, I just didn’t know what I would knit with it!  If I knit a sweater, would I wear it?  Am I an orange color person?  Then I saw bright blue yarn that would be lovely for a sweater for Jax, but there was only one skein and I didn’t see anything that I would like to pair it up with.  So after a long perusal, I sadly left empty handed.  😦

Due to a long day and having gotten lost a number of times in the cities, we decided to take the well worn way home.  No funny highways or stops; I think we were extremely glad to be on our way back home to where roads don’t suddenly turn into one ways and ppl are nice enough to let you in when you realize that you should have made a left 3 blocks earlier.  We made a pit stop in Albertville where sadly I didn’t see any yarn stores.  Not that I was really expecting to, but that would have been cool.  But we made it home safe & sound and I am eager to work with all the yarn I got!

I can’t end this post without talking about the play!  The play was fabulous!  We were in the second row and I couldn’t have been happier.  It was so much better than I had dreamed it would be (even w/o the original cast).  The actors/actresses were superb and their singing was dead on.  I remember thinking how in awe of them I was.  To be able to sing in a strong voice and follow the music while the person you’re singing a duet with is singing on a completely different level, it’s breathtaking.  I had tears in my eyes when they sang “Defying Gravity”.  Not only is it my favorite song of the musical, but thinking of how it relates to Elphaba breaking from the mold and going out on her own and the words…I’m a nerd, I know, but I was very giddy about it.  What was super cool is that one of the ladies who sat in front of us, whipped out her knitting during intermission!  I wished I had thought to bring mine!  I was tempted to ask her what she was working on, but I didn’t know if that would make me look like some kind of weirdo.  At the end of the night I was lucky enough to get a l/s t-shirt in my size!  This is when being small comes in handy; all they had left were xs and s, so yay for me!

I’ve taken pictures of all my yarn, I just have to get on the ball and upload them.  So as soon as I can, they’ll be posted in all their glory here!  🙂

I defy you circular needles! October 13, 2008

Okay, so I haven’t gotten over my anxiety of using circular needles from the *very* beginning, but my sweater is going along smoothly as far as knitting with circular needles.  My issues are all user related.  At the moment I’ve already put my sleeve sts onto holders and will be working on the body.  The point where I actually joined my work looks awesome and I can’t wait to see how my sweater keeps progressing!

The yarn I chose is from Prairie Yarns (Cascade 220) and is a gorgeous dark green, like a deep green.  It has been lovely to work with and the needles, I must admit, were kind of annoying to use at first, but now that I’ve been working with them for hours on end, they’re great!  They are bamboo needles which felt slippery at first, but now I’ve gotten used to them (and am further along in my work) to where I don’t even notice that.  Later today I’ll try and remember to take pictures of my WIP plus photos to showcase my socks that I finished this weekend!

Wheeeee!!!!! September 7, 2008

This weekend I got a little excited at the yarn store.  😀  I found my issue of Vogue Knitting at Barnes & Noble and picked up needles & yarn at Prairie Yarns down south.  I’m knitting the Yellow Harvest mittens with Nashua Handknits in a pale blue color.  It is sooooo soft and so far is knitting beautifully.  I’m excited to see how my mittens turn out and so far it seems to be going along quite well.  On a complete indulgence, I also bought a skein of Jitterbug which is washable Merino.  The color is Fruit Coulis, which is like all shades of purple, pink, fushia and darker plum wrapped togethr.  It’s gorgeous and I intend to knit socks with it.  Pictures to come soon, we just got back from out of town and I’m eager to keep trucking on my mittens!