Yarn Therapy

I am sad today. My T is leaving me for Pittsburgh! How dare she get excepted to grad school! ^_^ I am of course very, very happy for her, but I am going to miss her terribly. Who is going to watch soccer games with me now?

So in this frame of mind I went to the yarn store....as you might have guessed, I ended up walking out with more than I probably should have. In my defense, I really did think about only getting a sock pattern.

I picked up some ever so pretty Diadem by Alisha Goes Around, and some lovely blue Crock-O-Dye by Knit One Crochet Too
















It makes me very happy it only took half an hour of being posted on Facebook for both of these skeins to be claimed by friends ^_^ They are both destined to be socks at some point in the nearish future

Happy Easter

Omph! Jogging is hard and painful work....though much less painful once you figure out how to run correctly. Apparently I've been doing it wrong for years! Who new? Of course we will see how long this lasts as we get closer to summer in Dallas.

I've been working on both my spinning and my sock making recently. Finished up the pirate socks for Melissa:















I hope she likes them! Need to remember to shove them into the mail this week.

Also started these for Eileen:















Magic Mirror socks also done by Jeannie Cartmel. Apparently this is a month for toe up socks! I'm getting really comfortable with the Turkish Cast on.

And here ia a picture of some of my spinning! I am ridiculously proud of this yarn, in all its over spun glory
















Now I have to go be an adult type person and send out more resumes *sigh*

Baby Steps

I have taken my first steps into the glorious world known as spinning. :) I am inordinately proud of this.






























Yes it is overspun, yes it is thick and thin yet still missing the art yarn mark, and no there is not really enough to do anything with. But it looks like yarn and I had a lot of fun doing it.

oh sweet jesus it is hot! In a reversal of winter where in an attempt to save some money I keep the house at 50 most of the time (and that only so I wont freeze pipes), right now I am steadfastly refusing to turn on the A/C. Even with ceiling fans and UV film over most of the windows and the one window I don't worry about the cats escaping from open, I still have to abandon the living room around 1. 80 is simply unpleasant to do much of anything in. I am actually thinking about blowing up the air mattress tomorrow and sleeping on the porch.

This is all interfering with my knitting progress -_-. Maybe I can borrow one of the carrels at the library this week and do some work there. That should get me at least a few looks :)

So apparently March = knitting slum, and I don't get it at ALL. Its March in Dallas for goodness sake, it isn't like it is all gray and cold here. Seasonal Spring Depression? *le sigh* So no, I did not get a lot of knitting done last month. With the exception of one hat, I think I finished 2 projects I had started in February. But hopefully that slump is done for awhile.

The hat is pretty, pretty. My dear dear friend T got excepted into grad school in Pittsburgh for archival studies and this weekend was her orientation. And I thought a new chapter in her life deserved a stylish new hat. Plus its Pittsburgh, it is still cold there. This also gave me an excuse to pick up some of the lovely Classic Elite Magnolia that I have been eying in the shop for months now. The pattern is a free one on Ravelry, Rylands Cabled Hat.















And yesterday I cast on a project I've been wanting to do for months. Over Christmas my cousin and I were looking at sock patterns to determine where her preferences lie (it is something so few people know about themselves and yet its very important to establish if you are a lace or cable or colorwork kind of person ^_^) So as we are browsing away, I come across this pattern by Jeannie Cartmel called Pirate Danger (Profile page, pattern at the bottom of the page and Ravelry Link) and I knew I had to do them for Melissa. But I figured I would be good and wait till I found the right yarn before starting them. And then one day I was in the yarn shop and there was this absolutely perfect Ella Rae Lace Merino (ok, I admit I always look at the Lace Merino. This will only be the 6th project I do with it. It isn't an obsession). So last night I put on some silly movies and did this:

I am not yet convinced that I am capable of knitting with two strands of yarn at the same time. I am currently trying (and the key word here at the moment is TRY) to make a baby hat for my dear friend Princess that involves double knitting. And, apparently, you can't do double knitting only using the English method.

So last night I watched a few videos and read a few tutorials and figured out how to knit Continentially. Which is slightly weird but not difficult although my gauge is definitely tighter at this moment. However, the minute I add that extra strand of yarn to either hand it all ends up going very wrong. Tension becomes a thing I can only dream of and somehow despite doing what the videos tell me, I am still carrying the yarn across the front. *pout*


P.S. Yes I also know that really what I need to do is sit down and practice for you know more than half an hour but I'm choosing to ignore that at the moment and hope it will all magically work out anyway

Had a really lovely girls/spring cleaning weekend. T and I meet up with my friend Steph at a fantastic Italian place for lunch followed by a visit to the Kimball to see the Salvatore Rosa exhibit. While my dad didn't think these plans were exceptionally fun sounding, I had a ball. I so rarely get to indulge in lunches where champagne is served ^_^.

As is typical of T and I, we meet up in Plano which means I got another opportunity to knit in public places. This is generally an opportunity to practice my conversational skills with completely random people. I've run into fellow knitters, genuinely curiously people, and those who seemed to use it as an excuse to half ass hit on me. This trip was remarkable in that not one person said anything. Though at least a few did stare *grin*

I keep flipping between projects at the moment but I'm hopeful that I will get Casey's gloves done in time for her to use them this winter. Of course she lives in Boston so I think I've got a few weeks.















Spud and Cloe fine sock with Io by Asa Tricosa