Yarntastic Day!

So I mentioned on Friday that a bit of sock yarn had entered my home lately. I splurged a bit since it was my birthday. Yeah, that's the perfect excuse. :) Prepare to drool!

(Pick Up Sticks Club and Rockin' Sock Club are the last photos so as to not spoil the surprise for other members).
Duet Skinny from A Swell Yarn Shop in Sailor Girl. Absolutely love this color combination! This is the new thinner sock weight Duet.

Cascade Fixation in Denim (2608) and Chocolate (7382). Adrienne knit a pair of socks with Fixation and brought it to knitting Group. They were so fabulous I want to knit some for myself!

Meilenweit Cotton Fantasy #812 (Blue and Tan) and #803 (Pinks and Browns). This just looked like great cotton sock yarn. It's 45% cotton, 42% wool, and 13% polyamide.

Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock in Undertoe (Mediumweight).
Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock in Socktopus (Mediumweight). Absolutely love this color and the name!

Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock in Foo Foo (Mediumweight).

Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock in Footzey-Foo (Mediumweight)


2007 Rockin' Sock Club April kit color, Walking on the Wild Tide, using the new base yarn, Silkie - a silk and wool blend. Absolutely stunning color!

And last, but not least the Pick Up Sticks April Sock Club Kit with Zen Yarn Garden in Spring Garden. The perfect spring colors. :)

So, which is your favorite? ;)

Life moves on

Thank you to everyone for your kind words about Kilby's passing. Knowing so many people are sending good thoughts our way really does help. I took the day off work today and I've spent time just thinking about how much she meant to me and Matt. I will never have another kitty like her, but that's what made her so special.

Over the last few days I have gotten a bit of knitting done. Nothing like the calming nature of knitting.

Conifer Socks
Pattern: Conifer by Meghan Jackson from the Pick Up Sticks Sock Club
Yarn: Apple Laine Apple Pie in English Garden
Needles: Inox size 2.5mm (US 1)
Start Date: February 20, 2007
End Date: March 14, 2007
Comments: Once I figured out I should actually read the pattern, these socks knit very nicely. The pattern designer, Meghan Jackson, has outstanding attention to detail. Not only is the top of leg done in a unique stitch pattern, the leg is in a different stitch and then she carries the ribbing pattern through the heel and the toe. Pretty cool.

The Apple Laine yarn is one I don't think I would have necessarily ordered on my own so I was curious when I received it through the Pick Up Sticks Sock Club. Turns out I absolutely loved working with it. It's a wool/silk/mohair/nylon blend with a beautiful fuzz and sheen. The colors are deeply saturated and I had absolutely no pooling. I think there is a very very slight difference in the intensity of the color if you compare the two socks, but nothing too noticeable.

Wednesday night I started my next pair of socks. These are being knit in Yarntini's Project Runway colors, "Carry On!" and "Make it Work!" in fingering weight. I'm knitting toe-up to maximize the yardage and that way I can do my new favorite heel - the peasant heel (you can just see the waste yarn below the top black line). I thought I would do a 2x2 ribbing on the foot and leg, but after looking at it again last night I ripped back to the toe and started the foot over again with just plain stockinette. Much better. For the curious, I'm getting 8 stitches per inch on 0's (2.0mm).

This weekend I'm hoping to spend some good quality time with Thermal. All the socks this week have been distracting me, but I still have hopes of someday finishing Thermal and wearing it. :) Speaking of distractions, here are the new Duet Sock yarns I got earlier this week. The colors are Evening Elegance and Razzleberry. I really just can't get enough of this yarn. Maybe she'll start a sock club...I wouldn't be able to resist a Duet sock club...Are you reading this, Angela? :)

Yippee!

I won! I won! Lori over at Yarn Beans had a little blog contest and I won a skein of Socks that Rock! I never win blog contests so I was so excited when she let me know. It's in the Little Bunny Foo Foo color and lightweight. I love it! Thank you so much, Lori!
Yesterday I finally got to the point in Thermal where something happened; I made it to the neck placket. Hooray! Tonight I will divide for the arms. Exciting, huh? :) I'm very happy with the sweater so far and can't wait to finish, but I still have a lot to knit...the upper back, the two front sections, the two arms, and then the collar. Phew!

I always feel like I should apologize for crappy dark photos. This time I'm blaming a rainy morning and the time change. Yeah, that's it. It's the time change's fault.

In super happy critter news, Kilby, our loving kitty, is officially off of insulin! Her diabetes is in remission! I think this happy day has come because we switched her to wet food earlier last week.

After a lot of research online I came to find out how unhealthy dry cat food is to our furry friends and it turns out many vets think it is the sole cause of feline diabetes. All along I never thought there was much of a difference between wet and dry cat foods, but turns out that dry food is very high in carbs unlike wet food. Cats don't need all those carbs. They need protein. If you have a cat, I hope you consider switching to wet food. It will not only help keep them healthy, but it will keep them better hydrated too therefore helping to prevent the dreaded urinary tract infection.

And be sure to take a look at Eunny's blog today. She's got some big news.

Yowza!

Wow, you all sure know how to make a girl feel loved. :) Thank you to everyone that delurked and left a comment over the last couple days. I really enjoyed hearing from everyone and I'm so glad you like the blog. I never thought I would have any regular readers and it's pretty darn cool that you all take the time to read my little blog. Hope I can keep it interesting for you all. :)

Thermal is finally growing. My gosh this is a slow knit. I mean, sure, knitting a sweater on size 0 needles should have been my first clue that I would be dedicating the next several weeks to knitting at a snail's pace, but geez! Two nights of knitting and I only got through a few inches. I can however safely say I really do love the fabric and the yarn is very nice to knit. Good thing Thermal makes great American Idol knitting.

The last of my little sock yarn spree from the past couple weeks showed up on the porch the other day. Here we have 3 (!) more Duet Sock yarns from A Swell Yarn Shop (and one is by way of the Yarn Grove - free shipping!). From left to right we have Turquoise Tranquility, Mr. Roper, and Hip Chic. Love love love them! If I ever put down Thermal long enough to work on my Apple Laine socks I'll be able to cast on with some of these lovelies...And let's not forget that the first 2007 Rockin' Sock Club kit will be arriving any day now...Mmmmm, sock yarn.


***Knitting Group is moving! We'll still be meeting tonight (Wednesday), but instead of the Borders we are moving a little west to the new Starbucks in Wilmette (corner of Lake & Laramie, just to the west of I-94 on Lake Ave.). We meet from 6:30 until 8ish and any yarn enthusiast is welcome!***

Yarn! (And A Shameless Plea for Comments)

Matt and I got back last night from 3 days in Carbondale where we were visiting family. My mom had some surgery a couple weeks ago and Matt and I went down to help out for the weekend. As there was no knitting the past few days I'll instead show you a couple recent yarn acquisitions.

Late last week I received a couple of packages in the mail. First up is my February Pick Up Sticks Sock Club Kit. This month the yarn is a gorgeous color of Spunky Eclectic Skinny Socks called Romance. The pattern is a classic ripple pattern that will show off the colors in the yarn very nicely. The white yarn is to knit the removable lace cuff detail of the pattern...I'm not so into that. All in all it's another great sock kit!

I also received my first skein of Yarn Pirate in The Loopy Ewe exclusive color, Sweet Jules. This is the 50/50 Merino/Tencel sock yarn and it has the most gorgeous shine. I love the variety of colors in the yarn. I'm going to have to think a bit on what pattern to use with this lovely lovely yarn. Any ideas?

And finally, a request for comments. Connie, the owner of Pick Up Sticks, recently asked everyone who reads her blog to delurk and just say "hi," so I'm going to copy her and do the same. I'm always curious who reads my blog and where you all are. So, whether you comment a lot or never, please leave me a comment just so I know you all are out there. And if you want, let me know where you are or how you came to find my blog or if you have a blog of your own. :)

A Rare Occurrence

Rarely do I drop everything to start knitting something the moment it arrives. However, a couple weeks ago I received my latest Pick Up Sticks Sock Club kit and I actually did just that. I pulled out the swift and winder, wound up the balls, pulled the needles out of another sock, and started knitting. Unfortunately after a couple inches I realized I was knitting part of the pattern incorrectly, but I decided to continue on. Then about an inch later I made a larger mistake. So...I cast on for my Posh Yarns socks and put this new club kit away.

Well, as you know, the Posh Socks are done and now the Duet socks are nearly complete (pictures Friday!), so I will be casting on (again) for the club socks and this time around I know I will be successful. The yarn is Apple Laine Apple Pie in English Garden. It's a wool, silk, mohair blend and it's just lovely to knit. The pattern is another winner from Meghan Jackson. She designs all the patterns for the sock club and honestly they are the some of the best sock patterns I've used. They are all really unique and they go so well with club selection of yarn.

And as usual I have many more yarns waiting in the wings. I recently bought some of the new Crystal Palace Panda Cotton (left: blueberry-grape. right: painted iris). It comes in the cutest little skeins and it feels really soft. I'm going to hold off on knitting this until I actually have a need for warm weather socks, but I expect great things!


In my pursuit for more alternatives to all wool sock yarn I decided to give Regia Bamboo a shot and picked up a couple balls for a good price on ebay (the color is descriptively called Red Dot). The yarn is a bamboo and wool blend. It has a terrific shine to it and I look forward to seeing how it knits up. I'm a little dubious about how well it will wear since it feels so silky, but Regia makes some great yarn, so I'm hoping for the best.

Finally, I came across this gorgeous Lisa Souza color on a couple blogs. I've been wanting to try her yarn and when I saw that she created this color to help someone out with her medical costs associated with potential breast cancer I just couldn't resist. The colorway is named Violet's Pink Ribbon and it is simply one of the most creative and lovely sock colors I've ever seen. Some of you may already know this, but I am a huge fan of splotchy dye spots (that's what I always look for in Koigu). This yarn has both splotches and a solid section. So pretty! I recently purchased the Survivor sock pattern from Wild Horse Farms Designs and I think it will be the perfect pattern to go with this yarn.

***Knitting Group is tonight (Wednesday) at the Borders' Cafe in Wilmette (corner of Lake & Skokie). We meet from 6:30 until 8:00 and any yarn enthusiast is welcome!***