Stash Enrichment ^_^

For the last several months, going to Tuesday Morning looking for yarn has always been a bust. I bought some Inca Sportlace and some Arucania Pomaire Multy back in January of 2011, but pretty much every time I've gone since then there hasn't been a single ball of anything new. Just the same old tangled skeins, mostly cotton or weird novelty fluff.
Then this month I got a flyer saying they had new discounted yarn and I couldn't wait to go see if they had anything new. It turned out they did. Quite a bit of Ella Rae Amity and Palermo, some more various Arucania, and a ton of sock yarn.

Being me, of course, I went for the sock yarn. I got 4 skeins of Fibranatura Yummy, which of course I've never heard of before. Unlike when I bought the Sportlace, (a yarn that felts eagerly and should pretty much never be used for socks) this time I headed to Ravelry before I made my purchase (Thank goodness for smart phones.) and learned that it was a decent, hard-wearing sport weight yarn and that I should indeed buy the whole lot of it at 55% off.  In fact the only complaint on Ravelry seemed to be that it was "rough" which, at least in the skein, I disagree with. But we'll see how it knits up. Of course I got enough to make a garment with: 1480 yards, actually.
I picked up a few pairs of straights while I was there, since they had 3 pairs for $2.

Checkered stuff on top?
Totally a pair of pants.

 So in the picture above you can see that 2 skeins of Cascade Fixation also made it into my basket. But that wasn't from Tuesday Morning. We went to a little thrift store on the way home and I couldn't BELIEVE I found it! Usually all they have is really old heavy rug yarn and ancient acrylics, but this time two little surprises were tucked away for me.  They aren't the same color, but I love Fixation and can make a nice pair of striped socks. They were only $2 each, so I'm pretty psyched. Especially since I was actually looking for some online yesterday.

Finally, at the thrift shop I hit the mother lode of project bags.

They're all home-made drawstring bags, aside from the striped one which is from Old Navy.

Yep, it was a pretty good haul.
We also picked up a birdhouse at Tuesday Morning, and spent the afternoon painting it.

In retrospect, letting a two-year-old play with paint on my bed was a bad idea.

That's what I was up to today.
I'm about to go and cast on my lovely new pink stripey socks. ^_^

Yarn Acquisitions (and a little bit of knitting ^_^)

I seriously have an addiction to those Mary Jane Slippers and have run out of buttons. Now, I think I already mentioned my idea about crocheting some in purple and adding little hippo buttons? They sell them at Joanns, so that's where I headed yesterday.
Keep in mind: I went there for buttons. Hippo buttons. Two of 'em.

Yep. That's 10 buttons and a crochet hook.

Then, of course, I hit up the yarn isle.

My favorite big box sock yarn.
Colorway "Slate Jacquard"

My favorite big box wool.
Colorways: Wisteria, Taupe

 The best part is that I don't even have plans for this yarn. I bought that whole skein of light purple to do a complimenting line of single crochet around the dark purple yarn I already have. I stand by it though: Those slippers are going to be friggin' cute. And then I bought the brown skein just because it was 2 skeins of Patons for $9 and.... it's a sale.
As for the Patons Kroy? I'm thinking about doing the self-striping KAL with the Stockinette Zombies
and it is also my brother's birthday on Sunday. Why not kill 2 birds with one stone and make a pair of socks for his b-day? Actually it's more like 3 birds, because I'm also in a 12 socks in 12 months group. Not that I condone killing birds. ..erm yeah.
And, no, I don't expect the socks to be done by his birthday. Like at all.

Especially since I've been working on this:

...
What are those weird sticks at the top?
OH!!! Straights. Yeah. I have those.

 That's right. High on shawl-blocking, I decided to start I Heart Aran (again). I actually have come to believe that this yarn I am using is cursed, but I am going to go through with it anyways and see if I can't get something cute out of it.

I have knit the first sleeve and most of the second with no peril. I actually had an issue with the sleeve cap and freaked out for 20 minutes before realizing I could just email Tanis and find out if I'm bad at math or if the pattern is wrong. Turns out one number was off in the pattern, so she sent me the most recent copy and I'm back at work. Luckily only a bit of frogging is required.

So I'm hoping it will be smooth sailing from now. Fingers crossed with all the cabling in the front, of course.


Is that all??
No! It isn't! I also got a lovely package from a friend in Sweden today.

When she heard of some personal troubles I've been going through, she stepped right in and sent me a lovely note and some pretty mini-skeins. Thank God for Ravelry. I mean it. I have met so many loving and amazing people through Rav and it is so much more than just a website to me. I wish I could give a big ((hug)) to Britta for bringing a touch of cheer to my day. I feel like if I had been having a bad day and gotten it that would have been brightened me up, but since I was already having a good day it made me feel like I'm on top of the world! And then when my Beekeeper's Quilt is actually done, I will always have these few special hexipuffs reminding me of her friendship *^v^*

I feel like I could melt into a puddle I'm so happy right now. And the little one is asleep, leaving me to my guilty pleasure: knitting while watching Ruby Gloom on Netflix. (I know, I'm so lame!!!)
Happy knitting everyone. ^_^

Stitches!!!!!

I can't even words.

Yarn I bought:

Miss Babs Yowza Whatta Skein, color: Luna Granite

I have a thing for HUGE skeins of yarn; these boast 560 yards each. This might become the Merryall Cardigan.* In spite of having noticed that I gravitate toward neutrals, having nothing bright or colorful in my stash, and completely intending to remedy that situation, I once again bought a "boring" color.
I did fully intend to make up for this by buying another skein, something bright from Anzula. I had my eye on Cricket, which- along with the wonderful colorways found in all of their yarns- was super incredibly wonderfully squishy. Instead, I ended up buying a book I've had my eye on for a while.

*OMG after I wrote this entry I went and saw Susan B. Anderson's most recent update and now I totally want to knit the Calligraphy Cardigan instead. But it calls for 1350 yards and I have 1120 and.... I seriously think that I would buy a 3rd ball just to have that cardigan. Is that completely insane? I mean, I would have like 330 yards left, which is totally like a full skein. It's not insane. Is it?

Book I bought:

Whimsical Little Knits 3 by Ysolda Teague

Yes I fan-girled and got Ysolda to sign it.
Aside from wanting to knit the Not-So-Tiny Slippers for ages, loving Ysolda's designs and needing something for her to sign, I also bought the book for these WONDERFUL Narwhal mittens. Did you know they were lined? I didn't. When I saw the sample knit I just had to have the pattern. Narwhals on their own are pretty rad, but inside of these sport-weight colorwork mittens, there are fingering weight mittens. Lined= super squishy and super warm! Which.... I didn't think about it until hours and hours later but I totally live in California. Whatever. Still makin' 'em.

What I wore:

Central Park Hoodie by Heather Lodinsky

I think the most fun about stitches was seeing all the wonderful hand-knits everyone was wearing. I saw some amazing patterns, some I recognized and some I made a note to look into. It was such a blast.

What I was knitting:

Some Cloudy Day by Tiny Owl Knits

I had lots of time to knit in the car, and we had a mid-day knitting break as well so I did manage a few repeats. Really, though, the conversation was so engaging that I ended up messing up the pattern and having to tink back a row or two. So not as much knitting as to be expected, but the first legwarmer should be finished by tonight.

Money I have left:

US Currency
(Well the other all had links!!)

I'm just so glad I brought along only the amount I was allowed to spend and not a penny more.
The only thing I regret is that I forgot to bring chapstick. (Seriously. If you saw me at Stitches, I was probably rummaging through my purse for chapstick.)

I didn't take any pictures there- it's a phone battery conservation issue- but the group I was with will have pictures up soon and I'll be sure to linky and perhaps steal a few. ^_^



So much fun.
Seriously.
If you get the chance, go to Stitches.

Organizing....

So I spent a great deal of time working on my "craft area" the other day.

Before now, I never had a craft area actually. But then my sister tossed out this old shelfy thing and I immediately took it to my room and filled it with goodies.

stuff on top- yes those are train bookends(Vyvyan's influence). And that little blue bird is totally a tape measure. And the crab is totally a piggy bank.

The books on top are knitting essays and knitting fiction, which frees up more room in my bookshelf for books on technique. Then, of course, all my straights and DPN's. My exchangeable sets are tucked in with the books, and the fixed circulars are in one of the top drawers. The other drawer is filled with tape measures, buttons, ribbons, elastic thread, extra darning needles, scissors, and other odds and ends.

The box holds all my magazines (yay even more bookshelf room!) and I put a few of my hardcover books as well, just for looks.
Then what's really cool is that the sides pop out so I can put up my ballwinder and swift. Woot!

The bottom drawer holds mostly swatches and extra pens and paper for design work.
The cabinets at the bottom are filled with....

all my WIPs. (And swift and ballwinder, when not in use.)This pile of bags used to be tucked behind my closet door (which had to be propped back with a chair in order to stay closed) and a few of them lived in other places in the house. But now they are all together in one place. I'm hoping that I will become the kind of knitter who works on one thing at a time, and that soon I will replace these WIP bags with yarn.

Speaking of yarn, I actually organized that too.
The main stash is in 2 underbed storage containers.
The bigger one holds all my worsted weights and cotton.

The smaller one holds all the bulky weight and "fancy" stuff. (Like Kidsilk Haze. That's fancy.)

There is also a little pink suitcase holds a whole bunch of Cestari sock weight I got on sale once upon a time that I decided is lacking in quality and haven't really done anything with.

 Then in my closet is this cute little basket purse

which contains all my "good" sock yarn.

This hat box (also kept in the closet) contains all my lesser-quality sock yarn. (Actually, looking at it a second time I guess it's actually just the sock yarn that didn't fit in the basket or that isn't in the queue quite yet.)

Then there's a box I got really cheap at DD's Discounts. I think they sold it as a toybox? But it's totally perfect for my acrylics. Sorry about the dark shot; I was too lazy to remove it from the closet.

And that's all the yarn in my room, except for the 5 skeins of Simply Soft in the laptop bag under Vyvyan's bed. (His under-bed has NO storage at all.)

Well I guess there are also a few bags of yarn scraps: one for fingering weight, one for bulky weight, one for worsted acrylics and one for worsted wools. But I'll save those for another day, because who wants to look at a bunch of partial skeins? Not me! Though they sure are handy for stripey hats ;)

So anyways, now things are a little bit more manageable in here. I'm quite happy with my new "craft area" and that all my yarn is mostly together and sorted. Now if only I could get my Ravelry stash page up to date....