Knitpicks Arrival!

Look what came in the mail for me today! My mother’s birthday is coming up, and she mentioned to my father that she wished she had another pair of fingerless mitts (why she didn’t tell me, the knitter of said mitts, this, I have no idea!) Anyway, my father passed this information on to me, and I placed an order with Knitpicks. I chose some Swish DK in Dusk to knit either the Café Au Lait mitts or Susie’s Reading Mitts.

However, since I was placing an order anyway, and Knitpicks has just come out with the gorgeous Chroma line, I also had to order some of that. I chose two skeins of the worsted weight, one in the Fossil colorway and one in Galapagos. I intended to use these to make one of the Noro Striped Scarves, but after seeing them in person, I’m not sure that the colors really go together. What do you guys think? Here's a picture of the two together:

I also ordered a skein of Midwinter. I’ll be striping this with Knitpicks Palette in either gray or purple to make a Daybreak shawl.

Cat Fortress...

At least, that’s what it was supposed to be…I got a Knitpicks order in the mail last week, and told the boyfriend I was bringing over a new box for his cat to play with. One thing led to another, and somehow, we ended up building a cat fortress! It has entrances and windows on each level, as well as holes between the levels so Zoey can climb up. However, she doesn’t really seem to get this concept, and prefers to just hang out in the bottom box. So much for all of our construction efforts, although at least we had fun building it! I think I may be turning into a cat person…

We also went ice skating. No pictures from that, because we weren’t supposed to have cameras on the ice, and it was dangerous enough without being distracted! They way over-sold tickets, so there were about a million people on the ice. There were also a couple of birthday parties going on, meaning there were little kids on ice skates careening everywhere. I’m not exactly a skilled ice skater, so these obstacles were quite a challenge. I did, however, learn how to make quite a graceful spin when turning around was the only way to avoid slamming into a small child. I also didn’t fall on the ice, although there was some crashing into walls.

I also discovered a new yarn shop. I got rather frustrated with my old, closer yarn shop on Thursday. They’re only open past 6:00 one day a week, and since I’ve been spending the weekends in another city with the boyfriend, that one day is the only time I can get there. We had a big of snow on Thursday, so I called them before heading out there to make sure they weren’t closing early. They said they weren’t, and I braved traffic and icy roads to get that one extra skein of yarn I needed for my Christmas knitting. It was not a fun trip. I arrived and- lo and behold- there was a closed sign on the door. I was not a happy girl.

Waiting until this coming Thursday (2 days before Christmas!) to get the skein I needed was not an option, so I decided to look for a yarn shop in Northern Virginia, where I was spending the weekend. I found Fibre Space and wow, is it amazing! Not only do they have all sorts of my favorite yarns (Cascade 220 Superwash, Malabrigo Lace, almost the entire Berroco line, etc), they also have some brands that you usually don’t see in stores, such as Miss Babs, Dragonfly Fibers, and the Sanguine Gryphon. I also got to see Dream In Color Starry in person, and fell in love. My only complaint, small though it is, is that they’re a bag-free shop. This wasn’t a huge deal when I was buying one skein of yarn, but it might have been problematic if I were buying more.

Yarn Delivery!

The Dizzy Sheep had a Spinoff on Labor Day weekend. For those of you unfamiliar with the site, it normally offers a sale yarn each day, with $1 shipping. When they do Spinoffs, however, as soon as each deal sells out (or after a certain amount of time), a new deal goes up. And we're talking some pretty good stuff! Some Ravellers bought 8 or 9 orders- I was good and only made two orders, plus bought the Daily Deal the next morning. My yarn finally arrived!

1 skein Berocco Sox Metallic in Acai (Destined to be a Lavalette) :

1 skein Malabrigo Lace in Stonechat (Not sure exactly what this will become):

2 skeins Malabrigo Lace in Stone Blue:

1 skein Dream in Color Baby in Lunar Zazzle (for a Seascape Stole):

Dog + Yarn

This is Napoleon, my brother's girlfriend's dog.


Apparently, my parents saw fit to leave the door to my old room open at their house. This room is not puppy-proofed, since we haven't had a puppy around until Napoleon, and the door was always closed when he was around, since I've been gone. Well, our dog, Mia, decided that she wanted to be in my room, so unbeknownst to me, my parents started leaving the door open. Behind that door lay yarn.

This is the where the yarn started.....


...And continued....


...And ended up. Napoleon was so proud to show off what he'd found to my father. No one had the heart to scold him. After all, it was just some cheap Bernat boa, and I wasn't there to be upset.

Finally, after all that work dragging the yarn all over the place, it was time for a nap.

I am not a yarn snob.

Yarn snob (yärn snôb): n. Someone who will only use yarn from the fanciest brands made of all natural (and generally expensive) fibers.

I can't afford to be a yarn snob. It's expensive! Besides, there are some perfectly nice, less expensive yarns out there too. I even (*gasp*) like working with some acrylic blends! Which is why I'm currently knitting with this:

Yarn snobs, avert your eyes: This is TLC Cotton Plus in medium blue, which I bought at A.C. Moore for the nice, cheap price of $3.99 a skein, and it's 49% acrylic. I'm using it to knit the St. James Sweater:

The pattern calls for Cascade 220, but there is absolutely no way I'm knitting a shirt that I intend to wear in the summer out of 100% wool. This seems like a nice alternative, and so far it's working up well. I've finished knitting the yoke, but I still have a ways to go.

Sheep and Knitters and Yarn, Oh My!

Okay, so it's a corny title. But I got a little excited about the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival- it was amazing! I have never seen that many knitters, knitted objects, sheep, or yarn in one place in my life!

Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good picture of the inside of the vendor buildings- there were just too many people! But I did get some nice pictures of some of the animals.

Look at the horns on that guy! Pretty impressive, in my opinion. 2 sets!

I also saw some other pretty sheep.

This one wanted to visit the sheep next door.

I also got to meet some llamas…

…and some alpacas.

This poor little guy got stepped on by his mother when he was born. She broke his leg and hip, so he spent the first month of his life casted. He just got the cast off, but he hasn't figured out how to walk with four legs yet (he learned on three!)

I also bought some very nice sock yarn.

Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Solids in Purple and Turquoise…

…and Sock Hop Superwash Merino.

In addition, I couldn't resist the beautiful silver rayon yarn from Shel B. Yarn.

I love how it shimmers!

Discovery Day

Every year, the school has "Discovery Days" in which students who have been accepted can come and check out the school. However, they don't bother making accommodations to decrease the problems this causes for actual students who already go here. We're late for classes, because we can't get past huge tour groups blocking the sidewalk. Traffic sucks. We've even been asked not to eat in the dining hall, because it will be full of prospective students. If you're going to make me buy a meal plan, the least you can do is let me use it!

However, today wasn't all bad- I got an exciting package! My order from Elann.com arrived! I can't wait to dive into all of the yarny goodness!

I was really impressed with the company. I placed my order Sunday evening, and it shipped out on Monday. It arrived in the mail today. That's really fast service! The shipping was a little expensive ($10.20), but that's because Elann is a Canadian company and that's international shipping. Their prices are so low that it's still cheaper to buy from them, even with the shipping.

I was also impressed by the packaging. The yarn was in a plastic bag to avoid water damage (you never know what can happen with the post office!) Everything arrived intact. It even arrived at the right address! (Companies seem to have a tendency to confuse my shipping and billing addresses).

I ordered the Elann Luna in Caramel. It's destined to be a Provence Broken Rib Tank. The Elann Esprit is in African Violet, and will be the Thira Halter. I think the sock yarn will be Spring Cable Socks. I've already swatched for the Provence (the swatch is drying- it shrank with washing, rather than grew- I couldn't believe it!). I need to decide whether to cast on for the socks or the tank first. Also, apparently my spell checker doesn't like the word "swatched." It is too a word!