little bit of crazy leaking out

I came, I saw, I bought stuff.

I wasn’t able to take any classes this year, but I did hit the marketplace.

The socks, they do rock.

medium weight Nodding Violet, heavy weight Highway 30

I wasn’t really looking for a heavyweight sock yarn, but I loved the colorway so much and they didn’t have it in med or light so heavy it is.  I’ll make a pair of nice thick socks to wear with Berks.

Yarn and pattern from Two Swans.  I have been looking at this pattern online for quite a while, so when I saw them there I went ahead and purchased it.   I have a SIL who collects tea pots and I was thinking this would be a nice gift for next x-mas. 

This sock yarn is from So Much Yarn and is in Seahawks colors, will end up being socks for Hubby.  Just to make sure I don’t run out of yarn I will do the heels and toes in a solid.

 A couple of roving variety packs from The Dizzy Ewe.

 

Roving from Crown Mountain Farms.  Yes, it is quite brite, I like to think of it as cheerful.

Gee, guess I’ll have to figure out how that spinning wheel works.

With a guess of 2.8 socks per day, the winner is Kristen!

I actually have enough sock yarn to knit 43.5 pairs of socks,  2.806451613 socks per day.  Yes, half a pair.  I have several single skeins that were purchased for colorwork or for small childrens socks. 

Comments were made about it depending on the size of the sock, etc.  Sheesh, we’re talking average women’s socks here, not socks for my bigfoot hubby who wears a men’s 11 or for my 4yo.  Really, let’s not make this complecated.

For the purposes of this contest I considered one 50g skein/ball of sock yarn to equal 1 sock and a 100g skein/ball of sock yarn to equal one pair.  I know you can make socks out of any yarn, but we’re talking just yarn meant for socks.  I’m not counting all the yarn in my stash, no way, denial is lovely this time of year.

Congratulations Kristen!

I was over at Wrap and Turn on my daily blog crawl, she mentioned she has enough sock yarn to knit 17 pairs of socks.  That got me to wondering how much sock yarn I have lurking in my stash.  I know it’s more than 17 pairs, but really, how out of control has my stash gotten?  If I were to knit up all of my sock yarn during Socktoberfest how many socks would I have to knit each day?  One and a half?  Five?

I think this one is in need of a contest.  

How many socks would I have to knit each day during
Socktoberfest to use up all of my sock yarn stash?

Yes, this involves math.  The closest without going over and I’ll send you . . . umm . . . gee . . . I don’t know . . . SOCK YARN!

Post your guess in the comments by midnight (pacific time) September 30th and  I will announce the winner at noon on October 1st.

Before we even set off for the beach I was all in a tizzy about what to bring along to knit.  If I bring too little, I run out of projects to work on.  If I bring to much, well, the family will think me wierd for hauling all this knitting around. 

Well, they already think I’m odd, so, no big deal there.  I packed two WIPs, a couple of projects from the queue.

On the way out of town we stopped at Acorn Street so I could pick up some needles and a copy of the The Knit Stitch.  I’ve checked it out from the library so many times I figure I should go ahead and add it to my personal library.  While I was there I also picked up a organizer for my circular needles.  There was a review of tackle bags for use as circular needle cases on Knitter’s Review a while back.  Well, Acorn Street has some with their logo and in fun colors, I picked purple.

On the way down we encountered a lot of traffic.  Horrible traffic.  Hey, knitting time for me.  I worked on Bug’s Einstein Coat.  After arriving in Westport we had dinner and sat around the campfire, after the kids went to sleep, we sat around the campfire some more, and I worked on the pinwheel blanket.  Nothing like a bit of mindless knitting ’round the campfire.

The next morning we went to an art fair in town, and I found this basket.  It holds a sh*t load of knitting stuff.  I love it.

On our way back from the beach my dad noticed a sign that said “Yarn ‘n Darn Things”.  Hubby turned the van around and we headed back to the shop.  It closed at 4:30, it was 4:45. Darn!  We went back the next day on our way out to the beach and I looked around while Hubby, kids and parents went to the hardware store.  They had a small but nice selection, a complete selection of Brittany needles and several yarn lines I had not seen before.  One was Plymouth Outback Wool, 4sts=1″, huge skeins, very pretty colorways, great price.  I was good and bought one skein in this pretty purple colorway.

There was a matching mohair blend, I was very tempted, but I resisted.  The family came back and we headed off to the beach for a fun filled day, all the while I was thinking about the two other colorways of Outback Wool that would be perfect for Bug and Bubba.  On the way back from the beach we stopped again and I bought more yarn.  Two skeins of each.

    

The one on the left is for Bubba, it is a blend of brown, tan and blue. The one on the right is for Bug, it is a blend of cream, peach, and a grey-blue.  The skeins are 200gms, 370 yards each.

I managed to finish the body of the Pinwheel Blanket, now I just need to decide on, and knit, the border.

This section could be called Why I Hate Noro. 

I was thinking of knitting a scarf in Noro using the Garterlac Dishcloth pattern as a base for the pattern.  The pattern makes it reversible and the changing color of the Noro adds interest.  I started knitting using the 8 stitch square, but I decided that the scarf would be too skinny and ripped it out and changed to a 10 stitch square.  I got thru three squares and encountered a knot (arrow on the left), a change in the colors. Sigh, hate that, but I kept knitting.  I realized pretty quickly I wasn’t going to have enough yarn with the two balls I had, but I wanted to see how far one ball would go, so I kept knitting.  This was received with strange looks and many questions.  Why would I keep knitting if I knew I would gust be ripping it out?  What was the point?  Well, I just wanted to see.  And see I did. 

I like this colorway.  I don’t like the knots that interrupt the color changes.  After finishing the “mega swatch” I started looking at the second ball.  Hey, where is the brown? I started winding the ball and encounted a knot in about the middle of the skein and the colors started again, no browns.  Each of the small balls would be represented by the section between the arrows on the right.  No browns.  I will rip the mega swatch and the Noro will go into my stash until I can think of something to knit.

I finished knitting the Einstein Coat while watching the kids and Hubby swim at the pool, I just need to seam it up and add the buttons.

On the way home I started a hat, in theory for Hubby.  When he asked “Who’s that for?” I got the impression he wasn’t to fond of it so I guess it will end up being for Bubba or the Dulaan Project.

We stopped in Aberdeen for lunch and I went into a very cute yarn shop I had been told I had to go to.  The Yarn Corner at Wiitamaki’s is in the back of a beautiful jewelry store and if you aren’t looking for it, it would be easy to miss.  I’m glad I went.  Look at the cute bags they use!

I picked up an older IK I was missing, some red superwash Cascade 220 for the border of the Pinwheel Blanket, some beautiful lace weight yarn for holiday gifts, and a green Chibi.  Apparently I need a Chibi in every color I can find.  It’s an illness. 

I continued working on the shunned by the Hubby even though I’m working my fingers to the bone hat and apparently this is how much I can knit from Westport to Mukilteo, about 4 3/4″ plus the swatch.

. . . I have been knitting.  After I made my list of projects for August, and in general, I cast on the Einstein Coat for Bug.  When Parkside Wool closed this last spring I bought five skeins of Classic Elite Paintbox, perfect for the Einstein Coat.  Friday night I took it with me to Knit Night at Village Yarn & Tea and as I knit I began to have a bad feeling. 

There wasn’t going to be enought yarn.

No, no, that couldn’t be right, I got gauge, I was following the pattern, no changes.  I was just being paraniod.  I kept knitting over the weekend, finishing the bottom band, the right front, the back, the left front. 

After finishing the body of the coat I had less than one ball plus two small bits of yarn left.

 

I don’t have enough yarn!

I still had the sleeves to finish! and the stitching up! The shop I bought it from is CLOSED FOREVER!

So, I did what any normal person would do and cast-on another project.  While at Knit Night I had picked up IK, the yarn to knit up the Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn Clark and appropriate pointy needles to do the knitting.  This is my first lace project with actual lace weight yarn, I think I may go blind before it’s finished.

Yesterday, I sat down with the phone book and called around to the local yarn shops.  No.  No.  No.  No.  Hold on, let me check . . .

YES!! Same dye lot and everything! Woohoo!  I drove down to Weaving Works to claim my yarn, and, since I was there and I don’t get down there to often, I picked up a couple of other things.  The Lamb’s Pride is to knit a hat to go with the coat. I also picked up another pair of US8 needles, Brittany Birch, and some solid sock yarn that I fell in love with.

 

I woke up cranky this morning and it didn’t get any better when I went into the kitchen and found recycling sitting on the counter, I mean, how hard is it to put it in the recycling box?  Then Hubby made himself a cup of tea, did he ask me if I wanted any? No, he did not.  Little things I know, but the fact that I was so irritated tells me PMS is in full swing.  So, I went shopping.

My first stop was JoAnn where I picked up more Sugar ’n Cream for Mason-Dixon Knitting, the new KnitSimple and a Burda pattern.  The child’s cable sweater in KnitSimple is too cute and I think I will knit it up for Bubba. 

The next stop was Great Yarns! where I picked up the two skeins of Cashmerino Aran for Fetching and a set of blocking wires.

My last stop was the library to pick up a few things I had put pn hold: A Gathering of Lace, Sweaters from Camp, Knitting Workshop, and Knitting Around on VHS.  Do you sense a theme?

Branching Out is now blocked, on the new blocking wires, on my bed (I was shocked at how soft Silky Wool is after you wash it, even while still damp),  Knitting Around is on the TV, and I’m about to cast on Fetching, pure bliss.

Yesterday after my MoRH(tm Brenda Dayne) I bought yarn,  nothing like a little retail therapy.  I needed some red cotton for the mid-May dishcloth for the Monthly Dishcloth Along.  I hit Fred Meyer because they had a buy two get one free deal and they carry Lion Cotton, I picked up three balls, but no red.  BTW, Fred Meyer carries a few colors of Lion Wool. 

Still in search of red I headed over to JoAnn, where I went a little cotton crazy.  I had stopped at Costco on my way to the Knit-in (sigh) and picked up Mason*Dixon Knitting and Inspired Cable Knits, while looking thru them I found that quite a few of the projects in Mason*Dixon were knit with kitchen cotton.  I especially like the little baby kimono.  So, I did a little stocking up on kitchen cotton, including some red, just in case, I also picked up a couple of patterns so I can get a start on my summer sewing for Daughter, Color-splash Dishcloths by Evelyn A. Clark and a piece of muslin for a doll.

When I got home I cast on for the Dishcloth Along and then finished it up today.

pattern: Go Red For Women by Sarah Wennagole
yarn:  Lion Cotton - Poppy Red
cast-on:  May 19th
cast-off:  May 20th
notes:  This pattern is to remind women that heart desease is the number one killer of women (and men).  Find out more at www.goredforwomen.org.