Sunday, August 24, 2008

Stitches stash (WITH pictures)

Ok, to those with feeds, read on (took awhile to get pictures and text all aligned to make sense)
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First, the trip to Stitches was wonderful. My friend and I met at my place and then went to the bus stop. While we were waiting, we met the people in the car next to us and found out that my friend and one of them knew all the same people. I'm surprised they hadn't met before this. The bus was great, I especially appreciated it on the way home after I was very tired. Much as I love the new car, knowing that someone else was driving was great! Stitches itself was a little overwhelming but after having gone to Bead & Button a few times, I had a plan of attack. Except for stitchmarkers (see below)I didn't buy anything before lunch. I just walked the aisles and wrote things down in my notebook. (booth, approximate location, what I saw there and what I was thinking of it for). After lunch, I actually started purchasing but I knew what I was aiming for, so to speak. My original list that I had was yarn for:


1. friends/sis that couldn't make it
2. sweater (I had two patterns with me so I could pick when I was there)
3. lace stole
4. son's Maze hat
5. fair isle gloves (you'll notice I didn't buy, too expensive for small amounts)
6. knotty knice socks
7. stitch markers
8. beaded scarf kit (more info below)
9. up to three random sock yarns because sock yarn is pretty

Judge for yourself how I did....

My favorite yarn is this green multitonal. The "snowman" is actually one skein balled up into three balls. (there were two knots) I bought three skeins total. It's gorgeous, bright greens and everyone stopped me to ask me about it, but I can't get the picture quite right. The picture with the cat is there because, believe it or not, it's the best one to see the tonal aspects. It's to make the Sidelines Top from this month's Interweave Knits. They did it in red, but several perfect strangers at Stitches told me that this green was perfect for me.


























This teal is from Creatively Designed Yarns. Not only is it lovely seacell/silk combination, but the designer (creative on Ravelry) helped explain what to expect at Stitches and gave advice that I think helped greatly! I was happy to meet her in person. I'm planning to use it for the Biased Eyelets Stole in Interweave Knits.























I bought this kit because I thought the teal yarn is pretty and the cable pattern on the socks is interesting. The teal is a tonal which I love because it's not super solid looking. This morning as I was preparing for pictures and blogging, I looked up the yarn and found out that its actual color name is Dragonfly, how perfect is that?




This is a pretty yarn called Unwind Yarns Zinfandel Sock. It's a bit more orange than this picture shows but it's close. It's designated for the Knotty or Knice Socks from Interweave.
























When I went to the Bead & Button Show in Milwaukee in June, I bought and finished a knitted bracelet kit. The same vendor had these beautiful scarf kits that I loved but didn't buy at the time. I saw she was going to be at Stitches and knew I had to stop. I got a chance to talk to her, she used me as a model for one of her shawls (I was wearing a nice black blouse that apparently made a good background) and I bought a scarf kit this time. I don't like the picture that comes with the pattern, but they are lovely made up. I got a pretty multicolor ribbon yarn and green beads in my kit.



















I'm fascinated by this kit. This was not a planned purchase but I did tell myself I could buy three sock yarns so I'm counting this as one *laugh* It is a kit that teaches you how to dye yarn with Wilton dyes that are used for cake icing. Because you paint the yarn with the dyes rather than soaking them, the woman I talked to said you can do it in a small space. I can't wait to try it, the samples were incredibly vibrant. There was another woman that stopped by, she had taken a class with the seller and wanted to show the socks she's working on. She said that her 8yo granddaughter got to pick the colors and then paint the yarn herself and now she (grandmother) was knitting them into socks for her. They were really pretty and I loved that story. But also, if an 8yo can do it with supervision and have it work, I certainly can!!




















I've been planning to make the Maze hat ever since I saw it in Knitty. I'm planning to make it for son for Christmas but I'm fairly sure I'm safe posting here as he ignores my blog now. I've been looking for this yarn (allhemp6) ever since because I didnt' want to buy it sight unseen for the first time and I didn't want to pay the shipping costs. But I'm glad I found it. supposedly hemp washes up soft. machine washable and supposedly won't mildew which just sounds like something a boy heading to his teens should have.


























Ok, dragonfly cloissene stitchmarkers from a vendor with a kitty theme, I knew i was going to try to find stitchmarkers and I couldnt' resist this set.




















Last of the items, miscellaneous group... The book's author was there and he autographed it. I'm not sure if it's any good yet, it's a murder mystery, someone is killed by Addi Turbos, yarn shop owners become detectives. But I like the fact that it's autographed. Supposedly it will only be sold at yarn shops, on his site or at independent mystery book stores. Anyway, next things... a medium-sized Go Knit Pouch. I love my smaller one, I like how it snaps to my belt loop or a neighboring chair with ease. I've wanted a bigger one but they don't sell on Knit Picks and again, I haven't wanted to pay shipping. When I saw the medium, even though it wasn't on my list, I got it anyway. (it would have been on my list if I had thought of it!) and lastly, two mini sock things, one a christmas ornament and the other a keychain. One was won as a prize on the guild bus, the other one was basically free when I bought the Wilton dye kit and the teal cable sock kit above.
















I also bought some lovely yarn for local friend, Apryl and mojaveSis. They've seen their pictures. I am happy to say that really the book was the only totally unplanned purchase so I did well with that, no buyer's remorse. Although between Stitches and the car, I'm not buying any new yarn for quite some time! (although you will see items from sock clubs (sock yarn cinema and new Lord of the Rings) but those were paid in full up front.

I loved Stitches and hope to go again next year, hopefully even take a class.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Stitches... but no pictures

I went to Stitches and had a marvelous time! But the available light is not helping me get accurate pictures of the stash I aquired. It was late evening when we got home and so the sun was low in the sky and casting weird shadows. I tried indoors and outdoors, with and without flash and most of the colors come out weird shadowed, crazy neon bright (when they shouldn't be) or totally washed out.... so I'm going to wait on posting pictures.


The picture here is what I brought to prepare myself. My Ravelry tote customized to me, my Selfish Knitter's pin, my blue kitty/chair bag with a project for the bus, a folder full of pattern information to keep in mind, with my list of what I wanted and information on things like yarn standards and needle sizes, pen and paper to take notes, headache medicine, an additional fold-up tote and of course wallet, with money!!


I'll try again on pictures of the stash tomorrow. It's WAY too pretty to put it up with coloring!
-DFly

Friday, August 22, 2008

New Car!!!

2007 Honda Civic, 27,000 miles
Love this cockpit dashboard....



Going to Stitches Midwest tomorrow so later we will have knitting and yarn but today is all about my new car! I'm loving this car!
-DFly

Sunday, August 10, 2008

I need to update more often....

Let's see, important things....
  1. I hurt myself, yet again, last Monday, twisted the right angle ankle and made the left one scraped up on the concrete. yeah, I'm a klutz. Walking any major distances is still not comfortable.

  2. I got sick last week. Many people at work did so I'm sure it was something passed around. This didn't make vacation days go very well though. Between sickness and feet/ankles, we didn't go to the State Fair like I had planned on.
  3. Good friends are nice to have. Although we didn't end up at the State Fair any day, we did spend Saturday with friends and just had a genuinely nice time with them, sitting, chatting, knitting and playing video games. (ok, son played the video games)

  4. I'm going to be in a commercial for University of Wisconsin - Parkside. I went there on Friday to film my part. My understanding is that it will eventually be a web-mercial. There are a few people participating but they said I sounded friendly and natural (even though they forgot to write me a script so I had to wing it).

  5. Traveling Scarf - I love the concept of this scarf. I't's a fun project at the LYS (local yarn shop, Just 4 Ewe). See, I knit the first 7" of my own scarf and then I pass it off to someone else in my group who knits the next 7" of my scarf using her yarn and then it will get passed to someone else. Of course, I'll be getting other people's to knit on as well with my yarn. Since this is knit with two strands of yarn, we also do some yarn magic to make sure we blend the colors from one person to the next rather than having a sharp contrast. They've been looking beautiful. Along the way, a journal travels with the scarf and everyone writes a little something in it. Below is my scarf before it got sent on its travels and the journal that's going with it. (I have my name on the journal but since I never show that on here, I "smudged" it and now it looks like a big dirt spot)



  6. Ravelymics - Otherwise known as the Knitting Olympics as seen on Ravelry. The idea is to pick a project that will challenge you within 17 days of the Olympics. Due to time differences, I was able to start as of 8am Friday morning. Now, I'd decided some time ago to do the Modern Quilt Wrap. Basically when I bought the kit from Cami. But, silly me, I didn't realize that the drawing/schematic in the pattern only represented one half of the wrap. So here I am thinking that 18 large squares in 17 days will be a definite challenge but possible. Then after I started I realized the drawing only shows half of the wrap. Ooops! So I start anyway and realize that the squares take a significant amount of time and considering I do need to return to work, there's no way I can finish the whole wrap. Feeling very crappy and defeatist, luckily friend Apryl (and team captain) said that I could always make my challenge to myself to get the first half done. The original 18 squares that I had planned for. So my challenge is the first half. I'll get the second half done later, I'm sure. I do love how it's knitting up, super soft and light as feathers. I didn't want to do the same exact as the pattern, so first of all, since Cami sent an extra color, I removed the orange. Then, I created little cards labeled A-I and had son randomly pick a card and then randomly pick a ball of yarn from a bag. Now mine will be a bit different but still wonderful. I actually love the idea of making this with colors that are a little closer together. For example I love the mini square that has the dark blue, turquoise and green together. But I don't think I'll make a second one to try it out!



    well, off to work a bit on someone else's traveling scarf so it's portable. (I just got it and need to join my yarn in). Then hopefully another large square tonight.


    Happy Knitting - DFly