oops bought some yarn

but it's not just any old yarn. It's Sundara Yarn. I resisted the Little Knits Noro sale (it was close... I filled a shopping cart and then closed the window).

I bought 1 ball of :

Curry over Breeze sport merino
Sweet Brier Rose sock
Sangria over Garnet sock

But other than those 3 balls of yarn I've been really good since stitches in February. I've even been diving deep into the stash for projects. Yarn that I bought quite awhile ago is finally getting used. It feels good to finally get to some of the older yarn in my stash. I have a bunch of great yarns... just wish there were more time for knitting.

yummy merino

well I took a little christmas money I was given as a gift and bought some 100% merino:


got it from handpainted wool's ebay store. It's the same as malabrigo merino worsted except that I got 7 skeins for $40 :) Looking forward to getting it.

I've also finished a few scarves but no photos so I'll wait to talk about them. Life sure gets busy!

trying my hand at lace

I've never knit anything on size 3 needles... but I do own them. So I started a leaf patterened lace from the Encyclopedia of Knitting. I wouldn't actually call it an encyclopedia but it is one of the fist knitting books I bought and it has some good stitch patterns. It's pretty easy to keep track of so far... not too complicated. But I do understand the importance of pointy needles for lace knitting. My addi turbos are really not very pointy. Any good lace needle suggestions?

The yarn is merino lace that I ordered from handpaintedyarn.com a few weeks back (and they appear to not be selling it anymore... which means we sould all see malabrigo lace merino on sale in stores for much more than the $7.90 that I spent on it). They have wool lace but not the merino. Well at least I ordered some before it disappeared. Here are the colors I ordered (before my yarn diet began):

yarn binge

handpaintedyarn.com got me....

one scarf to be:

another scarf to be:

some merino lace yarn:

perhaps a felted bag:

a sweater:
mc

cc

and another sweater:
reglan style sleeves in:

body in:


and a little merino roving:


ummm perhaps I got carried away. Here's what happened. Webs (yarn.com) sent out an annoucement saying that they were now carrying malabrigo merino bulky (the retail version of handpaintedyarn.com). Which leads me to believe that handpaintedyarn.com will not be carrying their merino bulky anymore... so it'll cost me double if I want it. I figured I'd just stock up a bit. That very thing happened to the worsted single ply merino and I kick myself for not buying a sweaters worth of the yarn. oops. Well now I have some of the bulky (which I love). But I paid cash so at least none of my purchase will earn interest.

Stitches West

On Saturday I went to the most tempting (fiber) place on earth... the Santa Clara Convention Center aka Stitches West. And I bought a few things.... Mostly fiber as I have discovered the fun of spinning my own yarn now as well:

The fiber load:


merino, tencel, wensleydale, blue faced leicester etc... Some came from Lisa Souza who hand dyes yarns and fibers... loved her booth.

this is the wensleydale from above in "wild things"


And here is my first completed 2 ply yarn in merino:


Also went to Tess yarn booth and got some merino/silk (on left) and some angora/wool (on right):


Habu textiles was so cool... they have really different yarns made from things like paper, silk, or bamboo. I picked up some bamboo in 2 colors. Figure I have enough of each for a lacy scarf:


And how could I pass up Webs? Got some of their stockbridge in kiwi and denim for some wrist warmers and longmeadow for a sweater (both yarns feel like heaven):


And I even finished off a couple projects:

My sesame sweater is finally done... buttons on and sleaves sewn in:


and Letter Have It from Stitch n Bitch Nation for my friend finally has a zipper and has been given away. (she loved it)

Happy Birthday to me... I just got yarn in the mail

I'm going to preface by saying that I have been very good... I've gone months without buying yarn. But I got some birthday money and elann had a couple yarns that I really wanted... and I was so close to my $50 credit with them. So.....
I got some Peruvian Collection Uros Aran in palm (on left) for a sweater and a ball of peridot (on right) to put a stripe or edging on the sweater.


I also got some Peruvian Collection Highland Silk in Oxblood to make another sweater.


Not that I will be starting any new projects for a bit... 18 projects on needles is plenty. But I've got clapotis over half done... so hopefully I'll be down to 17 projects very soon :) Before I actually counted all my WIPS I would have guessed that I had about 8 projects going. So I was a bit surprised by my final count.

Anyhow just wanted to share my yarn :)

Merino!

The yummy merino that I ordered last month finally showed up. Word of advice... never use DHL for shipping. They are really bad. But here is the yarn.
For a sweater:


And several scarves:


I love the colors (even if a few of them don't match the online photos) but the burgundy/orange ones and green/gray ones have been so tangled that winding them into balls has really been painful. Hopefully the blue stuff is not that way as I have 10 of them.

And here's a great knitted toy booklet that I picked up:


And lastly... a cabled scarf that I made up the pattern for:

It's for a friend for christmas. The yarn is Rowan plaid and is just one of my favorites to knit with. So soft and springy. A great choice for cables.

And we're actually bringing our new dog home on Saturday. Her foster family has been keeping her for us till we could finish building a deck and put up cat fence (so everyone can go into the yarn without ending up in the street). I'm super excited!

Have a great Friday!

oops

I need to learn to stay away from ebay. This is the Rowanspun Aran I picked up today :-) It's a great color and the price was awesome... and no shipping fee. So I'm going to just re-set my counter to 0 and start fresh on Moday (after Stitches). Then I will have to be strong... as I've run out of space for my yarn.

TTFN

When I'm bad...

So here is the peruvian highland wool I ordered today:







At least one of these combos will go into making another Ribby Cardi. But the other will probably be a pullover reglan. And now I have to re-set my no yarn counter.

gah!