Birthday Yarn

In late April I had a birthday. It was a very nice weekend including a gift through the mail with the required yarn, coffee, and candy, then a wonderful dinner of lamb and gluten free cake. That was followed by a day of running around to fun places like garage sales, sweet potato fries eaten at the park in the rain, and a trip to the local nursery to look at plants. I bought tomatoes to grow in containers on my stoop. The weekend was finished off by going to a wine tasting.
I rounded the whole thing out with a yarn order.

Noro Yuzen is on sale at LK. I wanted a Noro sweater. However, I could not choose the color. I spent almost 3 weeks choosing the color. I looked at them on every website I could find. I looked at them knit up on Ravley. I even made a list and graft of the projects I liked best and least so I could compare which colors came up the most in my favorites and which ones not to buy. I was paralyzed with the choosing.

That is, until I came up with a brilliant solution. I would order one in each of my favorite colors. I then could knit 5 striped scarves, pick my very favorite color and then order a sweater worth of the color I wanted. Brilliant! I couldn't make the order fast enough.

When the yarn got here I realized there was no wrong choice, that I loved all 10 colorways. I also realized there was no way I was going to order 10 more balls for the sweater. So I set out to knit my first scarf and to mull over the fate of the other 8 balls. By bedtime I realized that my scarf wasn't turning out, that the 2 colors chosen were too close to each other. That possibly this yarn wouldn't make the nice scarves that Silk Garden does.

The next morning I woke up early. Really early and with a burning desire to knit a sweater right that minute and exactly how I was going to do it. I was burning so hot I knitted a whole ball that day while running running around with my little friend that hid the glove yarn.

I had him for the whole weekend and we had a blast. I was amazed how much knitting I could get done while playing with a 3 year old. I wasn't able to clean and I could barely cook but I could knit just fine.

He did insist that I put it down while blowing bubbles and throwing balls but I could knit while coloring, painting, computer playing, playing pretend, playing school, having deep conversations about Pillow Bear's life while sitting together under the kitchen table. All the time knitting. I knit on the playground while he slid 16,035 rocks down the slide. I knit on the walk out of the park as my ball fell out of my bag and trailed behind me before we got to the street and noticed.

I'm running off the map here. No pattern and 10 completely different colors. It's a wild ride and I'm getting to the end. The body is done and the sleeves are started. I only have 2 balls of yarn left. Will I make it? Probably not. I expect to need another ball for the sleeves and at least 2 for the applied I-cord. At least I hope 2 is enough for the applied I-cord.

I feel another yarn order coming.

Ok, Already

I've had emails asking me if I was alright.

I was linked on one of my favorite blogs. (awww shucks, digging toe into ground and blushing)

So I took the time to dig myself out of a mountain of photos that were waiting to become blog posts.

And thanks guy's, it feels real good to be noticed and missed.


Right now I have two counters on my blog. Having even one feels hokey enough so 2 feels down right tacky. But I love the new miles knit counter and I really want to accomplish my goal of knitting half of my stash.

It just feels right to expect myself to knit half of the yarn I buy. Even that is crazy lenient but since I'm a yarn collector as well as a knitter I'm ok with it. I do stash trophy yarn that is for admiring not knitting. But I haven't hit half yet and that I'm not so ok with.

Turn a Square hat knit with Lush and Noro.
Isn't the square so cute? The pattern says nothing needs to be done about the jog once the decreases start. I don't think I agree. If I knit this hat pattern again I'm going to fiddle with it so it can have a smoother line. Oh, and a cast on number of in the 90s seems huge to me. I used fatter yarn too so I only cast on 80. It's perfect for my petite head with flat hair. 88 would be about right for everyone else.
Tank Top knit in Hempathy. It's very loosely based off the pattern since I knitted it in the round and added a crochet edging. I still have to sew in the ends. I love this top. It's so cute. It has edges rolling all over the place and looks very much hand made but I am still charmed by this top and how it fits. I expect the hemp to be cool in summer too. I wish I could get a shot of me in it but I don't have a mirror big enough.
I loved my last pair of Tuja so much I knit a second pair. I held 2 strands of Elann Sock It To Me 4 Ply together. I've already gone into great lengths about my love of holding 2 strands of sock yarn together. I need to do that for a pair of socks for me already but these are for Christmas.

I like my Christmas knitting to be done by July and I failed miserably last year in that I wasn't even done by Christmas. I don't want a repeat of that. Actually, now that I think about it, I sort of remember a baby sweater I might have wadded up and hidden under the couch that still isn't finished. I really don't want a repeat of that.

Now for the projects I'm working on right now. I think they are all on their way to an extended time out.
A pair of socks to be my first free pattern. The one sock is done but writing out the pattern is hard. I keep putting off even starting. That's starting the second sock and the pattern writing since they go hand in hand.
Nordic Lights is a true stash buster. I went at it like gang busters for a few days and then other things got picked up. I really need to go back to it. I still want to knit this.
My Lime n Violet yarn. What a great pattern! all lace socks should be just the cuffs, but the yarn is a bit splitty so I keep putting off knitting the second.
Finally, these are the best gloves ever. I'm so close to done. I could finish with just another hour of knitting. But I had a little visitor for Mother's Day Weekend and once he went home I can't find the yarn anywhere. So they are in already in time out but for no fault of their own.