back to the yarn!

It’s been weird post CAL not having to work to a deadline.  Also weird because I haven’t been crafting much.  The only think I’m working on actively is the bajada shawl/scarf for my friend — she bought the yarn so I want to get it to her ASAP so she can enjoy it.  It’s slow going though; after 3 weeks here’s what I’ve got:

bajada2It will certainly need some blocking before I give it to her, but that’s OK.

As far as crochet goes, I’ve been meaning to get going on a new ripple afghan — baby sized — out of my leftover CAL yarn:

photo 1Yep, I only used half of what I ordered in the CAL.  That’s the great thing about Stylecraft Special DK — I’m always pleasantly surprised that I have so much of it leftover!  Well, as great as it is, I still haven’t started the blanket.  Hopefully soon.  I need the stress relief of crochet.

The stress partially comes from the upcoming move — all the large furniture is being transferred on the 13th, so before that I want to have taken a good number of things already (the wonderful, amazing, fantastic landlord gave us the key waaaaay early).  Before that, though, the new house has to be thoroughly cleaned.  The landlord “cleaned,” but as one of my favorite books says, “no man can clean anything.”  My parents are going to help me clean this Sunday while Chris hacks through the patio jungle here at the apartment with his old chef knife.  On her first trip to the new house, Zero finally discovered that she can smell things outside through the air vents in my car:

photo

She doesn’t like sticking her head out the window — she’s a scaredy cat — so she stood like this, nose glued to the vent, for a very long time.

Looking at lovely yarns I’d like to try using calms me down a bit (so does looking on Pinterest for beautiful and clever decorating ideas).  Check these out.  The first one I’d like to try is called Vinni’s Colours (Nikkim) and was introduced to me via crochetime, and the second one is from Camellia Fiber Company and was introduced to me via one sheepish girl (she’s currently hosting a giveaway for a skein of the stuff, so sign up soon).  I added these beautiful yarns to my ever growing list of things I need to try!  Have you tried them?  What do you think?

Well that’s all for one night — I may try and read some to de-stress, or perhaps I’ll start on that crochet ripple blanket.  Or perhaps I’ll spend my time sitting around wondering what to do until it’s way past time to go to bed, so that I’m nice and exhausted tomorrow for work.  Can you tell I’m a worrier?  I get it from my mom, who got it from her mom.  At least I’ve got a very understanding ear — calling my mom always makes me feel better.  Anyway, thanks for stopping by!  Hope to see you back soon!

new KnitPicks items

I took advantage of the sale KnitPicks had last week, offering a free skein of their new Wool of the Andes Superwash with any order.  I got the bluish-grey shade, Cadet:

knitpicks wool of the andes superwash in cadet

At $3.49 per 50g/110yd, I’m not sure I’d actually purchase this.  I suppose it’s still a good deal for superwash wool… what do you think?  Well, it’s still 100% wool and thus not the softest yarn I’ve used.  Not sure I’d want this as a hat or scarf.  I don’t really know what to do with this single skein; any suggestions?  Since it was free, I can’t complain.

The items that I ordered so that I could get the free yarn are ones that I think will be very useful:

knitpicks new tools

I do love KnitPicks’ needles, and I didn’t have any that were 16″.  The 16″ needles are my favorite way to make hats, and 7 is a common size.  It’s too bad that the 16″ cables aren’t available for the interchangeable set that I have, but it is what it is.  It’s worth purchasing the 16″ needles, I think.  The coiled wire thing next to the needles in the image above is a wire yarn stranding guide, supposed to be handy for colorwork.  Unfortunately it is too big to fit on my finger the way it does on the hand model in the picture on their site, but if I slide it further down my finger it will be fine.  I’ll just have to adjust my knitting angles, I suppose, because I do intend to use it.

That’s all for today, I suppose.  Nothing too exciting.  Well, thanks for stopping by!

my CAL yarn

My CAL yarn came in the other day!

my yarn

 

There are more skeins than this but this represents every color I purchased.  The colors are a little off in the picture as well — the hot pink at the top is actually not that “hot,” and the red doesn’t glow like that, haha.  Anyway, here’s the way I keep track of colors:

my palette

 

You can see that I marked the Pale Rose shade as the border shade, just so I don’t forget and accidentally use it for a stripe or something (I only got 1 skein of it, and 2 of all the others).  In this photo, the apricot and candyfloss colors are a little duller than they actually are in real life.  With these little tags it’s easy to keep track of how many times I’ve used each color (I put the tag to the side when I’ve used the color in the blanket so that I use every color once before using any color again).

So, participants, have you been practicing any difficult stitches?  Have you received your yarn?  I can’t wait to get started!

a lovely gift

I graduated yesterday with my MEd in Clinical Counseling!  All of the students are so glad to be done.  My parents got me a nice card, a delicious dinner, and a beautiful original print, framed and ready to hang somewhere special (hopefully my office, whenever I get a job)!  My aunt, who lives in Arkansas, sent a lovely card with some money to buy myself a present, so of course I got yarn!

yarn for catherine

This beautiful lace weight yarn is by Araucania Yarns, which is made in Chile (this specific yarn is called Nuble).  It’s a single ply yarn and each hank is 50g/1.76oz and 240yds/219m.  It’s 75% merino and 25% silk, and it’s colorway #2.  I’ve never worked with silk yarn before, or this brand, for that matter, but it’s so soft and beautiful!  This yarn will [theoretically] be made into a cowl within the next 3 days for a friend visiting from England.  A bit last minute, yes, but hopefully it can be done in time.  The verdict is still out on whether to try to do the lovely linen stitch that I’ve been wanting to try or to try the crocheted version.  I’m leaning heavily towards crochet because it seems very daunting to try and knit a whole cowl with lace weight yarn in 3 days, even if I have nothing else to do!  I’m not too fast at knitting yet and my hands do get tired.  Taking care of hands, in fact, leads to my next purchase:

lotions

I know I’ve shown you the lavender version of these lovely little lotion rounds, but they smell so good that I just had to get more!  They last a long time, too, which is great, and they would make great gifts if you can stand to let them go!

All of these items were purchased today at my local yarn shop (which isn’t really local as it’s 30 minutes away, but that’s the closest one, so it counts).  It feels nice to support their business, even though these products can probably be found online for a cheaper price, and it’s nice not to have to guess on what something will feel like, and then to wait on shipping.

So you can probably guess what my evening’s going to look like: quick hooking, some hot tea, and most likely a nice Jane Austen movie.  Well, I can’t wait to get started, so I guess that’s all for today!  Thanks for stopping by!

PS:  The Bloglovin’ site that I mentioned the other day should probably be explained for those who don’t know what it is (I didn’t).  It’s a site where you can subscribe to ALL the blogs you follow, not just the ones on WordPress.  That means it’s easy to follow blogs from Blogger or anywhere (and if the blog you want to follow isn’t on the list, you can add it immediately).  All of the posts from the blogs you subscribe to will show up in one handy feed that you can peruse at your leisure, and if you’re browsing the web with Google Chrome (which I would recommend for everyone because it’s amazing), Bloglovin’ will add a little icon next to your search bar that will notify you of new blog posts in your feed.  It’s pretty handy!  They also have an app for the iPhone, but I’ve had a few issues with it so far.  Hopefully they’ll fix it soon — I’ll use it all the time!

busy busy!

Guess what I got in the mail!

haulMy stuff from KnitPicks actually came in yesterday while I wasn’t at home, so I had to pick up the parcel today at the post office.  It only took 4 days to get here, and I was so surprised at that and the products (I had been expecting a paperback book, not a nice hardback one) that I sent KnitPicks a thank-you email!

So anyway, I got the Christmas book by Arne & Carlos:

55christmasballsbookIt is amazing!  I love it and I’m super-excited to get started on some of them for Christmas gifts!  These moderately easy projects have both written instructions for the balls and charts for the pictures on the balls, which is great (I say moderately easy because they do involve DPNs and switching colors, so they’re not super-easy).  I still have to get the yarn, but I really only need 2 or 3 colors so that’s not a problem.  Of course I’ll be getting Stylecraft Special DK, my new go-to yarn.  And I’ll be making these ornaments with these needles:

6indpnset0to3These DPNs are gorgeous and I can’t wait to use them!  They’ll be perfect for socks, too (I’ve got an upcoming post on DPNs vs. the magic loop method, so look out for that).

And of course, here’s the bit that I didn’t need for anything in particular, but purchased anyway:

dishieThis 100% cotton yarn, as you could guess by the name “Dishie,” is good for washcloths, dishcloths, tea towels, and perhaps hot pads (not sure about how well cotton would hold up to a hot pan — better than acrylic but maybe not as good as wool).  I’m sure there are plenty more possibilities, but I will be making something either kitchen or bathroom related.  I haven’t picked which.  Nor have I decided whether to use this for knitting or crochet.  It’s not the softest yarn, but it’s pretty good for cotton, I suppose, and it’s not like I’m going to be using it for clothes, hats, or scarves.  I’m pretty excited about it.

I know I’ve been posting a lot lately when I said I would try not to, but I’ve got so many crafty things going on right now and I don’t want to wait because I’ll forget!  Thanks for stopping by!