Marti, Lexa, Donna and I travelled to Mahone Bay for lunch at the Innlet (I had the yummy Spinach Salad ... I like to try Spinach Salad everywhere I go. I've not yet found 2 made the same ... their dressing is a cottage cheese base - unusual but very delicious). The view at the Innlet is lovely And I think the same view as is seen on the Mahone Bay home page!), overlooking the Bay of Mahone Bay, and of course the 3 churches.
We scored some major Christmas booty at the Teaser ... serious after Christmas sale! My ornaments are packed away now ... we finally took the tree down last night, and I was so happy to have it gone, I didn't even get pictures of the new ornaments - envision sparkley, spikey, snow-crystally, meterioitey things ... in silver glitter, and you have a pretty good idea of what they are. I am a crow and go for the sparkles every time ;)
It was so nice to visit Have a Yarn with fellow knitters ... no rushing about trying to get the purchasing done quickly, and lots of good advice and feedback on colours, yarns and patterns. I drooled and debated my choices a lot -- I received a gift certificate from my father for Christmas, and some cash for yarn from my sister, so wanted to make good choices ... I think I did.
Noro Silk Garden - colour 255 , Noro Kureyon colour 170 , Wool Gatto - Colour 2358, and the Cat Bordhi book, New Pathways for Sock Knitters, Part One (I started reading it last night and love it! really stretches you mind re: sock structure). Ahh ... and I can't forget to mention the find of the trip ... it's there on the left.
Do you remember the surprise hat I was making T for Christmas, the one that I lost the great yardage war to? This is is a matching skein ... with 20 more yards than I originally bought. That made my day! Now I can tink back his hat to before I started trying to beat the hat at its wicked game of eating the yarn faster than I could knit it, and join the new, finishing the hat the way the pattern intended it (without all the creative moves I was working in to stretch the shrinking ball!). And it looks like there may be enough to make a hat for me! (you may remember the slight bit of envy that I felt that T found the yarn and loved it enough to buy it and request a hat -- it is after all, my colours, and "looks" like me ... but I pushed the envy aside, and tried to be happy that he appreciates nice wool, and made him a hat. Karma is a good thing, glad I was nice about the whole thing!)
I am still plugging away at T's socks, my first pair of 2008, but as I was knitting last night realized I made a mistake 4 inches back ... so this evening there is some ripping to do. To sooth my cranky mood, I have been knitting my socks, the second pair of the year. While I was knitting merrily away, I was thinking about the next pair, as one often does (I haven't started the second sock in my pair, daydreaming about the "next" can be dangerous for the WIP!), and thought I should dig through the stash to see if the next pair could be hiding there (very commendable) and to try to find a nice yarn prize for my contest.
There's enough fingering weight yarn (I am only including the fingering weight ... none of the dk, or worsteds that are laying around, or any partially used balls - just fresh new never used yarn) to make .... this sort of shocked me .... to make 32 pairs of socks (not counting the 4 pairs I have on the needles right now). Cripers, that's a lot of yarn, I thought. And then there is the stuff bigger than fingering for socks, and there is the wool for purses, the sweaters that have yet to begin, or cottons for future "Sheldon the Turtle"s, and the yarn I buy to make me happy on a yucky day. I could only bring myself to take pictures of the sock yarn.
It is no wonder that there is no place to put anything in my house! everywhere I look is a yarn store bag (yeah, most of this stuff has never made it out of the bag!) or a basket or hamper overflowing with yarn. I have a problem -- but I have decided to fix it. I am not making one of those drastic "I will not buy yarn until the stash is gone" decisions, because I very much doubt I would stick to it for long, but I am going to do my best to knit my way through this sock yarn until it is gone. It is crazy for me to buy more (when I think about what it is worth, I get a funny twitch in my eye). I have nice stuff (there is Cherry Tree Hill, Socks that Rock, Austermann, and a load of Fleece Artist - even 2 skeins of Somoko, plus lots of nice colours in a lot of different brands of the self striping) and I even like the colour of most of it (I picked it all myself, I should like it, right?). I am going to not buy any more sock yarn until the stuff in the photo is GONE! (or I am down to just the stuff I really hate -- there are about 5 pairs in there that I am not wanting to make).
Good news -- while I was stash diving, I found there is some nice yarn that, even though it is nice and pretty colours, I will probably never knit it into anything. This my dear friends is the prize yarn for my contest 
... Tah dah!
Fleece Artist!
There is enough yarn in the yarn cake to make a pair of socks ... it is yarn from the Fleece Artist Mill Ends sale last spring, so I am uncertain of the fibre type or yardage, but it was weighed when I bought it and it is more than enough to make a pair of socks. It was skeined when I got it, but I caked it at Christmas to try out my new ball winder and also to see if it had any joins -- no joins in this cake.
The skein is Fleece Artist Country Mohair, and is a lovely soft mohair yarn (100% mohair). I got several of these at the sale, and the yarn knits up beautifully on big needles, there is about 200 yds.
The sock yarn is the prize for the random draw, and the mohair is in the event that I whip out my needles and cast on immediately due to one of the patterns you love and have suggested (there will also be other gifts included in the parcel, but I like for people to have a surprise when they get it!). Good Luck!
Ontop Knit Nite News ... we have the Community Room at the Superstore booked for this Wednesday night ... 7 p.m. until you can't knit no more! See you there!
3 comments:
I hauled all of my sock yarn only out last night and took a picture of it, but I can't say any more as it is involved in my blogiversary contest. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was is all I can say.
Yesterday was truly fun. We'll have to do it again another time. I'm still debating on what to make with the Alpaca I bought. I had originally thought of Mrs. Beeton in the Knitty archives. I may do a spin on those. Got the heel turned on the sock I was knitting, but I've set it aside to work on a bigger project for the store. The sock will probably be my Knit Nite project.
Looks like you had a good trip!
Ok. For the contest the fun things I like to knit are the felted slippers. Everyone is always so amazed to see the before and after sizes. And that includes me!
I bow to the queen of stashes!
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