Brrr!

Thanks for all the New Year's well wishes! I hope everyone enjoyed the rest of your weekend. I was trying to stay warm. Temps here in GA have barely reached above freezing for the last 3 days. Yesterday it reached a whooping 33°F (0°C) for a whole hour! The ice almost melted! Yes, there was ice. The lake in front of my apartment is now partially frozen. We're even expected to get some snow by the end of the this week. :::shiver::: I've got the snuggie out and made some hot chocolate to keep me from getting frosty.

On Saturday I braved the cold with my friend Stephanie to visit Knitch, a yarn shop in Atlanta. I'd been to Knitch before but not since they moved to their new location. Their old shop was literally in a back alley but it was 2 stories with floor to ceiling yarn. It had a great cozy feel and there was this cool little general store right around the corner with some of the best bagels I'd ever tasted. The new store is a little smaller but it's right on the main drag. Steph and I both made some stash enhancements but I have somehow managed to not photograph them yet. Until I get the pics posted have a look at Stephanie's projects on Ravelry. Is she not the best photographer! She also designed my buttons and banner for the Phat Fiber page. Talented, no?

Today was back to work for me :( I guess I really only worked for half a day because I spent the whole afternoon after lunch in a cluster-wide staff development meeting. I wish I'd had my knitting but I ended up sitting down the row from my assistant principals so I guess it was a good thing, I'm not sure they would understand the whole knitting-makes-me-not-want-to-kill-myself-and-others thing. When I got done with that I rushed home and grabbed the 2 hats I finished this weekend for Helen.
Yep, I was able to get 2 hats knitted, washed, and blocked this weekend. I'm quite proud. I had to express mail them to her to make sure she gets them by the 6th and I will be stressing about it until I know they are in her hands. I really hope she reaches her goal!

I also spent about an hour knitting on the baby blanket for my friends and now it actually looks like a blanket.
It's hard to believe their baby will be here in just 6 weeks!

This next project has actually been finished for awhile but I haven't blogged about it yet.
These are my Japanese Feather socks (with cat for scale). They are made from some of my own hand-dyed sock yarn, Raspberry! These have a great shine and softness to them because of the BFL. I realized (after binding off) that the toes of the socks, and therefore, the socks in general, are 2 different lengths. Not too drastic and nothing I can feel or notice when wearing but I guess that's what I get for letting months lapse in between the making of the second sock. That and not taking notes when I made the first one. Still really like them though. They have been worn and kept my feet toasty in the freezing cold.

I'm off to enjoy the last few hours of my evening. Tomorrow the kiddos come back so I'm sure I will be extra tired then!

Cascade

Recently I have come into some new stash acquisitions and I would like to take this post to let you see all the yummy new yarns in my possession. Some are from my recent trip to Seattle and some are other avenues. Before I begin though I'd like to take a moment to admit something.

I have a torrid, unabashed, deep seeded love for Cascade yarns.

My favorites are not the fuzzy, novelty, super expensive or exotic. My favorites are 128, 220, and Eco +. You could probably throw Magnum in there too.

Even though these are considered "workhorse" yarns I cannot resist them. I've tried. I really have! But as you will see, I'm drawn to these yarns like a moth to a flame.

It does not bode well that when my super close LYS Rare Purls opens its doors in a few months they will stock Cascade 220 year round. Not good at all.

The first stash addition came from WEBS and arrived just before I left for Seattle.

3 skeins of Eco + in a bright fuchsia color
3 skeins of Eco + in lilac (both these colors are discontinued)
6 skeins of Cascade 128 in a bright green
6 skeins of Cascade 128 in Puget Sound (bright blue)
6 skeins of Cascade 128 in Sage (a little bit greener/brown in real life)
All of the above yarns were part of WEBS's major sale they have in the spring so I got all that yarn at a very decent price. Of course I wanted more but it was no problem when I went to Seattle to acquire some.

2 skeins of Eco+ in a burgundy color (from Canvas Works)
5 skeins of Cascade 220 in a very bright orangey red (even brighter in real life) from Churchmouse Yarns and Teas (on sale!) and already swatched for a Warm Woolies sweater KAL.
2 skeins of Cascade 220 in a sunflower color from Churchmouse
2 skeins of GGH Kid Melange from Churchmouse. This is a special purchase because I think I'm going to use it to make a lace scarf for a friend's mom (Brandi, what do you think?).
1 skein of MALABRIGO sock yarn in Abril. This is some of the yummiest, cushiest yarn I've owned. The socks I make out of these are going to rock. This also came from Churchmouse.
1 skein of Hazel Knits artisan sock yarn in Cami Chic from Hilltop yarns. Wendee (the dyer) lives in Seattle and works at the Hilltop East store!
5 skeins of Cascade 220 in purple heather from Hilltop
1 skein of Araucania Aysen yarn (silk, alpaca, and merino, yum!) from Canvas Works
And finally, 1 skein of Araucania Ruca in some beautiful Spring-y colors. This yarn is made from sugar cane and feels like silk! (Also from Canvas Works)
As you can see, I had great success with the yarn stores in Seattle (and Olympia and Bainbridge Island). And at all of them I managed to pick up some Cascade yarn :)

One final stash enhancement came from my Aunt Jenny. She and my Uncle Mark are getting ready to have a baby so they are clearing out some things from their house. Jenny's mom used to crochet but she had given it up. However, she still had some stash left over. Jenny asked me if I wanted it and I agreed (you can never have enough yarn). I thought I'd be getting a few odds and ends, maybe enough to make a patchwork blanket out of. Was I ever surprised when I got a 2'x2'x3' box full of this:
It's all acrylic all the time but there are sweaters, nay, afghans worth of yarn in there. I have taken pictures and carefully documented color, amount, and brand of everything in the box. Hopefully I'll get the pictures up on Ravelry but for now I'll spare you (there were a lot). I don't know how Jenny and Mark got all that yarn in the box because, even with careful repacking, it was bursting out of the top.
Here's my list I made as I took pictures:
The total count was 123 skeins of yarn. I'm speechless. I do have plans for several colors I found in there. And no worries Jenny, baby Britt will be well clothed for several (several) years.

The last thing I'll leave you with is not yarn related but just funny. Some of you might be familiar with the monorail cat. Well, it seems like we have an extension service running through my apartment.

First Things First

I must tend to my poor neglected blog. I have things to show you!
This is a sweater for Warm Woolies from my own pattern (see side bar). This pattern has actually been revamped and is a little bit better but I need to figure out how to post pdf links from my web page. The yarn was Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool that I hand dyed. I call this color Cotton Candy. I think it knit up really nicely. And the it was fun waiting to see what color would come next. That helped make all the plain bits a little more bearable. I've already started a vest for Warm Woolies with some of my newly acquired stash.

I also got a new book.
I already have another hand dyeing book (hmmm...thought I had a picture of it but apparently not, the other book I own in Dyeing to Knit) but I'm glad I have both of them. This one covers more types of dyes than Dyeing to Knit (including Kool-Aid) and I'm in love with the interviews Linda does with dyers. There isn't a whole lot of color theory or basic studio set up and safety like in Dyeing to Knit. I also wish this book covered one method of dyeing for each type of dye (for example, hand painting is only covered under one or two types of dyes, not all of them). Dyeing to Knit only covered one type of dye so if you use anything different then you have to guess at how to make it work but it did cover many different an unique techniques. Like I said, I'm glad I have both so I can pull together my new found wisdom to make what I want to do work with what I have. I'm also thinking of downloading a dyeing tutorial from Three Irish Girls. I don't feel like you can ever have too much information. I will say that I feel as if I am hopelessly falling for this new aspect of knitting. I managed to score a ball winder off ebay and I put in a bid for a swift so I have crossed fingers in hopes that I will have both those here and in place by next week so I can wind up the yarns I've already dyed. For some reason having balled yarn makes me feel like I can justify buying more. Maybe because I can hide it in my stash bin...

A Whole New Whack of Trouble

I had originally planned to make a much different post today. One that caught up on what I'd been doing as far as knitting and showing some better pictures of the yarn I dyed. That will all have to wait though. For I made a most fortunate discovery today.

What could be in these bags?
If you guessed a whole whack of yarn, you would be right.
I went to Joann's craft store today to buy some white yarn for dyeing. I often stop by on Sunday because they start their new sales then and I like to paw around. Well, I picked up some white Paton's and was wandering around when I spotted some bulky weight 100% wool Bernat felting yarn in a sale bin on an end display. It was kind of hidden in the back of the store and there wasn't any sign telling how much the yarn cost. Well, I for Warm Woolies they ask that you only use 100% wool yarn in a bulky weight. I liked the Bernat colors so much that I picked up 6 skeins that I liked and figured I could justify this unplanned purchase because I was knitting for charity. Besides, I wanted to try a much larger sweater than I had done before and wanted to make sure I had enough yarn. Totally justified it.

Well, I get to the checkout and the lady rings me up and says, "$15.71." I was a little surprised that the price was so low because I know that Paton's is normally almost $6 a skein and even on sale that was still really cheap for 8 skeins of yarn. I mention this to her just casually making conversation. "Well, these were on sale for $.97," she informs me as she picks up a skein of the Bernat yarn. My heart does a little flutter. $.97? Less than a dollar? I take my bag out to the car immediately turn around, come back in, and buy the rest of their stock. You never find a deal that good, on a yarn you need, and walk away from it.

I got 3 skeins of the English Rose colorway.
5 of the Storm Cloud colorway.
5 of the Early Spring colorway (which is in the running for favorite color).
2 skeins of Meadow (also very pretty).
And 4 skeins of Gardenia (I think this is my favorite color).
19 skeins in all. Plus 2 white Paton's skeins, which were also on sale coincidentally.
I effectively doubled my stash in a matter of minutes this afternoon. And to think I was just getting concerned because it was starting to dwindle...

A Challenge and An Acquisition

Today I presented by knitting class with a challenge. I've been having issues with some kids not staying on task and getting side tracked from what's really important in life...knitting. I challenged them to finish one of 4 simple projects: a simple hat, a harder hat, a washcloth, or a scarf. I figured these were all things a very beginning knitter should be able to do. The harder hat was the real challenger with decreases and ribbing. I told them if they finished the project by the end of the nine weeks (in 5 weeks) then I would bring them doughnuts, muffins, and juice for a breakfast party.

Seriously dude, it worked magic that can only be worked with middle schoolers.

Suddenly even the least motivated (and constantly complaining) member of the group was rushing to cast on. Suddenly there were 100 questions. Is this enough to start a hat? Can I use what I've already done? Can I make a baby hat? Why does mine look like this? It was great. And the best part was, I jumped in and challenged myself.

I told the kids I was going to make not 1, not 2, not even 3 but 5 baby hats. One hat a week. Not a hard task, unless you are 12 and just learned how to cast on. I think the fact that I was pushing myself showed them they could be pushed too. I was very excited.

Also, I'm acquiring a stash of sorts from an outside benefactor. The primary use of the stash (and needles and other tools that come with it) are for the knitting class. My question is, how do you view "stash passing?" I think it's very intimate, one knitter to another. This stash is coming from another teacher's mother. She never learned herself and her mom apparently has stuff just sitting around out of use. My stash will probably have to be written into my will but I can see how if my children (heaven forbid) never take up knitting I would want it to go to good use with another knitter. Or maybe I'd make them keep it for a possible knitting grandchild. Either way, I'm eternally grateful to this woman for letting me have her knitterly things.

Sorry there aren't any pictures for the blog today. I did start a baby hat last night but I never got around to taking pictures. Tomorrow though, there will be...me thinks...

Road Blogging

I'm on my way to Savannah. kids. And yes, I'm blogging from the car. And no, I'm not driving. My package from WEBS came the other day so I have some yarn porn for you.

First, the new stash:
Cat trying to eat tag on yarn porn.
Classic Elite yarn in Beatrice. Some yummy color (sorry all the ball bands are at home).
Jaeger Roma for a baby sweater.
Rowan All Seasons Cotton.
1 pound of Texas Cotton in lilac for a tank top.

Gedifra Fashion Trend striping yarn.
Rowan Spray for a hat. Maybe one with earflaps.
Cat eating bag that some of the yarn came in (yes I stopped her, just not before I got a pic).
And I found out this morning as I was packing that the wonderful knitting tote doubles as a very comfy laptop bag. I could go on vacation for months now.