I Couldn't Help Myself

New yarn, it makes me do crazy things!! Like start a new shawl project ... a big one.

I just couldn't stop petting and fondling my new yarn from Red Sock Blue Sock Yarns in the Gotham colourway, so I caked it up ...

Picked a pattern that makes my crafty heart flutter: Aurinko. And started:

To say I'm enjoying knitting it is an understatement. I think about it at work constantly and it's all I want to do once I get home:

Sadly I can't devote as much time as I'd like to it, but it's still getting a lot of love right now!

It's soft and squishy, and so lovely!

Oh my ... a Fleece Festival

I attended my very first knitting related festival and oh boy was I in trouble! I got an early start and arrived at the Woodstock Fleece Festival just after it opened. There was already quite a crowd gathered and it got busier as the morning progressed.

I did well ... I managed to do an entire tour of the barn before I bought anything. I went back to the very first vendor I visited and scooped up some lovely, bright sock yarn by Stitch Please Yarns. This is their Amethyst Label in Supreme Sovereign.

Then I headed to the main building and did a tour of the outer ring of vendors (I was looking for a specific vendor). Huzzah! Found what I was looking for: Zigzag Stitches, who makes the nicest project bags ever! I bought several ... they are beautifully made, wonderfully lined with lots of thoughtful details.

After that, the yarn buying began in earnest:

Some super delicious sock yarn in Gotham by Red Sock Blue Sock Yarns. Love the little bits of deep purple.

A lovely skein from Folklore Yarns.

Finally added a skein of Malabrigo to my stash! This one is the Azules colour way.

I already have a skein of this gorgeous Manos del Uruguay Algeria yarn in my stash, but I added 2 more skeins so I can make something massive! (I don't know what yet, but I like having the option!)

I also picked up a lovely shawl pin from Cynthia Blanton Studio.

What a fun time! I think festivals are a dangerous place for me and my pocketbook, but the stash is loving the additions! Now that I have more project bags, I think I need to start more projects!

I also got to see some sheep and a baby alpaca at the festival! Awesomeness!

When I got home, there was a huge yarn hug with all my new pretties!

Unicorn Poop

Last May, while visiting friends in Indiana, my friend's 6-yr old son saw me knitting and asked me to knit him a scarf. It started off being a red scarf, but when we got to the the knitting store and he saw all the yarn and all the colours, he just couldn't decide. He wanted all the colours.

About 2 weeks ago I finally started on the scarf that I'd promised he'd have for Christmas:

 Addition of ball 2 (I'm only using one colour repeat from each ball):

There were four gigantic balls of yarn purchased for this project. The cacophany of colours emerging on the scarf made me comment that this is what unicorn poop would look like -- rainbows.

Still have purple and pink to finish from ball 2. Then just 2 more balls to go.

It's actually a great knit (despite being acrylic). The pattern is No-Purl Ribbed Scarf by Purl Soho. It's super simple, easy to memorize, very ribby and stretchy, and it's almost impossible to screw up! Whenever I mess up, I know within two stitches, so correcting my slip ups is a breeze! I love things that make it easy for me to not screw up. I like this pattern enough that I might knit it again someday.

I'm a stashoholic

Hello, my name is Adrienne and I am a stashoholic. Truly, I am. It's a sickness. But oh man, the things are so freaking PRETTY! I totally love all the pretty things.

I had to do a lot of travelling in May/June this year, and so I plotted a course that included multiple yarn shop stops. It was a lot evil, but so much fun!

First stop: Knitting Off Broadway in Fort Wayne, Indiana. This was a gorgeous shop with lots of the kinds of yarn I love ... indie dyed sock yarn. There were dyers I'd never heard of before and dyers I'd been dying to see. My arms were full to overflowing when I managed to make it to the cash register. And it was good! I also picked up some project bags and a set of HiyaHiya circulars (which I have fallen in love with).

Black Trillium Fibres
Pebble Sock
100% SW merino
Sail Away

Dream in Color Yarn
Smooshy
70% sw merino 20% cashmere 10% nylon
026 Aqua Jet

Hedgehog Fibres
Sock Yarn
90% SW merino 10% nylon
Poseidon

Hedgehog Fibres
Sock Yarn
90% SW merino 10% nylon
Medusa

Hedgehog Fibres
Sock Yarn
90% SW merino 10% nylon
Dragonfly

Second stop: Yarns Unlimited in Bloomington, Indiana. This was a bit of an unplanned stop. I'd been driving for a few hours after spending the night in Fort Wayne, and I just felt like stopping would be good for me. It was a little bit further off the highway then I'd wanted to go, but it was a fun side trip. I picked up some shop-specific yarn and some Canadian yarn that I'd never heard of before. (Figures that I need to drive 8 hours into Indidana to find out about a Canadian company.)

Blooming Yarns
 Cashino - Lace SW
80% merino, 20% cashmere
(no colourway)

Blooming Yarns
 Cashino - Lace SW
80% merino, 20% cashmere
(no colourway)

Zen Yarn Garden
Serenity 20
70% SW merino 20% cashmere 10% nylon
Blue Grass

Third stop: Sheepskeins in Newburgh, Indiana. I made two trips to this shop. The first time I went with my friend and her son who I'd been staying with for several days. Her son had seen me knitting and had asked me oh so sweetly to knit him something. We all went together to pick out yarn for a scarf. I came away all with this:

There's a good chance he'll get more than a scarf from me. :)

The second time I went to this shop was on my way out of town, and I picked up a few things more my style.

Spud & Chloe
Stripey Fine Sock
80% SW wool 20% silk
7863
Fine Sock
80% SW wool 20% silk
7809

Spud & Chloe
Stripey Fine Sock
80% SW wool 20% silk
7864
Fine Sock
80% SW wool 20% silk
7820

I have to admit it was a really great yarn trip. I love it all!!

Resuming Transmission

Well, I went and fell off the face of the earth.

I didn't mean to. I didn't even realize I had until several months had passed. At that point I was so up-to-my-eyeballs busy that there was no salvaging the situation. I just had to let the blog be dormant.

Sorry.

The "Year of 3s" thing I was trying was a flop. I have not finished any of the projects I'd wanted to make progress on (though progress has been made on some), but several new projects were started (and some finished). I'll get to those in another post.

Right now I just want to catch up on some stash building I did in February and March. I am definitely addicted to yarn.

Madelinetosh Unicorn Tails - rain water
fingering weight, 100% sw merino 208 yards

Madelinetosh Unicorn Tails - jade
fingering weight, 100% sw merino, 208 yards

Vivid Yarn Studio - snap dragon
fingering weight, 75% sw merino, 25% nylon, 463 yards

Vivid Yarn Studio - London fog
fingering weight, 50% sw merino, 50% tencel, 365 yards

The Fibre Imp - peacock plume
fingering weight, 75% sw merino, 25% nylon, 463 yards

The Fibre Imp - eye of the tiger
fingering weight, 80% sw merino, 10% cashmere, 10% nylon, 400 yards

Manos del Uruguay Alegria - Bataclana
fingering weight, 75% sw merino, 25% nylon, 445 yards

Manos del Uruguay Alegria - Jacaranda
fingering weight, 75% sw merino, 25% nylon, 445 yards

Ahh ... yarn-y goodness.

It's been a busy few months, I'll catch you up as I can. Thanks for reading and I'll try not to disappear again.

Never Enough

That's right … you can never have enough stash. That's my motto! Seriously, I am bad, bad, bad. Etsy has become my new best friend and it isn't the best relationship I've ever been in. It's fun, but something is gonna go wrong eventually. I just know it!

Anywho, I've recently deveoped a desire to learn to knit socks. Nothing fancy, just plain stockinette toe-up stripey socks with an afterthought heel. I have the stripey yarn, now I just need to learn how to do the rest. That might have to wait, but at least I have the yarn!

I bought 4 skeins from String Theory Colorworks in their Continuum base (80% superwash merino, 10% cashmere, 10% nylon). It is wonderfully squishy and the colours are so bright and fun!

Solar Flare:

Atom:

Fluorite:

White Dwarf:

The company is not shy about tooting their own horn, and I have to agree with them!

I love buying from indie shops, they almost always add a little something extra into your package. Each skein had a coordinating stitch marker with it.

I also accidentally-on-purpose bought some more stitch markers. I found the dangly ones I was using on my lace project were a pain in the ass, so I got some non-dangly ones from Jennyanydotscrafts on Etsy. The stitch markers are so wee and adorable!! Omgooses! Each set had 10 markers in it, but some are in use already.

And another little "extra." Love it!

There have been other stash additions lately, but I still need to take pics of those.