The Yarn Magnet

My name's Jane and I'm a yarnaholic.

It's been,...oh.....nearly 24hrs since my last acquisition.....but it's ok people, IT WAS ANOTHER GIFT!

Yes, I went to my knitting group yesterday and my friend and fellow knitter, Tinki, gifted me this gorgeous Jojoland Harmony that she'd won on the LYS Tour. Knowing my present predelection for all-things-lace, she sweetly passed the skein in my direction. Oh, the feverish excitement. My heart started racing at the prospect of yet another lace project and images of fine wool scarves flashed through my mind. It took me a good ten minutes and a strong latte to calm down. In fact I swear that my ADD tendencies are leading me into a state of perpetual WIP's.

I found myself sitting next to Kristin of AllSpunUp yesterday and we had that exact conversation. I was truly impressed with her fortitude when it comes to not going over the '3 projects on the needles at once' thing. I always seem to have so many WIP's that I end up overwhelmed with choice and project bags (I had to climb over 3 last night just to get to my knitting chair!) Still, I need a lot of variety in life I guess. As much as I long for a simpler existence, the moment I get it I'm bored. It's the same with knitting.

Acquiring yarn is often the catalyst for a new project. I get so excited by the prospect of working with my new yarn that I just have to plan a project. If I can manage to thrust the new skeins into the bulk of the stash as soon as I get them, then I'm in with a fighting chance of survival, but if not, I'm doomed to trawling Ravelry for a suitable pattern or sketching something out myself.

It's hard being an addict.(sigh)

Take that blue Wilma that I was given last weekend. I've already decided that I'm going to make a February Lady Sweater with it. I've wanted to make one for a while and suddenly I've found myself in posession of just the yarn to make it with. The temptation to CO is immense.

Instead, I sat calmly next to Kristin yesterday, trying to suppress my obvious yarn magnetism, and watched as she knitted up one of her beautiful skeins of handdyed yarn into a pair of socks. She passed a finished one towards me to fondle. It was dreamily soft and painted in earthy hues of greens and golds. The magnetic field must have kicked in though, because a moment later she gave me a knowing look and put it safely back into her bag (either that or it was the drool seeping from the corner of my mouth!) My chance to slip the sock on to my foot and conveniently forget about it had passed me by.

Instead I came home, blocked the Misti Lace Scarf (much to the rest of the family's fascination who were all very intrigued by the wires and T-pins) and set about pondering the Harmony.

Hmmm. Now, I wonder what you're meant to be?

LYS Tour 2009

This weekend it was the annual LYS tour here in the Puget Sound area. It's like a pub crawl only with a lot of yarn involved instead of alcohol - equally as intoxicating though! The yarn crawl involves whizzing from one LYS to another during four days of pure indulgence. Along the way there are discounts, gifts and stamps to collect in your official passport which, if completed, enters you into a draw for yet more yarnaholic delights.

You'll be pleased to know that, under the present circumstances, I resisted the temptation to take part in the full blown fiber frolic and instead contented myself with one yarn store visit.

Yesterday was Norwegian National Day, so as usual we had planned a family outing to the annual parade in Seattle. Now, last year I happened to discover that the very car park we use to park in when we're down there, just happens to be right next to a yarn shop! What a happy coincidence. Having ducked my head inside quickly last year, I vowed that this time we would leave early enough to make a prolonged visit 'a plan.'

We did.

The Darling Daughter's and I spent a good 45 minutes 'petting' everything from Cascade Pima Tencel to Kid Seta. Meanwhile harried knitters flew in and out getting their passports stamped, snapping up the free knitting patterns and pausing just long enough to 'pet the peruvian!'

I blame the heat - it must have been over 75F outside and we have had a particularly hard winter.

With time marching on and some anniversary cash in my pocket from P.A, I finally settled on 2 skeins of Misti Alpaca in a candy pink shade. I'd drooled over some gorgeous Cascade 220 in a beautiful royal blue and stroked some Manos Del Uruguay in a deep red, but the pull of that lace phase I'm going through was just too strong.

As we emerged into the full heat of the day and made our way down towards the parade route, we were also excited by the prospect of meeting up with some old friends from our time in Norway. As special guests in this years parade and with a packed schedule, we would only have a few moments with them though.

Meeting up was easy, parting was hard. Imagine my joy though when they both presented me with bags full of Norwegian yarn that they'd de-stashed especially for me! There was Lanett, Silja and Wilma by Sandnesgarn and Falk from Dalegarn. I was so excited that it was all I could do not to pull some needles out of my handbag and get started straight away.

At the end of the day, we wended our way back to the car weighed down with folding chairs and bags of wool. Thanks to the kindness of old friends, our weekend LYS Tour could truly by entitled "Destination Yarn!"

Animal Antics

Well, I'm at the frog pond with my "Monkeys" already! I know, I've barely started, but being the dunderhead that I am I got so caught up in knitting the lace pattern that I forgot that I should be doing the sole in stockinette. Yes, I have 5 rounds of lace on both the top and bottom of the foot. That'll teach me to knit late at night when I'm tired!

So, 'Rip-it', 'Rip-it' was a regular mumble last night as I moaned, grumbled and frogged back to the start of my lace pattern. It sure isn't 'easy being green', as the most famous frog of all time would say.

Green was definitely a colour that was on my radar yesterday. While running errands in the next town, I just happened to be close enough to the yarn store where I bought my Noro Kureyon back in the fog bound days of last Autumn (it became "Sea Urchin.") Naturally, I popped in, signed up as a preferred customer and came away with this gorgeous local sock yarn to gift to a friend.

I think I'll direct her to Cookie A's "Monkey" pattern too and see what animal antics she comes up with!

WIPs And Gifts

Well I finished the Odessa Hat and it looks lovely. The blue beads add a subtle elegant touch to the piece which will suit its recipient perfectly. I also came across the tube of pearl beads that I was sure I'd bought in the summer, but couldn't find when I went to start this project. (That's how I ended up using the blue ones.) I found them in a pocket in my handbag! Looks like I've been walking around with them in there for months!!

I now seem to have several works in progress (WIPs). Despite a totally manic weekend when my time was certainly not my own, I did manage to get myself organised enough beforehand, so that I had a small project with me wherever I happened to be. The project in question is Nicky Epstein's Chameleon again. This is my second version and on Thursday I took a moment to wind a skein of Cascade 220 (whose shade is aptly named Puget Sound) into a suitable ball for the project. I do not have a swift, so resorted to my Nan's tried and tested trick with a couple of chair backs. My greatest challenge was completing this exercise before the cat decided to investigate! Thankfully, I just got finished before my large ginger and white bundle of fluff strolled languidly into the kitchen to check out what I was doing.

I repeated the same procedure with the lilac Cascade 220 that I am using to knit the Central Park Hoodie. I cast on on Saturday evening and am so excited to see this pattern taking shape.

I managed to score a whole bag of this yarn at a closing sale at the beginning of the summer and it's knitting up beautifully.

My other WIP is the Strawberry hat that I'm making for my niece. As I've hit the construction of the top, it's not such a portable project anymore (I actually have to concentrate a bit now!) so I'll be working on it at home over the next few days. It will be another of my Christmas projects completed, so I'm feeling quite pleased with myself now.

I'm now awaiting the arrival of a KnitPicks order which will contain some beautiful yarn for my final Christmas project - a lovely hat for the man in my life. After 20yrs, it's about time I knitted him something!

More Excitement

Well, I've had yarn coming at me from all angles this week. It's been wonderful.

On Wednesday my parcel arrived from Norway from my Nordic Knitters swap partner. We were linked up via Ravelry and have been planning a summer swap - 100g of yarn plus anything that reminds us of summer where we are. It's been great fun. I have sent her Knit Picks, as she can't get it over there and she sent me the most wonderful sock yarn by Drops Garnstudio called Fabel.

I really enjoyed putting together my parcel. I found some MarketSpice tea bags from Pike Place Market in Seattle, some M&M's, a beaded stitch marker, a card showing the Seattle skyline at sunset and some packets of Kool-Aid, which I'm told are great for dying yarn as well as being a summer drink. I dread to think what they do to our insides though if they dye yarn so wonderfully!

My parcel from my pal contained some chocolates, iced tea, beaded stitch markers, coffee and some seeds - a real summery package:

The same day my yarn from Yarn Forward arrived in the mail. I'd bought this several weeks ago as I started making a blanket for my niece last Autumn and, not quite getting a handle on the whole Imperial and Metric thing, managed to run out of yarn. My LYS no longer carried it, so I ordered online from Yarn Forward in Canada. At last I can continue my blanket. I'm so relieved. The plan is to knit in both yarns alternately to try to avoid getting a line across the work caused by different dye lots.

Yesterday, the pull of "Let It Rain" closing its doors was too much and I just had to go back to that yarn store to see what they had left. I'd debated last Saturday about getting some lilac Cascade 220 and some gorgeous Frog Tree 100% alpaca in cream. They were both still there so I have added them to my stash. I now have enough projects to keep me going for some considerable time!

As to the Little Guy's socks? I've started working on a pattern for them. There's been a lot of scribbling in a notebook and studying of pointed versus flat toe seams, but I'm getting there. It'll be interesting. Now I'd better go and plant the tomato vines that are growing out of control on my kitchen windowsill!