Thursday 21 April 2011

Wonderful Yarn

Again, I've been busy for the last few weeks with work and then last week I was on vacation, with which I took the opportunity to do some serious spring cleaning and sprucing up :)

Let me introduce you to my new yarns, however - being busy hasn't stopped my yarn addiction from rearing its lovely head ;)

First up, the April Showers yarn from YummyYarnStudio


Just gorgeous, isn't it? Next up is the March sock club yarn from Yarn Love - I ordered an extra skein of the Verdant Knoll, the stunning green colourway, and I couldn't resist trying a skein of the Vintage Postcard even though it isn't usually a colour combination I'm attracted to.

There is a second Vintage Postcard colourway, this time for April, from SweetGeorgia Yarns and it was another "wow" moment when I opened the box.




I haven't knitted up the March pattern and yarn from Yummy Yarn Studio yet, so here's a picture of that...



And last but not least, the Jalapeno socks - this is 'B' sock, on the home stretch up the leg.



This is the second time I've tried the gusset and heel flap method, and this time it worked out properly - it's amazing what you can do if you pay attention to the math, rather than try to fudge it :P

That's all for now, I should be back on the weekend with another update :)

Later

Saturday 2 April 2011

Busy busy...

Hello all! :D Sorry for the lack of blogging for the last couple of weeks, but I've been a very busy girl lately. First my dad came in from Europe where he'd been visiting with my sister, then there was all manner of extra work, a doctor's visit for something to clear up my poor sinuses and my car had to go in to have his transmission bearings replaced since he, too, is getting old. Poor Car. He is very well loved, though, and I try my best to take very good care of him :D

In my knitting life I've managed to finish the socks for my boyfriend, and he loves them. He now has two pair of handknit socks, and if I can manage it, will be wearing only handknit socks by next winter. I'm also trying out some yarn from KnitPicks - the Comfy Fingering yarn which is a 75/25 blend of pima cotton and acrylic to make him some summer socks. The colourway is Jalapeno, which I thought was very appropriate since he just loves jalapeno peppers :P



I'll see if he likes them and if they're cool enough for summer, and if that's the case I can order more to keep myself supplied with an endless run of vanilla sock knitting.

I also finished 'A' sock of a pair of vanilla socks that I'm working on for myself. The yarn is Paton's Silk Bamboo and it probably isn't really meant for socks, but I thought they would make a marvelous pair of house socks, super soft and comfy for hanging out at home. The socks are in the Orchid colourway, and I also have two balls in a lovely teal colour that I don't see pictured on the website. I thought I would make a lacy cowl out of that for my friend for Christmas next year. It knits up on 4mm needles, so it's a pretty quick project.




I also made significant progress last weekend on my Rivendell Smoke Ring in my February sock club yarn from SweetGeorgia Yarns and it's looking gorgeous. The pattern calls for 300 yds of yarn and the skein was 375 yds so I thought I might do an extra couple of repeats of the pattern and just make sure that it's blocked really well so that it's nice and slouchy when worn. This would also make it long enough to be worn as a snood over my hair which I would like. I should have plenty of yarn left over to make a headband or two as well, since the ones available at the stores are always just that little bit too tight and either give me a headache in no time flat or cause my neck and shoulder to ache because it presses on a tender spot on my head.




It looks awesome even unblocked, I can't wait to get it blocked and open up the lace patterning :D I finally got my stitch markers from winemakerssister too, and they're wonderfully handy for this project. I could probably take them out now as I have the pattern memorised, but just to be safe I haven't done that. I'm hoping to get in some quality knitting time this weekend to get this project finished off so that I can start the next one :D

Speaking of, the next one is the Argonath stole in KnitPicks Gloss DK in the Admiral colourway. It's a little darker than I thought it would be from the picture, but I'm sure it will still be stunning. This pattern will definitely be a challenge, and I can't wait to get started!



I've gone and subscribed to her Two Towers collection as well, because her patterns are just so beautiful and they definitely stretch my knitting muscles :)

Last weekend I finally gave Honey her spring bath and haircut. She went from this




to this



It's not that easy to tell from the pics, I suppose, but believe me, when we were done there was a whole extra dog's worth of hair left on top of the washing machine where I'd trimmed her. I left the hair on her ears long because I didn't have a comb to guide the scissors around the edges and I didn't want to risk nicking her at all. She likes having a bath, but she really only tolerates getting a trim and I don't want her traumatised in any way so that she actively dislikes being trimmed. It would just make things difficult for both of us. She was really good about it last weekend though, and received many yummy treats when we were done.

It was my birthday last week and my boyfriend spoiled me shamelessly :) He gave me a 32GB iPod Touch with a protective case and I just love it. It's awesome :D I have a 2nd gen 4GB iPod Nano that is about 5 years old now and I've been looking at getting a new one with more memory because I kept having to juggle what was on there to fit everything I wanted to listen to. Also, it's synced on my desktop computer which is at his house, which meant I could only sync it on weekends when I'm here so if I wanted to change anything through the week I was out of luck. Now I have oodles of room to play with, room for all my music, audiobooks and podcasts and room left over! It's an awesome gift and I really love it.


That's it for now, time to wander off and maybe take the puppies for a romp in the mud on this gorgeous spring day :)

Later