there be dragons

dragons... er... alpacas, a photo by gradschoolknitter on Flickr.

and alpacas...

and sheep....

But really, the only dragon is the colour of the yarn in my new hat! Pattern is the naked star hat and yarn is alchemy sanctuary in "Dragon".

A good friend was visiting and there was a fiber festival this weekend and, well, perhaps another dragon is the call of sweet, sweet, yarn. I may have gone over-budget... just a wee bit. But perhaps you'll understand why...

I ended up with 3 skeins of fingering weight:


Longmeadow Farms Fingering Weight, 100% Merino (and so soft) in grape (top skein) and sea shore (bottom two). The top one is going to be mittens and the bottom two might be for my sock swap partner (and yes, you can still sign up, until tomorrow night!!).


Two skeins of 80/20 wool/alpaca, also from longmeadow farms. At 175 yards/4.5oz, I'm calling this a "heavy worsted" or aran weight. I have no idea what I'm going to do with this yet, but I'm sure it's going to be pretty.


100% merino, again, longmeadow farm (I reallllly liked their stuff, what can I say?). 230 yards each, 4oz. Closer to a worsted weight. To go with:


Another longmeadow farms (the proprietor might have thrown in some free soap after I purchased all of this...) 100% romney lambs' wool. 250 yards/5.5 oz. Slightly heavier, but I think they'll work well together, for something similar to the hacky sack hoodie.

Finally:


Dorset Sheep Yarn, worsted weight. 7 skeins of approx. 210 yards each. This will be for a hoodie for DH, specially requested... still deciding on the exact specifics of this one. Sadly, there is no tag and I did not catch the name of the farm on this one. (Something about the fumes of yarn taking over my finer sensibilities...)

My friend was much more sensible, only getting 2 skeins of fingering weight in complimentary colours for a pair of stripey socks. Of course, he had to fit any purchases into an already full suitcase, soooo....

One more gratuitous alpaca pic for good measure:


This one, of a child about to lose some hair to a couple of hungry alpacas...

long time coming

Morko, finally, a photo by gradschoolknitter on Flickr.

Poor DH. He's waited for these mitts a loooooong time. I started the first last December, just before Christmas, and realized when it was [mostly] complete that I was going to run out of yarn. I bought more, and then promptly forgot about these. Or rather, tried to... I got a few "so, how are my mittens coming along?" prompts, but they remained on the backburner for far too long. Good thing last winter wasn't that cold...

I finally ran out of other projects that I felt like doing... er... I mean, that needed doing first... and sat down with the second mitten last Saturday. They're surprisingly quick, but take a fair amount of concentration (*shakes fist at colourwork*) but I got the second mitt, plus the thumb of the first, all finished up this morning. Well, between last Saturday and this morning, anyway.

Pattern is Mörkö (now available in English so you don't have to try and wing it, like I did!)
Yarn is: 1.25 skeins of black lett lopi and slightly less than 1 skein (seriously, like 2 yards left) of grey. The original skeins were bought in Iceland on our honeymoon!
Needles: US3/3.25mm dpns
Mods: thicker yarn = extra warmth! plus I had to cut off the last repeat of snowflacks on the backs and thumbs or they would have been ridiculously long. Corrugated ribbing with the colours reversed on the 2nd mitt.

These may eventually get a lining... personally I find this yarn to be super scratchy. DH says he doesn't mind it, but we'll see how he feels in the dead of winter.

Socks for me (and possibly for you, too!)

Socks from Siona, a photo by gradschoolknitter on Flickr.

I can't believe I haven't blogged about these yet. When I was in Spain this past May I got to see a couple of my knitting friends from the Madrid Knits group. One of them, Siona, made me the above socks as a belated wedding present. Siona, lo siento no haber "blogeado" sobre los calcetines antes... no me lo puedo creer que se me haya olvidado! Ni siquiera sé cuál es el patrón!

I'm not sure of the pattern, but I'm pretty sure that the yarn is knitpicks stroll multi... which I have in the same colourway in my own stash! Do my friends know me, or what?!

Also in the "socks for me" category:



I finished up my Devon Socks (pattern from Cookie A's "Sock Innovation") today. Raveled here.

And socks for you? You could get some if you sign up for the international sock swap! Sign-ups still open, until Sept 30!

socks, socks, socks

devonaire, a photo by gradschoolknitter on Flickr.

I'm knitting socks, which can only mean one thing! My feet are cold!

No, wait, that wasn't what I wanted to talk about... oh yeah... it's sock swapping time again!

Except that these aren't for my partner, they're for me. So, I guess we're back to my cold feet? Only I already have lots of lovely knit socks, so my fet aren't as cold as they could be...

But I digress. The sock swap is open for new swappers to sign up. Sign-ups will be open until the end of September and swapping will take place from Oct 1 - Dec 31, 2012. Socks and packages must be in the mail on or before December 31.

For those of you not in-the-know, the sock swap started a couple of years ago while I was in Spain. It's international, so you must be willing to send to anywhere in the world... but you might also receive a package from anywhere! So, go on over to the group (must be a ravelry member), fill out the questionnaire and get ready to knit!!

If you were wondering about the above socks (which are MINE! ALL MINE! ahem...) pattern is devon by cookie a with some modifications (only 3 repeats of cuff pattern, switched to stockinette for the foot).
Yarn is Ellyn Cooper's Yarn Sonnets Fine Merino, purchased last year while visiting Connecticut for a friend's wedding.
Needles are US 1.5 (2.5mm) hiya hiyas.

extra yarn

lopsided log-cabin, a photo by gradschoolknitter on Flickr.

I posted a sneaky picture of this blanket when I was first working on it, but didn't want to give a full reveal until it was in the hands of it's designated owner... my new niece, Ellis! My first niece, too, which means she'll probably be more spoiled than most babies I've met. Every cute pattern for little girls I see on ravelry now goes into the queue immediately...

The yarn is the interminable seven skeins of knit picks stroll, although I have, in fact, found a project that might finally finish them off... more on that later.

The pattern is a sort of lop-sided, make it up as you go along, log-cabin. I didn't want it to be perfectly square so I made skinnier stripes on 2 sides and bigger stripes on the remaining 2.

I also got her the appropriately named book, Extra Yarn:



It's a very cute book about a little girl who finds a box of yarn that seems to never end. She knits for her whole town and never runs outs. It's a little old for her 3 week old self today, but I'm sure Ellis will love it (and learn to knit/crochet as soon as she's ready... she has both me and her own mom to show her how!).