Stash additions

I, uh, went to my LYS (local yarn store) on Saturday and bought the yarn for my purse.

This is Cascade 220 Ruby and Jet.  Ruby is deeper and Jet is darker (see photo below).  But I couldn’t commit 100% so I also got these:

Cascade 220 Primavera and Jet.  The Jet is pretty close to this color as it appears in the photo.  It’s not black but more of a heathered charcoal.  I have enough yarn to make two purses.  I might use a little bit of the green in the ruby and jet purse and a little bit of the ruby in the green and jet purse.  There’s still some time to play with that idea.

 I also found these in the sale bin.

 

Hacho 100% Merino wool DK weight.

I think this would be perfect for some little girls who LOVE pink and purple.  Not sure what I will make with it but I have enough for two toddler sweaters.  12 skeins, 137 yards each.

I loved the colors in this.  It’s mostly hunter green with a little turquoise and copper for a punch.  I have no idea what to do with this.  6 skeins, 137 yards each.

I really need to organize my yarn.

Christmas in July

Nothing like receiving a package to make it feel like Christmas, even in July.  The outside temperatures say HOT and the yarn says warm.

I ordered four skeins of  Knit Picks Stroll in fingering weight in the color Bare, one sock blank* also Bare, blunt point tapestry needles, a knit-picker, and Pints and Purls book.

A great book so far.  I’ve just skimmed through it and found several things I want to knit.  The projects are rated for “designated driver” to “four drinks” with the DD rating for knitting with fewer distractions and the four drinks rating for more distractions aka beer or other concoctions  Did you notice those sexy reading glasses?  Buy-one-get-one free for $2.98.  Can’t beat that price even if they aren’t exactly right.

Can you guess what my plans are for the Bare naked yarn?  I picked up these Easter Egg coloring kits for $0.25 each after Easter.  I want to dye or hand paint the yarn for socks or whatever I feel like knitting with fingering weight yarn.

I’ve seen all sorts of yummy colorways of sock yarn and I really want to dye my own.  I’ve never done this so if you have any techniques, suggestions, experience, or positive energy, please feel free to share!

The next few weeks are going to be a bit hectic (motorcycle trip and a party) so I might not get to this right away.

*sock blank description straight from the Knit Picks web site:    Our brand new sock yarn dye blanks are long double-stranded pre-knit stretches of machine washable, Merino/nylon blend sock yarn that you can hand dye using the dye method of your choice, and then knit directly from the sock blank to easily create your own colorways and self-striping sock yarns. Finished knit size is 33″ long by 9″ wide.

Knitted nests

I suspect the birds are knitting a nest in the rain spout above my window at work.  I see them  flying in there with long pieces of straw and grass.  They must be rebuilding as we had torrential downpours over the weekend and a pile of nest making materials was on the ground below the rain spout when I came in yesterday morning.

Nest above my window

YOu can see in teh above picture that it’s raining here again today.  I wonder if their work will be washed away again.

A couple of weeks ago I scattered small bits of yarn (less than an inch long) in the wooded area behind our house for the birds to use in their nests.  I noticed most of it was gone when I walked around our yard last evening.

Dots and Stripes purse pattern available

Several bloggers mentioned last week about wanting to try stranded or Fairisle knitting.

Dots and stripes

I have a small project that would be a great introduction to stranded knitting.

Check it out there to the right on my Pattern page.  You can get more details from Ravelry.

I was inspired by the color work of Kristin Nicholas and the Traveler’s Pocket by Nancy Bush.  In fact I used the same motif in part of my color work and the same braided strap as in the Traveler’s Pocket.

The pattern is available in pdf.