August 22, 2007

my stash my stash my stash, my lovely yarny stash


check it out.

Stitches Midwest turned out to be... interesting. SO many stores and SO MUCH YARN. Quite overwhelming. Luckily, with the help of ravelry.com I was able to create a list of projects I wanted to knit in the future. My list included the pattern-suggested yarn as well as alternative yarns that other knitters used. Oh ravelry, so helpful.
I brought my friend Danielle along. Out of the 3 people I've taught to knit she's the only one who stuck with it. She already conquered cables and knitting in the round... it took me over 6 months to get that far... I guess she's a really good student... or I'm just an awesome teacher. LoL.

Tangent. ... So... here's what I managed to find:


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Mmm, silky wool. I brought my Branching Out scarf as my WIP to Stitches... I was really enjoying knitting it at the time (right now it's been waiting for me to finish my circular shrug--see below). I had already decided it would make an awesome gift so I decided to grab another ball so I could make another. I think the second one will be for my mom.


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This yarn is a long story. =)
At the end of last winter I was at Coach with my best friend Lora. They had these beautiful cashmere blend scarves for sale. Sale to them was still over $200. x_X I decided, that I would find similar colors and a similar cashmere yarn and knit them for myself.
Finding both the same colors and yarn proved to be difficult... it wasn't until Stitches that I saw 3 of the almost perfect color ways. They weren't cashmere though... they happened to be 100% alpaca. We passed up the table and I kept them in the back of my mind. Finally, on our semi-second round of the market I decided to buy them. 100% alpaca is cRaZy soft... of course, not as orgasmic as cashmere, but, would definitely make a great scarf. So, here's to my Coach knock-off.


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Mmm, sock yarn. ... I hate knitting socks. =( After my 3 separate attempts I still don't have a pair of socks that fit or match. Luckily, this skein of Lorna's Lace is for Eunny Jang's Endpaper Mitts. I've been eye-ing them ever since I fell into the world of knitting blogs. It'll be my first color work project, and, I'm quite excited. I, strangely, ended up with a very similar color choice to her original pair...


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I just love the blue-brown combo.
Well, those were my purchases from this year's Stitches Midwest. I'm already looking forward to next year. Sadly, we didn't win any prizes, but, Danielle got a free mini-hank of Malabrigo lace weight. mmmm. I ended up getting my picture taken for The Panopticon's 1000 Knitter's Project--and I'm knitter 100!
We also felt some buttery soft cashmere... sadly the small skein was $46. Definitely out of my budget. It was so soft we went back after our initial round through the market to get a second touch. ^_^

I'll leave you with one last picture.
Danielle and I decided to do our own mini knit-along. We chose the Circular Shrug pattern, and, we've been working hardcore on it since we started. So hardcore, in fact, that we both claim the project is sucking the life out of us. Hopefully it'll be done soon so she can wear it and I can take pictures and gift it.

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Knit hard!

7 comments:

Nikki said...

Wow, your knitting is really coming along! I love the stitch pattern in that last piece. Love all that yarn. Alpaca is definitely squishable.

Hey, I was at Stitches, too. Only the last 2 hours, as I helped out at Jimmy Bean's booth. Did you see Franklin (the Panopticon) there? He was doing his 1000 knitters shoot and I got shot.

schrodinger said...

Mmmmmm, isn't stash enhancement just the best? I'm especially impressed by your use of ravelry to figure out what yarn to get, very nice.

sko_G knits said...

glad you had fun at stitches!! i went to stitches west...with my mother!! i have never seen her go so crazy before, diving into the yarn bins. i thought was going to be the crazy one while she held me back. a can't wait 'till next year either, although there is another event like it happening in a few months up in NoCal.

the pattern for your shrug is looking great!

Shadkitty said...

Alpaca is definitely a good substitute for cashmere IMHO. All of your purchases look so yummy!! You'll love the Endpaper Mitts, they knit up so quickly.

P.S. How have I not added you to my friends on Ravelry yet?

Knit Picking said...

Your stitches on the shrug are so even. I can't wait to see the finished shrug!

I love alpaca yarn. Did you know that it's four times warmer than sheep wool? Anyway, I really like the colours for your Coach knock-off. Can't wait to see it. Horizontal stripes?

Eikon said...

Silky Wool is amazing for Fair Isle style mittens, love the pictures.

Tyreese Nelson said...

Hi thanks for sharingg this