2 Days of yarn in a row?!

I panicked a little this morning. I woke up relatively early ... technically 8:45am which is relatively early to my usual 12:00pm. Since I was up so early I decided I'd take a trip to McDonald's for their breakfast menu. I'm not a big fan of McDonald's except when it comes to the Sausage McMuffin with Egg. Mmm. As I was sitting there enjoying my sandwich I suddenly realized that I have a birthday party to go to on Sunday and I have no gift. I decided I'd knit the recipient a pair of mittens, so I drove over to the other LYS: The Gifted Purl and bought a bit of yarn and a pattern for mittens eye had been eyeing. She had knitted up a sample pair in angora and they were completely luxurious. I opted for a nice, pale shade of green (the recipient's favorite color) in an alpaca/silk blend and... I actually haven't started.

Isn't that some luscious yarn? ... Mittens are fast, right? I know I've been able to whip up a pair of Dashing in 3 days, so, mittens can't be THAT different. I mean, it's shorter on the arm and longer in the hand. Basically the same thing... right? ... RIGHT?! Well... hopefully I finish by Sunday.

This doesn't seem to be the true color of the yarn. It's a bit greener in real life. Hmm.

In other news, I solicited donations from Malabrigo. o_O ... ^_^ I told Tobias (from Malabrigo) all about Malabrigo Cast On Week and how beneficial it would be. He agreed to donate some yarn-ish prizes in the form of preview skeins of their new Silky Wool. I'd like to thank college (and Kevin) for my awesome solicitation letter writing skills. See, I actually learned something in college that I didn't know back in high school--it was NOT a waste of thousands of dollars and 6 years of my life! ^_^ I'd also like to thank Tobias for being so cool.

Here are a few current shots of my Exchequered scarf which is coming together oh-so-slowly.

Not much of a difference from last time, right? I keep telling people to knit hard, but, in reality I'm actually knitting pretty soft. I would like to say that I love double knitting. If I've been having a down day and need to feel better about myself I whip out Exchequered and watch myself knit a few rows all the while telling myself how cool I am that I'm knitting with two colors in two styles at the same time. ^_^ ... the things we need to get through a tough day.

That's all for today. I'm assuming tomorrow will be back to the "about me" entries because I need to go on a yarn diet.

Knit (and blog) hard!

I have a lot of green yarn

I received my Knitter's Tea Swap package yesterday! My partner Suzie got her box at the same time. Swaps are so much fun. ^_^ I'll definitely have to find more to join. Here's what I got:





On the left is a card, there are two cans of loose tea, one green and one white, a pack of tea bags, a box of almond biscotti, two skeins of Noro Kochoran, a bag of Haribo Gold Bears (my absolute favorite gummy bear!), and a bar of Rutger's Chocolate with hazelnuts. There's actually more to come!

I've never tried Kochoran so I'm excited to see it knitted up. It's a blend of Wool, Silk, and Angora--SO soft! I had to keep fighting the urge to eat the chocolate and the bears before the photoshoot. The teas weren't so lucky. I had to bust them open and take a whiff mere seconds after I opened the package.

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I've been suffering from a bout of Startitis. After finishing so many objects over the past few weeks I realized that I needed more fun on the needles. Here's what I've been working on:





Exchequered is from Knitty. It's a double knit scarf and it's really awesome to work. I think I blogged about this earlier. But, basically you're knitting two pieces of fabric at the same time, back to back, with some color work going on--each side is a negative of the other. I've been knitting the scarf with one color in my right hand (English style) and the other color in my left hand (Continental style). I feel so capital K.

I've been using Cascade 220 for it. I only purchased one skein in each color... I hope I have enough to make a decent length.





This is Danica from Knitty. Yet another scarf. ^_^ It's an Entrelac pattern in Malabrigo. I'm surprised at how cool the resulting fabric looks but how "easy" it is to make it. Easy, however, doesn't include the insane amount of ends I'll have to be weaving in. o_O

I think blocking will definitely help the scarf look its best... hopefully it'll help out the wrong side as well. The back just looks like a mess. =( I'm considering possibly knitting another one and then seaming them together... but, it's been growing a bit slowly, so, ... I think I'll have to rely on a good block.





These are leftover green-ish yarns that I'll be using for Grass from Mochimochi Land. These will be the first... "useless" items I'll be making, but, they're so cute ... and I have a lot of left over green, feltable yarn.

There are 4 balls of Malabrigo Worsted, some RYC Cashsoft, Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Tweed, this Licorice yarn from Joann's (I'm not sure if this is feltable), and Catalina Alpaca. It'll be a whole family of grass.

That's how it's looking so far.
Knit hard(er)!

On collecting

I love visiting LYS's. It's my goal to visit each one in Illinois. Or, all of them North of 80 and as far West as Dekalb. Here is my current list:

• The Gifted Purl - West Dundee
  
• I'd Rather Be Knitting - Long Grove
  
• Knitche - Downer's Grove
  
• Wool & Co. - Geneva
  
• Needle Things - St. Charles
  
• Village Yarn Shop (Closed) - Geneva
  
• Loopy Yarns - Chicago
  
• Three Bags Full - Northbrook
  
• Village Knit Whiz - Glenview
  
• Fringe - Aurora
  
• Close Knit - Evanston
  
• Chicago Fabric, Yarn and Button - Chicago
  
• Nina - Chicago
  
• Lizzie's - Wheaton
  
• Never Enough Knitting - Wheaton
  

The last two were added today. Never Enough is a fairly small store with a relatively small selection, but, a huge amount of patterns, and they also seemed to carry many quilting supplies. Lizzie's is just two blocks down the street and it's a significantly larger store with a really huge, well organized, selection. They're all put into black shelves, the smaller ones in perfect little cubby holes. At first the black shelves were a bit daunting and depressing, but, they REALLY make the yarn jump out at you, and it all looks so clean.

From Lizzie's I bought this:


It was a brand I hadn't seen before and the colors really jumped out at me. Currently, no plans for this pretty yarn.

From Never Enough I bought these:



and:




Two hanks of my usual go-to yarn: Cascade 220. There were others that were calling out to me, but, sadly they didn't come in colors I wanted. Cascade comes in pretty much EVERY color so I was able to find a match. With these I plan to knit Exchequered which brings me to my next subject.

I think I'm a "collector" of knitting. Not only do I want to collect the experiences of visiting every yarn store in Northern Illinois but I also want to have every knitting skill and technique under my belt. I also have fleeting fantasies of using every brand of yarn... but, that's a bit of an enormous and rather daunting task.
I've purchased the yarn to knit Eunny's End Paper Mitts in order to get color work down, or at least Stranding/Fair Isle. Exchequered will conquer Double Knitting.
I made a list the other day of skills I still need to attempt and master. There were a lot. Some of the techniques I'd like to try sooner (rather than later) include Magic Loop, Entrelac, and Beaded Knitting. Two socks at the same time calls out to me, but, I hate knitting socks. Bobbles and Intarsia, on the other hand, are skills that I'd need to learn but seriously have no desire to--they are at the bottom of my list.

I've been working on writing out the pattern for my DS Lite case, more details on that in my next blog.

I want to be a Master Knitter!
Knit hard!