recap!

It's been over a week since my last post. Not too many FO's. I finished one Dashing in Malabrigo. It's part of a set I'm knitting for my cousin.



^{dashing in velvet grapes}

I LOVE Malabrigo. A friend of mine had a birthday party over the weekend. She really liked the pair of Dashing I had so instead of yet another pair I decided to try Fetching. I went to Wool & Co. to get some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino, but, they didn't have any. They did, however, have an ample supply of Malabrigo, so, I bought some in Pink Frost and Verde Adriana. I ended up knitting Fetching in the Pink Frost colorway with a few changes--the main one being I made the gloves significantly longer. Sadly, I was weaving in the ends as we were driving to her house so no pictures. =(

It was really sunny yesterday so I decided to take pictures of yarn I've recently acquired.



I bought this from the JoAnn store near my house during their huge closing sale. It was 50% off. It's Sensations: Bellezza Collection. It's so soft and luscious. I thought it'd make a decent pair of Fetching, but, I'm not sure about the gauge. I only have two balls so I'm a bit limited in what I can create, but, it's wonderful yarn. Wool, nylon, and cotton.



This is Bearfoot sock yarn. I lost the label for it so I went online to look up its information. Turns out you need US 1 or 2 needles. o_O I have no idea what "inspired" me to pick up this yarn, but, I'm very afraid. Four is seriously the smallest size I've used and the smallest size I own. Hmmm. I'll definitely try it, though. I wouldn't want it to go to waste. ^_^



And finally, my Malabrigo. This is my current Malabrigo stash in its entirety. The Verde Adriana is all the way on the left, you can see the leftover Pink Frost in a sad little heap on the right. Slightly above the Pink Frost is Saphire Magenta Gold. SO beautiful. The moment I saw it I had to buy it. I love the really contrast-y variegated colorways. I believe the rest have been featured on my blog at one point or another. =) It's good stuff, that Malabrigo.

There are a few more pictures on my flickr. You can see close ups of Verde Adriana and the Saphire Magenta Gold among other things.

I actually have nothing on my needles right now, but, on my to do list is the other Dashing, and the other sock (it's been so long, I forgot what size needles I used x_X).

Knit hard!

make it clap?

It started snowing here last night. It made me a little angry, but, at the same time I realized my knitted scarves, hats, and hand warmers will get another week of use. We received about 3 inches out where I live. Three very slushy inches. And it's April.
If this pattern continues then Vanessa Williams will be right--sometimes the snow does come down in June. o_O Too cheesy? Sorry.
I remember a 4^th of July as a kid. My cousins and I were running through the sprinkler in her front yard. It's hot and sunny, and, all of a sudden we get some cloud coverage and we hear thunder. It drizzles a little and we stay out only to be hit by hail 5 minutes later. They were about the size of throat lozenges. Good stuff.

Here are a few pictures of my Clapotis from last week. At this point in the pictures I think I dropped 5 stitches already; purposely of course. I think I'm finally happy with the choice of a solid color. The beautiful Clapoti (plural?) I've seen have been in really great variegated color ways and at first I felt like I might have made a bad choice, but, things are definitely looking better. Cascade 220 is some pretty good yarn.
I took the pictures while I was working on it at a local coffee place: Ravensheart.


^{nice and sunny. but freezing}

It was one of those days where it looked beautiful outside but the temperature was actually like 20 degrees.
When I was working Section 2 of Clapotis I had to break out all my larger sized stitch markers (the project calls for 18 in total). I had my original set from Zero made from beautiful olive green and light turquoise freshwater pearls. They went perfectly with the Clapotis. Sadly, I only had 7. However, I also had my glass bead set from Charles, but I only had 6 of them. I had to bust out with the cheap, thick, plastic Boye set. I used to think they were perfect for knitting since they were large and fit many needle sizes, but, once you start using them for smaller yarn and needles they leave gaps in your work because they're so thick. Of course, I decided to order another set from Zero. I ended up getting markers made of iolite stone and freshwater pearls. On a whim I bought a set of turquoise markers in a smaller size. =)


^{charles' and zero's markers}

Zero ships them out FAST. I received them in 3 days. ^_^
When I'm not working on Clapotis (which is rarely now 'cause I REALLY need to finish) I work on small quick projects. After making my original DS Lite case I decided I need a fancier one.Since the first was just plain stockinette I figured cables would be nice. I bought the Vogue Stitchionary Volume 1 (I LOVE IT) and I used the bamboo pattern from it to make the case. It was a really easy pattern to follow and I started changing it up a little to make the segments less uniform and brick like.



I knit it using Malabrigo in the Lettuce color. Cute? I like it, sadly, it's way too large. I was thinking of felting it just a little to shrink it down a little, but, I'm scared. I might just have to make another one in a smaller, tighter size.



Knit hard!

mmmMalabrigo

i am now officially obsessed with Malabrigo. it comes in such beautiful colors and it's so unbelievably soft. mmmm.

last week i went on a spontaneous trip out to evanston to check out their yarn stores. i brought kevin along with me. after a strange mix-up we got to closeknit and took a look around. i didn't really see anything that was really grabbing me. i wanted something REALLY thick in blues and browns. i had seen a scarf on grey's anatomy that i loved and wanted to make.

sadly, i couldn't find yarn that i wanted so i settled on this blue varigated wool. at this point kevin had become impatient and really wanted to leave. so, i had the hank wound into a nice ball and went to leave.
as i turned around to shut the door behind me i noticed a few skeins of yarn sitting on a table. my eyes moved to the tag and i read malabrigo. i made a grabbing motion towards it but at the next moment kevin pulled me out of the door.

the rest of our time in evanston was spent walking around, eating, and exploring. the whole time i couldn't get malabrigo out of my head. i've read SO much about it and i really wanted to get a feel. so, i finally asked kevin if i could go back. he agreed to wait in the car while i bought my yarn.

there wasn't a lot to choose from. only a few single skeins of random colors. i noticed glazed carrot, sunset, lettuce, and indigo. i went for the glazed carrot. when i got to the front i noticed they had a few more skeins at the counter. i asked if they were for sale and lady said yes and that they had just recieved a new shipment. she went to the back and brought out bags and bags of new malabrigo for me to look at. it was bliss. i ended up buying charrua and vaa.


<sup>charrua: browns and blues



vaa: blues</sup>

i LOVE them. the yarn store woman also gave me a copy of a pattern for a moss rib stitch scarf. i decided to give it a try. the pattern calls for 2 skeins of malabrigo but i only purchased one in each color. so, instead of CO 32 stitches i did 24. i ended up with a good 63 inches.


^{malabrigo charrua scarf in moss rib!}

i've been watchin the knitting help forums often and they had been recommending the scrunchable scarf pattern to use with malabrigo so i figured i should try it out. a few days later i returned to closeknits in evanston to buy 3 more skeins in tortuga, velvet grapes, and lettuce.

i decided to take another trip to some new yarn stores. i really like to drive out and find shops that carry a decent selection and have great customer service. i've been looking for some manos del uruguay yarn in any of their varigated patterns and i managed to find some. i also found a shop with MORE malabrigo at a cheaper price than i had originally bought it at. so i ended up getting 2 skeins of amber gold. beautiful!

for the scrunchable scarf i ended up using velvet grapes.


^{scrunchable scarf in velvet grapes}

i'm not too fond of the pattern. i definitly like the moss rib stitch more, but this is still pretty decent. i like how it causes the columns of stockinette to tilt a little on their side. but, what i like about the moss rib is that each column of stockinette has a decent amount of space in between, it's even on both sides, and it creates deep channels. here's a close-up.


^{reminds me of pebbles or cobblestone}

well, that's my deal with mmmMalabrigo. if you havn't knit with it yet you should definitely try it.


^{mmmmmmmalabrigo!}