More Yarn + Random Monday

Last week, I wrote about one of my favorite online yarn stores, which is in the process of closing. Consequently there are some very lovely yarns that are on sale right now. My stash is rather enhanced at the moment with some pretties from Skein, Sincere Sheep and Abstract Fiber (to name a few)....then again, sock yarn doesn't count as stash, am I right?!

I've always liked to take photos of random things I see when I'm out and about, which admittedly doesn't happen as much as it used to now that I work from home. But I do have a small collection of photos I've taken, both on instagram and from the days before instagram (if you can imagine that), which consists of interesting graffiti, a misplaced shoe, funny signs, squirrels eating pizza...that sort of thing. 

At any rate, over the last few days I saw a couple of things that caught my eye: first, a really big art piece wheatpasted to a dumpster by the California blue line station; second, a bizarre and slightly disturbing sight which also happened to be by the California blue line station - I have no idea why this person was taking a self-portrait while wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, but I am glad that I was quick enough on the draw to sneak a photo myself. You don't see that every day (thankfully). 

Finally, I thought I'd end by sharing this photo of Tyler enjoying a special birthday donut from Glazed and Infused! 

Thanks for stopping by today - see you back here for WIP Wednesday! 

Happy Caturday!

Rawr! Today's post was inspired by the folks who own the coolest hotel ever, a dinosaur-themed Best Western in Denver, Colorado. Earlier this week, the posted a request on their Facebook Fan page to have fans submit photos of their dinosaur-ified pets:

This is the photo that started it all! Artwork by twitter fan Erin Schmalfeld @eschmalf. 

Since then, photos have been pouring in, and on Thursday night, Tyler and I worked on our own submissions starring Tilly and Robin!

It sure beats cat breading, if you ask me! You can view all of the entries so far here on Facebook. Enjoy and happy Caturday!

Thrummed Mittens & Mail Goodies

Last weekend, I put the finishing touches on my Thrummed Mittens, then gave them a nice blocking in Wrapture (I could still smell the lingering jasmine during this photo shoot)! As luck would have it, my husband got a very fancy digital camera as an early birthday present from his parents, and he took some really great photos of my finished mittens...a process I apparently didn't enjoy.

Consequently, he's now going to be doing a LOT more photos for my patterns and blog posts! I mean, it's night and day, the difference between these photos and the photos I've been using from our much-older digital camera (or my cell phone...or instagram...).

You can get all the details on the yarn and fiber used in this project on my Ravelry project page. I used to pattern and video instructions from Marly Bird's excellent Craftsy class, Mittens and Gloves Galore (click here for a full review and a special discounted link for my blog readers)! I am so excited to bust these puppies out next winter!

I started the week off with some goodies in the mail: first, this month's shipment from the Sweet Georgia Fibre Club, which is some very interesting Masham top. Those who know me well are aware that pink is a color that doesn't often find its way into my stash, so I'm curious to see how this particular colorway spins up; maybe the pink will be subtle enough that I don't mind knitting with it - or it will at least be equally balanced by the green and the purple.

Yes, perhaps it will be the exception to the rule, kind of like the hot pink Nick Cave t-shirt that made its way into my closet, which is filled with black t-shirts (and a few gray, blue, green and brown ones, I suppose - much like my yarn stash, I think I'm sensing a theme!).

The second goody is my prize from the recent Holla Knits! blog tour: three skeins of Yarn Hollow Gemini, a bamboo/cotton blend yarn that's perfect for summer! I'm not sure what I'll make with it just yet, but I am excited to work with this very pretty yarn.

I have more yarn goodies from Doodlebug to share with you, but that will have to wait til I have time to have my lovely assistant photograph them - and today is his birthday! Soon, we will be heading to Hot Doug's in accordance with our birthday traditions!

I hope to meet you back here tomorrow for a special Caturday post. I don't want to give it away, but it does involve dinosaurs...and awesomeness. At any rate, I hope you'll be as amused as I was!

Thanks for stopping by this week - for more FO Friday inspiration, visit the Tami's Amis blog! 

Have a crafty weekend!

WIP Wednesday

Happy WIP Wednesday! I have a few knitting projects to share this week, plus a progress report on my latest Spin-O-Lution efforts.

First, my Elfe sweater is coming along nicely! Over the weekend I tried it on and decided to do a few more increases for the sleeves before binding off those stitches. Now that I have a bit of length from the armholes, I may have to try it on again just to make sure I made the right call.

I finally started working on my second Fleece Artist sock - I'm not too far along, since I keep getting distracted by gift knitting/crocheting and my Elfe-in-progress, but hopefully I can get this second sock finished by the end of May so that the new pattern can come out mid-summer. That is the new goal, anyway!

So what do I do when I have a self-imposed deadline? Cast on for a new hat, of course! My husband bought me some Knitter's Pride Karbonz needles for Christmas and I have been dying to knit with them. I have no idea why it took me five months to give in, but in any case, I grabbed some Lorna's Laces sock yarn from my stash and started a hat that will have random stripes (sort of like the variation of the Genmaicha hat I made recently - except bottom-up and more stripey than color block-y). I am really enjoying knitting with these needles - they have a good point and just feel so nice in my hands.

This week, I've been working on spinning some hand-dyed BFL top from the now-defunct Kitchen Sink Dyeworks. I bought it several years ago at the Renegade Craft Fair here in Chicago, and I would probably keep it stashed in my fiber bin for who knows how long if I weren't trying to spin through my entire fiber stash in 2013. I really like how it's spinning up; I have 6 oz. of natural brown BFL from Spunky Eclectic that I'll be spinning up next, and I'm pretty sure I'll be plying them together.

Thanks for stopping by this week. For more WIP Wednesday inspiration, visit the Tami's Amis Blog!

Sometimes, A Yarn Sale is Not Just a Yarn Sale

This isn't the kind of post I wanted to write first thing on a Monday morning. For regular readers of my blog, you know that there is nothing I love more than getting a good deal on something. But I also love luxury yarns and I'm willing to pay luxury prices if I think they're worth it. So the sale at Doodlebug Yarn that's happening right now would be the best thing ever except for one important detail: it's a store closing sale.

I've read countless articles about how hard it is for the LYS to keep its doors open in the face of online competition, and I don't mean to belittle that because I know it IS hard - I'm part of the problem since I prefer to do 90% of my shopping online! However, it's also very hard for online-only shops to compete with both bricks-and-mortar shops AND the powerhouses that are Jimmy Beans Wool, Webs and the like. I shop both of those sites from time to time, plus Craftsy and Doodlebug when I purchase yarn online. I like each one for different reasons - a specific yarn line, a notion I need for my knitting bag, or a deal I just can't pass up.

Getting back to the matter at hand: In the case of Doodlebug, sometimes it's not even about all of these other factors, it's just time to move on to something new. That appears to the case in this instance, and I can understand that - it's sort of what I did with my massage therapy career.

For me, the closing of Doodlebug Yarn is also personal: I did a lot of shopping there over the past few years, as my Ravely projects and stash will prove. I also got to know some of the folks in the Ravelry group as I shared my WIPs and FOs. Finally, I also had the pleasure to work with Gayla and Doug (the owners) on a professional level, and I know how much care went into selecting each luxurious line of yarn. There were several yarn companies that I discovered at Doodlebug: Skein (Gayla was among the first to bring this line stateside), Baah! and The Uncommon Thread come readily to mind.

If you're just now discovering Doodlebug Yarn, I hope you'll find something new and different to try and remember them by. And if you've been a loyal customer like me, then let's be sure to share the last of our DBY stash and raise our needles and hooks to a great online yarn store!

FO & Fiber Friday

Hooray, it's FO Friday, and unlike last week, I have bona fide finished objects to share with you this week!

First, I finished my destash Genmaicha Hat, which I knit with The Fibre Company's Canopy Fingering in Sarsparilla and Conifer and Malabrigo Finito in Paloma. Last week, I confessed that I goofed when casting on and ended up knitting the entire hat on US #1 needles (instead of US#3). Oops! The results, however, are a super-cute child-sized hat, so into the gift barrel it goes!

At the top right is my amigurumi Roosevelt monster, which was my third and final shipment from the FreshStitches Kit Club. I would have liked to sign up for another subscription, but tax day wasn't super kind to us last month! Perhaps later this year I can jump back on the kit club bandwagon...or, at the very least, treat myself to another crochet amigurumi kit!

I also finished another stockinette baby hat for the Cutie Patootie KAL/CAL - and I still have a fair amount of Cotton Comfort left over, too! I am going to try to get a pair of booties out of the remaining yarn, too - I just found this cute free pattern on Ravelry!

It was a busy week for spinning, too - not did I ply the merino single I finished on Wednesday with the dyed Wensleydale single I spun last mont, I also used the leftover merino to ply with a few random leftover bits and bobs. Perhaps I can make a fun, stripy cowl or hat with all of this yarn!

Thanks for stopping by this week - for more FO Friday inspiration, visit the Tami's Amis blog!

Have a crafty weekend!

New Neighbors!

I was really excited to be greeted by this when I woke up this morning:

We live about 20 minutes from O'Hare, and even though I'll probably never get to see these cute little guys while they're at work, it makes me deliriously happy to know that somewhere nearby, a herd of goats are doing their goaty thing! 

Now if we could just get our own neighborhood to do away with the lawn service and hire some adorable goats instead....