Project Restash

Perhaps it's a bit self-congratulatory, but I feel as though I've done a bang-up job of shopping from my stash in the past year.  My once-overflowing bins of sock and worsted-weight yarn are trim and slim...which means it's ok to go on a small yarn-buying binge this month, right?

Justification #1:  Much of this yarn was really on sale, and I bought it with a specific holiday-gift-knitting agenda in mind.

Justification #2:  In the case of the Malabrigo Finito, it's only available for a limited time, so I have to get mine while the getting is good.

Justification #3:  I wanted to.  Let's not sugar-coat it!  

The downside of my job (if you can call it that) is that I frequently enable myself into yarn purchases.  Besides that, I have the yarn-world equivalent of insider trading:  I'm more or less one of the first people to find out that something is available or going on sale.  Which is why I was able to snag these two skeins of Finito in Paloma (below, top), which I believe sold out in the first day it was live on the Doodlebug Yarns website (the two skeins of Mares (below, below) were added for good measure...I think there are still a few left for those who are interested!).

New markdowns on the Doodlebug Cascade Clearance?  Yep, I'm all over that.  $5 skeins of 220 and $6 skeins of Heritage Sock (full disclosure: only 2 of the 3 skeins purchased are pictured below)....I can't resist a good deal!  However, I think I deserve a little credit for exercising self-restraint here, because I was quite tempted by the half-off Baby Alpaca Chunky and Pure Alpaca. 

I am considering blocking all websites selling yarn and knitting paraphernalia of any kind on my computer, though...just for a little while. 

FO Friday: Breaking the Silence

It's been just over a week since my last entry - my trip to Kansas City last weekend was fun and productive, though short.  I was able to see a few of my friends and pretty much all of my family - not to mention knit (and crochet) up a storm!

On the train ride down, I finished my Abalone Cardigan in Malabrigo Silky (Matisse Colorway):

While in K.C. I finished the first wedge sock using the crazy awesome German yarn (Wollglöckchen Handgefärbte Sockenwolle - say that five times fast); on the train ride home I started sock # 2 and will probably get the heel turned this weekend.  Pardon the crappily-lit self-portrait:

 I also completed this sideways double-crochet scarf - the yarn is some wonderfully soft MCN hand-dyed by my pal Kit (who is also a tattoo artist and is responsible for the half-sleeve in the below photo).  It's been the perfect little scarf for this crazy-for-March weather we're having this week:

Finally, I got a lot of knitting done on the Riverside Cowl (exclusive Malabrigo March pattern by my pal Breean at Doodlebug Yarns this month!  Use the coupon code at right for $5 off your purchase of yarn & pattern for this project!) - I finished it upon my return to Chicago this past Monday night.  I only wish I had a need for it, since this is the first cowl I've made in a while that actually stays up around my neck and keeps me warm!

Here's a close-up of the stitch pattern, which really shows off the prettiness of the colorway (which is Chispas, if you're wondering!):

The Thursday Three

Here's a quick snapshot of my 3 WIPs before I head down to Kansas City for the weekend:

Abalone Cardigan:  I'm closing in on this - not that you can tell by the photo!  You'll just have to take my word for it:  once I finish the sleeves, I just need to add a ribby border to the entire sweater.  Hoping to be done sometime next week, though I suppose a more realistic time frame is the end of this month. 

Wedge Socks:  These are pretty fast-knitting and addictive, but I haven't been working on them as much because I've been concentrating my nightly knitting efforts on sweater-finishing.  I'm guessing I'll have sock #1 finished somwhere en route to Kansas City with any luck.  Fun fact: these are my first socks knit with Knitter's Pride Cubics needles! 

Sideways Triangle Scarf:  I just wanted something easy to work on, and after cruising crochet patterns on Ravelry, I decided to strike out on my own and just do a simple little triangle scarf in double crochet.  The yarn is some super-soft MCN (is there any other kind?) that was dyed by a friend, and I'm basically going to keep going til I'm about halfway through the skein, then start decreasing to finish off the triangle.  Not rocket science, but it will be great to wrap up in this scarf during the blustery days of March.

I'm really looking forward to 7 hours of uninterrupted crafting time each way on the train.  I'll be taking all three of the above projects, plus something new* to start if I finish something above (or feel like cheating already on this three-at-a-time business).  This is the first time I'm traveling without Tyler, so the only thing I have to worry about it having an annoying seat mate for the entire trip.  Wish me luck!

*It's Malabrigo March!  Of course I have to start something for that!  I ended up talking myself into purchasing yarn and this exclusive cowl pattern from Doodlebug yarns. 
Join me (and enter "HBSBlog" for $5 off your order of Arroyo + the Riverside Cowl Pattern - does it get better than that?)!

Spotted in the Wild: Fun and Frolicsome FO's

Happy Malabrigo March!  Spring is in the air, but mostly because we never got a "real" winter here in Chicago (unless you count the five days it snowed, two of which happened to be on days I was trying to fly out of here).  It's been in the 30's and 40's, which is a frigging heat wave here this time of year.  At any rate, I wanted to share the latest crop of projects that have been recently completed by my fellow Ravelers!  It's always so fun to see what colors, yarns and patterns people have chosen, and this week's post features a few of my favorite designs!

First up, here's a cute little Kitchy Pleated Bag (you can find the pattern in Malabrigo Book 3), knit by chookgirl in Moda Vera Grand and Moda Vera Mousse.  I like the one fancy button hiding on the inside of the bag!

Also from Book 3, pk26 knit up a pair of the fastest socks in the west, the Quick Draw socks!  If that color looks familiar, that's because it's the very same one I used for the book model - Malabrigo Sock in Terracotta.  It's such a pretty colorway.  I'm a sucker for those hand-dyed shaded solids!

Speaking of gorgeous shaded solids, another pair of House of Mirrors fingerless gloves popped up recently, this one is knit by Roarke in The Wool Dispensary Useful Restorative in Georgia Building Castles. 

Finally, Mr. Nubbins has acquired a few new minions in the form of adorably tiny troublemakers.  Knit by Haldechick (who happens to sell some very cool stuff on etsy as well as blog up a storm in Snarkland), these tiny versions of your favorite critter (Mr. Nubbins defies definition!) will not only knit up quickly, but steal you heart.  In fact, if I ever have some free time, I'm planning on officially updating this pattern with notes and instructions on creating your own Mini Nubbins Army.  'Til then, check out Haldechick's notes on Ravelry (they're hilarious and helpful at the same time) and freestyle it! 

The kooky Mr. Nubbins pictured at right is knit in Tepper, a worsted-weight yarn from HaldeCraft HandDyed in the world's greatest colorway name:  Sock Monkey.  Yep, gonna have to get me some of THAT! 

Keeping Iris company below is a blue Mr. Nubbins who has been hitting the gym - or perhaps eating a LOT of spinach!  His teensiness is achieved by knitting on US #3 Needles with sock yarn doubled.  The yarn shown is HaldeCraft HandDyed Tiptree in One-Hit Wonder.  The project notes for this beefy Mr. Nubbins are also quite hilarious and worth checking out!

It's from Oregon!

After college, I moved out to Portland, Oregon with my boyfriend (also known as my now-husband, Tyler).  We lived there for three years, and while most of our time there was pretty difficult in the monetary/job sense, there were some really great things that imprinted on us - such as the importance of buying local.

At the best of times, Portland has a tight job market, and we moved there right as the economy started to tank (well, one of the many times, I suppose...but you get the idea).  We did somehow find jobs - not the greatest jobs, mind you, but jobs that paid money in exchange for us getting out of bed each day.  There were periods of unemployment for both of us and we were even on food stamps at one point....ironically, that was the best we'd ever eaten.  That's pretty much the Portland experience, I suppose.

But the emphasis on locally-produced foods, goods and services was an ethos that really grabbed us and stuck.  It hit the food world long before making waves in the world of yarn, but it's gaining steam and I can't help but wonder if it's driven by the harsh realities of our economy - much like when I lived in Portland.  Those living in the Pacific Northwest knew long before the rest of us that, in order to survive, they needed to be choosy with how they spent their hard-earned money, and that it was best to pump it back into the local economy.  We're finally catching up to them, I guess you could say. 

I've lived in Chicago for nearly 7 years now, but I still love to buy things that were made in Oregon.  Perhaps it's a bit of nostalgia, or maybe it's because my sister and her family are still there and this is my way of supporting them, albeit indirectly.  Or maybe it's just that there's some really interesting, unique things happening in that remote part of the country, and even though I don't live there any more, I still want to support it.

I should probably get to the point:  I'm a little obsessed with Imperial Stock Ranch.  I discovered their pencil roving a few years ago at Nina, and I'm finally getting around to spinning with it! I'm thinking the finished product will want to be a chunky cowl...time will tell.

I was fortunate to have spent some time chatting with Jeanne at the TNNA trade show in Columbus last summer, and not only are they environmentally-minded producers of sustainable yarn, they're nice people, too!  I can't wait to get my mitts on more pencil roving....and I'm definitely going to give The Wool Dispensary's Imperial Poison a try:  Imperial Stock Ranch yarn hand-dyed right here in Chicago!  Being a fan of Tanis Gray's recent book Knit Local, which profiles many homegrown producers of yarn (and of course, includes lots of fun new patterns, too), it's been fun exploring yarns that come from my home turf.  While I'll always love a good German sock yarn or an interesting import from England or New Zealand (or anywhere that makes yarn, really), it feels really good to support American-made yarns and fibers.

FO Friday

These socks have actually been done for a while - but I never got around to posting about them!  The yarn is some Trekking XXL I got in a yarn swap, and I used the stitch pattern from Judy Sumner's Kyoto legwarmer design from Knitted Socks East & West (if you're wondering how I adapted it for a fingering-weight yarn, I cast on 70 sts on US #1 needles, then used half of the stitches for the heel flap).  I think they turned out pretty well - the stitch pattern kept me interested in knitting them, but it's not too busy for the patterned yarn.

I made this hat in a couple of days, but still haven't found the time (!) to sew some cute buttons on the band.  I've determined that I need more hats in my winter arsenal, and when the Spring 2012 issue of Knitscene came out, I knew I'd have to make the adorably stripey East Falls Hat. 

I'm not typically one to knit the pattern in the specified yarn, much less the colors used in the model.  However, I've been dying to try Acadia from The Fibre Company for quite some time, and there just happened to be a sale at Nina over the weekend.   Since the stars aligned, I figured I should go for it and I picked up two skeins, casting on almost immediately as soon as I got home.  By the end of the next day, I had a (mostly) finished hat! I probably have enough left over to make an inverse version of this hat, too (I used Asparagus (MC) and Blue Heron (CC)).

I've seen some people complain about the slubby texture of this yarn on Ravelry, but for me, it's part of its charm.  The merino/alpaca/silk blend is super soft and perfect for striping.

Don't forget - if you click the links above to purchase Acadia online from Doodlebug Yarn, you can get $5 off your order by entering coupon code "HBSblog" - woo hoo!

Finally, I have finished my first crochet swatch.  All told, it's not too shabby - my favorite part is where you can tell everything clicks and I "get it" - i.e. there are no more unintentional decreases!  I used some leftover worsted-weight yarn I had on hand from Squoosh Fiber Arts (a day-glo orange color called Mr. Tangerine Man).  Next up: Double crochet! 

3 is the Number of Counting

I've decided that 3 is the ideal number of WIPs for me.  I'm not sure how I arrived at this conclusion, but at any rate, this is the number I will try to stick to in hopes of staving off unchecked startitis.
It seems like a long time since I've shared an actual knitting project - in progress or otherwise - so here's the lowdown on what's on the needles right now:

Project the First:
It's a secret!  This is a new design I've been thinking about (and quite possibly talking/blogging about, too) for quite some time.  I think I knit the prototype a year or two ago, and I am just not getting down to the business of deciphering my notes and putting them into something that resembles a knittable pattern.  This project is exciting for two reasons:  1) it's the first project I've cast on using my brand new Knitter's Pride needles!  2) I'm finally knitting with the two gorgeous skeins of Quince & Co. Chicadee Tyler got me for christmas (in *cough* 2010). 


Project the Second: 
Birthday hat!  I couldn't stand it any longer - the beautiful skein of Skein Tyler gifted me in November just has to be knitted up!  I've had my eye on the Pebbled Beanie from Weekend Hats, and it's knitting up beautifully.  Unfortunately, this isn't going to be a weekend hat for me.  I'm not sure who would be able to knit this pattern in just a few days' time, but I am not that person.  I'm bogged down by the tiny needles and the way they kick up my knitter's thumb; unfortunately, the pattern stitch is also a little slow (it's knit inside-out, which involves a lot of purling on top of a knitting-into-each-stitch-twice design feature), although I will say that it's easy to memorize.  All in all, this hat - whenever I finish it - will be gorgeous.  It's the perfect project for this colorway, and I know that I'll wear it all the time in all its cashmerino-y goodness. 

Project the Third:  
A sweater for me!  I blogged about this in December, and it's finally happening!  I cast on for the Abalone Cardigan using some Malabrigo Silky in Matisse Blue.  Man, it's a vibrant colorway!  Considering I mostly wear black, brown and gray in my day-to-day life (you know, when I actually get out of my pajamas), I find myself wondering if this is the right choice for a sweater for me.  I think it will be pretty, though, and I could probably stand to inject a little color into my wardrobe.  Perhaps it will be finished in time for the June TNNA show! The pattern is for a super-tiny-size, so I'll be doing some modifications that I'll try to post for future knitters to use as reference. 

It Doesn't Count if it's Not Knitting?
What you see pictured to the right is a rather pathetic first attempt at a gauge swatch; I am determined to re-learn crochet via Vicki Howell's Crochet Lab Craftsy Course.  Besides trying once more to master crochet so I can make adorable amigurumi toys, I'm also excited about trying out my brand-new ergonomic Knitter's Pride crochet hooks (sorry for the blatant product placement there, but I love trying anything labeled "ergonomic," apparently).  We'll see if it sticks this time!