Stash Enhancement and FOs

These goodies were the spoils of my one-stop LYS yarn crawl yesterday.

There's some Noro Silk Garden Sock (I hope I will like working on it since it's not the dreaded Kureyon) The yarn in the back is for my partner in a Ravelry exchange, she likes natural colors, and Araucania yarn. It's Ranco multi, and more mixed than in the photo. The Rowan cottons are destined to become super cute beach hats, and hopefully won't suck the life out of my finger tips. Now I just have to figure out the pattern to work it in the round. I'm not a fan of seaming.

*Speaking of seaming...Dianne and I were discussing on the drive up how some yarn shops offer finishing services, to seam up a sweater or what have you. One of Wooly's sales people was finishing someone's sweater as she manned the sidewalk sale table as a matter of fact. I hate to seam, but I am not sure I'd go as far as to have someone else finish it for me. I've never even done a pattern that requires a lot of seaming, so I have no reference. Thoughts, anyone?

The Noro Silk Garden Sock does look like 2 diffent yarns the way they're skeined, don't they? But they are the same. I love those "me" colors, and until I find a perfect pattern for them they will rest in the stash bin.

And now for some things I've finished recently, to prove I really do knit, and not just buy yarn. The first is a "so you think you can hat" (Ravelry link) based on a hat worn by Mia Michaels during one of the audition segments on SYTYCD. I loved that hat and really appreciated the girl who worked it up into a pattern for us. This one went to Sublynnminal Healing as my contribution for July, but I want to make another for me sometime. I used Filatura Di Crosa "Zara" 100% merino, and I love that yarn. It's so sproingy? The hat is meant to be slouchy, and it really is cute.

When we were in Tucson, Tamar and I visted a LYS there, and she asked me to knit her this shoulder scarf. She bought the yarn, and after we got home, I had some issues with the yarn suggested by the sales girl and the pattern. (which you can read about on my Ravelry project page if you're interested) but let's just say it worked out fine in the end, even though it cost me some $$$ and angst to complete the scarf. I used Schaefer Heather, and loved the feel of the finished scarf after blocking, it's so soft. I'd use Heather again if no one offers to buy it from my destash.

There are more projects on the needles, so I better publish this and get to at least one of them.

Finally, Some Knitting Content: FOs

As proof that there has been knitting being done around here, I've got some finished objects to share.

First, is the one I am most happy with, Branching Out is done, blocked, and I love the way it turned out. If I had worked on it exclusively I am pretty sure I could have memorized the chart. It's only 8 rows, and every other row is a purl row, so that's 4 that need memorizing. Kris, my FFBE secret pal, sent me the yarn and the pattern to make it, and said it would be a fun, fast knit. I agree, and will make another, someday. I've got some yarn in mind in my stash, but you know how it goes...so many patterns, so little time...

This is the Felted Bucket Bag I knitted and felted for my sister-in-law. I used Ella Rae Palermo, which was a joy to knit with. However, I used 6 skeins, and at $8 a skein it's not cheap. I haven't even bought the leather for the drawstring yet. My SIL wanted me to knit and felt her a bag, and she thinks that when she brings it to work "everybody will want one." I really don't want to sell my stuff, I'd rather give it away, but at that price, I'd rethink that idea. It felted up

really well, look at the size difference before and after! The pattern suggested to knit 35% higher than wide, which I did. The bottom was 15", and I knit the body for 20.5". I ran it through 2 cycles, each with a kettle of boiling water added because I don't think my water is hot enough. In retrospect, I could have probably gotten away with 1.5 cycles. I do like it, and hope my SIL will too.

I started another Delite hat for Kathryn's Mom this week, and finished it last night. In error, I knit for 6" rather than 5" before starting to decrease so it's a little bigger than Kat's, but I think it will be OK. I used my Interamerica Lavish Alpaca in cream, and did the ktbl stitch on the decrease rows to get a more uniform look all over. I don't know if it's a pattern error or not, but when I did Kat's, I just knit as the pattern said and it looked odd. Also, in the lace pattern, the last row adds 10 stitches to the 100 cast on, I wonder if the symbol key is wrong, because the decrease rows always left 10 stitches to knit at the end of a round. No matter, it's fine. If I make another, I'll do it differently and see how it goes. But again, there's more hat patterns out there I want to knit, so probably no "delite" for a long time.

Now, the only things I have OTN is Lotus Blossom Lace Shawl which has been on hiatus for a long time, and something for my Hot Cocoa Swap pal's blues buster. Oh, and a linen isle tank, but that's going to sit for a long time still. I think I will work on Lotus Blossom for a little bit in silence after writing these posts. If you hear a scream it will be me.