yarntherapy

happy in a box

I woke up to a delivery of yarny goodness today:

Mmmm, Knitpicks. That's Andean Silk in Bluebell, and Shine Worsted in Watermelon and Cream.  The Andean Silk is for the cover scarf from VK Holiday issue - am I nuts, Lauren? Heh. It's going to be a Christmas gift for my friend Kate, and I'm really pleased with the color and softness of this yarn. It's the first time I've purchased Andean Silk, and now I know why it's such a popular substitute for so many pricier yarns.

The Shine is for a couple of the baby kimonos from Mason-Dixon. My friend Kathleen is on of those annoying moms-to-be who don't want to know the gender of their child before its born, which only makes the knitting harder for the rest of us! I'm hoping these will be appropriately gender-neutral, but the watermelon might be slightly girly, I was hoping it would be more red. Oh well, the baby won't know the difference, right?

I've been knitting along on the Glampyre sweater:

Lace closeup:

It's really pretty, y'all. I can't wait until it's done. I hope I have enough yarn - there are some reports on craftster of folks running out of the Tilli Tomas. I'm making the medium, and I guess I always have the option to make the short sleeved version if I do run out.

I do have to say that the Disco Lights is FULL of knots. Like, 6 or 7 in the one skein I've used so far. I guess that's due to the nature of having the sequins carried along on thread, but still - for forty bucks a pop, I expected a little better quality control. It's fun to knit with, though - the sequins are so tiny and cute and shiny! I'm hoping to wear it when I host Thanksgiving dinner for the second time in a row. (yipes!)

Thanks to Michael cleaning out his shelves, my fabric stash is growing:

I reeeeally need to organize my workspace. I have a cute idea for Christmas gifts for my coworkers, but I'm going to need to have a nice, efficient system to get it all done in time. And my work area right now? Not so efficient. I'll spare you a photo - it's far too depressing.

ow ow ow...

Blech. Cramps. Why oh why hasn't human evolution gotten to the point where cramps just don't happen? Why is this biologically necessary? Oowwwwwww....

Anyway, still knitting. Or I should say, knitting again because what I did yesterday was very carefully rip out ten rows of the Glampyre sweater due to a missed increase. Boring. Still loving the yarn and the needles, though! And the pattern is pretty fun, for a mostly stockinette thing. The lace bits should provide a nice bit of distraction, though I'm not looking forward to the sleeves - lace on size 2 DPNS using sequin yarn. Recipe for disaster right there, dudes.

Inspired by my friend Michael (of  Olympic afghan fame) who also makes amazing quilts, I've decided I want to make a quilt. I'm trying to get some sort of actual color scheme going in my living room. I found a gorgeous room in the June issue of BBC Good Homes, all sand and sea colors, neutrals spiked with aqua and turquoise. So I've been carryin around that page in my bag for a while and I've been accumulating fabrics:

There's my stash so far.....I don't really know what I'm going to do yet, and I think I want to find some darker beige/browns to balance the deep turquoise stuff. We'll see.....like I need another time-consuming hobby!