Procrastination Station

I don't want to do my work at the moment. It's the last day of Thanksgiving break and I am not looking forward to going back and doing that extremely stressful school thing. I have homework, but let us focus on more pleasant things.

Like yarn. Guess whose uncle took her to Loop yesterday? This lady, right here. He said that it was a "special birthday" and told me to go wild. Now, I find that sort of impossible to do (because if we're being honest here, I do have a bit of a guilt issue with spending lots of money, especially if it is other people's), but I think I got a good haul. Let's check it out!

Item #1: 4 skeins of Berrocco Vintage, which is 50% Acrylic, 40% Wool, 10% Nylon. It's destined to become my first knitted garment (that is, not a hat, scarf, or socks). I was thinking about doing St. James, which is the garment pictured on the right (photo from the project page on Ravelry, copyright belongs to Raveller thshizknit). I like the idea of this shirt because it's got good waist shaping, and if I don't have waist shaping I look like a giant blob in between my boobs and my hips. Trying to clothes shop can be a nightmare, because things have to have room for my rack and also be small enough to fit. I am not a tiny human, but small enough that finding clothing in the Women's section is a trial. And of course, junior's doesn't have ample boob n' hip room. Besides being bespangled with sparkly shit. No, I don't want pants that say "Princess" on the ass in rhinestones. Thanks. Well, to recover from my tangent, I'm not sure if I'd do the tie, although it is cute. I'm just not sure if it's me. One option might be to do it after the shirt is done and keep it detachable.

Second up is a skein of Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton:

My dear uncle who took me liked it and so asked me to get a skein to knit him a hat. I prefer to knit in wool, but uncle is vegan and eschews animal products when possible. He also liked that it's an organic cotton. He wasn't feeling acrylic, so this is it. It's really soft, though.

Next, we have two skeins of Ella Rae Classic Superwash:

The one here is tan, and not so yellowy as the photo makes it seem. It's for a colorwork portion of a hat I intend to knit for Boyfriend. The color was his choice. He wanted a tan color for some reason or another.


The other is a bright teal that Little Brother picked out. Yes, his color taste is not the most sophisticated (if you'll remember, he's the same one who wanted the orange hat with red snowflakes. I couldn't get him to agree to at least try and match this color to that monstrosity.) but hey, I like the color in a vaccuum, even if it is a bit "minty fresh." He wants gloves. The yarn is good for this because it's superwash and no 16 year old boy wants to handwash his gloves. The yarn is ok, although it's a tad rough on my tensioning finger. It's the same stuff I'm knitting my Meret in right now.

Next up is a skein of Madeline Tosh tosh worsted. It's a bit spendy, but the color! I die!

Now you look at that and tell me that you wouldn't have done the same thing. The colorway is "Nikko Blue" aka "Freaking Gorgeous Blue." I'm thinking a cowl, hat, or something else worn close to the face. That blue will not be ignored.

Next (why yes, there is even more!) is three skeins of Malabrigo. I wanted one or two going in, but threw on a third on a whim.

 

The colors got a little wonked out between shopping this up and uploading it, but it's a decent approximation. From left to right we have Azul Bolita, Burgundy, and Orchid. Burgundy is for Boyfriend's hat (along with the tan from earlier), while Azul Bolita and Orchid are ALL MINE! MWAHAHAHA.

Or not. I mean, they are for me, but I don't know if you could do many nefarious things with Malabrigo. I'm thinking another hat for the Azul, maybe mixed in with some Orchid. Can you guess which one was thrown in on a whim? If you guessed Orchid, you'd be correct. It's so pretty.

I also got a set of size seven DPNs (Crystal Palace, bamboo), a 26 inch size eight circ (also Crystal Palace, also bamboo) and a 26 inch size 10.5 circ (ditto). I got a 9 inch Hiya Hiya size zero, too, for shits and giggles. I thought this might be the time to try it out. And that's a lot of bamboo, but it was that or plastic, if I didn't want to spend a billion dollars on needles. The rest are rosewood and Addis (which, speaking frankly, I think are a rip-off. No way are they worth that much. It's ridiculous), which are not what I want. I successfully resisted some gorgeous Lorna's Laces Shepard Worsted. It was is the Winona colorway, and it looked like a sunrise. I also resisted Mal Sock, because I don't even like knitting socks that much. It was beautiful, but impractical. I have plenty of sock yarn for the time being. So it was a good day.

I'll leave you with a bonus photo of the Kypria that Lina from photo.knit.dog sent me:

Finished! And New Yarn!

HI. I'm a little jazzed today because there are some good things going on in my knitterly world.

First, I finished my hat! And I absolutely adore it. I've made a lot of things (relatively; 25ish projects in less than a year of knitting) and I don't think I've loved anything quite as much as I love this hat. It's something I will actually wear, and it doesn't look especially homemade, at least I don't think. There's a picture on the right. Sorry about the longness, but I wanted to get the super-awesome tassels in, too. And yeah, there's an un-weaved in end there, but that's been remedied by now. I would get a modelled shot, but the model would have to be camera-shy me. Plus I have a giant zit right now, so it was more work than it was worth. Maybe someday. So, I learned a few things in the course of this project. First, and most obviously, colorwork. Up until this project, I had never done any, not even stripes. So I dived into the pool all at once, so to say. And I am so damn glad I did, because it was fun. Second would be English knitting. I did the two handed method, and my right hand was noticeably better by the end of the chart. Which brings us to: chart reading. This was my first project with a chart. It was a lot easier than the other charts I've seen, mostly because it was colors, I think. There were no weird symbols involved, no slanty lines. I've never been a visual learner, really. I also made tassels for the first time. They aren't perfect, but they're nice enough. It took two times to get these, and I think they're good enough. And last, pompoms! I wasn't sure if I wanted to put one on top (thought it might be too cutesy) but the top was wonky and it would cover the hole that you always get. Plus, a friend of mine said, quote, "That hat is screaming for a pompom." So I decided to stick it on there. I didn't do it the "right" way because I am too lazy to cut out cardboard circles. I wrapped the yarn around 3 fingers and did it that way. Simple. I modded the top decreases: Did two rows of decreases in a row, then a knit row, and on until I hit 28 stitches. Then I k2tog for two rounds. Simply put:

*k14, k2tog* around
*k13, k2tog* around
Knit
*k12, k2tog* around
*k11, k2tog* around
Knit

And so on, until you have 28 stitches left, and then do two rounds of k2tog.

My little brother, age 17, pronounced that the pompom made the hat sexy and that he would be a sex machine if he had one like it. He offered to buy it off of me (how strange!) and I told him I'd knit him one. Why he didn't just ask I will never know. So yeah, the hat is done, and I adore it. Both little brothers and my mother want one like it now. Usually I'd refuse, but I really liked knitting it, so I will. I also know that they would all walk around exclaiming about how their sister/daughter knitted it and isn't it cool, so I'll do it, surely. Kevin (little brother numero uno, seventeen years, eighteen in February) wants it in garish and clashing colors and a sparkly pink pompom. Silly boy. Chris (little brother numero dos, sixteen years) wants an orange one with black snowflakes. It's going to be Halloween all year, I guess. Mom hasn't decided on a color, so I'll probably just use some half-skeins I have lying around for her.

Okay, so now I've effectively written a damned novel on a hat, we'll move on. Went with the Little Brothers, the Boyfriend and the Uncle to the city yesterday. Uncle Cal and us have a long standing tradition of going to the city or somewhere else and have a little shopping spree. Uncle Cal isn't married, and has no kids, so he likes to spoil us a little sometimes. He is really awesome, both as a uncle and as a person, so we all absolutely adore spending time with him. Anywho, so we were on South Street, as is our wont, and of course I had to stop at a yarn shop. Loop would have been my preference, but it's very out of the way from the main of South Street, and I wasn't about to have everyone trudge down the street for 30-45 minutes in the rain. So we went to Nangellini. Don't get me wrong, I like Nangellini, I just sort of wanted to get a workhorse yarn, and Loop is better at "normal" yarns in solid colors. But I wasn't about to let that stop me. I got three skeins/hanks/thingies of yarn. First was a skein of Frabjous Fibers recycled sari silk. This is not normally the kind of yarn that I would purchase, but Uncle Cal was very intrigued by both the idea and the execution. He really liked the fact that it was spun by a woman's cooperative. Did I mention that he's a bit of a hippie? So, he heartily approved the splurge it was. The color is just beautiful. I can't really capture it with the camera. It's very saturated and just extremely beautiful. The second was a hank of fingering weight merino. It's from Kraemer yarns, in a 450 yard put up. The label just says "Superwash Merino Wool," so I think it's their Lesley yarn, as opposed to Jeannie. The 450 yard put up seems to be unusual, though. It's from their undeyed collection, and I'm looking forward to trying my hand and Kool-Aid dyeing. It's lovely and soft. And last, I picked up some Noro Kureyon. I know it's sort of a yarn du jour, well trodden path, etc. But a lot of times, things are popular for a reason. I know to expect that it's scratchy, but the color is just so lovely. I got colorway 40, "aqua teal." I'm thinking of using it in some colorwork with a solid. It will both look lovely and stretch the one skein farther. It is, in a word, gorgeous. I love the color. Mix it with a white or a black, maybe? It would look lovely against a neutral like that.

Oh, and my Aunt Grace gave me some of her old needles. They're all straight needles, and seem to be 14 inchers. 9 pairs of bamboo, different sizes, and two pair of metal ones. They're certainly more than a few years old but should serve me well.

*ahem* So, as you can see, there's been a lot of knitterly activity here. Or, maybe not a lot of activity, but there's sure as hell a lot of enthusiasm. I've also been listening to Florence + The Machine on repeat since last night, and am enjoying the crap out of it. If you got this far, congradu-freaking-lations, and thanks. I don't think I would read my own verbal diarrhea if I were someone else. Sometimes I just get a little over enthusiastic.

Yarn Trek

So, I took Boyfriend on a yarn store excursion yesterday, and it was so much fun! I imagine that most of you know that I live in Philadelphia (close enough), so this was a Philly-fied yarning day.

First, we stopped at Reading Terminal Market. Anyone who has been there knows how awesome it is. Full of all different food stands and yummy treats. This was me basically throwing a bone to Boyfriend. He loves to cook and learn about food, and going to the Market was a nice thank you for coming with me to the yarn stores.

So, after chowing down on some General Tso's chicken and wonton soup, we set a trail for Nangellini. This was my first time in the store, and it was a pleasant one. It specializes in novelty yarns, but there were some more conventional ones too. They also have paintings and finished knit or crocheted objects to buy. They seem to really be the epitome of the "new vanguard" of fiber art: young, hip, and alternative. The owner has some awesome crazy colored hair, and the entire shop seemed very young, if you catch my meaning. The sales people were helpful but not overbearing, and the atmosphere, all in all, was welcoming and slightly kooky. As for the yarns, there were a lot of yarns where I just looked and said "wtf?" But that's the point of novelty yarn, isn't it? They also had more traditional wools and Noro, some mohair and silk (Debbie Bliss, I think, wonderfully soft stuff). But what they pride themselves on, as far as I can tell, is their recycled silk. Basically, from what I understand, it is taken from sari mill ends in India, where women spin it into yarn. It's irregular and sort of fuzzy, but the colors were breathtaking. Such vibrancy! Lemme see if I can find a photo...

There we are. Although I can't say that the photo does justice to the color. It's gorge. It's about $14 for a 100 gm, 100 yard skein, which didn't seem too bad. Since I'm a wimp, I picked up a conventional yarn, Elizabeth Austen Andes. The color was Boyfriend's choice. Although it's not the most exciting yarn, the color is pretty and the price was right. It was in the half-off bin, so it cost me about $5. Not sure what I'll do with it, though. I was thinking maybe a pair of hobo style mittens for the Boyfriend, since he loved the color so much.

Next, it was off to Sophie's Yarns. This is easily the most chill yarn shop I have ever visited. They had just gotten a new order in, and the owner (Jennifer?) was sitting on the floor, putting yarn on the shelves. She excused the mess and explained that she had decided to have some pancakes instead of going into work early. Can't fault her for that, I would have done the same thing. The atmosphere was really friendly and chatty. We talked about shawls, Susan Bates sock needles, schools and yarn, among others. At one point, she asked us if we minded if she brought the cat in. Of course we didn't, so we were treated to a friendly, sweet, and exceedingly soft cat. She even allowed us in the back to check out the yarn still in the boxes! The selection was quite nice, being mostly workhorse yarns. There was a big selection of Ella Rae Classic and Happy Feet DK, along with a lot of Plymouth Tweed. A lot of Tweed. There was also a decent amount of Noro. It was all gorgeous. I ended up getting a skein of Araucania Nature Wool Chunky out of the $6 bin:
Holy crappy picture, Batman! Sorry about that. It's really a lovely olive, almost military green. I'm thinking a hat.

Last but not least, we went to Loop. From what I understand, this is the most well known and well established yarn store in the area. The atmosphere is more businesslike, although the salespeople were friendly and there was a knitting circle starting. The selection is out of this world, but definitely skews towards higher end yarns. It's organized neatly and nicely, and the shop itself is lovely. I walked away triumphant with what I had come to the city for:
Malabrigo. Hot damn does this stuff feel soft. If you don't remember, it's for the Pauline I want to make. I think the sophisticated color will offset the possible childishness of a bonnet. I don't usually pay $12 for a skein of yarn, but this stuff is very soft, and I figure it's a learning experience. I mean, there's got to be a reason so many people love this stuff.

So, thus ends my mini yarn shop review of Philadelphia. I haven't been to Rosie's Yarn Cellar yet, but I shall make that trip someday. In conclusion, go to Nangellini if you like funky yarns in a funky shop, Sophie's if you like a chill atmosphere and affordable workhorse yarns, and Loop if you're pulling in the expensive yarn big guns. They're all great in their own way, and you really can't lose.