I am possessed. Possessed!

Something took control of my mind, my body (and my credit card) and is making me buy yarn, yarn, and more yarn.



I received this new pretty this morning. BMFA Socks that Rock lightweight in 24 Karat. I was planning on using it for my yellow Nancy Bush mystery sock, but I'll be using the Tanis Fiber Arts I got last week instead. So STR will become something else, later.

Oh and I did order from Knitpicks. A new set of DPNs to replace the ones that have mysteriously disappeared, SIX different colours of sock yarn and three skeins of Palette in three different colours for a pair of mittens I want to make.

I ordered last night and got an email this morning saying it's shipped already! Talk about quick!

I'm enjoying all the shopping, but it's enough now. I need to stop the madness. No more sock yarn purchases until I have knit seven pairs. I think I can do it. I already have one on the needles. After that, only six more to go! ;)

I did it!

Two socks on two circs!



I finally figured it out! It took me a while to get used to the technique, but all is well now and I'm happily knitting. I was also pleased to notice that the yarn is not pooling (so far), it's striping! They're not neat stripes like the ones you get with self-striping yarn, they're more like zebra-stripes, and who knows if it'll keep doing that for the whole socks, but right now I'm happy with the way they're coming out.

I think I deserve a little reward for trying again after my first failed attempt, don't you think? Yeah, I thought so too.



Tanis Fibert Arts fingering weight in Buttercup. I know, I know, I actually ordered yellow yarn from BMFA for the Nancy Bush yellow mystery sock (I'm still waiting for it btw), but I couldn't resist. I kept thinking about it, which is proof that I needed it, right?

I'm in a stash enhancement kind of mood, especially since I got rid of a lot of old acrylic I knew I'd never use. So now I have SPACE! And I need to fill it. With yarn. Lots of yarn.

I have a big order (well big for me) in my Knitpicks cart, I just need to make up my mind and press the order button... I'm sure I will, eventually.

I want to drown in sock yarn

I've been in a weird kind of knitting mood these past couple of days (any non-knitter who accidentally stumbled upon my blog probably just left after reading that first sentence).

When I finished my Froot Loop socks, I thought it would be a good idea to work on an UFO so I picked up my Montego Bay scarf, which is a great project for summer knitting since the silk is so light. BUT... I'm just not feeling it. I think the yarn is pretty, but I'm not liking the scarf too much. Granted, I only have a little more than a foot done, and I do think it has the potential to become a very pretty scarf, so I don't want to frog it. But meh. I'm on vacation, I should knit whatever I want!

Problem is, I don't know what I want! I'm really looking forward to the September challenge in the Sock Knitters Anonymous group (Nancy Bush mystery sock!!!), but we're not September yet and I still haven't received my yellow sock yarn (it was sent on Monday so hopefully I'll have it soon). I almost bought a beautiful skein of Tanis Fiber Art in yellow the other day, but I figured I'd wait for what I ordered.

I finally cast on for a pair of Merletto mitts, using homespun yarn that I got as a gift. Let's just say that after a lot of frustration (and yarn that kept on breaking and breaking), I ended up throwing the yarn in the trash. Yeah, I know, I'm bad, I threw away yarn...

After that, I decided I'd knit a pair of plain vanilla socks and I thought it would be cool to use the 2 socks on 2 circs method. I've tried it before, thanks to Karine who helped me figure out how to cast on. Unfortunately, that was a couple of years ago and last night, I just couldn't do it, even though I had the instructions in front of me. It was very frustrating. I ended up casting on using DPNs, but after a few rows, I realized they'd be too small so I frogged. I'll start again later today and *maybe* I will try the 2 socks on 2 circs method again, who knows. I'm using this btw:



I also want to start the Shifting sands scarf (that may or may not become a Christmas gift for my mom) and a pair of Postwar mittens soon.

Oh and I bought Cookie A.'s book!



OMG. I seriously want to knit every single pair of socks in that book. They're just beautiful. I bought it just before watching Julie & Julia, and it really made me want to start a project of knitting all the socks in the book in a year. But then I thought I'm participating in enough challenges as it is. But I do want to knit socks from the book soon.

I'm feeling chatty today. I think this is my longest post ever (ok maybe not, but it feels long. I hope I'm not boring anyone).

When I decided to use DPNs for my plain vanilla socks last night, I thought it would be a good thing to try my Harmony DPNs, since I hadn't had the chance to try them yet. Well guess what? I couldn't find them! I looked everywhere and they are nowhere to be found. I'm so pissed!

But I went through my modest stash while looking for them and it made me realize that I really have a lot of yarn that I'll just never use. Mostly acrylic that I got when I was a brand new knitter. Now I already have a plan to go through my closet sometime next week and get rid of everything that doesn't fit and that I don't like. And I decided I'll do the same with the stash. I don't have much, so it won't be a lot, but it'll be nice to get rid of some stuff that just take some space and that just end up making me feel guilty. We are giving everything to Le chaînon by the way, so we're not trashing anything.

Of course, giving yarn aways means that I'll have some room in my stash... ;) I was on Knitpicks earlier and thought I really should replace those Harmony needles. And then, last thing I knew, some sock yarn jumped in my cart, as well as some Palette yarn for mittens... Eeek! I haven't bought anything yet, it's just all there, sitting in my cart, tempting me. I really do need solid yarn for all the socks I plan to knit, you know...

(Expect a yarn porn post in the next couple of weeks...)

Oh the joy!

I am on vacation Ladies and Gentlemen! I'm just beginning today two weeks of pure bliss, of days filled with nothing but knitting, reading, cooking and... nothing! We have a little trip to Quebec city coming up, but other than that, not much is planned. Chris is going to a bachelor party (no, not his own!) on Saturday and I think I'll spend that day at my mom's. Hopefully, it will still be sunny and I'll get to swim in her pool.

I figured there would be no better way to start my vacation than with a FO, so here you go:



Pattern:Froot Loop by Kristi Geraci (Ravelry Page)
Yarn: Lotus Yarn sock club exclusives. Colourway: Dookie (in honor of the Green Day album of the same name)
Needles: 2.25 mm DPNs
Modifications: None

Yarn jumping in my cart

So it seems I haven't updated since July 22! Yikes! I'd like to blame it on summer, but we've had such bad weather these past few months that I've spent more time inside in front of the computer than I care to admit. I don't know why I haven't been posting. I have been knitting, that's for sure. And shopping.

Every knitter who knows me knows that I don't have a big yarn stash (but Chris would beg to differ). I like to buy yarn, but I don't like having too much. I know this is going to sound weird, but I feel like I can't be creative when I have too much yarn. Whenever I want to start a new project, I feel forced to use the yarn I have. And even when I don't have a project in mind, I feel like I should really try to find patterns to go with the yarn I already have. So I end up not always knitting what I feel like, I'm just knitting to use up the stash, know what I mean? Whereas when I don't have a lot of yarn, I can just pick whatever pattern I choose and go to the yarn store to buy what I need without feeling guilty.

Oh and also, I don't have that much space for a huge yarn stash.

That being said, I've been shopping anyways. It all started when I decided to order blocking mats from Knitpicks. I just didn't want to order from them without getting some yarn too. And since I was in a lace mood, I got a skein of lace yarn.


Knitpicks Gloss lace in Fiesta. Sorry about the blurry pic, I only realized it was blurry once I got it on my computer.

While I was on the site, I looked at the sock yarn and also decided to get this:


Knitpicks Essential Multi (now known as Stoll Multi) in Tucson. Unfortunately, when I bought it, I thought it would stripe. It turns out it pools (at least that's what it looks like on the Ravelry pics). The colours are still pretty though.

A week or two later, I was looking for yarn for a scarf I want to make soon. So I got this from Robyn's Nest:


Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Dark Earth. Sorry again for the blurry pic. Ordered it on a Sunday night, had it in my mailbox on Tuesday morning! Or was it Wednesday? Anyways, it was the quickest transaction ever.

There's more.

I'm a member of the Sock Knitters Anonymous group on Ravelry and I decided I wanted to participate in their Sockdown challenge this year (See the group page for info). I figured I'd challenge myself even more by trying to use yarn from my little sock yarn stash at least for the first few months of the challenge (I had told myself when I started my Froot Loop socks that I'd need to knit 5 pairs before I bought any more sock yarn).

But then I found out the Mystery sock designer for September (first month of the challenge) is Nancy Bush... And that the socks would have to be knit in yellow (solid or semi-solid) to count. I didn't have any yellow in my stash, but dude! A mystery sock by Nancy Bush!

So it looks like I'll soon be the proud owner of a skein of Socks that Rock in 24 carat. I didn't have a choice. The yarn jumped in my cart.