Stop, stash time!

A friend of mine (non-knitter) recently asked me to post pics of my stash in a Facebook group I'm in. So I did. I always like to do this exercise because it allows me to see just how much I have.

It's really not that bad, compared to many, but it feels like a lot. Probably because it would take me over five years to knit it all...

(The pics are beyond bad, I just quickly took snapshots, in bad light too)

A post with yarn is always a good one

Ok so I mentionned in my last post that I wanted to knit from stash for most of the year. That means no yarn porn for a while... after today! Because I did get some new yarn this past month, I just haven't posted about it until now.

First, instead of buying anything at Knit Picks' Cyber Monday sale (where nothing I wanted was even on sale), I treated myself to two skeins of Wollmeise sock yarn. I had been wanting to try it for a while, but as you all know, they're not easy to get. Someone on Ravelry posted that there was still some two-skeins grab bags available and I thought "Why not?" I had no idea which colours I would get, but I knew I would have no problem selling them if I didn't like them so I wasn't too worried.

But it turns out, I LOVE them both. The first one wasn't easy to photograph:



It's a very dark green and it's absolutely beautiful. I'm not sure yet which pattern I could use to show it off, because dark yarns like that tend to hide patterns a bit. I'm keeping my eyes open for the perfect combination.



The second skein is soooooooooo pretty, I like it even more than the first one. I think I'll have an easier time finding a pattern for it.

The following yarns I received from my mom at Christmas. She made a big Knit Picks order in November and gave me some for my birthday (I already posted pics of them) and the rest on Christmas Day. I'm very happy I got some bulky because it's something I rarely buy and lately I've been dreaming of big hats and scarves.



I got three skeins of Biggo (Knit Picks' new bulky line) in Haze Heather. It's very very soft. I'm currently knitting a hat with it (so you should see a FO soon) and I like it a lot. I can see myself ordering more of this (you know, when I'm allowed to buy yarn again).



Wool of the Andes Bulky in Cadet. I have a cowl in mind for it, but I'm not 100 % sure yet.



Aaaaah, my beloved Stroll Tonal, and in Blue Violet, the one colour I was hoping would be on sale on CyberMonday. It's beautiful of course and it goes in my Tonal Collection (I'm obsessed I'm telling you). I think my biggest challenge this year will be resisting the new colours of Tonal when they get released, as well as some of the backordered colours I've been coveting. Oh well. I CAN live without them.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I must be the worst blogger ever! I completely skipped November and haven't posted a thing since mid-October! In my defense, Autumn has been crazy here. My son's been sick on and off with colds and various viruses for the past few months and he completely stopped sleeping through the night. His sleeping habits have gotten worse and worse and let's just say this mommy is exhausted. Things have been rough. But I can't be mad at this face, can I?



In other news, I finished something. I wanted to make a very special stocking for Julien's first Christmas.



Pattern: A New Baby's Christmas Stocking, by Dorene Delaney Giordano
Yarn: Knit Picks Telemark in Drift and Bayberry
Needles: US 2½ - 3.0 mm circulars (magic loop)
Notes: I love the FO but I really hate knitting toe-ups. I have to get used to it though as I plan to knit two more (one for Chris and one for me) in the future (not for this Christmas though).

In other news, I have to go on a yarn diet. My stash doesn't make me happy anymore. I have enough yarn to last me for years and years and everytime I buy more I feel I should really knit what I have first. I have lots of beautiful yarn and I hate that I'm not using it because I keep buying more. I got two birthday skeins coming in the mail but I'm hoping to stop buying at least until next Fall. We'll see.

That being said, even if I'm not buying, I can't help it if people buy me things. My mom got me a nice little Knit Picks package for my birthday.



She got me a skein of Stroll Handpainted in Watermelon:



Two skeins of Felici in Firefighter:



And four skeins of City Tweed DK in Rhubarb:



I had never tried City Tweed and I couldn't believe how soft it is. I always expect tweedy yarns to be a bit rough for some reason, but this is like butter. I really like it.

I also got two circular needles (sizes 0 and 1) and a book, but I'll talk about it more in a future post. Gotta go now!

My Precious!

I received Knit Picks order #1!!!



Yum yum yum! I love everything I got. If you want the details, I got some Stroll Tonal in Summer Blooms, Blue Yonder, Queen Anne and Foliage, a skein of Stroll Hand Painted in Juice Box, two skeins of Stroll in Majestic (a discontinued colour) and one in Wonderland Heather (I wanted two, I made a mistake when I ordered!), three skeins each of Telemark in Bayberry and Drift.

I also got some size 7 16" fixed circulars, size 1 32" fixed circulars (for magic loop for socks!) and some size 7 tips for my interchangeable set.

I had never ordered the Telemark before and I gotta say, the yarn is rough! Definitely not something I'd wear next to the skin, but I want to use it for a Christmas stocking for Julien so it's perfect.

Here are some close-up of my favourites:


Stroll Tonal Blue Yonder


Stroll Tonal Summer Blooms


Stroll Tonal Queen Anne


Stroll Tonal Foliage


Stroll Hand Painted in Juice Box

Yarn and FO

This is going to be a fun post! First, I have a brand new FO!



Pattern: Wayna Picchu Earflap Hat, by Nichole Reese
Size: M (1-3 years old)
Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll Sport in Winter Night (MC) and Mink Heather (CC)
Needles: US 5 - 3.75 mm circular needles (I tried magic loop for the first time!)
Mods: I did a regular cast-on and I didn't do the crochet finishing thing because I can't crochet to save my life. Because of that, the hat curls a little but it's not too bad and I still like it.

Julien seems to like it much more than the pumpkin hat I made him. I absolutely love this pattern and I've already started another one, reversing the MC and CC.



Ok and now the yarn porn. As most of you must know, Ariadne will be closing its door (I believe it'll be this week actually). I'm very sad about that because I loved the store. But of course, now there's a closing sale going on and I just had to go check it out. I went a couple of weeks ago and I was pretty reasonnable. I got:


Six skeins of Cascade 220 Heathers in whatever this colour is.


Four skeins of Reynolds Soft Sea Wool in brown.

Then I got home and kept thinking I should have gotten the purple Cascade 220 also. So I went back last week and got:


Three skeins of Cascade 220 in purple.


Two skeins of Cascade 220 in blue.

Of course, now I keep thinking I should have also bought the green, but oh well. I gotta leave some for others. :)

Ooops I did it again...

Ok so you all know I have a Knit Picks addiction, right? I know some people don't like their yarn, but I love them and I love their prices. And their needles too.

I'm usually pretty reasonnable though and I order from them maybe twice a year. You may remember I ordered some of their Palette yarn recently, just before the price increased. Well, I did it again and made another order a couple of weeks ago.

See, I got this code in my emails for 10 $ off a set of Zephyr interchangeables. I already have the nickel plated set, but I wanted to buy a second set and I like the Zephyr tips sooo... I just couldn't say no to 10 $ off. And of course, if I'm going to order, I'm going to add some yarn.



I got some Wool of the Andes in Pumpkin and Forrest Heather for a Pumpkin Hat. Some Wool of the Andes in Cloud and Cobblestone Heather to make Christmas Gnomes (I'll also use some WOTA in Cranberry that I already have). I bought a few skeins of Stroll Sport (in Mink Heather, Wave Heather and Winter Night) for hats. And a skein of Stroll Tonal in Gypsy, just because.

Can I say just how much I love (LOVE) the Stroll Tonal? I have three colours so far, but Gypsy is definitely my favourite. It's beautiful!

Pretty!

Someone in the Knit Picks group on Ravelry organized a "Palette sampler coop" recently and I decided to buy a share, since Knit Picks doesn't offer colour cards anymore. Since the price of Palette has gone up, I'll want to be sure I really like the colours I'll order in the future and now I have a sample of every colour offered. I love my mini-skeins, they're so pretty!

Yaaaaaarn!

I received my Knit Picks order and it is yummy!



Lots of Palette = a lot of mittens! I'm glad I was able to get that much while the price was still low. I tried to get a good mix of neutrals and of colours so that I have choices when I pick colourwork patterns.

I also got two skeins of Imagination in Looking Glass.

Now I just need to find the time to actually use all that yarn!

Tiny little hat

Pregnancy status: 38 weeks pregnant and I don't think baby is coming soon. I have a feeling it'll be a couple of weeks still. I'm ok with this. I'm not too uncomfortable, I can still sleep and I know my life will change completely once he's here so I'm appreciating these last moments by myself and with Chris.

Thanks to maternity leave, I have plenty of time to knit so I have another FO.



Pattern: Munchkin Hat, by Jeannie Kubricht
Yarn: Dale of Norway/Dalegarn Baby Ull (it's a fingering weight, I held it doubled).
Needles: US 8/5 mm DPNs
Notes: What a quick knit! I knit the whole hat in a day and didn't feel like doing the twisted cord + pompom then so I made them the day after, but I really could have completed the whole project in a day. I wish I had made it longer though. I plan on using the hat for pics only.

Knitting the hat isn't the only thing I did last Sunday. I also went to Espace Tricot, a LYS that is pretty close to my house. There, I met with Tara, whom I hadn't seen in like a year. It was super nice to see her again, plus she had brought this for me:



Knit Picks Shimmer in Maple Leaf! You know what that means? I can finally finish...



The Blob! Aka my Icarus shawl, that I had set aside after I had ran out of yarn in November. Weeeeee! I'm very happy about that, since I only had a few (long!) rows left. Thank you so much Tara!

Oh yeah, and since I was at Espace Tricot, I just couldn't leave without buying a little something. Other than some DPNs, I left with these:



Two skeins of Berroco Vintage. I was actually looking for yarn to make a little newborn sweater. I first picked some Cascade 220 in a cute heathered blue, but then changed my mind and went for the orange. I hesitated, because it's only 40% wool and the rest is acrylic and nylon, but it's super soft and machine washable, so it won in the end.

But then I got home and I realized that I just didn't feel like knitting a baby sweater. Does that make me a bad mom already? Or just a selfish knitter? I just felt like the yarn wanted to be a scarf. So last night I cast on for an Infinitude scarf.

The luckiest

Sometimes I just feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

I had a wonderful year. I realized my dream of getting pregnant and I've had a pretty uneventful pregnancy. Gestational diabetes suck but I'm able to control it pretty well with diet alone so I really can't complain. I'm currently 33 weeks pregnant and I'm not tired of being pregnant yet. I am, however, tired of going to work every morning. Only two weeks left to go!

This morning I went out for breakfast at Benedicts, a nice breakfast restaurant (that also has good lunch and dinner options too), in wonderful company (one of my best friends, her boyfriend and their brand new baby boy). And she gave me the most wonderful gift: she asked me to be her baby's godmother. I'm so happy and touched. And her baby is sooo cute!

I'm also lucky to have a great man in my life who is going to be a wonderful father. Now I love him for many reasons, he's smart and funny and sexy and handsome of course. And also, he got me yarn for Christmas!



A little before Christmas, I sent him my Knit Picks wishlist and told him if he didn't know what to get me, I'd be happy with anything on it. We didn't talk about it after that.

He ended up giving me earrings for Christmas and I was thrilled (I love them). But then a few days after Christmas, I got a package from KnitPicks! It had four skeins of the yarn pictured above, which is Imagination in the Seven Dwarves colourway.

I'm thinking of maybe pairing it with something else to make the Chevron scarf. At first I thought a black yarn would work, but then I saw this version, which uses the Seven Dwarves paired with another Imagination colourway (Looking glass). I really like it though I'd make mine so the Seven Dwarves is the dominant colour.

Oh and there was something else in the Knit Picks box: a Knitting Chart Keeper. I'd had my eyes on it for a while so I was really happy to get it.

But wait, that's not all.

After I had sent him my Knit Picks wishlist, I also sent him links to a few things I liked on Etsy, including a link to this Etsy shop. I just LOVE her bags and fell in love with a particular one, but hesitated buying it because I do have a lot of bags.

Well, guess what I got in the mail last week, completely unexpectedly...



I love it! I'm really spoiled and I know how lucky I am.

Box of love

I promised yarn porn in my last post, and I deliver.

I got this big box by mail on Friday...



Hmmmm. Box o' yarn from Knit Picks...

Now I want to apologize to my Montreal knitter friends for not offering to combine orders and share shipping. But when I saw that there was a cyber Monday sale AND that one of the books I had on my wishlist had become a "last chance" item, I went a little bit crazy and I had to order.right.away. It's a good thing I did too, because I ordered in the morning and when I got home that night, this particular yarn in this particular colourway (the one I wanted the most) wasn't listed on Knit Picks anymore:



Swish DK in Asparagus. I don't know if Knit Picks will restock it at some point, but I'm glad I got it when I did because I love love love the colour and it's perfect for a baby sweater I wanted to make (see end of this post). I got five skeins of it, which should be enough for my project (I'd hate to run out of yarn again).

I also got:



Stroll Sport in Tidepool Heather. It's also super soft. I got six skeins and it also should become a baby sweater (I have a pattern in mind, we'll see if I get to it or change my mind).



Stroll Tonal in Deep Waters. I love love love that yarn. I think I want one of each colourway. Actually, the one I wanted the most was "Foliage", but it was the only colourway that wasn't on sale. Poo. But I don't regret Deep Waters, it's beautiful. I'm not sure if I'll use it for socks or for this super cute baby sweater, we'll see.



Felici sock yarn in Abracadabra. I bought it just because. I kept hearing about how soft this yarn is on the Knit Picks group and I gotta say I wasn't disappointed. It's one of the softest sock yarn I've ever touched. I don't usually buy much self-striping yarn anymore, but it's fun to have once in a while. It makes for mindless knitting and the socks always turn out cute.



I got two skeins of Capra in Fairy Tale. It's the only yarn I got that wasn't on sale, but I had wanted to try it since it first came out. It's a cashmere/merino blend (only 15% cashmere though) and it's quite soft. I really like it. The colour, however, wasn't exactly what I expected. I thought it would be more purple but it's more raspberry-like. I still like it though.

The book I got is Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road. I love her patterns and that book has a lot of nice ones. And it was super cheap on KP and a "last chance" item so I couldn't resist.

I also got (not on sale) two needle cables and some 4,5 mm tips.

With all this new yarn, I just had to cast on for a new project.



I'm using my Swish DK in Asparagus to make Kate Gilbert's Pea Pod baby set. Well just the sweater actually. I fell in love with that pattern when I first saw it in IK a long time ago and I had promised myself I would knit it for my baby someday. So here we go! I'm making the 6 months size, as that should bring us to September. Hopefully it'll fit then (or later), not during the summer. I only have a few rows done, but I'm enjoying working with Swish so far.

Stash. Meet new yarn.

My last post ended with a little bit of yarn porn and I'm now continuing where I left off. I got a big box from Knit Picks a few days ago, filled with goodies. I had gotten a 10 % off coupon and couldn't resist ordering. Wanna see?

First, I got a set of 2.75 mm Harmony DPNs. I love these needles so much, I already have three sets of the 2.25 mm but sometimes I need a little bigger so now I'm all set.

But I know you all really want to know about the yarn, right? Well here you go.



I got 8 skeins of Comfy Worsted in Honey Dew. My best friend is pregnant and due in November and I definitely want to knit her something. My first plan was to do something like this. But then I was browsing projects made with Comfy and I found this. I think we have a winner. I still have a long time to make this but I want to start on it ASAP so I don't have to do a knitting marathon in the Fall.

Ok, I also got this:



Stroll Tonal in Springtime. What can I say? I love me some sock yarn and it's new and I just had to see it in person. Very pretty and very soft.



Shadow Kettle Dyed in Clementine (2 skeins). It's definitely not as bright (though it IS very bright) in real life, but I couldn't get the colour to photograph well. It reminds me of orange popsicle. You can see better pics of the colour here. That colour had been on my wish list for a while and when I ordered, I noticed it was now a "last chance" colour so I decided to buy it. Plus, I sort of have an obsession with laceweight these days.



Alpaca Cloud in Peppermint. This was an impulse buy. The soft was calling me. So I put it in my cart. I do NOT regret it. It's beautiful and omg soft! In fact, my only regret is that I got only one skein, because after my order had shipped, I found this pattern that was made for this yarn, but it requires two skeins. Oh well. I'm sure I can find a cute scarf pattern that'll only use up one skein.

So, that's all for the yarn porn. I kind of felt guitly about buying that much, so I decided it was time for me to start a little yarn diet. No more yarn buying in 2010. Eeek. That's a long time! But with the house we just bought, I can't justify buying more yarn, I have more than enough to last me until the end of the year (and the next, and the next, but a girl's gotta indulge once in a while). I hope I can do it!

Bits of softness

This post is brought to you by the word SOFT!

It's been 11 days since my last post (sorry!) and I got a lot to talk about. I've kind of gone crazy with my credit card (well crazy for me, I know some people are a lot worst). But before I get to the yarn porn, let me show you the current WIPs.

First, a sock of course. Cookie A. is the designer of the month for the Sock Knitters Anonymous challenge, so I figured it would be a good time to knit something from her fabulous book, Sock Innovation. I chose Kai-Mei because it's the one that had first caught my eye when I got the book. Here's the first sock in all it's unblocked glory:



Let me tell you, this picture definitely doesn't show the beauty of the sock. But I like to save the sock blocker pics for the finished pair.

Also, I'm someone who's usually late to the party and if there's a trend, I'll probably end up following it... two years after it went out of style. I find the same thing happens with knitting. In fact, I'm currently thinking that maybe I should make a Clapotis. ;) I'm saying that because my Kai-Mei are made with Socks that rock, and yes, it's my first time using it. And I LOVE it. I just love the fabric it makes, it feels sooooo good on my foot. *sigh* I'm sure that in 5 years, I'll tell you all about my love of Wollmeise... ;)

Ok, WIP #2. Believe it or not, I'm making a cardigan! I haven't made a garment in a long time and I hope that I'll finally make one that I actually want to wear. The fact that it's seamless will help. It's made of laceweight so it's not a quick knit, but here's the little bit I had done a few days ago:



It's the Honeybee cardigan and I'm using Knit Picks Gloss in Bordeaux. The yarn is very very soft and I love the colour. Funny thing: the Honeybee stitch pattern is very similar to the pattern on the foot of my Kai-Mei socks.

Ok, now I give you YARN PORN!

After looking many many times at SlackFord Studio's web page and hearing good thing about the yarn, I decided (after yet another bad day) that I needed yarn. So I present you:



Stalwart Sock in "From Dusk Till Dawn".



Stalwart Sock in "Steelyard Blues".

The yarn is really, seriously beautiful AND soft. And from what I've seen on Ravelry, they make beautiful socks. Looking at those skein makes me happy. But not as happy as when I feel this:



Nimbus Lace in "True Blood".

OMG! So soft! Of course, the fact that it's 70% baby alpaca, 20% silk, and 10% cashmere definitely helps making it soft. I love love love love it. I have 650 yards of it and I need the perfect project (a scarf, I'm pretty sure).

I've been obsessed with laceweight lately for some reason, but I've been adding the yarn to my stash without actually starting lace projects. That needs to change.

Oh and if you thought that wasn't enough yarn porn, it's not over. I got a big box from Knit Picks waiting for me at the post office (I had a 10% off coupon, I couldn't resist). Expect more laceweight. :)