Got Me Some Yarn

It is amusing that the day after I ordered a bunch of yarn I got told there was no more work for me for a while. I don't believe in such things, really, but if I did, I would think I jinxed myself for thinking, "Well, we are both employed this holiday season, so for once I can treat myself." but, I could not undo the Loopy Ewe order, so I will just enjoy it. And besides, some of this yarn is from other sources!

This first one certainly cheered me up when it arrived. It's Dream in Color Starry in my favorite of their colorways, Pansy Golightly. I also have a skein of their laceweight "Baby." I'd sure like to use one of those to make the Bitterroot shawl I talked about in the last blog entry. Since I did get two skeins of the Starry, though, I could make a larger Shetland-style shawl that glistened from that. Mmm. I do know I love the colorway so much that I want to make something large from it.


Here's another color that I fell for. These are very saturated colors--it's all blue with purple and green overdyed in it somehow. It's from Fiberphile Alchemy and appears to be on the same base as Smooshy--it's called Squooshy, which is a hint, huh. I think these colors (called Pacifica) are subtle enough that you might be able to knit socks in a complicated stitch pattern out of it and the colors not detract from the patterning. This is all good, since I have a LOT of such socks on my To Knit list! There's that whole Cookie A book, for example!


I got this skein specifically to knit one of Cookie's patterns. The colorway is called Passion Flower and is exactly the purple of the flowers on that vine. A bluish purple but not quite violet, nor grape exactly. It's a perfect semi-solid for one of the Sock Innovation patterns, or one of the other highly textures ones I've been wanting to make! this completes my Loopy Ewe order, so you can see I didn't go totally bonkers over it.


Next is a skein I got at the LYS, which had been sitting there a while looking at me. I do have some red semi-solid socks (plain ones that I am actually wearing right now!), but this Pagewood Farm Chugiak is a orangey red, and my others are on the blue-red side. I wanted something fiery. I guess in the back of my mind, I knew I was going to run into the perfect pattern for that yarn. Because, lo and behold, while browsing Ravelry this morning (which I can do, since I am not working!) I saw this pattern, Flaming Desire by good ole Anne Hansen, who I believe wrote the first sock pattern I ever knitted. Go look at it and then come back and agree with me that it is a really fun-looking pattern. Nice big motif, multiple sizes--yep!

And by the way, the yarn above is more orange-ish than it appears in the photo. I made it a bit orange, but could not quite get it to appear accurate on my computer screen. Just take my word for it that the Fruit Freeze colorway really does look like fire. If it weren't for having to make black-and-white socks for my sister, these would start soon!

Now, to take a break from skeins of yarn, I did finally take a picture of the Angee sock in progress. It is blurry on one side because I took the picture of it on my arm. But, I think you can see how nice the color looks and how intriguing the pattern repeat is. It just squiggles and wiggles around, going here and there. These will be some fine socks, and I guess if I don't have a lot of work and spend my days at the Division of Motor Vehicles trying to get Beccano's driving permit taken care of, they will be done soon.

But wait, I have one more skein of yarn. Last night was the holiday gathering at the LYS, and while a lot of the regulars weren't there (late notice on the festivities), we had a nice crowd, and enough folks to make a sock yarn exchange fun. I started out with some Plymouth Sockatta that I already own a skein of, so was thrilled to have someone "steal" it so I could get this. I am amused because last year I ended up with pink and gray yarn, too. But, this is from a vendor I'd never tried before (but did see on someone else's blog today), Scout's Swag. It's the regular twisty base yarn a lot of dyers use, and 100% superwash merino. It is called Rowing Home and says it is inspired by Winslow Homer. OK, I believe that, though not sure what painting of his it goes with!


The Belleza vest is cranking along. I am almost finished with the first skein of yarn, but I noted that the armholes are only 9" and use fewer stitches than the body of the vest, so I think I will end up with a bit of yarn to spare. I find that I lose count, even though all I am doing is counting to 3 over and over. This makes me laugh, but I am using the excuse that the textured yarn makes telling whether you are looking at a knit or a purl on the previous row rather difficult. I also really ought to stop trying to knit and read music at the same time. The choir director will appreciate it, too.

More from me soon--it is nice to have a bit more time to blog these days! Thanks for reading!