My Obsession

Trekking XXL 101
Originally uploaded by sunasak

The interim count on my stash is 99 yarns on Ravelry. Of course, that is not all I own--I am still working on photographing the rest. But so far i can tell what my obsession truly is: Trekking XXL sock yarn. I have, ahem, 14 balls of this stuff in the stash so far. And I know I have resisted others mightily in yarn stores across this continent. (I am less successful on other continents: you may recall, I did buy about half of my 14 skeins in a recent orgy of Trekking caused by some limited edition yarns sold by Astrid's Dutch Obsession.) I think I will stop visiting that site, even though the Europricing is Euro-enticing.

But this IS lovely yarn. I love the way the colors change in some of the colorways, but all are marvelous. And it feels good, even if it IS mass produced. My (knitted) hat's off to the Zitrons, whoever or whatever they are.

Kudos of the same type are deserved by the designers who do Opal and sign the ball bands, but I sure wish they had better ball band glue--one of my Opals has lost its band! Maybe someone on Ravelry will ID it for me.

Holiday gift ideas for Suna: sock yarn! What a surprise. I have to say it's preferable to the endless parade of frog items my mother got, or all the owls Lee says HIS mother got. At least I could use the sock yarn, some day.

I got to see more of Jody's Krazy yarn yesterday. MMMM, color-y. You, too, will love them, once they start selling!

Kaylees Are Complete and I MUST Stop

Completed Pair of Kaylee Socks
Originally uploaded by sunasak

Yay, I did finish Kaylee (or Bee) socks last night. I wore them a long time, too. So comfy--they will be great around the house socks. I like how the color pooling flows across the socks in this picture, too. The Fiesta Boomerang yarn was such a joy to knit with--wow, it feels just great and has a little sheen to it, too. And this is one of the most fun patterns I ever knitted--dropping all those YOs then tying them back together is fun! And it was easy!

I've told nearly everyone I know what a great holiday gift a pair of socks like this would make! So, maybe I'll make a pair for my sister, who so far is getting tan and gray disco socks (that sock yarn from a couple of years ago with shiny silver threads in it).

I started a pattern from Knitty, Thuja for Lee's dad. These look like they will take just a day or two each, if I have time to knit. I am using size 4 needles and Cascade 220 superwash in navy blue. Nothing too wild for an old German/Texan farmer with cold feet! And they must be machine washable! I may even make him a couple of pairs, since he requested socks to keep his feet warm around the house. Then I'll make him a pair out of sock yarn, in case he likes that. I have located all my "manly" colorways.

Yarn Overload

Why I MUST stop is in the title is that I got my package from Astrid's Dutch Obsessions yesterday. Oops, I went over board. There are at least TEN balls of sock yarn, plus enough of the amazing stripey Kauni EQ Rainbow for that lovely stranded sweater so many people are knitting (thanks to the Yarn Harlot Lady), AND a 1144-yard hank of some incredible Kauni EG-260 lightweight wool (not laceweight, I don't think) in blendy stripey bright violets that wants to be one of those Victorian Lace Today scarves. So I think.

Why on EARTH did I get TEN balls of sock yarn? Well, here's what they are:

1. 4 Trekking Seasons balls--winter, spring, summer and fall. Had to get all 4, right? If you visit the Astrid home page, you will see what these will look like knit up, and I think you'll agree it's a nice variant on self-striping yarn.

2. 3 Trekking Autumn Fire series -- again, must have whole series, huh?? (These are quite fun, too)

3. Some Opal yarn with Bamboo, in the softest greens (it is greener than the picture shows). I love bamboo, and soft colors.

4. Regia in browns, rusts and blues, but what is cool is that they swirl and look like Jupiter when knit up, according to the package. Well, I just have to see THAT. I guess these are the Planets series. No, I looked it up--it's the Galaxy series in Jupiter Terra. I did manage to just buy one colorway. Even Lee said it looked cool.

5. That sock yarn with pom poms on it. I think it's Regia Pon, too, yeah this is it. I got white with blue puffs. Again, you can't get it here and I just wanted to see how weird it looked in person. It looks weird.

So you see, I nnneeeeeedddeeeddd all those yarns. Yup.

I will try to take a picture and stick it in here, but I was so embarrasses that I sorta scattered the yarn hither and thither so it didn't make a large mass, staring at me saying, "You are one sick yarn buying woman, Suna."

Note that this was ordered BEFORE My Man Lee got laid off. I am sticking with my yarn buying moratorium. All I have bought since then was the yarn for his dad's socks.

Funny PS!

My online friend Michelle posted this cartoon. If you don't get to read newspapers (I read mine online, and never get to the comics), check out the knitter's moment of fame!

A Day Late...but...and Coupling Update

flagsock800
Originally uploaded by sunasak

In honor of the US Independence Day holiday yesterday, here's a photo of my US Flag socks. I made them last year from what I think was an Opal yarn (?). I am proud of them because I kept the striping pattern intact by doing the heel out of yarn from the other end of the ball of yarn. That also conveniently made the heel and toe blue. And luckily, both socks matched pretty well. I used up pretty much ALL of the blue parts to the ball of yarn, and only have red and white stripes left over.

Did I wear them yesterday? No. But I didn't leave the house, due to being in the monsoon season in Texas. (Floods are bad, folks--we drove through a lot of sad looking stuff in North Texas, and ALL our new grass in the backyard is GONE.)

So, to update on Coupling, as usual I posted a photo to my Flickr site, to share with others. Well, apparently either there are a lot of Knitty fans out there OR a lot of people search the word "coupling" on Flickr to look for titliating content. Geez Louise. Most of my photos have perhaps a dozen or two hits. This one has been up just a few days and has 124. I hope people enjoy the enticing view of my leg, wearing a sock.

The second sock is partway up the leg, so I should finish it this week or weekend. I did manage to knit more than one entire sock in the car on our two-day trip. I started the trip just above the heel on Sock #1 and got a bit farther than that on Sock #2 when my hands simply gave out on Tuesday. I don't think I could knit for a living. But, then, I think I knitted at least 8 hours that day.

I'll get back to the surplice top this weekend!