Cashmere!

Last Friday, I was blessed with my vacation pay. And while no one could ever have a vacation on the money I got, you sure can spoil yourself with yarn. I browsed at Kreative Knits for about an hour, and came out with a big bag of yarn and my wallet over $90 lighter. What does $90 of yarn look like?

This, believe it or not, is what it looks like! It's missing two balls of Patons Bohemian in White Out, destined for the Big Boho Blankie I'm plodding away at.
Anyway, clockwise from the top, we have: Berrocco Lavish in Cadaquez (lavishly expensive, but so soft and glittery!), Patons Shetland Chunky in a color the apparently don't have anymore (a soft, buttery yellow)?, Patons Fresco in Tye Dye (also discontinued, but the bargain of the day at $2.50!), SRK Baffi in Cream/Gold, (also discontinued!) Lily Chin Tribeca in colour 1276, Jilly 100% Scottish Cashmere(!!!!!) in Light Navy (colour is way off on the website), and Lily Chin Gramercy in colour 3867. Phew...lots of pretty yarn, all but the cashmere is going into a special project I hope to start soon! The cashmere...I'm thinking of making into a simple lacy scarf like Branching Out, but I'm thinking a flower instead of leaf pattern, since it's blue like forget-me-nots!
Anyhoo, enough yarn porn, onto the WIP!

The start of this shrug, which I'm considering ripping out, because it just looks too small. I'm meant to work the raglan increases until the sleeves will go around my arm, and at 3" or so of knitting, I'm barely 1/4 of the width I need! back to the drawing board, methinks.

Close-up of the raglan yo increases.

My second attempt at this cloche, which I've had to modify so much it's not really the same hat!
I'm so scared of felting, but I hope to do it Friday!

On my head. Don't mind the serial killer dazed look, I was taking the picture by pointing the camera at myself and looking at the reflection of the view screen in the mirror. I don't want it to shrink too much lengthways, but otherwise it's too floppy, and that brim needs some help! I hope the varigation of the yarn isn't totally obscured, it's very pretty! I'm calling it the "Freedom Wool Cloche" after the yarn.

Time for a frustration pic. This is my Sesame sweater, which I knitted away happily on while Mom was here last week. Then, when I was at the armhole shaping, I realized I had cast on 10 fewer stitches than I should have! Grrr, so, now it's back to square one of the left front!
That's all for now, hopefully I'll have another post in the next few days!

Only a short update, even after so long!

I have so many projects to post, but for the past two days, I haven't had the time, even though it's "off" time from work. My mom's in for a conference at the nearby university, so she's been staying with me. And spoiling me with homecooked stew and pasta, and buying some much needed things for the apartment, including one of those little upright canister vacuums for the hardwood floors. I love my mom! Oh! I totally forgot to post pictures of her Mother's Day present before I gave it to her! It was a knit washcloth and bath mitt knit with Bernat Handicrafter, in the colour I talked about in my last post. Then I added a couple wonderfully smelly bars of soap and travel shampoo and conditioner, so she can take it all on her Alaskan cruise at the end of June :) And my shrug turned out beautifully, but I need somone to take a photo of me wearing it, as I'm terrible at self portraits.
Moving on, I thought I'd regale you with my wonderful story of salvaging thrift store yarn from an old sweater. I had seen other bloggers post about their wonderful finds, and I decided to try it out gfor myself.

Exhibit A: The ungodly ugly sweater, size XL, $5.99 at the local Value Village Thrift Store. I adore all things rainbow, so this sweater beckoned to me. The only tag on the garment said: 100% Peruvean Wool. Bingo.

A close up on the fabric. The yarn appears to be worsted weight, but it's really two strands of somewhere between sock and sport weight yarn. Double the yarn yardage!

The resulting yarn balls as of last night. As of this afternoon, the green ball is at least twice its size and a fair size ball of blue has joined them. And I haven't even passed the neck/shoulder area yet.
The yarn is very rough, so I know it won't become socks, but I'm considering making a shawl out of it, in a simple lace design, since it's not fine and smooth enough to have a uniform lace look to it. I'll post photos once all the unravelling's done!

On Mom and I's shopping excursion tonight, I picked up some yarn at the local Michael's. I finally got my hands on some microspun, which I love, it's so soft! The colors are turquoise and coral, the lighting doesn't capture it. And, as I'm determined to make this shrug of sorts, I got some Bernat Softee Chunky in "New Denim Heather". I've had the perfect brooch to go with this shrug for months now...

I bought this vintage-esque brooch at a craft store that was closing out, for only $5! It's all the way costume jewelry, but it will really fit with the vintage style shrug!
So, that's all for me now, until next time, keep fit and have fun!

Chillaxed knitting.

Ahh, summer vacation. All I have to worry about is work, and I could quite frankly do with a lot less of it. But something has to pay the bills! So, since I've been off for a while, I got a lot of little projects done. Instant gratification is the name of the game. I also made a couple things for Mother's Day, but I'll post them after my mom gets them :) Right now, my "main" project is to wear on Mother's Day (if I get Sunday off. Finger's crossed!). It's a hevily modified version of the Everybody's Doing It Shrug. The original website for the pattern was down, so I just improvized!

So far I have a 1 1/2" section of seed stitch (14 rows on size 7 needles), and then I did 5 garter stich rows, followed by a k1, yo row. Then, I looked through The Stitch Library and found this daisy stitch. I love how it looks, i might make another shrug on larger needles in just this stitch. It's goregeous!

Because the daisy stitch pulls the piece together so much, it created a very suprising and very pretty scalloped edge! Such a happy accident! I will take a phot when the shrug is finished, hopefully by the end of my next shift. I'm at 9" of the "body" of the shrug, so it should only take another 6 or so inches to fit! I love making shrugs! Oh, and this was made with Patons Classic Wool in Winter White. I rarely use anything else!

I picked up a few balls of Sugar n' Cream from the "Buck n' Near" store, for some pretty dish cloths. Here's one in Americana, and I have a ball of Daisy Ombre, Salt and Pepper, and a Bernat Handicrafter HUGE ball in Summer Splash (the same as Sugar n' Cream, which is odd!) So, lots of dish cloths in my future. Great Xmas presents, in my opinion. Though I might be infringing on Joan, my uncle's wife's mother, who knits them and sells them to make money for my cousin's college fund :S So maybe I'll just knit a bunch for Mom and Apollo.... hats and scarves for the rest of the family, maybe!

As you can tell, I have a new digital camera. It's so loverly, so I knit a little case to protect it. The airplane button was inspired by the word "incoming". I plan on duplicate stitching a cityscape on the bottom of the case, too look like a night air raid, since we always see air raids in green night vision.

The final project I took a picture of (yes, I have more. Like an afghan modified from a pattern in this book.) It's a garter stitch blanket made of Patons Bohemian in white out on size 15 needles. It's just the simple dish cloth pattern, but it's working up to be a soft fluffy cloud of plush goodness. It's going to be between 4-6 balls of Bohemian, depending how large it gets. I'm about halfway through the first ball, and it's already 2' across. I'd like it to be 5 or six feet square, but that might take a LOT of yarn. Oh well, it'll be the softest blanket ever!

And this is some more additions to my stash. Two ball of Baby Monkey, for a knitted kitten I'm making in the likeness of my brother's cat. A ball of blue Kroy socks yarn to go with my dyed yarn for the cuffs, heels and toes, and a ball of muslin to try my hand at more self striping yarn!
And now, for my obligatory cat pic, I give you Calos looking very perplexed.