I love new yarn purchases don’t you? I don’t know about all you yarn dieters and stash-busters. I just don’t get it. First up…I know I said that this weekend I was going to work on finishing my intarsia sweater…but…I just wasn’t feeling it this weekend okay? On Thursday night I was cruising knit blogs for project ideas and remembered how much I like all of craftoholic’s socks and was inspired to knit some socks while waiting for a couple of online yarn purchases. I emailed craftoholic to get some of her patterns and she sent them to me the next day so on Friday I went to my LYS and found this…
Gorgeous sock yarn�??the picture doesn’t really do it justice but the yarn is a subtle mix of pink, purple, burgundy, orange, and a heathered green. Seriously, I think I pet it for most of the night. It is Schaefer Yarn’s Anne which is 60% merino wool superwash, 25% mohair, and 15% nylon. One skein is quite large at about 560 yards and it took forever to wind but each second was worth it. This yarn is beautiful. I love love love it.
I decided that socks are a perfect side project�??you can take it with you anywhere and they are fun to knit up. Today I did something I have never before done…I brought my sock to work and knit during my lunch break with my co-workers. It relaxed me from work drama and my co-workers didn’t seem to mind so I might do this regularly. I was accused of having a dorky hobby from another co-worker who saw me but I kind of like being a dork so it didn’t bother me.
So about my socks…I decided on Steph’s Orchid socks and cast on this weekend. It has been slow moving at first because I decided to learn toe up socks and short row heels and have been making up that part of the pattern on my own. It has been a bit of a learning experience and I used several web helps to figure it out but now I am on the leg of the sock and will hopefully be done with my first soon. Here is a progress pic:
I love the lace pattern and love watching it grow. I have been enjoying my socks so much that I almost forgot that I had two orders of yarn on their way to me. The first arrived today. It is my first order from Knit Picks. I have been curious about this yarn for a while but to be honest I am a bit of a yarn snob and I thought for sure a yarn this cheap can’t be all that. A couple of weeks ago I stumbled across Eunny’s Deep-V Argyle Vest and fell in love. Isn’t it pretty? I bought her incredibly detailed pattern and started looking into yarn for the project and saw that a lot of people over at craftster.org are using Merino Style from Knit Picks. So I took a look at their site, couldn’t argue with the price, and figured I should try it out. Today I got my order and am very pleased with the yarn. Obviously I haven’t started knitting with it yet but I am excited to get started.
Here is a picture of my yarn for the vest, Merino Style in Tide Pool and Storm:
I will swatch this week and hopefully cast on this weekend. Since I wanted free shipping on my order (need $40 dollars to do it…yes, my vest yarn only cost about $20!) I also ordered a book (Nancy Bush’s Knitting Vintage Socks ) and some gorgeously soft yarn for Grumperina’s Dad’s Sharfik :
This is the Andean Silk line from Knit Picks in Slate and I am very pleased with how pretty and soft it is. So far I am extremely impressed with Knit Picks.
So kind of a long entry but I wanted to share joy of new yarn with you all. I only hope everyone can be as happy with their yarn as I am with mine.
The following 4 comments were originally left at blogspirit:
I can attest! As her sister/roommate I will go on the record as stating her sock is oh so fab. The orchid pattern is darling. And the yarn makes me jealous…so you know that is a good sign.
Oh, yeah, you can’t beat knitpicks. You should check out their sock yarn! Very good stuff–my favorite that I’ve used.
i am jealous! I wish I could be that ambitious! I can barely get in 5 minutes to work on my projects. i have too many projects goingon at once too. the socks do look awesome. they are so you! I LOVE IT!
Very pretty yarn, I can’t believe how fast you are with that sock! It took me so long to get the short-row toe-up sock down.
The vest is on my list too, but I haven’t found the right colors yet. The blues you picked are beautiful.