All I can say is...

Wow. Just--wow. I received this box from Shelly (Hilfy was curious, natch):


Inside was the most amazing collection of sock yarn imaginable. Solids and variegateds and marls and stripes and patterns, oh my!


Hilfy likes the yarn and didn't want me to put it away:


Shelly also included a bag of Baby Ull for CIC knitting, in two shades of purple - one of my fave colors:


There's so much more yarn than I'll use for the Princess Blankie. I'm toying with making a second cat-sized blankie for one of the local shelters. Or I may use the extras for CIC knitting. Or both; there's certainly enough!

I would have some progress to show on the blankie, but The Princess got in the way. After deciding which yarn to use first (and what a decision that was!), I started a new square and knit a couple of rows. That's when The Princess jumped up on the blankie in my lap and started purring and kneading her paws. I didn't have the heart to shoo her away (I'm such a sucker!). Even though she was impeding my progress, I took it as approval of the project.

Success!

Remember the toddler vest I knitted for CIC, with the too-tight neck? I decided to re-do the bind-off with a stretchier method, and it worked! I unraveled the bind-off at the back of the neck, and re-did it using EZ's sewn bind-off method. After weaving in the ends from the new bind-off & the old bind-off, I tried putting my head through the hole. Woo hoo--it worked! Now it's all washed & blocked and ready to go with my next box to CIC.


I've started another vest, this time adapting the pattern to knitting in the round. I plan to make the neck a little bigger this time, natch. Once I'm happy with it, I'll publish the pattern on my free patterns page.

Me Likey

I've been having some trouble logging into Blogger lately, which has been very frustrating because I wanted to share pics of my latest blankie square. (Don't be frightened; I promise I won't blog each square individually.)

On Saturday, I dyed this:
On Sunday I knitted this:

I went with a much shorter repeat than I used on the blue/white/purple skein. My niddy-noddy makes a 4-foot skein. I dyed the whole thing yellow, then dunked about half of it into the green, so the repeats on this are only about two feet. I really like the way it turned out.

Unfortunately, I'm pretty much out of ideas for dyeing more skeins. I have all the colors of the rainbow, plus some striping/variegated skeins, and I still don't have the variety I'd like! Fortunately for me, Shelly has offered to send me some of her extras, as well as some yarn for CIC. I can hardly wait! Thank you Shelly!

That was stupid

So, I've been knitting away on my tapestry wool socks for CIC. Now, I could have sworn that I had three skeins of this shade of green when I started. I was certain sure that I chose to start with this shade because I had three skeins, and I wasn't sure how much I would need. For future reference, this is how far two skeins got me:

So, I started looking for the third skein. Checked where it was supposed to be, then where it wasn't supposed to be but could be, then places I couldn't imagine why it would be there; all no luck. Finally, I went back and looked at the original pic of the tapestry wool. Sure enough--smacking self on forehead--only two skeins of this color.

I can't bear the thought of unraveling these socks and starting over, so I'm going to try to find another skein of this shade. Pretty easy to find online, but shipping costs as much or more than the yarn, so I hope I can find it locally.

In the meantime, I've started another pair. This time, I am posting photographic proof that I have two skeins each of the two colors I'm using:

I plan to use the beige yarn for the cuffs, heels & toes, and the gold yarn for the rest. To bulk it out a little, I am combining each with a strand of very fine (laceweight?) coned yarn I have on hand.

The blankie has been languishing lately, but I currently have some yarn in the dyepot. I expect I'll do a little more knitting on it tomorrow. Lately I seem to be spending more time ruminating on what color I should use next, and what color(s) I should dye up, and admiring the patchwork-quiltiness of it, than actually knitting the blankie. Daisy doesn't seem to mind, tho'. She loves me no matter what.

Progress: Blankie, et al

Princess Daisy's blankie is progressing nicely. I've been a dyeing fool; dyed up all that white yarn that I had in my stash. Last week even bought another skein of undyed (washable) sock yarn and I've started dyeing it. I've also been stealing a square or two from skeins in my stash. Even so, I need more colors! I'm going to try dyeing up some more self-striping yarn. The repeat on the blue, white & purple skein is a little long for this project; see those two squares with the white tops? Yup, that's them. So, the next try will have a much shorter color repeat.

I missed the shipping date for CIC-Knit's Summer Sock Extravaganza. I got messed up on what day it was, and on the shipping deadline, this is what my socks looked like:

Laid out to dry in the spare bedroom. So, they'll just get counted in the next sock challenge. However, in spite of my muddled-headedness, the group more than DOUBLED the goal by sending in a grand total of 650 pairs of socks. Way to go!

I also finished up a vest for CIC, but when I tried my usual "is the neck big enough?" test of pulling it over my head, no way would it go. So, I am looking for something around the house that will be about the size of a child's head for a second test, while considering ways to fix the problem w/o ripping out. It's a v-neck, so the front neckline is stretchy, but the back neckline is quite firm. I'm thinking maybe I could just re-do the bindoff with a more elastic method. Cross your fingers for me!

I've also started another pair of socks for CIC; this time with wool generously donated by Carla of Victoria's House of Needleart. This yarn is so soft, and Carla has provided me with so many colors to work with; the possibilities are deliciously abundant. I'm thinking this pair would look cheery with red toes. Thank you, Carla!