Sunday, February 04, 2007

Post 46

It is friggin cold here in Chicago! I wouldn't mind it so much if it were snowing, then it would be worth it. On the other hand, the extreme coldness has taught my dog to go VERY fast, no sniffing around for a good spot, I am very pleased by this. Anyhoo, Secret Pal 9 is over and I got the loveliest gift my SP9, sock yarn and in the prettiest blue colorway hand-dyed in Orlando (um, they wear socks in Florida?), I like supporting the little ma and pa home based businesses, great shopping. The package also came with the cutest little key ring with a mini twist of yarn attached that I'm totally going to rip off and try to make some to sell at my LYS. This package was perfect timing as I had just gotten rid of some yarn on ebay, I decided to destash some stuff that I have and never will use. Some fool of a knitter paid be 24 bucks for a skein of Socks That Rock in Medium weight, when I got it for 21! Every since I bought the skein I regretted it, it was ugly and bright, not my colors at all, well happy knitting to you ebay purchaser, I made a 3 dollar profit! Also got rid of some Lorna's Laces bulky and worsted, one I won at the opening of a new LYS and the other at a mill end sale, I was going to make a dog sweater out of it until I realized that it was too sherberty-cute for me, which of course was its name, Sherbert, ugh, so I made a nice little profit and that batch too. I did something stupid a couple of weeks ago, one of my LYS was having a big 70% off sale and I actually found enough yarn, 17 balls of the same thing, which is amazing, usually these sales have only one or two balls of the same dye lot, so I bought it. It really was very pretty yarn, but when I knitted it up I realized that only a house wife in Dallas would wear this, it was not good, so I sold it too, came out even, and the lucky winner got yarn worth 175 bucks for only 55! I came away with more space in my yarn organizer and less guilt. Now about guilt, well two of my friends have knitted up the My So Called Scarf pattern, which I have long loved and never made, and do I really need another scarf, yes, it's cold here, so I went out and bought yarn for it. I would really have liked to find a color in Malabrigo to use (its made of merino wool and soooo soft it feels like cotton) but nothing matched my hot pink coat, so I settled for two skeins of Manos Del Uruguay, in a color way I love so much, it actually is the one used in the pattern. So I've knitted up the first skein, and the scarf is a decent size, I don't want it to be one of those super long scarfs, and though, 'MATCHING HAT!', well I've waited all weekend for the FIMS to be up so I can print the Amelia Earhart pattern. I must have thrown away the copy I used for the first hat I made from it, it's a great pattern. The first time I used one skein of Jo Sharp Silk Road Tweed on size 5's, which was perfect, but it has stretched a little, so I decided in the Manos to go down a needle size to a 4, I want it dense to keep the wind out. Wait, I don't have size 4 bamboos, is this possible, I have everything else in circs, DPNs, from metal, to plastic, to casein, to rosewood, but not in size 4, I guess I'm going to have to go the the yarn store today. The hat won't be the only thing I knit on while I'm forced to watching bits of the Super Bowl, GO BEARS! (obligatory team spirit), I finished the first in a pair of socks using Cookie's pattern from Knitty, Monkey, which was the only thing that made the obnoxiously green sock yarn look good. They fit, the pattern was way easy to memorize so it knitted up fast, I'm happy, though they are snug on me at the top because I have FLS, fat leg syndrome. I tested out my size 1.5mm dpn in rosewood for the first time and absolutely love them, if I didn't have bamboo I would choose the rosewood over regular wood, they seem to have a finish halfway between that of bamboo and brittany birch wood, very nice. So I used the 1.5mm's on the lace pattern and size 0 or 1's (the number has worn off and when they get this small does it really matter?) on the heel flap and sole, easy-peasy. So I'm off to do a couple of errands, I've decided I hate my water kettle and need a new one, so if the parking genie is with me maybe I'll find a spot on Wabash and can run into Macy's real quick (gotta use that employee discount they forgot they still give me), it's just north of the yarn store anyway.

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