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Last Tuesday, two litters of yarn babies were sent my way from various parts of the country. When they still hadn’t surfaced today, I called the post office (a much more difficult process than it should have been) and asked them to check for stray packages. (That wasn’t so easy, either.) They found them both, so I biked over this afternoon to rescue them.
They were not happy about being stuck in a bin in a warehouse for so long, but otherwise unharmed. Now that they are home and have some sunshine, they’re all much happier.
These little guys are from Teacherfish’s swap on the BlankieMania Rav group.
They are all twenty yard mini-skeins of fingering weight yarn that will be turned into mitered squares for my sock yarn blankie. I can’t wait to start playing with them.
There are also some bigger baby skeins. Toddlers, even. These are from Sniggle’s Three Irish Girls sample co-op. They might not be as darling as the wee-teensy skeins, but look how pretty!
On the left are quarter skeins of Maeve and Alana on Elenya Alpaca (Mmmm, alpaca….) and on the left are quarter skeins of Cameron and Cian on Lindon. A little eighth of a skein of Emer on Kells is in the middle. I have no idea what these are going to be, but I’m excited to see the colors in person, and play with two bases I hadn’t seen before.
I took the pins out of my Ulmus this afternoon, which means that my brother’s baby has my permission to make his or her appearance. I was starting to worry that I wasn’t going to be finished in time.
Here it is looking unblocked and unimpressive on my balcony.
And here it is happy and blocked on the lawn.
I made the medium size, and the main body turned into kind of a slog, but that’s probably because I had to keep ripping back and not any real fault of the patterns. It turned into TV knitting pretty quickly, and even the lace was simple enough and only needed a little attention.
The yarn is Kinsale, a wool/tencel blend from Three Irish Girls and it was really, really lovely. It has a slight sheen, isn’t at all splitty, and has perfect drape for a shawl. As a fun, added detail, tencel comes from wood pulp and that seemed oddly appropriate for my woodworking brother.
Its really a good thing that I would never wear anything in these colors, or I might be tempted to keep it for myself. As it is, I’m considering color options for when I do make one for myself, and queuing up other, more complicated, lace projects to try out.
In between working on my Ulmus (I’m 12 rows into the lace border), I finished two pairs of socks this week. They seem like they’ve been on the needles forfreakingever, and it felt really nice to get them blocked.
Bellatrix (Rav link) was my first experience with Socks That Rock. I understand why people love the yarn so much, but its just not my favorite. I think I like a sock yarn that’s got a little more sproing and isn’t so tightly spun.
The color is Christmas Balls (I don’t see it), and they were knit on two size 1 circs. I think if the pattern were any different, I would hate the way they pool, but I’m ok with it. They are loud and crazy and ridiculous, and people seem to either instantly love or hate them. I think they’re perfect for their intended recipient.
I can’t take full credit for these socks. My friend Joye knit the one on the right. Then, she decided she didn’t like the pink (I thought she was aware of that fact long before she started knitting the socks and am not really sure why she bought the yarn) and gave them to me to finish. They were a little weird for me. She gave me the needles she used–a set of 4 dpns in US 2. I always knit my fingering weight socks on a 1, sometimes smaller, and this was pretty thin yarn, so using the 2s was weird, but our gauge matched, so I went with it. For reasons I’ll never understand, I also stick with using just the 4 needles, when I always knit with 5. Sets of 4 needles? Kind of crappy to work with. These were knit mostly on a wine tour of Williamsburg with our friends Cristina and Matt, and during our Call of Cthulhu game. They’re too big for me, but they fit Cristina when I had her try them on, so they will go to her if we ever manage to get together again.
Step I: Marianne (superwash merino) spinner’s top from The Loopy Ewe. Hand dyed by Kate of Yarn Love.
Step II: (Please note the cat feet. feline company is a crucial ingredient.)
Step III: About a half ounce of spun singles.
