Drano for Knitters...

My friend Erica and I have this joke that always makes us giggle. It's not a particularly witty or sophisticated joke, but it makes us laugh. In a lot of ways, that joke can be applied here.

What's this?

It's a whole bunch of these...

Hmmm... on second thought, that might actually only be funny when cocktails are involved.

Either way- my incredibly bad joke serves to show us one thing, I HAVE UNCLOGGED THE KNITTING BLOCKAGE and finally made some decent progress on the blanket. It's basically taken a month of hmming, hahing and second guessing myself, but I've finally started to dig in and start making progress.

After my last blog post, where I confessed my disdain for the pattern, I did some soul searching. I even had the mother in law search too- and got the honest opinion. That blanket was not good. I was fooling myself. After hearing the truth and saying it out loud to myself, I knew there was only one thing left to do. Go back to the drawing board.

I ripped out three skeins of knitting...

It was actually a very good decision. Not only did I discover that I had miscalculated my gauge along the way and had FIVE extra inches in width that I didn't want, but looking at all that garter stitch I just couldn't care about it at all.

Some careful math later and realizing I was over-complicating something very simple, I adjusted my border to five stitches on each end and JUST KNIT THE PATTERN five times over. It maybe took me 5 minutes to plan out. Considering it took me close to 2 hours to write everything out on the wildly disappointing version, I took the ease to which this came to me as a very good sign.

And so I'm knitting a blanket finally. And just in time too! By my calculation this kid could show up anytime now! I began knitting in earnst on Friday, Oct 2. Today is the 5th. My big goal is to have HALF this blanket done by Friday. That's 2.5 patterns. I'd appreciate any and all positive thoughts you could send my way! :-)

Blockage

I don't know where to start with this blog post. I'm blocked.

September knitting has been slow. I could blame the 2 weeks in Europe for being a decent distraction, I could also blame another weekend in Chicago, keeping me from my needles. But truth is- I'm just blocked. I can't bring myself to knit the next blanket. I am BURNED OUT on knitting blankets.

I can tell- because usually I go full steam ahead on blanket projects. I select a pattern, I knit the swatch, cast on and then devote myself almost religiously to seeing the blanket to it's completion. I'm usually pretty faithful too- opting to knit that and only that.

You can tell I'm blocked becase projects that I wouldn't normally be working on are seeing progress!

MORE HATS-- for example.

Suddenly I am drawn to the baby hats like a moth to flame. I must knit them. I cannot successfully sitch anything else- not when the hat seems like such an appealing project. I assume it's the instant gratification and widening gap between my "hats knit" and "hats that need to have been knit by now to stay on target".

And, if that weren't enough, I've even made decent purse sock progress- allowing myself a few indulgent stitches when I should be knitting the blanket.

I'm just not interested in anything else, but I think I've figured out why:

I don't like what I'm doing. I'm not confident AT ALL with this pattern. Oh, it's easy enough- just look at all that garter stitch! This blanket is for some of our closest friends in Calgary, who are expecting their first baby in a mere 18 or so days. They have seen me churn out blanket masterpieces. They have seen me do intricate and complicated things- and I feel like this blanket doesn't embody any "excitement".

I chose to knit cows on the blanket because they've been calling the fetus "Little Beef"- I thought it would be cute to give them a blanket with cows.

The way I see it, I have three options, and I can't make up my mind. I can:

1) Keep knitting this blanket even though I feel like there's too much garter stitch and not enough cows. (The plan was to have them 3 across and 3 up, to give me 9 faces but I feel like the faces might be too small for the rest of the blanket.)

2) Go back to the drawing board and figure out the pattern incorporating less garter stitch and adding 2 more cows into the mix, for a total of 5 cows accross and potentially 5 cows up, for 25 cows.

3) Quit beating this cow theme to death, find a pattern and get knitting already!

I'm leaning towards option 2, even though it means ripping back three balls worth of work and starting again. I need to make a decision soon as the more time I waste trying to figure it out, the less time I have to knit the damn thing.

And so- faced with all this pressure and my non-desire to do anything with this blanket, I knit my distractions instead. Productive huh?

What I Knit on my European Vacation...

Sorry for the lull in posts there- I was on a glorious two week European vacation. I felt it best that I didn't just announce to the world, including it's very talented home invaders, that our house would be empty for two weeks. So instead, I'm telling you now, after a short hiatus, that I have returned home safe and sound, and maybe still a little bit tired.

Packing for vacation knitting is always stressful for me. I try to avoid the worst case scenario, where I run out of yarn and knitting, but also have to be smart in my packing. An entire suitcase of yarn, needles and notions is not the most ideal scenario for schlepping across Europe. For two weeks I brought along the travelling monkey sock and planned to cast on for the teddy bear blanket. Feeling highly optimistic, I brought 4 balls of blanket yarn with me, just so I would be sure not to run out.

The trip itself was wonderful- but on the knitting front I was one big fat FAIL. It was like Europe sucked away my mojo. I should have known I was in trouble, because it began early. On the flight from Calgary to Barcelona- I cast on for the blanket FOUR times, running into trouble every time. Not enough yarn, too much yarn, dropped stitches in row 1... I couldn't for the life of me get it right. So I put my knitting in my bag, pulled out my book, (Gone With the Wind for you curious people), and didn't look back.

When we got to our hotel outside of Figueres in Spain we had a few days to relax and unwind. Except Gone with the Wind was turning out to be a really fun read, and I kept saying to myself "I"ll work on the cast on tomorrow". That never happened.

EIGHT DAYS LATER... (I know, that has to be some new personal record for me, I can't believe I didn't think about knitting for a whole eight days!) I accidentally wondered into a yarn shop in Barcelona. We were walking in the Gothic district and all of a sudden I look to my left and say "YARN SHOP!"

(Let's pretend I don't look 9 months pregnant in this photo. I need to work on my unflattering posture!) Of course I went in- and was surprised to see almost everything we can get at home, including English books. Very cute shop with a very helpful gentleman who figured out pretty quickly that I didn't speak a lick of Spanish. I wish I could remember the name now- but it was nice to have a little reminder of my hobby that I had all but forgotten.

I had seen SOME things that made me think of knitting while in Spain, for example this really cute Sheep chess board.... (can you see the black sheep in the back? So cute!)

To be fair, it's hard to think of knitting when you need to see stuff like this in Barcelona. (Gaudi's Sangrada Familia- it is all that AND a bag of chips!)

The next day we left for France- and I think wondering into a yarn shop in Barcelona was what I needed because I actually picked up my knitting needles again. We were staying with friends in their MONSTER Paris apartment (not normal for Paris at all... they lucked into some pretty great circumstances). I finally got the cast on to the blanket started and even knit the entire border.

However, the sights of the city distracted me again.... and that was all the progress I made. Not even HALF a ball in.

It wasn't until we got out to Beaune (in the Burgundy wine region), that I even thought about knitting again. Picture it, we're in an incredibly quaint and charming French town, cafes and delicious foods are beckoning and every corner has a wine shop- and out of all of this- I find a Phildar store!!

I was pretty stoked to check out their shop. It was not a typical yarn shop- there's a clothing store in the front, and Phildar yarns and patterns in the back. (You can see the wall of yarn just behind me in the photo.) I was smart this time and didn't buy any French pattern books, knowing full well I'd never figure them out! Phildar had some pretty nice silk yarn that I "hmmed" and "haaed" over- but ultimately decided that the precious room in my suitcase had to be allotted to other souvenirs... like wine. :-)

Beaune also got me thinking about knitting again, in a rather odd place- the Museum of Wine. While we were wondering through the exhibits, I got all excited- as one of them featured tools and clothing worn by early harvesters. And there- before me, were handknit socks.

Pardon the photo, seeing handknit socks in the wild apparently excite me a little bit too much!

As you can probably tell I had a wonderful trip, even if it meant very little knitting was done. On our last day in Paris, as I was doing my hair, and thinking that I was actually looking forward to knitting on the plane ride home, I had an epiphany. Teddy Bears on the blanket was ALL WRONG for the couple I was knitting for. They've been calling their fetus "Little Beef" (in context it makes sense), and I really should be knitting COWS. Of course I couldn't pay sky high prices in the business center to spend some time on Ravelry looking for cows to knit on the ride home, so I had to put my blanket on pause until I had internet access.

I packed the monkey socks instead for the ride. But, I was too distracted by my first class pod and all of it's exciting features to even think about knitting- and once again, as the theme of this trip seems to suggest- I got not a single stitch knit.

Fear not gentle knitters- my arrival home as put me back into regular gear. With the help of this very cute swatch I am once again ready to pick up the needles with avengence!

This is the swatch for the "Little Beef" blanket I'm planning on knitting. The math and figuring out were done yesterday and I even had the MOST SUCCESSFUL CAST ON EVER! (One try! I'm taking it as a sign that making the pattern change was the right call.) I promise that updates and blog posts will return to their frequency- and hopefully soon, we will see another blanket completed.

Loose Ends

I've been slow on the knitting progress this week. I had hoped to come here and show you my cute swatch for the next blanket, or perhaps a finished sock and some hats. But alas, our upcoming European adventure requires attention and despite my desire to pick up the needles I have to put having a hotel to sleep in ahead of knitting a few rows. (Bed is only very slightly ahead of knitting.)

That's not to say I haven't been working on stuff- I thought I'd use this post to catch you up on what I've managed to squeeze in amongst gasping at European hotel prices. First up- is my portion on my first WCOBB blanket. Behold... I give you the "quail" cable pattern.

I'm not going to say much about this blanket- mostly because the color palette is kind of paining me to talk about. WCOBB is about helping OTHER people and doing something very nice and kind hearted. It is not about "colors that Jen likes to knit with", as you can probably tell. The blanket's theme is "Butternut" and I decided the cable pattern I chose made me think of nuts. I do look forward to working on another blanket however- and will let you know when I'm knitting for it again.

I also eeked out some progress on the purse sock last weekend when I was in Saskatoon, (*cough buying yarn*), and here it is in all of it's glory. (I'm hoping this sock has a passport, because it's about to see a lot more of the world soon!)

That's a cute looking Monkey sock. And so SOFT! Can't wait to wear these little babies around my house in the winter!

And glory of glory- I also finally got my Knitpicks shipment for baby blanket #8 billion that I have to cast on. The cream color is a little darker than I would have liked, but I do think it's going to make some cute and soft teddy bears!

Aside from a little more "stash enhancement"- I wanted to share some exciting news with you. (Although I'm so stupid because I should have taken PHOTOGRAPHIC evidence.) My mom finished her first scarf and she still wants to keep knitting. She knit the whole thing! I'm so proud. Go mom! I promise to take photos next time I'm over there. She's already diving into a sweater project next, now that I WILL photograph! (FYI MiL she might be calling you for help when you get home... you've been warned. :-0)

Must dash- it's now time to gasp at restaurant prices and late reservation times. Not to mention making the agonizing decision WHAT TO TAKE WITH ME on he big trip. (And research local yarn shops!)

Triumph, Tragedy & Yarn Shopping

I am feeling the full spectrum of emotions on the knitting front these days. One minute I am swinging on bliss that my latest blanket project is off the needles, on the other end, I am wallowing in the mitten that bit me back just a little too hard. And whether I was celebrating, or wallowing- I also bought yarn. Sit back and let me show you what's happening.

Firstly- let's begin on a positive. MY BLANKET IS DONE and it is lovely. (And yes, it resembles a girly princess birthday cake.)

Pattern: Classic Ripples by Meredith Montross
Yarn: Bernat Baby Softee Solids in "Pink", "White" and "Soft Lilac" (Acrlyic and I'm NOT apologizing for it!)
Needles: US size 6
Thoughts: I'm actually very satisfied with this- it's soft and pretty and I kind of find myself having a hard time parting with it. That's not to say I won't, (because how many baby blankets does a childless woman need?), it's just to say I'm a little fond of it. BUT, and oh is is it a big BUT here- this is one boring pattern. B.O.R.I.N.G. If you want inane knitting- look no further.

So- feeling triumphant- and proud of myself I celebated like a knitter- and I bought yarn: (Totally impractical, but pretty and unbearably soft yarn.)

It's Twist of Fate Bunny Love- and it's part angora and silk and so deliciously soft I just run it over my skin to feel it sometimes. It's also insanely impractical, given that it's cobweb lace weight and I have never knit lace in my life. However- I feel like if I ever have the time to experiment again and my friends take a break from the pro-creating for five minutes, this is just the yarn I want to play with. I bought it on a wim at the "Not Sock Summit" event we had in Calgary for those of us feeling a little bitter that we weren't in Portland. The lovely Erynn brought the yarn- and apparently has zero respect for my yarn diet.

Celebrating more- I committed myself to a little mitten knitting, given that I have been so charmed by the Druid Mittens. I spent Friday in Saskatoon- and while my friend was at work, I snuggled up on her couch with my ipod and the mitten. I had dreams of coming home with one mitten off the needles and feeling and additional sense of "Oh My God I'm Awesome!" feeling.

Oh my God I am NOT awesome. Behold- a mitten so badly screwed up- I could not fix it. (If you want to sob, I'd understand.)

I started dropping stitches on the side cables. The yarn is dark, and small, and the cables are tight and try as I did, I could not pick up the stitches and they just kept dropping. I had to stop and face my fate. Restart. 75% done a mitten and I have to rip the whole thing back. Tragedy of tragedies! And so I ripped back.

All the way back... *sigh*.

All those tight little cables, bobbles and stitches didn't want to be torn up- so instead of ripping nicely, it looked like this when I was done:

*sigh*

I can't even use that yarn any more. I've wasted alpaca and I feel so sad!!! I still think I have enough yarn to knit a pair of the mittens again- but do I have the heart to do it? Screwing up that mitten really sucked the wind out of my sail. Suddenly I don't feel so keen on knitting on it anymore. SO, I wound the yarn back up, put it in a ziploc bag, and I'm not going to look at it for awhile until I can get past what it put me through. Perfectly good alpaca-- gone forever. *sigh*

Facing the brunt of my tragedy, I was left with no choice but to console myself. I bought more yarn.

This is "Jubilee Alpaca"- pure worsted alpaca yarn from a farm in Saskatchewan. It's another softee. My very patient friend in Saskatoon (who is not a knitter*) took me to not one, but TWO yarn stores** during my visit and I fell in love with this. Miss E took me to the "Wool Emporium" after I had a tip from the lovely Anne that they carried local wools and yarn. I walked into the store and made a bee line to the "wall of Sask". (They have a wall dedicated to Saskatchewan yarn producers and it is AWESOME.) The lovely couple who owned the shop were very helpful and so charming I coudln't help it, I joined their shop's club and I'm going to have to figure out a way to get some more of this alpaca- STAT. I justified this purchase by telling myself I'd knit the mitts I promised my father in law nearly a year ago. I am convinced that he is never going to want to take these mittens off his hands agai. I'm crossing my fingers that there might be enough for mini mitts for me- this stuff is glorious. I paid more "generously" than I ususally do for yarn, but it felt good to support a local producer and I couldn't not leave with this yarn. Seriously- I'm thinking about taking it to work so I can pet it on bad days!

And so, dear reader- it's been a big knitting week around my humble home. I'd experienced the good, the bad and the ugly, in a matter of speaking and I've survived it all thanks to the healing powers of yarn. My email tells me that my latest Knitpicks order is destined to arrive tomorrow or Wed and I need to enjoy my last little time away from the blanket knitting before it all starts again. Hopefully that's going to be a story of triumph! :-)

*Seriously- how awesome is it that she took me there on a horrificly rainly, miserable day? She is made of awesome. I shall make her socks!

** I also feel I should note that I visited the Prairie Lily in Saskatoon who not only had a wonderful selection of yarns, but an incredibly friendly and helpful person working.**

Look How Far I've Come!

Blog posts have been brief- yes I know. Brief mostly because I am knitting the worldest longest blanket. I think I've been knitting this blanket for at least 5 years now. No- really, it feels like 5 years. HOW AM I ONLY 26 INCHES ALONG WHEN I HAVE BEEN KNITTING THIS BLANKET FOR FIVE YEARS!?!? What was my life like before I started knitting this blanket? I don't remember. Here is a photo of it in it's current status. (Goal is 38-40 Inches in length)

Since essentially this is the same picture I showed you last time I came here to post, except with a few additional inches, I thought I'd show you something else. Something interesting... something that I haven't told you about before.

Behold! MY VERY FIRST PROJECT!

Yes. That is a Blanket. Yes. It is knit in the most horrible acrylic manufactured. Yes- I am INSANE for thinking a blanket would be a good project to start on. To be fair, I knit a never-ending-garter-stitch-scarf of doom to learn the knit stitch- but this was my goal. My envsioned first project- an afgan. You'll notice that it doesn't look even in this picture, that's not bad photography, that's "first time knitting" skills at their finest.

This afghan took me a year to knit. Let me say that it again. I did not have the satisfaction of a finished object FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR! (Be greatful I didn't have a knitting blog then, imagine how bored you'd be!) This was knit in pieces- 10 long pieces I then sewed together. When I started, I knitted so loosely, so afraid to pull the yarn too tight. But then, as time wore on- I knit tighter, and tighter and tighter and TIGHTER so that the last piece was nearly half the size of the first piece!

To give you an idea of size- I took a photo of this so you understand my determination- the sheer size of this undertaking is knitting nievety at it's finest. This is the blanket- on my queen sized bed....

Please do not blame this sheer insane knitting idea of mine on my Mother in Law- this is a woman who tried her hardest to talk me out of such a huge undertaking. She was also incredibly supportive- when I envitably made a mistake- I'd call in her in absolute panic. (nearly in tears) "PHYLLIS! I SCREWED UP!!!!" (Yoda like in her wisdom) "I'm sure it's not so bad Jen- we can fix it up." Calm, rational, and amazed that I was still actually knitting the damn thing, she'd meet me for coffee and pick up my dropped stitches or tink back my work to get me back on my way.

As the number of mistakes began to grow, (OH she was patient... I think about it now and I owe so much help on mistakes as karma for my own), we got creative. I'd meet her husband, (my father in law now--- don't even get me started on what a TRAGEDY it would have been for my knitting had I ever broken up with my now husband!) over lunch since we worked in the same vicinity, and he'd take it home and my mother in law would look at it and wonder what I had done now. She'd spend her evening, fixing my boo boos and my father in law would meet me the next day over lunch and deliver the goods. She always got it back to me so quickly- as if she knew if I waited to long, I'd just give up.

Eventually I learned to fix most of my own mistakes- and I'd grind out a color square a night, carving a welt in my yarn tension finger, from pulling the yarn so tight. When MiL and I would meet she'd always gently comment that "it's getting just a little tight, you might want to loosen up your knitting" as if I was mostly doing a perfect job, when in fact, especially those last few portions, my knitting is essentially bullet proof.

But- one year and a month after I cast on, (and I'd literally go a month at a time without knitting a stitch, I can't even believe that now), I cast off. And MiL was there again- helping me figure out how I was going to sew those 10 scarves together, especially when they were all different sizes, due to my ever changing gauge. I eventually finished that blanket- and we, (MiL, FiL & me) all looked on in amazement- SHOCKED that I actually finished. Thank you Phyllis and Arnold for all your support to get me hooked on this craft- without you I'd probably not be obsessed! :-)

Then I took several months off... except I missed having a project, something to do- and so I cast on again. Another blanket... that took me close to another year! So I guess knitting all these blankets is really coming full circle for me. I started out a blanket knitter- and it will probably always be a project that I'm drawn too.

Even now- I've joined the Western Canadian Oddball Baby Blanket Society (WCOBB) where I'll be knitting 6 inches of a blanket for charity. I'm slated to knit the 3rd section on "butternut" and I can't wait to get it in my hands and add my piece.

Okay- enough chatter... more knitting. THIS BABY BLANKET ISN'T GOING TO KNIT ITSELF!

You Have Good Taste!

Back on June 8th- I hit the blog asking you for your opinion and many of you, FIFTY SEVEN OF YOU, took the time to share your opinion. A short time later a winner was chosen and I set to work knitting the blanket that my (adoring?) public voted on. On month later I'm left to reflect that you are have pretty excellent taste!

Pattern: Pretty Fans and Feathers by John Feddersen Jr.
Yarn: Linea Baby Baby Star in pink and white
Needles: US 5
Notes: SUCH A QUICK AND SATISFYING KNIT! I cast on 216 to compensate for the smaller yarn and needles.

I was very concerned that the vergiated yarn would 'pool' instead of evenly distribute the color and the last thing I wanted was to knit something "patchy". Instead the yarn distributed lovely- and the color looks cohesive with my vision. I'm so glad I let you decide! Check out this close up below

With that off the needles on July 14, my brain needed a mini vacation to prepare for the next blanket. And so, I did what any knitter who needs to just not knit a blanket right now, could do, and I worked at getting caught back up on my hat total.

8 more hats to bring me closer to being on track for the year end goal of 52. I'm still a little off, but at least less so now, than a week ago! :-)

BUT- that's not all I did- I also cast on a new purse sock that I'll feature when it actually is a little more finished. (The cuff is done!) AND, I even devoted a whole evening to knitting the Druid mittens, which I was so enchanted with, and I love so much, it was painful to have to put them down. The YARN PEOPLE! The yarn is SO SOFT-- I just want to lay it all out on my bed and roll in it. It's so, so, so, SOFT and yummy!

However, one on a strict blanket deadline cannot spare her time long to knit "fun distractions" and Saturday came, and my mental enforcer kicked in and told me I had to cast on the new blanket. And so, with much saddness, I put away all the fun knitting projects that see progress very quickly, and I pulled out the yarn and the needles and cast on the newest baby blanket due at the end of August:

Luckily the weather was nice and I could sit on my patio and knit outdoors- and so I did, and as of this writing, the blanket is looking like this:

I have to say it- I'm loving the way it looks! Hopefully my enjoyment at how cute this is knitting up is going to carry me to at least 30 inches before I get a serious case of ennui.

And so gentle readers, it appears I'm off again on a new blanket challenge! Keep watching here soon, as I may rely on your most excellent taste again to help me vote on the blanket that will be knit once this one is done.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

As I've discussed here on many occaisons, I always have a project in my purse, for those last minute "oh my god I have time to knit" or "I need to calm down so I don't hurt people" or "must.touch.yarn" moments I find myself in. (You would not believe how often I find myself with the sudden urge to touch yarn, I must be truely obsessed.)

Sadly- purse socks, while highly useful in keeping me sane, are also SLOW going progress wise. It doesn't normally take me four months to make 2 socks!! But every once in a while, and as the perfect analogy of "slow and steady wins the race", you cast the socks off and are offerred repreive from your boredom. And just in time!

Viola- Purse Socks #2 off the needles, and on the model! (Thanks to the husband for lending his legs for this lovely photo shoot. I'm kind of mean, I made him wear thick wool socks on a very warm day... but only for a few minutes!)

Pattern: Mr. Pitt's Socks by Kaityln Wong
Yarn: Patons Kroy in "Coal" (2.5 skeins)
Needles: US 1 or 2.5 mm
Notes: I RAN OUT OF YARN. I only had two skeins and I ran out near the time when it came to do the toe decreases. I sucked up my pride and bought another skein, in an entirely different dye lot, and wonder of wonders... YOU DON'T SEE THE DIFFERENCE! Oh happy day!!

They aren't flashy, they aren't bold- but they're practical, and warm and I can think of one man who's going to have warm feet come this winter. (HI DAD!)

They're good socks really. A simple knit but with a sophisticated finish. I'm quite proud of myself really.

**Although I'm super happy I can knit something else now!**

Stampede Yahoo!

Well- I've only been talking about it for months, so I had to eventually own up to it. This year I entered Nennie's Knee Socks and the Green Leaf Baby blanket in the Calgary Stampede Western Showcase. I even convinced the MiL to enter her knitting too at the last minute. And to say our first year entering was a success would be an understatement! We both did really well!

Coming in Third place in the "Knitting-Open" category (Class 1033)- my Green Leaf Blanket!

Coming in Second place in the "Knitting-Open" category (Class 1001)- MiL's Green Socks!

And very surprisingly, coming in FIRST place in the "Knitting" category (Class 1002) and placing SECOND in the SECTION (HOLY CRAP!!!!!)- The Knee Socks!

We're both so excited!! Congratulations to all the other winners at Stampede- your stuff is beautiful!

I should also mention that MiL entered a very very cute little baby sweater- and although it wasn't a ribbon winner, it sure was cute so of course I'm posting it here. (Trying to tell me something MiL? ;-))

Making the big wins even more exciting and special, our little monthly knitting group, the "Knit Wits" made a point of going down to see the prizes in person and as a group. We've all been knitting together for nearly 2 years. It's such a supportive, creative and strong group of ladies, I'm so very lucky that they welcomed me into their knitting flock. It was only fitting to take a photo! (missing 2- missed your Rhonda and Sylvia!)

(From L-R: Robin, My Mom (Shirley), Me, MiL (Phyllis), Nancy & Mary) (You'll notice Robin presented both MiL and I with "Stampede Necklaces" to wear in honor of our wins!)

Next year ladies-- I expect you all to enter!!! (And yes mom, you too... I know you're new, but keep it up, you'll be amazed at your progress! We've all made big strides in the last 2 years knitting together!)

All there really is left to say is YAHOO! (And see you next year at the Stampede!)

New Stash!

I mentioned here awhile back that I received my final shipment of Wollmeise- and I figure it's safe to show it off now, since everyone in the club should have their shipments by now.

God it's beautiful isn't it? The colorway is called "Blue Bell". I think this is probably my favorite color in the whole lot that was shipped out in the club-- and I'm waiting for special inspiration to strike. Whatever this yarn end up being... it's going to be beautiful!

I'm also sad- because this is my last "easy" grab at the Wollmeise. Being in the sock club, (which sadly will not continue next year), allowed me a skein every two months, without fighting with everyone on the site, and trying to be the first to scoop up whatever is available. And don't even get me started on how badly it kills me to see photos from the new Wollmeise shop in Germany- a place I'm not going to get to for a little while now. (ALTHOUGH if you're going please tell me- I will provide you with a wish list and $$$!)

I also had a "wee" fall off the wagon last week, (I went 77 days before having this accident!), when I accidently stumbled onto "Addies" in Cochrane. I promised my family I'd be quick, but I couldn't leave the store without this in hand!

I just love the mix of blues, purples and greens- and can't help put imagine these in the prettiest "monkey" pattern you've ever seen! If I ever get to knit socks again, (because oh my does it ever feel like I'm cursed to knit blankets forever right now), this could very possibly be cast on very soon!

I'm planning to attend the Pudding Yarn Stampede sale this Friday- where there probably will be a little more on the way in added stash. (Pudding has such beautiful sock yarns right now!) I'm currently obsessing over Kim Hargreaves book "Nectar" and the beautiful sweater patterns it has- so it may be something that finds its way home with me, along with some yarn to knit one cardigan up in particular. But let's wait to see what happens on Friday before I get ahead of myself here. (I'm not sure books will be on sale- I know that yarns will be 20% off and discounted yarns will probably be 75% off... but I can't speak to anything else there.)

Other than the newly acquired stash- progress continues to slog along on the baby blanket. Here's a shot of it, at the half way mark.

Unblocked it's sitting at about 15" right now- but once this gets pinned out, I'm confident we're going to can add an extra 5 inches or so to it at least.... so we're going to have a decent sized blanket on our hands. I've started ball 4 out of 6 today- so progress is steady, but kind of boring. I'm already gearing up to figure out what my next project will be. (I have purple and white acrylic that needs to get de-stashed... got any recommendations?)

I'll leave you to admire the pretty, pretty stash some more- I have some blanket knitting to attend to!