Less planning, more knitting!

It's been one of those mornings. I click on one thing and then another and suddenly I've got more things that I want to do than I can reasonably expect to do.

It started with Lime & Violet's Daily Chum. They were talking about some Knitty surprise, which included a new sock pattern. It was designed for multicolored hand dyed yarns. It has a groovy new technique. I had to download Target Practice immediately. I've been looking for a pattern for this Bliss: I think this pattern is uh, right on target.
Ahead of this are two single socks, a small shawl, two pair of Sock Madness socks, and a pair of Cookie A knitalong socks. Also, the new Knit.1 has sock patterns including a brand new Cookie A design. I'm trying to wait to go hunt down the magazine, but it's difficult.

While I was at Knitty, I spotted Imagine. A tip of the hand-knitted beret to designer Karen Alfke for making a pattern in a wide range of sizes. This one won't make the queue until I can afford to buy the yarn for this. Still, it's there taunting me. I'll put the pattern away with the World Afghan & Pillows. Thank goodness I didn't have this yesterday. I would've been tempted big time to buy the yarn at Stitches South.

I stopped when my tote was full

I just got back from Stitches South. It was yarn heaven. I had a little luck with finances this week, so I was able to budget a little bit for stash enhancement. I manged to stay under budget, too:

• 6 ounces of alpaca roving from Windy Hill Alpaca Farm, which is here in Georgia.
  
• a ball of Plymouth Sockotta from Discontinued Brand Name Yarn. It was only $5, so I couldn't not buy it.
  
• Berroco Sox metallic. If it glows in the dark or is shiny, I must have it.
  
• Malibrigo sock. I was after semisolid and this was kind of semisolid and I think I got a little discount on it when I bought it and the Berroco at Webs booth. Come on, it's mmmmmmMalabrigo!
  
• The yellow (jonquil) and pink (bazooka) yarns are from Lisa Souza Knitwear and Dyeworks. I was amazed to talk to the actual Lisa Souza herself. Miss Lime and Miss Violet used to talk about her all the time, so I felt like I was in the presence of royalty.
  
• On the far edge of the vendor area was a woman selling African fabric. When I saw the pink and gold stuff, it was all over. I had a little fat quarter Friday right on the spot. I've been thinking of redesigning my project bags so they use one or two fat quarters, so that was my excuse for that purchase.
  

I got to look at all sorts of cool stuff. The things that really appealed to me were all in laceweight: shawls, scarves, vests. I touched my first garment made from Quiviut. Windy Valley Musk Ox was selling balls of it. $90 could get you enough for a scarf. Gita Maria had these really cute scarf kits, complete with a wide variety of handmade shawl pins. There were a whole lot of other great things to see, but I made myself stop when the tote filled up. It was worth the trip.

Progress Report

• I decided to go to Stitches South. I got a discount for buying my ticket online. I'm going on Friday during the day, when I hope it won't be too crowded. I may do a teeny bit of stash enhancement, but mostly I expect to just window shop. Hey, stop laughing!
  
• Swallowtail Shawl is done, but I have over a third of the yarn left. I was reading some posts on Ravelry which said that some people did some extra rows to make the shawl bigger. I am going to do that with the leftover yarn. The bad news is that I will yet again take a dip in the frog pond. The good news is that I know how the border patterns are supposed to line up and there's a really good chance I'll do them correctly this time.
  
• I only have one leg/two pattern repeats to do on the third Sock Madness sock. If I was competing, I'd still be in the competition. It's a fun pattern. There's just enough stuff going on to keep me interested and not so much that I get frustrated and scream at my cats.
  

Why...

sm33
Originally uploaded by Paula knits

...can't lovely hand-dyed all-natural fiber sock yarn knit up as nicely as this Berroco Comfort Sock? When I knit with other yarns, there's a little line along the bottom of the foot. It's where two of the dpns meet. With this yarn, it looks like they were knit on circulars.

Silk's so much nicer than nylon. Just about anything is better than acrylic. Arrrrgh!

Not socks

I needed more distraction than most socks provide. I grabbed the mohair/silk fingering weight stuff I got in a swap and started in on a tam. It quickly became clear that even with bigger needles, the hat was not going to be big enough. I hopped into the frog pond and started over with the Swallowtail Shawl. I like that the dye job came out in the random way I intended. Mohair might not be the best for this, but it's still fun.

Fraternal Socks

fraternal
Originally uploaded by Paula knits

This is what happens when one neglects to check to see if a ball of yarn is complete or not. The body of both socks are identical. I got to the last pattern row of the second sock before I ran out of yarn. Lesson learned.

Second Sock Madness 3 sock

This is fun. My colorwork isn't as smooth as I'd like it to be, but it is improving.

Knitting Addiction Test

You can take it here. I don't know how accurate it is, though. This was my result:

You scored 56%. You aren't addicted. Nope. Although the fact you
found and took this test is a sign you have potential to become addicted. Why
don't you head to your LYS and fondle yarn. That will help you progress to
higher levels of addiction.