Stash Enhancement Saturday

The colorway is Nothing Says Screw You Like a Rainbow.  Odd name, but cool yarn.  It has rainbow stripes alternating with a blue sky with clouds.  I can't resist yarn that does something.

Finished Object Friday

Look, I actually finished something:

The sock pattern is Bovary by General Hogbuffer.  It was a mystery pattern where you get a clue every week or so for four weeks.  It was fun to do.  The yarn is a touch darker in real life, more of a light olive.  I liked it a lot.  It is Peppino from The Yarns of Rhichard Devrieze.  I have got to get some more of this stuff.  It is nice and twisty and springy like Koigu.  If memory serves, he used to be a dyer for them.

Hardly any progress Wednesday

I've spent most of the past week in and out of the frog pond.  I've started the Doctor Who Christmas sock something like four times.  Some of it looks like it will look okay after blocking.  Some of it absolutely does not.  I'm going to bag it all up and put it in hibernation.  I may end up doing much of it in duplicate stitch because I know I can do that correctly.  It would help if there was a picture of the completed sock, but I've been unable to locate one.

Oh, well.  It isn't that I don't have other things to work on.

Stash Enhancement Saturday

I got a box of yarn from Knit Picks this week.  I used it to restart the Doctor Who Christmas sock.  I may re-restart it.  Colorwork and I are not playing well together.

I wanted to keep the two cakes of this yarn in their original bag, so that's why the plastic.  It is called Whose Scarf? and was the final shipment from Knitcirus' Doctor Who club.  This wants to be socks but it hasn't told me what pattern yet.

I've got two special orders in the works from Etsy dyers.  One is the Dark Side of the Moon yarn and the other is that rainbow with cloud stripes. 

Yarn:  there are worse things to be addicted to.

Knitter's ADD Day aka WIP Wednesday

Name of the Doctor scarf, still hibernating.

Mystery Garden Afghan, square for week 29:

Note that the fuzziness is from the yarn and not my photographic ineptitude.

Arts and Crafts blanket, still hibernating.

Vigdis Backpack, all done except for lining.

Bovary Socks, new clue should be out today:

Willow the WIP will be holding some knitting when I acquire some toothpicks.  The designer said that she'll finish your WIPs when you are asleep.  I plan to sit her on the project bag that holds The Name of the Doctor scarf and see what happens.

Spoiler Socks:  toe of second sock is done.  This is the first.

Fuzziness in picture is from my ineptitude and not the yarn.  Likewise the next picture.

Sock Knitter's Shawl:

Doctor Who Christmas Sock:  yarn arrived yesterday.  Got halfway through the cuff when I realized that I should not have turned the chart upside down.  Restarted cuff, but there's not much to see yet.

Okay, now go see what Tammy and her pals are up to.

Arne & Carlos yarn

I got past one repeat of the yarn.  It took most of a 9.5" foot of a 72 stitch sock:

It starts with the solid white bit on the toe, goes to the orange and white part in the middle of the screen, the pattern reverses and begins again at the white stripe at the far right.  I've never had a self-patterning yarn do that.

I felt a little bit bad that I didn't wait until the Doctor Who swap arrived before buying the A&C yarn.  In my defense, I never expected my swap partner to be able to find it, let alone get it in a color I picked myself.  The good thing is that I can go ahead and use it for socks and for a shawl pattern.  I found The Sock Knitter's Shawl and thing it would be big fun to knit with this yarn.

I spotted something on Ravelry that the author calls a mega-pattern.  It's an appropriate name.  It has 52 Christmas/winter motifs plus hat, pillow, sock, and scarf patterns you can use them to make.  The motifs are really nicely done.  I think I must have this pattern.  It has a cat in a Santa hat that looks just like my Jasmine cat.  Here's the Ravelry link to InfiniChristmas.

OMG Swap arrived

I can't believe the stuff in this swap.  My partner not only managed to find some Arne&Carlos, she crocheted like crazy.  Here's some of the things:

The pink and black object is a Dalek kitchen towel, one of those that you can button around a handle.
The gray creature holding a rose is a Bad Wolf.
The blue and white thing is a Tardis yarn bowl.
In front of that is a Star Whale.
In front of that is a mini Adipose.
Opposite that is the Are You My Mummy boy, complete with gas mask!
In front is a shawlette decorated with little flowers.

She also made me some Jelly Babies (crocheted ones) and another yarn bowl.  There are a dozen mini yarn skeins, too.  Now this is only the fiber-related stuff.  There were more things besides.  I'm totally blown away.  If anyone's looking for me, I'm off to make a cup of coffee to have with the cookies I got.  I'll be doing that while I read the Doctor Who book and magazine.

Friday Frida Finish

The only thing I have completely done this week are my Frida mittens.  They probably shouldn't count because I was too darn lazy to block them before taking a picture.

I'm sure they'd look a whole lot better if I'd do that.

I broke down and started a pair of socks with one of the Arne & Carlos yarns.  I've knit half a foot (half of the foot, not six inches) and am still watching for the pattern in the yarn to repeat.  Some small sections have appeared more than once, but not the whole thing. 

I thought my shopping attack was over, but apparently not.  I bought a sock pattern this morning.  Just what I needed, right?  I think it is called Time Warp and it looks like it has tilting Tardises on it.  It was on sale, half price, so I had to buy it.

Empty mailbox and yarn mischief

I've been waiting semi-patiently for my Doctor Who swap to arrive.  I was starting to worry since the swaps were all supposed to be out no later than ten days ago.  I looked at the participants list and there are a bunch of us who haven't gotten them yet.  I'll stop worrying.  If my spoiler happens to read this, I'm not worried about you.  I have letter carrier problems periodically.  The people who lived in the address one number off from mine moved out a couple of weeks ago.  I keep imagining that packages for me are sitting on their doorstep or being forwarded to them.

I think a yarn club shipment may be missing.  It also could be that it was sent a month ago and I managed to not get it into my Ravelry stash.  More investigation is in order before I bother the club person.

I went over to Etsy and checked on two different rainbow-ish yarns that I've been wanting.  I broke down and did special requests for both.  We shall see what becomes of that.  The little devil that screams "BUY YARN" is much louder than the "you don't need more yarn" angel right now.  I might have to go and order some more to get it to shut up.  :)

ETA:  I've now got a big box on the way from Knit Picks.   Most is for the Doctor Who Xmas sock and the rest is for completing the mystery garden afghan.

WIP Wednesday

There are too many works in progress around here.  I really do need to finish some things.

Name of the Doctor Scarf:  still hibernating.

Mystery Garden Afghan:  still keeping up with the weekly squares.  New colors will appear in the next two weeks.

Arts & Crafts Blanket:  got distracted by other things and haven't touched it recently.

Doctor Who Christmas Sock:  decided to wait until the final clues come out to see if there will be more yarn I need to buy for it.

Vigdis Backpack:  this is my July Love Your Library project.  The knitting's done but it needs a button, lining, and for the drawstring/straps to be put on correctly.

Mad Color Socks:  I found a pattern that requires two different wild color yarns.  I knew I had some from Mad Color so that's what I used.  It's bordering on clown barf, but it is fun to knit:

Bovary:  it's a mystery pattern from General Hogbuffer.  I've got clue 1 done for both socks.  

Spoilers Socks:  I would've started these but I was afraid of running out of needles.  I want to use some of that Arne&Carlos!

Go visit Tammy and see what she and her pals have been up to.

Stash Enhancement Saturday

Woo hoo!  The Arne & Carlos arrived from Wild Purls:

I'm glad there were pictures of it knitted into socks to pick from.  The balls of yarn look a lot like some Regia I've had in the past.  The A&C have much more fun patterns.  Based just on the colors, my favorite is Summer (the ones on top).

Happy Independence Day to all who might be celebrating.

Finished Object Friday

It's the magic yarn ball shawl.  It's nothing to write home about, but it was a lot of fun to do.

My swap partner got her package and loved it.  Whew!  She also posted a whole bunch of pictures in the Thank You thread which made me very happy.  The last swap I did, my partner said she'd post pictures and thanks and then did not.  I was not a happy bunny.  I am now, though.  A hoppy bunny?

WIP Wednesday

Only one thing in progress that has had any progress made on it in the past week:

It's the start of my Frida mittens.  The colors come from one of Frida Kahlo's paintings at the Detroit Institute of Arts.  They are also darker than what appears here.  My camera will either take a picture with the correct color or in focus.  Never both at the same time.

The section that's being knit right now has two colors that are very close together.  I may need to get my Dazor magnifying lamp out to do it.

I'm stalking the letter carrier.  More like entering tracking numbers at the USPS site.  The Doctor Who swaps are in the mail.  I think I've got one or maybe two yarn club mailings on the way.  Thanks to Tammy the Enabler, I have 3 balls of that Arne and Carlos yarn I've been craving.  Go visit Tammy and see what she and other folks have been up to.