Froot Loop

frootloop1
Originally uploaded by Paula knits

I finished the sweater with a day to spare. It's big and baggy but also soft and comfy. I'm not posting a picture of it. It's a big dark blue blob of knitting.

I created my own sock club a couple of months ago. I pulled patterns and yarn from my stash and made up four kits. This is the first one. The pattern's from Knitty and is called Froot Loop. The yarn is not the best for showing off the fun pattern, but I'm okay with that. It's Socks That Rock Lightweight from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. It's my all-time favorite yarn base. The colorway is Christmas Balls.

After over a quarter mile of dark blue stockinette, I had to have an antidote.

Ravelympics - Day 15

kbc11
Originally uploaded by Paula knits

I have one more sleeve and more than two days to go. I had to take a break from the sweater, so I made pink things: the first clue of the knit along socks and a fleece parka.

Too sleepy to knit, not sleepy enough to sleep. Sigh.

Ravelympics - Day 14

imagine
Originally uploaded by Paula knits

Only the sleeves need to be completed on the Imagine sweater. It's much darker blue in real life.

I got the yarn for a sock knitalong that starts next week. It came with the first clue, so I'm going to take a break from the sweater and knit 27 rounds of each of the socks. I'm a little stressed out and working with the sock (in sorority party pink) will cheer me up.

Ravelympics - Day 13

Most of the sweater front is done. No jury duty, so I should be able to finish the sweater in the time I have left. I'm going to tempt fate and take care of a non-knitting project today before I pick the needles back up.

Ravelympics - Day 12

The back of the sweater is done. The front of the sweater has begun. By this time tomorrow I'll know if I've got jury duty and if I'll be able to knit there if I do.

I might actually get this thing done and be able to wear it while I watch the Closing Ceremonies.

Ravelympics - Day 11

I'm only a couple of inches away from starting the armhole decreases on the sweater back. This means the biggest block of boring knitting for the entire garment is nearly done. How boring is it? It's so boring that I'm not taking a picture of it and I'm excited about starting the armhole decreases.

I appear to have majorly overestimated the amount of yarn I needed to knit the sweater. I'm adding several inches to the body length, so I couldn't go by the yardage in the pattern. Oh well, at least it's better than having not enough yarn.

Good fibery stuff I found online

It has been a good couple of weeks for stuff coming in the mail:

• Turtlepurl's yarns and notions is a shop I happened upon via Twitter. The proprietor was offering a one month Hope for Haiti yarn club, with a portion of the proceeds going to the relief effort. The offer is still available, and I'd recommend it. The sock yarn is Haiti-inspired, multicolored, and gorgeous. There are other goodies including stitch markers and Charteze. Charteze is a set of clever magnetic thingys that help you keep your place on a chart. If you don't do charts, they can also be used to keep your place if you're working on a pattern with row-by-row instructions. I like them very much. Shipping to the USA from Canada can sometimes be slow, but my package came much faster than I expected. Check out the club and the other things in her shop.
  
• I needed wanted some cat print fabric for a little project. The are about a quadrillion online fabric shops and I was in no mood to go digging for just what I wanted. A little Googling brought me to the fabric shoppe at Meowscape.com. There were many choices and I ended up buying several I couldn't possibly live without. There's a half-yard minimum, with very reasonable prices and shipping. The fabric was shipped promptly. Cat fabric is probably not something everyone wants, but if you do want some, go here.
  
• I had a lot of fun doing a mystery knit along from the Knitters Brewing Co.. When a repeat of a previous mystery knitalong was announced for next month, I decided I would do it. I also chose to buy their kit for the socks. My skein of Sorority Party Pink (there are several other colors available) arrived with the coordinating pink beads, the first part of the sock pattern, and a cute I (heart) 2 Knit cell phone leash. The yarn's a semisolid superwash wool/nylon blend in a generous 480 yard skein. Wendy's got all sorts of knitting goodies on her site and I'll definitely be going back there.
  
• Last but not least is Kim deBroin Mailhot of the Queen of Arts Studio. She participated in the One World One Heart event and I was delighted to be one of the winners from her blog. I was lucky enough to get my favorite piece, a pink batik bird. Thanks, Kim!