After a brief moment of contemplation this weekend, I realized sometimes I am a very lucky girl.
And this time my luck is coming in the form of free yarn! (and who doesn't think getting free yarn is damn lucky?)
First -- last weekend
Mom and I stopped at my grandparents. My grandma had been going through her stash, and came across 10 balls of Bouquet Softee in a lovely peach, yellow and cream mix. Deciding she wasn't going to use it all, she asked me if I could use it. She kept three balls for herself (to make a baby set for a friend of my uncle's) and gave me the other seven.
After finishing up my elephants and a couple socks, I cast on for
Serenity earlier this week.
The subtle colours are perfect for the cabled pattern. This will, of course, be going to Dave's friends for their new baby, but I am thinking about extending the pattern and making one for myself. It's so pretty and relatively easy too.
Then, earlier this week, mom offered me some Patons Beehive Baby Sport. She wasn't too fond of knitting with it (it's really splitty) so I got two balls in a pretty red/pink/yellow mix.
Last night I cast on for
Little Sister's Dress, which is an absolutely adorable pattern. This is also for Dave's friends baby, but I think I may make one for my niece as well. It's way too cute and so easy to do. Someone on Ravelry has done it with the yoke and hem in green and the body in white and it's adorable.
Mom also gave me two more ball of this yarn in a more mauve colourway, but I haven't decided what to do with it yet.
But the wonderful yarnness isn't done yet.
On Friday I accompanied mom to Coldwater (near Barrie) to my great aunt's funeral. It's always an interesting event when my entire family gets together, and while it was a sad occasion, we always seem to make the best of it.
Mom and I took my Grandma on a side trip to the Purple Sock, a little yarn store in Coldwater. While there I fell in love with a huge hank of Fiddlesticks Wool Silk yarn.
So Mom bought it for me (I have a feeling it was a bribe so I wouldn't tell Dad how much she spent on all the other yarn she bought that day.)
And Rocky promptly claimed it as his own and made a nest out of it.
I'm still debating on what to do with it, but I'm open to suggestions on simple but pretty shawl patterns.
And as if that weren't enough, my Grandma was also given a huge stash of yarn that belonged to my Great Aunt. She invited
Jenn and I over on Saturday and we sorted through it all an split it up. I ended up with a garbage bag full, as well as several afghan squares that just need to be sewn together.
What a week.... and now it looks like I have some serious stash busting to do!
I really like how the stripes got thicker as the dress got wider
This is a fantastic little pattern and a nice quick knit.
....My lawn covered in grape hyacinths. This won't last long because I guarantee my landlord will have it mowed by the end of the week... but it is pretty. You can also see my insanely over grown roses -- clipping them back is next weekend's project, but they will look like that again by July. They are gorgeous in full bloom though.
Of course he didn't stick around long:
Although hidden by the roses, my garden was also full of tulips... so I picked them all!
Of course, these will probably be toast by the time I wake up tomorrow, as somebody (aka Mr. Rocky) looks upon all my flowers as his own personal salad.
I designed these because all the other patterns out there are in garter stitch, and I wanted something with a smoother look.
Last night I cast on for Little Sister's Dress, which is an absolutely adorable pattern. This is also for Dave's friends baby, but I think I may make one for my niece as well. It's way too cute and so easy to do. Someone on Ravelry has done it with the yoke and hem in green and the body in white and it's adorable.
So Mom bought it for me (I have a feeling it was a bribe so I wouldn't tell Dad how much she spent on all the other yarn she bought that day.)
And Rocky promptly claimed it as his own and made a nest out of it.
I have to admit I have a bit of an obsession with feather and fan. I blame my mother, who made me a feather and fan afghan when I was young. It was done in a shade of dark orange with a yellow ripple and I loved it. I'm not sure what happened to it -- I still have my Strawberry Shortcake blanket from when I was a kid, but not that one -- maybe I loved it to death.
Why is it, give the choice of three perfectly good boxes, cats will always try to stuff themselves into the smallest one?
Obviously not well enough. No sooner did I finish posting yesterday, than I turned around and saw Tux with it. They are all making good use of it now and have even pulled some of the stuffing through the knitting.
A sock yarn afghan. This one is going to take a while... not necessarily because the squares take long -- I can do four little squares, or one big one in just under two hours -- but because I don't have very much leftover sock yarn. In fact, all those squares are from leftovers I stole from mom.
I made this one with sock yarn (After working with acrylic for so long, Cherry Tree Hill really is a treat! Sproing!)
The larger one is knit with worsted.
To fill full of cat nip of course! I gave it to him last night, and I have no idea where he's hidden it this morning. he has a habit of stashing his favourite toys so the others can't touch them.
I'm not sure why I dreaded finishing this one so much. It's not a complicated pattern, I just got really bored with it. (And the back legs really are designed badly)
I only made a few modifications. First in the way the legs are sew on. The pattern says to gather up the top after sewing and then attach, but that made it look like weird sausage legs. The other modification was an accident... I knit a few too many increase rows on the bum, so it's a little wider than it should be... but there's nothing wrong with a well padded behind.
But now it's 1 a.m. and I really should get to bed.
Don't knit the second sock.... at least not immediately. Knit another sock or two in between, and then when you go back to do the second sock, it's almost as refreshing as knitting a new sock!
This is a great little pattern that I've been wanting to make for a while. Well actually I made it months ago... you may remember, it was green and I was going to felt it. Well.. I finally got around to felting it the other day, and ... it was kind of a failed experiment. The yarn (I don't remember what it was) didn't felt well, and then the cats ran off with the feet and I still can't find all of them.
Sorry for the crappy picture. The sock is too big for me, and Dave wasn't here to model. I also don't like taking pictures with the flash, but it was too dark last night.
Now I'm not one to get all excited about fibre -- I like knitting, I like nice fibre (especially alpaca -- though admittedly my love it has waned since Dave's sweater stretched) but I'm practical creature at heart (sometimes)... I don't have the money to get all wound up about yarn. Shoes -- yes, yarn -- no. (No I'm not a knitter with a capital 'K' ... and I'm okay with that)
The really painful thing is Julie's store is less than a 10 minute jaunt up the highway from my work. I could just drive up there as easy as pie and come home with it and start knitting right away. But I don't get paid till next Friday.... I WANT IT NOW!
(Courtesy of mom)
(That's all the makings of Alpha-Ghetti sandwiches - YUM!)
If you're where it's snowing, I hope you're warm and have lots of knitting.
As I said before, I got this yarn off mom months ago. It was really difficult finding a pattern that would work because of all the colour.... so I designed my own.
It's a pretty quick project (for a shawl) and makes great TV knitting.
