I went to the Homespun Yarn Party on Sunday and boy, what a madhouse! Confession time...I don't like crowds. I'm not exactly claustrophobic or anything, but I'm just not in to having to muscle my way through something. 99% of the time if I look at a booth or a store or what have you and it's clogged with people, I'll just walk away. So when we walked in and I looked around at the gobs of people crowding around the vendor booths - I almost wanted to go home. Eventually, though, we worked out a general system, were we sort of orbited around. Almost every booth had lulls, so when we passed one that didn't look too crowded, I popped in, took a look around, and left. But, I have to say I probably would have bought more if the idea of standing crammed together waiting for the register didn't turn me off so badly.
Well, I'm on a budget, so it's good that I didn't spend much. I wanted to take the entire Neighborhood Fiber Company booth home with me, but I stuck to these:
Capital Luxury Sock in Palisades (blue) and Kalorama Circle (pink). I like the pink one because it makes me think of cherry blossom season. There were a bunch of colors I coveted deeply, and I might have bought a couple more if money weren't so tight and the yardage weren't so short - only 375 yards per skein. This 80/10/10 blend (wool/cashmere/nylon) is one of my favorite yarns to work with but it is pretty darn pricey. I guess the yardage is pretty standard for this yarn, though, my beloved HM Casbah is in the same range. Just a little tight for a shawl, though, and I think the pink one especially would make such a lovely shawl. The blue one I am thinking may be destined for mansocks. We'll see - he has big feet and I don't want to run short.
This skein of Dragonfly Fibers Dragon Sock will make a stunning Sakaki, I'm thinking. Red is a color that protects from illness and demons in Japanese culture, so it seems quite appropriate for the shawl.
There is so much color depth in that skein and it is so rich and beautiful in real life. As stunning as the picture is, it doesn't do it justice at all.
I suffered from serious project ADD this weekend, some of it stemming from laziness and some from disorganization. I finally worked my shawl design charts out last week (I was having some problems), so Saturday, I started out working on my shawl design swatch and I got through the first chart, but then I couldn’t find my printout of the other two charts. Reprinting it would have meant carrying my big laptop from upstairs (because my files are in Word, and the netbook doesn't have Word installed) to the printer which is downstairs, and I decided...NEXT! I picked up my second Taygete and worked on that for a while. I ran out of yarn on my CC, but I thought I had enough of the MC that I didn't need to wind any more of that. So I wound the CC and not more than fifteen or twenty minutes later, I ran out of MC. Now, I could have just gone ahead and wound the second skein while I was up there, but noooo, I didn't, so rather than go back upstairs and wind another ball of yarn, I decided...NEXT! I started working on Spanish Moss. I did that for a little while, but there is so far left to go on that, and frankly I'm having a little trouble getting the yarn to slide across my needles (my beautiful new signature needles! why have you abandoned me? Because I am using the wrong size and refuse to admit it, that's why. Despite the tightness of my knitting and that the recommended needle size is a 5...I kind of thing I may need to go to a 3 for this yarn. which means ripping out what I've done so far. Apparently I would rather write a paragraph of parenthetical statements than plainly admit that I need to do that). My charity shawl was so close to finished, and I loathed the idea of having it sit there staring at me for another day, so I picked up that instead. And, in the process of all this switching around, I picked up at least three other projects but either couldn’t find the needles or couldn’t find the pattern pages. Organizational fail, for sure. So, end results?
My second Taygete (done in Mirasol Tupa) is in excellent shape. I finished Chart A of the lace last night, so I'm hoping I can maybe finish it this weekend, since I am anticipating the release of Asterope very soon (finished test knits are popping up on the Rav page), and Sakaki as soon as Romi can get it ready. I decided after the fact to switch my contrast colors and main colors, which means I had to fudge the end tip of the shawl so that I had the right color with which to pick up stitches, but I think it was the right call. The turquoise was so overwhelming before, and I think the lace is helping to bring out the darker color a little more. Of course, it doesn't show in this picture. But I think it will in the finished product.
I also finished the charity shawl I have been knitting for my shawl ministry group. It still needs to be blocked, which will be an interesting experience for me since I have never blocked acrylic before. This is a wool-microfiber blend and I'm honestly not 100% sure how to approach it. The ends will need to be woven in as well, and there are kind of a lot. I'm trying not to think of that part. I loathe weaving in ends.
I finally feel as though I have conquered my WIP list, a little bit. I cheated a little - put some projects in hibernation, etc. As far as lace goes, I have the Taygete, Spanish Moss, and Galadriel's mirror. Taygete will be finished soon. Spanish Moss and Galadriel's Mirror will still be around for quite a while, I expect. I still have the bulky weight Jared Flood blanket, Umaro (no progress at all), the scarf that's part of the 3 part manly set (I thought I was almost done, but he asked me to put another foot on it, because he does not love me at all, but since he buys me yarn, I agreed, even though I think that having a scarf taller than you are is silly), and a couple of pairs of socks in progress (which would get more play if it wasn't for the stupid scarf). I don't think that's terribly unreasonable.
Of course, when you add Sakaki and Asterope to the list, not to mention the April mystery shawl from the ZYG club, and my Alaska shawl...well...it still won't be too bad, right? Sakaki and Asterope will likely go pretty quickly, I'm still not ready to start my Alaska shawl juuuuust yet (must swatch), and I'll hopefully have Taygete finished not too much before those come out, so the net effect won't be horrible, I hope.
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