Too Much Yarn

A Sad Week....

First of all, in honor of Thanksgiving, I'm very thankful that my son is OK from this accident:

You can read more about it from my other Blog Too Much Energy .  This has left me with little enthusiasm to decorate for Christmas or knit.  I did knit a few inches on my Mr. Greenjeans and finished the heel of Gull Wings.  And, I did finish ONE sock:

This is the November Mystery Sock.  I do have until end of December to finish its mate.  Tomorrow is the 1st of December and I have a number of socks I want to cast on, but I'm taking it easy,  I want to finish my November socks first.  Well, OK, you twisted my arm - I will maybe cast on something new this week.

I shopped for yarn on Thanksgiving Day - but I forgot what I bought... You'll see when they arrive!  Last week, these came:

This is from the Miss Babs Club - Poppies.  I signed up for 3 of the 6 shipments.  November, January, and April.  Love the colors!

Then, the last shipment of the Rockin' Sock Club arrived.  I used one of the Ravens on the Mystery Socks above, but it is too dark for me, really!  This month's club sock is also from the Raven series, but I like the subtle shades of burgundy and greens.  I tried to capture the colors; I hope I did it well enough to show you.  I love the little crochet hook in this shipment.  I can never have enough of them.

Two patterns and one of them is a Cookie A pattern!  Here is the closeup!

Bugga Jackpot

It's been 3 weeks since I last posted... You know what that means?  It means I didn't buy new yarn during that time -- well, it's actually 2 weeks because I received yarn last week.  So much for being good... Well, last week started with The Loopy Ewe introducing Madelinetosh Worsted yarn.  Duh! They feel so nice (NOTE:  I have not knitted with it, but I've started a collection!)  Logwood, the purple ones are going to Eve after I knit her a pair of fingerless mitts and maybe a cowl.  I present you the Madelinetosh stash from TLE (I did managed to sneak one skein of sock yarn in there, but I may need to destash - it was not as Turquoisy as I wanted it to be)

Also, I received the Loopy Ewe Sock Club November shipment.  This is the last for the year and I have to say, I love the yarn!  I don't have any of this base - Numma Numma The Usual:

It truly is a very pretty color: (I need brown socks!!)

I did finish a pair of socks (#20): Through The Loop's 2009 Mystery Sock:

and 1 sock (Chrissy Gardiner's Gull Wing):

and 1/2 of the SKA November Mystery Sock by Star Athena:  (I haven't taken a recent photo, but I've just started the gusset)

Oh, I'd better not forget - my Bugga! jackpot cos I woke up late and couldn't make it in to work by 8 a.m. for a conference call; so I dialed in from home.  Call ended at 8:26 - I logged on my home computer and thought I'd just check the Sanguine Gryphon website - the updates keep coming and my paypal balance kept dipping.  Well, I figured while I was able to get a hold of these colors, I might as well get extras so I can trade for other colors that I want...  no further comments on these:

Back from Wisconsin Sheep & Wool

I had a blast!  Meeting new friends, Christy and Lin and many sheep!  I also took a class from Cat Bordhi!  Learned a few tricks and it was so worth the time!  I'm in the process of scrapbooking the event so I can show more photos in one layout so you'll have to bear with me before I show your any photos.  Well, I have to show you this photo - it was taken with Cat as she held my Bartholomew's Tantalizing Sock from her book.  This was the photo that made me buy the book and I made it in the same colorway as the sample in the book.

She signed my book and I'm so glad I had the guts to ask for a photo with her.  Cos if I didn't, I would be regretting it right now.  But most impressively, as I was knitting the toe of a sock I'm designing, she is trying to tell me that the toe of the sock is big enough.  She took the sock and attempted to fit over my foot and she touched my toe!  Lin suggested that I don't wash my toe for a while... you think it's worth anything if I cut it and put it on eBay?

Ok... how about one more photo.  Here are the Ravelry friends I met: (standing next to me is Christy's mom, Lin, Christy, and in front, is Jen who works at Knitch, a yarn store in Delafield).

OK - one more photo...  This was the loot from the festival. Not pictured are 2 sock bags, and a sheep accessory bag from Lin.  Will show you those another time.  Included in this stash are yarn for a wrap/vest, a shawl, a scarf, and many, many projects (which I may not get to...)  Briar Rose was my favorite booth!

OK - one more... what's a sheep festival without sheep?  Here's some naked ones:

I would say 50% of the attendees are spinners - lots of spinning wheels and spindles.  I promise myself I'm not going to get into it.  I heard several times that Lin may get into spinning... I'm going to let her jump into this first.

A couple of sock club kits came in the mail in the last few weeks.  The Loopy Ewe's shipment included a skein of Wollmeise which I have since traded for another color (my favorite color: BLUE!).

Woolgirl's shipment was a total surprise as I'd forgotten about it.  Love the bright ladybug colors:

As I mentioned earlier, I started scrapbooking and started a digital album for my knitting endevours... I finished these 2 pages today and will start on my Wisconsin trip next.  These were from August when I met Chrissy Gardiner and more Ravelry friends...

Next time, I will show you sock progress!

A weekend of knitting

It was a productive weekend of knitting but not for cleaning up clutter around the house (I did manage to go through 2 grocery bags of old mail and moving a book shelf into the front entry way).   I started on the Embossed Leaves sock from Favorite Socks (Interweave Press) last Thursday while catching up on my Tivo-ed shows (Women's Murder Club and The Office).  At this time, I have 30 rows left of the foot.  I was hoping to finish the pair so I have new socks to wear for Thanksgiving, but I don't think that's going to happen!  This is knitted with size 2 needles using Fleece Artist Agean colorway.

I'm expecting my third shipment from The Loopy Ewe today (yeah!!).  These are the first 2 orders I placed.  Yarns were Fleece Artist Angel Fish, Fleece Artist Somoko in Jester, and Numma Numma Nutella.  Unfortunately, I had to return Angel Fish because I already had it!

The second order consists of Fleece Artist Earth (exchange for Angel Fish), Fiesta Boomerang in Taos, Claudia Handpaints in John B (my husband's name - hoping to knit him a pair of socks for Christmas, but decided that the yarn is TOO beautiful!  I need it for myself so I'll just have to think about him whenever I wear the socks! LOL!) and Carribean Blue, Seacost's Chocolate Cherry, and a pattern from Wendy Knits called Hearts for Heidi.  As usual, each shipment from The Loopy Ewe comes with some surprises!   

On Saturday, I was visiting my sister-in-law in Excelsior.  I decided to stop by Coldwater Collaborative, a LYS that was a few blocks from my sister-in-law's house - I've never been to Coldwater Collaborative before, so it was a little exciting as you can imagine!  I came home with 3 beautiful colorways from Lorna's Laces Shepard Socks (Jeans, Rainbow, and Watercolor).