So I survived the Week of the Visitor last week, and had quite a bit of fun. From Saturday to Thursday, we had guests every night but one--my MIL, my mom & aunt, and a high school friend of mine. (some guests stayed at a nearby hotel & some stayed here, as we only have 1 little guest bed and one night there were 3 people around at once!) The family visitors and I had a great time catching up & spent one day touring Stratford--no theatre this time, just shopping and a nice lunch. My friend and I went to Grand Bend for the day and I showed her her first Great Lakes beach. I also spent a night in Brampton (thanks again, Paula!) and then went into Toronto for a day with some new knitting buddies.
Which means I have to confess my first day off from my stashalong. I had declared in advance that this would be a day off, and that I would only buy things I couldn't get easily around here, and I held to that resolution. The problem was that the 2 stores we went to--Romni Wools and Lettuce Knit--were both filled to the top with things I can't easily get at home! Romni was insanely huge, with almost too much yarn (I wouldn't have guessed it was possible, really)--so overwhelming that I'm sure I didn't look at half of what they had. Everything was 20% off, though, so I had to do a bit of shopping. Lettuce was lovely and cozy and just big enough--you could really look at it all without feeling overwhelmed. Plus everything they have is totally luscious--I would have been happy with pretty much any of the yarns they stock, so it was hard to narrow things down. In the end, although I was trying to be restrained, I came home with this: (I did take close-ups of each skein, but will just give you the overall picture for now)
2 x 50g skeins of Atacama (100% Alpaca from Chile, 18 sts to 4 in. on US 7) in colour 502
1 x 100g of malabrigo Worsted (merino, 4-5 spi on US 7-9) in Alpine Pearl
2 x 50g of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock (superwash wool/nylon, 7 spi) in River
1 x 100g Oceanwind Knits Merino iii (4.5-5 spi on 3.75-4.5 mm) in Ahoy
Not sure yet what any of it is destined to be--I have been so good for ages now about not buying without a project in mind. But I already have yarn for at least the next 10 (20?) things I PLAN to knit....so I didn't have a pattern in mind when I went shopping. The LL will likely be socks--although it wasn't cheap, so they're gonna have to be some very special socks. But I'm open to ideas, which is why I put the gauge info from the labels on here. Please tell me what lovely things I need to make! Oh, and yes, I did notice that there was a clear pattern to my colour choices--blues, teals, and purples. I did pick up some pretty pinks and corals, I swear, but somehow this is what I went home with.
Oh, and here is a picture of my new friends (Josie & Mary) in front of Lettuce:
So I have some serious knitting catch-up to do now--more stash to get through, and I didn't knit as much last week with all the visiting going on. I've almost accepted that I won't finish the Sockamania socks by the end of the day tomorrow. I did 3 different heels on the first sock before I was satisfied, which slowed me down a lot--but I'm pleased with the end result. I'm approaching the heel on sock #2, but don't foresee getting it all done.
I did finish the Bud Lace section of my Swallowtail. The picture isn't great, because I couldn't spread it out too much--I'll probably switch to a longer cable soon. I just finished my first set of nupps/p5togs. I can't imagine doing these without the KP needles or something equally pointy--even with them, I really struggled on the p5togs.
I also will be playing catch-up on some other tasks this week, I think. I have been thinking for weeks about starting some planning for the coming school year. My main excuse for not getting started with this has been not knowing who my teaching "teammate" will be. It has been changed 3 times so far--now we're back to the original partner, who I like quite a lot and think I will work well with. Fingers crossed that it stays him! :-) Anyway, I have decided to go ahead and do a draft schedule for our middle school program, and to claim the history classes for myself, so I'm going to start by planning some lessons for history. Also on tap for this week is updating all the addresses in my high school class directory--not exciting, but someone has to do it, and somehow it ended up being me.
Probably there are other things I need to catch up on--and other things I should ponder blogging about--but this is more than long enough for now. Hopefully I'll blog again fairly soon. :-)
Which means I have to confess my first day off from my stashalong. I had declared in advance that this would be a day off, and that I would only buy things I couldn't get easily around here, and I held to that resolution. The problem was that the 2 stores we went to--Romni Wools and Lettuce Knit--were both filled to the top with things I can't easily get at home! Romni was insanely huge, with almost too much yarn (I wouldn't have guessed it was possible, really)--so overwhelming that I'm sure I didn't look at half of what they had. Everything was 20% off, though, so I had to do a bit of shopping. Lettuce was lovely and cozy and just big enough--you could really look at it all without feeling overwhelmed. Plus everything they have is totally luscious--I would have been happy with pretty much any of the yarns they stock, so it was hard to narrow things down. In the end, although I was trying to be restrained, I came home with this: (I did take close-ups of each skein, but will just give you the overall picture for now)
2 x 50g skeins of Atacama (100% Alpaca from Chile, 18 sts to 4 in. on US 7) in colour 502
1 x 100g of malabrigo Worsted (merino, 4-5 spi on US 7-9) in Alpine Pearl
2 x 50g of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock (superwash wool/nylon, 7 spi) in River
1 x 100g Oceanwind Knits Merino iii (4.5-5 spi on 3.75-4.5 mm) in Ahoy
Not sure yet what any of it is destined to be--I have been so good for ages now about not buying without a project in mind. But I already have yarn for at least the next 10 (20?) things I PLAN to knit....so I didn't have a pattern in mind when I went shopping. The LL will likely be socks--although it wasn't cheap, so they're gonna have to be some very special socks. But I'm open to ideas, which is why I put the gauge info from the labels on here. Please tell me what lovely things I need to make! Oh, and yes, I did notice that there was a clear pattern to my colour choices--blues, teals, and purples. I did pick up some pretty pinks and corals, I swear, but somehow this is what I went home with.
Oh, and here is a picture of my new friends (Josie & Mary) in front of Lettuce:
So I have some serious knitting catch-up to do now--more stash to get through, and I didn't knit as much last week with all the visiting going on. I've almost accepted that I won't finish the Sockamania socks by the end of the day tomorrow. I did 3 different heels on the first sock before I was satisfied, which slowed me down a lot--but I'm pleased with the end result. I'm approaching the heel on sock #2, but don't foresee getting it all done.
I did finish the Bud Lace section of my Swallowtail. The picture isn't great, because I couldn't spread it out too much--I'll probably switch to a longer cable soon. I just finished my first set of nupps/p5togs. I can't imagine doing these without the KP needles or something equally pointy--even with them, I really struggled on the p5togs.
I also will be playing catch-up on some other tasks this week, I think. I have been thinking for weeks about starting some planning for the coming school year. My main excuse for not getting started with this has been not knowing who my teaching "teammate" will be. It has been changed 3 times so far--now we're back to the original partner, who I like quite a lot and think I will work well with. Fingers crossed that it stays him! :-) Anyway, I have decided to go ahead and do a draft schedule for our middle school program, and to claim the history classes for myself, so I'm going to start by planning some lessons for history. Also on tap for this week is updating all the addresses in my high school class directory--not exciting, but someone has to do it, and somehow it ended up being me.
Probably there are other things I need to catch up on--and other things I should ponder blogging about--but this is more than long enough for now. Hopefully I'll blog again fairly soon. :-)
Comments
Swallowtail's looking nice :-) I did sl2 p3tog psso and found it easier, definitely couldn't have done it without the KP.
Very pretty Swallowtail :)
It was great to meet you. I've just arrived back and have spotted your blog for the first time. Yarn shopping was my favourite day in Toronto. Its lucky you took the photo before we'd been shopping in Lettuce! I arrived home with so much yarn. I've just unpacked and have fallen in love with my beautiful skeins all over again!
Nice swallowtail too :)
Your Swallowtail's coming along a treat. Three cheers for KP circs!
I love your selection of yarns...we seem to like the same color ways! I'm always drawn to the purples and blues....with some pinks and teals thrown in too!