The Soapy Knitter

Hello, dahlinks.  Thanks so much for all the beautiful comments you guys made to Esmie’s B-day Dress.  I enjoyed watching her face light up as she read them all.  She has a few mean friends in school that have been messing with her self-esteem so I was SO happy to see HER happy when she read the compliments.  And no, I did NOT pay her to write those comments about me.  LOL

WARNING - PICTURE HEAVY POST!  Sorry, but when a yarn is photogenic, you can’t stop taking pictures!

KnittingLeftie sent me an email at work - she’s the one I taught how to knit socks a few months ago.  I’m starting to be afraid to open her emails that have anything knitting-related in the subject line because it usually cause my pockets pain.  And yep, this is exactly what happened when she sent me the email about Flat Feet.

She thought I knew about this yarn already since she swears I’m the master of all things stash (even though the student has way surpassed the teacher in this subject!), but I’d never heard of it and quickly saw myself ordering a couple.

This one here is the Sunrise colorway.

This yarn comes knit up into a stockinette rectangle divided straight down the middle with scrap yarn.

You  unravel the scrap yarn at one end and start knitting from there.  Or you can unravel the center scrap yarn to knit two socks at once.  I’ll be sure to post a full review once I get a project on the needles.

I hear the yarn can kink up as you’re knitting with it, but that a good soak of the finished project gets those kinks right out.

This is the Tulip colorway.

The yarn was purchased from Paradise Fibers.  I ended up spending  ~$57 with the shipping.  Yes, it’s pricey.  At least for me it is since I usually don’t spend more than $24 on a skein of sock yarn, especially when I will also have to pay shipping!

But honestly, I think it will be well worth the price.  Straight off the bat, the fact that I don’t have to wind the yarn and split it into two balls by weighing it out makes up for the shipping.  The fabric as it comes is nice and soft and looks like it will be a pleasure to knit and wear.  I hope I’m not disappointed.  I’ll keep you updated!

I’m glad you are all enjoying my review on the Harmony Guides from yesterday’s post. I hope it proves useful to some of you when you figure out which ones to buy. When I get Volume 2 of the old set that is on backorder, I’ll post about it, too.

I’ve been on an alpaca kick this year, as you all may have guessed from the numerous Capitan Hats I’ve knit. Particularly Catalina Alpaca yarns. I just finished the shrug design for them last night. Wait til you see it! It’s very flirty-girly!

I have this yarn that I picked up at Rhinebeck last year. It’s not Catalina, but it is Alpaca. Henry’s Attic Prime Alpaca it’s called. I only have one picture for you but I’m sure that’s all you need in this particular case. It’s a gorgeous latte color.

I’m trying to decide what to make with this yarn. Should I cast on for a sport-weight shawl with a good part of it? Should I triple it and make the Nob Hill pattern from the new Knitty? Should I double it and make a cardigan? Throw your suggestions at me!

Here’s the specs:

Sport / 5 ply (12 wpi)
3 skeins = 1995.0 yards
Gauge: 24 sts = 4 in.
Needle size: US 3 - 5

I been AWOL, yes, I know. There’s been lots going on around here, including a death in the family, a cousin, the first death in 30 years (on my “mother’s” side, and that has thrown me off completely emotionally. I wasn’t able to attend the funeral….let me rephrase that: I chose NOT to attend because of the situation with most of my family. I think I was probably the only one out of 40 first cousins that did not attend. I couldn’t do it.

Anyway, I want to thank everyone that took some time out to do my survey. The answers are going to prove very useful. “Useful how”, you say? Well, I am now doing several designs for Catalina Yarns, one of which is a shrug. I need to grade the pattern to fit different sizes (I’m shooting for XS to 1X). I have many books and online sources with charts of “standard” sizes. I wanted to compare this to what REAL people consider comfortable. So I will be using the answers from the survey to compare.

The winner? Oh, yeah! HEHE Megan! You done won some goodies! I’m gonna email ya so you can send me your snail mail addy and I’ll hook you up.

Now, the title? Oh well, that’s cuz several weeks ago I acquired some Shibui Knits yarn from The Loopy Ewe. That yarn is so soft and bouncy and springy and colorful that I can’t wait to knit it up! I only haven’t cast on for anything yet because I got too much shit on my needles already (see <—– and yes, bezzie, it links to RAVELRY! no me joda coño! )

I got the Earth and Spectrum colorways (one guess which is which!).

Maybe this weekend I’ll cast on for Anne’s Merlot Vine socks with one of these. Just because…