Category: YarnLust

More Yarn Please!

Posted by zyllah – August 12, 2008

So this weekend was pretty decent. I finally finished that sleeve. Except for you know having to rip out a bunch because I’d dropped a stitch. Oops. Anyway so I finished the sleeve and added a few inches to my scarf.

Sunday we went and picked up our new to us TV. It’s HD but a tube tv since I don’t like flat panels. Also I’m too cheap to spend that much on a television. However he did want HD for his xbox and I wanted another tv for the new house. So anyway a few hours of having *fun* with cables led to the scarf’s growth. I also started a house blog in an attempt to spare you my endless blathering about it. Though I probably will blog about setting up the dye studio in the garage. I added a sink to the garage specifically for it. I still need to get off my ass and do something with my cooking blog and perhaps start updating my not so specific topic blog. Essentially I’m trying to get back in the habit of writing every day since I have that novel I want to finish. I also have another one that’s, at the moment, more interesting to me brewing. It’s rather more Big Idea Sci Fi rather than Paranormal fun though. So I’m better off trying to finish the fun one first since it seems ridiculously easy to get published in that genre these days.

Anyway on to Yarn Pron…

First up we have Sundara’s first seasons club mailing for winter. It’s called Granite falls. I rather like it and was considering Juno for it.

This is classic elite’s water lily. I had wanted this yarn for about a year when it came up on sale at patternworks so I bought a sweaters worth. Of course now I’m not so sure. It’s very pretty in the ball but I’m not sure I’m in love with it knit up. This might become a feb lady. However, Sarkasmo kinda convinced me it would make me look pregnant. I’m thinking since I carry my weight in front and I’m busty perhaps not the most flattering look for me.

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This is something I got off destash for like 12 bucks. It’s a sweaters worth of online superwash merino. How could I resist? The color is a bit too rusty for me but it would either look good on my mom or be spectacular overdyed.

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Last but certainly not least is Dream in Color’s Gothic Rose. As a not so recovering goth….This is the worsted size and I originally bought it to make another clap. However since then I’ve realized I did buy enough to make a sweater (maybe) so I’m not totally sure.  Meanwhile Justin wants the pillow I’m making him out of it. Can you believe he picked smooshy over malabrigo? Might be for the best since it is superwash. Anyway I was thinking of some kind of woven texture stitch with a plain back. I’m just going to buy a nice pillow form and sew the cover around it though I am going to do it in such a way that I can remove it for washing.

The Fiber Haul

Posted by zyllah – May 29, 2008

So with all the sales going on (which so far I have managed to not order from) my initial plan was to pick up two items and some handmade soap. I wanted to get Color in Spinning and a niddy noddy. I was however DENIED. There had been one copy of the book and it had sold the day before. Claire and I stuck to our plan for all vendor laden events. We do a pass through to see what everyone has and then we decide which to head back to. First place we actually shopped at was Fiber Denn. I got some sock yarn, some fiber and the fast whorl for Siouxsie. I had been meaning to get the fast whorl for a while and hadn’t gotten around to ordering it so the fact that she’s a majacraft dealer was to my benefit.

The first up is the 4 oz of Optim I got. Oh my god this stuff feels incredible.

The purple is a merino/silk blend (65/35) in a colorway called Phlox and the green is corriedale in a colorway called Forrest. The noddy came from Little Barn.

This is a Quasi-Solid sock yarn in a colorway called Sangiovose. It’s a wool/bamboo/nylon blend.

Next up was Deer Trace Farm. They have some gorgeous alpaca but I still haven’t used up the 8 oz I bought before so I gave that a pass this time but I did get this amazing 50/50 Merino Silk blend.

Lastly I hit Little Barn. They had FANTASTIC pricing. They sell 4 oz of optim for 9.95. So hell yeah I got more. Anyway compare those prices to other vendors….Anyway from them I got the Noddy I showed you up above and all this.

From left to right is another 4 oz of optim, 8 oz of bfl, and 16 oz of tussah silk. That day seriously felt like Christmas cause when I got home the books I had ordered had gotten there. So now I have yet more stitch dictionaries (Knit/purl and Lace/Eyelets) from the new Harmony guides and the book that hopefully will teach me to sew. The Sew Everything Workshop comes highly recommended and from what I’ve read so far its totally justified. It seems to be the SNB of sewing.

Tennessee Fiber Fair

Posted by zyllah – May 28, 2008

So Saturday Claire, Judie, Phil and I headed down to Dickson to the Tennessee Fiber Festival. We planned on doing some shopping and then going to plant world and then finally lunch at boobies. Home of the famous boobie burger. We went there last year and everyone loved it. So first up was the fiber fair.

Animals were seen like this cashmere goat:

Fiber and yarn were fondled and bought from Fiber Denn:

Friends were met but I forgot to snap photos.

Overall it was WAY better than last year. Easily twice the size. I think the organizers deserve a great big round of virtual applause for putting that much effort and work into it. My favorite vendors this year were Fiber Denn (as usual) and Little Barn (SUPER FREAKING CHEAP). Plus it’s always nice to see folks I don’t get to see too often since I am just lazy enough to consider Nashvegas a wee bit too far to go to knitting groups there.
So we were there about 3 hours I’d say and then off to plant world we went. I know this isn’t a gardening blog but oh my god did they have gorgeous plants and lots of them! We have nothing like that here. It was almost like being at a botanical garden. I took so many pics. However I’ll only bore you with my two favorites.

Lunch was had and then we took off for home. Next post the Fiber HAUL.

Megaupdate….

Posted by zyllah – December 9, 2007

You know I took the following photos so long ago they aren’t really even accurate as to where I am in my projects but what the hell. I did a bit of stash enhancement because I had a gift cert to yarn market and I realized I wanted yarn to make basic black from magknits and the tangled yoke patterns. I decided to go with ultra alpaca light in the following colors. I might make basic black in umm black because I’d wear it a lot.

I’m clearly on a green kick. Anyway I love Ultra Alpaca. It’s just such a good buy. I also got the super snazzy electronic row counter. The deluxe model even. It’s so totally awesome. Like way better than even I thought it would be. The one thing I would change if I could would be for there to be some sort of ‘lock’ feature.

Spinning is going swimmingly. I love Siouxsie. I am getting better at making less bumpy yarn and its even getting fairly thin. Predrafting is my savior here. The other day I decided I had done enough with white and tried my first colored roving. This is subject to change but I think I’m going to stick with more one colored rovings in the future.

The body of thermal is done. I just need to do the sleeves. I did start one but after spending two days knitting the same repeats over and over and over I decided it needed a brief time out. However it is further along than this pic would indicate.

Finally the sock. I’ve actually started the ribbing so it’s almost done. I have to say Shibui is amazing yarn.

My goals this month are to finish my wips. I’m not sure where Vee fits into that. I’ll have to see how much time I have this month. We’re staying home for the holidays so that should help out. Also Justin has 22 days of leave so that means more knitting time for me.

NA*X*MO

Posted by zyllah – November 1, 2007

Ok so I’ve sort of decided to unofficially blog everyday. I’m just trying to see if I can do it. I mean I sure as hell don’t have enough interesting stuff going on in general but what the hell. So today’s entry will be about the fiber fest I went to this past weekend. I went last year and it seemed like there were more vendors but this year had more people. I took Lady E out for her first public appearance and she was much admired which she enjoyed immensely. We took a big carpool trip all umm 6 of us which was quite fun. Anyway I met some neat people and of course we traded ravelry Id’s. I set up a flickr set for the event but I’m going to bore you with some photos anyway. Once we got to the fiber vending area I didn’t take as many photos since I was too deep in shop mode.

So there were Sheep:

Sheep Getting Nekkid:

Anyway like I said if you want to go look at the set.

So I was pretty decent. I mean I had a budget and I only went a little over. I bought another 4 oz of that gorgeous silver alpaca that I got at the last fair (and in my laziness I am reusing the old picture)

I also got two different colorways of bfl from fiber denn.

I also got two spindles also from Fiber Denn. My spinning is much much improved.

And now to the yarn. I only got two skeins.

This is 550 yrds of sock weight. It wants to be something other than socks.

This 880 yrds of wool lace. It actually is more variegated in real life.

So after the festival we hit the Knaughty Knitter and I *shock* didn’t buy anything. I just felt like I had spent enough. However I did meet the lovely Barb. After that we went to lunch at corky’s this really good BBQ place and then we went to threaded bliss. I hadn’t been since it was sold. I’m really glad they brought in some Rowan and I think the yarn selection is improved somewhat. I will miss David though. He was hilarious. Again I didn’t buy anything. Although at one point I had over a 100 dollars worth of yarn in my hand. I was good I resisted the siren call. So after that we tried to hit Haus of Yarn. Now I hate to complain but we had an SUV full of knitters. We probably all would have bought something and they still had people in the shop but they wouldn’t let us in. Exactly how likely are we to go back and drop mega cash now? In my case not very. The service there has ALWAYS been hit or miss for me. We were all rather peeved.

The sock is still a toe hat but I am in spitting distance of finishing the left front to thermal. I expect to finish that panel tonight. I also (because I am a lemming) feel the pull of knit a sweater naswamo or whatever. However NO SOCK WEIGHT SWEATERS. So I’m thinking the cardi version of wicked or the Vee pullover. If I can pick a yarn. Cause you know with family coming for turkey day its the perfect time to totally stress myself out over other things.

Happy Scary Day

Posted by zyllah – October 31, 2007

Long time no blog. When last we all spoke I was in the midst of pet tragedy…anyway Darcy found a fantastic home that did not have feline terrorists who wanted to drive him away.  So after that I fell deep into martha mode. I redid three rooms of my house. For ‘redid’ read organized and moved stuff around. This entailed building a bookcase so I could have one dedicated just to knitting/crafting and buying lots of pillows so I didn’t have to get a new couch. I also got new tables for the living room. Anyway I think it looks fantastic (or as good as its going to get).

Close up of the knitting/netting/tv spot, the bookcase behind it has my knitting books:

Why yes I do have to fight her for the chair.

I did do some dyeing while all this was going on though. I’m trying to break out of my wine comfort zone so I did some more greens and ventured into rusts/oranges. All of these skeins are Kona by Henry’s attic.  I was playing around with different techniques and I must warn you they are not yet reskeined.

I think I’m getting better. If you want to give any of these a new home let me know. I can’t possibly knit faster than I can dye.  Which brings me to another topic I have a tentative offer for a wholesale situation. I keep going back and forth on it. I like dyeing when its me just futzing around but dyeing for other people to buy? That makes me incredibly nervous.

Anyway all this led to little knitting and thus little blogging. Besides lets be brutally honest, thermal is not a good blogging project.  It’s like oh boy another inch that looks exactly the same! Besides it looks a mess now with all the stitches being held on extra needles. Oh one funny thing did happen, the other day I was working on it and watching tv and completely messed up one of my previously finished back shoulder pieces. So now I’ll have to frog back and refinish it. But the good news is that I am on the front so hopefully before the end of this century I’ll finish it. The thing is I do still enjoy the sweater. Its not like other simple patterns where I’d be gouging my eyes out by this point. I also frogged the scarf I had started because I decided it was too narrow so velvet grapes will have to become something else. I did start a sock just in time for the end of socktober;) I’m using shibui sock on 1′s and I have to say I love this sock yarn. It might be my favorite yarn yet. Like more favorite than STR even. I mean the base. It’s just at the toe hat stage and I’m looking for a stitch pattern to plug into my sock recipe. I did attend a fiber fest this past weekend but I’ll try and blog about that tomorrow since I have loads of pictures and stuff.

Damnit I *got* gauge…

Posted by zyllah – August 12, 2007

So in a fit of cosmic irony I found out far too late that I got gauge on the zip cardi. This is a knitradgedy because uhh well I was under the impression that I hadn’t gotten gauge so I had upsized accordingly. Now I have a tent sized most of a cardigan. In a fit of temper I frogged the part of the last piece I was working on but I still have the others.

So the question now becomes to frog or not. By the way the above board is 2 feet wide.

Reasons to not frog: 

  1. Umm  the time spent…
  2.  All I was looking for out of the sweater was practice finishing and something to wear around the house. I live in cardi’s in the winter and I could wear that instead of some of my beloved merino ones
  3. the work involved in rehabbing the yarn
  4. I’m a sleeve away from finishing the knitting.
  5. Uses up most of that yarn and thus it is out of my stash.
  6. Seriously good butt coverage.

Reasons to frog:

  1. It’s huge
  2. It’s a tent
  3. if I made it the correct size I could probably get two sweaters out of the yarn. well ok maybe not.
  4. I’m anal
  5. If something is worth doing it’s worth doing right.

So feel free to offer opinions. In fact I seriously want them because I am so indecisive on this. Right now the sweater is going into time out cause uhh I need to decide. Also frogged this weekend was the second heel since I forgot to redistribute the stitches and thus it was two stitches too wide. I’m almost thinking I need a new hobby or something!

So last weekend I went home to STL for my cousin’s wedding. I was annoyed by the time I pulled into stl so I decided I deserved needed a stop at knitorious.  I walk in the door and the first thing I see is this incredible silk lace. Now I don’t knit a whole lot of lace and when I see lace I tend to prefer semi solids. But there is something about peachy/pinky, green,  and gold that grabs me every time. So I snatched it up. It’s claudias and I have no freaking clue what to do with it. I have 1100 yards.  I think I might just admire it.

It actually has more green in it but I couldn’t get photoshop to show it off in all its glory.

I wandered around to the sock section and snagged another skein of jitterbug in velvet olive. Jitterbug is gorgeous and I love the base yarn I just have concerns because the skeins are a bit small but we’ll see.

I also rescued the malabrigo I bought my mom to knit with since she’s had it a year and obviously isn’t going to do anything with it. In her defense she is taking care of my grandmother though so…

However in good knitting news I finally thought of something to do with the crap cotton blend I got off of destash…I’m going to make garter stitch mats for the furlines. It should be good tv/snb knitting if nothing else.

Pron for Friday…

Posted by zyllah – July 27, 2007

Ok I was being incredibly optimistic when I thought of doing a weekly review and a weekly heresy so…now they’ll be here when I’m inspired and when I need to test a new technique. However this week I do have something for you. I made some blocking boards this week and wrote up a tutorial in case anyone wanted to make their own.

I pinned out a piece of the zipper cardi on it and I have to say they block like a *dream* So my wips…well I am past the heel of the sock and I finished the two fronts for the zip cardi and I made it to the waffle stitch on thermal. Things at chez zyllah have been sort of sucking and when I get stressed I read. Since last week I’ve read HP 7 twice and two Phillipa Gregory novels. I also finished off an audio book. Anyway needless to say that has taken up knitting time:) But now that I’m on the waffle stitch I get to use the fantastico row counter Sarkasmo made for me.

So not all of this was bought recently but I finally got a chance to show it off. I got this jitterbug from fleabay for a fairly good price, I will admit the copper beach is sort of meh to me but they’ll be gift socks I guess.

Jitterbug Copperbeach

Omg I love this yarn. I am not sure what to do with it but it just makes my heart happy.

This is some Malabrigo lace weight I traded some unused needles for.

Finally we have the wollmeise I snagged at the last loopy sneak up.

This is Granatapfel.

This is Wilder Mohn.

The base yarn for this feels really unique. Sort of cottony. It’s dense but not as dense as str. (I sound like a wine snob) Also the yardage is fantastic. I should easily be able to get two pairs out of each skein.

This is something I dyed a few weeks ago.

Colorway: Peacock

Yardage: 550 Yards

Base Yarn: Henry’s Attic Kona Superwash Fingering that I got here.

Techniques: just basic hand painting.

Notes: I am not 100% pleased with this. However it isn’t awful, its just not quite what I had envisioned:)

Yarn Pron and Half an FO

Posted by zyllah – April 22, 2007

So I did manage to get some dying done this week. I’ve been trying to use up my knitpicks bare for gifts since its so not my favorite yarn.

The one in the middle isn’t that accurate as its different shades of pink and red, but the other two are fairly close. The one on the left was sort of a use up old dye run but its so freaking pretty.  I also finished a sock last week that I never got around to posting. I’ll probably start the second one today.

In other news…uhh yeah I’ve been lazily working on kitty pi and Lady E since I haven’t gotten any spring/summer yarn yet. Oh and I’ve been reading way too much to actually get any knitting done.

Is yarn gluttony one of the 7 deadly sins or is it a knitting virtue?

Posted by zyllah – April 14, 2007

So I have been sort of saving stuff cause I really am attempting to be a better blogger. Anyway a while back while looking at the fold, I saw what to my mind was one of the most amazing STR colorways out there. So first I called BMFA and they told me (nicely) they didn’t do special orders so I was looking around on flickr and noticed someone had what appeared to be an unused skein. So I emailed the lovely Dani at Yea, I knit and asked if I could bribe her to part with it.  She agreed and it happily got here last week. Though I do seem to be getting on a first name basis with Joann from BMFA, which I find a bit alarming;) Today I took  photographs of it and of the stash enrichment the knit happens sale afforded me.  I have to say that although I’ve read about the problems people had I got everything I ordered. Now one of the things I ordered had been mislabeled but still for 60% off approximately I’ll live with it.  Some of the Nature Wool I ordered was listed as a worsted but was in fact a chunky. Oh well I needed yarn for the fiber trends clogs anyway. I have some other stuff that came in but I’ll save that for a latter blog post. In my current knitting eh…ummm I’ve been reading alot and I did some tinking yesterday. Its the knitty chatroom you see, I find it hard to type and knit:)  Since most people read blogs for pics….Behold my Craptastic Photography! (in my defense I have improved and the light was utter shite today)

So first the lovely STR colorway Jasper

Now we have the Cherry Tree Hill in Winterberry and Northern Lights

Here is the Nature wool in different shades of purple the one on the left is the chunky that was mislabeled.

Cascade 220 in ruby and Alchemy in Scarlets Dark Secret. I got enough alchemy for another clap but I am not totally sure that’s what it will be.

And here we have the last of it, To the left is the yarn I got for thermal. It’s rowan’s cashsoft 4ply in loganberry and some Debbie bliss is uhh burgundy I guess. No clue on the debbie bliss stuff but I figure it would make a nice cardigan at some point.