More New Stuff

Some folks usually give a little time for the smoke to clear before effectively ending their yarn diets. I however jump in with both feet first and go nuts as you can see. Who could get their tax return and a new job in the same one week and not go nuts???



So the whole idea was to go on a mini yarn crawl to my usual LYS's. I however spent my allowance at one store. A store I'd kind of looked down upon in the past because it was one of those stores where you don't feel comfortable going in (either everyone looks at you like a snob or they just don't even acknowledge you're there). The store is called Skein. It's in Pasadena, CA and located in an odd spot without a lot of really good parking, but after this last trip, it's 100% worth it.

I'd forgotten their huge selection and never realized how many knitting books they carry. They don't carry all the usual books, many are the ones released by the actual yarn companies themselves. There's a few by regular authors, but for the most part they're the Spring/Summer/Fall/Winter issue of Rowan/Sirdar/You Name It.

Of course with the selection they have it would literally take months to get through everything. It is admittedly a little overwhelming. Not to mention they also have patterns they store in binders, so you have a huge table of books to search through as well.

So I found a book by Sirdar, they have wonderful baby yarns. So soft and so sweet and huge color selections as well. I'd bought and used some of their Tiny Tots years ago, of which they're still carrying (I was thinking about getting more to start a baby project but that we'll discuss at a later time).

I couldn't decide though what color to make. They had about 10 or 20 different colors to choose from, so I decided I'd make a "fall" sweater and a "spring" sweater for Smush (my neice's new nickname).

This is fall:

This is spring:

The spring color is a lavendar-girlie color that Chris picked and the fall is a pumpkin color that I picked. I don't want to make or send too much girlie stuff for Smush because that's what everyone else does and it's just kind of annoying.

I also picked up a ball of Nashua to make a baby hat or something out of. I used that same yarn at my sock knitting class in a different color and I just love it, so I got the same stuff in another color.

I also didn't mention my secret KnitPicks purchase from a few weeks ago. I didn't exactly tell Chris I'd ordered it so I had to hide it for a bit (I'm sneaky).

A while back I had mentioned another sweater that I wanted to make for Smush out of the baby sweater book Chris had bought me for Christmas, "Knitting for Baby: 30 Heirloom Projects with Complete How-to-Knit Instructions." It's called the Nordic Cardigan and I think it's a great basic beginners foray into fair isle:


Initially I had gone to Abuelita's and purchased some Berroco in a green and purple for the sweater. Then more time went by and I decided to change it up a bit and got some yarn from KnitPicks

I decided to go with a mossy green and lemon yellow



So for now I have a boat-load of projects to keep me busy. I've still been staring at my Tilted Duster. I still have to finish the collar and then just sew it all together, but I'm stalled on it. I go into my sewing room and it's sitting right there in my knitting bag just begging to be finished but I can't seem to pick it up and work on it.

I have been working on the kitty bed though while I listen to podcasts, which I've found to be so much fun. The bed is a little boring because it's just garter stitch the whole way, but that also means it goes incredibly fast. I hope to have it done in the next day or two.

So until next time, I should have an update on the job situation and hopefully a complete kitty bed and pair of Fruit Loop Socks to show off.