Friday, July 9, 2010

Fiber Fever

Just one more you say....



so you can knit the pattern you really want instead of the one you though you wanted...

And into the yarn store you go.

No! no..., not that! Anything but that!

The dreaded unanticipated sale of silk yarn at 30-50% off.

First, the green skeins got me...









And, then the gold ones...

Thursday, July 8, 2010

I've been bitten



Do you have the hankering to own every model and variation of every knitting needle out there?

Do you use your floor as your filing space?

Do you stare at the ceiling wondering how many more shelves you can fit in so you can stack up more bags of wool?

Do you have library cards at multiple towns so you can gain access to more books on knitting?

Have you recently taken a tour of all the knitting shops in town and realized you thought they were all wonderful even though they all had, well, lotsa yarn?

Do you try to knit and type at the same time?

Then alas, you've been bitten by the knitting bug just like me.

It all started innocently enough at the library when a wonderful new book Custom Knits by Wendy Bernard came out. I was overwhelmed by the marvelous patterns, lovely prose, excellent color schemes, sensible directions, usable variations that I dashed into my closet and unearthed my ancient trove of knitting supplies from 20 years ago. A quick inventory of needles, a stock of patterns and off I went to tour the shops.

Oh my. At the first shop, I tumbled straight back into the arms of Rowan, my first true wooly love. Round and round I went from indecisive "oh, love that" to "yikes, feels soOo good", and "omg, Omg, OMG!" until I put in a special order for some Rowan cotton bamboo for a lovely tunic.

Of course, the delivery time was 8-12 weeks, just enough time to get me into some major trouble.

With itchy feet and itchier fingers, off I went to check out the other stores.

Geez, Walmart sells acrylic. Only acrylic. Well, I know where to go to pick me up some of that. They were out of the usual useful and inexpensive widgets like a row counter. Uh-uhuhn.

Better luck at the next joint where I hit the silk jackpot! Yi, yi, yi, yi, Yi! And they had plenty for all my patterns. I managed to get out the door with enough yarn for two major projects. It could have been worse. I might have qualified for the loyalty bonus on the first shot.

Time to start knitting....

3 weeks later...

Finished.

Hey, it looks great. But I don't look like the model.





Better loose 30 pounds. Yah.

Uh...That shell just cost me $100 in yarn...

My shipment of yarn isn't due to arrive for another month maybe.

New plan... to the library (na, Na, na, Na, na Na, na - that would be the tune from Batman)

Need tiny projects knitted on tiny needles with intricate patterns and twisty turns...

Purses... don't need more purses, bah, humbug.

Socks. Yeah, like that's exciting.

Knitted flowers???

Shoes. I'll think about that later. Much later.

Baby sweaters... don't know no babies.

socks. boring.

hats? You've got to be kidding.

A knitted slipcover for my sofa. OMG. My sofa is 8 feet long. My shipment will come in long before then.

socks. Is there some obsession with socks?

socks. Maybe there is something to this.

Sock Innovations - I'm the pattern with your name written on it.

My name is spelled Lindy, not Lindsay.

I'm tiny and I'm intricate.

Oh yeah. You've still mis-spelled my name.

Take me home. Try me. I'm due back here in 3 weeks anyway.

Well, but only because I'm taking the Vogue Ultimate Sock Book too.

Sure.

3 weeks later...

Dang, do my feet look fat?