Yarn today, garment tomorrow...

A few skeins of yarn and what I have recently decided they are destined to be...




This picture really doesn't do the colour of this yarn justice...(and of course you can't feel the fantastic texture either). Trust me, it's gorgeous.
I visited the newest yarn store in town for the first time last week...and as always I couldn't resist the purchase of yarn (yarn stores are inherently dangerous for people like me). Usually I just buy stash yarn, and then later despair that I only bought one skein and can't really do anything with it except ogle to colour and fondle the texture (the combination of these two factors is usually what makes a yarn irresistible to me). This time however, I found a lovely yarn (Malabrigo lace merino) and determined that I would actually buy enough to make something with it. So, after much hemming and hawing I think this yarn is destined for this lovely shawl. Ambitious for me, as I am new to lace knitting, but I like trial by fire knitting projects!!!




I bought this single skein of gorgeous JitterBug yarn in Toronto two years ago. It has been languishing in my stash for want of a loverly pattern. Since it is only one skein I have finally decided that I am going to knit a pair of socks with it. I love knitting socks, mainly because I love to knit in the round. I am torn between two patterns at the moment however; Azure or Interlocking Leaves. I love the idea of knitting whales tails into a sock, especially one that is this colour. It also might be nice to knit something that is not lace (I am a little worried about being laced-out). However, I think the Interlocking Leaves is a much prettier pattern. I am worried about the variegated colour washing out the delicate lace pattern. There is nothing worse than a beautiful lace pattern that you can only see with a microscope because of the excessively variegated colour of the yarn (terrible!!)


I have been drooling over this yarn since I bought it (at the same time/place as the JitterBug). It is a fabulous colour of Handmaiden's SeaSilk blend. This yarn is partially made out of seaweed, and it even faintly smells like the sea (to me anyway). Again, I only bought one skein because this yarn is very expensive, and have despaired of finding a pattern worthy of it's loveliness (no socks for this yarn!!!!) When looking for shawl patterns for the Malabrigo, I stumbled across this peacock lace pattern shawl that is made with one skein of Handmaiden's SeaSilk!! Perfect!!
I may actually start this one before the Malabrigo shawl, because to be honest, I have absolutely no idea how a shawl is constructed. Instructions just don't make sense to me. I am sure I will figure it out, but since this peacock shawl is simply repeats of the same lace pattern and the Malabrigo is repeats of a whole bunch of different lace patterns, I think I will start with this one and see how it goes. Like I said...trial by fire!!

...the emergence of the knitting blog....

It has finally happened. I have succumb to blogging about my knitting addiction...
I've wanted to do this for a long time. I even secured this blog name more than two years ago, in the eventuality of wanting to share the knitting fever with others.
I have know how to knit badly since I was eight years old. I think it was a stint of babysitting or after school care, or something...but all I remember is this big house, lots of girls, and a funny smell. The woman who looked after us was perhaps 50 or so and thought that we all needed "civilizing" and that the way to do this was to teach us all how to knit. Being who I am I hated it (if you were a "children should do what I say" kind of person, I was your personal nightmare as a child). All I remember knitting was endless squares. I think my mom attempted to teach me how to purl once not long after, but it didn't really stick. I didn't knit again for 17 years.
When my mom passed away she left me with a trunks worth of stash. All sorts of strange and wonderful (and some not so wonderful) fibers. Lots of needles too. She also left behind a fabulous book called Needle Craft, that I remember being one of the "adult" books I poured over as a kid. As I have since decided with her wondrous guitar, I decided that I couldn't just leave all this yarn sitting in a trunk doing nothing, that I better learn to knit!!! And so I did...and I became addicted.
I don't knit all the time. I go through spurts, like PMS or something. I knit obsessively for weeks on end. I drool over patterns on-line, I haunt yarn stores fondling all the expensive fibers (I have very expensive taste in yarn), and I am always with a pair of needles within arms reach. And then I burn out. For months I will ignore knitting all together. Until I discover it again, through a irresistible pattern, or a yarn I must have...
Currently I am in a knitting frenzy (probably in order to ignore impending school related deadlines). So, here goes, the odyssey that is my knitting experience...