Dressew

At my last SCC Knit Night some of the ladies were talking about a sale at Dressew. The store has been around for arpx 40 years but I have never been there. They supply buttons, zippers, and tons of fabric for those who sew. (And holy cow the store is huge! I was overwelmed by how much stuff they had!!)

They just recently starting carrying yarn. And right now all yarn is 1.99 per ball! Since the store is downtown I decided to check it out after work on the 24th, since I only had to work half a day that day anyway. And here's what happened:


This is the most yarn I have ever bought all at once. The Rowan ribbon twist is destined to become Shroom. The Regia is going to be given in the post Christmas gift exchange the SCC Knit Group is doing in January. (I'm pretty sure no one from there reads this blog, and if you do just forget you read this k? :) Thx.) The Nashua Handkits Granite wants to become a pair of mittens (I'm not sure of which pattern yet - maybe just a basic mitten?) The Nashua Handknits Wooly Stripes will likely become a scarf, but seeing as its last on the list it will be quite awhile before that happens.

FO's coming up later in the week. :)

It arrived! It arrived!

Yesterday after work I checked my mailbox and inside was a large, soft package. I immediately knew it was my KnitPicks order. Yea! Once I got inside my house I open the package to see 10 skeins of Wool of the Andes in Spruce. Here's what the website says it looks like:

The above looks blue on my work computer (shhhh... don't tell the boss...actually she's on vacation :) The actually colour is a dark green with a bit of teal mixed in. Now I can start Wicked, my second sweater. Thanks to my Secret Swap Pal for the Knit Picks gift certificate.

Except I can't really start it yet because the needles I need are currently being used to hold The Cabled Rangoli Hat. Which I haven't been working on because I've done the increase row 4 times and it's still not right. I now know what I have to do to make it correctly. But as I put the link in I noticed that the original pattern called for it to be knit in Wool of the Andes, which I knew I would never get so I cast on using the Malabrigo that was gift to me (by the secret pal above). I have lots of Wool of the Andes now, so I think I'm going to:

1) frog the hat (hopefully the Malabrigo won't get damaged in the process, I'll be very careful)

2) knit the sweater

3) use the leftover Wool of the Andes to knit the hat.

Then I'll have a matching hat (and this will make me very happy!) The sweater has to be first as I almost ran out of yarn for my first sweater and I won't run the risk of that happening again.

This means that I'll have the Malabrigo yarn free to use for somthing else. Hmm... I'll have to peruse ravelry for new ideas. Suggestions anyone?

The project that I've been working on the most recently is the Booga Bag. I'm about half way done. I recently finished a dishcloth in this pattern (ravelry link), and I liked it so much that I've started another just like it.

What a weekend!

I've had a great weekend! On Saturday my family got together at my parent's house for my birthday. We had drinks and yummy cheesecake with strawberries, and played the card game Wizard. My 5 month nephew was there and looking as cute as always! They pooled their money for a gift and gave me ..... CASH! They know that I want a digital camera so along with the money I've been saving and the money they've given me I should be able to buy one soon. (Yea, then I can start posting pictures on the blog.) I also got two movie vouchers from mom. (She's been wanting to go see a chick flick with me for awhile now and I keep beating her to the movie by seeing it with my friends.)

Then this afternoon I met with 3 friends I got to know through the Vancouver Knitting Meetup. And two came bearing gifts. Monica gave me a felted tea cosy with a design and crocheted flower on the front. Chelle gave me 2 stitch markers, a notions bag (that I will put to use as soon as I finish this post), and some sock yarn. The yarn is Cherry Tree Hill Supersock, 100% merino fingering weight. The colour is absolutely gorgeous! It's called Northern Lights and it's black with dark pink, purple, and green. (I gotta say the yarn does smell a little....mostly just like vinegar or chemicals....)

Since I've taken so long to complete my first pair of socks I don't think I'm quite ready to start my second just yet. I do really want to make this scarf though. I was going to make it out of some white yarn I had laying around the house, but I was feeling very uninspired with the yarn. I love the colours of this yarn so much that I might make the scarf with it. I'll do a swatch and see how the gauge turns out.

In non-birthday news I bought the yarn for my first sweater. It's Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in raging purple. (And in case I haven't mentioned it before the sweater I want to make is Green Gable.) I can't wait for it to arrive!

Yarn Purchase and General Busyness

Wow, its been awhile since I've posted. I've been so busy at work. My work hosted a conference and I helped with the setup. The conference was Thursday evening to Saturday, so the days leading up were filled with organization and setup. Thursday evening we had a reception and I had to stay at work until 8:30pm. Then on Friday I hosted 5 wives of the conference attendees. We took a limo up to Grouse Mountain, had lunch at the top, took in a lumberjack show, then headed down the mountain and took a drive around Stanley Park.

In addition A's wedding was last Saturday (and I was in the wedding party) so Friday night and Saturday was filled up with wedding stuff. My time was so short that I didn't have time to return to work from Grouse Mt. and had to be dropped off at the wedding rehersal by the limo! I pre-warned the my friend that I was not trying to top the bride, just appease her by being on time. :) The wedding was great and us bridesmaids receieved many complements about how good the dresses looked. (There were made by the bride's grandmother who is a professional seamtress.) I'd love to show a picture but I don't have a digital camera. :(

Yesterday I had to return a vase to Micheals and while there I saw some Lily Sugar'n Cream on sale! Yeah me! I've never seen Lily yarn around here. (Although I've received some from swap pals.) I usually buy Bernant Handicrafter Cotton. It comes in a 50g skein. The Lily was a big skein of 340g. This will make aprx 7 dishcloths. Yikes that will last awhile! The hardest part was deciding the colour. I like to have lots of different colours to choice from but now I'll have lots of stuff in the same colour. I decided on the varigated colour Plum Pudding. (Again no picture b/c no digital camera.) The cost was only $5.00. Bought separately that much yarn would have cost me $11.00. I love getting a good deal!

I haven't done much knitting in the past month but I've picked it up again this week. I started a dishcloth from the Monthly Dishcloth Knit Along I'm part of. I should be done in a couple of days.

So here is my question to everyone out in blogland. I do love the making dishclothes but with this much cotton is there anything else I can make besides dishclothes?