Super Simple

I'm making a concertered effort to get all of my WIPs completed and was able to get two shawls off the needles last month. The first, Azzu's Shawl was a gift for a friend, and she absolutely loved it. It also served as my 'A' pattern for the A-Z Stash Down group on Rav.

The second was the 3S Shawl, knit with Sweet Georgia Tough Love Sock Yarn (a new favorite). I absolutely love the colours, and bought several different colourways from the Eat Sleep Knit Black Friday sale last week.

Opposites

So both my Ravelry queue and my stash continue to grow.

In an attempt to try and get a handle on both, I have joined the Stash Down A - Z group.

Each month is assigned a letter and you choose a pattern from your queue (or a yarn from your stash) which begins with that letter and away you go.

This month was A, so the Azzu shawl that I was making for my friend Claudia fell nicely into the criteria. For B next month, I'm going to get myself organised and finish my Bandwagon Socks.

Of course, now that I have a plan to get both my queue and stash down, along comes the sign up to the Cookie A Sock Club for 2012. And having no willpower, I of course signed up :)

Holiday Yarn

As previously mentioned in my earlier post, one of the highlights of my trip to the US was drooling over all the yarn available.

I took advantage of the abundance of yarn at Vogue Knitting Live, Knit Culture and Wild Fibre to further increase my stash (not that my stash needed increasing!!!).  Here is the first installment.

Poems sock yarn

Fleece Artist

Wollmeise

Mini Mochi

Unfortunately the photo's don't clearly show the colour of the yarn, which is much richer IRL, but it's fair to say that there's a theme (with a couple of exceptions), and I mainly stuck with blues, teals, greens and purples.

Yarn Envy

I love knitting, but while I was in the US I came to realise that I love yarn almost as much - the colours, styles, variations. All hold such possibility. The potential of what a skein can become excites me almost as much as the knitting process.

And I will admit to suffering from yarn envy while away - the variety of yarn available and the ease of supply was staggering. Since returning home, I've been longingly stalking yarn websites and looking at all the pretty's.

Then yesterday my first installment of yarn from the skein sock club arrived, and some of that envy dissipated. While we may not have access to the same depth of variety as other countries, our indie spinners and dyers are amazing, and their products rival yarn from around the world

VKL Changed My Life

Vogue Knitting Live was everything I expected and more.

Thanks to John Brinegar, I will now be tackling garments with seams, without the disappointment of uneven finishing ruining the final look of the garment.

And thanks to Amy Singer I'm well on the way to completing my first ever pair of socks.


Wandering around the marketplace gave me a chance to fondle a huge variety of yarns (and admittedly several skeins made their way into my suitcase for the return journey home!)

And in Santa Monica, I fell in love with Wild Fibre, a gorgeous yarn store with a fantastic range, and once again, several skeins called my name (including one gorgeous skein of Wollmeise). Photo's to be uploaded soon.

Not enough hours in the day

I haven't had much knitting time recently - since finishing Dandelion, I haven't managed to finish anything (though I have started Owls (for me), St James (my sister)), and have looked for a quick blanket to knit up for a friend who I haven't seen for most of the year who dropped the 'I'm 30 weeks pregnant' bombshell on me earlier this week.

I think that I'm going to give Wool Leaves by Jared Flood a go. Wool Leaves Pattern
I only hope that my version will turn out as nicely!

One thing I have done in the past week is read 'The Road' by Cormac McCartney.  I was completely absorbed by the story, and can see myself going back to read it again in the future to pick up on what I missed this time around.

Vogue Knitting Live Part II

It's now all official - I'm signed up for my classes, I've got accommodation booked and my annual leave has been approved.

All that's left to do is book the flights, and get my 'homework' completed for a couple of the classes.  And even better, it's all only 13 weeks away!

If anyone has any yarn and/or sightseeing recommendations for either LA or Las Vegas, I'm all ears.

Vogue Knitting, here I come!

Dandelion KAL

One of the fabulous things at Knit Camp was the Goodie Bags all the attendee's received.  And one of the goodie's contained in the bag were some fabulous patterns by Jen Adams.

Jen set up a Knit Along on Rav for her Dandelion Beret pattern, so I jumped at the chance to sign up.  And after starting the beret last week, I'm now finished

You'll have to excuse the slightly blurry camera phone image - I keep forgetting to buy batteries for my camerea.

The pattern creates a gorgeous beret.  It will definitely  be getting a lot of wear this winter, and I'm already thinking that I'd like to make another beret in another colour - after all, a girl can never have too many hats!

Vogue Knitting Live

It's official - I'm off to Vogue Knitting Live in LA in September!  http://www.vogueknittinglive.com/

Best birthday present ever!  I'm already dreaming about all the fabulous yarn I can buy, and the classes I'm going to take.

Hello World

A couple of years ago I started a blog while I was in China, but never kept up with it, so I decided it was time to try again and start afresh.  Hopefully this time I will be more successful!

I'm currently excitedly counting down to Friday - KnitCamp!  Assuming that I escape from work at a reasonable hour tonight it will be all systems go in regards to packing, though I'm a bit worried that with all the yarn I'm wanting to take with me, there won't be any room for clothes!

I've also gone a little overboard, and signed up for all the classes - seems that I can't get away from my workaholic tendancies.  A couple of days away from work will be a welcome relief though.