Yesterday I visited Woolwinders with Janis and Sam, and although there were quite a few tempting yarns, I flexed my willpower and bought nothing at all. I’m saving my yarn-buying for Maryland Sheep and Wool, just under seven weeks away.

It’s interesting to see how my tastes in yarns and colours have changed since I first started knitting. I’m still drawn to many of the same colours and colourways: purple and green together, teal blues and greens, heavily variegated hand-dyed yarns. But those aren’t really the colours I wear anymore. I tend much more towards the earthy colours now, the greens and rusty browns, tweeds and heathers. I’ve never been able to wear oranges or yellows, but I love rusty fall colours. I used to prefer a variegated worsted weight or even heavier for scarves and hats; now I’m leaning towards lighter yarns and stranded colourwork.

It’s also interesting to see the different yarns that the stores carry now. Woolwinders used to have an entire row of sock yarn; now they have one or two cubbies of it, and some other sock-weight yarn scattered throughout the store. There was a lot of cotton, which I ignored. They had no Noro Kureyon – not that I need any, but I do love looking at the colours – but they did have a fair selection of tweeds and heathery yarns which really tempted me. I spent some time considering a skein of Cascade 220 Superwash for a hat, but decided to hold off for now. I have so much yarn at home, I really can’t justify buying more right now!

Once again, I visited my sworn-sister the Knitting Ninja (along with a bunch of other friends) in her hometown of Ottawa for the annual Winterlude festivities. In addition to the usual things we do there – eat stew at the cook-off, drink lots of beer, buy fancy cheeses and make a meal of them, watch the Super Bowl – we visited two yarn stores.

Our first stop was the new Yarns Etc., where I acquired a skein of Cascade Heritage Paints in the understated blues and grays “Thunder” colourway. Understated blues and grays… if you’ve been following along for a while, you may have guessed that this is going to be socks for Michael. (And if you haven’t, now you know!) I have no idea when I’m going to get to them, and first he has to tell me where the last pair of socks could fit better, but eventually there will be a new pair of plain ribbed socks for him.

Since it was within blocks of our hotel, we walked down to Yarn Forward. Last year I’d gotten two skeins of Lang Merino 120, a smooth DK weight superwash yarn, in black. This year I supplemented them with three more skeins, one each of cream, green, and blue-ish. The colours aren’t exactly wintery, but somehow they remind me of winter. Blue and green are more springlike, but with the cream in there they make me think of ice. So I’m thinking of designing a Winterlude-inspired hat and armwarmers set to be my very first for-sale patterns.

To that end, I wandered around the ice sculptures in Confederation Park looking at, and sneaking pictures of, people’s hats. There was lots of inspiration to be found, since of course in February in Ottawa it’s cold enough for nearly everyone to be wearing a hat, and many of them are hand-knit.

Many of them also have earflaps, which was my motivation last year to knit the hat that I didn’t want to buy. I finished sewing the lining into my Winterlude Hat(tm) just a day before leaving, and got the cords in with some help from Pirate-Husband, and was quite pleased with how warm it was while I traipsed around Ottawa. There are a couple of things that I would change, if I were to be making it again: first, I’d make the earflaps wider. They are wider than my ears, but still let wind in unless I tied the cords under my chin. And second, I’d make the lining a teensy bit larger, because it felt as if the hat kept riding up on my head unless I tied the cords under my chin. So third, I’d make the cords a couple of inches longer, because it was hard to tie them while wearing gloves. Even without those things, I absolutely love my new hat. Wearing something made of yarn I spun myself is so gratifying! The polar fleece lining kept me from having a terrible case of hat hair, which is definitely a good thing. (I know I’m squinty in this picture. It was very bright out.)

Speaking of gloves, there’s another finger to repair on my Fleeps. They still kept my hands warm, though I can definitely feel that they’re getting thin. Maybe I can wear them for another year, but then it will be time to make another pair for myself. Meanwhile, Michael’s new Fleeps made their debut and did their job wonderfully. He says he’s going to show them off to everyone, and I totally believe him. The magnet-snaps that I sewed in are seriously awesome. My next pair will definitely have those included.

I found out yesterday that one of the best local yarn stores, With Yarn In Front, is closing down. They were having a 40% off everything liquidation sale, so I stopped by on my way home to see if anything was left.

Most everything had been cleared out well before I got there, but I did find this skein of Sockin’ Sox, 436 yards of a wool, bamboo and nylon blend. I might not have bought this at its original price, but at 40% off it was definitely worth it. It will knit up into subtle stripes of red, tan and blue with black spots spattered throughout. I looked up some of the socks knit in the same colourway on Ravelry and I am leaning towards keeping it for myself for a pair of plain socks, though it might make a cute striped infant-sized sweater or a good-sized stuffed toy.

I’ve been looking for these things for a while. The sock in progress, which lives in my purse, has a tendency to slide on the needles and lose a few stitches, especially if I don’t take it out and work on it frequently. Maybe it’s giving me a hint? Anyway, I had a holder for a sock in progress that was made from a plastic toothbrush holder, but it was rough on the edges and snagged the yarn too often, so I stopped using it… and never made another. These little coils wrap around the needles together, and will prevent any further sliding. I think these will work better for me than the style of holder that goes around the whole project.

It’s always sad when a local yarn store closes. This is the second one in recent days. I never shopped at the other one, so its closing was disappointing but I didn’t feel much of a loss. With Yarn in Front was a wonderful store, with a wide selection of yarns, spinning fibers, and even wheels. I tried a Kromski Sonata there,which firmed up my decision to buy one. I will definitely miss the store. It’s so doubtful that a new LYS will open to replace it.

After a wonderful dim sum brunch with a group of friends, Janis and I celebrated “World Wide Spin in Public Day” by, what else, spinning in public! We set up our wheels at a local coffeehouse and got to work. I brought eight ounces of merino pencil roving with me. After a few frustrating undertwisted yards that kept drifting apart, I was able to get a good single going. The pencil roving has colour changes every six to nine inches, so I plan on chain-plying the singles to keep the striping going. The yarn should come out to be a good fingering weight once it’s plied. Spinning sock yarn does take a long time, but I like knitting socks best of all, so I end up spinning a lot of worsted, fine singles.

We’d originally thought to sit outside the coffeehouse and spin, for the best “in public” experience, but it was really bright out and I didn’t have sunscreen with me. Even so, a few people stopped to watch us spin indoors, and one even asked to take our picture to send to her fibre-fiend sister. That was really cool – and she was nice enough to send us a copy of the picture. (These two aren’t them; I remembered I had my camera after she’d gone and Pirate-Husband was kind enough to take some shots of us.)

I can’t have a spinning day without teaching a friend to spin. This is Stef, learning the drop spindle (my Cascade Little Si, which weighs about an ounce and a half) with some bright green top. Janis’s larger spindle is on the table. Stef decided that spinning really wasn’t her thing, but she does want to learn to knit. I’m not as confident teaching people to knit as I am to spin, but hopefully I can get the concept across well without too much frustration on either side. Maybe I’ll ask Janis to help with the teaching. Since she knits English and I prefer Continental, it might be good for both of us to be there so we can teach both ways. Then Stef can pick whichever she likes better!

Janis and I, along with Stef and Sam, also stopped by Woolwinders to check out the new inventory. They have a pretty good selection of higher-end yarns, but very little in my favourite “cheap sock yarn” range. I wasn’t going to buy anything at first, but Sam and I have been talking about designing a shawl together, so I got this Madelinetosh Merino Light in the “Vintage Frame” colourway for that. Sam also got a skein of Merino Light, but in a dark purples and black colourway. I won’t have time to design and execute a shawl for a while, but this beautiful pewter-coloured fingering-weight single will be perfect when I get to it. We’re discussing the possibility of incorporating the same stitch patterns into both a triangular shawl and a rectangular stole.

Floyd and Aubrey are out cold. This might be the only time I could knit in front of them without fearing for my yarn. Fortunately, kittens sleep a lot…

Did I really make plans to be out of town on the same weekend as the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival? That’s what I get for not looking at my calendar. Boy, did I feel stupid when I realized my mistake. Fortunately, Amtrak doesn’t charge change fees, and I am able to move my trip to the following weekendweekend before (the following weekend is Mothers Day, and I can’t miss that either!) Whew!

Despite not remembering when it is, I’m pretty excited about MDSW. Like last year, I plan to buy mostly fibre – the hand-dyed stuff that I love to touch before deciding to buy. I’m going to help a friend look for her first drop spindle and some fibre so I can teach her to spin. I’m *not* going to buy anything that hasn’t already been washed. I haven’t gotten around to carding any of the solid-coloured stuff that I bought last year, so I don’t think I need more of those. I meant to bring the carder out over the weekend, but it didn’t quite work out. I *am* going to buy a braid of fibre in colours that I don’t usually go for, and something in a semi-solid, and maybe a sort of fibre that I haven’t yet tried – perhaps a blend that will spin into a tweedy yarn.

If I see the perfect sock yarn for my mom, I’ll pick it up; otherwise I’m going to have to order from WEBS as my local yarn store doesn’t have the colourway and wasn’t very forthcoming about their ability to order it in for me. I was a little disappointed at the hedging about ordering, and the implication that I’d have to buy a full bag of the yarn when all I need is one skein. (But ordering from WEBS is dangerous! I never want to get just one thing; I always want to get up to a $60 order so that I can have the 20% discount!)

Last weekend, while my house in Virginia was buried in more than two feet of snow, I went to Canada. Ironically, the weather there was beautiful and clear, if really cold. It was even too cold for me to want to skate on the canal. Instead, my sworn-sister the Ninja and I, along with our friend Amy, took an afternoon to visit yarn stores.

Our first stop was Wool N’ Things in Orleans, where I was thrilled to find some of the discontinued Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed, the same yarn that I used to knit my Fleep-Tops. I picked up two skeins in Cedar, a gorgeous dark green with red and yellow flecks. They’ll probably become another pair of Fleeps, as backup for when my first pair inevitably wears out. The green totally doesn’t match my dark blue winter coat, but it’s time for a new coat anyway. Perhaps something in green, or preferably black. Black goes with everything.

Then we headed over to Yarn Forward in Ottawa proper, where I bought two skeins of this super-soft (and superwash!) Lang Merino DK in a gray so dark it’s almost black. My first thought was that it might make a pair of Fleeps for Michael, but he wanted something thicker and tweedier, so I’m going to use it for a pair of classy office armwarmers for myself and pick up some Rowan Felted Tweed in as black as it comes for him. Not that I mind being able to use this pettably soft stuff for myself, not at all! I am thinking about making something like these Cafe au Lait Mitts from SnapperKnits, or perhaps I will come up with my own pattern for them.

I did have a disappointment this year: My old Stellar Toque, now over four years old, may be nearing retirement. It’s gotten stretched out and too large, and lets the wind through to my ears. I am thinking that before next Winterlude, I will knit a colourwork hat with earflaps and line it with fleece. We saw many of them in the Byward Market when we were there for the Stew Cook-Off on Friday, and I was seriously tempted to buy one – but why buy what I can knit? Pirate-Husband suggested that I could salvage the Stellar Toque by knitting earflaps onto it and lining it with fleece, instead of making a whole new hat. I could also felt it a little to shrink it and make it more windproof.

Sometimes it’s difficult to choose a traveling project without casting on for something new, and sometimes it’s really obvious. Fortunately for me, this is one of the obvious times! On Wednesday I’ve a four and a half hour train trip, followed by an eight hour drive on Thursday, and then a long weekend in Ottawa with my sworn-sister, the Knitting Ninja and some of our friends.

In preparation, I cast on last night for the second of the Sibling Socks, an easy project to bring along that not only won’t take up too much space, but also won’t be too hard to work on while drinking beer and playing games. I haven’t traveled by train since I was in college, and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to knit without getting motion-sickness. I’m going to give it a try!

Here’s something that you might find hard to believe: I turned down a trip to WEBS. One of the potential routes to Canada puts us in the neighborhood of America’s Yarn Store, and I actually said “let’s not go this year.” We’ve stopped at WEBS for the past few years, so I feel as though I’ve accomplished my pilgrimage as a knitter. I really don’t need any impulse yarn, and I’m sure to buy some if we stop. And… we’re going to visit yarn stores in Ottawa. Not that the exchange rate is super-favorable to American dollars at the moment, but I’d rather see if I can pick up a souvenir from another country that I might not be able to get in the States.

A visit from my swornsister the Knitting Ninja would not have been complete without a trip to at least one yarn store. We, along with our brother Michael, decided to check out the new Needles in the Haymarket. They’ve recently moved from the third floor of their building to a much larger store on the first floor. It’s quite nice already, and looks as if there’s even more yarn to come!

I told both sibs that I was on a yarn diet and would not be buying anything. Then this jumped into my hands. “These look like your colors,” I said to Michael, and maybe also “I would knit you another pair of socks,” and perhaps I might have added “One little skein won’t hurt, right?”

Said Michael, “If you’re going to knit socks for me, then I should buy the yarn for you.” And he did, thus absolving me of sin for having broken the yarn diet. (Isn’t it lovely and so subtle in the colors? I can’t wait to see how it knits up!)

I did not go to Rhinebeck this past weekend, and it’s probably just as well. I heard that it was cold and rainy. Perhaps next year!

Instead, I spent the weekend in Boston with a couple of friends who indulged my strange hobby and waited patiently while I visited Newbury Yarns and Windsor Button, petted all the yarns, and purchased nothing. There were a couple of sock yarns at Windsor Button that almost came home with me, but in the end I decided that nothing really had to.

I did get to work on my handspun sock for a while in the airport. A woman across from me at the gate watched curiously for a minute or two, then asked, “Excuse me, but… what is that called, that you’re doing?”

“Knitting,” I said. “I am knitting a sock, even if it doesn’t look like much yet. This will be the toe.” I showed her the barest beginnings of sock.

She nodded. “Nih-ting,” she said, trying the word on for size as if she’d never encountered it before. “Nih-ting. You don’t see too many people doing that anymore!”

“No,” I agreed, and went back to it.

If all went well, we now have threaded comments up to ten levels deep, so that you’ll be able to reply to other people’s comments in addition to commenting on my posts. Pretty nifty! (Please feel free to test the system.)

I’ve been planning to go to Stitch ‘n Bitch tomorrow, but I’ve had a sore throat for about a week. In the last few days I’ve started coughing. If I’m not feeling better by morning, I’ll have to put it off another week. Phooey. I was really looking forward to it, but I certainly don’t want to infect anyone with this cold.

Next weekend I am taking a quick trip up to Philadelphia, and I’d love to visit a yarn store or two while I’m there. Can you recommend one? Loop is already on my list. I enjoy buying souvenir yarn when I’m traveling. Later, when I knit it up, I can reminisce about my trip. And even after that, when I’m wearing the finished product, I think, “These are the socks I knit with the yarn I bought with Michael in Ottawa, in that neat little shop on Bank Street that’s closed down now,” or something like that. “This is the hat I knit with the yarn that I bought when Janis and I snuck off after dim sum to splurge at Woolwinders. This is the–”

I remember where I bought most of my yarn, actually. Even though there’s so much of it now.

Because of the inauguration, I worked from home today. I worked until Pirate-Husband came home. We worked out, showered, had dinner, and sat down to a movie… but then I remembered! It’s Tuesday! *Spinning Tuesday*… and I hadn’t spun a single yard of yarn all day!

I wasn’t going to bring the wheel downstairs to where the television is, and I didn’t think I could concentrate on making even laceweight while I watched the movie, so I grabbed the heavier spindle, a 1.5 ounce Cascade Little Si, and the gray-green mystery wool. First I had to wind off what was already on the spindle, because it was heavy enough that it wasn’t spinning properly. Then I spun for about half an hour.

I’m coming out with a fairly consistent singles, but the spindle keeps stopping. Or spinning the wrong way. I try to draft as it’s spinning, but when I let go, the spindle jerks and stops. That’s not right, but I’m not sure what’s wrong. More practice is obviously necessary, and in the meantime, I’m getting yarn out of the deal.

Yesterday, on my day off for Martin Luther King Day, I saw the dentist, then got a haircut and new glasses. I’m pretty pleased with my new look! The hairdresser and the optometrist are conveniently in the same shopping center as With Yarn in Front, so while my lenses were being ground, I stopped in there to knit for a while. I had a great conversation with 11-year-old James about the benefits of magic loop vs. DPNs for sock knitting while he worked on a hat and I added some stripes to the Quick Socks. We talked about spinning (we both have Ashford Traditionals) and about our previous projects until my glasses were ready. All in all, a great day indeed.

I will never say “…and I won’t buy anything there” ever again.

Sam, the Ninja and I went to Needles in the Haymarket, and I fell in love with a sock yarn in deep red with little bits of black and dark purple. (Pics soon.) Since I had no deep red yarn in my stash, and since there was still a little bit of money left on my gift card, I bought it. Now, this is how cool the ladies at the store are: I didn’t know exactly how much money was left on the card, but I knew it was six dollars and some change. They put $6.00 into the credit card machine and it went through… and then we started trying small change because, as they said, “You have to use the last bit of money on these cards!” Eventually they logged on to the card’s website and looked up the balance (three cents) and ran that through for me too. They are awesome.

Then we went to With Yarn in Front where I succeeded in not buying anything else, probably because I just bought sock yarn from them a few weeks ago when I was there with Janis. This is how cool they are at this store: they remembered that I was loving on the Kromski Sonata and offered me, “do you want to spin on ‘your wheel’ again?” I declined, but we admired the selection of Noro (I would love to knit another Stripey Striped Scarf) and when we were done shopping, we sat in the back and knit for an hour until it was time to head off to dinner.

I’m not sure I *can* go to a yarn store with friends and not buy anything, if there’s something I like.

In a few hours, I am taking the Knitting Ninja and our friend Sam to local yarn shops. “Do they have sock yarn?” the Ninja asked. Well, YEAH. Just a bit of it. And I’m not going to buy any, I swear!

I’ve had guests since Thursday night and we’re having a great time, but I’m not getting any knitting done. I’m okay with this. Later this weekend I’ll show the Ninja my wheel and we’ll all stare as it goes ’round. Meanwhile, we’re relaxing and eating way too much food and really enjoying life.

The second Bloo Sock is almost through the gusset decreases. I’d like to have it done before Michael comes to visit, so I have less than two weeks. If I don’t finish by then it’ll be okay, I’m sure; after all it’s still a hand-knit pair of socks for him at some point! As a result of cranking away on the socks, I haven’t made much progress on the baby blanket… and the baby is due this week! If only I had four hands, I could work on both projects at the same time.

One of the local yarn stores, With Yarn In Front, is hosting a “Knit and Flick” night every other Friday. This coming week they’ll be showing Dr. Zhivago, and I’m deciding whether or not to go. I’ve never seen the movie before and I question my ability to knit through it and remember what happened. Maybe in a month or so when I’m no longer knitting to deadlines, I’ll check it out. I think it’s a great idea!

This is Silkie Socks that Rock from Blue Moon Fiber Arts in Ravenscroft, a gorgeous black with hints of greens and purples. I’ll be using it to make Mom’s birthday present, a pair of gloves. Hopefully they go smoothly and quickly; I’ve never knit gloves before but I want to get them to her as soon as possible. Pirate-Husband actually bought this yarn, because I’m doing the knitting and the gift is from both of us.

On the left we have Cervinia “Forever” in awesome stripes. Forever was the yarn I used for my very first socks, which have held up quite well, and when I saw this colorway in With Yarn In Front last weekend, I had to have it. It passes the “blue jeans test” easily, that test being a single yes or no question: Will this yarn go well with blue jeans? On the right is some Universal Yarn “Ditto” that was on a serious closeout sale. It also passed the blue jeans test, and the price was too good to pass up! The cost of both was covered by the last of my pre-paid Visa, money that I’d set aside for yarn purchases, so I don’t feel at all guilty. Even though I’m supposed to be on some kind of yarn diet.

I’m quite tempted to cast on for a simple, 64-stitch, stockinette sock… but I have deadlines to meet. The baby blanket is somewhere between 75% and 80% complete, depending on when I decide to stop. I finished the third skein of yarn yesterday. The Bloo Socks are halfway through the gusset decreases. Progress is being made!

Friend Janis and I went to With Yarn In Front in Centreville yesterday to check out the yarn, fiber, and spinning wheels. I have really missed yarn shopping with her! We each got some sock yarn (I’ll have photos as soon as it’s sunny again) and tried spinning on a Schacht Ladybug and a Kromski Sonata. I’m sold on the Sonata, for sure! It spun very smoothly and was a good size. Now I just have to save up the money for it. I feel almost guilty for wanting to get something newer and slicker than the Traditional, which I haven’t even had for a year yet.

I’m doing my best to keep from casting on a simple toe-up sock with my new yarn. I’ve been knitting so much for other people lately, it would be nice to do something quick and easy for myself! But no, I have several projects with deadlines that really need to be worked on. Now.

So I went to WEBS and had a wonderful time fondling all the yarns. Michael the Enabler, he for whom the Bloo Socks are being made, carried the basket and helped by saying things like “you should buy that” and “yes, that is soft” and “wow, this wheel spins for a really long time.”

I didn’t buy the wheel (it’s wasn’t a Sonata), but I did buy two new bobbins for my Traditional, three skeins of Silk Garden for a scarf, and one ball of stripy-jacquard sock yarn for fingerless gloves that will have flip-top mittens.

I’d like to go back to With Yarn in Front and test the Sonata they have there. If I like it, then I’m going to start up my savings fund for it. And if I don’t, then I’ll know and I can stop drooling every time a used one comes up for sale! Pirate-Husband asked me if I’d ever spin on the Traditional again after getting a double-treadle wheel. I said that I didn’t know – maybe? and if not, I can sell it to someone else. It’s a good wheel and there’s no reason I can think of that I wouldn’t continue to spin on it.

My new camera should be arriving today, so soon I will be able to take pictures of everything I’ve been working on! I made some progress on the Bloo Socks while I was on the airplane, in spite of having to unknit six or seven rounds to correct a mistake that I must have made while at the wine festival. No more drunken knitting for me! (I did try to drop the stitches down and pick them up in the right orientation, but that didn’t work as well as I’d hoped, so I unknit.)

The funniest thing happened yesterday! On my way home from work, I thought to myself, “Self, you should stop at With Yarn In Front, that new LYS you haven’t been to yet. See what they’ve got!” And then I thought, “Rats, I’m not exactly sure how to get there. Ah well, I’ll go another time.” Just as I’d decided to go straight home, I looked over at the car next to me. It had big magnetic signs on its doors saying “With Yarn In Front.” I was driving next to the shop owner!

Needless to say, I followed her to the shop (and I’m glad I did, because if I had guessed which way to turn when I got off the highway, I would have guessed wrong). What a neat little place! Lots of yarn, spinning wheels, looms, roving… I will definitely be going back there. They have a good selection of sock yarn; I’m surprised that I was able to resist buying even one skein.

Speaking of yarn stores, I have a pilgrimage to WEBS planned for tomorrow. I was very careful to make a list of exactly what I want, to try to avoid any really impulsive purchases. My budget is dictated by a pre-paid Visa card, and I won’t go overboard. Really. I mean it!

Marie, from the weekly knitting group (the one I never get to go to anymore) invited me and a half-dozen women to spend the weekend at her beach house in Maryland. What a fun time we had – and what an amazing view! We knit, spun, talked late into the night, and ate *so* much food. Marie’s house is absolutely beautiful. It’s a three-story Victorian right on the water, with so many little details that I kept noticing.

I arrived on Saturday afternoon. After a wonderful lunch of lemon chicken, we knit for a while and then ventured out to a local yarn store, Crazy For Ewe. It took some serious self-control, but I didn’t buy anything. The only yarns that really tempted me were out of my budget – like some Schaefer Heather, and some sock yarn that I would have had to get two skeins of for just one pair of socks, and some hand-dyed laceweight from Ellyn Cooper’s Yarn Sonnets that glowed with color and had metal spun in with the yarn. It would make a beautiful shawl, if I could afford it! I did have fun touching all the yarns, and everyone else bought something, so I didn’t feel bad about keeping the store open after its scheduled closing time.

We had grilled salmon for dinner with potatoes au gratin and green beans, and then got back to knitting and spinning! Jinann and I both brought our wheels, and I got started spinning some of this merino. I’m planning to make a three-ply sock yarn with it. There’s eight ounces of the stuff, so no concerns about having enough. I don’t know if I’m spinning tightly enough for sock yarn, so I plan to run the singles through again and put some extra twist in before plying.

This morning, Marie made us French toast with raspberry butter, and there was more knitting and spinning before a lunch of shrimp over pasta with a saffron cream sauce. I finished the second skein of yarn on the baby blanket, which was my goal for the weekend, and got started on the third skein. The Bloo Sock did see a few new stitches, but as it’s meant to be my airplane knitting in a couple of weeks, and it doesn’t have the deadline that the blanket does, I tried not to work on it too much.

What a fantastic time! I hope that we can all get together again soon and do it again!

I know that knitters are exceptionally nice people, but it’s always great to have that re-proven to me.

After I finished the first of the Bloo Socks last week, I had the bright idea to weigh it. Then I weighed the remaining yarn. Then the sock again. Pirate-Husband came home and asked why I was cursing, so I weighed both the sock and the remaining yarn for him, being sure to zero the scale first.

The next day, I spent several hours contacting yarn stores to try to find another ball of the same color and dye lot. I’d originally ordered the yarn from WEBS, but they were sold out. There was someone on Ravelry with a ball up for trade or sale, but I contacted her mere hours after she had sold it, and she hadn’t yet updated her stash. I called all the local stores and wrote emails to all the ones on the internet which offered Trekking for sale.

Several stand out as deserving of recognition for their help:

Romana from Yarn Cloud, who called around in search of the right dye lot for me, even going so far as to contact Skacel to see if they had any more left (they didn’t, but still).

Pat from Yarn Barn, who forwarded my emailed plea for help to a mailing list of yarn store owners, so that the request would get to more people.

Judy from The Knitter, who did have the right yarn and immediately set it aside for me! It arrived today, and I am so happy! It’s all I can do to keep myself from casting on right now, but there are some non-knitting-related things that I need to take care of before I can get started. (Like dinner. Darned inconvenient, having to eat several times a day. Cuts into my knitting time.)

Pictures of the first sock will be available as soon as Pirate-Husband gives me my camera back.