On Temptation, Giving In, and Passing It On

I have so much to write about this past weekend, so please excuse me if this post goes on a little long.

This past Saturday was the February Indie Knit and Spin show, which is usually held twice a year. I decided not to vend this time around, as I got lots of lookers but few takers at my booth in November (yes, I am still intending to put up my handspun in an Etsy shop, but it's taking me a little more time than I anticipated to get listings up). However, Lisa of Fibernymph Dye Works had made up some kits for the four Stitchburgh patterns that feature her yarn, so that gave me the perfect excuse to go. I stopped by just before the show opened to drop the samples off so she could display them in her booth and went back later in the day, with Rainbow in tow, to shop around a bit and then pick up the samples at the end of the day.

You already saw the fiber I purchased, but here's the part where I have to admit that my shopping was not limited to that. Yes, I bought some yarn, too. In my defense, I kind of did plan to buy at least one skein. I had bought the Cape Cod Socks pattern when it came out, and I really wanted a speckled skein to make them. I found the perfect one in the booth of a new-to-me vendor, Youghiogheny Yarns. This is their Mon Sock base (75% superwash merino/25% nylon) in a colorway called Pygmy Puff (apparently a Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them-inspired colorway, though as I haven't seen it yet, I didn't know).

The other skein that came home with me was yet another skein of self-striping from Fibernymph. I'd tried to get a skein of this in one of her recent shop updates, but it had already sold out by the time I was able to check the shop. The colorway is called Cold Snap, and the inspiration for the colors was those color-coded maps they show on the TV news when they're predicting a snowstorm to show how much snow is expected in each area.

The most exciting part of the outing, however, was not my purchases but Rainbow's. I had suggested she bring her purse along with her just in case she saw something that appealed to her, but even so I was absolutely floored when she bought not one but two skeins of yarn with her own money (after nearly two hours of looking into the booths multiple times to make sure she was getting what she most wanted -- she told me later that she liked so many things that she had to narrow it down).

Her final selections were a skein of FDW Mega (a bulky weight) in a fun speckled colorway that I believe is called Runaway and a skein of worsted from Youghiogheny Yarns in a colorway called Submerged. I bought her a pair of size 11 needles so that she could immediately start a hat for herself with the bulky, and she's been working on it steadily ever since.

That's a look of concentration, not disappointment

You'll also note the project bag in the foreground -- it came from StarKnits, and I bought it for her pretty much so she'd stop stealing my project bags! It has cute little hedgehogs and toadstools on it. This is her first time knitting in the round, and so far she's doing very well with it. Unlike her flat knitting, which has gotten progressively wider as she's worked on it, this knitting is staying very neat and even, and her gauge is very consistent. She's already asked how to shape the crown, and I've told her that I will help her with that when she gets to that point (I'm just waiting for her to knit a few more rounds so I can get a gauge measurement and figure out when we need to start the decreasing). I'm very impressed with how easily she's picked this up -- all I did was cast on and knit the first round for her -- so I think when she's done with this project, we'll be able to move on to purling.

While Rainbow is knitting her hat from the bulky, I told her that I would use the worsted she bought to knit her an 1898 Hat. I finished the one I was knitting for charity on Friday, and it fit her perfectly, so I can just do the same thing with her yarn. The first one ended up using less than 150 yards, but I think it's a bit shallow for an adult, so I'll likely add a bit more depth to the next one. I finished the hat before I ran out of yarn on the first (partial) skein of Rios, so the second skein should be plenty even with the added rounds.

Rainbow's sweater is still on the needles, but the first sleeve is officially done -- with ends woven in, even -- and I've started in on the second. It'll be my lunchtime knitting for the time being, as I've given in and cast on for a new sweater for me. I fell hard for the Quill sweater by Evie Scott when I saw her put it up for testing, and it really was perfect because I already had yarn for it in my stash, the three skeins of Miss Babs Yowza I bought at MDSW back in 2013, I think. I had previously swatched with some of it for another sweater but never cast on, and there's still plenty of yarn leftover even having worked three good-sized swatches. It's not much to look at yet, but things will get more exciting once I get past the five inches of garter stitch that form the bottom edge of the body.

I'm knitting this as part of a KAL in Evie's group, and if you think you might be casting on this sweater soon, I'd highly encourage you to join because there are some great prizes and a lot of fun people already participating. I'm hoping that taking part in the KAL will keep me working on the sweater so I don't get distracted by something else and neglect it for long periods of time like I did with Rainbow's sweater.

Phew! I think that's probably enough for today, don't you think? More on my progress next time, when I hope I'll be a little less long-winded.