Monday, February 21, 2011

A Little Slip

I've been doing rather well with my continuing monogamous ways and no new yarn, so I guess it was inevitable that I slip a little.
I have two pairs of socks that I am working on, one sweater from an old Manos kit that I am trying to make into something that will get worn and just needed to get myself out of the doldrums of looking at the same old stash yarn.

With the break in the weather this past week, I went out to my LYS, just to look.

Right!!! I signed up for a class to make the oscilloscope shawl and found some gorgeous neutral hued yarn that I think DD#3 will like for her birthday.If she doesn't, I'll keep it. I also picked up yarn for the February Lady Sweater that I tried to make with the old stash yarn that was reminiscent of steel wool. This is Cascade, in a beautiful green. I think I'm in love. So these two new projects should have been enough, right? Not so much.

On Saturday I got my Amazon order which included Kathy Taylor's new Fearless Fair Isle. I fell in love with every project in the book. I used the Knit Picks gift certificate I received for Christmas to order yarn for two of the sweaters. I have already read the whole thing from cover to cover. It is wonderful. Well written, easy graphs, great pictures and really terrific projects.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Uncle!

It's winter in Buffalo. It snows and it is cold. These are givens. We have avoided the big nasty snow storms that have pelted what looks on TV like the whole world. So I should be really happy, right? Here's what we have on the patio.

That's two feet of snow, if it's an inch. It didn't come down all at once, oh no. It comes down 2 or 3 little inches at a time. It hasn't stopped snowing like that since December. Only one day on January did it not snow. And we haven't had anything remotely resembling the January thaw we usually get. Sigh!
My West Virginia DD just said imagine in a few months you will be sitting out there in the sun reading the newspaper. I'm not so sure.
On the knitting front:
Once upon a time (in the '80's, look at those sleeves) I made this lovely mauve sweater.
I kept it in a box and got it out recently and thought I could rip it out, wash the yarn and make a new sweater. The color is so pretty and I wore this one all the time. So I did.
I was going to make the February Lady Sweater out of the reclaimed yarn. I started a few months ago, working on it at the same time I was working with cotton. The number of stitches
on the needle and the way the yarn seemed to be unyielding, made for very sore wrists and fingers, so it was sent to a time out.
Now it's February and of course there are a number of KAL's going on to knit this sweater, so I took it back out, making all sorts of excuses for it. I was working with cotton at the same time and cotton is very hard on my hands; I was knitting too tightly, just needed to relax a little; it isn't really like steel wool, it must be my hands are dry from the cold; once I get to the lace pattern it will be much easier.
My hands and fingertips are now so sore, I won't be able to knit until they heal, which may take a week or so. I have stopped kidding myself, this yarn did not age well. It got stiff and as far from wool as yarn can get. It is going in the garbage because it really isn't fit for human consumption. I wish I had admitted that to myself before I took it out the second time.