new loot!

Thank you Jimmy Beans Wool for your speedy delivery! Order placed: Thursday. Order received: Saturday. Did I request rush delivery? Nope, just good ole USPS Priority Mail. Talk about instant gratification! This is my first venture into using "fancy" yarn--four different colorways of Berroco Ultra Alpaca (charcoal gray; navy; pale pink; pale blue) and five different colorways of Crystal Palace Yarns Kid Merino (painted iris; ultra blues; red cinnamon; taupe mix; code pink). I couldn't resist the novelty of the Kid Merino (so delicate! so tiny!) that I cast on with it right away. What feels like a wiry thread coming off the skein quickly amasses into fuzzy goodness when knitted up. And this photo does not do the color justice--so many subtle variations. Gorgeous! I'm already in love with it. No wonder there are so many yarn snobs!


What am I knitting, you ask? Shhh! It's for Christmas! Let's just say I'm inspired by Amanda's FO-love. (FO=finished object)

an introduction is in order

Meet Zoey. Such a sweet, innocent calico cat. Riiight. Let's just say that attitude is something she's not lacking. We adopted her as a little kitten from my sister just over a year ago, and inherited the name (although I didn't object too much, it matches her spunk). Something Zoey and I share is a great love of yarn and knitting needles. Zoey, however, expresses her love much more violently than I do. Here's an example of Zoey in action ...





Don't worry, I stepped in before there was too much collateral damage. And since this project is destined for felting, it was pretty safe. My bamboo knitting needles, on the other hand, bear much more permanent scars. I swear, she can smell unsupervised knitting needles. Within milliseconds I can hear her chowing down. I am soo jealous of knitters who can leave balls of yarn, unsupervised, throughout their home. I know I can't be the only one with this problem... my solution? My works in progress stay stashed in bags hung from our coatrack or on top of a cabinet, out of Zoey's reach. Ahhh, Zoey. You sure make life interesting, don't you? :-D

casting on

I'm back! Fall hit me in full force--and I lost all motivation after realizing that my plans to participate in a fall craft fair were totally impractical (at the rate I was going, it would be July before I had enough inventory!). But after a break, and casting on a new project that's just for me, I'm back into my normal craftin' groove. I'm hard at work on my very first sweater (eep! exciting!). I picked a simple button-front cardigan from "Hip to Knit." It's so simple that it doesn't even have a ribbed border! I know that means I'll have to deal with some curling/rolling, but that's okay. I'm using Moda Dea's Tweedle Dee yarn in the "Surf and Turf" colorway (80% acrylic, 16% wool). It's chunky and knitting up pretty thick, which means this baby will be warm--but that's fine by me, as the fall chill has hit pretty hard lately. For being "shaded effect yarn" it's also surprisingly stripe-y. But I'm loving it so far--it feels really soft and I'm curious to see how the colors will pool on the sleeves. I'll keep you posted on my progress!

As far as my modest amount of what would have been craft fair inventory goes, we'll see. I've toyed with opening an Etsy shop since last February, but I am sooo busy this fall that opening a shop now really isn't in the stars. On the other hand, I don't really like the idea of opening a shop in January, during the post-holiday slump. So we'll see. For now I'm reclaiming some of my "stock" for myself!