Baby Stitches

I make a quick trip up to Oakland this afternoon, to hit the market at the TKGA/CGOA Knit & Crochet Show. My stated reason for the 45 minute drive each way was to obtain a larger size Tunisian crochet hook, from the Stitch Diva, aka Jennifer Hansen, my hero. But, as luck would have it, they were sold out, so I had to settle for an order and the promise of free shipping. So I bought some yarn. I got some yak yarn from Y2Knit, some hand-dyed cashmere-silk from Argosy Luxury Yarns some hand-dyed bamboo-wool-acrylic fingering weight yarn from the Knitter's Studio (which they are having dyed just for them) and a bunch of very soft wool from the mysterious Yarn Place of Sunnyvale.

Rather a lot, really.

The market reminds me of Stitches seven or eight years ago, although it's even smaller. I like the variety of classes they offer at this conference, and I took one last year, on double-ended hook stitches from Darla Fanton. But the classes I find compelling are few and far between, no matter where they are.

I obviously found the market compelling today, however.

Pt. Townsend

I just got back from a weekend in Pt. Townsend, WA, where I attended my sister-in-law's wedding and did some shopping, not necessarily in that order. My sister-in-law knitted her own wedding ensemble, and it looked fabulous. I hope she'll be able to wear the pieces for other occasions, after all of that work.

Pt. Townsend now has two yarn stores, plus what has to be one of the nicest farmers markets around. Since I work at a yarn store, I try to buy local yarn when I travel, and, while there was local roving for sale at the market, the only yarn came from Kingston, which is pretty close, as things go. It's even dyed (green) with osage orange.

I knitted more on my ballet tee-shirt, while I wasn't reading the new Terry Pratchett book.

Oddball compulsion

The Afghans for Afghans vest is drying right now, and I will sew on buttons tomorrow, photograph it on one of my kids and send it off. I was contemplating making another one before the deadline, but I have a new compulsion.

I joined the Stash Busters! group on ravelry, not really because I feel I need to go one a "yarn diet," but because I really have a huge stash and I like to make things out of it. Some of the members of the group have posted about holding out rewards to themselves of only being able to knit with or buy some particularly yummy yarn if they knit all of their stash yarn. I do not exaggerate that it would take me many years to knit up all of my stash yarn, so that's not the point.

But I have been thinking about the many oddballs and onesey-twosey balls I have (not leftovers) and about doing some projects that combine them in creative ways. This is, of necessity, about color, although I'm easing into it by doing the first one with a lot of grey yarns and three balls of colorful, self-striping wool.

(As an aside, when I went through my stash in a fairly major way last year, I was pretty amazed by the sheer quantity of grey yarn I found. That and red.)

So I'm thinking about a jacket, since these are all wools, and one is pretty itchy. The colorful yarn, the boucle and the ribbon will be combined into some sort of slip-stitch pattern (although Tunisian crochet is another possibility) and I'm also thinking of knitting the fronts on the bias, with the diagonal forming the neckline, and the colorful part the neckline border. Then I thought about putting a diamond in the back, and running the back diagonals off of it.

I would still rather work my usual knit-in, set-in sleeves from the top, so a challenge would be establishing the diagonals with short rows, and how to insert the diamond. If I keep the body armhole increases out of the bias section, I'll have some extra room for waist shaping.

And the truth must be told, there is some extra grey yarn in the sale bin at Yarndogs that I'm thinking of buying to add to this (despite the abovementioned superfluity of grey yarn.) But I'd have to get a full 50% off to make it worthwhile.

And while I'm thinking about this new project, I'm knitting away on the ballet t-shirt. I made a lot of progress on my trip this weekend; it should be done in a couple days. And there's still warm weather to wear it in!

Afghans for Afghans Vest

I finished the right front of the vest last night, and today I have been knitting them together with the back, done in 2x2 rib. My initial thought was that a ribbed back would make for a snug, warm fit, but it's pulling in quite a bit. Knitting the edge stitches of the back together with the side stitches of the front is also creating little holes, so I'll probably end up running a piece of yarn up each side. Technically, it's still not sewing!

I work at the yarn store tonight, so I will take along the hated crochet sock, which I've not even added as a WIP. Of course, we're not technically supposed to knit or crochet while working.

ObFirstPost

Boy, I haven't been to Blogger since 2003. But I'm not running for governor this time, I'm chronicling my knitting on Ravelry. Fewer links to the LA Times, more successes, one hopes.

Anyway, I spent today taking photo after photo with my iPhone, of sweaters laid flat on the floor. They would have looked better on me, but my phone doesn't have a flash, and I thought the photos-taken-in-the-mirror looked pretty lame. If I get a friend to come over and photograph me, I'll update things. Then I sent the photos to flickr and put in lots of project info and notes.

Still to come, the sweaters stored in my workroom, as well as all the yarn lurking therein. How does anyone have any time to knit?

I've also created a few groups, since I couldn't find groups for some of the things I'm interested in, and it's gratifying that people have joined them.

Finally, I have to crow here that a design I've submitted to Crochet! magazine's design contest was awarded an honorable mention, and will be published in the July 2008 issue. Woo hoo!