Poor, poor credit card

I got home from shopping and checked emails not expecting anything but I got into the Wollmeise Sock Club. I was actually thinking when I went out oh well saved some money:)

If I'm here summer must be nearly over

I'm sitting at my computer refreshing my hotmail account to see if I've got a place in the Wollmeise Sock Club. It was run like a lottery. I have not even knit with it yet. I have the Digitessa kit and traded a Sundara that I was not that fond of for a skein of Wollmeise.
Sundara has 2 new clubs starting shortly. One will be a Sock Club and the other a Sweater Club just after signing up for 4 more Seasons for a total of 6. Oops that's the first time I've admitted how many out loud. I had originally signed up for Spring and Summer but succumbed to Autumn and Winter with doubles in Spring and Winter.
I put 3 yarns on sell/trade page on Ravelry and they were gone the first day.
Twist Collective published their first issue just recently. Wow, the patterns are amazing, all are gorgeous and the designers the cream of the crop. There was a lot of talk on Ravelry about the price of patterns and shouldn't we be able to buy in bulk and get a better price. But I like that you can only buy what you like and they will be there for a long time so you don't have to buy everything now.
I'm working on my 2nd Rib and Cable socks by Nancy Bush in Mountain Colors Bearfoot and just starting my 2nd Cat Bordhi Rushing Rivulets in Shubui green. I will try to get some picture of both socks soon.
The Mountain Colors Bearfoot is a lovely yarn. I had tried a number of patterns but did not like any of them so kept frogging. My friend Wendy tuned me into this pattern from Interweave Knits issue Fall 2005. I did not like the heel so went ahead blindly and ended up with the cables on the foot not lining up. Normally I would redo it but I was tired of rewinding this particular yarn, I refused to do it and pray noone wants to have a closer look:)) The 2nd one is perfect.
Well Claudia is already on Finland so I guess I didn't win a spot in the Sock Club oh well more money for Sundara.
One of my last posts I moaned that I did not think anyone was reading my Blog and when I was looking at blog the other day I noticed I had a response. Made my day...
Off to walk Sadie.

I Found it...

Well holy cow I found it. I talked about the Firestarter and how difficult it was to follow the chart. It has instructions on how to do the twisted stitches without a cable needle. I like an easy life, do not want a headache while knitting. Here's the link to Trishshack's life, it is her blog. Here's the reference on Ravelry. I don't know how long this thread will stay up but as long as Trish keeps her blog it will be easy peasy...
I got an email from Yarnissima today to say she has updated her site and the kits are back in stock. She's also working on a project called Zum Dirndl, a magnificent kit including 1.5 skeins of Wollmeise 'Natur' (80/20!) plus lots of extras... Can't wait to see what it is. I had already bought all her patterns, but the kits include the patterns. Pretty expensive kit if you've already bought the patterns.
I wonder if anyone is reading this blog:)) Oh well I'm enjoying doing it..

Tech Knitting

I was reading about a new left leaning decrease today on Ravelry. The link can be found here. I don't know what the name of the person is as usual but wow what a lot of work has gone into these posts. I've now put the link on my desktop.
Happy knitting, I'm off to bed. Have not knit a stitch today. Darn.

Semi-Solid Why do I love thee???

I forgot to mention in yesterday's post why I like Sundara's Yarn so much. Self-Striping yarn is all the rage but it's very hard to find patterns that compliment it except plain socks. Now I have nothing against mindless knitting:
1) you can watch TV and knit
2) you can talk on the phone
3) you can ride your bike while knitting:)
And the list goes on.....
When we travel I take too many projects. Some of them don't even come out of their bag. I take at least one mindless project so I don't have to count stitches and rows while I'm talking. And of course never do as much knitting as I think I should. But you must always be prepared....
With a semi solid yarn you can do intricate stitch patterns that show up beautifully. There are designers out there who are churning out patterns for self patterning yarns.
Suzi's Knits is one. Go look, she has some gorgeous patterns. There are at least 3 that I will probably purchase at some time.
Cookie A's patterns are to die for. She does use some self patterning yarns but they are subtle. She has a few free patterns on Knitty. I think her most famous sock pattern is Monkey which you can find on Knitty. Monkey is on my list of to do patterns.
Archiknist also has some very nice patterns. I don't know her real name, key hole socks is also on my to do list.
Since joining Ravelry I've found even more free patterns. Really you don't need to buy any if you're trying to save your money for sock yarn:)
The Yarn Harlot says you don't count "Sock Yarn" as part of your stash:)
I think Stephanie is one smart lady:)

Arrived in the Mail

Lorna's Laces in Chocolate, and Dream in Color Smooshy, Black Parade all from the Loopy Ewe.

Season's Yarn Club from Sundara Yarns, Prickly Pear on the top and Jungle Boogie on the bottom.

I'm spending too much time on Ravelry checking out 2 groups, Sundara Yarn Love and the Seasons Yarn Club. I'm not getting as much knitting done as I would like. Sundara has a new website and no longer tells us when she is updating the site. If all of the Sundarian's signed on at the same time we would probably crash the site. She is working hard at tweaking the site, we'll have to patient. In the last year I've tried a lot of different sock yarns but I'm totally obsessed with Sundara's Yarn. I have not snagged an update since she changed the site. I thought I was being very decadent signing up for 2 seasons, spring and summer and find out later that some have signed up for six???

I've been slowly updating my stash on Ravelry, takes some time but is fun to go and look at it. Also been posting a few projects, when will I get to all of them?

So much yarn so little time:))

Take a picture when yarn arrives

I'm sitting in my office and it's still bloody raining. Oh well, at least I won't have to work hard in the yard today. Bad weather saves the wear and tear on my body:)
I've made a promise to myself I will not wind yarn into cake until I've taken a picture.

Took a bunch of pictures today using the flash as it's too dark outside to get any decent pictures. Here are pictures I promised yesterday.

These are Diamond Fantasy Shawl by Sivia Harding in the Silk Lace in the Tulip colorway by Sundara Yarns.

These pictures are Mad Color Weave by Tina Lorin done in Sundara Yarn Sock in Brown over Cocoa. The pattern is very easy to follow. The only thing I might do differently if I knit again is when you start the heel flap you have to increase 2 stitches on each side which seems to pull a bit and make small holes. I'll try and increase the stitches in previous row so as not to pull.

These 3 kits are all from Van Calcar Acres Farm. The Yarn Harlot created quite a bit of chaos in Jennifer's life after she posted about the kit. It took quite a while to get the kits but she did warn me.

Every time I post a picture it goes to the top of the page and I have to reposition everything, darn frustrating. When you preview pictures are not where you put them. So that's it for me today. Think I'll go and see what's happening on Ravelry.