Color Affection Affliction

So while I was in the Washington, DC area for my friend's wedding, I stopped in at the lovely LYS, Fibre Space, which just happened to be having an exceedingly large Miss Babs trunk show that day.

I succumbed, and bought one of their exceedingly lovely Color Affection kits. Because I am a sucker. And this yarn was really pretty. And I've been wanting to make a Color Affection shawl. And because my husband is awesome and totally indulges my knitting habit because he frequently gets knitted items out of it. And he rocks.

Here is the yarn I got. It's the Yet Lace kit in Roasted Pumpkin, Coventry and Pewter. All three colors are twisted together, but they are individual skeins:

I cannot tell you all how much I love that store. I try to get in there every time I visit my friend, and I usually come away with some seriously awesome yarn. They seem to make a point of carrying local and harder-to-find brands, and they curate their colorways beautifully. There's also a lovely seating area right next to an enormous picture window for knitting, and when I was there it was full of knitters and their little dogs too.

Anyway, this time around they had these awesome reusable project bags that they used for their shopping bags. LOVE it! Love the drawstring.

Busy, busy.

It's been a crazy two weeks since I last posted:

1. Georgia started school:

2. I finished my Swirl Shawl but was unable to block it until today. It's gorgeous, if I do say so myself. It also makes pretty shadows:





3: I started a Paintbox Afghan. The noro squares are making me SOOOOOOOO happy:



4. Georgia and I were in my best friend Jorie's wedding on Saturday:

5.  Oh, and Ella had her baby boy today (August Bowen Anderson, 6lbs, 10oz):

All the things I did wrong

Apparently my brain was on vacation when I knit this sweater:

It is a Snug, a quick and easy baby knit. And apparently I was just not functioning AT ALL when I made it.

A short (but by no means exhaustive) list:

1. Started the sleeve rounds at the top of the shoulder instead of the armpit, so the row transition (knit in the round) is pretty visible. (and ugly)
2. Was apparently on crack when I started the round for the hood (you can see the VISIBLE join of the yarn on the left side of the photo, about an inch from the armpit. But I was on crack on only one side, because the other side is ok? WTH?
3. Ran out of yarn on the cast off for the hood, so only about a quarter inch was left, barely enough to weave in, as it keeps popping out.
4. Did mattress stitch on the back of the hood for stockinette stitch instead of garter stitch, which  now leaves a nicely visible line of stockinette for the seam.
5. I think one sleeve is about six rows longer than the other.
6. My crocheted button loop is WAY too big.
7. I apparently decided that apple green thread was the PERFECT match for this sweater, so that's what I used to sew the button on.
8. And finally, even though this sweater only took me a couple of hours to knit, I decided not to rip any of it back, and just finished it, for completely unknown reasons, even though it looks like poopydoodle. 

I am amazed at how many problems I packed into this teeny tiny sweater. Anyway, my sister in law loves it, warts and all, and is excited to put this on her little one, when he actually shows up. Which should be soon. She is feeling about 11 months pregnant, and is due towards the end of this month.

I'm also working on a swirl shawl right now, and it is taking FOREVER. I also screwed that one up in a pretty major way (around the same time that I made this sweater) and ended up having to rip and entire row of swirls back. Because I was joining them incorrectly. Which was not so much genius as not genius.

Georgia and I are heading off in a few minutes to help a friend continue to set up her yarn store (Seaport Yarns. They just moved from the 5th to the 4th floor in the same building) and we've been having a total blast playing yarn store. Plus, I'm getting paid in yarn. WOO! Plus, plus, I'm spending the whole day fondling and smelling and mentally shopping for yarn. And helping customers. And talking about yarn. And looking at all the pretty colors... sigh. It is a little slice of heaven.

Health-wise, I'm doing a bit better. I'm still feeling pretty tired, but looks like the problems I was having earlier this year have cleared up, and my tests have come back with good results, so, YAY!

The Hap. Number Elevendy.

Here is yet another Hap:

It is, as you can see, green and blue (Berroco Vintage Chunky Fennel and Tidepool to be exact).

It is also soft and squishy. It is for Ella's baby. I will be writing in short declarative sentences.

I do not have much more to say.

Working on a Snug with the excess Tidepool. I should be done today.

Actually finished FOs

I finally blocked and put buttons on the Baby Yours sweater that I made for Ella's baby, (whose shower is this afternoon) and put buttons on the Cria sweater I made for myself (and finished  in April). Go me!

Here is an updated photograph of the Baby Yours (my rav link):

And and updated photograph of the Cria (again, my rav link):

And me modeling it today. The shoulders are a little weird, and it sheds like crazy, but it is soft and I love it:

Also, it took me a while to post again because I strained my hand pretty badly (knitted too much) and couldn't type, or knit for about two weeks. Bleh.

Happy Birthday to Me!

For my birthday, we took a trip up to Webs (America's biggest yarn store) in Northampton, MA, which also happens to be in one of my favorite places in the US (which would be Western Massachusetts).

We spent the night in a horrible little fleabag motel in Pownal, VT, which only added to the adventure, and we bounced around in Williamstown, North Adams (MassMoCA!), Shelburne Falls, Charlemont, among other towns in the area. I LOVE it up there. Love. Would move there in a hot second if I thought we could get decent jobs in the area.

Anyway, at Webs, I bought all the yarn.

I got a bunch of (the now discontinued) Berroco Campus in Coffee Run:

To make Alderbrook by Cecily Glowik MacDonald for me:

I got some Valley Yarns (Webs' house brand) Superwash DK in Grape:

To make Saffron by Elena Nodel for Georgia:

I got some Berroco Vintage DK in Delphinium:

To make the Limestone jumper for Bruce (and yes, he looks AMAZING in that shade of purple/lavender):

I got some more Berroco Vintage DK in Sloe Berry (one of my favoritest shades of theirs EVER):

To make the Slanting Gretel Tee by Petra Manis for me:

I got some Berroco Vintage Chunky to make a Hap Blanket for Ella's baby. I'm not going to bother with a picture, because I've already made approximately 500 of these blankets, and I'm sure y'all are tired of looking at it by now. Here are the colors Ella picked out:

I got a ball of Zauerball Crazy for a September Circle for me (again, have made a billion of these, so no pic):

Some Lang Jawoll Magic Degrade in Rainbow for some socks for Bruce. He loved the colors, and so do I. This stuff looks like a blast to knit with:

Some Jojoland Melody Superwash in Teal:

To make a Swirl Shawl by Lijuan Jing for me:

And some Cascade Pastaza (discontinued, apparently) in Chrysanthemum:

To make a Summer Flies shawl by Donna Griffin for Georgia at her request. She wanted a shawl, and loved this pattern.

And that is all. I wanted to get some madelinetosh pashmina in Tart to make a cardigan for me, however they didn't have enough on hand. This yarn has been eluding me for quite some time. Really irritating.

I had a wonderful time in Webs, really enjoyed hanging out in Massachusetts, and loved that we have Georgia's total number of states visited up to 14 now (with the addition of Vermont). I'm at 41, and Bruce, I think, was in the high 20s, low 30s.

FO: Baby Yours

I haven't blocked it yet, but it sure is cute.

Pattern: Baby Yours
Yarn: madelinetosh pashmina in filigree
Needle: US 4 (3.5mm)

My one complaint is that it was knit in pieces and then seamed together. That is an AWFUL lot of seaming for one tiny little sweater. It definitely needs a little blocking, but I'm pretty happy with this one.

It is for my yet-to-be-named unborn nephew, who is due in September or October, so it'll be a while before we get modelled pix.

Next up: Chandial. For me. Because I'm tired of knitting for other people.

Also, I'm dragging my family up to Webs next week for my birthday. I've been prepping my shopping list for two weeks.