half of an f.o.

I checked out the new Knitty a couple days ago... some cute patterns, the twinkletoes pattern in particular. I cast on one two days ago (first time with the provisional cast-on and a short row toe/heel) and finished the first one last night. I knit it as written, except I made a yarn substitution: knitpicks Wool of the Andes in Cranberry. (And one slipper took about 3/4 of the skein... again probably due to the loose gauge of my knitting. )The fit is a bit big with bare feet, but I suppose I had some gauge issues. Ah, well. It is, as they say, close enough for jazz... and I'm a sucker for red shoes, especially quick knit red shoes. I think I'll take the designer's suggestion and find some leather bottoms to put on.

I'll definitely try these again (and post pics of these once I finish the second one), and maybe try a 5 needle. See if that gets me any different results. I know my Mom would love a pair, and probably Miz Izzy, but she doesn't like the "scratchy" of the wool, so I may have to do with cotton or fuzzy acrylic.

In other F.O. news, I finished a thing for my secret pal. I'll post that picture after I mail her Christmas box, which I had better get done sooner rather than later.

In stash enhancement news, I bought some Jagger silk/wool from Sarah's Yarns so I can make the Simple knitted Bodice from Stitch Diva one of these days. It's a beautiful pattern in beautiful yarn from a not-so beautiful yarn company. Hence the yarn sub. FYI, Sarah's Yarns is a great company to order from. Not only did I get my yarn at a great price, but she stuffed the box with color cards from the other yarn lines that she carries. I have to admit that I've never touched cashmere yarn before, but I practically pet the samples she sent until they disintegrated. Again with the funny looks from the Husband, but it's worth it. So totally worth it.

Added to my wish list:
The Kromski Masurka spinning wheel. It's a castle-style wheel and it's gorgeous and it's relatively affordable and if purchased from paradise fibers, you get a $40 fiber credit. That's a lot of roving, no? And with the as-yet unshorn 3 year old Rambrouillet sheep and 2 llamas out at my parent's farm, I'll be totally set for a while. If I could only convince my Husband that the $375 price tag is worth it.

Actually, I made him a deal. If he gets his Shmintendo Wii (or Wee-wee, as I call it in my head), I can have the wheel. The money will be there come the end of the year... work called me in to do inventory, since no one's taken the time to figure out how to do it after I left. And they said that I could name my price. Twenty-five bucks an hour, here I come. I just hope that he makes good on his deal.

Trip report

... I really need to get used to doing more frequent entries... and adding pictures... and being more interesting in general, or I'm never going to get any traffic. (Not that it matters, really, since I don't have wonderful things to contribute to the knitting world yet, like Eunny or the Yarn Harlot or any of the other wonderful women (and men) whose knitblogs I frequent frequently whilst procrastinating actual work.)

I finished the knitPicks plain socks a couple weekends ago, finally, and am almost done with Mom's Latvian Lace Socks... turned the heel and am doing the gusset decreases on Sock #2. The second sock is not as nice-looking as the first, as I have done much of the knitting on it without the pattern in front of me... just relying on my memory of the lace pattern and getting the left- and right-facing decreases confused and not realizing it until it's Too Late and I Don't Want to Fix It or I'll Never Get Done. I will say this, the "Improved SSK" from the Zimmerman camp is a marvel and a wonder. Wish I had learned of this when I was doing the first sock.

Vacation Report: Estes Park was beautiful, and wet, and cool... which is a wonderful thing to this very pregnant, very prone to overheating, knitting person.
I worked on the Icarus Shawl from this summer's IK, it's really going to be fabulous, though the first 75% of it is going to be soul-crunchingly repetitive, but I'm just a lace amateur and can't really work on it without my trusty little notecards. Right now I have about a 5" x 5" piece. Maybe I'll finish it in a year or two... we'll see. (By the way... I bought the new KnitPicks self-named line of circular needles, size 3 for this lace project... awesome! The cables are really flexible, the join isn't terrible and the points are sharp sharp! I may have to start saving my pennies for the interchangeables set. I'm becoming a circular needle advocate.)
I also worked on the Lace sock a bit and wowed my in-laws at spinning silk hankies. My Father-in-Law just sat there and watched me for at least an hour. It was fun, but difficult as the chairs were too hard (hurt my bum) and the couch was too squishy (couldn't breathe) to sit in for long.

I got to have my very first visit to a Yarn Store (that isn't Wal-Mart or Hobby Lobby) while on this trip. The yarn store in question was The Stitchin' Den, on Virginia Street, just off Elkhorn Dr. (the main drag in Estes) in a very charming shopping center-thing. After three futile attempts (first day it was closed when we got to the shopping, second day we got rained out, third day I got to wave to it as we walked by Virginia Street... I was shopping with non-knitters, obviously) and a pregnancy hormone-induced pity party that no-one was supposed to see, but I got caught, I (thanks to my husband) got to finagle an hour in the store while my SIL had to go to the grocery store and pick up the pictures from the river rafting trip that I wasn't allowed to go on, due to the basketball I'm smuggling under my shirt. It was lovely, though very strange. I got to take MacZilla with me, who was very well-behaved and was rewarded with a skein of Brown Sheep Co. Wildfoote sock yarn in the Blue Boy colorway (yes, it's Electric Blue... his favorite color) for a pair of sockies just for him and two visits to the trout pond. The very nice lady in the store was extremely helpful and we talked of my newly blooming love of Alpaca and my Mom's soon to be foray into Llamaculture and when MacZilla was getting a little bored she kindly distracted him with this behemoth purple scarf that was made of at least thirty some odd kinds of yarn... acrylic, wool, camel, angora, funfur... if it was purple, it was in this scarf. It was a wonderful teaching tool, something I may need to copy someday if our knit retreat/teaching the good people of North Platte about the "New Knitting" thing ever happens.

The really neat-o thing about being in a live yarn shop is the chance to touch stuff before you buy it. Those of you who have actual access to real-time yarn probably take that for granted. For me, the closest yarn store is 2.5 hours east in Hastings, NE, 3 hours (plus a time change) west to Denver, CO, or 3.5 hours North to Brown Sheep Co. itself in Mitchell, NE. I am truly in a natural fiber yarn black hole.
This is what I learned in that short time I spent in the Stitchin' Den
1. Llama is not as soft as Alpaca, but it is still softer than regular (not merino) wool.
2. People in the Intermountain West/western Midwest are still nuts for novelty yarn... to a tragic fault... to the exclusion of prettier, softer, cooler natural fibers.
3. I got to see what all the fuss about the Tahki Cotton yarn is... it is really really beautiful, and the colors are so saturated. I'll never look at embroidery floss or Peaches and Creme cotton the same way again.
4. Dale Baby Ull is as soft as it looks.
5. I have no willpower when it comes to yarn purchases and kind storekeepers.

I will post the pictures and half-done project (MacZilla's very blue socks... he was so sweet and he loves his homemade sockies I couldn't resist starting them) when I get home. I hope. Until then... (I need to find some kind of sign off... I can't resist the Cheese factor when Blogging.)