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.)

dyeing update... and a few other things

Okie dokie, first things first: the kool-aid dyeing thing was more awesome than I can accurately say. I am sad that there is no more blue kool-aid to be purchased anymore (I really want to dye blue yarn, but I don't want to mess with mordants and strange dyes right now). Part of the fun is the surprise you get when the dyeing is done and the skein is hung up to dry. I made my dye of a combination of regular cherry and pink lemonade and it turned out to be this wonderful hot coral color. I dyed the yarn so that it's vareigated. It is now on the needles as a feather and fan sock a la Wendy Knits! It's coming along very well, though it has been derailed by my project A.D.D. My birthday was yesterday and as an early birthday present, I purchased a semi-precious stone whorl drop spindle from Yarn Botanika via ETSY and a crapload of roving and silk hankies from The Yarn Tree to teach myself how to spin. I got through my first 2 ounces of undyed merino and managed a semi-decent bit of singles. I'm afraid to ply it... we're planning trips to Lincoln, NE and Estes Park, CO (both places with decent yarn stores) this month and I want to have someone show me in person how to do this. I have been bitten by the spinning bug and I couldn't wait to have someone show me how to ply the yarn, so I dug into the 2 oz. of the dyed merino that came with my spindle kit and have been spinning on it. I am actually getting a fairly consistent very thin single that should ply up to be laceweight. The roving is dyed this amazing lapis blue with some navy and yellow-green spots in it that are making the coloration of this yarn something to behold. I'm so excited to see how it plies up and swatch something with it.

I have abandoned the candle flame shawl in the alpaca. I'm having a problem with the chart-reading and I frogged the thing and started over with the Branching Out lace pattern (with three chart repeats across so instead of a scarf I should have a fairly nicely sized stole) from Knitty.

I haven't touched the sock for Mom other than to get about 3 repeats on the second sock leg. She loved the one I wrapped up and gave to her on Mother's day and smiled when I said that she'll have the second one in time for her fall Student Teaching. (Who wants to wear wool socks in Nebraska in the middle of craptastically hot summer and humidity anyway?)

I borrowed "Mason-Dixon Knitting" from the library this weekend and I am now experimenting with washcloths. Peaches and Creme yarn is $1.27 per skein here and the projects are knitting up quickly. I don't like the patterns for the ballband washcloth, so I'm taking inspiration from those fine ladies and trying my own patterns. We'll see how they go. They're a nice break from socks and Mac's sweater and the shawl (to which I have to pay attention and therefore can't knit on that in the drive-up line at Wendy's) and in my purse they will reside until everyone in my acquaintance has a washcloth in their linen closets.
Needless to say, I'll have a couple "finish me now" projects to take to Colorado. I'm very much looking forward to an entire week of no work and minimal monster-minding (thanks to the Aunts and Uncles), so I can just put up my feet and knit and fish and shop and weird out my in-laws and RELAX. I soooo deserve this vacation. Yay for MIL to think of this great trip.