Monday, August 24, 2009

FALL KNITTING FEVER

*****WARNING******** - if you are not a knitter or lover of wool - you will probably find this post extremely boring.
Must have jinxed myself in the previous post when I said I was sure the fall knitting frenzy would hit me soon as it does every year about this time. Of course I had loads of bad influence from DF Karen who innocently came up to visit me and attend a quilt lecture by Bonnie Blue Quilts Paula Barnes at the Olde Green Cupboard on Saturday night. Karen is going to talk more about the lecture and show some better photos she took of the awesome trunk show Paula brought along with her. I was a very good girl there at the cupboard but I did buy one quilt pattern that Karen said could easily be hand pieced. Yes - I do intend to take a hand piecing class later this year at the OGC by Jo Morton. NO NO NO - I am not going to get into quilting - I AM NOT going to get into quilting - you did hear that didn't you ? I have not paid for that class yet either and I was pretty sure I was going to dismiss the thought of taking that class but of course Karen said it would just further my repertoire/skill level/knowledge and I should take it whether it goes any farther or not. So - I'm back to saying yes I will take the hand piecing class on the Ohio Star later this fall.

OK - on to the yarny stuff - One of the not so LYS is about to start a KAL on a gorgeous new cape pattern in the fall issue of Vogue Knitting. She carries every color of the exact yarn called for in this pattern. It is Highlander by Alpaca with a Twist and in the photo below - it is in the upper left corner - a beautiful color called Tartan Red - WHOOOOO - I was so excited with my choice - the KAL begins on 9/19 - I also purchased a ball of Alpaca Sox by Classic Elite to make a hat also out of the new VK issue - see seperate photo of that project and hat photo. Never tried that yarn before so that will be fun - it was not fun however starting that hat with 12 stitches on size 3 DP needles and starting over 5 times - had DF Karen not been present at the time and I had to restraint myself - I'm sure that project would have gone flying across the room never to be seen again. Looks like I'm on my way now as evidenced below.

Saturday we made a pilgrimage to JoAnn's in the rain and horrendous traffic to get there. I think I would have rather stayed home and beat myself with a stick LOL - There are only 2 JoAnn's locations now in the humongous metropolis that is Jacksonville and one is within a few miles of my house - however because of the obnoxious traffic in the area - I have not gone to that location in probably 10 years or more. I got two nice knitting books - one on sale with the 40% coupon and spent WAY more money than I expected to because again DF Karen HAD to show me some Bethany Lowe Halloween book that had this really cool wreath made out of zillions of cut ribbons - So I bought like 20 spools of various ribbons to make this blasted wreath. Karen sat and cut about 5 spools into the correct length to give me a jump start on that project. We stayed up WAY too late starting new knitting projects - her a great scarf and me - the hat shown above.

Sat evening was the quilt lecture at the OGC - we met DF Kerrie at Bonefish Grill next door to OGC for a delicious dinner before the lecture. We are all into samplers so it was non-stop sampler talk thru the course of the wait and the dinner. Here is a photo of the only quilt pattern I bought from the Bonnie Blue trunk show. She said it was inspired by an antique quilt obviously using scrap fabric - I thought this might work for me and give me some justification to pick up little fat quarters of beautiful fabric that I have absolutely no use for except to stash. Its fairly small in quilt terms anyway - that's my excuse and I'm stickin' to it !

Now as it we did not get into enough trouble Friday night, Saturday, Saturday night - we decided that we would make another drive on sunday to Hanks in Gainesville - another great but "not so LYS" - I've have had some Fisherman's wool on order with them since MAY (yes friends - a previous visit to this shop with DF BI(bad influence) Karen) I bought 2 lovely 500yrd skeins of Lorna's Lace hand dyed Fisherman's wool in Butterscotch in May and after perusing all my knitting books and patterns for a Fisherman's Gansey - I realized that 1000 yrds was not nearly enough - AAACCCKKKK - hence the 3 month wait for more yarn to be ordered, dyed and shipped to Hanks. Of course I could have had them mail the yarn to me for all of about $5 but OOOOOHHHHH NOOOOO - Why not just drive down there and pick up the yarn and see what they had new since May - Well - you will also see in this photo - the other purchases that could not escape my lust for the wool - you see - I don't talk about it much but yarn is my real weakness, my addiction, my crack - - I have more yarn than anything else in my vast stash and more than a lot of shops I have seen - so much so that I am actually going to have to have a big sale in the near future to reduce my stash so I can finish cleaning out my old house which has been for the past year simply a warehouse for my vast yarn and stitching stash.
Again in the upper left is the Highlander Tweed from the Local Needle - upper right is the Butterscotch LL Fisherman's wool, lower left is some lovely Silky Alpaca Lace by Classic Elite and lower right Maron Malibrigo - Malibrigo is Karen's crack - she loves it and is such a BI - I am making a lovely shawl for my mom out of Malibrigo I purchased on the May adventure to Hanks - it is turning out nice so I thought I'd better have some on hand just in case I wanted one too. For those of you who know knitting - Jared Flood is a blogger from NYC -he has done some great design work - I don't actively read his blog (there is not enough hours in the day to read all the blogs of interest) but his patterns have been picked up by Classic Elite Yarns and his new book is extremely hard to come by right now - Hanks had one copy of this book left and I snagged it posthaste. He has a lovely shawl in there called Bridgewater and it uses the gorgeous Silky Alpaca Lace pictured above. Here is my meager start on that project.
OK - is anyone still with me??? I'm doubting it but just in case you are here - you might have a chance to win 3 balls of beautiful lace weight wool from Australia - just mention in your post that you'd like to be entered in the drawing for the lace weight wool and if you mention my crazy post on your blog - I'll enter your name twice - I am finally done rambling about my excellent awesome yarn adventure weekend. The drawing will be held on Labor Day - good luck!

16 comments:

Jean in Georgia said...

I'm still with ya! You got some lovely stash there. :) I've come to the conclusion that I suffer from chronic startitis... I wanted to start another sweater the other day, and Richard asked me how the last sweater I started was coming along... Really took all the fun out of it. :(

Chocolates4Breakfast (Terri ~ Boog) said...

I don't knit but what a wonderful time you've had. The yarn is beautiful and I hope that someone that can turn it into something beautiful wins!

Cari said...

Oh Mel....I am with you girl! I'm a sock knitting nut, have knit a lace scarf (very basic) and tons of hats. I think you mentioned that you were knitting the hat that appeared on the cover of the new Fall Vogue. I'm getting ready to purchase yarn for that one!! And, I read Brooklyn Tweed on a regular basis! His new designs are YUMMY. Now, I could go on, and on, and on! The funnest thing is that I work at a yarn store every Tuesday. Can you imagine just how much yarn stash I have?? Of course, there are always room for more from your contest!! Hugs and HAPPY WOOLing

beeinstitches said...

WHOA! Great start on the gorgeous shawl. I wonder how I always get labeled a BI (bad influence)??? when I'm usually just along for the ride!!! Probably because I think you should do what makes you happy :-) and for some of us - that's BUY WOOL!!! Love the post and of course, add me to the drawing.

Jackie's Stitches said...

I'm still with you too!

Your friend Karen sounds like LOADS of fun! :) All of us need an enabler in our lives!

Can't wait to see your projects in person...including your quilt!

Margaret said...

Argh!!! What a great post! I can't remember everything I wanted to say -- it all went out the window when you showed your start on that Jared Flood piece. I nabbed one of those books too! And I love that green you're using! I haven't done lace knitting in ages though, so i'm afraid to try. Plus it takes away from my stitching. lol! Oh, all the wonderful yarns, and yes, you have to take that Ohio Star class, and I'm on overload! Please enter me in your drawing. :D I'll try to remember to post on my blog about it. I'll let you know when I do (if I remember! lol!) Thanks, Melody!

Siobhán said...

My knitting repetoire is limited to seriously wonky scarves that I am too embarrassed to foist off on any recipients. That said, walking into a yarn store is almost as wonderful to me as walking into a LNS is. I guess it's the fiber thing, the creative thing. I love it all. Love the pics! Sounds like you had a fabulous time.

Oh, and ps--you are SO going to get into quilting! :D

Susan said...

Melody, I think you've become my bad influence! I love all the yarns in your post but I'm thankful that I'm not a great knitter or I'd have to run out and buy most of them.

You are going to LOVE quilting!!

Karoline said...

Gorgeous yarns Melody, great start on the new shawls.

I'm 'not' taking up quilting either LOL!

Sharon said...

Oh so many lovely goodies you got there. I just love the yarns and quilting omg, you are going to have a blast with that. I am curious about your ribbon wreath, can't wait to see more about that. ENJOY!!

TeresaB said...

OMG what a great weekend you all had. Love all the yarn you found. (And of course more lace yarn would be happy at my house so enter me into the drawing!)

Deb said...

I'm still with you although I'm drooling all over my keyboard looking at all that gorgeous yarn. Such wonderful colors and such wonderful pattern! It must be something in the air because I just pulled out my Great Aran Afghan to start on! So seeing your post made me all giddy!

And love your quilt pattern! I think that once you start you won't be able to stop and you'll be looking for fat quarters all over the place (it becomes an addiction).

And I'd love a chance to win the yarn. What's some more stash, right?

Oh and I love your start on the shawl - I love the color of the yarn.

Jeanne said...

I'm still here too - what lovely stash and projects planned Melody but beware of that pesky quilting bug or you're going to have to move into a warehouse soon LOL. I can only knit a dishrag....would love to learn but I can't afford another hobby (neither money nor time). Not to mention I live in a warm climate where you hardly ever get to even wear sweaters, hats, etc. It's like the month of December is all we have to pull out those sorts of clothes! It's so much fun spending a weekend shopping for stash and sharing with a BI!

henri said...

Hi Mel,
Just love your blog!!! Great new stash--love the colors--so Fall!
Even though I haven't done any lace knitting (yet...lol!),would love to be entered in your drawing.
Thanks

Ria said...

Hi! I'm here from Teresa's blog. One can never have enough stash never!! I love that butterscotch - it is gorgeous. All your pictures are beautiful!

Kim said...

Love the fall knitting update! And oh yeah....another quilter! ;o) Love that Second Hand Clothes pattern too!!!