Knitting Parade

I don't want you to think that all I'm doing since we moved here is buy yarn, but I bought some yarn.

And it is not even local yarn, it's from WEBS, you know they claim to be America's yarn store so maybe I can call it local?

No I don't think so either. D had asked me where his red sweater was located since the move. I gave him a weird look and said you don't have a red sweater. He was so convinced that he did that I had to go check my project page on Ravelry to confirm that I knit a red sweater for me, not D. We settled on a nice wine color of red.

Their price on sock yarn was a compelling reason to get sock yarn that would match because I've not knit him any red socks either. I also had to pick up some Eucalan since I gave away the little I had. I'm going through more wool wash since I started hand washing socks. I don't trust the machine here not to eat them. Before I got here D called me to ask about washing clothes, especially socks. I asked if he had enough to make it through till I got there. When he said yes, I said don't wash any of them till we know if the machine plays nice. I still have not decided yet. Boy does it take longer to dry socks in damp Oregon. It seems to be about triple the time here, but maybe I'm still adjusting to everything.

Hey we have not had a knitting parade in a while, how about one now? 

This is some yarn I picked up because I was not able to repair some holes in D's shocking orange socks. It looks alright here but there is more pink than I thought there would be, good think I don't have the same rule about no pink hubby socks as the lady from the library did. The bag is a birthday gift from D, along with some yarn that I forgot to show you. Guess we have fodder for another blog post.

This is some Into the Whirled yarn from Rhinebeck that called to me on an overcast day here. We are having quite a few days like that, who would have thought that in the Pacific Northwest. (I think NY is getting snow today so no complaining from this camp, just colorful yarn.)

Ahh my socks that were bought and started at my first knit night here are almost done. (Actually are done this morning, shh don't tell the knitting police.)

This yarn continues to frustrate the heck out of me. I bought it in 2009 and have tried to knit socks out of it several times. The two colors pool half and half, no cool swirling stripes, just utter division. It looks so odd, like the sock cannot make up its mind which color to be. I'm even trying my magic cubic needles that usually gets my knitting to behave nice. Nada!

What do you think should I give up and just use this yarn to mend other socks? Maybe as toes on socks that run low? It even resisted me during a shawl phase. Maybe I should just take it to the knitting guild and give it away?

Oh I did not tell you! I went to my first knitting guild meeting. I'd say there were 50 to 60 people there. They had a lady give a talk about socks, and you all know I love hearing about socks. It was interesting and I met a couple of very nice people that like talking about yarn and knitting. They even do a show and tell to close out the evening. I do believe I will be going back for next month's holiday party.

I attended a volunteer orientation for the shelter I adopted Burt from. Now if I can resist coming home with a brother or sister for Burtie Burt. I can tell you Burt can be a lap cat if there is a chill in the air. We have spent some quality knitting time together recently. I could not be more happy with the idea. Burt just wants a warm butt...

My first WEBS order

Yep the call of the wool is a hard thing to resist. Last winter I found myself woefully lacking sweaters. Now in the past I've had a hard time knitting sweaters, actually when I first started knitting I never saw myself knitting a sweater. It does not matter if your socks are not perfect, they go in your shoes and hide under your jeans. As long as they fit the world still spins. 

Sweaters on the other hand are so very visible. I found a pattern and stuck with it. But then this winter came and I wanted more. No, not wanted, but needed more. And I started consistently exercising. I felt I no longer had to wait for things to change, I was making things change. Now I have not really lost much weight but I have regained some rather pleasant curves. 

So as I was knitting my latest green sweater, I love green sweaters, I promised myself that I would only buy more sweater yarn when that one was finished. It took some negotiating with myself but I held firm. My sweater is now ready for the fall to return, so why not place my first WEBS order?

I decided some new tools would also be nice to try. For keeping the sweaters looking nice I bought a Gleener (lower left hand area) to remove pills from my knitting. It looks like a big ol' razor for your sweater. It has three snap on heads, not actual razor blades, which depend on how fine your knitting is. The big end is a lint brush to smooth everything out.

I got a set of Knitter's Pride interchangeable needles, and four sizes of DPNs too. I like the sock size DPNs that I already have from Knitter's Pride so I thought I would upgrade some of my sweater tools too.

How could I resist yarn that is named Chipotle? Even the name makes me feel warmer. It is a nice rusty brown color. My favorite sweater last winter was one I reworked from D's collection. It may not have been the most beautiful or best fitting sweater but it was my warmest and snuggliest. So what is a knitter to do?

Go find more Berroco Peruvia yarn, buy it and knit another warmest and snuggliest sweater. But first I think I'll finish my saddle shoulder sweater, maybe. You know I have new needles I could cast on another sweater right now. And that my darling husband is why I need so many needles. That question was posed to me in a genuinely perplexed manner. We have a friend that thinks you only need two dish towels. Me? I like to have a lot of tools for the job. You can not find the best tool if you don't try them. What? It is a valid theory.

I had heard stories about WEBS orders sometimes taking a while. Something to do with not shipping partial orders and not telling the customer when items are on back order, thus delaying an order. They even have a disclaimer on their site that lets you know your card will not be charged till the order is shipped. As a person that takes forever to make a purchase I was worried when I place the order on Sunday. How long would my order take? When should I start worrying?

I got shipping confirmation Wednesday morning and when I tracked the package it was on a truck for delivery. Oh happy day! A few hours after email notification I was holding a box of knitterly things.

Well done WEBS. My first order was a success.

On the way

Did I ever tell you how great my Hubby is? We took a road trip recently and he let me detour...

I have been to WEBS now. He even sat patiently while I roamed and roamed. He reports that they have comfortable chairs and interesting magazines. You know for the non-yarn inclined.

You will notice that I carefully took the picture so no one's license plate is revealed. I would not want to be the reason a fellow knitter was revealed on an unauthorized WEBS trip. Because you know there are so many husbands that read my blog trying to find just that data. D questions if I really tried to avoid taking a picture of the license plates. It is true I don't like pictures with plates in them for some reason.

I came to the conclusion that sheep and wool festivals have ruined me. In an ever so pleasant way but I am ruined nonetheless. I was under the mistaken belief that everything that was on their website I would be able to find at the physical store.  Don't worry I managed to find some lovely items to bring home.

I now have no excuses not to knit my hand spun since I found a wraps per inch measuring device. I found a lovely "pretty cheep" bag that will contain projects bigger than socks but smaller than sweaters, i.e. shawls. I will be trying out two Valley Yarns; Huntington for D in navy blue and Franklin for me in Kangaroo dyed color. I managed to wrestle a skein of madelinetosh sock into my ownership too. It was my first time seeing the sock yarn in person. I resisted the madelinetosh light section as I could not choose the colors for my Color Affection shawl.  Choosing the color combo is going to be more difficult than I thought. I may just need to call in Kisknit to help me.

My new button says "Life's too short for plain white socks." Which is totally true in my case. Occasionally D has to wear his plain socks but I'm still building his hand knit sock stash. The plain white ones can be worn when he is mowing the yard or something dangerous like that.

D was a tad disappointed in me since I bought carbon fiber knitting needles. You all know my love of wooden needles and I had stated in the past that carbon was not anything that I needed. Which would still be the case if the market held the $45 price tag that they started with. Knitter's Pride just came out with Karbonz at a much lower price. I know how to justify the worth of a tool but somethings are still good enough. I drive a Ford not a Ferrari. And so does my knitting.

I am itching to get some new things on the needles but first I am so close to finishing a shawlette. It would totally give me the stink eye if I did not work on it. So very close.

So while I may not be planning any trips to WEBS for my knitting group, I will be stalking their website for things I might like. Their Valley Yarns seem to be quite a bargain and many of the yarns may be discounted when you buy enough. Let's face it we all know I will buy enough.