Desmondus sock kit giveaway

it takes something pretty special to get me blogging again -- a new sock pattern from Chrissy Gardiner, with his and hers pattern options -- his socks have cables and a slip-stitch heel; her socks have lacy cables and eye of partridge heel

but wait, there's more: the pattern was designed for Serendipitous Ewe's Fate Fingering sock yarn in one of the vampire inspired colorways in a series dyed exclusively for Sandrasingh.com, so Sandra's giving away a pattern+yarn kit -- details are in her blog post Desmondus Sock Kit Giveaway

all I wanna do ...

... is knit ... and read and post to ravelry forums ... and buy more yarn :-)

I'm working on:

1. Irtfa'a -- I still really love this yarn but it's much slower going on this, now that I've reached the right side quill edging, with its many many p2togtbls; the left side will be faster and hopefully more intuitive





2. goddessknits anniversary mystery shawl -- on row 89 of 104, more than halfway through (row-wise) clue #2 of 5, and there's enough of the wip to squeeze, even in its pre-bloom state, and the double decrease mini-motif has become second nature





3. fiery fuchsia Caricia -- this is my carry-along wip, so hasn't had much done on it the past several days, but the pattern seems soooo easy this time around





4. Oh! Canada -- 2/3 done but now this sits on the sofa, waiting for suitable TV viewing time





5. shadow tweed Petra -- just cast on yesterday and now need to organise the various front and back instructions that depend on either back length or number of front stitches or something else -- this is knitting up fast and feels remarkably luscious, considering the yarn is half acrylic, and that's actual gradation in the yarn colour, not shadow, in the pic:
   
   
   if there's still some at M&S when I get a chance to go back there, I'll try to find another colourway that I like

and there are still the three French Girl Knits wips and the two Tofutsies socks projects, mostly hibernating ...

other projects I want to start soon:

1. calorimetry, using the Noro Silk Garden
2. Thelonius sock, using the Needlefood espresso
3. tempest, using the posh lei bridesmaid
4. totally autumn, if I can find suitable yarn

and two posh batts will be arriving next week ... will I or won't I learn to spin?

America borders on the magnificent ...

Canada -- I wonder how long that tourism ad ran on US TV, back in the 80s ... but here is my wip, almost 15% done, and very smooshy (silk and camel sportweight):

$200 before breakfast

it's getting to be a habit, and not only on Mondays ... otoh it keeps me out of other mischief and greatly reduces my spending on other indulgences ... and I'm losing weight (good!) -- I wore the Chitra skirt that was so hard to zip up when I bought it, and tucked in my top (admittedly skin-tight), and it was perfectly comfortable -- I ate lunch and a donut and had cake and coffee a couple of hours later

snicklefritz yarns are decidedly dearer than posh, at $39+ each including postage ... but Janelle has included a freebie that sounds like yarn, in a colorway that I'll like

1000 Petals has more fibre than yarn, the yarns are only US$18, and she follows the Etsy convention of $7 postage for the first item +$2 for each additional item ... but I found only two colorways that I really-really wanted

I've swatched twice for the goddessknits anniversary shawl, on 3.5mm and 3mm -- the cashmere yarn feels like thick cotton thread but blooms after blocking into a soft light fabric, with much smaller holes than when I pinned it out; oddly, the 3mm swatch has holes the same size as the 3.5mm swatch -- it still felt a bit coarse, so I soaked it again, for longer

Oh Canada is knitting up quickly, and I almost have the pattern memorised, but Irtfa'a is languishing a bit, as I haven't had much knitting-at-home time ... although when I do work on it, the knitting seems to go faster now that I've moved it to the stainless steel Hiyahiya circs

goddessknits anniversary mystery shawl

another large lace project and – oh dear – it needs yet another yarn purchase :-)

I joined goddessknits’ anniversary mystery shawl group – it will be a huge Faroese and the "pattern" calls for 1900 yds of quite fine solid-color laceweight but the only stash I have that would suit is undyed cashmere-silk, which I don’t think would hold my interest for 1900 yds of knitting … so I shopped around and settled on some Purple Iris cashmere laceweight from Knitter's Addiction (arrived Tue 5 May) – very economical, only $56 including shipping -- for comparison, Mel's alpaca-silk for irtfa'a cost $55 and the cashmere has 50% more yardage (but Mel's yarn *is* custom handpainted)

Most of the other yarn options are either variegated or more expensive (and will take longer to arrive) or the online stores were too hard to browse and impossible to search, or as in the case of colourmart, I didn't see any of my colours. although I didn't look on southseas, as NZ$15 per shipment is a bit steep, esp when the actual postage is only $5-6 ... $9-10 for packaging and handling!?

I sent the link to Agnes and Jane, hoping they'll also join ... there are 28 Germans in the ravelry group (carried over from last year's KAL), almost as many as there are Brits

oh, and I bought another book of patterns -- Inspired to Knit -- and the VK quick reference (still waiting for these on Wed 6 May, with no reply to my emails to CanDoBooks)

both orders are from Australian companies (the books are from a shop in Brighton) so will hopefully arrive early next week

everything else has arrived, except the Hiyahiyas and Shibui yarns that I ordered from Loopy Ewe on Tue

yarn from Oregon

the two parcels from Oregon arrived late today, but no posh (from either Dee or Jacqui) and still no yarn from yarnandfiber

the 1800 meters of silk stardust from Knitty Noddy is extraordinary and will make a glorious circular shawl -- Firmaments or something similarly extravagant -- and will provide months of fabulous knitting!

the stardust seasilk from Colorsong looks completely different, but will be a very suitable colour for Trevi -- imagine dark blue chevrons on white mosaic or ceramic

and the mini maiden is soft and silky and this 100g skein is practically the same size as the 150g seasilk; it's intended for a proper-sized Caricia

enough?

seriously, I really should stop, or at least slow down a lot ... no more impulse buying until the wool show, and that goes for patterns, books, yarns, needles, and anything else related to knitting ... or spinning or felting or ...

posh? only ask Agnes to get me something if it's really amazing ...

and concentrate on getting through my queue -- there's enough there to keep me busy for a few (several?) years ... I should never need to buy another book ever again ... maybe at most one or two more [knitspot] patterns?

and oh yeah -- use the time not spent shopping to do some work!