Kim Dyes Yarn

Got a skein of aran and bulky in the "Birthday Sprinkles" colorway from Kim Dyes Yarn. The bulky is a Trainspotted Too Hat:

The aran will be a modified Peace Cowl. I'm trying out Chiagoo Lace needles; I really like them.

Yay, new yarn to try!

Carrie

My first real hero has died. Sure, Princess Leia when I was little, but also Carrie Fisher the writer of brilliant dialogue. Carrie Fisher the badass. Carrie Fisher, who spoke about her experiences with addiction and mental illness, and let so many people know that they were NOT alone.

Carrie Fisher, who will be so very missed.

Carrie Fisher, my hero.

Shiny!

Approval!

The store sign was approved by the Board of Architectural Review tonight! Woohoo!

Pics when it's up!

Free Pattern - Trainspotted Too!

I wrote this a few years ago. It's quick! 

If you want a roll-up brim, start with k1p1 around for six rows, k around one row, then start with Row 1 of the pattern. Makes for a nice warm band over the ears!

Found it!!

Found my fancy floss box today!! 

I need to actually stretch and mount the piece inserted; it's just kinda there right now. Totally going to be in my office!

Knit Nights

One of the things the store won't have is a big area for people to sit down and knit. There are both pluses and minuses to this, but I need the space to sell product!

(This was NY's Pie & Cheer party tonight.)

The more things change....?

I remember, when I was younger, thriving on change. Moving to a new place? Great! Trying new stuff? Awesome! Looking back, though, I realize that those were changes that were well-defined, with set times and proscribed boundaries. 

I'm trying to look at opening the store like that. It's working... a bit. Right now, with my proposed opening day looming ever closer, it's overwhelming. Every issue I deal with today has trailers that snake into tomorrow.

And the end isn't really the end; it's opening day.

I'll probably feel better when I get the last five major items accomplished. And I do have more than a week to do it all. 

Deep breath.

It'll be fine.

I got this!

Key Cap Sadness

So, want to make the spare store key instantly recognizable to whoever has to bring it to me. Found this: 

Perfect!! And sold out. 

So, I found this:

Possible. But not my favorite.  Then found this:

OMG! Even more perfect!!!

...and also sold out. Sigh.

I'll just knit one myself.

And more tomorrow

Moved 3 Van-loads of furniture and yarn (mostly yarn) to the store today.

Very little of the yarn will be for sale; I just want it out of my garage (where I can't get to it) so I can go through it. 

It's a lot of yarn.

I got the key!!

I HAVE A STORE, Y'ALL!!!

It's empty still, and probably opening in January, but it's mine!!

Advent Calendar Scarf 2013 - Day 10

This is a tough one to photograph:

It's really interesting; it would make a cool summer coverup or market bag. I need to try it in cotton.

Floors!

The floors are down in the front of the store! 

Squeal!!

Advent Calendar Scarves

The blue one is 2014. I've managed to misplace the beads and the rest of the yarn.

I hope the red one is 2013... because at least I have all the yarn for it!

I think I started this in 2014?

I think I started this in 2014?

Should finish it this week. It's a Concentric Cables cowl in CEY Chalet (or Chateau?).

Cute Harry Potter pins

Saw these on Instagram. So cute!! 

So this happened....

Dorset Buttons

Learned how to make basic Dorset buttons tonight from Ginny.

I had thought to use large/bulky yarn:

But no. Smaller, non-textured yarn is the way to go.

I didn't get my wheel centered well (sigh).

There are two books that have some really cool patterns. The one on the left is only available through Amazon.uk, dear!

Will definitely be trying more of these!

Virus Poncho Class

Took a Virus Poncho class with Rhonda today. Here's her almost-finished one:

Here's the yarn for mine: 

It's a sport weight bouclé that I though I could use an L hook on - nope. Had to go down to a G. Hadn't even finished one repeat by the time class ended, but I can already tell it's gonna be gorgeous!

More weaving....

I've finished all the woven squares for my scarf or cowl. Every square had at least 4 ends to weave in. I managed to weave in all the things today.

I have a skein of Shalimar Breathless in "Land! Katie Scarlett". I'll be edging all the squares with that (hello, G hook!) then  stitching the squares together.

I have 22 squares, all told. I'm not sure if it's going to be an 11x2-square long scarf or a 7x3-square long cowl and a coaster.

I'm leaning towards the cowl, we'll see!

So I finished a third Emergency Hat...

So I finished a third Emergency Hat... but since I did it with Aran/chunky on size 11 needles, it's really only going to be a cowl. Managed to match the color changes on the icord in the front, too!

Also? I won an epic game of yarn chicken.

SO EXCITE!!

To the frog pond!!

So, at some point during the last decade (but possibly earlier; it's not on this blog or Rav that I can find), I started a shawl.

I think it's Berroco sock yarn of some sort?

Anyway, I picked it up again last week, and I did a few more rows. No pattern, or, rather, it's one I made up.

I took a good look at it today.

The stripes of it completely obscure the lace pattern. That's a problem.

It's also over six feet long, which is ridiculous - because blocking will put at LEAST another foot on it.

So I frogged it. One more UFO, done!

Willpower fail

!!The plan: do not buy any Ancient Arts yarn (the Stacked Stitch Shawl Kit I got last week doesn't count).

That failed, and I'm making another Emergency Hat.

Oops.

Edited to add later: Oh look it's finished!!

And the seam is pretty darned invisible, too!

So now I need another project...

The human eye is pretty amazing

Attempted to get a photo of the gorgeous Hunters' Moon the other night. My phone camera was not up to the task.

It was really gorgeous. Really, it was!

Outdoors

It's summer again, so I went to the lake. 

Frogging Crochet

Started ReCrochetions' "Cosmic Garden Cowl" today in Anzula Squishy.

In fact, I started it three times today! I'm having serious trouble with "join, being careful not to twist".

I'll try again tomorrow.

Good Pokémon Day

Ran a Lucky Egg for a bunch of evolutions I didn't have yet (and a bunch I did), and got around 50k XP. These are my new ones: 

Emergency Hat!

Started yesterday, finished today. 2 balls Camelot (Classic Elite Yarns) in the St. Stephen colorway. Size 9 needles; this meant only 15 pattern repeats total, instead of 20. 4-stitch icord for the cord.

Top: as hat!

Bottom: as cowl!!

Ancient Arts Fibre Craft

Just because it's pretty: 

Westknits MKAL "Building Blocks"

First, the don't click if you don't want spoilers photo:

ok, now actual photos. I've done the II-cord for section 3, hopefully will find time to finish that today.

Really liking my colors. And yes, I realize I liked the same colors in my color affection!

Work of Art

The Work of Art workshop happened tonight at the store. I wish I'd thought to get pictures of what everyone was doing!

This is my yarn, to which some shocking pink fun fur and red ribbon yarn were added:

Yeah, it's mostly orange. No one was surprised.

Westknits MKAL 2016

After some waffling on Instagram, these are my colors - "Enlightened" (green) by Unplanned Peacock (lost label, pretty sure it's sparkly sock?); "Be Happy" (bright multi) by Reflections, "Lemon/Lime" also by Reflections, (both are Petite Sock); and the blue is "Paradise" in Anzula's Haiku.

Mizzle

In the interests of having at least one store model for a yarn I hope to carry, I hauled my Wild Hare Fibers project out. It's "Mizzle", free on Rav, and the body is out of the cool glows-under-blacklight yarn. (The bottom will be just plain black.)

Just did the final increase to 607 sts/row.

Special Yarn

So Shadow Dyer appeared at Nature's Yarns overnight.... 

I got some.

The yellow will be color #4 in the upcoming Stephen West MKAL; the multi ("Be Happy" colorway) will be the Cosmic Garden Cowl from the most recent ReCrochetions newsletter.

Yay! Yarn!