Thoughts

Hi! Just popping in here for a moment...no photos to share, just some thoughts and knitting babble.

First off, I just wanted to say how nice it is to have "met" all of you loyal readers who stop by here...it's so nice to get little comments and emails and such. :) Just wanted to say that I appreciate it, even if I don't say it enough.

Knitting-wise, I've got a slight case of startitis right now. I started a roll-brim hat for myself, and so far I'm loving it. Photos soon. I know I have a lot of hat patterns I want to try, but this yarn just needs a simple pattern. It's a thick and thin wool, in a white that has little bits of pink here and there. It was originally going to be mittens, but I decided that mostly-white mittens was probably not a good plan. I love the yarn, and it's special souvenir yarn from a trip my DH and I took.

I'm also thinking of frogging my gray socks (see sidebar) for the second time...the first try at them they were just a little too tight...so I went up 8 stitches but then down to size 0 needles so as not to overcompensate...but they're still too tight, and now they've lost all of their intrigue for me. They definitely need to be started over, not to mention put aside for a while. I have also discovered that I don't like size 0 needles...I like tiny needles as much as the next sock knitter, but those are too small. I think my plan will be to go up to size 1's and try again. Just not anytime soon.

I'm also itching to start some plain socks with a picot edge, and have decided to do them with some fun colorful yarn I recently got from the Etsy shop of a fellow blogger, Gypsyknits (there's a link to her shop on her blog). I love the yarn, so soft, and colorful! I got two skeins, one that has every possible color in it called Christmas Twinkle Lights and then one that's a dual skein combo, the main yarn being pink and white and brown and then a mini skein of brown for toes and heels (that one's called Creamy Neo...which I am guessing is short for Neopolitan? Like the ice cream? The one that comes with chocolate, strawberry and vanilla...am I right Kathy?). So I decided to start with the Twinkle Lights one and wound that into a yarn cake last night.

I have to come clean here...the yarn, um...fought me a little. I won the battle eventually but only after about 50 minutes of the yarn getting the better of me. See, it was entirely my fault because I decided not to use my yarn swift because it is so big and heavy (it's a wooden one, and I'm not pleased with it, more on that later) so I laid the yarn on the floor and tried to wind it from there. It didn't go well. (Here and there I've been reading about people who knit directly from the skein...?!? There's no WAY I would ever be able to do that! Especially with those feline types in the house. No way no how. Good golly.) What was supposed to be a 5 minute task turned into 50 minutes, and I didn't have time to start my socks! At least I managed to do this cat-free, as Maddie was sleeping in the bedroom and Moose was downstairs. However, the bell we have on him came in handy as I heard him coming up the steps and so I had time to reach over and close the door...he would have made a sticky situation much worse!! He meowed plaintively from outside the door for a minute, but eventually wandered off to wreak havoc somewhere else.

So back to the yarn swift...I'd gotten this one at JoAnn's well over a year ago, having wanted a wooden one, thinking it would be nice. And it is nice...nicely made and all...but it's so big and heavy and really doesn't spin all that smoothly/loosely, and that really makes it not so good for fine yarns. A huge skein of something thick can handle it, but I don't like it for lace or sock yarn. It just pulls too hard and puts too much tension on the yarn.

So now I am trying to brainstorm my options for getting rid of it, because I have enough stuff hanging around my house that I really don't want to keep something I don't like! I want to get one of those little lightweight ones that I've seen...they seem like they'd spin very nicely, plus I'd also rather patronize one of my LYSs and get it there. I doubt I can return the thing to JoAnn's, since it's been so long. I might try that though before I give up on that option. I mean, I've been able to return unused yarn to places like Michaels and ACMoore a year after I'd bought it, so who knows. But if that falls through, I might try Ebay or something...anyone have any suggestions? Anyone want it? I'd certainly sell it cheap. I mean, it works fine, as intended, and there's nothing wrong with it, I just don't like it for my purposes. I'm a much bigger fan of fine yarn than thick yarn, so that's what I use most. I'll post photos of it, but in the meantime, this is the one I got. I forget what I paid for it, but I know I got it on sale since I'd waited until I had a good coupon.

I'll be back soon with photos of yummy yarns!