Or I should say oohh Cookie! Cookie A has launched a new site dedicated to selling her sock patterns. Yipppee!…Now this is old news considering I started this post over a week ago and never got around to pushing it live.

Fast forward to today. I’ve finally recovered from our NYC trip! After two nights of no sleep, and two days of running ALL OVER the big apple, I crashed *hard* Friday night and slept away Saturday. The gals and I went up to NYC to hear the Yarn Harlot speak at FIT in support of her book launch. Of course, the excuse was to hear her speak but we all knew we were there to shop, and shop we did!

—> click on image for more photos at Flickr
1. Our room at the Edison, 2. Elspeth in our room, 3. Erin’s tonsils, 4. Elspeth and Maeve strutting into FIT auditorium

Thursday was spent trolling the Garment district checking out the numerous fabric stores. We also hit some knitting stores in Upper East Side (Knitty City) and Upper West Side. On the Upper West Side we checked out String, home of cashmere delux. Their selection of cashmere is wonderful and the staff was equally fabulous. They have some wonderful patterns that they will modify for you, but you have to purchase along with the yarn. Foooey! After hitting String we needed a little sugar pick up and headed to La Maison du Chocolat. Can you say deadly?!!! The evening ended with the Yarn Harlot speaking, and us heading to Lombardi’s for dinner.

And then came Friday. Oh Friday how I love thee. First up breakfast at Grey Dog, yummy yummy food. And so the yarn crawl began…

1. The Point - Not much to say about this place. The atmosphere, or lack thereof, didn’t do it for me.

2. Purl - Love, love, love! Amazing how small could be and still retain the wonderful sense of excitement! Their yarn selection is large and beautifully organized. I couldn’t bring myself to buy any but I’m sure in the future I’ll be captured by their Lobster Pot cashmere.

3. Purl Patchwork — oh my god! The fabrics! I came home with some Japanese prints. Lovely.

4. Downtown Yarns -lovely staff, and cute doggie! Small and quaint.

5. School Products - the legendary store never lets me down. I got 1lb of merino lace for $26 with over 3400 yards. Yup.

6. Habu Textiles - ohhh if only I was rich I would shop here each time. I’ll have to wait until they have their yearly sale again.

Project update

Remember the merino/cashmere handdyed top? Well, it’s all plied and ready to be knit. Wanna see? This is about 760 yards of laceweight yarn.

I need to get the WPI and update.

I’ve also started my next spinning project, but I can’t tell you much about it. It’s a secret! I can, however, show you a sample. This is the CVM/Rambouillet I bought last year at the MSWF from Robin Nistock at the fleece sale.

I’ll leave you with some cuteness…Lobo hiding behind my spinning wheel and Pikachu protecting the wheel.

I finally finished one sock for the DH after many ripping sessions and calculations. He was quite picky on fit! I’m using Lana Grossa, Meilenweit Mega Boots Stretch in a boy color. Now I need to get psyched up to start the next one.

Now for the fun stuff! I’m done spinning up the merino/cashmere handdyed yummyness! I’m waiting for my Springwater class to start before I attempt to ply this up. I’m still not sure if I will do 2ply or navajo:

Looks like Wendy has done a short video on doing cables without a cable needle. Check it out.

I present you two green feet. My Pomatomus feet.

click image for larger pic

and upclose shot

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Pattern: Pomatomus from Knitty Winter 05 by Cookie A.

Yarn: Socks that Rock, “County Clare”, lightweight

Needles: US 2 (2.75 mm), one circular

Notes: This is a stretchy pattern that should be swatched but who has time! I started with 1s and went up to 2s. The first sock was knit top down as per pattern. The second was knit toe up with one less repeat and no pattern on foot. I loved the pattern! Very easy to memorize and loads of fun to knit. I highly recommend it.

Spinning news

I’ve finished about 3 ounces of the merino/cashmere blend I dyed in November. Here’s the beautiful bobbin:

I’ve been spinning this quite thin so I could have enough for a shawl. I will eventually have two bobbins full and then ply the two together.

Next project

I’ve started Kepler and have two arm bands, and the front band done. Wanna see?

Here’s the front band

And a close up

I’m using Green Mountain Spinnery’s Double Twist in Blueberry. I’m going to focus on this project and try to not get tempted into another sock. BUT. I tell ya my latest purchase (during holidays) of Schaefer Anne is calling my name. I. MUST. RESIST.

Up Next…possibly

After this sweater is done I’m thinking of knitting up some yummy baby camel yarn from School Products. I got enough for a long sleeve sweater. Here’s pic from their site:

I’m thinking of doing this pattern from Karabella. I just learned that the owner of School Products is also the Karabella founder.

Pattern: KK409

I leave you with the devil, aka Pikachu, sitting on our present from the MIL. She made a quilt depicting a photo we took on our last trip to Chile. The quilt is gorgeous! and I’m sure she would not find this funny but this is sooo Pikachu. Look at that face of defiance.

Sorry people I dropped out of the blogosphere for a lil’ while. I’m back with loads on my mind and equally long lists of things to do. I’m really digging reading up everyone’s New Year’s resolutions and what they have or haven’t accomplished this past year. But before I start my own list and I need to bring you up to date with latest projects.

Here’s one bobbin packed full of 50/50 romney/mohair. This was a b$tch to spin. The roving was full of neps and lanolin which made it difficult to spin finely, but I did it! Now I need to spin the other 4 or so ounces and ply. Here’s a post talking about this purchase.

My So Called Scarf
Lovely pattern and even prettier yarn! I had a blast knitting this, nice and quick.

Details:
Yarn: Manos in 113 (Wildflowers), 2 skeins
Pattern: Sheep in the city
Needle: US 11 straight, bamboo

Lists for this year

There’s so much I want to accomplish this next year and hopefully I will. One thing that has been on my mind is global warming. I can’t stop thinking about how we’re ruining the most beautiful thing we as humans have…the EARTH. It’s hard for me to understand the ignorance and lack of understanding, but worse the lack of interest. The DH and I watched “An Inconvenient Truth” by Al Gore last night. I was in tears at the end, not because our way of life may change as a consequence but thinking about the death and destruction of animals, innocent animals. Whether you believe or not that the US is responsible for much of the problem, it just simply DOES NOT matter. The fact of the matter is this…the environment is changing much faster than it *should*, and we as humans are destroying the very thing that keeps us alive. Remember we need food, air, and water.

Part of this year’s resolution is to get as many people as possible to WATCH THIS MOVIE and ACT. Change your light bulbs, recycle, conserve energy, petition the government to change emission laws, etc. Just do something.

Ok, I’m done ranting and hopefully you will listen. Back to lists.

1. Spin up more of my stash. I can’t buy more fiber until MSWF. NOPE I can’t.

2. Knit from stash including from roving stash.

3. Keep better notes about projects, document the little things that add up to a lot.

4. Exercise. I’ve joined the 100 miles by April 1st. I’ve gotta get moving.

5. Change jobs

6. Move houses but not until above happens

7. Take a spinning class [Springwater has a class in February about drafting and plying]

8. Keep in touch with friends

9. Get rid of cable TV [done! accomplished this past week]

10. Read more. Watch more foreign films. Yes, both of these are related.

That’s it for now I’m sure I’ll add more before the month ends. I leave you with this happy cat.

Lobo, enjoying the day as usual

Blissfully happy next to me

Oh the many reasons…here’s a start:

1. fiber from Silkworker. Look at her silk tops! OMG. I’ve purchased a silk/wool combo from her in the past. Now I want to try 100% silk

2. I can spin yummy wools. I have 6lbs or so of cvm/finn/rambouillet roving to spin up

3. I can design my own yarn

4. Silk and cashmere are more affordable, and same with alpaca

5. and so on…

Here’s some cool blogs and stores I’ve come across lately:

the Intrepid Fiberwizard

Crown Mountain Farms Fiber - these guys sell superwash merino roving in cool handdyed colorways

That Spinning Place

Crazy Fiber Lady