On the needles

In NJ the other week, I bought my very first Koigu. Pretty, pretty Koigu. Up until then I hadn't liked any of the colorways I'd found before, but this one -- oh! There is orange, pink, brown and heathered tans all spund together in this beautiful twist.

I had hoped to recreated a feather-and-fan scarf that I'd seen at Spin A Yarn in Binghamton. Unfortunately I forgot to ask for the pattern when I was there last, so I looked online and found something I thought would be similar. It wasn't. After working it in several sizes of needles and ending up with this:

I ripped it out and wound it all back up. I suppose it will be a pair of socks now. Unless I can think of something else to do with it...I am dying to start my next pair of socks, but I really want it to be machine washable. Also, I've heard things about pure wool wearing out quickly at the heels and toes. Sooooo....I guess I'll be picking up some wooly nylon thread (to reinforce) at JoAnn's sometime soon.

A few weeks ago at Knit Night (which, if you remember, is held at my LYS), I finally gave in to it's seductive call and brought this home:

This $36 hunk of beauty had been whispering to me ever since I first set foot in this place. The price tag deterred me for a while, but really, it's huge. I should have put it next to something so that you could fully appreciate the size, but it's probably over a pound. I could make a toddler poncho out of this. I think I'm going to see how it works up as Clapotis. This is what I knit it up into initially:

As you probably can't tell, it was going to be Stacy's "My So Called Scarf", but the texture of the yarn was too much for it. And now after reading things like Thirteen Ways of Looking At Clapotis, I feel as though I must make it. There's no two ways about it. Dropping stitches on purpose -- how much better can it get? My only concern with using this yarn is that because of the nubby factor, it may not drop the stitches all that readily. I'll work up a few rows and see how it behaves.

This is the Noro that my grandma bought me a while ago. At my LYS, The Bamboo Needle (or is it called Three Sisters now?), there was some Noro worked up into this multidirectional scarf, and I've never made a scarf. This pattern looked so interesting, and ended up being quite fun.

Unfortunately this is two skeins worth, and all the Noro I've got in the color. Now I need to pray that Spin A Yarn in Binghamton still has some left so that I can make it long enough. Otherwise I'll just have to rip it out and start again, making it much skinnier.

It's all worked in short rows. Simple, but lovely to look at. I was pulling from the middle of each skein, so it was so much fun to see what color would come out next. Each color is spun with black, which adds depth. There are also little nubs throughout that I found pleasing. Alltogether this was a very relaxing, fun project.

And now look at this!

Could it be? Yes, it is that funky little backpack that I had dropped a while ago. Vowing never to return...I thought, though, how my 7-year-old sister would love it...so, as I predicted, I have picked it up again. After only a little effort, all the pieces are complete. All I have to do now is seam it together, make a lining....yeah, it'll be a little while, but I've made significant progress and am very proud of myself.

So that's what's going on with me. Thank you so much to all who keep stoping by in the cyberworld to check up on me. Our move is, well, moving along, but it's a heck of a lot of work! I don't know when I will be able to blog again but hopefully soon. For those of you who asked, we're moving to Columbus, GA. I hope there's good LYS's there!! Otherwise, it'll be mail order for a while... (I know that there's a ton of them in Atlanta, but that's about 1-1/2 hours from where we're going to be.)