Chester

Today was the big day, the day of the quest for souveneir yarn.

Since I have a few free days in northwest England this trip, I asked the folks at the Manchester office to suggest somewhere to go on a day trip. Chester came up repeatedly, described as a beautiful city with lots of history and fantastic architecture. York was also considered, but my very short Google search did not turn up any LYSs in York's city centre, so the decision was easy (I'll save York for the next time I'm over).

Chester is only one hour from Manchester via the Arriva (north Wales) rail system. To be honest, hearing all of the Welsh place names announced on the train made me wish that I was venturing a little further on, over the border. But I'll save north Wales for another future trip. So many destinations, so little time!

Chester has ancient stone city walls and Roman ruins all over the place, including an amphitheatre that is still under excavation. The core shopping district has these two-tiered shops, with an upper walkway running along the second storey. So many fabulous little treasure troves, mixed in with fancy designer shops, pubs and cafes. I bought a couple of kitchen gadgets at Lakeland, found a fantastic deal on a trench coat at an end-of-season sale (alas, the end of the season for needing a fairly warm rain coat will not be ended yet when I return to St. John's, even if it is springtime in England!)

And then finally, I made it to Stash Fone Yarns, tucked in a little alleyway.

You can see just a smidge of Chester Cathedral in the background there - it's just around the corner. I totally forgot to take a photo inside the shop. As I'm sure you can understand, I was a little occupied with admiring colours and petting various skeins of fluffiness.

The store is actually very tiny, but I am told that they will be moving to a more spacious location in the near future. You probably wouldn't be able to fit more than 7 or 8 people in the place at one time, but luckily I had the place to myself this afternoon for full maneouverablity. They have full collections of Louisa Harding, Debbie Bliss, and Rowan squeezed along one wall. Notably, the Rowan yarns and books are far cheaper than in Canada, even considering the exchange rate. I'll have to keep that in mind for future projects.

In the end, though, I stuck with unique yarns that would be hard to find anywhere else. Here's the haul:

A set of those cute little 5" brittany sock needles, Knitglobal bulky alpca in "blue twist" (this line is naturally died), Fyberspates 100% silk laceweight (hand-dyed in northern Wales), and two little 50g skiens of four-ply from Clwyd Vale Alpacas in northern Wales. I spent a while trying to decide on a couple of colours of this last yarn, but then realized that the skeins were labelled with the individual alpaca's names. I couldn't resist - my two skeins? Hansel and Gretel.

All in all, it was a great day. I got very tired after all the walking and carrying my loot around, so I appreciated the solid hour of sitting and knitting on the return train journey. Now that I mostly understand how the rail system works here, I'm seeing a lot of possibilities on the map for future jaunts.

Long time coming

Well, would you look what I found when I was packing. I finished this lace scarf over a month ago, but I never did take any FO photos. You'll have to excuse the less than idyllic setting of my balcony over the parking lot - my place is in a shambles right now and I don't have time to take a scarf to the park for a walk. I'm lucky that I can still find the camera to be honest!

Bramble Leaf Lace scarf from Victorian Lace Today, in SRK Collection Ovation, Purple Haze colourway. 4mm circular needles (I think).

This pattern is one of the many scarves with wide end borders in VLT - I think it's actually called something like "scarf with trellis border and bramble leaf insertion". As a very early lace project for me, I wanted to keep this simple so I left the border off and basically just knit the "insertion". I think that the first time that I try a knitted on lace border, I want it to be in something a little less frustrating than mohair!

Thoughts on this project... The yarn is really lovely and soft and I highly recommend it. It's a silk/mohair blend, very much like Kidsilk Haze but just a little thicker. Since I bought it from a bargain bin, it was much more affordable than its Rowan cousin. I used a little over two skeins and the scarf is just over 6' long. As I think I mentioned in a previous post, the pattern comes out a little different from the sample pictured in the book - this seems to be a recurring theme with VLT. The centre garter stitch panel is narrower in the photo.


These photos also highlight my need to obtain some good blocking wires. The pins that I've been using have made the edge all wonky. Perhaps when I finish my Mystery Stole, I'll get around to mail ordering a set. Suggestions for suppliers would be very welcomed.

I had a bit of a yarn adventure yesterday, but unfortunately none of us thought to bring a camera. Leanne and Nancy took me out to Wool 'n Things in Orleans for the first time. Wow. It's a very well stocked little shop. They carry the full line of Rowan, Debbie Bliss, Berocco, Noro, Fleece Artist, all the really good stuff that is hard to come by in my usual haunts. Highly educational, since I got to fondle a lot of yarns that I have often heard about but never seen in person. I have made some notes for future projects, and my wallet may have suffered some damage involving Jitterbug and a lot of silk. Photos tomorrow if I can find the yarn amidst the pile of boxes! Honestly, it was really fun to shop with other keen and excited knitters, and I think we managed to enable each other into buying stuff we really loved. I'm going to miss my Ottawa knitting friends and access to so many great yarn shops. But then perhaps my bank balance will be better for it!

Recent Aquisitions

I haven't been knitting too much lately, but I've been spending a lot of time at the office. There's no better therapy for a stressed-out graduate student than a little (or a lot of) yarn shopping. I've kind of gone crazy with it lately, but as I mentioned before, there was a big going-out-of-business sale to contend with (all 50% off), and I'm starting to feel the need to stash yarn because I know I won't be able to get it easily after I move next month. St. John's only has one LYS, and while it's fairly well stocked with a variety of fun yarn, they can't possibly carry everything! Luckily I'll still be traveling to Toronto a few times a year, so I can still frequent places like Romni on occasion.

Okay, enough blathering. On to the yarn!


8 balls of Zitron Polo, which is a 60% cotton, 40% acrylic blend, with really soft feel, almost like those fake suede fabrics. For some sort of sumer top.


8 balls of Stahl Natura, 70% cotton 30% linen, also probably for a summery top. I wish I could have found 8 balls of one colour, but selection was getting pretty slim at The Knitting Centre by the time I got there.


10 balls of Merino Blend DK Superwash, 100% wool, by King Cole. I'm probably going to put this away for a sweater in the fall.


Sock yarn: Supersoxx cotton/wool blend (I loved the wool, so thought I'd try this for something new) and good old Regia 4-ply, one of my favourite basic sock yarns.


And from the recent Knit Picks group order, a pile of Essential sock yarn (I'm thinking green knee socks), and a pile of Swish Superwash for kids' sweaters, something along the lines of the Accordion jacket from Knitty (this is just a selection from a big bag of it!).

Crazy, huh? Even though I was trying to reduce my stash, think I just doubled it in the span of a week! I don't feel bad about it though, because the difference is that I've bought it in sufficient quantities to actually do something with it, instead of two or three balls of something pretty here and there with no purpose in mind. I consider it an investment in my future knitting through the summer and fall. It's also the first Knit Picks yarn for me, so there's a certain amount of research here, to see how I like it. Mail order is probably going to become important to me in future.

Tomorrow is Canada Day, and I still haven't decided if I'm going to brave the crowds on Parliament Hill tomorrow for one last big celebration in the capital. I may sit at home on the couch and knit and watch it all on tv. We get a good view of the fireworks from our balcony. Enjoy the weekend, whatever you're doing!

No Smurfs were harmed in the making of these socks

I had to do a little travelling this week. Nothing major, just a couple of short trips. I needed something small and portable to keep me busy, but the idea of trying to concentrate on the Bayerische socks on a train was not really appealing to me. (A good call, as it turns out, because I ended up sitting across from a bunch of loud and obnoxious people, and at times couldn't even hear the details of a podcast on my earphones over the racket!) So what did I do to try to take a break from tiny cables? Start another sock with tiny cables!


To be honest, I took along a ball of yarn, a few different patterns, and my recently obtained copy of Sensational Knitted Socks (finally, it is mine!), and took my time deciding. I ended up starting in on Brigit (link to pdf), a pattern from the Socktopia site (go take a look, there are several free patterns there. Click the "SE Patterns" link on the right.)

While the tiny cables may be similar to Bayerishe, there's a lot less cabling overall, and only one cable motif which I memorized pretty easily. My one critique of the pattern is that I would have preferred a chart to the written cable instructions. The instructions are very clear though, and the pattern, written for two circular needles, is easily adapted to dpns.


The yarn, Lana Grossa's Meilenweit sock yarn (80% new wool, 20% Polyamide) is a new one for me. I'd say it's pretty average sock yarn. It doesn't split badly, and is priced pretty reasonably, but it's a bit fuzzy, sort of like Lang Jawoll. This particular shade (1329) is very bright blue (I've been referring the sock as "Smurfy cables", as opposed to "Insanity cables", my pet name for the B socks). The excess dye appears to be turning my hands blue!


I'm going to have to be very careful about washing these socks! Do you suppose my feet will be blue too?

In other news, I have been aquiring new yarn at an alarming rate this week. My knitting group made a big combined order to Knit Picks, and I finally made it to The Knitting Centre downtown, which is going out of business after many years, and is currently selling everything at 50% off. For those of you in Ottawa, they plan to close at the end of July, but there's still some good stuff there including Regia sock yarns at less than $3 a ball. Unfortunately the circular needles are all gone now. And don't forget, it's an old fashioned cash-only operation. I'm considering one last trip there today... I'm awfully glad that I didn't officially join the Knit From Stash Challenge. I can take advantage of a great bargain without any guilt!

Thinking dry thoughts

Minor crisis averted: I finished the second sock last night and wet blocked it. It's almost dry now, and soaking up a few rays on the balcony to eliminate that last little bit of dampness. Then we're off to the post office.


A couple of extra skeins (Lassa Grossa sock yarn and some Koigu) followed me home from the yarn shop too. I had racked up enough frequent customer points to quailfy for a 15% discount, and since I'll be moving soon and won't have access to the store, I figured the responsible thing to do would be to make a big purchase to get the most out of my discount. I know you'd do the same thing ;)


I've been doing a little housekeeping on the blog over the last few days. The upcoming knits section has been divided into true upcoming knits, which I am actually planning to knit, and "up for consideration", meaning I haven't bougt the yarn or pattern yet, but I would really like to knit this sometime in the future. It's more or less a tool for me to flag these patterns and to keep a few projects in mind for when I see a good yarn sale and need to figure out how much to buy. Inspired by Martha's recent lingerie knitting, but warned of the difficulty of sizing bra tops, I've really fallen in love with the Rita Mae pattern. (The link goes to a pattern library, so it might take a bit of hunting around there if you want to look the pattern up. I couldn't get a more direct link.) It's shorts and a little cami that laces up the front (I'll bet I could add buttons), with pretty leaf lace patterns. Definitely something to keep in mind.

I want to eventually get a Flickr account and set up a Finished Objects gallery, get a little more organized, and get onto Bloglines. But I think I'll put all of these projects off for a while until my life settles down a little. Right now I don't want to take up any of my already scarce knitting time to start fussing with changes!

I hope the sun is shining wherever you are today too.

Guess what's blocking...

Yup, it a vest! I finally finished it. Details and action photos to come soon.

I mentioned last weekend that I was felting my French market bag. It went through the washer and dryer twice, on the hottest heavy-duty settings, but it's still not quite as dense and firm a fabric as I would have liked, but nevertheless it's quite functional and kind of cute:

French Market Bag from Knitty, made in recycled bulky weight wool. Modifications: I used 5.5 mm needles to accommodate the thicker weight wool, and only 192 stitched instead of 200, mainly because I ran out of the colour I was usuing for the base!

I sewed in a lining, made from some leftover dress-lining fabric:


And what's that in the bag? I might have done a little eBay shopping recently. It's my last purchase for a while, I swear! I got a good deal on these 6 balls of laceweight wool. Black lace.... I'm thinking there's a shawl in my future. It's a chinese brand, and is incredibly soft. I've been walking around petting a skein of it.


And while I was at it, I got a couple of balls of sock yarn:



Fabel Superwash by Garn Studio. I've never tried this brand before, but I really like the colourway.

I should apologize because I'm not feeling too wordy lately - I'm spending my days writing and re-writing technical stuff - so I hope you enjoy this style of short snippets with photos. I'll try to get good FO photos of the vest as soon as it's dry. And I may have wishfully started a summer top over the last few days. What a joke! We had 10 cm of snow last night. Will it never end?!

Churning out sweaters

Thank you for the kind comments about Nick's sweater, and for the birthday wishes! Yes, I have the happy coincidence of being born on the first day of spring, although it seems like it is hardly ever accompanied by spring-like weather (it's minus 15 in Ottawa today).

I have been treated to some knitterly gifts. Here are the contents of a package Nick gave me this morning:


The yarn is Hand Maiden Great Big Sea Silk (a blend of Silk, merino, and sea cell) and the fibre is two different slivers of silk/wool blend by Fleece Artist. I just love the bright colours.


I've never spun silk before, so it should be interesting to work with. The book will be a big help on my quest to clear out the stash some more, and it will be great for ideas on what to do with small amounts of my handspun. I don't think I'll be spinning a sweater's worth of yarn on a drop spindle any time soon! My family sent other wonderful things, including gift cards for Michaels and Chapters, which will also go to crafty purposes. I feel so spoiled!

I'm actually on track to finish three different sweaters this week. Imagine! Me, who hasn't finished a sweater in almost a year! The Sitcom Chic cardigan got pulled out of storage a couple of days ago, and lo and behold, I only had the yoke and the bands to knit. I had thought there was much more to go. I finished it up, weaved in the ends, and because the front bands are prone to rolling, decided to give it a good wet blocking and show it who's boss. I tossed it into the sink, and .... gasp! Horror! Could it really be true?


Apparently I have been kicked in the rear by the dye-lot monster (he's the gauge monster's first cousin, don'tcha know?). The yarn is a, um, "budget" worsted cotton/acrylic blend bought at WalMart in Calgary last summer. It's called TLC Cotton Plus. I can't imagine that I didn't check the dye lots when I bought it, as I'm usually pretty picky about that. I didn't keep all the ball bands to check though. Apparently the first ball must have been a bit off - the sweater is knit seamless from the bottom up.

The funny thing is that it is almost dry now, and you really can't see the difference. It only shows when wet. Now I'm torn. I have more than a full ball left, so I could rip out the bottom, re-knit it and graft it on. But could I do that and make the join look seamless? It might be better to just leave it alone. I don't imagine I will ever be wearing the cardigan soaking wet, but I guess the two shades could fade differently over time. I think I'm going to let it finish drying completely, and then take it outside and see if the difference shows in full daylight.

The third sweater at the finish line is the red cardigan. Just a little blocking and seaming to go. My knitting basket is starting to look a little empty.... I'm still deciding what to start next. It's kind of exciting actually. So many possibilities!

Tying up loose ends

So if you've been reading for a while, you'll know that like many people, I have developed a tendency to have a lot of projects going at one time. I'm trying to cut back and actually finish up some of those long-neglected projects, but somehow the pull of new projects is always pretty strong. I've been letting myself get away with a few detours as long as they're using up stash.

Several of these little side-trips are wrapping up - I've been finishing up a few little things over the past couple of days. First I'd like to introduce you to Mr. (or Ms.) Bear:

Best Friend Bear from Interweave Knits special holiday issue 2006. Yarn is mostly vintage wool, and raglan sweater is vintage tapestry wool.

This was a really fun knit, and it worked up pretty quickly. I would definitely knit it again. I think it would be a really cute baby shower gift, maybe with a matching baby-sized sweater. The one thing I wasn't sure about was which way the arms are supposed to be attached. They're basically L-shaped tubes with elbows, but it's not particularly clear whether the short or the long "limb" of the L gets attached to the shoulder when assembling. An accompanying photo of the finished bear without a sweater on would have been helpful. I went with the short limb on top, which seemed to look the most normal. I know the eyes and nose look a little wonky, but I always seem to have trouble with finishing on toys. I just can never get it to look very professional. I decided to leave it with just one sweater, as much as I loved knitting the tiny raglan, because I was afraid that constant changing of clothing would be too stressful on the little guy's head and arm joints. It's really quite a sqeeze to get it over his big head! Anyway, as a stash buster and a learning experience, this was a great little project.

The next little FO has been on my WIP list for a while, but I don't think I've showed it before now. These little socks are for my nephew.

Basic Ribbed Socks, child's size, from Vogue Knitting Socks Two, in Super Socks Dazzle, on size 2.25 dpns.

These are supposed to fit child's shoe size 6-7.5. I guess my two-year-old nephew has pretty huge feet! For such a simle project, I was working on these for a while. I got one of them to the toe decreases when I realized that I had the wrong number of stitches, and I had to rip back to the heel. I guess I had gotten a little over confident (or I'd forgotten how to count - one or the other!) and wasn't paying much attention. I had hoped to have these done while I was home, but instead I finished them on the plane ride back to Ottawa. I'll have to pop them in the mail as soon as they're dry.

I finally found some buttons for that little baby cardigan that I made last month. They're little pewter buttons, and I thought that they looked cute. So cross one more almost-finished object off the list.


I think I've just about got the WIP list under control again now. Three FO's, and only one new project started (socks for my MIL - socks don't really count, right?!). I've been dong a little planning and dreaming lately, adjusting the "upcoming knits" list to reflect what I realistically might get to this year. I'm going to get back to DH's overdue birthday sweater now and put in a real effort to get it finished - just 1.5 sleeves to go. And then maybe I'll try to finish up the tank top and the red cardigan and the mittens that I've had on the go for, well, way too long. Once the pile of unfinished knitting that sits in (and around) the basket beside the couch gets reduced to a reasonable size, I have plans for a couple of vests for myself. I've come to like the looks of a vest over a blouse, and the Leftovers vest recently caught my eye. And then there's this cone of Derby Tweed that followed me home from Newfoundland...


It's 500 g of very fine wool, somewhere between laceweight and fingering. I followed up on a tip from the Yarn Harlot that Woof Designs in downtown St. John's sells off their ends and discontinued yarns - this was only $23. I'm actually proud of myself for not buying more. Oh, here were some beautiful purples, and lots of mohair. This yarn is actually more greeen than it looks in the photo. I'm thinking of knitting two strands together and making another little pullover vest of some sort. Or maybe a short-sleeve sweater. But that's way off in the future. I can still swatch though, can't I.... ?

There will be no knitting in this post

Well, I've been back from Toronto for days now, but somehow taking a weekend off from schoolwork and TA duties has left me playing catch-up this week. Ah, but it was worth it. What a wonderful weekend of relaxing with friends and being a lazy bum. It was just what I needed. Glenna has posted some photos from our adventures. Silly me forgot my camera at home (WHAT was I thinking?!)

I have knitting to show, but I haven't managed to photograph it yet. I finished the back of hubby's cabled sweater on the train ride home, and have knit about three inches of the front. I need to do a little tweaking of the pattern to make the arms fit the armholes, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

The highlights of the weekend for me were getting to know some new yarns, petting lots of fiber at Romni, and making some decisions about stash - spoken like a true knit geek! Actually, the highlight was probably bloating ourselves on dim sum in Chinatown, but who's keeping track?

So, I don't have too many fun photos of weekend frolicking, but I do have a little of the haul to show. Actually, this is the whole haul. I was a very good girl and actually stuck to my plan. And besides, I couldn't find Lantern Moon dpn's in the size I want!

My very first skeins of Lorna's Laces. The colourway is called "Bucks Bar". Lettuce Knit had a whole bunch of Lorna's, so it was so hard to just pick one! I may not get around to knitting this for a while, but in the meantime, I can take them out and pet them every now and again. This was my essential, can't-get-it-in-Ottawa purchase.

At Romni Wools, I discovered that they have a whole basement room full of fiber, so I got to poke and squeeze bags of wool, camel down, raw silk, and all kinds of other delights. A lot of it was way out of my price range, but I found it really great to be able to see what the different kinds of wool are like so that if I mail order in future, I'll have some idea of what I'm getting, and I'll know what to avoid. Who'd have known that Icelandic sheep have coats that feel like plastic easter grass? How do they not make themselves itch?! I bought myself a pound of roving. The brown on the left is fine Shetland, and the white is Corriedale. (I really wanted to try out Corriedale because it seems soft and really easy to fine on eBay. It I like knitting and spinning it, and it takes dye well, there may just be a lot more of it in my future.) Romni was great because they have absolutely everything. I got to see and feel all of those yarns that I read about, but have never met in person. Ah, the Rowan, the Debbie Bliss, the incredibly soft alpaca/silk blends. I felt like a kid in a candy shop. And I didn't buy a single skein - I bought unspun wool instead ;) But honestly, it was a bit overwhelming. I wouldn't be able to just go there and browse for a project. I'd have to have a very good idea of what I wanted going in, or you'd lose me for a week.

We made a return trip to Lettuce Knit where I picked up this little bundle of handpainted merino roving. I keep hearing that merino is the softest but hardest to spin, so I figured that a little 60 gram bundle should be enough to satisfy my curiosity for now. It's sort of something to aspire to.

In keeping with the spinning theme, this is what I've accomplished over the last couple of weeks in my spare minutes at home. Remember the blue faced leicester slivers I got for Christmas? The beautiful, handpainted ones from Fleece Artist? Here's one of them spun into singles...

... and here's the finished product. 100 grams (about 125 m) of 2-ply, approzimately DK weight. The colour is pretty true on the photo below. I'm so happy with how this turned out. I think I'm finally getting the hang of spinning a consistant thicknesss. And it's just so soft. I think this is destined to become a short little Argosy. I think the subtle colour changes will work well with that pattern.

And the big decisions of the weekend? My single skein of Misti Alpaca is going to become a Swallowtail shawl, and also, Glenna's recent scarf has inspired me to use up some more of my worsted wool stash in a stripey lengthways garter-stitch scarf. Simple but warm. And now my must-knit list is growing at a disturbing rate!

Back to knitting content next time, I promise!

Um, yeah, about that yarn store

So I didn't get out of Wool Tyme completely unscathed, but I think I did very well, all things considered:

That's 9 skeins of Galway Heather for dh's sweater (the tenth one is already being used), one circular needle (needed for the sweater), a single ball of Sheepjes Tossa (this yarn is discontinued, but I have two more like it in my stash which are more likely to be used now that I have a little more of it. And it was in the bargain bin.), and two skeins of gorgeous handpainted sock yarn.

Isn't this beautiful? I can justifiy this one, since I'm going to make another pair of socks for my MIL's birthday, which happens to be the same day as mine. Hubby tells me that she has been hand-washing the ones I gave her for Christmas and wearing them every second day. Anyone who loves hand knit socks that much deserves to have a few pairs in rotation, I figure! This is the first time I've splurged on really nice handpainted yarn, and it's actually from a local company, Apple Laine. It's a blend of superwash merino, kid mohair, silk and nylon, and is wonderfully soft. I may have to get some for myself if I like the way this knits up. I think I might try to learn toe-up socks just so that I use every bit of this yarn. It's too pretty to waste! Any suggesstions for good beginner toe-up patterns? It has to be stretchy and fairly wide.

Here's the start of dh's birthday sweater, one skein in:

I knit this much last night while watching Little Miss Sunshine (what an excellent movie!). I'm really liking the pattern so far. The rows of plain ribbing don't require much thought, and they're broken up nicely by the cable rows. It's the same crossed cable every time, so I don't have to consult the pattern very often. And the fabric is turning out nice and stretchy, and soft. I'll need to stretch it out a bit with blocking, but the swatch grew quite a bit laterally after washing, so it should be fine according to my calculations (please let them be right!). I've got quite a ways to go with this.

And now, I have several hours worth of grading to keep me busy for the afternoon. Hmm,I wonder if I can actually evaluate student writing properly while knitting.... probably not!

A new project

Still crazy busy at school, with minimal time for knitting these days. Here's what I've been up to.

Swatching for dh's birthday sweater. He's definitely broadening his wardrobe horizons lately. He bought himself (with a little encouragement) a gorgeous blue cabled wool sweater at Winners a few months back, and has fallen in love with it. Previously, he would have called cables too "busy". So imagine my delight when, after pulling out several dozen patterns for him to peruse, he decided on this one. Now, the gauge isn't working so well in the yarn that he has taken a liking to:

The colour is actually called Charcoal, but it's not grey at all. The photo of the skein is closer to the real thing, I'd say somewhere between chestnut brown and olive green. The weight/yardage for this worsted wool pretty close to the Classic Elite Skye Tweed that the pattern recommends, but it seems to be knitting up much finer. But hubby likes this yarn, and as David pointed out in a Knitty article that amused me to no end, men are fickle creatures to knit for. So if he really likes the yarn, and approves of the pattern, I think there's a far better of chance of the sweater that I toil over being worn and loved in the future. So I think my plan of attack is to keep the yarn and the lovely cables and re-work the pattern, with the help of my trusty software, to make it work with the gague that I am getting on 4.5 mm needles. And his birthday is February 8th, so I think I need to get moving on this!

I have some FO pictures, which I will hopefully get posted soon. In the meantime, dh and Molly both say to thank you for all of the compliments. They are both very flattered.

Just a quickie

Not much time for blogging these days at Hedgehog Knits, but here are a couple of photos I've been meaning to post. First, the adorable Molly makes her blog debut:


Molly is a two-year old African Pygmy hedghog who likes to chew on yarn (especially kool-aid dyed fruity wool) and is incredibly hard to photograph because she won't stay still! (She's about to fall out of the basket here.) If I ever get around to customizing my blogger page, I intend to make this photo part of a banner.


And this is part of my lovely Christmas gift from dh. A beautiful soft woven basket from Lantern Moon. It's actually got a cloth lining, which you can close over in the top with a drawstring. I think this would be great for those with cats, or toddlers, as it affords a certain amount of protection from little intruders.

The yarns are purple-blue Hand Maiden Lady Godiva (50% Silk 50% Wool, incredibly soft!) from Nova Scotia, burgundy Knit-Wise laceweight Cashmere, and the light blue is laceweight Misti Alpaca. I will be pondering what to make with these little luxuries for some time to come.

I'll try to get some photos of my spinning for tomorrow. In the meantime, it's off to school.