Startitis

Well, since my last post, I finished a second Eco Cloud cowl, this time casting on 75 stitches, and a pair of fingerless mitts. Both are for me. Thank goodness this week has been Spring Break from School so I could do all these things!

These mitts are based on the Jacoby pattern, but I made the top part longer and added several rows to the thumb. This way, I can keep more of my fingers warm, but also can fold down the top if I need to use my fingers. Now, I need to finish a pair for R so we can wear them to Opening Night of the Oakland A's season tomorrow! (Baseball season has started -- Hooray!)

What you see below are my pair, and the one on the needles on the top left are for R. Mine were done on 60 stitches, and his are on 68 stitches. You can see how the striping pattern has changed, and how the addition of the thumb gusset changes it too. (Claudia Handpaints fingering weight in the A's colorway.)


But in addition to 2 pairs of fingerless gloves, I've got a major case of startitis! I've been a good girl and swatched to check gauge.

Girl Friday -- I've had this rosy peach Stonehedge Fiber Mill Shepherd's Wool since Dec. 2009, and I've finally found a good pattern for it!



Cassidy -- working on this in Cascade Lana d'Oro, color 9923, an alpaca/wool blend that I've had for almost 3 years now (sorry no pics, yet).

Chad (Ravelry link) has been calling my name! You know how you've acquired quite a stash, but nothing matches the patterns you want to make, either in gauge or quantity or color or ... I've been wanting to make this for a while, but didn't have anything in stash with the quantity that I needed. I'd almost resigned myself to buying some Greenland, the called-for yarn in the pattern. But then, while I was hanging out at Purlescence, I noticed a skein of Dream in Color Classy in the Plum Paisley colorway. You may remember that almost 2 years ago, I bought 5 skeins and then found the perfect buttons for it. But subsequent dye lots of this yarn were very, very different. But this one was the same as my previous purchase. Buying one additional skein was the right decision and I'm loving the knitting of the waffle pattern for Chad!

And then, along came a pattern a couple nights ago from Debbi Stone, a Goddess Knitter from Blue Moon. Her Octavia lace shawl pattern just jumped at me and onto the needles. The lace pattern has violets in it and calls for about 350 yards of fingering weight yarn. In going through the stash of sock yarn, I pulled out a few that I thought might work. Asked the DH which one he thought would work best and he chose the semisolid Socks that Rock Lightweight in .... Vancouver Violet. Perfect match!


I'm still spinning the Abstract Fiber silk/merino on my KCL drop spindle, but Kelli and I decided that the colorway should really be called Brazilian Carnaval, not Poppies.

I've spun about half of the baby camel/silk from Stitches, and have also started some Ashland Bay merino top that will be plied together, half in Cranberry, and half in a yellower/deep gold blend.

And yesterday, I got a new wheel! She's a new-to-me Louet Victoria. Help, I need a name for her!


To make matters even more interesting, I've also started up on Twitter as @PurpleYarnQueen.

Like I said... Startitis!