strong letter to follow

Dear

Regia Hand-Dye Effect, You’ve been bad, very bad. In fact, you’ve been absolutely naughty.

I’ve frogged and frogged countless times, more than I usually do anyway. Your black thread is an absolute ace at finding (creating, I’d argue) every rough part of the texture of my wooden needles, wedging right in, and calling itself at home. I even tried switching between metal and wooden needles to try to deal with your attitude. What did those poor DPNS ever do to you?

And what the heck is up with your fibers? That black thread deal is 10000% not fun to knit with and completely inflexible. Your silky soft “halo” (you’re not fooling me with that halo crap) twists up and sticks to itself whenever convenient. Complete layers of you peel right off the skein and turn into birds nests. We can forget about trying to wind you into a little cake, my yarn-winder is brand new and doesn’t deserve your mess.

Worst thing is, you were beautiful at the LYS and still are! Your colors are gorgeous. I even catch my jaw sometimes when the light hits those carried over stitches on the pattern and your hues shine. But I should have known better than to trust you so easily. I should have chased a wifi hot-spot to find reviews on Ravelry before tilling in. The knitters all warned me about you, but I found out far too late.

Your reign of terror is over. I’m sentencing you to the shelf until I can muster the patience to deal with your shenanigans.

P.S. Don’t let me catch you felting with the other skeins. I’ll know.

Dearest Rhubarb Show-offs,

I’m so sorry for having such a short fuse with you, I really am! I should have had more faith in your design. You’re brilliantly made. What small amount of trepidation I felt for your absolutely beautiful and  unfamiliar heel construction was amplified and misguided by the frustration I felt while working with that awful yarn (by the way, we’re not speaking right now, thought you should know).

I’m not mad at you anymore..but I think I’ll need some space. I think I should see other knits for a while. Like a plain stockinette sock or two. Just something carefree and easy, y’know? But don’t worry. They’ve got nothing on what we have for each other. I promise. ♥

Ippikin

I have a million thanks to give to the LYS Search feature on Ravelry. I'm lucky to have the map light up like a little christmas tree in Los Angeles, but around Bridgnorth, it's a slightly rarer sight. So when I found out about Ippikin, I had to sink the £20 travel fare to visit.

Unfortunately it had to rain on the day we set out, but I was determined to travel anyway (and Jason was such a great sport about it too!) The moment we spotted the shop I snapped just one photo and ran inside for shelter. You'll have to see for yourself if you get there--the place is a little yarn haven.

Among local brands carried are Rowan, Lion Brand, Opal, and much more. I had a great time squishing skeins that I've only seen photos of online.

There's also a nice little nook to knit and chat. On the day I visited, a small crochet class was currently in session.

Lesley was a fantastic host and was a tremendous help to me. I let her know I was looking for some local yarns and she showed me big parts of the wall devoted to these gorgeous skeins of soft wool! I chose 4 skeins of Woolyknits' Aran for Bapsicrafts. These skeins will each turn into lovely Condyle wristwarmers that I'll have for sale in the shop. :] Woolyknits' yarn is spun in their mill in Saddleworth, Yorkshire in the valleys of the Pennines in northern England. I'm more than excited to have this part of Britain on my needles and to share it with shoppers of Bapsicrafts. :]

And, of course, I made a rather large personal purchase. I don't allow myself the luxury very often at all, since I'm kind of in practice of not having a personal stash when I can help it.  But these yarns! I've seen sock after sock knit in Regia or Opal yarns and, crap, here's my chance! The Rhubarb colorway, and this variegated bluish shade of the Opal yarn are going to look fantastic as socks.

I'm not going to cast any of those on just yet, since they'd most likely be in progress for a while. I anticipate not being allowed to knit at all on the airplane back, so sparing myself of a sock wip in the suitcase will be the best idea.

As for the DK Knitcol yarns, well..

...my hand slipped.

wip: Ribbed for Him Socks

I spent the last few weeks working through about 400 grams of yarn to finish those pairs of socks for Jason (and one for me~). It was one Hunter’s Sock after another—that memorized routine which, admittedly got a little old after a while.

It was hard to keep interest but the work paid off! We've got three nice new pairs in rotation (meaning, hopefully his high rate of wearing holes will go down), and my little traveller's stash shrunk quite a bit. I’d show proper photos of the finished socks, but I’m proud to say they’re either happily in use or waiting to be washed. I’ll make a little FO post about them later. :]

What’s going on now? Next to commissioned art, hiking and dining, I’ve been working through A Clash of Kings (read: dodging TV spoilers like an ace), and having a blast with Marie Godsey’s

Ribbed for Him pattern. It’s a new functional knit ribbing pattern style I love. The variegated yarn has me stopping often to show Jason how awesome these spontaneous little stripes are turning up on these little things. ugggggh the colors…!!!! I don’t think I’ll ever tire of variegated and self striping yarn.

The badass yarn currently being transformed here is James C. Brett’s Woodlander DK in Shade L5. The scheme brings cozy fires, flannels and of petrichor to mind. Manly pajamas too for some reason. My kinda thing.

I can't understate how much of a nice departure this is from the last three pairs of socks I knit. I'm expecting this project to be a comfy staple in my sock collection and am super excited to see them finished.

time for a WIP and FO dump

Now miiight be a good time to make a round-up post of what’s been on(and freshly off!) the needles lately. A hell of a lot's happened in my knitting world!

One bit of bad news is that a friend with good intentions put some of our knits in the dryer and shrunk them. Not fun stuff. Thankfully my wool-blend socks weren’t ruined. In fact, I felt a little better about putting those blended socks in the dryer now that I see how well they hold up, so it’s not all bad. My mourning time was short and replacement knitting time had to happen immediately, what with freezing winter cold on the horizon for Jason and me. So..an FO first!

pattern : Hunter Socks by Freshisle Fibers
yarn : Lion Brand Wool-Ease Worsted in Oxford Grey and Mustard
needle : US 3[3.25 mm]
size : 10

(I have a feeling the Hunter Socks pattern is becoming a favorite, do you?) This pair of socks was a much needed gift for Jason--my plan was to create some easy-care socks that he can keep in rotation for the everyday. Given the accident with the dryer it was awesome that I finished these when I did!

I'm sure you other knitters understand the difficulty of knitting for the more color-reserved types. I didn't think he'd be convinced when I said I was going to make him something yellow, but my little strategy of working color into the toe and high up on the cuff-edge worked out. Grey works beautifully with simple color accents and I'm so in love with this FO that I might just make it a part of a series of 'rainbow' socks.

That is, right after I repair these. It's clear he loves them just as much, so I know any new additions to the series will be much appreciated.

This WIP is part of my brand new effort to replace what shrunk in the dryer before. I'm planning to make two or three pairs from this MASSIVE skein of Hayfield Bonus Aran ordered from Wool Warehouse. The pattern used is, you guessed it, Fresh-Isle Fibers' Hunter socks. It's been a really therapeutic thing to work on while reading or watching shows, so I'll just go ahead and embrace the Hunters as a staple-pattern instead of feeling my knee-jerk embarassment for crowding the project section of this pattern's ravelry page. haha.

By the way! It's been a real wild ride figuring out yarn weight equivalents and coping with yarn price differences (*sob*, no knitpicks here..)! I'm giving myself one hard pat on the back for making it this far without accidentally ordering a fingering weight when I want bulky or something worse! Huge thanks to Ravelry and people like Megan Goodacre for making it simpler for me!

This next one's kind of a surprise, but I don't think the recipient reads my blog so why the hell not, here it is. It's a Pebble pullover for a special little baby girl who's due any day now! I still can't wrap my mind around how something so small and precious is going to fit on a real life human being. How weird. If I play my cards right with international postage, this juuuust might arrive at the new family's house in time for, oh, a day of it fitting their rapidly growing baby. If it fits for a week, I'll be satisfied, really.

I’ve also just finished some sock designing recently~ These were made using a toe-up method similar to Rachel Roue's TDTU Socks, with a simple flap heel along the back as well.  There’s still a lot of ironing out left for the pattern itself but I’m hoping to release it soon. The world of pattern-writing seems really daunting but I’m taking the challenge on a little at a time.

Ha! Now that I've caught up with you all, do share what you've been up to! I'd love to hear any tips or advice you have in way of knitwear design and pattern-writing if you've got any.