cosmicpluto knits!

the big 2-5

Today’s my birthday, and I’m 25 years old.

In my stronger moments I realize that I’ve actually done quite a bit for my age – got a degree, written and published a book (!), started a pretty successful business. And I can get recognized in Hawaii! Of course, there’s still so much to be done and sometimes it feels like time it just slipping by.

Thanks for reading, commenting, tweeting (find me @cosmicplutoknit), and generally being awesome. I don’t know what I’d do without my fabulous Internet Friends and the knitting community at large.

Knitting’s pretty much the same old projects right now – but I’m hoping to move up and onto some new ones soon! In the meanwhile, of course I bought some yarn for my birthday – Koigu.

Got enough of the purple-blue for a sweater, and two skeins each of the pewter and pink – I’m thinking it wants to be colourwork. I ordered a Hanne Falkenberg kit that I’ve had my eye on for awhile too. I don’t know when the last time was that I was this excited to knit someone else’s pattern!

Have a great summer weekend. Mine involves cake!

random things

My knitting is really fighting back lately! I forgot my sock project at a friend’s last week just as he was going out of town so I couldn’t work on that. I keep having to re-do the math on a compound raglan and ripping out what I’ve knit.

Then today my Honeybee cardi was fighting me too – I knit a whole hem (around the body) and found out that it didn’t really work. So that was a day’s work ripped, and I ended the day right where I started. Booo.

Hopefully I can get my knitting back on track and get some new projects on the needles too. I’m going to be traveling in July so I need knitting I can count on! My parents and sisters and I are taking a vacation to Hawaii!

We’ll be staying in Waikiki, and on Kauai and the big island. I don’t intend to spend all my time with them, so I’d like to do some exploring on my own too. Does anyone have recommendations for things to do, places to see, eat, or shop? I love unique sorta boutique-y shops for clothes (I’m especially fond of dresses and skirts from local designers) but I’m having a hard time coming up with particular places.

And so this isn’t a photoless post, how about some eye candy?

Megan brought me back this gorgeous, huge skein of laceweight from Squam – it’s merino from the Woolen Rabbit. Beautiful!

MDSW: the haul

So what did I get at MDSW?

Two skeins of the most delicious, squooshy merino/silk from Solitude. The wool is from local Virginia sheep! The two skeins are slightly different shades, but very close. I’ll probably stripe ‘em together.

A whole whack of Petite Silk from Tess Designer Yarns. Love this stuff. What I’ll do with it, I don’t know! Maybe incorporate it into some weaving.

Plus three skeins of Tess superwash merino laceweight. I was really into the laceweight this year!

I also picked up two skeins of Wullenstudio sock yarn from the Cloverhill booth, and a Sheep 2 Shoe kit from the Fold. Oh, and some Got Soap – love their stuff! So all in all I was pretty restrained for me. I find once I get to fibre festivals the wool fumes just get into my wallet! I’m sure there are others who can relate.

But now I’m feeling the weight of my stash. Time to get back to working. I felt like for awhile there I wasn’t being particularly productive in the knitting department, but I think I’m getting back on track. And not just with the knitting either!

The giant granny square is done, so here’s a sneak peek! Crochet uses up yarn at a good clip, so I’ve now started another crocheted blanket project – a ripple blanket out of all sorts of different leftovers and random handspuns. But I really need to get going on a few sweater ideas. Anyone have suggestions on how to get more working hours into the day?

frolicking

Saturday was the Downtown Knit Collective’s Knitters Frolic – an annual event that always has me clutching my wallet! This year I drove down (which is an accomplishment if you know me! I hardly ever drive) and worked with megan at our lettuce knit booth.

We actually had a double-booth space because the people next to us cancelled. We had a great time! We had lots of Dream in Color Classy on display along with a great February Lady that Kate knit for us.

We also had lots of Socks that Rock, Malabrigo (and my Ruffles pattern), Dream in Color Smooshy, and the hit of the day – these awesome baskets from Reisenthal!

Once a couple people bought them, they told us that everyone was asking where they came from! We ended up selling out completely – awesome. I didn’t even get one; I’ll have to wait for the next shipment.

Part of what’s so fun about the Frolic for me is seeing so many people I know all in one place! It was super busy first thing in the morning – I guess everyone wanted to get there bright and early. For atmosphere, the view in one direction from our booth. If you’ve never been, this is just one small area – there’s quite a few vendors.

Of course, I did get a bit of a chance to shop once it quieted down a bit. I’m saving my fibre-buying for MDSW (which is next weekend! how did that happen so fast?) but I had a bit of a falling down at the Tanis Fiber Arts booth. I bought a sweater’s worth of the aran weight in “midnight”.

I also picked up a couple skeins of DK weight in “plum” and “sand”.

Aren’t they gorgeous?!

A copy of “Hands-On Rigid Heddle Weaving” and a couple balls of Taiyo rounded things out. Okay, so these push the giant granny square slightly out of stashbusting territory, but in my defense, the Purple Purl had these on special! Should be enough for a couple more rounds of the granny square.

Very last thing was a couple of bobbins – Majacraft bobbins.

…I may have ended up with a new (to me) Majacraft wheel this weekend!

can’t believe I almost forgot to post this!

I’ve been going through my trip photos trying to distill them into a good slideshow length for the family (get-together over Easter = trip slideshow time) and I found this one that Vig took!

This was in Udaipur, Rajasthan (the place with the windy, hilly roads, lake palace, and Octopussy). We were just walking along, and I looked down and alley…and said, “Is that what I think it is?!”

This dude was selling yarn off the back of his bike! There were at least 2 other women checking out the yarn as well. I was a little shy to ask anything about it (obviously I am studying it very intensely in that photo above!) but I felt it a bit – very un-soft, and the colours were pretty flat too. It didn’t really feel like wool, it was probably synthetic. I think that was the only time I saw yarn for sale in India! I think it was pretty cool!

Checking in on my sweater jacket-in-progress, here’s an updated pic as of Thursday:

Right now I’m doing some edging at the bottom (nothing fancy, just garter stitch) and then I’ll be casting off the body! It’s about 21 inches from the underarm, plus another two or so to go. Then it’s onto the sleeves!

an out of town gig

On Saturday I hopped a Greyhound and headed out to New Hamburg, ON (halfway between Kitchener and Stratford) to teach a class at Shall We Knit?

Timing was a bit tight what with the bus getting into Kitchener (very sketchy bus stop, that Sportsworld) at 11:30 and the class starting at 12, but everything worked out. We did a top-down mini sock with a short row heel with Magic Loop. All the students were great, although the conference room we were in was a bit tight for 11 people!

After the class I wandered about the shop, which is really lovely – bright, lots of beautiful yarn, lots of interesting stuff (“giftware”). I picked up quite a pile of yarn!

Some Debbie Bliss Chunky Tweed for a sweatercoat:

There wasn’t quite enough of the brown, so I got a bit of blue for a contrast colour.

Some super duper soft Mirasol bamboo/alpaca for a slouchy hat:

And some gorgeous little bits of loveliness – Koigu mill ends! I love the colours all together. I’m thinking either a colourwork cowl or maybe the yoke of a sweater. I do have quite a bit of other bits and pieces of Koigu so there’d be a bunch to choose from!

One other thing I picked up at the shop, non-yarn:

It’s a V&A printed vacuum flask. I’m not sure what I’ll put in it, probably just water (since that’s what I drink mostly!) although it might be a bit of hassle what with there being two lids, the cup and the vacuum seal. At any rate, it’s awesomely pretty.

Then I got a ride back to Kitchener to get on the bus and come home. I may not have left the shop with much money after picking up all this yummy yarn, and I may have spent over three hours on various forms of transit that day, but it was really fun. And if Shall We Knit was closer I’d totally shop there!