Meanwhile, back at the ranch

So anyway, the week before my life completely fell apart through no fault of my own, in a fit of fiscal irresponsibility (which always precedes terrible things in my life, so maybe THAT is a sign, :P) I ordered a bunch of the new Knitpicks Stroll Tonal sock yarn skeins. Like, a bunch. They have great colors in this new line, and they’re so cheap! *is weak*

Here’s what I got:

DSC03344

The colors are actually pretty accurate, considering I took these pictures on a cloudy day at 6 pm with flash. And I like most of them… but not the purple one. It’s too gray for me. I’m debating if I want to return it and get the darker purple. The yellow is a great butter yellow and I got that one for my mom, who was super stoked to receive it. (“That’s the last time this is going to happen for awhile, huh?” she joked, referencing the Jobpocalypse. :P)

The brown actually perfectly matches a skein of Dream in Color Classy I have to make a hat with. I was hoping that would be the case. The green is more green than pictured here, and the red has more variation. Red is a tough color for my camera unless it’s got strong natural light and no flash. But for the most part I’m pretty pleased with these yarns and look forward to using them. The yardage is generous as well at 464 yards; that’s more than enough for a nicely sized shawlette.

When I last talked about my current projects I mentioned that I was working on a couple socks and since then the sock WIPs have exploded. I even finished a sock:

DSC03346

This is the Papaver sock from Knitspot. It’s one of those great patterns that basically knits itself. It’s a sixteen row repeat, which has four rows of plain, four rows of pattern, four rows of plain, four rows of pattern. So just when you are getting bored with one thing, a new thing starts. Very cool! This pattern would look fabulous with all sorts of colors, and I wouldn’t be averse to knitting it again. I’m currently knitting it in Rio De La Plata merino sock in the “raspberry” colorway, and it’s great yarn to knit with. I don’t know that this company still makes yarn. I looked at Ravelry to see, and it looks like maybe this is still available but their other lines are not. I got this at my LYS two years ago for my birthday, so this is “birthday yarn”, heh. It’s now past the heel and over a couple of repeats till the toe.

The next project is one that I have meant to make for a long time. It’s the bluebell rib pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks in (I think) Dye Dreams sock in the “Peeps” colorway. I looked a long time for the perfect yellow and finally found it sometime last year (I think at the Loopy Ewe).

DSC03351

DSC03353

I have nothing in particular to report about this yarn. I like it. But then, I like most yarns.

My work BFF Amy stopped by yesterday to pick up some earrings I made for her to wear when she elopes this weekend and I don’t think she’d been at the house since I painted and put the Expedit full of yarn up. And she said, “Holy shit! You could knit a whole wardrobe!”

And I said, “Yep,” rather smugly.