Retrograde Retrospective

Last week I caught a cold of the sinus infecting variety, and my computer caught a nasty virus (which I suppose was enevitable since it was virtually unprotected for several years). Thusly I was not only without my faculties but also without the interwebs that I have become accustomed to and love so much.
Needless to say until I can re-install all my software there will be no pictures of my current projects (no matter how this unnerves me).
Currently I'm frogging back half of the first half of the Weekend Sweater as I misread the instructions and rather than ending with a RS facing I ended on an RS and compleatly fraked up what i did. The sadder part is that I only realized this AFTER finishing the right front side. *facepalm* I will go back and re knit it but for now it's recieving a time out.
I started christmas knitting, not that it will loosen the chaotic grip of Decembers mad dash to finish everything, but I have started.
The Aesthlight Shawl is trucking along, I'm now onto the border, it's good to have the main triangle done, it gives me a vague sense of actually accomplishing something.
I have also dug out the snail mitts for moms friend and started back up on them again. The first one is 75% of the way done.
I appear to be drowning in WIP's and have thusly put myself on a stop casting on kick until at least two of the things that are on the needles are done. This could take a while since many of them are larger things.
Vilai got frogged, mostly because I felt the med. weight STR was a bit too heavy for it, I will knit them just in a different yarn and at a different time. I have a thing about STR since it's relatively expensive and hard to find in these parts (ie. if you don't order it from the internet you better have a friend that lives somewhere that has STR), but I get a bit neurotic about which socks get to be knit out of it. Maybe someday that will change but on my student budget it makes sense to me.
I am currently at the office wearing the finished earth maiden. I need to do the I-cord for tying it up yet but my fervent dislike of i cord's means that could take a while. I'm also contemplating useing a ribbon or something similar so I don't have to make the I cord.
On the wheel is "Lambchop" some fleece I processed then dyed and carded into rolags. I'm doing the blue/green stuff right now. I imagine it will be very pretty when compleated. And when I get tired of all the stuff I have already blogged about (because my knitter/spinnerly add knows no bounds) I break out the carders and work on the Corridale I got a while back and processed. It's a yummy chocolate brown/natural black that makes me want to drool.

The yarn gods smile

Occasionally it happens that when a fibreista such as myself sees her stash dwindleing she is hit with a paralyzing fear that she is going to *gasp* run out of yarn for projects. I had a few such moments in the days leading to my birthday, Really I am not joking I thought to myself "I better get spinning so I have stuff to knit with". I was on a processing dying spinning kick and what I wanted more than anything was to be reinvigorated by the stash.
Now the yarn goddess must have known my plight, and through some kind of strange twist she embibed my family with wonderous ideas of yarn. So I give you the take, aka what mah mommy and bro/sil got me.

First off let me say mom went to River City Yarns in Edmonton (one of the benifits of having a parental unit that travels a lot), I gave her a little list of suggestions, she not only got everything on the damned list, she got more!

Ilga Leja patterns, Ancient Bark, Balsam, and Earth Maiden.

What is this, could this be a bag of Manon? Silk and Arucania, plus the pattern, there was a lot of squeeing and swooning. I like to pet it before bed.

Mom said she saw this and had to get it for me, it's the knit kit for Fibre Trends Hedgies! I can make my own stuffed hedgies! And I've been wanting to try out the fibre trends for aageess.

Colinette Giotto (for the IK Waterlily top), this kind of stuff is never found here, it's usually beyond overpriced, and there is never enough to actually make something more than a shrug. So I am over the moon about this. I almost cast it on last night, but then found that although I have them my 9mm circs were no where to be found.

For the spinner/dyer's soul, half a pound of louet biffle, and a soy bamboo sampler. I've never spun with either soy or bamboo so I am super excited.

When going anywhere that carries STR I will usually beg and plead for a few skeins. I got two! which means i can either make something like a shawl or a pair of knee socks either way, two skiens of bunny foo foo.

On occasion Mary Maxim has a kit that makes you remember why you look at it in the first place, this is one of those kits, I have been drooling over this jacket for almost a year now, saying all the time that I will buy it when I have money to spare (as we all know how often that happens). My bro and SIL got the kit for my birthday, which is totally jinxing me in the starting department.

Seriously I was over half way through my goal of not having more than five projects on the needles at a given time until this giant pile of stash ended up in my lap. Sure I casted on the Textured Jacket recently, and I have the Thelonius socks on the needles for school, and a bunch of other things that languish in the WIP pile, but now I want to start everything. Maybe summer will be the time to have some severe knitting startitis that will all get finished in the fall. Hard to say. What I do know is There is not enough time in the day to properly molest this new haul.

The christmas haul and other tales

You may recognize this mitten from the book of yarn. Having a hearty love of snails (and bats) I wanted to make a pair for quite some time. The motivation came in the form of blistering minus forty weather and a lack of hand coverings. So i decided it's been a while since I've made something really intricate let alone something intricate for myself, so I cast on.
The welts at the bottom were a trial, I discovered I really dislike making welts, or tucks as the case may be. However they do look good and they serve a purpose so I am glad for that. Ideally I want to be done these before school starts again. I got lots of knitting time in on them on christmas eve, mom can attest to that fact.
They really are knitting up quicker than I thought they would.
I am useing two different patons kroy to make them, the stripy effect comes from patons kroy stripes in burnished sierra stripes, I have to take out the navy every time it comes around because i feel it's too close to the black but i really like how the other colors are working with the pattern.
I'm thinking about calling these my halloween snails.
I'm almost done the mitt in this picture I'm on the thumb now so I'm sure there will be more pictures when it has been compleatly compleated.
This lovely skein my mom picked up at the Agribition. It's white fingering just waiting to be dyed. I am looking forward to dying it but I haven't figured out what colors I'm going to dye it with yet.
I have no idea what the yardage is but I'm anticipating something like a scarf or maybe part of one? Really I have no idea yet I just look at it and smush it occasionally.

Ruby slippers mediumweight mom got me this from river city yarns. I love STR and this colorway is just so rock and roll. I haven't anyplans for it yet, except to stare at it and smush it with love occasionally.
I'm sure once class gets back in and my sock fetish comes out again this will be called up for something amazing. There's just so many patterns waiting to be made Oh my.

Chapman springs Mediumweight. HOT I love the color variations in this. Love.
Seriously. When my credit card is paid off I'm dropping a pretty penny on more STR. But you didn't hear that from me ;)