Damson is finished. This was such a fun project. The yarn is alpaca, hand dyed by a friend. She’s taking her hand-spun and dyed yarn to Taos next month for the Wool Festival. The yarn is so lovely, light yet wonderfully warm. I used some variegated for the loopy edging.

I’m not quite done with these triangular shawls, but I did branch out just a bit.

That is Kay Gardner’s latest free warshcloth pattern. Linoleum Dishcloth.

And it is time to start knitting scarves for the Red Scarf Project. One is done.

Another one is started.

And a potential third.

And here’s my next potential triangle.

When I taught composition, all instructors were required to have one-on-one conferences with each student at least once a semester.  We dreaded conferences because the process took so much time. One semester I had 90 students. At 15 minutes with each one, it took 22.5 hours to see them all.

The other problem was that conversations with that many college freshmen causes mush-brain. Every instructor had coping mechanisms to stave off the effects of mush-brain. For instance, I got really good at reading their hand-writing upside down, as I read the oddities in their essays aloud, “This sentence,” I would say pointing to the sentence, ” ‘My mother’s cooking supports many aspects,’ is not exactly what you mean.”

An office mate had an even better method. He used a typewriter to fill a sheet of paper with punctuation marks, one of commas, one of semi-colons, etc. Then he cut them into confetti, and put the little bits of paper into jars on his desk. During conferences he would say things like, “Your essays have too many run-on sentences. You need help with periods,” and then he would sprinkle them with periods. The student would sit there, with little bits of paper in his hair, and stuck to his sweatshirt, just staring at him. He stared back. Eventually, the student would leave.

I went to the Sock Yarn Tasting at Hill Country Weavers a couple of weeks ago. I got to pet a lot of sock yarn. I learned about their fibers, twist, and color. I ate sandwiches that looked like feet! But best of all, I came home with samples (tastes) of about eleven different sock yarns, each one tagged with the yarn’s name and characteristics.

I felt like my colleague’s student, just sitting there, absorbing sock yarn.

An old friend of mine used to say that whenever she bought a new album (and yes, this is before CDs), it made her entire music collection sound a bit different. I feel that way about knitting books. When I get a new knitting book, the yarn in my stash looks a bit different.

I don’t have a big stash, although The Husband might not agree. But I can’t decide on a sweater pattern, and go into a closet and retrieve the yarn needed. With the exception of lace weight and sock yarn. The reason is pretty easy. You only need one or two skeins of both to complete a project.

The day I came home with Wendy’s book, “Socks from the Toe Up: Essential Techniques and Patterns from Wendy Knits” (Wendy D. Johnson), I looked briefly through my sock yarn stash, and chose the yarn randomly, probably because it was the brightest one. When that I finished that pair, I chose another skein, this time in a solid blue that has been there a while. It’s becoming this one:

That’s two pairs knitted from stash. To replenish the stash, I added two color ways of Lorna’s Laces.

Wendy Knits Sunrise

Amy’s Vintage Office

Then First Thursday rolled around, and Noro was on sale at Hill Country Weavers. Some came home with me.

You didn’t ask, but it makes me just a bit melancholy to think about all those brokers that are broke. Can’t happen to a nicer bunch of folks in my humble opinion.

To take my mind off the financial news, I’ve had a busy week knitting. First I finished Mr Greenjeans. It’s blocked and buttoned and ready to wear. This is not an over statement — I love this sweater. i was a bit worried because raglan sleeves can fall off my shoulders. But this one fits nicely. The yarn is Berroco’s Ultra Alpaca, and it makes me look like a better knitter than I am — the stitches look so even. It is so soft, it already has cat hair on it. The color of this photo is a bit off — it is more denim blue than bright blue.

And Thursday was First Thursday at Hill Country Weavers, and it caused a stampede at the store — 20% off all yarn. My purchases? Two skeins of Lornas Laces Shepherd Sock, and two skeins of Manos silk blend.

Guess what color I was wearing?

And then today, the mailman delivered this from Amazon. What a great way to start the weekend. I have to go now.

Who remembers having their colors “done”? Are you an autumn or winter? Favor blue-reds over orange-reds? Or did you choose the same path as I did, and just wear black?

My favorite color is red, but I don’t wear that color very often. I have a lovely red shawl, and a great pair of red shoes, but my wardrobe is pretty neutral, except for my socks, of course.

My yarn stash reflects this neutral palette. And this supports my theory that when you are shopping for yarn, you buy yarn that goes with color you are wearing. So if you wear a lot of green, you’ll end up with this:

Or these:

The shawl, modeled by The Husband, is Misty Alpaca Hand-Dyed Lace weight. The pattern is from Amy Singer’s Plug and Play Shawl class from our Alaska cruise. The sock pattern is Spring Forward, and the yarn is Conjoined Creations Flat Feet.

But I’m at a loss to explain these two items:

The sweater is for Afghans for Afghans Youth Campaign, and is a simple top down raglan. I used some Big Kureyon from the sale bin at Hill Country Weavers and Lamb’s Pride Bulky. The hat is the Meathead hat from Knitalong, in double stranded Lamb’s Pride Bulky, also destined for Afghans for Afghans. Perhaps I was inspired by the Kureyon, or according to the website, that  Afghan children like bright colors, but then what child doesn’t?

In any case it was a lot of fun to knit with these bright colors, and with wool. Next on my list is a scarf for the Red Scarf Project. Considering my favorite color is red, this is color theory in action.

I’m participating in the Summer of Socks ‘08 Knitalong with 1582 other sock knitters. Even with my limited math skills, I know that’s a lot of socks.

This KAL is a lot of fun; I did it last year too. There are some great contests, including one for the best photo of your socks on vacation. We are using Ravelry to post photos, track progress, and communicate with other knitters.

I have some goals for this summer’s KAL. I want to knit those socks that I’ve been putting off, for whatever reason. There is lacy pattern by Cookie A. There is some pretty wild yarn that I really don’t know what to do with. There is that skein of Noro sock yarn that just feels like string.

But first, I decided to start at the beginning* by dyeing the yarn. The Husband gave me a Louet Hand Dyeing kit for Christmas last year. I was pretty excited about it, but for many months I didn’t think I could do it. Dyeing is not like knitting — you can’t frog it and reknit it into something else. Once you squirt that color on the yarn, you’re committed. What if I didn’t read the directions right? What if I didn’t cook it right? What if get dye in my eye? Or on a cat? Or what if it just comes out looking like crap?

But sometimes one must strap it on. So on the solstice, the first day of the KAL, I donned my rubber gloves, and dyed some yarn.

It went from this:

To this:

To this:

To this:

Socks are next.

I’m not a big fan of mohair. Like some wools, it makes me itch. And I don’t like knitting with it because it so sticky, that it ends up in a big ball of knotted fuzz.

I know that most knitters just love the stuff. It takes dye well, so the colors are amazing. Projects are warm without weight. And the fuzz does cover up a multitude of errors.

But truthfully, it gives me the willies.

So it is a bit weird that I volunteered to buy a boatload of Kid Silk Haze for the upcoming Knit Guild workshop with Susanna Hansson. After purchasing the yarn, I had to split the balls, which adds to my anxiety because my relationship with my ball winder is strained ever since it ate a hank of lace weight silk.

But sometimes one must face one’s fears.

Buying the yarn was pretty easy. I ended up with twenty-three balls from Hill Country Weavers. One of each color they had. Here’s what it looked like:

I locked it away in a closet for a few days while I located a scale, and talked nice to my ball winder. Then I started to wind smaller balls. The hardest part of this task is finding the end of the ball from the fuzzy core of the yarn. I have terrible luck doing this with just about any yarn, and with this sticky stuff, I’m way out of my comfort zone. I made a plan. I have a few weeks to finish this task, so I only needed to do a couple a day. No problem. I got my scale, and a chair, and clamped the ball winder to a table near a window and started.

Surprisingly, it was so easy, that I finished in three days. I could have done it all in a day, but winding all that fuzz makes a lot of static electricity, and I was shocking the cats.

There was one issue with one ball, but we won’t speak of it.

Now it looks like this:

Mission accomplished.

Now if I can just get my swift to like me.

In 2007 several “must read” bloggers pledged to knit from their stash for that year. There are many patterns categorized as Stash Buster, to encourage knitters to use up that yarn. Even though we all read the Yarn Harlot, we all seem ashamed of our stash.

I get it, really I do. I’ve bought yarn on a whim. I have more sock yarn than I care to admit to. And a breathtaking array of dishcoth cotton.

But I don’t buy yarn in large quantities unless I have a project in mind. I can’t see a pattern, and go to a closet and get an appropriate yarn in the amount needed to finish a project.

With one exception.

When we were in New Zealand in 2004, I bought a boatload of Merino and Possum yarn in a neutral oatmeal color. I wanted the yarn as a souvenir. Since then I’ve swatched the yarn for a few projects, but none were right. For a while, the patterns I liked were too hard for me. Then they weren’t perfect. Then I decided that I didn’t like the color, and considered dying it.

But this week, I decided to just put on my sneakers, and do it. Behold the Bristow cardigan. I think it’s lovely in the sun, don’t you?

I hosted the Knitting Guild Holiday Party on Saturday. It was a lot of fun, and as Hostess, I got a lot of great stuff from the members as Hostess Gifts. Including this bag of yarn from a friend who just knows that I love small amounts of really pretty yarn.

I’m nearly done with my third scarf from Knitting New Scarves. This one is Twisted. The Husband says it looks like a helix. Oh, and the yarn? It’s from the White Elephant Exchange. I probably have enough for some fingerless gloves, or maybe even some with fingers…

I’ve also finished the Merino Lace Socks from IK’s Favorite Socks. The yarn is Koigu, and I love them.

I also started another pair of socks. I’m making this one up using the stitch dictionary in Vogue’s Ultimate Sock Book. I’m calling it Flame On sock. The yarn is from my stash, Lorna’s Laces Shepard Sock, Irving Park colorway.

It is a glorious day here, so I was taking pictures outside, but had to quit because of NCI (Neighbor Cat Interrupt). That’s Mina. Even visiting cats like yarn.

When the Yarn Harlot was here, she signed my copy of her book with this: “Obsession is normal.” The reassurance is really nice, as I’m obsessed with the new book, Knitting New Scarves by Lynne Barr. The designs just seem perfect for my knitting skills. Some are mindless, others need a lot of concentration. And since I have a lot of single skeins of yarn — a great fit, right?

But I keep buying single skeins of yarn. Like these purchased just yesterday from Gauge Knits, Austin’s new LYS. They are two skeins of Peace Fleece.

I hope to combine them with the left over Peace Fleece that I got in Maine.

I found these two balls at Kid ‘N Ewe. They are different colorways, but I didn’t realize how different until I balled them up. I thought I could use them interchangeably, but it dosen’t look like that now.

And I found this at Kid ‘N Ewe, this one skein that is 400 yards worth of a really nice sportweight.

And this from Brooks Farm, wool and silk for the pattern Drifting Pleats.

And finally, just because. More sock yarn.

I’d better start knitting.