More yarn, more projects

Janine and I left the toddlers with their dads and took a trip to see the boys in Lansing. I highly recommend a visit to Threadbear for anyone in the Michigan area. The place is spacious, friendly, comfortable, and filled to the brim with beautiful yarn, roving, knitting notions and books, snacks, coffee, and fellow knitters. Janine and I spent 3 hours there without realizing it; it's like Vegas, in that there are no clocks and you lose touch with reality - is it night or day? The selection is really fantastic. I don't think they are missing anything, and they are always getting new stuff in. Here's my haul:


What you see in that shot are some lovely koigu KPPPM - a set for new socks and a set for some Fiesta Mittens by Lucy Neatby (Pattern from Threadbare also. The pattern is complicated - there's something called a flying swallows pattern??!!? - but the sample was gorgeous.); some Lorna's Laces sock yarn in denim blue and a coordinating variegated; and a huge stack of Dale Tiur in khaki, natural, and pearl grey. I fell in love with the Dale of Norway cardigan display at Threadbear and I AM GOING TO MAKE IT FOR MYSELF. It contains a lot of colorwork and some neat diamond patterns, and will likely be most most-challenging project to date. Here's a shot from their catalog:


I am having so much fun choosing knitting projects lately. There are some babies on the way, and it's so fun to think of things to knit for them. I recently started, and nearly finished the same weekend, this sweater with a Lorna's Laces pattern:


It's knit with a nice chunky wool and nearly flew off my needles, it knit so quickly. It's in the round til you reach the armholes, with the sleeves knit separately. I love that there will be minimal seaming.

I have made lots of progress on Rob's basketweave sweater. He got most of the back, still on the needles, for Christmas. Since I am no longer knitting it in secret, it's going much more quickly. The back is complete, and the front is at least 4" tall (considering it's 28" wide, that's a lot!). I am irritated that the shoulders have that ledged shaping built in, and I wish they were just straight shoulders with a 3-needle bind off. Hopefully as I become more confident as a knitter I will just ignore the directions I don't like and substitute them with my own. As it is now, I begrudgingly follow them and complain about it the whole time. Anyway, here's the completed back (click on it for a closeup of the basketweave pattern):



Well the baby is still napping, which means I have time to knit.