stash – Molecular Knitting

Yarn and Monkeys

molecularknitting — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 03:47:01 +0000

A while ago I envied some Malabrigo yarn on Karen’s blog, Yarn is My Metier (she knows how to do the accent on the second e of metier–my code manual is somewhere, not here…). She told me not to envy the Malabrigo, she had oodles and oodles (my choice of words not hers), and would send me some: would I please choose a weight and two colors. Wowza! I picked Polar and Burgundy in a heavy worsted, and my they are pretty.

These are multi-plied yarns, which Karen bought when Malabrigo was switching to single ply yarns. I am glad of this, because I think the multi-ply may have more durability. But the colors are intense and lovely, and the yarn is super-soft merino. The colors in the Polar are hard to capture, a soft greened-grey. I have two skeins of each color, so now I need to think of projects! Merino and my skin get along famously well, so one color is going to be a scarf of some sort. Decisions, decisions…
In addition to the yarn, Karen also sent a dpn (or crochet hook) holder made of a very fun sock monkey print fabric from Textile Fetish.

M’s grandmother gave me a set of Knit Picks nickel-plated sock dpns for Christmas, and they are right at home in this needle case (so much nicer than the plastic case they came in).

Those are happy sock monkeys! I had been looking around for a cloth needle case for dpns, and I’m glad I can stop looking, because I didn’t find anything this fun and well-designed in my searches.

If for some perverse reason, you don’t like sock monkeys, than perhaps a Monkey Gland cocktail might be more to your liking.

You can read more about this “unique” cocktail at Cocktails with M.

Happy Knitting!

Mine!

molecularknitting — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 04:23:12 +0000

Earlier this evening at Chez Molecular Knitting:
M: Did you get the mail?
Me: I’ll just go and get it.
A minute or so later:
M: Was there anything good? (M sees me clutching a small priority mail box to my chest.) What’s that?
Me: It’s for me! It’s for me! It’s for me! It’s the Blue Faced Leicester sock yarn I ordered.
I rip open the box and peek inside.
Me: Why is it pink? I thought the yarn I ordered was mostly blue.
I pull out ziptop bag.
Me: Ah, she wrapped the yarn in pink tissue paper.
Opening the bag and tissue paper:
Me: Ooooo! It’s so pretty! I love the colors! Look at the luster! Blue Faced Leicester sheep rock! And Aimee’s dye job is fabulous!

M: I’ll go get a mailer so you can return it.
Me: What???
M: Well, you clearly don’t like it.
Me: You’re not funny. You think you’re funny, but you’re not.
M: Then why are you laughing?
Me: I’m not laughing. This is a grimace of pain because you think you are funny.
M: Is that what that is?
Me: Go away! (talking to the yarn) Come, my pretty! You’ll look stunning posed on the leather chair arm. All must see you and weep that you are mine. Mine! Mine! Mine!
M: I think you need help.
Me: HA! (Never let it be said that I can’t deliver a cutting setdown when required!)

I have always been smitten with the name “Blue Faced Leicester” and have wanted some BFL yarn. In my woeful ignorance, I hadn’t realized that it makes excellent sock yarn. I have Kristy of Eleven Stitches to thank for pointing that out. She got some from as a gift from her grandmother. I followed her link, but the only BFL sock yarn left was in colors I just don’t use. However, I was determined (I hadn’t bought any yarn since early November) and quite capable of using etsy’s search engine. And at Little Dog Designs, I found the perfect skein for me. Poseidon went into my cart and I placed the order right quick on a Friday evening before a three-day National Holiday weekend (curses!). But first thing Tuesday, Aimee had it shipped out to me, and wonder of wonders, the postal service got it here Thursday afternoon (maybe that three day weekend did them some good–I worked).

The last thing I need is more sock yarn. But this is research! I needed to find out for myself if BFL yarn is as good as merino in my book. I think it might be. It has a lovely sheen and a nice tight twist. The colors are intense yet soft. As soon as Febrach’s socks are done; I’m knitting up the BFL. I’ll take it to work tomorrow for my friend LC to see and pet. I hope she gives it back; she knows and appreciates fine fiber. LC just had her wisdom teeth out and she got two dry sockets, which having had one myself, I know are quite painful. But if she tries to abscond with my yarn, a right hook to the jaw might be forthcoming.

One last look…

Fiberlicious Friday: Dinner and Dessert

molecularknitting — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 03:34:20 +0000

I liked Megan’s idea for Fiberlicious Fridays (yarn posed as food), that I tried my poor hand at it while M made real dinner. Megan’s even set up a Flickr group. This was a good exercise for me because all of these yarns are from my stash, and I had pretty much forgotten that I had them. M asked me what I was doing when he saw me arranging yarn on various plates. I told him of Megan’s idea, and he looked at me as though both Megan and I had lost our marbles. I explained that Megan was studying for her Ph. D. prelim exams. M nodded in understanding, but then asked, “So what’s your excuse?” Excuse? I have yarn, dishes, and a camera.

Dinner:

Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Cabin Fever, Claudia’s Hand Painted in Eat Your Veggies, and Regia Fadig 4 in a starchy color.

Since it’s summer, and dinner looks like it might be a bit heavy, we have a lovely sorbet for dessert:

Lorna’s Laces Shepherd’s Sock in Mixed Berry.

That looks tasty enough to look at from the other side where the blackberries are hiding.

As I mentioned, I had forgotten these yarns, so they aren’t in my mental sock knitting queue. Therefore, the question becomes, can I get them knit by the end of Summer of Socks 2007?

Right now I’m off to knit some Chocolate Cherry Socks for a very nice lady.

Have a great weekend!

Yarn Therapy

molecularknitting — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 23:21:42 +0000

I blog about my knitting because that makes me happy. I read and comment on other knitters’ blogs because that makes me happy too. If I were to go into the reasons why I wasn’t able to finish my wimple or do any sock knitting this week, why I have 100+ unread messages on my Google Reader, I would become unhappy (actually unhappier as I really wanted to finish the wimple). Therefore, we will look at yarn for future socks. Looking at sock yarn makes me happy.

Claudia’s Hand Paints in Chocolate Cherry and Lorna’s Laces in Mother Lode.

The 80+ year old lady that asked me to knit her a pair of socks said she likes browns with reds. The Chocolate Cherry from Claudia’s Hand Painted looks the perfect choice to me. Since these socks are all about comfort and ease of wear, I intend to do a very simple 2×2 rib for the cuff and a stockinette foot.

My friend Nancy likes the socks I knit her for her birthday last year (her birthday is in July and I finished the socks in October–I’m hoping to improve on that this year). During cold weather, she wears them every week. This information led me to believe she would welcome a second pair this year. Nancy likes jewel tone colors. Lorna’s Laces in Mother Lode has the colors of amethyst, rubelite and citrine–a trifecta of jewels. Now for a pattern–stretchy but no holes (she’s a native Californian and actually gets cold during the “winter” season).

Now let’s look at sock yarn for me!

Online Tropic Color 928 and Dream in Color Smooshy Happy Forest (#150).

I always have to have a ball of self-striping sock yarn in stash for yarn therapy emergencies. The Regia Surf I am currently knitting was my penultimate self-striping yarn, so I bought the very happy Tropic Color from Online. In August M and I will fly to Wisconsin to visit family, and this may be the yarn for air travel sock knitting.

Finally, when Simply Sock Yarn Company announced they had Dream in Color Smooshy sock yarn, I had to check it out. I am a sucker for green, and Happy Forest insisted I buy it. It’s a generous 450 yd skein, so it shall be made into a magical pair of socks. I am contemplating a pattern of my own devising, which I tentatively refer to as “Mullions.” But that’s all I’m going to say about that for now. It is very smooshy yarn. The yarn was right to insist I buy it.

Well, I am feeling a little happier, and I am going to finish my wimple this week come Hell or High Water. I have only half a repeat to go. I hope this post has been therapeutic for you too. Now I shall continue my therapy with an M concocted cocktail. He hasn’t given any hints as to which cocktail he will concoct, but I’m sure it will be tasty.

May we all have a good week!

ETA: Check out Cocktails with M to see what cocktail M concocted! I liked it.

The State of the Stash

molecularknitting — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 03:26:00 +0000

Wendy and her friend L-B have christened 2007 the year of “Knitting from Stash.” They have set up some very flexible ground rules, and they have invited anyone who wishes to thin out their own stash to join them. I won’t officially join the Knitting from Stash movement, because unlike Wendy, who writes about a “stash room,” I have a stash tupperware crate. But in the interests of record keeping, and because it is an article of the Molecular Knitting Constitution, I present, The State of the Stash. Don’t laugh.

Since sock yarn doesn’t count toward Wendy and L-B’s stashes, I won’t show you that. Instead, let us survey the yarns I have purchased with lace in mind. I took this photo in natural light, and I thought my camera was set for that, but all the reds/fuschias are WRONG. But, anyway, it’s dark now, so we shall make do.

The green, conspicuous by being the only yarn not red, purple or blue, is Sea Silk in Sunlit Glade. That was a special color in a kit from Colorsong Yarn. I have 2 skeins of it and no intention of actually knitting the pattern from the kit, I just liked the color. Above is Frog Tree fingering weight suri alpaca in bright red, which I bought because I am a sucker for red yarn. I have about 1000 yds. Nestled next to it is a cake of Jaegerspun Zephyr in Admiral (1100 yds) and a skein of Schaefer Anne in Blue Violets (560 yds). The big Merino Lace skein in the middle is actually fuschia in color and not red (1000 yds). Next to it are two skeins of Knitpicks Shimmer in Happy Dance and Morning Fog (5 skeins total–I can knit a shawl for California) and a skein of Knitpicks Shadow in Vineyard. The ball at the bottom is Sea Silk in Berry. I think we can safely say that I am primed to knit lace. I’ve told myself that I have to start a lace scarf from Victorian Lace Today this week, as I joined the VLT KAL when it first started. The berry Sea Silk is heading for the needles! I mean that, really.

For yarns that I have in sweater amount quantities, you may start to see a color theme in my yarn purchaing.

Upper left is Berroco Ultra Alpaca in Cardinal, a Christmas gift, so it must get knit up this year. It is for a seed stitch jacket that I may start to knit as soon as I finish the Landscape Shawl. All WIPs and no FOs makes Brenda an anxious knitter. To the right of that is a skein of Cascade 220 for a brocade jacket that very faithful readers may remember me mentioning back in the dawn of time (the color is better in the link back). Next is the evil Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Cottonball that completely failed to maintain gauge back in November. All is now frogged. And on the delicate subject of frogging, the Lamb’s Pride Bulky in Raspberry and Worsted in Periwinkle saw significant frogging today. Gone are two sweater backs and one front. I have about 2000 yds of each, so I’m thinking big and probably cables, but I haven’t gotten any farther than that. I love the raspberry color, it’s such a deep red. Finally, I found 1400 yds of Bryspun Kid ‘n’ Ewe, which I bought about 5 years ago cause I liked it. I need a project for it. It really is a lovely dark red-purple that looks like total garbage in the photo (sigh).

There are a few single skeins in my stash and a couple of specialty yarns I’ve shown you earlier, but otherwise, the above is pretty much it. I look best in cooler rather than warmer colors, but I think I may be a little heavy into the red-blue-purple yarn. I may need to buy some pale yellow yarn as an antidote. No, I won’t be limiting myself to just stash, but I will be knitting a lot of red.