Black Sheep

Klaralund

I finished miss Klaralund .

Pattern: Klaralund from Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton Book 2.
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden in colorway 211. 8.5 balls.
Gauge: 16 sts./22 rows = 4″ in stockinette st.
Needles: size 8 - Denise interchangeables.
Completed: 11/14/2004

I finished her while I was working on the reference desk all day yesterday (shhh! don’t tell my boss! teehee). I wanted to get it done so I could wear it to a little 50th anniversary party for my library school. I also wore her again today, to work and got all kinds of compliments. I love her. I am so glad that I was inspired by Heather, Ei, & Froggy to knit her. What a fun knitting project!

Well, I’m off to finish some UFOs. And I need to get cracking on some Christmas pressies. The next few posts will probably be a series of gifts to various family members.

Hope you are all having a great week!

6 comments November 15th, 2004

San Francisco Fun

We had a blast in SF yesterday! We drove up highway 1 (kind of a long drive, but pretty) and parked in a parking garage down the street from Artfibers, which also happened to be a couple of blocks from where our little “stairway tour” started.

First things first. Artfibers. If you come to this wonderful, beautiful city, you have to visit Artfibers. It’s unique. You can’t find the yarn that they sell there anywhere else in the world. Okay, first let me show you my new stash enhancements (God, I’m so excited I can hardly contain myself!):

This was a bargain. All of this for a little over a hundred bucks! And that Chai on the far right? Pure silk. You get a 10% discount if you buy over $100 of yarn. They also made a pattern for me (see the Chai pic). They took my measurements and made the above pattern for me based on my specifications and measurements, as well as my gauge (they had me knit up a swatch of Chai). So this sweater is going to fit me perfectly! AND it’s going to be silk, baby! Yeah! Not only that, Kira (the woman in the picture on the website), actually called me and told me that there was a tiny little mistake in the pattern and told me how to fix it. This message was waiting for me when I got home. I was so impressed with that! I love this yarn store, and I will be going back. This time with some knitty girlfriends. My husband started to get a little bit tired of waiting for me (I can’t blame him).

After my yarn bliss experience, we went on our “stairway walk”. Again, highly recommended if you come to SF. The book is Stairway Walks in San Francisco and it is written by Adah Bakalinsky. This tour took us through the Financial District and along the old waterline of the SF bay. You are led around to some various historial sites, and up and down some of SF’s famous stairways. It was amazing! There were a couple of really cool stairways that wound through incredible gardens and past some really old houses. Eventually the tour walks through China Town, which is always a fun destination. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the walk:

Oh, I can’t forget Klarlund. I’m am nearly finished with the second sleeve. Maybe she will be finished today.

My yarn diet officially starts……..now. My poor credit cards. I just paid my bills. Oy oy oy. Time to get them paid down a bit. I think I am going to put some cash in jar each week or so to save up for the yarn to make Butterfly. I am so in love with that sweater. But it will just have to wait. This girl is on a budget

Hope you are all having a great weekend!

1 comment November 13th, 2004

Comforting Yarn

When times are tough you can always count on a nice, cozy shipment of yarn to make you feel just a little bit better.

I went a little crazy on e-bay over the weekend and fed into my Noro temptation. I started to become obsessed with Kochoran and decided I needed some. I was shocked when I saw how expensive it is. So I decided to try a pattern that doesn’t call for very much of it. That would be,Gesta from CTH2. I can’t wait to start knitting with it! sooo pretty and sooooo soft.

I also decided to knit Karlsro from CTH1. So I bought some more ebay noro. Actually, there’s a little story behind this acquisition. I bid on this yarn and it sat there for 2 days, with no one bidding against it. I kept checking on it the day that the auction ended, to make sure I wasn’t going to get outbid at the last minute. I went for a run, making sure I would make it home before the auction ended. Unfortunately, I misjudged and the auction had ended and I was outbid at the last minute! I was so mad! I mean, how lame can somebody be? Well, as it turned out, the seller offered me the same deal and I just bought it on the spot without bidding. It was very cool of her to do that .

Soooo, when I thought I had lost my bid on the Silk Garden above, I went for a smaller batch of Silk Garden. I will use these for various Christmas presents (that I better get cracking on!)

And finally, Here is the front of Klaralund. I *love* knitting this sweater. I love these colors. As I said before, I am totally mesmerized.

I am feeling slightly better….I am still pissed. But knitting is my solace.

6 comments November 4th, 2004

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is my favorite holiday! My hubby and I carved our pumpkins last night. His is the better one on the right. I will look forward to all the cute kids coming around getting candy tonight. Although, we usually don’t get very many since our apartment is situated in the back of the complex.

In knitting news, here is the back of Klaralund already:

I started it yesterday morning and had a hard time putting it down. I am totally mesmerized with this yarn! It’s incredable! I love to see how the colors are going to appear as they are knitted up. It’s funny, because Melissaj mentioned that she is also knitting Klaralund right now using the same colorway, but mine came out differently. I think that is so cool…No two sweaters knitted with this yarn look exactly alike. I’m also noticing that each skien is different, too. I used about 1.5 skiens on the back. The first had this gorgeous blue, but no green. However, the second had the really pretty green that you see. Anyway, I am loving working with silk garden. I love it so much that I just ordered some more on e-bay in colorway 88. I think I’m planning on knitting Karlsro from Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton Book 1. I also am trying to order (but am having some issues) some Noro Kochoran in colorway 36. I ordered 3 skiens to knit Gesta from CTH Book 2. So, as you can see, I am going through a little Noro obsession right now. Probably spending WAY too much money, too.

2 comments October 31st, 2004