Time for walkies, Gromit!

Yes, it has happened!  Alec is officially walking.  He is so cute, he looks like a drunken Frankenstein on tiptoes.  I am super proud of him.  Oh, also in other news, we have achieved 4 nights in a row of sleeping through the night.  Hooray!

Xeno's Harry Potter Paradox

9 out of 11 stripes completed.  Dynamic "action" shot courtesy of the husband:

The scarf is ever closer to completion, but I am increasingly irritated and sleepy when knitting on it.  I don't even feel a thrill when I get to a yellow stripe now, it's that bad.  But, the good news is I am finding more opportunities to knit even a few rows, in my determination to get it done before I completely hate it.  On the bright side, Ken loves it a lot and is very grateful and happy I am making it.  That's motivation enough for me!  But...

...new projects go dancing through my head.  It's what I am entertaining myself with as I finish this PoS PoA scarf.

New Store!  New Goodies!

I found a new yarn store yesterday, thanks to Ruth.  It's right in the loop, I can walk there in nice weather at lunchtime, or cab in cold weather.  Very dangerous!  The store is Loopy Yarn.  They have beautiful stuff, yarn I've never seen or heard of before, and lots of favorites I've seen/ordered online, but happy to have local to fondle!  The owner Vicki is wonderful.  We even talked about the kits I have been developing, and they are interested!  And, of course, I bought yarn:

Johnny Storm helps show off some Lorna's Laces sock yarn -- this is 2 skeins in Purple Club and 2 skeins in Charcoal.  Based on the number of holiday projects I've got on the list, I have decided to table the experiments in dyeing self-striping yarn for my sister's kneesocks.  So for this first sock project, I am going to alternate the purple and black in stripes.  I got tiny Brittany Birch needles size 0, and now I understand all the comments about "knitting with toothpicks"!  I actually wanted to swatch in the cab on the way back, but I stayed faithful to the Scarf.

Here's the next thing:

I got four balls of this beautiful yarn -- it's a gorgeous alpaca yarn with a little sparkle in it, from the Alpaca Yarn Company It's really fine yarn, so I'm going to double it and make this scarf from Sweaterbabe, for Auntie Betty (Alec's daycare lady).  It's super soft and elegant.  I'm dying to swatch it.  But I stay faithful to the Scarf.

And I found this yarn:

It's Berrocco Foliage in Russian Sage.  It's a wool/acrylic blend that is self striping.  I've admired Noro for a long time for its colorways, but it's so unsoft!  This is soft and cuddly, and I don't mind the acrylic in it for a quickie scarf for me.  I bet it will knit up really quickly.

But I remain faithful to the scarf.

Oh, also, for anyone who's interested, here's a detail picture of the feathers on the beaded parrot.  Note there has been no progress.  I remain faithful to the scarf.

 

You might need to stare
To see the mittens in our hair

Comments

[Sneaksleep]

Wow, such self-discipline! I'm impressed. Did you get my e-mail with the code for the progress trackers?

[Julie]

Hey, you can do it! I know what you mean though... mine dragged a bit toward the end. Then I thought I didn't have any more yarn so I closed it up after 12 repeats... then I found that I had another whole skein of the burgundy in my knitting basket, so I opened the end back up and did two more repeats, closed it up, and added the frigging fringe. It feels like a Herculean effort by the end but it's worth it. In fact, I'm wearing the scarf right now because it's so cold in here. :D Keep up the good work, you're almost there! :)

[Luvtocraft]

Your scarf is looking great!! Not much longer!!! Yeah!!

And all those yarns ::drool::

[Erin]

Hey, looks good! I'm pretty much at the exact same spot as you are -- I'm in the middle of making my 10th set of stripes out of 11! What yarn did you use? I'm using Plymouth Encore and I found that I'm only going to be able to complete 11 stripes, so I was curious to see if you had the same problem. Keep it up! Mine's starting to drag along too...

[Erin]

Hey, looks good! I'm pretty much at the exact same spot as you are -- I'm in the middle of making my 10th set of stripes out of 11! What yarn did you use? I'm using Plymouth Encore and I found that I'm only going to be able to complete 11 stripes, so I was curious to see if you had the same problem. Keep it up! Mine's starting to drag along too...

[lindsey]

i see, now that i leave chicago another fine yarn store begins. nice scarf, i understand your pain. i made 3 total and could barely finish the last one. and a question. is the charcol sock yarn black? my husband's work requires black socks so i was wondering. (and i don't trust computer monitors at all). thanks.

--lindsey