Yarn

My friend Kate is a yarn addict, and I am an enabler. She loves the variety of types of yarn that you can get in the US. People there still enjoy knitting with fine, fine yarns. Here, it's much easier to buy chunkier types of yarn, not so easy to find what she likes to play with - lace-weight, sock-weight. People in the US enjoy knitting socks. Not so much here. So, my mission last year was to buy yarn. Hurrah. I did.

My mission this year is to buy even more yarn. I will. I will so enjoy visiting yarn shops. I was reminded today, when I saw This Wonderful Post on Caroline's Crayons blog. (***) My knitting and crochet activity has been limited over the past few years because I developed a skin condition on my hands meaning it's only when my skin isn't flaky and scaly that I can bear to handle yarn. I never know when that's going to be, so I tend not to start projects. I did make a sweet little shrug for my younger neice to wear at my older neice's wedding a couple of years ago. And I work on patches for afghans now and again. These are two I've made that I particularly like (only one of them is made in patches, obviously!). I thought while I was showing you those, I'd let you see some of the things I've knit in years gone by:

A very ancient aran cardigan

A lace-and-cable patterned cotton jumper
A jumper knit in entrelacs (that's interlacing, for those of you who don't knit... very complicated!)... And yes, I like rainbows! Even though I knit so little these days, I always enjoy visiting knitters' blogs, and as I said, yarn shops. Here are pictures from a couple I visited last year. The yarn below was "hot off the spindle". Wow!

(I was SO impressed!) This year, I plan to purchase yarn for socks, and, even if I have to knit them at a rate of only one row a day. I'm determined to knit me a pair of socks. Once upon a time, I had a pair I knit in stripes, with little Aztec people and patterns in the stripes. I loved them. The moths came, and I was so disappointed, I threw them out. This time, nothing as complicated. Just socks. In soft yarn, in a nice colour. What do you think?

-----------------------------

(***) About Caroline's blog. Once upon a time, Caroline had another blog, which I visited and enoyed so much. She draws beautiful cartoon-stories. She has an eye for the detail that makes a story of something ordinary in her life special, so special, and she shares them beautifully. Somehow, in the transition from her old blog to the new, I managed to lose track of her, and when I would see her name on my blogroll, I would bemoan her disapearrance. Then, quite recently, I found her again! Hurrah! Go visit her lovely blog! Enjoy!

Spiral

This is the silliness I've been at lately. What is it? It's a knitted spiral. No, it's not quite a cushion. It's a .... comfy. It's a grown-up stuffed toy. It's oddly comforting to hold against your tummy while you sit on the couch watching TV. It's great fun to knit, stuff and stitch together. (Basically, a tapered tube, knit for as long as you like, then tapered in again, stuffed, rolled and stitched). I'm planning to add some of these .....

as soon as I find a needle-threader. (Yes, I got new glasses, but no, they are not powerful enough for the eye of a fine needle).

Where did the idea come from? From HERE. It's knitting, but not as we know it. I'm looking forward to making twisted things, odd things, maybe even quad socks (four odd socks, so that no matter what happens, you can wear any two of the four). I'm not planning on experimenting with knitting with spaghetti, though, no matter what the book says!