A Knitter’s Dream

Hey Everyone!

The latest KnitPicks order I had placed, arrived yesterday.

I had ordered 4 balls of the aloft lace weight yarn in Kenai, 2 hanks of Alpaca Cloud in Bennet, 1 ball of Chroma Fingering Weight in Fog Bank, as well as 2 new pairs of 6 inch DPN’s in the two size 1’s (2.25mm and 2.5mm), since these sizes are the two I use the most. I also prefer the 6 inch needles to the 5 inch needles. That extra inch makes a huge difference in how they feel while knitting with them.

I really love the colors I got. I was unsure if I would like the color Bennet of the Alpaca Cloud yarn, but it turns out that the pictures don’t do it justice.

The aloft and Alpaca Cloud yarns I will be using to knit up wraps, and the chroma yarn I will use for more socks.

Right now I have a lot of sock yarn, so I really don’t need to buy more, and I need to work on knitting it up. Beings that it is winter that also helps with the whole not going on so many adventures / not needing as many pairs knit up, washed and blocked (since it is too cold really to hand them outside to dry), I am able to leave the pairs I finish knitting in the bucket I have to keep my wool socks until I can get them washed.

For now, my knitting supplies that I want are more substantial than yarn. I want some more blocking mats and some lace blocking wires. So for now I really need to curb the impulse to buy yarn.

I am not done blogging, I still have finished projects and other knitting related things to share with you all in the future, so stay tuned for more posts.

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Quick Start on a new pair of Socks

Hey Everyone!

This evening I ripped off the sock I had been working on for the past week, because I didn’t like how the sock was knitting up on the needles. That yarn didn’t have much give and was creating holes where there shouldn’t be. I have had this happen with a different yarn of a similar weight and texture. I can honestly say I not a fan of thinner sock yarn.

With that being said, at around 8:30 this evening I started a new pair of socks with a different yarn. I have had good luck knitting socks with KnitPicks yarn up until this point. Granted I have only knit up socks using the Palette yarn so far. The new pair I cast on, I am knitting up from the Hawthorne Fingering yarn (that yarn I ripped off was of a different brand).

I am amazed at how quickly this yarn is knitting up. In the matter of a couple hours, I am already a quarter of the way done with the cuff of this sock. The colorway I am using of the Hawthorne Fingering is Laurelhurst.

When I was looking at the Hawthorne Fingering Yarn online, I quickly realized that all the color names are of the different neighborhoods here in Portland (the city I grew up in). Not only is that cool, but Hawthorne is the name of one of the major Boulevards here in Southeast Portland, as well as the business district / neighborhood that Hawthorne Blvd runs through, as well as the bridge that carries Hawthorne Blvd across the river to the west side of the city. Here on the east side Hawthorne and Madison are two different streets (and for a ways they are one way streets with Hawthorne carrying the west bound traffic and Madison the east bound. On the West side of the river Madison is the street that the feeds onto the Hawthorne Bridge.

While KnitPicks is an international brand with a corporate headquarters across the other river in Vancouver, Washington. I love the fact that they have yarn named after places I know.

So far (I am only 10 rows in) the only down side I am finding with the Hawthorne Fingering yarn is that is seems to be rather stiff. I am hoping the stiffness/ scratchiness issues are due to the waxes and stuff used in the spinning process and to help it to knit up easier. I am hoping that this issue will be taken care of once the final project is washed the first time.