A Tiny Bit More Stash Enhancement

Some KnitPicks yarn and a set of their very wonderful double-pointed needles.

Tam-ptation

I couldn't resist anymore. After seeing posts of tams knit by Susan Wittig Albert on her blog, getting the latest holiday news with tam-wearing models on the cover, and discovering an easy-peasy recipe in one of my knitting books..... well, I decided I'd take the cosmic hint and try one as a gift. It is holiday knitting time, after all, and I have nieces - oh, so many nieces.

This pattern is for an advanced beginner. I can handle that. I did wonder why the "destructions" didn't mention anything about joining the cast-on stitches to knit in the round, but hey, I can punt. It called for a 16 inch circular needle. I had a 13 1/2. So far so good, right? Wrong. The 13" cable is far too long to join the stitches in the round. Grrrr. Was this pattern written by an advanced beginner? I ask you. So, I put the stitches on three dpns, and started knitting . After getting the K1P1 band taken care of and increasing until my dpns couldn't hold anymore stitches, I switched to the aforementioned circular needles. It's gone relatively well ever since.

More later after I get a bit more done on this burgundy mohair tam.

Eeek

Edsel Ford, did you just eat my alpaca shawl??

Not me, Mom. It was like this when I found it, honest.

He looks way too guilty, doesn't he? Closer inspection tells the real story. It's the dreaded M-word. Moths. Moths.

ACK. EEEK. YIKES. I loved that shawl. It was the Aunt Phoebe shawl from Sheep to Shawl.

Speaking of that, don't forget to stop in tomorrow when Donna Druchunas has her blog book tour stop here, featuring her latest knitting book Ethnic Knitting Discovery.

Washing our socks

There's a lot of discussion about how to care for socks. I straddle the fence on the issue. On the one hand, it seems one should honor the time spent knitting socks through handwashing. On the other hand (or foot, as the case may be), once we've knit dozens of socks, it's nice to be able to throw them in the washer. I do that with my favorite pair. In fact, I've washed and dried them by machine for over a year and I bet I wear them weekly. I'm sure you all recognize the famous discontinued Brasil pattern by Opal Yarns. These socks wear like iron. I love their patterns, but I have quite a few solids in my stash, too. I buy almost all my Opals from Angel Yarns in the UK. They have the best prices even with trans-Atlantic shipping. Plus, they offer Socknitters Forum members an extra 10% off by signing up on their forum. I receive my order in exactly seven days out here in the Middle of America. So I consolidate my orders to diminish the environmental costs of all that mileage, and perk up my stash every 4-6 months. I'm about due for another order soon! I'm going to knit about three more pairs from the stash and then give myself permission!