Swimming in soft squishyness!

It's been awhile but I do have an update. Nothing is finished yet but I'm getting close on one. Grace's stocking is past the heel and onto the foot working toward the toe. I kind of regret using 2 strands together. I should have just used 1 strand and gone down a couple of needle sizes. The stocking is thick. It might support a bowling ball! Plus the heel is to big. I'm using size 9 needles.

The other project is a black shawl. I am half done. I'm anxious to finish it before winter. I am happy with how it looks. It's so easy I don't even need the pattern anymore. I can pick it up at any time and know what to do.

I got the itch to cast on something new. I really want something for winter. I was going to make a throw for my lap but 200 yards just isn't much. I decided on the picture below. The pattern uses slightly more than 200 yards and it calls for bulky yarn.The yarn i'm using is called Paco-Vicuna which is a mix between an Alpaca and a Vicuna. Oh my is this yard soft and squishy!!!!! I love knitting with it and wish I had more. It's an easy pattern but it doesn't look like the pattern picture. I am basically ending up with garter stitch. I don't really mind but it's frustrating. I just want to knit on this for hours! If I knit hard I can have two warm things for winter. This picture shows about 1/4 done. The pattern has you do a 10 row repeat for a total of 17 repeats. This is 5 repeats in. I am aiming for 17 but we will see what I get. Sorry the second picture is so big. I couldn't shrink it. But you can see the difference between mine and the original. Where are those vertical lines in mine???

 

One more thing I want to mention. There is this yarn store in Washington State on an island somewhere called Churchmouse Yarns and Teas. They have some pretty good patterns. There is this one:

I really like it. It would make a nice spring/fall wrap. If you remember I started a poncho last year. I'm thinking of ripping it out in favor of this pattern. After thinking about it I had the idea to change the turtle neck of the poncho. My idea is to pick out the cast on and unravel it down. I'm thinking of turning it into a mock turtleneck. It's just to bulky and big for a turtleneck. I can't mess with it yet because I stole the needles for the Paco-Vicuna wrap I'm making. I also don't know if it fits well around my shoulders or not. I may still rip it out and use worsted acrylic instead for better drape. Maybe this yarn will be my lap blanket.

The the yarn for the picture above would cost around twenty bucks. Based on yardage alone I would need 6 skeins. There is some pretty acrylic at Joanns I think would look good in this. I really want wool for warmth but I can't afford it right now. I can afford the acrylic with coupons and slow buying. I also could make this one of my goals for buying yarn at Maryland. The pattern is $10 though. I had another thought. I really want more of the Paco-Vicuna yarn. The show I got it at is in Feb. Maryland Sheep and Wool is in May. Ugh! I may have to wait till the year after (2015) to get more Paco-Vicuna yarn. She comes all the way from Colorado for this show in Pittsburgh.

I woke up early this morning and my mind went to knitting. I realized how I am going to make Sam a new hat. I have this black yarn that I ripped a shawl out of and it is part acrylic and part wool. I don't remember the numbers. But I know I have enough yarn and that it's softer than the yarn I originally used and I will not do a double knit hat because it's bulky, but instead I will drop down a needle size or two and make it more dense to make up for it. I hope to have it done for Christmas again this year. But I won't think about it till I get the Paco-Vicuna wrap and Grace's stocking done. Making 1 hat will not take that long.

I think that's it for now.