Well Hello, Beautiful

Several weeks ago, a friend of mine asked if I would come to the yarn store with her, and help her make her first yarn purchases. Well, I'm powerless to resist helping a new crocheter and the lure of the yarn store, so off I went. I ended up arriving before her, so I had some time to wander the store before she and her husband arrived. Strangely enough, I managed to find yarn that I wanted. I know, what a shock.

I got these little balls of baby yarn for baby socks, because baby socks are fun and kinda addictive to make. That, and I love these colours.

I got this lovely wool for an upcoming gift.

And this beautiful stuff... I told myself that it was to stripe with some of the crazy variegated and self striping stuff I have, but it's so gorgeous I may just have to make a lovely neutral sweater with it.

Did I mention this stuff was all on sale? I swear I just hung around too long and the yarn fumes got me. That's why I don't buy nearly as much yarn now that I don't work in a yarn store. The fumes don't have enough time to work their dark powers.

I have actually made my first project with my new yarn- these adorable little baby socks! It used up the whole ball of pink. I have to decide how I'm going to use the other colours. I have other balls of this yarn in my stash, so I'll have to pull it out and find some new combinations. Once I have time.

Last weekend I woke up early on Saturday, and decided to spend the morning shopping. I ended up with a new wallet, a few things for my husband, and these beautiful new shoes.

I'm working on these socks, which I think will be lovely with the shoes. I'm actually past the heel now on the first one.

In the meantime, I wore them with another pair of handmade socks this week, which made me so happy!

Sew Many Projects

Just needlin' ya with the bad pun in the title. I've been doing some sewing lately, and have gotten a little bit addicted to make these fleece leggings. Although I only have this one finished pair to show- the others were testers to make adjustments to the pattern. Actually, that's not even accurate- the first pair I wanted to be nice, but I accidentally cut against the stretch, derp.

The second pair I should have made first- I was less excited about that fleece (just plain cream) and did an alright job, but discovered that the person who wrote the pattern clearly has different proportions to me. I've now added the length and height to them that I like.

The first pair fit ok, but was sorta short and tight on the calves and I found the back part not tall enough for my butt. I have some pretty awesome booty, and there was just not room for it. So for this pair, I added a lot of length (although I still want to add another inch to the pattern pieces I made) and added a lot of height to top, especially the back. Now they fit like the coziest sweat pants, but snug enough to be leggings.

Besides the awesome fleece lined knit I made the first pair in, I also have the same fabric in pink and the two blue fleeces shown above to make more pairs in. They only take about 45 minutes to make, so I just have to find a little time. Maybe today- although today I'm helping a good friend move in just down the street, which is so exciting! But perhaps I can carve out time to make a pair. The only question is which fabric do I use first?

Finishing What You Start

 I've finished a few projects recently. This little cowl was finished last month.

 It's a fun pattern, working moss stitch over a thick and thin wool. I used a few handmade wooden buttons I got at the One of a Kind show.

 I finished this hat this weekend. The outside is a wool/silk blend, and the lining is alpaca.

 It's the warmest hat ever.

 The lining took what seemed liked forever, but I worked on a much faster method of slip stitch that sped things up.

 I also finished this sweater, the sweater that I had already finished.

But I pulled out the ribbing and made a hood, and it looks much better.

I'm also almost finished this blanket. I can't believe it. I left out two rows of motifs, but I am sooo sick of this blanket.

It is lovely, though. I will be giving it away because I'm just so tired of it.. but it is lovely.

That will make 3 projects I've finished this weekend, which will put me at 8 projects on the go. Almost down to my goal of 7! Even then I can work on getting to even fewer projects on the go. It will be nice never to get so many on the go again. It'll help keep working down the stash.