A Weekend of Visiting, Stash Enhancement and Knitting

This arrived at my door Saturday early afternoon. This order included two skins of Sock Garden in Hydrangea for the Toe up Two at a time socks, one ball of Ambrosia in lavender for the Halley's Comet Hat, two hanks of sock weight Color Your Own to be Koolaid dyed sometime soon and knit into the Flower Basket Shawl, and seven hanks of Wool of the Ande's in Natural for Rouge.

Let's back up to Friday night.

After E was in bed I settled in to watch Firefly, yes it's an obsession. I was so inspired by taking the red and pink pictures earlier that day that I wanted to knit up a little something in red and pink. I had leftover LPW from the Ester William's hats that I really wanted to use for something. I came up with a little felted bowl, much like the little felted dresser tray I made felted this year. It was a quick, fun little one evening knit.

I was eager to see how the LPW felted. First off I love how LPW knits up. I love the feel, the variation in thickness, and the colors. But I was not thrilled with how it felted. Even after three trips through the washer Saturday afternoon it still had stitch definition. Wool of the Andes looses stitch definition after two rounds of felting. I prefer less stitch definition after felting. That's just my preference. But LPW has a wider palette of colors then Wool of the Andes. I suppose it depends on what kind of FO you want in the end.

I've made a bit of progress on Crumpets over the weekend. I just pick it up when I have a chance, when I'm in the car and D is driving, just whenever. It's a mindless knit at this point, but that's a good thing.

Grandma M. and Aunt K. came to visit this weekend. E was all over Grandma M. It's not that she dislikes Aunt K. She loves Aunt K. but she is CRAZY about Grandma M. So E and Grandma M. played. I got to chat with both and knit quite a bit. It was a fun weekend.

Saturday afternoon I cast on the Halley's Comet Hat in Knit Picks Ambrosia in lavender. When I first selected the pattern I did not notice that it is knit crown to brim and not brim to crown. You cast of 8 stitches and follow the chart for each stitch for a total of 8 chart repeats. The crown went great. Of all places I screwed up the very simple comet tail part for the sides of the hat. I ended up tinking back quite a bit. It's back on track and I have the pattern repeat down, all two rows...and one is all knit. Oi!

The big question now is when to dye the Color Your Own for the Flower Basket Shawl. I bought Strawberry, Cherry and Black Cherry Koolaid this weekend. The checker asked about all of the Koolaid. We ended up having a nice little chat about dying yarn with Koolaid. I'm going for a nice mottled red. We shall see.

I'm thinking the plan is to finish up Halley's Comet hat tonight then buy circs for the Toe Up socks sometime soon. Rouge is on the back burner until after Crumpets is finished. I really want to dye and knit FBS sometime soon. We shall see.