Never go to the store hungry

Have you ever gone to the grocery store when you are starving? What happens? You buy out the whole dang store. Everything goes into the basket especially a huge amount of snack foods. Well, that's what I did on Friday, only I was hungry for yarn. I went to the yarn store while I was starving. I needed to start the essential stripe pullover because I need a project with mindless stockinett stitch. As you can see, I have other projects on the needles, but I must follow the patterns to closely for them to be my mindless knit project. I have some yarn in my stash that I decided to use, only I needed some additional colors for the stripes.
So, I went to the yarn store with the intention of buying a couple of contrasting colors for this project. Of course that didn't work. I walked out with this wonderful alpaca silk. I've been lusting after this yarn for a while but I never had a project in mind. Unfortunately, this store had the alpaca silk pattern book next to the yarn. Once I opened it and found this, I had to have it.
Oh, I bought the other yarn as well.
A lot of dollars later, I walked out of the store shell shocked, but I have a wonderful snack to work on.....Alpaca silk.....yum yum.

Comfort Knits

I've been thinking about the yarns and the projects I've enjoyed knitting with. Does this have anything to do with the how fast I complete a project. In my last post, I mentioned how I did not like knitting the handwarmers with Noro silk garden. I found the inconsistent nature of the yarn very annoying. Sometimes, the yarn was very thin, other times very think and fuzzy. I often felt as if I was knitting with twigs or weeds. Maybe that had something to do with the color I chose, I'm not sure. I bought the yarn initially to use for clapotis, but I didn't get very far. I didn't feel as if I'd enjoy wearing it once I finished it.

I've also realized I don't enjoy the other craze that's going through blog land. Kid silk haze. It is so frustrating. I don't enjoy not being able to figure out exactly where I am in a row. I don't enjoy moving the stitches which have become stuck to the needles over. I don't like the difficulty with tinking back and I don't enjoy the feel of the floss in my hands. If I get motivated and finish River, I cannot see myself every knitting with it again. Of course, I have 6 skeins of it sitting in my stash.
Part of the enjoyment I get from knitting, I get from the feel and texture of the yarn. Not to mention the texture of the finished project. Worsted or DK weight yarn provides that feel for me, that comfort, which says relax. Laceweight and floss is not for me.

80 + Degrees in November

It's 80 degrees with dry Santa Ana winds. Of course, in preparation for "winter", I thought wouldn't it be fun to make some wrist warmers. As I worked on them, for me, my son decided they were just what he needed for cold evenings at Soccer practice. So, these became his. The pattern is from Last Minute knitted gifts. Made from one skein of Noro silk garden and size 8 DPN's. When I make more, my daughter has decided she needs some too, I'll use 2 circs instead. I've decided I do not like silk garden, but more on that later. I guess the whole skein is one repeat, as you can see, these are fraternal twins.

Basking in the sun

Ella had her bath and is basking in the Sun. I'm not sure if she's as large as I want, so I left a lifeline in the last pattern row. I'll try her on later after work. For now here's a sunbathing shot.

No motivation

I have no motivation..... to work. I have my ring and a date (for Dr Laura listeners), meaning I have a new job, and a start date. Now it's so hard to force myself to work. Much of what I do is for the future. A future where I will not be there. How can I in good faith schedule patients to see me, when I will be gone, and I'm unsure if there will be a replacement. So my dilemma, how do I make myself appear busy for eight hours? I cannot in good conscience stay on the internet and blog in between phone calls. I have statistics I must do before I leave, but I have 3 weeks to get that done. I could not possibly do it now... Oh the horror. To actually complete a project, before the deadline, 3 weeks before, I can't do it. I will have to think on it, carefully.....
So here we have a FO.


No not Ella, close but still no cigar, it's the men's cashmere scarf from last minute knitted gifts. Although, it's not for a man, and it's not cashmere. I knit this with 2 skeins of knitpicks peruvian wool in merlot. Yes, I know it wasn't on my to do list, but what are list and rules for... to be broken, changed, ignored. I knew you would understand.

Moving

I was offered a job last week that I'd been hoping to get. It will be at a sister hospital, which is so much closer to my home. I no longer will have to take 2 freeways to and from work. In fact I do not have to take any freeways. Say bye-bye to the 1 1/2 hour commute. I'll be able to get to work in approx. 20 minutes. I can't wait. The job will be similar to what I'm doing now, however it's a new position, which means I'll be able to set it up the way I want to. It should be challenging initially, until the whole process is set up. Hopefully, this will all translate to more knitting time.
Speaking of knitting, Ella is almost done. I think I'll add one more repeat of section 2. I'm making the triangular shawl and there are no finished dimensions on the pattern. I'm not sure how much it will grow after blocking. Once she's done I can start a sweater for me.

Guess

I'm going to stitches west. More later, blogging from work = bad.