Cascade Tastes, Red Heart Budget

New Blog! First Post!

My first trip to the yarn shop my college roommate lives by was this past Saturday. We completely lost track of time in there; it was huge, the people there were so nice and talkative. We had a great time oogling the shinies, and I was checking out those high-end yarns I've read so much about on the net. I've come to the realization I'm more a fan of pure alpaca than pure wool - it's less scratchy. But silk paired with cashmere - hoo boy! There's a new weakness. My roomie was bragging about my knitting abilities because I'm so much faster than her, but she's a music major, I have all the time in the world compared to her. I did break down and cheat on my yarn diet (I have like two laundry baskets full I swear). I bought one ball of misti laceweight baby alpaca, because I have one skein wonders and I knew a ball of that yarn would yield lovely lacy handwarmers for the office. Now I just need to get the size 0 DPNs *eye roll*. I knew I was crazy before this, don't worry.

As for my recent projects, I have a sweater of my own design I did for a friend that's going in my eventual self-published knitting book, a hat for a dear friend's fiancee who is in the hospital, and a bag that was going to be a scarf but with which I got bored. So it became a bookbag. Next up is the Pinup Sweater from Stitch n Bitch, in Dark Rose Heather Wool-ease. (I had bought the yarn around Christmas time thinking to make myself a heart-themed sweater by Valentine's day but that came and went. I found that pattern no longer inspires me, and Pinup does. Hence the switch.)

SO, picture time!

This is what I call, the 'circular needle of doom'. It's that sweater after one cable repeat. More pictures will follow once I can sew the zipper in and have the recipient model. =D

This is the scarf-turned-bookbag. I was trying to make the Modern Quilt Wrap from Knittingdaily.com but it was too thick and I got sick of it after I only worked half the pattern. So now it's my overnight bag. Far more comfy to tote around than my duffel. And I finally used up that international distress signal orange. Yay!

Camden is modeling the hat before I wrap and ship it. There's a story behind this hat, the pattern for which can be found here (If the designer or translater of the pattern sees this btw, this is a GORGEOUS pattern!) I've had this long-distance internet friend for five years, he's like my little brother. I've seen him fall hard and fast for girls and get his heart broken. So needless to say when he came back to the face of the Earth Thursday night (we tend to lose touch for long periods of time because of his work schedule) I was skeptical when he said he found his soulmate. But he told me all about her, and she sounded like a real incredibly good match. So he puts us in touch with each other. We hit it off instantly, I like her a lot, and I almost feel like I found a long-lost sister-in-law. Friday night I get a call, but I couldn't get back to him till Saturday cuz he was working. Turns out friday night she was in a car wreck, and she's been in the hospital ever since due to bleeding on the brain and a blood clot (which burst in surgery Easter Sunday). He's been beside himself because he can't go see her. And get this: she blurted out they had planned to elope when she visited this weekend while in post-op. I nearly whacked him through the computer for that one because she's a student, and that's going to mess up her financial aid. But that can be worried about later. She fought for her life all weekend, and she was worried he wouldn't think she was pretty because they had to shave her head (we women can be so silly sometimes). While we were talking, after she was feeling better, she mentioned to me she used to knit. Then she said she ought to knit herself a hat because of her bald head. This was before we almost lost her the third and fourth times. After those close calls I got it into my head that I would knit the hat for her, being that she's not in condition to work with even blunt pointy objects. And it's my way of feeling useful. I asked my friend what her favorite color was, and lo! I had a huge ball of buttery-soft Caron in that exact color. I started it last night, and finished tonight after dinner. This hat is awesome for her because it's smooth on the inside but it's still interesting to look at, and the flower makes it cute and girly. It should be just the right thing to help her feel pretty again. And I'm all proud of myself cuz it's the first time I actually managed to crochet something that wasn't a straight line. So thank you, Laura koo, for this awesome hat pattern. I shall post her reaction later, and maybe some pictures when her hair comes back.