A Trip to Texas

Recently I took a trip to visit my brother in Texas-and by recently I mean in January.  One of my goals besides visiting my brother and his girlfriend in their new house was to procure some souvenir yarn.  Thanks to the efforts Mr. Turbo, we found an awesome little shop in Austin called Gauge Knits.  I was so busy chatting with the ladies and enjoying my time there that I forgot to snap a picture of actual shop.  So follow the link and see what it looks like.  If I lived in Austin, this store would definitely be my LYS.

Once the staff knew that I was after a couple of memorable skeins they were helpful enough to steer me in the the right direction.  I picked up one skein of each of the below.

Photo property of Madelinetosh.

Madelinetosh  One of the employee’s at Gauge Knits told me that Madelinetosh yarn is made in Texas, so not only is it from Texas (because I purchased it there), it’s made in Texas.  I picked colorway 'Oak' in Tosh light dk. This colorway is a vibrant green wrapped in a fuzzy black overcoat. I have plans for Nemi (rav Link). 

Photo property of TURBOchic Knits.

White Bear Fibers This yarn is by Texan dyer Doug Upchurch. I picked colorway 'Golden Buddha' in Northern Silk Sock.  The silk in the this yarn just begged to be complimented by some beadwork, so I cast on Kernel (rav link).  I love this yarn and the pattern is beautiful, but I'm craving more beads.  So this project may get frogged in favor of something more satisfying.

Rick socks

The last time you saw these socks I had barely made any progress.

Not much has changed.

Probably because I've been two-timing Rick with Kai-Mei.

Ahhh, soothing 3x3 rib.

Lace Scarf

There is a little project that has been hanging around on my needles since April, which I've never blogged about mainly because it's in a holding pattern.

For any of this to make sense, you should know that floating around in my brain is this mental image of myself when I'm all put together.  I can see myself were my hair is styled and I accessorize.  I look like I just walked of the page of a fashion magazine and my wallet and closet are big enough to handle my style.  It's always fall in my head.  I wear a lot of layers.  So I took my wardrobe into my own hands and cast on my only skein of lace weight....

I got this far before screwing up.

Click for detail

It's a far cry from the finished product (rav), but I am hoping that the new cold weather will inspire my inner fashionista to knit it up.

Sock Blanket Saturday

My friend Amy gave me a skein of trekking to wind for her and in return her let me knit up a square for my sock blanket.  I've never knit with trekking before, so it was fun.  

 

This particular yarn is Trekking hand art in colorway  'Karibik,' #503 for those of you who want to know.  At quite a normal blend (75% wool & 25% nylon) for fingering yarn, it knitted up to a 4.25 x 4.25 square which is a pretty normal size.  Still there was something about it that feel like a skinnier than normal yarn.  That's not a complaint, just an observation.

I haven't posted a group picture of my squares in a while, so here you go-straight from my bed this morning before Mr. Turbo realized I was awake and handed Lil Turbo over to me.

I love my knitted color wheel.