Knitting Obsession

The Sea Monkey has my money

I'm back from California! I had such a good time. I think I have "Finding Nemo" memorized now, and I spent a lot of quality time with my extremely gorgeous and smart nephew, all of 22 months old and just a terrific kid. Along with the family time, I got a lot of knitting done, and there MAY have been some yarn acquisitions. Shocker!
First, unbearable cuteness. I taught my sister-in-law how to knit when I was out there this past summer. She has a great eye and picked out some Jamieson's Shetland Heather to make a hat for my nephew, who shall be known for the purposes of this blog as CBE. (Cutest Boy Ever). She had made great progress and on this trip I taught her...dun dun DUN...double points. Progress shot!

Hello, CBE! I miss you already. Once the hat was finished and the ends were woven in, we decided that it was a little short so I picked up and knitted on about an inch more of the blue, and here is the final result:

I have a better shot of the hat but I had to use this one as CBE is reading to us as well. I cannot express the way I feel about this child in words!!! For a very first completed knitting project (there is a garter stitch scarf on needles too, have no fear) I think my sister-in-law MoCBE (Mother of...you get the idea) did a great job. We went to Monarch after an aquarium trip and she acquired more great wool with good projects in mind and I...I may have gotten some schtuff...

You may recall that my "rule" is to only get stuff I can't get here in Baltimore. I have never seen Celestial Merino Dream (from Lucy Neatby) and I saw it over the summer in Monarch and have wanted to look at it again since. This is colorway sugar maple. This will be some yummy socks. The other item is a suede bag bottom and pattern from Somerset Designs (the round purse pattern) and some Jamieson Shetland Heather to make up the bag.

Then, after the aquarium which was after Thanksgiving, we held Christmas for the California folk. By the way, you will have to trust me when I tell you that this

is a great white in captivity at the Monterey  Bay Aquarium (can't use a flash in there...it bothers the shark...tell that to the 5 or 6 people who were flashing him anyway. People!!). So rare to have them do well. This was an immature male and the tank he was in was full of tuna and sun fish bigger than he. It was really intense to see this shark up close. They are one of the few animals that really scare me because they are so predatory and their eyes are so black...but they are just doing what they do.

ANYway, back to the yarn. My intelligent and beautiful baby bearing sister-in-law (and brother) gave me this for Christmas:

That would be 5 balls of Crystal Palace Kid Merino (oouhhh!) and a hank of Koigu KPPPM (ahhhh!) and three needle felted kitties that look like my kitties. Yay! Hurray! I was very excited. I have plans for a lot of this already. Please excuse Brynn's head on the left there. She was psyched about the yarn as well. (Kid mohair smell good!)

Oh, and I made a little progress on Kerry:

I'm lying. I made a lot of progress on Kerry. Almost 12 inches done...3 more to go and I can divide for the back.  This is the only project I worked on despite bringing 4 other things with me (3 socks and a red scarf). When I left, you may recall that I had just finished the garter ridge above the honeycombs. Now I am well into the cables and moss stitch. It's a lot of fun and I love, love, love this wool.

How was your Thanksgiving? I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable day!

Ketchup

This is going to be a long picture intensive catch-up post...I have snuck into the hospital to use the wi-fi so I can catch up on a few things. Please let me know if these pictures are too big. When is my cable going to be fixed?!? It's a little crazy.
So, way back on October 20th, I went with about 19 of my friends to Boston for the Head of the Charles regatta...it was really a blast. Aside from the fact that our 9:45 pm flight didn't actually leave until 11:45 due to high winds in Boston, that is...we ended up getting to our hotel around 2 am after a lethal and nauseating cab ride from the airport. I did get a lot done on Kerry while we were waiting at BWI. The hotel was right on the banks of the Cambridge...really a great location for the race and we could see the racers getting ready early in the morning of the 21st.

Again, here I am sneaking into Saturday Sky...look how beautiful it is here!

We spent the day checking out the races and then went out in Cambridge for a while to celebrate...our men who went up to race placed very well, and we had to paint the town red. On the way to painting the town red, we came across Wolcott and Company, shockingly!! (I didn't research yarn stores in Boston, really! I'm not kidding here!).

My rule for yarn souvenirs is that I can't buy anything that I could buy in Baltimore easily (not counting web purchases, because really, you have to feel the yarn). Isn't is a pretty store?
That's my pretty friend, Kristen. My purchases...well, I guess it's a pretty safe bet that I could get Manos here but I have really never seen it. So, Manos and some Twisted Sisters yarn that I will use for socks, plus a new Chibi, which I don't think you can see in this picture. It's blue...how come I never find the pink one?
On Sunday, we went back to the races to cheer on another one of the BRC's members in his race. He's in this pile up somewhere!
Another fun day....my travel buddy and I had decided a few weeks ago that we would stay over Sunday night and see the sights on Monday. Well, Monday dawned a little rainy and gloomy and we were feeling a little homesick, so we arranged an earlier flight to get back to Balto. But we did have some time to kill...so we wandered around a bit...and came across Windsor Button.

I have tolerant friends. I flagrantly disobeyed my yarn souvenir rules and bought stuff that I know for a fact I can get in Baltimore. Some Misti Alpaca laceweight to go along with the yarn that Kristin sent me for my lace shawl to be, and some Regia Silk, and the felted clog pattern from Fiber Trends. Bad Suzanne!
But, I did buy something at Windsor Button that I really couldn't find here...some buttons that are perfect for Kerry.

They are a little bright right now but will tarnish down nicely. We returned to Baltimore, and what should I find waiting for me but my first package for The Knitter's sock club.
Yay! Yarn and a pattern I would have never picked for myself, which is the way these things should be. Next ketchup post.....Stitches East, which I went to only yesterday, but I need to take advantage of this internet access!