1) Three Irish Girls, my favorite indie dyer, recently released their Spring Colors with a Lookbook, a fantastic compilation of all twenty colors – the photography is just stunning! You should definitely check it out. This yarn shop will be making an appearance at the Cloverhill Yarn Shop booth at Maryland Sheep & Wool, a fantastic yarn fair that I have never been able to go to.  Some day I will make it though!

2) I am working on several WIPs but the most exciting is a pair of fingerless mitts with yarn that a friend brought back from a farm – it was spun and dyed by the farm owner, who keeps sheep.  I’m making up a cable to go on the mitts and it’s a bit of a challenge but I am excited for the final outcome.  Here’s a teaser (that has since been ripped out):

3) I am thinking about combining blogs, putting both knitting related content and book reviews on this blog.  If there are any readers left out there, what do you think?

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

I know you have all missed me! I am going to be posting more in the not to distant future but first I wanted to test this new posting tool.

The thing I like about monthly yarn clubs is that you pay up front, all at once (which can be kind of painful) but then you get yarn monthly after that without paying anything :)

My last 3IG shipment arrived not that long before the wedding so I didn’t get a chance to share it.

Once again, the packaging was lovely.

And the colorway is gorgeous. I have much love for it. It is my favorite so far, I think. This September colorway is called Baltic Sea and it is on Adorn Sock, a wool/nylon fingering weight sock yarn.  The “extra” in this month’s package was a free download pattern from Stich Diva. I haven’t chosen my pattern yet but I have a few in mind.

However, instead of socks, I thought this yarn would be just perfect for something else – the Lace Ribbon Scarf.  I cast on for this scarf while in Florida for my friend Nicole’s wedding and got a lot of knitting done on the flight home!  It’s a really good pattern for mindless knitting, since it’s easy to remember.

Isn’t it lovely?  I this this was a fantastic choice for the yarn – it would have made beautiful socks, but this scarf will be a great addition to my winter wardrobe.

Also, the October shipment came today!

See how it shimmers?

The colors are subtle and lovely with an overtone of silvery grey.

This colorway is Tolkien and it is dyed on McClellan Fingering, a merino, bamboo and nylon blend yarn. It is just beautiful and feels wonderful.

The “extra” this month is a fun one – three notecards with 3IG yarn/fiber on the front :)

I hope that Three Irish Girls start offering these for sale – they are a lot of fun!

I know I should wait until it’s completely finished, but I finished knitting a cardigan from the Nora yarn I got Monday on Tuesday (yes, you read that right. It was a super fast knit.) and I thought it would be fun to show it off. I still need to weave in the ends and block it, but basically it’s done.
The pattern is basically Daisy from Knitty, with some modifications: I knit it in the round joining sleeves to the body at the underarm, I did more rows of seed stitch for the borders (three rows never stops the curl in my experience) and four-stitch button plackets instead of three. I *may* go back and cut out two rows of the collar, I did five rows of seed stitch here to mimick the hems but I think it looks a little bit funny so I may fuss with that a little bit.

The front view

Here’s the back side

The striping on the body is not my favorite but it is ok, definitely not worth ripping!

Here is a sleeve – I LOVE how the yarn striped here!

This is how much yarn was left over. I think it’s a good thing I didn’t go up one size!

Diana tagged me for this meme.

The rules are:
-Link to the person that tagged you.
-Post the rules on your blog.
-Share six weird things/habits/quirks about yourself
-Tag six others, and let them know they’ve been tagged!

So here goes..
1) I don’t like eggs or seafood even though I have never lived more than 50 miles from the sea.
2) I am ever so slightly obsessed with the “Twilight” series of books by Stephenie Meyer (and the movie coming out in December).
3) I hate calling people on the phone (even if I know them).
4) I take my cats for walks – complete with harnesses and leashes (one for each).
5) I have been watching American Idol all season (I like David Cook – who doesn’t?).
6) I like clam chowder (this is quirky only because I don’t like clams).

I’m not going to tag anyone specific because I think everyone I know has already been tagged – but if you haven’t, and you wish you had been, then consider yourself tagged :)

This was the fun part. It was a little bit messy and I don’t like messy, but it was fun!  It was also a little bit cold to have our hands submerged in water or squeezing wet yarn, since it was snowy and cold.  First thing you do is take your yarn out of the water and wring it out. Then you mix your colors up and go to down with whatever application method you prefer.  We had paintbrushes, which were awesome, medicine droppers/syringes which were good for small applications and you could always just pour dye over the yarn.  Once you apply the yarn you have to be sure to squish it all around on the yarn to make sure everything gets saturated. You don’t want too much dye though or it will just be wasted.  Then you wrap your yarn up in a nice little saran wrap/polyvinyl film package and set it to steam over boiling water.

Part 1 of my first yarn (Knitpicks wool/silk blend).  I used blue, cyan and I made a green (not yet applied). Linny is across from my painting with purple and magenta!

More of Linny’s pretty yarn, being wrapped up to steam!  Those spots on the table are snowdrops.

You can also dye roving. I don’t remember who’s this is (maybe Suzanne?)

My one getting ready to be wrapped up.

All wrapped up and waiting for steaming (Mine is on the right), quickly being covered by snow!

The big pots for steaming the yarn. They have water in the bottom then a steaming rack, then the yarn goes on the top.

After steaming, the yarny packages cool down in the snow. Lindsey’s in on the right and mine is on the left. I don’t know who’s is on the bottom.

I belong to a yarn of the month club at Three Irish Girls, and one of the yarns this year was a lovely wool/silk blend.  The yarn is called Aster. I have no idea where you can buy this yarn, but it is really something special.  It’s soft and smooth and has a gorgeous sheen to it. 

If your name is Mom, don’t read any further or you will spoil your Christmas presents! 

 I knew I wanted to do something super special with it but I wasn’t sure what. I thought some kind of hat, but did not know what pattern would really show off the yarn.  I recently noticed the Esther Williams Hat Pattern, written by Laura from my knitting group, and thought it would be perfect.  The yarn works up at a slightly smaller gauge than the pattern calls for so I was afraid I would have to make some modifications but I didn’t. Maybe I have a small head, but I think the reality is that this yarn is nice and sproingy so it has a bit of flexibility.

 This hat was a really easy knit. The instructions are a little intimidating, but once I tried it I realized it was actually quite simple.  I am really pleased with the result!  

 With the leftover yarn, I have enough for a pair of fingerless mitts. I’m roughly following Knitty’s Fetching although I wish I had looked for a pattern with a thumb gusset. Oh well.

I need help with categories, and the FAQ for wordpress is singularly uninteresting.  I was playing around with my categories and the “category parent” feature trying to figure out what it did.  I still don’t know what it does but I managed to lose half of my categories?

 I hoped it would create some sort of hierarchy – so I could choose the category “knitting” and then the category “socks”, for example – but that does not seem to be the case.

 Anyone have any fantastic category/sorting ideas?

 Thanks!

Apologies for the cat. It’s time for bed, I ran out of patience. It is not a small cardigan, it’s a big cat. I’m making the Medium. It’s fabulous. I actually tried it on myself, but couldn’t manage to hold the shoulder together, hold the front together, and take a photo at the same time so you don’t get to see that :) I’ll try for a photo after I’ve finished the left front and seamed it.
Here’s the right front (left to look at). I love the stitch pattern. Subtle texture. It’s really nice.
Also, the back neckline. I haven’t paid enough attention to the later instructions to figure out why I didn’t bind off here just yet. That was silly, really. I am sure it will all work out in the end. It’s a remarkably well-written pattern. Except for the stitch counts that aren’t correct during the neck/arm shaping.

The right front, showing the neckline shaping and a tiny bit of the armhole shaping. Beautiful. I’ve got to get daylight photos – maybe tomorrow.