Sifu: On the Way Home

I've been looking around at the Chicago yarn stores recently for some new options. I enjoy Nina but her shop is out of the way and Loopy just doesn't seem to carry anything in terms of smaller dyers, it's all major brands. I miss that from when they had the little shop, I used to find the greatest random stuff there.

Fortunately, AudioGirl was up for an exploration trip to Sifu, which is on the northeast side of Chicago and on my way home. What a gem of a shop! It's absolutely stuffed with yarn from floor to ceiling and they had all sorts of things I'd never seen before. The staff was very welcoming, offering comments without making us feel like we were being supervised. We definitely want to go back.



AudioGirl ended up getting yarn to make a new hat--she too left her winter hat in a cab* and I got another skein of Dragonfly Fibers. I was surprised and pleased to find this smaller dyer in a shop. As you can see, that bright green reached out to me again.



And also there's that yellow that appealed in the Van Gogh skein. Finally, it's in fall colors.  Can you see why I had to bring it home? The colorway is called Chicago Blackhawks and the base is called Traveller. It's a nice squishy 100% superwash in worsted weight.

I'd like to make a hat with it.  Despite how much I adored my hat last winter, by spring I was very very tired of wearing it everyday.  I'm hoping that keeping two hats in rotation will keep me from being quite so burnt out on my winterwear.  Haven't decided on a pattern yet but I'm sure there must be something in my queue of interest...

This was a very nice yarn store discovery and I hope my next venture, to Sister Arts, goes equally well.

*There must  be some wonderful cabbie lost and found of hand knit hats somewhere in Chicago. I hope they go to a charity or something...

For love of leaves

When Lime and Violet were still recording, Violet really loved Lisa Souza.  It's something she bequeathed to many of her listeners, I think, the love of her yarn and color sense.  The podcast has long faded but I still hear the angel music they'd play after each instance of saying Lisa's name. It's always a pleasure to buy Lisa's yarn, whether online or in person and I highly recommend stopping and chatting with her and her husband if you get the opportunity.



Lisa's was the first booth that I stopped into at Stitches Midwest but it was my last place to buy. I could have bought everything but I wanted to be somewhat selective--so I waited until I'd gotten through my other purchases and wasn't just going to go full hedgehog into the racks of wool.

I was drawn to her natural colors. I'm on a fall colors kick. Anything and everything that looks like trees changing color has shown up in my hands if not my actual shopping cart of late. And this skein, Augustine,



was exactly the kind of fall tree that I was looking for. I love the pop of purple among the more usual colors. This is on the Hardtwist Petite base, which is 100% superwash merino and will make really great socks. Or a really great hat, or something. I've got 500 yards to play with..

The Philosopher also picked out a skein (he picked out several actually but this is the one I bought). This is in the Sherwood Forest colorway



I had a doozy of a time getting a picture of it, even in my little lightbox.  For whatever reason my camera just refused to focus, so you get a rather blown out picture and my apologies. At least you can see all of the various shades that are in the skein. It's a 100% superfine superwash merino, so it's even softer and squishier than the other base.  The Philosopher, of course, wants a triangle. I've got 525 so I might shoot for a small triangle and maybe some short socks, or matching fingerless mitts. It's just too pretty of yarn for extras to go into the leftovers bin.

This was my last stop at Stitches Midwest. I ended up with a total of 8 new skeins of yarn from the event, which is fairly restrained in my mind. Next up, I need to tell you about the new-to-me wool shop I found...

These will be bright socks...

Around my freshman year in high school I went through a teal and purple phase. Those were my favorite colors, they were what I wanted everything to be in, frequently together. I keep saying I got past it, until I go yarn shopping or seriously review the stash and realize nearly everything is still teals/blues and purples.

Exhibit A:  The Miss Babs Sock yarn that I bought at Stitches Midwest (I told you I bought a lot of yarn). 

Done in the Prince colorway on her Cosmic Handpainted Sock Yarn Base, this is some of the nicest 80/20 merino/nylon yarn I think I've ever touched. It's softer than many 100% merino yarns I have in my stash.  And it is so lovely.  It was hard to photograph because the purple is just slightly ultra-violet: gorgeous to the eye, really hard to capture with the camera. 

I've knit with Miss Babs yarn once before-- making the Windsor socks a couple of years ago. She doesn't make that base anymore but I think this is similar. I'd have to ask the Incredibly Patient Mother to feel up her sock drawer for comparison. 

This skein will probably be socks. AudioGirl and I were talking about how it seems counter intuitive to use such colorful yarn because socks go on feet, in shoes, and for me usually in boots where no one sees them. But it doesn't mean I don't get enjoyment out of the colors when I'm knitting it and there's something fun about handing over the gift of bright colorful socks. I don't mind knittting the IPM black socks, but fortunately she likes bright socks too.  And as I'll spend a good 20 hours looking at the yarn on the needles, one should pick out colors one likes to see... 

Chasing Dragonflies

New to me at Stitches Midwest was getting to wander in the Dragonfly Fibers booth. I've heard of them before, but this was my first experience swimming into their colorways. I was overwhelmed by the beautiful colorways and the intensity of the dye. I ended up with two skeins of their Dragon Sock.

First is this lovely Van Gogh's Sunflowers colorway. I was surprised at how much this enchanted me, as anyone who knows my color taste very well will tell you that yellow isn't a color I reach for very often.  Orange shows up in my wardrobe far more than middle-school-me would ever have approved of seeing, but yellow still isn't a favorite. Paired with this blue, though, it was easy to change my mind. There are a lot of shades to this yarn too: the yellow has flecks and tones of orange, the blue is three or four shades, plus there is some brown to anchor it. It's going to be lovely, though I'm not really sure what I'm going to make with it. 

The second skein is one the Philosopher picked out.  This is one of the benefits of going wool shopping with me, as both he and the Incredibly Patient Mother can attest, you do get to pick out yarn for the next project I knit for you. (Now I wait to see who volunteers to go to WI Sheep and Wool with me just so they can demand a handknit something....)

The green in this skein seems to be one of their signature colors. It was in a number of colorways and I've not seen anything quite like it before. As a full skein, it was eye searing, but here it was a perfect bright touch. I expect that it will pop cables nicely, so that's the patterns I am eyeballing for the Philosopher.  

The yarn for both skeins is a two ply 100% merino and the base feels familiar. I know there are a number of dyers who use the same mills for at least some of their bases and this feels like one of those. That's not a criticism at all, it feels like an old friend and I immediately knew that if I was going to make socks of either skein that it would be on size 1 (2.25 mm) needles.

Anyone have ideas on what to do with the blue and yellow skein besides put it on the coffee table and use it as an art installation?

Sock Show Thursday: Dark Rainbows

This KPPPM yarn wasn't actually in my stash very long, I bought it last winter with the Philosopher as we were headed to a show at the House Theater in Chicago. It went to work to be in-office socks, KPPPM seems very good for that, but they ended up following me around other places as well. So instead of taking several months, they only took 2.  Not bad for my 8th finished pair this year.



My favorite part about these was seeing what color would come next. I'm sure it sounds incredibly simple but I would get fascinated watching to see "ooh there was green" and wondering where I could find a whole skein of that shade of dark teal that just doesn't show up in the photographs.



I'm not out of KPPPM and yet I am. I only have the 5 skeins in a blueberry colorway that I keep meaning to make into something larger than socks. I think Nina is the only shop that carries it locally, perhaps it's time for another field trip there.

Lost in Greens...

Onwards with the Stitches Midwest shopping...

Partway through the vendor market, I got into a chat with Jennifer from Holiday Yarns. I have a particularly soft spot for her, though this was the first time we'd met. Jennifer sold me the Tsock Tsarina's Tsock 101 kit while I was living in Wisconsin.  From that and after one of my kids' prompting, I sat down one weekend and sorted out sock knitting.














And, as I told Jennifer, I'd now reached 65 pair of socks. Since 2008. This in six years.  That's 10 pair of socks per year since beginning to knit socks. I know historically that's not very much. Certainly I wouldn't be keeping the Philosopher and I shod if all we wore were the socks that I knit (though during the winter, we're starting to get there), but it's a lot of wool and time.

To celebrate that, Jennifer gave me a skein of her FlockSock so I can continue my sock making ways.  I was really touched by her generosity.

 

I picked out a skein called Fathom, which is part of her Aquaman Kit. Jennifer doesn't have the Tsock Tsarina's kits anymore but she has a ton of really excellent ones and I fully expect one or two people to suddenly have a strong need for Batman socks. She's also got shawl kits including some beautiful lace, fiber, clubs, the whole skein (I was going to say the whole 9 yards but I couldn't make much with that).

I might need to save this for a special pair of socks, at least in terms of number. They're definitely going to be for me though, so I can see just how far I've come in 6 years.

My other green purchase was to replace that skein I left in the overhead bin on the way to Vegas. While Angela of Fleur de Fiber didn't have that particular shade handy, I always manage to find something in her greens that appeals to me. I promise she does dye other colors, they just don't seem to follow me home.

So this is a Fleur de Fiber one off--or what she calls Potlucky.



And I've decided this doesn't really count as 'new' stash, just replacement stash. That sounds reasonable, right?

Have Yarn; Need Hat Pattern...

Last spring I lost my Lorna's Laces hat in a cab.  I don't remember exactly when it was, at some point where it was warm enough that I knew I could make it from the cab into my apartment building without my ears entirely freezing off, so it must have been late March or into April. Since then and anticipating another round of Chicago winter, I've been thinking about knitting a new hat.

I wanted something bright. Winter here is marked by everyone wearing black wool coats, so bright accessories are a must. I think it's one of the reasons we all leap for bright colors during spring and summer, we're all desperate for something after months of dark outerwear.  And while I do have that ubiquitous black wool, I also need something to top the white down coat.

At Stitches Midwest, Yarns by Design was one of the last booths I stopped in. I'd started on the other end of the vendor market and had pretty well worn out my want-all-the-wool nerves. It takes rather a lot to do that.

But they were the first booth where I'd seen Mrs. Crosby's multi-color yarn in person. I'd seen her semi-solids elsewhere and I've got one skein here at home, of course, but now--in trunks even, here was playful color.

The yarn was laid out by base, and I went from one to another--picking up the same yarn over and over again.  Truly, one of the ladies minding the booth even called me out about it.

But can you blame me?



Toucan is such a pretty and bright colorway. It shows up very differently on the other bases, lighter on the base with silk, darker here.  It wasn't the only color I was drawn to, but there wasn't much of a question that I was buying this.



I purchased a skein in the Steamer Trunk base, which is the 100% superwash merino worsted.



It's incredibly squishy and it's going to make a wonderful hat. I'm going to be visible from outer space.

Another Kind of Stitches...

I'll get back to my Stitches Midwest shopping but I wanted to send out a short health reminder.

Have you looked at your moles lately?

Last week, this was the location of a mole on my upper back. It was a fairly large raised dark mole that had been there a long time. Questionable and precancerous moles are definitely a thing in my medical family history so when my massage therapist commented that it had changed, it was time for it to go.

After consulting with a dermatologist, I had a couple of options: shaving it off at skin level or having it excised.  As you can see, I went for the latter, mostly because shaving would leave the potential that it might grow back. I got a referral to a dermatologic surgeon, made an appointment, and in about 45 minutes (most of which was checking in and waiting on the numbing agent to take hold) I had no more mole and 5 stitches.

The Philosopher has been changing the bandage for me, it would be impossible to do it myself.  This was taken at the 24 hour point, since then I'm told the redness and swelling has gone down a little. It was fairly painful for the first couple of days, now it's just super itchy.

I'm still waiting to hear whether it was benign or precancerous but either way, that's done and I will just have a small scar to show for my trouble.

But if you've not taken inventory of your moles recently, please do take a minute before your next shower and have a look at your body.

Here's some good information from the National Cancer Institute and the National Library of Medicine on what to look for, what is normal, what to be concerned about, etc.

We now return you to your regular woolhedgehog...

Planning the Skein Parade

It's going to be a parade of stash around here for a while. The Philosopher accompanied me to Stitches Midwest recently and I came home with no small amount of yarn.  Add to that an order that showed up and a quick trip to a new yarn store and, well, there's a few new skeins at Chez Hedgehog.  Because it's all so beautiful I want to break it out so hopefully both you and I aren't entirely overwhelmed by it.

First up is some new yarn from BMFA.  Tina had one of her clearing out sales, which are always so tempting for me. This round it was 2 skeins, pick your weight of Socks that Rock base. I opted for the Medium weight, which is really my preferred default comfort yarn. I have seriously considered that it might be my desert island, you only get one base of yarn for the rest of your life, base. It helps that it comes in so many colors.

The first skein is a mill ends skein, so I'm expecting to find a knot or underplied spot or something in it.  I'm pretty sure this is one of the Christmas colorways but I can't find one that looks appropriate to me on the site right now. I'm sure someone will recognize it. I had started knitting it up into a pair of socks--going for the full on comfort knitting experience here--and most of the way down the leg the Philosopher started making doe eyes at the yarn.



Personally I'd figured it too green/pink for him but he really likes the red, which is a dominant stripe and so here it is, ripped out, wound up again (there's a center-pull ball in the middle of that) and I'm looking through patterns again.

Small triangles that are not excessively lace-edged and are reasonably memorizable and will work with a sport weight yarn are something of a challenge to find.  I've got a few in queue but nothing has struck my fancy recently. Of course, he already has 5 triangles, so it's not like he is entirely without options.

I also got a Rare Gem, which is richly lush and dark.



I love how the green pops at one end



There's also been an option taken out on this for a Philosopher triangle but I'm not sure.  It might have to be saved for someone else.  He's not the only person getting knitwear in my life...

A Reasonable Heap

I didn't make my 5K goal.

Towards the last week or so of July I still had some hope, but looking at the reality of what was on my current to do list pointed out that what I'd need to knit was the equivalent of another entire sweater and another pair of socks on top of what I'd already accomplished and/or might hope to complete to pass the finish line.

I did find this a little disappointing. You set a goal and think "of course I can get this done" and then life intervenes in ways that you couldn't quite have planned for--and also this occasional need for sleep.

But as I look back on what did get finished, it's a respectable pile:

Between the May start date and 8/7, which was the Knitgirllls official end date, I knit on and finished (may have started prior)

1 hat
3 pair of socks
1 rectangular scarf
3 triangles for the Philosopher
1 sweater

And still in progress but with significant work
1 pair of socks (finishing toe of sock 2)
1 sweater (still have to do sleeve 2)

That puts a number of things off the needles, some into drawers and shelves, others into the gift bin of Chez Hedgehog.

Though we've not really had a summer (it's presently 64, damp, and windy outside), as I head towards the fall semester my thoughts are turning to what I need to knit for the holidays, the need to knit myself a couple of new hats before winter (lost one hat, was thoroughly sick of it, would like more in rotation), replacing my lost fingerless gloves.

Of course, there's also some new yarn that just appeared at my house. But more on that another day...