Knitting while sick

Well, maybe not sick. I don't have a germ. What I have is a lot of stitches in my bum. I had a hemorrhoidectomy on Monday, and yes, that's as nasty as it sounds. In truth, the condition that prompted the surgery was nastier. Suffice it to say, the recovery is not nice. Some of it, however, is fun. They gave me percocet. This is a pretty strong pain killer that renders me basically inert. All I can really do on it is lay about and knit. Only knit. No purling. No fanciness. During my recovery, I've worked on and finished these:They're plain old socks done in Three Irish Girls Kells Merino Sport in the special colorway for The Yarn Spot in Wheaton, MD.

Maryland Sheep and Wool

The largest sheep and wool festival in the country took place again this weekend near Baltimore. I went for my third year as a shopper, and Rock Creek Yarn made it's first appearance at the legendary event.

I have to show my haul, because it was great.
I wish I got a better picture, but the sun moved and my ability to concentrate is severely limited today. I'll tell you about why tomorrow. Today is about yarn. What we have here is a mill bag of Noro Cash Iroha in a lovely blue/black. It was half price. I hadn't planned on getting a mill bag of anything, but the loveliness of this yarn really jumped out at me. The other two skeins are my own, my love, my Precious, my Koigu.

Did you see it? Rock Creek Yarn was there! I didn't have my own booth, but Jolene at Cloverhill Yarn Shop brought almost 50 skeins of my yarn to her booth and nearly sold out! I'm so tickled.

Knitting blog week day 7: What a yarn

There’s one love that we all share: yarn. Blog about a particular yarn you have used in the past or own in your stash, or perhaps one that you covet from afar. If it is a yarn you have used you could show the project that you used it for, perhaps writing a mini ‘review’. Perhaps, instead, you pine for the feel of the almost mythical qiviut? You could explore and research the raw material and manufacturing process if you were feeling investigative.

Koigu.
Koiiiiiiguuuuuuu.....

I lurve lurve lurver it. It's soft, it's springy, it's fluffy, it's incredibly colorful. It's almost divine. Almost.

Of course, I'm talking about Koigu KPPPM. If you don't know about this legendary yarn, it's a 2-ply superwash merino fingering weight. What I know if this yarn is that it's dyed in the Toronto, Canada area. I have a book here about hand dyeing that indicates that the yarn is dyed in 500 gram skeins that are then split up into the 50 gram skeins we now pay upwards of $14.00 each for. From the pictures of the parent skeins, they appear to me to be hand painted with dye.
I love Koigu. A lot of people love the texture but in my opinion similar springy texture can be found in many hand dyed yarns like Rock Creek Yarn's Twisterino. It's the colorways I love. They all seem to be works of art. The colors are stunning, ranging from incredibly intense to beautify muted. Where running occurs, it's done in a way that looks great. Lastly, the color repeats are usually pretty short, keeping pooling and striping to a minimum.

I've made two pairs of socks from Koigu. I love the yarn, but it's far from perfect. First, the owners of yarn stores seem to have problems getting it, and that probably is the reason for the exorbitant price. Secondly, it's a very tender fiber. I guess the texture sacrifices durability. The socks wear through fast. FAST. But they're soooo pretty.
Despite the drawbacks, I do keep at least two skeins in my stash and do careful planning for what my precious skeins of Koigu will grow up to be. In fact, I bought 2 more today to replace the skeins I just used to knit these:They're Roza's Socks by Grumperina. And yes, I did just knit these in another yarn. They were done in Magic Loop on size 1 needles, and I used almost all of two skeins of Koigu that the Amazing E bought me after a big fight early in our marriage. I'm really glad that we don't get in fights like that anymore, but I miss the make up yarn.

Kitting blog week day 6: Revisit a past F/O

Bring the fortune and life of a past finished project up to the present. Document the current state and use of an object you have knitted or crocheted, whether it is the hat your sister wears to school almost every day, or a pair of socks you wore until they were full of hole. Or maybe that jumper that your did just didn’t like that much…

Alas, it's my deepest knitting regret.
It's the Fair Isle Sleeve Sweater from Vogue Knits. It was a very early project for me, and it's beautiful. Except that I hate the collar edging. I hate the collar so much I've worn the sweater once, and have never gotten around to taking that horrible crochet edge off my beautiful sweater. That project was a huge undertaking for me and it languishes in a storage bag. All because of the lousy clown collar. Poor thing.