If it's not broken, don't fix it!

So the title of this post is directed to Interweave Knits. I finally got my spring 2007 issue of Interweave Knits in the mail (why does it take so long to mail to Canada come on OMFG it was sent on March 22 it was on newstands here last month I hope the rest of my subscription doesn't take this long!) and now I see what the whole fuss is about. I hate the new layout! I'm open to new ideas but I found the new layout very frustrating trying to find patterns especially mainly because some of the background colours that showcase the finished objects do not contrast well with the chosen font colour of the pattern name and page number. This issue does have a few patterns that I really want to knit like the green tea raglan, roza's socks, dollar and a half cartigan, petunia's tote and last but not least cable-down raglan. That's a lot of knitting but hey I probably won't get to them for a long time. Anyhoo that's my 2 cents on the new interweave knits spring 2007 issue. I'm happy to hear Eunny Jang is the new editor of interweave knits, please Eunny bring back the old format we miss it!

I casted a new problem onto the needles yesterday a mini clapotis with SWTC Phoenix in the Napa Valley colourway and it's looking very purdy. I'll take a picture when I'm feeling a bit better. I'm recovering from a cold right now. Oh and Andrea is you are reading this I am using the stitch markers I bought from your etsy site and I love them!

Here comes the sun

So I'm back from a week in California and after many, many months of rain here in the lower mainland it's sunny outside!! Many of us have been extremely grumpy due to lack of sunshine this winter and I recovered by insisting on a trip to California for some much needed sun therapy. It was beautiful and the fog wasn't too bad where we were staying. I didn't get much knitting done, however I did frog the sock I was knitting out of Cascade Fixation again! I did get some yarn from S's aunt who we were staying with. I picked out some pretty ribbon yarn, a few balls of Lily's Sugar and Cream cotton and some pretty ack yarn which I started the Ariel scarf with but didn't get too far yet.

As for secret pal contests I won the first one!! Yay me. The next contest Robyn wants us to blog about our favourite knitting accessory and I'm finding it hard to pick just one! So I've decided to choose two.

First, my knitpicks option needle set. I love this interchangable needle set, the needles and cable joins are nice and smooth and the bonus is the needles are sharp enough to be great for knitting lace. I'm working on my first Branching Out scarf with my Knitpick Options. Another great thing about this set is when you are travelling you have most of the needles you will need at your disposal and I'm will be definately bringing these to guide dog school with me next month!

My other favourite knitting accessory is my go knit pouch see them here I love that you can attach it to your loop on your jeans so you can knit in public without having to take out your yarn or worry about dropping your knitting. I did have two of these; however I did lose one on public transit and now never travel without it being attached to something. It carries small projects really well and you still have room for your other accessories like a crochet hook, stitch markers, extra dpns etc.. I have a camouflage one and hope in the future to be a owner of a burgundy one. I attach my pooh bear dangles to them because I tend to use these as stitch markers sometimes and it also helps me find my bag :-D

Hello, Goodbye I'm late I'm late I'm late

So I finally found my cord for my camera!! Here is a really late pics of my last package from my awesome LJSP3 pal, Smacked Knitless (LJ name: strange_muse) I apologize for the lateness of my acknowledging your fantastic last package to me. Inside is 3 balls of cascade pima tencel (50% pima cotton and 50% tencel) is a beautiful colour and super soft. I almost want to keep it for petting yarn but I think that these balls are going to become a pair of Fetching. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's book Yarn Harlot The Secret Life of a Knitter (I love this book and read it right away and will read it again and again), M shaped-sticky notes, cute dog card and a large bag of the yummiest loose leaf peppermint tea! I loved being spoiled by strange_muse and every package was
special with stuff that showed she really took the time to get to know me and my allergies, lol! I'm happy to say the pictures of the yummy yarn are very close to the colour in person.

In other news, I will be M.I.A. here and on LJ for over a week or so because we are taking a road trip to California. Since we have had very little sun this winter, I am craving to feel it's warmth and the sand between my feet, so off we go to visit relatives in the San Fran. area for spring break! So no no-sheep yarn prOn till I get back, but I also will have pictures of the Monterey Bay Aquarium and I'm excited about visiting the aquarium because it will be my first trip to it. Giant jellyfish here I come!

Camera USB cord MIA

Since my camera's USB cord has been missing-in-action I noticed I haven't really posted here at all. I have received some awesome sock yarn in the mail last week. I got my order of Panda Cotton from The Loopy Ewe and some Zen Garden sock yarn (as well as sock blockers and some Pony Pearl DPNs) from Pick Up Sticks. Sheri from Pick Up Sticks was so sweet and sent me some of BMFA's Sock Candy in the colourway Kabuki! Go buy some yarn from her there is a link on my side bar, awesome customer service, free shipping to Canada and US for orders over $60 CDN. How can you go wrong it's free shipping!!

I still have Knitty's Branching Out on my needles and a plain old stockinette sock with a ribbed cuff. I am thinking of making the Sock Candy yarn into Jaywalkers, so I have the first skein on the ball winder then it's swatch time!!

People suck!

Well I checked the lost property office for our public transit today and now I'm really frustrated, mad and sad all at once. Why my you ask?? I lost my brand new knitting bag (from Pick up Sticks, Sock of the Month club), my second legwarmer (almost completed), 12-inch denise cord with the 5mm (size 8) tips and one of my new stitch markers!! Some git decided instead of doing the kind and decent thing they kept it for themselves!! Damn it at least hand the knitting in, I don't care about the bag really it's another $20 or so, but it's the hard work, the hours of knitting up that legwarmer in time for my sis-in-law's trip back home from Europe and the needles & cord that belong to a set! Well I guess I have to replace the cord and needle because as much as I love my Knitpick Options they don't have any cords smaller than 24 inches. The other option I have is to buy another set of Options and knit small things in a round on two circs because I really, really luuurrrvvveee these needles!!

What's new, I have my bejeweled scarf out of soysilk off the needles. I do need to block it because it is much shorter than I wanted it to be and block it will definitely fit this issue. I'm on my third repeat of the lace pattern on my Branching Out Scarf and it's coming slowly but I don't mind I'm taking my time on this one. Also I have my first socks on dpns. I did frog it because somehow I messed up slightly after the cuff and wasn't sure how I messed up, so it's back to the cuff again. I have to go to the yarn store sometime this week to get some Cascade 220 to re-make those leg warmers! Yep, I'm allergic to wool and I'm going to knit with it, again! The legwarmers are a very easy pattern after the two coloured cuff, all it is is stockinette purgatory till you are done the length. It's loads of anti-histamines & inhaler for me and days with a very, very sore throat and itching hands because that's what wool does to me. I'll be taking breaks from it and knitting up the Branching Out scarf in yummy silk to make me feel better though.

I have so much more to tell but I'm sick and despite taking a 4 hr. nap I'm still beat so it's off to bed with me. I'll save the rest for another day.

Head over heels in love

I finally decided to skip the class sock and head straight into sock knitting and I'm in love. I have finally mastered those evil dpns. All it took was learning in my sleep. Yep, I learned how to use dpns in my sleep. I was dreaming that I was knitting socks in my dream, enough to be able to visualize how to do it in my mind when I wasn't dreaming. So I put those thoughts into action and feel head of heels in love with sock knitting! I have to thank Connie the owner at Pickup Sticks and her Sock Club because the Pony Pearls that she sends with your first month of the sock club are magic!

I just ordered sock blockers from Pickup Sticks and some more sock yarn. I love Zen Garden's cotton/lycra -- pretty colours and I'm not allergic to it! Oh also have more of those magic dpns coming to me. Yay!! Connie was also awesome enough to send me over to The Loopy Ewe because they have Crystal Place's Panda Cotton and see it knit up as a sock on Sheri's blog. It is said to be soft and yummy, so I ordered a few (ok enough for 4 or 5 pairs) skeins. I can't wait till they get here as well. I'm sure every knitter's mailman must think that we are doing something illegal with the amount of packages we get in the mail! I'm on a secret yarn stash diet -- opps I'm outed it's not secret anymore, but sock yarn doesn't count as stash! Mr. Pixel looks at me very strangely when I say this like I'm some crazed addict or something that needs help, *rolls eyes muggles* you knitters out there can back me it I'm not crazy sock yarn doesn't count.

Books!! I just got a swack load of new knitting books . I've decided that I am not going to outgrow this knitting lifestyle (yes it is no longer a hobby, it's a lifestyle), so like the good bibliophile I am starting my knitting book collection and it has expanded to over 20 books so far. Here's the list. I still want to get some Elizabeth Zimmerman books as well as some of Nancy Bush's books and add about 50 or so more but those are the ones I really think are a staples and those come first. Can anyone of you out there in blogland add some more books that you think are staples in a knitter's library? Feel free to add them in a comment I'd love to compile a list of books I will be on the look out for.