Just couldn't resist

So I had received a e-mail from Connie of Pick Up Sticks saying that there are a some openings in the Pick Up Sticks Sock Club and I couldn't say no. I had purchased some Zen sockyarn from her site and can't wait till I get that as well.

I was pointed to the direction of this fantastic Canadian yarn site by the Lime & Violet podcast, *drool* and after a while for said drooling I decided to purchase some yummy sock yarn that I'm not allergic to. I not sure what made me sign up for the sock club considering that I'm allergic to probably all the yarn I will be getting, but I don't care!! I do cheat and where my merino socks over cotton socks, so I'll just take lots of anti-histmines and allergy reaction killers to knit up the lovely yarn that I will be getting every month :-D Great prices and yummy yarn, go and drool then buy some here. Sorry all those on a yarn diet, I promise I've done enough stash enhancement to cover what you haven't.

I also bought myself the Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl from Susan of I'm Knitting As Fast as I Can. I really enjoy reading her blog and love her patterns. For all of you who follow Knitty.com, she is the awesome designer of Branching Out, which is also on my to-knit list!

Well that's enough for me because the boys should be home soon with sushi and my beer should be cold by now. Mmmm beer and sushi and I promise no drunk knitting and frogging :-D I leave you with the yarn prOn I promised

Nothing like new stuff

So the mailman brought me some new yarn, I'm trying out SWTC's soysilk and also have some more yummy Tilli Tomas silk with sequins called disco lights in colourways Amercian Beauty ( beautiful red) and Olive. I also picked up two knit books, One-Skein Wonders Edited by Judith Durant, Cables Untangled: An Exploration of Cable Knitting by Melissa Leapman and Interweave Knits Winter 2006 edition. So many projects so little time!! When I charge my battery for my digital cam I'll post some yarn porn pics.

Oooo another really excited stash enhancement is coming my way via USPS! I ordered SWTC's TOFUtsies sock yarn from Kpixie and some size 2 dpns. I may not be able to wear them and knitting them up might iritate my allergies but I couldn't resist! I got the colourways: 720 Sweep You Off Your Feet, 719 Best Foot Forward and 736 Under Foot. TOFUtsie is 50% superwash wool, 25% soysilk, 22.5% Cotton/2.5% Chitin (made from shrimp and crab shells and has antibacterial properties)

Stash Enhancement for the Allergy-impaired

Being allergic to animal hair yarns takes away a lot of the nice luxury yarns, especially the nicely priced baby alpaca that I've been drooling over at Elann. I'm not really found of acrylics because the plasticy sound it makes when rubbing against itself makes me cringe. There are some lovely acrylic and synthetics out there, for example Lang Yarn's Cora is so buttery soft and I really like Red Heart's Soft Touch acrylic yarn. So that leaves me with fewer yarn options, I have found some "natural" yarns that I can use.

One of my favourites is silk, it can get expensive though; however it is a fantastic luxury yarn for those with allergies. My bejeweled scarf is being made from mulberry silk. I also have a beautiful ball of Como Seta from Ram Yarns that was giving to me by my awesome LJ secret pal, Smacked Knitless. Since I've been oogling Stephanie Jepel's Simple Knitted Bodice before I could knit, which isn't that long but hey I couldn't crochet it so I learned to knit I decided that since I have some money to spend I'd give it a go! I purchased Kpixie.com's kit in Olive and it's Tilla Thomas silk yarns so I can actually knit it and use it. This makes me very happy! I think since I'm still a very new knitter I'm going to work on a few easy sweater projects before I tackle this because the yarn is very pricey.

There are some others that I've been wanting to try like soysilk and bamboo yarns. I have some that will be coming soon to my stash once my postman brings them to me are SWTC's Oasis in Chocolate and Harvest Green and Phoenix in Perplexed, which are their soysilk yarns in sportweight and worsted weight. I want to try out their 100% bamboo yarn as well; however due to the mass amounts of stash enhancing I have done in the last week I'll have to wait!