Yarn Is The Solution

On my return trip home, Mum and I stopped by Ashland to visit a buddy of mine. I had knit Aja a little something. When I bought Lorna's Laces Zombie BBQ, I knew it had to go to Aja. No question about it. When I handed the knit to her and told her the color name, she laughed and showed me that she was wearing her zombie shirt.

This hood is a prototype to a design idea I have. The prototype's name is My Body's A Zombie For You. A million points if you get the reference without looking on google. 

As promised, I didn't post the picture that made you look like Pacman.

And while we were in Ashland I had to visit the yarn shop. I give The Websters an A+. Everyone was friendly, the selection was great, and the prices were reasonable. I could give it a more thorough review, but I think you should just visit the shop yourself.

I bought a skein of Tosh Light in the Cousteau colorway for a design idea and three skeins of Spindrift in the Ivy colorway as a backup to my Druid mittens. I've encountered some sever gauge difficulty with those mittens, so I panicked and bought the three skeins. I challenge anyone to admit that they haven't thought that buying more yarn was a good solution.

After the yarn shop Mum and I asked Aja about a good lunch spot that was unique to Ashland. We settled on The Black Sheep. Could this day not get any more perfect? Not only was the place named after my favorite fiber-producing animal, but it's a British Pub. I love pub food.

I had the bangers and mash. It was excellent. Everything that we ordered was great! Mum had shepherds pie and Aja had Irish stew. I can't wait to go there again. I think it is my new favorite eatery.

Beer + Yarn = 2 New Projects

Apparently I'm a bit knitting repressed. I usually only have 3 wips (works in progress) going on at a time. Well, last night while watching From Prada to Nada and drinking a beer I felt the need to cast on for not one, but two new projects! The first is a prototype for a color work design. I thought it would be easier to figure out the sizing before going crazy with color. This will eventually be gifted to a buddy I've know for over a decade. The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepard Worsted in the color way Zombie BBQ.

After knitting on the prototype for a bit, I went ahead and cast on for my Druid Mittens. I've been dying to make these for several years. I've had the yarn and pattern since 2010. It took me awhile to feel comfortable with size 0 needles. And even though I know I'll never get gauge, I have come up with a crazy brilliant solution. After realizing that taking stitches out of the pattern would not keep the mittens proportional, I have decided to knit them, then shrink them a bit in the dryer. Does this have the potential for catastrophically disappointing failure? Yes. Am I going to do it anyways? Yes. I figure if things go really wrong, I either have to find someone with bigger (or smaller depending on how this goes) hands to gift them to.

I did end up ripping out the toe of my Boromir sock and lengthen it. I still have the second sock to do. But the socks require the same needles that I'm doing the mittens on. I figured that it is sock weather longer than it is mitten weather, so these will be put on hold for a little bit.

And for those of you interested, Claire has released her Fellowship of the Socks ebook. Her designs are really pretty. Although the Boromirs are my favorite, I may have to make the Samwise and Gimli socks as well.

My Rocky Coast cardi is also coming along nicely. I finished up the body two nights ago while watching A Long Walk Home and One Crazy Summer.

Thanks again to my brother for the pictures. Though I'm not putting up the picture that he said made me look like a turtle. I kinda did look like a turtle.

I actually have 5 wips going on right now. There is still the pattern for my book that is being worked on. It should be good car knitting. And all going well, I'll be delivering the cardigan to my Oma tomorrow. She doesn't know this yet.