Thursday, May 05, 2011

Frolic Goodies - part 1

As I said before, I was after STR sock yarn, and a cardigan's worth of wool. I succeeded in both of these endeavours.
Meet "I Mad Heart Ewe: Socks that Rock Lightweight - my husband's all time favourite sock yarn.

(Really, this wool is much darker and more intense that it shows here. Sorry, I really should photo-edit more...)

My husband, while he will wear rather bright stripey, coloured socks, is rather pink-impaired. All he asks is no pink, no purple, no pastels. For putting up with the amount of fibre that spills out of our house, this is a request I can honour. I've already wound it into two equal balls (I love my digital scale!), and once the socks I have on the needles are done, these are going on.

As for the cardigan, Susan and I spent a fair bit of time looking. My plan was something from Tanis Fibre Arts, but she was so popular and busy, that any colourway that caught my eye, was usually sold out of the quantity I needed. So we wandered some more. I wish I could remember what booth I found this Fleece Artist Ottawa wool at, but I can't at the moment.
It fulfilled my love of blues and browns, without being garish (anyone want to remember the Romulan sweater fiasco??). These shades are subtle - soft robin's egg blue, with a ton of grey mixed in, and a milky chocolatey brown the colour of the tea/milk/sugar combination young kids drink, thinking they're drinking actual tea. The crowning glory were the deer antler buttons we found to go with it.
The inner of the buttons has the bluish tinge that perfectly matches. I have high hopes for this cardigan. I've already cast it on, (please, no one can be surprised by that...) and I'm using the same sort of pattern as my green Rowan cardigan, which is one of my favourite fits. It's loosely based on the the Sunkist cardigan, by Kirsten Kapur (rav link, sorry), a top down, v-neck with eyelet raglan shaping, and a centre increase on the fronts.

At this point, I was happy. I had my sock yarn, I had my cardigan. But it seems I wasn't finished. There was another cardigan beckoning me. I love a laceweight cardigan for summer. I have the Featherweight Cardigan pattern, and have been looking for the right yarns for it. Tonal, not variegated, natural fibre, in a colour I love. Fleece Artist comes through again.

Two skeins (800 metres each) of a lovely laceweight, courtesy of Feather Your Nest.
Its Saldanha Two, a merino superwash, and according to the vendor, a limited edition wool. Whatever, it's a deep smokey olive green tonal colour that I love. Susan wouldn't even let me look at other colourways once I had this in hand, and she was right. It's perfect.
And of course, the button guy (must learn his name...) had the perfect buttons yet again. I know the Featherweight cardi pattern doesn't require buttons, but these matched so well, I couldn't resist.
Next up, all the other stuff that somehow came home with me...

7 comments:

Sel and Poivre said...

The Tanis booth really was a scene wasn't it? I fought through the fray there last year but not this time. It looks like the yarn you got instead is just stunning - especially with the antler buttons!

Saren Johnson said...

Very nice yarns there. Can't wait to see how everything turns out.

Needles said...

I'm glad that I'm too far away to go to events like this one. or rather, my bank account is glad.

Brendaknits said...

Tanis' booth was right next to ours and we kept glancing over at her crowds. Knitters sure love her yarn. And I love your colours. I can totally see you wearing those colours now that we've met in person. Flip flops to match, I presume?

Acorn to Oak said...

Pretty! Can't wait to see what else you brought home. :-)

Anonymous said...

The yarn is beautiful, of course.
But let's get to the real question... how did the tournament go?????
Nancy

Anonymous said...

The yarn you bought is beautiful! Might the button man been the husband of "AB Originals"? He has been at the Kitchener Knitters Fair
for several years. His buttons are lovely and smooth but need a good shank when sewing them on because the holes are not bevelled and wear the thread away. A word to the wise... Marlyce in Windsor