You can't knit with that!

During my trip to Philadelphia, me and my friend GM went to no less than 4 yarn stores. We both spent a lot of money on Yarn. There was one called A Garden of Yarn which advertised on the door that it was a "crochet-friendly yarn store." That amused me. There I got a bunch of wool/mohair blend skeins that were really colorful and pretty and were on sale for $3 each. There was also this bundle of white roving. It simply said "Roving for dyeing" and was $9.90. I petted it, and it was soft, and I wasn't sure what kind of fiber it was, so I asked the store-clerk. She was a cute little old lady and she had another cute little old lady friend. I'm not sure which of them said what, so I'll assign dialogue as I see fit, and we'll pretend it's accurate.

Me: What kind of wool is this?
OL1: You can't knit with that.
Me: I know. I spin. I have a wheel at home. But I was wondering what kind of fiber it is.
OL2: Let me look it up.
OL2 looks in her book...I think it's called "roving."

I gave up after that and decided that it was soft and might be alpaca, and it was a good deal even if I don't dye, and I would buy it. So I did.

There were also many Koigu mill ends at Rosie's Yarn Cellar for $0.24/gram. I initially thought this was a better deal than normal koigu, but it's actually the same price as a typical $12 50 gram skein. But the advantage is you can get different colors in small quantities. I bought some for a dice bag and for a pair of socks.

There was also Loop, which gives out really nice reusable shopping bags. I got three skeins of a laceweight silk/wool blend in royal blue for a shawl.

I'd post pictures, but right now my camera flash isn't in sync with the shutter, and my pictures end up dark unless they are taken in bright light. Thus I have to wait until daytime tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get pictures then.

Also I'm sad that I didn't get to participate in the international Knit In Public Day. It was Saturday and Saturday is Shabbat and thus I don't knit. Nor was I even in public for that matter (though that was a situational thing.) Maybe I should organize Jewish knitters for a much smaller Sabbath-Observant Knit In Public Day.

Recent FOs

I finally got around to taking pictures of some of my recent finished objects today. It beats doing actual Shavuot preparation (like cleaning.)

This is my "graduation shawl" that I finished today. It's made out of recycled silk. It's all garter stitch, but the yarn works and it looks very pretty. It's a graduation shawl because I started it around graduation time last year, knit it during the ceremonies, put it away for a year and took it out around graduation time this year and also knit it during the graduation ceremonies.





This is some merino/tussah silk blend on my wheel right now. I'm finally getting good at having a consistent yarn. I think this will look very pretty when plied. As usual I have no clue what I'm going to make with it.


This is some colonial wool. I wanted it to be 1 giant skein, but my ball winder had other plans. So it's two big skeins. It's 2 ply, and I think it's dk weight, though it's not 100% even. It's for a friend of mine who just graduated. Unfortunately I finished it on Friday morning and she left Thursday evening so I'll have to mail it to her.




This is some light blue merino I was practicing drafting from the fold on. At the time I thought it was very thin, but looking at it, it's not so thin. But I have tons of the wool, so it's okay. It's the softest wool I've ever worked with, so spinning the rest will be fun when I get to it.



This is some merino fromPoppy Flower Fibers that I'm spinning on my drop spindle. So far I have 2 spindles full. When it's all spun I'll ply it on the wheel. This may take a while, though.

And that's it. I probably should get back to the laceweight shawl or to the Puppet Johns my housemate commissioned. Though now I have 49 hours of manditory non-knitting/non-spinning time. Yay for Jewish holidays which eat my life!