Puppies, chocolate fountains & knitting toys!

For Christmas my wicked awesome parents got me a yarn swift from Knitting Notions but we had to wait for it to arrive. Well, I finally got my paws on it this weekend and I am in love! I knew I'd get it on Saturday so there were lots of preparations to be done!
On Friday after work I went to Lettuce Knit to get a ball winder & some skiens of yarn.

mmmmmmmmball winder!


I was going to only get one skien so that I could have the pleasure of winding it up with my swift & my winder - I have, after all, made a (very weak) promise to myself that I would get rid of most of what I already have before I brought new yarn home.

I knew I wanted Lorna's Laces since all the stuff I see knit with it looks amazing. I wanted sock yarn since I'm way into knitting socks for *me*. I thought that a darker yarn, more subdued would be good. A calmer pair of socks......

A pair of Black Watch socks!


These colours look super great & I cannot wait to find the perfect pattern to show them off!

So after I picked out this stuff I thought I was just about ready to get out of there before anything else caught my eye & then I saw it.... a bit of brown & seafoamy green sticking out from beneath all the Lorna's Laces. I starting pulling the hank out....sorbety orange??!! banana marshmallow yellow?? All together? All one? It was a skien of Socks that Rock. And it was mine with no questions asked. I have seen countless beautiful socks knit with this stuff & finally my ship had come in. Now I have the great pleasure of blog searching for the perfect STR pattern.

I practically ran home (swinging my Lettuce Knit bag happily by my side...they use clear bags which gives me a really disgusting show-offy thrill. I'm all "HEY! Look! All of my totally indulgent yarn purchases are right here in plain sight! Look at hoe colourful my life is! Booyah!") anyway, practically I ran home because I had to get the nursery sewing room ready!



Whoah! Christmas mess! And then some....

So I tidied everything up, organized my yarn box(es) & knitting basket & seperated all the acrylic I know I'll never use.

Then I tied up some loose ends. Well, I wove them in, actually.

I started knitting Ivy months ago. I had intended it to be my sister's birthday present but it wasn't ready in time (augh!). I had to make the arm holes bigger & seam it all & fix some bits that weren't sitting well with me. This took me a *long* time. A long, long time. But when it was finally finished, the relief I felt was amazing (a greedy relief...a 'good! now that that's done, I won't feel guilty about knitting for me!' relief) I just had to cross my fingers & hope it would actually fit her.

IT DOES!

I *LOVE* this sweater. I think it's my favourite completed sweater yet! It looks fantastic on her & I'm happy that I put in all that extra time with it. I'm even thinking of making one for me!

I used Nashua Creative Focus Worsted for this, in 'nickle'. I loved using this stuff. It's 75% wool & 25% alpaca making it super soft - I could have knit with it for forever. The yardage of this stuff is fantastic & it comes in a bunch of really awesome colours. Thumbs up!

As an aside, this picture was taken at Spencer's on the Lake this morning at brunch, which is a magical place with a chocolate fountain!


Anyway, okay, so...sweater gifted, brunch eaten, many mimosa's drankened & then back home to my parents where we watched PUPPY BOWL III (!!!!!!!!!!)




(That's all it was......puppies....for THREE HOURS! HEAVEN!)

Despite the frolicking puppies, I was itching to go home so I could play with my new swift! Basically when I got back home I threw my coat & bags on the floor & wound up my STR into a perfectly perfect tasty little yarn cake.

Could I get hot fudge sauce & walnuts on top of that.....because that's how delicious it looks to me. As delicious as a Sundae.