Busy as a Busy Bee

When I travel to Saskatchewan, to stay alert while driving, I sing along to whatever CD I am playing. Its not pretty but I get there safe. I played a lot of Bette Midler the last trip, and Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy popped into my head this morning when I thought over my work of the last few days. I have been busy, and no I did not do any housework. I was too sick for housework, just not too sick to knit!

I finished the socks on Friday with plenty of time to spare. After messing up a couple of rows on my Socks That Rock shawl project,I decided to knit something simpler. But not a sock.

When I was in Saskatoon, my youngest sister gave me a skein of yarn from a friend of hers. Or a friend of a friend. I forget. No matter. Its a lovely artisanal alpaca, mohair and silk blend from Sundog Alpacas. And it feels just like it looks, soft and shiny. It glistens as it runs through your fingers. Quite impressive. They don't seem to have the yarn on their website though it may be available at the Saskatoon farmers market. If you ever come across a local Alpaca grower's yarn, give it a try. There are some delightful artisanal yarns out there.The pattern is the Vicuna Scarf from 101 Luxury One Skein Wonders (Did I mention how much I like this book?). Its a nice little pattern for a small skein of something so special. I am going to rip it out and redo though. I'm working on a 4 mm needle and the fabric is stiffer than this yarn deserves. I'm going to rip it back and move up to at least a 5.5 mm needle to give it a softer drape, something much more suited to this yarn.

By By Sunday, I was feeling so much better, that I decided to start on Mr. Needles vest. I worked up to the ribbing, knit the first two rows and now I am at the point where the patterning can start. I'm not going to start that till I have a day off and plenty of time to work through whatever little problems pop up.

It has just occurred to me that but for the socks starting things off, this a distressingly brown bunch of things to work on. Here let me fix that for you. These are some socks that I cast on. No point having empty needles. The yarn is Arequippa Sock yarn, a really nice alpaca blend. Oh dear, I see some brown blended in. Let me fix that.

There. A shot of red and white Cloud Cotton, for the next big thing. I plan to zoom through Mr. Needles vest, just to get to work with this dense rich red.