Knitting (and yarn) update...

So the intarsia I was lamenting in the last post...I figured it out and it went much better second time around. Here's a glance at my pretty argyle square...

...I'm doing the lines by duplicate stitch because I was too chicken to try and juggle five different colors at one time. I think if I do it again, I'll bite the bullet and try, though, because getting those lines to go in the right place was some kind of crazy at times.

This was going to be an afghan square for a swap I'm in. I thought intarsia would make for a better colorwork option for an afghan than fair isle, as there wouldn't be the stranding on the back. Unfortunately, the back of intarsia doesn't necessarily look all that pretty (at least mine didn't...maybe others are more skilled at it). So I had the bright idea to knit it twice as long as need be and then fold it over and seam around it, so it would actually be two squares back to back. Good idea in theory, only it made for one very thick square, which I figure will not go well with the recipient's other squares, weight-wise. :::sigh::: Thus, this square is being relegated to the corner...maybe I'll use it as my 12th square in my own swap afghan? I don't know. But, suffice it to say, I've done two squares worth of knitting and still do not have a square to send my swappie. Will be making a third try on that soon.

In other projects...I have one sleeve left to knit for my mom's sweater, then the seaming and button band and it will be done. Her birthday is tomorrow, so clearly she will not be getting it by then. It shouldn't take long to finish, though. I just needed a break from it for a bit.

I also have another swap project -- another pair of pasties -- to work on and finish by month's end. I've got a fun idea for them, and they shouldn't take long either.

I haven't worked on my Swiftly Turning afghan in a while, nor have I added to my Ribbon Lace scarf in a couple of weeks. I did start a new pair of socks for the boy, which I'd promised him some time ago. I'm half done with the first. I'm using a sport-weight yarn for them, so they are going much faster than most socks.

Speaking of socks, check out the pretty new yarns that have come to live in my stash recently...

This is a beautiful DK weight yarn from Knitted to a T. The colorway is called Heart Throb, and it is even more beautiful than this picture shows. I'm envisioning a pair of socks for myself with a nested heart motif if I can manage to create it.

Also, these beauties came this week from The Loopy Ewe...


That site is such an addiction for me! The yarns are, from L to R...

• The YoYo; colorway: Eleanor Rigby
• Indie Dyer; colorway: Dragonfly
• Yarn Love; colorway: Tuscany
• The Schaefer Yarn Company; colorway: Evergreen

So much good sock yarn, so little time! Makes me wish I was faster at knitting socks. And like so many of my hobbies, I've found I've got a "collector" mentality going on with sock yarns. Every time TLE adds a new yarn (or new to me, anyway) to their shop, I find I can't wait to get a skein of it. It's a sickness, I tell you. A sickness.

I also ordered a sweater lot of this gorgeous yarn from Three Irish Girls. I think I would order anything from a company with that name! LOL They're having a sale right now, though, so that is even more incentive than just the cool name of the company (and the colorway names...totally yummy and romantic and Irish...how could I pass up buying something with a color name of Irish Sea? It takes my mind right straight back to my day in Ardmore. Who wouldn't want to wear and Irish Sea sweater???). I'll post a picture of all the yarn goodness once it arrives, probably in a couple of weeks.