I wasn’t going to post agian til May, being that I’m in danger of using all my Bandwidth for this month, but I’ll chance it, because you have to see this.

So you know how you knit something for someone, and most of the time, your not sure if the item will be appreciated/used/loved a lot, or just tossed aside? Well. Today I got proof that something I knit for someone is very well used, and very much loved. Remember my new little baby cousin Gia and the bunny bootees
I knit for her? Gia is 8 months old now, and I saw her this evening while at my grandparents. (I’m currently in Michigan for my Grandmas Funeral. She passed away on Saturday. It’s very sad, but okay.)

wiggly baby + my dislike of flash photos= blurry

We were all hanging out and chatting, and that Gia is so damn cute, and my cousins (her Mum and Dad) were telling me that she wears the bunnies all. the. time. and they take them with them everywhere. That made me so happy, and proud, I knit them for fun for her, and I love knowing they are loved. So much loved, that they need another pair, because she’s almost grown out of the first!! That’s awesome. I’m thrilled to do it.

Bunny bootees on baby feet. Squee!

Also- I knit these in Dale Yarn Baby Ull, and aside from a little pilling from the machine washing, are holding up amazingly. They still look great. Yay Baby Ull!

Filed by Julia at 11:37 pm under Gia,Knitting
16 Comments

Alright peeps, I got my part of stash sale up late last night, you can view it here. Thanks in advance!!!

Filed by Julia at 12:01 pm under Get Your Yarn!!
3 Comments

Hopefully tomorrow evening, we gonna have us a little stash sale over here. A “Julia needs monies for the convertable she just bought” stash sale. There will be lots of yarn snobbish goodies, at great prices. Including lots of Rowan, Noro, Jaeger, Brown Sheep, and more.

How this will work:
I will be putting up a Flickr set with the yarns, info and pricing. First person to email me about a lot gets it, provided payment is made within 24 hours of when I send over an invoice. If an invoice goes for more than 24 hours unpaid, item(s) will go back up for sale. Lots can be combined in the event that a person emails first for more than one. Echecks will be accepted, but are not preferred. Paypal is the only method of payment I will be accepting. Also, there will be no returns of any items. No exceptions.

Shipping:
When emailing me for an item, please specify Priority or First Class shipping. I will put reminders of this in each item description.
Priority mail is 4.05 for up to a pound, 4.20 for more than a pound, and over/about 5.00 for way more than a pound. First class mail is available on items weighing not more than 13oz. and will be a flat rate of 2.50.

Also, a note- I have cats. 4 cats. Even though I store all my yarn in those big plastic storage tubs, sometimes the cat hair gets in there, not at all alot, but I just wanted to make everyone awhere. Also- some of the yarn I have had a long, long time, years and years, have been stored in tubs will lavender scented mothball packets. This is purely a preventitive measure. I live in an old house that sometimes gets creepy crawlies, and I’m just playing it safe. So some yarn, not all, but some, and I will try to make note of which, as a slight oder of mothballs. I’m airing things out as we speak, and the scent will lessen with time and washing.
If there are any questions, ask away. I will try to answer them asap!

Filed by Julia at 10:33 pm under Get Your Yarn!!
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I splurged agian. Call this one peer pressure. I bought some beautiful squishy soft Yak Down yarn from Pure Knits.

This is from a company called Shokay. Go there and read about them, it’s a very cool thing they’re doing. I saw his yarn awhile ago while blog surfing, and then recently, Cari wrote about them using her Yoda Sweater pattern with the yarn, and then Megan posted it in a beautiful grey color, and well, I was sold.

It comes in so many great colors the hardest part was choosing which one would come live with me. I chose cranberry. At the end it was between that and the grey, dusty wind color. I totally considered the green, but I always go for the green. I wanted to change it up this time. I think I would have gone for the earthy brown color, but they were out. So Cranberry it was!
This was also the first time I ordered from Pure Knits. I go over there and drool over the beautiful luxury yarns, yarn snob that I am, but hadn’t ordered until the other day. I already knew that Yahaira is fabulous, so there were no doubts what so ever that the yarn I ordered from her would be anything less. The shipping was superfast too.

Now the only questionis, what to make with this lucsious stuff? I was thinking maybe a scarf in a mistake rib pattern. Whatever it will be, it’ll be good.

Filed by Julia at 9:51 pm under Stash Enhancement
13 Comments

Check this crazy stuff out!

This is Party Roving. It’s full of random fibery stuff. Like thread, and silk, and some yarn, and unspun mohair locks, and bright crazy carded fibers, and sparkly stuff, and even more! I bought it at the Pittsburgh Knitting Festival, back in Febuary. It’s from a place called Puckbrush Farm. They do some local shows, here and in Ohio. There website does not appear to be working, or I’d link to it.

They had two huge baskets of the stuff, one mostly browns, and the other brights with alot of yellow, I bought almost a pound of a mix of both.

I started spinning some up the other day, it’s been sitting in my fiber stash since I got it. I had that need to spin lately, which I hadn’t done in awhile. This stuff is good for me, I think. Usually I spin nice and uniform yarn yarn. This stuff is so crazy I just had to let go, and just spin for fun, letting the roving tell me how it needs to be. It’s a thick/thin, lumpy bumpy crazy yarn, with lots of sparkle!

Fun Stuff. I’ve been spinning some other stuff too, sometimes I need to break from knitting! I swatched for Bohus, and I’m going to go up a needle size and swatch, just to see what happens to the fabric. This is so going to be a long term project, I even had a bit of anxiety working up the swatch, I mean really, a whole sweater, on sock needles!! That’s intimidating. I’m excited to do it though, it’s going to be fabulous!

Also- I’ve been addicted to Flickr lately. I just really started using it. So much fun stuff to look at over there. I’m finding myself photographing the yarn like crazy so I can put it up over there.

Filed by Julia at 12:29 am under Spinning
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My Bohus is here! I got it Monday, just as I was about to blog about the crappy cold and now rainy weather. But now I’ve got something better!

I ordered the Forest Darkness colorway, with dark green as the main color. And it is dark. It’s a very dark teal color. It’s pretty, and out of the green box for me. I kind of like that I didn’t get to see and pick the colors in person. Refreshing, kind of.

I bought it almost on impulse, I did give myself a few days to think about it before I actually bought it. Kind of a consulation for missing Maryland this year. Which is So. Sad.

Here’s the yolk colors~

This yarn is super thin, like, light fingering weight even. 8.5 St/in. Yeah. I started a swatch on 2.5mm needles, and I’m getting 9 St/in, preblocked. I’m hopeing it doesn’t grow with blocking, so I can use 2.75 or 3mm needles instead. It would appear I am a glutton for punishment. I do like the small gauge knits! The whiskey sweater was 7 St/in, and I bitched about that, but it was so worth it.

It’s done, by the way. My whiskey sweater. The last stitch is bound off, the last button sewn on, and the last end woven in. I’ll get some photos as soon as the weather is better. If it ever gets better.

Filed by Julia at 10:53 pm under Bohus
27 Comments

While I think of something to post about, or put down the knitting long enough to photograph it, so I can post about it, go knit some very cute ducks! (And maybe a bunny!)

Filed by Julia at 6:58 pm under General
6 Comments

I won’t keep you in suspense any longer. Stephanie was in town on Friday, did you know? Well she was. It was a crazy, wonderful day. Really. It’s not that often I get a day like that here, in Pittsburgh. To spend a day with a whole bunch of knitters who are on the same wavelength. You know, eating, breathing, sleeping fiber? That one.

Anyways, I woke up early, and busted out the yarn. I had every intention of finishing up work super early, so I could have every possible second of the afternoon to work on my Whiskey sweater (almost done, btw) which I was going to try to finish, so I could wear it to Steph’s talk/signing.
Well, that didn’t happen. I had emailed Steph the night before, saying if she had any free time, let’s do yarn. And so she did, and we did. She had a few hours to kill, so we met up for lunch, and I took her over to my localist yarn shop. She was staying right around the corner from my house, at a little B&B. Literally, right around the corner. 20 seconds from my house, around the corner. It’s a wonder I didn’t feel the lanolin/knitter vibrations coming from that way the night before!

We walked down the street, (that’s when she almost stroked out from too many wool layers) to a little coffee shop/cafe´and had coffee, and lunch, and knitting, and good conversation, and lots of laughing.

She’s knitting this sock, by Cookie A. Her Shirt says “Wool Pig”. (Wool Pig!)

From there we walked back to my house, and I gave her a tour (if you can call it that) of my operations here at Knitterly Things HQ. She stayed in shock for a bit. I think that the thought that I turn out as much as I do with as small a setup as I have blew her mind a little bit. After she recovered, we got in the car, drove over some bridges, and went to Knit One. Great little yarn shop. Whenever I need something, or just want a quick fix, I head over there. It’s probably about 12 minutes by car. I would have loved to take her to the shop I work at, but there just wasn’t time.

This is the shop Steph spoke at the first time she came to P’burgh. I think the owner was a little bummed she couldn’t have her there again, but she was thrilled when we stopped in. Steph explained that the publisher is trying not to have her at the same place twice. Which is cool, and the bookstore, while not a yarn shop, is still a small indy chain, and that is good. So we ooo’d and aw’d over things for a bit. Wait til you see what she’ll make out of the yarn she bought.

After that time was up, and we headed back over to the southside. Everything between dropping her off, and heading down to the bookstore, which is only 5 blocks from my house, is kind of a blur. I got to the event at about 10 to 6 or so, and it was already filling up fast. She was speaking at 7. So I got a seat, and chatted up some knitters I knew, petted other peoples projects, looked for some bloggers that I knew would be there and was hoping to meet, ( Hi Amanda! Hi Amy!) it’s hard to identify people you “know” but you don’t “know” in a crowd of knitters like that.

I did find Amanda, and her mum, Jane, without any problems though! I knew they were coming in for this, and was excited to chat with them. I saw them for a second at last years, Maryland, and missed them completely in the throng of knitters at Rhinebeck. Wonderful people, and that Kailey? She’s a doll! By shear coincidence, they were all wearing their Vesper Socks! How cool is this!!?!

Kailey and Mum had matching socks, how sweet is that!?!

She managed to get them off in zero point 2 seconds though! Which is fine, because little baby feet! Eee!

Then it was about time for Steph to come out. That women is damned entertaining. If you ever can get away to see her, it’s worth it. I tell you right now. For those of you who can’t I have a special surprise, but I’m not allowed to show you until after Steph finishes up this tour. I video taped her speech. I did. I wasn’t planning it, and only got the idea in that blurred time when I was home before her talk. I had to find the camera, then I had to unearth it, then I had to charge it. I had to go before it charged completely, and hope to bob that there was enough juice to get the whole thing. There was! So eventually I’ll figure out how to YouTube it, and I will let you all know, but again, I have to wait until after this tour wraps up, don’t want to spoil anything! (and have her have to write another speech!)

I really have to hand it to the people at this bookstore, they really did have their shit together for this event. They actually listened to people who called, so they sort of knew what to expect, so they pulled out every single chair they had, which still wasn’t enough, but when you bought the book, they handed you a little flyer that even said they were expecting standing room only. The signing line was even well organized, with special ropes around the area, and a call by letter approach. Even an employee, whose sole purpose it was to take your camera, and get a photo of you and Stephanie, if you wanted. Now that’s organization! It was definately appreciated by every one.

People, she wore her Bohus. Bohus, people. I stared. It may have gotten obscene. I loved it. I touched it, and it is oh so soft. The stitches! My god, the stitches! You can’t even see them unless your eyeball is right up close. I know because that’s how close I had to be to see them. She knit it on 2.5mm needles! (US 1) Can you believe this?

It’s Gorgeous, I loved it, I already ordered one.

It was a great day. Did I already say that? It was marvelous. I spent Saturday recovering. Really, the best afternoon ever.

Filed by Julia at 11:33 pm under Harlot
27 Comments