Madrona, Days the Others

Well, I really thought I'd get back to this sooner.  I think I was overwhelmed by fumes of wool and chocolate.

I spent nearly $400 in the market; had been telling myself $275-300, but in my heart, I knew that was wrong.

I did have a few things that were specifically on my list (wooden swift)

And possibly some shawl yarn.

I did get the Advanced Domino Knitting book, even though the primary language is Japanese.  There are enough photos w/translations, and I'm familiar enough with her earlier books, that it shouldn't be a problem.

 
Finally saw in real life, some of the mini mochi slow-color change yarn.  It is a single ply and can be really splitty.  That's a common complaint on it in Ravelry.  So far, I have noticed that a bit, not too much of a problem.  I started a Swallowtail shawl with it and love the intense colors.  Now that I am to the point of adding beads with a tiny tiny crochet hook, the splitty business IS a little frustrating, but so far, it's worth it.

The focus for the next couple of weeks will be finishing up some of the bits on house for remodel, for a party on the 20th.  But, I'll try to get a little better about checking in here.

Here's a few pix from classes.  I took the EEKS - STEEKS class by Mary Scott Huff.  There was this huge bit of homework that ideally was to be done before class.

The instructor had a lot of homework too.  She made 70+ swatches for the class.  Each student got 3 swatches and the whole purpose was to cut up all her work.

I did cut mine open and I've knit up the edgings on 3 of 4 sides, but small black-on-black stitches need GOOD light so I've been putting this off.

I took a class on knitting beaded jewelry. For some reason, I expected we would be knitting with wire. This was an interesting class and I can see making more of these.  However, the loop to connect very strong magnet closures has a sharp edge and has sliced through the stitching to join it twice.  Yesterday, I got some beading thread with a lot of nylon and we'll see if that works better.

This is a project I'm looking forward to. Black Water Abbey yarn and a pattern with 3 Aran hats.  Haven't decided yet which one to make, but it should be a good commute project.  It will also be a test run for whether I should buy a sweater's worth of this for a vest for DH.