More Malabrigo

If you have been on Ravelry, you've already gotten a sneak peak of the yarns that I picked up while shopping over the weekend.  Of course, that is just a peak and you know nothing about why these particular yarns made their way home with me.

First is the dream yarn.  Not that it's dreamy yarn. Well, it is dreamy, but I had a dream about this yarn.  The dream wasn't about the yarn in particular.  It was about a pair of socks that I designed in the dream.  I went through the entire process from graphing to knitting it up.  This is the yarn that I used in my dream and I'm going to give it a shot.  You can expect the pattern release sometime in 2015.  hehe

Then I moved on to the Malabrigo section of the shop.  I know I said that I was falling out of love with the Malabrigo, but that doesn't mean I don't still love it a little bit.  I picked up a couple of balls for 1 skein projects.

The Malabrigo Worsted is for a gift cowl.  Another design that I am going to make up.  I took about 45 minutes before I actually choose this color/yarn.  I was looking at my non-Malabrigo options.  But for the look of the cowl that I am going for and the price, this ball won out.  Do you like how I was trying to be creative with the angle of the photo?

Finally is the Malabrigo Sock.  My first time buying this yarn.  I love my Springtime Bandit so much that a thought occurred to me... with a little help from Senora Fuerte.  She said that since I didn't frog back and reknit the Bandit to try to fix the color issue, I would have time to make another Bandit.  I'm not going to make another Bandit, but rather a Citron (rav).  With a color as bold as this pink is, I think that I need a simple pattern to go with it.  

The Sock gives me enough yardage to make a shawl(ette) without having to worry about dye lots or anything else.  I'm actually super excited about.  I want to make a whole bunch of shawlettes.  I find that they are something that I really wear, a lot.  I could make all the sweaters I wanted, but I really don't get enough wear time in with a sweater.  I don't really love any of the four sweaters that I have made and I love the two shawls I own.  I may actually be finding the type of knits that work for me.

I also bought a wooden table-top swift.  I've been wanting/needing one for a very long time.  The swift and the Malabrigo Sock are going to be wrapped up and saved as Christmas gifts.  Yes, I am doing that shopping already and yes I shop for myself.  My husband buys his own presents, too.  Then I wrap them and we get exactly what we want.  The girls don't get to shop for themselves, but I have been known to ask BG for her opinion on a few things, like rainboots.  Because Santa emailed me, he wasn't sure which style she would like better.

Ha!  And now I have just threatened my daughter to start behaving like a good girl... because Santa is watching. 

Hometown Fair

This weekend I spent Friday cleaning up the house and packing our bags.  We picked up BG from school and jumped on the freeway for L.A.  There was a slumber party that needed to be attended.  It was also super great that the birthday fell on the same weekend as the Manhattan Beach Hometown Fair.

As a family, we pretty much split up so that everyone could get to do what they wanted.  Saturday, LG and I went to my favorite LYS and spent a couple of hours smelling the yarns and picking out a few skeins that came home with us.  It was perfectly planned so that LG fell asleep as I was walking to the shop and she woke up as I paid.  And yes, I was at the yarn shop that long.  You can see why DH and BG took off to the park to watch the soccer games instead. 

After yarn shopping we walked to the fair.  I picked up some great little thank you notes from Social Butterfly and a pair of dangle earrings.  I can't tell you who made the earrings because I lost the business card.  But they matched my shirt and that is all that really matters.

Sunday the whole group, family and friends, walked to the fair again.  About an hour later I took off again, this time without any children.  I meet up with the knitting group from when I lived here.  I actually got some knitting done.  It was great getting out and not having to take care of someone else.

Everyone had a blast between the various activities and playdates.  LG spent most of her time following our host's dogs, cats, and birds around calling them, "Hi Kitty."  BG came home with a carnival goldfish... also called, "Hi Kitty."  It's super cute.  I came home with yarn that I have already photographed and am about to start writing my next post for Wednesday.

The Insane Asylum

Is it insane that it's October first and our front door is already decorated for Halloween?  Maybe it's insane that our door has looked like this for a week already and we were the last ones out of the neighborhood friends to decorate?  Maybe I'm just insane... I do write a blog you know?

I won't show you a picture of the whole thing because it's really not THAT impressive.  We got everything from the dollar store except for this guy.  He was just so fuzzy and cute and that is the only time I will use those words in reference to a spider.

Then there are the crows.  LG says "hi" everytime she walks by this guy.  There are also dying ficus trees, but they are up year round.

At least now every little kid on the block will know to come to our house to get a piece of crap candy on Halloween.  In LA no one ever came because our apartment was so far from the street.  We would even try sitting at the end of the driveway and people would still walk past us.  Really.