my cup overfloweth...

...with Alexander Keith's beer? Diet Coke?

Nope. Milk.

That's right... milk.


Creamy Milk Yarn. Yes, you heard it here first, folks - yarn made from milk! (at least 80% of it... the other bit is cotton). Now I have heard it all, I think.

I received this as a surprise package yesterday from Amy the Wonderful... all the way from Oklahoma.

(In recognition of my latent brilliance, she also sent me these:

American Smarties!!)

Anyway, as it happens, I (like many others of mediterreanean heritage) am lactose intolerant (which, mind you, doesn't stop me from scarfing down ice cream, pudding, etc., although it does justify my dislike of drinking milk). But, given that I don't plan to ingest the yarn, I should be fine.

And I have just the pattern in mind for it: the Diamond Fantasy Scarf by the fabulous Sivia Harding! The pattern will come out, with all good luck, looking like this:

The surprise package was very timely indeed as I was suffering a spate of winter madness yesterday at work which continued into my journey home. In that time-honoured spirit of self-medication, I had made a quick stop into Knitomatic on the way home from work. Here's what I found - on sale!! Some Rowan Kidsilk Haze:

A lovely espresso shade (don't know that this comes out in the photo...it was on deep, deep discount so I thought I'd better find out what all the rage is about.

I also scored this Misti Alpaca laceweight.

Well, folks, it's now official... I actually have more lace yarn than I could use if I lived to be 100.

In fact, I have so much lace yarn that in addition to picking the SOTSii lace stole again (I managed six rows last evening on Clue No. 6) I thought I'd better start the Icarus shawl:


Early days, obviously - but I'm loving the Handmaiden lace silk!

So, today I'm a very happy camper, really.

Happy Wednesday!

the knitting and spending (mis)adventures of Brouhaha

Well, last evening was all fun and games at the House of Brouhaha, I must tell you. First off, I started to swatch the Secret of the Stole II mystery project.

The swatch called for was meant to measure approximately 7" x 5.5". Here's my first attempt, using 3.25mm needles:


Why did I stop part way through? Because I'm a lazy@ss slacker Because, with my usual stunning attention to detail, it took me approximately 10 rows to notice a big big boo-boo. This dayglo overexposed alien photo will probably show it better. The background of the pattern is meant to be all stockinette.
See what I did wrong? Sigh. How did I manage to skip out one of the "easy" (non-YO) rows that I look so forward to?

Perhaps it was my yiayia (grandmother) putting a jinx on me for having taught myself to knit despite her best efforts against this endeavour:

(This is the engagement photo of my yiayia and papou on my father's side. My yiayia lived with us for a year or so way back when and did beautiful knitting and lacework. I asked her to teach me how and she refused, saying that this was a pastime only for uneducated people and that I should focus on my studies instead. I was resentful of this at the time and went ahead and taught myself to knit - although in later years I got her point and found it rather sad. This photo now hangs in my office as a reminder of my origins - and also because I think yiayia would be proud that her photo is hanging in a lawyer's office!)

Anyway, I didn't like the tightness of the fabric on that one, so did another swatch with 3.5mm needles.

My (lack of) patience with swatching, as you will note, is truly astounding. I managed to get through about 10 rows before packing it in... to work on something a tad simpler - the Gathered Pullover by Hana Jason:

This is my progress on the front/back of the sweater, knitted in the round. It is going very quickly. I've also made quite some progress on the sleeves, thanks to the increasingly slow service offered by the TTC:

These remind me of Santa Smurf hats at present. They were actually supposed to be knitted in the round on DPNs but I have found the experience of working with those very traumatic and avoid it at all costs.

And - here is the cable panel detail (halfway through the panel)!
I've done this without a cable needle! It's like magic!

In other news: earlier in the day I popped up to . I was just looking for a book [ED: come off it! If you want to buy a book, go to the bookstore, not the yarn store. Do you really thing you're kidding anyone?!?]

Anyway, the book I was looking for, alas, was not in stock. However, just as I was heading out the door, the following yarn leapt into my hands called out my name caught my eye.


So, despite the fact that I have six other skeins of Alchemy Silken Straw in the stash, I just had to snap this up. Can you blame me? The name of the colour is "Clio's Fancy"! I think I'll use it to make a short sleeved top along the lines of the Oriel Lace Blouse but with a different stitch pattern (this pattern, by the way, is why I bought the other Alchemy in the first place. Now I find the stitch pattern a tad too femmy for my tastes... so, we'll see.

(An aside: I don't know why I've become completely addicted to lace knitting - or at least the concept of it. So much so, in fact, that I joined up for aYear of Lace 2008 club yesterday. Just what I needed - more laceweight yarn! 6.9 km of Handmaiden products just aren't enough... but there is at least one pattern by Sivia Harding - the creator of the River Rock Scarf and one of my big heroes. Anyway, it beats the Fruit of the Month Club! And - I'm shopping Canadian (the shop is in Calgary...).

[ED: Enough with the rationalisations!] By the way, JJ didn't even ask me what I wanted to use his credit card for, unusually. I think he simply doesn't want to know about any more yarn coming into the house. Puir wee JJ!

Anyway, so today is a new day:


and Asteriz et al are fleeing from the oppressors! I live with one (at least, he keeps insisting he is Viking in heritage, as opposed to Irish, which is closer to the truth, methinks) so Asterix has a point when he says "Those Vikings are crazy!"

This morning on the way to work I rather stupidly walked by the John Fluevog shop.



I've been coveting these ones for months, and now they're on sale!!! They had better have them left in my size...and aren't these ones cute?


Hmm. Where is that JJs credit card when I need it?!?

And - I wonder what he'd think if I came home with this fancy chandelier this evening?


At $1,100.00, I don't think I'll chance it.

Happy Friday to all!