yarny shoppings

Things are somewhat back to normal, schedule-wise. The boys are back in school (grumpily), and the dude is back at work (also rather grumpily). The at-home daughter is off for another week, much to the envy off the menfolk.
Not normal is my back. Pulled a muscle in my lower back last Sunday. Yeah, awesome, right before the insanity of back to school. So it's been a week of popping muscle relaxers and very little knitting.
That's frustration-finally have some quiet time to knit and cannot sit comfortably enough to knit. So the first half of the week was spent upright as much as possible (as its really the only way i'm comfortable when I re-injure this muscle) and being grumpy about the back pain.
Thursday I decided I had had enough of being stuck in the house, and I wanted to spend those xmas gift certificates that have been taunting me! Retail therapy, yarn stylee.  I hobbled over to two of my favourite yarn stores and by hobbled I mean I took the subway, and then buses to cut down on actual walking.
I bought stuff!
Beautiful yarny stuffs!

First stop: Mouline. My plan was to get 5 skeins of Malabrigo Rios in Azul Profundo. There was none in stock. I didn't see any other colours of rios that I wanted, and was just going to leave, when I saw that the Julie Asselin Sevilla was on sale.  Sevilla is 100% merino, worsted weight, 200yards of squooshy goodness.

This gorgeous stuff is called  Azul. It is to be knitted into the Stoker Pullover by Caro Sheridan.

Of course, as I'm carrying my armful of on-sale squooshiness to the cash, I spot some yarn I've not seen before. Andes by DROPS. It's a super bulky yarn made from 65% wool and 35% alpaca.

The colour is light grey and as you can plainly see, I've already started knitting with it. I'm knitting bulky socks...because, since making the *foot ovens, I'm obsessed with bulky socks! They knit up super fast and they are amazingly comfy and warm. My downstairs neighbors go back to Brazil from January to March and they don't heat their place while they're gone, meaning our floors are absolutely freezing. Since they won't take me with them to Brazil, foot ovens are the next best thing. (If I keep telling myself this, will I eventually believe it??)

After Mouline, I popped a muscle relaxer and went to Espace Tricot, where I immediately went to the shelves with the Quince&Co yarns. Looked at the colours of Lark. Decided not to go with the blues that I was immediately drawn to-because, how much blue yarn does one chick need? The blues are pretty fantastic, but I went with Twig:

Not as beige-y as the picture shows, more of a light brown. A nice neutral. This will be for my second Aiken. I love this sweater, and if you are a faithful reader, you may remember that my first Aiken grew significantly after washing. I still wear the fuck out of it, but I want one that fits a little better.

Then on Friday, I met with mah knitta at Maison Tricote.

It felt like it had been forever since we'd been there. We had this yummy lemon ginger tisane and I worked on the sleeve of my non-cropped Cropped Sweater and mah knitta worked on her Harvest Cardigan  (which I really like the look of now that I know that you don't have to pick up stitches in the front) which I may have to knit at some point. I love TinCanKnits stuff.
I bought yarn there too.
Yay giftcards!
I've been drooling over Blue Moon Fibre Arts Woobu for many, many months. Apparently I am not the only person who coveted the Woobu, as there was only one skein left. Woobu is a generous 620 yards of sport weight merino/bamboo blend (60/40%) and it's loooovely:

This colour is called Pining For Ewe, and i'm planning to use it to make the black death shawl by Hoxton Handmade. I love the idea of wearing something called black death...it appeals to my morbid side.

And because I can't pass up a sale. I also bought two skeins of O wool Legacy bulky.

The colour is called Sprig, it's a very light green. I don't know why I took a picture of only one skein, but let me assure you, there are two of these lovely skeins. They are going to be another pair of bulky socks. Because I am obsessed with the bulky socks.

Oh! Cannot forget that I also bought a needle gauge, super cute!

Obviously someone made it by hand. I suspect it's a local artisan, I should have asked. Anyway, it's the perfect size for my knitting bag!




Did I mention that I finished my foot ovens? I finished them right before I threw my back out. I luuuuurve them. They are so comfy and so warm and I never want to take them off. So I must make more, because yunno, foot stank. I haven't even washed them yet!

So snazzy!
My new favourite project for knitting with bulky wool! Only downside? NO interest in knitting sock weight socks. None. Zip. Nada. My ugleh sock #2 is at the heel flap and will probably stay that way until spring. All those single socks? No seconds until spring. Give me all the bulky socks for my frigid feets!

I still have one gift certificate left, Fabrikville-I'll see you next week!