Back from vacation!

It is grey and foggy outside and would be the perfect day to sit home and knit, but alas, I am here at my desk in my work cubicle. Oh, the joy. I did start a new project last night, though... next up for my Summer of Socks project is Hedera in some beautiful Lorna's Laces. I already love the way the colors are pooling (I know so many people hate pooling, but I like it) and hope to have pictures to show after the weekend.

My vacation was to Oklahoma City to visit with my church Lifegroup and be part of a baptism bash for some of us. Yes, yes, I am aware that this is a knitting blog and not a religion blog, but there is actually knitting related content involved! After getting recommendations from some folks at Ravelry for area yarn stores, I checked out the Gourmet Yarn Co. They were so friendly and the selection was wonderful! I knew that they stocked Claudia Hand Painted, so that was first on my list for yarn I needed to look at. I also recently joined the Mystery Stole #3 knitalong, so I was hoping to find some nice laceweight.

What I brought home:




Claudia Hand Painted in the Tropicana colorway (which is so awesomely vibrant I just want to eat it up) and Lane Borgesesia Baruffa Cashwool in white for the Mystery Stole. I've decided to go with no beads just to keep things less complicated- if I want to try it with beads later on, I can do another. I also picked up some Addis to try Magic Loop and some Crystal Palace dpns for Cass. I'm going to teach her to knit socks this summer.

I had intended to knit on the plane to finish my Monkeys, but most of my airplane time was spent sleeping instead. I have finished them, though... yesterday during my work lunchbreak!




I seriously love love love this pattern. The Specs: Monkey pattern by Cookie... STR lightweight in Mustang Sally (thank you Adelle!)... size 2 Clover dpns. I already have plans to do this pattern again.

Before I left I mentioned that I had finished the second pinwheel baby blanket, but didn't grab pictures until the day I left on vacation.




I hope that little baby River-Kate loves it! The Specs: Caron Simply Soft in off-white and Red Heart varigated... size 8 Denise needles. It was slightly smaller than the first one, but since River-Kate is still only 6 weeks old, I think it will work out ok.

New Spinning... from the batt purchased at the Frolic that had the layers of pink, yellow and blue. Instead of spinning it all together, I separated each layer to spin each color by itself. Originally I had planned to spin and do a 3-ply with the three colors, but after spinning the pink and the yellow, I decided to just ply the two of them together. I don't have much yardage, but I love the way the colors work together.






And I also plied up the rest of the Nightshade from the Spunky Club...


The Mystery Stole #3 Clue 2 is up... and I haven't even started Clue 1. I think I need about 17 more hours in my day.