On Saturday afternoon, whatever powers that control the weather in Chicago finally decided to give us a little sunshine. It made for a lovely day to head to YarnCon with Julie. Both of us did a little stash enhancement at the Emily Parson's Sophie's Toes booth. And on Sunday it was not only warm enough to take pictures outside, but I even sat and worked on Elijah on my balcony. I've been fondling the cashmere blend Sophie's Toes that I purchased earlier and was hoping that Emily would bring some more man-friendly colors with her. I already have a skein of the regular merino yarn in "Walnut" (the lovely brown yarn on the left), but after sadly saying goodbye to several pairs of merino only socks, I've come to the conclusion that, at least in my house, if a yarn doesn't have a little nylon, it probably won't survive very long unless it's also very tightly spun or has more than 2 plies. So I will save my original skein of for another project and use the cashmere/merino/nylon blend skein for the socks I had originally planned. So, with any luck, John will get two pairs of nice new socks this winter.
The skein on the right is "Lagoon", also in the cashmere blend. It's a much deeper, more saturated teal in real life, but still isn't dark enough for man-sock duty, so those socks will be destined for my feet.
The biggest prize, however, was the "Magic Ball" (the center pull cake in the center of the bowl). Emily's Magic Balls are made up of sections of multiple colorways. This one is called "Enchanted Forest" and features all my favorite jewel tones. When I first laid my hands on it, Julie told me "Those are your colors!" Yep. Deep colors with purply-blue undertones go well with my skin. Perhaps this ball is destined for a new scarf for me... with all the different colorways available in it, I've been thinking something modular might be fun.
I wrapped up the weekend with working steadily on Elijah (he now has a head, body and two legs) and even got a few rows in on the second Zebra Striper sweater sleeve. My conversation with Julie, who is trying to decrease her unfinished project pile, has inspired me to go back to my UFO list and figure out what I can start finishing up...
I'm so glad we stopped at the Sophie's Toes booth. I'm loving the yarn I got and have made some decent progress on the fingerless gloves. Glad we had good weather -- it was nice being able to get out a walk a bit!
I'm definitely in Julie's boat. I am trying to finish a few things up, so when I cast on for my next pair of socks or my next sweater I don't have to buy a new set of needles to cast on. It's unfortunately just too easy to get new needles and then cast on willy nilly than it is to be good and just finish things.
I've never tried Sophie's Toes before. The colors are lovely. I am sure they will turn into beautiful socks.