As Winter Winds Down and Spring Makes an Appearance...

I got my final package from my Warm Ewe Up Winter Swap partner last night. (By the way, don't ask my husband about my "swapping" -- he's a smartass and he waxes eloquent on the subject of how his wife is a "swapper" with "multiple swap partners".)



Okay, besides the beautiful yarn, my absolute favourite item is this coin bank.



This bank, and others like it, is made by BlueQ. Is wool your dirty little secret too?

The big green hank is 200 yards of Labrador Thick-and-Thin Fine Wool, from Katsara Luxury Yarns. The fuchsia/orange/yellow yarn is called Sugarplums, from simplytwisted.etsy.com.

I have ideas for the handmade project bag (great colours! great fabric!) in the foreground, too. It's going to help me out with managing the two balls of wool I have on the go for my scoop-neck cardigan.



And the rest of the stuff is little fun items, like Turtles candy (already gone), a pin that says "I [sheep] spinning" (where [sheep] is a symbol of a sheep), and a fun little pen whose purple and yellow uniform reminds me of the team colours of my local neighbourhood baseball team when I was growing up. (I never played, but my sister did.)

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In other news...

Monday's Starbucks Knit & Chat was very active. We determined, based on people inquiring about whether they were welcome to come (of course!) that it was going to be a big showing and so we went to the larger Starbucks again.

I think I need to catch a fix of the smaller store sometime, though. I am starting to miss its cozy atmosphere. The big store has a double-doorway entry* built into the original building, which had once been one of the less popular donut-and-coffee chains that operate in this area. Anyway, the owner decided to remove the inner doors, not realizing that they serve an actual purpose: keeping out the cold air that blows into the place when people enter!

Okay, (minor) rant over.



We did indeed have a large group and the company was fantastic, with some new people joining us, and Karen from Shall We Knit? educating a couple of the better knitters on a new technique (beyond me, but C. elaborates here).

I knit another square on my modular shawl. Also, I've been researching techniques I might need in order to make triangles that work aesthetically into the design. In the course of my research I found something wonderful: Nona's Wonky Log Cabin Squares, wherein she describes (among other cool things) a technique for knitting in ends. Now, C. had mentioned this to me already -- and when C. talks to me about knitting, I listen -- but I don't know if she's ever knit any ends in herself. So I don't have a reliable indication of how it might turn out.

Still, if I can figure out how to do it, I will definitely be giving it a try.

(Not that I mind sewing in ends, but...you know.)

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* I don't know what you call those double-doorway entries. I'll bet there's a technical name for them, if I could only find it. My google-fu is failing me at the moment.