The Knitting Ninja

This weekend has been chalk full of knitting goodness.  However, it doesn’t go without saying that it got off to a fairly shaky start when I returned home on Friday night after one too many cocktails to find the beautiful yarn Emma gifted me with the other day staring at me from the coffee table. 

Rather then patiently waiting for her to wind it for me on her awesome ball winder (that she scored for a total bargain on Ebay!) I decided that I neeeeeeeded to knit with it right then and there so I sat down, draped the skein around my knees and began winding a centre pull ball around my thumb.  One Norah Jones cd later and I had a fabulous ball all ready to cast-on the Clapotis Cap. 

Needless to say, the alcohol was still affecting my brain because 9 attempts later and much cursing under my breath I was still unable to make any progress on my cap.  Somewhere around 1am, after the boyfriend was sound asleep and my eyes were starting to voluntarily shut on their own, I decided it was time to call it a night and make friends with the Clapotis Cap in the morning.

I woke up with knitting on the brain so Emma and I decided to spend the glorious spring day gallivanting around town doing all things knit related.  We started off by going to the Handspinners & Weavers Guild where we admired beautiful hand knit items and bought yarn dye.  We’ve tried our hands at dying yarn in the past, but we used food colour so we were all too excited yesterday at the prospect of using real, grown up dye. 

However, before the dying began we decided to continue our trek in the great weather so we headed over to the Walking Wheel Studio.  I was interested in purchasing a real ball winder after deciding that my thumb just isn’t up for the job anymore and Em was looking for a skein holder for her ebay bargain.  Unfortunately, ball winders and skein holders are pretty damn expensive at $65 a piece so we both decided against the purchase and headed back to her place where we put plastic down on the kitchen table and spent the next few hours making yarn dyed goodness.

 Em dyed some 4ply sock wool (above on the left) as well as a bit of cotton and I dyed some random 8ply that I’ve had in my stash for awhile (which is over on the right).  Everything turned out fabulous!  I think I’m going to make a felted bag with my creation.

 Oh, and for the record, the Clapotis Cap and I are friends now.  I spent the evening knitting away.  The yarn knits up beautifully and I’m now obsessed with dropping stiches on purpose…