In order to prepare for the big trip (and all the knitting I'm imagining I'll get done on it), I bought myself a ball winder.

finally!

So what projects am I bringing? The vintage knits' wavy line sweater for sure, and... what's that blue yarn in front there... hey, that's not the frankensweater is it? Oh yeah! I actually brought the frankensweater with me on our NYC trip this weekend thinking I'd try to figure out where I'd left off in April. I had anticipated a nice, sunny ride home, but we ended up coming home much later than I'd planned and so I knit from the crazy chart with just the light from the headlights behind us. Do you know how silly it feels to be using a row counter in the dark? And I'll be sticking some long neglected stash yarn in my suitcase in hopes of getting my hands on some new catalogs while abroad. Always come prepared, right? Hee, hee.

all packed up and ready to go

I decided to treat my sore wrist to an evening free of knitting. Gotta take care of those hands! Still, it was pretty hard to keep them away from the yarn! So I ended up winding up the hanks of Koigu for my Vintage Knits wavy line sweater.

I love the colors even more wound up in balls!

I'm hoping to take this project with me on our September trip to Germany. Yup, the yearly trip to visit the inlaws in the Hinterlands (see my post from last year's visit). Don't you find it hard to plan your vacation knitting? I'm thinking this project may be good. It certainly fits the bill in terms of packing - not too much yarn, not too heavy to bring with me. But it might be a little fiddly, with a multiple-row pattern and color changes, for me to knit while chatting with the in-laws. I may have to bring Klaralund as a backup. (yippee!)

yes sir, yes sir

Well, if I didn't do much shopping on my last trip to NYC, I sure made up for it this time. Ably aided by my mother and the best group of enablers one could ever want, I did good.

Habu rocks

First, even before I met up with the girls, I had to go to Habu! I picked up another ounce of my fabu habu red cotton, just in case I don't have enough to finish the tank I'm working on. They wound the ounce on a little teeny cone, which is so cute that I'm hoping I don't need to use it and can keep it with my other "decorative yarns" on my knitting table. Next to the red coned cotton is some incredible handspun cashmere that my mom couldn't resist (note: mom is not a knitter, so I get to knit her purchases as well - woo hoo!). So, someone's getting a cashmere scarf this Christmas. Then there's two little yellow mini-skeins of Habu's silk-mohair. It reminds me of KidSilk Haze and is so soft. Maybe I can use it someday to make something with crazy hazy ruffles like Elisabeth's Elfin. Finally, the coolest thing ever, preknitted, retro-colored strips of yarn that I have no idea what to do with but had to take home. Take a closer look and tell me you could pass that up!

cuckoo for Koigu

Once I met up with the girls at Purl Soho and Jenn showed us her incredible Vintage Knits wavy-line sweater, my mom and I decided I had to immediately buy enough Koigu to make one for myself. And does Purl ever have the Koigu, let me tell you! They've got lots of the solid colors too, which are really my favorites (remember, I've got variegated issues). Mom also found this sweater knit up as a store model and we decided that we both had to have one. I just happen to have some DB cashmerino aran from the Must Have Cardigan that I chickened out of. And mom wants the DB cotton angora that the pattern calls for. A mother-daughter knit-along is born!

painting the downtown red

At the comfiest yarn store ever, Downtown Yarns, we could only see red. My mom kept coming back to the red and white Manos Cotton Stria (soon to be a candy-cane scarf for her) and I just had to have the one ball of red Calmer (ON SALE!). Jenn had us hunting around for good handpainted yarns after mentioning the Pooling Colors Scarf pattern in the Fall Interweave Knits. When we saw the Schaefer Anne yarn, we started laying out skeins and checking out how the colors would stripe. I ended up with a skein with subtle red colors. I can't wait to see how this pattern and yarn work out!

blue is for knitting

Finally, at my fave, KnitNY, we went blue. I picked out a skein of GGH Via Mala in my favorite color for the fingerless gloves from Weekend Knitting. Mom picked out some Koigu (yes, more Koigu!) for me to make some socks (yes, socks!) for my great aunts. And I picked up a lovely coupon for 10% off my next purchase. Makes me want to rub my hands together like Montgomery Burns on the Simpsons and say, "exxxxcellent."