Should I Be Worried?

(or, How Worried Should I Be?)

I've been sucked into another KAL, this time via the Socks that Rawk group on Ravelry. The pattern is the Leyburn Socks, and the group is trying to knit it in as many different colorways as possible. This pattern was already in my queue, and the deadline for finishing isn't until the end of March, so it's a good fit. About 150-ish people signed up before me, so all of the colors I already have were taken. I ordered a skein of Haida that I've had my eye on. When I wind yarn at home, I always hold the yarn over my finger so that I can feel for knots and get a slightly tighter ball of yarn. Here's how it looked when I finished:

The yarn looks great, but my finger? Normally there's not a black ring there, so really--how worried should I be? All that dye coming out isn't going to leave me with weird brown socks instead of richly blue and black socks, is it? I'll have to remember to give the socks a vinegar bath once they're all knit up. On the plus side, the color is just what I was looking for (assuming that it doesn't fade), and if it really sheds a lot of dye once I start knitting it, I know that Blue Moon will exchange it.

The Last Time You'll See My Booty

I love these colors, click only if you're prepared to spoil the surprise! Note that my photo came out a little bright-ish, but I'm too lazy to reshoot. Maybe this spoiler is more representative.

After six months in the Yarn Pirate Booty Club, I'm hanging up my scabbard for the time being. Overall, I've been very pleased with the club colors, especially these last two shipments. And maybe the first two, and maybe the two middle colors too. I'm not a huge fan of merino/tencel yarn, but maybe once I knit with it I'll feel differently.

So it's not you, Booty Club, it's me--I'm declaring 2008 a sock-club catch-up year, at least for now. I have a huge backlog from this year's clubs, and So only one more spoiler left in 2008 (the final Socks that Rock installment), and then it's time to actually knit some of this yarn.

Surprisingly, this wasn't the best thing that I got in the mail today--I had a little visit from Krampus, compliments of a friend in Vienna. In addition to some birch sticks to beat me with, he brought me Mozartkugeln, the made-in-Austria-not-Germany kind. Ahhhh, Mozartkugeln, how I've missed you! Almost as much as I've missed my Viennese friend.

Better Than Knitting Photos . . .

. . . are photos of the yarn from Spincycle Yarns that I bought today at Urban Craft Uprising:

Blue-Faced Leicester handspun, color: Ruination

Merino/Silk handspun, color: Antique Glass

There has been plenty of knitting lately, but nothing new or close to completion (and not enough good light for pretty photos). It's time to start on other Christmas crafts, too--cards, especially. Now that the heat is back (new furnace), I don't have that as an excuse so I should really get cracking. I'm using a New Year's theme this year after a couple of years of Christmas-y colors, so that will buy me an extra week to finish up!