The knitting bug has a good hold on me - I’ve reached the point where I can’t keep track of all my needles! I was trying to work on a project last night and just knew I had a 24” 3.75 mm circular somewhere... but it wasnot in my basket. Fortunately I had started this yesterday afternoon and, while it wasn’t able to help me last night, I hope it will serve me well in the future...
 
Meet my new circular needle case.

I spent some time the other day looking at various needle cases on the internet to compare styles and features before designing my own. The overall dimensions, completely open, are roughly 14” wide by 14.5” tall. All three fabrics came from fat quarters I got in a quilt shop on vacation last summer. There are twelve pockets but I think that I could easily get two smaller gauge needles into one pocket. Right now I am comfortably storing all my circulars ranging from a skinny 3.00 mm to my jumbo 17 mm. I can fit the cards from the needle packages in too so I’ll know what I should have when something goes wandering.
 
PS. Since I couldn’t find the circular I wanted I ended up starting a different project (on DPNs). I’m finished the cuff of my first Endpaper Mitt and all ready to begin the colour work.

 

This is the first product off my very own spindle. What began as a piece of nice grey roving is now a silvery two-ply. I think I might make this into a wrist distaff to help me with my next spinning project.
 
Weight: aprox. 10g
Length: aprox. 11m

 

This is my vacation shopping yarn stash! I went down to Edmonton with a bunch of patterns and some vague ideas for colours and walked into River City Yarns , which had been particularly recommended to me by somefriends. The ladies at the shop were very nice and helped me find appropriate yarns for all my projects. I had three of the skeins I bought wound into balls at the shop so I can use them right away. I’m a little proud of myself for buying only one skein that is not designated for a specific project but actually true stash yarn for some future idea. There were so many wonderful yarns that it was difficult to pick only a few. My only disappointment was not to find any spindles but, as Rob said yesterday on our flight back, there is no way I’d have managed to fit a spindle into out bags anyway.

Here are my yarns:

First, Rob helped me pick out two nearly solid shades of Socks that Rock - Lightweight for the Endpaper Mitts pattern by Eunny Jang. The top colour is “Beryl” and the bottom is “Jasper”.

Sticking with Socks that Rock I chose a mediumweight in “Rolling Stone” for the Purl Beret .

And then a heavyweight in “Rose Quartz” for the Cabled Fingerless pattern. The blue skein in behind the pink is “Midsummer Night” and was just to pretty to pass up - my official stash yarn.

I got one ball of Rowan Calmer in “Powder Puff” (Shade 482) to make up Twinkletoes from the last issue of Knitty.


Three balls of Noro Kureyon are for the Booga Bag Pattern which I printed off ages ago but didn’t have yarn for.

Finally, there are three skeins of Manos del Uruguay in “Mallard” to become a scarf for Rob.

I had to get needles for several of my new projects too so I now have a slightly fuller needle collection.