Pretty yarn is like kryptonite......

Let's start by agreeing going on Etsy when bored, stressed, or tired is a bad idea.   Pretty things find

Cardinal Colorway from Yarn Loving Lady

you.   Hand dyed yarn can glow off the screen wiping your resolve to not buy more yarn completely away.   This happened to me last week.

After the cabin fever last winter, I do try to stay off Etsy.   I know I am weak.  I know I don't need more yarn, more knitting bags, more tape measures...or much of anything else.   Sometimes, a woman just has to browse.

Yarn Loving Lady is definitely an Etsy Store to check out. She has beautiful colorways...and there is a choice of bases for each.  As sock yarn doesn't count...thank you Yarn Harlot.... my skein arrived on Monday.   Today it will become a ball of yarn ready to be knit into socks for me.

Socks keep coming from the needles...

While I am working with a cardigan for a boy that has me miffed and will not be mentioned at this

time, I have also been knitting socks.  These socks have all been for me.   Do I need more?  Sort of....the slightly thicker kind for Minnesota winter bus commutes.

Today a pair of Regia Design Line Arne and Carlos 6 ply socks got finished over lunch. 

This pair, I did not even try to make match...yet somehow, the socks pretty much do.   My feet will be matching and stylish this winter.

As I work on different projects, I often feel the need to sharpen my skills.  Sometimes it is a matter of finding a better way to do something...other times, I need to learn (or re-learn) a technique.  YouTube is a godsend.  It is great to be able to watch, repeatedly if need be, the same motions over and over explained by someone who is really skilled at both knitting and explaining what to do.

As part of the small cardigan I am not speaking of, I wanted to learn a better way to catch floats in stranded knitting.  During this research, I found Nancy Wynn and her fabulous tutorials.   I highly recommend spending time on this site.

I had tried to work the cardigan using both colors in my left hand.  The knitting was tedious and bothered my hands.  Returning to my two-handed stranded method, my knitting even out and I have been much happier.   Lesson:   While it is good to try new things, it is okay to go back to doing what makes you happy.