Yarn Stuff

Today my friend Christy took me on an outing to Yarn Forward so I could stock up on materials for knitting during this healing process. Here are the spoils:

I have great plans for this heap of wool!

Here is a bit of knit-history (knitstory?) for you:
Last fall I got bit by the knitting bug, hard. I have know how to knit since my mom taught me when I was six. I have knit on and off ever since with some breaks for crochet and cross stitch. When I was in university, I didn't have much time for any sort of crafting (a Chemical Physics degree will do that to you...).
So how did I get bit by the knitting bug? A friend of mine from work was expecting a baby girl last September. I decided I needed to knit her something for her new little one. I started with the Umbilical Cord Hat from Stitch n Bitch by Debbie Stoller. I knit this in Northern Worsted by Kertzer in a colourway called Ocean Wave.

I found that I couldn't stop at the hat, I had to complete the set with some booties. I scoured the internet for a bootie pattern that made sense. I don't like the idea of having a seam running up the bottom of the baby's little foot. I realize the baby won't be walking on them and won't feel them but I know that I would be uncomfortable in sock or slipper with a big seam along the bottom. I didn't know about Ravelry then so I was relying on Google searches. I found a great pattern for seamless Gansey Booties by Lobolita. Even for a relatively novice knitter, they turned out pretty well (we'll just choose to ignore the one failed bootie that didn't fit due to an extremely tight bind-off!).