yarn musings

I wound my skein of Schaefer Anne. It's such a gorgeous yarn. For some reason I had a real problem getting it to wind--I don't know if I got the skein twisted somehow, though it looked okay, or whether the swift needs oiling or what, but it was pulling the yarn really hard, so I was having to pull lengths loose and wind, then pull loose another length and wind, really a pain. Once I got it done, I re-wound it from the hard ball into another, looser ball "to give the yarn a chance to relax," as they say on the various knitting lists, and this time it wound just fine. I must say, it's an impeccably-behaved yarn--it had many opportunities to tangle as the suri yarn did, but consistently straightened itself out as it went through my fingers. It's a very fine fingering--you could almost call it a heavy lace-weight. And the colors of this particular skein are soooooooo rich and sumptuous. I'm really looking forward to working with it, though I may not be able to manage socks on them--as loose a knitter as I am, I bet I'd have to use 00s to get a tight enough fabric, which is a pretty daunting prospect. So it might turn into lace. We'll see. I think Schaefer has another sock yarn that's not quite as fine...

I'm fighting off serious yarn lust. There are so many beautiful yarns out there--right now, besides more Schaefer Anne and Koigu, I want some Apple Laine, and some solid-color Regia Silk, and Louet for making Cookie A. patterns, and Noro Kureyon, and there are people doing some marvellous hand-painted yarns on etsy.com. *sigh* I ought to e-bay parts of my stash I'm pretty sure I'm never going to actually use; maybe then I could, erm, buy more yarn to replace it. *koff*

I've been thinking about Pink Ribbon socks ( http://www.lloydknitting.com/pink_ribbons_sock.htm). I wonder if you could do them beaded? I was thinking something like white Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock with the little ribbon motifs knit with pink beads. I did a quick count on the pattern and it looks like it would take about 78 beads per motif, and there are 4 motifs on the pattern as it's written, so that would be 640 beads for a pair, give or take a few. I've never tried the crochet method, but I've done some of Jackie E-S's beaded socks, and you string the beads onto the yarn for hers, which worked fine for me. Earthfaire (www.earthfaire.com) recommends size 8/0 for fingering/sock weight.

Uh--yeah, I know, I was just saying I have too many projects going. I've been working on the alpaca lace-rib socks this afternoon. It would look pretty to carry the lace pattern down the foot, but it would be warmer to just do stocking stitch. Also less bumpy.

I'm starting to get that if I feel awful my temp's low (96.something); if I'm feeling better, it's higher (97.something). So the question is--how to keep it up?