New books!

Since I'm on a yarn diet and trying hard to compensate in other ways (all my energy normally spent ogling yarn has shifted to fiber for spinning and books for inspiration), I used my last Amazon gift certificate (I love my Amazon Visa. You earn points on everything and get gift certificates to buy stuff on Amazon. Which somehow inspires more buying) to buy Fitted Knits and Favorite Socks. I haven't had a ton of time to flip through them, but what I've seen I like. My favorite knitting books (and blogs!) tend to be the ones with really nice photography - closeups of yarn for texture, good color balances, etc. (Brooklyn Tweed is a favorite here). More later on the projects.

I've been getting a far amount of knitting in while at work - doing viscosity measurements leaves alot of wait time, which translates into knitting of course. Naturally I've been getting some strange looks in the lab, but my Jaywalkers are progressing nicely. Last night I finally bit the bullet and started another crocheted ripple blanket with my purple novelty yarns. A few years ago the local craft store in Napa had a closing sale and my mom bought me alot of Cystal Palace yarns. I love the colors and textures, but I can't figure out what I would do with them that I would wear. For me, there are some yarns that are better as accesssories than as garments (just as there are some colors that are better as accents than main colors. A sea green Suburban comes to mind) and the feathery yarn my mom sent me falls into this category. So, it's going to become a lap blanket. If I can stop messing up the pattern - it's hard to find stitches in eyelash yarn.

Time to head into lab - happy Friday!