Welcome to Gaia! ::

Since I spend 99.9% of the year knitting/crocheting for others, I've decided that once a year, for one project I'm going to make something for myself. This year (again) is going to be a sweater.

I ordered the yarn (super soft baby alpaca from knitpicks) and bought the pattern. I should have everything delivered in the next week or two because of the bad weather. I cannot describe how excited I am to start this project.


I'll be starting a project thread with progress and pictures as I go. Sorry that I haven't been around much. Since I started working again, most of my time is taken up with being there. When I'm not going to or from work, at work or sleeping for work it feels like I'm just cooking/eating/showering/dressing for work. Every other spare minute is spent taking care of my family and pets. Hopefully soon I can find a balance and have more time to log onto Gaia.

Public transportation isn't very common in my area so I drive myself. It takes about half an hour to get to work, depending on the weather and traffic. Yesterday because of the blizzard it took me an hour to get there and I only worked an hour before they (mercifully) let us out before state of emergency was called. It took me more than an hour (and it was a white knuckle drive home with quite a few close calls) before I got back to the house.


The last sweater I made was with fisherman's wool because it was the cheapest stuff I could find in natural fibers around and it's too scratchy for me to wear regularly. So you can imagine when I tried out the baby alpaca yarn from knitpicks and it felt like baby angle kitten butts.

I haven't heard anything from Ash for a while, so I'm not sure what's going on with her. I checked her facebook page for her shop and it's equally as empty. I would guess that she's too sick or wrapped up in other stuff to be here but that's totally understandable.


Also, the baby alpaca yarn that I mentioned has (so far) been perfect for me. I have wool allergies too, and anything wool against my neck or similar areas makes me itch like I've just rolled in poison ivy. At least, I assume that's what it would feel like because ironically enough I'm not allergic to poison ivy.

It's also not sheddy, at least twice as warm and has better moisture wicking and waterproofing than regular wool. If you've ever felt really nice merino wool, it's at that level but cheaper. The only small complaint I have right now is that it's fuzzier than say, regular merino or superwash merino so the stitch definition isn't as strong. Not a big deal though, it still looks gorgeous.

Knitpicks has a brand for 5.49/50g ball that seems kind of pricey really expensive if you're used to picking up acrylics like RHSS or Caron yarn but I swear hands down that it's worth every penny. This stuff feels like cashmere, it works up well and it's stood up well to frogging and ripping back so far.



Weather Update Here: We're finally above zero for the first time in days, I got my car un-buried, unfrozen and started. We're sort of making progress on the driveway (It's clear enough to park in but still snow packed) and everyone made it through safe and sound.