Starting new stuff.

This always makes me happy.

The other night, wanting a new pair of simple socks ("purse socks," as some on Ravelry call them - a sock project you carry in your purse in case you get stuck waiting somewhere), I pulled out some of the Kureyon sock yarn I bought back in December and started. I'm doing 80 sts on size 0 needles, because the Kureyon is VERY fine and also kind of unevenly spun.

I have to admit I'm unconvinced as to its wonderfulness, but I'm holding off on totally deciding (and offering the other ball I have as a swap item) until I finish the socks and get them washed. I've heard the yarn is much nicer once you soak it a bit in water with a little shampoo.

I'm also finishing up my first Pay it Forward project and am preparing to start the second - this one will be crocheted and it's a pattern that, if it works out well, will be a good gift-pattern for several folks I know because it's a neat little thing that is useful.

I also want to start a new shawl now that both the Landscape Shawl and the latest Clapotis is off the needles. I'm sort of torn between doing the Bird's Nest Shawl that I have camel yarn in-stash for, and some kind of lacier shawl out of skinny yarn. I'm still thinking on this one.

And I started a new quilt - I'm doing a pattern called Bento Box (there are two patterns named that out there; this one is a modification of the Log Cabin - an example of a finished quilt is here). I'm using some very bright, sort of 70s-inspired (wild paisleys and the like) prints. (The colors aren't exactly what I think of as 70s colors, though - there's brown and sort of candylike pastels: turquoise and lilac and peach and pink are the dominant colors).

I also want to start another Tumbler quilt. I like doing the one-patch type quilts, and I also like how they look when they're done. (And I already have the template for cutting tumblers). I think this one will be more charm-quilt-like and I will use my large stash of 1930s reproduction fabrics. I'm thinking what I might do is just pull out fabrics here and there and cut two or three patches out of each as I feel like doing some cutting-out, and eventually build up a large enough pile to make the quilt. If I'm really organized, I'll figure out ahead of time how many I need and keep a tally of how many I cut so I'll know when it's time to sew. (And, of course, if it turns out I don't have enough different fabrics...the new-ish little quilt shop that is RIGHT IN MY TOWN has some of the 30s reproduction fabrics).

Yes. Little quilt shop RIGHT IN MY TOWN.

You don't know how big that is for me. This is the first real craft-oriented shop we've got, and it's a craft-oriented shop that caters to one of my loves. It makes me very happy to have the idea of going down to it "in my pocket" so to speak - if I have a really bad day I can tell myself, "If you can get off campus while the quilt shop is still open, you could always go down and see if they have anything new or get yourself a fat quarter or a new packet of needles." Or if I have a Saturday afternoon when I'm kind of bumming around and just need to get out and have some fun, I can run over there and wander among the bolts of fabric for a while.

It's funny but I never realized how happy that makes me. It's kind of like my grad-school days when Babbitt's Books was just a few blocks from my office, and when the data didn't behave (or when I'd worked really well all morning and deserved a little treat), I could walk down there and look at used books for a while and see if there was anything I wanted.

Because quilt shops (and yarn shops, and book stores) are kind of my Tiffany's. (Remember Holly Golightly? "Nothing bad can happen to you in there"?). It feeds my soul to have it there, even if I don't go in very often.