Work in Progress Wednesday v.77

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  I'm ecstatic to report that there's not much on the needles around here this week, since Lorna Suzanne is done (!) and swimming around in a sink full of Soak as we speak.  If I can find some buttons, I'll be all ready to share on Friday.  Eep!  I'm so excited.  This one will definitely be a great candidate for one of those Blocking:  Before and After photos (I hope), because it was looking seriously rough when it went into the bath.  The collar was curled, the hem was flipped, the lace was scrunched.  It was not pretty.  Keep your fingers crossed!

In other news, the Duckie sock has been feeling some love this week when I wasn't working like mad to finish up the sweater.  We have heel turn, folks:

I'm still madly in love with this yarn, and convinced that I need to try the fingering weight version.  It's a dream to knit with, the colors are gorgeous (and much more muted than in this stinky pic) and it feels amazing in my hands.  Love.

The mitten has been utterly neglected this week in my push to finish the sweater.  Since it was not the sweater, and not a portable project, it got back-burnered in a big way.  I've pulled it out again today though and here's how it looks now, just having started the thumb gusset. 

More love for the mitten this week, I promise!

That's it for stuff on the needles, but happily I now have some more stuff next to the needles.  Do y'all know about The Loopy Ewe?  They're an online seller of loads of incredible yarns, and (I think, but don't quote me on this) one of the only places in the US where you can buy the yarn snob's holy grail:   Woolmeise.  Until very recently, they were based in St. Louis, with a small store front where local folks could come in and shop.

As luck would have it, they just packed it all up and moved to Colorado!  What're the odds?  Anyway, they opened on Thursday and I had to wait all the way until Saturday to make the 80 mile drive north to go visit.  And it was awesome!  So much gorgeous yarn, and so beautifully organized, and such friendly people that I lost my mind just a tiny bit.

Say hello to my new friend Madelinetosh (Tosh Sock) in Calligraphy.

It doesn't photograph so well in crappy light, but it is beyond beautiful.  Sigh.

I also made friends with Stonehedge Fiber Mill Shepherd's Wool in Sage.  Four times.

I can't begin to describe how soft this yarn is, and I love, love, love this color.  A quick peek at the Ravelry comments tells me that some folks have had trouble with it pilling, but I have high hopes regardless.  It's set aside for Narragansett.

If I weren't getting ready to go to Stitches West, I'd have lost my head some more, but I'm practicing restraint.  In case you're not in the mood to practice restraint, I've installed a little Loopy Ewe button over there on the right and you can click over and see what all the fuss is about.  I gotta say, I'm pretty smitten.  I even joined up and became a Loopy Groupie! 

That's all for this week, I'm getting ready to dive into a few little projects for my swap partner in the next couple of days so we'll all have something shiny and new to look forward to next time.  Whee!  Until then, you can content yourself with checking out the amazing projects that are happening on the rest of the WIPW pages.