Fell Down in Dallas

Depending upon which blogs you read, vacation yarn and sock yarn "don't count as stash." Somehow I doubt that the yarn I brought home from conference doubly doesn't count as stash--unless that would somehow mean I got to count one fewer skeins of yarn?  Does that work? I didn't think so.

After getting through a swath of meetings at the conference I attended, a friend and I headed off towards the one wool shop that was within walking distance of our hotel. It was only about a 15 minute walk, but Dallas is not particularly walking friendly. Everywhere we went there were ripped up sidewalks and walking under highway overpasses, even during the day, when you just don't see other people about is rather creepy.  Still, we turned into what is probably a very nice neighborhood and located the little house that hosts The Shabby Sheep.

The store comprises the first floor of the house. I couldn't find any particularly sorting method--mostly by weight, but not entirely. Their primary company is Cascade, though I don't recall seeing a wall of 220 like I'm used to--that could be because we were in Texas.  There were many local knitters there, needing help, looking for needles, etc and it was a number of minutes before anyone said anything to my friend and I in way of greeting. We seemed to have just slipped in under the radar, when we were acknowledged they were very friendly.

When shopping out of my local area, I like to find indie dyers or smaller companies that I can't find regularly at Loopy or The Loopy Ewe. And in that I was disappointed.  I could only find one dyer that I didn't immediately recognize as a pretty large/familiar brand.  I went through the five or six skeins of said dyer and picked out the one that didn't look like everything already in my stash.

Sibling the Elder should be pleased: it's Red

It's Pagewood Farm Yukon in "Really Red"  It's a muted/faded red, a little closer to brick than fire engine.  It's a hefty skein, 450 yards, and 70% merino, 20% Bamboo, 10% nylon.  It's got a nice hand on it.  It will probably be socks, though perhaps I'll pair it with something or use it as trim. It looks like it'd make nice sweater trip. That, of course assuming I ever get back to my sweater knitting.

And yes, I did take points off my ChoreWars for it and I had plenty for it.

Because You Had a Bad Day...

Earworm for Blog post title.

I had a rough day recently at work. It was extra long at the end of a long week and I kind of limped out of work only to find out that the plans I was expecting for the evening were on a different day (not my fault, the email had the right date listed but then referred later to the following week). I stumbled into Loopy looking for a little pick me up. 

Fortunately, Veronik Avery has my back. Licking my wounds I emerged from the depths of the Loopy Sock/Lace Weight Room bearing enough fingering weight for a sweater.  It's the Boreale in Ruby Wine and it's lovely. I hope I can get to it this fall because it's just perfect for a pretty and very warm sweater.  With the temperatures in the 50s at nights and in the 60s during the days, I'm going to need those very soon. 

Stitches Midwest Market

The Philosopher and I traipsed out to Schaumburg for an afternoon at the Stitches Midwest Marketplace. We wandered up and down the aisles, taking in all the wools and sights.

He was fascinated with

• Square needles--to the point he ended up getting a set from the Kollage people. 
• Spinning wheels and drop spindles
• Needle felting (but he didn't want to try it)
• Habu Textiles--especially the stainless steel blend yarns.

I was more focused on a couple of dyers I knew, a couple I didn't, and the one booth that had BMFA....

This was my first encounter with Lisa Souza and I hope it won't be my last. I've been hearing about Lisa Souza yarns since I started listening to Lime and Violet but had only seen an example of her yarns in person once at a friend's house.  Now, here I was, faced with an entire booth of gorgeous yarn! How does one possibly choose?  

Well, one could be sneaky and pay attention to the boyfriend who is tagging along and who picks up a skein and mentions that it's awfully pretty and very soft. One might remember a pattern one has been meaning to knit up for said boyfriend, maybe.... 

Lisa and her husband were minding their booth and they were just lovely to chat with. She has beautiful colors and amazing yarn bases. I would definitely enjoy getting more yarn from her.  

Then there was Fiber Optic's booth. I'd run into Kimber's booth in March and ended up the WendyKnit's Mystery KAL out of a skein of her vibrant wool. I still haven't blocked it, which is why you haven't seen the final product yet.  It's in the "block and gift" pile in the living room. It's gorgeous, don't get me wrong, but I don't wear little scarves...

I restrained myself, I only bought two skeins: 

Aren't they shiny? The bright blue is called Catamaran and the darker is Midnight. In natural bright sunlight, they are difficult to look at they are so vibrant.  I'm REALLY looking forward to knitting these up, though I don't really have a plan for them. I think the Midnight I might do a two skein shawl--do the garter/stockinette plain part in black and then add this on the edge.  The Catamaran might just get put into a vase and called art. 

Finally, in the last aisle, I came across the Fold's booth. Now, I'd heard of the Fold, a shop here in Illinois that I've yet to visit though it doesn't appear to be too far away.  And she had the only BMFA that I spotted in the entire event. She had Raven Clan even--so the Philosopher and I could look at how different bases took the dyes differently and he could it see it in it's yarn state (he's seen the shawl my sister made me).  

While I continued to be enamored of all the Raven Clan, I succumbed only to a skein of BMFA Medium Weight, for I am weak in the face of oooh so squishy socks.  

It's called Coppertree and it's everything I picture in fall: a burnt orange, greens and tones of brown.  It's absolutely lovely.  

While I was there, I did get to try out the Signature Needles that have been the hot item on nearly all of the knitting blogs I read/videocasts and podcasts that I subscribe to at present. I really liked the stiletto tips and the needles are very nice. I'm not sure they'd speed up my knitting that much but I definitely liked them. I was slightly disgruntled by the woman sitting at the booth talking about the needles with customers. She was talking about needle length and how a woman she'd seen earlier in the day had a huge red patch on the pinky side of her palm from where the needle was rubbing her hand. I was mid sock so I did a few stitches, looked down at my hands, did a few more stitches and then mentioned that I was surprised it was on the outside, as my needles hit around the base of my thumb.  The woman watched me knit for about 45 seconds and then said, quasi-apologetically, that I knit weirdly.  I'm sure she didn't mean it insultingly but it seems like there could have been a better way to phrase that.  

I did do some other buying while at the wool fest but it's for other people, so unfortunately I can't share it with you.  

Wool in the Muggy City

Now, you didn't think I managed to go to New Orleans and not acquire wool, did you?  Really?

The worst part is I wasn't even trying. I had gotten directions to walk to one of the Louisiana State Museums that is on Jackson Square. I set off out of my hotel, turned at the appropriate corners, stopped at CVS for sunscreen....

And then I saw a sign ahead of me. A needlepoint shop. I don't know many people who do needlepoint but it made more sense than holding an afghan's worth of bulky weight wool in my lap. I slowed just a bit to peer in the windows as I strolled past.

Next thing you knew I was inside the store because I could see the yarn!!

I'd found the Quarter Stitch.



The three ladies and adorable bichon mutt that were there were lovely.  There wasn't a huge selection of wool and nearly all of it was stuff I could get here in Chicago pretty easily. They did have a bit of locally dyed cotton but a) I own way too much cotton b) the skeins were pretty but not quite me and c) they were rather pricey--though good yardage.

I picked up one skein only. One skein of Colinette Jitterbug. I discovered this yarn some time ago and I love it. I think her color sense is gorgeous and I have four colors that some day will turn into a lovely progressing fall tree shawl. I'd planned to use Charlotte's Web, but I haven't fully decided yet.

This is a rich luscious shade of purple called Velvet Bilberry.  It's her new larger put up--400 yards in 150 grams and is priced more expensively because of it.  I'm looking forward to it being part of a beautiful shawl.

The ladies did a lovely job of wrapping it up too! Super cute.  Wish I could have stayed and knitted but there were things to see and conferencing to do.

Long Time Coming

Remember I had a little Loopy Ewe fall down a couple of weeks ago? I had a similar fall down at Blue Moon Fiber Arts about the same time. Only, I realized after I'd left for my conference in Minneapolis, the yarn had never appeared.

I checked the tracking number and was told that yes, indeed it had been delivered. Hmmm.....

Now, usually mail shows up without too many problems, but this is the second package that I've had stolen.  I'm curious, who steals sock yarn? The USPS has been absolutely no help at all on the track-the-missing-package process, I've got a typed letter ready to go to the Post Master on Tuesday to describe in full detail the poor customer service I received. An entire section of it outlines the five minute rant of excuses I received from the one clerk that I spoke to before she even asked what exactly my problem was, which included nothing ever being her fault, a lack of having my mailbox labeled (it's labeled), and that she was just walking past a ringing phone and answered it--so she couldn't possibly help me.

Fortunately, the fantastic ladies BMFA are exemplary at customer service. Phenomenal, even. I received understanding and a reshipment to the Philosopher's address without question (THANK YOU PAULA). It's sad that future wool shipments will have to go to someone else's place or to the UPS store around the corner, where I incur an extra $5 fee for the guys to receive a package for me because the USPS is regularly unreliable.



Anywho, I got some new STR Medium Weight. It's squishy and I love it and I realized after it was shipped that one of the colorways was one I'd already purchased. All the colors that I love from Blue Moon and I now have two My Blue Heavens. Oops. I suppose there are worse things than two skeins of yarn in blues that I think are beautiful, right?

It gets better.

I went to add the new stash to Ravelry. And not only do I already have a skein of My Blue Heaven, I also have a skein of Puck's Mischief--which would be that colorway in the middle.

*headdesk* I am nothing, it seems, if not consistent. For all future BMFA orders, I apparently will have to make myself check Ravelry BEFORE I hit the buy button. 

And There Was Cotton....

I was doing so well. Truly! I'd not bought very much yarn this year and I was feeling all virtuous. Pride before a fall and all that. 

Apparently, and this was news to me, Pisgah and Co are going out of business/have sold Peaches and Creme to a new Canadian company Spinrite. What this means for those of us with a bit of a cotton obsession remains to be seen, Peaches and Creme has been one of those go to places when one needs large quantities of cotton for some time. Certainly I've purchased a fair amount before. 

It did, however, also mean than cones of the bulky weight were on deep discount. As in, cones for $2.28, click there at your own risk because suddenly I owned a TON of cotton.

I probably could have carried it home from the UPS store, but I wasn't sure just how big the box would be.



Gypsy was happy to inspect, particularly after I'd opened the box




I now have 14 cones and 4 skeins of Peaches and Creme bulky weight. It's still in the box mostly because I don't begin to have anywhere in my apartment to put it. I have started making washcloths out of the Black Cherry (black/pink/white) (30 stitches, 3 stitch garter border, stockinette) and I've got a grocery bag out of the Peppermint (red/pink/white) going--just out of self-preservation and in a vain attempt to prove that I'll use it up. AudioGirl has already called a couple of cones for a new bathmat. The Incredibly Patient Mother has suggested that sometime next decade she might need more washcloths. I think everyone is getting bath scrubbies for Christmas. 

Also--I apologize for anyone who was following my Flickr or Rav stream earlier this week and got glutted with cotton shots. 

So much for losing stash weight this year. *sigh* But at those prices....

Windy Knitty: New Chicago Wool Shop.

I hauled the Philosopher yarn shopping recently. Windy Knitty just recently opened on the north side of Chicago, far enough away that it's is probably best combined with other North on the Red Line errands or destinations but still, very accessible by train or car.

There's not even a speck of dust, it's so new--the grand opening was only right at the end of March. It's a lovely large storefront on Clark street, with huge front windows and plenty of natural light. We walked in, said hello, and I started pointing out brands that I saw.


New to me local Chicago dyer. Very nice vibrant colors. Good base. Could definitely see myself getting more of this.


How does one resist Three Irish Girls IN PERSON!

After leaving, and somehow restraining myself to only two new skeins of sock wool, we discussed the experience. He likened yarn collecting to wine collection. We have our different vineyards (dyers) with small local suppliers and large companies, we have different vintages (dyelots) some of which are good and some of which are less so, we have different types of grapes (sheep) which are carefully mixed or not mixed, we mix grapes (or fibers).  There are people who are incredibly brand loyal, we tend to buy a lot and save for special occasions, it's perfectly normal to wait a couple of years before using or decanting. And for $20, you can get a pretty decent item be it sock yarn or a bottle of red wine.

It's a little far to go for knit night, but I'll give it a shot. Certainly I'll go back in search of some stash enhancement.

Okay...so This is Stash

One of the things I love about Webs is their discount program. Spend $60 and get a 20% discount. This meant when I was placing my recent Cascade order, that it was cheaper if I purchased more yarn than I needed.

So what does a girl in need of extra yarn to round things out and get that discount do? Head straight for the Malabrigo bin, that's what.



Malabrigo Sock yarn in Cote d'Azure never goes wrong does it? 450 yards is enough to make a lovely small shawl or lacy scarf or warm hat or or or....

And while I was down at Kathryn's (Ewetopia Fiber Shop) I had to have a rummage through her handdyed.  I know you've heard me rave about it before but she has good bases and I appreciate her eye for color combination.  Not everything she creates appeals to me, but neither does everything from the Wollmeise.

So anyway, this time I grabbed a skein of her 100% Merino Sportweight in the Water Lily colorway.



Some of the blues are a bit more teal/green than the camera captured. It's bright and cheerful, a little brighter than usual for me even. And squishy as always.

I also found some new interesting fingering weight which really is sock yarn but I doubt will ever be socks off of my needles.





Lang Yarns Tosca Light in a blueberry colorway. It's another progressive colorway, shifting through blues, purples, and teals. (Show of hands, who isn't surprised about this colorway following me home.)

And yes...obligatory cat in the shot.  She was really most excited about the brown paper bag that I brought home everything from EFS in.  Yarn we have every day but paper bags...those are a special treat.  

Does It Count As Stash

If you have a project already planned for it?

While I have added a smidge of new things to the stash, most of my recent purchases have been targeted towards Christmas or other requested gifts. 

I have a stealth project that has to be done by Friday, the yarn arrived yesterday.  Fortunately, it's small.  But the Brunette and My-Friend-the-Lawyer have both put in a request for gloves. The Brunette would like flip top mitten types for texting (he needs a flip thumb too) and MFTL would like all fingers but no tips--again for texting. And since the Brunette is married and has a husband prone to abscond with handknits (not that I'm complaining)--I need to make two pair. I just found some black fingering weight in the stash that I don't think is on my Ravelry page. Might make some watch caps to go with all of these mitts. So here's the yarn (minus black) for those mitts and not-very-secret-project. It's all Cascade 220 Superwash. 



The other thing I'm working on is a mass of City Shawls. These have a planned destination but at least one I still needed yarn for. (Of course I needed different yarn).

So a trip to Ewetopia Fiber Shop was in order and to fill the need I grabbed 3 skeins of Berroco Peruvia Quick.  It's delicious, a wonderfully squishy 100% Peruvian Highland Wool in a deep blue with hints of purple underneath.Can't wait to get it going...





Now then, I just need to round up some super glue to repair my size 15 circulars...

In Which There is MORE new yarn...

I'm considering leaving my coworkers instructions--if you don't hear from me within a couple of days, the stash should be searched. 

Two weekends ago I grabbed up three of my knitting girls for WWKIP in Viroqua. Owner Kathryn was hosting and we were off. It was a gorgeous sunny day. The girls browsed about the shop and I sat outside with the Rainbow Shawl. No new pictures of that, I haven't touched it in days. 

So of course, being that we were in a yarn store and all, I bought yarn.  I got some new Berroco but I've already stuffed it somewhere in the pre-traveling-house-sitter-coming cleaning frenzy and my brain has managed to completely erase where it was that I put it. 

Fortunately, I also hit the hand-dyed sock yarn wall and I didn't hide that from myself--so not all is lost:

Now, if you look in my stash you'll see I already have some yarn that is very very similar to this. In fact, it's probably dang near close to identical. (I haven't compared them yet, it's not hugely important.) Point is, I really think it's gorgeous and I would like to do a "bigger than one skein" project--so...now I will do a two skein project, probably alternating every two rows through the whole project and driving myself slowly but surely insane. 

Also, Em located a sale table! This lovely skein was half price because of a couple of knots. If only Noro cared so much, I fight be inclined to buy their yarn. As it was, I think we cleaned K out.

No plans for the yarn as yet, but it's here at Chez Hedgehog and it's pretty.  And as the Incredible Patient Mother reminds me, I could have far stranger/worse habits than the collection of beautiful skeins of (mostly) wool. 

Scottish Surprise

A close friend of mine (waves towards Madison, WI) got stuck in the ash cloud from the volcano. She and her husband had been scheduled to fly home and things should have been okay--except for the backlog of fliers trying to get out of the U.K.

Such it was she was left scrambling for accommodations--did anyone know of a place they could crash for a couple of nights while their flight days were pushed back something like 5 days? Hotels were an option but a highly costly one--and this would already cost her in vacation time.

It so happens she was in Edinburgh, where a friend of my mine lives. I've never met that friend, but if you dig through the archives on Hedgehog Librarian, you'll find Jennie mentioned. I tweeted a little frantically.  And Jennie came through for them: a friend had an open flat they could borrow until it was time to fly back.

It was quite the all's well that ends well and they got home safe and to well fed cats (the joy of good cat-sitters!).

And then a package turned up for me at work this week. It came in a Pet Pills box.  As I'd not ordered her furriness any medications, I knew it couldn't be anything I'd purchased. 



I opened to find Scottish Tweed--colors that reminded my friend of the views around her.


It's a slightly rougher yarn--not the smooth of merino but a crispier feel. And it will be something I can make and remind me of what happened and the somewhat frantic attempts to connect--via Twitter, Friendfeed and email, from Wisconsin to Edinburgh.

This yarn comes with memories already packaged.

Oh But It's Pretty.....

Sherri at The Loopy Ewe, in her infinite and sales canny wisdom, started a Twitter account that alerts the faithful to Wollmeise and other coveted yarn updates. I have to respect her, she knows how to appeal to those of us who would love to stalk the site pressing F5 all day but can't.

With the advent of Twitter to phone updates though....

I've only had one major fall down.  I've resisted several updates and sprints to grabbing the shiny yarn.  It was a Sanguine Gryphon Bugga/Skinny Bugga update. A "before Sherri said we need more than this when you ship us yarn" update--so you can imagine the web sprinting that occurred. And I got some of the coveted blue/greens...

Apparently I'm not alone in my love of things blue-green-purple. My sister and I were talking today about how predictable I am in my love of those three colors. Considering what you're gonna see in the updates coming, you will probably agree.

I was good--I grabbed the camera before opening the box.


Pulling it out--there was a lot of oooooh shiny



It's a mix of regular and skinny Bugga. No clue what I'll make with any of it. I like Bugga very much (the cashmere part helps) and SG's colors are stunning, absolutely stunning. It seems a shame to knit socks, so I think there will probably be some progressive shawls in my future.

And some individual shots.











Anybody else hearing Right Said Fred singing "I'm too sexy for my love....love's going to leave me..."

Does Anyone Read Arabic?

It was our last day in Egypt. Oh...btw, the pictures from that trip are finally going up over at Hedgehog Librarian, if you don't follow along there already. 

Anyway, I leaned up to our guide and told her I knitted and I was looking for yarn. Did she have any ideas where to buy some?  By this point in the trip I'd stopped carrying my knitting so I couldn't show her the barely worked on sock I'd been ignoring. She had to think about it for a minute to come up with what I was talking about--but once we figured out that I meant the craft with two sticks rather than a hook, we were fine.

Marwa didn't knit but she had some friends/family who did other similar crafts. So she made some phone calls. At the end of the day and our trip to the Bazaar, things weren't looking good. We climbed back into the van and headed for our hotel and there, as we were on the on ramp to the highway--I saw a stall packed floor to ceiling with yarn.

Only, we were on the on ramp, on the wrong side of a ten foot fence--and it was in an area of the Bazaar that was outside where the official guides are allowed to take tourists. So we couldn't have gone there without costing Marwa her job.

Still, she had one more thought. We'd leave the van at our hotel and then walk to a nearby fabric stall. Perhaps they would have yarn? It was a safe place she could take us and on the way to where we planned to have dinner, so that was agreeable.

The shop was very small--room for two small counters, shelves floor to ceiling, and a couple of folding chairs. There was a small television in the corner. And there was a cabinet, the upper half of which was filled with yarn.

Most of it was strange Chinese yarn--with names for various man made fibers that I'd never heard of. I didn't really want that--we were in Egypt. I can buy stuff made in China in the US--though I have to say I've never seen any of those yarns here.

There was some Egyptian cotton--at least, that's what Marwa told me it was. It feels like cotton and it was available in several colors. I cleaned out my wallet of Egyptian pounds, paying about $1.25 per skein.

I don't know what I'll make with it--but it's vibrant, and it's vacation yarn--so it doesn't count as stash. And I bought yarn in Egypt!! 

Does anyone read Arabic who could translate the label for me?

Best Trade Ever...

Late last fall, a high school classmate mentioned she was going to teach English in Peru on Facebook. I made a passing comment about buying yarn.

Slightly later last fall, same classmate said she needed someone in Wisconsin to pick up a few bottles of a local wine, her new favorite white wine that's made at one of the local wineries here and apparently doesn't get shipped out of state.

I reminded her that I'm in Wisconsin and would be at my mom's for Christmas. She suggested wine for yarn.

A plot was immediately hatched.

I turned up at her house over Christmas with wine and we spent a few minutes chatting. First time we've spoken really since graduation and, while things have changed, a lot has stayed the same or followed a trajectory we sort of saw then. Kind of.  Okay, so we're not living in DC, working for a major newspaper, taking fabulous coffee breaks on the hour but hey...she's teaching college English and I'm a librarian. We're still on the right-brained side of things.

She was off to Peru and I stalked her travel blog, wondering if she'd mention the odd shopping that needed to be done. I got a Facebook message: what colors did I like? I sent back: blue, green, purple. 

And then, several weeks before she was due home from Peru, I arrived home to a box. A Fed Ex box. This confused me, I always have Fed Ex deliver to work. I didn't recognize the return label name either and then it struck me--it was her husband. Her husband who had just taken a trip down there to see her! ALPACA!!!

There are 12 balls of green and 12 balls of a blue/purple. I'm estimating a DK weight and I have no clue on the yardage. Certainly enough to make a long sleeved sweater in each color, probably a fairly heavily cabled sweater. It's soft and luscious and soooo off limits to the cat--who loves alpaca. 

It Followed Me Home....

One of my justifications for binging at my LYSs is that they are local businesses, they are owned and run by lovely women, and I want them to stay here and keep selling yarn. If my splurge helps their doors to stay open and it's not costing all the catnip money--then I think we're okay.

Part of the pleasure of hosting a knitting in public day, especially when one has a generous budget with which to play as I did this year, is getting to buy raffle prizes. I do get donations, which I very much appreciate, but I like to supplement where I can, which means a pre-KIP-shopping-trip to my three local yarn stores. (Technically there are four, but I won't shop in one of them.)

Our Lady of the Business Office even agreed to drive this year! Extra knitting time! Also--she pays and I don't have to buy and then get reimbursed! This is an excellent way to go yarn shopping--though OLotBO likes to take back roads, which are all windy and twisty and equal a carsick Hedgehog.

First we went to Viroqua, home of Ewetopia Fiber Shop. I picked up a Pom Pom maker to use with my kids group--they adore pom poms and it uses up yarn like nobody's business. Since my kids group is going on hiatus in May for a while, using up yarn would be a good thing.

I also picked up three skeins of Queensland Haze, which is 60% Corn Viscose and 40% Cotton; 275 yds/skein It's in the surprising shades of blue/green and should be enough yardage for a simple tank top. I'm thinking about the Honeymoon Cami from Knitty. I saw a friend wearing one and loved it.


Next we drove over to the Salem Stitchery. Tammy carries a lot of embroidery things as well as yarn, but she has this huge wonderful wall of Cascade 220. She also carries interesting yarns I've never seen anywhere else. If I could figure out what to do with them, I'd buy her stock of Rauma yarns from Norway. It's rough and scratchy and I'll bet it softens up beautifully with a wool wash and is incredibly warm and wears forever. I have a couple skeins around here somewhere and gave some to one of the kids in my knitting group. 

This trip though I bought English wool in an Olive Green. No, olive isn't particularly my shade and yes, I just knitted a ridiculous amount of a similar shade for an afghan for my brother. But I picked up 5 skeins and I'll find something interesting to make with it. 





Finally, it was over to Baskets of Yarn. Wouldn't you know Judy had a sign out front that said "Yarn Sale." Be still my bleeding checkbook...I knew she was moving and hoping to not move all her inventory, so there were things to be had within. 

And were there! Immediately I was drawn to the "Bear Hug" kit: pattern, yarn, and bear buttons all wrapped into a cute ball. I have at least four friends who are having babies in the next 4 months. I'm only knitting for one of them but lookit! So cute! I couldn't resist.

I also bought a skein of sock yarn. Black and white with pink and some shots of green. I'm thinking mittens. I'm also thinking the yarn fumes might have gotten to me on that one because that's not normal Hedgehog. I was on my third store by that point.  I also got 10% off purchase coupons for her new location for the Knitting in Public Day. I hope everyone rushed the store....certainly I'll be headed that way.

Good Mail Days

I keep swearing off yarn buying--why this is I don't know. I love yarn, I use yarn, I share yarn I no longer love with others. It's not a huge portion of my annual budget--though it rivals what I spend on plane tickets.

But then, then my sister has to go and point out that Discontinued Name Brand Yarn had Louet. I have a huge soft spot for Louet Gems, it was one of the first really good yarns that I realized I'd be willing to spend an entire paycheck on with only a minimum of guilt. And did I mention that somewhere on the trip home from Egypt I misplaced one of my new finished fingerless mitts?  I was seriously bummed about that.

I did manage to somewhat restrain myself.  I cleaned them out of Indigo (I bought both skeins), got a bag of Cloud, and picked up some worsted in a color I would normally never buy (citrus) for a project for a friend who is much more orange inclined than I am.

 










That really should have been enough to tide me over for a bit, right? But then somebody said one of the magic phrases: Bugga's up at The Loopy Ewe!

I really like the colors the Sanguine Gryphon dyes and made my first full adult pair of socks from the Eidos sock base. I've heard raves about the Bugga and Skinny Bugga yarn base--which have that elusive and expensive fiber: cashmere.  Plus, there's that whole rarity, it's going to sell out in five minutes, run go now effect. 

The result?  One skein:

The other colors (that were left by the time I got there) were okay but not really to my taste.  Still, when it arrived and I felt it--there was an ooooooooooooh soft moment. This yarn will not be socks. I think it's going to become one of WendyKnit's shawlettes. 

And will someone please remind me the next time that I decide to make a Clapotis that to do so in Malabrigo means I have to unpick, two rows at a time, every dropped stitch row? That added at least two hours onto the project time....