Healing from a (yarn) tragedy...and other knitterly tales

After the horrible event that occurred with this beloved skein of Sea Silk and Mermaid Wrap, I felt that I should immediately try to replace it to try to erase some of the trauma....you know, get back on the horse that threw you and all that....and also because I am hopelessly impetuous! Unfortunately, there was no more available at my local LYS in the beautiful blue/green color I had, so I decided on this one...

Do you think it's a worthy replacement? I wasn't so sure I wanted to go with a variegated colorway, since the previous skein had subtle color changes in similar shades and the solid appearance showed the stitch pattern very well. But I wanted to get my Mermaid Wrap cast on again asap, so I thought I'd give this one a try. Though after it was wound into a cake, my love for it immediately grew! The colors remind me of sherbet---very summery!

Of course, I had to cast on Version 2.0 the minute I got home and I made a little progress...

Here's where I left off yesterday, and though the stitch pattern is not quite as clearly defined as in it's predecessor, how can you help but love these colors?

I think it will be beautiful when it is finished! I'm anxious to get as much done on it as possible because I am starting a new job next week, and won't have much knitting time for a while (sniffle, sniffle....goodbye to the knitting freedom of temporary unemployment....). Though I am happy and excited to have a new job, the first five weeks will be intensive training five days a week, so I'm sure the brain burnout will slow down my knitting progress. Not like it needed to get any slower, but...you know....

One of the fun small projects I worked on while on my vacation was this headband made from Cascade Fixation...

It was a quick, fun knit (and yes quick, even for me!) and I even got to wear it a couple of times while looking fashionably color-coordinated on my vacation. I was even fortunate enough to have it modeled by a very cooperative cute husband....

...after I twisted his arm and promised I would crop the picture so he would be unrecognizable! Now that's a real man!! Allowing himself to be photographed in a girly knitted thing at great risk to his manly image....but still, he did it! Again, he has gone above and beyond the call of husbandly duty for my knitting, even though he believes me to be in a cult! One of the many reasons he is so loveable...

And finally, how many of you who know me or have seen evidence of my yarn-shopping abilities would actually believe that I went on a weeklong trip without buying any yarn? Silly rabbits!

To my credit, I must say that I was actually inside of a yarn store on several occasions on several days without buying anything---zip, nada----for the entire week! However, we had one little hour to kill before we checked in at the airport, and we had just had lunch next door to the yarn store I had been visiting all week long.....

Well, you know the deal. I finally broke down and bought something, but I think I deserve credit for waiting until one hour before my flight home! (BTW, if you check out the website of the Alamitos Bay Yarn Company, you will see listed on their site a "Knit & Cruise" listed. We went on one of those while we were there and it was such fun! More on that later...)

And you might be saying as you view this lovely Lorna's Laces (in the Devon colorway), "OMG, she actually bought more SOCK yarn!!" But you might be wrong. Yes, it is rightfully sock yarn, but you will also notice that there are three skeins. No, I won't be knitting three socks, but I do see a lovely lace wrap of some sort in this yarn's future!

I really wasn't going to buy any yarn while on my trip, and resisted temptation without much effort...until I saw the colors of this yarn. I imagined myself wrapped in varying tones of turquoise laciness and envisioned what it could be.....and it jumped into my carry-on! You really can't blame me, can you?