We Love Surprises!!

While reading one of my favorite blogs, Chickenlips Knitting, Sharon posed a question in her post about Rod Stewart that only an older-than-dirt person like me would probably know the answer to. It wasn't a contest, but just a question that amused me in my ancient-ness, and so I answered in my comment.

Imagine my surprise when, while later reading her next blog entry, I saw my name mentioned at the bottom of her post....together with the words "I wanna send some yarn." Whaaaaat? For moi?!! In case you don't know, Sharon is a yarn-dyin' Diva of the finest degree and her yarns are lively and colorful and---I have drooled over them many times! It couldn't have been more than just a few days later when.....

"Hey, Mom! Is that the mailman?"

Why, yes! It was! And this is what he brought.....

A wonderful surprise for me! A yummy skein of Sharon's Stitchjones sock loveliness, called "Closer to the Heart." It's hard to capture the colors accurately, but trust me, it's gorgeous! And so soft, too.

Thank you so much, Sharon! I love the yarn and it will truly make a rockin' pair of socks that I can show off under my clear Converse sneaks! So sweet of you to send me such a nice gift, and the note you sent along was equally lovely!

"Can we make some socks from this yarn for me as well? I do have extra toes to cover, you know!"

"Hmmph. I don't know about this sock thing...and more yarn?. I think I disapprove."

"Oh, don't listen to him....he's always a grump. I approve!....Now about those socks...."

We do love a surprise around here---especially in the form of the gift of wool from a very nice person! Thanks again, Sharon! (And BTW, who would have ever thought I'd receive a knitting-related gift for knowing something about Rod Stewart?...and being old enough to know it...heh.)

(If you'd like to see some more of Sharon's great yarn, be sure to go take a look at her new online store.)

More flash, FO and a yarn volcano

I guess it's safe to go ahead and flash the rest of the stash from the LYS tour last weekend. I have fully talked myself out of all of the guilt I acquired along with the yarn, and all acquisitions have been taken through the full buying justification process and properly placed in their designated areas amongst the rest of the stash.

Here are the new sock mountain acquisitions. It seems I had a color scheme on the brain while picking some of these, but I have an explanation...

I looked for Panda Cotton in the above colorway at every store I went to last weekend---that was 20 of them, in case you forgot--with no luck. At around store 18 (I'm not sure--that day is a little hazy...), I found the ShiBui sock yarn in the upper right corner of the picture. I was immediately mesmerized and had to have it, thus relieving some of my longing for the Panda cotton color I couldn't find earlier. You know where this is leading, right? Immediately after purchasing ShiBui yarn in same color family, I then came across the Panda cotton pictured above in the colorway I had been seeking, only after already purchasing the ShiBui at a prior store. So did I skip the Panda? Of course not, don't be ridiculous. I was in full road and yarn store delirium by then, so the resistance shields were in full down position. Oh well....one is wool, and the other cotton, after all...

Joining the sock acquisition party picture is two skeins of Tofutsies on the upper left, and two colors of MegaBoot Stretch that I have been eyeing for a long time. The Duet yarn in the front is one of my favorites---the color just looks so retro to me, sort of like a 50's bowling team shirt, or those tri-color licorice candies that they sell in the bulk bins at the market. Anyway, those colors with pink heels and toes---too cute!

Here is the rest of what I acquired---mostly very inexpensive and to be used for fun, small projects for the summer....

The Fixation is to make some cute headbands, and the Euroflax is to make another hand towel to make a set with the one I've been working on. The DK cotton is for some little sachet bags, and the Noro is to make a small handbag. Okay, so that's ALL of it. Not so bad. Not at all.

I also completed the scarf for my ISE4 pal. Here is it all washed, blocked and smelling like lavender...

It came out quite nicely for my first lacy project. I must say that the blocking would have been much easier if I had some blocking wires, but I managed with some extra fussing and attention to get the scarf to block out nicely. It was made with Mountain Colors merino ribbon in the Marias Falls colorway, in a simple feather and fan pattern. The actual colors are closer to the above picture. I hope my pal likes it.

The only change I made from a traditional f&f pattern was that instead of one continuous length, I knit it in two identical halves and connected them at the center with a 3-needle bind off. It actually worked out very well, and I achieved what I wanted, which was for both ends to look the same.



And finally, remember the little ball winding disaster I mentioned a while back? Well, here's the rest of the story...I wanted to wind my single skein of Tofutsies into equal cakes so I could knit the socks two at once and have separate skeins to do so. So I wound the yarn, carefully measuring on my digital scale as I went along to try to get two fairly even yarn cakes. However, despite my best efforts, this is what I got....


WTF??!! Obviously, one of these things is not like the other. Even after my careful weighing and winding, one cake weighs 57 grams, and the other 42 grams. I used the same exact method of weighing in making the ISE4 scarf above, and all turned out fine. And to add to the insult, while winding the second half of the skein, the yarn launched itself off of the winder like a volcanic eruption (from the center) and landed in a tangled heap on the table. So besides two really uneven yarn cakes, add to the picture about an extra hour of detangling, unwinding and rewinding.....

I meant to cast on these socks about a week ago, but after the yarn betrayed me in such a fashion by being so obstinate, explosive and tangly, it was promptly placed into a ziploc to languish in punishment in the bottom of a knitting bag for a while. So take that, you mean ol' uneven-winding, exploding, all-tangly-like yarn!

I have recovered from the trauma now and will probably cast on for the socks soon. If you look for me, I'll be easy to find....I'll be the one with one whole sock and one toe-less sock made out of a great color of Tofutsies....If anyone can tell me what the hell I did wrong to get such a fraternal set of twins while winding this yarn, I'd be forever grateful. I certainly can't figure it out....However, until I do and in the meantime I have ordered one of these and will be utilizing it for all such pursuits from now on! When in doubt, throw more gadgets at the problem...

The upcoming week is going to be fun. On Wednesday, I get to attend a session where I am to be grilled like a barbequed wienie for a few excruciating hours about my clinical skills and knowledge, while at the same time trying to dazzle the hosts with my brilliant qualifications. I think they call it a job interview. Yuck.

There is a bright spot after that, though. On Saturday, I will be leaving for a weeklong vacation with cute husband at the beach in So. California. Yay! Not such good news for the poor minions, however. They will be spending their vacation being boarded in cages at the vet's office. Meeee-OW!

We haven't told them yet----they think they are going to the beach with us....

LYS Tour Stash Flash!

Before I commence with the yarn pron display....I found out what a "Red Delicious" bag is when I went to pick up the prize I won in a drawing at Spin A Yarn yesterday....

I've seen these bags before, though not in this particular color combo. I keep staring at it trying to decide if I like it, or if it's so fugly only it's grandmother could love it. What do you think? It is a well-made and lined, large bag and will be great for toting some knitting around. Not something I would spend almost $100 for, but I appreciate winning it as a prize. By the way, this fabric is no longer listed on the website, so I guess that would make this bag "vintage."

Okay, now on to the serious business. I know you've been clamoring to see the extent of my excesses from the lost weekend of yarn gluttony, AKA The LYS Tour 2007. So without further ado I present to you, gorgeous stash acquisitions (and a few regular ones that I picked up along the way....):

Here's the top three fondle-worthy additions:

Fleece Artist Suri Blu, destined to become this wrap. It is BFL wool and alpaca, and incredibly soft, pastel-y and yummy....

(Also shown is Toebi, my trusty assistant...)

Next is some Sea Silk in a color that is hard to do justice to in a picture---sort of an ethereal-looking light green with pale blue combo, destined for a summer lace wrap...

If you are one of the two knitting people on the planet that have not felt this yarn, you must find some immediately and feel how soft and silky it is! I am starting on this wrap immediately, so I can take it to knit on vacation, and hopefully even wear it before winter sets in...(The Sea Silk is shown being inspected by the official Technocat, Mochi, who showed his approval by walking away disinterestedly immediately after this picture was taken....)

To round out the top three is the yarn that won the prize for "most money spent in one store" on the tour. Yes, that's right, five skeins of the infamous Socks That Rock! Not all of them are destined for socks---a few are to make other projects I have in mind....

(In case you are interested, the colors are : Little Bunny Foo-Foo, Nodding Violet, Footzy-Foo and Stormy Weather). I really tried to control myself, but when I saw some of those colors in person, and under the influence of road delirium....I couldn't be trusted. To my credit, I did put back a couple of skeins before I bought these---so I did good, right?!

There is still more stash to flash, sock yarn and small skein purchases, but I'll save those for another day. A girl can't be seen flashing everything at once, now can she?

Stash Flashin'!

It is well-known that April 1st is the day for fools and folly, but I heard a little rumor that it is also "flash your stash" day. So, in honor of the official day of both folly and flashing, I give you a partial offering of my stash---the sock portion. I present here before you, in all it's glorious ginormity, the genus Sock-Stashosaurus Rex....

Or in layman's terms, more freakin sock yarn than I can ever knit in an average lifetime! If anyone is counting (and I knew someone would have to...), there is enough sock yarn in this pile to knit approximately 37 pairs of socks. Keeping in mind that I knit between a speed of slow and molasses, I have absolutely NO hope of ever working my way through it all. That's okay, though. I feel that shopping for yarn in all of its various forms and varieties is reward in itself.

Admittedly, there are a few yarns here that I bought in my early, pre-school phase of my exposure to sock-knitting and yarns, and would probably not have chosen after further education and exposure to the wide, wonderful world of sock yarns. But I love all of them like own family (even the dysfunctional ones), and will find some way to make them all feel important and useful in some capacity

Now that I have purged myself of the shameful secret of my inability to say "no" to sock yarn, I can move on to recovery....

Yeah, right!

I'm going into sock yarn-buying rehab like Brittney Spears is going out to buy some underpants. It's just not going to happen, I'm sorry to say. (and I'm even more sorry to observe that the subject of both Brittney and her imaginary underpants found their way onto my blog, but that's another matter....).

So, if you happen to see me out shopping somewhere, and see me jones-ing near the sock yarn or fondling a fresh, new skein of sock yarn, please don't try to be a friend and talk me down, or smugly remind me how many I already have. It might get ugly. I will assure you that I don't have a problem, while reminding you that I know where your stash is and I have a camera! You will suddenly have a change of heart, we will both scurry away with our new-found scores, and we will keep each other's secret. Because friends roll like that.....and because you are probably a big ol' yarn ho, too! Happily ever after, and all that...

And all that goes double if you actually came with me to the yarn store to shop....

Happy April Fool's Day, and may your stash grow to ever-more-humongous proportions in the year ahead....

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