C'est fini.

The Milkrun Shawl, Adapted.

I apologize for the state of the room behind the chair, I tend to...stack and pile things.

Anywhoo, it's done. I've washed it and dried it (which I won't do again, I want this thing to sag and I think I'll need to air-dry it if I want to accomplish anything like that) and worn it. Heck, I've even taken a nap in it. Super-squishy comfortable.

In other news, I slipped through the door into Yarnia again. I went for one thing. Just one skein of yarn.

I walked out with $23 worth of goods. Granted, $3 of that was in needles (I got a couple pair of square needles and a set of hand-made needles that are as soft as kitten ears), but the rest was in yarn.

Oh, I am sooo weak.

Here's the highlights:

Peter Pan from Wendy Yarns. Softest acrylic I've ever touched, and no lie.

This is what I went for, more of the Colinette Giotto ribbon. It's not the same color as the other skein I bought, but it's still super sexy. I love this stuff. I may have a new addiction.

Schaefer Yarn Lola. It's even superwash. Good yardage. Pretty soft, too. Me likey.

MORE ribbon yarn. I bought another skein of this stuff (Judi & Co Galaxy) in a slightly different color (this is called "Calypso", the other is "Mulberry" and slightly darker).

I'm not even sure how to use ribbon yarns, to be honest. But I seem to have fallen in with them.

Other than that, I got some workaday Frog Tree Alpaca and some wool that I'm going to knit then felt into a cat cave for Yoda boo... I foresee a lot of knitting in my future.

And this, for a sweater for me:

Aww, yeah, baby. Merino and Mongolian Cashmere.


$8 for enough merino/cashmere yarn for a sweater. Heh. I'd laugh maniacally, but I'm fighting a chest cold and don't want to hurt myself. I might be unable to knit if I strain my ribs, after all. 

Poppin' tags

Have you ever done a thing that was both so awesome and so wretched you simply didn't know whether to jump up and down for joy or smack yourself with a shovel?

It's like that.

Four years ago, one of my coven found a yard sale at which were being sold luxury yarns for $1-2 per skein. Skeins that, mind you, bore price tags marked upwards of $40. And not just one or two skeins, no, bins of yarn. Boxes of yarn of identical dye lots. Heaps and piles and bunches of yarn, nice yarn, soft yarn.

She went nuts. Then she called other members of the coven, they went to the sale house, and they went nuts. One of them went away to get more money, and when she got back was informed that someone else had arrived and carried off the rest of the yarn she had in the garage that day, alas. But there was more! Garage Sale Lady said, her mother in law had owned a yarn shop, and there were scads more yarn where this had come from. But it was not there that day, she would call us when she was ready to clear it out.

Over the past four years, this yarn and yard sale have taken on the tone of legend in our coven. We'd go along for weeks or months before someone would say, in hushed tones of reverence, Remember the garage sale lady? I hear she's getting ready to sell the rest. The coven member who found the garage sale tended to stalk Garage Sale Lady's house on the weekend of the community garage sales. In a totally non-creepy way, of course. She'd just cruise by to see if the tables were out or not (always not.)

Oh, we who did not attend the first sale did not believe! They couldn't have been all that nice! Not for $1 per skein! Who does that sort of thing?

Well, after four years of rumor and speculation, the garage sale lady re-emerged from the darkness. She contacted us and said she might be available soon. Not one to let a good thing go, our coven leader emailed her, asked what she wanted for the lot, and bought it all. Our coven now has it's own mini-yarn shop, and they DID NOT LIE. This yarn is...it's stuff I've only ever heard of on Ravelry, through other knitters, through foreign blogs. Silks and super fine merinos and ribbon yarns that look like candy, more and more and more. It's Mythical Yarn. We have our own doorway to Yarnia.

I went last night to the private Coven Store, and paid $43 for over $540 worth of yarn (if I go by the price tags). There's antique yarns and foreign yarns and yarns I've never heard of anywhere. I'd show you everything I bought, but I think I'd break Blogger. Here's some highlights:

This yarn? IT'S FREAKIN' CAMEL. And wool. But CAMEL!!

I am...without words. This stuff is beyond awesome. Now, I just have to figure out where I'm going to store it all!

My love/hate relationship with clearance endcaps.

I seriously love clearance endcaps. You know what endcaps are, don't you? They're the short shelves at the ends of longer shelving systems at grocery stores and shops? They face the main aisles instead of looking inward?

Anyway. I was at the grocery store today getting some necessaries (make up and graham crackers) and passed this beauty on an endcap, discounted 30%:

A pudding basin! Well, being as this is America, it was labeled "Mixing Bowl", but it's actually a stoneware pudding basin/mixing bowl.I can now steam my own puddings at home! Hurrah!It is always a good day when you can add a little more sugar and fat to your life, isn't it?

Of course, I needed this basin like I need another hole in my head, so I sort of hate clearance endcaps. They prod me into buying stuff that I want a lot, but don't really need, and only because it's 30% off.

Love/hate. All the time, people, all the time I get in trouble with these things!


Next weekend is my half-birthday. As I turn 39 and 1/2, which you must admit everyone only does once, I thought I would celebrate the event by starting a new project for myself, with my luxury yarns.

I'm thinking of making a Pebbly Mesh Shawl out of this yarn:

And a Rose Window Shawl out of this yarn:

I'm not sure which one to do first, although I'm thinking of using the silk thread first. It's a simple design (if you can't access the Ravelry page for it, I'm surely sorry for you) so the colors of the yarn will be front and center. The Rose Window Shawl has a far more complicated pattern, and the mild variegations of the reds in my Touch will work well with it.

I'm just trying to remember if I already started a project with that red yarn. I can't recall -- and I think it was my Kaalund yarn, instead. Maybe.

I might just maybe have too much red laceweight in my stash.

Ooops.