Mill Ends and Me

So, it's been a rough month and change since I got home from vacation. Had that vacation been truly restful, or had I not gotten an immediate promotion/transfer upon returning to work, the past month wouldn't have been so difficult.

Even good change can cause angst.

Last week, I got wind of a sale at Blue Moon Fiber Arts and picked up a mystery bag of mill ends in the heavier weight that's available. It hasn't arrived yet, but I'm quite eager to see what I get. Then, today I went to Joann's for some earring backs, and found this:

It was in a bin that held bags of mill ends -- more mill ends! One pound per bag. You may not be able to see it in my craptacular photo, but the darker green thread is sparkly. We've had the discussion about me and sparkles, haven't we?

It was a pound for $8, and it's fascinating. $8. Considering I blew over $100 on books alone this past week, not even to mention the $40 I spent on my Blue Moon mill ends, I figure what the hell. So now it's mine.

I have no idea what yarn it is, all I know is it's a pound of acrylic/polyester/rayon/wool, and it's a mill end lot. It looks like four skeins of yarn, but the ends are all connected. I cut them apart. I have no idea what sort of mileage it is, although I suspect that as a super bulky yarn (you can't tell, but it's that odd sort of chain yarn -- not spun and plied, but chained up and looking a bit like a huge icord) and at a pound, it's about 400 yards.

I'm just guessing here.

Ah, well. Now I have about 400 yards of bulky chain-made yarn to figure out what to do with. And it's machine washable -- so that's about all I know.

I do love a good mystery!

The only other thing I accomplished today was getting my helix piercing out of my ear. I wanted to put my hoop back in. Unfortunately, the hoop was a capture ball.

The small ball has to be pressed between the ends of the hoop wire (which is closed with a jewelry plier as you juggle the hoop and tiny ball with one hand).

Needless to say, the hoop plan didn't work, but I did manage to get the rose on a post out.

So I cleaned up my ear, the earring and all, and put it back in. I feel slightly better for having control of the earring now. I'm leaving it in -- technically, it's not healed up until the end of August -- but knowing I can take it out makes me feel a whole lot better about it.

Maybe I'll find another hoop, one that doesn't require pliers to make work.

Awesome.