The YARN, Part One

Tomorrow I am off to my wonderful fiber friend Jean's house. I had given her some samples of the YARN I received from my Sis and BIL, and she has proclaimed that it is in fact usable. Of course, there is some work involved, but those of us suffering from this fiber/yarn/knitting addiction do not look at it this way. Observe below -

Here, is some of the yarn, but wait, there's more!

Not so fast, one more!

Okay, the little fur ball to the left is Mikey, not yarn, but you get the idea. After seeing all this, I must confess that this is only maybe 1/2 or less of my entire Virginia haul - yes, that's right, maybe half (probably less). Jean has found a way to get the stink out, and the first step is winding all this stinky stuff into skeins, then a good washing in Tide (two times), with a final conditioner rinse. I am headed to her house to start skein winding tomorrow since she is fully equipped, and I am not. More on my crack dealer, um, I mean Jean, in my next post. I will take some pics of the whole process tomorrow, but since I am not the best, I can't make any promises.

I have just recently found myself unemployed. I won't go into detail regarding the employment situation except to say that you can only allow yourself to be treated unfairly for so long. A part-time job at a yarn store should not be cause for hurt and feelings of being taken advantage of, which was exactly what was happening. I feel I made the best decision for me and my family, and hopefully another door will be opening for me soon. In the meantime, I have plenty to do with this HUGE acquired stash of mine, not to mention the sock stash I've managed to accumulate in a very short amount of time.

I leave you (probably all two of you who read this ;), with a picture of the King - don't ya just wish you were him?

Catching Up!

Okay, I am definitely not good at this, but I am going to try to do a better job in 2008, we'll see. Anyway, Christmas brought some yarny goodness my way, BIG yarny goodness.

What you are looking at is the back of my sister and brother-in-law's Ford F150 pick-up. There are 5 regular Rubbermaid type bins, and 2 super-sized bins towards the back. Any idea what might be in there? YARN!!! In all of them! 100% Wool Yarn from Chester Farms, also known as Cestari. Tons of 1 ply on cones and skeins, and sweaters worth of 2 ply in skeins. Now, you ask, how did I gain all this wonderful wooliness? Well, my sister and BIL bought a building in VA to start their second location for their chiropractor practice. While clearing out the basement of said building, my BIL came across yarn - not just a little as the pics show. Thank God they knew who to call and didn't trash or donate it (not that donating is bad, but, well, you know....). At first I thought BIL was pulling my leg, since he knows all about my yarn addiction, but after betting on cheese steaks, I knew he was serious.

The only problem I'm facing right now, besides what to knit (not really a problem there), is how to get the basement odor out of the yarn. I did handwash about 24 skeins of the 1 ply the night the yarn arrived (oh yes I did - after providing requisite cheesesteaks to sis and her hubby), and they came out okay.

I contacted my guild friend, and of course, she has a skein winder with a yard measure thingie, so I will be going back and forth to her place to skein up all the cones, then handwash everything over time (thinking springtime). At least this won't be quite as stinky as washing all those alpaca fleeces over the summer. Now that was stinky!

Speaking of alpaca fleeces, I will be picking up my processed roving for them on Wednesday and I can hardly wait! I haven't done any spinning since early Fall, mainly due to Christmas knitting and obsessing about socks. Speaking of which......



I finished a pair of socks for Maddie out of Adriafil's KnitCol. After all that Christmas knitting, I needed to make some quick socks, and these were them. I finished these in two evenings and loved every minute of it! Maddie put them on immediately and I think they are her favorite socks. Now I need to start a pair for Courtney, but I have three other wips I need to finish first, and they are:



Basic 2x2 Alpaca Sox rib socks for Becky. Becky is one of my sister's best friends, and she is terrific. My Mom-Mom had to have back surgery early this Fall, and my Aunt who lives with her had just had a stroke this summmer and can't drive anymore. Becky, who is a vice principal in a middle school, took time out of her busy schedule to drive my Aunt to see Mom-Mom in the hospital, as well as run errands. This really meant alot to us, as my sister who lives in AZ had just had her baby, so Mom-Mom and Aunt Marion were kinda hangin in the wind. Becky is the best!


The Seascape Shawl for Mom-Mom. I bought this yarn 2 years ago at the Knit and Crochet show in Valley Forge specifically for her. These are definitely her colors, and living in Sun City, AZ, she doesn't need anything substantial, so this will be perfect for those evening when it's a little chilly (yeah, like maybe twice a year, she lives in HELL for Pete's sake!) Gotta get crankin on this one, only on row 80!

No pic for the last one, it's for my Loopy Swap partner, and since I'm not sure if she figured out who I am, I don't want to spoil anything. I am at the heel flap on both socks (she only requested socks so that doesn't reveal anything), so I figure I'll be done this weekend, then just to buy a few final goodies!

Christmas brought me even more yarn than that truckload above. My husband got me two skeins of YarnLove Elizabeth Bennet in Tapestry, Maddie got me a skein of DIC Smooshy in Some Summer Sky, Courtney made me a pen and ink drawing from her art class (and even framed it!), and Jay (BIL with the truck of yarn) was my Secret Santa and got my two skeins of Opal (Hummel and Der Blaue Mond). My husband also enrolled me for the Hill Country Yarns sock club, my very first one! Just found out yesterday that I didn't get picked for The Loopy Ewe Sock club, so I am consoling myself with the 3 skeins of Wollmeise I scored at the last sneak up - it was amazing I got any!

Hope if anyone is reading this, you had a great Christmas! I will post next week with pics of my alpaca roving (picking it up Wednesday, maybe it will distract me into spinning again and tear me away from my sock obsession a little).

Holiday Swap Package

I shipped off my Holiday Swap package this morning. I had alot of fun picking yarns from the stash and buying goodies for my pal. This is the first time I've ever put together a swap package, so I'm hoping she likes everything. It is alot of fun to learn everyone's likes/dislikes. I also found a couple patterns on her Ravelry site that I liked as well. So much knitting, so little time......

On another note, the holiday knitting is in full swing, and here is Pile o' Presents Part I.

These are the chunky wristwarmers we have on display in the store and they are so much fun to knit (and fast too)! They are much cuter on than off.....

Now working on the matching beret to go with the warmers (nice gift, eh?). Two down, four to go. Will post pics when they are all done. Then it is on with the remaining 4 scarves, 1 hat, and one pair of socks til Christmas. I should be okay, right??

Happy Birthday Stacey!!!!

Today is my sister Stacey's birthday, and today she is receiving nothing in the mail from me. This is not from lack of knitting planning, but due to lack of knitting compliance. Stacey lives in AZ... yes I realize that it is hot there (Hell on earth to be precise, of course, that's just MY opinion). Stacey has voiced her concerns of receiving knitted items due to the heat, believing that knitting = wool. While visiting in August to help with her brand new baby Bobby, we took a trip to the LYS. Sure enough, she saw something she liked (as well as her daughter THE BOSS). Hallelujah, I get to knit for her (knitting = love in my world)! Unfortunately, it was a shawl and she wanted a poncho, but at least I knew what she liked, yay!

Upon returning home, I embarked on what I thought would be the fairly easy task of finding said poncho pattern - no dice. She wanted it in black as well. After digging through my stash, I found some eggplant colored Cotton Twist with a ribbed poncho pattern purchased at Stitches East a few years ago - perfect! The eggplant would look great on her and match her fave colors (khaki, black, neutral, etc). I picked up the phone and proceeded to tell her how great this would look on her with her coloring, etc. She agreed that would be okay, so I then cast on.

I HATE COTTON TWIST!!!! I worked on this never-ending monotonous piece of crap for God knows how long, only to find a huge mistake in the ribbing towards the bottom. I painstakingly let each offending stitch unravel and re-worked them back to the top, only to find it still looked like shi*! It just glared at me. This was miserable, the yarn was a splitting mess, so guess what I did?

I chucked it! Literally threw it in the trash without even a glance back. I had to call Stacey today with a funny story (thank God she thought so) and a new plan. She is headed to her LYS to get the pattern for the original shawl so I can modify it to the poncho she originally wanted, and guess what? She's getting it in black because that's what she wanted.

Lesson learned - I will listen to my knitting recipients and not try to sway them to choose what "I" think they will like. The knitting gods do not like this, apparently.

Well Stac, Happy Birthday! Sorry I stink, but you'll be getting what you want as soon as I get the pattern ;)

Pics of current WIPs (not including poncho from hell in the trash) are forthcoming. Took some, but they look like caca, so maybe by the end of the weekend.

And so it begins.....

Here I am. No one will probably ever read this, but due to my need to join more sock swaps, I am starting a blog. At the least, it will help keep track and organize my ever-growing pile of WIPs (still on waiting list to access Ravelry). At best, I may make a few new friends!

Just joined my first swap ever at my new favorite store, The Loopy Ewe. I am waiting for my 6th order which should be arriving tomorrow, making me an official Loopy Groupie (yay!). I just started my "downstream" partner's socks, yet I am already trolling the internet for more swaps. My kind "upstream" partner clued me in that I'm not going to get very far in my swap search without a blog so.... here I am!

Will post current WIPs next post, need to figure out some technical stuff first. Really want the Loopy Ewe button on my site, but can't get it to work (ugh!). Any help out there, anyone? Anyone?