ah, yarn! there's just so much pretty yarn out there and lately i have just gone on a yarn buying spree. or would binge be a more accurate characterization? a few nights ago i bought a book called romantic hand knits. i was intrigued by the title and man, does it have some beautiful (and sexy) patterns! i didn't get that great amazon price, i paid the $27.50 list price, but i also bought it at an independent bookstore, so it's all to the good. when i lose the weight i've put on (first time in my life i've ever needed to lose weight - egad!) i will be making that skirt.
i also ordered some donegal tweed from patternworks, in garnet, which happens to be my birthstone. :) i have been lusting after this yarn for several years now and not buying it because i didn't have a specific project in mind. i hate buying odd skeins and then not doing anything with them, so even when i impulse buy i'm usually getting at least five skeins or so, and when i'm in for that much dough (the donegal tweed was around $11 a skein), i hate to just have it sit. i am a somewhat weird knitter in that respect, i.e. i don't want my stash to get too big. then it went on sale and i figured to hell with it! i don't care if i don't have anything specific in mind, i'm getting some! so i did.
i also bought some double twist from green mountain spinnery a few weeks back, with a project in mind. i got a gray color, not either of the ones listed. it's actually a little more of a taupe-y gray than i wanted (damn you inaccurate computer monitor!!!) but it's still quite nice. i might not use it for what i bought it for, ironically, as it's a little scratchier than i want that particular sweater to be. the tags say it will soften up a lot upon washing and i do tend to trust the tags, especially when they're from the mill that makes the yarn in question. whatever it ends up being, you can't beat $7.35 for a 250 yard skein of 100% wool!
we also did the complete splurge of my knitting career buy a few weeks back... debbie bliss pure cashmere from littleknits; black for drew and morning sky blue for me. drew really wants me to make him a cashmere sweater and they're having this bag sale, ten skeins for $76! seeing as how the skeins are all of 45 yards/250 grams (i.e. tiny) and retail for anywhere between $23 - $25 per skein i just couldn't pass up $7.60 a skein. couldn't do it. and they let you mix colors to get a full bag, too! mind you, with what we were spending i'd let the customer mix for a full bag too. i can't bring myself to say how much it all cost... let's just say a huge fucking sum of dough, and leave it at that.
and drew, bless his immensely generous heart, got me alice starmore's in the hebrides, which is out of print and consequently quite expensive and hard to find. it didn't cost quite what the cheapest one listed did, because i got the cheapest one - woo hoo, hoo hoo hoo (that's the vonage jingle woo hoo, fyi.) it hasn't arrived yet - i can't wait 'til it gets here! i have one of her books, the celtic collection, still in print i think, which i bought years ago at straw into gold in berkeley (a great yarn shop, now sadly defunct). it was one of those "if i open that book i know i'm going to buy it, so i'm not going to open it. shit! i opened it!" situations. i hadn't even realized most of here her books were out of print now... some sort of blow out with the publisher. it's a crime, really, her designs are just magical and she's pretty much the authority on fair isle knitting. you can still get new stuff from her web site, virtual yarns, which is good. i'll have to find a picture of me in my cromarty sweater to post here. it's the blue one with all the intricate cables, you may have seen it.
ooh! and i got some blocking wires and a spaceboard, again from patternworks. not glamorous but completely essential. i didn't understand that blocking was as important as it is when i started knitting, but it really is so i decided to invest in the tools. not having the blocking stuff is like trying to sew, or block, for that matter, without a good iron, i.e. a really bad idea.
and i am working on a pressie for someone, too, but i can't say what in case they might figure it out. when it's been given is when i'll post a picture. :)
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