Acquisitions

I don't know how this happens so often: I sit down at the computer to blog, start by doing something else, and suddenly, it's three hours later at the end of the evening, I haven't blogged and I should really be going to bed. Normally, I give up on the blogging in favor of sleep, not not tonight! I still need to prepare for Monday, though, so this will be a quickie.

I've had some interesting acquisitions lately, chief among them a new camera. I've been playing a lot with the new camera, and used it to take some pictures of my most recent yarn acquisitions.

Limari by Araucania, a fantastically soft, marvelously blotchy super bulky wool/alpaca/silk blend that I bought as souvenir yarn in London.

Zauberball by Schoppel-Wolle, a remarkably fun-looking sock yarn and another souvenir from my London trip.

A load of Blue Moon Fiber Arts' Socks that Rock in light and medium weights and intended for four different projects.

It was a dark and stormy night...

On Saturday, I got an email from one of my friends along the lines of "Ack! The wedding's in three weeks, what are you getting them?!" To which my reaction was, "Ack! I have no idea! I wonder if I have time to knit dish cloths?"

So, I'm thinking, three weeks, four dish cloths - I already have cotton yarn on hand, so this should be easy! (Thinking that something is going to be easy is usually a nice bit of ironic foreshadowing. I should have known better.) I pulled out the yarn, and went to find needles. Now, I'm pretty sure I own at least one size 7 circular, since I've made dish cloths before, but I couldn't find one for the life of me. I checked the needle stash. I tossed the yarn dresser and the yarn closet. I went through all of the bags in which I'd stuck yarn while traveling at any point in the past few months. No needles.

Okay, the needle situation can be rectified. It just means a trip to my LYS. I had errands to run on Sunday after church anyway, so I just added the LYS to my list (it wasn't even out of my way). Sunday afternoon a thunderstorm rolled through (the only part of the story that was literally dark and stormy), which made it hard to do what I probably should have done.

What I should have done was written down on a sticky note the size and kind of needles I wanted, flagged down some passerby, given them the sticky note and a twenty, and told them they could keep the change if they went in and got the needles for me. That's what I should have done. But did I? No. Of course not.

No, I thought to myself, "It's just needles. I won't even fondle any yarn. I can be strong." In short, I lied to myself. Although, to be fair, I did make it to the needle wall and pick out what I needed without fondling any yarn, but somewhere between there and the cash register, I was overcome by wool fumes. It's the only explanation for how I went in just for needles and came out with these:


Watershed, by the Neighborhood Fiber Co. in Truxton Circle (the colorway). It's a wool/seacell blend that's fantastically soft. And given that I have a distinct fascination with seacell (I love the way it smells like the ocean still), a love of all things purple, and a weakness for local dyers, I suppose I had zero chance of making it out of the shop without this.


Penthouse Silk Lace, also by the Neighborhood Fiber Co. in Randle Circle. It's a two-ply lace-weight in 100% silk and one of the softest things I've ever touched. Plus I absolutely adore the silvery-blue colors and the way it seems to shimmer, even in the hank. When I touched this yarn, I couldn't help but dream about how wonderful a silk stole this would make and how fantastic it would feel on bare arms and shoulders. And I knew that if I didn't get it, someone else would, and I would be plagued with doubt and regret.

But first, I should probably go work on those dish cloths...

Chinese for wool?

My church is collecting hand knit and crochet scarves for the homeless. To encourage people to participate, they're even providing yarn for those who want it. Since I like knitting and doing good, I stopped by to get some yarn. It was mostly acrylic in various colors and qualities, but I was fortunate enough to find some much maligned wool in the stash. At least, I think it's wool. It certainly feels like wool, but the labels are in Chinese.



Does anybody read Chinese? Can you tell me what this yarn is? Brand? Fiber content? I'd be grateful for any light you can shed on this.

Distractions

I have no knitting to show you today. I did not finish the Monkey sock; in fact, it's only about three rounds further along than it was Thursday. The secret something is still secret and still taking over my desk. Miss Darcy's still on hold. I couldn't find good pictures of some of the catch-up FO's I was going to show you. And the scarf pattern is still a collection of scribbles on engineering paper, but I'll get it typed up in a day or two, I promise!

So to distract you from my utter lack of knitting, I'm going to show you pretty fiber.

First up: Jamieson & Smith Shetland Jumper Weight. This yarn was intended to become a couple of baby surprise jackets. It's nice wool, but it isn't superwash, and it's a little coarser than I think something going on a baby should be. So now it's strictly stash. It might be destined to become something felted. A purse maybe? Felted boxes? I'm not sure. But I desperately want to try felting.


It turns out that one of the best things about having other knitters in the family is that we all think yarn is a great gift. The rest of the yarns in this yarn parade were all gifts from my mom and middle sister (the youngest isn't quite into yarn yet, and we're still working on my dad).

Gift number 1 (and a complete surprise, which is pretty rare given the way my family does gift shopping): Rustic Wool by Queensland Collection. I have no idea what it's going to become, but that's all right. For now, I'm content to fondle this incredibly soft, squishy wool and look adoringly at its charmingly purple variegation.


Gift number 2 (also a surprise, but not so much, since I'd let it be known that I had something of a crush on these colors): Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Ice House (the multi) and Island Blue (the solid). I'm pretty sure these will become socks and that the little bits leftover will go into a blanket or hats or mittens or something. Or maybe I'll skip the socks and go straight to a blanket or a hat or mittens or something. Who knows? In any case, you really can't have too much sock yarn.


Gift number 3 (not a surprise at all, since I picked out the yarn, and then stood in line behind my mom so I could buy other yarn, which I think included a yarn gift for her. This is pretty much the usual way we shop for each other.): Wildfoote sock yarn by the Brown Sheep Company. For me, this is really branching out color-wise, since probably 95% of my yarn is black, blue or purple. (Egads - I just realized that my stash resembles a bruise more than anything else.) Perhaps surprisingly, given my usual color preferences, I'm quite enraptured with this yarn and have spent much time trying to figure out what sock pattern will best complement it.


Gift number 4 (also picked out by me, but still a bit of a surprise in the amount): Harlequin by Dale of Norway. The picture might be misleading, since I actually have 17 balls of this yarn - plenty for a sweater. For reasons unknown to me, I've been strangely attracted to tweeds lately (I can't remember ever being so before, and I can remember at times thinking tweeds were generally hideous, but clearly, I've gotten over that). This tweed is incredible. It's a blend of wool, microfiber, alpaca, cashmere, and viscose, and is positively hand-sucking. Plus, it comes in some very lovely colors. This will become a sweater for me at some point, but I don't have a pattern in mind yet.


And I think I'd better stop there. I'll probably get in trouble with the FCC or somebody if I show more yarn pr0n in a single post.