more yarn pr0n...

In case you can't tell, I just love yarn porn. I'd like to have more WIP pictures but I can't ever get 'em to look right or do the WIP justice. I'll have more FO pictures soon too. But by far my favorite is the yarn porn.
I'm so freaking lucky to be able to get/have all I do. I don't mean to come across like "oooh, check ou my tons of stuff" at all. I just get so excited about yarn that I must share. I don't have much disposable income but what I do have tends to go toward yarn and other knitterly goodness.
Most of it is stuff from swaps and gifts. I'm super lucky to have a momma and fella who support my yarn addiction pretty well. And I'm a good bargain shopper.
Yarn/knitting makes me happy, is the most economical entertainment around, and keeps me out of trouble. Also, I like to collect things. This is one of the better collection habits I've had. Since I'm finally purgin all the useless crap I've been lugging around over the years, I've picked up this new yarn addiction. Yarn is lighter, prettier, and more useful than all that other crap so it's a definite improvement.
Anyway, I'm not sure exactly where I'm going with this. It's just that I read something on a blog a while back complaining about people posting yarn pictures rather than "real" knitting pictures. But it's my darn blog anyway, right?

So yeah, enough rambling... on to the yarn and stuff...



Yes, I have given in. I'm dabbling in the dark side. I bought some *gasp* Noro.
The first time I met some Noro in person I was horrified. I'd hear all these wonderful things from people drooling over it. I expected beautiful, magical, irresistable yarn. I picked up a skein and actually squeaked in disgust and threw it back in the bin. LOL. Horrified. I couldn't believe this was what people had made such a fuss about. Weird uneven yarn that made burlap seem cuddly! WTF? At those prices? And wait... is that a twig?! Well, I've decided it's time I give it a fair shot. What brought this about? Two works yarn sale. Of course. ;) When I went to pick up some stuff I put on hold last week, I found a new basket that said "We are the last of our kind so take us home for 20% off" Had to poke through. I already had a skein of Malabrigo in my hand but found this neat brown w/ pinkish in the sale basket so I picked it up. Underneath I noticed some magical colors. Upon closer inspection, I realized that was some Kureyon makin' eyes at me. Who'da thunk? Under that was a skein of Silk Garden also eyein' me.
Short story long, I ended up with two balls of Kureyon and one Silk Garden. I figure if nothing else, the colors will be fun to work with and my mom can wear anything without it bothering her skin.

But what's that buttery goodness poking out in the middle of the Noro? Blue Sky Organic Cotton. Only non-sale item I got. Whatever comes of that fabulousness is mine all mine. I've been admiring the Blue Sky Cotton for a couple months and almost had to buy a skein of hot-ass pink but resisted until I saw the organic, unbleached skein underneath. Same price too. It had to go home with me.

And behing it all (no, not the stupid towel that hiding the chair) is the awesome container of needles I found on the doorstap a couple days ago!! My dad's friend is a retired knitter and she gave me her collection! 11 pairs of well-used aluminum straights, in smaller sizes I actually use. So exciting. The larger ones are a few I was given by a friend of my mom. She tried to knit and gave up. Inheriting her stuff was nice enough but kinda sad. Getting these well-loved needles excited me. The color is worn off of some of the tips. These were actually used. Makes me happy. :) You know it's a Knitter's collection when the US3s have the color worn off and one set of 7s is two different colors, indicating the inevitable disappearing needle syndrome. Hehe.

And here we have some more yarn sale goodness:

10 skeins of Cascade Pima Tencel. This will be a lacy tank for me. In from, best I can tell, ~825yrds of fabulously soft Chinese laceweight lambswool. Mmmmm... I almost bought this yarn in red or black in NC but it was $22-24. I got this pink for $11!!! Woohoo!

Not pictured are the Regia 4ply, Skacel Trampoline, and ball-band-less skein of mystery yarn I got for a buck each. What's more exciting than dollar yarn?!

Well, I should probably go shower and get ready for the evening's non-yarn related activities. Dinner and a movie w/ the boy.

Oh, in completely unrelated news, I just found out we'll be haing another lil outing next month! Rehab is coming back to Charleston Jan 18th. We'll be getting a room so it'll be a nice escape with both of us living at the parents' houses now. It's at the Music Farm. I haven't been there since the NOFX show almost a decade ago. Ah, memories. Heh. So yeah, that's really exciting. The last Rehab show was awesome even though my car broke down and we didn't have a lot of play money. This time we won't have to hitch an emergency ride with Ms. Pouty-pants and should have a little more fun money. Yay!

Ok, bath time...

F*@K!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Blogger just ate my effing post! RAWR! Must keep it short now to keep myself from spewing too much filthy language. I try to keep that to a minimum on my craft-y blog.

The post was mainly about my awesome LYS and my haul(s) from their we-don't-wanna-inventory-this-stuff sale. Oh, and the 11 pairs of aluminum straights passed on to me.

Instead of a quick rewrite, I'll take some photos when it's light out and post it all with those.

For now, here's some yarn porn, an FO, a WIP and some because-I-got-a-camera-that-day shots to tide you over:

Here we have :

(left to right)

- fingering weight merino dyed by one of the ladies at the LYS. Got a great scarf pattern to try out too. The sample they had was really cool.

- SWTC Karaoke in Mermaid Mix. This will become a Lady Elenor (Scarf Style), hopefully. I have 3 balls and 8 more on order. I think I'll be ok mixing dye lots on that pattern.

- UrbanGypz handpainted superwash sock yarn in "Playing With Matches". This is from Asheville. Done by a local gal up there. She has an Etsy store as well.
(front) - Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Glacier Teal or some such color. Something Teal anyway. This is gonna be a scarf for my friend in WI. Actually, it's already started but I'm not sure about my choice of needle size yet.

Here's my SWS Clapotis. I'm through 3 or 4 straight repeats now and I've moved it to my new Denises.

Here's the Simply Soft Shadows one in action. One of its many uses. I love this thing. Can't wait to use the bigger one!!

>

And here's Kitty being coy. Or sniffing the Bearfoot, whichever.

Tried to take a pic of the cabled hat and the pattern repeat counters I made but they turned out crappy.

Here's the obligatory *meh* picture of me in my car right after I got my camera (wearing my Knitphomaniac shirt... hehe)

This is my cute lil' pocketbook with wheels. I lubs muh car. Ignore the crater (F**cking drunk driver). Hopefully that'll be gone next month. Don't even ask about the other side. That's getting fixed as well.

Da' planes! (in front of the Airstation)

I'm still here

Yup, still alive. Been busy so I haven't had a lot of online time recently. Had my last test for the semester (trimester, really) last night so that's over until January. Hooray!
The boy got me a digital camera so I have some WIP and yarn pics waiting to be posted but they're on the other computer so that'll hafta wait until next time.

The My So Called Scarf is no more. I love the pattern but wanted to do something with the SWS that I'd get more use out of. And so, Clapotis III was born. I'm almost through the second ball. I picked up 5 on sale in NC but once I got going I decided I wanted to go for full sized with this one so I needed more yarn. Made a trip up to ACMoore hoping to do my best to match a couple more balls and work them in with the dye lot I already have. To my surprise, they had 3 balls of the exact dye lot I bought in NC!! Exactly the amount I was looking for. It was fate, or something. ;)
I'm working this one up to the pattern specs but on US9 needles. I'm through two straight repeats currently.

Other things I'm working on include: worsted weight house socks for the boy, merino/silk socks for Dad, an aran lace scarf in Bearfoot for a friend in Wisconsin, and a braided cable ribbed hat for a friend in FL. I have photos of most of this stuff plus a couple new aquisitions from my first knit night last week.

More on that and maybe a couple book reviews soon.

Ok, now it's bedtime. I've made it to the gym twice this week (*YAY*) and I'd like to get there again tomorrow so I should rest up. I was draggin' ass all day today so little got done besides some knitting (and a good bit of chocolate eating I'm in a bit of denial about... lol). Of course, I have lots of knitting to get done over the next week or so, so it's just as well, right? ;)
I really hope to have more energy to work with tomorrow. It'll really suck if I stay tired and half crabby all week. :P