sts w (the yarn addition)

Hello, gang. Two things before we delve into the pile of yarn!

~ There were some comments to yesterday's post, and I commented back by replying within that very same post (which is not how I usually do things around here).  If you were looking for feedback, there it be ;-)

~ If you're wondering more about what this whole drumline thing is about, there is now a video available of MyFavoriteKid's drumline performance on Sunday (and you can even hear me up front announcing them....hahaha). It's kind of hard for me to point out which one MyFK is when the kids are such moving targets, but at about 1:57 the trio of snares take a solo, and MyFK is on the right ;-)   This is very early in the season....every week they add a new section on to their show, and by the last performance at Champs, it's longer, more refined, and often has new tricks added.

Ok. Yarnward Ho!!
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So I did also buy some yarn while at Stitches West on Friday, even though I am sure I do not need any more yarn (but as I keep saying, shopping for yarn and making things with yarn are two entirely different hobbies....right??).

I told myself ahead of time that if I was going to purchase anything yarn or fiber related, it would be something to make a sweater for this cute guy.

That's Myles, and his parents are friends and members of the zen center TheMostImportantGuy and I practice at. Their whole little family has up and moved to become residents at the mother-ship zen center on the east coast (our local zen center here in Berkeley isn't residential), so Myles has sort of become the LittleAbbot there ;-)

Anyhow, I say that baybeh needs a handknit sweater (don't you agree?), and last year at Stitches I had seen these adorable organic cotton sweater kits that came with matching buttons. I was so pleased to find the vendor SweaterKits there again this year.

I love it when baby boys wear "little man clothes", so I picked out this colorwork cardigan kit to make a cardigan pattern called The Moose.

The cuteness is killin' me!! I die!!!

But then disaster struck. While I was waiting to be rung up at the register, I wondered...hmm...maybe his parents aren't into the whole "little man clothes" thing like I am, and maybe what he really needs a fun kiddie sweater. That's when I looked over and saw the Dinosaur Hoodie in greens and blues....

(it's way more of a bright lime and a darker navy than my stupid camera is picking up)

...and this sweater kit came with these crazy cool monster buttons.

Gah! I die again!  SO CUTE!

And so....like the crazy non-related aunt that I am, I walked out of the booth with both kits.  (oops)
The monster hoodie is size 1T-3T so I'll bang that out first. The Moose has enough yarn for 1T-4T, so I'll do that second and make the bigger size.

With the purchase of not one, but two, baby sweater kits, my actual shopping list had been fulfilled, and that is where the yarn purchasing should have stopped.
But of course it didn't.

I bought 2 skeins of Euroflax Sport Weight Linen to make this poncho-ish thing called Kennedy.

Neither the pattern photo nor my craptastic pic of the yarn do this thing justice.  I saw the knitted sample live and in person in the booth, and it is stunning. You could throw this thing on over yoga pants and a black t-shirt and you'd look like a starlet. It will dress up anything. The yarn has a sheen to it, and it is an almost silvery grey once washed up. True to being linen, has a wonderful drape but holds it's shape.  I think it will be a simple and quick knit, and I think it well get worn often.

And, once again, I should have stopped there and I was mentally prepared to do just that....but then the real yarn accident happened when I got to the Miss Babs booth.

Now, I had passed by her booth a first time, and I avoided it like the plague, knowing for sure that if I went in, I'd fall hard and never get up, because I'd be rolling around like a yarn pig in a pile of her very interesting and pleasing colorways.  The first time we passed, I just skimmed the edges of her booth but did not get sucked in. I was so proud of myself.

Then we went to lunch, and when we got back to shopping, we went past the booth again for some reason (maybe we were going up the next aisle and because she was on an endcap? I don't know.  It's all a blur now. Whatever. I was screwed).   Sandy stopped to look at some worsted weight superwash for a baby sweater of her own she needs to make (see how quickly I blame my friends?!), and while she was looking, skein after skein kept grabbing my attention.

Now, one of my friends says she never even stops at the MissBabs booth because she sees that the lines to ring out are too long. Personally, I find they move very efficiently and fast (and long lines are sign of greatness, aren't they??). But here is the real problem with their being a long line for the register.  The line files past some very artfully arranged big fat skeins of worsted, and there you are, just waiting and minding your own business, and the next thing you know, you are basically acting like you are at the supermarket and you are buying up all the Twix and KitKats while waiting at the register.  I swear. It's like it's pheromone laden yarn...or maybe the yarn has yarn crack pixie dust crap sprinkled on it, and once you touch it and squeeze it, the yarn crack gets into your body transdermally and you have to have more or something. I don't know. Something's not quite right though. LOL

The first thing that jumped into my hands was this skein (two photos...front and back of skein):

colorway: Shining City

These are crazy colors, even for me. Light grey, dark grey, shots of a pukey green/yellow and fuschia. And I love it. And I have no idea what I am going to make with it, but maybe a shawl like Brickless or something.

But then, while still waiting in line, I saw this:

colorway: Funny Papers

Which I felt totally compelled to pair with this:

colorway: Blackbird

Because these two skeins both need to be knit up together into something I can wear with this (from yesterday):

Again, I have no idea what exactly I am going to make with it. But probably something from the Stephen West files, like maybe a worsted weight version of a Spectra or something windowpane-y like that.

And then I completely lost all self-restraint and also started squeezing this one....

colorway: Try It Out 

(which maybe was the subliminal suggestion that caused me to buy it..??)

...for which I have no rhyme or reason for having in my hands at all. I can only blame the yarn fumes. I just loved the colors. And I don't have a single inkling for what to do with it.  Ridiculous of me. Oh well.


And that was it for yarn. Could have been worse. But it was indeed more than I had planned on, so I had better stop typing and get knitting...right?!!


So there you have it!  I have totally outed myself about my Stitches shopping.

Well, not entirely.

Outing myself would not be complete without my telling you that by mid-morning my bank cut off my purchases because they thought some crazy yarn lady had stolen my card!  The reason for this is because with all of the vendors now running purchases through their phones and iPads rather than on a card reader supplied by the convention center, the purchases do not appear as all happening in the city of Santa Clara where the event is held. Instead, it looks like I am in the home location of each vendor! So the bank thought someone was buying yarn in New York, Tennessee, Rhode Island, and Washington State...all in just a few hours!

I should admit to you (because my friend Sandy who I went with who thinks this is hilarious) that I bought enough stuff that when I hung my shopping bags off the back of my wheelchair....? It was heavy enough that when I got up out of the wheelchair, the chair would tip backwards. 

Lordy.
;-)


So there you have it. Complete disclosure.
Now I go knit.