Wonderful Yarn Experience

I'm on a knitting high right now--like my knitting friend John Francis said, it's crack to us. Anyway, the photos below show why.

But first, a nice quote. I was talking to Rose, the mother of our old roommate Jeff, who is in town looking for senior living facilities. She commented on how I am still always busy knitting, and I said it had helped with the stress of recent years. She turned to me and said:

When times are bad, knitting is good!

I like that one! And it's true. Knitting has helped me through so many personal crises, times of worry about friends, and financial down times! It's a fine thing.

Now, on to new yarn!

What you see is no street crack, it's the pure stuff. MMM.

So, it was a slow work day (got busy later, but you knitting readers don't need to read about that). I'd already had a very pleasant time in the coffee shop where I was working, because two lovely young mothers were there knitting together, and they made me feel good--they were exactly the kind of parents my friends and I were--we had the nicest conversations about the habits of three-year-olds and how to work knitting into your life at that busy time (it was agreed that dish cloths are great).


To continue the fun, Deana needed to return some yarn, so she and I headed out to Hill Country Weavers yesterday in the late morning. I was looking for something to make Dianna out of that would go with the bluish green beads I recently bought. I did find something, but also found some really great new stuff. Suzanne, the owner, said I'd managed to find every single new favorite thing she'd brought in from the TNNA conference!

The yarn above is what got me most excited. This is shetland wool, naturally colored, and is from a flock in California. It's called Natural Shetland Rustic Lace, from Elemental Affects. It feels perfect, just like the yarn from Scotland. When the HCW owner saw that I'd picked it up, she asked if I'd seen the shawl...and there it was, the exact Shetland shawl I'd want to make from the yarn! Very rustic, light and beautiful. She said Judith Mackenzie, who produced the yarn, knitted it and had promised to send the pattern. She encouraged me to write her and see if I can get a copy. I think it might be an Heirloom Knitting pattern, anyway--it's very traditional looking. I just can't wait to figure out some wonderful use for this really great yarn. Pant, pant. It makes me weak to look at it!

Right across from this yarn (which also comes in some very nice colors) was three different weights of some yarn from Sweden. We spent quite some time fondling it, while the owner told me more about the yarn and designer who has made patterns from it. Can I remember its name? Or her name? No. I really should have gotten some of it. I will probably continue to think that until I can drag myself back down to south Austin and get some. We spent quite some time admiring its amazing qualities. The colorways are unique and have fun names, but especially the laceweight is just different. That's all. Nothing else like it. The laceweight is subtly semi-solid thanks to the base having more than one color of wool in it. This would make an amazing shawl. Guess I need to go back.


I did buy this stuff. I walked back to the sock section, and enjoyed the sight of dozens and dozens of skeins in so many different fibers (they have lots of "Panda" types, but I got plenty of that last time I was there). Suddenly I realized there was something gleaming. It was LOTS of Dream in Color Starry yarn. I was surprised--that stuff sells out practically instantly in the online sock yarn stores. I snatched up this wonderful very dark blue skein, in case a mob of buyers was coming or something. Sure enough, that supply had JUST come in. I'm hardly ever lucky enough to find anything with all the colors available--even at my LYS, the folks who go every day always beat me (ahem, right now I am there almost every day, thanks to the new job).

The Starry yarn has real silver in it. I have another skein from a different manufacturer with this same base, but I love the slight variations in color that Dream in Color dyes into their yarns. This is one special skein. I don't think I could bear to make socks from this. Maybe when I go back I'll get another skein so I'll have enough for a shawl. I'd love to use the dark blue beads I got for Dawn's Aeolian along with this. Drool.
OK, now we can settle down a bit. This is simply a nice colorway of Noro Kureyon Sock yarn. While I have some Silk Garden sock I'd thought I'd use to make Dianna (that's the entrelac lace shawl I found recently), I really wanted to use these green beads I got last time I went to Sea of Beads to add to that shawl, so this colorway is more appropriate. There is a week bit of pale pink hiding in there, so I think this will end up very pretty. So much to knit! I hope I get to half the stuff that's bubbling in my mind!

I'm sure one or two of you are wondering if I finished the Aeolian shawl. Well, I did get one row done yesterday, the last pattern row. There was a lot going on, so not much knitting time (I did get quite a few rows done on my poor neglected Hopscotch socks, though). I think I'll be done today, though I discovered I'd had a little pattern reading glitch on a few repeats, which I think I can easily fix but irritated me. I hate it when I SEE the instructions clearly, yet just throw in the yarn-overs from earlier rows ayway! Also, thanks to those episodes of un-knitting a few repeats and making knots with the former nupps, I will have to go into a fourth skein of yarn before I'm done! Thank goodness John Francis donated his former Aeolian yarn to me! Now let's just hope those blocking squares arrive soon!

OK, I am now off to get my morning chores and errands done so I can knit away the afternoon!