As Much As Possible: 2011 review

Okay, it's 8:05 in the morning on a Monday and math isn't my strong point. Let's review the goals and look at some numbers, shall we?

As Much As Possible Goals:

1. Not buy yarn. Yeah, that didn't really happen. The 2nd and 3rd quarters were the best, probably because it was hot. Also, damn you Vermont Sheep & Wool!

2. 1st in, 1st out. This didn't really happen either, but I did finish a project in one of my early purchases and started a sock in another, so I did make some progress.

3. Craft for charity first. I donated 17 loom hats to PatPat's Hats. While I didn't necessarily make them for charity, I was happy to donate them.

4. Projects for others before myself. Well, I made my sister's birthday hat and finished my husband's Binary Scarf and made a matching Binary Hat. I also made a lot of stuff for myself, but it's a work in progress, okay?

5. 2 skeins a month. Yeaaaaaaaaaaah no.

6. USE IT UP. I certainly tried! I'll explain why this was a weird goal when we look at the numbers.

1st quarter:

Stash in: 1003 yards
Stash out: 0 yards (I gave away a skein of yarn in March, but don't know the yardage.)

Net change: +1003 yards

2nd quarter:

Stash in: 480 yards
Stash out: 1431.4 yards

Net change:-951.4 yards

3rd quarter:

Stash in: 182 yards
Stash out: 2269 yards

Net change: -2087 yards

4th quarter:

Stash in: 1129 yards
Stash out: 1238 yards

Net change: -109 yards

2011 net change: -2144.4 yards, or approximately -1.2 miles

Summary:

This was a fun year-long goal, but am I glad it's over with! For the most part, I didn't stick with my goals. I had a feeling I wouldn't, but I'm glad I made them. They gave me some direction.

I don't think I'll be dieting this year, but I do plan to purchase more mindfully -- a.k.a. no more random skeins that don't have set purposes! I received gift cards to both a big box craft store and my LYS for the holidays, and I do have projects in mind for both.

I do intend to continue keeping track of my input and output, but I need to do so in a more organized fashion. I didn't actually track the 1st quarter, which made things difficult. You'll also notice that the 2nd quarter involved partial skeins, where the other quarters didn't. Apparently I forgot I was counting partial skeins and moved to counting only full skeins. Even though I purchase whole skeins, I think I'll count partial skeins when they get used in projects, as it's easier for me to remember to count them at the time and not later, when they've been used up (because honestly, that can take years!). Did that make any sense? I have no idea.

Also, I know this count isn't quite accurate. I purchased a skein of Kauni in January, but don't know the yardage, and at least one of my Sheep & Wool purchases isn't included either. But they don't change the negative stash accumulation. I need to inventory better.

My current inventory says I have 8.61 miles of yarn, in case you were wondering. This is after the stashdown, and no, it doesn't include the Kauni or that Sheep & Wool yarn and I guarantee you it doesn't include the sweater quantity of sport-weight yarn.

I'm working on it.

As Much As Possible: 3rd Quarter

Wow! I can't believe it's October. I mean, finally! Here's the 3rd quarter report. I hesitate to say it's better than last quarter, but we'll see.

1. Not buy yarn.

I did not buy a single skein. I really didn't. A friend gave me two skeins of Debbie Bliss Stella, which adds 182 yards to stash, but it was a gift!

2. 1st in, 1st out.

No measurable progress here, but I have about half a dozen projects that are using various old yarns, and I haven't bothered to measure what I've used.

3. Craft for charity first.

Um. Well, any of the loom hats that don't sell next week are being donated to Pat Pat's Hats! I've also learned how to make granny squares, and I have 3 finished to give to Green Mountain Fibers for blankets they're putting together.

4. Projects for others before myself.

Loom hats! Granny squares!

5. 2 skeins a month.

Nope.

6. USE IT UP.

I gave a lot away.

Okay, so we're still in a so-so position here, but wait until you see the numbers.

Used or given away:

1. Patons Berber Cotton - 230 yards
2. Lion Brand Homespun - 185 yards
3. 2 skeins Patons Divine - 284 yards
4. 2 skeins Lion Brand Jiffy Solid - 270 yards
5. Berroco Candy FX - 68 yards
6. Berroco Chinchilla - 77 yards
7. Brunswick Bermuda II - 105 yards
8. Lion Brand Fun Fur - 64 yards
9. Sirdar Funky Fur - 147 yards
10. Unger Plantation - 153 yards
11. 3 skeins Bernat Caress - 304 yards
12. 2 skeins Lion Brand Trellis - 230 yards

And that's not counting a lot of what I used in the loom hats, since some of those were partial skeins and I gave the rest away to a kindergarten teacher. Assuming the math is correct, though, that's 2269 yards out, or almost 1.29 miles.

Purchased or given:

1. 2 skeins Debbie Bliss Stella - 182 yards

So that's a net loss of 2087 yards, or 1.18 miles. Yeah, I can live with that.

Also, tomorrow I am going to the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival. I've been a good girl, I haven't bought any yarn in 3 months, I gave away over a mile of yarn, and I have been saving my money for months.

Justification? Oh yes. Do I care? Nope.

As Much As Possible: 2nd Quarter

Let's check in, shall we?

1. Not buy yarn.

Compared to last quarter I did pretty well. The only yarn I purchased was a skein of Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride. I did win 3 skeins in a contest, so I will count their yardage even though I didn't buy them.

2. 1st in, 1st out.

I'm doing better here. An early entry into my stash is the Caron Simply Soft in Dark Country Blue, which I used in my loom hat. So it's not gone, but it's getting used. Once my hiatus is done I have another loom hat started with the same yarn.

3. Craft for charity first.

Loom hat! I don't know where it's going to be donated, but I fully intend to whip out a bunch of hats from my stash. But I did make one, at least.

4. Projects for others before myself.

I totally finished my sister's Sneaky Snakes hat before making my Gaenor shawl.

5. 2 skeins a month.

I'm beginning to think this is a flawed goal. Noble, but flawed.

6. USE IT UP.

Well, nothing was completely removed from stash, so I suppose this is technically a fail.

---

I did crunch some numbers this quarter, which may redeem me.

Yarn purchased/received:

1. Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted - 190 yards
2. Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool XL - 104 yards
3. Queensland Collection Kathmandu Aran - 104 yards
4. Elsebeth Lavold Twice Tweed - 82 yards

Total: 480 yards

Projects completed:

1. Gaenor shawl - 399.5 yards
2. Boneyard shawl - 502.9 yards
3. Sneaky Snakes hat - 133.2 yards
4. Loom hat - 100.8 yards
5. Dryer balls (wool) - 104.5
6. Dryer balls (acrylic) - 190.5

Total: 1431.4 yards

So, if you subtract the second total from the first total, you get -951.4 yards total gain, which you may notice is actually a loss! Almost a thousand yards out of stash in 3 months?

I'm going to consider that a success.

Stash Sale

I may or may not have mentioned that I fell down some stairs and hurt my foot on January 2nd. To make a long story short, I still have foot pain and have decided it's time to see a doctor about it.

I don't have health insurance. To see a doctor and get an x-ray is going to cost, at best, a few hundred bucks.

I've decided it's time to be ruthless, so I am willing to sell a lot of my stash. I went through my stash on Rav and marked a lot of it as willing to trade/sell. I don't have prices listed since I'm willing to be very flexible. Some of the skeins were given to me as gifts, so I hate to sell them but I need the money.

Items for sale are currently only listed on my Ravelry stash page. I don't have the patience to relist them here, so I apologize if you are not on Ravelry and are interested in purchasing something.

You can see the items here. If there is no picture and you'd like to see a picture, let me know. I'm very flexible with prices, so please feel free to make an offer. I can be contacted through Ravelry or via my e-mail (stormcoastcreations at gmail dot com).

Thanks for taking a look, and I'll update you guys with info on my foot as soon as I can get to the doctor.

Falling Off the Wagon ... Ouch!

I fell off the wagon. I bought yarn.

I had Friday (aka Royal Wedding Day) off and so I went to my LYS to hang out. It was quite lovely, and I got a LOT done on my sister's hat because my nail has finally grown out. It was so nice that I decided to get myself a little yay-I-finished-Bonyeard/yay-I-actually-worked-on-my-sister's-hat/why-didn't-I-marry-a-prince? present and bought myself a skein of Lamb's Pride. I'm hoping to actually make those Felted Dryer Balls. A friend made them and didn't have a ton of success, but I have a top-loader and she didn't, so maybe it will work better. And if it doesn't, that's okay, since I've never used Lamb's Pride and will enjoy the new experience.

That's all the yarn I bought. Turns out there was a little fashion show going on, and since I stuck around for it I got a thanks-for-being-there prize. I love those. I got to pick from a few options, so I chose a bag of 3 individual skeins. Not sure what I'll do with them, but when do I ever?

I now have some more Kathmandu Aran (in cranberry! maybe I'll make a Christmas hat since I have some green too). There was also a skein of Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool XL. I have a skein of her DK Silky Wool, but I haven't used that yet either. Finally, there was a fun little skein of Elsebeth Lavold Twice Tweed, which is apparently discontinued. If nothing else, I will enjoy a little yarn tasting.

On Saturday, my husband dragged me down to Massachusetts for some LARP thing he does. I drove a little, since I'm trying to get my license, and then I worked on the hat more. Once we hit MA, things started to look strangely familiar, and I said "wouldn't it be funny if WEBS was around here?"

Oh, yeah. Where he games is about 2.5 miles away from WEBS. Since we got there so late (they were closing in 20 minutes), I showed my husband the store and then we left. I didn't buy anything. Can I just repeat that? I went to WEBS and I didn't buy anything. Not even a pin. I might have fallen off the wagon, but I wasn't about to throw myself on the train tracks.

Besides, I didn't have any money.

I finished knitting the hat on Sunday, and now I just need to reknit the ribbing because it is way too loose. Unfortunately I think the stress of driving and the major knitting I did after a serious hiatus led to my left hand officially hating me. I went to push myself up out of my chair and my hand collapsed. That's right, I can't put any weight on it. So I have to take a knitting hiatus right now, because I'm pretty sure if I try to reknit worsted weight cotton on size 2 needles I might need a hand amputation. And that would suck.

Falling off the wagon hurts, guys!

As Much As Possible: 1st Quarter

It occurs to me that maybe I should do a quarterly report of As Much As Possible.

Guys, first quarter sucked. If I don't see these numbers start improving ASAP there are going to be a lot of pink slips around here. Oh, wait, I'm the only one who knits in this house. Whoops.


1. Not buy yarn.

Okay, this was a fail. I purchased a Kauni during my morphine-haze. And then my sister wanted a hat made out of sage green cotton, which I didn't have. Crap.

2. 1st in, 1st out.

Considering nothing has technically gone out? Double crap.

3. Craft for charity first.

Whoops.

4. Projects for others before myself.

Um, I'm making that hat for my sister?

5. 2 skeins a month.

Fail. Just ... let's not talk about it.

6. USE IT UP.

Hey, one I can say I did! I gave away that whole skein in my giveaway. Take that, 2011 stashdown!

My First Giveaway!

This week I found out I won Handmade by Mikaiya's blog-a-versary contest. What did I win? A Traveling Woman shawl knit in Wollmeise. Are you jealous? You should be. I can't wait to get it!

Since my third blog-a-versary is coming up on March 12th, I thought I would jump on the bandwagon of giving and have my own little contest. The rules will be similar to Mikaiya's: comment on any post between now and March 12th, and you'll be entered to win a skein of yarn from my stash. The more times you enter, the more chances you'll have to win! In order to be fair, I'll need at least three different commenters to enter. I can only ship to the US/Canada, so while anyone is welcome to comment, please indicate if you aren't eligible for the contest!

Oh, you want to know what you'll win? Okay.



I bought this skein at the VT Sheep & Wool Festival in October from the Biltmore Wool Barn. The skein you get won't have the stats on it, so let me list them here:

Yardage: 430
Ounces: 5/2
Superwash Merino Wool

There's no needle size or suggested gauge, but it seems like sock-weight to me. This skein has gorgeous maroons, pale pinks, rich browns and deep golds. The picture can't do it justice.

My home is cat-friendly, though my yarn is stored in plastic tubs with lavender essential oils sachets protecting against moths and stinkiness.

Remember, comment on a post between now and March 12th and I will randomly pick a winner from that list on my blog-a-versary. Ready, set ... go!

As Much As Possible

I've decided to make some crafting resolutions this year. It's a good thing I wrote them down in October, because otherwise I'd be scrambling last-minute as I usually do.

Have I mentioned that I haven't bought yarn since Tunbridge? October 3rd. 90 days. Basically 3 months. 25% of the YEAR. I just need you to validate the success of my yarn diet.

Anyway, I call these resolutions the "as much as possibles", since I won't beat myself up for not sticking to a solid plan.

As much as possible, in 2011 I will:

1. Not buy yarn. I have a large stash and it's time to knit some of it up.

2. 1st in, 1st out. Since I know my chances of following 1 are very slim, I will continue in my quest to knit older yarns before newer yarns.

3. Craft for charity first. I'm fortunate to have all that I do. I can give back through my hobby.

4. Projects for others before myself. This one kills me a little. I'm a selfish crafter. My poor, patient husband now has the Binary Scarf that spans multiple years. What am I working on right now? Not his scarf. Naughty Jen. No new yarn for you.

5. 2 skeins a month. I belong to a stashdown group on Ravelry, and one of their challenges is 100 skeins in a year. While I'm sure I have the stash to sustain that challenge, realistically it ain't happening. But I think I can manage 2 skeins a month, if not more.

6. USE IT UP. Use it until you can't get any more use out of it. I've used as little as 12 yards of leftovers in my crapghan. It feels awesome to use it ALL up and not throw any away.

These are my goals for 2011. I am definitely the kind of person who likes to deprive herself. I'll almost buy something and then put it back and feel bad about it forever. And while material goods don't bring happiness, life is also too short to not enjoy it. So if my quality of life will be improved by buying some yarn or finishing something for me? Not gonna freak out. 2011 -- I'm ready for you.

Adios, Plymouth Encore!

I found the crochet hook I've been using in the Scrapghan. It was, of course, tangled up IN the Scrapghan. I immediately sat down and polished off a few little balls I had laying around, including some remnants from the Baby Blanket of Doom and its predecessor. Apparently the last time I worked on it I hadn't learned the Russian Join, so things are a lot more fun now.

What I'm most excited about using up, though, is the Plymouth Encore. I used up the last 12 yards of the blue from my first socks, and 40 yards of orange remnants that someone gave me for this project. This is awesome because I can move them over to the "used" tab of my Ravelry stash page. They're small victories, but every victory counts.

One Green Hat

Have you ever been at the store and you don't remember if you have a pair of size 9 needles, so you buy some? You get home and realize you have 6 pairs of size 9s. But you don't take them back, because you never know.

I'm apparently the same way. Only with yarn to make green hats.

Exhibit A:



Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk.

I received 2 skeins for Christmas 2008. There's not too much you can do with 2 skeins -- maybe a hat. I was thinking maybe a cabled hat back in February 2009. Okay, so I didn't mention the word "hat" then, but I definitely did in this IWTMT from August 2010.

Exhibit B:



Green Mountain Spinnery Wonderfully Wooly.

I purchased 1 skein of green and 1 of yellow back in March 2010. I was going to make mitts out of one and a hat out of the other. Verified in my most recent IWTMT post. I'm still on the fence about what's going to be what. The hat could be green.

Exhibit C:



Queensland Collection Kathmandu Aran. In October 2010, I quote: "I want this to be a hat."

Exhibit D:



Mountain Vewe Coopworths' wool/mohair blend, purchased at the Vermont Sheep & Wool Festival. October 2010. I quote: "I only bought one because I thought I could make a hat!"

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I believe this evidence proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that I have a weakness for hat-quantities of green yarn. I have hidden these yarns in my subconscious when acquiring more and more green hat yarn. I lived in denial. Denial of what I already had.

It might seem harsh, but I believe in tough sentencing. Please sentence me to shop from the stash and actually make a green hat. I may find this cures me from my obsession and I can become a productive knitter of non-green hat objects.

And if it doesn't cure me? Well, ladies and gentlemen, I have one thing to say to that: they're all very different greens.

I rest my case.

Stash: Gift Certificate!

Everyone I know went to the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival today, and I don't get to go until tomorrow, so I took pictures of yarn to console myself. And maybe to guilt myself into not buying anything tomorrow. I don't think it will work.

I did some work for my LYS a few months ago and got a gift certificate. I was trying really hard not to spend it. Then I decided, screw it, what if the yarn I like isn't there anymore? Which is exactly what happened. I still got good yarn, though.



Malabrigo Sock in Abril. Shawl, I hope.



Two skeins of Queensland Collection Kathmandu Aran colorway 183. I want this to be a hat.



Kauni Wool 8/2 Effektgarn in EQ. Yes, I caved for rainbow.



Araucania Ruca in colorway 103. Araucania seems to be a new favorite of mine.


I wanted a skein of Madelinetosh Tosh Sock, the Kauni and the Malabrigo Sock, but someone bought the green Tosh Sock while I was waffling on it, so I had to come up with a new way to allocate my gift certificate. I'm still pleased with my purchases, and I got more yarn out of the deal. I also bought a little "rate of increases/decreases" keychain so I could fully use my gift certificate. All in all, I spent under $2.

I have a feeling that won't be the case tomorrow.

Confessions of a Diet Breaker

In 2010, the year I was supposed to be on a yarn diet, I bought 33 skeins of yarn. I think I set myself up for failure, though.

I bought 3 skeins on my first trip to Green Mountain Spinnery.

I bought 4 skeins on my first trip to WEBS.

I bought 9 skeins for items that have been gifted.

So really, that's only 17 skeins I should feel somewhat guilty about. But of those 17 skeins, I have started and/or finished projects with another 5. That knocks it down to a dozen. For five more, I had a gift certificate.

7. 7 skeins. That's not so bad.

Did I mention I'm going to the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival for the first time too?

Screw it. 2011 can be the year of the diet.

Goal: Stash Reduction

So technically I've been on a yarn diet. This year, I think I've only bought about 30 skeins. Whoops.

In addition to my IWTMTs, I'm adding a new crafting goal: thin out the stash. Whether I knit/crochet it, trade it, give it away, or sell it, some of it's gotta go.

This works well with the charity kids hats, which I need to get back on making. Scraps that don't go into charity hats can go into the scrapghan.

Obviously, I have to do this in a painful way that involves suffering, because that's how I operate. I'm going to go through my Rav stash by date. First thing listed? First thing to go. I don't get to play with a new toy until I'm done with an old one. I can start something like a charity hat, but I can't start a new pair of socks.

The first thing in my Rav stash is a partial skein of Lion Brand Microspun in turquoise. There's not a lot, and it's not worsted weight, so I'll try to crochet some flowers to put on some of the charity hats. There! It's not so bad when you have a plan.

But I Barely Did Any Work At All ...

I went on vacation to visit my mom and sister down in Rhode Island for the week before Labor Day. There was some sun, some swimming, some relaxing, some knitting, and a little bit of stash enhancement.

I had the good luck to visit two stores on my trip. The first was Mystic River Yarns in Mystic, CT. What a beautiful shop! Light, airy and full of yarny goodness. I'd made it a personal goal to only buy things I couldn't get at home, so I asked the employee what local yarns they had. I was very close to leaving with some hand-spun naturally-dyed Tidal Yarn. I ended up picking skeins from two local dyers.





This is a skein of Ellyn Cooper's Yarn Sonnets Fine Merino in the colorway Aqua Tide. Mmph.



This is a skein of Peace of Fleece Hand-Dyed Sock Yarn Semi-Solids in the Iolite colorway. I don't think that's exactly the name, but I can't find any info on this yarn online. In the store, it looked very blue but when I took it outside it's really more purple. That's okay, I still love it.



Then I visited Knitwits in Westerly, RI. This store was so cute & cozy! There were a few women knitting when I went in who greeted me. Some of them even started saying "y'all come back now, y'hear?" which I find to be hilarious. Knitwits was lovely and had beautiful yarn, but most of it was stuff my LYS already carried. I did manage to snag two skeins of Jojoland Melody Superwash in the excitingly-named colorway MS16.



Whoops. I guess I'm back in my blue/ocean phase.

From Foreign Lands

I was so excited to find the camera, you know. I got a few great shots from Friday Night Live. Yesterday, I tried to take some pictures of FOs and ... the battery had died. Phooey. A quick trip to the store later and I have at least two posts for this week!

I may have busted the yarn died last week. My justification was twofold. One, I was almost done with my socks, which meant stash reduction, so a new skein would cancel it out. Two, I was in the paper and my fame entitled me! I only feel mildly guilty and I'll be a good girl now, I promise.

One of my super-sweet friends over at my LYS is also super-creative. She comes up with great displays for each holiday and season that incorporate yarn. For example, right now she has the "ocean table". Can you already tell I'm sunk? But really, how was I supposed to go home without this?



It's Colinette Jitterbug in the colorway Aegean. I've wanted Jitterbug since I worked at the yarn store, but couldn't really justify it since I didn't knit socks. Well, all I have to do on these socks is make a heel, so I bought some! Colinette is a Welsh yarn company, and I had the great fortune to go to Wales my sophomore year of college. (I fit in the doorway of the smallest house in Great Britain. True story.)

I might have been able to resist even then, but the Aegean Sea is on the coast of Greece, and I went to Greece my senior year of high school. So you see, I had no choice but to buy it.

That was my impulse buy. Last week the Crazy Zauberball came in, and after seeing socks made out of Zauberball at Friday Night Live, there was no way I was letting that get past me. (The website isn't quite working right now, otherwise I'd link it.) I almost bought the blue (I'm in a Blue Phase again, apparently), but bright colors prevailed and I went home with the rainbow (colorway 1702). Since this was the first time I'd taken pictures since we'd moved in, I had to learn where all the good light and backgrounds were. I was putting the yarn on the windowsill when my littlest helper decided to investigate.



My husband wants to print that and frame it. So that's not stash, that's art!

Yarn Diet

So I'm on a yarn diet.

But I may have gone to Green Mountain Spinnery today.



Oops.



Oops.



Oops.

I guess that wouldn't have been so bad, but I may have also gone to Six Loose Ladies.



Oh, sweet! Books are okay!



Twoops.

Mmm-Mmm Good

"Jen," you may be saying to yourself, "Jen, why do you leave us hanging so? Why do you blog about something going on and then never mention it again? I need closure."

First of all, though, I'd like to give an update on my Storm Moon Knits scarf. I was so glad to finish it, I really was. The color scheme, while awesome, wasn't quite me. The yarn also had some negative associations with the death of my brother. I posted it on Facebook to share with my friends and found someone local who seemed to love it. I offered it to her as a gift, and she accepted! I'm so happy the scarf has found a new home with someone who can fully enjoy it. (Though I'd seriously love to knit with the yarn again.)

So, we were looking for closure, were we? Closure for what? Ah, the blood drive! Did I get to donate? Did I buy red yarn? Did I mention I'm trying to knit from stash and not buy this year? How does that work?

Okay, okay, I did get to donate! I'd gone to my LYS and looked at some contenders, including Cascade Eco+ and Schaefer's Miss Priss in Clara Barton. The Miss Priss was especially seductive, but I've worked with it before, and I did want to try something new.

And then ... and then I found out my LYS had bought out the inventory of another store and now they had ... this.



Ahh. So pretty. So rich and varied. So awesome!



Yeah, I fell in love with a skein of Malabrigo and I haven't even knit with it yet.

Qiviut & Florida & Fifty?

You may be wondering what the heck the three words in the title have to do with each other. All in good time, dear readers. All in good time.

Hubs & I jaunted down to Florida last week in a joint vacation/celebration of our first wedding anniversary. It was quite nice and relaxing, once I felt better! I came down with a cold or something right before we left, so I had no energy. No energy to pack, no energy to go out, and no energy to try to find something project-y and small that would fit in my luggage. Suffice it to say I did not knit or crochet in Florida. I'd read about a yarn store in Palm Harbor (where we were), but either their hours and our hours didn't mesh, or I just didn't feel up to going out.

A week passed, and suddenly it was the day before we left. Knowing I'd regret it if I didn't go, Hubs bundled me into the car and I dutifully plugged the store's address into our handy-dandy GPS system, which then proceeded to not get us there several times. Certain it didn't exist anymore, I was ready to give up. Hubs called and asked where they were. (Duh.)

We eventually found the place: Uncommon Threads in Palm Harbor. (Okay, so it's not the most updated of websites, but if we'd bothered paying more attention we would have known it was behind Outback Steakhouse! Oops.) It was a cute little store that used white milk crates as shelves. I saw a lot of fun yarn there that I haven't seen too much (or at all) up here, including Malabrigo, Flat Feet (which were sooooo tempting), and qiviut.

If you're like me and don't really know what qiviut is, I provide you with this handy Wikipedia link. (Please don't tell my English profs! I know it's not a reliable source!) I'd read up on it a little but hadn't had the chance to actually touch it before. Hubs actually came and found me in the store and dragged me over to touch the sample. It doesn't feel that soft in the skein, but it softened up considerably in that swatch! Since it was our last day in Florida and I didn't have a lot of money left (nor any idea what I was going to do with it), I bought one skein of Jacques Cartier -- well, I'm not sure what it's called, but it's floating around on Ravelry as Qiviuk Majestic Blend. It's a little laceweight blend of silk, qiviuk and merino. (There are also apparently like 10,000 ways to spell qiviuk/qiviut/whatever.)



Isn't it pretty? I think I went into a coma because while I remember going to the cash register and paying for it, when I got to the car and opened the bag, I went "I got THAT color?" Heh. No idea what I'm going to do with it, but do you really need to know? Nope.



(So that explains the first two words in the title. Happy fiftieth post, blog!)