One word

Wollmeise.

Campari piccolo, Herzblut, Arlene

That is all.

Someone talk me down

I want to buy the yarn to make this lovely cardigan.  Not sure of the colour yet but I have no business buy 4 skeins of lace weight Malabrigo at this juncture in my yarn collecting career and in my current kitchen renovation poverty.

Valley Yarn has it for $11.49 a skein and Red Bird Knits for $12.95 a skein.  And that’s Canadian!  Practically a bargain.  Right?  Okay, wait.  For the love of all that’s logical and holy, talk me down from this craziness!

Hmmmm, maybe Stonechat?  Tiger Lily?  Hmmmm, okay, walking away from the computer now before I do something I’ll regret.

No more Home & Garden TV for you!

The husband, he’s sort of freaking me out.  Phrases like “tasteful decorator piece”, “rich browns”, “making our space flow”, and others just seem to roll from his tongue lately.  The man is in full decorator mode and there is no stopping him.  We did get “rich brown” drapes and our living room tables arrived a week early so that was nice.  I’ll try to get a pici today.

The fibrefest was good but I hear it may be the last one.  Lack of turnout and such.  I’m getting the feeling it was lack of organization creating lack of turnout, but whatever.  I put in a pantry of fibre.  All the staples.  Three colours of Shetland, Finn, South African, Wensleydale, Suri alpaca, and Icelandic.  Then I picked up my order from Yummy Yarn.  Gorgeous!  Eight ounces of Gummy Worms.  So happy.  Then I picked up the wee bags of designer fibres.  Little two ounce bags of cashmere/silk and merino/alpaca/cashmere and four ounces of carbonized bamboo.  Apparently it’s heated until the fibre carbonizes and turns grey.  It’s the exact colour of ash.  Very silky and pretty.

Today, I’m hemming drapes.  Whoo hoo!  And, I need to find a pici for “E” as today is the last day of “E” for the ABC Along.  Hmmmmm.  E is for exhaustion? 

The thought occurs

Although I keep calling my basement sanctuary my fibre room it hadn’t actually contained any fibre.  We fixed that this weekend.

Yep, that’s how it starts.  A single shelf unit, a bit of fibre, some tools, and then…well…you know how that story ends. 

If you see me in a yarn store,

drag me kicking and screaming out of it. You may slap me if I resist. I have too much yarn, I have no business buying anymore, that is all there is to it. There, I’ve said it.

Hubby and I were having an early spring cleaning this weekend. All new shelving units, all new totes, cleaning up, and organizing. We are going to work on the living room renovation next so we decided that we should clean out the basement and seriously thin out our collections of stuff. We started with the stash. Now I know why I always organize my stash alone. It was embarrassing, really embarrassing. I felt like every impulse buy, every “oh I had such an awful day, yarn will make me feel better”, and of course the, “but it’s so cheap! how can I not buy it?”, and “but look how pretty that is!” moments were on display. Felt just a bit vulnerable. Sort of like I was waiting for the morning train during rush hour, but in my underwear…and they had a tear in them…and an ex-boyfriend just happened walk by. That kind of embarrrassing.

Hubby was really nice though and didn’t make any judgemental noises, I don’t know how he kept it in. Yikes. So, must seriously massage the stash over the year. On the plus side, I found some really nice things that I might have forgotten that I had. Like a couple skeins of Fleece Artist cashmere, a wee Noro Kureyon stash, and some really pretty sock yarns. Not good when you’ve forgotten, (read: blocked out), yarn expenditures.

On the plus side, the basement is really coming along and should be done this week. Then we’ll be able to pack up everything in the living room and bring it downstairs so we can paint, get new windows, tile over the incredibly ugly 1977 brick wall around our fireplace, install a gas fireplace, and then lay the new flooring. Phew, I’m exhausted just thinking about all that.

On a not so plus side, while we were working downstairs today hubby heard water dripping. The hot water heater – not long for this world. We’ll be getting that replaced tomorrow. It is over 17 years old though so really, we can’t complain about that.

I also forgot a blog yesterday. I know I was only allowed 10, but this one really needs to be mentioned. Sarah-Hope over at whatifknits writes the most brilliant things and makes me laugh. She also knit this beauty and this one too, showed me this video that I still like to watch and giggle over, and best yet, is not afraid to admit that she went and saw this show. See? How could I not have an 11th blog for my list of 10.

Okay, I’m going to go check the hot water tank again and then watch the last episode of Jekyll. I’m distraught that it is a show of only 6 episodes but at the same time, wow, what an amazing 6 episodes.

Here’s to a brilliant week.

Lookie lookie!

I was participating in Zoe’s Yarn in a Tea Cup Swap and my lovely partner Suzanne totally spoiled me. Look! She sent Koigu! Very excited, I’ve never knit with Koigu before. I know, I know, it’s Canadian, I’m Canadian, how did happen? Well, it’s just not available in the area and every time I find a place that sells it online, its sold out.

Here are picis of all the wonderful goodies.

The chocolate? Amazing! Years ago my friend and I would get a craving and be crossing the border at three in the morning to go to AM/PM in Blaine for Dove ice cream bars. The border guard thought we were a bit sad but that’s okay. Now I have a whole bar of that chocolate! Okay, not a whole bar anymore, ’cause I already ate some. Hey, at least I took the picture before I ripped it open!

Suzanne also sent me lovely tea time napkins and a box of Black Ceylon tea with Vanilla in it. It smells wonderful.

Here’s another pici of the cup so you can see how pretty it is. Please ignore the dust & pollen. This is out on the deck and let’s be honest, the house is lucky if it gets dusted so we’re not even going to talk about the furniture on the deck getting a regular dusting. Now that I’ve show the world this I do feel a bit obligated to maybe tidy that up a bit. Mom’s shaking her head right now thinking “That is NOT how I raised you!”

Thank you so much Suzanne! You have exquisite taste in yarn, teacups, and of course chocolate.

I also want to get your opinion about this:

I’ve knit a second sleeve using Leanne’s suggestion of using two skeins. I took it even further and actually worked from three and four skeins. The orginal sleeve is on the left and the new on is on the right. I used a lot less of the really dark almost black colour and tried to make the stripes longer and shorter than the standard repeat was in the skein. That and make the colours appear out of order. What do you think?

I’m lucky that I don’t find SWS to be itchy like Danielle does but I am worried about how well it will wear and how bad it may pill. We shall see I suppose. Oh, and Jenny, we can totally hook you up and get you knitting, I promise. We are always looking to bring more people over to the dark side! It all starts with a scarf or a dishcloth and then, before you know it, boom, you have stash.

Then I felt kind of bad

Briefly.    Did you go look Pat?  Was it loverly?  She didn’t have all the scans up yesterday when I was there.  I’ve been swatching in the original pattern but now that I’ve seen the variation I’ve been grinding through all my stitch pattern books looking at other options.  It might be nice to do one a bit different.  I’m torn!

But hey, the sun is out, the yard is waiting and I’m taking me and a few of my current projects out of doors for the day.  I even went over to Librivox yesterday and got some new books for Sally the ipod.  Jermoe K. Jerome!  Love it.

It’s a long weekend here and I’m feeling extra lazy.  Happy BC Day.   Wow, that was a lot of links for such a short post.  Oh, but here’s one more.  I’m trying to talk hubby into going to Agrifair this weekend too.  So far no luck.  I want to go pet the sheep & llamas and eat a corndog.

Yarn safari

Kauni is not seen often seen in the wild, which is why this was such a lucky incident.  We spotted it from afar, and began to work our way closer in hopes of learning more about his rare and beautiful creature.

We believe that it was drawn out of hiding for a little sunbathing.  Here is our first glance:

We slowly work our way closer.  Carefully trying not to alarm it:

The warmth of the sun must have caused it to doze off.  This last closeup shot is inprecedented:

Okay, that’s enough Wild Kingdom for the day.    I’ve made a deal with myself, this is as much as I’m allowed to touch it until the Sockapalooza socks are finished.  I’m not even going to put it on the swift and wind it up until those socks are washed and blocking.  I plan on finishing them this weekend, there is no way I can keep my hands off this yarn for any longer than that.  But hey, want to get some Kauni for yourself?  Astrid was fabulous to work with and the shipping was amazingly fast.  I think you will have to wait until the end of July for some colours as they are on back order.

In other news, I had 3 interviews and testing sessions last week for various jobs and on Friday I got calls from 4 more for next week.  One of them is with the RCMP civilian staff.  Dress uniforms!  Swoon.  Don’t even get me started about the musical ride.  Uniforms and horses?  I’m almost unconscious here.

I’m getting a feeling that I will have to make a job choice in the next week or two.  That’s going to be the hard part.

I’m wicked I tell you! Wicked!

I ordered the yarn to make this today.  Someone take away the Visa, please, for the love of Pete.    I went with the rainbow colourway.  If all goes well I might do a more sombre/monochrome on for the fall.

On a more positive note:

1.    I have been called for testing for not one or two but three federal jobs.  Huzzah!

2.    I have an interview  tomorrow and next Friday for a couple of very fine provincial and federal jobs.

3.    I had an interview/testing session at SFU yesterday.

4.    My contract got extended again.  This time to July 20.

So it’s not all gloom and doom.  As long as I keep working the yarn will flow like wine!  Sorry, got a bit odd there.

And, I joined this exchange.  Sounds kind of fun eh?  This is who I’m spoiling.  And this is who’s sending to me.  How cool is that?  I’m going tea cup shopping this weekend. 

More entries, and a linkfest

The Dulaan contest is getting exciting! Just look at this! Lucy over at Workbasket submitted 16 items. Whoot whoot! I am blown away.

Now go on over there and wish her a happy birthday.

And Beth, (who I believe is blogless, but if not, please speak up and let us come to your place!) made this gorgeous steppe sweater for Dulaan. I love the colours and it looks amazingly warm and comfy. I love it. Note to self, must make one of these sweaters.

It’s always so exciting to see what other people are creating, especially for something as wonderful as Dulaan. Thanks guys, you rock!

Now, how many of you signed up for Sockapalooza 4 today? I can’t wait to get my partner. I want to cast on right now. Sing out in comments if you’re in on this. I would love to follow along with all of you on what socks you’re making.

Okay, first game of the NHL playoffs tonight. My Canucks are playing the Stars, at home. And…it’s Trevor Linden’s birthday. Swoon. Everything send some good hockey juju for my boys. They so deserve a Stanley Cup.

The only problem I foresee, my gauge is completely screwy when I’m watching hockey, especially playoffs. Should make for an interesting Poppy.

Oh, before I forget, I also joined Hello Yarn’s fibre club. ‘Cause I ordered that Spindolyn. Oh crap, another obsessive hobby. Sigh.