Llyr's Daughter: Nothing to see here.

Because clearly I'm no January One.

I went on a little retail therapy spree last week (two weeks ago?), and I was going to show you all the gory details.

But. We have a cute little digital camera. It's not the one in that ad with Steven Tyler or anything, but it's small and light like they all are. I have some sort of uninteresting, undiagnosed, unproblematic palsy. You know: I could never play "Operation" because I'd hit the side every single time, but my handwriting is still better than my husband's. (In other words, it's not really palsy, I just can't think of another word. Clearly, I listened to Cats too often.) The combination of small, light camera with the mildest of tremors is deadly. We have no pictures of Little One & Daddy because all the pictures I try to sneak come out as blurs. (Daddy is also notoriously camera shy. I'm a big ham. Literally, so I'm not posting any of them.)

Upshot: everything is a blur, and there are no bloggable stash pictures.

Maybe you'd like to hear about it instead?

Herrschner's (damn that spelling!) was having a "stash building sale!" (do any of you get the catalogue? You're lucky. For various reasons.) which included some holiday yarn from Red Heart, and some Paton's Kroy sock yarn and some Debbie Bliss cotton denim aran. I need to make some holiday presents for people who (luckily) aren't yarn snobs, and I'm loving sock yarn (no, I still have not finished an actual sock, but the yarn's really nifty -- small! fine! pretty!), and well, who doesn't want some fancy cotton for a future cardigan for a small child lying around the house? (Well, sure I have some small-child-cardigan-cotton, but it's in yellow. And not fancy. This isn't. And is.)

Into the cart it all goes.

Feeling all virtuous because I was buying for presents (well, some of it. A little. Ok, just the Red Heart), and because everything was on huge discounts (so how did it get to be such a big total??), I thought I'd go just take a look at Elann.

Because, you know, it doesn't hurt to look.

And (edited for spelling) their prices are always discounted.

They have more sock yarn (self-patterning! It's really cool!) from Sock It To Me, and they have Austermann Peru (which is mostly Alpaca! everyone needs lots of Alpaca in the house!), and they have Austerman Pharao (which is Egyptian cotton! not regular! and remember what I said about sock yarn above? this is more so!), and, well, I had to get a pattern for the alpaca, and maybe another pattern because the cables are so cool, and...

Ahem.

Moving on.

Perhaps I would have been better off organizing my existing stash.

I started to do yesterday? the day before? because a teacher at the Little One's school is having a birthday. She's young (regular college student age), and I feel silly giving something like a mug, so I thought, oo! I could put my ~~addiction~~ hobby to good use and make her something! But I can't use yarn I just bought (it hasn't mellowed yet!), so let's see what I have!

I have quite a lot.

I mean, I'm no Ms. Pink (not to pick on her, she's just the only one who I remember has a picture) (and besides she's justified because she has plans for all her stash and I sure don't), but -- the stash really didn't need random enhancement. Especially when I'm planning a yarn crawl with some buds (buds? where'd that come from??) with and without blogs, some point this summer. And also when I'm soooooo looking forward to "Rhinebeck," because MS&W showed me how sheep festivals are cool, cool, cool. And when I apparently knit at about the speed of stupid.

Meanwhile, I'm still collecting yarn from around the house.

Other updates: I haven't found a place to put my new yarn; I got to the heel on my first sock, and then made it too small so I have to rip it out (but it was so cool to be able to put a sock-like thing that I made on my foot); I haven't decided what to make for the teacher, or, in fact, if I should; and The Web is still holding at 26 rows.

Thanks for all the encouragement on Scarf Style. I love a lot of the patterns too, so much so that I would have bought it the first time I picked it up (and run home and hugged it and petted it like my precioussss) until I saw that it retailed for over $25* This seemed like a lot. I get, now, that it's not for a knitting book, but it was the first knitting book I looked at, and it was a bit of a shock.

Clearly books are what I go for the next time I need a little retail therapy. Books & needles.

Random piece of information for the day: did you know that mohair felts if too much weight is put on it? You don't even need to put it in the washer!

*Although I just went to Amazon to look it up (because I like to give my readers accurate information when possible) and they have listed at $21.95, with an Amazonian discount to under $15. And apparently, I was looking in all the wrong places for knitting books in general, because I thought I remembered Vogue Knitting listing at nearly $50, but Amazon has the list-price as $38.95.

Comments

Sounds like you had a fun shopping spree! I love the Fainas and made it earlier this year with some Lorna's Laces sport weight that I scored on sale. And as far as knitting books go, I always try and preview them at the library before committing to a purchase (and they have many copies of Principles of Knitting!).

Posted by: Jody | July 17, 2005 at 09:24 AM

yay for yarn buying! it has been taking all my will power to avoid looking at yarn sites (though I did get two new books). i must remember that paying the rent is more important, but as soon as that check from summer teaching comes in (those Rutgers payroll jerks who keep all the money until after you've finished teaching), we going on that yarn crawl!!

oh oh! and don't forget Stitches in A.C. in September!

Posted by: kim | July 17, 2005 at 12:46 PM

Oh the stash--I am faced with paking my stash in a few days, and I don't really want to know what's in there, honestly. But I am always in favor of other people enhancing their stash.

And I absolutely second the library approach to knitting books. It has saved me more than once from buying a whole book for one pattern.

Posted by: Ashley | July 18, 2005 at 12:28 PM