Stash Growth

I took a two-hour vacation today and went down to Knitch. (Where I learned to knit, and possibly the greatest yarn store ever. If you're ever in Atlanta, go. Trust me. Wonderful, friendly, knowledgeable staff, great selection, neatly-organized, and free coffee).

They're doing their duck sale tomorrow and Sunday, and I selected a bunch of stuff (2 skeins of sock yarn for Luna Moth, and some gorgeous teal yarn for A Cardigan for Arwen). They have this new stuff (I forget what it's called since they still have my yarn and will be pulling a duck and ringing it up tomorrow) and it comes in like 40 colors and you get 250 yrds of worsted-weight for 10 bucks. And AND AND best part? Isn't itchy to me. The Falling Water scarf (which I'm wearing today) is itchy. The Bearfoot Mountain is itchy. But this wool isn't.

I'm sensitive to pricklies, not to wool or lanolin itself. Merino is generally not a problem and I suspect wool socks wouldn't bother me at all since my feet aren't sensitive. My hands aren't either, which can make picking yarn a challenge. I generally have to put it up to my face or neck to see if it'll be a problem. Alpaca can bother me, but seems to not be a problem once it's knit. Go figure.

And now my stash won't fit in a bag anymore (I have it all hanging on my bedroom door, in a Whole Foods cloth bag). Guess I need to look into other storage options. Maybe that plastic chest....

Well, I now have a new cure for stressed out and hormonal. Yarn. I finally went to Cast On Cottage in Roswell and they had many soft pretty things. I saw the non-laceweight malabrigo for the first time, and wow, that stuff is just as soft and pretty as the laceweight. Remind me when I become a millionaire to make myself some sweaters out of it. OMG, soft. And I bought sock yarn, using the argument that it could easily be made into lace, and it seems a shame to hide pretty yarn on feet.

That's my favourite color of it, made into a scarf. My first scarf ever, actually.

In other news, I frogged

that last night, and did a bunch of gauge swatches for the lace I want to knit. The blue yarn in that picture is an alpaca laceweight. I plan on using it for the blue jeans shawl. We'll see how that goes.