Back, beat, and with a lot to catch up on!

Back from wedding and vacation!

Wedding was absolutely lovely - perfect in nearly every way. Vacation was spectacularly relaxing, with the best NH weather we have EVER had.

I did finish the shawl in time to wear it - pinned out on the floor of the hotel room before the rehearsal dinner, finished steaming it while slightly tipsy afterwards at 11:45 PM. NOT an experience I'd want to repeat. Looked awesome with the dress though, so was totally worth it.

My Google reader reports 250+ posts to read. Somehow, I think those might not all get read.

Things I am excited about!

There are so many knitterly things going on right now that I am all a-flutter about.

1. YARN SCHOOL! I can't believe it's only a month away. When I started planning to go, it seemed impossibly far in the future. I'm looking forward to a weekend away, a chance to meet other fiber peoples and learning how to improve my spinning and getting into dying a little more.

2. Secret Pal 11! I had such a good time on the LJ Secret Pal swap that I jumped at the chance to join SP11. I'm already plotting for how I'm going to spoil my pal - I've got a mini-kick-off package nearly all ready to go out this week. I've exchanged e-mail with my spoiler, I hope I've given her enough to work with, and that she'll ask any questions if she needs to. (I'm not always very good at small talk with strangers, so hopefully I'm not coming off as too aloof or not interested.)

3. Spirit Trail Fiberworks Yarn Club! My lovely husband signed me up for this as a birthday present back in May. Waiting for that first shipment (not until the end of July!) was like torture! I've gotten two of the three shipments now, and I am SO pleased with the club. Last month, I got a skein of sock yarn, a cute sock pattern, a pound of really yummy coffee and a bumper sticker. This month, a skein of some truly divine bombyx silk (and I don't usually love 100% silk yarns, but this is totally not snaggy, at least so far), a gorgeous and unusual scarf pattern for the yarn, a pack of Knitter's Review notecards, and another cute car sticker. I'm SO glad that he listened to my hints for presents this year, and that he picked the more general yarn club instead of the sock club I'd been pointing toward - this is turning out far more fun than three months of socks!

4. Christmas knitting! Those of you who know me IRL may remember that in years past I have cheerily proclaimed that I "don't do Christmas knitting". This year, I am inspired. I have projects in mind for my sister, my brother, my me-mere, my Dad, my Mom and hopefully I can think of something for my other brother. If I have time, something for my SiL and my not-yet-SiL as well. It's early, so I'm still in that happy place where I can pretend that I can get it all done without stressing myself out. The Ravelry queue feature is SO handy for keeping track of everything I'm wanting to knit for everyone.

5. Vacation knitting (see Christmas knitting)! Going on vacation next week; hoping for a fair amount of knitting time. A start on the Christmas knitting, and just maybe, I can start the Knitwits hat kit I bought an age ago to practice fair isle.

I love the return of fall, and good knitting weather. I'm so happy that my crazy busy summer is drawing to a close and that we'll be back in our normal school year routine soon.

Slogging at the speed of sound

I'm going all out trying to finish the Mystery Stole. I've got about 40 more rows to go, but they are some crazy log rows at this point. As long as I finish the knitting by Thursday afternoon, I can always block in on the hotel bed on Friday to wear on Saturday. (I swear, it's like my brain thinks being in the "blocked in the hotel room the night before" club makes me a cool kid or something. How else to explain wasting TONS of time not-knitting last week. Sometimes I hate my brain. But, I think I might actually make it - I have Thursday off to get ready, and while I DO have to pack up for 1 1/2 weeks away from everyone, that shouldn't take the entire day.

I've nearly finished a little tank top for Widget, just in time for it to get cool, of course. I'm hoping that it'll either look cute layered over t-shirts or just maybe, still fit her in the spring. I used the left-over kertzer cotton from my friend's baby blanket, and it is an adorable little top. She loves it.

I don't think that I ever posted pictures of the finished blanket up here - I only just got to deliver it to the new wee one the weekend. What a beautiful little baby girl she is. I couldn't be more excited!

Here's the delightful blanket I worked up for her.







Pinwheel Baby Blanket with a seed stitch border and a picot edge bind off
Kertzer Butterfly Super10 yarn
Finished 7/19/07

So, we're off to the wedding on Thursday night and busy with that until Sunday morning. As long as there's no hiccups in the event, this is going to be a blast. We're all going out mini-golfing in full bridal party regalia (including the bride in her dress) after the reception, then they've chartered a shuttle bus to go bar hopping. This is why I planned a week at the lake immediately following - I'm going to need a vacation to recover from the wedding! And, of course, I need to figure out what I'm taking for knitting!

Then we get back and Ms. Widget heads off for her first day of elementary. She is excited and nervous, and worried about being the only one who's nervous. Full steam ahead into the fall schedule of school and dance classes and trying to find her a brownie troop, and then we'll be into the holidays. Which answers what I should bring on the trip... the holiday knitting!

Eeeek!

Sky

I'm a slacker when it come to my own sky pictures. I admit this, and I'm mostly okay with it.

I'm making up for it this morning, by pointing y'all
over here.

Her blog is always entertaining, but today's sunrise pictures are stunning. Enjoy!

Someone tell me

why, when I have crazy insane deadline for a knitting project, I decide I really simply *must* spend all evening cleaning out the pantry closet that's not been cleaned in months?

Am I insane, or just stupid?

Secret Pal Survey thingie

I feel like a total slacker for not getting this up until today. Hopefully my Pal hasn't been waiting for it or anything! Oh! and also, I keep two blogs - this one is mostly my kniting and a little life rambling. My other is my livejournal. It's more personal stuff, but is mostly unlocked, so feel free to poke around over there as well, if you want.

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?

I love most wools, alpaca, cotton, bamboo, and am always up for trying something new. I love hand dyed and handspuns, and love yarns that are closer to the natural source of the fiber than those that are over-processed and commercial. I am not allergic to anything. I love mercerized cotton for summer knitting.

I absolutely hate acrylic - I can't wear it, so I won't generally knit with it. I'm not a fan of mohair either - awful to work with and itchy to boot. And not so much a fan of fun fur or "novelty" yarns either.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?

I've got a set of needle cases for all my needles. My other tools ride around in a little zippered pouch that moves from bag to bag to bag as I shift my projects around.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?

I've been knitting for about 4 years now - I'm about 90% self taught. I'd claim my skill level as advanced, mostly in that I've not yet met anything I *can't* do, although there's planty out there that I choose not to.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?

I have one for Amazon here.

I've got a few sellers favorited on etsy here as well.

5. What's your favorite scent?

I love citrus-y and other fruit scents as long as they're true and not overly sweet. Also vanilla (and other baked goods) scents for bath products and candles. Flowery scents, especially lavender gives me headaches, so I'd would prefer not to get anything flowery.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?

I'm more of a salty-crunchy kind of girl than a sweet tooth kind, although I'll never turn down good chocolate or Jelly Belly jelly beans, either. I also love all things coffee and cheese. Can't think of anything I'd be sad to get - odds are if I don't like it, the husband or kidlet will love it.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?

I am a very beginning spinner. I also do cross stitch and needlepoint, and very basic sewing.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)

I've got pretty eclectic musical tastes, but particularly like folk and "roots" music, much classical, but am open to nearly everything. My computer can play MP3s.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?

I love rich colors - jewel tones and warm rich earthy tones. I don't like screamy neons and am not a fan of pastels.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?

I'm married, with a 6 year old daughter. I have three cats (one who's a yarn thief), a snake, and a fish tank.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?

Yes to all of those except ponchos. I particularly love funky hats.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?

Pretty much anything and everything. I particularly love lace and socks and small things where I can experiment with wacky yarn or bright colors.

13. What are you knitting right now?

Mystery Stole (currently kicking my TAIL), tank top for my daughter (my own pattern, with lovely purple Kertzer cotton), scarf for Christmas gift (lacy etherial loveliness in my grandmother's favorite blue), socks (This is a lie. There's actually NO socks going, just about 4 different balls of sock yarn and needles riding around in my take everywhere bag).

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?

Absolutely!

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?

My needle preference changes depending on the project and the yarn. I use circulars more often than straights, and have a love for bamboo, wood and Addis.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?

Yes to both

17. How old is your oldest UFO?

Hee. about 3 1/2 years old. Soon it will all be ripped out.

18. What is your favorite holiday?

Thanksgiving and Christmas. Arbor Day.

19. Is there anything that you collect?

Those silly squished pennies you can make at tourist traps. And, you know, yarn. Other than that, not really - I never gotten into the whole collecting mode.


20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?

I really want the Interweave Favorite socks book. I don't have any subscriptions to magazine, but usually end up picking up Interweave at my yarn shop.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?

I'm currently trying to psych myself up to learn fair isle, as stranded colorwork is one of the few techniques I want to use but haven't done much with. I have the pattern and yarn for the insane Dale of Norway ladybug sweater at home and just can't bring myself to cast on for it.


22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?

I am a sock knitter. Love them! I don't know my exact measurements, but I wear a size 9 shoe and have wide feet.

23. When is your birthday?

5/16

24. Are you on Ravelry? If so, what's your ID?

Yes - I'm siercia there too.

Weddings, a mystery and tassels

The world's busiest summer continues apace.

My brother got married last weekend! I'm very very happy for him. His bride is a wonderful woman, and they make a wonderful couple.


I know this is not technically a great picture, but I love the joy in it.

Then, after the wedding, my parents took Widget for a week of vacation... for both them AND us. Since it's restaurant week in Boston, Wiley and I took full advantage of our temporary childless-ness and went out to dinner a LOT. She's home now, but it was a great trip for her, and break for us.

I'm knitting, and trying to spend less home time on the computer. Since work's been busy, I can't slack and play while I'm there.

The Mystery Stole is kicking my butt, and I very much doubt I'll have it finished in time for Pru's wedding in September.


Not blocked or pinned out, just stretched a wee bit. Length wise, this is supposed to be about a third of the stole.

I'm only at the end of Clue 3, while everyone else is on Clue 6, and Clue 4 is a double length clue. Yes, I think I'm doomed. I think it's beautiful, so even if I'm lagging, I'm loving working on it.

Since that takes a great deal of concentration, I've been looking for brainless knitting projects to while away my time when I can't focus on the Stole.

So far I've nearly finished a tank top for Widget, and today I finished what might be the cutest project of my summer.

Widget's Tassel Hat. She saw a version of this knitted up at NH S&W and has been bugging me to do hers since then. It was cool enough to work on it this week, and I knocked it out in just a couple of days.

She loves it!

Saturday Sky and a self portrait

This evening, after spending the afternoon at the baby shower for E (sadly, the blanket's not finished. When I measured it on the needles, it was a good healthy 28 inches diameter. When I started binding off, it measured only 26, which is just a little too small for my taste. I don't want the seed stitch border any wider, I don't think, so I've got to rip out the border, add another 6-8 rounds, then re-do the border) we decided to head for Wollaston Beach to get clams, which is a favorite summertime activity. Since we had the camera from the shower, I spent some time snapping some pictures.

The evening sky, Squantum Neck from Wollaston Beach



Beginnings of sunset


After clams, we drove out to end of Hough's Neck to pick up our farmshare from the friends who had done the pickup this week. As we were driving back, I saw the sun shining pink through the clouds. Wiley pulled over and I snapped another quick picture.

Sunset over Quincy Bay


The light was amazing out at the beach - the soft warm pinks of early sunset. I almost ever like pictures of myself, but we managed to snap a couple of decent self portraits, thanks to Wiley's long arms.

Self portrait

The conversation at our house tonight...

Me: "You know, if I thought I could carry one without zapping myself, I would *love* to carry a taser." (I'm the girl who managed to mace herself carrying the mace my boyfriend *insisted* I carry in "dangerous" downtown Worcester.)

Him: "You couldn't taser yourself - the way the newer ones work, it's almost impossible."

Me: "Yeah, but if anyone could do it, it would be me."

Him: *laughing* "I can see it now - you come home with burn marks all over your hip. God, it touched my pager and the battery in that arced to my cell phone, and then my knitting caught fire. My whole SCARF is GONE!"

Me: "That would be the part that would piss me off the most. Talk about insult to injury!"

Using my time

So, this weekend? When I have two (more, really) deadline knitting projects breathing down my neck, and a giant whack of free time to spend on working on them?

Do I spend my free time working on EITHER project?

Heh. As if.

No, I spend hours and hours futzing around trying to make friends with my spinning wheel instead, only really working on the blanket at knitting circle on Saturday night.

It worked - we're much more friendly now than we were before I worked on it on Saturday and Sunday. If I were organized, I'd have pictures to show you of the lovely bobbin and a half of red Corriedale I managed to produce (but I'm not, so you'll have to just imagine it). It's not *good* handspun, but I think it'll hold together, which is progress, for sure.

I did manage progress on both blanket and shawl as well, too. The blanket is up to about 24 inches in diameter (mostly because work was dead on Friday and so I got to knit a bunch), and I finished the first clue for the Mystery Stole on Sunday night.

So, progress. Just slow.

Pretties!

I did not finish Clue 1 last night, so now I guess I'm officially behind. Oh well.

To distract myself, and y'all, a pretty!


From one of the *four* bouquets that Widget got after her dance recital.

Weekend all entirely to myself this weekend. What shall I do with myself?!?!

Not much going on here

Our Fourth of July holiday was lovely - a low key morning catching up on errands and to-dos, followed by a party at the house of some friends. We didn't attempt the fireworks this year, and just as well, since the weather was terribly uncooperative.

We're slowly eating our way through all the veggies we've gotten in our CSA. So many greens! Tonight was all about the greens, and then I roasted all the beets we've gotten to use in salads and stuff over the weekend. May have been a mistake, since they would have kept for a while uncooked, but I love them so much I could eat them all in a couple of sittings.

I'm being consumed by my two current projects. More knitting, less blogging, as I'm sure you all know. Work has been busy too, so there's little time during the day for goofing off.

What am I working on, you might ask?

The first is the Mystery Stole Knit Along. I'm about 3/4 of the way through the first clue, the second clue goes up tomorrow. Soon as I'm finished this, I'm off to keep on knitting away at the darn thing. I have visions of being able to wear this as a wrap for my friend S's wedding on September 1st, since New Hampshire's weather can be... unpredictable, and my MoH dress is sleeveless. If I can keep to the knitalong schedule, I should be able to do it, since the last clue is due on August 17th.

Here's my progress so far:


The second is the last baby gift - I'm knitting a Pinwheel Baby Blanket for my friend E's baby. Baby's coming in August, but we just got a shower invite for next weekend - I doubt I'll have it done by then, but I've got the whole weekend to myself, so I keep telling myself that it might happen. Ever the knitting optimist, I am!

It's about 12 inches across right now, but the rows only get longer from here!

Weekend

There was remarkably little knitting this weekend. I was a busy busy Siercia, instead (this is going to be a theme this summer, I fear.) Deadlines be damned, there were more pressing matters to attend to:

a dance recital


a new roof (okay, this one required no effort on my part, other than writing a large check)


strawberry picking


Also included, but not pictured, clams at Tony's, knitting circle, dim sum, strawberry shortcake.

I got my yarn for the Mystery Stole along today. But now it's so hot that the thought of touching wool yarn is making me want to die, just a little bit. I should swatch though, if I really want to do this. First clue comes out this week!

Chugging chugging chugging

So, one more sweater finished, and only one sleeve, that has been fighting with me a LOT, left on the BSJ. It's a little crooked still, but I think it's cute. I'm saving up the picture taking until I can snap them all together - probably a mistake since it's taking WAY longer than I expect, but I'm lazy. After I finish the seaming, there's one more sweater (already about half done) and then I have to decide about blanket vs. the more challenging car seat bunting. I'm still on the fence.

And I'm waiting for my yarn for the Mystery Stole project. If it doesn't get here soon, I'm going o end up totally behind before it even starts. Eeeek!

In more exciting news, I reserved a spot at Yarn School for myself yesterday. Flights are running between $225 and $250 right now, so it's a nice getaway for not too much money for the fall. I'm crazy excited! Now I need to decide if I want a group room (cheaper) or a double with someone I don't know (provides space for private chill time) that'll be a little more expensive.

Tomorrow is Widget's dance recital. I volunteered to be class mom, so instead of sitting in the audience all afternoon, I get to wrangle little girls. They're a pretty good bunch of kids, so I'm hoping it'll be pretty relaxed. Watched the dress rehearsal last night - the little kids are so funny, and some of the older classes are really quite talented.

Evolution of a meme

This morning, when I saw this meme over at maryse's I thought to myself - hey, I did this on LJ a while ago. I'll post it over here today. Easy content.

I went and cut and pasted my original answers and realized that some of the questions are actually different, which is interesting and kind of neat. For my own curiousity, I'm going to post all the questions and answers up - ones in common are normal text, ones only in my original meme are bold, and ones only in the new are italics
Your Name: Jennifer

1. Famous Singer/Band: Jethro Tull

2. 4 letter word: Jump
3 letter word: Jib

3. Street: Jensen St.
4. Color: Jade
5. Gifts/Presents: Jewelry
6. Vehicle: Jet

7. Things in a Souvenir Shop: Junk

Show: Judging Amy
Country: Japan

8. Boy Name: James
9. Girl Name: Julie

10. Movie Title: Just Like Heaven

11. Drink: Harp
Alcoholic drink: Jagermeister

12. Occupation: Judge

Flower: Jasmine

13. Celebrity: Joan Cusack

Something found in a kitchen: Juicer

14. Magazine: Just Cross Stitch
15. U.S. City: Joliet, IL
16. Pro Sports Teams: Jets

18. Reason for Being Late for Work: Jetlag

Something Scary: Jehovah's Witnesses
A Feeling: Jealous
Animal: Jellyfish

19. Something You Throw Away: juice boxes

20. Things You Shout: Jesus!

21. Cartoon Character: Josie (and the pussycats)

So, one down, two nearly finished, third cast on...

One baby sweater is finished.

Two are in seaming stages. The stockinette BSJ is, well, not perfect, but close enough. I think with blocking, it'll be alright. The other needs some blocking, since I think I got the sleeves in not quite the right spot, and the back is a wee bit longer than the front.

So far, all of these knits have been plagued, which is leading me to think that perhaps for E's baby, a blanket out of the beautiful lavender Kertzer cotton I bought on Saturday may be a better plan than trying to design my own car seat bunting. As awesome a gift as that would be, it'll only be awesome if I can finish it, and I'm feeling a little cowed and under the gun here. I can always use the purple wool to make a lovely sweater for Ms. Widget this winter.

In other news, I got my Ravelry invite about a week ago, and I'm having a blast playing over there. ETA: I'm foolish, and forgot to add that my username over there is siercia.

In other other news, I signed up for the Mystery Stole Along on yahoo. As neat as this seems, I'm starting to think that taking on another project while I'm still on deadline for baby knitting might be a mistake. The volume of messages on the group is seriously overwhelming as well. I suppose it doesn't hurt to stay signed up nd decide closer to the start date, right?

Hooray for Friday!

Even if it's a jam packed weekend coming up, with almost no knitting time scheduled in.

It's supposed to be a nice weekend, and I'm going to enjoy it!

I can't believe that my Widget graduated from Kindergarten today. How did she get so old?

Yarn store dreams

But not in the good sense...

Many knitters daydream about opening a yarn store. It's natural - most of us think we'd love being surrounded by yarn and knitters all day, every day. Of course the reality of running a shop is totally different, but that doesn't deter us from dreaming about it.

Last night, though, I actually dreamed about a yarn store. Of course now I can't remember the details. I'm not sure if I owned the shop, or if I was shopping there, but it was weird. The way it worked, it was like an online store you couldn't actually see what you were buying before it came out to the shop area from the back, and there was this vibe that if you didn't like what came out, you still had to buy it anyway. The interface for "ordering" was very not-intuitive, so you couldn't even tell for sure if you'd ordered what you wanted.

I had this feeling like I'd somehow created the whole system, and it was supposed to revolutionize how people thought about buying yarn, but then even I couldn't quite figure out how to use it, and it turned out to be just awful.

The whole thing was incredibly stressful and awful, and I actually woke up all twitchy and never wanted to buy yarn again.

I'll get over that, of course, but what a weird dream.

Frogging sighs and a KIPping experience

This:



seems to sum up my knitting experience lately. The stockinette BSJ, it did not work. I think I know why, and how to fix it, but for now? Rip rip rip. The baby kimono up there? Decided after knitting that I wanted buttons instead of ties. rip rip rip.

Frustrating, especially on a due date deadline!

But enough whining.

This weekend, I was out and about with Ms. Widget. Both Saturday and Sunday we were riding the T - Saturday to go to Pride and Windsor Button, Sunday to go get haircuts with the fabulous Leon. Both days, I knit on the train, since Widget was reading, and the haul from Quincy is long. Most of the time, knitting on the train gets curious glances or stares, sometimes, a rare conversation. For me, at least, it's generally a pretty low key reaction.

On Sunday, the train was nearly empty. There was a couple accross the car from us. When I pulled out the sweater, the woman stared at me for a few seconds, and then loudly launched into ranty story about when her friend made her learn how to knit, and how awful it was, and how the ugly sweater she made cost her so much money. Shooting dagger looks at me, she concluded with "It was absolutely awful! I have a life! I wasn't going to just sit around doing nothing but knitting!"

I just kept glancing at her, not even sure what, if anything, to say... she wasn't actually talking to me, and even if she had been, I wasn't sure there was really a response I could make to her.

What's the strangest reaction you've ever gotten to knitting in public?

Flashing my Stash

The knitting secret pal swap I'm participating in for the next few months asked us to post pictures of our yarn stashes this past week. Since I'd already gone through the work of pulling it all together for ElJay, I thought I'd post it over here. Compared to a lot of the knitters in the swap, I have a lot of yarn. Im guessing compared to some of you, maybe not so much.

I realized as I was doing this, that I have a LOT of yarn. A LOT. And having my husband watching while I was doing this, now HE knows just how much I have, too. I think I'll need to lay off the yarn buying for a while. Heh. I'm okay with that - it's gotten to the point where I almost feel overwhelmed by the stash - there's just too much of it that I love and want to work with to keep buying yarn. It meant I went to NH Sheep and Wool last weekend and bought a grand total of 3 skeins of yarn - two to make hats for the husband and daughter, one to send off to my secret pal.



I'll start with some of my tools, though, since I've got a lot of those too.

First off, my needle cases. I got these from Crippenworks Needlecases, and I love them


Here's all four of them - Circulars on the left, crochet hooks and DPNs in the middle, and straights on the right.


The insides of a couple of the cases.



My swift



My ball winder. The dresser that it is attached to is where most of my yarn lives.



Most, but not all of my books.


And now, the yarn. On all the yarn pics, if you click through to Flickr, I've added notes and stuff to the pictures too.


This is my collection of ends and bits and bobs. I do actually go back to these for some projects, which is why I keep them around. There's all kinds of stuff here - cotton, wool, alpaca, silk. If it's natural, I'll knit with it, pretty much.



These are my one-offs, those single balls that you acquire either as gifties or at swaps, or because they were so divine you have to have them. I'm sure you all know what I mean. My favorites in the batch are the purple boucle and the silk my friend D brought for me from Japan.



Here's all the sock yarn - Clockwise, from the top left, Schaefer Anne, Fleece Artist merino, Running Wild cormo wool, Great Adirondack silk/wool, three colors from Sunshine Yarns on etsy, Cherry Tree Hill supersock, Koigu, Fleece Artist merino, and the few balls of Regia and Kroy. Lots of sock yarn. The koigu is officially no longer stash yarn, since I ended yesterday's session by winding it up and starting a new sock with it. Since I took this, I've added two new skeins of Sunshine Yarns - one in the Ravenclaw colorway for a friend, and another all for me!



This is my current collection of project yarn - I'm still stuck in baby knitting hell, and all of this is for that. Jaeger Matchmaker (car seat bunting), Kareoke (baby sweater), Cascade superwash (Widget sweater), Jaeger baby Merino (baby sweaters), Kertzer Butterfly Super 10 (Baby Surprise Jacket, if my figuring for stockinette stitch works).



Most of the rest of my project quantity yarn collection - Dale for ladybug sweater, Fleece Artist Thrummed mitten kit, with extra skein for hat, Alpaca from New Mexico, Mostly Merino yarn, Cotton Comfort mill ends, Touch of Twist silk-merino laceweight, Frog Tree Alpaca. My favorite out of this batch is the NM alpaca - because we got to meet the alpacas from whom the yarn came, and toured the spinning mill where it is made up in Ruidoso when we were out visiting my MiL last winter. It was a really neat side trip. I'm most excited about the Fleece Artist thrummed mittens kit that I just got.



This is my Sea colors yarn. Solar dyed in sea water, no photograph can convey the depth and pure gorgeousness of this yarn. The blue is destined to be a sweater for myself. The pink and green I bought just to have.



This last one isn't technically stash yarn, since, as you can see, I've started the project. But I love this yarn sooooo much, I had to include it - it's a lambswool cashmere blend, in a fantastic shade of true red with all different colors speckled into it - blue, yellow, purple, white. It may be my favorite yarn I've ever seen or worked with. The kicker is that I can not remember who makes it.

Well, that's my stash. There's actually more, but it's pretty boring collection of wools in natural colors, and I couldn't bring myself to haul those last bits of it out of storage yesterday afternoon.

The other thing I realized when I was pulling this all together is that I like to buy yarn when I travel, which means that a lot of the yarns in my stash have stories to them, even if it's just "Oh yeah, I found that yarn in this little store in Cleveland when I went out there for that server upgrade..." It's like a mini personal history.