stash

last night was stash swap at SoP. i think i brought home about twice as much yarn as i took, and i didn't bring any of mine back home, lol. the rust red is some irish tweed wool, that had been purchased in the 90's from a store in lincoln, ne, called miller and paine. the labels are cardboard tubes! the other yarn is alpaca silk. i have some in a dark purple and this stuff is delicious. i may or may not use this for a4a. the tipperary tweed is definitely going that route.

This is almost all of the rest i garnered. the redhear is for a4a, obviously. the other rust is unknown fiber content (thought to be woolease thick & quick, but not certain, so this will be earmarked for dulaan. the pretty stuff at the bottom is an alpaca blend which i'm thinking may be a4a, or dulaan, i dunno. i also got a small skein of dk weight alpaca, that one poor woman discovered she was allergic to and had to give up. this is nice stuff, and is local, too! done in fort calhoun which is about 9 miles north of omaha. that is going to be another night, lol

and my wonderful secret pal sent me a lovely valentine's day package, which arrived today. i think she did pretty good, considering this came from the UK & all. the yarn is Lorna's Laces Lion & Lamb (50% wool/50%silk, and boy is this delish!) with a curly wurly scarf pattern. i've been wanting to make this, and now i have the perfect excuse! the heart thing next to the yarn is a deck of valentine cards (very cute!) and then the package below those is swiss chocolate. it was so cold today that the packing crackled when i brought it in (it was 1 degree @ 430 this afternoon), so i haven't sampled the chocolate yet. i didn't want to break my teeth, considering i ahve to go to the dentist tomorrow. and, of course, Knitting. i love this mag! this is the second one she's sent me, and the third i've gotten from a SP (this one and the last were both from the UK). i love you guys! thanks a ton, nonni, i love it! also, there was a sock monkey card (how did you know i have a secret passion for sock monkeys? my grandmother made them for me when i was a child, and i still ahve them!). in the card, she said that she was accumulating my last package, and that she would have to send this one by the slow boat, because of the size. the size? the SIZE?!?!?!?!? what in the world is she sending me? i can't wait! i've got a package assembled for my SP, now i need to box it up, and ship it to her. i hope she likes it. she's been away from her blog because of family issues, but she has contacted me via email, and i know she got the last package just fine, and loved it.

the funny part about hte swap was the fact that i had brought some yarn for show & tell, and everybody was "are you SURE you don't want to swap this?" i had to hide it, lol.

since blogger has been eating posts, i have to re-catch up on the knit bits calendar, sigh.

2/11-12: Knitting is a tentative process. at any oint a firm tug on an unsecured piece of yarn could unravel the entire work. because knitting uses no knots, every stitch is little more than a twisted and twined bit of yarn making up a simple tenuous web. when the work is finished, though, those webs coalesce into a garment rugged enought o withstand a lifetime of wear. - from Zen and the Art of Knitting by Bernadette Murphy.

2/13: Once you know how to put stitches onto a needle (cast on) and how to make the knit stitch, the purl stitch, and to bind off, you have the basic apparatus for knitting. beyond this, everything is a variation of the knit & purl stitches. you can create cable and intricate designs by changing the way you form these two basic stitches. multiply these varations with the variations of yarns available and you've opened a world of unlimited creative possibilities. - from A Passion for Knitting by Nancy J Thomas & Ilana Rabinowitz.

2/14: The legend goes it is bad luck to knit a sweater for a boyfriend, as it guarantees that the relationship will end. if you've spent a month or more working long and hard on a sweater only to have him not appreciate it enough or not wear it very often, you might catch a lingering resentment and wind up dumping the ungrateful lout. - from Stitch 'n Bitch: The Knitter's Handbook by Debbie Stoller

2/15: Working with natural dyes is hard, but the colors are beautiful and unpredictable. if i were getting the same color every tiem i would have been out of business a long time ago. just some of the things that can influence the natural dyeing process are the chemical and water content of the soil where the plant grew, the genetics of the particular plant, and even the weather on dyeing day. - Luisa Gelenter quoted in Knitting in America by Melanie D Falick.

2/16: For instant gratification, there is nothign easier or more satisfying than knitting a scarf. no pesky increases or decreases of stitches are required. scarves can be as long or short as you want. there are thousands of types and colors or yarns - so no two scarves ever have to be the same. scarves truly are a knitter's best friend. - from Celebrity Scarves by Abra Edelman

2/17: Dishcloth Pattern: Use 1 2-ounce ball of cotton worsted weight yarn (which i think is the only use for such yarn, it's too heavy for much else) and 1 pair of size 7 needles. 1) Cast on 32 stitches. 2) Knit 72 rows of garter stitch (knitting every row). 3) Bind off. 4) Using your yarn needle, weave all loose ends into the ends of the cloth and snip off. 5) Scrub away!

What i'm reading now.

i finished the time traveler's wife. michelle said i would need a box of tissues, but ya know what? the last 1/3 of the book alluded to henry's death, and even the last scene of the book. i wasn't surprised, and was actually comforted by some of the scenes. a very good book. however, as a substitute for diana gabaldon, i don't think so. i suppose diana is just a unique writer.

Nightmares & Dreamscapes, volume III (booktape in the car)

The Vampire Armand (book tape in the house, i save this for when the kids are in bed, so i have limited listening time)

Why Girls are Weird by Pamela Ribon (wait for the contest!)

The Queen of Sorcery by David Eddings (yes, i've started again in earnest, since i finished TTW)

i'll be away tomorrow, as we're spending the night at mark's. and yes, i'm officially behind, i finished off the last square this morning, and i'm only half way through the next. my arm hurts, ok?