Cobalt Blue Is In For Spring!

Through Ravelry, I enrolled in a yarn swap for yarn snobs. Basically, you commit to sending your swap pal yarn and a few treats, according to preset rules. Every participant fills out a questionnaire, to give their swap partners an idea of what they like.

Emily has been taking part in yarn swaps for a while, and I thought it would be a fun thing to do. Our packages have to get to our swap partners by May 10, so I was pleasantly surprised when I received an unexpected package last week!




As expected for a yarn snob swap, I got some really nice yarn: a skein of Malabrigo Lace, in Buscando Azul (I'm not sure what that means, but it's a very nice deep blue) and a skein of Cascade 220 in a similar color (blue velvet) that will be perfect for mittens next Fall (I'm thinking colorwork, with light blue or ivory... maybe these?). I've never knit with Malabrigo before, but I've heard great things about it... I'll have to find a nice pattern to show it off!

My swap partner, the very generous DuchessRed (here's her blog), also included a box of spicy chai tea, two bars of dark chocolate (one with candied ginger, one with cherries and dark almonds... yum!), and two bars of handmade soap. Judging by her blog and her ravelry groups, I suspect she might have made the soap herself! How crafty is that...

Thanks to DuchessRed! Can't wait to use the yarn...

Mea culpa...

Emily and I went to Boston over Presidents' Day weekend for the AAAS conference. You can read her account of our trip here. Unlike me, she remembered to take pictures...

The conference was interesting and stimulating. We found some time to walk around near the Convention Center, down tree-lined Newbury St (nice shops!) all the way to Boston Commons. We walked the Freedom Trail and refreshed our knowledge of early American history. We ate good Italian and Indian food, and even had some "chowda". But the most exciting part of our trip has to be our trek to WEBS, the largest yarn store in the U.S.

On Monday morning, we rented a car and Emily courageously drove through the pouring rain and gusty winds all the way to Northampton. When we got there, the rain stopped but a low-hanging mist clustered in fields and ditches. We half-expected a headless man on a galloping horse to emerge in front of us...

Anyway, we got to WEBS around 10:30am. We walked around the front part of the shop for awhile, and then Emily went to inquire about a restroom. She came back five minutes later, grabbed me by the arm and dragged me to the back room without saying a word... and there it was: the WEBS warehouse! Aisles filled with bags of yarn, at greatly reduced prices! We were overwhelmed... Emily stopped to take a few pictures, but we completely forgot after that. We don't even have a picture of the front of the store! We walked around the warehouse twice: the first time to get a sense of what they had, and the second time to fill up our baskets...

After three (yes, three) hours in the store, this is what I got:



- Queensland Kathmandu DK Tweed, in dark green (for the Gathered Pullover)



- Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy, in dark pink (for the Mirabella Cardigan, I plan to use the yarn doubled (two strands) to compensate for a different yarn weight)



- Elsebeth Lavold Classic AL, in red and slate grey (for the Minimalist Cardigan)

In my defense, I must say that I am allowed to buy yarn when I travel (although the rules say that it should be limited to one project). I went a little overboard with the number of projects... I had prepared a list of projects and appropriate yarns, and I'm happy to say that I stuck to the list (although I substituted equivalent yarns). Everything I got was 50% off, so great deals all around! As Emily said, our savings on yarn paid for the rental car...

If you're a knitter and you're in the area, you should absolutely go to WEBS! The long drive is definitely worth it: the selection is amazing, and between the sales, closeouts, and discounts, the prices are practically unbeatable!

Belated New Year's Resolutions

I started talking about a yarn fast a few months ago. And then I went to trunk shows and won some yarn. A friend of mine suggested that I was actually on a yarn diet, not a yarn fast. I agree that it is probably more realistic to plan to restrict my yarn purchases, instead of banning any new yarn purchase altogether. And since I don't want to end up with a stash of unmanageable proportions, I really need to take this yarn diet seriously. Especially since I'll be moving across the continent in a few months, and I don't want to have to explain to the customs officer why I have all this yarn...

In an effort to make this yarn diet more effective, I have decided to put some rules in writing for everyone to see, in the hope that it will make me stick to them.

Here they are:

1. I am allowed to purchase yarn to knit/crochet gifts, if and only if suitable yarn is not available in the stash. Priority should be given to using yarn from the stash. If there is suitable yarn in the stash but not in the quantity required for a given project, I will be allowed to purchase yarn to meet the yarn requirements. If the stash does not contain ANY suitable yarn, I should seriously consider choosing a different project instead of buying new yarn.

2. Yarn purchases are allowed on trips as souvenirs. These purchases should be limited in quantity... A few rules about such purchases:
- NO MORE SOCK YARN! According to Ravelry, I have 22 skeins of sock yarn and I have yet to complete a pair of socks. Granted, I have been using sock yarn for non-sock projects, but I really think I should stop buying sock yarn. Even if sock yarn is pretty and variegated.
- The purchase should be limited to yarn for one project.
- Ideally, preference should be given to yarn that is unavailable locally (in Seattle) and definitely shouldn't already be available in the stash...

3. The yarn diet does not apply to patterns, needles/hooks, or other accessories. Anything that helps me go through stash yarn is welcome.

4. Yarn sales and trunk shows should be avoided. In the case where my resolve falters and I do attend such an event, the rules are the same as in #2.

5. Yarn won in contests doesn't count... I figure the chances of me winning more yarn this year are slight.

I solemnly swear that I will try to adhere to these rules for all of 2008.

Philosophical musings about the world's biggest stash...

I just stumbled upon these images of what might be the world's biggest stash. Clearly, my yarn stash is of amateur proportions compared to this.

My response to those images are an odd mixture of relief (I'm not that bad!), wonder (look at all that yarn!), and concern (am I at risk?). Now, I ask you: should a yarn stash of such proportions be a lifelong ambition or a cautionary tale? In other words, when does "a lot of yarn" become "too much yarn"?

What is the purpose of stash yarn? and when is a large stash a problem? Like any of life's big questions, isn't it all relative? If you have lots of room for it, you're not going broke buying it, and you live a functional life outside of your yarn stash (as it seems to be the case for this woman), it's probably just like any other hobby. Between you and me, it seems improbable that she'll ever actually use all this yarn. At some point, a transition probably occurs from buying yarn for knitting purposes to collecting yarn for its own sake, like others collect stamps or commemorative spoons.

I think it's still realistic for me to think that I'll knit (or crochet) all the yarn I now have in the stash, but how do you know when you cross that line? And what should you do when you get to that point? Stop buying yarn? That seems unlikely. Give some away? Sell it? Or be honest with yourself and admit that you're now a "yarn collector"?

p.s. I stumbled on this link on Annette Petavy's blog, who herself got it from Shannon Okey. I'm not the only one to question the size of my stash in response to those images. Annette Petavy has stopped using a stash counter. She says: "Les pelotes, c'est le bonheur. Et on ne peut jamais avoir trop de bonheur." In other words, "skeins are happiness. And you can never have too much happiness." What do you think?

Here it is!

Yarn from the Yarn Harlot!



In case you didn't know, I won a skein of sock yarn for identifying the "most iconic Canadian song" on her blog. (it was the theme to Hockey Night in Canada)

I received the package today. It contained a nice card, a small chocolate bar (robust dark chocolate, yum!), and a skein of All Things Heather sock yarn in Royal.

It's a very pretty color. Now I just need to find the perfect pattern for this special yarn... Thanks again, Stephanie!

On a separate note, I just finished the Clapotis. More on that another time...

p.s. I didn't win any yarn at the Louet trunk show at Village Yarn and Tea Shop. Guess good things don't come in threes...

Should I be reading the signs?

I just won more yarn! Well, there goes the yarn fast again... Could it be that the gods of knitting are trying to tell me I actually do need more yarn? I'd be happy to oblige...

The Yarn Harlot herself is going to send me yarn for having correctly identified that most iconic of Canadian songs, the theme to "Hockey Night in Canada".

Actually, I was pretty sure what the song would be even before I clicked on the video. Having grown up in Montreal with a serious hockey fan as a brother, it would have been a disgrace if I hadn't recognized it... On this Canadian Thanksgiving day, I'd like to publicly thank my brother for all the hockey-watching he submitted me to over the years... It finally paid off! ;)

If you got here through the link on the Yarn Harlot's blog, welcome to my blog! It's fairly new, and I hope you like it! But be warned: there will be crochet! Actually, I worked on 2 squares of the Rainbow blanket during Stephanie's visit to Third Place Books in Seattle. Crochet with a little Yarn Harlot mojo... The blanket is now with my nephew in Montreal, and I hope all this visual stimulation will have positive effects!

p.s. In the interest of full disclosure, I let Stephanie know that I'm Canadian (even though I live in the U.S.) I don't know if that will affect her "double points" system.

Falling off the wagon...

I recently decided to go on a "yarn fast". I knew I had a lot of yarn, probably enough to keep me busy for a whole year. In fact, surely enough to keep me busy for a couple of years... The need for a yarn fast was reiterated when I started uploading pictures of the stash on Ravelry. Yes, I finally got in Ravelry two weeks ago!

So, I knew when I decided to go on the yarn fast that there would be moments when the risk of yielding to temptation would be very strong, and even too strong to resist. Today was such a day. Hilltop Yarn in Queen Anne was having a trunkshow of Fleece Artist and Handmaiden Fine Yarn. Both wonderful yarn lines, with beautiful colorways. I already have a bunch of Fleece Artist sock yarn in the stash, and a couple of skeins of Blue Face Leicester 2/8. Their colorways really are wonderful. And it's made in Canada. I knew I wouldn't be able to resist... So, my plan was to allow myself to buy only one skein of yarn. I told Emily of my plan ahead of time and she said she would make sure I'd stick to the plan. Well, things did not go quite according to plan...

We got there at the same time as the two women from Fleece Artist and Handmaiden, a mother and daugher. It took a few minutes for the yarn to be set up, and lots of customers came in. Everyone was swarming around the yarn, petting it, picking it up. At first things went well. I picked up one skein of Woolie Silk 3-ply, a kit for a hat. I was heming and hawing, and finally gave it up to another customer and felt really good that I was going to leave without buying ANY yarn. Emily was getting the same kit, so I could always borrow the pattern from her and use some yarn in the stash to make the same hat. Well, the lady decided that the colorway didn't suit her skin tone and handed me back the skein. What was I to do? It was just one skein, and I was still sticking to the plan... I bought it. And the holiday issue of Interweave Knits. I'm on a yarn fast, not a pattern fast...



There was a little quiz to fill out and prizes to be won. We had to match 5 undyed skeins of yarn with their fiber content, just by touching them. They were made of silk (Silken), silk and cotton (Swiss Mountain Silk Cotton), silk and wool (Lady Godiva?), silk and seacell (Sea Silk), and silk, wool and seacell (Great Big Sea). While we were waiting for the answers, Emily, Rachel, and I started looking at other kits. Emily tried on the sample Lu and Imogen. I had noticed one of the Lu kits earlier, because the colorway was really nice, mostly reds with some blue and a little green and yellow. It's made out of Scotian Silk. So I tried on the sample Lu too. And that's when things started going wrong... It looked nice on me, and the colorway sold me over.



I was going to stand in line to pay when they announced the winners of the contest. I had gotten all the answers right! I won 2 skeins of Handmaiden Cashmere and Silk! It's a new Handmaiden yarn line. Well, I'm not exactly sure what this prize was worth, but it's cashmere and silk so it's a really wonderful prize! So soft... I must admit that as she was handing me my prize, she had two different colorways in her hands and was about to hand me 2 skeins of a dark green colorway, definitely not my usual color palette... I asked her if I could have the other one... Some may think it was bold of me, but I won (and the others skeins were for the runner-up, so I think it was ok for me to get first choice... don't you?)



From what I can gather from the website, I think the colorway is "Peridot". (Fleece Artist and Handmaiden never marked the colorways on the skeins). I've been meaning to knit a lace scarf or stole in pale grey for a while but could never find the right color. This one has a little bit of pale green in it, I think it will be perfect. I just need to find the perfect pattern... any suggestions?



Now that the Handmaiden/Fleece Artist ladies had given me this heavenly soft yarn, I really had to buy the Lu kit to make up for their generosity... didn't I?
So I left the store with 4 skeins of yarn instead of one. But somehow I don't think it's really my fault. I can't help the fact that I won two of them! Maybe it's Emily's fault for not stopping me? Well, it's not like I stopped her either...