Yarn Porn...At Last

Finally, as promised, a picture heavy yarn porn posting.

I know I've been talking it up so much it's going to seem anticlimatic, but the birthday yarn is awesome. Besides the yarny books, my family got me a gift certificate to Knit Happens, and I held onto it for awhile just to salivate over the possibilities. Silk or cashmere? Sweater or scarf? Do I really need more needles?

Finally I settled on this Sex on a Skein:

Y'all, you can't tell anything from this picture. Honestly. It's neither black, purple, blue or red. It's Scarlett's Dark Secret, and it's Alchemy Haiku's 40% silk/60% mohair lusciousness. It makes me lust. I know I want to make a shawl with it, but I feel the need to practice lace first on some slightly simpler yarn. Plus I still need to find a pattern for this. Any suggestions?

My other Knit Happens purchase was Lorna's Laces Black Purl. Because Hi! I am a Sock Yarn Ho!

Apologies for the flashy picture. I really want to find a pattern that highlights the pretty purple and grey variations in this yarn without causing any pooling or other funkiness. This will also be my first time working with Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn, so I'm psyched. I love the worsted weight stuff.

Also in Birthday Yarn, my sister sent me yarn that we picked out last year when I was trying to convince her to knit, after only learning a month before myself. (Sorry, Rach, you are not off the hook yet! Not with Rie and I both knitting now!) It's one skein of Lion Brand Homespun in #345 Corinthian (sorry, no photo) and 10 skeins of Moda Dea Wild! in the Funky colorway. They aren't lying:

Any suggestions on pattern possibilities? I mean, it's enough to make a sweater, but I'm afraid that in my current "condition" I would look like the Cookie Monster after a food fight. It's very furry and very soft. I could just crank out 10 really long scarves with it. But that would make me insane(r). What to do?

Then comes the Stitches East haul. As if I need more yarn.

First, a word about the event. With the Cap'n down with the flu (seriously, he lost 10+ pounds), he was in no condition to take Slim for the day. I was battling a cold, but death would have had to knock a little harder to keep me away from that much yarn. So off to Baltimore we went.

Slim did what he could to hang in there for the afternoon, but it sure would have been easier to enjoy the show with someone else to keep him busy. And I got a little pissed at some of the dirty looks from the little old biddies who didn't appreciate his appreciation of fine yarn.

Look, if my kid wants to fondle the cashmere, I'm going to let him. He's not going to hurt it, his hands are clean, and it's good for him to learn to appreciate the colors and textures. So BACK OFF! (That was what I should have said to them.)

But overall, it was completely overwhelming. In hindsight, I should have had some kind of plan of attack, some way to keep myself from getting overstimulated while still seeing the new stuff. Is that even possible? At any rate, I really enjoyed the exposure, and now I have an idea of what my next fiber fest will be like. I've heard that the Sheep & Wool type shows are even more fun (how could they not be with herding dogs like our Mia?), so I can't wait until next year's Maryland event.

On to the haul: The plan was to get one "unusual" purchase, something that couldn't be found just anywhere. I think this fits the bill. Any guesses on the material?

It's 50% merino and 50% yak. Yep: Y-A-K. I bought it at the School Products booth. It's enough for a sweater for a kid age 3-4. Considering Slim will probably be that old when I get it finished, it's all good. It's a lovely deep brown with black flecks, so rich and so warm.

But then I couldn't resist this at the end of the afternoon, especially thinking of the poor, coughing Cap'n at home.

I do love my man. Can you read the labels on that yarn? 100% cashmere, baby. Oh yeah. And patterns for Norwegian ski stockings, mittens and a hat.

His comment? "I'm never going to see this." And: "This is $100 of yarn." (Y'all he DOES NOT KNIT. How does he know these things??? He's good.) But now I've been challenged to improve my Fair Isle skills and jump on this so he at least gets these next winter. (I'm not crazy: I know he's not going to get it in '06.)

Finally, I had to hook up my new knitting seester with a gift, especially since her next goal is to learn how to knit socks. So from Lisa Souza's booth:

It's Mars Quake, and it's 560 yards. I'm trying to convince her to make knee-highs with it. I've seen on some of the other cool blogs that this pattern works well. I wish I had gotten some of this stuff. I mean, you can't beat $16 worth of 560 yards of soft, squishy sock yarn with a stick.

So before Blogger craps out on me, I'm going to post this and get ready for the Cap'n's and my Date Night. Can I hear a Whooo! and a Hooo!! for babysitters???!!!