Let me start this post off by saying that this past week-end, my birthday week-end, was just heavenly (minus that frozen peach margarita at O’Charleys in Florissant). R went out of his way for me, which I can make rather difficult as he found out, as I am not used to anyone doing anything for me. Which is why we bought a cake for me—because I didn’t realized R would actually bake one for me (I should have known better, but still…). Which is why I bought my own spinning wheel (it should be here any day now). Which is why I didn’t expect anything at all…other than E making a big deal of things, because that’s what she likes.
Come on, they lit the candles and sang ‘happy birthday’ to me. Do you have any idea how very sweet it was to have both kids singing to me over my cake? It was heavenly.
T actually offered to watch E on Sunday…so we dropped both kids off at about our normal time…but left w no kids, which was great. We, being as lame as we are, went to see if Dunkin Donuts had opened yet in Kirkwood (for the record, they have not), but we were stopped on our way there, as we drove past Kirkwood Knittery and found them the be….OPEN…on a Sunday…even though their furnace had broken and the only heat in the store, other than the yarn, was the floor heater they had plugged in and going full blast.
First of all, I do hope the furnace was fixed quickly, inexpensively and without a hassle. Second, it wouldn’t have mattered to me if there was no heat source whatsoever…I would still have been happy, fascinated and amazed.
I got to touch more than one type of yarn made from CORN. There was quivit, and llama, and homespun, and fiber for spinning…OH MY! There was silk. There was wool. There was stuff…all over the place. My one and only complaint is…they had such an abundance of colors…but every time I found the yarn I wanted in the color I needed…they only had one skein of it in stock…I am sure if I had asked they could have ordered me in anything, but when giving myself permission to splurge as I have no clue when the next time I will be there is, ordering sort of defeats the purpose.
Remember the book I bought recently? Maggie’s Ireland? Not only did they have the book…they had Maggie’s yarns as well…and one of the sweaters knit up from one of the patterns in the book. They are fantastic in person.
There is a plethora of yarns. Tons of addi needles. I am sure there were other needles, but I missed them in my drooling, fondling freedom…tons of books…tons of resources. Warm (emotionally at least) very friendly people. They do a have an open knit night on Thursdays, from 7-9p. R was invited to go as well, as there are a couple men who routinely show up. Kirkwood is a bit far to drive every week…so I am going to call the Weaving Dept at some point this week and see if they have anything…I need to check on classes as well…is it so bad I don’t really care what sort of class they are offering, I just want to go? R has offered to baby sit both kids on Saturdays so I can join the St Louis Knitter’s Guild and attend meetings without a hassle.
ANYWAY…back to Kirkwood Knittery…if they were closer, I would definitely go more often. I don’t want to say they are better than the Weaving Dept…although they have a wider variety of yarns there, indeed…I lied—they have hand-made straight knitting needles there, by the check out. They also have a ton of shawl pins, many of which were so gorgeous…but the wrong shade of blue, of all things!
I walked out with only roughly $120 worth of yarn. Yarn. And they were having a sale—so I got 20% off of everything I bought there.
Now, my rule is *supposed* to be, buy only yarn for specific projects…well…does it count if I was making up projects as I went along? They had only one skein of Wisdom Yarns Poems in my colorway—so I bought the thing. I grabbed a skein of this delicious trekking hand art—simply because the colors were to die for and so me I could not pass it up. I bought some ‘hemp for knitting’, simply so I could play w it. I hope I bought enough to make a certain shirt I saw in a book I have…we’ll have to see…but that was my excuse for that project. I’ve never touched jagger spun zephyr before—I have only heard of it, during PinkLemonKnits mystery shawl kals…now I have two skeins of it myself. I am not sure if this is the symphony shawl or the wedding shawl…yet…but it is a shawl, to be sure.
I bought 2 skeins of isager hojlandsgarn ‘made in Skotland’ simply because it is made in Scotland…R and I are still in tittles over the “Skotland” on the labels…this is closer to the wedding shawl than anything else…but then…I also bought 2 skeins of jojoland harmony that may also end up as the wedding shawl, although the colors shift and flow rather than staying a constant blue…there are browns in it too…that I can see…but I could not for some reason pass them up.
There are the 2 skeins of isager100% alpaca as well…made in Peru…it’s a soft blue grey…again…either the symphony or the wedding shawl…so…I bought lots of yarn for the possibility of using any or either of them to make 2 shawls…and I have no desire to combine any of these yarns together…hey…it is not as if I am not sitting on about 30 shawl patterns that I designed that need test knitting, ok! Lol
I think that covers it, really. I am such a happy girl. And poor R, he paid for the whole thing…and would have spent more had I asked him too…
So, so much for no buying more yarns (except for specific projects—which I had blown at Michael’s arts and crafts the day before anyway—2 skeins needed for a friend’s birthday—and a skein to crochet the chain for my mermaid pendant—plus 3 skeins of patons wool that was on sale….and yes, technically I could have stash dived and found comparable yarn for the necklace chain…but didn’t quite feel like doing so…not that cotton yarn will ever got to waste in our house…)
Now, the real problem with my having gone to both the Weaving Dept and to Kirkwood Knittery—and I won’t touch the topic of the spinning wheel yet…not right now…the real problem is…my addiction to yarn has re-surfaced…maddeningly so. Not the acrylic that is so typical in my stash—I have young kids—I make dolls for kids—acrylic is necessary…honestly. But, I am falling in love, way too fast, way too deep, w the real deal all over again. For me, there is such a huge difference between say, flax, hemp, silk, cotton, wool, alpaca, you name it…and acrylic…I also knit and crochet for people who are allergic to all my wonderful loves, especially wool…so I have to keep that acrylic around.
I desire more high quality yarn. I am not a complete yarn snob, yet, but once the spinning wheel gets here…I may surprise myself…I may actually start spinning my own yarn…and using little else…come on…I stopped researching chickens and chicken coops for our back yard and turned my attention to frakkin’ angora rabbits…and there is only one real reason for me to keep rabbits..what w the dumb dog who thinks everyone is her chew toy when she wants to play…what w the goober shepherd who loves to chase small fluffy things…and I am still not just thinking …. I am really wanting and in the process of planning…on buying rabbits…I must be utterly demented!
There are upsides to this process…first of all, E is about to inherit her own stash…and her own, new set, of knitting needles (as opposed to her glittery plastic ones now…)…I am also planning to contact my mother and see if she has any yarn requests…there are a few people I know who could use a bit of free yarn to practice their knitting, or to start knitting…so there is some down-sizing…and reduces the masses…which is always a good thing…
The other side of this is the desire to knit things from this amazing yarn…the good, the high quality, the wooly smelling happy happy stuff…now I get it … and now I want to put my new knowledge to work…I want to put all my skills and talents to work…and then make my kids wear it out in public so they get rave reviews and they can say w utmost pride, my mama made that for me…
And with that, I am calling it a day…there is more…but it’s going to have to wait until tomorrow…R is on the way home from bowling and we get to sit up and talk about his night…I love that.
Good-night.
