Yarny Tales

     I am simply in awe of the things going on in my life right at this moment.

     To say I am a yarn whore is an understatement.  I am the one to whom everyone gives their left-over yarn.  When Grammy dies or Auntie Em moves on, I inherit their yarn.  I have driven over an hour to places I have never before thought of going to collect yarn that has been stuffed into attics and into basements, simply so I could have more yarn. Because, as a knitter, you can never have enough yarn.

     Yes, I do as much charity knitting as I can.  Charity knitting does not count towards my personal knitting goals or stats.  If I am not doing it for me, I don’t count it…except to keep track on the database for Bev’s charity challenge, of which I have been a member since, I think, 2006. 

     I had told both my daughter and my mother I would go through my yarn and give them each some.  Along with the searching the house for things to donate to the abused women’s charity that is coming next week, I figured I would go through my yarn. 

     Now, I do have SABLE (stash accumulation beyond life expectancy)…and I have wanted to wean that down, and charity knitting hasn’t made as much of a dent as I would have liked…not between all the moving and the yarn being in storage rooms inaccessible to me for the most part.  Plus, I will still buy yarn rather than stash dive for projects, simply because it is easier.

     I think the idea really started weeks ago, when we visited Kirkwood Knittery.  All those beautiful yarns. I walked out of there, having spent over a hundred dollars, on just a few skeins of yarn…but the whole quality issue kept coming back to me.

     This is why those sweaters I find at the thrift stores aren’t worth as much to me anymore.  They may be cute.  They may be made from incredible yarns.  But in real value, they don’t have much worth.  If I had invested the time in myself and made the sweater myself, choosing the pattern, choosing the yarn, working my silly fingers raw if need be…then that sweater would be so much more valuable – and I would wear it more.

     As I searched through the house for more clothing, and other things, to donate this past week, I filled no less than three 33 gallon garbage bags, with more clothes.  One whole bag was full of sweaters.  I have roughly 10 sweaters left.  Ten.  I used to have probably ten times that amount, if not more.  I kept the ones that I really love to wear, which stunningly enough are the very simple ones.  I kept the ones w the best fibres.  I have one lace alpaca cardigan that I will not part w, no matter what.  Things like that, I kept.

     We won’t get into how many pairs of jeans also got tossed this time around either.  I can’t believe, after as many times as I have gone through my wardrobe of late, how much I tossed out without a flinch this time.  Honestly, at this point, R could move into my house and we’d have room for his clothes—and the man does not have that many clothes either.  Even w me buying him stuff.

     The yarn stash.  I went to my favorite local yarn store, The Weaving Dept, yesterday.  The Barn was open—and we went there first.  I bought my carding combs.  As well as an Ashford spinning book.  I figured it would be a good thing to have a book specific to my spinning wheel.  All I’ve done is skim the thing and my head is just spinning, there is so much in it.  Nancy #2 of course demonstrated the carding combs.  Every time I go there, I learn so many things from this woman.  Things that are not in books or on videos.  Did you know the carding comb you hold in your left hand—you hold as if you are about to stab someone in the chest? Hehehe.  Nancy said few people forget that when she tells it to them that way.

I also bought some fiber too.  Only 8 ounces.  Oh, come on.  I have to support my lys.  Really.

     Then, then, then, I went into the main building.  In the quilting store on the first floor, I had to restrain myself from buying a pattern for a purse, although I may go back.  It’s an Amy Butler pattern.  I love Amy Butler.  I did buy a little needle felting kit.  It’s a sheep.  It’s a beginner’s kit.  It comes with everything I need to felt said sheep.  I’ve wanted to learn needle felting for awhile.  So, again, supporting my local shops…and curtailing myself from really going hog wild around the fabrics and patterns they carry.

     Upstairs, into the yarn vault…I found it.  I found the yarn for my actual wedding shawl.  I bought two skeins, at $20 a pop, and I didn’t even flinch.  It is a merino/silk/nylon/silver blend.  Kraemer Sterling Silk and silver sock yarn.  I bought two skeins of ‘heavenly blue’.  I didn’t realize what the name of it was until I brought the label back to R’s house so I could do some research on things.  I have roughly 840 yards of this beautiful and sumptuous yarn with which to work.  I am in heaven.

     I bought this mohair, this ultra thin, brilliantly red (although the tag claims it as magenta—the actual shade of red was too pale and too pink) mohair, made in Wales.  I don’t have the tag here w me, so this is about all I can tell you.  It’s from Wales.  This yarn actually SPOKE to me.  I have to come home w you, it told me.  I HAVE to come home w you.  I’d be perfect for some frilly little something wrapped around your neck and draping over your arm, the arm with my own dragon tattoo on it.  Welsh yarn.  Welsh dragon.  Apparently, my dragon is in need of company.  Either way, the skein came home w me.  Just one skein.  It was more than enough, after all my other purchases. 

     I bought a set of leather double point needle protectors, so I could take them home to show R so we can make our own.  Yes, I really did that.  I bought a shawl pin, so my subconscious will shut up about it and I can move on until I am proficient enough w working woods to make my own.  Didn’t see that one coming, did you?  I am going to have to find my own wood working kit now.  R doesn’t have anything at his house that will help w the small and the delicate work I want to be up to for the dolls and other things.

     I bought some flax and wool yarn as well, simply because it was made of flax, it was beautiful, and I wanted to try it.  Again, no labels here w me, so details later on.

    

     I even bought a pattern book, at $15, for one pattern.  CEY Autumn Book 1.  One test knit vest in the store and I buy the whole book—without even flipping through it, without batting an eyelash.  There are other things in there I want to knit as well.  That’s just an afterthought, oh thank goodness.

     I came home.  Stashed my new fiber in the bench of the kitchen table (mwahahaha)—I love having bench seating w storage there.  Now both seats are full of good wool yarn and wool fibers—and alpaca fibers too.

     Then, the bee buzzed into my ear and sat down upon my bonnet.  I went downstairs, and sort of never really came up again until R called and we had to go home for dinner.  (Pearl Café, omg, beyond excellent food and incredible service)

     I started out by finding a small book box from moving to put yarn in to mail to Ma.  I was SHOCKED at how quickly the box for Ma and the smaller box for E filled up.  I really hadn’t touched the surface of my stash and yet, I knew I was willing to purge out a whole lot more.

     So, I found a medium sized moving box.  In under twenty minutes, I had half filled that box.  I stopped only because R called and we were going out to dinner.  I am going back today and do the same thing all over again.  I know I will have more than just the box for Ma and the medium sized box full by the time I am done.

     First, I am letting go of all that attic yarn.  Which, scarily enough, is quite a bit.  I want to keep most of the red heart and simply soft I have, simply because that is what I make the dolls and so on out of, for the most part.  The first rule I established was—if I didn’t buy it myself, it goes.  The next rule, since my dad did buy me a lot of stuff when walmart near his work decided to do away w their craft department, became if I like it and can use it, it stays.

     Do you know I found alpaca yarn in my stash?  Wool I had forgotten about?  I have so much really good yarn—and I couldn’t find it for all the donations and attic yarn and stuff I bought for specific projects that I was saving for something later on that I now just want to get rid of because I don’t like the memories it holds.  I found some gorgeous kettle dyed SOCK yarn that I know I received as a gift while we lived in MD.  A whole hank of this absolutely gorgeous stuff that needs to be wound into a ball …and it always had make me a scarf written all over it.

     Not only did I go on the yarn purge (and oh yes, if you want some yarn, I cannot promise you what kind you will get, but it is not all granny’s attic yarn, far from it, just drop me an email and let’s discuss things…my only request is you pay for shipping, but otherwise, you can have it…and if you’re local, please, come get some, honest), I decided to go through the hats and scarves and whatever else we have that I made for the family that we don’t use or need—and mostly to make room for new stuff too—and I threw all that into the donation bag for the abused women.  I do not knit ugly for charity.  The only times I do not really focus so much on colors or combinations is when I make the cage pads for pets.  I focus more on sturdy for those.  But otherwise, I honestly try to make things for charity that I would be proud to wear, to give my own friends and family, and that I would be proud to see on someone walking down the street and claim as my own.

     I think the going through and purging my yarn stash—to showcase more of the good and quality yarns that I actually DO own—has been more amazingly clarifying and freeing than any other purge project that I have undertaken thus far.  To shed these layers of yarn, to keep only the best, the highest quality, that means something.  I am finally taking real pride in me.  I am finally truly respecting myself.  I am finally finding that equilibrium and that happy place.  I am so glad of it.  It’s been a long harsh road, but all the troubles from the past are falling away, one by one.  As with the purging of the yarn, as the not best quality stuff is removed, the higher quality stuff is revealed.  Now that I have found where the real ‘I am’ lurks within my psyche…I am proud to have her here, out in the open, reveling in this new and wonderful life that we are creating for ourselves here.

     Blessings to all.

Yarn Spiel

         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.

Local Yarn Drool

I learned to knit in, I think, 2006. Maybe it was late 2005. I forget now. One local yarn shop here that I have always wanted to go to, but never quite made it to, was The Weaving Department at Myers House at 180 W Dunn Rd in Florissant. When we moved here to Florissant, R did try to take us, as he knew I’d wanted to go for so long. They close at 4:30p though—which is rough, since he gets off between 4 and 4:30. When E and I had the minivan when we were moving, I had intended to go there during one of the errand runs in the middle of the day—but we never made it. Then, the other day, I had to run out to get something for R, when it hit me: it was early enough…we had time…and, well, it’s an “event” for me to go…so I could buy yarn, for a particular project, if I had to…well…you know…there…in this huge store….so..we went…and oh boy, talk about falling in love…

I forget the exact name of the gorgeous quilt store on the first floor, little hen house quilting, something along those lines. Talk about fabric heaven though. That was an unexpected find—and a wonderful one as well. The yarn shop is upstairs. You can smell it. Even though they have real felted wool downstairs, bolts of woven wool felt for sale…even needle felting supplies, which is what I saw when first I walked in the door, the smell of sheep, of yarn, wafts down from the upstairs, where the fiber enthusiast in me simply wept. It is beautiful. Displays of all sorts of yarns, from Noro to Dale of Norway to brown sheep to cascade to …oh my…so many pretty pretty yarns, in every conceivable color and texture and fiber. They have a plethora of books. They have incredibly helpful people there. My 8yo was fascinated by the lady giving another lady instruction as to how to use the weaving loom in the middle of the one room. They have buttons and knitting needles…and we very nearly bought the wooden crochet hook with the carved owl on the top. They have bags and baskets and all sorts of gadgets. Heavenly. Heavenly. I bought three skeins of yarn and two books.

Noro kureyon sock yarn—which I have wanted to try for awhile—even though I do not plan to make socks with it. One skein of ‘earth’. Boy, was it difficult to narrow down my purchase that day. I had not realized that Dale of Norway was so …affordable…oh man, the plans I have now…
I bought two skeins of Ironstone Yarns bouquet of colors brushed mohair in wisteria. This gorgeous stuff was hand-dyed in Scotland—which I figured would be a major selling point when I brought it home—especially since my boyfriend is well acquainted w my yarn stash and concurs w the no buying of yarn policy I currently have in place—even though he shakes his head when I proclaim ‘it’s for a specific project!’ This time, the mohair is for a shawl that I am planning to wear to the production of Avenue Q when we go…at least, that’s the theory I put forth to R when I showed him the yarn. I am making a very simple stockinette stitch shawl on large needles. The yarn is too pretty to mess w complicated stitch patterns. This is a prime case of letting the yarn do all the work.

I also had to buy two books while I was there. Ok, so I only *had* to buy one book…but figured why not on the second one.

The second one is ‘Knitting Tips and Trade Secrets’ by The Taunton Press. ‘Clever solutions for better hand knitting, machine knitting and crocheting’. So, how could that be a bad thing?

The first, and the most magnificent book, and one I absolutely had to have, even though I had asked about Scottish knitting books (hey, I do know how to suck up to my man here) –and remain unimpressed by the books I saw, the patterns within them—not any slur on the books or the people selling me said books—it just was not my cup of tea…is ‘Maggie’s Ireland’ by Maggie Jackson.
It is more than a pattern book—it is a coffee table book, with incredible pictures of Ireland. It has amazingly interesting patterns, simple patterns and simple yarns, used in interesting ways. Now, these patterns are not for everyone. In fact, there were only two that *really* revved my engines…and the others I really like, but when I make them, I plan to alter many facets of them. There are even recipes in the back, from appetizer to dessert. I honestly don’t know what to ooh and ahh about first. The patterns are not for everyone, I will admit, but the photographs…they blow me away. Although the patterns do seem to be both well-though out and simple enough for anyone to make. I like that.

When I bought ‘Wedding Knits’ by Suss Cousins, whom I adore, I saw that wedding dress—and I completely CRINGED at a US 5 needle to do the knitting. I have not gone pattern by pattern in ‘Maggie’s Ireland’—but I looked at enough of the patterns, ranging from a US 7 to a US 9 on the dresses and skirts I like—and I am not at all intimidated. Yes, I saw an outfit in this book that I thought—yes, wedding. Yes, MY wedding. Oh yeah. Despite the fact that I already have the dress—and that R actually loves the dress. That doesn’t mean I can’t knit things for the rest of the …day…party…week-end. After watching ‘The Hangover’ together—we still think Vegas would be terrific for a wedding! Although I still have that urge to invite all our ex’s to the wedding, just to show that there really no hard feelings on any of our parts.

Well… the wedding may not be this year…but probably will be the year after, by which time maybe even R’s ex will have, I don’t know, grown a brain and gotten over herself, maybe then inviting all the ex’s will be possible.
But I still like the Vegas idea—even if my daughter doesn’t. She already has the wedding planned—and she wants us to have a HUGE wedding. She is not amused when I say we’re going to Vegas to have Elvis marry us…she does not think I am very funny…but I sure do!