Stitches West 2010

Hey! Look at me! Actually blogging about something that happened THE SAME DAY instead of 6 weeks later! Amazing!

I went to Stitches West yesterday and today, and by “went to Stitches West” I mean I went to the market and didn’t take any classes.  I had a budget and LO. I have three whole dollars left and didn’t even get out the credit card.

Here’s what I got:

Stitches Haul 2010

I mostly bought from Miss Babs this year because she had the nice big skeins of worsted weight, of which I only need two skeins to make a sweater out of. I got two skeins of the “Yowza Whatta Skein” in Blue Teal and Sandi’s Red. I also got a skein of her “Yummy” sock in squash blossom.  The other sock yarn I got was from Wabi Sabi and is the colorway Orchid in Glow Sock. I chatted with the lady from Wabi Sabi for a bit; she was really nice. I wish my camera would take a picture of the right color of that yarn because it’s beauuutiful; a deep dark purply orchid color. *love*

My rule re: sock yarn this year, since I have a sick amount of sock yarn, was that I could only buy it in yellow, purple, and red, which are colors I don’t have as much of as the rest. By the time I bought the wabi sabi yarn I had almost run out of money, so I stopped by Chameleon Colorworks and picked up a bottle of the Ravelry-inspired Soak.

Stitches Haul 2010

It smells really good.  Normally I go with the grapefruit Eucalan because it’s way more economical, but I do like Soak and this was with the last of my money for the most part.

After we were done, my mom and I stopped at In N Out Burger with my aunt January. Mmmm, double double/dr pepper!

And now I’m home, watching crime, and about to make some green Thai curry for dinner. Good times!

Recent (Birthday) Yarn Acquisitions

As I mentioned previously, my birthday was a week ago.  I turned 29 (for the first time). So this is my last year in my twenties! Between that and the high school reunion a couple weeks ago, I am feeling, well, adult. I didn’t do anything for my birthday except force the family to take me to Country Waffles for breakfast. I generally don’t do much for my birthday because my friends aren’t in town, though next year I might have a party or something since my birthday still falls on a three day weekend (if you’re lucky – when the 4th of July falls on the weekend, you either get the friday or monday off, and since my birthday is the 5th, I often get a holiday weekend out of it).

But anyway so all I did for my birthday was go out ot breakfast, get presents from my parents, sister and granddad, and then went out and spent birthday money at the Yarn Boutique in Lafayette.

My mom had fun ordering my birthday present from Knitpicks.  Sometimes they just give money but this year I said that I wanted “stuff.” Sometimes it’s just fun to open presents.

So my mom got me some blocking blocks and wires, and some delightful yarn:

Birthday Yarn

That’s Knitpicks Essential in dark green, african violet, and tuscany, and some Knitpicks Gloss in mermaid. I can tell you right now that the gloss is destined to be a shawl of some sort, possibly Laminaria. And I’ve always liked the purple; I made some socks for Sarah out of that, that I always kind of regretted giving away because they were just that nice. 😛 Knitpicks Essential is a great yarn, very soft and seems to hold up well.  I’ve used it a few times for gift socks but I’ve never used it for myself.

Anyway, so after I collected presents from the familia (Abby also updated my Netflix account for another six months – yay!) I stopped at Jason’s where I picked up some cold hard cash. I would have stayed to chat but he shooed me out.  He had tripped on his oxygen cord a few days earlier and fallen on his face and frankly looked like he had lost a prize fight, so he probably didn’t want to be bothered by yappy grandchildren.

Thanking him profusely for the Benjamin now in my hot little hands I headed over to the Yarn Boutique to spend it. (What, wait for my Las Vegas trip? Oh, how you jest! Unlike my father, who has saved birthday and Christmas money for years in anticipation of a flat screen TV, my birthday/Christmas money is normally spent within if not hours, at least days of acquisition.)

I got a copy of Evelyn Clark’s Knitting Lace Triangles and some awesome yarn:

Birthday Yarn

Jason has great taste. 😉

Dream in Color Classy in Blue Lagoon and Dream in Color Baby in Happy Forest. The Baby is destined to be a shawl too.

THEN I got an email from the Loopy Ewe with one of their sneak-ups and bought myself a birthday present with my own money.

Birthday Yarn

They got a big order of Fleece Artist Merino 2/6 sock which is one of my absolute favorite sock yarns – I knit the Kai Mei socks out of it and was really impressed. I ordered two skeins of Smoke (yes, another destiny as a shawl), one of Moss and another of Pumpkin.

I have to stop buying orange now because I apparently like exactly the same shade of orange. I have similar colors now in the above Fleece Artist, Miss Babs and Sanguine Gryphon Eidos (not to mention the Terracotta Malabrigo sock I made the Ishbel out of). Oops.

And now I promise I will be good and stop buying yarn for awhile.

Like… October? Can I last that long? Could I even last until… Stitches West in February 2010? A lofty if not unattainable goal (though kind of unrealistic, let’s face it).

Let’s start with October. I think that’s doable. Also there is the sheep and wool festival thing I’m going to in Dixon on the 3rd.

And, I am going to Vegas, and the King Tut Exhibit ($32.50/person!!!1) and Disneyland again probably in September or October, so I really need to behave myself money wise anyway.

At least this time I can justify it as being a birthday present. 😉

Kissing This Month Goodbye, also whining

So this month has been kind of stressful and I am SO BEAT right now that it’s all I can do to not lay down and take a nap right here in my cube. 

I have the biggest cube, so it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch.

This week in particular has been quite, uh, less than awesome.  I was out of town last weekend visiting my sister on Friday and then she came to stay with me on Saturday, and we got some bad cancer news about a family member and that has kind of preyed on me all week.  I’ve been really tired all week and had two after-work-hours board meetings, one of which was four hours long in a cold clubhouse.  I’m kind of surprised that I’m not sick, to be honest.

KNOCK ON WOOD

Anyhoo, I did a little economy-stimulating in the last couple weeks.  For two months I’ve been searching high and low the greater East Bay for a Nintendo Wii, and lo, I snagged the last one at Target a couple weeks ago. Then, a couple days later I was buying a vacuum and lo, there on the shelf in Walmart was one of many Wii Fits.  So I bought that too. 

And I’ve lost 3 pounds using the Wii Fit. I know, right?

I just found Mario Galaxy the other day (the last one at Fry’s – a trend maybe??) and have been playing that.  I heart that game a lot, even though I’ve played the first few levels twice already on friends’ Wiis, so this is all a repeat for me right now.  I STILL need to hook up internet at my place (am piggybacking the local wireless) and get the Wii online so I can share all my ridiculous Miis and download old school games.

Take a look at my yarn wall:

Sock Yarn / Expedit

That is my sock yarn.

I am not done unpacking and may never be.  I am stuck in a quagmire of boxes, though they are certainly neatened up.  Also: where are the grotesques that I made in ceramics?? WHERE DID I PACK THEM OH THOSE MANY YEARS AGO?

I know not.