yarn – Page 5 – Behind the Smile

June 21, 2008June 24, 2010

Stash Enhancement

Do you remember at the beginning of the year, when I said to myself, “NO BUYING SOCK YARN!” Well, in anticipation of Summer of Socks 2008 (which I signed up for ages ago and completely forgot about and starts today, the first day of summer), I would like to present photographic evidence of the progression of the stash: It is either scary or awesome, depending on your point of view. (In other words, no buying sock yarn = big fat fail.)

Exhibit A (February 2007):

State of the Sock Yarn Stash

A respectable stash! Some good colors, quality yarn, something to be proud of.

Exhibit B (August 2007):

Sock Yarn Stash as of 8.11.07

Larger, but still respectable. A noticeable love of winding skeins into cakes is starting to come into light. (I bought my swift at Stitches West 2007).

Exhibit C (June 2008):

The State of the Sock Yarn Stash

ZOMG I need to start knitting.

If you click on the second two pictures, I have tagged them in Flickr with the different kinds of yarn. I also maybe possibly made an order at the Loopy Ewe yesterday. OH SHUSH.

However, may I present to you the latest in my upcoming interests:

Yeah, my birthday is in two weeks, and I’m going to use birthday money to hella score a rigid heddle loom. This particular model has everything you could need, and folds up, and turns into a warping board. I’m really excited – I think it will be a great way to use some of the stash, and I’ve been really impressed with some of the weaving I’ve seen around the internets.

If you’ll recall, I’m definitely more of a product over process knitter, and weaving seems to me a great way to get a product, even if to set up it’s somewhat time consuming. I’m looking forward to ordering the loom and getting started on teaching myself a new skill.

Here’s to crafting!

June 7, 2008June 24, 2010

All Good Things

Well, I am back in California after a really awesome trip to Texas. I am beat!

Yesterday Tara, Cindy, Julie and I headed up I-35 to Austin, the state capitol.

We just drove by the actual capitol – we had better things to do, such as stopping at Hill Country Weavers, where I totally gorged on sock yarn:

Here’s what I bought:

Nature’s Palette, Jitterbug, Araucania Ranco Multy, Araucania Ranco Multy, Jitterbug, and Malabrigo Worsted.

I love Hill Country Weavers. If you are ever in Austin, you must stop there!

The girls were pretty cool about me dragging them to a yarn store, since none of them knit. I think part of it had to do with the intriguing Airstream right across the street:

Did we totally partake of cupcakes following the yarning? Yes, yes we did.

After that, we stopped at the huge Half Price Books on North Lamar, then headed back to San Antonio.

And took a lot of pictures. As you can see, I am now a redhead, courtesy of Garnier Fructisse.

I had a GREAT TIME on vacation. I miss Texas a lot. But it was good to get home, especially when I knew this was waiting for me:

(Note the chapstick for scale!) It’s my new tiny laptop, an Eee PC. I was hoping it would arrive prior to the trip, but it didn’t. It’s Linux, which I was expecting to be difficult to get used to, but it’s easy and I love it.

Now I am broke, but it was SO WORTH IT – the trip, the computer (though that was courtesy of the U.S. Government and their ESP [hahaha esp]), and seeing my best girlfriends. I am mentally recharged and ready to write – and finally finish a novel or too.

Also: damn, June already? Yikes.

June 3, 2008June 24, 2010

Alamo Heights, Castle Hills, Olmos Park

Yesterday I went out and about to all my favorite shopping places in San Antonio. First I stopped at Yarnivore in Castle Hills off NW Military Highway. I had never been to Yarnivore, as it opened about four months after I loved. It’s a great store and the girl running the place was really nice. They had a knitting machine in the middle of the shop, which is cool because a lot of times people are like, ew, knitting machines.

I bought some sock yarn:

Panda Cotton, Collinette Jitterbug, and Fannie’s Fingering Weight.

I then went to Alamo Heights and stopped at Nomadic Notions, where I bought some charms, and then I stopped at the Yarn Barn, which has changed ownership and I wasn’t really impressed with their sock yarn selection, which is basically how I judge a store. I did pick up some Regia Surf in yellowy blues and greens. It’s a cotton/wool blend that will make nice socks.

Then I stopped at the Rim, which is a new shopping center just north of La Cantera (a ritzy outdoor shopping mall that boasts a Neiman Marcus and Tiffany’s) and looked at the new Michael’s, which didn’t have anything that the Brentwood Michael’s didn’t have. After that I stopped at Taco Cabana and then at Hobby Lobby.

At Hobby Lobby I got some beads.

Today we went to the outlets at San Marcos and I got some stuff at Bath & Body Works. And an owl bag at the Charlotte Russe outlet:

Then when we were going down I-35, we saw a different Hobby Lobby (in Selma) and we stopped there and Julie got some stuff and I got some more beads, but also in the same shopping center was a new beads store called Beads 2 Go, and I got some awesome beads there…

Tomorrow I am staying at the apartment and putzing around watching tv, and then Julie and I are going downtown to the Mercado and out to dinner at County Line.

Mmm, County Line.