Catching My Breath…

I’ve been busy since my last posting – Wed., I went to see KnitBud Anne and we had a great time with our “Xmas in July”, which is when we exchange the presents we didn’t send each other back in December.   (yeah, we’re slow — wanna make something of it?)

I gifted her with assorted yarns and she gifted me with the most freakin’ awesome prezzie ever…

Mr. Gator Scarf!

He's a BIG one!

Yep, an 8 foot plus long scarf done in lime green Lamb’s Pride Bulky with felted red eyes!!  It’s her take on something that Morehouse Merino had out, and since she and I have the Wakulla Springs Lovefest thing going on,  Gators Be Our Thang.   I look forward to making matching mittens in the lime LPB that I have at home!

Indian food was had at Coromandel  along with a couple of large bottles of Kingfisher Lager, and we just vegged until about 4, when I had to gird my loins and battle commuter traffic on the Hutch.  A very nice afternoon with my best girlbud. 

The downside was that I had to confess that I was going to TKGA in Manchester NH, By Myself. The Next Day.  (I deserved and got the finger from Anne.)  So I got her a nice assortment of GUILT YARN whilst on my journey and sent it to her today.  It was 5 balls of red-brown Alpaca Boucle, 1 skein of red-brown Ultra Alpaca Fine, and a 600 gram ball of Kauni in, um, red-brown (more on Kauni later…).  This box of brown included a shawl pattern for the Kauni, and a self-designed pattern for the Alp Boucle, along with assorted flyers and cards from the show.  What can Brown do for you?   Assuage your guilt….for one thing….

Getting to Manchester, NH can be done two ways:  The scenic route, which, depending which version you want, will take you through some interesting places; or the fastlane, which is I-84 to the Mass Pike to the ringroad I-495 around Boston and then north up to Manchester.  I pretty much loathe the MassPike, so I opted for the scenic with touches of fastlane by going up 84 to 91 and thence to Northampton, home of … WEBS.  (cue dramatic swell of music…)

I was not as bad as I could have been, but yet I was modest in my badness…

Araucania Chunky, Perfecto

16 skeins for Araucania Nature Chunky in a delightful swampy/limey green.  This will probably be another top-down sweater for myself; I will wear Mr. Gator with it.  DEEPLY Discounted; I think it was much less than half price at WEBS, and I found the very last bags up on a shelf.  (There was hot pink too, if you’re interested.  Give WEBS a call…!)

 

 

 

 

Inca Alpaca Print

 

 

7 skeins of Inca Alpaca Print for again less than half price; I picked up the odd one for 8 and to use as trim/contrast.  The picture does not do it justice as far as the colors are concerned…

 

 

 

 

5 balls of my beloved Alpaca Boucle in a new color,

Royal Purple.  Yes, it looks blue.  It isn’t.  It’s purple. Trust me on this.  This will get beta-tested into a Hockey Mom set; FREE PATTERN COMING SOON TO THE COMPENDIUM! 

superwash merino dk

2 balls of FibraNatura Baby Merino SW — can you say “fingerless glove fanatic”?

It was a good thing I stopped at WEBS when I did — about a 1/2 hour after I got there, the sky opened up and it POURED like a waterfall for another 1/2 hour, finally easing up to a fairly steady rain.  This, my friends, was NOT GOOD.  I hate driving in the rain, as I am all too aware that my friction has been reduced while my inertia and mass stay the same.  Actually, this happens to everyone on the road, yet everyone chooses to ignore it.  Why does everyone think the immutable laws of physics don’t apply to THEM when they’re driving?! 

I ooched my way out of Northampton carefully, heading north on 91.  Right turn at Greenfield, onto 2/202.  Two lane road, bit wind-ey, but not much traffic and what there was was moving slowly and appropriately through the now-intermittent rain.  North on 202 towards NH, and things were looking fine.  I got to Peterborough without any problems, and then, just then, the sky opened up AGAIN, and I was forced to go up and down and east to Manchester at about 45 mph.  I have to say, people in NH are very courteous and safe drivers — no-one was speeding and I only had one young idiot tailgating me for about 5 miles.   I got into the city limits of Manchester, and THEN THE DELUGE.  I’d never seen rain like that except in Florida –  like, say, during a HURRICANE.  It was beyond belief.  I drove slowly through nearly flooded intersections, hoping that I wouldn’t stall out my little car, moving north up into the center of Manchester, passing fire trucks, police cars, stalled vehicles.  Sheesh.  I arrived at my B&B, and just sat in the car for a couple of minutes, shivering.  Luckily, The Ash Street Inn had tea AND brandy available for the weary traveler.

The TKGA/CGOA conference was ok; a lot fewer vendors than in the past.  It looked like the price of gas had really affected attendence and vendors both.  The class I took with Darla Fanton, with mitered squares worked in double-ended crochet, I just loved to pieces.  This double-ended crochet stuff is really geeky and I like doing it.  It forces you to think on two sides at once.  Darla is a great teacher, very sweet and patient, and has her own website for double ended and Tunisian crochet patterns.  The other class I took,  I will not say what it was, as I was really unhappy with it. 

What’s that you say?  There were vendors and yarn?  Did I get any more yarn?  DUH.

KAUNI SUPER LONG COLOR REPEAT YARN

 After trudging through the offerings at TNNA last month, I thought I’d seen it all. THIS, I have never ever seen before!  It’s imported by The Yarn and Fiber Company, and it is just an amazing Shetland type yarn with an immensely loooooooong color repeat. 

Here’s another link for you to look at:

Kauni Yarn colorways

So this is dark purple on the outside….

INSIDE OF KAUNI PURPLE

 … and I opened up/spread out the end of the skein a little to show of the color change in the skein. 

I got the purple for myself, Miss Anne got a warm brown/red/dark pink skein and….

I also got a smaller skein of denimy blues for a small scarf for myself — or maybe Mom, if she’s good.

Denim blues Kauni

The Kauni was definitely the SCORE of the show; however there was some other yummyness available for purchase…

Not that I buy a lot of sock yarn, but I bought…Some sock yarn.

araucania ranco multy

The Ranco is fine wt, and will probably go into some gauntlets for the winter; 

the picture of the Ranco does not do it justice; it is an amazing blend of brown, greys and tan.

And when I got home, THIS was waiting for me — part of my prize from Kraemer Yarns for winning third in their design contest last year — I finally decided to “cash” it in…

Kraemer Mauch Chunky

14 skeins of Mauch Chunky in a new color, “Blue Lagoon”. 

Here’s a closer shot of the color:

Mauch Chunky Blue Lagoon

Ain’t that a GORGEOUS blue?  Lots of other shimmery colors worked in to give it a richness that just a plain blue doesn’t have.  Basically your ALL AROUND YARN ORGY WEEKEND!!!

It was hotter than hell driving home on Saturday pm, and the less said about the traffic on 495, the MassPike and I-84, the better.  Glad to be home; the Katzies obviously missed me; T.A. came up for air from the office and then subsided back in, as he had A Breakthrough In Work.  Thank Gods.   It rained nicely all day Sunday; what a welcome relief.