Photo spree of yarn spree

Even though work has been hectic and I haven’t had much time to post, that hasn’t kept me from having a few yarn sprees. The highlight took place on a trip to St. Louis to visit mom. We went to three yarn stores: Knit and Caboodle in downtown St. Charles, a small knit shop very close to my mom’s house where I bought her some nice needles and . . . drum roll please . . . The Loopy Ewe!!!

I was too excited to remember to take my Little Loopy inside for pictures and I had a hard time conversing with people–such a shame because everyone was so nice!! I was so overwhelmed at all the choices. Take a nerdy, computer-geek knitter into a the mecca of sock knitting and the ability to interact like a normal human being vanishes. Oh well. As you can see, the inability to speak does not correlate with an inability to shop.

I got some lovely Collinette merino blend and Claudia Handpaints sock yarn at Knit and Caboodle. [Note: Opal's tail in the photo. She can't stand me paying attention to anything other than her!]

There are a couple of skeins not shown because these are for Chris in Germany and I didn’t want to spoil the surprise. Chris is quite an enabler. She told me about The Knitting Goddess in the UK who has a lovely Yak/Merino sock yarn (the three skeins on the left). She also packages up same difference yarn which has two smaller skeins in the same colors but different (two same difference yarns shown on the right).

I also heard through one of my knitting lists about a special sale on qiviut/merino at Cottage Craft Angora Mills in Quebec. I hope I have enough to make a sweater:

Oh dear, when I went to check their URL I saw that they now have a qiviut/angora blend special introductory offer. Sounds wickedly nice!

And finally, there was a fiber festival this past weekend just a few miles from home and I came home a happy shopper with yarn, books, heel salve, patterns and gadgets. How’s that for a home-town spree in the yarn-barren San Luis Valley!

They, Crazy Monkey Creations, sold the two big 840 yard skeins as closeouts for $6 each! The blue one is an alpaca blend. I really liked the feel of their 65% Merino/35% bamboo sock yarn too. What fun!

Lest you think I have not been knitting, here’s the latest two pairs of socks:

This last pair is a DK weight merino I received from Kim in the Knitter’s Tea Swap 4. The pattern is Rainy Day Lace from MagKnits. I tried to find the link for you because this is a fun pattern to knit. Alas, my google skills are weak this morning. I’ll see if I can find it and post it later.

I really enjoyed the knitting with the colors in Kim’s yarn. She did a great job of dyeing this skien. The picture just doesn’t do it justice. I picked the Rainy Day pattern because all the soft blues, grays, purples and greens reminded me of light summer rain on garden flowers. I am thinking of these as “slipper” socks because they are so soft and cushy. I may even try to find some soles to sew on to protect them so they last a long time.

Well, the most exciting knitting project will have to be on hold for later this week. A clue: it involves a small dog and a sweater.