- Make your yarn purchases while on vacation. You'll be able to justify them as souvenirs.
- Even better, while on vacation, without your DH. If he must come along, distract him with a computer store or food.
- Use cash whenever possible, it eliminates the paper trail.
- When packing for the holiday, pack only the essentials to leave as much room in your suitcase, as you can, for the trip home.
- When packing for the trip home, layer your suitcase. Yarn goes on the bottom, then clothes with the gifts for the kiddies on top.
- Distract family with gifts and bring suitcase to your room.
- Unpack the next day, when no one is around.
50/50 Alpaca/Merino bought from WEBS
one ball of 3ply fingering that I won, three skeins of Noro Transitions that were so cheap, you'd think they were stolen
A full bag of Ella rae bought from a place that was selling their yarn in full bags. In their booth they had a fenced off area and had it piled high with the full bags. According to one staff member, a lady actually jumped into the pile and wallowed amongst the fibres. They weren't pleased as she destroyed many labels. some people have no respect.
Of course there was sock yarn purchases. According to Tink, this doesn't count at all for stash. I did get another ball of sock yarn, but there is a story behind that which deserves its own blog post.
Until next time
Yours in Yarn,
The Fibreholic
Guess what DH's name is.......and you'll find this as funny as I do.
Until next time
Yours in Yarn,
The Fibreholic
ME: I've been invited to go to Chicago for STITCHES MIDWEST and stay at a complete stranger's house.
General response: WHAT??? Are you crazy? You don't know anything about this person. This person could be a serial killer. Your children need their mother.
Complete Stranger: I've met someone on the Internet and invited her to come to STITCHES and stay at our house .
General response: WHAT??? You did what??? You don't know anything about this person. She could be a crazy homicidal maniac.
You get the picture. From both camps we had people looking for ways to lock us up for our own protection for clearly we had lost it and gone loopy with this hair brained plan.
Funny thing is, the only person who didn't say anything about this plan was my DH. He may have thought it, but did not say word regarding the state of my sanity.
Thursday the 21st, the sock and I headed off to Chicago for our latest adventure. Kathy met me at the airport and we headed off to her place for lunch. On our way we told each other of the secret plots to have us committed because of the plan.
Kathy( after lunch): Look, all kinds of knives lying around and no one got stabbed.
A STITCHES event.
It's hard to describe. Maybe this is the place that good knitters go when they die. Aisle after aisle of yarn, needles, books and knitting gadgets, it was enough to make even the hardest hearted knitter cry. There was even an underlying scent of vinegar from all the hand dyed skeins. More than once Kathy caught me smelling skeins of wool.
I did my best to purchase only the yarns that are not locally available. However when you find Noro Transitions at 1/3 of the price you can get it locally, you just have to go for it. I did take classes, one on the Estonian Patent stitch with Merike Saarniit and math for knitters with Edie Eckman. Both very informative and both very useful. I can't wait to impress everyone in the near future.
The sock was overwhelmed by the whole thing and was very emotional when I told it where we were going and who we would see. I was able to calm the sock down by starting to knit the heel. The sock did okay and managed not to embarrass me despite being severely star struck.
Merike Saarniit, queen of the Estonian Patent Stitch.
Edie Eckman, simplifying math for knitter's everywhere.
Stay tuned for more from my Chicago adventure.
Until next time
Yours in Yarn,
The Fibreholic
You've got your traveling sock in hand with a need to acquire mojo. You really don't want another letter from the TSA (traveling sock association) so you've decided to do all you can to satisfy the rules and regulations.
You go to where the celebrity is doing a book signing, just so you don't have to wait around or pay someone to wait around to alert you when the celebrity emerges.
So there's a long line up. You don't need to deal with that. Just getting a picture of the sock with the celebrity in the background should be good enough.
Good picture of the sock, but with my dime store camera, lousy picture of celebrity. So to the line-up I go. Bonus...there is a woman from celebrity's camp who is giving out handfuls of recipes that are off the website.
Finally get to celebrity and sheepishly admit that any book of hers that I wanted signed was forgotten at home. Don't admit that while I want to buy her latest book, I'm too cheep to buy the hard cover version and am waiting for it to come out in paperback. Tell her that you did stand in line so that you could get a picture of her holding your traveling sock.
Debbie Macomber was most obliging. She even asked if she should appear to be knitting on the sock for the photo.
Okay so it's not true celebrity stalking, but I got my photo and didn't get arrested. That's what I call a good day!
Until next time
Yours in Yarn,
The Fibreholic
- Pick up a copy of you favorite magazine. In this case it is Interweave Knits.
- Open said magazine and walk by unsuspecting unimaginative person.
- Accidentally (on purpose as you must aim at this point) have subscription card fall on the lap of the unsuspecting unimaginative person.
ME: Oops, did I drop something?
UUP: (looks at card) Hmmm what a great birthday gift idea.
My birthday had come and gone so I figured that after three days, I must take matters into my own hands. DH may be slow but he is not so dense to ignore the warning signs. He came home last Monday to tell me that a subscription was a done deal. However, my work was not yet done.
ME: Well kids, I suppose I should get around to making myself a birthday cake.
Kids: Yeah!
Last night DH came home with this. (13 days AFTER my birthday)
It's a chocolate truffle cake with raspberry butter cream from the Ottawa Bagel Shop. In one word....HEAVENLY!
He did do a good job even if he did need MAJOR coaxing and subtle-as-a-train-wreck hints. Maybe next year this will all happen a little closer to the actual day.
Until next time
Yours in Yarn,
The Fibreholic
When I close my eyes I never know what images are going to come to me in my sleep. Last week I dreamt that I was in a large room that reminded me of a warehouse. There were many people seated at long cafeteria type tables, all oblivious to a woman seated at a table in a corner.
That woman was Jejune. She was surrounded by a pile of books and was there for a book signing. I'm sorry to say that she was not busy at all. In fact no one was coming to see her. As a friend, I went over to say hello and chat.
In her last blog post I have learnt that she has sent off a book proposal (and for this I wish her all the luck in the world). I have no idea what it's about, but in my dream she had written a book about socks. Not a design or pattern book, but a book about the subject of socks. At least I found the subject fascinating even if no one else in the dream did.
So Jejune, not that you need any inspiration for your mind is vastly creative, I thought I should post a pix of my latest pair of socks.
This is my first pair using Knit Picks Bare sock yarn that I dyed. I was going to give the socks to the teen (because of the colours) , but I like how they turned out.
Until next time
Yours in Yarn,
The Fibreholic
My birthday has come and gone along with my anniversary. It was marked by me getting up for work and then driving into Ottawa for dinner and a movie with DH. Not very exciting....yes I know. But it was one of those big fat ugly birthdays that a woman doesn't want to acknowledge and breaks out in hives at the mere mention of the number. I really just wanted to get the day over and done with, so I could go back to bed and pretend that the day never happened.
But what I can't play pretend about is a lack of a gift from DH. Yes you read that correctly, he didn't get me anything. I didn't even get a cake.
Fortunately, I covered him, once again. Last Saturday, while he and the kids were watching the Buskers Festival, I was at Knit-Knackers buying something for myself.
Eleven 100g skeins of Louet Gems Merino light worsted weight in cherry red for a price that I could not pass up. I did get the DPNs sets that were the original reason I went to the store. So the yarn was just a bonus. Happy Birthday to me!!!
Actually, if truth be told I also went there to give Emily (the nice gal who works there) her gift. It's her birthday today. She is a wonderful person despite the fact she knits socks on DPNs that look like broom handles.
Look carefully, it's my first happy clappy. What a fun scarf to knit and unravel, so much so I think that I've almost changed my mind about scarf knitting. It's made with Lullaby by Berroco that I got from my stash. Yah gotta like that.
Until next time
Yours in Yarn,
The Fibreholic
