The Yarn Geek Convention

Don't let the title fool you - I'm a total yarn nerd - just ask my oh so patient boyfriend who has to accompany me everytime I pass a yarn store and wait while I pet the entire stock.

So, last week the boyfriend's mom called and asked me if I knew about this "big knitting show" in town. At that point, I just sighed and gave in to the inevitable. I had been trying to avoid the STITCHES convention like a proper Catholic priest avoids the altar boys - you know you shouldn't, but you want it anyway. There was no one who would want to go with me, my Sweet Babboo certainly wasn't dying to go look at yet another zillion skeins of yarn and I really wanted to save money for my upcoming trip to London. I was almost home free when she called.

So, we went to hang with the other yarn geeks. The mom used to knit years ago apparently, and I recently retaught her some basic casting on, and knitting - I think it's her way of bonding with me, but I like that. It gives us something in common and makes me feel less like an antisocial jerk when I can't set the knitting down at family gatherings. She probably kept me out of more trouble too - we had a lot to look at and only a few hours and I could have gotten lost in the button booth alone - so I think I spent far less than I could have. In the end though, I couldn't resist this:

An orange silk merino and a brown viscose blend. My Sweet Babboo keeps asking for a sweater and although I am wary of the sweater curse, he's been a pretty incredible boyfriend, so I think I may throw caution to the wind. He likes stripes and picked out the turtleneck in the latest Knit1 issues but I think that the chunky wool would be way to hot for him. So, not only does he get a sweater, he gets a custom made sweater. I should have some progress made by Christmas. Seriously. And yes, he loves orange - it's his favorite color which is cool because orange yarn is almost always on sale ( I only spent about $96 for both bags of yarn - love "The Yarn Lady" and her bag sale). That's a close up of the brown yarn, by the way.

And this little baby was a present from the mom. Some Suri Alpaca dental floss for Barbie's that I saw all of these Orenburg lace scarves made from. They were so beautiful and I covet them badly, but oh boy am I scared of this one. Perhaps I've bit off a big bite for my firstish lace. But it's sooooooo soft, so I'll try my best. I wonder if I just pull from the skein or wind it or pull from the outside. Anybody have any tips?

It's been a long week and I have a 6 am call time tomorrow, so hopefully I'll get to post again before the big trip. G'night.