Fall down go boom

Okay, first and foremost, let's talk about who gets yarn. The name we have tenatively decided on is Malcolm (middle name Zachary). So, nobody submitted that one. However, trek submitted a name I liked very much -- Aidan. So trek gets the Schaeffer Anne. I'm also going to award a prize for "submission that made me spew coffee onto my keyboard" to NJStacie for "Juicebox," which she threw in with a list of perfectly normal names. Not sure yet what the prize will be, but it will definitely be some yarny goodness. So, if you two could please contact me at lauraDOTyonaATgmailDOTcom (changing DOT and AT appropriately)with your mailing addresses, I'll be happy to get your prizes out to you.

Moving on. Remember a few posts ago I said I was on a bit of a yarn diet and I promised to explain later and then I never did (because I forgot to -- c'mon, you know how I roll). The yarn diet, which was definitely a diet and not a fast, which is what I feel like a lot of people do when they say they're going on a "yarn diet," the yarn diet was so I could save up my money for this. Isn't it purty? I have a Babe, and I really do love spinning, even though I don't have much time to do so right now (I swear, if anyone had told me how much time and energy a toddler requires I'd've just gotten a cat), so I decided I want to treat myself to a really nice wheel someday. It will require a lot of penny saving, so that's what I've been doing, mostly. I bought a little bit of yarn a couple of weeks ago from SuperCrafty (her infant son just had brain surgery. Dude. I cannot even imagine.), but that was really okay (except that I forgot what I was going to make with everything and then they had it packaged up so it was all lined up




and now I'm going to make this (only, you know, in purples) with the addition of some other odds and ends I have lying around).



Oh, and also I bought a couple of skeins of STR after they announced that one of my favorite colorways would be "resting" for an unknown period of time. But that was okay, too, because it really was just a couple of skeins, and as I said, this is a yarn diet, not a yarn fast.

And then it all went right to hell. You know how I love the Cider Moon? How I would snuggle with it all day long if I could? How sometimes I just open my yarn closet and rub it on my face? Well, I got scared that there may never be any more of it. The other day, this post showed up on their blog, and their store is down and I really, really hope that whatever the trouble is they get through it okay and get back to making the pretty yarns. But just in case...I bought several skeins last night when Sheri did her Sneak Up (oh, the damage that would've been done if I had seen the email three hours earlier when it went out) and then I popped over to Knitters Mercantile and bought up a lot of their remaining stock. Basically, I bought a skein of every color I liked that anyone had in stock (unless I already had it). Which pretty much wiped out my wheel fund. Sigh. Oh well. Not like I'll really have time to spin much for the next few years anyhow.

Here's why:


I suppose if I could figure out a way to get her to stay in the box, I'd be able to spin a lot more.




In other knitting news, I've made progress on the Campanulas (I'm up to the first heel and deciding what I want to do here -- short row as instructed or wimp out and stick with my easy afterthought heel)



and totally fell in love with Brittany Birch DPNs. I just ordered some Harmony needles from Knit Picks (again with the purty) and am hoping they give me the same warm fuzzies. I was going to order more Brittanies, but the only place I found that had them in stock was Halcyon, and they wanted to charge me $10.95 to ship a few sets of needles! I think not.

I'm also just about done with the first Infloresence -- just figuring out how I want to incorporate the ribbing now. And I'm making nice progress on the hooded kaftan for Becky as well as the lacey sweater thingie for me. Not as much knitting for Mal, except to keep throwing a few rows on a blanket square every now and again.

And just to show you that I can take pictures of things without either children or yarn in them:



I took a picture almost exactly like this when we first moved into the house, but lost it when my hard drive died a few years ago. I was so excited when I went outside the other day and the light was just right and the roses were in just the right spot. This particular rose blooms from early spring until late fall -- it's really lovely.

posted by Laura Y. @ 1:14 PM