Destashment

Youngest child is staying with us temporarily and his needing room to store his stuff got me motivated to finally clear out the rest of my yarn stash. 

I had donated most a lot of my yarn back in . . . 2018? 2019? So I didn’t think I had much left. 

 
I was wrong. 12 bins worth of wrong.

And as long as I was clearing out, why not deal with the books too? I sweet talked bribed Leia, Leanne and Jaclyn into helping pack up my spinning, weaving, crochet and knitting books, then donated them - all 11 boxes worth - to the spinning/weaving guild’s annual sale. 

One bin of spinning fiber went back upstairs; not ready to let that go yet after all. Friends took another bin to share and my pal Reyna took 6 big bags of yarn to sort and share, including with her physical therapist, who is just learning to knit. So pleased this is all going to new homes where it will be used. 

Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner

I'm not usually lucky when it comes to Internet contests, but I've won two prizes recently. 

The first was waaaaay back in July, during the Tour de Fleece, but the prize only arrived yesterday. And boy oh boy, was it worth waiting for.
 

A 4 ounce braid of Bee Mice Elf fiber in an unknown colorway and unknown fiber (no info was on the tag). I'm thinking it's 'Heatwave'. Colors look the same, although the intensity is washed out a bit in my photo. BFL is one of my favorite fibers to spin, so I'm thrilled with this.

 
I also won a Facebook contest (random number generator) from my favorite yarn shop, Anacapa Fine Yarns.
 
This luscious skein of BFL (seeing a theme here??) will be put to good use, probably as a crocheted shawl. Shocker, I know.

That's likely the end of my winning streak for the next decade or beyond. Big thanks to Lars and Lois for running some fun contests.

Yarn Present

For Christmas, my wonderful, brilliant, talented husband (who can take a hint very well - especially one that's written down for him) gave me a ball of Qiviut*.

 

I'd wanted some for forever, but just couldn't bring myself to pay the $80+ for just over 200 yards of lace weight yarn.

 

But what yarn it is! So soft and light and warm and gorgeous. My little skein of heaven is now a long crocheted cowl, made using a variation of the Crocus Bud Shawl (Ravelry link here.)

A cowl I plan to wear at every opportunity for a long, long time. 



*Qiviut = the super soft underwool of the Arctic musk ox

Viva la Tour

The Tour de Fleece is done for this year and I love how much I was able to accomplish -

Left to right: 504 yards of superwash BFL from BeeMiceElf; 424 yards of Polworth in 'Caribbean' colorway; 200 yards of alpaca/Romney blend from Morro Fleece Works; and finally - 224 248 yards of a Spinderella mix in the colorway 'Harvest'.

For a grand total of 1352 yards. That's three-quarters of a mile, spun in just 22 days. If you consider that each skein is 2 threads plied together, the total was 2704 yards - or 1.5 MILES of spinning. I *love* the Tour.

Loot

Ended up going to Solvang twice this past week. Once with hubby for date day Tuesday and again on Thursday with three-quarters of the Yarn Mafia (missed you, CG!)

While hubby and the little girls napped on Friday,

Miss Leanne

I took pics of my new treasures.

Leia and the blanket she calls "Baby"

On the drive up with hubby, I carefully made a list of all the things I needed from the weaving store, totally forgetting they are closed on Tuesdays.

But that kinda worked to my benefit; we walked around after visiting our favorite antique store and found a needlepoint shop that sells bobbin lace books and tatting thread. Score!

Lily, 30 seconds away from getting smacked
for batting the thread balls around

Thursday I was able to get everything on my list and more (of course.) More bobbin lace bobbins, three packs of felting fiber (for a really neat felting idea I had on the Tuesday drive; pictures soon, if it works out), cones of red and natural 8/2 cotton for more towels, and four cones of 3/2 cotton to make an inkle band for my Appalachian basket. That ought to keep me busy, for a few days anyway.

Lace and Strudel

Took a quick trip northward Friday for a strudel and yarn fix, but ended up with a lace and tatting fix instead (and strudel, of course). Village Spinning and Weaving (since it's our local weaving/spinning shop, we just call it John & Marsha's) has about the best supplies of craft books I've ever seen, including an entire shelf on bobbin lace and both shuttle and needle tatting.

I've wanted to learn tatting for a while now, but getting a needle tatting demonstration at TNNA turned it into an obsession. I picked up a how-to book and needle, along with a knitting pattern, bobbin lace pattern book and a pretty pair of hand-painted lace bobbins. Notice what I didn't get? Yep, no yarn or fiber. I was really proud of myself for sticking to my goal of use-it-up, aka I have too much yarn to use in six lifetimes.

And that feeling of accomplishment lasted until I made just a quick stop at Loop and Leaf in Santa Barbara on the way home . . . . where I picked up this - What makes L&L a must-stop location is the fact that they carry completely different yarns than my LYS, including Habu (stainless steel and silk yarn?? oh, yeah), Kauni, and every color of Madelinetosh Pashmina imaginable. Totally irresistible stuff.

And speaking of Kauni - my Pi Shawl is coming along nicely. Only 15 rows to go until I hit the last increase row, which will put my stitch count at 576 per row for the last 60 rows. So, 13,509 stitches down and only 38,880 to go.
Almost wish I hadn't figured that out.

Ravelry Party

In what I hope is a firmly established, on-going tradition, the Ventura contingent headed south to Burbank yesterday for the 2nd annual Ravelry Party at Unwind. Stephanie and company threw a great bash, complete with food, cake, raffle prizes and yarn discounts. We got to talk to Ravelry's Jess and Casey, saw Mary-Heather from a distance (top photo; she was constantly surrounded by a crowd), got reacquainted with local knit designer Fickleknitter (aka Michelle Miller. I love her shawl patterns) who I met last year while working the Spinning and Weaving Association's TNNA* booth,

My friends have learned to hide from the camera. Sad, huh?

and got to check out the brand new yarn and pattern offerings from Classic Elite Yarn, one of the party's sponsors. I, um, fell off the yarn wagon again; I special ordered a gorgeous knit sweater pattern (this one) and enough yarn - in a brand new, 2011 colorway - to complete it.

The party officially started at 6:30, but Melinda, Edie and I were on our way at 2:30 (can you tell we were a bit excited? Rav peeps! Yarn! Portos food!!) so we'd have time for a quick stop at Pearl's Knitting Parlor in Thousand Oaks. Even though we were on our way to another yarn store, we each came away with a big bag of yarn - at 50 to 75% off, how could we resist?? The orange wool and silk blend? $2.54 each. I got a sweater's worth of yarn for $23. The smaller purple skeins of cotton and acrylic? .94 each. Whoohoo! (The bigger purple yarn? Bison, cashmere and bamboo lace-weight. $25 sale price; only 50% off. But hey, it's BISON.)

*TNNA = The National Needlearts Association, the trade organization for yarn shop owners, teachers, designers, book publishers and more. It's where most yarn shop owners go to order what we'll all be buying in the next six months. The show is a very big deal in the yarn world.

Grand Time

**When we visit Colorado, we try to do lots of things with Addy. She's a happy, well-mannered kid so it's not a problem taking her places or trying new things. She always asks before she touches something (!! My kids never did that.) and if you say 'no', she just takes it in stride and moves on.

So far this trip we've visited antique stores, where we acquired Henrietta the Bunny; made an apron to use while cooking Thanksgiving dinner, including a clip-on flower that doubles as a hair bow;finished Addy's Mermaid Princess blanket; walked around downtown Ft. Collins while waiting for mom to get off work for lunch; and gone shopping for yarn to finish a shawl - where I just happened to find this great craft bag. It's suede on the outside, with lots of great zippered pockets for holding crochet necessities. I've never seen one like it.I love my local yarn shop, but I really love visiting new-to-me shops when we travel. You never know what you'll find.

**Check out Addy's new bike-riding skills here.

Books and Yarn

But no yarn books, darn it.

Hubby organized a book and yarn store crawl for today's date day. First stop was the Iliad Bookshop in N. Hollywood, which advertises having 100,000 books in stock. Hubby thought he'd found the motherlode -

click any picture to enlarge

multiple shelves of books on watches and more shelves on woodworking. (The white book with no name on the spine is on Cartier watches.) As for me? Bah humbug. Their entire selection of textile craft books consisted of two crochet books, one knitting book and nothing on weaving, spinning, bobbin lace or any other textile arts. Oh well, the hubs was very (very) pleased with his finds.

Lunch was at a small deli we found by accident; it was next door to what was supposed to be a yarn shop (bad Google) but was actually a hair salon. Marv's Deli has been in business since 1954 (a very good year); the chicken noodle soup was good and Herman piled the freshly cut roast beef super-high on the sandwiches. We each ate half a sandwich and brought the other halves home for dinner.

Fortunately for me, Google didn't mislead us about the Stitch Cafe. It was alive and well; a small shop with a nice, upscale selection of yarns and friendly staff. I found one yarn that needed to come home with me - Zauberball Starke 6. There's only 437 yards in this ball (and at $34 I wasn't buying two) so I think this will become a small shawl, just enough to keep my neck warm.

Doubt I'd go back here though; I've been spoiled by Anacapa Fine Yarns, Loop and Leaf, and Unwind where they wind your yarn for you; let you look at books before you buy them; and don't have 'don't do this' signs up all over the store. I'm glad I went, glad I found a yarny treasure, and glad I have local yarn stores that I love.

Yarn Score!

A friend and I went on a short yarn crawl Wednesday afternoon, intending to hit one yarn store in search of bobbins for our bobbin lace class. We were out of luck with that, but I remembered there was a second store close by that I'd visited only once before.

Pearl's Knitting Parlor in Thousand Oaks is a small shop, with elegant decor and a very nice selection of yarn and buttons. And they had just put some of their very nice yarns on sale for 50 or 75% off.

Under the circumstances, I think I behaved very well. I came home with only one bag of yarn- a very big bag, but still only one.

But I had to share the news, right? Oh, yeah. Another friend and I went back Thursday (hey, I didn't have the heart to make her go by herself. I was being selfless; only doing my civic duty.) And I came home with this - one more big bag of yarn.

So what did I get? Day 1 - 6 balls on Plymouth 'Encore' (1200 yards) to make Marie a baby blanket; 5 balls on 'Encore' (1000 yards), in a butterscotch/pumpkin color, to make me a sweater; and 5 balls (510 yards) of Royal Llama Silk - in a pumpkin tweedy color - to make a shawl. Grand total? $31!! The Encore alone would normally be over $66.

Day 2's haul - 10 balls (2000 yards) of 'Encore' in two shades of green that I hope Rach will like as an afghan; 875 yards of black lace-weight baby alpaca and silk, which will probably become another gifted shawl (Rachel? you interested? maybe with small black beads?); and my favorite - Artyarn's 'Regal Silk', 163 yards of pure silk goodness that will become a small scarf for me. And today's total? $34! Whoohoo for yarn sales and my great local yarn shops!

How I Spent My Weekend

I feel like I got a lot done this weekend, organization-wise. I filled up my new magazine rack with part of my crochet mag collection; put the rest of my craft books up on LibraryThing (love LT! I don't buy as many duplicate books now that I can check before I buy); worked on the bright and happy shawl but forgot to take an updated pic to show my progress; and uploaded to Ravelry all the fiber I've purchased in the last few months.

click photo to enlarge

At least now I know what I've got. And know that I do.not.need.more.yarn! Like that's ever stopped me before.

New Yarn and An Award

And I made it all myself - the yarn, not the award. Spun this up during the Tour de Fleece in July but just now got around to plying it. Very happy with this 313 yards of 2-ply yumminess. This is 4.2 ounces of BeeMiceElf's BFL in her 'Secluded' colorway. It was wonderful to spin, just like all her rovings. I included a link to her Etsy shop above, but good luck finding anything there. It sells out almost faster than she can upload items. If you do find something in stock - grab it! You won't be disappointed.

Award - I was thrilled to receive the 'Set My Picot Free' award from the Crochet Liberation Front this week for my green lace shawl. You can see some past honorees here and the blog post with my shawl here. Whoohoo!

Fell Off the Yarn Wagon

Went to the yarn store to pick up a check and set my class schedule for the next 4 months - I swear that was all I was going to do - and walked out with $85 worth of yarn. Don't know why Lois bothers to pay me, I just give the money right back to her.

I've been really good about using only stash yarn since January; the only stuff I've bought up until now has been for classes. But the yarn fumes definitely got me today. Going back on the wagon now, at least until after vacation.

• Mmmmmmalabrigo Rasta, super bulky and super soft, in 'Piedras'

• Zauberball Lace, 860 yards of lace-weight yumminess, in shades of orange because the colors will look like this when it's done. (You really need to click that link; the colors are stunningly beautiful.)
  

• Filatura Di Crosa Tempo, a cotton/acrylic blend that looks and feels like silk, in a blend of brown, orange and teals.

Enhanced Stash

I spent yesterday at the annual Torrance fiber fest, helping Lois with her booth. Although I took some spending $$ with me, I'd decided before I left that I didn't need, or want, any more fiber. It was going to be a day of talking to fiber peeps and helping them enhance their stashes.

Yeah. Right. That was before I discovered that Bee Mice Elf, my current absolute favorite purveyor of spinning fiber, was a vendor. I spotted her booth a few minutes before the doors opened to the public and it was very well-stocked. Went back an hour or so later with Ginny and Edie - and almost everything was gone. Obviously, I'm not the only person who was thrilled to see Lars in person.

Clockwise from top: Falkland - 'Bitten'; BFL - 'Secluded'; 'Bitten' again; Falkland - 'Plumage'<

Since I take my payment in yarn, I also came home with this - (clockwise from top) Misti Alpaca to make a woven or Tunisian shawl; Malabrigo Chunky for this hat; Jade Sapphire CASHMERE; and Nashua Sitar to make the same hat for Rach. Not bad for a day's work.

Yum!

Just found a link to this - m.i.n.k. and cashmere yarn. Can you imagine how soft that's going to be??

The animals are sheared, like sheep, once a year and the guard hair is removed, leaving just the downy undercoat*. A yarn review - here - convinced me to give this a try. Now I just have to wait i.m.p.a.t.i.e.n.t.l.y. for the package to arrive from Great Northern Yarns. Picture me standing with my nose pressed against the front window, chanting 'hurry, hurry, hurry.'

*From their website.

le Tour - Day 3

A construction crew cut a fiber optic cable near our house this morning (oopsie!) so we've had no phone or Internet service all.day. Dick was very tired of my checking - and complaining - every 5 minutes or so for 13+ hours.

But lack of innernets did give me time for other things - like working on the Pineapple Shawl, which is down to the last 2 rows. I don't think I needed to worry about it being too small. Now I'm afraid it will be too big once I get it blocked. AJ helped me stretch it out for the photo shoot. Silly cat loves having her picture taken.

Half the Emerald Isle roving is spun, with the rest ready to go tomorrow. The teal really tones down the lime green in the singles. I'm hoping to have this spun and plied by Thursday so I can take it to show my spinning group. Still not crazy about the colorway, but I'm glad to be busting the stash.

Ewwwww, lime green.

Does this color make my butt look big?

And lastly - 'Red Skies at Night', 3 skeins of handspun mohair, wool and glitz. D.O.N.E.