FIVE MORE DAYS!!!

It's almost Christmas. I'm very excited. Lots to do in the coming days.  Fun stuff.

But let's begin with yesterday. I sent the kids back to school and, surprisingly, nobody came home sick. Jade and Sophie and I just hung out, did some laundry, and awaited their return. After school, we got ready to go and took Chloë to her ballet class.

I have been to two LYS (Local Yarn Stores) here, both down the road from us (in opposing directions). But there is a much bigger one I'd heard about, and I decided to look it up. It's on N Lynnhaven Road. N Lynnhaven Rd? What? Wait a minute, isn't that...? Well, hold on here... Why, yes, yes it is the same N Lynnhaven Road that Chlo's dance academy is on. The same dance academy where she's been going for four years now. Serendipity! (And stupidity. Me.)

So we dropped the ol' gal off, and tottled down the road to Ewe Knits for a look-see. Oh, my heavens. Now, the other two stores are okay. They have some very nice stuff. But here, there was wall-to-wall lusciousness in a much greater square footage.  It was just too bad I only had 45 or so minutes to pet the yarns, choose some, and get back. Actually, that's probably a good thing or I might've had to break out the off-limits credit card!  If the words Koigo, Malabrigo, Cascade 220 and Noro mean anything to you, you know what I'm sayin'. (And y'all could consider that my future gift wish list if the need ever arises. Ahem.)

First I visited the cashmere. Rob has been after me to knit him a cashmere sweater since I learned to knit. It's $48 a ball. (And we estimated today I'd need about 16 balls. So. Yeah. Not happening anytime soon.) Then I visited the wools, and then the laceweights and sock yarns. None of that foofoo novelty stuff. I meant business.

First, I chose this gorgeous fingering weight from Artyarns, which is exactly like Koigu (KPPPM) except that it's not. It feels amazing.

   Then I picked this worsted weight wool, Karaoke, with which I thought I was going to make another Booga bag - for me, this time. It's self-striping and would be so much easier than switching yarns alla time. (I know not everyone cares about this stuff, but notice the knitting icon thingy on the page!) I thought I should get some new pattern books to go with my new yarn, too, so I got a Debbie Bliss one for baby knits, and Simple Knits for Cherished Babies, since I have the crochet version. And I got a free ball of silly froofroo yarn for spending, well, a bunch!

Chloë was finished, we went home, had dinner, did the homework thing, bed, then Jade was picked up and finally, finally, I was alone with my yarn. Oh, I forgot to say. They were such nice, nice people in that store, and they were so welcoming. We talked about Ravelry, and it turns out some of them "knew" me because the local group on there is searching for a charity to make things for, and someone nominated CARE Package! And someone came into the store needing a knitted item fixed, and they fixed it, so I asked if they could fix the lacy sweater I've been working on (remember?) for Lisa's baby. I put a slight booboo in it the other day and didn't know how to fix it, so there it sat. They invited me to come in anytime and just sit and knit. It felt like home! *sniff*

So, like I said, it was just me and the yarn, and I couldn't work on my Lisa sweater. What to do, what to do... aha! I thought I'd play with that Karoake yarn that I was going to make into a felted (fulled) Booga bag but then decided not to just yet because I already have two undesignated ones at home (holler if you want one for the deeeeeeply discounted price of $15; proceeds go to CARE Package).  I decided to do something unheard of: make a baby sweater with it - and then felt it! Wha? I couldn't find any such patterns online, free or otherwise. So I opened the new Debbie Bliss book, picked a sweater, and started knitting. Obviously I wanted a very plain, basic one whose stitches I wouldn't mind losing in the fulling process.

This is the back of the sweater, which I worked on between last night and this afternoon. Pretty, right? And so soft. I can't wait to see how it felts!

Today, I didn't have Jade (woot!) and Barbara was coming to clean (woot! woot!), so Sophia and I needed to get out of the house. So we went back to the yarn shoppe to have my Lisa sweater repaired and then do some knitting with the nice ladies.

It turned out to be a very simple fix that I'm now very glad I know how to do, because surely it'll come up again. I sat for a while, with Soapy in the umbrelly stroller, knitting on the above stripey sweater and chatting. I'm really so pleased I went. They didn't make me feel like an outsider at all. I just jumped right in. One of them is even ordering a book for me that they all love, full of patterns for knitted stuffed animals that are freaking adorable (a platypus!).

Back home, everyone was in need of a nap (even me, but I didn't), so I was again alone with my yarn. I finished knitting the back of the stripey sweater and then picked up Lisa's. I stopped to go out for a dinner mystery shop at the Silver Diner (yes, that of the Josie debacle, if anyone from FTC remembers...) with the family and then dove right back in. And I finished just a short while ago!

The picture doesn't do it justice. It looks faboo, if I may say so myself! And it feels wonderful. So soft and sproingy and soft! I hope they love it. And not a moment too soon, either, because Lisa called me tonight with news that baby Emilie Joy was just born!

I know that's a crappy picture, but at least you can see the buttons I chose better there. WDYT, they're okay? Yes? No?

So that's it! Now I'm going to go back and make up a sleeve or two on the felty sweater.

Fin.