A Great Haul

It has been incredibly busy the last week: Sunday there was a lovely knitting party at Knitdevil's house, about which she has posted lots of pictures; Tuesday was the 2nd annual Dodgers' Stitch n Pitch Night (reported by Crazy Aunt Purl in her own fun style) and Monday was a terrific yarn buy at Black Sheep Knittery, a LYS which is going out of business. Knitdevil's pictures are a great view of the party and knittery fun; see them here. And yours truly and Knitdevil are in the middle of Purl's 2nd picture; I'm in the vivid orchid, near the middle of the photo. I think this is about the 100th degree of separation, but y'know, I do live in LA and therefore must crave publicity, lol!!

I have a couple of photos to add to Purl's post: Here's a picture of Unwind's terrific staffer Krista in the green top, trying to herd some 70+ knitters onto 2 buses in an orderly fashion. It was quite a project, keeping track of all of us and making sure no one got left behind.






I just had to include this great picture of my friend Mary Ellen on our bus ride to the game.










This is Madge and the crowd checking in for the goodie bags. Sorry about the bad lighting.










And here's Stephanie, the LYSO of Unwind, my favorite LYS, still on the phone with arrangements at the 7th inning stretch.








Monday was a huge event stashwise. Black Sheep Knittery, a LYS in the Hollywood area, has lost its lease, and yarns still remaining after several weeks of 50% discounts were now on sale at 75% off! A sane woman *CANNOT* pass up a 75% discount on anything, let alone yarn. That's just IMO, but ... Four of us, Dim Sum Mary (she's posted about her swag!), Annette, Knitdevil Madge and I hit the store shortly before lunch. Even after the big sales volume they had on the weekend, there were a lot of great buys. I tried to grab really good yarns and basics, in quantities that would work with the sort of projects that the yarn would be suitable for. I have to admit, a bit smugly, that I scored some really good stuff!


The best was the Grignasco 100% fingering weight cashmere, 8 skeins in lavender and 4 in deep teal. Shawl. Scarf. Lusciousness.




Then there was the Noro: 8 skeins of Kochoran in color #21, a jacket's worth, and two single skeins of Cash Iroha, each perfect for a gift or a gift scarf.





I' ve left out photos of 4 skeins of teal Rowan tweed 4-ply (sportweight) , which will make a nice large warm scarf; a bag of Jaeger Matchmaker Aran in a lovely and elegant tan, which will probably become a vest for DH; and a bag of Louisa Harding Kashmir DK in a midnight blue. Plus I grabbed a bag of DB alpaca silk in deep purple, purpose yet undecided. It's purple, it's incredibly soft and silky - how could I pass it up?


In the category of yummy 'plain' wools, I found mixed-color bags of Jaeger Matchmaker DK, five skeins each of a lovely soft sage and a tasteful tan, and some NZ wools, deep blue, tan and one pale blue, all in 200yd skeins.


Last, but far from least, I adopted 7 skeins of mixed red Encore, perfect for next winter's Red Scarf Project, and some pretty, deep shades of Lamb's Pride Worsted, which I plan to use for Afghans for Afghans or the Dulaan Project. I know LP is great for felting, but I don't really plan much felting. Some of these very basic wools may be around for a couple of years, but at $1-2/skein, I couldn't leave them there. Good thing I've done some de-stashing recently. But how did I know that there'd be such a can't-pass-up sale??


Oh, about knitting? I knitted most of a kids' hat at the baseball game and then completed 2 squares for a couple of blankets that Unwind creates from yarn they include in their goodie bags, asking the participants to use the free yarn for a good cause. These are the entire extent of my FOs for most of May. Sad, really, the amount of time I've spend in the Frog Pond. As my DH says, I sometimes get a lot of use from the same skeins of yarn.