An Almost Wasted Trip - and LOTS of Yarny Goodness

As usual, things got all dorked up. They always seem to with me. But I'll tell you more about that later.

I've got LOTS of yarny goodness to show you today. A lot of the yarn you'll see will be for sale in my shop, as well as other yarns by those vendors. This will give you a good idea of the types of yarn I'll be carrying. I also wish to apologize for the poor quality of a few of the pictures. I took these at night, and even though I had good lighting, the skein colors are dark and just didn't show up well. Rather than try to fool around with settings, I'm presenting them to you now so you can enjoy them.





Starting from the top are Crash into Ewe in "Burning Leaves", Beyond Basic Knits in "Canyon Run", and stitchjones in "YYZ".





Here are Creatively Dyed Yarns (no name), Strings and Yarn in "The Unforgiven", and meliabella in "Jack Frost".





Next are Creatively Dyed Yarns in "Parade", and Heide's Hand Dyed Fibers in "Mulberry" (silk/merino blend).





These are both by StashUp Handpainted Yarns in "Mister Darling" and "Veronica Spicata".





The first two skeins are by Woolly Boully in "Kelp Seahorse" and "Wisteria", and the charcoal skein is painted skeins in "Graphite" (that's real silver in there). The darning egg is by Custom Wood Designs and is made of holly; it's so smooth that I couldn't stop petting it.





Getting tired of looking at yarn? Then you might want to zip down to the text; there's some more you have to wade through yet. These skeins are Chewy Spaghetti in "Lovely" (fingering weight), Lime & Violet Sasquatch Sock in "Risk", and See Jayne Knit in "Blue Agate Beauty".





These are Wolf Creek Wools Toe Jammies in "Caribe", and Maine Woods Yarn & Fiber in "Birch Trees".





This beauty is by Spindle City Yarns in "Granite".





The monster, with 1120 yards, is by Stitch Cleveland in "Nebula 12". I was going to make socks out of this, but there's so much of it that I may make something else, or perhaps socks and a scarf. I'll wait for it to tell me what it wants to be.

The last two pictures are of notions, but they're so cool that I had to include them.





These are by Jelby and are made with a combination of wet and needle felting. It's a little hard to see, but the blue holder has a dragonfly on it; the markers have sheep, with one of them having a flower. The other holder and markers are acorns. Lightweight to the point where I can use them on socks, they're beautifully made and a delight to use. The artisan will do custom work (the sheep are custom), and her turnaround time is very fast.





This is a work in progress holder for DPN's by Knitzi. This picture shows one of the end caps off and the slit where your work hangs out. The next photo shows how the piece looks when it's assembled (of course, there's nothing in it right now). They also make a plain version, and they come in several sizes so you can get the proper one for your needle length. Made of cherry, the wood will darken as it ages to a beautiful color with a wonderful patina. Make sure you get the correct length so your needles neither fall out nor get smashed when the caps are put on. You can also use them to store DPN's. What you do is slide your work through the slit (making sure that it's centered on your needles) and gently screw the cap on. That's it. Then you can stick it in your purse or knitting bag without fear that a needle will get lost or break. I absolutely love it.





Whew. That took a while, didn't it? That's what I get for trying to space out all my yarn; I forgot some of it and had to include it this time. All of these (or one from each manufacturer) will go on my yarn review page tomorrow or Monday.

So Thursday afternoon, we're trying like mad to get everything done so we can go to Folsom. We didn't get out of the house until around 8:00 p.m. Grabbing a burger on the road was dinner; we stopped at a gas station and bought a bunch of snacks. We were also in the rental car, so I felt squished. Since I wasn't supposed to smoke, I went careening down the freeway with my head hanging out the window blowing smoke like a dragon. Of course, it didn't minimize the smell in the car, but that's okay; we'll keep the smoking down and be very careful about ashes and such.

We finally got to Folsom, checked into our room, and sort of collapsed. I had to be at the prison at 7 a.m., so I had to force myself to go to sleep. I had to knit for a while, piggybacked my pills, and finally fell asleep at around 2 a.m. So when the wake-up call came at 5 a.m., I didn't hear the phone. It's a good thing Hubster did, or I would have been late.

I dragged my sorry ass out of bed, showered, dressed, and got myself together for the big orientation. Off we went. I got there in plenty of time, signed in at the main gate, and marched into the classroom where I was met by a sergeant. He said to me:

"Are you here for the four-hour second half of orientation?"

I looked at him as if he had just told me that my boobs had fallen out of my bra and were sticking out the bottom of my sweater. I explained to him who I was and why I was there, and he said to me:

"Oh! I'm sorry. That class has been cancelled. The lieutenant is doing riot training. It was a last-minute thing. But you're welcome to sit in on the first few hours if you want."

SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT

I sat down and promptly began falling asleep when Bill, the chaplain, walked in. I told him what had happened, and he told me that the inmate in charge of getting activities approved hadn't heard about the request he'd put in, and besides, the chapel was full. I was welcome to play outside next to the lodge if I wanted. The sweat lodge. On the yard. In the freezing weather (and I do mean freezing - it was in the mid '30's). He told me to call a guy in the chapel to inquire about the class, which I did at the break. He hadn't even seen Rick (the inmate) and didn't expect to see him until after 9 a.m. At this point, it was 8:15. I decided to just go and headed to someone's office who had a phone so I could call Hubster. He checked out of the motel and came to get me. We went to breakfast to kill time before a couple of shops in Old Folsom opened, and then we went over there. I had to order something for a swap pal, and then I wanted to go to a Native American store that has the coolest things. We hit the stores and then hit the road. I slept all the way home and much of the afternoon and evening. I didn't start functioning until about 3 a.m. this morning. So what happened then?

I fucked up those socks. AGAIN.

I've decided to start again with a new skein of yarn. The one I've been using is cursed, I just know it. I must have handled it roughly or something. In any event, it's now stuffed in the bottom of one of my bins.

The one full of ugly yarn.