Christmas 2005

Ahhhhhhh….it was a good Christmas. Georgia was beautiful considering we drove in the afternoon the terrible ice storm had melted away. There were broken trees and cars off the sides of the roads everywhere but we were glad to be there. The day after we arrived, my mother took mercy on me and drove me to the Yarn Garden in Lawrenceville. Once again, we arrived about 30minutes until closing and stayed about and hour. There I found the Cathay for the Picovoli pattern and Cashmerino Aran for Tubey. AH!! What was I gonna do? Easy. I wasn’t going to buy the Cathay. If worse comes to worse, I’ll order the TLC cotton plus for that baby. I’m not really sure how that design will fit me. I am very small chested so I keep seeing myself in a droopy unflattering tee that I knit for a sexy knit along. I did however see one of the girls had knit orangina out of Patons Brilliant and it looks incredible!! I have that yarn in the stash so I may have to knit that while I’m at it. (ps that was the pattern I originally voted for in the sexy knitters club knit along).

Anyhoo, after much debate, Mom and I settled on 12 skeins of Cashmerino for Tubey, and 2 Noro Kochoran for a Booga for Mom. They also had Stephanie’s book so I HAD to have it. As we were waiting for the Kochoran to be wound into balls I realized they had…wait for it….metal/rubber swifts! Being the fool I am I didn’t buy one. I know Iknow!!! I’ve been ebay lurking for months for one of these things and its right in front of me and I don’t buy one! Ahhhh! Despite this I had a serious yarn buzz for the rest of the day. Yay for yarn!

That wasn’t the last yarn store we visited on this trip. We drove to Chattanooga for a day’s visit with my SIL and her family and they were kindly enough to walk us around the little historic shops and such which is where The Genuine Purl is. It was a lot smaller than I thought, but they had a great selection in there. I ended up buying some dpn’s for the booga and one skein (630 yds) of laceweight silk/wool. Oiy its beautiful. Its really difficult to shop in a yarn store with someone who doesn’t knit. I guess when its Mike, its okay. How many hours of torture did he put me through at endless record/hobby stores?? Too many to count I tell you. The kids are, well, kids and have yet to understand the potential satisfaction knitting can bring although Maya has requested to learn to knit. Hooray!!

Later, back in GA, Mike and I took a day to scoot around and visited All That Yarn in Snellville. Here we learned that Karaoke and knit-ins work well together (we imagined there might be some wine involved in there somewhere) and I broke down and bought the Magic Loop booklet. I also bought 2 skeins of Cascade Fixation for some socks for my mom. I begun knitting on them that night (using dpn’s) and couldn’t get the ribbing to, well, rib. ?? After casting on 3 times and knitting and inch into the cuff I gave up, shoved it in my bag. I’ll try again soon as I really want to make Mom some socks.

Earlier that same day, Mike and I drove to a JoAnn’s where I looked for a bag handle for the Knitting Tote. What I ended up buying was a pair of handles and a dowel and also 6 skeins of Lion Suede for the tote. Sorry, but every yarn store I went to HAD Berroco suede, but at $10.50/ball!! Too much for this budget considering all the yarn I planned on buying on top of all the yarn already purchased. The Lion Suede cost $4.85/ball. Now its on sale for $4.78/ball I believe. Still, it was a better deal than the Berroco yarn. I’ve knit about 4” of the bag and the fabric is coming out okay. The colorway is really pretty, but I’m a little worried about the making up. It involves grommets and stuff.

So now I have what, about 100 projects ready to be knit?! I’m not feeling burn-out coming on or anything but I am a bit worried. I breezed through the back on Aaron’s sweater and have finished the cuffs on the sleeves (2 at once) and then I stopped to work on the Tote. I feel guilty about that. The way I’ve been making it okay with myself is by saying “well, we live in Florida and it was warm enough for just a t-shirt today.” Also there’s the, ”I need a knitting bag before I do anything else. If I have my knitting bag, I can really transport my projects.”

Hello, my name is Veronica and I’m a knit-a-holic.