Noro, How I Love Thee

Uh, I think I have a problem.



I finished a Noro and Malabrigo hat a couple weeks ago and love the result. I took the stitch pattern for Ziggy and felt that it would look cool in a hat form.



I have also found a local gem. Erica's Craft & Sewing Center is mainly a sewing shop but has an amazing selection of quality yarns. One of them is the Noro Kureyon sock yarn you see above and I couldn't resist.



I also could not pass up trying the new Lion Brand Sock Yarn. I love basic sock yarn and this fits the bill. The only bad side is that the color selection is rather limited but I'm sure this yarn will get a good response and they will come out with new colors soon.

Wollmeise Rant

Am I foolish for thinking that I would be able to buy a skein of Wollmeise sock yarn? I guess so. Last week the sneak up at The Loopy Ewe came up at 9 p.m. Central Standard Time. By 9:05 p.m. Central Standard Time, all 300 skeins were gone! Can you imagine the amount of profit Sherry is making right now. I can't even imagine. Maybe more or less than we all think, but either way, that's good for the knitting industry. As long as someone buys it, yarn (and might I mention good yarn) will still be available to the rest of us.

I guess what I'm more upset about is the fact that I checked the website every day several times for a whole month and a half. I figured if I checked multiple times a day, I would catch the sneak up and have my chance to knit with this stuff. But alas, I did not check the site when it really mattered. This reminds me of American football. You could have a perfect field goal score in practice, but if you do not kick a good field goal when the Super Bowl is on the line, you're toast.

What disturbs me more is how obsessed I became with getting the yarn. It was almost like I forgot why I knit. I mean many of the yarns I have in my stash are good quality stuff. However when I was thinking about Wollmeise, it was almost like I thought my stash was really balls of twine and skeins of acrylic. I felt when it came to knitting, nothing else mattered and my stash would finally be complete with some of this stuff. Wollmeise is like the Holy Grail of sock yarns right now and unfortunately I can't get any of it.

And for those of you on Ravelry, just look up Wollmeise and see what you find. It resembles more of a stock market or trading bazaar than a place to display your stash. There are tons of people on there looking to trade Wollmeise for other Wollmeise sock yarn. It kind of makes me think that maybe a lot of the people that bought last week were just trying to get what they could and if they didn't like the color, they figured they could trade for something they liked on Ravelry. I must admit that was my plan too, but again, I failed.

Wollmeise is like crack for knitters. And even though I'm jealous of all of you who have a skein, I will be a big girl and wait till the next sneak up. Hopefully I will be clicking on the Loopy Ewe at the right time. Otherwise, I'm just going to have to get over this obsession I have with this lady's stuff. Or fly to Germany and take her hostage and force her to dye some yarn specifically for me. You know, I'm just saying (LOL).

Tejedora Autentica

Everyone, meet Bullseye:





Isn't she cute? My boyfriend and his brother (we all live together) surprised me on Saturday with a cute little kitty. Now I feel like an official knitter because I have a cat. I already know that she likes string, so I'm keeping my stash away from her. You know, just in case.



And yesterday said boyfriend got a little dirty working in the fireplace (isn't he cute, well actually, don't answer that). He took out the old frame and in a week or so will put in a new fireplace insert. Experts say this fireplace insert will be 70% more efficient than a normal one. We plan on using the fireplace to heat our house since it is well known that Natural Gas prices (in the Midwest, at least) have doubled since last winter. Whenever I hear news like that, I just scoff and say, "Man I'm glad I'm a knitter!"



See ya!

Traveling Again

Tonight I shall begin my journey to the wonderful land of Canada. I love that place. It's so clean and the people are friendly and the natural beauty of the place is gorgeous!

We will be driving (Lord help us with the gas prices), and I do plan to knit for most of the trip. I'm so excited because my boyfriend has agreed to take me to a yarn store in Toronto and I do plan to purchase some soveniers.

Therefore, I wish everyone in the States a Happy 4th of July and I'll post when I get back.

I Love New York!

Came back from New York City last night. What a trip! I did everything that I could for the short 3 day trip. So much so that I am completly sleep-deprived, but in a good way. Most of the time was spent with family and friends. But I also got to do some very New York things like ride the subway, drive in rush hour traffic, and even go to a night club that played only dancehall, soca, and reggae music. I felt right at home with my Caribbean people, food, and culture.





As soon as I got off the plane, my mother, sisters, and I went to this fabulous Japaneese restaurant for lunch. Later on that day I went to see my grandmother, some cousins, and some aunts. The next day I went to see some more aunts and a very good friend of mine. Later on that night I went out to a club with my best friend. Can you tell that we had fun?



The next day I spent it with my very good friend all the way from Argentina. Guess where we went?







To the Empire State Building! I only mention this because just like her, this was my first time up there. Isn't that a shame? How many New Yorkers do you know that have never been on top of this building? I've traveled to Rio de Janeiro to visit O Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) statue and Machu Picchu in Peru but I've never been to the Empire State building until this past Monday. I'm sure there are people who live in Rio de Janeiro that have never stepped foot on Corcovado to see the Jesus Christ statue but have been to the Empire State building. I guess in the end, we never really appreciate what we have till we loose it.



I had a great time showing my friend the city. We haven't seen each other in 2 years and the only reason she was able to come up here is because she won $5000 pesos in this contests that a Spanish bank called Banco Santander was having in Argentina. I would have done the same thing. I mean how often does a person get that much money at one time? I'm just glad she came. We only spent a few hours together, but I enjoyed ever momemnt. Siempre estara en mi corazon. Es muy buena esa chica.

But alas, even though I love NYC, there are just certain things about it that I can't live with anymore. Like how dirty everything is. Or how expensive living there could be. So in the end, even though I don't see myself moving back to my hometown, New York will always be in my heart.

I did get some knitting done on the plane but sorry, no pictures today. I do have a great surprise to show you guys but that will be later. Right now I really need to rest up. Traveling can really drain you man.