Spring Is Here So Summer Is Not Too Far Behind!

Just love, love, love the sound of spring peepers as the sun starts to set!  Because that means it is warming up and going to stay that way for awhile!  Yay!  But that also means it is almost time for the WEBS annual tent sale in Massachusetts.  Double yay!

For any fiber lover or spinner, this is heaven on earth.  Our Graceland.  The Vatican of fiber. The Royal Family reunion.  You name it, this is it.  WEBS is a great online source for all things yummy. It may be all sticks and string but ooooooooooo do we love the string!  Cashmere, baby alpaca, merino wool, angora, kid mohair, silk, milk fiber, bamboo viscose; the list could go on and on and on...and on, and on, and on.  And what makes it great for me (Karen) this year is that I am finally going to be able to experience this breathtaking, choir of angels softly singing above me, sunbeams lighting the glorious path to "Ahh-Aaahhhh".

I encourage anyone who is a fiber addict, like my sister and I, have a fiber addict in their family, or if you just have a general morbid curiosity as to who all these odd crazy people are squeezing skeins of yarn like they are checking the ripeness of a tomato.  Trust me, one squeeze of some baby alpaca, you're gonna be running around knocking people over squeezing, touching, feeling, rubbing on your cheek (hopefully face), and emphatically sounding off the Campbell's "mm-mmm-good!" slogan over and over again.  You get hooked (crochet pun - haha) from the first time your gently glide your finger over a soft hazy pillow of superfine kid mohair.  It's like being wrapped up into a burrito made from big white puffy clouds lined with angel feathers.

If anything, come and watch the loonies get all starry eyed over something the size of lemon that costs more than a nice dinner for two.  But my thought is, who needs dinner?

2015 - The Year of the Stash Bust

If you're an avid crafter - of just about any type of craft - then, you'll know all about the STASH.  Your stash is all of your supplies - all the little (and big) things you've collected over time that aid you in your craft.

For those of us that love the fiber arts - your stash can often grow to be more than just your essential supplies.  To be fair, I only need a single pair of knitting needles, or a single hook to knit or crochet at will.  As long as there's some string around - I can make something.  But, I don't have just a single set of needles - or a single hook and a single ball of string.  Instead, I have lots and lots and lots of each.

Because I've got sooooo much fiber, in all those lovely colors and types and weights, it means that I'm utilizing quite a bit of space to store them.  As I can only work on one project at a time - that means that there's an awful lot of pretty string around here waiting it's turn to be transformed into something fabulous.

So, in an effort to get to each of those lovely colors and fibers in turn, I've made a resolution for the year of 2015:  I will not purchase a single skein of dyed yarn.  (it hurts a little bit to even type that...)

If I have a project that is just screaming to be made, and I don't have a color that is jumping for joy because IT gets to be that fabulous project - then I will just have to dye my own fiber to suit the project in question.  If that doesn't work, I'll have to move on to another project that's screaming for a turn - there are plenty. :)

This means that for the entire year of 2015, I will be working 90% of the time from yarn that I already have and maybe 10% of the time from yarn that I will dye on a project-specific basis.  There is only one exception to this rule of the 2015 Stash Bust - the WEBS Tent Sale.  For the Tent Sale, all bets are off.  I'm trying to be a good girl, but, let's not get ridiculous here.

In any event, it's now the 17th of January, 2015 and I haven't purchased a single, little tiny piece of beautifully colored string - not a single skein, hank or cake of yarn has been brought into the house by me.  (My lovely, amazing, completely ROCKING sister sent me some beautiful yarns and that is going to have to hold me over until the Tent Sale.  THANK YOU, KAREN!!!!)

We'll see if I can keep to this Resolution.  I'm at about a 50/50 split right now - half of me really wants to do this Stash Bust and the other half of me is ready to go surfing and see just what is on sale at Knit Picks right now...

Must, resist the pretty...

To Be Completely Honest...

It occurred to me last night that if my sister (Dori) and I (being Karen) are going to maintain a blog, that we should be truly honest right up front.  I speak for both of us by saying that we are true fiber addicts.  Like, we should go to a hardcore rehab facility.  I find myself, and I know my sister does too, checking what coupons are being featured at Michaels, JoAnn Fabrics, Hobby Lobby, & AC Moore every week.  Not to mention what online coupon codes for knitpicks.com, yarn.com, lionbrand.com and any other fiber pusher we can find.  This does not include our own LYS ('local yarn shop' in fiber slang).  Constant visits to the LYS are extremely dangerous as there are fellow hardcore addicts that not only appreciate and understand your addiction but encourage and facilitate it to whole new unhealthy levels.  I said two months ago that I would not spend anymore money on yarn for the remainder of the year.  That would be like telling a shark to stop swimming and eating...I was just setting myself up for extreme failure. Within a week, I had purchased just under $100 of yarn from WEBS (yarn.com), and I mean just under, by seven pennies, but that still means it wasn't $100!  I then turn into a criminal stalker.  Once that tracking number notification is sent, I am checking it countless times every day to make sure it is coming and get more impatient with every passing moment as to why my yarn has not yet arrived.  Don't they know I am withering away and dying slowly inside without my yarn?  I mean the 300 pounds or so laying around me (without exaggeration, I have taken three rooms in my house) bring me absolutely no solace.  Oh the inhumanity!  And then when the package does arrive, I get all giddy and tingly like a lil kid Christmas morning. Tah-dah!  Yarn!  Ooo...the sweet caress of yarn!  Gimmie!  Gimmie!  Gimmie!  Oh the thrilling high of fiber rolling through the fingers! I then text pictures of what I bought to my sister.  We discuss potential projects that these balls of string with a pair of sticks or a hook could create. Then it occurs to me that there was a skein of yarn I had hemmed and hawed on last week so maybe I should look at it again because although the projects we looked through won't work for what I just bought, it will for that skein that is now whispering in my ear "Buy me too!".  And the cycle begins again.     

You know, it just dawned on me that I have not bought any yarn for almost two weeks...maybe that's why I have been shaking.  And my stomach hurts.  And migraines.  And irritability.  And coughing.  And numbness in my hands and feet.  And trouble swallowing.  And lack of appetite.  I must go now.  I need a major fix.  

Okay....putting on my shoes and coat because I have got to go fiber frolicking so here is my choice item today from the shoppe.  Blue is my absolute favorite color and this ladder yarn is so vibrant! 

Love it!

Electric