Randomness of the Week

Today's post is going to be full of random stuff, but it seemed silly to make several posts about a bunch of little things.

As a few of you found out due to my Ravelry page, last Wednesday was my birthday. I decided that I would buy myself something in honor of turning 31. I'd wanted to make an order to Knitpicks for awhile now, and what a better time!

Right away, I knew I wanted a ball winder after the mess I had after dyeing the Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool. I've also been buying yarn that comes into hanks rather than skeins. One of my LYSs will wind the yarn for you when you purchase it there, but I didn't want to have to rely on that. So, I noticed the Knitpicks ball winder is only $19.99, so I couldn't pass it up. I have yet to use it (as I got it yesterday), but I'm sure it is going to be a HUGE help!

Here is the yarn I also decided to purchase. I didn't want to get a lot, since this was my first time ordering and I'm always leery of not being able to see/feel the yarn.



1 ball of Blaze Heather Andean Treasure (It was on sale and I wanted to see what it felt like)
1 skein of Silver Sage Shine Sport (It was on sale and I wanted to see what it felt like)
3 hanks of Frog Prince Imagination (for socks for my husband. He actually picked out this yarn)
1 Natural Bare Superwash/Nylon Fingering (for dyeing)
1 Natural Bare Superwash Worsted (for dyeing)

Speaking of my birthday, despite my husband already getting me my present, my sewing machine, he said I needed a gift to open on the night of my birthday. I had no clue he was coming home with a gift, let alone Thai for dinner (YUM!) and a pumpkin cupcake! Here is what he bought me! He got the white cotton for me to dye!



My mother-in-law sent money to buy something for my birthday that I wanted. Of course, more yarn! Weirdly, I had yet to visit any of my LYSs in San Diego, so I thought it was as good a time as any. We headed to a great one I found out about through Ravelry, Two Sisters and Ewe. They had a great selection of yarns, most I hadn't seen before. It was so hard to decide what I wanted. I had $50 to spend, and knew I didn't want to go over that. Unfortunately, the yarn I loved a ton was a little over my price range, $20-30 a hank/ball/skein. They had an amazing selection of hand-dyed yarns I couldn't help but fondle. The ladies were very friends and they even put my hanks into balls for me. When I came into the shop, one of employees was even helping a customer with one of her knitting projects! I thought that was awesome.



Here's the yarn I bought:

Berocco Vintage in (the green was in the 25% off bin!)
Knit One, Crochet Two Ty-Dy Sock yarn (Also in the 25% off bin. I couldn't pass it up because it would normally be too much money for me)
Kraemer finger weight (for dyeing)

We then headed to another LYS not too far from the first (these are both about 15-17 miles from my house), Needleworks. The weirdest thing about this shop was the culture shock. It's next to a Hooters restaurant and it was Sunday, so the outside and parking lot was full of smoking and drinking football fans. Totally weird to then walk into a crochet shop. They had a group knitting, but their yarn selection wasn't too big. They also sell stuff for needlepoint, so the store was divided. I did get a skein of Berocco Sock yarn, which I had yet to see in the stores.


I recently received Amazon gift certificates from credit card bonus rewards (don't you love those?) and wanted to get a few craft books along with a graphic novel and a novel. Here is what I ended up getting on the craft side of things.



I showed you my first small skein of hand-dyed yarn, but haven't shared my second batch. I've been waiting to share my second when we have some better light. It's been raining here and just totally gloomy. I used Kool-aid for this skein and then over-dyed with teal Wilton's Icing Dye.