Playing catch up...

My lack of blogging lately has left various pictures languishing. Every picture has a story to tell, right? Far be it from me to keep the stories silent!

First, the story of some luxurious yarn...

I don't seek out luxury yarn too often or, well, ever really. I don't tend to knit really luxurious things, and I also don't have the pocketbook to fund such luxury purchases on a regular basis. However, I stopped in at a new LYS a couple weeks ago, Knit One North, and a bin of these lovelies greeted me right inside the door. Artyarn Ensemble, a double-stranded cashmere/silk yarn. Oh...I could have just stood there and petted this yarn all day. So soft, so lovely. I couldn't leave without buying one. It's not enough for a shawl, but I should be able to get a nice scarf out of it, being close to 275 yards. And I can only imagine how yummy it will feel wrapped around my neck. :)

ETA I see that there is a luxury yarn version of the One-Skein Wonders books coming out next month. What good timing! I love the one-skein books! :)

Second, the story of books. Not story books, really, though each has its own entertainment value in what I can do with them. I seem to be on a Shannon Okey binge...

I've been doing a lot of non-wool knitting lately, so the alt fiber book really intrigues me. I love the diversity of fibers that are out today, and as much as I am looking forward to getting back to some winter-worthy wool knitting, I'm not sure I'll completely abandon my cotton, bamboo and other "alt" fiber knitting completely. How to Knit in the Woods...honestly? I bought this book for the pictures. LOL I love the picture on the front cover. I love the idea of sitting by the camp fire and knitting (though my experience with doing so earlier this summer made me aware of the inherent danger of sitting too close to the fire when doing so...drop a ball of yarn, and it could be disastrous!). The pictures inside are fun, too. And then there are the patterns...an enjoyable collection, to be sure!

Lastly, there is the story of obsession...

Wollmeise. I've read tales of this legendary yarn for a while now. I've read excited message board posts of lucky knitters managing to score a skein or two, while so many others are left out of the fun time after time. Some of it can get kind of nasty sometimes, actually. Crazy! The Loopy Ewe is, as far as I can tell, the primary pusher supplier of this yarn here in the states. It's demand is so great that it is not even included in the sneak-up e-mails Sheri sends out. It just goes up, and if you're lucky enough to find it, then yeay! 

Sheri tried to make things more equitable for people last go-round by dividing the latest Wollmeise load into three different sneak-ups last week. I admit that with all the hoopla over Wollmeise, I wanted to find out what all of the excitement was about. I mean...it's yarn. Pretty yarn, to be sure, and larger than usual skeins for sock yarn, but still...it's yarn. So, I spent more time than I should have stalking TLE and amazingly, I hit two of the three sneak-ups. I only managed to grab one skein the first time, as I found they fly out of your shopping cart without notice as others check out before you can. So, when I hit the third sneak-up, I started randomly throwing skeins in my cart and checked out, managing to get five. 

(Now, refer back to my comment above about the affordability of luxury yarn. Yeah. Same goes for the affordability of multiple skeins of somewhat pricey sock yarn. Oh geez.)

What was funny was that four of the five skeins I grabbed were nearly the same darned color! They were actually different colorways, but they were all in the red family. And yes, they were all pretty. But I opted to share the wealth (and defray the cost of my impulse purchase!), so I sold off three of the six skeins to three other Wollmeise "virgins." So, of the six pictured above, I kept the three on the right, and the other three on their way to other happy homes.

Oh, and about the obsession? I'm still not sure I understand it. Again, yes, beautiful colors they are. And I haven't knitted any of it up yet, but I'm still feeling like it is just yarn. There is other pretty yarn out there, and there will be other pretty yarns to come. What makes one brand suddenly so in demand? It's just kind of crazy.