Mary's Excellent Adventure - Part 4: The Spoils

"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered.
An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered."
- G.K. Chesterton

This is the final chapter of my excellent adventure, where I share "long-awaited" (ha!) pictures of my MS&W 2007 loot, for those who might be interested.

Without further ado, here we go:

MS&W merchandise
(like I need another t-shirt or tote bag)
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Typewriter key earrings -- my initials
(next year I'll buy a "K" - for my middle initial and nickname)
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yarn, needles and patterns
(as usual - a predominance of blue-green yarns)
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More details on the yarns:

70/30% Merino/Angora handspun
from Jamie Harmon, Jericho, VT
incredibly soft, blooms gorgeously when knit
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Ellyn Cooper's Yarn Sonnets
"Homespun" -- 50/50% Wool/Silk
&
"Fantasia" -- 75/25% Cotton/Nylon
both in her new "Aquatide" colorway
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Also purchased at Ellyn Cooper's booth:

cute Umahlinda U.S. size 10 straight knitting needles
(I hardly knit with straights anymore, so these will be for decor)
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[Edited to add: they also sell gorgeous buttons at the Ellyn Cooper booth. Last year I bought some, and didn't even work my way inside the booth to look at her yarns, silly me.]

Malabrigo aquarella in Solis (09)
purchased from Uncommon Threads' booth
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4-ply (DK weight) 100% cashmere in baby colors
purchased from:

I'm seriously considering joining their Square of the Month club:

to ultimately make one of these:

Great American Aran Afghans
in 4-, 8- and 12-ply cashmere
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They have no website, apparently, so if interested in their club, email them at huntvalleycashmere@yahoo.com.

The two patterns I purchased are Vermont Fiber Designs Cable & Garter Stitch Turtleneck from The Mannings' booth, and a cabled scarf and fingerless mitts pattern called "Creme Freche", from Uncommon Threads. That pattern calls for Snuggle, (an alpaca/wool/acrylic blend), but I've got some Misti Alpaca chunky in the stash that I think will substitute nicely.

And that is all!

As I walked around the fairgrounds this weekend, I had plenty of time to contemplate my yarn-buying habits versus what I actually end up knitting. As you can plainly see, I continue to be drawn to yarns in blue-green colorways, because I love those colors the absolute most. And yet I rarely seem to finish or even start projects for myself, before the ever-present Knitting Projects For Others, whether they be family or charity, jump to the front of the queue. And so, all the pretty yarns I buy for myself end up marinating in the stash. And that's perfectly fine, for now.

There are 25 people in my family -- including my parents, my siblings, their spouses, and a dozen nieces and nephews. I want to knit everyone at least one thing, so that no one feels slighted, and then after that, I'm promising myself that 2008 will be all about me. All. About. Me. Socks for me, a sweater for me, mitts for me, and perhaps finishing the dozen other UFOs I've already started for me.

There is, however, a plus-side to the knitting-for-others. I tend to pick small items and worsted or heavier yarns for those projects, and so they're finished relatively quickly and this slow knitter gets a fairly instantaneous feeling of accomplishment. Apparently, there's a good deal of product knitter within my process-knitting heart.

I've been a knitter for 20 months now, so I still consider myself new at this hobby. I'm evolving, my tastes are changing, my skills are (hopefully) improving, and I hope my knitting journey will continue for my entire (hopefully long) life.

So, I'm not going to fret (at least for now) about the contradiction between the stash I own (and love) versus the projects that are actually getting knit right now.

I do wish I had a yarn room, though, where I could easily view and be inspired by all the pretty skeins. Definitely in my next house....

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Finally, I just had to report that I think these guys are going to fledge sometime this week:

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