After being really, really good about not buying yarn, (not counting the skein I had to get for The Book) I broke down. It's hardly my fault. I was invited to go to Oakland for a knit event and we hit up some yarn shops. First up was Article Pract. I really like this shop. There was a good color selection in each brand. And there were a fair number of brands represented too.
I finally won the right to call myself a yarn enabler after getting Carol (on the right) to buy yarn. She was resisting pretty well, but I got her to buy a book and a bunch of skeins of Pigeonroof Studios. Krista also fell victim to Pigeonroof as you can see below. I resisted, but I'm still thinking about those skeins in the colorway "Greenstone." If only it looked better with my skin tone.
I bought the new Knitscene, Norah Gaughan #7, a skein of Koigu KPM in Prince, Tosh sock in Edison Bulb, and Curious Creek Fibers Wasonga in Emerald City. Now comes everyone's favorite part, the rationalization for each purchase. I bought the magazine because it's my kryptonite. I ought to just get a subscription. The book I bought because it's pretty and has great photography examples. (I also got Krista and Carol to buy a copy. Does that make me a book enabler as well?) I tried to resist the Koigu, but I've never used it before. The electric purple is pretty neat, but I couldn't leave it behind once I saw that it was named "Prince." I've been lusting after Tosh's Edison Bulb for awhile. Don't know why. But it looked like a good match for the Koigu. I think I'll make myself another pair of Velomeisters with the Koigu and Tosh. The skein in Emerald City is for a project my Mum requested right before I left for the shop. I might have been able to resist everything if I hadn't been looking for skein for that project. (Who am I kidding. I might have bought more if there wasn't a project to match yarn to.)
And now I reveal the true purpose of our trip. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee aka the Yarn Harlot was giving a talk at A Verb For Keeping Warm entitled "This Is Your Brain On Knitting."
In the picture you can see that I'm not really smiling. I'm actually really happy to be there, but I stopped smiling at the exact moment Krista took the picture. Just imagine that I have a huge grin on my face, because I totally did before and after the picture was taken. Do you see the sock Stephanie is holding? It's mine. And it's a copy of the any gauge ribbed sock pattern I'm working on. I really appreciated how Stephanie took her time talking to each knitter even though there was a huge line. Plus she liked my sweater, so there is that. (The pattern is another one that I'm working on. It needs to be graded still.)
She signed a copy of her book for me too.
Thanks to Carol and Krista for the wonderful day. And to Stephanie for such an entertaining talk. I learned a bunch about how my brain works and am even more motivated to continue knitting. It really does keep you calm. If you ever see that Stephanie is giving the "This Is Your Brain On Knitting" talk near you, go to it. It is thoroughly entertaining and enlightening.
