Full st*sh report

So here I am, almost fully recovered from the jetlag, still with a black eye which is now also quite yellow (mmm, nice!) and here's the full stash enhancement report I promised you!

Firstly, my evening out with Laura and Shmoo was a real delight! I was in Baltimore for several days, and we arranged to meet up one evening to put a face to the blogs and the socks and the ongoing correspondence.

Laura first drove us out to A Good Yarn (possibly the world's smallest yarn store, but perfectly formed and very friendly!) for some quick stash enhancement, where I picked up some lovely Luna 100% cotton from Cascade Yarns. I have no idea what I'm going to make with this, but I thought the colours were wonderful and I will probably use them all together for a bag of some sort, or a cushion cover or something. Or I might just fondle them, they do have a lovely tactile quality!

To add to this, I received a wonderful bag of goodies from Laura. She is a fantastic spinner, as evidenced by these two skeins of yarny ruby-red goodness.

I will use this as something to aim for with my next spinning project, which will be this edible hank of promise that also came from Laura via Sakina Needles; it makes me think of butternut squash, autumn leaves, and green moss. Mmmmm!

Not only is Laura an accomplished spinner, she is a dyer too! Look at this perky sock yarn colourway that she slipped in too! It's a wonderfully soft yarn - merino I think - and is going to make some fantastic socks. Along with this were two bars of homemade soap, natch!

Quite apart from spoiling me with all this yarn, and soap too, we had a very enjoyable night out in a pleasant bar/restaurant type place near the yarn shop, where much gossip and guffawing took place.

As if this wasn't sufficient in terms of stash enhancement, I couldn't resist a trip to Knit One when I was in Pittsburgh the following week. In my defence, let me say that I did write a short list of what I was allowed to buy there before I went. It included sock yarn, Lantern Moon Sox Stix (or similar) and yarn for scarves or hats.

And I more or less stuck to it - even 'saving' myself money because they didn't have the Sox Stix that I wanted!

May I present (from left to right): Blue Sky Alpaca sportweight 100% baby alpaca (I plan to make a grey hat with a Scandinavian pattern around it in the green contrast colour); Noro Kureyon sock yarn (expensive yes, but I just had to have some, and am intrigued to see how it will stripe); Misti Alpaca (oh! the colours, the feel of this yarn make me drift off into some kind of pervy yarn revelry!).

So that's it, I am now officially BANNED from buying yarn for the foreseeable. And must knit my fingers off to work that stash down to a reasonable level ready for the I Knit yarn show in September. Gotta dash, got work to do....!