Knitmas stash (photo happy)

And there it is, in all it's glory (cue singing angels). This is all the yarn and yarn relatedness that I brought back with me to PG that I did not have before. Not all of it is presents- I went a little mad at some yarn stores but when a wall of fleece artist stares back out at you how can you not? I should also acknowledge my dear friend Kayla who drove me to the Urban Yarns in Vancouver and, well, Adrienne too because she did offer to help me take the bus there so the thought counts. In the same breathe, my sister Julia did walk seven blocks and back with me to another horrid yarn store that was CLOSED!!! so she gets many a kudo for that too. She gave me the yellow cozy pet bag you can see above, along with Jason, for my birthday. I will carry knitting projects as well as the occasional textbook to school in that. For some reason my picture of the bag didn't turn out but the above photo does some justice to the cuteness of my dear cozy pet bag. Spike and Chuck were so tired from helping me clean my room all day they fell asleep ontop of my sock pile.
This is my Rio De La Plata, which is hand-spun kettle dyed (I have no idea what that means) 100% pure new wool from Uruguay 'faded gold fushio' aka... yellow. I bought this in a 'holy crap is there yarn in there?' moment walking on fourth in Vancouver with Kayla and Adrienne. The store had mostly noveltly yarn but some really, really, really fun novelty yarn and some others, like Noro and Colinette. I'm planning some fingerless complex cable gloves with this. It's very soft.
Here's a good shot of my swing needles (eeeheeeehee) from the River John Needle Company. They are made out of birch. I don't really know what the point of swing needles is, I mean, I've never had a moment where I'm knitting with straight needles and thought 'my life would be easier if these with dpns RIGHT NOW' but maybe I'm missing something important here. Behind my expensive frivolous needles are my darling mission falls 1825 wool100% merino superwash. Those are going to be a baby blanket for Jim and Jenn even though Jenn is not pregnant. My hints are carefully planned and sneaky. Very very sneaky. On this moniter, the colours of the yarn are represented truely and they work well together. I'm think a celtic knot patchwork with smaller patches going around the edge with an i-cord cable that changes colour. Did that make any sense? I've got a diagram started on paint for it so when I'm done I'll blog that so it makes some sense. I bought this yarn in Vernon. The needles are from Urban yarn (link above).
This yarn I bought from Urban Yarns as well and is called Be Sweet Magic Ball and is baby mohair with ribbon and everything. The yarn changes are part of the purchase and I just could not resist (despite the outrageous price). I had already started knitting this up on massive needles and is the shawl-now-scarf aka. first finished project of 2007 I was talking about earlier. The yarn is spun and dyed by women in South Africa in a program set up to help them earn income so that really helped me justify buying it. I would recommend it. I know I will buy more next time I'm in Vancouver (it's a really good thing I don't live there).
This is the first of the Fleece Artist mohair I bought, this one in Vernon. The picture only does it partial justice. The hues and shades and colours in this are all just bloody awesome. I want to knit a shawl out of it with points like a dragon wing. Why? Cause I'm a nerd who knits. That's why.
Oh sock yarn, how do I love thee? This picture sucks, you have no idea how brillant the pink is and how shocking the blue is. I love them. Lorna laces in crazy stripes. I'm going to knit these socks toe up to get the most out of each skein. Le sigh.

These skeins are from my parents for my birthday. They are 100% wool hand spun and dyed in the Okanagan. I have no idea what to do with them, besides pet them and ogle, but there's quite a bit so I'm almost thinking vest or a bag. I love that these are local, and the colours are wonderful. Nothing goes wrong with black but black with a moss forest green? It does make the heart grow fonder. Of yarn. Seriously, how do people not knit?
And behold-copious amounts of mohair from Fleece Artist, enough to knit this cardigan (pattern comes with) for such a reasonable price I nearly collasped on the floor. I actually went and checked with the yarn lady because I wanted to make sure that it was actually real and happening to me.
And me knitting books. Starting with the top left and working kinda clockwise we have the book of sweater patterns. Love a knitter? Buy them this book. It was a present from my parents for my birthday as well as the pattern a day calender below it (so not clockwise at all). I went through the calendar and sorted the patterns by pattern category, not date. It has some excellent sock patterns in there and just hordes of patterns altogether. I had such a fun time organizing them. Next to the calendar we have At Knit's End by the Yarn Harlot, a gift from my dear friend Adrienne who evidently understands me quite well. This book is hilarious, even if you don't knit (or so non-knitter have told me). You can also see my Stitchionary from Julia and Jason which compliments my book of sweater patterns so well you'd think it was planned. I love this book, I need more now. And then you have my Spiderman stationary from Jim and Jenn because in these pages I will write even more about knitting and mail these letters to my friends all across the world. And this blog entry took a really long time to put together and I am soooo sleepy so I am going to bed now. Kisses!
*grammatical errors will be dealt with at a later date so keep your tsks to yourself
*I never said I wasn't spoiled
*and I just realized I should have included the hand knit massive beautiful hand dyed blue shawl my Mother knit me for Xmas. Boooootiful. There will be photos of that too.