People told me, upon hearing my new address, that I’d be “dangerously close to [my favorite LYS].” They weren’t kidding. I knew they weren’t kidding at the time, but I can’t say I’d anticipated this much fiber lust when Sam and I chose this block and this apartment as our home.
Just last week, I found myself in need of a tape measure. I had one, once, but somewhere between moving to San Francisco and traveling to Argentina and a number of trips back and forth across the bay for work and social events and so on, it seems to have been sadly misplaced. This being, as it was, terribly inconvenient for progressing on two of my current projects (both of which I am at a point where the instructions suggest that I knit until the garment is 11″ or 21.5″ long) and a third project being on hold due to the fact that I simply don’t have enough stitch markers to continue with it (yet), meant the situation needed to be remedied and quickly. In theory, this was simple… I live a mere two and a half blocks from my favorite LYS, they are sure to have at least one variety of tape measure… I’ll just stop in for a moment on my way to work and pick one up.
Famous last words.
I learned that day that it is pure folly to believe I can walk into a store that consists of two rooms stacked floor to ceiling with beautiful yarns and not wander away with a new love. The love of this particular visit was a beautiful skein of HandMaiden Sea Silk, a light fingering weight silk and seacell blend in a soft but saturated summery colourway. Having pet this yarn (in other colourways) many times, I knew I loved the texture. Fortunately, I’d never been terribly enamoured of any particular colourway I’d seen, so it had always been easy to leave sitting in its basket. That day was different… the yarn called to me and begged me to take it home; I found I couldn’t refuse it. Sadly, when I got home, I spent some time doing research on Ravelry for what sort of thing this yarn might like to be (something soft and lacy, obviously, but what beyond that?) My one-skein wonder books weren’t providing me with anything truly satisfying to do with 440 yards of fingering weight yarn. Something this beautiful doesn’t deserve to be another pair of socks. Even a very pretty pair of socks. This meant another trip to the yarn store and, upon discovering a second hank in the same colourway (the last one in stock, I was told as I brought my purchase to the register) cemented my plan to make a beautiful summery shawl. Right now, I’m thinking the Diamond Fantasy Shawl looks like a good way to go. It will be my first time knitting lace, but I’m looking forward to the challenge. And many many yards of beautiful, soft yarn passing through my hands.
In other news, the pretty purple ruffled legwarmers that have been my “public transit” … and party… and theatre intermissions… etc… project of late are coming along nicely. 
I’ve finished the bodies of both legwarmers… all that remains to be done is the top ruffle, which I’m planning to knit in the deep plum silk/mohair blend that I’ve been knitting jointly with the Panda Silk in the main bodies of the project. I want them to have a light, airy feel at the top… I think a ruffle in the bamboo yarn I’ve been using would be too heavy for the soft feel I want the finished garment to have.
I’m promising myself that I will actually finish this project before I pick up the popsicle lace shawl… or some other small project to work on while I make my twice-daily trip across the bridge. Maybe I’ll finally get brave enough to get over my completely strange and irrational fear of knitting socks and try a pair… maybe something for Sam, since he is endlessly supportive and indulgent when it comes to my knitting habit.
