Next weekend I will be returning to my native land of Michigan.* London and Flint are about two hours away from each other, but getting home is always a complicated process. Unless someone comes to pick me up, I can either take the train to Sarnia, and have someone pick me up there, or I can take the bus to Flint. Now at first glance one would think, "Why, take the bus, of course!"

BUT! A Greyhound bus trip from London to Flint takes EIGHT HOURS, because the bus does not drive directly to Flint. The bus drives to Windsor, then leaves you in Detroit for three hours, and then another bus drives you to Flint! Utter silliness, in my opinion, but probably better for the bus line, money wise.

Anyway. It's more expensive to take the bus so I usually take the train, but I can't leave until next Saturday and there are only afternoon and evening trains on Saturday. TO SARNIA. What was I forgetting?

WINDSOR.

If I take the train to Windsor, I can get home a few hours earlier. And if I take the train to Windsor, whoever picks me up will have to drive through Detroit. And if we drive through Detroit, we can go to a yarn shop!

So, hopefully my mom picks me up, because she would probably humor me. She can knit too, actually. Sometimes I forget. It's not a regular hobby of hers (otherwise I wouldn't forget about it), but I believe I remember her telling me that she learned to knit and crochet in an after school class when she was in elementary or middle school.


Ahaha, as I was writing this my mom just called, and the "yarn shop expedition" (her words) is a go! Yay!



*Right. I was actually born in St. Catharines, Ontario, so if you get really technical about it, Michigan is not my native land. However, I grew up in Michigan and it is much more familiar than this silly Ontario place.

So I went to the yarn shop.

...


WHY DIDN'T ANYBODY WARN ME THAT FIFTY DOLLAR SKEINS OF YARN EXIST?


*deep breaths*


It was beautiful. But so expensive.

I really shouldn't have been so surprised. There's a high end and a low end to everything, right? The clothing store I work at sells twelve dollar pairs of sunglasses and the Sunglass Hut (or whatever it's called) by the food court sells one thousand dollar pairs of sunglasses. The shock was maybe more related to the sudden realization that I have developed a potentially very expensive habit that can only receive dubious, sporadic support from my bank account.

I did buy something. Three somethings, actually. One skein of Debbie Bliss pure silk in a very exciting pink colour (it doesn't have a name, just a number, and I don't feel like looking it up online), one ball of Jo Sharp kid mohair (it was fifty percent off, and actually it might have been Rowan, I don't remember now and it doesn't have a ball band), and one secret skein for my one skein secret pal, which I won't specifiy in case she stumbles unwittingly across my blog.

The yarn shop is not going to be a place I visit often. I just don't need to be tempting myself that way.

Friday I packed, Saturday I moved, Sunday and Monday I tried to recover...so not much knitting has been going on in my little world. Besides the whole moving thing, I have misplaced the piece of paper on which I was keeping track of my ribbing rows for the Sesame cardigan, and am now afraid to keep working on it. This has me really bummed out, because I was really enjoying working on it despite it being mostly stockinette stitch (at least it's not stockinette in the round). I half-heartedly started another Weasley square, and I pulled out the ribbon x-back (which I cast on for a few weeks ago and have since done nothing), but could not bring myself to deal with the ribbon yarn, so it is currently languishing on my desk.

So yes! A post about no progress whatsoever! They'll be calling for a book deal any day now.

I woke up at quarter to eight this morning, a feat I am incapable of during the school year, and have spent the last two hours or so reading Eunny Jang's knitting blog. If I find a blog I really, really like, I will go back to the very beginning and read the whole thing chronologically. Is that weird? Actually, I think it's weirder I don't do that with all the blogs I read. I refuse to read book series out of order, and I listen to all the back episodes every time I find a new podcast. This has nothing to do with knitting. MUST...STAY...ON...TOPIC! ugh.

Today I'm going to the yarn shop downtown to see if I can find some yarn for my One Skein secret pal. I'm kind of nervous about it. What if the staff looks at me and just KNOWS I usually buy yarn at Michael's? *shudder*

This has nothing to do with knitting, but I really like noodles.

My absolute favourite thing in the world is being woken up by construction in the apartment next door!

er...

Monday I had to go to Cambridge to help train people at a clearance center run by the company I work for. Cambridge is about an hour away from London, and since I and the other people going were travelling for work, we were paid for the time it took to drive there and back. Now I, of course, knit the whole trip, so you know what that means right? RIGHT? I got paid to knit!

I'll be a professional knitter yet.

I've had two people from work, after me telling them that I am knitting a sweater (cardigan, whatever), ask, "Is it for you?" And I feel guilty for saying yes, as if for some reason I'm not supposed to knit for myself. It seems like a strange question to ask. When someone walks into a clothing store you assume they're shopping for themselves, right? So why would making a piece of clothing be different? And it's not like there are any major gift-giving holidays coming up (ok maybe Father's Day, but my family's never done major gift-giving on Father's Day). Who'd want my first sweater anyway? The sleeves might not be the same length.

Today is my one day off before I move, and I will be spending most of it packing. But right now I'm going to knit. Actually, most mornings I start knitting right after I get up. I could write a book. Confessions of a Grumpy Morning Knitter.

hmm...

I just finished the back of the Sesame cardigan, hurrah. I'll probably cast on for the right front right after I post this, so I can start working on it on the way to work.

I signed up for the One Skein Secret Pal exchange, so I suppose I'll post the questionnaire here...

1. Which yarn is most like your personality (you can be specific or general with your answer- brand, type, color, fiber, whatever)?
Er...well...(stuck on the first question...) I suppose being a quiet, creative person, understated yarns would be most like my personality. Now, what's an understated yarn? You decide! *snicker*

2. What is your favorite color yarn to knit/crochet with? I like very soft pinks and any sort of green, except neon. I don't really like neon anything.

3. Have you ever used variegated, or magic, yarns? I've used variegated yarns but never the self-striping ones. They certainly seem interesting, though.

4. Do you tend to favor certain fibers when choosing yarns? No. I'm a university student on a budget so I only buy yarn sporadically, and I can't buy anything expensive. If I weren't on a budget I'd probably be open to anything, since I haven't knit enough to really have an informed opinion on any one fiber in particular.

5. Do you prefer to work with center-pull or traditionally wound balls of yarn? Either.

6. Have you ever worked with organic yarns or are you interested in trying them? No, I haven't worked with them, and yes, I'd be interested in trying them, just for kicks.

7. How many and what projects have you made in the last year? I've only been knitting since December, so not much. I finished knitting a Harry Potter scarf but I haven't blocked it or added the fringe on yet. I have an afghan comprised of 7" garter-stitch squares and the Sesame cardigan from MagKnits in progress.

8. Will you be knitting any gifts this year? It is a distinct possibility.

9. What is your favorite one skein project? Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to look at the book yet.

10. How much yarn do you have in your stash and how do you store it? Not a lot. I have a plastic storage cube (about 18" square) that holds all of it.

11. Do you have a yarn in your stash that you love so much you can never use it or part with it? No, although I do have yarn I'm not sure what to do with.

12. Do you knit less or differently in the summer? No.

13. Do you belong to any knitting groups (online or offline)? Online, the Sexy Knitters Club and Knit the Classics, although I'm mostly just a lurker.

I was almost late for work because I spent all morning laughing hysterically at this.

Yesterday, for the first time in my life, I KNIT IN PUBLIC.

On the bus.

Boy did I feel daring.

I did it again today.

*shiver*

I borrowed my roommate's camera...

In a couple weeks I'm moving to a new apartment, so I thought I'd start packing up some clothes I know I'm not going to wear any time soon. I pulled out the bottom left drawer of my dresser and found these:





Who knows how long they've been there, forlorn and forgotten! Oh evil Sassy, bringing about involuntary diaspora!

Um...actually, as of typing this, I still haven't pulled them out from under the dresser. Rather, my first thought was "Argh! Cat!" followed by "Hey, I should take a picture of this."

Then I went crazy and took pictures of other things too, like this scarf I started a while back and work on occasionally:




The yarn is from the frogged blanket.

The beginnings of Sesame, from Marji's yarn:



Squares for Ron's blanket (which I shall henceforth refer to as "Weasley squares"):



The Harry Potter scarf, obligingly modeled by my lamp:



Half of the back of this sweater...



...but I'm going to have to frog it because I messed up a repeat or something. Yuck. The yarn was, in its former life, a Gap sweater. Bet it feels silly now! I would...

Some ribbon yarn that was on sale at Michael's, for this tank, maybe:



The frustrating mystery ribbon yarn:



And the pink mystery yarn:

I've been feeling kind of down the past week or so, and can't think of anything particularly witty to say about knitting. I have been knitting, though. I now have eleven squares for Ron's blanket, and I just finished knitting a swatch for the Sesame cardigan, from MagKnits.

I put all the little balls of yarn for Ron's blanket in a mesh laundry bag, and Sassy sat looking at it disconsolately for quite a while.

Last week I was at Zeller's before work, poking around the yarn section for any yarn that looked like it might go well in Ron's blanket, when I stumbled upon a giant basket of bagged yarn marked "1 lb bags factory ends unknown fiber- $4.97." Mystery yarn! I bought a bag of some lilac ribbon yarn and some sort of pink yarn (acrylic, but it feels nice, and for five dollars...). I might make another Sesame out of the pink, but I'm not sure what I'm doing with the ribbon yarn yet. I tried knitting some lace with it today, which was actually looking neat, but the yarn kept getting twisted, and being in a bad mood, it was frustrating me to the point of tears. I put on a Harry Potter audio book and spent a couple hours winding the yarn around a piece of cardboard. I should probably be able to do something with it now.

There was some highly sketchy looking yarn in that mystery yarn bin, though. I might go back tomorrow, since I'll be at the mall for work, and see if there's anything else that wants me to take it home.

This is how stashing starts, isn't it?

I've looked up a couple of yarn shops in London, so once I buy a bus pass I'm going to go, just because I've never been to a real yarn shop. I think, as long as I keep myself busy, things'll be alright. At least school is over.