So me and the girls went to Lexington on Saturday for a yarn crawl. Loads of fun!

After our first aborted attempt to go to Rebelle a few weeks ago we were determined to let nothing stand in our way this time. I made sure that the Keeneland fall meet had ended. Thanks to a brainwave from Jessie we realized that UK had a game Saturday. We worked around it with a minimum of stress.

The first store we hit was Magpie. We figured we wouldn't be there as long as Rebelle so it worked out better to go there first because of the game end time.
I wasn't that happy with the store. It is a good yarn store, but not for me. She is definately trying to cover the market that is not being covered by ReBelle.
The main thing I didn't like about the store was the organization of the yarn. Everything was done by color and weight. It is really pretty and seems like a good idea but its really not. There was a lot of this by the three of us- "ooo this is pretty, I wonder if she has it in another color." Which led to a giant search to find all the colors. Stoopid. It reminded me of something in one of my favorite books, Scarlett. She is at her cousin's store and he has his gloves sorted by size, not color. Instead of all the black gloves being together, all the large gloves are together. Its hard to find two black gloves the same size in a bin of black gloves, but easy to find two black ones in a bin of larges. And she needed more shelves... we about tore the place apart pulling out our yarn.
I found some Louisa Harding Grace Hand dyed that I liked. It was 50 wool 50 silk like the Handmaiden I used for the Moebius scarf I made before. This yarn is also destined for a moebius scarf. I wanted something multicolored, but I settled for a kettle dyed looking blue.

Rebelle I kinda want to move into. They have tons of Cascade, which was the other item on my shopping list- for a February Lady Sweater. I saw a periwinkle that I just loved but I have already made two blue sweaters. So, after careful deliberation and holding of yarn up to my face we decided I should get green. Its lighter than the original green of the one on the pattern, but its also a different yarn... Its on the lighter side but not too light, but not emerald either. With Jessie to help with math skills I got all 7 balls they had.

I also found some Malabrigo 50 wool 50 silk, which was multi colored. It really pissed me off because it was just what I wanted for my Moebius but I had already bought the stuff at Magpie. Stupid Magpie!
But! Brilliant Jessie reminded me that Christmas is coming and I could make a present out of the Magpie yarn. Sooper. So I got the Malabrigo too. I cast on right away for the Christmas present scarf. I think this scarf and the other present I knit are the only ones I am going to make this year. I'm still on the fence about whether I'm going to make another Giant Doily for the Yankee Swap at Christmas.

I also got another magnet to match my sheep magnet at work. They are part of a set, the kinds of fibers to knit with. I've been kicking myself that I didn't get the bamboo one since last year. But I keep forgetting to bring it to work. I just love magnets. But really just the little ones that are supposed to be pins but have a magnet glued on the back instead of the pin part, or the glass dome kind. Not the ones that look like pineapples or tiny blenders.

I borrowed Holly's Magical Moebius book before to figure out how many stitches to cast on for the last moebius I made. I had a Tivo-ed episode of Knitty Gritty to teach me the cast-on, and the pattern I was going to us already in my head. I just needed to know if there was a trick about how many to cast on. I photocopied that section and gave the book back. So I went looking for it on Sunday so I could cast on. Ended up organizing all my patterns- put everything in clear pockets in a binder. But I couldn't find the sheet with the information I was looking for. I seemed to remember her talking about using a tape measure to find out the length you want, and using your stitches per inch to determine length. Which is standard practice... but I thought I recalled something about doubling your stitches to cast on, because of the wacky moebius shape. So I did all the maths and cast on and knit a row. Then I pulled all of them off with waste yarn- too big! So I scaled down a bit and tried again- still too big. Finally I talked to Holly on Monday and asked her to look at the book and tell me how many to cast-on. The book says nothing about doubling it! Just cast on the regular amount. The I realized that when she was talking about doubling it, she was refering to how when you cast on, you are casting on double because of the stitches on the top of the needle and the ones on the cord below- you only count the ones on the top. So now I'm a few rows in to it and I think I'm going to be happy with the length. The last scarf I made just about killed me, you have to stop and switch sides after just a few stitches. I kept wanting to just stop even though I knew I wouldn't be happy with the length. A moebius is different- by the time you get done with a row, its actually has two rows worth of width added- thanks to the power of the moebius. It does make it tricky when it comes to deciding if you have enough for another row before you cast off.

Seen this week-

Batesville Casket Company-
on the back of one of their semis
"Heaven Can Wait- please drive safe"

Seen last week in window of fancy condo downtown- all red Christmas tree- maybe election tree? Big RNC supporters?