Vareigated yarn is like burritos

So this past week I ended up knitting in groups every night this week. People at my internship thought I was crazy. Tuesday and Thursday at Adega's Wine Cellar in Silver Spring, and Wednesday and Friday at A Tangled Skein in Hyattsville. Friday night was my favorite. It was their one year anniversary and they have a lot to celebrate. Their store and staff are just charming and they seem to be doing well. The night included food and a 20% discount from 9pm to 12am (continuing through the weekend). We arrived at seven and were given bags for the stuff we wanted to hold on to until nine. I spent more than half an hour just feeling up yarns, after of course making a bee-line to the Denise Interchangable Sets. I nabbed a blue one. I then picked up a Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Multi, which I had been on my list to buy that night. I'll be making Breeze, some ankle socks from Knitty that only require 194 yards of sock yarn. Then a while later I ended up scrapping the Clapotis idea I had planned on and just shopping on impulse. I got some Trekking Handart for a lace scarf and a checkbook cover from 101 Designer One Skein Wonders, and Plymouth Sockotta for socks. I also discovered, behind the coat rack with 20 coats piled on top, heaven. It's by Araucania, a yarn brand that I had written off as "not for me" after the Nature Cotton disasters. I had this cotton by them that I had bought at Woolwinders in Rockville for a cable poncho, back when I was newer to knitting. It turned out unexciting about 2 feet in and I frogged it. I tried this yarn for several other projects and was also unexcited. Now I'm on the verge of finishing a log cabin bathmat from Mason Dixon Knitting with it, and I really like it. AAAAAnyway, the Araucania Ranco Multi that I bought that night at A Tangled Skein is just beautiful...beautiful. It reminds me of tye dye or batik. Seriously. I don't even want to knit it; I'm scared that it might be one of those yarns that looks better unknit. It's like they painted on the dye and then lightly wiped some off, like white washing. It almost looks heathered. It's dimensional. And my favorite part is that there are so many colors that go really well together, and it looks randomized, but the colors never seem to blend together and turn into brown. They just stay there. I'm looking at it now...within 2 inches there is a bit of green, blue, lilac, pink, and purple. And they all just stay there. It's like a Chipotle burrito. I took my brother's advice and had them mix it up before rolling it, and I could still taste each element separately in one bite. I got the new Baja Fresh burrito the other day (I swear no matter what I try there, I only end up really liking the chicken quesadilla and pico de gallo, which are awesome), which I think is trying to compete with the Chipotle burrito, and it just had this one taste, like everything is blended together to an overall taste and no ingredient stands out. And it was mostly beans. It's like brown. Whereas the Chipotle burrito is red and blue and yellow and green and purple and orange and as many colors as they have available in that assembly line. So this yarn is my Chicken Fajita Burrito from Chipotle with all my fixins, not the ho-hum new Nacho Burrito from Baja Fresh.

I hope that made sense.

So we really had fun that night. I ended up staying until midnight with making a sock with the new Noro Kureyon sock yarn and having great conversation. We were so tired and contemplated just dumping the walls of yarn onto the floor and using it as a giant, squishy, colorful mattress. I called the Malabrigo (which I really need to buy and knit with one of these days) as my pillow. But then we realized that the store's employees might be mad. Jennifer allegedly spent a good part of Tuesday tidying up the yarn before we dug through it like a dog in a trash can looking for a pizza slice crust on Friday. Sorry, Jen.

So this week I will most likely finish up at least the bottom edge of the Jeanie shawl, the bathmat, and at least one pair of the fingerless mitts I started while sorting my clean laundry (I was sitting right next to my knitting books and quickly lost interest in folding and sorting clothes. They are still just sitting there as I write this). I'll also work on my new swirly scarf in my Tuesday knitting group and my Noro socks on the metro. (I also got one set each of Brittany size 0, 1, and 2 sock DPN's [in above pic] that night. They are fab! So much lighter and shorter than my $1.99 Boye metal ones. Great for the purse.)

I will also frequently fondle and gaze at the Araucania yarn. Who needs a boyfriend when I have this? (Amy don't get worried I'm not serious)

Happy Knitting!

p.s. If a Baja Fresh employee is reading this, my apologies, I really do like your quesadillas and pico de gallo.