What a Relief!

Whew! What a relief! From the dialogue that ensued here and on the Lace Knitting list after my last blog entry the consensus is I'm not a yarn snob after all. I am, it appears, what one would call a yarn afficionado--one who appreciates fine quality yarns, a connoisseur. Yeah, that would be me. I appreciate the finer things even though I may not have them. I cannot afford to buy the super expensive wonderful yarns that are out there unless there is a bargain source like ColourMart or I opt for only one or maybe two skeins for a small project. Anyway, I'm so glad my knitty pals helped me get my terminology straight--I wonder if they want to volunteer to do like wise for the big D???? LOL

Speaking of the Big D, my defense is on Monday afternoon. It's at the College of Nursing on the left in the picture, Neyland Stadium, home to the TN Vols football team is on the right. I put together a rough version of my PowerPoint presentation and went to campus yesterday afternoon to do a practice run with the computer & projection system. It was a very wise choice since I've never successfully done a PP presentation. My one previous attempt failed when I got to the college and the computer wouldn't open my saved file. I have since learned to not use the "pack and go" feature and just take a saved file on a disk or flash drive with me. Pack and Go=No Go apparently, although I have no idea why.

Anyway, I now know that I need to cut a whole bunch of stuff in order to fit my presentation into the time limit and that I won't be able to use the notes feature at the bottom of the page because it projects on the screen. That's disappointment as I was hoping to avoid needing to use paper notes and just put everything on the computer. Oh well, it beats the old days of laboriously inputing text for slides on the computer, having the computer tell the camera to shoot the slide film, then whisking the roll to the Photo Pro shop down the street for 1 hour developing, then dashing back to the hospital to make the presentation. Yup--don't miss that one little bit!

To reward myself for exceptionally good behavior I stopped by Loopville on my way home. Late on a warm sunny Friday afternoon in March, the place was quiet--just me a Piper. I haven't been by in more than a month and Jinka has gotten a ton of new stuff in. It's a wonder they find room to cram all the yarn and etc in that tiny little shop. Most of the stuff is pretty high end--silks and Claudia handpaints and bamboo, etc. She had some new handpainted lace yarn from ArtYarns--pretty but not enough to tempt me at that price. I did buy another 2-ball box of the Kaalund Classic Two lace yarn that I bought on my last visit and am knitting with now. This is great stuff! I also splurged on the new issue of Vogue Knitting which is loaded with lace! This is the best looking issue of VK I've seen in awhile. Most of the patterns were reasonable, knitable, and wearable garments--a combination rarely found in recent VK issues. There is a nifty lace top which is labeled "oversized" meaning "will fit normal-size people without clinging to every curve or bulge" that looks like just the ticket for a summer knit top for me. The pattern calls for a dk wt silk yarn, so Richard's silk will be just perfect! Yippee!

Roses are Pink

Well, at least my Valentine's Day roses are pink -- which is perfectly wonderful since pink roses and pink flowers are absolutely my favorite. Just the fact that I was gifted flowers at all is absolutely amazing. Why you ask, because I can't remember *ever* receiving flowers on Valentine's Day in my whole life. It's one of those facts of life when you are an Old Maid and never did seem to enamour very many males in my younger years, let alone around *the* holiday of love. I don't think I even bothered to buy my own Valentine's flowers, maybe I did once or twice but I usually just stuck to chocolate and festive decor for my apartment. It worked at the time. But this year was different! Yes the flowers came from my mother who was acting in behalf of my dog Miss Emme who contributed her part with a big sloppy kiss (the dog that is, not Mom), but that doesn't matter.

Having a huge bouquet of happiness perched on the corner of my desk has done wonders for the "February Funk" I've been feeling. The winter icky blues just get to me and by this time I'm just dying for it to be spring. If you look down tot eh left of the flowers you'll see the little Valentine I bought myself at Loopville the other day. It was totally an impulse purchase and a bit pricey for me, but the colors in this lace yarn were calling my name. The yarns were a boxed gift set from Kaalund Yarns in Australia, an artisan yarn company that specializes in hand dyed fibers in amazing colorways. The yarn is a super fine 2ply lace weight merino, one ball is an ombre of violet hues called Magnolia and the other a diverse mix of the violets with spring greens and a hint of deep blue purple called Waterlily. The yarns came with a pattern for a "soft wool scarf" but the design was pretty pathetic. I'll do my own thing with this treasure. As a coincidence the Kaalund Waterlily yarn is an exact match to the hand dyed sock yarn from Farmhouse Yarns that I purchased at Yarn Haven last week. I guess I just like what I like and I like the color of thses yarns.