I now have a stash, just not that kind of stash

Once upon a time, long long ago...Well, really it was only last month, a humble girl got her tax return. It was not a large return but it was enough. Bills were all paid off, money for a much needed plane ticket was found, new summer clothes for the children were bought. Life was good. This humble girl was happy, except her Mom was sick. Her liver had failed and she was going to die. The humble girl was very sad. Her Handsome Prince loved her very much, but he could not fix this for her. He searched and searched, and thought and thought of a way to make his beloved smile. After a long minute of very deep thinking he suggested she order some yarn. Any yarn, from any where, anything she wanted. Just get some yarn to make you smile. The humble girl had to be told twice, but then...The humble girl got carried away. Three websites, and five packages later she had this.



The sacred garbage bag of yarn.

In the humble girl's defense every single skein of yarn ordered is earmarked for a specific project. Nothing was bought just because, except the 18 skeins of sock yarn bought from knitpicks when she learned they were discontinuing her favorite color of sock yarn (no not all 18 are the same color, only 8, the other 10 were pretty and discontinued and calling her name). And even those are obviously going to be socks at some point. Yes all 92 skeins are going to be something. I'm cringing a bit, I didn't realize exactly how many skeins there were until this moment when I added them all up. I hope my, I mean, the humble girl's Handsome Prince doesn't read this.

Seven skeins have already been turned into this.



It's brown and cuddly and warm, but itchy. When will I learn to leave alpaca alone. No matter how soft the skein, the sweater is always itchy. A write up will be posted later.

On Monday the Amazing Lace will commence. I've been training and I am in racing shape. I've got just the project in mind to be my partner, and yarn in the bag for just such an endeavors but before then I must finish this



These are matching apple green cardigan for the girls to wear at their joint birthday party. Yes, the yarn is from the bag, and I've already used 7 skeins. The pattern is Tater's Cotton Cardi from Marie Grace-Yarn Slayer, sorry I can't get the link to the actual pdf to work, just go to her site, the pattern is on the left. She's great, I had a question about the pattern and she answered it instantly. You gotta love that in a designer, fabulously talented and still willing to help out the lesser knitter. This pattern is a top down raglan, my first, and I'm loving it.

I know I'm crazy to knit anything for Bird, but this time I'm sure it will be different. This time the sweater is cotton. Maybe she'll love cotton. Maybe she'll try it on and insist she get to wear it everyday. Maybe she'll love it so much she'll even insist she get to sleep in it. I'm sure that when I tried it on her yesterday to check to make sure the sleeve was long enough she was just yelling "No, Mommy, No" because she wanted to wait until the entire sweater was finished before the "Big Reveal." I can't help it. I have this unshakable mental image of the girls dressed for their party in white outfits with pretty embroidery and matching sweaters on top. They'll have freshly scrubbed faces, and neatly combed hair tied up in ribbons or apple green i-cords. They'll look so pretty. My two pretty girls. The picture will be perfect, it will be my favorite picture of them. As they grow they'll love this picture as well. It will hang framed in their room. They'll take it to college and set it on their desk. It will always be their favorite picture too. My two pretty girls.

So what exactly are the Vegas odds that I can actually get the sweater on Bird AND get a picture of her smiling in it.? And would it be considered cheating if I tried to get in on a piece of the action? (I fear I am on the verge of an uncontrollable yarn buying addiction, and I must finance it somehow. Betting in Vegas may be the way to go.)