Oh, brother!

Sometimes, not often, but sometimes I am disappointed by people...and today I'm quite disappointed in two men and their childlike behavior. One would think that once a person reached the age of 55 and 60 respectively, they'd have it all sorted out. It's not nice to upset your mother - on Mother's Day, no less. That's enough of a rant for today. Maybe there will be more later, who knows? I'm pretty peeved.

Now, for some good news, I made my quarterly run south of the border to pick up new stock. Photos will appear later today - here's a brief summary of what came in:

Chiagoo red needles (circulars) that are purported to be as good as Addi Turbos at about half price. I tried then out yesterday afternoon, and while the red cord is made of awesomesauce, the curved ends made me a little crazy. Perhaps with practice I will get used to them. The needles are made of steel, so they have a nice smooth finish and the join to the cable is imperceptible (big words for 6 in the morning!).

But the bends in the needles make is a little more difficult to slide the stitches through when using the Magic Loop method. I also found it a little challenging to do the Magic Cast on too.

The Jacquard dyes are completely restocked - all 40 colours are in now. Finally, the illusive Spruce Green is available. Since it was on backorder for almost a year, I bought boxes of that shade. And I do mean boxes!

Boye brought out an electric ball winder - a new toy for me. I hope to have it all figured out by the end of today. It looks fairly substantial, and is priced at $95 - not much more than a mechanical winder. And much less than the Royal Jumbo I'm using now.

And books - I got in several sock books. One brand new release by XRX - "Think Outside the Socks" which is a compilation of the winning sock patterns from XRXs contest last year.

The Tilli Tomas shipment contained several shades of Flurries, and 17 shades of Elsie, the casein, merino and silk blend. I had only a few moments to fondle Elsie, but one shade - Surf - is just gorgeous. A pale yet not subtle seafoam blue is calling me. Can you hear it? It wants to be a bowtie scarf, and most likely will by the end of the day. There are other colours just as gorgeous - one is called Chocolate Cake. Once you see it, you'll know why. And the Lime...well, it is my favourite colour in the whole world. And a summer teeshirt knit with it would be such a luxury. (I'm scurrying off to find a pattern now) 

Sadly, Elsie is discontinued as Tilli Tomas' supply of casein has been cut off (a major player in the yarn industry has tied up the world wide supply of casein), so I bought what was left in stock at Tilli Tomas, and instead of $12.95 per skein, I'm selling it at a $9.95 per skein. One skein makes the bowtie scarf, 6 or 7 will make a short sleeved sweater, 9 to 11 make a sweet cardigan. I keep picturing a pair of fingerless gloves in the lime shade, and a bow tie scarf with one half in lime, the other in the surf.

I know there's more new stock to talk about, the lesson room table is covered in it. I'll dig through it once I get to the shop today, upload some photos and get it all priced and out on the floor. Pumps for Eucalan

gallon jugs, totally restocked with all sizes and flavours of Eucalan, Eucalan stain wipes...

Tomorrow at knitting, we can watch the end of the Bounty Hunter. Last week's screening was cut short by a technological problem - seems the laptop ran out of  battery power as I had forgotten to plug it in! Sorry about that. The next movie can be "It's Complicated" with Meryl Streep, Alex Baldwin and Steve Martin. I've seen it and really enjoyed it.

Well, my wash load is finished, ready to go in the dryer, so if I want some clean clothes for work today, I'd better get going. If you haven't come in and picked up the yarn and needles for the swatching challenge, be sure to do so soon. Twenty have already been picked up, a bunch have been knit up and returned. And two things have come out of this challenge so far....no one has got gauge yet, and none of the swatches are the same size. None of them! Even more interesting is that all the swatches are too big according to the ball band of the yarn. One would think that some of the swatches would be too small and some too big and some just right - just like Goldilocks. Check back later today or tomorrow for some comparison photos of the swatches. Given enough time I may even have the stats uploaded for the completed swatches too.

I did say I had to go - so this is me gone! Take care.