Wednesday I went to Yarn for Ewe, determined to finally spend my gift certificates I got for my birthday (November 28) and Christmas. Woohoo, was I there on the right day!!! They had just received a bunch of new socknitting yarns.

Now, each yarn store has its own personality, right? Well, Marlene Osborn, the owner of Yarn for Ewe, is a prolific socknitter and an amazing knitter of sweaters, many of them Aran style. So she carries some amazing excellent quality wool yarns for sweaters… and she sure knows what socknitting yarns to buy as well.

She has many customers, of course, who take the excellent socknitting classes there (taught by several of her staff members, including Marlene, Ruth, Wendy, who knits my sample sox for me when I publish in the Heels and Toes Gazette, and Marcia… and perhaps others). With all these socknitters in and out of the shop, it means these yarns will be snapped up in a matter of days. I have learned that if I go home trying to figure out which sockyarns I want to get, by the time I go back, they are gone.

Perfect timing for the gift certificates, then! I was glad I had held on to them as long as I had, because I could grab an armful and not feel guilty at all. From Left to Right: Lane Cervinia Forever Jacquard, color 220 (blue, green turquoise stripes with navy/white jacquard bits), Regia Color in color 5572 (gorgeous subtle khaki greens, I’ll use a contrast for rib/heel/toe in a pair for Brian), Regia Jacquard Color in color 5175 (thin stripes of taupe, gray and black, with dark gray and white bits, and Reggio Exclusive in color 715 (purple blue and charcoal stripes with dark gray and white bits, in sportweight rather than fingering). Nice stuff, all of it. I figure the turquoise and purple are mine, and the green and taupe are Brian’s. I’m going to enjoy waiting in line, knitting these yarns!

Oh, and on top of all these gorgeous yarns, I ordered a bag of Cotton Twist yarn by Berrocco in a gorgeous aqua/turquoise. This yarn is so gorgeous! It is cotton/rayon, which makes it shiny and drapey, and it comes in several colors that really make me happy. I am going to make the Cross-Over Top from Sally Melville’s Purl Stitch book (see page 81 if you have it). It can be a felted vest or a summer sleeveless top. The summer version in the book is actually also in the Cotton Twist, a lucky coincidence, since it looks as if it drapes really well for a short summer top. I already have some pewter-colored metal clasps to close it (rather than buttons) and am looking forward to wearing it. I’m not sure I’m looking forward to knitting it, but this is something I’ve adored looking at for so long I’m willing to go through the effort… I hope.

I forgot while I was at the store, that I had brought some CDs for Ruth, Marlene and Marcia (Wendy already has hers). Drat. Ruth, I know you are out there reading this… don’t be shy next time I’m in there… please ask for your copy of Moon June Spoon… OK?

Ruth was the woman who got me going on my first pair of sox, for those of you who have not been tuning in very long. I had made garter stitch scarves for 20 years and then quit knitting for about a dozen more years. Then I found the Socknitters.com website one day, and I had to knit socks! So I wandered into Yarn for Ewe as soon as I finished my big project for a client… and told her I wanted to knit sox. So she sold me some needles and some yarn and a pattern. And ten days later, I finished my first pair of sox ever. Ninety-some pairs and three years ago, that was. Great job, Ruth!

In other news, it’s reeeeeally cold here for this time of year. It was 52F at dinnertime. It feels like fall… I came home and put on my mohair sweater and a turtleneck and legwarmers. Brian and I decided to go on a walk to the Quality Dairy store (maybe 10 blocks from our house) so I could buy canned pumpkin and bake pumpkin pies. And that was after I’d already bought a butternut squash and put it in the oven for dinner. (It was really really good, with a little margarine and a sprinkling of nutmeg.)

So right now as I type this, it’s 11pm Thursday night, and the pies will be out of the oven in maybe 15 minutes. After that, they need to cool down before they are edible (I am allergic to eggs so I make a pie that must be cooled to be cut… no, they don’t contain gelatin; they have flax seed meal to hold them together, believe it or not). Maybe we will have to just have a small taste before bedtime, and then eat pie for breakfast! And why not?

This Saturday we are performing at Altu’s as The Fabulous Heftones, so I need to go practice with Brian. Actually, we practice almost every night now, and it’s really a wonderful thing to do together.

The flowers were brought in to Foster Center by one of the younger summer staff members. I guess her family has prizewinning roses, and she shared them with us. They were so wonderful I just had to dig out my camera right there in the office and take a picture.