New yarn...YUM

I went to the Kraemer Yarn Store today! Always fun! I love to shop there since they are so knowledgeable and helpful and always polite to newbies. I have never felt put off or intimidated to ask questions there. They have a clean, bright, well organized store, with an amazing discount bin of off-weight skeins! The purpose of my mission was to pick up a skein of Tatamy Tweed DK, in the taupe colorway. I am making Kathleen the One Skein Scarf from the Stitch 'n Bitch: The Happy Hooker book. The pattern is also available free from the Jo-Ann's website, so go forth and make one-skein scarves! It is the best pattern evar!

So I picked up a nice skein of the taupe color but soon noticed a discount bin calling my name. I saw that it was a full bin of the very yarn I was holding! The discount bin holds yarn that doesn't weigh quite what it should, either too little or...too much! Typically the Tatamy Tweed costs about $6, but the sale priced balls are $3.49! I found a sale priced skein of the exact color I needed and when I took it home it actually weighed in at 115 grams, or 1.15 skeins! For less than what I would have paid for 1 skein. Awesome!

Here is said yarn:

Tatamy Tweed DK, Taupe
(Look Kathleen, I got you one with a LABEL. Fancy!)

But of course I couldn't stop there.

Tatamy Tweed DK, It's a girl, $3.49

Weighing in at another amazing 110 grams or 1.1 skeins!

These next two balls came together:

Tatamy Tweed worsted, Navy Tweed

Weighing in at 71 grams, .71 of a skein!

Tatamy Tweed worsted, Flannel Tweed

This ball weighs in at 100 grams or a full skein!

This and the navy ball were $3.49 TOGETHER!

And I couldn't resist more of the black colorway, of which I already have some stashed:

Tatamy Tweed worsted, Black Tweed

Weighing in at 157 grams or over a skein and a half!

Did I mention it cost $3.49?

Ok, so I saved the best for last. Sitting all alone in the sale bin was this beautiful ball of Fountain Hill Brushed Mohair. Are you ready to hear what it cost? ONE DOLLAR. I took it home and weighed it and I was shocked. It was the deal of the day. A full skein of this yarn costs either $10 or $12 dollars and weighs 100 grams. This ball weighs 93 grams! For a DOLLAR.

Fountain Hill Brushed Mohair, Surf's Up!
93 grams!

I love new yarn! Sure it'd be nice to buy whatever I wanted at full price, but I got all that yarn for $14! The Tatamy Tweed is a dream to work with, it feels so cool and soft moving through your fingers. I like to make small things, too, so for me it works to have small quantities of stuff on hand. However, they also have beautiful bags of "sweater quantity" in the discount bin too, also for rediculous prices. Thank you Kraemer Yarns! I love you!

Just a little tit bit.

I just came across I really cool website and I thought I'd share it with anyone who actually reads this. Breast cancer is something that has affected more than one woman in my life. My grandmother died suddenly of breast cancer. By the time she found out she was sick, she only had three weeks to live and wouldn't take visitors. She refused to have a funeral or viewing service, so it was pretty much like she just vanished. No closure. No dead body to look at to make it real. It sucked and was super sad. She was really cool and young, only 69 when she died.
On the other hand, I'm actually thankful in some ways that I never saw my grandma looking like Skeletor. My husband's mother and grandmother also died of breast cancer and it was horrible to see what they went through. It wasn't the same experience because I wasn't as close to either of them because I did live with my grandparents until I was in third grade.

So now that you've read my dead grandma sob story here's the website! It's called Tit Bits and they make knitted prosthetic boobs! My mother in law had a mastectomy and she had this rubbery fake boob and she never wore it. I bet it felt gross against the skin. I have strapless bras with that silicone stuff around the band so it doesn't end up as a belt and I hate wearing it.

I think these are awesome:

How cute! A little pink boobie! I love that they are fun and quirky which I think would be a refreshing departure from all the doom and gloom of cancer treatments, wigs and rubbery boobs.

Feeling flashy? They come in tons of cute colors!

Want the "natural" look? They come in a bunch of flesh tones with cute star-shaped button nipples!

Or, what the hell! Wear a watermelon boob!

You can also choose 3 different nipple...uhh...lengths. There were "natural", "naughty" and "discreet". I have no idea what the heck a "naughty nipple" looks like, since there were no pictures of that.

What a great idea!

It's the shizz-knit.

I like to learn new things. After crocheting for a couple of months, I kept seeing projects I'd like to make, but they were knitted. Well, I am not one to be left out, so I'm learning to knit! It is so fun. It's not really harder than crochet, just different. I always had heard how much more difficult knitting was than crochet, but that is simply not true, in my experience.
Lucky for me I live near the Kraemer Yarn store where I took some lessons.

This is something simple I'm working on:

My husband saw the yarn and asked for a small blanket. I told him to expect it in a few years. It's made with Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick. Lemme tell you, those folks at Lion aren't kidding. It is thick and quick!

He also requested a mohair scarf, so I have this going as well:

It's made from 2 strands of Kraemer Yarn's Fountain Hill brushed mohair. Very nice. Both projects are in a simple garter stitch. I learned to purl, and produced a very official looking swatch of stockinette, but I decided to keep these knit, knit, knit. They will both be long projects, so I thought I'd make them a mindless non-pattern to move them along faster. The mohair is fingering weight, so the scarf is growing very slowly. Doesn't that sound gross?

Fingering weight?