Yarn.

I love knitting blogs. Your knitting blog can turn you into a celeb--take the Yarn Harlot, for example. The author of several books (that stemmed from the blog), Stephanie Pearl-McPhee has enough knitting clout to single handedly make or destroy a yarn store (Take Rosie's and Loop, for example. Rosie's is tiny, has some snotty staff, and is overpriced. Loop is beautiful, has ample space for walking and knitting, not to mention a couch, and is considerably younger and hipper than Rosie's. Why does Rosie attract so many more customers? The Yarn Harlot visits). Gobs of people turn out to her book signings, knitting in hand.

Today I'm blogging about knitting because I got yarn in the mail. I had to show Alex. The gray and yellow is actually a self-striping yarn. The yellow was a lot brighter than I anticipated, but I love the color combo. The blue is a Rowan Print and the orange-red number is Cascade's Victor, which will eventually become another neck warmer for me.

I developed this neckwarmer pattern (which looks awesome under a cardigan, and not in the photo) for my trip to Africa and have been swatching (that means knitting miniature versions, to experiment) different stitch patterns and shapes since. Before Africa I had also knit myself a hat from a skein of grey-purple Malabrigo.

Now let me just tell you about Malabrigo for a hot second. It is the most coveted yarn...maybe ever. Hand dyed merino wool--need I say more? Even if you don't know what it is, doesn't that just sound amazing? Make you want to run out and buy some (for me)?

But I left the hat in Lesotho where now, someone much cooler than me is probably wearing it. I luckily had a little bit of Malabrigo left, and am trying to duplicate the hat before going back to school. But I might run out of yarn.

Loop sells Malabrigo, though, so perhaps my first stop, after Five Guys, will be to pick up another ball.