Merino, Silk, and Cashmere, Oh my!

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I saw a beautiful darning egg on Cindy's blog and wondered how it was used. To my surprise, Cindy took the time to post a photo tutorial on how to darn a sock! Thanks Cindy! I had always wondered what it meant to "darn" something, and now I have a much better idea.

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We've had a few challenges here at Chez Smariek this past week. While Miss M was happy about going to day care last month, it's been quite a different thing this month. It's like night and day. Now she uses delay tactics in the mornings and is kicking and screaming about not wanting to go. Screaming about wanting to stay home instead, or go to Costco, or go to a different school. I think it all started when one of the other girls at the school was a bit too overly aggressive with Miss M and it scared her so much that she no longer wants to go there. Poor girl. It baffles me that Miss M is so good at voicing her displeasure at home, yet she has difficulties asserting herself at the daycare center.

My goal tomorrow is to go cell phone and cell plan shopping. We've had our current Very Good Cell Phone Service Provider for about 5 years now and have been very happy with them until we moved into our new house where we get zero reception inside our house. Our phones worked better when we stepped outside the house. (Oh, it's not our phones either, because DH & I have different model phones) This is very frustrating! So we need to switch from our current provider to the other Big Evil Cell Phone Service Provider (BECPSP), the one where you feel like you're in hell whenever you need to call for any type of customer support. We know that reception should work inside our house with BECPSP because the cable guy used his BECPSP phone inside our house and had great reception. We'll hope for the best, that we'll never have to call BECPSP for any support.

Goal #2 for tomorrow is to write the check for our mortgage payment. It's a funny thing with my handwriting. It usually looks like chicken scratch, so bad that I often can't even read my own writing! However my best penmanship is when I write checks using a fountain pen. Odd, huh?

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I've been wanting the KnitPicks Harmony Wood DPN set for quite some time now and had been saving up for it in recent months. Yes, I realize that the DPN set costs less than filling up the gas tank these days, however I am a stay-at-home-mom who hasn't seen one penny of my virtual $117,000 salary. So by saving up, I really should say justifying this purchase.

'Salary' for stay-at-home-moms nearly $117,000
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/may/11/business/fi-consumerbriefs11

Mom's Salary Wizard
http://swz.salary.com/momsalarywizard/layoutscripts/mswl_newsearch.asp

Unfortunately, I totally blew it this month when my DPN set funds got redirected towards some yarny purchases which I couldn't resist. Yes, I was weak. I was unable to resist. But look what I got! Some Lana Gatto Feeling yarn, a combination of merino wool, silk, and cashmere. I had very dry skin lately and couldn't tell how soft the yarn was when it arrived. Now that the skin on my fingers has improved a bit, I can feel it is a soft yarn.

Lana Gatto Feeling Orchid

Lana Gatto Feeling Violet

Lana Gatto Feeling Plum

I can never help myself, I always gravitate towards the purples. I really did not need 3 shades of purple yarn!!! If you look at my yarny stash, you'll find that most of it is purple. The downside to this is that the amount of purple yarn is not commensurate to the number of people I can gift purple items to.

But I did get a couple of other colors too...

Lana Gatto Feeling Jade Green

Green is not my color. It never was. So it was quite an aberration for me to choose this color. I'm sure I'll find someone who would like this color.

Lana Gatto Feeling Cranberry

Lana Gatto Feeling Gentle Teal

The blues and reds tend to be my second choice colors after purple. They're really extensions of purple, aren't they?

But that's not all! I also added to my Elann Baby Cashmere collection, nevermind that I've still got tons of this stuff marinating since 2005!

Elann Baby Cashmere, Mulled Grape

Elann Baby Cashmere Pewter

Pewter is not a color I would normally get, however I needed to add something that wasn't too pastel.

Lace Scarf

Here's a little something I've been playing around with. It's some Elann Baby Cashmere yarn. It might or might not be a gift for one of Miss M's daycare teachers. She started out with 2 teachers in her classroom, but this month she has 3 of them and they're all very nice ladies. I'd like to make each a little something by Christmas, I just hope I can finish them in time!

The scarf is slow going partly because of the dry spots on my fingers which catch on the yarn in a bad way. I'm also not sure I like the pattern enough to stick with it for an entire scarf. Of course I realize that lace looks like wet cabbage until it is blocked. Perhaps it will improve after blocking?

I'm still working on Elann HUGe Swap item #10 and I really need to get cracking on that so I can mail it to Theresa before the October 12 (13?) deadline.

I also have a some cables in the works (of course) and hope to have photos to share soon.


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