What I've been up to lately

Traveling:
I drove down to Charleston, South Carolina to meet up with my family for Thanksgiving.  It was nice and warm during our time there and so we were able to get out and see a lot of the city.  It wouldn't be a family vacation without several trips to different old churches and graveyards (it is just our thing for some reason).  We also ate at several of those amazing, cute little hole-in-the-wall restaurants that are scattered around the city.

Visiting local yarn stores:
While I was in Charleston I finally got to visit a LYS for the first time in months.  I probably looked strange running around stroking all of the yarn excitedly.  Knit was very friendly (my siblings loved playing with the adorable little dogs) and had an amazing selection of Madelinetosh, it was a wonder I didn't walk out of there with more yarn than I did.  I ended up leaving with a sweater's worth of Berroco Vintage as a birthday present from my mother.


Watching Moonrise Kingdom:
I recently rewatched this movie by one of my favorite directors, Wes Anderson.  Each of his films are so meticulously made and aesthetically gorgeous, but this one may be one of my all-time favorites along with The Life Aquatic and The Royal Tenenbaums.



Listening to Radiolab podcast:
I've been working away in lab as always while trying to keep up with coursework and writing that journal article.  If you have any interest at all in the area of science that my article is on (perhaps more for my family members who want to know), you should check out this new RadioLab episode.  They explain epigenetics in a very understandable way and make it interesting for people who aren't science nerds like me.


I've also been knitting away in my spare moments.  I should have a finished project to show you soon, as well as my latest crafting success!

Thank you as always for all of your encouragement and friendship!

Recent Stash Additions

Last weekend I was lucky enough to get to spend some time with my good buddy Lisa (Wickedly Artsy).  Among many of the other exciting things that you can read about over at her blog, we found some time for some fiber shopping!

I know, I'm a poor student preparing for a huge move, but fiber is just as important as food right?

First we headed over to Wildflower in Manhattan, Kansas, which has a great selection of Berroco, as well as some yarns that I have not been able to find at any other yarn store.  I found some yarn that I have been dying to get a hold of for a while now, two skeins of Mini Moshi (Crystal Palace Yarns) in a muted rainbow colorway:

After that we visited Wicked Stitch in Wamego, Kansas, which is one of my favorite stores because of the amazing fiber selection, friendly people, and adorable location.  It took me a little while to decide what to get because of the overwhelmingly diverse selection, but I ended up purchasing two types of fiber that I cannot wait to spin up.

I went straight for some reasonably priced and super soft Blue Faced Leichester.  I will likely end up hand dyeing this at some point.

I also couldn't resist buying some Romney wool (which I don't think that I have ever tried before).  According to the owner, this is from one of her own sheep, Daisy.  I can tell that this is going to be loads of fun to spin up!

Isn't it wonderful the sort of treasures that can be found at yarn stores across the country?  If only I could visit them all!

When stressed, go to LYS

When I get stressed out, usually halfway through the semester, I often find my way to a yarn store.  I jokingly describe it being like a defense mechanism where when I reach my stress threshold I black out and when I come to I find myself at Webs with a basket full of yarn.

Today I felt this overwhelming desire to escape campus and decided to make a quick trip over to Webs.  While there I thoroughly enjoyed looking at all the new yarn and squeezing the yummiest merino I could find.  I also found some yarns that I would really like to use on some future projects.

Malabrigo Worsted (soon...soon...)

An old favorite: Rowan Felted Tweed 

I ended up buying some yarn too:

Here's some beautiful Manos del Uruguay for Lisa, just wait and see what she has planned for it! 

And for myself, some Hempathy, one of my all time favorite yarns to be used for the Vogue Lacy Vest I mentioned the other day. 

Exploring LYS can be such a fun thing to do, I never know what I will find!  I also feel much more relaxed afterwords and even get a little creative boost!