Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Mystery Solved!!

Remember the yarn I bought last week at Modern Yarn? The pretty Handspun on the Web, that I couldn't find a web-site for? Well, as luck would have it, the gal who was working that night came searching for my blog (um, yeah, I mentioned I had a blog when I asked if I could take photos in the shop) and left me a comment with the web address!! Handspun on the Web is here! From what I can tell, they are only selling to yarn stores right now, but I was really glad to be able to check out the site and read more about that yarn. Thank you so much, Xtina. I didn't have an address to e-mail you back, but I'll leave a comment on your blog soon.

So, as you can guess, I was in New Jersey last week. I didn't blog much about it (I think I'm trying to block most of the week out), and the highlight of the trip was certainly Modern Yarn. I've re-read my post and realized I may not have sounded overly enthused about the store, but it really was a wonderful shop and if it were closer I would certainly be a regular. When I wrote the post last week, I was very home-sick! Pea was sent down to NJ for training, and I decided to go with him. I planned to spend my days in our hotel room, knitting, reading, blogging and working on graphics. As it turned out, the hotel was less than ideal. The high-speed internet was slower than my old dial-up. The rooms were not made up until 2 or 3 in the afternoon, thus making me feel like I should stay in the lobby so Housekeeping could get in there.( And one day, our room was not made up at all.) I got stuck in the elevator. And we had two (yes, TWO) ant infestations. The second was on Thursday night, interrupting my enjoyment of the Grey's Anatomy season opener. (Grrr) When we trudged down to the front desk (in my pajamas, I might add) to report that the wall NEXT TO OUR BED was crawling with ants, the manager (yes, MANAGER) on duty replied with "Well, you've been here all week. You're just having a problem now?" Why yes, because we thought it would be fun to pack up all our stuff the night before check out - in our pajamas - and move to a new room. That's how we get our kicks. He never even apologized for our inconvenience. Yeah, now that I've vented to all of you, I'm going to vent to their corporate headquarters.

So anyway, if my report of Modern Yarn was not as enthusiastic as it should have been, please know it was due to my frustration of being stuck in the Hotel from Hell. Hindsight is everything, and we should have begun complaining on Monday, but Pea and I aren't usually the kind to make waves. But next time, yeah, we'll be making a whole lot of waves. And one more note, I found out later that Kirsten had been at Modern Yarns just five hours before with her knitting group. I don't like to advertise on my blog when I'll be away, but I'm kicking myself for not finding a way to mention I'd be in the vicinity of Modern Yarns. I would have loved to have met up with her.

Well, enough whining. Many of you commented that you enjoyed seeing some of my stash in the background of my Ice Cream Man sock picture. Well, if you've got it, flaunt it, right? I thought I'd share a picture of my Out Of Control Sock Yarn Stash, so you can all understand why I shouldn't be buying any more sock yarn for at least five years.


What you see there, according to my Stash Spreadsheet, is enough yarn to knit . . . . are you ready? . . . FORTY THREE PAIRS OF SOCKS!!!! How did this happen? Do you remember when my sock stash looked like this ? (Scroll down a little) Or if you really want to laugh, like this? (Scroll down again) The funniest thing is if you read the second post, I thought I was out of control then. I had yarn for only nine pairs, and I thought I was out of control!! I was such a novice!!!

And right on cue, my evil lovely friend Nathalie has been tempting me with links to one of her favorite yarn sources and pointing out the great exchange rate from AUD to USD. Sweetie, you are killing me!! Must. Resist. No yarn until RHINEBECK!!!!

16 comments:

KODACHROME said...

Wow! That's a lot of socks-to-be. It's really a beauty to behold--your sock yarn stash, that is.

I found myself here via Olga at Yolatejo, and noticed that you attempted to check out the (lack of) needleroll tutorial. Just to let you know, I added a much more detailed post today, and attempted to explain how I made it. Hope this is a bit more helpful than the original post to which Olga linked. Warm regards, Kodachrome

Nancy said...

I went to check out the pretty yarn at The Knittery and did you notice they have a yarn called Posmerino? Part merino part possum! I want some!

Major drag about Chez Fleabag. I hope you didn't bring any ants home in your luggage!

Jillio said...

wow. um. wow. gettin' up there, girl!
as much as it burned to do so, i culled my sock yarn stash with the contests and swaps this summer. kinda like to tell myself that i had a lot of yarn and maybe someone else would love to marinate it in THEIR stash instead of me. and i still have sock yarn coming out of my ears. but i felt good about it, you know? not saying you have to do something like give away your stash. nonono, yours is way too pretty to cut back. ;) but yeah...
another thing that helps is to put it where you can't see it; out of sight, out of mind.
of course, that's only when you're in TOTAL denial. you're only at about 25% right now. :)

Sonya said...

Your sock stash has grown! (BTW, purchased my first Koigu today! Blog post forthcoming.) What a yucky hotel! I'm not a wave-maker either. Luckily (well sometimes) Kevin is not afraid to make waves. Big ones if necessary. I'm amazed that people with zero customer service skills are put in charge of service-oriented businesses. Maybe the corporate office will send you free room vouchers! ;o)

Nathalie said...

mwahhahaha - okay, I'll leave off about the sock yarn (I have about 25 pairs without using leftovers)... so there is probably 40 pairs in my sock box at the moment. I received my most recent sock yarn yesterday. my, this is sounding confessional. I'd better go now before I say something really incriminating! (ans no, I'm not on commission)

somebunnysloveDOTcom said...

Okay, I want to know which hotel this is so I can AVOID it like the plague! The other side of the coin is at least you found a cool yarn shop to visit.
=:8

Anonymous said...

CRAWLING with ants?!?! ugh! I hope your complaint to the corporate office gets you the 'I'm sorry' you should have gotten from the manager :o\ What a dink.

And, welcome to the world of being able to knit 40+ pairs of socks ;o)

Ragan said...

WOW! That is a great looking yarn stash! I have had a bad NJ experience...at Newark airport during one of the really bad storms that hit the area. We were iced in for 3 days (yes at the airport). Lovely. Anyhoo...thank you for your comments on Bella.

MissyJoon said...

Each skein of yarn in that stash is screaming "knit me, knit me!"

Anonymous said...

Sorry your hotel room was so bad. What a lousy way to spend a week. I'm sure Modern Yarns was the highlight. It is a wonderful store.

I love that sock yarn stash. It rivals my own! ;)

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear about your hotel room. I would certainly complain. That's just not cool!

Great sock yarns. They also have some wonderful socks yarns are Rhinebeck and you only have to hold out for a few more weeks!

elizabeth marley said...

Now i need to talk someone into driving me to new jersey....

Anonymous said...

Oh heavens, what a stash - these yarns might make for a couple of months of nonstop-sock-knitting, no? How great, and they all look so cool!
I'm so sorry to hear about the hotel room from hell, such things can make trips horribly miserable! Poor you, you'd so have deserved a better time in NJ - and a better room!

Ragan said...

Just checking in...to see if you had posted yet! :)

Kym said...

your ant story reminds me of when i was in high school- after the prom we all went down the shore and rented some crappy room. after bringing in all our stuff and putting it down on the floor, we noticed an area of the carpet was moving and it was, yes, a ton of ants. we switched rooms, but i kept an eye out for any intruders :)

other than that, nj rules :)

The A.D.D. Knitter said...

Ok, being interrupted during the Grey's Anatomy season premiere is TOTALLY unacceptable! (fyi: if you go to the ABC website you can watch all this season's episodes for free!). Nothing like less than friendly hotel employees to put a damper on the vacation!! Glad you had fun, anyway.

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