Hi everybody! Technically, we got back on Sunday night, but between the job, housework and buying gifts for a baby shower (no, I didn't knit them anything and yes, this damns me to knitter hell), I didn't have enough time to go through my hundreds of pictures.

After a little thought I realized it would be blog suicide to post my entire memory card, so for now I will just post the yarn portion. After this snail portion:

Yum.

Meena and I dragged Monkey King to Habu Textiles and School Products for a little stashgasm and I picked up a few lovelies. I just have to say that both of these yarn stores were FREAKING AWESOME. School Products was manned by an extremely nice gentleman who knew all about the products and had the best Russian Used Car Salesman thing going on. "You like yarn, yes? We have much yarn here, all good quality. That's what we do, good yarns...good prices."

I gotta agree with him, this Yak Merino blend is good quality, yes? I bought enough for a sweater. Something with a hood and some cables.

After molesting all the yarn at School Products, we were off to Habu Textiles. Entering Habu was like walking into yarn church. As soon as I saw the fuzzy little yarn cakes, with their golden halos and the yarn monks Gregorian chanting in the background (what?), I had a small fiber spasm. Okay, so I totally stroked out and flailed all over the yarn. Whatever.

I gathered a king's ransom worth of rare, undreamed of  yarn, but then I came to my senses once I remembered that at some point in the future I am going to have to eat. Um, and I don't really need yarn made out of golden silkworm cocoons. Okay, that's a total lie, I do need silkworm cocoon yarn. Or I'll die.

I did come away with some stuff (note: must make a return trip to buy cocoon yarn). I swear, my debit card jumped into my hand and all of a sudden this yarn just...materialized. Out of nowhere. Into a shopping bag.

A little tweedy silk, no label but I think it's this stuff. Perfect for some haute colorwork handwarmers.

And a dash of this guy, some pineapple fiber "yarn." I have no idea what to do with it, maybe a small basket or a bracelet. I just had to have it.

Oh! And here is my progress on Thermal. I'm near the end of my second ball of Gloss. Still loving this pattern.

A picture is worth a thousand stitches.

Who got the last four balls of white Jaeger Trinity in the tri-state area?!

ME.

Yeah, so, maybe I had to drive a couple of hours in torrential rains during holiday rush hour to do it, but I did it! I got them! They're mine! Now I am all prepared for this sweater and very determined to move foward. It's so great when my psychosis is rewarded.

I also met some really cool yarn shop ladies, one at Aylin's and one at Stitch DC. I got some great cotton yarn at Stitch DC, in a slate gray, to make a little pullover for a baby. Mission Falls 1824. To. Die. For.

**Meena** I also found the last existing ball of Tahki New Tweed in color 030, lime green. That's the one you wanted, right?

You know how sometimes you get a little windfall and you lose your goddamn mind? Well, that happened to me and there was a yarn store nearby. Behold:

Alchemy Silk Purse.

This yarn is so not for knitting. It is for looking at and petting and fantasizing. But never for knitting.

I haven't done any yarn shopping for weeks. Today I even went on yarn.com, looked around for half a minute and said, "Meh." Then I closed the window. Not even an inkling of an urge to whip out the plastic and buy. So I don't know, folks, I think I'm cured of whatever yarn mania I had. I still like yarn, and when the time comes for a new project requiring new yarn then I'm totally there, I'm just not buying yarn for the sake of it. No fear, I'm sure this is just temporary. It just feels weird.

Knitting stuff: Sesame needs only the button bands and the sleeves sewn in. Shit, I gotta buy buttons for that. I keep forgetting.

I restarted the Harry Potter scarf, only this time I'm doing it the Kim way: Half Ass and Wrong. Instead of casting on 100 stitches (or so) and knitting it in the round, I cast on only 50-ish stitches and I'm knitting it back and forth in 3x1 rib and weaving in the ends as I go. The weaving in as I go is new to me, and kind of fun. Basically, you take the cut end of the yarn, hold it in the back, and weave it in as if you were weaving in the non-showing yarn over a long float of stranded knitting. Did that make sense or is it true that my blood sugar is low? Anyway, that's what I'm doing. Unfortunately, this doesn't exactly make the scarf reversible, but hey, that's the Kim way.

Other stuffs: Monkey King is still sick (yes, STILL). In related news, I am close to a psychotic break due to an overabundance of used tissues lying around the apartment.  

I watched the first season of Desperate Housewives on DVD. What the fuck is all the fuss about? These women suck! They suck hard! Why am I now addicted?! I hope they all die.

I've started dieting and working out again. The dieting is easy (thank you, Lean Results) (There truly is a pill for everything that is wrong with me and that is an awesome thing) but the working out is painful. The good news is that I'm not falling off the treadmill/stairmaster/life stealing torture device gasping desperately in an attempt to force air into my hard, black lungs.

We have officially become my parents. I always said "never," but now we have a TV in the bedroom. It's actually been a real boon because when I shakily limp my way back to the apartment from the House of Pain (aka the workout room) I can now collapse into bed and watch my bad movies. NOTE TO MONKEY KING: Call Comcast and see about getting cable in the bedroom. Added incentive: late night cable "specials." Think about it. (Shut up, y'all! I just want it for watching Law and Order marathons. For reals!)

Anyone have any fun plans for the weekend? Mine involve a coughing boyfriend, watching shitastic movies while lying in sloth, escaping briefly for a girlfriend get together, and more coughing boyfriend. Fun!

 aka "Stasherbating" (I made up that word)

Here we have:

11 skeins Knit Picks Merino Style
8 skeins mysterious Japanese yarn
9 skeins Valley Yarns Berkshire
5 skeins Brown Sheep Nature Spun *plays funeral march for Harry Potter Scarf*
14 skeins Jaeger Wool Camel
5 skeins Shepherd Baby Wool
2 skeins wound into one ball Manos del Uruguay. I wasn't joking about saving the yarn fragments.

Not shown: 2 shoeboxes with leftover balls and half-skeins I can't seem to throw out. I was going to post their picture, but then I realized that the boxes had "Payless Shoes" plastered all over them. And I totally nullified the whole "haha! no one will know I have Payless shoes!" by telling you about it.

Sneak peek of a gift I'm making for a very pregnant friend. Jen! Cross your legs and keep that baby in until I'm done with this, 'K?