Okay, first, the good news–I found the yarn in the dyelot I needed! Flying Fingers yarn shop in Tarrytown. The only unfortunate part is I didn’t see my e-mail until after 11:00 last night and they’re closed, now, until January 4th. But, who cares?  Of course, I’d already given up and placed an order at Infinite Yarns because Anne had been so helpful. I sent her an e-mail at around 11:30 last night asking if it was possible to cancel it, because I really don’t need 8 skeins of the stuff, but no complaints if I can’t. It’s my own fault for (1) giving up too soon and (2) being a little too eager to support a helpful shop owner. I’d rather not have spent the extra $35 just now, if I can’t cancel it, but, well . . . it is beautiful yarn, right?

Now, I was away from the computer all day yesterday for a perfectly good reason. My best friend is home visiting from California, and we always make a point of getting together . . . and it usually turns into an all-day thing, and whoever could complain about that? She got down to my house a little before 1:00, and we chatted and opened Christmas presents for a while.

Her present? Well, I gave her a combo Christmas/birthday gift, since her 40th birthday is just a few weeks away. It was a bit of a wrench to part with, I admit, but so worth while. Not only was she very touched, but it looks fabulous on her. (You’ll remember that, on me, it looked huge and out of proportion, even after I tried reblocking it to be smaller.) Obviously, it was meant for her.

And, I know she’ll take good care of it, too. I did love that yarn, though–but at least I still have its first-cousin Peacock Stole to keep me company.

After we opened presents, we decided that we were hungry but that we wanted to go to the movie. So, we headed into the kitchen to look at movie times in the newspaper, and tried to find one we wanted to see that would give us enough time to grab lunch first.

She was really hungry, though, and said that, “I could really just go for a big tub of popcorn.”

Well! I’m always happy to oblige! I turned around, picked this up and plopped it down on the newspaper. “Here you go.”

Because, yes, it’s a huge tub of Popcorn Factory popcorn, courtesy of my aunt. It arrived on Friday . . . great timing, huh?

We ended up eating chicken salad that I very quickly threw together, and then went to see Charlie Wilson’s War, which we both enjoyed. Because, well, how can you not like Tom Hanks? And his chemistry with Phillip Seymour Hoffman was fabulous–their scenes were just great. Really, the whole thing was good. Funny, yet thought-provoking. It’s just a pity that “we blew the end-game” quote at the end was so very true.

Anyway, after the movie, we decided we weren’t really hungry enough for supper, so we came back to the house for some pumpkin pie and to give Chappy his supper. Except, we’d barely gotten our coats hung up when the phone rang. It was Mom–she, Dad, my sister, and my niece were on their way home from New York (they had Christmas-present tickets to see Curtains)–and would we like to meet them at Wendy’s for supper? Well, um, okay. I fed Chappy and we all kind of stood around for a few minutes, and then, back in the car. (You know, considering how much I dislike Wendy’s I sure have eaten there a lot lately! That’s at least three times in the last few months, whereas before this summer, it had been years.)

Here’s a look at my pretty, new yarn.

Yes, it’s a little over-plied. But since I had planned on this being sock yarn, I’m okay with that–it would just wear really well.

Although, I’ve been thinking that maybe it would like to be something other than socks. Like lace.

To recap, this is the Socks that Rock superwash merino roving I bought at Rhinebeck in 2006 from the Fold. 9.25 ounces, in the Carbon colorway.

It took me a full week to ply it all. And it’s got three plies. I didn’t check the w.p.i before I skeined it, but going by little Spinner’s Rule, it’s between 24-28 w.p.i. and it’s a fairly consistent size.

Really, I’m quite proud of it.

(Oh, and it’s not quite as blue as it’s photographing . . . It’s got more yellow and purple and really not much blue at all . . . go figure.)

I hope you’re all enjoying the end of your year . . . only a day and a half left of 2007!

Tags: Finished Spinning, Friends, General // 10 Comments »