I went to Webs and all you got was this lousy blog post

On Tuesday I gave a talk at a conference at UMass. The conference ended at 3:45, and I was due to meet my niece for dinner in Northampton at 6. That meant...time for my first ever visit to Webs! I spent a glorious 90 minutes perusing the store and warehouse and after a few false starts came away with:

-14 skeins of Classic Elite Bubbles in white. I was never attracted to this yarn when I saw it in catalogs, but the sample sweater in Webs convinced me to give it a try.
-3 skeins of Sugarloaf - to add to the 3 remaining from the Captain America baby hat, to make a stripey sweater for Z. Though having measured her today, I may need to order more. She's growing fast!

Plus,
-Having coveted Anna's Pony Pearl dpns for a while, I tried to get some myself but they were out of sizes 1-3. I decided to try the size 7s for the sleeves of the Jesse's Flames sweater.
-Because I am being very dilettantish, all my Denise cables are currently in use (and one is broken). So I got me a set of the Susan Bates Crystalites in a cute pink zippered case. (can't find a link to this set, but it is kind of adorable)
-In preparation for house remodelling, I am trying to reduce my stash (pretend not to notice that I just increased it by 17 skeins. Thank you.). I bought a copy of One Skein Wonders in an effort to do that. This is a collection of patterns from yarn shops around the country. The Webs ladies excitedly showed me which patterns were theirs.

Possibly luckily for me they didn't have the Rowan Arabesque book in stock as I am sorely tempted to make the Jocelyn shawl. They also didn't have the Lantern Moon City Lights bag, which looks very cute in the catalog.

Happy early Hanukkah/Xmas to me!

Why he's worth three color intarsia

Almost done with the first Jesse's Flames sleeve. Because I have little patience for duplicate stitch, I decided to do three color intarsia instead. The back only kind of looks like crud, but the right side is turning out quite nicely, if I do say so. Let's just hope R doesn't routinely snag a finger in the carried yarn when he eventually puts the thing on.

I wouldn't do ths kind of intarsia for just anybody. Reasons why the boy deserves it (and I may need to be reminded of these if he becomes an obstreperous teenager, but for now he's a very sweet seven-year-old):

I let him get McDonald's after Sunday school, and they forgot his fries at the drive-thru. I doubled back and returned to the window, somewhat aggrieved, and told the clerk what happened. R piped up from the back seat "It's ok, we're not mad. Everyone makes mistakes!"

The other night there was a full moon. I pointed out how bright it was, and he said "Wow, it's like a streetlight for the whole world."

And last night he didn't want to go to bed and kept asking for more books. I finally picked out Runaway Bunny and read him the story (about a little bunny who wants to run away and his mommy who tells him how she'll always be there for him). At the end of the book he said "I don't need to run away because I love you Mommy!" and he went to sleep.

So yeah, you want intarsia, kid? Fair Isle? Entrelac? You just tell Mommy honey and I'll get right on it for you.