The Geekend That Was, 4/14

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This weekend, the cake was not a lie.

 

Friday night we celebrated my dad's 79th birthday! (Yep, that's a 7 up there and not a 1...very tricky to make those things stand upright!) My dad and I share a love of dark chocolate cake with white icing. It's all he'll ever ask for for his birthday. My oldest sister made the cake (and cooked the best pork roast ever!), and knowing we both LOVE icing, she sat us together and put a bowl of extra icing between us. =)

But before the cake...there was shopping. Lots and lots of shopping. Stitches South was in town, so I set forth to bolster the economy and divest myself of that pesky tax refund, along with DFs Teresa, Jean and Jill. I normally give myself some "rules"...my main ones this year were that I could buy any solid or semi-solid sock yarn I wanted, but no random multicolored sock yarn, and anything else needed to be for something specific on my Ravelry queue. I was also allowed to buy "accessories", and I took a fairly small tote bag, thinking that when I filled that up, I was done.

I think I did pretty well!

 

Oh. Uh...gosh, that's a lot of yarn when you put it all together like that! Hmm, I guess when I picked my tote, I kinda forgot how much yarn can compress when you're determined inspired. The three at the top left are solid sock yarns, so that's good. The one to the right of those three is...ah...a multicolored sock yarn. BUT! It's really self-striping! And I had a pattern in mind for it! (It turns out it won't work for that pattern, but oh well.) I could not get the color to come out right for the life of me...it's a DARK purple (the left side) with SHOCKINGLY BRIGHT pink and deep turquoise. Also, it was dyed by a friend of Jean and Teresa's, so I kind of had to buy it.

Beneath that is some Tilli Thomas Disco Lights (it has sequins!) for a sweater that's been long queued...I had to pick that up because it was 40% off!! The yarn under that is interesting...its main fiber content is MILK! Whey protein, to be exact. It's very soft and silky, and will be a shawl. To the right is this crazy yarn that was sold by the pound, half off the marked price, so it's like 800 yards of fingering for $18. It will become a Mehndi.

Now, you might notice I skipped that yarn in the lower-left corner. Let's give you a closeup:

 

If you click on the picture, you can see the sparkly threads in the yarn (maybe). This is destined to be a Mithril Vest. This yarn has a special story, because we met the yarn manufacturer and her husband. You may have heard of her before if you do cross stitch. In fact, when I met her, I said, "OHMYGOSH, you're Vikki Clayton! You're FAMOUS!" which gave her a good laugh. =) Her husband invented a machine that spins the same silk she dyes for needlework with a cashmere yarn and sparkly fibers. She had some really luscious fibers, and it was difficult to choose, but the one that was closest in spirit to "mithril" won out. I was so happy to find this yarn, since the yarn that design calls for contains mohair (which I hate!)

I also did find a few things in the "accessories" category...my favorite dellaQ bag in a cheery print:

 

Some beads (for Kumihimo, that exactly match my just-finished sweater), and gorgeous antique Victorian brass buttons.

 

This booth had PILES of buttons, and I could have spent ages going through them. Can you find the one with the dragon on it?

Saturday and Sunday I was pretty wiped out (the super-high pollen count and being in a house with several furry animals will do that to you). Sunday afternoon was wet and dreary, so we decided high sugar snacks were in order. I bought this cute Easter bunny on sale for only 2 bucks:

 

He's about 5-6 inches tall. Do you recognize him? He came with some small friends, which I don't care too much for on their own...

 

...but they make great companions for graham crackers and dark chocolate!

JiffNotes
No real bunnies were harmed in the making of this post, but some Peeps got it, and good.