Are you HIGH??

I've spent some pretty pennies on yarn in the past (Tilli Thomas just to name one) but this about knocked me over . . .


Classic Elite's "Embrace". Yes, I understand it *is* cashmere. I own some cashmere myself, actually.

But Two Hundred Eighty Five Dollars for 625 yards?

That's freak'n insane! That yardage would get an average sized shawl but not even a decent sized sweater.

I guess I'm a "yarn snob" only up to a point. Even if money were no option, I seriously doubt I would spend that kind of cash for that kind of yardage. On the other hand though, I haven't touched this stuff so my tune could possibly change if I ever got the opportunity to manhandle it in real life, lol. 'Course, at that price I think I'd be too scared to touch it with my mere mortal mitts!

This came to my attention only because I am really locking in on that Classic Elite sweater I blogged about the other day and have been doing some research.

Did y'all know that designers (and websites that sell designer's patterns) now have the ability to link their pattern directly to where it is on ravelry? "HUH?" you respond.

Lookie - I'll show you:

Classic Elite's pattern page - see the second one down? That's the Dream Sweater. Cast your eyes onto the linkage right next to it that says *Ravel it*. When you click on that link, you are PRESTO CHANGE-O sent to the pattern page at ravelry. How freak'n cool is THAT I ask you!

From there (in theory) you can check out other FOs and WIPs, see what yarns people have substituted, read blog posts and ravelry discussion comments, yadayadayada.

In this particular instance, I say 'in theory' because this pattern is so stink'n new there ARE no WIPs and FOs or even any yarn substitute data, which is really what I was shooting for.

The yarn called for in this pattern runs about $9 a ball. For this thing to not completely strangle the Sweater Puppies, I'm thinking I probably need at least 10 balls, and should buy 12 (or 13) just to be safe. *GULP*. That's a whole lotta clam to shell out for my very first 'thing' that I've never done before. I know, I know . . . that's a very normal price-range for creating a sweater, so rest assured I do have one foot in Realityville. Unfortunately, I have a wallet residing there too!

First, I need to buy the pattern. Once that part is done, then I'll work out the particulars. There is yarn daydreaming to experience and then there is some swatch necessity to take care of.

WIP update - I'm pretty much done with my two-tone blue entrelac thing. I have to find the damn instruction sheet that tells me how to make the last row of triangles in order to bind off. I memorized the pattern part but the beginning & ending happen so infrequently, I need my cheatsheet to finish.

A "que" update - Looking over my *to-dos* on ravelry, tonight, I am really feeling like a knitting slacker. There is no real reason that I shouldn't have a handful of FOs by now. Socks. Not a freak'n ONE, let alone a pair. Socks are, so far, the only knitted item I actually wear with regularity. I LOVE knitting them and wearing them. And the sock yarn? I have in spades! In fact, I have a beautiful sock yarn from Jollyewe. (Oh, and if anyone ever buys her
"Oceano" colorway? I will stab them with all the needles I own . . . and I own a lot of needles. Just say'n. Jollyewe may want to save mankind from my evil plans by setting that one skein to the side so as not to be purchased by anyone but the person who actually moved from Oceano to the ghettoness that is P'ville. Seriously. Just say'n :grin: ) Even if there weren't socks to get to, there are a good 10 Christmas gifts I could be working on. Don't even get me talking about the 6 or so WIPs lounging around my house. There is no good reason that I haven't
picked this back up.

Life in General update -

Freckles has been back home for a few days. I think Freckles' new dietary requirements are easier to deal with than The Mike's constant worrying over her dietary requirements. Seriously. He's a wreck over her. She flat-out re-fucking-fuses to eat a decent amount of her diet food. My belief is that there is no way she's gonna let herself die of starvation, so eventually the girl's gotta eat. In the interim? I'm okay with waiting for her to figure it out, whereas I think Mike wants to chew it up for her and feed her like a baby bird. Hence the reason she's as big as a house. He thinks food = happy so he's passing that on to his favorites.

That, plus trying to coordinate one cat's dietary restrictions with 5 other cats' free-range grazing, plus two cats who don't like one particular cat, and one cat that would rather pee on anything owned by The Mike? It's a zoo around here.

Somewhere in all that nuttiness I still am not smoking. My drinking on the other hand . . .

I KID!

Tonight we had our regular 'Friday Night Dinner with the Other Fish'n People and their Spouses' but this time it was at one of our houses. It was as fun as usual, but there reached a point where I separated from the wives/girlfriends and knitted with the guys while we watched some Tivo'd fishing tournaments. One woman in particular just got to me. She went ON AND ON AND ON about (another) new baby in her family. First off, she's only the Aunt on this one (it's her younger brother's son's newborn). Second off, this baby? Comes from an EIGHTEEN YEAR OLD (for a whopping whole month so the baby was conceived when the *father* was all of 17 years old ferpetesfuck), and is still in high school! I ain't even making this up. That's not even the kicker though. The parents of these babies having babies made them get married . . . unbelievable. Now I'm not saying that people that created human life shouldn't NOT get married. My issue is that there was never *any* other option. At all. Five minutes of unprotected sex has now become a legal contract and a lifetime commitment.

The "grandpa" of this new baby just happens to be the guy that my husband was very close to, growing up. Of course, I just had to be me, and made a point to mention that Mike not only isn't a GRANDFATHER at the ripe old age of 38, why, he's not even a father-father.

Unbelievable.

I had such a more relaxing time tonight hanging out with the guys, knitting and listening to the fish talk. They don't bat an eyelash when I whip out the fiber and needles - even at the restaurants (and you know that I do that).

Why can't most women be easier to hang with? 'Cuz most of them are high on the BabyCrazy.