Mail Call (and a progress report)

So I'm all geared up from yesterday's "Photograph the yarnz like they are bikini models" session to do this post, but then my husband said something to that put a damper on things for me.  He mentioned joking about needing new shoes and them not being a top priority right now. I know the buddy he mentioned it to has a wife and his wife reads my blog sometimes and she is definitely going to think I steal money from my husband and make him walk around all gimpy because I use all our financial resources for yarn.  So I'd like to publicly state that my husband is a situational cheap ass.  Yes, he needs new shoes and yes, he's put that purchase off, but I can attest to the fact that his Vudu rental fees would have covered a nice pair, and it's not that he cannot afford new shoes (seriously) it's that he has not CHOSEN to afford new shoes because the man can't make up his mind about what kind he wants. 

He goes though this whole process. Goes to several stores, sees a few he likes, comes home, looks them up online to see if they have good reviews (Dude, most people use the review forum to COMPLAIN not to give kudos...remember that), sees where they are priced the best, looks up some sort of shoe glue to see if he can stretch out his shoes a few more months, waffles about that, looks up another kind of shoes, asks me three million times what style he thinks he can get away with, and so on (and on and on and on...)  What I think is happening, and I could be wrong here seeing as how I do not hold an advanced degree in the mental sciences, but my feeling is that my husband is going through the stages of grief.  I think he is mourning the shoes he has depended on for the last year.  He's attached to their comfort and familiarity.  He is one with the shoes and cannot accept (just yet) that he will need to put these shoes to rest and look for foot wardrobe satisfaction elsewhere. 

Totally not my fault that the dude can't commit.  It's something he must work through on his own, and this whole "I haven't gotten shoes yet because it's not a priority" is a smoke screen for other, deeper issues.  I still love him and I have vowed to be here for him as he accepts that his shoes are indeed, dead, and that he needs to move on.  Until then, I bought some yarn because I needed it.  No, seriously.  And that's what I'll show you today, because I need opinions ;)

I finished the first pair of Salem mitts, and Calla and I decided to do thinner stripes.  I like these, I really do, but the jog up the stripe join is really not good.  I need to work on my jogless stripes before I attempt the next pair.  I was waiting on yarn to arrive for the purple/black I wanted to do because the charcoal and my hand-dyed purple didn't really mesh well together.  I couldn't believe I had NO black worsted weight yarn in my stash, so I had to get some, plus a few purples because you can't really see what shades you are getting online.  Purple is a "not my color" so I didn't have any of that either.  But now I can't decide between all of them.  Wanna see?

 

 

So these are the mini striped version and they are ok.  Definitely okay for my first pair.  But now I need black and purple:

 

Choice A. Ultra Alpaca.  A bit deeper than the photo appears.

Choice B. Aurora 8 and the one I think would look the best, but still waffling.

Choice C. Yeah, these are a bit too blue.  If you like this pairing, you're wrong.  Sorry. 

Choice D.  Dreamy by Feza, and I love the actual color it appears to be, but has lots of flecks of different colors imbedded and I just am not too crazy about it. 

All the purples together....

 

I am thinking I like B the best, but I also like A....and any way you look at it, black will make whatever purple I choose pop.  Decisions, decisions....

 

I also finished.....

 

A Very Harlotty Poncho (a Yarn Harlot pattern...the pattern name does not speak to the nature of the finished garment...)  This was made in Moda Dea Vision in the Sedona colorway.  And a word to the wise..do not attempt a picot bind off for the first time ever on a project with this many stitches to bind off.  It's demoralizing and agonzing.  Bind off three, add two, bind off three.  Can you say maddening??  It took forever, and I wasn't even sure I liked it as I went along, which made it worse, but once it was done, I was thrilled with all the fussy little nubs on the hem.  This was supposed to be for Calla, and I used up almost every inch of this yarn, but survey says....It's Mallory's.  Fits her the best.

 

Making progress:

 

 

 

I am really not comfortable with bright colors, even after the gobs of practice I had.  They just aren't "me" But Noah really loves this and I took some color hints from around his room, and this little guy, which we purchased because it went so well with his bedding:

Bright. Cheerful. Primary....

 

Not my colors....

 

This is more "my colors"  This is just a quick snap of a quilt I made way back when, but definitely more in the scheme of comfort for me, color-wise:

 

Am I dull, boring person?  Perhaps steady, timeless?  My wardrobe gets all kinds of excited if I bring in a really real color rather than grey, black, navy or brown, but I never know what goes with what and fear in my attempt to give fashion a little nod, I look more like I'm off to a meeting of the Red Hat Society.  I guess I'm just officially Not Cool.

 

In my attempt to appear sane, healthy and functioning, I will save my other intended pictures for this post for another day.  Hint.  It's more yarn.  Yarn with intentions and purpose and (Oh don't look at me like that.  Key word here is swap.  I didn't aquire more or NEW yarn, just different. Sheesh)

 

Until next time, let us all raise our glasses (hopefully coffee because it's way too early otherwise) and give a shout out to FRIDAY.  Not sure why I get so excited about Fridays since I don't participate in the economic sphere.  Might have something to do with that guy that hangs around here sometimes hanging around more on the weekend ;)

Have a great one!