Embarrassing conversations

Mike and I are leaving soon to go visit family – mine in Maryland, then his in Chicago. And so the inevitable ritual of panic begins.

The conversation started about ten minutes after I wandered into Purlescence Yarns, my local yarn shop (which carries weaving stuff as well as knitting stuff, hooray!). In those ten minutes I had managed to wander through the entire shop, looking quizzically at hordes of knitting yarns, and had wound up in the book section, flipping through snazzy, full-color spreads of hand-knitted socks.

“Can I help you find something, Tien?” asked the shop owner. I jumped and hastily returned the sock porn to the shelf.

“Um, I’m not sure,” I said. “I’m honestly not sure why I’m even here, except that a friend gave me a gift certificate, and I’m going traveling in two days, and…”

“…and you need a travel project.”

“Well, yes. But I have a book due to the publisher in eight months, so I already know what I should be working on. I also already have 250 lbs of yarn. So I have no idea what I’m doing here except that a friend gave me a gift certificate and I’m traveling in two days, so I’m panicking.”

“I see.”

“So I think I might get some laceweight yarn for weaving, except that I already have a ton of that. Or maybe some sock yarn, except that I already know I’ll never finish the socks. Or maybe some super chunky yarn for a festive hat. I always knit hats when I travel during the winter, usually because I forget the prior year’s festive hat. Or…you don’t happen to have inkle looms, do you?”

…which is how this lovely little Ashford Inklette came home with me:

While I was there, I also discovered these delightful beaded yarns, which of course had to come home as well:

And, somehow, despite the many Xmas presents we’re packing, these are sneaking into my luggage:

I think it will be fun to try weaving inkle bands with beaded warp yarns – fortunately there is no reed to catch the beads, though I don’t know how well they’ll work with all the pegs. Guess I’m going to find out!

This is my first attempt at inkle weaving, so I’m probably going to start with some plain yarns and then work up to the beaded ones. At least, that’s the theory. Knowing my magpie tendencies, I’ll probably start with at least a few beaded warp threads, just to see what happens.