I want a new drug... / by jen geigley

Well, actually I found a new drug. Handspun yarn. And my dealer is MaraJane. Okay, her name is Mary. This isn't starting off well. Okay, starting over. This has nothing to do with drugs.

So I had met Mary briefly a couple of times at Craft Saturday, but that was before I was a knitter. I had ooohed and ahhhed over her yarn but never bought any because I didn't know exactly what to do with it. Now that I have spread my knitting wings, I emailed (okay, Twittered) her to see if she could spin some custom yellow/gray/black texturey yarn for me. And lucky for me, she took pictures of the process... this is how it started.

And there you go...

...95+ yards of my perfect yarn. She added in different fibers to make it super rad.

And then, as I was browsing through her Flickr photos, drooling over my new yarn, I came across this picture. My yarn, and apparently, my yarn's best friend.

Lucky for me, this fantastically cool multicolored skein wasn't sold yet, so I got them both. And I've been knitting ferociously ever since they arrived at my house in the mail on Saturday. Watch out, I have found my calling. I seriously can't put this stuff down. I was really inspired after reading an interview with Diva Zappa in the new issue of Knit.1. That girl is killer cool. I'm working on a project with the black and yellow skein first. I'm not going to tell you what I'm making yet, but I've already named it "Iron Maiden."

Anyway, yarn lovers – definitely go check out marajane creations on Etsy. She's crazy talented and I have been (obviously) very happy with the quality of her yarn. The colors, the softness... everything. Pictured above is another skein I bought from her awhile ago and it is sooooooo much softer and warmer and comfier than I had ever anticipated. And incredibly fun to knit with. I don't know why, but I had assumed that handspun might be a little bit coarse or scratchy but I was so wrong! It's probably the softest stuff I've used yet.

Also had to pick this up today... Elise Blaha's 'celebrate summer' mini book kit. (Her example of what you can do with this kit is amazing... pretty printed papers, endless room for photos and a place to jot everything down. I think I'm taking this baby with me to Vegas later this month. And to TN in June.)

Get yours now while you can... I'm guessing they won't last long!

I think I'm venturing out to Mars Café for this. I know, I know, I knit... but crochet is super intriguing and I would love to use the two together.

And today I bought the new Ben Harper and Relentless7 album here for only $3.99 in anticipation for 80/35 later this summer. Excited to give it a listen.

And I laughed and smiled when I watched this girl's video on her blog today. (This is just a screen capture, not a video, sorry!) Because not only do I get to meet this NYC girl in June for the first time, but we get to go on a road trip adventure, we get to be roomies for a weekend, and Lord knows what else. There will be jokes and stories and incriminating videos for sure. Pretty excited for that. Anyway, there's just something cool about seeing and hearing someone for the first time (I'm talking about you, blog friends.) So I'm officially tagging anyone who reads this and asking you to post a video on your blog. Especially you, Sandy, Heather, Angie, Danielle (and Patty, do another one if you want!) If you can't think of anything to say, tell me five things that I should know about you. Because all ever you do is type to me. I want to hear you. :)