Well trained

When we were in London last summer, my mom and I visited a couple of yarn shops, trying to find souvenir yarn. My rules were few, but fairly specific: the yarn must be something from the United Kingdom, but it could not be something that I could easily find in the U.S. As lovely as Rowan yarns are, I wanted something different, and special, and probably produced on a lower-scale. This proved to be somewhat difficult in the two yarn stores I went to, All the Fun of the Fair and I Knit. Both of these stores are amazing and if you should find yourself in London, I highly recommend scoping out both of them. But if you’re going to be choosy, as I was, be prepared to have to dig around a little bit (I Knit usually carries Fyberspates, a yarn line I’d heard good things about, but was out of stock at the time). I did eventually find yarn in both stores to buy—I’ve used one of those skeins to knit socks earlier this year, and the other two skeins are both a DK-weight Scottish yarn that I haven’t knit with yet.

So while I was digging through and probably muttering under my breath (nothing untoward, I just tend to mutter aloud to myself when shopping for yarn: “Do I like this? What would I knit with this? Is there another skein in this color?” Don’t pretend you don’t do the same), my mother must have been paying attention to my rules. She and my dad and grandfather went on a train ride across Canada recently, and she bought me yarn! Canadian yarn, that isn’t that easy to find here in the States.

Fleece Artist Merino 2/6 in an unnamed colorway that I can’t match by digging through Ravelry stashes. If this looks familiar to you and you know the name, let me know!

My mom was super excited that she’d found yarn for me. Her giddiness was quite adorable, and I’m hoping she’ll attempt to repeat the experience when she goes to Italy later this year. (Seriously, who said she could go on all these vacations without me?! Isn’t that in the parental rule book or something?)

Earlier this year, my parents went to Kentucky (unfortunately this was not for a pleasure jaunt). While they were there, they toured a bit of the edges of Amish country, and my mom bought me a pair of birch needles that were hand-made of locally harvested and sustainable wood.

She told me “I hope you can use them, or just stick them in a skein of yarn and let them be pretty.” While I don’t usually use straights, I may have to find a small project to use these (they’re a US 6), just to try them out.

Why yes, this is an entire post about how awesome my mom is and how she spoils me a bit. What’s your point?