my 100th post--holy crap.  the 1 year Blogiversary came and went without fanfare, but somehow, the 100th post feels like a huge milestone.  in honor of it, this will be a GIGANTIC post.  yippee!!!!
this weekend involed running around to 3 different LYS.  mmmmm.  G and i finally got to check out Sheep Street Fibers.  It's a lovely shop, and i really wish that my wheel wasn't being a shithead, cause there was soooo many different spinning fibers there!  silk hankies, merino top dyed lovely jewel tones, cashmere, merino/silk blends...oh, it made me dizzy!  i resited temptation, listened to the reasonable voice in my head saying "um...your wheels all janky.  maybe you should just get some yarn..."  and i did that.  i picked up 2 skiens of Nature Spun Worsted in Coffee Bean and Garland for mittens (more on those in a second). 
then, we went to Stitches & Scones.  oh, i love that store.  we picked up one of their bags--and what a great bag it is--zipper pockets, big enough for a sweater in progress--that gives us a 10% discount every time we shop there.  how cool is that?  i also picked up a set of Bryspun DPN's (i love the Bryspun needles and their scoopy little tips) and a pair of 9 mm, 47" long Addis to use with mobius strip things.  i finally broke down and bought a skien of Malabrigo merino.  the colorway i picked at first confused me--it's not really of colors i normally would chose--then i looked at it all wound into a ball and it hit me:  it lookes exactly like autumn leaves!  autumn is my most favorite season, and i'm hard-core gunning for it to get here!  i think the yarn was my plea to mother nature to hurry it up!  i'm planning on making a felted bowl or bag or something with this.  it's really lovely yarn, and i sorta want to buy enough to make a little nest out of...*sigh*
i got some new beadworking tools, and i made up a few stitch markers on Sunday.  i love the subversive set on the bottom--they make me giggle so. 
i really needed a break from Eris, so i decided to make these awsome squirrel & oak mittens from Hello Yarn.  i got some Dale Falk at Mass Ave on Friday, cast on and finished mitten 1 in about 3.5 hours (whoot!) green and chocolate brown (their gonna be "thin minttnes" hahaha).  blocked it out and all that, and CRAP!!!  i don't make mittens, so i'm not terribly firmilar with the sizing and what not.  and, as small as i am, i have freakishly long fingers (i normally can't wear store bought gloves and such cause the fingers are always waaaayyy too short).  these factors combined to make a tiny weeny mitten that doesn't fit me at all!  and it looked so good!  i picked up some worsted weight yarn (above mentioned Nature Spun) and some 3.5 mm DPN's, and i think that that will make a mitten that i'll actually be able to wear.  i'm also going to change the pattern to make the thumb with a gore.
my Lace Swap pal let me know that my package is in the post!  it's coming from Australia!  how cool is that????  i'm super jazzed!

the fella got off of work early today, so we decided to go check out another LYS that we'd never been to before.  (i'd thought that it was a good drive away, but it's not too far!)  i must say, i think that this store was awsome.  It's called Stitches and Scones, and it may just turn into my favored LYS while we are still in this area.  everyone was super helpful and friendly.  granted, i do have one of the coolest accessories for starting up conversations at LYS--a guy who knits.  it's pretty fabulous when a staff member comes over to G and quietly tells him there are couches if he wants to sit down to wait for me, and he says "oh!  actually, i knit too!"  it's so the best. anyhow, the people were nice, the selection was awsome, and they have a really cool insentive/discount program--the sell a bag with there shop logo to you for $15, and then every time you come in and buy something, if you have the bag, you save 10%.  how cool is that?  and who couldn't use more project bags?

That said, let me offer forth my opinion (and this is just based on my experiances at the named shops--take it with a grain of salt) of the Indianapolis area LYS G and i have been to.  Sure, the now defunct Bo Peep's was super friendly, but they really didn't have all that great a selection.  Mass Ave Knit Shop is just huge, has lots of yarn, and is overall pretty friendly.  it is at times, however, rather lousey with the cliques.  G and i have been going there for close to two years now, so we're pretty well recognized, but it was rather interesting with some of the staff for a while.  the owner, Susan, is a freakin' doll though. The Knit Shop, a fancy botique-style store right on 82nd street, is full of high-end yarns, but some of the staff make me want to pull out my freakin' hair.  it was here that one of the works informed me that i was S.O.L. if i wanted lace weight yarn that wasn't mohair.  HA!  the owner has a couple pomeranians that run all over the shop, too, which for me isn't a problem, but i'm not allergic to dogs.  The Golden Thimble in Broadripple has a lot of yarn in a tiny tiny space, but no one has ever been nice to us when we've gone there.  they eye us suspiciously as we walk around and everything.  also, they have a minimum purchase price for credit cards which is posted NO where that i saw.  i wanted a set of needles and had to buy (oh i know twist my arm) a skien of yarn to meet the price requirement.  not a big deal, but i would have liked some warning.  That's all the shops i've been to around here.  if anyone knows of any i missed, let me know cause i'd like to check them out!

so, you wanna see the yarn i picked up from Stitches and Scones?  they had Rowan Cork on their sale wall--40% off--so i picked up 3 skiens of the "Sour" colorway for a scarf.  more on the scarf as it developes.  i've got a bitchin' design in my head, and we'll see if i can translate it to 3-d real life shit.

oh dear god.  i have been initiated into the world of knitting with beads.  for so long, i had held out against the siren call of beads, glittery, sparkledy bits of happiness that they were.  sure, i picked up the odd bag of beads here in there, ya know, for making cutie stitch markers and the like, but it was all just innocent, i swear.  cause i knew what would happen if i gave in.  that brings me to the pattern that tempted me to the darkside--Perdita from the 06 summer Knitty.  oh, foul temptress.  i didn't succumb to any of the other beaded patterns i oohed over cause, well, they're all major investments of time and money.  but these cuffs are just the opposite.  cheap?  yeah, less than $3--and that's if i bought new beads every time.  quick?  i've completed 2 since yesterday, and i'm on my third.  and look what i picked up tonight: see all the Perle cotton?  i found it on clearance, 3 for $1.  and i've heard rumors that another big chain craft store has 'em for 50 cents. 
i've chosen beads in a smokey color and silver ones.  here are the two that i've finished so far:  i felt like a fancy Wonder Woman when i had them both on.  the steel colored one is the Blue bell pattern done in the called for thread/yarn, and it is now in the possesion of a dear friend.  the purple one is made out of Knitpicks Shadow in Vineyard (left over from the Lily stole) and it's the Lilac pattern.  it will also be going to a friend.   i love this pattern.  ah, lace--if you've ever read this blog, you know how i feel about lace. 
oh, this is a slippery slope, i can tell.  after i finished the first one, i chatted ceaselessly to the fellow for about 15 minutes about all the things i could do with beads in my knitting....save us all.

one of my favorite area LYS is closing its doors at the end of the month.  Bo Peep's Fiber Shop in Greenwood is done, and that's really sad--HOWEVER, the 20% off of everything in the store isn't sad.  i decided to comfort my grief with a bit of Stash Enhancement:

i got a skein of Skacel Merino Lace in color 417 (navy).  it's not my most favorite color, but i have such a love for lace done in deep, sophisticated palettes.  to me, it just makes the work so very rich.  the one skein has 1375yds in it--oh yeah!

i also picked up 7 skeins of the Cascade Pima Tencel in shade 1693 (an icy sky blue).  now, i'm really not a huge fan of blue--i much prefer purples and reds for wear, but i love how this yarn feels and the blue was all they had in any significant amount.  i'm envisioning this worked up into perhaps the Picovoli tee.  it's just so soft and smooth--perfect for a summer top.

and because i've been really smitten with the idea of felted bowls/vase type things lately, i picked up some 8 mm double pointeds.