Epic Yarn Adventure

It was not so much an epic adventure in the sense that I came home with vast amounts of yarn, it was just epic time-wise. I headed off to the yarn store this late morning, looking for some sock yarn for Mother's Day, and to scope out this particular store's selection of laceweight for the Epic 60th Birthday Present. I wasn't expecting much on the lace end of things, but lo and behold, none of the sock yarn was what I wanted, but they had some Skacel merino that was quite possible. Affordable laceweight in red? Yes, please.

Being clever, or so I thought, when the owner asked me if I'd like it swifted, I said yes, thanks, and wandered off to run some other errands while she wound it up. She said it would take about 20 minutes, so after some tea-shopping, I turned up maybe half an hour later, and my poor yarn was not even half-done. Turns out it was epically knotty and difficult and just plain cranky, and it took AN HOUR to ball. Holy crap. So I had a nice chat with the owner, poor thing, she was just mortified. But I wasn't in a hurry, so really, it was ok. It was kind of funny, honestly. Typical of me to pick the snarled skein. I knew I should have gone with the lavender!

Anyway, here is the resulting yarn cake. Admire it. It was hard-won.



And here's a photo of good ol' Mr Shawl. I'm starting to freak out just a smidge wondering if the whole thing is going to fit on these straight needles. I have a size 2 (I think) circular needle, but it's got a metal cord which is kind of rough, and it scares me. Cross your fingers and think economical thoughts! Tell my shawl this is no economy to outgrow the needles I already have!