Whirlwind

If I can give one piece of advice, it would be this:  Do not underestimate The Blog.

I was completely blown away by the response to my last post about the Kromski Mazurka.  You were all so eager to offer advice, hunt down wheels, suggest other options, and sympathize with me that it left my head spinning.

Thanks greatly to all of you wonderful readers, I spent much of yesterday online looking at wheels and considering my options.  It has been a whirlwind of emails and phone calls and discussions with countless people.  I have read about wheels until my eyes glazed over and considered everything I am looking for in a spinning wheel and now my brain kind of hurts, but I will tell you this:

I am going to have a spinning wheel in the very near future, and it isn't a Mazurka.  Shocking, right?  After taking everyone's advice and doing more research about wheels, I decided to go with another wheel in the Kromski family.  I'll let you all know more about it in a couple of weeks when I'll be able to see it in person and I thank you all so much for your eagerness to help me with this exciting purchase!

And speaking of exciting purchases, I mentioned the other day that I found some wonderful yarn at my LYS (in Minnesota, where I am currently located) recently and here it is:

I've been trying to limit my yarn purchases lately to yarn I have never seen or used before and I have to tell you, this one practically jumped off the shelves at me.  It's Imperial Stock Ranch Tracie in the Canyon Shadow and Indigo Heather colorways.  Have any of you ever used this yarn?  It's a woolen-spun, 100% wool sportweight yarn and it feels incredible.  It's much softer than Bartlett or Briggs and Little and still has that wonderful lofty, wooly feel.  I haven't knit with it yet, but the swatch at my LYS was amazing.  This yarn blooms so nicely when washed and I personally think that it is definitely next-to-skin soft.

In addition to being wonderfully soft and lofty, the wool is grown and spun in the US on a farm that seems to place great importance on sustainability and environmental awareness.  I don't mean to be an infomercial and I'm not being paid to praise this yarn, but I do encourage you to check out their website and look around.  I've only rubbed this yarn on my face and buried my hands in it, but I think they have a great product and I'm pretty confident that I'll be returning to it several times in the future.  And at roughly $18 for a 4oz, 450 yard skein, I think it's also a great deal.  (And the tags double as coasters!  (Not my idea.  It's suggested on the tag itself.))