Two wonderful discoveries

I made two amazing discoveries today.

The first is a new yarn.

While shopping at a LYS today I stumbled across a new yarn. The yarn is made by a localish company J. Knits. The yarn I bought is superwash sock yarn in the color Boston. The yardage is great at 420 yards to the hank but the price is a little steep at $26. With my big feet I'm always happy for big yardage. The yarn is very soft and I like the 25% nylon. The dye is great with lots of variation in color while still being almost solid. I love all the hand dyed sock yarns available but I'm hankering for some solidish yarn for cable patterns.

The second discovery is related to photography.

Taking photos in my Colonial during the winter months is tricky. In fact, even getting good outside photos is difficult because capturing the sun seems to be impossible. Tonight I realized that the best lighting in my house is in my bathroom on my counter. The photo I took of my new yarn is awfully close to the real thing. I'm just thrilled to have discovered a place I can take photos this winter. Of course, I'll still try to get the wonderful natural light of the outdoors but this is going to work for me.

In knitting news ...
Today I finished knitting my second First Toe Up Trekking sock. I just need to bind off and the pair will be finished. I'm anxious to wash them and hope the yarn softens up quite a bit.

While at the LYS, I used their swift and winder to wind my new yarn as well as my new hank of Cherry Tree Hill for the second Dublin Bay sock. I need to get the original second sock off the needles and mail it to the store so they can send it on to Cherry Tree Hill to examine all the knots and then I just need to take a deep breath and cast on again for the new second Dublin Bay sock. I really do love the yarn and the pattern and can't wait to wear these socks.