When my family asked me for my Christmas list this year, the number one item on it was yarn. Yarn is an excellent present for me. I like yarn! I use yarn! It is something I will get to enjoy and think of you! But much like many people don't like to buy me books because I have a lot of them and know a lot about them, most people are a little nervous about buying me yarn. (Reasonably enough.)

Fortunately for me, my sister does not feel the same way. Whose sister rules? My sister! (And her boyfriend too, although I'm not sure how participatory he was in this. However, I can't fault that as my sister received a hand knit sweater, photos to follow, so it's not like Jamie was highly participatory in her gift. Although he does clean the house while I knit, so he did help.)

Anyway, Beth went with my stepmother-in-law on a trek to several yarn stores around Vancouver, where she lives. In my stocking, I found this!


Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, in the colourway Flames which I specifically mentioned to Beth as being one I was very partial to. (Have I mentioned that my sister rules? She listens to me talk about yarn and looks at websites and makes encouraging remarks! This pays off as I knit more for her than anyone else, so it's a sound strategy, but it is nonetheless appreciated.) This was in my stocking. Yay!

This was the first package under the tree that I unwrapped. It's handspun hand dyed yarn, and that's all I know. I'm pretty sure it's 100% wool, and the colours are really awesome. It's a little scratchy so I gave it a bath in wool wash and we'll see how it is after that. Suggestions welcome for what it would look best in that doesn't need to go next to the skin!



And, finally, the really awesome one - this is 100% silk. Woo! The colours are GORGEOUS and it's 100g of laceweight, so I could really do something quite epic with this. I have no idea what. I'm a little intimidated by it, actually - I feel like I'm not smart enough for this yarn. But I will soldier on and make something with it. It's already wound up and looking pettable over on the desk.





I did get many other excellent gifts - a laptop backpack (which will be really useful for travelling when I take my laptop, as it means I won't have to take a backpack AND my laptop case), both seasons of Veronica Mars (woohoooo!), a gift certificate for the bookstore (yay!), Season 1 of ER on DVD, and a shirt that I picked out myself. But the yarn is the most exciting, I think. Jamie bought me yarn for my birthday, but that was yarn that I specifically asked for. This is randomly chosen yarn! By a non-knitter! Isn't it impressive? Clearly the knitting knowledge is in the genes even if she doesn't know how to knit.

Yet.