I haven't posted in a while because I've been busy moving down the street. Unfortunately, we hit a snag where our new place won't be available until the 9th of August, but we had to move out of our old place by July 31. The temporary, unsatisfactory solution? - We moved all of our junk to a dark, dusty garage without air conditioning. I was afraid that my yarn stash would mold in all of this heat and humidity (on Wednesday it was 100 in NJ with a heat index of 110!) so I made my poor, put-upon husband take my rapidly growing out-of-control stash all the way to Ithaca where we are temporarily staying with a friend until our new apartment becomes available. Our friend's place is not good enough for my yarn either ;) - there are bugs galore who have made themselves quite at home - so the stash is sitting in my husband's campus office, much to the amusement of his office mates.

And I've added to the stash in the few short days I've been here in Ithaca - a small town with two yarn stores! I got my first assignment as a sample knitter for my favorite of the two shops - Knitting Etc. I don't have the USB cables for my camera with me, so pictures will have to wait, but I get to knit with a luxuriously soft, alpaca-silk sportweight blend (Blue Sky Alpaca's Alpaca & Silk). And I'm knitting a shrug! I just hope I don't disappoint the proprietor of the store. She's so nice and enthusiastic. It's definitely a good change in direction for the knitting community here as she has big plans with classes and such. It's really nice to have a space where one can knit happily with like-minded individuals. And I can see how sample knitting can get addictive. In the past, my knitting has been confined to objects I *think* I might actually wear. Now, the sky's the limit! I can see much actual work being shunted aside for this new, dangerously seductive opportunity :)

Until I can get my own pictures up, here's a stock photo from the company website of the shrug: