Three Irish Girl mini's

Last fall, Three Irish Girls (they make hand-dyed yarns) announced they were retiring some of their colorways, and there was a sale on those colors.  Now one of the knitters on the GoFastKnitLeft group on Ravelry - for NASCAR fans is seriously addicted to TIG yarn.  I tease her all the time about her yarn and button stash (seriously she buys buttons by the pound!)  Anyway since a lot of us are knitting hexipuffs/flats out of sock/fingering weight socks - she suggested that we get together and buy all the colors and split the hanks into mini-skeins.  She even volunteered to do the weighing and winding and mailing.  I've been wanting to try TIG yarn, I keep hearing great things about it, but I also hear great things about  Wollmeise and I really can't stand the feel of that yarn while knitting.  I am told it gets better after blocking and with subsequent washing/ blocking- but as I give away a lot of my knit items ( I am what's classified a process knitter - I like the process of knitting as opposed to a project knitter who has joy from finishing a project) really the fun part of the yarn is the knitting and I don't enjoy knitting with Wollmeise.  ) I anticipate knitters with torches and pitchforks at my door momentarily.

As anyone who has gone yarn shopping with me - I seriously touch - All. The . Yarn. The touch is almost as important as the color.  And  I will pass on the perfect color if I don't like the touch.  So I hesitated and ever bought TIG since there aren't any stores around here that have the yarn to pet.  This group purchase seemed to be the perfect solution.  For a reasonably low price - I would get a mini skein in adorn sock yarn in each of the discontinued colors.  I can make my flats (and some owls & ornaments too) and see how I like the yarn.  I figured, If I really hated it - I could always send it out as swap goodies.

I did realize up front that this yarn would take a while.  They dye the yarn to order - they would need to dye enough for all of us- send it to Jen, she would have to take the time to weigh, split and wind all of it- then ship it.  So I paypal'd her my share and went back about my business.  She did say something when she got the yarn, and then the occasional comment when she was working on it. I really wasn't worried about it- it's going to take me a long time to finish the blanket - and it's not like I don't have miles of yarn already in the house to play with.

Yesterday when I got home - I checked the mail.. yawn.. boring... I saw i had pm' (private msgs) on Ravelry but didn't open them until almost 5pm.  One of my messages was Jen with my tracking number!! Yay!! Happiness!!  I went to track my package to see where my goodies were and it said delivered at 3:07pm (I got home at 2:30) Put pants and shoes back on to o back to the mailbox, opened the door and there between my door & storm door was this:



I didn't even have to get dressed grrr.  It was already dark - so that is not the greatest picture light wise - but it is grey and raining this afternoon - so even less picture friendly.  I'll let you know how Ilike it when I cast on - but it pets really well!