The Yarnarian has more yarn and talks about Jause.

Holey Moley, you practically cleared me out! Here's what's left: Nisian, Sigurd, and Undine.





I have 3 new Alexa yarns to show you. Yes, I know. You want MCN, but woman does not live by MCN alone. You need other skinny yarns, too.

Alexa Yarn: 80/20 SW merino/nylon, 4 oz, approx 420 yards. Very soft and strong. Makes great socks and scarves. $20 + shipping

Ella, Morning Mist, and Vert





If you want today, let me know. Otherwise it all goes to Etsy.

fritzL234 AT yahoo DOT com

And now I'm going to relax and think about Monday's dye session. One of my customers asked if I do team colors. I did a couple of skeins once, but that was it. I'll do a custom for her. Are any of you interested? These would be straight dye jobs, no fancy schmancy mixing of colors.

Tea news: Scrabblequeen asked me to post the teas I bought at Teavana, so here they are: Almond Biscotti (black tea), Raspberry Riot Lemon Mate (mate), Pear Luna (white tea), Sweet Oolong Revolution (oolong), and 2 Rooibos teas - Zingiber Ginger Coconut and Tahitian Limeade. Oh, and I also bought Sweet Spice something or other, which is a white tea.

Do you think I bought enough tea? I buy sweet smelling teas from Teavana; I save the serious, real teas for Harney and Upton. But I do like these "play" teas very much. It's a nice change from the assams, and keemuns and others. I'm a serious tea drinker; if I could live on just tea and homemade bread, I'd be a happy camper.

Recently I've also gone back to coffee. We bought the Tassimo coffee maker, and that revived my coffee fix. So I bought some beans, ground a bit of them up, and I have a cuppa daily. I grew up having "Milch Kaffee". The family would assemble at my grandparents' every Saturday afternoon for Jause (Austrian coffee/tea and food), and as a kid, I'd get milk coffee - a small cup of coffee with a lot of milk. Today we'd call it a latte, but then we called it Milch Kaffee. So I had it hot, milky and sweet, and I still like it that way. And once in a while I'd get it mit Schlag. Whipped cream! Those Austrians know a thing or two about coffee.

We'd have all sorts of goodies with the coffee: rolls with Liptauer cheese, Hungarian desserts (the Austrians originally came from Hungary), good eats. People don't do this any more, and it's a great pity. Now we go to the malls, which is no substitute. The whole family would descend upon my grands, and friends would show up too. All these folks were refugees from some German-speaking country or other, and I'd hear all sorts of accents. I didn't know it then, but there was German from Berlin, Switzerland (those that got out of Austria), and the normal Viennese dialect with a bit of a Hungarian accent. And everyone would talk at once, and everyone knew exactly what the other conversations were about, and would chime in whenever they wanted to. It was language chaos, and I loved it.

And the political discussions would fly; my grandfather was a passionate political person, and there would occasionally be a table pounding, and much finger shaking, and then my uncle would speak. The entire table would become quiet because this man never spoke, so when he opened his mouth, it was as if pearls of wisdom were about to fall. He was a very handsome man, my uncle. Looked like Barry Goldwater. And did pearls of wisdom actually come forth? No, but he was such a quiet man, that everyone took his words for the ultimate truth.

He was about 6 feet, and my aunt was 4'9", and they made the cutest couple. We called her Tante Grete, and he was called Onkel Longie (because he was tall in my shorty family). All those times are gone, alas, but I have very fond memories of them.

Knitting news: I finished it. The gansey is done!!!! Just needs a nice wet blocking and I can then show you a picture. I think I like it. It's kind of fitted, which I don't wear much. No intake on the sides, just it wants to mold itself like a fitted sweater. And now I'm playing with my new Brooks Farm yarn.

Ella is grabbed.

Undine and Vert are grabbed! You are amazing people! I could dye just for you all and be a happy camper!

itsJUSTme-wendy - Take a look at the Etsy shop; I have a bunch of pretty lighter color yarns there. And I just listed the Hannah yarn from last week. I needed to hold onto it for a custom order, but now that's done, and I have enough yarn to sink a battleship, so I'm selling it. Geez, that's a long answer!

Henya - nah, we didn't drink black coffee. Austria is the land of Schlagobers. whipped cream. You would be amazed at the arguments going on while drinking milk and coffee.

Denise Vitola - Did your family all talk at the same time like mine did? I always thought that everyone's family worked like that. I was stunned to eat dinner at a friend's house where only one person spoke at a time.