Funky Scarf!!!

I've been eagerly awaiting the arrival of my Funky Scarf Swap scarf, and it arrived today! I'm SO happy with it - it was actually one of the ones that was posted on the swap blog, and I had really liked it there and was keeping my fingers crossed that I might be it's lucky recipient! And so I was :) Hillary knitted this lovely multidirectional scarf and matching hat (!) for me, and also included two bars of yummy dark chocolate and some very pretty stitch markers. As usual this isn't the best photo, but you get the idea of how cool the scarf is, right? I love the colors, and it's knit with Knit Picks Andean Silk so it's very soft, and she also carried along something shiny so it's got a bit of a sparkle as well, but isn't overwhelming. I'm so excited about this swap, as it was my first swap that involved knitting something for someone and receiving something knit by someone else (aside from Sock Wars, which was quite a different type of operation), and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I knit a funky scarf for Marisol, who reports that she is quite happy with it, despite it's brightness (last part of that sentence was me - she didn't mention the brightness, but the scarf was practically glow-in-the-dark). So, it was a great success, and a big thank you to the hostesses - you gals did a great job! Perhaps a funky hat swap next? Actually, that could get ugly quickly, so maybe not...
In other news, there has been stash enhancement. Shibani and I went on a minor yarn crawl on Saturday, and while she was well-behaved (well, having just bought a bunch of yarn in NYC, perhaps she was just being reasonable?), there was no way I would let you down by not improving the stash!

The Yosemite is for another giant ribbed scarf like the one I'm wearing here. Thank you, Nora, for thinking it looked like a knitting magazine photo! Too bad I didn't knit that scarf! I've been asked about that by several people so I should fess up that I bought it a couple of years ago at H&M, for about the price of ONE skein of the Yosemite, which looks to me to be quite similar yarn (there is also a similar Rowan yarn, I forget which one, but you'd need to sell a kidney to buy enough to make a scarf with it). Anyway, that scarf is long and thick and ribbed for my pleasure I love it, so I'm going to make another one. The Trekking, well, it was pretty, and sock yarn doesn't count, right? I also bought this a couple of weeks ago, but it's not for me, so it doesn't count either! This is apparently the official yarn-photo-shoot bowl now...

Oh, and I've been knitting, see? This is the RPM sock from Knitty, in mediumweight Socks that Rock. I love this yarn. I had forgotten how much. It's spectacular. If you've never used it, you really should sell your firstborn and get your hands on some!