Remember when I said that if you gave me a lovely hand-dyed sock yarn I would knit a lace scarf or shawl out of it? I guess Joni took me at my word, because she not only gifted me with this soft merino sock yarn she’d dyed, she sent beaded stitch markers she’d made along with it.

Wow. Seriously nice stuff. I just sat there and stroked the yarn for awhile, wondering what I’d done to deserve this.

As the author of a book of knitted lace shawls coming out next July, I have a confession to make: I have never had stitch markers. I’ve always just placed snips of a contrasting yarn between the stitches, which tend to snag out, disappear, travel down the rows into irrelevancy, and basically make my lace look like a bad hair day. Just waiting for some hospital orderly to address it as “sir.” The whole ninth of a yard. But now! My needles have jewelry to separate my pattern repeats and I am very very delighted with it all.

That wreath-y type thing came with instructions for knitted cuffs, and has its own beaded stitch marker at the top (which is being camera shy there), but when I saw it, my immediate reaction was, oh cool! Yarn as jewelry. Hang it from a silver chain. I am so there. I’m picturing the Saint Bernards in the Alps thing, with rescue supplies around their necks. Do my hair up with some dpn’s, and I’m good to go anywhere anytime. I tell you: this is so me. Wow.

Thank you, Joni!