Birthday in Paradise

It's my birthday!  Because I work tonight I have so far seen no other living soul save the UPS man who was delivering a package not to me but to my roommate (I still came close to opening the box.  What could she possibly want that came all the way from Texas?).  So I have spent the majority of my day working on this.

Nutkin by Beth LaPensee in Madelinetosh Sock, Cousteau

It feels appropriate to blog about this sock on my birthday because the yarn was an early present from my parents.  Last week my dad was in the hospital.  Yes, he is ok, and the waiting while he was in surgery was so tiresome that I knit an entire hat, but that is not the point of this story.  As anyone who has had a relative in the hospital can tell you, there comes a time when the patient just wants to be left alone and go to sleep.  So last Tuesday while my dad rested before a late discharge, mom and I went five minutes down road to the most glorious shop.

Really, the name says everything.  Yarn Paradise is one of those shops that seems to have enchanted a tiny house so that there really is no end to the yarn.  As soon as you go in the door you fall into a pile of Koigu, and the fun just continues from there.  Mom wanted to get me something from here for my birthday but the choices were so overwhelming that I hemmed and hawed for quite some time before suddenly I turned around and was presented with

An entire section of Madelinetosh.  Now I have seen Madelinetosh on the internet and heard many a podcaster extol its virtues, but I had never actually been in a shop that sold it.  Boy does it live up to the hype.  In addition to the yarn my mom bought, I also picked up a skein of Tosh Vintage in Steam Age, a lovely grey streaked with teal and purple that is destined to become  a cowl.

It wasn't the wool fumes, or the fact that I had not been in a yarn shop since May, that made me fall in love with Yarn Paradise.  It really is a lovely shop and its proprietors are that perfect blend of helpful and distant.  When they came to check on the loud crash that was me fainting from the sheer variety of sock yarn they just smiled, offered kindly to help if I had any questions, and then left me to my glee.  If you ever make it to Ashville, NC, you should really check it out.  Hopefully you'll be in the area to enjoy our area's lovely foliage rather than visit the hospital.