Keeping warm with new yarns

So things in our area have been a bit chilly recently. This morning I awoke to -21 (F). Photo was before coffee, a bit shaky as you can see. and my windows weren't too happy!

This is the INSIDE of my windows. I spent about an hour with a hairdryer and towels getting off the worst of it. I didn't want to leave for work and have things melt all over the place!

Our house is always SO dry inside so we use a humidifer on the furnace. We neglected to turn it down this week. Oopsy.

Even though it's been quite frigid here, we have been keeping warm at the shop by unloading LOTS of new yarns. It's a time consuming process, though it is pretty fun since we can oooooh and aaaaah over each bag that comes out. On Tuesday of this week we got our Noro shipment. It was large, to say the least. We did have a few backordered colors but for the most part we are very well stocked in all of the yarns we got. And yesterday I finally got the Noro yarns out in the shop. They are a really great addition to our already large selection of yarns. I've already made a pair of felted mittens out of the Kochoran - just took one skein! Haven't felted them yet, but that's because I'm going to felt something in Kureyon, and I don't want to be wasteful of water or energy!

The pattern books are amazing. I'm really pulled to a lot of the designs. I love Design 1 in Designer Mini Knits by Jenny Watson.It's out of the Kochoran and will be a really quick knit. This book has a TON of great patterns - socks, vests, shrugs, pillows, hats, scarves, mittens, you name it! Definitely a good buy.

I also love Pure Noro by Jane Ellison. The Manhattan sweater on the cover is so pretty:It's knit with Cashmere Island which is super soft. This booklet also has several other nice patterns for Kureyon, Silk Garden and Iro.

There's also a great sweater in Collection 3, by Jenny Watson, that is calling out to me. It's a cowl neck done in Silk Garden.

We all keep looking at the books and feeling a bit stressed - too many good designs! I'm going to have to sit down with all of them and make some hard decisions...