I show this to you guys because you are my friends

This is a yarn shop. It's the spinner distributing yarns directly to knitters.

What's special?

they sell 100% cashmere yarn, yes.
also 100% yak yarn... yes. YAK.
but what got me right smack in the wallet?

70% mink and cashmere yarn. I have to know what THAT feels like.

they shear the mink, but all the other fibers are optained by combing.

The prices are extremely reasonable, too.

http://www.greatnorthernyarns.com/servlet/StoreFront

as for what else I'm doing?

Today is the first day of World of Warcraft: cataclysm. So i'm playing. goofing off, honestly, since the srvers are jammed and there's just too much traffic to get anything done.

In more cryptic news, I'm dropping a spindle on the floor.

another recipe from my spud produce box - well, mostly

I had gotten some fresh carrots.

And so I scrubbed them and cut them into fairly thin discs, so I could make carrot soup from them.

one last purple onion, diced a bit coarse and sauteed in butter. I added some herbs - thyme and basil, a bit of oregano, a bit of Lake Shore Drive seasoning for The Spice House, and a bit of their dried lemon peel, then a teaspoon of minced ginger. it got fragrant. I was thinking of adding some curry powder but I think this is fine, actually. but I did add some milled Grains of Paradise (you can use a good pepper instead.)

i had some leftovers - a bit of spaghetti squash that I had steam baked, with pepper, salt, lemon, and butter, and the last bits of a very nice red pepper, so I diced that and added it.

I decided on chicken broth this time - I poured in enough to fill in the gaps on everything. I'll let it boil for only about five minutes, and then I'll let it simmer until the carrots are tender. then it will be time to whizz it down with my stick blender. will i add cream? well maybe, but then again maybe not. the mushroom soup was pretty incredible.

I don't have any white wine, so I didn't add any. I think I will buy a bottle for my soupmaking efforts. I *do* have an orange, if I wanted to juice it and add it to the broth, but I think the lemon peel is going to bring that citrus freshness.

Soup is a really wonderful thing to make with fresh ingredients. I'm still working with shortcut stock, since I haven't bought a big old roasting chicken and it's hard to find a bone on a roast these days, but sooner or later I will find a butcher and that will be that.

I think every two weeks with a 25 dollar fresh produce box (and then another ten bucks in extras, who am I kidding) is just about perfect for me. I'mreally enjoying the fruit and vegetables, and my potato free selection, hurrah!

It's only just started gently boiling and it already smells wonderful. the dried lemon smells so bright - it's really the best dried lemon I have ever had.

ETA: I probably could have used a bit more ginger. the lemon is nice, supporting the carrots, the herbs are subtle, with the occiasional bite from a bigger bit of a grain of paradise. I milled a bit of black hawaiian salt over top, and that's good, but it makes me wonder about the lime salt i didn't buy from the market.