It's been a bit since I've written on here.

OK, a really, really long time. My last post came when I was still in Switzerland. So that was November.

There are reasons, I swear! Life got in the way, depression, work, old job then a new job and a long slow recovery.

I feel like I'm digging myself out two years of mental ambushes between exploding relationships and horrible job. Since January though, things are at least turning uphill.

In all of that, writing and sometimes even knitting fell by the wayside. It's hard to write when you are catatonic.

Then along comes the Knit and Crochet Blog Week. I did this last year and liked the excuse to write on a topic each day. It seemed like a good way to slide back into writing for myself some.

So the first topic is a tale of two yarns, something you love and something you hate.

No photos for this at the moment.

When I was in the midst of bad things at the old job there was one very bad day. More of a concentrated explanation of every reason and way I sucked as a writer and reporter. So I decided to treat myself to something lovely.

Yarn Barn in Kansas carries Buffalo Gold yarn. It has brilliant colors, is amazingly soft and is fantastically expensive. I would never buy it under normal circumstances because it is so pricy.

This time though I decided to get some. Buffalo down, silk and cashmere, in a greenish turquoise lace weight yarn. It's still twisted in the original hank. I haven't even wound it in a ball and I don't think I ever will.

It's not enough to make anything with and I like just having it. In the middle of a lot of bad things and some very down times it was this little bit of perfect I could pull out and smile at.

It's one of those times I'm glad I'm not in the habit of treating myself with expensive things all the time. Like everything else, you can build an immunity to luxury. When you do it takes more and more to have any affect.

That 40 grams of fiber still makes me smile - because it is soft, because I like the color, because it was a very special treat.

So there is the yarn I love - or one of them at least.

On the opposite spectrum I have a rather large ball of Lionheart Homespun wound in this lump the size of a basketball.

I started a blanket with it.

Twice.

The first time was my ill-begotten idea to teach myself crocheting. That didn't work so well, and since I was planning to make an afghan for my first project there was a lot of yarn looped in to the misshapen thing I had started.

So the misshapen thing became a giant ball of yarn - eventually I figured I would make a giant blanket - only knitted this time.

I even cast on and started on a pattern of my own invention. I got about 10 rows in and lost all interest.

Any number of projects have distracted me since then. Sweaters, wine totes, socks, baby stuff, baby blankets - you name it I've likely knitted something in that category.

Through it all the giant ball and lonely forgotten needles sit there making me feel guilty.

It's not that I exactly HATE the yarn. I just prefer jewel toned cottons, Merino and alpaca. Acrylic might repel moths and other fiber munching beasts but apparently it also kind of repels me.

I need to do something with it, and maybe I will eventually. Give it to some child learning to knit? Hold it up as a cautionary tale.

Maybe the zombie apocalypse will come and I'll want the warmth of a knitted afghan.

When I'm done with all this other yarn OK?