Well, I spent my $50 "HSICBIBTMYFYC" gift certificate from Elann this morning.

On.....sockyarn!

They had a whole bunch of colors of the Schoeller-Stahl Fortissima Colori Socka (why don't they just shorten that name? It's like the comedian who made the joke about how hyphenating names in marriage is all well and good, but when you get to the third or fourth generation and you have someone whose surname is Smith-O'Connor-Huttman-Townsend-Martin-Jacobs, then you've got a problem).

No solid colors, but there was a nice fleck ("Irish Mists") and some variegateds and marls.

I don't "need" more sock yarn, but I wanted some of the colors. And some of the yarn may become gifts either in yarn form or in sock/hat/glove form.

I was also thinking about embroidery floss last night. About how inexpensive it is compared to other craft supplies - for a quarter (sometimes less), you can get a hank of DMC floss. (I realize that it's possible the real hard-core stitchers have a different preferred brand, and think about DMC the way some knitters think about Red Heart. But whatever. DMC is reasonable and widely available). There's so much you can do with it - you can embroider or do needlepoint or counted cross stitch.

Back when I was a young (and not-so young) teenager, "friendship bracelets" made of the floss were in vogue. Part of it was, it was something you MADE to GIVE to someone you cared about. I learned how to make these sort of late - I think I was actually in college, and bored in the evenings after I finished my reading/lab writeups, and looking for something to do. (I was a weird college student - to me, the thought of going bar hopping as something to do was actively repulsive).

So I learned how. I don't think I ever actually gave any away to friends, because somehow, once you're older than 16 or so, the friendship bracelet thing becomes a little...I don't know, geeky, or something. And not geeky in a good way.

And I thought about the friendship bracelets I made - I did mostly diagonal stripes, because, as I remember, that was easiest. I think there were other patterns you could do. I have a little stash of floss and a special, steno-pad-sized clipboard where I used the clamp as a third hand to hold the bracelet in progress.

And I wondered, last night: Do people make those any more? Or have the bracelets gone the way of those ribbon barettes with the long streamers that everyone used to wear?

A quick Google search of "Friendship bracelets" turned up mostly instructions for hemp-and-bead creations, but this site had some basic information (warning: if you do not have a popup ad killer, this site will annoy you).

Klutz has a more detailed and simple set of directions, and no popups.

Coates and Clark's versions.

(There ARE other designs out there; patterns are available on this Geocities site

I presume one could also knit or crochet with the floss; I've never tried to do so.

I will also admit that sometimes I buy floss skeins, even with no project in mind, simply because I like the color.

One more thing you can do with the floss? Write poems about the colors. (there is a whole book, called "The Very Stuff," by Stephen Beal).