some stash diving

 Even though I have several projects going, I thought about starting another pair or two of socks; in particular I remembered a yarn I bought several years ago from Modern Daily Knitting. (Long enough ago it seems to be being closed out of their website; there's only one color left). The color I have - I think they had a series of modern-artist inspired colors? But it's called Basquiat, after Jean-Michel Basquiat. I think the colors in it are inspired by several of his paintings. (I don't know much about him, other that he died tragically young - he seemed to have been troubled).

I hunted through my collected patterns on Ravelry and found a lace one called Lake Front Socks. It's a fairly simple lace, and the variegation in it is low-volume enough that I suspect it will work well with the stitch pattern.

Some really bright yarns - and I do tend to like those, even some that border on what some people call "clown barf" - for things like socks and hats. So this subdued of a yarn is a little unusual for me:

 It's Studio Sock, from Neighborhood Fiber Company, and like I said, the color is called Basquiat. The red and brownish purple in it are more visible in person.

I got the ribbing done tonight, but that was it.

But yeah, I do have a LOT of yarn and maybe I do just start a few projects when I want to, and swap out what I have going. (I have lots and lots of sets of the size-1 sock needles). I particularly wanted to use the Basquiat yarn and did have to dig for it a little, it was not in the first two places I looked (Yes, I do have multiple places where I have yarn stashed). 

 

I also had a more-recently-purchased skein I got to thinking about as well. This is from a dyer on Etsy who calls their shop "Cashmere and Coconuts" and who has some interesting color names (some 1980s inspired, and I am kind of a kid of the '80s. At least, I was a tween/teen then....)

And yeah, while the '80s were not a good time in many ways, for me they were a simpler time, and there are some things I do miss - Saturday morning cartoons on the networks, and malls, and how the Weather Channel used to be (that may have been more of a '90s thing, though, I remember how sometimes in - I think it was grad school - when I couldn't sleep I'd get up and go downstairs and just watch it, the sort-of-rolling graphics of the local conditions and forecast, and the quiet "vaporwave" jazz they played under it, and in a way it was a televised equivalent of those malls, where nothing much ever happened (certainly nothing BAD) and it was climate-controlled, and at least on weekdays it was fairly quiet)

And one of the colors the dyer I mentioned had was called "vaporwave"

And so, out of nostalgia - though I don't think we used the term vaporwave back then - I bought a skein:

 It's the one on the right - mostly a cream color but with flashes of various intensity of hot pink, and yellow, and a little orange, and some black. Very '80s/'90s looking. This one will just be plain socks, I don't think I want a stitch pattern on these.

I also have a skein of hers with darker, stronger colors (including purple and an almost-poison green, but the other colors similar to this) called "Mixed Tape" (which is another largely vanished thing from those days)

Anyway.....I can ALMOST imagine "It's 1992, you're at your parents' house, you don't currently have to work on your thesis research, it's summer and it's warm out but they have air conditioning in their new house, and you can just relax..."

 Or, alternatively: "It's 1995, you're at a conference in an unfamiliar city. You've already done your research talk and it went well, it's evening, you were able to get room service for dinner, and you have this on for background noise while you eat and relax"