I've been playing ring around the rosie with the supplier who I buy my alpaca yarns from for the past few months, and I finally gave up on Tuesday.  My refund is being processed and I've already placed another order with another supplier.

About a year ago, my favorite tabi yarn supplier dried up and I had a mad scramble to find a new source.  After that, I apparently learned my lesson and have spent a few hours each week keeping tabs on prices, shipping times, etc.  I'm very glad I did because it was much less painful to lose a supplier when I had another two lined up and ready to go.

I originally ordered only three colors (green, blue, black), but I decided to rethink the colors with this second order and I have black, gray, olive, and a lovely, soft lilac on their way.  I'm going to pay back twiddletoes for some of the lilac because I have a few women in my life who will love a pair of socks out of it over the holidays.

So we'll see how this goes.  I've been itching to play with more alpaca, and the brick/rust red that I ordered retail just isn't doing it for me, for some reason.  I'd like to have some blacks, grays, and greens ready for Father's Day.

Well, I'm pretty sure the holidays have arrived.  I've had several sales where people have mentioned that they're for gifts, and have been slammed with custom orders.

I'll be glad to have a bit of a break for demand knitting, so that I can concentrate on a few things of my own.  I've got a sweater about half finished for my husband, numerous pairs of socks that need to be packaged for family, and a couple of treats for myself that I'd love to start, but I'm loving the rush, right now!

My usual supplier stopped carrying bulk of my stock yarn, so I've had to dedicate a pretty hefty chunk of time to finding a new source.  Sadly, it looks like it's going to be harder than I thought.  I've had to make some small orders, which cut into my bottom line a bit, so I really hope I'm able to locate a new supplier before my quickly approaching, scheduled yarn order!

I have a few more prototypes that I've been working on and testing, recently, and I hope I'll be on top of things enough to post back here about them soon. :)