Getting read the riot act

I should have known I was in for it with my post on lace, because someone read me the riot act last night for dismissing knitted lace. So I had to explain that I've seen some absolutely beautiful knitted lace in books, but rarely in person. I guess not many people make lace these days? Is it too out of style? Too tedious?

Of course, then we found a beautiful knitted lace shawl upstairs at Knitch so then I felt really silly. Okay, knit lace is beautiful, but I WON'T KNOW IF YOU DON'T KNIT IT. Sorry. Just had to get that out of my system.

In the midst of all this riot-acting, I found a small treasure that I just could not pass up:

It's the new lace-weight Malabrigo merino, and it looks even better in person. All the colors were lovely, but this is the 137 Emerald Blue and I thought it had the most life of the colorways available. It's silky-soft too, not that I expected any less from Malabrigo. And at almost 500 yards for less than $10, I think it's a great value. (Gee, can you tell that pretty much all my discretionary income goes into yarn?) I haven't exactly decided what to do with it yet, but I'm thinking some sort of lacy scarf. Designed by moi, of course. (Sorry. Miss Piggy moment.)

Also, it turned out I had more yarn than I needed for the family's Christmas gifts, so I traded it in for this beauty:

Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Alpine, and I have big plans for this too. So apparently, when I said I was sick of blue, I meant I was sick of quiet blue. Loud bright vibrant blue is just fine in my book.