Cotton Addiction

 I went to my favorite yarn store today, Nature's Yarns in Fairfax.  Really good quality yarn, really pretty colors, always tempted to buy the whole store.  They have the best selection of high quality cotton yarn I've seen (along with a lot of other fibers--I tend to gravitate toward cotton). 

One of the books I got yesterday was Crocheted Bakemono (Monsters!) by  Lan-Anh Bui and Josephine Wan. Many of the patterns call for fun colors, which I don't often get to use because most of what I make are animals. 

The yarn usually comes twisted up, as you can see to the left and down below.  You can see the whole array of colors in a variegated or painted yarn design this way.  These particular yarns are Cascade brand Ultra Pima. (Except for the smaller skein up top there, which I'll explain later.) So soft!

 Got a nice pink-purple, dark teal, seafoam green (which looks grey in that picture, but it's not I promise ha-) and a sky blue.  They'll look great in any combination.

 I came home and wound them into center-pull skeins on my yarn winder.  It doesn't take very much time to do, but I find it sort of mesmerizing... the yarn swift spinning as the winder pulls it and twists it perfectly.  I used to hand-wind my yarn into balls, and sometimes I still do with the sari silk, but using the winder is a lot faster and prevents knotting in the process.

 All four colors together (you can see the seafoam color a bit better in this picture, but it doesn't do justice to the shine of the teal color).

And this little guy is an acrylic/cotton blend from Berroco.  It was so shiny that my camera didn't want to focus up close, but the colors are so amazing, I can't wait to find a project for this! :)

These yarns give excellent results in amigurumi... so far I've only tested it out in baby gifts for friends, but I'm very glad to have a larger supply now so that I can make some for my donations project.  It's so nice to work with... (grabs hook)