New Toys (and some really cool "How-Tos)

On International Women's Day, my favorite yarn store had its annual sale. :)  Here's what I picked up:
Sweater yarn:

I couldn't resist!  I've been wanting a green sweater and now, I can make one! :D (I thought it might be too much green so, I bought a skein of cream to mix it up.:))

Camo sock yarn:

Well, I only took forever and a day so, I thought Hubby deserved some yarn too! :P

Knitter's Pride colored cable cords:

I got sick of trying to figure out what length my black Knitter's Pride were so, I finally gave in and purchased different colored cords as that I would be able to tell at a glance which cord was which length.  It's been worth the splurge. :)

I also bought this on Etsy: Needle Keepers!

I've been drooling over this for ages and Hubby finally just "made" me buy it. :P  It works really well; it keeps the other pair of needles at my desired length (instead of slipping too far to the right or left), from flipping around and potentially stabbing my eyes out (I've got really long circulars)! :P  It's long enough to hold a variety of circular and interchangeable length needles and with my sock needles, it and even hold 2 pairs! (Although I think I'd rather have a NeedleKeeper for each pair! ;P)  This was totally worth it. :)  Now, I just need to figure out how many more I "need". ;)

I also found this tidbit in one of their newsletters:

Did you know there is an easy way to determine what your yarn's fiber is when you've lost the label? 

This Bleach Test is very accurate, doesn't require any guessing, and uses just a wee bit of ordinary laundry bleach.

Pour about 2 ounces of bleach into 1-cup measure, snip a length of about 4" from your yarn and drop it in the bleach. 

The yarn is a protein fiber such as wool, alpaca, mohair, angora or silk if within a few minutes it starts to 'fizz' or get tiny bubbles around it. After about 20-30 minutes in the bleach the yarn will have completely dissolved. 

If it's a cellulose fiber such as cotton, ramie, flax, rayon or linen the yarn will have entirely bleached out to it's natural color (near white in most cases) within a few minutes. 

If the fiber is a synthetic such as acrylic, nylon, polyester or metallic it will be floating on top of the bleach and not doing much else. 

If you have a blend of fibers, you will get a blend of the effects. It will be best to launder the finished garment according to the most delicate of fibers discovered herein.

Amazing, huh?!  This has been the best and easiest way (so far) to figure out mystery yarn! :)

And, I also found this tidbit:

I've used it on one of my projects and it's amazingly!  The knot is tight and will not come loose.  I'm going to keep on using it for a project I'm working on. :)