good little granola girl

Well, the One Skein Secret Pal Exchange has offically kicked off! (i only messed up a little bit-- i'm new to this kind of secret keeping). Here is the questionaire all complete! The prose in paragraphs and italics are questions from my secret pal-- we had a little conversation.

Which yarn is most like your personality (you can be specific or general with your answer- brand, type, color, fiber, whatever)? I find this to be an extremely difficult question and one that i have never considered and i am sure i am being far too analytical about it. I have no freaking idea! I may have to get back to you!
What is your favorite color yarn to knit/crochet with? I like earth tones: browns, sage greens, sky blue and dusty rose pink-- i like a lot of colors, but the tones are not too strong.
Have you ever used variegated, or magic, yarns? (I'm sorry, this amuses me - I don't know that in my experience with knitting, I've ever heard variegated yarns referred to as "magic" - maybe that's an international thing? Adds a certain whimsy, though, doesn't it?) When i hear the word magic yarns i think, "oh boy, they knit themselves! like something from Harry Potter!" and i don't think i have ever used them. i do like variegated yarns, but i am not in love with them-- they are good for socks, and thats about all. read more for my opinions about socks.
Do you tend to favor certain fibers when choosing yarns? Yep (as you've read in the blog). I like me some cotton (and it's cousins Linen and Hemp)! but also love wool a lot too. when making yarn purchases, i waver between wool and cotton the most often-- i like my yarns soft, but not if that includes a lot of "articfical" fibers (micro-this-that-and-the-other, poly-what ever and the like).
Do you prefer to work with center-pull or traditionally wound balls of yarn? (Also, I'm adding to this - do you have a yarn-winder and prefer to wind stuff yourself, or would you rather it arrive wound?) I prefer to work with a center pull skein-- and i usually use my swift and ball winder to make them.
Have you ever worked with organic yarns or are you interested in trying them? Of course the Good Little Granola Girl loves organic yarns. although i'm not sure if the word organic fits with wool-- it's it more "free range" like beef?
How many and what projects have you made in the last year? I didn't really count (if i had my blog longer or kept with my paper journal more frequently i could tell you). I have a lot of projects and i finish a lot of projects. some are big and some are small-- but there are a lot!
Will you be knitting any gifts this year? (This seems kind of silly to me - I would think if one is a part of this exchange, that automatically means one will be making at least one knitted gift this year....but I guess maybe the inference is what sort of yarns would you tend to knit gifts with?) I do knit a lot of gifts, probably 50-60% of what i knit will be a gift. i tend to use practical yarns for gift that will be fairly easy for the recipent to take care of (i also include care/wash instructions with almost everything i gift).
What is your favorite one skein project? From the book: the spiral zipper case, the petal bibs (tho not for me), the leg warmers and the baby bolero (tho it would have to live in the hope-chest for awhile).
How much yarn do you have in your stash and how do you store it? This is a hard question to respond to because my "a lot" isn't someone else's "a lot". I have several medium large baskets with yarn. I try to store the cotton seperate from the wool. i'm having a yarn stash swap party this saturday-- so the stash will see a little change-up!
Do you have a yarn in your stash that you love so much you can never use it or part with it? i'm not sure. if the right project came along, i might use something i didn't intend to. mostly i buy yarn with a project in mind and use it for that purpose, rather than just buying yarn willie-nilly to stash away forever.
Do you knit less or differently in the summer? nope. i do to a bit more cross-stitch in the summer tho.
Do you belong to any knitting groups (online or offline)? Yep. And i love them all dearly (listed on the side bar of the blog)
(I'm adding this one, though I may figure out the answer when I spend more time on your blog.) Do you knit socks? I do knit sock. But not like a fanatic. I don't really like to wear socks: none in the summer (unless i am hiking and then i have special smart-wool ones) and in the winter i prefer tall black knee high socks (not too thin, not too thick, not too slippy, but just right) all the time. So, when i knit socks they are gifts for someone else. when knitting socks i prefer to use the toe-up method, using the magic loop. i'm planning on doing these soon.