May I begin my yarn store blogging career with a confession?When our general manager, Roxanne, approached me about constructing our summer class schedule, I drove home with eyes wide as saucers, eyelashes fluttering uncontrollably & shoulders tensed up so far I believe I lost sight of my neck. I panicked. Three whole months of summer class projects, you say? By next week, you say?You see, I, like many other local fiber fiends, had fallen prey to a most pernicious rumor: that, when all's said & done, there's only so much knitting one can do in the blistering heat of an Idaho summer. Brainstorming eight projects anyone might even feel compelled to knit this time of year felt like a task bordering on Herculean.But the next day, as if the clouds parted and the angel choirs started to sing, appeared my yarn hero of the summer: a shipment of brand spanking new Cascade Ultra Pima, fresh off a mail truck I'm really about ready to canonize. Helping Kristin unpack that box of yarn felt more like unpacking a bottomless box of new ideas, shipped direct from a benevolent gaggle of inspiration sprites.

That's not to say I ended up making every summer sample from Ultra Pima-- actually, only one pima shrug made the cut. What turned out to be best about the pima, for me, was that it catalyzed this flood of ideas about warm weather knitting. Have you ever heard the saying that a single pebble in the right place can divert a whole river? Ultra Pima was my pebble!Suddenly, the ideas started to flow. Headbands to wear at the Farmer's Market. Bright tie-dye colored beach totes. Something pretty to keep me warm when the wind is blowing off the lake. Crocheted creatures from my summer adventures as a child. And all I needed was a soft, cottony nudge in the right direction.

Ready for a nudge of your own? Alpaca Direct stocks 51 colorways of Cascade Ultra Pima, each one satiny smooth, light as a feather, and machine washable.