Obsessions

I've been obsessing about the color I want to paint the walls in our bedroom. I guess obsessing about not making a decision about the color. I'm really bummed out about it and can't decide. Tonight my cousin and I and Eddie are going to either Lowe's or Home Depot to get some paint. We've pretty much narrowed it down to a brown/beige color scheme. I want something neutral that I can work with as far as curtains, etc.

So, as a result, I've been escaping from the bedroom ordeal by thinking about doing some kind of crafts to get my mind off of the bedroom. This is what I've been thinking about lately. Hat pins, pin cushions, and small crazy quilt purses.




I've decided that I want to make some hat pins to put in a pin cushion to go in our bedroom when it's finished. I also saw some pretty mirror back covers that I love and would like to make to go in our bedroom too.

I have a feeling that this is going to be a girlie room. I guess Eddie will have to look elsewhere in the house for his man room.

Sunrise and Bluebell Socks

I love these socks. You can buy them here, or you can have fun making your own. They don't match and it's perfectly okay. It looks like a great way to use leftover sock yarn. I love lots of color, so these would be really fun to make.

Flowers

I just thought I would share some photos of some of the flowers I have at home.

Hens and Chicks
Hens and Chicks
African Violet
Hydrangea
Coleus

Redecorating the Bedroom

I haven't really been inspired to do much of anything lately related to crafts. I'm knitting a pair of socks, but other than that I haven't really done much of anything productive. I've been planning to redo our bedroom. Right now it's white and has been for the last 8 years that we have lived there. We have maroon Priscilla type tie back curtains. I'm not sure, but I think those went out of style some years ago, didn't they? I think I just get so used to everything being the way it has always been that it almost becomes invisible to me. In other words, I never see just how ugly something is until one day I notice it, or go to someone's home who really has done some redecorating. Then I come back to my home and realize how awful the bedroom really is.

I'm thinking about doing a Faux technique on the walls. I've been wrestling with deciding which color to put on the walls. Finally, my friend, Susan, said to just use a neutral color that I can do anything with. She suggested a light beige and then sponging (or some kind of technique) on a darker beige. I'm actually leaning toward a Tuscany look, but I don't want it to be too orange or rust looking. Actually rust or dark brown might not be bad. I watched "Under the Tuscan Sun" one night this week, hoping to get some inspiration. I remind myself of the commercial of the woman who has gazillions of paint sample sheets from the store and she can't decide what color to use on her walls. She's about to pull her hair out. I think it's a commercial for TrueValue hardware store.

Then I've been wrestling with the type of curtains I should hang. Do I make them or buy them? My cousin, who is going to help me paint the room, suggested using my lace curtains and dying them and then hanging them like swags. Sort of drape them over a rod, something like the picture below, and instead of using the metal discs, just make fabric rosettes and put them at each corner. After I saw this idea in a decorating book that I checked out from the library, I actually made a sample fabric rosette and it came out really pretty. I think I'm going to really like that.

It's probably what I'm going to wind up doing. It's about the easiest and most inexpensive way to go. We don't really use a bedspread or comforter on our bed. I make quilts, so we usually use them for a bedspread. At any rate, I'd better decide pretty soon because my cousin and I plan to paint the room over the July 4th weekend. We are both taking Friday, June 30, and plan to work on it that weekend. I found some Roman shades at Tuesday Morning and I really like them. They are an eggshell color with a pretty design going through them sort of like the design in Damask fabric.

This week the Riverbend Festival has been going on in our city. It's basically a music festival that goes on for 9 days straight. Eddie has been going just about every night, but not me. I go some nights, but not every night. It's just too hard to stay out late and then have to get up the next morning to go to work. The nights that he goes to Riverbend and I say home, I usually read or watch a movie and/or knit. It's a nice, restful way to spend an evening.

Today at lunch I went to a used book store and bought a series mystery. After reading about it on Willa's blog, I remembered reading the first in the Dead-End Job series awhile back and never got around to reading the rest of them. I love those kinds of mysteries. They are what a friend of mine and I call "cozies."

New Purse

I've been really lazy lately. I haven't been interested in doing anything much. I did see a purse I wanted to make, though. I was in the Hobby Lobby fabric department one day buying fabric and the lady in front of me asked me if I was making a purse. I told her that I made tote bags and sometimes purses. She said that she made purses and she had one with her that she had made. It was really cute. She had made it out of comic book fabric and it had some fuzzy fur around the top. I asked her several questions about it because I knew that it was the kind of purse that I would like and want to make. She said it was from either a Simplicity or McCall's pattern, she couldn't remember which, and she told me that she had gotten the purse handles right there at Hobby Lobby. I thanked her for the information and I went over to the pattern department and started looking up the purse patterns. I found the one that I thought it might be in the McCall's pattern book. It's M4885. I waited until Hancock's had a sale and I got the pattern for 99 cents. The one I made is view B, but I really like view F too, and may make one later on like that.

I found some really pretty black and white toile fabric in the sale bin at Hobby Lobby that I thought would make a cute purse. I bought some black handles and I was in business. I think the purse came out really cute. It was a really easy pattern. If I made it, it must be easy because I'm not that good of a sewer. I have another one started, but haven't begun sewing on it yet. It's a pink toile. I really want to make one with fall colors, but I haven't found anything yet.

Silver Queen Corn

Yesterday Eddie went to the local vegetable stand and bought a dozen ears of Silver Queen Corn. It's our first of the season. This corn is so sweet and delicious, that no other kind of corn can hold a candle to it as far as I'm concerned. I'm not sure, but I think this corn came from Florida since our local corn is not in yet. I know that last year the first mess of corn we had came from Florida and it was the best we had all year. For non-southerners, "mess" is a word we use down here that means it's enough for a meal or two. My mother-in-law is always giving us a "mess" of turnip greens or whatever she has in her garden. I took this picture right after I had shucked and silked the corn and it looks beautiful just sitting on the plate. I cut it off the cob and plan to cook it tonight for supper.

On Sunday, Eddie and I and his mother and stepdad went to the Sunday Market that we have in our city. Several vendors were there with antiques and one of the vendors had some beautiful embroidered dresser scarves. They were only $2.00 each, so I bought two, and my mother-in-law bought one. Here are the two that I bought.

Picture from Spring Creek

This past weekend my cousin invited me and Eddie to come up to Spring Creek Retreat in Reliance, TN with some friends of ours to spend the weekend. This was a rare photo that one of our friends took of me and Eddie. For once, he's not frowning in a picture.

I think I need to do something with my hair. I look like I have wings.

New Journals

I sort of hesitate to put this in my knitting blog since it doesn't relate to knitting, but I know not everyone reads my regular journal. I know there are some who have knitting blogs and they just put everything on there, knitting related or not. I could do that, I guess. I just always thought that some of the things I write about should be separate from my knitting writings. I guess this can fall under "and other stuff", so that I can post it here. There is a link to my non-knitting journal on my knitting blog page if anyone ever wants to go there. There is also a link to a Books page where I'm trying to keep a list of the books I'm reading. Sometimes I don't keep up with that the way I should, but I'm trying to do better.

I wanted to post a picture of some really pretty journals that I found at Tuesday Morning a couple of weeks ago. I've sporadically kept written journals over the years, but I think it was mostly because I had such a boring journal or notebook to write in. I just love these journals and I know now that I'll write in them almost every day. I'm actually only writing in one and when I fill that one up I'll start writing in the other one. I'm currently writing in the Hydrangea one. The pages have pretty hydrangeas on them too, but when I tried to take a picture of the pages on the inside, the lines did something funny and didn't look right, so I gave that up. You can see the pretty cover and inside cover of the hydrangea one.

I loved it so much that I went back to Tuesday Morning the next day and after some digging (I really wanted it, didn't I?) I found another one just like it and bought it too.

I bought this next journal the second day as well as the other one, and it's really pretty too.

Japanese Pen Pal

My coworker Tisa's Japanese pen pal, Hiroko, is visiting her from Japan this week. Tisa brought her and her husband in yesterday to introduce her to her coworkers. Hiroko is such a sweet woman, and she brought all of the women in our office these packages of bubble bath. I wish I could read Japanese so I could know what the packages say. Maybe Chie could help me out. :))) The photo I took with my digital camera is not very good and I'm not sure why. Usually the pictures I take with it are really clear, but maybe it was the way the light reflected on the packages or something similar that made it look a little blurred.

I started crocheting a doily to give to Hiroko, but for some reason I was having problems with it, and the yarn I was using wasn't looking right, so I decided to start another one in a lilac color. I know I won't be able to finish it in time to give it to Hiroko before she leaves to go home, but I'll just mail it to her in Japan. I don't have any idea how much that will be in postage, but it's not something I'm worried about. I just wanted her to have a nice handmade gift.

On Sunday Eddie and I went to his mom's for Easter dinner and I had to take some pictures of the flowers in her yard. They were absolutely gorgeous. She has such a green thumb. I think she could put a stick in the ground and something would sprout out of it. I wish I had such a green thumb. About the only thing I've managed to have flourish are some African Violets I have in my office. I used to have trouble with them until I discovered self-watering pots. Of course, the pots on this page are pretty expensive, and I found one of mine at Tuesday Morning for around $5.00, and the other two at Home Depot for around $5 to $6. I also saw some pretty ones recently at Walmart. I bought one of those to give as a gift to a friend of mine. I'm trying right now to find her a pretty African Violet, but they seem to be scarce here now for some reason. Maybe they are out of season.

Here are the pictures of my mother-in-law's flowers. One is an azalea and the others are roses.

Teapots, Doilies, and Cedar Chests

I collect teacups and I have a few teapots. I decided to take a picture of one of my favorite teapots sitting on one of the doilies that I crocheted awhile back. I just started a new doily in an ecru/light beige color. I'll post a picture of it when I've finished.

In about the middle of April, one of my coworkers, Tisa, is going to meet a Japanese pen pal, Hiroko, after 40 years. They started writing to each other while they were still in high school and kept in touch after getting married, having children, and grandchildren. There was a period of about 20 years when they stopped writing each other, and one day a postman delivered a postcard from Hiroko to Tisa, who had moved to a new address since they last communicated. The postman knew Tisa and delivered it to her at her new address. She was so excited and they resumed communicating and have been emailing ever since. Hiroko had written in almost all of her letters that it would be great if they could meet one day. Now it turns out that Hiroko and her husband are coming to America in mid-April and are going to be staying with Tisa and her husband for a week. Tisa is really excited and I thought I would crochet a doily for her and her friend, Hiroko. So, this new one that I just started will be one of the gifts.

Tisa said that she had kept all of Hiroko's letters, over 100 of them, in a little cedar box that she had had since high school. She said that when she graduated, the Lane company gave these little cedar chests to girls who were graduating as a kind of hope chest. That must have stopped when she graduated in the late 1960's because we both graduated from the same high school and the girls in my class (1972) didn't get anything like that. I was just curious what they looked like, so I looked a few up on ebay and did an image search and this is what I found.


I have to say that I would love to have one of these boxes. I've been pricing them on ebay and I might bid on one soon. I don't know yet what I would put in it, but it would make a great box for just about anything that would be kept as a keepsake. Thinking about it, it's probably more nostalgia than anything else. In hindsight, wishing that I had had a pen pal, wishing that I had received one of these chests when I graduated. I love reading old letters, and cards. In fact, I think I have just about every single card that anyone has ever given me for birthdays, graduating, etc. I think it's just a wonderful piece of history, and a great nolstagic trip down memory lane. Maybe I should think about organizing them. Right now they are all in one of those large Rubbermaid containers.

Socks: Another Pair Finished

I just finished another pair of socks. I love these because they have lavender stripes in them. These are Opal Rainforest Collection and the color is Fish. I'm not sure what the color number is. I ordered this yarn from the Internet, but I was happy to find out that my LYS is going to start carrying Opal sock yarn. Now I won't have to worry about shipping charges, which can really tear a hole in your pocket. Sometimes shipping charges are almost as much as the item you're ordering. Anyhoo... I just started a new pair and I'll post a picture in progress soon.

Grandmother's Flower Garden

Lately I've been working on piecing a Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt. This is a picture of the first block I made. I'm really proud of it and since I took this picture I've added several more blocks. It's really slow going sewing all those little hexagons together by hand, but I'm enjoying it and if I stick with it long enough I hope to have a bed size quilt.

I thought about just making enough for a quilted throw or wall hanging, but I think this pattern is so beautiful that nothing less than a bed size quilt will do it justice.

My mother-in-law has me interested in making a Double Wedding Ring quilt and I would love to do that sometime later on.

More Socks Finished

These are the green socks that I finished last night. I'm wearing them today and they are very warm. I love them. I was going to cast on for another pair of socks last night, but was really tired so I decided to wait until tonight.

One thing I've learned and that is that I love knitting socks. I never thought I would ever even want to, much less love it so much, but one of my coworkers who is proficient at it, encouraged me and I was really happy when I knit my first pair. Now I'm hooked.

More Socks

Last night I finished a pair of socks that I had been working on for awhile. I had finished the first sock and was almost finished with the second and realized that I hadn't been paying attention and didn't work the decreasing right for finishing the toe on the second sock. I had frogged the stitches and being the wimp that I am, was afraid to try to put the needles back in for fear that I would get herky jerky and pull more stitches out. I have coworker who is an experienced knitter of socks, and has no qualms whatsoever about putting needles back in stitches, so I asked her if she would do it for me and she did, bless her. These blue ones with the stripes are the result. I really like them, but they are too big for my feet. I've decided to give them to a friend of mine who loves the socks that I make for her. These should fit her nicely. They match somewhat, but I don't think she will mind. I don't remember what kind of yarn this is or the color, but I have another new skein in my stash, so I'll try to remember and look to see what it is.

I've discovered since I learned to knit socks that if I use size 2 double pointed needles with the pattern that I have, the socks will be too big for my foot, but fit her feet perfectly. If I use size 1 double points with the same pattern, the socks fit my foot. I'm glad to have figured that out.

I'm wearing a pair of my socks today that I made awhile back.

They don't match, but I really love them and they are so warm. I've decided that the next pair I make will be longer on my leg so they will be even warmer. These are Opal Lollipop (1010) and it took just one ball.

Socks

This weekend I finished one sock that I had been working on for awhile. I really like this color. It's sort of a variegated green. It's Regia Color 5572. I just started on the second sock yesterday. These cold, rainy days are perfect for watching TV, knitting, reading a good book, and napping. Not necessarily in that order. I took two naps over the weekend. One on Saturday afternoon and another one yesterday afternoon. There was a short time when the sun came out between the rain showers and while we were sitting in the sun I just got so drowsy that I had to take naps both days. I thoroughly enjoy it. I'm a firm believer in napping.

Valentine Socks

I was reading my emails this morning and got this newletter from Lion Brand with a pattern for some Valentine Socks. These socks are really cute. I would love to make a pair, but I don't know if I could get them made by Valentine's Day. I've never seen the Lion Brand Cashmere yarn in any of the stores where I buy Lion Brand yarn. This looks like fun. I'll have to check it out and see if I can find some yarn.

Disconnected

Today is my first day back at work after being off for 2 weeks. I really enjoyed the time off and I got a lot of things done. One being that I'm reorganizing our bedroom and trying to get it into shape so I can do some painting or something with the walls this spring, or maybe before spring if I can get the room ready in time. We have off-white walls in our bedroom and through most of the house. When we first moved into the house we thought off-white would be a good choice so that we could change curtains, etc., and other color schemes without having to repaint so much. Now, I feel like I want to warm up the room and really want to do something different. My good friend has beautiful wallpaper on her bedroom walls, and my cousin has a wonderful warm color that he achieved in his living room using a sponge technique. I'm pretty sure we've decided on the sponge technique for our bedroom. At least that way, if we get tired of it, we can just paint over it. With wallpaper it may be harder to change it. Plus, my cousin can help me with it.

I haven't really been doing much knitting lately, but I have been doing alot of quilting related things. I guess after doing so much frantic knitting of last minute gifts before Christmas, I just wanted to do something different now that the pressure is off. Last week I went to a quilt shop in town and they had some beautiful Dresden Plate pieces that a woman had sewn by hand and was selling for $2.00 each. I ended up buying 22 of them to make a queen size quilt for our bed. It will take about 20 of them for the bed quilt, and I plan to use the other 2 pieces to make either pillow shams, or just throw type pillows. The pieces had already been basted and turned under ready for applique. Joy, joy, not to have to worry with preparing the pieces for applique. I love to applique, but I hate getting the pieces ready for it. Mostly because I haven't found a technique that I can do with success. These pieces have been a joy to work with. So far, I've appliqued 16 of them and I only have 4 more to go before I can assemble the quilt top. I hope to have the quilt top assembled and ready for quilting sometime over the weekend.


While I was in the quilt shop a second time, I found a pretty quilt kit that had a bird on it. The background fabric and the bird pattern was already cut out and ready to go. This should applique pretty easily using fusible web and embroidery floss to use the folk art applique technique. It's sort of like a blanket stitch in embroidery. I guess I'll do that one after I finish the Dresden Plate, or I may do start on it later.


I had a really good time off. I got lots of rest when I wanted to. I went to bed when I wanted and got up when I wanted to. I ran around to different places like the yarn store, shopping or whatever I wanted to do. I work this week and then I will be off again for Martin Luther King holiday, so I'll get a 3 day weekend next weekend.

Our Internet service at home expired Dec. 31, which I'm really disappointed about and I'm really missing it. Up to now we've had dial-up, which takes forever, so I'm thinking about getting a high speed connection through our cable company. Eddie is not in a hurry since he hardly ever uses the computer, but I'm feeling really disconnected at home without being able to read blogs, and write in my own blog. Hopefully, we will get that resolved soon.

Preemies

I've been crocheting alot of preemie things lately. Here are a few of the things I've done. The pattern for the preemie hats is really easy and you can find it here. The pattern for the preemie afghan is also really easy and the pattern for it is here. I really much prefer knitting, but these things go so fast.

I've also been enamored with dolls lately. I bought this pretty doll the other day on sale for $5.00.

I have several other porcelain dolls too and one day I'm going to take pictures of all of them and put them in a journal or scrapbook.

I've also been into reading stories about dolls. Here are two of the books I read this season. These books were written and illustrated by Tasha Tudor.

Sweet Treat

This is not knitting related, although I guess it could be if I wanted to have a knit-in at my house and serve some of these wonderful treats. I was on my way home from work and I couldn't resist the urge to stop at the bakery and get some of these scrumptious looking petit fours. They are so pretty decorated with Christmas flowers. They are almost too pretty to eat. But not quite.

Felted Hat Finished

Actually, it's been finished for awhile. I know I've been woefully negligent of my blog lately. I just haven't seemed to have the time to post as often as I would like. Anyway, here's a picture of my finished hat. I really enjoyed knitting it, and it felted nicely. It was nice to have that experience of felting. After reading about so many who have felted successfully and unsuccessfully, I was a little afraid to try it on my own. Finally, one day I just got tired of putting if off and decided to felt it, come what may. It turned out fine, and was a great learning experience.


Last week I was off from work the whole week with a nasty cold/flu bug. Today is my first day back at work. A friend had given me a crochet pattern for an afghan that she was making. It looked pretty easy and relaxing and not too taxing on my brain. I had some yarn and I didn't really feel like doing anything else, so I just sat in my recliner while watching TV with Eddie and worked on this afghan. It's turning out really pretty and I already know that I'm going to love it. It's almost big enough to cover my whole body, and I still have a few more rows to go on it.


My friend loaned the book to me that has the pattern in it, but I can't remember the title. It's a book by Leisure Arts, and it's Quick Crochet Afghans, or something like that. I normally don't crochet that much anymore because I love knitting so much, but this pattern was so easy that I couldn't put it down. And did I mention how fast it went? It was a breeze. Before I knew it I had almost an entire afghan finished. If I had been knitting it, I think it would have taken alot longer and been in danger of becoming a UFO. That's why I usually knit small projects like socks and scarves. The afghan was a great thing to do while recuperating from a cold. It's really hard for me to go to bed when I'm sick unless I have the nausea type sickness. So, when I stay up I can't just sit and watch TV with nothing in my hands to do. I just can't do it. I have to have something in my hands that I can do like knitting, sewing, or crocheting, and this afghan just fit the bill.

Felted Hat

Last year a woman in my knitting guild gave us all a pattern that she had that is similar to the Fiber Trends Felted Hat pattern. I made it and then I put it away and never felted it. I kept putting it off because I couldn't find a bowl anywhere to block it on that I thought would be similar to the size of my head. I really wanted to felt the hat, but was afraid, I guess.

Anyway, last Sunday I decided that I was going to felt that hat no matter what. In the meantime I had been reading about how to felt, and I had bought a cotton pillowcase cover to put the hat in, since I didn't want all those fibers to get into my washing machine motor. I put the hat into the pillowcase cover, set the water to hot and put my washing machine on the lowest water setting. I put an old pair of blue jeans in there with it and let it fill up with water and agitate. To begin with I checked about every 5 minutes. When it seemed obvious it was going to take much longer than that, I started checking about every 10 minutes. It ended up taking about 45 minutes for the hat to felt and shrink to what I thought would be the right size. I then shaped it on the bowl I had found, and noticed that the edges were turning up but were floppy. So, I rolled up some washcloths and put them inside the brim of the hat all the way around. It looks like the shape I want, so I've been letting it sit that way for several days. I'll probably take it all off this weekend and see how it shapes out. It looks pretty good right now, so I'll see how it looks this weekend and if it holds it shape. I will try to take a photo of the block in progress and post it within the next couple of days.

I'm really excited about the hat and I hope it holds its shape and fits my head. Several of the women in my knitting guild had brought the ones they had made and they were really nice. They were all similar to the picture above, which is the picture from the pattern from Fiber Trends.

Socks Finished

I finally finished my Opal socks. I'm really pleased with the way they came out. They don't match, but they are snuggly and warm. I started another pair in a darker green with a different type of sock yarn, but I had to stop knitting on the socks to work on Christmas gifts for awhile. I have several different things I'm working on for Christmas gifts. Some are embroidered things, and some are cross stitch and some are knitted things. I'm almost finished with the embroidered and cross stitch items and I'll be glad so I can get back to knitting. I used to be really into cross stitch, but now that I've been knitting for so long, I find cross stitch to be tedious and nerve racking. Knitting is much more relaxing to me. I see a laying to rest, so to speak, of my cross stitching sometime in the near future. Unless it's really small things like Christmas ornaments or something like that.

I was in Dollar General over the weekend and I found this little guy for $1.00.


Eddie saw it and said, "What's that?" I said, "It's a little sheep I found at Dollar General." I said, "You know, knitting??? Sheep???" He said, "Oh." I think he got it.

Socks

I haven't been posting for awhile, and I've been working on several different projects for Christmas and other things. I must have ADD because I seem to go from one thing to the next alot. Right now it's socks. I'm in the mood for knitting socks. I've finished one sock and I'm over halfway finished with the second sock in this pair. I am loving this sock yarn. It's Opal Lollipop sock yarn and the color is 1010. I love the way the color stripes evolve as I'm knitting.

I love Opal sock yarns, but none of my local yarn stores carry that brand, so I have to order them over the Internet. You can go to this site and see almost all the shades available in this yarn. I especially love the Lollipop, Brazil, and I just ordered some yarn in Petticoat and Fish in the Rain Forest Collection. I really wanted to order some more, but I already have quite a stash from some sock yarn that I have bought at my LYS. They have a pretty good selection of self-striping yarns, but I wish they would start selling Opal. I know there are some other good ones out there and I would love to try them sometime.

Yarn Shop "Frequent Buyer Card"

Reading Willa's blog entry prompted me to let off some steam about my LYS's "frequent buyer card".

I understand her frustration about the frequent buyer card. My LYS has one too. I didn't know about it until one day when I was in the shop and the lady who was checking me out asked me if I had one. I didn't, so she gave me one and punched it for my purchases that day. Later on, I read in their newsletter that they charge $1 for the card, but I didn't have my receipt from that day, so I didn't know if they had charged me for the card or not. The card attaches to my key ring and has 10 places on it where it can be punched. Every time I make a $25 purchase they punch it and when it's full, I get $25 credit. So, that basically means that I have to spend $250 to get $25 in free merchandise.

The next time I went in I bought some things that didn't quite come to $25, but did once the tax was added. I was informed that it had to be $25 "before" tax. Another time I went in and bought some sale items and was told it didn't apply to "sale items". Another time I bought a kit that was $55 before tax, and I was on my lunch break and in a hurry, and realized later that I forgot to ask them to punch my card. I took my ticket back and explained to them and they said that they don't punch "after the fact" and said, "See it says it right here on the back of the card."

Now that's just wrong. I don't care if you forgot to ask them to punch it, and you have to ask them (because they "never" remember to do it on their own), but as long as you have your receipt I don't understand why they can't punch it after the fact. It's not like I stole the merchandise from them.

I soon realized that they are not going to really give anything away free that they don't have to. They are in it for the money, after all. I'm considering just taking the card back and telling them to keep it because it's not going to help me any since it has so many stipulations attached to it. If I had another yarn shop that I could go to, I probably would, but since I don't, I don't want to become the bad customer.

Idiosyncrasies

id•i•o•syn•cra•sy - a structural or behavioral characteristic peculiar to an individual or group. Write down 5 of your own idiosyncrasies, then if you wish, tag 5 people.

Chie tagged me to write down 5 of my idiosyncrasies. I know about 2 or 3 so far, and I'll add some more later.

1. I love to read and become very absorbed in the story. I become annoyed when someone interrupts me when I'm reading.

2. I value my privacy and tend to retreat to myself and zone out for reading or knitting or other needlework, especially when I'm stressed.

3. I don't handle stress well, especially when it involves illness and/or death.

4. My dad passed away in 1993 and I'm still not over it. I probably never will be, I've just learned to live with it.

5. I don't have too many friends, but the ones I do have I'm very loyal to and I expect the same from them. That also goes for my husband and family.

6. I love animals and it really bothers me when they are mistreated.

Now that I've started this I can think of more than 5, but I better not post them all here because it could go on and on. I didn't realize I had so many.

Pet Afghan

Isn't this cute? I think I might make one for my cat Heckle. The pattern is here.

Latifa Progress So Far

I decided to post some pictures of my progress on the Latifa scarf. I have to say that I'm really, really enjoying knitting this scarf. I guess it must be because it's such a cool pattern and so easy to do. I love mindless knitting and lots of color and this pattern definitely fits the bill.

I've also just tried the new feature that Blogger has for adding images. It's great! Much easier than Hello. I'm so happy now that it's going to be so much easier for me to post pictures now.

Now that I've seen these pictures I feel like my digital camera definitely did do these colors justice. I really love this scarf. I'm afraid I'm going to have to be selfish and keep this one for myself.

The scarf kit came with 2 skeins of Koigu KPPPM in Color P114, Dye Lot 82, and 1 skein each of Silky Wool by Elsebeth Lavold in colors 21 (Blue), 20 (Green), 31 (Rust), and 26 (Pink). It's all handpainted, I think, and the colors are really rich and pure looking. I love them. There is one slight difference between the pattern on Knitty.com and the pattern that the yarn store sold with the kit. The difference is that the pattern from the yarn store says that when you are knitting with one color, you knit 36 rows (or 18 ridges), before you begin the next color. I think the pattern from Knitty says to knit until you have either 15 or 16 ridges. I like the 18 ridges better because it shows more of each color block.

Latifa Scarf

I finally broke down and bought a scarf kit at my LYS for the Latifa Scarf. The kit was pricey and I debated about it and decided, what the heck and bought it last week. I love it! It is so beautiful, and I'm really enjoying working on it. It makes me want to make some more, but with a less expensive yarn. As soon as I can make a picture that I can live with, I'll post one. I took one over the weekend with my digital camera, but I didn't think the pictures did the colors of the yarn justice. When I finish this scarf, I'm going to start thinking about making hats and scarves for Christmas gifts.

Shawlette Continued ...

I went this past Saturday and bought the ribbon yarn for the shawlette. After I got home with it I decided I didn't like it because it has alternating sections in it where the yarn is a solid ribbon, then another section where the yarn is sort of split into two smaller sections. It's hard to describe, but when knitting with it, I was having trouble seeing where I had knit the solid part of the ribbon and where I was knitting the split part. It was a headache. So, I just sort of put it aside. Then last night I went to my knitting guild meeting and got some fresh ideas for yarn to use for the shawlette. One person told me that our LYS was going to be getting in some Aurora yarn and it's 750 yds on a ball or cone for around $8 or so. She had already made a shawlette in this yarn and it was gorgeous. The price is much less than what I paid for the yarn that I don't even like. Someone else also said that the shawlette could be made from the Tartelette yarn. I happened to remember that I had bought several skeins of that awhile back for a shell that I never got around to making, so I decided to use that to make the shawlette. I started it last night and I love knitting with it, and I think it's going to be really soft. In the meantime, I'm waiting for some of the Aurora to come in at my LYS. I'm thinking maybe shawlettes for Christmas gifts.

I'll probably use that other yarn for some scarves or something like that. I hope to have a picture soon of the shawlette that I'm working on.

Shawlette

I was in my LYS the other day and saw a pretty shawlette that was on display. I asked one of the ladies there and she said it was a pattern that someone made up and it's not for sale and doesn't have a copyright on it, so I think I'm safe in repeating it here.. They give you a copy of the pattern when you buy the yarn to make the shawlette. I decided I'm going to make it in a soft ribbon yarn in a pretty rainbow color. The yarn is called Laines Du Nord Ombre.

The pattern is basically this:

You need 230 yards of the yarn, which would be approximately 3 balls of 75 yd Laines Du Nord Ombre. Size 17 knitting needles.

Loosely cast on 30 stitches
Knit in garter stitch (knit every row) increasing one stitch at the end of each row until you have 120-130 stitches. Bind off loosely. Crochet a decorative edge if desired.

The one on display had a crochet edging that was in a fuzzy type yarn that contrasted with the color of the shawlette. The shawlette was a variegated rainbow color. It is a really easy pattern and should be fun to make. I can't wait to get started. I'm going to the yarn shop to buy the yarn after work.