« August 2007 | Main | October 2007 »
I'm glad I sent an email to Discount Yarn Sale asking about my yarn order. They sent me a response back the next day telling me that my order had accidentally shipped to the wrong customer. As soon as it's returned, they'll ship it to me. I was surprised, but glad, for the honesty. Unless the yarn is not in good condition, I'll order from them again. Everyone makes mistakes. At least they responded quickly and told me what was going on. Refreshing.
This past Sunday, Robin and I went on a knitting cruise along the Fox River sponsored by Wool and Company. We ran into alot of chicagoland knitters and had a great time. It was a beautiful day.
This was the only picture that was in focus. My camera has really been bugging me lately. I think I'm going to look around for another one. There much cheaper than when I bought mine, much lighter, and probably better quality. Since the holidays are around the corner, that might be a good Christmas gift idea.
I've been working on a felted poinsetta wreath kit that my mother bought and asked me to knit for her. Each flower has 4 sets of 3 petals, and there are 7 flowers to make. I've finished 4 full flowers so far, but haven't felted them. I'll take some before and after pictures later.
I still haven't received the Mega yarn I ordered for the reversible cable throw. I ordered it through Discount Yarn Sale. It says it takes 2-3 weeks for shipping and they don't charge until they ship. They still haven't shipped yet. It was a great deal, because when I ordered, it was in the bargain bin section. I don't know if I'll use them again. They didn't have a tracking system or anything. We'll see how the yarn is when it eventually gets here. Has anyone else used this site?
A couple years ago at a knitting retreat, the owners of the facility shared with us a poem that their mother, Peggy Chester, wrote in 1971. It was published in one of the Kendaville, IN newspapers but I don't know the exact one. I hope this doesn't violate any copyright laws, but I thought it appropriate to share today.
I think I'll send extra packages this month to deployed soldiers through my group, Books For Soldiers. It's overwhelming to see the number of requests on the site. But like one of my volunteer cards say, "Supporting our Troops, One Care Package at a Time".
I feel free!!! I've been dreading making all of the felted Christmas stockings for this year's holidays. I would've been making around 10. Last year, I was making gifts until February (we didn't get together until March). Last weekend, I decided to drive to Indiana and return all the Galway yarn I bought for the stockings and bought this hempathy yarn instead.
I don't usually go for bold colors, but I've been assured by my friends and the others in the store that it looks fine. Eventually, I'm going to make this Elizabeth Lavold pattern from Book 8.
I also saw this cabled bolero pattern in one of the Essentials pattern books. I think it looks good in brown too, so I may use this pattern for the cardigan I've been thinking of making.
Finally, since I don't have to spend the next few months making holiday gifts, I can knit for my own. YEAH! I've had this acrylic yarn forever and have been wanting to make this blanket again. I originally made one for myself. Then just as I finished, a friend's husband died while deployed in the Middle East. I gave it to her for a prayer blanket, if you will. I made this one yesterday on the my bulky machine. It took about 6 hours, with brakes in between. It would've taken less time, but I kept fighting with the machine. It kept getting stuck for some reason. All I left to do is the trim and wash it.
I love doing this cable pattern on the machine. It definitely slows things down because you have to do one of the cables every 3 rows, but it's still faster than by hand. I did plain stockinette sections in between with the variegated yarn. Since there are 2 cats and 1 dog in the house, the acrylic yarn is a great choice for the many washings.
I finished the Green Gable top. I used about 3.5 skeins of Cotton Fleece. For modifications, I made the sleeves a little longer than the pattern called for. I made a few more decreases in the waist area than called for, but next time I would do a double decrease on each side to pull it in a little more. I would also do the lace section a little further down I think. I liked the pattern. It was a simple top-down construction and is good for someone who wants to try lace because it's just that small section in the beginning.
My friend Christine and I went to Indiana to visit our friend Terrie. She has some show and tell as well. Terrie machine knit this cardigan from one of the earlier Knitwords magazines. I think it was a 1998 issue. She wanted to try doing a zipper. I think it looks good. Doing a sweater on the machine is one of the items on my to-do list. Both of our pictures are at Lee-Ann's shop, Knitting Today. Her shop holds a knitting retreat each year in June for both hand and machine knitters. I met Christine through a machine knitting group and we both met Terri through one of Lee-Ann's knitting events. I just love hearing stories how friends met, don't you?
I finally got around to listing my yarn stash on an excel sheet. I didn't log any of the coned yarn or the cheaper yarns that I have. I still ended up having about 45,000 yards of yarn in my stash. Holy cow! I came across the Encore Mega that I bought years ago at a store closing. I think I was going to make a poncho or something, but that's never going to happen. I decided to make a throw with it since it's machine washable and dryable. I wanted to try a reversible cable. Here's a beginning picture. I think I'm going to run out of yarn, but I do know a store that carries this color. If I do this pattern again, I'd make the cable an 8 stitch instead of a 6 stitch cable. The cable is done in rib and the middle sections are garter, so it's completely reversible.
