Charity Begins at Home

To quote the old Bartles & Jaymes commercials, “Thank you, for your support.” The messages from you guys when I got home just THREE days after my brain surgery meant so much to me. My knitting community and desire to return to it was, for some reason, something to focus on in the midst of so much fear surrounding this thing in my head.

I‘m home. The surgery went better than expected and I’m physically capable of more than when I went into the hospital six days ago. I was knitting in ICU the day after brain surgery expected to give me more paralysis of my right arm than I started with. My whole rhythm has changed and I can knit faster. Smoother.

Life is good.

So.

I’ve been remiss about posting my F.O. because life got busy. This I can fix as easily. I’ve had several charity items finished and now it’s time for the Second Annual Knit-A-Thon at the Lakeside Café in Columbia, Maryland this Saturday. Since I’ll be saying goodbye to them, I finally got my camera out today and went out on the deck for a photo shoot.

Up there is the Jimmie Johnson preemie hat I made at the NASCAR race in September. It is a lot stiffer than I thought, but I had a lot of fun with it. Even if a baby gets a picture and it hits the floor, it was fun. I’ll do more in soft sweet colors and cushy yarns, I promise. The little model is the Taco Bell Chihuahua. It was from the Godzilla promo commercial and says “Heeeeeeer leezard, leezard, leezard!” In the commercial he sees Godzilla and followed that with “I think I need a bigger box”. That used to crack me UP.

Next is the oldest Warm Up America block in the history of the charity. I wonder if I could get some kind of award. It’s been in the car forever. It’s been ripped out, re-knitted, put on the back burner, lost, forgotten, and pattern-changed. And I’m rid of it. Bwwwaaaaa haaa haaa haaaaaaaaaa!

After that is the Nemo II preemie hat. I actually started this little guy on the way to Richmond and finished him during the Busch race of the event. I decided to make a tail on the top and improvised some short rows to give it a scaled effect. It isn’t perfect, but again, a lot of fun. I like the creative outlet. Could be worth a pattern thing if I put my mind to it, but I don’t know if I’m ready for that yet. I still haven’t written Rainbow up yet.

It’s gonna look like a fish swallowing a baby’s head, eh?

When straightening out my knitting basket last week, I came across some leftover cotton. Knowing the Knit-A-Thon was coming fast, I used it for a face cloth for a knitting buddy’s pet charity in Pittsburgh. The name escapes me, but they give hand knitted cloths to battered women in shelters so they have something feminine and personal of their own. I used the same simple blanket pattern I’ve been using for a pet blanket I hope to have finish for the same event.

The simple rhythm of this cloth gave me someone other than myself to focus on for a while.

So yes. I’ve been busy. I’m gonna BE busy. But it’s so good to look at the little collection up there with pride.

Or simply choose a WIP and pick up where I left off.

Free Armwarmer Patterns

Gotta love free patterns. I’m making some things for me for a change too. With the cooler weather(August??), I need to keep my arms warm when I knit. I started these last week and they are coming along nicely. The pattern is April May by Cider Moon. No more Patternophobia for me. It was one of about 15 or so on my list of possibilities from some talented designers. The links are below.

Gratuitous cuteness courtesy of the baby bunny near our birdfeeder just now, sorry about the haze from the window but she's very timid. For reference - that step is five inches high.

Click the bunny to make her BIIIIG.

April May armwarmers

spookycabledmitts

Clapomitaines

Fetching

Dashing

Purple Skein

warm_cable_armwarmers

Wrist Warmer Pattern Generator

Web Surfing Mitts

Simple Wrist Warmers

Cabled_Fingerless

Diamond handwarmers pattern

fingerless_gloves

Bowhunting Skills

It was a tough decision.

I work on other things in-between because I need to concentrate on the pattern with the YO. It really isn’t bad though, and is shaping up nicely. It’s got just enough YO to look lacy without looking like they’ll catch in everything. Another inch or two and I’ll increase for the hand. I’m making them a bit longer than the pattern calls for because my arm circumference shortens the length a bit even though I added two repeats of the pattern. I want them plenty big to allow some shrinkage.

I’m using the Green Mountain Spinnery 20% cotton yellow yarn I got at Maryland Sheep and Wool. # 2 needles – my smallest yet. They feel kinda rough now but should wash up nice and soft. I like that I can toss them in the washer – and although I plan to avoid it, if they end up in the dryer all is not lost.

I went to the Kiwanis Group today. I needed a small project and Miss Betty suggested Preemie hats - they're always needing more and will use up small bits of yarn. While I was rooting around, she suggested Orioles colors. What fun! I may do some little pumpkins for Halloween too.

I took my copy of Simply Knitting over to the Ladies too since I was done with it. There was much oooing and aaahing over the patterns, but Miss Betty is from England and got the honor of taking it home first. I really got a kick out of sharing it - I don't think most of them buy such things and they thought that my husband was quite amazing for picking it out for me.

But then I knew that.

Seasick Chemo Cap

I like this one.

After a lot of time and effort, I overcame several personal hurdles and am happy with the end result.

It started with a preemie cap Down by the Seashore - I couldn't get the hang of it. The repeats didn't make sense even after several tries so I gave up and finished it in stockinette. But I liked the pattern dang it and was peeved about being bested by it. In order to see the stitches better, I made appropriate changes to knit an adult sized hat. As chronicled in previous posts here, I persevered and even got great input from a friend at Ravelry and my husband. The final insult came when I discovered I had not two balls of the pink yarn but one.





The resulting yarmulke effect was hiddeous.

Remembering what a good swatcher I had been,

I did some eyeball calculations and frogged out the grey.













Since I saw how unattractive the plain decreases were, I dressed up the crown with a few sets of garter stitch to continue the wave effect.

It's cushy, squishy and oh so soft.

All in all, a fine chemo hat.

But, he doesn't knit

So. Last night I finished another Red Hat Society - No Hair Day chemo hat. They're a quick knit and I needed something mindless the other day.

I cast on the little Down by the Seashore Preemie Hat again. I've been in touch with another knitter at Ravelry who made it. (did I mention that I really like Ravelry?) She is giving me some help with the pattern. The wonderful woman even offered to make another one and donate it to a charity so she could better help me. What an amazing gesture from someone I don't know. I cast on (the third time for this pattern) and was telling Bobby how sweet it was etc, etc. He asked me to explain the problem, which I did.

It's a lace pattern and has a section of stitches that repeat over and over. There is wording in the pattern that confuses me. Now, I've knitted Fair Isle with no trouble. The first row of this puppy reads:

1: p1, *k1, p2. repeat from * around. end p1

After my last repeat of the *pattern* I kept looking for one more stitch to purl. It got even worse later on in the pattern when yarn overs and K3tog came into play.

He got it.

He really did. Oh, he hasn't magically decided to knit and his hands are one with the needles. However the math part was clear to him. He picked up a pad of graph paper and wrote out the numbers 1 - 56 for my cast on stitches. Then he filled in a K or a P underneath to represent each stitch. I could see it. He made a knitting chart on a huge scale. He told me that his next step would have been to tape the ends of the pattern together to make a continuous loop - but I got it without that. Now I can boldly go forth.

This was the revelation: The statement " end p1" simply means the last stitch before the stitch marker should have been a purl. Kinda like a Spell Check. Sheesh!

My husband. I love him.

Saartje's Bootees

Thought I'd flash a picture of my Sjaartje's bootees and the little hat. Sartjee's are all the rage you know. So blasted adorable you can't help yourself from knitting up a dozen or so. Mike and Sully over there are modeling for the future little Monster.












The neatest part is I used buttons I found in my mother's old button box. Mom kept this old Tetley Tea can in the china cabinet with her sewing box. When one of our school blouses got ripped or was so threadbare from too many hand-me-downs, she would snip off the buttons and keep them for when we needed a replacement button another time. They were uniforms and always came from the same company. Other buttons were in there too, but the blouse buttons were perfect for the Sjaartje's Bootees.

And gee, if they're 40 years old or so are they antiques?

Lace Expectations

Am I dense? I'm on my second pattern with lace and the repeat doesn't make sense. Either the designers left two unnecessary stitches in BOTH times or I'm just reading these things wrong. The little preemie hat doesn't say to place a marker but does speak of the pattern in "rounds" so I know I'm not mad. I've ripped it out and started over (this time with Clive Owen and Jackie Chan) and got the same result. My biggest puzzlement came when I was left with three stitches to go. According to the pattern, my next move was k3tog. No problem right? Oh yeah, what about the general directions for the row which read "end with p1"??? Where do I get the extra stitch? When you look at the area where the rounds begin, there is an awkward flat area.

I went back over the entire row and checked to see if I had made a mistake. Nope. I can't explain the math part, it hurts my brain. The only thing I can figure is the original directions were written to be knitted on circular needles and someone tried to add stitches at each end to make it a flat pattern? That wouldn't work. Every other row would be backwards. It would explain the extra stitches - they would be used for seaming. Since the pattern is a wavy thing anyway, I'm gonna mush on and see what I got. "end with p1" be damned.

Now my problem is I have one fewer stitches than what I cast on after the k3tog decrease row. The pattern doesn't state any reminders like "54 stitches now" or "53 stitches on the needles". I'm moving on and if the next row comes out one short I'll "M1" and fudge it next row. It's a teeny tiny hat puffy and hopefully an error will get lost in the folds of the waves. I could chuck the whole thing and use another pattern, but now it's a matter of knitterly honor.

But I'm liking the lace part.

Pattern Snob

I have come to a realization about myself. I am a pattern snob. I have known this for some time, but didn't have a cute name for my disease.

Patternophobia (n.) an irrational fear of knitting one's yarn into an inferior project because you are sure a more perfect pattern is out there somewhere.

According to Google I am the first to use that word.

You see, I have all this lovely yarn. There are definite plans for some of it - a gift here, an indulgence there. The problems come when I try to decide on which pattern is worthy of my yarn. I narrow it down, only to find three or four new candidates. So what do I do? I knit for charity. I am proud to announce a breakthrough however. After many days searching, many websites visited, and many patterns bookmarked or downloaded (drum roll please) I have chosen the Austermann Sock pattern for the Step sock yarn. I got the pattern from their British language website but the American sizes are there. I did check two other sources and I feel confident that my sister is a size 38/39. I sat down and studied it and figured out the numbers for Debbie's size to plug into the pattern. God help me, I'm ready to take the plunge so I printed it out.

And the crowd goes wild.

In other news:
I took the two No Hair Day chemo caps over to the Mayer Center today. They were a huge success. The moderator of our group said she knew just the person for the red one. I promised more. They knit up very quickly so it shouldn't be long before I crank out another one.

As for the grown up socks? Pray for me.

BTW

I did finish my other Tiny Sock just a few days after the first one. I made what I believe was a pattern correction for the beginning of the heel. Shweeet! Then I studied hard in my "Knitters Companion" about how I picked up the stitches for the turn of the heel. I found out I misread what "pick up and knit" meant. Viola! No holes in my heel. Next was my toe, and a little attention to my change from an eight stitch draw-in to a Kitchener stitch. Ta-Daa! Better decreases = prettier toe.


Now then. I still gotta find a simple pattern for my first big girl socks. I want to use the Austermann Step sock yarn I bought at MSWF. There's a pattern on their site, but it's one of those universal patterns where you generate your own numbers and I didn't feel confident with that. I've read it over a couple of times and might try to write it out a little more clearly with the numbers I need for the size I want on another document and proofread it like crazy. If I do, I would probably beg someone else to look at it too. Until then . . .

The search goes on.

:)

haiku

a note to myself
while watching Kevin Costner
do not knit lace hats

a note to myself
the lace hat is put aside
for Kevin Costner

I don't know which one expresses the idea best. I was knitting the lace cap last night during a DVD The Guardian. It was better than I expected (probably because I knew nothing about it) and the effects were excellent. You guessed it.

Tink, tink, tink. . .

First Lace

I started my first lace project last night for another chemo cap. The hat is a cloche pattern from headhuggers.org and again I’m using the lavender “I can’t seem to get bored with you” yarn . It’s stockinette with about two inches of lace around the brim. It’s feminine but covers nicely. I’m through one and a half cycles of the lace pattern and haven’t screwed it up (that I know of anyway). Oooooh. I like lace. The rhythm thing is addictive and no wonder folks churn out this stuff.

See more progress on: Knit something lace

No Hair Day Red Hat Society

Finished another fuzzy chemo hat last night. I must say, it is magnificent. Lavender yarn with a red eyelash this time – perfect for those Red Hat days we all need so much. I figure ladies on chemo must like the red hat thing too, right? This one is very soft, much nicer than the other two for some reason.

I hope it makes her laugh, she’s gonna look like a giant dandelion.

Gee, I hope the No Hair Hat design is a hit. I’m not going to make another until I know for sure though.

See more progress on: make 43 'chemo caps'

Chemo Caps

I have found a rededication to chemo caps. I finished this one the night before I left to go to a family reunion on Friday and started another in the car. It felt good.

I got off track for a while, making things for other charities, making other projects for my family at Christmas. I shopped for new yarn with my own projects in mind. Tackling new skills on my list of knitting things to do. Stitches East is on the way and I signed up for four classes. I forgot why I started this knitting thing in the first place. By far, the chemo hat is the most satisfying for me.

I need to always be working on one.

For John.

Tiny Socks!

Anybody read Mutts?

In two days I knit a little pink sock. Okay a tiny sock but a sock nonetheless.

The pattern is Tiny Socks! from Cider Moon.
Needles: 5" bamboo dpn size 4
Yarn: Some leftover cotton I got with my "Learn To Knit" kit


I figured before tackling a full sized pair with my lovely sock yarn from Maryland Sheep and Wool some "training socks" were in order. While searching for pair of arm warmers I spotted my starters. I used a more sturdy yarn than called for in the pattern because I've never done a sock before and wanted to see the stitch definition. Tiny Socks has all the elements of a grown-up sock except there's no pad at the toe I think. It's 6 inches long from the back of the cuff to the toe if you stretch it out. The pattern called for just drawing up the last few stitches with a needle and weaving in the end. Nah. I whipped out my Knitters Companion and did a kitchener stitch with the last eight stitches. In the directions it says "used to close the toes of socks and under the arms of sweaters knit in the round". Sheesh! I wish I had known that when I was gnashing my teeth over my Knit for Kids sweater. I know I was only doing eight stitches, but the rhythm was no worse than what I was doing I think. Very cool how the top of the toe joins the bottom. It was impossible to photograph, sorry.

There were two places I think may have been mistakes in the pattern or at least I may change for the second sock. One is a missed SL at the beginning of the first heel flap row.

---------------------->

It looked sorta wrong to me after a few more rows and I ripped it back a few rows and reknit it. When I saw it was in the pattern I thought there might be a reason and moved on.

There wasn't.

<-------------------- I'm also not thrilled with how the weird triangle area at the heel looks. Only four stitches are picked up on the side of the heel. It's kinda holey. But c'mon we're talking 22 total stitches cast-on. The thing is, I did all the elements without a hitch barring my own decision to check out the hiccup with the slipped stitch.

On to sock two.

Knit for Kids

The damn Knit For Kids sweater is done. I never thought I would be so glad to be done with a charity project. Seaming up from the bottom was easy, but going across the sleeves was a NIGHTMARE. I must have ripped it out 8 – 9 times. No lie. I had 4 references for seaming and just couldn't get it through my thick skull (or thick fingers in my case). Then while studying the diagram for the umpteenth time I heard a click. Yup, my brain actually clicked. I picked up that tapestry needle and began to seam that puppy.

Somewhere along the right sleeve I must have added a stitch so I had to do some fancy work to make the edge work out but finally

IT IS FINISHED.

I washed it and blocked it on a cool piece of insulation Bobby got for me for a blocking board covered with a towel. After I show it off to my knitting pals it’s off to the post office and some little kid who will love it more than me. Don’t get me wrong, it was a great experience. But if I never see another seam again . . .

Oh, and there's one more thing that blew my mind. The Gauge. I knitted according to gauge. I measured and counted obsessively. Throughout the whole process I picked up only one stitch on my first sweater. The freaking thing came out waaay too wide in the body. I was a fraction off on two other dimensions but we're talking four inches. But check out the drawing from the pattern.

See any similarities?

It looks like short stubby arms are all the rage.

Group : Take II

Since the Mayer Center is only twice a month, I started looking for another daytime charity group. The Kiwanis Wallas Rec Center on Frederick Road in Ellicott City was just what I was looking for. They meet two days a month also - on the alternate Wednesdays from my other group. Perfect!

Their stash is huge. Four two-sided cabinets, six feet tall and crammed with every imaginable color. These ladies turn out a lot of knitted goods, let me tell you. On the day I was there, They turned in about 20 blankets, their biggest project. There were also numerous hat/scarf/mitten sets, baby sweaters and hats for hospital nurseries. Several blankets had gauge problems with mixed yarns, and when I offered to help organize, the ringleader laughed it off.

Honey, we're all about product here. This is charity work.

Seems she just can't keep up with the supply and demand. Women go through large lots of yarn as fast as she can bring it in and return odd balls and partial balls. These are tossed in where they will fit. People use several small balls for hats and scarves for shelters. Besides, it would take time away from knitting. I acquiesced.

Their current biggest charity is lap blankets for wheelchairs at the Veterans Home. They have a great pattern that starts with four stitches at a corner and knits with diagonal increases on both sides. When you are halfway through your chosen yarn, you start to decrease This forms a square. The YO increase even gives it a pretty edge. It's simple and eliminates waste. One lady had several lovely blankets made in this pattern made from ribbon. They were beautiful, luxurious and flexible. There was some discussion of how the gentleman in wheelchairs liked the blankets like this because they stayed in place better. Pop Pop had one at Riverview. I never knew who knit it or where it came from, but it was always there. When he passed, I asked if I could have it. I liked the idea of "replacing it" for somebody else's Pop Pop.

I found a woven cotton yarn from Spain. 5 grey, 2 red and 2 mauve. I took all nine balls, no leftovers from me.

Group Therapy

I took the pink vacation cap over to the The Claudia Mayer Cancer Resource and Image Center here in Columbia. They liked my design, saying the ladies often complain the hats are too tight at the top. One of the women I met there a few weeks ago said she like exotic hats. She was wearing a green eyelash hat at the time resembling a Koosh Ball .

Knitting groups are cool. I already look forward to every Thursday night at K1P2. Before vacation, I decided to step up my efforts with charity knitting. So. Twice a month, I now knit with the ladies at the Center. It is a homey place associated with Howard Co General Hospital & Johns Hopkins. There is a humongous cancer resource library and salon for free consultations and product purchase/guidance for everything body image. Operators from some of the top salons in the area donate their time and talents there. We meet in the front room which is set up like a comfy living room. Many of the knitters are clients of the center, but the group is open to the community. There is someone to guide new knitters, donated yarn and needles and a few designated charities although you can knit what you like for whichever you like.

I picked up some baby yarn from them and made my first preemie hat for the hospital. Whew! Sooooo many stitches for such a little thing. 2 x 2 rib takes a long time. I finished it in two weeks though (me?) and am quite proud of it. I used the pattern provided by the center, but I would look for better resources if I make another. It was knit on straight needles and sewed. The crown had just a few decreases and was . . . odd looking. I got to use some of my ebay needles - size 4 (thanks Dad). That’s the smallest I’ve used so far. They felt strange in my hands at first, as did the cheap yarn, but after a few rows I trusted myself to not break them and we got along fine. The thought of keeping some little wailer from loosing body heat seems right after all the babies I worked with in Labor and Deliver and theNursery.

I decided to knit Koosh Ball lady (gotta find out her name) a new hat since hers had definitely seen better days. I found a site with a free pattern, No Hair Day from Headhuggers. and some unidentified donated yarn from my stash. Their site has lots of caps to knit and crochet geared/sized for folks without hair. I swear Koosh Ball lady's hat was made from that pattern. I went with another variegated yarn because her green one is made with several greens, yellow and cream. The pattern calls for 1 ball of yarn for a small. Since she is not a large person I went with that. Wrong! Luckily, a picture on the site showed a variation with a yarn crown, so that’s how I finished it off. The lavender yarn is very soft and should feel comfortable against her head. If she likes it, I'll make her another with two balls so it can be furry all over.

I hope she’s there the day I take it in.

Knitting on the Road

Knitting in the car works for me. Don’t worry; I’m not driving at the time. We love to take driving vacations, and often there are long stretches of highway with absolutely nothing to look at. This is when knitting has been a godsend for me. I used to fall asleep a lot, leaving my husband to fend for himself when it came to looking for the next highway. Of course navigation has always been one of his strong points, but I like to follow along and note places of interest.

I polished off two (count ‘em 1-2!) projects in the car. I had started a scarf for my niece in my crochet class back in February. I had mostly put is aside and had about 14 – 18 inches done. I really needed to get cracking for her Birthday on Easter. Working in the car, I finished a scarf about 4 inches wide and 6 feet long. I made it like that to double and wrap around, slipping the end through the loop. Pre-teens love to play around with fashion so I left her options. Since I had never done it, I asked for some help and added the fringe at K1P2 one night. I’m glad I took their advice to hold off on cutting the fringe – Jessica wanted it just the way it was. I wish I’d gotten a picture of her in it but I plum forgot to.

Next was a pink chemo cap. At Stitches East last year I made a miniature hat knit top-down. I also saw an adult pattern called Karlchen and experimented with my own top down version. It has a nipple at the top (tee hee) and four peaks to let some air circulate or keep the crown off sensitive scalps. I put in a little eyelet while I was working my increases. It adds a bit of a feminine touch. I still had a good bit of the yellow left, so I designed a little fairisle pattern too. I wish now I had thought to do a Mickey Mouse head for my Disney vacation, but working out the simple design was tough enough. I had to guess on the look with hand drawn long-box graph paper. I kept it veeeery simple.

That makes four chemo caps so far for me. For John.

It's Here!

Yesterday this was in our garden.

Yupper, Spring is here. The first crocus has finally come up. Had to get the camera for this one. I gotta get some Snow Crocus. They would always peek out in February. I can remember one year they bloomed on Valentines Day. I always called Grandmom when I saw the first one. She loved her garden and gave me all of the bulbs and bushes at my first house. I moved some here but I believe Grandmoms have finally all been eaten by some neighboring squirrels. (Surely not my baby squirrels). I think all of her 13 children, 26 grandchildren and plenty of other family have plants from her. The dark lilac I have is a direct descendant of the one in her yard. I still think of her and miss her so much at times like this. When Bobby and I got to the WH&G show, the fragrance was overwhelming. I sat there with my eyes closed and felt like a succubus. The flowers. The trees. The mulch. The dirt. The Koi in the pond. Yup. One of the displays had a display with Koi about 18 - 24". Beautiful.

Oh yeah. I'm done with the snow and ready for Spring.

Today we got more.

Last week Bobby showed me a sale at Ollies and we took a road trip. I picked up some pretty purple chenille by Lion Brand dirt cheap. It’s so soft. I get so cold sometimes watching TV and knitting but a blanket over my legs doesn’t help the arthritis in my neck. It’s hard to adjust a shawl with my right arm and I think a wrap that stays put when I get up to pee is perfect. I'm looking at shrug patterns. I need to swatch the chenille to be sure it doesn’t break since Holly Anne warned me some discount house yarns are notorious for that. I can take it back for store credit within 30 days. It's so lush, I hope it's okay.

I almost finished my Knit for Kids sweater Thursday. It's on a circular needle to carry the weight of the sweater and keep me from dropping a needle (besides I didn't have the required size but did have a nice set of interchangeable circs when I started it many moons ago). At K1P2 I almost blew it though. I realized I had joined my ends. D'uh... too much knitting in the round lately?

tink, tink, tink.

The good news is I am almost done. 6 more rows ought to do it. Add a little seaming on the shoulders and voila! Sweater according to pattern. Now that I know how to crochet I’m dying to try it as an edge and this sweater is the perfect project I think. One of the sleeves has a few missed k stitches at the end of a p row.

Chapter 22 - I Design A Rainbow Crochet Hat

Introducing . . .

R A I N B O W

a crocheted top-down hat designed by Bonnie Martin

My first FO in crochet and I had to design it myself. I am still working on a little scarf for my niece Jessica, but I bought the absolutely most decadent yarn for a hat after my crochet class on Saturday and couldn't find the perfect pattern - so I winged it. Ann (my partner-in-crime in the class) had begun to crochet this amazing scarf in lush shades of brown. We both wanted hats from the same yarn and Shea, our instructor started us on the road with a sort of verbal pattern. I scribbled what the two of us could remember and we both started it after class. But I didn't like the haphazard look of the crown where she told us "oh,if it gets ripply just decrease a stitch here and there". The double crochet was fast but had too many holes for me. I searched online, but everything was close fitting like a ski cap. I found a pattern that was close and made a few adjustments for curly hair. I was off.

And that ripply thing gave me an idea to keep my curls from getting squished around my face.

My new hat was a joy to work on and when I decided it was too tall on my head, I easily pulled out the ruffles and a few rows with no damage to the yarn. I loved the way it had ended in the gold, so I did a cut and paste when I restarted the last row. Brilliant.

So. You want to know what it is, right? inka by GARNSTUDIO is my new favorite yarn. This stuff is from Norway(sigh). The website is impossible to view unless you have incredible patience but I include it to give them credit. (a friend who lives there now told me about their internet system - it sounded atrocious) There are no free patterns but the website lists two of my LYS who are distributors for patterns. I have two more skeins and I know how to use 'em. I want to reproduce my pattern with another hat as a gift then I'll publish it here at tinkknitz.

Look at how the colors meld. There's no clear-cut beginning or end. While you're working the yarn a little dot of the previous or next color will appear and a myriad of shades in between. The entire skein is chromatic. I've never been fond of rainbow themed paraphernalia, but when I saw this I was a goner.




Can you eat yarn?

Crochet? Okay!

I had my first crochet class on Saturday. After a slow start it's not that tough. Knowing how to handle yarn and recognize a mistake quickly helps. The instructor is very laid back, almost too laid back. She didn't know the answer to a few of my questions saying "oh, it doesn't matter", or "I don't know 'cause I am left-handed". Handedness can be a real factor when it comes to which way to wrap in knitting. I wanted to know if the same was true for my most recent venture into needlecraft before I developed a rhythm. A buggered up rhythm. But mostly we got along just fine. She was full of praise at our efforts and we were chaining, and doing single and half-double crochet within the two hours.

I have, however, been labeled a perfectionist.

Yes, I admit I came home and ripped the whole thing out. It was too wide despite her calculations based on my gauge. I really did want a long thin scarf as a gift for Jessica or Stacey. Now that I've been at it for a few evenings, I've got even stitches. Thing is, I really am not fond of the whole crochet *look*. I do want to try it as an edge as soon as I can though - that's the whole reason I decided to take up the hook.

I finally took a picture of the Christmas gift Debbie gave me with her gift card. Bobby and I were in Kohls to return one of the pairs of slippers I got him and I spotted it in the clearance section. (Did I mention I love Clearance Racks?) A 13" dark brown cube with a rich leather-look/feel finish. There's a hinged lid tethered with a sturdy ribbon on the inside. It was meant as a file cabinet, but I could tell the bars for the hanging folders could easily be removed if they were a nuisance.

It was 60% off.

I thought about the space where I've been piling my various knitting bags, patterns and books in the living room where I sit in the evenings to knit and watch TV with Bobby. This would fit several small projects, my most used references and kit. Cool!

Bobby was a bit skeptical at first, but I have returned my knitting to it's home every night.