The afore mentioned yarn sell-off post

Prices are roughly 25% off what I paid for them if the stickers are still on them, or if I can remember what I paid. Otherwise, they are 25% off the MSRP from yarndex.com. Prices rounded to the nearest 25 cents to make it easy.

Email me what you'd like to annilita at gmail dot com and include your zip code. Buyer pays for shipping + delivery confirmation. I won't add anything for packaging or whatever. I don’t mind shipping overseas.

Buyer pays for any paypal fees if necessary. In addition to Paypal, I will accept gift cards to Ikea, Target, or Home Depot.

Disclaimers: We are a smoke-free/pet-free home, however some of the yarn is from swaps with homes that did have cats and it’s all been stored together, so if you are super sensitive, you may want to avoid this swap. Also, remember monitor colors can alter the true color of the yarn, so it may not be precisely the shade you expect when it arrives. When the color is dramatically off, I try to offer comparisons to help you visualize the real color.


Cascade Cloud 9 - $5.50 per skein. 13 skeins available. 50.50 merino/angora blend.109 yards per skein. Worsted Weight.


Alpaca Super Fine - $4 per skein. Brown and a pale dusty rose. They work well together color-wise. 100% alpaca sport-weight. 50gr (yardage not given on label)


Worsted Weight Wool – Kettle-dyed, cannot remember the dyer. $8 100% wool, single-ply, pre-felted. Unknown yardage.


Plymouth Yarn: Bristol Yarn Gallery King George - $6 each, 2 available. 45% baby alpaca, 45% merino, 10% cashmere. Worsted, 105 yards


Inca Wool – $5 each. 100% wool. 2 teal, one gold, one peachy-orange. (Two are missing labels, but are full skeins.) Packaged for sale to a company in Russia who reneged, so the labels are in Russian. Sport weight, 167 meters. Great for fair isle projects.


Alpaca Country Fina - $5 each. 3 creamscicle available (a heathered orange) 20% alpaca, 80% wool. Sport Weight. This was packaged for a company in Russia who reneged on the order, so the label is in Russian. 150 meters. Great for fair isle. The balls no longer have the ball bands on them, but they are all complete skeins and I have the labels that go on them and can include them for you.


SOLD -- Alpaca Country Fina - $5 each. 8 full skeins of forest green available, 2 partial skeins that total more than one skein together, but I’ll count both as one skein for $5. See yarn information above .


Alpaca Country Fina - $4 each 5 full skeins of white, all wound into balls or partially wound. See yarn information above.

The following are Alpaca Country Fina that I Kool-aid dyed. See yarn info above. $7 a hank. I have the ball bands with the yarn information on them to include with these:


Lemonade (2 available)


Orange (5 available)


Mixed Berry (4 available)


Cherry (2 available) On my monitor, the color is off in this shot and I can’t get it to look right. The color is actually a standard, crayola red.


Cherry-lite (2 available) These are the same color as the ones above, but not as saturated. The color is slightly variegated from white to red.


Pink lemonade (1 available)


Fruit Punch (2 available) On my monitor, these look more orange than they are in person. They are very pink, variegated to white.



Lion Brand Knitting Worsted. -- $4 This is a ‘vintage’ hank in very good condition. 4 oz. No yardage given, but there is a lot of yarn here, possibly enough for a full scarf on size 9 needles.


SWTC Optimum - $9.75 per skein. 10 balls silver, 5 balls pink, 7 balls purple available
100% wool. DK weight 2-ply. This is, without a doubt, the softest wool yarn you will ever touch. I have some cashmere in my stash, and this yarn is actually softer than my $50 a hank cashmere. 154 yards per hank. I use these for heirloom-type baby gifts and there is always a lot of ooh-ing and aah-ing about how soft it is. I think the silver and pink work especially well together for fair-isle patterns.


Berroco Plush - $6.25 per ball. 3 balls solid, 3 balls variegated available. 100% nylon. There is a pattern for a baby/toddler dress on the Berroco website that calls for this yarn. I just didn’t get it knit before my daughter got too big for it.


Sirdar Snuggly Bubbly – ($6 per ball. 4 balls dark purple, 2 balls cream [in photo], 1 ball light purple, 1 ball white [not in photo] available.) Slubby worsted, 100% Nylon. Very soft. Good for durable, yet still cutesie baby clothes, toys or blankies.140 yards.


Pure Gold Double Knitting - $4. 100% Courtelle, which I believe is a proprietary name for acrylic. This is a soft, smoochy acrylic, though. Worsted Weight. 220 yards.
Remnants of a fluffy boa-type yarn. $.50 (Good for the cupcake tops in One Skein)


Butterfly Mercerized Cotton - $7.25 per hank 100% mercerized cotton. DK weight. 1 purple, 1 pink available. Mauve is SOLD. 230 meters


Zephyr Wool -- $10 for both. Two hanks of deep cherry red, hand dyed with kool-aid dyes. Sport weight, I don’t remember the yardage. Certainly enough for a hat, possibly enough for a lacey scarf. 54 gr total weight.


Cascade Pima Tencel – $3.75 each. 1 green, 3 blue (one wound into cake) available 50% cotton, 50% tencel 109 yards each, dk weight


Peace Fleece – 30% mohair, 70% wool, worsted, 2 ply, 200 yards.
SOLD -- Hank: $5.50
Blue cake: $2.25 (half a hank)
Black cake: $2.25 (slightly more than half a hank)


Bernat Boa- $1 100% polyester. 71 yards.


Wisdom Yarns Poems - $5 thick/thin worsted 100% wool, 109 yards


Sensations Whisper - $2. 15% wool, 43% nylon, 42% acrylic. 71 yards


Skacel Fuego - $6.25 each. 2 grey, 2 blue. 80% mohair, 20% wool. Fuzzy lace-weight. 110 m. per ball.


Filatura Di Crosa - $3 each. 4 available. 68% wool/32% cotton. Slubby, single-ply worsted. 109 yards.


Valley Fibers 2/4 Merino-Cashmere - $15. 80% merino, 20% cashmere. 830 yards per pound. Cone weighs 1lb, 2oz, including the cone. It’s not particularly soft on the cone, but I was assured by the folks at Webs that it would soften up once it has been washed.


Fun Fur - $.50 each. Half skeins of pink, brown and white.


SOLD -- Debbie Bliss Pure Silk - $10 each. 1 grape, 1 green. 100% silk. 125 m. Sport/dk weight.


SOLD -- Village Spinning Inca Organic Cotton - $10.50 for the cream hank, $5.25 for the green (half a hank). 100% organic cotton, thick-thin worsted weight yarn. Approx 325 yards cream, 165 yards green.


Heirloom Breeze - $4 for both. 30% wool, 69.9% cotton, .4% lycra. Worsted Weight.


Brazil Kokon - $1.50 each. 65% cotton, 35% viscose. Thick/thin DK weight.


Bernat Cottontots - $3. 100% cotton, worsted weight. 4 oz.


Patons Beehive Baby - $1.50. 100% acrylic. Sport weight. 286 yards.


Shaffhauser - $2. 100% Superwash wool. Light worsted, 110 yards.


Mission Falls 1824 cotton. - $3 each. 2 purple, 1 black available. 100% cotton, worsted weight, 84 yards each.


Laines Du Nord Giunco – $4 each. 100% Superwash wool. Worsted Weight. 137 yards.


SOLD -- Cleckheaton Country 8-ply - $3 each. (15 available. 3 more available that were partially knit and then frogged and rewound for $2.50 each.) 100% wool. Worsted. 106 yards.

Cascade 220 Superwash. $7 each. 100% Superwash wool. Worsted. 220 yards per ball.
Go to http://cascadeyarns.com/cascade-superwash.asp to see colors.
Color 801 – 4 available.
Color 818 – 3 available.
Color 862 – 4 available.
Color 867 – 1 available.
Color 872 – 2 available.

Wassup, people?

So, life has been interesting lately. And I mean that both sincerely and in quotes; 'interesting'.

Lately, I've been much more content in my role as Parent, Wife and Mother. Home has just been very comfortable and less with the crazy-making. I don't think the kids have changed in any developmental milestone way to make this the case. (If anything, Abby has turned a corner into a she-demon stage recently and I'm ready for that to end anytime now, kthx) I think I've just been more on top of things and being more on top of things has made things more positive and doable.

School is going very well. We're in a nice routine. Kai is plugging along. Abby has taken an interest in the v.Smile and preschool computer games and is sitting in one some of Kai's lessons, so she's starting to pick up on things she's had no interest in before. Kai's such the little scholar (the little hyperactive scholar of doom) that she's been a very good example for Abby in that way.

So, yeah. We were plugging along just fine and then, whammo, Adam was laid off. He works for a construction company, so we had been expecting it, but we thought it was months away still. There was about 24 hours of panic and then another job landed in his lap. He should be starting Mondey, which means no break in the paychecks, though he will be making less while he trains in the new company. Still, it's enough for us to live on, so I'm happy. Christmas was going to be mellow this year anyway and we should be able to put together enough money as we need it to finish the rennovations. Things are positive.

On the crafting front, I've finished the body of my first lace shawl, but knitting the border on it has been freakin' me out, so I'm only about 1/10th of the way around it. I've knit up a few quick and easy gifts for Christmas. Currently, I'm test knitting the contest entries for the Just Dishcloths mailing lists. They are lovely and I can't wait to send them out to people.

I started teaching a crochet class for the women at church. We only meet once a month and at the first class I taught them to do a singel crochet dishcloth. This month, we're going to do a half-double crochet scarf with button accents on the end and I'm providing them with the yarn. We're going to use the SWTC Optimum that Jenny gave me a while back. I love it and want to spread the joy that is super-soft Optimum.

During the 24 hour freak-out over Adam being unemployed, I did something I'd been planning on doing for months now and went through the yarn stash and pulled out everything I've been meaning to trade away to put it up for sale to try to get some extra money that way. As I was finishing the photos, he came home and told me he had a job, so I didn't need to sell the yarn, but I figured what the heck, I'd been wanting to do it anyway. So, look out for that here soon. There are a few pieces from Ikea I was wanting for the new room that would have to be backburnered for ages, but if I can offload enough of my stash, I may be able to get them sooner rather than later. Then I can tell people that this is the house that yarn furnished.

Windows and Gimp are your Fair Isle Friend.

So, everyone was picking on me tonight at knit club, because I haven't updated in a while. Seriously, they ALL ganged up on me.

Or did they just mention it?

One or the other... Anyway, yeah. I'm plugging along. I've been working on the mittens some more. In theory, they are supposed to go in the mail in a few days, but they may be a bit late.

The fair isle was puckering a lot, so I frogged the first mitten 4 times, but I think I have it good enough now that any puckering will block out of it. We shall see.

I'm calling the pattern Norwegian Chaos, because it's, obviously, inspired by traditional Norwegian mittens, but one mitten had a butterfly and the other will have a hurricane symbol. I was having a doozy of a time graphing out the hurricane symbol, until I found a site that does actual size knitters graph paper. I printed out a page at the guage of my project. Then I found an image of a hurricane symbol and saved it to my desktop. I opened it in GIMP and resized the image to be the size of the space I had to fit it in on the graph paper and printed it out. I taped the hurricane symbol up on the window, then taped the graph paper in place above it and traced the shape on it. Voila, easy-peasey fair-isle graphing.

In the meantime, when I don't feel like doing the fair-isle, I've been working on the Backyard Leaves scarf. Oh, the cashmere is like buttah. Picking it up this time has been a lot easier than before. Goofs are rarer and easier to correct. Working from the graph has been cake this time. I'm really, really enjoying the project now that it's not such a struggle. Already I'm 5 repeats through the 22 the pattern calls for. I think that it's going to be shorter than I was hoping, though, so I'll probably aim for 26 or 28 repeats instead. Also, the project is coming out much poofier than I expected. I'm not sure how much of it is going to come out with the blocking. I may have to poke around on Ravelry for some advice regarding that.

I AM THE MASTER OF ALL I ATTEMPT! BOW BEFORE ME!

I AM THE MASTER OF ALL I ATTEMPT! BOW BEFORE ME!
Yeah, yeah, it's been a while. My 3 readers should be used to that by now. In the interim, I took the girls back to visit family, Adam has continued to heal nicely, the renovations are progressing, and the garden is ready to be rototilled this evening. It's been busy. What can I say?

Oh, I know what I can say: BEHOLD MY MIGHT AND POWER!!!

Muahahahahahaaaa!!!

Sorry.

I'm feeling a little self-inflated at the moment in all things yarnish. For you see, last night, I mastered (I use the term to mean "learned" not "able to teach a course") continental knitting, fair-isle, and knitting with one color in each hand. All at the same time.

Adam was sitting across from me and looked over ad saw me knitting fair-isle with one color in each hand and had the gaul to not leap from his seat and kneel before me in awe. In fact, I think what he did was glance over, think, "Is she still knitting?" and look back at the Yankees-Boston game. (WAY TO POP FLY THE GAME AWAY, BIG PAPI!) And so, I decided he needed to be schooled. It went something like this:

"Adam, look what I'm doing! I finally figured out continental knitting."
*blank stare*
"And now I can knit fair-isle, because I can hold a different colored yarn in either hand."
*slightly impressed "hmm" sort of look*
"Isn't it amazing?"
*uhhhhhh-how-should-I-react-so-I-can-look-back-at-the-game face*
"I AM THE MASTER OF ALL I ATTEMPT!! BEHOLD MY GREATNESS!!"
*wondering where the nearest psych ward is*

I tell you, it is a good thing I derive an income, however meagre, from doing this or Adam would have made the call last night and I'd be waking up in a pretty, pink, padded cell right now.

But seriously, I'm totally thrilled by this. The world of fair isle is finally open to me! Yay!

And what was I working on, you ask? Well, I'm part of a mitten exchange and my partner is a math geek. So, I designed a Norwegian-esque pattern that has a butterfly on one mitten and a hurricane symbol on the other. It's witty. It was the suggestion of one of the readers of my personal blog and he's a math geek, too, so I'm trusting his judgement. And where is my progress? After all, I managed to get half a mitten done last night, so where's a photo?

Well, you'll have to wait, because I frogged the whole thing. See, I was knitting it with a 100% wool dk that I'd kool-aid dyed red and a white 80/20 alpaca wool blend. And though the labels claimed the same gauge, they were not the same in practice, so it was all nubbly. Also, I discovered that either due to myself or fair-isle in general, the gauge got much tighter when I started the fair-isle section, so I'm going to start over, using a green 80/20 instead of the red wool so the yarn wpi is the same AND will be going up a needle size when I start the chart to try to combat the tightness.

I knew it was going to be a problem by half way through the first chart row, but I was so drunk on power that I couldn't stop myself.

So, that's awesomeness #1.

Awesomeness #2 is that I just scored this in a swap:



$20 worth of yarn I'm never going to use, plus a $25 gift certificate to Knitpicks is getting me that sweet knitting bag. While I love my "Will knit for tattoos" bag more than life itself, sometimes it's not big enough and sometimes I need to be more covert with my knitting, and this should do the trick quite nicely.

And finally, awesomeness #3:

Saturday, I was in, in all places, KMart and saw something that prompted the urge to design again. It will be a tote bag. And it will be the most awesome bag ever toted. I just have to finish the 97,000 other things that must be done before I can start working on it.

Ugh.

You know what is not fun? Knitting a scarf lengthwise, finding a mistake three rwos back that can't be fixed by dropping stitches and reknitting, frogging those rows, and then putting 376 stitches back on the needles.

Oh. Man.

This better be one awesome scarf when I'm done with it.

Directionless

My knitting has been kind of flaily over the last few days. We've had so many people come check in on Adam that I started picking up my Fiber Trends dishcloth and working on it while we chatted. The pattern is easily memorized, so it was fairly mindless. I wasn't really into the pattern, though, and it took me 5 or 6 days to finish the one cloth. And really, I need to invest 5 minutes in the finish work for it to be really done.

I finished a dishcloth for the Just Dishcloths list at knit club on Saturday.

I'd like to get a jump on Christmas projects. And I'd like to plow through my bulky yarns. And I need to get my head in the proper space to send in an afghan proposal, but I'm not quite there yet and my wrist is still recovering from the Month Of Constant Crochet. And I really, desperately want to make something for myself.

I have the misti alpaca chunky from Linda and I cast on about 5 times for the Ribs and Ruffles Scarf, but I wanted it wider and longer. Ok, yarn-wise as I have twice the yarn it calls for, but I wanted to modify the ruffles at the beginning so they were a bit looser and I couldn't get the math right and I want MINDLESS WORK.

So, I pulled out One Skein and I think I'm going to try the Single Cable Scarf using the chunky and size 13 needles. It's a really, REALLY narrow scarf in the yarn it calls for, and I'm hoping the chunky/13 combo will pump it up to at least 5 inches across. If so, I'm just going to knit until both hanks are used up and maybe by then I'll be ready to swing back into the land of the creative and responsible, but not yet. Mindless is the name of the game for a little while longer yet.

Crafty update

I have been knitting the last few days. (I seriously need a break from crochet!) I don't have any attention span, though. I started Wheelie from Knitty the other day, and then my husband asked me if I was an old lady. Hello, 113 means FIRE HOT steering wheels, thank you! And it's my car! I can cozy my car if I want to! But, yeah, it put me off a little. So then I started in on some dishcloths from a Fiber Trends pattern that I got in a swap, using a skein of hemp-blend that I got from my NSFY partner. It's fairly mindless, but I don't feel like picking it up again.

If I continue this way, I'm going to be back up to over 20 UFOs again, and no one wants that. So I think I'm going to devote myself to house projects and staring blankly into space instead. (It's an underrated pastime!)

Miss Pink commissioned a button for the Just Dishcloths group. Check it out! It has a knitting needle and a crochet hook incorporated in the lettering. It's pretty much the best button ever:



Please steal it, load it to your photo hosting site, and put it up on your blog. Spread the word!

The return of the absent blogger

I have been awol for the most part the last month. First, I was working myself to tendonitis trying to get the projects for the book done. Which I did, thank you!

Then, we loaded the girls in the car and took them to Disneyland for 4 days. Which was awesome. Disneyland with small children is quite an experience. And the girls are completely obsessive about Princesses now. Send help.

Then, the day after we got back, my husband was on his way to scout camp and his truck was t-boned by a girl who was apparently trying to gun it to make it into the street between my husband and the guy behind him, but she misjudged and clipped the back of his truck, which sent it not only spinning, but then flipping, pinning my husband half out his window with the roof of the truck resting on his chest. (Yes, he had his seatbelt on. They aren't so great in roll overs, though, apparently.)

Yeah. That wasn't so cool.

He was air evaced to Scottsdale, where he spent a night in the ICU and another night in the normal ward. He has 6 broken ribs, a fractured skull, and a broken scapula. But, as someone put it, he was one more quarter-turn away from being dead, so we're thankful it wasn't a whole lot worse. Since then, I've been dealing with doctors and insurance companies and visitors, and as of yesterday a lawyer, on top of helping him get better, which, thankfully, he is doing pretty well. The ribs still give him a lot of greif, but as long as he doesn't run out of his pain meds, it's not crippling pain, and he's able to shower and get dressed and putter about on his own now. Considering the alternative, we're well pleased.

So, yeah. Then I figured, well, while he was gone to camp I was going to paint Kai's room, so since he's puttering around ok, I'll go ahead and do that. And I spent the next 48 hours days painting and reorganizing her room. And it looks great, but I probably should have put it off, because it was the last straw, I think, and all the insanity of the last 3 weeks is starting to hit me in a big way. Really, I'd be happy spending the next 2 days in bed. Not really an option. Instead, today I'm going to start tackling the office/craft room because I KNOW there are things burried in here that need to go back to the library and I have to get this room sorted before we start school again for the year, and now that Adam is out of commission for another 4-6 weeks, there is no way the addition is going to be ready, so we're going to have to make due with the space we have. Which means I'll have to go to the storage unit and go through things and only bring back what we will actually use for the first few months of school. Which means sorting through boxes when it's 106 degrees out.

Can you tell I'm stressed? A little? A smidge? At least it's transformed to a sort of constant, low-grade stress instead of the total freak-out stress of last week. Babysteps.

I think I'm going to end this here and start another post that isn't so depressing...

Yet more progress.

So, long time, no post. I've been working hard on getting my projects done so I can get them in the mail. I think that 3 of the pattern sets and the FOs will be ready to ship off by Tuesday, Wednesday at the latest. That will leave me to devote my full attention to the final project. I'm still ok on time. I may be mailing it from our Disneyland trip after finishing it on the drive over, but I am still ok on time.

This afternoon, I checked to make sure my assembly concept for the pillows was sound. And it was. So, thank heavens for small miracles! I didn't actually get to assemble them, I just know now that what I was planning to do is a-ok and can stop worrying about it. So, I turned my full attention to weaving in ends. *snore* 3 hours later, and I'm about 2/3rds done. There are a lot of ends to weave in. A lot. Like, over 250. Not all on one item, mind, but still. Normally, I'd just work over them, to be honest, but some of the color contrasts were too much and I wanted to make sure that the ends were well and truly on the wrong side of the work.

So, it's all moving along.

If anyone out there has been meaning to join my new and spangly chatter-free dishcloth lists, now is the time. July 8th will be the day we start our first knit cloth, and July 22nd will be the crochet cloth. Check it out:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JustDishcloths/

The only posts allowed on the group will be when I send out the pattern bits. No forwarded jokes, yarn reviews, OMGWALMARTISN'TSELLINGYARN panic letters, or "I'M DONE!" emails.

Just. Dishcloths. Says it right there in the name. Join up. You know you want to.

I got my handy-dandy list of TNNA retailers in the mail the other day and found 2 shops I didn't know existed in two towns I was already planning on visiting while back to see family next month. One is in Shelburne Falls and the other in Sturbridge. I don't know if we'll make it to the one in Sturbridge, because if I remember correctly, Old Sturbridge Village is a bit removed from the town itself and I'm not sure the kids will want to go after walking around in 1780 all day, but I really hope to make it to the one in Shelburne Falls. That, plus Webs and the new shop in Greenfield that Mom is in love with, and I should have my yarn needs well and truly met on this trip. Especially since I'm no-yarn-fo-a-yearing. *ahem*

Also, there is a store in Brewster out on the Cape called "Town-Ho Needleworks." Hi-lar-i-ous.

Beware smaller sizes of Crochet Lites

So, the whole light-up crochet hook thing seems to be on the rise. I got some from friends who got them in their goodie bags at Stitch'n'Pitch and don't crochet. I thought the idea was great, because I like to crochet in the car while my husband drives and this way I don't need a light on when it gets dark. Brilliant.

Then while I was at TNNA, the company rep pointed out that they are also great when you are working with dark yarns, because it helps you see the stitches. Well THAT was an amazing discovery, as I'm in the middle of a black-yarn heavy project and am sick of sitting under a bright light all the time.

So, while I was at the LYS last week, I picked up an F hook. Last night at SnB, I had forgotten my normal F-hook in the car, but realized I had the Crochet Lite F hook in my bag, so I pulled it out to give it a try for the first time.

That lasted for about 3 seconds. The clear plastic shaft that forms the hook part gets gradually larger toward the handle, so an F-hook STARTS as an F-hook, but it only remains an F for about 1/4 of an inch. After that, it goes up in size to, I'm guessing, about an I. So, unless you form all your stitches riiiiiight up against the hook and hold your yarn extremely close to the stitch so you can YO, your stitches will end up being as large as if you were working with a much larger hook. I assume it's because the handles all have to be a certain size to accomodate the batteries, and they didn't think to resize the opening to the handle and just figured they could taper the hook part because the engineer had never crocheted before. The larger hooks don't seem to have this problem, but I have an F and a D that are basically useless as an F and a D. I might be able to get away with using them for a pattern that uses a larger hook with a thin yarn, but other than that, they are pretty much useless.

So, take caution when buying these and look at the hook shaft. If they are still tapering by the time they reach the handle, they aren't the size they claim to be. If they've evened off before then and are straight by the time they reach the handle, you should be good to go. It's a shame, because the idea of these is brilliant.

Progress

We have been rather busy around Chez Spiff this weekend. Adam traded in the Blazer for a Camry on Saturday. His brother was in town for a class reunion, and he and sister (who graduated the same year) decided to skip out and come party at our house. (Or, you know, eat pizza and chat.) And then yesterday it was Father's Day, which meant church followed by copious amounts of napping.

I managed to be productive none-the-less. I have reached the halfway point on the second project and am waiting on the last of the yarn to arrive before I can finish. So, I picked up project three and am about to finish the first of 3 patterns that that entails. Project three moves along much faster than project two, so I'm feeling less worried about the deadline now.

Today's schedule is comprised of grocery shopping, crocheting, feeding children, school, crocheting, making dinner, family home evening (we will be playing "cardboard games" tonight, per Kai's request), with a bit of crocheting to round it all off.

Oh, the gifties!

I've been having some lovely yarn days these past few days. Two days ago, I got the box of yarn from Cascade for the afghan for Lark:



Squooshy, yarny goodness delivered right to my door! The ease! The convenience! The sheer magnitude of 24 skeins of yarn in one massive box!

Abby, ok, ABBY, the 2-year old who is obsessed with my knitting and crochet, went into spasms of giggles and gleeful squeeling. She is 2, guys. I am sensing a stash addict emerging. Kai was excited, too, but more because it's fun to get stuff from the UPS man. Abby was in total bliss over the yarn. She was standing on the chair next to the table while I checked the color numbers and snagged two hanks and started waving them around over her head and squeeling, "Look, Mommy! Look at the yarn! Are you making something for meeEEEEEeee?!"

So, yeah. Abby will get the afghan when it's done and photographed and returned. Green and brown aren't exactly little girl colors, but she is always just desperate to get something I made, and it's been a while.

Then, yesterday, I got the box of yarn from Patons for the kitchen set. This one came in an itty-bitty box, but was still just as thrilling to get.



Paton's Grace in Champagne and Cardinal. Oooh-la-la. This arrived during Quite Time, so Abby doesn't know about it yet, and so there were no hysterics when it arrived.

Also, the day before yesterday, I received my box from my No Sheep for You partner.



Elsebeth Lavold's Cotton Patine in a lovely purple. I love EL's yarns, and hadn't used this one yet, so it was quite a treat. She also included some lovely cube beads and two little green kitty face beads. The latter are totally becoming stitch markers! For me! For me! The former, I'm going to incorporate into some wire jewelry, I think. I got Annie Modessit's wire jewelry book at TNNA and there are quite a few designs I've been wanting to try. I've done a bit of wire crochet, but haven't tried any wire knitting yet.

So, THANK YOU, NSFY pal! It was a lovely suprise and completely perfect! :)

Then, to top off the Week of the Yarn, we had knit club last night, and Linda totally spoiled me for my birthday. She gave me two of the light up crochet hooks from Crochet Lite that I'm totally in love with. (Not only are they great for using in the dark, but when working with dark yarns, too. I tried to find an F at the Fiber Factory for the pillow covers I'm making, because black Cotton Fleece is so difficult to see, and it was the only size they didn't have! Oh noes!) And then, to top it off, two hanks of Misti Alpaca Chunky in a sort of pea soupy/lime color.



Oh man, can I just remind you all how much I long for sheets made of alpaca and a maid to clean them for me? I believe that it is the fiber used to make the angelic robes of the saints. (Some might think cashmere or silk, but I think God is more frugal than that. Why pay the big bucks when alpaca is so fabulous and affordable?) I keep holding the hanks against my head and smooshing it. You know what it feels like? Boobs. I'm going to say it. Hanks of Misti Alpaca Chunky have the same smooshability and softness of boobs. Resting your head against one is like being 4 again and snuggling against your mom when you get a booboo.

They should use that as a marketing point somehow. I wonder if describing a yarn as boob-like would increase sales to men? They'd want it packed in brown paper bags for the trip home so no one would know they'd bought the boob yarn.

And in the interest of full disclosure, Linda told me they had other colors and she wouldn't be offended if I swapped it out. While the lime is LOVELY, I thought I'd take a look, because it was kind of pale for coloring, and I wanted to see Tempe Yarn and Fiber now that it is in its new location. So, I packed up the girls and we went over and they had some RED that was amazing! So, I ended up switching colors after all, because I figured if it was for my birthday, I was definitely going to use it on ME and the red looked better against my skin. So, THANK YOU, LINDA for thinking of me and for the smooshy goodness of alpaca!!

Who has got the button?!

Buttons are crazy expensive. $3.50 doesn't sound bad until you need 9 of them. I tried contacting a wholesaler even and that was only slightly better, because they have better buttons, so their wholesale prices were about as much as the plastic round ones at Joanns anyway. I wish I'd know this when I was in college, because I would have taken some classes in button design and manufacture. (I don't know that Smith offered it, but maybe I could have found it at UMass through the 5-college exchange?)

I found some yesterday at Fiber Factory that are smaller than I wanted, but will work in a pinch. I wish the wire crochet buttons I attempted would work, but like Jenny said, when the wire is thin enough to work with, it's not durable enough to hold it's shape. I'm still thinking of getting some round, flats in the wood department of Michael's and having Adam drill holes in them for me. A layer of spray sealer and voila--button!

The nonstop work on the projects caused a bit of tendonitis or bursitis or just general wrist pain the other day, and I had to go get a wrist splint. I've been taking it slower and it seems to have left me for now. I need to get cracking, though.

I remembered to take Kai to her class yesterday. I had to speak with the TA afterward, because apparently, she just had melt-down after melt-down the whole time. Her cousin was in the class with her, and I drove her home for my SIL, and the whole way, she was telling me in great detail what Kai had done wrong and I couldn't get her to stop. By the time we dropped her off, Kai was feeling pretty low, and I spent the rest of the day pumping her up again. I thought she was cool again, until she wandered out of her room after bedtime and I sent her back telling her we'd had a great day and it was time for bed, and she turned around and said, "Mom. I had an awful time today." *sigh* Being 4 is hard.

Slacker, slacker

I know I haven't come through on the photos, but what can I say? I've been a bit over whelmed. I would love for this to be a blog that is updated daily with photos and quips and information, but srsly, this deadline is looming in a big way. And if my priorities are really family/life/work, then blogging about those things is going to be the least of my worries when things are nuts. I don't have to have the most spiffilicious craft blog on the planet. It's mainly for my own records anyway.

I've been crocheting at least 6 hours a day for the last week. The projects I'm making for the book are very time consuming. I'm so very pleased with how they are turning out, but man are they taking a long time. I'm leaving the afghan for last, not because it's the biggest project, but because it's on a large hook and should go faster than the smaller projects I have planned that require construction time, too.

The bathmat is done. I have to weave in 2 ends and that's it. I've started on the pillows, and they are the project that is taking so much longer than I had planned that I'm getting nervous. But I am making progress and I'm hoping that by the time I run out of the yarn I have, the yarn Brown Sheep is sending me will have arrived.

I know I've gushed about it on my LJ, but allow me to gush here, too: Yarn companies? Are sending me yarn. For free! To use for the projects I'm making for the books! That little lesson was the best thing I heard at TNNA. Yay, yarn for free! Patons, Brown Sheep, and Cascade are all graciously providing yarn. So, go buy lots from them for supporting designers!

Anyway, enough for now. Back to hooking.

Yarny goodness from TNNA

Michelle wanted to see pictures of what I picked up at TNNA. I will take those today and hopefully have them up by tomorrow. I wasn't allowed to take photos at the event, because there was quite a bit of stuff that hadn't been "released" yet. And some of that stuff I have samples to play with, but some of it they weren't even giving away yet. So, I'll tell you about those first and you can start seeing pictures tomorrow.

First of all, SWTC has some gorgeous yarns coming out. One is called Yin/Yang. The Yin yarn is a standard yarn in some lovely colors. (I didn't get a handout on the yarns so I can't tell you what the content was. Darn!) It looked like a merino, but since it's coming from SWTC, I'm guessing there is some soy or corn mixed in. Anyway, as I said, lovely colors, very soft, nice handle and drape. Beautiful. The Yang version is the same as the Yin, but it has sequins. And I know what you're thinking--AHH! NOVELTY YARN! But no! The sequins were small enough and placed well so that it wasn't sequin over-load. The plan with the yin/yang combination is that they can be used together so you can make a sweater in mostly Yin, and then use the Yang as accents and not have to deal with attaching sequins yourself. I would give you a link, but this yarn is so new it's not even on the website yet.

Along the same lines, The Alpaca Yarn Company had this beautiful yarn called Glimmer. I'm trying to remember now if it was a lace or a dk weight, but the thing about it was that it has a strand of holographic fiber spun with it. And some yarn companies who shall remain nameless *coughcoughLionWoolEasecoughcough* have used this poorly in the past. The holographic strand is too thick and ends up being glaringly obvious to the eye and pokey against the skin. Glimmer's holographic thread is so thin that the samples they had knit up for display looked like they'd been danced upon by Tinkerbell. They had a very understated sparkle to them that looked like pixie dust. I was completely smitten with that yarn. It's perfect for evening wear items or a formal piece or a out-on-the-town item for people who still want to shine, but don't want to look like they coated themselves in Elmer's glue and rolled around in the glitter. And the best thing was that because the thread was so fine, it didn't interfere with the softness of the alpaca.

TNNA, baby!

Well, THAT was an experience!

I got to Columbus in one piece and settled in to the hotel no problem. When I arrived, there was a massive mixed-flower bouquet, candle, and jar of bubble bath waiting for me from Adam. (Did I mention I was traveling on my birthday? He's such a sweetie.) I had dinner in the hotel restaurant and took a piece of cake back to my room to snack on later. And then ate it right away. *ahem* It was my birthday, people! Cake!

The mall was right next to my hotel and I had had plans to go get a new shirt to wear to TNNA the following day, only to find that the mall closed at 7. (My flight arrived at 7:15.) Seriously. Columbus is the state capitol and everything was closed by 7. Made. No. Sense.

I called Jamie and talked to her while I finished putting the lining in my bag and sewed in the handles. I think I finished at about 11 and tried to go to sleep then, but didn't actually fall asleep until 1. Curse you, time change!

At 6 am, someone dropped a breakfast tray in the hall and I couldn't fall back to sleep. So, I gave up at 7 and got up and got ready. At which point, I realized I'd forgotten to bring socks. I got myself together, took my bag downstairs and checked it at the front desk and asked if they knew where I could buy socks.

Sure! But none of the places open until 10!

Le sigh... So, I went out and got a taxi and headed over to the convention center in sneakers with no socks and a boring ole v-neck shirt. Oh, the humanity!

But wait! I had been dropped off at the wrong corner of the convention center and had to walk through the building and found an Ohio State Spirit shop! And they were open! I scored myself a sweet pair of bright red knee socks with large, white Os all over there. Sha-weet! I said a silent prayer of thanks that my pants were long enough to cover my socks completely and made my way to the convention itself.

Oh. My. There was a wall of fiber. A wall of yarn, mine for the stroking. And then there was a long double row of tables with mini-exhibits of different products and yarns. So many things to touch... But I was hungry and needed fuel and there were mini hoards around both of these exhibits, so I grabbed myself a smoothie and sat down at a table and was soon joined by a handful of women from a yarn shop in Indiana who were there to order. The owner didn't seem like she knew what to make of me, but I had a nice time chatting with her sister, who came with her every year for the heck of it.

When 10 rolled around and the doors opened, the mini-hoards made their way in and I took the opportunity to go through the mini displays and grope yarns and poke at gadgets, then I headed in to the event.

If I had to estimate, I would guess the floor space at about 2 or 2 and a half football fields large. Having never played football, I can't be expected to be completely accurate about that, but that's what it seemed like to me. Half of the space was for needlepoint things and the other half was for yarny things, with a few booths from each discipline mixed in on the other's side.

The first booth I sidled up to was the Mission Falls 1824 booth. It was staffed by an older man who looked like he was still getting settled, so I almost passed it by. But I went back and stepped in and had a looksie at the back wall of yarn and mentioned to the man that I was a designer. His response was, "Oh! Well, grab a ball and see what you can make of it!"

!!!!!

Crack to addicts, people. Crack. To. Addicts.

I made my way down that aisle, which happened to also house SWTC, who had a 6-stall space set up with GORGEOUS displays and holy dookie this amazing yarn they are coming out with that has SEQUINS, but they aren't insane sequins, and they also sell a version of the yarn without the sequins, so you can use the sequined version as just an accent if you want. I told them the lady who approached me that I was from Mesa and we chatted a bit and I handed her my flyer with my designs on it and she got very excited about one of them, and took it over to another lady who also got excited about it and came over and said she wanted to buy the pattern and she'd send me the yarn when she got back to make it up for them in Karaoke.

!!!!!

15 minutes into the event and I've learned that I can get whole skeins of free yarn AND I've sold a pattern.

I thanked them muchly and exchanged info and then moved on to the next booth that was taken by Conjoined Creations, which is a yarn producer in Cave Creek. So I said hi to them, too, as a valley local and we talked. They had some gorgeous yarns and when I told them I was the head of the Mesa Stitch'n'Bitch, they offered to come over and sell us some of their discontinued yarns and seconds. Yay!

From there I moved on a bit more methodically through the yarn side of the room, stopping to see who had crochet pattern support and offer my flier to all who would take it. The smaller yarn companies were very open to crochet submissions, and the large yarn companies were very eager to provide yarn support for any patterns that were to be published in a book or magazine. Both bits of information were excellent to hear!

I saw amazing things. Wonderful yarns that are coming out that have a "normal" yarn base, with a bit of sparkle or sequins or beading. They weren't "novelty" yarns, but they added a bit of sumthin-sumthin to the projects. I touched acrylics and acrylic blends that felt like fine merino. (There is no reason for acrylic to be harsh and scratchy and plasticy in feel. That is all the result of yarn companies pandering to the tastes of knitters of the 30's and 40's for whom rough, coarse wool meant projects would be durable, and they created their acrylics to appeal to people who thought things had to be coarse to be long wearing. They are FINALLY catching on to the fact that people really aren't interested in that any more and want SOFT and durable yarns.) I saw a lot of yarns with soy and corn components to them. Lost of exotic fibers; yak, qiviuk, buffalo, all trying to increase their footprint. (Did you know that buffalo doesn't felt OR stretch?!)

I saw Amy Butler bags suitable for knitting projects, a new bag from Namaste that looks like a yoga bag, book mock-ups (Saw the Crochet Me book!! It is BEAUTIFUL!), lots and lots of product distributors who appeared to be selling the same sets of things. Clover has these cute little "critter" pouches coming out that are rubbery animal shapes that have a zipper around their equator. They killed me.

Just before my meeting with Nicole from Lark, I found a book distributor that was giving away free books! Well, that just opened a whole new door of possibilities. ;)

I meet with Nicole and it was very positive. We talked about what was missing from the crochet books on the market and how gaps could be filled (more intermediate and advanced, kthx!) and she picked my brain on resources and what I saw as the up-and-coming trends. She then told me how to pitch my own book proposal to the company and asked if I had any ideas. I didn't have anything, like, OMGEXCITING in mind. I'd been thinking about it, but nothing wonderful had been cropping up for me in the last week or so.

But that changed later in the day...

Anyway, we ended the meeting and I went on my way for a few minutes before spotting a knit designer and had my first gap-jawed celebrity spotting of the day. Then I had to call Amanda, at which point I turned into a stupid, giggling 13-year old for about 10 minutes. It was the first time in 4 hours when I didn't have to be "on" and the whole "holy crap, I can't beleive I'm at TNNA!" swept over me in a big way.

When I was finished gushing, I pulled myself together and headed back out onto the floor. I stumbled upon Kim Werker doing a book signing and stopped to say hi real quick. She was at the book with the woman who taught Teach Yourself Visually: Handspinning and I got a little geeked out by her, too.

Moving on, I found myself at a book signing for Annie Modesitt's new book, but had to run off before I got a copy, because I had my meeting with Kim. Still, slack-jawed gawping occured from my spot in line while I was there.

I so need help.

Kim and I went out to the coffee klauch and got some food and I met 2 other designers (Amy Swenson & Robyn Chachula) in the line. Kim and I sat and chatted for a while and then headed back in. She was in high demand, so I said goodbye and went to check in with some people she recommended that I go name-drop with. Oh, but before that, on the way in she sidled up to a group of 4 people and introduced me.

And, folks, they were... huge. I got a "hi, nice to meet you" out, but all 4 of them were people I'd seen on TV or recognized from multiple author-bios on various books. Big books. Books with major publisher backing and signing tours. I nearly shriveled up into a little piece of fluff before bursting forth into a burst of gushing and twittering and self-idiot-making. Luckily, we moved on tout-suite before I was given the opportunity to either shrivel or burst. I left Kim at the Interweave booth and went and made a few contacts she had recommended.

I had enough time to make it to the last of the yarn booths that were intermingled with the needlepoint booths before moving outside to catch the cab back to the hotel.

So, what was my overall impression?

People in the knitting/crocheting/yarn world? They are nice. Now, this might seem like an odd revelation. I mean, knitting and crochet is inherently a kind thing to do. Taking the time to make something by hand, for yourself or for someone else, is an act of kindness. But it's never really sunk in for me before this even how open and kind and helpful the people in the industry are. I was at the Karabella yarn booth(s)... Ok, now if there is a yarn company out there that says high-end, New York Couture to me, it's Karabella. I started by speaking to a rep, who was very New York Chic, but insanely nice, offered yarn support anytime, willing to chat with this new-to-the-industry designer, and then waves... oh my gosh, I'm going to type this... Berta Karapetyan over to show me the sweater she designed in the company's yarn. And Berta then went on to whip out her brand, spanking new book, and flip through it with me and show off little details and yarn choices.

Ok, I'm there in my boring, v-neck t-shirt, sneakers, red Ohoi State fan store socks, a bag bulging with freebies, hair that's all out of sorts because I forgot my products at home, clutching my little "I'm a designer, Love me!" flyers in my hand, and

Berta Karapetyan

Is flipping through her book with me and talking to me like I know what the hell I'm doing there.

A few minutes later, I was walking down the aisle again and feeling a little misty about it all, to be honest.

To see someone like (yes, I'm typing it again) Berta Karapetyan so excited and eager to show off what she's done to a little fledgling designer like me and to realize that all around me everyone was behaving this way was just overwhelming.

Because design isn't supposed to be that way. It's supposed to be competitive and cut-throat and you guard your techniques and you scoff at those beneath you, right?

I just didn't know how to process all this. Jane freakin' SOWERBY was at a booth near there chatting with a lady about lace like they were long-time knit club pals.

I had the owner of Alpaca with a Twist turn into a giggling 16-year old as she told me about Kim Werker buying a crocheted shawl off of her at an event to publish in Interweave Crochet!

The freebies were great. It was nice to get away. But the number one BIG THING that I took away from this conference is the realization that industry people WANT designers to be successful. They want you to be doing good work and they are open to seeing your ideas and willing to support you on the way. It's not an imposition to contact publishers and yarn companies with patterns. They are hungry for it. It all sent my brain to swirling, to be honest.

And then, it was time to leave. And leave I did. But the story does not end there. I made it to the airport about an hour before they started boarding (I could have stayed longer!) and called Adam and talked for a bit. He had to go to a homeowner meeting and I started flipping through a magazine.

And WHAM! It hit me. A book idea slapped me upside my skull. I whipped out my notebook and in about 5 minutes, I'd jotted down 18 projects. By the end of my first flight, I'd gotten it up to 22. When I think about it, I can see the photography and layout in my head. (I know not to get married to that, though!) The projects include a few beginner, but for the most part they are intermediate and advanced projects. I know what yarns I want to use for about half of them. But, it's big and I still have a few things to learn about the process of designing a whole book on my own before I take this to a publisher.

I arrived home sore from the knees down, with bruises on both shoulders and my left inner-elbow from carrying a couple of VERY heavy bags all day, tired like whoa and badly in need of a shower, but I am so very, very glad I went.

So, yeah. I VERY nice 36 hours.

I will survive! Please, please, let me survive!

I swear, it will be a miracle if I make it through the next 4 days without my head exploding.

But one bit of the oh-my-gosh-please-don't-let-it-get-me stress is over, baby. OVER!

That particular bit of stress being the relaunch of my crafty little selling site. My major source of pride in this relaunch is the addition of these awesome tile magnets. I so don't want to sell them, but, seriously, how many magnets can my poor little fridge hold?

Check it out! http://www.thisisspiffy.com

Now I need to:

Finish knitting a bag strap.
Assemble the bag.
Go to Joanns for fabric.
Line the bag.
Prepare a portfolio for TNNA.
Prepare mini-portfolio, self-promotional hand-outs for TNNA.
Pack.
Read up on what I can't take with me on the plane.
Try and find an itty-bitty bottle of saline for my contacts, because I really don't want to have to check a bag.
Get the order in to Webs for the yarn for the projects for the publisher.
Keep the house chaos at bay.
Not go crazy.
Not make children crazy.
Not make husband crazy.


Oh, my. It is all possible, right?

UGH! I just remembered that Adam is cutting the hole in the wall today. And I need a haircut. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

Well, it's official!

I am (or will be as soon as I get the contract printed out and mailed in) an Official Crochet Designer.

I heard back from the people at the publishing company today and they picked up 4 of my designs for an upcoming household crochet book.

Yay! I would like to thank my husband for his patience at finding yarn all over the house, being shushed while I count, and willingness to engage in sidetrips to yarn shops while on vacation. The kids have been great at not touching mommy's work and only doodling on the blank pages of my design journal, so thanks for that. The wonderful people at Crochet Me, who gave me the foolish notion that other people would be interested in my designs in the first place. The ladies at knit club who put up with my incessant chatter about it all, especially Miss Pink and Linda who have hooked me up with yarn and encouragement countless times. And, of course, The Academy!

New Dishcloth Group

I, like many knitters I know, can be rather obsessive about dishcloths. I like them mainly because they are a great way to try out stitch patterns. I don't really NEED dishcloths myself. I prefer sponges, truth be told. But still. They are fun and quick. At first I enjoyed the dishcloth mailing list where you get a few lines of the pattern at a time and get to see the pattern unfold as the days progress. It's a mini mystery and the small doses can make overwhelming patterns seems much more doable.

However.

And it's a big-H However.

For some reason, dishcloth mailing lists are plagued with off-topic posts. I occasionally end up deleting bits of the pattern on accident when I'm trying to get rid of all the fluff emails, which is so very frustrating. I mean, I'm glad that some people out there have found a bit of community on the list and that's all well and good, but, really people, I just want to knit some funky swatches, and 20+ off-topic emails a day gets old fast.

So, I'm starting my own list. C'mon and join in if you like. Looking at my schedule I think I'll be able to start sending out patterns in mid-August. (Summer is crazy, and I'm going on 2 trips between now and then, so I'm trying to be realistic.) In the meantime, I'm going to be sussing out the first few patterns and spreading the word. Feel free to spread the word yourself if you like. This group will have zero fluff. The only emails you will get from the list will be the bits of patterns. A dishcloth list that is JUST dishcloths. The patterns will be available in the archives after the knit-along is over. The first pattern of the month will be a knitting pattern, the second a crochet pattern. We're going to start easy in both areas, so if you are a beginner in either area, this should be good practice for you.

Incidentally, I don't plan on doing many, if any, of the knit/purl picture cloths. I, personally, find them kind of boring to work on, and I get really annoyed when I finish one only to find that it's something I care nothing about. The vast majority of the cloths on this list will be ones that strengthen your technical abilities: lace, relief patterns, cables, etc.

You can find the group here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JustDishcloths

You'll need a yahoo id to join the group. If you don't already have a yahoo id, you can sign up at http://groups.yahoo.com It's free and easy to do, and once you've gotten the id and told them what email address you want your group mail sent to, you won't have to log on again if you don't want to, so it's not a big, scary techno-thing you need to learn how to navigate. Just follow the links and do what it tells you to do.

If you are oh-so excited and want to start stocking up on yarn, I'll tell you now that while many people prefer kitchen cotton, I personally prefer a dk weight cotton, as I find it dries faster and isn't as big and floppy while I'm working with it. I get my DK cotton from recycling cotton sweaters, but Patons Grace works well, too. Some standard worsted weight kitchen cottons are peaches and cream or sugar'n'creme.

So, there you have it. Join up! Spread the word!

Well, it's official.

I'm going to TNNA this year. Woohoo! It's part business related travel and part birthday present. It's going to be a whirlwind trip, flying in Friday and leaving Saturday evening, but it's 36 hours of me-time and that's a good thing.

Knit club was fun last night. Jenny made it and Linda was there and we had a new face in the form of Tristan. Tristan has been undergoing a lot of education recently on the existance of local knit clubs and other yarn stores. So, she found us! And then we had someone walk by while we were there and she crochets and needs help, so she's going to be coming next week.

Crap is relative.

A little while back, I signed up for a Crap Yarn Swap on Swap-Bot. The premise of the swap was, I thought, genius. You send $10 of yarn that has been loitering around the edges of your stash so long that you have come to loathe it. You can't think of a single thing to make with it, and you're sick of the sight of it. Off it goes to your partner. In the meantime, you get crap yarn from your upstream pal. And you, with your fresh eyes, look at your upstream partner's crap and make it into something for your downstream partner.

Brilliant, right?

RIGHT!

This was such a fantastic swap. I can't even tell you how pleased I was with the whole experience.

For my contribution of yarn, I sent of a partial skein of mohair/acrylic blend and a mystery mohair that I'd used to make a poncho for Kai last year and had no idea what to do with what was left. That yarn was seriously starting to feel like a noose, because there was a LOT left and I was feeling some major yarn guilt for not putting it to good use. So, yay, I got rid of guilt yarn! Joy!

My upstream partner was extremely generous. She sent me way more than $10 worth of yarn. She sent a skein of elann Sonata, Sinfonia, Elsebeth Lavold Angora, Bernat Boucle and Nora. (I can't remember the manufacturer of Nora, but it was that train-track style yarn with a squiggle of multi-colored wool in between.)

I poked through my downstream partner's profile and saw she needed a bag for her knitting, so I thought that would be a safe project. I thought I'd use the boucle paired with one of the cottons, but I didn't like how it looked with the colors I had, so I did some stash diving and came out with two balls of Cotton Tots in black and used it with the boucle. I just knit a large rectangle on 10.5 needles until I had a yard of the Cotton Tots left to use for seaming. I folded the bag in half and seamed up the sides and added gussets 1" in on either side of the bottom of the bag.



(Ooh, look! Renovation mess in the background!)

While diving for fabric to line it with, I came up with a flour sack I'd been saving and after reseaming it and lopping off a few inches from the top and bottom, it fit the bag perfectly with the design lining up exactly in the interior. Eeeexcellent... My plan was working... I attached some rattan handles with a bit of grosgrain ribbon, added a snap closure and called it good.



I had tried using some of the Sinfonia and Nora to make a dragonfly motif to go on the front of the bag, as my partner said she liked dragonflies and I thought the Nora would work well for the wings. However, it didn't work with the bulky yarn and looked like dookie, so I left it off. Instead, I used to Sinfonia and the Sonata to make star shaped washcloths for her.





I used the pattern for Beth's Little Star Afghan with an h hook and stopping at the 7th row of the pattern. They came out cute, if I do say so myself. I think I may whip up a bunch for my girls to use with the yarn from the sweater I recycled. They took all of maybe 30 minutes to make each of them. I heart crochet.

With the Angora (oooooh, angora--even as a blend--was so lovely to work with!), I decided to make up some fingerless gloves--another thing my partner had on her wish list. So, I started googling for patterns. Only I couldn't find any that would work with the limited yardage of the Angora. And then I found these. I double stranded the Angora to get the proper weight and used some of the remaining Boucle for the wrists. It was a simple pattern and they worked up easily. I'm not in love with the Boucle. It looks ok, but the difference in feel from the Angora was very noticeable. Unfortunately, I didn't have anything in my stash that would be any better, so they went off as is. I wouldn't be the least bit offended if my swap partner decided to snip the cuffs off and rework them.



So all of those went off the other day and should arrive in the next day or two if they haven't already. In the end, I couldn't figure out anything to do with the Nora. I never really "got" the whole novelty yarn craze and my lack of experience working with the funky stuff ended up kicking my butt. I sent it along with the FOs and figured that the 2 balls of cotton tots I pulled out of my own stash made it ok that I didn't use one of the balls of crap yarn that was sent to me.

And what did I get for a finished item from my upstream pal? Dress-up clothes for the kids!



An apron, 2 crowns and a clutch for them to use to play Cinderella. She left the crowns unfinished so I could size them to their heads, which I thought was very clever. She had quite a challenge with the yarn. I know I wouldn't have come up with anything half as cute. The apron is especially adorable, I think, and it's large enough that it fits them more like a skirt at this point. They LOVE their crowns. Abby went to get dressed this morning and came out with a t-shirt, a long skirt of Kai's that touched the ground on her, and her crown. A little princess, ready to head to Target!

Thank you, partner!!

I would absolutely do another swap like this again. It already has me looking at my own stash with a more discerning eye.