December 30, 2006


STASH ORGANIZATION
One thing I wanted to do over Christmas vacation was organize my stash. Well....mission is accomplished, pretty much! Decided to buy an armoire.....nothing fancy.......one from Sauder that took about two hours this morning to put together. All ten plastic sweater containers with yarn in them were carried up from the basement.


I had hoped that all the containers would fit in the top part, but no such luck...so, each drawer ended up with one container. Other items.....waiting to be felted, blocked, sewn together......were placed in the drawers, too. In the top on the right are three containers of sock yarn......for 35 pairs of socks. Alcariel, my daughter, however, has yarn for 55 pairs! Must run in the family! The other container on the right is my "miscellanous" .....a skein of this, that,.....nothing particular planned for its use. On the left in the top two containers is yarn for sweaters.......two summer sweaters and a Celtic vest. The other two containers have my yarn for felted items....whether is be a purse or a hat. Along the left are the French market bag my daughter knitted for me as well as a cheap purse that I sometimes use to carry my knitting.


The top drawer has a briefcase that I knitted this past summer and haven't felted it yet......I got two magnetic clasps on a yarn expedition to the Twin Cities, but have misplaced them.....need to put them on before I felt it. The plastic container has Cascade 220 for Christmas stockings.....just in case I feel the need to knit some.


The bottom drawer has some Brown Sheep handpainted yarn from a yarn vacation my daughter I took in summer 2005. I really didn't plan on getting one particular colorway, but the clerk packed it in the bag and I didn't realize it until we were in the motel room that evening.....someday I'll have something knitted with it. The last thing is a Sophie purse that I made for one of my coffee buddies.....just need to kitchener the i-cord handle and felt it.....maybe next week.


Blocked two Christmas presents a couple of weeks ago, but didn't post them since the one was a reading shawl (Sandra Stole pattern from Borealis Yarns in the Twin Cities. It was to be made from Sandra by Schaeffer yarns but I chose DB Cashmerino Chunky) for Alcariel, my daughter. The other is a Faina scarf from Fiber Trends that I gave a coffee friend. For blocking, I used a 4x8 sheet of 3/4 inch foam insulation, cut it in half, duct taped the two halves together on one side, folded it in half and taped the cut edges together. It really makes for a nice blocking area......can be put on a bed, table, floor, etc.

December 19, 2006

Christmas projects just about done!
Well........I have blocked the last of my Christmas projects. Hopefully they will be dried on Wednesday and I'll be able to wrap presents. Gave an early present to a coffee friend who also happens to be the organist at church. She has complained about the coolness of the church adding to her arthritis pain...said she couldn't practice the organ with gloves.....well......I made her fingerless gloves and this morning she said that they worked. I thought she could really use them with the "marathon" (five services in 25 hours!) Sunday/Christmas day coming up.
Plan to take off to the daughter's to spend Christmas since she has to work 7p to 7a on Christmas Eve. Plan to take a Christmas dinner about 2 in the morning......hopefully I won't fall asleep before than.
Sounds like the weather is going to cooperate for safe travel although not for the Christmas feeling of a "White Christmas"......maybe a white New Years????
Pixs will be posted after Christmas....wouldn't want to ruin my surprises.

November 13, 2006

Twin Cities Road Trip

My daughter and I have just returned from a week-end "road trip." Wanting to attend the wedding of a college friend, my daughter decided to get Mom to come along to scout out some yarn shops. My daughter will probably comment about the shops in one of Lime and Violet's podcasts, so I won't comment much now. Of the four shops that we visited, two we will definitely return to, a third is a maybe, and the fourth (the one I expected to be GREAT!), probably not. Let's just say that the stash was enhanced especially in the sock yarn category (that really didn't need any additions) and I was also able to get some yarn for a dog sweater, a shawl, some fingerless gloves, and some needles that my husbands hunting dog destroyed.....only the button top on one was left to identify that the two bamboo "sticks" were ever needles. That's okay, because I got some rosewood to replace them and found some Chinese double points that are sharp and a 6-inch length. I'm anxious to try them out.

October 24, 2006

Almost Completed Things!
I'd better get busy and do my felting soon .......a purse,a hat, and a briefcase (knitted last summer). I've also been doing "senseless" knitting of dishcloths...some from patterns and some just using about 40 sts and knitting some pattern. I have a pair of alpaca socks for my husband about half done.....almost wish he were a pygmy with small feet......they really are a delight to knit and he'd better wear them....$37 worth of yarn purchased on vacation last summer. I have a surprise gift for my daughter to complete also. I wonder if we'll have a "snow day" from school before Christmas....maybe a couple would help. I usually devote the entire day to knitting...what a joy for this old knitter! Better get ready for school. TLGB!

September 18, 2006

After an enjoyable week-end with our daughter, Alcariel (her blog is here) we had an uneventful trip home. My husband drove and I was able to knit about half of a Sophie bag for one of my coffee buddies. Hopefully, I can complete it this week. Last summer Alcariel and I spent a week visiting yarn shops in Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, and Kansas. Yes, we did drop quite a few $$$, but haven't had any boring time with "not having a thing to knit" since. While on the trip, I started Sophie bags for each one of my coffee buddies, dubbed the INC Club.......I need coffee, companionship, caffeine, Christ, ...any "c" word that fits. We enjoy each other's company every morning M-F when we have time.

Here's the picture of the Sophie purses.......I knit all but one........Alcariel helped me out when we found out one vacationing coffee buddy was back early. I tried to pick favorite colors to match each gal.

September 16, 2006

First time blogger
This is one old knitter who is trying to keep up with her daughter...decided I had better start a blog. I'm at her place this week-end, so hope to post first pics when I return home.