Of Mice and Men

The second shop we went to in Pittsburgh was Knit One and I picked up some gorgeous yarn. It is a really nice shop. It has the most wonderful knit space right by the window with big, cushy chairs and a sofa and the store is nicely laid out. For those of you who go to Chix With Stix - it is way bigger than CWS and for those Loopettes, it probably the size of Loopy but on one level.


I wanted something hand dyed or hand spun that I couldn't get by walking into my LYS and
the yarn I picked up is hand dyed by Schaefer yarn in Interlaken NY. The yarn is called Sandra and the color (a mix of blues and purples) is called Billie Holiday after the singer. It is 78% cotton and 22% rayon and I have no idea what I am going to make with it. I have 450 yards of it so that's enough for a hat and scarf. I don't remember what I paid for it but I do remember there's no sales tax on yarn in Pittsburgh!!

If you have any idea what I can do with 450 yards of cotton/rayon yarn, I'd be glad to entertain ideas. I am still on the afghan roll but I don't want to incorporate it - I would really like to use it on its own for a project. Trust me, I'll listen to any ideas - but can only follow one!!

Speaking of afghans - and I was - I know the plan was to finish the 42 square afghan but that didn't come off as planned however, it is 1/3 done and well on the way to being 1/2 done. The third strip is almost done. But even adding the second strip changes the whole demeanor and that was the point: to see how the progress happens. This is going to be a really neat afghan which you couldn't tell from just the first strip alone. I've held up the section of third strip next to these two and it's really going to be fun!

You know what I love about these block afghans? The rustic and quiltiness of them. It's fun and fanciful and almost anything goes. What really helps pull it together is a uniform color around the edge of all the blocks and it doesn't have to be any major edging, just one row of single crochet will do the trick. In this case, I chose a cranberry color because black or white would have been a little too flat.

The other thing I mentioned working on was a redo of the crochet afghan I had started because I wasn't feeling it. Well, I did start again and I am feeling this one a whole sight better than the first. I like the three colors instead of the hodgepodge I was doing. The gold, brown and white look really stunning and the fact I have only one skein of the gold and brown means nothing. There should be more at the Hobby Lobby and I will need some to finish this out and I am also thinking matching pillows would not be out of the question. They wouldn't be in the same pattern because that would be strobe light overkill but pillows using the same colors either in a block pattern or a solid pattern with one color on the front and another on the back - something like that would work very nicely.

And if yesterday wasn't enough of a success, I had a really good workout last night. My schedule said I was due for a workout and I put it off until after the rather exciting Cubs game, so I didn't work out until after 10pm and it was really great. I breathed hard and sweat and everything. I then watched Prince Caspian worked on the crochet afghan and then went to wash up and then straight to be for a nice sleep. I could do it all again because that was a really great day.