Never Say Die

I know I showed you the scarf a few days back and said the hat was coming. And then it seems I dropped off the blogging face of the earth after telling you about the Sit & Knit. But I haven't forgotten about the hat - here it is. Nor have I forgotten about the blog.

The truth is, I've been playing on Helium, a site for writers. I've been having a lot of fun writing articles and participating in contests. Well, one contest, and it appears that right now, I am in fourth place. If you land in the first three places, you get a cash prize. Not a great deal of money, but certainly enough for a yarn shopping spree - which I would not take because I had a ton of yarn - I'm just saying this as a way to compare. Of course, I could just say first prize is $60, second is $40 and third is $30 and not mention the yarn at all. Maybe next time.
In any case, the hat has been waiting to be photographed and placed in the shop.

This hat is so darn cute! It goes down over Calvin's head (yes, he's wearing a girl's hat. He's quite comfortable in his maleness) it's sized for a small head which means it would probably be at the ears of a human.
What I like about the hat is the star in the back. I didn't even know it was forming until I was done with the whole thing. It's one of those nice knitting surprises that happens every once in a while.

I should also go ahead and confess I've signed up for Facebook. I haven't made the pages live yet because I haven't completed the setup. I am going to have to embrace the technology. Not that I am against it - used to make my living installing hardware and software and troubleshooting PCs and if I didn't embrace technology, who would I be talking to right now? As soon as I've launched, I'll let you know. It is strictly a business decision - though I will probably manage to have some fun - I mean, I have fun with my work - or why do it?

I'm almost finished with a pair of legwarmers and they will go up in a few days - then, frankly, I have no idea what I'm gonna make next. I can't wait to find out!

Tumbling Dice

We have those moments; don't we? All over Twitter knitters were tweeting about not knowing what project they want to work on. It was like a world wide brain freeze for knitters.

I was in that group. I was dissatisfied with what was on my needles, but I didn't know what else to start. Thought I'd start a shawl, got into a few rows and decided the yarn (worsted weight) was too heavy. I don't use anything less than worsted weight so I moved on. Thought I'd try another bag. That just didn't feel right. There was a bag I had on the needles and put away so I pulled that out. That felt somewhat better and the bag should be finished sometime today but that wasn't enough.

It just happens to us every once in a while. We stall out. We begin to panic because we wonder if we the knitting mojo has decided to go somewhere north, south, east or west of our knitting border into an unknown land and spend his time with folks who are not us who will appreciate him more than we.

But that is just not possible.

Remember I have all that novelty yarn from Hobby Lobby? It's all in the big stash box in the living room. I bought it with the idea of making bags with them but the bracelets haven't arrived yet and I wanted to get into it. So last night during the exciting Cubs game. I cast on and a scant hour or so later, I had this:
It's a scarflette or a muffler and it's all glitzy and soft (even though it is eyelash) and it can be worn like a long scarf or coiled like this.

It was fun to knit and because I used big old size 11 needles, it didn't take that long to knit and do you know my first thought after I was done?

"That was quick. Now what?"
As Linda Ellerby used to say: And so it goes.

Amazing Grace

Thursday I went to Cora's Life Celebration. And what a celebration it was. The chapel in the funeral home was packed with people of all different ages and races and everyone had nothing but the kindest words to say about a woman I called my Mom. (For the record, she wasn't really old enough to be my Mom unless she was really naughty at a really young age.)

I remember giving Cora knitting lessons. I spent a few hours with her and we knew it wasn't something she would pick up, but she had a lot of fun trying and that was the material point. That's one of the things about this knitting thing: it's not the easiest thing in the world to master. We are part of a unique group. Not only am I missing Cora today; I am missing my Mom and my mother-in-law. However, it is gratifying to know the three of them have probably met up briefly in Heaven just to look down and agree that I am in need of constant prayer.

Yesterday was StitchCraft and we had a great time. We met a new member named Jen who brought a baby blanket to work on. There were varied projects going on and Elissa brought cookies - be proud of me, I did not have any!

Last night, was our Good Friday service, The Dubois Seven Last Words of Christ. It's very dramatic. We had a combined choir and three professional soloists. We've done it three years in a row. Frankly - ready for a change and we can go back to the Service of Darkness and start alternating the two. Just to mix it up a bit.

But here's the highlight of the day. StitchCraft went from noon to 3 and I had to be back at church at 5:30 for rehearsal for the cantata. It made no sense to me to go back home and then just drive back. It was a perfect opportunity for me to go Hobby Lobby...you know...just to look around. There was nothing in particular I wanted. I had gone to the one in Westmont recently (looking for my sequins) so I decided to go to the one in Lombard.

They must be doing something to their yarn section because, like the other store, they had a whole big section of clearance yarn. I got some eyelash, and gilt, and I wiped them out of eight skeins of slubby yarn that normally costs $9.84. Total 18 skeins of yarn for less than $40.
I also ordered 12 gold bracelets off of eBay. 12 of them for about $15. I will use them as purse handles when I make little purses with the eyelash and gilt yarn I bought.

Hold the applause.
It was my pleasure.

Sigh!

You see that blue thing in the middle of the second picture? That is an actual City of Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation Snow Truck. While we saw a lot of them last year, this is probably the second time I've seen them this winter - the winter that is already the snowiest winter of record.

Our mayor decided we didn't need to have our streets plowed as much as last year. He said it was a way to save money. Saving money is a good thing. And what was the reason to save this particular money? So the city could have services when it needed them. You know, like snow removal.

Snow did in Mayor Bilandic a couple of decades back when he didn't send the snow plows out after a storm. Yep, we shoveled his happy little a$$ right out with the rest of the flakes. Mayor Daley (who had been anointed mayor for life) overstepped a little bit. The snow combined with the pot craters (none of them are small enough to be merely holes) has gotten Chicagoans just a little cranky. It seems the mayor has revisited that whole 'you all don't need the street cleaned just because it snowed' edict.

We canceled our StitchCraft meeting today because the snow looked a lot worse this morning. I was going to bring the blanket that I'm working on. The one that didn't want to be made (see 'The Road to Hell') I'm going to be about a skein short of what I need so yesterday I took a trip to Hobby Lobby to get the needed skein of 'I Love This Yarn' in grape.

I do love that yarn. So much so that I will travel to the closest Hobby Lobby which is 25 miles away. I went at rush hour - that wasn't so bad. They've moved into a more spacious store and the yarn department is way bigger and it was my first visit there and I was quite thrilled until I got to where the grape yarn should have been...

and there was none.

Zip. Zero. Nada. Rien.

Not even a spare skein sticking the back. Not even a misplaced one in the bins on either side. Who the hell buys out all the grape yarn except me? I stared at the hole where the yarn should have been. And the hole stared back.

The very nice lady checked all the bins and then asked me to wait while she went to check the stocking list to see when it would come in. She came back to me with the list in her hand and pointed to 'I Love This Yarn' 'Grape' and then the letters T.O. "Do you know what that means?" she asked.
"Terrell Owens has all the grape yarn?"
"Temporarily out. There's none to be had. Can't even order it. We ordered last week and didn't get it either."
Sigh.
"Why don't you call us next Thursday to see if it came in?"
I thanked her for her kindness and did not add: Because next Thursday this blanket would have been totally reworked and I won't need that yarn; that's why.

I obviously could not travel 25 miles for nothing. So I did get some yummy bulky weight yarns that will make beautiful shawls and throws - yes, I know - but it's bulky weight. I need that.

The Upstairs Stash

I've been working away on my wip's. (I started the cutest little baby sweater last night and it's almost done already. It's for a newborn and it's adorable!) I needed to go through the stash to see if I could find some more of the blue yarn I need for another project - and since we're in the midst of our yarn giveaway and I've been talking about the stash, I thought it might be interesting to show it.

This is the upstairs stash - most of it. That's right, there's an upstairs stash, a stash on the main floor and a stash in the basement. What you don't see are the drawers in the dresser in the bedroom that have yarn in them. The yarn on the top are some of the skeins going into the second box of yarn I'll be giving away. There's nine skeins there and more to be added from the other stash points. This mix of yarn can be best described as vintage cuz there are some oldies in there but there's also some Lion brand cupcake, some bernat softee chunky and lion brand jiffy. I don't know what else will make it in there, but something will by the 28th. So keep those comments coming and tell your friends about it - you may not win it, but they could and then you can guilt them into sharing.

The Great Yarn Debate

I picked up knitting again after decades of not thinking about it because a friend and I decided we 'needed' to have a knitting group at church. There was no mission component or selling component; we were just knitting.

Then we had all this stuff and had to decide what to do with it - so the selling and the mission parts came in. This, of course, required the need to purchase more yarn.

I cannot wrap my mind around paying $12 for a skein of yarn. I've seen it. I've even touched it. I have trouble getting my mind around $10 for a skein of yarn. It could be because most of the knitting I do is for sale or to give away and the more expensive the yarn, the more care it requires. The items we give away need to have a wash and wear care tag because a lot of them are given to the homeless, who don't carry Wool-Lite with them and may not be able to launder it for a while.

Or they are given to people who are shut in who also don't have the inclination to 'lay it flat to dry'.

We price our items according to the yarn we use. (I have the task of pricing items for our sales) and we do not charge for the labor because that's the fun part and the reason we come together. The gathering is the mission - the items we create are an extension and the fruits of the mission. So we don't charge for the coming together or knitting when we're alone because we are connected through the group. So, I charge by finding out what yarn people have used and calculating from there the cost to make another blanket, hat, etc. plus and additional cost to help pay it forward and donate items to others.

A couple of things happen: some really labor intensive item can sell for a really inexpensive price because though the pattern was complicated, the knitter used yarn that was only $2.50 a skein. (Believe me, I've had this discussion with knitters who've said: "But it was a complicated pattern!" to which I have responded: "And that's your reward!")

We also get some rather expensive items. Use 12 skeins of Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick and Quick and the lowest price charged for an afghan is $110. We have items like that and they are beautiful and we can display them as high end items. Whether they will sell at the last show of the year remains to be seen. If they do not sell, we will have to reduce the price, of course, so someone will want to walk away with it by the end of the week. You can see the $110 afghan here.

I was in Hobby Lobby the other day and was looking for a yarn that had slubs and bumps and I found one. It was so soft and so pretty and had about 90 yarns to the skein and I figured I would need maybe 8 or so to do a shawl. I looked at the price -$11.95. Put it back. Sigh.

Is there something wrong with me? I just can't see it.

The Blanket That's Not a Blanket

So, when is a blanket not a blanket? When you make the squares and start to put them together and realize they don't match up well.
Then you're left with a handfull of 15x15 squares.

So, you pull out the old bag of fiberfill and make yourself some pillows. It's ok if the sides are slightly off because only one side really shows and when you want a little different look, you just change it to the other side. (That's my story and I'm sticking with it!)

These darling squares will now become funky pillows and they will be taken to the November Pancake Breakfast and Bazaar and they will go up for sale. I must say it probably isn't the best use of the yarn, but it is a use. I also have some cable aran squares that will make it to the pillow heap. They're supposed to be an afghan as well but what can one say?