Let Me Be The One

They talk to you -
At least they talk to me - no, no, I won't be noble and say this happens only to me - I know they talk to you, too.

Fibers.

They see live people.

And they talk to you. Now, I admit, most of you get talked to by natural and animal fibers, they talk to me, too, but I can usually ignore them (until I go to a shop in St. Louis, but that's another post.) I get talked to by the acrylics, too. Here is something I am going to put out into the atmosphere that will cause a tremor through those of us who have one:

There is no real need for a yarn stash.
There. I've said it. I heard the collective gasp but you all know it's true. We have one because we want one. Oh, I can hear it, "but what if I wanted to start another project?" "I need some...just in case." In case of what? Alien yarn hoarders from another planet come and take away the LYS and every Joann's, Michael's and Hobby Lobby on the planet?

Here's the second thing:
You can only work on one object at a time.
You're ready to throw me out the club, aren't you?

Put down the noose and stop building the stake. I'm on your side. You guys know I have a yarn stash - I have a HUGE yarn stash. I have yarn that's not made any more. I have yarn purchased from stores that haven't been in business...for years. I am not about to give up my stash.

But there's a down side to all this yarn around (OK, more than one but I'm trying to focus) IT TALKS TO YOU. I am working on afghans because both the StitchCraft stash and the designbcb
stash is a little light. I pulled out a pattern and before I could even flip it over, the voices started:
"Pick me."
"You don't have enough of that one; pick me."
"Yes, but if she doesn't have enough she can go get some of my cousins; pick me."

The voices started in on how they were the yarn best suited for the job - or not - I heard from the St. Louis Fibers (great name for a soccer team!): "Don't even think about using us - not enough of us. Go down to the lesser mortals." They look innocent enough when they wrapped in the harmless looking skeins - but oh the egos they have. They think they should be touched. They think they should be admired. They think they should be used.

So you pick one and all the voices go silent and you think that's the end of it. But whoa to her (or him) that does not finish the project. Who lets it go for a little while - or worse - who frogs several times. Then the voices start again: "What are you doing to me? I thought I was going to be a cable? Do you have a clue?"

I might have a clue but I have over 1000 patterns. Sometimes a pattern you'd think is easy turns out not to be as facile as you thought. Sometimes the pattern and yarn don't mesh up. Sometimes other things get in the way.
What you really want to do is tell the fiber to stuff it - but it is your fiber after all and it is the blood of your knitting existence. So you humbly apologize - yes, even to acrylic yarn - and you strive to do better.

If only our marriages ran like that. So, I have three projects going. For the moment, the mumbling is down to a minimum. I have touched them all and that seems to have appeased them:

but I'm gonna get busy.
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Unconditional Love

Are you like this? You get so excited when you start a project and you can't wait to see how it turns out, but then you get to almost the end and you just want it to be over? Or, you start another project before you finish the current one and when you get back to the second project - you're not as excited about it as you were?

Tell me, it's not just me. Who wants to be alone in that? I finished 'the color purple' afghan - which is my name for it, not the name of the pattern. If you know someone who really (i mean really) loves purple. Then this is for them. I was so excited to get this off the needles. I don't know why. It wasn't as if it took that long. I started after we came back from St. Louis and finished it early this morning. But that's just how I get - I am glad to see them come and go. There are some afghans I make that I'm very sad to see go - I must make one of those for myself so the separation anxiety isn't so bad.

This is what I'm working on now. I put it on the needles sometime last week and I (obviously) haven't touched it since. I shouldn't say I'm not excited about it - cuz the more I look and feel the softness of the yarn (I Love This Yarn) the more I want to stop writing and go work on it. The pattern is pretty interesting as well. The only question is whether I have enough of this color yarn to make it. I might be a little short on it - oh my, I may need to go to Hobby Lobby - gracious me, whatever shall I do?


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So, What's Up With the New Look?

Here's the deal: I'm falling in love with the business side of knitting and writing.
I have to fall in love with it because my bank account is getting lower and if I have to start in on the joint accounts, Mr. Honey is going to have a problem with it. It's taken ten years to go through my funds and I think he's in the habit of thinking of our money as my inheritance instead of something he needs to budget for while he's walking the earth. So, I have to look at the background stuff.

I've decided to add Project Wonderful ads after weighing whether or not I wanted to sell the ads on my own. I would keep more of the money if I sold the ads myself - but that would be because I have to do all the work - including the marketing. Project Wonderful gives artisans the chance to advertise - sometimes for free and they do all the heavy lifting. I think that's a fair trade off for the space. Leaving me more time to do writing and knitting - which is kinda the whole point.

I also like the 3 column layout. It seems more..what? Grown up? I think more grown up. But don't worry..I'm just as immature as ever. So we'll see how it goes. I mean, come on, I've already received five ads and I just put the ads up this afternoon. (If you follow my blog, grab some free ad space...if you know someone who has a shop, let them know there's some free space available. )

I've also designed a cute little gift certificate and will offer them on this site for my Etsy shop. And get this - they all come with a 20% bonus - a $10 gift certificate gets $12 worth of merchandise, etc. etc. etc. That should be live in a day or two.

But now, back to the knitting--Here are the latest two babies in the stable and one of them is a special order - where they both were but, silly me, put the wrong sequins on one of the bags so I had to make another one - that's ok, cuz it's cute and the correct one is made - I just have taken it's mug shot yet. Did you catch that? A special order - gads! how happy can a girl get?

Yes, I know, you still want to see the yarn and the yarn tote. It's coming up, I promise. I am not teasing you. It's just I've been doing some other stuff (like promoting the site and stuff) it will all come back to normal very soon and then you'll see the yarn. If it's any comfort to you, I haven't seen it myself in almost a week and it's right in the next room!

Ode to Billie Joe

I'm convinced if someone had shown this poncho to Billie Joe he never would have jumped off that bridge. Of course, I think the reason he jumped because his mama made him spell his name with Billie instead of Billy. Boy probably was teased something fierce.

(For those of you young folk, read here about Ode to Billie Joe. It's a great read)

This is a cute poncho, but you have to be a little adult to wear it. It's made for a littler woman so I can't wear it and doesn't even look good on Joe. But Kenya here can wear it just fine.

This is Hobby Lobby's Angel Fleece and it is a really soft polyester/acrylic blend. This wasn't the yarn I intended to use for this poncho but you know what they say about intentions...so I finished it anyway.

Thanks to everyone who sent me folks to interview. I just got word I need to have some of my interviews done by tomorrow! (gasp) So Susie - I'll be contacting your friend today to interview her for the magazine. Thank you for the intro!

Well, back to work!

Don't Fight It

I was looking for a pic of me and the hubby and though I have tons, they are all in glued in the wedding album.
Today is our 13th wedding anniversary. Every year I ask him if he wants me to renew his contract for the coming year and I ask him for a two year extension. So I'm locked in until 2022 while he's only committed until 2010.

He didn't know what he wanted for his anniversary gift. Usually he'll want a book but he couldn't think of one he wanted this time around. I know he's been working really hard at his retirement job and around his mom's condo getting it ready to sell. Someone is giving me a free coupon for a massage so I am going to give it to him. I'll make the appointment and drive him to wherever it is and wait while he gets his body tended to. I'll even let him have a female masseuse.

What did I get? I got a shopping trip to Hobby Lobby and I got 21 skeins of yarn, 5 sets of double pointed needles and sequins in black, green, blue and pastels. I tried to buy more. Seriously. This was a different Hobby Lobby where I'd never been. It is a huge store, but the yarn department wasn't very big. There wasn't much in the way of clearance yarns so I went with the tried and true. I really did my best to clear out the store, but it just wasn't to be.

I still got a boat load of my favorite yarn. Didn't need the yarn but now I am so set. He didn't even flinch when he saw the total and he even carried the bag to the car.

We then went off to a restaurant where we'd never been called Pete Miller's - we got a $100 off certificate that cost us $50. We brought home enough food for a meal tomorrow - best kind of meal is one you can have twice and pay for once!

So how is married life? I love it. I've been engaged a couple of times and this was the only time I made it down the aisle. He was worth the frogs that came before him.

Conviction of the Heart

Yes, the little voice inside my head won out. The little scarf voice that kept saying "Make me, make me!" and I was resistant because it isn't the right season for a scarf. It was very insistent and I finally gave in and put it one the needles.

Do you see the new fu-fu slubby yarn I got from Hobby Lobby? It's called Artistic and it's named after...artists - go figure. I have some Van Gogh and I have some Raphael. This is Mondrian. I must admit I love it! I would see it in the store and I would finger it and talk to it and tell it I would love to bring it home so it could live with the rest of my yarn. But then I would have to explain to it that my home would be different than what it was used to. My yarn stash consisted of little street urchins not upscale princes and princesses who were somehow displaced. And I would leave it on the shelf and sigh.

I would never have purchased it when it was $9.85 but all of it was in the clearance racks at $1.99. So here it is in my yarn stash - yes, I know it can feel humiliated but the other yarns have made it feel right at home. They know what is among them as do I. The Mondrian has no problem being seen with the Caron by the Pound and they (along with my beloved rosewood needles) are making a very lovely scarf.

If I say so myself.

Thanks to Susie for making a comment on my striped bag from yesterday saying it looks like it could hold a Kindle! I will have to put that suggestion in the shop description!

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.

Man Cave Wrap

This is how it started.

then it turned into this..
Neither one of those really worked for me. It was supposed to be a simple blanket but the first two yarns just weren't making me happy. So, I started again and I didn't have enough yarn to do it all in one color so this is how it ended up.

I love it! It's warm and it's inviting (Even if I say so myself!) It is a very generous 50 x 50. (Pre-blocking!) The HB, who is very supportive, let out a spontaneous 'wow' when he saw it.
It's made with three skeins of "I Love This Yarn" and part of a skein of (what else?) Caron by the Pound. It's soft and warm and I think would look great on a chair in a man cave or a student's room.
I love it when a plan comes together...even if it takes three tries.

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 Road to Hell

is paved with good intentions.

Intent is a powerful thing. I believe in intent. One can tell the truth with the intent of bringing harm and one can lie with the intent of protecting someone from harm. I intended to make a cute little baby blanket and I have started it twice with two different yarns.

It don't want to be made.

At least not by me. Or at least not in the two yarns I've started it in. I cannot even force myself to take photos of the wip for it shall not be a wip for long. It shall turn into a frog and then perhaps into a hat.

SIGH. Has this ever happened to you? You see a nice pattern and think 'Yes, I shall make this (fill in the blank) only to have the karma of the (fill in the blank) stop you cold? I am sure it wishes to be made but not in the brown variegated yarn I tried first and not the rainbow variegated yarn I have tried again. I believe it wishes to be made in the solid grape colored yarn that has been peeking out at from one of the cubby holes from my desk where yarn should not be.

The yarn should not be in my desk and therefore should be moved and why not move it to the needles where the unhappy pattern is being worked by yarn it does not favor? I am not so far along that I would consider the time completely wasted and if everyone ends up happy - all the better.

Yes, that is what I will do. I will start for the third (and last - I try patterns three times before moving on) time to make the pattern fairy happy and get this blanket done. Thy will be done, little blanket fairy, thy will be done.

A New Scarf for the Old HB

So, the HB wanted a plain, black scarf. No special stitches, no patterns, I couldn't even add just a touch of brown. A plain, black scarf.

I didn't want to knit that.

So, I crocheted it instead. I haven't done much crochet lately and there was a time I prefered crochet to knitting. I'm crocheting one of the wips and decided I would crochet his scarf. I just finished a few moments ago while watching Pride and Prejudice on my DVR. (Along with some episodes of Knitty Gritty and Needle Arts Studio.) He hasn't seen it yet. I will leave it on his chair so he will see it in a few hours when he wakes up. And he'll need it. Winter has begun in Chi-town and it's a little nippy out there at 4:30 in the morning when he leaves.

So, this is all single crochet (except for one row of double crochet I threw in just to be obstinate.) Used all of the skein of "I Love This Yarn" from Hobby Lobby. I do love this yarn. It's cushy and soft. And knit up pretty cleanly - though I did run into a knot where they joined some yarn. No big deal, it got lost in the scarf somewhere.

He told me he would probably find his scarf after I made this one. No matter, I told him he would have an option between the black scarf and the black scarf.

What a nice wife he has. And the stash is one skein lighter.
Y'all know I'm gearing up to go shopping, right?