Charlene on Track, Heidi Bumped Off Track

Charlene's poncho is coming right along, working on that wonderful (blueberry?) shade of Malabrigo Chunky. She is making the "Everybody's Poncho" from our free patterns page. A gift for somebody special.

In my case, I have frogged the blue Lace & Cables top I was working on. With only 4 (large) balls of Super 10 Cotton, I realized, I couldn't finish without running short. They were from my old shop, so no hope of getting the same dyelot, 1 1/2 years later, even though the Yarn Cottage is now carrying Super 10 (a wonderful yarn to work with, IMHO, and there are approx 250 yds per ball). Starting over was the only option. I am now using a nice cotton/acrylic blend I got at Stitches, and I guess the only good thing is that I have the pattern memorized, finally.

As Sandy and I discussed at the shop yesterday, If you don't wanna rip, don't knit...right?

Lace & Cable Top/VK Summer 08

....now, I can finally work on my Lace & cable top. Needs concentration, and going well, thank you! Maybe I can wear it somewhere special next month?

I would call it 15% finished. (or 14%).

Lace Success

This first lace project is a huge success. Good job, and now she probably is a much braver knitter! We knew you would love it! Welcome to the lace knitter's club! And, no, that is not Rhonda in the background.

Yarn Harlot Book Signing

Had a great time at Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's book signing for Free-Range Knitter last nite...she is awesome, and her reading was exceptionally meaningful to me, and I'm sure everyone felt the same. She's kinda hysterically funny, too! Here's my "Kinnear" shot, just for the record:

Favorite Color - "Multi"

Julie has the same favorite color I do...Multi.

NORO Kimono jacket finally finished

Oh, my, this was a too-many-balls-of-yarn project. You will see lots of 1 or 2 ball projects in the near future. I did have the perfect buttons, though. Now I have to lose 20lbs to wear it, or better yet, find a skinny friend. I say "finally finished", but I guess I started it in early April , so I guess that's not the "forever" I thought it took....

Great Minds Think Alike

Yesterday morning, I spotted a baby changing table at a thrift shop. Could be a cute way to display baby yarns, I thought in passing. Then, yesterday afternoon, Rhonda mentioned, "we should put all these new Swedish yarns baby yarns in a crib or something like that". Done deal. What do you think? Now we need a baby. We just received patterns and Mandarin Petit and Baby Bomull ("tree-wool", which is their word for Cotton). They are lovely and reasonable with lots and lots of yardage and make the finest baby (and other) knitting or crochet you can imagine. There is also a lovely organic cotton as well for the nature-moms and grannies. Thin cotton shows lacey stitch patterns in the best way possible. Lacey tops for summer....oh yeah.

Falling Shawl No More

The only bad thing about a shawl is how they fall down all the time. We gotcha covered. Shawl Pins! These arrived ysterday, and more are on the way These are the stick variety & the ones coming are completely different! Be sure to get yours before it's gone! Oh, they are pinned onto Rhonda's new lace collar...done in cashmere (I think!). You almost can't see it due to the forest of pins.

Here, Fishy, Fishy!

I told you they would be cute! Enjoy! My pattern is by Linda Taylor, from the book Knitter's Stash, and also is available from the Fiber Space shop in Colorado.

Just wait, it gets better!

Here are the 3 little fishies, before felting.....just wait, they are getting cuter & cuter!

Beverly's Beautiful Baby Sweater

Check this out, made by Beverly. We all thought it was gorgeous! Keep em' coming, Beverly!

Angie and the Oregon Tote!

Angie wasn't so sure her first project, The Oregon Tote, would work out. Looks like a success! Next thing you know she was in our beginner lace class. She may have a problem!

1st Fishy ready to swim in washer!

here, fishy, fishy. aquarium comin' right up!

Mug Warmer (or mug diaper)!

Ok, on to more projects!

one more new thing on the needles...

These have been on my mind for awhile. We will have an aquarium in one of the front display windows. On the left is one that is not mine, I did not knit it, and I do not have permission to post the photo, and mine looks like the bottom photo (so far...)

...and then we were attacked by the UPS truck

wow! look at this huge pile of stuff that came in today. OMG. When will we get time to put it all away, and enter it all in the computer? We JUST WANNA KNIT!

a Quick, but oh, so necessary project....

this is something that's a must-have for our sultry summer.....especially for your HOT coffee. Quick knit and cute, but of course, perfectly silly. I will post again when it's done.

Here ya go, all done:

Crochet purse?

While the "viral" shawl is drying, I've been trying to come up with a crochet purse pattern for Daria/Rayon Corde. I like the stitch and it will have a nice scallop on the front edge of the flap. Maybe only skipping 2 ch instead of 3 on the foundation chain would be better. Needs to be real airy to save on yarn. looks like it might take 3 Daria or 1 Rayon Corde, just like our Market Bag pattern.

I couldn't help it.

I've had to swallow my pride and go ahead and start a Clapotis. I avoided it simply because it was so "viral". I guess I caught the bug, too. I also had to lay it down for some blocking....only 4 drops have been made, but the curliness was bugging me. I am eat up with the Clapotis bug. Can't do anything else....well, maybe for a little while until it dries out.

Another project!

Couldn't help starting something else the moment the yoga bag was done. These are NORO Kureyon Socks, using the Winter Snowdrops Socks pattern by Sara Morris I found on http://www.ravelry.com/.

I am doing them cuff down on a long circular, my favorite method, and I might do the lace pattern in reverse, since it is charted for toe-up socks. I am still not sure.

Off to class!

Took forever to finish, but well worth the wait! Hope you like it.

Ack! Not Perfect!

In my haste to send out the Yarn Cottage May 1st newsletter this morning, I called Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's new book "Yarn Harlot Rides Again". That was dumb. It actually is called "Free-Range Knitter: The Yarn Harlot Writes Again". Ooops. I hope when she writes her next book, she uses my new title. Arggh. (On the other hand, aren't the NORO sock yarns pretty? I can't decide which sock pattern to do next...maybe daydreaming about what to knit next caused the title error).