SP 10 Favorite Yarn Contest

Our lovely Secret Pal 10 Hostess, Robin, has a new contest up for her group of participants. Robin has asked us to post about our favorite and least favorite yarns.

I'm going to save the best for last!

My least favorite yarn of all time has got to be Red Heart - Supersaver. It had been a long while since i had worked with Red Heart and i decided to give it another chance this past Holiday Season. I was hoping that maybe, just maybe there might have been some improvement or maybe it just wasn't as scratchy as i remembered? Time has a way of making the mind forget, afterall. So, it was with this great hope, that when one of my nieces asked for a scarf in pinks/blues & purples and i did not have the time to get to one of my favorite LYS, i headed to WalMart looking for the offender. I walked out with this lovely, errr....garrish bundle....





What was i thinking?!!!!! Isn't that awful?! It's the worst! I cast on. After working with the yarn for only about three rows, my hands almost seemed to be developing some sort of an itchy feeling. There was no way i could allow one of my loved ones to wear ANYTHING made of this yarn!! The little bundled infiltrator has been shoved into a deep, lower drawer...only brought out for this photo. It went right back away. I don't want anyone to know i even own it. I really should drop it off at the Goodwill! Shhhh!!

Let's move on to something a little more pleasant, shall we?

My favorite yarn, SO FAR...is Artyarns Supermerino. Mind you, there's a ton of different yarns out there that i have no tried yet. This yarn, i came upon by chance. I used to visit the blog of another knitter, Michelle, who has saddly gone blogless to focus on family matters. Michelle ran a contest to see if her readers could guess which combination of stitches she had used in the most recent pair of socks she had knit. I was one of her winners. This was in the box she sent...





I made it into socks. They are the warmest, coziest socks ever! I LOVE them very much! If it's chilly, they hit my feet as soon as they are back out of the wash. Thanks Michelle, wherever you are! :)

Thanks for our SP 10 contest, Robin. You're doing a great job! Yea!

~Suz~

How i love thee

It's been a busy couple of days.

In an effort to try to make our room tidier and not such a crap hole for the cable tech who visited today (yea! high speed, how i love thee!), we actually did a deep cleaning and rearranging of our space. Using graph paper and measurements, we attempted several layouts the night before and finally settled on one that we thought would work. "Thought" being the opperative word. Needless to say, the final layout is not quite what we intended but it seems to be working out okay. Our window is no longer surrounded by furniture. In fact, the outside/window wall of our room is now, mostly clear of all furniture. My path to the bed is along that wall now.

We were able to fit my bedside, three-drawer, rolling cart back as my "night stand" so that i have access to my knitting supplies. Deb's Mom also picked up two plastic tubs for us...Deb's using one to store seasonal clothing in, mine...has yarn stash, knitting books and my binders of patterns as well as a few of my handknits that may be needed during camping season. Occassionally it gets chilly enough in the mornings or evenings to use mittens and i've kept out my Caron - Simply Soft pair of "Fetching", which will be handy for holding onto that extremely hot campfire coffee in the early A.M.

Items that were Winter themed or things we've not used in months, were all boxed up to go to the basement with the rest of the storage.

Deb's at work for the night and i'm enjoying the high speed. I've managed to download enough knitting podcasts that it would take me 3.5 straight days to listen to them. Eeek! And there's still more that i've missed out on in the past 16 months. I've watch some videos on "YouTube" in an effort to get some visual on spinning my almost year old roving into yarn on my drop-spindle. I've determined that i've been trying to use WAY too much fiber at once. I've listened to some music through an old friends "My Space" page. I've caught up on blogs. And all the while, i was knitting on the "happy" sock. I think i'm close to finishing sock #1 of that pair.

There will be some exciting news in weeks to come. Well, ok...exciting to me! ;)

I know that i have friends and family out there who do not blog, but they come to visit and check out what we're up to. (Hi Mom!) Please know that i have the account set up so that you do not need to be a "Blogger" member to post a comment. So if you want to comment on anything or just say, "hi"...just click on the "comment" button at the bottom of the posts and type away. Be sure to "sign" your name so i know who you are. I'd love to hear from you!

Well, i'm goig to grab my drop spindle and give it another go at trying to make some yarn. Hope your weekend is a great one!

~Suz~

Inter-Connectivity and "Like Kissing Your Sister"

Well hello there! It's been an interesting day or two. The other day i received an email from a gal named Laura. Laura was looking for a "GaiaGal" who knew a woman named Wanda. Laura's friend Debbie wanted to find Wanda because she'd seen her on the Jane Pauley show. Wanda had been on the show talking about women's health issues and whatever it was that Debbie heard that day, it ended up saving her life. Whoa! Apparently, the other "GaiaGal" on blogger had mentioned Wanda on her blog and Laura thought that when she emailed me, she might be emailing the correct person. I had no clue who Wanda was, but i did respond back to Laura to let her know that.

I sat with that for a few minutes, maybe three minutes at most. It dawned on me that i only use the user name "GaiaGal", but maybe someone out there had a blog with the same name. I simply typed in the blogger url pattern and instead of where i put in my "scatteredgemini" i plugged in "gaiagal" and came up with a blog. It had move over to Wordpress. Off i went to Wordpress, following the link. I didn't quickly find an email address, so i left a little comment for the blog owner, Dawn. Dawn emailed back. She knows Wanda! Yes!

I emailed Laura back with the info Dawn gave me. The circle was completed when Laura passed the info to Debbie and she was able to connect with and thank Wanda. Wow!

I've since received emails back from both Laura and Debbie thanking me for my little bit of help, how cool is that? It was a great joy to be able to help them out and i've "met" a few new people in this great big world. I love the Internet.

In knitting news, i've been holding out on you. I've had a couple of little finished items on hand for about a week and had not yet taken pics of them. Well, here they are.





Just a couple of little bibs made from the "Baby Bib O'Love" pattern in Mason*Dixon Knitting. Quick and easy and super soft in KnitPicks - Shine Sport. (LOVE this yarn!) These are for our favorite Dr. Henderson's new son.

Ok, i started off with a bit of a knitting win. Let's move on to, well, i'm not going to call it a "loss". Let's call this a tie. Those hockey fans out there all know what a tie is, right? In hockey, a tie is like, "kissing your sister".

I'd mentioned in a previous post that i was working on a test pattern for Erin. It ended up to be a version of Erin's pattern. Go here to see what Erin's String Bag should look like and here are pics of my "Rebellious Stitch" version.










I had issues with the yarn i used. I would recommend using the yarn that Erin calls for in her pattern or, if using a basic kitchen cotton as i did...increase the base stitches by 10-20 so that they will comfortably flow around when you switch to the circs.

And finally Deb's WIP Vest. Not too much to see really, just lots of St st, going round and round and round. However, today i was brave. I transferred all 312 stitches onto a long piece of yarn so that i could have Deb try it on around her middle. Sizing seems to be a bit loose, which is what she wants. Yeah!











Now you see why i've needed to knit other things with color. ;)

It's time to wake Deb from her nap now so she can go make dinner. Later, we're rearranging part of our room. That should be fun.

~Suz~

Remember When

Does anyone remember my February post titled, "Miss Postsalot"? Catchy title, no? That was the post in which i shared a little "blackmail threat" of an email that i had gotten from an oh SO innocent looking woman. A friend of mine, even. Becky.

Well, well, well. It seems that little Miss Innocent has gone and started her own blog. Now i'm not talking about the yahoo one where her handsome husband does most of the posting about their son, their family, their friends, and their life. Oh no. This is something all of her very own. Becky has started her own little craft blog...about scrapbooking. I know it's not knitting, but - ya know, it's close enough.

Sooooo, we can all stalk Becky in her own little place now. Muhahahahahaha!

Really. It's so amazing that she's started her blog, she's a super busy person. I'm thrilled to see that she does have a creative side that allows her some down time and a bit of relaxation. Apparenlty she stayed up into the wee hours recently so that she could figure out how to get her blog to look how she wants it. Way to go Becky! I'll be haunting YOU now!

~Suz~

Were there any doubts?

If anyone out there has ever had any doubts as to whether or not humans are owned by their furdren, i'd like you to have a look at this photo...




That might give you a bit of a hint as to how my knitting gets a bit hindered from time to time. I swear i had only set my hand there and stopped knitting long enough to pay attention to something on TV, but then "the stretch" happened with the paw landing where it is in the photo and i just couldn't help but be totally in love with my little Luna and just let her have her way with me for a while.

I mean, just look...




She's ever so gently got her claws out and pressed against my skin, as if to say, "You move and you die!"


I managed to spend some time knitting earlier this evening while Deb was still home. I knit about 5 rounds on her vest. We're big people, that's about 1500 stitches. And i did maybe 20 rounds on my "happy" socks in an effort to actually be doing some knitting for the "ShutUp And Knit Your Cabin Cove" KAL...so that Cookie has something to add to the next update, from me. When i get off of here i'm going to go try to finish off the Test Knit project for Erin. We'll see if i'm successful or not?


I spent about an hour boxing up some items that need to be put back down in our storage in the basement. A new old fashioned coffee bean grinder that Deb bought a few weeks ago, our new Dollar Store champagne flutes from this past NYE, some new Winter themed coffee mugs, my Snowman candle snuffer and a few other items. And then i dusted off the top of Deb's dresser where all of this stuff was hanging out.


Tomorrow i really need to repot the ailing - aloe vera plant, but i just read that it like some sand mixed in, so i'm going to have to poke around and see if there's any here or if i need Deb to get some for us. I'm sprucing our room up because it's Spring and it REALLY needs it. The fact that the Cable Tech is coming on Friday to install high speed has a bit to do with it too. Don't want the room to be all hideous and harder to move around in than it has to be.


I'm thinking about steeping up a pot of lavender water for wiping things down, maybe i'll get really energetic and do some of the walls? I've got all sorts of lavender packets around from ordering from Dave and some essential oil too...plus my VERY favorite of all scents, my Lavendar Vanilla linen spray from Bath & Body Works (Oh! So sad, apparently i can't just buy the bottle of "Pillow Mist" all by itself any longer, i'm bummed!! Gasp! What to do when i'm out???!!!)...so i may as well lavender out tomorrow. Mmmm. That sounds really good!


Happy Monday! Knit On!....and crocheters, get your Hook On! ;)


~Suz~

Blogs, buttons & bookmarks...oh my!

I'm really hoping that i'm not the only one. Please tell me that some of you out there have as many bookmarks as i do! Deb is beginning to think i'm obsessed. I add so many bookmarks each week that almost every weekend i have to organize them into the various folders that i've created. Often, i find myself making new folders in order to refine the categories. The one area that is the most out of control is my folder titled, "Newly Found KnitBlogs". You might have guessed that, right?

I find that my Scattered Gemini ways do indeed follow me into cyber space. Here's how it happens: I click on one of the buttons in my own sidebar to check up on one of my favorite bloggers. Once i read anything that's new over there, i might check out their sidebar and click over to read someone new. If i think i'd like to check back to that new blog, i save their bookmark in my "Newly Found KnitBlog" folder...even if it's a blog about crocheting, spinning or weaving. (I've not yet gotten to making folders for those, don't get me started!) The string of clicks continues until i have way too many tabs opened and have added...maybe, another 10 bookmarks.

It's maddening, isn't it? So many creative people and certainly not enough time in the day to browse around and read. If i kept at it, i'd never have any knitting at all to show.

Speaking of no knitting to show. I'm stumped on a pattern i'm test knitting for Erin. It's cool and really should be an easy knit, but i've had needle issues and i managed to mess up the main stitch pattern and had to rip that section back. Needless to say, i'll be working on it again tonight while Deb's at work. It's something in cotton and dudes, are my fingers sore!

Anywho, i'm off. Happy Knitting!!

~Suz~

Secret Pal 10 has started

I'm excited and a little nervous, i must admit. :)

This is my very first swap of any kind and i'm nervous that the Pal i am spoiling might not like what i send to her. I know, i'm being silly!

I've emailed back and forth a few times with both my Spoiler and my Spoilee. Heehee! Just emailing with a secret friend is lots of fun.

Deb is picking on me though because i sit and wonder who my Spoiler is and if i can be Nancy Drew and figure it out before the end when the person is revealed and Deb just says to me, "can't you just not worry about it and let it be a surprise?!" LOL. No! I'm naturally curious for goodness sake.

I figure that by the end of the swap, i'll have managed to check out all 600+ blogs of all the participants and i might have a good idea of who it is or at least a darned good idea of who it is not.

One thing about checking out the participants page...some people have the most clever blog titles, some have even made me laugh right out loud. Excellent!

Swap on out there!

~Suz~ ;)

Oh, Swift!

At long last, pictures of my new love. I know, i'm a slacker. I was waiting and waiting because i was hoping that the weather would be nice and i could take the swift for a walk outside. Instead, the weather got worse and i'm not putting it off a moment longer.

Here's a picture of my new swift sitting in it's home on top of the computer tower, next to the Peace Lily that does not seem to like it's new, bigger pot as it's not been growing too well for the past year. The Peace Lily itself has a nice little history, it was one of the plants in a basket that had been sent for my Grandpa's wake when he passed away in 1999. I had the whole basket for a while and then repotted everything that was in it in an effort to have more than one "houseplant". I still have the Peace Lily and a Philodendron.





Anyway, back to the swift. I have to admit that i was finally resigned that i was not going to buy a swift or a ball winder until Deb and i move back to Indiana and into our own place again. Our space here is really limited. See the picture. The one window we have is flanked by Deb's tall dresser over there to the left, my short dresser under the window and then the desk on the right. TV on top of desk. PC on desk. Stereo on desk. Drums and storage box of important papers under desk...and a few other misc. items. My short dresser's top is covered by VCR, DVD player, PC tower, our small DVD collection, a few blank VHS tapes for recording shows and the philodendron. Deb's tall dresser has an item i found at an antique shop and fell in love with and it holds a few other plants and our little watering can. The rest of the dresser top is filled with candles, our "Green Man" hand drum and other misc. "stuff". Don't ask!

Since Dave so generously sent me his old swift, how could i refuse?! I certainly had to make a space for it. Interestingly enough, when i was shopping for swifts, this was NOT the type i was considering buying. Imagine that?! I was looking at "umbrella swifts" that clamp to a table edge, but doggon if the swift Dave sent isn't better for me as it's arms fold in and it can stand right where it is! HA! Well done, Dave!! You're so clever!




Here's a picture of my new swift with the balls of yarn that i've already wound. The lovely "dove gray" laceweight from Dave over at "Cabin Cove Mercantile", i did not wind, nor did i wind the yarn underneath it...that's an amazing hand dyed cake from one of the other "Socks For Soldiers" knitters...Joy. Joy donated the yarn to be used for contest prizes and i was a contest winner a couple of weeks ago. Yeah! I love the colors, all Autumnal! I emailed Joy to see if she has an online store or anywhere that she sells her yarns, but alas...she does not. Pout! The other yarns are all KnitPicks - Memories Sock Yarns.

Taking the pictures of the swift against the desk was not the best idea, duh! The wood tones blend together. Sorry 'bout that! Hopefully you get the idea?!



There's the swift hanging out with all the yarn i have that still needs to be wound. I'm waiting until i'm going to use it, i think. On the right are three different colors of KnitPicks - Shadow laceweight. On the left: the yellow is a hank of Dave's Merino/Nylon sock yarn, the blue is Dave's Merino/Silk and the Pink/Brown hank is from that lovely Scout's collection...if only i had more money to spend, there are at least 6 other coloways i'd stock up on from her. Sigh. LOL!!

Ok. There. All of this rambling on and on just to show off a few pictures of the new swift and some yarns that i had not blogged about yet. Now you know what's filling up some of my "space". ;)

~Suz~

Another Freakin' Cold

Yup. Now i've got the cold, Deb must've shared. I'm bummed, because the last time i had a cold it turned into a sinus infection and i had to go see the Doc. I'm hoping this one is just a cold!

Deb's feeling well enough and had been on her antibiotic/decongestant for 48 hours and went back to work last night. I ended up not being able to stay awake last night to get back on her work/sleeping pattern. I dragged my butt off of the PC by about 2am and tried knitting on her vest which is plain St St (For you Muggles out there, that's just plain ole knitting in the round. ), i couldn't keep my eyes opened so i ended up falling alseep while watching something on Court TV...probably "Forensic Files" or something similar. I slept until maybe 7am and woke up to some silly infomercial, i turned the TV off and went back to sleep. Around 8am the phone rang and woke me up, it rang again a while later (Deb's Mom was answering it each time), and then a third time and i heard some mumblings about 1 o'clock - our niece must have a game - and back to sleep i went, yet again. The phone rang again and shortly afterward Deb's Mom apeared in the door to our room saying something about not needing to take Deb's meds up to her job afterall, that someone was coming in and Deb's shift would be over....huh? The woman was talking to me as if i had actually taken Deb's call earlier and knew that she was going to need to work longer than her scheduled shift because someone else was snowed in or something. I was lost and fell back asleep. Again, the phone. Followed by footsteps in the hall...Deb was on the phone and wanted to know what kind of breakfast sandwich i wanted, she was bringing them home for everyone. Deb arrived home about 40 minutes later, we ate our yummy sandwiches and then she was ready for bed. I put the 4th Harry Potter movie in with the volume down low and ended up falling asleep with Deb, i woke up with the credits rolling...it's just as good the 20th time as the 1st! I got up for a couple of hours, but then i crawled my cold-kicked arse back into bed with her and since the house was empty of all loud-noise making people, we slept until about 6:30pm. Yikes! But, did that feel good!!

We didn't have our usually St. Patrick's Day dinner this evening, but Deb's Mom made Reuben's...so, ya know...a version of corned beef and cabbage. LOL! They were yummy.

I was able to catch an hour of Loreena McKennitt on one of the local PBS Stations earlier in the evening. I love her music, strangely enough though, i do not own a single one of her CD's...i only have some downloads on my iPod. I'm going to have to remedy that! Anyway, i was happy to have a bit of Celtic music to spend my evening with and it was good to knit along to...i started this heel flap while i was listening to the TV...




I actually like the way the colors are pooling on the flap. I know, i'm weird.

My pictures are fuzzy, our digi cam is ailing and we need a new one, i'm limping this one along. The blurred photo is sort of how i'm seeing things with this cold anyway so it's sort of appropriate.

I managed to remember to take the camera with us when we went out as the storm was kicking in yesterday, this is a dashboard cam pic as we were about to back out of the drive.




I'm really so very ready for Spring and warmer weather. Bring it on!

Happy Knitting out there.

~Suz~

Up to 10 inches

That title ought to bring out the porn seekers, no? No porn here, move along.

We had a few lovely days of warmer weather. The weather was so nice we actually had the window in our room opened, letting in fresh - non-germy air. Ahhhh! It was so refreshing.

I forget what time it was, but at some point last evening, Deb decided that it was time to lower the window and close it up tight. The temperature was dropping and we certainly didn't need our room to dip to the freezing point. Rain came. First a misting, then a drizzle and then later we could hear it coming down pretty hard as we were watching "The L Word" on DVD. At some point this morning the rain is supposed to switch over to a mix and then on to snow. That dreaded "S" word is back! It refuses to let us slip nicely into Spring. Grrrrr. The Weather channel claims that we are to get between 4-6 inches during the day on Friday and then another 2-4 for Friday evening.

Wait! Scratch that! I just turned the Weather Channel on in time for the local report and the Wintry Mix will arrive after noon and now we're only due to get 3-5 inches. I guess we'll just have to wait and see? I feel a bit better knowing that when Deb's Mom gets off of work at 7:30am, she'll only be driving home in rain. However, tonight when Deb returns to work, she'll likely be driving in the crap. Thankfully she only works 1-2 miles from home.

EDIT: Wait. Scratch that again! We're on the freakin' line and getting that nasty "Winter Mix" crap. Now we're only due to get about an inch of sleety-ice-snow. Ick!!

EDIT #2: Nope. Stop the presses. All the weather people lie! Lie. LIE!!! We're back up to 6-10 inches and it's coming down at a fabulous clip! Double Ick!!!

Needless to say, it will be a fine day to curl up with knitting. Yesterday i got one "Baby Bib O'Love" done and have started on the straps for the 2nd one. Once that's done, i think i'll whip out the "kaleidoscope" socklette and work on that.

***WARNING***Non-Knitting Related Side Rant:

Anyone out there watch General Hospital? I admit it, i'm an addict. So?! Ok, anyway...i am so pissed off! The whole Rick suing Alexis for custody of Molly is just ridiculous. Why is it that no one even bothered to mention that Rick was an unsuitable father based on the fact that only so many years ago he held a pregnant woman hostage in a panic room for who knows how long? The pregnant woman, Carly and the father of her child, Sonny...were even on the stand to testify on Alexis' behalf and neither one of them brought up that fact?!! That's insane! Apparently the writers on GH assume that we have short term memory issues. Rick shouldn't even be the District Attorney, for Goddess sake! He's a freakin' criminal! I'm so irritated over this that i've been pondering this post for days. LOL!! Clearly i need a life! ;D

Knit on!

~Suz~

Pass The Tissues, Please?

This will be short and sweet for right now. Deb wants to get online and do a few things, so i guess i'd better be nice and let her, eh? I have plenty to keep me busy off of the computer. I just fiddled a bit with my sidebar, if you notice anything wrong with the linkage, would you let me know? Thanks!

On the needles at the moment:

~I'm still going round and round on Deb's vest.
~I've got a socklette going for me in Dave's cheery "kaleidescope" colorway. (and i'm pleased to announce that i no longer have to look up the word "kaleidescope" for the correct spelling. took me long enough! Damn!) I've about finished the cuff and will move onto the heel flap soon.
~Yesterday i cast on for 1 or 2 of the baby bib thingies from "Mason*Dixon Knitting". When Deb went to the Dr two days ago, we found out that Dr. Henderson and his wife are new parents for the second time!
~I've left my poor, lonely "Icarus Shawl" in one of Dave's gorgeous laceweights, laying about for far too long. AND had the nerve to order in another wonderfully yummy ball of Dave's laceweight yarn in a dreamy, dove gray! The nerve!
~ I'd better cast on another pair of soldier socks soon before "Sarge" gets on my case. ;)

I think that's all of it.

It's been pretty low key here. Deb's been sick for more than a week; first a stomach virus that went on for about 24-48 hours and then a sinus thing snuck up opn her and much like the one i had a couple of months back, it's just settled there in her head and refuses to budge one bit. Stubborn cuss, that one...hence the trip to see the Doc the other day. The head cold thing is trying to get me, again. I rummaged around and found that i was a bad girl and had not finished my last script for the same decongestant that Deb just got...so i started taking that yesterday and i've taken to using the Lysol spray on things we touch in our room. Probably a bit too late on that one? Oh well!

Ok. I'd best be off so Deb can come on. Happy Day! :)

~Suz~

Frog Pond

...and other knitting news.

I spent a bit of time the other day taking care of this...



A while ago i had finally decided to frog my whole attempt at the "Cobweb" shawl by Emma Crew. Lovely shawl, really...i just didn't like how mine was turning out. Wrong yarn for the pattern and such i guess. So off to the frog pond this one went. Rippit, rippit...out it came. I ripped all of it out and it's now wound into two balls instead of the however many hanks it started off as. I've found a new stitch pattern that i'd like to try with the yarn, for yet another shawl, but it' will have to wait a while before being cast on. As Cookie says, "this yarn needs a time out!"

In other knitting news:

I've cast on for Deb's vest and have the six rows of ribbing done on the bottom and have then done an additional 16 rows or so of the St st body. This is one project that's really fabulous for working on while watching TV or playing games on Pogo. LOL! Round and round i go. I have to measure Deb to be sure, but according to the pattern i'm supposed to knit 16 inches of st st and then work the armhole openings. I better measure her today before i knit too much, eh?

I've been winding mad balls of yarn with my new swift. See, i told you i'd be absent for a while. ;) Ok. Fine. I'm using that as an excuse to be lazy. Sheesh! In reality i've wound only five hanks into balls. Hmmm. That doesn't seem right. But anyway, it's been loads of fun!

I've received new yarns that i'll have to photograph and post about. Some i bought from Dave and one was a hand painted ball that was a contest prize from my Socks For Soldiers group...it's so ME!

This past Saturday we had another successful meeting of "Carroll County Sit and Knit", the little knitting group that i started here in North Central Maryland. Every time we meet the time just flies right by and i manage to laugh till my sides hurt. Somehow i don't get too much knitting done though. Hmmm.

Anyway, that's all for now. More later. ;)

~Suz~

Gone Swifting

I'll have to post a picture later on, i just don't want to take the time right now. I want to go play with my "new to me" toy!

You know how i'm all about recycling and purchasing things on eBay or shopgoodwill.com, right? Well, Dave wasn't done. Another package from him arrived today. He really is too much! But i'm such a lucky girl anyway!!!!! Apparently Dave had purchased a new yarn swift for himself at a fiber event that he attended and when he was recently doing some rearranging or some cleaning, he came across his old swift and decided that he knew someone who would love to have it. ME!! Isn't that a fabulous idea?!! I certainly think do.

So, well if you don't hear from me for a while, it's because i have maybe 10 hanks of yarn or so that need winding and well, i'm off to go take care of that! Oh, happy day!!! Weeeeee!!!

Thank you, Dave!!!!

~Suz~

Three Fold Law

Do you believe in the Three Fold Law? Do unto others as you would have them do unto you? What goes around comes around or "The Golden Rule"? The balance of good and bad Karma? Random Acts of Kindness?

I've recently both given and received. When i was the giver, i don't think i blogged about it, because, well...that's not the point! The point was to do something unexpected for someone else. I had been planning and plotting for a while. In fact, the main item that i was going to send to my recipiant had been ready to go for at least a month, maybe even two, before i finally sent it. As it turns out, it was good that i sent it when i did, because my surprisee was a bit down in the dumps at the time. I surprised Kat with mittens that matched the pair i made for myself, she'd hinted that the original ones were, "for her, right"? And we bantered back and forth about it on and off for a while. Little did she know that i was indeed making her the same pair! Ha! Kat was totally surprised and blogged about the gifts i sent. There was a point in time, maybe a year or more earlier when Kat had sent me some yarn she wasn't using any longer so that i could use it on some lap blankets i was making for charity...and the box i sent was just another way of showing her that i appreciate her online friendship and her generosity.

Yesterday, the doorbell rang around 4pm and i had Deb run to get it because i knew she'd ordered some items for the furdren. Consider the odd look upon her face when she brought a package into the bedroom which had afixed upon it a label she knew to be from Dave! Huh?!!! I hadn't ordered any yarn this month, so far. And wait a minute...that's not the type of packaging he ships his yarns in anyway. Hmmm. How curious!! I was so out of sorts about the whole thing that i could not even find the pull-tab to properly open the USPS mailing envelope and ended up tearing into it like a lunatic, creating a huge mess of gray bits of shredded, padding stuff....don't do that, it's a real mess! Enclosed inside the envelope were two books. Books which i knew to have been on my Amazon wish list. Hmmm. Was i the winner of some covert contest that i had not known about? Did i win the "stalker of the month" award over at Dave's Cabin Cove Mercantile site? I click in and out of there almost daily to see what's there. LOL! I emailed Dave a thank you type-crazed-lunatic email and awaited his reply.

What a guy! I'm the luckiest gal in the world. Dave was simply practicing a random act of kindness and i was the fortunate recipient!! What a lovely gesture. Thank you ever so much, Dave!!! I LOVE both of the books that you sent to me. Oh! Sorry Dear Readers, silly me...i didn't even mention what they are!! LOL!! Dave sent me, this & this!! I've already done a lot of reading in both books and have at least two new projects planned!

More later, the wife is home with dinner. ;)

~Suz~

Just more photos

Deb took this one out of her window as we sat at a light.








I sort of liked the way the color from the windshield played in this picture so i chose to post it instead of any of the other six or eight that i snapped as we sped past. LOL!

~Suz~

Deb crafts!

Read about it here, in her own words. ;)

~Suz~

Yarn Crawl?

Does this look like a Yarn Crawl to you?

No! i didn't think so either. Let's just say that Deb zigged when she should have zagged and instead of going around D.C. headed back North like we intended to do, we ended up right in the thick of things. Good thing i had packed the ailing camera. The above photo and any others i may post this week are from our drive-by/drive-thru - self tour of Washington D. C. today. LOL!

But, let me take you back to how our day began. Deb worked Friday evening after Basket Bingo, but only from 11pm until about 4am, she came home and slept. Since that time, she's been scheduled four days off in a row. Needless to say, our sleeping pattern is still jazzed up to the night shift mode, more or less. This morning, we both were up by 5am and Deb was already online scouting out Yarn Shops that we could visit. Initially our plan was to go up into Pennsylvania but we quickly discovered that we could not easily find a path within 150 miles that would give us at least two yarn shops that had Sunday hours. Cripes! Ya know...a very wise shop owner would be opened on both Saturdays and Sundays and not only that, but those days would consist of their longest hours of operation...assuming that they'd like to sell their wares, that is. Don't most people tend to be off of work on Saturdays and Sundays? And wouldn't that be the likely time when they might hop into their vehicles and go off on meandering drives or drives to well specified locations? I would think so, but clearly most shop keepers are not of that mind set. How odd!

Anyway. Because of the above mentioned lack of shop openings, we decided to head South instead, we even tried to head our way into that part of Virginia which is not bordering Washington D. C., but that didn't work out either. We headed to Rockville, MD and ended up arriving about two hours before the yarn shop opened. Deb had called to get more information and apparently the shop was busy pre-opening hours with a class or two. The little area where this one shop was located is a huge condo complex with many, many three and four story buildings that all look alike. It's very cramped and crowded and this really should have been a sign of things to come. We circled round and round the few little blocks of condo buildings in search of a coffee shop or a place where we could enjoy a beverage, knit and read the paper. Eventually we found Mayorga Coffee Roasters at King Farm, which for me, was the highlight of the day other than the D. C. drive-thru. Now that's saying something.

While we were enjoying our warm beverages and some reggae, i managed to work on the latest sock for Deb...

It's a simple 3x2 rib on size 4 needles and meant to be very thick and toasty warm. The yarn is KnitPicks - Shamrock in "Fitzpatrick". I can certainly seeing myself buying some more of this yarn and working it up, it makes for a very quick sock...especially after the size 1 dpn's and the 12.5 inch leg of the Socks For Soldiers!

After almost two hours, the sock was done and i was without my finishing supplies. Bad, bad knitter! Look at this sock. The hussy! It's sideling up to the chai! Scandalous!



As noon finally approached we made our way back out to the van to head to WoolWinders. Considering that the store was hosting a class at the time, all of the street parking was already taken up by those customers. There was some parking about a block away, but being a person with a mobility issue, this was not a parking option that was accommodating for me. We drove round and round the neighborhood about four times before someone from the pre-opening hours class finally departed and emptied a space directly in front of the door. I would have been fine with something along that block, but in front of the door was a nice bonus. Whew!

We entered the shop to no greeting and amid noisy chaos. Instantly i was ready to leave. Had i not been distracted for a few moments by the small display of sock yarn right inside and to the left of where i entered, i would have departed toot-sweet. I saw some Regia and some Koigu and then was too distracted to look any further. We were unable to even access about 1/3 of the yarn in the shop because it was behind a large, rectangular table full of class participants all seated around. Deb couldn't even pass between the chairs and the shelves so there was clearly no use me even thinking about it. I went to the opposite side of that front room and managed to spot a lot of one colorway (either SM 102 or 103) of the yarn my favorite socks are made from, Artyarn. I managed to briefly fondle some Colinette, which i had never encountered before (it might have been this)...but then i had had enough. I think we might have been in there for all of 5-7 minutes. We won't go back, for many reasons..."city" traffic, lack of parking, too crowded and noisy, no greeting, etc.

I find it very curious. Sigh. Well, you know, you sometimes get it in your head how something should be? For instance my comments earlier about being opened both weekend days and longer hours on those days. I have another issue. If i were to own a Yarn Shop which offered classes during the time when my business was opened to the public, i'd certainly have a different space where the class could be held. A seperate room. Having the class held in the main sales area of the shop, does not make it easy for browsing and pondering over patterns and it's certainly not at all the type of atmosphere were i think most people could experience new yarns and supplies and possibly dream about future projects. So i wonder, ultimately how does this effect the bottom line? Or does it? Maybe i'm the only person bitching about it and to hell with me??

The WoolWinders website offers a nice lineup of staff bios, had i read them before our visit, i would have thought that i was walking into a very warm and welcoming shop. Since i read them after our visit, my thoughts are more along the lines of, "...sure you're geared toward customer service!" Perhaps we just caught them at a very busy time? Perhaps we caught them short staffed? I don't know. I was certainly in the mood to shop and i was certainly in a "come what may" kind of a laid back mode. So i really don't think that i'm being unfair. If you've any type of mobility issues, don't bother unless it's maybe during the middle of the week?

I'll post more about our excursion tomorrow and maybe even tell you what sort of a crafty device that Deb purchsed elsewhere! Ya know, for herself to learn! ;)

~Suz~

The thing about shopgoodwill.com

After both Becky and Pippi left comments about the shopgoodwill.com link, i had to chuckle to myself because i hesitated to link it. I was selfishly wondering if i should reveal a recently discovered source of knitterly goodness or not? I had emailed Felicia and told her about shopgoodwill.com because she and many other yarnaholics work on charity projects for Warm The World and i understand that WTW will provide yarn for their knitters and crocheters to work with. I thought that the goodwill shop would be a great place for them to pick up larger lots of miscellaneous yarns at a great price.

After a few minutes of thought, i realized that of course i had to share the link! I'm only going to end up bidding on needles or yarn from time to time, but the goodwill organization needs people to bid on their auctions all of the time. Another great point is that, it's possible that not everyone who wanders across my blog is a knitter...so someone like Becky who is into scrapbooking, might be bidding on items that i would never even think to browse. I hope that people come across other surprising items that they end up bidding on, things that will make them smile and give them joy to have.

Please know that my bidding name is ScatteredGemini and try not to bid against me if you see my name, MmmK??? Thanks! LOL!!

Happy bidding! :)

~Suz~

Saving Money by Recycling

Almost two years ago when i started knitting seriously, i managed to inherit all of my Mom's knitting gear. I was handed this red vinyl box that was starting to fall apart. The box contained all sorts of needles and doo-dads...stitch holders, stitch markers, a row counter, pom-pom makers in three sizes (i have no idea how to use them!), two sets of double point needles and several issues of "Workbasket", a needlework magazine that my Grandma Julia used to subscribe to. I even got some yarn and half of a mitten.

Of the many pairs of aluminum straight needles...the ones that were size 7 or under were 10" the larger sizes, 14". I prefer aluminum needles. I seem to knit faster with them and i like to feel their sleekness under my fingers. However, i've discovered that i'm more of an "armpit" knitter, kind of steadying the right hand needle in a stationary mode, pretty much in my armpit and letting the left hand needle do all of the moving about. Since i knit this way, the shorter needles don't work out as well as the longer ones.

I started thinking that eventually i'd like to expand my 14", straight needle collection and then i got to thinking...well, why buy them new? Why not search around on eBay or shopgoodwill.com
and see if i could win an auction or two and add to my collection that way? Sure, it could be a bit risky, maybe all of the needles won't match or maybe they'll be showing some wear or have a bit of rust...but that's part of what i like about the older needles anyway. I like knowing that someone else owned these needles. Someone else loved these needles. Someone else made wonderful, warm and caring items with these needles.

And so here are my newest additions to the knitting paraphernalia - all for $14.19 (that includes S&H): I've cleaned them all up using a soft cloth and some rubbing alcohol...that seemed like a good idea? There are some sizes i didn't have at all in straights and there are a crapload of size 8's!! If you need some 8's let me know, i can spare a pair or two! ;) And now, even if my Mom decides that she wants to take up knitting again, i can give all of her stuff back and not have to worry about not owning any needles. Heehee!




15 matched pairs of 14" needles and about 7 singles, well...there are two size 8's of two different colors, but they'd make a pair. They might be good for teaching someone to knit, use one color for the right side and one color for the wrong side, maybe? And the single needles? Well, they're good for picking up stitches or they can sit around and wait until maybe i find some other singles one day and then they too might have a mate?

I won another auction, this time on shopgoodwill.com for 29 knitting needles and from looking at the picture there are some pairs and some singles and even a few double points...i really liked all of the green needles, that's why i bid on them. LOL!

Eventually, when Deb and i have our own place and we have more space, i'll display my needles out in a vase or decorative pitcher, but for now, they'll be stored away in my plastic, bedside, craft dresser until i need to use them. I'm so excited.

Happy Knitting!

~Suz~