Tag: yarn

Not even gonna try to fool ya.  I need to de-stash.  I have favorite yarns and I have favorite patterns.  I also have not-so-favorite yarn that is DOA because I lost changed my mind about a pattern.  I can’t just let it languish in my magical craft closet, so I feel the need to share.

Here are the choices:

Yarn Bee “Intrigue”:: sport weight and sparkly, midnight blue, 2 skeins @ 3oz/251 yd ea., acrylic

I made a sweater with it here in pink.

Deborah Norville, “Serenity Garden Yarn” :: fingering weight, hibiscus red, 2 skeins @ 2.29oz/185yd ea,  100% microfiber

I made socks with it here in purple.

Deborah Norville, “Serenity Garden Yarn” :: fingering weight, mountain heather, 2 skeins @ 2.29oz/185yd ea,  100% microfiber

Yarn Bee “Highland Thistle”:: heavy weight and fringey, mackay blue, 3 skeins @ 3.5oz/111 yd ea., acrylic

I made a hat with it here in pink.

Now that the disclaimer and the photos are posted, if you are interested in playing along and can give a good home to some needy skeins, please leave me a comment with your choice.  And the fun word of the day.

My word for the day is twatwaffle.  As in the jerk at the DMV told me to go to yet another line and I replied, “you sir are a twatwaffle”.

Yes, to be one of the 4 proud new caretakers of this lovely yarn, please leave a comment with your fun word of the day and your choice. If your name is randomly drawn out of a hat, I will ship it to you US Mail next weekend.  Unless you are said twatwaffle from the DMV because I will magically lose the one with your name on it and not be awarding you any pretty yarn.

To reiterate::

1.) your fun word of the day

2.) your choice in orphaned yarn

3.) you may comment either here or on my fb page, or both ~ that means you can get up to 2 entries

4.) contest closes on Tuesday 9/10/13 by my bedtime, cuz I just can’t stay awake till midnight

Good luck friends 🙂

Congratulations to Liz!

Please check your email and let’s get this yarn on it’s way to you 🙂

OK, it’s like this.  My deadline to pick an afghan pattern and a winner was set for tomorrow and I still can’t decide what to do.  I mean I have made a TON of progress, but I’m still unable to, well come up with THE ONE perfect afghan.

 You were all so awesome to give me great ideas. I like parts and pieces of all of them.  I am such a flake sometimes.  I have also spent 3 days with a massive case of the flu so please cut me a little slack here.

A huge THANK YOU to all of you for your lovely ideas and inspiration.  All the suggestions have helped me narrow down my search.  I’ve made it 2 basic patterns; although I’m not so sure about the stitch yet.  Quite honestly, my brain is still a little too mushy from the flu.  You can check them out here and here.

I also promised to let you all know about the properties of my Knit Picks yarn trials.  It’s nothing too new or out of the ordinary for wool, so my findings are as follows:

It felts easily.

It shows no signs of pilling.

It shrinks quite a bit.

It makes a nice firm fabric.

It’s nice and soft after felting and not scratchy at all.

On that note friends, I am going to watch a little game called football.

Go Ravens 🙂

IT FINALLY ARRIVED!!!

OK, I’ve calmed down now…and yes, I did throw it all on the bed with the intention of rolling around in it like it was $100 dollar bills.  Then I got the visual on that and realized y’all cannot UNSEE that, so I decided to behave myself.  There were a few other silly ideas too…filling the bathtub with them and hopping in like they were massive bubbles, finding a way to photograph them as ‘yarn-in-a-landscape’, hanging each of them from the ceiling like it was universe of stars, raking them into a pile like leaves…

But then I returned to reality and decided I would rather start hooking with this beautiful wool instead of potentially screwing it up or getting it dirty (both figuratively and literally).

Cali seemed to be just as geeked-out as I was over a 20# box of wool.  She stuck with me through the whole process of opening the box and checking it all out.  Oh, and you wanted to know this I’m sure; I had to count that all 150 colors were really in there because let’s face it, I am totally OCD sometimes.  You know you are too (maybe not about yarn, but something). I just admit it. Publicly.

~Bowing to reverently sniff it’s wooly goodness and then merely tiptoeing through to check it all out~

The yarn had to sit for a couple of days feeling unloved, but I finally got a chance to swatch with it yesterday.  I am not usually a swatch maker, but this is new-to-me yarn.  Truthfully, I don’t know where to start.  Do I begin the labor-of-love afghan?  This is super skinny real wool.  I never use the good stuff.  I always save it for a rainy day.  I should probably do some research too.  I don’t want to mess this one up.

So, with that in mind I swatched out a little bit of the tan so that I can see how it performs/felts/pills/shrinks.  I’ll let you know my findings.  Because we all know that I don’t ever shut my mouth.

  On the subject of never shutting my mouth…clever segue there dontcha think?   It’s TMI time kiddos.

If you’re new around here, I had cancer a while back.  If you already knew that, thanks for sticking around because it’s not contagious.  Anyway, I had a very aggressive form of boob cancer and I was told it had a very high incidence of recurrence within the first 5 years.  Basically my doc said next, “but if it doesn’t come back within 5 years, you will most likely never get cancer again.”  I have really been stuck on those words because let’s face it, I am terrified of cancer.  No matter how hard I’ve tried to LET IT GO and MOVE ON, I’ve been anxiously awaiting my 5-year cancer-free birthday.  I obviously don’t shut up about it.  Some of my friends threw me a surprise birthday party (my first ever surprise party) at a winery this weekend and it was a wonderful affirmation that there is LIFE AFTER CANCER and I need to ENJOY IT!

Friends and family gathering together to celebrate cleavage.  It’s a beautiful thing.

I think now I can finally and officially wave buh-bye to the big C.  So long, farewell, leave me the hell alone carcinomas, don’t bother coming back to visit.

I have amazing friends.

The boobalicious girls and I thank you.

🙂

Moving on.

I’ve been awaiting my box of rainbows’ arrival like a teenager waiting for a text reply.  Like the cats waiting for the can opener to finish opening a can of tuna.  Like a lion waiting for a gazelle to get close enough.  Twitches and all.

  I tracked it to Columbus, Ohio.  Then it showed up in Kansas City.  Now it’s on the way to Des Moines.  Noooooooo!  Des Moines is further from me than Kansas City!  UPS Dude, you’re sucking the life out of my soul here.  Tomorrow? Monday? When, oh when will it show up?

To take my mind off the yarn, my Mom told me a story.  Because often times, ever since I was a kid, I would say, “Tell me a story”.  I drive my kid and the Frankster crazy when I ask btw.  But I still ask all the time.

Her story goes a little something like this.

She was sitting with my Dad at his chemo session yesterday.  My brother was there too.  There was a lull in the usually boisterous banter.  She bet my brother that he had no clue what she was carrying around in her purse.  My brother took the bait.  Fool.  He was ALWAYS a sucker for the ‘guess what Mommy has to keep you occupied’ thing.  He’s like 36 years old now, just so ya know.  

And right then and there in the hospital chemo ward, which has like 40 recliners full of people hooked up to IVs, my lovely Mother pulled out her lucky pasties.

She. is. awesome.

She’s been carrying them around since Christmas.  Why, you ask? Because Dad keeps setting them out on the kitchen counter just to be silly.  She keeps shoving them in her purse before she leaves for work because she is afraid of what the cleaning lady will think of her.

I sweetly reminded her that the cleaning lady really likes her and could probably not care less, but what would the paramedics or the cops think if she were to get into an accident during her commute?  They would be thinking hmmm, we have ourselves a working girl here.

Cheers!