OK, So I Cheated. But Just a Little...

Today I decided to try to finish up my Magnolia Tea Cozy. The hard part was done when I finally perfected my magnolia blossoms. The leaves are knitted as a flat sheet and cut and I had already knitted up three colors of felt for that. The base was all knitted and felted. I just needed to cut the leaves and get to the finish work. Easy peasy.

So I dragged out the project box and my cutting board and grid paper to make the leaf pattern and....crap. I decided the sheets of felt were too thick. I really wanted lighter felt. I didn't mind knitting it the first time as each color is just a big block of stockinette. I did it all in movie theaters or in the car. Completely mindless. But to do it again? I just couldn't face it. So now I'll admit that I cheated. I went to the back of my yarn closet and pulled out my Ultimate Knitting Machine, a contraption that I truly hate. But that sucker will turn out yards of really nasty looking stockinette THIS fast. It'll be uneven and bumpy and will have dropped stitches, but I'm throwing the knitting in the wash and felting it for Pete's sake, so it really won't matter. I could make excuses and blame the cyst in my thumb from my second steroid shot I had earlier this week. I could blame it on all the time I've been spending potty training this little angel we added to our family this month. (Her name is Chelsea Elizabeth and she's a bichon-poo. Cutie bug!) But honestly, I just couldn't face re-knitting all that stockinette for the second time.

Dragging out the machine, assembling it, clamping it to my countertop, and trying to get it to knit reminded me why I like hand-knitting. The machine is awkward, loud, and it's damn hard to get a decent even tension. You have to do a sewn bind off and then go back and hand sew the cast on edge as well. I find it stressful and not at all fun. Completely the opposite of hand-knitting. But if you're needing big blocks of stockinette to felt, it will run through a full hank of Cascade 220 in under half an hour. Leaving you many saved hours to hand knit something more interesting. Or do the embroidery and finish work on a really beautiful Magnolia Tea Cozy. If you decide to "cheat", too, I promise not to judge you one little bit!

Yarn Goodies in the Mail

It's no secret I am addicted to yarn. I love to wander around my favorite LYS touching, looking, squeezing, rubbing, sniffing. But as an Orlando resident, I don't have access to huge shops like the ones near my in-laws' in Portland, Oregon, or in other colder weather/larger city areas. Granted, my own yarn stash is bigger than some Florida yarn shops, but as I'm working on the book, I can only design with yarns readily and currently available, so there's a lot of yummy yarn in my stash that I'll just have to save for personal projects (as if that'll ever happen again) or pass on to my stash-starting niece. Lucky girl!

These days I spend a fair amount of time researching yarns online after I get some brainstorm for a project and kind of know what type/fiber/weight yarn I'd like to use. Yarn companies have been really great in responding to requests for samples and color cards and info on colors being discontinued so I can see the yarn close up and personal and make sure I'm choosing the best yarn for the project. The up side is I can swatch and calculate yardage requirements before ordering so I get just enough and I don't end up wishing I'd chosen a different shade. Oh, but the down side. I get skeins of yummy stuff and color cards that make me drool and then I think of 20 other things I want to make with it I'm having trouble sleeping as my little knitting brain thinks up other stuff I could make with whatever just arrived in the mail.



Yesterday I got this yummy temptation in the mail. It's from Blue Sky Alpacas, one of my favorite yarn companies. I can't wear it here in Florida because alpaca is just so warm and toasty, so thank goodness parts of the Deep South are mountainous and/or chilly in the winter! These color cards were so cool I had to share them with you. They're for Worsted Hand Dyes (50% royal alpaca and 50% merino) and the cards are like little painter's palettes with chunks of yarn tied along the edges. Plush and soft and fluffy and gorgeous. And pefect for my design for an Ozarks inspired hoodie. Of course now I want an afghan for myself out of it. And the bright shades would make an adorable sweater/hat set for my great-nephew. And maybe some really fringe-y gift scarves for next Christmas. See what I mean? It's hopeless. Well, maybe it's just I'm hopeless. But I'm OK with that....