I do most of my knitting on the love seat. Here’s the other half…
Knitting Korner Khaos April 30, 2006
Yarn Harlot in the Local News April 25, 2006
Olympic hostess and super funny lady Stephanie Pearl-McPhee will be at the Bluegrass Festival of Books this weekend promoting her new book, Knitting Rules!. As usual, I’ll be stuck here (grumble grumble), but I’ll pass on the interview from Sunday’s Herald Leader:
Suri Cruise April 18, 2006
Was anyone else amused to hear that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes seemingly named their daughter after the suri alpaca?
The Easter Bunny Came Through April 17, 2006
She nearly forgot what color of Cool Crochet I wanted but still got it right. 
Spring Shopping April 15, 2006
Note: I wrote this entry a week ago, but never ‘published’ it. Oops.
My seemingly semi-annual shopping trip to ‘the city’ (i.e. Lexington) took place last Thursday. After breakfast at Waffle House (which for the first time in my life did not make me sick – avoiding greasy hash browns is apparently the key), the first stop was Barnes & Noble where I was quickly reaquainted with just how expensive books are when you’re not shopping online. (Amazon, how I love you!) Thankfully, B&N has been my MyPoints gift certificate of choice for a while now, so I walked out with Mason-Dixon Knitting for under $12. I’ve only skimmed it so far, but I don’t think I’d have any complaints if I had paid full retail. I look forward to sitting down and really going through it.
From there it was across the parking lot to Target where the knitting kits I’d seen in October were down to 75% off. I decided on legwarmers and the convertable mittens. Well, $2.49 is about all they’re worth. For acrylic, the yarn is relatively nice, but the patterns are full of errors and the needles are very cheap (I have a feeling that the metal used in the circulars is the kind that would make your hands smell horrible after a while). I’m confident I’ll be able to cope though. I haven’t watched the Learn to Knit DVD yet.
Then across town to an honest-to-goodness LYS (only the second I’ve visited ever): Knit One, Purl One. Sadly at the end of this month it will cease to be (the owner is retiring), so everything is 30% off. Compared to Lexington’s other LYS, The Stitch Niche, KOPO is tiny. There’s cubbyholes for yarn on two walls, a pattern cabinet on another wall, leaving just enough space in the middle for a smallish table to sit and knit at. The whole room would almost fit in my master bedroom (which isn’t that big really). The yarns were all European such as Lang and Dale of Norway. Many I’d never heard of. One such mystery yarn is what I ended up buying. It’s a DK-weight merchanized cotton yarn called Celia. If I’m reading the (entirely German) label correctly the manufacturer is Woll Service. The first thing I did when I got home was rev up Google to see what I could find out about it, and that was… absolutely nothing. It’s rather bewildering to me to not be able to find anything about a yarn online. No store listings, not a passing mention on a knitblog or an old eBay auction – zip, nada. Before I left the store the owner showed me a display sweater (pricetag: $300!) she had knit out of this yarn. It was gorgeous. I hope my tank top turns out likewise.
Next, not one but TWO Walmarts. (Mom was looking for something that our store is out of, and it cannot be found anywhere else.) It seems that what I heard is right: every Walmart store gets the exact same merchandise. I hoped that I might find some different colors of Peaches & Creme cotton for a change, but nope. It was the same ol’ white, ecru, yellow, blue, baby green and assorted ombres!
After that, Tuesday Morning and Joann (they’re right next to each other). I didn’t think there was any chance Tuesday Morning might have gotten more Cotton-Ease in (last time I bought all that they had, save one bag of red) and still have it in stock 6 months later, and I was correct. They still have yarn and some decent (not novelty) yarn too, but nothing that rang my bell, so to speak. Joann, meanwhile, had had quite a makeover in my absence – meaning they actually had yarn this time! Before, it was like a ghost town. I was hoping to find some sock yarn but settled for Sugar & Cream in some un-Walmart colors. I also picked up my first Chibi set (but they don’t have bent tips! I didn’t know there was another kind?) and a pair of the most adorable 7″ straight needles designed for kids. The latter is now my default needles for dishcloths. Alas, Red Heart only makes them in sizes 7-9. After all the times I’ve been tempted to chop my 14″ straight needles in half, I’d love to have a full set of 7-inchers.
Shocker: New Yarn at Walmart April 13, 2006
One sad symptom of being a knitter in a small town is that you may find yourself excited about finding new yarns at Walmart. Today’s shopping trip uncovered two new Bernat yarns: Cool Crochet and Super Stripes. The latter is very ick! (and was stored on a nearly unreachable top shelf – perhaps the stocker felt it was yucky too!), but Cool Crochet might be a possibility. It’s a fingering weight 70% cotton/30% nylon yarn in many appealing colors. In spite of the name, I’m naturally thinking knitted socks. Another crochet yarn that caught my eye is Aunt Lydia’s Shimmer Fashion. This one doesn’t give a knitting gauge, but it does say “sport weight”. I think I need to do some research on these so-called crochet yarns!
But the new stuff didn’t end there – they’ve added Caron Simply Soft Quick, something called Knit-Wit, and quite a few new-to-Walmart colors of Bernat Softee Chunky. I bought a skein of the Carnival colorway for a project I have in mind, and I’m kicking myself for not grabbing a few balls Cool Crochet in Neopolitan colors. Perhaps if I leave some hints the Easter Bunny will leave a couple in my basket.
Spring Knitty Highlights April 10, 2006
- Anatolia – Using slip stitches to imitate the look of Fair Isle = great idea. All the same, I doubt I’ll ever have the patience to knit something like this.
- Hedera – With my difficulty at finishing standard ribbed socks, I wonder if I might have better success with lace sock patterns. I don’t know about anybody else, but anything I’ve knit that contains yarn overs seems to go faster than patterns that don’t. Stretchiness may be a problem, though.
- Topi – Given the danger of skin cancer or of acquiring even more freckles than I already have, I rarely leave the house these days without a hat. This pattern looks very cute, but I wonder how ghastly the finishing would be.
- Mesilla – Saving the best for last, this is one thing that I can definitely see myself knitting (but without the embroidery). The shaping is quite flattering, and I love the neckline. This might be a nice one for the long-ignored Cotton-Ease stash if I can decide on a complimentary color combination.
A New HP Knitting Goal April 6, 2006
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix the movie has just had its release date pushed back 5 months. Being a gung-ho Potter fan, I suppose I should be sad about this, but all I can think of is November is a fine time for wearing woolens! (Well, in the northern hemisphere at least. Sorry, everyone Down Under!) Hmm… what to knit, what to knit. A Weasley sweater, Hatmione, Hermittens, a new scarf… I’ve got 21 months to plan.
Update: The schedule has flipped back to a summer release: July 13, 2007. Ah, well… Things could still change. And if they don’t, I’ll be able to see HP5 on my birthday!
