Do you know these people?

If you are an Elannite, or, as Betsy calls us, an Elannimal, you probably know these people:




Baby has not knitted anything yet, but I maintain this is just because she's been too busy eating, pooping, and sleeping.

LYS goes to hell

This is actually only partly about the LYS. It is also about my own stupidity, and also about that I have a user pic! Finally!

That is a Gryffin holding a ball of yarn. If you do not think it looks like a ball of yarn, then I invite you to argue with the Gryffin. Personally, if something with toenails like that tells me he is holding a ball of yarn I will believe it, even if that "Ball of Yarn" smells like Limburger cheese, but hey, your results may vary...

(Copyright free clipart by the way - I am totally pure on this one.)

Now about my own stupidity...I must remember that no matter how many times you walk past the sock yarn display in the local yarn store, New Yarn Will Not Appear Now if I were the sort of person who could multiply loaves and fishes, ok, maybe, but I am not. I am lucky if I can find what was there to begin with.

I must say that what was there to begin with was more than they had when I started knitting. There was some Regia Stretch, and some Trekking, and some Step, and one skein of Adirondack, and a bunch of Colinette...except that the Colinette, the salesgirl was honest enough to tell me, is really only enough to make a pair of socks if you make them short. Otherwise you need two balls. Well, it wasn't for me and I did not want to take chances.

I had intended to dye my own for this sock exigency, in fact, and dye I did. I had a partial skein of KP essentials BARE and I dyed it with purple Koolaide, and it almost worked...I should have used a little more water. I should not have added the turquoise. Well, I can always try to overdye it.

So then I put 8 packets of cherry in the water, and put a four ounce skein of yarn in. In the past, when there has been a lot of cherry and not so much yarn I have gotten a sort of burgundy. In this case, apparantly, I needed more than 8 packets. I got very nice red yarn. Electric red. NEON red, if there is such a thing. The person this yarn is for does not like bright colors. This is why I was in Smiley's yesterday. This is why I was in LYS today. I was seeking the perfect answer to a simple question.

It is far too late for the simple answer, which would have been to have ordered the yarn from my friend's favorite dyer.

Well, eventually I will make a decision. But I can tell you right now, the decision was not in favor of the Colinette.

I have to say, though, that this LYS is going to the dogs. Very Upscale store, very upscale clientele, for the most part, and very pricey yarns. Why are they letting them hang from hooks in the walls with strands hanging down from them? Why are they piling yarn in plastic bags here and there, instead of using the shelves I know used to be there? Why did it seem so DARK?

When I feel that something is messy people, believe me, it is long past time to do something about it...

Back at the spinning group.

This is National Spin More Month at Ravelry and perhaps elsewhere. I joined. This was easy, as I have had very little spinning the past few years and almost any spinning is MORE than I've been doing, so...

The meeting last night was really nice, and Many Wonderful Things were said about the shawl my mother made for me last spring. They all liked her taste in yarn, thought it was terrific and it is making my group's newsletter. WTG, Marmee!!!!

The much discussed Hermione socks are so much closer to seeing the light of day that if I really wanted to I could probably figure out exactly how many stitches I have left to do...Only I don't want to.

But I do want to go knit on them now!

So I am

And so it is New Year's Eve...

New Year's Eve, and I thought I ought to share a thought or two....

I had no knitting resolutions last year, so I had none to break.

This year, I resolve to

put up one of my sock patterns here, which means I have to write it down,

and to

Put in Steady Progress on Mama Lorraine's shawl. I am sure she thinks she will never see it done. I would SOOO like to prove her wrong, in a nice way!

Best of luck to all of you,
Whatever you resolve to do.

Veteran's Day, observed

Yesterday was 11/11, the anniversary of the Armistice that ended World War One. (Which came beore World War Two, for all those of you who might not have been sure..., so,almost 100 years ago, but not quite.)It is a day on which we celebrate Veterans of all wars, and, to me, (I'm not exactly sure how the wording of the offical paperwork goes) of all times of "peace."

Because it fell on a Sunday, we are observing the holiday today, which, in America, of course means department store sales and sleeping late.

However, I would like to take this space and this moment to thank all Veterans, knitters and non-knitters alike, for their service.

I don't care if you did paperwork or crawled on the front line. I don't care if you were drafted and couldn't get to the border fast enough or enlisted of your own free will. And I am not the least bit surprised if you want to tell me that you hope there is never a need for another war again.

Veterans, after all, are not people who went out and caused a war. They are people who faught a war our country was already in, or served in peacetime as part of the military force which presumably and hopefully keeps other countries from looking at us as easy pickings. Either way, they served us.

Today is not hero's day, is not celebrities day, is not success day. Today is not just for people we traditionally think of, although they are certainly included.

Today is a day to honor all veterans, living and dead, wartime or peacetime, charming or obnoxious. It is a day for all veterans, whether they carried or carry Flintlocks or M-16's, horse reins or flight clipboards, walked a picket line or a deck, held a clipboard or a pen or a stethoscope or a purchase order.

So today, to all veterans, but if especially to any then especially to my knitting veteran friends, a salute from this civilian, and I hope from all who read this, and a deep and sincere thank you, from the bottom of my woolly little heart.

I think I may have made up my mind...sorta

Ok, so I am designing this Hermione sock for my terrific sock pal. And of course I want it to be the very best pair of socks EVER MADE so that she will MELT with pleasure every single time she looks at them, never mind wears them.

I thought I had decided on the stitch patterns. I did! I did! And I got input from someone who likes Hermione so much it is part of her screen name, and someone who adores Ron and should know what Hermione would like sort of by reflection, and Socker, and....

Well, I hadn't. But Now I have, and life is sweet because I can knit on them all the way to Rhinebeck, and all the way back, and...and...

Well, life is just sweet!

No pictures cause I don't want to tip her off!

Many are the joys of a really good yarn sale - Slight Deathly Hallows Spoiler

Many are the joys of a super yarn sale. I have tighter foul lines for what meets that criteria than most would, perhaps. Twenty-five percent, or even 40 percent off the normal price of a yarn does not constitute a great sale – it merely constitutes the first price at which I am seriously likely to purchase something.

There are a few exceptions to this, of course. I have paid full price if I needed a particular color desperately, or if I am getting something for someone else, but generally, buying full retail does not entrance me. Blame it on my background if you’d like, but I can’t get really excited till I see them practically giving stuff away – and it has to be really nice stuff.

Then, however, I am a goner.

Yesterday I went to another Smiley’s sale and did a little stash enhancing. It was thoughtful purchasing. In one or two spots it probably stopped short, actually, of where it should have gone. Read, and tell me if you could have been any more restrained.

The first thing that went into the Laundry basket shopping basket was two bags of Calzetteria sock yarn, 70 % shrink resistant wool, 30 percent nylon, in a heathery tan. My excuse? A vest in Knitters I have wanted to make since 96 or 98, and which I will probably enter in the State Fair if I do. Cost? One dollar a ball.

This sock yarn is on the slightly thicker side of fingering – 165 yards to 50 grams, and I wanted to be absolutely certain I had enough. Twenty balls. Well, I do also knit socks, and this WOULD work for Ravenclaw bronze if it had to… which made it a possible match for the 17 or so balls of blue Kroy I got there at 1.50 a ball maybe 7 years ago… I also threw in a bag of red, because Socker loves red.

Not every color was on sale at this price. They didn’t have pale grey/silver, and if one prefers movie Ravenclaw colors (For some reason I seem to have a lot of Ravenclaw friends) or if one wants to knit a sock for Severus, one is going to need a silver grey. I got three of those at the Smiley’s normal in-store price of 2.99 a ball.

There is a Moda Dea yarn they have in textured multicolored wool. I thought another ball of this for some secret knitting, especially since I was able to find a ball of Filatura Lanarota 100% Wool Worsted at 1.99 that was a PERFECT match for one of the colors. How often does that happen? I think it’s the second time I’ve ever managed to match a color in a multi myself, but I’ve only been knitting seriously for about 13 years… I bought two other balls in a color to match a friend’s coat, totally forgetting that she is a tall person and might want a longer scarf than stumpy here would. Ah, well, thin scarves were in at some point…

I went to town with that Worsted at 1.99 a ball for 100 grams. I already have a sweater’s worth in the rust heather, but I keep having to forcibly restrain myself from knitting a pair of socks in it, so I got the six balls of that color sitting there, just in case they were the last six in creation. I also got three of the teal heather, because I have one already and a vest pattern in Fitted Knits that I want to make out of it. The three balls of burgundy with bits of lovage carded in should end up as felted slippers for my mother. (And here I digress to note that if Bellatrix Lestrange had ever dared throw an unforgivable at me, there would have been no duel. My mother would not have wasted a “You Beach!” on her, either. One shot, just to the side of the sternum (Her left, Mom’s right) and my parent would have been neatly dusting off her wand and asking quietly “Would anyone else like to try cursing my child?” This is why Mom gets a call to ask which of the burgundies she would prefer, right there from the sale aisle. When you have a parent like that, you should at least TRY to treat them right...and I still owe her the shawl.)

I was in an expansive enough mood to buy two balls of grey yarn for socks for DH, who normally gets nothing because he does not like hand-knit sweaters and wears through socks till they are cuffs and then expects me to fix them. I will have some black left from what I bought at the last sale to do a pattern on the leg…

The one thing I bought that I did not enjoy the spend? A booklet I have put off buying for several years. It was 7.95 and had four patterns, three of which are ugly and useless, one of which I really wanted. I finally gave in and just got it.

Oh – there was VIBE on sale for one dollar a ball as well. I was wavering over the colors and the fact that I would have to buy two whole bags…and the two bags of a different super bulky at home that I need to knit up first. I was advised to knit that other stuff first…

No, you really don’t have to add up everything I spent and tell me what it cost. I know what it cost. I cost less than the three bags of sock yarn at their regular price for everything I got - never mind any original MSRP’s. I am content…