where was I...

Saying, "Things have been busy around here" is quite an understatement!

Last Christmas I made everyone at the Shop similar project bags for Christmas; they were so popular I was ask to put some up for sale. They've been selling fast enough that sewing has been using up much of my free time.

The hardest part of making these bags is finding zippers in colors that work with my fabrics. I'd never noticed but zipper manufacturers don't change their colors to keep up with the changing fabric pallets. (Most blue zipper colors are stuck in the grayed out 1980's hues, for example.) Wonder why these zipper companies are so out of touch with what fabric is currently on the market?

I've still been knitting but getting items finished, blocked and photographed has really been neglected. My latest FO is a shawl from the pattern Springtime Bandit knit in Canopy Fingering Weight Yarn. Of course, I didn't knit the pattern with the right weight yarn; the pattern is written for a worsted weight.

The pattern was knit as written except I did 16 repeats of the Body Chart. Using two skeins of Canopy I finished with just a few inches of yarn left. (I hate that nervous knitting when you're worried about running out of yarn!?

I used the Macaw colorway; these photos don't do it justice. This yarn in the hank looks very different from the knitted item. This colorway has a prismatic color shift depending from which direction you look at it. I've never seen a yarn do this before. Oh, and I have to mention the yarn is a dream to knit with, never had one split stitch!

We lost our 13 year old Siamese, Ty, last week. We'd been running Cat Hospice upstairs for him the past six months so it wasn't a surprise. He had a degenerative disease called Cerebellar Abiotrophy and lost most of the use of his hind legs. We sure miss him, he was a very loving Boy.

Charity Knitting Report

I usually have many projects going at once but for some reason four Charity Projects seem to have gotten finished one after another.

The first were the Camo Hats for the Troops

These Hats are being collected at Two Sister and Ewe. Two Customers, one in the Military herself and the other a Military Wife, are sending these hats to Troops in Iraq. The Shop stocked Camouflage acrylic yarn just for this project. I got two hats out of one ball of this worsted weight yarn.

The second project or projects were my Red Scarf Project donations this year. Two Sisters has a collection basket for this Orphan Foundation of America project. They'll mail them all in the beginning of December. I hope we have Red Scarves everywhere. (Several years ago The Shop was the collection point for Pink Scarves that were going to be sold at the Breast Cancer Walk with all the money going to the Susan Komen Fund. I never saw so much Pink in one place in my life!)


My first scarf is the Li's Reversible Herringbone Scarf. This is a very nice pattern - write to Li if you'd like her free pattern.
Pattern close-up.



My second Red Scarf is made from the Pattern "Men's Cashmere Scarf" in Last-Minute Knitted Gifts. Of course, I didn't use cashmere yarn both of these scarves are made with Marble Yarn from James G. Brett.(I was several rows into this pattern when I realized it is nearly identical to Yarn Harlot's Handspun Scarf pattern that I finished just a few weeks ago. I wonder if both authors are aware of how similar their patterns are?)

I recently had a Birthday lunch with my Sister and her daughters and grandchildren and my daughters (neither have children, not for lack of my encouragement!) Here is a photo of my great-nephew Joey (2.5 years)

and my newest great-niece Lily